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.
Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Green Energy, News, Northwest, Sustainable | Tagged:
Walkscore Transit
Walkscore is a website that ranks the walkability of a location based on what is around it and how far away it is. A high Walkscore means that you live in a walkable neighborhood with close access to everything that you need. A low Walkscore means that you are going to have to use your car to get to the basics of life, unless you like walking long distances. Walkscore calculates the score of a location based on an evolving algorithm that now includes the public transportation lines for many cities in the US (and more are being added all the time). By including public transportation lines, the Walkscore number is now more accurate than ever. However, Walkscore is asking for your help. Many cities will not publish their transportation routes to the public internet via a feed, but they will provide it to Google. Walkscore needs this information in order to bring their new algorithm to all of the supported areas. Cut the red tape and let the information flow, Sign the Walk Score Transit Feed Petition
Filed Under: News | Tagged:
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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Lents Linear Garden
Prepping for the street fair on September 12 and the opening of the MAX green line, the Lents neighborhood in Portland has been busy changing their strip of grass along the road (the “parking strip”) into a long, beautiful linear garden that may go as long as 30-45 blocks in time. The garden is going to be cut up into planned sections each representing a different collection of northwest native plants that should thrive. The up and coming Lents neighborhood has already gained a lot of community attention and involvement from those that would love to see their neighborhood reduce its litter and increase the value and livability through a unique botanical garden. The idea is not only eco friendly, but has the full support of the neighborhood association and has thrilled the city council. Though not complete, take a look at the progress they have made when you check out the September 12 Lents street fair. See more pictures and information at Neighborhood Notes.
The 20 on Hawthorne
SE 20th and Hawthorne is now host to “The 20 on Hawthorne” a 51 unit complex of LEED silver certified homes. The homes feature energy efficient lighting and heating, low VOC paints and surfacing, and Energy Star appliances. The complex also boasts Portlands first (and the nations largest) puzzle lift parking garage (See the video here). A large eco-roof with drought resistant indigenous plants tops the whole complex off reducing rainwater runoff and further insulating the building. See more on this complex at Seeing Green.
Filed Under: Green Home, LEED, News, Portland | Tagged:
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.
… Read the full story »Filed Under: Green Energy, LEED, News, Northwest, Portland, Wind Power | Tagged:
Seal products banned in the European Union
In the first large move ever made to protect seals from the barbaric yearly hunt that has been threatening their populations and their very existence for hundreds of years, the European Union has completely banned the purchase, sale, or transport of any seal products in any of its 27 countries. Canada and the supporters of the seal hunt are already preparing their plans to contest the decision. The 550-49 vote with such a huge majority has little chance of being appealed. The law goes into effect before the seal hunt begins for next year, so maybe Canada will call the whole thing off if they are not able to sell the products (which have little to no market outside of Europe). Source: European Union Bans Trading of all Seal Products.
Filed Under: Green Government, News, Northwest | Tagged:
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone is only half expected size
Poor agricultural practices and monoculture on cropland cause a nutrient depletion in the soil, which we fix using commercial fertilizers. Unfortunately, all of the excess nutrient runoff from watering the fertilized farms ends up in the rivers and makes it to the ocean, and collectively causes oxygen depleted dead zones. Areas of water where the nitrogen and phosphorous (among others) is too high has no dissolved oxygen in the water which makes it impossible for fish and other marine life to survive in those waters, so they either perish or move on to another home. Algae on the other hand, loves the low oxygen and thrives and blooms unchecked further depleting the oxygen. Low oxygen deep sea creatures which normally patrol the bottom of the ocean can be found swimming near the surface, which indicates a drastically altered eco-system at the bottom of the ocean. This year, the estimated 7,000 miles of the Gulf of Mexico which make up one of hundreds of dead zones around the world has only reached 3,000 square miles in size. Although normally this would indicate good things for us (the dead zone only growing to half of what we expected), the dead zone is particularly thick and deep, and the water contains zero life.
We desperately need to fix our agricultural system which is not only killing the oceans, but cannot feed everyone that exists on the planet today. Ditch the monoculture and biodiversify! Check out the full article on TreeHugger.
Filed Under: News | Tagged:
Obama administration protects Oregon forests from Bush
The Obama Administration has stopped the single greatest natural disaster ever to hit the United States: George W. Bush. Now they are working to repair some of the damage, and here in Oregon the most recent cleanup has been the restriction of logging in Oregon in order to protect the Northern Spotted Owl and its habitat. This move has been widely hailed by tree huggers and conservationalists alike. By protecting this forest, Obama can protect the owl habitat as well as the Oregon old growth forests that were handed over to loggers under a Bush era contract. See more information on the full article at Oregon Live.
75MW Solar Power plant in Cle Elum, WA
Cle Elum, Washington is going to be the new home of 75MW of solar power in an installation of up to 400,000 individual panels. Senator Maria Cantwell who has been spearheading the path for this project is also trying to establish a local manufacturing facility to create those panels instead of shipping them in. Where the solar power plant is a done deal, the manufacturing plant is not for sure yet. Source: Renewable Energy World