EcoRadio

Category: Energy Matters

The twentieth century way of life has been made available, largely due to the miracle of cheap energy. The price of energy has been at record lows for the past century and a half.As oil becomes increasingly scarce, it is becoming obvious to everyone, that the rapid economic and industrial growth we have enjoyed for that time is not sustainable.Now, the hunt is on. For renewable sources of energy, for alternative sources of energy, for a way of life that is less dependent on cheap energy. 

  • Solar-powered boat prepares to conquer the world

  • Power station developers dismiss renewable energy

     

    The environmental assessment reports for the two power stations say ”clean coal” technology will not be available to them in the medium term, although they expect that the technology will eventually emerge and the stations are fitted out for future carbon capture and storage.

    Building coal-fired power plants, which would lock in high-emissions infrastructure for decades, is a touchstone issue for environment groups, which argue future energy needs can mainly be met with better energy efficiency, wind turbines and solar stations in the outback.

    A decision by the Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, on the future of the plants, deemed ”critical infrastructure” under state planning laws, is expected this week.

    The key decision facing the utilities is whether to run the two, 1000-megawatt plants on coal or gas. Burning gas generates slightly less than half the emissions of coal, but is likely to be more expensive and would require the construction of a pipeline to Mount Piper.

    The government is unlikely to express a preference for either gas or coal in its assessment.

    The NSW Greens believe the need for new sources of baseload power have been overestimated.

    “The NSW government has written off the state’s renewable energy future, preferring instead to rely on outdated and inaccurate predications of a shortage of baseload power to justify their expansion plans,” the Greens MP John Kaye said.

    “Massive wind development in the state’s west and possibilities for solar thermal generation in the central west put paid to the Keneally government’s myths that NSW lacks renewable resources.”

  • Wireless Technologies in Renewable Energy Markets

     

    Data radios provide reliable data transmission and advantages where:

    • The system owner wants to control the communications
    • Cell phone coverage is inconsistent or non-existent
    • Communication security is a priority
    • Budgets require efficient communications investment.

    In other words, data radios offer wind and solar power generation facility developers and operators a viable solution for meeting their communication network’s requirements while also cutting costs. As the industry continues its fast-paced growth, the need to identify ways to lower infrastructure costs, improve time-to-market and increase performance with reliable, easily installed networks is no longer a wish but a requirement.

    As the renewable energy market continues to make strides in the power industry, operations and maintenance (O&M) providers are looking for economical ways to manage their systems. To do this most efficiently, some sort of communication system is required. The wireless networks need to be easily maintained, with the ability to handle the amount of data transmission required. Many O&M providers in the solar and wind industries are beginning to discover that several other options exist.

    Wired vs. Wireless

    The class of wireless radios that are industrially hardened and proven to be reliable in the harshest environments may offer the most effective, economical solution, when compared to other options. For example, when compared with fiber, wireless systems are relatively easy to install. In the event a buried cable is damaged, to the extent it requires repair or replacement the costs can be high. Wireless systems are relatively maintenance-free and, if maintenance does become necessary, they are easily maintained.

    Once installed, top-class wireless systems rarely need any type of service. If, for some reason, maintenance is required, the best systems provide information regarding a pending maintenance concern and the location or type of maintenance required can easily be detected remotely. As a result, operators only send someone out for service if/when the system needs it, thereby saving time and money. If engineered and installed correctly, wireless systems will perform maintenance-free for years. At least one of the top-class wireless manufacturers provides backwards compatible solutions throughout its family of products. That, too, saves on maintenance concerns as well as stocking and replacement costs.

    Finally, wired options are priced by the foot. With wireless data radios, the pricing covers ranges expressed in terms of miles. For instance, a pair of top-class serial radios will likely communicate reliably across 60-mile links with line-of-sight designs.

