Blogs

Young EcoGeeks saving the world at ISEF

Jozef Winter — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:23:43 PDT

Intel's annual International Science and Engineering Fair kicked off this week in Atlanta, showcasing over 1,500 high school students in what is the world's largest pre-college science competition. Students, representing 51 countries, have come in with their projects on engineering, science, robotics, medicine, physics, electronics, and the list goes on!

They are competing for almost $4 million in scholarships and awards. A good portion of the projects exhibited relate to sustainability and the environment, and Intel was kind enough to send us down to meet with these young EcoGeeks. The list below shows all of the projects we've covered from the fair so far.

These projects are amazing from any perspective, but the fact that these EcoGeeks are a decade younger than me (and I am quite young) really shows that innovation knows no bounds.

Chevy Volt confirmed: 40 miles, all-electric

Hank Green — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:12:33 PDT

Skepticism still surrounds GM's promise of the Chevrolet Volt. Test versions of the car, which, the company claims will go 40 miles on all-electric power before a backup generator recharges the batteries, are currently being tested in various conditions.

Now GM has officially announced that, even with a less-aerodynamic body (a Chevy Malibu), a suboptimal drive unit and "rough calibration" it is consistently going more than 40 miles on all-electric power with its current batteries.

GM's VP of product development Bob Lutz has said âI can almost say the battery is the least of our problems.â

In general, this is good news. But there are reasons to remain skeptical. First, the initial announcement of a $30,000 price point has already been raised to $35k, and it's been hinted that it could be "closer to 40."

Second, there is still nothing extremely firm about their November 2010 release date.

But the fact that the batteries work, and work as planned, is a big deal. I'm waiting patiently to get my "ecogeek" vanity plates along with my Volt in November of 2010.

Via GM-Volt.com

Solar power generating blimp for disasters

Hank Green — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:09:16 PDT

We've been reminded in recent weeks that the world is a vulnerable place. First as many as 100,000 killed in the cyclone in Burma and now 12,000 feared dead after an earthquake in China. But as we've seen over and over again, sometimes disaster response is even more important than being prepared for the disaster.

How do you take care of hundreds of thousands of disaster refugees? It's not like you can plop down a coal power plant and fire it up wherever it's needed.

Or can you? Andrew Leinonen has put together a strong concept design for an airship covered in solar panels that can be flown into a disaster area, anchored, and immediately begin to serve power to the rescue effort.

Though the airships are small by blimp standards, only 20 meters long, they can house about 120 square meters of CIGS solar cells, producing up to 125 kWh per day. That's enough energy to power 25 shallow water pumps, providing clean water for up to 12,000 people. Or enough to power 400 medical refrigerators.

The airship will fly in its own power box (also containing anchoring mechanisms) that will be lowered when the disaster site is reached. Additionally, the vehicle flies autonomously and can be delivered entirely unmanned, simplifying the diplomatic process of serving aid, which, as we saw in Burma, can be a huge problem.

Your windows could soon clean themselves

Peg Fong — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:29:02 PDT

Donât do windows? Now thereâs an eco-friendly way to not clean as often. A Denmark company has a new cleaning product called ShineOn that keeps windows free from dirt and grime for up to two years.

ShineOn is a thin coating developed using nanotechnology by SCF Technologies. The coating chemically bonds with glass to create a layer that uses the sunâs energy to âburnâ loose dirt that gathers on the glass and loosen it from the surface. The dirt is then washed away from the window by rain.

The coating, which contains titanium dioxide, is applied in two stages with windows prepared with a special fluid to remove all possible contaminants. ShineOn is then polished onto the window with a cloth.

Though other dirt-burning coatings have been developed in the past, this is the first that can be applied to existing windows, making retrofits possible without replacing and trashing millions of panes of glass.

The product makes sense now for commercial use even though the initial application is expensive. The eventual savings are tremendous when you consider how much money is regularly spent on cleaning towers that are surfaced almost entirely in glass.

Environmental benefits will come from using less detergents. In a typical modern office building, windows are cleaned up to 100 times over two years.

