Will Japan's nuclear crisis affect U.S. energy debate?
Americans' concerns over nuclear power have spiked in the wake of Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis, but how the events will affect the long-term discussion over sources of energy is still unclear. In a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted with 1,004 adults last week, about 70 percent of American's said that they are now more concerned with a nuclear disaster occurring in the U.S. In that same poll, 47 percent of respondents said they oppose construction of nuclear power plants in the U.S, compared to 44 percent who favor it. A survey done before the Japanese earthquake and tsunami found that 57 percent either strongly or somewhat supported "the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity for the U.S.," with 38 percent strongly or somewhat opposed. Support for nuclear energy peaked last year, with 62 percent voicing support. Overall, support has been over 50 percent for most of the last decade and is higher now than it was a decade ago. In its analysis, Gallup said that short-term worries over nuclear disasters may not affect Americans' support for nuclear energy over the long term. Still, a look at the media coverage and discussion during the crisis shows that the incidents have served as an unhappy reminder of the risks of nuclear energy, which will likely cause regulatory reviews of nuclear safety at a number of U.S. plants. The nuclear crisis also appears to have rekindled people's awareness of radiation and the sources of the country's energy, all of which have trade-offs.
Rooftop Wind Turbine Idea
There’s a lot of reasons why most homes in America do not have their own wind turbines — high costs, permitting issues, and just plain aesthetics. But there’s a wave of entrepreneurs trying to change that, including James Post, who has developed the SmartWind RidgeBlaster and submitted the concept to GE’s Ecomagination challenge.
Watch the video (complete with music that would make the Techno Viking proud) below for a comprehensive description of the idea. It’s a wind turbine that stretches horizontally across the ridge of a gable roof, and has a diameter of 22 inches. The wind is meant to sweep up the roof through the turbines and the design is supposed to be able to utilize wind at any angle. According to GE’s materials on the concept, the customer would pay around $4,000 for a 1.8 kW, plus the cost of a 3 kW grid-tied inverter.
Report says Geothermal Energy to double by 2020
The world will see a significant increase in the use of geothermal as an energy source between now and 2020. That's according to a report released this week by Pike Research.
The research analyst constructed several scenarios based on an estimated 10.7 gigawatts of geothermal capacity in existence throughout the world in 2010. That 10.7 gigawatts equates to about 67 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, with the U.S., which currently possesses 3.1 gigawatts of installed geothermal systems, as the world's leading user. In fact, 88 percent of the world's geothermal energy systems currently in operation are used in only eight countries, according to the report. Peter Asmus, the senior analyst on the report, emphasized that geothermal is currently one of the world's least-tapped opportunities for alternative energy. In the report's high-growth forecast, geothermal capacity increases 134 percent to 25.1 gigawatts. In the report's most conservative forecast, Pike estimated that world geothermal capacity will grow to 14.3 gigawatts by 2020.
Vestas Wind launches next generation of its wind-power "rocket"
Back in 2004, Danish wind turbine technologist, Vestas, launched its first Skyrocket sailing vessel, in an attempt to break the Outright World Speed Sailing Record. As part of this mission, the Sailrocket team has just launched its second-generation speed sailing boat from East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. According to the company, SailRocket 2 is designed to be "significantly faster than its predecessor". Over the last 15 months, Vest'as Sailrocket team has been focused on building a better, safer and - above all - faster boat at Vestas Technology R&D's facilities on the Isle of Wight. The culmination of this work was yesterday's launch of Sailrocket 2. "Since we started pursuing the Outright World Speed Sailing Record 9 years ago, the record has been raised by exactly 9 knots. The current record holders, the kite surfers, have taken it out of the reach of all the previous contenders and it is going to take a very special boat to get it back. Vestas Sailrocket 2 is a boat that aims high. The only satisfactory outcome for us is the outright record," Paul Larsen, pilot and project leader from the Sailrocket 2 team says. With the record raised to the current level, the ambitious team behind Sailrocket is even more eager to develop a boat to break the Outright World Speed Sailing Record (average speed of a craft between two points set 500 metres apart). In order to do that, conventional design has been left behind and everything is pushed to the limit.
Design Race in Wind Turbine Drivetrains
The game is on. We will know in 2015 if the industry is likely to narrow down to one clear winning design, or whether there remain many routes to the same destination.
2011 Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo Report
We reached out to companies from across the industry for a peak at some of the new products that will be showcased this year. Below is a compilation of some great new products that should be an interest to you.
Single vs. Dual Axis Solar Tracking
Generally Dual-axis trackers are more accurate in pointing directly at the sun which is usually the brightest spot in the sky, however, Dual axis comes at the price of higher complexity and lower reliability ( more down time and more maintenance) than single axis.
