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Where Will Our Clean Energy Come From?

First wave energy device to be deployed at Hayle
12:00pm Tuesday 30th October 2012

The company planning to install the first wave energy device at Wave Hub near Hayle has applied for a marine licence for the deployment.
Cork-based Ocean Energy has asked the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for permission to deploy its €9 million OE Buoy wave energy converter at Wave Hub, around 10 miles off the north coast of Cornwall in South West England.

The one megawatt device weighs 650-tonnes. OEL is in discussions with local supply chain companies about support with fabrication and deployment, and hopes to operate from the newly refurbished North Quay in Hayle Harbour. [I was there just yesterday!]

Claire Gibson, general manager at Wave Hub, which is the world’s largest grid-connected offshore marine energy test site, said: “Ocean Energy’s application for a marine licence marks a significant milestone for us and is a further important step towards a full scale device deployment at Wave Hub.”

John McCarthy, chief executive and co-founder of Ocean Energy said: “Having completed successful trials of a scale device for over three years in Galway Bay we are keen to progress to a full size prototype at a grid connected site. Wave Hub gives us the infrastructure and conditions we need to achieve this and it is an excellent accelerant for our commercialisation.”

The application comes as two independent reports recently confirmed the huge potential for wave energy in the South West. Studies by The Crown Estate and Carbon Trust found significant offshore resource that could potentially power tens of thousands of homes if harnessed economically.
The reports are expected to inform future licensing rounds for the commercial development of marine renewables.

Ocean Energy already has MMO consent to carry out anchor trials at the Wave Hub site. These will get underway if the full consent is granted and test whether the proposed anchoring system is suitable for the location. A decision on the consent is expected by the end of the year.

Ocean Energy is participating in this project with its technology partner Dresser-Rand, the largest service provider in the oil and gas industry. The OE Buoy weighs 650 tonnes, is 37.5 metres long, 18 metres wide and has a draft of 8.75 metres.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10 ... b_/?ref=mr
 
However...

Death knell for wind farms: 'Enough is Enough' says minister
Wind farms have been “peppered” across Britain without enough consideration for the countryside and people’s homes, a senior Conservative energy minister admitted last night as he warned “enough is enough”.
By Robert Winnett, Political Editor
10:25PM GMT 30 Oct 2012

John Hayes said that we can “no longer have wind turbines imposed on communities” and added that it “seems extraordinary” they have allowed to spread so much throughout the country.
The energy minister said he had ordered a new analysis of the case for onshore wind power which would form the basis of future government policy, rather than “a bourgeois Left article of faith based on some academic perspective”. The comments sparked speculation that Conservative ministers are planning to drop their support for wind farms — a move which would trigger a major Coalition rift.

Mr Hayes, who was appointed energy minister in last month’s reshuffle, is understood to believe that there should be a moratorium on new onshore wind farms. Almost 4,000 turbines are set to be built across Britain in the coming years.

Several senior Tories, including Owen Paterson, the new Environment Secretary, also believe the wind farm “blight” has not been properly considered before allowing development. Mr Paterson will formally respond to a government review on the community benefit of wind farms shortly and is expected to warn about their impact on rural areas.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... ister.html

Over 800 comments!
 
UK tidal power has huge potential, say scientists
By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, BBC News

The UK is underestimating the amount of electricity that could be generated from tidal sources, new research says.
The analysis says that estuary barrages and tidal streams could provide more than 20% of the nation's demand for electricity.

Despite high costs, experts say tidal power is more reliable than wind.
The predictable nature of tides makes them an ideal renewable energy source, the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A reports.

But finding effective ways of utilising their latent power have proved elusive.
Essentially, engineers try to tap tides in two ways: one involves building barrages across tidal estuaries that use the ebb and flow of the waters to turn turbines - a major project of this type had been proposed for the River Severn.
The other method involves planting turbines underwater in fast flowing tidal streams in areas such as in coastal waters around Cornwall and Scotland.

In the Royal Society report, researchers say they are "extremely optimistic" that both types of technology can be realised and relatively soon.

"From tidal barrages you can reasonably expect you can get 15% of UK electricity needs, that's a very solid number," co-author Dr Nicholas Yates from the National Oceanography Centre told BBC News.
"On top of that there is a 5% tidal stream figure, and with future technological development that is likely to be an underestimate in my view," he said.

The massive Severn estuary tidal barrage scheme had been rejected by the coalition government because of its environmental impact, but ministers have indicated they are open to review the idea.

Despite his faith in the idea of barrages, Dr Yates says he is against building one across the Severn.
"I think it's unfortunate that attention for tidal range has tended to focus on the Severn, it's the wrong place to start, it's too big," he said.
"Start small, it's what the Danes did with wind - start small, learn quick and build up.".

Developing power from offshore tidal streams is fraught with difficulty, as the BBC discovered when reporting on the emerging industry in Scotland last year.
But according to the authors of the latest research, 2013 could see a big breakthrough in tidal stream power. A company called MeyGen is planning to deploy tidal stream technology in the Pentland Firth that will initially generate up to 40MW of electricity, enough to power about 38,000 homes.

"This is a crucial milestone for us, it will be the first array of tidal stream turbines," observed report co-author Professor AbuBakr Bahaj from the University of Southampton.
"It will be a viable proposition for us in energetic areas of the sea - it will be give us another element in the energy mix that's more reliable than wind."

Another key element that researchers have looked at in this research is the quality of the power produced by tidal sources.
The SeaGen project in Northern Ireland is the largest grid connected tidal turbine in the world.
Analysts have been looking to see if the power produced suffered from flicker, caused by loads that vary. It's an established problem with older wind energy turbines and something that causes consumers great annoyance when it happens to their lights.
"In general, the results were very good, the flicker levels were quite low," said Joseph MacEnri from ESB International who assessed SeaGen.
"Overall this device behaves like a modern, well-behaved wind turbine."

While the report paints a positive future for tidal power, a critical element is money.
In the past month ,the EU has announced funding in the region of £30m for two UK tidal projects.
Investors in tidal technology are currently rewarded with a payment of £40 per megawatt hour for energy generated from renewables, but this scheme will end in 2017.
According to Prof Bahaj, this could have serious implications for the nascent industry.
"It depends on the subsidy. Without it, it wouldn't stack up financially."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20983645
 
Scottish and English marine energy parks join forces

Marine energy parks in the north of Scotland and south west England are to work together to develop the UK's wave and tidal industry.
The agreement between the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters and South West parks was described as a "milestone".

