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Small Dams Yield Smart Energy

2010-10-20T17:53:00.002+05:30

Small is beautiful in hydroelectric power plant design, and good for the environment

Hydroelectric power is the oldest and the "greenest" source of renewable energy. In Germany, the potential would appear to be completely exploited, while large-scale projects in developing countries are eliciting strong criticism due to their major impact on the environment.
Researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have developed a small-scale hydroelectric power plant that solves a number of problems at the same time: The construction is so simple, and thereby cost-efficient, that the power generation system is capable of operating profitably in connection with even modest dam heights. Moreover, the system is concealed in a shaft, minimizing the impact on the landscape and waterways. There are thousands of locations in Europe where such power plants would be viable, in addition to regions throughout the world where hydroelectric power remains an untapped resource.

In Germany, hydroelectric power accounts for some three percent of the electricity consumed – a long-standing figure that was not expected to change in any significant way. After all, the good locations for hydroelectric power plants have long since been developed. In a number of newly industrialized nations, huge dams are being discussed that would flood settled landscapes and destroy ecosystems. In many underdeveloped countries, the funds and engineering know-how that would be necessary to bring hydroelectric power on line are not available.

Smaller power stations entail considerable financial input and are also not without negative environmental impact. Until now, the use of hydroelectric power in connection with a relatively low dam height meant that part of the water had to be guided past the dam by way of a so-called bay-type power plant – a design with inherent disadvantages:

The large size of the plant, which includes concrete construction for the diversion of water and a power house, involves high construction costs and destruction of natural riverside landscapes.

Each plant is a custom-designed, one-off project. In order to achieve the optimal flow conditions at the power plant, the construction must be planned individually according to the dam height and the surrounding topography. How can an even flow of water to the turbines be achieved? How will the water be guided away from the turbines in its further course?

Fish-passage facilities need to be provided to help fish bypass the power station. In many instances, their downstream passage does not succeed as the current forces them in the direction of the power plant. Larger fish are pressed against the rakes protecting the intake of the power plant, while smaller fish can be injured by the turbine.

A solution to all of these problems has now been demonstrated, in the small-scale hydroelectric power plant developed as a model by a team headed by Prof. Peter Rutschmann and Dipl.-Ing. Albert Sepp at the Oskar von Miller-Institut, the TUM research institution for hydraulic and water resources engineering. Their approach incurs very little impact on the landscape. Only a small transformer station is visible on the banks of the river. In place of a large power station building on the riverside, a shaft dug into the riverbed in front of the dam conceals most of the power generation system. The water flows into a box-shaped construction, drives the turbine, and is guided back into the river underneath the dam. This solution has become practical due to the fact that several manufacturers have developed generators that are capable of underwater operation – thereby dispensing with the need for a riverbank power house.

The TUM researchers still had additional problems to solve: how to prevent undesirable vortex formation where water suddenly flows downward; and how to best protect the fish. Rutschmann and Sepp solved two problems with a single solution – by providing a gate in the dam above the power plant shaft. In this way, enough water flows through to enable fish to pass. At the same time, the flow inhibits vortex formation that would reduce the plant's efficiency and increase wear and tear on the turbine.

The core of the concept is not optimizing efficiency, however, but optimizing cost: Standardized pre-fabricated modules should make it possible to order a "power plant kit" just like ordering from a catalog. "We assume that the costs are between 30 and 50 percent lower by comparison with a bay-type hydropower plant," Peter Rutschmann says. The shaft power plant is capable of operating economically given a low "head" of water of only one to two meters, while a bay-type power plant requires at least twice this head of water. Series production could offer an additional advantage: In the case of wider bodies of water, several shafts could be dug next to each other – also at different points in time, as determined by demand and available financing.

Investors can now consider locations for the utilization of hydropower that had hardly been interesting before. This potential has gained special significance in light of the EU Water Framework Directive. The directive stipulates that fish obstacles are to be removed even in smaller rivers. In Bavaria alone, there are several thousand existing transverse structures, such as weirs, that will have to be converted, many of which also meet the prerequisites for shaft power plants. Construction of thousands of fish ladders would not only cost billions but would also load the atmosphere with tons of climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions. If in the process shaft power plants with fish gates and additional upstream fish ladders were installed, investors could shoulder the costs and ensure the generation of climate-friendly energy over the long term – providing enough power for smaller communities from small, neighborhood hydroelectric plants.

Shaft power plants could also play a significant role in developing countries. "Major portions of the world's population have no access to electricity at all," Rutschmann notes. "Distributed, local power generation by lower-cost, easy-to-operate, low-maintenance power plants is the only solution. For cases in which turbines are not financially feasible, Rutschmann has already come up with an alternative: "It would be possible to use a cheap submersible pump and run it in reverse – something that also works in our power plant."

Nearly 15,000 oppose Montenegro plan to drown wild beauty

2010-04-15T16:56:00.011+05:30

Moraca River, MontenegroThe Montenegro government was yesterday handed a 14,764 signature petition asking it to consider alternatives to its four dam plan for the country’s second most important and most scenic River. The plan for multiple dams on the Moraça River, which will inundate areas of the Montegnegro capital’s natural and cultural heritage and threatens flows into the Balkan’s largest lake and its fisheries and bird migration reserves, was drawn up 40 years ago.

The petition was initiated just three weeks ago by WWF and its Montenegro partner association Green Home and signatures were collected online and in pedestrian areas of the cities of Budva, Kotor, Ulcinj, Podgorica, Niksic, Bijelo Polje, Kolasin, Mojkovac, Pljevlja, Danilovgrad and Plav. It drew support from 62 national and international conservation and community groups and concerned people in 110 countries.

It was handed to representatives of the Ministry of Environment, during a period for comment on a government review of environmental impacts of the proposal that WWF and Green Home have labeled inadequate in its consideration of impacts and alternatives.

“During the consultation process we have remarked that the assessments done so far do not prove that the dams are necessary,” said Darko Pajovic, Head of Green Home.

“Furthermore alternatives have been proposed by various stakeholders to both produce and save power and widespread support exists for saving the scenic, cultural and environmental values of the Moraça gorge.”

Following the handing over of the petition, WWF and Green Home representatives met with Mr Clive Rumbold, Deputy head of the EU delegation in Montenegro to stress that the probable EU accession candidate country’s major infrastructure plan falls far short of EU standards on river management, and major infrastructure planning and consultation standards.

Mr. Rumbold underlined that as a potential candidate country Montenegro is strongly encouraged to ensure that all new investments are in line with the EU rules and principles. He reiterated the importance of a public consultation and that comments received are fully taken on board.

The government’s own figures show per capita Montenegro power consumption of five times the EU average, with other studies showing transmission losses of more than three times the European rate. More than 50% of the country’s electricity demand comes from an aging and inefficient aluminium plant – KAP, which is currently undergoing serious economic difficulties.

Lake Skadar, listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international significance, is one of Europe's five most important wintering sites for birds.

“Montenegro has declared himself ecological state in 1991. The country has a unique opportunity to take a leadership for sustainable hydropower development in the Western Balkans. Now the world is waiting for the government to stop ticking its way through a 40 year old grand plan for power at huge environmental cost and come up with a modern plan for power which doesn’t involve sacrificing the wild beauty we are promoting internationally.”, added Francesca Antonelli, Head of WWF Mediterranean Freshwater Programme.

Waste could generate up to 7 per cent of electricity in Spain

2010-02-24T20:46:00.000+05:30

Sewage treatment plant of Monfragüe (Cáceres, Spain).

Credit: Naturaleza Fragüe.Researchers from the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) have calculated the energy and economic potential of urban solid waste, sludge from water treatment plants and livestock slurry for generating electricity in Spain. These residues are alternative sources of renewable energy, which are more environmentally friendly and, in the case of solid urban waste, more cost effective.

Using waste to generate electricity has economic and environmental advantages. "It gives added value to waste, because it can be seen as a type of fuel with zero cost, or even a negative cost if taxes are paid to collect it", Norberto Fueyo, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Fluid Mechanics Group of the UNIZAR, tells SINC.

According to the researcher, generating electricity from waste avoids "pernicious" impacts. Waste in landfill sites releases methane and other polluting gases, so incinerating solid urban waste will reduce the volume of waste that reaches the landfill sites in the first places, as well as the implicit risks of landfills themselves (possible emission of methane into the atmosphere).

