THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for April, 2011

It appears to have been getting windier over the past two decades, according to a Swinburne University of Technology team led by Ian Young whose research appeared Friday in the journal Science. Young has authored more than 100 papers.

National Geographic reports that the analysis, the first to look at the last 20 years of wind speeds across the entire planet, indicated that on average winds over the oceans have picked up 5%, and that the extremely strong winds caused by storms have increased by 10%.

If the wind increase keeps up, it might be good news for off-shore wind energy (up to a point), but warns Young, a long time Dean of Engineering at Swinburne, that could also impact “engineering design of coastal and offshore structures, coastal erosion, and marine ecosystems.”

To gather this data, the team assembled global measurements dating back to 1985 from satellites that used radar altimeters, which work similarly to bats’ echolocation, or natural radar.

The orbiting satellites shoot radio waves at Earth and listen for the echoes that bounce back into space. When winds are blowing hard, the radar echoes are fainter, giving a measure of how strong the wind is blowing over the oceans.

The results would seem to run counter to a widely quoted 2009 study from Eugene Takle (Iowa State) that found that US winds have slowed over thirty years, at least at 30 feet, the height of airport monitors, by 15 to 30 percent. But Takle’s study looked just at the US, however, and found that most of the stilling found in the 2009 study came from East of the Mississippi. (Mountain top removal slows wind speeds and the Appalachias are East of the Mississippi).

By contrast, Young’s is the first study to tabulate wind speeds worldwide.

“If this is related to global warming—and this is speculation—it indicates that either the intensity of storms is increasing or the frequency of storms is increasing,” said Young.

Bill McKibben is the author of Eaarth – making a life on a tough new planet. Because we are changing the planet so much, McKibben suggests that we need a new name for it.

Susan Kraemer @Twitter

Related articles

• Global Gale Warning (usnews.com)
• A Mighty Extreme Wind for Offshore Turbines (spectrum.ieee.org)
• Australia study finds wind speeds steadily increasing (lookatvietnam.com)
• Study finds wind speeds rose over world’s oceans (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

China hasn’t taken long to learn a lesson from the Japan nuclear crisis (perhaps). It is cutting its 2020 target for nuclear power and is filling in with increased solar power targets, according to an official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

China recently passed up the U.S. as the world’s leading energy consumer. What it does on this front is critical to the long-term livability of our planet (for humans, at least). It is great to see that it is not only cutting back on nuclear expansion (which is a very risky option until someone learns how to deal with nuclear waste that lasts several times longer than humans have existed for), but that it is also increasing its solar power goals to account for this.

Reportedly, Shi Lishan, deputy director of the renewable energy department of the National Energy Administration (NEA), announced yesterday that China is “seriously considering increasing its five year target for the PV industry capacity from 5 gigawatts (GW) to 10 GW” as well.

The previous 2020 target for nuclear was 80 GW and for solar it was 20 GW. The proposed changes have not been announced yet.

But while its 2020 targets are supposed to be changing, that may not change China’s plans in the long term.

Is China Going to Cut its Nuclear Goals in the Long-Term?

While it is clear that China is slowing down its nuclear development process, some are saying that it is not actually going to change the long-term goals of the country when it comes to nuclear. The slow-down will be to ensure that new nuclear plants are “safer” but it won’t necessarily cut the country’s eventual target.

“NDRC Vice Chairman Xie Zhenhua said [on Wednesday] that China won’t alter its atomic energy plans, even as the Cabinet had stopped approving new nuclear plants, pending safety checks.”

Cao Peixi, chairman of Huaneng Power International Inc, said the same thing at a press briefing yesterday. Want China Times writes: “China’s biggest electricity producer won’t alter its nuclear plans because of Japan, Cao said.”

Is this temporary halting of nuclear development just a play for the public? Or will safety checks, a change of short term plans, and probable cost increases reduce nuclear development in China? We’ll see….

Related Stories:

• My Thoughts on Nuclear
• Offshore Wind Energy Cheaper than Nuclear Energy, EU Climate Chief Says
• How Risky is it For Germany to Shutter its Nuclear?
• Should We Subsidize Nuclear, When it Can Never Scale?

