Ireland also seeks to conserve and rejuvenate its naturally beautiful environment and to clean up its atmosphere through the implementation of alternative energy supplies. The European Union has mandated a  reduction in sulphuric and nitric oxide emissions for all member nations. Green energy is needed to meet these objectives. Hydroelectric power has been utilized in Ireland in some areas since the 1930s and has been very effective; however, more of it needs to be installed.  Ireland also needs to harness the wave power of the Atlantic Ocean, which on its west coast is a potential energy supply that the nation has in great store.

Ireland actually has the potential to become an energy exporter, rather than a nation so heavily dependent on energy importation. This energy potential resides in Ireland’s substantial wind, ocean wave, and biomass-producing alternative energy potentials. Ireland could become a supplier of ocean wave-produced electricity and biomass-fueled energy to continental Europe and, as they say, “make a killing”.

At the present time, Ireland is most closely focused on reaching the point where it can produce 15% of the nation’s electricity through wind farms, which the government has set as a national objective to be reached by 2010. But universities, research institutes, and government personnel in Ireland have been saying that the development of ocean wave energy technology would be a true driving force for the nation’s economy and one which would greatly help to make Ireland energy independent.

A test site for developing wave ocean energy has been established in Ireland, less than two miles off the coast of An Spideal in County Galway Bay.  This experimental ocean wave harnessing site is known as “Wavebob”. The most energetic waves in the world are located off the West coast of Ireland, says Ireland’s Marine Institute CEO Dr. Peter Heffernan. The technology to harness the power of the ocean is only just emerging and Ireland has the chance to become a market leader in this sector.

David Taylor, CEO of the Sustainable Energy Initiative,or SEI, tells us that SEI is committed to innovation in the renewable energy sector. Wave energy is a promising new renewable energy resource which could one day make a significant contribution to Ireland’s electricity generation mix thereby further reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Padraig Walshe, the president of the Irish Farmers Association, tells us that with the closure of the sugar beet industry, an increasing amount of Irish land resources will become available for alternative uses, including bioenergy production. Today, renewable energy sources meet only 2% of Ireland’s total energy consumption. From a farming perspective, growing energy crops will only have a viable future if they provide an economic return on investment and labour, and if the prospect of this return is secure into the future. Currently the return from energy crops is marginal and is hampering the development of the industry. Biomass energies need to be further researched by Ireland.

“The world needs to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, but recent findings have thrown the emerging biofuels industry into a quandary. We met to seek solutions,” said the U of M’s David Tilman, a noted ecologist and lead author of the paper. “We found that the next generation of biofuels can be highly beneficial if produced properly.”

The article, “Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy and Environment Trilemma,” will appear in the July 17 issue of Science. Tilman, a resident fellow of the U of M’s Institute on the Environment, said the paper resulted from a year of conversations and debate among some of the nation’s leading biofuel experts.

In addition to Tilman, the article contributors include the U of M’s Jonathan Foley and Jason Hill; Princeton’s Robert Socolow, Eric Larson, Stephen Pacala, Tim Searchinger and Robert Williams; Dartmouth’s Lee Lynd; MIT’s John Reilly; and the University of California, Berkeley’s Chris Somerville.

The paper coincides with climate change policy debates in Congress, and tackles land use issues that have generated much controversy in recent years: Specifically, the greenhouse gases released when land is cleared to grow biofuel crops (or when other lands are cleared to compensate for food crops displaced by biofuel crops) can—for decades to centuries—exceed those from petroleum use.

“It’s essential that legislation take the best science into account, even when that requires acknowledging and undoing earlier mistakes,” said Princeton’s Socolow, co-director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative.

“Careful scientific reasoning revealed accounting rules that separate promising from self-defeating strategies,” added Socolow. “Future carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will tell us when we’re kidding ourselves about what actually works. For carbon management, the atmosphere is the ultimate accountant.”

To balance biofuel production, food security and emissions reduction, the authors conclude that the global biofuels industry must focus on five major sources of renewable biomass:

• Perennial plants grown on degraded lands abandoned from agricultural use
• Crop residues
• Sustainably harvested wood and forest residues
• Double crops and mixed cropping systems
• Municipal and industrial wastes

These sources can provide considerable amounts of biomass, at least 500 million tons per year in the United States alone, without incurring any significant land use carbon dioxide releases.

“We need to transition away from using food for biofuels toward more sustainable feedstocks that can be produced with much less impact on the environment,” said the U of M’s Hill, a resident fellow of the Institute on the Environment.

