My wife Catrin and I simply love the solar water heater we had installed in February of 2007. It has given us nothing but reliable service and very hot water.

As I've traveled and told growing numbers of people about the virtues of solar hot water as the easiest way of reducing our need for fossil fuels, the thought struck me that the masses need to know how painless the installation process was and how little space the collector consumes on the roof.

In exchange for giving them a review for their second-quarter newsletter, the Sierra Club of Central Florida has been kind enough to host a photolog of installation day on their website.

It is available for free at http://florida.sierraclub.org/central/solar

All of the images are clickable so don't hesitate to click on them to view enlargements.

The 25% reduction in our monthly utility bill happened because of what you will see in the photos. A comparable system on most any home with decent southern exposure and 2 adults using hot water would cost approximately $5,000.

With tax incentives currently available, our return on investment (ROI) period will be about 7 years but of course, the smiles we derive from knowing that we heat our water without causing air pollution are priceless!

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler

When critics of renewable energy attempt to squelch the thirst for change which many of us have, they often point to the fact that the sun only shines during the daytime and the wind doesn’t always blow. Fortunately, technology has not stood still while fossilized critics continue to hurl objections from 40 years ago.

The unblemished success of the new water heater which Catrin and I use proves that the sun gives average consumers all the hot water they need without pollution and as for wind, the technology has evolved even further.

What is the Earth’s atmosphere?

It is, quite literally, an ocean of air which blankets the entire planet. In combination with the rotating core at the center of the world, the atmosphere allows us to derive heat and light from the sun without cooking ourselves.

What makes the wind blow?

Well, on the surface, the cause is the temperature differential between towns, regions and continents. Just a few hundred feet up though, the wind blows relentlessly because the atmosphere is in constant movement or, more accurately, the planet moves constantly and the atmosphere is dragged along with it, seldom at the same speed.

If the Earth stops rotating, wind will be the least of our worries.

Simply put, windmills have evolved to the point that they can generate electricity around the clock without even the slightest zephyr on the surface because they are elevated hundreds of feet off the ground.

Since the greatest demand for electricity occurs during the day when the largest numbers of businesses are open (called peak demand), we can satisfy those periods of demand by generating power with sunshine and then use wind for nights and weekends.

This is my main reason for supporting NWF Wind Current with my wallet. The URL is http://nwfwindcurrent.com

This wonderful alliance has a low financial entry point for those who would like to experiment with green power but not make a large early commitment and focuses the need for urgency right where it belongs, on polar bears.

Since about half of the population of the United States lives in coastal areas, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the climate crisis is killing polar bears today, right now, as you read this. The benefits of renewable energy credits are many but polar bears will see them the fastest.

By aligning itself with Wind Current, the National Wildlife Federation can provide the laser focus needed to remind all of us just how high the stakes are.

NWF Wind Current is a premier environmental organization doing what it does best, raising awareness and offering solutions with a broad array of benefits for everyone, people, plants and animals alike.

Being a customer of Krystal Planet theoretically cleans enough carbon from the atmosphere for Catrin and me to live carbon-neutral but the work of NWF Wind Current is so vital that we are more than happy to send money to them each month, too.

In my third and final post on offsets, I will tell you about Terra Pass.

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler

The final days of the month of August will not be the same for my generation or the next on account of the unspeakable devastation which befell America’s Gulf Coast in 2005. However, even as the region takes small, painful steps toward recovery, we must remember some of the lessons which that disaster taught us.

Positive results? Yes, it’s true. Naturally, we don’t want any loss of life or property from wind storms but in terms of the planet’s atmosphere, hurricanes and other such tropical systems play an important role. Because the earth is round, sunshine heats the surface at different intensities each day and as the seasons change. Cyclones act as, in a way, blowing off steam to keep the atmosphere’s vital filtration system healthy. In short, hurricanes can have positive results.

When I attended the Solar World Congress in Orlando’s tourism district 2 years ago, I learned a great deal about the technology of renewable energy, especially solar, as the event’s name suggests. One of the most intriguing solutions I saw there, applied in a few different ways, was the solar air conditioner. In fact, one of the presentations on the subject was by NASA, explaining how lunar missions in coming decades will use it.

Sadly, while the most intriguing exhibits and speeches I saw at the Solar World Congress focused on the future, the technologies we use today for generating electricity and then cooling and heating our homes is firmly rooted in the last century. I am very bullish about the promise of geothermal energy and believe that I can convince you to feel the same way.

So, how helpful could it be?

In my previous post, I explained that I am enthusiastic about geothermal energy. The good news does not end with the fact that this abundant resource is clean and renewable. No, it also can lead to stability in energy prices.

Because the fuel is expensive and must be extracted from the earth, the price we pay for conventional energy is volatile, subject to multiple market forces. When we add economic expansion and shifts between population centers, the result is inevitable, rising U.S. energy prices.

Nature has given us a clean solution which also can be quite inexpensive over the long term, geothermal energy.

Soil temperatures beneath the surface of the Earth are constant so we can use the unchanging conditions there to control the temperature of our own surroundings by routing our ventilation system through underground chambers. Applied cleverly, we also can generate electricity cleanly by exploiting the difference in temperature at the surface and deep below.

