Alternative Energy Newswire

Breakthrough Solar + Water = Hydrogen Technology Revealed

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:42 +0000

A company named HyperSolar, Incorporated has recently revealed a technological breakthrough in using solar plus water to produce hydrogen. And the kicker is that any kind of water, dirty to clean can be used in this process.

How does the breakthrough technology do this? The solar electrolysis of water starts at the nanoscale in order to gain efficiency and reduce costs.

According to HyperSolar’s CEO Tim Young, “Recently, we successfully developed an inexpensive coating for our water-splitting nanoparticles that protect the particles from photocorrosion and common water impurities. Additional laboratory tests and technical development reveal that this coating can also protect the nanoparticles when submerged directly in harsh water conditions such as lake water, wastewater, and seawater.

“The implications of our technology may be world changing. If we can successfully complete the development of a low cost, highly efficient solar powered water-splitting nanoparticle, we can use readily available seawater, runoff water, river water, or wastewater, to produce large quantities of hydrogen fuel to power the world. When the hydrogen fuel is used in fuel cells or combustion, clean water (pure H2O) returns back to the Earth. HyperSolar is making steady technical progress to enable this vision.”

So, there you have it. Not only will this new technology be useful in creating massive amounts of hydrogen in a renewable fashion, it will also be useful in purifying water that is not clean and sending the purified water back to planet Earth.

In addition, the location of these solar to hydrogen production stations can be very diverse from high population cities to the far reaches of developing 3rd world nations. The only limitation is the access to some kind of water, dirty, clean or anything in-between.

Rethinking the Role of Government in Cleantech

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:35 +0000

Another year, another wringing of the hands over tax credits and incentives for clean technology.
Lobbyists and vendors in the U.S. are once again singing the blues, calling for continued and expanding government investments in clean technology. At the same time, political challengers continue their Solyndra hootenanny, raking the curren

Five Shining Examples of Renewable Energy Innovation and Investment

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:34 +0000

Sinking revenues and shrinking policy support may be causing a bit of a haze on the renewable energy horizon, but there’s plenty of sunshine trying to peek through if you look hard enough.

House Armed Services Committee Proposes Ban on Biofuels

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:34 +0000

Just one month before the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) in Hawaii, the world’s largest international maritime exercise, the biofuels industry has encountered a possible roadblock. The House Armed Services Committee issued its report on next year’s Pentagon budget, which inclues a measure that would exclude the development and purchase of biofuels that cost more than traditional fossil fuels.

DOE Questions Petroleum Funded E15 Study

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:32 +0000

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today challenged test results released by the American Petroleum Institute claiming that 15% ethanol-blended gasoline (E15) can harm vehicle engines.

In a post on the Energy.gov blog, DOE Vehicle Technologies Program Manager Patrick Davis said the study done by the Coordinating Research Council (CRC) failed on a number of counts. “We believe the study is significantly flawed,” said Davis. “The CRC failed to establish a proper control group, a standard component of scientific, data-driven testing and a necessity to determine statistical significance for any results.”

Most importantly, Davis noted that no engines in the study were tested with E10 fuel, “the de facto standard gasoline for all grades, which represents more than 90 percent of gasoline available in the U.S. market.” In addition, “only three out of the eight engines were tested with straight gasoline containing no ethanol (E0), and one of those three failed the CRC’s test.”

Ethanol industry organizations were also quick to point out the flaws in the study and note that E15 has been tested more than any other automotive fuel in history. “The reality is they are completely dismissing the fact that E15 is the most tested fuel to date, with extensive testing done by the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, with results showing no significant difference between gasoline without any ethanol and an E15 blend,” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis.

Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen noted that the government has tested E15 “the equivalent of 12 round trips to the Moon” and found no problems with the use of E15 in vehicles made since model year 2001. “This study, and continued efforts aimed at confusing rather than informing consumers, impede this progress and do little to address the nation’s need for clean, renewable fuel that lowers the price at the pump and creates jobs here at home,” said Dinneen.

ISU Professor Explains Ethanol/Gas Price Study

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:31 +0000

The Iowa State University professor who co-authored a new study on ethanol and gasoline prices released this week says the impact of the growing use of the domestically-produced fuel is significant.