    Communication Systems and Options

    Today, solar or wind utilities operators have a number of options they can employ for their communications needs. The major ones include:

    Wireless Data Radios –The top industrially hardened class of proprietary protocol wireless radios systems are quite easy to install, require minimal labor and do not require any trenching or expensive equipment. In addition, users can obtain real-time data fast. Users can be operational quickly and don’t have to wait until some sort of network typology is complete. Once a remote radio and a master radio are installed, users can monitor these points right away. Although these radios are reliable, they often are more expensive than standards-based radios because these radios provide the range, throughput options and reliability found only in this class of offering.

    ZigBee – A somewhat inexpensive, standards-based wireless solution, ZigBee offers a self-healing mesh network. However, these products also have a direct sequence protocol that is susceptible to interference, especially when compared with proprietary protocol systems. The range is extremely short in comparison to others and as the user adds repeaters to lengthen the range, the throughput degrades quickly and the “perceived” low cost goes up. At 230 Kbps, the throughput without repeaters is acceptable in many applications. However, to achieve the self-healing networks, repeaters are required. As stated above, as repeaters are added, throughput decreases.

    Wired – Copper, fiber and an Ethernet cable are some of the options available as wired solutions. Each of these types of cable will have limitations as to how far the signal can be sent before one encounters line loss. And wired solutions typically require more money and more time to install. What are the advantages to wired solutions? If implemented correctly, wired solutions provide secure, reliable data communications. The main issues operators will face with wire are the cost of materials and installation. Time to install is also an issue, especially when compared with data radios.

    Cell Phone/Satellite – Cell phone and satellite technologies have many similar attributes. Both are public systems and, therefore, not controlled by the plant owner. Carrier-based systems such as these include monthly fees that add to the overall cost of ownership making them even more costly over time. Notoriously, cell phone-based systems do not have a history for being backwards-compatible. Replacing old technology with new technology can be costly. What are the advantages? Sometimes these systems can reach extreme or remote locations where it is not feasible to lay fiber or even deploy a full wireless communication network. This is especially true in the case of satellite systems.

    Hybrid Communications

    None of the systems described above can solve all problems in all situations. Hybrid networks–a blend of different technologies–are often important to consider, especially in the wind power generation markets where some wind installations can be remote. In such situations, there are benefits to implementing a system that uses data radios from location to location with a satellite modem at a site data concentrator. Hybrid networks also might include a mix of fiber, data radios, satellite or cell phone-based technologies. A hybrid system can be a more cost-effective and effective solution for remote networks through lower hardware unit costs, fewer points requiring monthly fee-based satellite or cell connection modems and lower power-consuming technologies.

    One example might be a wind farm located in an isolated region with 10 turbines. Land-line access does not exist and cell coverage is not present although satellite coverage is available. A viable hybrid solution would include data radios on each turbine communicating to one “master station” turbine. With those radios, there can be reliable communications with no monthly fees and backwards compatibility. At the master station, a master radio is wired to a satellite modem that uplinks data to and from the wind farm. This system eliminates monthly fees for nine of the 10 towers.

    Top-class data radio communication systems–composed of industrially hardened radios–offer several advantages that some of the other options do not. This class of radio has been proven in communication-intensive industries, such as military, oil and gas and electric power. Leading companies offering data radios stand by their products with training, tech support, warranties and experience. These attributes arm O&M providers with the confidence required for managing their communication system. Proprietary data radios are offered at a variety of speeds, interface protocols and security. They are offered with varieties of form factors available to match the needs of the user.

    Range or link distance is another advantage in the top-class of radios. Some types have proven to communicate over 60 miles line-of-sight. Others, such as standards-based radios, offer a range that is more accurately characterized in hundreds of feet. The top-class technologies are used successfully in extremely harsh conditions with high vibration (such as robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles in the military and farm vehicles) proving in the field that they can effectively communicate in all types of environments, including the challenges presented by wind turbines. Data radios even have proven effective and reliable in high-speed racing environments such as Formula One car and motorcycle races.

