Solar Powered Wheelchair Sets World Records
Haidar Taleb, a 47 year old man from UAE, displayed a rare combination of human spirit and willpower when he took up a 200-mile long journey on a wheel chair that he has built for himself which runs on solar power. Being a person with polio since the age of 4 has not stopped him from taking up this challenge on this wheelchair, a piece of technological innovation.
World Records In Haidar’s Name.
Since this is not the first time Haider has taken up such journey on his solar powered wheel chair, he will have more than one record in his name once he finishes this tour. These include,
- Entering Guinness Book of World Records by traveling 80 miles during a 14-hour trip from Abu Dhabi to Sharjah at a speed of 12 mph on a solar-powered wheelchair.
- Making his own record better by 200 miles, mentioned above on the same wheel chair.
Aim of the journey
Haider says, “By taking-up this journey, I want to raise awareness about disability and tell people that we, despite our disability can achieve anything as an individual, if we are determined to try and have courage to do so.” With this journey Haider also wants to send out a message to other persons with disabilities like him, who have mobility problem. He wants to tell them, “There are no obstructions because you can do as you think. Given a chance, persons with disabilities can perform miracles.”
During the course of his journey, Haider will share the above message to inspire everyone when he talks to both disabled and non-disabled people in schools, colleges and centers working for the disabled.
Promoting eco friendly wheelchairs
With this journey, Haidar has helped to promote eco friendly wheelchairs. He says, “This journey was important in the sense that through it, apart from encouraging persons with disabilities in general, I have shown the world that solar-powered wheel-chair are important and they can change the lives of persons with mobility problems.”
The journey that Haider took on with the help of the eco-friendly device was sponsored by Masdar. It is a project to encourage detailed research into alternative energy solutions. It is hoped that the invention of solar-powered wheelchair and the message Haidar has given, will have a far reaching effects.
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/solar-powered-wheelchair/
Courtesy
AE News Network
Smart use of mobile phone power
For the first time smart phones and tablet PCs could be used by police officers to help solve crimes faster and more cheaply.
Dr Mohamed Gaber, of the University of Portsmouth’s School of Computing, told an international conference that combining the power and wireless facilities of smart phones to collect and process information quickly, rather than relying on centralised computers, could revolutionise crime fighting, mobile healthcare and live business intelligence.
His research has been hailed as outstanding by experts and could pave the way for the first mobile tool for collecting and streaming large amounts of information over the internet.
The combined processing power of mobile phones could also be used to monitor people’s health more quickly and more cheaply than existing methods allow.
Dr Gaber said: “This is the first time a method has been found to stream information collected from smart phones working together.
“Imagine police officers equipped with smart phones that can capture all the sensory information in a crime scene such as fingerprints and digital images– all the data could be analysed locally and the results could be fused together in real-time to give them some insights and knowledge.
“We have discovered that we can get excellent results with as few as eight mobile phones being used together where each phone handles a maximum of 40 per cent of the all the possible measurements.
“It is the combination of the power and the acquired data on each device that would make the difference. In fact, one smart phone can do the whole process if it has all the features of the data. However, it is more realistic to assume that each individual can see only part of the picture and collectively we can see the whole picture.”
The processing power of smart phones could also be used in mobile health care.
Dr Gaber said: “Different mobile devices that measure different physiological signs and symptoms such as ECG, blood pressure and body temperature could be fused together to assess the patient. This could help elderly people and those with chronic diseases to travel and go shopping without being worried.
“Also, patients could use their mobile phones anytime anywhere to monitor their condition and automatically have messages sent through their phone to the emergency department or the doctor if the patient’s condition is getting critical and requires immediate treatment.”
The mobile phone data streaming process does not interfere with the phones’ normal use and calls can be made and SMS texts sent and read – the owner just has to agree to allow their phone’s processing power to be used in the background.
Dr Gaber said: “Such a collaborative process allows for many things. In a neighbourhood, for example, we can share data collected using our smart phones in order to make better decisions about local transport or rubbish collection. In this way being collaborative helps us in taking collective decisions.”
One of the key differences between using mobile streaming data mining as opposed to sending all the information back to a centralised computer to process is the information can be ultra-localised and the speed of processing can be faster and significantly cheaper.
