Showing posts with label alternative energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alternative energy. Show all posts

2011-10-09

The SeaTwirl Floating Vertical Wind Turbine

SeaTwirl Turbine Could be the Most Cost-Effective Wind Energy Generator Yet | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World
http://inhabitat.com/new-seatwirl-design-to-be-the-most-cost-effective-wind-turbine-yet
  • Swedish eco-designers, Ehrnberg Solutions AB, have just completed their most successful prototype of the floating SeaTwirl vertical wind turbine. The device captures and harvests offshore wind, without having to convert the energy as it is being stored. SeaTwirl is the first of its kind with only two moving parts, and it uses only sea water as a roller bearing, omitting the need for a gearbox or transmission.
SeaTwirl - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U6WxckCptM&feature=player_embedded
SeaTwirl
http://seatwirl.com
SeaTwirl Prototype III - Sea Trial - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZKNxQNYtLk&feature=player_embedded
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2011-08-12

Energy Bag -- Compressed air energy storage

‪Seamus and his energy bags‬‏ - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgvLvZHzJrE

Thin Red Line Aerospace - Capabilities
http://www.thin-red-line.com/press-release-05-03-11.html  

  • Thin Red Line Aerospace completes first Undersea Energy Storage Structure

    Canadian firm Thin Red Line Aerospace has completed the first structure specifically designed and built for undersea compressed air energy storage (CAES). The structure, also referred to as an “Energy Bag”, is to be anchored to the seabed off the coast of Scotland next month as part of a major renewable energy research project conceived and led by Professor Seamus Garvey of the University of Nottingham and supported by European renewable energy leader E.ON. The project is the first to investigate large scale offshore storage of wind, tidal and wave power as compressed air.

    Compressed air energy storage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_energy_storage
    • Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is a way to store energy generated at one time for use at another time. At utility scale, energy generated during periods of low energy demand (off-peak) can be released to meet higher demand (peak load) periods.[2]



    • Conceptual representation of the compressed-air energy storage concept. Off-peak (low-cost) electrical power compresses air into an underground air-storage “vessel” (the Norton mine), and later the air feeds a gas-fired turbine generator complex to generate electricity during on-peak (high-price) times. A similar concept [1] uses wind powered air compressors.

    • Types

      Compression of air generates a lot of heat. The air is warmer after compression. Decompression requires heat. If no extra heat is added, the air will be much colder after decompression. If the heat generated during compression can be stored and used again during decompression, the efficiency of the storage improves considerably.
      There are three ways in which a CAES system can deal with the heat. Air storage can be adiabatic, diabatic, or isothermic
    Compressed air energy storage has bags of potential | In-depth | The Engineer
    http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/compressed-air-energy-storage-has-bags-of-potential/1008374.article
    • ’The overall process for adiabatic compression sounds simple, but the difficulty is how you handle the heat when you compress the air to 60 and 70 times atmospheric pressure,’ said Edward Barbour, a researcher in CAES at Edinburgh University. ’There are two main problems. One is that the heat is generated very quickly and that’s difficult for the machinery to handle, and the second is that your energy density suddenly becomes very low.’
      At these pressures, the heat from compressed air can reach temperatures of 650°C. Seamus Garvey, a professor of dynamics at Nottingham University, believes he has come up with a solution that will allow for cost-effective heat storage. Garvey’s idea is to compress air in containments called Energy Bags held down on the sea bed in deep ocean water. ’Underwater bags are an attractive option because the sea acts as the pressure vessel,’ he said. ’You don’t have to pay for the full structure, just the structural material required to hold the bag down. No matter how full or empty your container is, the pressure stays the same, and that’s lovely for the machinery at the sea surface.’
    • Designed and developed for Garvey’s project by Canadian firm Thin Red Line Aerospace, the bags use a butyl rubber bladder and a polyester-reinforced fabric for the outer surface. Special coated steel or aramid straps provide the main structural strength. At depths of around 600m, there will be enough pressure in one 20m-diameter bag to store around 70MW hours of energy. That’s around the same as 14 hours of energy generation from the largest offshore turbines currently in operation.
    • As momentum picks up in CAES research, Garvey’s concept is gaining attention. It remains to be seen whether adiabatic compressed air energy storage will be viable, and whether Energy Bags are the right way forward. But without someone thinking outside the box, the concept of AA-CAES is likely to remain firmly on the drawing board.


