A man stands near drilling apparatus at the Vostok research camp in Antarctica (Click Image To Enlarge)
After drilling into Lake Vostok for over two decades, Russian scientists have confirmed that they reached the mysterious freshwater lake that was sealed beneath over two miles of Antarctic ice.
After decades of drilling, Russian scientists in the arctic have uncovered a rare piece of nature, an ancient lake buried thousands of feet under the ice. RT's Sean Thomas, toured the frozen continent exactly a year ago, and now explains what this discovery could mean.
Beneath the vast white landscape, Lake Vostok is the deepest and most isolated of Antarctica's subglacial lakes. Its size compares to Siberia's Lake Baikal or one of the Great Lakes, increasing the chance of biodiversity in its waters. Scientists estimate the body of water is roughly 1 million years old and supersaturated with oxygen, resembling no other known environment on Earth. John Priscu of Montana State University suspects that an oasis of life may lurk there, teeming around thermal vents.
A radar satellite image of the ice over Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake with a surface area of 14,000 square kilometres, that is under 4 kilometres of ice (Click Image To Enlarge)
Although reports on Lake Vostok came in Monday, the feat was not confirmed for two days. The Associated Press wrote Wednesday morning that according to a statement by Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, its team reached Lake Vostok on Sunday.
"The discovery has been avidly anticipated by scientists around the world, who hope that the lake, comparable in area to Lake Ontario, may contain microbial life and provide a clue in the search for life on other planets in similar conditions."
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According to Wired, Lake Vostok likely contains 50 times the amount of oxygen found in a typical freshwater lake. The conditions in the lake "are thought to be similar" to Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus.
Despite the excitement surrounding the Russians' accomplishment, the project was not without environmental fears. The Washington Post explained that concerns exist that Lake Vostok"could be contaminated by the kerosene, Freon and other materials being used in the drilling."
"The lake water, rising up to 40 meters due to under-pressure in the crack, pushed the drilling liquid back onto the surface."
Russian scientists pose for group photo after their drill hole successfully reached Lake Vostok on February 5, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Even with the concerns, the Russians' accomplishment at Lake Vostok has excited the scientific community. John Priscu, an Antarctic specialist at Montana State University, told The Washington Post,
"If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet."
The Russian operation is also significant because of the surface conditions which the scientists endured. The area above Lake Vostok is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. The lowest ever temperature on Earth, negative 128 degrees Fahrenheit (-82 C) was recorded there in 1983, according to the BBC.
COMMENTARY: This is an incredible feat and if the Russians are able to successfully retrieve water from Lake Vostok after all these millions of years, and discover living microbes, sea life or other forms of life, the 20 years they spent drilling, would all be worth it. We could end up discovering new species of life that existed in prehistoric times before Man walked on Earth.
But Russia must wait for the Antarctic summer to collect and study water samples, leaving the door open for U.S. and British missions to explore two other subglacial lakes and beat it to be the first to answer the question of whether life exists under the polar ice. Martin Siegert, head of the University of Edinburgh's School of Geosciences, said.
"This is scientific exploration, this is work that no one has ever done before. This is probably one of the last frontiers on our planet that remains largely unknown to us."
Siegert is leading a British expedition to explore Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica in 2012-2013.
The British camp at the Lake Ellsworth drilling site as a team of British engineers have completed the first phase of a project to explore an ancient subglacial lake buried 1.8 miles beneath the ice in Antarctica (Click Image To Enlarge)
There's obvious cause for concern by British and American scientists that the Russians may release living microbes that may be harmful or dangerous to Man. Let's hope that the Russians don't fuck this up.
Courtesy of an article dated February 8, 2012 appearing in Huffington Post Green and an article dated February 9, 2012 appearing in The Guardian
Mother Earth as seen from outer space by the International Space Station crew.
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Om nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom. *Gulp.
A funny thing has happened in the way well-meaning greenies talk about the earth. Call it the Al Gore effect: Faced with so many climate skeptics who deny the reality that 99% of scientists back global warming, the greenies typically resort to more and more wonkish sorts of communication. As if proving the climate skeptics wrong were simply about showing more and more data.
