Spotlight
A Way to Harvest Electricity from Trees

One freezing day in February 2006, physicist Andreas Mershin huddled with others around a tree on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus to watch an unlikely demonstration. An engineering company claimed it could produce electricity simply by wiring a nail in the tree’s trunk to a metal rod in the ground. Sure enough, the demo worked—but nobody knew exactly why.

Inexpensive Thin Printable Batteries Developed

For a long time, batteries were bulky and heavy. Now, a new cutting-edge battery is revolutionizing the field. It is thinner than a millimeter, lighter than a gram, and can be produced cost-effectively through a printing process. Read more!

The Lilypad- A Water City

According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC, the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm. As a solution to this alarming problem architect Vincent Callebaut came up with this ecotectural marvel. He called this project “Lilypad“, but this ecotectural marvel is also called as “Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees”. Read more!

Computing another cause of climate change?

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 14:10

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City’s Largest Solar Panel Installation

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 13:46

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Lower-cost Solar Cells soon been Painted and Printed like Paper

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 13:32

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‘Hidden Portal’ Concept Described: First Tunable Electromagnetic Gateway

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 12:03

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Motion Picture’ Of Past Warming Paves Way For Snapshots Of Future Climate Change

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 10:11

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Jurassic park: Plans to create a Neaderthal man and put it back on the earth

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 10:01

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Artificial human brain could be built ‘in next decade’

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 12:54

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The Solar Forest: Charging Station And Shady Spot For Electric Cars

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 09:41

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Climate change poised to feed on itself

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 22:09

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Leaked CEO conversation suggests electricity revolution coming

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 10:43

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How much carbon dioxide do computers emit?

AVIATION has long been blamed for its share of anthropogenic global warming. Indeed, some travellers now ask themselves whether their flight is strictly necessary and, if they decide it is, salve their consciences by paying for the planting of trees. These, so they hope, will absorb the equivalent of their sinful emissions. But you, dear reader, are indulging right now in activity that is equally as polluting as air travel: using a computer.

According to a report published by the Climate Group, a think-tank based in London, computers, printers, mobile phones and the widgets that accompany them account for the emission of 830m tonnes of carbon dioxide around the world in 2007. That is about 2% of the estimated total of emissions from human activity. And that is the same as the aviation industry’s contribution. According to the report, about a quarter of the emissions in question are generated by the manufacture of computers and so forth. The rest come from their use.

EPA

Down on the server farm

The same report estimates that the spread of computers will increase these associated emissions by about 6% a year until 2020, when one person in three will own a personal computer, half will have a mobile phone and one household in 20 will have a broadband internet connection. Yet computing can also be used to tackle climate change. For example, domestic consumption could be cut by the large-scale employment of smart meters in houses and flats. Households are the biggest users of electricity after manufacturing and transport. In Britain, they accounted for 29% of consumption in 2004, according to a government report.

Small and medium-sized businesses, meanwhile, could save electricity by switching to distributed computing, rather than running their own servers. The delivery of computer services over the internet, from vast warehouses of shared machines, enables firms to hand over the running of their e-mail, customer databases and accounting systems to someone else. Companies that do so use computers more efficiently and thus reduce not only their costs but also their carbon footprints.

Another way to improve the situation is virtualisation—the creation of “virtual” machines (ie, software emulations of separate computers) so that multiple operating systems and applications can run on the same piece of physical kit. Sun Microsystems, a maker of servers, reckons that 70% of the servers in most organisations have only one application running on them. Consolidating these applications onto fewer and fewer machines, courtesy of virtualisation, would be more efficient and thus greener.

Ironically, of course, environmental research itself relies heavily on computers. So, perhaps the best thing the home user can do is donate his inefficiencies to the cause by signing up to climateprediction.net, which uses the idle capacity of home computers to test the accuracy of various computer models of the climate.

How much carbon dioxide do computers emit?

EPA

Down on the server farm

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New Solar Panel Milestone:
L.A. Metro, Chevron Energy Solutions Unveil Nation’s Largest Solar Panel Installation at a Transit Facility

1.2 megawatt solar panel system, energy efficiency upgrades expected to cut facility’s electricity requirements in half to save $550,000 per year

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) today unveiled a groundbreaking energy efficiency and renewable power project with the installation of the nation’s largest solar panel system at a transit facility. It is also the largest solar panel installation within the City of Los Angele Photos of L.A. Metro 1.2 megawatt solar panel system installation s.

