Climate Change and Renewable Energy

Climate Change is the single biggest threat to our beautiful planet. Earth is the only planet we know, that can harbour life. Other planets in the solar system cannot support life forms like us. The ecological balance can shift if the composition of the atmosphere changes.

Carbon dioxide is a gas that is released when fossil fuel like petrol, diesel, kerosene or coal burns. Too much combustion of fossil fuel leads to increase in the proportion of carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a gas that traps heat. So if carbon dioxide increases in air, the result will be more and more heat will be trapped, thus increasing the atmospheric temperature of earth.

Since the industrial revolution the amount of carbon dioxide has constantly increased and this has led to global warming. The impact of global warming is immense. Since ice at the poles is fast melting this is leading rise in the global sea levels. So many coastal areas of earth are under the threat of getting submerged in water. 

The increase in air pollution levels has adversely affected the health of people in cities. The mixing of industrial waste in river waters have made the water of many rivers highly contaminated and unfit for human consumption. It has also badly affected marine life. Even some fishes are highly contaminated because of this. This fishes are ultimately consumed by humans. 

The fossil fuels are burnt for various energy requirements. However non polluting sources of energy exists and the amount of energy they can provide surpass the levels of energy that is provided by fossil fuels. Solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectricity, tidal energy, wind energy etc are ideal solutions to mans energy requirements with 0 pollution. 

When I started writing this blog as a hobby, the global oil prices were at a all time high. Great amount of research was going on around the world for alternative sources of energy that does not pollute. Tremendous amount of work is being done in this field and the global fall in oil prices is all because of this. 

One just hopes that the pace of renewable energy research continues with this excellent speed and soon we are powered by these green energy sources globally. This would reduce the utilization of fossil fuels, so that we can prevent and save ourselves from adverse impact of Global Climate Change. 

Era of Renewable Energy

Over the last 1 year I have made many posts on my blog regarding renewable and alternative sources of energy. After looking at all the options available I have come to a conclusion that International crude oil prices may come down further in the coming days. The major reason for this is we have come to a time when we have found ways to generate electricity without burning fossil fuel , without causing any pollution. Without generating more greenhouse gases thereby preventing global warming.

The global oil prices went as high as $140 and it was predicted then that oil prices would go as high as $ 200. This gave a great fillip to renewable energy research. Research on solar energy which was going on for decades have come to point where it has matched conventional energy in terms of price. Germany is one of the biggest consumers of solar energy now. Although Germany gets lesser sunlight as compared to many Asian and African nations.

New technologies for for harnessing wind power and tidal power has come into existence. New design of Windmills like Invelox - in which the direction of the wind flow does not matter anymore and the wind is channeled and concentrated. Which enables the generation of electricity even if the wind speed is very low. In fact the cut-in speed( the speed at which the system starts generating electricity) is as low as 2 miles per hour in other words a little less than 1 m/sec. Which makes it possible to be installed anywhere to generate electricity. The manufactures are claiming that INVELOX can produce electricity for as low as 2 cents per kilowatt hour. Also using kites to generate electricity.

Different Kinds of Tidal energy harnessing technologies are coming to existence viz Davidson Venturi Hill Turbine, Searaser, Minesto underwater kites. The tides are caused in the seas and oceans due to the gravitational fields of the earth and moon. The great thing about ocean tides is that they are highly predictable. Nowhere in the world you see an ocean or a sea that is quiet. While the Davidson Venturi Hill Turbine maximised energy output by using the Venturi effect, Searaser utilized the up and down motion of the sea waves to move a buoyant piston to pump water to a reservoir that is located at some height and then make the collected water fall with the help of gravity , this running water would move a turbine that would generate electricity.

Davidson Venturi Hill turbine

SEARASER

The Minesto underwater kites tapped into the low water speeds to generate substantial amounts of electricity, the motion of the kite is controlled by rudder by an operator. The benefit of ocean waves over atmospheric wind is that water is 800 times denser than air and being 800 times denser it contains 800 time more energy. The Minesto underwater kites has different models the largest 14 meter one generates electricity of 850 kilowatts at water speed of mere 1.73 m/sec.

Minesto underwater kites

Offshore Wind Energy farms exist all over the world. Denmark has lots of them. The condition of having an offshore wind farm in the sea is that the water should be shallow since the tower will have its base at the sea bed and hence there is a limit to the length of the tower. As we go farther into the ocean it gets deeper and deeper. But far off the cost the wind speeds are constant and very good. But setting up an offshore wind tower (the tower will have its base at the seabed) is not possible since the sea is too deep. This problem is solved now and engineers have come with Floating Offshore Wind towers. This towers since they are floating in the ocean can be set up anywhere.

