Tuesday
14Apr

Farm Energy News: Greenhouse Technology

DateTuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11:44PM

As part of the Regional Food and Fuels project with the Santa Fe Alliance, I've been visiting some of the greenhouses in the area to study the potential to grow food year round in commercial quantitites in Northern New Mexico. Some of the setups are downright impressive, but every one I visited needed help. Either the controls don't work properly, or they leak and need lots of supplemental heat to work in cold weather.

I'm wanting to start a Winter Farming Cooperative that enables farmers that want greenhouses to finance them by selling shares of the produce they will grow in them, just like with a CSA. Only I'd like to see dozens of farmers pool their output in solidarity, so the risk and rewards could be spread over a wider base of farms.

Send me an email if you'd like to follow this effort.

AuthorMark Sardella | Comment1 Comment | | in
Tuesday
14Apr

Energy From Space? That is NOT Local!

DateTuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11:27PM

The Wall Street Journal carried a story today describing how Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is now trying to convince state regulators for permission to sign a contract to get power from a space-based solar power system. Proponents of space-based solar power, which gets beamed to earth with microwaves, acknowledge that launch costs could be an issue but tout the benefits of it being 24/7 baseload power. Unless the microwave goes off track and smokes a city or something....

Honestly, I can't tell who is the dumbest one here -- the company that is designing the system, or PG&E, or the Wall Street Journal for carrying the story with a straight face. But if regulators allow this to go forward, it'll be the ratepayers that get smoked for sure.

AuthorMark Sardella | CommentPost a Comment | | in ,
Tuesday
14Apr

Sticky Sustainability

DateTuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11:18PM

In March I hosted a group of ten students from the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield Iowa, and gave a lecture on how to move to the new energy paradigm. The students, all part of the schools Sustainable Living Program, filmed the discussion and used it to make this video. I hope you enjoy it!

AuthorMark Sardella | CommentPost a Comment | | in
Tuesday
14Apr

Smart Grid Article Stirring the Debate

DateTuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11:08PM

On Tuesday I posted an article about Smart Grids on Energy Pulse, and it's stirring up quite a lively debate. The article was viewed nearly 200 times on the first day, and it drew 9 comments. It seems that even some of the big hitters in the energy policy arena weren't aware of the implications of revenue decoupling, or of its connection to Smart Grid. Check it out!

AuthorMark Sardella | CommentPost a Comment | | in
Page 1 2 3 4 5 ... 20 Next 4 Entries ยป

LENews_Podcast_Image_Small.jpg

 

To view our weekly news video, follow this link.