This item was on the Gizmag blog over the holiday. I am impressed with this concept. It seems to me to be a rather elegant idea to harness wave energy. It uses wave energy to pump seawater to a reservoir where it can be dumped back into the ocean through a turbine to produce electricity or hydraulic pressure or whatever other energy is needed. This offers the capability to “store” energy in the reservoir during low demand times and then releasing it during high demand times, much like the pumped storage projects at places like Bath County, Virginia or Niagara Falls, New York. The pump itself is a simple concept with a minimum of moving parts. (only a double acting piston and some check valves) I can visualize these devices being assembled completely on land and then towed to their permanent site, where the anchor at the bottom could be pumped full of concrete and the whole assembly would then float to an upright position.  Lightweight hoses could then connect each one (As I’m sure it would be more efficient to produce many small ones instead of one or so large ones.) through a manifold to a large pipe to a reservoir, preferably on land, I would assume.  Their would have to be some careful specification of materials, as salty sea water will corrode many common substances.  This looks like a good project a student could replicate on a small scale with help from our AFV Lab.

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/searaser-hydro-power-system/10458/

Making waves work: the Searaser hydro-power system

November 27, 2008 Like the VIVACE system recently covered on Gizmag, SEARASER is a new approach to utilizing hydro-power as a renewable energy source. The idea works on the conventional principle of using water pressure to drive turbines but achieves this in a unique way. It consists of a tethered wave energy converter which uses the rolling motion of waves to pump water to higher ground on-shore from where it can then be stored and used to create electricity on demand.

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/searaser-hydro-power-system/10458/

This item was in a Forbes.com newsletter I get. It reports on a fascinating new idea in solar electric power generation. It’s one of those classically “elegant” solutions that seem so simple and obvious that one wanders why no one thought of it before. Go to http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2008/1117/058.html?partner=technology_newsletter to read the full article. They simply make huge balloons that have the form of segments of rotated parabolas, with a thin reflective coating on one half and a clear film on the other half. At the focal point of the reflective rotated parabola, which is inside the balloon, they situate a solar cell array. For a video that explains the concept much better than I can, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kROgE4Jdm-k . This looks like something we could duplicate and study in the AFV Lab.

Solar Bubbles

Kerry A. Dolan 10.29.08, 6:00 PM ET
Forbes Magazine dated November 17, 2008

Here’s an audacious bet: Cheap plastic balloons with solar cells inside can solve the world’s energy problem.

Behind a warehouse workshop in Livermore, Calif., an 8-foot shiny plastic balloon soaks up the abundant late September sun. Its shape reflects so much heat to its middle that you can’t leave your hand on it or you’ll burn. Insert a round plate covered with solar cells into the balloon and you may have the next idea in renewable power.

Eric Cummings, the brainy scientist who dreamed up the balloon idea, dismisses flat solar panels as expensive to install and difficult to deploy. The curvature of his balloon concentrates more sunlight onto fewer photovoltaic cells. He envisions vast farms of his 1-kilowatt balloons strung on wires and producing gigawatts of power.

Cummings has no deals yet with a utility, but his company, Cool Earth Solar, raised $21 million from Quercus Trust, a Los Angeles private equity firm, and other investors to build a 1.5 megawatt installation in California’s Central Valley. Construction of a test project in a field of brown weeds across the street from its offices is just beginning. “This is scalable in a way that dwarfs other options,” he boasts. “The goal is to be the 100% solution” to the energy crisis.

Cool Earth Chief Executive Robert Lamkin, who previously oversaw the development and construction of power plants at Calpine and managed plants at Mirant, says rather boldly that next year the company will have its costs down to $1 per watt, installed—at which point it can compete with natural gas and beat other kinds of solar technologies. Typical photovoltaic panels on rooftops cost up to $8 per watt installed. Solar thermal power, which concentrates heat to make steam, is aiming for $4 per watt. (These costs are all in terms of peak watts. Nights and clouds included, solar’s average cost per watt is four times as much.)

