Environment
June 26, 2007 Would you have ever thought it conceivable to grow vast amounts of produce in the heart of densely populated cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo or New Delhi? A new model for agriculture is proposing just that. Vertical farming is the latest concept to address the impending crisis in world food production and follows the same methodology that town planners have used for years to cope with growing populations and space limitations; build up, not out. Aiming to bring food production to the places where most of the consumption occurs, the concept envisages specially designed skyscrapers that contain multiple levels of viable farmland providing all-year-round food production in a controlled, parasite-free environment. Read More
June 22, 2007 With over half a billion fluorescent light globes disposed of each year in the U.S. alone, there is no doubting the significance of a product that allows existing fluorescent fixtures to be converted to Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) by simply changing the bulb. The world's first true replacement of glass fluorescent lighting tubes, the EverLED TR from LEDdynamics utilizes the existing fluorescent ballast, while achieving the equivalent light output of the tube it replaces. Read More
June 22, 2007 SANYO has broken its own record for the world's highest energy conversion efficiency in practical size crystalline silicon-type solar cells. The company achieved this solar energy breakthrough by demonstrating an efficiency of 22% (beating a previous record of 21.8%) at a research level for its HIT solar cells, the first time that a photovoltaic manufacturer has broken through the 22% mark in conversion efficiency for this type of cell. Read More
June 5, 2007 The pressing need for viable alternative energy sources that do more than just supplement coal fired power-stations is driving advances in the development of wind energy. One major hurdle in establishing successful wind farms is the difficulty in attaining accurate site evaluation data and it is this problem that the Triton Sonic Wind Profiler seeks to address. Designed to measure wind-speed at heights of up to 200m without the need for erecting costly and less effective masts, the wind profiler utilizes a technique known as Sodar (sound detection and ranging) that measures sound wave echoes in the atmosphere in a similar way to Sonar detection used by submarines underwater. Read More
May 31, 2007 Wind farm planning and development will benefit from a deal just signed to market a portable LiDAR unit capable of accurately measuring wind speeds at heights of up to 150m. Designed and built by defense specialists QinetiQ, the unit will be brought to the market by Scottish consultancy Natural Power. It will be a key tool in the evaluation of prospective wind farm sites. Read More
May 29, 2007 Since industry is constantly proving it's unwilling to address Global Warming from an emissions standpoint, creative science is looking at attacking atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from the other side - sucking the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere. Researchers have just successfully demonstrated air extraction technology that could be employed to reduce global carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere back to the levels that Climate Change scientists say we need to aim for to prevent global catastrophe. Read More
May 28, 2007 While politics and public opinion remain divided on global warming, the majority of scientific weight tells us that the major factor contributing to rising global temperatures is our own environmental carelessness. This is certainly Greenpeace's view; the well-known environmental lobby group has started construction of a replica of Noah's Ark on the top of Mt. Ararat as a warning of the bleak future the planet could be facing if strong action isn't taken. Read More
May 14, 2007 The growing awareness of mankind’s mistreatment of its environment is leading to some interesting realisations. As remarkable as it might seem, around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger is left in a live socket. A recent agreement between all mobile phone manufacturers to focus on the environmental impact and energy usage of their wares will see many environmental initiatives roll out over the next few months. The first to implement changes resultant from the pact is market leader Nokia which will add alerts to its phone range encouraging people to unplug the charger once the battery is full. Starting with the new Nokia 1200, 1208 and 1650 models, the alerts will be rolled out across the Nokia product range. Read More
March 10, 2007 Look at reports such as the Electric Power Research Institute’s Electricity Technology in a Carbon-Constrained Future (February 2007)and the Role of Renewable Energy in Future Electricity Supply (July 30, 2006) and you’ll see we all face some common problems – Planet Earth is showing signs of toxic shock, we need energy and we have yet to solve our reliance on emission-producing energy sources. Those same reports don’t see ocean power playing much of a role in the foreseeable future, but as the game plays itself out, new technologies for harvesting the power of the ocean is emerging. Already, claim its proponents, the costs of producing electricity from wind energy have fallen by 80% over the past two decades as a result of volume and production optimisation. With opening costs around half wind energy’s opening costs and a quarter the current cost of solar, a new form of wave energy harvester has the potential to become one of the lowest cost forms of generation in the longer term. The Pelamis is a semi-submerged structure composed of cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. The wave-induced motion of these joints is resisted by hydraulic rams. These pump oil through hydraulic motors which drive generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable. Read More
Climate Change “only one symptom of a stressed Planet Earth” says IGBP
February 9, 2007 In releasing its latest comprehensive report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focuses an important spotlight on the current state of the Earth’s climate. Climate change is just one of the many symptoms exhibited by a planet under pressure from human activities. "Global environmental change, which includes climate change, threatens to irreversibly alter our planet," says Kevin Noone, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).Global studies by International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) show that human-driven environmental changes are affecting many parts of the Earth’s system, in addition to its climate. For example, half of Earth’s land surface is now domesticated for direct human use, 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are fully or over-exploited, and the composition of today’s atmosphere is well outside the range of natural variability the Earth has maintained over the last 650,000 years. The report concludes that Earth is now in the midst of its sixth great extinction event. And the remarkable image comes from NASA’s Visible Earth catalog – it’s a composite of Earth’s city lights. Read More
