Type: Image

Photo of the week: Google’s engines go green

Data centres are the engines of the internet. They are the places where the network of servers and fibre-optic cables are housed to provide the vast online services of Google. But they fret energy and until now this energy is mainly provided by nuclear and coal power. Around 35% of their data centres are powered by renewable sources, but Google aims for a 100% renewable operation in the future. Although the company didn’t give an end-date for this transition, they clearly want to compete with Apple, whose data centres are already 100% running on renewables since 2012 and is the company is now looking to improve the footprint of their production processes.

Google made a big move recently by buying an old coal-fired power plant in Alabama that will be turned it into a 100% renewably powered data centre. Patrick Gammons, a senior manager of Google’s Data Center Energy and Location Strategy, explained the decision on his blog. “Decades of investment shouldn’t go to waste just because a site has closed; we can repurpose existing electric and other infrastructure to make sure our data centers are reliably serving our users around the world.”

Google will turn this coal mine in a fully renewable powered data centre (photo: Google)

Google will turn this coal mine in a fully renewable powered data centre (photo: Google)

Sources

ClimateProgress
Apple
The Guardian

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Photo of the Week: the sun gives us wings

 

Last week, Pilot Andre Borschberg settled an impressive world record for longest distance bridged with a manned solar-powered plane when he landed in Hawaii after a flight of 120 hours from Nagoya, a stunning 8200 km. The SolarImpulse is a single-seater plane covered with 17000 photovoltaic cells which drive the elecric motors and charge the lithium-ion batteries.

“Now you can fly longer with no fuel than you can with fuel. So, what Andre has done is not only a historic first for aviation, it’s a historic first for renewable energies. And this is why we are doing this project.” Mr Piccard (the co-founder of the project) told reporters after the touch down in Kalaeloa airport, Hawaii.

Having started in Abu Dhabi in the beginning of March, the team aims to complete a round-the world tour this summer. The aim of the tour is to prove the world what clean technology, in particular solar technology, can do already today. There is no direct large scale application possible of solar driven commercial airplanes.

The SolarImpulse settled a stunning record of 8200km non-stop flight from Nagoya to Kalealoa (photo: SolarImpulse)

The SolarImpulse settled a stunning record of 8200km non-stop flight from Nagoya to Kalealoa (photo: SolarImpulse)

Sources

BBC news
SolarImpulse

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Photo of the Week: the Wind Tree

If you are following the Photo of the Week series, you probably remember the Vortex bladeless wind turbine. This radical new way to harvest wind energy is bringing a new ehm… wind in the industry. The asparagus-like structure is an improvement for those who don’t like the large rotating fans in the countryside. But the Wind Tree  (originally called the Arbre à Vent by its inventor Jérôme Michaud-Larivière) is raising wind energy to a whole new level of aesthetics.

Further developed by French engineers, this tree has rotating leaves that generate electricity regardless the direction of the wind. Other advantages are its silent operation, the possibility to start generating at wind speeds of 2 m/s instead of 5 m/s as for most traditional systems and the ability to be installed in an urban environment. One tree costs around 35 000 euros and has a capacity of 3kW. That is enough to power a small household. The real innovation is to be found in the leaves, designed to rotate in both laminar and the turbulent air flow near buildings.

The Wind Tree harvests wind energy from slower and turbulent wind flows than traditional systems, making it a perfect solution for an urban environment (photo: Fred Tanneau)

The Wind Tree harvests wind energy from slower and turbulent wind flows than traditional systems, making it a perfect solution for an urban environment (photo: Fred Tanneau)

Sources

NewWind

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Photo of the Week: a loaf of bread will be smaller in 2050

What in heaven’s name has climate change to do with the size of a loaf of bread? Well, probably more than you would assume. Scientists of Australian company AgFace (short for Australian Grains Free Air CO2 Enrichment facility) are investigating the influence of higher levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere on agricultural crops like wheat. The effect on grains is complex. Although the plants grow faster, they contain less protein. And apparently it also alters the viscosity of dough and how a loaf of bread rises, as can be seen in the picture below. The smaller loaf was baked from grains that were grown in carbon dioxide levels around 550ppm, the expected level by 2050 (we’re hovering around 400ppm, 350ppm is generally accepted as being the limit to avoid serious climate disruption). The larger one is made from the same amount of wheat, grown in today’s conditions. AgFace is investigating breeds which would reduce the loss of protein content. If this could be achieved, there is at last a positive side at high carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere.