Now if only someone will discover an energy-free way to fold laundry.

Full press release from SCF Technologies

Image via Swisscan on Flickr

The gadget that constantly judges you

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:28:15 PDT

Swedish company Manodo, has developed a gadget you install at home to, as Gizmodo puts it, "tell you everything you'll ever want to know (and maybe some things you don't) about the resources you're consuming," thereby making you "OCD" about your energy habits.

As EcoGeek describes it,

The device gives household residents all the facts about how much and what is being used, right down to the number of pounds of CO₂ emissions from your last bath. Imagine having Al Gore living in your house reminding you each time you forget to turn off the lights. The intent is to keep residents aware of how much resources are being consumed through daily activities... and maybe guilt them into changing their ways. The monitor also provides current information like the weather and when the next tram is scheduled to arrive at the nearest stop. Now being tested in the hallways of 15 apartments, the Manodo project isn't all about negative feedback. When good green levels in the apartment are reached, a green smiley face appears on the display.

TreeHugger calls it "the Big Brother of energy saving," and Ubergizmo says it "pulverizes your brain with facts about just how much power... your home currently sips."

I'm a sucker for useful information, and if constant feedback could help me change my habits in ways that would save me money, I wouldn't complain.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.

Finally, a high-end green graphics card

Hank Green — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:48:22 PDT

For EcoGeeks who want their computers to be both personal productivity tools and high-end gaming rigs, there haven't been very many green options. It's true that having one machine do the job of two (if you can manage not to buy the XBox) is, in itself, a green choice. But gaming PCs (and XBox 360s) are very power-hungry devices.

But now MSI has created a high-end graphics card with EcoGeeks in mind. The N9600 GT "Hybrid Freezer" boasts a 65nm G94 GPU and includes 64 stream processors and DDR memory on 256-bit memory interface. It has no problem providing the user with a pure HD experience while churning through real-time 3D renders.

The card gets green mostly because it has two modes in which it functions. During normal use, while you're online or word processing, the card enters low-energy mode. Instead of having its own fan that cools the card, the small amount of heat that is generated is removed from the chip via "heat pipes" which basically act like a tiny radiator. The card monitors its own temperature and only moves into active cooling mode when it's being used for gaming applications.

So, instead of having an efficient computer for word processing and a gaming rig that churns through power, you can have both in the same machine.

MSI hasn't provided numbers on how much power a user can expect to save, which is a bit frustrating. But it is nice to finally see graphics cards that consider the environment.

Via GoodCleanTech

New nanomaterial doubles CO2 storage

Jozef Winter — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:42:08 PDT

As much as we reduce our current output of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it has become apparent that these efforts, while absolutely needed, will only mitigate the effects of global warming, making carbon sequestration as necessary tool in our fight against climate change.

Unfortunately, many popular ideas on how exactly to sequester the CO2 are simply not practical, though some new ones are quite promising. A new team of French researchers, led by GÃ©rard FÃ©rey at the University of Versailles, have decided to skip the pumping of CO2 underground and focus their efforts on nanotechnology, breaking a record in the process.

Their new material, dubbed MIL-101, has been officially called âthe best carbon sequestration materialâ bar none. 1m³ is capable of holding 400m³ of gas, compared to the 200m³ that the best commercially available technology can provide.

MIL-101, also known as chromium terephthalate, can accomplish this because its structure is only 2.9 to 3.4 nanometers thick, giving the substance a surface area of over 6000m² per single gram. The structure is also porous, which allows the small CO² molecules to become trapped, making it ideal for carbon capture directly from power plants, tailpipes, and smokestacks.

The technology also holds great promise for the storage of methane and hydrogen gas, making it a possible candidate for fuel storage in fuel-cell powered vehicles.

via Ecolectic, Physorg, and CRNS (if you can read French)

The aircraft that will fly for five years straight

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:43:10 PDT

How's this for a compelling press release opening line: "Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that it has been awarded a contract to develop a radical new aircraft that can stay aloft for up to five years. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made the award under a program known as 'Vulture.'"

