Sunday, July 30, 2006

Going solar: panel possibilities

Back in the old days, solar panels (photovoltaic, that is) were made from wafers of sliced crystal sandwiched together with, essentially, wiring (material to transmit the electricity generated) in between the crystal slices. Nowadays, they can be made from spray-on plastic of the electrical transmitting variety (tho' these are experimental and not very efficient). What I can easily buy, of course, will be much different than the cutting-edge technology still being experimented with at research institutions. Here's a little list of what I've been finding on the web:

Photovoltaic glazing or thin film photovoltaics: This is a system of photovoltaic panel sandwiching used in windows, such as shown here on Wisconsun, or it is photovoltaic window glass, or it is a film that covers the glass and generates and conducts electricity (very good in big high-rise buildings). As I don't have much in the way of window space in the Republic, these options aren't very useful for conversion of this rather non-solar building into a solar one. I do, however, have good roof space. Many thin film photovoltaics are flexible, which is a valuable property, and can be mass produced easily, but don't necessarily have good efficiency.

Organic photovoltaics: These are systems using carbon-based films or organic polymers. Global Photonic Energy Corp. is one company developing this technology. Capturing a wider spectrum of light and converting it to electricity makes a PV cell or panel or sheet more useful and efficient. These types of panels are also flexible, and keep getting described as "nanotechnology"--they're concentrating on molecular levels of construction, here.

Quantum dot photovoltaics: These are high-efficiency nanotech photovoltaics. Basically, they are nanocrystals embedded in a colloid. These can be incorporated in a film or flexible sheet, but are still experimental.

These are pretty cool, but they're not going to be all that available for a while yet. Solar panels operate more efficiently at cold temperatures (lucky Alaskans!) The more I look, the more it appears that, if I'm willing to learn a whole lot about wiring and electricity and widget-tinkering, I can wangle a decently cheap system. (Of course, the question becomes, do I really want to DO all that, or just pay somebody else to do it and not have to think about it?)

I've been finding some nifty, not necessarily related, sites in the process of looking this stuff up:

Captain Ozone (Go take a look. Go on. I dare ya.)
4 Hydrogen (Really clean power.)
The Energy Blog (The Energy Revolution will change your lifestyle!)

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Going solar: electric load

The first step to going solar is figuring out what one's electric load is. A load in this sense is any item that draws power, from a telephone to a lamp to a circular saw to a computer monitor. A local company, ABS Alaskan, has a handy page with forms for determining how much power one uses. I can always look at my electric bill, too, but GVEA doesn't tell me anything other than the total usage. It doesn't let me calculate the electricity draw for all the powered appliances and tools and widgets that I have in my office, nor what my potential peak use could be.

Here's ABS's step-by-step how-to list:
1. List all your electrical appliances.
2. Determine the power draw for each item. This means wattage, and whether it runs on alternating or direct current. (Amperage and voltage can be used to figure the load, too, if wattage isn't listed.)
3. Estimate appliance usage time, in hours per day.
4. Look for extra efficiency, or where the load can be reduced.
5. Determine your AC power needs: find the AC appliance with the highest wattage, then figure out how many AC items will be plugged in at the same time and add that together. (This helps you determine the size inverter you will need.) Also check to see what the start-up power draw is on each AC appliance (some things, like refrigerators, draw way more on start up than they do once they've gotten going). This will help determine the power surge requirements for your electric load, and thus the size of your inverter.
Here's ABS's load calculation form.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Going solar

Solar power, I'm told, is actually a viable option in Alaska. Jim Sykes' place in Palmer is powered with the sun (Sykes, if you didn't already know, is a frequent Green Party candidate in Alaska and one of the party's founders in this state), so I know from personal acquaintance that it's possible. I edited the third edition of the Solar Design Manual for Alaska, and it was an interesting job; lots of good information in that book. The main problem with going solar is that the initial outlay of cash is hideously expensive for those of us with tight cash flow. So I doubt our house is going to get solar panels any time soon.

However, the Republic office may have the option. There's a handy hole in the roof (former stovepipe) that could fit a light tube, and since the office doesn't require much electricity (enough to run the computer, monitor, printer, scanner, and lights), the business may be able to afford the ghastly amount of moola I'd have to shell out. I'm checking into electric load and system prices now. One nice thing about having a business is that one has business expenses, and these aren't viewed by the IRS in the same way that plain old household expenses are.

