bemoreeco

The manufacturer of a hydrogen car unveiled in London yesterday Tuesday will make its designs available online so the cars can be built and improved locally. The Riversimple car can go 80km/hr (50mph) and travels 322km (200mi) per re-fuelling, with an efficiency equivalent to 300 miles to the gallon.

A new type of fuel cell developed by Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies has resulted in the two-seater zero emissions hydrogen-electric city car with an expected fuel consumption equivalent to 360 miles per US gallon, six times better than today’s best available hybrid electric vehicles.

The small city concept car, developed by Riversimple, has four electric motors and a 6kW fuel cell which maximizes energy efficiency by utilising lightweight composite materials, eliminating heavy mechanical components and by networking fuel cells with ultra capacitors and a 60 percent efficient regenerative braking system. As a result, 240 miles (390 km) can be traveled on one small tank of hydrogen weighing only 2.2 lbs.

Next year, Riversimple aims to release 10 prototypes in a UK city which has yet to be confirmed.

The design of the car will be published on the web so that versions can be developed to suit local requirements in urban areas. The cars will be leased to users rather than sold, with owners paying for a maintenance, support and fuel package. The makers claim the all-up cost of the car could be as little as £200 ($315) a month.

Riversimple has partnered with gas supply company BOC to install hydrogen stations for the cars in the city where the prototypes are launched.

Every home in the UK must be fitted with an “energy smart meter” by 2020 to reduce energy use and eliminate estimated bills, under plans revealed by the government this week.

The new energy smart meters track real-time energy usage and send data about consumption in households and small businesses direct to utility companies. They could save suppliers and customers £2.5-£3.6bn over the next 20 years, according to the government, but will cost more than double this to install.

Launching a new consultation today on how the energy smart meters should be introduced, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc) claimed the compulsory scheme will be the biggest electricity and gas smart metering project in the world.

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, said: “The energy smart meters most of us have in our homes were designed for a different age, before climate change. Now we need to get smarter with our energy. This is a big project affecting 26 million homes, and several million businesses, so it’s important we design a system that brings best value to everyone involved.”

Source & Full Article; The Guardian

To purchase energy saving gadgets <click here>

At present ECOutlet are giving 10% off all Efergy Energy Smart Meter.

While in London on Wednesday the Team at BeMoreEco decided to make a quick visit to Grand Designs Live at Excell in London. Are main aim was to have a look at the Eco buildings which were being showcased at the event.

We visited the future-build theatre by ECO2H2OUSE.  This eco house demonstrated the techologies being used in the building of a low/zero carbon home. In the UK today, an average new house which uses the technology involved will consume 77% less energy for space heating when compared with one built to standard building regulations.

The Eco House uses innovative low-energy technology that has been designed to meet the passive house energy standards and levels of air tightness. The Passive house standard is as follow;

    * Compact form & good insulation

    * Southern orientation & shade considerations

    * Energy-efficient window glazing & frames

    * Highly efficient heat recovery form exhaust air using and air to air heat exchanger

    * Energy-saving household appliances

    * Total energy demand for space heating and cooling of less than 15kWh/m2/yr

The second eco house we toured was the ‘EcoHub’. This cute mini dome-shaped eco pod offers the last word in super energy efficiency. Clad in sustainable wooden or recycled tyre tiles, this two-bedroom, double pod home uses mirco-renewable technology to achives a zero carbon rating. The people at EcoHub are committed to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint. We got on well with them as this is the same aim at we have at MoreEco.

The third eco house we were inspired by, was the landARK. If you have a scrap of land, maybe a back garden, a hillside, a coppice clearing, or maybe eveen a corner of somebody’s car park (plus a few weeks holiday) then this i agreat fun eco house to have. All you need is a rubber mallet, a tape measure, screwdrives, a powerdrive drill and enough peace to read the manual. Checlkout the pictures we have taken.

Finally, the last house we visited was the Cloud 9 stand. These timber eco homes are again made with sustainable timber and come with solar panels, heat recovery ventilation, large windows and open space plan. energy bills for these house are less than £400 per year.

We have uploaded pictures of the Grand Designs Live event taken from the trustworthy BeMoreEco iPhone to MoreEco Flickr account. The slide show is below.

Cambridge University has launched this impressive video to coincide with Earth Day. It is part “how to” guide to reducing your energy consumption around the home and part sober warning of the scale of action required to combat the climate crisis.

