Green future

Trimarchi, Maria.  "5 Green Cities of the Future"  17 October 2008.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/5-green-future-cities.htm>  13 September 2011.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/5-green-future-cities2.htm
Click on this link below to see 24 fantastic Green designs in our near future 
http://weburbanist.com/2008/11/23/future-green-design-technology/

T-Tech in future

Green Job and Eco factor

Source: http://climatelab.org/Green_Collar_Jobs?action=edit

In the US in 2006, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies generated 8.5 million new jobs, nearly $970 billion in revenue, and more than $100 billion in industry profits. ⁴  In 2007, U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) and U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) introduced the Green jobs Act of 2007 and President Bush signed it into law. This Act authorizes $125 million for workforce training programs targeted at veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth, and families in extreme poverty.

Twenty-two different sectors of the U.S. economy currently provide workers with green collar 
jobs (Pinderhughes, 2006). These sectors include:

1.       Bicycle repair and bike delivery services

2.      Mechanic jobs, production jobs, and gas-station jobs
related to bio-diesel, vegetable oil and other alternative fuels

3.      Energy retrofits to increase energy efficiency and conservation

4.      Food production using organic and/or sustainably grown agricultural products

5.       Furniture making from environmentally certified and recycled wood

6.      Green building

7.       Green waste composting on a large scale

8.      Hauling and reuse of construction materials, demolition materials, and debris (C&D)

9.      Hazardous materials clean up

10.   Green (sustainable) landscaping

11.    Manufacturing jobs related to greening technologies (i.e. solar panels, bike cargo systems, green waste bins, etc.)

12.   Materials reuse and production from recycled and non-toxic materials

13.   Non-toxic household cleaning in residential and commercial buildings

14.   Parks and open space maintenance and expansion

15.    Printing with non-toxic inks, dyes, and recycled papers

16.   Public transit jobs

17.    Recycling

18.   Solar installation and maintenance

19.   Tree cutting and pruning

20.  Peri-urban and urban agriculture

21.   Water retrofits to increase water efficiency and conservation

22.  Whole home performance (i.e: HVAC, attic insulation, weatherization, etc.)

Eco Factor: Solar power plants could generate 9000TWh of energy within four decades.

The International Energy Agency has figured out a dazzling future for solar power. The agency has released two roadmaps for photovoltaic technology and concentrating solar power, which can generate up to 9000 terawatt hours of energy, approximately 25 percent of the global demand, by 2050.

This amount of renewable energy will be able to cut carbon dioxide emissions by almost 6 billion metric tons per year by 2050. Concentrating solar power, which focuses solar radiations onto a small area to generate electricity, will be used in bright and sunny areas and will be dominated by regions such as North America, North Africa and India. Currently the technology is responsible for just 0.1 percent of electricity generation around the world.

Photovoltaic technology is currently dominated by Germany, Spain, Japan and the U.S., who generate more than 1GW of power from installed PVs. However, countries such as China and India are catching up fast.

Via: LA Times

The Age of Energy - The Green Economy

The Telegraph and Shell have joined forces to deliver a series on the green economy. The series will focus on particular aspects crucial to building a low-carbon economy, including business, politics, transport, international relations, market forces and the individual. The Age of Energy will feature contributions from politicians, business people, academics and green experts, plus an interactive poll and the chance to attend a Green Economy Debate at The Telegraph in central London.

 Further reading: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/earth/the-age-of-energy/?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=wgt_shell&utm_campaign=sponsored&WT.ac=8649878

green energy industry

Source: www.hotnews.ro 、Romanian newspapers
Date: March 28th, 2011

Iberdrola Renovables SA (IBR), a major player in renewable energy industry,  began building a wind park in Romania, the first of about 50 the Spanish company plans there in a complex that would rank as the world’s largest installation of generators harnessing the wind.

In 2009, Romania was producing only 14 megawatts of wind power, but by 2010, there were added 450 megawatts.