The result, of course, is that the well-meaning message becomes harder and harder to comprehend. It seems to me that there’sno convincing people who’ve already made up their minds. Instead, you need to reach people who simply haven’t paid attention.
Something like this is going on in a rather nice little series of videos by the World Wildlife Fund. The first urges you to think about the connection between your plate, and the resources required to grow all that food:
How do we balance the needs of a growing population with a finite planet? By the year 2050, our planet will be home to another 2 billion people. How will we feed them all? Not only will there be more people, but everyone will have more money to spend on food. Where, on an increasingly crowded planet, will we grow all of it? Picture what would happen if we could freeze the footprint of food by doubling the productivity of farming.
We already use 1/3 of the earth’s surface to grow food. By 2050, we’ll need twice as much food.
And here’s another video, urging us to rethink our gadgets:
Do you know what goes into making your laptop? Raw materials for electronic goods are mined from tropical rainforests, but as resources dry up, recycling aluminum is key. If a laptop manufacturer only used recycled aluminum, it would take 90% less energy to make the same machine. Imagine what our world would like if more products recycled or reused existing materials.
COMMENTARY: After viewing the above videos, it becomes obvioius that we must create a sustainable planet. We should strive to recycle everything. We should strive to give back as much as we take from Mother Earth.
We obviouslhy need to grow food crops more efficiently with a whole lot less water. In a blog post dated November 12, 2011, I told you about Dyson Award winner "Airdrop" irrigation system, an ingenious device that draws water from the air.
In a blog post dated August 3, 2011, I told you about Pod Ponics, a small startup, uses hydroponic "growing pods" to produce fresh, locally-grown vegetables year-round. As fuel prices go up, the cost of shipping produce thousands of miles away rises accordingly. In the past few years, a number of companies have attempted to capitalize on the increasing hunger for locally produced food--we've seen rooftop farming startup BrightFarms and Brooklyn hydroponic farming startup Gotham Greens, just to a name a couple.
In a blog post dated June 10, 2011 I told you the history of U.S. oil imports, prices, production, consumption, world oil reserves and events affecting oil prices. In June 24, 2011, I told you where the world's oil is produced, how much of that oil the U.S. imports, and why America goes begging for oil. February 5, 2011, I warned you that the oil consuming world is at peak oil levels, a level of oil consumption where we are using more oil than is being pumped out of the ground by the world's oil producing countries.
In a blog post dated September 30, 2011, I commented on how for the first time in a quarter century, The Obama administration had successfully raised CAFE standards for light-duty vehicles, from 27.5 mpg in 2010 to 39 mpg in 2016. By 2025, cars will have to get 54.5 miles per gallon. Hybrids currently only make up about three percent of light-duty stock on the road, but sales of hybrids are growing. Consumers could save $1.7 trillion over the life of new CAFE standards by driving more fuel efficient vehicles, hybrid and all-electric automobiles.
Check all my blog posts on Renewable energy and green technology. Renewable energy and green technology from the sun, wind and oceans needs to be harnessed and we should strive to to get off our addiction to oil by gradually switching from fossil fuel driven automobiles to hybrids and all-electric vehicles.
The more advanced human kind becomes, as we develope better and more efficient technologies, from laptops to smartphones to tablets to apps, we seem to forget that there is a huge cost, to our environment and Mother Earth's resources. The aluminum in our laptops is a great example. We take too much for granted without taking account the consequences.
Courtesy of an article dated November 17, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design
Sydney, Australia; 1 December 2011: Ocean energy company, BioPower Systems (BPS), today announced that the Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources, the Hon. Michael O’Brien MP, has awarded the company conditional funding support of $5 million under the Sustainable Energy Pilot Demonstration Program.
The funding will be applied towards the $14 million pilot demonstration of the company’s 250kW bioWAVE ocean wave energy system at a grid-connected site near Port Fairy, Victoria.
CEO, Dr Timothy Finnigan said.
“In developing the bioWAVE technology we set out to address the many issues that have bedeviled most wave energy technologies.”