Dr Gaber has his research presented at an international conference on ‘Tools with Artificial Intelligence’. He was told by experts that the research was outstanding and the most effective and best pieces of research presented. He and colleagues Dr Frederic Stahl and Professor Max Bramer have now been invited to submit it to a special issue of the Journal of Computer and System Sciences.
Reference Link
http://www.port.ac.uk/aboutus/newsandevents/frontpagenews/title,122534,en.html
Courtesy
University of Portsmouth
MIT Breakthrough: Thermo-Chemical Solar Power
MIT researchers are hopeful of capturing and releasing solar energy with the help of thermo-chemical technology. Scientists were already working on this technology in seventies but this project was aborted due to its expensiveness and termed as too impractical to achieve. But MIT researchers are now gearing up to take this thermo-chemical technology that is supposed to convert solar energy into electrical energy.
Currently we depend on the photovoltaic cells that transform light energy into electricity. Thermo-chemical technology is a bit different. It traps the solar energy and stores it in the form of heat in molecules of chemicals. This heat energy can be converted and utilized by humans whenever the need arises. What happens in a conventional solar system is that heat gets leached away over time but when, heat is stored using the thermo-chemical fuel it remains stable.
Jeffrey Grossman is the associate Professor of Power Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. According to him this chemical-electrical process makes it possible to produce a “rechargeable heat battery” that can repeatedly store and release heat gathered from sunlight or other sources. In principle, Grossman said, when fuel made from fulvalene diruthenium is stored, heat is released, and it “can get as hot as 200 degrees C, plenty hot enough to heat your home, or even to run an engine to produce electricity.”
One of the major drawbacks of this project is they were depending on a chemical, ruthenium. This is a rare element and the cost is effectively is out of question. But the MIT team is still hopeful and they are saying that they have found out the exact working mechanism of ruthenium and soon they will find out another chemical element that will not be expensive and will be available easily in nature.
Jeffrey Grossman explains that fulvalene diruthenium shows the potential to replace ruthenium. Fulvalene diruthenium can absorb solar energy. After trapping solar energy it can achieve a higher-energy state where it can remain stable ad infinitum. If a stimulus can be given in the form of heat or a catalyst, it reverts to its unique shape, releasing heat in the process.
Professor Grossman states, “It takes many of the advantages of solar-thermal energy, but stores the heat in the form of a fuel. It’s reversible, and it’s stable over a long term. You can use it where you want, on demand. You could put the fuel in the sun, charge it up, then use the heat, and place the same fuel back in the sun to recharge.”
But the path to clean and green energy is not so easy. The MIT team has to tackle the challenges lying ahead. First they have to find out an easy way to synthesize the material in the laboratory that can absorb and trap heat inside it and secondly they have to search for a good catalyst that can release the trapped heat energy without much fuss.
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/mit-thermo-chemical-solar-power/
Courtesy
AE News Network
Solar Power Towers coming to California
The United States of America will now produce clear power that can light up as many as 11000 to 277500 homes in the country. The Sectary of Interior Ken Salazar has given a go ahead to the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system, a project proposed by BrightSource of Oakland that can produce up to 370 megawatt of clear energy and generate nearly 1100 opportunities for employment. The project, located in San Bernardino Country, California, is the inaugural large-scale solar energy project on US public soil to use the power tower.
Key features of the project.
- The project, which will be in three phases, will finish by the year 2013.
- This know-how takes the help of mirror fields so that solar energy is pointed on the power tower receivers closer to every array. To generate electricity, Steam from the solar boilers in the towers is used to drive a turbine and electricity is produced.
How will it help the Administration.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system will be one project that will be a win-win situation for both the administration and BrightSource.
- This will give a boost to administration’s efforts for quick growth of production of renewable energy on public property on a large scale. Whereas the Sectary of Interior had given a green signal to first of such projects on October 5, with Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system, this figure has reached to 3.
- A day later, Salzar also signed a lease deal with Cape Wind to generate 468 megawatts of clean renewable electricity for Nantucket Sound Communities by purchasing a 130 turbine offshore wind farm.
- This would be the first lease on the Outer Continental Shelf to develop commercial wind energy.
- All these efforts will help USA to build a clean energy economy that could generate 1124 megawatts of clean energy to lit-up between 337000 and 843000 homes.
- It will reduce carbon emission and help the nation as a whole by making USA independent in its energy needs and strengthen its national security.
How will it help BrightSource Energy.
