Warren Buffet: Utility Death Spiral Is Bull S*&^

We’ve covered the “utility death spiral” a lot here on CleanTechnica. Frankly, we haven’t really seen anyone claiming that a utility death spiral from the solar revolution isn’t something to worry about… until now. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), an association of investor-owned utilities, published a report last year that discussed the great threat distributed

Warren Buffet: Utility Death Spiral Is Bull S*&^ was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 25, 2014 | Solar Energy |
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No Gas Fumes, & Even Toddlers Can Do It

I know some people somehow find pleasure in it, but the smell of gas fumes at the gas station is one of my least favorite things. Purely disgusting, imho… and I know the fumes aren’t good for me. I look forward to the day when there aren’t gas or diesel fumes anywhere, and I know

No Gas Fumes, & Even Toddlers Can Do It was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 25, 2014 | Electric Cars, Health, Media |
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Electric Cars On Front Page Of Country’s Largest Newspaper!

… Norway’s largest newspaper, that is. We’ll know that electric cars are mainstream in our own countries when our “top” newspapers are putting comparisons of electric cars as feature articles. In the meantime, we’ve got CleanTechnica, EV Obsession, Gas2, other similar sites… and Norway. Here’s a tweet a reader sent me last week: @zshahan3 Norway’s

Electric Cars On Front Page Of Country’s Largest Newspaper! was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 25, 2014 | Electric Cars, Media |
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Going Green Tips: 2 Key Ways To Make Your Printing Greener


printing machine

How many things have you printed in the past year? Yikes, not fun to think about that, eh? Printing surely isn’t the greenest activity around, and if you’re like me, you probably feel guilty any time you print extras of anything and then they go to waste. In this week’s “Going Green Tips” post, I’ve got two tips for you that I think could help to “make your printing greener.” And, with one of those, I’ve got several sub-tips.

Use more electronic forms and documents

There are many services out there that allow you to use electronic documents or forms. You already know that, but you may not be aware of some of the things for which these exist. Here are some online forms and docs I use that might slip by you:

  • E-Invoicing: Stop using printed invoices. Use Google Drive to create and share your invoices, or some dedicated online invoicing service.
  • Online 1099 Forms: If you have a small or medium-sized businesses, there’s a good chance you have to issue 1099 forms each year. But you don’t need to use actual paper forms anymore. I use track1099.com – not only is it printer-free, but it’s also faster, safer, and more convenient.
  • Online Taxes: While we’re on the subject of taxes, why not just drop the paper taxes altogether. I’ve been using TurboTax for years, which I find very convenient, much easier, and very helpful when I have tax questions. Plus, no printing required.
  • PDF, please: Stop printing out all your records. Simply print them as PDF and file away in folder on your computer. Worried about losing them in a computer crash? Then be extra careful and store them on an external hard driver, Google Drive, or email. Also, consider asking others for PDFs instead of printed records. You can even carry a USB stick around with you for such records. Not only is this greener, but it’s also easier to keep track of everything this way.
  • SurveyMonkey: Want to survey your employees, your customers, your co-workers, your friends, or your family? No need to print anything. Use SurveyMonkey and you can collect surveys more efficiently and in a greener way. You can also check out the results in graph form as they roll in — always fun.
  • Google Forms: Back to Google, there are tons of forms that you can create and send online via Google. Application forms, vendor forms, rental application forms, order forms, etc. (Warning: scrolling through Google form templates is a bit addictive.)
  • E-books, articles, recipes: Well, I know you’re reading this article online… wait, do I? Many people print out articles to read later when they are offline. Consider saving these as PDFs or on a tablet for later reading when you are disconnected. Easier, cheaper, greener. Same goes for recipes, reports, and even books.

Recycle Your Cartridges!

Now, if you have a printer, one of the key things you can do to use it in a greener way is to recycle the printer cartridges. An article on that topic on Cartridges Direct states that, in Australia alone, people threw away 18 million printer cartridges in 2005. Yikes. Surely, that number has grown, and I’m also sure it’s much higher in the US. Printer cartridges are e-waste, and they should not be landing in landfills. “This is a staggering statistic, especially when you consider that the polymers used to make printer cartridges can take around 1000 years to decompose, all the while leaking dangerous toxins into the environment,” the article states.

Cartridges Direct goes on to say how it helps to remanufacture and recycle printer cartridges. It also lists a number of places in Australia where you can recycle printer cartridges. In the US, Staples will give your $2 cash back if you bring in your old ink or toner cartridges, HP will also give you cash back, and I’m sure there are other such places that will do this for you.

