Category Archives: Alternative Energy
Google is all set to have its subsidiary powered by the power of the wind. Google Energy, created to enable the company buy wholesale energy, has signed the deal with the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II wind farm in Iowa, for 20 years buying 114 megawatts of power. Steps like these taken by Google helps make it a lot more carbon neutral, erasing out its footprint. The company plans to minimize power consumption to the least and power up its facilities with renewable energy. Google’s Mountain View, CA facility has the largest corporate solar installation. Google also plans to buy carbon offsets to do away with emissions on a wider scale.
Continue reading 
The sun as we all know it to be is a ball of fiery fury. Though its energy can pretty efficiently be used to put out fires too! And that’s exactly what a little village in New Mexico has stumbled upon. Corrales, a tiny little village with a population of just 7,000 residents located between Albuquerque and Rio Rancho and bordered by the Rio Grande and Sandia India Reservation will now have a new backup solar powered pumping system that will be used as backup electrical power for pumping water from storage tanks, all thanks to US$1.3 million in federal funds. The back up system powered by the sun will, besides powering up water pumps during power failures, also juice government administration, police and fire communications.
Continue reading
Now who’d think all that extra renewable energy would actually leave people in trouble too? Remember what mother would say? “Too much of a good thing isn’t good anymore”. And that’s just what has occurred this time. Tapping wind energy pretty much seems to be the right way to power up, with help from solar energy and similar renewable energy sources. But at times, all this energy is a bit too much to handle. May 19th, a thousand wind turbines in the Columbia River Gorge spun to glory, in a single hour, creating as much energy as two nuclear power plants. The Bonneville Power Administration control room in Vancouver was in a tizzy, as the grid and its powerlines struggled to cope with all this extra energy.
Continue reading
Spain has something more to celebrate besides winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The country has become the world’s largest producer of solar thermal energy, thanks to the La Florida solar farm in Alvarado. The country also proudly plays home to the world’s biggest solar power plant. Using a thermal system with molten salt batteries and a parabolic trough technology, this 50 MW solar farm covers an area of a massive 550,000 m2 that holds 11 plants in operation and 20 under construction. This one sure juices the sun with all it’s got to power up Spanish homes. Currently, Spain already has 432 MW of installed solar thermal power, while the U.S. produces just 422 MW. In a year, Spain will have added 600MW of capacity and by 2013, around 2500MW of solar thermal power.
Continue reading
Cow droppings can turn nasty, taken the smell and mess they tend to make. Well, imagine what would happen with 4,000 cows doing the same. World annihilation? I think not! Manure from 4,000 cows actually powers up the Ukraine Milk Company, making the highly useful animal, a lot more productive. The manure and a GE biogas engine together power up this factory that produces milk for baby nutrition products. The CHP (combined heat and power) plant, the first of its kind in Ukraine, has been doing the job or 9 months now, producing of 625 kW of electricity and 686 kW of thermal output.
Continue reading
Who needs a silly windmill trying to catch the wind when you can hook up high-tech solar panels instead? The sun beats the wind at this one, with broken windmills being pulled down to the ground. American ranches have been powered by these good old windmills for time immortal, and have made loads of appearances in Hollywood movies too. Its time to get rid of the old and bring in the new; which also happens to be a whole lot more efficient. Solar panels are being used in Utah, Montana and Colorado mainly for pumping purposes nowadays. Solar-powered pumps, owing to an increase in efficiency and durability, unlike their ancestors that were available some 20 years ago are gaining popularity across American ranches.
Continue reading
Water resources seem to be drying up in several countries, and loss of flowing water not just results in draught-like conditions, it also means lack of hydro electricity. But now there is an solution that these countries can use courtesy Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. By 2015, the company will begin commercializing the world’s first solar thermal power generation system that generates electricity without water. This system can generate electricity in deserts too and can cut power production costs by 20 to 30% for conventional systems.
Continue reading
So you plan to turn your home into a green crib, and have been on the look out for just the right technology to do so. Well, here’s a development by GE, two actually, that are green as it gets. Together, this home energy management system and electric vehicle charger was announced recently. The Nucleus energy monitor and WattStation electric vehicle charging pedestal will soon be available, probably by the next year itself! The size and shape of a mobile charger, the Nucleus home energy monitor and energy management system connects and monitors appliances, and controls them too, keeping them green. Here’s the hitch though. This one only hooks up to a smart meter that uses the Zigbee wireless protocol.
Continue reading
Maybe a shirt that can sing, hear and generate electricity in the future isn’t a sci-fi dream after all, taken that a few research scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new fiber, with an ability to detect and create sound! At MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics, Professor Yoel Fink and his team came up with these fibers after years of development and work. For them perhaps, the fibers we use today weren’t interesting enough, leading to the creation of this. These fabrics can interact with the environment. The fibers are composed of several different materials which maintain their integrity through the heating and stretching process, unlike perform made optical fibers.
Continue reading
The United Kingdom is all set to make space for a one of a kind plant using brewery waste and local food waste, opening its doors to biowaste energy. The plant, costing £2.75-million, will generate gas that can be used as a liquid fuel. Known as the Adnams Bio Energy anaerobic digestion plant, construction plans were released a little while ago. Working in partnership with National Grid, Adnams will operate the plant that is expected to generate up to 4.8 million kilowatt-hours of energy annually, enough energy to heat up 235 homes for a year. On an average, a UK home uses 56 kilowatt-hours of gas per day, energy that could be generated out of the waste left behind from the brewing of 600 pints of beer.
Continue reading
