Future Energy

Weizmann Institute created a milestone in the field of alternative energy in association with AORA. AORA is a leading Israeli solar energy technology company. It launched the world's first hybrid solar thermal power station at Kibbutz Samar in southern Israel. During the inaugural launch of the powerhouse, guests from other countries such as Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Chile and Australia were also present. Yehoshua Fried, who is the chief executive officer of the AORA, thanked American investor Meir Reiss and Canadian Director of Corporation and Consultant to Management, Zev Rosenzweig, for believing in his dream. 6 Comments

We all are waiting for a miracle to happen that can effortlessly replace the fossil fuel and we don’t even feel the change over and go on with our lives as usual. These kinds of transitions have happened as is the case with iron and wood. Many things made of iron and wood got quietly replaced by plastic and the transition was quiet smooth. When the Iron Age got converted to plastic age, we never realized. But the same thing doesn’t seem to be happening with fossil fuel. So the current strategy followed by environment conscious people is, replace fossil fuels in bits and pieces or rather take baby steps till something big and wonderful happens. We are hearing about ecological homes, electric cars, solar energy powered bus stops etc. Now we are hearing about the green jet yacht meeting the eco-friendly green standard. The Green Jet yacht is designed by Erik Sifrer. This Green Jet yacht is 187 foot long and is powered by both wind and hydrogen. The fat cats can flout their eco friendly possession without the guilt of the haves. 3 Comments

The seeds of a humble weed could lower a jet fuel's cradle-to-grave carbon emissions by 84 percent. Camelina sativa is an oilseed crop and it might be used as fuel in aircrafts in the near future. A study conducted at Michigan Technological University claimed that Camelina has shown to be one of the more promising alternatives to petroleum jet fuel. They studied the whole process i.e. from planting to airplane’s tailpipe. David Shonnard, Robbins Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering, studied the carbon dioxide emissions of jet fuel made from Camelina oil. He elaborates, "Camelina jet fuel exhibits one of the largest greenhouse gas emission reductions of any agricultural feedstock-derived biofuel I've ever seen. This is the result of the unique attributes of the crop – its low fertilizer requirements, high oil yield, and the availability of its co-products, such as meal and biomass, for other uses." 20 Comments

Aircrafts are notorious for adding carbon content into the atmosphere because more and more people are choosing this mode of travel. We are trying to reduce carbon emissions on the ground. But we are not giving enough thought to reducing carbon content by aircrafts. Environmentalists are concerned that the figures are bound to reach staggering heights in the next couple of decades. Though it is a fact that manufacturing clean and green aircrafts is not an easy feat to achieve and people want faster aircrafts for commuting. 5 Comments

Now we know that oil reserves are not going to last forever we are searching for alternative energy resources keenly. We are reading about new ways to tap energy from renewable resources. Sometimes these alternative energy resources seem quite odd and impractical. But we never know how they will shape up in future or how they will perform in future. Imagine New York being lit up by high-flying kites in the sky! These kites are supposed to utilize the wind power of New York. 9 Comments

What a wonderful age we are living in! We hear about so many possibilities in the field of alternative energy. Scientists all over the world are thinking about alternatives to fossil fuel. On every scale be it large or small progress is being made. Here the researchers are inspired by the Greek legend Dionysius' ear. Dionysius erected a cave. It was shaped like an ellipse. Dionysius’ purpose was to hear the words whispered by a prisoner in one of the foci of the cave. Some of the present day science day museums are following the same features where two people standing the extreme ends of a room can hear each other’s whisper. This feature motivated physicists Roberto De Luca and Aniello Fedullo, both of the University of Salerno in Italy, to design sunlight traps. They are using two elliptical mirrors, with one collecting sunlight and another (they named it zozzaroid) focusing sunlight back to the vertex of previous one and into the blackbody. Here they are using mirror for steam generation. 6 Comments

Most of us want to reduce our carbon footprints but currently most of the alternative energy products are simply unavailable for urban population that lives in metros. But gradually the scenario of alternative energy is changing and manufacturers have started thinking from common person’s point of view. Recently EarthTronics, which is based in Muskegon, Michigan, has developed a wind turbine that can be used by individual homes. EarthTronics also claims that it can operate at speeds as low as 2 miles an hour. Consequently, homeowners this fall will be able to buy a wind turbine at hardware stores that tackles the small wind industry's bete noire: slow wind. This turbine is named as Honeywell Wind Turbine and it will be distributed through Ace Hardware stores in the U.S. It will be sold for $4,500. WindTronics developed the turbine and licensed the technology to buildings systems giant Honeywell. 14 Comments

How we see things around us without noticing it! We know the peculiar habit of the sunflower. How it moves with the movement of the sun everyday. But if we want to move anything with the help of sunlight we are not as lucky as the sunflower is. We first have to convert sunlight into heat or electricity and then convert any of this into mechanical energy. Scientists are trying to imitate the action of the sunflower at nanoscale right now. It is no less than a miracle but scientists are the greatest magicians on this earth. Coming generations will reap the benefits of their hard work. A team of the University of Florida chemists is trying a new mechanism to transform light straight into motion – albeit at a very, very, very tiny scale. 4 Comments

What a delightful combination for environmentalists! While you are waiting for your bus to arrive you can happily stay in touch with the cyber world. San Francisco bus stops produce solar electricity and offer Wi-Fi connectivity too. By 2013, San Francisco is planning to have 1100 such solar-powered bus shelters put in throughout the city. This project can act as a catalyst for other states and even countries to follow. They have taken care of the bus stops at the grass root level too. They have used recycled materials to develop these bus stops. The bus stops’ roofs will have solar panels. The underutilized energy of these bus shelters will be directed back to the grids. 5 Comments