Inspired by the motion of large sea plants under wave action, and conscious of the costs and difficulties of doing development work in the ocean, BPS took the unusual step of spending five years performing multiple on land tests at increasing scale prior to ocean deployment. The most critical component has been tested at full scale at its factory in Mascot NSW (Sydney).
Dr Finnigan said.
“We are now ready for the ultimate test – installing the bioWAVE in high energy 30-metre deep ocean waters. We have to raise another $3.6 million to complete the project funding, and given our results to date we are confident of achieving this in the coming months. The technology has been positively assessed by more than a dozen independent reviewers.”
The unique bioWAVE differs from other wave technologies in three critical ways.
It is designed to generate grid compatible electricity ‘in situ’ and hence is connected to the shore via a sub sea electrical cable only. This gives good flexibility on locating the plant, opening up access to greater energy resources, while always transmitting the energy to shore efficiently as high voltage electricity.
During extreme wave conditions it will automatically assume a “safe” position lying flat against the seabed. This reduces the structural design requirements (and hence cost) while maintaining reliability.
The design, utilising a patented wide “multi-blade” structure, is expected to capture a much higher proportion of the available energy than other designs.
Dr. Finnigan said.
“We believe bioWAVE will, when fully commercially developed, produce electricity at a price highly competitive with wind and be closer to baseload characteristics than either wind or solar. It is gratifying that the potential of the technology has been recognised by the Victorian Government.”
Twelve other organisations have signed on to contribute cash and in-kind support for the planned four-year pilot demonstration project, including key suppliers, manufacturers, consultants and three Australian universities.
Further Background
The bioWAVE consists of a structure that sways back and forth beneath the waves, integrated with a self-contained module (O-Drive) that converts the resulting oscillating forces to electricity by pressurising hydraulic fluid, which is used to spin a generator to produce electricity for delivery to the grid via a subsea cable. The technology is designed to operate in depths of 30 to 50 metres. The critical O-Drive module has been fully tested at its commercial scale of 250kW (Note, a 1MW commercial-scale bioWAVE would utilise a set of four 250kW O-Drive modules, arranged in parallel). The O-Drive is designed to be detached and easily retrieved for onshore servicing. The energetic wave climate of the Southern Ocean is ideal for performance testing of the 250kW pilot-scale bioWAVE, which will be independently assessed and validated for potential commercial development.
Up to 23 new jobs will be created in Victoria during the project. Following the pilot, there is significant opportunity for expansion in Victoria using commercial-scale 1MW bioWAVE systems, with the potential for 200 new jobs in the first five years.
About BioPower Systems
Ocean energy company, BioPower Systems, is commercialising wave and tidal energy products that incorporate revolutionary designs based on the concept of biomimicry. BioPower Systems is designing its ocean energy products to naturally avoid extreme forces, using light-weight construction, resulting in significant cost savings. The proprietary bioWAVE and bioSTREAM products are intended for use in multi-unit farm installations for delivery of utility-scale clean renewable power to onshore distribution grids.
COMMENTARY: BioPower Systems is a renewable energy technology company based in Sydney Australia. We are developing systems for both wave and tidal power conversion. The company is currently working on ocean-based demonstration projects and follow-on market opportunities for its products and services.
Established in 2006, the company has successfully completed the following activities as part of its commercialization plan:
Proof of concept and prototype tank testing;
Engineering design and technology development;
Planning and development of pilot projects;
Construction and testing of power conversion equipment;
Patent protection;
Development of strategic technical and commercial alliances; and
Exploration of international and local site development opportunities.
BioPower Systems is currently working towards demonstration of 250kW and 1MW bioWAVE™ projects. Ultimately, the aim of the company is to deliver utility-scale wave and tidal farms in the 50-100MW range.
The unique bioWAVE™ and bioSTREAM™ ocean energy devices are based on ‘biomimicry’, or nature-inspired design, and are designed to generate commercial quantities of clean renewable electricity with no green house gas emission and minimal impact on the environment.
bioWAVETM
bioWAVETM is being developed for utility-scale power production from ocean waves. Its nature-inspired design (biomimicry) combines high conversion efficiency with the ability to avoid excessive wave forces, enabling supply of grid-connected electricity at a competitive price per MWh.