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    2011-06-05

    LUNA RING: Solar Power via the Moon


    Shimizu Corporation construction firm’s research branch, CSP, unveiled a long-term planning project to install a belt of photovoltaic panels across the surface of the Moon. Power gathered from the 13,000 terrawatts of continuous solar energy the Moon’s surface receives daily would be beamed back to an Earth-based receiving station via microwave or laser transmission, where it would then be used to power public offices, hospitals and schools across the globe. A staff of remotely controlled robots would be in constant rotation to make repairs and provide maintenance for the LUNA RING installation, though the structure would require some human personnel on-site. To make the process more efficient, the proposed plan includes building the LUNA RING’s solar panels on the lunar surface using local materials, rather than launching pre-built panels to the site.


    LUNA RING/Shimizu's Dream - Shimizu Corporation




    Robots will play a vital role in construction on the lunar surface. They will be tele-operated 24 hours a day from the Earth.

    Construction and resource extraction

    Assembling units in space

    Work on the lunar surface


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    2011-04-23

    Google's Renewable Energy Initiatives

    Google Energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Google Energy LLC is a subsidiary company of Google, which was created to reduce costs of energy consumption of the Google Group, amounting to 2.5 million dollars[1], and subsequently to produce and sell clean energy. The division also allows it to take advantage of projects funded through the philanthropic Google.org.


    YouTube - Going Green at Google

    Find out how Google is going green by improving operations, building tools that empower users, and investing in a clean energy future. Learn more at http://google.com/green



    Official Google Blog: Investing in the world’s largest solar power tower plant

    We’ve invested $168 million in an exciting new solar energy power plant being developed by BrightSource Energy in the Mojave Desert in California. Brightsource’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) will generate 392 gross MW of clean, solar energy. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 90,000 cars off the road over the lifetime of the plant, projected to be more than 25 years. The investment makes business sense and will help ensure that one of the world’s largest solar energy projects is completed.

    Brightsource Energy’s Solar Energy Development Center in Israel’s Negev desert



    Renewable Energy for Data Centers

    We are purchasing clean, renewable wind energy sufficient to power several of our large data centers in a continuing effort to green our operations. To date we have completed two agreements, both from NextEra Energy Resources. The first was for 114 megawatts of wind generation from the Story County II facility in Iowa, and the second for 100.8 megawatts of wind generation from the Minco II facility in Oklahoma. (See our announcements for Iowa and Oklahoma) We made these agreements through Google Energy LLC, an entity formed in December, 2009 that allows us to procure large volumes of renewable energy by participating in the wholesale market.
    Collected from: Google Green


    The wind farm, which began operation in December 2009, consists of 100 GE 1.5MW XLE turbines




    Investing in a clean energy future

    [...]
    • North Dakota wind farms. In May, we invested $38.8 million in two North Dakota wind farms that generate 169.5MW, enough to power 55,000 homes. It was our first project investment, and uses some of the latest wind turbine technology and control systems to provide one of the lowest-cost sources of renewable energy to the local grid.
    • Offshore wind transmission. In October, we made a development stage investment in a project to build a backbone transmission line off the Mid-Atlantic coast. The project will put in place strong, secure transmission, removing a major barrier to scaling up offshore wind. When finished, the 350-mile line will connect up to 6,000MW of offshore wind energy—enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households!



    A clear windy day at the Ashtabula II wind farm





    Google.org invests more than $10 million in breakthrough geothermal energy technology


    Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) could supply thousands of times US energy needs


    Mountain View, California (August 19, 2008)     – In the continuing effort to develop electricity from renewable energy cheaper than from coal, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), through its philanthropic arm Google.org, announced $10.25 million in investments in a breakthrough energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Today's announcement also includes funding for research on next-generation geothermal resource mapping, EGS information tools, and a policy agenda for geothermal energy.



