starting mid-dec 04.
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Dec 27, 05: The Maine coast has dozens of methane gas fields on the ocean bottom where mud-trapped gas occasionally bubbles to the surface, according to a team of University of Maine scientists. Most of the craters are between 32 feet and 260 feet in diameter. The largest, in Belfast Bay, is more than 650 feet wide and 100 feet deep.
. . There are 70 known gas fields between Portland and Eastport, and the rising bubbles create craters or pits. The gas fields have no commercial value, the scientists say, but they could pose a hazard for man-made objects on the ocean floor such as utility lines that connect the mainland to Maine's islands.
Dec 21, 05: Green engineering could help protect the sea as marine trade expands. Ships use less fuel per kilo of cargo than road or air transport. So by at least one environmental measure, shipping has good green credentials. But as shipping grows, environmentalists worry that the marine life beneath them may suffer. Areas of concern include the transfer of invasive species from one region to another, either attached to a ship's hull or carried in ballast water tanks.
. . Another worry is underwater noise and its effects on marine mammals, particularly whales and dolphins. And there is also the issue of air emissions from ships' exhausts containing sulphur and nitrogen oxides and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
. . Sterilizing ballast water with ozone, ultra-violet light or even heating is an alternative, but the ever cost-conscious shipping industry is on the lookout for a cheaper system. Perhaps Aubaflow might fit the bill. Developed for the oil company Saudi Aramco, whose tankers carry enough ballast water to fill 4,000 swimming pools, it would prevent coastal species from travelling further than a mile in ballast tanks.
. . "The Aubaflow system works by having a big opening in the front of the ship and it's connected with pipes to the ship's various ballast water tanks", said Ahmed Al Babtain of Vela International, the company that has patented the system. "The ballast water comes from the opening into the tanks, fills up the tanks and then overflows out into the open ocean from the back of the ship."
. . Minimizing polluting air emissions from ships is the aim of Europe's Project Hercules --cleaning up ships' exhausts in the future would require more efficient engines. This would mean they use less fuel and so produce fewer pollutants and, importantly, less carbon dioxide.
. . The shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen had more stringent targets in mind when it produced its design for a zero emissions car ferry for the year 2025. Unusually for a car ferry, this ship would use three, massive computer-controlled sails to harness the maximum wind energy. And *on the sails, a coating of solar panels would trap energy from the sun.
. . A pentamaran structure --a long, thin, main hull stabilized by four side hulls, or sponsons-- would cut power consumption by reducing friction on the ship in the water. The ship would also harness wave energy, which is normally the force slowing down ships.
. . "On each of its four sponsons, we would place three fins. These fins mimic the movement of a dolphin and both propel the ship forward and generate electrical energy which we can store in batteries and use for systems on board the ship."
. . Fuel cells which produce electricity from the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, would supplement other energy sources and release only water vapor into the environment.
. . Various studies predict a three to five-fold increase in shipping activity globally in the next few decades.
Dec 21, 05: Honda aims to generate annual sales of 5 billion to 8 billion yen ($40 million to $70 million) from solar cells once the factory's output reaches full annual capacity of 27.5 megawatts. Its solar cells would be composed of non-silicon compound materials, consuming half as much energy and generating 50% less carbon dioxide during production when compared with conventional solar cells made from silicon.
Dec 16, 05: Assam state will be the first in India to use the "green" power and one of the first places in the world to tap the energy potential of the fast-growing grass. The state plans to set up two one-megawatt capacity power plants that run on bamboo by Feb 06.
. . India, the world's largest producer of bamboo after China, grows about 80 million tons of the grass each year. They'll turn bamboo into gas, and then electricity.
Dec 14, 05: LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60-watt bulb and burn for more than 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U.S. energy consumption for lighting by 29% by 2025. LEDs don't emit much heat, so they're also more energy efficient. LED lighting might replace some bulbs in the short term, researchers say. But the success of the whole-room concept proposed today would require wholesale changes in the way future buildings are constructed.
. . Electronic walls and ceilings with interchangeable LED panels would allow you to change room lighting at a whim, in a new design proposed today. The modular panels snap in and out of an electrical grid so light "fixtures" can be moved anywhere.
Dec 14, 05: Most people back the use of existing nuclear power plants but are against building new reactors as some states are considering, a survey conducted in 18 countries for the U.N. nuclear watchdog showed today.
. . The survey, commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is charged with promoting nuclear energy, showed 62% of the roughly 18,000 respondents said existing nuclear facilities should continue to be used while 59% were opposed to building new plants.
. . Its release comes two weeks after British Prime Minister
Tony Blair put nuclear power back on the agenda by launching a review of his country's energy policy, pressured by booming oil and gas prices and global warming.
. . The countries surveyed included the world's richest nations, such as the United States, Britain, France, and Japan, and less developed states like Cameroon, Jordan, Morocco and Indonesia. It did not, however, include Austria, where the IAEA is based, a staunch opponent of nuclear power.
Dec 14, 05: State energy regulators today unveiled one of the nation's most ambitious programs to expand the market for solar power, proposing to offer more than $3 billion in consumer rebates over the next decade.
. . Environmentalists said the California Solar Initiative would help reduce the cost of solar energy, create jobs and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
. . The plan aims to install panels to produce 3,000 megawatts of solar energy on 1 million homes, businesses and public buildings over 11 years. The five-member Public Utilities Commission was expected to vote on it next month after a 30-day public comment period.
Dec 14, 05: The Dutch Center for Sustainable Water Technology or Wetsus, and Norway's independent research organization SINTEF, working with power company Statkraft, have invented devices that generate electricity by mixing sea and river water.
. . It might seem like an exercise in scientific theory destined only for high-tech laboratories, but the process' creators and the European Union, which funds the Norwegian research, believe the idea's time might have come.
. . The new devices are based on a natural process --when a river runs into the ocean, a huge amount of energy is unleashed because of the difference in salt concentration.
. . The two projects use different methods to harness the electricity -- the Dutch apply something called reverse electrodialysis while the Norwegians use a kind of osmosis. Both methods rely on membranes or thin films made of special material used for chemical separation. In the Dutch project, separation is done by membranes using an electrical current.
. . The principle behind the Norwegian device is that fresh water and salt water are channeled into a membrane module. The fresh water is transported through the membranes and over into the pressurized sea water. The pressurized mixture of sea water and fresh water flows out of the module and into a hydropower turbine that generates electricity.
. . The Wetsus project has yet to be tested in a pilot plant. The Norwegian project is more advanced. It started in the 1990s and its creators have already installed two small-scale plants, but have yet to build a bigger demonstration plant to boost production.
. . Like other alternative energy technologies, cost is the biggest hurdle. Power produced by mixing sea with river water is several times more expensive than wind or solar energy.
. . The idea of producing electricity from salt and fresh water was first explored during the energy crisis of the 1970s, but membrane technology was not sufficiently advanced and scientists dismissed the process as hopelessly expensive. The membrane industry has matured since then and is now widely used in water and pollution treatment, power generation, production of medical, biotech and electronics devices.
. . They think it'll be ready to seriously challenge other renewable energy technologies between 2010 and 2015.
. . The new power plants can be built wherever fresh water meets salt water, such as the outlets from existing hydroelectric power stations, and could even be placed underground.
. . Statkraft and the European Commission put the production potential in Europe at 200 terawatt hours a year, or nearly twice the electricity consumption of a country like Norway.
. . The potential in Norway alone is estimated at 10% of its annual power needs. The river Rhine, for instance, could deliver 3,000 megawatts of power where it flows into the sea in the Netherlands --the equivalent of five big coal-fired plants.
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Dec 14, 05: China will begin an effort to send astronauts to the moon in about 2017, with a landing some time after that. The report did not indicate when a manned lunar landing might be accomplished. In October, China launched its second manned space flight, a successful five-day mission.
. . The lunar program's chief scientist, as saying unmanned lunar probes will be ramped up in three stages until about 2017, when the manned program will begin.
. . A program to return unmanned space vehicles from the moon will begin in 2012 and last for five years, until the manned program gets underway.
Dec 10, 05: Nuclear power should play a role in electricity production in Germany in the future, Economy Minister Michael Glos said in a newspaper interview on Sunday, calling for a rethink of plans to close the country's reactors. Two nuclear reactors have already been closed. The remaining 17, owned by utilities RWE AG, E.ON AG and EnBW, are due to shut over the next 15 years.
Dec 3, 05: Wind turbines have far bigger than expected potential for generating electricity in the Third World, according to new U.N. wind maps of countries from China to Nicaragua.
. . In the past, wind potential was based on data from meteorological stations that were often built in Third World countries too close to trees or buildings which braked winds. Or winds were typically gauged at airports --not built in the windiest locations.
. . Among the nations surveyed, Nicaragua, Mongolia and Vietnam had the greatest potential with about 40% of the land area suitable for windmills. Least promising was Bangladesh, with just 0.2% of the land area suited to windmills, along with countries including Cuba and Ghana.
. . The U.N. maps, part of the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment, could help poor nations facing high bills for oil imports.
Dec 2, 05: SRI announced that it has developed direct carbon fuel-cell technology. The process is 70% efficient, double that of traditional coal power plants, according to Larry Dubois, vice president of the physical sciences division at SRI.
. . SRI researchers have shown that in a single step, they can take pulverized coal --or anything else that contains carbon, including human waste or banana peels, for example-- and directly transform the fuel's chemical energy into electricity by electrochemically oxidizing the carbon. The byproduct is carbon dioxide --but it is emitted in such a pure form, Dubois said, that it's easy to contain. "If you have a conventional gas-fired coal plant and capture the (carbon dioxide) -- 75% of the cost is separating carbon dioxide from air."
. . Dubois said that while it is theoretically possible to power a small business, a home or even a car with carbon-based fuel, SRI has its eyes on larger power plants. Another bonus is that unlike hydrogen, the other alternative-energy option, carbon fuel is very easy to come by.
. . Despite its benefits, however, carbon fuel cells may be too costly --it might take a decade before a carbon fuel system paid for itself, which is probably longer than most users are willing to wait.
. . For now, the carbon fuel cells are producing small amounts of power on the scale of a few watts at SRI's laboratory in Menlo Park, California. But Dubois expects their capability to rise to 10 kilowatts by 2009, to 100 kilowatts by 2011 and to 500 kilowatts by 2015.
Dec 1, 05: Put a cow in your tank. A C$14 million factory near Montreal started producing "biodiesel" fuel from the bones, innards and other parts of farm animals such as cattle, pigs or chickens that Canadians do not eat. "We're using animal waste to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." Biodiesel emits little of the smog of conventional gasoline or diesel fuel and almost none of the heat-trapping gases that most scientists say are driving up temperatures.
. . They're also making biodiesel at the plant by recycling oil from fast food restaurants, like from the deep-fryers used to cook french fries.
. . The Rothsay plant will produce 35 million liters (9.2 million U.S. gallons) of biodiesel a year, the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 16,000 light trucks or 22,000 cars from the roads.
. . Wardrop said he believed the Rothsay plant was the third of its kind in the world, along with one in Germany and one in Kentucky. Vehicles using biodiesel get tax breaks or subsidies from governments. "Biodiesel is competitive in price, with the support of the government, with oil prices at $55 a barrel", Wardrop said. It would not compete if oil prices dropped to $20, he said.
In Nicaragua, the government in the 1980s estimated the nation's wind power potential at just 200 megawatts. The U.N. map estimates its potential at 40,000 megawatts, a rough equivalent of 40 nuclear power plants.
Nov 30, 05: Researchers at the University of Arkansas say they have developed a way to convert chicken fat to a biodiesel fuel. "We're trying to expand the petroleum base", said Brian Mattingly, a graduate student in chemical engineering. "Five to 20% blending of biodiesel into petroleum-based diesel significantly reduces our dependence on foreign oil."
. . Traditionally, biodiesel producers have used refined products like soybean oil because they are easier to convert to fuels. However, the refining process makes soybean oil more expensive — and fuel producers must compete with grocers for the oil supply.
. . Chicken fat can be a less-expensive substitute because it is available at a low cost. However, fatty acids in raw chicken fat can lead to the creation of soap during the various chemical processes. High-quality fat is more expensive than the feed-grade fat, but both are less expensive than soybean oil. It's too early to tell if making biodiesel fuel from chicken fat is economically feasible.
Nov 30, 05: Despite strong evidence that our energy future isn't what it used to be, it is also because, similar to viewers of the film The Matrix, we choose to believe in illusion. Stewart Udall says that we're blind to act because we are conditioned to believe that "humankind is perpetually on the threshold of discoveries that will magically solve our dilemmas."
. . Today, South Africa still produces 150,000 barrels a day of gasoline and 50,000 of diesel each day without a drop of oil, the only mass production of liquid-coal fuels in the world. At the same time, facing the uncertain future of the world oil market, large nations such as China and India have begun investing seriously in synthetic fuel production.
. . Unlike conventional coal burning, the synfuel production process first turns coal into synthetic natural gas via a contained chemical reaction, rather than ignition. Sulfur, arsenic, ash, mercury and other environmental culprits in coal are removed from the gas, put into solid form, and can either be stored or sold off as commodities (rather than being spewed into the air, as they are from conventional coal-fired power plants). Meanwhile, greenhouse gases can also be extracted and stored underground.
Nov 30, 05: Nuclear power currently meets about a fifth of Britain's electricity needs, but that is set to fall to just 4% by 2010 when old power stations are decommissioned.
Nov 20, 05: At San Diego State University, engineering professor Jim Burns led a student team that built the Enigma —-a diesel hybrid convertible that goes from zero to 60 mpg in 4.3 seconds while getting 80 mpg. A close performance equivalent is a Dodge Viper, which gets about 12 mpg city and 20 mpg highway.
Nov 18, 05: In 2001, Alexei Erchak and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated a method for building a more efficient LED. Most light emitted from standard LEDs cannot escape, resulting in what scientists call a low extraction efficiency of light.
. . The LED developed at MIT used a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal --a triangular lattice of holes etched into the LED's upper cladding layer-- to enhance the extraction of light. These high emission devices potentially offer a huge step up in performance over standard types.
Nov 17, 05: "While reporting my article on plug-in hybrids, I came across a group of Prius enthusiasts who proved you can get 100 miles per gallon without modifying the car. On a stretch of highway 15 outside of Pittsburgh, a tag team of five drivers spent a weekend in August driving a Toyota Prius for 1396 miles on a single tank of gas, achieving an average of 110 miles per gallon.
. . Dave Bassage, who was one of the drivers, says that by optimizing the gliding time on the downside of the course's hills, the car's engine was in use just 27% of the time. He said getting 100 mpg isn't practical in everyday commuting as the drivers never pushed the Prius over 40 mph and often drove well below the posted speed limits.
. . Bassage says that by following a few guidelines, however, drivers can substantially boost their fuel economy. For example, inflating the tires past the recommended pressure, driving at times that don't require using the AC or heater, and never driving over 50 can increase fuel efficiency by up to 17 miles per gallon."
Nov 16, 05: Spurred by high commodity prices and a drive to reduce Australia's reliance on coal, several companies are looking to harness hot rock temperatures of up to 570 degrees Fahrenheit to unleash green energy.
