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From: Rock_nj	4/13/2012 2:09:34 PM
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Fuel Cell Uses Microbes To Produce Renewable Electricity From Sewage Water Scientists at the Rockville, Maryland, United States based Craig Venter Institute revealed a microbial fuel cell that uses microbes to produce renewable electricity from sewage water. The scientists claim that the microbial fuel cell can convert up to 13 percent of the potential energy stored in sewage water into electricity that can be used to offset the electricity demands of a sewage treatment plant and could also assist in the treatment of sewage water. How a Fuel Cell Uses Microbes To Produce Renewable Electricity From Sewage Water A microbial fuel cell makes use of naturally occurring microbes within sewage water to collect electrons and protons that are produced by the microbes as they metabolize (digest) the organic waste contained in sewage water. The electrons produced by the microbes are collected in an anode container, while the protons produced by the microbes filter through a permeable membrane within the fuel cell to a separate cathode container. The difference in charge between the anode and cathode containers creates voltage between the two containers (electrodes) that results in a useful electric current. See More At: rocknj.hubpages.com

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From: DanD	4/13/2012 6:28:50 PM
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Hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles convert CO2April 11th, 2012 in Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials Enlarge Researchers have combined gold nanoparticles (in light red) with copper nanoparticles (in light green) to form hybrid nanoparticles (dark red), which they turned into powder (foreground) to catalyze carbon dioxide reduction. Copper -- the stuff of pennies and tea kettles -- is also one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy. When fashioned into an electrode and stimulated with voltage, copper acts as a strong catalyst, setting off an electrochemical reaction with carbon dioxide that reduces the greenhouse gas to methane or methanol. Various researchers around the world have studied copper’s potential as an energy-efficient means of recycling carbon dioxide emissions in powerplants: Instead of being released into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide would be circulated through a copper catalyst and turned into methane — which could then power the rest of the plant. Such a self-energizing system could vastly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired and natural-gas-powered plants. But copper is temperamental: easily oxidized, as when an old penny turns green. As a result, the metal is unstable, which can significantly slow its reaction with carbon dioxide and produce unwanted byproducts such as carbon monoxide and formic acid. Now researchers at MIT have come up with a solution that may further reduce the energy needed for copper to convert carbon dioxide, while also making the metal much more stable. The group has engineered tiny nanoparticles of copper mixed with gold, which is resistant to corrosion and oxidation. The researchers observed that just a touch of gold makes copper much more stable. In experiments, they coated electrodes with the hybrid nanoparticles and found that much less energy was needed for these engineered nanoparticles to react with carbon dioxide, compared to nanoparticles of pure copper. A paper detailing the results will appear in the journal Chemical Communications; the research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Co-author Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli of MIT says the findings point to a potentially energy-efficient means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from powerplants. “You normally have to put a lot of energy into converting carbon dioxide into something useful,” says Hamad-Schifferli, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and biological engineering. “We demonstrated hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles are much more stable, and have the potential to lower the energy you need for the reaction.” Going small The team chose to engineer particles at the nanoscale in order to “get more bang for their buck,” Hamad-Schifferli says: The smaller the particles, the larger the surface area available for interaction with carbon dioxide molecules. “You could have more sites for the CO2 to come and stick down and get turned into something else,” she says. Hamad-Schifferli worked with Yang Shao-Horn, the Gail E. Kendall Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, postdoc Zichuan Xu and Erica Lai ’14. The team settled on gold as a suitable metal to combine with copper mainly because of its known properties. (Researchers have previously combined gold and copper at much larger scales, noting that the combination prevented copper from oxidizing.) To make the nanoparticles, Hamad-Schifferli and her colleagues mixed salts containing gold into a solution of copper salts. They heated the solution, creating nanoparticles that fused copper with gold. Xu then put the nanoparticles through a series of reactions, turning the solution into a powder that was used to coat a small electrode. To test the nanoparticles’ reactivity, Xu placed the electrode in a beaker of solution and bubbled carbon dioxide into it. He applied a small voltage to the electrode, and measured the resulting current in the solution. The team reasoned that the resulting current would indicate how efficiently the nanoparticles were reacting with the gas: If CO2 molecules were reacting with sites on the electrode — and then releasing to allow other CO2 molecules to react with the same sites — the current would appear as a certain potential was reached, indicating regular “turnover.” If the molecules monopolized sites on the electrode, the reaction would slow down, delaying the appearance of the current at the same potential. The team ultimately found that the potential applied to reach a steady current was much smaller for hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles than for pure copper and gold — an indication that the amount of energy required to run the reaction was much lower than that required when using nanoparticles made of pure copper. Going forward, Hamad-Schifferli says she hopes to look more closely at the structure of the gold-copper nanoparticles to find an optimal configuration for converting carbon dioxide. So far, the team has demonstrated the effectiveness of nanoparticles composed of one-third gold and two-thirds copper, as well as two-thirds gold and one-third copper. Hamad-Schifferli acknowledges that coating industrial-scale electrodes partly with gold can get expensive. However, she says, the energy savings and the reuse potential for such electrodes may balance the initial costs. “It’s a tradeoff,” Hamad-Schifferli says. “Gold is obviously more expensive than copper. But if it helps you get a product that’s more attractive like methane instead of carbon dioxide, and at a lower energy consumption, then it may be worth it. If you could reuse it over and over again, and the durability is higher because of the gold, that’s a check in the plus column.” Provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching. "Hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles convert CO2." April 11th, 2012. phys.org

