General energy news

[Mr. H.]

World's biggest offshore wind farm with 300 turbines will be built in Lincolnshire

Work on the Triton Knoll site can now begin after the £3.6bn project was given the go ahead
It will dwarf Britain's current largest offshore facility unveiled last week by David Cameron

When complete the windfarm will generate enough power for 820,000 homes

Read more: World's biggest offshore wind farm with 300 turbines will be built in Lincolnshire | Mail Online
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1.2 gw of electricy!!!!

Those poor birds...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Solar Modules 20% Lower Than Last Year

Solar Modules 20% Lower Than Last Year | CleanTechnica
July 23, 2013 Giles Parkinson

Two of the key metrics that will be watched closely in the global solar industry reporting season that has just commenced are the price of panels sold, and the cost of manufacture. The difference is what the industry calls the margin.

For the past few years, the surplus of capacity meant that margins were mostly negative, but the rebalancing of the market, as some manufacturers go out of business, and the Chinese, Japanese and US markets drive strong growth, mean most manufacturers are in positive territory.

 

[ScienceRocks]

US Halts Mining In Designated Solar Energy Zones


July 25, 2013 Jo Borrás

US Halts Mining In Designated Solar Energy Zones | CleanTechnica

The US Department of the Interior has put a stop to new mining claims across 17 newly-defined “solar energy zones,” further emphasizing the Obama administration’s commitment to clean, sustainable energy.

The 17 “no mining” sites are spread across the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Each was selected as being an area of public land highly suited for solar developments thanks to high irradiation, access to planned and existing transmission lines, and the ability install large solar arrays with a minimal biological, cultural, and historical or “landmark” impact.

 

[Mr. H.]

US Halts Mining In Designated Solar Energy Zones


July 25, 2013 Jo Borrás

US Halts Mining In Designated Solar Energy Zones | CleanTechnica

The US Department of the Interior has put a stop to new mining claims across 17 newly-defined “solar energy zones,” further emphasizing the Obama administration’s commitment to clean, sustainable energy.

The 17 “no mining” sites are spread across the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Each was selected as being an area of public land highly suited for solar developments thanks to high irradiation, access to planned and existing transmission lines, and the ability install large solar arrays with a minimal biological, cultural, and historical or “landmark” impact.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Charge to go: The EP Tender portable EV range extender


Charge to go: The EP Tender portable EV range extender

While electric vehicle charging networks continue to evolve and expand, there is another approach to reducing range anxiety: taking the charger with you. The EP Tender range-extender system is designed to give an extra lease of life to EV batteries with the addition of a trailer mounted generator system.

Applying the same principle that we've seen in the ebuggy and Rinspeed Dock+Go concepts, the EP Tender portable charging system is essentially a mobile commercial generator that's been pared down for consumer use. The 200 kg (440 lb) system utilizes a trailer mounted 600 cc engine that resides in standby mode until a low charge signal is received from the vehicle. While the vehicle is being driven, the tethered trailer activates the generator, which in turn recharges the EV battery. The idea is that this charge on the go system could negate the need for lengthy charging stops.

 

[ScienceRocks]

BMW i3 Officially Unveiled (27-Minute Video From NYC, Beijing, & London World Premiere)

This article was first published on EV Obsession.

After years of development and countless teasers, the commercial-production BMW i3 has finally been unveiled. The BMW i3 electric car was simultaneously unveiled in London, New York, and Beijing yesterday.

CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

Interesting looking car

 

[ScienceRocks]

$23 Million Energy Storage Research Center Launched In New York State

New York State is making an aggressive push to expand smart grid and renewable energy, and now a public-private project could combine the two through energy storage innovations.

New York’s Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST) and Dutch company DNV Kema have announced a $23 million joint investment to build the Battery and Energy Storage Technology (BEST) testing and commercialization center in Rochester, New York.

Construction has already begun on the BEST center in an abandoned section of the former Eastman Kodak business park, and when complete, it will boast 17,000 square feet of world-class testing and commercialization facilities designed to accelerate commercial deployment of energy storage technologies.

CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Clip-on wind turbine aims to supplement solar panels

Crowdfunding has come to the small wind generation field with an Indiegogo campaign intended for an interesting target niche: a small wind generator designed to be clipped onto solar panels. According to its pitch, Cleantec Wind has not only created a prototype, but calculated possible energy returns, targeted a price point and lined up suppliers for initial deliveries and has turned to Indeigogo to get his small startup off the launch pad.

