A series of recent policy-related developments within the biofuels industry may have set the stage for what could prove to be a significant shift in biofuel geopolitics over the next decade. To recap: the European Court of Justice (ECJ) affirmed an earlier ruling that held the imposition of carbon taxes on flights touching down or taking off on EU soil did not infringe international law or the Open Skies Agreement; a U.S. District Court ruled that California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) violates the U.S. Constitution; and the long-standing U.S. ethanol producer credit (aka “VEETC”) slipped quietly into the history books. Where do these developments leave the industry? While the inclusion of airline emissions in the EU’s ETS indicates that the buzz around aviation biofuels won’t fade anytime soon, the threat of costly trade wars by the ...

 

With congested cities that continue to grow, more and more cities are looking towards public transportation as a way to move people around and get people not using cars.

However, despite the benefits of public transportation, many public transit buses still run on good old fossil fuel diesel. With carbon emissions reaching record highs, one wonders if public buses running completely on fossil fuels and wasting energy is efficient.

Enter Swedish automotive company Volvo, which has been getting into the clean tech game in a big way by developing hybrid buses.

Anders Kroon, technical official with Volvo, and his team began to work on the concept of buses that would be more sustainable. Call them hybrid buses. Hybrid buses use a combination of an internal combustion engine, along with an electric ...

The water industry is renowned for being risk averse and conservative. It’s understandable. No one wants people to experiment with their water. But as fresh water becomes more and more precious and the cost of energy to get fresh water keeps on rising, the challenges of the water-energy nexus are getting bigger. The industry needs innovative solutions but with innovation comes risk. This blog series will put the spotlight on technologies addressing some of the challenges and take a closer look at their markets and growth prospects ahead of our next water conference. The water industry and the energy industry are fundamental to one another. The water industry needs large amounts of energy to transport, store and treat water. The energy industry needs large amounts of water (for boilers and cooling) to generate and distribute power. ...

Earlier this year Ontario’s Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster (GPIC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Regional Development Agency East Netherlands to develop opportunities and advance research in the water technology field. Energy Refuge recently caught up with Lisa Saroli, from Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Investment Division, who spoke to us in the wake of International Water Week conference in the Netherlands, which took place in Amsterdam in early November. ER: In terms of strategy, what can the partnership achieve? LS: The purpose of the MOU is to share knowledge, experience and technologies in their respective jurisdictions to enhance our capabilities to address environmental issues in their respective jurisdictions. The MOU covers water issues such as source water protection and sustainable water use, as well as several other environmental issue of interest to both jurisdictions such ...

A German-led initiative to tap solar energy in the deserts of Northern Africa and the Middle East to meet Europe’s long-term energy needs has targeted a site in Morocco for its first large-scale solar farm. The Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) — whose members include E.ON, Siemens, Munich Re and Deutsche Bank — announced during its annual conference that it will begin construction next year on a 500 megawatt solar farm. While the specific location was not disclosed, reports say it will likely be built near Ouarzazate, a city in southern Morocco known as “the door of the desert.” The €2 billion plant represents just the first step in a proposed €400 billion network of solar plants and wind farms the coalition hopes will provide 15 percent of Europe’s electricity by 2050. Negotiations are already underway with Tunisia for the ...

The Norwegian government last week launched a global initiative to finance access to renewable energy, energy efficiency and low carbon development in developing countries. The launch took place during a conference organized by the International Energy Agency and attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The conference’s main goal was to discuss the role of clean, alternative energy to fight poverty. “Ending energy poverty should be part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem. WWF urges Norway, and other countries, to keep their focus on renewables, the energy of the future – not on the dirty fossil fuels of the past” said Rasmus Hansson, CEO of WWF-Norway. “We need energy not only to be universal, [we] need it to be clean – to be sustainable as well. We cannot continue to burn our way to prosperity. ...

Researchers at the University of Leeds and Durham University have solved a long-standing problem that could revolutionize the way new plastics are developed. The breakthrough will allow experts to create the perfect plastic with specific uses and properties by using a high-tech ‘recipe book’. It will also increase our ability to recycle plastics. The research is published in the journal Science. A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs. Monomers of plastic are either ...

A new product launched by a Turkish solar company called Solimpeks offers an ingenious solution to homeowners who would like to benefit from own solar power. The company’s Volther is a hybrid photovoltaic-solar thermal collector, which produces electricity and hot water simultaneously. The company said in a press statement that the hybrid system allows extra module heat to be absorbed to produce hot water while optimizing efficiency. The science behind is fairly straightforward. Any PV cell is negatively affected by heat, with output dropping by around 0.5 % for every Kelvin degree. A 10-degree rising in temperature, for example, would mean a loss in power output of about 5%. Solimpeks scientists succeeded in turning the problem into an advantage with the development of its “PV-T”, described as a hybrid PV and solar thermal collector. The device enables the PV cells ...

There are two ways to lower the cost of producing energy through photovoltaics – more efficient solar cells (more power per square foot) and lower production costs (lower cost per square foot). The ETAlab of the Fraunhofer ISE has devised a way to do both simultaneously. The research team in the laboratory for new solar cell structures and processing steps has not only made the solar cell contacts out of 100% cost-effective materials (replacing expensive silver with cheaper copper and nickel), but the process also increases the efficiency of the solar cell to a very respectable 21.4%.

In order to achieve a high level of efficiency, the front contacts in the solar cell not only have to exhibit a low level of loss with light-generated current but also cover the least amount of the cell surface possible. Technologically speaking, materials ...

SCHOTT Solar announced the world’s first monocrystalline screen-printed solar cell on Wednesday — with conversion efficiency of 20.2%. The Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg, another research institute, confirmed the results of SCHOTT Solar’s tests with an independent measurement.

The previous record – 17.6% – was achieved through use of multicrystalline solar cells, one of several methods of making a solar cell go. SCHOTT Solar’s Dr. Axel Metz, head of solar cell research and development at SCHOTT Solar, acknowledges the multicrystalline concept as the greatest contributing factor to his team’s outstanding results. “We’ve been concentrating on the development of monocrystalline cells since the start of 2011,” he said. “We had three years of experience with the multicrystalline cells to carry over to the monocrystalline concept.”

The initial attempts produced cell efficiency of well above 19%, but that wasn’t quite good enough. ...