Category Archives:energy

06
Apr

Green Tips: Being Gas-Smart With Your Vehicle

Green car

Going green around your home isn't just an environmentally-responsible thing to do, but it can actually save you a lot of money. You've probably shopped around sites from your local area - from Atlanta to Houston, or wherever you live - to find the right electric company for your green energy, and hopefully made changes around your house to conserve energy. Now, it's time to turn to the one area where it's hardest to save gas: your transportation.

But back to the point at hand. Driving is something that's hard to avoid, but here are some things to help you be gas-smart with your car:

Brake Smart

It's amazing how much gas your car burns up when you push on the gas pedal, especially if you're in first gear. Instead of revving your engines to get a speedy start, why not slowly decelerate as you come up to a stop light or a line of traffic? Try and time it so that your car is still moving forward by the time the light turns green, so you won't have to push hard on the gas pedal to accelerate. Avoid hitting the brake and gas constantly when in traffic, but just let the car accelerate and roll forward at its own pace. It takes practice, but it can save a fortune in gas if you spend hours in traffic every day.

Use AC Wisely

Before you hit that AC switch, think about whether you really need it or not. The AC should be used only during the stifling American summer, and only when you're driving down the highway (driving with the windows down will increase drag, requiring more energy to move the car). If you are driving around town, try driving with the windows down and letting the breeze cool you off. Get yourself a little battery powered fan, or one that plugs into the battery of the car. Try and park in the shad whenever possible, and turn off your air con before you park to keep run time to a minimum.

Cut Weight

If you don't need to have the back of your vehicle loaded with people and stuff, empty it out. You may not want to take the time to unload your bikes after a weekend cycling trip, but that extra weight will force your engine to work harder. Reduce weight as much as possible, as a light car uses less fuel.

Fill the Tires

Everyone knows that filling your tires will help to conserve fuel, but they don't know why. The reason is that a partially filled tire has more weight on it, and it is harder for the car to turn the wheel and drive forward when there isn't enough air in the tire to keep the car off the ground. Fill up those tires, and take the pressure off your engine.

Turn it Off or Put it in Neutral

If you're going to be sitting in one place for a while, turn off your car rather than letting it sit idling. It will use some gas as it idles, so turning it off will ensure that you don't use excess gas. If you are waiting for your child to come out of school or sitting in line at a bank, put the car in neutral to disengage the engine and reduce your gasoline usage.

Keep each of these in mind next time you head out to the car!

Photo: Attribution Some rights reserved by wetwebwork via flickr

Posted:   |   Categories: cars, Cars+Tranportation, conservation, energy, gas, tips
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06
Apr

5 Easy Ways to Start Conserving at Home

water faucet

You can help your state avoid an energy crisis like California experienced simply by implementing a few common sense changes in your home. Get your family involved and other energy efficient changes will follow naturally. You will be amazed how much your utility costs will come down.

Self-Watering Plants

Just because you like having houseplants doesn’t necessarily mean you are an avid green thumb. It just means you like plants and you know they help to purify the air in your home in addition to looking nice.

The trouble is, unless you are conscience of their needs, they easily die. To help avoid forgetting to water them there are a lot of self-watering options available including some you can make yourself. Not only will this save your plants and your sanity, it will also save you money. No water is lost due to spillage, leakage, or evaporation. In addition, you won’t have to be constantly replacing plants or switching to fake alternatives because you forgot to water them.

Water Saving Toilets and Faucets

Did you know that on average it takes 1 - 7 gallons of water every time you flush a toilet depending on the toilet you have? Items like water saving toilets can save your family of four up to 16,500 gallons of water annually. That’s a lot of water worth saving!

Equally, water saving faucets will help cut down on tens of thousands of wasted gallons when you wash dishes or run the disposal. Washing only full loads of dishes or laundry can save an additional 50 gallons every week. Saving water also saves electricity so you get two perks for the effort of one.

Lights

Replacing old incandescent bulbs with energy efficient bulbs makes a huge difference in energy usage. You will get the same amount of light, but only use one fourth of the amount of electricity to run them. An added bonus is they can last for many years there for leaving less waste for the landfills.

Doors and Windows

Many people are losing nearly half of the household energy they use right out their doors and windows. Check for leaks and drafts. This can be as easy as going window to window with a lightweight ribbon or thread and holding it up to see if any breeze makes it move. Seal the draft out with caulking or weather stripping. You can also use heavier curtains to help keep out excessive hot or cold air which will help with heating and cooling bills.

