So I was glancing over some of my blog entries and I noticed that I seem to have a stance on clean, renewable energy that, while I knew I had, didn't realize it was as strong as it seems to come out in this blog.
Speaking of which, I've been checking up on Costner's contribution to the cleanup. It seems they have had a press conference announcing the platform where four (4) of the centrifuge devices will be stationed while they separate the oil from the water. The name of the ship carrying the four devices is called the "Ella G". Word is, it's capable of removing oil from the water but only 10ft down from the vessel, which if the oil was floating on top of the water, probably wouldn't be a problem. However, since the oil has since been dispersed, I'm personally not sure how its going to do. The idea is for the filtered water to be funneled back out and the oil to be stored in tanks. Below is a video showing a flyover of the Ella G.
Ella G Fly-By from Ocean Therapy Solutions on Vimeo.
The best I can find says the Ella G sailed earlier this month (July 8th-ish) and has been out there since bringing the number of Coster's devices that are currently being used up to 9. All 32 that BP signed a contract for, are scheduled to be in operation by the end of August. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down any numbers to find out if the V20 is living up to its potential but it seems that they are at least doing well.
One of the articles I read mentioned that at 1:40 into the video above, the guy mentions that they haven't quite yet gotten the amount down below 15 parts per million yet which may mean they are holding the oily water in the tanks onboard. Hard to decipher though and that's purely conjecture. And this video was made almost a month ago.
In other eco-news, Google has just recently brokered a deal to purchase wind energy (114 megawatts of wind generation as the pros say) at a set rate for the next 20 years from the NextEra Energy Resources facility in Iowa. This move makes them carbon neutral. Just FYI.
Some of my sources...
ecorazzi.com
nola.com
Mashable
GOOD blog
Official Google Blog