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The bioWAVETM is designed to operate in ocean swell waves, absorbing energy both at the surface and below. It is a bottom-mounted pitching device, which spans the full depth. The bioWAVETM prototype currently under development will operate at a depth of 30m, while the planned 1MW commercial model will operate where the depth is 40-45m.
The energy capture and conversion process for bioWAVETM has been confirmed through peer reviewed scientific research, extensive device testing at model-scale, and by measured results from dry-tests on our full-scale grid-connected O-DriveTM test module.
An ocean-based 250kW bioWAVETM demonstration project is currently under development at a grid-connected site with further plans in place to develop a 1MW demonstration, followed by multi-unit wave energy farms.
How It Works: The bioWAVETM is mounted on the seafloor, with a pivot near the bottom. The array of buoyant floats, or "blades", interacts with the rising and falling sea surface (potential energy) and the sub-surface back-and-forth water movement (kinetic energy). As a result, the pivoting structure sways back-and-forth in tune with the waves, and the energy contained in this motion is converted to electricity by an onboard self-contained power conversion module, called O-DriveTM. TheO-DriveTM contains a hydraulic system that converts the mechanical energy from this motion into fluid pressure, which is used to spin a generator. Power is then delivered to shore by a subsea cable. The result: efficient clean energy from the ocean.
bioSTREAMTM
The bioSTREAMTM is being developed for utility-scale power production from tidal currents. Its nature-inspired design (biomimicry) combines high conversion efficiency with the ability to continuously align with the current direction.
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The bioSTREAMTM employs a patented oscillating hydrofoil system to extract energy from moving water. For sites that have a peak current speed of 2.5m/s or greater, bioSTREAMTMoffers an environmentally safe and commercially viable source of electricity.
An onboard computer continually adjusts the angle of the hydrofoil (fin) relative to the oncoming flow such that the tail and fin system develops a swimming motion. The energy transferred by this side-to-side motion is converted to electricity by O-DriveTM modules installed on the bioSTREAMTM.
The ability to streamline and weathervane during periods of excessive flow allow for low-cost construction and competitive generation cost per MWh. A 250kW bioSTREAMTM demonstration project is in development, with deployment planned to occur only after substantial development of the bioWAVETM technology is first achieved.
O-DriveTM
The O-DriveTM is a self-contained 250kW power conversion module for use in wave and tidal energy systems. It is designed to be detachable and retrievable, enabling convenient and low-cost maintenance.
The O-DriveTM was developed by BioPower Systems. It is based on the conversion of mechanical energy from an oscillating source to electricity using a hydraulic system coupled to a full AC-DC-AC power conversion system. Within each 250kW module, two hydraulic cylinders deliver high pressure fluid to a bank of accumulators which in turn supply a uniform flow to a hydraulic motor that is directly coupled to an electric generator. The system is self-regulating in variable wave or tidal conditions, such that power to the grid is stable and of utility-grade quality.
The 250kW rating is standard. A 1MW bioWAVETM would be designed to utilise four 250kW O-DriveTM modules, each individually removable, allowing for maximum flexibility and reliability.
In a blog post dated November 15, 2011, I profiled UK-based Marine Current Turbine's tidal turbine technology, the first commercial tidal energy turbine generator, and increase in investment by Siemens, the German conglomerate. Unlike BioPower Systems technology, Marine Current Turbine's dates back to 1994, and is well into the commercialization stage.
It's difficult to compare these two companies, but each Marine Current Turbines' dual-rotor unit generate 1.2 megawatts, and can be scaled up to 2.0 megawatts to increase cost savings. Each bioWAVETM ocean-based unit is rated at 250kw, so it would take about five of these units to equal one Marine Current Turbine. I wish I had the price per unit and cost savings.
There are dozens of wave energy startups located around the world trying to harness energy from the power of the sea. Click HERE for Pure Energy Systems Wiki's comprehensive listing of ocean wave energy companies.
