That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen. Agreements on all sides that core institutions must be protected are rendered meaningless by the very people doing the agreeing. (Luther and the Church both insisted, for years, that whatever else happened, no one was talking about a schism.) Ancient social bargains, once disrupted, can neither be mended nor quickly replaced, since any such bargain takes decades to solidify.And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.
There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.
Posts Tagged ‘futrism’
Journalism and The Revolution
Monday, March 16th, 2009Solar Sunday
Sunday, November 9th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Guess What Markets My Investment Money Is Going To
The election of Barack Obama has put the wind back into the sails of the renewable energy sector, where investor confidence had been badly punctured by the credit crisis. Clean technology and green energy stocks have soared as City analysts predict a major boost from the incoming president.Solar Integrated Technologies rose by 30% yesterday after increases of 22% by Renewable Energy Corporation and 16% by the wind turbine maker Vestas in the 24 hours before, when they were helped upwards by oil prices returning to above $70 a barrel.
Obama has promised to invest $150bn over 10 years in renewables as part of a wider plan to increase US energy security amid fear of oil shortages, while also reducing the country’s carbon emissions in a bid to tackle global warming – and create jobs during an economic downturn.
Thanks to rapid improvements in photovoltaic and LED lighting technology, solar-powered LED lighting is now suitable for a range of illumination applications, according to Sean Bourquin and Anthony Tisot of Carmanah Technologies.Against a climate of rising energy costs and escalating environmental concerns, today’s advanced LED technology is creating new opportunities in solar-powered area lighting. Thanks to a new generation of bright and efficient LEDs, solar-powered lighting is expanding from its role in signal lights and flashing beacons to offer a renewable energy alternative for general illumination applications.
Some of the tiniest solar cells ever built have been successfully tested as a power source for even tinier microscopic machines. An article in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy (JRSE), published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP), describes an inch-long array of 20 of these cells — each one about a quarter the size of a lowercase “o” in a standard 12-point font.The cells were made of an organic polymer and were joined together in an experiment aimed at proving their ability to power tiny devices that can be used to detect chemical leaks and for other applications, says Xiaomei Jiang, who led the research at the University of South Florida.
Traditional solar cells, such as the commercial type installed on rooftops, use a brittle backing made of silicon, the same sort of material upon which computer chips are built. By contrast, organic solar cells rely upon a polymer that has the same electrical properties of silicon wafers but can be dissolved and printed onto flexible material
No matter which way you look at it, the notion of harvesting energy from the sun to power our homes and businesses is more absorbing than ever.Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered and demonstrated a new method for overcoming two major hurdles facing solar energy. By developing a new antireflective coating that boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire solar spectrum from nearly any angle, the research team has moved academia and industry closer to realizing high-efficiency, cost-effective solar power.
“To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity, you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky,” said Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer and a member of the university’s Future Chips Constellation, who led the research project. “Our new antireflective coating makes this possible.”
A unique fungus that makes diesel compounds has been discovered living in trees in the rainforest, according to a paper published in the November issue of Microbiology. The fungus is potentially a totally new source of green energy and scientists are now working to develop its fuel producing potential.“This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances,” said Professor Gary Strobel from Montana State University. “The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment.”
The fungus, which has been named Gliocladium roseum, produces a number of different molecules made of hydrogen and carbon that are found in diesel. Because of this, the fuel it produces is called “myco-diesel”.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
New Solar Cells Increase Efficiency
In the new study, researchers describe lab tests of solar cells made with a new type of ruthenium-based dye that helps boost the light-harvesting ability. The new cells showed efficiencies as high as 10 percent, a record for this type of solar cell. Most silicon-based solar cells have so-called efficiencies of around 12 percent. But manufacturing silicon is not cheap. The current cost of electricity from silicon-based solar panels for houses or businesses is 25 cents to 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, roughly triple what most people pay their utility company.