Floating offshore wind turbine

The little higher costs will be offset by the better quality of winds. The major part of earth's surface is water (70%). So a country that has a large coast can generate as much electricity as it wants using this technology even in deep sea. The future of this technology may be very bright since in the future we may have electric ships that would get its energy from such plants that would be located at certain intervals along its path.

Thus now we have come to a point where we can get almost all our energy needs from renewable sources of energy and thus we can minimize the utilization of fossil fuels for energy requirements. No matter how low the prices of crude oil becomes the focus on utilization green and renewable sources of energy should not go away. 

Electricity from Kites

Makar Sankranti everyone knows about this day in India which falls on 14th January. This day is celebrated across the nation by flying kites millions and millions of them. This festival has been celebrated in India since times immemorial. The humble kite is known to people across the world and many among us have flown kites for fun.

But what if the same humble kite be modified and used for better purposes. To satisfy one of the most important needs of modern life electrical energy and at the same time not cause any pollution at all. Yes we have come to a time when researchers across the world have designed Kites that can generate electricity with the help of winds both in air and also under water using underwater waves.

For low water speeds less than 2.5 metres per second a Swedish company Minesto has developed a technology to generate electricity from underwater kites that can produce electricity. Water is 800 times denser than air and hence contains 800 times more energy. The Minesto Underwater Kites are tethered to the Ocean or river beds as shown in the picture. The rudder on the kites is controlled externally by the operators . Therefore the kites move along a controlled path. There is a gearless fast rotating turbine affixed to the kites that rotates along with the motion of the kites and generates electricity. The project is named deep green and has now 4 different products that are extensively tested one has 8 meteres wingspan and can generate 120 kilowatts of wind power at a stream velocity of 1.3 m/sec. The one with the largest wingspan Dg -14 has a wingspan of 14 metres and can generate power in tune of 850 kilowatts at a stream velocity of 1.73 m/sec. So this technology promises to be green and renewable source of energy. Ocean tides are predictable unlike Winds which are intermittent. You can get more information about the technology and the product form the this link .

In this video Link you can see how electricity can be generated using atmospheric kites. This technology developed at Delft University 

The other short video explains ho Dutch scientists have harness the power of kites to generate electricity. As seen in the video they used a 10 sq meter kite and raised it to a height of around 800 metres and generated 10 kilowatts of electricity. At this height the wind speed is higher than the wind speed on ground traditional wind turbine towers cannot reach such a height. 

   Now energy and speed has a cubic relationship. If the speed of wind is 5 m/sec at the height of wind turbines then the height at which this kite would rise it will have a speed of 7 m/sec. Thus approximately 4 times more energy can be generated at this height but it is not possible to have a wind tower that high. But kites can get to that height at a much lower cost. Scientists plant to create an array of such kites to generate many megawatts of electricity.

    So you see what was a source of fun to people when made better and when more thought and science is put into it has potentially become a solution to one of the most major problem on earth and that's totally clean and green energy.

Buoyant Air Turbine - BAT

       The above pics show the Alteros Buoyant Air Turbine that promises to provide cheaper wind power. It taps into winds at high altitudes where the wind speeds are much higher thus a BAT turbine would generate twice the power of a conventional turbine. 

         The setup consists of a shell , a turbine , teethers and a ground station. The shell is made up of high class durable plastic that is inflated with helium . This shell can also be used mount communication and camera equipment. 

       Within the shell you have the turbine which rotates with high speed winds and generates electricity. 

    Teethers connect the shell to winches on the portable ground station. 

       The benefit with this turbine is that it saves on costs of installation and transport by as much as 90%, it is twice as efficient as a traditional wind turbines. In places where there ground wind speeds are not good this turbine can also be used since at high altitudes of 1000 feet or more the wind speeds are good enough to generate electricity economically. Thus if such BAT s are installed in big numbers they can power the entire world and the great advantage is that it is totally green energy and renewable no need to burn any fossil fuel. 

        The BAT is designed to withstand windspeeds of 161 kmph +  . It requires no crew for day to day operation. The system can be monitored remotely and in case of extreme weather condition the system would autonomously dock.

     More information about Alteros BAT can be found at http://www.altaerosenergies.com

      Check out this video 

https://www.youtube.com/kldA4nWANA8

     

            

       

Searaiser

        I have mentioned about tidal energy lots of times in  my blog , there are different ways in which the energy from the ocean currents can be tapped into and one of the ways is this searaser technology .

