Bill Slated To Improve Building Efficiency

A construction standard that is already required in 10 states could become the norm for public buildings in Oklahoma based on the provisions of a bill moving through the Legislature.

House Bill 3394 passed out of the House General Government and Transportation Committee earlier this week and is expected to be heard on the House floor sometime next week.

The bill would require all new construction of state buildings as well as major renovations to use Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Building Rating System specifications. The LEED standard focuses on requiring projects to be sustainable, profitable, and healthy for those who live or work in the building.

Physics Prof. Promotes 'Manhattan Project' For Energy

A physics professor and renewable energy advocate says the federal government should launch a massive campaign to meet rising energy demands and deal with global warming.

Martin Hoffert, a researcher and a professor emeritus at New York University, said Thursday that the effort should be on the scale of the Manhattan Project, which developed the country's atomic bomb, or the NASA program that put astronauts on the moon.

Searching For "Greener" Electronics

The survey, "Searching for Greener Electronics," studied 37 products voluntarily submitted by 14 electronics manufacturers on four sets of criteria: energy efficiency, use of hazardous materials, product lifecycle and innovation / marketing, awarding points on a 1 to 10 scale. Although Sony swept the winners with models in the notebook computer, mobile phone and PDA categories, those products were notable only because they were the sole products to break the 5-point limit.

Despite the rather dismal rankings for the bulk of these products, Greenpeace said that its findings do suggest that the industry is taking significant steps toward green electronics. The report's authors find that the industry is moving out in front of existing regulations, like RoHS and WEEE, and that manufacturers and purchasers alike are quickly responding to the demand for toxic-free and energy efficient products, despite years of neglect on both of those fronts.

Even though the manufacturing side may be stepping up to the task, Greenpeace found that all the companies in its survey are still not taking a product's entire lifecycle into account -- working as hard on end-of-life concerns like recycling and reuse as they are on minimizing the impacts of production in the first place.

TVA Sets "Energy Conservation" Goals

TVA, the nation's largest public utility is preparing to get back into energy conservation and efficiency in a big way. The session Tuesday, chaired by Bottorff, drew recommendations for a long-term program that's to be unveiled to the TVA board of directors in April.

Several speakers urged TVA to adopt an energy efficiency goal of at least 1 percent of power sales annually. Some states have set similar goals for investor-owned utilities they regulate.

TVA, which provides electricity to about 8.7 million consumers in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina, is largely self-regulated.

TVA's immediate target is achieving 1,200 megawatts in energy savings by 2013.

Microsoft Promotes Energy Efficiency At CeBIT

Microsoft kicked off the largest technology trade show by focusing on initiatives to cut energy use for itself and its customers.

CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote speech at CeBIT yesterday touched on Microsoft's attempts to reduce energy needs from data centers and its products, according to news reports.

The company has been studying how to reduce the power consumption of its products for a decade, resulting in Windows Vista using 3 watts per hour compared to XP's 100 watts per hour, according to IDG News Service. Windows Server 2008 also uses 40 percent less power than its 2003 incarnation.

ASUS Green Design

Two of the key world topics today are “green” and “energy-savings”. These concepts have aroused the interest of people for some time, and ASUS has made great efforts in green design and energy-saving in its products. ASUS’ Green Design servers feature energy saving server power supplys, and are able to improve power efficiency, reduce heat dissipation and save up to 45% power loss. The servers that include these advancements include the RS160-E5, and the RS100-E5/PI2.

Green Design helps optimizes power efficiency, which results in reduced power loadings and more energy savings. By integrating ASUS’ Green Design into serverboards, up to 90% enhanced power efficiency can be achieved. This hourly energy saving is equivalent to powering a 70W light bulb continuously in the same timeframe. This is no more readily seen than in the DSEB-DG serverboard.

Energy Efficiency Conference To Be Held

The Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) will hold its second annual conference at Sebring International Raceway prior to the 56th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. The March 13 event entitled "Developing Energy Efficiency Through Motorsports" will continue to address motorsports' role in developing energy efficient solutions, focusing on the American Le Mans Series' position as the global leader in green racing.

The distinguished group of speakers and panelists includes American Le Mans Series President and CEO Scott Atherton, John Glenn of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, MIA Chief Executive Chris Aylett, Shell Global Solutions Technology Manager Richard Karlstetter, High Performance Engineering Lead Officer/UKT&I Bill Griffiths, EPIC's Reece Nanfito, Mazda's John Doonan, Dr. Tim Hayes of BP America, and American Le Mans Series drivers David Brabham and Lord Paul Drayson.