Developments and News in clean energy: Wind, solar and batteries grow despite economic challenges

Almost 20,000 broken windmill blades threaten an ecological disaster in Spain.

Wind energy, the cleanest, shows its polluting face due to the lack of a recycling protocol for 18,000 tons of fiberglass with carcinogenic resins

The ruin of the sector prevents systematic action of destruction and recycling of the blades damaged by the weather adversities

Only 10% of discarded shovels are treated, the rest are in one hundred illegal cement plants, most of them in Galicia
 

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Hopefully those kinds of blades will be made of these materials:

Now that I think of it---perhaps existing blades can be coated with these new substances.

A looming threat
Researchers at the Helmholtz Center Hereon have analyzed the long-term overall impact of this large number of wind farms on the hydrodynamics of the North Sea for the first time. They found that the current pattern could change on a large scale. The study highlights approaches for minimizing potential risks to the environment at an early stage. The work was recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Alternative energy by A.I.
Aquavoltaics combines aquaculture and solar power on the same site. Solar panels are mounted above ponds, generating electricity while aquatic animals grow below. The panels provide shade, reducing direct sunlight reaching the water. This shading can be beneficial, but it also creates trade-offs.

New developments

On water

Particulates

Other topics

Nitrogen woes

The nuclear option

Busy-bodies

pushback
 
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Yes, recycling fibreglass products (of any kind) are a major challenge and ecologically-responsible disposal options are non-existent. But why stoop to hyperbole?

Justo Miranda said:
... the lack of a recycling protocol for 18,000 tons of fiberglass with carcinogenic resins...
Click to expand...

This is entirely irrelevant at the end of service life for fibreglass products. The health concerns relating to fibreglass resin are for the styrene emissions while those resins cure during manufacturing.

"Styrene has been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to humans." (Emphasis mine.)

This means that appropriate PPE must be worn while laid-up fibreglass blades are left to cure. But, if those cut-up blades you're talking about are still emitting styrene, look no further for the cause of their structural failure!
 
Solar improvement
Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with international partners, have engineered a thin two-dimensional perovskite phase at the buried interface of three-dimensional (3D) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to boost device performance and operational stability.The method, published in Nature Energy, improves the crystallization quality of perovskite films and reduces defect concentrations at the buried interfaces by more than 90% (a 10-fold decrease).

For space use
"Antimony chalcogenide solar cells exhibit superior radiation robustness compared to the conventional technologies we're deploying in space," said Alisha Adhikari, a doctoral student in physics who co-led the team of undergraduate, graduate and faculty researchers at UToledo. "But they'll need to become much more efficient before they become a competitive alternative for future space missions."

Radiation
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcyphtu26k&pp=0gcJCYcKAYcqIYzv

Pumps

Clean energy


Oops

Setback

Odd
arstechnica.com

COVID-19 cleared the skies but also supercharged methane emissions

Less pollution meant lower amounts of a methane-destroying chemical.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
www.space.com

The way Earth's surface moves has a bigger impact on shifting the climate than we knew

New research reveals the source of this carbon – and the driving forces behind it – are far more complex than previously thought.
www.space.com www.space.com

Outages

No CO2 storage in the ocean please
 
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Just in
arstechnica.com

A fluid can store solar energy and then release it as heat months later

Sunlight can cause a molecule to change structure, and then release heat later.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

In depth.

Pyrimidone has the MOST....never mind...
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The grid
hackaday.com

The Death Of Baseload And Similar Grid Tropes

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in or near people who are really interested in energy policies will have heard proclamations such as that ‘baseload is dead’ and the sorting of e…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Nasty
View: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/VDmCm-SA24Y
 
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Good news for once

Ecology news

On solar energy harvesting

Copper woes

hackaday.com

Comparing The Power Usage Of 12 VDC And 240 VAC Kettles

If you have a 12 VDC power system, like the battery of a PV solar system or car, would it be more efficient to boil water for that cup of tea with that 12V straight from the battery, or use a 240 V…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Methane
 
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On hydrogen
Earlier this year, the researchers succeeded for the first time in generating electricity with a hydrogen gas turbine without a mechanical compressor. While previous tests lasted only fractions of a second—otherwise the combustion chambers would melt—the KIT team has now extended the runtime to more than five minutes. "This is an important step toward highly efficient and flexible hydrogen energy for a fossil-free energy system," explains Professor Daniel Banuti, Director of the Institute of Thermal Energy Technology and Safety (ITES).

Paste

Water splitting

Combinations

Infrared optics

Safer public transit

How grids fail

Flywheels
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z95t-f-0IjI&pp=ugUHEgVlbi1VUw%3D%3D

Concrete
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A-mZ853HJqM&pp=ugUHEgVlbi1HQtIHCQmiCgGHKiGM7w%3D%3D

novel device
A nanodevice developed at EPFL produces an autonomous, stable current from evaporating saltwater by using heat and light to control the movement of ions and electrons. Previously, researchers in the Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technology (LNET) in EPFL's School of Engineering reported a platform for studying the hydrovoltaic (HV) effect—a phenomenon that allows electricity to be harvested when fluid is passed over the charged surface of a nanodevice. Their platform consisted of a hexagonal network of silicon nanopillars, the space between which created channels for evaporating fluid samples.