I love renewable energy. It is clean and, in some cases, free to harness. Which is the right answer for your situation, however? Without visiting your home, I cannot state for certain but what I can do is offer my perspective, which cares equally for keeping the earth green and providing you with the energy you need.

Every form of renewable energy has its advantages. I tend to prefer solar because of the relative ease of installation of the equipment to harness it and the vast untapped potential. As you may know, the world uses a mere fraction of 1% of the solar energy which strikes the surface of the Earth every day.

Solar doesn’t work everywhere, however. Likewise, geothermal has the ability to generate most of the electricity we need and keep our homes comfortable year round but it does not work in every situation. So, should we focus on solar energy or geothermal?

When I was growing up in New England, I used to chuckle at neighbors and members of our church who wintered in Florida. These snow birds struck me as not being fully in tune with their surroundings. I was wrong! The opposite was true!

Simply put, living comfortably in Florida involves climate control technology about half the year, much as it does in New England. By alternating halves, people can reduce their energy consumption significantly. Recently, I told you about Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark, creators and builders of Florida's Showcase Green Envirohome. Nonnie and Mark seek to continue living in Florida year-round, just as my wife Catrin and I do.

One of the reasons I share Jim Griffin’s confidence that the Green Earth Expo will have strong attendance numbers is that he has allocated a very nice space in the Orange County Convention Center for children. Of all the energy expositions and similar events which I have attended, only one has included an area for kids until now.

I’m already happy about that but the merits of the Green Earth Expo hardly stop there. Information about solar energy will abound. The list of exhibitors and keynote speakers continues to grow but I doubt that I will look forward to any of them with greater anticipation than I already have for Justin Sutton and his Interstate Traveler.

I.T., as Jim Griffin and I have come to call it, is the world’s first solar-powered, hydrogen-fueled high-speed rail system. Although it can work in urban, suburban and exurban locales, the system derives its name from the intention to run alongside every mile of the nation’s Eisenhower Interstate highway system, as pictured here.

Catrin and I are movie buffs. While we enjoy contemporary music very much, our true pop culture passion is for modern cinema. The DVD players in our home see a fair amount of use but for us, the ultimate cinematic experience takes place at our local multiplex with 200 or more of our closest friends watching a 70-foot convex screen in unison.

The first Hollywood production which we saw dealing with the rubble of what once was the KGB was the film Terminal Velocity. If not for above-average performances by Nastassja Kinski and Christopher McDonald, this film would belong in the B movie pantheon. Well, it relates to global warming because it features a brief but important sequence in a giant wind power farm in the Mojave Desert. That was the first time I had seen such an array of wind turbines, whether in person or on screen.

A decade later, as I sat in one of the very fascinating break-out sessions of the Solar World Congress in Orlando, I saw a PowerPoint presentation about a design of a large photovoltaic power plant and listened as its merits were explained. As fate would have it, just a few weeks later, I saw the film Sahara which culminates the main story arc at a solar power plant of the same ilk!

In my previous post, I told you how the Interstate Traveler system will be effectively immune to cloud cover and seasonal changes in sunlight once the system is fully built throughout North America.

How can this be?

The answer to the question points to the genius of Justin Sutton. Every mile of rail will be covered with tens of thousands of square feet of solar collecting panels. What’s more, whereas a typical rail system only interconnects switch tracks and trestles, the Interstate Traveler interconnects the solar panels themselves by way of piping hydrogen from utility substation to utility substation.

Here’s what that means.

Enough waiting! Will Corbett ever show us the goods?

I appreciate your patience. You’ve stuck with me through multiple threads to show you what is here. Earlier, I gave you a preview of the look and feel of the Interstate Traveler in motion with the following photo:

The first time I showed this image to you, it was to demonstrate that it will operate very well alongside the multilane highways of North America. Now that you’ve had a chance to soak in that image, let’s circle back around and highlight the aspect which I like best, the fact that it’s COVERED with photovoltaic solar panels. Here’s an aerial view.

I hope that the last 3 posts have instilled in you at least some of the excitement I feel about the Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Superhighway. I’ve shown you that it’s clean. I’ve told you that it’s fast. I’ve given you a peek at it in flight. Now, let’s pause for a moment and discuss part of its role in humanitarian support.

More than a decade ago, when Justin Sutton walked through the countless mental steps and calculation blocks needed to propose the Interstate Traveler, his desire that the system be clean led to an inevitable photovoltaic cost analysis. No solar-powered rail system would be viable without one. During that process, he came to realize that a portion of the energy surplus he could build into the operating model could be given away under the right circumstances, pro bono publico.

When the American Computer Science Association chose Justin Sutton and the Interstate Traveler Company as the first recipient of the coveted NEWTY award for the new millennium, it established for the whole world that the Hydrogen Superhighway will have a greater positive impact on humanity than the good works and achievements of the Gates Foundation, Lord Richard Branson, the Segway personal transportation device and even hybrid gasoline-electric automobiles.

