Ecotricity, a British alternative energy provider, announced on its website that it is financing a new technology called Searaser. The company says the new technology tackles two of the main obstacles faced by the renewable energy industry: cost and intermittency.

The Searaser was invented by Alvin Smith, an engineer from Devon (UK). It uses ocean power, which is constant, to create electricity on demand.

“It’s such a simple design and we believe it’ll produce electricity cheaper than any other wave-power technology, or indeed any other type of renewable energy,” Ecotricity said on its website.

The difference between Searaser and existing wave technologies to produce power is that the former does not generate electricity in the water. Instead, it uses the constant motion of the ocean swell to drive seawater through an onshore turbine.

It pumps the water using a vertical piston between two buoys. One stays on the surface of the water, while the other is suspended underwater and tethered to a weight on the seabed. As the ocean swell moves, the buoys move up-and-down and the piston pumps pressurized seawater through pipes to an onshore turbine. This produces electricity.

Ecotricity said Searaser units could also supply energy on-demand by pumping seawater into a coastal reservoir, with a hydropower turbine, solving renewable energy’s problem of fluctuating output. The company is pumping money into the project to drive the next phase of development. The hope is to have a product ready for market in 2014. What do you think? Promising or not?

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• Australia Invests in World’s First Utility-Scale Wave Power Project
• Wing Waves Show Promise for Wave Energy in the United States
• A Smaller, Quieter, and Greener British Invasion
• Massachusetts Offshore Renewable Energy Project Holds Promise
• Marine Energy Could Provide Up to 240 GW by 2050

Balancing the big picture with the details can be tricky. However, finding this balance can be very powerful when addressing a building’s energy needs and energy costs.

One way of achieving good balance is to take an integrated approach that looks at the synergistic aspects of various energy-reduction programs to achieve an optimal balance.

Often times energy projects are looked at individually rather than taking a moment to see how they relate to each other and to the building as a whole. Infrastructure projects, such as replacing an chiller are easy projects to know when to add to a capital plan. However, a building owner can get more for their money if they take the time to see how this one proposed project relates to others. For example, a chiller works hard to perform its function based on the current conditions of the building.

What if you were able to reduce the amount of energy load on the building and change these conditions? Perhaps there are building envelope projects scheduled a little later in the capital plan. What if these projects were looked at from an energy savings and cost stand point in conjunction with the chiller replacement? Could you then reduce the size of the replacement chiller and save more money than the other improvement cost? Looking at this new information might create more favorable payback and energy savings options for the proposed projects.

It’s such an exciting concept that it was the topic of our most recent Sustainability Sessions web conference. Guest speakers Jean Savitsky, Practice Lead—Energy and Sustainability Projects, LEED AP and Dana Schneider, Northeast Market Lead—Energy and Sustainability Projects, LEED AP shared details about this approach and how we have been able to find optimal solutions for several clients, including the Empire State Building.

Article by Carey Guerin, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.

Related posts:

• Water issues: Green sub searches for jobs and squid in California
• New CleanTechies Bookstore: find books, read reviews & order online
• How Much Money Can New Lighting Save Your Business?
• The ABC’s of Conservation
• LEED 2009 Focuses on Everyday`Human Impact’ of Sustainability

For nearly as long as people have harnessed wind to perform work, it has been used to move water from one place to another. Whether used for agricultural irrigation, wetlands drainage or pumping water from wells, wind machines have long been a relatively cheap and easy way to pump water, particularly in off-grid applications where electric alternatives are impractical or impossible. And while a handful of companies still make wind pumps, little has changed in the underlying technology for nearly a century — until now. A Massachusetts company announced last week it had sold its first wind-powered water pump system in Colorado.

Worcester, Massachusetts-based Mass Megawatts has developed a wind-powered water pumping unit that it says provides a lower-cost solution when compared to traditional water pumping systems, including those powered by diesel generators.

Mass Megawatts’ wind-powered water pump uses the company’s patented MMW wind augmenter technology to increase the wind velocity directed at the wind turbine. By funneling the wind into narrow channels where it speeds up, the augmenter is responsible for increasing power to its turbines by an average of 70 percent.

According to the company, over three times as much power is generated by its augmenter technology compared to the production wind turbines of an equal power rating in an “un-augmented” air stream. And the technology, according to company documents, does not require the same high-demand components used in other wind turbine technologies, thereby keeping costs down.

The technology is also not limited to use as a wind pump. The company is developing wind machines that generate electricity which can be stored in on-site battery banks.