    Each of the applications that can be performed using data radios in solar and wind power generation plants are conducted today in many thousands of other market applications. These radios are relied upon in mission critical monitoring, controlling and data acquisition situations in the harshest weather and RF conditions. Radios are used on natural gas wells in every climate. They are also used reliably in baking heat and in the freezing cold in Antarctica, for example. The top-class of radios is used in urban situations, plant situations and rural situations. Again, the top class of radios is known to perform with comparable reliability to the wired alternatives and all at a fraction of the cost.

    The advances of wireless technology in the renewable energy power markets on both an industrial and commercial scale are anticipated to increase. The costs, reliability, reporting and more are driving operators to consider alternatives to wired solutions. The experience mentioned above of operators in many industries around the world is evidence that data radios are a viable alternative. Wireless data radio technologies provide a long-range, reliable and affordable solution to providers. A wireless system can potentially save a company millions of dollars of installation fees and the technologies have been proven in the field. Not all radios are created equal. Top-class radios have proven, industrially hardened equipment and the flexibility to perform in almost any situation.

    Any manufacturer who has a solid product offering is likely willing to provide operators with test equipment to prove the technology before they buy it. It is easy to use, quick to install, reliable and low risk. When return on investment is a key in determining the best communications solution, the benefits of top-class data radios should be part of every decision process.

    Colin Lippincott is general manager, Renewable Energy Markets with FreeWave Technologies.

  • Rail Delay costs $2 billion

     

    Mr Campbell has also overseen two major policies marred by errors in the past month and was yesterday forced to back down on claims to Parliament that members of the Sydney media had hacked into the transport blueprint website.

    A breakdown of costs, released by the Transport Minister yesterday, shows the revived north-west rail link would cost $4.89 billion if construction began immediately.

    But the State Government is not planning to start work until 2017, meaning it will cost $6.75 billion because of inflation.

    The State Government axed the project in 2008 and revived it on Sunday in its new $50 billion Sydney transport blueprint, after the Opposition promised to deliver the line.

    Over the 14 years before construction is due to be completed on the rail link, Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell says drivers will be slugged up to $19 a day to use the M2, Lane Cove Tunnel and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

    That comes on top of a new car tax, which will slug drivers between $5 to $30 a year extra to register vehicles weighing more than 975 kilograms from July.

    Mr O’Farrell says the Coalition will start building the north-west rail line in its first term if it wins next year’s state election.

    “Labor’s transport plan doesn’t deliver the transport options that Sydney needs in a timely fashion,” he said.

    The greatest cost associated with north-west rail link is tunnelling, which will chew up about half of the money allocated for the project.

     

    Pressure on Campbell rises

     

    Mr O’Farrell is also calling on Mr Campbell to stand down after the CBD Metro plan was scrapped on Sunday.

    At least $271 million has already been lost on the Metro, with another $60 million expected in compensation to companies working on the project.

    On Tuesday night, the Transport Minister also admitted that subjecting eco-friendly hybrid cars to the new weight tax was a mistake.

    And earlier this month, he had to explain why 1 million maps for the MyZone ticketing scheme had to be pulped when mistakes were discovered.

    The transport blueprint also promises a new rail line to Leppington in Sydney’s south-west, a major expansion of light rail around the city and more buses and ferries.

    Sydney’s inner west will get a light rail extension to Dulwich Hill and another line will run from Haymarket to Circular Quay.

    A tunnel will also be built from Redfern to Wynyard to speed up rail traffic from the west.

    The plan promises 1,000 new buses, six new ferries and $3 billion worth of new trains within 10 years.

    Tags: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, australia, nsw, sydney-2000

    First posted 1 hour 9 minutes ago

  • UN warns India and China over growing problems of e-waste


    E-waste dumping

    The UNEP says e-waste cannot be left ‘to the vagaries of the informal sector’. It says large-scale collection and recycling facilities need to be established in China, India, Brazil and Africa where levels of e-waste are rising.

