December 2007 Archives

All eyes will be on the new LED Crystal Times Square New Year’s Eve ball tonight which is more energy efficient and brighter than last year.

The 9,576 Philips Luxeon LEDs replaced the 600 incandescent and halogen bulbs of the previous Ball. The new Ball is more than twice as bright and capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns. Yet, the entire Times Square Ball will be lit with approximately the same amount of electricity as it takes to power ten toasters or a single oven/range.

Phillips also came out with white light LED Christmas lights that I reported on earlier. (Soft white Christmas 11/07) Electronic blues and reds of LED light is giving way to color temperatures pleasing to humans used to looking at tungsten lights.

The first New Year's Eve in Times Square ball in 1907 was constructed of iron and wood and glowed with with 100 25-watt light bulbs.

The most recently retired ball was illuminated by 168 Philips Halogená Brilliant Crystal light bulbs at 60 watts a piece. The interior of the Ball was illuminated by 432 Philips Light Bulbs (208 clear, 56 red, 56 blue, 56 green, and 56 yellow), and 96 high-intensity strobe lights. The exterior of the Ball featured 90 rotating pyramid mirrors that reflect light back into the audience at Times Square.

168x60watts=10,080
432x60?watts=25,920.... 36,000? watts plus strobes and motors...
A glittering spectacle of consumption

The new ball more resembles the original 1907 ball's scant 2,500 watt power consumption with more bling. The perfect sentinel for the dawn of a new year.

Source: Times Square Alliance

A federal income-tax credit on the Honda Civic Hybrid will drop to $1,050 on January 1, down from $2,100 today.

The law limits the biggest credits to roughly the first 60,000 hybrids that each carmaker sells providing an incentive for domestic manufactures as the program matures. Tax credits have already phased out on hybrids from Toyota and Lexus brand.
bostonherald.com/business

The race is on to become leaders in self preservation. States and communities that become innovators and solution makers will have an edge.

With electricity rate caps set to begin to be lifted at the end of 2009, they said, there is urgency to get conservation measures in place. Increased competition for "green" companies from other states could hurt Pennsylvania's economy down the road, they added.

"New Jersey and New York each are spending $200 million a year," said John Hanger, president of PennFuture, a statewide environmental advocacy group. "We need at least $150 million a year or we're not going to be a competitor in locating clean-energy producers here." www.philly.com

What's undecided in government is whether consumers are willing to pay now for promoting alternative energies though subsidies that are often risky investment due to the undeveloped nature of many technologies. Thinking green often pulls money away from entrenched capitalization (oil,coal...revenue streams) and money fuels government.

The urgency is reality: California has long tried to push tougher pollution laws often blocked by federal government. California has a dense population and a climate that makes controlling pollution a more in-your-face issue than most of the country.

In 2009 when electricity caps are lifted in Pennsylvania, consumers can expect and 20-30% increase in their electrical bills. One of the reasons that will be given will be high energy prices. A high cost is an in-your-face issue for consumers.

We stand at the crossroads made in all great investment decisions, only there aren't any safe government backed securities to bank on with this one. The worst decision is to make no decision.

Some community leaders are taking their destiny into their own hands.

In Parkland, Fla, there is free hybrid-car parking. Cash rebates for installing solar panels. Low-interest loans for energy-saving home renovations. Money to tear up desert lawns and replace them with drought-resistant landscaping.

Starting next year, San Francisco will offer home owners rebates of up to $5,000 for installing solar panels if they use a local contractor.

The city of Berkeley is financing the cost of solar panels for homeowners who agree to pay the money back through a 20-year property tax assessment.

Baltimore offers at least $2,000 toward closing costs for people who buy new homes close to where they work. It is called the "Live Near Your Work" program.

n Arizona, many cities pay residents to replace grass with artificial turf or plants that use less water. Scottsdale, outside Phoenix, will pay up to $1,500.
AP

Pennsylvania Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency

...while in Europe, government has chosen not to feed feedstock.fuels

Ethanol prices are now trading in line with gasoline prices for the first time since late August and, fueled by the new U.S. energy bill, are likely to rise further, Citigroup said in a recent report. "We firmly believe the new energy bill will serve as a significant catalyst to the ethanol industry, as the higher mandated ethanol levels stipulated by the new renewable fuel standard should serve to bring ethanol supply and demand back into balance, thereby strengthening ethanol's pricing fundamentals," said the report. marketwatch.com

Europe's mainstream bio-fuel experiment takes form of biodiesel, which fuels many cars on the road in Europe.

