THE DEFINITIVE BLOG FOR EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT YOU LIVE IN, WITH REFERENCE TO LIFE, EARTH AND COSMIC SPACE SCIENCES, PRESENTED BY ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER DORU INDREI, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND ENERGY SPACIALIST
"Life is not about what we know, but what we don't know, craving the unthinkable makes it so amazing, that is worth dying for."Doru Indrei
The Opportunity Rover, which is trundling happily around Mars, has spotted a distinctive streak of rock breaking through the surface of the red planet.
While scouting around for a spot to sit through during the chilly Martian winter, Opportunity's handlers noticed a bright vein of light-coloured minerals on the edge of the Endeavour crater, on a bit of raised ground named Cape York.Environment Clean Generations
It's thought that the rocks could be phyllosilicates -- minerals that form in a watery environment. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has already spotted phyllosilicates -- in this case, smectites made of iron- and magnesium-rich clays -- from orbit, but hasn't been able to sample them to check for sure.
Steve Squyres, Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator at Cornell University, said: "This is a real triumph of geology. We saw these veins as we crossed from the Meridiani plains into the Noachian terrain back in August. We've kept those in mind as a very important thing we wanted to look at, but we were so focused on getting into the Noachian and new terrain that we made that the highest priority, figuring that we would get the veins later."Environment Clean Generations
A composite of three images of the vein at close range (stitched together by Stu Atkinson) reveals a brighter surface than surrounding rocks, complete with intriguing linear scratches. "These are different than anything from anything we've ever seen with either rover, a completely new thing on Mars, never seen anywhere," Squyres said. "We're pretty charged up about it."Environment Clean Generations
There's no official word on what the vein is, but Squyres says that it's different from anything previously seen by Opportunity or its now-dead sister rover Spirit. Once the winter is over, and Opportunity's solar panels have collected what little sunlight they can, the rover will resume its exploration of the area surround the crater.
Bruce Banerdt, MER project scientist at JPL, said: "We're already picking up new geology and new rocks and new petrology that no one's ever encountered yet on the Martian surface. It's all great stuff. There is a lot of activity going on and the science team is really jazzed right now."
Imagine a futuristic marine craft that looks like it jumped off the pages of a Jules Verne or H.G. Wells science fiction novel. Imagine breakthrough technology that captures the power of the sun for fueling adventures. Imagine traveling to exotic destinations in the equatorial regions of the earth using advanced technology. Imagine sailing around the world in a completely quiet vessel that does not cause adverse ecological or environmental impacts.Environment Clean Generations
Stop imagining! The future of ocean travel is upon us, and it is called the MS TÛRANOR. This is the largest solar-powered boat in the world. Craig Loomes from Auckland, New Zealand, designed the ship, and Knierim Werft in Kiel, Germany, built it. It took Werft about 14 months to construct the futuristic vessel. The name TÛRANOR comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's book "Lord of the Rings" and means "the power of the sun" and "victory," according to the PlanetSolar Web site.Environment Clean Generations
The large, 60-ton catamaran is nearly concealed by the solar panels topside. The ship's deck is an impressive 5,700 square feet of solar panels. The solar ship is large enough to hold up to 40 people: four crew members and 36 passengers.Environment Clean Generations
Some of the solar cell panels are adjustable to optimize sunlight capturing. The solar ship also is equipped with rechargeable power cells that can sustain the craft for up to three days if the ship encounters excessively cloudy skies or poor weather conditions.
This voyage to circumnavigate the earth using only the power of the sun began September 27, 2010. The ship set off from Monaco amidst much celebration and fanfare. The crew plans to sail the craft around the world at a leisurely average of 7.5 knots.
When you think of green architecture, do you picture a sleek, energy-efficient but boring-looking building? You shouldn't. Not only can green architecture help protect the environment and reduce energy costs for the building's occupants, it can also lead to some amazing design!
Green architecture is an emerging field that focuses on using low impact materials to create a completed structure that's energy efficient and environmentally friendly [source: Environmental Protection Agency]. Green buildings can vary from simple structures made from natural materials to more technologically focused designs that use elements like solar panels to reduce the building's impact.
