Unplugged Living

October 1st, 2008

Rural Madagascar Clinics Get Solar Power

Imagine going to a clinic and having whatever operation or whatever medical procedure. Now that is scary enough right because anything bad that could happen could happen. Now imagine doing that but going to a clinic which does not even have electricity. Very, very scary.

Now it may be scary for you but that is reality in some of the rural clinics in Madagascar. But things are changing now that solar power has been giving power to these rural clinics. Says Elisabeth Razafindrataka, one 53-year-old resident of the place, “My 13 children were born in the old hospital by candlelight; my daughter is fortunate to have given birth in these conditions.” She even did say that before, you had to bring candles if you were to give birth at night.

Solar power has been given to these clinics four years ago and people have become very thankful. After all, rural clinics in the country actually do see around 400 patients each month. That’s a huge amount of patients. And when some emergency arises, it’s good to have electricity.

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By Noel -- 3 comments

September 30th, 2008

New Kind Of Solar Plants To Rise In California

The need for solar power is slowly rising and that is a good sign. This surely means that more people are more likely to convert to solar power as a good source of energy. And for those who are in the industry, it would mean more sales for them.

Now, in California, a new kind of solar power plant is going to rise and the construction of the facility is already going on. Behind the new facility is eSolar, a company that is based in Pasadena. And they are saying that in building the facility, they are actually going to use a new kind of design.

Robert Rogan is the VP for sales and marketing of the company and on this, he says, “By using modular mass-manufacturable design, we are able to reach economies of scale that allow us to reduce the total cost of a power plant. Instead of a small number of big things, we build a big number of small things.”

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September 29th, 2008

Rutgers Home Of Largest Solar Campus Facilities

Just around last week, one of the university’s in the country had broken ground for solar facilities. In the report, it has been disclosed that the Rutgers University is now currently the holder of the title of the largest solar power facilities that can be found in a campus.

During the groundbreaking, present were some of the top officials of the school. This includes Richard L. McCormick who is the president of the school. Also, Joseph L. Fiordaliso was also there and he is the commissioner of the state’s Board of Public Utilities department.

Although the whole facilities for solar power has not yet been built yet, it has been disclosed that the whole facility would take up around seven acres. The solar power plant would be worth $10 million and it would be having 7000 solar panels. Those behind the project are estimating that the school would be able to use the power from the facility and that would be 10% savings on their electric bill.

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September 27th, 2008

Solar Store To Open

There are a lot of stores which offer products that make use of solar power. However, these stores are not actually the type that mainly sells solar products. In fact, they would sell solar products among a wide variety of other products.

But there is a store that is soon going to cater mostly to solar products and this store is going to be known as Open Sky Energy Systems. This is owned by Ben Williams, Michael Matotek, and Joe Coyle. They are going to open the doors of their store come September 29 and this is going to be located in Swarthmore.

Williams is the store’s head for technology and he says, “Mike and I have been talking about this for quite awhile. There’s all sorts of problems in the news… wherever you want to look about oil prices and electrical prices and fossil fuels and nuclear plants. We talked about it quite a bit, and finally Mike’s like, ‘Why don’t we do a company to do solar power?’”

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September 26th, 2008

Solar Project To Be Built in Tokyo Airport

There is a solar project that is going to be built in Japan. And this project is going to be found in the Haneda Airport in Japan’s capital, Tokyo. According to the news report, this project is going to help the airport save much on its electricity bill for it would be using the power of the sun to power the electricity needs of the mentioned place. And in building this project, two companies would be joining forces - the Tokyo Electric Power Company and Mitsui and Company.

The airport terminal would be given a solar power system and it is estimated that this project would be able to produce two megawatts of power for each year. That amount of power would be able to save the airport around 10% of its electricity bills. This would be found on the roof of the terminal and the people behind this are saying that the whole deal would begin its operations come October of 2010.

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September 25th, 2008

Outdoor Concert Is Solar-Powered

Have you ever been to an outdoor concert? Well, I guess most of you have. I have been to quite a number of outdoor concerts already. But have you been to an outdoor concert which is going to make use of solar energy as the only source of power for the whole event? Well, not much would definitely say that they had and I am included in the list of those who still have not been able to.

Well, if you are interested in attending an outdoor concert which is going to get power from the sun in full, then you should start making your way to Boise, Idaho for this is where that outdoor concert is going to happen. This concert would be using solar power a hundred percent so that means no other sources of power - just the sun.

The concert happens at the famous Idaho Botanical Garden on the 28th this month.

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September 24th, 2008

Waterpark Uses Solar Power

A waterpark is soon going to bring enjoyment to lots of people. This is located in Charles, Louisiana and it is not only going to be a waterpark - it is also going to be an entertainment center as well. And what is interesting about this whole park is the fact that it would be using solar power as one of the major sources of electricity that is needed to make the whole entertainment center and waterpark run. And behind the solar power scheme is Sunrise Solar Corporation which is the chosen company to do all the work on solar power.

