The Finer Things: Solar-Powered Backpack

I spend a good amount of time talking about how renewable initiatives and sustainable lifestyles will ultimately save money, mainly because that is the only way that these things are going to take hold in mainstream America/R.O.W.

However, lets face it, I'm high maintenance and I like the finer things in life. Those of you that know me totally know this is true seeing that I dine exclusively at Subway and wear my ripped jeans whenever I can get away with it.

So OBVIOUSLY this new item that is hitting the market caught my eye:

Ralph Lauren solar-powered backpack.

For only $800 dollars, this little ditty can be yours. Finally, I can promote clean energy and my cutting edge fashion-sense all in one move.

What's that, you say? You are wondering how much power this provides? Enough for your iPad 2, suckah!

The bag zaps up a 3.45-watt current, which charges a small device in two to three hours when the sun is at full strength.

Did I say iPad? I meant iPhone, but Google's webcrawler doesn't pay as much attention to old products, and I like attracting all sorts of misguided webtraffic.

In all seriousness, having solar panels on your backpack, briefcase, or whatever is a cool idea and someday will definitely be a reality, but until panels are more efficient at extracting energy from the sun's rays, these things are pretty much worthless.

The Future Is Now...(!)? Qatar's Vision Of An Artificial Cloud

I don't often report on highly speculative technological visions because there are about 500 floated onto the internet daily, but I had to make an exception for Qatar's Artificial Cloud being proposed for the 2022 World Cup.

I have recently become more and more interested in soccer (football), mainly because I have a brother going to school in the UK and I figured I should probably go ahead and pay attention to what is going on beyond this most recent World Cup (Team USA!).

Qatar winning the bid for the 2022 World Cup still stings because Chicago got robbed (I'm not biased or anything because I live in Chicago). With that said, a solar powered floating "cloud" could definitely make up for the hard feelings I am harboring:

Artificial cloud will move by remote control, made of 100 per cent light carbonic materials, fuelled by four solar-powered engines and it will fly high to protect direct and indirect sun rays to control temperatures at the open playgrounds.

Are you kidding me?!

Aside from the fact that I am 90% sure this technology does not exist yet and some pretty significant engineering and power transferring hurdles need to be solved, this would be awesome.

Just look at it. Hilariously awesome. I want to live on top of it.

Granted, if it got cloudy I suppose we would have to deal with a mechanical cloud massacring an entire stadium of soccer fans - but these are just details.

Samsung's Solar Powered Television

With all the negative events happening in Libya and Japan, I found it pretty difficult to motivate myself to write something witty and meaningful about topics related to sustainability. Because of that, I gave myself a little bit of a break to research some interesting topics for the blog, so this week will be full of new material.

That brings us to today’s topic: Solar Powered Television

When I first saw this on twitter I thought to myself, “Wow, a television that is solar powered. That would be cool if it weren’t for the fact that the sun is outside and most televisions are inside.”

I was swiftly put in my place when I read on to discover that the televisions themselves did not actually require the sun to power them, but just ambient light in a room - much like calculators that we have been enjoying for the better part of 2.5 decades.

Samsung has been working on a prototype that operates almost completely independent from electrical outlets:

The 46″ prototype TV, shown at CeBit in Germany, includes solar panels that produce energy from the ambient light in a room – because it was engineered to use very little energy, no additional power sources are needed. Another major breakthrough behind the concept is that the thin screen can display images and information while allowing objects behind it to be visible.

This is fairly exciting because this technology will have applications that go far beyond televisions. Laptops, cellphones, car windshield HUDs, and anything else with a screen could benefit from this technology. Screens have classically been some of the most power hungry applications out there (just ask any smartphone), and with this technology, that level of electricity needed to power these devices can been sharply reduced.

Obviously, because this is a prototype, it is most likely a few years away from release, and even then the technology will probably be expensive - but like most new television releases, this price will drop and become more widespread after a short while.

Holy Renewable Energy Project, Batman: Norway and Jordan's Deal

I will be the first to admit that this blog focuses largely on the inner workings of America's alternative energy landscape, and a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that I live smack in the middle of the United States. However, this focus should not be mistaken for me being blind to the developments outside of America's scope.

Instead, it is more a nod that there is SO MUCH happening around the world in the realm of environmental energy that it would be impossible to cover it all in the three-post per week nature of this blog. Sure I could cover more if I didn't spend a ton of time researching my Sunday Comic segments, but lets face it, comics are awesome and I'm not going to cut a segment that creates 60% of this blogs traffic.

