Renault DeZir: I love it for its practicality, not its beauty...

Well, of course I appreciate the sexy skin, but the real innovation is the "QuickDrop" system for replacing an exhausted battery pack. This is the concept envisioned by Shai Agassi and his Better Place, with its network of battery pack replacement stations where he owns the battery packs and the driver just pays for the service as he or she uses it. While others threw up their hands at the difficulty of the chicken-egg problem of charging stations and compatible cars, he went ahead enlisting partners to make the whole system possible. Renault was the first auto manufacturer partner, and Israel and Denmark the first geography partners. Of course, DeZir is a brand image leader, a la Tesla, and other, more practical Renault electrics are also coming soon. Interesting, too, that the motor in the DeZir is the same as in the Nissan Leaf, but I haven't heard anything about the QuickDrop system for the Leaf. Have you?
The Renault DeZir Unveiled At Paris Motor Show | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Extracting Electricity from Waste Heat

It's a PDF (ancient web technology), so you'll have wait a bit for it to load, but the potential for this tech truly does seem disruptive, as flyer suggests. As we know, power generation is never perfectly efficient. Some energy is always lost, usually converted to heat. And then it's truly lost -- entropy in action. But just about any reaction can run both ways. So take heat and convert it to electricity, and if it's the waste heat, you've just improved the overall efficiency of your original energy conversion. Materials that convert heat to electricity (or pressure, or whatever) have been known for decades, if not centuries. But Kevin Malloy from University of New Mexico and Richard Epstein, from Los Alamos National Lab, figured out how to make a thin film of three layers. One side is a thermal (heat) switch. The middle layer is "electrocaloric" -- electricity to heat or vice versa-- and the third layer is another thermal switch.

So you can cool or harvest power, as the flyer says. You can produce it in continuous manufacturing process from relatively simple or at least familiar materials. The list of markets the scientists and their colleagues at the tech transfer and venture arms of the university and lab have come up with include: blankets and clothing, automotive energy generation and air conditioning (lots of waste heat in cars and trucks!), home or building AC, even industrial scale power-plant cogeneration. I'm sure you'll think of others. Check it out!

The Climate Bill is Officially Dead. Now for Plan B...but which one?

The Climate Bill is Officially Dead. Now for Plan B. | Mother Jones

Quoting a report from the Presidential Action Committee of the Climate Action Project (too many groups!), Mother Jones says let states (continue to) lead; cut oil/gas/coal subsidies within the president's control; focus on ecosystem restoration.

But that's hardly the only plan. Bill McKibben wrote a great piece saying it's time to get angry, then get moving on what we really want: cutting carbon. To do that, we need to fight for a carbon price. Forget compromise -- demand what we want and let others compromise: http://ow.ly/2mUGt

Then Craig Severance says in Energy Economy Online that we should focus on the direct culprits: machines and buildings that depend on carbon fuels. The President has a lot of leeway to set performance standards. http://ow.ly/2mUL2

And finally (perhaps), Al Gore is holding a Virtual Town Hall Tuesday evening to discuss next steps; find the invitation somewhere in http://ow.ly/2mURP

What do you think we should do, at this stage?

Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power | Buy Solar Panels for Your Home – 1BOG Group Solar Power Discounts

Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power -- a few surprises on the rank order, the volume growth in some countries (Italy!), and the reasons why growth is so strong in some countries.

Viking M. Services: Pew Finds Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth

Viking M. Services: Pew Finds Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth (video)

But we knew that, didn't we?

Phrase questions right to see public actually strongly supports action against climate change

Always amazing how powerfully word choices can distort public opinion polls. Here's good news for climate action advocates:

Op-Ed Contributor - The Climate Majority - NYTimes.com

Will detailed info on "Cash Saved in NYC on Green Retrofits" inspire others?

This is a great idea, a case of hard-to-get information, the nitty-gritty details of how you do it, and how much you save, being given away in a good cause.

Report Details Cash Saved in NYC on Green Retrofits | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Calculate Energy Loss – Vampire Power Tips

Clever tool by iGo, which of course sells devices that reduce vampire power: drag your devices over the rooms of the home and watch the watts mount up. I couldn't get the state dropdown to show New Mexico -- only a dozen states show -- but you'll definitely get the idea.
Calculate Energy Loss – Vampire Power Tips

Make resin for plastics from sugar cane instead of oil, and sequester CO2 at the same time

I'd love to know the chemistry involved. Typically there's a high energy barrier to transform one kind of chemical into another, but maybe clever use of bacterial enzymes is involved. Still, it's a great accomplishment, and a powerful way to move to a new era of carbon-sequestering production, while still allowing us all the Tupperware we crave. Well, maybe not all, but still!

Shocking but not surprising jump in PV installed in Germany

1.34 gigawatts of photovoltaic installed in just the month of December 2009 in Germany...Germany!...and do you know what the installed base is in the U.S.? 450 MEGAwatts, total (as of 2008). It's not that sunny in Germany, as you know, but as I hope you know, the government requires utilities to pay an above-market payment for all PV-generated electricity, so, yes, govt. policy works...

News - Clean Edge - The Clean-Tech Market Authority

Wind farm off Cape Cod finally gets U.S. go-ahead

Although opposition will likely continue, experts interviewed say further protests are unlikely to be able to do more than add another year or two of delays to a project that has already survived 9 years of obstructionism.

