Hi friends,

We just released our latest video, ORN#7 Vertical Axis Wind Turbines,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp522phTgBc



While coming through Detroit we stopped in to visit Enviro-Energies, a
company that makes a very different kind of wind turbine. Vertical
axis wind turbines are more commonly mounted on rooftops and spin,
well, vertically instead of horiztonally. Think about a
merry-go-round with sails, and that’s a lot like what we saw on our
visit. Nothing like what we’re used to a wind turbine looking like.
Carrick chatted with Ken Johnson, President of Enviro-Energies about
vertical axis wind turbines, or VAWTs.

So why use a VAWT instead of the traditional propeller-type wind
turbine? WARNING: long answer to follow. From how I see it, they are
different products for different applications. Traditional horizontal
wind turbines are mounted on towers or poles – generally, the higher
you place the turbine the more consistent wind speed you’ll see.
They’re not meant to mount on a rooftop, not only because of the lower
elevation but also because the sloping roofs produce a lot of
turbulence in the airflow. The Enviro-Energies turbine actually
takes advantage of air turbulence from sloped roofs and is better able
to handle shifting wind direction.

For homeowners, putting up a wind turbine can be a tricky situation.
In our town in Massachusetts, the policy states that any pole or tower
would have to fall on my property in ANY direction, so if I have a
75-foot tower I’d better have a good amount of land. I don’t have
many acres of land so that wouldn’t work for me. Because VAWTs are
roof-mounted, this isn’t a problem for getting town approval.

VAWTs are marketed touting a number of benefits, some of which I will
take issue with. They are sold as being silent and harmless to birds
(suggesting those are problems with traditional propeller-types).
These claims play to many people’s mistaken impressions that wind
turbines are loud and a big threat to birds, which I and many other
people spend a lot of time refuting. In my experience, small
residential wind turbines do make noise when they’re really moving,
and larger commercial-sized wind turbines (newer ones anyway) do not.
The Enviro-Energies turbines they are silent at any size and speed.
Wind studies have shown that on average, wind turbines kill 2 birds
per year – again, cats, windshields, plate glass windows, etc., are
responsible for more birds killed annually than wind turbines.

What is really intriguing about the Enviro-Energies wind turbine is
that they have developed large-scale turbines that could be put on
tall buildings in cities. This is an application where traditional
horizontal turbines would not work. Usually wind power is generated
in rural areas with transmission to cities, but designs like this
could bring wind power to the cities themselves. The largest model
they can produce at Enviro-Energies is 200 feet wide, with bladders
filled with helium to significantly reduce the weight of the turbine.

Now, Enviro-Energies is not the only company out there making vertical
axis wind turbines. Actually, if you mention VAWTs to most wind
energy enthusiasts they will usually groan and roll their eyes. VAWTs
are relatively new to the game and there are a lot of new companies
making wind turbines that look neat, but haven’t been thoroughly
tested and usually produce much less energy than they are marketed
for. Just do a search online for vertical axis wind turbines and you
will see an amazing variety of designs, and a lot of amazing claims
with how much electricity they can produce at lower wind speeds.
During the interview, Ken talked about their approach to design and
how much the sails of the Enviro-Energies turbine catch wind more
efficiently at low wind speeds.

Another interesting feature of the Enviro-Energies turbines is that
they use magnetic levitation, which greatly reduces the friction while
turning. In the video you can see Carrick very easily turning a
20-foot turbine. That’s one way to get Carrick to burn off some
energy! Also, Ken mentioned that company logos and advertisements can
be added to the sails which make large and unique billboard, while
sending a green message.

So check out the video and enjoy – this visit was definitely one of
the best examples of being able to visit and report on something that
most people have never seen or heard of. I’m grateful that we had the
opportunity!

Be well,
Colin
--
Our Renewable Nation, A Cross-Country Eco-Video Adventure
www.OurRenewableNation.org

Our Big Day in Detroit

Hi friends,

What an exciting day we had in Detroit – a real treat!

I was hoping to make a video about GM’s efforts in developing alternative fuel vehicles, specifically the Chevy Volt, which is their next-generation electric hybrid. GM is a massive company and I never had any luck reaching anyone there about coming in for some interview time. When we interviewed Chelsea Sexton in Los Angeles I mentioned that we wanted to make a video about the Volt but never got anywhere with contacts, and she offered to put in a call to her contacts at GM for us! I was just hoping for a chance to see a Volt (slated for release in November 2010) and any interview we could get would be a bonus.

I heard back last night from Chelsea’s GM contacts and we got quite a welcome! First we went downtown to GM’s Renaissance Center (GM Headquarters) and interviewed Beth Lowery, Vice President of Environment & Energy. She told Carrick about GM’s efforts on a number of green fronts, including ethanol (that’s what those ‘Flex-Fuel’ badges are on the back of some GM cars and trucks you may see), hybrids, hydrogen fuel-cells, and electric vehicles. Cars of the future may be a mix of these technologies so they are developing a variety of technologies.

