Posts Tagged ‘Green’
Control4 displays to monitor energy in smart-grid project
September 1st, 2009 | 
Author: Control4 Energy Systems, one of a growing number of home energy display providers, said on Tuesday it will supply energy monitors in a planned smart-grid project in rural Texas.
The home energy monitor–a five-inch-wide monitor that resembles a car GPS unit–will display electricity usage in real time and provide consumers the ability to program a thermostat, according to Will Holford, the public affairs manager at Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
The system works by using Zigbee wireless networking within the home to connect the monitor to the thermostat, which communicates with the utility via a smart meter. Other providers in the project, which the utility hopes to begin work on in the second quarter next year, include smart meter provider eMeter and Silver Spring Networks which provides a networking card for the meter.
Control4, which is perhaps better known for its home media management systems, raised $17.3 million in July to expand into the energy monitoring business.
Control4’s display for managing home energy along with home media.
(Credit: Control4.)
Home energy monitors, or in-home displays, are a key piece of the more advanced smart-grid programs being pursued by utilities. By providing more data and ways to program appliances, utilities hope that consumers will be able to find ways to shave back on consumption.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10322885-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in evironment, Green, software, Tech | 
Tags: Control4 Energy Systems, energy monitor, Green | 
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Photos: Turning food waste into energy
Food waste is one of the least recycled materials in municipal solid waste systems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But at least one organization in the San Francisco Bay Area is trying to change that.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District is experimenting with innovative techniques to convert raw food waste into usable energy, taking some of the massive amounts of food waste generated by local restaurants and using it to power its operations in Oakland, Calif.
In 2007, EBMUD was awarded a $50,000 grant from the EPA as part of the Resource Recovery Program to explore new ways of digesting food waste to produce methane gas.
Today, the facility is home to a million-dollar facility that is generating usable methane and producing nearly 100 percent of the power needed to operate the regional wastewater treatment operation.
Full Story :
http://news.cnet.com/2300-11128_3-10001426.html?tag=rsspr.6250028&part=rss&subj=news
Posted in evironment, Green, recycle |
Tags: energy, food waste, Green, recycled materials, wastewater |
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PG&E to compress air to store wind power
Despite all the talk about needed breakthroughs in batteries, Pacific Gas & Electric is pursuing a less high-tech approach to store wind power: underground compressed air.
The utilty on Wednesday said that it is seeking $25 million in smart-grid stimulus funds to build an underground compresssed air storage facility that would be able to deliver as much electricity as a medium-size power plant for about 10 hours.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10318412-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
China plans 500-megawatt solar plant
Canadian Solar has been granted rights to develop a 500-megawatt solar power plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, the company announced Wednesday.
Baotou is a manufacturing city on the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia with a population of over 2 million, according to the Chinese government’s official Baotou Web site.
Canadian Solar’s agreement is with the Administration Committee of Baotou National Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone also known as its Chinese abbreviation “CPT.” The signed agreement includes rights “to design, install, operate, and maintain” the solar power plant in Baotou.
“To have a solar project of such magnitude in Baotou demonstrates our determination to develop the PV end-user market in China, as well as our commitment to cleaner and more sustainable economic development in Baotou,” Fu Ren, the committee’s director, said in a statement released to the U.S. press.
Canadian Solar, while founded in Canada, has subsidiaries based in China that already manufacture both solar cells and solar panel systems among other things. The Baotou solar project, subject to regulatory approval, will develop in three stages.
Stage one will include the installation of 100 megawatts of photovoltaics between September 2009 and December 2011, followed by two more development phases each including 200-megawatt installations.
While the installation is massive, this is not the first of its kind. In October 2008, the U.S. Army announced plans to build a 500-megawatt solar thermal power farm in Fort Irwin, Calif. in an effort to reduce its annual energy costs.
Solar Trust was also recently granted rights to to develop the construction and installation of two or three 242-megawatt solar power plants for California that would be operational by 2013 or 2014.
Baotou, a city in Inner Mongolia, China, is about 12 hours northwest of Beijing by train.
Mobile ‘biochar’ machine to work the fields
An ancient technique to fertilize soil by creating charcoal from plant waste is being revived to tackle some of today’s environmental problems.
The latest company to pursue manmade charcoal, called biochar, is Biochar Systems, which has developed a biochar-making machine that can be pulled by a pickup truck. Two customers–a North Carolina farm and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management–will be begin testing the units this fall.
The unit, called the Biochar 1000, is designed to convert woody biomass, such as agricultural or forestry waste, into biochar, a black, porous, and fine-grained charcoal that can be used as a fertilizer. It uses pyrolysis–slowly burning biomass in a low-oxygen chamber–to treat 1,000 pounds of biomass per hour, yielding 250 pounds of biochar.
The Biochar 1000 converts agricultural wastes to charcoal, which is then added to soil, a process that enriches soil and removes carbon from air.
