Looking for solar panel for your home or business?

GoGreenSolar provides solar energy related equipment and other renewable energy solutions. The web site also provides a free service for you to locate the local green energy professionals.

Please check it out. GoGreenSolar

PSIDA technology improves solar panel efficiency

PSIDA glass design is that it does not matter what type of solar cell is used. The PSIDA PBE glass can be used as cover glass for any type of panel. At the same time, since it should increase the overall power output by 30% during the day and especially during the 8 AM to Solar Normal and then again to 8 PM it will reduce the cost per MWHr by a factor of 2.5 or more.

The advantages - less panels necessary (thus less silicon) and better cost structure so that even without government subsidies, solar becomes an effective alternative energy source.

For more detail: www.psi-da.com

Waste Management --City of Irvine

City of Irvine - Residential Service Guidelines

Waste Management provides three carts for automated collection of trash, recyclables and green waste. Carts are available in three sizes: 35 gallons, 64 gallons and 96 gallons. Trash, recyclables and greenwaste are picked up weekly.


What Goes In Your Carts?

Trash Cart (Blue Lid)

Disposable diapers , Drinking glasses , Pet-soiled paper, Window glass , Pet waste, Auto glass, Soiled/greasy paper plates or pizza boxes, Mirrors, Napkins, Paint cans (empty), Waxed and coated paper, Oil cans (empty), Aluminum foil, Rubber/latex items, Microwave dinner trays, Potting containers, Butter tubs, Styrofoam, Clothing Toys, Foam padding, Steel items, Carpeting, Palm fronds , Ceramics

Mixed Recyclables Cart (Gray Lid)

Please rinse food residue from containers and flatten cardboard boxes. All recyclables may be placed in the recycling cart together. Please set out your recycling cart only when it is full, and ensure the cart lid is able to be completely closed.

NOTE: A new item has been added to the recycling program. As part of the new expanded programs, Irvine residents can now place plastic bags in their recycling cart. Please place plastic bags for recycling inside a plastic bag, not loose in the cart to ensure that all the plastic will be caught in the sorting process.

Aluminum/tin cans, Coupons, Empty aerosol cans, Cardboard/12-pack soda boxes, Pie tins, Cereal boxes (plastic lining removed), Cardboard egg cartons, Tissue boxes , Computer/white paper, Glass bottles/jars, Milk jugs, Liquor bottles, Plastic containers labeled #1 - #7, Laundry detergent boxes/bottles, Juice bottles, Junk mail/magazines/phone books, Newspapers/inserts/magazines, Plastic bags (place inside another bag, not loose in the cart).


Greenwaste Cart (Green Lid)

Please do not place greenwaste in plastic bags.

Masdar City in Abu Dhabi

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7237672.stm


Abu Dhabi has started to build what it says is the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste car-free city.

Masdar City will cost $22bn (£11.3bn), take eight years to build and be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses.

The city will be mostly powered by solar energy and residents will move in travel pods running on magnetic tracks.

Abu Dhabi has one of the world's biggest per capita carbon footprints and sceptics fear Masdar may be just a fig leaf for the oil-rich Gulf emirate.

Others fear Masdar City - on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi City - may become a luxury development for the rich.

The project is supported by global conservation charity, the WWF.

Less power, less water

The city will make use of traditional Gulf architecture to create low-energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers. Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant, Masdar says. The city will need a quarter of the power required for a similar sized community, while its water needs will be 60% lower.
The city forms part of an ambitious plan to develop clean energy technologies.



In January, the government of Abu Dhabi announced a $15bn five-year initiative to develop clean energy technologies, calling it "the most ambitious sustainability project ever launched by a government".

As part of the plan, Abu Dhabi will become home to the world's largest hydrogen power plant.

The money is being channelled through the Masdar Initiative, a company established to develop and commercialise clean energy technologies, and Abu Dhabi hopes it will lead to international joint ventures involving much more money. Abu Dhabi will invest $4bn of equity in the project and borrow some of the rest, Masdar said.

"We are creating an array of financial vehicles to finance the $22bn development," Masdar chief executive officer Sultan al-Jaber told Reuters news agency. "We will monetise all carbon emission reductions... Such innovative financing has never been applied to the scale of an entire city."

For more info: http://www.masdaruae.com/

LED Lamp Lit by Gravity Lasts 200 Years, Never Plugs In

LED Lamp Lit by Gravity Lasts 200 Years, Never Plugs In

When we talk about going off-grid, or otherwise unplugging from traditional power sources, it usually involves solar or wind power, or some other alternative that doesn't involved your local utility. Young designer Clay Moulton has figured out how to harness a different source to create electricity: gravity.

"Gravia" is his LED-lit floor lamp that combines human power and gravity to create a lighting source that will work for 200 years or so, and never need to be plugged in. The lamp has a weight that's raised every four hours or so; as it slowly descends, the downward motion is converted to torque via a high-efficiency ball screw. The torque is overdriven (at 1:160 for those of you scoring at home) by a harmonic drive gear hand, and the output from that spins a set of 12 high-strength neodymium magnets (which act as the rotor), spinning to power 10 high-output LEDs. Simple, no?

Gravia's light output of 600-800 lumens is roughly equal to a 40 watt incandescent bulb is all thanks to this slick system, which recalls hourglass-like timekeeping; every four hours or so, the process starts again with a little help from human power, and it's probably worth a little lifting to keep it going: Moulton has calculated that, with 8 hours of use 365 days a year, the lamp will last for more than 200 years, and will only get better with age.

For more: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/gr...-by-gravity.php