By Michael Graham Richard
23 April 2013(TreeHugger) – Concentrating the sun's ray onto solar photovoltaic (PV) modules requires walking the fine line between optimizing power output and not literally melting your very expensive super-high-efficiency solar cells. A team led by IBM Research seems to have found a way to push back the line. They have created a High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system that is capable of concentrating the power of 2,000 suns onto hundreds of triple junction photovoltaic chips measuring a single square centimeter each (they even claim to be able to keep temperatures safe up to 5,000x). The trick is that each solar PV cell is cooled using technology developed for supercomputers; microchannels only a few tens of micrometers in width pipe liquid coolant in and extract heat "10 times more effective than with passive air cooling."
The beauty is that this heat is not just thrown away. This system gets useful work out of it. So while the PV modules are 30%+ efficient at converting the sun's light into electricity, another 50% of the sun's energy is captured as heat and can then be used to do things like thermal water desalination and adsorption cooling. This means that the system is capable of converting around 80% of the collected solar energy into useable energy (though the electricity is of course more useful than the thermal energy). [more]
Thursday, May 2, 2013
IBM solar collector combines solar PV with solar thermal to reach 80% conversion efficiency, magnifies sun by 2,000x, costs 3x less than similar systems
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Wind power hits 57 percent mark in Colorado
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney
6 August 2012NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- During the early morning hours of April 15, with a steady breeze blowing down Colorado's Front Range, the state's biggest utility set a U.S. record -- nearly 57% of the electricity being generated was coming from wind power.
As dawn came and the 1.4 million customers in Xcel Energy's service district began turning on the lights, toasters and other appliances, the utility's coal and natural gas-fired power plants ramped up production and brought wind's contribution back closer to its 2012 average of 17%.
Utilities have long been wary of placing too much finicky renewable power on the grid.
"A lot of utilities don't want to contract large amounts of wind because it's volatile," said Amy Grace, a wind analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "Anything over 25%, and utilities get nervous."
Colorado's overnight high-water mark demonstrated that utilities can indeed incorporate cleaner power sources into the mix.
It also provides hope that, under the right conditions and policies, wind will be able to provide a significantly larger share of the nation's power than its current 3% rate.
"It certainly can be replicated, as long as you have a robust, diverse grid," said Elizabeth Salerno, head of data and analysis at the American Wind Energy Association. "Other folks have some catching up to do."
One thing that helped Xcel (XEL, Fortune 500) reach such a high number was geography. Colorado is a windy state -- although it's not the windiest.
According to a wind resources map published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas all have stronger winds.
Xcel credited its record wind rate with advances in technology.
The company recently updated its weather forecasting ability with tools that allow it to more accurately predict the strength and duration of the wind. […]
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Atmospheric Vortex Engine
An atmospheric vortex engine (AVE) uses a controlled vortex to capture mechanical energy produced when heat is carried upward by convection in the atmosphere. A tornado-like vortex is produced by admitting warm or humid air tangentially into a circular arena. Tangential entries cause the warm moist air to spin as it rises forming an anchored convective vortex. The work of convection is captured with turbines located at ground level around the periphery of the arena. The heat source can be solar energy, warm water or waste heat.
The vortex engine has the same thermodynamic basis as the proven solar chimney except the physical tube of the solar chimney is replaced with centrifugal force. There is no need for a solar collector - The solar collector is the earth’s surface in its unaltered state.
An AVE power station could have a diameter of 200 m and generate 200 MW of electrical power at a cost as low as $0.03/kWh.
The vortex engine alleviates global warming by reducing fuel required to meet energy needs.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Microsoft data plants will tap landfills, sewage for power
By Rich Miller
19 April 2012Microsoft is planning a waste-powered data center that will be built on the site of a water treatment plant or landfill, the company said Wednesday. The project will be the first step towards Microsoft’s goal of deploying “data plants” where modular data centers will be powered by renewable energy.
