The Texas Clean Energy Project, also commonly known as the TCEP is one of the demonstration project regarding clean coal, has made an announcement that the primary agreement of power purchase for carbon capture, on a commercial scale, has already taken place in the United States.

United States biggest utility owned by the municipal; the CPS Energy, will purchase 200 megawatt of energy on a yearly basis from TCEP as soon as it becomes online in the year 2015.

The TCEP is among the very first in the United States to have combined technologies related to the capture and storage of carbon with Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC .

In accordance to the DOE, with the use of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, the plant will be able to reduce its emission of carbon that is generated by an alike traditional coal plant by ten percent and less than twenty-five percent compared to a highly efficient natural gas plant.

The plant will be able to capture 90 percent of the generated carbon. It will also be able to capture 90 percent of nitrogen oxide as well as 99 percent of mercury.

As an alternative to burn coal, the latter will be preserved in a gasifier. A gasifier can be described as an hermetically sealed chamber which permits only controlled quantities of oxygen to come in. with the minimization of oxygen, instead of caused ignition, the coal bakes. As a result, sufficient pressure and heat is produced to squeeze carbon monoxide and hydrogen from the coal. These gases are subsequently turned into synthetic gas, most commonly known as syngas.

After that the syngas is mixed with water vapor. This causes a chemical reaction with the gas carbon monoxide in order to form additional carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Upon the removal of contaminations from the gas, the latter is separated into clean streams of carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

The hydrogen gas is utilized to power the turbine to produce electricity. The exhaust heats water that are free from any carbon is used to produce steam which is fed to the turbine to generate greater amount of electricity.

The amount of carbon dioxide captured in a yearly basis by the plant is approximately 2.9 million metric tons. 83 percent of it will be utilized to enhance the recovery of oil. The remaining will be employed to produce urea as it has various industrial uses.

The plant is costing 2.4 billion US dollars. 450 million US dollars ofit is being sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative.

Source: Sustainable Business

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Specification

1. The machine can provide 15,000 gallons of hygiene and drinking water from rivers, wells, lakes and other potential sources of fresh water.

4. In case energy is required during the night, the machine has 20KWh of battery.
A system is purely environmentally friendly; No noise pollution; No Fossil Fuel.

Haiti – Mobile MaxPure

In Haiti, WorldWater has been operating for several years, even before the earthquake that stroke the country in 2010. In total, there are actually 6 Mobile MaxPure Solar Power Water Purification Systems running in the Haiti Island.

In collaboration with Food For the Poor as well as other active NGOs, WorldWater managed to provide 2 Mobile MaxPure System to Haiti in 2008. It was intended to support the country after severe hurricanes leaving the island in-active for weeks with no grid electricity, flooding and debris on the streets. Due to natural calamities, water sources are left polluted and non-consumable. The self-powered system solved this drastic water shortage issue.

In January 2010, a devastating earthquake rendered normal water sources non-consumable. The two MaxPure System was immediately deployed as a life-saving tool. In addition other organization supported and provided a third Mobile MaxPure system.

Other NGOs have thereafter sponsored the deployment of additional Mobile MaxPure systems to Haiti in order to overcome cholera, agricultural issues, provide electricity and to provide consumable water to people whenever the need arose.

Japan –

Just, one month after that Japan had been rattled by the earthquake that hit Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant, Gamesa and WorldWater arranged for 2 Mobile MaxPure System to be airlifted to Japan to provide purified water to people living in a village situated close to the Nuclear Plant.

Iraq

The US Military Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) deployed several of the WorldWater solar powered water purification systems to sustain clean water and energy wherever required.

In the past, Iraqis consumed contaminated and unfiltered water. In 2008, May to July PRT provided 12 MMP to Fallujah, which are used to filter water from Euphrates River. At Iraq Water Treatment Facility the Chief Engineer, Abbas Hassan says that the machine help to solve the key issues such as providing clean water.

Hamid Hamid Ahmed Hashim Al-Alwani, who is the District Council Chairman for Fallujah says that providing clean drinking water by purifying water immediately from Euphrates River with solar power will help to reduce diseases like bilharzias and cholera.