Introducing the Emergency Response Studio
After Hurricane Katrina, Paul Villinski, a well-known New York-based artist, wanted to transport his studio to Louisiana to see the aftermath first-hand and create artwork in response. At the time he didn’t have a way do it, but since then has picked up a 30′ trailer, gutted it, and rebuilt it to be green, non-toxic and off-grid. The Emergency Response Studio is now a totally self-sufficient traveling artist studio outfitted with solar panels, a wind turbine, non-toxic furnishings, and plenty of space to create.[SNIP]
While this trailer was originally designed as an artist’s studio, it also serves as a model for off-grid mobile housing and emergency shelters. These trailers could even be transformed in a cost-effective manner if built or retrofitted in numbers. Villinski, who often takes empty aluminum cans and turns them into art, says that “In a sense this FEMA trailer is just a really big beer can I’m transforming into something of beauty.”
The Emergency Response Studio will be on exhibition in New Orleans starting November 1st for the Prospect .1 New Orleans show featuring contemporary art from international artists. The show aims to revitalize the city by establishing New Orleans as a center for contemporary art, showcasing historical architecture, exposing the people of New Orleans to new art, educating students, and developing a new tourism attraction for the city. The Emergency Response Studio will be stationed at various locations around the city until January 18th, 2009.
California’s first solar thermal plant in 20 years recently launched in Bakersfield, helping to usher the golden state into a new era of renewable energy. Designed by Ausra, the Kimberlina solar thermal plant will utilize 1,000-foot long mirrors to convert the sun’s rays into energy. The new plant is the first of it’s kind in North America and was constructed in just seven months.
Green Is Good For Health, And In Other News, The Sky Is Blue
Childhood obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, asthma, hypertension, sleep apnea and emotional distress. Obese children and youth are likely to be obese as adults, experience more cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and stroke and incur higher healthcare costs. In an article published in the December 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers report that children living in inner city neighborhoods with higher “greenness” experienced lower weight gains compared to those in areas with less green space.
Shrugging off gloom over the economic outlook, Intel Capital on Tuesday announced its first “clean-tech” initiative in China, a $20 million equity investment in Trony Solar Holdings Co., one of China’s biggest makers of solar energy and wind power equipment.
No Drilling for Germany, Let’s Talk About Off-Shore Wind Farms
Germany opened its first offshore wind farm Tuesday which Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel called a key step toward more reliance on renewable energy in Europe’s biggest economy.
Gabriel pressed the start button at the Hooksiel complex some 500 metres (500 yards) off Germany’s North Sea coast.The five megawatts produced at the pilot site will flow into the gas and electrical station in the coastal city of Wilhelmshaven, enough to serve 5,000 households.
“Offshore wind power is of key importance for our future energy supply and a decisive factor in achieving our expansion goals for renewable energy,” Gabriel said.
The Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple has found a way to bottle-up Nirvana, literally. The temple, which sits in Thaisland’s Sisaket province, roughly 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million recycled glass bottles. True to its nickname, “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” features glass bottles throughout the premises of the temple, including the crematorium, surrounding shelters, and yes – even the toilets. There’s an estimated 1.5 million recycled bottles built into the temple, and as you might have guessed, they are committed to recycling more. After all, the more bottles they get, the more buildings they are able to construct.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, October 26th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Bugs Are Getting Worked Out Of Bioethanol Production
f the biofuel known as bioethanol is to make a major contribution to our fuel supplies, then we may well require the assistance of some tiny insect helpers, says Michael Scharf, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida, Gainesville.In a review to be published in Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Scharf and his colleague Aurélien Tartar describe how the enzymes produced by both termites and the micro-organisms that inhabit their gut – known as symbionts – could help to produce ethanol from non-edible plant material such as straw and wood.
“Through millions and millions of years of evolution, termites and their symbionts have acquired highly specialised enzymes that work together to efficiently convert wood and other plant materials into simple sugars,” says Scharf. “These enzymes are of the most value to bioethanol production.”
Current bioethanol production processes tend to use edible plant materials, such as starch from corn (maize) and sugar from sugar cane, which contain easily accessible sugar molecules that can be fermented to produce ethanol. However, using food crops to produce ethanol has proved highly controversial, with bioethanol being blamed for much of the recent rises in food prices.