The initiative is part of the company’s long-term strategy to make its cloud computing infrastructure as sustainable and efficient as possible. The first data plant will be powered by biogas, according to Christian Belady, Microsoft’s General Manager of Data Center Services. Belady outlined Microsoft’s concept in a blog post Wednesday on the Global Foundation Services web site.
“Currently, our team is researching the first-ever grid independent fuel cell, data center that is fueled directly from biogas,” Belady wrote. “The experiment is small scale, so we can demonstrate and measure the benefits of it like we did with our ‘data center in a tent project’ in 2008. We are also talking with several municipalities about a public-private partnership to test a prototype.”
That prototype will involve placing modular data centers filled with servers at a water treatment plant or landfill. “Water treatment plants are mission critical installations that produce methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than CO2, as the sewage from our communities are broken down in an anaerobic digestion process (decomposition without oxygen),” Belady explained. “Landfills produce methane in a similar way as our garbage slowly decomposes underground. The methane that is produced by both approaches must be flared, converting it to CO2 to minimize the impact on the environment.”
The methane output will be used in a fuel cell, which in turn will provide electricity for the servers housed in IT PACs (Pre-Assembled Components), Microsoft’s custom modular data centers, which can house up to 2,000 servers apiece. A small 200 kW prototype data center will offset over two million pounds of CO2 emissions per year, according to Microsoft, which is the equivalent of about 300 Honda Civics being taken off the road. […]
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Germany dumps nuclear power for renewable
By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press
30 June 2011
BERLIN — German lawmakers overwhelmingly approved on Thursday plans to shut the country's nuclear plants by 2022, putting Europe's biggest economy on the road to an ambitious build-up of renewable energy.
The lower house of parliament voted 513-79 for the shutdown plan drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government after Japan's post-earthquake nuclear disaster. Most of the opposition voted in favor; eight lawmakers abstained.
Lawmakers sealed for good the shutdown of eight of the older reactors, which have been off the grid since March. Germany's remaining nine reactors will be shut down in stages by the end of 2022.
By 2020, Germany wants to double the share of energy stemming from water, wind, sun or biogas to at least 35 percent. Until this year, nuclear energy accounted for a bit less than a quarter of Germany's power supply.
"Some people abroad ask: will Germany manage this? Can it be done? It is the first time that a major industrial country has declared itself ready to carry through this technological and economic revolution," Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen told lawmakers.
"The message from today is this: the Germans are getting to work," he said. "This will be good for our country, because we all stand together. So let's get to work." […]
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study
UN's climate change science body says renewables supply, particularly solar power, can meet global demand
By Fiona Harvey, www.guardian.co.uk
9 May 2011Renewable energy could account for almost 80% of the world's energy supply within four decades - but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power, according to a landmark report published on Monday.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world's leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, said that if the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million, the level scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.
Investing in renewables to the extent needed would cost only about 1% of global GDP annually, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.
Renewable energy is already growing fast – of the 300 gigawatts of new electricity generation capacity added globally between 2008 and 2009, about 140GW came from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, according to the report.
The investment that will be needed to meet the greenhouse gas emissions targets demanded by scientists is likely to amount to about $5trn in the next decade, rising to $7trn from 2021 to 2030. …
Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study
Monday, February 22, 2010
World Bank's green bonds clear $1bn mark
By Tom Young, BusinessGreen, Monday 22 February 2010 at 12:03:00
Bond issues raise finance for low-carbon and climate adaptation projects in developing world
The latest issue of green bonds by the World Bank has taken the total amount raised to more than $1bn (£646m), the institution announced today.
The innovative bonds were first issued in late 2008, raising $350m and marking the first time the World Bank had offered bonds to raise funds for a specific purpose.
The bonds were developed in partnership with Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), which confirmed that the most recent issue of SEK500,000,000 ($69.2m, £44.7m) helped take the total sold past the $1bn mark.
The bonds are used to raise money to support World Bank-funded projects that tackle the causes and consequences of climate change in the developing world, such as renewable energy installations, reforestry initiatives, watershed management and flood protection schemes.
