A historic amount of snow covered large parts of the US (photo: US Department of Defense/Handout/EPA)
This week, an unseen amount of snow covered large parts of the United states. In three days, an equivalent to a year’s supply of snow has fallen, killing at least 10 people. Global warming is intensifying the water cycle of planet earth and sights like this will become the standard. The snow is not the only misery; when it starts melting many states will have to deal with severe flooding.
The test bike lane was opened the 12th of November in Krommenie, The Netherlands (photo: SolaRoad)
This week, SolaRoad opened its first solar powered bike road in the Netherlands. The test lane is about 100 meters long and will give useful information about the efficiency of the solar panels build into the concrete lane, covered with a thick glass sheet to protect the panels. An interesting experiment, yet there are many objections to make. Why lay solar panels on the ground, where they will rapidly get covered with mud and dirt? SolaRoad says it solves this problem by tilting the bike lanes slightly. The test project will show if this is sufficient. Another important objection is that the panels aren’t tilted properly to catch as much solar power as possible. According to The Guardian this could mean a decrease of 30% electricity. It is very unlikely solar panel roads will be powering street lightning, let alone electric vehicles passing over it.
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In the previous post on the blade design project I discussed the commonly used composite materials in wind turbine design. In this post I compare natural fibers to the highly popular glass fibers and discuss why natural fibers truly are environmentally superior.
Tar mines alter the Canadian landscape toroughly (photo: Garth Lenz)
Tar sands, also called bituminous sands, is loose sand containing a of mixture of clay and water saturated with a dense and viscous form of petroleum, technically referred to as bitumen. They are found in very large quantities in Canada, Kazakhstan and Russia. The estimated worldwide deposits are far more than estimated deposits for petroleum. The extraction process is expensive, but due to high oil prices tar sands development has seen a big increase the last years. Tar sand mines treathen natural habitats and landscapes as seen on the picture above.
In this post I discuss the basics of composite materials. A composite material is a composition of two or more materials, combined to have “best of both worlds”. The bulk material is called “the matrix” and is somehow reinforced, e.g. by fibers or small particles. They increase the strength and stiffness of the matrix. (more…)
The Andasol-1 solar thermal collector is visible from space
In March 2009, the Andasol-1 solar thermal collector opened in Spain, the first of its kind in Europe. Later that year Andasol-2 was opened and in 2011 another Andasol collector became reality. In contrast to the common photovoltaic systems we see on rooftops, the thermal collectors store the sun’s heat in a big heat reservoir of molten salt, by reflecting the sunlight with parabolic mirrors pointed at the reservoir. Via thermal turbines this heat is be transformed into electricity, enough for up to 200 000 people.