We then drove to GM’s battery development lab for a personal tour, which is a rare thing and we were very fortunate to get this time! There we saw the battery packs for the Volt being tested in all kinds of simulated temperatures and humidity. They are being continuously charged and discharged to make certain that the lithium ion battery packs will last for 150,000 miles of driving conditions, at least. They showed us the battery pack that they used in the EV1, GM’s electric car from the 90’s and feature of the documentary ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ and put that battery pack next to the Volt pack, which is 1/3 the size and weight with more storage capacity. We also saw the first EV1 GM produced, which was on display (there are only a handful left in existence, see the documentary to find out why). All in all, the folks at GM really gave us a lot of time for video and interviewing and answered all of our questions.

Here’s a quick description of the Chevy Volt if you don’t already know: the Volt is a 4-door electric hybrid, but fundamentally different than a Prius. The Volt plugs into any electric outlet to charge and the first 40 miles of driving is electric-only; after that a small gas (or ethanol) powered onboard generator makes electricity to keep the car going. There is no gasoline engine, and the small generator runs at a continuous speed to produce electricity, so it’s much more efficient than a traditional engine. Since the batteries are expensive, GM’s strategy is to build in enough electric-only range to get people to work and back every day, plugging in at home or work, and for most people they could commute each day without using any fuel. For any driving over the 40-mile electric-only range, the generator is there so people can drive as much as they need to. There is a lot of controversy surrounding their previous EV1 program but during our tour they insisted that they used much of the technology from that program in the Volt, and many of the Volt team is from the EV1 program. They look at the Volt as the next generation of technology from the EV1. The Volt is projected to be priced somewhere under $40,000 and they are committed to the program no matter what state the company may be in financially.

In our tour at GM they also told us about the upcoming sequel to ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ which is going to be called ‘Revenge of the Electric Car’. The sequel is going to focus primarily on GM and Tesla’s electric car developments. Tesla has shown how exciting an electric car can be with the Roadster (let me say from first-hand experience, it’s very exciting!) but they are a startup company and building cars in large numbers will be a challenge. GM is focusing on technology like the Volt that will give a limited electric-only range (40 miles) but they have the ability to produce cars in huge numbers, and a dealership network to sell them in. They are different visions of what an electric car should be, and it will be exciting to see which one the public embraces.

We traveled over to visit Enviro-Energies, which makes vertical-axis wind turbines. The big wind turbines we’re used to seeing are horizontal-axis machines but Enviro-Energies makes wind turbines that mount to rooftops and capture wind energy in a different ‘twist’. Instead of the usual propeller-type these look more like soft-serve ice cream cones turning on the rooftop on a vertical axis, able to capture wind from any direction. They don’t have the same issues with height that traditional wind turbines have for residential use – for many towns the laws make it difficult for the majority of homeowners to put up a wind turbine on a pole 60 feet in the air, unless people have many acres of land. Also, vertical axis wind turbines (called VAWTs) need less wind to produce electricity, they’re very quiet, of course no problem with birds or bats, and they would stick out less than a pole-mounted wind turbine. We saw several sizes of their turbines including a 6-foot wide model going on Ed Begley Jr.’s house, and a 20-foot wide model that will be installed on Jay Leno’s huge garage of collected cars. They have designed and are planning to install some much larger-scale turbines on the tops of skyscrapers, which would be impossible with traditional propeller-type wind turbines (or very difficult anyway). It was a great opportunity for us to see a kind of renewable energy technology that hasn’t really become widely known yet but has a lot of potential.

Be well,
Colin
--
Our Renewable Nation, A Cross-Country Eco-Video Adventure
www.OurRenewableNation.org

Our Interview on GreenMuze

Hi friends-

I thought you'd be interested in reading an interview we did with GreenMuze, an online green magazine. We were contacted by GreenMuze after they saw the post on Treehugger.com that featured our video project. I've been interviewed a number of times about the veggie Beetle and sometimes the resulting articles can be... a little off. I was glad to see how well this one came out: http://www.greenmuze.com/community/people/784-the-eco-family-activists.html
Please feel free to add a comment at the end of the article!

We are adding several new desinations to our project. We'll be stopping by TerraCycle while traveling through Princeton, NJ - TerraCycle makes product packaging from recycled materials. Go to their website, www.terracycle.net and check out all the different products they package; you will see brands you know and use! I'm also working on getting an interview with Enviro Energies, which produces the Mag-Wind vertical-axis wind turbines for homes.

We just got accepted as a speaker for the Maine Environmental Educators Association 2009 Annual Conference at the end of March, and we are exhibiting at the Massachusetts Environmental Educators Society Annual Conference in a few weeks. These will be great opportunities to spread the word about our cross-country video project and network with people in the teaching community.

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org