The unfortunate thing about solar panels as it stands is the most successful technology is also the oldest. Which is silicon solar cells, but they have fairly long lives 20 years plus for Polycrystalline and Polycrystalline types, and 10 plus years for amorphous type. 

There are other technologies out there that may have potential such Diamond film solar cells, Organic solar cells, dye solar cells and other miscellaneous semiconductor solar cells but they have their drawbacks. Longevity for example is an issue, dye and organic cells less than five year life span, the other semiconductor are just as expensive and are new technologies so no one is certain how long they will last in the field.

My personal favorite tech is diamond film solar cells, which don't really work like the others at all. It draw back is it only produces 0.1 V which means it is has high energy losses for now. But it will cheap to produce on a large scale using methane(major component of natural gas ) as its feed source. The purity of the stock needed would be low, and diamonds are very stable. However the funding for this technology is almost non existent so who knows, the best technologies don't often make it to market. However Google may change that:)

Check this site out if you want to know more about diamond film solar cells.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0104/14diamondarrays/

Transport of goods globally is a necessary evil but if sails were added to the world's shipping fleets it could cut those emissions by half and thats an estimated 146 million tonnes. To place that in perspective the entire UK produces the same amount in a year.

Check out this web site it will give more information,

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/supersizedkites/index.asp.

I wonder if Google would consider funding projects with ideas coming form developing countries? I think that they are funding relatively high risk renewable energy projects is great. I salute their foresight.

Hey Build Right,

I know FlexFlow Elbow is made by Thermaflex and their website is www.flexflowelbow.com.

Hope this helps!

I would agree that mandating the use of solar power in all new homes may not be a good idea. I do believe that anyone who chooses to install,l solar power should be able to do so. Thus Zoning Boards who think that solar panels are ugly should not be allowed to stop, a person with some concern for the environment from doing their part to help improve it.

 I especially like the Tape type wind generator as it would be independent of wind direction. However i expect that the delivered power would be small but the again if it was enough power to power some LED lights to read bu it would be worth it.

It's a good idea, and a nice effort on cokes part.   I remember way back when McDonalds was trying to recycle inside there restaurants, but no one cared and mixed all the trash together.  I live in TN and there isn't a deposit, so most of the bottles end up in the trash can.  I kinda wish there was a deposit here and then I think there would be more recycling going on.

the iaq standards are important because LEED is very concerned with the quality of the space that humans are likely going to be inhabiting through out the day- the inside of the building.

poor iaq can  even result in more worker sick days or just a generally miserable place to work in.  and ultimately the most sustainable buildings are the ones that people want to be in... you can have all the solar panels and grey water in the world but if the building is stuffy inside and people are falling asleep at their desks it isn't going to be a successful building

the way that LEED works is not to dictate the number of fixtures put into place but instead to determine if through use of more efficient fixtures you are able to reduce the baseline consumption of water by those fixtures.  LEED assumes based on the occupancy of the building that there will be a particular usage rate by each occupant and that is what you use to come up with the total usage.

just because a building that only needs 2 toilets by occupancy has 50 toilets doesn't mean that more water is going to be used.  granted you have used more materials and resources to install those 48 toilets their presense doesn't hurt your expected water usage.

If it is too cold, you can go for worm composting instead. But the worms need to be placed in a warm place.