Image via International Rivers

Do-it-yourselfers are probably rejoicing in the streets, now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tweaked its rules for selling alternative fuel conversion systems for cars and certain trucks. The previous rule was intended to ensure that fuel conversions don’t have the unintended consequence of creating significantly more pollution, as can happen with a badly designed conversion system. The new rule modification accounts for the age of the car and the engine when determining whether the conversion complies with emission requirements.

Regulatory Obstacle Lifted for Alternative Fuel Conversions

In order to ensure that a fuel switch still meets emission standards, EPA requires a certificate of conformity for alternative fuel conversion systems. Without this exemption, the manufacturer or installer could face tampering charges under the Clean Air Act, which generally prohibits altering an engine. The previous conformity rule had a one-size-fits-all structure that created an unnecessary burden depending on the age of the car and engine. The new rules adjust for those factors, creating a number of options for meeting compliance with emission standards. The rules for new and relatively new engines/vehicles will remain substantially the same, and will be somewhat less involved for older cars/engines.

Great, But Where do You Get the Alternative Fuel?

The Department of Energy has an online alternative fuel locator, which is sure handy because doing the fuel conversion is just half the equation. Getting hold of the new fuel is the other half. Along these lines, EPA also provides a few caveats for consumers, noting that conversion alone may not result in lower pollution. EPA rules only require that the conversion not result in an increase. In addition, a conversion doesn’t necessarily give you lower fuel and running costs, so here’s another handy item: the Department of Energy’s online, national up-to-date alternative fuel price report.

Image: Vintage car by XOZ (The REAL XOZ) on flickr.com.

A solar farm using concentrating solar photovoltaic technology, which combines mirrors and solar PV cells, was recently completed in Hanford, Calif. at the Nichols Farms. It’s a 1 MW solar project, using technology from SolFocus, and built by Bechtel and developer Sol Orchard.

Check out the photos of this next-gen solar tech. The solar farm will produce 2,244 million kilowatt hours of clean power, using 119 SolFocus solar devices and is connected to the grid via utility Southern California Edison.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

The United Nations has opted to use Microsoft’s green pre-fab “data center in a box” technology for its new office in Nairobi, Kenya. Dubbed ITPAC (IT pre-assembled components), the technology can reduce the energy costs associated with a data center and will help the U.N. make its new Nairobi office energy-neutral. (To learn more about green data center tech come to Green:Net on April 21 in San Francisco)

ITPAC is manufactured by air cooling company Saiver, and the tech uses outside air for cooling, which cuts out the power-hungry chillers that are used in most data centers to keep servers cool. Cooling can traditionally suck up a good half of the energy consumption of a data center.

The ITPAC system is modular — like the shipping container data centers you might have seen out there — and is basically plug-n-play with the servers and everything (see video below). The data center operator doesn’t need to actually construct the building, so this also reduces the need for concrete, steel, piping, copper etc.

Microsoft says the Power Usage Effectiveness metric (or PUE) — which measures the energy efficiency of a data center — of its latest data centers using this technology is between 1.05 and 1.15., though the final PUE of the U.N.’s Nairobi ITPAC data center is yet to be determined.

A PUE of 1 for a data center is excellent, while a PUE of 2 is not so good. Google has touted data center designs that can deliver a PUE of 1.2. The current average PUE for data centers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is a pretty high 1.92.

Yahoo’s VP of Data Center Engineering & Operations Scott Noteboom told me last year that he thinks high PUEs for Internet companies’ data centers will not be a sustainable competitive offering going forward. That’s an “exciting change that has happened in this business recently,” Noteboom told me.

At Green:Net, Microsoft’s Environmental Strategist Rob Bernard will talk about the company’s green data center designs and its connected cities projects. We’ll also be featuring a discussion at Green:Net between Google’s Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl and Yahoo’s Director, Climate and Energy Strategy, Christina Page, about green data center tech, and Greenpeace will release new data on clean power and the cloud.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Infrastructure Overview, Q2 2010
• Will Apple’s Spectrum Bet Pay Off?
• How Much Integration Is Too Much in the Cloud?