Unlike conventional architecture, part of designing a green building is taking the structure's impact into account. That means not only looking at the building materials' environmental impact, but also considering elements like indoor air quality and water and energy conservation.
Just as with any other sort of design, green building can range from the utilitarian to the absolutely gorgeous [source: Proefrock]. You might associate green architecture with things like plastic rain barrels or solar panels that clash with the design of the home, but green design has come a long way. Check out these five amazing elements of green architecture.
1: Green Roofs
A green roof can lower the temperature in your house, improve local air quality and help add green space in urban areas where concrete is king. It can also provide a nesting area for birds!
Basically, a green roof is a sort of rooftop garden. To create a green roof, you lay down a waterproof barrier, material for drainage, a layer of soil, and plants [source: Greenroofs.com]. It's best to have a contractor experienced with eco-friendly designs help plan and build a green roof, since the weight of the plants and soil might require that you increase the supports for your roof. An expert can also help you pick low- maintenance plants that will thrive on your roof. The plants help insulate, filter rainwater, and combat habitat depletion for some area wildlife [source: Pelletier].
Green roofs can be as simple as a couple of types of ground cover or include a beautiful mix of moss, succulents, ground cover, and even herbs and plants. The complexity really depends on your budget and how much maintenance you can manage. There are two types of green roof: extensive or intensive. An extensive green roof, which is more low-maintenance and uses less soil, can range in price from $8 to $25 per square foot to install, while a higher maintenance intensive green roof runs $25 to $50 per square foot, requires more soil depth and can support a wider variety of plants and even trees [source: Pelletier]. Because intensive green roofs cost more and require a less sloping surface, they're more common on commercial buildings.
2: Solar Shingles
Solar panels are an excellent way to save energy and reduce energy bills, and sometimes even earn you money. If your solar array produces more energy than you're using in your home, many utility companies will buy that excess power back from you to use in the electric grid [source: Gangemi]. The problem with solar panels, from a design perspective, is that they can be a little bit of an eyesore.
That's where solar shingles come in. Unlike traditional solar panels, which lay on top of the roof or sometimes on a freestanding structure near the building, solar shingles integrate right into the roof itself, so they aren't quite so obvious.
Solar shingles are a bit pricier to install than traditional solar panels, since they not only help power the building, but they're actually roof shingles [source: Surina].
There are a couple of different sorts of solar shingles on the market: thin-film or silicon-based. Thin-film shingles cost a bit less, but they also tend to produce less energy per square foot than the silicon-based shingles [source: 1 Block Off the Grid].
As with a green roof, it's best to get a certified contractor involved if you're planning to install solar shingles, since the shingles have to be wired into your electrical system. You'll also need a professional to take a look at your roof to make sure it's even a candidate for solar shingles. They get hotter than typical solar panels, and you want to be sure that your roof is at a good angle to collect sunlight. [source: 1 Block Off the Grid].
3. Cob Houses
Cob is an ancient building material that's basically wet earth and straw mixed together and rolled into loaf-sized pieces or cobs. The mixture is very similar to clay, and what makes cob houses unique and beautiful is the organic shape. Instead of assembling and covering a frame, builders stack cobs, then use the same clay-like material to mold the walls by hand [source: Liloia]. The result is a structure with curving lines instead of sharp angles, and many cob structures include lots of fun, built-in features like shelves and hooks molded right into the walls. Some of these homes even feature built-in furniture, like couches and tables, molded from cob.
Because cob is made from natural materials, it has a very low environmental footprint compared to other building materials like concrete. Cob doesn't have to be made in a factory and shipped across the country [source: Liola]. And you can find mud and straw very close to the building site.
Cob is so simple to work with that many people build cob houses themselves. There are even groups, like Natural Building Network, that offer workshops on how to build your own cob house.
4: Rainwater Harvesting
The basic idea behind a rainwater harvesting system is to capture water to irrigate your garden and sometimes to use in the home. When you think of rain barrels, you probably picture an ugly, plastic container to catch water, maybe with a spigot to feed the garden, but rainwater harvesting systems can also be beautiful.