I am no scientist, although I know a thing or two about computers, and couldn’t agree with ACSA’s decision more. Justin Sutton has invented (he would use the word integrated) a technology which is just that good. It has the potential to take what the steam locomotive did for North America in the 19th Century and extend it for the Western Hemisphere in just a few years’ time. In fact, by the year 2020, we may have a celebration for the Americas at the new Promontory Point, perhaps in Panama City or Bogota.

Part of the reason the ACSA chose Justin Sutton’s Interstate Traveler over so many other beneficial technologies is the altruism at the heart of Justin’s work. Here are excerpts from their announcement:

As you read this, I am in the midst of Justin Sutton’s second visit of 2007 to Central Florida. Working with this man is a joy. The more he tells people about the Interstate Traveler, the greater the excitement. He now has cities, states and nations lined up around the globe awaiting construction in their area.

So, what aspect evokes the greatest number of smiles? What really trips the most triggers when groups hear about the Hydrogen Superhighway? Until recently, I had trouble tracking it. A wholly unscientific tally of responses both verbal and otherwise seemed to point to a recurring rhetorical question: “How fast can you build the system worldwide?”

OK, so I have made the bold statement that it is, in fact, quite simple to build a solar panel large enough to produce hydrogen cleanly. Can I back it up? Fortunately, I don’t have to. Justin Sutton is the genius. All I have to do is give you a quick snapshot of the concept. Trust me. When I’m done, you will see that Justin derives a broad economic impact by using solar energy.

Dateline, Clearbrook, Minnesota

A ruptured pipeline which carries more than a million barrels of crude oil from Saskatchewan to the Chicago area caught fire while under repair last month. The result was sadly predictable: boom! I don’t wish to seem glib, especially since several people died, but can’t we come to grips with the root cause? Ruptured pipelines point to a fatally flawed, antiquated technology.

2008 has been an historic year yet it barely has begun. Given that 2007 was the second-warmest year on record, the alignment of environmental and market forces to move us toward a more sustainable future could not be needed more urgently. Green building plans are an excellent way to begin addressing the vast challenges of a changing climate and in recent weeks they received a warm embrace from factions within California’s construction industry.

In the United States, energy for buildings (cooling, electricity, heating, etc.) accounts for 40% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Of that, homes are a significant contributor. Anything we can do to reduce those numbers can produce a dramatic and immediate benefit. However, until this month, collaborations between builders, real estate managers and environmentalists were rare to say the least.

In short, environmental considerations and practices were determined in corporate board rooms and environmentalists seldom were offered a seat at the table. Fortunately, the situation has begun to change and California has taken up a leadership role, especially in the northern region.

What changed? How have we progressed to having not just a genuine dialog between opposing camps but collaboration and alliances? The simple fact is that some of the opponents to California’s green building plan realized that there are green backs to be made in green building and switched sides of the argument.

Air pollution has no long-term benefits. There are short-term economic benefits to some because they have learned to turn a profit from directly or indirectly spewing air pollution into the atmosphere. It is a well-documented fact which no credible person would dispute that air pollution is bad for people and wildlife. What, though, is the effect air pollution has on the Earth’s ecosystem and what can we do about it?

The effect is broad but can be summarized concisely: air pollution, as a component of global warming, disrupts the ability of the atmosphere to regulate itself, leading to erratic weather patterns. In turn, these patterns impinge upon natural systems and we wind up with a big mess, including insect species where they don’t belong, melting glaciers, widespread famines and the list goes on.

The vision of Van Jones and the Green For All Initiative is lovely. It focuses on bright futures, bright for the United States as we embrace the positive economic impact by using solar energy and bright because programs such as Solar Richmond help bring the long-term goal of color-blind economic opportunity which Dr. King helped foment to fruition.

During the month of April, I painted a financial picture for you, one in which the unified earth theory can be applied in the United States and elsewhere through adherence of the triple bottom line of sustainability. These crucial principles can help us respond to global warming better and faster than simply taking a step-by-step approach. However, there’s another benefit which we must consider. It has an environmental and humanitarian aspect.

You see, indigenous populations in the tropical rain forest, such as in South America, suffer greater and greater encroachment from city dwellers and farmers every year. This is caused by economic mismanagement on the part of local and state government but also pressure from industrialized nations to continue providing cheap imported goods while ignoring the principles of sustainability.

I was born in 1969, around the same time as the first human set foot on the moon, and I can remember the days when the job of retail sales clerk required specialized training. As a boy, I can remember visiting an appliance shop with my parents and the need for an assistant manager to be called in order to answer questions of any substance.

During the last 20 years, the industrialized world has trended away from such core competencies in favor of cutthroat retail skirmishes. This change has helped keep prices low but customer service even lower. The good news in this age of global warming is that renewable energy technologies, especially solar, are unforgiving types of merchandise. They demand a competent, well trained sales crew. So, we are left with a question: as more people buy photovoltaic products, for their home, car, bicycle, etc., is the retail community ready?

My assertion is that it is not. In fact, despite great strides in design and manufacturing techniques, solar technology can be complex to install and utilize. At the same time, everyone who cares about energy independence, the environment, job creation and sustainability hopes that people buy photovoltaic products with growing rapidity.

I smell opportunity!

Since becoming a professional environmentalist a few years ago, I have come to understand the profound ability to effect real change of the simple, 2-syllable question Why not?