Whether solar balloons are viable has yet to be proved. “It’s definitely a nice idea, but this doesn’t appear to be a game changer,” says Daniel Kammen, a professor in the Energy & Resources Group at UC, Berkeley. Kammen says far bigger balloons up in the jet streamwould generate more electricity. Says Christopher Porter of Photon Consulting in Boston, “Relative to other solar, we’re not particularly excited about concentrated photovoltaics as a broad technology group.”

Cummings, 41, is undeterred. He has a doctorate in aeronautics and quantum chemistry from the California Institute of Technology—and a record of solving challenging problems. At the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Cummings solved a 150-year-old electromechanical design problem in three months, pioneering a method to quickly and simply separate molecules.

Concentrating the reflected light into a receiver produces 300 to 400 times as much electricity out of each solar cell as a system without a concentrator, the company claims. A water-cooled jacket on the back side of the receiver keeps it from overheating. The balloon can add or bleed air to maintain its shape.

Cool Earth’s balloons can last five years but are so cheap it plans to replace them once a year. Or more frequently. It has yet to test against BB guns.

I came across this item on the About.com Hybrid Cars & Alt Fuel blog this morning.  It includes a table that lists the energy equivalents of most popular transportation energy sources. It may be of use in evaluating the MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Equivalent) of alternative fuels and thus facilitating an “apples to apples” comparison of alternative fuels.  Go to http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/resources/a/gge.htm?nl=1 to read the details.

Energy Equivalency Calculation

Using fuel energy equivalents provides the user with a comparison tool for gauging various fuels against a known constant that has relative meaning. A common method of measurement is the Gasoline Gallon Equivalent. The chart at the bottom of this page arrives at the equivalent measurement by comparing the BTU content per unit of each fuel type and then calculating the ratio.

What’s a BTU?

As a basis for determining energy content of a fuel, it is helpful to understand exactly what a BTU (British Thermal Unit) is. Its scientific definition goes something like this: British Thermal Unit - The amount of heat (energy) required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Think of it this way: it’s basically a standard. Just as PSI (pounds per square inch) is a standard for measuring pressure, so too is a BTU a standard for measuring energy content.
See GGE conversion chart below

Source: http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/resources/a/gge.htm?nl=1

This article was on the RenewableEnergyWorld blog this morning. It makes some interesting points. For instance, it proposes the idea that, in the world of Sustainability, bigger is not necessarily better and that there is something to be said for local, smaller sustainable energy development projects. This brings to my mind several local entities that could benefit from such decentralization. The first to come to mind is the ongoing biodiesel project Ian Heatwole is spearheading. I don’t know what his business model is, but, in accordance with this article I can see it as possibly involving local farmers “trading” their soybeans for diesel fuel to run their equipment. This would result in substantial cost savings and reduction in energy consumption from transporting diesel fuel, be it petroleum diesel or biodiesel, over great distances from huge refineries.  Another local entity that could implement the ideas in this article is the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC), a local consumer owned supplier of electricity.  “Chartered on June 26, 1936, the Cooperative today serves over 38,000 residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial accounts in the Virginia counties of Augusta, Rockingham and Shenandoah, and Hardy County, West Virginia.” according to its website. Perhaps the SVEC could prevail upon its farm members to install windmills on their farms or solar panels on poultry houses in return for favorable electricity rates. Food for thought, don’t you think? I’m sure there are other instances that may benefit from this decentralized concept of energy production and use. Go to http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=53804 to read the full article.

Rural Power: The Key to Sustainability

The next twenty years could see up to US $1 trillion of investment in renewable energy in rural areas. Wind and solar power will be harnessed; and non-food crops will provide the fuel for a new generation of biofuels. But will rural areas reap the benefits of this massive investment or will communities merely observe the remaking of rural economies?

Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=53804

I came across this interesting article in Renewable Energy World.com’s blog this morning. The concept is new to me, and I’m fascinated by it. It seems to be quite an elegant concept.  It’s not terribly economic at this point in time, as the article itself says: Estimates for the cost of electricity produced range from €0.05 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) up to €0.25 [US $0.07 to 0.34 per kWh], depending on the cost of land and the financing scenario. However, it is carbon neutral and there is very little maintenance after the initial investment, (keeping the membrane repaired and the turbine/generator serviced and maintained.)  I wasn’t very far into reading the article before I wondered:  Why wouldn’t this work better using some portion of the top half of one of Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Domes?  Go to http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53742 to read more about this concept. The article is too long to include all of it here.

Solar Updraft Towers: Variations and Research
by Tom Bosschaert
Rotterdam, the Netherlands [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

Aerial Photo of Solar Updraft Tower

The idea of using solar radiation to generate air convection that can subsequently be converted to an energy source has been around since the start of the 20th century, when a Spanish Colonel called Isidoro Cabanyes proposed it in a scientific magazine. Solar Updraft towers, also called solar wind or solar chimney plants, provide a very simple method for renewable electricity generation, with a constant and reliable output. Other renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar arrays suffer from high diurnal and seasonal fluctuations, or unpredictable patterns of output.

Due to the large initial investment required, unfamiliarity with the system and the solar updraft tower’s relatively low capture efficiency, only one prototype was ever built, in the 1980’s in Spain. This prototype however, performed above and beyond expectations, and continued to operate for almost 7 years after its designed life span of 3.

The solar updraft tower has been left on the shelf due to its perceived low efficiency, which is to a large degree undeserved. Most studies on this elegant and simple renewable energy producer consider the land occupied by the tower and its collector as one of the largest resource inputs required for this process. However, Except Architecture & Consultancy is investigating the possibility of more creative applications of the system, which would combine the tower with other land uses.

The Classic Solar Updraft Tower Scenario

The small experimental solar updraft tower plant, built in Manzanares, Spain in 1982 by Schlaich Bergermann, can be considered the classic example of the system. The design calls for a large, unused plot of land to house a collector between 500 m and 10 km in diameter, with a centrally located chimney ranging from 100 m to 1 km in height. The collector is a transparent membrane suspended several meters off the ground, which can be made of glass or a strong transparent polymer. (See pilot plant image left, as well as lead image, above.)

Sunlight penetrates this membrane, and the solar radiation is converted to heat upon hitting the ground. The air underneath the membrane quickly increases in temperature due to the greenhouse effect and flows towards the chimney, which, through the stack effect, becomes the lowest point of pressure in the system. This continuous airflow spins a turbine located at the base of the chimney. The nighttime difference in temperature between the ground and the air allows this effect to continue. Thermal storage devices can be used to smooth out the differences in intensity between night and day temperature differentials. As with other solar technologies, a higher latitude placement translates into a lower energy output. (See Figure 1, below.)

Schematic of Solar Updraft Tower

Figure 1: Classic Solar Updraft Tower Diagram…

To read the rest of the article, go to: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53742

I came across this interesting news release on the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) website this morning.  It makes some interesting projections of possible energy savings in Virginia.  However, in skimming through the report available at the ACEEE website (site requires registration to download the full report) I failed to see any estimates of the capital outlays needed to effect these recommendations and the ensuing cost/benefit analysis of these recommendations.  The report would be more credible if it would have done so.

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
presents comprehensive findings at the
Commonwealth of Virginia Energy
& Sustainability Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 19, 2008

Richmond, Va.: By investing in energy-efficient technologies, the Commonwealth of Virginia can reduce its electricity needs by one-fifth; deliver cleaner, less-expensive power to Virginia consumers; create thousands of new jobs; and better position the state to more cost effectively meet its future energy requirements, according to a new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

The report, entitled Energizing Virginia: Efficiency First, concludes that the Commonwealth can meet close to 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2025 through energy efficiency, a strategy that also would cut Virginians’ utilities bills by $15 billion by 2025 and create nearly 10,000 new jobs – the equivalent of bringing almost 100 new manufacturing facilities to the state.  And by reducing electricity use, Virginia can play its part in reducing global warming and contributing to a more sustainable environment.

