Saturday, January 26, 2008

Building The Economy On Energy Efficiency

When former President Bill Clinton stomped for Hillary's economic plan for the country, he emphasized the importance of energy efficiency in achieving this goal:

Part of the plan to reinvigorate the economy includes major investment in clean energy, Clinton said. The one thing in common among countries with rising incomes and decreasing inequalities, he said, is a commitment to clean energy. That goes hand in hand with job creation by developing biofuels at farms and rural factories and requiring retrofits of all buildings for energy efficiency, he said.

I do agree with this plan because energy efficiency is an important element to consumption reduction and as we consume less of the ills that increases energy efficiency we invigorate the economy.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Hawaii State Buildings To Become Energy Efficient

The state of Hawaii is doing what all states should be doing in order to help curb the effects of global warming:

Eleven state government buildings, on four islands, are going to be "retrocommissioned" to increase the state's energy independence, the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism announced.

The state Department of Accounting and General Services and the energy efficiency branch of DBEDT will look for opportunities to save energy in buildings and reduce operating costs, the department said. They also will improve occupant comfort, extend equipment service life and reduce the volume of emergency calls for maintenance staff.

The 11 buildings, including the State Capitol, contain more than 1.4 million square feet of space and use about 33 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, the department said.


The City of New Orleans would have been on the right track of making its' city buildings more energy efficient if it were not for the actions of Stan "Pampy" Barre, a confidant of former New Orleans' Mayor, Marc Morial. Now Mr. Barre is a convicted felon, who is awaiting sentencing for his role in looting from the massive energy savings contract.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Wal-Mart May Become The Leader In Energy Conservation

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which launched a broad environmental push in late 2005, wants to expand that focus to other issues including energy prices, international trade and U.S. health care costs.

Chief Executive Lee Scott outlined plans in a speech Wednesday to push for more energy-saving products for Wal-Mart shoppers, work with other retailers on social and environmental standards for the foreign companies they buy from, and trim prescription and health records costs at home.

The world's largest retailer may even someday install windmills or solar panels at its stores that would allow shoppers to charge electric vehicles, and it is talking with automakers about a possible role in the hybrid and electric car market.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Dell Launches New Power Efficient Blade Server

The new PowerEdge M series blade chassis and related X64 blade servers could get Dell its rightful share of the blade space, which should account for around $5 billion in sales in 2008. The new Dell blade servers will be marketed with the same mantras that other blade server makers have tried over the past seven years--simplifying infrastructure configuration and management as well as ending sprawl in the data center through consolidation, virtualization, and density.

Energy efficiency is also going to be a big selling point. According to the tech specs of the new PowerEdge M1000e chassis, Dell can get the power supplies inside the box to run at between 88 percent and 91 percent efficiency when loaded up with between 20 percent and 60 percent of the peak loading on the power supplies in the box--the latter being the typical loading for enterprise customers using Dell's current PowerEdge 1955 blade servers.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

We Must Improve Energy Efficiency

The world's largest energy consumer the United States on Monday called for a global push for increased energy efficiency to help meet rising demand and alleviate the impact of high prices on economic growth.

The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels per day of oil, around a quarter of the world's supply. Record oil prices have cooled U.S. appetite for gas guzzling cars and, along with increasing environmental concerns, lend weight to calls for more sparing use of energy.

The country last month passed a bill requiring increased fuel efficiency in vehicles for the first time in over 30 years.

Although Stan "Pampy" Barre tried to thwart New Orleans efforts to help make the city more energy efficient, the rest of us know how important it is to conserve energy. Please do your part in order to help preserve our natural resources and decrease the effects of global warming.

Monday, January 21, 2008

BT Launch Energy Efficient Phones

BT is launching less power-hungry telephones to cut CO2 emissions. The telecoms giant's new home phones use around half the power of previous models. This will mean lower electricity bills for customers and reduced carbon dioxide emissions, the firm said.

The design change will apply to more than 90% of all BT's home phone handsets by July this year. BT group MD for the consumer division Gavin Patterson said: "BT has continued to address environmental concerns by launching phones that consume approximately half the electricity of previous models; this will make a major contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions."

The energy efficient handsets will not cost any extra. BT estimates its switch to the new designs will cut customers' combined CO2 emissions by 195,000 tonnes over three years.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Hanover Homes - A model for energy efficiency

Are you in the market for an energy efficient home? Well, Hanover Homes may be the answer:

Hanover Homes North Corporation continues their commitment to conserving energy and offering the most value for their homeowners. Now, an Energy Star� partner, the company is breaking ground on the first in its line of affordable energy efficient Energy Star homes in the Tripp Park, Scranton, located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone.

The newest design, “The Hartford,” is expected to be completed early this summer.