Solar Thermal Power May Make Sun-Powered Grid a Reality

It’s solar’s new dawn. For five decades solar technologies have delivered more promises than power. Now, new Breakthrough Award–winning innovations are exiting the lab and plugging into the grid—turning sunlight into serious energy.

Planted in the New Mexico desert near Albuquerque, the six solar dish engines of the Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories look a bit like giant, highly reflective satellite dishes. Each one is a mosaic of 82 mirrors that fit together to form a 38-ft-wide parabola. The mirrors’ precise curvature focuses light onto a 7-in. area. At its most intense spot, the heat is equivalent to a blistering 13,000 suns, producing a flux 13 times greater than the space shuttle experiences during re-entry. “That’ll melt almost anything known to man,” says Sandia engineer Chuck Andraka. “It’s incredibly hot.”

Solar Panel Drops to $1 per Watt

Is this a Milestone or the Bottom for Silicon-Based Panels?

A solar power milestone was reached when First Solar Inc brought its manufacturing costs for solar panels down to $1 per watt. But a study from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs suggests that this might be the bottom for a price-point—if solar power is ever going to scale up to become competitive with other forms of energy. Here are the new challenges facing the solar industry and some suggestions to make a brighter future.

The Brazilian Bioplastics Revolution

The production of plastics from renewable sources constitutes the next frontier in the search for ways to mitigate our dependency on oil and reduce our environmental footprint. The country at the forefront of these tantalizing developments, however, is not commonly perceived as being a technology powerhouse. Brazil is leading the way in this industry after decades of research and commitment to a technology based on sugarcane ethanol. The technology has proven to be environmentally sustainable and potentially capable of changing the way we manufacture everything, from personal care products to automobiles.

Renewable Energy in China: A Necessity, Not an Alternative

What role does renewable energy play in the world’s fastest growing economy? We have all heard about China’s prowess as an economic power, but not what its growth means for the country’s energy needs in the coming decades. China’s burgeoning consumption rate, its increase in heavy industry exports and a construction boom that has led the Chinese to nominate the “crane” as their national bird have fuelled a massive and increasing appetite for energy — intensified by the government’s balancing act of not imposing energy constraints while also seeking more energy sources.

Sun + Water = Fuel

With catalysts created by an MIT chemist, sunlight can turn water into hydrogen. If the process can scale up, it could make solar power a dominant source of energy.

“I’m going to show you something I haven’t showed anybody yet,” said Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry at MIT, speaking this May to an auditorium filled with scientists and U.S. government energy officials. He asked the house manager to lower the lights. Then he started a video. “Can you see that?” he asked excitedly, pointing to the bubbles rising from a strip of material immersed in water. “Oxygen is pouring off of this electrode.” Then he added, somewhat cryptically, “This is the future. We’ve got the leaf.”

MIT chemist Daniel Nocera has mimicked the step in photosynthesis in which green plants split water.

 

Breakthrough new catalyst for producing hydrogen

Water-Splitting Company Founded

According to the website Xconomy, a start-up has been founded to develop a much-discussed catalyst invented by MIT professor Daniel Nocera, one that can be used to split water efficiently without requiring rare metals or caustic chemicals.

MIT Chemist’s “Solar Fuel” Startup

Yes, that’s solar fuel. MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera has been widely lauded for developing a breakthrough technology that could harness the energy of the sun to provide a clean source of fuel. Xconomy has now learned that Polaris Venture Partners is backing a young startup called Sun Catalytix, which Nocera founded to commercialize his discovery.

Tidal power gets a boost from propeller and wind turbine techonology

Welsh renewables company teams up with ship propulsion experts to design robust new generation of marine turbine

DeltaStream’s new design for tidal turbines

Propellers on ships have been tried and tested for centuries in the rough and unforgiving environment of the sea: now this long-proven technology will be used in reverse to harness clean energy from the UK’s powerful tides.

