Clipmarks | Naomi-K's 'solar energy' clips

Solar Ark

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:04:49 GMT

clipped by: shunyax
clipper's remarks: Turning a mistake into advantage ......

SOLAR ARK: World’s Most Stunning Solar Building

Sanyo has built an ark for the solar century – an impressive 630 kW solar-collecting building that boasts over 5,000 solar panels and kicks off over 500,000 kWh of energy per year. Even more outstanding is the fact that most of the monocrystalline modules used on the Solar Ark were factory rejects headed to the scrap pile. Located next to Sanyo’s semiconductor factory in Gifu, Japan, the Solar Ark stands as one of the best examples of building integrated PV design to date.

The company decided to build its solar monument but opted to use the recalled technology. That is how the Solar Ark as we know it today came to be. On the Solar Ark website, Sanyo says “we have done this to show our sincere regret that this problem has occurred and to express our willingness and determination to both remember what happened and how important it is to maintain quality.”

Tags: solar energy

Artificial Islands of the Dead Sea

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:54:55 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: io9.com

The Dead Sea, a body of water that sits at the nexus of several political hot spots in the Middle East, has been a source of contention for decades. Now a New York City architecture firm called Phu Hoang Office has proposed a way to turn the sea into a thriving center for tourism and eco-research. The firm proposed the creation of artificial islands (pictured) called No Man's Land that would house hotels, create energy, and harvest clean water from the atmosphere. Check out more pictures and a schematic below.

Salinity gradient solar ponds, water purification tanks, and water filtering processes will all be integrated into the designated “water islands” of the chain. The other two island designs will be for tourists and solar energy production, providing self sufficient power as well as creating revenue.

Tags: geo-enginering, architecture, dead sea

0.3% of Saharan Sun Enough To Power Europe

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:42:28 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The visionary proposal comes as the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission released its strategic energy technology plan which highlighted photovoltaic cells as one of the eight technologies that need to be developed in the future. The plan also includes fuel cells, hydrogen, clean coal, second generation biofuels, nuclear fusion, wind and smart grids.

Clip Source: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

The major obstacle to using renewable energy has always been the inability to produce a constant supply of electricity to consumers.

However, scientists now believe that they have found a way to solve the supply and demand problem.

Arnulf Jaeger-Waldau of the European Commission’s Institute for Energy, speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona (ESOF), believes that the creation of solar farms in the Sahara desert could produce enough energy to meet all of Europe’s energy needs.

Power could be generated either through photovoltaic cells or by using the sun’s heat to boil water and power turbines.

The argument for solar farms in the Sahara is solid in that photovoltaic panels there could potentially generate three times more energy than panels in northern Europe.

It is estimated that capturing 0.3% of the sunlight falling on the desert would meet all of Europe’s needs.

around €450bn would be needed and scientists estimate that it would take until 2050

Tags: energy, economy, europe, solar energy

The key to oil independence is a new electrical grid

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:17:49 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: It seems that with alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar, the United States has the potential means to substantially reduce our dependence on oil - especially once plug-in cars are on the market.

But until we substantially upgrade our nation's electrical grid with modern technology that will enable the energy created by these sources to be transmitted intelligently around the county, their impact will be limited.

It's going to take a greater commitment from Congress to jump start this. Making it happen will provide a huge boost to our economy, environment and political leverage with the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela and more.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

“We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen G. Kelly, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“The windiest sites have not been built, because there is no way to move that electricity from there to the load centers,” he said.

Tags: alternative energy, grid, electricity, wind, solar

'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:34:51 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.

"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind,"

Clip Source: web.mit.edu

Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

Daniel Nocera describes new process for storing solar energy
View video post on MIT TechTV

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years,"

Tags: energy, solar power, storing

Scientists discover the energy source driving the Northern Lights

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:16:32 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

The mystery of what causes the Northern Lights, one of Nature's most spectacular displays, to shimmer so brightly has been solved.

New data from a fleet of Nasa satellites shows the lights - also known as the aurora borealis - are formed when solar particles are whisked along temporary "magnetic ropes" linking the Sun to the Earth at astonishing spin what is called a substorm.

The geomagnetic storm powering the auroras raced 400 miles in a minute across the sky

The energy released is the equivalent of a magnitude 5.5 earthquake, scientists say

The satellites monitored their first display in March.

