Green Technology

The flights stretch on for 18 hours or more. So what does the Solar Impulse pilot do when he has to, you know, go?
The flights stretch on for 18 hours or more. So what does the Solar Impulse pilot do when he has to, you know, go?
28 minutes ago
If you've always wanted to quickly make a purely sun-powered charger for your phone (no battery), here's how in 4 easy steps.
If you've always wanted to quickly make a purely sun-powered charger for your phone (no battery), here's how in 4 easy steps.
about 1 hour ago
Combining ceramics with horticulture, this Brooklyn-based artist makes sculptures that play host to living specimens of moss.
Combining ceramics with horticulture, this Brooklyn-based artist makes sculptures that play host to living specimens of moss.
about 1 hour ago
From ancient urine helping to track climate change to space-age toilets that monitor our health, pee may be coming to our rescue.
From ancient urine helping to track climate change to space-age toilets that monitor our health, pee may be coming to our rescue.
about 2 hours ago
Solar Rollers hope to teach teenagers to love solar energy, one race at a time.
Solar Rollers hope to teach teenagers to love solar energy, one race at a time.
about 2 hours ago
Today is World Turtle Day and we want to bring attention to these beautiful, unique, and sometimes odd critically endangered species.
Today is World Turtle Day and we want to bring attention to these beautiful, unique, and sometimes odd critically endangered species.
about 2 hours ago
This DIY lighting project is a great way to learn about a thermoelectric system. Using a few supplies like food tins and tea candles, you can light some LEDs!
This DIY lighting project is a great way to learn about a thermoelectric system. Using a few supplies like food tins and tea candles, you can light some LEDs!
about 2 hours ago
Richard Ha writes: On Saturday, I was on a geothermal panel at the Hawai‘i Island Democratic Party Convention, which was held at the Volcano Art Center. Senator Brian Schatz speaking Also on the panel were State Senator Rus...
Richard Ha writes: On Saturday, I was on a geothermal panel at the Hawai‘i Island Democratic Party Convention, which was held at the Volcano Art Center. Senator Brian Schatz speaking Also on the panel were State Senator Russell Ruderman and former Big Island Mayor Harry Kim.  It went very well and I'm very optimistic. I think most of us just want to do the best for all of us. I made it a point to tell the audience that I went to O‘ahu on behalf of the Big Island Community Coalition and testified in favor of four geothermal bills. What the four bills had in common is that they all contained provisions for “home rule.” I told the audience: This was so you could have a say in the geothermal issue. My main point was that we are competing with the world for oil. And we need to seek a competitive advantage for the Big Island, and this has to do with cost. We all know that the price of oil price rise; it’s only a matter of when, and how high. So if we can find a lowest cost solution, this will protect us from a rising oil price. It does not matter what the alternative is, so long as it gives us a competitive advantage. Right now, it’s geothermal that has the potential for giving us that competitive advantage, assuming we don’t drive up its cost so high that we lose that advantage. Whether or not we achieve its potential is up to our leaders and to the Puna community. Here’s what I told the Democratic Party Convention: We are on a search for "competitive advantage" for the Big Island. Organisms, organizations and civilizations do this – it is called “survival of the fittest.” It isn't the strongest or the smartest that survive; it's the ones that can adapt – Charles Darwin  My name is Richard Ha. I am a farmer here on the Big Island. Together with our 70 workers, we farm 600 fee simple acres at Pepe‘ekeo. We have produced multi-millions of pounds of bananas and tomatoes over the past 35 years. In my search to find competitive advantage for my farm’s future, I've now been to five Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conferences. Here is what I took away from these conferences: Oil price quadrupled in the last 10 years. The last 11 recessions were associated with a spiking oil price. Oil is a finite resource. The world has been using three times the oil it has been finding for many years now. The days of cheap oil are over.  The cost to produce the marginal barrel of oil – the last barrel, as in shale oil and tar sands – was $92 per barrel in 2011. The U.S. mainland uses oil for only two percent of its electrical generation. Hawai‘i uses oil for more than 70 percent of its electrical generation. Anything manufactured on the mainland with cheap oil embedded makes our local producers and manufacturers less competitive. This affects Ag products. It is not the supply or demand of oil that will cause the greatest damage; it is the cost of oil. How much time do we have? Because it is about oil cost, we have less time than we think.  ELECTRICITY ON THE BIG ISLAND Uses 180 MW at Peak. Most of the increase in electricity bills is caused by oil pass through. Bio mass – as in wood chips – and geothermal have base power potential. Solar and wind must add storage to become useful as base power.  Storage at utility scale is prohibitively expensive today.    ECONOMY Big Island electricity rates have been 25 percent higher than O‘ahu’s rates for as long as anyone can remember. The Big Island has the lowest median family income in the state. The Pahoa School Complex has, at 89 percent, the highest percent of students participating in the free/reduced lunch program in the state. Ka‘u at 87 percent and Kea‘au at 86 percent are close behind. Education is the best predictor of family income. Yet the Big Island’s high electricity cost takes away from its education budget.
about 10 hours ago
Following a tsunami of bad news for electric car maker Fisker Automotive earlier this year, the company has been silent in recent months, as it’s been figuring out what will happen to it: will it be acquired, will it sell off its a...
Following a tsunami of bad news for electric car maker Fisker Automotive earlier this year, the company has been silent in recent months, as it’s been figuring out what will happen to it: will it be acquired, will it sell off its assets, will it declare bankruptcy? Well, according to Reuters, a group of investors that includes former General Motors exec Bob Lutz and Chinese auto tech company Wanxiang are offering to buy Fisker for $20 million in a prepackaged bankruptcy deal. If Fisker is bought for $20 million that would mean the company would be bought for less than 1 percent of its reported $2.2 billion valuation when it launched the Karma in the late summer of 2011. Twenty million dollars is not quite two percent of the total funding ($1.2 billion) that Fisker raised. Fisker also owes the U.S. government another $171 million to pay back its loan. That’s got to be one of the biggest losses in venture capital history. Row of Fisker Karmas Earlier this year there were media reports that Fisker was being bids for between $200 million to $350 million from different Chinese auto companies. But either those reports put the bidding high (if so, I would speculate they were leaked by Fisker to help with bidding), something changed in the valuation of Fisker (it plummeted), or the bidders realized a lower valuation of Fisker after looking under the hood. In a similar end game, solar thin film company Miasole was sold for $30 million to Chinese renewable power company Hanergy, after raising at least $500 million in venture capital funding. Both Miasole and Fisker were backed by Valley firm Kleiner Perkins. Fisker’s potential bidders include VL Automotive, which is a joint venture between Lutz and Gilbert Villarreal. VL Automotive wants to turn the Fisker Karma into an internal combustion engine car, stripping out the electric drivetrain and giving it an engine. Read my long investigative story on Fisker: A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Tesla’s Model X could make the electric SUV a hitGreen IT Q4: solar, subsidies and the outlook for EVsGreen IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
about 13 hours ago
Earlier this month, our atmosphere crossed an important - and potentially dangerous - milestone. Here's some context provided by some of NASA's climate scientists.
Earlier this month, our atmosphere crossed an important - and potentially dangerous - milestone. Here's some context provided by some of NASA's climate scientists.
about 15 hours ago