The Associated Press: New Energy Uses for Asphalt
The Associated Press reports on a Dutch company taking a new approach with asphalt, pulling heat from the source and putting it to use in homes and offices.
Solar energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar.
Note to automakers: cars of the future are meant to be fierce. Sure, they may get the equivalent of 100mpg through electric efficiency, but they’d better look like they can decapitate onlookers during the morning commute…
Then again, any car capable of 44mph speeds for three hours at a time—that runs on nothing but the sun—has our ears perked.
Designed for the streets of Taiwan, the car uses a airplane-grade Nomex honeycomb body that makes it just 550lbs with seats. The light weight brings efficiency, so much so, in fact, that the developers claim that the car just needs a few hours of sunlight to recharge its batteries for another 3 hours of driving. But we’ll admit it—with a solar panel that tiny on top of the car, we can’t help but be a little skeptical about that figure.
Then again, for its groundbreakingly low $24,600 price tag, we’ll be willing to give it a chance over this more expensive, equally hideous alternative.
At the Hollywood Goes Green conference held in early December, there was discussion of how the Natural Resources Defense Council will be “greening†the Grammys—which air Feb. 10 at 8pm on CBS — by reducing emissions, using recycled products and biodegradable dishware and providing presenters and staff with hybrid vehicles…
In other award show news, The Office’s Rainn Wilson has been tapped to host the Independent Spirit Awards, which I told you are majorly green this year… down to celebrities —gasp!—carpooling to the event. In a press release, Rainn expressed his excitement at being show host, saying: “It is truly an honor to be asked… I like to think that I bring a bit of an ‘independent spirit’ to the proceedings as I recently installed a gun rack in my Prius.”
The new energy bill, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed by President Bush has meaningful purpose not only to increase efficient in automobile industrial but also the daily used household electronic product.
New regulation requires that by 2012 to 2014, all light bulbs must use 25 to 30 percent less energy than they do today. It also promoting more efficient home electronic devices and require energy consumption to be disclosed to consumers. That including your PC, monitor, set top box, DVR and flat screen TV, power adapter. Battery charger was excluded from the Art but will be reviewed if changes are need in the future in July 2011 by the Department of Energy
The city of Delhi, India, is very highly polluted and is still on the rise. The level of pollution there is about ten times over the safe level, making it extremely harmful for those who live there.
The Indian capital of Delhi is so heavily polluted that inhaling the city air is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes per day.
As Al Jazeera’s Matt McClure reports, the country’s health professionals warn the health of its citizens is at stake if pollution levels are not addressed.
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