"The substorm behaved quite unexpectedly," said Dr Vassilis Angelopoulos, of the University of California at Los Angeles.

The quintet of Themis satellites that made the discovery

"The auroras surged westward twice as fast as anyone thought possible, crossing 15 degrees of longitude in less than one minute.

"The storm traversed an entire polar time zone, or 400 miles, in 60 seconds flat."

Super-Green City of the Future?

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:06:59 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Can San Francisco's Treasure Island live up to plans to make it the "Super-Green City of the Future"?
The island is set to become a model for eco-livinga model of urban sustainability, is an entirely man-made 400-acre property in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Originally built in 1939 from sea bottom, quarried rock, and loam, it is currently home to an abandoned naval base and a small number of low- and middle income residents.

Among some of the plans include LEED-certified residential towers to increase urban density, a pedestrian-friendly downtown center, bike lanes, open green space to promote biodiversity, city-sponsored composting/recycling, "living machine" wastewater treatment, an urban farm, and solar/wind/tidal renewable energy generation.

The new Treasure Island proposal is a testament to what our world is capable of when the political will exists to make sustainability a reality.

Tags: green, super city, san fransisco

Can we harness energy from outer space?

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:36:41 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: While nuclear fusion has already been tested with the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, those reactions give off the majority of their energy as radioactive neutrons, raising both safety and production concerns. Helium-3, on the other hand, is perfectly safe. It doesn't give off any pollution or radioactive waste and poses no danger to surrounding areas.
helium-3 has two protons but only one neutron. When it's heated to very high temperatures and combined with deuterium, the reaction releases incredible amounts of energy. Just 2.2 pounds (one kilogram) of helium-3 combined with 1.5 pounds (0.67 kilograms) of deuterium produces 19 megawatt-years of energy Roughly 25 tons of the stuff could power the United States for an entire year.

Clip Source: science.howstuffworks.com

People have been searching for clean alternative energy sources for decades to no avail. As soon as one source seems to pass the test, someone uncovers its fatal flaw. Nuclear, wind, solar and hydropower have all been dragged through the mud to some degree. Traditional nuclear fission is too risky, winds aren't consistent, the sun doesn't always penetrate the clouds and hydropower dams disrupt natural environments.

It seems like any workable solution is light-years away -- literally. Some researchers think the answer to our energy needs rests in the stars. From wind turbines on Mars to helium-3 fusion, people are increasingly looking to extraterrestrial sources for the Earth's energy needs.

One of the sources they're looking at is helium-3 to use in nuclear fusion reactions. As opposed to nuclear fission, which splits an atom's nucleus in half, nuclear fusion combines nuclei to produce energy.

Tags: energy, space

Giant Solar Tsunami Viewed from NASA's STEREO Spacecraft

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:27:47 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Just as earthquakes can set off huge tsunami waves on the surface of our oceans, a coronal mass ejection or flare can cause a tsunami on the Sun's surface—and it did on May 19, 2007. The waves generated by the explosions can travel at over a million kilometers per hour. The event was captured by NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft and was observed by a team at Trinity College, Dublin.

The event lasted for about 35 minutes and ultimately covered almost the full disk of the Sun. “The energy released in these explosions is phenomenal, about two billion times the annual world energy consumption in just a fraction of a second,” stated Long.

“We were able to show for the first time that this wave actually propagates almost all the way from the surface of the Sun to high up in the Sun's atmosphere,” said Dr. Gallagher, a colleague of Long.

Tags: nasa, sun

Why we need high oil prices

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:11:27 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: I know this sounds crazy, but i honestly believe that high oil prices in the short term (1-5 years) is a very good thing if it forces us to find alternatives. I am definitely concerned that if oil prices drop temporarily, the momentum behind alternatives such as wind and solar will die off - leaving us exactly where we are today - way too dependent on oil and way to harmful to our environment.

Clip Source: www.ft.com

If the Democratic party were correct about speculation and gouging, it should be demanding a Nobel Prize for futures traders and oil titans. They have done more for the planet than Al Gore, making the pump price of petrol so unthinkably expensive (almost half as dear as in Europe!) that the country has started to economise. Americans are driving less and buying smaller cars.