The 6,720 individual solar panels at Metro’s Support Services Center in downtown Los Angeles – Metro’s central maintenance facility for buses –will generate 1.2 megawatt, or 1,200 kilowatts of renewable, emission-free power. Along with other energy-efficient improvements, the project is expected to cut the facility’s annual $1.1 million energy bill in half to approximately $550,000. Metro will reduce its purchase of utility power, which is anticipated to reduce carbon emissions by more than 3,700 metric tons, equivalent to planting more than 550 acres of trees and taking more than 600 cars off the road.

“Los Angeles is now one step closer to becoming the solar capital of the United States,” said Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Antonio Villaraigosa. “Today’s unveiling of the City’s largest solar-powered facility will not only generate clean, renewable energy, but will provide the kinds of green jobs that this economy so desperately needs.”

The project is a public/private partnership between Metro and Chevron Energy Solutions. The $16.5 million project will receive about $6.3 million in incentives from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), Southern California Gas Co., (SoCalGas), and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Metro to help it achieve its sustainability goals,” said John Mahoney, Chief Operating Officer of Chevron Energy Solutions. “Metro is demonstrating how a transit authority can reduce its energy consumption and use clean, renewable power.”

California-based Chevron Energy Solutions, which designed and installed the solar photovoltaic system, will provide long-term oversight of the facility’s solar panel array and related new equipment and, in addition, will guarantee the energy savings and the level of energy generated by the solar panel array for the next 10 years.

Other energy conservation measures at the facility include the installation of new Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, compressed air systems, and the replacement of about 4,000 lighting fixtures, all controlled by a state-of-the-art energy management system.

“This is the kind of environmental responsibility we need to see more of in Los Angeles,” said L.A. City Councilmember and Metro Director José Huizar. “This cleaner running facility tells us that we can and should build greener industries in our city, particularly in areas prone to higher pollutant levels. Today, Metro and its partners are setting a green standard that others need to emulate.”

For completing this project, Metro expects to receive incentives of $4.9 million from LADWP, up to $633,000 from Southern California Gas Co. and $807,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. To date, Metro has received $2.6 million in incentives from SoCalGas for its previous installations of solar systems providing 851 kilowatts of electricity.
LADWP provided $4.1 million through its Solar Incentive Program as well as nearly $800,000 in incentives for energy efficiency technologies such as high efficiency air conditioning unit upgrades, installation of a cool roof, lighting efficiency measures, compressed air system upgrades, energy management systems, and others.

“We applaud Metro for helping to lead a clean and green tech revolution in Los Angeles. Metro’s solar system and energy efficiency upgrades will lower the city’s carbon footprint and increase the amount of clean, renewable energy produced here,” said David Nahai, LADWP Chief Executive Officer and General Manager.

“We commend Metro for its leadership in the use of renewable energy and energy-efficient equipment that will help the state meet its greenhouse gas emissions-reduction goals, move us toward energy independence and reduce energy costs,” said Hal D. Snyder, Vice President of Customer Solutions at SoCalGas.

The Metro Support Services Center is used for the rebuilding of bus engines, transmissions, and general bus repair. Spanning 27 acres, the 400,000-square-foot facility consists of five separate buildings where highly trained and certified technicians and mechanics keep Metro’s bus fleet in all of the agency’s 11 operating divisions in top condition.

“Metro’s Support Services Center uses a huge amount of electricity every year,” said Arthur T. Leahy, Metro CEO. “The facility’s use of solar energy sets a real benchmark for Metro to reach its goals of using new technologies to reduce carbon emissions and operating costs.”

In 2006, Metro completed a massive solar energy project encompassing 1,648 solar panels at its Metro Bus Divisions 8 and 15 in the San Fernando Valley, and two years later 1,632 solar panels were installed at its Carson bus division.
More recently, Metro’s new “ecologically green” San Gabriel Valley Sector office was built to the specifications of a GOLD rating by the leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design (LEED). The San Gabriel building consumes 33 percent less electricity than a conventional building and surpasses the State of California’s already strict standards for building energy use by 25 percent and water consumption standards by 50 percent.

