Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Recently a trio of entrepreneurs announced an incredible solution for the world’s resource problems: turn the Sahara desert into a source for food, water, and energy. The Sahara Forest Project (.PDF) is a solution that combines seemingly disparate technologies – Concentrated solar power and Seawater Greenhouses – and turns them into a mean, green super-massive biomachine. The elegant system could potentially produce enough energy for all of Africa and Europe while turning one of the world’s most inhospitable regions into a flourishing oasis.The Sahara Forest Project is the brainchild of Charlie Paton, Michael Pawlyn and Bill Watts. The project aims to provide a source of renewable energy, food and water to desert regions around the world by taking a number of proven technologies and merging them into a system that works holistically to do its work. It’s an exciting synergy, as both Seawater greenhouses and concentrated solar power technologies are perfectly suited to work in hot, dry climates.
A Seawater Greenhouse converts sea water into fresh water using nothing more than the sun’s rays. It does this by running air through a structure whose walls are infused with cold sea water. As air enters it is immediately cooled, humidified, and then condensed into fresh water by sunlight.
Concentrated solar power is a technology that utilizes thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight upon a water boiler, heating it to over 1,000 degrees fahrenheit. This generates steam, which in turn drives a turbine to produce energy.
The Sahara Forest Project also has the ability to provide for agricultural growth and development in inhospitable arid regions. Fresh water produced by the Seawater Greenhouses can be used to grow a crops such jathropha, which can easily be turned into biofuel.
The race to go green has taken to the high seas with two Japanese companies saying they will begin work on the world’s first ship to have propulsion engines partially powered by solar energy.Japan’s biggest shipping line Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp said solar panels capable of generating 40 kilowatts of electricity each would be placed on top of a 60,000-tonne car carrier to be used by Toyota Motor Corp.
Bloomberg cleans up his energy act
Bloomberg said he is determined to keep the city’s energy usage at or near its current level even as the population grows. But the city has to increase production of clean energy, he said.“I believe that we’ve got to be willing to do what some other nations — such as France — have already done, and increase our capacity of safe and clean nuclear-generated power,” he said.
Clean energy projects could also “draw power from the tides of the Hudson and East Rivers — something we’re already doing on a pilot basis,” he said.
Bloomberg proposed increasing rooftop solar power production, “which we’ve estimated could meet nearly 20 percent of the city’s need for electricity.”
Companies may also “want to put windfarms atop our bridges and skyscrapers, or use the enormous potential of powerful off-shore winds miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, where turbines could generate roughly twice the energy that land-based windfarms can,” he said.
As the United States’ renewable energy sector grows by leaps and bounds, Pacific Gas & Electric recently announced plans for two gigantic photovoltaic plants in California. The solar installations will be constructed by Sunpower and Optisolar, whose 550 Megawatt plant will best the current proposed largest solar installation in the nation by 50 megawatts. The combined output of both plants will total 800 megawatts – enough to power 239,000 homes!
The moon is once again a popular destination, as several space-faring nations are talking about setting up bases there. One reason would be to mine fuel for future fusion reactors.
Tags: futrism, solar power, solar sunday, wind power
