by
JOHN REYNOLDS...
Parafin power heat and light
RESEARCHERS AT Trinity College have developed a clean technology that improves on oil-powered lighting used by two billion people in less developed Asian and sub-Saharan African countries.
On a visit to the Great Thar Desert, near the border with Pakistan in India's Rajasthan province, research leader Dr Tony Robinson, who has a background in studying thermal science, came up with an idea that would provide brighter lighting than basic kerosene burning lights.
"The people there are using solutions as basic as bent-up Pepsi cans and burning raw kerosene in them.
"The combined CO2 output of that across the developing world is equal to about a quarter of Britain's carbon emissions.
"But it's also a massive drain on their already meagre incomes because they're spending up to 25 per cent of their income on kerosene. So we felt that this was a good area on which to focus our attentions," Robinson said.
He was therefore inspired to come up with a cheaper, less polluting method of lighting, which would also somehow use the abundant solar energy from the daytime heat of over 50 degrees.
He found that paraffin wax could be heated up and as it melts it stores the sun's energy. And when combined with a thermo-electric generator, this heat could then be released in the much colder night-time temperatures in order to power a white LED light.
The team has dubbed their invention "the eternal candle", and with the help of a marketing and branding consultant and the backing of Enterprise Ireland, they have formed a company called Restor, which stands f or Renewable Energy Storage, with the aim of developing other off-grid technologies.
"There are now a lot of technologies, materials and electronic parts that are very cheap and can be used for some of these products.
Robinson believes that the route to full commercialisation of the eternal candle is through a joint venture with companies who already have distribution channels in place to reach the potential market of 295 million households.
Solar energy: Out of Space
JAPAN'S space agency plans to launch a space station in 2030 that it claims will beam down solar energy to the Earth.
Costing €14 billion, the project is being overseen by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), which aims to use it to produce electricity at one sixth of the cost of producing electricity from conventional sources in Japan.
The 1GW station will feature an array of photovoltaic dishes spanning several square kilometres that would hover in geostationary orbit outside the earth's atmosphere.
The dishes' solar panels would capture solar energy - which is at least five times stronger in space than on earth - and beam it down to the ground using clusters of lasers or microwaves.
According to Jaxa's plans, the beams would then be collected by parabolic antennae located in restricted areas at sea, or on reservoirs.
Within several years, Jaxa aims to use one of its rockets to put a trial satellite into orbit in order to test whether solar energy can be transmitted safely and efficiently using microwaves. It will then launch a 10MW trial space station by 2020, followed by a 250MW station soon after, with a full launch of the 1GW device planned by 2030.
Several Japanese hi-tech giants are participating in the project through a research group named Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer. They include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Sharp, satellite developer NEC, and Fujitsu.
Biomimicry: Winging it, bee style
THE NATURAL behaviour of bumblebees and oysters has inspired a Los Angeles-based company to develop new clean technologies that can be applied to wind turbines and solar panels.
Using biomimicry - taking inspiration from nature's systems, processes and elements to solve human problems sustainably - the first product Green Wavelength has developed is the xBee Alpha, a new two-blade wind turbine design whose blades flap like insect wings.
Led by Sabri Sansoy, an MIT graduate interested in integrating biomimicry and cleantech, the team behind Green Wavelength believes its design can improve on the conventional, windmill-style turbines, which usually convert about 30 per cent of the wind caught into usable energy.
The team's second innovation builds upon a discovery made by an organic chemist who found that oysters regulate the growth of their shells - which are made of calcium carbonate, the material that clogs water pipes - using a biopolymer (a cellulose-like substance) called thermal polyaspartate.
It could replace the non-biodegr- adable chemical-based antiscalants that are used to coat solar panels.
The Green Wavelength team was among 50 finalists in the Perfect Pitch 2009 competition in California that saw entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to Virgin founder Richard Branson and other entrepreneurs.
News in brief:
PANASONIC says it plans to invest heavily in manufacturing cleantech products if it takes over rival Sanyo
SCOTTISH windpower firm SeaEnergy plans to build a €800 million wind farm off Taiwan's west coast
THE INTRODUCTION of carbon ration cards has been proposed by the UK Environment Agency
UK SUPERMARKET Sainsbury's has introduced electric car charging points at 11 London stores
CUSTOMERS OF the UK's First Utility, can now use Google's online Powermeter tool to monitor energy use
MITSUBISHI HAS developed solar-powered air conditioning units that cut truck CO2 emissions by up to 8 per cent
FRENCH OIL giant Total has signed a €2.7 million deal with MIT to develop batteries to store solar power
GOOGLE, Microsoft, Ikea and Wal-Mart may invest in their own offshore wind farms, reports suggest
SPAIN generated over half of its electricity from wind energy during October
AIRBUS will attach new winglets to all of its A320 jets to cut their CO2 emissions by 3.5 per cent
Event diary
DECEMBER 8: Cleantech Ireland Meeting, 5.30pm, BCM Hanby Wallace, Dublin 2; clean techireland.org
DECEMBER 9: 21st Century Energy seminar, NUI Galway; nuigalway.ie