The three years of service in Iraq have worked well.

In another district, Tigris, US Army provided 25 MMP in 2009. From the Tigris River, twenty MMP pumps are used to purify water while five are used as a reverse osmosis system to purify brackish water.

According to Fallujah District Council Spokesman, Sheikh Salam Halbusi says that many children fall sick due to the consumption of non-hygiene water, but now with the MMP the admittance to hospitals has gone down.

The Solar-Powered water filtration technology is a field where US Army has been very successful in helping Iraqis to have clean water and to survive on their own.

Source: World Water Solar

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At University of Buffalo, researchers have already demonstrated that embedding quantum dots into modern photovoltaic cells increase the energy output significantly. It allows the cells to generate energy from infrared light and therefore, the energy that can be harvested from photoelectrons is amplified.

In the Journal of Nano Letters, in May, the research team having Andrei Sergeev, Vladimir Mitin and Nizami Vagidov from the faculty of UB’s electrical engineering department; Kimberly Sablon a nanofabricate expert and John Little from the U.S. Army Research laboratory; John Little; as well as Kitt Reinhardt from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

OPtoElectronic Nanodevices LLC (OPEN LLC) is a company that has been founded by Vagidov and Mitin Sergeev, in order to provide rapid innovation into the commercialized market.

Mitin says that since a decade ago, scientists have been trying to effectively integrate quantum dots to solar panels. It has been known since long that, this would enhance the efficiency by permitting the solar cells to capture invisible (infrared) light. Yet, previous studies have been hit by limitations.

The UB team and the military colleagues have been able to integrated quantum dots, to exploit infrared light, but also they have been able to significantly increase the built-in charge of the dots present in the solar cells.

The built-in charge is highly advantageous, electrons repel and this compels electrons to move within the quantum dots. The advantage of harvesting moving electrons is that electric currents are avoided.

Mitin, a SUNY Distinguished professor at UB’s office of Science, Technology Transfer, and Economic Outreach (STOR) says that the efficiency of the solar cells has increased to 45 percent.

The presence of highly efficient solar cells will bring clean technology to another playground. Solar energy will become cheaper, requiring smaller footprint and provides affordable energy to consumers.

Currently, OPEN LLC is seeking for federal programs as well as private investors to fund the projects to bring the quantum dot with a built in charge to the market. The team has already spent long-days in developing this astounding solar cell technology.

Source: Science Daily and ACS Publications

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The report says that the solar market has experienced as strong growth in 2011; with falling cost and rising employment creation. Some facts of the Solar Market in 2011 have been recorded in this article:

1. Solyndra – was part of a Growing Industry

Unfortunately, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in August 2011. However, this doesn’t mean that the market was weak. On the contrary, the market expanded by 140 percent and cost decreased by 40 percent. Solyndra failed to compete but the solar-energy market remains strong, as ‘90 percent of Americans believe that it is critical to progress towards the expansion of solar energy.

2. U.S Solar Industry Employees Above 100,000 Americans
In the recent years, the solar industry has become a growing employer. In America above 5,000 companies are employing more than 100,000 Americans in small, medium and large green solar companies. According to the solar Foundation’s national Job Census 2011, people were employed as engineers, administrative professionals, sales people, installers, electricians, plumbers, contractors and roofers. New job opportunity in the solar industry has been beneficial during the severe economic downturn.

3. Currently, the Solar Industry is one of American’s fastest growing sectors.

Most American companies support the growth of solar industry; This includes companies such as Google, Whole Foods, Target, Johnson & Johnson, Walgreens, Safeway and others, which have invested significantly.

4. Cost of Solar Panels has Decreased by 40 %

In U.S there are approximately 1.5 million houses having solar water heaters while solar energy is currently powering 730,000 households. Yet, with increasing research and development as well as bulk production solar panels are getting cheaper. Since 2010 to 2011, the price of solar cells has decreased by more than 40 percent while only 2011’s second to third quarter experienced a fall in price by 14.4 percent.

