The multibillion rand park – earmarked for the hot, dry Northern Cape province – will be built over thousands of hectares and provide 5 000 megawatts (five gigawatts) of electricity, which will be fed into the national grid.
The park will be built in stages over nine years, but the first sections will be operational as early as 2012. Massive job creation, lucrative private-sector investments, local industry development and a cleaner, more secure power supply are among the benefits of a large-scale park such as this.
The project is a partnership between government, state power utility Eskom and the Clinton Climate Change Initiative (CCI). An investors’ conference, to run from 28 to 29 October, is hoped to draw in additional stakeholders from the private sector.

For the full story: SAAEA

Mimicking nature

Researchers at North Carolina State University, United States, have shown that water-gel-based solar devices, or “artificial leaves”, can act like solar cells to produce electricity. These leaves are bendable devices composed of a water-based gel infused with light-sensitive molecules, which are then coupled with electrodes coated in carbon nanotubes or graphite. The team’s findings prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely mimic nature. These devices also have the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the standard silicon-based solar cells.

According to Orlin Velev, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, “[W]e do not want to overpromise at this stage, as the devices are still of relatively low efficiency and there is a long way to go before this can become a practical technology. However, we believe that the concept of biologically inspired ‘soft’ devices for generating electricity may in the future provide an alternative for the present-day solid-state technologies.” Velev says the team now plans to fine-tune the photovoltaic devices to make them even more like real leaves.

Source:NCSUnewsroom

South Africa’s leading energy supplier has announced that, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town, it will be converting the old Athlone coal fired power station into a wind farm filled with eight new 1.5MW wind turbines.

Proposed Athlone wind power station

It indicated that the implosion of the old power station is a symbol of its commitment to clean energy and plans to convert all existing coal fired powered stations into renewable energy sources by 2016.

Public Relations Officer Mark Schoon explained the rationale: “Although cheap in terms of money, coal fired energy is currently the most polluting form of energy generation as well as being the heaviest user of water. Emissions from coal-fired plants have substantial impacts on both air quality and global climate change.”

Some 92,8% of South Africa’s power is derived from coal, a higher percentage than most countries, according to Engineering News. And much of South Africa’s transport fuel is also derived from coal, making the domestic economy one of the world’s most carbon heavy globally. In the last financial year, according to the publication, Eskom burnt some 122,7-million tons of coal and produced 224,7-million tons of CO2 equal to just over 50% of the country’s total CO2 emissions. This ensures that South Africa maintain its position as the 12th highest polluter in the world, just above Mexico.

Athlone coal power station

“Coal fired power plants also emit substantial amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a precursor of fine particulate and acid rain, and of nitrogen oxides (NOx), a precursor of tropospheric ozone as well as particulate, in addition to producing other pollutants such as mercury and solid waste.” Schoon remarked that all these problems could be rectified by using various forms of alternative energy sources, resulting in significant improvement in health care and environmental impacts and cost. “It is time to make a switch to clean energy”

The Athlone station was commissioned in 1962 and was operated by the City of Cape Town. There are currently thirteen coal fired power stations in South Africa, ten of which are in operation and all run by Eskom. Most are situated in Mpumalanga.

For more information and to send comments please contact the Public Relations Officer at Eskom. Tel. 08600ESKOM and SMS to 082 941 3707 and email to western@eskom.co.za

Original story: Green Times

Ocean Therapy Solutions has been testing the centrifugal oil-water separator but has not yet received payment from BP, which is under growing pressure to stem the massive flow of oil from the remains of the Deepwater Horizon rig and clean up the spill.

“Kevin has spent 15 years and $24 million of his own money on this technology, and we have spent over $1 million more than that on adjusting the machines and preparing them for testing,” Costner’s business partner, Louisiana attorney John Houghtaling, told the Los Angeles Times. “We haven’t gotten a check yet from BP. The sooner it comes, the sooner we can act.”

The technology for the portable liquid separators was originally developed by national laboratories for defense purposes. Costner and his business partner purchased the patent for the technology in 1990 and have been working on commercial product since then. Costner began working on ways to clean oil from water, according to the LA Times, while working on his 1995 film “Waterworld,” a post-apocalyptic tale in which most of the Earth has been covered by ocean and the remaining people live on boats and other floating structures.

Fuel Cell

The power output is small, orders of magnitude lower than from hydrogen or methanol fuel cells, but the supply and handling of these flammable fuels is avoided. It is proposed that the cell might be used in applications which require relatively low power consumption, for example sensors of various kinds or emergency signaling units, and that the devices might be used best in desert or warm coastal regions where the water is readily evaporated from the cell, thus maintaining its concentration gradient.

Source: Forbes blog

Methane is a more harmful climate change gas than carbon dioxide (CO2). By flaring the methane it burned to produce CO2 and water.

No matter what the incentives are for the mine to move ahead with this project (financial or environmental) it is great to read that companies are becoming less wasteful with the resources available to them.

Beatrix mine in the Free State

JOHANNESBURG – JSE-listed gold major Gold Fields on Wednesday turned its methane curse at Beatrix gold mine into a R200-million carbon-trading and electricity-generation blessing.

The same methane that has killed miners will now initially be flared and later harnessed to produce 5 MW of electricity that represents 5% of the Beatrix mine’s electricity needs.

That is merely the start of what Gold Fields intends doing with what is a seemingly infinite supply of methane, which emanates from underground geological faults, fissures and dykes, and escapes during the normal course of mining operations.

Just for the initial outlay of R42-million on the flaring of the gas, Gold Fields earns itself R200-million in carbon credits over seven years.