No 1.

Solar Energy News

The two important types of solar energy are of course Solar heating (panels) and Photovoltaics.

Sun powered hot water systems are a familiar sight on the roofs of homes in sunny Spain, France, Australia and now in South Africa. Solar heating provides about 33% of the average hot water needs and is estimated to reduce CO2 emmissions by approximately 350 Kgs annually.

Photovoltaics.

These are mostly manufactured from Silicon materials. Better materials are being investigated and these include dyes, nanotubes and synthetic porphyrins. 

 Roofs and walls could generate power by being covered with dye-sensitised solar cells in the form of  a paint, according to research being conducted by the Swansea University in the UK.

Visit the University Of Swansea School Of Engineering for more information.

 

Nanotechnolgy in which solar cells are made by using dye-sensitised material and nanotubes is being investigated at the Penn State University in the USA.

Photovoltaics efficiencies appear to range from about 3%  with the best claims being around 20%.

Leaves.

Photosynthesis in the leaves of plants achieve between 30 to 40% efficiencies in converting light

Researchers in Japan and Australia are trying to mimic this by creating wheel-shape molecule arrays called porphyrins.

Insulate, Insulate.

South African houses are generally not very well insulated, so suffer from heat loss in winter. Some ceiling insulation is a useful addition to saving electricity. Geyser blankets are also recommended.

Sourced from: scenta
Date Published: May 02, 2008

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 No 2

Wind, Water and Sun Beat Biofuels, Nuclear and Coal for Clean Energy!

 Civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Z Jacobsen of Stanford University says the best ways to improve energy security and mitigate global warming and reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution are using wind and water, not growing fields of crops nor nuclear plants.

 He claims "clean coal" which involves capturing carbon emissions and securing them in the earth is not clean at all.

 

He has conducted the first quantitative scientific evaluation of proposed major energy related solutions by assessing  their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles as well as their impacts on global warming, health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, water pollution, reliability and sustainability. His findings show that the options that are getting the most attention are between 25 to 1000 times more polluting than the best available options!

Ethanol based biofuels will cause more harm to human health, wildlife, water supply and land use than current fossil fuels he claims. He added that Ethanol may also produce more global warming pollutants than fossil fuels according to the latest scientific studies.

Sources that Jacobsen found the most promising are, in order, wind, concentrated solar heating, geothermal, tidal,  solar photovoltaics, wave and hydroelectric.

He recommended against nuclear, coal with carbon capture, corn and cellosic ethanol due to pollution, land use and damage to wild life.

To place various alternatives on an equal footing he first made his comparisons by calculating the impacts as if each alternative alone was used to power all the vehicles in the USA including battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell and flex vehicles than can run on high blends of Ethanol.

Wind was the most promising showing better than 99% reduction in carbon and air pollution and consuming less than 3 square Kilometres of land for turbine footprints taking up about 0.5% of all USA land, more than 30 times less than that required for growing corn for Ethanol.

He advocates a package approach to use the best alternatives as using just one would be impractical.

 

Energy and vehicle options from the best to the worst according to the Profs calculations were;

1.                    Wind Power.

2.                    Concentrated Solar Power (CSP).

3.                    Geothermal Power.

4.                    Tidal Power.

5.                    Solar Photovotaics (PV).

6.                    Wave Power.

7.                    Tie between Nuclear and Coal with carbon capture(CCS).

Best to worst Vehicle options;

1.                    Wind - Battery electric (BEV).

2.                    Wind - hydrogen Fuell cell (HFCV).

3.                    CSP - BEV

4.                    Geothermal - BEV.

5.                    Tidal BEV.

6.                    Solar PV - BEV.

7.                    Wave - BEV.

8.                    Hydroelectric BEV.

9.                    A tie between nuclear and Coal CCS - BEVs.

10.                 Corn - Ethanols.

11.                 Celluloisic - Ethanols.

Source Adapted from Science Daily 2008/12/11 and adapted from material from  Stanford University.

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No 3.

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Still Increasing

Total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 7,282 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO 2e) in 2007, an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2006 level according to Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2007, according to a report released December 4 by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since 1990, U.S. GHG emissions have grown at an average annual rate of 0.9 percent. 

U.S. GHG emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP), or U.S. GHG intensity, fell from 636 metric tons per million 2000 constant dollars of GDP (MMTCO ₂e/million dollars GDP) in 2006 to 632 MMTCO ₂e /million dollars GDP in 2007, a decline of 0.6 percent. Since 1990, the annual average decline in GHG intensity has been 1.9 percent. 

Total estimated U.S. GHG emissions in 2007 consisted of 6,022 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (82.6 percent of total emissions); 700 MMTCO 2e of methane (9.6 percent of total emissions); 384 MMTCO ₂e of nitrous oxide (5.3 percent of total emissions); and 177 MMTCO ₂e of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6) (2.4 percent of total emissions).

