Category Archives: Green Technology

Small but powerful

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Ceramic Fuel Cells has developed a small $6,000 home generator that has an 85 per cent power/heat conversion rate. A normal large power station has a 40 per cent power conversion rate. Ceramic’s high conversion figures have fascinated a whole range of European and Japanese power utilities who can see that the units can slash greenhouse emissions and halve the amount of gas required to generate home/office electricity and heating. And as the energy is produced in the home or office there is no transmission waste, although surplus electricity can be sold back to the grid.

via Small but powerful – Robert Gottliebsen – News – Business Spectator.

Apple and the Environment

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Apple has started to account for everything in its carbon emissions calculations including the products usage by its consumers. This can be a PR exercise by Apple because of all the tech companies it has the smallest share in computers etc. If Dell and HP start doing the same they will not come out better than Apple.

However, the detailed information on their website is a good start.

Apple – Environment

China Outdoes U.S. in Making Solar Products

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Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.

Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.

via China Outdoes U.S. in Making Solar Products – NYTimes.com.

Solar Power

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Nevada Solar One

“If we talk about geothermal or wind, all these other sources of renewable energy are limited in their quantity,” Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, in Freiburg, Germany, told me last fall. “The total power needs of the humans on Earth is approximately 16 terawatts,” he said. (A terawatt is a trillion watts.) “In the year 2020 it is expected to grow to 20 terawatts. The sunshine on the solid part of the Earth is 120,000 terawatts. From this perspective, energy from the sun is virtually unlimited.”

There are two main ways to harness it. The first is to produce steam, either with parabolic troughs like the ones in Nevada or with a field of flat, computer-guided mirrors, called heliostats, that focus sunlight on a receiver on top of an enormous “power tower.” The second way is to convert sunlight directly into electricity with photovoltaic (PV) panels made of semiconductors such as silicon.

[...]

“I always say the United States addresses the idealists, those who want to save the planet—the Birkenstock crowd. In Germany the law addresses anyone who wants to get 8 percent return on his investment for 20 years.”

Solar Power — National Geographic Magazine.

Via – Rajesh Jain.

Cheap energy is the solution

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I received this comment on the previous post on the Indian emissions plan.

Quote: “Wow, for 10 years??? That is ridiculous! They are the second largest country population wise and they set this example? I think there should be some sanctions or something. At least some tariffs. Thanks for the news”. Unquote.

I think this is not ridiculous at all. Why should a poor country like India set an example on emissions when the richest country are doing nothing.

One correlation is for sure from the past. Cheap energy and wealth of a country are connected all else
being equal. Emissions are connected to cheap energy.

The solution is see is not emission caps but cheaper clean energy. Will a emission scheme deliver the incentives or Will it be a pigou tax or will it be government funded private based research.

Whatever way, a solution to cheaper clean energy is the solution to the Emissions problem.

We cannot stop wealth to be created for the poor.

Holy Desertec: $555B Solar Saharan Project Finds a Dozen Backers

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The Desertec project is a great idea. Solar Thermal has shown to provide the most efficient way to harness the power of the sun and to support sun-starved Europe from Africa makes sense.

Now to the business plan.

The technology behind Desertec.

Ever since the news came out about Desertec, a $555 billion project to build solar thermal plants in Northern Africa’s Sahara desert to funnel solar power to Europe, we’ve been scratching our heads about what to make of it. The sheer size (supposedly large enough to supply up to 15 percent of Europe’s electricity needs), cost and timeline (over 40 years) is so utterly massive and ambitious, the project will no doubt look very different when — and if — it ever makes it to light. But despite the “fantasy” nature of the plan, a dozen serious and respected companies have signed a memorandum of understanding today to investigate how to build the project.

Participants include German engineering company Siemens, German insurer Munich Re, Deutsche Bank, German utilities RWE and EON, Spain’s power company Abengoa, Zurich’s electricity grid builder ABB, Algerian firm Cevital, European bank HSH Nordbank, engineering company M+W Zander, and solar firms Schott Solar and Solar Millennium.

The group now has the overwhelming goal of writing up a business plan for a project that will involve hundreds of solar thermal plants and massive underseas high-voltage transmission cables spanning countries. The blueprint of the plan itself will take three years just to develop and incorporate under German law. Some of the German firms already did some feasibility studies to the tune of $1.4 million, says Bloomberg, but of course those initial funds are just a grain of sand in the entire Desertec.

via Holy Desertec: $555B Solar Saharan Project Finds a Dozen Backers | Reuters.

Interview with CEO of Siemens.

Löscher: We will be covering the whole chain of energy conversion, from efficient and environmentally friendly power generation via transport and distribution right up to end uses of electric power. Desertec is not just about solar and wind energy, it is also about energy superhighways for the low-loss transmission of power over thousands of kilometers and the management of such complex systems.

SPIEGEL: Some experts have said they think it’s not economical to transport solar power to Europe through huge distribution grids under the Mediterranean Sea.

Löscher: Energy superhighways can be both technologically efficient and economical. A few years ago we connected Tasmania with the Australian continent. And from 2011 there will be a 250-kilometer undersea cable supplying Majorca with electricity from the Spanish mainland. For us, this kind of thing is now part of our core business.