A report in EcoGeek talks about this superplane. "It's a little bit like a spy satellite, except it can operate under its own power, and at much lower altitudes (though still in the stratosphere)."

The accompanying image, of a black flying machine wider than three 767's wingspans and hinged like three quarters of a giant flying "W" festooned with tiny propellers, is something to behold. The theory is that the hinges could open and close as needed to expose the solar-energy-collecting wings to the best sunlight angles all day long.

Cleantech adds that the hinged sections of the "W" are actually three separate vehicles that can launch separately and dock in midair. "The three constituent aircraft are each a complete, self-sufficient airplane with a wingspan of approximately 50 meters, or 164 feet." Can you imagine how amazing this thing would look as it crossed the sky?

Boeing and Lockheed are also in on this contract, and I eagerly await the first YouTube video of this solar superstar actually taking flight. What a compelling solar power proof of concept that will be.

11 great green technologies of the future

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:39:06 PDT

The current issue of Fortune has a thought-provoking roundup and slide show of 11 new green technologies that are easy to imagine being integrated into our daily lives. I enjoyed flipping through them to see what's on the horizon, and given that this is Fortune, all the concepts are deemed to be potentially successful business propositions.

For example, check out the Aptera electric tri-wheel vehicle, a Jestonsesque conveyance that will certainly turn heads on the highway. It looks like it came from another planet.

I was also fascinated by Sungevity, a solar power company whose website zooms in on a satellite image of your roof, calculates what kind of solar system would fit there, and how efficient it would be. Cool stuff. Unfortunately, it's only for Californians right now, but that makes sense since the Golden State is pretty generous with solar subsidies.

Fortune also highlights Makani Power, a somewhat mysterious startup funded in part by Google's philanthropic foundation to discover ways to harness high-altitude winds for power generation. The idea is that higher up (above 1,000 feet), the wind is more consistent that it is at ground level. How do you do the generation up there and get the power down here? Beats me, and the company isn't sharing its secrets just yet, but feel free to take a peek anyway.

Keep tabs on your consumption

Peg Fong — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:05:03 PDT

You're feeling pretty good about yourself these days. Walking to work? Check. Cycling around town? Check. Recycling bottles and cans? Check.

But if there's a nagging feeling that you could be doing more, then here's the device to help you maintain that guilt complex. The Manodo Display from a startup company in Sweden puts green habits to the test.

The device gives household residents all the facts about how much and what is being used, right down to the number of pounds of CO2 emissions from your last bath.

Imagine having Al Gore living in your house reminding you each time you forget to turn off the lights! The intent is to keep residents aware of how much resources are being consumed through daily activities ... and maybe guilt them into changing their ways.

The monitor also provides current information like the weather and when the next tram is scheduled to arrive at the nearest stop.

Now being tested in the hallways of 15 apartments, the Manodo project isn't all about negative feedback. When good green levels in the apartment are reached, a green smiley face appears on the display.

How else are you supposed to know if you're a good person?

X-Prize expanding

Hank Green — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:58:59 PDT

We love the X-Prize, right? It helped the private sector get into space and is now sponsoring a competition to create a commercially viable 100-mpg car.

But the competition isn't stopping there. The X-Prize Foundation has announced that it will be creating several new prizes for a variety of environmental categories with a total worth of $100 million.

Apparently, this new suite of X-Prizes includes the Automotive X-Prize and may also include (but isn't limited to):

Biofuels
Energy storage
Carbon capture
Solar
Water
Energy efficiency
Clean aviation fuel
The provision of basic utilities for developing nations

The basis for the need, says the CEO of the foundation, Peter Diamandis, is that progress is happening too slow.

Indeed, I tend to agree with him. Though the vast amount of news that we have to cover every day at EcoGeek is a testament to the fact that clean technology is developing quickly, solutions are not coming in fast enough.

The first new prize, for biofuels, will be launched later this year with others being rolled out over a two-year period.

The foundation hopes that each of the sectors in which it provides a prize has the potential to truly revolutionize the economy. And with 8% of venture capital funding in America already flowing into clean technology, it's likely that the foundation is right.