The price for their main feedstock, rapeseed, has risen more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. But the price of the final product, biodiesel, has plunged, because producers are churning out far more biodiesel than the market can absorb.

Similar conditions hold sway among U.S. ethanol makers: heightened corn prices combined with an ethanol glut. But U.S. producers are celebrating while their European counterparts exude gloom. Why the difference?

That's an easy one. In the U.S., the government is playing Santa Claus, while in Europe, governments are responding to industry demands for more goodies with a cold stare... gristmill.grist.org

I was talking to a farmer down in Springfield Township this week for a story. He was complaining that the price of feed for his animals has doubled this year.

Martin Library will host a panel discussion on Thursday, February 21, 2008 on Environmentalism in York as part of their community programming series called GO!.

The series runs from February 4 – April 5 and is called Our Precious Planet.

Friends of mine gave me an ultra efficient pair of Ikea night lights for Christmas. The unit that shuts off by day takes only .3 watt to run. A typical incandescent night light takes 7 watts. The LED bulb may also last 10 times longer than an incandescent, meaning nine chunks of something may not wind up in an landfill.

When Congress sent an energy bill to President Bush for his signature, it arrived in a Japanese-built Toyota Prius hybrid — a move that rubbed two Michigan Republicans the wrong way.

"It is a huge slap in the face, calculated I believe, just to demonstrate their complete disregard for the domestic auto industry," said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich.

To Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., it was a "slap in the face of every American auto worker." AP Dec 20

The Toyota Prius is 10 years old this month, hardly a new or controversial concept any more.

Slapping investigated:
I agree with the Michigan Republican lawmakers that auto worker feel slapped, but for different reasons.

Detroit auto workers are the ones who should be building a "Prius" and they are the ones who should be exporting cars to a world that wants our products. They should be enjoying a higher quality of life physically and economically than ten years ago and live in an environment that has gradually increased fuel efficiency and pollution standards to remain competitive globally in the long run.

Moving production to China, India and Mexico have proven over and over to U.S. corporations that they don't need to produce goods here (or market products here) to profit.

The worker spinning the wrench can only control building a quality product the rest of his destiny is left in the hands of his elected government and the forces in business that run a free market economy.

The Prius energy bill delivery was a grim reaper of failed policy. The slap was felt by those who deserve it.

The car was on a clean technology tour sponsored by the Diesel Technology Forum.

Honda expects to bring the clean-diesel car to the U.S. by 2010. It gets 62.8 miles a gallon on the highway, but otherwise looks and feels like a regular Accord. At that mileage level, the car is about as "clean" as a new Toyota Prius. But if you run it on biodiesel, a form of diesel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, it would be even cleaner than a Prius (Priuses get 60 in the city) 4/07. [actually the new EPA sticker shows 48 mpg City/45 mpg Highway]cnet

The passing of the recent energy bill, with fuel efficiency requirements, will push clean diesel into the spotlight, particularly with heavier vehicle applications.

Diesel is an energy-dense fuel compared to gasoline – delivering both more miles per gallon (20-40 percent more) and lower emissions of greenhouse gases (10-20 percent less). Automotive forecasters at JD Power & Associates and the U.S. Department of Energy predict that clean diesel cars could account for 10-15 percent of all new vehicle sales by 2015, up from just over 3 percent today. dieselforum

I was listening to President Bush talk at a rotary luncheon this week and he brought up a time-of-day highway access charge. He cited raising fuel economy standards would cause less tax revenue at the pump.

There is this impending fear in government that increased fuel economy will reduce consumption based tax dollars, so new revenue streams are needed to build highways.

I find this difficult to comprehend as an impending issue when efficiency standards are years away and the current U.S. budget debt as of today is $9,148,076,623,766.32 more than the balanced budget of eleven years ago. To put it in perspective, it's like each citizen of the U.S. owes $30,000.