- The decision gives the power to Interior’s Bureau of Land management to give a site in the Southern California’s Mojave Desert, close to the Primm, Nevada border, to BrightSource so that they can use it for 30 years, provided they comply with all conditions including rent.
- BrightSource will be eligible to recover 30 percent of their cost, which the energy developers can recover under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provided they have started the construction work before or in 2010. The U.S. department of Energy has also awarded them $ 1.37 billion in conditional loan guarantees as per the provisions of Recovery act.
- The project Ivanpah is processed by Bureau of Land Management and the California Energy Commission (CEC) cooperative model established by an October 12, 2009 agreement. It is based on an agreement between Secretary Salazar and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which tells the Interior and state agencies to take initiative to develop renewable energy in the land of California, which is best suited to the environment.
Environmental hazards And public accountability.
Keeping with the norms of the state- private partnership and the fact that it is working on harnessing alternative means of energy, BrightSource is required to make its share of contribution to protect the environment. BrightSource will be needed to acquire around 7300 mitigation acres. According to a plan of the US Fish and Wildlife services, which BrightSource has to follow, it has to test 3 million Desert Tortoise selected by Bureau of Land Management in California for diseases and then monitor them by locating them to a more suitable place. The company will also have to contribute to the joint compensation fund created by Federal and State agencies and operated by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the negative effect it causes to various resources including water and wildlife.
As a part of its social duty, BrightSource has allowed its solar energy enhancing projects to go through various public scrutinies for environment hazards. These include:
- Public scoping in 2007
- Draft environment Impact Statement in 2009
- Full public involvement in 2009
- A supplement draft in 2010 before a final environment Impact Statement was prepared.
As noted by Salazar, important changes were made in the project. The size of BrightSource’s project was cut by 15%, from 4,073 acres down to 3,471 acres and the number of heliostats (solar mirrors) from 214,000 to 173,500 by the Bureau of Land Management after this scrutiny.
Reacting to these changes made in the project after public scrutiny, Salazar said, “Since it is essential that we learn from our past experiences to make certain that we wisely develop clean energy at the appropriate places, I am happy that changes have been made to improve the project.”
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/solar-power-towers-california/
Courtesy
AE News Network
Solar Wind Power: Generating Power In The Future
As the world discovers new ways to meet its growing energy needs, energy generated from Sun, which is better known as solar power and energy generated from wind called the wind power are being considered as a means of generating power. Though these two sources of energy have attracted the scientists for a very long time, they are not able to decide, which of the two a better source to generate power is. Now scientists are looking at a third option as well. Scientists at Washington State University have now combined solar power and wind power to produce enormous energy called the solar wind power, which will satisfy all energy requirements of human kind.
Advantages of Solar wind power.
- The scientists say that whereas the entire energy generated from solar wind will not be able to reach the planet for consumption as a lot of energy generated by the satellite has to be pumped back to copper wire to create the electron-harvesting magnetic field, yet the amount that reaches earth is more than sufficient to fulfill the needs of entire human, irrespective of the environment condition.
- Moreover, the team of scientists at Washington State University hopes that it can generate 1 billion billion gigawatts of power by using a massive 8,400-kilometer-wide solar sail to harvest the power in solar wind.
- According to the team at Washington State University, a1000 homes can be lit by generating enough power for them with the help of 300 meters (984 feet) of copper wire, which is attached to a two-meter-wide (6.6-foot-wide) receiver and a 10-meter (32.8-foot) sail.
- One billion billion gigawatts of power could also be generated by a satellite having 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) cable with a sail 8,400 kilometers (5,220 miles) across, which are placed at roughly the same orbit.
- The scientists feel that if some of the practical issued are solved, Solar wind power will generate the amount of power that no one including the scientists working to find new means of generating power ever expected.
How does the Solar wind power technology work?
The satellite launched to tap solar wind power, instead of working like a wind mill, where a blade attached to the turbine is physically rotated to generate electricity, would use charged copper wire for capturing electrons zooming away from the sun at several hundred kilometers per second.
Disadvantages of Solar wind power
But despite the fact that Solar wind power will solve almost all the problems that we were to face in future due to power generating resources getting exhausted, it has some disadvantages as well. These may include:
- Brooks Harrop, the co-author of the journal paper says that while scientists are keen to tap solar wind to generate power, they also need to keep provisions for engineering difficulties and these engineering difficulties will have to be solved before satellites to tap solar wind power are deployed.