The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Renewable Energy, has shown that waste in Spain could generate between 8.13 and 20.95 TWh (terawatt hours). "This electricity generation was 7.2% of electricity demand in 2008", says Fueyo.

The researchers stress that the amount of methane generated from different kinds of residues is equivalent to 7.6% of gas consumption in 2008.

In terms of the economic cost, "solid urban waste is the most cost-effective", according to the researcher, because local authorities carry out the waste collection and local inhabitants pay for it. Since the waste is transported to large landfill sites or waste treatment plants, installing electricity generation systems "could take advantage of economies of scale due to the large volumes involved".

Cost depends on the heat generated

According to the study, incineration of waste and degasification of landfill sites are the electricity generation technologies with lowest financial cost. Producing electric energy through anaerobic digestion (a biological process in which organic matter decomposes into biogas in the absence of oxygen and through the action of a group of specific bacteria) is much more expensive.

"However, its profitability relies on being able to get value out of the heat generated during the process", explains Fueyo, who says this technique is "not competitive, but makes use of the heat to offset the costs of generation". However, the researchers point out that "directly applying this waste to agricultural land as fertiliser could contaminate groundwater with nitrates".

In order to evaluate the potential and the cost of generating electricity, the researchers applied the methodology in municipal areas (in the case of solid urban waste and sludge from water treatment plants) and regional areas (for livestock slurry) throughout the whole of Spain.

The work shows that the centre and south of the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic and Canary Islands have the "greatest interest" in putting technologies into place to use solid urban waste.

In terms of using water treatment plant sludge, the coastal areas of Galicia. Valencia and Alicante, as well as central and southern Spain, were also areas of interest. The study also shows that certain areas of Aragon, Castilla-La-Mancha, Castilla-y-León, Extremadura, Galicia and Andalusia "would be effective" for using livestock slurry.

The EU 20-20-20 package

The research into electricity generation comes in response to the European Union (EU) objective to fulfil the 20-20-20 package for the year 2020, in other words to substitute 20% of the total energy consumed in Spain for energy from renewable resources, reduce CO2 emissions by 20% in comparison with 1990 figures, increase biofuels used in transport by 10%, and achieve energy savings of 20%. "For Spain, each one of these targets alone is a challenge, which becomes much bigger when they are all taken together", underscores the scientist.

Norberto Fueyo says the most problematic objective is that relating to increasing the amount of biofuels used in transport by 10%. "It is not achievable and is socially and environmentally questionable, because of the amount of land it requires and because it means using foodstuffs to produce fuel".

Even if the figure of 10% of biofuels in transport is achieved, "there will need to be an increase of around 45% in the contribution of renewables (including hydroelectric energy) to electricity generation in order to achieve a figure of 20% of renewable energy within total consumption", the expert says. The scientist adds that, in order to achieve the objective, it will be "essential" to promote energy saving and efficiency "and consider all possible sources of renewable energy, including waste".

More, better biodiesel

2010-02-21T19:19:00.001+05:30

The safflower is one of the plants can be made into a fuel cocktail that performs better at low temperatures than conventional biodiesel. (Jack Kelly Clark/UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resource) Yields of biodiesel from oilseed crops such as safflower could be increased by up to 24 percent using a new process developed by chemists at UC Davis. The method converts both plant oils and carbohydrates into biodiesel in a single process, and should also improve the performance characteristics of biodiesel, especially in cold weather.

A paper describing the method, which has been patented, is online in the journal Energy & Fuels.

Conventional biodiesel production extracts plant oils and then converts them into fatty acid esters that can be used to power engines, said Mark Mascal, professor of chemistry at UC Davis and co-author of the paper with postdoctoral researcher Edward Nikitin. That leaves behind the carbohydrate portion of the plant — the sugars, starches, and cellulose that make up stems, leaves, seed husks and other structures.

he new process converts those carbohydrates into chemicals called levulinic acid esters — at the same time and in the same vessel that the oils are converted to fatty acid esters — resulting in a fuel cocktail that performs better at low temperatures than conventional biodiesel.

The fuel cocktail has a similar boiling range to conventional biodiesel, but is thinner; it becomes waxy at a lower temperature. Performance at low temperatures is a significant problem with B100 (conventional biodiesel), Mascal said.

"Our hope is that this blend of levulinate esters and biodiesel would perform better over a wider range of temperatures than biodiesel," Mascal said.

Levulinate esters are nontoxic and are used as food additives, Mascal said.

Costs of the new process may be somewhat higher than for conventional biodiesel production, but should be offset by improved fuel yields and performance, he said.

The researchers are partnering with Bently Biofuels of Minden, Nev., to test the performance of levulinate/B100 blends.

A second hydrocarbon boom threatens the Peruvian Amazon

2010-02-21T19:04:00.002+05:30

A rapid and unprecedented proliferation of oil and gas concessions threatens the megadiverse Peruvian Amazon. The amount of area leased is on track to reach around 70% of the region, threatening biodiversity and indigenous people. This is one of the central conclusions from a pair of researchers from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Washington DC-based NGO Save America's Forests, who have, for the first time, documented the full history of hydrocarbon activities in the region and made projections about expected levels of activity in the near future.

The study, conducted by Martí Orta and Matt Finer, researchers at ICTA and Save America's Forests, respectively, and published in Environmental Research Letters, reconstructs the full history of hydrocarbon activities in the region and makes projections for the next five years. Researchers have found that more of the Peruvian Amazon has recently been leased to oil and gas companies than at any other time on record.

There are now 52 active hydrocarbon concessions covering over 41% of the Peruvian Amazon, up from just 7% in 2003. The authors warn that the region has now entered the early stages of a second hydrocarbon exploration boom and that the amount of area leased to oil and gas companies is on track to reach around 70% of the region.

The collected data reveals an extensive hydrocarbon history for one of the greatest rainforests on Earth—well over 100,000 km of seismic lines and nearly 700 wells have resulted in the extraction of nearly 1 billion barrels of oil over the past 70 years from the Peruvian Amazon, the second largest land area of the Amazon Basin after Brazil. The first major hydrocarbon exploration boom took place in the Peruvian Amazon in the early to mid 1970s, immediately followed by an exploitation boom from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.

The authors also discovered a number of interesting trends. For example, there has been a steady decline in Amazonian oil production ever since its peak in the early 1980s. In contrast, natural gas production from the Peruvian Amazon has been skyrocketing since 2004 and the start of production at Camisea. The year 2009 had the lowest oil output in over 30 years, but marked the sixth consecutive year of rapidly increasing natural gas production.

The vast majority of these concessions overlap sensitive areas, such as official state natural protected areas and indigenous peoples' lands. Nearly one-fifth of the protected areas and over half of all titled indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon are now covered by hydrocarbon concessions. And perhaps most disturbingly, over 60% of the area proposed as reserves for indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation are covered by oil concessions. The authors stress that one of the more troubling aspects of the new boom is the expanding hydrocarbon frontier, as much of the last remote and pristine tracts of rainforest left in the Amazon are now fair game for oil and gas companies.

As an example, the researchers highlighted Block 67, operated by Perenco. It is located in one of the most megadiverse and intact corners of the Amazon, but it is slated for major development as it sits on top of over 300 million barrels of probable oil reserves. Block 67 also overlaps a proposed reserve for uncontacted indigenous peoples.

The first hydrocarbon boom of the early 1970s brought with it severe negative environmental and social impacts, according to the authors, and all indications are that this second boom will do so as well. Indeed, in 2009 there was a deadly conflict between indigenous protestors and government forces in Bagua, Peru, largely stemming from government efforts to lease or sell indigenous lands without their free, prior and informed consent.

The authors call for a rigorous policy debate, including a greater analysis of potential environmental and social impacts and how they could be effectively avoided or at least minimized. For example, the authors highlight Ecuador's innovative Yasuni-ITT Initiative, which seeks international contributions in exchange for leaving the massive ITT oil fields untapped beneath a megadiverse Amazonian national park. Given that Block 67 is just across the border from ITT, the authors conclude the paper by suggesting that perhaps Peru employ a similar strategy.

Researchers have compiled official government data collected by the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Peruvian state energy companies Petroperú and Perúpetro. Specifically, they extracted information dealing with contracts, seismic testing, well construction, oil development, and natural gas development for Amazonian oil and gas concessions for each of the past 40 years. Information for activities prior to 1970, when there were only two producing oil concessions, has been pieced together as much as possible from these documents as well.