It's still pricey, though. A solar panel that would do the job is going to cost me $650 to $1000 smackers, and I still have to get the battery and converter and all that. I'll keep you all updated as I find out more.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Easton in Ester

The Ester library is having another fundraiser. We've signed the lease for the last bit of property on Village Road, so now we have the whole east side to put our library and gazebo on. Which will take cash to build!

Fortunately, Tim Easton, who plays wonderful folk/rock/cool music stuff and has been up to Ester several times before, has decided he'd like to do a benefit concert for the library! So on Saturday the 12th of August, I will be at the Malemute to listen to him play some truly excellent music. There will be at least one opening act, Jeff Kanzler, whose name I don't recognize but he is a local musician. He's been recording with 10th Planet Recording, which speaks well of his music in itself.

With friends like these, the library is sure to do well! Thank you, Tim & Jeff--and especially thanks to Jeff Stepp, who came up with the idea and has been helping organize this event.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Too good to pick just one

This issue of The Ester Republic was just too much fun! And I got it done early. It won't hit the newsstands until this weekend, but the contributors and subscribers are already getting their copies (usually they don't start getting them until after the distributors do). I received so many great photographs that I wasn't able to print use all the photographers or all the excellent photos; I couldn't choose! Monique Musick had so many beautiful shots that I ended up with four different covers.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Carnival of the Green #35

I am absolutely delighted to be the host of this week's Carnival of the Green! I've been lax lately about checking out the Carnival posts, but now that I'm hosting it, I've been going and checking out all the cool info out there on green and Green doings. The originators of the carnival are City Hippy and Triple Pundit. Here's what City Hippy says about the carnival:
[It] is a summary, a digest, of the green blogosphere. When we say green we mean sustainability issues etc as opposed to plain old general Green Politics.
A different blog hosts the carnival each week. Last week, starting July 3, it was Headway Youth, by Phil Smith in Newcastle. Next week, beginning July 17, it will be hosted by Powering Down, by Aaron Nuline in North Carolina.

So--on to the carnival!

Jennifer Killpack-Knutsen at Jen's Green Journal has started a blog community called Climate Crisis Action Team, featuring ideas on how to avert global warming. Her carnival post is a Planet Cool Down Tip: Eat locally produced food. Good advice!

On the topic of eating, GrrlScientist at The Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) has a few tasty tidbits about insects on her post, Bugs: They're Not Just For Birds Anymore! As Grrl says,
Now that you've eaten all that barbeque for the holidays, have you thought about barbequing scorpions, tarantulas, crickets, and worms? After all, they are the protein source of the 21st century! I always wanted to know how to cook those cockroaches in my apartment...maybe with vinaigrette?

The foodies among you may prefer this:

PT Ford at Why Travel to France explores an eco-friendly getaway in Provence called "Apres La Sieste". The facilities were built completely with recuperated raw, natural materials from the region and took two years to build by the owners, a young couple who left the rat race of Lyon to live a more sustainable and calmer lifestyle in beautiful southern France. Ah, la belle vie en France me manque! (thanks to PT for correcting my French)

And across the Channel:

You've heard of eagle owls in England if you've read Harry Potter: now read about the deeper issues these birds provoke. Wildlife artist and field biologist Carel Brest van Kempen muses on his blog, Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding, on the wildlife management and philosophical implications of eagle owls invading (or is it colonizing?) Great Britain.

In the far East:

Harlan Weikle, managing editor and co-founder of Greener Magazine, comments on some public transportation in Tibet:
Completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Sky Rail last week marks an end from to the traditional autonomy of remote Tibet, but the environment may soon intercede and once again, Tibet will be an island in the sky.

But on to politics and global warming:

On the website The Business of America is Business, Starling David Hunter examines the Asia Pacific Climate Conference held in Sydney, Australia back in January, and what The Dirty Half Dozen who met there did and did not discuss.

Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn twits the New Zealand government on its bold (not) policy leadership in Planning to have a plan to deal with climate change.

Centrerion Canadian Politics offers a few thoughtful posts on the state of Canadian politics and an interview with Elizabeth May, Green Party leadership candidate (this is part 7 of a multipost inteview--earlier parts are also available at Centrerion). The blog also has an editorial by Professor of Economics Philippe Ghayad, who, while not so convinced about global warming, nevertheless has some tax solutions to environmental problems. Read Creative Taxing Can Save the Environment and Le Centre's preface to it.

Is it 2008 yet? Sally Kneidel, PhD, co-author of Veggie Revolution, writes about Bush's latest denial of global warming as fact, and about his promotion of corn ethanol as a solution to our dependence on Persian Gulf oil. Er, maybe.

