A new MIT analysis used a climate model to analyze the effects of millions of wind turbines that would need to be installed across vast stretches of land and ocean to generate wind power on a global scale. Such a massive deployment could cause temperature to rise by one degree Celsius on land (though offshore ones could cause a drop in ocean temperatures).
In a paper published online Feb. 22 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the scientists suggest that using wind turbines to meet 10 percent of global energy demand in 2100 could cause the temperatures to rise.
Previous studies have predicted that annual world energy demand will increase from 14terawatts (trillion watts) in 2002 to 44 terawatts by 2100. In the recent analysis, the focus was on the impact of using wind turbines to generate five terawatts of electric power.
For the land analysis, they simulated the effects of wind farms by using data about how objects similar to turbines, such as undulating hills and clumps of trees, affect surface “roughness,” or friction that can disturb wind flow. This temperature increase occurs because the wind turbines affect two crucial processes: vertical turbulent motion and horizontal heat transport. Turbulent motion refers to the process by which heat and moisture are transferred from the land or ocean surface to the lower atmosphere. Horizontal heat transport is the process by which steady large-scale winds transport excessive heat away from warm regions, generally in a horizontal direction, and redistribute it to cooler regions. This process is critical for large-scale heat redistribution, whereas the effects of turbulent motion are generally more localized.
The wind turbines on land reduced wind speed, particularly on the downwind side of the wind farms, which reduced the strength of the turbulent motion and horizontal heat transport processes that move heat away from the Earth’s surface. This resulted in less heat being transported to the upper parts of the atmosphere, as well as to other regions farther away from the wind farms.
Obviously the solution is not to overdo it! A bit of wind, a dash of biofuel and a generous sprinkle of solar might be the right recipe. What do you think?
Friday, April 16, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Plastic solar panels
More on technology. A new technique developed by Princeton University engineers for producing electricity-conducting plastics could dramatically lower the cost of manufacturing solar panels. Plastics could represent a low-cost alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), an expensive conducting material currently used in solar panels.
Conductive polymers [plastics] have been around for a long time, but processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity. Now the researchers are able to shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity. They developed a way to relax the structure of the plastics by treating them with an acid after they were processed into the desired form.
Using the method, they were able to make a plastic transistor, a fundamental component of electronics that is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. They produced the electrodes of the transistor by printing the plastic onto a surface, a fast and cheap method similar to the way an ink-jet printer produces a pattern on a piece of paper.
By allowing plastic solar cells to be manufactured using low-cost printing techniques and by replacing ITO as the primary conducting material, the new plastic holds potential for lowering the cost of solar panels. The researchers anticipate that the plastics also could replace expensive metals used in other electronic devices, such as flexible displays, etc.
Do we hear someone asking ‘where do plastics come from’??? That's another story.
Conductive polymers [plastics] have been around for a long time, but processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity. Now the researchers are able to shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity. They developed a way to relax the structure of the plastics by treating them with an acid after they were processed into the desired form.
Using the method, they were able to make a plastic transistor, a fundamental component of electronics that is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. They produced the electrodes of the transistor by printing the plastic onto a surface, a fast and cheap method similar to the way an ink-jet printer produces a pattern on a piece of paper.
By allowing plastic solar cells to be manufactured using low-cost printing techniques and by replacing ITO as the primary conducting material, the new plastic holds potential for lowering the cost of solar panels. The researchers anticipate that the plastics also could replace expensive metals used in other electronic devices, such as flexible displays, etc.
Do we hear someone asking ‘where do plastics come from’??? That's another story.
How the plants do it
A team of MIT researchers has found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to split water. In this case, the team used a modified virus to assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Splitting water is one way to solve the basic problem of solar energy: It's only available when the sun shines. By using sunlight to make hydrogen from water, the hydrogen can then be stored and used at any time to generate electricity using a fuel cell, or to make liquid fuels.
The new biologically based system skips the intermediate steps and uses sunlight to power the reaction directly.
The advance is described in a paper published on April 11 in Nature Nanotechnology.
The team engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules.
Other researchers have tried to use the photosynthetic parts of plants directly for harnessing sunlight, but these materials can have structural stability issues.
The new biologically based system skips the intermediate steps and uses sunlight to power the reaction directly.
The advance is described in a paper published on April 11 in Nature Nanotechnology.
The team engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules.