Putting all of that aside, there is an awesome development in the works between Norway and Jordan involving the Sahara Desert, water/food scarcity, and alternative energy:

inhabit.com reports:

The chosen test site is a 200,000 square meter plot in Aqaba, a coastal town in the far south of Jordan, close to the shore of the Red Sea. The agreement also secured an additional 2 million square meters for later expansion. The Sahara Forest Project combines Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Seawater Greenhouses to provide a huge amount of renewable energy and sustainable agricultural solutions, essentially turning one of the world’s most inhospitable environments into a flourishing oasis.

Seawater Greenhouses use solar power to convert salt water into fresh water, which is then used to grow fresh vegetables and algae (to absorb CO2). CSP provides the energy to power the whole operation. CSP uses thousands of mirrors to direct sunlight upon a water boiler, heating it to over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The boiler produces steam, which moves a turbine to create energy.

If this project is completed, this will be a huge win for the alternative energy movement that can act as an example for the rest of the world. The following image is a conceptual representation of how this project could eventually look.

To read more about the agreement between Norway and Jordan, click here.

SunShot: Our Generation's Sputnik Moment?

Sometimes I read an article about Steven Chu and it makes me want to be best friends with him in a totally non-creepy way. All I'm saying is I wouldn't mind having him come meet some of my ex-girlfriends just so I can say that we are best pals now.

Nerdiest rap reference EVER.

The most recent example of badassery is him publicly coining the term "SunShot":

Just as President Kennedy pledged in 1961 that the United States would land an astronaut on the moon by the end of that decade — a moonshot — Dr. Chu said the United States should attempt a “sunshot” by aiming to cut the cost of solar power by about three-quarters by the end of this decade, to $1 a watt for utility-scale projects. That would translate to an end-user price of about 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, he said. “That would make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy without subsidies of any kind,’’ he said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.

By making solar cost competitive without subsidizing the technology, you are effectively changing the entire energy landscape of the United States along with the rest of the world. People want to have cleaner energy, but cost will always be a constraint to the adoption of cleaner technologies.

Admittedly this is not a terribly long article and the point is fairly straight forward, but it is important to recognize that this was not just some political statement that someone said in passing. Shortly after Chu dropped this statement, the Energy Department pledged $27 million towards solar initiatives - not something that the government would do lightly.

Now sit back, relax, and revel in how awesome my photoshopped picture of Steven Chu is.  I'll be here all week.

California's Bright Future: Solar Along Highways

There are moments in my life where I wish there was a written document of me stating an idea because every now and then I will see one of my ideas that I had years ago STOLEN!

This was actually half the motivation behind me starting this blog, so that I have time-stamped records of some of my ideas so that I can take credit for them when they are made successful by other people in the future.

The other half of my motivation was for the women. Blogs get you ALL SORTS of women.

One idea that I had before the beginning of this blog was to use the Interstate Highway System as a backbone for alternative energy projects.  This would enable you to line the roads with solar panels as well as run high-capacity transmission lines along the federally owned land to the consumers.  That is as far as I thought about it though before I started daydreaming about leprechauns or something like that, but today I had the displeasure of reading one of the bullet points of Jerry Brown's plan energy plan through 2020:

Solar energy projects up to 20 megawatts in size should be built on public and private property throughout the state. For example, we should create the California Solar Highway by placing solar panels alongside our state highways.

Curse you, new governor of California! You stole the fleeting idea that I had years ago!

Solar Projects Tripped Up By Environmental Litigation

One of the things that hampers many alternative energy installations comes from environmental lawsuits.  These lawsuits often don't completely stop an alternative energy plant from being installed, but it does end up extending the amount of time it takes to start and complete construction.

This is a problem because many of these projects require large amounts of external funding, and it is hard to go to investors and say you need a large sack of money when you have cumbersome lawsuits on the horizon.

Recently, a Native American group has decided to hold up a number of solar energy projects in California with claims that the full impact of these projects have not been taken into consideration.  Legally, this is a strong argument because NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) has been constructed so that any large projects that may impact the environment must complete an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement).

If these solar projects haven't properly filled out an EIS, then the Native American group has a legally valid point.  However, I still believe that this is a petty claim even if some extraneous environmental impacts have been overlooked.  This is because when you ultimately compare the environmental impact that these solar installations make compared to a coal-fired plant, solar is infinitely cleaner.

