NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Power a City With a Man-Made Tornado

This is an artist's rendition of an artificial tornado. Theoretically, such a system could generate enough electricity to power a city. Credit: Colin Anderson/Blend Images/Corbis

By Dan Levitan, IEEE Spectrum

Tornados are very energetic. But of course, they are far too unpredictable and uncontrollable to actually make use of that energy. Right?

Peter Thiel, billionaire founder of PayPal and early Facebook funder, says wrong. Thiel's foundation, through its Breakout Labs fund, awarded US $300,000 to a company called AVEtec, based in Canada, to work on designs and prototypes for an "atmospheric vortex engine." The AVE involves a circular chamber into which warm air is introduced at tangential angles, creating a rising vortex controlled by colder air above the chamber (mini-prototype pictured blow). Turbines at the base will spin thanks to the artificial tornado, generating energy. According to AVEtec, a 200-meter wide version of this could generate 200 megawatts of energy at a cost of only $0.03 per kilowatt-hour, below even the cheapest forms of power we have now.

In a press release from Breakout Labs, AVEtec founder Louis Michaud said: "The power in a tornado is undisputed. My work has established the principles by which we can control and exploit that power to provide clean energy on an unprecedented scale. With the funding from Breakout Labs, we are building a prototype in partnership with Lambton College to demonstrate the feasibility and the safety of the atmospheric vortex engine."

WIDE ANGLE: Tornadoes

Turbines at the base spin because of the artificial tornado. Credit: AVEtech

The best part of this idea -- other than the fact that it is a controlled tornado used to generate electricity, is that the heat source for the warm air could be standard fossil fuel power plants. (The chamber for the AVE could just be a power plant cooling tower.) Coal and natural gas plants don't operate at particularly high efficiencies, with much of the power in the fuel source lost as waste heat; one study from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that around 68 percent of all the energy involved with electricity generation in 2011 ended up as "rejected energy." Aside from power plant waste heat, the tornado could also be fed with warm water or solar power.

Thiel's foundation's backing suggests we might actually see a prototype built, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Michaud's idea has been floating around for some time now, and hasn't yet gotten off the ground; this very publication included it in a "Powered By Crazy" feature in 2010. This is the second such bit of insanity, pulling uranium from seawater being the other, that has gone from crazy to maybe just in the last few months. But even AVEtec's "endorsements" page doesn't feature too many "Eureka!" type explosions; as was noted in the 2010 article, the Canadian Academy of Engineering merely says the concept "does not defy known physics."

Following the laws of nature is a good first step, but let's see if Thiel's money, which, at $300K, is a homeopathic amount, for a billionaire, can actually yield a tame, electricity-generating tornado.

This article originally appeared on IEEE Spectrum as Tornado Power: Breakout Labs Funds Research Into Energy-Generating Vortex

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IKEA Energy-Independent by 2020: DNews Nugget

IKEA Energy-Independent by 2020: The Swedish-based furniture company -- the largest of its kind in the world -- has announced that it will be energy-independent by 2020. It's investing $1.95 billion toward that end and will use the money to install solar panels on all of its stores and warehouses, reduce overall energy use, invest in wind farms and grow enough trees to replace the wood used in its products.

In addition, by 2017 it will buy 10 million cubic meters of wood annually, half its total use, from such sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. via Phys.org

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Freshwater Ecosystem Lives Off Seawater

Over half of the world's population lives and works within 120 miles from a coastline. Regardless of your views on climate change, it's safe to say that rising sea levels would present nothing short of a catastrophe. 

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In the event that the ivory towers of denial do start to surround with sea water, detractors will be happy to know that Studiomobile won't leave you high and dry.

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Billing themselves as makers of art and technology for architecture and urban research, the firm came up Networking Nature, an ecosystem that lives off seawater and produces fresh drinking water.

Glass tanks anchored near the coast would fill with seawater where a series of solar-powered stills would extract fresh water. Heat produced by small lamps would evaporate the saltwater and convert the condensed steam into fresh water. That water would then be collected in reservoirs near the coast and distributed to those who need it.