"Climate action in developing countries – specifically, mitigation and adaptation initiatives – requires important financing by the international community, from both public and private sources," said Warren Evans, director of the environment department at the World Bank.
The latest issue of bonds saw investment from WWF-Sweden and the Swedish National Pension Fund, as well as a number of European private banks and life insurance companies.
The bonds will mature after seven years and promise return at rates of 3.25 per cent per annum – higher than Swedish government bond rates. …
World Bank's green bonds clear $1bn mark
Friday, August 28, 2009
Yet another major poll finds ‘broad support’ for clean energy and climate bill
From Climate Progress:
My key takeaway from the new ABC-WashPost poll: A lot of people understand energy prices are going up if we do nothing. In fact, 36% of 1001 voters polled believe “the proposed changes to U.S. energy policy” won’t make much of a difference on energy costs and 16% it will decrease them. And this in spite of relentless negative messaging to the contrary from the disinformers.
Many Americans understand the “do nothing” energy tax, since they saw that annual energy costs under President Bush jumped over $1000 (see here). Americans understand that our rising dependence on oil and our inaction on climate change are untenable. And they really, really believe in clean energy and understand that oil companies and Republicans have been blocking action for a long time.
The Post piece on the poll, “On Energy, Obama Finds Broad Support” has a great quote:
“Something definitely has to be done,” said Marian Eldridge, a former legal secretary from East Windsor, N.J., who participated in the survey. “Anything’s worth a try at this point.” She said she tries to “ignore the politics; you get discouraged.” But she said that higher energy costs were “inevitable” and that “we’re too dependent on other countries.” …
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Crazy green-energy ideas that just might work
So far these are mostly concepts, but we may be using them in the future
By John Roach, contributor
Fields of windmills spinning in the breeze and deserts covered with solar panels are familiar options for renewable energy. But they are far from the only technologies under consideration. Click the "Next" arrow above to check out six other green energy ideas that are so wacky they just might work. …
Crazy green-energy ideas that just might work
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Energy-pioneering Austrian town exports its model
After 20 years investing in renewable energy, the small Austrian town of Guessing, a model of energy self-sufficiency, is spreading its pioneering technology far and wide.
A town of 4,300 inhabitants near the Hungarian border, Guessing launched into renewable energy in the early 1990s and now produces more than it can consume.
The latest project, opened last week, is a one-megawatt plant capable of producing gas from wood chips.
According to its backers, this gas can be used in normal gas networks, urban heating systems, and cars or power stations that work on gas.
The technology, developed jointly with Switzerland, has already attracted attention from major energy companies.
"Vattenfall (from Sweden), EDF (France) and E.ON (Germany) are all interested in the plant," Guessing's mayor Peter Vadasz noted proudly.
A similar plant to the one in Guessing -- which can heat 150 homes on a cold winter's day -- but 25 times more powerful is already in the works in Goeteborg, Sweden.
About 20 years ago, Guessing was still a sleepy town in the eastern Austrian province of Burgenland, but its foray into renewable energy soon turned it into a pioneer. … The town now produces more energy than it can use …
Energy-pioneering Austrian town exports its model.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Supermarket generates piezoelectric power in parking lot
Remember that piezoelectric road prototype we saw late last year? Looks like someone (besides us) thought it was a good idea. According to The Daily Mail, a Sainsbury's supermarket in Gloucester, UK (you've never been there), has installed kinetic plates in the parking lot that use the weight of shopper's cars to pump a series of hydraulic pipes, which in turn drive a generator. The system is said to generate up to 30kw of green energy an hour -- or enough to power the store's checkouts. And if that weren't enough, the store is also harvesting rainwater and heating it (during the summer, at least) with solar panels. …
Supermarket generates piezoelectric power in parking lot
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
China launches green power revolution to catch up on west
• Plan to hit 20% renewable target by 2020
• $30bn for low-carbon projects
By Julian Borger and Jonathan Watts in Beijing
China is planning a vast increase in its use of wind and solar power over the next decade and believes it can match Europe by 2020, producing a fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources, a senior Chinese official said yesterday.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China's national development and reform commission, told the Guardian that Beijing would easily surpass current 2020 targets for the use of wind and solar power and was now contemplating targets that were more than three times higher.
