Monthly Archives: May 2009
The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), whose 18 members produce about 30 percent of the world’s cement, has unveiled its vision of a "sectoral approach" to tackling carbon dioxide. The cement industry contributes about 5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and is expected to double its capacity by 2030 because of the rapid urbanization in developing countries. CSI has developed a system for monitoring, reporting and verifying carbon dioxide emissions and aims to share technology and best practice for cutting those emissions. They claim that the proposed system could reduce emissions by as much as 25%, compared to taking no … Continue Reading
A $US1 billion proposal to build the United States’ first big offshore wind farm passed a key hurdle on Thursday by winning permit requirements in Massachusetts, where iopposition from some influential residents had stalled the project for more than seven years. Cape Wind Associates plans to construct 130 wind turbines over an area of 62 square kilometres in Nantucket Sound, within view of the wealthy Cape Cod resort region of Massachusetts. The project, designed to power about 400,000 homes, won unanimous approval from the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board for a "composite certificate" that combines the nine state and local … Continue Reading
While most car makers have been announcing their grand plans for electric and hybrid cars, Fuji Heavy Industries which own Subaru, has been noticeably silent. It seems that Fuji wanted to produce a hybrid Subaru based on Toyota’s technology. Toyota is the largest shareholder in Subaru with a 16% stake and the two companies have a long-standing agreement to share development costs. However, Toyota was very reluctant to share the technology which has made the Prius the market leader. That attitude seems to have changed now that all manufacturers will have to produce more efficient vehicles if they are to … Continue Reading
Car sales in China in April were 25 per cent higher than in the same month last year – and for the third month in a row, car sales in China exceeded those in the United States. The sales boom has been attributed to the Government’s halving of sales tax on small, fuel efficient cars. One of the beneficiencies of the sales boom has been General Motors’ Chinese subsidiary whose monthly sales were 50 percent higher than last year. Results such as this have led to speculation that Chinese car companies are seeking to take over Western car manufacturers at … Continue Reading
Three French designers, Nicola Delon, Julien Choppin and Raphael Menard, have won Metropolis Magazine‘s 2009 Next Generation contest with the simple idea of instaling wind turbines on, or inside of, high-voltage electricity transmission towers. Although their suggestion of putting vertical axis turbines inside the structure of transmission towers may not be the most effective design, combining power generation with transmission would avoid the cost of having to build the infrastructure to bring power from the generators to the distribution grid. “There are half a million pylons already in France,” Raohael Ménard says. “If you look to other countries, there are … Continue Reading
Cisco Systems Vice President, Marie Hattar, estimates that the "smart grid" could be 100 times, or even 1,000 times, the present size of the Internet. The smart grid is a modernised electricity network which would deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability. Over time, people’s homes will have sensors in appliances, which will give detailed information to help cut electricity usage and help utilities avoid stressing the grid during peak times. Cisco Systems estimates that just the communications portion of building smart grids will be worth $20 billion a year … Continue Reading
Researchers in the UK are developing a rechargeable lithium-air battery that could deliver a ten-fold increase in energy capacity compared to that of currently available lithium-ion cells. The research at the University of St Andrews, with partners at Strathclyde and Newcastle, is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Lithium-air batteries use a catalytic air cathode in combination with an electrolyte and a lithium anode. Oxygen from the air is the active material for the cathode and is reduced at the cathode surface. According to Professor Peter Bruce of the Chemistry Department at the University of St Andrews, … Continue Reading
A new wind turbine going into production in Germany this week is expected to achieve 20% greater yield simply by having a taller tower. The novel tower has been installed at Germany’s Windtest field at Grevenbroich, near Cologne. The lower section of the tower consists of narrow concrete pre-fabricated parts while the upper 55 metres is conventional steel components. On top of the tower is a 2.3 megawatt nacelle with a 93 meter diameter rotor. The arrangement gives a hub height of 133 meters whereas a conventional tower with a rotor of this size would be 100 metres tall. The … Continue Reading
Better Place has released the video below demonstrating its battery swapping process. Better Place is planning a network of charging stations and battery swap facilities in Israel, Denmark, Australia and the United States. See this article at Aussie Renewables for more details. The battery swap demonstration at Yokohama took 1 minute and 13 seconds. Power to recharge the batteries was drawn from photovoltaic panels.
The world’s largest offshore wind farm, the London Array, will begin construction this northern summer after the British government doubled its incentives for offshore wind energy. The project had been in doubt after Royal Dutch Shell pulled out of the scheme last year because of rising costs, leaving Denmark’s DONG Energy with a 50 percent stake and Germany’s E.ON with 30 percent. Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy fund, Masdar, has taken the remaining 20 percent. The project partners have now announced that they will invest 2.2 billion euros ($au4 billion) in building the first phase of the project. The London Array … 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
