Yet more Pompous Blatting or a Genuine Effort this Time?

The Hindu reports that the State of Tamilnadu in India is to udnertake what it calls "the San Antonio Model" to revive the Cooum River: http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/10/stories/2009071057140100.htm According to this news, the state government is to send some officials very shortly on a trip to Texas where they would look at what has been done in San Antonio to their sewage and then implement this in Chennai. Apparently, the project will be financed by the World Bank. Somehow, am I the only one who is more than just skeptical about this?

Many years ago, flush with their experience in rejuvenating the Thames, the British offered a huge amount of money and knowhow to clean the Cooum up. Then, as now, the Tamilnadu government made a big noise about how the Cooum would be cleaned up very shortly. Nothing really happened and the river only stank even more as more and more fecal matter ended up in it. It is not as if San Antonio is special in the scheme of things as far as managing sewerage is concerned - virtually any major city in the USA can provide this knowhow. My take on this is that some official in the TN government probably has a son or daughter or some other relative who lives in San Antonio. This entire story about using a "San Antonio Model" to clean the Cooum is little more than a plan to travel there and spend some time at public expense.

I'll also say that I shall be happy to reverse everything that I have said here if something is really done about the Cooum. Visitors here will recall how many times I have spoken about using the sewage as a resource to generate methane for power generation and the solid matter as fertilizer to be used in forestry as is done all over the USA. The news item on the so-called "San Antonio Model" does not have any information on exactly what the government plans to do. My skepticism may just end up proving itself as fully justifiable.

A Cost Saving Airconditioning Technology for South Asia?

Canada's Globe and Mail is one of two newspapers from that coutnry that I read online every day. It has an interesting take on events in North America and is often much better to read than some of the American newspapers are because it does not talk down to its readership unlike some of the pompous a$$h01es in the US media. The following post is one which talks about an airconditioning technology with very interesting potential: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/a-green-idea-cool-enough-for-canada/article1210455/ As some of the comments that follow have said, the idea of using ice to reduce the load on airconditioning systems is not new, but this is the first time that this is being offered as a ready to use product. Any entrepreneurs in India, Pakistan etc waiting to adopt this product?

The website of the company that has developed and is offering this technology is: http://www.ice-energy.com/Default.aspx

Philips Designs a More Efficient Incandescent Bulb

The New York Times has this report about Philips's new design for a high-tech incandescent bulb: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/business/energy-environment/06bulbs.html And the competition has been joined - Osram, Sylvania, GE and others are working tod evelop their own high tech bulbs as are several university departments. I do think this is a good idea. I use CFLS exclusively in my house, but I am always worried about what would happen if one of them were to break by accident. There is no way that I would like to spend $ 2500 or whatever it costs to get your home cleaned up if one of the CFLs breaks indoors. Yes, I have seen a sharp decline in my monthly bills since I started using the CFLs three years ago, before it was fashionable. And they have lasted long - much longer than I would have expected incandescent bulbs to last.

However, my next home - I can't see myself living in Ill-Annoy forever - will have Solatube Daylighting www.solatube.com and the bulbs for use at night with be high tech incendescents. Philips Lighting's website is: http://www.lighting.philips.com/us_en/consumer/index.php?main=us_en_consumer_lighting&parent=0&id=us_en_consumer_lighting&lang=en

Fun Green Inc / New York Times Contest

There is a fun contest on The New York Times's Green Inc page asking readers to send in suggestions to replace the "Saudi Arabia" trope: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/contest-replace-the-saudi-arabia-trope/ As this blog believes in showing fossil fuel the fist, this is a laudable thought. Why should someone with clean energy in their mind look at the worst producer of fossil fuel and use the Saudi name to define their topic of interest?

So get your creative juices flowing and start posting there. Let's see how many interesting new tropes come about as a result of this contest - I shall happily use them on this blog in the future with credit to the NYT / Green Inc of course.

Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed?

Time Magazine has some good news on the potential for wind power in the USA with this piece: Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed? With the potential to generate 16 times the amount of power that this country needs from the Midwestern States alone and even more if offshore wind is harnessed, the potential does exist for this country to show fossil fuel a huge fist. And T Boone Pickens, oilman par excellence turned wind entrepreneur, is clearly spot on in his promotion of wind power in this country.

With more and more of the media pointing out solid research - the Time piece references NASA investigations - I hope some of the die-hard skeptics as far as wind power is concerned are drawn into a positive dialogue over the potential for wind power. I also hope that the USA leaps into this and pushes the envelope for bigger and better wind turbines. There is tremendous potential for this country as well as for power generation in other countries in markets that are currently dominated by European companies. It would be good to offer some friendly competition with US products.

Semi Finalists in a Tough California Clean Tech Contest

I was sent this link by my good friend of many years, engineer and entrepreneur in India, Kulasekaran, who is also a supporter of this blog and a frequent discussion participant here: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/5-clean-tech-open-startups-watch The California Clean Tech Open is a major contest in an environment and technology conscious state, to support new businesses with innovative technologies, business plans and ideas etc. The five semi-finalists here could well become major corporations in the future and bring about a mini revolution (or a major one) considering that they have amde it this far in the contest.

Of the listed companies, the one that interests me the most in the potential that it offers for South Asia, is Armageddon Energy: http://www.armageddonenergy.com/ Their design for mount them yourself solar photovoltaic cells is something that could be extremely useful in the electric supply deficient cities and small towns in South Asia. While I am fascinated by the idea of do it yourself zero net energy homes like the Parco Homes designs: http://www.parcohomes.com/Parco_Homes/Parco_Homes.html unfortunately, I don't think that South Asia has the vision or foresight to look ahead at technologies like these. Parco are one of many companies with very interesting zero net energy home designs - I have written about others on this blog - unfortunately, this very good idea, is not likely to appeal to Jaikishan or Jahangir Average. And therein, lies a tragedy . . .

My thanks to Kulasekaran for sending me the Fast Company link. This is one more website that I shall make it a point to watch in the future.

A Website That Can Teach You to Save Fuel and Money by Hypermiling

I have written about hypermiling before, but it was through Autoblog Green that i came to learn about Clean MPG: http://www.cleanmpg.com/cmps_index.php?page=hypermiling a nice site that I signed up on at once. I am no expert - and I am happy to admit this whenever asked. As a learner, I do think that many who visit my blog would find this a useful site. DO try and use some of the techniques that they talk about to save fuel and post back to let me know how you find this. And, of course, do sign up.

Thanks and happy saving through hypermiling!