The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed the PVWatts map and calculator tools to give non-experts access to solar radiation data and estimates for grid-tied photovoltaic systems in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, Alaska and Hawaii.  Users click on the map or type in an address to display the amount of sunlight that falls on a square meter at that location over the course of a year, as well as the local cost of electricity.  After identifying a location the user can export the data to the PVWatts Cost Savings Calculator.

The Calculator takes a PV system size, the cost of electricity and the location’s exposure to solar radiation to calculate system efficiency, monthly and yearly cost savings.

Our friend and fellow NCIIA E-Team grant recipient Eben Bayer has an excellent video up on TED.  Eben and his team at Ecovative have been developing a system for the generation of a moldable and durable material from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms.  Their process yields everything from packing material to bricks to insulation, the best part of which being that they can composted at the end of their use.

Sourcemap is a project from MIT postdoc Leo Bonanni that proposes a “crowd–sourced approach to resource accounting through the democratization of sustainable design.”  Visit the site to track user–created supply chains for the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliner, iPhone 3GS or a bottle of water.

As a company that sources components and manufacturing facilities locally, we at SMIT are particularly excited about Sourcemap’s mission.  It has the potential to allow consumers and designers alike to measuring the environmental environmental impact of diverse products and processes and put a face to the name of “sustainability.”

Well, we have not been great s-m-i-t bloggers so far.   In fact, our site has been pretty static since its february launch.  However, you will all be glad to know we have been very busy since then, and things are great here at SMIT.  Keep an eye on the site for some upcoming changes & additions, and look for our first newsletter soon.

Since this is my first post on s-m-i-t, I should tell you a little bit about my interests and what you can expect to see me blogging about.  First things first – I  have developed a real taste for google reader.  I’m all about the feed.  Almost every day I see things that are very relevant to SMIT’s work and I say to myself ‘if I blogged, this would be a good thing to write about…this matters to SMIT’.  Most of these little gems show up in one of four folders in my expanding reader account: arch, design, science, or green.  Sometimes if they are very lucky, they are starred & end up on my delicious page, and are subsequently sent around by Sita, Sam & myself.

I am going to use this blog as another place for this information to live.  I hope that by referencing & writing about my interests in science, architecture, design and sustainability, I can better describe the evolving ambitions and ideology of SMIT.

Hopefully, in the future our posts will be much more frequent then they have been.. and if not, write us and tell us our blog is WEAK! (all caps required.)

Until next time – Ben.