They tell us not to drive Hummers.
They tell us to disconnect our cell phone chargers, once our cell phones are juiced. They tell us to switch off our laptops, burn candles rather than electric light, and sail boats rather than fly planes.
But do they ever tell us to wean ourselves off the animals that we cynically use as substitutes for our failed relationships with other humans?
I only ask because an article from the New Scientist has wafted in front of my breakfast bowl and slapped me about my flappy jowls.
Quoting such luminous organizations as the Stockholm Environment Institute at York, UK, the article purports to suggest that our pets have all the eco-friendliness of that Northwest Airlines flight that forgot to land in Minneapolis and just kept on going to Wisconsin.
Please, I understand that dogs and cats are lovely beings that just want to love you and lick you as long as you feed them and wash them.
However, the SEI seems to believe that a cat has almost the same carbon footprint as a VW Golf.
Here is a sentence from the article that I know may make some of you rather unwell: "As well as guzzling resources, cats and dogs devastate wildlife populations, spread disease and add to pollution."
Yes, I know you thought it was only multinational corporations that do that. So please imagine that there is a book, written by Robert and Brenda Vale, called "Time to Eat the Dog?: The real guide to sustainable living."
Because you are more numerate than me, I will leave you to examine their figures in lascivious detail. However, the Vales estimate that a 4.6-liter Toyota Land Cruiser has an eco-footprint that is less than half that of a medium-size dog.
It is largely to do with the amount of meat and cereal that dogs chow, but this is surely a vale of tears for those who need their dogs in so many different ways: to get exercise, to get companionship and to become attractive to members of their target sex.
In case you are not quite thoroughly depressed by this estimation of our ultimate demise, might I offer you two further calculations from the Vales?
Well, should you own two hamsters, that is the eco-footprint equivalent of your plasma. And one goldfish? Well, it's the energy-sucking equivalent of two cell phones.
To continue this cheery mood for just a little longer, please hark these words the New Scientist quotes-- they were uttered by David Mackay, a physicist at the University of Cambridge: "If a lifestyle choice uses more than 1 per cent of your energy footprint, then it is worthwhile reflecting on that choice and seeing what you can do about it."
The average cat, he estimates, represents 2 percent of a human's footprint. And as for dogs, oh, it really doesn't bear thinking about.
It seems to me, therefore, that you have some harsh choices to make in order to save our world.
Your goldfish or your family plan? Your hamsters or, at the very least, the plasma in your bedroom? Your dog or your Audi?
Your animal companions or your technological ones? Life just doesn't get easier, does it?
California regional finalists for the Cleantech Open were announced Wednesday.
(Credit:
Cleantech Open)
Think of the Cleantech Open, which started in 2006, as a Western divisions-only March Madness for environmental techies looking for funding. Contestants initially compete against each other in three Western U.S. regions: California, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Northwest. Since its inception, the contest has garnered more than $125 million in funding for its contestants, according to Cleantech. It's also helped companies like Cool Earth Solar, and GreenVolts get noticed.
This year the California region judges had an initial pool of 278 teams, which it narrowed down to 49 semifinalists who then presented their projects in person. From those semifinalists, six regional finalists were chosen, one for each category of environmental technology that the Cleantech Open focuses on. Those final six, which received $100,000 worth in prizes for their regional win, will now go on to compete against finalists from other regions for the national award in their category.
This year's air, water, and waste category in California was won by Micromidas, a company trying to perfect a process to turn raw sewage into biodegradable plastic products.
Alphabet Energy, a team from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won the energy efficiency category for a system that produces electricity from waste heat. The group, which twittered a thank you to "the academy" for its win, says its inexpensive method has the potential to offset up to 500 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Tru2earth won the green building category for its Life Cycle Roof Tile made from recycled water and soda bottle plastic that can double as siphons for capturing gray water.
A DIY-installation solar roof panel system from Armageddon Energy, called the SolarClover, won the renewable energy category, while the smart power category was claimed by EcoFactor. The company developed an SaaS platform that "collects, analyzes and acts upon thousands of data points relating to a home's HVAC needs and preferences to help utilities improve demand management and enable consumers to lower energy costs and save money on utility bills without sacrificing comfort or giving up control."
"The Cleantech Open helped Armageddon Energy get off the ground. It brought the founding team together, helped us build our business plan and make crucial business connections. And, by winning the Renewable Energy category, it will undoubtedly help us as a small company gain credibility with crucial customers, supply chain partners, and investors," Armageddon Energy CEO Mark Goldman, said in a statement.
