NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Solar 'Wings' Power Swiss Ski Lift

The tiny Swiss ski town of Tenna has an impressively large claim to fame. Although larger, well-known ski resorts overshadow it, when their aging ski lift needed replacing, Tenna invested in building one of the world's first solar-powered ski lifts.

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Tenna, a farming village in eastern Switzerland not far from resorts such as St. Moritz and Davos, has a population of about 112. As the mayor, Thomas Buchli, told Michele Andina of SwissInfo.ch in a video interview recently, "When it was time to restore the old lift, we thought we could run it on solar power since we already have a lot of solar panels on the roofs our our stables." Clearly they're not your average farming community.

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The lift, which began operating in mid-December, had to address a key challenge: There wasn't enough room on the lift station roof for all the solar panels they needed. To solve this, they designed a suspension bridge of solar panel "wings" above the lift, which is nearly 500 yards long. The panels rotate to follow the sun and can be tilted to release snow if they start to get covered.

Although there were concerns that suspension ropes laden with 82 "wings" would mar the idyllic mountain landscape, the setup turned out to be fairly subtle with the panels hanging at slight angles, making them look like black diamonds. The lift stays busy, shuttling 800 skiers an hour, writes Adventure Journal's Michael Frank.

On sunny days, the lift produces twice as much power as it consumes, according to Andina. In the springtime when ski season ends, it becomes a mini solar power plant. The investment wasn't cheap: $1.5 million, but the lift is expected to produce 90,000 kilowatt hours annually -- well beyond the 21,000 kilowatt hours needed to run it during the season.

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Tenna claims to have the world's first solar-powered ski lift, but I'm not sure whether that's technically true. A resort in Westendorf, Austria, unveiled a solar-powered drag lift called "Sonnenlift" in 2008 that generates 12,000 kilowatt hours annually. In Colorado, the Steamboat ski resort says it has the only chairlift in the U.S. to be powered by solar energy.

As a Vermont native who lives in Colorado, you'd think I'd be an old pro at ski lifts. You'd be wrong. Last time I hit the slopes, I clung to the lift bar for dear life. Still, put more slick-looking solar power strings up there and I might just be convinced to brave it again.

Photo: The Swiss village of Tenna has the world's first ski lift directly powered by sunlight. Credit: Solar Lift Tenna.

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Peel-Off Solar Cells Coming Soon

Solar is about to get crazy thin, thanks to a startup that has a way to make peel-off solar cells.

First you have to forget everything you know about thin-film solar cells, the kind where semiconductor material is literally printed onto a thin plastic or glass. Sure, it's cheaper to manufacture than the standard, albeit brittle, silicon wafers, but it's not as efficient at converting sunlight into electricity.  

Researchers at Austin-based startup AstroWatt took a closer look at the process for making standard solar cells and noticed that slicing a block of crystalline silicon into thin wafers usually generates as much unusable dust as it does wafers. That's some serious and costly waste.

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So, AstroWatt proposed a new process that reduces the waste while producing superthin solar cells. They still started with a large block of crystalline silicon, but instead of slicing it up, they coated the top with metal. Next, they heated the block and then used a wedge to peel off a thin 25-micrometer layer of silicon joined to the metal. As Technology Review's Kevin Bullis explained recently, this process keeps the silicon from shattering even though the result is a super thin wafer.

AstroWatt says this new process can squeeze five or more solar cell wafers out of the same block of silicon that, with traditional, dusty methods, can only yield three. Another advantage: leftover silicon will be in chunks instead of dust so it can be reheated into larger pieces to get used. The startup says the overall result is a cheaper per-watt cost.

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Just to be clear, these aren't peel-off solar cells for consumers to plaster all over their houses or vehicles like stickers -- although that seems like a logical step in photovoltaic technology. After all, Notre Dame science professor Prashant Kamat recently led the development of a solar paint-like substance called "Sun-Believable."

Instead, the AstroWatt technique is really about making traditional solar cells using an innovative process that's cheaper and less wasteful. The more affordable and streamlined PV technology gets, the easier it will be to stick it everywhere.

