Re: [Biofuel] How do you solve America's dependence on gas?
the final leg of their trips once public transit had already hauled them close to their destinations. But that doesn't change the notion that the Segway simply isn't built for a suburban lifestyle--the one lived by the large majority of Americans. At best, it's an approximately $5,000 replacement for either walking or biking--two activities that, for most suburbanites, have little to do with getting from A to B. Luckily, there are other options for suburban petrophobes. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Miles Electric Vehicles builds a fully electric car it calls the ZX40S, which runs up to 25 mph, can travel as much as 60 miles without a charge (compared to the Segway's 24 mile limit) and costs around $19,000. Another small plug-in auto, known as the ZENN (for Zero Emissions, No Noise), is built by Toronto-based ZENN Motor and offers similarly modest speed and range for $16,000. But ZENN Chief Executive Ian Clifford admits that current electric cars are still a niche product, and that his company has sold just 350 of the current model. The main snag: because of their low speeds, today's electric cars are generally illegal on any street with posted speeds above 35 mph, making them only marginally more useful than a Segway in treacherous suburbia. Better offerings are on the way. Miles is working on a high-speed sedan priced between $35,000 and $39,000 that can travel 80-plus mph and go 250 miles on a single charge, making it a real contender for the gas-powered standby. ZENN is building a highway-ready plug-in with equal power and endurance that it hopes to sell by late 2009. Clifford says it will be priced competitively with gas-powered cars, and will be able to fully charge its battery in just five minutes. At that point, there's no reason why anyone would drive a vehicle that burns gas, says Clifford. Once you've got the energy storage that enables a highway-capable vehicle, can recharge in minutes--not hours--and is cost-competitive with internal combustion, you've cracked the code. For commuters who can't wait till 2009 to zip past gas stations, the most practical solution may be one that's been zooming around Europe and Asia for years: an electric bicycle. One model is emerging in the U.S. this August from San Francisco-based Ultra Motor. Known as the A2B, it can hit 20 mph unassisted and travels up to 43 miles on a charge. Its design is far thinner than a Segway's for negotiating traffic, and it costs about half as much: around $2,500. Unlike electric cars, the A2B can travel legally on any road where bicycles are permitted. It's basically a bike on steroids--in a good way, says chief executive Chris Deyo. Of course, riding an electric bike, like riding today's electric cars, is an adventure not suited to the Lexus set. Like the Segway, electric bicycles still leave riders vulnerable to the gas-powered masses of steel and glass that fly by on high-speed roads, and require wearing a helmet--a deal breaker for many style-conscious commuters. So how to find instant gasoline-free gratification? The simplest way may be for suburbanites to leave the world of highways and strip malls--a culture that was practically designed by and for the automobile industry--and move to the city. That, it turns out, is where green-tech wonders like the Segway work best--and where the subway works even better. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080813/8d001a26/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Pushing biotech as the 'solution' to the world's problems is doing more harm than good
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[Biofuel] Rush to Arctic As Warming Opens Oil Deposits
See also: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/11/10924/ Meltdown In The Arctic Is Speeding Up -- Scientists warn that the North Pole could be free of ice in just five years' time instead of 60, Monday, August 11, 2008, The Guardian/UK http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/12/10937/ Published on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 by The San Francisco Chronicle Rush to Arctic As Warming Opens Oil Deposits by Zachary Coile It's a scramble for the spoils of global warming as the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice is opening access to previously unreachable deposits of oil and gas, setting off a race by northern nations - including the United States, Canada and Russia - to claim them. The pursuit of those resources will be underscored this week as the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy sails north from Barrow, Alaska, on Thursday to map the sea floor of the Chukchi Cap, an area at the northern edge of the Beaufort Sea. The maps could bolster U.S. claims to the area as part of its extended outer continental shelf. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed last month what the oil industry had long suspected when the agency released an estimate that the area north of the Arctic Circle may hold as much as 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or roughly 13 percent of the world's total undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas. The dash to stake out territory across the Arctic has accelerated since Russia sent one of its submarines last August to plant the country's flag on the sea floor beneath the North Pole, provoking an outcry by other nations that viewed it as an unauthorized land grab. Earlier this month, Canadian officials at a geology conference in Norway detailed their territorial claims to the Lomonosov Ridge, an underseas mountain range that runs beneath the North Pole. Canada argues that the ridge is part of the North American continent, not part of Siberia, as Russia has asserted. Denmark backs Canada The Danish