Spain’s Wind Capacity Blows Away Competition, While UK Misses Target

Spain and Germany’s development of renewable energy surges ahead while the UK stumbles.

Full Story [energyefficiencynews.com]

Turning Yucky Stuff into Energy – It’s a Gas

Two things we try to avoid stepping in are garbage and manure. Yet, disgusting as they may be, these two members of the biomass clan are sources of renewable energy. Just not in their usual forms.

Take garbage. Day after day it is trucked out to huge landfills where it gets buried by more garbage. As the trash piles up, the lower layers become starved of oxygen and the conditions near the bottom of the heap become anaerobic, allowing anaerobic bacteria and other microorganisms to feast on the garbage, creating landfill gas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide.

Once a landfill is full, it is usually capped by thick layers of dirt and often a sealing membrane, and left to sit, while more landfill gas accumulates. Finally, collection wells are drilled and cased to the base of the landfill. The section of the casing penetrating the waste layers is perforated so the landfill gas can enter the pipe. Unlike natural gas wells, landfill gas must be pumped out of its reservoir.

Agricultural wastes such as manure, crop residue, and silage are collected in a digester, a large, domed tank, often built underground. Again, as the waste accumulates, the lower section becomes oxygen-starved and anaerobic microbes acting on the waste produce methane and carbon dioxide. Because the material in the digester is a thick liquid slurry, the biogas rises to the top of the digester where it can be siphoned off. Once the slurry has been digested, the residue can be used as fertilizer.

With both processes, the carbon dioxide must be removed before the biogas can be used as fuel. Biogas can be used as a substitute for natural gas in fuelling electricity generation, space heating, and natural gas powered cars and buses.

Biofuels Could Provide 27% of Transport Fuels by 2050, says IEA

It could all add up to a significant change of many stars align, such as conversion efficiencies, governemnet regulations, commercial production and advanced biofuel research. That’s a lot of stars.

Full Story [energyefficiencynews.com]

Lasers Could Replace Spark Plugs in Car Engines

Laser-based combustion could result in increased engine efficiency by igniting more of the fuel mixture.

Full Story [bbc.co.uk]

Dallas Hops on the Sewage-to-Biogas Bandwagon

From nuisance to new energy enterprise.

Full Story [cleantechnia.com]

Biomass – Now It’s Renewable

Image: E-ON UK

For a long time, people equated wood and peat with coal – burning all three released a lot of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. And that is bad.

But, on sober second thought, wise people realized that coal has been buried for millions of years, and as long as it remains buried and isn’t on fire, it doesn’t emit CO₂. On the other hand, trees and peat are growing plants that trap CO₂ when they are alive. When they die, the trapped CO₂ is released. And, here’s the important part, the same amount of CO₂ is released whether the material decomposes naturally or whether it’s burned. Consequently, wood and peat and other biodegradable substances are carbon neutral. And that is good.

Burning carbon neutral material for fuel is better than burning something that will emit new CO₂ into the atmosphere, or if not new CO₂, CO₂ that’s been out of circulation for millions of years.

Most of the wood burned in Canada is fuel for space heating and is burned in residential woodstoves and fireplaces. However, Canada has a large forestry industry that harvests trees for wood and pulp and paper products. Many forestry companies collect the wood residue from harvesting trees and from sawmills and paper mills and burn it to provide electricity for their operations. And many of these generate more electricity than they need, so they sell it back to the grid.

In fact, the Canadian Industrial Energy End-Use Data and Analysis Centre estimates that the energy capacity of wood residue in Canada is 1.4 megawatts for electricity and 3.6 megawatts for heat, and in 2008, biomass fueled generation of 9,829 gigawatt-hours of electricity.

Canada also has the largest peat reserves in the world, roughly 45 per cent of global supply. Peat bogs are found in every province and territory, with the majority being in Northwest Territories, Ontario and Manitoba. However, Canada does not use peat as biomass fuel for commercial generation of electricity.

Maybe it’s time we did.

Science Geothermal Energy Use on the Rise in U.S.

The U.S. generates geothermal energy in 9 states – enough to power 2 million homes. It’s a start.

Full Story [foxnews.com]

Obama Administration Turning its Back on Fuel Cell Technology, Group Says

National industry association laments budget cuts that could negatively impact the U.S. technological lead in fuel cells.

Full Story [cleveland.com]

Nuclear Power Mapped

We like this new interactive map. Make sure that you listen to the audio clip. You’ll hear a brief overview of the development of the nuclear industry around the world at the same time you see it on the map.

The data that went into building the map is sourced from the International Nuclear Energy Association.

Coca-Cola Gets Greener

Hydrogen fuel cell powered forklift trucks get the nod at CC’s Consolidated distribution centre.

Full Story [businesswire.com]

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