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  • Plastic Solar Cell Efficiency Hits 6% in U.S.

    Because they are inexpensive and light weight, especially in comparison to traditional silicon solar panels, researchers have worked for years to create flexible, or "conformal," organic solar cells that can be wrapped around surfaces, rolled up or even painted onto structures.

    In theory, plastic solar cells could be used as a replacement for roof tiling or home siding products or incorporated into traditional building facades. These energy harvesting devices could also be placed on automobiles since plastic solar cells are much lighter than the silicon solar panels structures do not have to be reinforced to support additional weight.

    In a paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, the Wake Forest researchers describe how they have achieved record efficiency for organic or flexible, plastic solar cells by creating "nano-filaments" within light absorbing plastic, similar to the veins in tree leaves. This allows for the use of thicker absorbing layers in the devices, which capture more of the sun’s light.

    In order to be considered a viable technology for commercial use however, solar cells must be able to convert about 8 percent of the energy in sunlight to electricity. Wake Forest researchers hope to reach 10 percent in the next year, said Carroll, who is also associate professor of physics at Wake Forest.

    A large part of Carroll’s research is funded by the United States Air Force, which is interested in the potential uses of more efficient, light-weight solar cells for satellites and spacecraft.

    Other members of Carroll’s research team include Jiwen Liu and Manoj Namboothiry, postdoctoral associates at Wake Forest’s nanotechnology center, and Kyungkon Kim, a postdoctoral researcher at the center, who has moved to the Materials Science & Technology Division at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul.


    Source: Renewable Energy Access

     

  • Electricity prices spiral due to water shortages

    Some retailers are also believed to have short sold electricity in the
    expectation that the autumn would bring the traditional dip in the market.
    Traditionally, electricity turnover on the Sydney Futures Exchange is only
    about 20 per cent of total physical trade in the national electricity market,
    which covers the eastern seaboard, including Tasmania. It has leapt to more
    than double the level of underlying supply as market participants scramble
    for cover.

     Large industrial users and state regulators both believe there may have
    been some "gaming" of the market by generators seeking to exploit fears
    about future supply.

     The Electricity Users Association, which represents large industrial users,
    has written to commonwealth and state governments seeking an
    investigation of the National Electricity Market, claiming that the spike in
    prices cannot be justified by drought and unusually high levels of
    maintenance alone.

     "We are aware of some evidence that generators have also changed their
    bidding behaviour to take advantage of the situation," the association’s
    executive director, Roman Domanski, said yesterday.

     State regulators also suspect that some of the larger integrated firms, which
    include both generating and retailing, may be "managing" prices higher,
    putting pressure on regulators to authorise higher retail prices.

     The SFE’s Collins says he believes the move in the market is too big to be
    the result of any form of manipulation. However, the market is still rising and
    there is no sense yet that a new equilibrium has been reached.

     The increase is putting the national electricity market under the greatest
    pressure in its nine year history, and casting a shadow over the economy in
    the year ahead.

     The companies in the toughest position are the electricity retailers,
    particularly those that are not vertically integrated with a generator.

     Chief executive of electricity retailer Australian Power and Gas, Jim Myatt,
    says that while he is buying electricity from the wholesale market, he is
    selling to a retail market that is regulated by state government authorities.

     "State governments are capping our market at one end while the wholesale
    market is reacting to factors outside the control of government." The state
    regulators set the prices that retailers can charge households and small
    business customers.

     Many households and small businesses have chosen to buy their power at
    non-regulated prices, which have until recently been cheaper.

     However, they can always switch back to the regulated suppliers, so the
    regulators set the ceiling for the retail market.

     The NSW regulator last week issued a draft recommendation of price
    increases of about 5 per cent in real terms over each of the next three years
    but is revisiting its numbers in the wake of the soaring wholesale market.

     The Queensland regulator has recommended a 10 per cent price increase.
     The Productivity Commission has called for regulated price caps to be
    scrapped. It argues it is forcing companies to become vertically integrated,
    defeating the purpose of deregulating the electricity market.

     For business customers, however, new contracts are being negotiated with
    increases of anywhere from 50 to 100 per cent.

     Electricity represents 15 to 20 per cent of costs for industries such as paper,
    cement and steel. The increased cost can be expected to flow through into
    economy-wide costs in the same way as last year’s oil price increase.

     The drought is the most obvious cause of the price spike. Snowy Hydro and
    Tasmania have essentially ceased delivering peak power. When Tasmania
    was joined to the national grid, it was expected to be a major supplier to
    southeast Australia but is instead importing power.

     The peak power load is now being delivered by gas turbines.

     More serious is the shortage of water for the cooling towers of the major
    coal-fired power stations which deliver base load. Tarong, in Queensland,
    has had to cut back its base load by 850 megawatts, which is about 5 per
    cent of base load supply to the national market.

     The major Victorian base load stations in the Latrobe Valley have been
    buying water on commercial markets because their entitlement is not
    enough to keep the cooling towers supplied and there are concerns about
    their security of supply.

