Foundation: News. An almost spring-like spirit of optimism currently prevails in the world of renewable energy.
The various developments around the DESERTEC concept make us all hopeful, as the ideas’ implementation is truly gaining momentum. No sooner the groundbreaking collaboration with DESERTEC Power in Saudi Arabia was accomplished than the newest reports from there give account of a technical milestone: The PFFC technology (Point Focus Fresnel Collector) is another technology in the spectrum of solar energy generation bringing many advantages. PFFC actually works quite simple: rows of flat mirrors are used that follow the path of the sun. Thus the insolation is being focused on the same area at any time of the day, guaranteeing maximum efficiency. We are talking about a “mini-tower power plant”, if you will, which might be of interest for small and decentralized applications just as well. The bottom line is clear: Spring is coming slowly, but sustainably. Thames Water turns to 'poo power' for renewable electricity generation.
The sludge incinerator at the Crossness sewage works, south-east London, where the electricity will be generated.
Photograph: Nic Hamilton/Alamy They look like instant coffee granules, but they are in fact sewage flakes – a highly combustible new renewable form of fuel that burns like woodchip and is being used for the first time to generate electricity for Britain's largest water and sewerage company. Thames Water has begun producing the flakes by drying sludge – the solids found in sewage – in a purpose-built machine at sewage works in Slough, Berkshire. In a not-so-green move, the company then takes the flakes by lorry to Crossness sewage works in Bexley, south-east London, where they are burnt off to generate electricity.
The company estimates that 16% of its electricity needs will be covered in the current financial year by so-called poo power – enough to run about 40,000 average family homes – from a total energy requirement of 1,300 gigawatt hours. Mechanical Engineers Create High-tech Solar Panels. July 30, 2016 — An international team has devised a method for achieving 1 terapascal of static pressure - vastly higher than any previously ... read more July 29, 2016 — Scientists have tailored extremely small wires that carry light and electrons.
These new structures could open up a potential path to smaller, lighter, or more efficient devices, they ... read more July 29, 2016 — Climate and energy scientists have developed a new method to pinpoint which electrical service areas will be most vulnerable as populations grow and temperatures ... read more Replication Project Investigates Self-Control as Limited Resource July 29, 2016 — A new research replication project, involving 24 labs and over 2,100 participants, failed to reproduce findings from a previous study that suggested that self-control is a depletable ... read more Scientists Identify Immunological Profiles of People Who Make Powerful HIV Antibodies Vaccination: Zika Infection Is Caused by One Virus Serotype. Michael McCarthy: The ecological risks of clean energy's 'dirty little secret' - Commentators, Opinion. The environmental difficulties are well illustrated by the Mountain Pass mine in California.
Until it closed in 2002, the Mojave desert facility for a long time provided most of the world's rare-earth metals, but the environmental cost was high. In the 1980s, its owners began piping its waste water, which carried radioactive waste, to evaporation ponds 14 miles away. However, the pipeline ruptured some 60 times – until it was shut down in 1998 – and 600,000 gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste flowed out into the surrounding desert. The company was eventually ordered to mount a major clean-up exercise and was fined more than $1m (£650,000). Mountain Pass closed eight years ago because of the environmental difficulties and because the price of rare earths had dropped, making operations uneconomic.
Molycorp hopes to have the mine working again by late 2011 after negotiating environmental safeguards with no fewer than 18 California regulatory agencies. Man Invents Machine To Convert Plastic Into Oil. The machine produced in various sizes, for both industrial and home uses, can easily transform a kilogram of plastic waste into a liter of oil, using about 1 kW·h of electricity but without emitting CO2 in the process.
The machine uses a temperature controlling electric heater instead of flames, processing anything from polyethylene or polystyrene to polypropylene (numbers 2-4). Comment: 1 kg of plastic produces one liter of oil, which costs $1.50. This process uses only about 1 kW·h of electricity, which costs less than 20 cents! Brochure: pdf Contact: e-mail Each day the Flixxy team looks through hundreds of new videos to pull out a few we think are the best.