Courtesy of a press release dated December 1, 2011 by BioPower Systems
Mark Ruffalo, James Cameron, and Kevin Bacon want you. An exclusive look at Global Green USA's new one-minute video designed to get people concerned and taking action about rising oceans.
Did you know that 150 million Americans (53% of the population) are in danger just because they live in cities at risk for flooding? You didn’t? That’s exactly what Matt Petersen and his team at Global Green USA thought. So they created a short video featuring a celebrity cast of thousands (think Mark Ruffalo, Adrian Grenier, James Cameron, Kevin Bacon) to get you to sit up and take notice. Then do something.
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The video clip titled, “I Am,” clocks in at 31 seconds in length and is one part public service announcement, one part call to action and one part “how did they get all those people together to do this?” The intent, according to Petersen, who is currently attending the Clinton Global Initiative, is not only to educate but to call people to action in their communities.
Petersen tells Fast Company that climate change is “an indisputable scientific fact” and with over 12,000 miles of coastline the U.S. is particularly threatened by rising sea levels, as well increasing storms like Hurricane Irene. The flooding and erosion that follow could cost coastal cities trillions of dollars and thousands of lost lives.
He says.
“The influencers in our society in sport, music, and film, garner a great deal of attention. As an organization 95% of the work we do is substantive and technical so we reach out to them to help break through media clutter and get traction.”
By traction, Petersen means viral. The hope is that a star-studded PSA will be enticing enough for people to click Global Green USA’s “Join the Fight” button on its landing page or via YouTube and commit to make a difference. Global Green USA is inviting concerned individuals to upload a photo of themselves touting their pledge to improve their city. The pledge is in the form of a sign, screen printing on a T-shirt, or anything else that says “I am[insert city name here].”
All those photos are going to be pushed through Global Green’s back-end architecture, then Petersen maintains, individuals will be held to their commitment, whether it’s organizing a local awareness group or writing to a Congressional leader. “We are going to have follow-up and share their stories on our site and blog as they make progress. We will pick one person to win VIP tickets to our Oscars party,” traveling in eco-friendly style, of course.
There are also plans to launch a video campaign to track progress and engage even more people. Petersen says that this shouldn’t take the place of a continued effort to work with big corporations and government to raise awareness and demand change, but he says, “To do something, big or small, we need local action. Our main push is for individuals.”
Petersen concedes that the video’s celebrity status is no guarantee for success. He does have reason to be optimistic though, given examples like Crowdrise, which has managed to galvanize individual efforts into fund-raising for 1.5 million charities with a little help from Hollywood hotshot Edward Norton.
Petersen has also witnessed the power of educating and empowering communities. His vision for the rebuilding of New Orleans has led to the greening of New Orleans schools, helped educate thousands of residents to rebuild their homes more energy efficiently, and helped create the Holy Cross Project, a sustainable village in the Lower 9th Ward with 23 units of affordable housing and a community/climate action center.
This new initiative, he says, is just one more step to “building us better communities and finding solutions to global warming.”
Paraphrasing the words of former President Clinton--who Petersen was just listening to before this interview--he says, “[Climate change] is an opportunity--not a problem--if we approach it the right way with a sense of collaboration.”
COMMENTARY: I totally agree with Global Green USA. The world is headed for a catastrophic disaster unless we take serious action to curb greenhouse gas emissions NOW. The facts are in: The world's oceans are beginning to warm at accelerating rates. The Arctic ice shelf is beginning to melt. Greenland's glaciers are already breaking away. Please get the word out. Join The Fight.
In a blog post dated October 3, 2010, I reported on June 10, 2011, NASA launched into space Aquarius, a scientific instrument used to measure the salt content of the world's oceans, information that could help confirm scientists' suspicions that climate change is accelerating the world's water cycle and causing sea levels to rise rapidly. Aquarius is part of a joint mission between NASA and Argentina's space agency.
Courtesy of an article dated September 21, 2011 appearing in Fast Company
Foldboat can be assembled by two people in just two minutes.
We’re not sure what particular situation requires the need for an 8-foot-long sheet of plastic that can fold into a rowboat. But Foldboat is exactly that: a standard-sized flat sheet of plastic that uses live hinges held with knurled screws at three angles--left and right sides in the rear, one at the nose--that will fold and unfold into a two-man DIY yacht.
