e-commerce gone green

Forests of genetically altered trees and other plants could sequester several billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and so help ameliorate global warming, according to estimates published in the October issue of BioScience.

The study, by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, outlines a variety of strategies for augmenting the processes that plants use to sequester carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into long-lived forms of carbon, first in vegetation and ultimately in soil.

Besides increasing the efficiency of plants’ absorption of light, researchers might be able to genetically alter plants so they send more carbon into their roots–where some may be converted into soil carbon and remain out of circulation for centuries. Other possibilities include altering plants so that they can better withstand the stresses of growing on marginal land, and so that they yield improved bioenergy and food crops. Such innovations might, in combination, boost substantially the amount of carbon that vegetation naturally extracts from air, according to the authors’ estimates.

The researchers stress that the use of genetically engineered plants for carbon sequestration is only one of many policy initiatives and technical tools that might boost the carbon sequestration already occurring in natural vegetation and crops.

Link: http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20101001/2355/genetically-altered-trees-plants-could-help-counter-global-warming.htm

Propel Fuels, which wants to build 75 alternative fuel gas stations in California, unveiled one in Oakland yesterday, according to several news reports. The company already operates stations in Oakland and Seattle.

One of the big problems with ethanol has been the availability of pumps dispensing E85, the 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gas blend. While General Motors and others have sold thousands of flex fuel cars, the U.S. only has a handful of ethanol stations. In 2008, there were 1,400 compared to 170,000 gas stations. Propel is trying to solve that problem by installing and paying for the pumps, tanks and other infrastructure (it can run up to $150,000) itself. Gas station owners mostly just have to have available real estate for Propel to do its work.

Read more at: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-problem-with-ethanol-californias-new-ee-standard-and-more-the-head-chee/

Propel Fuels, which wants to build 75 alternative fuel gas stations in California, unveiled one in Oakland yesterday, according to several news reports. The company already operates stations in Oakland and Seattle.

One of the big problems with ethanol has been the availability of pumps dispensing E85, the 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gas blend. While General Motors and others have sold thousands of flex fuel cars, the U.S. only has a handful of ethanol stations. In 2008, there were 1,400 compared to 170,000 gas stations. Propel is trying to solve that problem by installing and paying for the pumps, tanks and other infrastructure (it can run up to $150,000) itself. Gas station owners mostly just have to have available real estate for Propel to do its work.

Source and Link: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-problem-with-ethanol-californias-new-ee-standard-and-more-the-head-chee/

The retail giant’s 2,700 supercenters have a combined roof area that exceeds 500 million square feet — a blank slate that would make any solar installer or module maker salivate.

Starting with twenty to thirty sites in California and Arizona, SolarCity will install MiaSolé CIGS and First Solar CdTe panels on these flat roofs.  SolarCity will own and maintain the panels.  It’s a huge win for SolarCity and perhaps an even bigger win and sign of market credibility for MiaSolé.

Walmart plans for the majority of the rooftop sites to use the new technologies.

Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solarcity-walmart-and-miasole/

Earth is now home to more than one billion vehicles. That number is expected to hit the two-billion mark within 15 years.  In January 2009, more cars were sold in China than in the U.S.

Dan Sperling spoke a bit about the future of automobiles at a VC summit hosted by Matt Trevithick of Venrock and organized by Kumar Gogineni of the Cleantech SIG.  Trevithick, a partner at Venrock, doesn’t strike me as the giddy sort, but said that he was “giddy about the future of the automotive industry” in this current era of innovative expansion in the cyclical automotive industry.  His firm is an investor in stealth battery startup Atieva.

More and Source:  http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Two-Billion-Cars-and-the-Hope-of-Zero-Emission-Vehicles/

Yahoo will unveil a new data center in Lockport, New York tomorrow that boasts a power-use effectiveness (PUE) ratio of 1.08, which means that 92 percent of the power consumed by the data center goes toward computing functions. Only 8 percent goes to lights and operational equipment. Less than 1 percent of the power gets consumed in cooling.

Typical data centers have a PUE of 1.92, which means that roughly half of the power goes to things that aren’t computers. Air conditioners gobble up almost as much, and sometimes more, than servers in these data centers.

The lack of a need for mechanical air conditioning in Yahoo’s data center means that the data center will require about 40 percent less power than average and will consume 95 percent less water. Air conditioning is primed to be a green growth market.

Chalk it up to location and design. Lockport, near Buffalo in the western part of the state, sits in the path of lake winds. The cold air is directed into the the data center through devices called economizers. The building, moreover, is unusually tall and narrow and is topped with a cupola: the shape and design effectively help channel the warm air from the hot aisles in the data center outdoors.

Source and Link: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/yahoo-nears-perfection-with-chicken-coop-data-center/

Ever wonder how much of the grid you consume?

Welectricity is a FREE service that helps you track and reduce your energy consumption at home! http://welectricity.com/home

Welectricity is a contender in the GE Ecomagination™Smart Grid Challenge

Getting individuals and businesses to change the way they interact with their thermostat has become one of the primary goals of utilities, regulators and energy startups. To spur adoption of renewables, incentives have to be properly calibrated.

But what works? One of the most successful companies so far in bringing behavioral dynamics to energy is OPower. It sends notes to individuals about their energy consumption in their utility bills. On average, the system — backed up by complex software and reams of survey data — gets individuals to reduce power consumption by around 2 percent to 3 percent. In Europe, CityBin has managed to boost recycling in a similar manner.

Full list and Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nine-ideas-for-changing-behavior-incentives-in-energy/

Helsinki — Later this week, the first servers in an experimental data center here that proponents say will be the world’s most energy efficient will go into their racks — and bigger plans are on the way.

When formally launched in August, the data center will generate the equivalent of a megawatt of energy for the city’s district heating and cooling system, or enough heat to warm 500 homes, said Matti Roto, director of Academica Oy, which built the data center in conjunction with measurement company BaseN. Besides reducing the overall carbon impact of the data center, recycling the waste heat will lower operating costs.

The two companies also recently signed the papers for a deal that will see the construction of a second center at a nearby location that will generate ten times as much heat. Because it will generate around 10 megawatts of heat, the upcoming larger data center could qualify to earn subsidies under the country’s feed-in tariff for heat. The lessons learned in these data centers will then be deployed to smart grid applications.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-bomb-shelter-now-it-produces-green-energy/

FRANKFURT, Germany — It’s a very long shot, but someday there may be cars and buses whose main chemical byproduct is sunscreen.

APET, or Advanced Power and Energy Sources Transportation, is touting the idea of using a zinc-air fuel cell to power vehicles. Oxygen and water would be mixed with zinc in a fuel cell stack to produce electrons to charge a battery. The main byproduct of the reaction would be zinc oxide, which could then be converted back into zinc fuel or sold as a chemical. Converting zinc oxide back to zinc could be accomplished with solar thermal concentrators.

APET’s key technology is a pouch filled with zinc that slides in and out of the fuel cell stack, said Andrew Huang, the CEO whose has worked for various battery companies.

“You can tell when the zinc has been used because it turns white,” he said during an impromptu interview at the International Auto Show taking place this week in Frankfurt.

APET has created several fuel cells and built a car that it will show off later this year in Taipei. The picture with this article is one of its zinc fuel cells powering three 75 watt light bulbs. The initial target market will be buses in China and delivery vehicles.

Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-car-powered-by-zinc