Here's how Studiomobile explains it:

However, water is not produced in isolated systems under central control. The new model provides for a large ecological infrastructure as well as small local production units connected to a network able to integrate the production of fresh water and to supply it where needed. It's a Smart Water Network controlled by sensors that read the local lack of water and, through an Arduino board, activate the pumps providing the water where there is a peak of demand. The Smart Water Network will be a layer of the ecological network as well as the Smart Power Grid and the communications network. This strategy not only gives response to the preservation of the environment, but it is also a radically new model that ensures free and democratic access to the resources to everybody.

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Networking Nature was created for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.

via Inhabitat

credit: Studiomobile

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A Dry Run For Fusion Power

The reality of fusion power the same energy that powers the sun remains outside of our reach. Although scientists have figured out how to split atoms and attain nuclear reactions, they have yet to find an efficient way to fuse atoms. So far, techniques require more energy than what's produced.

But at Sandia labs, researchers are getting closer. Recent experiments led by plasma physicist Ryan McBride show that it's possible to reach a "break even" point, where the energy that goes into running a fusion reactor is equal to energy produced. That's a big step toward an alternative energy that produces emission-free energy without the nuclear waste.

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The fusion method at Sandia is called magnetized inertial fusion. Doing it requires a system of coils at each end of a beryllium cylinder just under seven millimeters across. Inside the cylinder is a small amount of deuterium, which is an abundant molecule in the ocean made of hydrogen with an extra neutron.

Here's how the reactor works: First the two coils generate a magnetic field. A few milliseconds later, an accelerator called the Z machine fires a 25-million-ampere current. That current generates a magnetic field that crushes the cylinder in 100 billionths of a second. In that short space of time a laser fires at the cylinder, heating the deuterium gas inside and turning it into a plasma. The two coils at the end, meanwhile, are generating a magnetic field that contains the plasma to allow it to fuse.

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In this experiment, the compression part of that system was tested. The current was run through the coils and the beryllium cylinder was compressed, and retained its shape. This is important because if the cylinder deforms too much, there isn't enough pressure on the whole sample deuterium to initiate fusion.

One of the factors that Sandia labs was trying to determine was how thick and large the cylinder should be. Too big, and the magnetic fields can't crush it. Too small and the electrical current will simply vaporize it completely before it can crush the plasma inside. They found the optimum proportion seems to be a cylinder with a wall about one sixth the radius.   

The experiment is an extension of simulations performed in March. The next step is to try pre-heating the deuterium with the laser, and after that -- possibly some time in late 2013 -- testing it with nuclear fuel inside. The fuel will be deuterium, and it won't be powerful enough to get past the "break even" point and produce energy. But McBride told Discovery News that the output should tell the researhers whether or not using tritium -- hydrogen with two neutrons -- will work when mixed with deuterium.

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So will this lead directly to fusion reactors? Not really, because the amount of current needed to get to "high gain" fusion -- which would mean energy output more than 1,000 times that applied to the fuel -- is more than twice what the Z machine can produce, some 60 million amperes. That said, if the proof-of-concept works, then there isn't any technical barrier to building such a machine. 

The experiment will be presented in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.

Top Photo: Sandia researcher Ryan McBride pays close attention to the tiny central beryllium liner to be imploded by the powerful magnetic field generated by Sandia’s Z machine. The larger cylinders forming a circle on the exterior of the base plate measure Z’s load current by picking up the generated magnetic field.

Image: Sandia National Laboratories

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Mirrored Troughs Could Power Remote Clinics

About 1.4 billion people in the world have absolutely no access to electricity at all and even more have extremely unreliable access. Additionally, there are some 30,000 clinics and 60,000 schools around the world that lack access to electricity.

A nonprofit start-up company, called Solar Turbine Group or STG International, run by MIT engineering PhD candidate Matthew Orosz and his colleagues has developed an alternative: a heat-powered generator that gets its energy from the sun. It's a system that uses mirrored parabolic troughs (see photo above) to capture sunlight and concentrate it on pipes at the center of the troughs. Fluid running through the pipes get heated to 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

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The heated fluid is pumped into a chamber where it expands and drives a generator that produces electricity. The hot fluid can also be used to heat water, which means the extra step of an electric heater isn't necessary. After the heat from the fluid is exhausted, the cooled fluid condenses and gets recirculated to the pipes in the trough to be heated by the sun again.

The principle behind this system is actually quite old -- it was discovered in the 19th century. But only recently have engineers looked at using the sun to power it.

