Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station: Iceland’s second largest geothermal power station

smarterplanet:

A proposed high voltage electrical cable running across the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean to tap Iceland’s surplus volcanic geothermal energy would become the world’s longest underwater electrical cable, if it goes ahead. The cable would be a significant step towards a pan-European super grid, which may one day tap renewable sources as far afield as Scandinavia, North Africa and the Middle East. It’s argued that such a grid would be able to widely transmit energy surpluses from active renewable sources, thereby alleviating the need for countries to use (or build) back-up fossil fuel power stations to cater for peaks in demand when more local renewable sources aren’t particularly productive.

If a European super grid comes to fruition, energy surpluses will be big business. So it’s hardly surprising that both Germany and the United Kingdom are jostling for position at the other end of the Icelandic cable, with Norway and the Netherlands also having been mooted as potential connectees. That would necessitate a cable at least 745 miles (1198 km) in length, making it easily the longest electrical cable in the world.

» via ars technica

via infoneer-pulse:

(via emergentfutures)

The move will be even bigger and more complex than the 1999 move of the German government from Bonn to Berlin, organisers say. 

At least 2,800 truck journeys will have to be made from the old airports to the new one before June 3, when the Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt airport will open its check-in desks for the first flights…

Tegel airport, in the north of the city, will shut in the next few weeks. Schönefeld, in the south east, will be fusing with Brandenburg. 

“It is the first time that two airports will move overnight,” said spokesman for the €2.5 billion new airport, Leif Erichsen..

thelocal.de, 11.04.12.

what are they going to do to TXL/Tegel?? green it into a park like the other shut down airport, Tempelhof? 

I’m glad that there will be an actual world class airport in Berlin—Tegel und Schönefeld sind ganz schlecht—but it’s not actually in Berlin. It’s outside of city boundaries in the greater Brandenburg municipality. 

It’ll most likely take more than an hour to get there from west Berlin. Though of course I’m expecting Deutsche Bahn to make a new express airport route.

The eastern German city of Leipzig began a four-day offer of free public transport to drivers Tuesday in a bid to get them out of their cars for good.

“Commuters who use us regularly have already made the right decision. Now we would like to invite drivers to use us for four days after Easter at no cost and without stress.”

During the promotion called “Down with the Petrol Price Insanity — Time to Switch,” drivers and their family members can present a car registration instead of a bus or rail ticket.

Leipzig, a city of about 500,000 about 150 kilometres south-west of Berlin, is the first German city to make the offer. 

German petrol prices hit a record high last week. A litre of premium petrol currently costs about €1.70.

thelocal.de, 10.04.12.

€1.70/liter = US$8.43/gallon

would you be driving if gas cost that much here?

at least not as many people are complaining about $4.50/gallon gas anymore..

The world’s third-largest toy manufacturer is going to be putting “made with wind power” labels on all those boxes of LEGOs, and not just because they bought their power from utilities with wind turbines. Kirkbi A/S, the family holding company that owns LEGO, will be buying actual wind turbines representing fully a third of an offshore wind farm, reports Reuters.

LEGO’s share of the 277-megawatt Borkum Riffgrund 1 wind farm, which will be finished in 2015, should provide all the energy the company needs through 2020. Considering that LEGO produces 19 billion bricks every year, that’s a surprisingly efficient use of wind power.

grist.org, 24.02.12.
reuters, 23.02.12. 

reblogging this for every time I go to the recycling center, and return home with my same two bags of glass bottles.

why the recycling workers’ lunchtime so variable???!!!

citymaus:

to turn in my glass bottles, and

The worker guy isn’t there.

dsfksdmfdslf The sign posted at the center says lunch break is from 12–1. NOT 1–2. (I went at 1:50)

This is the 3rd or 4th time this has happened, and I just walk back home with my two bags full of bottles. (only two successful times I’ve gotten them recycled)

Wish we had the recycling machines so conveniently located inside supermarkets like in Germany (and other European countries).

Just put in your bottle, then it’ll scan the barcode to make sure it’s an item purchased at that (chain of) supermarket, and when you’re done, press the green button and it’ll print you a receipt/Bonn to redeem at the cashier (and to use toward purchases—more beer!)

Portland has got these, I’ve seen, but I don’t think they’re indoors. The one I came across on SE Hawthorne is in the back of the Fred Meyers parking lot.

But then I guess this is just to keep the homeless from pushing their carts and bringing unpleasant smells into the store.