Our Green Streets Blog

Enel Archimede plant in Italy. Photo: Enel

This July the Italian utility Enel unveiled “Archimede”, one of the most important developments in the emerging field of concentrating solar power (CSP). The launch showcases this power plant as the first CSP  plant in the world to use molten salts for heat transfer and storage.

Archimede, a 5 MW plant located in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily). The breakthrough project was co-developed by the utility, Enel, and ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. The name, “Archimede,” refers to the rows of huge parabolic mirrors used to capture the sun’s rays, recalling the “burning mirrors” that Archimedes is said to have used to set fire to the Roman ships besieging Syracuse during the Punic War of 212 BC.

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TSC Global's hypar roof is located next to the light ril tracks, just south of downtown Denver

Evidence of new buildings featuring an innovative and cost-effective roof can now be seen in a growing number of African nations, including Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Sudan, as part of a Roofs for the World initiative.

This roof is called a Thin Shell Composite Hyperbolic Paraboloid, or TSC Hypar, thus the name, TSC Global, which proclaims  the building methodology using this roof has the potential for revolutionizing roofing and construction in the most impoverished and remote parts of the globe. TSC Global executive director, Brad Wells, says that compared to the corrugated steel roof structures seen everywhere in the developing world, TSC roof construction requires a minimum in cut lumber, demands no power machinery for construction, and leaves almost no carbon footprint. In addition, buildings featuring these roofs are significantly quieter in rain and windstorms, and can be earthquake resistant.

Denver-based TSC Global was created to build, promote and fully develop this construction method, with the belief that there is real potential to dramatically enhance the overall quality and affordability of structures used by millions if not billions of people worldwide. It is now focusing on a potential rebuilding program for Haiti.

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Innovative new ways of including lush and visually intoxicating gardens in homes or buildings are surfacing – no longer on plots of land but on sections of vertical walls.

Vertical garden on French building from Patrick Blanc Photo: Blanc

Credit for inventing the vertical wall goes to French botanist and inventor, Patrick Blanc,  shown in this building photo.  According to Blanc’s website, the vertical garden was conceived from watching natural environments – many in jungle locations – and watching how plants can grow without soil. The vertical wall can also functions as an air purification system.

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What is being done with beetle-killed forests. Photo: CSU

From the bark beetle epidemic that has already destroyed millions of acres of trees in Western states, good uses for the dead trees are now becoming more widespread as the wood is harvested.

Even with such huge damage, the wood, when harvested, has been put to striking uses in furniture, flooring, and paneling applications. It has also been used for  structural beams.  The list of structures built using beetle-kill pine includes everything from outhouses to garden sheds and benches. On a more expansive level, dead forests are now being considered as a source of biomass production to generate electricity.

As Colorado Senator Mark Udall has said, “Wood is the most renewable resource we have and as an energy source, it’s carbon neutral. Biomass generators can efficiently turn dead trees into electricity for our homes and offices, and new technologies have shown the potential to turn biomass into liquid fuels. Read more of this >>