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All Blog Posts Tagged 'solar' (91)

Barefoot

What I particularly like about www.barefootcollege.org is their approach to sustainability. They've been set up since 1972, but I first heard about them a couple of years ago when I was researching solar power in rural communities. The thing that I think makes their approach sustainable is that they train women to become solar engineers, so that when items break (and they will) rather than villagers being left with some broken expensive kit that just… Continue

Added by Morag on May 22, 2011 at 6:09pm — No Comments

Water Crisis in Arizona and Solar Desalinization

Here in Arizona, the water crisis is an important issue that needs to be addressed today and continually addressed into the future. Arizona is home to the sixth most populated city in the U.S., the most populated university, and the…

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Added by John M. Quick on April 3, 2011 at 5:36am — 2 Comments

Harvest Festival

It's harvest time at the community garden and everyone is pitching in. Tonight there will be a big block party and in keeping with the sustainable ethos of the community garden, it will be as sustainably powered as we can make it.

All day long the cooks have been cooking up a storm to lay out a spread for everyone who's celebrating. Luckily, there's still plenty of sunlight this time of year so the solar ovens have been in constant use since the fog broke this morning. Bread,… Continue

Added by Soni Pitts on May 13, 2010 at 3:20am — No Comments

Power Shift: De-gridding your laptop

When I first started this mission I was struck by the irony that I was using an energy-guzzling computer to try to solve energy issues. The world over laptops and other personal electronic devices are consuming an increasingly significant portion of our energy supply. According to the US Department of Energy, home electronics accounted for 7.2% of total electricity consumption for the…

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Added by David Mudrauskas on May 10, 2010 at 3:52pm — 1 Comment

Giant Kites as Free-Flying Wind Turbines - LEARN3

Saul Griffith dreams of giant kite turbines creating huge amounts of

clean, renewable energy.

Wind is the second largest renewable resource after solar. But the majority of wind power is in high altitudes, well above 300 feet - beyond the reach of today's wind turbines. We don't have a technology (yet) capable of tapping into this rich source of wind energy.

This idea was described by Miles L. Loyd in his paper "Crosswind Kite Power". He… Continue

Added by Jean Frankly on May 10, 2010 at 3:51pm — 1 Comment

The party of the POLAR BEAR in 2020

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, 2020.

Tonight we are celebrating that there is a tiny chance for polar bears…

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Added by Ternura Rojas on May 10, 2010 at 1:47pm — No Comments

Barefoot College Solar Ovens

While in India, was lucky enough to visit Barefoot College in Tiloniya,

Rahjastan. Much of the food to feed workers, residents and visitors was

cooked during the day in a solar oven, constructed from locally

available materials, including painted, cut glass to make mirrors,

frames and clockwork systems constructed from reused bicycle parts.… Continue

Added by Sam D on May 10, 2010 at 11:15am — 1 Comment

year 2020

In new years eve, me and my family normally go on a boating trip. The way i foresee it in the future is that the Boat will have solar panels as well as a power generate in it. And we will have a barbeque using a solar cooker as well.

Added by Robert Crocker on May 10, 2010 at 3:19am — 1 Comment

Northwest Urban Resilience- Power Outages

What are the most likely natural disasters, food shortages, power outages, political crises,

health outbreaks, or other social disruptions that YOU should be prepared to

face with resilience? Pick one.…

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Added by Jordache Perozzo on May 10, 2010 at 2:00am — No Comments

Solar Power project in India

Gujarat in India had started the large project for alternative

sources of energy. The

government set the goal to 3,000 MW by 2014. It will be $10 billion project, and it's going to be the world's largest solar power in India. the area for the power plant will be about 10,000 hectares of land with 3 locations in the area of 150 square kilometers. The project was backed by U.S. President Bill Clinton and the support from

the William J Clinton Foundation for the aid. This foundation… Continue

Added by Kuninari Asao on May 6, 2010 at 6:56am — No Comments

International Day 2020

Its May 2020 and me and my family are getting ready for our favourite day. Five years ago International Day was declared to celebrate cultures and people from every corner of our planet. What makes this holiday truly unique is that it is an genuinely international holiday, with countries all over the world celebrating along with us. Luckily for me an mine London, where we live, puts on one the best parties around the world.