The non-edible parts of many plants also contain a large number of sugar molecules, which could potentially be used to produce ethanol. But the problem is that these sugar molecules are far less accessible. This is because they’re locked up within a substance known as lignocellulose, which provides structural support for plant cell walls.
Breaking this substance up into its component sugar molecules is far from easy. One approach involves pretreating the lignocellulose by heating it in combination with acids or bases and then exposing the pretreated material to various enzymes. Another approach is very fine grinding followed by enzymatic treatment.
Termites, on the other hand, don’t seem to have too much trouble digesting wood and other lignocellulosic materials into their component sugars, as many homeowners can attest. The termite appears to favour the fine grinding approach in combination with its own unique set of enzymes. These enzymes are secreted by both termites and the symbionts that colonise their gut, and act on the lignocellulose that has been chewed to very small particle sizes by the termite.
Ben Bova, the president emeritus of the National Space Society, recently suggested an incredible solution to the world’s energy crisis. Instead of taking solar panels and sticking them on your roof, he wants to send photovoltaic arrays off into space and beam solar energy down to earth. Since they are constantly exposed to the sun, such solar power satellites could provide a continuous stream of 5-10 gigawatts of energy!In a recent Washington Post article Mr. Bova explains that the technology is not as farfetched as one would think. We already know how to send materials into space, and we have built large superstructures in zero-gravity environments (think the space station), so perhaps building a giant solar collector in space is not entirely out of the question.
His proposal is to build and launch solar power satellites – large photovoltaic arrays that constantly convert sunlight into electricity and use microwaves to beam that energy back to earth-bound receiving stations. According to Mr Bova, a single one of these satellites would send enough energy to power all of California. Since one would need a large surface to collect all of this energy, the best locations for receiving stations are dry areas such as the Nevada Desert or the Sahara.
Although the costs involved are fairly astronomical, the technology exists today, and this is not the first space-bound solar proposal that we have seen. So, what do you think – should someone give it a try?
Solar Sunday
Sunday, October 12th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
China’s First Zero Emissions Building
Situated in Ningbo, China, the University of Nottingham’s new Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET) is a welcome addition to the landscape as well as the air above Zhejiang province. Inspired by Chinese lanterns and traditional wooden screens, Mario Cucinella Architects packed CSET with a variety of sustainable attributes to make it the the first zero-emissions building in China.Located in a country that relies heavily on coal power to support a population nearing 1.5 billion, CSET’s sustainable attributes are are vigorous as its environmental curriculum. The building is powered by a large array of photovoltaic cells and geothermal energy (which cools and heats the five story floor slabs). Any additional energy collected is stored in batteries that can provide up to two week’s worth of electricity for sunless days.
CSET’s double-glass skin reduces solar radiation, and the large rooftop opening creates natural ventilation while allowing daylight to illuminate the interior spaces. The building also makes extensive use of locally sourced materials in its construction and boasts an onsite rain and gray-water recycling center.
The latest high power LED street lights from European leader JolietTechnology, coupled with ultra efficient photovoltaic panels offers a new generation of energy efficient, pollution free solar street lighting solutions.The advantages of cost effective LED lighting for streets, crossings, parking areas, gardens and public areas compared to conventional sodium lamps are undeniable. Adding a photovoltaic power source offers a new dimension.
The new ‘Cleanstreet’ solar LED street light from Joliet Technology is an integrated mast head fitting which employs two 130Wp photovoltaic modules and a electronic controller to charge batteries which operate the 56W LED lamp unit. The advanced system controller offers a night/day sensor for automatic switching.