Energy Saving Appliances

Washers, dryers, refrigerators, microwaves, and dishwashers take a lot of energy. The older they are, the more they use. Thanks to federal energy efficiency standards appliances now use considerably less energy than ever before. In fact, the most energy efficient models today use less than half the energy a model from twelve or more years ago.

There are so many benefits to conserving energy, especially in our homes. Saving energy helps you to do your part for the environment, it helps you raise environmentally conscience families, and it saves your household money you can spend it on other things your family can do together.

Photo: Attribution Some rights reserved by D.H. Parks via flickr

Posted:   |   Categories: conservation, energy, Guest Post, Water
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06
Apr

5 Easy Ways to Start Conserving at Home

water faucet

You can help your state avoid an energy crisis like California experienced simply by implementing a few common sense changes in your home. Get your family involved and other energy efficient changes will follow naturally. You will be amazed how much your utility costs will come down.

Self-Watering Plants

Just because you like having houseplants doesn’t necessarily mean you are an avid green thumb. It just means you like plants and you know they help to purify the air in your home in addition to looking nice.

The trouble is, unless you are conscience of their needs, they easily die. To help avoid forgetting to water them there are a lot of self-watering options available including some you can make yourself. Not only will this save your plants and your sanity, it will also save you money. No water is lost due to spillage, leakage, or evaporation. In addition, you won’t have to be constantly replacing plants or switching to fake alternatives because you forgot to water them.

Water Saving Toilets and Faucets

Did you know that on average it takes 1 - 7 gallons of water every time you flush a toilet depending on the toilet you have? Items like water saving toilets can save your family of four up to 16,500 gallons of water annually. That’s a lot of water worth saving!

Equally, water saving faucets will help cut down on tens of thousands of wasted gallons when you wash dishes or run the disposal. Washing only full loads of dishes or laundry can save an additional 50 gallons every week. Saving water also saves electricity so you get two perks for the effort of one.

Lights

Replacing old incandescent bulbs with energy efficient bulbs makes a huge difference in energy usage. You will get the same amount of light, but only use one fourth of the amount of electricity to run them. An added bonus is they can last for many years there for leaving less waste for the landfills.

Doors and Windows

Many people are losing nearly half of the household energy they use right out their doors and windows. Check for leaks and drafts. This can be as easy as going window to window with a lightweight ribbon or thread and holding it up to see if any breeze makes it move. Seal the draft out with caulking or weather stripping. You can also use heavier curtains to help keep out excessive hot or cold air which will help with heating and cooling bills.

Energy Saving Appliances

Washers, dryers, refrigerators, microwaves, and dishwashers take a lot of energy. The older they are, the more they use. Thanks to federal energy efficiency standards appliances now use considerably less energy than ever before. In fact, the most energy efficient models today use less than half the energy a model from twelve or more years ago.

There are so many benefits to conserving energy, especially in our homes. Saving energy helps you to do your part for the environment, it helps you raise environmentally conscience families, and it saves your household money you can spend it on other things your family can do together.

Photo: Attribution Some rights reserved by D.H. Parks via flickr

Posted:   |   Categories: conservation, energy, Guest Post, Water
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25
Mar

US Shale Gas to Heat British Homes Within Five Years

Fracking operations on a natural gas well in Colorado

Powered by Guardian.co.ukby Fiona Harvey, guardian.co.uk 

Nearly 2m homes in the UK will be heated by shale gas from the US within five years, under a deal agreed on Monday that is likely to be the first time major exports of the controversial energy source are used in the UK.

The US government has kept a tight rein on exports since the shale gas boom started more than five years ago. But the deal struck by energy company Centrica marks the start of a new era in gas use in the UK, because it opens up the market to cheap supplies from the US, as North Sea gas fields run out and pipelines to Europe remain expensive.

Shale gas exploitation has been blamed for environmental problems in the US, including water, ground and air pollution and leaks of methane.

Under the deal, Centrica will pay £10bn over 20 years for 89bn cubic feet of gas annually – enough to heat 1.8m homes – from Cheniere, one of the first US companies to receive clearance from the federal government to export shale gas in the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas). The first deliveries, by tanker, are expected in 2018.

The announcement of the deal comes at a crucial time, as Britain's gas reserves have been severely depleted by the unseasonable cold snap, which has increased demand. Last week, it emerged that there were only two days' worth of gas left in storage.

Though there was no immediate danger of a cut-off, because of imports through pipelines connecting to supplies from Russia and Norway, the tightening of supply raised grave concerns. The failure of a key pipeline on Friday morning caused an immediate doubling of gas prices in the spot market – though prices fell back later as the problem was resolved, the incident highlighted the vulnerability of the UK to energy shocks, because of the high dependence on gas imports for heating and power generation.

