Germany sells vision for 'green toys' to world

February 6, 2011 By MELISSA EDDY , Associated Press

 

  

 

 

 

A woman holds a toy helicopter made of biodegradable parts such as bamboo during a press preview on the eve of the opening of the international toy fair in Nuremberg, southern Germany, where high-tech green toys were on display, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011. Germany, a pioneer in many renewable energy initiatives, is also at the forefront of creating environment-friendly toys aimed at making children think about where energy comes from and how much of it they can use, raising awareness through play. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

(AP) — The hottest “green” toy in Germany isn’t made of organic or recycled materials. That’s so 2010. This one has a solar panel and only runs if kids remember to insert bright red “energy stones” that power the rest of the space station.

Germany, a pioneer in many renewable energy initiatives, is also at the forefront of creating environment-friendly toys aimed at making kids think about where energy comes from and how much of it they can use, raising awareness through play.

A panoply of high-tech green toys are on display at this year’s Nuremberg toy fair, which runs through Sunday. Among them, hydroelectric-powered toy cars, and doll houses with wind turbines and rainwater catchers.

The bright green “Future Planet” space station features an inner atrium with a fan that is powered by a functioning solar cell. Its aim is to get kids to use their imagination about how energy will be created in the future.

Makers and retailers believe such toys will play an increasingly important role in their future – and that of our kids.

“Energy is the question of the future and we are definitely thinking about this as we move ahead,” said Judith Schweinitz, a spokeswoman for Playmobil, maker of the solar panel-fitted space station. “It is increasingly being brought into our play concept.”

Green toys – which range from those made of sustainable materials to ones like the space station that just raise environmental awareness – make up only a sliver of the nearly $84 billion international toy market, but their share is growing, studies indicate. Environmental research firm Earthsense, based in Syracuse, New York, predicts that green toys will account for about $1 billion, or 5 percent, of U.S. toy sales in the next five years.

Stacy Lu, a 46-year-old mother of twins from Allendale, New Jersey, is a self-described “rabidly eco-friendly” consumer who has researched toxins in the household – and is drawn to toys that make kids think about the planet’s future.

“In my mind, just knowing that there are alternatives to energy sources that involve environmentally disastrous digging and drilling is important,” said Lu, who recently bought her godson an alternative-energy electrical kit as a gift.

Eco-friendly toys were given a special section at the New York toy fair last year and organizers of the Nuremberg fair, Germany’s leading international gathering of toy makers and sellers, also highlighted green toys.

Robert von Goeben, co-founder of San Francisco-based Green Toys Inc., started making toys and other children’s products from recycled milk jugs in 2008. Since then, he said, sales have exploded, recording 80 percent growth last year as demand for the toymaker’s bright tugboats, pastel tea sets and colorful trucks surged.

“I think that the success of our company, shows that there is clearly a wide segment of the population that will pay a little more for environmentally friendly toys,” said von Goeben, whose toys cost roughly a third more than comparable playthings made from conventional materials.

But Wild Toys, makers of animal figures and exploration sets, said their experience had shown otherwise.

The company, which sells mainly to zoos and museum shops, jumped on the green bandwagon two years ago, bringing out a line of purely organic plush animals, even making sure the cotton for the stuffing was grown with organic fertilizer. The toys cost about 25 percent more than their conventional counterparts.

“They are still sitting in our warehouse,” said Wild Toys spokesman Valdemar Barde, adding that consumers are not yet ready to swallow the cost of going green in the toy box.

“We are still in that phase on toys that consumers say, ‘Yes, we want to be green, but no, we don’t want to pay for it.”

But according to a survey conducted by the Nuremberg toy fair, roughly a third of consumers in Germany said they would pay 10 to 20 percent more for playthings made from sustainable products, also with an eye to their longevity.

“Sustainable toys are also high-quality toys, meaning they last longer and then we also have the aspect that it is worth it to invest a few more euros,” said Rainer Weisskirch spokesman for Germany’s TUV quality control organization.