The U of M’s Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment, said the consensus reached in this article is remarkable. “Technology experts, energy systems analysts, climatologists, ecologists and policy experts all agreed: Biofuels ‘done right’ have a bright future in solving our energy and environmental challenges. Both new and existing biofuel strategies have the potential for being among the green energy solutions we need today.”

University of Minnesota. “Beneficial Biofuels: Leading National Experts Reach Consensus.” ScienceDaily

Scientists based at the University of Queensland are working towards one of sustainable energy’s holy grails – harvesting the untapped potential of sugar cane.

Aided by new technologies and an international research network, the Australian team aim to have the first sugarcane genome sequence ready by the middle of next year.

The Australian arm of the research project, “Understanding the Sugarcane Genome”, is expected to bolster research into sought-after energy sources and provide future business opportunities for the local sugarcane industry.

Led by Southern Cross University (SCU) and funded by the UQ-based Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology (CRC SIIB), the research also involves contributions from the CSIRO.

Head of the research project Professor Robert Henry said sugarcane is recognised as one of the best producers of carbon when compared to other commonly grown agricultural crops, such as corn and wheat.

“Energy canes have been touted, both here and internationally, as one of the most efficient future options for producing plant-based fuels, plastics and many sought-after bio-products,” Professor Henry said.

“It is becoming well known that sugarcane is a perfect candidate for energy production and a potential replacement to petroleum in a wide range of manufacturing processes.

“To date, the plant’s complex genetic structure, and the investment required to generate its sequences, have hindered research efforts of this nature.”

It is expected that Professor Henry and his team will have completed a “draft” of the sugarcane genome sequence by mid 2010.

“Thanks to CRC SIIB support, the Australian sugarcane industry will have a fantastic platform from which to conduct all future research into enhanced cane that produce more sucrose and a vast array of environmentally friendly fuel and bio-based products,” he said.

“This will be an outstanding outcome, and the resulting database will include sought after, significant genetic information.”

The sugarcane analysis at SCU is using new instruments and facilities funded as national research infrastructure by the Federal Government. The analysis lets researchers see precisely where in the sugarcane DNA structure specific cane traits can be found, so these traits can be targeted for specific research down the track.

To encourage international collaboration in the area, a CRC SIIB-funded workshop will take place in Cairns next month including representatives from Brazil, France and South Africa.

“By understanding the biological makeup of a plant, we can be more exact in our research and also identify many more sustainable applications for sugarcane,” Professor Henry said.

Source: TheBioenergySite News Desk

WindTronics, based in Muskegon, Mich., has developed a wind turbine sized for individual homes that it says can operate at speeds as low as 2 miles an hour.

It will be sold for $4,500 as the Honeywell Wind Turbine and distributed through Ace Hardware stores in the U.S. starting in October. WindTronics developed the turbine and licensed the technology to buildings systems giant Honeywell.

The fan-like turbine will generate 2,000 kilowatt-hours in a year for a home with a very good–called Class 4–wind resource, according to the company. That’s between 15 and 20 percent of the annual electricity consumption for the average U.S. home.

The turbine is rated at 2 kilowatts, but WindTronics executives say that most turbines’ rated capacities–the amount of power they can produce at a given moment–are misleading.

“We say if a turbine only works between 8 and 25 miles per hour, you have a very limited range of operation,” said Brian Levine, the vice president of business development at WindTronics, a division of EarthTronics. “Our device is rated to address a wider range at the low and high end.”

The 95-pound turbine, which is 6 feet in diameter, can be mounted on rooftops, attached to chimneys, or put on a pole. The company hopes to sell the turbines through Ace Hardware stores or through contractors–who are needed for the installation–to homeowners or businesses.

Spinning magnets
With people seeking out alternative forms of power generation, there’s been a surge in interest–and sales–in small wind turbines in the past year. But it’s still not clear that these small wind turbines are cost-effective enough to be used beyond a niche of green-minded buyers.

Two studies–one in Massachusetts and one in the U.K.–discovered that many small wind turbines far underperformed manufacturers’ specifications.

The tests found that people often chose locations that didn’t have sufficient wind or obstructions that blocked wind. In most cases, turbine makers rate products assuming a very good wind resource–anywhere from 12 to 25 miles per hour.

By using a novel design, WindTronics’ turbine can generate electricity between 2 miles per hour and 45 miles per hour, the company says.

Typically, turbines convert the mechanical energy of spinning blades to electricity with a gearbox and generator in the turbine’s nacelle, the enclosure where the rotor’s shaft is mounted.

WindTronic’s turbine has small magnets at the tips of its fan blades. When they spin from the wind, equipment in the fan’s housing captures the current produced.

