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Obviously there is no one magic solution to the problem of global warming. There are instead
hundreds of questions that need to be asked and addressed so as to create an overall Earth plan
that will develop our planet wisely. The changes we can make, both large and small when
combined will curtail global warming for the better. In this section we discuss the latest green
designs, products and ideas as yet undeveloped that will reduce environmental damage overall.

We plan to offer honest value comparisons of

products such as hybrid cars. If the carbon footprint made from producing a hybrid is ten times
larger than that it erases it is news that should be shared. Compact florescent lights are great
energy savers but are all of these exactly what they claim to be? And furthermore will light
emitting diodes render CFLs obsolete before they are universally adapted.

As always the future holds a newer and possibly better design. We will be bringing you articles
examining what will come and those products that are already available but await widespread
acceptance. Developments in mass renewable energy production in such areas as solar and wind
power are of interest to all. We will also be looking back at past successful use of these energy
choices. Zenith sold tiny windmills in the late 1930s that would charge a car battery that in turn
would run a radio for days. Has the technological upgrade been utilized?
We will find solutions to the problem of global warming by asking countless questions about the
processes we rely upon to live. We answer these questions on a personal level by changing the
habits, which build each of our carbon footprints and on a global level by insisting that social and
governmental structure acknowledge the need for environmental protection.
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Which is cheaper to build a house with, a spruce timber 2 by

4 or a steel stud? It might cost less to build a house using lumber, but is it cheaper in the long
run? Especially when one considers the cost of greenhouse emissions and how they are affected
by loss of trees. But steel must be refined and molded using plenty of energy. Which of these
uses more power and consequently causes a larger carbon footprint? It is difficult to say, but
choice of build materials is a definite part of how we can change the way we build homes and
other buildings so as to save money and energy. Choice of building materials is just one part of
what is known as green building.
Green building can best be described as the birth to grave process of building. From choosing a
site through architectural design, choice of materials, construction, occupancy and eventual
demolish, every aspect of a building¶s effect on the environment is considered. Paramount
among these is energy efficiency as part of the dwelling use.

Green building can be taken to as simple or as extreme a

degree as one desires. For example simply choosing darker shingles in a colder climate is passive
energy conservation. Placing solar photovoltaic cells on that same roof will actually produce
more power than is used within the building at times.
Let¶s break down the various components of green building for examination beginning with
siting and design. These two are closely tied together. Siting considers factors such as exposure
to sun and wind. Placing a home so that it faces west during the afternoon sun has been a form or
energy conservation practiced for years. Likewise we reverse the placement of our building in
warmer areas. Consider now that we incorporate design elements to further our efficiency. We
might use large double paned windows in the northern climate to allow a useful warming
greenhouse effect in one location or smaller tinted glass in the hotter locales. Choosing where we
place our building and then incorporating design elements that save on heating and cooling are
fundamentals of green building.

Energy efficiency can be taken much further of course. Taking a

quick look at energy use in the home leads us to the conclusion that the majority of our power
costs are placed in heating and air conditioning, hot water, lighting and cooking. Green building
techniques for inside climate control include air pipe ventilation, rooftop solar panels and
geothermal heat exchangers. These can cool your home, make hot water and power your lights.
Most importantly they drastically reduce your dependency on electricity as furnished by your
power company and in this way they save you a great deal of money over the lifespan of your
home.

Water conservation is a major aspect of green building. Simply by diverting gray water from
your sewer to your lawn you achieve two goals. You protect diminishment of fresh water
supplies while watering your lawn. Point of use water treatment saves money right from its
inclusion in construction.
Of course, what you choose to build your house out of is as large a factor today as it was 1000
years ago when native peoples were digging caves into cliff walls. Obviously this was a
wonderful example of materials efficiency. But one doesn¶t need to live in a cave to be materials
energy efficient. Building materials made from compacted earth and natural stone accomplish
much the same effect. Using recycled materials such as our steel 2 by 4 reduce our home cost in
terms of carbon, as do polyurethane blocks, planks and siding made from recycled plastic and
demolition debris. There is no reason that any home has to be built at the cost of a hundred acres
of trees.
Simple systems such as passive lighting (skylights) and air pipe ventilation can drastically
improve the quality of life for occupants. Use of natural building materials almost guarantees
fewer volatile particles and a higher indoor air quality. Most man-made materials release minute
amounts of health damaging toxic gases. There is a reason why we call it ³Fresh Air´.
Green building costs on average just 5% more than current standardized construction practices.
That number would drop to the point of a direct savings if green building were to become the
standard. As with almost every energy-saving vehicle, we can drastically reduce costs if we
increase volume. Green building returns a savings of 50 to 70 percent on energy costs over the
life time of a building. Yes, addition of items like solar panels and geothermal underground pipes
is a supplemental cost. But the initial cost of these electricity bill lowering features has been
proven to quickly pay for itself.
One doesn¶t have to build a two hundred foot tall wind turbine in their front yard to save on
energy costs. Simple procedures like proper site planning and choice of construction materials
can cut a new home¶s energy bill by 25% instantly. And while monetary savings are important,
the true savings from green building is not measured in dollars. Rather it should be counted in
overall improved quality of life in the home and office and overall improved health of the planet
Earth.