Tidal-Power System Hits Record Output

Marine Current Turbines’ SeaGen system quadruples the world tidal-turbine power record.

Tidal-power developments by British firms show this renewable power technology achieving impressive scale and continued design innovation. Bristol-based Marine Current Turbines (MCT) revealed last month that its SeaGen dual-turbine system achieved full power operation of 1.2 megawatts. MCT’s power peak is four times the global record for a tidal-stream system set by the company in 2004, according to U.K.-based renewables journal REFocus, and 30 times more than the output from the tidal turbines pumping electricity in New York’s East River.

To see these concepts in action, check out the animation below and Tidal Energy’s.

Watch animation >>

Deciphering Big Oil’s Retreat from Renewables

Big Oil has a limited attention span for renewables.

A New York Times article this week concludes that major oil and gas companies are, as the headline roared, “Loath to Follow Obama’s Green Lead.” Such stories bashing Big Oil’s slim investment in renewable energy tend to fall short by failing to consider how renewables intersect with an oil company’s core business, and this one is no exception.

Harnessing Direct Solar Power for Propulsion

Tiny boats made of nanomaterials are powered directly by sunlight.

The sun is the most abundant source of renewable energy. But all the technologies that capitalize on sunlight, including photovoltaics and biofuels, require intermediate steps and infrastructure to turn the sun’s rays into something that can be used to perform work in a machine. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are using carbon nanotubes to build small, simple waterborne machines propelled directly by sunlight. In theory, they say, these machines could be scaled up to make energy-generating pumps directly powered by the sun.

Solar spin: A four-finned rotor (center) floating on a pool of water spins when exposed to sunlight. At left is a lens used to direct sunlight onto the rotor; the bright shape next to the rotor is reflected sunlight.

Watch video >>

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Old Gadgets

Most of us grew up with the Environmental Protection Agency’s friendly “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” motto — but when it comes to gadgets, being environmentally responsible isn’t quite so easy.

That’s because electronics are neither easy for manufacturers to create nor simple for recyclers to disassemble. On top of that, laws on handling e-waste are inconsistent between countries, states and even cities. Long story short, the biggest problem with recycling gadgets is it’s confusing as hell for consumers.

Segway is trying to reinvent urban transportation with Rickshaw!

GM and Segway Develop Rickshaw Prototype

GM and Segway have teamed up to develop a new prototype vehicle as part of their efforts to “reinvent the automobile,” the companies say, but it’s not clear that their new vehicle will do better than the original Segway personal transport.

Unlike the original self-balancing two-wheeler, the new vehicle will be enclosed and designed to transport two people seated side by side, rather than one person standing up. It will also be equipped with GPS, wireless technology, and sensors, which could eventually allow an onboard computer to take over some driving tasks.

The LifeStraw makes dirty water clean

A new straw that purifies water as it is drunk is hoped to be part of a solution to water-borne disease killing thousands in developing countries.

Water from most sources can be drunk if done so through the LifeStraw say the makers of the product.

Created by Danish innovator Torben Vestergaard Frandsen the straw is made of plastic and resembles a flute. Inside are filters and a chamber impregnated with iodine. These remove the bacteria from the water as it is drunk.

Hope for FutureGen and Clean Coal

A carbon-neutral coal power project may rise from the ashes.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu met with representatives of the FutureGen Alliance on Monday, strengthening the prospect that the group’s low-carbon coal-gasification project could be revived.

Plans to build a power plant featuring integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology and carbon capture and storage (CCS) hit a wall in January 2008 when the Bush administration withdrew support, citing cost overruns. Those concerns have since been exposed as an artifact of specious financial accounting that overestimated the cost of the plant by $500 million.

Help Designate Clean Water as a Human Right

Clean water is a pretty important resource insofar as it’s absolutely necessary to sustain life. In the overall scheme of essentials, it probably ranks just below oxygen and slightly above food in importance. And access to clean water is being threatened from two sides. Climate disruptions and population pressures are putting the squeeze on water resources, and corporations who see water as an increasingly valuable commodity are trying to privatize water rights.