The findings, which include 11 recommendations for Virginia’s policymakers, were presented today at the COVES (Commonwealth of Virginia Energy & Sustainability) conference to Virginia state energy officials and the public by Dr. R. Neal Elliott, associate director for research at ACEEE, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection.

Prior to issuing the report, which focused exclusively on the Commonwealth, ACEEE had ranked Virginia 38th out of 50 states in employing energy-efficiency programs and technologies.  Virginia is the latest in a series of states to receive ACEEE’s analysis.

“Our focus on Virginia was predicated on two factors,” Elliott said.  “First, the Commonwealth can realistically achieve significant savings – reducing electricity use by almost one-fifth by the time today’s newborns reach college – by making a commitment to energy efficiency.  And second, Virginia’s political climate is ripe for taking the action necessary to make real and lasting change.  Given Gov. Kaine’s leadership, the state’s reputation as exceedingly well-managed, and a bipartisan commitment from state legislators, we are optimistic that Virginia can become an exemplary state in the area of energy efficiency.”

Stephen Walz, Senior Advisor for Energy Policy to the Governor, stated that, “The Virginia Energy Plan, issued by Gov. Kaine last fall, called for Virginians to take all cost-effective energy conservation and efficiency actions as the first steps towards a more secure energy future.  This comprehensive analysis of how energy efficiency can help meet the Commonwealth’s electricity needs will help inform the Commonwealth’s analysis of our opportunities for the most effective energy efficiency actions.  I am pleased to accept this report and thank ACEEE and its sponsors for their hard work in developing their recommendations.”

Key Findings

On a sector-by-sector basis, the report concluded that by 2025, Virginia can achieve more than 20 percent reductions in electricity consumption in the following ways:

• In commercial buildings, replace incandescent lamps, enhance fluorescent lighting and employ lighting control measures as well as installing new HVAC systems.
• In residential housing, utilize more efficient heating and air conditioning systems, improve insulation and windows, and make improvements in residential lighting.
• In industrial facilities, employ more efficient electric motors and pumps, improving duct and pipe insulation.

The study also found that energy efficiency and demand response can reduce peak demand, which occurs during those days in the summer when electricity use is highest. Energy efficiency, together with demand response – i.e. shifting consumer demand for energy from peak periods to off-peak periods – can reduce peak demand by at least 26% by 2025.

The report confirms that energy efficiency has the potential to reduce consumer electricity bills by bringing down overall consumption.  And at one-third the cost of new conventional energy supply, energy efficiency has the added benefit of moderating future electricity price increases. According to the study, the recommended policies can cut customer electricity bills in Virginia by a net $15 billion by 2025.

Policy Recommendations

The report provides 11 specific recommendations where policymakers can begin creating a more favorable environment toward energy-efficiency programs.  ACEEE recommends, for example, that Virginia set a quantitative, long-term energy savings goal of at least 15 percent by 2022.  It also suggests creating a government/industrial collaborative called the “Virginia Manufacturing Initiative” (including university-based Centers of Excellence) to address the key barriers to energy efficiency.

The study also suggests that Virginia can lead by example by improving the efficiency of its own state and local government facilities; integrating efficiency into new buildings in Virginia by revising energy building codes that could reduce energy use by 30 percent; and undertaking an assistance program that helps low-income households adopt energy efficient practices, such as home weatherization programs.

Energizing Virginia: Efficiency First can be downloaded for free at www.aceee.org/pubs/e085.htm or purchased for $65 plus $5 postage and handling from ACEEE Publications, 529 14th Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20045, phone: 202-507-4000, fax: 202-429-2248, e-mail: aceee_publications@aceee.org.

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