Rudd takes centre stage in climate talks

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The focal point of the partnership will be Australia’s Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.

The President announced the creation of the partnership in a joint press conference with Mr Rudd, who is attending the summit as part of his ongoing overseas trip.

“Australia, for example, is creating a new centre which Kevin will be introducing shortly which points to the ability for us to pool our resources in order to see the technological breakthroughs necessary in order for us to solve this problem,” Mr Obama said.

Mr Rudd first announced the formation of the Institute in April but used the meeting in the Italian town of ‘L’Aquila to relaunch it.

Mr Rudd says 23 governments and more than 100 companies are now backing the Australian institute.

“It’s mission is clear,” he said.

“It’s to get large-scale carbon capture and storage projects done around the world, not just discussed.

“Unless we do these projects we will not have an effect in bringing down those huge numbers of energy production I referred to before coming from coal, and their greenhouse emission impact.”

via Rudd takes centre stage in climate talks – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Clever Green in Adelaide

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A cleantech conference in Feb 2010 in Adelaide.

“Hosting Clever Green will build on South Australia’s reputation as a leader in the green economy,” he said.

“The CleanTech sector and the green jobs it will provide will be a significant part of South Australia’s future. Clever Green will provide benefits for the state’s economy, while building momentum to reduce South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring the ecologically sustainable use of our natural resources.”

What should Akash Ganga’s Strategy be?

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Akash Ganga is a company based in India which has developed a product to create clean drinking water from air. I blogged about the founder earlier .

Akash Ganga in Hindi translates to the “the perrenial river Ganga from the sky”. Very apt.

I admire the intention behind it and I think it is a great product innovation coming out of India. Now that they have launched a new website with their productI want to figure out their strategy.

Their website and news articles suggest that they are going for the home and office market as a fresh water solution. Is this the right strategy?

It will be interesting to check out the economics.

First, they provide a comparison with reverse osmosis. I think number 4 should be the other way round.

S. No
Criteria
RO
AME
1
Durability
Less, because with increasing use, the ground water TDS load on the RO plant increases, till the membranes break-down.
More, because it does not use ground water, but uses only air. Much longer life than RO plants.
2
Effectiveness in ensuring purity of water
Yes, but depends upon frequent changes of filter membranes. Over time its effectiveness declines.
Yes, and remains so for ever, because its effectiveness is independent of any component of the machine. Effectiveness never declines.
3
Effluent water
Yes, and effluent ratio keeps rising as ground water level is depleted
None at all
4
Short run costs per liter of potable water
Lower. Operating costs are lower as are capital costs
Higher on both counts.
5
Long run costs per liter of potable water
Possibly very high. In the long run (i.e. after 6 years) the RO plant might have to be abandoned due to excessive TDS in ground water leading to frequent collapse of membranes.
Very low, because atmospheric water quality is always very high and stable.
6
Environmental resource depletion
Certainly very high. RO often uses up nearly 2.5 liters of ground water to obtain 1.0 liter of potable water. High rate of depletion of ground water.
None at all. Generation of water vapor in the atmosphere is the only perennial source of water.
7
Microbial presence
Yes if membranes are inefficient; water might need UV treatment
Nil

This may not be the right comparison as they both have their uses. Also, most reverse osmosis plants function from sea water and not ground water.

The market for Akash Ganga is different and it works only under some specific circumstances in terms of high humidity, temparature and continous energy.

Their basic product – AS-650 – 40 liters/day – requires a relative humidity of 80% and temparature of 90 Faranheit consuming 750 watts of power per hour and takes 24hrs to produce 40 litres.

Let’s calculate the cost of running this product.

Appliance
 Watts x Hours per Day x Days per Year ÷ Convert to kWh KwH Per Litre kWh Rate = Cost per Litre
Akash Ganga 750 x 24 x 1 ÷ 1,000 40/18=2.22 Rs 5.5 = Rs. 12.2

It takes about 2.22kwH to generate 1 litre of water and costs about Rs12.2 a litre. Average cost of electricty comes from here .

If we add the capital cost and running costs, it may not be an economical alternative in a home.

Next, what about the right conditions for maximum efficiency. It works I think at 50% relative humidity too but provides the maximum output at 80%.

If we look at today’s map of India there are not many places where this product will provide the maximum efficiency.

(Source: Intellicast )

To really take this forward they need to predict the relative humidity in the various cities in India. A journal article like “Prediction of monthly-mean hourly relative humidity, ambient temperature, and wind velocity for India” could be a good start.

Then combined with temperature averages we can narrow down to a possible list of places.

For Bombay these are the following averages for decades.

Unit Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Average temperature
over 21 years		 °F 80 75 77 80 84 86 84 82 82 82 84 80 78
Average high temperature
over 21 years		 °F 87 84 86 89 89 91 87 84 84 86 89 89 87
Average morning relative humidity
over 19 years		 % 82 75 73 79 84 81 84 88 89 91 86 75 73
Average evening relative humidity
over 18 years		 % 58 42 41 48 57 61 72 80 81 74 58 44 39

Add to this the availability of power. There is a 14% shortage of power in India in general due to subsidized power for farmers.

Once locations are filtered through this constraints then market scenarios need to be looked at.

Are homes the best place for this?

I think there needs to be a better strategy in place if this product needs to succeed.