Fuel Companies to Revolutionize Energy Industry

Remember fuel cells? Not so long ago, they seemed on the brink of revolutionizing our energy industry, promising to create a “hydrogen economy.” Fuel cell technology broke into the mainstream when it was implemented in buses in the 90s, but the momentum then seemed to fizzle due to their prohibitive costs.

Now, fuel cells are making a comeback—and in a big way. This time around, they’re finding applications in commercial buildings, manufacturing, data centers, and even homes. Offering low-cost energy, high availability power, and lower carbon emissions, stationary fuel cells are proving to be a highly cost effective alternative energy option for business- and home-owners alike.

Developments in Fuel Cell Technology

This is in part due to innovations in hydrogen generator technology, which have allowed widely available fuels like natural gas and methane to be converted into hydrogen that can be used in fuel cells. Hydrogen ions are split from other elements in these gases and fed into a fuel cell stack. There, they react with oxygen in an electrochemical process that produces electricity, heat, and water.

ClearEdge Power is one of the pioneering natural gas fuel cell companies and has turned this technology into a highly scalable product that can be used in a variety of applications, ranging from homes to data centers. ClearEdge’s fuel cell systems can provide from 5kW to 200kW, making them incredibly versatile and ideal for distributed generation purposes.

They recently signed a landmark $500m deal (the biggest of its kind to date) with an Austrian utility that plans to use them in an extensive distributed heat and power community application.

Fuel Cell Applications

Most fuel cell companies exclusively offer commercial fuel cell solutions that are best suited for energy intensive purposes. Yet thanks to the scalability of ClearEdge’s fuel cell technology, they are now being installed in homes as well, particularly in places where energy costs are high like California, New York, and Connecticut.

While solar panels long seemed the only possibility for homeowners looking to reduce their utility bills, increasingly, residential fuel cell systems are becoming a viable option. Payback periods can be as short as 4 years, according to the company’s website, offering an incredible ROI over the 20-year expected lifespan of the units.

Online Education Classes Are Green

There comes a time in just about every career professional’s life when the need to further one’s education asserts itself as a priority. Maybe you need to finish off a Master’s Degree in order to get promoted. Maybe your boss is insisting you look into an advanced degree so that you might finally land that much deserved raise you’ve been promised. Or perhaps you work in a field like Accounting, Law, Taxes or Insurance, where continuing education is mandatory. With this last example, taking Insurance Continuing Education classes helps an insurance professional stay current with the trends and laws governing the industry, so that the best and most complete information might be passed on to clients. So is there a way to get the continuing education that you need, while minimizing your carbon footprint, and doing the least possible damage to the environment?

In a phrase, Continuing Education classes online represent the best way to get the knowledge and or certificates that you need, while simultaneously doing the least amount of damage to the environment.

How Continuing Education Represents a Greener Option

Of course, there is the power that your computer consumes that should be factored into your total understanding of the greenness of your efforts when looking into continuing education over traditional classes on a university or city college campus. But the reality is that most continuing education programs alleviate the need for many things that present continued stress on the environment. Think about the text books, just as one example. When you switch to a downloadable PDF that you then read and study on your computer, you save some trees. And not just that — but the trees used for the paper, the ink used for the printing, the power and chemicals used to run a printing company, the paper used to box and ship the text books to a store or campus bookstore, the fuel and harmful impact of mass transportation of the books from state to state, and the list goes on and on.

Continuing education classes, when taken online, typically involve just a few easy steps, wherein prospective students sign up online, pay their fees, and then choose their classes. Students work with professors in a virtual classroom, and discuss the course materials with other students in a forum-like atmosphere, where dialog is possible online. Tests can be administered online, and papers can be submitted to professors via email, often after being run through a third-party system where the material can be checked for plagiarism. Students stay out of their cars, less buildings are needed for students and classes, and course materials are limited to what can be transferred across the Internet.

Next time you are asked to take continuing education courses for things like Insurance or Accounting/Tax information, make sure to consider the online option, which many state regulating bodies now endorse. You simply research the program, make sure that the regulatory body in your state or county endorses the program, and then sign up, pay with a credit card, and have course results often sent directly to the party involved with regulating your industry.

Give Up Coal-Fired Electricity

It's getting easier all the time to run your home on green energy: More than half of all electricity consumers in the U.S. have the option of purchasing some kind of green power product from their electricity provider.

Find out how you can buy green power by visiting the Department of Energy's Green Power Network website, which offers a state-by-state list of green energy providers. (If you can't, contact your local utility and tell it you want to purchase green power.)

Choosing to purchase renewable energy may or may not cost you more. And you won't necessarily receive electricity from your designated source; we can't control how electrons flow through the electrical grid like that. You will know that your dollars are paying for the ongoing maintenance or further development of renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal.

Why bother? Coal, which produces about half of all electricity in the U.S., also produces most of its air pollution, according to the American Lung Association – more than any other category of industry. In all, coal-fired power plants release 386,000 tons of hazardous air pollutants, including those that cause acid rain, which still threatens mountain ecosystems; mercury, which contaminates fish and can lead to brain damage in children who are exposed; and ozone and smog, which causes asthma attacks, heart attacks and other serious health problems. Burning coal is also a major source of the carbon dioxide emissions fueling global warming.

By choosing an alternative power source, you're sending an economic signal to power producers, investors and government representatives that clean power is preferable.

I Am Earth Conference (i-AEC'11)

22nd April 2011, Go Green Pk and IBA Go Green Society celebrated Earth Day in shadow of a conference namely I Am Earth Conference 2011 (i-AEC'11) at APWA Auditorium, IBA City Campus, Karachi. Katalyst OD was learning partner of the conference. Ms Sharmila Farooqi was invited as Chief Guest. The discussion panel was consisting Ms Aafia Salam (IUCN-UN), Mr Toufeeq Pasha (Celebrity and Gardner) and Mr Rabnawaz (WWF Pakistan).

Sharmila said environment issues in Pakistan had threatened the health of people besides disturbing the balance between economic development and environment protection. “The persisting environment issues affecting the people of the country are water pollution from raw sewage and industrial wastes, while the majority of the population does not have access to potable water. The deforestation, soil erosion and desertification also hitting hard people,” she said. - Courtesy Pakistan Observer