The Mihai Viteazu (near Black Sea) facility is to be built with Gamesa technology (comprising forty 2 MW wind turbines) and will be commissioned by year-end. This facility of 80-megawatt marks phase one in the construction of the Dobrogea (near Black Sea) wind Complex, the most ambitious renewable energy project in the world to date and is set to enter service by year-end, Iberdrola Renovables said.

This large-scale project will entail the start-up of as many as 50 wind farms with combined capacity of up to 1,500 MW. The company plans to build these facilities gradually between 2011 and 2017.

The output generated by this vast wind complex will enable the company to generate enough power in Romania to supply around one million households, the equivalent of the population of the capital city Bucharest, while also curbing annual CO2 emissions by 1.25 million tonnes.

IBERDROLA RENOVABLES has already signed an off-take agreement with the Romanian electricity network operator (Transeléctrica) setting the terms for connecting  the planned 1,500 MW of new capacity to the national grid, including the agreement for the grid connection of phase one. This agreement covers the largest volume of grid-connected wind power in Europe to date.

IBERDROLA RENOVABLES is pursuing all its initiatives in Romania with local company Eolica Dobrogea SRL (owned by the Swiss engineering group NEK Umwelttechnik AG and the Romanian companies C-Tech Srl and Rokura SRL). This company, which is at the forefront of the Romanian renewables industry, has been entrusted with the development tasks – planning and obtaining the construction permits – while IBERDROLA RENOVABLES is responsible for constructing and operating the wind farms.

IBERDROLA RENOVABLES, with operations in 23 countries, built more renewable capacity in 2010 than any other utility in the world, bringing 1,780 MW on stream. This has helped strengthen the company’s status as the global leader in renewable energy by capacity (12,532 MW at year-end 2010) and output (25,500 GWh produced last year).

The company opened an office in Bucharest in 2009 with a view to further reinforcing its presence in Eastern Europe, where it already has operating wind farms in Poland (161 MW) and Hungary (158 MW) and is backing other developments in Estonia and Bulgaria, making IBERDROLA RENOVABLES the leading wind power player in the region.

Romanian Foreign Investors Council believe that renewable energy could attract investment of at least five billion Euros in Romania in the coming years.

Maya - The collapses

The Maya civilization was one of the greatest Mesoamerican civilizations, but at some point in time, they simply disappeared. What happened to them?


Theories of the Classic Maya Collapse
The Classic Maya Collapse, as the collapse of the Maya civilization is dubbed among experts, has not been fully explained; and so several theories are being put forth by experts to try and explain the reason why the great Maya civilization shattered from prominence.

Social Theories
Social theories being put forth by experts include foreign invasion, but this is widely disputed as the process was so complex that it is impossible for a single military defeat to cause the collapse of a civilization. This theory is fueled by the amount of Teotihuacan influences in the Maya region, but opponents of this theory argue that the two civilizations had been in contact since at the Early Classic Period.

Another social theory being put forth is a revolution among the lower classes. Proponents of this theory hypothesized that, at the peak of the civilization, the lower class may have been overloaded with work and revolted. Evidences of temple burning and throne destruction are used as support for this theory. However, people not subscribing to this line of thought point to several flaws, like no revolts were ever documented by the Maya. They also argue that throughout its existence, the Mayas had a stable government, and so, one political problem could not have brought the downfall of the civilization.


Environmental Theories
There are several environmental theories that relate to the collapse of the Maya civilization. These include catastrophic events such as natural disasters. Mayanists dispute this theory, as there have been no evidence of a past volcanic eruption being discovered in the archaeological records left behind by the Mayas. According to Dr. Richardson Gill, volcanic eruptions may have been a way of cooling the climate in the Mayan region after a drought since droughts have been accurately documented by the Spanish in the Mayan region. However, no archaeological evidence existed to support the volcanic eruption theory.

Further reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/maya_01.shtml