The two will still focus on attracting investment to their own geographical areas.
However, the agreement encourages the parks to exchange knowledge and best practice.

The Scottish government has also announced it will provide £4.1m to boost research at Orkney's European Marine Energy Centre.
Its marine parks agreement will be formally signed at Renewable UK Wave and Tidal Conference in London and witnessed by UK climate change minister Greg Baker and Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing.
The two ministers have welcomed the agreement.
Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise described it as a "milestone agreement".

The Wave Hub, an electric "socket" for testing wave energy machines off the north Cornwall coast, has been unused since it was installed on the seabed in 2010, but managers say the first device is expected to be connected this year.
Wave Hub general manager Claire Gibson said: "This agreement sends a clear and positive message to the industry that the UK is serious about accelerating commercial development of the marine energy sector."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-21613725
 
Britain's tides could become an energy goldmine
Harnessing the power of the sea might provide a quarter of Britain's domestic needs
By Geoffrey Lean
7:38PM BST 07 Jun 2013

You could call it lunar power, and certainly it’s long been eclipsed by the sun and wind for renewable energy. Yet, after nearly 90 years of frustration, the time of tide – of which Britain has the greatest resources of any country on earth – might finally be about to arrive, and by an unexpected route.

On Monday, a House of Commons select committee will produce yet another report on proposals for a tidal barrage across the Severn estuary that could generate 5 per cent of the country’s electricity. But it’s just possible that this much-touted solution – which has been unsuccessfully revived more than a dozen times since first proposed in 1925 – will be pipped to the post by a little-publicised scheme for a chain of lagoons around the estuary which, its promoters say, will produce more energy at about half the cost.

Overwhelmingly powered by the moon, tides rise and fall with metronomic predictability – a rare and invaluable attribute for a renewable source. The Severn has the second greatest tidal range in the world, after Canada’s Bay of Fundy, as Atlantic sea water accelerates on meeting the continental shelf, pushing a huge volume into a relatively shallow pool.

Other exceptional sites stud our coasts – including Liverpool and Morecambe Bays, the Solway Firth and the Wash – most of them conveniently close to towns and cities that can use the power. Indeed, the UK has half the tidal power resources of the whole of Europe.

The Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee will assess the latest barrage scheme, an 11-mile dam, containing 1,026 underwater turbines, stretching from Lavernock Point, near Cardiff, to Brean, near Weston-super-Mare. It is designed to have the capacity of more than three nuclear power stations, or more than 3,000 wind turbines, and to save the emission of 7.1 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

But it is expensive, at £25 billion and, at best, would not be fully functioning until 2025. The Port of Bristol fears ruin, because it will obstruct ships and make the water shallower. It will disrupt migration routes to a quarter of Britain’s salmon habitats – says the RSPB – and could seriously affect 96 internationally protected sites for birds, largely by altering water levels. Indeed, it would have to get round an EU directive, a lengthy process even if it succeeded.

Its promoters – who include the former Labour minister Peter Hain – say that it is nevertheless the only way “to harness the full power of the Severn”. Mark Shorrock begs to differ. A 43 year-old entrepreneur – who worked in films before turning to building “out of sight” wind farms and solar installations in Britain and Spain – he has invested £2 million of his own money in investigating tidal lagoons and will apply for planning permission for the first of its kind in the world, in Swansea Bay this autumn.

Plans for lagoons have been kicking around for years, but Shorrock applied a businessman’s rigour, spending the past two years “throwing darts at the project and seeing if we can kill it”. Failing to do so, he teamed up with major companies such as Atkins, Costain, marine engineers Van Oord and turbine makers Alstom and Voith, and says he can produce more power than the barrage from a chain of six lagoons round the estuary for a comparatively modest £13.5 billion.

He also reckons that he could get half of them going in the Severn, and add two at Fleetwood and Colwyn Bay, to exceed the barrage’s planned output by 2023, two years before its completion. In all, he says, lagoons could provide a quarter of Britain’s domestic power.

Enclosed by breakwaters, stretching like giant harbour walls out from the coast, they come with turbines to generate power as the tides flow in and out.
Since they do not block the estuary, they do not harm ports, change migration routes or do much to affect bird habitat.
And whereas the barrage is a one-off project, building successive lagoons would make it possible to improve designs and lower costs – and the technology could be exported to similar sites around the world, creating a new British industry.

On Monday, he will start selling 12,500 shares in his company to local people, and has already held 240 meetings with residents and interest groups around Swansea – a sharp contrast to the attitude of most of the wind industry. And he plans to turn the lagoons into popular centres for triathlons and water sports.

It is a longish shot, but ministers who believe that the barrage’s figures still “aren’t in the place they would need to be” are increasingly open to “affordable” lagoons. They could yet turn out to catch the tide.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... dmine.html

This idea sounds very promising. It's cheaper and quicker, and avoids many environmental and commercial objections. It avoids the all-or-nothing frightful expense of a complete barrage. If the first lagoon works as expected, it would be easier to finance further ones. :yeay:
 
rynner2 said:
On Monday, a House of Commons select committee will produce yet another report on proposals for a tidal barrage across the Severn estuary that could generate 5 per cent of the country’s electricity.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy ... dmine.html
Click to expand...
-----------------------------

And, yes, the barrage has been kicked into the long grass by the select committee:

Severn Barrage: Environment and economy benefits 'unproven'

Plans for a £25bn barrage in the Severn Estuary should not go ahead in their current form, a committee of MPs says.
Hafren Power wants to build an 11-mile barrage between Lavernock Point near Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, and Brean near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
But MPs said Hafren had failed to make the case that it would be good for the economy or the environment.

...

The Bristol Port Company (BPC) welcomed the report, saying MPs had "killed off" the barrage.
The firm told the committee that the barrage would be bad for businesses because it would lose about two metres of depth of water, restricting its capacity for deep-sea vessels.
BPC chief executive Simon Bird said: "The select committee has read through and listened to masses of evidence and come to the only sensible conclusion that the Severn Barrage brings with it unprecedented problems."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-22812911
 
Penryn offshore drilling firm wins Wave Hub contract
12:08pm Wednesday 12th June 2013 in News .