     The executive director of the National Generators Forum, John Boshier,
    says major maintenance is usually planned for autumn and spring, which are
    not considered peak seasons. He said this had taken a further 4500
    megawatts out of supply.

     He said high prices would act as an incentive for generators to install water
    recycling plants.

     "I’d make a plea for the market outcomes to be trusted, so the high prices
    act as incentives for alternative forms of cooling and energy."

     He said the effort by users to get a government investigation of the market
    reflected the fact that many had failed to hedge their long-term position
    adequately.

     Jeff Washusen, electricity specialist with the economics consultancy
    Marsden Jacobs, says there is a longer-term problem with the working of the
    electricity market.

     "Since 1998, when the national electricity market first started, there has
    been virtually no market-initiated investment in base load capacity," he said.

     Dr Washusen said new capacity in Queensland had been initiated by the
    Government. The only private sector investment had been small gas
    turbines supplying peak load.

     He said the price of electricity on the national market had been enough to
    provide profitable operations for companies with installed generators, but did
    not deliver the incentive to build new capacity. As a result, the market had
    become tight, and high prices could be here to stay.

    Source: The Australian  

  • GM is causing bee death

    LONDON (AFP) – Research by a leading German zoologist has shown that genes used to genetically modify crops can jump the species barrier, newspapers reported here on Sunday. A three-year study by Professor Hans-Heinrich Kaatz at the University of Jena found that the gene used to modify oil-seed rape (canola) had transferred to bacteria living inside honey bees. The findings will undermine claims by the biotech industry and supporters of GM foods that genes cannot spread.

    Rapeseed field by Michael RichardsThey will also increase pressure on farmers across Europe to destroy fields of oil-seed rape contaminated with GM seeds. In an interview for The Observer newspaper, Kaatz said: "I have found the herbicide-resistant genes in the rapeseed transferred across to the bacteria and yeast inside the intestines of young bees. This happened rarely, but it did happen." Asked if his findings had implications for the bacteria inside the human gut, Kaatz replied: "Maybe, but I am not an expert on this."

    The Observer said Kaatz was reluctant to talk about his work until it is officially published and reviewed by fellow scientists. The reports come a day after Britain’s Agriculture Minister Nick Brown urged farmers to destroy crops contaminated with genetically modified seeds. Up to 600 farmers in Britain are believed to have inadvertently planted more than 30,000 acres of oilseed rape contaminated with GM rape seeds, supplied by Anglo-Dutch seed company Advanta. Similar crops have been planted elsewhere in Europe, including in France, Germany and Sweden. The French and Swedish governments have already announced they are ordering the uprooting of the crops.

    Photo: Michael Richards: rapeseed (canola) fields

  • Spain’s Asco nuclear plant shuts down on fault

    To contact the reporters on this story: Kristian Rix in Madrid at krix@bloomberg.net .

    Last Updated: May 9, 2007 07:54 EDT

    Source: The Bulletin Online 

     

  • A Hard Rain (dvd)

    Twice Academy award nominee and five times AFI winner David Bradbury’s latest contribution, A Hard Rain, explores the ‘other side’ of the nuclear debate.

    A Hard RainTraversing five countries – China, France, UK, Japan and Australia, and using what Bradbury learnt from his previous three nuclear documentaries (Public Enemy Number One, Jabiluka and Blowin’ in the Wind), A Hard Rain takes a closer look at the global nuclear industry in its entirety – from the mining of uranium through to the nuclear power plant to the radioactive waste and weapons manufacturing. It exposes the hidden agendas behind this latest push for Australia to go nuclear.

    Included are interviews with some of the world’s top scientists and environmentalists on the subject such as Dr Rosalie Bertell from Canada, Dr Chris Busby from the UK, and from Australia, Dr Mark Deisendorf (Ex CSIRO) who heads up the Environmental Institute at the University of NSW, Dr Ian Lowe, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Dr Gavin Mudd from the Monash University Engineering Department.

    Click here to buy the dvd.

  • Who killed the electric car? (dvd)

    With gasoline prices approaching $4/gallon, fossil fuel shortages, unrest in oil producing regions around the globe and mainstream consumer adoption and adoption of the hybrid electric car (more than 140,000 Prius’ sold this year), this story couldn’t be more relevant or important.

    Who killed the electric car?The foremost goal in making this movie is to educate and enlighten audiences with the story of this car, its place in history and in the larger story of our car culture and how it enables our continuing addiction to foreign oil. This is an important film with an important message that not only calls to task the officials who squelched the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, but all of the other accomplices, government, the car companies, Big Oil, even Eco-darling Hydrogen as well as consumers, who turned their backs on the car and embrace embracing instead the SUV.

    This documentary investigates the death and resurrection of the electric car, as well as the role of renewable energy and sustainable living in our country’s future; issues which affect everyone from progressive liberals to the neo-conservative right. Click here to buy the dvd