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August sees record rise in UK home solar panels fitted
A record number of homeowners had solar panels installed this month, according to energy regulator Ofgem.
August 31, 2010
BBC News
The devices have been fitted to 2,257 homes so far during August, up from 1,700 in July and 1,400 in June.
More than 6,688 homes have had solar panels fitted since April, when the government's scheme to reward people who generate their own energy altered.
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Bugs will give us free power while cleaning our sewage
May 7, 2010
New Scientist
You might think a constant supply of fresh air would be essential for a sewage treatment plant, but some bacteria cannot stand the stuff. These bugs could be the key to cleaning waste water so efficiently that the process could generate power rather than consume it.
In conventional sewage plants, micro-organisms digest solid waste in "activated sludge". They convert the organic matter into methane but leave liquid waste containing ammonium and phosphates, which must be removed before the water can be poured into rivers.
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Wind Power Growth Continues to Break Records Despite Recession
May 06, 2010
World Watch Institute
Global wind power capacity increased by 38,343 megawatts to a total of 158,505 megawatts in 2009. Despite a widespread economic recession, new wind power capacity grew more than 31 percent in cumulative installations, the highest rate in the last eight years. (See Figures 1 and 2.) Worldwide, wind power contributed 340 trillion kilowatt-hours, or 2 percent, to global electricity consumption in 2009.
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Solar-powered car carrier to clean up 'dirty' shipping
There’s good news for the environment this week. A trio of Japanese companies announced plans to make the auto industry cleaner, not by addressing the car-produced pollution, but through the high-tech refits of their leviathan transport ships.
The Hybrid Car Carrier project led by Sanyo, Mitsubishi and shipper Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), aims by 2012 to create a car container ship that relies on solar power for part of its journey.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, the group is working on a hybrid solar/diesel ship that uses photovoltaic solar panels laid out on deck to generate power during part of its voyage.
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Could 'poo power' help heat the country?
January 14, 2010
BBC News
The UK is firmly in the grip of one of the coldest winters on record and many households are seeing their fuel bills soar.
Although the government has dismissed fears over dwindling gas supplies during the big freeze, the weather highlights the desirability of finding more "green" fuel.One water firm thinks it may have the answer - and it is not wind or hydro power. Thames Water has successfully been using human toilet waste to make electricity for the past decade.
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Radio-Toting Fish Give Thumbs-Up to Clean Hydrokinetic Power
January 10, 2010
CleanTechnica.com
According to a recent study, fish can live with a new type of hydropower that does not involve constructing dams, weirs, or other fish-unfriendly infrastructure. It’s called hydrokinetic power, and it simply uses underwater turbines to harness the energy of existing currents in rivers. Sounds good so far, but the key point is whether or not river dwelling fish can co-exist with the installation.
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Australia To Commence Electric Hot Water System Phase Out In 2010
From January 1, 2010; the Australian Government will begin a phase out of electric hot water systems in order to boost the uptake of more efficient forms of water heating such as gas, solar hot water and heat pumps.
With 50% of Australian homes still currently using electric hot water systems, the phase out will result in the reduction of greenhouse gases by about 30 million tonnes over ten years from 2010-2020.The phase out will occur in two stages. From next year, electric hot water systems will no longer be able to be installed in any new detached, terraced and town houses and any existing detached, terraced and town houses where there is access to piped natural gas, except where an exemption applies.
In 2012, electric hot water systems will no longer be able to be installed in any existing detached, terraced and town houses and any new flats and apartments with access to piped gas except where an exemption applies.While gas hot water services do reduce emissions, they are still quite expensive to run. By installing a solar hot water system, home owners can not only dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also save up to 75% on water heating costs.
The Australian Government and some state governments are currently offering generous rebates on solar hot water systems and heat pumps, making the switch to renewable energy for water heating and even more attractive proposition.Federally funded rebates of up to $1600 are available to install solar hot water systems and up to $1000 for heat pumps installed to replace electric storage hot water systems in existing privately owned homes. The Government says the rebate will be available until March 2012 and applies throughout Australia; however, there have been 3 instances in 2009 alone where rebates relating to solar power have been pulled with little or no warning.
More information on the Federal rebates and additional state based incentives for making the switch to solar hot water can be viewed on the Energy Matters web site.
Harrabin's Notes: Green tower BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reports on the tower block under construction in China which could lead the way in green building technology.
THE GREEN TOWER OF GUANGZHOU CITY
Rising high through the polluted air of Guangzhou City in southern China is a 71-storey tower block which, according to its designers, will be the most energy-efficient in the world.Among a host of features designed either to make or save energy, the one that caught my eye was the shape of the Pearl River Tower itself.
It is built in a curve, facing the prevailing winds. And it has been deliberately sculpted to increase the speed of that wind and force it through slots in the building where wind turbines will be located.Now, on many buildings, wind turbines are a waste of space because there's so much turbulence in cities. I heard an apocryphal story about a Japanese firm that installed a turbine which needed electric power to keep it turning to save the face of its would-be-green owners.
But the American architects of this tower - SOM - insist that their experiments in a wind tunnel show this building will generate economically viable wind power.The vertical axis turbines will be located in the mechanical floors mandated by the Chinese government as emergency muster floors, so no usable office space will be lost.
SOM claims that by thinking carefully about the use of space combined with energy-saving and energy-generating technology, they have been able to make unprecedented gains, so this building will potentially create as much energy as it uses.They are by no means the only architects to espouse the principle of integrated design, of course. But some observers believe that too many buildings are still being put up with a few bolt-on green features, without proper thought as to what could be achieved through a more considered approach.
Take the cooling system in the tower. Most of the time, air conditioning is done by fat air ducts which gobble both energy and space between floors and ceilings. Here the cooling is done by a cool water system.The water flows in ducts through concrete beams, and cool air descends upon the toiling masses from cold water radiators in the ceilings.
This doesn't just save energy. SOM say it saves so much space that it's allowed the building's owners to put in an extra five storeys of usable office floor at little extra cost. Indeed, they predict that the extra investments in the building will start making the money in five years.There are other green features too. There's a wide-spaced double-glazed wall, which channels hot air upwards to a mechanical floor where it's harnessed for dehumidification.
There's also substantial use of solar photovoltaic technology on the frontages of the building, which curve upwards toward the sun, although the current cost of photovoltaic arrays militated against cladding the building completely in energy-generating glass.Inside there are numerous automatic control systems to make sure power isn't being wasted.
SOM say they could have coaxed the building to produce more energy but it would have been futile because there's no facility in Guangzhou to feed self-generated power back into the grid. To many, this will be a familiar tale.'Radical' design
I can't verify whether all its claims are true, but the building is undoubtedly an exciting project.Ame Englehart, director of SOM's East Asia office said: "This building is so radical it could only have been commissioned in China. The owners are very self-confident and have been prepared to push the design as far as it will go."
SOM insists that the design is site-specific and can't just be replicated elsewhere.But the sad observation from my viewpoint standing on the girders of the 24th floor is that this tower is very much the exception rather than the rule.
The Chinese government has increased building standards recently but they still don't lead to anything like the performance of the Pearl River Tower.A report in the China Daily during my trip suggested that 40% of bribery cases in China involve property development.
And a Western businesswoman I bumped into told me her firm couldn't persuade Chinese clients to invest in more energy-efficient vehicles even if she could prove that they would start paying back their owners in energy costs is just 10 months.http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8317211.stm