Spain’s ULMA Agrícola consortium and Tecnalia research center have developed a new type of photovoltaic solar panel for greenhouses that can generate electricity without an adverse effect on the crops grown within, while additionally providing cooling in summer. The system is designed to exploit the annual oscillation – the variation in the height of the sun’s path across the sky over the course of the year. In theory, no solar radiation is compromised over winter, but surplus radiation can be diverted to electricity-generation during summer.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

ELECTRICITY GENERATED FROM WALKING ON THESE TILES

Can you imagine the power of 50,000 steps a day? Well, Laurence Kembell-Cook, the director of Pavegen Systems imagined it and created Pavegen tiles – a low carbon solution that aims to bring kinetic energy harvesting to the streets. Not surprisingly, the tile is receiving a great deal of attention as a solution for power-hungry cities with a lot of walking traffic.

Designed for use in in high foot-traffic areas, the tiles convert the kinetic energy from footsteps of pedestrians into renewable electricity, which can be stored in a lithium polymer battery or used to power low-wattage, off-grid applications like street lighting, displays, speakers, alarms, signs, and advertising.

Each time someone steps on the tile, a central light illuminates, “connecting” the person to the part they play in producing the 2.1 watts of electricity per hour the tiles can generate (and providing self-sufficient lighting for pedestrian crossings).

The tiles are made from nearly 100-percent recycled materials (mostly rubber) and some marine grade stainless steel. They can be retrofitted to existing structures and are waterproof as well as designed to withstand outdoor conditions.

Pavegen tiles were used as a dance floor at Bestival on the Isle-of-Wright and are currently being tested in East London. They have been successfully installed in a school corridor where they are currently being monitored for durability and performance while helping to power the building. Speaking of durability, each tile is claimed to have a life of approximately 20 million steps or 5 years.

In September 2011 Pavegen received its first commercial order for the London 2012 Olympics Site where they will be used in the crossing between the Olympic stadium and the Westfield Stratford City Shopping Center.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

More info here >>>

http://www.fcci.com.au/2011/08/1246/

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FARM DAMS USED TO FLOAT SOLAR PANELS
Farm dams can be put to work to host floating solar farms that not only create clean, renewable electricity, but also reduce water evaporation.

One of the criticisms of ground-mount solar farms is the amount of space they occupy. In rural areas, this could mean land suitable for agriculture sometimes being used to produce electricity instead of food.

One answer is better utilisation of rooftop real estate through roof mounted solar power systems on farm buildings. Another is to utilise farm dams.

We’ve written about floating solar farms in the past – an Australian company announced a deal in March with India energy giant Tata Power for the construction of floating solar farm in India by the end of this year. Another company, Israel-based Solaris Synergy, is currently developing what it calls the Floating Concentrating Photovoltaic (F-CPV) system.

Another system announced earlier this year was the “Floatovoltaics” concept by SPG solar, the second generation of floating solar farm solutions produced by the company. It not only provides clean electricity, but also reduces water evaporation up to 70% and the shading improves water quality by reducing algae growth. The water below the panels also helps cool the modules, which results in improved power output by around 1% says the company.

Forbes has an article on a winery in California’s Napa Valley that is using SPG’s Floatovoltaics system – and from the air it looks to be quite an impressive sight.

How such systems would stand up to Australian conditions where farm dams often run dry, leaving a boggy mess at the bottom, is not known – however, by reducing evaporation dramatically, perhaps this situation can be avoided in all but the most extreme droughts. SPG’s system also has a number of cables securing the array to the dam sides, which may prevent the racks from ever touching the base of the dam.

According to information from Australia’s National Program for Sustainable Irrigation, as much as 40% of water stored in a farm dam can be lost through evaporation, depending on the depth of the dam and its surface area

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

The heat given off by electronics, automobile engines, factories and other sources is a potentially huge source of energy, and various technologies are being developed in order to capture that heat, and then convert it into electricity. Thanks to an alloy that was recently developed at the University of Minnesota, however, a step in that process could be saved – the new material is able to convert heat directly into electricity.