I have a high respect for NEPA and everything that it stands to protect, but when it comes to these installations, I feel that filing these lawsuits is just cripiling America's opportunity to move into a cleaner future.

Things That Should Be Solar Powered: Billboards

Alright, the holiday is over and it is time for me to get back at it. By "back at it" I mean "give you opinions you may not have asked for," but you are here reading what I write, so there you go.

Driving around any major city you will be inundated with ads from billboards along the major roadways.  Most of these draw electricity at some level.  At the low end you have billboards that have lights to illuminate the ads at night, and at the high end you have electronic billboards which flash animations at you in an attempt to make you crash into the read-end of that Mack Truck in front of you.

Regardless of the level of energy that these billboards require, I do believe that the owners of these billboard stands could make a profit by installing their own power sources in the form of solar panels which they could use to reduce their carbon footprint as well as the amount of money they spend on electricity.

In many cases, these billboard stand owners could actually make money by selling the energy that they aren't using back into the grid. I know that selling the electricity back into the grid is something that I have said time and time again, but it really is a great opportunity for business owners to earn money in an area they haven't enjoyed income from before.

So there you have it. Install some solar panels and thank me later, advertising industry.

Also, for all of those that emailed me yesterday complaining about the lack of a Sunday Comic:

1. How did you get my email address?
2. Here you go:

Solar Sticks Its Energy "Where The Sun Don't Shine"

One of the big complaints about solar energy is that no matter how efficient the technology becomes, there still will not be any energy being produced at night or on a particularly cloudy day.

This concern has caused a lot of research to take place on the energy storage front, and today a big step has been taken towards storing solar energy to help combat against cloudy days and the night.  The US Federal Government has signed off on another large solar power plant which will make use of liquified salt to store energy:

A 100-foot receiver filled with liquid salt will be attached to the top of the tower. The heliostats will focus the sun on the receiver, heating the salt to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. The liquefied salt flows through a steam-generating system to drive the turbine and is returned to the receiver to be heated again.

This liquified salt holds its heat for a long period of time making it a good candidate for moving the turbines during cloudy moments and during the night.

It is a good first step towards addressing the non-consistent nature of alternative energy, however, the salt solution does little to help store energy that is generated from wind energy, so I think the big goal is to find a storage solution that can be applied to to both wind and solar.

Solar In Northern States Will Make Sense...Someday

Clearly I am on a solar kick, probably because it is just so damn sexy.

That and I recently talked some friends' ears off about the power grid and why we need more efficient means of distribution for alternative energy to work, so I'm just going to save that discussion (rant) for another day.

Today I was sitting around noticing how miserably cold it is outside and how happy I am that my radiant heaters are now fixed so they don't sound like espresso machines anymore.  Then a really broken line of thought broke out of my head:

Cold made me think of radiant heat
  Radiant heat made me think of microwaves;
    Microwaves made me think of food;
      Food made me think of a sandwich;
        Eating a sandwich made me sleepy;
          Being sleepy made me angry at the microwave for making me hungry;
            Thinking of the microwave somehow made me think of solar power.

Weird? Yes... But here we are.

At first I thought how it is too bad, by living in Chicago, solar power wouldn't make too much sense due to the lower levels of sun exposure during the fall and winter months.

However, after thinking more about it, solar would make a ton of sense for Chicago during the summer.  The single biggest line item on most people's electric bill is their air conditioner running during the brutally hot Chicago summer months.

It would be wonderful if solar got cheap enough where you could have a small panel to provide the electricity for an air conditioner without the traditional fear of a huge electric bill at the end of the month.

We aren't there yet, but peaking around the corner*, I do believe it is realistic that within the next 5 to 10 years solar power will have a low enough price tag that it could actually make sense to have some panels that you are really only using for a few months out of the year.



*..."peaking around the corner" made me think of this owl.

Solar Versus Wind: Solar Is Sexier

A recent poll taken inside my own head shows that sex sells; so guess what, baby? Solar is sexy.

A Google Image Search for "Sexy Solar" turned up some weird stuff.  Rawr.

Yes, the cost of wind energy is more competitive with energy produced from incinerating coal (if you like to ignore the social and environmental externalities that aren't taken into consideration), but solar is so much cooler.