The installation kit also comes with an inverter to convert the direct current to household alternating current and a “smart box,” which regulates the flow of electricity and monitors wind speed. At 45 miles per hour, the unit turns itself sideways to avoid damage.

Levine, who said the turbine was originally developed for developing countries, said WindTronics expects it can produce 50,000 units in its first year. A number of utilities, including Duke Energy, are testing the turbine, he added.

He said that mounting the turbine on a house should not cause vibration because the unit is lighter than most turbines. The sound is rated at between 35 and 45 decibels, which is quieter than normal conversation, Levine said.

Right problem
There is a growing number of companies designing turbines to operate in less-than-ideal wind conditions. A wind map from the Department of Energy shows that most of the fair and good wind–class 3 and class 4–is in the plains states and on the coasts of the continental U.S.

One technique to squeeze more power from available wind is to concentrate the wind to increase the speed of the air going past rotor blades. OptiWind, FloDesign Wind Turbine, and Green Energy Tech are among the companies exploring that approach in small or mid-size turbines.

Other turbine manufacturers, like WindTronics, use permanent magnets in a direct drive design rather than gearboxes to generate electricity.

WindTronics has only built prototype systems, which it first showed at a hardware show last month. But if its turbines can operate in low wind with little vibration and sound, the company could make small wind turbines economically attractive to a much larger audience.

Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET’s Green Tech blog

Green Energy Technologies LLC, a privately held company founded in 2006, announces the launch of WindCube(R), a 60kW rooftop wind turbine designed for on-site power generation by commercial and industrial power users in urban and suburban locations. The turbine, which captures and amplifies the wind, fills a previously unmet need for wind turbines that can be placed into service in a very small footprint and take advantage of the nation’s net metering laws.

“Now building owners anywhere can consider being a part of the renewable energy picture,” said Mark L. Cironi, president and founder of Green Energy Technologies, and with John W. Fedor, the technology’s inventor. “With WindCube, it’s not necessary to have the wind of Kansas or Nebraska to become a generator of wind power. In states with excellent renewable energy incentives, moderate wind and high electric rates, the payback can be as little as three years.”

The turbine is available as a single (60kW) or dual (120kW) system and in rooftop or tower-mounted design. The product is modular to satisfy a customer’s electrical requirements, and produces the same amount of energy in a 22x22x12-foot framework as a traditional turbine with blades 50 feet in diameter. It is ideal for a wide range of users, from industrial companies and commercial office buildings to big-box retailers, college campuses and electric users in remote locations.

Innovative Technology Amplifies Moderate Wind
The WindCube features a groundbreaking patent-pending design that relies on the wind tunnel effect known in physics as the Bernoulli Principle. While the rest of the wind industry generates energy through the use of free-stream wind, the WindCube captures and amplifies the wind, which produces more kilowatt-hours (kWh). As the wind comes into the WindCube shroud, it becomes concentrated, creating increased velocity and in turn, more power. Because of the amplification effect, the WindCube is able to capture wind energy as low as 5 mph.

The WindCube generates electricity by running its motor backwards using an impeller (the opposite of a propeller), eliminating the need for a gearbox. This lowers the cost of ownership because the gear box is the source of most of the maintenance problems and failures on conventional wind turbines.

RIWEA Turbine Inspection Robot

Now scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF) in Germany have said they are developing a generation of robots which will be capable enough to monitor and maintain wind turbine generators on a round-the-clock basis. Their latest creation is RIWEA. It is a robot that inspects the rotor blades of wind energy converters.

It seems that wind energy converters bear the onslaught of weather all the time and in the process wear and tear of rotor blades is the normal phenomenon. So spotting out the damaged part in wind energy devices is quite challenging for humans. Often they have to perform this task at many feet above the ground where rotors are located. Rotor blades are made up of glass-fiber resistant plastics. Rotor blades have to endure wind, inertial forces, erosion, and other forces. Till now human beings have been shouldering the responsibility of inspecting wind energy converters at regular intervals. It turns out to be a time-consuming process that involves the technicians closely examining large surfaces. A rotor blade can be of 60 meters in length situated at windy heights. Now researchers are taking the help of Robot Ranchers to inspect windmills. They can perform the job more precisely than humans. Robot Ranchers can identify the minutest damage — even below the surface.

Dr. Norbert Elkmann, a project manager at the Fraunhofer IFF, says, “Our robot is not just a good climber. It is equipped with a number of advanced sensor systems. This enables it to inspect rotor blades closely.” The researchers are trying to consign, “inspection by humans” to history books.

