From poo to power

I wrote a story the other day about a University of Kansas project to turn sewage sludge from human waste into fuel.

It's a pretty neat concept that is being tested at several locations around the country. Basically, the sludge is fed into an anaerobic digester that produces gas that can be further refined to power vehicles. The process also helps purify the leftover waste.

If the test works out, we could see such plants popping up all around the country, then around the world. The more we can do to convert our detritus into usable materials, the better job we're doing of completing the circle of life.

It's almost like something Native Americans would have done.

Innovative urban wind turbine hits close to home

This innovative wind turbine went up just days ago, only a few miles from my house.

A.L. Huber, a general contractor based in Overland Park, Ks., is demonstrating the feasibility of a new kind of wind turbine. The company's goal is to not only generate some power to run its business, but also to show potential customers how this sort of wingding can be applied in real life.

What's good about this wind turbine is that it can generate electricity at lower speeds than traditional wind turbines with blades. And it supposedly is less likely to kill birds. These two elements make it much more palatable in an urban environment.

The turbine is made by AES Wind. A.L. Huber partnered with KC-based architectural firm Burns & McDonnell to put up the turbine.

Here's a video of the installation.

Facebook application takes over your computer for the good of mankind

Here's a story I wrote this week. It's about Intel using a Facebook application to let people's idle computers power a scientific project that is modeling climate change.

From the article:

"The Progress Through Processors application essentially takes a Facebook user’s unused computing power at any given moment to help run the researchers’ climate models at ClimatePrediction.net, as well as separate research on battling cancer and malaria.

Worldwide, the connected personal computers form a sort of supercomputer to help perform complex calculations. While participants are using their computers, the Facebook software sits idle, according to InformationWeek."

Personally, I'm not about to give my computer over to an outside source. But it's a cool concept that I'm sure many people will latch on to.

Solar forest serves as parking lot cover

I have seen parking lots with solar coverings, but I haven't seen a concept as aesthetically pleasing as this.

I love the way the panels rotate to follow the sun, and you can plug your electric car into them.

Roof tiles that generate solar electricity

Here's a pretty cool style of roofing tile that gathers solar energy to create electricity for the home.

Nice idea, but I wonder about the durability of something like this. If a tree branch falls on it or I climb on the roof, will they last?

Washing machine that uses one cup of water?

I'm from Missouri, so paint me into the corner of "Show Me" when it comes to the claim that a new washing machine will use just one cup of water.

It's maker, Xeros, claims that it uses less than 90 percent of the water of conventional machines and 30 percent less energy.

I don't doubt that it uses just one cup of water.

I doubt that it gets my clothes clean.

That said, show me. I'd like to see this thing work.

From the Alternative Energy News site, here's an explanation of how the machine works:

"The work of water is replaced by using thousands of tiny reusable nylon polymer beads. These plastic beads attract and absorb dirt under humid conditions."

"This technology requires a small amount of water and detergent to dampen the clothes and loosen stains. This device also creates the water vapor that allows the beads to work. Once washing is finished, the beads fall through a mesh in the machine’s drum. These beads are reusable. One can reuse them up to a hundred times. One needs 20kg of the beads along with a cup of water and detergent. The chips can be used up to 100 times, the equivalent of six months’ washing."

Sounds like a good option for washing clothes in outer space and the desert, anyway. In both of those places it could be powered by solar rays, further reducing the environmental impact.

Electric airplane hits 155 MPH

An electric airplane at a demonstration in Italy hit 155 miles per hour in an eight minute flight. See here for more.

The SkySpark is powered by a 75kW brushless electric motor and lithium polymer batteries. The project was coordinated by Italy's own DigiSky, an engineering company specializing in aeronautics, in conjunction with Turin Polytechnic University.

How sweet would that be to fly in a plane that makes so little noise?

Low-MPH wind turbine designed with the home in mind

Here's an interesting wind turbine designed for the residential market.

One of the knocks on residential wind power is that it doesn't work at low speeds. Well, this one is said to work at speeds as low as 2 miles per hour.

It costs about $4,500 and delivers up to 2,000 kilowatt hours a year for locations with Class 4 - or very good - breezes. It's made by WindTronics, based in Muskegon, Mich. Learn more here.

Of course it's hard to find exactly how much electricity the wind turbine will produce at low winds.

The device, which weighs 95 pounds and is six feet in diameter, can be mounted on rooftops, attached to chimneys, or put on a pole. WindTronics says it hopes to sell the turbines through Ace Hardware stores.

How about Costco? That's where I do my shopping.

Electric motorcycle that can actually get up to speed

A few years ago, some electric motorcycles came out. They were very slow, in comparison to their gas counterparts.

Now, researchers at Kingston University in the UK have come up with an electric model that can get up to 102 miles an hour and run for up to 38 miles. While that's still not up to the speed of Ducatis and other high-end bikes, it still offers some fun for riders who want to take short jaunts.

The new bike can be charged from a standard outlet. It runs on two custom-built 72-volt batteries, according to Alternative Energy News.

The Kingston University team is taking its bike to the world’s first zero-emissions Grand Prix later this summer, competing against 24 other eco-bikes from America, India, Italy, Germany and Austria. The race is the 2009 Isle of Man TTXGP.

Helping save bats from wind turbines

One of the negative aspects of generating electricity from wind is the unfortunate death of birds and bats.

A new study shows that turning off the blades during periods of low winds reduces bat deaths by 70 percent. It makes sense, because bats don't like to fly in heavy winds. At least around here, they like still nights.

The study, performed by Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative and the Pennsylvania Game Commission at Pennsylvania's Casselman wind farm, found that turbines that were not curtailed on low wind nights were as much as four times as likely to result in bat deaths.


Curtailing the turbines did not even result in a great loss of electricity generation. The full study (PDF) showed that if all 23 turbines had been shut down, it would have resulted in a 3 percent annual loss of electricity generation.


Of course, in a low-margin business like electricity generation, every percentage point counts. But it is important for renewable energy sources to show that they can be friendly to nature.

I would like to see a related study on how to reduce bird deaths from wind turbines.

H-car Gets nearly 3,000 miles per gallon equivalent

Yes, you read that correctly.

In a competition to build the world's most efficient car, some Norwegian students constructed a tiny, aerodynamic car that runs on hydrogen. Teams that enter the Shell Eco-Marathon try to see whose car will go the farthest on the equivalent of one liter of gasoline.

The DNV Fuel Fighter team designed a car that went 1,246 kilometers, beating the world record of 848 kilometers. Doing the math, the little car got about 4,600 kilometers a gallon, or about 2,950 miles a gallon.

The car was built by ten students at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway.

What a great accomplishment. Learn more here.

Now, if we can just get these kids to come work for General Motors ...

Here are some more pictures from the event.