Renewable ENERGY

The brain of any electronic device is the circuitry that operated the machine. Without the circuitry, the device is not even worth the cost of the plastic that it is made of. Any electronics device requires some kind of battery or it is nothing more than a paperweight. Recently, some new technology was created by scientists from the “University of Pennsylvania” that will no longer require a device to use a battery as the power can come from light-powered circuitry.

light powered circuitry

It is technology that can lead to incredible independence down the road. Imagine cell phones or laptops that never run out of power. To think that something that can literally fit on the edge of a pair of tweezers can actually create enough energy to run some of these devices is pretty amazing.

Another significant possibility is the actual creation of a simulated human brain. While everyone loves the Terminator movies, it is unlikely that anyone thinks that we would ever see something like that during our lifetime. This technology actually makes that a very real possibility.

In essence, the light source would serve as the electrons that normally power our brains. Data that is registered would literally be able to be processed at the speed of light to simulate the exact same functions as the human brain. The scientific and technology communities are sitting there with their mouths wide open in anticipation of what the future holds because of this tiny little light-powered circuit.

While the light-powered circuit still has a way to go before it can hold and generate the amount of power that would be needed to power an electrical device, let alone a simulated human brain, the hardest part has already been done. Now they have to refine their discovery and figure out how to get more power out of it so that it can realize its full potential.

new tech

Because of the sheer volume of discoveries that are announced on an almost daily basis, it is understandable how something can slip by and be perceived as no big deal. Make no mistake about it, a light-powered circuit is one of those discoveries that is a little more significant than a cell phone that has a solar panel on the back of it. This is a discovery that can literally change the world as we know it.

PlanetSolar enjoys the distinction of being the largest solar-powered boat in the world, and it’s ready to take on the world. This beauty’s vital stats are: weight: 60-ton, a 470-square-meter are covered by 38,000 solar cells to generate 103.4 kW of energy. 18 million euro ($24.4 million) was spent to adorn this beauty in environmentally friendly way. SunPower Corporation has provided the all vital 38,000 black photovoltaic cells to generate power for this catamaran. These solar panels have a pretty decent conversion rate of 22%. This solar powered ship will be launched this month to get the real taste of water from the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel, Germany.

Solar Boat

Jorn Jurgens of SunPower expresses his joy, “We are proud to support the unveiling of the world’s largest solar boat. SunPower’s technology will enable the catamaran to circumnavigate the globe with the speed and performance expected from the planet’s most powerful solar.” This wonderful solar powered ship can cruise at an average speed of 8 knot (14.8 km/h) but is also capable of reaching a top speed of 15 knots. Apart from being the fastest solar boat to cross the Atlantic Ocean, SunPower will be the first to cross both the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

We are dependent on 90,000 ships for transporting of the world’s goods in exchange of 1.4 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. It amounts to twice the quantity of air transport. Now the United Nations Environment Program has come out with another dampener associated with progress i.e. sea transport, which will jump 70% by 2020 as global trade progresses. This project comes at an apt time. It wants to create an awareness regarding environmentally friendly fuels and to replace conventional fuels.

The 60 tonne vessel can hold 50 passengers. Raphaël Domjan is the skipper and chief executive and founder of the Planet Solar. Raphaël Domjan has chosen the perfect time to start a world tour with PlanetSolar. Domjan conceptualized the solar-powered vessel in 2004. PlanetSolar’s construction started early in 2008. Raphaël Domjan received funds from Rivendell Holding AG, a Swiss firm that invests in renewable energy. Raphaël Domjan will be assisted by navigator Gérard d’Aboville. He was the first sailor to row the Atlantic Ocean. They will begin the awareness solar power world tour in April. What a fine example of lead by example by this duo! They will highlight the role of sea transport in cutting down on global carbon emissions.

The solar panels installed on this ship will generate 103 kilowatts of power but the engine needs only 20 kilowatts. The rest of the power can be stored and utilized for other purposes. They needed an innovative battery storage system to store so much power so they opted for a lithium ion battery. This is being tested by a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

This ship will be launched in April. In May, the boat will make a public appearance at celebrations for the port of Hamburg. Later on the boat will be out for sea trials until September. In 2011, it is supposed to cover 40,000 km. PlanetSolar will depart from France to the Panama Canal, across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, through the Suez Canal and across the Mediterranean back to Marseilles.