The new analysis from the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), an update to a 2009 peer-reviewed paper published in Energy Policy by professors Dermot Hayes of ISU and Xiaodong Du of the University of Wisconsin, found that the growing use of American ethanol reduced wholesale gasoline prices by an average of $1.09 per gallon in 2011, up from an average impact of $0.89 per gallon in 2010. The study also found the between 2000 and 2011, gasoline prices have been reduced by an average of $0.29 per gallon, thanks to ethanol.

“Those numbers are large,” said Professor Hayes during a conference call on Tuesday during which he explained his hypotheses for the big impact of ethanol. “Think about the world before ethanol occurred. Every time a gasoline refinery would shut down, the price of gasoline would go up 10-20 cents because the U.S. was at its refinery capacity. What ethanol has done is increased refinery capacity.”

Hayes calls ethanol a “magic bullet that can squeeze ten percent more gasoline out of a barrel of crude oil.”

The original study was the result of a dissertation by Professor Du, while the Renewable Fuels Association funded the update.

Listen to Hayes’ explanation of the study here: ISU Professor Dermot Hayes

Britain’s Growing Onshore Wind Industry Worth £568 Million

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:23 +0000

Recent research conducted by the RenewableUK and the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change revealed the British onshore wind energy industry was worth £568 million in 2011.

Industrial automation software suite supports new I/O modules

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:21 +0000

The module high-speed serial communications module receives data from generators, motors, and other devices connected on a Controller Area Network (CAN)

Industrial automation manufacturer has released an upgrade to its PAC Project suite of software applications and utilities that provide control programming, HMI development, OPC connectivity, and database integration. PAC Project is part of Opto 22′s SNAP PAC System, one that include hardware and software for industrial control, energy management, remote monitoring, and data acquisition applications. The SNAP PAC System and all other Opto 22 products are designed and made in the U.S.A.

A key addition in this PAC Project upgrade is support for several recently released SNAP I/O modules. These modules include:

SNAP-SCM-CAN2B module high-speed serial communications module receives data from generators, motors, and other devices connected on a Controller Area Network (CAN)
SNAP-IDC-32D module high-density digital input module senses proximity switches, limit switches, push buttons, and other low-voltage sources
SNAP-OMR6-A module and SNAP-OMR6-C mechanical relay output modules-switchs up to 250 VAC or 30 VDC 6-amp loads per channel and provide a compact, cost-effective way to switch higher voltages and currents without needing breakout boards, header cables, or other interposing hardware.

PAC Control is flowchart-based programming software, adds the customer-requested capability of sending email directly from a PAC controller, with or without attachments, which opens new options for delivering alerts and status information to personnel. Other additions in PAC Control include new commands for using the HTTP protocol to exchange data with web servers, synchronizing the controller’s clock with an external Network Time Protocol (NTP) server, as well as commands to manipulate floating-point values, parse or create binary data when communicating with other devices, and atomically copy a bit from one variable or table element to another.

PAC Display, PAC Project’s HMI development and runtime application, adds useful enhancements for displaying custom dynamic attributes on Windows-style buttons and working with grouped graphics when using the AutoCorrect Tags function. Also new in PAC Display is an ability to select a single PC to use as a time source, which is useful when several PCs are running the same PAC Display project.

PAC Project 9.2 also supports Opto 22′s new G4EB2 brain, which lets automation professionals integrate an existing, legacy G4 digital I/O system with a SNAP PAC System over an Ethernet network without incurring the cost and downtime needed to change existing I/O or field wiring. The Ethernet-based G4EB2 directly replaces a 32-channel brain in a legacy mistic serial or Pamux system.

Pricing and availability

PAC Project 9.2 Basic is free for download or with purchase of any SNAP PAC controller. It includes control programming and configuration software, an HMI development application, and an EtherNet/IP communication tool. PAC Project 9.2 Professional is available at a list price of $999 and adds an OPC server, an application for exchanging data with enterprise databases, and functionality for upgrading from Opto 22 legacy hardware. PAC Project Professional is required for controller redundancy.

The individual PAC Project Professional software components: PAC Control Professional, PAC Display Professional, OptoOPCServer, and OptoDataLink-are also available separately at a list price of $399 each. All PAC Project components, both Basic and Professional, come with free training and free product support.

A list of PAC Project components includes:

PAC Control-an intuitive flowchart and scripting-control-programming software application for developing control strategies that run on SNAP PAC controllers. Ideal for sequential control, batch and process control, PID loop control, and more. Using the built-in scripting language OptoScript adds support for complex math, conditional branching, string handling, and subroutines.

