Not MPG - GP1kM

That's Gallons Pr. 1000 Miles - a better way to understand fuel savings. Why? Because most people (including me) imagine fuel savings as linear, meaning that every 1 MPG saved is less gas used no matter your vehicle. So going from 25 mpg to 50 mpg should save more than going from 10 mpg to 20 right? Not true, and you can see why in this video from Duke University:



Here is a graph shoing how many gallons you use over 1000 miles in cars ranging from 10 to 100 MPG. As you can see, it gets exponentially more difficult to achieve a 50% reduction in fuel usage.



Of course, if you can go from 10 mpg to 50 mpg that would be the best, but if you have the option of upgrading one of two cars, go for the low MPG one first!

Big Oil, Meet Big Wind

I ran across this story about the largest wind turbine order ever and it struck me as big deal. The deal, worth $2 Billion will build 667 wind turbines in northern Texas and produce 1,000 Megawats of electricity.

To compare, the Comanche Peak Steam Electric Nuclear plant in Texas produces about 1,150 Megatats of electricity and cost $11 Billion in 1993. Or about $16 Billion in todays dollars. And this is just the beginning of an extended four part project that will be able to produce 4,000 Megawatts by 2014 for a grand total of $11 Billion.

But the bigger deal than all of this is who is funding it. The billionaire and conservative Oklahoma Oil man with just the right the name for the business, T. Boone Pickens, Jr. When the big players at the top start shifting their resources from the discovery and exploitation of new oil resources into projects like this they are not doing it for any environmentalist reasons, they are doing it for the money. And money is a far more effective motivator!

EDIT: A YouTube Bonus for anyone who has seen "There Will Be Blood"

EDIT II: T.Boone Pickens is a really interesting, and incredibly smart fellow. He has a May 6th 2008 interview that you can watch here. It is quite long.

Best quote on how he made $255 Million from $4 Million in a year.

What I did was for the first time I wrote down the steps to do this, as I did them. And I just kept doing those same ones over and over again. In the past when I made money I would forget how I did it.

He also talks about the future of American energy in great detail.

EDIT III: Ok, just one more. Boone relating a story about about the "ugliness" of wind turbines from an old man who is going to have one built on his ranch, "I tell you boon, I cant see as good as I used to, but I can see money, and those turbines look like money." Thats it, isn't it?

Of course, coming from St. Olaf I think they fit in the landscape far better than anyone gives them credit. They can be awe inspiring!

Free fridge

Via BoingBoing is a thought that should seem obvious on a chilly day like today. Your house is heated to 72˚. Your fridge is cooled 38˚ and your freezer is cooled to 15˚. But your refrigerator is sucking in 72˚ air from the kitchen into itself and at great cost cooling it down to keep your food fresh. But meanwhile, it is 32˚ outside and it has been cold for months and months. And in the summer, we are taking cooled air, turning it into colder air, and then exhaust of now hot air is going back into our cooled houses! So why not use some of that free cold outside air in the winter, and vent out that hot air in the summer?

There is one company that does this called Freeaire, but only for walk-in coolers and freezers. They describe it in fewer words:

"But it's in colder climates, where the words "snow", "ice" and "wind-chill factor" are often heard, that the Freeaire has a special talent. It taps into the greatest source of refrigeration ever created: winter. "

More of this please.