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Most of the folding boats on the market, like Folding Boat Company’s K-PAK, and the original portable boat, Porta-Bote, are for outdoor enthusiasts and can require setup times of up to 10 minutes--and with multiple pieces to put together. The Foldboat designers, Max Frommeld and Arno Mathies, think their boat could be used in both urban recreational and disaster relief situations without taking up much space. The designer's second version of the prototype, "The Dock Edition," debuted at Tom Dixon’s “Multiplex at the Dock” during the London Design Festival recently and was designed specifically with NGOs in mind. It can be assembled by two people in about two minutes. When not in use, it folds back into a flat sheet of plastic for easy stacking.
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If you live in London, where the designers are based, or Amsterdam or Venice or Copenhagen, then maybe a quick row for some milk isn’t such a far-fetched idea. And if you’re an ambitious camper, then putting a boat together is about as difficult as pitching a tent. Huck Finn, the original DIY raft master, would've loved this.
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Here's Floatboat being tested in the waters of some of the canals around London, England.
Satellite control of company and municipal irrigation systems, based on custom weather data, saves billions of gallons of water nationwide
In Silicon Valley the Campbell Union School District's sprinklers used to dutifully water the soccer fields and gardens at 12 campuses even during spring showers. Temporarily shutting off each of the 45 irrigation control boxes, by hand, wasn't worth the custodians' time. But in 2009 the district installed new "smart" controllers that automatically adjust daily watering to the weather. Each box, fitted with a microprocessor and antenna, receives local real-time weather information by satellite from the WeatherTRAK climate center supercomputer run by Petaluma, Calif.–based HydroPoint Data Systems, Inc.
On one April morning after a three-day rainstorm, Campbell Union's facilities supervisor, David Radke, checked the status of the controllers by logging in to WeatherTRAK.net The service had put the district’s irrigation network on pause when the storm began, and according to WeatherTRAK's math, the network would not need to resume watering for eight to 11 days.
If needed, Radke can reprogram the controllers from his Web account, but because his crew has carefully customized each box's settings, he finds that "there's really not a whole lot to do. That's the beauty of it." The soccer fields look better than ever, yet in 2009 WeatherTRAK slashed Campbell Union's water use by 39 percent and cut its utility bills by $108,000, recouping the installation expenses nearly twice over.
With most sprinkler systems, property owners set the traditional controller—basically a timer—to irrigate at specific intervals. Often, too much water is lost to evaporation during hot weather or to runoff during cool weather, which can also carry chemicals into the local watershed or ocean. Because outdoor irrigation can suck up 50 percent or more of urban water consumption, smart irrigation services have caught on in drought-prone western states like California, where water prices are relentlessly rising. (Occasional big floods don't help the long-term problem.)
HydroPoint now has more than 8,000 clients using 24,000 of its smart controllers, including Walmart, Coca-Cola, Hilton, Jack in the Box and the University of Arizona as well as the cities of Charleston, S.C., Houston and Santa Barbara. In 2011 customers are projected to save 64.4 billion liters of water and over $111 million in water expenses, as well as 68 million kilowatt-hours of water-pumping electricity.
Hydropoint Pricing
Commercial Irrigation Systems
WeatherTRAK® ET Pro2™ and ET Pro2 Smart Water Manager™ irrigation system controllers reduce water bills, landscape maintenance costs and liability risk. Proven to reduce water use by up to 59% and irrigation runoff and pollution by up to 71%.
WeatherTRAK ET Pro2 Smart Water Manager Basic comes complete with the revolutionary WeatherTRAK ET Everywhere service for daily, weather-based irrigation adjustments.
WeatherTRAK ET Pro2 Smart Water Manager Central adds all the features of central control systems, including Internet-based management, reporting and remote control, with none of the complexity.
