Vatican Unveils Ambitious Solar Energy Plans November 26, 2008

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – And then there was light — and it was powered by the sun. The Vatican on Wednesday activated a new solar energy system and announced an ambitious plan that could one day make it an alternative energy exporter.

Vatican

The massive roof of the “Nervi Hall” where popes hold general audiences and concerts are performed, has been covered with 2,400 photovoltaic panels to provide energy for lighting, heat and air conditioning.

After weeks of tests, the system went on line at full throttle hours before Pope Benedict held what officials called the “first ecological general audience in the Vatican.”

The new system on the 5,000 square meter roof will produce 300 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy a year for the audience hall and surrounding buildings.

The 1.2 million euro ($1.6 million) system, devised and donated by German companies SolarWorld and SMA Solar Technology, will allow the 108-acre city-state to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by about 225 tons and save the equivalent of 80 tons of oil each year.

“This is a very courageous initiative,” said Carlo Rubbia, the Italian who won the 1984 Nobel Prize in physics and attended the unveiling ceremony in the Vatican.

“The sun has 100,000 times the energy produced by traditional sources of energy on earth. This why we need so much science, so much investment in research for the future,” Rubbia said at the unveiling.

More of the story, after the jump: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4AP50M20081126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true

A “Green Computing” Coming of Age November 20, 2008

By Bob Ferrari

Normally when a normal person is having environmental concerns over their carbon-footprint that they may be emitting their usual thoughts encompass the usual suspects – cars, electric generation, heating and air conditioning (HVAC), trash generation, or maybe even the unbelievable electrical consumption of the brand new black-hole creating Large Hadron Collider.

Whatever those thoughts might be, these people probably don’t spend much time considering just how much energy their computer is using, or the printer, monitor, television, VCR, DVD, XBox, or the Wii is using. When these devices are all “off”, most of them are still using electricity when they are in “standby” mode. Various electric companies estimate that current electrical usage from devices in “standby” mode is about 2% of total electrical consumption!

In a world where computers are everywhere, and environmental concerns are growing by the day, we need to consider how we can build, use and dispose of computers in a manner that is contributory to the health of the environment. That includes reductions in the use of lead and other hazardous materials in manufacturing, cautious energy consumption, lowering of paper waste by computer users, and concern for salvage or recycling of old computers. Millions of computers are dumped into landfills each year, which equates to a lot of mercury, lead, and cadmium that will leech into both water and air.

Practically Slave labor - Chinese imported hitech waste dumps

Chinese imported computer graveyard

As to salvaging of old computers, there are many new companies formed simply around this idea. In the last few years there have been hundreds of small computer recyclers popping up all over the world that are actively engaging in the collecting of and recycling of old computer materials. A lot of this material is shipped overseas to China where people make 60 cents a a day rummaging through these imported waste heaps for precious metals and anything else of value. Currently it is unclear as to how much of this matieral actually is recycled. Yet at the same time, most computers end up in the regular waste stream directly from the homes and businesses they served for their few years of life. Current statistics in Britain show that only 10% of computers are actually sent directly to recyclers. 40% are given to friends and relatives with 10% of this number actually ending up being recycled. The other 50% end up being tossed directly into the normal waste stream… what a waste.

10% of British consumers actually recycled their old computers

How Green Is Your Computer?

Thursday, November 20, 2008

By Corinna Underwood

We’re so dependent on our computers these days that most of us would be lost without them. They make communication, work and entertainment much easier — yet their negative effects on the environment are often overlooked.

The energy used in producing and operating personal and workplace computers is huge. Corporate IT equipment alone uses more than 22 billion kilowatt-hours per year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a branch of the Department of Energy.

But it’s not only computers’ energy consumption that’s noteworthy; the manufacturing process and the materials involved are also important factors.

About 4.6 million tons of computers and consumer-electronics waste are dumped in landfills each year in the U.S., according to Greenpeace, and fewer than 12 percent of discarded computers are recycled.

