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Nothing beats natural light. And nothing is more depressing than a gloomy room forced into darkness by the neighbor’s wall. Windows help add warmth to any room, while the natural lighting allows homeowners to run around the house without the need to turn on as many lights. Not only that, but the ventilation provided by an open window slows the growth of the fuzzy green molds known for taking over the soggy windowless bathroom walls found in your first apartment and many dorms.

Solatube International, founded in the early 80s and one of the first companies to design a tubular daylighting system, allows homeowners to bring natural light to any part of their home by running a flexible tube from their roofs to other areas of the building. Extra windows and skylights are a burden to install and can be incredibly costly. Not only that, but small bathrooms, centralized rooms and hallways may not have space or the option of installing an extra window. Solatube uses light reflective technology that forces light to reflect down a tube that can wind into practically any room of the house. The length of the tube is limited to 12 meters which is long enough to travel from the roof to the ceiling of your room. The light reflected out of the glass plated end of the tube (which looks just like an electric light) is comparable to the lighting power of a much larger sunroof.

Light isn’t the only thing Solartube has to offer: These unobtrusive systems come with optional ventilation systems-perfect for a stuffy bathroom or hot, moisture absorbing attic. The solar powered versions ensure that the electric bill is reduced even farther by using a quiet fan that takes advantage of a no-cost renewable resource.

Over-lighting may be a concern to those who may want a dimmer setting for a relaxing bath or warmly lit hallway. This isn’t a problem either, with the optional dimming system.

One of the best things about Solatube is how easy it is to install. According the Solartube website “They require no structural reframing, tunneling, drywalling or painting. A professional can install the product in less than two hours and most Do-It-Yourselfers can finish the project in one day.”

The only problem so far, are overzealous homeowner installing way too many of these wonderfully innovative systems in their homes.

Throw a fish carcass into a submersible trap, and the ocean’s crabs and lobsters are the first to arrive for a full meal before realizing that they’ve been caught. Lobsters and crabs smell by dragging their antennules through the water where chemosensory hairs on the ends of these antennules come into contact with odor molecules. Researchers are interested in replicating the process in a robotic version, which will be used to sniff out unexploded mines on the ocean floor, and eventually toxic chemical spills.

Mimi Koehl of UCBerkeley and Jeffrey Koseff and John Crimaldi at Stanford, developed a mechanical lobster capable of imitating the flicking of real lobster’s antennules in attempts to understand how the animals “smell” underwater 7 years ago [2001 press release]. More recently, Frank Grasso, a neurobiologist and professor at Brooklyn College has revealed robotic lobsters-aka RoboLobsters-that can successfully track plumes from over 30 feet away.

Biomimetic Lobster

Biomimetic engineers take cues from nature to create robots for specific environments. Evolution has done the brunt of the work developing animals perfectly suited to handle the ocean environment over the course of millions of years. By replicating the lobster’s shape,designed to crawl the ocean floor,and copying their sense of smell,able to trace odors to specific locations, robotic lobsters can be programmed to find anything that releases specific odor molecules in the ocean.

The potential in these underwater bloodhounds was seen by the U.S Navy which now funds the majority of the RoboLobster project. The Navy is currently interested in using the technology to detect unexploded mines, but the robots may eventually be able to sniff out anything that leaves behind a chemical trail-such as pollutants dumped into lakes and oceans by industrial plants or ships.

Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) Magazine provides more details in a full length article.

Swarms of robotic lobsters released in the ocean will be capable of bringing back more information than any diver could. Plus, these little guys ensure that no divers get harmed when following a chemical spill trail.

It is getting hard to keep track of all the credible companies delivering advanced structural building materials. It’s fine to call something “green” that has a high recycled materials content, low embodied energy, doesn’t offgas unhealthy toxins, doesn’t include toxic materials, and has superb insulation value, but this is only half the story. Many of these products are interesting for two reasons that have more to do with the other green, the color of money; they cost less, and they require less labor to assemble.