This is because solar can be implemented on a more personal level.  They can be installed on a smaller scale allowing users to avoid many of the the NIMBY issues that plague neighborhoods debating whether they should invest in a wind turbine or not.  Homeowners can install solar panels on their roof to generate their own electricity and heat their water, and now drivers have been able to have a solar panel on the roof of their car to power their airconditioning (as seen in the 2010 Toyota Prius).

My rendition of the 2013 Toyota Prius - Wind Edition... Consumers will hate it.

These are things that people haven't been able to do on a small scale with wind turbines and solar keeps advancing on enjoying more applications.  One example of these advancements can be seen with Konarka, a company pursuing "solar plastic" as Grist reports:

Konarka of Lowell, Mass., says its "Power Plastic" has set a new record, achieving a 8.3 percent efficiency rate in converting sunlight into electricity. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory certified the efficiency rating....

...Now, 8.3 percent is less than half the efficiency of a conventional crystalline silicon photovoltaic panel like those found on residential rooftops. But it's a notable achievement for a solar cell that uses organic molecules to generate electricity. The great promise of organic molecules is that they can be produced at far less cost than standard silicon solar panels, but the low efficiency of organic photovoltaics has limited their use.

This is exciting because as solar panels become lighter and more customizable, they can be placed in even more places.  One example that Grist gives is that these plastic panels can be used as roofs for bus stop waiting stations to power lights and wireless routers.

I think this is great because as I mentioned yesterday, the faster that cities start placing more of their infrastructure "off-the-grid" with alternative energy sources, the more money tax payers will save.

Sustainable Architecture: Taiwan's Green Building

The other week I talked about an energy efficient building down in Miami and how it is defying the view that ecologically friendly building practices are not as pleasing to look at as other ‘traditional’ forms of architecture.

I believe that post speaks for itself and supports my point, but today I wanted to highlight a building that is going to be in constructed in Taiwan because it is truly groundbreaking in design.

This building is set to be constructed in 2012 and will have a minimal ecological footprint as it is designed to collect and purify its own water from rainfall and will be heated through geothermal power.  It will also generate electricity through solar and wind powers.

Most notably, the design looks like something out of a video game (probably because it was inspired by them according to Romanian architect Stefan Dorin). As you can see from the above picture, the building looks similar to a tree and its leaf-like observation pods will move up and down the ‘trunk’ of the structure.

This is a great example of how green architecture can be really cool while also stimulating the local economy through increased tourism.

I’m fully aware of how our markets aren’t exactly friendly towards new construction projects in America at the moment, but it would be great to see some cities eventually follow Taiwan’s lead and invest more in these cleaner and edgier buildings.

Post-Thanksgiving: A Solar Solution To The Aftermath

Thanksgiving is great.

Food, family, more food...what isn't too love?  I'll tell you what. The cleaning (and the feeling like you can never eat again).

However, I do believe I have found a project that can help cut down on some of the garbage you may have accrued from Thanksgiving Festivities in a sustainable fashion.

Many people spend the night before Thanksgiving drinking with their family and friends. Then, as tradition dictates, they sleep in until the football games start and then spend the better part of the holiday eating and drinking again.

This generally unhealthy process leads to a lot of "soda" cans stacking up.  However, I found a website that teaches you how to make a solar heating panel from these spent "soda" cans.  The full tutorial can be found in the following link:

"Soda" Can Solar Heater

Inside this glass case are 180 cans painted black and stacked on top of one another.  According to the creator, he says that he as achieved temperatures between 80 and 120 degrees.

If this is interesting to you, I really do suggest that you visit the above link and get the details on how to make this.  It is incredibly simple and a good way to handle the buildup of cans that can occur over the holidays (even though if you have gone through 180 cans in one holiday, you probably need to seek help).

If this isn't interesting to you, just do us all a favor and make sure you recycle as much of your trash as possible - it isn't that hard.

Solar Panels: The Eavesdrop Edition

This morning I had the fortune of being able to eavesdrop on two people talking in my local coffee shop about adding solar panels to their home (Yes. I get it. I’m a stalker).

The one person made a good point about it being a mistake to purchase the panels for their home right now. This is because Chicago already suffers from limited sun exposure during the winter months...though I don’t understand why because I was under the impression that the sun rotated around Earth, but I may have my facts wrong.

Solar technology is constantly improving its ability to capture energy from sunlight, even at low levels (Germany, a remarkably cloudy country, is leading the charge on many new solar technology advancements). However, the alternative energy of choice for places that have many months of low sun exposure is probably going to be wind.

