Source: MIT News Office

A new technology being developed at MIT is hoping to harvest all this waste-energy and convert it into electricity more efficiently than existing devices. If successful, the technology could lead to cellphones with double the talk time, laptop computers that can operate twice as long before needing to be plugged in, or even power plants that put out more electricity for a given amount of fuel.

Current devices only achieve one-tenth of the Carnot Limit, a 19th century formula for determining the maximum efficiency that any device can achieve in converting heat into work, says Peter Hagelstein, associate professor of electrical engineering. In experiments involving a different new technology, thermal diodes, Hagelstein worked with Yan Kucherov, a consultant for the Naval Research Laboratory, and coworkers to demonstrate efficiency as high as 40 percent of the Carnot Limit. The calculations show that this new kind of system could ultimately reach as much as 90 percent of that ceiling.

Hagelstein says that with present systems it’s possible to efficiently convert heat into electricity, but with very little power. It’s also possible to get plenty of electrical power from a less efficient, and therefore larger and more expensive system. “It’s a tradeoff. You either get high efficiency or high throughput,” says Hagelstein. But the team found that using their new system, it would be possible to get both at once, he says.

Now, the million dollar question: are we going to see this happen any time soon? The type of chip on which the new technology depends (called quantum dot devices) is currently being developed but years away from commercial availability. So, no, not any time soon, but it would be nice if this technology reached the general public as, alongside switching over to clean energy, we need to solve the waste energy problem.

Source: MIT News Office

Last month we blogged about the ozone layer, a topic that used to be more popular between the 80s and 90s but which still is very relevant today as the problem of ozone depletion hasn’t gone away. Quite the contrary.

According to a UN press release, earlier this month there was an international meeting (the 21st Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol) in Port Ghalib, on the Red Sea, to discuss the issue. “Countries meeting under the ozone layer protection treaty made progress on a wide range of issues, including the use of chemicals to kill pests on international commodity shipments up to advancing action to destroy banks of CFCs in old and stockpiled equipment”, it said.

However, participating nations could not reach consensus on the high profile issue of whether a group of gases, currently controlled under the international climate agreement, might be better controlled and phased-down under the ozone treaty. The issue will now come before the UN climate convention meeting taking place in Copenhagen next month.

Scientists are concerned that if synthetic gases known as hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) become the replacement chemicals of choice in products such as refrigeration systems and air conditioners, their climate impact could become significant over the coming decades.

Those supporting action under the ozone treaty argue that a commitment to phase-down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol would catalyze action by industry to develop a range of new ozone and climate-friendly alternatives.

It seems like we’ll have to wait a bit longer to hear more about this. We’ll keep you posted.

Source: Gatech.edu

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new type of three-dimensional photovoltaic system which could allow PV systems to be hidden from view and located away from traditional locations such as rooftops.

In this system, dye-sensitized solar cells use a photochemical system to generate electricity. The good news is that they are inexpensive to manufacture, flexible and mechanically robust. The bad news is that their conversion efficiency is lower than that of silicon-based cells.

But there’s a way around that: using nanostructure arrays to increase the surface area available to convert light could help reduce the efficiency disadvantage.

“Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile,” said Zhong Lin Wang (pictured), a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “Optical fiber could conduct sunlight into a building’s walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell.”

Wang believes this new structure will offer architects and product designers an alternative PV format for incorporating into other applications.

“This will really provide some new options for photovoltaic systems,” Wang said. “We could eliminate the aesthetic issues of PV arrays on building. We can also envision PV systems for providing energy to parked vehicles, and for charging mobile military equipment where traditional arrays aren’t practical or you wouldn’t want to use them.”

To find out more technical details about this new technology click here.

The preservation of the world’s remaining forests is one of the most pressing issues we face today. Forests are also home to most of the world’s wildlife as well as some of the remaining indigenous populations. Besides, the felling of trees releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and wreaks havoc with weather conditions, water sources, rainfall etc. Renewable energy alone will not save the planet. Halting forest loss is known to be one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Tropical rainforests are the focus of major concern as they are targeted by cattle ranchers, loggers and palm oil plantations, to name some of the most ferocious causers of devastation. Global deforestation stands at roughly “13 million hectares per year, or 36 football fields a minute. It generates almost 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions”, says WWF.

Earlier this week, the Brazilian government announced a 45.7 percent fall in deforestation rates of the Amazon forest within the country’s borders. The period measured was August 2008 to July 2009. While this sounds like good news, 7,008 square kilometres of forest were cleared. That is 80 times the size of Manhattan, surely not a small area and probably not quite accurate since the figures released are preliminary. Once they are consolidated, they are likely to go up (last year they did by 1,000 square kilometres).

