Project SEED

Dreaming a Greener World

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:48:28 +0000

All men dream but not equally.
Those who dream by night
in the dusty recesses of their minds
wake in the day to find that it was vanity;
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.

-T.E. Lawrence

Bringing Back the Bike

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:42:53 +0000

The thought I had today was that we should consider ourselves the “alternative fuel”. It’s good to see all the cyclists out there but it seems that most are doing it for exercise and recreation as opposed to transportation.

Let’s bring back the use of the bike!

Using our Best Resources

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:48:50 +0000

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

Harnessing our best resources is what will help us save the earth- and those best resources are our kids, our own brains, our collective ability to be more than the sum of its parts.

It truly is overwhelming to see the amount of work that needs to be done and the constant onslaught of more pollution each and every day. Can we save ourselves? The only answer to that is “yes” for the alternative would mean we should just all give up. If there was ever a need for idealists, it would be now.

Pros and Cons of Wind Energy

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:53:57 +0000

A House made of Bottles

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:50:26 +0000

To me its a really bizarre looking house from the outside where all the mouths are sticking out but when inside, the light that strikes the bottles and shines in is quite gorgeous. I don’t know if its eco-friendly given that the bottles actually can be recycled. But at any rate, no one can say it’s a boring house.

“Sikat” solar powered car made by DLSU

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:42:11 +0000

The future is here with this solar powered car designed and developed by De La Salle University (DLSU) students and faculty. They will be using it for the 2011 World Solar Car Challenge in Australia after testing it and promoting the use of solar energy by touring the Philippines.

SURFACE AREA
As you can see in the picture, the design of the car is meant to take advantage of as much surface area as possible. Sunpower which provides the highest-efficiency solar cells in the world is a sponsor and they manufacture the cells right in Laguna.

ABOUT THE CAR
Sikat’s body is made of lightweight carbon fiber found in current F1 car models. At 190 kg, Sikat is lighter by 100 kilograms than the original solar car produced by DLSU last year called Sinag. It can also outrun Sinag’s top speed of 112 kph.

Read more about it in good news pilipinas.

Philippines gets US$310 Million in Green Funds

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:22:48 +0000

“The results were disappointing,” said Antonio G.M. La Viña, dean of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government and a Philippine delegate to the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen. “The goals were not ambitious at all.”

Nevertheless, as countries left the talks before any effective deal could be reached to arrest global warming, the Philippines did at least secure $310 million worth of funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy development which hopefully will actually get to the hands of those who can help.

The bulk of the funds, $250-million to be exact, will come from the Clean Technology Fund of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Another $50 million will come from the UN Global Environment Fund, and the final $10 million from Denmark to support local water utilities.

William Kamkwamba in his own Words

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:32:11 +0000

I was just a farmer in a country of poor farmers. Like everyone else, we grew maize. In 2001 we experienced an awful famine. Within five months, all Malawians started to starve to death. We ate one meal a day at night. We drooped down to nothing.

I was determined to get an education. I used diagrams and pictures to learn the words around them. “Wind mill could pump water and generate electricity. Pump water meant irrigation, a defence against hunger which we were experiencing at that time. So I decided to build one for myself.”

Amazing Stories of Ingenuity & Courage- Makeshift Windmilll

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:56:40 +0000

Teenager William Kamkwamba could no longer go to school because his family couldn’t pay the US$80 fees per years so he feared the worst when he went home. There was drought and he thought they would all die of hunger as thousands were already starving.

But he remembered seeing a picture of a windmill in the science books at the local library as he tried to pursue his education on his own. He had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. People in his village thought he was crazy, high on marijuana.

Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: “I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water. I thought: ‘That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself’.”

So he knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire.

People thought he was crazy until the blades began to spin in the breeze and the bulb he attached the contraption to flickered into life. Soon the whiz kid’s 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family’s mud brick compound.

Read more about his incredible story at BBC.

Solar DIY Projects

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:55:10 +0000

Builditsolar.com is a great site for teachers who want to get their students interested and working on solar projects. It also has a list of sites that teach ordinary people how to conserve water and energy, to make biofuels, water pumping, etc.

Journeytoforever.org has lots of step-by-step instructions for all sorts of different projects. Here is the beginning of one of them on biofuels:

(1) Start with the process, NOT with the processor. The processor comes later.

(2) Start with fresh unused oil, NOT with waste vegetable oil (WVO), that also comes later.

(3) Start by making a small, 1-litre test batch of biodiesel using fresh new oil. You can use a spare blender, or, better, make a simple Test-batch mini-processor.

Continue reading at the site itself.