Hippy Green

The next energy harvesting idea is using the already clogged speedway (highway,parkway,etc) to convert the wind created by the passing cars, trucks, etc to electricity. This idea has been around for a while, but I think what makes this recently example so specially is how they go about doing it, using overhead turbines that collect the energy. We could use this energy to power the lights along the freeway, but the upfront cost would be pretty large, especially if we plant to have these every 10 to 100 miles apart.

Joe (ASU) posted on the Archinect schoolblog his idea (picture above) as well as other diagarms explaining how he came up with this idea and how we can use the power. He explains how harvesing this power of cars driving by is much like a parasite on a organism, we would harvest free power from the speeding cars (minus the upfront cost of installing these turbines). I find this project even more interesting because they want to install them in the phoenix area.

As some of you know, I am on vacation in the phoenix area. I actually just drive by where they would be installing this wind turbine near the 51 and Osborn Road. I also been taking some pictures of how people are using solar power here, but since there are a lot of condos and apartments out here with HOA (Homeowners Associations) they REFUSE to use Solar Panels or let renters/buyers install them! I just can not get over these, its FREE POWER, granted their is a cost assocatied with the solar panels, but you can save money and have them not only pay for themselves over time but save money!

Anyway back to the wind farm highway, Joe also did some calculations showing how the average vehicle passes by at 70MPH, so if you take a 10MPH baseline, each wind turbine would produce 9,600KwH of energy annually! (enough to power Joes 700sft apartmnet!). I must hand it to Joe if you get this up and running I will be sure to fly back out here and take some pictures of this futurist highway wind turbine.

Well its not Memorial Day yet, but it seems that gasoline prices fell 1 cent last week ending the 12 consecutive weeks of increasing prices. I wrote earlier this week that they predict a $4 a gallon price on gas this summer. Since it was only a 1 cent fall i am still sticking with my $4 a gallon guess.

I know this summer is going to ruin our economic if gas hits prices that high, but what about the buzz of going green? I recently read an article about how its not easy selling green. How can this be? Maybe the return on investment is too low for the average Joe to buy a hybrid. The average Job may not want to go green to be green, but to go green financially and concisely. I know there was a high demand with hybrid cars along with their HOV passes in California, but there is could be less return on a hybrid due to degrading batteries.

Soon to be released hybrids have been becoming more expensive rather then economies of scale bring the price down. Most of this is due to emerging technology in building these hybrids, but the problem still is the cost! Hybrid Technologies is planning to release a consumer friendly electric mini, but for $59,000 USD. Thats a full 40k more then the base Mini and takes 5 hours to charge. I think they are taking 2 steps forwards and 1 step back with this idea because there are other companies that will convert your car to a hybrid for $10,000 to $15,000. Granted this may not be a perfect apples to apples comparison due to various types of batteries and warranty, but come on this would still be a $25,000 difference.

It looks like this past weekend was not only a big jump for Hippy Green, but for youth involvement with the environment. More teens and college students are picking up banners on global warming and getting the message out into the public. High school students are building various things with solar panels like cookers and cars, we are even seeing an influx talk about environmentally friendly college campuses. It’s seems everyone is talking about Green, now its time to put those words to use.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to change NYC to a Greener city by instituting a $8 car congestion fee. This idea of a congestion charge has and is working in cities like London. I know while I was over there this past summer I saw few cars on the road in certain areas at specific times due to the fact that some can’t afford it. Commuting is becoming expensive especially when gas goes to $4 dollars a gallon! I am with Mike on trying to change and slow down the traffic in NYC, but you need to see the BIG PICTURE. People are always going to need to commute into the city, but how are we going to deal with this influx if people are not using cars. We need to look at Mass Transit. Lets get our port authority and NJ Transit, LIRR, Metro North, Subway people together and start to plan for this. We would need more trains and frequent stops as well as new styles of trains. Currently NJ Transit has switched to new double decker trains for the Trenton line, this frees up space for everyone on the train and has plenty of open seats. We need to start adding more of these, but also thinking about the person who is traveling on these trains.

After traveling on these double decker’s both on NJ Transit on from Providence, RI to Boston I can tell you, we need to “add” some features. For once, everyone and their mom has what 3, 4, maybe 5 electronic devices on the train, lets start putting in electric outlets. Now they say, wait who is gonna pay for that electricity. Well lets look at energy harvesting in train stations and frequent walkways and try and gather power from people walking. We can use pads that convert people walking into an electric charge using piezo crystals. Wired had a short article about piezo electric walkways last summer.

