January 2009 Archives

We are familiar with coal-gasification. The intermediate product is syn-gas, a mixture of hydrogen and CO. Syngas can be used in may ways to generate power, for stationary or mobile purposes, making it a key ingredient for future energy infrastructures.

In 2007, for the first time, renewable energy sources, other than conventional hydroelectric capacity, accounted for the largest portion of capacity additions. Total net summer capacity increased 8,673 MW in 2007. Wind capacity accounted for 5,186 MW of this new capacity. Natural gas-fired generation accounted for 4,582 MW. Two new coal-fired plants with summer capacity totaling 1,354 MW were placed in service in 2007. However, retirements and downward adjustments to existing capacity resulted in a 217 MW net reduction in coal-fired capacity.

[Source Cleantechnica]

Source : Gigaom

"The Secretary shall require as a condition of receiving funding under this subsection that demonstration projects utilize open Internet-based protocols and standards if available."

And

"The Secretary shall establish and maintain a smart grid information clearinghouse in a timely manner which will make data from smart grid demonstration projects and other sources available to the public. As a condition of receiving financial assistance under this subsection, a utility or other participant in a smart grid demonstration project shall provide such information as the Secretary may require to become available through the smart grid information clearinghouse in the form and within the timeframes as directed by the Secretary."

As Tom correctly observes, enforcing open protocols instead of allowing walled gardens will create a different universe of possibilities and freedom. 

Factcheck.org has published a pretty good overview of the state of the discussion on coal as an energy source. Is so-called "clean coal"  possible? Their answer: not yet, is probable, but with a hefty price tag.

(Lahore) Access to neighborhood rights-of-way is governed by local relationships rather than by official government license.  As a result, there are extensive local broadband networks (fiber and Cat 5 cable) providing excellent local connectivity (typically up to 100 Mbps symmetric), including high speed access to local content caches.  Actual connections to the Internet are still limited so, while one can download movies from a file server at 30 - 50 Mbps, connections to the real Internet tend to be limited to 512 Kbps each.  On the other hand, the whole package costs roughly Rs 600 or about US $8, per month.

An insider explains how it works: no-nonsense, minimalist approach. And it works: customers complain if they do not get 5 Mbps download from a local media storage server. 

Are you looking for a way to bond with your neighbours? Buy a hot air balloon and generate energy for all your new friends with the balloon engine. Ian Edmonds' balloon engine traps solar energy in a greenhouse and inflates a giant balloon with the heated air. The balloon pulls a earthbound tether while it rises, spinning a generator to generate electricity. Once the balloon has ascended 3 kilometers it automatically release its air to lose buoyancy. In the descent less energy is needed to pull the balloon back down again, resulting in a net power gain. Edmonds estimates the average power output on 50kW for a commercially available balloon (with a volume of 45,000 cubic metres, equivalent to a sphere of diameter 44m). He predicts that the costs of his balloon engine par with that of wind power. That would be great for sunny places where the wind rarely blows.


















Via: NewScientist.com
Link to more information and the concept of operation: Balloon Engine

Although we continue to get bad news from the financial sector not all is bad. During my recent trip in Germany (Bavaria) I had the opportunity to talk with a lot of people about their business. Surprisingly enough the small and medium-sized companies were doing quite well. An guy from an ad-agency told me they did not take any more orders until May, too much work. Not many people were pessimistic, only the ones directly living of the financial sector.

Another effect of the German laws that stimulate local sustainable energy generation.

Sometimes you wonder how it could take so long to discover something that seems so obvious. Scientists now have discovered that Antartica is warming. In the last fifty years temperature sensors on Antartica indicated that it was cooling down. This was opposite to the rest of the world and attributed to the hole in the Ozone layer. However, it has now been concluded that the temperature sensors used to gather the data where placed close to the coastline and not equally spread over the region. Therefore they gave a false impression. The new study has used satellite data and has concluded that Antartica has been getting warmer over the last fifty years with the Western region rising about 0,12 degrees per decade. This can only be explained, according to the authors, by global warming. East Antartica has, however, indeed been cooling down because of the hole in the Ozone layer. Professor Steig, author of the article remarked on this: "In any case, efforts to repair the ozone layer eventually will begin taking effect and the hole could be eliminated by the middle of this century. If that happens, all of Antarctica could begin warming on a par with the rest of the world."  

During my visit in the Bavarian Alps (near the Czech border) I noticed the effect of the famous German law that regulates the amount that is paid for green energy delivered to the grid. It is known that is has spurred a lot of investments in solar panels and windenergy parks.