government joined in backing Canada's argument, even though those two nations have also clashed over claims in the Arctic. Why? Because Denmark, which controls Greenland, believes Canada's assertion could boost its own contention that part of the energy-rich ridge should be Danish territory. These northern powers are all rushing to complete assessments of how far their underseas territory may extend. Under international law, countries control all natural resources within the exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles offshore. But if a country's continental shelf extends far into the ocean, the nation can claim underseas land up to 350 miles offshore under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United States has signed the Law of the Sea Treaty, but the Senate has not ratified it. Margaret Hayes, who directs the State Department's Office of Oceanic Affairs, said on a conference call Monday that while the United States moves toward ratifying the treaty, it must gather all the scientific data it will need to justify its territorial claims. During the Healy's three-week voyage, scientists from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of New Hampshire will use a device called an echo sounder to create a three-dimensional map of the sea floor. The Healy will make a second voyage, from Sept. 6 to Oct. 1, carving a path through the ice, while a Canadian ship, the Louis S. St. Laurent, follows, gathering seismic data about the thickness of the sediments along the sea floor. While it's a scientific mission, USGS scientist Deborah Hutchison acknowledged that oil companies will be eager to see the results, which could yield major clues about the size and location of oil and gas deposits. The cruises are not intended to look for energy resources. That is not a primary or even a secondary objective, Hutchison said. However, it's inevitable because there are so few data in this area (of the Arctic), there will be great interest in using this data to assess the potential for drilling. Alaska favors drilling Alaskan officials, who rely on oil revenue and face declining oil fields along the North Slope, see more Arctic drilling as a way to keep the state's oil economy afloat. While the Atlantic and Pacific coasts have been off-limits to drilling under a federal ban for nearly three decades, the Interior Department is already leasing areas of the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea. Environmentalists warn of the perils of oil exploration in the region. Critics say that conditions in the Arctic - shortage of natural light in winter, extreme cold, moving ice floes and high winds - make it extremely difficult to respond to an oil spill. Ultimately what is going to be needed is a more comprehensive ecological study of that region and some indication as to whether or not any technology that we have today is likely to be able to clean up spilled
[Biofuel] Charles in GM 'disaster' warning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7557644.stm Wednesday, 13 August 2008 02:20 UK Charles in GM 'disaster' warning Prince Charles has his own organic farm at his Gloucestershire estate Companies developing genetically modified crops risk creating the biggest environmental disaster of all time, Prince Charles has warned. GM crops were damaging Earth's soil and were an experiment gone seriously wrong, he told the Daily Telegraph. A future reliance on corporations to mass-produce food would drive millions of farmers off their land, he said. The government said it welcomed all voices in the important debate over the future potential role of GM crops. However, BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the prince's robust comments were likely to rankle with the government, which has given the go-ahead to a number of GM crop trials in the UK since 2000. Even for a prince who's a long-established champion of organic farming and critic of GM crops, these are comments which verge on the extreme, our correspondent said. Prince Charles told the paper huge multi-national corporations involved in developing genetically modified foods were conducting a gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong. Relying on gigantic corporations for food would end in absolute disaster, he warned. If they think this is the way to go we will end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land Prince Charles That would be the absolute destruction of everything... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future. What should be being debated was food security not food production, he said. He said GM developers might think they would be successful by having one form of clever genetic engineering after another, but he believed that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time. 'Unsustainable' Prince Charles, who has an organic farm on his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire, said relying on big corporations for the mass production of food would not only threaten future food supplies but also force smaller producers out of business. If they think this is the way to go, we will end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness, he said. The biotech industry says that GM technology can combat world hunger The prince also told the Telegraph he hoped to see more family run co-operative farms, with producers working with nature and not against it. The prince's comments come at a time of rising world food prices and food shortages. The biotech industry says that GM technology can help combat world hunger and poverty by delivering higher yields from crops and also reduce the use of pesticides. Ministers also argue there is a growing body of evidence that GM crops are safe. In June, Environment Minister Phil Woolas said the government was ready to argue for