Because redox flow batteries use a fluid the infrastructure in place today need only upgrade to accommodate recharging vast vats of the stored depleted fluid, all underground storage, pumps, hoses and tanker trucks could shift to the new electrolyte instead of oil. This would constitute a transition of like-for-like with much less infrastructure upheaval. (Read more...)

The system is made up of solar curtains positioned under the 4000 square meters of greenhouse roof, set to capture the heat of the sun and transfer it down 40-70 meters into the ground water. The earth and sand provides some level of insulation retaining the heat for use during winter for an estimated 60% savings in heating costs. (Read more...)

We have become accustomed to the convenience offered us. The sad thing is that despite our knowing full well that this comes at a price we continue to use it because, well its convenient isn’t it. We become locked into the immediate reward even though a little perspective would instantly demonstrate the folly (Read more...)

Joe Harmon is a graduate student at North Carolina State University, undertaking one of the greatest projects I have ever seen. He has spent the last couple years working on a car made primarily from wood, everything from the body, to seats, frame, suspension, even the wheels. (Read more...)

If we didn’t ‘live’ by actually consuming the energy contained within fossil fuels, then we would be back to the amount of fuel contained in food, the Calorie. (Read more...)

Lime mortar doesn’t sound like much of a “green” advancement, but when compared to cement it makes both economic and ecological sense. Research undertaken by a consortium of Nordic and European builders into best practices for restoring old buildings across Europe, is driving a revival in this traditional building technique. (Read more...)

Camper Bike, a functioning sculptural piece, built in April 2008. A stand alone piece and the subject of a series of paintings; well off topic but enjoy. (Read more...)

The CLEAR Village has been conceptualized as a working research and test vehicle for the idea of appropriately scaled communities, a subject near and dear to this author’s heart. (Read more...)

Though engineers and physicists can get all foamy at the mouth over bar graphs and tables of numbers, the rest of us need something we can more easily fit our heads around while browsing the web, pictures. (Read more...)

The U.S. Department of Energy makes an Annual Energy Review which includes some very informative graphics that must be seen to fully appreciate the cost of electricity. It takes only a few seconds to see what is wrong here; conversion. (Read more...)

The idea is that the smart meter will communicate with your PC and then upload your daily totals for energy use to this Facebook app for all to see. This will somehow feed into our inert competitiveness driving our decisions away from making toast using the hairdryer, and toward the Zen of candle lighting and 3-minute-long cold showers. (Read more...)

Currently Denmark uses 9 million cubic meters oil and gas in meeting its needs, at the extrapolated rate of decline Denmark goes from a net oil exporter to an oil importer in the year 2017, with major economic consequences. (Read more...)

Biology’s logic is founded on high throughput selection, also known as trial and error, this is the same type of engineering cultures all over the world have used for thousands of years to find ways to live within their environment. (Read more...)

A low tech solution for extracting the moisture contained in fog is helping to meet the needs of families living in Arid regions around the world. (Read more...)

Often times the beach hut isn’t much more than a stack of wood, with no electricity, running water and only a port-a-loo, basically they are a house of cards place-holder for your own piece of beach property. (Read more...)

A look at the future garden/office space to take shape near Aarhus University. Great lines and creative use of space, bet she costs a pretty penny. but hey, can you put a price on lounging under palm trees during December in Denmark? (Read more...)

Have you ever wondered which nations are sustainable for the future? We each have a carbon footprint because we all use energy to some level or other, and energy, be it methane, gasoline, or wood releases greenhouse gases when burned. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has put together a nice website with an interface for visualizing our carbon footprint by nation. (Read more...)

The US city of Flint, Michigan is experimenting with a re-localization scheme that is a direct reaction to counter urban sprawl, bulldoze the suburbs and re-make the city center. With the money saved from re-localizing services, a new walk-able city center will be built for the remaining 110,000 strong population (Read more...)

Two horses, check, some lumber and brass nails, check, a nice wide river and a model business for a ferryman and family, check. What the history of invention tells us about the human mind. (Read more...)

If Orellana was telling the truth, then how did the local people grow enough food?
Several lines of evidence have come together in recent years to suggest that massive scale farming was taking place in the Amazon region. The most interesting has to do with a soil known to the local people as Terra preta do índio (Indian black earth, in the local Portuguese). (Read more...)

If you think the difficulties for upgrading our electric-grid infrastructure are tough to overcome take a look at the water system. Let’s just say there is no shortage of those shovel-ready jobs to be had in the next 5 years. (Read more...)

Thinking ecologically, moving to a carbon economy would “close the loop”, no longer a one-directional flow of energy into products and services, then into the ground as refuse. (Read more...)

Recycling at its best. (Read more...)

This new thinking requires some new accounting, a type of unified economic theory where we have but one planet, and both sides of the equals sign balance,…some kind of sustainable economy. (Read more...)