Chevron Energy Solutions designs, constructs and operates facility projects, including infrastructure and renewable power systems, that increase energy efficiency, reduce energy costs, and ensure reliable power for public institutions and businesses. Since 2000, Chevron Energy Solutions has developed hundreds of projects involving energy efficiency or renewable power for education, government and business customers in the United States. For more information, visit www.chevronenergy.com.

For more information, visit www.chevronenergy.com. For more Metro information, visit metro.net.

New Solar Panel Milestone:
L.A. Metro, Chevron Energy Solutions Unveil Nation’s Largest Solar Panel Installation at a Transit Facility

1.2 megawatt solar panel system, energy efficiency upgrades expected to cut facility’s electricity requirements in half to save $550,000 per year

For more information, visit www.chevronenergy.com. For more Metro information, visit metro.net.

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Solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle “inks” that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight.

Brian Korgel, a University of Texas at Austin chemical engineer, is hoping to cut costs to one-tenth of their current price by replacing the standard manufacturing process for solar cells – gas-phase deposition in a vacuum chamber, which requires high temperatures and is relatively expensive.

“That’s essentially what’s needed to make solar-cell technology and photovoltaics widely adopted,” Korgel said. “The sun provides a nearly unlimited energy resource, but existing solar energy harvesting technologies are prohibitively expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuels.”

For the past two years, Korgel and his team have been working on this low-cost, nanomaterials solution to photovoltaics – or solar cell – manufacturing. Korgel is collaborating with professors Al Bard and Paul Barbara, both of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Professor Ananth Dodabalapur of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. They recently showed proof-of-concept in a recent issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The inks could be printed on a roll-to-roll printing process on a plastic substrate or stainless steel. And the prospect of being able to paint the “inks” onto a rooftop or building is not far-fetched.

“You’d have to paint the light-absorbing material and a few other layers as well,” Korgel said. “This is one step in the direction towards paintable solar cells.”

Korgel uses the light-absorbing nanomaterials, which are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair, because their microscopic size allows for new physical properties that can help enable higher-efficiency devices.

In 2002, he co-founded a company called Innovalight, based in California, which is producing inks using silicon as the basis. This time, Korgel and his team are using copper indium gallium selenide or CIGS, which is both cheaper and benign in terms of environmental impact.

“CIGS has some potential advantages over silicon,” Korgel said. “It’s a direct band gap semiconductor, which means that you need much less material to make a solar cell, and that’s one of the biggest potential advantages.”

His team has developed solar-cell prototypes with efficiencies at one percent; however, they need to be about 10 percent.

“If we get to 10 percent, then there’s real potential for commercialization,” Korgel said. “If it works, I think you could see it being used in three to five years.”

He also said that the inks, which are semi-transparent, could help realize the prospect of having windows that double as solar cells. Korgel said his work has attracted the interest of industrial partners.

Funding for the research comes from the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

When the printable solar cells are accomplished, it will be a much greener planet.

Solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle “inks” that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight.

“You’d have to paint the light-absorbing material and a few other layers as well,” Korgel said. “This is one step in the direction towards paintable solar cells.”

His team has developed solar-cell prototypes with efficiencies at one percent; however, they need to be about 10 percent.

“If we get to 10 percent, then there’s real potential for commercialization,” Korgel said. “If it works, I think you could see it being used in three to five years.”

Funding for the research comes from the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

When the printable solar cells are accomplished, it will be a much greener planet.

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While the researchers can’t promise delivery to a parallel universe or a school for wizards, books like Pullman’s Dark Materials and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter are steps closer to reality now that researchers in China have created the first tunable electromagnetic gateway.

The work is a further advance in the study of metamaterials, published in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society).

In the research paper, the researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic waves but that allows the passage of other entities” like a “‘hidden portal’ as mentioned in fictions.”

The gateway, which is now much closer to reality, uses transformation optics and an amplified scattering effect from an arrangement of ferrite materials called single-crystal yttrium-iron-garnet that force light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation in complicated directions to create a hidden portal.

Previous attempts at an electromagnetic gateway were hindered by their narrow bandwidth, only capturing a small range of visible light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. This new configuration of metamaterials however can be manipulated to have optimum permittivity and permeability – able to insulate the electromagnetic field that encounters it with an appropriate magnetic reaction.