5. Cut-throat competition in a Growing solar Industry
United state have experienced a tremendous growth in the export of solar technology, which highly positive for the domestic industry with job creation. In 2010, the net export of solar products reached $2 billion.

Companies in the solar industry are operating in a very uncertain environment with high dependency on governmental support. These investment mechanisms are determining the market losers as well as winners. In 2011, more than 22,000 energy projects were completed across the 50 states, with a total private investment amounting to $23 billion. The Congress is pushing for additional support to promote the industry over 2012.

In America, Solar really works well, and 2011 was a great year for the solar industry. Yet, constant struggle and devotion are required to drive the industry in 2012 together with well devised energy policies.

Source: Clean Technica

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According to Zhu’s team, it was found that the efficiency of harnessing electrons from a single photon of sunlight could be doubled by the use of organic plastic semiconductor material.

Zhu says that plastic semiconductor solar cell has several advantages such as low cost, capability for synthesis thanks to molecular design and this makes it possible to exploit solar energy at far more efficient levels than currently.

This break-through was published by Zhu and his team in Science, 16th of December 2011.

Currently, conventional silicon solar cell can reach a maximum theoretical efficiency rate of 31 percent, and this is because most of the sunrays that struck the cell are too strong to be converted into electricity. The ‘hot electron’ is heat energy that is practically lost. Solar cells that could capture hot electrons could boost up the energy conversion rate of solar energy from 31 to 66 percent.

Recently, in 2010, Zhu and his team showed that it is possible to harness hot electrons by the use of semiconductor nano-crystals. However, Zhu admits that introducing such technology is extremely complex.

According to Zhu, an efficiency rate of 66 percent can only be captured when sunlight is focused on the solar panel not only raw sunlight. So there is a need to develop a new engineered device that ensures higher concentration of sunlight.

The team found a solution to this, when they found that a photon can make a dark quantum or so called ‘shadow state’ whereby two electrons can be captured via the use of a semi-conductor pentacene.

The use of this simple mechanism would practically increase converstion rate of solar cells by 44 percent. There would also be no need to develop a new device to have a concentrated solar beam. According to Zhu, it is a technology that could be pervasively used by the public.

Main Facts in the Findings:

1. When a photon is absorbed in a pentacene semi-conductor, it makes a so called excited electron-hole pair, which is known as an exciton.
2. An exciton is practically a pair of quantum forming a dark ‘shadow state’ which is known as multiexciton.
3. When an electron material is used like fullerene, the dark shadow state can very efficiently absorb two electrons.
4. The Dark Shadow state can increase the efficiency of solar cells by as much as 44 percent.

The National Science Foundation as well as the Department of energy sponsored this research that was spearheaded by Wai-lun Chan; One of Zhu’s postdoctoral fellows. In the team, other postdoctoral fellows were involved including Luis Miaja-Avila, Loren Kaake, Manuel Ligges and Askat Jailaubekov.

Source: Science Daily and Zeitnews

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Apparently, the world’s largest polluter is investing most in green technology. This shows the country’s intention to rapidly reduce greenhouse gases. And to change her reputation as a polluter to a green economy.

A country with 1.5 billion inhabitants is spending an unprecedented sum on the spurring green industry.

This is an important footstep for Beijing residents who are seldom able to see the sky, due to thick layers of smog emitted by coal-fired power plants, transportation, industrial pollution as well as the construction sector. This thick cloud of polluting particles is common for most cities in China.

The greenhouse gas has reached an alarming level in China. It is even affecting productivity and attendance rate of workers. In other words, it is affecting corporate performance. On a yearly basis, it was estimated that 410,000 Chinese people decease from pollution according to CLPmag.org.

The crisis of pollution is an ongoing challenge, acting as a vicious circle; works fall sick due to high pollution levels; this reduces productivity and also profit levels. As a result, companies are pushing the government to induce severe environmental regulations. The cost of investing in green energy is clearly higher than inaction.

