May 9 2008 12:02AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

There is a good, short article posted on-line recently in the Christian Science Monitor entitled, “Arizona’s Solar Aspirations In Peril”. The article suggests that large-scale solar power plants are still far from being competitive with conventional fossil-fired plants, even in a place that sees 325 days of sunshine per year. According to the article, expiration of the federal Investment Tax Credit in 2008 is going to sink a 1 billion dollar solar project slated to elevate Arizona’s prominence as renewable energy hub.

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May 4 2008 12:45AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Last week, I installed a dozen solar-powered LED walkway lamps in my front yard; one of several small DIY projects I have undertaken to adapt my home in a sustainable way to my family’s habits. The details of how these lights work are described in my recent post, “Solar LED Luminaires Light My Path Home”, but I have not had a chance to check on their performance until this evening.

I took a picture of my walkway after sunset to show the level of illumination these solar LED lamps provide. I intentionally used my neighbor&rsqu...Read More

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Apr 27 2008 10:40PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

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Apr 20 2008 9:11PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Inspired to continue “greening” my new house with renewable and energy efficient technologies, I purchased a set of solar-powered walkway lamps that use light emitting diodes (LEDs) as luminaires. The lights are a generic brand similar to Malibu One-Light Outdoor Solar-Powered Walk Lights, and according to the manufacturer, they can stay illuminated for more than 10 hours on a full charge from 8-hours of direct sunlight. I have yet to test this claim through personal observation.

...Read More

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Apr 14 2008 11:20PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

Mechanical Engineering Magazine recently published a short article, “PV Antennas” covering a new kind of photovoltaic technology that harnesses sunlight using MEMS structures instead of conventional silicon semiconductor.

Apr 5 2008 11:59PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |

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Mar 29 2008 12:39PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

Don’t adjust your LCD; there is nothing wrong with your desktop computer (except maybe that it is drawing power from a non-renewable energy source).

Google today turned all the white pixels black on its main homepage as “a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour.” Details of Google’s involvement in this effort can be found at Google’s Earth Hour page.

To me, this gesture smacks just a little bit of Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth. Google is expending effort to publicize and pr...Read More

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Mar 20 2008 11:09PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |

Recently, Nicola Scafetta of Duke University and Bruce West of the Army Research Office published an article in Physics Today that suggests variable solar intensity is more strongly coupled to global warming than previously believed. The article, entitled, “Is climate sensitive to solar variability?” is a convincing and well-written piece arguing that if the sun and Earth are modeled as two complex networks exchanging information, temperature changes on Earth can be correctly determined from time variations in solar intensity. The Scafetta and West model even predicts a drop in global temperature in 2002, which was in fact observed. Additionally, it explains the statistic...Read More

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Mar 16 2008 11:59PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

For a typical consumer, high initial cost is a major deterrent against purchasing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Sure, CFLs save electricity and therefore money, but how much? Is it worth shelling out over $5 per lamp when one can get an incandescent bulb that performs the same duty for $0.30 or less?

The return on investment (ROI) calculation for multiple CFLs versus incandescent bulbs is tractable with a pocket calculator. However, most consumers don’t carry calculators to crunch cosines while shopping. Plus, evaluating the numbers can be tedious if many different bulbs are considered. In short, consumers often do not have enough information to decide...Read More

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Mar 6 2008 11:06PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Last weekend, I became personally acquainted with biomass. I spent Saturday and Sunday digging up 12-foot by 18-foot section (about 20 square meters, or 0.005 acres) of the lawn in my back yard to prepare the ground for a small vegetable garden.

The lawn was Augusta grass, suited for stifling Texas summers. I have not yet put down new seed. So, at the moment, the grass is fallow, still yellow and dry from winter exposure. In the process of ripping out the grass to define my growing plot, I shook most of the dirt from the roots back into the garden. I then laid the accumulated grass clumps out on the lawn to complete...Read More

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Feb 29 2008 8:47PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |

It has happened to anyone who owns a computer. Invariably the machine hick-ups, and you find yourself on the telephone to tech support. You sit there for several hours getting routed to every customer call center on the planet trying to connect with someone who can 1 and 1 to get 2. By the end of the process, you realize that if you multiplied your hourly salary by the number of hours wasted on the phone with tech support, you could have purchased a new computer.

Since I know you’ve all been there, I won’t bore you with my HP tech support ordeal. All you need to know is that my power cord is frayed, and the morons in HP tech support keep “solving the problem” by sending me duplicate copies of some power...Read More

Feb 29 2008 7:43PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (3) |

The world is running out of a critical fossil energy source: coal; so says the Energy Watch Group. This European consortium of scientists is working to quantify fossil and atomic energy shortages and develop scenarios for regenerative energy sources.

In a recent article, “Coal Futures”, American Scientist magazine summarized “...Read More

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Feb 19 2008 10:48PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

The first time I walked through, I though the new Wal-Mart in Highland Village, TX was haunted. Like most Wal-Marts, this monster store never closes, and I take advantage of all-the-time access to complete my shopping very late at night when the store is almost totally devoid of other customers to slow me down.

I was wondering down the deserted frozen food aisle when something unexpected occurred. As I walked past the frozen waffles, the cooler case spontaneously changed from a darkened state:

...Read More

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Feb 17 2008 5:27PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

In the business of intellectual property (IP) protection, the first rule is to establish the date on which a new idea was conceived. Conventional wisdom for establishing this date is to write up a short IP disclosure, seal it in an envelope, and mail it to yourself. The US Postal Service postmark legally establishes the date on which the IP within the envelope was created.

I may have just invented a new widget. However, I need to dig through the prior art to determine if my idea is new. So, following the procedure above, I wrote up a short disclosure and mailed it to myself. Since I arrived at the post office after hours, I printed out a stamp for myself on the new ...Read More

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Feb 10 2008 6:52PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |

Reducing wireless energy transfer to practice through resonant evanescent coupling by Prof. Marin Soljacic and others at MIT has raised some interesting criticisms. For example, my blog post, “MIT Team Invents ‘WiTricity’ Wireless Energy Transfer” received the following reader comment from a fellow named Larry:

“How does this sit with the world’s energy problems? On the scale that this i...Read More

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