Category Archives: Green energy

8 out of 10 cats like Renewables, cool!

DECC Report of People’s Attitudes to Green Energy – release from Doug Stewart

According to a study eight out of 10 people* support the UK using renewable energy to generate power. What’s frustrating is that while green energy is high on the public’s agenda the number of consumers and businesses making the switch is still low, says Doug Stewart, CEO of Green Energy UK.

Green Energy UK provides sustainable electricity from a number of sources, and has seen the green energy debate rise from relative obscurity into the mainstream over the last decade. But, despite a clear majority of support from UK consumers, indicating the public are neither unaware nor ill informed, the critics seem to hog the media – and that influences people’s actions. Continue reading

Carbon Nanotube Based New Solar Thermal Fuel Formulated

Published by Crazy Engineers on Saturday 23 July 2011 by Kunal Mathur
 
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of technology have come up with yet another revolutionary discovery. The team of MIT scientists claims that it has devised a new type of solar thermal fuel. The thing that makes this fuel different and better is that it can store 10,000 times more energy than any other existing fuel or system. Once again, nanotechnology has found its application in this fuel in the form of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that have been altered a little by azobenzene. This new material can be used as a substitute for the lithium ion batteries since it possesses the same energy per unit volume. It can be charged by exposing it to the sun and can be used for a long period.

 

The solar thermal fuels capture the sun’s energy in the chemical bonds between the molecules. This energy can be stored indefinitely forever in the fuel. To better understand the charging and discharging phenomenon, consider this example. Suppose that a normal uncharged fuel molecule is in a ground state A initially. As this molecule absorbs the solar thermal energy, the molecule goes from state A to excited state B. This results in a minor change in the geometry of the molecular structure but no chemical reaction occurs. Such molecules are called “photo-switchable”.

As per the thermodynamics, …


Completely Off-Grid Eco-Friendly Outdoor Lighting Solution

Published by PRWeb on Thursday, 19 May, 2011
 
Urban Green Energy, unveils its Boardwalk street light, a sustainable outdoor lighting solution that operates entirely on wind and solar

Urban Green Energy (UGE), the leading manufacturer of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) and hybrid renewable energy solutions, announced today its newest product, The Boardwalk, a hybrid wind and solar streetlamp. The Boardwalk is the second addition to UGE’s line of hybrid wind and solar outdoor lighting, after the successful launch of its Sanya hybrid solar streetlamp in December. The Boardwalk gives customers an elegant and completely off-grid lighting solution that is perfect for parks, pathways, and quaint passageways.

As Urban Green Energy’s sustainable solution to elegant outdoor lighting, the newly introduced Boardwalk operates completely on wind and solar energy, just like its predecessor Sanya. Equipped with a 60 watt LED light that is powered by a 600 watt eddy VAWT and a 150 watt solar panel, The Boardwalk’s distinguishing feature is its old-fashioned and traditional design, reminiscent of the gas streetlights prevalent at the turn of the last century.

Characteristic of the entire …


Geothermal system heats and cools shopping centre

Published by The Engineer
on Thursday, 20 January 2010
UK property developer Land Securities has revealed that its new shopping and leisure centre in the City of London is being heated and cooled by a novel geothermal system.

Underneath the financial district’s so-called One New Change shopping centre, 60km of pipework — enough to wrap around the London Eye 140 times — will warm and cool the building by transferring heat to and from the ground itself and two water wells 150m below the surface.

Coventry-based …


Top 10 renewable energy technology breakthroughs in 2010

Published by EcoFriend
on Wednesday, 29 December 2010
 

With our planet in a desperate need of new eco-friendly energy generating systems, researchers over the globe have been working hard to develop systems that can power the world of the future in a sustainable fashion.
The year 2010 saw some great breakthroughs in the field of renewable energy technology, which when fully developed, could help create a better world. Here we have compiled a list of 10 such breakthroughs that are bound to have a significant impact in the future.

MIT’s Concentrated Solar Funnel …


Wind turbines and high-tech smart meters win in GE challenge

Published on EcoSeed posted on Monday, November 22, 2010, by Oliver M. Bayani
 
Four months and 4,000 entries into G.E.’s much-touted Ecomagination challenge, where it promised financial support of $200 million into new ideas for targeted categories, it has come up with a total of 17 high-tech companies that it said it will fund.

 

The G.E. Ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid contest wanted to corner the best ideas mainly toward building a more efficient and economical power grid. It is part of the broader Ecomagination flagship campaign.

Five winners …


Wind farm manufacturing deal signed

Reprinted from Low Carbon Economy posted on 02 November 2010
 
A deal has been signed to construct components for one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms in Wales, safeguarding over 300 jobs. 

Burntisland Fabrications Limited entered into a £12 million contract with RWE npower renewables to design and construct two substations for the Gwynt y Mor Offshore Wind Farm.
Some 350 jobs are expected to be safeguarded by the contract, at the Fife-based company’s BiFab Methil plant. Work on the substation platforms is due to be completed in March 2012, with installation expected to take place the following month.

Further work on structures which will be used to secure the platforms to the seabed will take place at the BiFab Arnish facility at Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, securing a further 40 jobs.

First minister Alex Salmond welcomed the news. “Together with our huge natural renewables resource, Scotland has decades of offshore energy engineering expertise that can play a key role in meeting our renewable energy and carbon reduction targets,” he added.

The world’s largest offshore windfarm – Thanet – was opened off the south coast of the UK by Vattenfall in September.


Upcoming Eco Expo Asia

Published by Renewable Energy Magazine
on 11 October 2010
 
The latest innovations in renewable energy, energy efficiency, natural resource protection and eco-friendly products will share center stage at the Eco Expo Asia, 3-6 November, in Hong Kong.

The event, now in its second year, is organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd., and is quickly becoming Asia’s leading environmental protection fair.

In 2009, the inaugural expo played host to over 200 exhibitors and was attended by visitors from over 100 countries.

“Eco Expo Asia brings …


Sustainability is big business

Good example to follow.

By Saifur Rahman, Business Editor, Published on GulfNews.com

Prabissh Thomas is an ordinary man, with extra-ordinary talent. But you wouldn’t know until you talk to him for at least an hour — that is the time it took me to realise a bit about him.

Five years ago, he started a business in Dubai under the name of Green Energy LLC with a mere Dh10,000, in a 100 square foot office. It was a one-man show, like most start-ups.
But his company was in a different kind of business — sustainable solar and renewable energy — a field that very few thought had such growth potential in the oil-rich Gulf region.
“Back then it was a totally new area, especially in the Gulf,” Thomas says of the business’ start. “That’s where the potential for growth in green energy products lies.”
Read the whole article HERE

Green Grid draws easy profits

By Dana Blankenhorn from Smartplanet.com

The Green Grid is hosting its third annual technical forum this week, showing how saving energy on IT can be easy money.

The profits from saving energy are at the top of the agenda, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivering a keynote this morning titled Green Gold Rush.

Here in Atlanta, for instance, a server farm could run on air for about a month out of the year, and save by using recycled water four months a year. Cooling savings are highest in the Southwest, but water savings are lower there, too…

Read more HERE