Australian coal-fired plant captures CO2 from flue gases

July 10, 2008   by Jozef Winter

In a move that’s a first for Australia, the Yang Power Station, a coal-fired facility located in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, has captured CO2 directly from the flue gases in what is being called a PCC, a post-combustion-capture device, which is being tested as a pilot project. The 35 foot high device has been designed to capture 1000 tons of CO2 annually, and upon successful testing could be expanded to capture more. The CO2 is trapped in a liquid, which the gases pass through, but it was not revealed what would then be done with that CO2 laden material. As the project progresses, they expect to test various other liquids to see which are the most effective at absorbing and retaining the CO2.

The whole system has been designed and implemented by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), and has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants by 85%, quite a good thing considering that over 80% of the country’s power comes from coal. While investing resources into solar in a country that receives a considerable amount of sunshine around the year, economic concerns have forced the government to rely on the attempt to “green” coal as the employment, export revenues, and cheap power coming from coal have been too strong for the current party to ignore. Still, for those coal plants that will remain, it is a great lead forward, assuming we can convert the carbon into a solid form, or sequester it permanently.

via physorg

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GM will build world’s largest rooftop solar array, with Velcro!

July 9, 2008   by Jozef Winter

General Motors has announced that they are planning on building the world’s largest rooftop solar installation, to be located on their car manufacturing plant in Zaragosa, Spain. Well, ok, GM is not actually building it, or even owning it, or operating it, so it might just be a bit of green marketing to offset their continued image as a gas-guzzling SUV-building car company, but it’s still some good news. What seems to be buried in all the releases and news reports is that Clairvoyant Energy, a US-based company, will be running the show, essentially just using the dead roof space of the GM plant. But good on GM for putting all that space to good use.

The project, currently underway and expected to be completed in September, will have a nominal power output of 10 MW, peaking at 11.87 MW. The system will be composed of a whopping 84,848 solar panels, covering 2,000,000 square feet. What’s most amazing is that the panels are made up of a flexible photovoltaic laminate attached to a membrane… by Velcro! These panels are rated for winds up to 100mph, so they are really tough. The project will use 212 miles of Velcro in the installation and should reduce about 7,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. The plant will utilize the power and also sell excesses to the market, with the ability to power 4,600 homes.

GM actually has two of the largest PV installations in the US in two of their parts plants in California and is planning to install solar panels on one of their facilities in Russia.

via physorg

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It’s now the law: EU airlines will have to cut CO2 emissions

July 8, 2008   by Jozef Winter

Airlines contribute to 3% of all CO2 emissions in Europe and an EU panel has included the industry in their Emission Trading Scheme. The scheme, which is an elaborate carbon (and other emission) trading program, allows for certain levels of CO2 to be emitted annually, and portions these amounts to companies (traditionally for free, but now more and more is being auctioned off). Any companies that have “unused” emissions credits can sell them to the market, encouraging efficiencies and environmental sustainability. The idea over the next few years is to keep reducing the allowable emissions to be released, making the credits more valuable, and thus reducing emissions levels. The airline industry, with so many emissions, has been lobbying to be excluded from the scheme, arguing that it will hurt business.

Their lobbying unsuccessful, the airline industry will be officially inducted into the plan in 2012, a move that garnered 96% of the vote from the 670 member European Parliament. In their first year, the airlines would have to cut their emissions by 3% and then by 5% in 2013. They will also need to buy 15% of their credits immediately. A spokesperson from Lufthansa claims that these measures are “ecologically counter-productive”, whatever that means. What is certain is that it will present a huge financial impact on the industry, which of course will lead to higher fares, though by how much is as yet unclear. The EU expects that this move will encourage the industry to switch to greener planes and the use of biofuels in a bid to reduce net CO2 emissions.

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Toyota Prius to get solar panels on its roof

July 7, 2008   by Jozef Winter

Like the Prius wasn’t good enough already, with its much anticipated 2010 model featuring a plug-in version, it’s getting a set of solar panels on the roof to boot! The wildly popular car, which has already sold over 1 million units and is set to sell half a million annually in the coming years, just keeps getting better and better.

The folks at Toyota have decided to start using that dead space called the roof of a car and turn it into a power center capable of partially running the air conditioning unit, lessening the burden on the batteries. It could also be used to charge the vehicle while parked away from a plug or recharging station, very handy since parking lots, sadly empty of trees and shade, make perfect areas for solar panels to operate.

The panels, which would only come on their higher-end models, should be available next year for purchase.

via physorg

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‘Anaconda’ system drops wave power cost substantially

July 3, 2008   by Jozef Winter

Wave power is one of those renewable resources that everyone seems to agree on; it doesn’t create an (arguably) unsightly view, and doesn’t take up any usable land. It’s also one of those great unbounded sources of energy, and since 2/3rds of the planet is water, there is a lot of wave energy to harness. That’s why we are always happy to see improvements in this technology, and there happens to be quite a big one currently under development.

Imagine a long balloon filled with water, you squeeze one end of it and the rest bulges out. Now replace your fingers with the pressure of a wave and you’ve got a rough concept for the Anaconda, a novel wave energy harnessing device that’s a vast improvement over any wave system around. The Anaconda is a giant rubber tube, 150m in length, and 8m in diameter, filled with water and laying just under the surface of the ocean. Passing waves, “bulge waves”, as they are known, create bulges in the tube, pushing water along until it passes through a generator. A video of a prototype in action can be found here. Their calculations show that in typical waves in the North Atlantic, an Anaconda this size could produce 1 megawatt of power.

