Goal For The Green

As you  may recall, Google hosted a contest last year. The winner in the category for wind turbines/power, was the Jellyfish Wind Turbine from Clarian technologies.  I thought this was such an innovative idea, I posted about it in January 2009, as Jellyfish Windpower , and updated the topic again in June 2009, as JellyFish Plug-In Windpower .

The JellyFish, is a great innovation in Wind Turbines. It changes the public perspective, that a wind turbine should be big, expensive, and has to be, more than 30 feet tall. The Jellyfish has dimensions of only 48” x 36” (1.2m x 0.9m), and weighs about 30 pounds.  Roughly, it is able to generate about 40 kWh / a month, on an average windy day. That’s enough to power a room with CFL light bulbs, a blender, or a toaster. There is no fancy setup, to use the Jellyfish. Just plug it directly, into electrical sockets. It also comes with Wi-Fi and WiMax, modules.

The Genius behind Jellyfish, is Seattle’s  Chad Maqlaque.  He visions that, “We could have 10,000 of these sitting in a city, when  networked—it’s like a virtual utility…”

The Jellyfish Wind Turbine, is not available for market, just yet, but will be in 2011.  However, you can sign up online(Below) for pre- order,to be sure to get yours, through their site, at clariantechnologies.com. It’s expected to retail for around $400. At higher production volumes, the prices may be dropped to $199. This is where if we start demanding these products, more will be made, and they should become cheaper.

My friend Linda, at Forced Green, recently posted about the JellyFish, and the SunFish.  We both love the idea, of what these products can do.  Let’s work together, by contacting QVC and Costco, so we can help get these products, on the shelves.  These two companies, have been quite helpful, in getting new and innovative products on the market, and they’ve been doing it for years. Together, we can all be working, toward better and greener tomorrows for everyone!

What would these tools do for your business, and your POCKETS?

Are we being logical about Global Warming ? Probably not, since we now call it climate change.  It might be a little ridiculous to think that man caused climate change to happen.  Sure, we are a contributing factor, but we all know that the earth undergoes sometimes drastic climate changes-naturally!  Mother Nature has never needed any help in that area.  Even if we would have heeded the warnings 30 plus years ago, after the “gas crisis,” -much of what is happening now, would still be happening.  We have no control over it.  But, we probably have contributed to our crisis by not practicing good conservation.

So, what makes us think that we can change our habits and replace our energy demands with alternative sources, in just ten years?  Today, here in the United States, only 7% of our energy comes from alternative sources.  Hydroelectric power  comprises 36% of our total alternative energy usage.  Another 5% comes from the use of wind energy.  These two sources cannot be tapped into much further, without studies of the damage it causes to already fragile ecosystems.  Fish and wildlife suffer as a paradox of our need for alternative energy sources.  It seems the only time we hear about these unfair tradeoffs, is when people protest (NIMBY) not in my back yard, when it is time to build dams and install wind turbines into already settled communities.

Today, over half of our alternative energy is in the form of biofuels.  Sources such as switchgrass (it needs an enzyme to break it down) and ethanol (corn based) are our hope for renewable energy.  Geothermal and solar power (through photovoltaic cells) offer another 6% of our current alternative energy usage.  While these sources are promising, they supply a very minor amount of our total annual energy needs.

Will we meet the goal in ten years?  Probably not, but we have to start somewhere.  It is estimated that it will cost upwards of $2.5 trillion to achieve approximately half of our home based energy needs through alternative energy sources.   Some feel that the environmental impact of biofuels is worse than that of petroleum souces.  Sure, more information is needed in these areas, but we can’t stop progress.  We must move forward.  We should make more use of resources that we already have here at home.  More use of nuclear energy, natural gas, and ways to safely make use of hydrogen should be looked at more closely.