Ned Ward wrote on Wed, 05 January 2011 01:35 |
I'd research instead what all those trucks could do to maximize their mileage - Wal*Mart started doing this a few years ago, looking at small things like under-carriage aerodynamics, etc. It can start adding up. Given they have the 2nd largest trucking fleet in the US, could be worth looking into.
http://move.rmi.org/markets-in-motion/case-studies/trucking/ wal-mart-s-truck-fleet.html
http://www.industryweek.com/articles/wal-marts_trucks_go_gre en_13835.aspx
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/ 08/07/8382593/
Quote: | On its fleet of 7,200 trucks Wal-Mart determined it could save $26 million a year in fuel costs merely by installing auxiliary power units that enable the drivers to keep their cabs warm or cool during mandatory ten-hour breaks from the road. Before that, they'd let the truck engine idle all night, wasting fuel.
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Wal*Mart may be many things to many people (great, demons, etc.) but these moves on their trucking fleet were also spurred by saving money that happened to also be green.
Other thing to look at would be operational logistics. Some tour dates and locations seem almost to be without rhyme and reason, crossing the same area(s) multiple times. There are optimization algorithms to minimize fuel costs that could be used to help plan dates better, albeit these would have to be weighed against marketing concerns.
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Interesting. For me it is normal to see trucks with independent heating / AC, only some east european trucks were idling in the 90s in the cue on the polish border.
1. there are no long cues there anymore
2. the trucks are more modern now
So it's cost of energy (in this example fuel) that drives efficiency. I suppose this is the strongest driving force for improvements.
So, thinking of green concerts, did anybody hear of accurate energy bills? So is any promoter concerned about how much energy a concert / festival uses? Or is it just a side note like "we want that act, it just doesn't matter because the catering bill is so much higher" or "we have a flat rate energy bill for the festival". In the second case money can be safed by using a smaller rated energy supply.
On the other hand, electricity for late night concerts is costing near-to-nothing, at some days we have negative prices for energy at the stock exchange.
So, talking about venue electricity usage only, the real savings start when venues are billed for what they use, not for what they could use, depending on their utility value.
Another note about bio fuel: Whenever a farmer decides to farm bio fuel, we have to eat a bit more crap. Why are we not making the bio fuel from crap (bio waste) and eat the good stuff? Honestly, I don't get this.