'Crowd Farm' Converts
Footsteps into Electricity
by
Andrea Thompson, Live Science
Two MIT students have found the next
new source of energy: you.
A new technology developed by the
graduate students would take the energy generated by
human movement, such as walking or jumping, in crowded settings
and turn it into electricity.
The so-called "Crowd Farm" would work
something like this: A responsive sub-flooring system would be
placed under, say, the platform of a subway terminal. The blocks
that make up the system would depress slightly under the force of
human footsteps. As the blocks slipped against each other, they
would generate power in the form of an electric current...
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here
for the rest of the story.
2006 Wind
Installations Offset 43 Million Tons of CO2
Renewable Energy Access
Global wind power capacity increased almost 26 percent in 2006,
exceeding 74,200 MW by year's end. Global investment in wind power
was roughly $22 billion in 2006, and in Europe and North America,
the power industry added more capacity in wind than it did in coal
and nuclear combined. The global market for wind equipment has risen
74 percent in the past two years, leading to long backorders for
wind turbine equipment in much of the world.
"Wind power is on track to soon play a major role in reducing fossil
fuel dependence and slowing the buildup of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere," according to Worldwatch Senior Researcher Janet Sawin.
"Already, the 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced by the new
wind plants installed last year equaled more than 5 percent of the
year's growth in global emissions. If the wind market quadruples
over the next nine years — a highly plausible scenario — wind power
could be reducing global emissions growth by 20 percent in 2015..."
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here for the rest of the story.
Small Town Solar
Two New Communities Go 100%
Solar in Gilroy, California
Old Country
Roofing
Two new
solar communities with 20 homes combined are due to be completed in
Gilroy, California by the end of the year. Casa Del Sol with 8 homes
and Northpoint with 12 homes are each outfitted with a BP Solar
solar electric system. The homes are being built by Kirk Enterprises
in a joint venture with The James Group – a local land development
and sales company.
The solar electric systems, which are being offered as a standard
feature and not as an upgrade option, are being provided and
installed by the new Solar Solutions division of Old Country Roofing
(OCR) – the largest roofing contractor in Northern California. OCR
works primarily with homebuilders, both large and small, and on
average installs 10,000 roofs each year...
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here
for the rest of the story.
Tame Tornadoes Might
Generate Power
by Bill Christensen, Live Science
Tornadoes
are wild, destructive natural phenomena - right? Not necessarily,
according to engineer Louis Michaud, who believes that he has found
a way to create full-size "tame" tornadoes that could be used to
generate electricity.
Michaud
has spent forty years studying
tornadoes and is convinced that it is possible to create small
tornadoes on demand using a "vortex engine," a device he has
patented in both the U.S. and Canada. A full scale vortex engine
would produce a funnel cloud that would stretch several kilometers
into the atmosphere. The
artificial tornado would be powered at the base by waste heat
(ideally from a power-generating facility).
The waste
heat from the plant would be carried to a nearby vortex engine
facility by hot water. A small amount of electricity would be used
to blow dry air across the hot water pipes. The heated air would
rise with a spinning motion, gathering energy as it rises, creating
a vortex. As it gathers momentum, it begins to pull air in through
the fans, which would now function as turbines that generate
electricity (see
base plan)...
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here
for the rest of the story.
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