Here are some companies we’ve reported on before that fill the “green building block” criteria: Perform Wall manufactures (approximately) 1? x 1? x 2? bricks of a foam and concrete mixture that can be stacked like Legos, the hollow interiors filled with rebar and concrete. Sipcrete manufactures structural panels with steel web reinforced, fairly thin concrete exteriors, and a foam-filled interior space interlaced with a steel frame. Connecting the sides and enabling great structural strength, this interior frame consists of numerous diagonal steel I-beams that lock into the embedded steel web inside each of the concrete exteriors.
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Libellula saturata (EcoWorld)

Another next generation wall manufacturer is ARXX, with a structural wall solution equally unique and innovative. ARXX’s approximately 1? x 1? x 2? interlocking rectangular blocks have rigid foam exteriors (roughly 2? thick foam exterior walls) that are set about 6? apart; the interiors are linked with plastic diagonal struts that include snap-in indentations for quickly and easily inserting rebar. Once these blocks are assembled with rebar, they have concrete poured in and can have various surface treatments. Structural block designs show extremely interesting progress.

Now we have Integrity Block, a new company delivering a product that competes head to head with structural concrete blocks. Meeting standard tests for strength and compression, the Integrity Block has a 50% recycled content and 40% less embodied energy. As such this block generates LEED credits, something that increasingly is becoming mandatory for builders. And the Integrity Block product line costs no more than standard concrete masonary blocks.

Integrity CEO Trevor Stout with one of his green building blocks. (Photo: Integrity Block)

Integrity Block, founded by CEO Trevor Stout in 2007, includes on its board of directors Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials, a manufacturer that has pioneered a novel process to produce sheetrock using far less energy. Advisors to Integrity Block include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, along with an impressive group of construction industry professionals.

Green building and green infrastructure is one of the most fascinating areas of clean technology, because each time a construction project begins, it is another opportunity to integrate myriad recent innovations from across most cleantech sectors – energy, energy efficiency, building materials, water management – and do so in a way that potentially is green in both senses of the word.

Back in June, I wrote a blog entitled “The Scare-du-Jour” discussing the latest big food scare in the U.S., i.e., an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) dire warning that eating tomatoes probably is the cause of Salmonella poisoning in what has now been guessed to be over 1,200 people all over the country over a period of (so far) a couple of months. That’s somewhere around 20 people a day in a country of 300 million. So naturally grocery stores and restaurants all over the country stopped selling and serving tomatoes. Tomato growers in California have lost upwards of $200 million since the first warnings.

But WAIT!! Our FDA scientists and regulators have decided that California tomatoes were never a danger after all, but tomatoes from Texas or New Jersey.

NO, WAIT! it’s not tomatoes at all, but maybe perhaps chili pepers!! Oops, now our brilliant FDA guys say maybe perhaps it’s only chilis grown in Mexico, so don’t eat salsa. How much money have owners of Mexican restaurants lost as a result? One FDA investigator was quoted as saying, “You hate to hurt an industry and cause 100 million in damage. On the other hand, I don’t think any of us could sleep if we didn’t say something and then a kid died the next day” (I hope he loses sleep from eating salsa). I know that most parents feed their babies hot salsa instead of baby formula, so that statement makes SO much sense, doesn’t it?

Healthy people who eat solid food don’t die from Salmonella, they get sick for a night. And, after having diarrhea all night, all those “victims” were sure to collect a nice sample to take to the doctor the next day for a lab test to be sure it was Salmonella and not one of four or five other species of food borne bacteria that could cause the same symptoms. And of course, people who do visit a doctor the next day because they are old and feeble, in bad general health, must recall everything they’ve eaten in the last 48 hours. “Well doc, I had bad smelling chicken sitting on the kitchen counter, so I doused it in salsa to cover the smell before I ate it”. Or, “I went to an outdoor clam/oyster feed the other day and ate lots of the chips and salsa dip appetizer”. I guess the best words to describe this latest scare (last year it was strawberrys) is “farce”, or perhaps, “just plain stupid”.

The rooftop of the world, the land of snows… with an average elevation of 4000 meters (over 13,000 feet), the Tibetan Plateau is the highest and largest plateau on earth. The plants and animals there are unique– the snow leopard, Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, Bengal tiger, wild yak, blue sheep, brown bear, and black-necked crane, to name a few. Visitors to Tibet before 1950 compared it to East Africa, with vast herds of large mammals roaming free through the mountains. Today, precious few remain.

