Harley-Davidson’s Much Anticipated Electric Bike Photos and More!

LiveWire by Harley-Davidson is a super-fast and energy efficient electric motorcycle

Harley’s Electric Engine

Handmade demonstration models of Harley-Davidson’s first electric motorcycle, LiveWire, were shown in New York at an invitation-only event. Harley’s research facility is in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and it’s designed to go from 0 to 60 in less than four seconds.

LiveWire on the Road

With the increase in sustainability and environmental trends over the years, the President of Harley, Matt Levatich explains that these trends are part of the lifestyle and the requirements of riders. Harley’s decision really puts electric motorcycles on the map since no one can tell how big this industry will be or how significant it will be but Harley has the resources to make it humongous.

It has been said that there is almost zero market size currently for a full-sized electric bike, so one common thought is that Harley has the marketing power to create demand for full-sized electric bikes. Not only is Harley going to generate some demand, they will also work to lower costs, build charging stations, and to improve technology that will in-turn, help all of the players in the market. In 2012 Harley sold 260,000 bikes, and Zero Motorcycles, the top seller of full-sized, high-powered electric bikes sold only 2,400 electric bikes in 2013.

 

Hand-built LiveWire

 

 

 Source: http://wastetracking.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/harleydavidson-coveted-livewire-electric-motorcycle-story/

 

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Refresing and original videos by @HumanBrainPower

Thepowerofbrain.com produces awesome videos that cover an array of categories such as biology, engineering, construction, technologies, entertainment and more in a captivating presentation.

“The coolest Nature Video Ever [Edited By Roen Horn] is a spectacular slow-motion film about the origin of life among focused shots. In addition to nature shots, their website shows a “Point of View Surgery Shown with Google Glass”, “Holographic Imaging Via Your Smartphone’s Screen”, “The World’s first “Invisible” Tower [South Korea], “Lamborghini Aventador Process Production HD”, and so many more videos that combine education with entertainment.

For your viewing pleasure please see:

 

Source: https://wastetracking.wordpress.com/

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The number of employees in #solar power just surpassed the number of coal miners

Great news for those in favor of the USA increasing the amount of renewable energy production and for those who want to see solar panels succeed! Business Insider posted early this week Politifact’s findings that 142,698 employees in November of 2013 spend “at least 50% of their time supporting solar-related activities”. At the end of 2013 the same group also discovered that there were 123,227 coal mining jobs in the USA.

 

Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/22/u-s-solar-workers-coal-miners/

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Understanding the #energy #efficiency of products is made more scientific than ever by #FLEXLABS

This is the outside of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s new FLEXLAB

 

FLEXLAB is the world’s first energy use lab that will help builders and manufactures test entire building systems down to the component level on a significant scale.

This lab offers solutions for people who bring products to test out and want to use all of the lab’s equipment to do so, to people who want to bring their product to test out with their own machinery and equipment.

Current projects involve measuring energy usage for the Genentech building, PG&E and more!

The lab has 4 stations (shown in the video above) to accommodate a variety of testing scenarios including:

1. “Test-drive technologies”

2. “Individual circuits and meters”

3. “Lighting and plug-load elements”

4. “On-site training”

5. “Compression testing”

and more.

According to the FLEXLAB, there is a problem that buildings are designed to be energy efficient, but once they are being used they end up using a lot more energy than was planned. A new study even pointed out that energy efficient buildings sometimes use more than twice the energy than was expected based on their design.

Here’s an except from the lab’s website about what they offer:

FLEXLAB is the first test bed in the world that can evaluate the energy efficiency of major building systems, as an integrated system, under real-world conditions. Stakeholders can evaluate energy-efficient building technologies individually or as integrated systems in advance of building projects or retrofits, in order to:

• Optimize integrated systems to maximize energy savings
• Ensure occupant comfort and user-friendliness
• Verify cost-benefit numbers
• Train building operators
• Build confidence in new technologies

 

( Source: http://flexlab.lbl.gov/ )

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Inspirational and #Educational #Sustainability Across the U.S.A.

Did you know that Chicago, IL has become the epicenter for LEED-certified buildings?

How about the fact that landscaping designed to conserve water is called Xeriscaping and it’s big in Denver, CO?

Freshkills landfill in New York, NY is a landfill that’s three-times the size of Central Park and it’s being worked on so that it can be turned into a park!

Portland, OR is home to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance whose mission it is to create healthy, sustainable communities by make bicycling safe, convenient and accessible.

 

Source: http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/14/ranking-sustainability-programs-u-s/

and 

http://btaoregon.org/

 

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@Teslamotors #supercharger charges a half of a Model S in as little as 20 minutes

 

For the lifetime of Tesla’s Model S, owners can travel for free between the cities of well-traveled high ways in North America, Europe and Asia! The Tesla Supercharger is a station that can provide a half a charge in as little as 20 minutes! Again, these chargers are free, and they are strategically placed so that owners can drive to station to station and enjoy nearby amenities if they so choose.

To learn more about where the stations are located, how to charge an EV and more, click on the link below.

 

Source: http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger

 

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Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your #Carbon Footprint!

