Green Building & Manufacturing Articles
Hydrogen-Economy on the Way? New Hydrogen-Storage Method Discovered
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) - Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found for the first time that high pressure can be used to make a unique hydrogen-storage material. The discovery paves the way for an entirely new way to approach the hydrogen-storage problem.
The researchers found that the normally unreactive, noble gas xenon combines with molecular hydrogen (H2) under pressure to form a previously unknown solid with unusual bonding chemistry. The experiments are the first time these elements have been combined to form a stable compound. The discovery debuts a new family of materials, which could boost new hydrogen technologies.
The paper is published in the November 22, 2009, advanced online publication of Nature Chemistry.
Xenon has some intriguing properties, including its use as an anesthesia, its ability to preserve biological tissues, and its employment in lighting. Xenon is a noble gas, which means that it does not typically react with other elements.
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Toward Home-Brewed Electricity With 'Personalized Solar Energy'
ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2009) - New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of "personalized solar energy," in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own homes and communities.
That's the topic of a report by an international expert on solar energy scheduled for the November 2 issue of ACS' Inorganic Chemistry, a bi-weekly journal. It describes a long-awaited, inexpensive method for solar energy storage that could help power homes and plug-in cars in the future while helping keep the environment clean.
Daniel Nocera explains that the global energy need will double by mid-century and triple by 2100 due to rising standards of living world population growth. Personalized solar energy -- the capture and storage of solar energy at the individual or home level -- could meet that demand in a sustainable way, especially in poorer areas of the world.
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Ind. coal-gasification plant cost reaches $2.5B
INDIANAPOLIS Duke Energy Corp. says the cost of the coal-gasification power plant it's building in southwestern Indiana has risen another $150 million, boosting the project's estimated price to $2.5 billion - nearly twice the original estimate.
And the latest increase won't be the project's last.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy said in documents filed Tuesday with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission that the 630-megawatt plant's cost has gone up because its design has required more steel, piping, electric cable and other materials than originally expected.
"Because this is the first time this technology has been used on this scale, there was not nearly as much guidance on size and quantity as there would be for a typical project with a design that had been constructed many times," Duke Energy Indiana President Jim Stanley said in a statement.
The plant is being built along White River near Edwardsport, about 15 miles northeast of Vincennes, replacing a 160-megawatt coal-fired plant that Duke operates there. The company said construction is about 28 percent complete.
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New Energy Finance: Solar power 50% cheaper by year end, other clean energy sources drop 10%
By the end of 2009, there will have been a 50% drop in the levelized cost-i.e. the lifetime cost per kWh before subsidies-of solar power, and a 10% reduction in the levelized cost of other sources of renewable energy sectors compared to the end of 2008. This prediction is a result of detailed quarterly research by New Energy Finance.
"So far this year, the steady decline in the cost of equipment in sectors like solar and wind has been largely offset by the increasing costs of financing," said Michael Liebreich, chairman and CEO of New Energy Finance. "By the end of this year, however, as capital markets loosen up and equipment prices continue their decline, we will see the levelized costs decline, finishing the year 10% below the end of last year across the board and far more than that in solar."
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'Cash for Clunkers,' household edition
Program expected to boost appliance sales as economy drags
In U.S. history, there may have been no better time to own a junk car, a rattling old fridge and a leaking dishwasher.
On the heels of its ballyhooed "Cash for Clunkers" program for cars, the federal government is expected to finalize details in the coming weeks of another tax-supported shopping extravaganza, known as "Cash for Appliances."
Supported by $300 million from the economic stimulus, the program will offer rebates to consumers who buy energy-efficient refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners and other appliances to replace their older models.
And like the $3 billion cars program that gave consumers money for swapping their clunkers for more fuel-efficient rides, the appliance initiative seems destined to inspire shoppers, drive up sales for a while and profoundly divide economists over how much lasting good this chunk of government spending will do for the economy.
