Saturday, March 7, 2009

E-Commerce is Green

The Green Side of Online Shopping - WSJ

Data was gathered from Buy.com and used by a study by Carnegie Mellon. The study found for buy.com which outsources everything (they are virtual and just do the web stuff), that compared to the energy needed by a consumer to drive to a store, it took less to have it delivered.

This makes me feel better with my two E-Commerce sites :-)

www.childbook.com - Learning Chinese Materials for kids
www.elitedresses.com - Girl's Dresses at affordable prices

Friday, March 6, 2009

Gas usage up

Americans hit the road again as gas prices fall - Reuters

Up 2% from last year.

Lots of human interest, but not many facts. 2% was the only fact I really saw in there.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

LED's Getting More Publicity

LEDs Light Times Square, But Can They Light Your Office? Discover Magazine - ‎Feb 24, 2009‎ is an example of this, unfortunately it's a bit of a press release it looks like.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Banning Fridges and Coffee Pots

Glendale schools ban teachers' personal coffeepots and fridges - LA Times.

As a way to save energy, but the missed the point of how much time this saves teachers whom then use it in the class room.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

LED Street Lights

More cities tap stimulus package for LED streetlights - USA Today.

I did not realize the LED's were powerful enough yet for street lights.

Advantages are 50% savings in energy and last much longer than regular bulbs, cutting maintenance costs substantially. The headache is they currently cost 4X as much as a regular one.

The question is what is the payback period? Per this article 12-15 years, but per this article other studies have claimed 2-3 years. Another study 7 years.

The good news is LED prices are dropping every year.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Solar Supply and Demand

Solar Panel Drops to $1 per Watt: Is this a Milestone or the Bottom for Silicon-Based Panels? - Popular Mechanics.

Argh!!! Very basic idea of supply and demand. If the demand increases without an increase in supply, there will be a price increase. And then the supply will increase due to the higher margins that will increase the supply. Basic law of economics. The article seems to worry if the price of solar goes too low, the supply won't be enough.