The Future of Hydrogen is in Corn
The next alternative fuel in a vehicle’s tank might be nothing more than gas with a little help from corn. However, instead of the usual petroleum-based fuel, this gas will be hydrogen, and the corn will be in the form of corncob-charcoaled briquettes. To further develop this alternative fuel concept, researchers at the University of Missouri and Midwest Research Institute (MRI) were recently awarded a three-year, $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue studying a solution to hydrogen storage in vehicles.“Developmental hydrogen vehicles exist today but current designs require large, bulky tanks of compressed hydrogen gas to hold the fuel,” said Peter Pfeifer, professor and chair of the Department of Physics in the MU College of Arts and Science. “The tanks also have a relatively small range, only holding enough fuel to travel up to 200 miles. We will be working on reducing the size and weight of the tank and increasing the storage capacity by developing storage materials that hold hydrogen at a much lower pressure than the current high-pressure tanks. The new tanks will store hydrogen on the surface of appropriately engineered carbons.”
On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor lamps, bedside lamps, wall sconces and nearly every other household lamp obsolete. It’s a machine that prints lights.The size of a semitrailer, it coats an 8-inch wide plastic film with chemicals, then seals them with a layer of metal foil. Apply electric current to the resulting sheet, and it lights up with a blue-white glow.
You could tack that sheet to a wall, wrap it around a pillar or even take a translucent version and tape it to your windows. Unlike practically every other source of lighting, you wouldn’t need a lamp or conventional fixture for these sheets, though you would need to plug them into an outlet.
The sheets owe their luminance to compounds known as organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. While there are plenty of problems to be worked out with the technology, it’s not the dream of a wild-eyed startup.
OLEDs are beginning to be used in TVs and cell-phone displays, and big names like Siemens and Philips are throwing their weight behind the technology to make it a lighting source as well. The OLED printer was made by General Electric Co. on its sprawling research campus here in upstate New York. It’s not far from where a GE physicist figured out a practical way to use tungsten metal as the filament in a regular light bulb. That’s still used today, nearly a century later.
The invention of the incandescent bulb created the pattern for home lighting: Our light sources are small and bright. Maybe there are a few in the center of the ceiling, and a few in the corners of the room. Because they’re too bright to look at, they need to be reflected and diffused with lamp shades and frosted glass.
OLEDs could overturn all that, with broad, diffuse light sources bathing rooms in a gentle glow. Photographers go to great lengths to diffuse the illumination they use when shooting portraits, because they know we look our best in soft light.
The big glowing sheets could also make light sources out of everyday things. GE imagines putting OLEDs on the inside of window blinds – pull them down, light them up, and you have light streaming from the window, even at night. You could even make OLED wallpaper, since the material is flexible.
Paris Triangulates Green Architecture
Recently Herzog & de Meuron revealed Le Project Triangle, an incredible structure that will rise 200 meters from the Porte de Versailles in Paris. The stunning skyscraper will feature a profile so slim that it casts virtually no shadow, and its orientation will be optimized to take advantage of both solar and wind power. Paris’ new pyramid will be the first high-rise to be approved for construction is the city’s center since 1977, thanks to the recent lifting of a 31-year-old ban established by the previous Mayor of paris, Jacques Chirac.
As utility costs mount ever higher, Americans now have real options to take home energy matters into their own hands with “green” systems that can pay for themselves in as little as a few years.Among the choices: wind, solar, geothermal and a “microhydro” option that is potentially cheaper than a year’s tuition at many state colleges.
Choosing the do-it-yourself route can offer the freedom of going partially or totally off the grid. And, if the energy generated exceeds your actual usage, you can even sell the excess juice to your utility company. But none of this is free.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, October 5th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
The Future of Wind is in the Waves
In South Korea, wind power would be a likely resource to help the world’s tenth largest energy consumer meet government goals to lower fossil fuel dependency through greater investment in renewable energy.Yet efforts to build wind turbines in South Korea have met fierce opposition, even among environmentalists, due to the lack of open land in the densely populated country. Only about 100 megawatts (MW) of wind power are installed nationwide despite plentiful wind resources and government price controls that keep renewable power competitive with traditional energy sources.
The solution might be found off the Korean peninsula’s shores, and South Korea is not alone. As more countries seek to increase their renewable energy ratios, many consider off-shore wind a potential solution to provide clean energy without affecting local landscapes and communities.
