The concept for the so-called Dyson-Harrop satellite begins with a long metal wire loop pointed at the sun. This wire is charged to generate a cylindrical magnetic field that snags the electrons that make up half the solar wind. These electrons get funnelled into a metal spherical receiver to produce a current, which generates the wire’s magnetic field – making the system self-sustaining.

Any current not needed for the magnetic field powers an infrared laser trained on satellite dishes back on Earth, designed to collect the energy. Air is transparent to infrared so Earth’s atmosphere won’t suck up energy from the beam before it reaches the ground.

Back on the satellite, the current has been drained of its electrical energy by the laser – the electrons fall onto a ring-shaped sail, where incoming sunlight can re-energise them enough to keep the satellite in orbit around the sun.

A relatively small Dyson-Harrop satellite using a 1-centimetre-wide copper wire 300 metres long, a receiver 2 metres wide and a sail 10 metres in diameter, sitting at roughly the same distance from the sun as the Earth, could generate 1.7 megawatts of power – enough for about 1000 family homes in the US.

A satellite with the same-sized receiver at the same distance from the sun but with a 1-kilometre-long wire and a sail 8400 kilometres wide could generate roughly 1 billion billion gigawatts (10²⁷ watts) of power, “which is actually 100 billion times the power humanity currently requires”, says researcher Brooks Harrop, a physicist at Washington State University in Pullman who designed the satellite.

Since the satellites are made up mostly of copper, they would be relatively easy to construct. “This satellite is actually something that we can build, using modern technology and delivery methods,” Harrop says.

Satellites laden with solar panels that can beam their energy down 24 hours a day have been discussed for decades. California agreed last December to a deal involving the sale of space-based solar power. Solar panels cost more per pound than the copper making up the Dyson-Harrop satellites, so according to Harrop, “the cost of a solar wind power satellite project should be lower than a comparative solar panel project”.

So far so good, but there is one major drawback. To draw significant amounts of power Dyson-Harrop satellites rely on the constant solar wind found high above the ecliptic – the plane defined by the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Consequently, the satellite would lie tens of millions of kilometres from the Earth. Over those distances, even a sharp laser beam would spread to thousands of kilometres wide by the time it reached Earth.

“Two megawatts spread across areas that large are meaningless, less than moonlight,” says John Mankins, president of consultancy firm Artemis Innovation which specialises in space solar power. To beam power from a Dyson-Harrop satellite to Earth, one “would require stupendously huge optics, such as a virtually perfect lens between maybe 10 to 100 kilometres across,” he says.

He also points out that the wire could burn out due to the huge current coursing through it, although he has not performed the calculations to gauge the probability of that occurring. But he does say that a smaller version of this “clever and interesting” satellite could help power some space missions. “I could imagine uses for this idea outside of the plane of the ecliptic, such as helping generate power for something like the Ulysses spacecraft, which went around the poles of the sun.”

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19497-outofthisworld-proposal-for-solar-wind-power.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

We have not been paying for our electricity so that is much more of an incentive for householders and industry to consume considerable amounts of electricity

Murdoch University business and development lecturer Peter McMahon warns West Australians will pay dearly through their hip pockets for living in one of the least-sustainable societies in the world.

His report, which examines the energy, transportation,environment, farming and mining sectors, covers WA sustainability from 1829 to 2020.“The energy-intensive WA economy faces huge challenges as carbon-control schemes and peak energy trends will raise energy costs dramatically,” Dr McMahon said.

“Rising living standards in WA have led to the state being the highest energy-user and the worst polluter and waste generator in the country.”

In his report, WA2020, Dr McMahon said the state needed to make significant policy changes in the next decade to avoid dramatic price increases and tackle drought, soil erosion and salinity problems.

Energy Minister Peter Collier said the state’s thirst for energy was because West Australians had been living in a “fool’s paradise” for too long.

“We have not been paying for our electricity so that is much more of an incentive for householders and industry to consume considerable amounts of electricity,” Mr Collier said.

“It has sent all the wrong messages to the community.
“We are moving towards a user-pays system with electricity and that has a two-fold effect.

Number one, it means that the State Government won’t continue to bail out Verve Energy to the tune of billions of dollars and number two, the community are much more aware of the fact that it costs to use electricity so it sends the right message.”

But he said the state was making progress, especially when it came to the switch to renewable energy. By 2012 WA would produce 8.9 per cent of its energy from green sources including wind, solar and wave generators, he said. So far 18,000 households have installed solar panels, which feed energy directly into the grid.The state pays householders 40c a kilowatt hour for excess power.

Environment Minister Donna Faragher did not respond to questions about Dr McMahon’s report. Dr McMahon claimed WA’s isolation, size and diverse landscape was delaying much-needed action. The report urged the Government to make urgent policy changes in areas such as energy, transportation and mining.