The multiferroic alloy, with the catchy name Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10, was created by combining its various elements at the atomic level. Multiferroic materials are known for having unique elastic, magnetic and electric properties, and in the case of this alloy, that takes a form of an usual phase change. When heated, the non-magnetic solid material suddenly becomes a strongly magnetic solid.

In a lab test, upon becoming magnetic, the material absorbed heat in its environment and proceeded to produce electricity in an attached coil. Although some of the heat energy is lost in a process known as hysteresis, the U Minnesota researchers have developed a method of minimizing that energy loss.

“This research is very promising because it presents an entirely new method for energy conversion that’s never been done before,” said aerospace engineering and mechanics professor Richard James, who led the research team. “It’s also the ultimate ‘green’ way to create electricity because it uses waste heat to create electricity with no carbon dioxide.”

The research was recently published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

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Those lucky enough to be currently enjoying the Northern Hemisphere summer will no doubt be heading for the beach for a good bronzing as often as possible. These days, of course, the digital device is an important part of the sun worshiper’s kit, and making sure they have enough battery power to go the distance can be a major concern. The Solar Bikini from New York designer Andrew Schneider is said to be capable of charging a smartphone or media player while the wearer lays back and soaks up the summer sun. Now available for custom order, each bikini sports 40 thin and flexible photovoltaic strips connected by conductive thread, which ends at a USB port.

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• Schneider told Gizmag that the idea for the Solar Bikini came to him while brainstorming ideas for sustainable products at the opening session of an Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. He jokingly said that he was going to make a bikini capable of chilling beer at the beach. Thinking more about the idea, he realized that with the help of modern photovoltaic technology and a Peltier junction, such a product might in fact be technically possible.

Sadly, the prototype that followed didn’t produce nearly enough juice to power a cooler, but Schneider found that it did work with an iPod. After a few refinements, the Solar Bikini is now being made available for a very limited number of custom orders via Solar Coterie.

The outer surface of the bikini is covered with 1 x 4-inch (25.4 x 101.6 mm) flexible photovoltaic cells from PowerFilm Solar, which are precision hand-stitched onto the base material using conductive thread. Photon bombardment sends the electrons down to a 5V DC terminator and onward to a female USB connector for device attachment. The output is said to be comparable to a laptop’s USB port, as is the time it takes to charge an MP3 player or mobile phone.

As no energy is actually stored in the bikini, the designer says that wearers can even go for a swim while sporting the high-tech bikini, although charging while going for a dip is not recommended. Once back from the water, the Solar Bikini needs to be completely dried before any device is attached, or it won’t function properly.

Of course, spending a good length of time under a blazing sun is not terribly good news for the skin, and a healthy combination of effective sunscreen and common sense is advised.

The cost of each Solar Bikini will vary according to the design, but it’s not going to be a cheap clean energy charging solution for your portable devices. Schneider told us that “you can expect anywhere from US$500 to US$1,500 and up.”

The designer says that he hasn’t given up on the idea of chilling beer using beachwear, and is currently building and testing prototypes for the iDrink – men’s solar shorts with sufficient surface area to push out the energy needed to power a small drinks chiller.

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Of all the things that people traditionally discard, one that most of us likely think the least about repurposing is human feces and urine. Sure, we recycle our plastic and paper, and compost our fruits and veggies, but … that stuff? Actually, there are various worldwide projects aimed at using municipal raw sewage for things such as fertilizer or as a power source. While those projects only come into play once the waste has been flushed, however, the UK’s Loowatt system gets users involved from the bottom up (sorry), collecting waste directly from the toilet and using it to create biogas and fertilizer.

The Loowatt toilet itself is waterless and chemical-free, and is intended for use at outdoor events, campsites and other remote locations – pretty much the same places that a Porta Potty or outhouse would be used. Feces and urine drop into what is described as an “odorless” sealed cartridge, which incorporates a biodegradable liner. Once or twice a week, that cartridge is removed, and the liner and its contents are dumped into a nearby anaerobic digester.