Residential Irrigation Systems
WeatherTRAK® ET plus™ home irrigation systems save money, time and water. WeatherTRAK solutions deliver superior payback compared with all other green technologies for the home. Come complete with a maintenance-free WeatherTRAK ET Everywhere service: The WeatherTRAK ET plus™ system comes in two sizes:
ET Plus™ 6, 9 & 12
ET plus™ 18 & 24
WeatherTRAK-Enabled Controllers
WeatherTRAK enabled controllers uses daily ET values to adjust watering times to meet the specific needs of each landscape area for the ultimate in water management. Features include 1) automatically adjusts watering scheduling daily according to local weather, 2) Snap-in a Smart Dial module to upgrade any Rain Dial controller to "SMART TECHNOLOGY", and 3) Rain sensor compatible to maximize water savings. Hydropoint offers three different models of WeatherTRAK-Enabled controllers.
Irritrol® Smart Dial™
Toro® Intelli-Sense™
Toro® Intelli-Sense™ Pro Series
The technology is still going through growing pains, but HydroPoint has solved several daunting weather-forecast and modeling challenges that help it deliver just the right amount of water at the most effective time.
Founded in 2002 in Petaluma 65 kilometers north of San Francisco, HydroPoint has engineered what appears to be the most sophisticated weather-based irrigation system among a growing list of competitors. The company built its primary climate-modeling center outside of Salt Lake City, programming a supercomputer to simulate local weather for every square kilometer across North America—all just to water the grass. The center communicates via a two-way satellite link with control boxes that operate distinct zones of a client's irrigation system. Wires running underground from the outdoor boxes open and close valves in the water lines. Every night the climate center broadcasts local weather-related data to a microprocessor inside each controller, which runs software that uses the information to compute precisely how much and when to water its zones, customized to one of 18 plant types as well as other factors like soil type and ground slope.
The boxes can talk back, too. For example, Campbell Union installed additional wireless rain sensors (fixed to an exterior building wall) that, on detecting moisture, signals controllers, which put irrigation on hold and notify the climate center.
A WeatherTRAK prototype went live in 2003, starting with one-way satellite service in California. Two-way Internet-based communications became available in 2006, allowing a client to adjust thousands of controllers across multiple properties, all from one Web account. Monthly subscription fees today range from $4 to $18.75. The service is a prime example of the nascent field of water information systems that analyze real-time data to tackle water management issues—data that until recently has been sorely lacking in the industry. "You can't manage what you don't see," says HydroPoint co-founder Chris Spain. Really local forecasts, in real time
Spain and his colleagues jumped into the business by buying a local irrigation-controller company and bringing on board its owner, Mike Marian, a self-taught engineer. Marian (who subsequently left HydroPoint in 2006) had patented the idea of using paging signals to transmit information to controllers about evapotranspiration(ET)—the amount of water soil loses to evaporation as well as transpiration by plantsgrowing there. Marian's system used free ET data from the nearest state weather stations, maintained for farmers by the California Irrigation Management Information System.
The entire state, however, had only around 120 stations. Simply averaging ET values from the two nearest stations (as farmers often did) could be misleading, because microclimates even a few kilometers apart can produce substantially different values. And although property managers could buy their own mini weather stations, those were less reliable.
The fledgling HydroPoint team instead boldly explored a cutting-edge alternative: using measurements from public weather stations across the U.S. to model an accurate ET for any location, down to a square kilometer—without having an actual station or sensors on-site. And doing it every night.
Dan Dansereau, a computer scientist who worked on high-resolution weather modeling at Utah State University in Logan thought it could be done. But he says he told Marian and Spain "You're going to need a big-ass computer," before he joined them as HydroPoint's chief scientist. Dansereau recalls one prominent colleague warning, "It's never going to work."
Indeed, modeling proved a complicated task. The team wanted to use the most accurate method for estimating ET, the Penman–Monteith equation, which factors in temperature, wind, solar radiation and relative humidity. But the trick to deriving real-time ET everywhere would be creating those four input parameters for each of the 19.2 million one-square-kilometer grids across the continental U.S. and Canada.