Nanotechnology could help Arab region

2010-02-21T18:16:00.000+05:30

"Nanotechnology could aid the future of development of the Arab region," says Mohamed H.A. Hassan, executive director of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, and president of the African Academy of Sciences. Hassan made his remarks at a panel session, "Re-emergence of Science, Technology and Education as Priorities in the Arab World," taking place at the AAAS's annual meeting in San Diego.

"The Arab region, home to some 300 million people, faces a host of daunting development challenges," Hassan notes. "Three of the most fundamental involve ensuring adequate supplies of water, energy and food." Advances in nanotechnology, he says, "could help achieve progress by helping to address each of these challenges."

For example, he notes that nano-filters could enhance the efficiency of desalinisation plants, helping to ensure adequate supplies of water in the region. Similarly, nanotechnology could improve the capacity of solar panels. More abundant supplies of water and energy, Hassan adds, "would boost irrigation and help increase agricultural output."

But none of this is likely to take place, he cautions, "without a strong commitment to training the next generation of scientists." The Arab region has some inherent demographic advantages when seeking to address human resource issues related to scientific capacity building. "Sixty percent of the population is less than 25 years old," he says.

"Yet, the region has some glaring weaknesses as well," he says. "Arab countries spend just 0.3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on science and technology, compared to 1% in a growing number of developing countries and 2% to 3% in many developed countries. Scientists in the region publish less than 1% of the world's peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Hassan points to some encouraging recent signs, however. "A growing number of countries have invested in high-profile projects designed to quickly build scientific capacity in critical areas of science and technology." He cites, for example, the opening of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for post-graduate studies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar's Science and Technology Park (QSTP).

But much more will need to be done, he says. To boost science, he calls on each Arab country "to create at least one world-class university" and "build at least one world-class state-of-the-art science centre." Hassan also believes the national merit-based academies in the region should become more engaged in their societies and stronger advocates for science education and science-based development.

He readily acknowledges that "with so many immediate challenges facing the region, it's difficult for governments to engage in long-term strategies for development." But he says that "unless countries within the Arab region make a sustained effort to build scientific capacity, they will find themselves unable to overcome the 'knowledge-deficit' obstacles that have impeded economic development for far too long."

"Nanotechnology may not be the first thing that comes to mind in discussions dealing with strategies to address the Arab region's most pressing challenges," Hassan concludes. But such investments in science and technology could be a key to the region's future."

Fueling the future with fish tank residue

2010-02-19T19:13:00.000+05:30

As Americans demand new and cleaner ways to meet the country's energy needs, researchers are turning to algae as a promising new fuel source. The approach has the potential to significantly reduce the nation's reliance on imported oil while contributing to rural economic development and lowering greenhouse emissions.

Experts project that algae-based biofuels could displace large volumes of diesel and jet transportation fuels. One of the field's leading experts, Sandia researcher Ron Pate, will present an overview of the current state of research and development and associated opportunities and challenges for algal biofuels during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego on Feb. 19.

Pate, who is a principal member of technical staff at Sandia, has been in Washington, D.C., since November 2009, serving as a technical consultant to the emerging algae biofuels program within the Biomass Office of the Department of Energy's Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE).

The DOE program evolved out of an initiative started in 2008 to develop a National Algae Biofuels Technology Roadmap; researchers from Sandia, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other national laboratories, universities and industry are teaming up with DOE to overcome some of the field's biggest challenges.

"We've been heavily involved in supporting the Office of Biomass Program for the past year and a half on the Algae Biofuels Roadmap and a couple of specific projects that are algae biofuel-related," Pate said.

Among those projects are two international collaborations: one with industrial partners in Israel and the U.S., and another with the National Research Council Canada.

"Using algae as a feedstock source for biofuels has a lot of potential benefits, but there are also some tremendous challenges. We've been working very hard to determine what the needs are, the current state of the technology and the areas that really need some focused investment and work," Pate said.

Through recent American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (stimulus package) and other program investments in Integrated Biorefinery and Algae Consortia projects beginning in FY2010, DOE/EERE is providing about $180 million in near-term funding specifically focused on algae biofuels research and development.

Pate's presentation, "The Promise and Challenges for Algae Biofuels: Overview of Approaches and Issues for Sustainable Production Scale-up," will cover many of the current issues surrounding algae research and development. Algae is emerging as an attractive resource because it reproduces quickly, uses large quantities of carbon dioxide and can thrive in non-freshwater, including brackish and marine water, thus avoiding competition with traditional agriculture's freshwater needs. In addition, algae can produce biomass and oils, and is attractive as feedstock for renewable fuels, with potentially greater productivity and significantly less land use requirements than with other commodity crop feedstocks such as corn, soy and canola.

In recent assessments that build on earlier work done under the DOE-funded Aquatic Species Program during the late-1970s through the early 1990s, Pate and others have been taking a new look at the nation's potential for algae biofuels production capacity development and resource requirements. The U.S. has ample sunlight, lower value land and non-freshwater resources in the lower latitude coastal and inland states, including the Southwest region of New Mexico, Arizona and California, to potentially produce large volumes of biofuel feedstock, if high productivies can be reliably achieved.

With algal oil productivities that could potentially reach annual average levels in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 gallons per acre, the land footprint required for large volumes of renewable fuel production would be minimal when compared with other conventional oil crops, such as soy and canola, that produce between 50 and 120 gallons per acre per year.

"With algae, we're talking about annual average productivities that could reach several thousand gallons per acre per year — with practical values that analysis has shown might be able to reach more than 6500 gallons per acre – so if you do the math, you can see the reasoning behind this research," Pate said.

Ron Pate's talk "Resources, Methods, and Approaches for Algae Production," is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19, as part of the "Algae for Food, Feed, Fiber, Freshwater, and Fuel" panel, which will be held 1:30-4:30 p.m. in Room 9 at the San Diego Convention Center.

"Algae can produce oils, which are nature's most effective energy storage medium. We already have the technologies coming online to be able to take that and affordably convert it into really useful fuels that are essentially drop-in equivalent to today's petroleum-based ground and aviation transport fuels. And there is a lot of promise to create quite a bit of oil from algae, but nobody has really done that affordably on a large, routine scale yet so that you can rely on it day in and day out."

Making the leap from the current preliminary analytical stage to full-scale production is challenged by a number of technical hurdles and unknowns. In the last decade, Pate and his colleagues have analyzed factors that are critical to the success of algal biofuels. Sunlight, carbon dioxide, usable, flat land and water are the key ingredients to algae growth, so the researchers looked for areas of the country where those factors were abundant and provided an optimal environment for growth.

The team determined that Southwestern states offer the most sun and large areas of available land, but are lacking in carbon dioxide and water. Although algae can thrive in the region's brackish groundwater, uncertainties remain about how much water is actually available. The team also had to address concerns that biofuel production will encroach on the nation's valuable land, water and fertilizer resources currently used for traditional agriculture.

To generate potential solutions, Pate and his colleagues contributed to a three-day workshop hosted by DOE's Office of Biomass Program in December 2008 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of algal fuels research and industry. The event was attended by 200 technical experts and stakeholders from government and state agencies from around the nation, who provided valuable comments and insights.

Pate was part of the DOE-sponsored team that drafted a report based on comments received both at the workshop and from public, and the report, which will outline the nation's strategy in algal biofuel research, is expected to be published in the next few months and will help drive the nation's algal biofuels efforts.

Despite the challenges, Pate is confident that algae has a strong chance of becoming a viable source of transportation fuel in the long-term future. "People who are more realistic think this will take at least 10 years for research and investments to get it to the point where it has commercial viability," Pate said. "I think the jury's still out, but we'll likely see an impact in the next decade."

Energy consumption monitors installed in two residential colleges

2010-02-10T23:45:00.003+05:30

c a p t i o nMonitors that will provide students with real-time information about energy consumed have been installed in Yale’s Pierson and Silliman residential colleges, the Yale Office of Sustainability has announced.

Accompanied by an educational campaign about residential energy consumption at Yale and nationwide, the monitors aim to provide students with direct and immediate awareness of the effects of their consumption decisions. Designed by Lucid Design Group, the system displays real-time data on energy used for electricity, heating, and cooling. Large, interactive touch-screen monitors that have been installed near the Pierson and Silliman dining halls allow viewers to see energy consumption patterns over time, compare between colleges, and display in unit equivalencies such as gallons of gasoline, hours of use for hairdryers, microwaves and laptops as well as the monetary. The information is also available online through a live website at: www.yale.edu/energydashboard.

