Earthships are extremely  energy efficient homes constructed from earth and recycled materials. They are usually off grid and collect their own electricity and water. They are a great mix of old and modern technology to create great sustainable structures to live in. I know there are some Earthship homes in Arizona, but have never seen one up close. I’m really curious if they stay cool enough without A/C here in the desert.

The two videos below show what these unconventional homes are all about.

Earthship.net

Any woman would be lucky to have this handmade, flame-worked glass beauty hanging in her window. What’s even better than a beautifull-crafted decorative glass ornament? A useful one that boosts your mood while being “green.”

Our own Tracy Perkins had a article posted on ecosalon about these great solar diffusers! Check out the complete posting here.

These solar diffusers are hand made here in Arizona by Elijah Aller and sold by another Arizona business Strawberry Hedgehog.

This seems like really great news for the state and solar industry in general. Glad to see ASU putting so much effort in researching renewable energy.

Arizona State University is strengthening its commitment to boost Arizona’s economic development prospects in the renewable energy industry by establishing the Solar Power Laboratory to advance solar energy research, education and technology.

Prominent scientists and engineers are being hired to lead the endeavor to improve the efficiency of solar electric power systems while making them more economically feasible.

“The Solar Power Laboratory will further build up the university’s already formidable solar energy research and develop collaborations with the energy industry to accelerate expansion of the state’s economy,” said ASU President Michael Crow.

The effort is a major part of ASU’s response to the Arizona Board of Regents’ Solar Energy Initiative, aimed at encouraging research and development to meet future needs for renewable energy sources, Crow said.

In addition to spurring economic opportunity, advances in solar power systems will help Arizona protect its environment by enabling more widespread use of this clean-energy source, Crow said.

The laboratory will be a collaboration partnering the university’s Global Institute of Sustainability and Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Read the full article at FoxBusiness

We leave town for a few days and the sky is falling.  Two inches of rain in less than two hours! That sounds unheard of but that is typical for our Monsoon storms here in the Valley and elsewhere in Arizona.  Watching these videos and walking around in the subsequent drizzle last night I could only think of the comments made on James’ previous posts on rainwater harvesting.  There will always be naysayers but seriously folks, just think if we had a plan going into this to harvest all of that water instead of just directing it back to the Salt River, along with all of the trash on the highway.

Even if we just applied rain water collection techniques to the Arizona State University Campus, near where the news video was taken it could make a huge difference. Lets figure out what we could have saved.  If we estimate the ASU main campus to be about a square mile and say the rain is falling at about 2 inches per hour (50.88mm) then in one hour we could have collected ~34 million gallons of water! This sounds completely unbelievable, but according to this USGS page it is true. For information on collecting rainwater from your own property take a look at the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands website.

Apart from thinking of water use I must admit I had a serious case of schadenfreude watching the youtube video. We have only a few poorly distributed storm sewers here in the desert and little to no culverts diverting water under roadways and this leads to flooding of streets on a predictable yearly basis.  It does not take much water or current to not only stop a car but to carry it off coarse stranding the driver.  The best bet is to not drive in flood waters at all, take a break, wait it out. It is still the desert and things run off and soak up within a relatively short amount of time.  I wasn’t the one waiting in that traffic though so I can see the desire if there is no other way and you’re in a hurry.  Admittedly, I kept hoping we would see them get stuck. I know, I know, it is awful for me to think that but really it takes very little to get your car stuck.  If your engine doesn’t cut off from getting wet it is easy to lose traction. A car only needs an inch or two to become buoyant and then even the slightest current can carry it off the road or into another car where it can be stranded while waters potentially continue to rise.  Hence the Stupid Motorist Law where people have to pay for their own rescue.. think this is atypical? Think again.

Here’s a video of what happens when the freeway floods and traffic is stopped dead in its tracks.
http://www.kpho.com/video/16871937/index.html

Video of a wash during this storm.

Hi all! We probably won’t be posting much this week, we’re on vacation! Have a great week!