Solar industry raises concerns of potential e-waste

Reducing the use of fossil fuel, cutting greenhouse gases and other air pollution emissions have become recognised necessities; the recent explosive growth of solar technology is a welcomed occurrence because of the expected energy crisis. 

PHOTO: solarthermalmagazine.com
Thankfully, the Sun is most widely available energy resource.
However, solar modules contain some of the potentially dangerous substances found in electronic waste, including silicon tetrachloride, cadmium, selenium and sulphur hexafluoride, which is a potent greenhouse gas.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that e-waste is growing at two to three times the rate of any other source of waste; furthermore, only 15 to 20 per cent of e-waste is recycled.
The crystalline photovoltaic cell is the oldest and most widespread solar technology in the United States, holding a 57 per cent market share in 2009, according to Greentech Media. A thin film technology called cadmium telluride holds about 21 per cent, while copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) currently has a market share of just 6 per cent. Amorphous silicon, which also has an indium tin oxide layer, takes 16 per cent.
Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition (SCTC) issued a report in 2009 warning that solar panels provide clean energy while in use, but a variety of factors during their manufacturing and disposal has the potential to greatly damage the environment.
Now is the right time to recognise the necessary measures for the solar industry to remain sustainable and retain it green credibility. Although solar panels have a life expectancy of approximately 25 years, and it is not expected for large amounts of modules to be returned for another 10 to 15 years for recycling or disposal, there is a big e-waste potential.
It is important to build proper infrastructure and address the issues of producer responsibility, recycling in an attempt to avoid the danger of electronic waste and future plans for the disposal of solar panels that are no longer needed.
Still, most companies that are beginning recycling programmes today are proceeding under the assumption that recycling will be costly. They are preparing for that expense by creating a variety of funding mechanisms based on the principle of producer responsibility, The Guardian wrote on 3 September 2010.
Currently there is nothing much to recycle except.....

See more: http://www.energetika.net/eu/novice/interviews/solar-industry-raises-concerns-of-potential-ewaste

Climate Change May Alter Natural Climate Cycles of Pacific

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2010) — While it's still hotly debated among scientists whether climate change causes a shift from the traditional form of El Nino to one known as El Nino Modoki, scientists now say that El Nino Modoki affects long-term changes in currents in the North Pacific Ocean.

Photo: en.wikipedia.org

The research is published online in the journal Nature Geoscience.

El Nino is a periodic warming in the eastern tropical Pacific that occurs along the coast of South America. Recently, scientists have noticed that El Nino warming is stronger in the Central Pacific rather than the Eastern Pacific, a phenomenon known as El Nino Modoki (Modoki is a Japanese term for "similar, but different").

Last year, the journal Nature published a paper that found climate change is behind this shift from El Nino to El Nino Modoki. While the findings of that paper are still being debated, this latest paper in Nature Geoscience presents evidence that El Nino Modoki drives a climate pattern known as the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO).

"We've found that El Nino Modoki is responsible for changes in the NPGO,"said Emanuele Di Lorenzo, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The reason this is important is because the NPGO has significant effects on fish stocks and ocean nutrient distributions in the Pacific, especially along the west coast of the United States."

The NPGO, first named two years ago by Di Lorenzo and colleagues in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters, explained for the first time long-term changes in ocean circulation of the North Pacific, which scientists now link to an increasing number of dramatic transitions in coastal marine ecosystems.

"The ecosystems of the Pacific may very well become more sensitive to the NPGO in the future," said Di Lorenzo. "Our data show that this NPGO is definitively linked to El Nino Modoki, so as Modoki becomes more frequent in the central tropical Pacific, the NPGO will also intensify."

See more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101017133641.htm

What's the carbon footprint of ... building a house

New homes require far less energy to run than older properties, but building them generates plenty of CO2

• More carbon footprints: the internet, cycling a mile, others
• Understand more about carbon footprints

 

New houses such as these ones in south Derbyshire take lots of energy and resources to produce. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

 

The carbon footprint of a house:
80 tonnes CO2e: A newbuild two-bed cottage

The carbon footprint of building a house depends on all kinds of things – including, of course, the size of the house and the types of materials chosen.

The estimate of 80 tonnes given above is for the construction of a brand-new cottage with two bedrooms upstairs and two reception rooms and a kitchen downstairs. It's based on a study that I was involved in for Historic Scotland.
The study looked at the climate change implications of various options for a traditional cottage in Dumfries: leave it as it is, refurbish, or knock it down and build a new one to various different building codes. We looked at the climate change impact over a 100-year period, taking into account the embodied emissions in the construction and maintenance as well as the energy used and generated by those living in the building.

Unsurprisingly, the worst option by far was to do nothing and leave the old house leaking energy like a sieve. Knocking down and starting again worked out at about 80 tonnes CO2e whether the house was built to 2008 Scottish building regulations or to the much more stringent and expensive Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 that demanded 'carbon neutrality'.