There could be worse days in the life of a Tibetan Snow Leopard. (Panthera uncia)

But although the flora and fauna are diverse, the extreme climate has allowed only a relatively small number of them to flourish; species that have been able to adapt to the thin air, low temperatures, intense radiation, and strong winds. The most recent research indicates that about 13,000 vascular plants and 1200 species of vertebrates have been identified: 678 species of birds, 206 mammals, 83 reptiles, 80 amphibians and 152 fish. Of these, 40 plants and 141 animal species are considered to be endangered.

While this picture may seem rich—and indeed it is—these numbers are actually very low when looked at on a global scale. This ecosystem is the polar opposite of, for example, a South American rainforest consisting of millions of different species of flora and fauna. The result is a web of life that is much more vulnerable and difficult to repair. Imagine a spider web with ten strands next to one with a hundred, or a thousand—if even one string is broken on the first, the whole thing will fall apart.

“Because of its high elevation, the ecosystem here is extremely fragile,” said Dawa Tsering, who heads the World Wildlife Fund’s China Program Office (local branch) in Lhasa. “Once damaged, it is extremely difficult to reverse.”

The major threats the region faces are grassland degradation and deforestation, poaching and the illegal trade of animal products, destruction of habitat due to urbanization and mining, and air pollution. Because of the elevation, the air is thin and more susceptible to toxic fumes.

“The sale of souvenirs and other products made from endangered species is growing due to tourist consumption, and is increasing pressure on local biodiversity,” Tsering said. “Tourists can make a difference simply by not purchasing these products.”

Tibet is the last remaining refuge of the Bengal tiger in China. WWF and other non-profits plan to distribute pamphlets, asking visitors not to buy illegal products made from endangered species like tigers and Tibetan antelopes. The soft underbelly fur of these antelopes is made into shahtoosh shawls, which fetch high prices on the black market.

“International and local laws have guaranteed that killing wild tigers and other protected species for their parts isn’t legal anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Xu Hongfa from TRAFFIC’s China Program. “But the killing of these animals will continue until the demand for buying them stops.”

“Integrating the needs of local development with conserving Tibet’s biodiversity is in need of urgent attention,” Tsering said.

China invaded Tibet in 1949; since occupation, Tibet has suffered loss of life, freedom and human rights. In March 1959, Tibetans rose up against China’s occupation, but were unsuccessful. The Dalai Lama was forced to escape into exile in Dharmshala, India, followed by 80,000 Tibetans. It is from here that the Dalai Lama heads the Tibet Government-In-Exile.

When a country is taken by force, and brutally occupied, and its people are regarded as little more than an impediment to another end, without basic rights, what chance can that country’s plants and animals have? And do we have the right to concern ourselves with flora and fauna when human beings, perhaps some of the most beautiful and peaceful human beings on this planet, are also nearing extinction?

It is not necessary to choose. For thousands of years the Tibetan people have lived in harmony with their ecosystem and been a part of it; therefore, their struggle to survive must be included in a discussion of the destruction of that ecosystem.

Tibet is also the only nation in the world that has recognized meditation as essential to life, and has made the search for truth and the awakening of personal consciousness an undisputed priority in its culture and religion. In the words of Osho, a contemporary enlightened master:

Above harsh rangeland nearly three miles above sea level, vast beyond imagining, tower the mighty Himalaya, backbone of the world. (Photo: Guy Taylor)

“Nowhere has such concentrated effort been made to discover man’s being. Every family in Tibet used to give their eldest son to some monastery where he was to meditate and grow closer to awakening. It was a joy to every family that at least one of them was wholeheartedly, twenty-four hours a day, working on the inner being. They were also working but they could not give all their time; they had to create food and clothes and shelter… but still every family used to give their first-born child to the monastery.

“And we think the world is civilized, where innocent people who are not doing any harm to anybody are simply destroyed. And with them, something of great importance to all humanity is also destroyed. If there were something civilized in man, every nation would have stood against the invasion of Tibet by China. It is the invasion of matter against consciousness. It is invasion of materialism against spiritual heights.

“If humanity were a little more aware, Tibet should be made free because it is the only country which has devoted almost two thousand years to doing nothing but going deeper into meditation. And it can teach the whole world something which is immensely needed” [Om Mani Padme Humm].