The digester (which is also part of the system) utilizes microorganisms in an oxygen-free environment, to consume the waste and convert it into methane and carbon dioxide gas. That gas can then be burned for fuel, at which point it reverts back to CO2 and water vapor. Another by-product of the digester is a semi-liquid manure, in which the nutrients have already been homogenized, making them more accessible to plants. This can be separated into liquid plant food, and a more solid manure.

A pilot project is currently operating at a houseboat marina in West London. It consists of five toilets and a small-scale digester, and is apparently working well. “The toilets were successful and we are now in discussions with numerous potential customers,” Loowatt’s Virginia Gardiner told us. “The digester is producing a steady supply of biogas which we have hooked up for cooking.”

The company was recently awarded a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to develop the technology further. Anyone interested in trying the system out at their location is invited to contact Loowatt.

A similar system is in place at Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Park Spark project, in which anaerobically-digested dog feces are used to fuel a gas lamp in an urban dog park.

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19th and 20th September 2011

Currently the UK relies upon and consumes natural resources and non-renewable fuel at  an unsustainable rate. Each year over 80 millions tonnes of waste are produced placing increasing pressure on the environment, at a cost to consumers and businesses alike.

As a result Energy from Waste has seen significant growth potential in recent years as the demand for renewable sources of energy remains high on the agenda of government policies and legislation. With growing government support, climate change targets and the movement towards a zero waste economy, demand and potential is greater than ever in this industry sector.

The energy & waste conference will focus on current developments, technologies, strategies, and the opportunities & challenges facing the industry sector now and in the future, through a mixture of case studies and presentations from leading experts.

With the much anticipated 2011 Waste Strategy Review highlighting the path towards a low carbon Britain, discover the role of Energy from Waste will play on future waste policies in the private and public sector.

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Southern Hemisphere

to be built in Australia

The largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere will be built in Australia at Macarthur near Hamilton, 260km west of Melbourne, Victoria. Comprising 140 Vestas V112-3.0 MW wind turbine generators, the 420 MW Macarthur Wind Farm will have the capacity to power more than 220,000 average Victorian homes and abate more than 1.7 million tons of greenhouse gases every year – the equivalent of taking more than 420,000 cars off the road each year.

Power companies AGL and Meridian will each fund 50 percent of the capital construction costs, while AGL will acquire all of the wind farm’s energy output and renewable energy certificates. Recent enhancements to the Australian Government’s 2020 Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme will require around 9,500 MW of new renewable energy generation capacity to be built this decade. The Macarthur Wind Farm is expected to be fully operational in 2013 at a time when it will be needed to meet the legislated demand for Renewable Energy Certificates under the RET scheme.

At the formal launch of the project the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, said, “This $1 billion project will help cut emissions, create new jobs and provide clean energy for Victorians. Attracting a renewable project of this scale to Victoria is yet another example of how Victoria is leading the way towards a clean energy future.”

The Macarthur site is one of the first to utilize Vestas’ new 3.0 MW V112 turbines which AGL CEO and Managing Director, Michael Fraser says has allowed the project to increase the capacity of the wind farm while reducing the number of towers from 174 to 140.

The V112-3.0 MW turbines are designed for low and medium wind sites and, according to Vestas, deliver high productivity due to their large swept area, higher rotor efficiency and better serviceability and reliability. With a rotor diameter of 112m (367ft), swept area of 9,852m2, cut-in wind speed of 3 m/s and cut-out wind speed of 25m/s, they should be well suited to the Macarthur site that has an average wind speed of 7.6m/s.

The first turbines are expected on site during Q3 2011, with the whole project expected to be completed by the first half of 2013.

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Joule Unlimited is located in Kendall Square, Cambridge, among a stretch of older buildings dubbed “Life Sciences Square” in the neighborhood of many pharmaceutical companies. Having an infrastructure, such as third-party companies to do DNA sequencing, around genetic engineering helps the company rapidly identify promising strains.

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