A Penryn firm and a Porthtowan based marine contractor have won an international contract to work on a multi-million pound project to develop a floating wind turbine at Wave Hub, the offshore renewable energy test facility.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) confirmed earlier this year that Wave Hub had been chosen as its preferred location to develop, build and test a floating offshore wind turbine to investigate whether floating windfarms could play a cost-effective role in meeting the UK’s energy needs.
Now offshore drilling specialists LDD – has been chosen as one of two lead contractors.

ETI have confirmed that LDD and marine contractor and vessel owner Keynvor MorLift Ltd (KML) have won the contract to carry out studies for anchoring and subsea installation works for the turbine.

Wave Hub, which is a grid-connected offshore renewable energy test facility 10 miles off the north coast of Cornwall near Hayle, could host the project as early as 2015, and it would remain in place for between eight and 10 years.

etc...

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10 ... ct/?ref=mr
 
Truro engineering firm's 'innovation of the year' win
7:00am Tuesday 18th June 2013 in Falmouth/Penryn .

The world’s smallest ground source heat pump, manufactured in Cornwall by Truro-based Kensa Engineering, is set to transform the adoption of renewable heat technology in the UK, following its acknowledgement by industry as the ‘Product Innovation of the Year’ at the National Heat Pump Awards.

Kensa Engineering, established in 1999, designs and manufactures ground source heat pumps from its premises on the former Mount Wellington Mine site in Bissoe. Kensa’s latest innovation is the smallest and quietest ground source heat pump ever invented, and offers a compelling alternative to traditional gas boiler installations. The Shoebox Heat Pump, so-named due to its diminutive size and design, extracts and condenses heat energy stored in the ground to provide heating and hot water to apartments and smaller new build properties, all from its location in the property’s under-sink kitchen cabinet.

Renewable heat technologies are becoming increasingly popular, in part helped by the Government’s drive to increase their installation through grant schemes such as the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme (RHPP), and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Uniquely, the Shoebox Heat Pump allows domestic installations to benefit from the higher RHI tariff intended for commercial applications, due to its ability to create a ‘communal’ system.

As a Cornish manufacturer, recently confirmed as the UK’s leading manufacturer and supplier of ground source heat pumps, Kensa Engineering is helping to support the county’s ambitious sustainable future plans.

Simon Lomax, Managing Director of Kensa Engineering comments: “Unlike air source heat pumps which must secure permitted development rights or planning permission, ground source heat pumps can be routinely installed. They also deliver the lowest possible running costs of any renewable heating system.”

According to Stephanie Rees, Marketing Manager: “Kensa is delighted to win this award. Awards can play a significant part in elevating our reputation and market presence, and as the only UK manufacturer and current market leader of ground source heat pumps, we hope to continue to use these accolades to promote interest in our products.”

The Shoebox was announced the winner of its category at the National Heat Pump Awards held in the International Conference Centre in Birmingham on the 16th May 2013.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fp ... year__win/

Videos:
http://shoebox.kensaengineering.com/
 
Rust promises hydrogen power boost
By Simon Redfern, BBC News

Rust could help boost the efficiency of hydrogen production from sunlight - a potentially green source of energy.
Tiny (nano-sized) particles of haematite (crystalline iron oxide, or rust) have been shown to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of solar energy.
The result could bring the goal of generating cheap hydrogen from sunlight and water a step closer to reality.
Details are published in the journal Nature Materials.

Researchers from Switzerland, the US and Israel identified what they termed "champion nanoparticles" of haematite, which are a few billionths of a metre in size.
Bubbles of hydrogen gas appear spontaneously when the tiny grains of haematite are put into water under sunlight as part of a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC).

The nanostructures look like miniscule cauliflowers, and they are grown as a layer on top of an electrode.
The key to the improvement lies in understanding how electrons inside the haematite crystals interact with the edges of grains within these "champions"

Where the particle is correctly oriented and contains no grain boundaries, electrons pass along efficiently.
This allows water splitting to take place that leads to the capture of about 15% of the energy in the incident sunlight - that which falls on a set area for a set length of time. This energy can then be stored in the form of hydrogen.

Identifying the champion nanoparticles allowed Scott Warren and Michael Graetzel from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, to master the methods for increasing the effectiveness of their prototype cell.

Iron oxide is cheap, and the electrodes used to create abundant, environmentally-friendly hydrogen from water in this photochemical method should be inexpensive and relatively efficient.
The hydrogen made from water and sunlight in this way could then be stored, transported, and sold on for subsequent energy needs in fuel cells or simply by burning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23226798
 
Cornwall Wave Hub in energy machine plan

A wave energy developer says it is hoping to connect a device to the Wave Hub testing site in Cornwall.
The device, called the Lifesaver because of its lifebuoy shape, could join the site off Hayle late next year, engineering firm Fred Olsen said.
The 16m-wide generator drives a turbine via a device like a yo-yo inside.

The £42m Wave Hub, a seabed-mounted electrical "socket" for testing wave energy machines, has been unused since it was installed off Hayle in 2010.
Fred Olsen project manager Tore Gulli said: "We are hoping to be at Wave Hub for late next year or early-2015.
"Wave Hub is exactly what we as developers need on our way to commercial operations."

As well as the Lifesaver, Irish firm Ocean Energy Ltd (OEL) is expected to deploy a generator at the hub later this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-23979704
 
Wave power generator bags Dyson award
By Mark Ward, Technology correspondent, BBC News

A wave power generator that can harvest energy no matter which way the sea is running has won the UK round of James Dyson's engineering award.
The Renewable Wave Power generator seeks to overcome the limitations of some current tidal power technologies.
These work best when struck by waves travelling in one direction and are less efficient in more turbulent seas.
The generator uses loosely coupled pistons to reap power from tidal waters that flow unpredictably.

The win means that Sam Etherington, who created the generator, gets £2,000 to create a bigger prototype that will undergo tests in water tanks to prove its efficacy.
The engineering graduate studied mechanical design at Brunel University in London, and now lives in the Lake District.
Mr Etherington said some of the inspiration for the design came when he was kite surfing off the coast of Cumbria in seas where waves rarely travelled in a predictable fashion.

To harness the energy that abounds in such restless waters, Mr Etherington came up with a design that uses a long chain of loosely linked enclosed pistons. Energy is generated as the chain of generators flexes in the peaks and troughs of each wave.
"The ocean is a harsh and unpredictable environment," said Mr Etherington. "It is better to work with the forces than to repel them."

