A solo weeding day. There’s lots of mostly PIGWEED, shooting up faster than the crops, loving the rain and bursts of heat, with or without sunshine. So, a photo of WEEDS, or a random, up-close look at…oregano? I went for the oregano, which is doing great after thinning the three-year-old patch earlier this year…

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For the month of June, after Shannon, who’d been in the field just about every day in May, and while waiting for Lynn to start full-time for the rest of the season (July 1st!), I’ve been back working in solo mode, which has been, surprisingly to me, a little strange and…unfamiliar. Right now, there are several great people sharing the tiny farm experience (TFE ;) each week, but coming on single days. Here, with Lynn and Raechelle (Tuesdays!), we take an extended Endless Salad lunch break in the backyard. It’s as relaxed and fun as it looks. This, I think, is how it SHOULD BE, a laid back mix of fieldwork and practical leisure. It’s a lot different than the 10-12-hour, garden-obsessed days of the first 3-4 start-up years, when I worked largely alone. After working with Conall right through the season last year, I realized that my original solo mission, one-farmer-one-field mode had changed, it had evolved. To continue to grow this tiny farm, I’ve taken the path that needs not more production acreage or machinery or straight, head-down hours of labor, but simply more happily committed PEOPLE. Hmmm… Not a brand new discovery, but driven home over the last month. An interesting twist on tiny!

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With the thin-film solar panel market growing at a strong rate, Solutia creates the Saflex Photovoltaic business to serve this market. …

… “Two key factors position Saflex to be the leading encapsulant supplier to the thin-film solar panel market. The first is technology: our advanced third-generation chemistry and material science is effective and stable for use with coated glass and is proven to be durable in applications where the edges of the laminate are exposed to the elements. The second is capacity: no other interlayer provider is investing in new PVB capacity at the rate of Saflex. ” …

Via Solutia: Photovoltaic Will Become Third Major Market for Saflex

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http://greentechnolog.com/2008/07/thinfilm_photovoltaic_enca…

Filed under: Manufacturing/Plants, Lightweight

Since first hearing that ex-McLaren F1 supercar designer Gordon Murray had left the famous racing company to create his own design house and that its first product was to be a revolutionary city car, we’ve been anxiously awaiting more details to come to the surface. Lucky for us, they just have. Murray promises that his low-cost car will cut emissions in half and be cheap to purchase and manufacturer. In fact, twenty-percent fewer parts are said to be necessary for the assembly of the vehicle. So far, no real details on what will power the vehicle are available.

We do know that Caparo, makers of the extremely impressive T1 supercar, are heavily involved in the project. This leads us to believe that some major use of composites is in order as carbon fiber is a specialty of Caparo. Murray has no plans to actually produce the vehicle; instead he will sell the plans to other automakers for them to offer to the public. Interestingly, Murray also claims that shipping expenses will also be reduced as the vehicle can be flat packed Ikea-style.

[Source: Autocar]

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Filed under: MPG, Legislation and Policy

During a press conference in Lansing, Michigan on Wednesday, Governor Jennifer Granholm suggested that the state should consider lowering speed limit from the current 70mph. Granholm was speaking during the launch of a new state web site designed to help Michigan residents save money. The site includes a calculator that lets users determine how much money they could save by car pooling as well as a service to help match up commuters to share rides. Granholm didn’t give any indication of what she thought the speed limit ought to be. It seems increasingly likely that states will start lowering speed limits in the coming months if fuel prices don’t subside. On the personal side, Granholm indicated that she and her husband are both driving hybrids and she is riding a bike to the office two days a week.

[Source: Detroit News]

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Filed under: Hybrid, MPG

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has just completed a two-year study of the hybrid buses being operated by Long Beach Transit in southern California. Unlike most transit systems using hybrid buses, Long Beach has been using a system that combines a gasoline engine with a series hybrid system. The ISE ThunderVolt hybrid uses a Ford 6.8L V10 running at constant speed to turn a generator that provides juice to a pair of electric motors. Only the motors drive the wheels. Instead of batteries, Long Beach also chose to equip their hybrid buses with ultracapacitors. The Long Beach bus routes are comprised of mostly low speed operation with many stops per mile making the rapid energy absorption of ultra-caps desirable. NREL looked at the performance of the buses and found that the gas hybrids got 4.3 percent lower fuel efficiency than the conventional diesel buses in the fleet. When the lower energy content of gasoline is factored in, though, the gas hybrid came out 8.5 percent better. Overall efficiency was about a wash for the hybrids. In the study the hybrid buses got 3.35 mpg. The increased use of regenerative braking from the ultra-cap hybrids has cut brake system maintenance by 90 percent although other service intervals were somewhat higher. The city has 62 hybrid buses out of a fleet of 228 currently and has ordered 25 more.

[Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, via GreenCarCongress]

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Filed under: Ethanol, USA

Holidays in the U.S. are used for so much more than celebrating. We’ve got President’s day sales, the Christmas shopping season, special Easter candy flavors (notice a trend?). For the Fourth of July, something to do with being free is often in order, and this year the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has decided that it’s energy independence that we need to focus on as a country, dagnabit.

EPIC has put out a statement calling for “unity in search of solutions.” By coming together, fellow Americans, EPIC thinks that July 4th could become Energy Independence Day, with ethanol and other renewables for all. A few smarter driving sacrifices (if you can call consolidating trips when gas is at $4/gallon a sacrifice) and increased biofuel output would shift the balance of domestic vs. foreign energy sources to a more homegrown one.

Note: if we’re going to be using corn to make all of this ethanol, let’s not forget that October 16 is World Food Day.

[Source: EPIC]

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Green Daily

As difficult as it may be to believe, interest in alternative fuel vehicles actually pre-dates the launch of AutoblogGreen a little more than two years ago. Another fact that may be tough to swallow is that the BBC’s Top Gear was not always the hour of silliness we see today with Clarkson, Hammond and May. In fact Top Gear’s current format only began in 2002. Going back in time it had a more staid magazine style format with hosts such as William Woollard. Way back in 1990, Woollard did a pair of segments on alternative fuels and the threat of Global Warming from increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Watching these 18 year old segments, it seems not a lot has changed. Woollard looked at hydrogen with an early prototype of the BMW Hydrogen 7, methanol, CNG, solar powered EVs and even hybrids. The GM Impact, the precursor to the EV1, even makes a brief appearance while discussing battery electric vehicles. In that pre-lithium ion era, sodium sulfur batteries seemed to be one possible solution to range and weight problem of storing electrons. Although such batteries were tested by automakers, the high operating temperatures (up to 350 °C) limited their usefulness. Nonetheless, the similar Zebra batteries are still being evaluated today and used in some applications. Check out the videos after the jump. Thanks to Joseph for the tip!

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading VIDEO: Top Gear looks at alternative fuels in 1990

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Filed under: MPG, Green Daily

When drivers set out to hypermile, there is a spectrum of techniques that they can use. These range from the good - don’t blast away from a red light and don’t speed up then slam on the brakes at the next red - to the risky. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. may be able to use hypermiling tricks like shutting down the engine at high speeds to win a race, but that doesn’t mean you should try it during your commute.

The AAA thinks we need a reminder to not risk our lives - or endanger others - in order to save a little bit of gasoline. Drafting, coasting and “rolling through stop signs and driving at erratic and unsafe speeds” are specifically mentioned in the group’s official statement on dangerous hypermiling (read it after the jump).

Who’s performing these techniques? It’s hard to say, but we can assume that the AAA knows a thing or two that we don’t. After all, they’re out there rescuing the increasing number of people who are running out of gas these days.

[Source: AAA]

Continue reading Sensible AAA recomments not trying “dangerous fuel-saving techniques”

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Filed under: Biodiesel

Over the past year, the price of diesel fuel has climbed up above the cost of gasoline and stayed there consistently. Unfortunately for diesel drivers, that price differential also applies to biodiesel to an even larger degree. Nonetheless, the extra 10 cents a gallon for B20 over straight petroleum diesel hasn’t stopped people at one station in Fort Collins, Colorado. Sales of Blue Sun B20 at the Team Petroleum have continued to climb this year even at the higher prices although some other stations have discontinued selling B20. It’s possible that drivers who are only marginally interested in using a greener fuel have given up on the more expensive option. With the reduced availability, other more environmentally conscious drivers have probably switched over to the Team station as a result. The city of Fort Collins is still using B20 in city vehicles as well although they may have to reconsider if prices continue to climb.

[Source: The Coloradoan]

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