My Coffee Solves Climate Change – Its not just pretentious any more
Chalk up another environmental benefit for shade-grown Latin American coffee: University of Michigan researchers say the technique will provide a buffer against the ravages of climate change in the coming decades.Over the last three decades, many Latin American coffee farmers have abandoned traditional shade-growing techniques, in which the plants are grown beneath a diverse canopy of trees. In an effort to increase production, much of the acreage has been converted to “sun coffee,” which involves thinning or removing the canopy.
Shade-grown farms boost biodiversity by providing a haven for birds and other animals. They also require far less synthetic fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides than sun-coffee plantations.
In the October edition of the journal BioScience, three U-M researchers say shade-growing also shields coffee plants during extreme weather events, such as droughts and severe storms. Climate models predict that extreme weather events will become increasingly common in the coming decades, as the levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas continue to mount.
The U-M scientists warn Latin American farmers of the risks tied to “coffee-intensification programs”—a package of technologies that includes the thinning of canopies and the use of high-yield coffee strains that grow best in direct sunlight—and urge them to consider the greener alternative: shade-grown coffee.
“This is a warning against the continuation of this trend toward more intensive systems,” said Ivette Perfecto of the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment, one of the authors. “Shaded coffee is ideal because it will buffer the system from climate change while protecting biodiversity.”
Africa’s first-ever solar-powered car race is underway in South Africa to raise awareness about alternative energy and promote science and technology, organisers said Wednesday.Local teams are competing against racers from India and Japan in the two-week South African Solar Challenge, which aims to encourage students to study engineering, a field in which the country faces huge skills shortage.
“Promoting science and technology, that is the main focus. If we can convince another 10 people in our country to become engineers, it could be a radical improvement to our economy,” said organiser Winstone Jordaan.
The group also hopes to promote alternative energy and green technology.
Solar Gets a Break, a Tax Break That Is
America’s solar-energy enthusiasts could soon expect bigger green cheques in the mail. Both chambers of Congress passed bills last week granting a long-term extension – and expansion – to commercial and residential tax credits for solar power installations.The legislation extends a 30 per cent rebate on the installation of solar technologies, including photovoltaic panels and solar water-heating systems. It also does away with the current $2000 cap in rebates for residential systems.
The extension will have a major impact on the adoption of solar power, according to a study by an independent firm called Navigant Consulting. It found that by 2016, the total amount of installed solar in the US would be more than three times as great with the extension than without it.
After four years of construction the world’s most sustainable skyscraper is nearly completed! Situated at One Bryant park in Midtown Manhattan, the crystalline structure will be the first high-rise to receive LEED Platinum certification. Designed for Bank of America by Cook+Fox Architects and Gensler and developed by The Durst Organization, the luminous spire will introduce a dose of levity to New York’s skyline while incorporating an excellent assortment of sustainable strategies.
For the past several years, the city of San Francisco has made strident efforts push forward and transform itself into the greenest city in the United States. Taking this goal one step further, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently announced an incredible plan to transform the city’s Civic Center into a sustainable resource district”. San Francisco’s renewed green heart will feature solar panels, wind turbines, and living roofs, reducing the city’s carbon footprint by 2,225 tons – the equivalent of 1,286 San Francisco households!It has been said that the green economy is the next big thing, and San Francisco’s new Civic Center will meet the need for greener developments by employing a host of sustainable strategies. Wind turbines and solar panels will reduce the district’s energy consumption by 33%, and water efficient fixtures, and a water reclamation program will reduce potable water usage by 80% and wastewater discharge by 45%.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Graffiti meets environmental and social activism in Peter Gibson (a.k.a. Roadsworth)’s literal take on street art. Frustrated with the lack of safety provided for cyclists in today’s cities, the artist began (illegally) spray painting extra bike lanes onto the streets of Montreal in 2001. It wasn’t long before he began to branch out and address other civic and environmental issues through his cutting brand of creative imagery. Intended to address many of the confining conditions of living in an urban environment, Peter Gibson’s work treats these topics with a sort of wry humor that doesn’t dull their urgent message.