- The distance between the satellite and earth will be so huge that as the laser beam travels millions of miles, it makes even the tightest laser beam spread out and lose most of the energy. To solve this problem, a more focused laser is needed.
- But even if these laser beams reach our satellites, it is very doubtful that our satellites in their present form will be able to tap them. As Greg Howes, a scientist at the University of Iowa puts it, “The energy is there but to tap that energy from solar wind, we require big satellites. There may be practical constraints in this.”
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/solar-wind-power/
Courtesy
AE News Network
Solar street-lighting for Jakkampudi township
VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is planning to use street-lighting powered by solar energy at Jakkampudi Township on the city outskirts, where a township with 8,000 houses is being constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Once the project materialises, the township is going to be the first one in the State to have such a facility.
The township consisting of 14 km-long roads, on which, it is estimated, that 775 streetlights are required. The entire project cost is estimated at Rs. 3 crore, in which the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) has come forward to offer a direct subsidy of Rs. 1.25 crore. The remaining amount, however, to be allocated by the civic body from the JNNURM funds. Tenders have been called for and pre-bid meetings are going on with regard to the street-lighting project. The plan is to replace the conventional tube lights and chokes with the LED (light-emitting diode) of the capacity of 15 watt. Each conventional tubelight requires 40 watts and another 12 watts for the choke, whereas each LED requires only 15 watt capacity. Life of the lamp is another advantage with the LED, as compared to the conventional mode of street lighting. The LED’s lifespan of 50,000 hours is 10 times that of the conventional tubelight.
In the new mode of street-lighting, each streetlight will be considered a unit that consisting of pole-mounted solar photovoltaic panel and battery. The MNRE has issued guidelines with regard to the installation and maintenance of the units. The firm that installs the lights must take up the responsibility of maintenance for a period of five years and assure the replacement of battery wherever it is needed. The firm must also take up the responsibility of cleaning the panels periodically.
Tender documents have been submitted by five firms so far and periodical meetings are going on to finalise the technicalities.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/28/stories/2010052859990300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Subsidy for utilising solar power to illuminate hoardings
energy saver:The use of solar-powered systems to power hoardings such as this one near the Madurai Railway Junction could save over 4,000 units a year.
MADURAI: The Central Government is offering generous subsidies to encourage advertisers and business firms to utilise solar power to light up hoardings. A 100 Watt power (Wp) solar module being used for illuminating a hoarding would get a subsidy of Rs.15,000.
A solar powered 1,000-Wp system to illuminate a hoarding would cost around Rs. 2.2 lakh, of which, it is eligible for a subsidy of Rs. 1.5 lakh or nearly 70 per cent of the total cost, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) Deputy General Manager (Madurai Region), S.E.S. Syed Ahamed, told ‘The Hindu’ on Thursday. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) ‘Solar Off-grid Application’ scheme is being implemented in Tamil Nadu by TEDA. The major benefit of such a system was that it could result in saving over 4,000 units of power per year. The advertiser could recover the cost of establishing the unit within three years.
He said that the TEDA would render consultancy and all technical assistance required for such ventures. “In view of the prevailing power situation, promoting such power conservation systems will be of tremendous help. Efforts are on to popularise solar power systems.”
The popularity of solar power is rising in recent times due to the increased awareness of Centre’s schemes such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and Rooftop Power and Stand alone Small Grid-connected Power Plant .
In the TEDA Madurai Region alone, which comprises 11 southern and Central districts from Kanyakumari to Tiruvarur, 43 firms have submitted ‘expression of interest’ to establish SPV Grid Interactive Power Plants of capacity ranging from one to 10 megawatt. Their approval was pending for want of final MNRE’s guidelines, said Mr. Syed. The application of a firm in Sivakasi to establish a 1MW SPV plant under RPSSGP had been forwarded to the TEDA headquarters, he added.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/07/stories/2010050760420200.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Ontario Solar Power could match US Nuclear Power
Queen’s University Applied Sustainability Research Group located in Kingston, Canada comes out with two studies that claim solar power in southeastern Ontario can be created in abundance. The natural question is how much abundance? The answer is mind-boggling. Southeastern Ontario has the potential to produce almost as much power as all the nuclear reactors in the United States! Queen’s mechanical engineering professor Joshua Pearce is the first person to find out the astounding possibilities of the region’s solar energy potential. He says, “The number is enormous. Solar can no longer be laughed off as something that can only power your cottage.”