Clip-on wind turbine aims to supplement solar panels

 

[ScienceRocks]

Deepwater Wind Wins America’s First Offshore Wind Competitive Lease Sale

America’s nascent offshore wind industry cleared a major hurdle yesterday, successfully holding the first-ever competitive lease sale for offshore wind energy development.

Deepwater Wind was declared the provisional winner in the Interior Department’s auction of two leases, totaling 164,750 acres roughly 9 miles offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the potential for 3,395 megawatts (MW) of wind power.

Deepwater’s $3.8 million bid wins it the right to build the Deepwater Wind Energy Center (DWEC), a 1,000MW utility-scale wind farm with 200 turbines and a regional transmission system linking to New York State and southeastern New England. Construction is expected to start as early as 2017, and power production could begin as early as 2018.

Read more at CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Growth Of Global Solar & Wind Energy Continues To Outpace Other Technologies

Global use of solar and wind energy continued to grow significantly in 2012. Solar power consumption increased by 58 percent, to 93 terrawatt-hours (TWh), and the use of wind power increased by 18 percent, to 521 TWh. Although hydropower remains the world’s leading renewable energy, solar and wind continue to dominate investment in new renewable capacity and are quickly becoming the highest-profile renewable energy sources, write Worldwatch staff in the Institute’s latest Vital Signs Online trend.

Global solar and wind energy capacities continued to grow even though new investments in these energy sources declined during 2012. Global investment in solar energy in 2012 was $140.4 billion, an 11 percent decline from 2011, and wind investment was down 10 percent, to $80.3 billion.But due to lower costs for both technologies, total installed capacities grew sharply.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity grew by 41 percent in 2012, reaching 100 gigawatts (GW). Over the past five years alone, installed PV capacity grew by 900 percent from 10 GW in 2007. The countries with the most installed PV capacity today are Germany (32.4 GW), Italy (16.4 GW), the United States (7.2 GW), and China (7.0 GW).

Read more at CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Electric Cars Are Doing Better Than Hybrids Did in Their First Three Years | MIT Technology Review

Advances in Electric cars

 

[flacaltenn]

US Halts Mining In Designated Solar Energy Zones


July 25, 2013 Jo Borrás

US Halts Mining In Designated Solar Energy Zones | CleanTechnica

The US Department of the Interior has put a stop to new mining claims across 17 newly-defined “solar energy zones,” further emphasizing the Obama administration’s commitment to clean, sustainable energy.

The 17 “no mining” sites are spread across the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Each was selected as being an area of public land highly suited for solar developments thanks to high irradiation, access to planned and existing transmission lines, and the ability install large solar arrays with a minimal biological, cultural, and historical or “landmark” impact.

WTF?? This is the superior Democrat science that RDean raves about???

So if a billion tons of rare earth materials were to be discovered in one of those zones, we should just STFU and be dependent on China to make our wind turbines, and EVs???

What do they think GOES INTO making those solar panels anyway?? Geeeezzz... the stupidity and arrogance is astounding..

A decade more of this "revolution" and we are un-retrivievely DOOMED...

 

[ScienceRocks]

New Membrane Could Be Game Changer For Fuel Cell Vehicles

The last time we caught up with 3M, the expert in all things sticky was busy at work on a federal grant to improve solar energy technologies, so it’s no surprise to find the company charging ahead on other clean tech projects. In the latest endeavor, 3M has just received a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy to develop a new fuel cell membrane that is more efficient and durable than current technology. That doesn’t necessarily mean a duct tape fuel cell is in our future, but 3M already has a track record in the fuel cell field and considerable experience in thin films under its belt.

Also getting in on the new round of funding is the Colorado School of Mines, which will also be developing a new low cost, high performance fuel cell membrane under a $1.5 million grant.

If these two R&D projects bear fruit, they are bound to heat up the battery vs. fuel cell debate, as the two platforms vie for a share of the electric vehicle market.

Read more at CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New Method For Producing ‘Electronic Ink’ — Solar Cells As Cheap As Roof Shingles In The Near-Future?

A new method for producing “electronic ink” — a specialized form of ink from non-toxic nanometer-sized crystals of silicon — has been developed by researchers from the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The researchers say that their new technology brings the possibility of solar-cells-as-cheap-as-roof-shingles one step closer to reality, as well as the means to lower the production costs of a variety of other electronics.

“Imagine a world where every child in a developing country could learn reading and math from a touch pad that costs less than $10 or home solar cells that finally cost less than fossil fuels,” stated Uwe Kortshagen, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and one of the authors of a new paper detailing the research.

The reason that the electronic ink is so valuable, is that the ‘ink’ can be used to, essentially, “print out” electronics — potentially a much cheaper way to produce many commonly used electronic devices.