Systems can be as simple as a plastic barrel, but companies like Rain Xchange offer stunning rainwater harvesting systems that look like an urn or a fountain. Rather than the typical DIY rain barrel that you're probably used to seeing, these more elaborate setups collect rainwater while enhancing the beauty of your lawn. The collection system is underground, so that you can collect, store and use rainwater without sullying your landscape.
If you're going to install any sort of rainwater harvesting system, it's important to check local laws first. Some areas don't allow any rainwater harvesting, and you don't want to invest in a system only to find out that you're violating a city or state ordinance [source: Lance]. The same goes for using rainwater in the home. Collected rainwater is considered grey water, and in some places you need a special permit to reuse grey water in your home, even for flushing the toilet [source: Portland Online].
5: Shipping Container Buildings
Like with cob houses, shipping container buildings address the high impact associated with traditional building materials. Instead of using new materials that have to be manufactured, shipping container homes reclaim old shipping crates and use them to create prefabricated structures. Shipping crates can be stacked vertically or lined up side-by-side to create residential or commercial buildings. There are a few different ways to build a shipping container home, depending on how ambitious you are.
A number of companies offer prefabricated, or prefab, shipping crate houses, which you can live in almost right out of the box. These prefab homes usually come equipped with power, water, and sometimes even central heating and air [source: Pilloton]. If you're more of a do-it-yourselfer, you can procure your own containers from a company like Sea Box and purchase a set of plans. From there, you can construct a shipping container home from scratch or hire contractors to build it out for you.
Either way, you want to make sure that you check out local and state building codes before starting on a shipping container home. Reed Construction Data has a helpful Building Code Reference Library, which is a good place to start researching on your own. If you're planning to hire a contractor, he should know if shipping crate homes adhere to code in your area.
You've probably seen calculators with solar cells -- devices that never need batteries and in some cases, don't even have an off button. As long as there's enough light, they seem to work forever. You may also have seen larger solar panels, perhaps on emergency road signs, call boxes, buoys and even in parking lots to power the lights.
Although these larger panels aren't as common as solar-powered calculators, they're out there and not that hard to spot if you know where to look. In fact, photovoltaics -- which were once used almost exclusively in space, powering satellites' electrical systems as far back as 1958 -- are being used more and more in less exotic ways. The technology continues to pop up in new devices all the time, from sunglasses to electric vehicle charging stations.
The hope for a "solar revolution" has been floating around for decades -- the idea that one day we'll all use free electricity from the sun. This is a seductive promise, because on a bright, sunny day, the sun's rays give off approximately 1,000 watts of energy per square meter of the planet's surface. If we could collect all of that energy, we could easily power our homes and offices for free.
Photovoltaic Cells: Converting Photons to Electrons
The solar cells that you see on calculators and satellites are also called photovoltaic (PV) cells, which as the name implies (photo meaning "light" and voltaic meaning "electricity"), convert sunlight directly into electricity. A module is a group of cells connected electrically and packaged into a frame (more commonly known as a solar panel), which can then be grouped into larger solar arrays, like the one operating at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
Photovoltaic cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently used most commonly. Ba¬sically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow freely.
PV cells also all have one or more electric field that acts to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off for external use, say, to power a calculator. This current, together with the cell's voltage (which is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce.
That's the basic process, but there's really much more to it. On the next page, let's take a deeper look into one example of a PV cell: the single-crystal silicon cell.
How Silicon Makes a Solar Cell
Silicon has some special chemical properties, especially in its crystalline form. An atom of silicon has 14 electrons, arranged in three different shells.
The first two shells -- which hold two and eight electrons respectively -- are completely full. The outer shell, however, is only half full with just four electrons. A silicon atom will always look for ways to fill up its last shell, and to do this, it will share electrons with four nearby atoms. It's like each atom holds hands with its neighbors, except that in this case, each atom has four hands joined to four neighbors. That's what forms the crystalline structure, and that structure turns out to be important to this type of PV cell.
