Archive for June, 2008
Awesome
Monday, June 23rd, 2008Solar Sunday
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Germany Goes Solar, one town at a time
The times they are a-changin’. The bucolic skylines of tiled roofs which define cities in Germany could soon be sporting a new look: solar.If the Marburg City Council gets its way, Marburg will be the first city in Germany to legally require solar collectors on rooftops of private and commercial buildings. The goal of Fritz Kahle, the Green Mayor of Marburg:
No south-facing roof shall be left unused.
San Francisco follows suit, a little more conservatively
San Francisco has made solar energy a top priority with the passage of the Solar Energy Initiative Program – the largest solar energy subsidy program of any city in the United States. An annual budget of $3 million dollars will help create incentives for individuals and businesses to install solar photovoltaics systems with a $3,000 to $6,000 rebate available to individuals and a $10,000 rebate for businesses. On par with statewide programs, San Francisco’s Solar Energy Initiative Program is poised to make solar installations permanent fixtures in the city’s more sustainable skyline.
Are you ready for it–the first eco-nightclub in the UK is about to hit town. While the idea of clubbing may seem alien to some, doing it environmentally might give new meaning to a night out that goes until 4 a.m. Where to start–at the door–no entry until you sign a pledge promising to work towards stopping climate change. Then free entry to those who can prove they got there by foot, bike or public transport. Once inside, organic drinks will be served in polycarbon cups and there will be recycled water in the lavatories.Here’s the very cool part: the dance floor will be capable of generating 60% of the building’s electricity. The technology involves building a sprung floor and power generating blocks. The blocks are made of piezoelectric crystals which produce current when subjected to pressure. Dancers dance, blocks are squeezed and the current is fed into batteries used to electrify the nightclub. Don’t laugh, it is already being done in Rotterdam, Holland. It’s part of the programme for a new climate change organisation Club4Climate, set up by an enthusiastic entrepreneur who wants to open more eco-clubs in New York, Cape Town and Rio. Its motto: “All you have to do is dance to save the world”.
Exciting advancements in wind power
Amid veritable fields of wind turbine options the Broadstar AeroCam stands out with an innovative design that packs a powerful turbine into a compact form factor. Constructed to spin on a horizontal axis, the micro-turbine’s multiple aerodynamic blades cut a profile similar to a water wheel and allow it to intuitively track the path of the wind as it rotates. The turbine is the industry’s first to shatter the $1/watt cost barrier, and Broadstar aims to make its AeroCam turbines a go-to option for rural, urban, and wind farm in-fill applications.
Unless you were confused, walking is better for the environment than driving
Walking is 12 times better for the climate than driving.In case you missed it, there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the blogosphere a few months back, concerning the climate impacts of walking vs. driving. Apparently, some folks — New York Times columnist and blogger John Tierney in particular — were spreading the claim that a pleasant stroll to the store might actually release more GHGs than getting behind the wheel. Other bloggers picked up the meme, including one post with the headline: “Be Green: Drive.”
As the planet heats up and our resources stretch to accommodate a skyrocketing population, it has become clear that water will be a hotly contested commodity in the coming years – some are even calling it the “new oil”. Charles Paton has endeavored to meet this challenge with his Seawater Greenhouse which takes a low-cost, low-energy, carbon-neutral approach to desalination. Recently he’s been working with Eden Project and Grimshaw Architects to create a gorgeous sweeping Teatro Del Agua. The design will incorporate Paton’s remarkable desalination method with a publicly accessible venue for the performing arts, once again focusing our societies around the common element that sustains them.
Solar soon to reach economic parity with other fuel sources
Last week we reported on how wind energy was becoming more cost competitive in Spain. On the heels of that comes a new report about how solar generated electricity may reach parity with fossil fuel-generated power in a short time.The Utility Solar Assessment Study concludes that 2015 is the year where the practical and symbolic tipping point will be reached. Currently electricity from solar power costs 15-32 cents/kWh, is expected to decline to 8-18 cents/kWh by 2015, and continue falling to 4-8 cents/kWh by 2025, the report claims.
The Chinese are a bunch of air-heads
It may come as a surprise, considering the how much comes out about China’s environmental woes, but China has the fifth largest installed wind capacity in the world: just over 6 gigawatts. In the next two years this is planned to expand to 10 GW, though according to an article at Renewable Energy World the pace of expansion is so brisk that 2010 could bring 20-27 GW of installed capacity.
It almost never happens
Friday, June 20th, 2008but upon finishing this book I immediately started reading it again.
New Plays, Knew Plays
Thursday, June 19th, 2008I have heard a lot of people around the internets bemoaning the lack of new plays produced in this country. I was struck with how disjointed this sentiment is in relationship to my own experience and it got me thinking. Here I am teching a new play this week Marko the prince right after opening a new play last week, The Cure for Love. That’s two world premiers in as many weeks. Yet I hear regularly, often from playwrights, that there are virtually no new plays produced.
Now if this week were a diversion from the norm perhaps I would be more ready to agree, but it is not. In fact most of the lighting design I do is on new plays. This is true by a wide margin too.