Greenpeace welcomed the news but said deforestation rates are still too high. The organization said that it is Brazilian society that must get credit for a reduction in the deforestation of the Amazon. “Brazilians have for years demanding action to protect the Amazon, forcing governments to introduce measures in order to decrease the size of the disaster. And when governments abide by the law, deforestation rates fall”, said Paulo Adario, head of the Amazon campaign.

The organization added that actions carried out by the Public Ministry of the Amazonian state of Pará played a major role in deforestation reduction. These included freezing cattle ranching in the state with the highest rates of deforestation, and the implementation of an initiative called “Moratória da Soja” to guarantee the forest-friendliness of the product. The global financial crisis also contributed to decrease demand for products that come out of the Amazon, such as meat, soy and wood.

And while Amazon deforestation may have decreased for now, the Cerrado region, a savanna area of two million square kilometers in Brazil’s heartland, lost more than 20,000 square kilometers of forest over the last year, still according to WWF. The situation there has become so critical that it prompted Brazil’s biggest TV network, Rede Globo, to broadcast a documentary about it. It was aired last night and you can see one of the clips below. The voice-over is in Portuguese but the imagery gives an idea of the beauty of the region and how agribusiness is eating into it.

We can all help by making sure we only buy products that are green certified. By eliminating demand for forest-unfriendly products (watch out for palm oil, which is very common and is destroying Indonesian forests), we can play a role in preserving one of the world’s biggest treasures: its forests.

Earlier this month (2-4 November) an event at London’s Windsor Castle brought together religious leaders from all major faith traditions to discuss initiatives that such groups can partake to help the fight against climate change. The event, which only served vegan food because it is the only one suitable to all types of faith, was called Faith Commitments for a Living Planet and was co-hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and organized by Prince Philip’s Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC).

There’s good reason to attract the support of religious groups to the green cause. According to the ARC, faith-based groups own nearly eight percent of habitable land on Earth, operate dozens of media groups and more than half the world’s schools, and control seven percent of financial investments worth trillions. All the main world religions in theory condemn greed and destructiveness and urge restraint and protection.

The event launched dozens of long-term commitments by all the major faith traditions including: transitioning to solar-powered Taoist Temples in China; creating faith-based eco-labelling systems in Islam, Hinduism and Judaism and greening all types of religious buildings; protecting sacred forests; developing ethical investment policies; printing sacred books on environmentally-friendly paper; and creating educational programs through formal and informal education.

Religion will also be on the table at the Copenhagen climate summit next month. A panel discussion titled Many Heavens: One Earth – Faiths, the Environment and Copenhagen is part of the program.

To kick off the week, I’d like to point you to a couple of stories that have called our attention this Monday. The first is about an initiative carried out by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which provides water and wastewater treatment in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area. The company is “turning food scraps from 2,300 Bay Area restaurants and grocery stores into electricity to help it power its wastewater facility.”

Every day, one or two 20-ton trucks pull up to the plant here and dump food waste into giant tanks. At the end of the process, the food scraps create methane gas. It helps power the plant’s electricity-making generators.”

The article explains in more detail the technical aspects of this enterprise and it does sound as green as the Grinch (thanks Super Eco!). Worth checking out. Also check out a previous Energy Refuge blog about how sludge can be turned into renewable energy.

Elsewhere, the Times of India says a Korean company has come up with a new type of coating for solar cells “that will help solar panels to absorb and generate 5% more power than normal panels without the coating.” Maximizing conversion of sunlight into power is one of the main goals of this industry so this technology is a step in the right direction.

“Once the coating is laid on the solar panels, the solar panel’s absorption and power generation capacity increases 5% more as it increases one of the active materials of the solar cells. This means if a solar panel generates 200 watt of solar power, it will generate 210 watt of solar power after putting this coat. Surprisingly, the cost of this material is very nominal.”

What’s even better: the technology does not require any extra natural resources. To find out more, go here.

Source: Blue Green Alliance

According to the report, renewable energy technologies provide three to six times as many jobs as equivalent investments in fossil fuels when manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance jobs are taken into account.

The analysis builds on a report earlier this year by BGA and the Renewable Energy Policy Project that estimated more than 850,000 manufacturing jobs could be created across the United States, and more than 42,000 existing manufacturers could experience growth based on a demand for parts, with the enactment of a federal Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) of 25 percent by 2025.

“Our climate change policies must include measures to strengthen the market for clean energy technologies,” said Robert Gramlich of the American Wind Energy Association. “Central to our strategy to both create jobs and reduce carbon emissions is developing and producing clean energy technologies in the United States, and a strong, federal RES will help us to do that.”

Halloween is over but that doesn’t mean your home is a ghost-free area. Yes, the typical contemporary home is full of specters sucking electricity, raising utility bills and carbonizing the planet.

Now, seriously. Even when switched off, domestic appliances and electronics continue to draw small amounts of electricity known as phantom load. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed when they are turned off, adding up to 10 percent to monthly electric bills.

“According to Energy Star®, consumer electronics and appliances in the typical American home account for approximately 20 percent of power on electric bills,” said Val Jensen, vice president, Marketing and Environmental Programs at ComEd. “One of the easiest ways customers can manage electricity costs is by taking simple steps to stop errant power consumption.”

Computers, television sets, VCRs, stereos and kitchen appliances are some of the biggest guzzlers. Most people tend to leave them plugged in and so they continue to consume power. Jensen has a few suggestions to cut down on all this power hemorrhaging.

These include using a power strip with an on/off switch to fully power down home electronics while in standby mode; unplugging or switching off all nonessential devices when preparing to travel out of town; unplugging chargers after the device has been reloaded; plugging home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips and turning the power strips off when the equipment is not in use (TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power); turning off the computer and monitor when not in use. Alternatively, set to hibernation or sleep mode rather than using screen savers, which do not save as much energy.

In short, if it’s not in use, unplug it (although you may like to exclude fridge and freezer from this generalization).

It’s also a good idea to look for the Energy Star® label on home appliances, electronics and other products. Energy Star® products meet strict efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

We can all play ghostbusters in our own homes. It takes a bit of discipline and effort, but it’s well worth it. It’s good for the planet, it’s good for the wallet and it’s also safer.

SOURCE: ComEd

Brazil announced a few days ago that as of January 2010, the country’s fleet of diesel fuel vehicles will be required to run on a 5 percent biodiesel blend, up from 4 percent at present. The raise is expected to boost biodiesel production levels to 2.4 billion liters (634 million gallons) in 2010.

Biodiesel blends were instituted in 2008, first with a 2 per cent mandatory rate, having reached 4 per cent earlier this year. The 5 per cent figure was slated for 2013. But the country has reached a production capacity of 3.6 billion liters (or 950 million gallons) per year, which is more than enough to supply the volume required by the 5 percent mandate.

Another measure designed to curb automotive emissions was approved last week by the National Environment Council, which has determined that vehicles will need to pass periodic emissions tests before license renewal.

States and municipalities with fleets over 3 million vehicles must develop environmental inspection plans aimed at identifying maintenance malfunctions and modifications that cause high levels of pollutants emissions in cars, trucks and motorcycles already in use, regardless of fuel type. Local agencies now have 12 months to present Vehicle Pollution Control Plans targeting specific fleet groups, defining frequency and priority areas for inspection.

Germany as a nation has always been at the forefront of the green movement. True, its carbon emission rate per person is high (9.7 tons per year, according to a recently released list by the International Energy Agency). But it’s definitely a country that takes environmental and renewable energy issues seriously so it is a reference when it comes to the cutting edge of a carbon-free way of life.

With the Copenhagen Summit fast approaching, the scientific community is busy putting together proposals and reports that may influence the decision-making process at the event when a replacement for the Kyoto protocol will be agreed on. One of them is a joint study by WWF Germany, the Institute for Applied Ecology and the Prognos Institute of Futurology, whose authors say Germany can, and should, cut greenhouse emissions by 95% before the year 2050, which is the level specialists believe to be necessary to prevent global temperatures from rising more than two degrees above pre-industrial age levels.

According to a report in DW-World.de, the study is called “Modell Deutschland” (”Model Germany”) and it “outlined three ways forward and stressed that if Germany follows the correct path it can reduce its CO2 emissions by up to 95 percent – as compared to 1990 – without compromising living standards”, which include “industrial, societal and political steps which would lead to a 10.7-ton per capita emissions reduction by 2050”.

“If the CO2 reduction plans are not adapted to the current situation, CO2 reduction will either be impossible or extremely expensive,” FelixMatthes, a contributor to the study from Institute of Applied Ecology, said. He emphasises timeliness and infrastructure. For example, building should be insulated when they are due for renovation. It’s about timeliness: seizing the right moment to reduce emissions.

According to Matthes, renewable energy for electricity, traffic and heating would play a major role in achieving such amazing CO2 reduction levels, coupled with more energy efficient electrical appliances. These measures would eliminate 60 percent of emissions, he says.

“For the remaining third, you have to make changes in industrial processes, farming and waste management. And you have to make sure that forests maintain their ability to absorb CO2.”

Matthes emphasises the role that farming plays in this process, which is a topic we have mentioned a few times here on Energy Refuge. Let’s hope decision-makers consider what the authors of this report have to say. They sound realistic and knowledgeable.