Google is great for driving directions, but not so great for bicyclists. Plug in an address and the maps app will likely funnel you through major thoroughfares choked with traffic. Take your bike and you’ll be sucking exhaust fumes, dodging taxis and delivery trucks and you might end up as a smear on the blacktop. The Google Maps Bike There Team wants to change all that. They’re petitioning Google to include a “Bike There” option that highlights bike lanes and back streets on a route. If you ever ride your bike in a big city, you’ll appreciate their efforts. Stop by and sign the petition:

Google bike there petition

Link to TreeHugger article

We spend a lot of time and energy trying to keep light out of our homes. When the sun blazes, we pull the shades, blocking sunlight that would normally turn our dwellings into sweltering greenhouses. Designer Shelia Kennedy believes that instead of deflecting all that energy, we could harness it. She’s invented “solar curtains,” sheets of flexible fabric with imbedded thin-film photovoltaic solar cells.

The designer and her team at KVA Matix have also sketched a house that can theoretically nab up to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity using the curtains. They call it the “Soft House.” The home hasn’t been built yet, but the photovoltaic curtains are in development.

Link to Inhabitat article.

The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 stalled in the Senate yesterday like a carbon-encrusted engine running on fumes. The Senate blocked the bill (H.R. 6049) by a vote of 50-44, preventing its advance to the floor for consideration. The move could cut the flow of $18 billion in incentives for investment in renewable energy, carbon capture, energy efficiency improvements and conservation efforts.

So why did the bill run out of gas? Republicans and Democrats couldn’t agree on the degree of incentives.

A summery of the bill can be found here. It would, among other things, do the following:

• Extend tax credits for wind, solar, biomass and other renewable energy plants.
• Extend tax credits for residential solar property for six years.
• Provide $2 billion in new Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) for wind; closed-loop biomass; open-loop biomass; geothermal; small irrigation; hydropower; landfill gas; marine renewable; and trash combustion facilities.
• Provide $1.5 billion in tax credits for coal-fired electrical plants “that demonstrate the greatest potential for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology.”
• Fund new bonds for state and local governments to explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Extend tax credits for energy-efficiency modifications made to residential homes.
• Extend tax credit for energy-efficient appliances.
• Tax credits for plug-in hybrids or electric cars.
• Government-subsidized employment fringe benefits for bicycle commuters.

The bill also hauls some heavy tax cuts (or extensions of current tax cuts) related to capital gain dividends,  education expenses, motorsports entertainment complexes, new development in Washington D.C., economic development in Samoa, veterans, soldiers’ salaries and much, much more. 

Link to Treehugger article.

AeroVironment, Inc.’s new modular wind turbines crouch on rooftops like whirling mechanical gargoyles, providing green, grid-free power for anyone who can afford them. The super-efficient turbines generate electricity at low wind speeds—about 5 mph—and can withstand wind speeds in excess of 100 mph. Each turbine weighs about 200 pounds and is, according to AeroVironment, easy to install. The company also claims that the turbines are relatively quiet. 

A six-kilowatt starter system is currently available for commercial applications, but the amount of power generated by wind turbines varies greatly. Just like the wind.

AeroVironment also makes UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that are used for scientific research and military reconnaissance. A third division deals in power processing equipment for AC and DC power grids.

I definitely wouldn’t mind having a few dozen of these latched to the eaves of my apartment building. They would pay for themselves within a year and after that: Free juice for all.

Link to Inhabitat article.

Link to CNET article.