Read more at CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Graphene-based supercapacitor a step closer to commerical reality

Graphene-based supercapacitors have already proven the equal of conventional supercapacitors – in the lab. But now researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University claim to have developed of a new scalable and cost-effective technique to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors that brings them a step closer to commercial development.

With their almost indefinite lifespan and ability to recharge in seconds, supercapacitors have tremendous energy-storage potential for everything from portable electronics, to electric vehicles and even large-scale renewable energy plants. But the drawback of existing supercapacitors has been their low energy density of around 5 to 8 Wh/liter, which means they either have to be exceedingly large or recharged frequently.

Professor Dan Li and his team at Monash University’s Department of Materials Engineering has created a graphene-based supercapacitor with an energy density of 60 Wh/liter, which is around 12 times higher than that of commercially available supercapacitors and in the same league as lead-acid batteries. The device also lasts as long as a conventional battery.

Graphene-based supercapacitor a step closer to commerical reality

 

[ScienceRocks]

Enercon win Swedish deal for E92

The 2.3MW turbines, produced by German manufacturer Enercon, and designed for inland sites with low to medium wind speeds, will be delivered to the wind farm’s Skogberget.

It will be financed jointly with EUR 84.5 million from Germany’s KfW IPEX bank and Swedish bank SEB, and loan financing will be provided by both banks in equal shares.

SEB head of project, asset and export finance, Christoph Tomas, said: "Financing projects aimed at protecting the environment and climate is an integral part of both bank’s business spectrum."

KfW IPEX managing director, Markus Scheer, said his bank was supporting "a promising flagship project in the growing market for renewable energy in Sweden".

Markbygden is expected to generate 4GW by 2021 from more than 1,100 wind turbines.

http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1194041/enercon-win-swedish-deal-e92

 

[ScienceRocks]

Electric Car Sales Up 530% Over 2012


Electric Car Sales Up 530% for July 2013

They may not be the 1% of overall sales that the government wants to see, but there is denying that electric cars are starting reach the mainstream. Year over year sales for elctric cars were up 530% in July, and while some of that can be attributed to new players in the market, Nissan and Mitsubishi’s EVs (out for more than a year) showed significant gains, while the Chevy Volt was down nearly 10% as “Pure EV” enthusiasts flocked to the Spark.

You can get all the gory details on the recent surge in electric car sales in the original article, below, which originally appeared on Cleantechnica and EV Obsession

 

[ScienceRocks]

Korea unveils electric buses that charge up while on the road
Korea unveils electric buses that charge up while on the road | DVICE

When Elon Musk unveiled his battery swapping service months ago it was the Tesla founder's bid to help mainstream electric vehicles by making charging that much easier. But as previous battery swapping projects have proven, the dynamic isn't necessarily a sure-fire answer to wider adoption of electric cars. However, a new effort from Korea is offering a complication-free solution that could point the way for electric charging in major cities around the world in the near future.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Exciting Developments A Hydrogen And Ammonia Pilot Plant In Minnesota

The West Central Research and Outreach Center has recently turned what was just a dream in 2002 into a reality today. The project began with a vision of capturing wind energy and using it in an innovative way; the end product was the completion of the Renewable Hydrogen and Ammonia Pilot Plant located in Morris, Minnesota.

The plant’s function is to ultimately create NH3 (ammonia). How does it work? Nitrogen and hydrogen are created using wind, air, and water. Nitrogen is pulled out of the air by pressurizing air to vent out the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other chemicals to leave behind the nitrogen molecules. A current of electricity produced by the wind turbine is put into water, splitting the hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is vented off to leave behind pure hydrogen. After a process of mixing the nitrogen and hydrogen and then heating and cooling, liquid ammonia is created and stored at a low temperature

Read more at CleanTechnica | Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

 

[ScienceRocks]

633 Energy Storage Projects Now Underway Worldwide

Government funding for energy storage technology is creating serious returns on investment around the world with distinctly focused industries taking shape in Europe, North America, and Asia.

633 advanced energy storage projects encompassing 865 separate systems are currently in operation or under development worldwide, according to Navigant Research’s “Energy Storage Tracker 3Q13.” The industry added 38 new projects during the first half of 2013.

Even though global energy storage markets are growing fast, up from 562 projects at the end of 2012, they remain fragmented in both technologies in use and applications in each region. France’s Alstom leads all vendors with 19% of total market share, closely followed by Germany’s Voith with 16%, and America’s Gridflex with 13%

Read more at 633 Advanced Energy Storage Projects Now Underway Worldwide