He added that the hard part of the development work was finding ways to replicate the chaotic seas that the generator can make best use of. Data taken from buoys moored in the Orkney Islands was used to make waves in a water tank at Lancaster University and prove the prototypes could generate power in such conditions.

Dr David Forehand from the Institute for Energy Systems at Edinburgh said existing tidal and wave power systems used different methods to cope with the ways water can move.

Systems sited in shallow waters benefitted from the fact that waves "refract" as they approached the shore, he said. This meant the wave crests tended to line up parallel to the shore before they break, making it straightforward to harvest some of their energy.
By contrast deeper water systems, such as the Pelamis pipe generators, tended to be "loosely moored" so they can swing into the direction of dominant waves.

He added that seas can sometimes have a number of dominant wave directions and Mr Etherington's multi-axis device might be good for such situations.

"The real test for a device is its cost of energy," Dr Forehand, adding that the complexity of the multi-axis device and its ability to withstand large seas might make it an expensive way to generate power.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24070071

A poorly written article, which seems to confuse tidal power with wave power.

And this new design seems complex, and could prove expensive to build and maintain. Compare it with the Lifesaver (previous post), which is far more compact and also seems to work in any wave directions.
 
Pentland Firth tidal turbine project given consent

Work is to begin on the largest tidal turbine energy project in Europe after the Scottish government approved it.
MeyGen is to install the tidal array in stages in the Pentland Firth, between Orkney and the Scottish mainland.

It will begin with a 9MW demonstration project of up to six turbines, with construction expected to take place on a phased basis until 2020.
When fully operational, the 86MW array could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 42,000 homes.
That is the equivalent of 40% of homes in the Highlands, the Scottish government said.

MeyGen hopes a second phase would eventually see up to 400 submerged turbines at the site, generating some 398MW.
It will be the first commercial deployment of tidal turbines in Scottish waters.

Scottish-registered company MeyGen is a joint venture between investment bank Morgan Stanley, independent power generator International Power and tidal technology provider Atlantis Resources Corporation.
Its tidal energy project is located in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth off the north coast of Caithness.
The firm has agreed a 25-year lease with the Crown Estate for an area encompassing about 1.4 square miles (3.5 square kilometres) of fast flowing water between the island of Stroma and the north easterly tip of the Scottish mainland.

Its AR1000 turbine is claimed to be the world's most powerful single-rotor tidal device.
Each of the devices, which stand 22.5m (73ft) tall, weigh 1,500 tonnes and have a rotor diameter of 18m (59ft), could generate up to 1MW of power.

Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "Today we have granted consent to MeyGen Limited to develop the largest tidal turbine array in Europe and the first commercial project off these shores.
"This is a major step forward for Scotland's marine renewable energy industry.
"This exciting development in the waters around Orkney is just the first phase for a site that could eventually yield up to 398MW."

Speaking before the Scottish Renewables Marine Conference got under way in Inverness, Mr Ewing also announced that developers Aquamarine Power Limited and Pelamis Wave Power are to share a slice of a £13m wave "first array" support programme.
The award is part of the Scottish government's Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund.
Mr Ewing said the tide was turning for the wave sector.

He added: "We must tackle climate change. We need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels through better and more efficient uses of energy.
"Marine energy - a home-grown technology with huge potential - is part of the solution."

Michael Rieley, policy manager for industry body Scottish Renewables, said: "Scotland has just been given another reason to be proud of its burgeoning marine energy industry now that Europe's largest tidal energy project will be calling Scotland home.
"This is by far one of the most important milestones for the tidal energy sector to meet.

"This latest announcement to come from the marine industry is further proof that all the hard work to win the global energy race is paying off. Not only will new projects like this mean a step further towards meeting our renewable energy targets, but it will also lead to further jobs being created, increased investment, and a significant contribution towards tackling climate change."

The announcement was also welcomed by environmental group WWF Scotland.
Director Lang Banks said: "This is a significant announcement and a major boost for the marine renewable industry in Scotland.
"However, as there is little point in generating huge amounts of marine renewable energy on Scotland's islands if it cannot also be got to the mainland, we now need UK and Scottish ministers to find a way forward that enables us to harness the full potential of this clean energy source.
"Alongside energy saving measures, marine renewables will have a critical role to play in helping Scotland reduce climate emissions as we phase out polluting fossil fuels and nuclear power.
"With careful planning we can harness Scotland's huge wave and tidal energy to help cut our climate emissions, while safeguarding the nation's tremendous marine environment."

The Carbon Trust has estimated that wave and tidal resources could provide 20% of the UK's electricity if fully developed.
And the Scottish government believes the country's technological expertise in marine energy makes it extremely well placed to capitalise on domestic and overseas markets.

Scotland has been described as a Saudi Arabia of renewable energy potential, but developing power from offshore tidal streams is fraught with difficulty.
The harsh environment and extreme weather conditions make building, deploying and managing a fleet of tidal machines a treacherous challenge, as the BBC discovered when reporting on the emerging industry last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24100811
 
Gigha watts: Scottish island tests batteries for wind farms
Battery project involving 75,000 litres of sulphuric acid will allow Scottish island to store wind power it cannot transmit
Robin McKie, science editor
The Observer, Saturday 9 November 2013 20.54 GMT

The Scottish island of Gigha is to be the focus of a £2.5m experiment aimed at solving a major technological problem: how to store energy generated by wind, tide and wave power plants. The project, which will involve building giant batteries containing 75,000 litres of sulphuric acid mixed with vanadium pentoxide, is intended to allow power generated by the island's wind turbines to be stored for later use.

At present, while Gigha's turbines are running, their power is used to run households on the island and excess is transmitted by cable to the mainland electricity grid. When winds are low, and Gigha's turbines do not turn, the grid feeds power to the island. But the cable link has an upper power limit. As a result, much of the island's excess power cannot be transmitted to the mainland and is wasted. The battery project, backed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, is intended to get round this problem.

"It is not easy to store electricity on a large scale," said Sir John Samuel of REDT, the company awarded the battery contract. "Standard lead-acid batteries generally lose their charge relatively quickly. The battery system we are involved with does not suffer from this problem."

Samuel said the batteries would be able to store enough power to provide the island with 100kW of electricity for 12 hours when winds were low. "The crucial point is that our batteries will be able to be used over and over again," he added.