a greater role for the technology. But green groups and aid agencies have expressed doubts about just how effective GM technology can be in tackling world hunger and many have concerns about the potential long-term impact on the environment. Responding to the prince's comments, a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: As we have said many times, there is an important debate to be had on the potential role of GM crops in the future, and we welcome all voices in that debate. Safety will always be our top priority on this issue. It is not the first time Prince Charles has joined the debate about GM crops. In 1998 he warned genetic engineering was taking man into the realms that belonged to God and God alone and in 2004 he said people were beginning to realise some of the chickens were coming home to roost and settle heavily in the genetically modified trees. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Gold miner's son seeks energy refuge in solar
Gold miner's son seeks energy refuge in solar By ERICA WERNER Jul 22, 2008 http://ap.google.com WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has found a refuge in the nation's preoccupation with record energy prices. While the push by President Bush and congressional Republicans for more oil drilling is resonating with voters, the Nevada Democrat is focused on solar and other renewable energy sources, which happen to be more abundant in his home state than almost anywhere else in the country. At some political risk for the gold miner's son, Reid also is leading the opposition to new coal-burning power plants planned for Nevada, where unions and the energy-hungry casino industry wield far more political clout than environmentalists. He faces re-election in 2010 in a state up for grabs by both parties. Reid briefly had the most-watched video on YouTube several weeks ago after the Drudge Report linked to a TV clip of him declaring that coal makes us sick ... it's ruining our world. A conservative advocacy group, the American Future Fund, is using the comments in radio ads in Nevada and Washington D.C. this week that claim, Reid says 'yes' to higher energy taxes. But Reid sees potential for jobs and economic benefits if he can advance his goal of transforming Nevada into the Saudi Arabia of geothermal and solar energy. Nevada doesn't have a whole lot of oil or coal or gas. But it has a whole lot of sun and thermal, said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association. Senator Reid is an old-fashioned politician — he watches his constituency. He understands, with geothermal, how big the potential is for the state. Nevadans now get about 9 percent of their energy from renewable sources, a number that under state law must rise to 20 percent by 2015. Many energy experts say the potential is far greater. Despite its relatively small size, Nevada leads the nation in solar and geothermal resources, according to trade groups and government statistics, and also has potential for wind energy development. Its fossil fuel stockpiles, by contrast, are negligible. More renewable energy projects are coming online rapidly. As of early this year Nevada had 40 geothermal projects in development to squeeze energy from hot water and steam drilled from the earth — more than any other state. Reid contends that growth of the renewable energy industry could provide a bonanza of new jobs for Nevada and reduce dependence on fossil fuel, much of it imported from out-of-state. It's too bad that it takes an energy crisis like we're having to cause a focus on renewables. It's a situation where we have these gas prices that are sky high, and it is an opportunity, Reid said in an interview. Renewables are good for the economy, create lots of jobs and are very good for the environment. That's a pretty good combination of things. In recent weeks Reid might have preferred a little less focus on renewables, a still infant industry which depends in part on $6 billion in tax credits that have stalled in Congress because of a dispute between Democrats and Republicans led by Nevada's other senator, John Ensign, R-Nev. Reid pulled a major housing bill from the Senate floor last month after Ensign attached the renewable energy tax package to it, leading Ensign to complain — without naming Reid — that Democratic leaders weren't committed to renewable energy. Reid said there was no point in passing the bill because it would fail in the House, where Democrats are insisting that it be paid for with tax increases that Ensign and other Senate conservatives reject. Both senators insist they support the tax credits, but the fate of the package is now uncertain. Though the government projects that coal use will grow to meet rising energy demands in Nevada and around the country, Reid is adamantly opposed to plans by the state's leading utility, Sierra Pacific Resources, to build a new coal plant in eastern Nevada. Two outside companies are also pushing coal plants in the state. Coal, Reid says, is filthy, it's dirty stuff. The only way for the renewable energy industry to grow in Nevada is for coal plants to stay out, he contends. It's a point coal advocates dispute. You're not going to be able to provide enough power in the short term with renewables, said Frank Maisano, spokesman for Toquop Energy Project, one of the coal plants trying to come into Nevada over Reid's opposition. Las Vegas, Arizona, places like that — they need more power now. One low-pollution energy source Reid almost never mentions is nuclear, a sore subject in Nevada, the government's designated dumping ground for 77 million tons of radioactive waste from the rest of the nation's 104 nuclear power reactors. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
[Biofuel] Going green a growing trend among homeowners in the U.S.