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Eco-libris cuts out the guilt of buying paper books

July 1, 2008   by Jozef Winter

Books are awesome, but for those of us who are both avid readers and environmentally conscious, sitting down with our favorite read can sometimes bring us pangs of guilt. And no wonder, roughly 20 million trees are cut down every year to supply virgin paper for the books sold in the US alone. Still, we want our books, and while going to the library is a great way to save some trees, we like to keep some prints for ourselves as references, collections, or just to read over and over again. As technology has improved, many e-reader devices have come out, like Amazon’s Kindle, but what do those of us do who still want the real thing in our hands?

Well luckily there is a solution. Eco-libris is a US-based company that aims to plant a tree for every book printed, including the ones you’ve already got gathering dust on the shelves. The trees (actually 1.3 trees per tree purchased since not all of them survive), are planted in Africa and Central America, helping to combat deforestation and sustain fragile ecosystems.

They are working with many major publishing houses and book stores in North America to have each book printed already “offset,” so that for any new books you buy you’ve already done your part. Read your book, worry free. Ok, so what about the ones you’ve already got? Easy. You can purchase a tree for each book you want for $1, less if you’ve got a massive library and want to buy a veritable forest in one shot.

Eco-libris, while it hasn’t been around for very long, is seeing some great success and they’re setting their sights high, aiming to balance out 500,000 books by the end of the year. We wish them all the best!

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“Storing wind underwater;” video of Garvey’s model in action

June 30, 2008   by Jozef Winter

There has been a lot of press lately about the UK’s Professor Seamus Garvey, a researcher who designed a method of storing the excess energy produced by wind turbines for later use in a very novel way. Essentially it involves Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), a principle that works by compressing air when there is surplus energy available, and typically storing that air in underground reservoirs or bedrock seams. The air is later released when electricity demand outstrips supply, the expanding air turning generator-linked turbines to make up the shortfall. While fine for some areas where the geography permits, it is much more difficult to apply for offshore wind turbines, seeing as they are, well, offshore.

For this he has designed massive conical bags into which the air will be pumped. These will sit on the sea or ocean floor and the surrounding water pressure will maintain a constant squeeze on the air, ensuring a compressed state. This storage, however, is not the coolest part of the system. Unlike some CAES projects, the air is not being compressed in a conventional compressor, but is being made by a piston which will reside in the turbine blades themselves. The torque of the spinning blades, along with gravity, forces the piston to move, compressing the air as it does so. The video, after the jump, illustrates this well.

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Biofuel use expands as Brazil begins exporting ethanol

June 27, 2008   by Jozef Winter

Brazil is the 2nd largest producer of ethanol in the world, mostly produced from sugar cane, it makes up a third of all ethanol on the globe. Together with the United States, their numbers reach 70% of current production. In 2007, the country pumped out over 5 billion gallons of the fuel from their refineries like the one pictured above, and is putting some of that on the market for export, specifically to Sweden.

Sekab, the leader in ethanol production in Europe, has come to an agreement with 4 Brazilian firms who will supply it with 30 million gallons. This is different from other export deals as Sekab has required the companies to abide by certain environmental and social standards, ensuring that the fuel is sustainable and that worker rights are recognized. This comes out of direct consumer concern over the potentially harmful agricultural practices in Brazil, deforestation, pollution, as well as the country’s poor record of forced and exploitive labor.

The Brazilian mills will get a premium to the tune of 5-10% as compensation for meeting these standards, and their compliance will be monitored by an independent auditor.

via Mongabay

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Cheaper LEDs to come out of new standards

June 27, 2008   by Jozef Winter

We love LED lights; they can provide as much illumination as our erstwhile friend the incandescent, but at a small fraction of the power consumption, and they can last you an entire lifetime (it would be amusing to bequeath some LEDs to my future offspring), having a typical life of 50,000 hours. The problem, though, is that they are so expensive. Part of that has to do with the fact that they are, relatively, new technology and that there aren’t enough facilities tooled to make them yet, but also because they are so great, companies know they can charge an arm and a leg for them. Another big part, however, is that there aren’t any common standards set for LEDs, but that is now changing.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), along with other national standards organizations have put together the first standards regulating lumens, wattage efficiency, and chromaticity (color quality). This will allow manufacturers to work on a common base, which should lead to standard components and greater economies of scale. What this means is that once everyone is using the same (or similar) core components, prices can drop drastically and companies can begin to produce more LEDs more easily, setting up shop quickly. This is big news for manufacturers in China, who will likely start producing the majority of the world’s LED lighting.

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Chinese wind power doubling over the next 2 years

June 26, 2008   by Jozef Winter

At the end of 2007, China had only slightly over 4 gigawatts (GW) of of installed wind turbines, but they are on track to hit and surpass 10 GW by the end of the year, and double that to 20 GW over the next 2 years. This is exceeding even the government’s own calculations by quite a large amount. And since the country gets 80% of its power from coal, we’re happy to see the country heading in this direction.

The great news is, it’s not just the State-owned power grid, but traditional power generators and new investors who are sinking their money in the profit-making turbines, showing a great commitment for both clean energy and one that is not fossil-fuel dependent. The interest is so great, in fact, that an additional 1.6 GW of turbines are not figured into the calculations. They are installed and ready to go, but the eagerness to build them outpaced the actual planning to get them hooked up to the grid!

In the coming years China will be building massive wind farms, many on the grasslands of Mongolia where the winds are strong and reliable, harnessing 1 GW + per farm. If only the US was as eager to install wind turbines as the Chinese, the country wouldn’t be lagging so far behind in renewable energies such as those in Europe.
via Reuters

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