The streets are packed, with numerous areas of…

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Added by Katherine Morrison on May 6, 2010 at 3:54am — No Comments

Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group

AIDG is a non-profit that implements sustainable building systems in the developing world, with a specific focus on Guatemala and now Haiti. They do several interesting things with water including hydroelectric and solar hot water.

What I find interesting about this work is that most NGOs dealing with water focus on providing water for consumption, while maybe not dealing with the energy related issues. While I cannot comment…

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Added by David Dewane on May 3, 2010 at 1:45pm — No Comments

Power Shift: Ride a bike. Solar Shower.

I got rid of my car in October 2009. Ever since then I have been living carfree and biking. My roommate has a car, but I use it only rarely. Whenever I can, I bike to meetings, to conferences, to the store, to the farmer's market. Today we went on a bikeride for fun.

It makes me happy that I don't have to pay for gas or car insurance anymore, though of course I give…

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Added by Mazarine on April 29, 2010 at 5:30am — No Comments

Repowering the oven

I use an oven every day. Lots of baking, plus broiling, reheating, etc.

Up here in the mountains, supplying the oven with gas is, at best, tricky, as trucks have to find their way to this remote spot. That's in good weather.

How to power an oven without gas?

Well, the first step is to move the oven function outside. We don't get a lot of sun in Vermont, especially in the forest. So I'd have to identify a spot which…

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Added by Bryan Alexander on April 26, 2010 at 6:27pm — No Comments

Masdar City, an example of things to come.

Masdar City

The World's first self-sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste city based in Abu Dhabi. The city is powered by it's use of solar plants, wind farms, hydrogen plants, geothermal power with plans of recycling 80% of it's water with waste water being recycled and used for crop irrigation. Biological… Continue

Added by Matthew Ceo on April 25, 2010 at 11:30pm — No Comments

Imagine 3 My special day in 2020

My favorite time of the year is Fall. I dream of the colors that are on the trees. Yellow, red, orange and brown a kalidescope of whirling leaves and crisp fall air. Today is a beautiful day because we are celebrating Thanksgiving in Texas. I invite all of my friends and family to the energy producing house that I have designed and built. On my roof I have solar panels because, in the Desert of Texas, sunshine is in abundance even on that clear day. The c**ulus clouds are puffing up in a… Continue

Added by sunnydupree on April 22, 2010 at 7:45pm — 4 Comments

I don't know if this is in your databases but I just spent a couple of hours at MIT listening to African, American, and Indian partners with Amy Smith's D-Lab. Harish Hande of SELCO, Solar Electric L…

I don't know if this is in your databases but I just spent a couple of hours at MIT listening to African, American, and Indian partners with Amy Smith's D-Lab. Harish Hande of SELCO, Solar Electric Light Company, from… Continue

Added by gmoke on April 22, 2010 at 3:43am — No Comments

Solar Energy working for this Business

N.C. Furniture Store

Added by Christianne Weaver on April 21, 2010 at 12:08pm — No Comments

Dinner Re-imagined - IMAGINE2

Today was a near-record hot day for March. No snow on the balcony for weeks.

It's dinner time and the solar-powered grill is heating up nicely. I'm the food prep expert (I like to chop stuff) and Jim handles the final cooking.

Sipping on the latest organic white wine from the nearby Niagara region, we relax after a long working day and start puttering around the kitchen.

Tonight's dinner is simple and tasty. Yesterday's finds from the local farmer market includes some… Continue

Added by Jean Frankly on April 19, 2010 at 6:02pm — 2 Comments

Solar or Biogas; Take your pick!

The only source of energy I use in my home is Hydro Electric Power. It is the most common in Uganda today. Very expensive however but we don’t have many options. One of the options is solar which is really expensive in

terms of initial set up costs.

Hydro Electric Power is relatively cheap in terms of initial costs of connection however it’s pretty expensive to maintain in the long run.

In my house I use “…

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Added by Ssozi Javie on April 12, 2010 at 9:19am — 2 Comments