I just wanted to thank the guys at Alternative Energy News who published my interview with Gary Thompson, CEO of Sierra Geothermal Power Corp. It was a great experience talking with the head of a company specializing in creating alternative energy. If you want to read the interview in its entirety, please click here. A special thanks goes out to Alex Ramon, webmaster at Alternative Energy News, for getting the ball rolling.
Up. I question a lot of companies motives but that is just my jaded self writing. As it stands now more than a number of companies are getting on this bandwagon, a public relations bonanza to say the least. I accept it for what its worth regardless of a company’s true intentions.
Green market Penetration
Right now car companies seem to be in the lead with “green market penetration”, focusing on big ticket items. People need cars, people love cars, so if hybrid cars are comparatively priced to traditional cars, why not take the leap and by a hybrid? Makes sense to me. The shift to the greening of products in the markets could be viewed as a means for companies to creating new revenue streams in an already saturated marketplace. With margins being squeezed in almost all facets of business, green products are not only necessary for the environment, they are necessary for business to keep expanding.
The green market is expanding at an enormous rate. Companies that don’t jump on and get in the game will be left behind. Even if a company’s motives are strictly financial the benefits will be two fold. A company enters an expanding market and the environment gets a little less polluted. What more can an environmentalist ask for?
Eco friendly products are all the rage, and rightfully so. Even if this consumer consciousness wanes a little, the market as a whole is here to stay. With the current rate of growth, a small pull-back won’t force the entire green market into a tailspin. It is only getting started.
Harbor Air, the largest all-seaplane airline in the world, has chosen to go carbon neutral. They report that they will be the only air carrier in North America to be 100% carbon neutral.
This may seem like an insignificant piece of news to many, but it is interesting that a small company from Canada’s pacific north west is deciding to go green. When companies choose to become a little more green it is proof that business is changing. Companies can, and will, be financially successful while being concerned about the environment. Maybe another company will read this story and research how they can become greener - creating a snowball effect.
Could your company reduce its emissions by using solar energy?
Research, change, care.
Canadian companies that create wind farms are having a rough time building them as opposition groups are delaying the building, some of these delays are over one year because of appeals. Much of the opposition feel that wind farms have, at the very least, two major strikes against them - they are noisy and they are an eye-sore.
Enbridge, a leading company in the Canadian wind farm industry, have actually had to decrease the size of their planned wind farm because of such heavy protest from local groups.
The key factor that supporters of these farms attribute to the opposition is ignorance. Although Canada is an ideal country for wind-farms because of its two coasts, as well as the prairie provinces, they are playing catch-up to most European countries in relation to the percentage of power harnessed from the wind versus the more traditional forms of energy creation.
Educating the public is necessary if these companies plan on eventually thriving, but the oppostion do make a valid argument with regards to the negative impact that wind-farms have.
I wrote the author of the above video telling him that I was happy to see some objective information about wind farms from such a knowledgable person. The following was his response as it was presented it to me.
“I’m only trying to present the facts as the developer presented them. Turbines are only as good as their location. The AWEA recommends only wind class 3 and above locations. Unfortunately due to the huge subsidies granted to the wind industry,the best locations are not always chosen.As you can see from my other videos about wind farm locations/wind speeds in Illinois, the Oak Prairie Wind Farm in Illinois is to be built in an area of class 2-3 wind. There is class 4 wind in the same county, but those locations are not being considered for development. This will cost us all tax money and clean energy. The difference in output from class 3 to class 4 is quite a bit as my video shows. So that being said, keep in mind support for wind power should really be support for the best locations.”
“By the way as far as the whole NIMBY thing, I ran a wind turbine in my own backyard for 4 years before I sold it due to lack of output and lightning strike issues. I now use solar only. The wind farm developer for Oak Prairie Wind Farm lives many miles away and uses no renewables at his home. He is only in the project for the land lease money. Energy is not his main incentive. The county wants to tax the towers so they don’t care about output/location. Check out protectillinoisenvironment.com for some good wind-power information.
Thanks for your interest,
Steve
PS-Did you know that Com Ed and the AWEA made a report about Illinois wind resources and found that the entire state of Illinois has a total wind energy potential of only about 6780 Mega Watts.About 1% of Illinois total consumption!”
Some of the best advice that I ever received seems appropriate to use right now. There are two sides to every story - and then there’s the truth.
Wind turbines having been taking a beating in the media recently. People having been saying that not only are they ugly to look at, but they are noisy. I decided to get an impartial opinion on the subject, so I asked Jimmy Pickett, an oilman from Calgary, his thoughts. He’s been working in the oil industry, in one capacity or another, for thirty years. Our conversation was short and to the point.
