Kiwi modified RAV4 into electric car powered by windmill - 3NEWS New Zealand

I saw this aired on 3NEWS and seldom have I seen anything more awesome. If you are in NZ, you can watch the newsclip here. I have typed up the words from the news clip below:

Announcer: “Welcome back. Volatile petrol prices and road taxes, they’re a worry of the past for one Otago man. Hagen Bruggemann has converted his petrol fueled RAV4 into an electric car. As Dave Gooseling explains, even the electricity is free.”

Waitati, Otago
Dave Gooseling: “It takes a bit of grunt to get up Hagen Bruggemann’s driveway, but putting the foot down doesn’t guzzle the gas, this SUV is powered by a 3-blade windmill.”Hagen Bruggemann: “Buying a hybrid car is not quite my style, and we can make…the same thing…powered by sun and wind…sort of like an electric car I guess.


Gooseling: “Every second night he reverses his car into the garage, popping the fuel cap and plugging it in for an overnight charge. He can drive a good 150km before running out of juice, something he tries to avoid. “

Bruggemann: “But what we can do obviously we’ve got to regenerate and so if somebody tells me a way I can actually charge them the batteries up again, aways(?) time ee.”

Gooseling: “He spent two years converting his petrol RAV4 into an electric car. Things look very different under the bonnet, a Scott drive, developed in Hamilton, converts power from a bank of lithium ion batteries to drive the motor, which is hidden under the car.

“It cost around 20,000 dollars to fit out the vehicle, but the running costs of driving the car each day work out to about $3 per 100 km. And Bruggemann says his windmill often makes more electricity than the car can use. Some goes to power his home, with excess pumped back into the national grid, earning him a rebate.

Bruggermann: “Yeah, yeah, it’s dollar for dollar at the moment, I hope my reading keep going that way, I love it.”

Gooseling: “And with commercial goals for the Kiwi developed systems, his electric car hobby may one day power a fullt-time career. Dave Gooseling, 3News.”

ENDQUOTE - Yes, right now it costs $20,000. But I might just be crazy enough to start saving... and at least the cost can only go down from here. Great job, Hagen my man! You're my hero.

13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence - spotted on Inhabitat.com

by Andrew Michler, 08/19/11.

Spotted on http://inhabitat.com/13-year-old-makes-solar-power-breakthrough-by-harnessing-the-fibonacci-sequence/

QUOTH:While most 13-year-olds spend their free time playing video games or cruising Facebook, one 7th grader was trekking through the woods uncovering a mystery of science. After studying how trees branch in a very specific way, Aidan Dwyer created a solar cell tree that produces 20-50% more power than a uniform array of photovoltaic panels. His impressive results show that using a specific formula for distributing solar cells can drastically improve energy generation. The study earned Aidan a provisional U.S patent - it's a rare find in the field of technology and a fantastic example of how biomimicry can drastically improve design.

Aidan Dwyer took a hike through the trees last winter and took notice of patterns in the mangle of branches. His studies into how they branch in very specific ways lead him to a central guiding formula, the Fibonacci sequence. Take a number, add it to the number before it in a sequence like 1+1=2 then 2+1=3 then 3+2=5, 8, 13, 21 and so on a very specific pattern emerges.

It turns out that the pattern and its corresponding ratios are reflected in nature all the time, and Aidan’s keen observation of how trees branch according to the formula lead him to test the theory. First he measured tree branches by how often they branch and at what degree from each other.

To see why they branch this way he built a small solar array using the Fibonacci formula, stepping cells at specific intervals and heights. He then compared the energy output with identical cells set in a row.
Aidan reports the results: “The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day."

"But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"

His work is certainly piquing the interest of the solar industry, and even more impressively he is demonstrating the power of biomimicry -- a concept that many see as the pinnacle of good design, but one that thus far has been exceptionally difficult to achieve. Way to go!


ENDQUOTE

Obama fast-tracks Mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy

article by Wendy Koch, USA TODAY, posted on Greenhouse:http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2011/02/us-mid-atlantic-offshore-wind-energy-/1?csp=34&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

----article begins-COPIED HERE IN ITS ENTIRETY-------------


CAPTION: A wind turbine stands generating power next to Hull, Mass., High School in the shadow of Boston on Feb. 24, 2006. It took eight years for Cape Wind, the nation's first offshore wind farm near Cape Cod, Mass., to win approval, prompting the Obama administration to announce that it will streamline the process.
PHOTO BY Stephan Savoia, AP
The Obama administration announced plans Monday to spend $50 million to speed the development of offshore wind farms, aiming to lease wind farms off four Mid-Atlantic states by the end of this year,

The Interior Department said it will expedite environmental reviews for four wind projects off the coasts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. This spring, it expects to identify other wind energy areas off Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the South Atlantic region, notably North Carolina.

