Smart Energy

I produced this video tour of the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Garden at Washington State University. It’s a cool garden, and I love it that I was able to give two interns work on this piece.

ZeroHouse is an interesting design by architectural firm Specht Harpman that recently caught my eye. I wonder how I can get a review copy of this building? ZeroHouse was featured a couple months ago in Dwell magazine’s Prefab issue. Here’s the bottom of the article — and the ‘graph featured on the architects’ blog: Read the rest of this entry »

Over on Curled Up with a Good Book (for which I frequently write reviews) is a good review of Wind Energy Basics by Paul Gipe. The review is by Deborah Adams, who writes:

in a plain-spoken style, Wind Energy Basics spells out the pertinent facts without any effort to sell readers on a system that, while environmentally friendly, may not be the ideal power source for a particular individual or community. Gipe includes a thoughtful and eminently practical chapter on the technology of wind turbines, complete with a warning about scams, frauds, and flakes. Gipe is even so upfront that he lists specific brands of wind power generators to avoid.

Check out Heather Jansch‘s driftwood horses over on ZuzaFun.

Here’s some excerpts from Beautiful Life, a cool blog publishing scads of stuff, much of which makes me want to buy, buy, buy…. But what struck me initially was this image by French photographer Romain Laurent. In many ways, this image is the epitome of green design (though not necessarily of sustainable or energy-smart building!).

artwork of French photo-designer Romain Laurent

And then there’s the “fabric” typeface designed by Tania Alvarez.

Tania Alvarez calls this experimental typeface Fabric Type.

A hike to and adventures upon Mystic Beach. Located about 60 km west of Victoria on Vancouver Island, the adventurers want to know, Why is it mystic? And then they stumble upon cetacean prophets and are illuminated.

Solyndra, Inc. today commenced construction of a second solar panel manufacturing plant (Fab 2).   Located near its current manufacturing facility in Fremont, Calif., Fab 2 is designed to produce 500 megawatts per year.  The new facility will enable Solyndra to fulfill its announced contractual backlog of over $2 billion and create additional jobs. Solyndra’s two Fabs will produce enough solar panels over their lifetime to cut over 350 million metric tons of CO2 emissions and replace 850 million barrels of oil.

The first phase of Fab 2 is being financed by public and private sources. Solyndra is the first company to receive a loan guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Energy under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The $535 million loan from the U.S. Treasury, combined with $198 million from an equity financing round led by Argonaut Private Equity, provide the capital required for the project. Goldman, Sachs & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Solyndra in connection with the DOE loan guarantee.

Solyndra estimates that the construction of Fab 2 will employ over 3,000 people, the ongoing operation of the facility will create over 1,000 jobs, and that installation of Solyndra PV systems will generate hundreds of additional jobs.

Solyndra CEO and founder, Chris Gronet, said he was “grateful for the vision and support of President Barack Obama, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Congress, and our investors.”

Source, via TreeHugger.

Penn State students are designing and building a sustainable, solar-powered home they’ll be presenting in October at this year’s Solar Decathlon competition in Washington D.C. The team says their determined to demystify solar power and, with their own innovations and hard work, to put it within reach of the average consumer.

Penn State’s Natural Fusion team will be one of twenty colleges and universities invited to present their solar energy showcase homes on the national mall.

Natural Fusion is designed and built by Penn State students

Bonnie Bassler asks, How can bacteria do anything? They’re so small, seemingly reclusive, how can they accomplish the good stuff they do not to mention the evil things, like make you sick? They talk to each other, that’s how. You think you’re human — and you are, Bassler says; at least 1 percent. The rest of you is bacteria. Check out this cool TED talk to find out more.

EcoGeek has Philip Proefrock’s 2007 intro to green roofs, along with a bunch of cool photos. Besides being cool (and a bit Hobbit-like), why are green roofs a good idea?

First, they help to reduce roof stormwater runoff. In some cases, this can help reduce the size of stormwater pipes, and the amount of stormwater that needs to be treated by municipal water treatment. In a light rainfall, a building with a vegetated roof can have no stormwater runoff at all.

Green roofs also protect the roof membrane from sunlight, which breaks down the roofing material. Having even a couple inches of soil helps to greatly extend the life of the roof, and a longer lifespan means less material ends up in landfills from re-roofing buildings after the membranes have failed.

Goats on a Roof in Wisconsin, from Driftless Media on Flickr