Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Today's News: Next week one of the premier Eco-change events in the world of green building, water, energy, clean tech, social innovation and the “new economy” will blast off in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center.Billed as the “world’s largest conference on green innovation”
for buildings, West Coast Green runs from Oct 1-3. The conference may
draw over 14,000 attendees and a veritable who’s who in the world of
green and clean technologies is assigned attendance. Authors, CEOs,
government reps, entrepreneurs and inventors will show off and discuss
innovative new products that can help us create a more sustainable
world.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Today's News: Today it seems that the race to a cleaner environment is not just a race to stop climate change but a race to stop the gov from squeezing us out of every penny we attempt to earn - just to be able to 'live on planet Earth'. Does anyone know how entrained we are to government and big industry? If not, take a look at your gas or phone bill. Not one bill you pay it seems is devoid of a governmental link. How then do working class people with families make it in today's economy? Many are becoming DYI'ers and are figuring out creative ways to power their homes freely. Now for half a grand one can begin to make changes that may indeed make a significant change in what green stays in your pocket!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Today's News: Anna Dyson, a scientist from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, New York, is leading the way to make solar energy a
real alternative to pollution-emitting fossil fuels. These new solar panels actually track the sun's movement and sun power is then converted through a small lens to a high tech solar cell. This tracking ability enables the panels to capture 80% of the sun's power, whereas current solar systems are about 14% effective. With so much free power flooding into our homes in the near future, now all one needs is a few radiant light fixtures to brighten our environment!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Today's News: Prez Obama had a pretty hard time getting through to the public with his health care plan. Next on the agenda it seems are the Climate change issues. Here, in fact, he may end up receiving much needed support. Reports are streaming in
from around the world as the more than 2,400 Global Wake Up Call events are taking place in more than one hundred and twenty countries - surrounding Obama's speeches at the G-20 conference in pittsburg later this week. The diversity of the participants and the response
they are getting from their calls is awe inspiring. If we all die of cancer and diseases due to a poor healthcare system, at least Mother Earth will have a bright future after all.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Today's News: Good ol' Nicky Tesla had a wise old idea - to create free energy for all. But he spent his last years feeding pigeons outside
New York's Public Library, and died nearly penniless. A brilliant soul in such dark times. With more than
700 patents to his name, Tesla invented radio, the coil transformer,
wireless communication, fluorescent lights and the alternating-current
motor, which allowed electricity to flow over long distances. How is it that inventive genius's come to bad ends when imitators amass fortunes?
There's power on this planet - enough for all. With more and more ordinary citizens getting in on the action - the seeming environmental crisis is making millionaires out of a whole new crop of imitators. After all, solar power, wind, water and Earth power has been right under our noses for centuries now. These days - it doesn't matter where one is located in the world. All one needs to do is tap into it.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Today's News: Oh what a funny species we are! For at least a decade or two of great financial abundance we have enjoyed, suddenly GONE are the MONSTROUS HUMMER DAYS and in pop the new, fit-it-in-your-breadbox and plug it into your wall socket SMART CARS. But that's not all that's going mini in this sudden new, 'Clean up Mama Earth' eco frenzy. In breaking news, the California Energy Commission is slated to unveil new standards,
requiring electronics retailers to sell only energy-sipping TV models starting in
2011. Even tougher efficiency criteria would follow in 2013. Just call it the BIG CASH COW CRACKDOWN. MOOOOO. Apparently, BIG TV's guzzle up lots of energy and California's energy needs are so vast, it still must import about 30% of its
electricity from out of state. How funny. Manufacturers have spent years developing SUPER SIZED TV's for consumers to buy and it ends up that everyone may be scrambling to garage sales to skoff up all those portable mini kitchen TV's that were a big hit in the early seventies and eighty's.
A lovely thought just popped to mind. How about we all support a writer, get a good book, snuggle up under a warm toasty lamp and read to our children?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Today's News: On Tues, the Terminator emerged from the governor's office and reared up on behalf of planet Earth. "MOAW RENEWABLE ENAWGEE!", he grunted as he signed a bill requiring that one-third of energy sold by utility companies in the state over the next decade come from renewable sources. However, in doing so, he also squashed the pieces (by veto) out of a bill, supported by environmentalists and consmer advocates due to restrictions that he stated, would disable CA.utility company's ability to bring in power from outside the state. Do we sense a brewing little controversy? Moaw, Moaw! We think that James Cameron should reconsider yet one fantastic, last sequel - to be filmed on the California coast....before it dries up by fire and then falls into the ocean. Meanwhile, we'll just keep selling great light fixtures.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Today's News: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and IHI Corporation are undertaking an ambitious
project of $ 21bn. They are aspiring to design and develop a Space-based solar
farm that would generate 1GW of power. This will require an area of four square
kilometers consisting of rows of solar panels. This space solar farm will be
housed 36,000km above the surface of the Earth. A model of the SPS2000, a 10 megawatt
demonstration solar-power satellite, has
already been designed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
(ISAS).Competing, it seems, is our own Californian Solaren Corp. Sometime before 2016, Solaren Corp. plans to launch the world's first orbiting
solar farm too.