Original post: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/west-australians-to-pay-for-dirty-living/story-e6frg19l-1225914730176

The UK is determined to get out of the “dunce corner” on renewables, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said today as he officially opened the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the UK coast.

The 100-turbine Thanet wind farm off the coast of Kent will produce enough electricity to supply the equivalent of more than 200,000 homes a year, and brings the UK’s total power from onshore and offshore wind to more than 5GW – enough to power all the homes in Scotland.

At a ceremony at sea to mark the launch of the new site, Mr Huhne said offshore wind was a key part of meeting the country’s commitments to boost renewables, and the Government was focused on moving from the “frankly atrocious record” on green energy it had inherited. Currently the UK sources just 3% of all its energy from renewables, against a target of 15% by 2020, and is 25th in the league table of 27 EU countries on action on green power. Offshore wind power was part of ensuring secure, cheap energy supplies in the future, as well as providing jobs, Mr Huhne said.

But concerns were raised about the proportion of jobs created by the offshore wind industry going to British workers, and whether incentives such as £60 million promised for ports development to support the supply chain would survive the forthcoming Government spending review.

About 30% of the 3,500 jobs generated by the manufacture, construction and installation of the wind farm owned by Swedish company Vattenfall went to UK employees.

Mr Huhne said the ports funding was subject to the comprehensive spending review but said it would be foolish not to encourage in every way possible investment in the supply chain, to ensure as much as possible of the manufacture and skills for offshore wind were based in the UK.

“We need to make sure we have both the supply chain and the skills, and we will do what we can to make sure we are as attractive as we can be to investors,” he said.

“We do have an awful lot of wind and wave and tidal power and we are determined to have a supply chain to match.”

While he said the opening of the Thanet wind farm and the reaching of the 5GW was a landmark for the UK, Mr Huhne said the country had a long way to go, and could easily encourage the industry to deliver 10 times as much wind energy by 2020.

The Energy Secretary’s comments came as new research published by Vestas, which made the turbines for the Thanet wind farm, suggested that the UK offshore wind industry could directly provide as many as 34,000 permanent skilled jobs, and another 24,000 jobs in the wider economy.

The tens of thousands of jobs would come from operations and maintenance of wind farms and would be in addition to the temporary construction jobs from installing the energy plants.

But Vestas, which was at the centre of controversy when it closed its onshore turbine factory on the Isle of Wight with the loss of 600 jobs last year, said uncertainties over financial support, local skills shortages and inadequate grid and port infrastructure was putting thousands of the potential jobs at risk.

The company called for clarification on financial support, and targets agreed between Government and industry for 2020 and beyond. And there should be decisions over which ports will receive funding from the £60 million pledged for developing harbour areas to accommodate new wind farm construction.

Vestas Offshore president Anders Soe-Jensen said: “We need more qualified people to come into this industry, if this industry is going to take off.”The wind turbines will be there, we can handle that, but we need to get them erected and maintained, so we need people to come into the industry in high level jobs.” And he said: “To build up the entire supply chain will require some assistance from the Government.”

But Oystein Loseth, chief executive of Vattenfall, said the UK was the best country in the world to be installing, building and operating offshore wind. “This project would not have been possible without the British Government’s active support and its commitment to renewable energy,” he added.

And Maria McCaffery, chief executive of wind industry body RenewableUK, said: “Today’s 5GW announcement and the news on September 6 that wind supplied 10% of all electricity to consumers serves to highlight just how mainstream this energy source has become.” She said that each gigawatt of power that was installed was taking less and less time to construct, and with the right Government policies in place, the industry expected to be installing between 3GW and 4GW a year when the next major round of wind farms begin construction.

Original source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/worlds-largest-wind-farm-opens-off-kent-2087352.html

Unity students and staff, led by environmental author Bill McKibben, are toting one of the solar panels installed on the White House in the late 1970s at the direction of then President Jimmy Carter. The panels were removed by Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, in the 1980s, and later used by Unity to heat water in the college cafeteria.

The solar panels were Carter’s way of demonstrating his administration’s commitment to increased use of renewable energy at a time of sudden petroleum shortages and soaring gas prices. Solar power in the 1970s offered the kind of bright promise that wind energy does today.

Carter had the misfortune to be president when the world petroleum market burst out of its comfortable, predictable patterns.

Oil prices, which had remained below $2 a barrel throughout the 1960s, suddenly shot up in 1973 to over $11 as a result of the Arab oil embargo, causing sticker shock at the gas pump and widespread economic distress. The price more than doubled again in 1979 due to temporary disruption in oil supplies during the Iranian Revolution.

In a televised speech in April 1977, Carter painted a stark picture of our country “running out of gas and oil.” To help solve the problem, he proposed resorting to “strict conservation” and “permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.” Carter also advocated increased use of domestic coal (Scientific understanding of global warming through carbon-dioxide emissions was not yet well developed or appreciated by the general public).

