Moon power!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a sense, tidal power is really just a way of harnessing the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. Which basically makes all tidal power “moon power,” in the end. So let’s talk about moon power.

In Canada, all of our moon power occurs in the Bay of Fundy, where The Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) coordinates the province’s research on the subject. But the project does more than just research moon power: along with Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) CanmetENERGY organization, which is devoted to clean energy development, FORCE intends to demonstrate that moon power can have commercial applications. In fact, their newest project will have the potential to generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

And moon power’s no pie in the sky project.

Built in the bay’s Minas Passage, the new facility will be implemented in three parts: first, a subsea cable in the summer of 2011; second, a Research and Visitors Centre in June 2011; and finally: the two turbines that power the facility in the summer of 2012. Then, it will use four submarine cables to deliver electricity to Nova Scotia’s power system. The project has already received $20 million in funding from Canada’s Clean Energy Fund.

Like a wind turbine, tidal turbines move as fluid passes through them, turning a generator that produces electricity. And, like wind turbines, tidal turbines come in a variety of shapes: even generators that look like snakes and kite-like creations. But it’s hardly the stuff of science fiction: NRCan has identified 190 moon power sites across the Canadian coasts, all of which have an estimated estimated capacity of 42,000 MW — more than 63 percent of the country’s annual total consumption!

For now, though, projects like CanmetENERGY and FORCE’s are mostly for research and demonstration. But if we can put a man on the moon, surely it won’t be long before we’ve got a little moon power too.

Via NRCan

Don’t just flush power down the drain

Canada gets a lot of power from its water. In fact, 23.3 per cent of the country’s water is generated by hydro power. But while hydroelectricity is emission-free, it’s not necessarily consequence-free — reservoirs require flooding large areas, the turbines can affect fish and the land around the development necessarily has to be changed to accommodate large-scale construction equipment.

It’s because of these environmental consequences that large-scale hydro development has all but stopped in North America. Instead, most recent hydro developments are so-called micro hydro projects, like the kind that Ontario’s microFIT program encourages. Like tidal power technology that places turbines in the water, micro hydro developments like in-stream turbines take advantage of the existing movement of the water.

One particularly inventive variety of this kind of micro hydro development comes from the UK, where Tom Broadbent (pictured above), a UK inventor has found a way to harness the power of falling waste water to generate electricity. Like an in-stream hydro development, a turbine captures the kinetic energy of water as it courses down an apartment complex’s main drainage pipe. The resulting energy savings, Broadbent boasts, could be up to $1,000 a year for a seven-story apartment building.

Of course, the size of the apartment building is an essential part of generating this energy — the longer the water has to fall, the more kinetic energy it builds. But it’s still an interesting approach to finding power in the water we use every day anyway. And since Canada already gets so much of its power from water anyway, it seems like a waste not to look to our pipes too.

Via Popular Science

Stabilizing Offshore Wind Power

Barring objections from residents with ocean and lakeside views, one of the chief advantages of offshore wind is that it stays out of sight. Even though a recent report by Ontario’s chief medical officer concluded there was no evidence that the noise from wind turbines leads to adverse health effects, for example, residents are often still uneasy about letting a power plant, even a renewable one, in their backyards. That’s why a new kind of wind turbine, set to be released as a prototype in 2012 off the coast of Maine, offers hope for further offshore wind power.

Because they’re buffeted by wind and waves, offshore turbines have to be anchored to the ocean floor. But in deeper water, these supports aren’t practical, meaning that nearer developments have to contend with nearby residents’ objections. That’s why a consortium of companies calling itself DeepCwind is trying to develop a self-stabilizing offshore turbine.

The three models they’re currently testing float at 1/50th scale in a pool at the University of Maine in Orono. One is a large tube with a massive keel beneath and anchors, another is secured using taut cables and the third, also held in place by cables, is balanced by a pair of semi-submersible platforms, like a catamaran’s. Depending on the results of these tests, DeepCwind will select one for the designs as the basis for a 30-metre-high prototype that will be towed to four kilometres off Maine’s Monhegan Island.

Canada doesn’t currently have any offshore wind, though the NaiKun Wind Energy Group had hoped to be the first: installing 110 turbines in BC’s Hectate Strait. Unfortunately for the project, when BC Hydro announced its Clean Call for new sources of renewable electricity supply, NaiKun was not among them. Given the current level of interest in renewable power sources, however, it seems like offshore wind will eventually be a reality in Canada. If that’s true, and residents surrounding the Great Lakes don’t want turbines there, it won’t be long before Canadians begin looking for self-stabilizing wind turbines of their own.

Via New Scientist

The winds of change are a blowin’

EarthFirst launched their much-anticipated Dokie Wind Project by unveiling BC’s first operating commercial wind turbine, a three-megawatt Vestas V90 northwest of Chetwynd.  It’s the first of seven for 2008, which will start pumping precious power into BC’s grid in the spring.  41 more will be built next year.  How much difference will that make?  A single turbine can satisfy the electricity needs of approximately 700 homes.  At the end of 2009, the Dokie project will generate an impressive 144 megawatts, or enough for 33,000 homes.  

Is that significant?  It’s more like a good start.  Assuming three people live in the average home (a fairly safe ballpark guess) that’s almost 100,000 people.  But there are some 4.3 million people in British Columbia alone.  

Wind power has come a long way in Canada.  It now generates enough to power 560,000 homes, or one small city.  It’s equally true that wind power has a long way to go.  As much progress Canada has made, we’re still far behind leaders like Germany and Spain.  

Luckily, reinforcements are on the way. EarthFirst has other projects in the works for Ontario, Newfoundland, Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC, including the Dokie expansion.  What’s the potential for all this?  Take Denmark as an example. It derives 20 per cent of its electricity from the wind.  Were Canada to match Denmark in wind power, it would be enough to power 17 million homes.  

It seems the winds of change are blowing in Canada, from coast to coast.

Bats go splat

Wind power is one of the most frequently cited sources of alternative energy, an environmental win-win whose only drawback is its cost. But if anything worries us about a renewable, emission-free power source, it might just be the gigantic metal blades at the end of every wind turbine. (As we’ve seen, they can get a little ugly “Too much of a good thing?”)

Thankfully, as ground-bound humans, we aren’t very likely to find themselves several stories up about to be sucked into tonnes of rapidly spinning metal. Unfortunately for our fine feathered friends, on the other hand, they just might be.

But despite the often-voiced concern over birds flying to their deaths, there’s been barely a squeak over the fate of bats, another winged animal that’s liable to take the odd detour through a windmill’s path. And as a group of University of Calgary researchers has discovered, these flying mammals may be at a greater risk than their avian counterparts.

Rather than running directly into the blades, bats are susceptible to sudden drops in pressure created by the windmill blades, which can cause them to succumb to a condition known as “barotrauma.” In the case of windmills, air pressure is raised and lowered rapidly as the air is sucked into the blades and, then, in the blades’ wake.

It’s worth noting that The Canadian Wind Energy Association makes particular note of the issue on their website (272 KB PDF), albeit without any particular mention of the issue of barotrauma. The point their information package makes is an important one to bear in mind: namely that any man-made structure, particularly buildings and windows, can be responsible for the death of flying wildlife.

Just the same, knowing about the potential hazards of existing wind turbine designs could go a long way to reducing the inevitable environmental impact of a power source that otherwise offers a marked improvement on the consequences of electrical generation.