The only problem is that pure crystalline silicon is a poor conductor of electricity because none of its electrons are free to move about, unlike the electrons in more optimum conductors like copper. To address this issue, the silicon in a solar cell has impurities -- other atoms purposefully mixed in with the silicon atoms -- which changes the way things work a bit. We usually think of impurities as something undesirable, but in this case, our cell wouldn't work without them.
Consider silicon with an atom of phosphorous here and there, maybe one for every million silicon atoms. Phosphorous has five electrons in its outer shell, not four. It still bonds with its silicon neighbor atoms, but in a sense, the phosphorous has one electron that doesn't have anyone to hold hands with. It doesn't form part of a bond, but there is a positive proton in the phosphorous nucleus holding it in place.
When energy is added to pure silicon, in the form of heat for example, it can cause a few electrons to break free of their bonds and leave their atoms. A hole is left behind in each case. These electrons, called free carriers, then wander randomly around the crystalline lattice looking for another hole to fall into and carrying an electrical current. However, there are so few of them in pure silicon, that they aren't very useful.
But our impure silicon with phosphorous atoms mixed in is a different story. It takes a lot less energy to knock loose one of our "extra" phosphorous electrons because they aren't tied up in a bond with any neighboring atoms. As a result, most of these electrons do break free, and we have a lot more free carriers than we would have in pure silicon. The process of adding impurities on purpose is called doping, and when doped with phosphorous, the resulting silicon is called N-type ("n" for negative) because of the prevalence of free electrons. N-type doped silicon is a much better conductor than pure silicon.
The other part of a typical solar cell is doped with the element boron, which has only three electrons in its outer shell instead of four, to become P-type silicon. Instead of having free electrons, P-type ("p" for positive) has free openings and carries the opposite (positive) charge.
Anatomy of a Solar Cell
Before now, our two separate pieces of silicon were electrically neutral; the interesting part begins when you put them together. That's because without an electric field, the cell wouldn't work; the field forms when the N-type and P-type silicon come into contact. Suddenly, the free electrons on the N side see all the openings on the P side, and there's a mad rush to fill them. Do all the free electrons fill all the free holes? No. If they did, then the whole arrangement wouldn't be very useful. However, right at the junction, they do mix and form something of a barrier, making it harder and harder for electrons on the N side to cross over to the P side. Eventually, equilibrium is reached, and we have an electric field separating the two sides.
This electric field acts as a diode, allowing (and even pushing) electrons to flow from the P side to the N side, but not the other way around. It's like a hill -- electrons can easily go down the hill (to the N side), but can't climb it (to the P side).
When light, in the form of photons, hits our solar cell, its energy breaks apart electron-hole pairs. Each photon with enough energy will normally free exactly one electron, resulting in a free hole as well. If this happens close enough to the electric field, or if free electron and free hole happen to wander into its range of influence, the field will send the electron to the N side and the hole to the P side.
This causes further disruption of electrical neutrality, and if we provide an external current path, electrons will flow through the path to the P side to unite with holes that the electric field sent there, doing work for us along the way. The electron flow provides the current, and the cell's electric field causes a voltage. With both current and voltage, we have power, which is the product of the two.
There are a few more components left before we can really use our cell. Silicon happens to be a very shiny material, which can send photons bouncing away before they've done their job, so an antireflective coating is applied to reduce those losses. The final step is to install something that will protect the cell from the elements -- often a glass cover plate. PV modules are generally made by connecting several individual cells together to achieve useful levels of voltage and current, and putting them in a sturdy frame complete with positive and negative terminals.
How much sunlight energy does our PV cell absorb? Unfortunately, probably not an awful lot. In 2006, for example, most solar panels only reached efficiency levels of about 12 to 18 percent. The most cutting-edge solar panel system that year finally muscled its way over the industry's long-standing 40 percent barrier in solar efficiency -- achieving 40.7 percent [source: U.S. Department of Energy]. So why is it such a challenge to make the most of a sunny day?
Energy Loss in a Solar Cell.
Visible light is only part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Electromagnetic radiation is not monochromatic -- it's made up of a range of different wavelengths, and therefore energy levels.