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From: DanD	4/14/2012 7:10:37 PM
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Satellite proposed to send solar power to Earth April 11th, 2012 in Space & Earth / Space Exploration Enlarge Image credit: John Mankins (Phys.org) -- Artemis Innovation Management Solutions has been given some seed money by NASA to look deeper into a project the company first proposed last summer; namely, building a satellite that could collect energy from the sun and beam it back down to Earth to add to the electrical grid. Building such a satellite has been bantered about for several decades by various groups and scientists, but until now, no one had come up with a design that would work given all the constraints of the time. But now, an idea proposed by longtime NASA engineer John Mankins, now with Artemis, has clearly created enough interest within NASA that some money to investigate the idea is being offered. Mankins idea is a bio-mimetic approach, meaning it’s based on the way something in nature goes about handling a similar situation. In this case, it appears that something is the common flower, which uses its petals to collect solar energy. Mankins idea is to build petals out of an array of many small mirrors that would direct sunlight to solar cells. The energy created by the solar cells would then be converted to microwaves which would be broadcast or beamed back to a receiving station on Earth, where electricity (perhaps as much as tens of thousands of megawatts) would be generated from the energy in the microwaves. To make the project feasible, the mirrors and solar cells would be small and lightweight so that they could be easily transported into space using conventional transport vehicles. And because it would be component based, construction costs would be much lower than other proposed ideas. Enlarge The project called Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array (SPS-ALPHA) would make use of thin filmed mirrors to reduce weight which would be curved to take maximum advantage of the sunlight it receives. Also, the satellite would sit far enough away from planet Earth so that it would never be in the dark, allowing for a constant stream of microwaves. The initial seed money is to carry out a feasibility and proof of concept study. If NASA likes what it sees, the next step would likely be the construction of a pared down, cheaper version of the project working from a near Earth orbit. If that works out as planned, than the full scale satellite would be built and sent up, perhaps becoming the game changing solution to energy production that so many researchers the world over have been looking for. More information: nasa.gov © 2012 Phys.Org "Satellite proposed to send solar power to Earth." April 11th, 2012. phys.org

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From: russet	4/15/2012 2:53:07 PM
	1 Recommendation of 14179