PAC Display-a human-machine interface (HMI) development application used to create graphical interfaces that mimic a process. Support for alarm management, recipe handling, operator logging, real-time and historical trending, multimedia, and unlimited tags puts PAC Display on par with competing HMI development applications costing thousands of dollars more per seat.
PAC Manager-a configuration and maintenance tool used to set up and inspect controllers and I/O data in real time.
EtherNet/IP Configurator-a configuration tool for establishing communication between an Allen-Bradley PLC system and intelligent remote SNAP I/O.
OptoOPCServer (included with PAC Project Professional or available separately)-an OPC 2.0-compliant server used to consolidate and publish SNAP PAC System data to OPC-aware clients, including third-party HMIs such as Wonderware’s InTouch, Intellution’s iFix, and Iconic’s Genesis.
OptoDataLink (included with PAC Project Professional or available separately)-connectivity software used to enable bidirectional data transfer between the SNAP PAC System and enterprise databases-such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, and MySQL-without brokering the data through an HMI.

Opto 22
www.opto22.com

Windpower Engineering & Development

High-speed communications for smart grids

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:21 +0000

Bachmann's bluecom-protocol provides optimum use of bandwidth by segmentation.

The demands placed on state-of-the-art wind farms to respond to the power grid as if a single conventional power station requires use of a central wind-farm controller and high-speed communications. For that, Bachmann electronic presents bluecom – a communication solution developed for smart grids.

‘bluecom’ is based on conventional Ethernet technology and provides affordable and easy-to-implement communications for fast and reliable information exchange in real time. The transmission protocol was optimized with regard to the particular requirements to future-proof energy systems. The prime objective of these measures is to maintain grid stability by enabling energy parks and virtual power stations consisting of a large number of decentralized power generation plants to respond quickly.

The communication protocol ‘bluecom’ provides an important foundation for the transition to a smart grid and use of regenerative energies for electricity generation.

Bachmann Electronics
Bachmann.com

Windpower Engineering & Development

Downwind: Innovations in offshore wind transportation

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:57:21 +0000

Offshore wind development is taking off around the world. The wind projects, however, pose logistic challenges that call for solutions from new ideas. For example, the UK has opened new areas for offshore wind development. However, these locations are farther from shore and in rougher water than ever before, which makes transporting crews and equipment difficult.

To help solve this problem, Carbon Trust (www.carbontrust.co.uk) held a contest for innovative transportation vessel designs for offshore wind. The non-profit company provides support to help business and the public cut carbon emissions and save energy. The 2011 Offshore Wind Accelerator Access Competition aimed to identify and develop new access systems to improve turbine availability and worker safety. Over 450 submissions from around the world included designs for vessels, transfer systems, and launch and recovery systems. Somehow, Carbon Trust narrowed that number to 13 designs, which received financial and technical support. Here are four of the finalists:

Momac Offshore Transfer System (Germany)
This innovative robot arm uses sensors to measure the vessel motion and compensates by adjusting its position to keep the transfer platform stable. The design is currently undergoing prototype testing. The concept has significant potential for use in a variety of operation and maintenance activities.

Fjellstrand Windserver (Norway)
The Fjellstrand WindServer‘s hull is said to allow fuel-efficient travel while providing stability. The vessel is ideal for transferring engineers to turbines in offshore wind projects. Slender waterlines and a bow minimize motion at high speeds, as well as during low speed maneuvering. Generous deck space is made possible by the hull’s ample load capacity, which can accommodate, they say, practically any transfer system.

Nauti-Craft (Australia)
Nauti-Craft’s hulls are separated from the deck and superstructure via a “passive reactive” hydraulic suspension system. The craft’s design draws on the team’s experience in developing interconnected suspension systems used by many production motor vehicles. The system lets the hulls conform to the ocean’s surface while providing stability and safety for crew transfers to offshore wind projects. The suspension also reduces structural loadings and increases passenger comfort and fuel efficiency.

TranSPAR (Canada)
The TranSPAR design, nicknamed Seahorse, has an enormous keel arrangement that keeps it stable in high seas. It isn’t the fastest of the vessels, but is expected to be cost-effective to manufacture.

Windpower Engineering & Development