. . Based on encouraging test results, pioneer explorer Geodynamics Ltd. could make an investment decision on its first power station in early 2006, the climax of five years of drilling in the South Australian desert. "This is the best spot in the world, a geological freak. Australia could be the world leader within the next couple of years given the geological anomalies present in South Australia."
. . Hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal energy is one of the great hopes of the renewable universe, analysts say. It has the potential to supply larger volumes of power at cheaper prices than wind and solar alternatives in areas where the required geology exists, and at any time of day or night.
. . The key to HDR lies in special hot granite rocks located no more than 3 miles below the earth, whose heat from its core has been trapped beneath layers of insulating rock. Temperatures in excess of 482 degrees Fahrenheit are considered vital. "You double your power cost for every 50 degrees you lose in heat."
. . Water is pumped down through a well at extremely high pressure, to widen existing rock fractures. This increases their capacity to super-heat large volumes of water, which are then transferred to a nearby geothermal power station to heat liquids with a low boiling point to generate steam and then electricity. "There could one day be plants supplying more than 1,000 megawatts of power if the market allowed it, which is theoretically a good chunk of the 1,200 megawatts required to power South Australia."
. . Despite staying outside the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, the Australian government maintains ambitious clean air goals.
Nov 14, 05: The UK's wind is better for generating electricity than that of its rivals, according to a government-backed study.The government has a target of 10% of electricity supply coming from renewable sources by 2010.
. . Steady stiff breezes had meant a more reliable supply than the more extreme blusters of Denmark and Germany over the last 35 years, researchers found. UK turbines had produced 27% of their maximum possible energy, compared with 20% in Denmark and 15% in Germany.
. . Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said: "This new research is a nail in the coffin of some of the exaggerated myths peddled by opponents of wind power. The study found UK wind was "dependable", with availability highest at times of peak electricity demand --during evenings and winter. And, the chance of turbines shutting down due to very high wind speeds was "exceedingly rare".
. . Some campaigners say that alternative renewable supplies, such as wave power, would be more reliable.
Nov 14, 05: German wind power lobby BWE said support for renewable energy in the new coalition deal would unleash huge investments, but conventional producers said they were disappointed the status quo was left unaltered.
. . BWE said that the unhindered expansion of wind power which accounts for the bulk of alternative energy may attract investments of 110 billion euros by 2020-2030. "The big energy utilities' hopes of a return to a conservative policy have been shattered. Now they have to adjust and start investing more into modern, decentralized energy sources."
. . Thanks to the push, wind power capacity has grown to 17,000 megawatt onshore (MW), making Germany the world leader.
. . BWE said the 110 billion euros envisaged investments in new and old onshore turbines of 60,000 MW and 25,000 MW of offshore capacity in the North and Baltic Seas, which prior to the deal, had been less likely to be made.
Nov 14, 05: New dams intended to provide cheaper power and support irrigation systems are destroying important water sources and causing economic disruption, a leading environmental group said. The report by the World Wide Fund for Nature noted that dams can destroy wetlands, which hold water like sponges and cannot be replicated by manmade storage facilities.
. . "The world's ailing rivers and the communities that depend on them face a bleak future without prompt action." Dams flood valleys, destroy fisheries and are threatening endangered species such as the Iberian lynx and jaguars, whose natural habitats in valleys can end up under water.
. . A $30 million dam in Belize was designed to reduce electricity imports, but local people have seen prices rise since its completion, the report said. It also has flooded 2,500 acres of rain forest.
. . A project in Iceland, meanwhile, will likely flood hundreds of nesting sites of the rare pink-footed goose and destroy some of the habitat of Iceland's only reindeer herd, the report said.
. . In Laos, about 5,700 villagers will have to be resettled because of a dam project that has been approved by the World Bank. At least 50,000 people who rely on the river for their livelihoods will also be affected as water is diverted.
. . "This is not the engineering heyday of the 1950s when dams were seen as the hallmark of development. We know dams can cause damage."
Nov 9, 05: Britain is facing a shortfall in energy supply in the near future, according to a major report being launched today. Within a decade, the country may generate only about 80% of the electricity it needs.
. . A panel of 150 experts says fossil fuels will remain the mainstay of supply, with renewables expanding and nuclear power almost certainly needed. The immediate issue is the impending closure of most British nuclear power stations and many coal-fired units. By 2015, all four Magnox nuclear stations still operating will have shut down, as will five of the seven stations running Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors (AGRs). Under the European Large Combustion Plant Directive, many of the nation's coal-fired plants will also close in the next decade.
. . "More than 50% of Britain's greenhouse gas emissions come directly or indirectly from buildings; and the key to reducing that lies in renewables and energy efficiency."
Nov 8, 05: Raising efficiency at coal-fired power plants to state-of-the-art levels could help the world meet climate protection targets, German coal-based generator Steag said. "Using available and economically possible technology, all existing coal blocks could reach reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 30%", said board chairman Alfred Tacke of Steag.
. . The average efficiency rate of coal plants which supply just over 20% of the world's power and heating requirements is 31% while latest projects can reach 45%, Tacke said.
. . Germany, which within the EU bloc must achieve the bulk of required emissions cuts under Kyoto, must also replace 40% of its 100,000 MW power stations by 2030 mainly because of their age and in order to replace nuclear energy. Germany imported 62% of its total requirements, or 44 million tons.
Nov 8, 05: Environment officials from around the world agreed in Beijing today to work to increase reliance on renewable sources of energy, underscoring a commitment to renewables after oil prices hit record highs. The draft statement stopped short of setting a firm goal but it recommended the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development consider the launch of a 10-year framework to "substantially increase the use of renewable energy."
. . The Beijing Declaration was the culmination of a two-day international conference that was a follow-up to meetings in Johannesburg in 2002 and last year in Bonn that aim to promote cooperation on renewable energy.
Nov 7, 05: Recent howling winds have been like sweet music to one local company, which says its new vertical wind turbine is substantially more efficient than traditional propeller designs. Officials at Terra Moya Aqua Inc. unveiled their new turbine. Company officials said traditional propeller-driven turbines are able to convert 25% to 40% of wind power into transmittable energy. But TMA's design is 43% to 45% efficient, creating up to 80% more power from the same wind.
. . That power is generated even though the blades are moving slower than on traditional propeller models, meaning the turbines are less noisy and less dangerous to birds, the company said. And since they stand no taller than 96 feet, the turbines can be used in industrial areas where taller propeller-driven models are not allowed.
Nov 7, 05: Denmark is recognized as the global leader, providing 20% of its electricity from wind. Spain follows at 7% and Germany at 6.5%.
. . Federal energy legislation passed this summer extended for two years a 1.9 cent-per-kilowatt-hour tax credit applicable to the first 10-year life of a new wind farm. But the industry's promoters complain that a longer-term government commitment is needed to encourage wind prospectors.
. . A federal residential tax credit up to $2,000 starting in 2006 could finally get solar power off the launching pad.
. . The White House quietly sports one of the biggest residential solar arrays on the East Coast --167 solar panels on one of the maintenance sheds and extra panels to heat the pool and hot tub. They must've gone up during Clinton... Carter had some installed, & Reagan *immediately ripped 'em off, laughing about it. [GRRRRRR!!!!!]
Nov 7, 05: Here in the sunny suburbs east of San Francisco, voters get a chance to make their community a national leader in solar power at a time of soaring energy prices and global warming. A measure on Livermore's ballot would grant a housing developer the right to build what it claims will be the country's largest completely solar community, with 2,450 new homes.
. . Opponents, including environmental groups and the majority of the City Council, are fighting the measure they claim will swallow open space, encourage sprawl, destroy habitat and clog traffic on one of Northern California's most congested freeways. "The bottom line is they want to build 2,450 homes outside the city on sensitive lands", said David Reid of the Greenbelt Alliance. "All the solar panels in the world don't make that environmentally friendly."
Nov 3, 05: Growth in U.S. wind power could reduce the amount of natural gas used to produce electricity by up to 5% at the end of the year, which could provide some relief to consumers from near record prices for the fossil fuel, an industry group said.
. . The Washington, D.C. based-American Wind Energy Association said about 2,500 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity will be installed this year, bringing total U.S. wind capacity to more than 9,200 MW. The cumulative total is enough power to supply 2.4 million average U.S. homes.
. . When additional wind power capacity comes on line it generally replaces the highest priced fuel, natural gas, rather than other sources of power like coal, oil and nuclear. Gas futures prices are about double last year's.
. . ISO New England Inc., which is heavily dependent on natural gas for fuel, warned of possible fuel shortages for the region's power plants this winter due to the suppressed production from the Gulf of Mexico.
. . Texas, Oklahoma, and New York are the three states leading instillation of wind power in 2005.
. . AWEA's director Randall Swisher said the industry is hopeful to maintain record growth rates, particularly after Congress extending the wind energy production tax credit through December 31, 2007. By then, U.S. wind power capacity should grow 52% to 14,000 MW.
. . AWEA said U.S. wind power produced in 2005 will reduce emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by about 7 billion pounds or the equivalent to keeping nearly 500,000 sports utility vehicles off the road.
Nov 2, 05: Norwegian energy group Norsk Hydro said that --out of sight over the horizon, parks of non-polluting wind turbines could eventually supply power to coastal cities or to offshore oil and gas platforms anywhere from the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico.
. . Hydro said it aimed to go ahead with a project to build a prototype after successful laboratory tests. It's an upright steel and concrete tube about 200 meters high, with 80 meters jutting above the water and rotor blades 60 meters long.
. . "We're very hopeful that we can be first in the world to set up a floating windmill at sea." She said rivals in nations from Japan to the United States were also working on designing similar windmills. Hydro, Norway's number two oil producer behind Statoil, aims to deploy a prototype at sea in 2007. "It's a lot more windy out at sea -- installation costs will be higher but the production will be higher", she said.
. . Each 5-megawatt windmill would be capable of generating about 22 gigawatt hours a year. That would be enough to supply electricity to about 1,000 typical Norwegian homes. If the concept works, Hydro envisages parks of perhaps 200 windmills, in waters 200-700 meters deep.
Oct 27, 05: The world's first biogas-powered passenger train is taking its first passengers between the Swedish cities of Linkoping and Vastervik. And the biogas comes from the entrails of dead cows. It will cost 20% more to run on methane than on the usual diesel. But the oil price is going up and up.
. . In Linkoping, the 65-strong bus fleet is powered by biogas. Indeed the city boasts that it was the first in the world to try out its buses on methane. The taxis, the rubbish trucks and a number of private cars also fill up at the biogas pump.
Oct 27, 05: Dirty, yet abundant and easily shipped, coal is starting to challenge natural gas as the fuel of choice for new power plants. This is because coal prices are relatively cheaper and not so volatile. Demand for coal is growing faster than expected, rising 25% in the last three years, to 1.1 billion tons.
. . The International Energy Agency (IEA), the West's energy watchdog, says coal will continue to dominate electricity generation with a 40% share, as most of the world's supplies are conveniently located in the strongest and fastest growing economies, the United States, China and India.
Oct 26, 05: Several teams of U.S. researchers are working on the idea of building algal farms to produce hydrogen for the fuel cells that will power our cars in a decade or two. According to ScienCentral News, we generate today ten million tons of hydrogen.
. . But by re-engineering algae at the molecular level, it would be feasible to generate ten times that amount, and without using any fossil fuels. In other words, all the cars in the U.S. could be powered by using only renewable energy resources, providing that cars under development come to market, and that an infrastructure for distributing hydrogen becomes available.
Oct 25, 05: Companies should encourage employees to switch off PCs at night or continue wasting money and energy, according to research. The PC maker claimed that about $217 million (123 million pounds) is wasted every year in the U.K. alone powering PCs that could have been shut down or left in hibernation mode. The report also pointed out the environmental impact of all the wasted energy.
Fujitsu Siemens surveyed 1,000 employees and found that some 370 never turned off their computers before leaving the office for the day.
. . Hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide are needlessly produced every year by computers, digital set top boxes, chargers and many other products left on standby mode. Just turning off a monitor can save 75% of the overall energy consumption of a PC.
Studies at Altamont, California, seem to suggest around 10 raptors per year per turbine are killed; but then there's a lot of collateral damage from nonwind power generation plants, as well, such as air pollution and climate change. By focusing so heavily on the not-astronomical wildlife losses, environmentalists risk coming across as nothing-is-good-enough whiners. How 'bout the birds killed by the pollution the turbines could prevent?
Oct 24, 05: Officials and experts in Beijing debated at the weekend a plan to harness the Nu River in southwest Yunnan province with a chain of up to 13 hydro-power stations amid signs of revived official favor for the project. The whole project, which could take a decade or more to build, would generate more power than the mammoth Three Gorges Dam, and displace 50,000 farmers. The Nu cascades from glaciers in Tibet down a 300 km gorge.
. . But opponents claim it will tear the region's delicate social and environmental fabric with little benefit to locals. The unusually open controversy over the Nu River's fate is emerging as a test of the government's openness and priorities. Like other controversial hydro projects, including the Three Gorges Dam and proposals to dam the nearby Leaping Tiger Gorge, it highlights the contentious trade-offs China must make between development and conservation. It must also choose between saving its rivers or cutting pollution from coal-fired power stations, which supplies three-quarters of China's electricity.
Oct 24, 05: Texas has sold a lease for an 11,000-acre tract in the Gulf of Mexico that backers believe could become the first wind energy farm along the U.S. coast. The wind turbines would be seven miles off Galveston Island and could provide 40,000 homes with power and generate millions of dollars for state schools.
. . Wind Energy Systems eventually will erect 53 turbines. The company estimated production to begin between 2010 and 2012. The state will then receive a minimum of $4.9 million in royalties, growing to at least $14.9 million in years 17 to 30.
. . Two other offshore wind turbine farms have been proposed along the coast of the United States, one about four miles off the south shore of New York's Long Island, and one in Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound, off Cape Cod.
. . Texas ranks second in the nation behind California in electricity generated by wind turbines located on land, but company officials believe offshore turbines can tap more consistent wind.
Oct 24, 05: People who use Laundromats will also feel like they have been taken to the cleaners this winter. Natural gas, propane and electricity prices continue their march to new heights. Many are switching to more energy-efficient machines that use less hot water and give greater control over the length and the temperature of cycles. There's a trend toward more front-load equipment. Some are considering alternatives like solar --not hanging laundry out on a line in the sun like the old days, but solar panels for electricity.
. . "The fact of the matter is, dirty laundry has to be done. It's not something that can be rationed or put off until energy prices come down."
Oct 22, 05: Utility San Diego Gas & Electric Co. said it will supply 205 megawatts of wind energy to its customers under an agreement with wind power developer Enxco. Its contract with Enxco calls for construction of a wind farm in Southern California, with deliveries expected to begin in 2007-2008. The San Diego utility plans to supply 20% of its power from renewable energy like wind, solar and geothermal by 2010.
Oct 22, 05: California air quality regulators have issued an order that will prohibit big-rig trucks with sleeping berths from idling their diesel engines while parked. It's believed to be the first in the nation to require big sleeper trucks to shut off their engines during layovers. The decision will affect an estimated 180,000 big-rig trucks operating on California roads.
. . The air board estimates that while big rigs in California are idling, they emit 53 tons a day of nitrogen oxide, which contributes to the formation of smog.
