Fifty lucky taxi drivers and their passengers can look forward to more comfortable rides, while at the same time, participate in an exciting initiative to reduce carbon footprint and contribute to environmental sustainability. 3M is sponsoring the installation of 3M™ Crystalline Solar Films in a fleet of 50 taxis, which will result in a natural reduction in temperature of up to 2.8 degrees Celsius in the vehicles.

“3M™ Crystalline Solar Films feature a proprietary, multi-layer optical film technology that combines over 200 layers in a film that is thinner than a Post-it® Note. Each optical layer is specially designed to reflect the infrared and UV rays while allowing visible light to pass through. This technology is the reason a clear film can reject more heat than darker films, without changing a car’s appearance. The premium product combines technology with clarity and is eco-friendly too,” said Mr Edmund Tan, General Manager of 3M Singapore’s Industrial & Transportation Business.

Solar heat comes from two primary sources, the visible light that one sees and the infrared light that one feels. Crystalline solar films reject up to 97% of the sun’s heat-producing infrared light and block up to 60% of the heat coming through the windows. These industry-leading, spectrally-selective films are designed to keep one cool, comfortable and protected. Each degree Celsius less will save about 10% on energy use.

To comply with the Land Transport Authority’s car tint law, crystalline films allow up to 90% of the natural light into the vehicle. As these films are non-metallized, there is zero interference with GPS and cell phone signals. Some 8,000 sq ft of the solar films, costing $75,000, will be used in this exercise.

“3M’s technologies are being applied by customers worldwide to enable them to meet their own environmental challenges. A vital component of 3M’s sustainability strategy is to develop product solutions, and our portfolio of hundreds of products, is a living example of our expertise in inventing products for a better tomorrow,” Mr Tan elaborated.

This green initiative is in conjunction with the launch of the 3M eCommerce Platform (www.3Mmarketplace.com.sg), where car owners can directly purchase solar films from 3M online. Members of the public can recognised the 50 designated taxis as they will carry 3M advertising with the taxi wrap media, in addition to being installed with the crystalline solar films.

Mr Soh Piak San, 54, who has been driving a Comfort Delgro cab for 11years and one of the 50 at the wheel of the designated 3M taxis, said, “Singapore is so hot and humid. We are in our taxis for at least eight hours a day. With the 3M™ Crystalline Solar Films installed, we can feel the difference – it is much cooler and helps us save energy as we don’t have to turn up the air-conditioning. Add to that, it also protects us from harmful UV rays!”

Mr Lim Ser Teck, 39, concurred, “I’ve been driving a taxi since I was 25 and 3M window films do stand out. Not only do they make the cab cooler when it’s really hot, they also do not affect radio signals and GPS unlike some other films!”

Via Straits Times:

The Housing & Development Board (HDB) on Thursday announced that 45 blocks in Punggol will be fitted with solar panels in Singapore’s first solar leasing project, marking a milestone in the country’s fledgling solar industry.

Local solar manufacturer Sunseap Enterprises bagged the tender to design, finance and install the 2 MWp (mega-watt peak) solar system in Punggol Eco-Town.

HDB will foot 30 per cent of the start up costs at $3.28 million. The company will pay the rest of the cost, but will recover this over the next 20 years by selling the solar power generated from the solar panels to Pasir-Ris Punggol Town Council at a preferential rate not higher than the current electricity tariff.

HDB’s chief executive Cheong Koon Hean said yesterday that Punggol, as Singapore’s first eco-town, ‘is the ideal location for us to expand our solar PV (photovoltaic) installations through solar leasing’.

“They work when they’re cold, when there is no sun, and facing almost any direction. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider a few solar myths?

“If you’ve given any thought to the benefits of solar power, you’ve probably realised at least two things: You need to live in a sunny climate and, most importantly, you need to have your solar panels facing south. Without these things, the conventional wisdom goes, you’re not going to get much benefit from a solar array. A west-facing roof in Seattle? Forget about it.

“1 Block Off The Grid, dispels these notions by showing that solar power can work extraordinarily well in climates and conditions that aren’t necessarily optimum. The infographic is full of testimonials from people who live in cloudy or cold climates, noting that their solar panels are working perfectly well.”

The full infographic:

Maybe we ought to think more about how we can get high quality solar panels onto our roofs, installed by qualified engineers, maintained by educated and experienced technicians, and other controls to ensure that solar energy is adopted quicker in Singapore no?

Polymer_Jelly

“A new polymer jelly could be the next big step forward for lithium batteries.

“The jelly replaces the volatile and hazardous liquid electrolyte currently used in most lithium batteries.

“Once on the market, the lithium jelly batteries could allow lighter laptop computers, and more efficient electric cars.”

Before some super new electrolyte is discovered or created, this seems like the perfect interim for anything powered by lithium batteries – anything from laptops to cars. The jelly polymer prevents what is known as “thermal runaway”, which is phenomenon that causes your batteries to heat up after prolonged usage.

I wonder how long it’ll be before the technology becomes commercial. I’ve got my eye on this development. You should too.

The National Climate Change Secretariat in Singapore has launched a portal to gather public feedback on climate change. According to the website:

The NCCS-2012 will build upon our approach to environmental issues as outlined in previous publications such as the Singapore Green Plan (2006) , the National Climate Change Strategy (2008), the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint (2009) and National Communications on Climate Change (2010).