Financial Meltdowns, Bailouts, and Clean Energy
In the wake of the financial meltdown, some have wondered about about the broader implications of the disappearance of Lehman Brothers’ carbon trading desk. And the answer to that question, at least, is easy: there are no broader implications to the disappearance of Lehman Brothers’ carbon trading desk.This is true for a variety of reasons, not least among them that Lehman Brothers was a small player in the carbon markets. The center of gravity in the carbon-trading world is in Europe. Beyond that, the carbon market itself is just one corner of the energy finance universe. So Lehman is a corner of a corner, and anyway the disappearance of a single trading desk is nothing really to fret over.
A trickier question is what affect the broader issues in the financial markets have for the development of clean energy. And, well, it’s hard to say, as all sorts of countervailing forces are at work.
The Solar Stik™ is a small-scale energy generator that is capable of providing clean, green energy wherever it is needed most. The versatile system takes advantage of both solar and wind turbine technology and is quick to set up, making it perfect for applications ranging from boating and recreation to providing emergency relief and humanitarian aid.
Subscription Based Fuel – The Future is Electric
Agassi dealt with the battery issue by simply swatting it away. Previous approaches relied on a traditional manufacturing formula: We make the cars, you buy them. Agassi reimagined the entire automotive ecosystem by proposing a new concept he called the Electric Recharge Grid Operator. It was an unorthodox mashup of the automotive and mobile phone industries. Instead of gas stations on every corner, the ERGO would blanket a country with a network of “smart” charge spots. Drivers could plug in anywhere, anytime, and would subscribe to a specific plan—unlimited miles, a maximum number of miles each month, or pay as you go—all for less than the equivalent cost for gas. They’d buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity—the minutes.There would be plugs in homes, offices, shopping malls. And when customers couldn’t wait to “fill up,” they’d go to battery exchange stations where they would pull into car-wash-like sheds, and in a few minutes, a hydraulic lift would swap the depleted battery with a fresh one. Drivers wouldn’t pay a penny extra: The ERGO would own the battery.
Berkeley is expected to make a major leap forward Tuesday in its first-in-the-nation plan to allow homeowners to pay for solar energy systems through their property taxes.The City Council is slated to approve a new tax district that residents could join voluntarily to finance solar energy systems for their homes. The city would reimburse the homeowner for the installation and material costs, and the homeowner would pay back the money at a fixed rate over 20 years. The advantages for homeowners are that the city can borrow money at a lower interest rate than an individual can and that the tax program would stay with the house if the homeowner sells.
High Efficiency Solar Cells Just Got Cheaper
University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. They say the new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, September 7th, 2008Solar 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.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, August 10th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Several major U.S. utility companies may accelerate plans to integrate solar power into their electricity mix following a fact-finding trip to Germany.Twenty-three electric utilities were represented on the trip to Germany, the world’s leading producer and installer of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. All of them may now advance solar projects in the United States, a trip leader said, further expanding a growing solar market.
“Every single utility would decrease the time they said it would be before solar would be a significant part of their utility mix,” said Julia Hamm, the executive director of the Solar Electric Power Association, which organized the trip, covered some participants’ travel expenses, and conducted a poll on solar power upon the trip’s conclusion.
San Francisco implements a Graceful Solar Project
Taking a cue from eco-friendly skyscrapers and cars, religious places have started adopting sustainable technologies in the right earnest. The latest to join the green bandwagon is San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. The San Francisco landmark will install a solar photovoltaic power system to meet its energy requirements, bringing yet another green idea to boost the city’s eco credentials.The state-of-the-art photovoltaic system would be designed and supplied by SolarCity, a company with a vast experience of solar system design and installation. A partnership between the cathedral and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) would be instrumental in financing the entire project. The Pacific Gas and Electric would provide $65,000 for the purchase and installation of the photovoltaic. It was the hard work of Reverend Canon Sally Bingham, the president of California Interfaith Power and Light that initiated the deal between Grace Cathedral and PG&E.