In the current development plan, the goal for wind energy is 30 gigawatts. Zhang said the new goal could be 100GW by 2020.
"Similarly, by 2020 the total installed capacity for solar power will be at least three times that of the original target [3GW]," Zhang said in an interview in London. China generates only 120 megawatts of its electricity from solar power, so the goal represents a 75-fold expansion in just over a decade.
"We are now formulating a plan for development of renewable energy. We can be sure we will exceed the 15% target. We will at least reach 18%. Personally I think we could reach the target of having renewables provide 20% of total energy consumption." …
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Advanced Plasma Power touts international expansion plans
James Murray, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 2 June 2009 at 00:15:00
Waste-to-energy firms secures $10m for innovative gasification technology
UK-based waste-to-energy firm Advanced Plasma Power (APP) is set to roll out its technology at a number of sites in Canada and south-east Europe after entering into a joint venture with clean tech private equity fund Leveraged Green Energy (LGE).
Under the terms of the deal, announced last week, the companies have agreed to expand APP's presence in new global markets with a particular focus on Canada and central and eastern Europe.
They claim to already be in talks with a number of interested parties about installing the company’s waste-to-energy technology.
APP is one of a number of firms working on waste-to-energy technologies capable of turning a wide variety of municipal and commercial wastes into synthetic gases, or syngas, that can then be burnt off to generate heat and power.
It says it has developed a highly efficient "Gasplasma" technology that uses gasification technologies and a plasma converter to heat the waste to extremely high temperatures. The process breaks down the waste to produce a hydrogen-rich gas largely free of impurities and an inert aggregate that can be used in building materials. …
Advanced Plasma Power touts international expansion plans
UN: Global renewables investment up despite financial crisis
Tom Young, BusinessGreen, Wednesday 3 June 2009 at 14:00:00
Investment in renewables rose five per cent in 2008 – proving new methods of power generation are now firmly established
Four out of every 10GW of new energy capacity built last year came from the renewables sector, according to a major new report commissioned by the UN Environment Programme…
UN: Global renewables investment up despite financial crisis
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
EIA projects wind at 5% of U.S. electricity in 2012, all renewables at 14%, thanks to Obama stimulus
From Climate Progress:
The
renewablessafe sources of energy that never run out are coming! And if it was braggin’ time for wind when wind power hit 1.25% of U.S. electricity generation in 2008, what’ll it be in 2012, when it hits 5%, as projected by the Energy Information Administration? Well, it’s probably time for a tougher renewable energy standard than the Senate is considering.Significantly, the EIA, which is the DOE’s independent analytical arm, is no fan of safe sources of energy that never run out. When I was at the DOE in the mid-1990s, we uncovered a key reason there was so little wind in EIA’s modeling of federal climate action: Their original forecast had in fact shown a huge upsurge, so the EIA analysts tweaked the model to artificially suppress wind. And today, the EIA is run by my old friend, Howard Gruenspecht, who was a Bush Sr. holdover at DOE’s office of policy when I started there in 1992 and a Bush, Jr. appointee at EIA. He ain’t progressive. Obama should replace him. But I digress.
So it is all the more shocking that EIA’s remarkable, if little noted, report from last month, Updated Annual Energy Outlook 2009 Reference Case Reflecting Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Recent Changes in the Economic Outlook projected this response to the Obama stimulus package:
…
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Retired US generals call for low carbon revolution
James Murray, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 19 May 2009 at 00:15:00
Report from influential generals and admirals warns fragile US energy infrastructure poses serious national security threat
The US needs to diversify its energy mix to incorporate more renewables, reduce its reliance on both foreign and domestic oil, improve the resilience of its energy grid, better prepare for the impact of climate change risks, and make wider use of federal procurement to drive the development of low carbon technologies.
Not the latest wish list from Greenpeace or the WWF, but a hard-hitting new report from an influential panel of retired US admirals and generals, which argues that the fragility of US energy supplies and the likely impact of climate change pose a serious security threat that is "exploitable by those who wish to do us harm".
