The Green Shamrock

Small Wind Turbine Equipment Providers

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has compiled the following list of U.S. manufacturers and suppliers of wind turbines for use in residential, farm, and commercial/industrial applications. Many have Web sites or are accessible through E-mail links. Links are also provided to the company listings on the AWEA Industry Member Directory.

List Located Here.

For More AWEA News Click the image below.

October 17, 2008

The Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion will explore new ways of turning the sun’s energy into clean, low-cost electricity and fuels. The Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion (CRSP) is launching 12 novel solar research projects—including six with NREL researchers.

The projects total more than $1.1 million in the center’s inaugural round of research and development funding.

CRSP is the newest research center of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a research partnership between NREL and the state’s premier research universities. The center is dedicated to the basic and applied research necessary to create revolutionary new ways to directly convert the sun’s energy to clean, low-cost electricity and fuels—a research area called Solar Photoconversion.

The center also supports education and training opportunities to develop the workforce to support the new energy economy.  Full Story

Choose water-efficient products and test your WaterSense - A family of four uses 400 gallons of water every day. EPA’s WaterSense program helps conserve water for future generations by providing information on products and programs that save water without sacrificing performance.

More steps you can take:

• Don’t let the water run while shaving or brushing teeth.
• Take short showers instead of tub baths.
• Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.
• Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
• Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine.
• Buy high-efficient plumbing fixtures & appliances.
• Repair all leaks (a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons a day).
• Water the lawn or garden during the coolest part of the day (early morning is best).
• Water plants differently according to what they need. Check with your local extension service or nurseries for advice.
• Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only – not the street or sidewalk.
• Use soaker hoses or trickle irrigation systems for trees and shrubs.
• Keep your yard healthy - dethatch, use mulch, etc.
• Sweep outside instead of using a hose.

The raw material of plastic bags is oil. Therefore, the more we use plastic bags, the more we waste oil - a non-renewable energy source.
The petroleum-based plastic bags take decades to break down, so if they are not recycled they litter. It creates visual pollution: in the streets, on the beaches etc. Also, they can clog roadside drains, which could cause street flooding during heavy rainfall.
Plastic bags can be recycled but it rarely happens: according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, only 1% of plastic bags were recycled in 2000, against twenty percent for paper bags.
They endanger wildlife and particularly sea life such as sea turtles and dolphins which can die of entanglement, suffocation, and ingestion because they assume that these bags are jellyfish.

What is being done

For the past few years, there has been rising international awareness regarding the damaging and dangerous impact on the environment of plastic bags. Governments all over the world have decided to get involved in that particular issue: Some governments have decided to ban them: Bangladesh, Bhutan and Zanzibar.Plastic bags should no more be given for free in China from June 1st. These bags are surcharged in Germany, South Africa, Ireland and Israel. Several countries try and promote, trough major retailers, the use of cloth bags, paper bags or grocery bags: United Kingdom (with Tesco), France (with Carrefour), New Zeland.

In the U.S.

Plastic bags are already used less than paper bags by American consumers, and there have been no government actions to further curb their use. But large cities such as San Francisco and Portland, OR, have planned or plan to ban plastic bags, whereas Seattle, WA will certainly launch a 20 cent “green fee” on plastic bags.

What YOU can still do!

Reuse your plastic shopping bags: use them as trash so as not to buy others that are more energy wasting; use them for storage.
Use paper bags rather than plastic bags when you are given the choice.
Use reusable grocery bags, which always have a lower environmental impact.

October 10, 2008

NREL director Dan Arvizu has been elected to the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference Hall of Fame.

His induction caps a record year of accomplishment in which laboratory researchers and their projects received more than two dozen international and national prizes from the U.S. Department of Energy, professional organizations and leading publications.

Arvizu was inducted as the Hall of Fame’s only new member in 2008 at the HENAAC annual banquet in Houston on October 11th. It was established in 1998 to recognize world class achievements by Hispanic engineers and scientists, and inspire future generations of Hispanic students.

“At NREL, I get to work at the nexus of three things which have driven my professional career — science and technology, education, and energy,” Arvizu said. “All of them are needed to meet the challenges of the future.” Full Story