Details on the "Energy and Environment X-Prize Suite" (PDF) will continue to emerge throughout the next year. And while $10 million is a bit trivial in what could end up being a trillion dollar industry, it may be that the first $10 million is more important than the last $100 billion.

Via BusinessWeek

Power-strip makes you feel guilty

Hank Green — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:11:22 PDT

I find my reliance on power-strips embarrassing. But now I can feel even more guilty with one of these!

Finally, I can see how much power I'm pulling from the wall here at EcoGeek HQ so I can feel really bad about it and, maybe actually do something about it.

This thing remembers how much power has moved through the strip over the last day, week, month, or year, and thanks to an on-board battery, it remembers forever.

It can also monitor the quality of power coming into your office, which can be useful for ubergeeks. But for us average geeks, this could be a fairly useful little tool.

Two questions though:

How much power does the device, itself, consume?
How is this $99 device different from my $20 Kill-a-Watt mixed with a $10 power-strip?

Zero-watt monitor saves cash and the planet

Peg Fong — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:29:27 PDT

The first zero-watt display monitor from Fujitsu Siemens Computers will get you out the office door that millisecond faster after coming up with a design that uses no power at all in idle mode.

The zero-watt, 22-inch monitor has a switch in the power supply unit that is controlled by the computer. When no video signal is transmitted, the switch shuts down the complete circuit of the monitor.

That's savvy, saves customers money, and protects the environment.

There's also a secondary way to save power with the monitor. A sensor continuously monitors the surrounding brightness of the environment and automatically adjusts the display. Less power is required in a dark environment than a bright one.

An earlier prototype last year used a solar panel to detect the video signal, but this version will use a relay switch instead to turn off power when it detects no signal. The new monitors will be available this summer and cost the same as regular monitors.

Via Physorg

Turn postal mail into email

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:29:27 PDT

The folks at GoodCleanTech recently highlighted a remarkable new online service that has the potential to kill off your classic postal mail by converting it into online messages.

Earth Class Mail is a rather simple yet profound idea that takes some explaining. In a nutshell, you change your mailing address so that your mail (or at least the mail you select) is delivered not to you but to an Earth Class Mail processing center. There, the envelopes are scanned, and you receive images of them in an email message.

You look over the envelopes and decide which ones can be recycled or shredded immediately. When you need to look inside an envelope, an Earth Class Mail employee (with a government security clearance and working under the gaze of a video camera), opens the mail, scans the contents, and sends you an image. If you need the original document, it will be forwarded to your home. The cost: as little as $9.95/month.

This is the kind of thing that can make you stop and think. Imagine how much this service could improve your life, especially if you travel frequently or maintain several homes.

Still, there are aspects of it that I don't quite understand. For example, a huge benefit would be the ability to flip through and delete junk mail at the touch of a button, but I don't know where my junk mail is coming from, so I can't tell the senders to send it to an Earth Class Mail address. You can't simply eliminate your home address and forward everything there because you still need your address for magazines and packages.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.

Interviews with Environmental Defense's Fred Krupp

Sheryl Canter — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:49:15 PDT

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

I recently wrote about the TreeHugger interview with Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn about their new book. Earth: The Sequel is an engaging look at emerging technology in the fight to stop global warming.

Fred has been getting around quite a bit lately. This week he also was interviewed by Forbes, Newsweek, and Mercury News. Each had a slightly different focus. Here are some excerpts:

On why a carbon tax wonât work, from the Forbes interview:

Thereâs no example of an air pollution problem anywhere in the world that has been solved without a cap or legal limit on how much of that pollution can be dumped into the sky. A cap gives you that legal limit, where a tax allows people to potentially keep on paying a modest amount and keep on polluting.

On biofuels, from the Newsweek interview:

I think weâve come to understand that the current generation of biofuels has problems and that we need a whole new generation. In the short-term, turning sugar into fuels other than ethanol would have many advantages, given the infrastructure problems ethanol creates. In the long-term, we are much better off when entrepreneurs develop ways to turn wood and fiber, not food, into energy.

