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Seattle gets a look at the Nissan Leaf

In the year 2010 900 Seattle area residents are going to become the lucky new owners of the Nissan Leaf.  The Nissan Leaf is poised to become the most affordable all electric car available at $28,000 to $35,000 before a $7,500 government kickback.  The Nissan Leaf has zero emissions, and to prove it just try to find the tailpipe (Hint: There isn’t one).  The car can charge using a 220volt charging outlet (like the one that your dryer runs on), which will be installed in the owners garage as well as in public places around town.  The car also has a solar panel that is able to keep the clock running even if you run out of charge. The public charging stations are going to be at some downtown parking spots as well as being increasingly spotted at supermarkets and businesses around the Puget Sound area.  The GPS unit inside of the car can even help you find the nearest charging station if you are running low on juice.  Thanks to a $100 million dollar grant as part of the stimulus package many more areas of Seattle are going to get electric charging stations as Mayor Greg Nickels tries to push his city ahead of Portland and San Francisco, two other west coast cities that are wiring their cities for the electric vehicle revolution.  Click here to read more from the Seattle Times.

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Wind farm in Utah goes live 203MW

Utah just went live with their largest wind farm yet, 203MW of clean pollution free electricity is now being generated in the first phase of what will become an even larger project.  203MW is enough to power 45,000 homes with clean renewable energy.  Though Utah will be getting $86 million dollars injected into their economy for the project, all of the power that is generated is not going to homes in Utah, all of the power is being sent down to California where a 20 contract for the energy has been signed.  First Wind is operating the project and the wind farm which is located in the Beaver and Millard counties of Utah.  See more about this project on TreeHugger.

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Saharan solar farms to power Europe?

12 companies forming the Desertec Industrial Initiative have put together a $555 billion (yes, billion with a ‘b’) idea to supply 15% of the total power needed by the entire continent of Europe by installing solar concentration farms in Saharan Africa.  The plan also includes seawater desalination plants that are supposed to bring fresh water to the people of Africa.  This would be the largest renewable energy project in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of it, but something just does not seem right with this.  Unfortunately solar concentration facilities generally need a ton of water to zap into steam and run turbines, so this would mean that the desalination plants would need to supply the solar concentrators first and then the people of the region second.  The other thing that worries me is the fact that this sounds too good to be true, which is generally an indicator that it is.  This strikes me as an Enron-esque in size, and a lot of organized crime happens these days under the guise of environmental and humanitarian efforts.  This is all just opinion here folks, and I have no evidence at this time to back me up other than that “gut feeling”.

Cheers and good luck to these guys if they are the real deal.  See more about this on Inhabitat.

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Solar Heart: Keeping you warm in colder climates

The Solar Heart by Colorado’s Cool Energy Inc is a special generator that creates a lot of electricity in a very creative way.  Using a special chambered system that creates energy when Hydrogen is heated and cooled.  The system needs the controller (the brain), low heat solar panels on your roof or yard, and the SolarHeart engine in the house.  Designed to work best in northern climates like Alaska and Canada, the SolarHeart can generate 80% of the electricity needed by a household, as well as 60% of the heat needed.  All of this with ZERO emissions!  The SolarHeart could drastically reduce the need for fossil fueled electricity and heat for the homes that need it the most.  See more at Inhabitat.

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Worlds Largest Offshore Windfarm

Denmark has just christened their newest environmental feat.  A massive 209 MW offshore windfarm 30 km off the coast of Jutland (in the North Sea).  Constructed by DONG energy, tis 91 turbine farm will power over 200,000 homes with clean renewable energy harnessed from the strong sea winds.  Horns Rev 2 has claimed the title of the Worlds Largest Offshore Windfarm.  Furthermore, this wind farm has its own 24 hour maintenance crew that live on a sea platform they have dubbed the “Poseidon”.  This success of Denmark should hopefully get the UK moving, as their offshore windfarm has hit nothing but delays since its proposal. Now the question is, how long will they hold this title?

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1.5 Gigawatt Wind Farm in China

Jiuquan city in the Gansu province of China will be getting 500 megawatts of wind power this year, with another gigawatt to come shortly after.  The total 1.5GW farm will reduce Chinas carbon emissions about 3.5 Gigatons a year while supplying over a million homes with clean renewable electricity.  This news follows shortly after news of about 2 more gigawatts of wind power planned for the Inner Mongolian region of China.  The China Huaneng Group will be building the wind farm which they hope will bring them up to their goal of having a 10 Gigawatt renewable energy portfolio by the end of 2010.

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Southern Utes Invest in Algae

In nature, nothing is wasted. One organism’s waste stream becomes anothers source of energy. Wouldn’t it be great if that principle was applied to our carbon dioxide emissions? Natural gas plants, for instance, vent huge quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Research on capturing that carbon, feeding it to carbon-loving algae, and harvesting the resulting algae oil to be the feedstock for biodiesel has been underway for some time. Check out a diagram of that process here. Recently, Solix Biofuels, an alternative energy start up based in Colorado, has capitalized on this research by installing an algae farm at a natural gas plant on the Southern Utes Indian Reservation. According to the New York Times, the Southern Utes have invested heavily in the project. Since the tribe makes its investment decisions with many future generations (not just quarterly profits) in mind, they had the long-run vision needed to make the project profitable.

Maybe every power plant needs an algae farm.

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Solarize Portland

Solarize Portland is a new take on San Francisco’s 1 Block off the Grid project that helps entire neighborhoods band together to buy solar parts, planning, and installing solar panels in bulk.  The residents of Mt. Tabor are going to have the opportunity to attend several planning meetings where the Energy Trust of Oregon will give homeowners the opportunity to have their home estimated for a solar panel installation.  The obligation free estimate and site survey and planning information will give the opportunity to see if a solar installation is possible for their budget.  Though the homeowner has to cover the entire installation out of their own pocket, up to 80% of the money will be refunded using solar rebates from the local and federal government funds. See more at Neighborhood Notes.

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Rooftop Wind Turbines in Portland

Southwest Windpower has just installed 4 wind turbines to the new residential tower on 12st street in downtown Portland, Oregon.  The 4 wind turbines will power a portion of the buildings electrical needs and will serve as an experiment for the viability of rooftop wind power.  The Energy Trust of Oregon paid for the turbines atop the LEED Platinum certified tower where they will only provide about 1% of the total power for the building.  See more (including a video) at Jetson Green.

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Solar Powered Food for the Masses in India

Shridi, India just completed the worlds largest solar powered cooking system.  India has the top 2 largest solar powered cooking systems in the world.  The temple where it was installed has large disc solar concentrators that create over 3 tons of steam per day which is used to feed 20,000 people per day.  The $280,000 system (US dollars) was mostly paid for by the central Indian government. Source: TreeHugger

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