Other researchers have tried to use the photosynthetic parts of plants directly for harnessing sunlight, but these materials can have structural stability issues.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Gusty efforts
In what is a natural progression, offshore oil companies are shifting to offshore wind power. Eying the vast potential for establishing wind farms at sea, companies along Norway's west coast, like Statoil and Statkraft, are making the leap. The two Norwegian companies, together with the energy companies Scottish and Southern Energy and RWE npower, will develop Dogger Bank, by far the largest British wind power project to date.
Troll Power, another Bergen company, currently supplies power to the petroleum industry. Its new company Troll WindPower, together with wind power supplier NorWind, is now gearing up to supply power systems for offshore wind farms. Troll Power has developed a tool to detect risks in the power grid when various energy producers and users are connected to the grid. This new tool will be very valuable to grid operators and energy companies as more and more wind farms go online.
Many others from the oil sector are intrigued by the prospect of applying their offshore expertise to the dynamic field of renewable energy.
The engineers at Sway are confident in their windmill design, which unconventionally places the rotor behind the nacelle. As the floating tower leans some 6-8 degrees away from the wind, this downwind design allows the unit to tilt forward -- keeping the blades aligned with the wind's force to capture its maximal energy.
While offshore wind power resources are abundant, wind turbines are currently unable to provide steady power due to natural fluctuations in wind direction and strength.
But every problem has a solution. Offshore wind power output can be made more consistent by choosing project development locations that take advantage of regional weather patterns and by connecting wind power generators with a shared power line, according to a paper by researchers from the University of Delaware and Stony Brook University published in the April 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers analyzed five years of wind observations from 11 monitoring stations along the U.S. East Coast from Florida to Maine. Based on wind speeds at each location, they estimated electrical power output from a hypothetical five-megawatt offshore turbine. After analyzing the patterns of wind energy among the stations along the coast, the team explored the seasonal effects on power output. Analysis shows that when transmission systems will carry power from renewable sources, such as wind, they should be designed to consider large-scale meteorology, including the prevailing movement of high- and low-pressure systems
The researchers found each hypothetical power generation site exhibited the expected ups and downs, but when they simulated a power line connecting them, the overall power output was smoothed so that maximum or minimum output was rare. In the particular five-year period studied, the power output of the simulated grid never completely stopped.
Reducing the severity of wind power fluctuations would allow sufficient time for power suppliers to ramp up or down power production from other energy sources as needed. Solutions that reduce power fluctuations also are important if wind is to displace significant amounts of carbon-emitting energy sources, the researchers said.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Is energy efficiency a fad?
Early this week, at a workshop on energy management, speakers noted some of the lacunae in how the country is approaching energy conservation and efficiency. While good intentions from government and its various bodies abound, what is missing is vigilance and follow up.
People would like to reduce energy consumption (if it saves money!) but simply do not know how and also, worse, do not have the time. Awareness is not enough. It is simply not enough to buy a 5-star rated fridge. It will save nothing unless the thermostat settings are right, say experts. Often, products like power savers do not give enough details on what they offer. Besides cashing in on the general climate for energy saving devices, these do nothing.
The bodies involved do not come up with demo projects which are the best proof of the pudding! Or if they do, there is not enough publicity. Awareness of laws and compliance with the same is missing. There is need for an army of service providers who go to the people and educate them and help implement energy saving measures.
Remember India’s ‘national mission on enhanced energy mission’ launched last year. It has opened a cap and trade market worth 15$ bn. Some of the country’s most energy intensive industrial units will be able to cap and trade in energy savings certificates accrued from energy efficiency improvements.
According to an official release, the Mission will enable about Rs 75,000 crore worth of transactions in energy efficiency. In doing so, it will, by 2015, help save about five per cent of the annual energy consumption, and nearly 100 million tonne of carbon dioxide every year.
True, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), through its sustained campaign, has prodded households to go for star-studded certified energy-saving appliances and ensured industries adopt new technologies, helping save electricity worth 1,500 mw in 2008-09, according to a survey by the National Productivity Council. But is it enough given the power crisis facing parts of the nation?
More awareness, tighter codes and stronger financial incentives will have to follow.
People would like to reduce energy consumption (if it saves money!) but simply do not know how and also, worse, do not have the time. Awareness is not enough. It is simply not enough to buy a 5-star rated fridge. It will save nothing unless the thermostat settings are right, say experts. Often, products like power savers do not give enough details on what they offer. Besides cashing in on the general climate for energy saving devices, these do nothing.