On the power of markets, from the Mercury News interview:

Last night, we were up on Sand Hill Road. Somebody told me he had been walking around in a kind of funk, a depression. But, he said, now that heâs seen this future, heâs already starting to feel better. Itâs not a message that we can disengage. Itâs not a message that technology can solve it. It is a message that if government does the right thing, and if we put that entrepreneurism to work in service of a new profit motive thatâs been designed to create the very things we need to have a future, wow, watch what happens, such as a $1.9 billion order for Applied Materials to make solar cells.

Another try at a solar-powered laptop

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:30:25 PDT

Design blog Tuvie.com has some images of a solar-powered notebook prototype that raises the question of just how unwieldy any gadget dependent on solar panels for power will have to be.

While we've all seen compact handheld solar chargers such as the well-known Solio, it's important to remember that when it comes to solar, the size of the charger is directly proportional to the amount of juice it can deliver.

In Nikoladesign's solar laptop prototype, we see that the solar panel required to generate enough power to get a serious computer running is about as big as the computer itself. It's a sort of third flap that folds out like an awning from the top of the screen -- clumsy for sure, but could come in handy for outdoor research types who find themselves in the middle of nowhere with the need to stay in touch via the Internet access, satellite phone, and GPS system that are part of the prototype design.

Luckily, the solar panel can be detached and charged separately while the notebook runs off an internal battery. That would seem to be a necessary component of any solar notebook design, since as things stand today, the solar panel itself will make any portable PC a whole lot less portable.

Rascally rabbit ears and your old TV

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:57:50 PST

We've written about how to recycle your old TV, but what if you want to keep the vintage boob tube around?

Starting February 17, 2009, all U.S. television stations will start broadcasting only in digital signals. This means the old analog TVs -- yep, ones with rabbit ears -- won't work.

But over on Green Options, Jim Gunshinan points out that you can get an analog-to-digital converter for around $50. Better still, the government is offering coupons that will cover most of the cost.

You have until March 31, 2009, to request up to two coupons. Go to DTV 2009 to apply, and the coupons will be mailed to you.

If you have a working analog TV, this is a great way to keep it out of the garbage and reduce pollution. Plus, you'll save money. Thanks for the tip, Jim!

Six ways to stretch a tank of gas

Joan Shim — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:01:17 PST

Buying a hybrid automobile isn't the only way to conserve fuel, reduce emissions and save money at the gas pump. Squeezing just a few more miles per gallon out of your car with some simple adjustments and different driving habits can increase mileage per gallon by as much as 33 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The financial benefits of better gas mileage can be significant. Say your car gets 20 mpg and gas costs you $3 a gallon. "If you increase your fuel efficiency by 33 percent, that's a savings of about $44 a month," says Diane MacEachern, author of "Beat High Gas Prices Now!" and founder and CEO of BigGreenPurse.com, which helps women shop for environment-friendly products.

Here are six ways to stretch a tank of gas:

1. Drive smoothly
Eliminating jackrabbit starts, speeding and hard breaking can increase your fuel economy by 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent in the city, netting you up to 92 cents per gallon, the EPA says.

"I don't know many people who would take money out to the driveway and set it on fire," MacEachern says. "You just don't burn up money. But when you put it in the gas tank and drive like mad, it has exactly the same effect."

Editors from the automotive Web site Edmunds.com tested some common driving tips for improving gas mileage and found that driving moderately rather than aggressively has the greatest impact per gallon -- as much as 37 percent improvement in fuel efficiency.

"You see a lot of people doing a lot of mid-range accelerating; the idea is that I need to jump into that little hole in traffic there," says Philip Reed, Edmunds.com's senior consumer-advice editor. "So they're going 55 mph, and they mash the gas pedal and then they're going 70. That type of behavior is extremely fuel-consuming."

Take a long view of the road, Reed advises, and brake slowly when you need to stop.

2. Use cruise control when you can
It's an easy way to keep erratic driving in check.

"When you're on cruise control, not only is the car operating differently and more efficiently, but you're in somewhat of a different frame of mind," Reed says.

