Results matching “plastiki” from NEXT100

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:

A catamaran made of 12,500 used plastic bottles completed a four-month, 8,000 nautical mile San Francisco-to-Sydney voyage across the Pacific Ocean to draw attention to plastic waste in the world's oceans and landfills. The six-man crew of the 60-foot "Plastiki" was led by David De Rothschild, a descendant of the Rothschild banking family and an adventurer and ecologist. He named the craft in honor of the original Kon-Tiki, a raft made from balsa wood, that launched a 4,300-mile Pacific voyage in 1947 by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, from South America to French Polynesia.

The long-awaited plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt will carry a sticker price of $41,000 before a federal tax credit pushes the cost down to $33,500. The Volt goes into production in September and will initially be sold in California, New York, Michigan, Connecticut, Texas, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. The rival all-electric Nissan Leaf, which will also go on sale this year, starts at $33,000 before a $7,500 tax  credit. General Motors says the Volt has an all-electric range of 40 miles before a small gasoline engine starts up to run a generator to power the electric motor for a total range of 340 miles. Nissan says the Leaf will run 100 miles on a battery charge. Both GM and Nissan will also offer leasing the cars.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), headquartered in oil-rich Abu Dhabi, has signed up 148 countries and the European Union to develop new energy supplies around the globe. Thirty-one nations -- Albania, Samoa and Mexico are the latest signatories -- have ratified the treaty that formed IRENA in 2009 to work for more bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, and wave, solar and wind power  resources. Most of the Middle East oil producers and U.S. have signed but not ratified the IRENA treaty, while Saudi Arabia, Canada, China, Russia and Venezuela have yet to join the group.  

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

 Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attentionthis week:

San Francisco startup and solar brokering firm One Block Off the Grid, or 1BOG, is applying a business model emphasizing social media such as Twitter and door-to-door pitches to match groups of homeowners seeking solar systems with local solar installers. 1BOG put in 550 solar systems in 2009, its first year, and is expanding into new markets in 2010. The solar customers get volume discounts and 1BOG gets referral fees from the installers. The company is introducing a program in New Jersey and planning moves into San Antonio and Honolulu. "We want 2010 to be the year where we bring solar to the masses," says Dave Llorens, co-founder and general manager.

Oil-dependent Hawaii aims to get 70 percent of its total energy needs from clean resources by 2030 -- 40 percent from renewable power generation and 30 percent  from energy efficiency. The islands have abundant solar, wind, geothermal and wave resources. The state is considering projects such as a 30-mile undersea cable to link proposed wind farms on Lanai and Molokai to electric grids on Oahu and Maui. Hawaii's Gas Co. is using municipal solid waste and animal fat to make synthetic gas for its customers. "We're adopting policies and technologies here that can serve as a model for the rest of the globe," Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation, a Hawaii clean energy advocacy group, told the Los Angeles Times.

Last March, NEXT100 reported on a novel 60-foot catamaran made of used plastic bottles under construction in a shed on the San Francisco waterfront. The boat, named Plastiki, now is going through trials on San Francisco Bay before it hoists sails early in March to cross the Pacific to Australia. Plastiki's twin hulls are made of 12,500 plastic bottles filled with dry ice. David de Rothschild, project leader and scion of the Rothschild banking family, aims to draw attention to plastic waste winding up in landfills and in the oceans. He told the San Francisco Chronicle the way to get the recycling message across is a plastic sailing adventure -- a message in a bottle.Bon Voyage!

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• Stormy seas offshore San Francisco. The city is trying to block Seattle-based Grays Harbor Ocean Energy from building a 100-megawatt wave power project 20 to 25 miles off the city's Ocean Beach in marine sanctuaries near the Farallon Islands. The project has drawn fire from environmental groups, surfers and commercial fishermen. San Francisco  asked the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission to give priority to the city's Oceanside Wave Energy Project that would be eight miles offshore and outside the sanctuaries.
• Now we head to the San Francisco waterfront where a small group is building a 60-foot catamaran made of used plastic bottles filled with dry ice. Huh? The boat, named Plastiki, is to sail across the Pacific to Australia. Project leader David de Rothschild, scion of the Rothschild banking family, says the adventure is to draw attention to plastic bottles, which consume a lot of energy to manufacture, are rarely recycled, and are "a symbol of waste." By constructing the all-plastic boat (the masts are metal) and sailing it across the Pacific, the Plastiki will show what recycled materials can do, he says. Bon Voyage!
• Prisons are going green. Several states are embracing energy efficiency, solar and wind power, biomass boilers, organic produce grown by inmates, and other green projects. Washington State's Department of Corrections has 34 LEED-certified facilities, while Federal Correctional Institute No. 3 in North Carolina is the first LEED-certified federal prison. Closer to home, a new $176 million juvenile detention center in Alameda County recently became the first jail in the country to receive LEED gold certification.