Affordable Renewal Energy

Author Archives for Dave Burdick

SciAm’s Grand Solar Plan


the sun is a mass of incandescent gas

The American southwest: home to some of the world’s finest foods, four — count ‘em, four — corners and the biggest dreams of solar geeks and "well-meaning scientists," according to Scientific American:

The U.S. is lucky to be endowed with a vast resource; at least 250,000 square miles of land in the Southwest alone are suitable for constructing solar power plants, and that land receives more than 4,500 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of solar radiation a year. Converting only 2.5 percent of that radiation into electricity would match the nation’s total energy consumption in 2006.

SciAm outlines — in some depth — a big, geeky plan for providing nearly 70 percent of the U.S.’s electricity by 2050. It costs an awful lot of money, and it’s not quite as sexy as, say, something that spews pollution out of its backside at 100 mph — I’ve been saying for a long time that an electric car has to win a NASCAR race for renewable energy to be taken seriously — but it’s evidently quite possible quite soon.

The story addresses land needs, environmental concerns and financial and technological obstacles. It’s not even just photovoltaic cells, baby. They get into steam, power storage, molten salt (!) and nation-wide distribution. One point they seem to have missed, though, is that nobody’s gonna pretend to think there are WMDs on the sun. So there’s that advantage, too.

Green Spaces Dramatically Lower Urban Temps


Living in New York, I sometimes notice that I’m walking on what appears to be a leopard-spotted sidewalk, littered with months’ — years’? — worth of discarded chewing gum and other tasty treats, melted and turned black by the sun to become near-permanent fixtures, not to mention landmines in hot months.

Should we have maybe taken a hint from this earlier? Greengeek.ca writes that U. of Manchester wiseguys stared at data long enough to tell us this: a small increase in green spaces in cities could go a long way toward making said cities suck less in the summer.

More scientifically, "a mere 10% increase in the amount of green space in cities would reduce average urban surface temperatures by as much as 4°C," or 7° or 8° Fahrenheit.

It’s kind of like those fancy jackets with the airholes in the armpits: Green spaces collect water and release it, like so many magicians’ doves, back into the air via the, er, magic of evaporation. Then lovely assistants come out and spread the cool air around the audience — OK, it’s not like a jacket, it’s like a magic show!

Via GreenGeek