Different Currents In The Stream

Here are a few of the stories or websites I thought were of interest this past week.

Cool Solar Calculator - This website at CoolerPlanet.com has some informative interactive maps of the country, with different solar power ratings for the various states, local and state and federal incentives for solar systems. You will also find Solar Resource links to solar tools and calculators.

Our Oceans may be a limitless source of clean energy. The idea was first conceived in the 1880's by a french physicist Jacques d'Arsonval. Called Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Technology (OTEC), the system takes advantage of the temperature differences of the different depths of the ocean.

First, warm surface water heats a fluid with a low boiling point, such as ammonia or a mixture of ammonia and water. When this "working fluid" boils, the resulting gas creates enough pressure to drive a turbine that generates power. The gas is then cooled by passing it through cold water pumped up from the ocean depths via massive fibreglass tubes, perhaps 1000 metres long and 27 metres in diameter, that suck up cold water at a rate of 1000 tonnes per second. While the gas condenses back into a liquid that can be used again, the water is returned to the deep ocean. "It's just like a conventional power plant where you burn a fuel like coal to create steam," says Cohen.

I hope the Obama administration pays attention to efforts like the Google 2030 project.




The online mag, the New Scientist makes an argument that limits on growth are leading to economic collapse prophesied 30 years ago by the Club of Rome in the book Limits of Growth, published in 1972. According to the article we may have approx. a decade to prepare for this eventuality.

Changes in industrial production, food production and pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of collapse in the 21st century, says Turner. According to the book, the path we have taken will cause decreasing resource availability and an escalating cost of extraction that triggers a slowdown of industry, which eventually results in economic collapse some time after 2020.

A President Who Will Take Climate Change Seriously

A Future For Household Cisterns

Ensuring a steady supply of fresh drinking water has been a problem facing humanity for all of it's history. For most of that history, the use of cisterns has been a major method for storing fresh water.

In the United States, family cisterns were once found at many homesteads, farms and small towns across the country. I first really became aware of cisterns while visiting the village of Mendicino, CA, where many of the old Victorian houses still have and use cisterns as their primary source of household drinking water.

The only cistern I'm aware of in my community is the cistern shown above, located at Caldwell Toyota. It is an 8600 gallon cistern which collects rain water from the roof of the building, and is used by the business for landscape irrigation, rather than using treated city water.

This year, the State of California is reporting that it is projecting that it will only be able to deliver just fifteen percent of the fresh water needed by California towns and farms, due to drought conditions and reduced snow accumulations in the mountains.

According to the Sacramento Bee, California is calling for conservation efforts on the parts of homeowners in order to deal with the crisis.

Snowmelt stored in California reservoirs is at its lowest level in 14 years.

"In fact, the entire state is wrestling with very serious drought conditions," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. "Wherever you live in California, start conserving water because you are going to be affected if drought conditions persist."

In the United States we have built up very centralized and connected water systems, with many states being dependent up on rivers which are increasingly drying up.

It seems to me that as pressure on fresh water supplies gets more prouounced, one solution many homeowners, even those in metropolitan areas, may turn to, are household cisterns which harvest rain water from roofs, and store it for use either as a fresh drinking water source, or to augment irrigation for gardens and landscaping.