Old-style coal plants expanding
An Associated Press examination of U.S. Department of Energy records and information provided by utilities and trade groups shows that more than 30 traditional coal plants have been built since 2008 or are under construction.I was under the mistaken impression that we weren't really building new coal plants. Guess I was wrong.
A few links that I found interesting:
A Look at Wind's Key Players: Wind power is poised to keep growing quickly, who stands to profit? Or maybe where should you be sending your resume?
Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn: This is a great use of a roof, I'm glad people have the time to do this and someone was willing to loan a roof.
The Location Efficiency of Your Neighborhood: Higher population density is better, we know this and its confirmed again.
Which Meat is best for the planet? Slate says stay away from cows and sheep, focus on poultry with pigs in between. This mirrors other studies of the same type, see here. Next time you're at Wendy's order the chicken sandwich instead of the hamburger and you'll be doing the planet a favor.
Obviously, not eating meat is the best choice of all if you're looking to decrease your carbon dioxide emissions.
Going Green -- One step at a Time is an interesting article on cutting the electricity use in your house. It is great how they kept at it and over time significantly cut their energy use. It doesn't really do justice to the article to pick out a quote, so go read the whole thing.
No Impact Man's Blog has 31 tips for reducing your impact and saving your money, while I don't necessarily agree with all of them (and I think some are incorrect, like candles don't save you any money and have greater impact than a standard lightbulb) and some of them aren't going to save you any money, the list is interesting nonetheless, some highlights:
1) Air dry all laundryKnock yourself out!
4) Use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning the bathroom.
13) Bokashi (a way to deal with indoor kitchen scraps with NO odor and yields compost WAY faster).
17) Use water from rinsing dishes to water flower beds.
Fortune has an article about some people wanting to slow down solar power development in the Mojave desert (right, image Jeff T. Alu) Desert showdown:
"California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s move to put a large swath of the Mojave Desert off-limits to renewable energy development is splitting the environmental movement and could derail some two dozen solar and wind power projects the state needs to comply with its ambitious climate change laws."
While it may be "big" solar (how far we've come if we can use that term) I'm betting the percentage of land use is small. This obviously will not encourage future development of renewable energy, one of the things it had going for it was that it was easier to site than coal, oil, natural gas facilities. Wind energy development has already been largely halted in California, will solar plants be next, with solar panels restricted to already developed areas?
On the plus side, these plants are portable to some extent, so they can be moved to Arizona or New Mexico, but that is still going to cost money that wasn't otherwise budgeted.
An interesting analysis over at Open the Future on the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger:
"To make it clear, then: the greenhouse gas emissions arising every year from the production and consumption of cheeseburgers is roughly the amount emitted by 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs. There are now approximately 16 million SUVs currently on the road in the US. "
Chicken and pork are more environmentally friendly meats than beef. Or the best of all, go vegetarian.
BART (the San Francisco Bay Area subway) has a neat new feature, every time you plan a trip, it tells you how much CO2 emissions you are would save:
Simple and easy, I like it. That number seems big, it apparently would not take long to save your body weight in CO2.
In the article It isn't easy being green Despite obstacles, eco-developer sees business opportunities in sustainable building methods, a commenter (BBnet3000) hits the nail on the head:
most of these stories seem to about free standing houses taking up tons of land per capita, and using "green" technology. when are we going to see more "green" condo towers? even the standard, more wasteful condo towers are probably more sustainable than these "green" houses in the boonies.Exactly, increasing population density is still the best way to go green. Its not hard if you move into a downtown condo, but it is extremely hard if you try to match that condo living 3o miles away from the nearest big city in a 2000 sq ft house.
Future Pundit has an interesting post on the Large Solar Electric Thermal plant near Granada (Andasol) Spain (picture from Sci Am) which can generate electricity at night.
"In a market that 182 million kwh might sell for, say, 10 cents per kwh. It would probably sell for less in the US where the average retail cost of electricity is about 11 cents per kwh. But let us assume a higher price in Europe. Okay, that would still only amount to $18.2 million per year. Seems like a small return on a few hundred million [$380 million] dollar investment plus operating costs and maintenance costs. But if this electricity is sold during peak hours maybe it sells for more than 10 cents per kwh? Does a political deal assure a higher price? If so, how much higher?
Let us consider the avoided CO2 emissions. If the 172,000 tons of avoided emissions were taxed at $30 per ton (which is one figure I've heard proposed for how much carbon emissions should be taxed) then the amount of avoided carbon taxes would be only $5.2 million per year. That doesn't improve profitability very much."
While expensive now, this seems to have a couple things going for it, its use of readily available technologies and materials and limited storage. However, it is ugly, expensive, and would seemingly require lots of desert land.
Scientists warn Christmas lights harm the planet, causing global warming. Well duh. While they suggest using LED lights or buying from renewable energy power sources. I suggest anyone who takes being an environmentalist seriously can do without strings of lights, despite what the comments in the article say. Really- its not even a sacrifice, just don't put them up, find something else to do, check the air level in the tires on your Prius or something.
Photo by Jonathon McIntosh
MSN Green has an article Hollywood's REAL eco-celebrities, which is good for a laugh. It starts off with a few halfway decent examples, Johnny Depp (Solar Hydrogen technology- whatever that means), Orlando Bloom (solar panels and lightbulbs), and a few other good examples, then gets to:
Actress Rachel McAdams, currently on the big screen in The Lucky Ones opposite Tim Robbins, tells People she is planning a green remodel on her newly purchased house.and
Celebrity home designer and Holmes on Homes TV personality Mike Holmes is another go-to green tip guy. The home renovation advocate is planning to build sustainable houses...Planning?! This is the best they can do, they can't even find 10 or so green celebs with solar panels and CFLs so they have to count people who are planning? Come on guys.
Collective bargaining that is:
Known as 1BOG, for 1 Block Off the Grid, the fledgling group was able to offer its members a standard 2-kilowatt system for roughly $6,000 (after rebates) in its first foray into collective bargaining. Tack on the $2,000 federal tax credit, and suddenly a solar installation starts to seem very affordable. A similar system for someone going it alone (and before rebates) could cost as much as $18,000.Sounds like it might provide a useful service, if you live in San Francisco. Check out a solar estimator/calculator to see if solar power works for you, I have a feeling that solar costs will come down soon and the solar energy tax credit has been extended, enjoy.
Laura McKenna of Pajamas media gets it (from 11D):
The greenest people are totally unhip and unlikely to be photographed for the Times or a glossy magazine. They’re still wearing their clothes from twenty years ago. They aren’t keeping their home spa-worthy clean. No need to worry about polluting the air with chemicals, if you aren’t dusting every five minutes. They aren’t constantly renovating their kitchens and bathrooms, all of which uses enormous amounts of energy and resources; they are still living with the Formica numbers from the 70s. They aren’t jetting off to Europe to browse the Paris markets; they go bowling in the next town over. They aren’t constantly shopping for new things and tossing out the old things.Sorry, there is nothing glamorous about living green. The good news is that it isn't particularly hard either, especially now.