Aware of this problem, PC manufacturers are trying to go “green” by minimizing the use of toxic components such as lead and mercury and making the machines more energy-efficient.

But how can you know how green your computer really is?

Green Computers, or ‘Greenwashed’ Ones?

More of this story – “How Green is Your Computer” click here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454928,00.html

The “Green” Wonderland of Dubai, United Arab Emirates November 15, 2008

By Bob Ferrari

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is fast becoming “the place to visit and drop a lot of money”. The US is not the only country to figure out that the vast oil reserves of the Middle East are NOT endless. It is estimated that there is possibly 20-30 years left of oil production in the Middle East.

Brilliantly, the UAE leaders acknowledge this and have taken steps to protect their wealth from the pending oil outage. They have taken their vast oil wealth and are using it to develop Dubai at record breaking speeds. Every year there seems to be some development that seeks to out-do the previous record holder, not just in sheer height, but in some other extravagant design concept.

Here is one of the latest. 125 stories, with a turbine (propeller) – and a restaurant in the middle of the turbine, of course – is designed for the Dubai architectural wonderland by the British firm Atkins. As in all the developments in this future-looking city, this one also seeks to be completely self-sustained. A foward-looking-green and self-sustaining future plan that comes from the minds of those that are dripping in wealth from oil. The US needs to think along the same lines, certainly the country that has all the oil is doing so now.

Self-sustaining Anara Tower Dubai

There is a “hanging” garden every 27 floors…. and a huge swimming pool. The building is self-sustaining, as most of new projects for Dubai.

Sustainability from a city birthed from oil

Visit Anara Tower: http://www.anaratower.com/

More info on Dubai: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai

Should World Powers Drill for Long Frozen and Possibly Dangerous Methane from Hydrates November 14, 2008

U.S. Study Finds Large Alaska Frozen Natural Gas Deposits Could Be Extracted With Current Tools

By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON November 12, 2008 (AP)

Government scientists believe Alaska’s North slope has huge deposits of frozen natural gas that current technology could extract, according to an Interior Department report.

Read the full first article here:   http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=6237613

Doomsday? Or simply unfounded panic

Commentary by Bob Ferrari:

This report will cite that “methane is 27 times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributions to global warming”.  I would like you, the reader, to remember this little fact, and also know that Alaska is not the only place in the world that has such massive frozen methane deposits.  Japan is also onto this track, but Japan is already doing something about, NOW. The “scary” part of all this, is within this first sentence in the second article:

An international drilling expedition to the Nankai Trough off Japan’s southwest coast, one of the most volatile earthquake zones on Earth, has discovered that there is strong variation in the tectonic stresses in the area.

While CO₂ exists in much stronger concentration than the other greenhouse gases, there are a bunch of other gases that are more potent than CO₂ , by volume. That’s why, even though CO₂ is measured in parts per million while methane is measured in parts per billion, methane is a strong 2nd place in terms of its climate effect. In other words, when it comes to “global warming”, methane is one of the worst gases to be playing around with.

Second article:   

Caught in the Vice Between Tectonic Plates

http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=28875

Japan is looking to drill here:

Caught in the vice between two converging rigid tectonic plates, the wedge was found to be undergoing strain in preparation for the next earthquake,’ says co-chief scientist Masataka Kinoshita of the Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE) at the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

Third article:

China and India Exploit Icy Energy Reserves

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,523178,00.html 

China and India have reported massive finds of frozen methane gas off their coasts, which they hope will satisfy their energy needs. But environmentalists fear that tapping these resources could have adverse effects on the world climate.

 

 

Judging by all three stories, what do you think about current and future attempts at extracting frozen methane from beneath the Earth?  The Alaska methane does not seem to quite raise the spectre of a world-wide Dante’s Inferno quite like the Japanese mucking in the “earthquake volatile” Nankai Trough.

