Cash For Appliances Program Coming This Fall

The Feds will finally fund an incentive program originally passed in 2005 designed to encourage replacement of old, inefficient large appliances with new, more efficient ones.  Money will come from the stimulus bill, and states will set the exact dollar amounts of the rebates.  Unlike "Cash For Clunkers", the old appliance will not need to be traded in and scrapped.  The program is expected to help appliance manufacturers who have seen huge sales slumps in the current recession.

My family's dishwasher has been out of commision for about 2 years, so I may end up taking advantage of this program; a good dishwashing machine will save water and energy to heat water vs. hand washing. SRP offers a small cash rebate for efficient dishwashers as well - $20-$30, I believe.

Wall Street Journal article here.

SRP and Tessera to Build 1.5MW Solar Project in Peoria,AZ

It's a demonstation project designed to show the potential of a very interesting flavor of Concentrating Solar Thermal power generation. Tessera is partnered with Stirling Energy Systems and they use a large mirrored dish to concentrate the sun's heat on a relatively small Stirling engine, to generate up to 25,000 watts of electricity per dish. It will be located:

on about 12 acres next to SRP’s Agua Fria Generating Station in Peoria. It will be the first grid-tied application of the Stirling Energy System’s SunCatcher device

This Biz Journal article has the full details.

Tessera is based in Houston with offices in Scottsdale. Stirling Energy is based in Phoenix.  Stirling has also submitted a bid to generate power on a retired landfill in Phoenix.

Beware Easy Solutions

It's recently occured to me that my site, business and/or promotional efforts could easily be mistaken for a scam.  I'm not a believer in free energy, magic boxes, or techniques that require no effort, but lots of money.

I hate to be a wise guy, but in order to use less energy, you actually need to use less energy: replace old devices with newer, more efficient ones, stop using(unplug) devices that provide minimal utility or whose function could be reproduced "the old fashioned way"(like using a broom on a hard floor instead of a vacuum on carpet), or by using devices less often(turn up the thermostat in summer).

Any energy saving idea that doesn't involve one of those 3 principles should be looked at sceptically.

Several coworkers asked me about a "magic box" that was being advertised on the radio(KTAR).  I googled it, found a bunch of irate electricians mocking it, and told my coworkers to save their money.

Here's a great blog post from a site I just found.  I'll put it in the Links section, too.

Gmail Is Energy Efficient

According to Google, their data centers are roughly 2x as energy efficient as other data centers (imagine one you run yourself, Google’s will be twice as energy efficient). In addition to their energy efficiencies, they also recycle the water used for cooling their components. Re-using their cooling water makes Google’s data centers even more environmentally friendly – and better re-use of water is another one of Google’s priorities as they evolve their data centers.

Data Centers, or "Server Farms" use huge amounts of power and water, so I was glad to find this article that includes the quote above.

In Defense of "Cash For Clunkers"

I keep reading critical articles about Cash For Clunkers(CFC) that focus on the weak mpg requirements.  I think these critics should do a little math.

Worst case scenario: If the owner of a clunker that gets 18mpg drives 15,000 miles per year and trades it in for a truck or SUV that gets 22 mpg, they will save 318 gallons of gas per year. In order for the owner of a 24 mpg clunker to save the same amount of gas, over the same number of miles driven, they would have to buy a new car that gets 48 mpg.
CFC isn’t perfect, but it’s not nearly as bad as mpg numbers make it seem. We need to start thinking of more useful rating systems for vehical efficiency.  Gallons per 10,000 miles driven makes sense to me.

CFC should also reduce auto accident injuries(newer cars are safer), and reduce smog forming emmisions, although the exclusion for cars older than 1984 limits the latter possibility.