The company says its technology is scalable from smaller 10 kW ‘home and farm’ systems to multi-megawatt utility installations and provides solutions to the two major wind project stumbling blocks: tower height and lower wind resource. But while the system may have a lower profile than many turbine technologies, the bulky framework required by the wind augmenter may still make it unpopular with some.

Mass Megawatts (OTCBB: MMMW), which began building its turbine arrays and MMW wind augmenters at a Colorado plant in late 2011, is a publicly-traded company with less than twelve million shares issued and outstanding.

Article by Timothy Hurst, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

Related posts:

• Crops With Deeper Roots Could Boost CO2 Storage, Study Says
• Coal and the Road to Copenhagen: Win $10k for Clean Energy Project
• Creating ‘Living’ Buildings With Materials That Pull CO2 from Air
• Chinese Solar Power Panel Lights Up Investment
• Rebuilding Greener Neighborhoods in New Orleans

KiteGen thinks that current wind technology only scratches the surface of what’s possible with wind energy. That’s because wind turbines cannot reach higher and touch altitude wind. Rarely wind farms are sited at more than 100m above the ground; the higher they go, the heavier, more unstable and expensive the apparatus becomes.

The company’s technology takes a higher flight with wind technology. Its system consists of tethered kites of a predefine flight path in order to rotate a ground-based turbine. The large wings (or kites) in the KiteGen system are driven by avionic sensors located in a dome base that also houses an electric generator. The control system is designed to automatically guide the kites in order to rotate the turbine and maximize torque. As altitude increases, average wind speeds increase as well.

In the air, the system subtracts energy from the wind at an altitude of 2,624,7/3,280.8 ft with power kites and semi-rigid automatically piloted high efficiency air foils. On the ground, lies all the heavy machinery for power generation. To connect the two parts of the system, high resistance lines transmitting the traction of the kites and at the same time controlling their direction and angle to the wind.

One of the advantages of the KiteGen concept is space efficiency. While a 1000 MW wind turbine farms requires an area of of 96.5 to 115.8 square miles, KiteGen says would need only five to six square kilometers for the same output. It estimates its wind plants could produce around 500 GWh yearly.

The company also envisages big savings in energy costs of US$0.02-$0.05 per kWh, as compared to $0.05-$0.09 per kWh for fossil energy and $0.15 per kWh for current windmills.

KiteGen was founded in 2007 in Chieri, northern Italy and is the brainchild of Massimo Ippolito. Its engineers are working with another company called Sequoia Automation S.r.l., which is developing technical software and mechanical engineering.

The company is seeking investors to produce the first full-sized model and is also developing an offshore system.

Follow the link to find out more about KiteGen’s technology. What do you think? Promising technology or pipe dream?

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• New Website Asks For Support For Wind Power Jobs
• Will the Japanese Wind Tower Be the Future of Wind Power?
• South Korea to Invest $35 Billion in Renewable Energy by 2015
• Small Scale Wind Power: It’s Beautiful, But Not Everyone is Convinced
• Siemens Aims to Reach the Top of the Wind Power Market

Use recycled materials to create a musical keepsake for your loved one. It’s an old timey gift with a 21st century sound track!

Looking for a DIY gift for your daughter or niece? This is the perfect project for an experienced tinkerer–all you need is a cigar box, an old MP3 player, and a few hours of time. The great thing about this idea is that you can customize the music box to play more than one song!

Article by Beth Buczynski, appearing courtesy Crisp Green.

Related posts:

• How is Technology “Cleaning Up” Entertainment?
• Green Gift Ideas: Battery-Free Bike Light
• Pacific Garbage Patch Gets Its Own Music Video
• EcoDorm Offers ‘Green’ College Living
• Energy Efficient Gift Ideas

Landfills are a constant reminder of all the waste we produce, but a new innovation could throw out the notion of a “dump” by turning them into solar power dynamos.

energyNOW! visited Conley, Georgia to see how one company is generating renewable energy while safely covering nine million cubic yards of municipal solid waste. You can watch the full video below.

Most people don’t give much thought to the science behind landfills, but they’re a highly engineered environment, designed to safely contain decomposing waste and methane while keeping out the elements. Clean energy advocates have looked at landfills for years as a ideal location for solar power installations, but encountered problems because as waste breaks down over time, their shape can shift and damage solid structures.

