Archive for the ‘Sustainability’ Category

Sol, Inc is Donating Solar Lighting to Haiti

January 16th, 2010 by Jim
Posted in Civil and Infrastructure Lighting, Disasters and Accidents, Environmentally Friendly Design, Fixtures, Solar, Sustainability

This is pretty cool - Sol, Inc, a solar light fixture manufacturer in Florida, is sending a whole bunch of their solar lighting to Haiti to assist in the humanitarian effort. Sol helped out with their lighting products in the Hurricane Katrina and Rita efforts too, so they're no strangers to this kind of work. Check out the press release below - I want to get this out to as many people as I can reach. You can also donate a solar light to Haiti, and Sol's sending down some people to install them: PALM CITY, Fla., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- ... Read More»

Tags: earthquake, Haiti, relief, Sol Inc, Solar, Tropical Solar Lighting
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DESERTEC – A $560 Billion Dollar Solar Project

August 9th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, Environmentally Friendly Design, Lighting and the Environment, Solar, Sustainability

Dr. Gerhard Knies once said that deserts across the world receive more solar energy in six hours than all of humankind consumes in one year. Dr. Knies is one of a group of visionaries working towards using the deserts in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East (called EU-MENA) to harvest solar power for electricity and clean drinking water. DESERTEC, the entity running this project, has lofty goals with a large consortium of companies behind it. By 2050, the plan is to have 20% or more of EU-MENA's energy needs using clean, sustainable sources. DESERTEC plans to employ concentrated solar ... Read More»

Tags: concentrated solar power, CSP, DESERTEC, Dr. Gerhard Knies, EU-MENA, HVDC, Solar, transmission lines, TREK
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Why Did You Do That, General Electric and Jeff Immelt?

July 24th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, General Electric, Industrial, Industry News, Industry Professionals, Lighting Manufacturing, Lighting and The Economy, Lighting and the Stock Market, Policy and Legislation, Political HooHaa, Random Rambles, Sustainability, electricity

Prepare yourselves, JimOnLight.com readers, I'm about to ramble.I just read a very disappointing article by Mike Elk at the Huffington Post. I guess at this point in the scope of American manufacturing, money handling, crooked business practices, and corporations rear-ending the population out of everything we've saved in past years that I shouldn't be surprised.Oh, but I am. I am surprised, and I'm starting to get a little more than frustrated with all of the lies and corporate BS.Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, a major player in lighting and sustainable electricity generation, has been leading the charge over ... Read More»

Tags: commentary, corporate, economic recovery advisory board, economic stimulus, General Electric, greed, Jeff Immelt, lies, TARP
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Beam Me Up, Scotty – Solar Power Collection In Space?

July 16th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, Department of Energy, Environmentally Friendly Design, Industry News, Lighting and the Environment, Sustainability

Are you familiar with the concept of solar power collection - in orbit? It's something that we've been working on for a while, some contracts have been signed, things are being studied, blah blah blah. Basically - and I mean basically - the premise is that we collect solar power in satellites that are orbiting the earth. The satellites then convert a large portion of this newly collected energy into a laser, which then shoots down through the atmosphere to some kind of device on Earth that then converts all of that laser beam into clean, useful energy from which ... Read More»

Tags: lasers, Satellite, Solar, solar collection, solar power, space
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Seeing Green

July 13th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, Environmentally Friendly Design, Lighting and the Environment, Lighting and the Human Element, Sustainability, green

It's time for a rant, isn't it?What Does "Green" Mean?It's not easy being "green." It's something that is constantly beat into our heads day after day. It is, however, very important that the world become "green" and buildings get "green" and lighting gets "green" and so on.What is "green?" What does it mean when a structure gets "greened" or something is "green compliant?" What do "green consultants" do, and how do we flip our surroundings to live the "green life?" We are lighting whole cities with LED sources, and we are adding solar powered lighting ... Read More»

Tags: environment, green, green building, green compliance, green lighting, Jacques Fresco, Sustainability, Venus Project
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Fry’s Sells Solar Panels? Sweet!

