Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 232
Oct 27, 2017
The World’s First Floating Wind Farm Is an Incredible Feat of Engineering
Posted by Montie Adkins in categories: energy, engineering
Last week saw the launch of the world’s first floating offshore wind farm. Located in the North Sea off the coast of Peterhead, Scotland, the wind farm consists of five enormous horizontal-axis turbines that together can generate 30 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power about 20,000 homes.
The wind farm is called Hywind, and it’s been in the making for over 15 years, spearheaded by Norwegian energy firm Statoil. Key facts about the turbines and their location include:
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Oct 23, 2017
In 5 Years, Batteries Will Blanket The U.S., Duke Executive Says
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: business, energy
Five years. That’s how soon batteries can be expected to sprout all over the electric grid as utilities and homeowners drop in on a wave of falling prices, a Duke Energy executive said in Chicago Thursday.
“There’s going to be a lot of excitement around batteries in the next five years. And I would say that the country will get blanketed with projects,” said Spencer Hanes, a managing director of business development with the Charlotte, North Carolina-based utility.
“With the way that the cost curves are coming down it’s a big opportunity for all of us to deliver what customers want.”
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Oct 14, 2017
Toyota’s Trucks That Only Emit Water Vapor Are Moving Goods in LA
Posted by Ian Hale in categories: energy, transportation
Japanese automaker Toyota is serious about perfecting hydrogen fuel cell technology to power its vehicles, and it’s scheduled an initial feasibility study operations for its zero-emissions heavy-duty truck a little over a week from today. A concept version of a truck running Toyota’s specialized hydrogen fuel cell system designed for heavy-hauling use will be moving goods from select terminals at the Port of LA and Long Beach to nearby warehouses and rail yards beginning on October 23.
“If you see a big-rig driving around the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that seems oddly quiet and quick, do not be alarmed! It’s just the future,” Toyota wrote in a press release. The company expects the daily runs to cover some 322 kilometers (200 miles) to test the fuel cell system’s duty-cycle capabilities. Afterwards, longer trips could be introduced.
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Oct 12, 2017
A single floating wind farm could power the entire planet
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: energy, engineering, sustainability
The Carnegie scientists, Anna Possner and Ken Caldeira, suspected that drag like this might be far lower over water than over land, particularly in mid-latitude oceans in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Why might that be? As Earth tilts away from the sun each autumn, jet stream-like rivers of air form high in the atmosphere. Over the open ocean, storms pull these strong winds down near the planet’s surface, replenishing the wind energy captured by turbines.
The effect might sound small, but it adds up. The scientists calculate that a wind farm in the middle of the North Atlantic would generate at least twice as much energy — and perhaps three times as much — as an identical wind farm in Kansas, itself one of the windiest states in the U.S. A wind farm roughly twice the size of Alaska could generate 18 million megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to meet the entire global demand today.
There are big practical challenges to building such a farm, including coping with extreme mid-ocean weather and transmitting the power back to shore. And by harvesting so much wind in the North Atlantic, a giant wind farm would reduce the output of onshore wind turbines in the U.K. and Western Europe — and reduce temperatures in the Arctic by more than 20 degrees. This might sound attractive at a time when polar ice is melting, but scientists worry about the unforeseen consequences of such geoengineering.
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Chong Liu mixes bacteria and inorganics into systems that can generate clean energy better than a leaf.
Oct 7, 2017
Surrounded: In every plant—from trees to crops—there exists a substance that makes up its wood or stems, fiber, and cell walls
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: energy, food, sustainability
This substance is a complex natural polymer called lignin, and it is the second largest renewable carbon source on the planet after cellulose.
This natural abundance has drawn high interest from the research community to chemically convert lignin into biofuels. And if plant life really does hold the building blocks for renewable fuels, it would seem that we are literally surrounded by potential energy sources everywhere green grows.
But untangling the complex chains of these polymers into components, which can be useful for liquid fuel and other applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to plastics, has presented an ongoing challenge to science and industry.
Oct 3, 2017
Tesla says it’s halfway done building the world’s biggest battery
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: Elon Musk, energy, sustainability, transportation
On Friday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the company was halfway done building the battery bank that will become the world’s biggest battery once it’s complete. Musk made the announcement at a party overlooking the project’s construction, ABC News Australia reported.
Tesla is building the 129-MWh battery with French energy company Neoen. The battery will be draw energy from Neoen’s Hornsdale wind farm that’s 142 miles north of Adelaide. The electricity will be delivered to South Australians during peak grid times to reduce the number of blackouts in the area, which are frequent in summer months.
“The system is a big battery, a battery big enough to power 50,000 houses — the biggest in the world,” Neoen global COO Romain Desrousseaux previously told Business Insider.
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Sep 30, 2017
Water evaporation could be a promising source of renewable energy
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: energy, sustainability
Sep 30, 2017
Evaporating Water Could Power Almost 70% of The US Electrical Grid
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: energy, sustainability
It’s not every day scientists say a new kind of renewable energy could satisfy the majority of our power needs, so when they do, it’s worth leaning in close.
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have found that energy harvested from the evaporation of water in US lakes and reservoirs could power nearly 70 percent of the nation’s electricity demands, generating a whopping 325 gigawatts of electricity.
Alongside the great strides being made in solar and wind, biophysicist Ozgur Sahin from Columbia University says natural evaporation represents a massive unexplored resource of environmentally clean power generation, just waiting to be tapped.
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