Enter the Spectro PowerCap from Carlisle Energy, a first-of-its-kind 45-acre landfill cover combining flexible geomembrane and solar photovoltaic (PV) technology into a dual-purpose system to close the landfill and generate solar energy. The geomembrane is made of Thermoplastic PolyOlefin, similar to the material used on commercial white roofs. It contours to the shape of the landfill and can flex over time, maintaining a snug fit.

An interesting technology by itself, but what really makes the spectral power cap innovative are the integrated solar panels. About 7,000 flexible 144-watt PV panels were factory bonded to the geomembrane, shipped to the landfill, unrolled on site, and welded together into a solid cover. The PV panels, made by UNI-SOLAR, have a top cover sheet similar to Teflon, are durable enough to walk on, and connected by a million feet of wire to four inverters that sends the solar energy onto the grid.

All in all, the geomembrane combines four 250-kilowatt arrays covering 10 acres into a total operating capacity of one megawatt, enough to power 224 homes. Best of all, the system makes money for the landfill operators through an agreement with Georgia Power to sell the energy to the wholesale electricity market.

The Conley geomembrane is the largest of its kind, much larger with more capacity than two similar installations in New York and Texas, and its success could lead to many more systems across the country. “A lot of these landfills are built in urban settings, and they’re close to transmission lines,” said Tony Walker of landfill operator Republic Services. “We think this type of system can be built across the country.” Carlisle Energy says they have also recently commissioned a second landfill project in Madison County, New York.

Article by Silvio Marcacci, appearing courtesy ecopolitology.

Related posts:

• Biggest U.S. Waste Hauler Expands Fleet of ‘Trash Gas’ Trucks
• The king of all energy = trash
• Tech Dreams: Solar-Powered Laptop
• The Big Apple’s Solar Power Potential
• Bury it or Burn it? An Environmental Dilemma

It’s impossible not to be impressed with the efforts to be green made by Hanna Fathy, a 28-year-old Cairo-based garbage collector.

Despite living in a city blighted with grinding poverty and surrounded by trash, he is firm on his intent to live a sustainable life. And this includes producing alternative energy to avoid pollution by fossil fuels.

He built his own biodigester, which turns food scraps to produce biogas. With the copper collected from old toy motors he has built a solar panel, which he installed on the roof of his building.

He learned his solar power skills from an American organization called Solar Cities, whose mission is to “connect community catalyst and integrate technologies for industrial ecology systems”

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

Related posts:

• Mexico City Closes Dump in Push to Boost Recycling and Reuse
• Power to the People: Can Egypt Create Sustainable Wealth?
• Pacific Garbage Patch Gets Its Own Music Video
• Garbage In, Garbage Out
• Hybrid Solar Power Collector Offers Two Solutions in One Device

Yesterday morning Paula Mints from Navigant Consulting shared her insights on the latest global solar PV market trends with us – a timely webinar topic given the highly publicized fallout from those very global market dynamics. Paula put a firm kibosh on assertions that the aforementioned Solyndra failure heralds the end of solar: “We have started something in this industry, and it will move forward.” Given the magnitude of what we’re undertaking, that path forward won’t be without its challenges. It’s the nature of revolutionizing the global power industry.

We’re in a time of high PV module inventory levels, particularly in Europe where generous incentive programs have been trimmed. Continued incentive reductions and abrupt changes on many major programs around the world are driving continued downward pressure on solar prices. As a result, module costs have come down. Way down. Those aggressive market dynamics are particularly painful for some – most notably for a series of high-profile recent bankruptcies: Solyndra, Evergreen and Spectawatt. For all the hubub around Solyndra’s closure, the reality is they supplied 50 MW – that’s not even a statistically relevant blip on the gigawatts-sized global PV landscape. The price dynamics that caused its failure, however, are not to be overlooked. It’s tough for many manufacturers to make a buck these days. Those challenging dynamics will settle out to more sustainable levels as solar continues to grow and policy certainty is re-established. And in the meantime, solar’s new price point has been good for consumers and market expansion here in the U.S.

Diving deeper into the various countries that comprise that global picture – it’s important to note just how much feed-in tariff driven European markets have dominated demand. The EU claims a whopping 80% of the global market. But with European incentive programs on the decline, the industry needs to open new markets in order to continue to grow. That includes the U.S., still a relatively small player on the global solar stage.

We can expect to see continued volatility on the supply side until the market comes to terms with the new reality of lower incentive levels. Paula reminds us that this is actually the old reality. For much of the solar industry’s history it has functioned without the order of magnitude of incentives its experienced over the past few years. And of course here in the U.S. we’ve continued to function without those sizable incentives. As such she asserts that U.S. companies are well-positioned for continued success. Anyone succeeding in the U.S. market has already had plenty of experience making innovative use of a relatively small incentive pool to deliver real value to customers. In short, we can’t miss what we didn’t have. Combine that know-how with what remains a huge potential solar power market, and the U.S. remains on her list of healthy markets.