. . In 2004, California ordered operators of commercial trucks and buses to shut off their engines after idling for five minutes. The new rule will go into effect for engines on 2008 model year trucks weighing more than 14,000 pounds. Trucks will have to be equipped with a system to automatically shut off the engine after five minutes. Owners of pre-2008 sleeper trucks may have to install an auxiliary power supply or some other equipment to provide heat or air conditioning for the cab.
Oct 22, 05: The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork. An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level. They're already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.
. . Until the last decade, LEDs could only produce green, red, and yellow light, which limited their use. Then came blue LEDs, which have since been altered to emit white light with a light-blue hue.
. . LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and burn for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U.S. energy consumption for lighting by 29% by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break. Other scientists have said they expect LEDs to eventually replace standard incandescent bulbs as well as fluorescent and sodium vapor lights.
. . Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white.
. . Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. That's less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.
. . When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. "I was surprised when a white glow covered the table", Bowers said. "The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow." Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix.
Oct 19, 05: In an aggressive push by the Bush administration to open more public land to oil and gas production, the Interior Department has quit conducting environmental reviews and seeking comments from local residents every time drilling companies propose new wells.
. . Field officials have been told to begin looking at issuing permits based on past studies of an entire project, even though some of those assessments may be outdated. The instructions are in a directive from the department's Bureau of Land Management expected to cover hundreds of anticipated new drilling applications.
. . President Bush and Congress authorized the streamlining as part of a 1,724-page energy bill signed into law in August.
Oct 19, 05: Honda unveiled a new hydrogen-powered fuel-cell concept car which runs on a refueling unit that also supplies electricity and hot water for the home. The FCX Concept uses the Home Energy Station, which generates hydrogen from natural gas supplied to households. It can also supply electricity to the home and recover heat during power generation for domestic water heating.
. . As well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions by some 40%, the system is expected to halve the total cost of household electricity, gas and vehicle fuel, Honda said. The FCX also boasts the lowest floor platform in the world by accommodating a motor, hydrogen tank and other components vertically.
. . "There are many methods (to achieve the goal). En route to that, we will use natural gas, which is conventional infrastructure, and gradually add use of solar-panel energy."
Oct 2, 05: More bicycles than cars have been sold in the United States over the past 12 months, with rising gas prices prompting commuters to opt for two wheels instead of four. Not since the oil crisis of 1973 have bicycles sold in such big numbers.
. . In a country where most of the population still relies heavily on cars, some 87 million people have climbed on a bike in the past 12 months. The US government has also done its part to promote a more bicycle-friendly environment. Some 3.5 million dollars in federal money has been set aside to create cycling trails over the next four years.
Sept 21, 05: Princeton University geologist Kenneth Deffeyes is perhaps the leading proponent of the work of the late M. King Hubbert, a Shell Oil geologist who accurately predicted, in a controversial 1956 paper, that U.S. oil production would peak in 1970. Deffeyes has applied Hubbert’s work to global oil supplies and has come up with his own projection for peak global production. He expects world production to peak around Thanksgiving of 2005, give or take a few weeks.
. . At 7,100 feet up in the Rocky Mountains, where the temperatures can hit 40 below, Amory Lovins has built a home that shows just how powerful solar energy can be. He says the house is 99% passive-solar heated, saves 99% of its water-heating energy, and consumes about $5 a month worth of electricity. The house is so toasty, Lovins says, he grows bananas indoors; he’s harvested 28 crops over the years. "The extra cost of all those efficiencies paid for itself in ten months, 20 years ago. But you can do better now."
. . Lovins is no ordinary homeowner. As CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank and consulting group, he’s been working on ways to improve energy efficiency for more than 20 years.
. . Where the average retail customer is paying roughly 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in the U.S., solar-generated power costs five times that. In the past two decades, in which the cost of solar has dropped by about six-fold, & will continue.
. . By 2025, central-station photovoltaics will increase 10-fold to roughly 400 megawatts, while total grid-connected equipment installed on site will increase 30-fold to 1,800 megawatts, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts. But that’s still a tiny fraction of the 5.2 million megawatts expected to be consumed in 2025.
. . In Wyoming, the average power bill for all customers came to about 5 cents a kilowatt-hour. Hawaiians pay nearly triple that amount.
. . In Japan, where electricity prices of over 20 cents a kilowatt-hour are among the highest among the developed nations, the high cost of power lead to the adoption in the 1990s of one of the most aggressive government solar incentive programs in the world.
. . Further savings will happen by ramping up production. Every time sales of solar equipment doubles, the cost drops by about 20%.
Aug 17, 05: The world currently covers just some 2% of its energy needs with renewables as high costs and mixed policy initiatives hinder a wide-spread usage. Researchers at ECN --one of Europe's leading energy research institutes-- are trying to raise the energy conversion efficiency of solar panels to above 20% from the current 17%, while reducing costs. ECN is also researching to increase the size of wind power turbines from the 3 megawatt a turbine produces now to 5 or 6 MW. This could be done by raising the height to 100 meters from 70 now and enlarging wings span to 120 meters from 90.
Aug 17, 05: [this could also go in "greenhouse" or "pollution" files...] Bangladesh's capital city is about to begin harvesting methane from a noxious trash heap to generate electricity. The innovative move might help put the brakes on global warming. And with 80% of the city's waste comprised of organic matter, all that festering garbage releases copious amounts of methane --a greenhouse gas more than 20 times more destructive than carbon dioxide. Once running at capacity, the system is expected to produce 3 to 4 megawatts of power.
. . In sept 05, ground will be broken on a $10 million project sponsored by Netherlands-based World Wide Recycling to scale up Waste Concern's existing composting program and turn Matuail's noxious emissions into electricity.
. . The agreement was facilitated by a Kyoto Protocol-designed system called the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows organizations in the developed world to claim carbon credits by supporting greenhouse-gas-reducing projects in developing countries. Under the terms of the pact, the Dutch company will reap all the carbon credits from the project's expected reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions in Bangladesh.
. . The organization hopes to take over operations of the vast Matuail dump site, installing a complex system that will capture methane before it is released into the atmosphere. The gas would be diverted to generators, and the resulting electricity would be sold to Dhaka's utility provider.
Aug 15, 05: China plans to construct its first offshore wind power complex next year in hopes of easing chronic electricity shortages. It's designed to have a generating capacity of 1 million kilowatts when completed in 2020. An initial phase to begin construction late next year will generate 50,000 kilowatts.
. . China is heavily reliant on coal-burning power plants, but reportedly has set a generating target of 20 million kilowatts from renewable energy sources such as hydropower, solar power and wind power by 2020.
. . China's government says wind power could generate 253 million kilowatts, although only a tiny fraction of that has so far been exploited.
Aug 13, 05: Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage. It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret — a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.
. . Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car. The extra batteries let him store extra power by plugging the car into a wall outlet at his home in this San Francisco suburb —-all for about a quarter. He's part of a small but growing movement. "Plug-in" hybrids aren't yet cost-efficient, but some of the dozen known experimental models have gotten up to 250 mpg.
. . So far, DaimlerChrysler AG is the only company that has committed to building its own plug-in hybrids. But Toyota Motor Corp. officials who initially frowned on people altering their cars now say they may be able to learn from them.
. . The extra batteries let Gremban drive for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix of gas and electricity. Even after the car runs out of power from the batteries and switches to the standard hybrid mode, it gets the typical Prius fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg. As long as Gremban doesn't drive too far in a day, he says, he gets 80 mpg.
. . "The value of plug-in hybrids is they can dramatically reduce gasoline usage for the first few miles every day", Gremban said. "The average for people's usage of a car is somewhere around 30 to 40 miles per day. During that kind of driving, the plug-in hybrid can make a dramatic difference."
. . Gremban rigged his car to promote the nonprofit CalCars Initiative, a San Francisco Bay area-based volunteer effort that argues automakers could mass produce plug-in hybrids at a reasonable price. Automakers have spent millions of dollars telling motorists that hybrids don't need to be plugged in, and don't want to confuse the message.
. . Nonetheless, plug-in hybrids are starting to get the backing of prominent hawks like former CIA director James Woolsey and Frank Gaffney, President Reagan's undersecretary of defense. They have joined Set America Free, a group that wants the government to spend $12 billion over four years on plug-in hybrids, alternative fuels and other measures to reduce foreign oil dependence. Gaffney, who heads the Washington, DC-based Center for Security Policy, said Americans would embrace plug-ins if they understood arguments from him and others who say gasoline contributes to oil-rich Middle Eastern governments that support terrorism. "The more we consume oil that either comes from places that are bent on our destruction or helping those who are ... the more we are enabling those who are trying to kill us", Gaffney said.
. . Energy CS has converted two Priuses to get up to 230 mpg by using powerful lithium ion batteries. It is forming a new company, EDrive Systems, that will convert hybrids to plug-ins for about $12,000 starting next year.
. . Instead, Frank said, automakers promise hydrogen-powered vehicles hailed by
President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though hydrogen's backers acknowledge the cars won't be widely available for years and would require a vast infrastructure of new fueling stations. "They'd rather work on something that won't be in their lifetime, and that's this hydrogen economy stuff", Frank said. "They pick this kind of target to get the public off their back, essentially."
Aug 11, 05: According to BP's excellent 2005 Statistical Review of World Energy, worldwide consumption grew 4.3% in 2004, more than double the average annual rate over the past ten years. Booming economies in China and India are not helping. China's energy consumption grew a whopping 65% in the past three years, accounting for over half the global increase in demand in that same time period.
. . Worldwide proven reserves of fossil fuels -—oil, gas and coal—- are only 40, 67 and 164 years, respectively, at 2004 consumption rates. What happens to these reserve ratios as annual energy demand increases? Roughly two billion people don't have access to electricity today.
. . Current copper based lines lose about 7% of the power in transmission. Carbon nanotube fiber bundles have the long term potential to be an ultra low loss, strong and light weight replacement for copper technology. With a current carrying capacity of 100 million amperes per square centimeter, such a bundle would have 100 times the capacity of the best low temperature superconductors. It will take time to develop a viable replacement however. The longest conducting nanotubes produced to date were announced this past October by researchers at UC Irvine -—just 0.4 cm long.
The average price of natural gas in January 01 was $9.82 per thousand cubic feet, which was 56% higher than than the January 2000 price.
Aug 8, 05: Shanghai has launched a crackdown on hairdressers, restaurants and residents stealing power from the municipal grid, which is already strapped by severe summer shortages. More than 1,000 inspectors from the city's power department have teamed up with local police to scour China's economic hub for electricity larceny, 95% of which was committed by "residential power thieves."
Aug 5, 05: The Organic Radical Battery, or ORB, is based on a similar cell structure to a lithium ion battery, of the type commonly found in devices such as notebook computers and cell phones, but with one significant difference: instead of using poisonous ingredients like lithium and cobalt, it uses an organic compound called PTMA.
. . It's not a replacement. An ORB can deliver much more power than a lithium ion battery of the same size. However, the energy density, which relates to how long the power can be supplied, is lower than lithium ion. This combination points towards applications where a large amount of power is needed for a short time.
Aug 4, 05: Hybrid car owners are fast approaching the day when they will be allowed to drive solo in California's carpool lanes. State lawmakers passed a bill last year that gave some types of the high-mileage, low-emission vehicles access to the coveted lanes —-a privilege meant to encourage drivers to buy the environmentally friendly cars.
. . California's law was supposed to take effect Jan 1, but first needed approval from the federal government. That permission was tucked into a $286 billion transportation bill Congress passed last week, meaning there is just one last strand of red tape keeping hybrids out of the high-occupancy vehicle lanes: State air regulators need to clarify which vehicles meet the mileage and emissions standards.
. . California will become the second state to allow hybrids with just one person in the car to use carpool lanes. Virginia enacted the change in 2000, and Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia and Minnesota are considering it.
. . The American Lung Association of California advocates hybrids but took no stand on the carpool bill for fear it might cut carpooling and lead to more pollution.
. . To prevent hybrids from clogging carpool lanes, Pavley's bill expires in 2007 and caps at 75,000 the number of hybrid vehicles that could participate. Owners would have to pay about $8 for decals identifying their vehicles as hybrids to police.
Aug 4, 05: A University of Idaho graduate student believes the answer to the world's crude oil crisis grows on trees. Juan Andres Soria says he has developed a process that turns waste wood into bio-oil, a substance similar to crude oil. The process —-in which sawdust and methanol are heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit to create the bio-oil-— is already drawing some interest from energy and wood product companies, Soria said.
. . Only about 2% of the mass is lost in the heating process, he said. After the bio-oil is produced, he separates it by boiling points, or grades. So far, he said, he's identified oil grades that could someday replace gasoline, tar, glues and resins that make things like lawn furniture.
. . Next, they will begin testing to see if they can get bio-oil from pine needles and bark. Still, he said, the bio-oil isn't likely to be an immediate competitor to crude oil. Crude oil currently costs about $60 a barrel, and bio-oil will only be competitive when the cost of crude oil reaches $80 a barrel.
July 26, 05: Germany's army has started offering two training locations to wind power plant developers in a process that could eventually involve more than 250 sites housing 750 megawatts of generation capacity, wind energy association BWE said.
. . World wind power champion Germany is running out of suitable production sites and the extra spaces unused by the army could help supply power to 500,000 households. Germany last year had 16,630 MW of installed wind capacity onshore, which supplied 4.2 percent of national electricity consumption.
. . Germany has approved, but not yet started building, eight offshore wind parks, in a bid to catch up with rivals in the young technology including Denmark and Britain. Its wind industry employs 130,000 and relies on exports for half of its sales, a share which it seeking to expand.
July 26, 05: Cyprus consumes 650,000 metric tons of fossil fuels per year. The national target will be for an annual biofuel production target of 6,500 metric tons, he said. Ethanol fuel can be used in vehicles running on normal petrol. Biodiesel can be derived from used edible oils which are now simply discarded, or mixed in with other substances and used as animal feed. "Alcohol fuel can be derived from a number of agricultural products, grain, potatoes and fruits. And instead of sending surplus crops into pits, we can use them to process fuel."
. . The island's Commerce Ministry is poised to announce a pilot project by the end of this year for the introduction of liquid biofuels. The initial target is for 1% of the island's annual fuel consumption on road transport.
July 26, 05: The chairman of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority objected today to a project to link the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, saying it would increase the risk of earthquakes in the Middle East. "The two seas canal would lead to strong seismic activity in the region because of the rush of water", Ahmed Ali Fadel told a news conference at the canal headquarters. The canal, designed to generate electricity for a desalination plant and to prevent the Dead Sea from drying up, would carry 850 million tons of water a year. Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians signed an agreement in May for a study into the building of the canal.
. . Fadel said the earthquake danger would be especially serious because the earth's crust is thinner in the Gulf of Aqaba then anywhere else on earth. The water would come from the Gulf of Aqaba, which is part of the Red Sea, be pumped uphill and then run down [*way down] into the Dead Sea, which lies far below sea level.
. . The Egyptian official said the project would also provide Israel with water for cooling its nuclear reactor at Dimona. "Adding a desalination plant means turning the Negev Desert area into an area of settlement after water and electricity are provided", he added.