July 13th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, DIY, Environmentally Friendly Design, Hack It!, Just Plain AWESOME., Solar, Sustainability

I was in Fry's today (ah, to be back in Dallas...) buying a graphics card for my wife's computer, and all of the sudden I pass by these large boxes of solar panels. Solar panels! At Fry's? That is absolutely fantastic. If there is anyone around the DFW Metroplex who would carry them, I would figure it would be Fry's.They had some 40w, 60, 70, and 80w models - between around 2X4 and a larger one (the 80w model) that looked to be around 2X6. Also, a 400w wind power generator!I snapped a few iPhone pics. This might not be ... Read More»

Tags: DIY, hack, home solar, PV panels, Solar, solar panels
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The Whole World v. The Incandescent Lamp

July 13th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Energy Star, Environmentally Friendly Design, Fluorescent Technology, Industry News, Lamps and Sources, Legal Light, Lighting Technology, Lighting and the Environment, Lighting and the Human Element, Policy and Legislation, Political HooHaa, Standards and Compliance, Sustainability, cfl, halogen lamps, incandescent lamps

We've been reading over the last year or so about the war on incandescent lamps - people preach hate for them but people buy them in droves. Why is this? A good reasoning is money, money, and money - To buy a 6-pack of regular incandescent lamps (not Reveals or energy efficient models) costs about as much as a stick of beef jerky at the gas station. When you're living month to month, week to week, or unfortunately day to day as many of our fellow Americans are doing, a six pack of light bulbs for $1.12 seems a lot ... Read More»

Tags: H.R. 2776, H.R. 3221, incandescent lamp ban, incandescent lamps, legislation, National Security and Consumer Protection Act, New Direction for Energy Independence, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act
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A Fully Solar Powered Stadium

June 23rd, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, Architectural Lighting, Designers, Environmentally Friendly Design, Industry News, Industry Professionals, Just Plain AWESOME., LEDs, Solar, Sustainability, artists

Okay, wow. Toyo Ito has designed a 100% solar powered stadium for the 2009 World Games that has a 40,000 seat capacity, can feed its excess power back into the community during the off-season, and has over 8,000 solar panels on its roof. Some info from the World Games website on the stadium: The whole construction of the Main Stadium, with a capacity of 40,000 seats, designed by Toyo Ito, only required two years of work, and was finally tested for lighting facilities on January 15, 2009. It took over six minutes to power up the lighting in the stadium, which ... Read More»

Tags: Solar, sustainable, Toyo Ito, World Games 2009
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Concentrated Solar Power – 25% of the World’s Power Needs?

June 15th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Alternative Energy, Industry News, Lighting and the Environment, Solar, Sustainability, electricity

I think that the little solar reflectors look like machines praying to some big solar deity. How cute!But seriously, apparently using CSP (or concentrated solar power - the little praying sun mirrors) in deserts around the world will provide a whole bunch of power - about 25% of the projected need - by 2050. It feels a little premature to predict that far ahead, but I'm not a scientist or predictor-of-solar-power-needs-person.From the article at Consumer Energy Report: “Concentrating solar power could meet up to 7 percent of the world’s projected power needs in 2030 and a full quarter by 2050,” accroding ... Read More»

Tags: concentrated solar power, CSP, Solar, solar collector, solar energy
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Solar Hot Pot – A Camping Must?

June 8th, 2009 by Jim
Posted in Accessories, Environmentally Friendly Design, Just Plain AWESOME., Lighting and the Environment, Solar, Sustainability

I just read an article about a cool (well, not really cool, per se) piece of cooking gear called the Hot Pot Solar Oven. It's a solar reflector of sorts that reflects sunlight onto a black enameled steel pot. The oven is considered "high performance" - 5.3 quarts, can reach 400° in about an hour depending on what time of day you put it in the sun, and you don't have to expend any energy to heat it up.Pretty cool, in my humble opinion - although burning stuff underneath a cast-iron pot of campfire chili (which I rock, by the ... Read More»

Tags: camping, hotpot, Solar, solar cooker
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