Don’t Let Low Fuel Prices, Fuel Alternate Fuel Complacency November 13, 2008

The Times Tribune

Don’t Let Low Fuel Prices, Fuel Alternate Fuel Complacency

Published: Thursday, November 13, 2008
Updated: Thursday, November 13, 2008 4:20 AM EST

Back in July, when the gasoline per-gallon price was flirting with $4 and a gallon of diesel fuel was well on its way to $5, a wide array of analysts predicted that the high prices would be permanent. Gasoline, many of them said in the spring, would cost $5 a gallon by Labor Day.

Now, with oil prices south of $60 a barrel after peaking at about $145 in mid summer, many analysts predict that gasoline will cost about $2 a gallon by year’s end.

It would be a tragic mistake if consumers and the government, as they have in the past, regard the new prices as permanent. This year has demonstrated that price volatility is truly the permanent feature of the oil market.

More Info after the Jump:

http://tinyurl.com/5ay3ze

Next Decade ‘…may see no warming.’ November 13, 2008

La Nina conditions have brought unseasonably cold weather to Europe

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The Earth’s temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.

A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.

However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020, they say. Other climate scientists have welcomed the research, saying it may help societies plan better for the future.

See How Modeled Temperatures May Develop:

Projection Model for Future Temperatures

More Info after the Jump:

More Info After the Jump:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7376301.stm#map

EU Seeks to Expand Energy Grids November 13, 2008

EU Energy Push

The European Commission has unveiled plans to diversify the EU’s energy imports and reduce dependence on Russia, the main gas supplier.

The EU will remain dependent on imported fossil fuels for many years to come, the Strategic Energy Review says.

Some member states “are overwhelmingly dependent on one single supplier,” the document says, without naming Russia.

More info after the Jump:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7727028.stm

Billionaire Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ Massive 500-Windmill Wind Plan Hits a Snag November 12, 2008

T. Boone Pickens

Credit crunch and falling natural gas prices delay plans for giant Texas farm.

By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Last Updated: November 12, 2008: 1:50 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is delaying his massive Texas wind project, citing a drop in natural gas prices and the tightening credit market.

“With natural gas prices where they are, you can’t kick off a wind project, you’re not economical.” Pickens said Tuesday at a news conference in Arizona.

More info after the jump:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/12/news/economy/pickens/index.htm

New Anti-reflective Nano-coating that Boosts Solar Panel Efficiency November 12, 2008

Solar Farms to be more efficient?

LONDON, England (CNN) — Researchers have developed a new anti-reflective coating that boosts the efficiency of solar panels and allows sunlight to be absorbed from almost any angle.

“With the current efficiencies, we are one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Solar is the fastest growing clean technology with existing technology. Any other increases in efficiency are going to be the icing on a very nice cake.”

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new nanoengineered antireflective coating that boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels to near-perfect levels (>96%) and allows those panels to absorb the entire solar spectrum from nearly any angle. The discovery could help enable the wider use of solar power.

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The nanoengineered coating boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire spectrum of sunlight from any angle, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky. Credit: Rensselaer/Shawn Lin. Click to enlarge.

A paper describing the work led by Professor Shawn-Yu Lin is published in the journal Optics Letters.

An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4% of sunlight shone upon it. From an economic and efficiency perspective, this unharvested light is wasted potential and a major barrier hampering the proliferation and widespread adoption of solar power.

After a silicon surface was treated with Lin’s new nanoengineered reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21% of sunlight shone upon it. This gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to visible light and infrared. Lin’s new coating also absorbs sunlight evenly and equally from all angles.

Most surfaces and coatings are designed to absorb light and transmit light from a specific range of angles. This same is true of conventional solar panels, which is why some industrial solar arrays are mechanized to slowly move throughout the day so their panels are perfectly aligned with the sun’s position in the sky. Without this automated movement, the panels would not be optimally positioned and would therefore absorb less sunlight. The tradeoff for this increased efficiency, however, is the energy needed to power the automation system, the cost of upkeeping this system, and the possibility of errors or misalignment.