“What we need is oil, more oil,” Calgary oilman Jimmy Pickett proclaimed. He continued “These wind mills are loud and they’re an eye-sore.” I asked him about the pollutants that oil refineries emit. He responded by calling me a liar and saying, “It’s not the refineries that make the pollution, it’s the people who keep driving all of them cars.” He then asked me if I knew what my carbon footprint was. I asked him if he knew what his was. He responded, “You keep turning this around and blaming the victim. By the way, building wind turbines in areas far enough away from homes so people aren’t disturbed by the noise is a cop-out. Just stop building them, and stop experimenting. You’re a jerk.”
How can one argue with that?
Not since the invention of sliced bread has their been such interest in a new product. With precision and silence this new device, rivaled only by goats and cows, is making inroads into suburbs across America and forever changing the face of the landscaping industry.
Without the need of fuel and producing no greenhouse gas emissions, the push-mower may one day go down as the world’s most ingenious device.
Move over, iphone. Step aside, time machine. There’s a new kid on the block!
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Environment friendly cars have put Toyota over the top, finally. Consumer demand for environment friendly cars has helped make Toyota the largest seller of cars in the world, for the first quarter of 2007.
General Motors has long been on, or near the top of the heap in auto sales. Toyota’s investment in hybrid cars is finally paying off. Koji Endo, who is an auto analyst with Credit Suisse, believes that Toyota’s image, with regards to reliability AND ecological technology, has resulted in the excellent showing this quarter. Leading the pack has been Toyota’s Prius. This is one Hybrid that the world has been talking about for years. People have now stopped talking and have opened their wallets. Green business rocks!
Source:Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press
Image via Square-mag.co.uk
Although this website is focusing on green business, from time to time I’m simply going to give you some of my favorite environmental websites, regardless if they are about business or not. I’m so happy to be able to give a little help to these sites with a little bit of promotion. Spreading the word is what it’s all about, and doing a Google search will not always result in the best websites. One of my goals is to build an arsenal of informative sites to help further the movement to help save our planet. It may seem a bit sappy, but this is the reason why I started this site in the first place.
Energy Planet is plain and simple the best renewable energy directory on the web today. Beautifully laid out and with a ton of top quality sites dedicated to renewable energy, Energy Planet should be bookmarked by anyone interested in clean energy. Even the hummingbird, their logo, is cute.
Alternative Energy News focuses on renewable energy technologies which is on a lot of people’s minds these days. Discovering new, environment friendly ways of creating energy is what this site is about. From heating your home to driving to work Alternative Energy News has the latest information and is worthy of a five star rating.
Live Green or Die is a green web directory that has three hundred related websites in its core. There mission statement is magical, ” Our goal is simply to improve the connection between people that provide green related information, services, and products and those that seek them.” What more can you ask from a site?
If you have a website that you’d like to submit to us please feel free to email us and we’ll take a look. Our address can be found at the bottom of this page.
With the introduction of Apple’s new mobile phone, Iphone, one begins to wonder what Apple CEO Steve Jobs has up his sleeve. He always seems three steps ahead of the competition, so catching up in the cell phone business is a new thing for Jobs. Apple immediately becomes a leader in mobile phones, and since Jobs has never been one to rest on his laurels one can assume that the Iphone will lead to something else, but what? Jobs is on his way to successfully, and seamlessly, merging both mobile and stationary communication/entertainment. Along with the Iphone, Apple introduced a device that sits on top of a television and “reads” information from computers. Presumably one will now be able to download a television show or movie from one’s Iphone/Ipod and then transfer it, through this set-top box, to one’s television. CONVENIENCE, CONVENIENCE, CONVENIENCE— Not only is everyone “connected”, but now it doesn’t matter if you’re inside or outside of your home. Apple is integrating mobile and stationary devices to such a degree that the division has not become skewed, it simply no longer exists.Something that seems to have been lost in all of this is that Apple is now Apple Inc. The gloves are off as Apple begins to view itself as part Consumer- Electronics company. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to buy my first Apple HDTV. Two years and two billion itune downloads later, Apple Inc. has created a significant revenue stream for itself and others companies. Who can blame Hollywood for negotiating deals with Apple. They had to evolve or continue to lose money as box office receipts have steadily declined year after year. Jobs is positioning Apple to be a leader in the legal downloading of movies and television shows. Two bucks to download the latest episode of CSI Miami? Five, ten, fifteen bucks to download the latest Mission Impossible? Grab a bowl popcorn and sit in a comfy chair because it’s about to happen.
