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Researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science and
California State University see a day when New York City and other large
urban areas may get massive amounts of power from high-altitude winds up
in the jet stream. Researchers from these universities recently crunched
28 years’ worth of data and discovered not only that high altitude
winds contain enough energy to meet the world’s global energy demand
100 times over, but they also determined that the best places to capture
that wind are over population centers in East Asia and the eastern
U.S.
According to www.physorg.com, Ken
Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology
and Cristina Archer of California State University, Chico, Calif.,
compiled an in-depth study of wind energy available at high altitudes in
the atmosphere. The researchers assessed potential for wind power in
terms of wind-power density, which takes into account both wind speed
and air density at different altitudes.
“There is a huge amount of energy available in high altitude winds,”
said coauthor Caldeira in a posting at
www.physorg.com., “These winds blow much more strongly and
steadily than near-surface winds, but you need to go get up miles to get
a big advantage. Ideally, you would like to be up near the jet streams
around 30,000 feet.”
That posting also said that jet streams between 20,000 and 50,000 feet
in altitude are generally steadier and 10 times faster than winds near
the ground, making them a potentially vast and dependable source of
energy. Several technological schemes have been proposed to harvest this
energy, including tethered, kite-like wind turbines that would be lofted
to the altitude of the jet streams. Up to 40 megawatts of electricity
could be generated by current designs and transmitted to the ground via
the tether.
“We found the highest wind power densities over Japan and eastern
China, the eastern coast of the United States, southern Australia, and
north-eastern Africa,” said lead author Archer in the posting at
www.physorg.com. “The median values in these areas are greater
than 10 kilowatts per square meter. This is unthinkable near the ground,
where even the best locations have usually less than one kilowatt per
square meter.”
The Carnegie Institute for Science website said its analysis included
assessments of high-altitude wind energy for the world’s five largest
cities: Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Mexico City. “For cities
that are affected by polar jet streams such as Tokyo, Seoul and New
York, the high-altitude resource is phenomenal,” said Archer. “New
York, which has the highest average high-altitude wind power density of
any U.S. city, has an average wind power density of up to 16 kilowatts
per square meter.”
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Limited Brands, Inc., is using energy-efficient lighting from GE Lighting for a comprehensive
lighting retrofit of five distribution centers at its headquarters in
Columbus, Ohio. Within the 3.5 million square feet of facilities, the
company’s lighting energy consumption has been cut by 50 percent.
Limited Brands expects annualized energy and maintenance cost savings of
approximately $775,000. The company expects to achieve $650,000 in
energy savings and $125,000 in maintenance savings annually. In addition
to enabling significant cost savings, the new lighting dramatically
increases light levels, making some areas of the facilities up to four
times brighter.
“We’re constantly examining new strategies for enhancing the
efficiency of our lighting,” says Ronald Rau, vice president of stores
and facilities maintenance. “With this project and others underway
now, we’re doing more than just trimming electricity bills. We’re
contributing to our sustainability initiatives while improving the work
environment of our associates.”
For the retrofit, Limited Brands used new, more efficient lighting: GE
T5 High-Output Starcoat Ecolux lamps, TCLP-compliant 2-foot and 3-foot
T8 Watt-Miser lamps (both 28W and 23W) and GE UltramaxTM T8 ballasts.
Additionally, the fixtures are equipped with motion sensors, so the
lamps are only operating when there is activity in the area.
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DuPont will be working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in
a $9
million solar research program, part of the company's overall effort
in providing more mainstream solar photovoltaic (PV) products for
commercial and residential applications. The DOE funding comes from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year. The
three-year program is designed to accelerate commercialization of an
ultra-thin protective film --more than 3,000 times thinner than a human
hair -- that prevents moisture from degrading the performance of
thin-film PV modules, a key challenge in the past.
Thin film PV modules are projected to be the fastest growing segment of
the solar module industry because of their potential to reduce the cost
of producing solar-derived energy --- helping solar energy become more
competitive with other forms of energy generation. Thin film PV panels
can be made with flexible plastic instead of glass, and can be bent and
wrapped, offering greater versatility and easier integration into the
roofing, windows or siding of a commercial or residential building.
Environmental degradation can take place without glass protecting the
sensitive portions of the module. DuPont will provide $6 million and the
DOE will contribute $3 million to the program.
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Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently announced
$59 million in conditional loan guarantees from the Department of
Energy for Nordic Windpower, USA, and Beacon Power. Nordic Windpower has
been offered $16 million to support the expansion of its assembly plant
in Pocatello, Idaho, to produce its one megawatt wind turbine. Beacon
Power, an energy storage company, has been offered $43 million to
support the construction of its 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage
plant in Stephentown, N.Y., that will help ensure the reliable delivery
of renewable energy to the electricity grid.