. . The salt water pumped into the Dead Sea would increase the salinity of wells in neighboring countries. The Dead Sea is already more saline than the Red Sea [or anywhere else!].
July 25, 05: A fusion operation could result in waste materials that are safe to handle in a relatively modest timescale (50-100 years), compared with the much longer lived radioactive waste (many thousands of years) produced as a direct result of splitting atoms in fission reactions. It has been calculated [by whom?!] that after 100 years of post-operation radioactive decay, the Iter research reactor will be left with about 6,000 tons of waste. When packaged, this would be equivalent to a cube with about 10m edges.
July 25, 05: Britain's biggest energy suppliers today backed the future use of nuclear power in the UK and urged the government to reduce obstacles to the construction of new reactors. Coal-fired stations, on which the UK still relies for about a third of its power, are among the biggest industrial emitters of CO2. "They will have to be competitive and meet carbon reduction and other environmental requirements. New nuclear power may well play a part in this." Most of Britain's aging reactors are due to start closing from 2010.
July 20, 05: Wal-Mart is experimenting with its first environmentally friendly store as it searches for ways to conserve resources and save money. The world's largest retailer was scheduled to open a 206,000-square-foot building today that will include features such as a 120-foot tall wind turbine that will produce about 5% of the store's energy and a rainwater harvesting pond designed to provide 95% of the water needed for irrigation.
. . "We want to push this thing to the limit", said Don Moseley, manager of experimental projects for the company. "We don't expect everything to work, but with every component of our business, we want to be more sustainable, more economical or more environmentally responsible."
. . Wal-Mart wants some of the features in the store's design to one day be viewed as standard, including waterless urinals in customer bathrooms, saving about one gallon of water per usage; recycled cooking oil from the store's deli and engine oil from the auto center that will be used to help heat the building; and climate control measures and alternative refrigeration units that are projected to save enough electricity to power 135 single-family homes.
. . Wal-Mart chose McKinney, a city of 92,000 residents about 30 miles north of Dallas, for the new building because it has a traditional store nearby to gauge its progress. A second experimental store is under construction in Aurora, Colo.
. . The low-hanging ductwork will cut energy costs because it heats or cools only the lower 11 feet of the store. In the summer, for example, the Duct Sox must start with air at 62 degrees Fahrenheit in order to keep the shopping area at a comfortable 72 to 75 degrees. A typical ceiling duct system would need to start with air at 52 degrees. Wal-Mart estimates it will save enough electricity to power 70 single-family homes.
. . In the men's room, you'll find urinals with no flush handles. Wal-Mart insists they are clean and odor-free, and will save 80,000 gallons of water per year. A special oil in the base keeps the waste down and prevents odors from drifting up
. . Behind the store are what appear to be two retention ponds. In reality, they form a "bio-swale" --a channel where rocks, shrubs and grasses help trap pollutants and cleanse runoff from the parking lot. The cleaner water is then pumped via windmill power back through an irrigation system to water the trees and shrubbery around the store. Each plant has its own tiny black tube that drips just enough water to sustain it.
. . Moseley said the retailer brought in two dozen more trees to add shade and enhance the ambience around the parking lot. The trees were trucked in from a nearby car dealership that was going to chop them down because they provided flocks of birds with a convenient perch directly above the cars.
. . The store is lit with long-lasting LED --light emitting diode-- bulbs instead of the typical fluorescent strips, because the bulbs last longer & take less juice. The retailer has started using those bulbs in the "WAL-MART" signs on recently opened storefronts.
. . The 120-foot, 50-kilowatt wind turbine in front of the store has a 46-foot diameter rotor and cuts the store's electricity consumption by 5 percent.
July 19, 05: Personal windmills could be useful in rural settings where space is ample and electricity sometimes costly. But before they could ever effectively supplement regular power supplies, more efficient systems are needed. Attempts so far haven't returned enough energy to offset the costs, researchers say. Windmills that operate at lower wind speeds are needed. The new prototype is headed in that direction.
. . "We have developed a simple, reliable, controller for small scale wind energy generators that is cheaper than competing technologies." They say a real system could be built based on their results using simple and inexpensive components. Current small-scale wind energy generators cost about $2,400 (U.S.), Andy Knight and his colleagues at the University of Alberta determined. On an average day of wind, one can produce 5.2 kilowatt-hours per day. According to Natural Resources Canada, the average household consumes between 34 and 67 kilowatt-hours per day.
. . Most small-scale generators require wind speeds of at least 11 mph (18 kilometers per hour) to generate any power, the scientists say. The new device would work with winds of just 6 mph (10 kph).
July 19, 05: A joint Senate-House committee working out the details of a broad U.S. energy bill voted on Tuesday to expand U.S. daylight-saving time by two months to help reduce energy consumption. The negotiators from the Senate and House agreed to move the start of daylight-saving time in the United States one month earlier to the first Sunday in March. The end of daylight time would be delayed one month to the last Sunday in November.
. . Supporters claim extending daylight-saving time would save about 100,000 barrels of oil a day because offices and stores would be open while it was still light outside and therefore use less energy.
July 18, 05: Portugal's Socialist government said it would grant licenses within six months to build massive stretches of wind farms, as part of a 2.5 billion-euro ($3-billion) investment plan in renewable energy.
. . The licenses, to be awarded to business consortiums, would allow for the generation of 1,700 Megawatts (MW) of energy. That's more than the capacity of a new nuclear power plant proposed by private investors last month, and immediately rejected by the government.
July 18, 05: Britain's ministry of defense has lifted a ban on several wind farm projects in southern Scotland after allaying fears that they could interfere with a seismic station monitoring a ban on nuclear tests. It agreed to lift the ban after a study by the University of Keele showed if turbines were built at least 17.5 km from the array, they would not interfere with its functions. The government is relying on an expansion of wind farms, especially in Scotland, to meet its target of supplying 10% of the country's electricity from green sources by 2010.
. . Elsewhere, the MOD continues to block a number of wind power projects as it fears their turbines could interfere with radar equipment. The British Wind Energy Association said flight trials have begun to test technology which would resolve fears that the rapidly rotating turbines could create false images on a radar screen.
July 18, 05: China will burn 2 billion tons of the coal this year. That's almost 20% more than last year --and China's demand for energy is expected to double over the next decade. Last year alone, China discharged more than 25 million tons of acid rain- causing sulfuric, nitric and calcic emissions into the atmosphere.
. . More than 500,000 people work as illegal miners in about 15,000 so-called cottage mines that have sprouted across the province over the last two years. Some of these mines are less than 20 feet deep, dug by families who then take the black rubble they collect to local wholesalers. Others are large, full-scale operations that produce as much as 10,000 tons of coal a month.
. . "Even big power and steel companies come here to buy the illegal coal. They have no choice; they need it." Not only does China need coal, it needs cheap coal. Illegal miners sell theirs for as little as $10 a ton -- about 20% less than the market price.
. . There's coal dust everywhere, which causes lots of disease --lung cancer, tuberculosis, asthma. And then there are the accidents. Men wearing no protective gear, not even face masks to keep coal dust out of their lungs. Their breathing is raspy and their eyes yellow from the toxic gases that get released when coal is quarried. No precise statistics exist for the injuries and deaths suffered by workers in illegal coal mines. However, their safety record is bound to be worse than that of China's official mines, which are the deadliest in the world. Almost 6,000 miners died in China's legal mines last year. That's about 75% of the mining deaths in the world, even though China produces less than a third of the world's coal.
July 18, 05: NEGawatts! The European Union's energy chief charged ahead with his drive to cut energy consumption in the EU, calling on households to use efficient appliances, and launching a campaign to promote sustainable energy use. The 25-nation EU wants to raise its share of renewable energy sources to 12% by 2010 and reduce overall energy consumption by 20% by 2020. He called for households to use more efficient dishwashers and refrigerators to save money, and contribute to the EU's fight against climate change.
July 17, 05: Farmers, businesses and state officials are investing millions of dollars in ethanol and biofuel plants as renewable energy sources, but a new study says the alternative fuels burn more energy than they produce. Supporters of ethanol and other biofuels contend they burn cleaner than fossil fuels, reduce U.S. dependence on oil and give farmers another market to sell their produce.
. . But researchers at Cornell University and the University of California-Berkeley say it takes 29% more fossil energy to turn corn into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces. For switch grass, a warm weather perennial grass found in the Great Plains and eastern North America United States, it takes 45% more energy; and for wood, 57%.
. . It takes 27% more energy to turn soybeans into biodiesel fuel; and more than double the energy produced is needed to do the same to sunflower plants, the study found. They conclude the country would be better off investing in solar, wind and hydrogen energy. [Ahem!! ONCE AGAIN: HYDROGEN IS NOT A SOURCE OF ENERGY!! ...any more than a battery is.]
. . The researchers included such factors as the energy used in producing the crop, costs that were not used in other studies that supported ethanol production, said Pimentel. The study also omitted $3 billion in state and federal government subsidies that go toward ethanol production in the United States each year, payments that mask the true [even higher] costs, Pimentel said.
July 16, 05: Imagine eating food that was cooked using natural gas generated from your own human waste. Thousands of prisoners in Rwanda don't have to imagine it --they live it. Prisoners' feces is converted into combustible "biogas," or methane gas that can be used for cooking. It has reduced by 60% the annual wood-fuel costs which would otherwise reach near $1 million, according to Silas Lwakabamba, rector of the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management, where the technology was developed.
. . Last month, the Rwandan prison biogas facilities received an Ashden Award for sustainable energy. The award, which comes with a prize worth nearly $50,000, is given by the Ashden Trust, a British charity organization that promotes green technologies. The university rector said that the Rwandan biogas facilities, which are currently in half of the 30 prisons around the country, now contribute half of the energy needs for cooking and lighting in each location. Rwanda's biogas facilities are among the most ambitious in the world, given their size and scope. They range up to 1,000 cubic meters in something resembling a beehive shape.
July 16, 05: As the market widens, traditional manufacturers of power generating equipment, like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, Siemens of Germany and General Electric of the United States, have started to make large wind-power turbines. General Electric said that its revenue from wind power equipment in 2005, its third year in the wind power sector, would exceed $2 billion. Worldwide sales of wind turbines totaled $8 billion in 2004.
. . In June, an international consortium led by Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced a project to build a £1.5 billion, or $2.7 billion, wind farm in the estuary of the Thames River off the British coast. The project, called the London Array, involving up to 270 turbines, could generate as much as 1,000 megawatts, enough to supply 25% of London's residential electricity and cut greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1.9 million tons a year, Shell said.
. . Shell got involved because of expected shifts in energy production, said Robert Kleiburg, vice president for strategy and planning at Shell Renewables, the unit handling wind, hydrogen, biofuels and solar power activities. "If you look at the energy mix anticipated in 2050, we estimate that between a quarter and a third of the world's energy will be satisfied with renewable technologies, which will mean that there will be significant business opportunities for a company like Shell", Kleiburg said. He said Shell expected to invest $500 million to $1 billion in the next five years in new energy technology, mostly in the wind segment. Kleiburg said the project, borrowing heavily from offshore oil field technology, could start supplying electricity as early as 2008 and be completed by 2011.
. . If approved by British authorities, the London Array would be the largest wind plant yet. About 50,000 megawatts of wind power are now installed around the world, of which 34,000 megawatts are in Europe. "You're looking at in excess of 100,000 megawatts by 2010", involving tens of billions of dollars in investment.
. . Although Europe has dominated wind power production so far, that is changing, Millais said. "What we're seeing in terms of the global shift is positive growth in places like Asia, especially China and India. The U.S. market is probably going to be the biggest market this year", he said.
. . Commercial wind farms can require large investments and take up to 10 years to break even. "I wouldn't say there's a huge amount of profit in the sector, but the potential to have a secure portfolio in wind is very possible", Millais said. "You need to work out how to put the package together correctly."
. . The London Array would be located offshore to respond to another problem the industry faces - big, noisy machines that need a lot of space. "A solar panel on the roof of a house is almost invisible, but 30 wind machines on top of a ridge are quite visible", said Sellers, of the International Energy Agency. "Contrast that to coal and other fossil-fuel plants in the 500- to 1,000-megawatt range. Those systems are much more compact --you dig ore in one part of the world and burn it in another part of the world. The trains are already there, and there's no imposition on the population."
. . The London Array risks opposition from some British conservationists who are already fighting other, land-based wind farms in the country. In response to public concern, legislation was introduced recently in the U.S. Congress to restrict the locations of wind farms that are eligible for government subsidies and to give local authorities more time to determine if wind farms should be built in their areas.
. . "These wind turbines are not your grandmother's windmills, gently pumping water from the farm well", Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, said while introducing the bill. "These things are huge", Millais said.
July 15, 05: Danish scientists said they have built a new type of plastic solar cell that lasts significantly longer than previous versions and could pave the wave for cheaper solar power. Plastic cells cost only a fraction of the more common silicon cells used in solar-powered products, such as calculators. But plastic cells typically are fragile and only last for a few days. "Our new cell has a life span of 2 1/2 years."
. . The market price for a silicon cell is up to US$800, euro675, per square meter, while a plastic cell of the same size costs less than US$15 (euro13), they said. However, plastic cells have relatively low efficiency as they only exploit 0.2%-5% of the sun's energy, compared with 12%-15% for silicon cells. "We have focused on durability and succeeded, now we will make it more efficient."
July 15, 05: Philips has put up the first streetlamps that use light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which last four times longer than normal street lighting, the Dutch electronics group said. With 50,000 light hours, LED lamps do not have to be changed for 12 years when lit for an average 11 to 12 hours a day. The lamps contain yellow and white LEDs, which allow for brighter or softer tones according to differences in seasons and the time of night. Until now, LEDs were used as indicators on electronic goods, bicycles and cars, but technical developments have made them so bright they can now be used for any normal lighting situation.
. . LED streetlamps are twice as expensive as current street lighting with a similar design, but this is compensated for by the longer lifespan, etc.
. . [I got a solar-&-crank-powered radio/siren/lite at a garage sale for a buck. I wanna replace the incandescent bulb with 1-3 high-intensity LEDs. The voltage should be right already...]
Many factors make diesel engines more efficient, including: operating unthrottled and more efficient oxidizing of fuel. Diesel engines also have a higher compression ratio, and the heavier diesel fuel has a higher energy density.
. . Diesel and hybrid technologies have synergies --hybrid systems can cut emissions by eliminating situations where NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions are at their very worst. Automakers are more likely to offer diesel hybrids in Europe before the US gets them because diesel fuel is much more expensive there. And diesel vehicles have a much higher market penetration there. It could add up to $8,000 to the price of a vehicle, which may limit its appeal to American consumers. "Even (with gas at) $3 a gallon, $8,000 (more) is a lot to pay."
July 12, 05: Experts in design, technology, and entertainment have gathered in Oxford to share their ideas about our futures. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is already a top US event.
. . The best way to help developing nations is to recognize that development is "of the people, by the people and for the people", says a Bangladeshi entrepreneur. Iqbal Quadir, Grameen Phone founder in Bangladesh, told experts gathered for TEDGlobal in Oxford that aid strategies for the last 60 years had failed.