The report, Powering America's Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security, was developed by a Military Advisory Board (MAB) of former high ranking figures from across the US military brought together by US security think tank CNA.
It recommends that a major overhaul of US energy policy is required to address burgeoning security threats, and reiterates warnings from a 2007 report which concluded that the impact of climate change would pose serious and escalating threats to US national security.
Describing the report as "a sobering but honest, and necessary assessment" of current US energy policy, MAB chairman General Charles F. "Chuck" Wald said that the current recession should not be used as an excuse to delay efforts to diversify US energy supplies.
Retired US generals call for low carbon revolution
Friday, April 3, 2009
Germany: The world's first major renewable energy economy
Germany's Reichstag in Berlin is set to become the first parliamentary building in the world to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy. Soon the entire country will follow suit. Germany is accelerating its efforts to become the world's first industrial power to use 100 percent renewable energy -- and given current momentum, it could reach that green goal by 2050. …
Germany: The World's First Major Renewable Energy Economy
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Surge of college students pursuing 'clean energy' careers
Climate change is a concern among undergraduates, driving a surge of interest in science and engineering on campuses nationwide.
By Jim Tankersley
Reporting from Washington -- In what could be an encouraging sign of change in the long-standing shortage of Americans preparing for "clean energy" careers, the subject is suddenly hot on college campuses across the nation -- a surge of interest largely stimulated by the specter of global warming.
Concern about climate change is galvanizing more undergraduate students to turn toward a subject involving science and engineering, some educators suggest, in much the same way that Moscow's launching of the Sputnik space satellite jolted baby boomers to turn their eyes to the stars.
What remains uncertain is whether their enthusiasm for renewable energy will carry over into graduate school and lead them to swell the ranks of Americans with advanced science and engineering degrees.
"We have a shortfall of people to do cutting-edge research and do the innovations we need," said Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the engineering school at UCLA. But, he added, "the potential is there."
The rising interest in renewable energy is so new that it's not clearly reflected in the latest enrollment figures, educators say. But leaders from a range of schools -- including Arizona State University, Indiana University and the University of Colorado -- say energy and sustainability are the hottest topic for their students. …
Surge of college students pursuing 'clean energy' careers
Saturday, March 28, 2009
And Obama gives the best clean energy and global warming solutions job to …
Cathy Zoi, CEO of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) under Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Zoi has a unique combination of expertise in clean energy and high level federal government experience — she was Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House Office on Environmental Policy, managing the staff working on environmental and energy issues (full bio here, recent writing below). Since I have known Zoi for nearly 2 decades and since in 1997 I held the job she is now nominated for, I can personally attest she will be able to hit the ground running in the crucial job of overseeing the vast majority of the development and deployment of plausible climate solutions technology.
What does EERE do? You could spend hours on their website, here, exploring everything they are into. Of the 12 to 14 most plausible wedges the world needs to stabilize at 350 to 450 ppm — the full global warming solution — EERE is the principal federal agency for working with businesses to develop and deploy the technology for 11 of them!
The stimulus and the 2009 budget dramatically increases — more than doubles — EERE funding for technology development and deployment. Zoi’s most important job is deployment, deployment, deployment. And again she is a uniquely qualified to get clean energy into the marketplace. Zoi was a manager at the US Environmental Protection Agency where “she pioneered the Energy Star Program,” which was the pioneering energy efficiency deployment program launched in the early 1990s.
So we know Zoi gets energy efficiency. Here’s what she wrote last year about “Embracing the Challenge to Repower America“:
And Obama gives the best clean energy and global warming solutions job to …
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Obama pledges billions for renewable energy projects
by Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian - published under license by, BusinessGreen
President says $129bn that has been allocated for environmental plans is off limits to Congress
Barack Obama yesterday declared the billions of dollars he is planning to spend on renewable energy projects off-limits to the usual bartering over the next few weeks with Congress....
Obama pledges billions for renewable energy projects
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