Bloom Energy is catching attention for its green energy product “Bloom Box.” The Bloom Box is an innovation from a California based company “Bloom Energy Company”. Bloom Box is a power generation capacity in a box. Bloom Box generates electricity by means of hydrocarbons like propane or gasoline.

Bloom Energy was launched by K.R. Sridhar in 2002. Since its operations has started Bloom Enery’s Bloom Box has been highly successful and much appreciated. Bloom Box is currently adopted by many large companies such as Google.

The Bloom Boxes are being observed as a prospective gadget that would assist to offer a green energy foundation. Bloom Energy claims that Bloom Box comes with a power generation capacity to cater to the needs of more than 100 homes.

According to Bloom Energy, the Bloom Box is conventional fuel cell masses made up of earthenware and proton switch membranes divided by metal catalyst plates. The innovation and differentiation comes in the form of an engineered inexpensive metal alloy alternative. Bloom Energy claims that one Bloom Box packed with 64 ceramic disks can generate enough power to run a Starbucks.

The present price for each hand-made Bloom Box of the business range is $700,000-800,000. Meanwhile eBay’s 5 bloom boxes run on waste bio-gas and produce extra electricity than the 3,000 solar panels generate. “When averaged out over 7 days, the Bloom Box generates 5 times as much power that eBay can use”, eBay’s CEO John Donahoe stated.

Rick Cook is one of the top green architects around. He and his partner, Bob Fox, designed the truly extraordinary Bank of America Tower, the most sustainable energy office building in the world today and one of the most aesthetically impressive to boot. { It’s also the second tallest building in New York City now. }

The Bank of America Tower has the highest LEED certification attainable from the US Green Building Council : Platinum. LEED judges a number of key factors in the design, construction and operation of a building. These include:

- energy saving
- water efficiency
- CO2 emissions reduction
- improved indoor environmental quality
- stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

I interviewed Bob Fox a couple of months ago for a writing project I’m on and was working away today on the green building section of the project. Suffice it to say, the BofA Tower is a stunning example of all the things we can do right – and should do – in our building and urban planning.

Paul Goldberger is the architecture critic of The New Yorker. He has a wonderfully lucid interview with Cook on sustainable buildings, nature and architecture, and the LEED “debate.” (By the way, I wrote about “biophilic design” last Fall after hearing one of Cook and Fox’s associates, Bob Browning, talk about it at the Urban Green Expo.)

As citizens, businesses and non-profit organisations seek to transition to cleaner greener power sources like solar and wind, some big energy firms whose business models rely on polluting sources are standing in the way.

In Georgia, the energy company Georgia Power has lobbied for favorable public policies at the Public Service Commission ( PSC ) and State legislature that are making it difficult for the state’s residents to transition to solar power.

IPS learned that the Dekalb County school system wanted to put solar panels on their schools, but could not do it because of state policies like the Territorial Electric Service Act of 1973 which gives Georgia Power a monopoly over the purchase of energy.

“In Georgia, we have about a dozen state policies preventing creation of green solar energy,” James Marlow, vice chair of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, told IPS. “One of those is the Territorial Act.”

“If you’re looking at a school, one of the common ways [of setting up solar panels] is using a power purchase agreement or PPA,” Marlow said.

Typically, one of the biggest obstacles for businesses and organisations to switch to solar energy is the initial cost of obtaining and installing the panels. A PPA allows a school system, for example, to obtain the panels for no cost from a solar installation company which finances the panels.

Then, the school can purchase the green energy from the solar installation company, which would own the panels, for a 20-year period. Marlow said that a PPA client typically pays for the panels after the first five years and then saves money on energy for the next 15, all the while avoiding the use of dirty energy.

However, because of Georgia’s Territorial Act, individuals, organisations, and businesses with solar panels can only sell their energy to Georgia Power. This means they cannot enter a PPA with a solar installation company and may have difficulty affording the panels in the first place.

Other states like Colorado have taken a different approach to encourage the use of solar panels. They charge all energy customers 50 cents a month, a very low amount, to support the purchase of solar energy from producers.

MORE >>>> http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50862

Some of the green materials can save homeowners money on their energy bills. Some will qualify for government tax credits and rebates. All promise to make your home just a little bit greener.

” There are so many things you can do: spray foam, LED recessed lights, bamboo floors, floors made out of cork, ” said Hersh Ruhmel of Ruhmel Contracting in Orefield. ‘ ‘We have built a model home that incorporates all of them .”

The home, which Ruhmel calls HoudenHAL ( renewable home in Dutch ), will become his company’s offices in Weisenberg Township. It features the recycled paper countertops, called Paperstone.

Ruhmel said the surface is as hard as granite. People can cut on it and clean it with normal household solutions. The countertops come in different colors and can be detailed for custom edges. The prices, Ruhmel said, are comparable to granite.

Driveways were another place where homeowners could go green.

Jim Engelman of Engelman Construction Inc. of Macungie, displayed some pervious concrete. The material is mainly a mix of cement, water and little sand, creating pockets where water can penetrate.

Instead of rain running off a driveway, as it would normally on concrete or asphalt, this material allows the water to drain through the surface like a sieve. The water collects in an underground basin and drains into the soil.

The environment benefits because there is less water runoff, which carries pollutants into streams and rivers. Meanwhile the underground water table is replenished with clean water filtered through the soil.

More: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a7_5green.7212930mar21,0,1077254.story