So what do we need to keep driving this global PV market of tomorrow forward? We need business model and BOS innovation to keep solar costs coming down while providing healthier manufacturing margins. We need continued private and public investment in next-generation technologies. And first and foremost, we need to help utilities, investors and policymakers better understand solar power. That includes a reality check about the true costs of conventional and nuclear energy – subsidies included – so we can have a fact-based conversation about solar’s economic competitiveness.

Educate, educate, educate. Solar has strong facts to back up its claims of value, ROI and success (here’s our own set of favorite factoids). There’s no need to be anything but accurate. We hope you’ll consider it your task as solar industry participants, solar advocates and solar supporters of all shapes and sizes to spread the word: solar is ready and able to play a growing role in our nation’s energy economy.

Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.

Related posts:

• Ford Transit Connect To Become All-Electric Van in 2010
• Inductive Charging Offers Advantages in Electric Transportation
• Italy’s Solar Market Exceeds Expectations: 6 GWs in 2010
• Europe Unveils Plans for Single Energy Market Within 10 Years
• European Wind Industry Trends, EWEC, Part I

Sure, a bike is a great way to get to the farmers’ market or library on a lazy Saturday morning, but what about M – F? No one wants to show up to work sweaty or rain-soaked. But what if there was a bike that made it easy to switch from pedaling to public transit to walking, according to the circumstances?

Award-winning designer Gabriel Wartofsky recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for a lightweight, compact, intuitively folding electric bike he calls “the solution to the first and last mile commute problem.”

What many urban commuters struggle with is the question of how to get to the train or bus station without using their car, and then how to get from the station to their destination without using a taxi or walking.

Wartofsky thinks his ultra-light e-bike is the answer. Commuters can use it to zip from their home to the public transit hub without breaking a sweat. Then, it can be folded in seconds and carried on without fear of taking up too much room or getting axle grease on office clothes.

“We never had a car growing up: we lived our lives by bicycle,” said Wartofsky. “My parents took us to school on bikes, we went to the store and transported groceries by bike – we lived our lives by bike. I want people to experience again the magic of the bicycle my mother lived by for most of her life. My design challenge was to design an e-bike that will enable commuters to re-acquaint themselves with the hidden magic that surrounds daily travel. An easy, fun way to get around. And I can’t do it without you.”

Follow Wartofsky’s progress on Facebook, Twitter, and his designer blog, and sign up to get the newsletter on his web site: www.consciouscommuter.com.

Article by Beth Buczynski, appearing courtesy Crisp Green.

Related posts:

• Taming the Electric Bicycle: E-Bikes Win Converts in the U.S.
• What Brings Sustainable Transport in Urban Centers?
• Student Upcycles Solar-Powered Motorcycle
• Green Gift Ideas: Battery-Free Bike Light
• Seeking Answers to Tough Energy and Climate Challenges

There are many types of renewable energy in the world. It is consensus that to replace fossil fuels we will need a broad mix of natural resources. When it comes to energy generation, ‘the more the merrier’ also applies.

So let’s hear for one type of alternative energy that is not as widely talked about as solar or wind power: ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). It uses the temperature differential between the warm surface water and the cold deep water to generate electricity and potable water. Therefore this type of energy is particularly suited to tropical zones.

We’re likely to hear more about OTEC if the ON Project can achieve its goal to spread the word about it. It calls itself a “hub where individuals can learn about the benefits of OTEC, including 24/7 renewable energy and clean, potable water”.

The over-arching goal of the initiative is to raise awareness about how OTEC’s environmental, humanitarian, and economic benefits can significantly improve life across the globe, but mainly in the tropics.

The OnProject is sponsored by OTE Corporation, a company that produces clean energy and drinking water. The company’s history goes back to 1998 and its roots are in Hawaii, where its operational headquarters are. Its corporate headquarter is in Pennsylvania.

Related posts:

• Tech Breakthrough: Underwater Robot Runs on Ocean Thermal Energy
• Solar Thermal: More Efficient, Less Talked About
• Using Ocean Temperature Differences to Create Renewable Energy
• British Clean Energy Company Finances the New Wave in Ocean Power
• What’s the Return on Investment on Solar Thermal?