Apple data center helps fuel Bloom Energy move to East Coast | Cutting Edge – CNET News

Bloom Energy

On the day Bloom Energy officially opened shop on the East Coast, the company’s CEO confirmed Bloom will supply fuel cells to Apple’s North Carolina data center.

Bloom Energy today is breaking ground on a factory in Newark, Delaware to build its Bloom Energy Servers, or Bloom Boxes, which produce electricity from natural gas or biogas.

The facility, which was a former Chrysler plant, will have the capacity to turn out 1,000 Bloom Boxes a year, Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar said in an interview with CNET. Each fuel cell, which is the size of few refrigerators, can generate 100 kilowatts of electric power.

Sridhar also confirmed that Apple’s Maiden, North Carolina data center will use Bloom’s fuel cells. The data center, now under construction, will have 4.8 megawatts worth of fuel cells powered by biogas. It is expected to be the largest corporate fuel cell installation.

Read More at: Apple data center helps fuel Bloom Energy move to East Coast | Cutting Edge – CNET News.

Microsoft Designing Landfill-Fueled, Off-Grid Data Center : TreeHugger

Microsoft Data Center

Microsoft has launched a new research project that it’s calling its Data Plant program where the tech giant will design and prototype a data center fueled by biogas, located right at the source. The data center will be powered by fuel cells that run on biogas captured directly from an on-site landfill or wastewater treatment plant, both rich sources of methane, instead of using biogas from the grid.

For more read: Microsoft Designing Landfill-Fueled, Off-Grid Data Center : TreeHugger.

Bart’s Blinky? Three-eyed Fish Found Near Nuclear Plant

3 eyed fish

¡Ay, caramba! A three-eyed fish was caught in a reservoir in Argentina, reported Cadena 3, an Argentine news service.

The fishing hole where the mutant fish was caught may be more of a fission hole. The reservoir, named “Chorro de Agua Caliente,” receives water from a nuclear plant in the province of Córdoba.

“Simpsons” fans will remember the same thing happened in Springfield. Bart caught Blinky, a three-eyed fish, in the pond fed by Monty Burn’s nuclear power plant in the episode “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish,” from the second season of the hit series.

For More -> Bart’s Blinky? Three-eyed Fish Raises Nuke Fears : Discovery News.

Chicago Aviation to Install 60 Acre Solar Farm at O’Hare Airport

 

solar farm

 

What do you do with vacant area in and around airports without much utility?

The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) has some great ideas. How about a massive solar panel installation, and an alternative fueling station for private and commercial vehicles at O’Hare International Airport? A new composting program for some restaurants operating at Midway International Airport can’t be too bad either!

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined CDA Commissioner Rosemarie S. Andolino to announce the new sustainability initiatives that will make Chicago’s airports greener than ever during the kickoff of the 2011 Airports Going Green conference in Chicago on October 31st.

For more check out -> Got Vacant Area? Chicago Aviation to Install 60 Acre Solar Farm at O’Hare.

Is Our Technolust Actually Greener?

Sarah and I have been discussing the environmental impact of gadgets and if our technolust is indeed greener. So I set out to find out what I could and this article sums it up pretty well. If you were to buy a iPad and use it for nothing but reading books, you would have to read 60-70 books over the lifetime of the gadget to balance out the environmental impact. The study doesn’t account for everything such as the energy used by lightbulbs while reading paper books is actually greater than the power consumed by the iPad. Nor does it note the use of the iPad for other activities such as emailing and watching movies would help offset the impact. It also doesn’t account for reading news and magazines which would definitely offset in my case.  It does account for transportation, production, and resources used to make the corresponding products.

It does put the greening of gadgets into perspective, considering the average person in the U.S. reads 9 books a year. A fact that may raise other questions about how technology affects our society.

for more check out Is Reading on Your iPad More Green Than Paper Books? — Apple News, Tips and Reviews.

All in a Day’s Work

All in a Day's Work by artifishall
All in a Day’s Work, a photo by artifishall on Flickr.

Somewhere in between St. Cloud and Minneapolis, MN I captured this picture of a man performing what must be an adrenaline pumping job. Here he is holding onto the insulator that holds up some heavy duty power lines and hanging them up on telephone poles, all while being suspended from a helicopter.

My theory is that this job would take way too long any other way. There aren’t roads along these lines so a crane isn’t feasible, even if it was it would take much longer for it to continually pick up new pieces and drive from pole to pole.

Minnesota is working towards wind generating 25% of the power for their state by 2025 and these lines will be transferring some of that power.

How to Make Compost Work for You!

You may have thought to yourself, “I should start composting,” but then you realize that you don’t know a thing about it, let alone where to start. Well here you go, this guide from treehugger.com will help you figure out why you should compost and what is the best method for you!

How to Make Compost Work for You

Now you know a bit more about composting, but you want to know more. If want to quench that thirst for knowledge, be sure to check out all the articles treehugger.com has on the subject. From DIY compost bins to tutorials, they have it all.

Laptops Powered by Typing, Pacemakers Powered by Blood Pressure

Research at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) demonstrates how mechanical pressure can be turned into electricity via a nano-scaled piezoelectic film.

The team’s research lead, Dr. Madhu Bhaskaran explained, “Our study focused on thin film coatings, because we believe they hold the only practical possibility of integrating piezoelectrics into existing electronic technology. The power of piezoelectrics could be integrated into running shoes to charge mobile phones, enable laptops to be powered through typing or even used to convert blood pressure into a power source for pacemakers — essentially creating an everlasting battery.”

via Coming Soon: the Laptop You Power by Typing | CleanTechnica.

12-Year Old’s Solar Cell Absorbs 500 Times the Light of Existing Cells

Solar Rays

William Yuan, a 12-year old boy from Beaverton, Oregon, has developed a new 3D solar cell which if it ever gets commercialized could seriously change the face of solar power. Though he was encouraged in his research from his middle school science teacher, this is no mere school science experiment: the Davidson Institute has awarded Yuan a $25,000 scholarship for his research.

For More Read 12-Year Old Boy Will Save the World! His Solar Cell Absorbs 500 Times the Light of Existing Cells : TreeHugger.