THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for December, 2009

The UK will stick to its current target of cutting emissions by 34% from 1990 levels by 2020. to meet the targets of its 2008 Climate Change Act, as advised by The Committee on Climate Change.

That’s quite a commitment, considering that the UK currently has nearly half the US carbon footprint. Americans average 29 tonnes each, according to a new Norwegian count this summer. Per capita the UK carbon footprint is sixteen tonnes per person per year. That makes further cuts all the more impressive. Barclay’s Bank is saying that “The Copenhagen failure did little to alter the expected supply-demand balance under the EU ETS and it is not likely to have changed the underlying hedging pattern of power sector participants”.

Australia is also sticking by its plan to introduce the climate legislation needed in 2010 to support the Copenhagen Accord to avert climate catastrophe. The new pro-”Future” government of Kevin Rudd has its legislature impeded by the same “Fossil” Party that impedes action in the US. Yet, Rudd is going ahead, though it likely will cost him his government.

And yesterday Brazil just signed into law the highest of the range of greenhouse gas emissions cuts it had pledged at Copenhagen: of 39% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

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Today, a European company put the finishing touches on a wind project in North Dakota which Americans have known for decades is “the Saudi Arabia of Wind.”

Spain’s Iberdrola Renovables, the parent company of Iberdrola Renewables Inc that built the project became a giant global wind company in the wake of the Kyoto Accord. The European renewable energy sector grew from the resulting renewable energy legislation in Europe.

The result is that it is European wind companies such as Vestas and Iberdrola, that are now building the wind energy that we need.

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Cow farts are emerging as a major source of the greenhouse gas methane, but scientists in Australia may be on to a simple way to nip that in the bud. Preliminary studies are showing that feeding “algae cakes” to cows results in a significant reduction in their methane emissions.

As reported in The Australian, a team of researchers at James Cook University anticipates a sustainable quadruple whammy from the new bovine diet: algae absorbs more carbon dioxide than other plants, it can be grown as a natural water cleanser for fish farms, it can be harvested as a biofuel crop, and the leftover “cake” produces an anti-methane effect on cattle.

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Earlier this year, our sister blog: Gas 2.0 covered the use of using pee for fuel after a breakthrough at Ohio University published this summer in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Chemical Communications.

Ohio University researcher Gerardine Botte had developed a catalyst that could extract hydrogen fuel from urine much more cheaply than water.

The breakthrough was important because water is increasingly scarce in many regions, and will get even more so, the worse that climate change gets.

And that means that we won’t be able to spare water to make fuel. And that’s why a specialty new waterless toilet that separates liquids from solids might just be in your future.

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There are large steps and small steps that can be made to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution. I think these solar electric vehicles are something in between, but definitely something to start using!

The Solar Electric Vehicle Company creates innovative electric shuttles (i.e. large golf carts) for universities, resorts, stadiums, governments, shopping malls, airports, arenas, medical centers, etc. that combine electric vehicle (EV) technology with solar power technology. Looks like a good combination.

Not only that, but these vehicles are FREE!

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