The transportation category was handed to FuelSaver Technologies. The team proposed a modified design for tractor-trailer trucks to minimize drag. The group claims the invention could reduce fuel consumption of a truck by as much as 25 percent depending on certain conditions, and could pay for itself in fuel savings within a year of long-haul driving.
"Our solution is a full body streamlining of the vehicle's aerodynamic profile, minimizing drag at the back of the trailer, underbelly of the trailer, and the gap between the tractor and trailer," the group said in a statement.
Finalists from each region will attend an awards ceremony and gala in San Francisco on November 17.
Researchers have come up with a new way to route Internet traffic that could save big Internet companies like Google millions on their electricity bills, according to an article published by MIT's Technology Review.
Researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the networking company Akamai recently published results from a study that suggest big Internet companies could save up to 40 percent on their electricity bills by using an algorithm to send Internet traffic to data centers where electricity is less expensive.
Data centers consume a lot of energy, which costs operators like Google and Amazon millions of dollars to run each year. And now as more digital information is "virtualized" and accessed in the cloud, centralized data centers are getting even bigger and are consuming even more energy.
In fact, data center energy usage is expected to quadruple during the next decade in the absence of efforts to improve efficiency, according to the article, which referenced a report from McKinsey & Company and the Uptime Institute published in July 2008. The article also estimated that today, some large Internet companies spend more than $30 million a year on energy costs.
But now there could be a way for these companies to lower their energy costs. Using an algorithm developed and tested by researchers at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Akamai, these companies can track electricity prices that fluctuate by location and time of day. It then calculates the best option depending on the price of electricity and the distance that data must travel to get to a particular location, to provide the most cost-effective route for data based on energy costs.
There is mounting pressure for big Internet companies to reduce their energy usage. Not only is it expensive, but these companies face pressure from governments and others concerned with the environment to reduce their carbon footprints.
The algorithm developed by these researchers doesn't necessarily cut the use of energy. It merely helps companies better manage their energy costs. But researchers argue it could also be used to direct traffic to facilities where greener forms of energy are being used.
The example used in the article is a Google data center in Belgium that relies on ambient cooling to keep its facilities under a certain temperature instead of firing up expensive air-conditioning systems. On days when the weather is too warm, the servers in the data center simply shut down. One researcher working on the project said that the energy-routing algorithm is an extension of this idea.
Managing energy and its costs is likely to be big business in the coming years for technology companies. Cisco Systems, the largest networking company in the world, recently said it sees a $100 billion market in helping power utilities better manage their electrical grids using communication technology.
Other high-tech companies, including IBM, Intel, and several start-ups, are also ramping up to develop sensors and other technology that alert power companies and their customers about energy usage in an effort to balance usage and reduce costs.
The idea of the "smart grid" is to modernize the electricity industry by overlaying digital communications onto the grid. For example, smart meters in a person's home can communicate energy usage to utilities, allowing these companies to more efficiently manage the electricity supply and potentially allow a consumer to take advantage of cheaper rates.
Some utilities are already testing technology from Cisco that will help its routers and switches more efficiently manage the flow of electricity and prevent outages in grid distribution equipment. Cisco also released new software earlier this year called EnergyWise, which allows more efficient use of energy in office buildings. The software is a free upgrade to Cisco Catalyst switches that can monitor and manage how energy is used on IP-connected devices, including phones and wireless routers. Using the software, companies can set policies on energy use, allowing PCs or networking equipment to go into sleep mode after work hours, for example.
Clean-technology investing could be seeing a rebound.
Cleantech Group, a research firm backed by Deloitte, released a preliminary report on Thursday showing a slight uptick in clean-tech funding during the second quarter of 2009 in North America, Europe, China, and India.
After two quarterly declines, the increase is good news, but the Cleantech Group noted that the quarter-to-quarter comparison for the same period a year ago is still down.
"The (second-quarter) total is up 12 percent from the previous quarter, although down 44 percent from the same period a year ago. The average round size in (the quarter) was $12.9 million, up from $12.3 million (the previous quarter)," the report stated.
Silicon Valley venture capital funds remained the top clean-tech investors in the second quarter.
(Credit: Cleantech Group)Cleantech Group said that while solar investments are still down, clean-tech investments in the utility and automotive sectors have risen. In fact, automotive firms saw the biggest influx of clean-tech investments, which Cleantech attributes largely to the government's stimulus package for the automotive industry.