Light can be separated into different wavelengths, which we can see in the form of a rainbow. Since the light that hits our cell has photons of a wide range of energies, it turns out that some of them won't have enough energy to alter an electron-hole pair. They'll simply pass through the cell as if it were transparent. Still other photons have too much energy.
Only a certain amount of energy, measured in electron volts (eV) and defined by our cell material (about 1.1 eV for crystalline silicon), is required to knock an electron loose. We call this the band gap energy of a material. If a photon has more energy than the required amount, then the extra energy is lost. (That is, unless a photon has twice the required energy, and can create more than one electron-hole pair, but this effect is not significant.) These two effects alone can account for the loss of about 70 percent of the radiation energy incident on our cell.
The familiar sight of a rainbow represents just a sliver of the greater electromagnetic spectrum.
Why can't we choose a material with a really low band gap, so we can use more of the photons? Unfortunately, our band gap also determines the strength (voltage) of our electric field, and if it's too low, then what we make up in extra current (by absorbing more photons), we lose by having a small voltage. Remember that power is voltage times current. The optimal band gap, balancing these two effects, is around 1.4 eV for a cell made from a single material.
We have other losses as well. Our electrons have to flow from one side of the cell to the other through an external circuit. We can cover the bottom with a metal, allowing for good conduction, but if we completely cover the top, then photons can't get through the opaque conductor and we lose all of our current (in some cells, transparent conductors are used on the top surface, but not in all). If we put our contacts only at the sides of our cell, then the electrons have to travel an extremely long distance to reach the contacts.
Remember, silicon is a semiconductor -- it's not nearly as good as a metal for transporting current. Its internal resistance (called series resistance) is fairly high, and high resistance means high losses. To minimize these losses, cells are typically covered by a metallic contact grid that shortens the distance that electrons have to travel while covering only a small part of the cell surface. Even so, some photons are blocked by the grid, which can't be too small or else its own resistance will be too high.
Solar-powering a House
What would you have to do to power your house with solar energy? Although it's not as simple as just slapping some modules on your roof, it's not extremely difficult to do, either.
First of all, not every roof has the correct orientation or angle of inclination to take full advantage of the sun's energy. Non-tracking PV systems in the Northern Hemisphere should ideally point toward true south, although orientations that face in more easterly and westerly directions can work too, albeit by sacrificing varying degrees of efficiency. Solar panels should also be inclined at an angle as close to the area's latitude as possible to absorb the maximum amount of energy year-round.
A different orientation and/or inclination could be used if you want to maximize energy production for the morning or afternoon, and/or the summer or winter. Of course, the modules should never be shaded by nearby trees or buildings, no matter the time of day or the time of year. In a PV module, if even just one of its cells is shaded, power production can be significantly reduced.
If you have a house with an unshaded, southward-facing roof, you need to decide what size system you need. This is complicated by the facts that your electricity production depends on the weather, which is never completely predictable, and that your electricity demand will also vary. Luckily, these hurdles are fairly easy to clear. Meteorological data gives average monthly sunlight levels for different geographical areas.
This takes into account rainfall and cloudy days, as well as altitude, humidity and other more subtle factors. You should design for the worst month, so that you'll have enough electricity year-round.
With that data and your average household demand (your utility bill conveniently lets you know how much energy you use every month), there are simple methods you can use to determine just how many PV modules you'll need. You'll also need to decide on a system voltage, which you can control by deciding how many modules to wire in series.
You may have already guessed a couple of problems that we'll have to solve. First, what do we do when the sun isn't shining?
Tonino Lamborghini Solar Bag: Courtesy Tonino Lamborghini
Solar power sounds great: electricity from sunshine, for free, no carbon footprint. But solar panels often come with hefty price tags or require complex installations. Now lighter materials are making them less expensive and more convenient, whether you carry them with you or snap them onto your roof.
Power Pack
This take-anywhere electric plant won’t weigh you down. Tonino Lamborghini’s bag is the first product to use a new solar panel that’s as light, thin and flexible as fabric yet absorbs rays in any light, including artificial light or under clouds. It’s made of dye-sensitized solar cells, which trap more wavelengths in less space by wrapping each individual particle of a conductive layer in light-absorbing dye molecules. Charge a cellphone in six to eight hours, indoors or out.
