Getting Green Off The Grid

I guess they’re not giving away as much as I previously thought…

Peak Grease: Restaurant Thefts Rise : TreeHugger

The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks.In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon.

No more pesky batteries!

solar powered digital audio player : The Alternative Consumer

This Solar DAP from Japan’s, Thanko, will be out soon. It features a 1.8″ LCD screen, 4GB internal memory, a miniSD slot, plays most audio and many video files, and charges via its integrated solar panel or a USB port.

Seems much greener than the LPG or natural gas powered refrigerators. Cheaper too, but probably not as efficient.

solar powered refrigerator : The Alternative Consumer

These SunDanzer energy efficient DC refrigerators can keep your vitals cold while maintaining the off-the-grid status of your mountaintop yoga studio.

I can’t wait to see the commercials that will appear on daytime television during “The Price Is Right”.

Solar Powered Wheelchairs On the Run : TreeHugger

A newly disabled woman realised that she was dependent on electric batteries to power her wheelchair around the countryside where she lived. Working with Beamer, a design and engineering firm, they modified an existing outdoor model, the Tramper, and made this partially solar–powered wheelchair. It was already heavy-duty and designed to travel over fields. The addition of the solar panels can extend its range by about 20%. The company is now researching the use of lithium iron batteries that could double the distance that it can travel.

I mention this because it seems so simple, yet it took a teenager to take the initiative, instead of a large research entity.

Isn’t that why we panic over plastic, because it sits in the landfill? With this application, it doesn’t need to anymore. I can see a solar powered plastic composter in the future…

TheRecord.com - CanadaWorld - WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags

“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me,” he said. “One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags.”

He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic — not an easy task because they don’t exist in high numbers in nature.

That’s going to be huge.

Billionaire oilman backs wind power - CNN.com

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is sinking billions of dollars into a new wind farm in Texas. It is likely to become the biggest in the world, producing enough power for the equivalent of 1.3 million homes.

This shows what happens when government interferes in the market. Of course, now these solar companies will have to work harder to be more efficient to bring the costs down. Which is exactly what they should be doing in the first place.

Solar cancellations go through the roof

From midnight on Tuesday, a family that earns more than $100,000 a year could no longer claim the rebate of up to $8000 on a solar photovoltaic system for their home.

The Clean Energy Council told The Sunday Age that one company had 98% of orders abandoned. The biggest impact has been in cities, where 50-70% of orders were being ditched, leaving companies with millions of dollars of lost business.

A human powered amusement park ride. What a great way to get in shape and save on the electric bill!

Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog: Spin Cycle

Just let me know when it’s available for purchase. If IBM can pull this off, then it’ll make solar power much, much more viable in coming years.

IBM Research Unveils Breakthrough in Solar Technology

By mimicking the antics of a child using a magnifying glass to burn a leaf or a camper to start a fire, IBM scientists are using a large lens to concentrate the Sun’s power, capturing a record 230 watts onto a centimeter square solar cell, in a technology known as concentrator photovoltaics, or CPV. That energy is then converted into 70 watts of usable electrical power, about five times the electrical power density generated by typical cells using CPV technology in solar farms.

Now if only there were some place to park it at work safely outside…

Solar Powered Trike - Instructables - DIY, How To, green, tech

Provides free, ‘green’ transportation for short distances (<10 miles), thus it must never
plug into a wall socket, or emit any pollutants.