Today, Spain is a world leader in encouraging its citizens to go solar because more than a decade ago, a newly-elected city councilman in the Mediterranean haven of Barcelona noted that few if any citizens harnessed the sun to heat their water. His response? Why not?

His question was answered with, “That’s not the way we do things.” yet he persisted. Over time, heating water with sunshine in a city with hundreds of sunny days per year simply made too much sense and it became standard procedure. Soon, it was the standard for the whole Spanish state of Cataluña and eventually, the whole country. Is there power in Why not? You betcha!

There are countless other examples in history. The Green Earth Expo, which just concluded its first event last month in Orlando, Florida, is a poignant one. The way it came into being began with the question Why not? and then morphed into a kernel of an idea when I asked Jim Griffin, Why don’t you have a global warming trade show?

The vast hall of the Orange County Convention Center which hosted the inaugural Green Earth Expo facilitated a heavy focus on solar power. It was a good thing, too! When Jim Griffin and I conceived the Green Earth Expo, we spoke at length about how silly it is that the Sunshine State does not lead the world in the adoption of solar.

At that moment (and during the countless planning meetings in which I participated with Jim and his staff), I failed to anticipate just how zealous the crowd at the Expo would be about the current status of solar power for residential use when the Expo finally occurred. The intensity was something to behold.

Jim and I were delighted that multiple solar contractors and installers from Florida participated as exhibitors, panelists and speakers at the Green Earth Expo. They did a very good job because the current state of solar power for residential use by far gathered the most interest at the event.

Wondering as to the extent? Well, allow me to give you a firsthand example.

Award-winning inventor Justin Sutton was a top-tier supporter, exhibitor and presenter at the Green Earth Expo. He told hundreds of new acquaintances about his solar-powered Interstate Traveler platform. Since I first shared my excitement about Justin’s work with you in November, global interest in the Interstate Traveler has grown and grown.

One region in which active dialog is underway even as you read this is the Far East. The Internet is run by computers which run on microprocessors, many of which are manufactured in Taiwan. Microprocessors are based on silicate technology, as are solar-electric power cells. Well, as the world’s largest solar power facility when fully constructed, the Interstate Traveler will consume a great deal of available solar power systems: 85,000 square feet of solar paneling per mile of rail. That’s a whole lot of solar!

The good news is that the vast population centers and vast rural expanses between cities in Asia make the region an ideal location for a solar-powered transportation platform such as the Interstate Traveler.

NOTE: Audio for this post is accessible at the end

Justin Sutton is full of bright ideas, no pun intended. He invented the Interstate Traveler – which is on track to break ground in 2009 – but as impressive as that revolutionary system is, it really is just the beginning of the good deeds he has planned for his countrymen and all of humanity.

The sun is at the heart of much of what Justin Sutton does. One might say that it fuels his genius. Well, one of the objections which global warming skeptics hurl at us true believers is that sun spots are to blame for increases in global average temperatures. In effect, they are saying that solar radiation explosions are the culprit, not the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation on a planetary scale and widespread ocean poisoning.

Basic geology explains away any correlation between solar radiation explosions and the pace at which our world is warming but the genius of Justin Sutton is that his inventions work no matter what happens to the sun. So long as it keeps shining at much the same intensity, we are in good shape. Moreover, the Interstate Traveler transports more people, provides more free hydrogen and provides more clean water if solar radiation explosions persist. In other words, he has us covered.

As you will come to understand by listening to the interview which he gave to me on May 31, shortly after returning home from a successful visit to Orlando for the Green Earth Expo, Justin Sutton has found a way to provide for many of our needs while boosting our economy. The running time of the telephone interview is almost 50 minutes and the topics have a wide range but I am confident that you will find it a fascinating listen.

“We don’t want to spend taxpayer dollars on fuels that make global warming worse.”

– Hon. Kitty Piercy, Mayor

Eugene, Oregon

June 23, 2008

Last time, I gave you my position on clean coal technologies. They are a myth. However, since no reasonable environmentalist can expect the world to abandon coal overnight, the most important thing for us to do is disseminate the truth about clean coal technologies and drive consumers of coal toward clean, renewable resources.

One area where the environmental community can obtain the fastest results is in educating government bodies. NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, is a very influential organization doing just that. The quote above came in part as a response to their work.

Back in March, I told you about an amazingly green housing project in South Carolina, the Navy Yard at Noisette. The developers and everyone in the community can be very proud of the accomplishments but some of their fellow Carolinians took the Noisette project as a challenge to elevate the design of passive solar ranch homes to a whole new level.

Meet the Furman Cliffs Cottage. An impressive collaboration between Furman University, Johnston Design Group, Innocenti & Webel, Triangle Construction and others, the Furman Cliffs Cottage has set a new standard for passive solar ranch homes in a novel way.

"Okotoks can fairly call itself the greenest community in Canada, maybe the world."

– Stephen Harper

Prime Minister of Canada

The Drake Landing Solar Community, in Okotoks, Alberta has reached a highly commendable and very remarkable milestone in passive solar house design, blending geothermal heating in the summertime with year-round solar water heating. That may read like a mouthful but, in short, this 52-home solar community in Central Canada soaks up heat in the summer and uses it to keep families warm in the winter while using just the tiniest fraction of grid power and natural gas versus what it would through conventional design.