Because of the arrangement’s response to magnetic fields it also has the added advantage of being tunable and can therefore be switched on and off remotely.

Dr Huanyang Chen from the Physics Department at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has commented, “In the frequency range in which the metamaterial possesses a negative refraction index, people standing outside the gateway would see something like a mirror. Whether it can block all visible light depends on whether one can make a metamaterial that has a negative refractive index from 300 to 800 nanometres.”

Metamaterials, the area of physics research behind the possible creation of a real Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak, are exotic composite materials constructed at the atomic (rather than the usual chemical) level to produce materials with properties beyond those which appear naturally.

While the researchers can’t promise delivery to a parallel universe or a school for wizards, books like Pullman’s Dark Materials and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter are steps closer to reality now that researchers in China have created the first tunable electromagnetic gateway.

The work is a further advance in the study of metamaterials, published in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society).

Because of the arrangement’s response to magnetic fields it also has the added advantage of being tunable and can therefore be switched on and off remotely.

Start uga_filter:

By accurately modeling Earth’s last major global warming — and answering pressing questions about its causes — scientists led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison climatologist are unraveling the intricacies of the kind of abrupt climate shifts that may occur in the future.

“We want to know what will happen in the future, especially if the climate will change abruptly,” says Zhengyu Liu, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and director of the Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. “The problem is, you don’t know if your model is right for this kind of change. The important thing is validating your model.”

To do so, Liu and his colleagues run their mode back in time and match the results of the climate simulation with the physical evidence of past climate.

Starting with the last glacial maximum about 21,000 years ago, Liu’s team simulated atmospheric and oceanic conditions through what scientists call the Bølling-Allerød warming, the Earth’s last major temperature hike, which occurred about 14,500 years ago. The simulation fell in close agreement with conditions — temperatures, sea levels and glacial coverage — collected from fossil and geologic records.

“It’s our most serious attempt to simulate this last major global warming event, and it’s a validation of the model itself, as well,” Liu says.

The results of the new climate modeling experiments are presented July 17 in the journal Science.

The group’s simulations were executed on “Phoenix” and “Jaguar,” a pair of Cray supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and helped pin down the contributions of three environmental factors as drivers of the Bølling-Allerød warming: an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, the jump-start of stalled heat-moving ocean currents and a large buildup of subsurface heat in the ocean while those currents were dormant.

The climate dominoes began to fall during that period after glaciers reached their maximum coverage, blanketing most of North America, Liu explains. As glaciers melted, massive quantities of water poured into the North Atlantic, lowering the ocean salinity that helps power a major convection current that acts like a conveyor belt to carry warm tropical surface water north and cooler, heavier subsurface water south.

As a result, according to the model, ocean circulation stopped. Without warm tropical water streaming north, the North Atlantic cooled and heat backed up in southern waters. Subsequently, glacial melt slowed or stopped as well, and eventually restarted the overturning current — which had a much larger reserve of heat to haul north.

“All that stored heat is released like a volcano, and poured out over decades,” Liu explains. “That warmed up Greenland and melted (arctic) sea ice.”

The model showed a 15-degree Celsius increase in average temperatures in Greenland and a 5-meter increase in sea level over just a few centuries, findings that squared neatly with the climate of the period as represented in the physical record.

“Being able to successfully simulate thousands of years of past climate for the first time with a comprehensive climate model is a major scientific achievement,” notes Bette Otto-Bliesner, an atmospheric scientist and climate modeler at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and co-author of the Science report. “This is an important step toward better understanding how the world’s climate could change abruptly over the coming centuries with increasing melting of the ice caps.”

The rate of ice melt during the Bølling-Allerød warming is still at issue, but its consequences are not, Liu says. The modelers simulated both a slow decrease in melt and a sudden end to melt run-off. In both cases, the result was a 15-degree warming.

“That happened in the past,” Liu says. “The question is, in the future, if you have a global warming and Greenland melts, will it happen again?”

Time — both actual and computing — will tell. In 2008, the group simulated about one-third of the last 21,000 years. With another 4 million processor hours to go, the simulations being conducted by the Wisconsin group will eventually run up to the present and 200 years into the future.

Traditional climate modeling approaches were limited by computer time and capabilities, Lieu explains.