Photo: A five-inch wafer of extremely thin crystalline silicon. Credit: AstroWatt 

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Aquatic Bike Pump Cranks Out Electricity

A bicycle pump-like device that harnesses wave power to generate electricity could be coming to the United Kingdom's coast within the next few years. The surprisingly simple system gets around a huge hurdle facing wave power: corrosion.

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The "Searaser" device works a little like an air pump for a bike, only it's much larger and pushes water around. Searaser contains a piston between two buoys, a larger one that floats on the ocean surface, and a smaller one suspended underwater that's weighted to the seafloor. When ocean waves pass by, the motion causes the piston to pump seawater through a pipe toward the shore.

British engineer Alvin Smith was inspired to create the device while playing with an inflatable ball at a swimming pool, according to the BBC.

Once ashore, Searaser sends the water uphill through the pipe to a reservoir. That seawater then gets released and comes downhill to an on-shore turbine, where electricity is produced. The BBC has a short animation showing how this works.

Floating Waves Capture Sun and Wave Power

Some might see similarities between the Searaser and other buoy-like systems. OPT's PowerBuoy system also uses buoys to capture wave power but relies on an underwater cable to transmit the power ashore. The ocean environment is especially tough on electrical equipment, though. It corrodes a lot of the materials needed to make an underwater wave-power system work.

By focusing on pumping seawater alone, Smith's design neatly avoids subjecting power generation and transmission equipment to the corrosive ocean:

Searaser was acquired by the British energy firm Ecotricity, which already created a prototype and plans to have the device ready for market in two years. A full-sized Searaser would be about 3.5 feet wide and 40 feet deep. Smith told the BBC he thinks that one will cost around $385,000.

Ideally, the system would be placed near a cliff that has a reservoir at the top. Fortunately for the British, the U.K. has more than 150 such reservoirs around the southwest. How well will it work? For now it's hard to tell, but 200 Searasers could power more than 230,000 homes. That's quite the cycle.

Image: A rendering showing the Searaser pumping underwater. Screenshot from video. (Credit: DWE Ltd.).

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Sunflower Design Brightens Solar Energy Prospects

There are only a few solar concentrator plants in the world, mainly because these multi-mirrored solar power production facilities require giant chunks of land and hefty investments. A new design developed at MIT could make these plants more feasible.

Using sunflowers as their inspiration, MIT researchers, led by assistant professor of mechanical engineering Alexander Mitsos, came up with a biomimetic design -- a design that mimics nature -- that better arranges the mirrors.

In solar concentrator parlance, the devices that hold the mirrors are called heliostats. Normally, the heliostats are arranged in concentric circles -- bull's eye style -- around a central tower. They reflect light from the sun toward the top of the tower, where there is a solar receiver. The receiver uses the intense heat to produce steam; the steam is used to turn a turbine that drives a generator, producing electricity.

Now look closely at the florets in the center of the sunflower photo above and imagine a bunch of heliostats arranged in that pattern.

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Mitsos and his colleagues recommend angling the heliostats at 137 degrees relative to each other in a parabolic pattern called the "Fermat spiral" after the 17th Century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat.

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Last fall, I visited a remote part of the Arizona desert about an hour's drive from Phoenix. Row upon row of photovoltaic panels lined the ground, all part of the Mesquite Solar I complex that's being constructed by Sempra Generation using locally manufactured Suntech panels. When it's finished in 2013, the plant will be one of the largest solar facilities in the world.

At the time, I learned that one major advantage that stationary solar panels have over heliostats is that their modular nature makes it possible to start generating power immediately. You don't have to wait for an entire plant to be finished first.

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However, solar concentrators can generate a heck of a lot of power. The seemingly simple reconfiguration that the MIT-led team suggests would increase efficiency, while also reducing the amount of land needed for a facility by 15.8 percent, according to the researchers, who recently published their flower-like model in the journal Solar Energy.

"The new pattern achieves a better trade-off between land area usage and efficiency," the researchers wrote in Solar Energy. "It can reduce the area requirement significantly for any desired efficiency." That means a little flower power could go a long way.

Photo Credit: Flickr user eEditor.

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Zinc Battery Could Boost Renewables

A start-up says it has a solution to an old problem: storing energy for public utility power grids.