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    2011-03-31

    Artificial Leaves Store Solar Power as Hydrogen Fuel

    First Practical Artificial Leaf Makes Debut : Discovery News



    THE GIST
    • Researchers have developed a practical "artificial leaf" that turns sunlight into storable fuel.
    • The device splits molecules of water into hydrogen and oxygen.
    • The team still needs to design a system to capture the fuels before the system can be fully commercialized.

    Scientists find 'Holy Grail' of science as they mastermind the world's first artificial leaf | Mail Online

    Scientists claim to have found the 'Holy Grail' of science in an artificial leaf that could turn ever British home into its own power station.

    The leaf, which is the same size as a playing card, mimics the process of photosynthesis that plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

    Scientists behind the invention say it could provide an affordable solution to the third world's growing energy crisis.

    Dr Daniel Nocera, who led the research team, said: 'A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades.

    'We believe we have done it.


    The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity.

    Nocera's leaf is stable -- operating continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity in preliminary tests -- and made of widely available, inexpensive materials -- like  silicon, electronics and chemical catalysts. It's also powerful, as much as ten times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf.

    With a single gallon of water, Nocera says, the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day. Provide every house on the planet with an artificial leaf and we could satisfy our 14 terawatt need with just one gallon of water a day.




    Making hydrogen gas (the bubbles) from a solar cell in water, a Sun Catalytix prototype.
    (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)



    Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'


    The key to this breakthrough is Nocera’s recent discovery of several powerful new, inexpensive catalysts, made of nickel and cobalt, that are capable of efficiently splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen, under simple conditions. Right now, Nocera’s leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf. However, he is optimistic that he can boost the efficiency of the artificial leaf much higher in the future.

    MIT’s Daniel Nocera Announces Artificial Leaf With Goal To Make Every Home a Power Station, Signs with Tata | Free Energy Times


    Nocera has founded a company called Sun Catalytix which is working on the development of this technology — specifically on ways to store the power of the sun so it can be used around the clock so electricity is always available.

    The Indian Tata group has recently signed an agreement with Nocera to help them commercialize this discovery.

    You can see Nocera talking about his technology and Sun Catalytix here.



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    2011-03-20

    A Shockwave-Generating Wave Disk Engine

    Shockwave-Generating Wave Discs Could Replace Internal Combustion Engines | Popular Science



    Michigan researchers have built a prototype of a new auto motor that does away with pistons, crankshafts and valves, replacing the old internal combustion engine with a disc-shaped shock wave generator. It could slash the weight of hybrid cars and reduce auto emissions by 90 percent.

    [...]

    The novel generator would use about 60 percent of fuel for propulsion, according to MSU. This is a dramatic improvement over typical car engines, which use only 15 percent of fuel for forward movement. The system could also make cars 20 percent lighter, improving fuel economy even more.

    Shock wave engines could triple fuel efficiency in hybrid cars | DVICE

    A wave disk engine is essentially just a disk with a bunch of channels cut into it that spins around super fast. The center is hollow, and portions of the inside and outside edges of the rotor are alternately sealed off and opened up as it rotates. As shock waves from the rotation compress and ignite fuel in the channels, the rotor spins, and if you hook the back end of it up to a generator, you get electricity.
    Confused? No problem, here's a helpful diagram from New Scientist:



    Wave disk engines to make hybrid vehicles cheaper, more efficient | ZDNet

    How do wave rotor engines work?
     
    The wave disk engine is a new implementation of wave rotor technology (think micro turbines).  The first successful realization of a wave rotor was developed in the mid-1950s.

    Wave rotors (also called pressure wave machines or pressure exchangers) are unsteady-flow devices that utilize shock waves to transfer energy directly between a high-energy fluid to a low-energy fluid, thereby increasing both temperature and pressure of the low-energy fluid.

    [...]

    The wave disc technology, however, uses a radial and circumferential flow, which can substantially improve the scavenging process by using centrifugal forces. Compared with straight channels, curved channels provide a greater length for the same disc diameter, which can be important to obtain certain wave travel times for tuning.  (Another paper, published in December 2008, explores this topic in detail.)




