Renewable Energy Fuels Economic Recovery

Currently the US economy is facing one of the deepest economic recessions in its history and frankly the country is standing at the crossroads.
Energy issues have become one of the most problematic points everyone is discussing right now, and the debate is getting rather heated.
The US government needs to decide how to solve the problem of growing demand for energy resources without deepening the country’s dependency on energy exporters and trying to eliminate harmful ecological effects of using the traditional energy resources as much as possible for the future.
Even though the country is now having difficulties in all branches of economy, energy issues are considered one of the most important and some solutions have already been outlined to provide first aid to this sector, it is that important.
The call for families to start producing their own power has begun with several initiatives all across the country as well.
First of all, the government wants to renew the energy transmission system, encouraging consumers to save energy, funding the research and development of green and cost-effective energy resources.
Such practice will not only help the country to improve its position but to create thousands of new jobs in green economy sector.

Another governmental incentive in this sector is the requirement for all energy producing companies to receive certain percentage of energy from renewable energy.
Western US states, possessing the largest amount of renewable resources, took this incentive with particular enthusiasm, raising this minimum to 20 per cent. This decade has seen a comeback of the hydro power, which is together with solar and wind power the dominating renewable resources.
Hydro power plants are widely utilized in the world, making up to 19 per cent of the total amount of electricity, in the US this number equals to 10%.
Aiming to increase this proportion, American engineers put a lot of efforts into refitting the existing dams, because creating more of them would have environmentally harmful effect.
They are planning to achieve higher generation of power by improving and updating the dam equipment and the way the reservoirs store water.
There are also some new ideas of how to combine different kinds of renewable resources, including hydro power, into tandems to make generation of electricity as cost-effective, as possible.

• Moreover, such as mix will largely contribute the balancing of energy transmission grid. Developing hydro power facilities, as well as stimulation of all other elements of renewable resource sector is crucial for the future of the US, as it is predicted that the demand for energy will rise 35 % by the year 2025.

DIY Solar Panel Kits from Silicon Sol...

DIY solar panel kits are specifically designed for home do-it-yourselfers, experimenters, students and anyone interested in learning about solar power from the ground up.
If you’re one of those people who learns best by doing…or just love tinkering around with things and putting them together, the a DIY solar panel kit is probably the best, most exciting and most fulfilling way to learn about solar energy.
A typical DIY solar panel kit will often include most (or all) of the following:
Commercial quality solar cells
Solar cell interconnection material
Soldering iron (and perhaps other tools that may be needed)
Flux (for soldering)
In fact, that list covers everything you actually need to make a fully functional solar panel using DIY solar panel kits.
However, if you want your DIY solar panel to look like a real solar panel…the kind you’ll see from a professional installer, then you will need some additional materials, and some additional time and work constructing your solar panel.
The most notable optional components are a frame of some sort (usually aluminum) as well as some sort of cover (often tempered glass, acryllic, etc).
DIY Solar Panel Kits
Silicon Solar has been offering educational DIY solar panel kits since 1999.
The company was founded on the premise of offering affordable, fun and unique solar educational kits for grade K-12.
Types of Educational Solar Kits
Demo Solar Educational Kits
Solar Hot Water Kitshttp://youtu.be/EKhYf8989oM

Brazil Enforcing Sugar Cane Ban

In a rather surprising move the government of Brazil is reviewing a draft, prohibiting the cultivation of sugar cane in the regions with volatile environmental conditions.
The reason why this proposal was made is because the developing bio fuel industry speeds up the destruction of the forests in Amazonian basin. Experts see the total destruction of the area if this is allowed to continue in these very sensitive areas.
All eyes have been on the Amazon rainforest the past few years and anything that can be done to save this area is being perceived as very important, and center of the global warming debate is there.
According to the bill, by 2010 the area of sugar cane plantations shouldn’t exceed 64 million hectares, that is 7.5 % of the territory of the county that has been a sugar cane world leader for many years.
Moreover, the bill suggests to stop turning new territories into plantations, as well as to stop building plants distilling the ethanol in the areas where grocery plants are grown and on the swamp areas.

These marginal areas can be used for other purposes the bill proposes and it should be stopped in the years to come.
Next year the bill is expected to be reviewed by the National Congress of Brazil. As we already mentioned previously, in June the destruction of Amazonian forests quadrupled as compared to the previous month, which is an amazing stat in itself.
The satellite images show that in June 578 square kilometers of forests were cut and burnt in the Amazonian basin. These forests were considered a strong buffer against the global warming.
The area of destruction is equal to that of Swiss Geneva Lake or half of Los Angeles, California’s largest city. However, last year, in December the government of Brazil promised to reduce the rates of world’s largest forest area deforestation by 70% within the next decade.
The new bill regarding the prohibition of sugar cane cultivation is a part of this project, and we are likely to see many more additions to this in the future if the present environmental awareness trend continues.

Rutabaga’s for Biofuel?

In a very interesting recent development in biofuel Michigan State University scientists are working on the project of transforming rutabaga into a biofuel source.
The idea of this project is based on the fact that rutabaga together with its oily seed can be genetically modified to produce more oil, and this oil can be used as a fuel source. In the course of experiments its leaves, shafts and roots will be capable to produce oil instead of starch.
Rutabaga is not a very popular food product and this is actually one of the plant’s advantages, it is very under utilized in the food industry. For some reason it has gotten a bad name for itself, although we do grow quite a few in our garden and enjoy them very much.
Using corn, soybeans and other food plants in producing biofuel made experts predict deficit of these products in the near future, and thus other sources are needed if production is to continue. There’s a suggestion that biofuel boom is able to cause provisions prices to soar, and make more marginal oil sources viable.

Another reason why Christoph Benning and his colleagues look at rutabaga is because this plant does not require any special conditions and is resistant to cold temperatures being successfully cultivated in the north of the USA.
In other words, this plant is capable to make the US independent from foreign biofuel importers, it is easy to grow, and very few pests too.
The main researchers’ aim is to modify the rutabaga so that it would produce several times more oil than canola or rapeseed, which currently is the major biofuel source in the world.
Because of some peculiarities of rutabaga blooming, there is no danger of cross pollination of genetically modified and ordinary crops in most cases.
To cultivate the first generation of genetically modified rutabaga in university greenhouses scientists needed approximately a year. Even if things go as planned it might take up to 15 years to make rutabaga biofuel viable. It is in the test stages now and when more is known we will report it