Scotland's islands and remote highland regions have immense potential for wind power – and, in future, wave and tide power – but suffer because their electricity-cable links are poor and would be immensely expensive to replace. Battery storage systems could therefore help Scotland to reach its goal of meeting all its electricity needs renewably by 2020.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... d-turbines
 
Hayle Wave Hub: First device to be plugged in

An electrical "socket" on the seabed off Cornwall will be used for the first time next year.
Wave energy company Seatricity is to plug a device into the Wave Hub project which tests renewable energy ideas.
The experimental device uses octagonal aluminium floats to capture wave energy by pressurising seawater. In turn this drives a turbine which produces electricity.

The £42m Wave Hub has been unused since it was installed in 2010.
It consists of a giant "socket" on the seabed which is connected to the power grid by an underwater cable.
The Wave Hub - which is publicly-owned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) - aims to allow companies to test their devices in the waters 10 miles off Hayle.

After carrying out sea trials in Scotland, Seatricity said it is now ready to plug its "generation Oceanus 1" device into the hub - which will be the project's first paying customer.
The company said it will be basing its custom boat in Hayle and it eventually hopes to tie a number of its devices together to make an array, also known as a wave farm.

Johnny Gowdy, from Regen South West - a not-for-profit organisation which promotes renewable energy, said: "The final array Seatricity are planning will be 10MW, which in wave energy terms is a very big project indeed, in fact it will be the first major array in the UK.
"It is exactly what Wave Hub has been designed to test, large deployments, at sea, in a pre-commercial environment, before we move on to full size commercial projects."
Mr Gowdy added: "It has taken some time, the technology has been slower to develop than we anticipated and this is difficult, just getting the finance together and the backing for these projects, does take time."

Julian German, Cornwall Council's cabinet member for economy and culture, said: "Cornwall is incredibly well placed to become a national and world leader in marine renewable technology, and this investment signifies an important step on the road to achieving that goal."
The hub is operated by Wave Hub Limited, which manages the day-to-day operation of the testing facility on behalf of BIS.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-25310079
 
A chicken shit solution.

JG Pears plans for faeces-powered biomass generator opposed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-no ... e-25775402

The JG Pears plant in Low Marnham

The biomass generator will be powered by chicken litter, wood and other animal-'by-products'Continue reading the main story

A proposed biomass generator powered by chicken faeces and ground animal bones is causing complaints.

A planning inquiry is currently considering JG Pears' plans to expand its animal fat rendering plant with a power station at Low Marnham, near Newark.

Neighbours said the smell from the factory is already "stomach wrenching" and fear it would get worse.

But the company said it would reduce noise and smell.

JG Pears' plans for a combined heat and power plant were thrown out by Bassetlaw District Council last year but the company took the decision to appeal and an inquiry is due to make a decision next week.

'Rotting carcasses'
The company, which supplies the pet food industry, wants to generate its own electricity and feed into the National Grid.

Shona Stapleton, from the Pears Action Group, said: "We can't enjoy our gardens on summer evenings because of these large lorries full of animal waste passing our doors. It's stomach wrenching."

And Colin Fishwick described the smell from the plant as like "vomit" and "rotting carcasses".

The firm said it was refused permission by the council because of the scale, mass and height of the development and not because of smell.

In a statement the operations director Alistair Collins said: "The scheme will offer many improvements including improved odour and noise abatement from the existing activities on-site, will significantly reduce the ca
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rbon footprint of the operation and generate electricity for the grid."
 
Tidal energy: Pentland Firth 'could power half of Scotland'

The Pentland Firth could provide enough renewable energy to power about half of Scotland, according to research.
The firth, which lies between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, has some of the fastest tidal currents in the UK.

Engineers from Edinburgh and Oxford Universities said turbines placed in the stretch of water could generate 1.9GW of clean energy.
Turbines would need to be located across the entire width of the channel to fully exploit it, they said.

The engineers said their study narrowed down earlier estimates that the firth could produce anywhere between 1GW and 18GW of power.
They calculated as much as 4.2GW could be harnessed, but because tidal turbines are not 100% efficient the estimate of 1.9GW was a more realistic target.

They have outlined locations where turbines should be positioned to boost the area's energy producing potential.
Sites which minimise the impacts on sea life and shipping have been identified by the UK Crown Estate, which will lease them to tidal energy firms.

Prof Alistair Borthwick, of the school of engineering at the University of Edinburgh, said: "Our research builds on earlier studies by analysing the interactions between turbines and the tides more closely.
"This is a more accurate approach than was used in the early days of tidal stream power assessment, and should be useful in calculating how much power might realistically be recoverable from the Pentland Firth."

Prof Guy Houlsby, of the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, who led the study, said: "The UK enjoys potentially some of the best tidal resources worldwide, and if we exploit them wisely they could make an important contribution to our energy supply.
"These studies should move us closer towards the successful exploitation of the tides."

The results were welcomed by environmental group WWF Scotland.
Its director, Lang Banks, said: "The sooner we can start to deploy devices in the water the greater the chance Scotland will have at becoming a world leader in developing the technologies to turn tidal power into clean, green electricity.
"Marine renewables, such as tidal power, will have a critical role to play in meeting the Scottish government's commitment to decarbonise our power supply by 2030.
"With careful planning we can harness Scotland's tidal energy to help cut our climate emissions while safeguarding the nation's tremendous marine environment."

In September, energy company MeyGen was given permission to install what was described as the "largest tidal turbine array in Europe" in the Pentland Firth.
The project will be the first commercial deployment of tidal turbines in Scottish waters.

MeyGen said the phased project would initially see an 86MW array deployed, which could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 42,000 homes.
The company hopes a second phase would eventually see up to 400 submerged turbines at the site, generating some 398MW.

Scotland has been described as a Saudi Arabia of renewable energy potential, but developing power from offshore tidal streams is fraught with difficulty.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-n ... d-25800448
 
rynner2 said:
Tidal energy: Pentland Firth 'could power half of Scotland'

The Pentland Firth could provide enough renewable energy to power about half of Scotland, according to research.
The firth, which lies between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, has some of the fastest tidal currents in the UK.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-25800448
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Well, that's nice.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/20/3093901/scotland-renewable-energy/

Renewable Energy Is Now The Source Of 40 Percent Of Scotland’s Electricity

Think Progress. By Katie Valentine. December 20, 2013

Renewable energy use is at a record high in Scotland, according to new government figures.