These policies relating to climate change will have an impact on many of us. The Government is therefore embarking on a series of public consultations to seek feedback and ideas on climate change-related issues. We aim to reach out to different segments of the population through an online consultation exercise, focus group sessions and community forums.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean kicked off the process, and “feedback from the exercise will go towards developing the national climate change strategy 2012″, which “will be an important foundation to the long term strategy and actions needed to tackle climate change beyond 2020″. (He has some quotable quotes on CNA, which you might want to check out)

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Check out the website, and have your views heard

“The not-for-profit organisation (WindMade™) aims to give eco-conscious consumers worldwide the option to choose products based on sustainability, and hope that informing customers about how goods are made will encourage more businesses to invest in wind power.”

“Supported by a team of large brands – Vestas Wind Systems, The Global Wind Energy Council, WWF, UN Global Compact, The LEGO Group, PwC and Bloomberg – WindMade™ urges other companies to follow their lead, and believes that these collaborations will ultimately offer consumers an opportunity to invest in a fully sustainable futures.”

Cool. Check out their video (because we all love watching videos):

WindMade™, unfortunately, will likely not be too suitable or relevant to us here in Singapore. Last I checked, there aren’t any wind farms in the vicinity currently, and we are huge supporters of local brands and such. In any case, I can totally get behind this labeling scheme.

More please!

Hundreds of millions of people use the internet everyday, and it isn’t ecologically free. No prizes for guessing which single webpage uses the largest percentage of energy.

That’s right. It’s Facebook!

(click on the picture for the full image, and don’t forget to like us)

Good Information for anyone who’s considering switching to energy efficient lighting.

From GOOD:

Click on the picture for a blown up version.

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Now the stuff written in this email is not entirely true, or can be a potential source of misinformation (as such emails tend to be). I’m going to attempt to demystify things, so let’s get cracking!

Let me start saying that there are very small amount of mercury in older bulbs that are FLUORESCENT and this mercury, is sealed in the glass tubing. Mercury is essential for the fluorescent bulb to provide light, and it is still in use in lighting products, because it’s an efficient way to do it. Over the years, however, bulb manufacturers have been steadily decreasing the mercury contained in CFL bulbs.

So how much Mercury is contained in fluorescent bulbs? An average of 4 milligrams (mg), according to the US Environment Protection Agency. Is this 4 mg’s harmful? Here’s Treehugger’s little analysis:

“A CFL containing 5 mg of mercury breaks in your child’s bedroom that has a volume of about 25 m3 (which corresponds to a medium sized bedroom). The entire 5 mg of mercury vaporizes immediately (an unlikely occurrence), resulting in an airborne mercury concentration in this room of 0.2 mg/m3. This concentration will decrease with time, as air in the room leaves and is replaced by air from outside or from a different room. As a result, concentrations of mercury in the room will likely approach zero after about an hour or so.

Under these relatively conservative assumptions, this level and duration of mercury exposure is not likely to be dangerous, as it is lower than the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard of 0.05 mg/m3 of metallic mercury vaporaveraged over eight hours. [To equate these values, we could estimate the average indoor airborne mercury concentration for 8 hours, beginning post-spill at an estimated starting value of 0.2 mg/m3 and decreasing from there. If one assumes the the air exchanges completely in one hour (a fairly standard assumption), then the 8-hour average concentration would be 0.025 mg/m3.]“.

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Now of course, I’m not saying that one should not be cautious when a bulb (that contains mercury) breaks, do get everyone out of the room, air the room, and wait for a few minutes before attempting to clean up. Handle these bulbs with care, like you would with anything that’s toxic.

But, I’ll also need to point out, that this isn’t any different from eating processed foods, using batteries, thermostats and all other electronic, cleaning and beauty products that contain toxic chemicals (that’s most of them, by the way). In fact, you’re probably already enjoying some mercury with the seafood that you’re eating! (Please Read “Are Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs Dangerous” from Scientific America). At the end of the day, there are lot’s of other things that you interact with on a daily basis that are not good for you (please see The Story of Cosmetics).

And this brings me to my bigger problem with the email: It is not “Energy Saving Bulbs” that contain mercury, but any lamp that is Fluorescent.

“Energy Saving Bulbs” are, in this email, referring to CFL’s or Compact Fluorescent Lamps which are a class of fluorescent lighting. Now Fluorescent lighting has been around for literally, decades. CFL’s are the newer class of (energy efficient) lighting that replaced the old fluorescent tube technology (they made it smaller, hence the word, compact).

Although, old fluorescent tubes, are still very common in a lot of buildings and some homes, the point I’m trying to make is that mercury (or any other toxic chemicals) in our products are not a recent phenomenon. Please point this out to anyone who tells you that “Energy Saving Bulbs cause serious danger“, because that’s not entirely true (as you will see below).

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OK. So perhaps you’re the sort that doesn’t want to take a risk, or would like to be able to drop a light bulb without worrying about it, here are some alternatives:

• Incandescent, which are the ancient, energy inefficient lighting that are being phased out at IKEA (please also read Energy Star’s comparison between Incandescent lighting and CFL’s, and how CFL’s actually help reduce the macro amount of Mercury pollution in the air and oceans). This is the bad, and expensive alternative.
• Energy Efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LED) which were considered a very expensive lighting choice once upon a time, due to high retail prices. In 2011, we’re starting to see them become competitive with CFL’s, over their long lifecycle. And they can look pretty nice as shown below.
• VU1’s Electron Stimulated Luminescence™ Bulb, a new technology, uses accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor to create light, making the surface of the bulb “glow”. Energy efficient, relatively cheap and mercury free, what a win! check them out.

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I think I’ve sorted through these issues with enough detail, but if you have any questions, concerns, or would like some help with energy saving lighting (or anything else), please contact us!