“They did slides, like snapshots,” Liu says. “You simulate 100 years, and then you run another 100 years, but those centuries may be 2,000 years apart (in the model). To look at abrupt change, there is no shortcut.”

Using the interactions between land, water, atmosphere and ice in the Community Climate System Model developed at NCAR, the researchers have been able to create a much more detailed and closely spaced book of snapshots, “giving us more of a motion picture of the climate” over millennia, Liu said.

He stressed the importance of drawing together specialists in computing, oceanography, atmospheric science and glaciers — including John Kutzbach, a UW-Madison climate modeler, and UW-Madison doctoral student Feng He, responsible for modeling the glacial melt. All were key to attaining the detail necessary in recreating historical climate conditions, Liu says.

“All this data, it’s from chemical proxies and bugs in the sediment,” Liu said. “You really need a very interdisciplinary team: people on deep ocean, people on geology, people who know those bugs. It is a huge — and very successful — collaboration.”

The new study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, with additional support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

By accurately modeling Earth’s last major global warming — and answering pressing questions about its causes — scientists led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison climatologist are unraveling the intricacies of the kind of abrupt climate shifts that may occur in the future.

To do so, Liu and his colleagues run their mode back in time and match the results of the climate simulation with the physical evidence of past climate.

“It’s our most serious attempt to simulate this last major global warming event, and it’s a validation of the model itself, as well,” Liu says.

The results of the new climate modeling experiments are presented July 17 in the journal Science.

“All that stored heat is released like a volcano, and poured out over decades,” Liu explains. “That warmed up Greenland and melted (arctic) sea ice.”

“That happened in the past,” Liu says. “The question is, in the future, if you have a global warming and Greenland melts, will it happen again?”

Traditional climate modeling approaches were limited by computer time and capabilities, Lieu explains.

The new study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, with additional support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Neanderthal man has taken a step closer to once again roaming the earth after scientists unlocked the genetic make-up of our closest relative for the first time.

Researchers announced that they had finally managed to reconstruct the entire DNA of the former species in a world breakthrough that follows a similar feat for the mammoth.

Now they believe the milestone could help discover why Neanderthal man, a short hairier version of a human, became extinct 30,000 years ago.

It also raises the possibility – although played down by scientists – that the code could be used to clone a living version of the creature.

Professor Svante Paabo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, sequenced more than one billion DNA fragments extracted from three fossilised Neanderthal bones found in a cave in Croatia.

They believe they have managed to identify the basic structure of the code – more than 60 per cent – and now aim to fill in the gaps using computer models that compare it to human and chimpanzee DNA.

The DNA also provide insights into how the genome of this extinct form differed from that of modern humans and also highlight genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world, starting around 100,000 years ago.

Neanderthals were the closest relatives of currently living humans. They lived in Europe and parts of Asia until they became extinct about 30,000 years ago.

For more than a hundred years, palaeontologists and anthropologists have been striving to uncover their evolutionary relationship to modern humans.

Prof Paabo, a pioneer in the field of ancient DNA research, made the first contribution to the understanding of our genetic relationship to Neanderthals when he sequenced their mitochondrial DNA, or the engine room of the cell, in 1997.

He announced the latest milestone at the opening of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

In order to reliably compare the Neanderthal DNA sequences to those of humans and chimpanzees, the group based in Leipzig has performed detailed studies of where chemical damage tends to occur in the ancient DNA and how it causes errors in the DNA sequences.

The researchers found that such errors occur most frequently towards the ends of molecules and that the vast majority of them are due to a particular modification of one of the bases in the DNA that occurs over time in fossil remains.

They then applied this knowledge to identify which of the DNA fragments from the fossils come from the Neanderthal genome and which from other microorganisms that have contaminated the bones during the thousands of years they lay buried in the caves.

They have also developed novel and more sensitive computer algorithms to put the Neandertal DNA fragments in order and compare them to the human genome.

Inevitably the breakthrough will evoke the idea of cloning a live version of the extinct creature.

Back in November when a team of experts announced they had sequenced the DNA of a mammoth, they brought up the possibility.

However other scientists played down the chances of it becoming reality.

Aside from the moral questions such an act would provoke they pointed out that it would be “like trying to build a car with only 80 per cent of the parts, and knowing that some of them are already broken”.