Beam Data:Your phone can display power output and other stats sent by Armageddon’s solar units. Courtesy Armageddon Energy
Plug-and-Play Panels
Click together a rooftop solar system in a few hours, saving days or weeks on design and installation. Armageddon’s modular kit consists of metal frames light enough to carry up a ladder, plus 18-pound solar panels—coated in Teflon instead of heavy glass—that snap onto the frames’ tabs. The easy-to-lift, ready-made parts mean that installers don’t have to build frames on top of a house and also eliminate tricky wiring, since each frame has its own DC-to-AC converter that lets it plug straight into a home circuit breaker.
Mix and Match:Dow’s solar tiles blend in with standard roof shingles. Courtesy Dow
Solar Shingles
Rather than laying solar panels across your roof, use them as your roof. Dow built thin-film photovoltaic cells directly into polymer shingles. They’re as protective as ordinary shingles, nail down in the same way and, in place of exposed wiring, hook together with simple electrical connectors at their ends. Some units go on sale later this year, with wide availability next year. Dow is also working on other building materials with sun power built in.
Solar panels like these on the rooftop of Itochu headquarters in Tokyo would become more common in Japan under Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ambitious renewable energy plan. But this summer, the emphasis is on conservation.
At Tokyo's Meiji Gakuin University, professor Keiko Tanaka has been teaching classes with half as much lighting as usual and with less reliance on computers and other electricity-hogging tools. She now often gets out her chalk and eraser to use the blackboard.
But with tsunami-torn Japan's electricity system struggling, she wonders whether her fellow citizens will commit to the level of energy savings the nation needs.
"Japan is a country where 18-year-old girls take the elevator to go up a single flight of stairs because they don't want to sweat," she said. "It is a country where most toilet seats are heated, and there is an electric noisemaker in the women's toilet to mask the noise. People have really gotten used to creature comfort at very high energy costs."
Those costs are under scrutiny as perhaps never before, due to the loss of the nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi and other grid infrastructure damage in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report this week that Japan "is in the midst of perhaps one of the most severe electricity shortfalls in history."
Japan has scrambled to repair infrastructure and increase its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), but the problem could get worse, the IEA warned, due to political backlash against nuclear energy, which before March provided one-third of the nation's electricity.
In the long run, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has indicated a push for renewables, setting a new goal of 10 million solar-powered homes by 2020, and abandoning ambitious nuclear expansion plans. But Japan—which has no fossil fuel resources of its own—faces an immediate test in the sweltering months of July and August, when air conditioning demand typically strains the grid. Japan's government says its citizens need to reduce their electricity demand this summer by 15 percent, and in Tokyo, the goal is 25 percent.
The IEA says Japan faces a challenge in meeting these goals, since—heated toilets aside—its economy already is far more energy-efficient than that of other nations. To make even greater strides, "Japan will have to undertake deep energy-efficiency and conservation measures," the IEA report concludes.
Faced with potential crisis this summer, Japan has attempted to ramp up the Cool Biz campaign it has promoted since 2005. Re-branding it Super Cool Biz, Japan is calling for offices to keep temperatures at 28°C (85°F), when summer high temperatures in Tokyo can surpass 30°C (86°F) with high humidity. Office workers are encouraged to shed their business suits in favor of sandals, khakis, and pedal pushers.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced it planned to lead by example on energy savings—reducing the use of printers and copiers in its offices, deactivating automatic doors, reducing the number of elevators in services, and adopting early work hours.
But some advocates of saving energy already are frustrated. Taro Kono, a member of the House of Representatives in Japan's Diet, the national parliament, said he has been trying to encourage telecommuting, but the effort has fallen short of his expectations because many businesses remain unwilling to relinquish the ability to physically see what workers are accomplishing.
Japan's energy consumption per unit of GDP is 20 percent below the world average and 30 percent below that of the United States, according to the World Resources Institute's widely followed EarthTrends data. Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) estimates that Japan improved its energy efficiency 37 percent in the past 30 years.