Surveys distributed among students before and after the monitors’ installation will help to measure their effect on students’ attitudes and behaviors. The Yale Office of Sustainability has set a five percent electricity consumption reduction goal for the two colleges receiving monitors. If Pierson and Silliman colleges meet this goal, Yale Facilities will consider installing monitors in the remaining 10 residential colleges.

The real-time energy monitoring project is part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Commitment launched by University President Richard C. Levin in 2005. Yale committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020—a 43 percent reduction from 2005 levels that will occur even as Yale increases its total square footage by 15 percent. At that time, Levin also challenged students to reduce residential college energy consumption by 15 percent over three years; students fell just short of this goal, but students have remained interested in supporting the energy reduction commitment. This latest project aims to capture student enthusiasm for reducing energy consumption by offering tangible steps for the individual and reporting.

Funding for the monitors comes from a grant received through the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives program.

eSolar to develop 2GW solar thermal power plants in China

2010-01-13T19:11:00.000+05:30

eSolar, a global provider of reliable and cost-effective concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, and Penglai Electric, a privately-owned Chinese electrical power equipment manufacturer, today announced a master licensing agreement to build at least 2 gigawatts(GW) of solar thermal power plants in China over the next 10 years.

The deal was signed in the Chinese State Council building with government officials in attendance and represents the country's largest CSP project. Groundbreaking of the first 92 megawatts (MW) will take place in 2010.

Penglai Electric plans to develop 2GW of power plants by 2021 using eSolar's proven solar thermal technology. The solar thermal power plants will be co-located with biomass electricity generation facilities. Penglai Electric will leverage local manufacturing to source some of the equipment. In total, the plants will eliminate 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

"Using the power of the sun, eSolar's technology minimizes the environmental impact on manufacturing and deployment while maximizing land and cost efficiency," said Liu Guangyu, chairman and CEO of Penglai Electric. "We are extremely grateful to the Chinese government for playing a major role in promoting zero-carbon renewable energy."

"With Penglai as our partner and with the strong support of the Chinese government, eSolar is proud to be the first company to deliver the benefits of cost-effective solar thermal power to China," said Bill Gross, founder and chairman of eSolar.

China Huadian Engineering Co. will lead the construction process. At completion, China Shaanxi Yulin Huayang New Energy Co. will own and operate the first 92MW plant. "To date, eSolar offers the only CSP tower technology that has demonstrated commercial maturity and economic feasibility," added Zhao Weikang, chairman and president of Shaanxi Yulin Huayang New Energy Co. "We're excited to build our initial hybrid plant as part of the 170-square kilometer Yulin Alternative Energy Park, the first large scale alternative energy park in China. Our work is aligned with the government's continuing policy to curb carbon emissions and combat climate change."

China is currently the market leader in the PV manufacturing industry. The deal represents the country's first major move into concentrating solar thermal power. The Chinese government recently announced its aggressive plans to increase the country's renewable power generation capacity to 15 percent by 2020.

Coal and Lung Cancer

2010-01-06T23:47:00.000+05:30

Coal from China's Xuan Wei County, widely used for cooking and heating, may contribute to unusually high rates of lung cancer among women in the region.Coal from mass extinction era linked to lung cancer mystery.

The volcanic eruptions thought responsible for Earth's largest mass extinction — which killed more than 70 percent of plants and animals 250 million years ago — is still taking lives today. That's the conclusion of a new study showing, for the first time, that the high silica content of coal in one region of China may be interacting with volatile substances in the coal to cause unusually high rates of lung cancer. The study, which helps solve this cancer mystery, appears in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly publication.

David Large and colleagues note that parts of China's Xuan Wei County in Yunnan Province have the world's highest incidence of lung cancer in nonsmoking women — 20 times higher than the rest of China. Women in the region heat their homes and cook on open coal-burning stoves that are not vented to the outside. Scientists believe that indoor emissions from burning coal cause cancer, but are unclear why the lung cancer rates in this region are so much higher than other areas. Earlier studies show a strong link between certain volatile substances, called PAHs, in coal smoke and lung cancer in the region.

The scientists found that coal used in parts of Xuan Wei County had about 10 times more silica, a suspected carcinogen, than U.S. coal. Silica may work in conjunction with PAHs to make the coal more carcinogenic, they indicate. The scientists also found that this high-silica coal was formed 250 million years ago, at a time when massive volcanic eruptions worked to deposit silica in the peat that formed Xuan Wei's coal.

Panasonic develops direct methanol fuel cell system

2009-12-27T12:54:00.001+05:30

The high power output 100 W-class portable generator to be developed and field tested in fiscal 2012

Panasonic has developed a direct methanol fuel cell system which can produce an average power output of 20 W by increasing the output per cubic centimeter twice that of its previous prototype. Using this technology, Panasonic aims to develop a 100 W-class portable generator and start field testing in fiscal 2012 ending in March 2012.

Heightening environmental concerns and depletion of fossil fuels urge the development of alternative, clean energy with little greenhouse gas emissions. Great hopes are placed on the practical application of direct methanol fuel cells as an alternative, because they produce no air pollutants and significantly lower amount of CO2 than internal combustion engine generators.

In 2008 Panasonic developed compact fuel cell stacks by reviewing the structure of its connecting parts. It also developed compact and energy-efficient balance of plant (BOP) systems including a fuel supply pump that can directly mix and adjust the concentration of methanol internally. By improving the stack technology, Panasonic has successfully doubled the average power output to 20 W while retaining the same volume with the preceding prototype. The high output methanol fuel cell allows for powering feature-laden laptop computers, which have relatively high power consumption.

The new fuel cell system also boasts 5,000 hours of durability (based on eight-hour intermittent use per day). Durability was a major challenge for commercialization of fuel cells because power output drops as the electrodes deteriorate. Panasonic solved the problem by developing a technology that enables supplying high concentration fuel to the electrode.

Panasonic continues to work to increase output of direct methanol fuel cells, capitalizing on the above technologies that have achieved downsizing and high durability. As a next step, it plans to develop a portable generator with an average output of 100 W that will be much more compact than engine-generators. Combining the fuel cell generator with its high-capacity lithium-ion battery module, Panasonic aims to bring to market an outdoor power source that integrates energy-creation and energy-storage functions.

On the prototype fuel cell system, Panasonic holds 139 patents in Japan and 69 in other countries including pending applications.

Winter winds will generate electricity for Ames, ISU

2009-12-23T23:39:00.000+05:30

The winds of January are a good thing if you're getting electricity from a wind farm, and that's the case for the City of Ames and Iowa State University. The city and university will begin buying wind-generated electricity from a new wind farm north of Zearing. Around the first of the year, local appliances, lights, and computers may be powered by a new, eco-friendly energy source.

The timing is excellent, says ISU assistant director of utilities Jeff Witt, because "winter is the best time for wind energy in Iowa and January is probably the peak month."

Ames and Iowa State officials plan to buy enough wind power to supply 30 megawatts of output for Ames and six megawatts for ISU. That's more than 15 per cent of Ames' electricity needs and approximately 10 per cent of Iowa State's needs.

The electricity comes from a 100-turbine, 150-megawatt farm recently constructed by NextEra Energy Resources, the top generator of wind power in North America. The new wind farm is the second such farm that NextEra has built in the area and the firm's eighth in Iowa.

"The City of Ames has a long history of supporting new energy technologies including our first in the nation waste-to-energy facility," explains Donald Kom, director of Ames Electric Services. "Adding wind energy helps bolster our portfolio of renewable fuels."

Witt said Iowa State officials look forward to adding wind power to the university's energy lineup. There will be some challenges to utilities staff, who will need to balance wind conditions with electricity needs, he said, but "it's a good thing and we're pretty excited."

Ames and Iowa State have been partnering to buy electricity since the early 1990s and began looking for a renewable energy source a couple of years ago. After reviewing proposals from companies that generate energy from wind, biomass and the sun, they chose NextEra and subsequently developed a 20-year contract for wind energy.

Shell awarded permit to study natural gas potential in central South Africa

2009-12-16T16:37:00.000+05:30

The South African Petroleum Authorities (Petroleum Agency SA) today awarded Shell a Technical Cooperation Permit for a one-year study to determine the hydrocarbon potential in parts of the Karoo Basin in central South Africa.

The permit covers an area of approximately 185,000 square kilometres. The study will provide a better understanding of the area's geology and shale gas potential, establishing the scope to pursue natural gas exploration. Shell will have the exclusive right to apply for exploration permits following completion of the study.

