Green Earth Technologies has announced the arrival of their Green Motor Oil on store shelves this month! 

This motor oil has been developed by using nano technology to transform those trans fats, now illegal in many places, from fryers to your cars engine.  So that 200 pounds of waste tallow from every cow is now going to keep your engine running smooth. 

On top of the obvious benefits here their used oil products can ultimately be turned into soil!  The bottles are recyclable as well!  This is one of those products that really excites me.

"A new petroleum-free, bio-based, 2-cycle engine oil from Green Earth Technologies [Pink Sheets:GETG] has equaled or surpassed the standards for similar petroleum-based oils as set forth by the American Petroleum Institute (API) TC compliance test for all 2-cycle engines other than outboard. Free samples of G-OIL(TM) 2-Cycle Green Engine Oil are now available for the first 1,000 visitors to www.getg.com. The 2.6 oz sample can be used for a 50:1 gasoline to oil mix ratio for no smoke operation of 2-cycle engines used in weed whackers, lawn mowers, tillers, trimmers, chain saws, dirt bikes and more. (Photo: Business Wire)"

 Check out more about their complete line of automotive and household products at the website for Green Earth Technologies!  www.getg.com

Source: Green Earth Technologies

I stumbled upon this blog today when doing a search for photos of the dreaded inversion here in Salt Lake City and think it is very worthwhile to post a link on my blog. 

If you want to understand my passion for environmental change take a look at this blog.  You will see exactly what we are breathing here for most of the winter. 

All I can so to the video below is wow!  Turbines have a governor to keep them revolving at a slow pace during high winds.  This one obviously failed.  I can only imagine the damage something like this could cause in a large scale wind farm.  By the way I am not posting this to in anyway devalue wind power. I feel it is a very important part of our sustainable future. It is just an interesting video.

If, and only if, congress renews the clean energy tax credit this year, they will be building the worlds largest solar plant in the Arizona desert.  Thanks to a partnership between Arizona Public Service and Abengoa Solar the state of Arizona will be able to provide solar powererd electricty to about 70,000 homes. 

In a quote from the Abogena Solar site:  "The solar plant has been named Solana, meaning "a sunny place" in Spanish. The Solana Generating Station will have a total capacity of 280 megawatts, enough to power 70,000 homes while avoiding over 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases that would otherwise contribute to global warming and climate change. The plant will employ a proprietary Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) trough technology developed by Abengoa Solar, and will cover a surface of around 1,900 acres. The construction of the Solana Generating Station will create about 1,500 construction jobs and employ 85 skilled full-time workers once completed. "

They go on to say: "Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar, said, "This project not only shows leadership in Arizona and the southwest, but for America. This project will help usher in a new era of large clean and efficient solar power plants. Our commitment to solar energy is global and we will work with utilities, regulators and companies worldwide to make plants like this happen by leveraging the technologies we have been developing over two decades. We continue to advance these technologies in our research and development centers in Europe and the United States."

If you want to see this and projects like it happening in our future please let your voice be heard by letting your Congressmen know that you want the tax credit extended!  I for one still believe that the wasteland salt flat deserts of utah would also be an excellent location for a solar plant on this or a larger scale. 

via: inhabitat, treehugger,

I came upon this video today over at treehugger.  Scientists are now working to make Germany fully reliant on Renewable energy sources.  Generating enough power through the use of wind, water and biogas to keep all of Germany electrified.  I do hope that we see these things in our country someday and built for the entire country, not just for certain cities or states. 

Via: Treehugger and YouTube

Now this is exciting news!  According to this Cnet article the 106 MPG air car will be arriving in the US in late 2009 or early 2010. 

From the article:  "According to its initial, estimated, specifications the Air Car will go 848 miles on an 8 gallon tank of gas. The size of the compressed air tank isn't included in the specifications. Further, the car has a top speed of 96 mph, with its power plant putting out 75 horsepower. When traveling at low speeds, the car has zero emissions, while in high speed mode it has some emissions because of its use of gasoline. "

I would love to have one of these and the more I learn I would be happy to use this for more than tooling around town. The idea of going from SLC to Vegas and Back on one tank is very appealing!

Directly from the Air Car website on price:  "We estimate the cost of purchasing a six-seater, 75hp Air Car will be approximately $17,800, proving that buying "green" doesn't have to cost more. Not only is the price amazingly affordable, but it will cost you up to five times less in fuel consumption than an equivalent gasoline powered car. The Air Car is a totally new breed of cars entirely conceived to achieve low prices:"  At that price it is only $600 more than my Scion Xb.

via: Cnet and Zero Pollution Motors

It has been a long time since I posted a would you live story!  This one is great.  As the world move more and more to alternative and sustainable means of construction things that were laughed at as hippie ideas just 30-40 years ago are proving to be beautiful and doable alternatives. 

Enter the rammed earth building. 

Linda Kiisk, associate director of facilities planning at the University of Wyoming describes it this way: "Rammed earth basically works like the formwork of pouring a concrete wall. But instead of concrete, you are using soil from the site. The material is tamped down. This can be done with sledge hammers by hand or with a pneumatic device. Then you pull the forms off, and you have a stable wall.

Left Photo:Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre by Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects.

Follow this link to read the full article over at New West Magazine. 

 This is definately a form of construction I could see myself living in.  It is beautiful, well insulated and has a lot of potential.  I had a very good friend who lived in a 100 year old adobe home that looked good as new.  Naysayers I know will talk of Radon, well don't build it air tight and make sure you ventialte it.  I think your problem won't be any bigger than living in a modern well sealed home. 

Photo: Red Hill Residence

Story via New West and TreeHugger

Over on the LA Times Blog called Pardon Our Dust, they have posted an entry on how long it takes to get hot water to your faucet with a tankless heater vs. a conventional heater. 

The basis of the story is that tankless owners, myself included, are always asked (told) that we are waiting longer for our hot water.  The author of this blog goes on to prove that the the difference is indeed negligible.  It is nice to see this sentiment in writing after he did some informal testing and I can say from my own experience that he is right.  The difference in negligible.

In my home we do notice that the faucets furthest from the heater do take longer to get a hot flow, but it isn't that much longer than it was prior to the tankless system.  Another problem is that our plumbing is over 60 years old and because of mineral build up we have low pressure trough the hot water pipes anyway.  I think we would have almost no problem if we had new pipes. 

So check out the story here.  It's a good quick read. 

As I posted last week I was contacted by ABC 4 our local affiliate here in Salt Lake City about doing a news story.  They came upon my Active Rain Blog through a Google search and called me based on what they saw.  Soon after they were at my house filming the story!  So I have anxiously been waiting for the air date so I could share the video! 

So without further ado, here it is!  Enjoy! 

Here in Utah there is a local podcast production that does casts that debunk a lot of what the "experts" say.  Sure the "experts" that are debunking it may be a litle biased, but I think you can learn great things as well. 

Last week a local builder and friend of mine, Danny Small with Integrated Energy Systems, did a podcast on insulation and he debunks the myth of thickness being better.  It is about 30 minutes long, but it is absolutely worth a listen. So CLICK HERE and listen.  You won't be disapointed and you won't feel that you wasted 30 minutes of life for listening to it. 

If you would like to contact Danny Small you can reach him at dsmall @ build-ies.com