Google Plug-Ins Get Great Mileage

As a supplier of electricity, IDT Energy is interested in the latest trends in the development of improved electric car technology. Here is an interesting item from something Google.org has been up to lately.

Google.org is the organizational arm of Google.com. As such they are committed to improving the world in many different ways. One of those ways is a Google.org initiative to reduce CO2 emissions, reduce the use of oil, encouraging greater use of plug-in electric cars in order to stabilize the electric grid.

In Mountain View, California, Google headquarters, there is a fleet of demonstration vehicles to run experiments with and compile data on how well these cars can do.

During a recent experiment Google asked some of their employees to drive these cars for seven weeks and see how they did. They observed an average of 93 mpg for all trips, and 115 mpg for trips just in the city. Remarkable!

Oil Prices Determine Renewable Energy's Attractiveness

IDT Energy has been scanning the news for information about the developing renewable energy industry. What we’ve found a few factors influencing the shape of the industry today.

1. Energy Prices: The higher oil and natural gas cost, the more attractive renewable energy becomes. The opposite is also true. Lower prices for oil and gas make renewable energy less attractive.

2. Availability of Credit: When loans are hard to get people cannot install various types of energy technology. Even if it will save money in the long term, if people don’t have the cash to install, for instance, a solar system in their home, if the bank won’t lend them the money, it won’t get installed.

3. Federal Tax Credit: There is a tax credit of 30% on the installation of renewable energy projects for commercial and residential use. The $2000 cap was removed for residential systems, and the incentive was extended to utilities. The credit, originally enacted in 2005 has been extended until 2016.

4. Election of President Obama: Setting a goal of 25% of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources by the year 2025 and calling for $150 billion in invests over 10 years in clean energy and infrastructure, it is clear that for this administration green energy is a priority.

IDT Energy Says "ReDuce, ReUse, ReCycle!"

Looking for some great new ways to teach your kids about the importance of recycling? Check out the web site of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Kids Pages. Here you will find some fun ways to learn about our environment, to take responsibility and to take practical steps to help our planet.

You can learn exactly what “waste” is and how to “reduce, reuse and recycle.”

1. Reduce: Buy less and use less! In the United States this is an especially “large” problem. Learn ways to help solve it.

2. Reuse: Either reuse something instead of throwing it away, or give it to someone who can use it. It is good to remember that “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

3. Recycle: When you bring materials that can be reused to special places where they are remade into either the same item or a different item, you are recycling. Did you know that plastic soda bottles can be remade into T-shirts? Cool. A lot better than filling up a big hole in the ground!

Here Comes the Sun

IDT Energy‘s green program offers its customers the ability to choose renewable sources of energy as part of the source of their electrical production. Among the more popular types of renewable energy is solar energy.

Ultimately almost all types of renewable energy are derived from the sun. Secondary solar energy sources such as wind power, wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass in addition to primary solar energy resources like light and heat make up just about all of the Earth’s renewable energy resources.

At the moment we use only a tiny fraction of the potential energy from the sun, but we are beginning to develop ever more advanced technological methods of harnessing the sun’s energy.