"This onshore study and the recent award of offshore exploration acreage in the Orange Basin area together reinforce Shell's interest in exploring for oil and gas in South Africa," said Ceri Powell, Executive Vice President International Exploration.

Shell has been active in the South African retail markets since 1904 and in refining since 1963.

Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalised solar energy'

2009-12-16T14:01:00.000+05:30

New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of "personalised solar energy," in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own homes and communities.

That's the topic of a report by an international expert on solar energy published in the ACS' Inorganic Chemistry, a bi-weekly journal. It describes a long-awaited, inexpensive method for solar energy storage that could help power homes and plug-in cars in the future while helping keep the environment clean.

Daniel Nocera explains that the global energy need will double by mid-century and triple by 2100 due to rising standards of living world population growth. Personalised solar energy – the capture and storage of solar energy at the individual or home level – could meet that demand in a sustainable way, especially in poorer areas of the world.

The report describes development of a practical, inexpensive storage system for achieving personalised solar energy. At its heart is an innovative catalyst that splits water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen that become fuel for producing electricity in a fuel cell. The new oxygen-evolving catalyst works like photosynthesis, the method plants use to make energy, producing clean energy from sunlight and water.

"Because energy use scales with wealth, point-of-use solar energy will put individuals, in the smallest village in the non-legacy world and in the largest city of the legacy world, on a more level playing field," the report states.

Solar energy: Key solution to CO2 challenges in the developing world

2009-12-14T22:33:00.000+05:30

Intense debate at COP15 centres on the challenge of reducing CO₂ emissions in developing countries without limiting their economic growth and ability to make life better for their citizens. EPIA (the European Photovoltaic Industry Association) is in Copenhagen to make the case that solar provides the opportunity for developing countries to leapfrog traditional energy dependence on fossil fuel to producing clean energy.

"Solar energy offers a decentralised solution, easily adapted to poor infrastructures and ready for an expanded energy access to meet fast growing demand," says EPIA's Vice-president, Murray Cameron."Our recent study shows the enormous potential of photovoltaic energy (PV) in 'Sunbelt' regions where many of the developing countries are located."

As the name implies, Sunbelt countries have intense sunlight. Most are experiencing a sharp increase in demand for electricity due to their growing economies and population – such as China, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa.

"PV is an environmentally-friendly solution for the Sunbelt that is feasible now with existing and readily available technology," EPIA's Secretary General, Adel El Gammal explains. "One of the main obstacles – and one that needs attention at COP15 – is the definition of a sound process for appropriate technology transfer."

Discussions about technology transfer have been going on for many years without any specific action. "There is some indication that this might be changing,"continues Adel El Gammal. "Global climate change negotiations will shape the future and trigger massive funding opportunities for low carbon technologies, such as PV. It's the best time to push an agreement to support the rapid and widest possible diffusion of existing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies."

A greener way to get electricity from natural gas

2009-12-03T16:19:00.000+05:30

Proposed system uses solid-oxide fuel cells to produce power without sending greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

A new type of natural-gas electric power plant proposed by MIT researchers could provide electricity with zero carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, at costs comparable to or less than conventional natural-gas plants, and even to coal-burning plants. But that can only come about if and when a price is set on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases – a step the U.S. Congress and other governments are considering as a way to halt climate change.

Postdoctoral associate Thomas Adams and Paul I. Barton, the Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering, propose a system that uses solid-oxide fuel cells, which produce power from fuel without burning it. The system would not require any new technology, but would rather combine existing components, or ones that are already well under development, in a novel configuration (for which they have applied for a patent).

The system would also have the advantage of running on natural gas, a relatively plentiful fuel source – proven global reserves of natural gas are expected to last about 60 years at current consumption rates – that is considered more environmentally friendly than coal or oil. (Present natural-gas power plants produce an average of 1,135 pounds of carbon dioxide for every megawatt-hour of electricity produced – half to one-third the emissions from coal plants, depending on the type of coal.)

Absent any price for carbon emissions, Adams says, when it comes to generating electricity "the cheapest fuel will always be pulverised coal." But as soon as there is some form of carbon pricing – which attempts to take into account the true price exacted on the environment by greenhouse gas emissions – "ours is the lowest price option," he says, as long as the pricing is more than about USD15 per metric ton of emitted carbon dioxide.

Such a pricing mechanism would be put in place, for example, by the Waxman-Markey "American Clean Energy and Security Act" that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July, through its "cap and trade" provisions. (A corresponding bill has not yet reached the floor of the U.S. Senate.) If the program becomes law, the actual price per ton of carbon would vary, being determined through the free market.

Natural gas already accounts for 22 per cent of all U.S. electricity production, and that percentage is likely to rise in coming years if carbon prices are put into effect. For these and other reasons, a system that can produce electricity from natural gas at a competitive price with zero greenhouse gas emissions could prove to be an attractive alternative to conventional power plants that use fossil fuels.

The system proposed by Adams and Barton would not emit into the air any carbon dioxide or other gases believed responsible for global warming, but would instead produce a stream of mostly pure carbon dioxide. This stream could be harnessed and stored underground relatively easily, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). One additional advantage of the proposed system is that, unlike a conventional natural gas plant with CCS that would consume significant amounts of water, the fuel-cell based system actually produces clean water that could easily be treated to provide potable water as a side benefit, Adams says.

How they did it

Adams and Barton used computer simulations to analyse the relative costs and performance of this system versus other existing or proposed generating systems, including natural gas or coal-powered systems incorporating carbon capture technologies.

Combined-cycle natural gas plants – the most efficient type of fossil-fuel power plants in use today – could be retrofitted with a carbon-capture system to reduce the output of greenhouse gases by 90 per cent. But the MIT researchers’ study found that their proposed system could eliminate virtually 100 per cent of these emissions, at a comparable cost for the electricity produced, and with even a higher efficiency (in terms of the amount of electricity produced from a given amount of fuel).

Next steps

Although no full-scale plants using such systems have yet been built, the basic principles have been demonstrated in a number of smaller units including a 250-kilowatt plant, and prototype megawatt-scale plants are planned for completion around 2012. Actual utility-scale power plants would likely be on the order of 500 megawatts, Adams says. And because fuel cells, unlike conventional turbine-based generators, are inherently modular, once the system has been proved at small size it can easily be scaled up.

"You don’t need one large unit," Adams explains. "You can do hundreds or thousands of small ones, run in parallel." Adams says practical application of such systems is "not very far away at all," and could probably be ready for commercialisation within a few years. "This is near-horizon technology," he says.

ORNL "deep retrofits" can cut home energy bills in half

2009-11-25T20:41:00.000+05:30

ORNL’s Jeff Christian points out the insulating foam used to seal the attic in a deep retrofit house. Photo:ORNLOak Ridge National Laboratory has announced plans to conduct a series of deep energy retrofit research projects with the potential to improve the energy efficiency in selected homes by as much as 30 to 50 per cent.

The projects will be supported by up to USD1.4 million from the Department of Energy's Building America Program, which has received additional funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Deep energy retrofits are renovations to existing structures that use the latest in energy-efficient materials and technologies and result in significant energy reductions. Jeff Christian, the ORNL buildings technologies researcher heading the project, said at least 10 homes across the region will be sought to participate.

The home selection process is yet to be finalised, and homeowners will have to pay most of the costs – about USD10 per square foot of living space – and agree to allow their post-retrofit energy consumption to be monitored. But Christian said costs can be recovered in as little as 10 years, and energy bills potentially can be cut in half. Most important, data from the project can provide huge incentives for more deep retrofits across the region, he said.

"Deep retrofit is a fairly expensive upfront proposition, but can be one of the best investments available to many homeowners," said Christian, who also is a board member of the East Tennessee Quality Growth Council, which is helping lead the project. "We're targeting homes that are 15-35 years old – homes that are ready for new windows, heating and cooling units, appliances and maybe even solar panels to push their homes closer to near-zero energy consumption. Then we want to monitor these homes, analyse their energy consumption and celebrate the progressive vision of this region."

Christian said large efficiency gains via retrofitting were proven feasible on a test house in Knoxville last year. ORNL continues to collaborate with the Tennessee Valley Authority to better quantify the impact of deep retrofits at the Campbell Creek Energy Efficient Homes Research Project. The retrofits are part of an energy-efficient systems approach that involves making the building more air-tight; weatherising the attic, crawl space and windows; upgrading heating and cooling units, water heaters, appliances and lighting; and installing solar panels.