This article was supported by Cartridges Direct

Image: printing machine via Shutterstock

Going Green Tips: 2 Key Ways To Make Your Printing Greener was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

Scott Brown Talks Shit About Obamacare To Wrong Republican

Originally published on Daily Kos. Scott Brown is as hapless a Senate candidate in New Hampshire as he was in Massachusetts. Even in a crowd of friendly fellow Republicans, he can’t seem to keep his foot out of his mouth, particularly when it comes to Obamacare. Brown found that out on Saturday, when he stopped by [&hellip

Scott Brown Talks Shit About Obamacare To Wrong Republican was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

By Zachary Shahan | March 24, 2014 | Health |
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This Little Candleholder Reincarnates Your Candle Almost Infinitely… Well, Sort of


01_rekindle 02_rekindle 03_rekindle 04_rekindle 05_rekindle

This is pretty cool — the opposite of planned obsolescence, this little candleholder pictured above turns your old, burning candle into a new one ready to be burned. I think you get the idea from the pictures, but in case not:

The candle burns, melts, goes down into the hollow candelholder, hardens, and can be burned again!

Of course, some of the wax doesn’t make it into the new candle, but this is a lot greener than your typical single-minded candleholder (you know, the ones that only put their attention into holding the candle).

“How long it lasts, Shine says, depends on the specific candle — some burn faster, some are drippier — but you might be able to reuse the wax as many as five times,” Adele Peters of Fast Company says.

“Seeing one of those cascading drip candles triggered the idea,” says the UK-based designer Benjamin Shine. “What if a candle’s melted waste wax could form another candle?”

Btw, the name of the candle is the “Rekindle Candle.” And don’t try to steal the idea. Shine (I know — apparently, that’s really his name) has a patent pending.

via Grist

Images via Rekindle Candle

This Little Candleholder Reincarnates Your Candle Almost Infinitely… Well, Sort of was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.

Tesla Model S Price Dropping In Europe, Sales In Europe & China Expected To Be Double US Sales

It’s unclear why, but Tesla Model S prices in Germany and the Netherlands are being cut substantially. One reason postulated by some is relatively low sales in much of Europe. Notably, Elon Musk said a month ago that Tesla expected to be selling about twice as many cars in China and Europe than North America

Tesla Model S Price Dropping In Europe, Sales In Europe & China Expected To Be Double US Sales was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 23, 2014 | Electric Cars |
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1 Graph Says A Lot



My good Twitter friend Alan Nogee recently shared an interesting graph with me. Frankly, we’ve probably written more about nuclear costs than is worth our time, so I’m not going to write a long piece here again. Here’s the graph (which I decided to title “nuclear premium”):

nuclear premium

And here’s what market research company IHS had to say about it:

The IHS CERA Power Capital Costs Index (PCCI) 
Leveraging the IHS CERA Index + Scenarios methodology, the PCCI tracks and forecasts the costs associated with the construction of a portfolio of 30 different power generation plants in North America. The PCCI tracks the costs of building coal, gas, wind and nuclear power plants, indexed to year 2000. The PCCI is a work product of the Capital Costs Analysis Forum for Power-North America, an annual renewable service managed by IHS CERA. For further information on the PCCI or the Forum, please contact Roger Kranenburg.

For related stories, see:

Solar Power Cheaper Than Nuclear In Cloudy Old England

Hinkley C Nuclear Power Plant To Get Twice The Rate As Solar PV From UK Government

Solar Less Than 5¢/kWh In Austin, Texas! (Cheaper Than Natural Gas, Coal, & Nuclear)

Scroll through our nuclear energy archives for even more. And subscribe to our cleantech newsletter to never miss a story.

1 Graph Says A Lot was originally published on CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 50,000 other subscribers: Google+ | Email | Facebook | RSS | Twitter.

Top-Selling Electric Car In US & Europe In 2014 Will Be…

Results for my poll on what will be the “Top-Selling Electric Car In US & Europe In 2014″ are in. The winner for both locations isn’t a big surprise, but it’s interesting to see how the splits turned out, and the differences between the US & European results. Have a look: US Nissan Leaf 56.64%

Top-Selling Electric Car In US & Europe In 2014 Will Be… was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 23, 2014 | Electric Cars |
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Yingli Green Energy To Supply 54 MW Of Solar Modules For 7 UK Solar Projects

Yingli Green Energy (aka Yingli Solar), which is the “largest vertically integrated photovoltaic (‘PV’) module manufacturer in the world,” was recently selected to supply 54 MW (54,000 kW) worth of solar PV modules for 7 solar projects in the UK being developed by Grid Essence UK. Here are some more details, via a recent press release: The

Yingli Green Energy To Supply 54 MW Of Solar Modules For 7 UK Solar Projects was originally published on CleanTechnica.

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By Zachary Shahan | March 23, 2014 | Solar Energy |
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