Monthly Archives: December 2008
Seven of the world’s ten largest ocean dead zones – totalling 100,000 square kilometres – are in the Baltic Sea. The more saline (and therefore denser) water remains on the bottom of the Sea, isolating it from surface waters and the atmosphere. This leads to decreased oxygen concentrations within the zone. As a result mainly bacteria (algae) grow in it, digesting organic material and releasing hydrogen sulfide. Now a team of researchers at the University of Gothenburg, led by Anders Stigebrandt, a professor of earth sciences, is proposing to install hundreds, and possibly thousands, of wind-driven pumps to pipe oxygen-rich … Continue Reading
Fake Christmas trees may well be more convenient than real ones and they certainly last longer – but, considering that we throw away real trees after a couple of weeks but re-use fake ones, how do they compare in their impact on the environment? A Canadian company called Ellipsos has released a study of the environmental impact of Christmas trees.The study found that the real Christmas trees which most people buy are about 15 years old. They are grown in a nursery and then on a plantation within a relatively short distance of where they are eventually sold. They are … Continue Reading
A revolutionary new power source, claimed to easily outperform all conventional engines, is to be demonstrated worldwide next week. The technology, developed by K Kringle Inc, is claimed to be able to power a vehicle at 5,800 kilometres per second for a period of up to 24 hours. This would allow the vehicle to visit every home in the world within a single day. The main shortcoming of the technology is the long period of time needed for recharging – currently, recharging the vehicle takes a full 12 months. A spokesman for the developers also mentioned concerns about the long-term … Continue Reading
The New York Department of Transportation has contracted a lighting design group, the Office of Visual Interaction, to trial LED street lighting. If the trial is successful, the city intends to replace all of its 300,000 street lights The contract includes the complete redesign of lamp posts – with the new ones having dedicated channels to hang signs, traffic controls and accessories. Each of the new lights will have up to 100 LEDs with different configurations for roadways, footpaths and parks. The LED lamps are expected to reduce electricityconsumption by about a third and to last twice as long as … Continue Reading
Think Global, the innovative Norwegian electric car company, has temporarily halted production of its City urban runabout and laid off half its workforce as it considers a sale to survive the credit crisis. Think CEO Richard Canny said “We have started an emergency shutdown to protect our capital and our brand. We’ll need a new and stronger partner, whether that is a 25% owner or a majority owner or someone who buys the company.” The Norwegian government said that it would not make an equity investment in the automaker but is considering Think’s request to guarantee up to $29 million … Continue Reading
A tidal turbine near the mouth of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland has begun producing electricity at full capacity for the first time. The SeaGen system is generating 1.2MW, the highest level of power produced by a tidal system anywhere in the world, and is claimed to be the first truly commercial ocean tidal system to achieve full production. Martin Wright, managing director of SeaGen developers, Marine Current Turbines, said "There are no other tidal turbines of truly commercial scale; all the competitive systems so far tested at sea are quite small, most being less than 10% the rotor area … Continue Reading
A Dutch company, Spranq, has come up with a novel and free way of slashing printer ink costs – by developing a font with holes in it. The creators of the "Ecofont" took their inspiration from the holes in Dutch cheese and aim to cut down on the amount of ink used when printing documents by using a font with holes. The Ecofont is based on the Open Source font Vera Sans and is free to use. It is similar to Verdana and works best at 9 or 10 points – at larger sizes, the holes become visible. The Ecofont … Continue Reading
Dave Rutledge, chair of the California Institute of Technology’s Engineering and Applied Sciences Division, has produced a new calculation of the world’s coal reserves which is much lower than previous estimates. According to Professor Rutledge’s model, the total amount of available coal, including all of the coal already mined, is only 662 billion tonnes. In contrast, the World Energy Council’s current estimate, based on government figures, is that there is 850 billion tonnes of coal still in the ground still available to be mined. If the new figures are correct, burning all of the available coal and all other fossil … Continue Reading
Isreali engineers are about to begin testing a stretch of road containing piezoelectric crystals that produce electricity when squeezed, enabling them to harvest some of the energy which vehicles lose to the environment during their journeys. The system is expected to produce up to 400 kilowatts from a 1 kilometre stretch of dual carriageway. The technology is also applicable to airport runways and rail systems. The harvested energy can be transferred back to the grid, or used for specific road infrastructure purposes, such as lighting or signage. In addition to being able to produce its own power, the system can … Continue Reading
Mercedes-Benz has developed a modular design that can accommodate a gas-electric, battery electric or hydrogen fuel-cell drivetrain in a compact five-seater it calls Concept BlueZero. Mercedes says BlueZero allows it to easily embrace "electromobility" in three ways: the E-Cell – a battery electric vehicle with a range of about 200 kilometres; the E-Cell Plus – a range-extended electric vehicle that uses a small petrol engine to recharge the battery when it runs low and the F-Cell – a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle with a range of about 400 kilometres. The three cars are identical in size and design and share components. … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- Dysol Aiming to Print Storage with Solar CellsAustralia's Dyesol Limited has acquired an equity stake in Printed Power Pte Ltd, a spinoff company of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Printed Power is focussing on integrating dye solar cell technology with printed storage and power management systems to … Continue Reading → […]
- CSIRO Printer Makes 10m of Solar Cells a MinuteCSIRO researchers have built a gigantic printer that spits out solar cells at a rate of about ten metres a minute. The printer system uses existing technology to embed polymer solar cells (also known as organic solar cells) in thin … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Dysol Aiming to Print Storage with Solar Cells
