There are four different ways to generate megawatts from the heat of the sun, but figuring out the best one remains an art. Tower, trough, dish or plate? No, those aren’t your in-flight dining options. These are the main contenders for the future of solar thermal. And the answer as to which one is best is somewhat complicated. Solar thermal technology is the other white meat, according to Fred Morse, president of Morse and Associates and a senior advisor to Spanish power giant Abengoa. It doesn’t get the same amount of attention that solar panels do, but thermal – particularly the large-scale solar thermal plants slated for North Africa or the Southwest in the U.S. – will likely become a large component of renewable portfolios in sunbelts (see No Tax Credit, No Solar Power). In Arizona alone, there are probably 13,000 square miles of relatively level (less than 1 percent slope), dry, sunny, empty, environmentally OK land that could accommodate thermal plants, says Morse, one of the world’s experts on the subject. If built out, those square miles could generate 1,742 gigawatts of power. The Southwest in total has 87,000 square miles of available land that […]
It’s supposed to be the gold standard for conservation. But is Unesco’s World Heritage project harming the very places it seeks to protect? Simon Usborne investigates. In 1991, Dubrovnik, a fairytale fortress of Titians, Renaissance palaces and lemon-scented cloisters, was shelled by Serb and Montenegrin forces. Appalled by the siege of a city described by Lord Byron as the ‘pearl of the Adriatic’, the international community sprung into action. Unesco, the United Nations organisation responsible for education, science and culture, called meetings, co-ordinated fundraising, and mobilised armies of experts. Not long after the dust of war had settled on scores of razed buildings, Croatia began restoration work. In a matter of a few years, Dubrovnik, designated as a World Heritage Site in 1979, rose from the ashes. That’s how the system is meant to work. Since its inception, 37 years ago, Unesco World Heritage has become a global brand whose seal is slapped on the planet’s most precious places. The Taj Mahal is on the list, alongside the Pyramids of Giza and the Grand Canyon. These are the man-made and natural wonders considered to be of such outstanding value to humanity that their importance transcends borders, politics […]
We asked architects to draw up plans for the most energy-efficient houses they could imagine. They imagined quite a bit. What will the energy-efficient house of the future look like? It could have gardens on its walls or a pond stocked with fish for dinner. It might mimic a tree, turning sunlight into energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen. Or perhaps it will be more like a lizard, changing its color to suit the weather and healing itself when it gets damaged. Those are just a handful of the possibilities that emerged from an exercise in futurism. The Wall Street Journal asked four architects to design an energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable house without regard to cost, technology, aesthetics or the way we are used to living. The idea was not to dream up anything impossible or unlikely — in other words, no antigravity living rooms. Instead, we asked the architects to think of what technology might make possible in the next few decades. They in turn asked us to rethink the way we live. ‘This is a time of re-examining values, re-examining what we need,’ says one of our architects, Rick Cook, of the New York firm […]
The United Auto Workers union would eventually own 55% of the stock in a restructured Chrysler LLC under the deal reached by the union and the auto maker, according to a summary of the agreement that was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Fiat SpA ‘eventually’ will own 35%, and the U.S. government and Chrysler’s secured lenders together will end up owning 10% of the company once it is reorganized, that summary said. The summary was distributed Monday evening at a gathering of union leaders in Sterling Heights, Mich. The deal was first disclosed Sunday night. The UAW aims for Chrysler workers to vote Wednesday on the proposed agreement, which requires changes to the union’s current Chrysler contract. According to the summary, Chrysler will also issue a $4.59 billion note to the health-care trust fund that the union will manage for retired workers. The agreement said Chrysler will pay $300 million in cash into the trust fund in 2010 and 2011, and increasing amounts up to $823 million in the years 2019 to 2023. The trust fund will own a ‘significant’ amount of Chrysler stock and will be allowed to appoint a representative to Chrysler’s board, […]
Editor’s note: This Q&A is a part of a survey conducted by Scientific American of executives at companies engaged in developing and implementing non-fossil fuel energy technologies. What technical obstacles currently most curtail the growth of wind power? What are the prospects for overcoming them in the near future and the longer-term? Whether they are built on land or at sea, nearly all wind turbines have the same technical issues related to the fact that wind is naturally variable. Today the best machines in the best spots now offer about a 35 percent ‘load factor,’ or efficiency level. The largest problem in turbine design is not the blades, but what we can’t see. It’s the guts of the machine-the engineering components housed in the nacelle, or body, of the turbine, which convert that kinetic energy into electricity-that need improvement. The main workhorse of the nacelle is the generator. First developed in 1831 for the coal industry, these machines move copper wires past magnets to convert mechanical energy into electricity. The basic premise of the system hasn’t changed very much. Generators thrive on a stable input energy source, such as coal or hydroelectric power, and with this stable prime […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
