Can Economic Growth Pressure Green Energy projects
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Archive for February 4th, 2010
Can Economic Growth Pressure Green Energy projects
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas commissioned for feasibility studies to develop two 50 MW CSP plants in India
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas commissioned for feasibility studies to develop two 50 MW CSP plants in India
Relevant Indian developers confirmed their interest on Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas’ expertise promoting, engineering and constructing concentrated solar power plants.
The company supports India’s National Solar Mission that sets a target up to 22,000 MW of installed capacity for the next seven years.
Visit the original post at: Renewable Energy News – RenewableEnergyWorld.com
Global Wind Installations Boom, Up 31% in 2009
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Global Wind Installations Boom, Up 31% in 2009
The Global Wind Energy Council this week announced that the world’s wind power capacity grew by 31% in 2009, adding 37.5 gigawatts (GW) to bring total installations up to 157.9 GW. A third of these additions were made in China, which experienced yet another year of over 100% growth. The main markets driving this significant growth continue to be Asia, North America and Europe, each of which installed more than 10 GW of new wind capacity in 2009.
Visit the original post at: Renewable Energy News – RenewableEnergyWorld.com
Magnetek Gets First Order for E-Force Liquid Cooled Wind Inverters
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Magnetek Gets First Order for E-Force Liquid Cooled Wind Inverters
Magnetek Inc. has received an initial production order valued at nearly US $1.5 million for its newly designed utility-scale E-Foce liquid cooled wind inverter. Delivery of the inverters is scheduled to be completed by the end of June, 2010, the end of the company’s fiscal year.
Visit the original post at: Renewable Energy News – RenewableEnergyWorld.com
PV Powered Inverters Selected for 5-MW Oregon Solar PV Project
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
PV Powered Inverters Selected for 5-MW Oregon Solar PV Project
Inverter manufacturer, PV Powered announced that its PowerVault DC-to-medium voltage turnkey inverter platform has been selected for use in one of the Northwest’s largest utility-scale solar PV projects to date.
Visit the original post at: Renewable Energy News – RenewableEnergyWorld.com
WEA Puts 2-MW Gamesa Turbine in Commercial Operation in Iowa
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
WEA Puts 2-MW Gamesa Turbine in Commercial Operation in Iowa
Wind Energy America (WEA) announced this week that it has completed the commissioning of the first of two Gamesa G-87 2-megawatt (MW) wind turbines. The turbines make up the company’s wholly-owned Zachary Ridge community wind project, located on Buffalo Ridge in Osceola County, Iowa.
Visit the original post at: Renewable Energy News – RenewableEnergyWorld.com
Siliken To Build Module Production Plant in Ontario
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Siliken To Build Module Production Plant in Ontario
The Siliken Group joined a growing list of solar energy companies this week in announcing at it will open a plant manufacturing photovoltaic modules in Ontario, Canada, with an initial production capacity of 50 MW. It could start operations in the last quarter of 2010. Siliken is completing the choice of location and the necessary legal paperwork in order to set this plant in motion. The production plant will create approximately 150 direct jobs in Ontario.
Visit the original post at: Renewable Energy News – RenewableEnergyWorld.com
Highgear Solarpod, A Snappy Little Solar Charger
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Highgear Solarpod, A Snappy Little Solar Charger
Photo: HighGear
Ski magazine included this in their January list of “Stuff We Like”, and it does seem kinda nifty. The SolarPod is a small, lightweight solar charger, than can fill its 3.7V 650 mAh Lithium-Ion battery in eight hours of direct sunlight, or four hours of USB connection. It comes with the usual array of connectors, so a multitude of mobile phones and digital devices can suck juice from the thing. But the aspect most appealing to me is the karabiner style clip, that allows it to be readily latched on to stu… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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One Young World Leadership Summit Brings Decision Makers of the Future Together
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
One Young World Leadership Summit Brings Decision Makers of the Future Together
Image from One Young World
The world’s bright lights will be in London this weekend for the One Young World Summit. It’s the first youth leadership summit, and will be bringing together 1500 leaders, all under the age of 25, from 192 countries. If we don’t get some great new ideas out of this lot, then we really have problems.
They will be discussing issues such as the environment, interfaith dialogue, the role of global business, the media and global health. Leading experts and world figures such as Bob Geldof, Archbi… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Organic Beauty Products Claims Challenged
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Organic Beauty Products Claims Challenged
A handful of personal care companies are looking to the U.S. government to clarify regulations for organic labeling and advertising claims.
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Intelligent Nutrients, Organic Essence and the Organic Consumers Association filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program on Jan. 14 against 13 personal care companies they alleged have made false organic claims on their products.
Visit the original post at: ENN: Lifestyle
Project Investigating New Ways of Using Composite Materials for Wing Panels
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Project Investigating New Ways of Using Composite Materials for Wing Panels
Engineers from the Universities of Bath and Bristol in the UK and the aerospace industry are collaborating in a £1.4 million (US$2.2 million) project to investigate new ways of using composite materials for wing panels in aircraft.
The research, funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and aircraft manufacturers Airbus and GKN, will be using carbon fibres that are curved within flat plates to produce damage-tolerant, buckle-free structures. This will lead to substantial cost and weight savings of between 10 and 30% on structural components, saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions from the aviation industry.
The project stems from research carried out under the ABBSTRACT consortium (Airbus, Bristol, Bath STrategic Research Alliance in Composites Technology). The Bristol-based team will be leading the development and manufacturing of the new carbon fibre materials, and the Bath team will be investigating different designs for the structures of wing panels to test their damage tolerance. Both teams will be using mathematical modelling techniques to optimize and test their designs.
The addition of GKN to the collaboration, as one of Airbus’ risk sharing partners and supplier of major wing components, creates a strong link with the manufacturing industry.
