Longboard LED's

A friend and I were discussing ENDS101 last night. He was telling me about his project (for another professor) that he did. It involved putting a laser on the front of a longboard so that the person riding the board could see where he was going. It incited an interesting thought in my head - what if LED lights were attached to the bottom of the board, just as some choose to do to their cars for mere cosmetic purposes? The primary function would be cosmetic, of course, but it would also allow for increased illumination when riding at night.

My Apologies

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, I've been busy working on assignments for class, including ENDS101.  My latest project included four different business models, involving a company that rents you solar panels, a sort of mail-order laundry system, a business providing complete homes to people, and an online newspaper suited to one's personal needs.

Bioluminescence: Fireflies and the Future | Serendip's Exchange

Bioluminescence: Fireflies and the Future | Serendip's Exchange

We are working on the idea of "cold light" for our Team Project 3. Cold light is light produced by a means that does not produce any heat, which means that it is very energy efficient. Fireflies are our inspiration.

Lucky Drunks

Sorry I haven't been posting recently!  I was extremely ill two weeks ago, then spring break was hectic.  An idea a friend and I came up with over spring break involves the Lucky Drunk theory. One idea a friend and I came up with after discussing the "lucky drunk" theory is having the car somehow sedate a person just before he or she gets into a bad accident.  Obviously this has a lot of problems involved, for example if the car's sensors malfunction and the driver is randomly sedated.  Still, it's an interesting concept.

Soft Innovations

I've been doing a lot of brain storming for my 12 Soft Innovations lately.  I've noticed that the majority of my ideas are concerned with weather and climate.  It's an interesting study of the inside of my head, if anything.

Global Warming

I found it amazing that global warming was predicted over a hundred years ago and nobody listened.  Today, global warming is potentially one of the greatest problems facing our society.  Link to article: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/climate-scientist-digs-data-mining-news

Next Great Aggie Innovator

Working on my innovation for The Next Great Aggie Innovator. I decided to focus on the concept of Green Roofs. Nearly finished, everything's just about finalized. I just need to work out a few kinks.

Sick

Missed class today because I was sick.  Professor Vanegas called my group.  Spending the part of today that I can studying for Human Geography and working on my next individual assignment for ENDS.

Solar Generator/Water Purifier Patent

Upon doing a search for a solar-powered generator that also offered purified water as a byproduct, I found this patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4253307.html.  I was initially concerned that this would affect our group project, then realized that our project is based on the social innovation of applying this invention to third world countries, rather than the invention itself.

Solar Generator/Water Purifier

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, I've been working on two group projects for ENDS.  The second one is highly related to this blog.  We were asked to come up with a social innovation or invention to help the world.  I came up with the idea of a solar generator that both converted sunlight to energy and purified water.  This would work if instead of photovoltaic panels, a large field of mirrors was used.  The mirrors would all be focused on a central point, in which water would be heated to the boiling point and the steam would be used to turn a turbine, generating electricity.  The steam could then be condensed back into (now completely pure) water.  The machine's only regular inputs would be sunlight and water, and its outputs would be electricity and purified water.

Nanosolar Exemplifies An Alternative Approach

The most common objection to solar energy is how costly it is.  The construction of silicon panels of the proper design is quite the endeavor.  Nanosolar took a different route.  Its solar panels are composed of conductive substances such as copper alloys that are used as electrodes, a thin layer of which is printed (both time and cost-efficiently) over a metal foil.  This is a great contrast to other solar panels, which are typically composed of thick layers of silicon over glass or stainless steel.  Silicon is a poor conductor, and Nanosolar's method is much more efficient.

Kudos, Italy

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/wind-turbines-embedded-italian-viaduct-would-preserve-architecture-and-generate-power
Well, Italian designers Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino and Luisa Saracino have finally done it.  They've managed to solve two of the major issues that arise when the subject of wind energy comes up: aesthetics and space.  Many people complain that large wind turbines are "ugly", a blight on a natural landscape.  I doubt any would protest this novel approach that results in a beautiful, futuristic-looking energy source.  The turbines also take up no more space than the viaduct itself would, shutting down any objections that would come about in regards to the land usage.  The Italian team's creativity is exactly the sort of problem-solving the world needs when it comes to the energy crisis.  It's your move, America.

Call Me Jaded

Every few months, some company or another claims to have come up with the perfect energy source.  Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I need some proof before I believe.  The last time this happened, it was ethanol, and we all know what happened there.  Still, if Cella manages to pull this off, I'll be as happy as anybody.

Quick Thought

I'll elaborate on this idea more later, I just wanted to get the idea officially down on paper (figuratively) before class started. They have relatively inexpensive robots that can vacuum homes. Surely, if we build upon that idea, a robot could be manufactured that mows lawns? Perhaps sensors could be placed in the ground to tell it where to go. Safety is a clear issue, but failsafes could be included in the design that automatically shut it off if anything goes wrong.

Popular Science Inspires

Some of the more interesting articles I've found in my years of browsing Popular Science (http://www.popsci.com) have been related to the very subject I'm discussing on An Alternative Approach.  One of my favorites is the design of bacteria to produce fuel: http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-04/breeding-oil-bug.
Expanding on that article allowed me to find what I consider to be an even better alternative.  Instead of sugar, these bacteria convert carbon dioxide into isobutanol, an alternative to gasoline.  It seems to be the perfect solution.  Carbon dioxide emissions will always be involved with fossil fuels, and yet they are a hazard to our environment.  As an environmental geoscientist, I'm concerned not only with finding a limitless energy resource, but finding one that helps the environment.  The article in which I viewed this alternative is posted below.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210162222.htm

Idea 1

One thing that has always bothered me is that refrigeration systems use up so much energy.  Think about it.  The purpose of a refrigerator is to remove heat from food.  Heat is energy.  Therefore, if you were to follow the train of logic, a refrigerator uses energy in order to remove energy from food and drink.  This seems to be a tremendous waste to me.  Surely there is some way that a refrigerator could be redesigned so that it saves the energy it removes from food.  The same applies to freezers and air conditioning units - both are machines that remove energy in the form of heat at the cost of large amounts of energy.  I know it's not as simple as that, but consider the logistics.  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2005, 91.4 million U.S. household utilized a sort of air-conditioning system (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2005/c&e/detailed_tables2005c&e.html).  Even if it is assumed that each of these households has only a single, medium-sized window unit, the cost of KiloWatts/hour is stabilized at 15 cents, and the unit is run for 16 hours a day, each household is still paying $804 per year.  Multiply that number by 91.4 million, and you have an extremely conservative $73,485,600,000 per year spent by households on air conditioning.  That's air-conditioning alone, not counting heating, refrigerators, or freezers.  This number also doesn't include the amount spent on cooling businesses or public places.

A Brief Introduction

Howdy!
My name is Donnie Berthelot.  I'm a freshman at Texas A&M University.  As stated above, this blog was created for my Environmental Design class, which is taught by Professor Jorge Vanegas.
The primary purpose of An Alternative Approach is to discuss what seems to be the cause of most of the world's problems today: energy.  Take, for example, the Middle East.  Arguably, every conflict in the Middle East stems from two sources: religion and energy.  I'm not even going to touch on the subject of religion, but the energy aspect of the problem is of great interest to me.  Because of this, I am going to use this blog to document both my thoughts on solutions proposed by others and anything I can come up with that could possibly be utilized to alleviate some of the difficulties that arise when fossil fuels begin to dwindle.