Now, we’re talking!

“Renewable fuels - sun, wind, geothermal - are free; they’re not traded on the global market so they are not subject to huge spikes in price. This is the kind of economic security American families want and deserve.”

- Hon. Al Gore

Former Vice President of the United States

July 17, 2008

Whew! The summer of 2008 has been an historic one and it’s only half-over!

Amidst all the bad news, people around the United States and on every continent are paying attention to Al Gore in numbers never seen, even when he was Vice President of the United States. Through the We Campaign which he founded and I featured here back in April, more than a million people have signed a new online commitment to fight global warming. Not bad for just a few months’ time!

Last month, I told you about the Drake Landing Solar Community, which the Prime Minister of Canada dubbed the greenest community in Canada. It’s an impressive project and the fact that the 52-unit community sold out before construction was complete points us to an important question. What are the mortgage costs of a green home?

The answer is, the increase in the up-front costs (which affect the monthly payment) minus the amortized savings in the homeowners’ energy costs.

The formula may sound complex but its bottom line involves just two computations, both percentages. The rule of thumb within the green building industry is that a green home costs 10% more to build if the green attributes are included in the project from the outset. Hence, the mortgage costs of a green home will be about 10% higher when all is said and done. However, the average green home consumes well in excess of 10% less energy than its conventional counterpart.

NOTE: audio and presentation file for this post are linked at the end

Life is dangerous. Driving an automobile is dangerous. Burning any type of fuel is dangerous. However, millions of people drive gasoline-powered automobiles every day because the risks are known and manageable.

Depending on the application, hydrogen is less dangerous than gasoline. That is a known, demonstrable fact. Converting a car to burn water and gas involves blending hydrogen with gasoline, adding one explosive compound to another. However, as my friend Adam Nehr of the Kennedy Space Center explains below, converting a car to burn water and gas involves the addition of hydrogen from water which has been reformulated from H2O into HHO, or oxyhydrogen, a useful but highly volatile substance.

Please read on for all the details or, better yet, scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to listen to my in-depth telephone conversation with Adam. It contains all of the information which appears below in a greatly expanded version along with a PowerPoint presentation (in Adobe format). As you will come to see, the idea of converting a car to burn water and gas is appealing but ultimately can’t work without violating entropy, not a good idea no matter how high fuel prices go.

Enough Danger To Make Even Will Robinson Tremble

CORBETT: Many of our readers have heard that conventional internal combustion gasoline engines convert to thrust only 40% of the kinetic potential of the fuel – and on a good day. Why is this?

ADAM: The mechanical conversion of combustion to linear and then rotary motion is inefficient. It’s really a mechanical problem due to the fact that as gases expand they become less dense relative to the square of expansion. As combustion happens the pressure builds and pushes the piston down but as the piston moves, the gas has a greater space to fill and soon it reaches the point where it is too weak to push further. It is still very hot, however, and that heat now has to go somewhere. That’s where the cooling system takes over but just like the alternator, it costs some horsepower to do its job. When you add it all up, the average engine only returns 30 – 40% of the energy potential of the gasoline in the form of power to move the car and the rest goes to heat dissipation and electrical generation.

CORBETT: Here on Keyboard Culture Global Warming, I have featured the fact that Ford currently makes a diesel version of the Fiesta and some owners report fuel economy of 60 miles per gallon. Back in the 1990’s, I knew a gentleman from Scotland who drove the diesel version of the Ford Escort and obtained upwards of 80 miles per gallon.

If it is possible for diesel automobiles to have such high efficiencies without exotic technologies such as regenerative braking, why don’t we have high-efficiency gasoline engines?

ADAM: Well first, the core problem is that we like BIG cars and, with big cars, come big energy needs. The more wind drag a car has, the more horsepower is required to push it against the invisible sea of air all around us. If you think about the root of my first answer, the engineering of today’s gasoline engine is pretty wasteful fuel -wise but it is about as good as a gasoline-burning mechanical engine can be made in a practical sense. We either have to drive smaller or think bigger when it comes to energy conversion for the size of cars we drive.

If we could find a low entropy means of using all of that heat the engine wastes to provide propulsion, it would be a start, but a better solution would be to get away from gasoline altogether. The diesel is more efficient than a gasoline engine because it compresses the air first – and because the fuel has a higher energy specific or energy content per liquid volume. The difference is around 15% more energy per gallon of diesel compared to regular gasoline. The hypermiling figures you stated are the result of many factors, all being optimized....including tire inflation. Good mileage has to be approached from a holistic system point of view.

CORBETT: We have heard prominent people, including George W. Bush, express enthusiasm about hydrogen in automobiles. If hydrogen is part of water, why won’t technologies which claim to allow us to run our car on water function?

