Green Roofs Initiative

Green Roofing Just Got Easier | Gardening | This Old House – 1.

Everyone loves an option that cuts out extra labor, materials, and middlemen. That’s why the eco-obsessed editors here at This Old House had to see GreenGrid, a DIY green-roofing kit. Its freestanding modules ostensibly give the same benefits as green roofs the experts install—if your roof’s already sound, fairly flat, and watertight. Don’t bet on the same polish as with a pro team. But you may see the usual improved cooling and heating and reduced rainwater runoff.

The

search giant has decided to invest its pocket change into two wind farms located in North Dakota.

via Good Move! Google Invests $38.8 Million in Two North Dakota Wind Farms : TreeHugger.

Vertical Farming That Does Work

Parabienta is a wall garden panel system that provides a growth medium to support plants and allow them to grow along vertical surfaces. Vegetated vertical panels help to reduce solar gain on walls, much the same as green roofs help reduce the heat island effect and lower temperatures on roofs. As an added benefit, Parabienta panels have also been shown to help buffer noise, particularly desirable in an urban environment.  It might not grow tomatoes, but it will add some welcome green to an urban context.

Parabienta was originally developed by the Shimizu Corporation in Japan. But, while they appear to have used it on projects themselves, the company’s website has only a single brief mention of the material. Although it has been around for a few years now, it doesn’t appear to be readily available as a product for project use, though it was reported that the company was hoping to grow sales of the system (at a cost of about $80 per square foot, including installation and irrigation) to a few million dollars per year.

via: Transmaterial

EnergyStar Program Flunks Test | Center for Media and Democracy.

Current wind technology deployed in nonenvironmentally protected areas could generate 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, according to the new analysis conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and consulting firm AWS Truewind.

via America’s Wind Energy Potential Triples in New Estimate | Wired Science | Wired.com.

North America’s Greenest Building?.

The University of British Columbia is claiming the title of North America’s greenest building for its impressive $37 million Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), currently under construction and to be completed in 2011.  What makes this building the greenest?

According to UBC, it will be a net energy producer with fuel cells, a solar PV array, solar hot water heaters, ground source heat pumps and a biomass co-generation system on site.  The building will collect, store and use rainwater and stormwater, so that it’s not only providing its own electricity needs, but all of its water needs as well.

CIRS will be a testing ground for sustainable building technologies and all activity, including energy use and human behavior within the building, will be logged.  It will also host simulations and performances to educate the public on sustainability as part of its Group Decision Environment Theatre.

Sounds pretty amazing to me, but we’ll have to see how it stacks up when it’s completed to know if it’s truly the “greenest.”

via Ecofriend

IBM’s High-Efficiency Solar Cell Made from Abundant Materials – GoodCleanTech.

IBM has created a high-efficiency solar cell made from abundant materials.  The cell achieves 9.6 percent efficiency, which is 40 percent higher than other attempts at natural solar cells.

The cell is made from copper, tin zinc, sulfur and sellenium opposed.  Solar cells have been created with greater efficiency but they made with costly or rare materials that could hold back the technology.

Smaller, Distributed Solar Projects are Gaining Momentum.

While the BLM is facing a virtual clog of large, desert-based solar project proposals, smaller, distributed solar projects are popping up at an impressive rate.  In just the past few weeks, 1,300 MW worth of these projects have been announced or approved, which could equal about the same energy output of a big nuclear power plant.

The larger, more ambitious solar power plans have many environmental and land-use hurdles to clear, while these smaller plans, set to occupy commercial and residential rooftops, areas near electrical substations and urban areas, don’t have the same obstacles in their way.  Also, the smaller projects are cheaper, meaning more utilities can afford to implement them as they’re scrambling to meet renewable energy mandates.

Arno Harris, the CEO of Recurrent Energy, a company that has signed a contract with Southern California Edison for 50 MW of small-scale solar, summed it up like this:

“Distributed solar is faster on permitting, on environmental issues and interconnection to the grid.  It offers a safety valve for utilities who don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket.”

The projects, anywhere from 50 to 500 MW each, are mainly concentrated in California, though New York Power Authority is planning 100 MW installation around the state as well.

via Green Inc.

Eco Tech: Airate, Aesthetically Pleasing Wind Turbine For Green Urbanities – Ecofriend.