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DARYL HANNAH: Eco Friendly Cars

Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah insists millions of people could follow her example and drive a car fueled by vegetable oil; they just need a diesel engine.

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Hannah talks sense on cars

Based primarily in Colorado, Hannah lives an environmentally-friendly existence with a solar-powered home. When she leaves the confines of her house, she drives around in her 1983 EL CAMINO, which has had no special work done to it to get it running on bio-diesel.

She says, “Basically, in 1900 at the World Fair, RUDOLPH DIESEL invented the diesel engine to run on peanut oil so farmers could grow their own fuel. So any diesel engine can still run on vegetable oil. It doesn’t cause greenhouse gases and has lower carbon dioxide and all the other emissions.

“There are about 250 (gas) stations in the country now that sell it, but you can also order it online. I get it in my little town in the mountains from our local fast food restaurants. They donate it to us and my caretaker makes it. But when I’m in LA, I order it online and it’s delivered in 55 hours with a pump just like you get at a gas station.”

Hannah admits her car often smells of French fries or donuts because of the oil.
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Looking to nature creates a second chance for Welsh Farmers

Faced with a dramatic 75% decline in farming through disasters as diverse as Chernobyl and BSE, many Welsh hill farmers decided to pack up and try a new line in work. Not the three families that make up the Cwmni Gwynt Teg (‘fair wind’ in Welsh) cooperative. When faced with disaster in 1997, this ingenious group looked to the the mountains for inspiration and harnessed the wind, on their own land. They now run the Moel Moelogan Wind farm, a profitable and growing business.…

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Necessity is the Mother of Invention in India

By C.R.Bhattacharjee, 21/10/04

What happens when being off-grid is a necessity and not an option? India has nearly 25000 villages, located in islands or remote areas distant from habitation, where power from grid lines is not techno-commercially feasible. These villages, where population generally varies between 100-1000 are usually inhabited by financially weaker sections of society whose inability to pay for cost of power is a key factor. Their demand for power is primarily for lights to replace kerosene followed by small requirement for water supply.…

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Events

Campaign to change Planning permission

At the BBC they call him the Jamie Oliver of Architecture, but we think of him as the Corbusier of TV presenters: Architect Charlie Luxton made his BBC series on Guerrilla Homes last month the start of a campaign to change the planning rules (zoning laws in the US).

We want to join in.

Charlie Luxton
Luxton – wants planners to permit ecohouses

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Free electricity, from fryer grease

Green Trust, a renewable energy research center, powers their facilities with waste vegetable oil. Their 12.5 kw Detroit Diesel 2-71 generator (the VeggieGen) happily slurps used fryer grease instead of diesel fuel. It’s clean burning, renewable, and a recycled product that normally gets landfilled. See the details at www.green-trust.org

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Cycle in the city

The International Cycle Show 2004, London, is taking place right now, until the 26th Sept, at the Business Design Centre in Angel.

Your chance to see the new 2005 models and accessories.

Fee: 10 – for more information see www.cycleshow.co.uk

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BBC TV series on unusual places to live

Finding and buying your first home has never been harder, we are told, so it should come as no surprise that people are looking for other ways to live. And there are more than you might think. On TV series “Guerrilla Homes, ” architect Charlie Luxton looks at ingenious ways of solving the nationwide crisis in affordable housing. Here are 10 of the most striking – though not necessarily practical – ways to get ahead without getting a house.…

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Energy

Biofuel conversion kits

Running your car on vegetable oil will save money and reduce your impact on the environment. It is possible to convert diesel cars to vegetable oil by simply installing a fuel modification system.

Greasecar

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Energy

Inspiration comes first

The Eco- marathon we previewed last week was a close contest between ‘Inspiration’ and ‘Team Green’ on Sunday at the
Grampian Transport Museum in Scotland. Team Green took the lead after the first run with Inspiration not far behind.

InspirationInspiration in action

They both improved in the second run as Inspiration closed the gap and finally went into the lead on the third run.…

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Energy

Scotland hosts eco-car race

The lightest, smallest cars in the world will be competing this weekend in a strange car race in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Gho2stHydrogen car Gh2ost and its driver

Teams from all over the planet will drive their vehicles around a 10-mile track during the Scottish round of the Eco-marathon, an annual fuel economy competition organised by Shell Global Solutions programme.…

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