Nordic’s proprietary one megawatt wind turbine uses two blades and a
patented teeter-hub technology that dampens loads, resulting in a
lightweight turbine at least 10% less costly to manufacture, install,
operate and maintain than competing systems. Beacon Power Tyngsboro,
Mass., designs and develops advanced products and services to support
more stable, reliable and efficient grid operation. Beacon’s flywheel
system, the core component of the 20 megawatt plant, is specifically
optimized to perform frequency regulation on utility grids by absorbing
and discharging energy to maintain the consistency and reliability of
the electric grid.
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Plug Power Inc., Latham
N.Y., has landed a $1.5 million contract to power a fleet of the
Department of Defense’s lift trucks. The two-year pilot project will
assess the use of wastewater treatment plant digester gas as a hydrogen
source for fuel cells. The hydrogen created in the process will then
power the GenDrive fuel-cells installed in sit-down forklifts at the
U.S. Army’s Forces Command Unit in Fort Lewis, Wash.
“This Army site demonstration project will provide an opportunity to
run our products under rigorous, real-world conditions, adding to the
mounting evidence in support of the commercial viability of hydrogen
fuel cells,” said Andy Marsh, Plug Power’s CEO.
As part of the agreement, Plug Power will supply the fuel cells,
training, service and support of the products for two years. The units
will be delivered in the third quarter of 2010, at which point Plug
Power will start generating revenue from the contract. The project
involves a partnership with four other entities: the Center for
Transportation and the Environment; Air Products and Chemicals Inc.; the
Gas Technology Institute; and Proterra LLC, a San Jose, Calif., company
that makes hybrid buses.
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The Halo Eco-Twist 5-inch and 6-inch aperture multi-wattage compact
fluorescent downlights offer an IC-rated and AIR-TITE housing that
utilize a new spiral twist compact fluorescent lamp and multi-wattage
ballast system from Osram Sylvania allowing interchangeability of 16W,
21W or 28W lamps in a single housing. Petite in size, the new lamps
provide enhanced visual comfort by means of good cutoff, low glare, a
warm white color and high color rendering. The downlights meet ENERGY
STAR and Title 24 High Efficacy compliance standards as well as
Washington State and New York State energy codes and the International
Energy Conservation Codes High Efficacy compliance.
Cooper Lighting
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Ideal for both new construction and retrofit projects, unique
INVISILED Tape provides flexible, easy-to-install accent lighting
solutions for a broad range of layouts and applications including
miniature coves, architectural accents, home theaters, entertainment
rooms, under counters and bars, toe kick spaces, display windows, trade
show booths, recreational vehicles, and wine racks.
The energy efficient LED tape delivers a crisp, quality light while
using only 1.5 watts per-foot. Flexible and easy to install, INVISILED
offers an extremely low profile and is virtually invisible with a 1/8th
of an inch thickness and 7/16th of an inch width. It allows for
applications in extremely narrow coves. Long life LEDs (light emitting
diodes) perform up to 50,000 hours and are spaced evenly one-inch apart.
Each self adhesive INVISILED strip is backed with a 3M adhesive or
screw based mounting clips for easy installation and ideal for
customizing lighting designs to meet the exact specifications of each
project. LED tape is available in one-foot and five-foot sections that
are field cuttable every six inches or may also be cut to length at the
end of a run. INVISILED is crafted in a silicon casing for long-lasting
durability but still flexible enough to negotiate curves effortlessly.
WAC Lighting
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July 13-15
SSL Market Introduction Workshop
Department of Energy Solid-State lighting program; Chicago; Registration
info
September 13–16, 2009
28th Annual Street and Area Lighting Conference;
Philadelphia;
The Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America (IES); 212-248-5000;
www.ies.org
October 19-22
Solar Power 2009
San Jose, Calif. Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), 866-229-2386,
www.solarpowerconference.com
Nov. 11-13, 2009
GreenBuild International Conference and Expo
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Washington, D.C., 800-795-1747, info@greenbuildexpo.org; www.greenbuildexpo.org;
Have an event for the Green Events section? E-mail it to jim.lucy@penton.com
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G-Biz is a twice-monthly newsletter published by Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Construction &
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market of interest to the readers of our magazines.
Twice each month, G-Biz will cover topics such as:
- The latest developments in solar, wind and other
alternative sources of energy
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