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The system is being tested in Lesotho, in southern Africa. Hot water is a big issue there, because in winter it gets quite cold. Without hot water, health care workers are unwilling to wash their hands.

Matthew Orosz, one of the founders, said the idea for the system came when he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, and that’s where the company plans to have five fully operational systems in place for field-testing at remote health clinics. It will be, he said, a good alternative for such clinics which are too far away from cities to get reliable fuel or where there isn’t enough sunlight to power solar panels.

The research will published in an ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power.

Image: STG International

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Downdraft Wind Tower Gets OK in Arizona

When you think of wind power, you may think of wind turbines, which harness fast-moving air. But this wind tower generates its own wind and then harnesses it. Creating wind eliminates the sporadic and unreliable nature of this renewable energy. Two structures, designed by tk-based Clean Wind Energy Tower, Inc., have gotten zoning approval for development in Arizona.

The Downdraft Towers are each 2,000-foot tall hollow cylinders covered with vanes. Inside the cylinder, water is pumped to the top and sprayed into a mist. That cools the air, which then sinks rapidly to the bottom at speeds of 50 miles per hour. At the same time, the vanes on the outside pull in additional (presumably intermittent) wind. The downward rushing wind exits at the bottom, passing through turbines that produce electricity.

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Ron Pickett, CEO, told Discovery News that the tower will be designed for a peak output of 1,100 megawatt-hours and will average about 675 MWh, about 535 of which will be sold to the grid and the rest of which will power the pumps and internal systems. It should be enough, Pickett said, for about 800,000 homes. 

It will be located near the town of San Luis, which is near the border of California and Mexico in the southwestern corner of the state. The water will come from the Sea of Cortez and be desalinated before use to reduce corrosion. Pickett said about 90 percent of the water used can be recovered and the cost of the desalinization and piping is part of the estimated $2 billion price tag for the project.

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There are still hurdles. Earlier this year the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation and Marine Corps Naval Station in Yuma both expressed concerns about the impacts. The first group asked about the water use, and the latter about power lines near an active airstrip. But neither was strongly opposed to the project.

Pickett said he is confident that the company can raise the necessary funds to build the towers. International Energy Agency reports estimate a coal plant costs some $1 million to $1.5 million per megawatt-hour, which would put the cost of an equivalent plant at $1.5 billion. A nuclear power station would be much more, so the costs aren't wildly different from other power generation technologies. 

All that said, if the building goes forward, it could make the conventional wind turbine tower a thing of the past.

Image: Clean Wind Energy Tower, Inc.

Via Gajitz, Clean Wind Energy Tower, Inc.

Solar-powered Fabric Charges Phones on the Trail

When every ounce on the trail counts, outdoor adventurers dream about ditching batteries. They might not have to wait. Designers at Colorado State University are developing solar-powered clothes from natural fibers that can charge a number of devices, including phones, tablets and GPS units.

Professor Eulanda Sanders and associate professor Ajoy Sarkar in CSU's department of design and merchandising, as well as four of their students, are making prototypes for solar-charging apparel that can be worn while biking, snowboarding, skiing or hiking.

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Clothing with solar panels has been developed before, but these duds usually rely on petroleum-based materials rather than natural fibers. A prime example is California-based Silvrlining's GO Solar Power Collection, which puts solar power into microsuede sportswear. While certainly cool-looking, the director's jacket costs $1,180.

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Instead, Sanders and Sarkar want to produce clothes from cotton and linen that are safe and strong enough to handle the elements. According to the university, the group was able to modify natural materials to make them more durable. From there, they incorporated flexible solar panels within the apparel.

Their goal with these greener clothes is ultimately to make solar clothing that's not only comfortable and cool looking but also highly functional and easy to clean. Definitely an admirable idea, but one that I can see will also prove fairly challenging to execute -- especially if they want it to be affordable.

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With help from a $15,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the CSU group has already made several prototype jackets and a vest. This weekend, that apparel will go on display at the EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, D.C. The team has also entered a sustainable design competition there, competing with entries from across the nation. Winning means a shot at taking their solar clothing to the market.

Photo: Colorado State University student Anna Rieder incorporates solar panels into a winter jacket. Credit: Colorado State University Creative Services.

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World's Largest Floating Wind Farm for Malta?