Tibetan Buddhism belongs to the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, which emphasizes compassion as the ultimate goal of meditation, rather than just enlightenment. Recent scientific studies show neurological proof that people who meditate actually feel more compassion for others, and are more likely to feel compassion for strangers.

“Emotionally, mentally and physically, all humans are equal and the same. We should take care of one another. It is good for us,” said the Dalai Lama last month in India. His life and work embody compassion, laughter and love—although the Chinese insist it is a diabolically constructed illusion, and to possess even a photograph of him is illegal in Tibet.

At least 6,000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, nunneries and temples, and their contents have been destroyed since the Chinese invasion and during the Cultural Revolution. At least hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed as a direct result of Chinese execution, imprisonment and torture; by some counts, including suicide and other indirect means of death, the number is over a million.

Perhaps because the Dalai Lama is both the religious and political leader of Tibet, China still regards Tibetan Buddhism as a threat. “Patriotic re-education” is their term for the torture of monks and nuns, who are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama, and repeat after them that “Tibet has always been part of China.” Religious pilgrimages are restricted, or impossible, and Buddhist education is difficult or impossible for Tibetans now. Forced sterilizations and abortions are commonplace.

A belated band of steel to the remotest place on earth. The newly buit Qingzang Railway passes over Namtso Lake (Photo: Guy Taylor)

Since the turn of the century, China’s economy has been booming, and what they call their “Western Development Plan” in Tibet has been picking up steam. Key to the plan has been the Qingzang Railway project.

The 815 km section of the railroad from Xining, Qinghai to Gormo (Golmud in Chinese), Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984.

Construction of the remaining 1,142 km section from Gormo to Lhasa could not be started until the recent economic growth of China. This section was begun in 2001, and completed in 2006. The cost to the Chinese Government was $3.68 billion.

Before he left office, the former President of China, Jiang Zemin, said of the Gormo-Lhasa railway, “Some people have advised me not to go ahead with this project because it is not commercially viable. I said this is a political decision” [New York Times, 10 August 2001].

This political decision is advantageous to China in many ways, and is one which will likely prove financially profitable.

Tibet houses an estimated 4-5 billion tons in potential oil reserves; the railroad has greatly increased the efficiency of lumber, mining, and other government industries and projects as well.

Due largely to the railroad, Tibetans have become a minority in their own country. A recent report by the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet says the completion of the railway has led to an influx of ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region, and that any economic gains from the improved transport links are largely limited to urban areas, rather than the countryside where about 80 percent of Tibetans live.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters in Beijing that the railway has played a positive role in developing Tibet’s economy and it has also strengthened its communication links with neighboring provinces. “I believe the benefits of this project are obvious to all,” he said.

The rail link contributed to a 60 percent increase in the number of tourists visiting the region last year, according to a previous government report. This year, tourism is predicted to gross over $800 million.

Monks carry on ancient traditions in Lhasa. (Photo: Guy Taylor)

In 1980, there were only 1059 visitors to Tibet, and 95 percent came from abroad. Since then tourism has surged, and in 2002, an estimated 140,000 visited Tibet.

With 1.22 million visitors arriving in 2004, Tibet logged an increase in tourism of over 1,000 times the 1980 level. Ninety-two percent of the visitors are Chinese tourists.

But while the economy may have improved, the general economic status of Tibetans has not, as they are largely unskilled workers, and cannot compete with the skilled Han Chinese migrants. The ICT report says that the needs of the region’s largely rural population are ignored by China’s planners, and that Tibetans feel increasingly marginalized as their culture and rural way of life are slowly eroded. The Tibetan language is being systematically eliminated, and nomads forced into settlements.

The Chinese government itself has touted the Qingzang railway as a means of transport for troops, saying that not only will the railway improve the efficiency of the army, but the army will improve the efficiency of the railway (Xinhuanet, 10 December 2003). The railway has enabled rapid troop deployments and facilitated the expansion of the People’s Liberation Army, as seen in the recent crackdown. It not only has strengthened China’s grip on Tibet, but its strategic location may pose a threat to India as well, increasing instability in the region.