Here's how that total broke down for the carbon-neutral option:

• Walls 60%
• Timber 14%
• Pipework and drainage 9%
• Floors 5%
• Slate roof 5%
• Photovoltaic panels 3%
• Other 4%

Eighty tonnes is a lot – equivalent to five brand-new family cars, about six years of living for the average Brit or 24 economy-class trips to Hong Kong from London. But a house may last for a century or more, so the annual carbon cost is much less – and for all the new-build options, the up-front emissions from construction work were paid back by savings from better energy efficiency in 15–20 years.

However, the winning option was to refurbish the old house, because the carbon investment of doing this was just eight tonnes CO2e, and even the highest-specification newbuild could not catch up this advantage over the 100-year period. Once cost was taken into account, refurbishment became dramatically the most practical and attractive option, too.

If this one study is representative, the message for the construction industry is clear. Investment in the very highest levels of energy-efficiency for new homes is, even at its best, an extremely costly way of saving carbon. Investing in improvements to existing homes is dramatically more cost-effective.

See more carbon footprints.

• This article draws on text from How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee

www.guardian.co.uk

Pollution is not the reason of temperature drop in Northern Hemisphere around 1970

The new research, led by Dave Thompson from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, US, shows that the top layers of Northern Hemisphere water cooled by about 0.3C between 1968 and 1972, while the South Hemisphere saw approximately the same degree of warming.

But the timescale of the drop is much shorter, than that previously linked to the increasing sulphate aerosols from fossil fuel in the troposphere, or changes in the climate of the world’s oceans that evolve over decades (oscillatory multidecadal variability).

Photo: ijolumoet.com

This research suggests that the explanation of the cooling could lie somewhere else, it is not clear where, since the effect of aerosols is expected to be more gradually.

A model developed by Thompson which uses data collected by ships and buoys over the past two and a half centuries examined temperature change on a month-by-month basis, unlike previous studies that look at temperature change on a decadal scale.

The team fed the data into a model that blocks out short-term changes in ocean temperature – triggered, for example, by volcanic eruptions which spew sulphur aerosols into the atmosphere. This allowed them to identify changes in ocean temperature that weren't linked to natural variation; The Guardian wrote on 22 September 2010.

It is unclear what caused the cooling process, but an unusually large discharge of ice from the Arctic Ocean in 1967 is the reason of a 10,000 cubic kilometre pool of fresh water from the coast of Greenland, which appears to have lowered the salinity of water in the North Atlantic, according to Mark Maslin of the Environment Institute at University College London.

One possibility is the Great Salinity Anomaly (GSA) which presumably interrupted the mixing process of cooled surface water and warm deep water that caused a cool period by dumping light, fresh water on the surface.

Still, it is a fact that currently greenhouse gases are warming up the Planet.


Written by Jasmina Nikoloska
Sources: Abstract of the paper in Journal Nature

               The Guardian

Global warming could cut number of Arctic hurricanes, study finds

Research says storms that hamper the exploitation of Arctic reserves may halve by 2100, but experts warn against oil rush.

Photo: treehugger.com
A reduction in storms may open up some Arctic regions, but they would simply move to other areas.

Global warming could halve the frequency of Arctic hurricanes – extreme storms that strike the north Atlantic during winter – by 2100, according to a new study, potentially encouraging exploitation of the region's oil reserves.

"Our results provide a rare example of climate change driving a decline in extreme weather, rather than an increase," says Matthias Zahn at the University of Reading. His study, published in the Nature journal, is the first to use a global climate model to assess how Arctic hurricanes may behave in a warmer world.

The results of his study may provide encouragement to to oil and gas companies that currently consider drilling in the northern north Atlantic very risky he says. "As the likelihood of hurricanes destroying oil rigs declines, drilling in the region may become a more attractive option.".

Arctic hurricanes, also known as polar lows, are explosive storms that develop and die over a few days. They form when…

See more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/16/global-warming-arctic-hurricanes-oil 

Cheaper solar energy? Millennium Technology Prize goes to dye-sensitised solar cells

It was his invention of third-generation, low-cost, dye-sensitised solar cells that brought professor Michael Grätzel from Switzerland the Technology Academy Finland award this June.

With its Millennium Technology Prize, the academy, in partnership with Finnish organisations, industry and the state, contributes to promoting and developing innovations that are expected to have a positive impact on the quality of life and environment.

The grand prize of 800 000 euro will help to accelerate such research, so that the benefit of the promising invention for cheaper solar energy will be able to be seen as soon as possible.

The “Grätzel cells”, named after the inventor, could help in avoiding upcoming energy crises and play a significant role in developing new renewable energy technologies.

Photo:electricbrave.worldpress.com
How nature keep its balance and uses natural elements has been an inspiration to many scientist. For Grätzel, photosynthesis was this staring point, which is why his technology is often described as “artificial photosynthesis”.

Unlike silicon cells, which have to separate positively charged carriers from negatively charged ones, and for that need a positively doped and negatively doped layer of almost 100 per cent pure silicon, the dye-sensitised solar cells generate charges by dye molecules, and the process of separation is close to what photosynthesis does in green leaves, Grätzel explained in The Guardian.
This makes Grätzel cells cheaper than the conventional ones, and very environmentally friendly, without any energy-intensive, high-vacuum methods or toxic elements in their production.