Going green a growing trend among homeowners in the U.S. Aug 4, 2008 http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jeChMBpQDowhtOAvM5dbLSUPoxaA CHICAGO — The bathroom tiles are recycled wine bottles. The hardwood floors are sustainable bamboo. And the sprawling garden gets sprinkled with rainwater collected in 11-hundred-litre barrels. From its recycled plastic deck to its solar-panelled roof, everything in and about the 232 square metre home on exhibit just outside of the Museum of Science and Industry has been designed to show the public how easy it can be to incorporate environmental sustainability into their own abodes. We tried to look for ideas in every choice that we make in our homes ... hoping that everyone who goes through it will be inspired to make some change on some level, said Michelle Kaufmann, the Oakland, California-based architect who designed the SmartHome. Some people will walk away and want to do an entire new home or some people will think when they go for their towels next and go for organic linens. In fact, green housing is growing even while the overall housing market is suffering, said Nate Kredich, the council's vice president for residential market development. This year, green building is expected to represent six per cent of the U.S. residential construction industry, according to a survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction Research Analytics for the U.S. Green Building Council. That's up from just two per cent in 2005. It is happening. But the industry needs to do a better job of getting information into people's hands when they're looking for it, Kredich said. The goal of the Chicago exhibit, which runs through January, is to show visitors that saving energy and conserving resources are within reach of everyone - whether it's an entire house or a single feature, museum officials said. The modular home, which Kaufmann said uses less than half the energy and a third of the water of traditional homes, includes a kitchen with a countertop composter and a sink made from concrete and fly ash - a byproduct of burning coal. Water from the bathroom sink is diverted to the toilet, where it is used for flushing. A bicycle in the children's bedroom must be pedalled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games. Visitors receive a resource guide that tells about the function of each feature, how they're assembled and where they can be purchased. The bicycle system, for example, was homemade from parts bought on an electronics website. Jasmine Davis, 23, who visited the home with her mother said the exhibit gave her tips for her own apartment. I like not making a negative impact on the Earth, Davis said. It's got so much to be said for it because it uses nature and natural materials, said Robert Richards, 70, who visited with friends. It's open. You bring the outside in and you can even bring the inside out. It's a house built for humans. It's plausible in real life. David Johnston, who owns an international green building consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado, said the exhibit is a great way to educate the public about green possibilities, but he hopes that the home's ultramodern architecture doesn't leave visitors with the impression that green building has to be modern, weird, solar, ugly. One of the things that's fundamental to green building is that it can look like anything. It can be a regular Craftsman house or a Cape Cod house in New England or an adobe house in Santa Fe. You don't have to change what the home looks like to make it green. Anne Rashford, the museum's SmartHome project manager, said nobody expects that people will try to recreate the exhibit home. But we hope people will make informed decisions when they're building, when they're renovating, Rashford said. While it can be tough for homeowners to figure out where they're going to get the most green payback for their money, Kaufmann and Johnston agree overall energy usage and building materials will attract homeowners to a green house. Johnston suggests rolling the costs of energy-saving features into the mortgage by choosing quality insulation and solar panels during the building phase. Kaufmann says homeowners could spend $1,000 on an energy-metering system that provides a dashboard for power usage. Once I can see in real time how my behaviour translates to my usage, I can make changes, she said. These homes will actually cost less. Johnston, who has written a book on green building, said being energy efficient beyond existing building codes, conserving resources, recycling and improving indoor air quality truly make homes green. If you're very clever, if you're a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can do one room at a time and achieve your ultimate goal, he said. Kaufmann said homeowners are ready. It's no longer a question if people want to go green or not. They do, Kaufmann said. People are wanting an alternative. On the Net: * Museum of Science and Industry:
[Biofuel] Geothermal Energy Growth Continues