This April, China announced its plans to continue construction of the railroad all the way to Khasha, on the Nepalese border, estimated to be completed by 2013. Eventually, the train may run all the way through Nepal, to the North Indian state of Bihar.

The ICT report also states that China’s policy of urbanization in Tibet, encouraged by the new rail link, is damaging its natural ecosystems. Over 46% of forests have been destroyed, which has led to increased soil erosion and siltation of rivers, creating major floods and landslides. Government lumber operations continue to cut at an unprecedented rate, and reforestation is generally neglected and ineffective. Rapid and widespread deforestation has life-threatening consequences for the hundreds of millions who live in the flood plains of the major rivers of Southeast Asia, many of which have their headwaters in Tibet. Clear-cutting also threatens the habitat of the rare giant panda, golden monkey, and over 5,000 unique plant species.

The demands of the fast-growing human population, construction of roads, mining, and poor grazing practices are degrading Tibet’s grasslands as well. Huge factory farms are being developed, motivated by the need to feed the growing Chinese population and reduce the costly wheat imports. Traditional farming practices have maintained the ecological balance for centuries, but large-scale commercial agriculture may ultimately harm Tibet more than it helps.

Of far greater concern, however, are China’s nuclear weapons projects in Tibet. Today there are at least three nuclear missile launch sites there, and the number of actual warheads is unknown. The northern Tibetan Plateau was home to China’s “Los Alamos”– its primary nuclear weapons research and development plant. Tibetan nomads living in the area claim to have suffered illness and death. Their strange symptoms are consistent with radiation poisoning, indicating that nuclear waste may have been dumped on the plains nearby. The International Campaign for Tibet has published a ground-breaking report on the issue, entitled Nuclear Tibet.

The Tibetan Plateau is the source of almost all of Asia’s major rivers: the Yellow River, the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Salween, the Indus, and the Yarlung Tsangpo, which downstream becomes the Brahmaputra. Contamination of these waterways, nuclear or otherwise, harms not only residents of Tibet, but potentially all those who drink from them—nearly half the world’s population lives downstream.

One such threat to the rivers is the mining industry. Tibet is rich in natural resources, and the unregulated extraction of borax, chromium, copper and gold is increasing rapidly. More surprising, however, is Tibet’s supply of lithium.

Chabyer salt lake, at an elevation of 14,400 feet (4,400 meters) is not only the largest lithium mine in China but also one of the three largest salt lakes in the world. Chabyer now makes Tibet the No. 1 area in the world in terms of prospective lithium reserves, according to the China Tibet Information Center. China is now the largest producer and consumer of lithium-ion batteries, found in everything from cell phones to computers and even hybrid cars.

The future of zero and ultralow emission vehicles depends on lithium, which is relatively scarce. Lithium is only the 33rd most abundant element on Earth. With Tibet in its hand, China is well poised to move into that future.

March 9th was the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, which recent protesters have been commemorating; but like their predecessors, this cry for freedom has met with little more than imprisonment, torture, and often death. The Chinese Government claims that 18 Han Chinese immigrants were killed in the Lhasa riots; but in their crushing response, over 140 Tibetans were killed by the Chinese. Countless others are still being held in prison, and may be executed as well.

On June 21, the Olympic Torch came and went through Lhasa in about two hours. Since March, Tibetans live under virtual martial law, and were told not only to stay at home, but not to look out of their windows during the relay.

The decision by China to continue with the relay through Lhasa in light of recent events is a message to the world, that Tibet is their property and they fear no one. At the end of the relay, Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party secretary of Tibet, stood beneath the Potala Palace, the historic seat of the Dalai Lama. “Tibet’s sky will never change, and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it,” Zhang said, according to Reuters. “We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique.”

This is the language of power, and people who use it know no other. Talks have just resumed between the Chinese and envoys of the Dalai Lama since the protests, but those talks had been going on since 2002 without progress. The Dalai Lama does not hope for independence, only autonomy for Tibet. Only time will tell if this round is any different.

The Dalai Lama spoke in Denver years ago—not about politics, but parenting, love, and other topics. When he asked for questions, one woman said, “What can we do about Tibet?”
The Dalai Lama was silent. “Just go and see it before it’s gone,” he said at last. “It is a beautiful country.”