. . Technologies such as mobiles empowered people because they connected them. This, he said fuelled productivity much more than the top-down aid approach. The company has grown to more than 3.5 million subscribers, with more than 115,000 phones in villages across the country. What was key about a technology as simple as the mobile in a rural village was that people's voices, not just those in authority, were heard. The next step, he hoped, would be to get wireless internet via mobile devices into villages. But he warned of jumping on the technology bandwagon.
. . The Grameen Phone scheme has had a big impact is on the lives of women. Known as Grameen phone ladies, these women provide villagers with a vital link to services such as hospitals and to relatives both at home and abroad, in a country with the lowest number of phones in South Asia. "A woman with a mobile becomes important in a village", he said. "This changes the power distribution."
. . He said the success of Grameen Phone had had a huge impact on people's lives in areas where there is poor infrastructure, but that there were bigger problems to address, such as the lack of other credit checks, bank branches, customer contact points, but also energy production.
. . His current project with Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, is about developing village-based micro-power plants, fuelled by cow manure. Two are currently running in villages providing power for 20 businesses. The project combines access to micro-credit with low-cost energy generation technology to see if rural entrepreneurs can manage mini power plants in villages. "Just imagine if solar panels suddenly become much cheaper. It would reduce the authorities' hold on electricity. "If you bring electricity to villages, you can bring jobs. Electricity is half the problem", he said.
July 13, 05: Arizona-based Methane Credit LLC, this fall plans to start turning landfill methane into enough electricity to power 500 homes in rural Wayne County, 50 miles east of Raleigh. It's not cheap enough yet for most electric utilities to replace coal with methane at their power plants, but the gas is priced attractively enough for many companies to pipe it directly from landfills to power their facilities.
. . The market for methane has developed as international demand has caused the price of natural gas to skyrocket. In April, the commercial price of natural gas was 15% higher than a year earlier and 56% higher than three years ago.
. . According to state and federal environmental officials, about 380 landfills nationwide and at least 19 in North Carolina are turning turbines for electricity or selling methane directly for industrial uses. Such pipelines have carried the greenhouse gas to some companies for a decade or more.
. . In eastern North Carolina's Wilson County, Voss' company is negotiating with a Bridgestone-Firestone Inc. tire manufacturing plant to deliver gas generated by 2 million tons of buried garbage from a landfill that closed in 1998 after 24 years. Now, instead of having to burn off the methane, Wilson County hopes to collect a percentage of the profits.
. . In one of the boldest projects, Matthews-based Enerdyne Power Systems Inc. built a 23-mile pipeline from one of the East Coast's largest landfills in Waverly, Va., to a Honeywell Inc. plant in Hopewell, Va., that makes a component of nylon fiber. The feat was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year. While replacing about 15% of the plant's gas needs, the project will save the equivalent of 370,000 barrels of oil per year, enough power to heat and cool 22,000 homes.
. . The business has shown enough promise that animal manure on farms, which also generates methane, is also being tested for its power potential. Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork producer, is close to generating enough electricity to power 70 homes from hogs.
July 6, 05: Wind turbines producing "green" energy kill many fewer birds than previously thought and pose less of a threat to avian life than cars, a study by the Dutch Bird Protection charity and power utility Nuon showed. The study was based on results from three wind farms. It showed each turbine killed an average 28 birds per year, a third of what had been assumed on the basis of research conducted in the 1980s.
. . The new study suggests the Netherlands' 1,700 wind turbines kill about 50,000 birds a year. About 2 million birds perish each year on Dutch roads, it said.
. . The study showed that large wind turbines producing more than 1.5 megawatts of power killed slightly more birds than smaller, older windmills, but Bird Protection noted that the bigger windmills produce five to 10 times more electricity. "In contrast to what might be expected, it seems that the number of bird victims has almost no relationship with the size of the wind turbine", the report said.
July 5, 05: British engineers have developed the Ech2o, a hydrogen-sipping car that could travel the world on just 25 Watts of power. Built by BOC, the Ech2o will race at the Shell Eco Marathon, piloted by 13 year-old Jack Dex, to likely achieve a new world record for fuel efficiency --using a fraction of the electricity it takes to power a light bulb --at a top speed of 30mph.
. . The fuel-cell Ech2o, to complete a 25,000-mile global trip, while emitting nothing more hazardous than water-- would use the equivalent of less than 8 liters (2gal) of gas.
. . Tomorrow, Ech2o, built by British gas firm BOC, will bid to smash the world fuel efficiency record at the Shell Eco Marathon at a track in the UK. The record is currently held by the PAC-Car II, a hydrogen-fueled Swiss vehicle, that traveled the equivalent of 5,385 km/per liter (over 10,000 miles per gallon).
July 6, 05: Fueling nuclear reactors with the element thorium instead of uranium could produce half as much radioactive waste and reduce the availability of weapons-grade plutonium by as much as 80 percent. But the nuclear power industry needs more incentives to make the switch, experts say. Design challenges and a Cold War-era interest in using nuclear waste byproducts in atomic bombs pushed the industry to use uranium.
. . Scientists have long considered using thorium as a reactor fuel -- and for good reason: The naturally occurring element is more abundant, more efficient and safer to use than uranium. Plus, very little of it breaks down into plutonium as it is used, meaning that governments have access to less material for making nuclear weapons.
. . In January, India --which has the world's second largest reserve of thorium behind Australia-- announced it would begin testing the safety of a design of its own. But there's just one problem: The nuclear power industry has already built its infrastructure around uranium and has little reason to invest in changing it, according to Mujid Kazimi, director of MIT's Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems. "This is a market economy so the economics will have to be in favor for thorium to move that way", said Kazimi. "It could take another 50 years for us to reach the level where uranium prices are so high that thorium looks attractive."
. . As an interim solution, the United States could change the way it charges power plants for the nuclear waste that they produce, said Kazimi. Currently, waste fees are calculated as a fraction of the cost of the electricity that is produced by the fuel. Kazimi proposes charging by the volume of plutonium instead, so as to discourage its creation.
. . Thorium Power has been working with Russian researchers to find ways to dispose of stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium by burning it in thorium reactors. In March, the House voted to give $5 million to the project.
June 30, 05: Energy major BP and three partners are planning to build a plant in Scotland which would be the first in the world to generate "carbon free" electricity from hydrogen, the companies said. The project would convert natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2), then use the hydrogen to fuel a power station and ship the CO2 to a North Sea oil field to increase oil recovery and for ultimate storage.
. . The power industry is one of the top producers of CO2. The project would store about 1.3 million tons of CO2 a year and provide "carbon free" power to a quarter of a million UK homes.
. . They plan to decide next year whether to go ahead with the scheme which would come on stream in 2009. The project, which includes a 350 megawatt power station, will cost about $600 million.
June 28, 05: Science's quest to find a cheap and inexhaustible way to meet global energy needs took a major step forward on Tuesday when a 30-nation consortium chose France to host the world's first nuclear fusion reactor.
. . After months of wrangling, France defeated a bid from Japan and signed a deal to site the 10-billion-euro ($12.18-billion) experimental reactor in Cadarache, near Marseille. Its backers say it would be cleaner than existing nuclear reactors, but critics argue it could be at least 50 years before a commercially viable reactor is built, if at all. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace estimates that if the project yields any results at all, it will not be until the second half of this century. "At a time when it is universally recognized that we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Greenpeace considers it ridiculous to use resources and billions of euros on this project", it said.
. . France has been a big producer of nuclear energy since the oil shocks of the 1970s and has 58 nuclear reactors, the most in the world after the United States.
Critic: "There are a bunch of problems with ethanol. First, it doesn't have as much energy as gasoline, which means it takes about 1.5 gallons of ethanol to get you as far as one gallon of gas. Ethanol also requires a lot to produce it —-26 pounds of corn to get a gallon, in fact. And growing corn requires lots of water and fertilizer and pesticide, not to mention the energy required to distill it into ethanol. And by-products of that distillation include (according to the EPA) acetic acid, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and methanol, all of which are pumped into the air."
June 28, 05: Science's quest to find a cheap and inexhaustible way to meet global energy needs took a major step forward on Tuesday when a 30-nation consortium chose France to host the world's first nuclear fusion reactor. After months of wrangling, France defeated a bid from Japan and signed a deal to site the 10-billion-euro ($12.18-billion) experimental reactor in Cadarache, near Marseille. Its backers say it would be cleaner than existing nuclear reactors, but critics argue it could be at least 50 years before a commercially viable reactor is built, if at all.
. . A nuclear fusion power station is the 'Holy Grail' for scientists trying to find a viable alternative to the world's depleting stocks of oil and gas.
. . Crude this week reached a record price of $60.95 a barrel in some trading and a summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations next week is to discuss climate change, widely blamed on burning fossil fuels for energy.
. . Power has been harnessed from fusion in laboratories but scientists have so far been unable to build a commercially viable reactor, despite decades of research. The 500 megawatt ITER reactor will use deuterium, extracted from seawater, as its major fuel and a giant electromagnetic ring to fuse atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures. One of the biggest challenges facing scientists is to build a reactor that can sustain temperatures of about 100 million Celsius (180 million F) for long enough to generate power.
. . "I give it a 50:50 chance of success but the engineering is very difficult", said Ian Fells of Britain's Royal Academy of Engineering. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace estimates that if the project yields any results at all, it will not be until the second half of this century.
. . "At a time when it is universally recognized that we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Greenpeace considers it ridiculous to use resources and billions of euros on this project", it said.
. . France has been a big producer of nuclear energy since the oil shocks of the 1970s and has 58 nuclear reactors, the most in the world after the United States.
June 27, 05: Hong Kong's buses and shopping malls have been given the cold shoulder by a green group which says they are wasting energy by using their air-conditioners excessively. Temeperatures on the Chinese territory's public transport and in its malls reached as low as 16 degrees Celsius (61 Fahrenheit), Friends of the Earth Hong Kong said. "Excessive air conditioning will only result in extra emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, which could have been avoided."
. . Earlier this month, the group launched a campaign encouraging the public to register complaints about places that exceed the government-recommended 25.5 degrees Celsius (78 degrees F) limit in public buildings or vehicles. It said of the 266 complaints received, 24% referred to bitter-cold buses and 20% to shivering shopping centers.
. . Ironically, one of the worst offenders was the city's tourism promotion office, which registered a chilly 19 degrees, Friends of the Earth said.
June 22, 05: Europe should reduce its energy consumption by 20% by 2020 through more efficient technology, the EU executive Commission said, helping cut dependency on oil and meet climate change targets.
. . EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said 60 billion euros ($73.12 billion) a year could be saved in fuel costs in the 25-nation bloc. A household could save up to 1,000 euros a year in electricity and heating bills by using energy saving lightbulbs, getting rid of old fridges and replacing boilers, he added.
. . The Commission forecasts that the EU will be 90% reliant on imported oil and 80% dependent on gas imports by 2030. Piebalgs said the Commission would present an action plan at the end of 2006 with concrete steps on energy efficiency. Half of the 20% cut in energy use will come from the entry into force by 2007 of new EU laws making the design of buildings and household appliances more energy efficient.
. . EU governments must also implement new measures to reach the target. The Commission suggested reducing tax on cleaner cars and making public tenders subject to energy efficient criteria.
But a group of cross-party EU lawmakers called for tougher limits and a mandatory energy saving of 23% by 2020. They say this reduction would represent over half the EU's target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. "(Energy) efficiency has by far the biggest potential (to cut emissions) and by far the cheapest", Luxembourg Green EU lawmaker Claude Turmes told a news briefing.
June 21, 05: Sweden has unveiled an environmentally friendly biogas-powered passenger train --said to be the world's first. The train, fitted with two biogas bus engines, can carry up to 54 passengers. Sweden already has 779 biogas buses and thousands of cars running on a mixture of petrol and either biogas or natural gas.
June 21, 05: Biofuels would be increasingly competitive if crude oil prices, which are back near all-time highs, were to go beyond $60 a barrel, officials at the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today. Soaring oil prices have encouraged major consumers worldwide to sharply increase their use of "green" biofuels, made from sugar cane, vegetable or grain oils. But in most parts of the world, the additional costs for producing biofuels make the fuel uncompetitive without hefty tax rebates from governments.
June 16, 05: TVs account for about 4% of annual residential electricity use in the United States. Today there are about 266 million TVs, and that number is growing by 3.5 million per year. By 2009, when half of all new TV sales are expected to be extended- or high-definition digital sets with big screens, TV energy use will reach about 70 billion kilowatt-hours per year nationwide - about 50% higher than at present. Throw in a DVD and VCR player, a pair of high-definition set-top boxes, and other household TVs, and the total TV-related energy use for the home rises to about 10%.
. . The nation's move to high-definition TV, or HDTV, requires sets to deliver more picture clarity, which draws more power. Also, Americans are watching some 16% more TV than in the 1980s --if DVD and video-game viewing is included.
. . Using the best available technology, however, could reduce this new generation of big-screen TV "active mode" consumption by at least 25%, saving 10 billion kilowatt-hours per year, the NRDC estimates. In addition to chopping residential electric bills by $1 billion, it would prevent 7 million extra tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
. . One 50-inch plasma high-definition TV (HDTV) was estimated to use 679 kw/h /year. A 32" liquid-crystal display with HDTV capability was only 387 --barely more than half. By contrast, an older analog 34-inch TV was estimated to use just 209.
. . The NRDC's Noah Horowitz hopes the EPA will create a single annual energy-consumption number for TVs, much like those found on today's refrigerators or hot-water heaters. He'd also like the agency to set mandatory minimum-efficiency standards for cable and satellite set-top boxes. These boxes could use more than 20 billion kWh per year, at a cost of about $2 billion, another NRDC study says. In that scenario, five 500-megawatt power plants would be needed to run these boxes, emitting 15 million tons per year of carbon dioxide.
. . The average US household used 10,656 kw/h in 2001. What used the most?
• Air-conditioning 16%
• Refrigerator 14
• Space heating 10
• Water heater 9
• Lighting 9
• Clothes dryer 6%
• Freezer 4
• Furnace fan 3
• Electric range top 3
Amory Lovins (RMI --Rocky Mt Institute): Hydrogen’s greater end-use efficiency can more than offset its conversion loss. From wellhead to car tank, oil is typically 88% efficient (the lost energy mainly fuels refining and distribution). From car tank to wheels, gasoline is typically 16% efficient. The average contemporary vehicle is thus about 14% efficient well-to-wheels. A hybrid vehicle like the Toyota Prius nearly doubles the gasoline-to-wheels efficiency to 30% and the total to 26%.
. . But an advanced fuel-cell car’s 70% natural-gas-well-to-hydrogen-in-the-car-tank efficiency, times 60% tank-to-wheels efficiency, yields 42%—three times higher than the normal gasoline car or one and a half times higher than the gasoline-hybrid-electric car. Thus, the energy lost in making hydrogen is more than made up by its extremely efficient use, saving both fuel and money.
. . The potential cost-effective wind-power in the Dakotas could make
as much hydrogen as the world now uses -—enough, if used in efficient fuel-cell vehicles, to displace all oil now used by U.S. highway vehicles.
June 11, 05: The new-generation nuclear reactors being talked about after a pause of three decades are not much different from those of the past, though the designs should make them safer, more efficient and easier to build.