The tiny European island nation of Malta, which sits off the coast of the Italian island Sicily, has to meet the mandate from the European Union to get 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.To achieve that goal, the island is considering a proposal by the Swedish company Hexicon, to build a large floating wind farm. The farm would have 36 turbines situated on a floating platform that would be anchored to the seafloor by cables.

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It's estimated that the floating farm would provide 54 megawatts of power to the island. If Malta signs the deal, the structure would be the world's largest floating wind farm to date.

via Co.Exsit

Credit: Hexicon

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'Battery Parfait' Made from Molten Metal

Sun and wind are not constant. So, if we're going to harness energy from them, we need a way to store the power for use when it's needed. Batteries are the way to do it, but a big question in the power industry is how to build a battery that's efficient enough and stores enough power to be useful.

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At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, professor of materials chemistry Donald Sadoway and David Bradwell are investigating batteries made from molten metal.

The molten battery design uses liquids of different densities (think of how oil and water separate) to work as the anode, cathode and electrolyte. Magnesium, for example, is used for the anode on top, in the middle there is a mixture of salt and magnesium chloride that serves as the electrolyte and at the bottom, there's antimony, which acts at the cathode. It a battery parfait, really, that's about the size of a shot glass. The whole thing is heated to 700 degrees Celsius, or about 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit.

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At that temperature, the magnesium atoms lose two electrons, becoming magnesium ions that sink through the electrolyte to the antimony at the bottom. The electrons are captured and sent along a circuit to the outside, where they'll provide power.

Recharging is done the same way as ordinary batteries: hook up a source of current to the positive electrode and the magnesium migrates out of the antimony and back to the top of the cell.

Such high-temperature electrochemistry is already done in the aluminum smelting industry, so scaling the size of these batteries up for use by a power utility is doable. Sadoway's team think they can scale up their version to a six-inch battery.

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The big challenge will be keeping the batteries hot enough and reducing the temperature at which they operate, so as to make them efficient enough for industrial use. Corrosion is also something that needs to be addressed, since one component is molten salts.

Then there's costs. One reason the team chose magnesium is that it is cheap and abundant. Any large-scale version can't depend on anything too exotic, or elements that need special handling.

That said, Sadoway and Bradwell have formed a company to commercialize the technology, so there may come a day when giant battery cells full of liquid metal are helping deliver power to the grid.

Image: JAPACK/amanaimagesRF/amanaimages/Corbis

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Water Pressure Turned Into Power

A shower on the upper floor of a high rise building can provide magnificent water pressure -- a liquid shiatsu massage. A New York City startup has started tapping into that intense water pressure at treatment plants, reservoirs and factories, converting the excess into electricity.

The idea for the startup, Rentricity, began following 9/11, when president and co-founder Frank Zammataro had to relocate to a conference room that overlooked a rooftop water tower. Zammataro, who had specialized in information technology for Merrill Lynch, saw opportunity in the towers that maintain water pressure in tall buildings, he told writer David Ferris for Ecomagination.com.

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When water utilities create reservoirs at a high elevation to serve populations living in lower-lying cities, they install pipes for the water to flow down hill. Zammataro explained to me that the water's speed increases so much while flowing downhill that it has to be slowed down to prevent it from exploding when a customer turns on the faucet.

Utilities reduce that serious water pressure using a specialized valve. Installed in the pipe, the valve dissipates the pressure and slows the flow by squeezing the water column. Those standard valves also creates waste heat and pressure in the process, Zammataro said.

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Rentricity makes a turbine-generator device called "Flow-to-Wire," that's basically a wheel connected to a shaft and generator. Water pressure gets dissipated and the flow is slowed, but as the water moves through the wheel, a generator creates an electric field.

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"The concept and the technology is quite simple," Zammataro said. Rentricity installed its technology, which it says is made affordably using off-the-shelf parts, at a water treatment plant in Keene, New Hampshire. The public works director told Ferris that the move has cut the plant's energy bill in half.

Recently, the company did an installation for Pennsylvania American Water at their Oneida Valley water treatment plant, Zammataro told me. "This 25-kilowatt 'Flow-to-Wire' system offsets approximately 15% of the power needed by the plant to process raw water into clean drinkable water for the local community," he said.

Credit: Nick Koudis/Getty Images

Photo: Rentricity's installation for Pennsylvania American Water in Butler, Pa. Credit: Ang Zhu, Rentricity Inc.

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