Two new residence halls are powered by geothermal energy.
From WWL-TV 8/24/2018
Streaming Video
The Breakthrough in Renewable EnergyYou won’t read about it in the papers, but a silent worldwide revolution is taking place: renewable energy is becoming cheaper than energy from fossil fuels. More and more, opting for wind and solar energy is no longer an ethical choice but an economic one. This will speed up the transfer to renewable energy. Countries like Brazil, Australia, Chilé and parts of the United States are switching to renewable energy for economic reasons. Over the coming years, the price of solar and wind energy will keep falling rapidly. The number of countries where the tipping point for renewable energy has been reached will continue to rise. A surprising newcomer is Morocco, for example. By 2020 the government expects to meet more than 40 percent of the demand for electricity with solar energy. The Netherlands is nowhere near ready yet.
The Future of EnergyIn this program, Hazel Henderson and NASA Chief Scientist Dennis Bushnell review all the issues around the increasing global shift from polluting fossil fuels and their effect on climate to economies. They discuss today’s harvesting of solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and oceans, as well as the cost savings from more efficient buildings, batteries electric vehicles and charging stations, smarter cities and urban design, public transport and the future of decentralized energy, especially in developing countries. Both Henderson and Bushnell agree that there is ample renewable energy from our Sun for all existing and foreseen human societies’ needs.
The green economy. Waste to energyMarion County Environmental Services oversees the operation of one of the most successful recycling and energy programs in the United States. Curbside collection, sorting, waste incineration which in turn generates electricity ... these folks have it nailed. We get to see all steps and get involved in the process.
Greening of EnergyAlthough renewable energies are seen as clean and green, their development can often be cause of conflict as local residents are opposed to their impact on the visual landscape. Some technologies are also limited by weather and climate. This program uses examples from the U.K., India, and Europe to examine the pros and cons of a variety of renewable energy sources. It includes a discussion of energy de-carbonization and explores the importance of reducing energy consumption and improving efficiency. Wind, solar, tidal, hydro-electric, biomass, and biogas technologies are considered, as well as energy security and the transition from fossil fuels.
Gospel of GreenIn the face of predictions, rhetoric and warnings about the planet's environmental crisis, one man stands alone as a revolutionary who is transforming a country. And it's likely you've never heard his name. Hermann Scheer is a German parliamentarian who has turned ideas into practical solutions. Because of the laws that bear his name, Germany is now a solar-paneled, windmill-building, job-producing green powerhouse of the industrialized world. CBC correspondent travels to Germany to meet Scheer and find out how this green miracle has been accomplished. And what about Canada? If one man can transform a country whose economy is so similar to that of Ontario, why can't, and why isn't, that province embracing Scheer's gospel of green? As this investigation shows, after initially embracing the philosophy of renewable energies, the pace of change has faltered. The answer to why may lie in the power of Ontario's traditional energy giants.
Moyers & Company Climate Change-The Next GenerationBill Moyer speaks with Kelsey Juliana, an 18 year old environmental activist who is fighting against climate change in the courts and walking across the country to spread the word on global warming. She believes that "being green" is not enough and that laws need to be in place to limit emissions and promote renewable energy. In this interview, she highlights several reasons to care about global climate change, discusses the Great March for Action, and shares how individuals can make a difference.
The spark. Tapping into the ocean'sThe oceans generate enough energy for us to give up coal and gas completely, but no one has been able to harness it effectively. The Triton is a wave harvester that uses a novel design which may be the key to unlocking the power of the ocean.
TEDTalks David McKay - A Reality Check on RenewablesHow much land mass would renewables need to power a nation like the U.K.? An entire country's worth. In this pragmatic TEDTalk, information theorist and computer scientist David MacKay walks viewers through the basic mathematics that reveal worrying limitations on our sustainable energy options...and then explains why we should pursue them anyway.
UprisingBurning coal remains a major source of energy, emitting toxic pollutants and carbon dioxide. North of Chicago, in Waukegan, Illinois, America Ferrera meets with activists, backed by the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, who are working to shut down a local coal plant, and with a mayor who wants to keep it open. Residents complain that the pollution is making them sick. Ferrera learns about an option that can provide clean energy, green jobs and scenic development of the lakefront. Pollution from energy plants is choking the air in many Chinese cities, and the middle class there has joined with activists to pressure the government to clean up the environment. Sigourney Weaver investigates China's impact on today's global environment, and the progress it is making to reduce emissions even as its economy grows. China is investing more money in clean energy than any other country in the world.
Green Talks series -- Renewable Energy presentation
Alejandro Martinez, Sustainability Manager, discusses renewable energy used at Southeastern.