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    2011-02-21

    Cella Energy -- Synthetic Hydrogen Fuel


     
    Energy from hydrogen can be harnessed by burning the gas or combining it with oxygen in a fuel cell to produce electricity.

    But current methods of storing hydrogen are expensive and not very safe.

    To get round this, scientists from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, near Oxford, University College London and Oxford University have found a way of densely packing hydrogen into tiny beads that can be poured or pumped like a liquid.

    Stephen Volker, of Cellar Energy, which is developing the technology, told Gizmag: ‘We have developed micro-beads that can be used in an existing gasoline or petrol vehicle to replace oil-based fuels.

    How it works: Cella Energy is optimistic that drivers will not need to modify their cars in order to use the fuel



    Safe, low-cost hydrogen storage

    [...]

    Vehicles
    Vehicles – Hydrogen fuels for vehicles you can pump like regular gasoline at room temperature and pressure, safer to use than gasoline or diesel but with zero carbon emissions.
    • Fuel additives that could allow a regular vehicle to meet the Euro 6 emission standards with minimal modifications
    [...]

     Features:

    • low-pressure
    • safe
    • ambient temperatures
    • rapid desorption of hydrogen
    • pure hydrogen
    • can be handled safely in the open air
    [...]

    Benefits:

    • increases revenue for customer
    • fast introduction into market
    • saves money and time on packaging
    • end customer can travel further without refuelling
    Collected from: Cella Energy - Home

    Pure hydrogen solution, how it would work in a vehicle

    Cella can manufacture the materials in the form of micron-sized beads. This makes it possible to move the beads like a fluid.

    [...]

     The beads are stored in a fuel tank, which does not need to contain high pressures or be heated and cooled, therefore it can be a simple lightweight plastic tank of complex shape similar to that used in current vehicles. The hydride beads are then pumped to a hot cell where waste heat from the engine exhaust is used to drive the hydrogen into a small buffer volume. The hydrogen buffer is maintained at a pressure suitable for the internal combustion engine ICE or fuel cell and which is sufficient in volume to be able to restart the vehicle. Once the hydride has been heated and the hydrogen driven off, the waste beads are stored in another lightweight plastic tank.




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    2011-01-19

    innowattech Alternative Energy Harvesting from Road Traffic



    The Innowattech system is applicable to asphalt, concrete or composite concrete and asphalt roads. It may be installed in new roadways or while resurfacing of existing road ways is being performed. The busier the roadway the more energy is produced. Heavier vehicle produce more energy.


    Innowattech - Energy Harvesting Systems

    has developed a new alternative energy system that harvests mechanical energy imparted to roadways, railways and runways from passing vehicles, trains and pedestrian traffic and converts it into green electricity. The system, based on a new breed of piezoelectric generators, harvests energy that ordinarily goes to waste and can be installed without changing the habitat.




    Collected from: YouTube - WIM

    Technology |

    's solution - The Innowattech Piezo Electric Generator (IPEG™) The basis for the system is the patented new breed of piezoelectric generators (IPEG™) developed by . They have unique abilities to harvest energy from weight, motion, vibration and temperature changes.
    There are specific generators for roadways, railways, runways and pedestrians.
    Collected from: Innowattech - Technology

    Technical Information |

    IPEGs harvest energy ordinarily wasted by vehicles


    For a road with embedded piezoelectric generators, part of the energy the vehicle expands on roads deformation is transformed into electric energy (via direct piezoelectric effect) instead of being wasted as thermal energy (heat).





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    2010-11-13

    MARS Magenn Air Rotor System -- The Floating Balloon Wind Generator

    Magenn Power Inc.

    MAGENN AIR ROTOR SYSTEM (M.A.R.S.)



    Magenn Power's high altitude wind turbine called MARS is a Wind Power Anywhere™ solution with distinct advantages over existing Conventional Wind Turbines and Diesel Generating Systems including: global deployment, lower costs, better operational performance, and greater environmental advantages.

    Collected from: Magenn Power Inc.