(Quote from the original)

Seit Jahren entscheiden die Instanzengerichte in der für Internetanbieter wichtigen Markenrechtsfrage unterschiedlich. Die höchsten deutschen Richter in Karlsruhe haben am 22.01.2009 entschieden: Ist eine als Schlüsselwort benutzte Bezeichnung mit einer fremden Marke identisch - wie in dem vom BGH zu bewertenden Fall „Bananabay" für Erotikartikel - und wird sie zudem für Waren oder Dienstleistungen benutzt, die mit denjenigen identisch sind, für die die fremde Marke Schutz genießt, hängt die Annahme einer Markenverletzung in einem solchen Fall nur noch davon ab, ob in der Verwendung der geschützten Bezeichnung als Schlüsselwort eine Benutzung als Marke im Sinne des Markengesetzes liegt. Das ist eine Frage der Auslegung des Markengesetzes. Da die Bestimmungen des deutschen Markengesetzes auf europäischen Recht beruhen, hat der Bundesgerichtshof das Verfahren ausgesetzt, um dem Europäischen Gerichtshof diese Frage zur Vorhabentscheidung nach Art. 234 EG-Vertrag vorzulegen.

Part 2 of the famous humorous explanation of the credit crisis, by two comedians enacting a talkshow. Part 1 is over here. Very, very to the point.

Germany has a reputation to lose: solidity en quality is expected. Therefore the latest revelation of Der Spiegel is sobering.

Seems like someone has made a big step towards real practical microbots, swimming in the bloodstream as they are guided towards problem areas through small arteries. The (silent) video shows a practical method to use piezo-electric propulsion, mimicking nature.

One strategy to use less (expensive) silicon in solar panels is by concentrating the sunlight with lenses on the solar cells. The drawback is the heat: silicon does not like to be overheated. So you see designs with elaborate cooling fins to keep the solar cells at a reasonable temperature.

Last week Rem Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) presented a plan for large scale windfarming, Zeekracht. OMA states: 'Due to its high and consistent wind speeds, shallow waters, dense population and knowledge industry, the North Sea is arguably the most suitable area for large scale windfarming in the world. The potential magnitude of renewable energy in the North Sea in fact, approaches that of fossil fuel production in the Persian Gulf states today. In the changing landscape of 21st century energy perception and demand, the North Sea could become a major player in global energy production and trade through windpower alone.

The proposed circular wind farms provide destinations at sea through their explicit connection with the parties they are supplying (e.g. communities, companies, cities, etc). The farms are also designed to be sited, programmed and phased according to the evolving demands and plans of North Sea regional development. Locally, the windfarms perform a series of hybrid functions according to their location and performance mandate -depleted subsea natural gas reservoirs are used for energy storage, untapped gas fields for hybrid energy production, farms adjacent to shipping lanes act as offshore power stations, etc. Farms developed along ecological zones and around existing decommissioned platforms create marine remediation areas, new recreational parks, and recreational sea routes. At a mature stage of offshore development, wind farms are clustered along the length of the Super-Ring, distributing national surpluses and supplying regional energy needs efficiently and profitably.'

As a Dutchmen you can participate in Zeekracht, to support this initiative and to use the windenergy once the farm is operational.























Links:
Zeekracht
OMA and Zeekracht

We depend more and more on sophisticated technology in our society. The complexity is rising quickly: large information technology (IT) projects have a worse track record than infrastructure projects when measured to "completed-on-time-and-within-budget" . Climate and energy issues require a lot of knowledge of physics , of complex modelling, of research and development, of innovation.

Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH) is the hotly debated step to replace the copper wires in the street, used for telecommunications, with optical fibers. We will see a lot of activity in the next 10 years : construction workers digging trenches and laying optical cables to our homes. But if optical fiber is so superior, why do we keep on using copper wires in our homes to connect our home gear? Some people believe all will be wireless in due time, but I have serious reservations about this projection. Wireless bits are always desperately seeking wires to continue their path. So will we see fiber-in-the-home?

" Firecomms home networking technology enables the quick and easy deployment of fiber optic cable in the home. Using low-cost, easy to use transceivers, like the company's proprietary OptoLock® plugless transceivers, Firecomms makes possible a reliable and future-proof connection between IPTV set top boxes and home gateways. Plastic Optical Fiber technology is widely used in millions of cars worldwide, so Firecomms devices have achieved the low-cost and high reliability required for use in home applications" 

I would have thought that we would have exhausted the functional envelope of search-engines, but no. After Vincent Dekker of Trouw had pointed to Melzoo  (mouse-over of search results gives example in separate frame) Cool Tools posted about TinEye.

"TinEye is a handy reverse image search engine. It finds where on the web an image comes from. You can use it to find where a photo of yours appears elsewhere, to find a higher res version of an image, or to locate the origins of a photo someone forwarded to you." 