The prime minister, David Cameron, was forced to intervene last week to reassure households that there would be no cut-off. On Monday he said: "I warmly welcome this commercial agreement between Centrica and Cheniere. Future gas supplies from the US will help diversify our energy mix and provide British consumers with a new long-term, secure and affordable source of fuel."

Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, said: "In an increasingly global gas market, this landmark agreement represents a significant step forward in our strategy … helping to ensure the UK's future energy security."

The deal will not make a difference to gas prices or consumer bills in the short term, as the first deliveries are not expected until September 2018 at the earliest, but in the longer term the tanker imports may help to ease any supply crunch, similar to that seen in the last few days. Average household energy bills for gas and electricity are currently about £1,300 a year and set to rise to about £1,400 next year, according to the energy regulator Ofgem.

There have been other deals on US gas imports to the UK in the past two years, including a deal struck by BP and one from British Gas, but they are unlikely to reach the volume of the Centrica deal and may take longer to reach delivery.

Andrew Pendleton, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said of current imports: "Emergency gas shipments to maintain Britain's energy security are yet further evidence of our shambolic energy strategy. It makes no sense for the UK to rely increasingly on overseas shipments of ever more expensive gas while ministers sideline the vast potential of homegrown energy from the wind, waves and sun. It's time to pull the plug on our fossil fuel dependency and switch to a 21st century energy policy based on clean power and slashing waste."

Shale gas has brought about a revolution in US energy, with thousands of wells drilled across the country releasing billions of tonnes of fuel. Gas prices have plummeted as a result, to about $2 a unit, compared with about $10 to $12 in Europe and Japan, but those price falls have not yet affected the international market.

That is because the US has behaved, in the words of the International Energy Agency, as a "gas island". Exports have been restricted, in part by government regulation that has favoured domestic use, and by the lack of infrastructure for converting the gas to liquid and transferring it to tankers.

But if these vast supplies of fossil fuels are burned, they could put global climate change targets of holding warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels out of reach.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Photo: Timothy Hurst

Posted:   |   Categories: energy, energy industry, environment, fracking, gas, Liquefied natural gas, Shale gas, UK news, united states, utilities
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25
Mar

US Shale Gas to Heat British Homes Within Five Years

Fracking operations on a natural gas well in Colorado

Powered by Guardian.co.ukby Fiona Harvey, guardian.co.uk 

Nearly 2m homes in the UK will be heated by shale gas from the US within five years, under a deal agreed on Monday that is likely to be the first time major exports of the controversial energy source are used in the UK.

The US government has kept a tight rein on exports since the shale gas boom started more than five years ago. But the deal struck by energy company Centrica marks the start of a new era in gas use in the UK, because it opens up the market to cheap supplies from the US, as North Sea gas fields run out and pipelines to Europe remain expensive.

Shale gas exploitation has been blamed for environmental problems in the US, including water, ground and air pollution and leaks of methane.

Under the deal, Centrica will pay £10bn over 20 years for 89bn cubic feet of gas annually – enough to heat 1.8m homes – from Cheniere, one of the first US companies to receive clearance from the federal government to export shale gas in the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas). The first deliveries, by tanker, are expected in 2018.

The announcement of the deal comes at a crucial time, as Britain's gas reserves have been severely depleted by the unseasonable cold snap, which has increased demand. Last week, it emerged that there were only two days' worth of gas left in storage.

Though there was no immediate danger of a cut-off, because of imports through pipelines connecting to supplies from Russia and Norway, the tightening of supply raised grave concerns. The failure of a key pipeline on Friday morning caused an immediate doubling of gas prices in the spot market – though prices fell back later as the problem was resolved, the incident highlighted the vulnerability of the UK to energy shocks, because of the high dependence on gas imports for heating and power generation.

The prime minister, David Cameron, was forced to intervene last week to reassure households that there would be no cut-off. On Monday he said: "I warmly welcome this commercial agreement between Centrica and Cheniere. Future gas supplies from the US will help diversify our energy mix and provide British consumers with a new long-term, secure and affordable source of fuel."

Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, said: "In an increasingly global gas market, this landmark agreement represents a significant step forward in our strategy … helping to ensure the UK's future energy security."

The deal will not make a difference to gas prices or consumer bills in the short term, as the first deliveries are not expected until September 2018 at the earliest, but in the longer term the tanker imports may help to ease any supply crunch, similar to that seen in the last few days. Average household energy bills for gas and electricity are currently about £1,300 a year and set to rise to about £1,400 next year, according to the energy regulator Ofgem.

There have been other deals on US gas imports to the UK in the past two years, including a deal struck by BP and one from British Gas, but they are unlikely to reach the volume of the Centrica deal and may take longer to reach delivery.