Before PlanetSolar Japanese shipping giants Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Nippon Oil Corporation launched the Auriga Leader in late 2008 to be partially propelled by solar power.

Almost all activities on the surface of the earth are ultimately powered by the sun,whether by today’’s sunshine or by fossil fuels formed millions of years ago. What if it were possible to harness the physical process at work in a Star here on the earth to develop an environmentally attractive and sustainable energy source available to all nations and modeled on the fusion process in a Star?

fusion reactor

The main objective of the international fusion research project,”ITER” (which in Latin means “the way “),is to develop and demonstrate the science and technology of fusion power for peaceful purposes. If successful, “ITER” would produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each “shot” of the fusion experiment,with a repetition period of roughly 2000 seconds.In contrast,the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the “Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory”, one of “ITER”””’’s” predecessors that shut down in 1997, produced a maximum of 11 MW for only one-third of a second. With global energy consumption increasing yearly,the sources remain primarily fossil fuel resources such as oil,coal and natural gas,with some contribution from nuclear power.Fossil fuels have a significant impact on the environment in the form of greenhouse gases,as well as the ways in which they are extracted from the earth.Limited and localized resources are also a source of geopolitical instability,making alternative energy sources more attractive. These factors led President Bush to announce on January 30,2003 that the United States would join negotiations for the construction and operation of “ITER”.In his statement, Bush said,”The results of “ITER” will advance the effort to produce clean,safe,renewable,and commercially- available fusion energy by the middle of the century…We welcome this opportunity to work with our partners to make fusion energy a reality.”

The president”””’’s decision to enter negotiations was based on an extensive process that included the 2002 Snowmass Fusion Summer Study of major next steps, a Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee study of strategies 2003 for the study of burning plasmas,the interim report of an on-going study by the National Research Council,and a cost assessment by the DOE Office of Science.

stats

Developing new energy sources will also mean developing new methods of collaboration and cost-sharing.The current estimated cost for the construction project is $5 billion,requiring an international collaboration to shoulder all of the responsibilities.”ITER” proposes to form an inter- national collaboration of nearly-equal partners. If successful,the “ITER” model could pave the way for future global science collaborations, such as the Global Linear Collider.

Canada,the European Union,Japan and the Russian Federation were the members of the “ITER” collaboration immediately prior to the U.S. joining (or re-joining;the U.S.was a partner until the late-90”””’’s when Congress withdrew from “ITER” for budgetary reasons). The U.S.and China are the newest members,and South Korea has recently expressed an interest in joining. With such a large international collaboration,the U.S.must first prepare for negotiations by conducting cost estimates for a range of possible in-kind contributions;then,identify the U.S.mission and objectives,compile the U.S.interests,and seek to find scenarios mutually beneficial for all the partners. In early March, Dr.N.Anne Davies, Department of Energy Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences, named Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory”””’’s (PPPL) Ned Sauthoff as “U.S.ITER” Planning Officer, and Charles Baker of the University of California at San Diego as deputy.Davies cited Sauthoff”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’’s background in international collaborations and project management. Baker is the director of the U.S.fusion program”””’’s Virtual Laboratory for Technology.

To foster effective participation by the fusion community, Sauthoff formed the Burning Plasma Program Advisory Committee (BPPAC).This advisory committee consists of physicists from institutions across the nation who will examine the components the U.S.would be interested in contributing,and the roles the U.S.sees for itself in the “ITER” project,as well as other tasks. “BPPAC” is evaluating current successful models of international collaboration,such as the Large Hadron Collider located at “CERN”.

On April 29-30,”BPPAC” met with the “LHC” group at Fermilab to learn from their management experi- ence as part of one of the largest international collaborations at “CERN”.Although the groups come from different scientific communities,the challenge of working in a large global collaboration is common.

sun

“The future of high-energy physics depends on the success of such large global collaborations as the “LHC” and “ITER”,”he said.”The LHC group is happy to help because we have experiences that are relevant.In large projects,you encounter issues of international relations,but the bottom line is that scientists want to do science.Scientists will do whatever it takes to extend the field of research.”