It may not sound like a problem at first. But a big knock against using renewable energy such as wind and solar power is that the sun isn’t always shining and the wind always blowing. That makes the power source to unreliable for big power companies, who need to accommodate fluctuations in energy need.

Now, if somebody could find a way to store energy harvested from solar and wind power plants, that would great. Imagine a huge battery that soaks up the energy and just sits around until a power company needs to tap it. However, big batteries are expensive and have a limited number of recharge cycles.

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Eos Energy Storge, based in Easton, Penn., says it is developing a zinc-air battery that can be recharged thousands of times, enough to last 30 years. Zinc-air batteries aren't new; they're the button cells in small devices such as hearing aids and watches. They use oxygen that's abundant in the surround air to react with zinc to produce a charge.Zinc is cheap, and using atmospheric oxygen saves weight and obviates the need for a potentially toxic chemical to drive the reaction.

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Ordinarily, though, it's difficult to build a rechargeable battery this way because a lot of energy is necessary to break down the zinc hydroxide that forms as a result of the reaction in the cell. Eos claims to have a rechargeable version that can go through thousands of cycles -- 2,700 in their trials, though the goal is to hit 10,000.

The company says it uses novel chemistry in the electrolyte, avoiding the formation of dendrites (“whiskers”) when the zinc comes out of solution. Eos also says its electrolyte does better at maintaining the shape of the zinc anode.

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The total power in each battery will be up to a megawatt that would last six hours (6 MWh). A typical home in the United States uses about 958 kilowatt-hours in a month, so it’s enough to power a typical home for more than half a year. But the batteries are more likely to be used by industry, either by solar and wind power plants to store energy or as back-ups for businesses. (One of these batteries would fit in a 40-foot shipping container, so it’s a bit large for the backyard). Eos says the first ones should be produced in 2013.

The batteries will sell for about $1,000 per kilowatt, or about $160 per kWh. An SEC filing says Eos has received some $20 million in funding, so it’s a serious enough technology that some smart people are willing to part with their money to get it built.

Image: Eos Energy Storage

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iPhones Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells?

Apple has applied for two hydrogen fuel cell patents. Citing consumer awareness about fossil fuel's environmental and political impact, the move indicates the company has been looking into a new system to recharge their portable device batteries for over a year.

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"As a consequence of this increased consumer awareness," one application stated, "electronics manufacturers have become very interested in developing renewable energy sources for their products, and they have been exploring a number of promising renewable energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells."

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The application goes on to say: "Hydrogen fuel cells have a number of advantages. Such fuel cells and associated fuels can potentially achieve high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities, which can potentially enable continued operation of portable electronic devices for days or even weeks without refueling."

Using hydrogen fuel cells to power mobile devices is nothing new. Horizon's MINIPAK and Toshiba's Dynario have been on the market for years, yet they aren't exactly small enough to integrate with mobile phones unless you're going for the Zack Morris look, 80's brick cell phone included.

However, Apple says their sleek fuel cell design would be able to eliminate the need for a bulky battery pack.

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The patent applications were published by the US Patent & Trademark Office last week. The first patent, "Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device", was filed in August 2010, while the second patent, "Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device" was filed in April 2011, suggesting Apple has had their eye on this technology for a while.

Adrianna Williams/Corbis

[Via GizMag]

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Go Fly A Kite For A Better Wind Farm

Why tap a trickle, if you could tap a torrent? That's the idea behind Italian company KiteGen's new system for harvesting strong-blowing, high-altitude winds. Their system would fly tethered kites 2,624 feet into the air where they would harness winds that are, on average, six miles per hour faster than wind harnessed by stationary turbines on the ground. The kites would attach to mechanical arms and be flown over a predetermined flight path to maximize torque while taking advantage of stronger wind.

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According to KiteGen's calculations, the technology could help lower energy costs to between $0.02 and $0.05 per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared to $0.05 and $0.09 per kWh for fossil fuel and $0.15 per kWh for current wind turbines.

On top of potentially being more efficient than wind turbines, the system would take up less space than convential wind farms. A 1,000 megawatt (MW) wind farm can cover up to 186 square miles, while KiteGen's says their system would take up as little as 3.5 square miles for the same output.

