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What do you get when you pair the latest 21st century energy technologies with with one of the country’s oldest transportation systems?

Viridity Energy, a Philadelphia-area smart grid company, and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which has its origins in the early 1900s, when electrified trolleys were the transportation du jour, have teamed up to find out.

Their pilot project will use Viridity Energy's software optimization system to help SEPTA capture and recycle energy generated by trains, trolleys and even electrified buses using the existing regenerative braking capabilities of those transportation systems.

Regenerative braking isn't new. The energy generated by SEPTA's trains is currently captured and fed to the system's third-rail to power other trains.

The innovation here is to store and use the energy through a one megawatt battery array, which should reduce electrical power purchases by 10-20 percent at each location where the batteries are deployed, according to Viridity Energy.

Viridity estimates that one battery will generate $500,000 per year in value. SEPTA hopes to install the technology at all of its electric substations serving trolleys and trains. It may also allow SEPTA to purchase power at night, when rates are low, and potentially provide power to the grid to stabilize regional demand during peak usage events.

The partnership with SEPTA is "a perfect example of how smart grid innovations and advances in technology can effectively be paired with revenue opportunities from competitive energy markets to yield substantial economic, operational and environmental benefits," said Audrey Zibelman, President and CEO of Conshohocken-based Viridity Energy.

For SEPTA, the project is "a foundation for measurable gains in both energy efficiency and voltage stability" in what is one of its busiest corridors, and "a replicable and scalable model for broader system-wide implementation," according to a spokesman.

The partnership received $900,000 in funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through its 2010 Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority (PEDA) grant program.

Producing Green Energy From A Variety Of Waste And Knocking Down Global Warming At The Same Time – Priceless ! Echo Energy Group, based out of South Carolina, is driven towards the total realization of the Waste To Energy (WTE) program. In its pursuit to serve industries and communities, Echo Energy provides a solution to trash [...]

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Everything about this, is stunning and beautiful.  Enjoy the exquisite shots of Nature, with calming and soothing music. This is life at it’s perfect best! See how these tools can help your business and your POCKETS! Share and Enjoy:

Image via WikipediaHas Bjørn Lomborg had a Saul/Paul conversion on the road to Global Warming's Damascus? Or is Lomborg once again playing the media for attention on the eve of releasing a new book? 

The Guardian reported this morning that the world's most high-profile climate change sceptic (er, skeptic) is now declaring that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront," in his new book to be published next month.

Read The Guardian story here.

What timing for an about-face: Lomborg has long been a media darling, vilified by the extreme greens and trotted out by climate deniers whenever he has a new book to push.

His views on the climate were debunked by Howard Friel in some detail in his recent book The Lomborg Deception, where he alledgedly picked apart nearly all of the assertions made in Lomborg's book Cool It!, a follow-up to The Skeptical Environmentalist.

To be fair, Lomborg never really denied that greenhouse gases emissions from fossil fuels were having an impact on the climate.  He simply didn't think it was going to be the runaway disaster it was being made out to be. 

He also argued that focusing on eradicating HIV AIDs and malaria from the planet as the most economical investments we could make to solve the planet's pressing issues.
 
"The point I've always been making is it's not the end of the world," he told the Guardian. "That's why we should be measuring up to what everybody else says, which is we should be spending our money well."

He outlines his views in this TED Talk from February 2005: TED Lomborg.  Lomborg asks the audience, Given $50 billion to spend, which would you solve first, AIDS or global warming?
  
In Lomborg's view, more immediate concerns of health and poverty needed to be addressed.  He's now calling for over $100 billion to be spent annually to address climate change.

But the damage was done, as the author's books fanned the flames of the debate and lent credibility (however fact-unchecked) to climate-change deniers from across the spectrum.

Now even Rajendra Pachauri, the beleagured head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, himself being pressured to step down after a recent independent review of the panel's work, has flip-flopped.

Pachauri once compared Lomborg to Hitler, but now, according to the Guardian, blurbs the book by his former nemesis.

Lomborg's arguments tick people off, in part because his tone is cavalier and dismissive and his fact-checking isn't always done with the rigor of his assertions.

It remains to be seen whether this latest salvo, whether a conversion or a diversion, will move the needle (or lower the thermostat) on the planet's path to a warmer future.

The following is a guest post from Sonya Sparks. S. Sparks is a writer for small businesses and online stores with an emphasis on health and beauty. Some of her most recent work includes articles at TVTopTen.com and Ace Clean Carpets in San Diego.