The IEA, in its report entitled "Saving Electricity in a Hurry," said it remains unclear how much farther small and medium-sized Japanese businesses will cut demand voluntarily. The IEA said many energy-saving measures at those companies require shifting operations to evenings and weekends—something that will require unions' approval and could disrupt many parents' schedules.
Post-Tsunami, an Anti-Nuclear Wave
Adding to Japan's electricity shortfall woes is a growing issue due to the nation's long-standing requirement that its nuclear power plants undergo routine maintenance every 13 months, with politicians in the plants' regional prefectures providing final approval before restart. The restarts typically are approved routinely, but all have been delayed since the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. More as a result of these holdups than earthquake damage, only 19 of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are now in operation.
Kyushu Electric, which provides power to southwest Japan, received a welcome bit of news this month, when a local mayor approved its proposal to restart the reactors at its Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga prefecture. Those reactors had been shut down for maintenance since last winter.
The final decision lies with the prefecture's governor, Yasushi Furukawa, who expects to make a decision by mid-July.
Energy experts say that if Furukawa decides against a restart, other governors could follow suit—setting in motion a chain of events that could idle all of Japan's nuclear reactors within a year.
Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda this week sought to reassure citizens of the reactors' safety, pledging that the government would order stress-testing at all the plants.
Renewable Energy's Rising Sun
It remains to be seen whether the stress testing in the coming weeks will succeed in reassuring Japan's citizens on nuclear plants' ability to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis, but it is clear that opponents have been able to seize on the Fukushima disaster to urge rapid expansion of alternative sources.
They have argued that Japan's rich geothermal resources—with nearly 200 volcanoes and some 28,000 hot springs—could provide more than 80,000 megawatts of generating capacity, enough to meet half of the country's electricity needs. In addition, a 2009 study published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that the country's land-based wind resources could provide another half of its electricity.
Japan has aggressively sought to upgrade its solar potential—a cause taken up by Kan before he survived a no-confidence vote earlier this month.
The country has set a goal of increasing solar photovoltaics, mostly in rooftop panels, from 3,500 megawatts in 2010 to 53,000 megawatts by 2030. Beyond Kan's target of powering 10 million homes by 2020, there would be enough solar photovoltaics to power 18 million Japanese homes by 2030.
Masayoshi Son, the founder of Softbank Mobile and the country's wealthiest man, has drawn substantial attention for his plan to start a research foundation for renewable energy, bolstered by millions of his own start-up money. So far, 35 of Japan's 47 prefectures have signed on as founding members.
"The means to do this are certainly in abundance," said Andrew DeWit, a professor of public finance at Tokyo's Rikkyo University who studies the country's energy situation. "This sounds like idealistic talk, but I really think Japan, given that it's got all this pent-up demand for renewables, could see in over a year or two a truly astounding emplacement of renewable capacity."
DeWit acknowledged, however, that Japan's nuclear energy proponents will not abandon that energy source easily. "There's all kinds of rhetoric—that wind farms are too noisy, they kill birds and so on," he said. "The energy economy of this country is going to be decided over the next few months . . . The key things seem to me to be the increasing heat of summer and how disastrous this nuclear problem is."
With the future of Japan's energy supply in question, the focus for most citizens now is on cutting demand. Kazuto Tsuchiya, a student at the University of Southern California who is spending the summer with family in Suzaka in central Japan, said his relatives put off an earlier decision to buy an air conditioner.
"We are going to bear the heat of summer with round paper fans and Japanese folding fans," he said. Tschiya sees his fellow citizens neither resisting conservation nor enthusiastically embracing it.
"It's more like people think that it's 'sho ga nai' in Japanese, meaning, 'We have no choice, we have to accept,' '' he said.
Could this be due to the ecological challenges? Is this due to the continual hike in conventional energy costs? The majority of consumers agree that these are some factors, but the undisputed factor causing the switch is the extraordinary official monetary stimulus called Feed-in Tariff. Apart from providing every family a grant of £1,000 annually, it also earns them an 8-10 percent tax-free yield on their investment.