I wonder if anyone has numbers on new play productions. Is my experience the anomoly or is there some other component to this discussion that I am missing.
I am sure that there are plenty of playwrights who are upset that *their* plays are not produced as often or at the level they would like. Perhaps people would like to see *more* new plays. But I have a hunch there are a lot of new plays produced in this country at a not insignificant level, regional or Off-B’way and above.
So what am I missing? Would someone care to enlighten me?
Shows
Thursday, June 19th, 2008I keep being bad about mentioning show openings.
The Cure for Love is currently playing at The Barter.
We are in the midst of tech for Marko the Prince here in Manhattan.
Solar Sunday Addendum
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Solar Sunday
Sunday, June 15th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
One oft-heard, if rather feeble, critique of solar power goes something like, “what happens when the sun isn’t shining? You’ve got to have some other power source available to come online to take up the slack.” Fair enough. Even in the sunniest places there still is night, there still can be rain or dust storms which cause the panels to become so dirty that capacity is reduced. Pacific Gas & Electric is addressing this concern with two new solar thermal-biomass hybrid power plants.Renewable hybrid technology from Portugal
PG&E announced yesterday that it will be contracting with Portuguese manufacturer Martifer to build two plants near Coalinga, California with a total capacity of 106.8 MW. It is expected that the projects will supply enough power for 75,000 homes in northern and central California.
Solar Houses made out of fabric ! ! !
If architect Sheila Kennedy gets her way, textiles will soon be able to take the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity. Kennedy is an expert in the integration of solar cell technology in architecture. And, her team from KVA Matx has designed the Soft House, a structure that can create close to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity by transforming household curtains into flexible, semi-transparent, solar collectors.
Queen Elizabeth is an Air-Head
The Crown Estate of England knows which way the wind blows and has decided to acquire the prototype of the world’s biggest wind turbine, Clipper’s 7.5 megawatt MBE turbine, also known as the Britannia (pictured above is Clipper’s Liberty model, which produces 2.5 megawatt).The previous record was held by the Enercon E-126 wind turbine which is rated at 6 megawatt (pictured below), but can produce around 7 in real world conditions. While the Enercon is land-based, the Britannia will be located in deep waters near the UK. This makes sense because the marine interests of The Crown Estate include almost the entire UK territorial seabed out to 12 nautical miles , about 55% of the UK’s coastal foreshore, and rights to lease seabed for the generation of renewable energy on the continental shelf within the Renewable Energy Zone which extends out to approximately 200 nautical miles..
Chicago’s city skyline is about to be graced by a stunning new super-structure that will rise above its shore like a helical seashell. Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the 2000 foot Chicago Spire will be the world’s second tallest building upon its completion in 2011. The halcyon monolith is beautiful example of biomimicry, taking cues from the spiraling structure of the nautilus. It’s an iconic spire with a timeless form that will take strong future-forward steps with a projected LEED gold rating.
Green Politics is Good Politics
Hey, this green thing’s catching on! Not that anyone reading this likely needed convincing that solar power’s a good thing, but a new survey shows that a lot of other people now think similarly. According to the SCHOTT Solar Barometer report a whopping 98% of Independents, 97% of Democrats and 91% of Republicans think that developing solar power is in the vital interests of the United States. On the flip side of this, only 3% of people surveyed thought that favoring coal was a good direction for the country to head. Additionally, a near-equal amount of Democrats (72%), Republicans (72%) and Independents (74%) thought that extending federal tax credits were a good way to encourage further development of solar. Granted this is a survey conducted by two groups with an overt economic stake in the results, but the figures are certainly compelling.
Oil goes Green, like actually green
THIS is one biofuel that lives up to its green billing in more ways than one. It’s an emerald-green crude oil, produced by photosynthesis in algae, which could fuel cars, trucks and aircraft – without consuming crops that can be used as food.“This product can go right into today’s oil pipeline,” claims Jason Pyle of Sapphire Energy in San Diego, California, which developed the fuel. He says the “green crude” is similar in quality to naturally occurring crude oil. It is produced as a by-product of photosynthesis by a genetically engineered strain of algae, housed in tanks of treated waste-water and exposed to sunlight. The tanks can be placed on non-arable land.
Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have already been refined from the green crude, and the company aims to produce 10,000 barrels per day within five years.
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
I really miss Big Apple Lighting. As if making theater in New York City were not difficult enough they had to go away. So is life I suppose.
Things that bother me
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008The use of the term “Mash-Up” specifically with regard to music as some sort of new millennium idea. “Mashing-up” two disparate musical sources goes back in recent times directly to the Hip-Hop of the mid to late 1970’s and can be seen popularized in Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock.
If I cared to write an expose, I could go on about how the cultural roots go back much further in American and global folk musics from Rock and Soul into Blues, Jazz, European folk and African folk musics, but I do not feel like writing an essay at the moment.
Just remember, when you use the term “Mash-Up” this is not a new idea.
Thank you.