Emissions of carbon dioxide from energy consumption and industrial processes, which had risen at an average annual rate of 1.1 percent per year from 1990 to 2006, increased by 1.3 percent in 2007. Unfavourable weather patterns, where both heating and cooling degree-days were higher in 2007 than 2006, and an increase in the carbon intensity of electricity generation, driven by decreased availability of hydropower, both contributed to higher energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2007. Methane emissions increased by 1.9 percent, while nitrous oxide emissions rose by 2.2 percent. Emissions of HFCs, PFCs, and SF6, a group labeled collectively as “high-GWP gases” because of their high heat-trapping capabilities, increased by 3.3 percent. 

The full report can be found on EIA's web site at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/index.html

Sourced from ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2008) Adapted from materials provided by U.S. Department of Energy.

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 No 4.

LEDs And Smart Lighting Could Save Trillions Of Dollars, Spark Global Innovation

ScienceDaily

A "revolution" in the way we illuminate our world is imminent, according to a paper published this week by two professors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Innovations in photonics and solid state lighting will lead to trillions of dollars in cost savings, along with a massive reduction in the amount of energy required to light homes and businesses around the globe, the researchers forecast.

A new generation of lighting devices based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will supplant the common light bulb in coming years, the paper suggests. In addition to the environmental and cost benefits of LEDs, the technology is expected to enable a wide range of advances in areas as diverse as healthcare, transportation systems, digital displays, and computer networking.

"What the transistor meant to the development of electronics, the LED means to the field of photonics. This core device has the potential to revolutionize how we use light," wrote co-authors E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim.

Schubert is the Wellfleet Senior Constellation Professor of Future Chips at Rensselaer, and heads the university's National Science Foundation-funded Smart Lighting Center. Kim is a research assistant professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering. The paper, titled "Transcending the replacement paradigm of solid-state lighting," will be published in the Dec. 22, 2008 issue of Optics Express.

Researchers are able to control every aspect of light generated by LEDs, allowing the light sources to be tweaked and optimized for nearly any situation, Schubert and Kim said. In general LEDs will require 20 times less power than today's conventional light bulbs, and five times less power than "green" compact fluorescent bulbs.

If all of the world's light bulbs were replaced with LEDs for a period of 10 years, Schubert and Kim estimate the following benefits would be realized:

• Energy savings of 1.9 × 10²⁰ joules
• Electrical energy consumption would be reduced by terawatt hours
• Financial savings of $1.83 trillion
• Carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 10.68 gigatons
• Crude oil consumption would be reduced by 962 million barrels
• The number of required global power plants would be reduced by 280

With all of the promise and potential of LEDs, Schubert and Kim said it is important not to pigeonhole or dismiss smart lighting technology as a mere replacement for conventional light bulbs. The paper is a call to arms for scientists and engineers, and stresses that advances in photonics will position solid state lighting as a catalyst for unexpected, currently unimaginable technological advances.

"Deployed on a large scale, LEDs have the potential to tremendously reduce pollution, save energy, save financial resources, and add new and unprecedented functionalities to photonic devices. These factors make photonics what could be termed a benevolent tsunami, an irresistible wave, a solution to many global challenges currently faced by humanity and will be facing even more in the years to come," the researchers wrote. "Transcending the replacement paradigm will open up a new chapter in photonics: Smart lighting sources that are controllable, tunable, intelligent, and communicative."

Possible smart lighting applications include rapid biological cell identification, interactive roadways, boosting plant growth, and better supporting human circadian rhythms to reduce an individual's dependency on sleep-inducing drugs or reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

Journal reference:

1.                        E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim. Transcending the Replacement Paradigm of Solid-State Lighting. Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 6, December 22, 2008 [link]

Adapted from materials provided by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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 No 5.

USA EEStor  Patents a Super Capacitor.

 

The Company recently was granted a patent using a core ingedient of alumiuim coated with barium titanate immersed in a polythene terphthalate plastic matrix.

This theoretically will make up an Ultra light weight capacitor that can store  a high amount of energy.

 

Some claims are that a total capactance of some 30 F which can hold some 52 kWh of energy are made for a device only weighing some 281 pounds! Further claims are that unlike litium-ion cells the technology is not degraded with cycling and has an unlimited lifetime. This represents an energy density of approx 4+ times lithium batteries.

 

These are all claims but as yet no actual devices have been demonstrated so some commentators think that this is vapourware to get people to invest in the company.

Only time will tell!!

 

Sources; Various on Internet.

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No 6.

Robots Are Evolving, Population Is Booming Worldwide

The most recent edition of the "Handbook of Industrial Robotics," shows that the population of robots nearly doubled over the last decde in North America. The Handbook has a foreward by late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and contributions from 120 experts, some of them giants in research and industry. The term "industrial robots" refers to all robots manufactured by industry, not simply robots used in industry.

The handbook's editor, Purdue University industrial engineering professor Shimon Nof, says robots have been steadily evolving since the book's first edition was published 15 years ago.

Back in 1985 it was just a vision to integrate humans and robots," says Nof, who specializes in "robot ergonomics," or improving the ease and efficiency with which people and robots work together. "Today, it is quite common to have teams that include both robots and people."