The inspection system by Robot Ranchers consists of three components. Robot’s infrared radiator conducts heat to the surface of the rotor blades. This robot also has a high resolution thermal camera. This thermal camera records the temperature patterns and this helps in determining the flaws in the material. These robot ranchers are also equipped with an ultrasonic system and high resolution camera that would help in spotting damages which is difficult for humans to detect with naked eye. The greatest advantage of Robot Ranchers is its precision. It finds out the hairline cracks or other probable problems with great accuracy. A specially developed carrier system ensures that the inspection robot is guided securely and precisely along the surface of a rotor blade.
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Australian Scientists developing spray on solar panels

Solar cells are usually made of silicon coated with a thin layer of silicon nitrate. This silicon nitrate works as an anti-reflective agent to boost cell efficiency. But the catch is these types of cells are costly to produce. This anti-reflective layer deposition happens in vacuum and creating vacuum like situation doesn’t come cheap!

Efforts are on to reduce the cost of solar cells. Australia too is abundant in natural resources and wants to trap these for clean and green energy. Researchers in Australia are handling a three year project which will develop a spray-on coating for solar panels. They will concentrate on cost reduction and efficiency of solar panels too. A new Australian solar company Spark Solar and Finnish materials company Braggone Oy are working with Australian National University (ANU) on the spray-on method. This new technique can be commercially available by 2011. Dr Keith McIntosh from ANU, the chief investigator in the first project, stated, “It will provide an opportunity for significant manufacturing cost reductions by replacing the conventional, expensive manufacturing techniques that are currently employed industry-wide with the spray-on films.”

Creating vacuums for coating of solar cells are costly. If this step can be skipped from the solar cell production, price tags can be brought down considerably. The new method uses a spray-on hydrogen film and spray-on anti-reflective film. In this spray-on method vacuums are not needed. The cells travel along a conveyor belt where the films are sprayed on. The simplified process could trim down about $5 million in capital equipment costs per medium-sized factory. The manufacturer can save and produce solar cells at a much cheaper rate. Testing of the process is now taking place at the ANU, and the technology should be available toward the end of 2011.

Improved efficiency
The second aspect of the project is efficiency of the solar cells. This project will be undertaken in collaboration with the German solar company GP Solar and led by chief investigator Dr Klaus Weber from ANU.

“We aim to develop a range of industry-ready cell fabrication sequences that will offer significantly improved conversion efficiencies” Dr Weber said. Currently solar cells are operating at the range of 5% to 24% efficiency. Solar surface of a cell has been roughened to increase the surface area. More surface area means more absorption of solar light. But a rough surface also disrupts the cell’s crystalline structure in the process. So the second project is concentrating on improving the efficiency of solar cells. They will try to change the surface of the solar cells to improve its efficiency. Once a most advantageous surface is created, the effectiveness and power of solar cells would be superior.

19 Million Cells a year
A new Australian company Spark Solar will establish a $70 million high-tech solar cell factory in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Their main objective will be to initiate solar cell production in 2010. The factory will take a daunting task of producing 19 million solar cells a year. That volume of production will be enough to power 20,000 homes, along with exports worth more than $400 million to Europe’s booming solar markets.

The astonishing fact is that presently the global market for solar cells is growing at a faster rate than markets for mobile phones, digital cameras and laptops!
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Alubond Solar Panels

People who want to use clean and green energy often complain about high costs of solar panels and even a longer breakeven period. So research teams and companies are constantly trying to improve upon the drawbacks of solar panels. Suntrof Systems LLC is bringing forth a new innovation in solar collector panels that could bring about savings of around $ 60-70 million and lessen the time for installation by around 5-7 months.

Suntrof Systems LLC is a US-based company which has effectively introduced an innovative solar panel. This will cut the costs of photovoltaic solar power generation by more than 50 per cent. They can write a new chapter of improved efficiency and lower production costs of solar energy globally.

We are also familiar with another drawback of solar energy i.e. area. Ronald Whelan, representative Suntrof Systems LLC, said an “area of 3 to 3.5 acres was required to generate 1 MW of electricity, while the life span of a solar plant is roughly thirty years.” Ronald declared that they are entering into partnership with Mulk Holdings, which produces the Alubond Solar Collector Panels (SCP).
Advantages:

How is this solar generator different from existing products available in the market? What are the main differentiators?