Higher levels of carbon dioxide affect the amount of proteins in grains, as well as the dough's elasticity and rising process resulting in a smaller loaf of bread (photo Simone Dalton)

Higher levels of carbon dioxide affect the amount of proteins in grains, as well as the dough’s elasticity and rising process resulting in a smaller loaf of bread (photo Simone Dalton)

Source
Sydney Morning Herald

 

 

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Photo of the week: century old technology meets Kalahri sun

Earlier in the Photo of the Week series, we saw how Vortex Bladeless is offering a radical new way to harvest wind energy. But in the solar energy sector a lot of innovation is going on as well. The Swedish firm Ripasso is building what it claims to be the most efficient solar electricity system. In the South African Kalahari desert, giant parabolic mirrors follow the track of the sun and focus the rays in a small point where it drives a Stirling motor. That’s an invention dating back to 1816, but up to now it has mainly been used in military submarines although it can have much higher inefficiencies than classical combustion motors. It has no exhaust or inlets and works solely on the heating and cooling cycle of an internal fluid. Ripasso took this Stirling motor to South Africa where it is now able to convert solar energy to electricity with an efficiency of 34%, significantly higher than the 23% at best of other solar systems available today. Although it was not easy to convey banks their technology can fulfill its promises, Ripasso has now enough funding to start its first commercial-scale installation.

Ripasso showed that their 100m² mirrors in combination with a Stirling motor can reach an efficiency up to 32% (photo: Jeffrey Barbee)

Ripasso showed that their 100m² mirrors in combination with a Stirling motor can reach an efficiency up to 32% (photo: Jeffrey Barbee)

Sources

Ripasso Energy
The Guardian

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Photo of the week: time for Ocean Cleanup!

We humans are very effective in one thing: ruining all the good things the planet has to offer. On this blog we’ve talked a lot about air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but the air is not the only place we use as trash can. Every year millions of tons of plastic debris end up in our oceans. In the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, with an estimated density of plastic of 330 000 parts per square kilometer, debris is brought together by the circular ocean current in the higher Pacific Ocean.

Boyan Slat, now a 20-years old Dutch engineering student, presented an idea to clean up the mess a few years ago. At the time, it got a lot of publicity and with a kickstarter campaign he raised 2 billion dollars in no time. Last week, his ngo the Ocean Cleanup announced a first test system will be deployed in the second quarter of 2016 near Tsushima Island, between Japan and South Korea. Within five years, after other deployments of increasing scale and design updates, Slat plans to deploy a 100 km-long system to clean up about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California.

With the Ocean Cleanup system, Boyan Slat hopes to put the sea currents at work to collect garbage (graphic: the Ocean Cleanup)

With the Ocean Cleanup system, Boyan Slat hopes to put the sea currents at work to collect garbage (graphic: the Ocean Cleanup)

Altough many people are excited about the idea, not everyone is convinced the system is going to work. Back in 2014, a very thorough technical and scientific review of Slat’s own feasibility study was published. Besides the enormous technical challenges such a floating device poses to engineers, the Ocean Cleanup seems to aim at collecting the larger plastic debris at the top water layer. In fact, the most harmful are the tiny particles floating in lower water layers that are swallowed by sea animals. How the device will cope with this and other feasibility questions remain largely unanswered until today. Let’s hope the test system in Tsushima will bring clarity on what is possible. In the meantime, we better try to reduce our waste footprint anyway.

Sources

the Ocean Cleanup
Review

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