Dansereau's plan was to model the parameters using the same highly sophisticated (and public) forecasting software that the U.S. Air Force relied on, called the Mesoscale model, or MM5, created by Pennsylvania State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Running MM5 at a daily one-square-kilometer resolution nationwide would take such tremendous computing power that no one had attempted it. Every day the climate center had to download millions of real-time data points via satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other public sources. That included surface observations collected hourly from ground weather stations, ocean buoys and weather balloons around the world, global satellite-imaging data every 15 minutes, and hourly Doppler radar data for the U.S. In addition, the MM5 program required 256 categories of local ground information such as topography, soil, vegetation and land use.
To manage the data avalanche, the HydroPoint engineers wrote proprietary code to organize and shovel it into databases. But they were still "really stymied" because MM5 required a lot of manual data entry, recalls co-founder and vice president Peter Carlson, who along with Dansereau literally typed in parameters every day. To streamline the process, they devised automated programs so the model could run itself from a single script.
COMMENTARY: Hydropoint Data Systems, Inc. was co-founded by Chris Manchuck, V.P. Channel Sales and Chris Spain, Chairman of the Board and Chief Stategy Officer in 2002 and is privately-owned. Paul Ciandrini joined Hydropoint as CEO in 2008.
WeatherTRAK Smart Water Management Overview
WeatherTRAK® smart water management solutions are different. All WeatherTRAK controllers come complete with the proven WeatherTRAK ET Everywhere™ service. Users enter basic information about their landscape and the service takes over from there. Only WeatherTRAK controllers are supported by the industry's leading customer service team.
Drawing on information delivered wirelessly from 40,000 weather stations, the WeatherTRAK ET Everywhere service automatically schedules irrigation based on individual landscape needs and local weather conditions. The result is higher property values, lower water bills and a healthier environment.
Water scarcity and water quality are already an issue in many parts of the world. Accelerating demand will put an already limited water supply under extreme pressure. Over the next ten years, demand is projected to increase 20 to 35 percent. By 2020, 37 percent of the world, developed and developing nations alike, will experience water stress.
The water predicament is all too easy to overlook in the U.S., where consumption exceeds 158 gallons a day per person, and users do not pay the true price of water.
Water quality is equally pressing. Quality is fundamental to consumers, municipalities and industry. Over 70 percent of China's surface water is unclean. In North America, the rural and remote areas frequently face water quality problems.
All told, the demand for clean water is driving a huge market. Water is fundamental to industry as well as to life, and unlike oil, there are no alternatives. The global market for clean water is forecast to reach a whopping $1.6 trillion by 2018, according to the Alliance for Water Efficiency.
Global investments in water innovations are up, especially in regions that are experiencing significant current water stress. According to The Cleantech Group. China has invested $3 billion in desalinization. China holds 50 percent of water related patents issued last year. The Israeli government has allocated millions to develop the sector; the country has spawned some of the leading water technology companies and is striving to be the "Silicon Valley of Water." In Singapore, where water is considered 'mission critical' and the island nation depends on water imports from Malaysia, the government has invested approximately $350 million and mapped out a 20-year plan for water self-sufficiency.
Private money is not yet significant in this market, but that is changing quickly. The Cleantech Group reports.
"Water is currently a thin slice of cleantech venture capital investments. Only 3 percent of total cleantech investments are in water related companies. The good news is it's growing. In 2010, $257 million went into water related start ups, up from a record high of $140 million on 2009." According to Razi Uddin of Leavitt Capital, a Chicago based private investment group that has been particularly active in buying water rights."
Chris Spain, Chairman and Chief Strategy Ofrficer at Hydropoint says,
"We believe the market is at an inflection point. We see a dramatic change in how corporations and municipalities view water and the need for water management. The macro drivers such as decaying water infrastructure, increased legislation, water quality threats, climate change and population growth are pushing water 'front and center' as a critical issue that has to be intelligently addressed. Two to three years from now every city and corporation in areas where water is not plentiful will have to adopt smart water management -- it will be a 'must have' rather than just a good idea."
Hydropoint Data Systems is venture funded by Sustainable Development Investments, Rockport Capital Partners, Monitor Ventures, Firelake Capital Management, J.F.Shea Venture Capital, Chrysalix Energy and The Toro Company.
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