Tibet—the plants, animals, water, air, people, religious heritage and the inner search itself— is our heritage as human beings; it is a part of us. Tibet is one of the real diamonds of this world… its freedom is our freedom, and whether the effort is futile or not, we must do anything and everything in our power to save it.

Back in April 2006 we posted “The Photovoltaic Boom ,” where we enthusiastically reported the bright future of photovoltaic power. We thought then, and we believe now, that photovotalic production will increase faster than projections, at the same time as costs will fall faster than expected. But if photovoltaic power is becoming a commodity, doesn’t that mean the stocks of photovoltaic companies are also going to acquire the characteristics of commodities stocks?

Here in the summer of 2008 we may very well have a photovoltaic bubble. It may be that photovoltaic stocks have nowhere to go but down. Rather than attempt to compare and contrast the entire sector, simply consider the fortunes of First Solar, a company we enthusiastically reported on back 6-27-2001 in a report entitled “First Solar, the Model T of Photovoltaics.”

One might characterize First solar as a “proof of concept” company, among other things. This means First Solar is the first company to produce market-worthy production volume low cost thin film photovoltaic cells, strata with lower efficiency than with proven crystaline technology, but better low-sunlight performance and greatly lower cost. The problem is First Solar is decidedly not “last solar” when it comes to thin film technology, or photovoltaic technology in general.

With the willingness of governments to subsidize solar power waning in the face of production volumes of photovoltaic modules exploding, where should First Solar’s stock rest? Clue: It is manufacturing what is becoming a commodity, one that still employs significant incremental cost advantages for each year the installed capital is more recent. Unless First Solar can continue to innovate their way into a clear technological edge that translates again and again into reductions in manufacturing costs, their stock multiples will not withstand the tsunami of photovoltaic production investment that inundates the world. With companies like Applied Materials shipping literally dozens of factories to produce thin film and monocrystaline photovoltaic modules each year, and countless other conglomerates from Asia to Europe to America doing likewise, as the years pass, First Solar competes uphill, not downhill.

Vespula flavopilosa

Nowhere is this disparity, this dissonance, reflected so much as in First Solar’s stock price. As of the close of trading on 7-25-2008 First Solar’s stock was trading at $265.46. Is this overvalued? First of all, this price for a single share, multiplied by the number of shares outstanding in First Solar, means the “market price,” the cost one would have to pay to own 100% of the stock in First Solar and own 100% of the company, as of the close of trading on 7-25-2008, was not quite $21 billion. Is $21 billion a fair value to own the entire company?

One important way to determine if a company is overvalued is not to look at the price/earnings ratio of their stock (or for the entire company, the ratio of their market value to their annual net income), but instead to examine their stock’s price/sales ratio (or for the entire company, the ratio of their market value to their annual gross revenue). Relatively thin profits, as a percent of revenues, means most major corporations display volatile earnings, rendering their price/earnings ratios less reliable indicators of their financial prospects. It is far more difficult for a corporation to manipulate their gross revenue than their net profit. Bottom line, if a company like First Solar’s stock has a trailing twelve-month P/E of 104.4 as of 7-25-2008, one needn’t necessarily be alarmed, even though producers of commodities generally have much lower sustained P/E’s, to put it mildly.

With the price/sales ratio, however, it becomes clear that if First Solar’s stock price is representative of the photovoltaic sector, we could have a bubble on our hands. First Solar’s trailing annual revenues are $634 million, which with 100% of their stock costing 20.93 billion, means their price/sales ratio is thirty-three. For First Solar’s sales to grow into a typical manufacturer’s price/sales ratio (with no increase in the price of their stock) is no easy feat. For their price/sales ratio to come down to the still ridiculously high commodities manufacturer’s multiple of 5.0, their annual sales would have to grow to $4.2 billion. For their price/sales ratio to come down to the conservative multiple of 1.0, First Solar’s sales per year would have to jump to $21 billion. It’s certainly possible, but worthy of at least the scrutiny cellulose commands.

There is no reason to think First Solar can’t beat the odds, and stay in the horse race all they way to becoming a $21.0 billion company (annual sales). But given their current inflated multiples, it is very unlikely their stock is going to grow the way it has to-date.