Raising fuel economy standards in itself grates against a spend and grow model of economic growth. "Economic growth" doesn't always translate into a sustainable quality of life for the masses in the future.

It is more likely that the petroleum market will burn itself out with high fuel prices triggering a self imposed fuel efficiency standard by consumers. People might be inspired to take public transportation, or maybe just walk; resulting in fewer highway dollars needed and more demand for public transportation.

DB writes Greenmesh:

I just noticed that Tom's on the East has E-85 gas. I am impressed with that and am wondering if I can use it in my Toyota Matrix without any adjustments.

I don't believe that your Toyota Matrix (year?) is a "flex-fuel" vehicle. It can probably tolerate ethanol amounts of up to 5-10%, but not the 85% in E85. Manufacturers usually state pretty boldly in the user's manual if your car can tolerate ethanol blend and what percentage it can tolerate. My Honda Civic hybrid says 5%.

Toyota and Honda haven't been big ethanol fans. Honda's plan is to go with clean diesel technology as an alternative fuel; both have been developing hybrids for the past decade. General Motors, and Chrysler have many flex-fuel cars, but a majority of those cars on the road never use E85. For a couple hundred extra a car and not much R/D it's an easy green marketing handle.

Understand that while it looks inexpensive to buy ethanol because it is heavily subsidized by tax dollars, your fuel mileage (if the car can take it) will probably decrease by 20%, so the cost savings to you may be a wash. If it was the same price as gasoline, people would not buy it.

Here is a chart from fueleconomy.gov that shows ethanol compatible models for each year. Not that for every vehicle, it costs more and it gets worse mileage than gasoline.

Our ethanol is produced from corn which has driven up the price related food stock, takes alot of energy to produce and can only be transported by trucks, which use more fuel, to transport. Corn needs alot of water and fertilizer to grow and uses more water at the refinery.

Although I too am impressed that Tom's would take the risk and spent $$$ to convert a pump to ethanol to test market an alternative fuel. In the end, however, there isn't much to be impressed about with corn based ethanol.

However, we can hope that some inventive spirit and hero will harness their brain power and conscience, figure out a way to excite people who want to make piles of money fast with investment, and come up with a way to harness ethanol from something other than a food stock.

At that point flex-fuel vehicles will sing a whole new happy song.

Clean diesel technology offers consumers a viable alternative to gasoline using technology that has already evolved and can be further tweaked. It is fuel with an entrenched fuel infrastructure that can be substituted with bio-fuels as inventiveness blossoms.

GEO2 Technologies is one of the flowers bearing fruit by developing a ceramic composite material for use as catalyst support substrates and particulate filters for diesel engines. According to their website, the technology can reduce manufactures cost by 30% with a product that offers low back pressure and a high filtering capacity.

About half of the vehicles in Europe are diesel while the technology in the U.S. stands at about 2%. A diesel engine is about 20% more efficient than a gasoline engine. Diesel ,gallon for gallon, creates more energy.

Source:U.S. Gov. Energy Infromation

There still a cost consideration to the consumer for running gasoline over petroleum diesel which is quite substantial in some parts of the country. If there is a 45 cent per gallon cost difference between each fuel as it often is here in York, Pennsylvania, a 20% gain in efficiency is quickly eroded. There are more taxes paid at the pump for diesel, which is an attempt to extract over-the-road charges for trucking. However, the diesel will probably be simpler, cheaper and easier to maintain in a high mileage vehicle than a gasoline hybrid.

Unlike corn based ethanol production (that places pressure on food stock with a highly taxpayer subsidized fuel that takes great amounts of energy to produce a fuel that is less efficient than fossil fuels), increasing clean diesel production isn't diverting a commodity jacking up prices/inflation for consumers.

If you need more diesel, you will need less gasoline the equation on the equity market actually decreases. As a bonus the cars running diesel take 20% less fuel so less crude is needed and we become less energy dependent.

While many countries have adopted diesel as their dominant fuel due to the necessity of historically overall high energy prices, the U.S. has historically enjoyed cheap gasoline and marginalized diesel via marketing and tax structure as a working fuel (for trucks/trains/farm).