Examples of such integration include applications in manufacturing, agriculture and construction. Since the first edition of the handbook, robotics has benefited from innovations in technologies dealing with electronic controls and sensors, computer vision systems, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and other areas.

"Popular attitudes about robots have changed over the past 15 years as well, Nof says.

"The fear that robots would replace workers has completely disappeared," he says. Instead of displacing large numbers of employees, robots have brought about a more highly trained work force better capable of running robots and computers.

"We have many more trained people in robotics now," Nof says. "Some new challenges for robotics researchers are better human-robot collaboration interfaces, robot mobility and navigation in unknown surroundings, and better robot intelligence for services and for public transportation."

The handbook, which sells for $150, was published last summer (Northern Hemisphere) by John Wiley & Sons Inc. It is intended as an educational resource for students, engineers and managers and is accompanied by a multimedia CD-ROM that includes segments on the history of robotics and descriptions of various types of robots, along with pictures and videos.

Among some of the trends detailed in the handbook:

• The number of robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees skyrocketed from 1980 to 1996. For example, it went from 8.3 to 265 in Japan, 2 to 79 in Germany, 3 to 38 in the United States and zero to 98 in Singapore.

• In roughly the same time frame, the world robot population surged, going from about 35,000 in 1982 to 677,000 in 1996 and an estimated 950,000 in the year 2000.

• In the five years from 1992 to 1997, the robot population in North America shot up 78 percent, from 46,000 to 82,000.

Adapted from materials provided by Purdue University.

 No 7.

Eskom delays R19bn pumped-storage scheme

 

Eskom has delayed the construction of its R19-billion

1 520-MW Tubatse pumped-storage scheme, near Roossenekal, in Limpopo province, owing to a slowdown in the growth of demand for electricity.

Eskom was working on estimations of a 6% growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which would have led to a 4% growth in demand for electricity, however, the GDP growth was expected to be much lower in 2009. No estimate of how long the delay would be was given.

The first of four 375-MW units at the project, which was previously called Project Lima, were initially expected to come on stream by 2014, while all four units would have been operational by early 2015.

The utility noted that the average pumped-storage scheme had a life in excess of 70 years.

 

No 8. Denmark to Host Wind Energy Seminar.

In promoting wind energy, and its potential to become big business in South Africa, the Danish Foreign Affairs Minister, Per Stig Moller, was scheduled to open a wind energy seminar in Pretoria on January 23.
Danish companies Vestas Wind Systems, Dong Energy, and Suzlon Wind Energy would make presentations on the global green energy frontier.

Denmark developed its wind energy strategies in the 1970s and 1980s, and, at present, renewable energies, largely wind, make up 27% of the country's electricity supply.
Wind power has become big business, and Danish companies were viewed as world leaders in wind power production.

The Department of Minerals and Energy has set a target of generating 10 000 GWh of electricity from renewable resources by 2013.
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No 9.

China’s Manufacturing Capacity of Wind Components to Reach 12 GW by 2010
China’s 40 wind component manufacturers accounted for 56% of global wind power equipment installed in 2007. The country has a domestic manufacturing capacity of nearly 8 GW, a figure which is expected to reach 12 GW by 2010.

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 No 10.

Manufacturing Sector Slowdown.
The November manufacturing data released early January shows the reality of what could be a fairly fast slowdown in South Africa's economy in the early portion of 2009. The country's second biggest sector has now hit its worst levels in 10 years.
The physical volume of manufacturing in South Africa in November declined by -4,4% year-on-year (y/y) after a revised decrease of 1,8% (-1,6% y/y) in October. It is at a concerning -12% on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis! The last time the annualised numbers were this bad was in January 1998, when they struck -12,4% . However, unlike the 1998 period, the decline has been faster, coming off growth of 15% in the second quarter of this year. This is not good news for the economy and does raise the possibility of job losses because the global slowdown also feeds into it.
Basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery make up 22,4% of the local index and that is also where the problems are coming in. The seasonally adjusted data for basic iron and steel shows that this sector dropped a marked 28,2% between September and November when compared with the preceding three months. It contributed a full -1,6 percentage points to the seasonally adjusted percentage change in total manufacturing production. The data shows that the seasonally adjusted manufacturing production for the three months ended November 2008 decreased by 3,1% compared with the previous three months.

The rot has also set in among other sectors, like motor vehicles parts and accessories, which dropped -7,7% quarter on quarter.
Petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products also fell on a seasonally adjusted basis by -4,4% from the quarter before. This sector makes up 22,5% of the total and contributed -1 percentage points to the decline. Added to the above can be the fact that cement sales in Southern Africa declined 20,2% y/y in November to 1,158 million ons, according to data from the Cement and Concrete Institute.

The problems are clearly widespread, also borne out by the fact that the estimated consumption of electricity in South Africa in November 2008 declined 5,7% y/y compared with -1,4% y/y in October 2008. Growth in manufacturing in December is not likely so it seems 2009 is going to be tough year.