Here it is, a list of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint according to National Geographic and the folks @GreenHaloUSA

How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

1. Make your home energy efficient.
Your home can be responsible for creating twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as your car. Since half of the energy used in your home helps to heat and cool it, making your home as energy efficient as possible will take big chunks out of your carbon footprint. Steps you can take include: Getting a home energy audit; installing energy efficient windows; insulating your attic and walls; installing a programmable thermostat; turning your thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer.

2. Drive less.
Combine your trips in the car, so you don’t have to go out multiple times to the same location. When possible, use public transit, walk or bike to your destination.

3. Buy the highest gas mileage car for your needs.
Cars contribute 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels; the better your gas mileage, the less gas you burn and the fewer emissions you create.

4. Buy energy efficient appliances.
When replacing appliances, buy Energy Star qualified appliances (these use 10-50% less energy than standard appliances and can save you $80 or more per year).

5. Recycle.
Creating products from recycled materials uses up to 98 percent less energy than producing things from new materials.

6. Replace your light bulbs.
Switching to energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs will save you $30 over the life of the bulb, because these they use about 75 percent less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs.

7. Buy local food.
Each ingredient in a U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles. If we all ate one meal per week of local, organic food, we’d save 1.1 million barrels of oil per week.

8. Eat less red meat.
Beef takes a lot of energy and resources to produce. Replace red meat with fish, chicken and eggs and cut your food carbon footprint by 29 percent. Go vegetarian to cut it by 50 percent.

9. Lower your water heater temperature from 140 degrees F to 120 degrees F.

10. Buy carbon offsets for the rest and make yourself “carbon neutral.”

( Source: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/human-footprint/trash-talk2.html )

 

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@zenrobtics #Recycling Robot Separates Valuable Materials with Great #Efficiency

The ZenRobotics Recycler currently separates Metal, Wood and Stone from mixed construction and demolition debris. The separator received the Global Cleantech Cluster Association’s Later Stage Award for Best in Waste Management at the end of 2013 and ZenRobotics Ltd. is working on increasing the features of this product. Separating mixed construction and demolition debris is important because currently people perform their arduous task and their labor could be use very effectively elsewhere in waste facilities. Not only does this take a dangerous and tedious task off of the hands of waste facility employees, but this robot even improves recovery rates and sorting efficiency.

Jaakko Särelä, CEO of ZenRobotics, says that ““It is already clear that clean technology will develop to a globally significant business sector. What is now needed is a national strategy for the development of environmental technology”. The minimum amount of reclaimed debris that the sorter can reclaim annually is 12,000 tons with the potential to sort up to 60,000 tons. In addition, the sorter little energy, and only costs $1.36/hour to operate.

 

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What uses 80% less water, 50% less energy, about 50% less detergent and results in better cleaning results compared to traditional methods?

It’s not news that certain parts of the world have drought emergencies right now but Xeros has an new invention that is helping reduce the travesty. Xeros came out with a polymer bead laundry system which comes with enormous savings and benefits that currently attracts mainly commercial locations. This new laundry system is currently impacting the hotel, gym, and hospital industries in a great ways.

By reducing consumption in commercial laundry, hotels can conserve valuable resources, gain competitive advantages, market themselves as green to increase their brand value and improve customer loyalty in addition to reducing costs.

The Xeros washer works by utilizing the hydrophilic properties of polymer beads. Scientists at the University of Leeds School of Textiles discovered that these beads, mixed with a small amount of water and a special detergent act as magnets for stains and dirt to clean laundry better and more gently than traditional methods. These reusable polymer beads also last for hundreds of washes before they need to be recycled and the Xeros polymer bead laundry system uses 80% less water, 50% less energy, about 50% less detergent and results in better cleaning results compared to traditional methods.

Source: http://www.waterworld.com/articles/iww/print/volume-14/issue-3/features/wiser-washing.html

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The Production of Bio-products as a Source of Energy and Waste Water Treatment

The fifth International Engineering Invention & Innovation Exhibition (i-ENVEX 2014) in Kangar just wrapped up and the goal medalists beat out more than 87 entries with their project on the production of bio-products as a source of energy and waste water treatment.

The goal medalists are from the UCSI University chemical engineering and the students names are Jing Ren, Selvaraja, Chun Man and Shapnathayammal. The team, including Teoh Kai Wen developed an alternative fuel source that helps overcome fossil fuel dependence, and also reduces the pollution resulting from fossil fuel production. “It combines both the immobilization of cellulase enzyme (attachment of cellulase to a solid support) and functionalization (surface modification) of multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) processes,” Jing Ren explained. Jing Ren also said that: “The past few decades have seen cellulase enzyme being used as the catalyst in industrial processes but large quantities are often involved and the associated purchase cost for raw cellulase is very high”.

The raw material used in this project was palm oil sludge, which was usually disposed after palm oil production. The chemical engineers converted the waste into different products, “bio-oil” and “biochar” by processing the palm oil sludge with pyrolysis.

 

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Education/2014/06/08/Kudos-for-turning-waste-to-fuel/

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