<img src="http://focusorganic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/vacuuming.jpg" alt="vacuuming.jpg" title="vacuuming.jpg" ... [visit site to read more]

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It’s not even the official end of summer yet, and already the Christmas decorations are beginning to appear in some of the big box retail locations throughout the United States and worldwide. With much of the global economy still mired in a prolonged recession, retailers are nevertheless optimistic that the 2010 Holiday shopping season will show growth compared with last year. The following is a quick look at some of the early trends emerging amongst retailers who appear to be trying new, ... [visit site to read more]

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Harvesting Your Own Safe, Fresh, Vegetables – Year Round The Benson Institute in Provo, Utah is a nonprofit organization established in 1975 as a division of the College of Biology and Agriculture at Brigham Young University (BYU). Named in honor of Ezra Taft Benson, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. Throughout his [...]

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Image via Wikipedia When, it come to politics, I tend to take an impartial attitude, but on the other hand, this may turn out to be somewhat of a rant. Since the BP oil spill in April, the U.S. government has  talked about the toughness, it would exercise  in regard to the incident, with President  Obama, wondering [...]

First, some good news from our oceans for a change:

Oceanospirillales are into dining on oil, according to researchers in a new article in Science

Up to 40 New Plant and Animal Species Discovered in Indonesian Waters: Indonesian Bounty
 
and MIT researchers have developed a swimming, oil skimming robot that may be deployed in the Gulf: Seaswarm

But forests are still be hammered by our disposable culture:

China's 45 billion disposable chopsticks require 100 acres of forest every 24 hours (100 acres every day -- that's insane!): Chop Fooey
 
Back on this side of the globe, Philadelphia won the bid for an Energy Innovation Hub at the Philly Navy Yard, which will be led by Penn State: Energy Hub (My Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic was a supporting partner.)

And speaking of Philly, we're looking for a few good cleantech companies to present at IMPACT 2010 in Philly (in early November): Cleantech Applications
 
In what may prove to tarnish another US city's rep as a green leader, Boulder prepares to wash its hands of SmartGridCity, from Greentech Media: Not Such a SmartCity After All?

Meanwhile, Harvard B-School professor Rebecca Henderson has some advice on How to Speed Up Energy Innovation: Henderson on Innovation

And finally, StockTwits made Time's list of 50 Best Websites for 2010: Some Kind of Awesome.

Have a great weekend!

Thank you to everyone who entered our giveaway, and thank you to Teas Etc. for providing the great prize!

Our winner has been randomly selected, and it is comment #20 - Kristina. Congratulations! Kristina will be sent an email right after I publish this post, and will have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will have to be selected.

Still want a tea traveler? You can purchase yours at Teas ... [visit site to read more]

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Philadelphia Navy Yard, Robert N. Dennis collection

Can Philadelphia become the birthplace of another kind of American independence: energy independence?

Two developments this week add to the Greater Philadelphia region's bid to become a regional powerhouse, if you will, of energy efficiency, clean technology research and commercialization, and entrepreneurship.

The location of these new developments is the old Philadelphia Navy Yard, the "city within the city" that is rapidly becoming an economic center with the headquarters of URBN, TastyKake, and the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard.

On Tuesday, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP-SEPA), announced the launch of its Energy Commercialization Institute (ECI), which it describes as "the region's first partnership for accelerating alternative and clean energy technology development and commercialization, through translational research and sponsored research funding."

The ECI is a partnership between Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and BFTP-SEPA, which created the ECI with $1.2 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A host of other area universities will also participate.

"The Energy Commercialization Institute is a catalyst for regional energy-based economic growth," said RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin.

The Institute will implement "common intellectual property protocols among the participating institutions and by provide capital at the earliest stage of technology commercialization," according to Rosenthal.

The other development tackles another energy and economic opportunity: efficiency.  A research consortium led by Penn State University announced yesterday that it won a competitive grant from the Department of Energy worth $129 million to develop an "energy innovation hub" at the Navy Yard.

The hub will fund research into energy efficiency for buildings and train workers in both retrofitting and new construction.

"Our goal is to create the building equivalents of super low emissions vehicles (SULEVs) in buildings – call them SULEBs!" said Dr. Henry Foley, Penn State's vice president for research and dean of the graduate school, who is leading the effort.

"With this kind of support we can realize the vision of Philadelphia becoming America’s greenest city and we can put Pennsylvanians in the lead of this technological revolution," Foley said in an email.

The Navy Yard, with a land footprint of 1,200 acres, has some unique qualities suitable for such a research facility, including its own unregulated power grid, allowing for testing technologies in a way that won't impact the larger, city-wide power grid.

The campus also has over seven miles of waterfront, more than 100 companies with a workforce of 8,000, 5.5 million square feet of buildings, and more than $500 million of private investment, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
 
Critics question the assertion that the energy hub will create 100,000 jobs and note that other top-down efforts have failed to deliver results.

But Foley dismisses such criticism, saying in an email that "this effort will be driven by science and engineering for innovation. This HUB is highly focused in one incredibly important area. The outcome will be technology-based economic development."

As for comparing this to other top-down efforts, Foley said, "it sounds to me like a comparison of apples to bowling balls – they’re both spherical."