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For years geothermal energy and power has been limited in context to utilization of naturally
occurring steam that has been used to turn turbines and consequently create electric power.
These natural occurrences are tapped into with what are known as geothermal wells. Due to these
occurrences being limited in location to areas along tectonic plate faults (cracks in the Earth¶s
shell) there generally has not been too much effective use of geothermal resources. In fact
geothermal power amounts to just .3% of our worldwide energy production.
In much the same way as we drilled the Earth for oil over the last hundred years, we can drill for
acceptable geothermal outlets. As with the search for fossil fuels, we simply attempt to find
places that are hot enough and close enough to the Earth¶s core so as to allow for injection of
water which will then be turned to steam so as to drive an electricity producing turbine. Just as
when drilling for oil, drilling for geothermal access costs millions of dollars.
Of course, the majority of geothermal power stations rely upon the natural occurrence of steam
as a result of water intrusion into the inner reaches of the Earth where nearby magma has heated
the surrounding rock. In many ways this natural creation of blazing hot steam is rare but the
sheer size of the earth makes so many opportunities for the occurrence and the ease of discovery
has resulted in quite a few large geothermal fields being placed into use.
 The largest geothermal power station in the world is
known as ³The Geysers´. It is located around 72 miles north of San Francisco. Technically not
geysers, the entire area is a geothermal hotbed with 22 power plants combining to create over
1300 megawatts of power. Power from The Geysers provides 60% of all the electricity used in
the area of California from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.
Unlike our general concept of steam from a tea kettle or used in an antique locomotive, the
geothermal fields of The Geysers produce super heated dry steam. The ultra hot non vaporous
steam can more efficiently drive turbines.
Unfortunately, the natural flow of water into The Geysers area has steadily diminished over the
years and the overall power output has fallen. Basically the area supplying water to the hot rock
beneath the Earth¶s surface has begun to dry up. Less water equals less steam which equals less
power. Plans are underway to possibly convert the power stations to inject ³Brown Water´ from
the area so as to create a truly regenerative and sustainable power source.
Unlike wind or solar power, geothermal energy is not always endless in supply.

But there are far more effective ways to tap into the variances and differentials in the Earth¶s
temperatures. One doesn¶t need to dig a well to a fissure point of water and molten lava to take
advantage of geothermal resources. Indeed, a more passive approach to energy production is
proving to be more efficient.
Geothermal energy can be tapped into on many different levels. The individual homeowner can
use geothermal energy to both heat and cool his or her home at a tremendous savings. Anyone
can take advantage of geothermal energy in their home.
 Basically home geothermal is used for home heating and air
conditioning. A home geothermal heating and air conditioning system centers around piping
filled with fluid buried deep in the ground of your property. These pipes can be coils of plastic
tubing laid horizontally just 10 ± 20 feet below the surface of the earth or they may be vertically
placed hundreds of feet deep.
The purpose of these pipes is to take advantage of the relatively stable temperatures of the Earth
once one digs down a bit. Even in the coldest climates, the Earth¶s temperature is at least 55
degrees at a depth of 20 feet.
As one digs deeper into the Earth, the stored energy of the sun is replaced by the heat of the
Earth¶s core. The core of the Earth is molten rock with a temperature of around 8000 degrees.
Home geothermal systems take advantage of this differential directly. Obviously during the
summer one can easily run water cooled under the earth through radiators and send that endless
supply of 55 degree cooling into a home¶s 90 degree air. This is so effective that many eco-
conscious homes are cooled by air pipes hundreds of feet long. In this most passive example of
geothermal energy use, air is blown through huge hollow pipes which run underground. The heat
is drawn by conduction from this air as it passes through the length of cool underground. It is
then returned directly through the duct-work of the home. Basically this is air conditioning with
no need for compressors, coolant or mechanical heat exchange. Consequently the cost to run an
air pipe cooling system is incredibly low.
By comparison, heating systems relying upon geothermal exchange must use heat pumps that
mechanically trade on the temperature differential so as to build a greater amount of heat. While
this is more efficient than other forms of creating heat such as electrical friction it does still have
a cost. A heat pump based from a geothermal piping system is still two to four times as initially
expensive as conventional heating.
Passive Geothermal heating and air conditioning is just one aspect of what falls under the
heading of Green Building which shows we can design and build our homes and commercial
buildings from the outset to use less energy.
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The world¶s biggest wind farm is in the United States and in Texas. It is the Horse Hollow Wind
Energy Center in Taylor County, Texas. It is owned by NextEra Energy. NextEra is a subsidiary
of energy production and management giant FPL (Florida Power and Light). NextEra produces
over 18,000 megawatts of power with over 90 percent of that coming from clean or renewable
fuels. 42% of Next Era¶s power production comes from wind power! 735 megawatts of that
power are produced at Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center.