If ever there were a case for the maxim, get prices right, this is it. The way to curb carbon emissions is to add the environmental cost of carbon to the price of energy. The current oil price offers a good opportunity: when it falls (as it probably will) a carbon tax could be used to set a floor, making the transition to correctly priced energy much easier.

Tags: alternative energy, oil, politics

Cheaper Solar Power

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:26:07 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The future of energy seems to be solar.

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

New solar arrays from SolFocus generate more power than conventional solar panels but use just one-thousandth as much expensive semiconductor material.

The arrays' curved mirrors focus sunlight onto one-square-centimeter solar cells, concentrating the light 500 times and improving the cells' efficiency.

SolFocus's first power-producing installation will be generating 500 kilowatts of electricity by the end of the summer.

The company expects that by 2010, electricity from its arrays will be about as cheap as electricity from conventional sources.

Tags: energy, solar energy

A Giant Solar Tower Could Power the Future

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:10:31 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: On a sunny day, the air at the top of the tower would be 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), whereas the air in the greenhouse could reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius). As this hot air escapes up the tower at 34 mph (15 meters per second), it spins 32 turbines that generate up to 200 megawatts of electricity.

Even with all this power, the solar tower is less than one tenth as efficient as solar cells in converting the sun's energy into electricity.

The advantage for a solar tower is that its materials are much less expensive.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

A new energy concept called a solar tower could generate enough electricity for 200,000 homes.

Looking like a giant smokestack, it would release no noxious fumes — just sun-heated air.

Demonstrated more than 20 years ago, the basic design calls for solar collectors to warm the air near Earth's surface and then channel it up the tall central tower. Turbines placed at the bottom make electricity from the updraft.

EnviroMission has designed a kilometer-high solar tower (0.62 miles) and is now looking at possible sites in the southwestern United States.

The solar tower is an updated version of a solar chimney — a centuries-old technique for providing ventilation to a home by creating a natural updraft from sun-heated air.

The optimum configuration is an 800- to 1,000-meter tower (twice the height of the Empire State Building) surrounded by a greenhouse canopy 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) in radius on the ground.

Tags: energy, solar energy, renewable energy

Japan Creates Mega Solar City -Leads World

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:06:39 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

In an effort to create one of Japan's greenest urban areas and clean up its air by reducing CO2 emissions, Japan announced that two gigantic solar power generation plants will be installed in Sakai City.

The title of the project is quite a mouth full – the Sakai City Waterfront Mega Solar Power Generation Plan. Say that three times fast. I guess the title has to be fitting for the size of the project, however, because the two facilities will have a 28,000 kW combined maximum capacity and will help to reduce CO2 emissions by a whopping 10,000 tons annually. The city will work in conjunction with Sharp Japan and Kansai Electric Power, with Sharp planning on using thin-film silicon solar modules.

Japan is fast becoming the world's solar capital. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., leaders in the U.S. solar energy industry blasted the U.S. government on Monday for a freeze on applications for new solar projects on public land in six Western states.

Tags: solar power, japan, energy, co2

Why can't the U.S. be more like Varese?

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:34:26 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: If this town in Italy can be 100% dependent on renewable power, why can't towns/cities in the U.S. do the same?

It really makes me angry to live in a country that holds itself out as a world leader, yet we need to look at small towns in Italy to see examples of the Power Revolution. It frightens me that Big Oil stands in the way of the U.S. leading the Revolution.

Clip Source: www.metaefficient.com

Italian Town Runs On 100% Renewable Power

Varese became the first municipality in Europe to get 100% of its power from renewable energy sources six years ago. It now generates three times more electricity than the people living in Varese need and there are plans in the pipeline for even more renewables.

Tags: alternative energy, renewable energy, oil, power, varese, wind, solar

100 things YOU can do to save the Environment

Wed, 23 May 2007 19:31:32 GMT

clipped by: sohil

Clip Source: www.seql.org

Conserve Energy

Reduce Toxicity

If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.

Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.

Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.

Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.

Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .

Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refridgerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.

Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one.

Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.

Burn seasoned wood - it burns cleaner than green wood.

Use solar power for home and water heating.

Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid.

Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.

Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.

Compost your vegetable scraps.

Create Less Trash

Tags: environment, list, alternative energy, earth, pollution, technology, electricity, water, energy