The development of a new generation of large-scale, low-cost solar thermal power plants is the focus of a joint research agreement signed between Algeria and Germany. Researchers will be sharing data and expertise to speed up the market introduction of large-scale solar thermal plants. The plants could supply up to 200 [...]
Archive for the ‘Electricity’ Category
Low-cost Solar Thermal Plants at Heart of Algerian-German Research Push
Posted in Economics, Electricity, Europe, Research, Solar Energy on 2008-03-20 | No Comments »
A Power Grid Smartens Up
Posted in Economics, Electricity, Research on 2008-03-20 | No Comments »
Boulder, CO, should soon boast the world’s smartest–and thus most efficient–power grid, thanks to a $100 million project launched last week by Minneapolis-based utility Xcel Energy. The project will equip homes with smart power meters that help people reduce demand when electricity is most expensive. Substations will also use information from the meters to automatically [...]
Interview: French grid chief denounces EU ‘ideology’
Posted in Electricity, Europe, Policy on 2008-03-06 | No Comments »
Dominique Maillard, head of the French electricity network operator RTE, explains why he believes splitting up energy firms is unnecessary in France. He spoke to EurActiv.fr just days after German energy giant E.ON stunned Europe by offering to sell off its electricity transmission network.
More on this topic:
LinksDossier: Liberalising the EU energy sector
News: [...]
Ireland to Support Offshore Wind Power
Posted in Economics, Electricity, Europe, Wind Energy on 2008-02-20 | 1 Comment »
Irish Energy Minister Eamon Ryan has announced a modification to the country’s renewable energy feed-in tariff scheme (Refit) to support the development of offshore wind power. The Refit scheme provides a guaranteed price for electricity produced by new plants for 15 years. Under the latest change, offshore wind-power projects are to be supported at a [...]
Lessons from an Emerging Wind Power
Posted in Electricity, Europe, Wind Energy on 2008-02-20 | No Comments »
The people of Denmark have a story to tell in their own Nordic unassuming way. You hear it from quietly proud Per Volund, an engineer, as he takes a group of Americans out on a small boat to tour the Middlegrunden wind farm in Copenhagen harbor. Volund, the vice chairman of the cooperative that runs [...]
Electric cars face battery of hurdles
Posted in Batteries, Economics, Electricity on 2008-02-19 | No Comments »
In the rush to deliver an electric car to the masses, General Motors Corp. is finding that the all-important battery might not be the only major hurdles.
The heating and cooling systems, for example, are a challenge because they typically are built to run off a traditional fuel combustion engine. That means new types of air [...]
Global Warming Solutions plans hybrid solar plant
Posted in Electricity, Solar Energy on 2008-02-18 | No Comments »
Research and development has commenced to create a new type of solar power plant employing technology that would allow it to produce electricity even during periods of no sunlight. The solar plant will use LETG (Light Electric Thermal Generator), a hybrid solar and thermal energy technology that generates energy by heating up liquids that [...]
Volvo officials thank senators for investment in Md. facility
Posted in Electricity, Transportation on 2008-02-16 | No Comments »
Volvo Powertrain officials met Thursday with U.S. Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin, both D-Md., to thank them for the federal investment being made in the Hybrid Electric Engine project at the Volvo Powertrain facility in Hagerstown.
It was reported in November 2007 that Volvo Powertrain in Hagerstown would receive $2 million under the [...]
Kids break out their Lego robot know-how for chance to compete in world event
Posted in Electricity, Energy on 2008-02-03 | No Comments »
As they say in the FIRST LEGO League world championships: 3, 2, 1 LEGO!About three dozen teams of children between the ages of 9 and 14 carefully manoeuvred the robots they’d made out of LEGO blocks, electronics and computer software around a pool table-sized obstacle course on Saturday in hopes of winning a spot at [...]
Islanders turned on by green electricity
Posted in Electricity, Hydro Energy, Solar Energy, Wind Energy on 2008-02-01 | 1 Comment »
Kettles will be boiling and toasters popping in a small Scottish island today when its 87 residents receive mains electricity for the first time.
At midday the Isle of Eigg will take a long-awaited step into the modern world when its oldest resident, a 90-year-old woman, flicks a switch in a symbolic ceremony on the pier.
Five [...]