Geothermal Energy Growth Continues, Industry Survey Reports August 7, 2008 - Washington, DC http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/story?id=53282 A survey released by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) shows continued growth in the number of new geothermal power projects under development in the United States, a 20% increase since January of this year. The report identified 103 projects underway in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. When developed, these projects could provide nearly 4,000 MW of new electric power, enough electricity to meet the needs of roughly 4 million homes. These new projects will result in the infusion of roughly $15 billion in capital investment in the western states and will create 7,000 permanent jobs and more than 25,000 person-years of construction and manufacturing employment, says Karl Gawell, Executive Director of the Geothermal Energy Association. “The surge in new geothermal power development continues,” said Karl Gawell, GEA’s Executive Director. In January of 2008, GEA released a survey which identified 86 new projects with a potential of 3,368 MW. The new report identified 103 projects, which when completed could have up to 3,979 MW of power capacity. Also, two projects listed as under development in the January survey have since come on-line. Current geothermal capacity on-line is 2,957 MW according to the report, and with the new additions geothermal power could reach nearly 7,000 MW. Given the high reliability and capacity factors for geothermal power, this would meet the household electricity needs of the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle combined. The number of geothermal projects has been steadily increasing over the past two years, the report points out. Geothermal power production is headed to meet or exceed recent projections. “In January 2006, The Western Governors Association’s Geothermal Task Force projected 15,000 MW of geothermal power on-line by 2025, at the current pace geothermal production could exceed this estimate,” according to Gawell. The August 2008 results by state are: (State: Number of Geothermal Projects/Megawatts) Alaska: 5: 53–100 MW ; Arizona: 2: 2–20 MW; California: 21: 927.6–1036.6 MW: Colorado: 1: 10 MW, Florida: 1: 0.2–1 MW; Hawaii: 2: 8 MW; Idaho: 6: 251–326 MW; Nevada: 45: 1082.5–1901.5 MW; New Mexico: 1: 10 MW; Oregon: 11: 297.4–322.4 MW; Utah: 6: 244 MW; Washington: 1: Unspecified; Wyoming: 1: 0.2 MW. Total: 103 geothermal projects; 2885.9–3979.7 MW. The full text of the U.S. Geothermal Production and Development Update August 7, 2008 is being made available on the GEA web site at: http://www.geo-energy.org/ --- Did you know... About 6 million people in the U.S. get their household energy through geothermal technology? Half of these, about 3 million, receive electricity from geothermal power plants, and the other half use geothermal heat pumps to provide their heating and cooling needs. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Geothermal quietly gaining as clean energy source
Geothermal quietly gaining as clean energy source ASCE SmartBrief 08/12/2008 http://www.smartbrief.com While solar and wind power grab most of the headlines, geothermal power is experiencing steady but largely unnoticed growth in America, according to the Chicago Tribune. With more than 100 geothermal plants planned or under construction in the U.S., about 50,000 additional homes each year will be powered from deep within the Earth. Advocates say geothermal power is superior not only because it is constant and predictable, but also because its infrastructure is hidden underground. Chicago Tribune ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph
This I'd like to read more about. Can someone help me? -Hoagy Did you see this? Maybe you can email him. There's a diagram online: http://www.techno-preneur.net/technology/New-technologies/lmp/pic2.GIF http://www.techno-preneur.net/technology/New-technologies/lmp/pedal.htm Technology Pedal Crank Assembly Technology Description The innovation is a new extendable pedal-crank system that can be mounted on a bicycle, tricycle or other human powered vehicle. Manually driven vehicles move by the torque generated out of the force exerted by the leg of the driver on the pedal. The magnitude of torque is equal to the force multiplied by the perpendicular distance i.e. the length of the crank. Increasing the crank length makes driving difficult. The present innovation is a means to increase the length to about two times the length of an average crank without increasing or altering the radius of the circular path through which the legs of the driver move compared to that of a traditional crank system. The effective length of the cranks in this innovation extends up to two times that of a traditional crank as they slide while rotating during the active part of the movement (when force is exerted by leg) and shrinks to nearly zero during the passive movement. Therefore the torque active phase of the pedal movement is twice that generated in a traditional crank. The torque generated in this crank is two times that of a traditional crank giving increased power to the driver which can be used to increase comfort of drive, increase the speed as also increase payload without extra effort. This is very useful for a sports bicycle, bicycle for ladies, bicycle for elderly people and bicycle for everybody, manually driven vehicle for physically challenged people. It is useful to rickshaw (tricycle), flatbed (trolley), boat with a propeller (paddle boats), lawnmower, tiller, digger and several other implements that derive power from manually driven pedal-crank. With the increased torque an improved version of bicycle i.e. a new micro-personal utility vehicle in the form of a tricycle for short distant travel perhaps with a co-passenger is a reality with the present crank. Several implements have been already conceived which had not been thought feasible earlier. Potential Benefits of The Technology This pedal crank assembly amplifies the power output of manually powered vehicles by as much as 100% under the same exertion of physical force using a mechanical advantage. This increased power output could serve to