"We're trying to look at what we can do with existing housing stock to improve the efficiency and also how we can influence new construction," said TVA researcher Bruce Rogers. "The deep retrofit project will enhance our research findings with results from additional homes in the Valley."

Christian explained many new two-story houses have a heat pump for downstairs and another in the attic for upstairs. Much of the cost of cooling conventional houses comes from the unit in the hot attic operating very inefficiently. In a retrofit house, insulation is removed from the attic floor. The roof and sides of the attic are sealed with insulating foam, and a high-efficiency heat pump is installed in the attic. The result: huge energy savings in heating and cooling because the entire HVAC system is inside the insulation layer.

Also, the system provides thermostats on both floors, but instead of operating two separate heat pumps, a single smarter unit directs heating or cooling where it's needed.

Christian said results of all of the retrofits will be available online, showing detailed data on the costs and benefits of the retrofits.

"This project connects our research to the surrounding community," Christian said. "We're hoping that this demonstration stimulates enough interest among members of the public that it will become self-sustaining – growing the number of houses with deep retrofits."

UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy.

Generating electricity from air flow

2009-11-23T21:43:00.001+05:30

A group of researchers at the City College of New York is developing a new way to generate power for planes and automobiles based on materials known as piezoelectrics, which convert the kinetic energy of motion into electricity. They will present their concept later this month at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics will take place from November 22-24 at the Minneapolis Convention Centre.

About a half-inch by one inch in size, these devices might be mounted on the roof or tail of a car or on an airplane fuselage where they would vibrate inside a flow, producing an output voltage. The power generated would not be enough to replace that supplied by the combustion engines, but it could run some system – such as batteries that would be used to charge control panels and other small electronic devices such as mobile phones.

Led by CCNY professor Yiannis Andreopoulos, the researchers are currently attempting to optimise these devices by modeling the physical forces to which they are subjected in different air flows – on the roof of a car, for instance, or on the back of a truck.

When the device is placed in the wake of a cylinder – such as on the back of a truck – the flow of air will cause the devices to vibrate in resonance, says Andreopoulos. On the roof of car, they will shake in a much more unsteady flow known as a turbulent boundary layer. In Minneapolis, Andreopoulos and his colleagues will present wind tunnel data showing how the devices work in both situations.

"These devices open the possibility to continuously scavenge otherwise wasted energy from the environment," says Andreopoulos.

One and a half million people worldwide live in darkness

2009-11-23T00:06:00.000+05:30

With the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen just 13 days away, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has highlighted the need to ensure that the energy needs of developing countries are central to any new climate agreement, after a new report found that almost a quarter of the world’s 6 billion people live without electricity.

The majority of the 1.5 billion people who live in the dark are in the least developed countries (LDCs) of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report, The Energy Access Situation in Developing Countries: A Review Focusing on the Least Developed Counties and Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Expanding energy access is essential to tackle global poverty. It needs to happen at the lowest cost and in the cleanest and most sustainable way possible to help developing countries establish a low-carbon route to development," Olav Kjorven, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy, told reporters in New York at the launch of the report.

"Almost half of humanity is completely disconnected from the debate on how to drive human progress with less emissions and greener energy because their reality is much more basic than that: they carry heavy loads of water and food on their backs because they don’t have transport; they cook over wood fires that damage their health, not with electricity, gas or oil," said Mr. Kjorven.

"We must ensure that the energy needs of these people are central to a new climate agreement," he added, referring to the pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions that countries are hoping to achieve when they meet in the Danish capital in December.

Mr. Kjorven noted that two million people die every year from causes associated with exposure to smoke from cooking with biomass and coal – and 99 per cent of those deaths occur in developing countries.

In LDCs and sub-Saharan Africa, half of all deaths from pneumonia in children under five years, chronic lung disease and lung cancer in adults are attributed to the use of solid fuel, compared with 38 per cent in developing countries overall.

According to the report, to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015 – the first of the eight globally agreed targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – 1.2 billion more people will need access to electricity and two billion more people will need access to modern fuels like natural gas or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also called propane.

"We have to see Copenhagen as an opportunity. For a climate deal to work, it also has to be a development deal. Developing countries have to see that this deal would help them move forward, not slow down," Mr. Kjorven stated.

The report was produced in partnership by the UNDP and the World Health Organisation (WHO), with support from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

DEWA Establishes Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence

2009-11-22T16:23:00.002+05:30

In execution to the vision of HH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president, prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has celebrated the signing of a MoU with UNDP to establish the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence.

The MoU was signed in the presence of HH Sheikh Saeed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairman of the Supreme Council of Energy, HE Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahd, minister of environment & water, members of the Supreme Council of Energy together with a number high official of the Government and Senior employees of DEWA.

Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, managing director & CEO, DEWA, has signed on behalf of DEWA, and Qais Al Numan, the Resident Representative of the Program, has signed for the UNDP.

Al Tayer stated that DEWA has been working restlessly with international experts to establish a formal framework to address carbon emissions in the Emirate.

He added that this initiative is in line with the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in protecting and preserving the environment, based on the corporate strategic objective of DEWA, to play a vital role in providing a clear environment for Dubai Society, DEWA has undertaken a feasibility study for the establishment of a Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE), in cooperation with the Consultant "ISTIDAMA".

Al Tayer stated, "We have the vision of a knowledge economy, and our actions are in line with the development of our society." He mentioned that the DCCE will work as a knowledge repository for the Emirate and provide both the public and private sector with the highest level of expertise to quantify and operationalise environmental upgrades.

Al Tayer emphasised that the DCCE has been conceptualised on the premise of knowledge economies, and leverages international incentives to drive the Dubai business culture to address the change required in tackling climate change.

Al Tayer pointed out that the DCCE will be established as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) in conjunction with International Organisations such as the United Nations, and leverage the experience of industry experts. Istidama, a Dubai-based sustainability consultancy, has been working alongside DEWA to complement the know-how and establish the PPP framework required.

Ivano Iannelli, former United Nations Chief of Projects in Dubai and managing director at Istidama, said, “We are honored to contribute to the DCCE establishment and simultaneously promote the development and competitiveness of the carbon credit strategies in Dubai.

“All members of the centre will play an active role in defining the potential aims, objectives and priorities, as well as advising on a suitable structure with the aim of showcasing expertise and encouraging inward inVEstment. Istidama's principle focus is to allow knowledge transfer with the international organisations to occur, stimulating innovation in this strategically important sector for UAE.”

Al Tayer made it clear that the Centre is meant to act as a one-stop-shop for carbon abatement strategies, and will provide its services to both public and private entities. The large scale of DEWA carbon abatement potential is sufficient enough to consolidate the expertise in a cost effective manner.

Al Tayer concluded his speech stating that it brings him great joy to see DEWA's efforts in reducing Dubai's Carbon footprint has attracted the support of the United Nations Development Programme.

From his side, the UNDP resident representative a.i. in UAE, Dr. Noaman, stated that the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE) had contributed in setting up an international role model for government entities across the globe, that the Programme has been actively participating in the development of carbon reduction schemes and has the ultimate goal of facilitating government entities in consolidating the competencies required.

Dr. Noaman highlighted the remarkable business acumen that the Emirate of Dubai has demonstrated in public sector economic development activities, and expressed his assurances that the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE) had set an international example for government entities across the globe.

He also mentioned that the DCCE provides strategic advisory services to the Emirate's companies and projects in aligning to socio-environmental development policies from an economic standpoint. The access to carbon credits, an economic incentive, will facilitate the implementation of environmentally friendly activities thus will strengthen the business value and generate additional wealth for its society.

The DCCE will open its doors to the public on 1st Quarter 2010, as part of DEWA, and provide assistance to its stakeholders in generating efficiency from a carbon reduction standpoint.

Source: DEWA Press Release

Nuclear expert warns of safety flaws in Areva's reactor design

2009-11-20T12:24:00.001+05:30

An independent expert, commissioned by Greenpeace, has concluded that two nuclear reactors, currently under construction in Finland and France, suffer from serious safety flaws. The EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) design, which is supplied by the French company AREVA, fails to adequately separate different reactor control systems. Greenpeace is calling on the Finnish and French governments to immediately halt work at the EPR construction sites in Olkiluoto and Flamanville.

According to independent nuclear safety analyst Dr. Helmut Hirsch the flaws in the reactor safety systems "in the worst case, can lead to a minor incident developing into a severe accident."