Eddie Austin is the head and the CEO for Sunrise Solar and he says, “This will be America’s first truly ‘green’ water park and entertainment center. Our design proposal will make this a cutting edge, energy efficient entertainment venue with an exceptionally small carbon footprint.” The company would be working on how solar power would be giving heat and energy to the waterparks’s rivers, pools, and slides.

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September 23rd, 2008

Where Do You Recycle? (Part 2)

Have you already listed down where you should recycle those ordinary household items? Yeah, well, here are more:

Paint, stain, varnish, thinner and adhesives; auto products such as old fuel, motor oil, oil filters and batteries; household batteries, fluorescent bulbs, cleaners and sprays; garden products, including pesticides and fertilizers; home generated sharps (for which types of sharps and proper containers see http://stopwaste.org/home /index.asp?page=624): Alameda County Hazardous Waste Facility, 2100 East 7th St. (close to Park Street Bridge). Starting Oct. 2 the Oakland facility will be open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, except the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Not for all hazardous materials, though, so check Web site first for those details, hours of operation and directions. http://stopwaste.org.

Cell Phones: Lincoln Middle School (Fundraiser for student trips abroad) and other local schools.

Used printer cartridges: Office Max (for store credit) or check with local school (fund raisers).

Canned and other non-perishable foods in unopened containers (All those items you realize you’re not going to eat after all, taking up space in your cupboards: Alameda Food Bank (1900 Thau Way) visit Web site for hours and other drop-off locations (www.alamedafoodbank.org/index .html)

Bikes in working condition: Donate to Cycles of Change APC Community Bike Shop (www.apcollaborative.org/cycles.htm).

Plastic grocery bags: Bring them back to the store (can’t put these in blue bin). Better yet, pick up re-useable cloth bags instead of using paper or plastic.

Wire hangers in excellent condition: Ask if your dry cleaners would like them for re-use, or Freecycle them.

Something else not listed here: Check out the residents’ portion of StopWaste.org’s Web site, for a complete recycling guide including Recycling A-Z and a very helpful Recycling Wizard (http://stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=297)

Happy recycling!

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September 22nd, 2008

Recycling Games for Teaching Kids how to Recycle

I was looking for a nice game for my kindergarten son and thought about searching for a game to teach my son how to segregate trash for recycling.     I found this cool looking game.

Basically what you need to do is just operate the robotic arm using the red control stick.  You need to place the grabber on top of the recyclable item you want to grab and press the green Grabber button.  Once you got it,  you need to use the control stick again to position the item on top of the correct garbage bin and then click the green grabber button to release the item.

You can even have a role play and tell your child to imagine that he is Handy Manny on a truck with a crane (my son loves Handy Manny).  If you have a hard hat lying somewhere, get it and have your child wear it.  Then give him instructions on what his job would be and that is to properly sort those recyclable items and put them in their proper trash bins.

Check out the game here.

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September 22nd, 2008

Where Do You Recycle?

Do you know where you should recycle some of those stuff that you would like to throw away? Here are the places where you could recycle these items if you live in Alameda:

Household batteries (like AAA, AA, C, D, 9 volt; not car batteries): Alameda Free Library (main branch), Pagano’s Hardware, Encinal Hardware, ACI’s local office (2307 Blanding Ave., Suite B; 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.)

Fluorescent tubes under 4 feet and compact fluorescent light bulbs: Pagano’s Hardware, Encinal Hardware, ACI’s local office.

Latex paint: ACI’s local office

Used motor oil and oil filters (don’t mix oil with other fluids): Put out next to your bins on your day of service for ACI pick up. Contact ACI for free jugs and oil filter bags, or use your own 1-gallon screw top container securely closed. Limit of 2 jugs per pickup.

Clean Styrofoam packing peanuts: Become an Alameda Freecycler and give them away (groups.yahoo.com/group /AlamedaFreecycle) Call shipping stores like UPS and Mail Boxes Etc. to see if they’ll take it. (Don’t leave out in front of store.)

Leftover office supplies, art and craft supplies, musical equipment: AEF’s Free Teacher Supply Store (Call 748-4008, Ext. 105 or see info@AlamedaEducation.org )

Used electronics (i.e. computers, phones, TVs, VCRs, etc. - not household appliances like refrigerators, air conditioners, washer/dryers, etc.): Free Electronic Waste Recycling Event, Sat. Sept. 27, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 51 West Trident. or bring to Universal Waste Management, Inc. at 721 37th Ave. Oakland (www.unwaste.com)

New or used good, working condition items you no longer want or need: Freecycle (see above), Alameda Goodwill Store (2319 Lincoln Ave., 337-2742), or sell/give away online at www.craigslist.org or www.ebay.com

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