. . Two designs likely to be pursued adopt a passive safety system requiring less involvement by operators to shut the system down and ensure that the reactor core doesn't overheat. A third design would have more redundant and isolated safety systems than current reactors plus a double-walled concrete containment dome better able to withstand an airplane crash.
. . The Energy Department is planning a $1.25 billion program to build a gas-cooled Generation IV experimental reactor in Idaho. It would produce both hydrogen and electricity and could become a prototype for future commercial reactors.
June 8, 05: A White House official who previously worked for the American Petroleum Institute has repeatedly edited government climate reports in a way that downplays links between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, The New York Times reported.
. . Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, made changes to descriptions of climate research that had already been approved by government scientists and their supervisors, the newspaper said, citing internal documents.
. . The newspaper said it had obtained the documents from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that provides legal help to government whistle-blowers. The group is representing Rick Piltz, who resigned in March from the office that coordinates government research and issued the documents that Cooney edited, the Times said. The newspaper said Cooney made handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, removing or adjusting language on climate research.
June 8, 05: Migrating birds are unlikely to be seriously affected by offshore wind farms, according to a study. Scientists found that birds simply fly around the farm, or between the turbines; less than 1% are in danger of colliding with the giant structures. Researchers say previous estimates of collision risk have been "over-inflated". From a conservation point of view, the two options present different issues. Land-based turbines may affect birds when they are nesting; whereas at sea, blocking migration routes could be a bigger problem.
. . They used a radar --usually used for detecting ships-- to plot the paths of ducks and geese as they migrate to the Arctic each Spring to breed, and again in the Autumn when they return with their young to feeding grounds. The results clearly show that most of the birds just fly around the Nysted farm; most of those that go through appear to thread a path between the turbines.
June 8, 05: Last year, the world produced about 30 billion liters of fuel-ready ethanol from fermenting and distilling mainly sugar or corn. In oil terms, that's more than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), 2% of global gasoline use.
. . Under the most optimistic scenario, ethanol could make up 10% of world gasoline by 2025, the IEA estimates. For that to happen, bio-energy will have to clear a number of hurdles --high cost, diminishing land and water availability and mixed policy initiatives, to name a few. But the payoff would be tremendous. Assuming 1.5% annual growth in gasoline demand up to 2025, ethanol fuel consumption could rise to 3.4 million bpd, analysts estimate. That would equate to about a tenth of incremental oil demand.
. . "By substituting up to 10% ethanol... you could displace one medium-sized
OPEC country, like Iran", said oil consultant Geoff Pyne in London. Up to 10% of biofuel can be blended into motor oils without the need for costly engine conversions.
. . The European Union last year set a non-binding target of 5.75% biofuel content by 2010, but is likely to miss a more modest 2% target this year. Brazil, the world's biggest producer of ethanol accounting for nearly half global output, already blends its domestic gasoline with 25% ethanol and is looking to U.S., Japanese and Indian markets to double exports in coming years.
. . In Southeast Asia, palm oil and sugar farmers hope to boost crop income by selling to biofuel producers. "The potential of biofuels has the added attraction, at least for government policy makers in developing countries, of possibly also being a means of raising incomes for rural producers", said Andrew Symon of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Thailand has mandated a 10% ethanol-mix called gasohol from 2007, boosting production from nearly zero to 1.5 billion liters (26,000 bpd) by then. The Philippines is studying a diesel fuel blended with oil extracted from its abundant coconuts.
. . Biodiesel is less established than ethanol but is being actively pursued in Europe, where half of all cars run on diesel instead of gasoline.
. . Axel Friederich, who heads the department of transport and noise at Germany's Federal Environmental Agency, says biofuels merely eat up land resources and encourage intensive farming. "The best alternative fuel is the one that is not used", Friederich told a Hart Energy Publishing conference in Brussels.
Apr 26, 05: [Ok, there *is one --extremely tiny-- natural source of H...] Scientists have long studied bacteria that can clean up toxic waste by eating it. Other bacteria have been employed to produce electricity. Now scientists have found a two-for-one deal in bacteria that will eat toxic chemicals 24/7 and make electricity to boot. "The bacteria are capable of continuously generating electricity at levels that could be used to operate small electronic devices", says Charles Milliken of the Medical University of South Carolina, who conducted the research with colleague Harold May. "As long as the bacteria are fed fuel, they are able to produce electricity 24 hours a day." [The article omits !!! even a mention of HOW the electricity is generated. Fuel cells, we assume.]
. . The new study involved Desulfitobacteria in a newly developed process that uses bacteria to consume human waste and other biomass produces four times more hydrogen than previous efforts. Some scientists and politicians envision an economy of the future fueled by hydrogen rather than fossil fuels. Others say that idea is rubbish.
. . The new technique won't by itself create a hydrogen economy, but it could help make wastewater treatment less costly. "While there is likely insufficient waste biomass to sustain a global hydrogen economy, this form of renewable energy production may help offset the substantial costs of wastewater treatment as well as provide a contribution to nations able to harness hydrogen as an energy source", said Penn State Professor Bruce Logan.
. . The process is, well, shocking. Bacteria already produce hydrogen. But this fermentation process has a limit. In the new study, Logan and his colleagues juiced the bacteria with a tiny amount of electricity, about 0.25 volts --a small fraction of what's needed to run a cell phone. [yes, but at what amperage?! It cud be a LOT of elec...] The supercharged bacteria could then break down acetic acid into carbon dioxide and hydrogen -- a step they could not make on their own.
May 30, 05: Work will start this year on Britain's first major power station fuelled by grass, as Prime Minister Tony Blair tries to make his country more environmentally friendly. The 6.5-million-pound (12-million-dollar, 9.4-million-euro) bio-energy power station in Staffordshire, central England, would be run on elephant grass and supply 2,000 homes with electricity. Burning elephant grass would only release the carbon dioxide that the plants soaked up anyway while they were growing. About 170 local farmers are diversifying into growing the grass crop to feed the steam-turbine generator.
Britain generates 3% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions despite only comprising 1% of its population. Power stations were a prominent culprit, pumping out around one third of the country's carbon dioxide quota.
. . The plant will operate for 8,000 hours a year on a 24-hour basis and save one tonne per hour of carbon dioxide, which would otherwise have been emitted using fossil fuels to generate electricity.
The newest airplane engines from GE may be lightweights, but that doesn't mean they can't take the heat of long distance jet travel. Made of carbon fiber and epoxy resin, the turbine blades weigh 3% less than their 6-ton steel forebears and are more durable and efficient. Eighteen fan blades --down from 22 in earlier models-- reduce weight even more and translate into lower maintenance costs. The GEnx boasts a 30% longer lifespan and consumes 15% less fuel than other engines. Designed for the Boeing 7E7 and the Airbus A350 --the first complete engine will be tested in 2006, with full certification scheduled for 2007.
May 23, 05: A new map highlights spots where there is enough wind to provide electricity to the whole world --and then some. In putting together a global and U.S. map, researchers found wind power could provide 40 times more electricity than is needed worldwide.
. . Scientists gathered wind speed data from about 8,000 locations on the planet - 7,500 surface stations and 500 balloon-launch stations. They measured the wind speeds 80 meters above the ground surface, which is the height of a modern wind turbine's hub. They found that 13% of the 8,000 spots were capable of averaging Class 3 wind speeds throughout the course of the year. Class 3 winds are greater than 6.9 meters per second (15.4 mph), which is considered strong enough to be economically feasible.
. . "What this means is quite amazing. If you pick 10 random locations on the planet, that means one, or even two, of these are suitable for wind power generation." ~Cristina Archer, of Stanford University and co-author of this study.
. . If harnessed, these sites with Class 3 and higher wind speeds could provide 72 terawatts of electricity. About 2.5 million wind turbines --together capturing about 20% of what's available based on the new maps-- would be needed to produce all the world's electrical needs.
. . The map demonstrates where power companies could get the best bang for their buck in wind farms --mostly near coastlines.
Every square meter at the top of Earth's atmosphere receives about 1,400 watts of energy.
May 23, 05: A proposed project, if proven feasible, involves the building of a small canal on the Red Sea between Jordan and Israel and then pumping water to the Dead Sea through a 180-km pipe. The surface of the Dead Sea is estimated to have dropped from 392 meters below sea level to 416 meters and is dropping at an alarming rate. So far, 30 percent of the surface area of the Dead Sea has been lost. It needs some two billion cubic meters of water annually from the Red Sea in order to save it.
. . Experts estimate that desalinated water from the project will be enough for Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians over the next 50 years.
May 22, 05: The Middle East is faced with the prospect of a serious water crisis that could lead to political tensions and hamper prosperity, experts told a session of a
World Economic Forum (WEF). "We are not secure about water supplies. Supplies are simply not enough ... This is a scary issue", Hazem Nasser, former Jordanian water and irrigation minister told the session.
. . He said that with the current population growth rate in the Arab world, the picture looks even more gloomier. "In 1950, the Arab population was 75 million. In 2,000, it was 300 million, and is expected to grow to 600 million by 2025."
. . He said the deficit of water in the region was 30 billion cubic meters last year and is expected to grow to 175 billion cubic meters in 2025. "Most of the countries in the region have exhausted their water resources", he said, adding the only hope is costly desalination of sea water. With new technology advances, desalination costs have dropped to 53 cents per cubic meter from two dollars a few years ago, Naser said. But the cost has now increased again due to skyrocketing oil prices.
. . The experts warned that Dead Sea level has dropped from 392 meters below sea level a few years ago to 416 meters now. They called for quick solutions.
May 20, 05: A Scottish company will deploy sausage-shaped tubes off Portugal to create the world's first commercial wave power plant, providing electricity to 1,500 homes from 2006, a partner in the Scottish firm said. Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) will build the wave farm about five km off Portugal's northern coast. OPD will deliver three wave power generation units with capacity of 2.25 megawatts to Portuguese renewable energy group Enersis for 8 million euros ($10.12 million), but the project could be expanded significantly, Norsk Hydro said. A 120-meter long prototype has been tested since February 2004 in the Orkney Islands.
. . OPD's Pelamis P-750 wave energy converter is an elongated metal unit that looks like a big semi-submerged sausage, with hinged segments that rock with the sea, up and down and side to side, pumping fluid to hydraulic motors that drive generators. The power produced by the generators is fed into underwater cables and brought to land where it enters the power grid.
. . The deal with Enersis includes a letter of intent for a further 30 Palamis wave machines for a total of 20 megawatts before the end of 2006. "If all goes well, many additional sites producing up to a total several hundred MW could be developed along the coast", Norsk Hydro said.
. . The European Union requires 22% of electricity consumption to come from renewable energy sources --such as solar, wind and wave-- by 2010. Renewables currently meet about six% of European demand.
May 19, 05: Wind farms will alter the British landscape, but probably not as much as climate change would. It is only modestly more expensive than "conventional" energy sources. Indeed, the report claims that as fossil fuel prices increase and wind turbines become cheaper to build, wind power may even become one of the cheapest forms of electricity over the next 15 years. He said 150,000 people a year were dying because of climate change impact, so people "have to go beyond their subjective visual concerns and look at the broader picture".
May 16, 05: In England, more than half of people (52%) questioned for a poll commissioned by Newsnight believe it is wrong for the government to consider nuclear power as an energy source for the future. The results show that 39% agreed it was right. A total of 9% responded that they did not know.
. . The survey also asked which sources of energy respondents believed was the most feasible way of meeting the UK's future energy demands while reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions. A total of 57% of those polled chose renewable sources such as wave, tidal, solar and wind power. The poll found that 21% of those questioned believed nuclear power stations were the most feasible compared to 12% for coal/gas power stations. Again 9% said they did not know.
May 16, 05: Brazil generates 43.8% of its power from renewable energy sources, including hydroelectricity, ethanol and biodiesel, according to Agencia Brasil, a government communications division. By contrast, the United States produced only 6% of its power from renewable sources in 2003, according to the Department of Energy's Annual Energy Outlook 2005.
. . Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said his country would become the world's largest producer of renewable energy. They're now taking steps to ramp up biodiesel production. Earlier this year, the government passed legislation requiring that all diesel fuel be mixed with 2% biodiesel, and by 2013 will require a 5% biodiesel blend.
. . Corn "is not sustainable in the United States" as a source of enough ethanol to reduce dependence on foreign oil significantly, according to Al-Hallaj. He said that because corn has a low energy value, it is more valuable as a source of food.
. . The United States needs to advance and export technologies for converting biomass products that contain cellulosic material, such as corn husks or tree waste, into ethanol. The country should follow the lead of Minnesota, the first state to require all of its gasoline to include 10% ethanol, according to Shaw. On May 10, Gov. Tim Pawlenty enacted legislation increasing the ethanol mix to 20% by 2013.
. . Shaw, director of communications for the Renewable Fuels Association, said it is illogical to ship a gasoline substitute abroad while paying more to bring petroleum into the country. "Somewhere in the world right now, a ship with ethanol selling for $1.20 a gallon is going to Asia while another ship is coming back carrying gasoline at $1.70 a gallon."
May 15, 05: Qatar: The desert harbors a secret process that will use cobalt to turn natural gas into a powerful, clean-burning diesel fuel. By next year, rulers of this tiny desert sheikdom hope, these gas-to-liquids (GTL) reactors under construction will bring in billions of dollars while clearing big city smog belched by trucks and buses. Petroleum experts who have sniffed vials of gin-clear GTL diesel speak of it with reverence.
. . In all, some $20 billion has been committed to build an unprecedented array of clean diesel plants. By 2011, the Qatar plants should be producing 300,000 barrels of liquid fuels and other products daily. The largest GTL plant now producing is Shell's plant in Bintulu, Malaysia, churning out 14,700 barrels per day.
. . The investments amount to a big gamble on a clean alternative to pollutant-rich crude oil, based on an obscure "synthetic fuel" process developed to make fuel from coal in 1920s Germany.
. . The clean-burning fuel, with almost none of the smelly sulfur soot belched by engines firing on conventional diesel, appears tailor-made for countries looking to reduce emissions in line with the Kyoto Protocol. As far as carbon emissions go, green diesel appears to offer only a modest dent, partly because natural gas contains less carbon than oil-based diesel to begin with. The big difference is in sulfur. Sulfur emissions from diesel engines cause as many as 10,000 deaths a year among Americans with heart and lung ailments.
. . Emissions can be cut further by adding better filters that remove up to 90 percent of remaining particulates. Clean fuels open the door to the most advanced emission controls.
. . Qatar, a Connecticut-sized thumb on the Arabian peninsula, is perhaps the world's best source of cheap gas. It sits on a bubble containing 10 percent of the world's known gas reserves, conveniently gathered in the planet's largest reservoir. That much synthetic diesel won't cut into the current market for oil-based diesel —-13 million barrels a day-— but it might help clear some skylines.
Energy firms are increasingly turning their gaze north to the Arctic Barents Sea as North Sea oil becomes depleted. Norway and Russia share a sea boundary in the Barents, which is believed to contain vast petroleum resources.
OTHER sources: If things go according to plan, construction on a giant solar tower could begin in Australia in 2006. The 3,280-foot tall tower will be surrounded by a vast greenhouse that will heat air to drive turbines around the base of the tower. It is estimated that the power station will be able to generate 200 megawatts of electricity.
