This factoid comes from the Fall 2010 issue of Northeast Sun from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association.

As a region, the Northeast is highly reliant on heating oil. The region consumes 80.3% of all the heating oil in the US. In fact, each year the Northeast consumes about 5.5 billion gallons per year of heating oil. At a price of $2.75
per gallon, this equals about $15 billion per year that is spent on heating oil, of which 78% of this money leaves the region.

Ouch. For those of you that are newer to the bio-thermal industry, this begins to explain the interest from many northeast homeowners and businesses in moving toward renewable energy alternatives.

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If you are into solar energy, there is some good news on the horizon. According to research by a team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, embedding a small amount of selenium into a mostly zinc-oxide base, dramatically boosts the material’s efficiency in absorbing light.

Currently the cost and performance of many photo-voltaic systems is prohibitive for the average consumer. However, with advances in technology, like the addition of selenium, we might be one step closer to a cost-effective and efficient method for converting solar energy into usable electricity.

So what do we do until products with these technologies are available?

While not a perfect solution, mother nature provides us her own renewable solar energy bank — trees. Trees harvest the sun’s energy and store it which can then be converted to usable energy through a variety of means. While it does not address the need for electricity directly, it may provide an offset to electrical consumption until solar technologies advance to an affordable level.

For more information on advances in solar energy technology please visit here.

Special thanks to Rosalind for passing along the idea for this post!

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Begin with some wood chips, some solid chemistry, and add a good dose of luck and you get — plastic?

Some chemists at Iowa State University uncovered a potentially game-changing method for making antifreeze, polyester and plastic bottles out of biomass rather than petroleum. The conversion process is based on the chemistry of super-critical fluids (fluids that are heated under pressure until their liquid and gas phases merge) and yields ethylene glycol (used in antifreeze, polyester fabrics and plastic bottles) and propylene glycol (used as an additive in foods,  pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics).

Currently, all of these require petroleum and an expensive or toxic process, but the process discovered in Iowa opens the doors to one where these products may be derived from renewable biomass. It is still in the research stage, but it is certainly one worth keeping your eyes on.

For more information see the Science Daily.

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Warning: This post is for geeks only, but lets be honest, it is pretty cool.

Google’s PowerMeter (now on limited trial) shows your home’s real-time energy use on a smart phone or web browser. The energy monitoring software needs hardware–a hook-up to the electrical power system–in order to work, but that is just a detail.

In my house, the kids like to keep a light on in any room they ‘might’ go in — at some point during the day. The PowerMeter will allow me to show them how our energy consumption changes in a way they can understand. Or, they roll their eyes and think their dad has gone completely geek on them.

Regardless, I can’t wait until Google’s PowerMeter is available in my area.

Earlier this week, the Maine-based Farmers’ Almanac issued its winter outlook for both the United States and Canada. the almanac. The Farmers’ Almanac, which claims 80 to 85 percent accuracy bases its predictions on a secret mathematical formula using the position of the planets, tidal action of the moon and sunspots.

The almanac says that winter in the US will be cold in the East and milder in the West but that much of the country will still be colder than normal.  The almanac says that New England will get a “cold slap in the face” after missing last winter’s misery. Finally, residents of the upper Midwest and Great Lakes are expected to get the piles of snow that will be lacking elsewhere.

The almanac predicts that winter in Canada will not be as mild as last year, when temperatures were 4° C above normal and less snow. This year winter will make a comeback, bringing back much colder conditions during 2010-11, particularly to the eastern half of the country. This compares to the west, where milder temperatures will with a wetter forecast prevail.

In several weeks we will compare this to the New Hampshire-based Old Farmer’s Almanac.

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