Living Green

LivingGreen

Renewables Made Up Half of New Power Installed in U.S. Last Year

solar-plant-maze
A new study by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), a UN-backed organization, found that in 2009, half of new power generation capacity built in the U.S. was in the form of renewable energy.

And we're not alone. In Europe, renewables accounted for 60 percent of new power generation capacity in 2009, and globally, renewables now comprise 25 percent of power capacity and delivered 18 percent of the world's electricity in 2009.

China has made the greatest strides by adding 37 GW of renewable energy and leads the world in the manufacturing of both solar panels and wind turbines.

Though these numbers are exciting, renewables still only account for a small fraction of total electricity produced in the U.S. We have a long way to go, but at least we're heading in the right direction.

via Inhabitat

Clever Recycled Furniture Made from Undesirable Materials

The green movement has helped guide some great designers to create amazing new products from materials that already exist by sourcing supplies from consumer trash. New York City-based furniture designer Chris Rucker gets right to the heart of the issue by addressing reasons why, in modern culture, trash is considered trash in the first place.

Organoclays Could Create Next-Gen Eco Plastics

Clay: it’s good for more than just pottery. A report in the American Chemical Society’s Macromolecules journal claims that natural clay could be used to produce a cheap, flame-retardant substance that might one day replace the main compound used in plastic nanocomposites. Eco-friendly superplastics could, in other words, soon be on their way.

Supermassive Aerogenerator Turbine is 3X More Powerful

Just when you thought the dust was settling on the best wind turbine design, the stakes have gotten higher — or in this case, wider. A new design called the Aerogenerator X (‘X’ to make it sound cooler?) would have a massive span of 275 meters and would produce a whopping ten megawatts of electricity--that’s three times the production capacity of typical modern commercial horizontal axis turbines.

Canon Stumbles in Green Product Campaign in Asia

Greenwashing apparently knows no boundaries, either geographically or by industry. For example, Korean supermarket aisles boast products touting their "well-being" attributes, without explaining how they could possibly make anyone well. The Shanghai Expo touts its green activities, as if all that frenzied construction could somehow be offset or mitigated. The electronics manufacturer Canon has launched an ambitious green marketing program in Asia, which is smart marketing because consumers in the Pacific Rim region are becoming more aware of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

Largest Wind Farm: Kern County, California Secures $1.2 Billion In Financing To Make Alta Wind Energy Center Biggest In US

Terra-Gen Power just secured a whopping 1.2 billion dollars in financing to up the ante on United States wind farms. With this latest round of...

First Passive House Retrofit in Nation

This is the first Passive House in California and the first retrofit Passive House in the entire country, according to a press release issued by Solar Knights Construction earlier this week. The airtight retrofit was accomplished with, among other things, superior insulation, triple-glazed windows, and an energy recovery ventilation system. A Passive House, like ones we’ve discussed in Lafayette, Salt Lake City, and Kansas City, must be airtight, or have less than 0.6 air changes per hour with an air...

Innovative Passive House in Lafayette

This is the first certified Passive House in the “South,” and it’s located in Lafayette, Louisiana. What’s interesting about the home – other than that it illustrates the use of the Passive House standard in a hot and humid climate – is the fact that the low-energy home, with the help of rooftop solar laminates, is a net zero energy prototype for the future. It was designed by Corey Saft, architecture professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and and includes a 1-ton mini-split AC system, an UltimateAir RecoupAerator ERV, and a 3.264 kW rooftop-integrated, penetration-fee, solar laminate system from Whirlwind Solar.

First Platinum Multifamily in LA County

This is Casa Dominguez, a new multifamily development in Los Angeles County. It’s actually the first LEED Platinum multifamily project in the county, according to non-profit developer and architecture firm Abode Communities. Located in East Rancho Dominguez, the project features a blend of one- to four-bedroom green apartments suited for low-income families. Market rent is something like $916 to $1,800 for units of these sizes, while homes at Casa Dominguez range from $396 to $1,279 per month.