Unfill The Land Fill

Eco Factor: Prefab classroom conserves, collects and generates natural resources.

Designed by award-winning design firm Anderson Anderson Architecture, the “Energy Neutral Portable Classroom” aims to provide an optimized educational environment for students and teachers, while keeping sustainability principals in mind. It collects, generates and conserves natural resources, including electrical energy, daylight, wind energy, and rainwater. The prefabricated building includes a steel frame and steel and rigid foam sandwich panel floor and roof system that maximize insulation and heat reflection.

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Energy neutral portable classroom offers healthy educational environment

Hawaii’s Bio Beetles offer more than 35 mpg. (Jim Motavalli photo)

Hawaii is green, or so its boosters tell you incessantly. Of course, you have to ignore the thick smoke from the sugarcane-field-burning operations and the runoff chemicals used to control roadside plants, mountains of tourism-generated waste, plus a huge complement of invasive species.

An encouraging sign is the 30-megawatt wind farm visible from most parts of Maui, providing 10% of the island’s electricity. Unfortunately, most of the rest is from diesel oil. But during a recent stay, I saw some evidence that the islands are starting to really go green, especially when it comes to transportation.

There’s not much public transit in Hawaii (a light rail system is still stuck in the planning stage) but there is the Bio Beetle company, which rents a fleet of 20 biodiesel VWs and other cars in Maui. Also on Hawaii’s second biggest island, the rapidly growing Maui EVs converts trucks and cars to batteries — and has a backlog of orders.

The Korean EV company CT&T recently met with Governor Linda Lingle about opening a battery car assembly plant in Hawaii that could put 10,000 cars on the road annually, for local use and export. It’s not clear where that plant would be located.

Since August 1, Hawaiian residents have been able to tap into a $4 million state-administered pot of stimulus funds for buying EVs ($4,500 maximum) or installing an EV charging station ($500). Bio Beetle is one of the applicants, hoping to add cars such as the Nissan Leaf to its fleet as soon as that car is available (expected to be at the end of this year).

In my week here, I visited David Noon at Maui EVs, took a ride in his Gem neighborhood vehicle, and saw a Ford Ranger XLT he was converting to run on 23 Optima marine batteries. Another is waiting for conversion, and there’s a customer backlog that includes a Hummer H2, Mini and 1950s Studebaker.

Noon also operates Internet-based TV and radio businesses, but he thinks EV conversions are likely to be more lucrative.

EV charging stations are starting to spread around the nation, but so far there’s been a concentration of these installations in cities — especially when it comes to more cutting-edge stations, like the first public quick-charging station installed in Portland.  But one Tennessee town is proving EV charging needs to happen in more rural areas too.

The town of Pulaski has just installed an EV charging station powered by a 20-kW parking lot solar array from Outpost Solar, the first of its kind in the Southeast.  The station is from EV-Charge America and has two level one plugs and two level two plugs, the type designed to charge the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt.  It’s available for use by anyone with a plug-in vehicle.

Smyrna, TN will become the home to a LEAF production facility soon and as that EV hits the roads, this station will likely see a bit of traffic.  Beyond Pulaski, 14 more solar EV charging stations are set to open in Tennessee in the next three years, including locations in Nashville and Chattanooga.

via Autoblog Green

New York City has done a good job in recent years to encourage cycling instead of driving in the city.  Bike lanes and paths have been created and new policies have been instituted to protect cyclists and pedestrians, but the city may be planning the biggest encouragement yet:  a huge bike-sharing program.

The proposed program, created by Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, would start with 10,500 bikes availabe for rent and then quickly spread to 49,000 bikes, similar in scale to the successful Paris Vélib’ program.

Other details like station locations, timing, etc. aren’t available yet, but we’ll be excitedly awaiting more news.

via CBS News New York

Eco Factor: Fuel stations to have system that converts water to hydrogen using solar energy.

Italian company Acta has recently signed a framework agreement with filling station forecourt equipment installation company Girelli Bruni to be its exclusive supplier of photovoltaic panels. The clean energy company has successfully developed a commercial system that converts water to hydrogen at a fueling station using solar energy. The duo is seeing their partnership as a boon for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market.