The progress is fascinating; China has become the World’s largest manufacturer of solar panels, as they exceed U.S in the End of 2011. Only a minor percentage is being exported, most solar panels are being used to replace the typical coal-fired power plants.

Yet, the astounding rise in demand for electricity is forcing the country to build a new coal-burning power plant every week. So has the trend been since 2008. A figure that is alarming as every one tonne of coal burned in the power plant emits 2.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The Chinese government has plans to generate 100 MW of electricity, which will be able to power up to 62,000 households by:

1. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) -100 MW plant cost around $ 700 million

The cost of having the sun generating energy from curved mirrors is practically zero after the initial investment has been done. In modern CSP plants, it has been noted that energy can be produced on a 24-hour basis, as molten salt can be used to store thermal energy. It is a technology with practically no greenhouse emission and the cost of maintaining a CSP plant is relatively cheap.

A CSP plant generating 100 MW reduces annual carbon emission by 164,000 tons.

2. Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant – 100 MW cost roughly $300 million
The cost of photovoltaic is steadily falling and in addition is becoming more efficient. There is practically no fuel emission involved in generating electricity via Photovoltaic cells. The only huge cost is the initial investment, after that, the maintenance cost is extremely low.

A photovoltaic solar power plant generating 100 MW reduces annual carbon emission by 164,000 tons.

For a coal-burning power plant of 100 MW – the cost is $250 million, and this is a cost which is increasing; in contrast to green technology having a falling price. There are also a constant maintenance cost and new technology to make coal-fired power plants greener is adding additional millions to the power plants.

For coal generated electricity, the cost of construction is only one of the various costs involved. The real effect is transcended to the consumer.

China had 620 – coal power station as at the end of 2010, which burned above 3 billion tons of coal a year. In other words, it is an excessive amount of sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, airborne mercury, nitrous oxide as well as other toxins emitted. The construction and manufacturing industry emits only 7.2 billion tons of carbon emission per year.
The Chinese government has effectively lowered the emission of nitrous oxide, yet all the emission levels will at least experience a one-fold increase by 2020.

In China, the annual cost on coal is as much as $375 billion only for coal power plants, while shipping and railway are in addition to that figure. The supply of the coal comes as far as from U.S and western Canada.

All figures are expected to increase significantly by 2020. So if nothing is done to the energy sector, the expenditure on power will reach alarming heights.

China’s Ultimate Solution: Green Technology

Not only is the cost of coal power high in China – it is causing 410,000 death per year, together with deteriorating air, food, land and water. There are strong reasons why China is firmly determined to promote green-tech solution so as to enhance the environment.

For China to go Green represent a step to save hundreds of thousands of lives per year, while equally lower the healthcare cost.

China’s government understands the various importance of clean energy; for people and the economy – and they are now clearly displaying their interest as they are becoming a world-top investor in solar and other green technologies.

Source: Huffington Post & EVwind

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The renewable-energy minister says that companies are bidding at rate as low as 7.49 per unit for the construction of solar plants this year. It might not be long until solar-energy reaches ‘grid parity’, which will make solar energy even more demanded as a source of energy.

The Joint Secretary Minister, Tarun Kapoor says that the price will constantly fall year-by-year. Previously, the aim was to reach grid-parity by year 2022. However, the industry is given a positive indication that this target can now be reached by 2017. In addition, the cost of coal projects has gone up from 5.50 to 6 per unit due to the lack of local supply of coal and the need to import.

In the bids given on the National Solar Mission, the average price per unit was 8.78 while the lowest bid was laid by a French company, SolaireDirect, at as low as 7.49 per units for a typical 5 MW project.

In the round of bids, there were 28 suggested projects and each company could be given a maximum of 3 projects:

- 8 project of 20 MW
- 5 projects 15 MW
- 10 project of 10 MW
- 6 projects of 5 MW

Azure Power was given projects to construct solar power projects matching 35 MW. Their CEO, Inderpreet Wadhwa says that solar power does nowadays have the same market potentials as computers had in 1970s. The cost of solar power will be further pushed down with technology enhancement and innovation. In the first round in 2009, the company had given a quote of 17.91 per unit while for the current bid, the price has been laid at 8.21.