In 2012, Scotland got 40.3 percent of its electricity from renewable sources — up from 36.3 percent in 2011 and just 24.1 percent in 2010. The Scottish government plans to get half of its electricity from renewable energy by 2015 — a target it said it was on track to meet — and 100 percent of its electricity by 2020. Scotland’s renewable energy numbers are much higher than many other U.K. countries — renewables produced only 8.2 percent of England’s electricity in 2012, and in Wales, 8.7 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources.

“Renewable electricity in Scotland is going from strength to strength, confirming that 2012 was a record year for generation in Scotland and that 2013 looks set to be even better,” said Scotland’s energy minister Fergus Ewing.’

Lang Banks, Director of WWF Scotland, told the BBC that if Scotland is to meet its target of renewable energy generating 100 percent of electricity by 2020, the country will need to invest more in offshore wind.

“In order to remain on target Scotland will need to deploy significant amounts of offshore wind in the near future,” he said. “It’s therefore vital that the U.K. government gives a stronger signal of its ambition on the growth of offshore wind in Scotland’s seas, as well as the necessary support needed to deliver that growth.”

Wind power is Scotland’s fastest-growing renewable energy source — in In 2012, Scotland’s wind power generation jumped by 19 percent. The country is home to the U.K.’s largest wind farm and constructed its first offshore wind farm in April 2010. The country is also working to harness tidal power and is home to world’s first commercial wave power generator.
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Some forces are determined to prevent people from using solar power. The law is meant to protect the power companies I guess.

Florida woman forced to use city utilities instead of private solar panels, rainwater
Published time: February 25, 2014 22:44
Edited time: February 26, 2014 04:48
http://rt.com/usa/florida-woman-private-utilities-735/

AFP Photo/Thierry Zoccolan

A Cape Coral, Florida woman living “off the grid” was ordered last week by a magistrate to hook up to utilities to comply with city codes or risk eviction from her home.

Special Magistrate Harold S. Eskin ruled Thursday that Robin Speronis violated city codes by refusing to connect to the Cape Coral’s water system. Eskin ordered Speronis to pay for water service, adding that her sewer access would be capped until she did, The News-Press reported.

“I am in compliance,” Speronis told the News-Press. “I’m in compliance of living … you may have to hook-up, but you don’t have to use it. Well, what’s the point?”

In addition, her alternative source of energy must be approved by the city, Eskin ruled. The city contends that using rainwater and solar energy violates the International Property Maintenance Code, which is used in many US and Canadian communities. It “states that properties are unsafe to live in if they do not have electricity and running water,” according to Off The Grid News, though Speronis has both electricity and water.

Eskin also pointed out that several liens were placed on her home given Speronis had used drains but without paying water bills.

“This resident provided testimony at the code compliance hearing that she has been living in the home for the past year and using the city’s wastewater system without paying for the service,” said Connie Barron, a spokeswoman for Cape Coral.

Yet the Magistrate said the city abused its authority by not giving Speronis proper notice of the supposed violations. Speronis was given an eviction notice in November.

City spokeswoman Barron said the sewer would have been capped sooner, but the city decided to wait for the code hearing. The city had actually overlooked Speronis’ setup until she did an interview with a local television station regarding her living arrangements.

Eskin did admit, though, that the city’s code may be obsolete.

“Reasonableness and code requirements don’t always go hand-in-hand … given societal and technical changes (that) requires review of code ordinances,” said Eskin, who actually dropped two of three counts against Speronis.

Speronis’ attorney posited that there’s a conflict in the city’s code, given Speronis has been ordered to hook up to the water system despite city officials’ admittance that she does not have to use it.

“It was a mental fistfight,” Speronis’ attorney Todd Allen said of Eskin’s review of the case. “There’s an inherent conflict in the code.”

For her part, Speronis said she does not intend to hook up to the city’s water system, vowing to appeal the Magistrate’s ruling.

“I know how to live off the grid completely and in a sanitary way,” Speronis said in response to the city’s action, according to The News-Press. “That’s what seven months living in the woods taught me. I do have an alternative toilet from my days of living in the woods.”

The Cape Coral resident said she will dispose of waste just as dog owners do for pets. She also plans to collect wastewater in containers for use in her garden.

Speronis already collects rainwater for bathing and other uses, all while generating electricity with solar panels.

“What happens in the courtroom is much less important than touching people’s hearts and minds,” she told Off The Grid News. “I think that we are continuing to be successful in doing just that and I am so pleased — there is hope! [Friday] morning, as I took my two hour walk, there was a young man, unknown to me, who drove by me, tooted his horn and said, ‘Robin, congratulations on your victory yesterday, keep up the fight and God bless you.’ That is beautiful.”
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Global solar dominance in sight as science trumps fossil fuels
Solar power will slowly squeeze the revenues of petro-rentier regimes in Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. They will have to find a new business model, or fade into decline
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
5:58PM BST 09 Apr 2014

Solar power has won the global argument. Photovoltaic energy is already so cheap that it competes with oil, diesel and liquefied natural gas in much of Asia without subsidies.

Roughly 29pc of electricity capacity added in America last year came from solar, rising to 100pc even in Massachusetts and Vermont. "More solar has been installed in the US in the past 18 months than in 30 years," says the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). California's subsidy pot is drying up but new solar has hardly missed a beat.

The technology is improving so fast - helped by the US military - that it has achieved a virtous circle. Michael Parker and Flora Chang, at Sanford Bernstein, say we entering a new order of "global energy deflation" that must ineluctably erode the viability of oil, gas and the fossil fuel nexus over time. In the 1980s solar development was stopped in its tracks by the slump in oil prices. By now it has surely crossed the threshold irreversibly.

The ratchet effect of energy deflation may be imperceptible at first since solar makes up just 0.17pc of the world's $5 trillion energy market, or 3pc of its electricity. The trend does not preclude cyclical oil booms along the way. Nor does it obviate the need for shale fracking as a stop-gap, for national security reasons or in Britain's case to curb a shocking current account deficit of 5.4pc of GDP.

But the technology momentum goes only one way. "Eventually solar will become so large that there will be consequences everywhere," they said. This remarkable overthrow of everthing we take for granted in world energy politics may occur within "the better part of a decade".

If the hypothesis is broadly correct, solar will slowly squeeze the revenues of petro-rentier regimes in Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, among others. Many already need oil prices near $100 a barrel to cover their welfare budgets and military spending. They will have to find a new business model, or fade into decline.

