Renewable Heat N.Y.

There are new incentives for homeowners and businesses to update old heating furnaces in New York in favor of more wood heating. Renewable Heat N.Y. is a $27 million initiative that will spread the use of sustainable, high-efficiency, low-emission wood heating in New York. This initiative will also develop a more clean technology manufacturing sector in New York, a skilled installer base and sustainably harvested wood fuels from forests.

This means that wood pellet stoves should increase in the state. The incentives for residencies are $1,000 or up to $1,500 for income-qualified homeowners. In addition, residential customers and small commercial customers are also able to receive a $4,000 incentive for the recycling of old outdoor/indoor wood boilers and an additional 20% of installed costs of up to $4,000. Small commercial customers can also receive an incentive of up to 25% of total installed, up to $100,000, for the installation of a large pellet boiler with thermal storage. Large commercial customers are eligible for up to 20% of the installed cost, up to $100,000 for the installation of a large pellet boiler with thermal storage. Large customers can receive an incentive of up to 25% of the installed cost, up to $150,000, for the installation of a tandem pellet boiler with thermal storage.

This energy and natural gas provider serves 40% of upstate New York, NYSEG are helping spread this initiative, and you can learn more about this story from their web resources here: http://www.lookupstateny.com/WhoWeAre/nysegsnewyork.html

Source: http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/10717/n-y-announces-biomass-thermal-incentives-rps-solicitation

 

 

Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy, #NASA Chief Scientist and #JPL’s Europa Study Scientist talk about #Europa!

Bill Nye Did a Reddit #AMA (ask me anything) on Tuesday along with two others to talk about Jupiter’s moon Europa which might have had, or might still have extraterrestrial life! Bill fans have been talking all week about his inspiring answers, the way that he got them interested in science as youngsters, Europa and much anticipated new Bill shows that he hinted at!

The entire AMA conversation is here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2arlx5/i_am_bill_nye_the_science_guy_and_ceo_of_the/

Bill tells hilarious jokes, like this one:

 

And really sheds light on how important it is to discover more about Mars.

Bill also let people know what he’s been up to lately. Bill is the CEO of the Planetary Society, he’s talked about having another Science Guy show, his new book that comes out in November, and many more highlights that can be seen here:

Bill is a beloved teacher who’s series lives strong in classrooms. We’re eager to see what Europa has up its sleeve.

 

 

Source: http://www.themarysue.com/bill-nye-europa-ama/

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@harleydavidson Coveted #LiveWire Electric #Motorcycle Story

Harley-Davidson announced a new, super-fast, sleek electric motorcycle that is soon to go into production.

( Electric Engine on LiveWire )

Handmade demonstration models of Harley-Davidson’s first electric motorcycle, LiveWire, were shown in New York at an invitation-only event. Harley’s research facility is in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and it’s designed to go from 0 to 60 in less than four seconds.

( LiveWire on the road )

From a business perspective, it has been said that there is almost zero market for a full-sized electric bike, so one common thought is that Harley has the marketing power to create demand for full-sized electric bikes. Not only is Harley going to generate some demand, they will also work to lower costs, build charging stations, and to improve technology that will in-turn, help all of the players in the market. In 2012 Harley sold 260,000 bikes, and Zero Motorcycles, the top seller of full-sized, high-powered electric bikes sold only 2,400 electric bikes in 2013.

The President of Haley, Matt Levatich said that technology in regards to the electric bikes is expected to improve and that Harley is more interested in the long-term potential than immediate demand. With the increase in sustainability and environmental trends over the years, Levatich explains that these trends are part of the lifestyle and the requirements of riders. Harley’s decision really puts electric motorcycles on the map since no one can tell how big this industry will be or how significant it will be but Harley has the resources to make it humongous.

 

( Hand-built LiveWire )

( Source: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140707/LIFE02/407070303/-1/SITEMAP )

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Huge innovation in low #energy #homes today is #FLEXLABS ‘s ribbon-cutting ceremony!

Bet you’ve never seen anything like this before…

 

The new FLEXLAB at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is open for business! It is the world’s first energy use lab that will help builders and manufactures test entire building systems down to the component level on a significant scale. The FLEXLAB’s ribbon cutting ceremony was on July 10, 2014.

Photo by Eric Soladay

According to the FLEXLAB, there is a problem that buildings are designed to be energy efficient, but once they are being used they end up using a lot more energy than was planned. A new study even pointed out that energy efficient buildings sometimes use more than twice the energy than was expected based on their design. This lab offers solutions for people who bring products to test out and want to use all of the lab’s equipment to do so, to people who want to bring their product to test out with their own machinery and equipment.

Current projects involve measuring energy usage for the Genentech building, PG&E and more!

The lab has 4 stations (shown in the video above) to accommodate a variety of testing scenarios including:

1. “Test-drive technologies”

2. “Individual circuits and meters”

3. “Lighting and plug-load elements”

4. “On-site training”

5. “Compression testing”

and more.