The Green Blog - A Boston Globe blog on living Green in Boston

If you need to debunk the climate deniers...

Greenpeace's Amsterdam branch has compiled an incredibly detailed history and analysis, replete with references, of the organized attacks on climate science and scientists. One detail: an attack was funded by 19 "independent" organizations, 14 of which turned out to be fronts for Exxon-Mobil.

Good Progress Report on Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)

This is a highly motivated, enthusiastic group (I attended their annual conference a couple of years back), encouraging both study of sustainability (degree programs) and sustainable practices on campus. Look at the list of announced green actions just this week, plus the substantive accomplishments in their annual report.

AASHE Bulletin Archives | Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)

AT&T introduces ZERO charger to kill vampire energy waste � Eideard

In the category of it's about d**n time, AT&T introduces ZERO charger to kill vampire energy waste � Eideard

As Ed Campbell notes, "[s]imple enough tech to cause wonder at the countless devices rolling into the marketplace without similar circuitry."

Alphabet soup: more initials means more participants

Green Building Code introduced by the International Code Council signals more coordination of energy-saving, carbon footprint reducing efforts by professional building engineering and design, construction and outfitting societies. This one was sponsored by architects (AIA) and technical testing and specification engineers (ASTM) and should have wide, if slow, impact on local building standards across the U.S. and overseas.

Measuring energy savings in fractions of coal power plants

Negawatts was the felicitous term coined decades ago by Amory Lovins for units of energy saved, but according to researchers from Stanford and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the Rosenfeld will be easier to grasp and "visualize." Certainly Arthur Rosenfeld deserves the honor -- and let's hope something works to get the message across that saving energy means avoiding the construction of new power plants, or even decommissioning current ones!

Measuring energy savings (Blog) - physicsworld.com

Cap and Trade is working -- in the U.S.

You may be forgiven for forgetting that all the Northeast states (except Pennsylvania) got together a couple of years ago and set up a cap and trade for carbon emissions. Since then, all the focus has been on Congress, and the momentum lost when the Senate refused to act on the House's early passage of a decent bill. Meanwhile, the Northeast state deal launched, and now has a report card. The report, according to Sightline, is good. Not perfect, but good. Cap and trade works.

Grading RGGI's First Year

Sightline Daily - Northwest News that Matters

California Adopts Bill to Allow Homeowners to Sell Their Solar Energy | Inhabitat

Bill has flaws (why cap the amount of excess energy that can be resold?) but it's...progress. California Adopts Bill to Allow Homeowners to Sell Their Solar Energy | Inhabitat

Bill Gates: the Most Important Climate Speech of the Year

Worldchanging.org's Alex Steffen explains why. Gates now says his top priority is to drive carbon emissions to zero. Why didn't this make front-page news in newspapers? Or on network television? Or anywhere? The summary is great, but you can probably find the original, if you want, on TED.com, the site associated with the famous meetings of the smart and accomplished (as opposed to rich and famous, or wannabes, etc.) The key points are that he thinks it's necessary to get to zero, and perhaps he can convince other people with money and power. Read and pass it on. Steffens points out a few important gaps in Gates' analysis (like the necessity of preserving and restoring ecosystems) but the endorsement of zero (as opposed to the incremental, "politically feasible" goals of even the best politicians) as a goal is a huge step.

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Bill Gates: the Most Important Climate Speech of the Year

Friedman cuts to the chase: Global Weirding Is Here - NYTimes.com

Thomas Friedman is now a certified member of the talking heads (lowercase, fortunately, for lovers of the musical group), but he spent many years as a journalist, and that training stands him in good stead here, in allowing him to cut through the haze and state the facts in simple language. In addition to his points, I would add two more:

1. Climate change deniers should be held to the same standard of accuracy and responsibility for their statements as they say they think climate change scientists are falling short of. (Friedman would never let a sentence that twisted out into public.)

2. Certainty is not the gold standard of science, nor should it be for policy. The evidence is merely overwhelming, and that should be enough!

Op-Ed Columnist - Global Weirding Is Here - NYTimes.com

Search for 'Jetsons family' to test home - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Search for 'Jetsons family' to test home - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I don't qualify, since we don't have children at home...so you go for it! What bothers me is the low goal: "20-50%" energy savings. If you're running true experiments at the cutting edge, you should aiming far beyond 50% savings, considering the number of homes already at zero net or better.

If the Senate won't act, Obama can still do a lot, by Executive Order 13514

His action takes a little-noticed Executive Order by Bush a couple of years ago, the next logical step. With the Federal government the nation's very largest user of energy (and buyer of telephones and vehicles, and so on), this will create a market that will pull the manufacturers in.

President Obama Sets Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Target for Federal Operations | The White House

Congress, without doing anything on its own, wants to block EPA

Both Sides Gird for Bruising Senate Debate Over EPA Amendment - NYTimes.com

And there's the North Dakota Democrat, Pomeroy, on the House side: http://bit.ly/7OB34j

Click this Moveon.org link to add your name to the petition to your Congressional representatives to stop this:

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanairactvote/o.pl?id=18533-9233186-7PpFVVx&t=3

The petition says: "Congress must not block the Clean Air Act's limits on global warming pollution."