The bodies involved do not come up with demo projects which are the best proof of the pudding! Or if they do, there is not enough publicity. Awareness of laws and compliance with the same is missing. There is need for an army of service providers who go to the people and educate them and help implement energy saving measures.
Remember India’s ‘national mission on enhanced energy mission’ launched last year. It has opened a cap and trade market worth 15$ bn. Some of the country’s most energy intensive industrial units will be able to cap and trade in energy savings certificates accrued from energy efficiency improvements.
According to an official release, the Mission will enable about Rs 75,000 crore worth of transactions in energy efficiency. In doing so, it will, by 2015, help save about five per cent of the annual energy consumption, and nearly 100 million tonne of carbon dioxide every year.
True, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), through its sustained campaign, has prodded households to go for star-studded certified energy-saving appliances and ensured industries adopt new technologies, helping save electricity worth 1,500 mw in 2008-09, according to a survey by the National Productivity Council. But is it enough given the power crisis facing parts of the nation?
More awareness, tighter codes and stronger financial incentives will have to follow.
Tubes with holes
The world was brought up short in 2008 by soaring food prices on international markets. Food riots brought a spectre of a hungry world. That was with 6 billion. As world population is expected to reach 9 or 10 billion later this century, what will the picture be like? Fred Pearce is sure that population need not be a problem but a blessing. ‘Rising populations may bring more mouths to feed, but they also bring more hands to work and brains to think. We are not done yet.’
We are damaging water and soils. We use more than half of the world’s river flows each year, mostly to irrigate crops. We are recklessly mining irreplaceable underground water reserves. And now comes the threat of climate change.
But is it that we cannot grow enough, or that we are not growing crops right? The next agricultural revolution needs to get local, Pearce believes. It needs to help these poor farming communities find ways to manage their own soils better by using livestock to fertilize soils, conserving rainwater in case of drought, breeding and exchanging local crop varieties, and finding natural predators for troublesome pests. ‘Conservation farming has vast potential to protect soils. And simple drip irrigation systems could halve global water use by farmers. It’s not rocket science. It’s just tubes with holes in.’
In Africa, one ton of grain is what a hectare yields, Asians grow three tons and Europeans and North Americans upwards of five tons. Futurologist Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University in New York says that “if during the next 50 years or so, the world’s farmers reached the average yield of today’s U.S. corn grower, ten billion could be fed with only half of today’s cropland, while they eat today’s U.S. calories.” A bit exaggerated perhaps, but with some truth.
In West Africa, Dutch geographer Chris Reij has charted a revival since the famines of the 1970s. He says it is labor-intensive management of the land that often holds the key. “The idea that population pressure inevitably leads to increased land degradation is a much repeated myth,” he says. “It does not. Innovation is common in regions where there is high population pressure. This is not surprising. Farmers have to adapt to survive.”
Innovate to survive. Innovate the way we grow food. Innovate the way we produce and use energy. Innovate the way we use water. Even if it simply means tubes with holes!
We are damaging water and soils. We use more than half of the world’s river flows each year, mostly to irrigate crops. We are recklessly mining irreplaceable underground water reserves. And now comes the threat of climate change.
But is it that we cannot grow enough, or that we are not growing crops right? The next agricultural revolution needs to get local, Pearce believes. It needs to help these poor farming communities find ways to manage their own soils better by using livestock to fertilize soils, conserving rainwater in case of drought, breeding and exchanging local crop varieties, and finding natural predators for troublesome pests. ‘Conservation farming has vast potential to protect soils. And simple drip irrigation systems could halve global water use by farmers. It’s not rocket science. It’s just tubes with holes in.’
In Africa, one ton of grain is what a hectare yields, Asians grow three tons and Europeans and North Americans upwards of five tons. Futurologist Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University in New York says that “if during the next 50 years or so, the world’s farmers reached the average yield of today’s U.S. corn grower, ten billion could be fed with only half of today’s cropland, while they eat today’s U.S. calories.” A bit exaggerated perhaps, but with some truth.
In West Africa, Dutch geographer Chris Reij has charted a revival since the famines of the 1970s. He says it is labor-intensive management of the land that often holds the key. “The idea that population pressure inevitably leads to increased land degradation is a much repeated myth,” he says. “It does not. Innovation is common in regions where there is high population pressure. This is not surprising. Farmers have to adapt to survive.”
