Friday, May 2, 2008

Spain Leading the Way

by Vinny

From this website, I saw that Spain uses on average about 28% of all the electricity needed. When there are high winds though, it can get up to 40%. They are also planning to build a few offshore wind farms to harvest the steady ocean breezes. Their goal... to increase the amount of energy they use from renewable sources by 300%! Lets hope that more countries start to follow Spain's lead, and begin making more renewable energy now.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Energy Drilling

By: Garrett

Wednesday a discussion was held for perfecting the requirements for after-drilling cleanup, and the limiting of energy companies access to sensitive wildlife areas in Colorado. The final resolution is to be adopted May 1. House Bill 1298 requires a balance from the oil and gas commision to balance the developement with wildlife conservation, as well as meet with the wildlife commision to minimize the effect developement has on wildlife. The oil and gas commision already has drawn a draft of regulations and the wildlife commision has looked over the draft and tackled the shortcomings. The wildlife commision wants reclamation and restoration of sites that have been damaged by developement.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Compressed Air Car from Tata

by Vinny

Tata, a car company based in India, is planning on releasing their compressed air car late this year or early next year in France and India. These cars are one of the best ways I have seen to switch over to alternative energy, since the air released doesn't have any greenhouse gasses. The only problem is that when you get more air, it takes energy to power that, so we would need to use another form of energy to make the electricity for these stations. These new cars aren't perfect yet, seeing as they can only run for 125 miles without recharging, and it only travels up to 68mph. Again, on the plus side it is only $2 to charge up. Hopefully the French and Indians start buying these cars so that they can start bringing them to America! For more information, click here.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wind Power- How Good Is It?

By Clarissa



Wind power. How good is it? Man has been using wind power for a long time. The actual wind mill was invented in China almost 2000 years ago. Only recently have wind mills been used as an energy source. One windmill can only power a few machines at a time. So power companies have built "wind farms" to power neighborhoods and work areas in place of using power lines. These farms of over 600 wind mills can power up to 140,000 homes. Wind farms need to be built in places where the wind blows at least 14 mph. A wind mill is, of course, powered by air. The turbines are connected to a shaft which is a generator inside the shaft and is powered when the turbine spins caused by the air. Wind mills also have an automatic shut off in a wind storm and tornadoes. Wind mills are now paving the way to a newer more efficient way to create energy without damaging the environment.

Coal Prices

By: Garrett

Coal prices are rising, and because of these prices, electricity prices are rising. The United States has an abundance of coal but global factors are stoking demand. China has had many snowstorms so that cut production. Heavy rains also flooded Australian mines. Australia is the largest exporter of coal. Since both China and India have booming economies the world's demand for coal has increased, leading to higher prices in coal.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Building a Greener Community

By Riley Ruse

A small island chain off Costa Rica, in the Caribbean, has broken ground on building an entire community with green, renewable, cost effective resources. Other things also will be used to better the country. They will be sold to timeshares, and families in America and Europe. This move puts the world one step closer to being clean and peaceful once again.

Green Fact

By Riley Ruse

Recent studies show an interesting turnout.

The U.S. government found that some alternative fuels are causing more harm to the environment than traditional fuels like gas or diesel. Here's what the AEN station has to say, "liquid coal, often touted as an alternative to gasoline and thus a way of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, can actual produce up to 80% more global warming pollution than typical unleaded gasoline. The process of turning coal into liquid (liquefaction by hydrogenation) actually produces nearly double the level of carbon dioxide emissions that conventional gasoline does, and it is considered by many environmentalists as a huge step backward for combating global warming."