Carter’s initiative was farsighted but fell victim to his lackluster personality, political clumsiness and just plain bad luck. Expensive oil, recession, inflation, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the Iranian hostage crisis led to his defeat in a bid for a second term in the 1980 presidential election.

Carter’s departure from office, coupled with lower world petroleum prices over the next two decades, effectively placed alternative energy on the back burner. Solar power, though it has expanded rapidly over the past 10 years, still only satisfies about 1% of U.S. energy needs.

While foreign oil dependence and the risk of sharp hikes in oil prices remain as looming problems, climate change has added new urgency to the call for an accelerated shift away from fossil-based and towards renewable forms of energy, such as wind, tidal, biomass and geothermal.

The Unity group hopes to persuade President Obama to install new solar panels on the executive mansion as a symbol of his commitment to renewable energy.

That should be easier to do than to persuade Congress to complete passage of a stalled bill that would significantly advance alternative-energy production – the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which cleared the House of Representatives on June 2, 2009.

The centerpiece of the bill, “cap-and-trade,” would gradually limit greenhouse gas emissions from utilities, large industrial plants, and petroleum and natural gas producers and importers, ratcheting them down to 80% of 2005 levels by 2050.

Emitters exceeding permissible limits would be given a choice of either cutting back or purchasing credits from other emitters who were below the limit. The system would make carbon dioxide emissions more expensive, thereby increasing the cost of burning fossil fuels and giving comparative advantage to renewable energies which are carbon neutral.

When the bill arrived in the Senate, it bogged down in a morass of overlapping committee hearings, competing proposals, fierce lobbying by the petroleum and coal industries, and uncompromising opposition by senators from oil- and coal-producing states, such as Oklahoma’s James Inhofe and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

Not even intense public backlash against the oil industry due to BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, nor proffered legislative sweeteners for nuclear power, off-shore drilling and coal production, could dislodge it.

Last July, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave up trying to achieve passage, at least for the remainder of the year.

Though far more politically adept than Carter, Obama’s luck and timing on this issue may be no better than his hapless predecessor’s.

Obama has already expended most of his “political capital” on ambitious measures to bailout large banks and the domestic auto industry, stimulate the economy, reform health care, and increase regulation of financial institutions. He has little left with which to push his energy and environmental agenda through Congress.

Besides, with unemployment and foreclosure rates stuck at high levels, voters are anxious and angry at every elected official in Washington. The Clean Energy and Security Act would increase electric utility costs in the short run (though nowhere near the levels its opponents claim), and that could spell political trouble for anyone who supported it.

If, as widely predicted, November’s mid-term elections reduce or eliminate Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the opportunity for passage of an energy/climate bill will become bleaker yet. Republicans are unlikely to sign onto another major Obama reform measure, even a watered-down one.

In the interest of not making a bad situation worse, perhaps the Unity group should ditch its solar panel – a reminder of one of America’s least lucky presidents – and substitute a windmill in its place. If all else fails, at least they can tilt at the windmill.

Source: http://www.sunjournal.com/guest-columns/story/907716

Energy Minister Peter Collier has announced State Budget funding of $23million to introduce a residential net feed-in tariff scheme, providing a subsidy to householders with new and existing photovoltaic, wind and micro-hydro systems.

The scheme will open for applications from July 1, with payments to be made from August 1.

It will be available for residential installations where the system is owned by the home owner, including tenanted properties.

“The net feed-in tariff scheme has been set at 40 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) on electricity exported into both the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) and regional grids,” Mr Collier said.

“This is in addition to the price paid under the existing Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme, which will allow householders to receive a minimum of 47c/kWh.

“This provides a genuine incentive for home owners to install renewable energy systems, which not only has a positive impact on the environment but it will also help householders manage their electricity bills.”

A feasibility study is also being undertaken into the potential for a similar scheme for businesses.

The Minister said the scheme would help system owners recover the cost of installing solar photovoltaic systems, with recipients receiving the net feed-in tariff payments for 10 years.

“The scheme will not require any changes in metering for existing system owners,” he said.

“The State Government recognises the substantial interest within the community to install household renewable energy systems, and the introduction of a feed-in tariff will provide an on-going benefit to households and the solar industry in Western Australia.”

Current system size under retailer buyback schemes, up to 5kW for Synergy customers and up to 10kW per phase for Horizon Power customers, will apply.

Both electricity retailers will administer the net feed-in tariff scheme on the SWIS and regional networks respectively.

Original source:
www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/WACabinetMinistersSearch.aspx?ItemId=133582&minister=Collier&admin=Barnett

State Energy Minister Peter Collier officially opened Kwinana’s 120-megawatt ‘Swift Power’ station, which is operated by the Ky Cao-led Perth Energy.

he gas-fired power station is said to have quick response capabilities, taking just five minutes to reach full capacity.