This plan is linked to inflationary index and has an assured duration of twenty-five years. For most consumers it’s a fantastic option in the present financial state. How much capital would you place in banks, if they offered an 8% return?
The Sunday times seems exceptionally upbeat asserting “The return being tax-free, 12 .9% of the capital equates for a fifty percent taxpayer, while 10.3% to forty percent taxpayer, thus ensuring that the capital is recovered within seven years timeframe.”
Whereas the Independent claims “The authorities have proposed that the rates are to be paid till twenty-five years and the tie up with inflationary index means the actual percentage of yield could translate into ten percent.”
For people who value the opinion of Martin Lewis, he states “The state has declared response for tariff compensation for solar panels shall continue for twenty-five years and will be adjusted with inflation and is tax-free. Thus, a. £12,000 installation will earn you £23,000- meaning £11,000 gain.
The ecological advantages are evident. The Association of trusteeship in energy forms informs “one may reduce the carbon trace by consuming electricity from the sun, which is sustainable, environment-friendly and wouldn’t discharge any toxins like carbon-dioxide or similar contaminants. On average, annually large quantity of CO2 which is about 1 tone discharge can be prevented by using a standard solar panel.
It’s common knowledge that energy costs are ever increasing and going by the Static forecasts made by the National office for 2010 to 2014 “In the years to follow, the costs of electricity are slated to rise seven percent every year alongside three percent inflationary hike.”
An increasing number of households in UK are opting for solar panels for domestic purposes. Due to it’s uniqueness, Tariff feed has become an administrative incentive. People want to cut down their energy expenses, even as they prepare for the times ahead. They are environment conscious and look for avenues to grow their income. With the economic conditions touching rock bottom, the UK Feed-in Tariff has thrown up the perfect solution in the form of PV solar power.
Engineers from MassachusettsInstituteof Technology(MIT)haveinventeda new technologythat allowsprintingsolarcellson paperalmost ascheap andeasy asprintinga photowith inkjetprinters.
Output solarpanel can befoldedand placedin your pocketand willgenerateelectricityagain,withoutproblems, onceexposed tosunlight. The techniquerepresentsan important advancetowards thesystemsuseduntilnow tomakemostsolar cells,processesinvolvingsubstrates exposuretopossibledestructiveconditions,liquid,or heat.
The newprinting processusesvapors,notliquids,andtemperaturesbelow 120degreesCelsius. These"mild" terms makepossiblethe use ofpaper, of fabrics and plastics normal and untreated asasubstrate where cells to be printed.
Of course, the technique isa little morecomplex thanit first seems.Tocreatean array ofphotovoltaic cellson paper, fivedifferent layersofmaterialmust be storedon the samepieceof paper insuccessiveapplications,usinga mask(alsomadeof paper) to formpatternson the surface ofsupportcells.Andthe whole processmust beconductedin avacuumchamber.
Duringtesting,solarcellsthat have been appliedon a layer ofplasticsimilar to juicebottles,butthinner,andthenfoldedandunfold1,000timesbehavedvery well,withoutsignificantlossofperformance. Incontrast, acommercialsolarcellproducedin the samematerialbroke downafteronly onefolding.In addition,due tovery lowweightof the substratepaperorpalsticcompared toconventionalglassor other materialsgenerally usedfor these purposes, scientistsbelieve they canachievea Recordof thevalueofwatts/ kilogramwith the newprintablesolar panels.
Butthe biggestgainremainsperhapsfinancial,becauseoftensystemsapplication, support andinstallationofphotovoltaic panelsare more expensive thanharvestingsolar energyequipmentitself.
Newtechnology willreducetwo, maybethree timesthe costof electricity generationthroughphotovoltaicalternativemethod.Foroutdooruse, the papermaybecovered withstandard rolling materialsthatwillprotectfrom the weather.
Currently,solarcellsprinted onpaperhavean efficiency ofonly 1%,but theMITteammembersare convincedthat it can besignificantlyenhancedbyfurtherchangesandnew materials.However,evenat current levels,the technology isgood enoughto powera smallelectronicdevice,itscreatorsbelieve.standardlaminatingmaterialsthatwillprotectfrom the weather.
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