This compact device called the YoGen Max from a company called Easy Energy allows you to charge up your laptop anywhere in the world with the power of your foot. If you are at an airport with no outlets in sight or on a plane and you don’t mind looking a bit silly and getting weird looks this could be perfect for you. More importantly this can keep your laptop going in rural parts of the world where you won’t look silly at all foot pumping your laptop.

Folded up it is small enough to fit into most laptop cases and easily go with you anywhere. The YoGen Max produces 60-80 watts of power when in operation and when your foot and leg cramp up  it can also hold 12 rechargeable AA batteries to keep the power flowing. Easy Energy claims this is enough to keep a typical laptop going.

This isn’t for sale quite yet, but they say they have a working protype and are starting to take orders from distributors. I also don’t see any information about how much this retail for, but hopefully it will be reasonably affordable. This portable charger could help many people that need power on the go.

For more information head over to Easy Energy’s site.

Here’s a video demonstration of the YoGen Max.

This is a great discussion on  KJZZ about renewable energy in Arizona with Greater Phoenix Economic Council president and CEO Barry Broome and Arizona Corporation Commission chairwoman Kris Mayer.

( Phoenix, AZ ) KJZZ’s Here and Now examined Arizona’s renewable energy policies with Corporation Commission Chair Kris Mayes and Barry Broome, President and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. Economics Professor Robert Michaels explained why he is opposed to renewable energy standards. The show also touched on the potential of wind power.

http://kjzz.org/news/arizona/archives/200901/hereandnow-renewableenergy

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind program arm just released a report (PDF, 4 MB) on the prospect of wind power generating 20% of U.S. electricity by the year 2030. News agencies have reported on this result, though typically only by reading the official press release. USA Today did do some additional research and their coverage accurately reflects both the intention and the results of the DOE report. In the following discussion I will suggest that you thumb through the report by highlighting a few items I found interesting. If wind power is going to produce such a significant portion of U.S. electricity, then there is a lot of difficult work to do (and don’t get discouraged if it fails).

The report is not a prediction that wind energy will be our savior. It begins by stating that President Bush motivated an improvement in the nation’s energy diversity. Give the DOE credit for taking the Bush Administration’s Energy Agenda and putting some real numbers behind it. Reading through this 248 page report will get you completely up to date in terms of the steps necessary for wind power to generate as much as 20% of all U.S. electricity by the year 2030. It’s not an easy climb, however, so it is important that the public have realistic expectations to avoid becoming disenchanted with wind power if it ends up costing more than this report suggests.

Points of Interest

Read the rest of this entry »

With the price of diesel shooting up by the day this could be a good time to start looking at home-brewing biodiesel. This is a great way to save tons of money on fuel, but it requires a significant investment of your time. For some people it is worth the time to be able to save money and to run a fuel that is more environmentally friendly than regular diesel. Pretty much your only monetary costs will be for parts to make a processor (a lot of which you can find for free), methanol and lye. You’ll also need to make sure you can secure some sources of free waste vegetable oil from local restaurants around you. Without a source of waste oil you are pretty much out of luck.

Does home-brewing biodiesel sound like it is for you? How do you even get started? Well it’s your lucky day because Hans Huth, a Tucson home-brewer, has written a thorough 286 page manual available for free online for just such interests. He writes extensively on making your own biodiesel in Arizona with more information than you ever thought you needed. This book is aimed at making bio specifically in Arizona. The information, however, is relevant to any location, you can just skip the info regarding Arizona laws, etc. Hans starts this free manual by exploring the history of the diesel engine and basic information about what biodiesel is.

Something you’ll find missing from most biodiesel homebrewing manuals is legal considerations. Hans covers these in detail giving information about zoning laws, road taxes, firecodes, waste disposal, etc. He covers these very well and I’d recommend not skipping this if you are serious about brewing your own bio and want to be as legitimate as possible. There are particularly important issues surrounding waste disposal. While biodiesel itself is quite harmless you still need to find a responsible way to dispose of the glycerin and dirty waste water which may contain residual methanol.

From there he goes on to cover other considerations to keep in mind when switching to the use of biodiesel, such as its potential affects on your car. If you have an older diesel vehicle, say from the 80’s, you may run into problems with rubber tubing and seals being eaten away. This is largely irrelevant with newer diesels as the use of rubber was phased out in the early 90s or late 80s. Something to be aware of in newer diesels that have never run on biodiesel is that regular old diesel fuel leaves deposits in your fuel tank and lines that biodiesel will sweep out. Biodiesel has very good cleaning properties and will clean your lines thoroughly and possibly clog your fuel filter. After this initial cleaning of your fuel system you won’t have to worry about clogging up your filters anymore.

Hans also writes in-depth about building a biodiesel processor, collecting oil, filtering oil, and actually brewing the oil into biodiesel. He does this in a very practical and helpful way with pictures that illustrate the whole process. Overall this is the best manual I’ve seen for home-brewing biodiesel. I highly recommend this.

Head over to www.biod101.com and download this book for free and start brewing! If you like it send Hans a donation, Good luck!

Not interested in homebrewing but want to run biodiesel? Check out our map showing where you can buy biodiesel in Arizona. [here]