    Airborne wind turbine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    An airborne wind turbine is a design concept for a wind turbine that is supported in the air without a tower.[1] Airborne wind turbines may operate in low or high altitudes; they are part of a wider class of airborne wind energy systems (AWE) addressed by high altitude wind power.

    An Ontario based company called Magenn Power Inc. has developed a turbine called the Magenn Air Rotor System (MARS). The 100-foot (30 m)-wide MARS system uses a horizontal rotor in a helium suspended apparatus which is tethered to a transformer on the ground. Magenn states that their technology provides high torque, low starting speeds, and superior overall efficiency thanks to its ability to deploy higher in comparison to non-aerial solutions.[6] The first prototypes were built by TCOM in April 2008.[7]


    The distinct advantages of the Magenn Air Rotor System design are as follows:
    • Magenn Air Rotor System is less expensive per unit of actual electrical energy output than competing wind power systems.
    • Magenn Power Air Rotor System will deliver time-averaged output much closer to its rated capacity than the capacity factor typical with conventional designs. Magenn efficiency will be 25 to 60 percent. This is hugely important, since doubling capacity factor cuts the cost of each delivered watt by half.
    • Wind farms can be placed closer to demand centers, reducing transmission line costs and transmission line loses.
    • Magenn Air Rotors are operable between 2 meter/sec and in excess of 28 meters/sec.
    • Magenn Air Rotors can be raised to higher altitudes, thus capitalizing on higher winds aloft. Altitudes from 400-ft to 1,000-ft above ground level are possible, without having to build an expensive tower, or use a crane to perform maintenance.
    • Magenn Air Rotors are mobile and can be easily moved to different locations to correspond to changing wind patterns. Mobility is also useful in emergency deployment and disaster relief situations.


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    2010-10-25

    Helios Solar Energy Research Center (SERC) -- “Artificial Photosynthesis”

    Black Is the New Green | Alternative Energy | DISCOVER Magazine


    Scientists are learning to mimic nature to produce clean energy, by re-creating photosynthesis in the lab.

    Lilac Amirav is breaking a sweat trying to do what nature has been doing effortlessly for some 3 billion years.
    [...]
     Amirav’s goal is to tweak this process to better suit the energy needs of a world population that by 2050 is expected to reach 9 billion, a growing percentage of which will want to drive their own cars. She and her colleagues at Helios, a joint project of U.C. Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, want to build an artificial leaf that drips ethanol, or some other alcohol, which you could pump right into your gas tank.

    Berkeley Lab


    The Solar Energy Research Center (SERC) is one of three Helios projects in which researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are working to develop fuels from sunlight.

    The goal of Helios SERC is to produce carbon-neutral transportation fuels using solar energy as the source of stored energy



    Collected from: Berkeley Lab

    New Nano-sized Photocatalyst for Artificial Photosynthesis; Step Toward Production of Carbon-Neutral Transportation Fuels


    Artificial photosynthesis for the production of liquid fuels is a potential source for renewable and carbon-neutral of transportation energy. The basic concept is to integrate light-harvesting systems that can capture solar photons and catalytic systems that can oxidize water, then to combine this water oxidation half reaction with a carbon dioxide reduction step in an artificial-leaf type system to produce a liquid hydrocarbon, such as methanol (CH3OH), that can be stored, transported, and used for transportation or other applications.

    Researchers with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have now found that nano-sized crystals of cobalt oxide can effectively carry out the critical photosynthetic reaction of splitting water molecules. Heinz Frei, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division, and his postdoctoral fellow Feng Jiao reported the results of their study in the journal Angewandte Chemie, in a paper entitled: “Nanostructured Cobalt Oxide Clusters in Mesoporous Silica as Efficient Oxygen-Evolving Catalysts.”




    YouTube - Turning Sunlight into Liquid Fuels



    An aqueous solution contains silica particles that have been embedded with photooxidizing cobalt oxide nanocrystals plus a sensitizer to allow the water-splitting reaction to be driven by visible light. When laser light hits the solution it turns blue as the sensitizer absorbs light. Bubbles soon begin to form as oxygen gas is released from the spilt water molecules. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-relea...

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