Lighter side of Life

A brilliantly funny sketch by Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you in 2011.

Piezoelectrical Harvest

The New York Times has a brief article on a new way to draw electricity from the wind: oscillating wind panels. The initial premise is that wind turbines are noisy and dangerous to wildlife, however in each case there is conflicting evidence. Regardless, these are pretty cool:

Imagine wind blowing through trees, rustling the leaves. This idea is that by using piezoelectric materials you can turn the movement into a vibration, which in turn is converted to electricity. They are much smaller than a turbine, and can be placed on individual building roofs, so a whole community can benefit from wind power regardless of size or electrical grid constraints. One of the best innovations in energy production for 2010.

Google building an offshore Wind Farm

According to Google's blog they are about to build a massive 6GW wind farm 10 km from the Atlantic coastline, stretching over 500 km. The Atlantic Wind Connection as the project is known is planned to supply enough electricity for 2 million homes.

 "The Mid-Atlantic region is ideally suited for offshore wind. It offers more than 60,000 MW of offshore wind potential in relatively shallow waters that extend miles out to sea. These shallow waters make it easier to install turbines 10-15 miles offshore, meaning wind projects can take advantage of stronger winds and are virtually out-of-sight from land. With few other renewable energy options ideally suited for the Atlantic coast, the AWC backbone helps states meet their renewable energy goals and standards (PDF) by enabling a local offshore wind industry to deploy thousands of megawatts of clean, cost-effective wind energy."

World's Largest Fuelcell... 1 MegaWatt

FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) and Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; Nasdaq: BLDP) are testing an innovative utility-scale fuel cell system designed to produce one megawatt of electricity. Considered the world's largest proton exchange membrane hydrogen-powered fuel cell, the 54-foot-long unit is mounted on a tractor-trailer for mobility and produces only heat and water as by products.
 

"Finding new sources of clean, renewable peaking energy is important for meeting our customers' energy needs and helping us meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements," said Gary R. Leidich, executive vice president and president of FirstEnergy Generation.  "This fuel cell system has the added benefit of being mobile, so it can provide peaking power when and where it's needed."

Read the details here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/firstenergy-and-ballard-begin-demonstration-of-one-megawatt-mobile-fuel-cell-system-106463533.html

New Energy from Hydrogen

Take half an hour to listen to Dan Nocera talk about the future of energy on National Radio from Saturday Morning on 27th November.

Dan discusses the development of inexpensive catalyst materials that can be used to produce hydrogen fuel using only water and sunlight.

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