Could uphill train tracks solve the problem of energy storage?
James Murray for BusinessGreen: is commonly regarded as a green form of travel, typically boasting lower levels of carbon emissions and air pollution than road transport, but could it also serve to deliver a cleaner and more resilient power grid?
That is the hope of innovative US start up Advanced Rail Energy Storage, LLC, which yesterday announces it has secured a crucial right-of-way lease from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to develop its planned 50MW gravity-based energy storage project.
The ARES Nevada project uses the same principles as pumped hydroelectric energy storage projects, but instead of relying on water in a water-stressed region it plans to make use of an inclined rail track and generator locomotive cars that will run along it. Cont'd...
Bi-Partisan Support Driving Solar Energy Development
Each political party strives to differentiate itself in terms of platform and policy. Liberals tend to emphasize environmental aspects of solar and renewable energy, while conservatives like to encourage market forces for job creation and consumer choice. Both of these are great reasons to support solar, and that is why we see an opportunity for bipartisan support of this technology.
Why Power Markets Tilt Toward Renewables Even With Cheap Oil
Anna Hirtenstein for Bloomberg Business: If you’re a power plant developer, chances are you’ll be selling renewables in a developing nation in the decades ahead -- even with fossil fuel prices bumping along historic lows.
That’s been the conclusion for some time of the International Energy Agency and independent researchers such as Bloomberg New Energy Finance. A report out Thursday from the United Nations Environment Program using BNEF data gives more statistical backing for the trends.
For the first time in 2015, more investment went into renewables than fossil fuels, and most of the money went to emerging markets. BNEF is hosting a conference in New York starting April 4 to bring together executives and bankers attempting to generate value from the boom.
Here are six charts from the UNEP report showing why cheap oil and natural gas aren’t about to slow the rise of wind and solar.
Converting Carbon Dioxide into Fuel
The desire to halt climate change has drawn researchers around the world to the pursuit of CO2 conversion.
Newly Built Concentrated Solar Power Plants - Time To Consider Flushing and Cleaning as an Industry Standard?
A recent research paper published in Applied Thermal Engineering highlights the importance of defined protocols to effectively flush and clean newly built facilities, which is needed prior to filling the system with expensive fluids, such as solar thermal fluids.
EPFL Scientists Achieve Record-Level Reproducibility for Perovskite Solar Cells
Perovskite solar cells hold much promise for cost-effective solar energy. However, heat stability is an issue, and can significantly limit the solar cell’s long-term efficiency. A team of scientists led by Michael Grätzel’s lab at EPFL has now developed a cesium-containing perovskite solar cell that has achieved efficiency of 21.1%, as well as record-level reproducibility. The work is published in Energy and Environmental Science.
By adding cesium, the EPFL scientists, led by postdoc Michael Saliba, made the first ever triple-cation perovskite mixture (Cs/MA/FA). The new films are more heat-stable and less affected by fluctuating surrounding variables such as temperature, solvent vapors or the heating protocol used for the device. But more importantly, they also show stabilized power-conversion efficiencies of 21.1% and outputs at 18% under operational conditions, even after 250 hours.
“This is an absolute breakthrough,” says Michael Saliba. “These properties are crucial for commercializing perovskite photovoltaics, especially since reproducibility and stability are the main requirements for cost-effective large-scale manufacturing of perovskite solar cells.” Source AZOCleantech...
What is Solid-State RF Energy?
Magnetrons will eventually be replaced by solid-state RF power amplifier modules and controllers within the following applications: industrial heating and drying, plasma generation, chemical processing, commercial cooking (restaurants, fast re-heat and thawing) and, last but not least, consumer microwave ovens.
Tesla Discontinues 10-Kilowatt-Hour Powerwall Home Battery
Julia Pyper for GTM: Tesla has quietly removed all references to its 10-kilowatt-hour residential battery from the Powerwall website, as well as the company’s press kit. The company's smaller battery designed for daily cycling is all that remains.
The change was initially made without explanation, which prompted industry insiders to speculate. Today, a Tesla representative confirmed the 10-kilowatt-hour option has been discontinued.
"We have seen enormous interest in the Daily Powerwall worldwide," according to an emailed statement to GTM. "The Daily Powerwall supports daily use applications like solar self-consumption plus backup power applications, and can offer backup simply by modifying the way it is installed in a home. Due to the interest, we have decided to focus entirely on building and deploying the 7-kilowatt-hour Daily Powerwall at this time."
