Experts anticipate that by 2010 or 2011, the world as a whole will add more capacity to the electricity supply from renewable sources than from coal, gas or nuclear plants, which are the conventionally used sources for energy. This information was released in a report by the U.N. Environment Program.

According to the report, the country with the greatest investment in clean energy in 2009 was China, surpassing the United States which formerly held this position. China’s wind farm development was the area with the greatest investments.

There is also the encouraging fact that the number of countries encouraging renewable energy have roughly doubled, from 55 in 2005 to more than 100 today. Of these half are in the developing world. The report also states that in 2009 renewable sources accounted for 25 %t of global electrical power capacity, generating 1,230 gigawatts of the total of 4,800 gigawatts from all sources including coal, gas, nuclear.

(Via UPI)

Any such proposal should have the capability to generate at least 15,000 gallons of fuel everyday, and of course, be portable and easy to deploy. Another requirement from DARPA is that the method should not generate any by products that can be harmful for the environment.

Source: Wired

Nuclear Power is cleaner than most of the sources used conventionally to generate power, but putting up reactors in homes would require a whole lot of convincing to do. TerraPower, a startup that has some funding and backing from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, aims to create small nuclear reactors that would be acceptable, and safe for use in homes.

Toshiba has earlier tried its hand at the creating such reactors, but appears to have shelved them for the moment. TerraPower intends to get into a partnership with Toshiba for the development of the said reactors as a joint venture, and preliminary talks to the effect are already underway. TerraPower claims that its tech can run a reactor for 60 years straight, while using depleted fuel, and without a need to remove the spent fuel from the reactor.

The startup claims that its reactor will be safer, smaller and cheaper. A huge hurdle for any such development would of course be social acceptance, and the fact that even cheap nuclear reactors cannot really come “cheap.”

Source: Engadget, PSFK

Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, has made an odd statement today – saying that poor countries need nuclear power in order to develop properly. He’s urging rich lenders to support a global nuclear expansion, which should help fight climate change problems, and satisfy the ever-growing demand for energy in the world.

Sarkozy made it clear that he’s familiar with the dangers associated with running a nuclear power plant – as well as worries related to the nuclear program run by Iran. He expressed strong criticism against those who use nuclear technology for means of destruction instead of development.

His vision won over international energy officials from India to Brussels, as well as French executives eager to market their skills to foreign countries.

On the other hand, some experts are being skeptical to Sarkozy’s push, stating that it’s paving the way for a deadly nuclear disaster, should the technology fall into the wrong hands – and to add to that, the price of nuclear energy growth is increasing dramatically – up to $3.9 trillion worldwide by 2050.

[ Via Yahoo! Green ]

The world is now actively considering nuclear energy as a power source, and a number of new reactors are now planned across the world. With all the wonderful energy that these reactors produced, comes the big trouble aka radioactive waste. Handling this waste is no easy job, and it takes thousands of years for the waste to become safe through radioactive decay. General Electric and Hitachi have proposed a process by which this radioactive waste could be put to work creating energy.

The process involves seperating the waste into three streams. One of the streams is waste material that needs to be stored underground for hundreds of years, second is uranium for the deuterium uranium reactors, and finally, a mixture fo plutonium and neptunium that can be used as fuel for reactors using liquid sodium as coolant.

There are associated problems though. Deuterium Uranium reactors are located only in Canada, and the USA has yet to approve molten-sodium cooled reactors. In any case, the process does merit serious consideration.

Source: Inhabitat

Nuclear power plants in Germany are on their way to an extended life, surmounting the huge obstacles in their path. There is a vehement opposition to nuclear power plants in Germany, and most of the population believes that the country should let go of nuclear power plants. The new policy aims at keeping the old plants running to ultimately have greener energy take over the existing system, but it may also pave the way for new nuclear plants.

The government managed to get the plan through by making big promises, like utilizing a huge chunk of nuclear earnings for public use. It was also assured that renewable power would get preference over nuclear power when fed to the distribution grid.

Earnings from these plants can be huge, going to the magnitude of nearly 20 million euros can come from a life extension of 20 years for plants operated by four major energy companies, whose plants produce almost a quarter of German electricity. The policy will give a new lease of life to 17 nuclear power plants, which faced closure in the next decade.

