The Urban Eco Map of San Francisco reports that my neighborhood is leading the city in pounds composed and is third overall! A wide margin separates the top two zip codes in composting. Is there an award?
As far as cities go, San Francisco is one of the cleanest and greenest in the US. We have great mass transit. Much of our energy comes from clean, renewable sources. We recycle 72% of our trash. And we are well on our way to reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels – ahead of the Kyoto Protocol.
Balboa is in solid last place with huge amounts of CO2, energy used and very little recycling. There is no deeper analysis of the data on the site, just numbers. It would be nice if the Take Action page could be correlated to a neighborhood. Just by selecting all the waste action items I was able to get to 100% on the contribution chart, leaving energy and transportation untouched. That doesn’t seem right and inconsistent with the charts.
The Helius Group has announced a joint venture with The Combination of Rothes Distillers (CoRD) called Helius CoRDe. Their goal is to create a renewable (biomass-powered) combined heat and power (CHP) plant for whisky production on Speyside (northeastern Scotland).
The proposed £50 million project will use whisky distillery by-products to fuel a 7.2 MWe GreenSwitch biomass combined heat and power plant and a GreenFields plant which will turn the liquid co-product of whisky production, known as Pot Ale, into a concentrated organic fertiliser and an animal feed for use by local farmers.
This is the first biomass plant to use dark grains (draff) instead of wood as its fuel. The 7.2 MWe is equivalent to power for about 9,000 homes, yet the new CHP is expected to produce only 5,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year. A coal-fired plant of the same size would generate more than three times that amount. Perhaps the best thing about this news is that it makes whiskey, usually treated as a conservative and venerable industry, innovative and reconnects it to the conservation and sustainability of nature.
Here is a list of single malts in Speyside that could benefit from the new plant.
* Aberlour Single Malt
* Ardmore Single Malt
* Aultmore Single Malt
* Balmenach Single Malt
* Balvenie
* Benriach Single Malt
* Benromach Single Malt
* Cardhu Single Malt
* Cragganmore
* Dailuaine
* Dufftown Single Malt
* Glendronach Single Malt
* Glendullan Single Malt
* Glenfarclas Single Malt
* Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky
* Glen Grant
* Glen Keith Single Malt
* The Glenlivet
* The Glenrothes
* Glentauchers Single Malt
* Glen Elgin
* Glen Moray
* Imperial Single Malt
* Inchgower Single Malt
* Knockando
* Linkwood Single Malt
* Lismore Single Malt
* Longmorn Single Malt
* The Macallan
* McClelland’s Speyside
* Miltonduff Single Malt
* Mortlach Single Malt
* Speyburn Single Malt
* The Speyside
* Strathisla Single Malt
* Tamnavulin Glenlivet Single Malt
* Tamdhu
* Tomintoul Single Malt
* Tormore Single Malt
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has awarded $25 million for clean diesel projects in California under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program
A single clean-burning diesel locomotive engine can cost $1.6 million, so companies like California Northern Railroad (CFNR) have been encouraged to upgrade by federal and state financial incentives. 80 percent of the cost of the new CFNR 501 engine came fom the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Likewise, Caltrans is upgrading their fleet.
The first Caltrans locomotive to be upgraded is a Model F59PHI originally built by Electro-Motive Diesel in October 2001. EMD has installed a 710ECO™ Repower upgrade package with the latest microprocessor-controlled locomotive engine technology for lower emissions, increased fuel economy, greater reliability and predictable maintenance costs. The newly upgraded locomotive will now achieve EPA Tier 2 emissions performance – two levels cleaner than required for this model.
Thus it has taken state laws, local and national grants, as well as 40% more fuel efficiency, and concern about health quality (85% particulate matter reduction in the new engines) to get the railroads to finally get moving in this direction.
A trip across Canada in 30 days for less than $10 in total power cost (watt-hours) is explained by Justin Lemire-Elmore in the following video. He gives four reasons for his summer 2008 journey:
Meet electric bike enthusiasts dispersed across Canada
Examine feasibility of touring by electric motor
Develop products such as LED lights, 100-140 km range battery, and on-the-fly recharge
Prove to the world the low-cost efficiency of electric bicycles
That $10 is actually donated from random 120V stops along the way.
Every building had outlets on the side
He was intercepted just once and asked to pay a dollar, which he declined because his battery only draws $0.06 for a recharge. He spends just $0.86 for the ride from Vancouver to Lake Louise, with a target of 12 watt/hr per km. There is quite a bit of classic hacker behavior such as trip segments starting at 2am and breakfast as the only meal of the day. Fresh fruit stands also are often mentioned, as recharge stops for the rider.
Also notable is the discussion of engineering feats such as odd hand-built bicycles and even tunnels in the Rockies that stand above the road in summertime — built to prevent impact of avalanches.
a blog about the poetry of information security, since 1995