Von Goeben noted that safety concerns play a role and that recent scandals over cadmium in many Chinese-made toys and BPAs in conventional plastics have made parents more concerned about what goes into their kids’ toys.

“No longer can we have this anonymous plastic thing from someplace and give it to the child. Parents are smart and they want information about what’s in the product. That’s what’s really driving the market.”

 ©2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

Reference Link : http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-germany-vision-green-toys-world.html

Courtesy : PHYSORG

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

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

 

First Factory Built Solar Charging Station

International Green Energy Expo Korea 2010 was chosen as the venue where SunPods SP-300 was first displayed. This is the first factory built-to-order solar-powered integrated electric-vehicle charging station – ready for powering up immediately. This ready-to-use solar power platform from SunPods is called EV Plug-N-Go.

Perfect launch pad:
Deagu, South Korea, played host to the Green Energy Expo Korea 2010. This provided the backdrop for showing off to advantage the EV Plug-N-Go. The Pacific Rim (South Korea, China and Japan) is the chosen arena for marketing this power platform. Realizing the huge potential for growth, the plan is to utilize the growing interest here in transportation systems fed by green-power.

SunPods & Semi-Materials Inc alliance:
The SunPods electric vehicle charging system is the combined brain child of SunPods, San Jose, CA and of the Semi Materials, Inc. of Seongnam City, Korea. Co-founder of SunPods & Executive Vice President, Business Development, Michael Gumm is positive about the product and the success of the launch.

Power on the go from EV Plug-N-Go:
This solar-power platform has been made especially for the public agencies, institutes and companies with infrastructural utilities powered by solar power. For use of plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles, electrical industrial utility vehicles and other electric vehicles, this solar powered platform is the ideal companion to provide powering on the go.

Versatility of EV Plug-N-Go:
These SunPods SP-300 modular solar power platforms are ideal for both on-grid and off-grid installations. They are capable of compensating carbon-based grid power as well as optimal power storage in utility grid and distribute the power as needed to the EVs. Called as ’smart-grid capable’ and ’smart-grid enabled’, the SP-300 allows power input and output from both grid-connected power sources and solar power sources as efficiently at peak demand.

A boon to green-powered vehicles:
Across the world, SunPods EV Plug-N-Go export kits can be shipped ready for installation. Already assembled and ready to use, these are ideal companions for a wide range of environmentally friendly renewable energy-fed solar applications.

Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/factory-built-solar-charging-station/

Courtesy
AE News Network

Sanyo’s HIT Solar Cells are a Hit in Italy

Japan’s Sanyo Electric Company is creating a record by powering the largest solar pant in Italy with its HIT solar cells. The Project funded by a consortium led by Deutsche Bank is expected to be completed by September 2010. Sanyo is successfully on its way to make the dream of a clean-energy society a reality.

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HIT solar cells’ onward march:
Sanyo’s HIT solar cells, famous for their high-conversion efficiency are now marching on to Italy. Thanks to the use of HIT solar cells, soon there will be feasibility of excellent-quality power production in the biggest power station in Italy. An increase in the amount of quality-power generation per installation area of HIT solar cells makes the HIT solar cells a very favorable choice.

Advantages of HIT solar cells:
The hybrid Sanyo HIT cells, made from thin mono-crystal silicon surrounded by ultra-thin amorphous silicon are now more cost efficient both production-wise as well as raw-materials-wise. Reduction in the optical absorption loss and reduction in resistance loss make the Sanyo HIT Photovoltaic Modules the ideal choice for powering the plant. Utilizing 32,202 HIT solar cells, the plant will generate approximately 7.6 MW of renewable and clean energy.

HIT solar cells in large-scale production:
HIT solar cells have already been successful in small-sized systems for homesteads and medium-sized solar systems for larger buildings/complexes. Now the time has come for Sanyo’s HIT Photovoltaic Modules to show the world that large-scale clean renewable power production is possible, reiterating HIT’s high-conversion efficiency and cost efficiency.

Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/sanyo-hit-solar-cells/

Courtesy
AE News Network

Sun Shines on Solar Energy Future

The chances of producing solar power as a more commercially viable source of alternative energy seem brighter now with the positive research results pioneered by University of Illinois professors. The Department of Energy and National Science Foundation-funded team led by Professors John Rogers, and Xiuling Li, has been exploring ways to find more optimal ways to reduce the cost of semiconductors other than silicon.

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Superiority of semiconductor gallium:
The semiconductor gallium arsenide and other compound semiconductors are twice as efficient as the standard silicon semiconductor. But the prohibitively high production cost has been the stumbling block which has been circumvented by the innovative methods used by this group. To boot, their methods have been shown to be more advantageous cost-wise as well open a well of opportunities to utilize high-speed gallium or other semiconductors to make flexible thin-film electronics.

Multi-layer technique:
Instead of thin single-layer gallium arsenide deposited on small wafers, the Illinois group tried to create ‘pancake’-like stacks of 10 layers deposited at one go and peel the layers off individually, transfer them and lay them side by side. Giving all details of this procedure, Professor Rogers, the Lee J. Flory Founder Chair in Engineering Innovation & Professor of materials science and engineering and of chemistry said, “We’re creating bulk quantities of material, as opposed to just the thin single-layer manner in which it is typically grown…. “You really multiply the area coverage, and by a similar multiplier you reduce the cost, while at the same time eliminating the consumption of the wafer.”

Illinois team & research paper:
The Illinois team led by Professors John Rogers, and Xiuling Li, is planning to publish their research paper online on May 20, 2010, in the journal ‘Nature’. Along with the multi-layer technique and other details of their research, they will demonstrate three types of devices – light sensors, high-speed transistors and solar cells which will use gallium arsenide chips.

The team also includes University of Illinois post-doctoral researchers Jongseung Yoon, Sungjin Jo and Inhwa Jung; students Ik Su Chun and Hoon-Sik Kin; also Professor James Coleman of electrical and computer engineering, from Hanyang University in Seoul Ungyu Paik and Semprius Inc, scientists, Matthew Meitl and Etienne Menard.

Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/sun-shines-on-solar-energy-future/

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

MIT Researchers Print a Solar Cell on Paper

We love the idea of clean and green fuel. But they come with certain disadvantages. First one is they are heavy on pocket of a commoner. Second disadvantage is their power conversion rate is quite low. Last one is you need storage space to save all the power converted by a clean and green technology. Now MIT researchers are coming out of solar cells printed on paper. Though the technology still has to wait for years before it can be converted into a commercially viable entity but it’s an interesting development.

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Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have effectively coated paper with a solar cell. It is a part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs.

Susan Hockfield, MIT’s president, and Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italian oil company Eni, formally dedicated the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center. Eni financed the research project by investing $5 million into the center. This project is also financed by National Science Foundation. They are granting a fund of $2 million.

The MIT people took inspiration from the inkjet printer. They molded the solar paper panels on the similar lines. They used organic semi conductor material. The technique will be quite helpful in lowering the weight of solar panels. “If you could use a staple gun to install a solar panel, there could be a lot of value,” Vladimir Bulovic, director of the National Science Foundation, said.

MIT researchers utilized carbon-based dyes. The efficiency of paper based solar cells is not great, at around 1.5% to 2%. But Vladimir Bulovic says that one can use any material if it can be deposited at room temperature. He further says, “Absolutely, the trick was coming up with ways to use paper,” he said.

Prof. Karen Gleason is the head of the MIT research team. She has submitted a paper for scientific review but it has yet to be published. MIT and Eni have confirmed that this is the first time a solar cell has been printed on paper.

During the press conference, Paolo Scaroni said that Eni is funding the center because the company understands that hydrocarbons will eventually run out and believes that solar can be a replacement, although the currently available technology isn’t sufficient enough.

Paolo Scaroni said, “We are not very active (in alternative energy) today because we don’t believe today’s technologies are the answer of our problems.”

Reference Link
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/mit-solar-cell-on-paper/

Courtesy
AE News Network

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