Source: Reuters

Atomic Powered Cellphone

They have actually used this to power a touch screen hand-held video player/cell phone.

Now before you start protesting the use of atomic power (that will be a debate in future multi-part series), I am talking about using the protons (I know it still sounds like an atomic reactor) in the methanol molecule and removing the hydrogen to create power.

What you are left with is water and a little carbon dioxide.

The device is called a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) and uses a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) to create power.

This is certainly better than grabbing power from a thermopile inside your wood-burning stove.  Yes, that works too, but is not as portable or environmentally friendly.  Even worse would be taking power from the public grid.

In its present form it is a bit bulky, but much less than carrying around one of those original 2-pound Motorola Flip Phones.  Plus, the thought of giving your cell phone a drink would be hard to explain.

“But officer, I was recharging my cell phone with this bottle of alcohol!”  Before long, there would be a law prohibiting your cell phone from drinking while driving.

Here is an idea: why not use this drinking battery at home where no one cares whether you take a nip or two (for the cell phone of course since methanol alcohol is poisonous to us mortals).  Just set it on your table and charge your cell phone instead.

This idea is also good for your eyes: no more of those ugly wall warts hanging from your wall outlets.

What is that?  You say carbon dioxide is not green?  Try this experiment at home:

Take a bottle of soda.  Remember those fizzy bubbles are carbon dioxide.

Connect a hose to the top of the bottle.

Gently shake or vibrate the bottle so the gas is expended from the soda.

Put a big plastic bag over your herb garden and allow the CO2 to build up inside.

You will see growth like no other fertilizer can give you and you will see a lot of green.  Be sure to let in some oxygen once in a while as plants need oxygen as well as carbon dioxide to grow.

After that try pumping CO2 into the soil and see what happens.

Malia Obama's peacenik t-shirt

The T-shirt is an anti-nuclear message with its famous logo from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Now, if that nuclear power was being used for energy purposes and to reduce our global dependence on fossil fuels. All the better. I wonder how that idea would be represented on a T-shirt?

Recently, a deal was struck between the Russia-based Rosatom, the state-owned producer of uranium, and the Canada-based producer Uranium One. Rosatom won a 17% stake in Uranium One as well as a long-term deal for supply in exchange for a half stake in the Karatau mine in Kazakhstan. Uranium One is also reportedly trying to close a 20% (worth $240-million) share sale and supply pact with Japan’s Toshiba Corporation, Tokyo Electric Power Company  and Japan Bank for international Cooperation.

Denison Mines, the uranium miner, recently agreed to sell 20% of itself to Korea Electric Power Corporation.

According to analysts, Russia is striving to expand its influence in the nuclear industry, especially in Asia.

China, which has embarked on very ambitious plans to expand nuclear power, has held talks with major uranium miner Cameco about a potential supply deal.

Australia, on its part, is considering selling uranium from BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine to China, on condition that Beijing will not use the uranium for its nuclear weapons program.

It has been estimated that, led by China, India and Russia, over 100 new nuclear reactors will be constructed over the next decade as a part of worldwide efforts to decrease dependence on greenhouse gas-producing energy sources like coal.  The new nuclear reactors are expected to be larger, on average, than the 426 reactors in operation at present.

Russian nuclear suit

Russia says it is likely to sign a pact with Japan on nuclear power plant.

Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, told the Japanese media in Moscow that he expected to sign the agreement during his visit to Japan this week.

The Russia-Japan deal on nuclear power plant would be one of the many agreements that the two countries would be signing during Putin’s visit to Japan.

It may be noted that Japan and Russia are at present in the final stages of discussions over an agreement to promote what has been described as “non-military use of nuclear power” – like for generation of electricity.

Japan’s Kyodo News has reported that the proposed pact between Russia and Japan on nuclear power plant will result in Tokyo entrusting Moscow with uranium enrichment and also allowing Japan to export technology to Russia.

But do we get any guarantees that the new technology is clean, sustainable and cost-effective? Or is this just a new friendship between the world leaders?

[via Yahoo!] Image by welshdan