Scifi blog io9 looks at a couple of wind power options for domestic use. The micro turbine borders on a joke, but the Phillipe Starck designed transparent turbine is pretty. I'm still not convinced by wind power in suburbia because at least one study has shown that the small windmills erected by house owners don't go high enough to get away from the blocking effects of nearby structures. They might be effective atop taller buildings though.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Mancat college in Manchester has cut its fuel bills by almost a half by adopting energy saving technology and techniques on its campus.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

I used to have a biosphere and loved it. It survived a couple of years despite a very slow leak and more than once being stuck in a box for months after a move. As well as being pretty, they're a neat little image of the world. The video above introduces the concept of building your own biosphere in a Kilner jar. The secret ingredient is pond scum.

This page has more biosphere information, including a series of experiments to see what works best.

via BoingBoing

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Manchester University has won an award for making its student accomodation more environmentally friendly.

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The Virtual Forest is a Spanish endeavour to get people cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by appealing to their wallets. The energy saving questionnaire it offers stresses the financial benefits of saving energy as much as the environmental. They also promise to plant trees for you, in Second Life and real life.

The site is bilingual and there are phrases that seem imperfectly translated, but not as badly as I've seen elsewhere. The questions on your energy consumption are also formed from a Spanish perspective. For example, here in Manchester I find I never have need for any form of sun shade to keep the house cool. The cultural differences don't minimise the message however, and I'd really like a Second Life tree.

This review was paid for through ReviewMe.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Plans are in place to close sections of Oxford Road to all traffic but special buses (and bikes?). The scheme won't begin for around five years and is dependent upon the introduction of a congestion charge and the access to funds that will allow.

Oxford Road is already officially the busiest bus route in Europe. Perhaps it's time to let them take some of it over. The planned closed section covers the only part of the road that I regularly cycle on, from around the University all the way into the centre, so I hope they intend to stick a cycle lane into the mix.

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ZEDFactory, a design and build consortium, have announced the RuralZED house. It's timber framed modular design and incorporation of recycled materials make it an affordable net-zero energy home that they hope will lead the way for future developments.

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A Virgin 747 has flown from Heathrow to Schiphol with one of its fuel tanks filled with 20% biofuel. Richard Branson says that commercial flights will be powered by algal biofuel and is investing in alternative fuel development. However, there are questions about the effectiveness of teh systems Virgin will be using, the biggest of which is why aren't they working to cut flights?

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

All the businesses in Manchester's Arndale shopping centre have pledged to go Green, cutting their carbon footprint and increasing recycling. The only problem is that a shopping centre exists to encourage consumption. Before the goods arrive and after they leave they have an impact on the environment, no matter how green the shops that sell them are.

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I'm not sure what the UK equivalent of a general contractor is, some sort of one stop building renovations. My Home say they're they're the leading general contractor in New York and have announced in a press release that they intend to promote green options for their projects.

There are some deniers whose argumnents have moved on to moaning about the cost of going green. They just can't see, or refuse to acknowledge, the flip side of their argument- that the economy is going to get a boost from all the companies being paid to work on green projects.

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Streets with Green in their name are competing against each other to see which can save the most money and energy. the winning street will get £50,000 toward community projects.

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Science fiction blog io9 has concept sketches for a possible repurposing of a mundane and moribund city centre.

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The Prince of Wales plans to build a low carbon house out of natural materials, even if that means it won't attain the highest possible green building rating.

Some people are becoming convinced that the Government's stamp duty rebate for zero carbon homes is actually a con. It's possible the scheme will take off slowly, but I would be unsurprised, though a little disappointed, if the requirements for eligibility have been set too narrow deliberately.

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Iain Martin roles out is a tired old argument that I've heard several times before. So this is as good a time as any to reply.

"but it makes no sense to send our economy, or those of developing countries, into reverse gear on the back of apocalyptic warnings by those who enjoy predicting disaster"

Really? Who is going to build the windmills? Manufacture and mount the solar panels? Build all the low energy houses? Bring existing houses up to standard? Where are they going to spend the billions that stand to be made? What are home owners going to do with the money they save by cutting down on waste?