The biggest hurdle to drawing in clean diesel technology as one of our short-term Band-Aid energy solutions will be overcoming a long standing perception by consumers and bureaucrats that this is a truck fuel and shouldn't be part of the equation. Propelling an idea that doesn't create large profits for a large market force and only may benefit the consumer in the short-term isn't a market motivator.

Toshiba has made a remarkable leap in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery recharges up to 90% of its energy in five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years.

Slow charging is an obstacle to development of battery-electric vehicles, so a battery like this could be charged almost full in the time it takes to buy a sub. General Motors has been waiting for someone to develop a viable Li-ion battery for their Volt as has Toyota delaying the technology in its Prius. gizmag.com

Road crews in Akron, Ohio are using beet juice to remove ice and snow from the Ohio city's roadways this winter.

Akron Public Works Bureau Manager Paul Barnett said once the sugar is removed from the beets, the juice is mixed with calcium chloride and rock salt to create a very efficient deicer product, WEWS-TV in Cleveland reported Wednesday.

"The beets also allow the salt and the calcium chloride to stick to the road better and last longer, allowing us to save money with fewer application over the course of winter," Barnett said. upi.com

The process, using a low cost agricultural byproduct, reduces the amount of salt used on roadways and reduces the amount of salt getting into streams and ground water.

And from theUS Patent office,

A composition is proposed for use in preventing the formation of ice or snow on outdoor surfaces, such as roadways or aggregate stockpiles, and also for deicing surfaces upon which snow or ice has formed. The composition is formed from a waste product of the process of removing sugar from molasses, also known as desugared molasses. As a byproduct of a widely used process for making edible sugar, the desugared molasses is readily available at a low cost....

Unlike the evolution of the Humvee to Hummer, the civilian diesel motorcycle products from HDT will offer the consumer with a way to squeeze fuel.

The U.S. military wanted to streamline their fuel needs. Instead of multiple fuels for different vehicles they wanted to economize the distribution process with one fuel.

The problem is that a diesel Humvee and a motorcycle had to run on the same fuel and no domestic manufacturer wanted to produce a diesel motorcycle. A group of small manufactures bid on the project and Hayes Diversified Technologies of Hesperia, CA won.

The 4-Stroke, IDI, single cylinder, liquid cooled diesel motorcycle is rated at 96 mpg. Two models have been slated for civilian production but military demand has been so great that the civilian models have been postponed.

The civilian D650A1 Bulldog has a projected dry weight of less than 400 pounds and the motorcycle is expected to have more than 600 miles of range on a tank of diesel, achieving in excess of 100 mpg.

Biofuel Diesel Motorcycle Wins At Bonneville Speed Trials (11/01/07)

Unlike any other machine at Bonneville, HDT's diesel bike is capable of fording a 24-in. stream, and climbing or descending a 60 percent grade while operating on any version of diesel, kerosene or jet fuel. The HDT diesel bikes operated on B20 biodiesel (20 percent soybean, vegetable oil and other agricultural components; 80 percent petroleum diesel).

Ironically, consumers will have to wait for military action to wind down in the Middle East before that can conserve oil with a 100 mpg motorcycle.

The energy bill fell flat in the Senate Friday after the house passed it. The White House issued a statement saying,

"“Their proposal would raise taxes and increase energy prices for Americans. That is a misguided approach and if it made it to the president’s desk, he would veto it.” nyt.com

The bill is more of a panic reaction by a few well intentioned to a dire situation than a solution.

Well true, the bill would have increased the price of energy for Americans because a majority of the taxes were on oil companies that would have passed the cost along to consumers; before the money taken away from consumers could catch up by creating competition with alternative energy. Also people affected by feed prices like cattleman lined up not liking it because the huge ethanol mandate would push the price of feed up squeezing them against consumers.

The love for corn based ethanol is mind boggling requiring production of ethanol and other bio fuels, from about 5 billion gallons a year of bad science and impact of the food supply today to 36 billion gallons of the same and yet to be discovered methods of production by 2022.

Old school oil wants to clutch it's money as long as possible and government is here to empower status quo economic highways. Meanwhile, no one with power is enough of a hero to see the big picture and force change. The planet continues to die.

