In terms of percentage of power generated by wind turbines though, the US is still a long way behind other countries at the top of the wind power table. Germany generates 7% of its electricity from wind power, Denmark 20%. The USA comes in with just over 1%.

Pickens Plan
Wind power plays a major part in the T. Boone Pickens plan for removing the US dependency on foreign oil. Pickens is the founder and chairman of BP Capital Management, and has spent his whole life working in the oil industry. Now though he says:

America is in a hole and it’s getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year – four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.

I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil.

And he has a plan to break that addiction, part of which includes increasing wind power generation from today’s 1% number up to as much as 20% (which the US Department of Energy believes is possible).

[Via GreenBlog]

According to the report, the US generates over a billion tons of cow manure annually, most of which is left in storage areas to decompose naturally. That decomposition process produces air pollution and greenhouse gases (we reported earlier that an Argentinian study had concluded as much as 30% of that country’s greenhouse gas emissions could be coming from their cattle).

Anaerobic Digestion

Through the process of anaerobic digestion the manure can be converted into methane-rich biogas, and a nearly odorless sludge which can be used as a fertilizer. The biogas can be used as-is for heating homes or cooking; it can also be converted to natural gas by a scrubbing process that removes the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide and then used where CNG would be used today (e.g. in powering vehicles).

Cow Power
The UT report suggests that using this biogas to generate electricity could help reduce the amount of power generated from coal fired power stations, and in doing so help reduce the carbon emissions. The results of the study suggest that using this biogas could result in a reduction of between 44 and 173 tons (40 to 157 tonnes) of carbon dioxide emissions.

The real question I was left with after reading the report though was whether electricity generation is the best use of this biogas. Are any of the other possible uses better at reducing carbon emissions?

[Via Earth2Tech]

In some countries the outlets have individual switches, making it simple to really switch off equipment. For countries where this is not the case, think about using a simple power strip with a switch on it as a way to avoid having to keep unplugging things.

Home Entertainment Systems

High on that list of remote controlled electronics are all those home entertainment components. Some of them might need to be left on (for example, a VCR or DVR that is set to record programming while you’re out), others can be switched off at the wall.

Regular (non-DVR) cable and satellite receivers should probably also be left on, otherwise you will need to wait for them to authorize and download the programming guide each time you want to watch something.

If you are using a power strip for a home entertainment system, consider getting one designed for A/V equipment.

Computer Equipment

Much like home entertainment systems, computers can be switched off at the wall when not in use (after being shut down properly of course). Using a sleep or hibernate mode will use less power than when the machine is on, but it will still be using electricity.

The same goes for printers, scanners and all the other peripherals that we connect to our computers. Switch them off at the wall (or unplug them) when they’re not in use.

The only real exception to this for the home office are the DSL or cable modem box and, if you have one, a wireless router or access point. The former is best left on because it maintains a connection to your ISP (in some cases it might even be monitored by them). The wireless wants to be on because you don’t want to have to switch that on each time you want to surf from your laptop. If you’re going on vacation though, unplug them both too. Also, if you’re signing up for new service, see if you can get a single box that provides both functions as that will reduce the overall power consumption.

A handy alternative to the power strip that copes well with the proliferation of wall transformers is the PowerSquid type connector with individual cables for each device. If you already have a power strip, but can’t use all of its sockets because of overlapping transformers, then you can get short extensions to convert any power strip into something like a PowerSquid.

If you are willing to spend a little time setting it up, consider getting a smart powerstrip instead. These have a master socket, which remains on all the time, and a set of slave sockets that will be turned off when the device on the master reduces its power consumption. They normally have one or two always on sockets too for those devices that must remain on (see above). When you first set this up you will need to adjust the power level at which the slave sockets are turned off, but once done you should be able to sleep your computer and have the monitor, printer etc turned off automatically.

Satisfy Your Inner Geek

All that is great in theory, but how do you know how much you are saving? Well, you can always get an electricity usage monitor and measure the power being consumed by your devices when on and off.