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A green newbie trying to assess her impact and transform her lifestyle to be more sustainable. Covers green projects and products.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'energy'
Progress being made on see-through solar panel windows
Windows are always a problem for a sustainable builder because they take energy from the home. Which led a company called Dyesol to wonder what they could do to flip that, and make windows give back t...
Bahrain World Trade Center Activates Windmills
The Bahrain World Trade Center is going to look really cool when it's done. Two towers, 50 stories each, will house hotels, shopping, and dozens of businesses. However, what makes it unique is the thr...
Some things are always a bad idea, no matter how green
It's true. Some things are always a bad idea, no more how great for the environment they are. I present to you exhibit A -- a hybrid running/walking contraption that not only looks like an accident wa...
The Electric Bill He's Been Waiting For...
Congratulations to Tom at Fractals of Change who succesfully installed his solar panels and received his first 0 kWh electric bill! We are all envious!...
Two year backlog on wind turbines?
Apparently wind power is growing so quickly, particularly in Europe, there is now a 2 year waiting period on wind turbines. This is great news for the wind manufacturing industry (which is pretty much...
Algae 101
Algae has been making the news a lot lately, and is a fairly new topic in environmental circles. Let's take a step back for a moment and talk about why algae is interesting and important. What is alga...
Emissions targets may not be enough. We need technology to bridge the gap.
Hello, my lovely readers! Sorry Brave New Leaf hasn't been updated in a few days. Life got a bit busy. And then I was trapped in the Washington State Legislative Caucus for nine hours yesterday. But I...
Australia launches experiment to bury carbon dioxide underground
Australia's Energy Minister will open up a demonstration injection plant today that is capable of storing up to 100,000 tonnes of CO2 underground. The facility, the largest of its kind in the world, i...
Visualizing wind power with the Firewinder
Sometimes I run across products that don't serve a tremendous green purpose, but I have to mention because they have that "cool" factor. So it is with the Firewinder. The Firewinder could just be call...
The frontline battle of coal vs. climate in Kansas
Something remarkable is happening in the heartland of America. One might even consider it a tipping point for the battle of coal vs. climate. The story goes like this: Last year, Sunflower Electric pr...
How to build your own solar-powered hot water heater
Take a look at this fellow in Florida that built his own solar-powered hot water heater for only $160 in materials. The construction is surprisingly straightforward. One note: the design that he build...
Undersea "Wind Bags" could provide energy when the wind isn't blowing
Part of the difficulty of renewable energy sources like wind and solar is what to do when the energy isn't present. After all, the wind isn't always blowing and night comes pretty consistently, but ou...
WA senator Christine Gregoire kicks off Governors' Clean Energy Summit
WA senator Christine Gregoire kicked off a 2-day national summit to focus on “Clean Energy Research, Development and Demonstration” today. Governor's will discuss and hear presentations on the cha...
Seattle to provide "wood waste" energy to Sacramento
The City of Seattle has announced an energy trade between Seattle and Sacramento. Seattle will offer regular renewable energy to Sacramento in exchange for some normal power to help Seattle cope with ...
MIT breakthrough in thermal energy
We've all seen the various applications of kinetic energy to create power on a small scale. On Brave New Leaf, we've featured cell phones you can twirl, knee braces that move with you, and computers y...
Where are the dirtiest power plants?
All morning, I've been playing with a site called http://www.carma.org. CARMA stands for Carma Monitoring for Action which is an organization financed by a couple of thinktanks in Washington DC. What ...
Washington Ecology Dept. funds several biowaste-to-fuel research projects
The Washington Department of Ecology announced that it will grant over $600,000 to several research projects focused on conversion of organic wastes to ethanol, biodiesel, and organic fertilizer. We a...
The Bamboo Phone charges up by 'whirling'
From the 2008 Greener Gadgets Competition comes a really cool idea for a cell phone called the 'Bamboo'. This cell phone recharges with a 'whirling' mechanism, not unlike the New Years' Eve noisemaker...
Wind or Solar? Which Renewable Energy is Right for You?
Let's say you already purchase green power from your power company, but you want to go one step further and start generating renewable electricity yourself. First off, let me shake your hand. I can no...
Scary and New: Cleaning my Fridge Coils
Today I did something I've never done before. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit scary, though I don't know why I should be nervous over something so trivial. But trying new things is always a bit s...
Green Gadget Envy: The Energy Detective
I love my Kill-A-Watt. It's so fun to plug into everything in my home and monitor my electricity. But it has some limits: my recessed lighting can't be put to the test, nor can most of my large applia...
Wave Power gaining a foothold in Europe
Europe, the current leader in alternative energy technologies, is starting to gain a foothold in wave power as well. Recently, a British tidal power company called Lunar Energy, agreed to build the wo...
The Green Economics of Tankless Water Heaters
In theory, a tankless water heater seems like a no-brainer. Why heat your water all day when you're not using it? Providing on-demand hot water is much more energy-efficient. It's the dominant water h...
Green News Round-Up
Leading congressional democrats issued a bill today that would halt construction of all new coal-fired power plants that are unable or unwilling to control their emissions. Since carbon capture techno...
Windmills: fug or fab?
One of the most commonly cited complaints about wind farms is that they are unattractive. People say that they ruin the horizon, especially when installed in scenic areas. What do you think? Here are ...
Dispelling the myths about Daylight Savings Time
Tonight we will all spring our clocks forward one hour, to celebrate the coming of Daylight Savings Time, nearly a month earlier than we've ever done it before. DST was originally proposed by a Britis...
Cows, long blamed for global warming, start giving back.
The poor cow has been much maligned by environmentalists. Their mere existence requires a massive burden on the land, and is often a cause of deforestation. To top it off, their burps and farts releas...
Fighting for the "right to dry"
Connecticut residents are fighting for their rights. They are not fighting for free speech, nor the inexorable right to party. Instead, they fight for the right to dry their clothes outside on clothes...
How does recycling translate into energy?
One of the lessons we try to teach regularly at Brave New Leaf is that recycling is important for more reasons than full landfills. One of the big reasons to recycle is that it saves energy. "Meh," yo...
The World's First Wave Powered Boat (hic!)
Sailor Kenichi Horie loves to build boats that run on alternative energy and then pilot them across the Pacific Ocean. Why? "Because the mountain was there," he replies enigmatically on his website. H...