North America was the biggest investor in clean technology, making up about 66 percent. Europe and Israel were the second biggest investors, at 21 percent. India and China were less invested in clean technology, making up only 11 percent and 1 percent of the total investments in clean tech for the quarter, respectively.
The Cleantech Group also pointed to some big automotive deals completed during the quarter:
- Kleiner Perkins and T. Boone Pickens together invested $100 million in San Diego start-up V-Vehicle.
- Fisker Automotive, which plans to make a plug-in electric luxury sedan, raised $85 million from Kleiner Perkins and Eco-Drive Partners.
- Think Global, a Norwegian company that specializes in electric cars, raised $39 million.
- Israel-based ETV Motors received $12 million from Quercus Trust.
Battery companies also saw the love. Lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems raised $100 million from General Electric, and Deeya Energy, working on a "redox flow battery," raised $30 million from Technology Partners.
The Cleantech Group also listed the venture capital firms that invested the most in clean technology for 2Q09. Not surprisingly, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers topped this list of green-tech investors, with Khosla Ventures, Braemer Energy Ventures, Robeco Alternative Investments, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, VantagePoint, and Venture Partners following.
It's been a long time since the Boston area could claim to be home to more than a handful of big high-tech companies. Now regional leaders are betting on green to restore cutting-edge luster to "the Hub."
The state already hosts a number of established green-tech companies such as Evergreen Solar and Conservation Services Group, which does building energy-efficiency retrofits. Of course, no green-tech companies have replaced former tech powerhouses like Digital Equipment (acquired by Compaq, which was in turn acquired by Hewlett-Packard) or Lotus Development (now part of IBM).
But that doesn't mean green-tech boosters such as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick aren't thinking big.
Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick with Boston Power CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud at a ceremony for a planned auto battery plant in Auburn, Mass.
(Credit: Boston Power)During an opening ceremony for a proposed Boston Power auto battery plant last month in Auburn, Mass. not far from where shuttered Digital Equipment offices once were, Patrick crowed about receiving $25 million in U.S. Department of Energy grants for a wind blade testing center in Boston. Yet he seemed to understand that the clean-energy industry, much like the Cape Wind offshore wind project he supports, is a work in progress.
"People around the nation are taking notice of our plans," Patrick said. "If we get clean energy right, the world will be our customer."
The challenges are considerable. A thicket of regulations and political issues around the power grid pose serious barriers to new energy technology adoption. Most green-tech companies also face the formidable financial challenge of scaling beyond prototypes and demonstration facilities. Because the capital needs for energy or water-related projects are so high, many green-tech companies need to devise business and financing models to crack through and go beyond what's called "Valley of Death."
As in high tech, California still leads the Bay State when it comes to the number of green-tech companies. The New England Clean Energy Council counts at least 75 technology company members, compared to hundreds in California. But the Boston area has emerged as one of the country's top green-tech "clusters," buoyed by experienced entrepreneurs, strong academic foundations, and a supportive state government.
Massachusetts' legislature passed five laws last year aimed squarely at boosting clean-energy business activity and creating jobs that can range from home solar installers to materials scientists.
"It's really just a question now of the companies that are emerging to take advantage of the opportunities," said Philip Giudice, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. "What's neat about clean tech is this isn't just a few Ph.D. software guys coming up with some magical solution--it's a whole value chain."
Modernizing the grid
Just like cracking open the telecommunications industry created a spike in innovation and new tech businesses, the energy business is slowly starting to open, if only on the edges, said Steve Kropper, founder and CEO of wind developer WindPole Ventures.
"It's going to be the same as telecom--everything smells exactly the same," said Kropper who was a telecom industry analyst at IDC before jumping into energy about three years ago. "The only challenge is that most people will get wacked. Eight out of 10 telecom companies failed--the same will happen in energy. Hopefully, the region will be smart in figuring which will go under and not."
Kropper was one of about a dozen mid-career professionals who did a sort of "clean energy boot camp" last year, a fellowship organized by the New England Clean Energy Council specifically for transitioning telecom, IT, or life sciences professionals into green tech.
The training, available for 25 people this year, includes seminars and lab visits,including one to the National Renewable Energy Laboratories. Kropper estimates it saved him about two years in preparing for a new career. It serves the industry, too, as many new green-tech companies lack experienced management and entrepreneurial talent.
If Boston Power receives a U.S. Department of Energy domestic battery manufacturing grant, it hopes to build a factory in Massachusetts that would serve as a launching pad into the automotive market, said founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud.