Obama renews ‘clean’ coal and biofuels plan to reduce foreign oil
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Obama renews ‘clean’ coal and biofuels plan to reduce foreign oil
Nothing like a good old coal ash spill
President Obama and a bipartisan coalition of governors plan to use ‘clean’ coal – still an oxymoron today – and biofuels as key resources to ween America off foreign oil dependence according to a White House press release.
Ironically, however, cost-effective clean coal technologies simply do not exist. And, according to a recent Oxford Study, even next gen biofuels will be significantly constrained by land-use issues.
So, why not natural gas?
Even if CO2 can be cost-effectively captured and managed, is coal technology really so much better for the environment than natural gas, for instance? Furthermore, natural gas doesn’t require any magical breakthrough today to clean itself up compared to coal. More important, both natural gas and ‘clean’ coal – if such a thing ever exits – should be seen ONLY as interim technologies.
Is not an interim technology that is cost-effective and clean today better than an interim technology that might one day be clean and cost-effective? Are we being pragmatic, or just playing politics?
Utah Law Would Make Natural Gas Conversions $8,000 Cheaper
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Utah Law Would Make Natural Gas Conversions $8,000 Cheaper
Phill—Honda’s home CNG refueling station
If a bill currently working its way through the Utah legislature becomes law, the installation cost of compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion retrofit kits in gas-powered vehicles would drop by about 57% in the state—from a current average of $14,000 to a much more reasonable $6,000.
CNG powered cars hold a ton of promise as an alternative to gas and diesel due to their extremely low emissions, low wear and tear on engines, low cost of fuel, and the abundant availability of natural gas from domestic sources.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the legislation came about as a direct result of frustration by Utah residents and lawmakers with the perceived burdensome regulations imposed on CNG conversion kits by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to CNG conversion advocates, the current EPA rules surrounding the kits are too stringent, leading to inflated prices and a dearth of kits for a tiny selection of vehicle models.
To get around the EPA rules, the proposed state law would create a process whereby a CNG conversion kit would not have to be certified by EPA to be considered a legal conversion. Instead the kit would simply have to be approved and installed by a Utah Division of Air Quality certified technician and checked for safety every 3 years or 36,000 miles. According to the bill’s sponsors, the law would make much less expensive kits available to a larger selection of cars. And, get this… apparently the EPA is okay with this approach!
As the bill’s sponsor, Republican State Representative Jack Draxler said that the main goal is to get as many clean burning CNG vehicles on the road as possible in a short time. “This winter we’ve had red-air days going into red-air weeks and … almost red-air months,” Mr. Draxler said in the Salt Lake Tribune article. “We will never get enough vehicles on the road running on compressed natural gas if we wait for the EPA.”
I’m generally resistant to taking pot shots at big federal agencies for a calculated political gain. I mean it’s certainly easy enough to bash an agency like the EPA for doing something wrong, but really the core problem lies with our ridiculously out-of-whack political process—part of which is due to our politicians making the very institutions we depend on look like idiots even though those institutions are simply implementing the laws the politicians created.
However, in this case it seems the EPA needs to re-evaluate their CNG kit policies… especially if a state can figure out how to get around the regulations and, in the end, the EPA is fine with that loophole. Just make the loophole the actual policy and problem solved. If this is a problem nationwide, it seems that Utah’s solution could be a template for other states looking for ways to reduce the emissions of cars already on the roads.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune | Image Credit: Nick Chambers
Daimler Starts New India Jatropha Biodiesel Project
Author: EcoFriendlyFeb 4
Daimler Starts New India Jatropha Biodiesel Project
Daimler AG has started a new project for the cultivation of the biodiesel raw material jatropha in the south of India; the seedlings for the first 100 hectares (250 acres) have been planted. The company is supporting several village communities in the state of Tamil Nadu with funds and expertise from its already successfully completed research projects. (Earlier post.)
Jatropha plants are cultivated and their seeds will be harvested in cooperation with farmers from these village communities. The seeds provide the basic raw material for biodiesel production. Only non-arable land that is no longer suitable and used for the cultivation of food crops is cultivated with jatropha plants. Thus, the jatropha fuel does not compete with local food production.
Daimler is ensuring financial support to the farmers in the communities over a period of five years by providing surety for small loans to buy jatropha seedlings and fulfill their tasks till the first harvest after four years. The income from the sale of the seeds, which Daimler ensures through a purchase guarantee, enables the loans to be paid back from the fifth year onwards. The loan repayments are collected in a revolving fund, which is used to grant loans to more farmers who decide to participate in the project.
A local project management facilitates close teamwork with the local cooperatives. This enables regular contact between Daimler and the smallholders and ensures sustainable agricultural development work in the communities. The project is also supported by the DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft). In addition, Daimler AG has been working for more than one year with Bayer CropScience AG towards further development of methods for sustainable cultivation of jatropha. As part of this cooperation, Bayer CropScience AG is also supporting the current project.
The Indian subsidiary of Bayer CropScience provides expertise and products from its portfolio for effective pest and disease control for jatropha plants. Experts from the company provide training to the project staff, who then pass the knowledge directly to the participating farmers.
During the five-year research project completed in 2007, Daimler AG demonstrated that jatropha is suitable for the production of high-quality biodiesel. The use of the fuel was tested successfully in test vehicles with modern common rail diesel engines from Mercedes-Benz. The biodiesel manufactured from the seeds of the jatropha seed has similar properties to fuels from other oilseeds. It also has a positive CO2 balance and offers an ecological advantage over fossil diesel fuels, particularly when the specific advantages of the plant are properly harnessed. For example, jatropha can be cultivated on non-arable, eroded soil, thus making a contribution to environmental protection without interfering with the food sources for the local people.
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