The Saudis are themselves betting on solar, investing more than $100bn in 41 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, enough to cover 30pc of their power needs by 2030 rather than burning fossil fuel needed for exports. Most of the Gulf states have comparable plans. That will mean more crude - ceteris paribus - washing into a deflating global energy market.

Clean Energy Trends says new solar installations overtook wind turbines worldwide last year with an extra 36.5GW. China alone accounted for a third. Wind is still ahead with 2.5 times old capacity but the "solar sorpasso" will be reached in 2021 as photovoltaic (PV) costs keep falling.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory says scientists can now capture 31.1pc of the sun's energy with a 111-V Solar Cell, a world record but soon to be beaten again no doubt. This will find its way briskly into routine use. Wind cannot keep pace. It is static by comparison, a regional niche at best.

A McKinsey study said the average cost of installed solar power in the US across all sectors has dropped to $2.59 from more than $6 a watt in 2010. It expects this fall to $2.30 by next year and $1.60 by 2020. This will put solar within "striking distance" of coal and gas, it said.

Solar cell prices have already collapsed so far that other "soft costs" now make up 64pc of residential solar installation in the US. Germany has shown that this too can be slashed, partly by sheer scale.

It is hard to keep up with the cascade of research papers emerging from brain-trusts in North America, Europe and Japan, so many brimming with optimism. The University of Buffalo has developed a nanoscale microchip able to capture a "rainbow" of wavelengths and absorb far more light. A team at Oxford is pioneering use of perovskite, an abundant material that is cheaper than silicon and produces 40pc more voltage.

One by one, the seemingly intractable obstacles are being conquered. Israel's Ecoppia has just begun using robots to clean the panels of its Ketura Sun park in the Negev desert without the use of water, until now a big constraint. It is beautifully simple. Soft microfibers sweep away 99pc of the dust each night with the help of airflows.

Professor Michael Aziz, at Harvard University, is developing a flow-battery with funding from the US Advanced Research Projects Agency over the next three years that promises to cut the cost of energy storage by two-thirds below the latest vanadium batteries used in Japan.
He said the technology gives us a "fighting chance" to overcome the curse of intermittency from wind and solar power, which both spike and drop off in bursts. "I foresee a future where we can vastly cut down on fossil fuel use."

Even thermal solar is coming of age, driven for now by use of molten salts to store heat and release power hours later. California opened the world's biggest solar thermal park in February in the Mojave desert - the Ivanpah project, co-owned by Google and BrightSource Energy - able to produce power for almost 100,000 homes by reflecting sunlight from 170,000 mirrors onto boilers that generate electricity from steam. Ivanpah still relies on subsidies but a new SunPower project in Chile will go naked, selling 70 megawatts into the spot market.

Deutsche Bank say there are already 19 regional markets around the world that have achieved "grid parity", meaning that PV solar panels can match or undercut local electricity prices without subsidy: California, Chile, Australia, Turkey, Israel, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain and Greece, for residential power, as well as Mexico and China for industrial power.

This will spread as battery storage costs - often a spin-off from electric car ventures - keep dropping. Sanford Bernstein says it may not be long before home energy storage is cheap enough to lure households away from the grid en masse across the world.

Utilities that fail to adapt fast will face "disaster". Solar competes directly. Each year it is supplying a bigger chunk of peak power needs in the middle of the day when air conditioners and factories are both at full throttle. "Demand during what was one of the most profitable times of the day disappears," said the report. They cannot raise prices to claw back lost income. That would merely accelerate what they most fear. They are trapped.

Michael Liebreich, from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says we can already discern the moment of "peak fossil fuels" around 2030, the tipping point when the world starts using less coal, oil and gas in absolute terms, but because they cannot compete, not because they are running out.

This is a remarkable twist of history. Just six years ago we faced an oil shock with crude trading at $148. The rise of "Chindia" and the sudden inclusion of 2bn consumers into the affluent world seemed to be taxing resources to breaking point. Now we can imagine how China will fuel its future fleet of 400m vehicles. Many may be electric, charged by PV modules.

For Germany it is a bitter-sweet vindication. The country sank €100bn into feed-in tariffs or in solar companies that blazed the trail, did us all a favour, and mostly went bankrupt, displaced by copy-cat competitors in China. The Germans have the world's biggest solar infrastructure, but latecomers can now tap futuristic technology.

For Britain it offers a reprieve after 20 years of energy drift. Yet the possibility of global energy deflation raises a quandry: should the country lock into more nuclear power stations with strike-prices fixed for 35 years? Should it spend £100bn on offshore wind when imported LNG might be cheaper long hence?
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For the world it portends a once-in-a-century upset of the geostrategic order. Sheikh Ahmed-Zaki Yamani, the veteran Saudi oil minister, saw the writing on the wall long ago. "Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil - and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil," he told The Telegraph in 2000. Wise old owl.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... fuels.html
 
rynner2 said:
Mythopoeika said:
Interesting story here about fuel made from seawater:

http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-...t-takes-flight-with-fuel-from-the-sea-concept

It sounds good on the surface of it, but since it would require the stripping of all algae from the sea, I think that would be A Very Bad Idea.
Click to expand...
But that article doesn't mention algae...

But even if it did, I think the logistics of processing all the world's oceans would be beyond our technology!
Click to expand...

It doesn't specifically mention algae, but wouldn't you need to filter the water in order to process it in the fashion described? That's what I'm thinking.
 
Mythopoeika said:
It doesn't specifically mention algae, but wouldn't you need to filter the water in order to process it in the fashion described? That's what I'm thinking.
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Maybe. But how many gallons of sea-water do you need to make a gallon of aviation fuel?

Doesn't really matter, because I don't doubt the world's need for fuel would only use a tiny proportion of all the world's oceans.

(If not, we are truly F*cked!)
 
Backing up Green Energy with - er - dirty energy... :(

Germany's green dreams meet harsh reality
David Shukman takes a look at the massive scale of Germany's coal-mining operation

A vision for a greener future for the world seems very distant if you descend into the heart of one of Germany's largest coal mines.
While researchers and officials are in Berlin preparing the next report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the country's fossil fuel industry is as busy as ever.

The report is expected to set out options to switch from sources of energy that give off the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to cleaner types like wind and solar.
This mirrors Germany's own ambitions with a plan known as the Energiewende, best translated as "energy transition", which calls for at least 80% of power to come from renewable sources by 2050.