“This will assist with increasing Western Australia’s capacity to manage intermittent power on the grid from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar,” Mr Collier said.

“The station will also increase reliability of supply during high demand periods and add significant security during system emergencies through its capacity to quickly switch fuels from gas to diesel.”

The extra power capacity to WA will make it easier on the state’s grid system, particularly during hot days in summer when air conditioners can put pressure on the system.

The opening of the Perth Energy power station also follows the State Government’s cap on Verve Energy’s total capacity at 3000MW.

Perth Energy on its website said Verve is currently producing some 34000MW of power however that will decrease when some of the utility’s oldest plants retire in the next several years.

The plant will also help the grid accommodate more renewable energy generation, helping the government achieves its share of the national target of 20 per cent by 2020.

The Marble Bar-based Horizon Power’s Pippunyah power station was today opened by Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore.

Mr Moore said it was the first time a combination of technology – solar and diesel – was used in the world.

He said it ensured the plant had a very high level of solar energy penetration and a reliable supply of power to the town. Marble Bar, in the east Pilbara, is Australia’s hottest town.

“The station is powered by the biggest tracking solar farm in Australia,” he said.

“The 1350 panels – an award-winning design of SunPower – move on their axis to follow the path of the sun and produce a generating capacity of 1160kW.” Mr Moore said regional WA, particularly the Pilbara, was critical to the rest of the nation and the State Government was proud to support leading-edge technology that was efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly.

Pippunyah Solar Diesel Power Station was only one of many renewable energy projects under development by Horizon Power, including solar-diesel stations in the remote Aboriginal towns of Kalumburu and Yungngore (Noonkanbah).

The Marble Bar station started powering the town in May but its testing program was only finished at the end of July.

The station is named by the community’s Njamal people after the river that runs beneath it.

The same solar-diesel hybrid generation model has been used to develop and build a power station at Nullagine, 88km south of Marble Bar.

This station, powered by 900 single-axis tracking solar panels, is under construction and expected to start supplying the town in October.

Source: http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/news/private-kwinana-power-station-opens/story-e6frg2qu-1225907833659

Waves crashing on to Australia’s southern shores each year contain enough energy to power the country three times over, scientists said on Tuesday in a study that underscores the scale of Australia’s green energy. The research, in the latest issue of the journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, comes as the nation is struggling to wean itself of years of using cheap, polluting coal to power the economy and to put a price on carbon emissions.

Oceanographers Mark Hemer and David Griffin from the state-funded research body the CSIRO looked at how wave energy propagates across the continental shelf and how much is lost. The aim was to build a picture of the amount of energy on an annual basis and how reliable that source is.

The government has passed laws that mandate 20 percent renewable electricity generation by 2020 to curb carbon emissions and wind power is likely to make up the bulk of the green energy investment. Wave power is still in early development.

“So what we’re saying is that we can achieve that target if we harness 10 percent of the available wave energy resource,” Hemer told Reuters from Hobart.

Hemer and Griffin used complex computer models to map how the energy in the waves attenuates near the shore. They looked at the annual cycle both in terms of mean wave conditions and the 10th and 90th percentiles.

This means that 10 percent of the time waves are smaller than the mean and for the 90th percentile the waves are larger than that value for 10 percent of that time.

“Basically what this means is that there is still a fairly large resource for 90 percent of the time,” said Hemer. And this is crucial because some types of renewable energy, such as wind and solar panels, are limited because they can’t generate steady power 24 hours a day, unlike coal or gas.

Wave power has much greater potential to deliver steady power supplies, but connecting it to the grid in remote areas could be a problem.

“Averaged over the whole year, Australia’s southern coastline has a sustained wave energy resource of 146 gigawatts (1,329 terawatt-hours/year),” the researchers say in their study, or three times Australia’s total installed generation capacity.

The government, facing an election on Saturday, is under pressure to put a price on planet-warming carbon emissions and further boost investment in cleaner energy.

The country is one of the developed world’s top carbon emitters and relies on coal to generate about 80 percent of its electricity.

Hemer and Griffin’s work has created a series of maps of the coastline that helps wave power investors find the right sites and design projects that can cope with calm and stormy conditions and how frequent these might be.

Their work is different from some past studies, which used wave data from deep-ocean waters.

The researchers don’t advocate any particular wave power technology.

But there are three firms in Australia developing technologies, including Fremantle-based Carnegie Wave Energy, which has a system based on large buoys suspended just below the surface near the shore.

Hemer and Griffin’s estimates are based on the amount of energy along the coast at 20 meters deep, since many emerging wave power systems are likely to be at that depth or less.

Ideal sites included Portland in Victoria and Albany in southern Western Australia because of easy grid connections.

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE67G2G420100817