Greenpeace Nordic commissioned Dr. Hirsch to produce an analysis of the design flaws in the EPR's nerve centre. The nerve centre is the 'brain' of the reactor, responsible for management of all safety systems in use at the plant. Reactor control systems are supposed to be independent, so that a failure of one system doesn't compromise the whole plant. This is not the case with the EPR.

According to Hirsch, the nerve centre design is "contradictory to the foundation of nuclear safety". This analysis reinforces a joint statement by the nuclear authorities of Finland, UK and France, who recently declared that the EPR's nerve centre is inadequate and must be redesigned.

"The ever-mounting safety problems with this French nuclear reactor add to the many reasons to abandon nuclear power. Nuclear energy undermines climate protection; the Finnish choice for nuclear power has shut the door on investment in renewable energy and energy savings," said Lauri Myllyvirta , Energy Campaigner with Greenpeace Nordic.

In addition to design issues, the Olkiluoto site has a history of construction problems.

"Operating a nuclear power plant always entails the risk of a severe accident. These design flaws and continued construction defects increase this risk. Olkiluoto 3 is a warning sign that should convince any reasonable decision-maker to forget about building new nuclear," commented Dr. Rianne Teule, Nuclear Campaigner at Greenpeace International.

The fundamental reasons behind the failure of Olkiluoto 3 are tight schedules, cost pressure, lack of expertise and manufacturing capacity, and the complex and untested design of the reactor. Any future nuclear construction project will face the same issues. The quality problems of Olkiluoto 3 have already been replicated in the construction of another EPR in Flamanville, France.

On the crest of wave energy

2009-11-19T23:22:00.001+05:30

Photo:Mila Zinkova/WikimediaEngineers use aerospace approach to design wave energy system

The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the need to be tethered to the seafloor.

Now, a team of aerospace engineers is applying the principles that keep airplanes aloft to create a new wave-energy system that is durable, extremely efficient, and can be placed anywhere in the ocean, regardless of depth.

The researchers, from the U.S. Air Force Academy, will present their design at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics on Nov. 24, 2009, in Minneapolis, Minn.

"Our group was working on very basic research on feedback flow control for years," says lead researcher Stefan Siegel, referring to efforts to use sensors and adjustable parts to control how fluids flow around airfoils like wings. "For an airplane, when you control that flow, you better control flight – for example, enabling you to land a plane on a shorter runway."

A colleague had read an article on wave energy in a magazine and mentioned it to Siegel and the other team members, and they realised they could operate a wave energy device using the same feedback control concepts they had been developing.

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the researchers developed a system that uses lift instead of drag to cause the propeller blades to move.

"Every airplane flies with lift, not with drag," says Siegel. "Compare an old style windmill with a modern one. The new style uses lift and is what made wind energy viable – and it doesn't get shredded in a storm like an old windmill. Fluid dynamics fixed the issue for windmills, and can do the same for wave energy."

Windmills have active controls that turn the blades to compensate for storm winds, eliminating lift when it is a risk, and preventing damage.

The Air Force Academy researchers used the same approach with a hydrofoil (equivalent to an airfoil, but for water) and built it into a cycloidal propeller, a design that emerged in the 1930s and currently propels tugboats, ferries and other highly maneuverable ships.

The researchers changed the propeller orientation from horizontal to vertical, allowing direct interaction with the cyclic, up and down motion of wave energy. The researchers also developed individual control systems for each propeller blade, allowing sophisticated manipulations that maximise (or minimise, in the case of storms) interaction with wave energy.

Ultimately, the goal is to keep the flow direction and blade direction constant, cancelling the incoming wave and using standard gear-driven or direct-drive generators to convert the wave energy into electric energy. A propeller that is exactly out of phase with a wave will cancel that wave and maximise energy output.

The cancellation will also allow the float-mounted devices to function without the need of mooring, important for deep-sea locations that hold tremendous wave energy potential and are currently out of reach for many existing wave energy designs.

While the final device may be as large as 40 meters across, laboratory models are currently less than a meter in diameter. A larger version of the system will be tested next year at NSF's Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) tsunami wave basin at Oregon State University, an important experiment for proving the efficacy of the design.

Alternative energy trends in the U.K.

2009-11-19T22:48:00.002+05:30

The United Kingdom's use of alternative energy sources is increasing at a rapid pace. While wind projects often receive the most media attention, several projects involving biofuels, biomass, and energy from waste are planned or already under way in the country.

This new trend is a welcome sign in the event of growing concerns over the perils of global warming. Industrial emission cut and reduced use of fossil fuels are two main ways of combating the global climate change.

Biofuels

In the biofuels market, feedstock prices have fallen to levels that have enabled producers to reconsider a number of projects previously placed on hold. Large grain surpluses have also reduced concerns regarding using food as fuel: Vivergo Fuels Limited (Hull), the joint venture between British Sugar Group (London), BP plc (London) and DuPont (Wilmington, Delaware), is now believed to be a considering a second GBP200 million (USD335 million) grain-to-bioethanol production plant; Total SA's (Paris) Lindsey refinery, the third largest oil refinery in the U.K., is currently considering constructing a new GBP30 million (USD50 million) facility at the Immingham site to produce bioethanol for on-site blending with petrol.

TMO Renewables (Guildford) has developed a biotech process capable of efficiently converting 25 different bio-feedstocks into ethanol. At one of its plants, TMO can take process byproduct and increase production by 15%, while reducing CO2 emissions 50%. The system will be applied initially to a number of U.S. plants.

Biomass and refuse derived fuel

Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) is the organic residue from municipal waste, which rather than being incinerated on site to create heat and power, is often pelletised and sold as fuel for power plants.

Decreased CO2 emissions and a reduced reliance on fossil fuels are the main considerations behind organisations moving forward with RDF- and biomass-fired power plants. Cemex (Egham, Surrey) will be using RDF to fire cement kilns, and calcium-carbonate manufacturer Brunner Mond (Cheshire) will generate one-third of its steam and power requirements from a combination of RDF and biomass. Major airports, including Heathrow, East Midlands Airport, and Manchester Airport, are pursuing biomass power solutions to reduce their carbon footprints. Jacobs Engineering (Pasadena, California) secured the engineering design contract for the Renewable Energy Centre at Heathrow.

Eco2 Limited (Cardiff) will construct a number of plants in the grain-growing area of East Anglia, using straw as a feedstock. Renewable Energy Systems (Kings Langley, Hertfordshire) and MGT Power Limited (London) are both proposing to construct plants adjacent to port facilities that will enable feedstock to be easily transported to the plants.

Forth Energy, a joint venture between Forth Ports and Scottish & Southern Energy (Perth, Scotland), has made the largest commitment by announcing its intention to construct four GBP300 million (USD500 million) biomass energy plants at the ports of Dundee, Rosyth, Grangemouth and Leith.

A significant number of more modest power plants are also under active consideration including NHS Grampian's GBP10 million (USD16.8 million) energy centre at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Northern Energy Developments' plans to construct 10 biomass-fuelled power stations in Scotland and the north of England.

There have been signs that certain major energy providers are considering the acquisition of smaller companies that already have planning permission to construct new biomass plants, but are lacking financing. This allows the larger providers to gain more rapid entry into the 'green' energy market.

Energy from waste

A number of different technical solutions are used to convert waste to energy, the simplest of which is incinerating residual waste to drive steam turbines, such as the Peterborough City Council's waste-to-energy plant. Alternative methods include gasification as used by Cyclamax Limited (Monmouth) and plasma gasification as proposed by Waste2Tricity Limited (London).

Biological treatment such as anaerobic digestion is also widespread, and increasingly, the resulting biogas is used to generate power.

Sterecycle (London) has developed a waste-treatment process that uses an interconnected autoclave system to break down waste into separate RDFs and sterilised non-organic streams. The company is now considering a GBP25 million (USD41.9 million) plant at its Rotherham site to turn biomass into biomethane for injection into the gas network.

European Union legislation, fears over climate change, high energy costs and a potential shortfall in electrical generating capacity have all provided the stimulus for new capital expenditure. Concerns that less waste food will be available to convert into power seem unfounded, as growth has continued. LondonWaste (London) and Denbighshire County Council will generate energy by producing gas through anaerobic digestion and linking the process to a combined heat and power plant.

Other local authorities are focusing on energy from waste (EfW) schemes in which residual municipal wastes are processed to create heat and power. These projects tend to develop over lengthy amounts of time, and increasingly, major private waste management companies are speculatively planning self-funded EfW schemes to secure municipal waste contracts.