The 10-kilowatt-hour option was marketed as a backup power supply capable of 500 cycles, at a price to installers of $3,500. Tesla was angling to sell the battery to consumers that want peace of mind in the event the grid goes down, like during another Superstorm Sandy. The problem is that the economics for a lithium-ion backup battery just aren’t that attractive. Cont'd...
Solar Panels Grown on the Moon could Power Earth
Sarah Fecht for Popular Science: Currently a high school senior in California, Lewis-Weber has just published a paper in the journal New Space with what he thinks could be the solution to the upcoming energy crisis: putting self-replicating solar panels in space. These solar panels would to build copies of themselves, autonomously, on the surface of the moon. Then they would enter Earth's orbit, collect the sun's energy, and wirelessly beam it to the ground.
That may sound like a crazy idea, but the notion of space-based solar power actually dates back several decades, to the 1970s oil crisis. It was set aside after oil prices went back down, but since then, two things have happened: One, the world has become a lot more desperate to solve climate change; and two, technological innovations have brought this crazy idea out of the realm of science fiction. The idea is gaining attention, and with some big investments, it's possible that space-based solar power could become a reality within a few decades. Cont'd...
Obama administration opens up Long Island to offshore wind development
SCOTT WALDMAN for Politico : The federal government has designated an 81,000-acre area off of Long Island for possible commercial offshore wind development.
The move by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday to open the federal waters 11 miles off of New York to major wind development projects will be a significant boost to the Cuomo administration’s aggressive climate policies. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will now conduct an environmental assessment, with a possible sale of leases to follow.
“New York has tremendous offshore wind potential, and today's milestone marks another important step in the President's strategy to tap clean, renewable energy from the Nation’s vast wind and solar resources,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the State and local stakeholders through a collaborative effort as we determine what places have the highest potential and lowest conflict to harness the enormous wind energy potential off the Atlantic seaboard.” Cont'd...
Lead Recycling Threatened By Lithium-ion
The U.S. Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) are proposing to develop standardized labels that are color-coded to allow for better identification between lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.
The world's first solar airport no longer pays for electricity
Jethro Mullen for CNN: Fed up with their hefty electricity bill, managers at Cochin International Airport in southern India took matters into their own hands.
Three years ago, they began adding solar panels -- first on the roof of the arrivals terminal, then on and around an aircraft hangar. The success of those initial efforts led to a much bigger endeavor.
"We wanted to be independent of the electricity utility grid," Jose Thomas, the airport's general manager, told CNNMoney.
Last year, the airport commissioned the German company Bosch to build a vast 45-acre solar plant on unused land near the international cargo terminal.
The plant came online in August, making Cochin the world's first fully solar-powered airport.
The tens of thousands of panels generate on average slightly more than the roughly 48,000-50,000 kilowatts of power that the airport -- the seventh busiest in India -- uses per day, according to Thomas. Surplus energy is fed into the wider electricity grid.
The big project cost around 620 million rupees ($9.3 million), a sum the airport expects to save in less than six years by not having to pay electricity bills anymore. It also estimates the solar plant will avoid more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon emissions from coal power over the next 25 years. Cont'd...
The Road to Sustainable Energy in South America Could Lie in Electrical Grid Interconnection
With interconnection, the sizable hydroelectric resources of South America would allow a highly stable supply of low-cost energy at the regional level, enhancing competitiveness.
The Potential of Battery Storage Solutions for Domestic and Commercial PV Installations
The developments in battery storage systems being launched to the UK market this year will help to distribute energy more efficiently, and with the PV market in a state of flux following the reductions in the tariff rates, the battery storage developments should provide some stability to the trade.
United Airlines is flying on biofuels ... here's why that's a really big deal
Chelsea Harvey for The Washington Post: On Friday, United Airlines will launch a new initiative that uses biofuel to help power flights running between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with eventual plans to expand to all flights operating out of LAX. It's the first time an American airline will begin using renewable fuel for regular commercial operations, and the occasion is part of a bigger movement when it comes to clean transportation in the U.S.
The renewable fuel used to power United's planes will be coming from a Los Angeles refinery operated by AltAir Fuels, which is using the facility to produce both renewable jet fuel and diesel fuel using a technology developed by Honeywell UOP, a major supplier and technology licenser in the petroleum industry. Back in 2013, AltAir and United announced their partnership, in which United will purchase up to 15 million gallons of biofuel over a three-year period.
Friday's launch will be the first application of that agreement. The flights will use a mixture of 30 percent biofuel and 70 percent traditional fuel, and United says that the biofuel will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 60 percent compared with regular fuel. Cont'd...
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