There is a great article in the March 2009 National Geographic publication called “Saving Energy - It Starts at Home.” In this article, Peter Miller walks you through how he and his wife (along with some neighbors) attempted a CO2 emissions “diet” which started off with an energy audit of their home. 
Their goal was to reduce their emissions by 80% of the national average of 150 lbs of CO2/day. Miller walks the reader through the steps they took to control their “diet” and lots of interesting related facts that make you stop and think. I highly recommend you read the article and get an energy audit of your own! (Search for an energy guage rater here!)
Filed under: Energy Efficiency
With the expected passage of a new energy law requiring power companies to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, solar power should hit the big time in Florida. If the law passes, this will be very exciting for Floridians!
But who among those in the renewalbe energy industry are likely to see the biggest benefits? There is a system is known as RECs (renewable energy credits) which would allow utilities to decide who can sell solar energy based on a bidding process. This is likely to result in mostly large, centralized solar developments, not small-scale developments on the roofs of homes and businesses. A system called “feed-in tariff” would encourage the latter and also force electric utilities to buy energy from everyone.
Source: Florida Trend
Filed under: Energy Efficiency
As Google works to organize the world’s data, making it useful and accessible world-wide, they are taking energy use very seriously. They are striving for sustainability, not just because it is good for the environment, but because it is good business.
As stated on their site, here is there five step plan:
- Minimize electricity used by servers
- Reduce the energy used by the data center facilities themselves
- Conserve precious fresh water by using recycled water instead
- Reuse or recycle all electronic equipment that leaves our data centers
- Engage with our peers to advance smarter energy practices (Yeah!)
Although we all don’t have massive amounts of data to manage in our homes, these - not just green but smart money - decisions are not only available to large corporations. Research is continually being done to bring better sustainablity options within the reach of the average home owner. Check out some of the research being done right here in Florida at the Florida Solar Energy Center.
Filed under: Greenovation
