MIT designs 'invisible,' floating wind turbines

via CNET


A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has designed a system to place wind turbines far offshore and out of sight.

Paul D. Sclavounos, a professor of mechanical engineering and naval architecture, worked with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to design a system that uses cables to tether large turbines to floating platforms.

The tethers connect the platform to concrete blocks on the ocean floor in up to about 650 feet of water. According to Sclavounos and the NREL, the arrangement is stable enough to operate even in large waves brought by a hurricane because the design limits the turbine to mainly back-and-forth movements, rather than up and down.

Wind power is one of the fastest-growing clean-energy sectors worldwide, but proposals to build offshore wind turbines have met public resistance in the United States, largely due to aesthetic concerns.

Traditional offshore turbines are placed in relatively shallow water and visible from the shoreline. One notable example is the Cape Wind proposal--a 420-megawatt facility that has drawn opposition.

Encouraged by positive responses from wind, electric power and oil companies, Sclavounos--who previously worked building offshore platforms for deep-sea oil and gas exploration--hopes to install a half-scale prototype south of Cape Cod.

In a statement, he said that the 90-meter-high systems would generate twice as much electricity per installed megawatt as near-shore turbines because the winds are strong and steady farther out at sea.

Construction of the turbines, which would be large, multi-megawatt systems, would most likely take place onshore at a shipyard. They could conceivably be towed to different locations, according to MIT and the NREL.

US pushes green trade proposal in Bali

via Yahoo News

A joint U.S.-European Union proposal to liberalize trade in green goods and services such as solar panels would boost the availability of technology to battle glboal warming, a top U.S. trade official said Sunday.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on the sidelines of the U.N. climate change conference in Indonesia that developing countries have an average of 9 percent tariffs on the list of 43 goods and services.

"The question is, how can we do a better job of making those available and ensuring additional use of climate mitigation technologies?" Schwab said after a meeting of trade ministers at the global warming conference in Bali.

Developing countries at the conference have called on wealthy nations to speed the transfer of climate-friendly technologies to help them reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases blamed for rising global temperatures.

The tariff cuts, made by the U.S. and E.U. last week, would not apply to so-called biofuels, something emerging economies such as Brazil had been pushing for. It is not clear how much support the trans-Atlantic offer will garner in the 151-member World Trade Organization.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who also handles trade issues, objected to the proposal at a news conference after the trade meeting in Bali, saying that the list of goods was flawed because it omitted ethanol. Brazil is the leading exporter.

"This list is incomplete, it won't do much for climate change, it's not proven what effects that these goods will have on climate change," he said. "The single project whose effect on climate change is already shown and demonstrated, which is ethanol ... isn't part of the list."

Amorim said that use of ethanol over 30 years in Brazil had avoided the emission of 670 million tons of carbon dioxide.

The U.S.-EU proposal would only come into force as part of an overall agreement in the Doha round of trade liberalization talks, which have repeatedly stalled since their inception in Qatar's capital six years ago.

The U.S. and European Union targeted 43 goods "with clear environmental benefits," in order to promote their use worldwide and help combat global warming. But they rejected earlier this month a move by Brazil to include biofuels, such as ethanol.

American and European delegates to the WTO argued that the special environmental tariffs ought to be reserved solely for industrial goods, and not agricultural products. Brazil has been touting its sugarcane-based ethanol around the world as a cheap, eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels that is being held back by high U.S. and European tariffs.

According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the global market for environmental goods and services is worth several hundred billion dollars each year.

Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming: scientists

Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.

Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack pushing out carbon dioxide, livestock passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.

"Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep," said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland state government.

"And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 percent," he told AFP.

Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers.

"Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 percent more energy out of the feed they are eating," said Klieve.

Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that's nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering.

"In a tight year like a drought situation, 15 percent would be a considerable sum," said farmer Michael Mitton.

But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria, before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.

Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.

The idea is controversial, but about 20 percent of health conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal," said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.

"It doesn't get drenched, it doesn't get vaccinated, it utilizes food right across the landscape, it moves around to where the food is good, so yes, it's a good food."

It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions.