Photos: Wind and Solar Power in Europe

A recent trip around Europe via high-speed rail revealed a landscape dotted with enormous wind turbines and solar installations. But no country on the continent has made a greater push towards renewable energy than Germany. In Germany there are residential rooftop solar installations all across the country thanks to feed-in tariffs from the German Renewable Energy Act of 2000. Besides Germany, I also saw lots of wind farms in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and other European Union nations.

Here are solar and wind photos from Germany and Spain.

EUROPE SOLAR AND WIND

GERMANY

SPAIN

Photos: Solar Power in Israel

Did you know that the United States consumes 4.40 trillion kilowatt hours of electric energy per year? That is nearly a trillion more kwh than China. Did you also know that the average American hot shower consumes 4000 watts per day? That makes hot showers the highest power activity most Americans undertake in a day. (Thanks to the website Power SuperSite for this information.)

But what happens when you live in a country where water and fossilized energy are in short supply and your oil-rich neighbors are your sworn enemies? You reclaim water, become more energy efficient and look to the sun, wind and other renewable power sources to meet your energy needs.

Welcome to Israel, where solar water heaters are used in over 90% of homes. But rooftop solar water heaters didn't just happen because Israeli citizens suddenly decided to do the right thing. After the energy crisis of the 1970s, the Knesset in 1980 passed a law requiring the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes.

More from Wikipedia:

"As of the early 1990s, all new residential buildings were required by the government to install solar water-heating systems, and Israel's National Infrastructure Ministry estimates that solar panels for water-heating satisfy 4% of the country's total energy demand. Israel and Cyprus are the per-capita leaders in the use of solar hot water systems with over 90% of homes using them.

The Ministry of National Infrastructures estimates solar water heating saves Israel 2 million barrels of oil a year."

Here are photos of solar water heaters in Israel.

ISRAEL SOLAR WATER HEATERS

KIBBUTZ LAHAV

MITZPE RAMON

JERUSALEM

Photos: Occupy DC Turns into Tent City

This past summer I saw tent city protests all over Israel. These mostly young Israelis pitched tents to protest the high housing costs and lack of affordable housing in Israel. Voluntarily living in tents was a powerful symbolic demonstration. Well, the tent cities have come to our shores, at least in Washington, D.C. as part of the Occupy DC branch of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement. But these tents are for more practical purposes -- to protect the growing community of the hunkered-down demonstrators in McPherson Square from the rain and harsh elements as cool fall weather settles in and winter will bring the cold and snow to the nation's capital.

Here are recent photos.

Photos and Videos: Europe High-Speed Trains

Imagine one day traveling on a high-speed train from Washington to New York in 96 minutes or Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 hours 38 minutes. As the super sleek bullet-nosed marvel of modern engineering climbs to a top of speed of 220 mph (354 kph) on a dedicated high-speed track, the sensation you feel is of flying on an airplane at 30,000 feet. You look out the window as entire towns pass by in a blink of an eye. As you speed through The Garden State you briefly notice on your left a backlog of planes waiting to take off from Newark International Airport and on your right an epic traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike. But before you know it the train is tunneling underneath the Hudson River and gliding into a spacious new railway station as you realize that you left Washington and arrived in New York in the time it would have taken you to drive to the airport and pass through security or reach as far as Baltimore in rush hour gridlock.

High-speed rail in California, the Northeast Corridor and other regions could become reality soon as pundits and politicians debate the merits of investing in 21st century train travel while China and other countries rapidly build extensive high-speed rail networks. With high-speed rail such a hot topic here in America, I wanted to visit a part of the world where fast trains have been a part of the fabric of life for a long time. Riding the rails was the main reason I took a trip to Europe this past summer. My Eurorail pass opened my eyes to a way of life where citizens enjoy timely and efficient city-to-city rail service that is competitive with air and automobile travel.  Here are some photos of the high-speed trains I took followed by video of riding the rails through the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, France and Spain.

EUROSTAR

DEUTSCHE BAHN

THALYS

TGV

RENFE

Here are more photos of high-speed rail in Europe.

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Photos: Bike Sharing Around the World

Here in Washington, D.C. we recently celebrated the first anniversary of the wildly popular Capital Bikeshare bike sharing system. It is a point of pride in the nation's capital that the largest bike sharing system in North America has become such a success. With demand so high, CaBi is adding new stations in The District and Arlington County, Virginia and expanding to Alexandria, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland. The apple red bicycles are a hit with locals and tourists alike and are a potent reminder to politicians on Capitol Hill that voters ride bikes and expect our national and regional leaders to increase funding for bicycle infrastructure, education and safety across America.

The aim is build up bike sharing in D.C. and other U.S. cities that rival those in Europe. A trip to Europe this past summer reveals that, at least in Washington, D.C., we have come a long way to achieving that goal. Here are photos of bike sharing systems from my recent trip to Europe and Israel.

LONDON - BARCLAY'S CYCLE HIRE

BRUSSELS - VILLO!

BERLIN - CALL A BIKE

PARIS - VELIB

BARCELONA - BICING

TEL AVIV - TEL-O-FUN

Boarding the Bus: Tel Aviv to Kibbutz Lahav

August 1, 2011 -- After spending six days exploring Tel Aviv-Yafo, it was time to be assigned to the kibbutz I would be working on. The Kibbutz Volunteer Center directed me to Kibbutz Lahav, which meant an hour-and-a-half bus drive south from Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv Central Bus Station is now the second largest bus depot in the world after the Millennium Park Depot in New Delhi, India opened a year ago. Most Israelis use buses for intercity travel so it is an impressive site to see so many buses coming and going every few seconds. The station opened in 1993 but the seven-story structure seems much older. There is a run-down shopping mall that occupies much of the space with over 1,000 shops and restaurants. Only three of the seven floors are used as a bus terminal and the maze of escalators can be hard to navigate, especially if you can't read the Hebrew signs.

Lahav is located around 18 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Beersheba and less than a mile west of the 1949 Armistice Agreement Line and Judea and Samaria (West Bank). The bus driver dropped me off a stop too far, at the Lehavim Junction near the planned community of Lehavim. The Kibbutz Lahav volunteer coordinator had to drive to the intersection of Highway 40 and Highway 31 to pick me up.

Soon I would arrive at Lahav for my next adventure -- washing dishes and scrubbing pots and pans at the only Jewish-run pig farm in Israel!

Here is video leaving Tel Aviv Central Bus Station on Metropoline route 351 to Beersheba. Metropoline is a bus company with routes mostly in southern Israel (Egged is the largest transit bus company in Israel). You really get a sense of how much bus traffic there is as we drive past bus after bus after bus on our way out of the busiest station in Israel.



Here are more photos of the bus trip from Tel Aviv to Lehavim Junction. Click here to see the set on Flickr.