This month, the Italian utility Enel unveiled "Archimede", the first Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in the world to use molten salts for heat transfer and storage, and the first to be fully integrated to an existing combined-cycle gas power plant. Archimede is a 5 MW plant located in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily), within Europe's largest petrochemical district. The breakthrough project was co-developed by Enel, one of World's largest utilities, and ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. read the full article

Source: The Guardian Environment Network, Image Source: Archimede Solar Energy

The first Earth Day was a success because 20 million Americans demonstrated their outrage for the state of the environment. Together, we can make Earth Day 2010 a pivotal moment in the environmental movement. It is time to enact comprehensive climate legislation that will create American jobs, cap carbon emissions and secure our nation's future. - Earth Day Network

On Sunday, April 25, Earth Day Network will organize a massive climate rally on The National Mall to demand Congress pass strong climate legislation. Notable speakers include, Reverend Jesse Jackson, film director, James Cameron, AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka, Olympic gold medalist, Billy Demong, producer, Trudie Styler, author, Margaret Atwood, NFL player and television personality, Dhani Jones, environmental photographer Sebastian Copeland and many more.

When: April 25, 2010 11:00am - 7:00pm
Where: The National Mall, Washington, DC

Earth Day Network is sponsoring free buses from New York City, Philadephia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Charleston WV, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Baltimore. RSVP to save your place.

If you can't make it to the rally, Earth Day Network will be streaming the live event on EarthDay.org

Source: Earth Day Network

The Down:2:Earth (D2E) Sustainable Living Expo is this weekend in Boston - April 9 - 11, 2010. You can stop by and check out a mix of local and national green businesses (who may be offering free goodies) and attend events including Mayim Bialik "Blossom" speaking on Green Living and Dr. James Hansen on Climate Change. Check out the details.

Want to know where your laptop really comes from? It's nearly impossible to really know, but Sourcemap was developed to help provide you with the information you need in making sustainable choices about popular products, travel and food.

Below is a Sourcemap that shows the complex supply chain of the typical laptop:

Sourcemaps is a free and open-source project and anyone can create a sourcemap for travel, food and the lifecycle or traceability of products. Leo Bonanni founded Sourcemap, at MIT Media Labs, with the goal of empowering sustainability by providing transparency in supply chains, supporting sustainable business decisions, helping to facilitate the development of sustainable design, supporting local and sustainable purchasing, and becoming a resource of carbon footprints.

So whether you are concerned with global warming, resource depletion, community strength, or the preservation of cultures, visit Sourcemap to share and learn about sustainable ideas.

Source: Sourcemap, Image Source: Sourcemap

In an effort to combine his love for beer with his value of sustainability, Jon Cadoux founded Peak Organic Brewing Company – a small craft brewing company, out of Portland, Maine, dedicated to innovating flavors using only the finest sustainable ingredients. They offer a contemporary mix of handcrafted ales that pair well with a wide range of foods, from sushi to chocolate cake. Peak Organic collaborates with local grocers, organic farmers, and creative chefs to create tasty beer that proves you don’t need to sacrifice flavor for sustainability – better ingredients do make better beer. 

“Peak Organic beer is made without toxic and persistent pesticides and chemical fertilizers. These substances can cause soil degradation and chemical runoff that contaminate water sources and the ecosystems they support,” said Jon. In 2009, Peak helped Maine farmers cultivate the first commercial hops harvest since 1880 – taking great pride in the fact that these hops were also organic. And, also pride-worthy, their Peak Espresso Amber is the first Fair Trade Certified beer brewed in the United States.

If you are looking to taste-test some organic beer, here are a few Peak Organic brews that sound delicious:

pale ale – Peak Pale Ale offers a citrusy, floral nose, and a smooth, malty finish.
Suggested food pairing: Spicy food, sushi, chicken, pork, hummus, mild cheeses, herb cheeses, fruity desserts

IPA – This unique India Pale Ale offers stimulating citrus and floral characteristics.
Suggested Food Pairings: Spicy foods, pesto, smoked meats, mild cheddar or mild blue cheese, gorgonzola

nut brown ale – Peak Nut Brown Ale starts out very smooth, with a crisp, nutty finish.
Suggested Food Pairing: Hearty courses, beef, roasted pork, pastas with red sauce, creamy soups, aged/strong cheeses, smoked gouda

espresso amber ale – A robust amber ale brewed with substantial amounts of Munich Malt, providing a perfect backbone for the rich, roasty flavor imparted by espresso.
Suggested Food Pairing: Brunch items, BBQ, vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake

Check out their web site for more suggested food pairings.

Source: Peak Organic, Image source: Peak Organic

The open source washing machine project aims to rethink the way we wash clothes around the world, in accordance with economical, sociological, cultural and environmental aspects. Most of the people in this planet, mostly women, wash clothes by hand in harsh conditions related to poverty, lack of sanitation, water or energy. - oswash.org

The Open Source Washing Machine Project is a project by Bricolabs, a global platform to investigate the new loop of open content, software and hardware for community applications, bringing people together with alternative technologies and distributed connectivity.

The challenge

To design washing machine technologies that addresses issues of water pollution, toxic detergents and lack of water sources, electricity, materials and money.

The objective

To define a variety of possible technologies, materials used for different technologies, DIY ecological detergents and to educate on how to build prototypes and make ecological detergents.

The ideas

Materials:

• recycling washing machine parts + freeduino board as programmer
• recycling and building with vehicles parts (cars, bikes)
• building in wood and bamboo
• recycling plastic parts

Energy:

• using wind power
• water power
• solar power
• animal power
• human power

Technology:

• rotating systems
• vibrating and sonic systems
• shocking systems
• brushing systems
• bubbling systems
• uv light systems
• bacterials systems

The prototypes

Solar Powered
This prototype was built with bicycle parts, bamboo, and a solar panel directly connected to a recycled electric motor from a photocopier to create rotation washing.

Wind Powered
This prototype was built with reclaimed materials and uses wind power to create vibration washing.

Video source: Vimeo by Dries De Roeck.

Vibration Technology
This prototype uses loud speakers to agitate the water through the vibration of the container.

Image source: oswash.org

Press Release – Boulder, Colo. – March 18, 2010 – Tendril, a leading energy management technology provider, will debut its next generation in-home display next week at DistribuTECH, the nation’s leading trade show focused on utility energy distribution and efficiency. The Tendril Vision is a revolutionary device that allows people to link directly with their utility to get meaningful, real-time information about their energy use and cost. The results are greater energy efficiency as well as opportunities for utility customers to reduce their consumption by an average of 10 to 15 percent, according to Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck.

“For the first time, people at home can receive real-time information through a highly intuitive device. It allows them to take an active role in how much energy they use in order to change their behavior and see immediate results,” Tuck said. “Utilities realize that they need to engage directly with their customers in order to drive efficiency and energy reduction. Vision provides the means of immediate communication and action that has been missing in consumers’ homes until now.”

Working with design consultant IDEO to develop Vision, Tendril completed extensive research unique to the utility industry and its consumers. This research involved a thorough examination of human behavior and desires, including how people interact with their surrounding environment, how they want their energy providers to communicate with them in their homes, and effective methods for promoting behavioral change. The team also studied behavior economics in order to understand how a simple, but well-designed device can encourage and enable continuous energy savings.

Among the unique features of the Tendril Vision:

• It is anchored in a household appliance similar to a digital clock. This promotes active engagement with utility customers because it provides continuous information via a device that is unobtrusive, intuitive and an accepted part of everyday living.
• Vision displays upcoming, real-time events so customers can plan accordingly. For example, Vision will display a visual cue for an upcoming demand response event and peak pricing period. Seeing this, a homeowner could wait to run the dishwasher, turn down the thermostat, or leave the house to run errands in order to save money during that time.
• The real-time data display is also accompanied by a web portal service that allows customers to look at detailed information online as well as create, and manage, their own customized energy use plan.

The Tendril Vision is approximately 8 inches by 6 inches and weighs less than two pounds. Vision integrates seamlessly with the Tendril platform, which includes utility applications for Demand Response, Energy Awareness, Load Control, Distributed Generation and Electric Vehicles.

Source: Tendril, Image Source: earth2tech