Innovate to survive. Innovate the way we grow food. Innovate the way we produce and use energy. Innovate the way we use water. Even if it simply means tubes with holes!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Virtual truths
Is your computer a blessing or a curse? Views will differ, for sure. And differ vastly. But let’s get some facts right.
According to a report from the Cleantech Group, called The Environmental Impact of Amazon’s Kindle, one e-Book device on average can displace the buying of about 22.5 physical books per year, and thus deliver an estimated savings of 168 kg of CO2 per year.
The report takes a look at the effect of the book and magazine publishing industries on both trees and carbon emissions: the U.S. book and magazine sectors accounted for the harvesting of 125 million trees in 2008, and an average book has a carbon footprint of 7.46 kilograms of CO2 over its lifetime.
If a Kindle-user uses the device for the full storage capacity, it can “prevent the emission of nearly 11,185 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent,” and for the Kindle DX, that can jump to a savings of 26,098 kg of carbon emissions. Considering all of the projected e-Book devices sold between 2009 and 2012 in the U.S. the report says that e-Books could save 9.9 billion kg of CO2 from being emitted.
But wait! Shifting our entire lives online is not really easy on power and emissions, right?
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a new report on energy efficiency in data centers—and the results show that energy usage at data centers has doubled between 2000 and 2006, and it's poised to double again by 2011.
While servers certainly require plenty of power, the data center infrastructure uses the same amount of electricity as the servers. Cooling and power conversion systems soak up half the total power of a data center and are therefore one of the best places to start when making the data center more efficient.
Almost 80 percent efficiency is possible with some changes: improving transformers and uninterruptible power supplies, installing higher-efficiency chillers, fans, and pumps, and installing direct liquid cooling systems. On the server side, the report recommends enabling power management on all servers, aggressively consolidating servers and storage, and eliminating unused servers.
Of course, online has its uses. Shopping at Amazon, for instance, saves gas and reduces gridlock. So does online banking and shopping.
Talking of efficiency, as says the Moore’s Law, computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability. But how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go depends on getting the right materials. Like graphene.
How to manipulate “raw” graphene on an atomic level has been the issue. Now researchers at the University of South Florida have accomplished a breakthrough of sorts by developing a way to form precise graphene “nanowires” that are just a few atoms across. Carbon nanotubes are also taking research to exciting frontiers.
Life seems headed for the virtual fast lane!
According to a report from the Cleantech Group, called The Environmental Impact of Amazon’s Kindle, one e-Book device on average can displace the buying of about 22.5 physical books per year, and thus deliver an estimated savings of 168 kg of CO2 per year.
The report takes a look at the effect of the book and magazine publishing industries on both trees and carbon emissions: the U.S. book and magazine sectors accounted for the harvesting of 125 million trees in 2008, and an average book has a carbon footprint of 7.46 kilograms of CO2 over its lifetime.
If a Kindle-user uses the device for the full storage capacity, it can “prevent the emission of nearly 11,185 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent,” and for the Kindle DX, that can jump to a savings of 26,098 kg of carbon emissions. Considering all of the projected e-Book devices sold between 2009 and 2012 in the U.S. the report says that e-Books could save 9.9 billion kg of CO2 from being emitted.
But wait! Shifting our entire lives online is not really easy on power and emissions, right?
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a new report on energy efficiency in data centers—and the results show that energy usage at data centers has doubled between 2000 and 2006, and it's poised to double again by 2011.
While servers certainly require plenty of power, the data center infrastructure uses the same amount of electricity as the servers. Cooling and power conversion systems soak up half the total power of a data center and are therefore one of the best places to start when making the data center more efficient.
Almost 80 percent efficiency is possible with some changes: improving transformers and uninterruptible power supplies, installing higher-efficiency chillers, fans, and pumps, and installing direct liquid cooling systems. On the server side, the report recommends enabling power management on all servers, aggressively consolidating servers and storage, and eliminating unused servers.
Of course, online has its uses. Shopping at Amazon, for instance, saves gas and reduces gridlock. So does online banking and shopping.
Talking of efficiency, as says the Moore’s Law, computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability. But how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go depends on getting the right materials. Like graphene.
How to manipulate “raw” graphene on an atomic level has been the issue. Now researchers at the University of South Florida have accomplished a breakthrough of sorts by developing a way to form precise graphene “nanowires” that are just a few atoms across. Carbon nanotubes are also taking research to exciting frontiers.
Life seems headed for the virtual fast lane!
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