Here’s an except from the lab’s website about what they offer:

FLEXLAB is the first test bed in the world that can evaluate the energy efficiency of major building systems, as an integrated system, under real-world conditions. Stakeholders can evaluate energy-efficient building technologies individually or as integrated systems in advance of building projects or retrofits, in order to:

• Optimize integrated systems to maximize energy savings
• Ensure occupant comfort and user-friendliness
• Verify cost-benefit numbers
• Train building operators
• Build confidence in new technologies

( Source: http://flexlab.lbl.gov/ )

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#Troubleshooting worm bins for composting

Earlier this week, we posted about a how you can vermicompost and create, rich, anti-fungal earth for your gardening! Well, the info graphic that we posted is Sustainable America’s most popular infographic this year, so they made a trouble shooting worm bin guide and sent is to us!

For those of you who struggle to keep your worms happy or have questions about gardening with this compost or worm casings, please see this article.

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Story from Green Halo and The Economist about increasing #deforestation in #Indonesia

Between 2000 to 2012 in Indonesia 16m hectares (roughly the same area as Greece) experienced deforestation. Of that, 38% or 6m hectares was primary forest, the most valuable in terms of carbon and biodiversity.

Corrupt local politicians and army officers have been selling off forest land to be “cleared for palm-oil and paper-pulp plantations, illegal logging and much else”.

This land is usually cleared by burning the forests down, resulting in a thick and deadly haze cloud that travels across the lands which even caused Singapore and Malaysia to have the worst haze ever on record.

(Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/07/indonesia-and-environment#sthash.tzQ5NgWv.dpbs

And

http://mygreenhalo.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/indonesia-had-16m-hectares-of-deforestation-from-2000-to-2012-and-more-from-the-economist/ )

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#Gardening from recycled items!

We just found a webpage that shows gardening made with recycled materials (which if you saw the blog about 2 months ago, you know we LOVE). Gardening from recycled items inspiration and ideas are posted here along with the links:

Sources:

http://www.greenerideal.com/lifestyle/0626-diy-gardening-ideas-recycled-items-infographic/

http://strumicaonline.net/?p=5817

http://how-to-recycle.blogspot.com/2013/08/garden-decorations-of-recycled-old.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Recycle-Eggshells-in-Gardening-Activities

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#July4th bet you didn’t know #Independenceday short video from the History Channel

In 1777 Congress authorized the use of fireworks for the 4th of July, in addition New York has the biggest fireworks celebration in the USA which you might have attended or seen online. It’s also one of the 4 holidays that are celebrated on the same calander day each year in the USA, and 3 presidents have passed away on the 4th of July as well. For more interest facts including the birth of our celebrations, please check out this link and this short, fun, video.

Click the video or here:

http://www.history.com/topics/july-4th/videos/bet-you-didnt-know-independence-day

Tibetan lama- Ogyen Trinley Dorje speaks up about Tibetan Buddhists’ #environmental #cause

Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Tibetan lama who, it has been said might assume the mantle of Tibetan spiritual leadership after the life of the Dalai Lama told the Telegraph in this fascinating video about how important glaciers are to the Tibetan cause. This is major environmental news as Ogyen Trinley Dorje is helping more people understand the Tibetan cause.

The Himalayas are sacred in Buddhism and they are of religious significance as well. A number of Tibetan Buddhist sites are located in the Himalayas including the residence of the Dalai Lama.

The World Wildlife Fund’s Sacred Earth program and a network of 50 Buddhist monasteries held the 5th Khoryug Conference on Environmental Protection in the Himalayas last year. This even taught Buddhist monks and nuns how to protect local water sources and how to recharge groundwater by using techniques such as rainwater harvesting.

 

To see this awesome video, click here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/tibet/10901124/The-Tibetan-cause-is-an-environmental-issue.html

 

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Floating windfarms are going towards the deep ocean with the strongest winds to help #Europe with #energy

Jorge Moreira da Silva, Portugal’s energy and environment minister, told the Guardian: “It isn’t just an energy sector, it’s an industrial sector, an innovation sector and a regional development sector.” Moreira da Silva explained that Portugal has better wind and sun than other countries and so he is trying to make Portugal a key supplier of renewable energy to Europe. He called the cheaper energy combined with the fact that amount of jobs that can be created in Portugal as a result of wind energy a win-win. His plan also strategically sets Europe free from some if not all of the Russian gas that they currently use.

Giant wind turbines are now easier to build since they no longer require foundations and they can easily be placed in the deep ocean where the winds are the strongest on the planet. Some call wind turbines in the ocean “floating windfarms” and believe that this method should be used around the world to fuel every country.

The UK currently uses the most offshore windfarms but now, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in floating turbine research and development. Besides the fact that floating windfarms can be placed in deep ocean areas, these turbines can also be remotely controlled to move to a site that has the best wind. Morton Eeks has a plan to tow five 6MW turbines to the sea in Scotland as early as 2016.

 

(Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/23/drifting-off-the-coast-of-portugal-the-frontrunner-in-the-global-race-for-floating-windfarms)

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