Guilt-free plastic for composting in your yard

A new sugar-based polymer could be used to make common food containers compostable at home right alongside your potato peels and egg shells.

A team of engineers and scientists at the Imperial College London led by Charlotte Williams in partnership with BioCeramic Therapeutics have created a degradable material from sugars derived from the breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass.

Williams noted in the group's announcement that while they're not the first to come up with a "biorenewable plastic," many of those have previously been made from sugar beet- or corn-based biomass.

It's a fairly accurate estimate.

In the last few years Cereplast has produced a biodegradable paper cup, for example, that forgoes the typical petroleum-based resin coating in favor of plastic resin made of cornstarch. It also has cornstarch-based biodegradable forks, knives, food packaging, and even bioplastic toys. In 2007 Metabolix announced it had begun producing a corn-based plastic call Mirel in conjunction with agricultural giant ADM.

There is even a Denmark-based company, Agroplast, that is looking to develop plastic products from animal urine.

The polymer developed at the Imperial College London is instead derived from the sugars that are produced when you breakdown lignocellulosic biomass: biomass made from cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin that is found in wood byproducts, grasses, and some types of agricultural waste.

"For the plastic to be useful it had to be manufactured in large volumes, which was technically challenging. It took three and a half years for us to hit a yield of around 80 percent in a low energy, low water use process," Williams said in a statement.

More significant is that the plastic can absorb water and breakdown quickly, leaving no harmful products in the soil or even in humans. In addition to having use for food packaging, the polymer was found to safely degrade in humans without harm, making it a candidate for use in stitches or as a vehicle for medicine delivery.

The group said their polymer, if adopted by companies, could be a significant breakthrough, as it estimates that currently 99 percent of plastics are derived from fossil fuels.

Source: news.cnet.com

Google gets go-ahead to buy, sell energy

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has authorized Google Energy to buy and sell electricity in bulk like any other utility.

The FERC, the agency with oversight of the U.S. power grid, signed an order (PDF) on Thursday that grants Google Energy market-based rate authorization. This paves the way for the search giant to not only better manage its own energy costs, but to possibly add electricity marketer to its repertoire of services.

The order specifically grants Google Energy--a subsidiary of Google--the rights "for the sale of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at market-based rates" while acknowledging that neither Google Energy nor its affiliates "own or control any generation or transmission" facilities.

Google has expressed a desire for access to larger amounts of renewable energy to help produce the electricity it consumes as part of its vast search-engine empire. Google has long maintained that its goal is to become a carbon-neutral company. As a side note, it's not unusual for large companies to be granted the authority to trade in the wholesale electricity market for the purpose of managing their own energy costs.

As recently as January--after Google Energy made its request to FERC--the company maintained that its expressed immediate wish was for more control over electricity pricing to more effectively gain access to affordable renewable energy.

"Right now, we can't buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets. We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits," Google representativeNiki Fenwick told CNET News at the time.

But it seems that Google may actually enter the energy business. The search giant formed the Delaware-based subsidiary called Google Energy in December and when asked about it, hinted at a future in energy.

"We don't have any concrete plans. We want the ability to buy and sell electricity in case it becomes part of our portfolio," Fenwick told CNET News in January.

Google's escalating interest in energy
Prior to that obvious play, the company has been testing the energy industry waters through green energy technology investment, and research.

In 2007, Google pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help engineers and scientists figure out a way to generate 1 gigawatt of clean electricity and make it cheaper than coal.

In 2008, Google CEO Eric Schmidt presented an energy plan--complete with explicit math calculations--to back up an idea for how the U.S. could eventually get 100 percent of its electric power generation from renewable sources, cut emissions by half, create more jobs, and decrease overall energy costs.

Google has also invested hundred of millions in green energy technology research and start-up companies with projects in wind, solar, solar thermal, and geothermal. It has invested in projects to develop plug-in hybrid carsand has developed with its own "smart charging" software for plug-in electric vehicles.

The company has launched its own energy pilot projects including a 1.6-megawatt solar installation for its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, thought to be the largest corporate-owned installation in the U.S.

Google has even developed a smart metering software platform for monitoring and regulating home electricity use from any Web-enabled phone. Google Power has been testing the software in the U.K., as well as unveiling a U.S. version for smart phones.

Its most notable electricity investment success story might be eSolar, a start-up that grew out of the Google Idealab and offers "turnkey" thermal solar energy plants using software-controlled heliostats. The company has already garnered over 500 megawatts worth of projects for Southern California Edison and several utilities in the southwestern U.S., with projects in the pipeline for China, Spain, the Middle East, and South Africa.

