On February 16, the day the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule limiting power plant mercury emissions hit the Federal Register, the National Mining Association petitioned a federal appeals court for a review.
The group was quick to argue that FirstEnergy’s announced plans to close nine coal-fired power plants was the fault of the rule. FirstEnergy itself made the same claim when it said the nine plants, totaling more than 3,300 megawatts of capacity and located in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, will be shuttered [...]
Ever wish you could charge your iPhone while looking like a complete weirdo? Now you can, with the AIRE mask, a wind-powered device that captures the power of respiration and converts it to electricity via small wind turbines. At best it makes the wearer look like theyre living in a chemical war zone; at worst itll make you look like a futuristic Hannibal [...]
Spotted by our friends at Treehugger, this epic Pegasus Sculpture, crafted by Londons Machine Shop from 3,500 Huawei smartphones stands nearly 19 feet tall and boasts a 16 foot wingspan. The mass of Ascend D Quad handsets rest on a frame made from over 650 yards of iron [...]
A police station built in the early 20th century in Riga, Latvia is commissioning a renovation that will utterly transform it inside and out while retaining the buildings original footprint. Architecture firm NRJA (which stands for No Rules Just Architecture just about the coolest firm name we have heard of) proposes to build an entirely new residential/mixed use building inside the original and cap it with an extensive [...]
The Cubed Maze3 by Phil Pauley adds a third and forth dimension to traditional mazes, and it is designed to be constructed out of a 100% recycled (laminated) flexible glass based polymer. Covering nine floors, multiple stairs, glass ramps and transparent walled partitions, this mega maze will challenge and amuse all who attempt its summit. Each of the nine levels represents the complexity of an equivalent single [...]
Telecommuting saves workers money on subway or gas costs while conserving energy but it can also mean less exercise. The folks at FitDesk have a solution a brilliant bicycle/desk that combines work and exercise! The stationary cycling system has a mount for your laptop, allowing you to burn calories while answering emails.
Power 365 is a concept for a next generation smart power supply that uses a simplistic arrangement of solar cells and light emitting technology. Designed by Phil Pauley, the portable device aims to produce enough juice to charge mobile phones, laptops, mp3 players and more. If produced, Power 365 would range in price from $200 for small mobile devices up to $50,000+ for a large scale linked rack [...]
The EPA has been trying to enforce harsher permitting processes to keep large stationary polluters from spewing greenhouse gasses (GHG) into the atmosphere, however its efforts have been met with lots of resistance. Last week, in response to recent pushbacks, the EPA stepped back from their hard-line stance and said that theyll maintain current permitting requirements for the time being requiring only polluters that produce more than 100,000 tons [...]
Shenzhen, China has laid claim to the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world and they recently announced the addition of 1,500 EVs to their fleet of 500, bringing the grand total up to 2,000 vehicles. The vehicles 1,300 busses and 700 taxis were all bought from Shenzhen-based EV manufacturer BYD. Shenzhen has made some pretty progressive strides to get their residents and government workers behind [...]
The worlds oldest nuclear power plant was just switched offline today in the UK after 44 years of operation. The Oldbury Power Station was the worlds first commercial nuclear operation, however it has reached the end of its working life its 52,000 spent rods will be removed in the next few years and then shipped toaseparatefacilityto bereprocessed. The plant itself will take 80 years to safely dismantle [...]
Jos Mor/Chicago News CooperativeThe Fisk Generating Station (with smokestack) in Chicago is to close by the end of the year.
Midwest Generation agrees to shut down two aging coal-fired power plants that critics link to lung problems after pressure from Rahm Emanuel, the citys mayor. GenOn Energy meanwhile says it will close eight coal plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey rather than install pollution controls. [The Washington Post]
The worlds oldest running nuclear plant shuts down near Bristol, England. Still, [...]
The Smithsonian Institutes vast collection numbers over 137 million items, and of that only 2 percent is on display at one time. Despite many pieces being in storage, the Institute is making [...]
While LED light bulbs help save energy and are most certainly a greener choice than incandescents, the packaging of these more eco-friendly light bulbs leaves much to be desired. Using Philips LED bulbs as an example, student designer Bryant Yee created a new system of packaging that aims to bring awareness to socially responsible boxes for LEDs. Current packaging does not maximize sustainable materials or [...]
Austria Solar teamed up with design group ServicePlan to create a beautiful and uniquely apt presentation of their annual report its printed with special ink that only materializes when exposed to the sun! The elegantly designed document is shipped out in light-proof foil, and each page remains blank until exposure to sunlight reveals its contents. This mature play on childhood
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission spotted a few problems at American reactors last year and directed plant owners to fix them before they could cause accidents, but it also let a lot of problems slide and failed to follow up when there were indications of deeper troubles. Thats the conclusion of a review of nuclear plant safety in 2011 by David Lochbaum, an expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that is generally critical of the [...]
The Dutch House was an experiment in what Denieuwegeneratie refers to as both sustainable hardware and software. Sustainable hardware consists of locally-sourced lark timber used to [...]
Nearly 3 billion people in the world do not have a stove to cook on and must walk miles just to gather enough wood to cook meals for their families. The Paradigm Project is seeking to end that constant search for fuel by raising awareness and money to purchase clean burning cook stoves for people in developing countries they have a goal to implement 5 million stoves by [...]
Panasonic prides themselves on ideas for life and it seems like they are living up to that promise with news that theirPanasonic Enterprise Solutions Company will work with Renewable Social Benefit Funds (RSB Funds) to create a 115KW solar power generation installation for the corporate campus of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in Agoura Hills, CA. Denver-basedRSB Funds is an alternative energy company that is dedicated to bringing [...]
Google Goggles may sound like a mouthful to you but you might be wearing a pair before you know it. Word on the street is that the search engine giant is developing the high-tech specs, which will stream information about the world around you onto the lenses in real time, Terminator-style. Read on to learn about what youll be able to see through these super-advanced new [...]
It recently came to light that Monsantos former public policy vice president, Michael Taylor, is now the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) deputy commissioner for food safety, raising concerns about Taylors ability to justly regulate his former employer. Food safety activists have rushed the internet with displeasure about the posting and have gathered 420,000 signatures on a petition to have Taylor fired from his lofty federal job. [...]
EDR CompaniesShown in white dots, the proposed location for a wind farm 13 miles off the coast.
As we report in Wednesdays Times, New York is finally pursuing wind power by planning a few projects that take advantage of the citys coastal features. In the meantime, many city residents can buy wind power through their utility companies.
Paul Thomas, chief executive officer of Green Mountain Energy, a provider that offers a pollution free blend of wind and hydropower through Con [...]
Yesterday Londoners taking the number 38 bus between Victoria and Hackney got to be the first users of the brand new Eco-Routemaster hybrid bus.The beautiful hybrid double-decker is sure to be a new icon for the city and it gets more than twice the mileage of its standard diesel counterparts. It is the first of 8 Eco-Routemasters that will be rolled out between now [...]
The Dutch House was an experiment in what Denieuwegeneratie refers to as both sustainable hardware and software. Sustainable hardware consists of locally-sourced lark timber used to [...]
