February 2010
Monthly Archive
Geothermal conference to be held in Indonesia
Posted by admin2 on 28 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Geothermal
The World Geothermal Congress will be held in Bali, Indonesia on April 25-30.
With the theme “Geothermal: the Energy to Change the World”, the congress will be attended by about 2,500 participants of more than 80 countries consisting of researchers, experts, industry players, organization, academicians and related parties.
Largest solar-powered ship unveiled
Posted by admin2 on 27 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Solar
The PlanetSolar catamaran is the world’s largest solar-powered ship, expected to begin a round-the-world trip in April 2011.
While the speed of the PlanetSolar ship may be underwhelming, the technology is pretty impressive. The 38,000 solar cells were provided by SunPower, which claims each cell has a 22% efficiency rate… pretty high for solar cells. And since this boat runs solely on the sun, there are no fuel costs. The PlanetSolar ship has been designed to be the first ship to make a round-the-world journey on solar power, and plans to set off in April of 2011. At 9 mph, the trip will take approximately 140 days of solar sailing, not counting stops at Hamburg, London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi along the way.
Lindt to convert cocoa shells into biomass
Posted by admin2 on 25 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Biomass
Chocolate maker Lindt will join forces with Public Service of New Hampshire to convert cocoa bean shells into biomass fuel.
Every ton of cocoa bean shells used to generate electricity will replace the need to burn one half-ton of coal, which also helps the utility reduce a portion of its coal-producing power with biomass, says PSNH.
Eleven states join Atlantic Wind Consortium
Posted by admin2 on 23 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
The United States government announced that 11 states have formed the Atlantic Wind Consortium.
“A coordinated, region-wide approach to offshore wind will help us move forward with orderly development in the Atlantic OCS,” Salazar said. “Region-wide planning could foster cooperative approaches to developing the infrastructure necessary to service offshore wind development.”
The Secretary credited the governors in attendance for being in the forefront of the efforts to harness offshore wind to achieve in energy independence.
Shanghai World Expo showcases solar power
Posted by admin2 on 22 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Solar
Solar power will be used on a much greater scale in the Shanghai World Expo, to be held from May through October this year, than in any other time in the event’s history.
And the best practice of solar power in the city lies in BIPV. So we recommended BIPV technology to BIE at first place. The final decision is to take up BIPV technology in three of the four permanent buildings in Expo Park. The Theme Pavilion has a big flat surface, so its capacity of solar power can reach 2800 kilowatts. The China Pavilion is smaller in size, but it has different significance. Its solar power can reach 300 kilowatts. And the expo center reaches 1000 kilowatts.
Europe adds more wind power than any other renewable energy sources
Posted by admin2 on 21 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
The European Wind Agency Association announced that in 2009,Europe added more wind capacity than other electricity-generating sources.
According to figures provided by the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association), in 2009 wind turbines manufactured in Europe accounted for 39% of new installed capacity, followed by gas (26%) and photovoltaics (16%). In all, 61% of last year’s newly installed capacity was generated from renewable sources.
Chevy Volt will not be E85 compatible
Posted by admin2 on 20 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Electric car
General Motors’ 2011 Chevy Volt hybrid-electric car will not be compatible with 85% ethanol blends. However, GM still plans to make future Volt models E85-compatible.
Tom Stephens, GM vice chair for global product development, called for more government support of ethanol and a need for more E85 stations during his Tuesday speech at the Renewable Fuels Association conference in Florida. Stephens mentioned that early editions of the 2011 Chevy Volt may not be E85 compatible, several news outlets have reported.
First US wave energy farm to be located in Oregon
Posted by admin2 on 19 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Ocean Energy
Construction has begun on the United States’ first wave energy project in Oregon.
A float on a buoy rises and falls with the waves, driving a plunger up and down, he explained. The plunger is connected to a hydraulic pump that converts the vertical movement into rotary motion, driving an electrical generator. Electricity produced is sent to shore over a submerged cable, he said.
The first buoy will measure 150 feet tall by 40 feet wide, weigh 200 tons and cost $4 million, Pellegrino said.
Nine more buoys are planned to deploy at a site in Reedsport, Ore., by 2012, at a total cost of $60 million, he said.
British Airways to use municipal waste for fuel
Posted by admin2 on 18 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel
British Airways has agree to buy jet fuel made from municipal waste by 2014.
The plant would convert 500,000 tonnes of waste annually into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel, which the two companies calculated would reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with burning normal jet fuel, also called kerosene.
Vancouver Convention Center is LEED Platinum
Posted by admin2 on 17 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: LEED
The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center is a LEED-certified Platinum building with North America’s largest green roof.
Led by Seattle based architecture firm LMN, the most extraordinary addition to the center is the 5-acre living roof that is landscaped with more than 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses, and provides a natural habitat to birds, butterflies, insects, small mammals, and bees. These bees (about 240,000 of them) live in four hives that produce honey to be used in the center’s kitchen. The layers of the structure act as an insulator, reducing heat gains in summer and heat losses in winter, as well as contribute to the building’s stormwater utilization. The underside of the roof is lined with beautiful Douglas Fir slats, a locally harvested material. It is also notable that the convention center roof has flexible space meeting rooms and an exhibition hall. You can see a detailed plan of the roof and other areas of the building, in the VCECE’s really cool online 3D floorplan application.