Physicist David MacKay expresses his frustration at the hopelessly small-scale measures - such as cutting down on plastic bags or unplugging your phone charger - that some promote as solutions to the climate crisis. “The idea that these are the number one things we should be talking about when we are addressing the energy problem - it drove me crazy,” he said. “This is twaddle and it is distracting us from talking about serious change that would actually make a difference.”

Watch the Video below for the full story. It a must view!

 Full article - The Guardian

Today The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has delivered his 2009 Budget statement. Below we have listed the points which have a green, eco, or natural aspect to them. The question is the 2009 budget green enough as this could be out last chance. Vote below on what you think.

• From next month until March 2010 motorists to get £2,000 discount on new cars if they trade in cars older than 10 years.
• £4bn of new capital from European Investment Bank for low carbon stuff.
• Alistair Darling promises at least two and maybe four carbon capture projects with “new funding mechanism”.
• Britain commits to cut carbon emissions by 34% by 2020.
• Opening up north sea for further expansion, including offshore wind and carbon capture & storage with £525m for offshore wind projects over the next two years.
• Budget offering £500m to help housing industry of which £100m of that is for local authorities to build energy efficient housing.
• Fuel duty to rise by 2p per litre from September, then by 1p a litre above indexation each April for the next four years. May be more of is will drive our cars more better.
• An extra £1bn to help combat climate change by supporting low-carbon industries.
• £435m support for energy efficiency schemes for homes, firms and public buildings.
• £405m to encourage low-carbon energy and advanced green manufacturing.

Click Here for Budget Documents.

Here are ten simple tools to help your organization save energy and the environment. And you do not even have to be a tree hugger to do it!

1. Utilize PG&E;’s online energy analyzer.
2. Set your computers to go to “sleep” during the day after 10 minutes of non-use. Remember that the screensaver does not save power. This can reduce computer usage by 70%.
3. Replace old light fixtures and bulbs for energy saving ones. These use two-thirds less energy than regular ones. 
4. Save paper. Consider placing your company manuals and policies online. Have your copy machine defaulted to double sided copies. Make it a habit to recycle your paper with blue trash cans. REMEMBER: Be sure that your cleaning company is recycling the paper and not just putting it into the regular waste.
5. GO GREEN with HR Logic. Obtain employment forms and information online.
6. Request paperless bills from your vendors and pay online.
7. Consider telecommuting. If you are a company that requires meetings with employees in different locations you might want to think teleconferencing. Although, some meetings may require face-to-face, many do not.
8. Recycle your toner. Many suppliers, such as Staples, have wonderful programs that can assist you.
9. Are you purchasing fair trade coffee for your office? 
10. Mobile phone recycling. 

Source Merchant Circle

The building’s owners have unveiled a $20 million project to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 metric tons during the next 15 years — equal to the annual emissions of 17,500 cars. It is hoped the plan will also save $4.4 million annually in energy costs.  The upgrades include replacing all of the skyscraper’s 6,500 windows with a type of insulated glass that reduces summer heat load and winter heat loss.  Extra insulation will be installed behind radiators to save heat. Other changes are planned for the building’s ventilation, chilled water and lighting systems.

Former President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg both attended the announcement on the Empire State Building’s 80th floor and said they hoped the environmental changes at the iconic skyscraper would serve as a model for buildings around the world. Mr Clinton, whose foundation is helping with the environmental upgrades, said the only way to get property owners worldwide to make over their buildings is by setting an attention-getting example.

“We have to prove it’s good economics, and we have to prove we know how to do it,” he said. “Every person on Earth who cares about this knows about the Empire State Building.”

Experts say retrofitting old buildings to be more environmentally friendly is an important step in reducing levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. In New York City, emissions generated by the operation of the more than 900,000 buildings citywide contribute 79 per cent of the city’s total.

Work already has begun on the Empire State Building, with the upgrades to the its systems expected to be completed by the end of 2010 — longer than it took to build the skyscraper, which opened in 1931 after a year and 45 days of work.

All of the building’s green projects are expected to be finished by the end of 2013.

Mr Bloomberg, who has set a goal to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 30 per cent by 2030, said the famous landmark shows “the rest of the city that existing buildings, no matter how tall they are, no matter how old they are, can take steps to reduce their energy consumption.”

It would be greener and cheaper for many motorists to keep their car for as long as it is reliable rather than trade it for a new car, according the Environmental Transport Association (ETA).