Sanyo Smart Energy System
The "Smart Energy System" is a SANYO energy management system that includes clean, renewable energy generation, energy storage using lithium-ion batteries, smart & energy efficient appliances, cooling systems, and an energy management system that uses the energy generated and stored efficiently.
Ecotech Institute Applauds Colorado for its Leadership in the Cleantech Industry
Recent Energy Report by Denver Metro Economic Development Corporation Highlights Significant Achievements for Colorado
Doing Business with China & Creating American Jobs
The role of fossil fuels and renewables will begin to meld into an acceptable state of necessary coexistence and development simply because the economics and math dictate such an outcome. But the inability to excise coal from the equation will drive the innovation cycle to make it better.
At PolyPlus, batteries made of lithium and seawater
Batteries made of lithium metal are preferred over lithium ion technology, but because lithium metal reacts with water. But it hasn't really made any sense to try to use it until now. One California-based company called PolyPlus created a lithium-water battery that is making quite a splash. The underlying technology is a bit counter-intuitive, considering lithium reacts violently with water. To get around this though, PolyPlus found a way to protect the lithium metal with a membrane, so the ions could slip through and maintain a charge. ARPA-E director Arun Mjumdar describes the new water battery technology as.. a fish in a glass tank. For demonstration purposes at the ARPA-E conference, PolyPlus put the membrane-covered lithium pack into a glass of water and showed that it could produce enough energy to make an LED light glow. The technology works like this: The battery reacts with the oxygen that is dissolved in water. And you know what? The water battery can produce 1,300 watt-hours per kilogram of electricity, according to Scientific American.
Better Place opened its first European retail station in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Better Place, which offers battery service for electric vehicles, opened today its first European retail station in Copenhagen, Denmark. Better Place stations offer battery swaps for electric vehicles as an alternative to waiting to recharge the batteries. Commercial stations are already running in Israel and Japan. Until now, though, Better Place had only been testing pilot stations in the U.S. and Europe. Most of the stations offer fast-charging plug-in spots for EVs, as well as battery swaps for subscribing members. The battery swap is a convenience for drivers because it takes only a minute to make the switch, according to Better Place. The swapped batteries are then recharged and used in other cars. It takes 15 to 30 minutes to recharge an EV battery pack to 80 percent capacity from a rapid-charging station depending on the vehicle.
OCEAN POWER TECHNOLOGIES COMPLETES FIRST OF NEW GENERATION UTILITY-SCALE WAVE POWER DEVICE
Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. a leading wave energy technology company,announced the completion of the first of its new generation utility-scale PowerBuoy® device, the PB150.
The PB150 PowerBuoy is the largest and most powerful wave power device designed by OPT to date, and builds on the Company's 15 years' innovation and in-ocean development experience of producing such systems. With a peak-rated power output of 150 kilowatts - equivalent to the energy consumption of approximately 150 homes - the PB150 is designed for use in arrays for grid-connected power generation projects worldwide. The development of the device, built and assembled at Invergordon, Scotland, has utilized the skills of local firms and represents a multi-million pound sterling investment in the region. It is currently being prepared for ocean trials at a site approximately 33 nautical miles from Invergordon, off Scotland's northeast coast. The sea trials are expected to commence as soon as weather conditions permit. The Company is seeking additional financing for the commercial utilization of the buoy after the trial phase is completed including its possible deployment at various potential sites. A second PB150 is already under construction in the US for a proposed utility-scale project in Oregon, and the Company is involved in other planned projects in Australia, Japan and Europe that may utilize the PB150.
Growing Contribution of Wind Energy Fuels Economic Growth in Canada
The growth of Canada's wind energy industry is contributing to the increase in high quality jobs for Ontarians and injecting millions of dollars into communities hosting wind energy developments, Canadian Wind Energy Association president Robert Hornung said in a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade. Mr. Hornung outlined the environmental, economic, industrial development, and employment benefits wind energy developments bring to Ontario - and urged all levels of government and political parties to learn the facts about the opportunity that wind energy represents. "Wind energy is well established in many European countries and has a long history in the United States, but it's still a relatively new contributor to Canada's electricity supply," said Mr. Hornung. "Wind energy's contribution in Canada is steadily increasing - and with this growth we see the evolution of a new and vibrant industry that is delivering manufacturing jobs, revitalizing rural economies, and generating emissions-free power." Ontario is the largest market for wind energy in Canada, with 1,598 MW of installed capacity today and more than 1,500 additional MW already contracted to be built in the next few years. Last year alone, 9 new wind farms came on line in Ontario, representing about 300 MW of new installed capacity. The Ontario government announced February 24 contracts for four new wind farm projects, totaling 615 MW of coming on line around 2014.
Solar Power International 2010
News announcements and releases from the show
Records 3901 to 3915 of 5048
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