See more: http://www.energetika.net/eu/novice/clanki/cheaper-solar-energy-millennium-technology-prize-goes-to-dye

Could CO2 become the car fuel of the future?

The University of Bath, the University of Bristol and the University of West of England recently received £1.4 million in funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop a method to capture atmospheric CO2 and transform it into fuel that will power cars in the future.

 The team of scientists includes chemists, chemical engineers, biologists and life-cycle analysts who will work together on the creation of an innovative technology that will absorb carbon dioxide from the air and then convert it, chemically, to a state that would permit fuel to be produced from it.

Such would be an effective system for reducing carbon emissions and providing a green car fuel alternative, eliminating the need for additional fossil fuels, oil, coal and natural gas.

This, however, is not an unknown process, as in nature, trees and algae uses CO₂ in unlocking the chemical energy inside their molecules to power metabolic processes.

The idea here is to convert CO₂ into carbon monoxide (CO) by removing one of the oxygen atoms. After obtaining CO, the process of producing hydrocarbon fuels, such as petrol, is much simpler.
But the subsequent conversion of CO₂ into fuel requires a lot of energy – the key challenge is to find an efficient way of doing it.

Researchers are trying to develop porous materials that could absorb CO₂ from the air. These porous materials would be part of the factory’s chimneys, which would absorb carbon dioxide and ultimately reduce the effects of climate change.

See more: http://www.energetika.net/eu/novice/articles/could-co2-become-the-car-fuel-of-the-future

Unusual feed supplement could help reducing greenhouse gases produced by cows

Penn State, Department of Dairy and Animal Science, announced on its web site on Thursday, August 26, 2010, that they developed unusual feed supplement that could help reducing greenhouse gases produced by cows.Compared to carbon dioxide, methane has 23 times the potential to create global warming, and its production is a natural part of the digestive process of cows and other ruminants, such as bison, sheep and goats.

It is estimated that large percentage of cattle emits around 37 percent of anthropogenic methane, that’s why finding the natural methane-reduction supplement is very good news for the environment.

Experiments revealed, an oregano-based supplement could contribute in methane reduction in dairy cows by 40 percent, and it resulted with increased daily milk production.

Methane production is an energy loss for the animal, and by decreasing energy loss, the cows can use that energy for other processes, such as making milk, according to Alexander Hristov, an associate professor of dairy nutrition.

The possible natural solution was recognized after six years of researching without demonstrating any negative effects during the experiments.

Currently, Prof. Hristov wants to identify some active compounds including carvacrol, geraniol and thymol, found in oregano, which presumably have more important role in methane suppression.

If this is right, the active compounds could be easier commercially produced as pure and be more economical for farmers to use.

Written by Jasmina Nikoloska
Source:  http://live.psu.edu/story/48055

Brazilian scientists see new source of renewable energy in atmospheric humidity

Believing that electricity could be generated from the air, Brazilian scientists are working to discover the processes involved in the formation and release of electricity from water in the atmosphere.

Photo: treehugger.com
Contrary to the previous belief that water droplets in the atmosphere were electrically neutral and remained so even after coming into contact with the electrical charges on dust particles and droplets of other liquids, the latest evidence has shown that water in the atmosphere really does pick up an electrical charge, Wired UK reported on 27 August 2010.

The research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston by study leader Fernando Galembeck, PhD, from the University of Campinas (Brazil), who confirmed that laboratory experiments had proven “hygroelectricity”, or humidity electricity, which meant that “water in the atmosphere can accumulate electrical charges and transfer them to other materials it comes into contact with”.

See more: http://www.energetika.net/eu/novice/ecology/brazilian-scientists-see-new-source-of-renewable-energy-in-a

Installation of Wave Hub creates world's largest test site for wave energy technology

On 6 September, the South West Regional Development Agency announced on its website the successful installation of Wave Hub off the coast of Cornwall, in South West England, creating the world's largest test site for wave energy technology.

Wave Hub is a major marine renewables infrastructure project that will create an electrical “socket” on the seabed through its connection to the shore via a 25-kilometre, 1300-ton sub-sea cable to hold it in place.

Photo: geteconow.com
The South West RDA project has been in the works for seven years, this due partly to any number of delays. The deployment of Wave Hub on the seabed earlier this month was the fruit of a delicate operation of lowering the 12-ton hub into 55 metres of water, 16 kilometres offshore.

Wave Hub, which will have an initial maximum capacity of 20 MW, enough electricity to power approximately 7000 homes, has been designed with the future potential to scale up to 50MW. The first energy devices following this initial launch are expected to be deployed in 2011, after number of tests on how well they work and how much power they generate preceding their commercial production and deployment.

The main cable linking the hub to the national grid on-shore splits into four 300-metre cable “tails” to which groups of wave energy devices can be attached and monitored. As well, a new electricity sub-station at Hayle has been built.
 
See more: http://www.energetika.net/eu/novice/new-technologies/installation-of-wave-hub-creates-worlds-largest-test-site-fo