Nothing is going to get done here until consumers start using some things, stop using others and conserving what we must use but don't want. The great part about capitalism is that there has to be a market for something to gain power. Ultimately, an educated consumer holds all the power.

I am fascinated with the Royal-Enfield Bullet diesel. The 100+ mpg one cylinder diesel motorcycle, from a 50 year old design, is still manufactured in India and is probably the sole transportation for some families there.

The Diesel Bullet reminds me of just what North American workers compete with in a global economy and just how lean the competition operates.

The Diesel Bullet is a lean machine that some in more economically evolved nations are using as a platform to innovate and satisfy their own desire for energy independence.

Riding on Salad Oil - A guy in Germany, where over 50% of the new cars registered are efficient clean diesel technology, has retrofitted an old stripped Enfield with a Yanmar L100 diesel engine (Chinese clone) engine. He runs diesel, makes biodiesel and even uses salad oil getting a (diesel/price) equivalent of 500 mpg.

Harold Benich of Albion, Pa., put his Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle on a diet by retrofitting it with a diesel and burning soy bean oil, getting over 100 mpg. americanprofile.com

Take a 10 minute ride sitting behind the bars of an Enfield Diesel Bullet.

I was listening to the The House debate the energy bill today. A vote could come as early as tomorrow. After months of talking, automakers agreed to the first major fuel economy increase in decades to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

Congress created the mileage requirements in 1975, and the fuel economy of passenger cars doubled in 10 years, from 14 to 28 miles per gallon by 1986. But as oil prices dropped in the late 1980s, automakers began selling SUVs, trucks and sedans that were bigger and more powerful - features consumers enjoyed.

Critics complained that, without any push from Washington, auto companies have let fuel economy flatline. Current law requires 27.5 miles per gallon for cars - the same as a decade ago - and 22.2 miles per gallon for light trucks. sfgate.com

Thirty years ago, automaker said that raising fuel economy standards would cause a loss of jobs and reduce market share. After 30 years of lax fuel economy standards, Detroit has still lost market share and still lost jobs. Add to that global warming, and high fuel prices and there much to gain by promoting fuel consumption.

Switching from a Windows-operated computer to a Linux-operated one could slash computer-generated e-waste levels by 50%. A UK government study in late 2004 reported that there were substantial green benefits to running a Linux open source operating system (OS) on computers instead of the ubiquitous Windows OS, owned by Microsoft. The main problem with Windows users was that they had to change their computer twice as many times as Linux users, on average, thereby effectively creating twice as much computer-generated e-waste. cnn.com

Open source operating systems and software aren't based on an obsolescent product cycle where revenue is generated by getting people to buy a new product. Linux-based operating systems tend to evolve rather than be replaced

The Ubuntu operating system is a community developed operating system that is free and is updated regularly. A Linux-based operating system that can be used for laptops, desktops and servers.

Big name computer builders like Dell have recognized the demand. Another variation is the gOS operating system that is main streaming sales in an Everex computer sold by Wal-Mart.

The greatest beauty of an open source operating system is that it brings the power of community into development and innovation. Empowering small hardware builders like Zareason that customize open source computers.

The home computer is moving from a model of costly software and energy hungry machinery to web based storage and software on demand driven by advertising dollars. Light weight computers, using less energy tied to pooled resources can reduce energy consumption, especially when multiplied by millions of households.

I was standing in the entry hall of the Pennsylvania Governor's Residence in Harrisburg today and looked up. The grand chandelier was illuminated with compact florescent bulbs. The color temperature looked great, pretty much like the warm glow of a tungsten bulb only these CF capsules use much less electricity

Say the chandelier has 30 bulbs that used to be 40 watt each that would take 1,200 watts running all the time. A CF replacement bulb takes 4 watts reducing the power needed down to 120 watts. Multiply this by hundreds of bulbs in the mansion that have been recently replaced with CF bulbs, many of which stay on 24/7, and you have power and tax dollars conserved.

The Rendell administration has also recently converted the 40 year old mansion's heating system to a geothermal heat pump, using 500 foot wells on the site to transfer heat from the earth to reduce electrical consumption.