There is also no reason to doubt worldwide photovoltaic production will continue to experience growth beyond projections. When all it takes is sand and electricity to produce photovoltaics, with an energy payback of 20+, this sector will grow with or without subsidies, mandates, grants or preferences. Only the ineluctable success of the market is necessary to deliver photovoltaic abundance, and bubbles are only bumps in the road. Investors watch out, however, you may skin your knee.

The Green movement is advancing at an incredible rate. New technologies, green companies, products and energy policies are popping up all over the world. It’s not so easy to keep track of it all, especially using the typical search engines. All the information is out there but it’s not so easy to find, unless you get a little help from Reegle: a search engine dedicated to everything relating to green technology.

The website went live about three years ago, when the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) decided it was time to create an information portal focusing on all aspects of clean energy and technology.

Reegle defines itself as a “one-stop-shop for high quality up-to-date information on clean energy policy, with a core objective of supporting the global advancement of energy efficiency and renewables. The website facilitates fast access to constantly updated information for politicians, project developers, companies, municipalities, banks, credit institutes and for all those interested in this issue.”

The site was launched with the help of donations provided by various European governments that knew the website would help internet users find local industries. These partners include the U.K Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM).

When it comes to websites, simplicity is key. Viewers are greeted by a friendly and straightforward webpage with the option of simply typing in a keyword or to take things a step further with the ‘Categorized search’ option. Any results can be fine tuned to match a certain sector (such as climate control, or rural electrification), a geographic region, and even by type of information desired (ranging from grants and laws, to recent news).

Another unique feature of Reegle is their “Actors Catalogue”. This area of the site contains a list of more than a thousand organizations working in the field of renewable energy. The Catalogue allows stakeholders and interested individuals to easily find information about a specific program by directing searches to a country or industry. The site’s instructions tab is a helpful tool if anything needs more of an explanation.

Reegle’s database houses quality information where users can be sure that they won’t be overwhelmed with hundreds of other hits that have absolutely no relation to the original search. Unlike broader search engines, Reegle caters to a unique industry and is a welcome tool to internet users who want to avoid the stress of sifting through general and completely unrelated information.

How fares the singular Patagonian Cypress, the Alerce, these majestic 200+ foot trees, with lifespans exceeding 4,000 years, populating the western shores of temperate South America? From Chile’s mediterranean mid-section, southwards until the escarpments of the Andes begin to moderate into a broader expanse of multiple ridges and mountain ranges, rainwatered from the Atlantic, through river gorges and ascending rolling and rugged hillsides alike, deeper and deeper into the south towards land’s end, these awesome, white-barked giants are trees of surpassing beauty and grandeur. How is the Alerce doing? And why can’t I grow them in California?

The Alerce Cypress Fitzroya cupressoides

For well over 10 years we’ve had Alerce seeds on order and there never seems to be a seed-gathering climber available down in those parts, and another seed-gathering expedition is always just around the corner, but still no seeds.

How many seed suppliers even list the Fitzroya cupressoides, after all? We want to grow these trees, either via seeds or seedlings, and we vote. This email recently arrived from one reader:

Dear Ed: I was recently reminded of your project up in S.F., growing large canopy trees for future projects. I was wondering if your contact in Chile had ever come through for you with seeds of/for the Alerce tree.

If by some chance you have managed to acquire some seeds, I was wondering if you might be interested in selling a few for my own experimentation with growing the Alerce trees both here in southern California, as well as my property in southern Oregon. Any help you might be able to give would be humbly appreciated. I had no luck in trying to go after professors at Chilean Universities; very best regards, Robert E. Lee

This inquiry from Mr. Lee, arrived just last week, is not the first since we created an Alerce information record, and reported on the Alerce in our May 1995 EcoWorld report entitled “Flagships of the Forest,” where this was said about the Alerce:

The western slopes of the Andes somewhere between Santiago and Tierra Del Fuego are home to one of the most majestic of all trees, the Patagonian Cypress, or the Alerce (pronounced a-ler-say). The tree is also known by the latin name of Fitzroya Cupressoides. These severly endangered trees are slow growers, but live longer than anything else on earth, over 4000 years. They are giants, growing well over 200 feet in maturity, with trunk diameters over 30 feet at the base. The Alerce looks a lot like a Sierra Redwood (Sequoiadendron Giganteum), with nothing but massive trunk until a third to a half way up the tree, where huge knarly branches poke out with foliage at last. The bark of the Alerce is smooth and white, giving the tree an uncommonly striking appearance. EcoWorld has contracted with the representative of a gatherer who is in Chile right now obtaining Alerce seeds. This marvelous species of trees needs new homes, as well as greater protection in their own country. If you want to get some Alerce seeds, or if you have information on where Alerces grow or could grow, or any reports on how the threatened stands of ancient Alerces are doing, please let me know at ed@ecoworld.com.