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were also early investors in the electric car maker Tesla.

And in the lead-up to the recent Copenhagen summit on climate change, Google hosted its own energy conference in November that included leading energy experts and the U.S. undersecretary of energy.

Google could not immediately be reached for comment.


Source: news.cnet.com

Tour 'Home of the Future,' on display at Vancouver's Olympics

If "home of the future" makes you think of some spaceship-like vessel, think again. A more conventional version is now on display in Vancouver during the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It's not all status quo, though, as the above virtual tour shows.  The "Home of the Future," part of the Olympic Pavilion, was built using recycled shipping containers that are wrapped in cedar cladding and pine beetle wood.

It showcases the latest in home conservation: solar panels, a hybrid hot water heater, General Electric's smart appliances, an electric vehicle charging station, a home energy management system that lets you set lights to go on and off at certain times and a digital smart meter to monitor and reduce energy usage.

Outside is a green living wall by Green Living Technologies, a company based in Rochester, N.Y., that's been building projects worldwide. The wall reduces storm water runoff, filters air pollutants, absorbs carbon dioxide, insulates the home and also provides shade.

The home was built by BC Hydro, the official supplier of electricity to the 2010 Winter Games. It will be on display until March 21, when the Paralympics end.

"We haven't decided where the home will go after the Games, but we would like to ensure that it is kept in tact and that goes to an organization that shares the same values as us around sustainability and conservation," BC Hydro's Simi Heer tells USA TODAY.

 Source: usatoday.com

More 'turnkey' options for thermal solar

Instead of conventional solar plants that use solar panels to convert light into electricity, eSolar's thermal solar plants use software-controlled heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a central tower to heat water for steam. The steam is then used to rotate a turbine to generate electricity.

(Credit: eSolar)

eSolar is partnering with a power plant developer to offer utilities a soup-to-nuts approach for designing, building, and installing thermal solar power plants, the solar start-up announced Thursday.

Power plant developer Ferrostaal will act as a general contractor to build the plants, while eSolar will provide the solar thermal field technology design and development. The two plan to initially offer the service in Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa.

eSolar, which was created by Idealab and funded by Google.org, makes utility-scale thermal solar systems that operate differently than conventional solar plants. Instead, using solar panels to convert light into electricity, eSolar's thermal solar plants consist of software-controlled heliostats (mirrors) that reflect sunlight onto a centralized tower. The heat generated by the tower creates steam from water to rotate a turbine that generates electricity.

eSolar already has a significant list of projects in China and the Southwest of the U.S., but this deal will provide it with a greater reach in Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. Ferrostaal, meanwhile, which already installs parabolic trough and Fresnel lens solar plants, can add heliostat systems to its portfolio. The partnership will also increase the speed with which the companies can get solar thermal plants designed, built, and running, both companies said.

But eSolar is certainly not the only company offering a "turnkey" solar thermal option to utilities.

After Solar Trust acquired the rights to about 726 megawatts worth of solar projects for Southern California Edison in August 2009, the company explained it would be offering the utility a "turnkey solution" for thermal solar. In addition to designing, building, and installing the solar thermal plants, Solar Trust also plans to manage and run the plant facilities.

Of course the comparison is not completely apples-to-apples. While Solar Trust also offers thermal solar solutions like eSolar, it uses parabolic troughs to reflect sunlight and heat liquid for steam instead of heliostats.

Source: news.cnet.com

No doubt, Himalayan glaciers are melting fast: Pachauri

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which came under fire for an error in predicting that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, said on Tuesday that the contentions of snowfall discrediting the meltdown were incorrect and there was no ambiguity that the glaciers were melting.
He was speaking at a conference on Eco-Housing held here. “People may say that our Himalayan glaciers are not melting. That is incorrect. There is no doubt that the glaciers are melting at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, there has been very little research done on this in our country. Not enough measurements have been taken. This could cause the rivers in north India to flood. There is a huge possibility that floods and droughts could rise. [We have seen] floods in Rajasthan which never experienced flooding,” he said, driving home the problem of water scarcity.
In a veiled defence of his position in the aftermath of the controversy, Mr. Pachauri said: “There are still some people who think outside the ambit of science and disbelieve the phenomenon of global warming. Some powerful vested interests don’t wish to bring about a change in their lifestyles. When I raise my voice on the ill-effects [of climate change] on the poor, they don’t like [that view].”
Source: climatechallengeindia.com