CMR Green Blog

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We are glad you are here. We have created this blog for people who are interested in metal roofing and green living in general.

Our intention here is to provide you, the homeowner, with pertinent information toward making your home green. This will be about more than metal roofing. We will attempt to bring you current content on green energy related improvements for your home and technology that is good for the planet from around the globe.

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greenblog@classicmetalroofs.com

Cleaner Light Sources and Electric Rides

May 10th, 2010

Light-emitting diodes have been used as a source of lighting for years, but mainly in commercial settings such as parking garages because of their high upfront cost compared with other types of lighting. LED manufacturers, however, have come out with cheaper and more efficient products that they say will drive wider adoption by both companies and consumers.

LEDs are about 10 times as energy-efficient as incandescent bulbs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Freedonia Group Inc., a Cleveland research firm, projects that U.S. demand for advanced lighting products such as LEDs and compact fluorescent lamps will grow 11% a year to $6.8 billion in 2013.

Bridgelux Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., is one of the companies aiming to broaden the appeal of LED lighting. Bridgelux has introduced a line of “packaged chips”—LEDs assembled into a more usable form—that it says are 30% to 50% more efficient and 10% cheaper than the previous generation.

The company’s aim is to make chips that can be dropped into a lamp or fixture for easy engineering and therefore lower cost, says President Mark Swoboda.

Cree Inc., of Durham, N.C., recently unveiled a new version of its XLamp packaged chip that also aims to make engineering easier for lamp makers.

Wise wind energy needs a deep green location

April 25th, 2010

Like a small Christo installation, Charley’s mist net unfurled into dusk along my forest road in the Appalachian Moun-tains. The net traps birds — in this case, a northern saw-whet owl — lured in by tape-recorded calls. The persistent high-pitched beeps of saw-whets sound like a dump truck backing up.
Saw-whets inhabit much of North Ameri-ca. Some migrate south in winter, as this one was trying to do, along mountain ridges. “We think they must fly fairly low, to hear our recorder,” said Charley, a local ornithologist. “That’s what concerns us about wind turbines proposed on top of the mountains around here.”

SA could learn lessons from Israel’s  solar successes

April 24th, 2010

About 90% of domestic residences in Israel make  use of solar water heating systems, and Israel’s National Infrastructure Ministry estimates that it has the highest  intensity of solar panels for  water heating, which satisfies some 4% of the country’s total energy demand.

This translates into about  3 000 MW of installed solar water heating capacity.

Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures Resources Man-agement division head Z’ev Gross tells Engineering News that this was achieved through regulation, promulgated in 1986, mandating all domestic residences, up to nine storeys high, to make use of solar water heating.

Udall Announces Bill to Create Jobs, Strengthen Colorado’s Clean Energy Economy

March 19th, 2010

Bill Updates Income Tax Code for Solar Power, Offers Tax Credit for Homeowners who Invest in Community Solar Projects

Washington, D.C. - March 17, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) — A month ago, U.S. Senator Mark Udall had the opportunity to spend a week listening to Coloradans’ ideas for how to strengthen the state’s economy during a visit to the Western Slope and at an Energy Jobs Summit he co-sponsored in Aurora. He heard firsthand from business leaders and citizens about ways he could partner with Colorado communities to create jobs and strengthen the clean energy economy. And today, Senator Udall rolled out the first of a package of clean-energy job-creation bills based on those ideas - specifically an idea he heard during a visit to Holy Cross Energy in Glenwood Springs.

Report: Ohio missed out on solar industry jobs

March 8th, 2010

TOLEDO, Ohio — Ohio has missed out on thousands of manufacturing jobs in the solar industry because it was slow to phase out certain taxes and make other adjustments to lure factories, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Industry analysts say Ohio is fighting both the perception and reality of having a noncompetitive tax structure compared with other states. Despite having successful solar research companies in the Toledo area, the state hasn’t seen that translate into thousands of factory jobs, The Blade reported in the first of a three-part series.

Creative Deal Allows School To Flip Switch On Solar Power

March 8th, 2010

By Becky Bergman

Special to the Hartford Business Journal
Today

A private girls’ high school in Middlebury flipped the switch last month on a 520-panel solar power system that will account for at least 25 percent of the electricity use on campus and save an estimated 15 percent on the school’s annual utility bill. Photovoltaic cells line the rooftops of several buildings on the Middlebury campus of private Westover School. The solar electric system will cut the nonprofit school’s energy bill, while the state and federal tax credits generate income for Westover’s commercial partners

It’s a good deal for the Westover School but it’s also a good investment for its partners. And it’s a tribute to emerging business models in the green technology field.

The deal — which would have cost Westover $1 million without a partner — represents an ambitious collaboration among the school; Wilton-based Alteris Renewables; Solar Power Partners, Inc. in Mill Valley, Calif., and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

Premium Color Group uses renewable energy to continue “green” commitment

February 10th, 2010

Clifton, NJ – Premium Color Group LLC has entered into an agreement with Renewable Choice Energy to use renewable energy as its sole source of power through the use of Renewable Energy Credits.

“Our company is committed to supporting renewable energy by offsetting the creation of energy and its impact on the environment,” said Andy Griffin, managing partner of Premium Color Group. “The program being offered by Renewable Choice is the perfect overlay to our commitment to being good environmental stewards.”

Renewable energy, also referred to as clean energy or green energy, is defined as “energy derived from resources that are regenerative, or for all practical purposes, cannot be depleted, such as wind power.”

Governor Rendell: New Study Shows Greater Clean Energy Use Will Create Jobs, Save Consumers Billions

February 4th, 2010

Calls for Legislation to Increase Renewable Energy Use, Create Economic Opportunities in Every Corner of PA

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — At a time when the nation needs to create jobs and help families control costs, Governor Edward G. Rendell today said a new study shows that using more clean forms of energy is the solution to both challenges.

Released today, the study by global engineering and consulting firm Black and Veatch said increasing the renewable energy requirements of Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act could create the equivalent of 211,000 new jobs, or 130,000 more than if the state continued to rely on fossil fuels for that share of energy production.

In addition, Black and Veatch report that since there is no cost associated with the shining sun or the blowing wind, Pennsylvania’s energy consumers could save as much as $4.6 billion by relying on those and other clean energy sources as opposed to the costs associated with purchasing coal or natural gas and maintaining the power plants that use those fuels.

Overpaying for Green Power

January 26th, 2010

Americans are adopting a failed type of clean energy subsidy—the feed-in tariff—just as Europeans are abandoning it.

“How can California encourage investors to generate renewable electricity? How about a guarantee that if they generate the power, they’ll be paid at a good price?” suggests Ray Pingle of the Sierra Club. Fair enough. But the price proposed by the Sierra Club and some members of Congress is three to five times more than the current average price of electricity.

Green power advocates in the United States have started pushing for a European-style subsidy scheme in which homeowners or businesses that install solar panels or windmills can sell their excess power back to the grid at inflated prices. Utilities are required by the state to pay above-market rates for this environmentally-friendly power.

http://tinyurl.com/yzbznec

Posted in Green News | No Comments »

Lasers to beam energy to Earth from space

January 25th, 2010

Solar energy collected in space and beamed back to Earth by laser could soon be used to power homes and electric vehicles under a project by European space engineers.

It sounds more like a scheme dreamed up by a James Bond villain attempting to destroy the Earth than a technology that could help provide a solution to the planet’s dwindling energy supplies.

Engineers plan to put satellites into orbit around the planet that can gather energy from the sun, concentrate it into powerful laser beams and transmit the energy back to the Earth where it can be used to generate electricity.

http://tinyurl.com/y972mot