Category: WORLD

Solar ORC systems providing hot water and electricity in Africa seted up by STG International

Electricity isn’t really an energy source that can be yet be taken for granted in certain isolated parts of Africa where more often than not, a regular supply is considered a luxury.

STG International, an MIT non-profit has come up with a feasible way to power up clinics and schools in such parts of Africa using alternative energy sources instead of complete grid reliance.

Using a new hybrid power and heat solar system that’s capable of providing electricity, hot water and space heating, STG International is currently drawing plans to set up five such units in Africa.

With MIT graduate PHDs Matthew Orosz and Amy Mueller leading the way, these units will be tested for viability and will use ORC Engine instead of solar electric panels.

Capable of providing up to 18-24kW-hr of energy and 200-300 gallons of hot water daily, this system could prove to be a boon for rural development, not just in Africa but also other far-flung areas disconnected from the grid around the globe.

IKEA uses 100% renewable energy

IKEA is a 100% green company, its 2011 Sustainability Report affirms its green status.

From September 2010 to August 2011 IKEA set aside approximately $670 million to invest in renewable energy which includes installations that have both been brought into operation or will be completed in the next 1.5 years.

The company’s current renewable energy portfolio will increase. Now it boasts 69 wind turbines and 124 photovoltaic (PV) projects (40 operational and 84 approved).

The company declared its future plans to add 11 new PV solar projects to its current portfolio. The aim is to aid rooftops of each of the brand’s stores with solar PV panels and generate approximately 7000KW of clean energy. The base of this future planning is strengthened by IKEA’s success at the completion of its geothermal project at Denver, Colorado.

In a separate announcement, released just hours before the Sustainability Report, IKEA said it has plugged in its 15th solar energy project in the United States. REC Solar installed 4,984 solar panels atop IKEA’s 148,200 square foot store located in College Park, Maryland. The solar panels will combine to generate 1,196 KW of renewable energy.

IKEA is one of the most lucrative businesses on the planet, is not using this model — the retailing juggernaut owns and operates each of the systems installed on its buildings.

IKEA says it has 22 solar projects underway in the US which, when complete, will hoist the company’s solar energy portfolio to 30.8 MW.

Google – investments in green energy

Web companies like Google are also investing in renewable energy with handsome profits. Google has invested over $915 million in this sector. The company has also taken it upon itself to make use of green and sustainable energy. Some of their corporate campuses utilize photovoltaic systems for solar energy and cogeneration units that make use of landfill gas to generate electricity. Google has also completed two PPAs with a commitment to purchase renewable energy from certain sources.

Google projects:

1. The project: Large scale solar PV in California

Google has invested $94 million in Recurrent Energy, a Sacramento-based company, for solar projects. The investment wil cover four solar projects that is hoped will significantly benefit California’s energy needs.
88MW of power being produced, enough to sustain 13,000 homes.

2. The project: Clean Power Finance – providing financing for rooftop solar panels.

Startup company, Clean Power Finance, is being financed by Google to help third party installers place solar panels on rooftops as part of solar rooftop projects. The investment of $75 million will see about 10,000 homes being benefited by solar power.

3. The project: SolarCity – solar for thousands of residential rooftops. In one of the biggest investments by Google, $280million has gone into funding SolarCity for its residential solar market.

4. The project: Atlantic Wind Connection – a superhighway for clean energy transmission

Google’s 37.5 equity stake in the Atlantic Wind Connection project by Trans-Elect Development Company will be able to generate a substantial 6000MW of power to large population centers in the Mid-Atlantic region.

5. The project: Shepherd’s Flat – the world’s largest wind farm. The investment: $100 million

European Solar Days

The European Solar Days promote the use of free unlimited renewable energy source available everywhere to everyone to generate electricity as well as heating and cooling: the sun.

The next campaign for the edition of the European Solar Days will be held from 1 to 13 May 2012.

During the fourth edition of European Solar Days, which was held from 1-15 May 2011, it was demonstrated the increasing support for solar energy, with more than 8,000 events organised in 19 countries throughout Europe, attracting the participation of half a million citizens.

20 participants from 16 countries gathered last week in Prague for the second edition of the European Solar Days Annual Conference to plan next year’s events.

The countries who are taking part at the European Solar Days are expected to continue to grow this year.

NASA to demonstrate largest solar sail

NASA plans to play in the sky with the world’s largest solar sail ever conceived.

The new upcoming missions are intended to transform its space communications, deep space navigation and in-space propulsion capabilities.

For these missions who should be launching in 2015 and 2016, have been selected tree projects.

