The "GREEN" thread

From the journal Science: A Flat-Out Major Advance for an Emerging Solar Cell Technology
Jon Cartwright
2013-09-11

Did you know that Coors in Golden is now nearly a zero-waste facility? According to the podcast, they spent more than a million dollars to make it happen, but should make that back by the end of the year (after that, it's just pure profit).

"Save the earth, it's the only planet with beer." - I love it!

Does Going Green Pay Off?
by Lesley McClurg
Oct 2, 2013

The largest brewery in the country no longer throws anything away. Instead, every month more than 100 tons of waste at the MillerCoors plant in Golden, Colorado, is either recycled or reused. The story of why goes back to one man: a factory worker at a brewery in Ohio. CPR’s Lesley McClurg explains. Then, Ryan Warner talks to Colorado State University marketing professor Kelly Martin about whether going green pays off for businesses.

New Belgium in Ft Collins does this as well, plus runs their plant on wind power.

Wondering if this could be a substitute for the ugly highway lamps...

Low-glare lights are a hit on Steamboat ski slopes
By Jason Blevins
The Denver Post
Posted: 01/28/2014 0

Read more: Low-glare lights are a hit on Steamboat ski slopes - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2 ... z2roy8xQ3L
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Innovative idea - I'm impressed!

Ex-Tesla and NASA Engineers Make a Light Bulb That’s Smarter Than You
By Margaret Rhodes
09.23.14

The company is Stack, and its first product is Alba (alba is Italian for ‘sunrise’). The Alba bulbs are designed to work autonomously, both by adjusting light output based on sunlight and by learning and adapting to its owners’ household habits.

Embedded in Alba’s light diodes are sensors for motion, occupancy, and ambient light. This meant cofounder Jovi Gacusan, who worked on sensors at NASA, had to create a new core technology, because in order to work efficiently Alba has to both read and react to available light. The result is a light bulb that can see-saw with natural light and in doing so uses 60 to 80 percent less energy than a regular LED bulb.

Alba emits light with blue tones in the morning, to help users become alert, and then glows warmer shades of white as the day wears on. Users can adjust all this in the Stack app, and create profiles (‘dinner party,’ ‘nap time,’ and so on), and Alba will fold that data into its learning curve too.

I'm looking forward to tracking how this flight goes. All solar for the whole globe - pretty cool!

This solar plane will circumnavigate the globe, starting from tomorrow
Good luck, little aircraft!
BEC CREW
9 MAR 2015

Swiss pilots are about to embark on a 35,000-kilometre, five-month journey around the world in their little, solar-powered plane. Absolutely no fuel required.

Will this change the way we fly in the near future? Not likely, unless everyone suddenly decides that uncomfortable, super-slow air travel is something they’d really enjoy - Karl Mathiesen at The Guardian compares the plane’s weight and speed to that of a Volvo sedan. But that’s not what this journey is all about, as Chris Mills explains over at Gizmodo:

“The craft is unlikely to be breaking speed records any time soon, but to the minds behind the project, Swiss aviators Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, that's not the point. For them it's the energy efficiency of the project that makes it exciting. They're not so concerned with changing the aviation industry just yet, so much as changing the public perception about how exciting renewable energy can be.