We need to start by allowing the people to be heard, the best way is ONLINE! Let’s start by posting up discussion boards and allowing the average Joe commuter to post up his problem about mass transit and allow others to comment and respond. We could even take this to the next level and allow users to post problems like a traffic light out or subway step missing, this information could then notify the right person to fix it. Well it turns out Bryan Helmkamp started to build this project called Fix My New York, part of a idea inspired by Neighbourhood Fix It

A geologist in Serbia found a mineral that contains the same chemical composition as the comic books description of kryptonite. After trying to identify the mineral, the geologist searched the internet for comical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide and received many websites that describe the rock kryptonite that Lex Luther used in the movie Superman Returns.

The mineral will be named Jadarite and will be on show at London’s Natural History Museum tomorrow. So if your a really big fan of Superman, stop by and check it out, if not pass this link around to all your comic book reading friends.

via MSNBC

Direct from Bloomberg, the $4/gallon gasoline is coming to America. I know when I had my Subaru STI paying $3.50 (93 octane) I was walking more and thought a bit before I just drove around the block, but now the average Joe is going to pay $4, WTF?!?! America needs to wake up and fight this! We need to either get the government to stop subsiding the oil companies so they don’t turn another $10 Billion (with a B) QUARTER (4 times a year!) I will be the first to say that I did not VOTE for BUSH the first time and I sure as hell didn’t the second! We need to fight these GREEDY Oil companies and tell them to invest their profits into renewable resources or offset their carbon footprint! Lets start building CO OP wind farms and wind turbines on our mountains.

America is at war over oil and yet the price just gets higher and more ridiculous. Obviously we are a Oil dependent country, but we need to DRASTICALLY change our usage! Lets start building these small plugin vehicles and high speed segways.

With the jump in cost of gasoline this raises the commuters cost thus either forcing people to make more or change jobs. America is also a country of negative savings, we are spending more then we are making! We are living from paycheck to paycheck and with gas prices jumping dramatically this will kill our economy.

After attending GoRuco and hearing about them offsetting our carbon footprint, I started to think about mine. Granted I was not the most “environmentally” person, but I still have a vision of renewable energy! During my summers at College I must have drove at least 15,000 miles, but after selling my STI this past summer and sharing a car/ using mass transit, I have only realized that I need to move into a City and walk or bike to my destination.

A bicycle is the most environmentally efficient form of transportation. In the Netherlands and Japan there were racks of bikes just ready to be used. There are even communities setup to have community bicycles that are shared among its members.

Well sorry for the rant, but we need to contact our government officials and tell them that we need to stop subsiding the oil companies and to invest into alternative energy solutions! I want to build a wind farm CO OP like the picture below of the one in Spain, who’s with me?

For all those California readers you may know that there was about 85,000 hybrid owners who were given HOV exempt stickers to allow their hybrid to travel in the carpool lane without the minium 2+ persons in the car. The DMV recent changed the laws creating this market for people to either steal these HOV exemption stickers from cars or buy them (up to $4,000 more) for used hybrids with HOV exempt stickers. California DMV claims there are two to three dozen victims per month (WOW! a bit much?) that have been scammed out of their beloved HOV exempt sticker, but at least the stickers are “chemically treated” to crumble apart if tampered with.

Why Not? There are a lot of positive alternatives to various household items such as light bulbs, furniture, and what to do with all that stuff you have. There are various types of efficient light blubs from LED to HEI the cost might be a bit steep, but think about how many times you either replace it or if it lowers your monthly electricity bill. If you are reading this today RUN TO HOME DEPOT!!! Home Depot is giving away 1 million CFL light bulbs during Earth Day.

As for furniture and other stuff you have lying around the house check out Freecycle. You can buy/sell stuff by posting, also check out craigslist. I know in Vermont there was a place called Recycle North recycle north great place for college students to find furniture and write off stuff for tax deductions. So come join the green bandwagon!

This past Thursday April 5, I attended the Google NYC Office for a tech talk with Luiz Barroso’s on “Watts, Faults, and Other Fascinating Dirty Words Computer Architects Can No Longer Afford to Ignore”. He discussed various energy problems and concerns that Google is facing along with ideas and ways to solve them.

Google has many data centers with racks of computers. Each computer has at least 1 power supply for power. Most data centers use at least 2 of everything to be redundant incase something fails. Efficiency can play a major role in not only saving money but also being environmentally friendly. If a power supply for 1 computer in a data center only 50% efficient then 50% of the energy used to power this 1 computer in a data center goes to waste. Most data centers have hundreds of racks of computers. Each rack holds about 42 1u cases or 42 computers. This could vary in setup but a data center contains hundreds if not thousands of computers.

Using energy efficient power supplies can cut down on the cost and the waste of power. During the talk, Barroso points out that a computer server could cost less then the power that it uses over the course of its life. Most computer servers last about 4 years and the power required to keep it up and running would cost more then the server. He also points out that the energy used while the server is idle and not processing anything is about 10 to 20% less then when the server is at full peak processing.

How many computers to do you leave on at your home? Do they have a efficient power supply?