This remarkable improvement in the cost-competitiveness of solar power is showing that large investment can take place in India’s solar industry.

It is encouraging at an international level to see how India is driving price down. It is the only country of the few emerging countries that are supporting solar energy at a very large level.

The director from Renewable Energy Ministry did in the previous month’s Central Electricity Regulation Committee (CERC) emphasis on the decreased capital cost for typical collar cells. This is considered as a prime reason for the reduction in price. The cost of solar power will constantly fall to enable solar power to reach grid-parity.

The so called cost per megawatt is expected to fall even more; to 10 crore in 2013 from 14 crore in 2012.

Yet, reasons such as improvement in technology, international fall in the cost of solar cells and efficiency are other forces pushing the price of solar power down.

Source: Economic Times

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Spirit and Opportunity – Solar Powered Rovers

Apparently, solar power and nuclear power have some shortcomings in space. For instance, the solar panels used for Spirit, and Opportunity are made of gallium-arsenide. It is a niche product, with very high production cost per inch. The typical rooftop panels, which are silicon-based, are significantly cheaper.

In general solar power has been working fine on Mars with only some minor issues. On some occurrences dust storms reduced the capture sunlight by as much as 90 percent. A project known as ‘cleaning even’ referred to current that removed the dust that had accumulated on the cells.

The missions have been successful. Spirit is, however, no longer operating. But Opportunity has exceeded all expectations and operates fine after seven and half year of full functioning. Each of the rovers weights 400 pounds, and powered with lithium-ion battery, which stored the energy generated by cells. The maximum storage capacity was 140 watts. Here on earth, 140 watts are sufficient to run a monitor and a desktop computer. However, on Mars, the same amount of energy is used to power cameras, radios, other instruments as well as to propel the rover.

Curiosity – Nuclear Rover

The new Mars rover which was launched in November, 2011 had a far superior weight, being 2,000 pounds. The director of Space Nuclear System and Technologies division at the Idaho National Laboratory, Stephen G. Johnson says that this vehicle is as small as a car. The rover is equipped with laser that will be used to cut rocks, as well as other instruments that will facilitate the analysis of the materials. In other words, the energy required by this rover is far more than the Spirit and Opportunity.

An expert in Space technology from George Washington University, Dr. John M. Logsdon says that plutonium 238 is the only fuel that will be able to power the large space rover.

The machine is going to operate for two earth years which is equal to one Maritain year.

The space rover, Curiosity has nuclear-power packs that can constantly generate 110 watts. However, the system doesn’t work as typical nuclear reactors used on Earth. The uranium atoms aren’t split to make heat for the purpose of boiling water and to produce steam.

In space, the nuclear-power packs don’t use reactors. The atoms are not even split. The nuclear-power packs have plutonium 238, an isotope of 88 years, implying that the radioactive decay is extremely rapid and glows red-hot. This heat is directly changed into electricity. It is alpha particles that are released through the radioactive emission, which are practical and easy to catch.

Nevertheless, in the United States, nuclear materials are hard to find as it is getting old. The Energy Department shut the production of Savannah River Plant, found close to Aiken, S.C., in the 1980s. Since then there haven’t been any production of plutonium 238 in the US. America has been purchasing plutonium 238 from Russia ever since 1980s but today, not even Russia’s produce plutonium 238.

The National Academy of Science suggested the restarting of production of plutonium 238 in a ‘2009 report’. However, this hasn’t been initiated.

NASA has a substitute technology known as the ‘Stirling Engine System’. The system can generate five-fold the energy of each heat unit. It does therefore reduce the dependency for plutonium. Yet, there are several moving parts involved and this is why it hasn’t been adopted for space use.

According to Professor, Steven W. Squyres, of astronomy at Cornell who is also the chief scientist for Spirit and Opportunity rovers says that solar energy is cheaper and the best option to be used. Nuclear power is only used when there is no other suitable substitute.

