2008 The Funding of Alternative and Green Energy Innovations

The cost of using fossil fuels to make energy for our nation is getting to be an economic burden on our middle class and country. Using Oil for fuel in our cars is causing significant problems with monetary outflows. Burning coal is polluting the air and that is a challenge to our health and environment. Luckily there is some good news on the way.

Clean Coal technologies are coming forward and this will prevent pollution in our coal-fired power plants. Also high fuel costs are helping us as well. How does that help us you ask? Well, Alternative Energy capitalization is getting to be pretty viable with gasoline on the coasts approaching $4.00 per gallon isn't it?

In fact, I see that we have some Venture Capitalists, and Investment Banking Firms, putting their money where their mouth is, along with some pretty decent initiatives for Government Funding, some of which are from the Bush Administration.

It seems that once Carbon Nano-Tube manufacturing becomes viable, environmentally safe and creates economies of scale to lower costs, we will see Hydrogren Cell technologies for transportation kick off. Why, because the compressed hydrogren leaks from tanks too easily, but carbon nano-tubes can prevent this challenge.

With the high cost of fuel it makes other alternative energies much more viable, it makes hybrid car costs look pretty good on a Return on Investment graph as opposed to the huge operational costs associated with $3.00 per gallon or higher gasoline. All this is ushering in a new age of technology and alternative energy and that can only be good for America.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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What Is The Best Solution To Rising Oil Prices?

Global warming and environmental destruction is one of the most talked about issues in our present day society. There are so many ways to protect our environment and save some money at the same time. Do you think increasing your vehicles MPG (Miles per Gallon) by fifty percent or more would have a positive impact in our environment? How about having a positive impact on your wallet?

With the price of oil skyrocketing, the issue on the top of everyone's mind is saving money at the pump. I was recently in Connecticut, driving home to Rhode Island. The price of one gallon of gas at one Mobil station was over four dollars. I remember reading on Yahoo! that Connecticut is the second highest state for gas prices. I was shocked when I saw that outrageous price, Three dollars is high enough, imagine paying four or five dollars per gallon! Soon, it may cost over one hundred dollars to fill up your gas tank.

If we do not end our dependence on fossil fuels soon, not only will our wallets shrink, our environment, along with its wild inhabitants will also suffer. Most of the narrow minded people in our society believe the answer to these rising prices is to drill for oil in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuges. It is obvious that these people only care about themselves, and not our miracle planet. Oil is obsolete. We should have ended our dependence on it many years ago, but the oil companies billions were at stake. Recently, I was searching for some alternatives to oil. Finding some these money saving secrets was very difficult. Fortunately, I did track down some incredible fuel saving secrets that the oil companies hate.

Yours in Natural Health,
Viny D'Errico

Discover these secrets Here

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Renewable Energy Options For Data Centres

There is increasing pressure on the IT industry to adopt green business practices by making use of renewable energy. This pressure not only comes from outside factions such as environment organisations, but from within the industry itself, as the global energy crisis threatens spin out of control and send the cost of power soaring. Data centres are notorious power drains, which makes them the most obvious starting place when it comes to addressing renewable energy.

According to John Timmer from Ars Technica, set up costs, running costs and stability are three of the most important factors in determining the credibility of a power source. Timmer believes that renewable energy has the edge over carbon or fossil fuels because, even though the initial set up costs might be higher, the running costs are significantly lower than traditional energy sources. In addition, the price of renewable energy isn't likely to rise with demand, which means that running costs will remain relatively stable. Renewable energy is also less likely to suffer from periodic interruption owing to political instability or controversial world events.

As renewable energy becomes achievable, location will become an important determining factor in building data centres. We have already seen Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! choose the Pacific Northwest in the US for some of their data centres, so that they can benefit from the region's use of cheap hydropower. Upstate New York has also become a popular site for data centres, as it makes use of hydropower from Hydro-Quebec.

While hydropower is relatively stable and constant, one of the major problems with other renewable energy sources is that they are only periodically available. The sun only shines for a limited number of hours per day and the wind doesn't always blow, which means that the storage of renewable energy is of paramount importance. This is where hydroelectric power has the advantage, as storage systems have been in use for a long time already. Energy (in the form of water) is simply pumped into reservoirs during off-peak hours, which is then used when demand begins to climb.

Hydroelectric power systems have one major disadvantage, however, and that is the fact that they make use of fresh water, which is not always in abundant supply. Advances in desalination could play an important role here, however, by neatly circumventing the problem.

Techniques for storing solar energy have also been used for years, which makes this a viable alternative for data centres. Another factor that plays into the hands of data centre owners is the fact that the sun shines during peak usage times, so power supply isn't such a major issue at night.

According to John Timmer and Ars Technica, other options include charge storage, which is still experimental, chemical storage, particularly with the use of hydrogen, compressed air, which requires convenient, airtight geological formations and thermal storage. Iceland currently makes use of a combination of hydro and geothermal power, while an American data centre company claims to use the wind to generate enough power to keep all its systems running smoothly.

However you look at it, the business of renewable energy is big news in the world of IT. And as companies continue to grow, and demand for data storage continues to rise, renewable energy is likely to play an increasingly important role in IT business considerations.

Recommended sites:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080528-renewable-energy-and-the-future-of-the-datacenter.html?rel

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080617-energy-storage-to-smooth-green-power-sources.html

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Star Business Internet internet service provider and website hosting one of the leading Internet service companies specialising in business website hosting in the UK

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