Iceland's volcanoes may power UK The energy minister is to visit Iceland in May to discuss connecting the UK to its abundant geothermal energy Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 April 2012 18.59 BST Iceland could soon be pumping low-carbon electricity into the UK under government-backed plans for thousands of miles of high-voltage cables across the ocean floor. Photograph: Alamy The volcanoes of Iceland could soon be pumping low-carbon electricity into the UK under government-backed plans for thousands of miles of high-voltage cables across the ocean floor. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/11/iceland-volcano-green-power The energy minister, Charles Hendry, is to visit Iceland in May to discuss connecting the UK to its abundant geothermal energy. "We are in active discussions with the Icelandic government and they are very keen," Hendry told the Guardian. To reach Iceland, which sits over a mid-ocean split in the earth's crust, the cable would have to be 1,000 to 1,500km long and by far the longest in the world. Hendry has already met the head of Iceland's national grid about the plan. The web of sea-floor cables – called interconnectors – planned for the next decade would link the UK to a Europe-wide supergrid, which is backed by the prime minister. The supergrid would combine the wind and wave power of northern Europe with solar projects such as Desertec in southern Europe and north Africa to deliver reliable, clean energy to meet climate change targets and reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports. There are two existing international interconnectors, to France and the Netherlands, but nine more are either in construction, formal planning or undergoing feasibility studies. The next to open, in autumn 2012, will be a link between the Republic of Ireland and Wales, allowing green energy from the windswept Atlantic coast of Ireland to be delivered to British homes. The UK has been energy independent for virtually its entire history. But with the North Sea's oil and gas failing and coal banned as too polluting, Hendry is frank about the future: "We will be dependent on imported energy." The cables "are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy", he said. The government's legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions is another key driver for the new interconnectors, which if all built could supply a third of the nation's average electricity demand. Renewable energy, such as the offshore wind power at the heart of the government's renewable plans, is zero carbon once built but is also intermittent, meaning back-up gas plants or energy storage are needed. A 900km interconnector to Norway, due to open by 2019, would enable excess wind energy to pump water into storage lakes above the fjords. Then, when the electricity is needed, floodgates are opened and the water flows back down through turbines. Both the pump storage and the high-voltage direct-current interconnectors lose very little energy. Another ambitious interconnector would link England to Alderney, where very strong tides could produce 4GW of electricity, and then on to France and the new 1.6GW nuclear power plant being built at Flamanville. Commercial agreements for this were signed in February. Interconnector cables can be laid very rapidly – at over 30km a day – but remain significant engineering projects, with each kilometre containing 800 tonnes of copper. The most time-consuming aspect is settling international agreements and preparing landing sites and pylons to handle and distribute a large amount of electricity. "It's like taking a large nuclear power station onshore," said Hendry. He argued that a web of high-voltage cables ending the energy isolation of the British Isles will help keep household energy bills down, by allowing access to the cheapest energy at any particular time. Tony Glover, at energy grid trade body the Energy Networks Association, said: "For consumers the ability to link electricity supplies from the rest of Europe is good for competition and will generally help to keep prices competitive." The interconnectors can be built commercially with operators paying for the investment by taking a cut on the electricity transferred. As well as consumer energy bills, Hendry also argued that interconnectors will help reduce the cost of the intermittency of renewable energy. "Interconnectors are an incredibly effective way to counter the argument that you need to back up each gigawatt of wind with a gigawatt of gas – they quite clearly show you do not," he said. Interconnectors require large investments. The Britain-Netherland interconnector, which opened in 2011 and was the first international link in 25 years, cost £500m. But Greenpeace's Doug Parr said: "Interconnectors are the cheapest way of backing up wind, because you avoid the greater capital cost of building power stations. We will of course be buying power in when the wind is not blowing, but the interconnectors mean we can sell our wind power when it does, and we have the best wind resource in Europe." However, Simon Less at the thinktank Policy Exchange, urged caution in relying on interconnectors for back-up: "Major new interconnection in north western Europe might not offset much of the need for backup plant because winter high pressure weather patterns can extend low wind conditions right across Europe." Norway's pump storage could counter that fear but there is competition for access to that resource, with Germany also negotiating over an interconnector. "We are keen we should be first," said Hendry.

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From: russet	4/15/2012 2:53:53 PM
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Iceland Exports Energy as Data An arctic nation looks to large-scale computing for an economic boost. Wednesday, April 11, 2012 By Lucas Laursen Iceland's main exports are aluminum and fish. Now the isolated nation is hoping to offer the world a new commodity: a cheap, guiltless way to store its data. In February, a startup called Verne Global opened a large server farm on an old NATO base near Iceland's main airport and began offering "100% renewable" computing services to the rest of the world. It's one of three data centers in Iceland and part of what Iceland's government hopes will be a new local industry. http://www.technologyreview.com/business/40017/?nlid=nlbus&nld=2012-04-13 Iceland produces more electricity per capita than any other country in the world. Nearly all its power is renewable, coming from either glacier-fed rivers or steaming geothermal vents. And it's cheap, too. At 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, electrons on the island cost around half the average retail rate in the United States. About four-fifths of Iceland's electricity is currently used to smelt aluminum. Big companies like Alcoa have set up facilities to take advantage of cheap power; they then export the metal. According to the government's master plan for hydropower and geothermal resources, Iceland could double its power generation. But environmentalists oppose expansion of the aluminum industry. That has Iceland's government looking to attract new power-intensive industries. Data centers use up to 2 percent of electricity produced in the United States and are the fastest-growing source of electricity consumption globally. By 2020, according to some estimates, the data centers that store e-mails, Web files, and all manner of documents could be drawing 1,300 terawatt-hours of electricity yearly, or four times 2007 levels. The right sales pitch could grab Iceland a share of that market. Invest in Iceland, a government-funded agency in Reykjavik, estimates that Verne's data center, the largest of the three on the island, could create up to 100 jobs for Icelanders. While that's a modest start, things "can move really fast if some large players in the market decide to set up," says Arnar Gudmundsson, a project manager at Invest in Iceland. Another country might sell electricity to energy-hungry neighbors. But Iceland lacks neighbors. Every decade or so, someone runs the numbers to see what it would cost to plug the country into Europe's electricity grid. Depending on where it made land, the cable would have to be around twice the length of the longest existing undersea power link, which stretches 580 kilometers between Norway and the Netherlands. Last year, a study by Landsvirkjun, Iceland's state-owned energy company, concluded that the cable could be economically feasible, though it would cost two billion euros. Still, it could take a decade to plan and build, estimates Óli Grétar Blöndal Sveinsson, Landsvirkjun's executive vice president for research and development. Meanwhile, Iceland already has three fiber-optic links to North America, Scotland, and Denmark, and there are plans to lay a new 100-gigabit-per-second undersea cable along a great circular path stretching 6,700 kilometers from New York to Canada, with a branch to Iceland. "It's far more expensive to export energy than the data, and the data is more valuable," says John Pflueger, principal environmental strategist for Dell and a director of Green Grid, an industry group. "Iceland can be a net exporter of information and derive value from that." Iceland won't work as a location for every application. Even moving at the speed of light, data takes 36 milliseconds to reach New York. That rules the island out as a site for certain time-sensitive computations: high-speed traders, for example, need to be within a few miles of stock exchanges. But the renewable sources of Iceland's power could give the country an edge. Greenpeace last year published a report excoriating major tech firms, including Apple and Facebook, for relying on coal and nuclear energy to power server farms. "We see this infrastructure being quite critical to a low-carbon economy," says Gary Cook, senior information technology analyst for Greenpeace in San Francisco. "We need to put them in the right places." Among Verne's first clients is Greenqloud, a cloud computing operation that bills itself as "100 percent carbon neutral." However, Verne marketing manager Lisa Rhodes says it's "still debatable" whether green energy will be a major selling point. She says Verne, whose facility has access to 50 megawatts of power, picked Iceland to set up shop mostly because of its cheap electricity rates.

