GOD LIKES SOLAR ENERGY...

The smallest State of the world, the Vatican, is installing solar panels on the roof of the Paul VI hall. That represents 5000 m² and it will provide about 300 MWh per year. The old concrete tiles of Paul VI hall are replaced by solar panels which have the same color and design. 

If even God agrees, then I have only one word to say : Amen !

Vatican - St Peter's Square :


Roof of Paul VI Hall with old tiles :

ONE MORE TIME !!!

I wrote a lot about alternative solutions to generate electricity in my last posts and you know what, that continues !!! Héhé, Gotwind has just created a prototype of an armband which is able to charge the battery of your cellphone. It uses the kinetic energy when you're running (or dancing, or just walking...). This is a tremendous idea ! Hope they will also think about ipods and mp3's...

REUSE OF BUILDINGS WASTEWATER

I had this idea after my last post about generating energy. Then, why not reusing the wastewater of buildings to generate electricity ? I don't know if this system already exists but it seems to be very ingenious... lol

GENERATE ELECTRICITY DURING YOUR WORKOUT !

WHAT A SO SO GOOD IDEA !!!!! In Portland, a "green" fitness club allows to generate electricity during clients training. They installed power generating machines just like treadmills, elliptic trainers, stationary bikes etc... and when customers are exercising to keep in shape they create electricity which is stored in battery packs. Clients can even watch on a digital display the amount of watts they are generating ! Read the article here.
This idea is just amazing and fabulous because it allows to save an energy (clients movements) which would be lost otherwise. Actually, it's a very positive synergy, making the most of the sport motivation to transform it in a different energy form !!! Now I can't see classical fitness clubs as before, they are wasting an easy and free energy ! How is it possible in 21th century ? Grrrr !
Imagine if we could do that in our houses ? Look, if you train at home, why not to load a main battery during familly trainings for a later use like loading iPods, cellphones, rechargeable batteries, for garden lights or just to use less electricity from your electricity network ?!

By the way, I'm thinking about another thing... In gym clubs, it used to be very warm inside... Normal, 80% of the energy expended during exercise is released in the form of heat. Yes, human being is in spite of him a pretty good heating system. Then, it would be a good idea to fetch this form of energy to heat up shower water (with a heat pump for example...) I guess that's a better idea than just to get rid of this precious heat to outside through conditioned air. No ?

DROP IN CONSUMPTION OF GAS-OIL

It's a record in France, the consumption of gas-oil fell for about 12,3% during August compared with the same month in 2007. It's obviously due to the raise of petroleum cost. This drop of consumption shows that people behaviour is changing, they probably have no choice but it's certainly the beginning of something new.
Let us wish something good.

HOW TO CLEAN FAUCETS

With time, water leave a thin layer of hard-water deposit around faucets. I hate to see it ! Isn't a shiny faucet more pleasant ? But it ain't really a problem when I see liquid cleaner commercials on tv, you just have to spray it on your faucets and let the time work ! Easy !

But... what do we really know about these products ? Chemical ? Natural ? We just know that they are very agressive since they clean faucet and bath without human intervention (we don't need to scrub, it's magic !). But how they pollute the environment ? Good question indeed ! These "special" products have to be treated by wastewater treatment plant after we get rid of them in the sewage system. Is this treatment really effective ? Too much questions !!!

Let me ask you something, why do you want to clean your bathroom without scrubbing ? Are you disabled ? Don't you think that if you have the good luck to be in good health, you could use all your available strenghts to clean up your house ? Sorry, I don't want to be moralizing but think about it and tell me if am I really far of the truth ?

So, how can I clean my faucets ?

There is a very natural product which allows to do it and you already know it : it's vinegar ! All of you know that vinager is acid, very good on salads isn't it ?! Then, it also allows to remove all the hard-water deposit on your faucets. I tried it, and believe me it works very well ! You need to wrap your faucets up with a linen soaked in vinegar. Leave it for a few minutes to take effect and then you can scrub just a bit to remove easily the sediments ! Simple, no ?! You can use white vinegar but red vinegar works as well !

In the same séries "how to" and "when to" please take a look in this post : when to use a tee-shirt

A SECOND EPR IN FRANCE ?

President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, declared today the construction of a second EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) in french soil. This type of reactor is the third generation of nuclear power plant. It allows to produce 22% more energy than older reactors that is 1600 megawatts. Security sistem is improved and the cost of electricity produced will be cheaper. The better combustion of nuclear fuel allows 15% up to 30% reduction of nuclear waste.
In France 80% of electricity come from nuclear sources.

Actually, I'm not against nuclear tecnology (I'm even fascinated) but currently we still don't know how to treat nuclear waste (radioactive). Only a part of it is reused as fuel and the rest is simply stored. Yes just stored. I think it will be a problem for next generations.

CARBONE LABEL

A CO2 Label ? What a great idea !!!

As you know, the products we buy have a CO2 cost, which means that production, transportation and preservation release a lot of CO2 in the environment. Some products have a higher CO2 cost than others, but it's not simple to compare. Actually, it's obvious that a tomatoe bought in winter has a CO2 cost higher than a seasonal one. But when you want to compare two brands of water it's almost impossible to know.

That's why french government thought about a CO2 Label which indicates on the product itself the amount of CO2 released during its all life cycles. A french supermarket didn't wait for the decision of government about CO2 labels. It just starts with 10 products like water, yoghurt, muffins etc... Later that will be up to 200 products.I think this advanced it's really great for those who care with environment.

With nutritious information and now with CO2 information, I think it only misses chemical information on foodstuffs to have a complete report about real qualities of these products sold.

ONE KILOMETER : MAN vs CAR

Let me calculate the energy cost of one kilometer covered...

- For a man, each kilometer run costs 1 calorie per kg of weight. Then, if you weight 80 kg, one kilometer costs 80 calories, that is half of a banana or one only apple (or 4 sugars, or even one tablespoon of olive oil).

- For a car, this same kilometer costs about 0,06 liter of gasoline (at best) . But 1 liter of gasoline represents 11.500 calories... So, 1 kilometer cots 690 calories ! It's tremendous !

Obviously we can't run to the work or to do shopping if it's too far but if we have to go somewhere close to home, so we could do this effort ?! No ?

SWITCH ON THE SUN PLEASE

The Sun, basis of our energy...

Humans still try to find out another energy sources which can substitute petroleum and nuclear. There's one so obvious that I can't understand why we don't use it much more : It's THE SUN !

The sun send us an inexhaustible source of energy and it's completely free. As you already know, the Earth is just about to stop producing petroleum. Yes... we indeed already know that since a lot of time... And what did we choose to replace it ? Let me think... hum... nothing ! I guess we've fallen behind with this issue ! No ?!...

Well, it's not so dramatic, we still have a bit of petroleum and fortunately some people had the good idea to use photovoltaic tecnology to make electricity. In south of Portugal (western Europe) there's the biggest photovoltaic park in the world. It's made of 52.000 photovoltaic panels. Its annual production is about 21.000 Mwh. Then it's able to spare 19.000 tonnes of Co2 and 12.556 barrels of petroleum per year.

So, for electricity we're in the good way. For cars, it's another story...

I PUT A BANANA IN MY GAS TANK !

I needed to go out do some shopping, so I put a banana in my car's tank. Then I discovered that a car doesn't work with bananas, only gas-oil ! It's not normal ! I work perfectly with bananas, why a car can't work with them ?

Human being is probably the better energy maker when he's in symbiosis with nature, why is he so complicate ?

We belong to the earth.