• Category Archives: Alternative Energy

    Shell stations to be soon pumping hydrogen

    hydrogen_fuel.jpg The fuel crisis has many switching to the alternative transport solutions, but finding a station that sells hydrogen or is capable to charge your electric vehicle in a jiffy is very rare. That could soon change as Shell is planning to sell hydrogen fuel from its gas stations in LA, as part of a research program run by the US Department of Energy in conjunction with GM. Shell’s hydrogen is created on-site with an electrolyzer, but all parties agree that this is only a short-term solution. Shell will build a few more stations on its own in the next few months, and they will be part of “mini networks” of hydrogen filling stations that will hopefully help spark mass production of fuel cell vehicles. These are needed in big cities since the only emission would be water, but paradoxically, the source for the hydrogen is fossil fuels.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on June 5, 2008
    Continue reading

    ElectraTherm – Green energy generated from industrial heat

    electratherm_green_machine.jpg The options we have now-a- days for alternate energy seem to be expanding at a fierce pace. A typical home solar installation can generate between two and four kilowatts, while Google’s solar array at its corporate headquarters–considered the largest in the U.S.–is 1.6 megawatts. Now a company called ElectraTherm has developed a 50-kilowatt machine that uses industrial waste heat as its “fuel.”The machine uses an organic Rankine cycle to heat liquids which are turned into a vapor that turns a turbine to make electricity. The thermoelectric effect has been known since the early 19th century. But the idea of making electricity from heat appears to be getting more attention.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on June 3, 2008
    Continue reading

    Italy could soon make Europe Solar powered

    pannelli-solari.jpg
    No one knows lighting like the Italians, its no wonder that the best chandeliers are from Italy. The countries energy requirements are rising, like the rest of the world, but it hasn’t been able to get on the solar power bandwagon yet. The hindrance has so far been the confusion over prices and maintenance cost involved. However the mayor in a small town in Milan has managed to light up a cemetery with a photovoltaic plant composed of 18 solar panels, providing the cemetery with free lighting and saving 20% on the billing cost. Enel SpA, Italy’s largest utility, and Sharp Corp., a leader in solar power technologies have joined hands to set up joint solar power generation plants in Italy, which are expected to have an output capacity of more than 160 megawatts by the end of 2011 and supply 81.500 Italian families with energy.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on June 2, 2008
    Continue reading

    Norwegian oil company to build World’s first full-scale floating wind turbine

    hydrowind_main.jpg
    State-controlled Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro has decided to build the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period offshore Karmøy. StatoilHydro has developed HyWind based on floating concrete constructions familiar from North Sea oil installations. The rotor blades on the floating wind turbine will have a diameter of 80 metres, and the nacelle will tower some 65 metres above the sea surface. The floatation element will have a draft of some 100 metres below the sea surface, and will be moored to the seabed using three anchor points. The wind turbine can be located in waters with depths ranging from 120 to 700 metres.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 26, 2008
    Continue reading

    Data centers switch to intelligent switches

    data-center-1.jpg
    Not everyone knows about the massive amount of energy that is needed to keep websites online and active. In 2006 U.S. Servers and Data Centers Gobbled Up 61 billion kWh, now that’s a lot considering that most users that time didn’t go beyond checking their emails and maybe watch a few YouTube videos. Today however YouTube isn’t a recent discovery, it now has many competitors diving for attention. Microsoft Research’s Networked Embedded Computing group is working on a very promising concept: A combination of physical sensors in the server room and software algorithms to make individual computers sleep or wake up depending on demand.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 23, 2008
    Continue reading

    Korean Village 100% solar powered

    solar_power_village_1.jpg
    While most of us are happy having a solar cell in our calculators and often dream of owning enough solar cells to power our home, a small village in Korea has already done it. The village Donggwang gets 100% of its power from the sun. The village is located on the semi-tropical island of Jeju-do. Near the village, Halla Mountain, a volcano and the tallest mountain in South Korea, rises from the island’s center amidst a patchwork of small farms. The village’s forty houses and the school all have large solar panels covering their roofs. A typical roof will have a two kilowatt solar installation. In 2004, the government subsidized the solar systems in Donggwang, paying 70% of the installation fees. Now if only our govt realizes the harm to the environment the older forms of energy production make and lose its selfish obsession with making money providing the most basic of energy requirements.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 22, 2008
    Continue reading

    Google invests $20 million into renewable energy

    reenergy.jpg Alternate energy is the coolest rage today, but not everybody has the capacity to make money out of it. Unless of course you are Google! Google is now planning into the energy business, and as any of its previous ventures its going to do it in a big way. It already has a history of investing in renewable energy, with its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters already being powered, in part, by one of the largest solar electric installations in the United States. It now plans to go big with its philanthropic arm, Google.org, and invest $20 million in the next year alone toward renewable energy research. This will include the cost of hiring between 20 and 30 new employees, including renewable energy experts. Google aims to find a way to significantly reduce the cost of renewable energy generation to bring it more on par with the cost of coal.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 22, 2008
    Continue reading

    Solar Brasserie from Japan

    tp_01.jpg
    Triumph International a leading lingerie manufacturer from Japan has produced the Solar Brasserie. The Bra has a solar panel which generates electricity and is in turned wired to a mini electric bulletin board for displaying messages. In addition to this the bra padding can be used to store water or vodka and to drink it a straw needs to be inserted into the brasserie cup. The brasseries is made using organic cloth (cotton grown without fertilizers and pesticides). Triumph International will not be selling this product anytime soon, thankfully.
    (One more image after the jump)

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 14, 2008
    Continue reading

    EFuel100 MicroFueler – Get your car high on tequila or sugar

    EFuel100_MicroFueler_1.jpg
    Finding an ethanol gas station may become a thing of the past since most of us can easily make it in our back yards. E-Fuel founder and CEO Thomas Quinn thinks that such a day is soon to be. It looks like a cross between a gas pump and an old-fashioned refrigerator, but in reality it’s a home ethanol refinery. Connect it to a power source and a water source, add sugar “feedstock” and yeast or discarded alcohol (yes, that could mean last week’s tequila) and in a week it can produce 35 gallons of ethanol that Quinn said any car can run on.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 10, 2008
    Continue reading

    Singapore launches new scheme to encourage using solar technologies

    Singapore.jpg
    The Singaporean government launched a new Solar Capability Scheme on Tuesday to encourage the private sector to install solar technologies in new building projects, local media reported. The new scheme, announced by Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), was the Clean Energy Program Office’s latest program. The scheme encourages innovative design and integration of solar technologies into energy efficient buildings. It applies to new building developments in the private sector which meet the required standard. The private sector can get total about 14.7 million U.S. dollars to offset part of the capital costs of installing solar energy technologies.

    Posted in Alternative Energy on May 7, 2008
    Continue reading