These things aside, it was interesting to hear the other person’s reaction after hearing that solar may be the wrong way to go. He went on to say that if he couldn’t invest in solar energy then there wasn’t much that he could do right now (and then he started talking about the Chicago Bear’s playoff chances*). This fell right in line with a quote that I just read in Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce:

The environment is one more thing to worry about. It looms in the future at a time when we are beset with many other concerns. It is like being a single parent when the dog has run away, the children are fighting, the dinner is burning, the babysitter hasn’t shown up, we are late for the PTA meeting and have spilled gravy on the carpet—then someone doing a survey knocks at the door and wants to know how we feel about the proposed incinerator at the edge of town. Although the incinerator may affect our lives in the future, we are afflicted with pressing problems today.

This is a remarkably simple way of stating how environmental issues are treated in every day situations. Here is a person that had a brief moment to attempt and address an environmental concern through solar power, and once something got in his way he abandoned the idea and began to think about something else that was on his plate.

I guess the point of all this is that environmental issues require planning in advance because nature is inherently slow in its processes. This goes against our instincts to read and react in real-time meaning that we are going to have to train ourselves to place environmental issues further up our to-do lists when considering our options.

*Playoffs?!

Things That Should Be Solar Powered: Leaf Blowers

I decided to start a new segment today called 'Things That Should Be Solar Powered.' The reasoning behind this is that often I will see something that (at least in my mind) should be powered by solar power.

Today's segment focuses on the leaf blower.

"I'm going to enjoy nature with my gasoline powered leaf-blower"

As you would expect from Autumn in Chicago, all the trees have been losing their leaves for the past few weeks which would inform the heightened level of lawn-care going on in all the surrounding suburbs. It has gotten to the point that every morning I am awakened by the sound of leaf blowers that sound like chain-saws, which frankly is the exact sound I don't want to be woken up abruptly by in my bed.

I have a few common complaints about leaf blowers:

• What happened to good ol' fashioned child labor where neighborhood kids were paid one dollar to pickup leaves?
• Is a rake really that troublesome to use? No wonder people are so out of shape.
• A leaf blower makes little sense in an area that has been dubbed 'The Windy City.'
• Must they all reek of gasoline? These engines can't be as efficient as they could be.

The last bullet point about gasoline use is probably my most serious point (right after child labor). Using gas to essentially power a big fan seems like a huge waste to me - especially when you can smell these damn things from 40 yards away.

I don't see any reason why a company can't develop a leaf-blower that you can initially charge by plugging into a wall and then mitigate power loss by having a solar cell attached to the blower. Most of these leaf-blowers already have a backpack for the engine or a fuel tank - so just 86 the tank and replace it with a solar cell and there you go.

I'm looking at you, engineers.

Tidal Energy Is Making Important Strides

It is quickly becoming clear that big battles are rapidly approaching on the political horizon, and I am going to do my best to cover these events as thoroughly as I possibly can. However, I won’t be getting to those things until tomorrow because I still need time to wrap my head around the numerous issues that are popping up.

Right now I’m going to talk about a notable event in the world of alternative energy. While the alternative energy marketplace is dominated by news about wind and solar developments, today marks the day that a shallow-water tidal energy system in the UK has been successfully tested and proven.

*Yes. I made that comparison just so I could post this picture from one of the best South Park episodes ever.

While the media views tidal energy as the red headed stepchild* of the alternative energy community, it is important that this technology is still being researched and developed. This is because at the end of the day, no matter how well wind and solar are performing, they are subject to their natural limitations:

• Wind
• Produces the most energy at night
• Windiest in remote areas leading to transmission issues
• Subject to pressure systems
• Solar
• Only producing energy during the day
• Subject to cloud cover
• Not as effective in the further Northern and Southern Hemispheres

The point of listing these limitations isn’t to suggest that these technologies are inefficient in addressing our energy needs. Instead, it is to show that it will take a collaborative effort between multiple technologies in order to make clean energy work. This is why the further development of tidal energy is wonderful and necessary because it can help lessen the burden on wind and solar technologies.

Obviously tidal energy is only really useful where there are tides (“Thanks, Professor!”), but when coasts contain some of the most densely populated cities and ports; tidal energy makes sense. By combining tidal energy with offshore wind farms, clean energy stands to make a large dent in the energy consumption of these areas.