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Acta and Girelli Bruni to bring solar hydrogen filling stations to Italy

The Heliotrope solar-powered home created by German architect Rolf Disch rotates to follow the sun’s rays.  The design generates enough energy to fully power the home and feeds surplus energy to the grid, making it the world’s first energy positive solar home capable of producing five times the energy it uses.

The cylindrical-shaped Heliotrope has a series of balconies covered with vacuum-solar thermal collectors and features one large 6.6 kW roof solar panel called the Sun Sail that pivots (in addition to the house’s rotation) to match the angle of the sun.  The pivoting motion allows the Sun Sail to produce about 30 to 40 percent more energy than a static solar panel.

The roof houses a hand railing system that doubles as solar thermal tubing for water heating.  The house also features triple-paneled thermal-insulated glass on the side of the house facing the sun so that the light streaming into the home is maximized throughout the day.

The design also includes rain-water collectors and a waste water purification system.  Currently, three Heliotrope homes have been built.

via Good Clean Tech

Are you torn between the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf?  Do you wish that GM had an all-electric vehicle with greater range and more capacity than the Volt?  You might be surprised, but it’s actually available now.  If you prefer an all-battery powered vehicle option, like the Nissan Leaf, but you also want a larger, crossover vehicle, then AMP may have the vehicle for you with their electric conversion Equinox.

Not unlike the way they built their X Prize competition entry AMP’d Saturn Sky, AMP takes a stock Chevrolet Equinox, and replaces the gas engine and fuel tank with batteries and electric motors. AMP’s philosophy is to let big manufacturers take care of the vehicle development and testing, and to concentrate on just the electric propulsion. An AMP converted vehicle is still under manufacturer’s warranty for the majority of the vehicle systems. The body, the interior equipment and finishes, and even the vehicle’s safety systems and crash test rating are developed by GM.

More pictures and further details about this vehicle after the cut.

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Eco Factor: Contemporary home featuring passive energy concept.

Designed by Najjar-Najjar Architects, Villa A is a beautifully designed house above a slope of the Poestling Berg that comes jam-packed with over-the-top amenities. It is mostly covered with large glass panels, so that visitors get to enjoy the beautiful panoramic views of the city from almost every room. The large scale glazing and the sliding elements blurs the indoor area and outdoor space.

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Villa A amalgamates breathtaking panorama with sustainability

The ever-evolving Coda sedan in Santa Monica. (Jim Motavalli photo)

LOS ANGELES–I spent four days in California running back and forth between green car companies, including Coda, Tesla, Fisker and AC Propulsion. This state is becoming the epicenter of EV development for several reasons: environmental inclinations, weather, and governments (both state and local) increasingly willing to subsidize both EV purchases and the charging stations they’ll need to plug into.

Among the charging projects targeting California are ChargePoint America, the EV Project and a new $5 million effort by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Many of the charging companies are located in California, too, including Coulomb Technologies. Given all that charging synergy, it’s not surprising that Santa Monica-based Coda’s early production will go to California only. I visited Coda and found a beehive of activity, as the company tries to get a car ready for the market by the end of the year.

Solar power company Clarian Technologies has developed a new concept in residential solar power:  the solar appliance.  Just like a refrigerator or microwave, a homeowner can buy the Sunfish solar power system, plug it into any outdoor outlet and start feeding solar power into their home.

Whereas most solar power systems require a contractor to install the module and an electrician to connect it to the electric panel through an inverter (to convert the DC power generated to AC power), Clarian says a handy homeowner can install the Sunfish themselves in about an hour.

The other major bonus of such a plug-and-play-type system, is the cost.  Let’s face it, that’s the main draw.  The base model Sunfish will cost $799 with the largest running about $4,000, where a typical roof-mounted system costs a minimum of $10,000 and goes steeply up from there.

Of course, you get what you pay for.  With the largest Sunfish, a homeowner could expect to generate about 150 kWh per month, compared to the 920 kWh of electricity that a typical homeowner uses per month.  But for $4,000, that’s still a nice dent in your energy usage and, consequently, your energy bill.  What’s best about this appliance is that it could make residential solar power accessible to a much wider range of homeowners.

The Sunfish will be Wi-Fi enabled so that homeowners can use energy management software like Google’s PowerMeter to monitor their energy production and use.  The Sunfish should be on the market by the middle of 2011 and will likely be sold through big retailers like Lowe’s and Costco.

via NY Times