Typical antireflective coatings are engineered to transmit light of one particular wavelength. Lin’s new coating stacks seven of these layers, one on top of the other, in such a way that each layer enhances the antireflective properties of the layer below it. These additional layers also help to “bend” the flow of sunlight to an angle that augments the coating’s antireflective properties. Each layer not only transmits sunlight, it also helps to capture any light that may have otherwise been reflected off of the layers below it.

The seven layers, each with a height of 50 nanometers to 100 nanometers, are made up of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle. The nanorods were attached to a silicon substrate via chemical vapor disposition, and Lin said the new coating can be affixed to nearly any photovoltaic materials for use in solar cells, including III-V multi-junction and cadmium telluride.

Along with Lin and Kuo, co-authors of the paper include E. Fred Schubert, Wellfleet Senior Constellation Professor of Future Chips at Rensselaer; Research Assistant Professor Jong Kyu Kim; physics graduate student David Poxson; and electrical engineering graduate student Frank Mont.

Funding for the project was provided by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, as well as the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Resources

• Mei-Ling Kuo, David J. Poxson, Yong Sung Kim, Frank W. Mont, Jong Kyu Kim, E. Fred Schubert, and Shawn-Yu Lin (2008) Realization of a near-perfect antireflection coating for silicon solar energy utilization. Optics Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 21, pp. 2527-2529 doi:10.1364/OL.33.002527

Compressed-Air Car You Might See in 2009: ZPM’s 106 MPG Compressed-Air Hybrid November 11, 2008

Compressed-Air Powered cars could take you over 800 miles on a single fill-up, at speeds of up to 96 mph. They should refuel in less than 3 minutes, and at speeds over 35 mph emit about half the CO2 of a Toyota Prius. Best part? You could see them in the US at the end of next year.

Their Mission: To bring zero pollution motoring at any speed, for any distance, to the largest number of motorists possible and, in doing so, significantly improve the quality of the air we breathe and reduce our collective carbon footprint.

Cutting Edge Concept

The compressed air vehicle is a new generation of vehicle that finally solves the motorist’s dilemma: how to drive and not pollute at a cost that is affordable!

The compressed air vehicle is built with the high performance Compressed Air Engine (CAE) technology developed by Formula One race car engineer Guy Negre. This technology is proprietary and protected by over 40 patents to date. Negre applied his years of knowledge and experience developing Formula One engines — which start with a kick of compressed air — to achieve this major first step towards his ultimate vision: enabling clean driving at any speed and for any distance, at a cost that makes it a reality for everyone.

World’s Cleanest Car

To drive the world’s cleanest car is no longer wishful thinking. The Compressed Air Vehicle is the first affordable and accessible clean car. It brings us our dream: to drive pollution-free and free of fuel dependency.

At Lower Speeds: Since the Compressed Air Vehicle is running exclusively on compressed air, it emits only air – zero pollution. The air expelled from the tail pipe is actually cleaner than the air used to fill the tank. This is because before compression, the air is run through carbon filters to eliminate dirt, dust, humidity, and other urban air impurities that could hamper the engine’s performance.

At Higher Speeds: At speeds over 35mph the Compressed Air Vehicle uses small amounts of fuel–either gasoline, propane, ethanol or bio fuels–to heat air inside a heating chamber as it enters the engine. This process produces emissions of only 0.141lbs of CO2 per mile. That is up to 4 times less than the average vehicle and more than two times less than the cleanest vehicle available today. (Toyota Prius 07 Emissions: 0.34 lbs of CO2 per mile. Source: www.hybridcars.com)

How the Engine Works

Diagram Explained:

Mode A: Operating with compressed air from Air Tank only 1. in town under 35 mph.

Mode B: Operating with compressed air from Air Tank only 1. which is being heated 2. to expand volume before entering engine.

Mode C: Operating with air from the Intake 3. which is being heated 2. to expand volume before entering engine – on highway over 35 mph.

Mode D: Operating as in Mode C but also refilling 4. Air Tank while running.

Go to Zero Pollution Motors’ website:

http://www.zeropollutionmotors.us/