A problem with coal is that there is lots of it, enough to last the world for another 200-300 years at current rates of consumption. We can't allow that!
Recent studies show that hydroelectric dams can produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane through the decay of submerged plant material. In some cases, these emissions rival that of power plants running on fossil fuel. Another drawback of dams is that people often need to be relocated. In the case of the Three Gorges Dams Project in China --which will be the largest dam in the world when completed in 2009-- 1.9 million people were moved and countless historical sites were flooded and lost.
Oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth, and water is a natural solar energy collector. OTEC, or ocean thermal energy conversion, aims to exploit this fact and use the temperature differences between surface water heated by the sun and water in the ocean’s chilly depths to generate electricity.
. . OTEC plants generally fall into three categories:
* Closed Cycle: A liquid with a low boiling point like ammonia is boiled using warm seawater. The resulting steam is used to operate an electricity-generating turbine; the vapor is then cooled using cold seawater.
* Open Cycle: Similar to the closed cycle OTEC, except there is no intermediate liquid. The warm seawater is converted into low-pressure vapor that is used to generate electricity. The vapor is then cooled and turned into usable fresh water with cold seawater.
* Hybrid Cycle: A closed cycle OTEC is used to generate electricity, which is then used to create the low-pressure environment necessary for the open cycle.
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OTEC plants can double as fresh water sources and the nutrient rich seawater drawn from ocean depths can be used to culture marine organisms and plants. The major drawback of OTEC is that since they operate on such small temperature differences, generally about 20 Celsius, they are only 1 to 3 percent efficient.
During the past decade and a half, wind power emerged as the fastest growing electricity source in the world --although solar power has recently eclipsed wind power in this regard. Total worldwide capacity now stands at more than 40,000 megawatts, enough green power to supply 40 million U.S. homes. The total U.S. capacity is expected to grow to almost 9,000 megawatts by the end of 05.
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May 4, 05: The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is looking to become the first zoo in the nation to be powered by its own animal waste —-particularly the prodigious piles produced by its pachyderms. The zoo's six elephants produce more than 1,000 pounds of dung per day. They are inefficient digesters, which makes their feces higher in energy content.
. . The zoo has a $400,000 annual heating and electricity bill. Besides, the zoo spends about $10,000 a year on animal-waste disposal, but Baker noted it also requires the use of additional fossil fuels for transportation.
. . Depending on the process, the zoo animal waste could be used to produce methane or hydrogen for powering a fuel cell or generator. In the United States, a number of farms have used animal waste to produce power, so the technology is available to apply at the zoo.
May 2, 05: Norway, where pump prices are the equal of $6.66 a gallon. Norway, the world's third-largest oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia, has been made wealthy by oil. Last year alone, oil export revenue surged 19%, to $38 billion. But no other major oil exporter has tried to reel in its own fuel consumption with as much zeal as Norway. These policies have resulted in Norwegians consuming much less oil per capita than Americans - 1.9 gallons a day versus almost 3 gallons a day in the United States- and low car ownership rates. On city streets and rural roads, fuel-efficient Volkswagens and Peugeots.
. . Norwegians also pay automobile taxes as high as $395 a year for each vehicle, and in Oslo there is even a "studded-tire" fee of about $160 for vehicles with all-terrain tires that tear up asphalt more quickly in the winter.
. . Economists argue that gasoline prices and other auto taxes in Norway are not so expensive when measured against the annual incomes of Norwegians, among the world's highest at about $51,700 a person, or the shorter workweek of about 37.5 hours that is the norm here. (Norwegians also get five weeks of vacation a year.)
Apr 27, 05: The grandson of marine scientist Jacques Cousteau is backing a proposal to build an energy producing windmill park in the Atlantic Ocean, four miles south of Long Island. The Long Island Power Authority and representatives of FPL Energy said at the press conference they have filed an application with the Army Corps of Engineers to create a "wind energy park" in an 8-square-mile area.
. . "Over a 20-year period, the offshore wind park could prevent the burning of over 13.5 million barrels of fuel oil, which will eliminate millions of tons of combustion emissions from going into our region's environment."
Apr 27, 05: A tabletop experiment created nuclear fusion —-long seen as a possible clean energy solution-— under lab conditions, scientists reported. But the amount of energy produced was too little to be seen as a breakthrough in solving the world's energy needs. Previous claims of tabletop fusion have been met with skepticism and even derision by physicists. Their work was discredited after repeated attempts to reproduce it failed.
Fusion experts noted that the UCLA experiment was credible because, unlike the 1989 work, it didn't violate basic principles of physics. "This doesn't have any controversy in it because they're using a tried and true method."
. . In the UCLA experiment, scientists placed a tiny crystal that can generate a strong electric field into a vacuum chamber filled with deuterium gas, a form of hydrogen capable of fusion. Then the researchers activated the crystal by heating it.
. . The resulting electric field created a beam of charged deuterium atoms that struck a nearby target, which was embedded with yet more deuterium. When some of the deuterium atoms in the beam collided with their counterparts in the target, they fused.
. . The reaction gave off an isotope of helium along with subatomic particles known as neutrons, a characteristic of fusion. The experiment did not, however, produce more energy than the amount put in —-an achievement that would be a huge breakthrough.
Apr 21, 05: Rubbish dumps could supply up to a fifth of the UK's electricity by 2020, enough to power two million homes, according to a report from UK engineers and green-energy lobbyists. The EU Renewables Directive calls on member states to produce 10% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010, and 20% by 2020.
Apr 25, 05: Wind turbines stationed up to 30 miles offshore and in waters up to 120 feet deep could be a key part of China's renewable energy program in two or three decades, a senior industry official said. The sea-based farms would be ideally situated to supply clean power to the populous and booming east coast area, without competing for space wanted for farming or urban development. Coal accounted for about 67% of energy consumption and 76% of energy production.
. . Sea winds could be harnessed to generate an estimated 750 gigawatts, although few projects were under way now, Shi said. This would be around 70% higher than the country's total installed generating capacity at the end of 2004 and maybe three times the potential of onshore sites. China aimed to have 20 gigawatts of wind-generating capacity installed by 2020. The majority of equipment --around four-fifths-- is imported and few Chinese firms make larger turbines. However, the government has set up wind power concessions to lure investment and know-how, guaranteeing a fixed price for power, as well as help with infrastructure like access roads.
Shi said he expected the cost of wind-generated power to move closer to that from coal-burning plants when there is around 3000 MW of market demand, and the country has set a generating target of 4000 MW by 2010.
. . Unlike European wind power leaders like Germany and Spain, China is not obliged under the Kyoto treaty to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. But the government is concerned by the effects of air pollution, much of it from coal-burning power plants, on health and is keen to boost clean energy. A senior government adviser said recently that acid rain affected around one third of the country.
Apr 24, 05: The bird mortality problem in the Altamont Pass was first identified by the California Energy Commission in 1992. The most recent figures compiled by this state agency estimate that 1,766 to 4,721 wild birds are killed at the pass every year, the vast majority being raptors, including the golden eagle.
. . But to put things in perspective, as many as a billion birds a year die in the United States after colliding with man-made structures. Domestic cats devour hundreds of millions of birds. Pesticides add tens of millions of dead birds to the annual U.S. avian mortality total.
. . By comparison, the number of birds killed by the U.S. wind industry exceeds 40,000 a year, yet this alarming figure still represents less than 1% of total human-related avian deaths. Airports, glass buildings, cell phone towers and your own car are responsible for the other 99% of fatalities.
. . Only 7 to 16% of the 5,400 wind towers have been deemed bird killers. [probably the open-frame tower kind]
. . Of course, the irony of ironies is that wind farms of the Altamont Pass may be preserving critical bird habitat by precluding suburban development.
Apr 23, 05: China sought to reassure the region over its voracious economy, saying that it intended to avoid over-dependence on imported energy by 2020 through increased use of domestic renewable sources.
. . Last year, China's oil imports accounted for about 40% of total supply, according to government statistics quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency. China hopes to lower its reliance on oil imports to around 35% by 2020, and seek to maintain it at that level after that date, Xinhua said.
. . While China is not going to decrease its energy consumption, a combination of conservation and the search for additional energy resources would keep China supplied mainly by domestic sources, he argued. "We will support non-coal sources such as nuclear energy, wind power, solar energy and other renewable energy resources."
. . Investment bank Goldman Sachs recently published a study predicting oil prices could reach $105 a barrel, partly because Chinese growth rates showed no signs of flagging.
. . The International Monetary Fund has projected that oil consumption will increase from about 82 million barrels a day last year to almost 140 million in 2030 --& that China alone will contribute almost a quarter to the increase in demand between 2004 and 2030, due to its fast economic growth and large population.
According to the Department of Energy, waves could generate 2 terawatts of electricity --enough to meet the *world's* current electricity needs. Energy embodied in the world's ocean currents and tides is twice that much. However, only a small percentage of this could be tapped and thus far efforts to do so have cost more than the energy they've generated.
Apr 6, 05: Pollution is part of the driving force behind China's newfound passion for green energy, said Yu Jie of Greenpeace China's office in Beijing. "Acid rain blankets 70% of the country", Jie said, cutting crop yields, damaging trees and making rivers and lakes too acidic to support fish.
. . China surprised many by announcing it will generate 12% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind by 2020. China has had enormous increases in electrical power demands, 75% of which come from coal. China is the world's largest coal-consuming country and home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities on the planet. At least 400,000 people in China die each year from air-pollution-related illnesses, the World Bank reports. Oil imports soar to provide gasoline for the 14,000 new motor vehicles being added to its streets every day.
. . Germany currently leads the world, generating 12,000 megawatts from wind, with the United States well behind at 5,000 megawatts. "China's wind power potential is huge --500,000, perhaps 600,000 megawatts-- but it needs the proper legal framework." China has a complex mix of state, local and private energy generators, with multiple levels of subsidies and often conflicting regulations.
Australian engineer Bryan Roberts wants to build a power station in the sky -- a cluster of flying windmills soaring 15,000 feet in the air. After 25 years of research, he's has designed a helicopter-like rotorcraft to hoist a wind turbine high into the air, where winds are persistent and strong. The craft, which is powered by its own electricity and can stay aloft for months, feeds electricity to the ground through a cable. [Microwave'd be lighter...]
. . He believes there is enough energy in high-altitude winds to satisfy the world's demands. Wind-tunnel data suggests a cluster of 600 flying electric generators, or FEGs, could produce three times as much energy as the United States' most productive nuclear power plant.
. . At certain locations, the efficiency of a flying generator can be as high as 90%, three times higher than its grounded counterpart. At this efficiency, FEGs could become the nation's cheapest source of electricity, with an estimated cost per kilowatt hour of less than 2 cents, about half the price of coal.
. . The company's hope is to find sites 10 miles by 20 miles in size that are not currently used by commercial planes and turn them into restricted airspaces. Once in the air, the FEGs' roll and pitch would be controlled to catch the wind most effectively. Sky WindPower intends to use GPS technology to maintain the crafts' vertical and horizontal location to within a few feet. The craft will be brought to ground once a month or so for maintenance checks.
Apr 5, 05: EnergyCS, a small company that has collaborated with CalCars, has modified a Toyota Prius with more sophisticated batteries; they claim it gets up to 180 mpg, and can travel more than 30 miles on battery power.
April 7, 2005: Attempting aeronautical firsts is nothing new for Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard. He hopes his solar plane will be completely self-sustaining and capable of flying continuously, even at night, at altitudes up to 10,000 meters.
. . The first test flight is set for 2007. The long-distance flights are scheduled to begin in 2009. Piccard plans to unveil their design in two months. "The plane will have an 80-meter wingspan, which is larger than any commercial aircraft."
. . He estimates that enough power can be generated to sustain a flight of roughly 97 kilometers an hour. The batteries used to fly the plane at night must be incredibly dense, capable of storing 200 watt/hrs per kilogram. Nearly the entire body of the plane will be covered by 240 square meters of solar panels.
. . Other groups have already attempted solar-powered flight. NASA and its private-sector partner AeroVironment, Inc., have been trying for years to develop such an aircraft. They achieved success in 1997 when the NASA Pathfinder—a lightweight, unmanned, flying wing—climbed to 21,793 meters under its own power. In 2001, the remotely piloted Helios aircraft reached an altitude of some 29,524 meters -—an unofficial world-record altitude flight for a solar plane.
. . The Swiss adventurer hopes to hopscotch the globe using designated landing sites. At each stop, he plans to have press events to promote sustainable development.
Apr 5, 05: The Group of Seven economies will call for the development of alternative energy sources in the face of record high crude oil prices when they meet next week in Washington. It would be the first time that the seven industrialized nations --Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States-- have referred to use of alternative energy sources in their statement.
Nearly all (91% of) trash trucks in the United States get about 3 miles per gallon running on diesel fuel that produces highly toxic exhaust.
Mar 24, 05: Hybrid solar lighting (HSL) is different than traditional solar power, which converts sunlight into electricity. HSL captures sunlight and channels it directly into a room, using optical fibers. HSL is being marketed to commercial buildings, where lighting can be the biggest chunk of the electric bill. Residential uses may be farther down the road, since the cost advantages are not as great.
. . HSL technology uses rooftop collectors --meter-wide mirrored dishes-- that track the Sun with the help of GPS chips. The collectors focus the sunlight onto 127 optical fibers, bundled into a single chord as wide as a quarter, and remove the infrared light --the part of the spectrum that generates a lot of the heat in conventional bulbs. The fibers --which can be thought of as flexible light pipes-- are connected to hybrid light fixtures that have special diffusing rods that spread out the light in all directions. One collector powers about eight hybrid light fixtures --which can illuminate about 10,000 square feet.
. . They've cut down on costs by using plastic optical fibers - as well as plastic mirrors. They are still in the prototype stage, but they hope to get the price to $3,000 for 10,000 square feet. There have been studies that show that natural light is important for setting our body's internal rhythms. Some doctors also attribute Seasonal Acquired Depression to a lack of full-spectrum natural light.
. . But perhaps, most surprising is the fact people buy more in a sunlit store. The results showed a 40% increase in sales due to natural lighting. The sales boost may be attributable to a feeling --expressed by some shoppers-- that full spectrum light makes the store seem cleaner and more spacious.
Mar 22, 05: Expectations of a sharp rise in energy demand and the risk of climate change are pushing many countries to return to the idea of nuclear power, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Monday. Even the most conservative estimates predict at least a doubling of energy usage by mid-century, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told a conference on nuclear energy in the 21st century.
. . "The IAEA's low projection, based on the most conservative assumptions, predicts 427 gigawatts of global nuclear energy capacity in 2020, the equivalent of 127 more 1,000 megawatt nuclear plants than previous projections."
. . On the topic of climate change and the threat posed by greenhouse gases, ElBaradei said nuclear energy in combination with renewable sources of energy represented a safe alternative to fossil fuels. "Nuclear power emits virtually no greenhouse gases. The complete nuclear power chain, from uranium mining to waste disposal, and including reactor and facility construction, emits only 2-6 grams of carbon per kilowatt hour", he said. "This is about the same as wind and solar power and one to two orders below coal, oil and even natural gas."
