Category Archives: Alternative Energy
In the recent past a few golf carts came to the limelight with more use than run around a massive golf course or resort to transport lazylogs. Especially for the horrid heat of the middle east which makes even the most active of individuals a sloth. UAE has now introduced what is not new in the market, but prevalent, a golf cart that can save up to 70 per cent energy than the regular ones and reduce CO2 emissions by 100 percent. At the second World Future Energy Summit that was held in Abu Dhabi, Dubai-based Hydroturf launched the first solar powered golf carts. It can be used anywhere including golf courses, hotels, resorts, parks and municipalities. The carts have a state of the art SolarDrive roof made up of crystalline solar cells, which charge while they are driving, extending the battery lifetime through continuous charging. It is also a cheaper alternative.
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If you are smart enough, it’s always good to invent smart and efficient things for people to use in lesser extravagant surroundings. Jon Bohmer has invented a cheap, solar-powered cardboard cooker for rural Africa called the Kyoto Box. This invention can apparently help prevent two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per family per year. It consists of two cardboard boxes with an acrylic cover. This allows the sun’s power to come in and not leave. A layer of straw or newspaper between the boxes provides insulation, while black paint on the interior and the foil on the exterior help ion preserving the heat.
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Space shuttle Discovery launched to deliver the final set of solar wings to the International Space Station. The set, called S6 will be shifted to the starboard side of the ISS and then unfurling the solar arrays. Each of these 115 feet long wings will increase the solar capacity of the ISS to 264 kilowatts allowing it to produce 84-120 kilowatts of usable power and apparently will double the amount of power available for scientific research. The 31,000-pound truss segment, solar wings, and accompanying batteries were built by Boeing and delivered to Kennedy Space Center in 2002.
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This is so cool. The go-green bug has finally managed to seep into everything – even beer! A company called Lucky Labrador Brewing Company in Portland, Oregon is using solar energy to heat water used in the brewing process. Saves money (about $3,000 annually), the ozone and you are in trend! Its first green beer Solar Flare Ale was a big hit when it came out in February 2008. The entire system includes 16 solar panels on the brewery roof at a cost of about up about $6,000 thanks to a bunch of credits.
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So often people forget to see the obvious while fighting to prove the impossible. A research expert from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria has come up with a smart idea. He said ‘constructing a large array of solar panels in the Sahara desert can provide enough electricity to supply all the power needs of the entire Europe’. With all the big shot technological advancements, it’s not going to be too hard to make this a reality. He has also noted that the costs to move electricity for long distances have come down and estimated that only a fraction of the Sahara, probably the size of a small country, needed to be covered with panels in order to extract enough energy to supply the whole of Europe. What they would do is use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on to a thin pipe containing either water or salt. The rays would then boil the water or melt the salt and the resulting energy would power turbines and this can be stored for several hours.
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The Austin City Council will be creating one of the world’s largest solar facility in Austin at a cost of $250 million. Touted to be the biggest solar facility in the U.S when operational in 2010, it will be located in Webberville. It will be constructed and operated by Gemini Solar Development Company – a joint venture between MMA Renewable and Suntech Power Holdings. It is expected to power 5,000 home per year. Over 25 yrs Austin Energy will purchase all of the electric energy produced from the 177,000 photovoltaic solar panels paying about $10 million per year for the power.
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Sony Japan has been busy producing eco-friendly products and the latest eye-catching one is a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) battery. This was displayed at the International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Expo in Tokyo last month. The battery is used for charging small electronic devices like mobile phones or digital music players and cameras with two USB ports for charging. The International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel (DGP) has also voted to allow passengers to carry and use micro fuel cells and methanol fuel cartridges on board flights to power small electronic devices. This was considered, as methanol is a toxic and flammable gas.
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The oceanic tides are beautiful from a distance but scary from up front. And since it is a very strong and powerful medium, why not put better use to it than surfing. That is probably what NASA scientists thought when they found a way to turn the power of the ocean’s tides into clean, renewable electric energy. They are doing a project to ‘use changes in ocean temperature to create a high-pressure fluid that can be used to generate power’. NASA engineers are busy designing a system for the same. According to Yi Chao, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “The trick was to find a special substance known as a phase-change material that changes from a solid to a liquid as the temperature in the environment changes from cold to warm. When the material melts, it expands, compressing a central tube in which another liquid is stored. This liquid, now under high pressure, is used to generate electricity.”
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Most of us are frequently talking about alternative energies like wind and solar power but how many of us can boast of either turbines or solar panels on our roofs? Renewable Devices’ Swift rooftop wind energy system has made it easier for us to power up our dens with clean, green, windy energy. Coming from UK, this Swift rooftop wind system is a noiseless (almost) building mountable turbine that helps to reduce our carbon footprints. It will also help to curb the escalating electricity bills. Using aerodynamic technology, it designed to generate electricity only when the need arises.
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Tokyo Gas along with Kyocera Corporation is tying up to sell residential energy systems based primarily on gas and solar power. Families can reduce electricity bills to up to 40 per cent and low carbon emissions by 14 per cent using this system. Tokyo Gas developed a double generation system that combines solar power generator procured from Kyocera with its Ecowill cogeneration system which operates off an engine that runs on city gas. During peak hours, the Ecowill system will operate at full capacity to run heaters and warm water, reducing household consumption of electricity purchased from the utility. When there is sunlight to drive the solar power system, surplus electricity can be sold to the grid.
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