But south of Berlin in the region of Lausitz, down at the coal face in a mine called Welszow-South, machines the size of office blocks gouge out chunks of lignite and low-carbon dreams hardly seem plausible.
The lignite, also known as brown coal, is one of the dirtiest, most polluting kinds of fuel, but it helps generate no less than 26% of Germany's electricity.
Add in the country's harder black coal as well and you find that nearly half of the country's electricity comes from the one source which climate scientists argue most needs to be phased out.

The challenge is that, for the moment, coal offers a relatively cheap and easy solution, there is plenty of it and thousands of jobs are involved so the mining enjoys robust support from unions and local politicians.

For a country that prides itself on showing green leadership, and hosting the IPCC meeting, the reliance on coal illustrates the sheer difficulty of turning visions into reality.
Germany is in the bizarre position of being the world's largest producer of solar power - and of lignite.

The dark cliffs of brown coal stretch for miles, exposed to the air for the first time since they formed from a swampy forest that lay along the shores of the North Sea 17 million years ago.
Ancient twists of branches, compacted and dusty, lie inside the coal, a reminder of a process that once sucked huge amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air, only for it now to be released back into the atmosphere.

The mine is one of several operated by the Swedish state-owned company Vattenfall and its managers are bullish about the prospects.
In addition to the lignite already earmarked for extraction, they say there are another 1.6 billion tonnes approved for future mining in this area alone and demand remains high.

The head of operations, Uwe Grosser, is polite about the "energy transition" and the advent of renewables but dismisses the idea of a future without coal.
"We're the only ones who deliver constant power. Our power is always there.
"When solar, wind and the renewables are fed into the grid we're the only ones able to adjust our output, that's the only way it's possible to prioritise renewables.
"If they can't provide power. We can. 24 hours a day. 365 days a year."

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26988695
 
Solar Power Portal said:
Martifer Solar reveals 100MW UK pipeline

Martifer Solar has announced that it is has a 100MW pipeline of projects in development in the UK.

The Portuguese integrated PV EPC firm claims that the new portfolio will be completed by early 2015. The portfolio will be solar to third part investors upon completion.

Henrique Rodrigues, CEO of Martifer Solar, said that the new portfolio of projects in the UK is helping the company “reshape its core business” as the company aims shore up its position as a developer across various global solar markets.

João Cunha, director of Martifer Solar UK, added: “We have already proven our capabilities with almost 110 MW of utility-scale projects completed within a year, and we are looking to double this capacity for the next year, maintaining a strong and dynamic growth in the UK market.”

The portfolio consists of solar farms ranging in size from 5MW to 26MW, located in the South, Midlands and Wales. The new projects build on the company's previous UK pipeline of 78.4MW in 2014.

The UK solar market is predicted to be Europe’s largest solar market in 2014. However, the continued growth of the utility-scale market is under threat after the government announced plans to remove renewable obligation (RO) support for projects over 5MW from April 2015. Martifer Solar believes that the transition from the RO support scheme to contracts for difference (CfDs) in April 2015 will be smooth, remaining confident about the performance of the UK utility-scale solar market. The company points to governmental polling data which shows that 85% of Brits support the deployment of solar in the UK as cause for optimism.
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http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/martifer_solar_reveals_100mw_uk_pipeline_2356
 
Well, I haven't been able to find anything about this crazy thing on the board. It's a mad idea, but it's surprising (and worrying) how many people are starting to take it seriously. Which may be the difference between whether or not crazy ideas work.

Solar Roadways

SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS - Don't watch if you find loud Americans obnoxious.

Sounds like madness to me. And I have read a lot of criticism from various quarters. Some of those criticisms are answered here!

Deluded crackpots with good intentions? Scammers? True geniuses who will pave our future with light and energy?
 
It's an interesting idea, but I can't see it ever being used widely, because of the cost and hassle factor. It might get used for some parts of certain roads, where markings need to be changed regularly, but not all over the place.
The reason why roads are made the way they are is (a) cost and (b) ease of repair. I can't see that changing in a hurry.
 
PeteByrdie said:
Solar Roadways

SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS - Don't watch if you find loud Americans obnoxious.

Sounds like madness to me. And I have read a lot of criticism from various quarters. Some of those criticisms are answered here!

Deluded crackpots with good intentions? Scammers? True geniuses who will pave our future with light and energy?
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Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I didn't watch the 'loud Americans' videos, but the overlong text passages suggest what they might be like!

Nevertheless, I think they have latched on to an idea with great potential. Now they need to concentrate on the engineering, and hire a good PR team to handle publicity. (IE, a team that understands that less is more in terms of verbiage.) And/or an educational department that can explain things simply and briefly, while providing further material in a structured system for those who want more detailed knowledge.

A lot of stuff in their current presentation could just be dumped, eg:

"We wonder about people who reflexively dismiss our concept without trying to understand it, or go on public forums to attack us. It's helps us to remember that there have always been people against change. For some it's just too scary. They want to just keep things the same. Perhaps they are the descendants of those who argued that the earth was flat, that we didn't need cars because horses worked just fine, told the Wright Brothers they were out of their minds, or insisted that we'd never reach the moon. Or perhaps they are the voices of larger entities who are now feeling threatened by the paradigm shift that is Solar Roadways."
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That just comes across as whining - it's not the voice of someone who is confident with his ideas. Leave the whining to the critics, just put forward the positives in your work.

And do we really need so many words about how ice and snow make driving dangerous? That's just stating the obvious, and suggests a degree of condescension towards the reader.

Anyhow, rynner is available for consultations, reasonable fees...

Oh bugger, I'll probably get banned for spamming now!
 
Mythopoeika said:
The reason why roads are made the way they are is (a) cost and (b) ease of repair. I can't see that changing in a hurry.
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I think the ease of repair issue is simply answered with solar roadways. Damaged panels can be replaced much more easily than tarmac can be properly repaired, they claim. They also say the cost of tarmacing is set to rise, and while the initial cost of laying these panels is great, the power generated by them means they pay for themselves. I think the initial cost will still be too great for them to be widely adopted. Perhaps in car parks and other public areas, if they can get the cost of production low enough. This project is looking for money through crowd-funding, and is apparently doing okay, but there's a big part of me that wonders whether they're just going to keep developing while pocketing some of the money, and never reveal a finished product.
 
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