    The Ecologist reported recently on the dumping of Western electronic waste in Ghanaian slums and the damage to the local population and environment caused by some of the toxic components.

    The UNEP report says countries like Senegal and Uganda can expect e-waste flows from PCs alone to increase 4 to 8-fold by 2020.

    China and India

    At present the problem is most acute in India and China, which together produce more than 1.5 million tonnes of e-waste from TVs and 600,000 tonnes from refrigerators every year.

    In China, the report predicts that by 2020 levels of e-waste from old computers will have increased by 200 to 400 per cent from 2007 levels, and by 500 per cent in India.

    By that same year in China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about seven times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher.

    But the UNEP says recycling can also recover valuable natural resources.

    ‘In addition to curbing health problems, boosting developing country e-waste recycling rates can have the potential to generate decent employment and recover a wide range of valuable metals including silver, gold, palladium, copper and indium,’ said UN Under-Secretary-General Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP.

    ‘By acting now and planning forward, many countries can turn an e-challenge into an e-opportunity,’ he added.

    Useful links
    Full UNEP report on e-waste

  • Hydrogen taxi cabs to serve London by 2012 Olympics

     

    The widespread introduction of hydrogen cars has long been a goal of some green campaigners, because eventually they allow transport fuel to be generated from renewable energy. Wind and solar plants could be used to drive the process of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen – and the hydrogen piped to filling stations. Iceland has already begun constructing a hydrogen grid using plentiful geothermal energy. But in the short term, hydrogen vehicles in the UK are likely to be powered by fuel derived from oil.

    Henri Winand, of Intelligent Energy, which makes the fuel cells used in the taxis, said they were an ideal way to begin building the infrastructure required for a hydrogen-based transport system – seen as one of the big stumbling blocks for the wider introduction of hydrogen vehicles. “With fleets you can deploy a little infrastructure, which you can build up with the more fleets you have, rather than going straight to consumers who might be wondering where the next filling station is.”

    London’s deputy mayor, Kit Malthouse, announced last year that by 2012 there would be six hydrogen filling stations in the capital. He said he wanted around 20-50 taxis in operation by then as part of the Black Cabs Go Green programme, as well as 150 hydrogen-powered buses.

    “The intent is to take the taxis and retrofit a powertrain that has zero tailpipe emissions,” said Winand. “But also it has to deliver some very important things: a reasonable range, very quick refuelling time and no modifying the passenger or driver space.”

    After modification, he said no one would be able to tell the difference between a hydrogen cab and a regular one apart from the lack of diesel fumes. The first few hydrogen taxis, which were funded in part by the government’s Technology Strategy Board, have already been built at the Lotus headquarters in Norfolk.

    Intelligent Energy, leading the consortium for the new hydrogen taxi, has designed and built the fuel cell, which uses hydrogen to make electricity. Lotus is responsible for integrating the fuel cell into the body of the taxi – in their design, pressurised hydrogen is stored in a tank where the internal combustion engine of a standard cab would be. The fuel cell produces electricity and feeds it to a battery pack under the floor of the taxi’s passenger area. The batteries then drive motors in the wheels.

    “To do that with a purely battery-electric vehicle, you would have to take up most of the space at the back with batteries, where the passengers are, or certainly you would constrict that space substantially,” said Winand. “And you’d probably have to stop halfway through the day to plug in somewhere.”

    Mainstream manufacturers are also getting interested in hydrogen. Daimler, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota have all announced plans in recent months to have fuel-cell vehicles available for the consumer market by 2015.

    “There is a global drive to reduce CO2 emission levels and this is something we are dedicated to, for both Lotus cars and our engineering clients,” said Simon Wood of Lotus Engineering. “The fuel cell hybrid taxi is a fantastic achievement for all the companies involved. The level of quality and professionalism that has been demonstrated is extremely high and the taxi is already running through a series of tests