"We have an opportunity to fulfill existing markets and be neighbors to where emerging markets (in transportation) are being invented," she said. During the opening ceremony for the planned factory, she likened Massachusetts' budding clean-energy industry to the beginning of the industrial revolution, where nearby Massachusetts mills played a starring role.
Drawing on IT and biotech
So who are the promising green-tech companies in the Bay State?
Boston-based EnerNOC, one of the few green-tech companies to go public, sells software to help utilities to dial down energy at peak times. Another example of an IT-heavy company is tiny Second Wind in Somerville, Mass., which has made a niche for itself with better methods to measure wind speed for wind farm developers.
A bonafide cluster. Click on the image to see an interactive map of New England clean-energy companies.
(Credit: New England Clean Energy Council)Founded by experts in biotech and chemicals, Mascoma is genetically engineering microbes to make ethanol from wood chips cheaper than current methods. University of Massachusetts spin-off Qteros, which also promises a breakthrough ethanol process, last year lured the former head of BP's biofuels business to be CEO.
The area's chops in material science has led to the creation of a few established energy storage companies--lithium ion battery makers A123 Systems and Boston Power among them--and even a few auto-related companies, including GEO2 Technologies which makes high-tech filters to clean diesel emissions.
In academia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is, not surprisingly, a hotbed for green-tech research and development. In addition to A123 Systems, there are a number of MIT spin-offs taking lab work to market, including solar company 1366 Technologies and Lilliputian Systems, which is making fuel cells for small electronics.
An energy-related company can be very similar to a software company, but a better comparison is to the data communications industry, said Paul Maeder, a venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners, who left enterprise software to focus on green tech.
"Much of what we are going to do in clean tech is going to involve selling through, with, and around utilities and they behave a lot like (telecom) carriers," he said, noting that both test products rigorously. "It may take them a long time but once they make a decision, it can absolutely make you."
NEW YORK--"I'm anti-tax, but I'm pro-carbon tax," Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk said onstage at the Wired Business Conference here Monday--a remark that prompted interviewer and Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson to quip that he was a "true Silicon Valley libertarian."
Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk
(Credit: Tesla Motors)Gasoline "should probably be $10" per gallon, said onetime PayPal co-founder Musk, who is also attempting to make sending satellites into space cheaper with a start-up called SpaceX. "I'm not paying for the true cost of gasoline at the pump...since nobody's explicitly paying for the CO2 capacity of the oceans and atmospheres, it's getting consumed. We will pay for it down the road, but we are sort of ignoring it for now."
Musk's company has put out the Tesla Roadster, a pricey sports car that runs exclusively on electric power. On the way is the Model S, a more affordable sedan. Separate from the technology, Tesla has gained a reputation for financial difficulties and corporate bickering. Earlier this month, former CEO Martin Eberhard sued Musk and the company for libel and breach of contract.
Musk's rash attitude and devotion to cutting-edge innovation has constructed him as a figure less than willing to compromise. He didn't sound too satisfied, for example, with the level of innovation in the Toyota Prius, the car that is practically synonymous with environmental consciousness in the auto industry.
"A Prius is not a true hybrid, really," he said. (A plug-in Prius is on the way.) "The current Prius is like, 2 percent electric. It's a gasoline car with slightly better mileage."
That said, Tesla shines quite a bit brighter due to the utter disarray of the U.S. auto industry, with major automakers falling into bankruptcy and Detroit in a continuing downward spiral. This, according to Musk, was the inevitable result of a completely broken system.
"Great companies are built on great products," he said, and when those products take a turn for the worse, so does the company. Automakers, Musk theorized, focused too much on the money rather than innovation. "The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design."
Musk said that unions weren't inherently the problem but the way that they were structured was. "It's not out of the question to have unions. But if they do have a union, they've got to understand that they're on the same side of the company," Musk said. "I really am kind of against having a two-class system where you've got the workers and the management sort of like the nobles and peasants." In other words, Musk thinks Detroit could use a dose of Silicon Valley corporate culture.
Surprisingly, Musk implied that Detroit will survive. "I think it'll probably be a healthier place. This has been somewhat cathartic. Maybe, I think, maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I think this will be a cathartic experience," Musk said. "I think GM and Ford, maybe not Chrysler, but GM and Ford will come out of this healthier...and more competitive."
He wants Tesla to be part of that, obviously.
"I'd like to take up some of the manufacturing plants," he said. "When the mess gets sorted out I'd like to have a conversation with whoever's in charge."
Google's goat army.