BLOG: Wind Turbine Explodes Into Flames

While KiteGen's system is still in the development stage, the company is attempting to fund the first full-sized model with plans for an off-shore system also in the works.

 [Via GizMag]

Credit: KiteGen

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Wind Turbine Explodes Into Flames

Nothing is more emblematic of clean, renewable energy than the soothing blades of a wind turbine placidly turning in the breeze. Whenever I encounter a wind farm, I'm instantly calmed, dare I say hypnotized, by the tranquility.

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So when one of these gentle green giants catches fire, like it did in the above photo, the image is jarring to say the least. Most jarring is that this seems to happen more than you might think.

Most recently this happened in Androssan, North Ayrshire, Scotland, an area recently hammered by winds up to 160 mph, compliments of a beastly Atlantic storm that clobbered northern parts of the U.K. early this week.

As you can see from this photo, the turbine exploded, spewing large pieces of flaming material on the ground below.

The windfarm's operator, Infinis of Edinburgh, said the cause of the fire is not yet known and that the incident is under investigation.

It's not entirely clear what went wrong (normally wind turbines shut down when winds reach 55 mile per hour), so the investigation will likely focus on that mechanism and possibly the gearbox, which controls rotor speed.

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"As a standard precautionary measure, all Infinis staff vacate wind farms when wind speeds exceed 55 mph and therefore no one was present on site at the time of the incident," Infinis explained in a press release.

As well, the site has been disconnected from the electricity grid until further notice.

[Via NewScientist]

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Poo-Powered Glowing Bacteria Light Up the House

The bioluminescence of fireflies and "Red Tide" are arguably two of nature's most beautiful phenomena, leaving us spellbound in a open field or on the shore with our mouths agape. But have you ever considered lighting your home with this kind of light?

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Dutch electronics company Phillips has. In fact, they've created Bio-light, a greener lighting system that's part of their Microbial Home (MH) system. It isn't powered by electricity or sunlight, but by glowing bioluminescent bacteria that thrive on waste generated in the average home.

The bioluminescent bacteria is housed in hand-blown glass cells, clustered together to form a lamp that could easily be displayed in a modern art museum. Each cell is connected to the lamp's reservoir base by thin silicon tubes that pipe methane gas from composted bathroom solids and vegetable scraps via a kitchen dodad that digests bio-waste.

As long as proper nutrients are supplied, the bio-light's living bacteria can be powered indefinitely. Although the light isn't bright enough to fully replace conventional lighting, it does make people conscious of household forms of wasted energy that could be tapped.

Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of Design-led Innovation at Philips Design, says drastic changes are required to reduce our environmental impact and designers must lead the way.

“Designers have an obligation to understand the urgency of the situation, and translate humanity’s needs into solutions," he said, according to Phillips Design's website. "Energy-saving light bulbs will only take us so far. We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool resources.”

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Phillips envisions their bio-light technology being used on warning strips on curbs and steps, signs in theaters or clubs, and even night-time road markings.

[Via GizMag]

Image Courtesy of Philips

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France to Boast World's Biggest Tidal Energy Farm

Looking to harness the power of tidal flow in the English Channel, Irish technology company OpenHydro and French utility company EDF are teaming up to build the world's largest tidal energy farm.

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The $55 million project, slated for completion in 2012 off of France's northern coast near Paimpol, Brittany, will boast four 850-ton turbines that will provide enough energy to power 4,000 homes in the region.

OpenHydro will provide the 2-Megawatt turbines, which are 72 feet in diameter and will be anchored to the seabed 115 feet below the water's surface.

The company's innovations in marine turbine technology and renewable energy have recently garnished some awards. Last month, OpenHydro won the Engineers Ireland Continuing Professional Development Company of the Year award. On Monday, they took home top honors in the Best of Renewable Energy category at the 2011 Later Stage Awards, put on by the Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA), known as the global voice of clean technologies.

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“In each category, these companies are making both broad strides in their global industries, as well as working closely with their regional clean-tech clusters to build sustainable green economies and jobs," Ben Taube, Chairman of the GCCA, said in a press release.

[Via Inhabitat]

Image: OpenHydro

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