Hippy Green

Following up Kohl’s plans to install solar panels on its buildings, they recently flipped the switch and turned on the Laguna Niguel Kohl’s location. This roll out is just the milestone in the building of solar electric systems at 63 of Kohl’s 80 California locations. Keep in mind Kohl’s operates 834 stores in 46 states, but has not yet announced plans to roll out solar to all its other store locations. To put this into perspective of how much solar Kohl’s plans to install. In total, more than 138,000 solar panels are expected to be used when Kohl’s solar installations are complete in 2008. Once finished, Kohl’s solar installations will generate more than 35 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually, the equivalent of powering about 3,087 California homes.

If your are in the phoenix metro area and are thinking green, you should stop by and watch the feature film, “WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?”.
Its a great movie and there will be a gathering of others who want a change.
I will not make it tonight, but maybe the other dates.

Heres is the info you need to stop by and speak to other alternative thinkers.

DATES: WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26, OCT. 3, AND OCT. 10
SHOWTIMES: 6:30 PM
LOCATION: HARKINS VALLEY ART
509 S. MILL AVE. (DOWNTOWN TEMPE)
TEMPE, AZ 85281
(Parking on 5th or 6th St. east of theater – free with validation)
FEATURE: WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
SHORT: NOBELITY

If you do attend, please comment below and let me know how it goes.

Today, I received an interesting question and I wanted to pass it along to my readers. Chris asked a question about which type of environmentally friendly light bulbs are people buying, and how are they disposing of them.

The basic argument is that CL light bulbs use less electricity, but contain harmful chemicals that MUST be properly disposed. Most people just throw away light bulbs after they burn out, but are you recycling them?

Chris told me he was using CL light bulbs and recently tried to recycle his dead CF bulb at a Lowes, but was not sure where to put them. With CF bulbs containing the harmful chemicals that they do, Chris put them in the battery recycling, but is he doing more harm then good?

It’s a very intersting argument, but I will be the first to point out that I would look at LED replacements. I find LED a bit more pricey, but the ability to last for “almost” ever. Since my move I have not had to replace any bulbs, but I plan to upgrade to LED bulbs and feel greener on the inside.

So what’s your take, do you just throw out light bulbs, do you buy CF?

Please comment below.

When I think of wind power I think of these huge blades spinning around and creating a couple of megawatts of power, not a in my backyard kind of device. Well Mariah Power has create an affordable $4,000 vertical wind turbine that produces 1kW of power and stand only 30 feet tall!

The Windspire is a vertical wind turbine that stands about 30 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The perfect wind turbine for DIYers. Many “wind bashers” find vertical wind turbines better then horizontal wind turbines due to the “possibility” of bird killing via migration. I find this HARD to believe and hear much of the SAME people bashing cell phone antennas and TALL BUILDINGS. Think about it, do you see birds flying into a huge building, NO so why would they fly into a spinning blade. (sorry for the rant, ugh I just hate those people who complain and do NOT understand the FACTS!)

Anyway, The Windspire is a rugged and simple constructed vertical wind turbine that has limited maintains. It produces about 25 decibels of noise at five feet, which is about the same as a noise neighborhood house. The Windspire only needs a 8 MPH gust of wind to produce power and can survive up to 100 MPH winds!

The most interesting part that would make me buy a Windspire is the fact the Windspire also includes an internal wireless modem that can continuously transmit power production information directly to your computer so you can check your power production at any time. Monitor your offset and see how fast you can pay it off. At 10 cents a kilowatt it takes about 20 years to pay it off, but at $4,000 a nice investment for the green person inside you.

BrightSource is doing just that (Yes, 400 Megawat Solar Power Plant) and has filed an application with California to build these plants. (if only they were COOP, UGH!) The idea is to build 3 power plants, two 100 megawatt power plants and one 200 megawatt solar power plant. These power plants will be made up of many sun-tracking mirrors that focus on a tower with water that boils and rotates a turbine to create electricity. I am all for building solar power plants in the desert, living in Arizona for over 2 weeks makes me think, lets cover more of Arizona with solar.

BrightSource is not the only utility company going green, some of the others utility companies are also thinking solar like Southern California Edison who are contracting a large-scale solar power plant with Stirling Energy Systems. As for where power is going, BrightSource has talked about selling the power to PG&E(PCG) a California utility company.

Chris sent me this joke today and I have to post it. It’s a green joke and hopefully spices up your day.

A Harvard, Yale, and University of Vermont graduate enter the mens
room. The graduate of Yale spends 4 minutes aggressively washing his
hands with soap a constantly running water proclaiming “At Yale we
learned to be hygienic”. The Harvard grad then proceeded to quickly
wash his hands using very little water and no paper towels noting “At
Harvard we were taught to conserve resources”. At this point the UVM
graduate finished up, zipped up his pants and headed for the door. On
his way out he quipped “At UVM they taught us not to piss on our
hands.”

As most of you know I have moved to Arizona and have been enjoying the “hippy” style out here with my prius. I have recently been shopping at Wild Oats and Whole Foods. Well tonight it finally hit me, how much more it costs for staying organic or even trying to buy products that have less carbon footprints. I am amazed at the price difference, but also the quality. I have fun myself much happier due to the amazing taste and well quality food, but have also saw a nice hit on my Credit Card/Bank accounts. It makes me wonder how so many people who want to go green, are staying green and not going red with their bills. I AM saving a lot on gas by having my prius, just hit 1300 miles and on my 4th tank of gas, not bad considering the A/C is ALWAYS ON and have been driving in traffic all last week.

Anyway, I wanted to post some questions and hope that some of my readers post comments about it, but let me know how your staying green without going red.

Do you find it hard to stay green or to buy organic? Do you think it’s worth the cost to help the environment as well as you body?