If you happen to travel to Las Vegas, you can come across a tall tower surrounded by around 1,800 mirrors. Mirrors size may be equivalent to a billboard. Don’t confuse it with a futuristic movie set. It is an alternative energy power plant committed to produce clean and green energy in desert areas. The project could be completed by 2013. It might utilize an array of 15,000 heliostats to direct sunlight to a solar collecting tower. The solar collector might be at a height of 600 feet. Twenty five feet wide mirrors can also be utilized to direct sunlight to the tower. 15 Comments

It’s official now. Taiwan will hold the World Games 2009 in July. This international sporting event will include games like korfball, billiards, dragon boat racing and women’s tug-of-war. But why are we discussing World Games 2009 in an alternative energy spectrum? Actually Taiwan can boast of Asia's first fully solar-powered stadium. The stadium gives a dragon-like impression if you happen to view it from the sky. In their culture dragon is associated with good fortune. If you happen to spot the dragon scales, look carefully again. These dragon scales are actually 8,844 solar panels. These solar panels are enough to meet the stadium’s energy needs. The roof covers an area of 14,155m2 . They can produce about 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year. This amount of electricity is enough to power 80% of the stadium’s surrounding neighborhood when it’s not in use. The stadium has 3,300 lights and two giant TV screens. 5 Comments

We are hearing about many inventions and discoveries in the alternative energy sector. But we don't get to read about many 'actual' finished products doing their work in real world. What we know is many models being tested in laboratories. But here we are seeing Bucher CityCat H2, the world's first municipal utility vehicle powered by fuel cells, made its debut last week in Basel, Switzerland. This street-cleaning CityCat will be doing her work on an eighteen months trial basis. It will be a matter of study that how this vehicle nicknamed as Bucher CityCat H2 be helpful in reducing air pollution than traditional diesel engines. Empa and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have, in collaboration with Bucher Schoerling, Proton Motor, BRUSA Elektronik AG und Messer Schweiz, developed a hydrogen powered municipal street cleaning vehicle that was unveiled to the public on 14th May 2009 in Basel. 7 Comments

People are trying various sources to produce alternative energy. We have often witnessed children flying kites. But very few of us have given a thought to generate energy from kites. Scientists from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands produced energy from the wind by flying a 10-sq metre kite that is attached to a generator. It generated 10 kilowatts of power. This energy was enough to meet the power needs of 10 family houses. Scientists are now aiming for a 50kW version of their invention. They have named it Laddermill. Their ultimate aim is to go for a version of multiple kites. They will be able to produce 100 megawatts of power that could meet up the energy requirements of 100,000 homes. In order to generate power the kite pulls a string attached to the generators on the ground. Upon reaching their maximum height, they are reeled back down to repeat the process. 8 Comments

Scientists are continuously working on to find an alternative to fossil fuels. We are familiar with the side effects of fossil fuels and its impact on environment. Right now the fossil fuels seem to be necessary evil we can’t do without. Scientists want alternative fuels that have none of the ill effects of traditional fuels. 14 Comments

When in distress we often look towards the heaven to find an answer to our problems. West coast energy giant, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is doing the same. They are heading towards heaven to trap the sources of renewable energy. This company’s main operations are in San Francisco and northern California. They are trying to get approval from US regulators to purchase 200 megawatts worth of solar energy delivered from solar panels located in space. There is nothing new in this proposal. Pentagon conducted a study on similar lines in 2007. Pentagon study concluded that satellite based solar power is feasible but not economical. It will cost a leg for potential consumers. But PG&E and its partner Solaren that will build the solar panels, quash those fears. They assure that their costs will be comparable to rates for other lines of renewable power. But how? They are not answering that! But Solaren claims it has developed a technology that would make it commercially viable within the next seven years. 7 Comments

We often want to imitate nature for near perfect results. But sometimes it just remains a desire. In its quest for green and clean energy mankind is searching for that magical method that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Nature performs this task wonderfully through the process of photosynthesis. Man is still facing challenges in duplicating that process in the laboratory. If we are able to split water into oxygen and hydrogen in the presence of sunlight we will be able to harness the potential of hydrogen as a clean and green fuel. Till date man-made systems are quite inefficient, time consuming, money consuming and often require additional use of chemical agents. 23 Comments

When we watch science fiction, deep in our heart many of us believe that’s how it will remain, a fiction. But few refuse to believe that and turn science fiction into reality. Angela Belcher and her team of bioengineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) belong to the second category. They have turned virus-built battery into a reality. Their efforts have not yielded instant result. They have been working on this theory for the past five years. They were concentrating their efforts on a virus known as M13 bacteriophage that are harmless to humans. No Comments

In the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) an interesting fact came to light that in near future we can recharge our cell phones or iPods by waving or stretching our arms, beating of your heart or going for a walk. We don’t need to plug-in our devices in a socket. They can be recharged with the movement of our body parts or our blood circulation inside the body will be enough to recharge the mobile. "Quite simply, this technology can be used to generate energy under any circumstances as long as there is movement," Zhong Lin Wang who is the lead researcher, stated in a news release. 7 Comments

Presence of surplus carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has taken center stage in the environmental science. All over the world people are worried about the excess amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because it’s causing undesirable changes in the surroundings such as green house effect, global warming, melting of ice caps on the glaciers etc. So most of the environmental scientists are trying to minimize the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide. 18 Comments

We come across scores of people unmindful of giving back to nature what they are taking and consuming the resources of nature, haphazardly. But we also come across a privileged few who care about environment and their surroundings and they believe in consuming less and utilizing the resources of nature intelligently. Veljko Milkovic belongs to that rare category of people who believe in and practice clean and green living. He has also written a book known as "Ecological Houses" discussing the details of self-heating sod houses. 5 Comments