So any of you out there – how can we get these beautiful trees that would likely grow on the west coast of North America just as wonderfully as they do in South America? And how are they doing in their native range? Are new forests of Alerce being planted? How do the Alerce grow? Does anyone know?

What possible explanation can there for the unavailability of Alerce seed or seedlings to North Americans? Are Alerce invasive? Is their import discouraged simply because they’re an alien species? On the lovely moors of California’s Pt. Reyes, White Tailed Deer live on borrowed time, the price of being alien. Where does it end, this species nativism?

How would Alerce be received in California? We part company with many because we love the smell and the sights of Eucalyptus in Marin County, for example. Do we need to plant new forests full of Eucalyptus in California? Probably not (unless as a qualified CO2 offset project – let that image percolate), but can’t we let them stand, these spectacular and aromatic, still remaining groves of alien Eucalyptus? The Alerce’s legacy in North America might eventually be just as illustrious as the Eucalyptus, if not better. Planting an Alerce Cypress in North America would be a labor of love, an investment in nature, an affirmation of life, a pleasure and a privilege; regardless of whatever strictures or swings of the pendulum might otherwise inform science or society. So what’s stopping us? Where is my Alerce seedling?

Most modern cars now have onboard black box recorders, but the standard units typically only store the most recent few seconds of driving data. They are used in accident investigations. And consumers have already been able to purchase recorders that track your vehicle’s braking, acceleration, mileage, and spit out a report, extracting the data via OBD II diagnostic communication port. But what about an add-on that saves the entire stream of vehicle data not only to provide analytical reports, but to train the driver to more efficiently operate the vehicle?

Finally, amidst the spectre of $5.00 per gallon gas, PLX Devices Inc., located in sunny Sunnyvale, California, has come up with a device that actually does this. Priced at $299 for a basic system, the “Kiwi” will provide drivers with exact information as to how efficiently they are driving their vehicles.

The Kiwi measures smoothness, drag, acceleration, and deacceleration. The device can save motorists 5-30+ percent. Kiwi’s offers a ‘drive green’ mode where the Kiwi can interactively train a driver to attain an improvement in gas mileage, on average, of 20%. This translates into a very rapid ROI, about 4 months!

As always, Autoblog Green has an excellent report on this device:

New PLX Kiwi helps drivers maximize their efficiency

Smart, green, renewable, cradle-to-crade, zero footprint cars are coming. Micro-utility, extended range, flex-fuel, all-electric drive, self-navigating, ultra-safe, intelligent personal transportation and energy management systems, all riding on wheels in the driveway.

Lemon Sunflower

EFuel Corporation. located in Los Gatos, California, is heralding the next generation of biofuel production and distribution, by selling a ” EFuel100 MicroFueler,” a turnkey device that will turn biofuel sugars feedstock into ethanol, and pump it into your vehicle’s tank.

This company claims this machine consumes 3.0 kilowatt-hours to produce one gallon of E100 ethanol. It takes 170 gallons during the fermentation phase to produce 35 gallons of ethanol. The rest of the water can be recycled.

Is EFuel for real? Can their ‘gas pump’ interface for the end-user, their easy to use interface for the operator, and a convenient hopper to prepare and process the feedstock, all be combined in one elegant and affordable unit? We shall see.

Here are the FAQs for EFuel Corp:

http://www.efuel100.com/t-faqpage.aspx

One might remember in the summer of 2008 there were a lot of companies in “preorder” phase.

http://www.efuel100.com/t-buynow.aspx

Our hearts are with you, EFuel Corp. May you deliver and prosper.

Phoenicoparrus roseus