Speakers at the meeting included Deputy Director Ken Stanfield,US-CMS Research Program Manager Dan Green,”USLHC” Accelerator Project Manager Jim Strait,and the Head of Fermilab”””’’s Office of Project Management Oversight,Ed Temple.Yeck noted that “a consistent message from the “LHC” people is the importance of strong central management.”

“BPPAC” plans to examine other models of international collaboration and does not expect to complete its analysis until the end of the summer. The “ITER” project hopes to begin construction in 2006 and become operational in 2014.Canada, France,Spain and Japan have all submitted offers to host “ITER”,but further negotiations are necessary to reach a consensus.Sauthoff cited the importance of contact with the “LHC” project.

“We have had a very fruitful interaction with the “LHC” group,”Sauthoff said.”Both “LHC” and “ITER” are big science adventures and we have not had enough opportunities to share our experiences. I””””m looking forward to more beneficial interactions.”

reactor scheme

Fusion is a theoretically simple physical process: the binding of the nuclei of two similar atoms. For example,the nuclei of deuterium (one proton and one neutron)and tritium (one proton and two neutrons)can be forced to bind together.The result will then split into a neutron and a helium nucleus, with two neutrons and two protons -otherwise known as an alpha particle –plus another particle that does not carry much energy.The mass of the two incoming nuclei is greater than the mass of the product.This loss of mass translates into energy, which can both heat the plasma and provide power for useful work.

The fusion reaction is sustained in what is called a “burning plasma,” a nearly fully-ionized gas in which the fusion power captured by the plasma keeps the plasma hot.A burning plasma is dominated by this self-heating; however,this condition has not yet been achieved in a laboratory. The dynamics of the self-heating will be a funda- mentally new and key feature studied in “ITER”.

The plasma, in this case an ionized gas of deuterium and tritium nuclei, will be heated by an external source to a temperature of at least 100 million degrees centigrade.Once this temperature is reached,the deuterium and tritium nuclei will begin to fuse,forming helium nuclei and neutrons. These magnetically-confined helium nuclei will then collide with deuterium nuclei in the gas,transferring some of their energy to the deuterium nuclei and heating the gas further.The plasma becomes self- heating -like a star -and a strong external energy source is no longer necessary.

“ITER” would be the first magnetic confinement fusion experiment to produce burning plasma. The reaction would produce ten times the amount of external power injected into it.

U.S.Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said: “By the time our young children reach middle age, fusion may begin to deliver energy independence and energy abundance to all nations rich and poor, Fusion is a promise for the future we must not ignore.”

In 2009m. International team of scientists has determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy. The scientists discover results one day could be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems, such as those that convert solar energy in to electrical energy.

The scientists found that the chlorophylls are highly efficient at harvesting light energy. “We found that the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules make green bacteria extremely efficient at harvesting light,” said Donald Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and one of the team’’s leaders. According to Bryant, green bacteria are a group of organisms that generally live in extremely low-light environments, such as in light-deprived regions of hot springs and at depths of 100 meters in the Black Sea. The bacteria contain structures, chlorosomes, which contain up to 250,000 chlorophylls. “The ability to capture light energy and rapidly deliver it to where it needs to go is essential to these bacteria, some of which see only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day.”

Because they have been so difficult to study, the chlorosomes in green bacteria are the last class of light-harvesting complexes to be characterized structurally by scientists. Scientists typically

green bacteria micro

characterize molecular structures using X-ray crystallography, a technique that determines the arrangement of atoms in a molecule and ultimately gives information that can be used to create a picture of the molecule; however, X-ray crystallography could not be used to characterize the chlorosomes in green bacteria because the technique only works for molecules that are uniform in size, shape, and structure. “Each chlorosome in a green bacterium has a unique organization,” said Bryant. “They are like little andouille sausages. When you take cross-sections of andouille sausages, you see different patterns of meat and fat; no two sausages are alike in size or content, although there is some structure inside, nevertheless. Chlorosomes in green bacteria are like andouille sausages, and the variability in their compositions had prevented scientists from using X-ray crystallography to characterize the internal structure.”

To get around this problem, the team used a combination of techniques to study the chlorosome. They used genetic techniques to create a mutant bacterium with a more regular internal structure, cryo-electron microscopy to identify the larger distance constraints for the chlorosome, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to determine the structure of the chlorosome’’s component chlorophyll molecules, and modeling to bring together all of the pieces and create a final picture of the chlorosome.