Books at Sims Library
Carbon Nation by Bob JohnsonFossil fuels don't simply impact our ability to commute to and from work. They condition our sensory lives, our erotic experiences, and our aesthetics; they structure what we assume to be normal and healthy; and they prop up a distinctly modern bargain with nature that allows populations and economies to grow wildly beyond the older and more clearly understood limits of the organic economy. Carbon Nation ranges across film and literary studies, ecology, politics, journalism, and art history to chart the course by which prehistoric carbon calories entered into the American economy and body. It reveals how fossil fuels remade our ways of being, knowing, and sensing in the world while examining how different classes, races, sexes, and conditions learned to embrace and navigate the material manifestations and cultural potential of these new prehistoric carbons. The ecological roots of modern America are introduced in the first half of the book where the author shows how fossil fuels revolutionized the nation's material wealth and carrying capacity. The book then demonstrates how this eager embrace of fossil fuels went hand in hand with both a deliberate and an unconscious suppression of that dependency across social, spatial, symbolic, and psychic domains. In the works of Eugene O'Neill, Upton Sinclair, Sherwood Anderson, and Stephen Crane, the author reveals how Americans' material dependencies on prehistoric carbon were systematically buried within modernist narratives of progress, consumption, and unbridled growth; while in films like Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and George Stevens's Giant he uncovers cinematic expressions of our own deep-seated anxieties about living in a dizzying new world wrought by fossil fuels. Any discussion of fossil fuels must go beyond energy policy and technology. In Carbon Nation, Bob Johnson reminds us that what we take to be natural in the modern world is, in fact, historical, and that our history and culture arise from this relatively recent embrace of the coal mine, the stoke hole, and the oil derrick.
Green Energy Futures by David ElliottWhat will replace fossil fuel? Is there a way forward using renewable energy sources while avoiding nuclear power?This book argues that nuclear is unlikely to have much of a role in future, and shows that the pro- and anti-nuclear debate has absorbed too much time and energy over the years. This has been to the detriment of a more relevant, interesting and increasingly urgent debate over what sort of renewable/efficiency mix we need. This book engages in that debate, exploring the implications of shifting to greener, cleaner energy sources. Importantly, David Elliott argues there is no one green future. There is a range of possible options of various types and scales: we need to choose amongst them. This book offers an overview of the technical, economic and environmental issues to help scholars, professionals and policy makers involved in discussing those options.
Call Number: TJ808 .E447 2015 (4th floor stacks)
Tomorrow's Energy by Peter Hoffmann; Byron L. Dorgan (Foreword by)How the use of nonpolluting, zero-emission hydrogen as fuel could be the cornerstone of a new energy economy. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. An invisible, tasteless, colorless gas, it can be converted to nonpolluting, zero-emission, renewable energy. When burned in an internal combustion engine, hydrogen produces mostly harmless water vapor. It performs even better in fuel cells, which can be 2.5 times as efficient as internal-combustion engines. Zero-emission hydrogen does not contribute to CO2-caused global warming. Abundant and renewable, it is unlikely to be subject to geopolitical pressures or scarcity concerns. In this new edition of his pioneering book Tomorrow's Energy, Peter Hoffmann makes the case for hydrogen as the cornerstone of a new energy economy. Hoffmann covers the major aspects of hydrogen production, storage, transportation, fuel use, and safety. He explains that hydrogen is not an energy source but a carrier, like electricity, and introduces the concept of "hydricity," the essential interchangeability of electricity and hydrogen. He brings the hydrogen story up to date, reporting on the latest developments, including new hydrogen and fuel-cell cars from GM, Daimler, BMW, Honda, and Toyota. He describes recent political controversies, including Obama administration Energy Secretary (and Nobel laureate in Physics) Steven Chu's inexplicable dismissal of hydrogen--which puts him at odds with major automakers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and others. Our current energy system is a complex infrastructure, and phasing in hydrogen will take effort and money. But if we consider the real costs of fossil fuels--pollution and its effects, international tensions over gas and oil supplies, and climate change--we would be wise to promote its development.
Sustainability Assessment of Renewables-Based Products by Jo Dewulf; Steven De Meester; Rodrigo AlvarengaOver the past decade, renewables-based technology and sustainability assessment methods have grown tremendously. Renewable energy and products have a significant role in the market today, and the same time sustainability assessment methods have advanced, with a growing standardization of environmental sustainability metrics and consideration of social issues as part of the assessment. Sustainability Assessment of Renewables-Based Products: Methods and Case Studies is an extensive update and sequel to the 2006 title Renewables-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment. It discusses the impressive evolution and role renewables have taken in our modern society, highlighting the importance of sustainability principles in the design phase of renewable-based technologies, and presenting a wide range of sustainability assessment methods suitable for renewables-based technologies, together with case studies to demonstrate their applications. This book is a valuable resource for academics, businesses and policy makers who are active in contributing to more sustainable production and consumption. For more information on the Wiley Series in Renewable Resources, visit www.wiley.com/go/rrs Topics covered include: The growing role of renewables in our society Sustainability in the design phase of products and processes Principles of sustainability assessment Land use analysis Water use analysis Material and energy flow analysis Exergy and cumulative exergy analysisCarbon and environmental footprint methods Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), social Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) Case studies: renewable energy, bio-based chemicals and bio-based materials.