ADAM: Well it’s a problem of entropy. If you made the hydrogen from solar energy at a station designed for high volume production and stored it in a high-pressure or nickel-metal-hydride tank onboard the car, like some of the H2 cars currently on the road, hydrogen is a good fuel but not a great one. The problem here is that the tanks are heavy plus the fuel cell is stuffed in and inaccessible to easy maintenance. Electric cars are ideal but that does not stop the use of hydrogen for energy storage – in fact, it encourages it! If you use hydrogen to store energy from solar production and then use the stored gas to create electricity when the sun is not shining, you are getting much closer to a viable and sustainable use of hydrogen for personal transportation, like the way the Interstate Traveler is designed. Batteries and super capacitors are making chemical propulsion look like it is in its last few decades and if we really put a push on the development of the new technologies, we can realize this dream quickly. Note that I talk only about hydrogen and not oxyhydrogen (or HHO) gas. That’s for safety reasons.

If you split water into its component parts, you get hydrogen AND oxygen at a ratio of 2:1. If you keep the gases together, you have oxyhydrogen (or HHO), which is very explosive. In fact, welders use this gas when they need to melt metals with melting points as high as 2700°F. In a car, this gas can be lethal in moderate quantities because it is so explosive. It is like running your car on acetylene and oxygen mixed together....not a good idea. Even more importantly, the systems for converting a car to burn water and gas take energy from the gasoline engine to make the HHO gas right in the engine compartment. That is not only dangerous but completely inefficient. In fact, it costs you a small amount of mileage which some of the systems for converting a car to burn water and gas cover up by convincing you to lean out the fuel mixture by reprogramming your engine computer. This decreases engine life but it does increase mileage right up to the point where the engine fails. The attached presentation tells the story...

CORBETT: If HHO technologies don’t function, what alternatives do automobile drivers have to improve fuel economy?

ADAM: Well, smaller cars for one – perhaps owning two cars, one for commuting and another for general hauling and errands. That’s what I am doing – I ordered a Smart for Two and will use it on my daily 45-minute commute instead of my mini pickup truck. There’s also tire inflation, good maintenance and using public transport when possible. As far as a miracle fix for fuel consumption, there isn’t one out there yet, but the electric car and the hydrogen storage of solar and wind energy is coming up fast! Right now, conserve, be smart and be patient.

Click here for written presentation (PDF)

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

My wife Cat and I live with the smallest carbon footprint possible for a modern couple residing in a city with poor mass transit and cycling options. One area in which we excel (as recently confirmed by an air conditioning salesman) is in conserving electricity. While our methods won’t work everywhere, they have proved quite effective for us. In fact, when annualized, our monthly electric bill never exceeds $90.

It wasn’t always that way, of course. In fact, we used to hover just above $100 per month. Then, we upgraded our home to a solar water heater. What a great decision! It is wonderful. We have had it for more than a year and our water always is hot and our electric bill consistently is $20 below what we used to pay. So, as we enjoy our monthly pastime of calculating electricity generating efficiency of our water heater, or the equivalent thereof, the number consistently tops 20%.

If you own your home or live in a complex which allows for upgrading to a solar water heater, I exhort you to give the possibility due consideration. As to the logistics of having a solar water heater on cloudy days, the unit has an electrical back-up. In our case, we have it set to the lowest possible temperature. Recently, during Tropical Storm Fay, we had no sun for more than 3 straight days. And our water? Mighty comfy the whole time!

Solar water heaters harness the sun very effectively and keep the hot water hot. To learn more about the installation process, check out my very first online video here at Keyboard Culture for a recap of how it went at the Kroehler household.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

New Approaches to Old Problems

Nearly a decade has passed since the Environmental Defense Fund, one of my favorite American charities, began its broad effort to reform the courier and freight industry. Contributing significantly to air pollution, smog and global warming, the hundreds of thousands of vehicles in use every day around the world to deliver goods on demand constitute a superb opportunity to engage the problem head on and collaborate with the courier and shipping services to help them improve their bottom lines and embrace sustainability at the same time.

While United Parcel Service, UPS, has engaged in its own laudable innovations with respect to hybrid-electric delivery vans, hydrogen fuel and enhanced route planning to reduce engine idling, Federal Express, FedEx, has been the true leader.

Roughly 5 years ago, FedEx agreed to a revolutionary partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund with a very simple goal: prove that hybrid-electric engines can work in the heavy-duty, stop-and-go daily operations of a typical FedEx delivery van just as well as dirty old diesel systems which FedEx uses every day. To call the initiative a success is an understatement!

Having surpassed the impressive milestone of 2 million miles traveled, the FedEx hybrid-electric operating model has proved itself day after day and the shipping leader is on track to have 170 of the rugged yet low-emission vehicles on the road by the end of this calendar year, operating in more than a dozen North American cities with a parallel program in western Europe ramping up.

I commend the leadership of FedEx for having an open mind about low-emission delivery vehicles at a time when petroleum diesel fuel cost less than $2 per gallon but this success story hardly ends with the impressive achievements of 2008. You see, the personnel structure of FedEx is tightly integrated. It is one of the reasons that the company consistently wins awards as one of the most admired employers in the world.

When delivery drivers who participated in the proving process for the hybrid-electric vans learned that they wouldn’t have to change their daily practices one iota yet would consume roughly half the volume of fuel per day that they had on the standard vehicle, they rejoiced and sent a clear message up through the management chain that they wanted to see FedEx embrace low-emission business practices wherever possible.