Andrew Pendleton, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said of current imports: "Emergency gas shipments to maintain Britain's energy security are yet further evidence of our shambolic energy strategy. It makes no sense for the UK to rely increasingly on overseas shipments of ever more expensive gas while ministers sideline the vast potential of homegrown energy from the wind, waves and sun. It's time to pull the plug on our fossil fuel dependency and switch to a 21st century energy policy based on clean power and slashing waste."

Shale gas has brought about a revolution in US energy, with thousands of wells drilled across the country releasing billions of tonnes of fuel. Gas prices have plummeted as a result, to about $2 a unit, compared with about $10 to $12 in Europe and Japan, but those price falls have not yet affected the international market.

That is because the US has behaved, in the words of the International Energy Agency, as a "gas island". Exports have been restricted, in part by government regulation that has favoured domestic use, and by the lack of infrastructure for converting the gas to liquid and transferring it to tankers.

But if these vast supplies of fossil fuels are burned, they could put global climate change targets of holding warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels out of reach.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Photo: Timothy Hurst

Posted:   |   Categories: business, energy, energy industry, environment, fossil fuels, fracking, gas, Liquefied natural gas, Shale gas, UK news, united states, utilities
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11
Jan

Mountaintop Removal Mining: Why Clean Coal is a Lie

mountaintop removal mining clean coal

The coal lobby has thrown billions of dollars at convincing consumers that "clean coal" is the future of American energy. It's abundant, it's cheap, and thanks to carbon capture technology, burning coal isn't as bad for the planet as it used to be! That's the claim, and it's partly true. Unfortunately, there is really no such thing as "clean coal."

Coal is abundant and cheap, if you're only measuring that cost in the money coal companies have to spend to get it out of the ground. The problem is that we've mined most of the coal that's really easy to get, so now companies have to take extreme measures to get the coal that powers most of the homes in the U.S.

It started with strip mining. When coal mines began to become more scarce, coal companies turned to this new technique which uses heavy machinery to scrape away layers of the Earth to get at more tucked-away coal stores. All of that stripping polluted surrounding air and waterways.

Our thirst for energy now has us using even more extreme measures to acquire coal. Instead of stripping the land, the common practice is now mountaintop removal mining (MTR). MTR uses explosives to literally blow the tops off of mountains. It scars the landscape and is far more polluting than strip mining, which was already pretty bad.

In fact, according to advocacy group I Love Mountains:

In Appalachia, children are 42% more likely to have birth defects — if they live near a mountaintop removal coal mine. Individuals are 50% percent more likely to die from cancer.

Check out this video from Appalachian Voices about how MTR is affecting public health.

This has nothing to do with burning coal. No amount of carbon capture is going to change that MTR is a major public health and environmental threat.

Mountaintop Removal Mining: Get Heard

If you are as sickened by that video and MTR in general as I am, I hope you'll take a moment to sign the I Love Mountains Petition asking President Obama to stand up for Appalachian children and ban this practice.

As individuals, we can work to rely less on coal-fired power by using less electricity. If you have electric heat, take steps to winterize your home. You can also do simple things like turn off the lights when you leave a room and unplug electronics you're not using to eliminate vampire power use in your home.

If you have the money, switching out electric appliances for alternatively-powered ones can also make a big difference. Consider a solar hot water heater, for example, instead of an electric one, or install solar panels. Even if they only replace some of the coal-fired electricity in your home with renewable power, you're still contributing that much less to our coal problem, right?

I'd love to hear from you guys! What are you doing to reduce your dependence on coal-fired power?

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo via I Love Mountains

Posted:   |   Categories: Appalachia, clean coal, dirty coal, energy, mountaintop removal mining, MTR, News+Opinion, petition
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10
Jan

Bonnaroo Announces Permanent Solar Array

Roo Solar Banner

Celebrating 12 years of good tunes and maintaining its position as the leader of environmentally conscious concert events, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has once again raised the green bar. This week, Bonnaroo and it's partners announced the installation of its first permanent solar array. Although the use of PV panels and solar-powered stages is not new to the festival circuit, Bonnaroo is treading on new ground with a permanent installation. Generating more than 61,000 kWh per year, this system will mark the first of it’s kind for any US musical festival.

To read more details about Bonnaroo's environmental programs and the new solar array please visit our sister site, Green Up Music.

Posted:   |   Categories: 2013, Architecture, bonnaroo, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, clean energy, energy, green energy, green festival, manchester, music festival, Offbeat, photovoltaics, pv, PV panels, renewable energy, solar, solar array, solar power, solar stage, superfly
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