Manufacturers make great virtue of the environmental credentials of their vehicles, but by the time the average new car leaves the showroom and before its key has been turned in the ignition, its design, manufacture and marketing may have accounted for 6 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

A spokesperson for the ETA said: “Swapping a thirsty and polluting older car for a lighter, more fuel-efficient model can make environmental sense if you are doing a high mileage, but if you do relatively few miles it makes sense to keep your car for as long as it is reliable. The greater your annual mileage, the greater the potential environmental saving from changing to a more fuel-efficient model.”

Extend the life of your car
Changing a car frequently has a financial as well as environmental cost; drivers who buy a car new and then trade it in at three years incur a cost of as much as 50% in depreciation. A good car warranty from a reputable company can make your driving greener by extending the useful life of your car.

The hidden environmental costs of driving
Although progress continues to be made by car manufacturers in terms of the amount of energy and water they use and the amount of their waste that goes to landfill, these factors continue to have a significant impact on the ‘lifetime’ environmental impact of cars.

According to industry figures some 80–90% of a vehicle’s lifetime energy consumption takes place during its ‘in-use’ phase, but this is contradicted by the research, ‘Life-cycle energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of world cars’, which comes to the conclusion that:

“The tank-to-wheel fuel consumption is only part of the story. Petroleum and fuel transport and production consume energy, as well as car manufacturing and scrapping and the maintenance and infrastructure. The total energy consumption of car use is on average 54.7% higher than the tank-to-wheel energy consumption alone.”

The lifetime driving distance of an average European car is 194 787 km. If the average car emits 160g of CO2 per km, this gives an in-use total of 31 tonnes of CO2. According to the research quoted above, this gives a figure for manufacturing, scrapping, maintenance and infrastructure of approximately 17 tonnes.

The figure of 6 tonnes before the average car leaves the showroom mentioned at the top of the page represents a conservative estimate based on the figures above.

Source - ETA

For NASA’ prestigious Create the future Design Contest, designer Tai Chiem came up with this Movito electric scooter. Integrating clean and green technologies along with a stylish design, Movito feature sleek aerodynamics and an ability to transform itself from a scooter to a highly efficient pod-like urban vehicle.

Powered by an all-electric engine with daft rechargeable batteries and a completely detachable base, the lightweight Movito is not just a cool electric scooter for the future and today’s roads, but also an efficient and clean carrier for your daily commuting.

Source & Pictures - Greenpacks

Experts say only a fraction of the Sahara, probably the size of a small country, would need to be covered to produce enough energy to supply the whole of Europe. Written by David Adam at the Guardian.

European countries could transform their electricity supplies within a decade by investing in a giant network of solar panels in the Sahara desert, an expert told a global warming conference in Copenhagen.

Dr Anthony Patt of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Africa said some £50bn of government investment was needed over the next decade to make the scheme a reality. That would convince private companies that power from the Sahara was both feasible and an attractive investment, he said.

In the long term, such a plan, combined with strings of windfarms along the north Africa coast, could “supply Europe with all the energy it needs”.

He said technological advances combined with falling costs have made it realistic to consider north Africa as Europe’s main source of imported energy.

“The sun is very strong there and it’s very reliable. There is starting to be a growing number of cost estimates of both wind and concentrated solar power for North Africa….that start to compare favourably with alternative technologies. The cost of moving [electricity] long distances has really come down.”

He said only a fraction of the Sahara, probably the size of a small country, would need to be covered to produce enough energy to supply the whole of Europe.

The results are the first findings of a major research effort, together with experts at the European Climate Forum and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, to judge whether such a Sahara solar plan is realistic. Patt said the team was looking at questions of security and governance, as well as ways to pay for the technology. The full results will be presented to governments later this year.

He said sunshine in the Sahara is twice as strong as in Spain and is a constant resource that is rarely blocked by clouds even in the winter. The scheme would use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays onto a thin pipe containing either water or salt. The rays boil the water or melt the salt and the resulting energy used to power turbines.

Unlike wind power, which usually has to be used immediately because of the cost of storing the electricity generated, the hot water and salt can be stored for several hours. Trials of such concentrated solar power plants are planned for Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Dubai, but Libya and Tunisia could also be considered.

Patt said that starting such a scheme would not be all plain sailing though. There would likely be opposition from local communities across Europe who unhappy about transmission cables installed near their homes. Piecemeal national transmission networks could also pose a problem.

The findings were revealed at the Copenhagen Climate Congress, a special three-day summit aimed at updating the latest climate science ahead of global political negotiations in December over a successor to the Kyoto treaty.