First, the team created a mutant bacterium in order to determine why the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria became increasingly complex over evolutionary time. To create the mutant, they inactivated three genes that green bacteria acquired late in their evolution. The team suspected that the genes were responsible for improving the bacteria’’s light-harvesting capabilities. “Essentially, we went backward in evolutionary time to an intermediate state in order to understand, in part, why green bacteria acquired these genes,” Bryant said. The team found that the more evolved, wild-type bacteria grow faster at all light intensities than the mutant form. “Indeed, the reason that chlorophylls became more complex was to increase light-harvesting efficiency,” said Bryant.

Next, the team isolated chlorosomes from the mutant and the wild-type forms of the bacteria and used cryo-electron microscopy — a type of electron microscopy that is performed at super-cold cryogenic temperatures — to take pictures of the chlorosomes. The pictures revealed that chlorophyll molecules inside chlorosomes have a nanotube shape. “They are like Russian dolls, with one concentric tube fitting inside the next,” said Bryant. “The mutant bacterium’’s chlorosomes contain only one set of tubes, whereas the wild-type chlorosomes contain many tubes, each arranged in a unique pattern, like those andouille sausages.”

The team then went a step further and used solid-state NMR spectroscopy — a technique in which samples are spun very rapidly and exposed to a magnetic field — to look deep inside the chlorosome. This technique enables researchers to understand the relationships between atomic nuclei in a sample and, ultimately, to acquire structural information about the molecules of interest.

green bacteria

Bryant: “The NMR data revealed to us that the individual chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria are arranged in dimers — molecules consisting of two identical simpler molecules — with their long hydrophobic, or water-repellent, tails sticking out of either side. “We also learned precisely how the chlorophyll molecules attach to one another, and we were able to measure the distance between chlorophyll molecules. The cryo-electron microscopy pictures showed gross structural details and distances, and the NMR results allowed us to quantify these distances as well, and confirmed to us that what were were seeing was, in fact, stacks of the chlorophyll molecules all lined up,” he said. The NMR results also enabled the scientists to determine that the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria are arranged in helical spirals. In the mutant bacteria, the chlorophyll molecules are positioned at a nearly 90-degree angle in relation to the long axis of the nanotubes, whereas the angle is less steep in the wild-type organism. “It’’s the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules that is the most important thing here,” said Bryant. The last steps for the team were to pull together all of their data and to create a detailed computer model of the structure.

Bryant said: “At first it seems counterintuitive that green bacteria have managed to evolve a better light-harvesting system by increasing disorder in the chlorosome structure. Most people would think that if you make something that is more highly ordered, you”ll end up with something that works better. But this is clearly a case where that isn”t true. If all of the chlorophylls are identically arranged in a chlorosome, then the energy from the photon, once it is absorbed, is going to wander around over all of those chlorophylls, which could take a long time. In the wild-type form, you have these different domains where chlorophyll molecules are located and, therefore, the ability of photon energy to migrate becomes restricted. In other words, the energy in an individual photon visits a smaller number of chlorophylls, and that’’s an advantage to the organism because the energy can get to where it needs to go faster. Speed is the name of the game that green bacteria play with light. The organisms have only a couple of nanoseconds for the energy to get someplace useful or else the energy is going to be lost. The speed required can be a problem for bacteria that receive only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day. The interactions that lead to the assembly of the chlorophylls in chlorosomes are rather simple, so they are good models for artificial systems,” he said. “You can make structures out of these chlorophylls in solution just by having the right solution conditions. In fact, people have done this for many years; however, they haven”t really understood the biological rules for building larger structures. I won”t say that we completely understand the rules yet, but at least we know what two of the structures are now and how they relate to the biological system as a whole, which is a huge advance.”

The team also includes researchers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute in the Netherlands, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. This research was supported by the United States Department of Energy.

Manchester’s CIS Tower could be the world’s tower entire covered with solar panels, which is something impressive behaviour in mind that the idea of buildings covered with solar panels have moved behind the drawing board stage. It was said: that this solar panels are packed with a punch, a much greener panels that produce 81W photovoltaic of energy, taking into consideration that the entire tower has approximately 7,250 panels, which would literally translate into 393 kilowatts of energy and can power approximately 1,100 computers for a year.

Well not really, with a price tag of $11.4 million, these solar panels cost a bomb considering the fact that if the panels were to run at full load for 12 hours a day 365 days a year the savings would be about $150,000 a year, so the building will break even after 75 years-far longer than the lifetime of the cells, and the best part is, keeping the money in a bank that promise a good interest rate return at 3 -4% for half year would definitely cover the electricity bills. Conclusion. Solar panels has a long way to go and Global Warming is here to stay for good, goodbye earth!

If UAVs starts running on the solar system, then it will save lots of expensive fossil fuel and the add-ons in the form of greenhouse effects. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology are working on a model of a solar-powered unmanned flight system for round-the-clock surveillance. They have christened their baby as the Green Falcon. This solar UAV aspires not only to save lives but millions of dollars too by using the most up-to-date green technology. Queensland University of Technology is aiming to make the services of this unmanned air vehicle commercially available within 24 months following successful flight tests.

Green Falcon Solar Powered

The Green Falcon is outfitted with a next generation warning system complete with remote sensing and visual data capabilities. Both of these facilities enable this UAV to detect bush fires in Australia that have caused huge damage in terms of lives, money and property. Another possibility is monitoring fires. The university’s aerospace avionics engineer Dr Felipe Gonzalez states, “Bush fires in Australia have killed many people and caused millions of dollars in damage. The Green Falcon is a next-generation warning system with remote sensing and visual data capability.”

The best thing about this UAV is it consumes solar energy during the day and stores it in an onboard battery pack. This battery powers the aircraft after dark. It is also fitted with infrared cameras. These cameras will be handy during search operations in locating distressed people and relay the information to emergency services on the ground. Another advantage of this UAV according to Dr. Gonzalez is “Unlike manned aircraft, which have restricted air time, unmanned aerial vehicles could provide 24 hours surveillance and coverage of disaster areas.”

Green Falcon has a wingspan of 2.5m and weighs 4kg (8.8lb) without a payload. This UAV contains 28 advanced highly efficient monocrystalline solar cells. Green Falcon also boasts of a maximum power point tracker, a purpose-built energy management system and a proficient lithium-ion battery. This UAV also requires minimum maintenance cost. It can be hand-launched for easy operation. Operator on the ground can obtain and react to images and videos sent by the plane.

This UAV can also be utilized for coastal scrutiny, atmospheric and weather research and prediction, environmental, forestry, agricultural, and oceanic monitoring and imaging for the media and real-estate industries. Gonzalez shares his opinion, “The Green Falcon is lightweight, it can be hand-launched and costs are low compared with other UAVs available today.”

The design supports improved swarming capabilities compared with other UAVs, says Gonzalez, which will allow the Green Falcon to provide coverage over large areas in as short a time possible, particularly useful in rescue or fire monitoring missions.

The first test flight of the Green Falcon was performed in June. To perform further experiments fund of A $50,000-80,000 ($45,000-75,000) is needed.

The Arizona Corporation Commission’s Line Siting Committee voted unanimously, 10 – 0, to recommend approval of a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility for the 340 MW Hualapai Valley Solar project after two days of intense hearings. Mohave Sun Power is proposing to build a parabolic trough facility in the Mohave Desert in Arizona, just south of Las Vegas. The expected cost of the project is over $2 billion.

Executive Director, Mitchell Dong, said after the approval, “We are very pleased that the Line Siting Committee recognizes the value of solar power of Arizona and specifically in Mohave County. We are especially appreciative of the committee’s support of the project using wet cooling given its primary water source from the City of Kingman’s wastewater treatment plant. This innovative combination of solar power and the use of reclaimed water will set a model for future solar thermal plants in Arizona, the Southwest and in the deserts of the world.”

Solar Energy Parabolic

The Committee also conditioned its approval on the preferential hiring of local residents given the very high unemployment in Mohave County. The project is expected to employ over 1500 workers during construction and over 100 during operations.

The project is currently negotiating a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a major utility in the Southwest for a long term offtake contract. Negotiations are also underway for an engineering, procurement and construction contract with a global contractor to construct the facility. The sponsors are in the process of arranging financing for the facility, which is expected to close before the end of 2010 in order to qualify for the US Treasury cash grant in lieu of solar investment tax credit. It is anticipated that part of the financing will come from the US Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee program.