September 1, 2010
250 megawatt (MW) solar-thermal power plant – California Approved
written by Steven Barrymore

The California Energy Commission has given the go ahead for the construction of the Beacon Solar Energy Project (subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources) a 250-megawatt solar thermal power generation facility. Scheduled to be built on 2,012-acres in the Mojave Desert. The system will use a parabolic trough design — a series of curved mirrors which reflect the sun’s rays onto a glass tube (collector) containing a fluid that runs the length of the trough. The sun’s perpendicular position to the trough can be adjusted by a tilting mechanism. This will be the first solar thermal power plant permitted in California in two-decades.

Solar Trough System

The Beacon Solar Energy Project is part of a proposed 2,800 MW of solar power plant projects in California. That would be roughly enough energy to power 2.8 million homes a year.

The CEC’s last approval of Solar Electric Generating Systems was in 1990 with LUZ SEGS IX and X projects. Someone needs to design a smartphone app to control all this solar energy goodness.


Link: CEC
Image Source: Wikipedia

August 20, 2010
EPA Wants Your Dirty Water Comments
written by Steven Barrymore

EPA steps outside the box. Or in this case, the watering hole. The EPA has launched a discussion forum blog to solicit comments on how best to protect America’s drinking water supply. The blog contains 4 separate topics for comments.

1. Addressing contaminants as a groups [sic] and better enhance drinking water protection in a cost-effective manner.
2. Fostering development of new drinking water technologies to address health risks posed by a broad array of contaminants.
3. Using the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water.
4. Collaborating with states to share more complete data from monitoring at public water systems (PWS).

If you are an interested water expert, advocate or just part of the general water-drinking public, you can chime in on any of these topics. But do so before these discussion topics are closed. The EPA is leaving these topics open for about one month – they did not mention if the one month deadline is from the Aug 17 EPA website news release or one month from when the blog topics were posted (July 29). So, get comfy with a nice big glass of (filtered) water and blog away — your government needs you.


Link: EPA

August 1, 2010
Protection Against Sun Exposure — There Is An App For That.
written by Steven Barrymore

For years it has been known that over exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays are harmful.

Too many rays can cause eye damage and skin cancer, any time of the year, no matter what color skin you have. Skin cancer outpaced other forms of cancers, breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer in 2009. As we age, 70 million more aged Americans expected by the year 2030, our body organs are more susceptible to environmental hazards because of their diminished functions. All those older people walking around wearing wide-brimmed hats are doing themselves a good service. Protection from skin-damaging UV radiation.

The EPA is offering a smartphone app that gives mobile access to the daily UV index. The UV numeric index ranges from 0 to 11+ (index numbers in higher amounts correlate to skin-damaging UV radiation). The EPA app is available for Mobile Web online, in addition to Blackberry and Android phones. Go to the UV Index App page to install the app on your smartphone.  Now you can carry protection in your pocket, and it does not come in a sealed wrapper.

Protecting the skin from excessive UV rays is not just for adults. Get the children started early. The EPA is offering the SunWise Program for Kids, Schools and Communities. Now kids can learn about protecting themselves from overexposure to the sun’s rays. The SunWise School Program is available to elementary or middle schools. Encouraging schools to develop sun-safe behaviors in schoolchildren and provide a sun-safe school environment.

Some simple things can be done now to help protect your skin, and your future health.

• Do not burn — overexposure is preventable.
• Between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. find a shady space to be. A cool drink would also help with your re-hydration.
• Use a sunscreen with a SPF of at least 15.
• Wear wide-brimmed hats, sun blocking sunglasses and protective clothing.
• Avoid overuse of tanning beds.
• Check the UV index on the mobile app you just installed.

And for the aged folks check out the Aging Initiative Website for information on growing older in this environment.


Link: EPA

July 21, 2010
Cars Giving Back to the Environment
written by Steven Barrymore

Justin Robertson of Enervate in New Zealand has developed a way for a vehicle to give back to the environment. The company’s PowerTread system is a series of fluid filled tubes fitted to a roadway. When a vehicle passes over the tubes the motion / weight of the vehicle forces the fluid into a turbine generating electricity.

An early prototype of the PowerTread system on a busy Malaysia-Singapore highway border successfully powered the lights and electricity of the border patrol booth for two days.

The company is experimenting at Singapore shopping mall with further road-testing of PowerTread’s ability to capture energy from passing vehicles. On an industrial scale PowerTread could generate 15KW an hour, enough to power 12 good-sized homes.

Bravo to the developer, and 5 stars ***** for concept and simple genius


Via: New Zealand Herald

July 21, 2010
EPA National Water Conservation Campaign Road Trip
written by Steven Barrymore

The EPA has launched the WaterSense program designed to encourage Americans to make better choices to save water. In partnership with American Water, the WaterSense program will go on a road trip across the country educating consumers about WaterSense products which can save about 20 percent water over standard non-conserving models.

The road trip kicked off in Los Angeles, California on July 14 and is scheduled to reach New York by July 30 after stopping in over a dozen cities across the nation.

The 2009 EPA WaterSense program helped consumers save more than 36 billion gallons of water. Learn more about the road trip and if it will be in a city near you: Road Trip.


Link: EPA