Solarious - stumbling away from the grid

Here’s a link to a good article about what’s happening to our global food supplies, and why it’s translating to more at the register.

Read the full story here

As we deepen into our self-created oil and energy crisis, we can only expect more articles like this, and more future costs, not fewer. Consider planting a garden if you don’t have one already. It takes a bit of trial and error to discover how particular plants grow. If you have something you “can’t live without”, try growing it a few times. Soon, it may be the only way for you to get it!

Wow! That’s all I can think when viewing pictures of the first building planned to grace zero waste, zero carbon emission Masdar City, in the United Arab Emirates. It’s beautiful! And, most importantly, its enormous solar roof will generate more energy than the building uses… enough to power the construction of the rest of the building! The building is designed by Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill (AS + GG). Click the link above for more details.

Large-scale projects like this are what it’s going to take to get solar design into the mainstream of architecture.

Consider these facts, taken from the Renewables 2007 Global Status Report:

• Renewable electricity generation capacity reached an estimated 240 gigawatts (GW) worldwide in 2007, an increase of 50 percent over 2004. Renewables represent 5 percent of global power capacity and 3.4 percent of global power generation. (Figures exclude large hydropower, which itself was 15 percent of global power generation.)

• Renewable energy generated as much electric power worldwide in 2006 as one-quarter of the world’s nuclear power plants, not counting large hydropower. (And more than nuclear counting large hydropower.)

• The largest component of renewables generation capacity is wind power, which grew by 28 percent worldwide in 2007 to reach an estimated 95 GW. Annual capacity additions increased even more: 40 percent higher in 2007 compared to 2006.

• The fastest growing energy technology in the world is grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV), with 50 percent annual increases in cumulative installed capacity in both 2006 and 2007, to an estimated 7.7 GW. This translates into 1.5 million homes with rooftop solar PV feeding into the grid worldwide.

• Rooftop solar heat collectors provide hot water to nearly 50 million households worldwide, and space heating to a growing number of homes. Existing solar hot water/heating capacity increased by 19 percent in 2006 to reach 105 gigawatts-thermal (GWth) globally.

Alternative Energy is (very) ready for its time in the spotlight.  With the quick adoption rates that these numbers reflect, one can only wonder how long it will be until 50 or even 75% of our power could be renewable.

Stuck in a rut trying to motivate yourself toward a greener life? Here’s an animation that you should see. Greenpeace - The Journey of Trash . Just click on the link above to view it.

If you want to help the world out in some tangible way TODAY, just take a look in your trash can. See a lot of plastic? Remember that these days, recycling companies are able to take many more types of plastics than even a few years ago. According to one site I visited recently, there is enough dissolved plastic in our oceans to place a saran wrap thickness of it over the surface of every ocean on earth. And most of that is in little tiny bits, which sea animals easily mistake for plankton and other small prey. If, as recent studies have shown, you absorb plastic chemicals into your body when drinking from plastic containers (see this USA Today article for starters), then imagine what eating a fish who’s spent his life dining on plastics might do. Scary thought. Every piece of trash that you recycle is one less that can find its way out to sea. As it stands now, there are areas of the ocean so think with floating trash that shipping boats can’t even pass through them, so they route their ships around them, using more fuel.

When I first heard about the “North Pacific Gyre” as the largest water landfill on earth is called, it seemed impossible. Why not just load it up on ships and haul it back to port for proper(ish) burial? But the problem is, we put so much INTO the ocean every year, even with dredging, we’d hardly be able to keep up. So do yourself, and the planet, a favor today. Make a commitment to put ONE LESS PIECE of non-biodegradable trash into your trash can, whether you find another use for it, you buy a product with less packaging, or you take another look at what might be recyclable in your can. One. How hard is that? Do that every day for a month (okay baby steppers, start with a week), imagine how happy the fish (and the people in Alaska, Russia and Japan!) will be. That’s reason enough for me!

It’s always encouraging, when sitting down to tackle a problem, to have a little advice or inspiration from someone who’s been in your shoes before. For a really nice example of a program that “walks the walk” when it comes to solar living, check out Greenstar.org.

This program constructs solar community centers, which become a place for local people to meet and create art together. In fact, you’ll find a nice selection of music on their site from around the globe… and all recorded with solar power! Here’s a sample from Jamaica: Like A Dove.mp3

The Greenstar system includes a truly impressive array of functions for user communities. Water purification and storage, satellite internet access, cellular phone services, a solar-powered vaccine cooler, an e-commerce business server, computer-based language translation, and a public-access touchscreen to access the web. Wow! I was especially pleased to discover that these creative philanthropists are based right here in Los Angeles. You can be sure I’ll be taking a field trip to pick their brains as this experiment progresses.

If they can do all of this within a little hut, imagine what you can do with whatever space you control!