Wind (power) changes direction
If we told you that a free-flying kite could provide enough energy to power your house, you might consider us crazy. How about all the homes on your block, or even an entire city? Scientists at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands recently tested just such a technology, tethering a 10 square meter kite to a generator to produce 10 kilowatts of power (enough energy for 10 homes). They are currently planning to scale the experiment with a 50 kilowatt kite and a 100 megawatt array called the Laddermill that could potentially power 100,000 homes!
Next-Gen Solar is more than meets the eye
Today’s solar cells absorb only visible light, wasting the infrared that makes up half of the Sun’s output that reaches Earth. But a new material developed in Spain can absorb infrared too, and should make it possible to hike the power solar cells can produce, say researchers.Conventional solar cells are based on a semiconductor such as silicon. But their inability to soak up infrared gives them a theoretical absorption limit of just over 40% of solar energy. In practice, they only absorb about 30%.
The new material, though, can harness both visible and infrared photons, so it has a theoretical maximum efficiency of 63%, it creators say, and should give significantly better real-world performance.
Solar Sunday
Sunday, July 13th, 2008Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web
There are many forms of solar power technology. Today the most dominant is photo-voltaics, which comprise the traditional solar panels that come to mind when one thinks of solar power. However, there are other promising ways of capturing the sun’s energy that are merely less developed.Among these is a parabolic collector. A parabolic collector consists of an array of mirrors focused on a singular point, which they heat to a high temperature. By placing water or another liquid at the collector, energy can be stored in the form of a phase transformation, and later harvested through a turbine generator.
However, parabolic collectors are still a relatively new field of research. Their true potential remains relatively unknown. A glimpse of it was provided by a research team at MIT, which developed a new parabolic collector design, which will blow away current solar power designs in terms of efficiency.
The MIT team believes that their lightweight, inexpensive device holds the promise of revolutionizing the power industry and providing solar power to even remote regions.
Harvesting sunlight before turning it into electricity could become easier thanks to an exotic organic dye developed in the US.Coated onto an ordinary sheet of glass, the dye traps light inside the glass allowing it to be channelled to photovoltaic cells placed along the edges of the sheet.
The technique, say its inventors, could turn up to 20% of incident light into electricity at a fraction of the cost of conventional photovoltaic cells.
One way to reduce the cost of photovoltaic power is to focus light from a large area onto a small cell. In that way, a small cell can harvest light from a larger area. But the collecting optics must track the Sun’s path across the sky, requiring expensive machinery and control systems.
The dye-covered glass works differently. The dye molecules absorb sunlight over a wide range of visible wavelengths and then emit light at a longer wavelength.
Vancouver wins the Sustainable Olympics
Seems like everywhere we turn these days there’s green news on the Olympic front. We’ve written about the London 2012 Olympics stadium and Beijing’s Olympic Stadium. And now, even as the 2008 Summer Games have yet to start, the 2010 Winter Olympics are making headlines with the intent to become the green envy of eco-minded Olympic planning committees everywhere. The 2010 Winter Olympics Athletes’ Village will be built to a remarkably high level of sustainability and meet the LEED standards.
Solar Temples and Sustainable Religion
Spirituality seems to be taking a green course. The world’s largest solar kitchen has been installed by the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University and Academy for a Better World. And now a Hindu religious and cultural center in California has taken significant steps towards sustainability including running on solar power, reducing energy consumption and a plethora of planting trees. Currently under construction, this religious meeting place is being built as a place of love, peace and harmony, and protecting the environment is part of the vision.BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and Cultural Center is scheduled to open in the summer of 2008, under the aegis of the BAPS organization. Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) is a large socio-spiritual Hindu organization, with 3,300 centers and 55,000 volunteers worldwide. The organization attempts to address spiritual, moral and social challenges and issues faced by the world. And, the center is poised to set another wonderful example of sustainability by a religious organization.