The combination of this hub, the energy commercialization institute, and existing business incubator-style efforts at the Navy Yard, which houses such promising companies as OxiCool that is developing a cutting-edge air conditioning technology, makes the case for a growing support infrastructure for the region.

What's needed next is more opportunities for ground-up entrepreneurial efforts, attracting some later stage companies that will provide jobs, and an investment ecosystem to support the best emerging technologies in the region.

Philadelphia still has a long way to go, but it is slowly building momentum to ramp up to full power. If these efforts succeed, Philadelphia may become the birthplace of another American revolution, that of energy independence.


(Disclosure: The author is co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, which provided a letter of support for the Energy Innovation Hub application and is a partner in that effort, along with other efforts supported by BFTP-SEPA.)

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When Jason ­Pontin, Technology Review's editor in chief, sat down with Bill Gates earlier this summer, one of their topics was energy.

Readers of The Green Skeptic will find much to admire in Mr. Gates' take on energy and, as I did, much that is familiar, including the need for massive investment in R&D, the economic value of entrepreneurs, the efficiency of a carbon tax over cap-and-trade, and the importance of deploying all energy "miracles" (we call 'em buckshot) to help get us to energy transition.

You can read the energy section of the interview here: Technology Review: Q&A: Bill Gates

The full interview can be found here: TR Gates

Plug-In Solar And Wind Power Systems On The Market In 2011 So you want to feel better about your “green-self”, but don’t know how to, or the affordability concerns. Well, here’s the first bit of knowledge to get you on your way – one step at a time – start simple and slow, then grow. Your power [...]

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Welcome to the August 23rd, 2010 edition of All Things Eco.

Be sure to Stumble the posts you like, or submit them to other social bookmarking services. Let's promote each other, as well as this blog carnival.

Looking for suggestions on sites to help promote the new carnival format... are there any sites to promote the linky formats, for example?

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Image by Third Way via Flickr During those early days, of the Obama administration, environmentalists believed, they had found the message to carry them to victory.  The stage was set, on what promised to be a grueling debate, over energy and climate policy. The topic was, and still is this: At a time of soaring unemployment, [...]

Here are some home remedies to take care of a few maladies! I know that many of you have heard of these but they bear repeating for all of us who have not. Let’s just save some money. Did you know that drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately-without the unpleasant side [...]

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Are any of you as hooked on YES! magazine as I am? I sometimes feel funny reading things that just reinforce my beliefs and behaviors, but I looooooove it’s emphasis on possibility and opportunity— it’s hard in these times to keep a positive vibe on discussions affecting the environment and our shared global future. Especially when we’re witnessing natural disasters like the flooding in Pakistan, facing bizarre weather scenarios, and on the verge of new famine in developing nations around the world as food security and sovereignty are vulnerable every day. Woof, friends. Throw in some uncomfortable jokes about the apocalypse in 2012 and ka-blewey, we could use some light up in here!

This month features Anna Lappé writing about identifying the pillars of good food in the age of greenwashing.  Have you been to your grocery store lately and seen the faux-wood signage? The green labels proclaiming things are “natural?” These are marketing ploys to help sell specific products as premium, without necessarily engaging in responsible practices. Sometimes at the grocery I think to myself “do people fall for this?” then realize I am just as gullible, too, with the pretty brown wrappers in my basket and realize I have to get back to work on making sure my choices are the best choices.

Lappé asserts there are three “pillars” to the food revolution that we can easily think about in order to evaluate our choices.

1- ECOLOGY – Focusing on the relationship of living things, natural systems, and resource allocation, an ecological-focus reminds us that each choice we make has a consequence to the natural world. Food choices that are truly sustainable allow nature to work as it is designed, instead of squeezing every last ounce of life out of seed, soil, and water resources.

2- COMMUNITY – Food production is essentially a community endeavor when you really think about it. Communities rely on the common land to produce enough sustenance to keep the population alive. As our food system has been corporatized, we have increased the distance between seed and stomach, increasing the number of factors influencing our food security, and increasing the likelihood that something may go wrong. Oh yeah, like the OVER HALF A BILLION EGGS RECALLED THIS WEEK. Woof again, y’all.

3- FAIRNESS – this one is about making sure everyone at all levels of the food system, producers, workers, etc. get treated fairly and that all folks have access to healthy food. Currently there are urban food deserts where folks don’t have access to fresh food outside of convenience stores. And while progress is being made, like the example of NYC’s fresh food carts last summer, many still lack adequate access.

What would you add to these three?

It’s easy to get started using these criteria when evaluating food purchases. Occasionally you may need to do a little research and you won’t get it right every time (I still don’t, either), but it’s important to keep moving toward making the right choices for yourself, your health, our communities, and our earth. Knowing you’re making good choices tastes really good. Promise.

Sunshine and compost, friends!