The energy created from wind

power at Horse Hollow comes from 421 tall powerful wind turbines. Each of these is mounted
260 feet above the ground so as to guarantee a steady flow of higher than average velocity winds.
The 116 foot blades are connected to a tour bus sized container for the power generation
components that weighs 56 tons. This operations area is call the Nacelle. Each of these massive
wind driven turbines produces between 1.5 and 2.3 megawatts of power. As with all wind power
designs, there are virtually zero emissions and as one might expect there is no fuel to buy and
burn. The moment a wind turbine is turned on it starts paying for itself directly. Access to the
turbine¶s components is made by climbing up the inside of the tower and entering the Nacelle or
if you would prefer to think of it as so, the engine room. Here the four basic turbine components
the rotor, yaw system, the transmission and the generator are housed and give protected access.

Huge three bladed propellers that automatically turn to face the wind turn at a relatively slow rate
of 16 revolutions per minute. One might wonder how this slow rate of speed translates to power?
The huge blades of a wind farm turbine are set at a specific pitch so as to maintain a relatively
steady rate of revolutions. Those 16 RPMs are channeled into a gear box or transmission if you
will. This allows for a progressively faster build up of shaft speeds until a final drive speed of
1800 RPM into a permanent magnet generator. This generator produces a processed steady
current at 34,500 volts! That power is sent by underground cable to substations where it is
transformed in to smaller voltages several times until it reaches your home in a 120 or 240 volt
form.

Horse Hollow Energy Center sits on 47,000 acres of owned and leased land in Texas. Those
stories about Texas being the land of wide open spaces are certainly true, as the turbines are
spread apart giving each a clear blast of wind.
Unlike nuclear and fossil fuel power production facilities, a wind farm does not require near
proximity to water. This explains why Australia has vested so heavily in the technology. Huge
expanses of land are indeed needed for wind farming and obviously geographically smaller
nations are a poor wind farming fit. But wind farms can be built offshore where there is virtually
endless room for turbines.
In the case of Horse Hollow, the 47,000 acres used for the energy center share space with
livestock and agricultural production. Each wind turbine requires from 10 to 100 acres of
surrounding land.

For the most part, wind turbines are fairly quiet. Most of the noise from the turbines at Horse
Hollow comes from the whirring of the gears and bearings within the turbine itself. A certain
degree of this noise filters down to people and animals on the ground. The turbines by necessity
are spread far apart and this limits the overall noise heard to just that produced by one or two
turbines. How loud is the sound from a Horse Hollow wind farm turbine? It is quieter than the
sound of a vacuum cleaner coming from the next room. And at Horse Hollow the cows grazing
have yet to issue a single complaint.

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In the 1930s most farms across the United States either used 32
volt DC systems or were without electric power. Those without juice managed to get along by
curing meats in a smokehouse and canning fruits and vegetables. But what about entertainment?
The thirties were the golden age of radio. Surely the farm community didn¶t have to miss out on
Fibber McGee and Molly or the Lone Ranger? America¶s rural areas stayed in touch with the
world by means of DC powered radios. Those on farms with direct current wired in did just fine
and those without any power at all used large tube type battery powered radios. Check out an
episode of ³The Walton¶s´ and you will see exactly this type. These radios brought in signals
from all across America and via short wave all across the world. But like all battery operated
devices are apt to have happen, the batteries ran down. And when that happened what was our
depression era farmer to do? He hooked up the battery to a Zenith Wind Charger. A small
generator connected directly to the shaft of a spinning pinwheel of a turbine rotated and turned
cranking out both RPM¶s and current. In a few hours the battery was charged for that night¶s
radio shows and the meaning of the term ³Wind Farm´ was truly understood.