eliminate the need for expensive electric motor assistance, and could even improve the quality of life of manually powered vehicle drivers. Contact details: Manoj Kumar Mondal IIT Kharagpur Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph 2 Aug, 2008, 2045 hrs IST,Moinak Mitra, ET Bureau http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Indias_gift_to_green_drive_Bicycle__40kmph/articleshow/3319246.cms NEW DELHI: India could soon take pride for reinventing the wheel and leading the global green movement! An innovation by a senior administrator at IIT-Kharagpur is helping him ride the humble bicycle at 40 km an hour and pedalling past motor vehicles on busy roads without much effort. And you could be next - cycle manufacturers are planning to launch these hot wheels commercially, very soon. Manoj Mondal is the inventor of the crank pedal-he successfully tweaked the pedal of a bicycle to an extent that it generates almost double the torque (force multiplied by the distance from the centre) than in normal circumstances . In other words, the speed of the bicycle increases from, say, 20 km/hr to 40 km/hr. His feat has already made him the toast of incubators , the green lobby and a host of companies which are coming forward to adapt Mondal's technology commercially. While the invention ushers in revolutionary intra-city commute, it cocks a snook at the fuel brigade as the inventor apprehends auto majors may just gang up to disembark his plans. I want to first launch the product in the ladies' and sports bicycle categories since speed is critical here, says Mondal, who has initiated talks with cycle brands like Atlas, TI Cycles and Hero. There's more. Tweaking the pedal to generate more torque can create 700 watts of electricity per unit, says Mondal. Now that's enough to light up 10 neons. Next, he's working on a prototype where pedalling on a stationary cycle has the potential to dig a bore deep enough to make a drain, and construction major Escorts seems to have shown interest in the new technology, says Mondal. Besides, Mondal's invention is slated to benefit rickshaw-pullers as the Centre for Rural Development has shown keenness to convert 10,000 rickshaws into the crank pedal mode this year. Though power companies haven't lined up yet, bicycle makers seem to have grasped the next wave. I'm awaiting the final prototype (from Mondal) and then
[Biofuel] U.S. geothermal lease sale raises record $28.2 mln
U.S. geothermal lease sale raises record $28.2 mln By Jasmin Melvin Aug 8, 2008 http://uk.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=UKN0847097120080808 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department said Friday it raised a record $28.2 million this week from leasing federal lands to companies for developing geothermal energy resources. Geothermal energy, harnessed from steam and hot water beneath the earth that powers turbines, generates 17 percent of the electricity that comes from renewable sources in the United States. In an auction on Tuesday, the department leased 105,211 acres in Nevada for geothermal energy use. Other states with geothermal activity are Oregon, Utah, Idaho and New Mexico. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said in a release the sale opens the way for even more geothermal development and is just one step in our continuing effort to responsibly use and develop clean, renewable energy. The highest bid for a parcel came from Standard Steam Trust LLC, which paid $3.2 million for a 3,560-acre parcel, while Magma Energy US Corp paid $6.9 million for three parcels offered as a block at $585 per acre. A 2,707-acre parcel sold for $1,000 per acre to ENEL Geothermal LLC. Half of the revenues will go to Nevada, while 25 percent goes to the counties where the leases are located and the remaining 25 percent goes to the Bureau of Land Management to help cover the cost of processing the leases. Geothermal lease sales have brought in $57 million in bids for 245,695 acres leased under a competitive leasing provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. An additional 181,340 acres have been leased through 117 noncompetitive agreements through the Bureau of Land Management. About 90 percent of potential U.S. geothermal resources are located on public lands. (Editing by Walter Bagley) ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph
This I'd like to read more about. Can someone help me? -Hoagy Keith Addison wrote: Did you see this? Maybe you can email him. There's a diagram online: http://www.techno-preneur.net/technology/New-technologies/lmp/pic2.GIF http://www.techno-preneur.net/technology/New-technologies/lmp/pedal.htm Thank you Keith. Thats excellent. I'll pass it on to others interested. -Hoagy ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph
it looks like the crank pedal is on a sliding shaft that extends during the power stroke and retracts at bottom center, effectively giving you a longer lever in the same pedal radius of a normal bike. sweet. Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:22:12 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph This I'd like to read more about. Can someone help me? -Hoagy Keith Addison wrote: Did you see this? Maybe you can email him. There's a diagram online: Thank you Keith. Thats excellent. I'll pass it on to others interested. -Hoagy ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ _ Reveal your inner athlete and share it with friends on Windows Live. http://revealyourinnerathlete.windowslive.com?locale=en-usocid=TXT_TAGLM_WLYIA_whichathlete_us ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph
If you have a single speed bike, like alot of them in the world, this might be useful, but with the multi geared bikes common in the US now, we just shift gears to one that gives us more mechanical advantage. It's a different method of accomplishing the same thing, but there is still no way to get more power out of the same person without them exerting more energy... Z On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 4:42 AM, Jason Mier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: it looks like the crank pedal is on a sliding shaft that extends during the power stroke and retracts at bottom center, effectively giving you a longer lever in the same pedal radius of a normal bike. sweet. Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:22:12 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph This I'd like to read more about. Can someone help me? -Hoagy Keith Addison wrote: Did you see this? Maybe you can email him. There's a diagram online: Thank you Keith. Thats excellent. I'll pass it on to others interested. -Hoagy ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ _ Reveal your inner athlete and share it with friends on Windows Live. http://revealyourinnerathlete.windowslive.com?locale=en-usocid=TXT_TAGLM_WLYIA_whichathlete_us ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080813/d0cecc22/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph
Tell me whats wrong with this idea, please. OK, additional weight and friction but I'm not sure it would really bother me. -Hoagy Jason Mier wrote: it looks like the crank pedal is on a sliding shaft that extends during the power stroke and retracts at bottom center, effectively giving you a longer lever in the same pedal radius of a normal bike. sweet. Keith wrote: http://www.techno-preneur.net/technology/New-technologies/lmp/pic2.GIF http://www.techno-preneur.net/technology/New-technologies/lmp/pedal.htm Technology Pedal Crank Assembly ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph
For a bit more detail.. http://www.indiainnovates.in/Medalists2008.pdf On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 11:24 AM, MH [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This I'd like to read more about. Can someone help me? -Hoagy --- India's gift to green drive: Bicycle @ 40kmph 2 Aug, 2008, 2045 hrs IST,Moinak Mitra, ET Bureau http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Indias_gift_to_green_drive_Bicycle__40kmph/articleshow/3319246.cms NEW DELHI: India could soon take pride for reinventing the wheel and leading the global green movement! An innovation by a senior administrator at IIT-Kharagpur is helping him ride the humble bicycle at 40 km an hour and pedalling past motor vehicles on busy roads without much effort. And you could be next — cycle manufacturers are planning to launch these hot wheels commercially, very soon. Manoj Mondal is the inventor of the crank pedal—he successfully tweaked the pedal of a bicycle to an extent that it generates almost double the torque (force multiplied by the distance from the centre) than in normal circumstances . In other words, the speed of the bicycle increases from, say, 20 km/hr to 40 km/hr. His feat has already made him the toast of incubators , the green lobby and a host of companies which are coming forward to adapt Mondal's technology commercially. While the invention ushers in revolutionary intra-city commute, it cocks a snook at the fuel brigade as the inventor apprehends auto majors may just gang up to disembark his plans. I want to first launch the product in the ladies' and sports bicycle categories since speed is critical here, says Mondal, who has initiated talks with cycle brands like Atlas, TI Cycles and Hero. There's more. Tweaking the pedal to generate more torque can create 700 watts of electricity per unit, says Mondal. Now that's enough to light up 10 neons. Next, he's working on a prototype where pedalling on a stationary cycle has the potential to dig a bore deep enough to make a drain, and construction major Escorts seems to have shown interest in the new technology, says Mondal. Besides, Mondal's invention is slated to benefit rickshaw-pullers as the Centre for Rural Development has shown keenness to convert 10,000 rickshaws into the crank pedal mode this year. Though power companies haven't lined up yet, bicycle makers seem to have grasped the next wave. I'm awaiting the final prototype (from Mondal) and then intend to take it to the dealers en route the market, says R K Kapur, chief general manager of technology at Atlas Cycles. Vasant Devaji of TI Cycles claims that a meeting with Mondal is scheduled next month to take the project forward. For the time being , the marketing muscle is being provided by the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme that was launched in March last year jointly by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas. This year, Mondal's crank pedal won the silver at the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme. We are helping Mondal to tie up with the Hero Group and are also in touch with the Ministry of Rural Development to roll out his invention, says Nirankar Saxena, additional director at Ficci. As stewardship of the environment takes on an ever-increasing importance for the global community, we have seen great promise for such inventions to increase energy efficiency, save precious resources, and reduce pollution, says Ray O. Johnson , CTO of Lockheed Martin. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ -- Regards, Jim -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080813/9ef9f8a1/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Jatropha -- Reality or Hype?