Drink Up : The World’s Water in Graphics

The world’s water resources are becoming increasingly valuable—and strained. GOOD and the Office of CC put the mind-boggling numbers in perspective.

Superb Idea: A Brita for the Whole Office

Here’s a partial accounting of the shortcomings of the traditional office five-gallon-water-jug-and-cooler system: 1) it’s expensive 2) water is heavy, and moving water around in trucks wastes energy 3) making a bunch of five-gallon jugs out of plastic is wasteful 4) it furthers the perception that municipal water sources are less safe.

Water Park

The PlayPumps Water System performs modern-day alchemy, converting the energy of children cavorting on a simple playground merry-go-round into clean water. As children spin, the system pumps water from an underground well into a 25-foot-high storage tank. Instead of the time-consuming task of hauling water, villagers need only turn a tap.

Superb Idea: A Toilet that Uses Runoff Water from Your Sink

The toilet has been around for quite a long time without a major innovation—mostly because it’s so simple and works so well. However, as we become ever more conscious of our water consumption, our gallon-devouring commodes leave something to be desired. Enter the creative folks over at Water Saver technologies. They’ve developed a the AQUS System— a simple way to capture the water from your sink’s drain, do some basic filtering, and then run it into your toilet.

Something Tappening Here

The bottled water industry is probably the biggest scam of the 20th century. Companies took something that was not only free but also available in almost any modern home, and found a better way to brand it. That part you almost have to applaud—well done, marketers, we bought it—but there’s another, far more irksome component to the industry: its inconceivable waste.

Water Roller

In many countries, traditional water collection involves carrying a 5-gallon (20-liter) bucket on the head. This practice puts a great burden on the body and can damage the spine, neck and knees over time. A full Hippo Water Roller only feels like 22 pounds (10 kg) when rolled over level ground, making it possible for almost anyone to transport 24 gallons (90 liters) of water in much less time and with greater ease.

Boxed Water: Better Than Bottled Water?

In our ongoing effort here at GOOD (Casey’s Crusade, as I like to call it) to make you feel slightly bad about drinking bottled water, and as part of the continuing cultural trend of putting things in boxes (see wine, and dicks), may I present a new alternative: boxed water. It’s like drinking water from a bottle, only instead of a bottle, it’s a box.

Transparency: How Much Water Do You Use?

As we become more and more aware that we may be using water at an unsustainable pace, the idea of water footprints—the amount of water an individual uses—is becoming more common. Water footprints can be hard to calculate, depending on how far up the chain of production you go, since everything you eat and buy used some water to produce (to feed cows for beef, for example, or to use in the factory that made your cell phone). With our latest Transparency, we give you some examples of how much water is used in some of your daily activities, so that you can begin calculate your footprint and try to reduce your gallons.

Buying Bottled Water: Daft Or Clever?

PepsiCo’s Aquafina bottled water, which currently carries the cryptic label “Bottled at the source PWS” will soon spell out the acronym: “public water source.” It’s tap water, in other words, as is CocaCola’s Dasani and almost 40% of bottled water sold.

Bottle Shock

The 10 worst quirks of bottled water culture

Water has always been a problem for me. It just has. As a kid I was constantly told by my mother to “drink more water” and “replenish your fluids.” It was her opinion, or so I thought at the time before hearing it from nearly everyone else, that every human being needs at least 64 ounces of water per day. I’ll be honest, when I was younger, I barely drank 64 ounces of water per week, so this was always a daunting and somewhat intimidating number to me. It still is.But it wasn’t just the amount she was selling, it was the product itself. “There’s just nothing better for you than plain, old water,” she would repeat again and again and again. Well if it’s so damn perfect, so beautifully simple in its chemistry, then why do we keep looking for ways to improve it? A trip to the grocery store, which can be stressful enough on its own, is now made even more difficult when faced with the nearly endless choices of bottled water.