• Alubond Solar Collector Panels don’t use heavy mirrors. These weighty mirrors are replaced with Alubond solar collector panels, which are 4 times lighter than heavy mirrors and reduced metal sub structure by 300 percent. They are also trying to reduce the fear factor of consumers by offering a 20-year exterior performance warranty. Traditional solar troughs are made up of glass mirror weighing around 12.5 kg per sq m or single-skin aluminium with a high-reflective laminated film. These solar troughs need heavy support arrangements and many bolts. These two facts lessen the efficiency of the conventional solar panels.
• We already know that Alubond Solar Collector Panels are less costly than available solar generator products in the market. The solar trough system is expected to lower current costs of solar generation by more than 50 per cent.
• ABTI managing partner Khurram Nawab has designed the panel. This panel is developed in the UAE R&D (research and development) facilities of Alubond.

The patented SCPs were tested and selected for a $200 million-plus solar energy generation plant project in New Mexico City, US.

Nawab comments: “This is a great achievement for both our Middle Eastern and American offices. Our solar collector panels were chosen on the basis of the highest solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency, their ability to retain the parabola shape without extensive support frame work (critical in reflecting solar light to the focal point besides reducing the cost of the trough system), the robust after-sales support mechanisms that we offer our clients and the most comprehensive warranty coverage for a solar panel.”

“We also hope that the success of this project will lead to an upsurge in the development of more solar energy plants, which will not only lessen the strain on existing energy resources, but also severely reduce the pollution levels that are currently witnessed in power generation.”
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Advances in Solar Cell Technology

Scientists are continuously improving the existing solar cells. Now they are taking the help of computer simulations and real lab testing. A group of physicists and engineers at MIT have discovered new methods to make the existing solar cells more efficient by 50%. Currently the most efficient solar cell gives 45% output and is extremely expensive to produce. Cells produced by using this new technology will be more efficient and cost effective. Their cost effectiveness emerges from just 1% use of refined silicon. It should be noted that refined silicon is quite costly.

Cost Benefits:
Scientists want to bring clean and green energy on par with energy produced by fossil fuels. One of the biggest hurdles they face is cost. Most of the green energy is quite expensive and they have a longer break-even time. So here the MIT team has reduced the amount of extremely thin layer of silicon used in the solar cell. They are using hundreds of times less material.

Choosing Different but Simple Path:
The MIT team has paid close attention to the limiting factors of the solar cells. One of the greatest disadvantages in the existing solar cells is that whatever amount of light is falling on the solar cell has got very little time to be converted into energy. So this MIT team has concentrated its efforts on making the sunlight stay inside the cell for a longer duration of time therefore these cell can produce more energy. Peter Bermel, a postdoctoral researcher in MIT’s physics department and his team took the help of computer simulations and applied various advanced chip-manufacturing techniques.

They went for the anti-reflection coating to the front of the cell and a multi-layered reflective coating to the back of the silicon films which were ultra thin. In the end, the team settled for the best result in a multi-layered reflective coating coupled to a tightly spaced array of lines. This technique armed the cells like a laser around the cell, where light can bounce back and forth before finally exiting. This way the light stays longer inside the cell and can produce more energy. Current solar cells don’t have these coatings so the light is just reflected back to the surrounding air in the atmosphere.

“It’s critical to ensure that any light that enters the layer travels through a long path in the silicon,” Bermel said. “The issue is how far does light have to travel [in the silicon] before there’s a high probability of being absorbed” and knocking loose electrons to produce an electric current.

Trying out various combinations by computer simulations
When you have to try out various combinations and don’t know which combination will yield that magical results, its best to try out computer simulations. They will give out the excellent and almost correct results and save the time and material costs. The MIT team ran thousands of simulations with each one designed to try a slightly different approach toward keeping photons within the cell for longer. Using computer simulations they will be able to find the magical combination of multi-layered reflective coating coupled to a tightly spaced array of lines. This approach enhances the energy output of the cells by as much as 50%.

Examining the Correct combination in Laboratory
When this research team thought that they have found the right combination in the computer simulation they verified the results in the laboratory. These tests were carried out by the graduate student Lirong Zeng, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. According to Lionel Kimerling, who directed the project, “The experiments confirmed the predictions, and the results have drawn considerable industry interest.”

This project has caught the attention of like-minded people. Stephen Saylor, CEO of SiOnyx in Beverly, MA says, “This work demonstrates the importance of improving the performance of thin-film technologies. “SiOnyx is engaged in increasing the absorption of red and infrared light in thin silicon devices.

Bermel says that his team is already thinking of other production methods. One sound option is nanoimprint lithography, but they haven’t tried it yet. “A 35 percent efficiency increase is clearly predicted in simulations,” he opines, “but the challenge is, ‘Can you make it practically?’ That’s what we’re working on.”
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