Category: Archive

Technology around since 1996: Flex Tracks, a method of allowing airlines the flexibility to use up-to-date wind information to make best use of tailwinds or to avoid headwinds, is not new. It was launched across the South Pacific in 1996 when Qantas, Air New Zealand and United Airlines introduced FANS – or Future Air Navigation System – on 747-400s.

Enormous cost savings for airlines: Flex Tracks challenges the ATC system each day with widely varying routes but the saving for airlines are enormous. In the first 50 days (July to mid-August 2005) of Flex Tracks operations between Singapore and the Australian east coast, the reported and extrapolated fuel figures indicated a 500-tonne fuel burn reduction (or $430,000 in fuel savings), while the three core airlines operating on these tracks indicated a combined flight time reduction of 11 hours.

Things can only get better: According to Greg McDonald, Flex Tracks project manager with Airservices: "Flex Tracks is a stepping stone towards the delivery of the ultimate goal – User Preferred Trajectories (UPTs) – in a number of evolutionary stages."

Points to watch: The significant areas for attention are:

* How airspace closures – military or Traffic Information Broadcast by Aircraft (TIBA) – affect Flex Tracks.

* Summer thunderstorm activity in northwestern Australia, with controllers having to deal with deviations off track for both Flex Tracks aircraft and those flying fixed routes, thereby increasing workload.

* Those track change problems are compounded by some airlines not using Flex Tracks but sticking to traditional published routes.

* This is further complicated by the fact that aircraft do enter Australian airspace through the same gates and/or go to the same destination as those using Flex Tracks but do not fly the Flex Track.

* ATC needs to be aware that Flex Tracks often differ significantly from standard tracks which may result in pilots requiring quite different departure routings.

* Some flight planning systems cannot accept route segments longer than 1100km.

Spectacular results, some problems: While there have been problems, the results have been spectacular. According to McDonald, one Emirates flight operating from Dubai to Sydney saved 43 minutes and 8040kg of fuel by tracking to the south of Australia instead of crossing the Australian continent from the typical entry point in the northwest – almost 2000km to the north of the track used.

Sydney morning curfews only problem for speedy arrivals: But that sort of success also has a downside, with aircraft arriving at Sydney before the curfew is lifted at 6am. Nonetheless, airlines are delighted at the results, with Emirates reporting savings of tonnes of fuel per day and Singapore Airlines and Qantas registering similar outcomes. Currently, Flex Tracks operates as a trial at night between midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time and 8am AEST.

Federal environment minister Ian Campbell last week denied responsibility for the shelving of $550million investment for windfarms. He rejected claims by wind generator, Roaring 40s, that the failure to increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets from two per cent was responsible for pulling back from the projects. "The companies have known the targets for a long time," he said. He was also incredulous of media claims that renewable energy missed out in the budget."We are investing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energies, over and above the massive boost we gave to the renewable sector through the target program," he said.

The Harbin Power Plant Equipment Group, based in the capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, has signed an agreement with the Australian company HRL Ltd to build a coal-gasification power project which is sympathetic to the environment.

    The project, to be located in Victoria, Australia, will employ the HRL’s electricity generating technology based on brown coal gasification and will have a generation capacity of 400,000 kilowatts. The technology is reportedly able to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 30 percent and water consumption by 50 percent.

    Sources with the Chinese company said the project is the largest ever power project based on clean brown coal gasification and China’s largest power plant equipment export project in a developed nation.

    Most equipment for the project will be supplied by the Chinese company at a value of more than 500 million Australian dollars.

    Chinese company sources said the Harbin Power Plant Equipment has also clinched a deal with the Australian company to cooperate in five similar projects in other developed nations.

original story  

Biggest U.S. offshore wind farm planned for Texas coast
Officials have approved a plan to build the biggest offshore wind farm in the U.S. off the coast of Padre Island, Texas. Say it with us now: everything’s bigger in Texas.

Superior Renewable Energy LLC plans to erect as many as 170 turbines, with the capacity to power about 125,000 homes. Some conservation groups are up in arms, as the farm will be built in a major migratory route for several rare birds, but SRE vice prez Michael Hansen said the firm would study bird migration patterns and use turbine blades unlikely to harm our avian friends.

As the project will be built off an unpopulated swath of the island, it may not suffer the NIMBYism plaguing the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound. No rich people are in danger of losing their scenic views. You may all breathe a sigh of relief.

straight to the source: The Washington Post , Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, 12 May 2006

The Australian Financial Review, 13/5/2006, p. 23

Source: Erisk Net 

He claimed further that the government supported the development and expansion of the clean energy industry in NSW, such as:

• The Building Sustainability Index (BASIX) – new homes built in NSW to produce 40 per cent less greenhouse emissions than the current state average;

• The $200 million Energy Savings Fund that rewards projects and activities that led to reduction in energy and greenhouse emissions; and,

• The Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (GGAS) that required electricity retailers to reduce the greenhouse intensity of the electricity supplied to customers.

Early results positive: Brazzale gave the following examples:

• nearly a quarter of new homes were now planning to install solar water heaters under BASIX;

• $20 million was offered to 28 projects under the Energy Savings Fund; and

• over 20 million Greenhouse Abatement Certificates were registered to date – accounting for a market in carbon abatement of nearly $300 million.

Aim to keep green building rules firm: "There are of course some teething problems with these schemes that we will be seeking to have addressed," he said. "Under BASIX our challenge will be to ensure that the initiative is not watered down in response to pressure from the building industry".

He said the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy’s aim was to ensure:

• GGAS was expanded and extended, and delivered more real clean energy projects in NSW; and

• the good results from Round One of the Energy Savings Fund were built on to ensure industry capacity and market transformation.

Reference: EcoGeneration (May/June 06, p. 6)

EcoGeneration, 5/2006, p. 6

Source: Erisk Net