Sorry, I don’t know the source of this, but the answer is Reykjavik, Iceland …
All of the energy and heat used by the citizens of Reykjavik, Iceland come from geothermal plants and renewable hydropower making it the most sustainable and energy efficient city in the world. This city has also been replacing traditional buses with hydrogen-fueled buses, from which the only emissions are water.
Commenting on my recent post of the electric vehicle market’s being in the tank, a libertarian reader writes a note that concludes: EV’s will continue to improve, but it’s an evolution, not a revolution.
I’m with you on most of this. (more…)
There are many ideas being promoted to clean up the plastic and other garbage from our oceans, but here’s one I hadn’t come across until now. Each could be powered by a piece of solar PV, and could be set in an array to cover huge amounts of surface area. (more…)
As reported by my brilliant colleague Jon LeSage in his Green Auto Digest, the electric vehicle market is in the tank, largely due to the fact that prices of gasoline have fallen in half. How much longer will gas prices stay low? Though it’s anyone’s guess, the most obvious answer: Long enough to bankrupt anybody who bet on electric vehicles–at which point it’s “game back on” for the oil companies. (more…)
I thought readers would appreciate the Writers Almanac’s poem for the day:
How to Clean an Oil-Slicked Penguin
by Andrew Gent
Island nations generally find themselves in a very interesting position with respect to energy generation. In particular, they certainly don’t want dirty fossil fuel plants, normally burning bunker diesel shipped in at great cost, both financially and environmentally. But their choice of renewables is often constrained by the small and therefore extremely precious land mass.
Let’s not forget about a solution that unfortunately is often overlooked: geothermal. Here’s an article on what the French territory of Guadalupe is doing in the Caribbean. An interview with the spokesperson at Ormat, btw, was the basis for the chapter on geothermal in my first book, Renewable Energy–Facts and Fantasies.
“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth.” -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (14 Mar 1879-1955)
Sure, Einstein will always be most remembered for his place in the pantheon of our most important scientists, but he also was arguably the most quotable person who ever walked the Earth. Most remarkably, virtually all these thoughts express a profound humanism and a set of instructions for how we can build a better world. He left us with a contribution of unimaginable proportion.
Here’s a great article on the electricity grid in Sweden, one of the best and most reliable in the world today. At issue is the demise of nuclear, a phenomenon based largely on rising costs vis-a-vis competitive energy resources, including wind, that is even cheaper there than it is here. In addition, Sweden places a tax of about 25% on nuclear, and mandates the retrofit of all plants to include a backup core cooler to eliminate the possibility of a Fukishima-style accident–while at the same time, it offers incentives for wind.
The result: nuclear is going away. Not sure that’s a bad thing.
The cornerstone of the eco-friendly home project is a suitable backdrop. It all starts in the initial, building phase: An ideal home needs to be well-designed, properly insulated, and on a location that enables passive heating and cooling. It should nurture a strong connection with the outdoors, and limit the environmental footprint on the ecosystem. Reduce, reuse, and recycle is the sacred mantra of sustainable home design that guides you every step of the way. It summons the empowering combination of sublime functionality and stunning visuals that drives many architectural innovations of today. (more…)
Over the last decade, between its installation boom, advancements in technology and the growing understanding of its eco-friendly characteristics, the cost of solar energy has dropped a significantly. Currently, there is enough solar energy capacity in the U.S. to provide energy to millions of homes. In 2014, solar energy was responsible for a large percent of total new power generation. That meant solar energy, though still trailing behind natural gas, exceeded wind and coal energy. (more…)