(Credit: Official Google Blog)The economy is still in shambles, we're all panicking about the bacon fever, and even those bright and shiny "green" initiatives might not be so green. Sad!
But did you know that Google is conserving energy by cutting its Mountain View, Calif., lawns with adorable goats?
Yes, it's true. The company has enlisted an innovative start-up called California Grazing to bring some of the Google greenery a more carbon-friendly, less polluting alternative to lawn mowers. It sounds like the use of goats is confined to peripheral fields where weeds and brush could cause wildfires, so it's not like Googlers run the risk of having goats wander into their office buildings. No word on whether they pay the goats in leftover free food from the company mess halls.
"A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time," a post on the official Google blog read. "The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers."
Happy Friday!
The DEll G2410 impresses with its power efficiency and performance.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)Earth Day brings with it many things: temporary environmental consciousness, plenty of green and white design motifs, and sometimes a new green-focused section of a Web site.
This year, the Web site in question is ours. Today CNET launches its new Green Electronics Guide. There you can check out our top green products, from cars to desktops, as well as power efficiency guides on laptops, desktops, TVs, and monitors.
In the monitor guide you'll see the power efficiency of 21 different monitors compared, and you'll discover ways to cut down on your current power consumption. Today also marks the launch of a new CNET rating, Power Saver. Check out how CNET tests monitors for power efficiency to see how a monitor can earn the Power Saver seal.
Not surprisingly, Dell's green-focused monitors, the 22-inch G2210 and the 24-inch G2410, easily earned the seal. As did the Lenovo ThinkVision 1940p, a 19-inch monitor, that, thanks mostly to its relatively low size and resolution, doesn't require much power to function.
The G2210 and the G2410 aren't just here to please all of us hybrid driving San Franciscans, either. They were actually two of the best overall performers we've yet seen, thanks in part to their LED backlights. The backlights allow the monitors to efficiently control the amount of light coming though their screens. This in turn gives the monitors a low black level, making movies, especially HD movies, look stellar. Check out the G2210 and the G2410 reviews to see what we thought overall.
Lithium ion battery company A123Systems has received a $69 million investment round from General Electric and others, the company announced Monday.
With its latest funding, A123Systems plans to expand its facilities in Massachusetts and Michigan, as well as build new facilities in Michigan. A portion of the proceeds will also be used to develop applications for the smart grid, such as utility-scale storage. The company has its headquarters in Watertown, Mass.
GE invested $15 million toward this latest round, bringing its total investment stake to 10 percent in the company. A123Systems also announced GE will receive a seat on its board of directors.
"We've accelerated our plans to expand our U.S. manufacturing. We do not believe our country can afford to wait to develop advanced batteries," David Vieau, A123Systems chief executive, said in a statement.
A123's battery cells are used in hybrid electric vehicles and electric cars. The company's batteries and battery systems are also used for grid energy storage and portable power.
A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.
- Oil Companies Reluctant to Follow Obama's Green Lead - The New York Times
Despite the advertising, oil and gas companies see renewable energy as a side business that will take decades to displace fossil fuels in a significant way. - Energy Secretary Chu: 'Agnostic' on Pickens Plan - The Wall Street Journal
Chu favors fuel efficiency and biofuels over using natural gas as transportation fuel. One reason is that natural gas will be used more for electricity and heating. - Rise of the Itty-Bitty Car: How Green Are the New Uber Compacts? - Earth2Tech
Gasoline-powered subcompacts don't bring a radical jump in fuel efficiency, but electric-powered versions--some expected to be unveiled today--do. - Are the Benefits of Plug-In Hybrids Overstated? - Greentech Media
Mileage estimates vary widely for plug-in electric cars. Important point is that driving habits--i.e. not stamping on the accelerator--make a big difference. - EnergyHub ropes first round for home energy management dashboards - VentureBeat
Companies that do home energy monitors seems to be sprouting everywhere, although few people in the U.S. use them yet. - Momentum in ZigBee Smart Energy Fuels $8 Million in New Financing for Ember - Press release
The company, which makes a Zigbee wireless chip, has gotten funding to further pursue smart grid market. - Wind vs. Petroleum at First Offshore Energy Hearing - Environmental News Service
Wind power, when offshore is included, could produce 20 percent of U.S. electricity load but faces competition for offshore drilling. - Scientists try tapping 'ice that burns' - Greenwire
In case you were worried about the planet running out of hydrocarbons, there's always methane trapped in ice to burn.
Toyota's FT-EV, a concept car that will be the basis for an all-electric commuter car due in 2012.
(Credit: Toyota)