One of the three projects is the solar sail measures a whopping 100 square feet (9.29 square meters)and spans 409 square feet, or 38 square meters.

Do you wonder what are they going to do with such a big sail?

The answer is simple: The sail could be used to gather orbital debris over a period of several years and included to a satellite’s payload, activating towards the end of the mission dragging the satellite out of its orbit.

The project is being led by California’s L’Garde Inc., in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA and the solar sail should be ready in three years.

Hurricane Irene has negligible impact on renewable

While Hurricane Irene lashed the eastern Seaboard and the Canadian Maritimes over the weekend, killing 31 people there have been absolutely no reports of damage to renewable energy facilities.

“No damage,” he wrote in an email early Monday morning. “The facility is intact, and there are no turbines in the water at present” said Matthew Lumley, communications director for the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Irene passed on US Coast over the proposed sites of several wind projects, but none had progressed so far as to be in harm’s way.

Until the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm more than 5.9 million were without power in 14 states.

Ferrari will never be an electric car, only hybrid

One thing’s for sure, Ferrari will never go electric.

Luca di Montezemelo doesn’t believe in electric cars. He said:

“You will never see a Ferrari electric because I don’t believe in electric cars, because I don’t think they represent an important step forward for pollution or CO2 or the environment. But, we are working very, very hard on the hybrid Ferrari. This should be the future, and I hope in a couple of years you can see it.”

The new Ferrari hybrid will be more Porsche 918 than Toyota Prius.

EU biofuel consumption up 13% in 2010

The latest biofuels barometer shows that Europeans consumed 13.6% more biofuel in 2010 than in the previous year.

In 2010 biofuels continued to grow in the European Union.

In the transport sector, it increased by only 1.7 Mtoe compared to 2.7 Mtoe in 2009 which means EU biofuel consumption growth slackened off.

The total biofuel consumption for 2010 should hover at around 13.9 Mtoe.

Germany was consuming over 3 million toe of biofuel in 2010 (two third of which was biodiesel), followed by France, Spain, Italy and the UK.

The lack of interest in vegetable oil consumption is hardening (down 14.3%) and may still be due to increased German taxation on this biofuel.

Biogas fuel is almost unique to Sweden, while other EU countries struggle to develop it.

Future growth of consumption in the European Union will depend on external factors such as the increase in oil prices and the worldwide availability of biofuel.

A NASA spacecraft will fly to Jupiter using solar power

NASA’s new mission to Jupiter will be undertaken by a windmill-shaped spacecraft.

The spacecraft will be powered almost entirely by solar power.

Named Juno, the spacecraft will have 2 billion mile journey ahead.

The Juno explorer will be the most distant probe ever powered by the sun.

The spacecraft is outfitted with three huge solar panels and is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Centre in the US state of Florida on Friday morning.

An unmanned Atlas V rocket will carry her into space.

Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, said the mission, coming just two weeks after the final flight of the manned space shuttle, shows that NASA is not fading into oblivion.

It will take Juno five years to reach its target, five times farther from the sun than Earth. No spacecraft has ever ventured so far, powered by solar wings.

The European Union’s solar-powered, comet-chasing Rosetta probe made it as far as the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The three wings of Juno are 29 feet long and 9 feet wide, necessary given that Jupiter receives 25 percent less sunlight than Earth.

Juno’s panels will provide 400 watts of power. In orbit around Earth, these panels could generate 35 times as much power.

NASA is preparing a new solar mission next month – the Grail mission during which two spacecraft will be fly to the moon – will also be solar powered.

Wind energy market saw decreased demand in 2010

In 2010 the U.S. wind energy market took a hit with a decrease in investment compared with 2008 and 2009.

According to the Department of Energy’s, the report investment in terms of how much wind energy capacity was built and connected to the national electric grid.

In U.S. in 2010 were installed about 5 gigawatts’ worth of wind energy farms representing an $11 billion investment, according to the report.

Compare to the 10 gigawatts that were installed in 2009 in the U.S., and the 8 gigawatts in 2008, 2010 represents a decrease in wind energy installations.

“The combination of the delayed impact of the global financial crisis, relatively low natural gas and wholesale electricity prices, and slumping overall demand for energy outweighed the ongoing availability of existing federal and state incentives for wind energy deployment, resulting in a steep drop in capacity additions relative to both 2008 and 2009,” according to the
report.

China was the world’s fastest-growing market and U.S. was still the second-fastest-growing wind energy market in the world in 2010.

Wind turbine component manufacturing in the U.S. grew in 2010 and about 68 percent of components used in U.S. wind projects installed between 2009 and 2010 were made in the U.S.