However we manage to get our electricity in the future, EliteFixtures wants you to know that we plan on keeping our products on Earth, even if some of our ceiling lights look like saucers.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Today's News: Investor Alert! Smart Grid Infrastructure could be worth more than 20 BILLION DOLLARS in the next five years. The Obama Administration recently announced a new solicitation for 4 billion in stimulus funding for transmission technology. China apparently, is right in alignment with the US as smart grid technology is in their future plans as well. China has been constructing a unified national power grid network. The project
includes what is known as the “West-East Electricity Transfer Project".
Consequently, the Government of Ontario, Canada, through the Energy Conservation
Responsibility Act in 2006, has mandated the installation of smart metres in all
Ontario businesses and households by 2010. And last but not least, in Amsterdam, there will be a Grid Integration of renewable Energy Summit on November 4-5, 2009. How's that for a hot tip?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Today's News: Federal tax Credits are available at 30% of the cost, up to $1,500 in 2009 and 2010 for windows and doors, inslulation, roofs, HVAC, water heaters and biomass stoves. Lighting up into the future and extending into 1016, tax credits will be available at 30% the cost of geothermal Heat Panels, Solar Panels, Solar Water Heaters, Small Wind Energy systems and Fuel cells. Keep in mind: These tax credits are available for a number of products at the highest efficiency levels, which typically cost much more than standard products. Is there not always a catch?
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Today's News: Whenever people plan on doing big things for other people, it requires lots of planning and strategy. Now that solar energy is finally lighting up the global market, and government and commercial solar projects begin to soar - sub-utility scale solar photovoltaics (PV) systems are
by far the largest and most significant segment of this growing market. "According to a recent report
from Pike Research, the distributed solar energy market is poised for dramatic
growth over the next few years, and the cleantech market intelligence firm
forecasts that global installed capacity will approach 2.5 gigawatts by 2012,
with annual system revenues surpassing $55 billion." Distributed Solar Energy Generation appears to be the new money arena, if ye early birds catch our drift.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Today's News: More than half of the electricity generated in the US comes from coal and yet it's a huge part of our environmental crisis. What to do about it? The FutureGen project is set to build a coal fueled, near zero emissions power plant in Illinois. This initiative is a government/industry partnership. The Dept of Energy anticipates an initial financial contribution of $1.073 billion dollars to the program. The only problem is that this project plans to capture the CO2 the coal extraction process emits into the atmosphere and instead, trap it in the Earth. That's sort of like taking our garbage dumps, spreading dirt over them, building houses on them and finding that 20 years later, children are dying of toxic materials seeping from the playgrounds. Yet another bumble head idea? Or a valuable solution to our environmental crisis? You decide.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Today's News: While solar and wind power seem to be the celebrities of the energy world, geothermal power may be less popular, but it has it's merits. With a geothermal home set-up, power for your home is actually extracted from the heat stored in the Earth. Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable and environmentally friendly but unfortunately, it
has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the Earth. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of
that viable resource however, making it a more accessible home power option. As a result, geothermal power has the potential to help mitigate global warming. Good ol' Mother Earth. no matter what we do to her, she never seems to fail us, eh?
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Today's News: When faced with seemingly unconquerable odds, human beings have this uncanny ability to flip the neg. switch and go totally positive at will. It took about fifty years for enough of us to wake up to realize that human activity 'on planet' was quite destructive. Now that everyone seems to be jumping onboard the eco-product trend - there's a race to see who can invent the NEXT BIG THING in solarworld! Thus, out comes the inflatable solar panel! Each eye-shaped piece has a white foam shell that measures 4 feet by 2.5 feet.
Inside the foam housing is an inflatable polymer lined with thin-film
solar cells printed on mylar. The pieces can then zip together for a variety
of configurations.
Holy whack-a doodle! Let there be FREE LIGHT! All those sci-fi movies we watched as kids may have been premonistic after all!
Check out the skinny on the new duds here & the tell us what YOU think! THEN, just lavishly ponder how many new lamps you can buy when you save so much on electric & heating costs after going solar! Wheee!