A Green Degree

This blog intends to bring a new perspective on all things 'green' and sustainable, covering (mostly) energy, politics, the economy & more, what I feel as the most pressing concerns we face. In short, sustainability needs to progress & become the social everyday. That's my passion, and our solution. Screw business as usual people!













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April 28th 2012

Guess What - Another World Solar Efficiency Record Broken

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The solar industry is seeing growth unlike any other in recent years, with much of the attention focused on efficiencies and reaching the golden rate of sunlight absorption, around 40%, which would indicate the ceiling of solar’s power potential. 

As these rates continue to rapidly progress through the roof of the last, prices per KWh drop in response, bringing down overall solar installation prices, making the entire activity much more lucrative to us consumers and the producers, and generally makes our world a better place.

There is however a secondary bonus to such procedure - competition. Hundreds or private, multinational and lab groups are striving to be the team with the highest efficiency, whether it be for their individual solar cells, or the entire panel. This competition is what drives records to be broken, almost on a daily basis. The latest addition to the list is quite a big one.

Semprius, a large solar-module producing company which has been awarded multiple large sums of money by the NERL and DOE for its advances in the industry, has in its latest project cranked the bar up to 33.9%, beating back the original world record of 32%. They have achieved “unmatched efficiency and performance” by creating a solar cell the size of a pencil point (another world record), allowing an unheard of amount of sunlight-electricity generation.

Many are touting the company as a success story of the highest order in terms of government-backed solar funding and subsidies, which comes at a time where many solar bankruptcies have tarnished the industry’s reputation. Although it is too early to mark this down as a complete success just yet, the progress Semprius has made is certainly admirable, and worthy of further investment.

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Posted at 12:55pm and tagged with: solar, Semprius, energy, efficiency, Africa, desert, Eu, record, broken, industry, competition, business, NERL, DOE, solar cell, solar module, success, subsidy, DESERTEC, US, innovation,.

April 21st 2012

Manhattan-Sized Solar Power Plant Turned On In India

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After just 14 months of preparation and the collaboration of 21 countries, the Indian state of Gujurat has just turned on the world’s largest solar powered plant, to the tune of $2.3 billion and a 600MW generating capacity. Given its size, this is more of a solar-city than a mere plant, coming in at 5,000 acres, producing as much energy as a well-oiled (forgive the pun) fossil fuel plant or nuclear reactor.

With the advent of this new addition to the grid, India plans of powering forward into the renewable future with goals of 15% by 2020, with current values sitting around the 6% mark. Now that’s not nearly as ambitious as some of the other keen-on-green nations, such as Denmark’s wild 100% mix by 2050, or the 30%-40% goals of the UK, Germany or other Scandinavian players, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. 

Given India’s stance on the global stage in the last climate talks, touting itself as a solar leader with the technology to back its claims, it would finally seem things are coming to fruition. Further investment of $400 million has been laid out for promotion and advancements, and residential solar is being pushed as the next step for India. 

Unfortunately, this latest project pales in comparison to the TuNur proposal in Tunisia, part of the DESERTEC initiative focused on building solar plants in the African deserts. This whopping 2GW plant will dwarf even the Gujarat attempt, and plans to be complete by 2016. This plant however takes the form of a concentrated solar power generator, whereby panels direct sunlight onto a single collecting tower, producing intense heats to boil water and spin turbines. 

The one question that does arise in reading these, to me at least, is that of how many more similar builds can be undertaken before space becomes a serious issue? In countries devoid of deserts of wide open, flat spaces (think Japan, SE Asia or many EU nations), there is unlikely to be room for multiple builds in similar scale to the Indian or Tunisian effort, and unless urban spaces are integrated fluidly, it’s a real stumbling block. 

However, considering the rapidity at which solar efficiency is rising, and the introduction of tech like the ‘black’ cells, which can capture near-100% of the sunlight, or 3D panels which double or triple conversion rates, similarly powerful plants could become smaller and smaller. 

Anyway, you only need to look at this below image to see that us humans have PLENTY of solar energy at our disposal, we just need to actually use it!

Posted at 5:16pm and tagged with: solar, Gujarat, India, concentrated solar, power, energy, electricity, grid, denmark, EU, UK, climate, DESERTEC, Tunisia, desert, renewable, sunlight,.

April 4th 2012

Saudi Arabia Living On Borrowed Time, Just 50 Years Of It

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NASA has recently published some astonishing satellite imagery of the Syrian Desert in Saudi Arabia and the seemingly impossible growth of bright-green agricultural land and apparently fertile soils. This can be seen below, showing the transition between 1987-2012, with further images available on the NASA site.

The fields appear circular due to the system of irrigation employed by the Saudi’s, which pumps the water up through drilled wells into a sprinkler system which distributes it in this fashion. They have cultivated a desert in just 24 years.

This doesn’t seem right does it? To have such rich looking land sprout in the middle of an extremely dry desert goes against both common sense and science. To combat this obvious problem however, the Saudi’s began tapping a resource of fossil water lying in reservoirs underground, water laid down during the last Ice Age, and water which is likely to last roughly 50 years. With no new Ice Age on the horizon and just an inch of rainfall per year, this is shaping up to be one of the most shortsighted solutions I’ve ever seen.

I can understand that to feed a growing population, such as Saudi Arabia is experiencing and demanding, that the chance to utilise a hidden source of water to provide this necessity would be a chance the government could not pass up. What is surprising is that, despite the fact that two-thirds of the country’s water needs are imported in from their neighbours, they ploughed ahead in tapping this fossil water likely knowing it was not destined for a long life. Once it runs dry, not only will the agriculture and food production in the region rapidly die back, but imported goods will become ever more relied on. 

Considering that water is quickly becoming a scarce resource in regions such as the Middle East and N. Africa, the idea of drinking from a reservoir which could be used in much better ways (think drinking-water) is hard to swallow.

My thoughts turn to Dubai when thinking of this story, yet another region which should be dry and uncultivated, and yet the world’s tallest skyscrapers and richest people live out their lives there. Water is pumped in from other countries which could be using it for much more noble and necessary causes, rather than to sustain the ridiculous gardens and fountains of the desert-city. Again, shortsightedness prevails. Maybe once the Syrian Desert eventually runs dry around 2040 they will simply pick up the slack by demanding foreign water, forever perpetuating the vicious cycle.

It’s not hard to see from this example that the next few wars, however large or small, could easily be fought over water and not oil. Fossil water becomes the new dirty word.

NASA site - http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/saudi-green.html

http://grist.org/list/incredible-nasa-images-of-saudi-arabias-careless-use-of-water/

Posted at 1:33pm and tagged with: Saudi Arabia, water, irrigation, NASA, fossil water, desert, agriculture, fertile, dubai,.