If reality, can it be done in the US or only developing nations? ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Charles in GM 'disaster' warning
Hi All ; These danger are very real and the warnings are well taken, but please understand that they are the result of the good intentions of the good GM companies. My question always is (sorry for sounding like a broken record, errr I mean CD) : if these are the results of good intentions from good corporations trying to help us, how much worse will the results from bad intentions from bad corporations or groups? ie. someone or group who are deliberately trying to create havoc and destruction, and there are many, for whatever reason? BR Peter G. Thailand ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Charles in GM 'disaster' warning
Good or bad, GM genes will cross over. It took good old mother nature eons to evolve the current gene pool. We cannot possibly know the long term effects. And we cannot know the long term effects of our consumption of modified food. We evolved along with these foods, and not it's not the same food. I'd be worried. John Guag Meister wrote: Hi All ; These danger are very real and the warnings are well taken, but please understand that they are the result of the good intentions of the good GM companies. My question always is (sorry for sounding like a broken record, errr I mean CD) : if these are the results of good intentions from good corporations trying to help us, how much worse will the results from bad intentions from bad corporations or groups? ie. someone or group who are deliberately trying to create havoc and destruction, and there are many, for whatever reason? BR Peter G. Thailand ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Why the Planet is Sick
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WTPIS.php 13/08/08 Why the Planet is Sick Prof. Peter Saunders reviews Stan Cox. Sick Planet. Pluto Press, London, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7453-2741-9 £45.00. , ISBN 978-0-7453-2740-2, £14.99 (paperback) pp219. Familiar territory with a new slant There are currently many books on the harm that is being done to our health and to our environment. Most of them cover much the same ground: chemicals, agribusiness, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and so on. This is no bad thing; every author manages to find some new information or put a new slant on things. There is also no shortage of new outrages coming to light, as regular readers of SiS will know. In Sick Planet, Stan Cox covers a lot of familiar territory and highlights points that others have missed. His targets include disease mongering (the practice of convincing people that they are suffering from some ailment that requires a drug), the marketing of unnecessary food products such as bottled water, the pollution caused by overuse of fertilisers, the hazards of fluoropolymer chemicals such as Teflon, and more. Because he has spent substantial time in India, he is able to describe some of what has been happening there. The dangers to health caused by the pharmaceutical industry in developed countries are given wide coverage in the popular media; but we are not told about the serious damage being done in the Patancheru area of India where so many of the world's bulk drugs and intermediate compounds are made. There, sickness rates are more than double the national average, and good farmland is uncultivated because the groundwater has become unfit even for irrigation. As Cox will convince you if you do not already know, much of what is happening to our planet is due to human ignorance and greed, expressed through the agency of big corporations and with the connivance of governments. Of course ignorance and greed are common human failings, and this might lead us to conclude that there is little we can do to save ourselves. Cox disagrees, and this makes him go beyond what most other writers on the subject have done. Cox approaches the problems of the planet in the same way an accident investigator deals with a serious incident. If the investigator finds that the cause was human error, he does not stop there because that's not enough to prevent it happening again. He is supposed to ask why the error was made and why no one noticed it in time to do something about it. If the plane crashed because the pilot pulled the wrong lever, and if the lever he pulled was very close to the one he should have pulled, we can blame the pilot, but if we don't want similar crashes to happen again, we had better change the layout of the controls. In the same way, Cox argues, rather than simply blaming corporations and their CEOs for being greedy, we should ask if there is something about the organisation of our society that encourages them to be greedy, and makes it more likely that greedy people become CEOs. He concludes that the root cause of the problem is capitalism. Capitalism is to blame Cox draws chiefly on the work of three economists to support his case. He starts from Karl Marx's argument that growth is essential to capitalism. A capitalist economy cannot tick over in a steady state; it must continuously expand if it is to persist. From Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, he takes the idea that the sum total of our economic activities can only accelerate the thermodynamic decay which is characteristic of all systems. Finally, following William Stanley Jevons, he observes that efficiency generally increases, rather than decreases consumption. If we make cars that get more miles per gallon, we drive more and end up using even more petrol than before. Now put these three key ideas together. We could restrict our use of resources to a sustainable level; that won't prevent them from being exhausted in the long run, but it may make the long run very long indeed and ensure that the Earth remains reasonably comfortable in the meantime. Except that we cannot do that under a capitalist system, because capitalism requires constant growth. We might hope that ever increasing efficiency could save us, by allowing the economy to grow without increasing our use of resources, but experience shows that improving efficiency makes things worse, not better. That leaves the conclusion that we have to give up on capitalism. Is it really as simple as that? You will obviously want to read Cox's argument in his own words before you decide. I also expect many economists would take issue with him on various points and feel that he has left out far too much. All the same, his conclusions do resonate with what we see around us. We have big corporations striving to get even bigger, to create demand for products we do not need at a time when one in seven of our fellow human beings goes to
Re: [Biofuel] Jatropha -- Reality or Hype?
If reality, can it be done in the US or only developing nations? I wonder what you're talking about? Jatropha is certainly a reality, it's something that exists, it's not just hype, it's a tree. So? There's a lot of information on jatropha in the archives. Try this, eg: Jatropha - the agrofuel of the poor? (160 kb) http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=480 GRAIN, July 2007 Keith ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