A first test showed that their coverage of the web's content is somewhat lacking, but it is an interesting twist in search technology.

This is a really nice series of 8 photo's of wild animals in domestic situations by photographer Mikel Uribetxeberria (yes, he is from Basque country). It's called animalia. Wouldn't you like to have one of these as your pet? His other photo's are worth looking at too.

The study's author, Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, says he never mentions Google in the study. "For some reason, in their story on the study, the Times had an ax to grind with Google," Wissner-Gross told TechNewsWorld. "Our work has nothing to do with Google. Our focus was exclusively on the Web overall, and we found that it takes on average about 20 milligrams of CO2 per second to visit a Web site."

And the example involving tea kettles? "They did that. I have no idea where they got those statistics," Wissner-Gross said. 

"Gazan teenagers have no future other than war. [..] Some 230,000 Gazan males, aged 15 to 29, who are available for the battlefield now, will be succeeded by 360,000 boys under 15 (45% of all Gazan males) who could be taking up arms within the coming 15 years."

" The reason for Gaza's endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the world's refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host countries, UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all of their descendents as well."

" Thanks to the West's largesse, nearly the entire population of Gaza lives in a kind of lowly but regularly paid dependence. One result of this unlimited welfare is an endless population boom. Between 1950 and 2008, Gaza's population has grown from 240,000 to 1.5 million." 

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Although the people from jalopnik.com seem to like it, I still think the new Toyota Prius, recently unveiled at the Detroit motor show, looks bad. The article displays a lot of details on the new design and performance. And also in that aspect, I am somewhat dissapointed. 9% better fuel efficiency does not sound like a lot for a new model. My prediction: Prius is out. And although more dead than alive, Chryler will be in if it reaches 2011..

The number and lenght of traffic jams in the Netherlands this week (so far) has been significantly lower than normal.

What will the cities of the future look like? There will be more and bigger cities according to the current predictions, but will they be greener? And what will those citizens eat? Environmental Graffiti presents a couple of nice examples for a green city and touches upon vertical farming. I would love one of those here in Amsterdam. 

  

It turns out that new plants would be not just extremely expensive but spectacularly expensive. The first detailed cost estimate, filed by Florida Power & Light (FPL) for a large plant off the Keys, came in at a shocking $12 billion to $18 billion. Progress Energy announced a $17 billion plan for a similar Florida plant, tripling its estimate in just a year. "Completely mind-boggling," says Charlie Beck, who represents ratepayers for Florida's Office of Public Counsel. 

....

The key will be reducing demand through energy efficiency and conservation. Most efficiency improvements have been priced at 1¢ to 3¢ per kilowatt-hour, while new nuclear energy is on track to cost 15¢ to 20¢ per kilowatt-hour. And no nuclear plant has ever been completed on budget.

Martin Geddes is undoubtedly one of the great and deep  thinkers about telecom. You don't have to agree with all of his views to enjoy his strategic views and original thoughts.

Slashdot reports about the next escalation level of the war Big Content is waging. 

In the lab of UCLA electrical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan, a prototype cell phone has been constructed that is capable of monitoring the condition of HIV and malaria patients, as well as testing water quality in undeveloped areas or disaster sites. The imaging platform, known as LUCAS (Lensless Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging), has now been successfully installed in both a cell phone and a webcam. Both devices acquire an image in the same way, using a short wavelength blue light to illuminate a blood, saliva or other fluid sample. LUCAS captures an image of the microparticles in the solution using a sensor array.Because red blood cells and other microparticles have a distinct diffraction pattern, or shadow image, they can be identified and counted virtually instantaneously.

Gas2.0 published an interview with Honda's chief engineer Tetsuya Yokoyama and discussed the ultracapacitor with him. In brief the ultracapacitor is a battery-alternative that stores more energy than a comparable size and weight battery and can be charged much faster. Two other publications on this nice website tell about a recently granted patent and about some of the science behind it. Interestingly enough, however, Mr. Yokoyama states that the ultracapacitor has taken a backburner at Honda, considering recent advances in lithium ion and NiMH battery technology. He states that a significant technological break through is needed for the ultracapacitor to become production reality and that this is rare. However, the accumulation of know-how from the continuous technological research and development could bring further advancement by linking different technologies together, he pointed out. Combination of a classical battery with an ultracapacitor could then maybe become the first reality. Read also Honda's own information on the ultracapacitor.

In 2008 there was much ado about electric transportation and sustainable energy. Inhabitat provided a top ten of green transportation, and a top ten green architecture projects.
I wonder which buildings, cars, bikes and other green projects will see the light in 2009. Will there be more of the same (but better), or will there be completely new concepts to go green?























Green Roof Art School in Singapore