Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Underwater turbines that harvest tidal currents have already become an established technology in the world of clean energy. So in order to push the frontier further, a group of engineers at Oxford have been tinkering away on a design that promises to be even more powerful and efficient. The group recently introduced an innovative Transverse Horizontal Axis Water Turbine that will not only collect more energy but require 60% lower manufacturing costs and 40% lower maintenance costs.
Vattenfall’s CO2-free power plant in the eastern German town of Schwarze Pumpe. One of Europe’s biggest power companies inaugurates on Tuesday a pilot project using a technology that it is presenting as a huge potential breakthrough in the fight against climate changeOne of Europe’s biggest power companies inaugurates on Tuesday a pilot project using a technology that it is presenting as a huge potential breakthrough in the fight against climate change.
But green campaigners have denounced the project as a cosmetic operation that does not really address the problem of global warming.At the site of the massive “Schwarze Pumpe” (“Black Pump”) power station in the old East Germany, Vattenfall wants to the new method to allow it continue burning coal — but with radically reduced emissions.
To do so, the Swedish firm is using Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS for short, which captures the greenhouse gases produced when fossil fuels are combusted.
This prevents the greenhouse gases escaping into the Earth’s atmosphere and contributing to global warming.
This Just In: The Sun provides energy and helps grow crops
A new breed of solar tower may soon be sprouting up in Namibia, providing the nation with a carbon-free source of electricity and food during the day and night. At one and a half kilometers tall and 280 meters wide, these massive solar updraft towers could potentially produce 400MW of energy each – enough to power Windhoek, the nation’s capital. Proposed by intellectual property company Hahn & Hahn, the towers generate energy by forcing heated air through a shaft lined with wind turbines. Additionally, the base of each tower will function as a 37 square km greenhouse where crops can be grown.
New Developments In Ethanol Production
Genetically engineered bacteria could make cellulosic ethanol cheaper to manufacture, researchers report. The finding could unlock more energy from the waste products of farming and forestry.Ethanol from cellulose, the kind of sugar in cornstalks and sawdust, is being promoted as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, with the advantage that it does not use food crops such as corn as raw materials.
The genetically engineered bacteria are able to ferment cellulose to produce ethanol more efficiently than current methods, says Lee Lynd of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, an author of the study.
Naturally occurring bacteria can also ferment cellulose, but they do it at lower temperatures that require the use of an expensive enzyme called cellulase.
