NASAA satellite image of a storm system that wreaked havoc in parts of the Midwest.
A massive storm system hits the Midwest, with 24 tornado sightings and nearly 300 reports of damaging high winds in states
from Georgia to Minnesota and into Canada. Near-hurricane force winds were recorded on Lake Superior, while cities throughout Minnesota witnessed the lowest barometric pressure readings ever recorded in
the Midwest, “a truly amazing anomaly,” according to Jeff Masters, a meteorologist. [Weather Underground]
Global food prices continue to climb, raising fears of shortages in poor and unstable countries; bread prices in
Pakistan are at near-record levels, according to a key commodity price indicator. Prices for some goods are approaching levels reached in 2008, which sparked a global food crisis. “The situation has
deteriorated since September,” a United Nations economist says. “In the last few weeks there have been signs we are heading the same way as in 2008.” [Guardian]
A new frontier in recycled furniture design: the Fridgecouch, crafted from vintage refrigerators
and salvaged car seats. [Treehugger]
Denver International Airport prepares to unveil an eco-friendly parking lot featuring solar and wind power and free
charging for electric vehicles. [EarthTechling]
And another striking image related to the storms in the Midwest:
Joseph P. Meier/Southtown Star, via Associated PressClouds over Manteno, Ill., as a storm passed through the area on Tuesday.
Part of the fine print in solar power systems is that whatever wattage number is quoted, it is usually “peak watts,’’ or the amount of electricity that the panel would deliver when the sun
is directly overhead. For the rest of the daylight hours, the output is lower; a graph showing minute-by-minute production resembles a sharp mountain peak.
One way to do better is to mount the panel on a metal backbone and let it tilt over the course of the day, keeping itself pointed towards the sun from sunrise to sunset. This is called a single-axis tracker.
Better yet is a two-axis tracker, which also adjusts the angle to compensate for how high the sun is in the sky. Then the graph showing output would resemble a plateau. But all of this adds cost.
Envision Solar, a San Diego company, has found a niche in the solar world by building shaded parking areas with solar panels fixed to the roofs. The panels do not
track the sun, but they are angled to take advantage of it: they are usually tilted to the south.
But parking lot designers seldom take solar orientation into account when painting the stripes for the parking spaces; the company has sometimes had to realign the parking stalls so that the roofs will have
good solar orientation, with the rows of cars running east-west. In the ideal configuration, said Robert Noble, an architect who founded the firm and is its chief executive, the sun rises in the windshield
and sets in the back window, or vice versa.
Now Envision is trying out another idea. On Wednesday, it will announce that with financing from the state of Pennsylvania, it is trying out a “solar tree” mounted on a gimbal, a mechanical device
with rings mounted on axes at right angles to each other. Read more…
Envision SolarA parking garage with photovoltaic panels at the University of California at San Diego.
One day early in 2004, Robert Noble, an architect specializing in sustainable design, asked himself why parking lots in the United States weren’t covered in solar panels and used to generate clean energy.
A few firms had been building carports with solar panels for some time, but none had acquired a major presence or branched out much beyond the residential market.
“Parking lots are this wasteland – they’re the last thing that gets attention,” Mr. Noble said in an interview. “Here’s a market the size of Alpha Centauri that’s
never been tapped.”
In 2005, Mr. Noble founded Envision Solar, now the country’s leading developer of solar carports. The company’s signature product
is “solar groves,” 1,000-square-foot canopies that shade parking lots while generating clean power from an array of photovoltaic panels. Read more…
Thomas McDonald for The New York TimesA library in Connecticut caused a ruckus by setting aside “preferred” parking spots for hybrid vehicles.
In a post today on The New York Times’s new “You’re the Boss” small-business
blog, Jay Goltz discusses how the Whole Foods grocery store near his home in Chicago has set aside several prime parking spots for hybrid vehicles.
Should stores earn points toward “green” certification simply by providing priority parking for hybrid car owners? Share your thoughts.
“Has Whole Foods become our mother?” Mr. Goltz asks.
Ashley Hawkins, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, said that priority parking for hybrids is not a companywide policy.
But the concept is spreading — including at several other Whole Foods stores.
According to Ashley Katz, a spokeswoman for the United States Green Building Council, allowing alternative-fuel vehicles special parking privileges is an easy way to earn
three points toward the total of 40 needed for basic LEED certification, the organization’s green-building stamp of approval.
Europe needs a more uniform way of identifying park & ride facilities, a road group says. (Photo: ADAC)
Despite the best efforts of federalists and a vast body of laws, the European Union remains famously fragmented along linguistic, political and economic lines.
So can it be any wonder that so-called “park & ride” systems vary so much from city to city and country to country?
A study issued this week by EuroTest,
a pressure group based in Brussels campaigning on behalf of European road users, has found that these systems are badly in need of an overhaul and would greatly benefit from a common design.
Park & ride systems allow city-bound drivers to leave their cars outside of a metropolitan area, and make the rest of the journey into town using public transportation.
The systems are an important innovation because, when well-devised, they can relieve congestion and mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants in some of the most congested areas.
The study, led by the German automobile club ADAC on behalf of EuroTest, characterized the current situation as a “jungle.” The group underlines the varied nature
of the schemes and their cost with a revealing series of photographs showing a hodgepodge of signposts directing drivers
in different cities.
NASA A satellite image of a storm system that wreaked havoc in parts of the Midwest.
Joseph P. Meier/Southtown Star, via Associated Press Clouds over Manteno, Ill., as a storm passed through the area on Tuesday.