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Small Energy-Saving Steps Can Make Big Strides
High-Tech Solutions Can Help Lower Consumption, but Researchers See Faster Progress in Low-Tech Measures; Think Cook Stoves
Some of the highest hopes to curb oil use rest on solutions like the "plug-in hybrid" car, which is supposed to stretch a single gallon of gasoline for more than 200 miles. But that supercar won't be on the road in large numbers for years. In the meantime, there is always the old option of improving the mileage of the regular car's internal-combustion engine.
Which approach is likely to make the biggest difference to the environment?
Tweaking the regular car.
Raising the average fuel economy of gasoline cars around the world to 36 mpg from 26 mpg will likely save more than six times as much oil in 2030 as rolling out enough plug-in hybrids to constitute 7% of the global auto fleet. That data come from BP PLC, an oil company with a stake in the success of gasoline powered cars, but the findings agree with other studies.
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Handy Innovations Add Muscle to Construction Workers' Tool Kits - BIM
As the construction industry recovers from the hard economic punches of the last two years, businesses will look more and more to technology for greater efficiency, better communication, less time spent on the road and on delays, and to keep clients better informed about projects.
Technology is making information more portable, more cohesive and more complete - all of which cuts costly delays and can result in a better product, says Sue Watkins, director of marketing for Meridian Systems, a Folsom-based construction technology company.
"With the complexity of the construction ecosystem - the number of different players from the owner, architects, contractor, subcontractors, inspectors and financial managers - technology helps simplify communications and speed up the processes," Watkins said. "Construction companies are more open to technology because it helps them compete."
From the first survey of the proposed construction site to the delivery of the project documentation at the end, people in the building industry are getting extra help from nifty toys - tools, that is.
Building Information Modeling, known in the industry as BIM, has changed construction planning from two-dimensional drawing to 3-D planning and even 4-D as maintenance over the life of the building relies on the data.
From the BIM software by construction and design software leader Autodesk Inc. to the federal government's General Services Administration, 3-D modeling a building during design is changing the way construction is done.
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National Building Code Measure Being Considered
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The idea of a national building code is gaining momentum, having been included in a climate-change bill that was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in June and forming part of a climate proposal currently being worked out by Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.).
Having a one-size-fits-all minimum standard of how efficiently buildings should use energy, among other things, would force the hand of builders, who currently operate under a patchwork of state and local rules and voluntary standards.
But the idea of forcing that change is controversial.
"Over the years, the opponents have focused on things like 'lets not have a mandatory code, let's have a voluntary code,' but they have only reached into a very small percentage of the buildings we have built ... And the result is that most buildings are built inefficiently," said Bill Fay, executive director of the Building Energy Efficient Codes Network, a group formed this summer to promote an upgrade of building codes.
The Network, a coalition of utilities, some builders and manufacturers, regional and national energy efficiency organizations, labor and academic groups, has been advocating for the provision included in the House bill, as well as for the right of localities to adopt even more stringent codes than the proposed federal standard, should they so choose.
However, the National Home Builders Association opposes a national code. Bill Kilmer, the NAHB's executive vice president for advocacy, said in an interview that the association wants codes to remain locally written because of regional differences such as climate. He also said the NAHB wants more time for builders to ease into building more energy-efficient homes. "We think the industry is best regulated from the ground up," he said.
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California Dams to Feel Impact of Climate Change
California's high-elevation dams could generate considerably less power over the next 40 years as a result of rising temperatures associated with climate change, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Davis.
Under a warmer, drier climate projected in computer models, hydroelectric dams above 1,000 feet in elevation in the state would produce about 20 percent less power by 2050, the researchers found. Under this climate scenario, electricity production would also occur earlier in the year, when demand for power is lower.
Such an outcome would not, however, be as dire as some in the state's hydropower industry feared, according to Kaveh Madani, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Water Science and Policy Center at the University of California, Riverside, and a co-author of the study.
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