Seawater: Our Only Hope for a Drink

Desalination of seawater has become a necessity, but it has to be done right.

As any globe will reveal, there’s no shortage of water on Earth. Unfortunately, over 97 percent of it is too salty for us humans to drink, and only a tiny fraction of what remains is in the rivers, lakes, and groundwater that we’re able to easily access.

New Scooter Engine To Electrify Two Wheelers

Electric scooters, once little more than playthings that might turn into something approaching viable transportation, have blossomed into actual, streetable rides offered from several manufacturers. Now comes word from a new electric motor manufacturer that looks to set new performance and efficiency benchmarks in the electric scooter world.

Do nations go to war over water?

Wendy Barnaby was asked to write a book about water wars — then the facts got in the way of her story.

The United Nations warned as recently as last week that climate change harbours the potential for serious conflicts over water. In its World Water Development Report1 of March 2009, it quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noting the risk of water scarcity “transforming peaceful competition into violence”. It is statements such as this that gave birth to popular notions of ‘water wars’. It is time we dispelled this myth. Countries do not go to war over water, they solve their water shortages through trade and international agreements.

Huge Corn Plants Developed: Doubling A Gene In Corn Results In Giant Biomass

University of Illinois plant geneticist Stephen Moose has developed a corn plant with enormous potential for biomass, literally. It yields corn that would make good silage, Moose said, due to a greater number of leaves and larger stalk, which could also make it a good energy crop.

World’s first global election, between Earth and global warming

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

The Real Price of Obama’s Cap-and-Trade Plan

A carbon-emissions limit will raise energy prices unevenly.

President Obama’s budget numbers depend heavily on revenues from a proposed cap-and-trade program for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Under the plan, these revenues will come at the cost of higher energy prices, with some states being affected far more than others.

Metallised balloons may be the best way to make solar electricity

SOLAR cells are expensive, so it makes sense to use them efficiently. One way of doing so is to concentrate sunlight onto them. That means a smaller area of cell can be used to convert a given amount of light into electricity. This, though, brings another cost—that of the mirrors needed to do the concentrating. Traditionally, these have been large pieces of polished metal, steered by electric motors to keep the sun’s rays focused on the cell. However, Cool Earth Solar of Livermore, California, has come up with what it hopes will be a better, cheaper alternative: balloons.

How green is your network?

Telecoms firms are reducing the power consumption of their networks, for economic and environmental reasons.

Wind of change

Global wind resources are so vast that they could easily meet the world’s current energy needs.

Energy: Wind power has established itself as an important source of renewable energy in the past three decades. The basic idea is ancient, but its modern incarnation adds many new high-tech twists

5 Huge Green-Tech Projects in the Developing World

Any solution to global climate change will eventually have to involve the whole globe, not just the richest countries.

That’s why deals like the one announced Tuesday between Pasadena’s eSolar and the Indian conglomerate Acme Group are essential to any truly green global future. ESolar will sell Acme 1,000 megawatts worth of solar thermal technology, so that the latter can build a network of solar power plants in India’s northern state of Haryana.

Test your Ecological Footprint

Worried about your impact on the environment?

The way we use the planet’s resources makes up our ecological footprint.
Use our global footprint calculator and and learn how small steps can make a BIG difference!

It takes just 5 minutes and could set you on a life-changing journey…

A Zero-Emissions City in the Desert

Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is building a green metropolis.

The Masdar City construction is the start of a vast experiment, an attempt to create the world’s first car-free, zero-carbon-dioxide-emissions, zero-waste city. Due to be completed in 2016, the city is the centerpiece of the Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion investment by the government of Abu Dhabi, which is part of the United Arab Emirates.

Video: The Master Plan
Video: Energy saving in the Masdar City