Francis Stokes of Sludgie ("We are all products of our environment. Which explains a lot."), provides the hilarious and appalling first in a series which profiles the worst offenders of the environment in Washington: Profiles of Jackassery. Senator James Inhofe gets nicely roasted here. I can't wait to see Rep. Don Young get his!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Acidifying oceans

We are in trouble, folks, even if the right-wing punditry and the White House want to pretend it's just a little inconvenience or a bugaboo dreamed up by them "eco-terrorists": the pH of the oceans is changing due to too much CO2, and it's killing the coral reefs, which will be disastrous for the food web. Between that and the too-warm water and the melting ice (also taking a toll), we are going to learn just how dependent we are on the rest of the biosphere.

Perhaps it really is time for a Philo Dufresne-type response. Greenpeace has the right idea, I think, but this just isn't enough. You, me, and the Ralph Seekins of the world have got to pay attention. Unfortunately, it's the last type of person I'm worried about.

At least I've been bicycling. I wonder if the Republic could get a small business grant to install solar panels?

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

An interesting standoff in Ohio

Bob Fitrakis, the editor of The Free Press, has been running for governor of Ohio on the Green Party ticket. The Ohio media, by and large, is pretending that Fitrakis doesn't exist, which is interesting, given that the elections office (run by his opponent, the infamous Kenneth Blackwell) refused to so much as look at his better than 12,000 petition signatures (they only needed 5,000) for a month, thereby deftly delaying the Fitrakis campaign by two months (it took them a month to certify). Funny, the Democrats and Republicans were certified right away (could it be because they only have to turn in 1,000 signatures?).

Fitrakis and the Greens, in case you didn't know this, along with the Libertarians, went after the egregious corruption evident in the 2004 election in Ohio while Democrat Kerry sat on a $50 million war chest (supposedly collected to go after fraudulent voting improprieties, but somehow never used for this).

It's amazing to me that the Ohio media would avoid the hot issues that Fitrakis has dug up for them--what, actually act like members of the Fourth Estate?

Go, Bob, go!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Murky's smiling face

Well, yesterday in the mail Hans and I received a lovely little glossy green brochure addressed to "ALASKAN HOUSEHOLD" and labeled "The ALASKA Gas Pipeline", featuring the governor's cheerful face (from about 20-30 years ago) and lots of little factoids about how great his neato-keeno gas contract is. Plus, there was a note about how the brochure only cost 17 cents each (paid for by the Department of Revenue for public outreach). Not including postage, and time and benefits for the people who designed it. Being in the publishing biz, I know that in order to get the print cost down to 17 cents each, they had to order a LOT of these things, which adds up to quite a bit. Too bad it didn't include a rundown of the other proposals out there, like the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, so we could actually make an informed choice. No, this is just a little piece of pretty gubenatorial propaganda, full of very suspicious statements and missing a heck of a lot of important information:

"National leaders, including President George W. Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, have made clear their support for this project"

Now, this wouldn't be the same George W. who has unstintingly and consistently supported large corporations' profits and welfare over that of the public, would it? And it wouldn't be the same Dennis Hastert who's been implicated in the Abramof scandal and hastily dumped $70,000 to charity to get rid of certain possibly tainted campaign contributions, would it? The same Hastert whose #4 campaign donations come from the oil & gas industry?

The flyer does mention oil:
New money to the state doesn't just start with the gas pipeline, it starts with oil tax reforms that will kick in now, giving Alaska its fair share of oil revenue.
But of course, it doesn't mention that oil is a separate issue from gas, and that there is no reason whatsoever to connect the two in a gas contract, and that right now the contract is illegally attempting to change taxes contrary to the Stranded Gas Act, and to backdate a change to justify this atrocious contract.

Here's what Dermot Cole had to say about this:
Under the Stranded Gas Development Act, the Murkowski administration does not have the legal authority to negotiate a gas line contract that would significantly alter tax rates on existing oil and gas production.

In fact, the law specifically prohibits negotiations that would change taxes on existing oil production.

The governor has proposed to solve this problem by amending the law to allow the inclusion of oil negotiations, making it retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004.

This brochure also doesn't happen to mention that we would be locked in to this decision for decades, with no possibility of changing it if we find out we get a raw deal...

But never fear, legislators like Ben Stevens say we don't have an option but to pass it now, because of the upcoming elections. Nice to know that these bozos are thinking of our welfare, rather than whether they'll get their job in Juneau, huh?

Richard Fineberg has some useful things to say about oil and gas and this particular contract.