Jenny Cottle
The fire at Australia’s Hazelwood Coal Mine continues to burn weeks after it started from a grassfire. This environmental disaster magnifies the need to stop burning coal and replace it with clean renewable energy. The good news is that innovations in renewable energy are making this a viable reality.
A Hydraulic seafloor ‘carpet’ system creates clean energy from waves. Under development at UC Berkeley, researchers are developing a wave to energy system which uses a thin sheet of rubber and a hydraulic system to create energy from the perpetual motion of waves. This would have minimal impact visually and on boats and sea life.
Early experiments with the system have found is can absorb over 90% of the wave energy and can operate in stormy conditions. With population growth in coastal areas, this has the potential to produce carbon neutral energy where it is needed.
Hydrogen powered cars are set to begin sales in the US in 2015. The only emissions these electric cars make is water.
These cars, known as FCVs (Fuel Cell Vehicles) will only take a few minutes to refill before you can drive around 480 kilometres with horsepower similar to a Prius. The Californian Government has made a commitment to have over 100 filling stations in the state within a decade.
Great developments are being made in capturing waste heat from cars, power plants, factories and solar panels and turning it into electricity. This adds up to a lot of energy that can be captured without the need for any machines or harmful chemicals.
There are exciting developments being made with solar and wind energy too.
Solar panel technology is making the panels more efficient and more affordable. The development of thin flexible solar cells has the potential to make it easier to install solar, reduce installation costs and as a result increase the sites where these cells could be used.
You can now get solar windows which generate electricity on glass windows by using natural sunlight as well as artificial sources such as fluorescent and LED lighting. Imagine if every home and office tower had these windows!
Airborne wind turbines could be used to access more consistent and stronger winds at high altitudes, giving access to this energy source to locations all around the world, other developments are making traditional styled wind turbines safer, quieter and more efficient.
China is the world’s biggest consumer of coal, but they are falling out of love with this as a source of energy. Extreme pollution and resulting health costs, public outcry and resulting government regulation have meant that China will soon be the world’s biggest adopter of renewable energy.
It’s all about reducing pollution and fighting climate change, and we can all do our bit by investing in these technologies as a consumer or by supporting their development.
Visit the UC Berkeley engineering team’s crowdfunding campaign at:
experiment.com/projects/can-we-harness-ocean-waves-to-power-your-home
Photo courtesy Wavecarpet © CTAF Lab
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