Funding issues have plagued some local authority schemes. Wakefield Metropolitan District Council has been delayed more than 12 months in awarding a contract to VT Group (LSE:VTG) (Southampton). Entrepreneur-led EfW plants are being developed, with financial backing only being obtained once planning permission has been granted.

Significant heat and power generation schemes are being linked to business and technology parks. Recent schemes include Peterborough Renewable Energy, EnviroParks and BioPower.

Berkeley lab lends expertise to India to promote energy efficiency

2009-11-18T13:49:00.000+05:30

Photo: Meg and Rahul/WikimediaSmarter grid, greener buildings could cut pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.

India may rank only a distant fourth in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, behind China, the United States and Russia, but its rapid economic growth rate coupled with aging and inefficient energy infrastructure suggest dire environmental consequences if "business as usual" continues. That's why experts from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have been working to expand collaborations with India on energy efficiency.

A combination of various energy efficiency measures – including greener buildings, a smarter electric grid, more efficient home appliances and more advanced industrial and manufacturing processes – have the potential to eliminate India's electricity shortage, reduce pollution and decrease its emissions of greenhouse gases, while boosting the country's economic output by as much as USD500 billion over the next eight years, according to a theme paper that was presented this week in New Delhi at the Second U.S.-India Energy Efficiency Technology Cooperation Conference. The paper was co-written by researchers from Berkeley Lab, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and ECO III.

Already, Berkeley Lab scientists have assisted several Indian regulators and utilities in setting up demand-side management, including training staff, analysing costs and monitoring savings. "By sharing best practices among technical experts and regulators, we were able to help selected Indian utilities initiate demand-side programs in less than one year, which only a handful of states in the United States have achieved in the 30 years since utility reform began," said Jayant Sathaye, head of Berkeley Lab's International Energy Studies group.

Sathaye gave the keynote presentation at the conference and was a lead co-author of the paper; other Berkeley Lab scientists at the conference were Dale Sartor, a leading expert on energy efficiency for data centers, and Girish Ghatikar, an expert on smart grids and demand response. All three work in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD).

The conference, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, USAID, India's Ministry of Power, and India's Confederation of Indian Industry, is just one sign that exchanges with India on energy use and carbon emissions are poised to grow. India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency is also supporting the conference, as is the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is simultaneously leading an energy efficiency trade mission to India this week.

Separately, Energy Secretary Steve Chu was in India last week meeting with Indian leaders to discuss opportunities for partnerships on clean energy technologies. "Tackling climate change and moving toward a clean energy economy requires action both at home and abroad, and I am encouraged by the progress we are seeing on both fronts," he said in a statement from India.

As in China, India's electricity supply is dominated by coal, which provides nearly 70 per cent of the total. Another 35,000 MW of new coal-fired power plants are planned to come online by 2012, representing 250 million tons of potential new carbon dioxide emissions, or about 20 per cent of the country's total emissions in 2006. Much of the rising demand for energy comes from the emerging middle class, as more and more people purchase TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners and other appliances; vehicle ownership is also forecast to rise rapidly.

India must import oil and natural gas to meet its energy requirements. Still, the country experiences frequent shortages; daily power outages are a fact of life, even in the largest cities. The gap is often filled with small, inefficient diesel generators, which are highly polluting. Making matters worse is what the industry terms "energy loss" – essentially thieves who siphon electricity from the grid without paying. Loss rates are as high as 50 per cent in rural locations.

Berkeley Lab has started working with Indian companies and government agencies in both the U.S. and India in several areas.

Green buildings

Collaborations with Berkeley Lab's Building Technologies Department on technologies such as advanced windows, day lighting, heating/cooling systems and demand-side management are in the works.

When India first started building information technology parks to attract Western companies, they were built to Western standards. "Now they're saying, 'what can we do to improve that model?'" said Sartor. "They're in a position to be the standard-setter rather than standards follower. We've been talking to them about, instead of building architecture with a capital 'A,' that's glitzy with lots of glass, we're suggesting they build their new buildings with a capital 'S' for sustainability. India has the opportunity to change the paradigm. They're going to building a lot more buildings than we will here."

Separately, Berkeley Lab conducted a one-year experiment in 2006 in Hyderabad on two nearly identical buildings: one with a white roof and the other with a standard roof. The result was a 5 per cent reduction in electricity consumption in the building with the white roof. That was enough to convince New Delhi's Chief Minister to approve mandatory white roofs for all new government buildings this past July. "She saw the benefits immediately and was very enthusiastic," said Sathaye. "That was a big step forward."

Data centres

The explosive growth of the Internet and the related use of digital media digitisation of everything have caused a massive expansion of data centers around the world. A 2007 report to the U.S. Congress noted that data center energy use in the U.S. doubled between 2001 and 2006, accounting for 1.5 per cent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 2006. The situation in India is similar but even more significant, given that its economic growth is based largely on the information technology industry.

Through an initiative led by DOE and USAID, Berkeley Lab has been working to help India make its data centers more energy efficient, including holding workshops and developing a benchmarking program. "We're helping to stimulate interest and build capacity," said Sartor.

Smart grid

As the United States pursues its own smart-grid initiative, Berkeley Lab is exploring ways to share its experience and expertise with India, where the grid is still rudimentary. Furthermore, effectively integrating renewables such as solar and wind energy, which are growing in India, is a technical challenge that its current grid is incapable of meeting.

Beyond the substandard infrastructure, India is also in need of technical advice on energy policies and rate structures. For example, many rural areas still provide highly subsidised electricity, despite the shortages. "Subsidies alone don't encourage efficiency," said Ghatikar. "With programs emphasising sophisticated rate structures, interoperability standards and information systems, they can eliminate or reduce blackouts through dynamic pricing and reduce electricity losses."

Berkeley Lab's ongoing work in India was formalised in 2008 with the launch of the Berkeley-India Joint Leadership on Energy and the Environment, or BIJLEE (which means "power" in Hindi). In March 2009, the Lab signed memoranda of understanding with New Delhi and the Forum of Regulators, a national-level body, to consult on best practices in utility-based energy efficiency programs. The California Energy Commission and the California Public utilities Commission were also signatories.

"We're not there preaching they should emulate the United States and our experience," said Ashok Gadgil, acting director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "In fact, just the opposite: we're suggesting they should leapfrog our experience. India's energy consumption is significantly lower than that of the U.S. and Europe, so they have an opportunity now to grow in a sustainable way."

Better way to harness waste heat

2009-11-18T00:05:00.000+05:30

New MIT research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of the wasted heat produced by everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, and turn it into usable electricity.

More than half of the energy consumed worldwide is wasted, most of it in the form of excess heat. This new technology would allow conversion of waste heat into electricity with an efficiency several times greater than existing devices. That kind of waste-energy harvesting might, for example, lead to cellphones with double the talk time, laptop computers that can operate twice as long before needing to be plugged in, or power plants that put out more electricity for a given amount of fuel.

Theory says that conversion of heat into electricity can never exceed a specific value called the Carnot Limit, based on a 19th-century formula for determining the maximum efficiency that any device can achieve in converting heat into work. But current commercial thermoelectric devices only achieve about one-tenth of that limit, says Peter Hagelstein, associate professor of electrical engineering.

In experiments involving a different new technology, thermal diodes, Hagelstein worked with Yan Kucherov, a consultant for the Naval Research Laboratory, and coworkers to demonstrate efficiency as high as 40 per cent of the Carnot Limit. The calculations show that this new kind of system could ultimately reach as much as 90 per cent of that ceiling.

How they did it: Hagelstein and his team started from scratch rather than trying to improve the performance of existing devices. They carried out their analysis using a very simple system in which power was generated by a single quantum-dot device – a type of semiconductor in which the electrons and holes, which carry the electrical charges in the device, are very tightly confined in all three dimensions. By controlling all aspects of the device, they hoped to better understand how to design the ideal thermal-to-electric converter.

Hagelstein says that with present systems it's possible to efficiently convert heat into electricity, but with very little power. It's also possible to get plenty of electrical power – what is known as high-throughput power – from a less efficient, and therefore larger and more expensive system. "It's a tradeoff. You either get high efficiency or high throughput," says Hagelstein. But the team found that using their new system, it would be possible to get both at once, he says.

Next steps: The new technology depends on quantum dot devices, a specialised kind of chip in which charged particles are very narrowly confined to a very small region. Such devices are under development, but still a few years away from commercial availability.