"This initiative will spur the type of innovation that will help us create new jobs, build a clean energy future and compete and win in the technologies of the 21st century," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in the announcement, which notes President Obama's goal of generating 80% of U.S. electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.

Wind advocates called for a streamlined process after it took eight years for the Cape Wind project off Cape Cod, Mass., to obtain a lease as the nation's first offshore wind farm. That project faced opposition from Indian tribes, some environmentalists and residents, who argued it threatened marine life and ruined ocean views.

Salazar said the wind farms identified Monday -- all off major tourist destinations, including Atlantic City, N.J.; Ocean City, Md.; and Virginia Beach, Va. -- would be 10 to 20 miles offshore so they shouldn't mar vacationers' views, according to the Associated Press.

The Department of Energy said it would spent up to $25 million over five years to support the development of innovative wind turbines, up to $18 million over three years to study how to optimize the wind market and up to $7.5 million over three years to fund more cost-effective turbine drive trains.

"Offshore wind power holds incredible potential to drive our energy and economic engine forward while reducing pollution," Sean Garren, clean energy advocate for Environment America, said in a statement welcoming the news. "Nations around the world have already proven the effectiveness of this resource. If we do not move quickly, we risk falling behind."

Empire State Building Switches To 100% Renewable Energy

Relayed at http://www.care2.com/causes/global-warming/blog/empire-state-building-will-use-100-percent-renewable-energy/

...and reproduced here!

Article follows:
Caretakers of the Empire State Building announced that the architectural icon recently set a new standard for excellence by becoming the largest commercial purchaser of renewable power in the state.

According to the New York Times, the Empire State Building will purchase over 50 million kilowatt-hours worth of renewable energy certificates annually — enough to cover its yearly electricity consumption.

The two-year renewable energy contract was purchased from carbon offset retailer Green Mountain Energy Company (recently acquired by NRG Energy New Jersey), and will be sourced through wind power facilities.

The iconic building occupies about 2.85 million square feet and is estimated to use approximately 55 million kilowatt-hours of energy each year (Seer Press). By offsetting all of its electricity consumption, the Empire State Building will avoid 100 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

That's the equivalent of:

•Nearly every house in New York State turning off all their lights for a week;
•Taking approximately 40 million fewer cab rides; or
•Planting nearly 150,000 trees--more than 6 times the number of trees in Central Park.

In July 2010, the Empire State Building unveiled a $2 million interactive, multi-media sustainability exhibit at the second floor visitor's center, which showcases a $20 million energy retrofit project aimed at educating the millions of people who visit the building every year on the positive global impact of both energy-efficient building and sustainable living practices.

"It was a natural fit for us to combine 100% clean energy with our nearly completed, ground breaking energy efficiency retrofit work,” said Anthony E. Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings which supervises the Empire State Building.

"Clean energy and our nearly 40 percent reduced consumption of watts and BTUs gives us a competitive advantage in attracting the best credit tenants at the best rents," Malkin continued.

"Our program of innovation at the Empire State Building shows simple, replicable, non-proprietary steps for other landlords to follow to be more energy efficient, cleaner and greener."

Double Irony

There is definitely a revolution going on out there, of people finding their instincts and seeking healthier lives. Many of us live lives so much more disconnected from nature than that of our parents and grandparents-- away from skilled resourcefulness, towards a greater use of technology and energy resources instead of using our own energy. Ironically, we still need exercise and to feel skilled, and proud of what we do, etc, so we do funny things like drive to work then go to a gym (which also requires power equipment), and various hobbies. Wouldn't it be better to work less, and dig up the backyard into a garden, cycle to work, and quit the gym?

Photo, left:
Good magazine, Issue4, pg20, NZ

"USA
"Human-powered gym
"Pound the road to nowhere at your gym for long enough and you’ll start to wonder: where do all those watts go? And why can’t they go somewhere useful, like powering this damn treadmill? One gym in Portland, Oregon has decided its members are up to the challenge.

"The Green MicroGym runs on people power, with a bit of solar to keep things going when the human hamsters run out of steam. With ‘team dynamo’ classes and spin bikes, the gym can generate up to 41 percent of its own power. Workouts fuel the gym’s ultra-energy-efficient ceiling fans, TVs, lights and ‘EcoPower’ treadmills.

"The downside: there are no showers at the gym, to keep water and power usage low. Still, we can’t think of better motivation to pedal fast than to keep the fans turning."