In addition, NASA also launched Juno this year; a spaceship heading towards Jupiter powered with solar cells, due to the lack of plutonium. Jupiter is, nevertheless, not an ideal region to use solar cells as it is five times farther away from the sun than Earth thus the intensity of solar rays as 96 percent less, or only 4 percent of earth’s solar intensity.

There is a need to re-launch the production of plutonium 238, and to generate more efficient ways of using this energy.

Source: Green Blogs

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Jeffery Grossman, an engineering Professor at MIT has been inspired by the natural way that tree’s capture sunlight from their leaves has developed three-dimensional shapes of solar cells that can generate solar energy with higher efficiency. Apparently, it was found that the 3-dimension solar panels are ostensibly more efficient than the flat structure even during rainy days.

The team of Professor Grossman explains the efficiency of their 3D solar panels on the roof of the Boston research Lab at MIT on a rainy day.

For most solar technologies, it would be useless to do a demonstration of solar panels during a rainy day. However, for 3D solar panels, this isn’t the case, even during a rainy-day Professor Grossman and his team are able to demonstrate how 3D panels can generate electricity. They claim the 3-dimensional solar panels to be as effective during cloudy days as in sunny ones.

The dynamic shapes of the solar panels that have literally been inspired by nature are impressive. They are resilient against bad weather and equally have a higher capacity to capture direct sunlight than typical flat panels using the same footprint. This is because the solar panels can be designed in a vertically.

The team’s architect Rachelle Villalon, says that solar panels are usually designed to be hidden on the rooftops. With this new 3D design the team envisions a day when it would be possible to create iconic statues or architects placed all around in cities to generate electricity.

Source: Yahoo (News)

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Currently, renewable energy contributes to 13 % of the global energy mix. The International Energy Agency says that by 2035, this figure is likely going to rise to 18 %.

This increasing use of renewable energy is going to be an pushed by the New Polices Scenario increasing subsidies distributed in 2010 from US $ 64 bn to US$250 billion in 2035. For fossil fuel the annual subsidy provided was estimated at US$409 bn for 2010.

Non-hydropower renewable energy will rise from 3 % in 2009 to approximately 15 % by 2035. This will be motivated by a five-fold increase in subsidies to US$180 billion. This expansion will be mainly governed by China and EU. For hydropower, it will continue to contribute to around 15 percent of global energy supply led by large countries like India, China and Brazil. They are currently generating 50 percent of 680 GW of the recent installed capacity.

Maria Van Der Hoeven, Executive Director of IEA says that rising population will definitely result in increasing needs for electricity in the decades ahead. Yet, we can no longer depend on energy that is environmentally harmful and insecure.

Strong measures need to be introduced by governments to boost up investment in sources that are more efficient. There is a dozen of instances that our current electricity systems have proven insecure; like the Fukushima, nuclear accident – Turmoil in MENA (Middle East & North Africa). In addition, fossil fuel is bringing carbon emissions to alarming levels.

For the expansion in renewable energy, it will be necessary to invest and or upgrade the transmission network. In the EU, this will cost roughly 25 % of the whole.

From 2010 to 2035, the energy need is estimated to increase by 30 %. This increase is represented by mainly by non-OECD countries. By 2035, the China will need 70 percent more energy than what USA will consume by the same year.

In only 25 years, the cumulative increase in greenhouse emission could represent 75 percent of what has been released over the last century. This would equally mean rise in temperature by roughly 3.5 degree Celsius.

Not to mention, oil price will continue to rise and expected to be priced above the 2010 average of 120 USD per barrel.

IEA Chief Economist, Faith Birol says that every year that goes without significant investment in renewable-energy make it increasingly harder to tackle climate challenges and energy security.

In 2009, the annual spending on clean energy was USD 9 billion. This is a strong figure in the struggle to increase access to modern energy. However, to provide universal access to clean energy by 2030, the annual investment on renewable has to increase to USD 48 billions.

Source: >Renewable Energy Focus

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