His tests found that using cruise control can yield as much as 14 percent better gas mileage.

3. Slow down
Vehicles' optimal cruising speeds vary, so it's worth experimenting with a few tanks of gas to find your car's most efficient speed. That said, higher speeds generally increase aerodynamic drag and decrease gas mileage. The EPA estimates that for every five miles per hour you drive over 60 mph, you pay another 20 cents per gallon of gas.

4. Minimize idling
Reed was surprised at the difference it makes in fuel economy to simply turn off the engine when you stop for longer than a minute. Cutting down excessive idling can save 19 percent of fuel, he says. Cars with bigger engines burn more fuel when idling than cars with smaller engines, according to the EPA.

5. Drop excess weight
Aerodynamics and weight both greatly affect fuel economy, so reconsider your roof racks, cargo boxes and whatever you keep in the trunk. Every additional 100 pounds of weight reduces fuel efficiency by 2 percent. If that weight is on the roof, it adds aerodynamic drag.

When Consumer Reports tested the effect of adding a car-top carrier to a 2005 Toyota Camry, the Camry's mileage per gallon dropped from 35 to 29.

6. Maintain your car
Would you go out of your way to save 55 cents per gallon on gas? The EPA estimates that a well-tuned engine can save its driver 13 cents a gallon. A clean air filter can yield a savings of 32 cents a gallon. And keeping car tires properly inflated can earn you another 10 cents per gallon.

"If everyone's tires were properly inflated, we would be saving about 4 million gallons of gasoline every day," says MacEachern.

LifeWire provides original and syndicated lifestyle content to Web publishers. Joan Shim is a freelance writer and former editor for automotive business magazines.

Picture a greener print

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:11:31 PST

The holidays are over, and the decorations are packed away. All that's left are the memories ... and the photos. In fact, if you're like most of us, you probably have a year's worth of digital photos on your computer with oh-so-helpful names like PICT0027.jpg and IMG_3108.jpg.

The dark days of winter are a good time to stay inside and organize those photos into albums so you can share them with family and friends. And you can do it in fun, creative, earth-friendly fashion too.

Keeping digital pictures digital is green because you use almost no additional resources. Plus, many online photo albums are free of charge, depending on how many files you upload. Most sites have privacy options so you can choose who sees your photos. Some also provide printing for a fee.

Yahoo! offers Flickr, and you can find various other services out there too.

But even though we love the Internet here, at some point, you really want to put a photo in a frame on your desk. Or you want to carry a picture in your wallet, or maybe you're a scrapbooker. Here are some low-impact tips for printing photos.

First, look for recycled-content paper. The Green Guide has an excellent discussion on what to look for in sustainable papers, because the labels can be a little misleading.

One brand to try is GreenPix. This paper claims to be the only 100% post-consumer recycled content photo inkjet paper. It's also process chlorine free (less nasty chemicals in the making), and the paper is archival quality so your photos will last a good, long time.

Now, you may be used to buying packs of photo paper to print photos. In my experience, you don't always need that heavy, glossy stuff for pictures. It depends on what you're using the photo for.

In scrapbooks and other craft projects, glossy photo paper can be difficult to work with, and I prefer a matte, mid-weight paper. If you're putting the photo in a frame, the glossy paper will often look best.

Before you print, make sure to measure your picture frames, craft projects, wallet sleeve, etc., so you're printing the right size and don't have to cut away paper later.

Also, make sure to get the most out of each sheet of paper. In whatever software you're using, try to fit as many photos as possible on each page. All you need is a very slim margin of white space (if any) around each photo's edge. Set the page margins to the smallest possible for your printer too.

If you're not already using recycled cartridges in your ink-jet printer, check out our previous post about the benefits to the planet and your wallet.

Moo has some nifty option for printing photos as well. You can buy mini-cards (like business cards), greeting cards, note cards, postcards, and sticker books, all made from digital photos you upload. If you have pictures on Flickr, you can transfer them easily. While it doesn't give specifics, Moo does say it uses paper from sustainable forests.