Nadine May’s research found that only 25,000 square miles of solar panels would be needed to supply the entire world’s energy needs.
Requirements for solar panels on buildings are on the rise (up 34% this year) and the technology is also improving quickly. For a breakdown on the different types of solar panels please check out our article from last month that broke down the different types and generations of solar panel technology.
The land art generator initiative shows where the 25,000 square miles of solar panels could go around the world to match up to what’s needed. 25,000 square miles is slightly larger than the state of West Virginia but when you look at it on a map like this, it seems easy to achieve.
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.
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
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.
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.
“Whole Foods Market Inc, Trader Joe’s and other food retailers representing more than 2,000 U.S. stores have vowed not to sell genetically engineered seafood if it is approved in the United States…”
Reuters posted this announcement from the Campaign for Genetically Engineered-Free Seafood in an article by Lisa Baertlein since the U.S. F.D.A seems close to approving genetically engineered salmon from AquaBounty Technologies. A product that they call “AquAdvantage Salmon” would be the first genetically engineered animal for the US’s food supply and it is designed to grow to market size in half of the time that conventional salmon take to grow. This salmon is “essentially Atlantic salmon with a Pacific salmon gene for faster growth and a gene from the eel-like ocean pout that promotes year-round growth.
It’s true that many popular foods in the U.S. such as corn cereal, soy milk, and other veggie products are bioengineered but the debate about engineering animals is a hot one. Let us know what you think @wastetracking on Twitter or in the comments here!
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.
Ford Motor company’s Sustainability Chief talks about their vision for the future and about innovation at Ford. This wonderful interview from Forbes also links to the sustainability report for 2013/2014 and talks about Ford’s commitment to environmentally responsible manufacturing among other things.
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.
my green halo 