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Professor Pearce was surprised by how many gigawatts could be produced.
The researchers from the university in Kingston, Ontario is of the view if they can mount solar panels on the rooftops and on those areas that are economically unproductive they can produce enormous amount of solar power. They have already marked 365,000 hectares of land in southeastern Ontario suitable for solar farms. That amounts to about 7.6 per cent of the 48,000-square-kilometre wedge of land between Toronto, Ottawa and the Quebec-Ontario border.
So many gigawatts of solar power can be produced but Prof Pearce still claims, “We came up with enormous numbers and we were being conservative. There are about 95 gigawatts of potential power just in southeastern Ontario — that shows there is massive potential.” It is needless to say that Professor Pearce specializes in solar photovoltaic materials and applied sustainability.
According to one study, if some of the roof tops in southeastern Ontario were covered with solar panels, they could generate five gigawatts, or about five per cent of all of Ontario’s energy. The study paid attention to the shading and orientation of the roofs. This study will be published in the journal Computers, Environment and Urban Systems.
Professor Pearce further pushes his point, “To put this in perspective, all the coal plants in all of Ontario produce just over six gigawatts. The sun doesn’t always shine, so if you couple solar power with other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and biomass, southeastern Ontario could easily cover its own energy needs.”
Canada is a vast country and has plenty of land. If that land can be utilized for generating solar power, it can produce substantial amount of clean and green energy. This second study will appear in May issue of the journal Solar Energy. It studied the barren, rocky, non-farmable areas near electrical grids and arrived at a conclusion that it has the potential to produce 90 gigawatts.
Professor Pearce claims, “Nuclear power for all of the United States is about 100 gigawatts. We can produce 90 on barren land with just solar in this tiny region, so we are not talking about small potatoes.”
The researchers identified 25 million square metres of shade-free, south-facing roofs in southeastern Ontario suitable for solar panels. They say if high-efficiency panels were installed on all the roofs, they could provide 24 per cent of current peak Ontario power demand, and 157 per cent of peak demand in southeastern Ontario.
Professor Pearce is preparing the ground for solar power. He comes out with real facts for the policy makers of the country. He is also on the look out for the possible solar farm locations for developers.
The government is creating conducive environment for the clean and green energy. Ontario’s new Green Energy Act offers feed-in tariffs, or FITs incentive. This FITs has generated “an enormous stampede” by solar companies to set up shop in Ontario. Prof Pearce says, “It’s opened up the market.” Pearce said, if one or two known solar power manufacturers set up their plants in Canada, more will be tempted to do the same and it will lead to generating thousands of manufacturing jobs. “They’ll cluster together like the semi-conductor manufacturers in California, and we’ll be in great shape.”
Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/ontario-solar-power-us-nuclear-power/
Courtesy
AE News Network
Power generation using cow dung planned
PUDUCHERRY, India: The Puducherry Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (PONLAIT) has submitted a project report for generating power using cow dung.
According to an official of PONLAIT, there are 30,000 cows in Puducherry and 450 tonnes of cow dung is generated every day. A total of 200 tonnes of the dung could be used every day for this project.
“Methane can be recovered from cow dung for generating power. We can generate one mega watt per hour through this project,” he said. PONLAIT has plans to set up a plant of this capacity in the future. “This initiative can help in reducing global warming,” he said.
Milk products of PONLAIT would soon be taken to the doorstep of people. Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy, who also holds the Co-operatives portfolio, on Saturday said that there were plans to launch vehicles to cover even rural areas.
“Ten vehicles are being arranged to take products of PONLAIT to the doorstep of people,” he said at a meeting with members of primary co-operative milk producers’ societies.
In a release, PONLAIT said that it had been operating on a loss of about Rs. 2.5 crore for two years – 2007-08 and 2008-09. However, it made profit to the tune of Rs. 46 lakh in 2009-2010.
In the Puducherry region, PONLAIT had established parlours in 31 places.
These parlours accounted for a monthly sale of Rs. 52 lakh in January 2009.
It has now increased to Rs. 150 lakh a month, translating to an approximate sale of milk products worth Rs. five lakh every day, the release said.
PONLAIT’s future plans include opening a modernised cafeteria on Mission Street, establishing 50 new parlours in rural areas for the sale of milk products and cold storage milk units at 10 villages, the release added.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/18/stories/2010041852050300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
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