     The following video demostrates this technology SEARASER VIDEO

             The diagram shown below shows how the setup work the searaser pump units that are fixed in sea the top portion moves up and down depending on the tide and this motion moves the piston attached to it which pumps the water through the pipes to the reservoir where the water is collected and then water is made to flow downstream thereby moving the turbine and creating electrical energy , its a pretty simple setup and ones the things are in place except the maintentce costs the electricity generated is free.

          

                There is absolutely no fuel costs involved since the tidal energy of the sea which is caused due to the gravitational effects of moon and sun is used , the tides are regular and will stay there forever unlike rivers which may go dry during summers in some places. 

       The energy thus generated is totally green and renewable does not cause any pollution at all. 

      India has over 7000 kms of sea cost , the tides in Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean are very high and this technology can be effectively tapped into to generate electricity. With such a long coastline many terawatts of electricity can be generated , this would totally eliminate the need to use coal , and imported crude oil for energy purpose also the energy will be very cheap around 30% cheaper than electricity from nuclear power plants. 

         Currently in India 85% of the crude oil has to be imported by investing in renewable technologies like this one the dependence on foreign oil will come down. Its better to have cars running on electricity generated from renewable energy than have them run on imported petrol. 

           Tidal energy will save the whole world not only billions of dollar but will reduce the CO2 and other SPM  emission into the atmoshphere which is responsible for global warming. 

         Investing in green and renewable energies like tidal energy , solar energy , wind energy will lead to cleaner , greener future of the world . 

         

       

                  

      

Tidal Energy with Davidson Hill Venturi turbine.

A great source of energy largely untapped is is the energy from the ocean currents it is also called Tidal Energy. The tides in oceans are caused by the gravitational effects of the sun and moon. Tides follow a pattern and can be predicted years in advance unlike wind. Water is 832 times denser than air so a relatively small turbine can produce large amounts of electricity as compared to Wind Turbines. 

This is the diagram of the davidson hill venturi turbine , it makes use of the Venturi effect the flow of ocean current is in the smaller side of the turbine so at the other end where the area of the crossection is larger there  velocity of flow of water is reduced thus creating a low pressure area which leads to more current rushing towards that side via the turbine thus making the turbine rotate a very high amount of efficiency is achievable through the Davidson Hill Venturi turbine ,This video of Davidson Hill Turbine will explain more .

Tidal energy is a largely untapped but a very promising source of energy , and it would have very low maintenance costs. This link would shows that a DHV turbine with a 10 meter rotor will produce a few megwatts of electricity at moderate water speeds. 

      Fossil fuel and coal are  getting scarse and of course their combusiton leads to realese of green house gases which are resulting in global warming tapping into renewable sources of energy like tidal energy can produce many terawatts of energy without producing any pollution no loss of limited natural resource. 

We can do away with coal and gas based power plants at least in areas of earth that are within a distance of 1000 kms from the ocean.

       Talking in context of India we have one of the longest coastlines in the world, the power of the sea currents across Arabian Sea, Indian ocean and Bay of Bengal can be tapped into and power can be generated for entire south, east and western parts of India.

      

        

      

Energy from underwater winds

Tidal energy using underwater kites to harness the energy of the ocean tides can be great solution to world energy problems when the issues of cost and effect of salty water on underground kites are effectively addressed. The video link below shows an example of how tidal energy works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qCDRj8TE9Y

     

                   Water being far more denser than air the tides in sea and ocean would produce lot more energy per square meter as compared to wind . Also the scope of the utilization of this energy source can be huge as  most of the earth is all ocean ,however this energy would be generated only upto a few hundread kilometer distance from land and going too far away from the land would add to costs. Looking at this it makes us think why in hell we are burning coal, natural gases etc when there is immense energy available from the sun, wind,hydel and tidal energy why didn't we tap these sources of energy first.

        Here in this video you will find another example of how tidal power can be used for producing energy and mind you 100% clean energy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9jGis5V5LE

      The unique feature of tidal energy is that it is the only source of energy that does not depend on the solar radiation for producing electricity. The tides in the ocean are produced by the gravitational effects of the sun and moon. This energy is enough to produce billions of watts of energy across the world.

         India would be highly benifitted by this source of energy since it has a very long costline and when we do have an honest and transparent govenrment  in place we can focus on R&D in this field and be totally free from using fossil fuels for energy needs, This would also save us from the pollution that may be produced when we use natural gas or coal for fuel.