People Power Impresses Corporate Power Structure

The clamoring from the labor base of the company for a greater corporate posture toward environmental sustainability has led not only to the expansion of the hybrid-electric delivery van fleet but two other key innovations as well.

That’s right. FedEx is on track not only to have well over 100 diesel-electric delivery vans on the road but the shipping leader also has begun an important initiative to utilize hybrid-electric gasoline vehicles in North America. Long considered standard in Europe, the inclusion of a specially-designed hybrid gas model for the North American marketplace will give FedEx another distinction and competitive edge. For this reason, when I need to ship documents and parcels of high importance, FedEx is the only service I use.

Reducing fuel consumption, while vital, is only one side of the savings which FedEx has embraced. It also is a leader in covering the rooftop of no fewer than two of its freight sorting facilities with photovoltaic arrays. Oh yes, FedEx now has the largest corporate installation of solar generating capacity in the state of California with no plans to stop there.

Naturally, if we really wish to stave off the worst impacts of global warming, everyone must pitch in and do more. FedEx and its rivals have a long way to go. Nevertheless, the year 2008 has shown that it not only is possible but profitable for leading service providers from around the world to go green and as a consumer of such services, you can help commend companies such as FedEx for acting responsibly by voting with your wallet. I do and exhort you to follow my lead.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Since the beginning of scientific awareness of global warming, initiatives to reverse the climate crisis have carried with them a political charge, sometimes partisan but always controversial. However, numerous factors have aligned to chip away at the status quo and October has proved to be a watershed month in the move to bring the Sunshine State not only on par with such places as California and New York in investing public monies in green energy projects but trying to leapfrog ahead of them.

During a Columbus Day meeting of the Gainesville City Council, in the heart of the town which hosts the University of Florida, an unprecedented proposal for a feed-in tariff was announced. Designed to allow customers of Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) to install photovoltaic systems for a guaranteed return per kilowatt hour, if enacted, the proposal would be the first of its kind in the United States and exceedingly rare around the world.

This stunning development, while encouraging, was only one of two gigantic announcements from government bodies during the same week. Two days after the GRU announcement, the Governor’s Action Team on Energy & Climate Change published its phase 2 report on how the climate crisis affects Florida as well as an appropriate action plan. It contains 50 separate policy recommendations and a separate suite of other recommendations as guidance to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in its development of a regulatory, market-based cap-and-trade emissions limiting program. Amazing!

You can read the entire document at

FlClimateChange.us

In light of the political climate in Florida, the recommendations of the Governor’s Action Team deserve an extra layer of accolades. I congratulate everyone involved for a job well done and look forward to assisting in the implementation of the policy recommendations. Likewise, the GRU board of directors deserves a round of applause from each of us for its bold proposal to advance solar energy in the United States!

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Two main themes which I give recurring coverage here on Keyboard Culture are deforestation and cultural change. If we really want to fight global warming, we must eliminate deforestation on a mass scale but we also must effect permanent social change so that living and working green becomes a matter of personal and professional pride for people the world over.

However, such concepts are wholly alien to the billions of people who live below the poverty line, struggling to survive (and often losing) every single day. They don’t have nice things like Internet access or the money to afford carbon offsets to green the planet while retaining access to material wealth. No, many of the poorest people in the world cause deforestation because their survival depends on it, not that they enjoy despoiling their home.

The island nation of Madagascar is a prime example. Already scarred by the loss of more than 90% of its boreal forest cover, Madagascar is home to many thousands of people who live in or near the remaining sliver of forest. However, they have neither the skills nor the tools to live in harmony with the forest. Instead, they slash more and more of it every day in order to make charcoal for cooking.

To us, this method of food preparation seems grossly inefficient. Of course, it is but these poor people have no practical alternative because they live in abject poverty.

What is to be done?

Enter innovations such as the solar cooker. Costing just €5, this device is ingenious in its simplicity. Called the Kyoto Box for its ability to aid developing nations in complying with their reductions in greenhouse gas emissions dictated by the global accord, the solar cooker recently won the Financial Times’ Climate Change Challenge and with good reason.

Why is it such a powerful product? Well, it allows people who ordinarily cook with charcoal wrested from endangered forests to use the power of the sun and leave the trees standing. Moreover, no greenhouse gas emissions are involved once the product is created and delivered because it is solar powered, solar-thermal powered to be specific. Last but certainly not least, the Kyoto Box can be reused many, many times whereas charcoal generally is useless after a very short period of time.

There are ancillary benefits, too. The Kyoto Box can be used to purify water, which can have a huge impact on the incidence of cholera and other water-borne diseases plus assist people in living father from dwindling sources of fresh water in the developing world. I commend inventor Jon Bøhmer for his work and exhort everyone to fight for adoption of exciting innovations such as Bøhmer’s Kyoto Box in the developing world.

