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Well, I’m on the road again. After being trapped in a pressurized aluminum tube, hurtling along at 500mph nearly 7 miles above sea level, I landed in Frankfurt and then got on a train to travel to Heidelberg. Finally, I took a taxi to get from there to Walldorf and visit the office. It’s dark and despite not sleeping for 24+ hours, I’m not tired…

From what I can see of Heidelberg thus far, it’s a very nice little city in the Germany countryside.

The ultimate waffle maker for geeks – it turns out waffles in the shape of a keyboard! What will we think of next? Who knows, but I do know I love waffles. As a matter of fact, I made a batch from scratch this morning for the family, Belgian style, and they were delicious! If you’re into seriously good waffles, I recommend the Villaware waffle maker – perfect waffles everytime. If you’re into seriously silly waffles, go for the keyboard model below…

Photo Credit: Mike Harding

Rarely has one man done so much harm in so little time. History will look back upon the Bush Administration as a time of stupid, wasteful decisions at a time of real national crisis. The recent trip to the Middle East only serves to illustrate the profound lack of understanding and hubris associated with President Bush and his minions. Since Congress won’t fire the bum, we now have to serve out our long national term (and hope we get credit for time served.) Over the holidays the Bush Countdown Clock was given to me, now, with 365 days left, I find myself hoping that Bush will do what Bush does best, vacation.

In fact, I hope that he takes the entire year off, the country might actually improve in the meantime…

Get your own countdown clock at National Nightmare.

Earlier this year, a company called Lorax Development (Yes, inspired by the Dr. Seuss tale of the same name) opened a home to the public they developed in the Mission District (San Francisco) called the Clipper House. This is a traditional Victorian row house in the neighborhood that has been remodeled, not a new home from the ground up. What makes this house different? It was the culmination of 5 years of effort by the three founders of Lorax, Mike Kerwin, Joel Micucci and Pat Loughran, to demonstrate that a green and efficient home can still be stylish and livable. Boy did they succeed!

Some of the distinct features of the home include:

• Rainwater harvest, cleansing, and storage for use in non-potable areas (for everything other than drinking and bathing)
• Solar PV (photovoltaic) panels to generate electricity
• Solar thermal hot water heater for home radiant heating as well as traditional hot water demands
• Insulation made from recycled denim
• Teak hardwood flooring from recycled railroad ties
• Energy efficient doors and windows
• Foundation is 40% fly ash cement substitute
• Strategically located skylights for sunlight harvest
• Fiber cement siding
• Low VOC paints

Here’s a peek at the inside of the greenest house in San Francisco:

Photo Credit: Inhabitat

Raser Technologies announced significant funding earlier this week from Merrill Lynch for their first 10.5MW power plant in Nevada due to come online in Q3 2008. The funding vehicle is what’s known in the business as a “flip” parternship, where an independent corporate entity (often a LLC) is formed with the funding partner so certain benefits can be distributed to partners as directed by the Managing Members.

C Corporations dictate the benefits are distributed according shareholder percentage. Limited Liability Corporations aren’t bound by that convention so tax benefits for instance, can be distributed as beneficial until some set of requirements are met, then the benefits can be redistributed as agreed. The first tranche appears to be $44M in debt financing over 15 years with tax benefits flowing to Merrill.

Interestingly, using this as a benchmark, the captial cost per MW for the Raser project is $4.2M – higher than the $3M average if all the funds were used for the project. Presumably, the first one will have more expenses than subsequent modules assembled in the same way and the capital cost will be lower over time. Merrill and Raser have an agreement for up to 100MW of projects with options to finance up to 55MW more.