Posted by: Earl
on Feb 23, 2009
James Jao is a certified foreign expert so designated by the China State Council on Planning and Economic Development. In an op-ed piece in the China Daily newspaper Mr. Jao recommends that the Chinese government require mandatory adoption of green building technologies. Earl can’t agree more. He froze his “you know what” off in Beijing (because it was cold and snowing out) and in Shanghai (because if was chilly and few office buildings he was in had central heat) last week.
Mr. Jao pointed out that in 2004 green building comprised approximately 2 percent of the new US “nonresidential” construction market. Projections were cited that indicate that by 2010 between 5 and 10 percent of new non-residential construction starts will be based on principles of green buildings. He further notes that there is not currently a dominant “green” building product manufacturer in any building category. This, he suggest, is the biggest motivation for the market and a great business opportunity for China to seize. Read this to mean that China will be poised to dominate this market segment when the US ultimately adopts these standards.
I’ve previously suggested that there is tremendous opportunity for the US to lead the way in green building technology. We need to continue to provide that leadership because a giant economy is currently poised to get unleashed. The US has long been the country that fosters and develops new technologies. Mr. Jao is suggesting China learn from the US and become the leader in a whole new industry based on green building technology. The whole world benefits from the greening of China and their ability to produce low-cost products but I would rather that the US not miss out on an opportunity to continue to lead the way.
Posted by: Earl
on Dec 31, 2008
The World Community Grid is extending you the privilege to contribute to the research that will lead to the next generation of solar cells and later, energy storage devices. By harnessing the immense power of World Community Grid for the Clean Energy Project, researchers can calculate the electronic properties of tens of thousands of organic materials – many more than could ever be tested in a lab – and determine which candidates are most promising for developing affordable solar energy technology. They are attempting to create the world's largest public computing grid to tackle projects that benefit humanity.
Grid computing joins together many individual computers, creating a large system with massive computational power that far surpasses the power of a handful of supercomputers. Because the work is split into small pieces that can be processed simultaneously, research time is reduced from years to months. The technology is also more cost-effective, enabling better use of critical funds.
We've all heard that we should turn off our idle computers. Many of us are simply not able to do so either because of the criticality of staying connected or running a storage server. Here is your opportunity to put your computer to work in a meaningful way as long as it needs to stay on.
The Clean Energy Project is the site where you can download the program to run on your computer.
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