To learn more, visit

kyoto-energy.com/kyoto-box.html

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Credit: greenlaunches.com

Can a transportation system yield happier, more productive people? If it embraces the 3 pillars of sustainability, the answer is an unequivocal yes. The fundamental, fatal flaw of conventional mass transit is the consumption of fuel. Even in nations with vast carbon resources, the price paid per ton of fuel can fluctuate in a capricious market. Such variations make it difficult if not impossible for strained municipal budgets to plan from year to year.

Consumption of any type of fuel involves an expense, does it not? Yes, indeed. However, humanity possesses the technology to migrate to the least costly fuel which also happens to exist on every continent, solar radiation, in varying forms, direct sunlight being the most common.

If we adopt solar energy for mass transit system, the only ongoing cost lies in the method of harnessing and later tapping the power from the sun. Hydrogen, solar hydrogen to be specific, as advocated by noted scientists such as Dr. Roy McAlister, unlocks the potential to embrace all aspects of sustainability, not just environmental conservation, because the costs of using it are a mere fraction of the total cost and impact of fossil fuels.

How, specifically, does solar hydrogen achieve this important goal? The hydrogen is cracked from water during hours of sunshine or blowing winds and stored in large tanks from which the vehicles are fueled. If the hydrogen is compressed sufficiently, it can provide performance and range comparable to liquid fossil fuels.

People – The first pillar of sustainability is people. No successful policy for environmental sustainability can forget people. They are the ones inventing and adopting the green techniques and technologies of yesterday, today and tomorrow which can help preserve the planet for all living things.

People need reliable transportation. The freedom of movement is a basic human right but too many people suffer from poverty of locomotion. What is to be done?

Many mass transit systems operate with government subsidies, most of which are dedicated to purchasing fossil fuels for energy. With a system powered by solar hydrogen, the subsidies can be dedicated to the short-term project of acquiring the technology to produce, store and dispense the hydrogen as well as converting the vehicles to burn hydrogen. Once those steps are complete, the same fare box and advertising revenue which the system generated while burning fossil fuels should be adequate to buy the water to convert to hydrogen and maintenance of the hydrogen production equipment.

In short, the subsidies can end or they can be used to add new routes and increased service.

Planet – It is the unanimous conviction of properly informed government officials of every level in every nation that anthropogenic global warming is real. What is to be done? People still need to move from place to place and earn a living. Converting mass transit systems to solar hydrogen eliminates nearly all pollution from fuel and can reduce urban smog significantly as the tailpipe emissions consist of water and filtered air.

Profit – The effects of the global economic crisis continue to wreak havoc on municipal, provincial and national governments the world over. As commerce slows, the reliance on social obligations by disadvantaged, and even middle class, citizens rises with inverse proportionality. Further complicating matters is the slowing of revenue into government coffers from constricted commerce, leaving less for subsidies to the same mass transit systems upon which even more people rely.

Conventional for-profit mass transit solutions seldom offer permanent solutions as their stockholders demand a steady, positive trend in annual profits. What is to be done? A properly managed mass transit system which uses solar hydrogen for fuel not only can free its benefactors from the need to contribute ongoing subsidies but turn a profit as economies of scale begin to apply and operation of the system is optimized. By reducing the cost of fuel to bare minimum, a new paradigm of profitable mass transit systems with low fares emerges.

In closing, if you are skeptical as to the viability of embracing solar hydrogen for mass transit systems, I invite you to contact me. I will be delighted to connect you with peers of mine who can point you to proven, cost effective technologies which exist today.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

If you have followed my blog for any period of time, you have read the high praise I have given to the fine environmental advocacy organization 350.org Their message of capping the average parts per million of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere at 350 is precisely the goal which every major effort to reverse global warming should undertake.

Indeed, in its young life, the 350.org organization has implemented several campaigns with high visibility and symbolism designed to drive government officials and captains of industry in dozens of countries to strive for a cap of 350 parts per million of atmospheric carbon. The success of 350.org has been mixed but this sad reality is no denigration on the leadership or alliances of 350.org The tragedy is that the propaganda budgets of fossilized industries which favor the status quo make it difficult for any message, no matter how clever, to resonate with the necessary stamina to effect real change.

Never daunted, though, the leadership of 350.org has introduced its latest salvo in the battle to bring climate change under control and I would argue that it is their best ever. Meet PutSolarOn.it

When Jimmy Carter was President of the United States of America, he took many key steps to begin to break America’s addiction to petroleum, including the creation of a new cabinet secretariat, the Department of Energy, and installation of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the White House, the executive mansion of the government of the United States.

When President Carter lost reelection and was succeeded by a man who ardently embraced OPEC, the solar panels were removed. They haven’t been seen since. History is about to change, thanks to the message and partnerships behind PutSolarOn.it

PutSolarOn.it is a campaign website from 350.org and other key players in alternative energy advocacy which asks the head of state of every nation to install solar panels atop one or more prominent government buildings, preferably the executive mansion. President Obama has been asked to follow the lead of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, and install solar panels on the White House. Needless to say, as soon as I learned about this new website, I visited it and signed the petition. You should, too.

No matter where in the world you live, you can sign the petition at PutSolarOn.it The White House is but one of dozens of government buildings in many countries which would provide ample symbolism with solar panels on the roof. I exhort you to sign the petition today. The URL is

http://PutSolarOn.it

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler