Amory Lovins: A 40-year plan for energy

8 Completely Awesome DIY Home Energy Projects | Ecoble Small-scale renewable energy is a must for a sustainable home – but converting your home to clean energy options can carry a huge initial price tag. We’ve scoured the web for some of the most innovative examples of homemade energy solutions to compile a collective list of DIY projects to make your home greener and more energy efficient without costing you a fortune. From solar water heaters and gadget chargers to homemade super-efficient refrigerators, you’ll find links (with instructions) to some of the best projects you can make at home… Homemade Energy-Save Fridge The ‘Ambient Air Fridge’ isn’t quite a year-round green appliance but when things cool down in the winter, this homemade fridge will definitely shave a few dollars off the electric bill! DIY Electric Lawn Mower A small DC motor, two 12-volt batteries, a circuit breaker, and wiring can transform your polluting, fossil-fuel dependent lawn mower into a clean, green, grass mowing machine! Make Your Own Wind Turbine DIY Hydro Power

EdX Online Learning Project Announced By Harvard, MIT CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have joined forces to offer free online courses in a project aimed at attracting millions of online learners around the world, the universities announced Wednesday. Beginning this fall, a variety of courses developed by faculty at both institutions will be available online through the new $60 million partnership, known as "edX." "Anyone with an Internet connection anywhere in the world can have access," Harvard President Drew Faust said during a news conference to announce the initiative. MIT has offered a program called OpenCourseWare for a decade that makes materials from more than 2,000 classes available free online. It has been used by more than 100 million people. Harvard has long offered courses to a wider community through its extension program. The MITx platform will serve as the foundation for the new learning system. "Fasten your seatbelts," Hockfield said.

Human Footprint Interactive Geographers study the Earth and its physical features, inhabitants, and cultural phenomenon. They examine the physical and human characteristics of a region, ranging in scale from local to global, to explain an event or solve a problem. While many geographers have at least a bachelor’s degree in geography, many professionals, such as teachers, traffic consultants, and doctors, must also use geography in their jobs when examining specific challenges and solutions to issues. This geo-story introduces you to some of these folks who use geography. Each story point includes images, a short bio, and an interactive mapping tool that allows you to see the regions where these people work.

Life Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice | A Beginner’s Guide to Going Off the Grid The idea of “going green” has swept through Western culture pretty quickly. The ideas of conservation and helping the environment started with niche groups, but now permeate the core principles of major corporations. But a certain group of individuals are still on the cutting edge of conservation. Cut the Electric Cord First, let’s define “going off the grid.” For a beginner, the first action to make this happen is to establish your power source. For example, they position the home and windows to take advantage of solar heat during the winter and they build with energy efficient materials. If you’re successful in capturing energy from the sun or wind, then you’ll need to think about how to store it. Water, Water Everywhere Electricity is only one part of going off the grid. Some people also use cisterns to collect fresh rainwater. To get rid of your wastewater and not have to pay for it, you’ll need a septic tank. Heating the Home and Water The Bottom Line

Hybrid nanomaterial converts light and heat into electricity A hybrid nanomaterial synthesized by combining copper sulfide nanoparticles and SWNTs can convert light and heat into electricity (Photo: Shutterstock) We’ve seen nanomaterials that can be used to convert light into electricity and others that can convert heat into electricity. Now researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington and Louisana Tech University have created a hybrid nanomaterial that can do both. While single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been used in the construction of transparent solar cells and all-carbon solar cells, these are still very inefficient when compared to their conventional photovoltaic brethren. “If we can convert both light and heat to electricity, the potential is huge for energy production,” said UT Arlington associate physics professor Wei Chen. Compared to SWNT thin-film devices, the researchers say the new thin-film structure increases light absorption by as much as 80 percent in laboratory tests, making it a more efficient generator.

Compressed Air Energy Storage from LightSail Could Run a Whole City Clean Power Published on November 10th, 2012 | by Tina Casey The company LightSail Energy started out a few years ago with a student’s modest idea for a compressed air scooter, and now it has just raised $37.3 million in private funding to bring utility scale, compressed air energy storage to the market. That’s a big leap not only for the company but for compressed air technology itself, which has long been eyed for its clean energy potential. The problem has been to make the process efficient enough to deliver power at a commercial scale, so let’s take a look and see how LightSail solved the problem. The Compressed Air Conundrum As aptly described by writer Rachel Metz over at the MIT Technology Review, half of the compressed-air equation is simple enough from a clean energy perspective. The hard part kicks in when you try to store large quantities of compressed air. LightSail’s Compressed Air Solution Compressed Air Meets Wind Power Alternative Energy and Democracy About the Author

Move Over Harvard And MIT, Stanford Has The Real “Revolution In Education” Lectures are often the least educational aspect of college; I know, I’ve taught college seniors and witnessed how little students learn during their four years in higher education. So, while it’s noble that MIT and Harvard are opening their otherwise exclusive lecture content to the public with EdX, hanging a webcam inside of a classroom is a not a “revolution in education”. A revolution in education would be replacing lectures with the Khan Academy and dedicating class time to hands-on learning, which is exactly what Stanford’s medical school proposed last week. Stanford realizes that great education comes from being surrounded by inspiring peers, being coached by world-class thinkers, and spending time solving actual problems. So, last week, two Stanford professors made a courageous proposal to ditch lectures in the medical school. Skeptical readers may argue that Khan Academy can’t compete with lectures from the world’s great thinkers. [Image via the University of Waterloo.]

Google Fights to Save 3,054 Languages Will you be any worse off the moment humans cease to speak in Aragonese? How about Navajo or Ojibwa? Or Koro, a language only just discovered in a tiny corner of northeast India? No, you probably wouldn't, not in that moment. But humanity would be. Science, art and culture would be. If there is hope, it lies in the world's centers of information — such as Google. The site, launched early Thursday, features videos and an interactive map. You can hear the heartbreaking, beautiful sound of Koro being sung, or read 18th century manuscripts written in a nearly-dead Native American tongue. The idea is to unite a lot of smaller preservation efforts under the Google.org banner. Check out the project's video below, and let us know in the comments: how else can 21st century technology help save ancient languages?

Earthships Provide Path to Future Self-Sustaining Homes Rolling up to the Earthships world headquarters in Taos, New Mexico is like stumbling upon an alien planet – a striking, stark desert backdrop with funky colorful bounds dotting the landscape– which as you get closer you soon realize are actual people’s houses. An Earthship is a thermal mass, passive solar home that allows one to live completely off the grid using a combination of different water and energy recycling, saving and storing systems. If you like the idea of eradicating your utility bills, not to mention feeling good about living in the most energy-efficient, self-sustaining way possible, then look no further. As their website reasons, “Humans need comfortable temperatures, light, electricity, hot water, food, sewage treatment, etc. The construction of an Earthship is based upon the six principles of thermal/solar heating and cooling, solar and wind electricity, contained sewage treatment, natural and recycled building materials, water harvesting and food production.