Atlantic City’s Convention Center has entered into a unique deal which will see 290,000 square feet of roof space taken up with solar photovoltaic cells (solar panels, to you and me!). The solar cells will cover around two-thirds of the roof and are expected to save around $4.4 million over the next 20 years and the Center has claimed that when installed, the panels will be the largest single-building solar energy project in the US.
The Convention Center have an interesting contract with Pepco, the local electricity firm. Pepco are paying to have the solar panels installed at the Center and the Convention Center will then buy back the electricity they generate from the utility firm.
An expert has warned that wind farms pose a larger problem than just being an eyesore for some people – they have the potential to cause epileptic fits.
According to Professor Arnold Wilkins, the flickering of sunlight which occurs as the blades turn, can trigger seizures in more vulnerable members of the public. Professor Wilkins is calling for the risk to be considered when building wind farms.
Cow manure – the latest way to produce energy, in California at least. Earlier this week, PG&E Corp began producing natural gas derived from manure and they are hoping that the small project will become a new way to power homes in a renewable, clean way.
The Vintage Dairy Biogas Project is the creation of dairyman David Albers, whose aim is to produce enough power from the manure plant to power 1,200 homes. Albers is a partner in the Vintage Dairy as well as being he president of BioEnergy Solutions, a company that funded and built the new cow manure power plant at a cost of several million dollars, with PG&E being a customer.
Wind turbines aren’t infallible as this clip from YouTube shows - the brakes failed on a Danish wind turbine during a storm causing the 200ft wind turbine to disintegrate. The ten-year old wind turbine is the second one to fail in the last week and the company have launched an investigation into the issue.
Solar power is a popular renewable energy source with many people considering personal solar panels for their houses. However, the one major downside of solar power is that it cannot generate electricity at night or on overcast days.
A venture called SolarReserve think they have found a solution to the problem – by using salt. Their project focuses on storing and saving solar energy in molten salt and the believe that their new solar plant will be able to produce up to 500 megawatts at peak power. This is around the same figure as a normal coal power plant would produce with the added bonus that the solar plant would not be releasing any greenhouse emissions.
New research shows that personal wind turbines are actually not that great for the environment after all with some actually contributing to climate change rather than helping to fight it.
Many consumers buy wind turbines for their homes to help save on electricity costs as well as helping fight global warming. However, wind turbines are costly pieces of equipment and the Building Research Establishment Trust has found that most of these wind turbines never save as much money as they cost in the first place.
Hydrogen is a fuel which many companies are working towards – when burnt, it gives off just energy and water making it an environmentally friendly option. However, the problem with hydrogen is that most of the hydrogen produced today is actually generated from fossil fuels.
However, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have come up with a nifty solution that may actually kill two birds with one stone – they have found a way to create hydrogen from biodegradable rubbish. First announced in 2005, the technology can take organic matter from plants, liquid waste from sewers or breweries, and selected waste from industrial processing plants and put it into a specially designed reactor. Bacteria is then applied to the mixture which help to break the matter down – a process which releases hydrogen gas.
The world’s largest offshore wind farm has been approved by the British government and will be built just off the Kent coast in the UK. The plans show that the wind farm will occupy an area 90 miles square and should be ready to supply power to a quarter of London’s homes by 2010.
However, there are some issues with the farm. Local opposition to an electricity substation has caused the project to be delayed by 18 months already, and costs for the project are spiralling – the original estimate for the build was £1.5 billion however it is now estimated that £2 billion will be required. The RSPB were also against the build claiming that the scheme might threaten the red-throated diver birds that are occasionally seen in winter in that part of Kent.
Geopower Basel are a power company who are competing with a firm in Australia to become the first company to general power commercially by boiling water on the rocks under the earth’s surface.
It’s a simple idea – geothermal power. The company are planning to drill down, pour cold water into the shaft until it is Geopower Basel are a power company who are competing with a firm in Australia to become the first company to general power commercially by boiling water on the rocks under the earth’s surface.
The Austrian town of Gussing was once considered a forgotten outpost. Lying just 10 miles from the barbed-wire border of the Iron Curtain, Gussing started it’s transformation 15 years ago.
In 1992, the two was struggling to pay it’s 6 million Euro electricity bill. Public buildings were ordered not to use any more fossil fuels and an alternative energy industry was spawned. Since that year, over 50 companies and 1,000 jobs have been created in the town in the renewable energy sector alone. Since 1995, Gussing has reduced it’s carbon dioxide emissions by 93%. This compares to Vaxjo, a Swedish town which won the EU’s ‘Sustainable Community’ award this year because of cutting it’s emissions by 25% in the last decade.
