Stanford scientists have learned how to calculate the carbon footprint of grid-scale battery technologies. Stanford researcher Sally Bensen talked about renewable energy sources and said, “As the percentage of electricity from these sources increases, grid operators will need energy storage to help balance supply with demand. To our knowledge, this study is the first to actually quantify the energetic costs of grid-scale storage over time.”

While looking at articles about reducing carbon footprint I came across this interesting phone. Nokia made a phone that runs entirely on cola. This phone is rather impractical due to the fact that it can’t text, email, etc. This makes it very difficult to be used as a social or business tool. However, I think that if we continue on this path of environmentally friendly software perhaps one day we will have a fully functional phone that runs entirely on green energy. Although this exact model of phone is not very useful I think it is a sign of what we could accomplish if we work to help our planet. I’ve attached the link for the article below, so let me know what you think

Hello I am Alex. I think it is strange how there was a massive drought this summer in the mid-United States. This hasn’t occurred for many years, and I believe it is definitely a sign that our climate is changing, wether it’s from Carbon Dioxide emissions, or from global pollution. We’ll have to wait and see if the drought worsens in the next few years, and if it does, we will have to take steps in order to preserve the climate of that region and to maintain the numerous crops that we depend on in order to survive.

6 Things You Should Know About The Value Of Renewable Energy:

1. Clean energy is competitive with other types of energy
2. Clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels
3. Clean energy improves grid reliability
4. Clean energy investment has surpassed investments in fossil fuels
5. Investments in clean energy are cost effective
6. Fossil fuels have gotten 75 times more subsidies than clean energy

Supporting details here…

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/28/453122/fact-sheet-6-things-you-should-know-about-the-value-of-renewable-energy/

Solar Policy Can Advance (Or Delay) Grid Parity By A Decade

In their excellent interactive graphic, Bloomberg Energy Finance calls solar grid parity (when electricity from solar costs less than grid power) the “golden goal.” It’s an excellent illustration of how the right energy policy can help a nation go gold on solar or wallow in metallurgical obscurity. In the case of the U.S., it may mean delaying grid parity by eight years.

The new (green) economy, according to Jeremy Rifkin:

How’s this for a disruptive model. Economist Jeremy Rifkin says in the future power will be green, cheap and distributed peer-to-peer. Imagine the internet, only for energy.

Here’s Rifkin’s vision: The Facebook generation seizes the initiative, tearing up conventional thinking about where energy comes from and how it’s delivered. They apply all their nous in sharing information and building seamless networks to create a new, resilient energy economy in its place, powered entirely by renewables – solar, wind, water and tidal, biomass and more besides. This will be nothing short of a new industrial revolution, says Rifkin, and its impacts will be as dramatic and sweeping as any that have gone before.

http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/the-futures-lateral-the-new-green-economy-according-to-jeremy-rifkin-2978.aspx

“Great economic revolutions happen”, he says, “when new energy regimes emerge that facilitate more complex civilisations and more energy flow. In turn, they require communication revolutions to manage them. And when communication and energy revolutions come together, historically, they change the economic footprint.”

Jeremy Rifkin, maverick economist and adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a clutch of EU leaders.

Wind power creates public health benefits

While I do believe that wind turbine energy’s renewable and clean nature creates great health benefits, I think that the author of this OPED needs to consider the risks for people who live near wind turbine farms.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120119/OPINION/201190303/-1/NEWS01

In my opinion, wind turbine farms should not be developed anywhere near residential property since the potential health risks have not yet been completely analyzed. People are referring this issue as Wind Turbine Syndrome.

Cold fusion might not be science fiction, after all… This came to my attention:

Italian Cold Fusion Machine Passes Another Test
Natalie Wolchover, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer
Date: 03 November 2011 Time: 12:46 PM ET

“Italian physicist and inventor Andrea Rossi has conducted a public demonstration of his “cold fusion” machine, the E-Cat, at the University of Bologna, showing that a small amount of input energy drives an unexplained reaction between atoms of hydrogen and nickel that leads to a large outpouring of energy, more than 10 times what was put in.

…

The process is an attractive energy solution for two reasons: Unlike in nuclear fission, the reaction doesn’t give off dangerous radiation. Unlike the fusion processes that take place in the sun, cold fusion doesn’t require extremely high temperatures.

…

Most physicists — as well as the United States Department of Energy (DoE), academic journals, and the U.S. Patent Office — consider cold fusion machines to be hoaxes, because they say physics rules out the possibility of room-temperature nuclear fusion.”

For full article=> http://www.livescience.com/16864-italian-cold-fusion-machine-passes-test.html

Luke Younge works for Lucid Pictures a production company in Cape Town that makes powerful, thoughtful films for people who make a difference. This film takes a look at sustainable energy in South African cities through the eyes of a schoolgirl doing an after-hours rehearsal of her school oral presentation entitled “My City”

Do electric vehicles really create less pollution? This video offers some great information. Hope you enjoy it…