Mar 17, 05: [this could also be in the "greenhouse" page.] More energy is trapped under the sea as frozen natural gas than is stored in all the world's oil reserves --and researchers this week took a step toward tapping it. Vast reserves of methane hydrates --a form of natural gas-- could power the world for decades to come. But mining the deep, frozen deposits presents an enormous technical challenge.
. . An estimated 200,000 trillion cubic feet of methane hydrates exists under the sea, and the Department of Energy has a major research program under way that could result in commercial production starting by 2015.
. . For millions of years, microbes have munched away on organic matter in ocean sediments, releasing methane as a byproduct. In cold, high-pressure environments at depths of 1,000 feet and more, individual methane molecules get trapped in ice-like cages of frozen water --methane hydrates. When they are brought up from the sea floor, the ice cages fizzle and decompose, releasing the trapped methane. Put a match to the decomposing ice and voilà: Ice that literally burns.
. . The voyage of the Uncle John later this month may provide some of the answers. A semi-submersible drilling vessel, the Uncle John will spend 35 days in the Gulf of Mexico collecting the first-ever sediment samples from methane hydrate deposits at 4,300 feet beneath the gulf's surface. "We're going to pull up 3-1/2-inch diameter cylinders of sediments and keep them under same conditions they were at the bottom."
. . For example, about 55 million years ago the oceans burped --releasing enormous quantities of methane, according to Jim Kennett, a marine geologist. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and the ocean's methane burp is thought to be the result of warmer ocean temperatures caused by abrupt global warming.
. . It isn't known why the oceans warmed enough to release the methane from its frozen mud sarcophagus. Some theories suggest it was a period of intense volcanic activity. But once the process started, a positive feedback loop kept the oceans warming and releasing more methane.
. . While massive destabilization of methane hydrates is extremely unlikely, the rapidly warming Arctic region is a potential hot spot. The Arctic Ocean and the permafrost regions contain smaller quantities of methane hydrate, where very cold temperatures, rather than high pressure, keep them frozen.
. . "I hold out great hope for this (marine hydrates) as a significant domestic energy source in the far future", said Boswell.
Feb 28, 05: A report from the world's biggest wind power producer denouncing wind farms as too expensive and inefficient has been widely dismissed in the UK. Money would be better spent targeting energy efficiency to combat greenhouse gases, the German Energy Agency said. With more than 15,000 turbines, Germany has the most wind farms in the world. But, says the report, almost the same cuts in carbon dioxide emissions --at much less than the cost of wind power-- can be achieved by installing modern filters at existing fossil-fuel power plants.
. . It comes as UK wind power grows at the fastest rate in the world, with the government aiming generate 10% of energy from renewable sources by 2010. However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Trade and Industry said the report recommended Germany focused on energy efficiency which the UK had been doing "for some time. It is the combination of energy efficiency and that of renewable energies that is important."
. . A spokesman for The British Wind Energy Association said: "The extra costs of wind energy's expansion in the UK has been costed recently by the National Audit Office to amount to increases of some 0.5% per year on our electricity bills and totalling 5% by 2010.
. . "For this small additional cost, the wind industry will deliver savings of between 10 and 17 million tons of carbon dioxide, a significant part of our country's CO2 reduction plans, thousands of new jobs and of course improve our nation's energy security."
Feb 28, 05: Representatives of five industrialized countries agreed on a long-range research plan for a new generation of nuclear power generation technology, the so-called "Generation IV" nuclear systems. "It will take probably 30 years before the first reactor is built."
. . The United States, France, Great Britain, Japan and Canada signed the agreement, which aims to coordinate the development of new nuclear technologies. Six of the most promising technologies for research and development: gas-cooled fast reactor systems, lead-cooled fast reactor systems, molten salt reactors, super-critical-water-cooled reactors and very high temperature reactors.
Feb 24, 05: Announced several years ago, the km-high Solar Tower is one of the most ambitious alternative energy projects on the planet: a renewable energy plant that pumps out the same power as a small reactor but is totally safe. If built, it will be nearly double the height of the world's tallest structure, the CN Tower in Canada.
. . The Solar Tower is hollow in the middle like a chimney. At its base is a solar collector --a 25,000-acre, transparent circular skirt. The air under the collector is heated by the sun and funneled up the chimney by convection --hot air rises. As it rises, the air accelerates to 35 mph, driving 32 wind turbines inside the tower, which generate electricity much like conventional wind farms.
. . But the Solar Tower has a major advantage over wind farms and solar generators: It can operate with no wind, and 24 hours a day. Thanks to banks of solar units, the tower stores heat during the day, allowing it to produce electricity continuously.
. . Originally slated to be operational this year, construction of the massive project won't begin until 2006 at the earliest. The cost estimates rangefrom $500 million to $750 million.
. . It's estimated the Tower will generate 200 megawatts, enough electricity to power 200,000 homes, and will keep 830,000 tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere annually.
. . A 200 meter solar tower was built in Spain in 1981 by German structural engineers. Producing 50 kilowatts, it operated for seven years. But with oil prices at $15 a barrel in the mid-1980s, there was little interest in building a larger one.
. . When it comes to solar power towers, size matters. "The higher the tower, the greater the efficiency. It would deliver maximum energy output during the hottest part of the day just when everyone's air conditioners are on.
Feb 14, 05: Energy companies and coastal cities like New York and San Francisco are aiming to tap ocean waves and tidal currents as abundant sources of electricity. Whether captured by big buoys bobbing on sea swells or by submerged turbines spinning with the ebb and flow of the tides, the energy potential of moving water, or marine power, is beginning to turn heads in the energy world.
. . An experimental wave project run last summer by Ocean Power Delivery Ltd in the Scottish Orkneys successfully provided power to 500 homes. Marine power research has received millions of dollars worth of government subsidies in Scotland, but the United States currently has no federal program.
. . Marine conservation group Surfrider Foundation is "guardedly optimistic" about a system of buoys planned by New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies. Verdant Power is scheduled to place as many as six underwater turbines on the bottom of New York City's East River to supply power to a food market on Roosevelt Island
. . Environmental regulators are examining the plans and weighing possible problems for fish and other marine life. Verdant says turbines are unlikely to harm animals because their blades are dull, widely spaced, and turn slowly. The company is seeking the go-ahead to install as many as 200 to 300 turbines in the East River.
. . The expanded project would produce five to 10 megawatts of electricity at an initial cost of $20 million, but New York state as a whole, Taylor said, could produce about 1,000 megawatts, or power for about 1 million homes. The amount of wave energy available off the coasts of the United States is nine to 10 times the energy currently generated by the country's hydroelectric dams.
. . The city of San Francisco is studying harnessing the power of offshore waves as well as ocean tides that surge beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. It's looking at clean power as an option to replace two old power stations fired by natural gas. The city is working on a demonstration project with Scotland's Ocean Power. The company's Orkney project uses a floating steel cylindrical device, about the length of four train cars, with sections connected by hinged joints. Rolling waves move against the sections to pump high-pressure oil through hydraulic motors that generate electricity which is sent through a cable to the grid. San Francisco also wants to test a wave energy converter to power pumps at a large water treatment plant.
. . Wave power advocates also eye the Gulf Stream off the East Coast as a potential powerhouse generator, where one day the electricity could be used to make hydrogen supplies for fuel cells.
. . Other companies working on wave energy converters are TeamWorks of the Netherlands, Energetechs of Australia, and WaveDragon of Denmark.
Feb 8, 05: Thanks to a new method of controlling the quantum particles known as phonons, power plants, generators and even your car exhaust could soon be turning waste heat into usable electric current. The technology has taken nearly 200 years to arrive. In 1821, German physicist Thomas Seebeck noticed strange magnetic effects when he heated one side of a metal circuit.
Jan 26, 05: A South Korean semiconductor maker said it had pioneered an innovation that will allow energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LED) to light homes, officies and other buildings. It could help save up to 80% of power used for illumination.
. . Seoul Semiconductor Co. said it was seeking a global patent for the "LED for AC", a LED that works on alternating current (AC) electric power and therefore can be widely used for general lighting requirements. Most LED devices are powered by direct current (DC) batteries but the LED for AC can be hooked to a 220-voltage AC supply.
. . The firm said it plans to begin commercial production of the new lighting device sometime in the third quarter to September this year.
On January 1st, 05, new efficiency standards for external power supplies came into effect as part of the European Commission Code of Conduct. The EPA also unveiled new guidelines for its latest Energy Star initiative which targets external power adapters. These map out the framework for developing better adaptors that can be labelled with an Energy Star logo, meaning they are about 35% more efficient. Most are made in China. About two billion are shipped global every year, and about three billion are in use in the US alone. [So what's a couple watts? 2 watts apiece (US alone) totals 6,000 megawatts!!]
Jan 20 , 05: Once or twice a week, a tanker unloads millions of gallons of frosty liquid at a terminal on the Chesapeake Bay, bringing to the United States a fuel that many economists believe will help temper energy prices in the coming decades.
. . For years, liquefied natural gas (LNG) was too expensive. But as growing demand for natural gas outstrips North America's conventional supplies, many experts view imports of LNG as the only way to head off decades of soaring prices for businesses and the tens of millions of households that rely on the fuel for heat and electricity.
. . While politicians talk of the need for greater U.S. energy independence, American consumers are expected to be relying increasingly on LNG imports from Algeria, Qatar, Russia and elsewhere. "If we don't have the capacity to bring in the amount of gas we need and domestic supply goes the way we think it will, the clear implication is higher prices."
. . The cold liquid is piped through a 1.2-mile underwater tunnel to four huge storage tanks. Delivered at minus-260 degrees F, the fuel is warmed and turned back into gas, then shipped over pipelines to mid-Atlantic customers. By 2008, the terminal will be able to handle 1.8 billion cubic feet of imported gas daily, more than double today's volume.
. . LNG import terminals in Louisiana, Georgia and the Boston area also are expanding. Despite community opposition, more than 40 new LNG projects are proposed around the nation. About a dozen probably will be built.
. . LNG imports still account for less than 3% of the 61 billion cubic feet of natural gas used every day in the United States. But LNG's share could grow tenfold in the next 20 years.
. . A government study by the Sandia National Laboratory concludes terrorists could blast a large hole into a double-hulled LNG vessel. That would release millions of gallons of fuel that would quickly turn to gas and ignite. The fire would be so intense that it could cause major injury and burn buildings one-third of a mile away. Within seconds, the fire could give second-degree burns to people who are a mile away.
. . By 2025, the United States is expected to "need" 31 trillion cubic feet of gas a year, a 38% increase, but North American supplies by then will be only 24 trillion cubic feet, 11% higher, the government says. They project LNG will account for 20% of the gas used by 2025. Some private consulting firms and oil industry estimates put the LNG share as high as 30% by then.
. . "We have not been able to increase gas production for a decade", says energy consultant Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "U.S. gas productive capacity, like oil, is now in permanent decline." At the same time, he says, the world "is awash with gas", most of it far from eager markets, and awaiting LNG's emergence as "a second global energy business", rivaling oil.
. . Darcel Hulse, president of Sempra LNG: "Global suppliers "now are convinced ... we're running out of natural gas and that there are good opportunities to market stranded gas" in the United States."
Jan 17, 05: importing green energy can damage the environment, UK lobby groups say. "At the consumption end, ethanol is much, much cleaner than fossil fuels. But looking at emissions at the outset, it really depends on how the ethanol is produced."
. . Corn-based ethanol from the United States and ethanol distilled from Brazilian sugar make up nearly all the world's ethanol production.
. . Pollution comes from fertilizers and pesticides used to grow crops for ethanol plants, and from fossil fuels burned during manufacture and shipment.
. . Global ethanol production is expected to rise again this year after hitting a record 41 billion liters in 2004 as the 135 signatories to the Kyoto Protocol try to stem global warming by burning less fossil fuel. The EU, for example, has recommended its member states use vehicle fuel with 5.75% ethanol content by 2010.
Jan 13, 05: Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented a flexible plastic solar cell that is said to be five times more efficient than current methods in converting energy from the sun into electrical energy. It is said that the cell harnesses infrared light from the sun and can form a flexible film on the surface of cloth, paper or other materials. The film can turn 30% of the sun's power into usable electrical energy -- a far better performance than the 6% gleaned from the best plastic solar cells now in use.
Jan 13, 05: A Norwegian energy project company wants to build the world's largest wind farm, more than eight times bigger than the current leader, off the Norwegian coast. The parks would generate a total of 1,400 megawatts of electricity. The largest existing wind farms, located in Denmark, turn out just over 160 megawatts --barely more than 1/10. They wouldn't get started building before 2007.
Jan 12, 05: Hydrogen, tested in buses from Amsterdam to Vancouver and used in the rockets of the U.S. space shuttle, is a clean power that promises to break dependence on oil and gas --at least in Iceland. With almost unlimited geothermal energy sizzling beneath its surface, Iceland has an official goal of making the country oil-free by shifting cars, buses, trucks and ships over to hydrogen by about 2050. By then, in theory, the only oil used on the volcanic North Atlantic island will be in planes visiting Reykjavik airport.
. . About 70% of Iceland's energy needs, from home heating to electricity for aluminum smelters, are already met by geothermal or hydro-electric power. Only the transport sector is still hooked on polluting oil and gas.
. . Hydrogen's big drawback is that it is very expensive to produce --either by splitting water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen or by separating hydrogen from natural gas or methane. With current technology, burning oil to make hydrogen to run a bus produces more pollution than simply running the bus on oil.
Dec 31, 04: Lithuania has started shutting down one of the reactors at its only nuclear power station. Lithuania joined the EU in May, & pledged to close the entire facility by the end of 2009. The EU pledged almost two billion euros to help Lithuania close the plant. It is similar to the Chernobyl reactor which blew up in 1986 in Ukraine. Unit One at the Soviet-era Ignalina plant, north-east of Vilnius, is to stop functioning tonight. The Ignalina plant --supplying about 70% of the Baltic states' energy-- has two RBMK reactors, with a capacity of 1,300 megawatts each.
. . "Only after five years we will be able to remove nuclear fuel containers from the first unit. Later we will start to dismantle the reactor. The complete process could take as long as 30 years."
Oct 4, 04: The world's largest wind power project will begin construction this month near Beijing, bringing green energy and cleaner air to the 2008 Summer Olympics and city residents coping with some of the worst air pollution in the world. China is the world's largest coal-consuming country and home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities.
. . While China has low-quality coal in abundance, its transportation infrastructure cannot ship enough coal from the mines in the west to the cities in the east, said Jie. Electrical energy self-sufficiency is a crucial goal for the Chinese leadership, especially as oil imports soar to provide gasoline for the 14,000 new motor vehicles being added to its streets every day.
. . The new wind farm, located 90km outside Beijing, will generate 400 megawatts when at full capacity, nearly doubling the electrical energy China currently obtains from wind. But that's just the beginning. Last summer at a climate change conference in Germany, China surprised many by announcing it will generate 12% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind by 2020. Their wind power potential is huge -- 500,000, perhaps 600,000 megawatts.
. . If the health costs associated with coal burning are considered, wind is actually a lot cheaper. China already produces solar cells much cheaper than elsewhere. (An increase in wind speed from 12 to 18 miles per hour yields more than three times the energy.)
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