How blinkered do you have to be to miss the huge opportunities that are available to the early adopters of energy saving technologies? You can finesse your arguments against climate change as much as you want, but you'd be an idiot if you couldn't see the advantages of switching to renewables and becoming more efficient.

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Biotruck took a biodiesel processing plant to Timbuktu in Mali, so the locals could produce fuel from waste cooking oil. They made the journey carbon neutral by powering their truck with biodiesel derived from waste chocolate.

via BoingBoing

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Nuclear clean-up bill £12bn higher than predicted.

Manchester Council announces carbon cutting plans.

Using thermoelectrics to cut fuel consumption.

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grownupgreen aims to encourage people to think and act in ways which protect and improve the natural environment and shows how sustainable development is relevant to all of us.

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Grant Management promise that all the properties they let are carbon neutral because their energy use is offset by buying trees. If that were all it would be nice, but just a bit of canny marketting. However, their About Us section suggests that the commitment goes deeper-

About Our Commitment to the Environment

Grant Management has embraced the environment by achieving carbon neutral status. This was accomplished by reducing the company's carbon footprint and offsetting the balance through tree planting via Global Trees. Additionally, Grant Management has made the properties it manages carbon neutral, recycling, re-using and sharing environmental knowledge and ideas with other individuals and companies.

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The u + a house is a pre-designed (not pre-fab) pod with a skin of aircraft grade aluminium, minimal footprint and built in solar and other energy saving features.

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Trees absorb less carbon dioxide as the world warms up.

The ability of forests to soak up man-made carbon dioxide is weakening, according to an analysis of two decades of data from more than 30 sites in the frozen north.

Oil price hits $100 per barrel for the first time.

German cities ban the most polluting cars.

Solar school in Trafford.

A School in Trafford is about to become one of the country's 'greenest' when solar panels are installed on its roof as part of a renewable energy drive.

Sale Grammar School is being given the panels, which are worth about £20,000, by the Co-operative Group.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Kim Stanley Robinson has some interesting things to say about mankinds effect on the environment and the badly thought out assumptions behind some ideas of sustainability.

It’s easy to imagine people who are bored in the modern techno-surround, as I call it, and they’re bored because they have not fully comprehended that they’re still primates, that their brains grew over a million-year period doing a certain suite of activities, and those activities are still available. Anyone can do them; they’re simple. They have to do with basic life support and basic social activities unboosted by technological means.

And there’s an addictive side to this. People try to do stupid technological replacements for natural primate actions, but it doesn’t quite give them the buzz that they hoped it would. Even though it looks quite magical, the sense of accomplishment is not there. So they do it again, hoping that the activity, like a drug, will somehow satisfy the urge that it’s supposedly meant to satisfy. But it doesn’t. So they do it more and more – and they fall down a rabbit hole, pursuing a destructive and high carbon-burn activity, when they could just go out for a walk, or plant a garden, or sit down at a table with a friend and drink some coffee and talk for an hour. All of these unboosted, straight-forward primate activities are actually intensely satisfying to the totality of the mind-body that we are.

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The XR-3 plug in hybrid is a self build project that promises between 100 and 225 miles per gallon (US gallons, US=3.785411784 Litres- UK=4.54609 Litres, according to this page). You can pre-order the instructions, $170 for the basic set, $200 for the deluxe version with lots of data on a dvd. There are plans to produce body and chassis parts within the year for those of us who aren't so adept at laying carbon or glass fibre.

via Jalopnik

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Wired went to the International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition to drool over pollution free motoring and photograph lots of cool technology.

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Great Britain could get all its energy from offshore wind farms.

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An Austrian cheese factory now gets some of its power from a gas burner that uses methane released when whey is heated. The system, created by a Rochdale business, is dual fuel, switching to piped natural gas when methane production is too low, and has helped the factory cut its carbon footprint by 30%.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy