NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Hybrid Solar Panel Generates Hot Water and Electricity

While solar-thermal flat panels are proficient at delivering hot showers, their ability to keep the lights on has been a little dim.

Currently, solar-thermal flat panels absorb sunlight to heat water and generate thermal energy, but they don't produce much electricity.

However, researchers from Boston College and MIT recently reported that, by introducing two innovations, they were able to increase the efficiency of solar-thermal flat panels by seven to eight times, as well as generate a sizable amount of electricity.

First, the team created a better light-absorbing surface made from a nanostructured material. Second, they placed the material within an energy-trapping, vacuum-sealed flat panel.

WIDE ANGLE: Solar Power

By combining the two innovations, the scientists were able to enhance the flat panel's electricity-generating capacity, said Boston College Professor of Physics Zhifeng Ren, co-author of a report published in the journal Nature Materials.

"We have developed a flat panel that is a hybrid capable of generating hot water and electricity in the same system," said Ren. "The ability to generate electricity by improving existing technology at minimal cost makes this type of power generation self-sustaining from a cost standpoint."

PHOTO GALLERY: Top 10 Places to Harness Solar Energy

These new advances potentially promise more cost-effective solutions for converting solar energy into electricity. According to Ren, this should greatly impact the rapidly expanding residential and industrial clean energy markets.

"Existing solar-thermal technologies do a good job generating hot water. For the new product, this will produce both hot water and electricity," said Ren. "Because of the new ability to generate valuable electricity, the system promises to give users a quicker payback on their investment. This new technology can shorten the payback time by one third."

Illustration: Courtesy Ed Hayward/Boston College

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Floating Golf Course Has Underwater Tunnels

Normally those hitting the links try to avoid water hazards, but designers of a new floating golf course are hoping golfers actually want to tee-off surrounded by one.

Plans are already underway to build an 18-hole course 250 miles off the southwest coast of India, among the islands of the Maldives. The course will consist of a series of floating platforms that contain two to three holes each, built by world-renowned floating technology company, Dutch Docklands.

No, you won't have to swim to each platform - they'll be connected to one another and surrounding hotels by clear underwater tunnels, similar to those you'd find at an aquarium. 

Unlike other floating islands and resorts guzzling energy off the coast of Dubai, course developers call their project a "scarless development" which will have a zero carbon footprint on the Maldives ecosystem. To do so, developers are banking on the islands' sunny locale near the equator to generate energy through floating solar blanket fields. Developers will also employ sustainable techniques to desalinate and cool water.

 

Because the Republic of the Maldives' highest point of elevation is only 7.5 feet above sea level, the island nation is expected to be significantly impacted by the rising sea-levels associated with climate change. As such, Maldivian president, Mohamed Nasheed has been a staunch investor and activist for carbon-neutral developments.

In 2009, he pledged the Maldives islands would be carbon neutral within the decade. That same year, to publicize the threat climate change poses on his nation, Nasheed presided over the world's first underwater cabinet meeting where participants donned scuba gear and gathered around a desk on the the sea floor.

Nasheed has also announced that he's looking to purchase new land in other countries to resettle Maldivian refugees potentially affected by climate change. To fund those efforts, the government is looking to further boost revenues from the nation's largest economical contributor: tourism.

Managed by Troon Golf, the $500 million floating golf course project anticipates doing just that: bringing a wealth of ecological tourism and investment to the Maldives. The project is due to be completed by 2015.

Illustrations: Koen Olthuis Waterstudio.NL/Dutch Docklands

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Liquid Air Stores Renewable Energy

Renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power are intermittent. The wind doesn't always blow; the sun doesn't always shine. But power grids need uninterrupted, reliable flows of energy in order to guarantee electricity to masses. If renewable energy is to come online with coal and natural gas, it can't be sporadic. That means it needs to be efficiently stored so it can be utilized on cloudy, windless days and at night.

Britain's Highview Power Storage has developed an unusual way to store energy generated by wind and sunlight: liquid air. Sound cool? It is, quite literally.

The company's CryoEnergy System uses excess energy to run refrigeration units that cool air down to a chilly -320.8 Fahrenheit, where it liquefies. The liquified air can be stored in an insulated tank at a low pressure.

During periods of high-demand on the power grid, the liquified air can be released into a confined space, where it is warmed to just above -320.8 F. At that temperature, the air becomes gas, which is used to spin a turbine to produce electricity.

Only 50 percent of the energy that went into cooling the air is returned when exposed to ambient air temperatures. However, if exposed to heated air, the phase change from liquid to gas is more intense, and produces an efficiency of 70 percent.

That efficiency percentage could be boosted if the system were installed in a facility where heat waste already existed and could be used to run the refrigeration.

Other systems designed to store energy from renewable sources include pumped hydro, where excess energy is used to pump water into a reservoir located at a higher elevation. When power is needed, the water is allowed to flow down over a dam where it spins turbines that generate electricity. According to an article in Gizmag, pumped hydro infrastructure is more expensive to build and not as portable as the CryoEnergy System. Another way to store energy is in batteries. But they typically cost about $4,000 per kilowatt of generating capacity, while the CES costs about $1,000 per kilowatt.

And because the only by-product of CES is cold air, the technology could potentially be used to provide refrigeration or air conditioning.

According to CleanTechnica, a pilot projest has been running in Scotland for the last nine months. Highview has plans to build a 3.5 MW, commercial-scale system by late 2012 and an 8 MW to 10 MW storage plant by early 2014.

Image: Highview Power Storage

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100 Percent Renewable Energy is Possible by 2030

Despite the "green" movement that has taken over the country in the last few years, more than 80 percent of the world's energy supply still comes from fossil fuels. Solar panels and wind turbines haven't been able to make much of a dent in coal and petroleum's dominance. But a new two-part study published in the journal Energy Policy (part 1, part 2) claims it's possible and affordable for the world to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

The renewable sources of energy the researchers' calculations focused on included wind power, solar power, waves and geothermal energy, even as some question if solar power is worth the expense. According to PhysOrg, achieving 100 percent clean energy would require building about 4 million 5-megawatt wind turbines, 1.7 billion 3-kilowatt roof-mounted solar photovoltaic systems, and around 90,000 300-megawatt solar power plants.

This study is the work of Mark Delucchi of the University of California, Davis, and Mark Jacobson at Stanford University. 

SLIDESHOW: TOP 10 PLACES TO HARNESS SOLAR POWER

The study's authors made some optimistic predictions that would be necessary for the world's energy supply to be completely dependent on renewable energy by 2030. For instance, the wind turbines (all 4 million of them, and not just the ones offshore) would need to have two to three times the capacity most of them have. But a handful of countries already have 5 MW turbines in operation, the size that is required in this study to make renewable energy dependence feasible.

With so many new Republicans on Capitol Hill who don't believe in the science of climate change (which will continue until the year 3000), not to mention many members of the public, it may be a challenge to achieve such a task and get off fossil fuels.

SLIDESHOW: TOP 10 COUNTRIES WITH THE MOST WIND ENERGY

So, what do you think? Is it possible for America to embrace energy independence and get off fossil fuels completely by 2030, or will it take longer? Let us know in the comments section.

Photo: Amy Guip/Getty Images

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Parisian Body Heat Warms a Building

Oo la la. While wildfires were heating things up here in the West, I nearly missed a hot project being planned in Paris. Starting next year, heat from commuters on the Metro will be shuttled underground through exchangers to supplement heating in a public housing building.

A 17-unit apartment public housing building on Rue Beaubourg near the Pompidou Center is situated right above the Rambuteau Metro station. Even in the coldest months, the station's interior temperature usually stays above 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Building owner Paris Habitat plans to take advantage of the warmth generated by passengers and moving trains. They're going to use a system inspired by geothermal climate control to pump heat into the building.

Pipes containing water will run through an old stairway that already connects the Metro station to the building. Heat from the station will warm the water, which will be pumped upstairs to a radiant heat system underneath the apartment flooring, according to The Guardian. Construction on the system is expected to start next year.

Other places are experimenting with similar projects. Stockholm's Central Station already helps heat a 13-story office building there. The Mall of America in Minneapolis uses shoppers' body heat to help keep the place comfortable in the winter.

Having traveled on the un-airconditioned Paris Metro during the summertime, I wish there could be a realistic way to store all that excess body heat for the winter. Mon dieu, the sweltering cars felt like they contained enough heat to warm the whole city.

Photo: A new heating system will be coming out of the Rambuteau Metro station in Paris. Credit: Aslak Raanes.

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