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From: Doren	4/16/2012 3:07:20 PM
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Walmart marked its 100th solar installation in the United States and moved the company closer to its long-term goal of using 100 percent renewable energy in its stores across the country. http://www.getsolar.com/News/Colorado/Solar-Panels/Colorado-Walmarts-Install-Solar-Panels--800750912 Colorado Walmarts Install Solar Panels Wednesday, April 11th 2012 4:48 PM By GetSolar Staff. Walmart recently expanded its solar commitment to Colorado by partnering with SolarCity to begin six new solar projects, which will reduce air pollution and help the state get closer to its renewable energy goals. Walmart marked its 100th solar installation in the United States and moved the company closer to its long-term goal of using 100 percent renewable energy in its stores across the country. The installations that were recently completed total two megawatts, and are located at three stores in the Westminster area and one each in Lakewood, Highlands Ranch and Lafayette. Colorado is aiming to produce 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and is already home to many projects that display the benefits of using solar energy. "Like the state of Colorado, Walmart has set ambitious renewable energy goals and these solar installations are another step in that journey," said Kim Saylors-Laster, Walmart vice president of energy. "Solar power continues to show promise as an alternative to traditional power for its environmental and economic benefits. We are proud to work with SolarCity and the state of Colorado on this project that creates local jobs, and ultimately helps Walmart reduce its energy costs, so that we can continue to pass on savings to our customers." The solar installations are predicted to be effective despite the large flat-roof environment where high wind and snow can be challenging for solar projects. When the solar installations are completed, Walmart's SolarCity projects in Colorado are expected to generate close to 3 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy every year, the equivalent of powering 224 homes, and the installations will allow the stores to avoid producing more than 5 million pounds of harmful carbon dioxide emissions annually. "With these six solar power systems in Colorado, we reach an exciting milestone of 100 solar power installations on U.S. Walmart stores, clubs, and distribution centers," said Marty Gilbert, Walmart director of energy. "While Walmart's investment in solar technology has significantly grown in recent years, we know there is still much work to be done to reach our environmental goals and look forward to continuing to work with states like Colorado and suppliers like SolarCity to take full advantage of solar power." The installations in Colorado continue Walmart's commitment to new technology on a large scale in the state despite its winter weather, which can cause problems at times if solar arrays aren't properly maintained. However, these weather related challenges are very surmountable, as Colorado currently ranks fifth among the country's top 10 states for the total amount of solar capacity installed. Toby Corey, chief revenue officer for SolarCity, pointed out that his company and Walmart have partnered to boost renewable energy use in two other big solar states: Arizona and California. He added that Walmart is showing other businesses they can be eco-friendly while saving money on electricity. Walmart is making renewable energy an integral part of the company in hopes of one day using 100 percent solar energy sources at all of its stores throughout the country. In addition to the recent installation in Colorado, Walmart and SolarCity also announced plans to install solar panels on up to 60 additional stores in California, which would expand the company's solar portfolio and increase California solar installation. While Walmart is playing a major part in solar installations, IKEA is also playing a major part in carbon emissions reduction, recently installing solar panels at its location in Paramus, New Jersey.

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