CO2 to useful compounds

Farming

Fuels

Data footprint

On solar

Trouble
 
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Wind
hackaday.com

Wind Power Is Taking Off In China– All The Way To 2000 M AGL

2000 m above ground level (AGL), winds are stronger and much, much more consistent than they are at surface. Even if the Earth were a perfect sphere, there’d be a sluggish boundry layer at th…
hackaday.com hackaday.com
www.livescience.com

China tests world's first megawatt-class flying wind turbine — it generated enough energy to power a house for 2 weeks

A pioneering energy-generating device utilizes reliable wind speeds at an altitude of 6,500 feet (2,000 meters).
www.livescience.com www.livescience.com

Solar
hackaday.com

The MOST Effective Thermal Mass Works Like A Sunburn

Way, way back in the days when men wore beards and wide-lapelled suits in exotic colors, only NASA had access to photovoltaics and ‘solar’ meant solar thermal. In those days of appropri…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Alternative power

in the news

Record

Strain

Wearables

E-waste

Steelworks
Steel sits at the center of overlapping, nested systems—from local communities to the national economy and global markets. Altering one part of a system sends tremors through the rest. Systems scientists describe this dynamic as panarchy: a concept from ecology that explains how interconnected systems operate at different scales and timescales, so change propagates unevenly and often in unexpected ways.

With this approach, focusing only on emissions risks a kind of carbon tunnel vision. Judging success by a single metric misses how one decision ripples into livelihoods, culture, mental health and identity.

After the immediate change came quieter, more troubling effects which emerged more slowly. Steelmaking wasn't just a job. Many former steelworkers told me of the pride, dignity and identity it gave them. When the furnaces closed, loss of purpose, stress and depression followed in ways that don't show up in emissions data or balance sheets.

The local economy shifted again too. The short-term boost from redundancy money faded. Businesses that relied on a large, stable workforce began to feel the loss. The town entered an uncertain medium-term phase, where opportunity and fragility coexisted.

Chemistry

Water footprint

Air capture
Researchers at Northwestern University and California Institute of Technology recently introduced a new electrified mineral-based system that could remove CO2 from the atmosphere more efficiently and reliably. This system, presented in a paper published in Nature Energy, was developed by Prof. Ted Sargent's group in collaboration with Prof. Omar K. Farha.

"Direct air capture can help address hard-to-abate emissions derived from aviation, shipping, cement, etc.) and could reduce the total amount of CO₂ already accumulated in the atmosphere," Prof. Ted Sargent, co-senior author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. "Even with aggressive emissions cuts, most net-zero plans assume we'll need some form of carbon removal for leftover, hard-to-eliminate emissions. The paper frames electrified DAC as a route toward net-negative emissions when powered by low-carbon electricity."

Membrane
Researchers have found a way to fabricate film-thin membranes imbued with super strength that could extend the durability of decarbonization technologies. Chemical engineers at The University of Queensland are harnessing an intricate building technique to produce the hyper-thin film membranes that boost the reliability, efficiency, and lifespan of key clean energy systems. The research is published in Nature Synthesis.


Future Dynamics
 
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Solar battery

Self cleaning fuel cells

Green chemistry

Hold ups

sealing packages

Rare Earths
hackaday.com

Get Your Green Power On!

Nobody likes power cords, and batteries always need recharging or replacing. What if your device could run on only the power it could gather together by itself from the world around it? It would be…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

On politics

Unrealistic

Maybe don't tell people to eat bugs
 
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Solar for styrene

Better solar cell

Solar boost?

Electrons can be "kicked across" solar materials at almost the fastest speed nature allows, scientists have discovered, challenging long-held theories about how solar energy systems work. The finding could help researchers design more efficient ways of harvesting sunlight and converting it into electricity. The research is published in Nature Communications.

The research challenges decades of design rules in solar energy research. Until now, scientists believed ultrafast charge transfer required large energy differences between materials and strong electronic coupling, features that can reduce efficiency by limiting voltage and increasing energy loss.

The discovery reveals a new pathway to designing more efficient light-harvesting technologies. Ultrafast charge separation underpins systems such as organic solar cells, photodetectors and photocatalytic devices used to produce clean hydrogen fuel and similar processes occur in natural photosynthesis.

More of the same
In the article "Upconversion materials: a new frontier in solar water splitting," published in RSC Advances, the authors present a focused overview of how upconversion strategies can expand the photoresponse of hydrogen generating systems.

Drat

The Grid

Why outages are not acceptable

Sewage

Sterling DIY
hackaday.com

If You Like The Sound Of A Thermoacoustic Stirling Engine, Check Out These Plans

[My Engines] has been doing some sterling work on Stirling engines for some years now. Their thermoacoustic engine is now finally far enough along to open-source, so the magic of collaboration can …
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Cheaper catalytic converters?
hackaday.com

New Aluminum-Based Catalyst Could De-Throne Platinum Group

Platinum-group metals (PGMs) are great catalysts, but they’re also great investments — in the sense that they are very, very expensive. Just ask the guy nicking car exhausts in the Walm…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Positive human impact

Green source of mineral harvest

Desalinization

Uh oh
arstechnica.com

DOGE goes nuclear: How Trump invited Silicon Valley into America’s nuclear power regulator

“Assume the NRC is going to do whatever we tell the NRC to do.”...
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
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Graphene foam

High temperature conversion of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide

Methane eater

Rubber waste

For plastics and fuels

Safe sawdust?

On plants and food

Harvesting electricity via vibration?

Solar finds
hackaday.com

Storing Solar Energy As Ice For Air Conditioning

Thermal energy storage is pretty great, as phase-change energy storage is very consistent with its energy output over time, unlike chemical batteries. You also get your pick from a wide range of ma…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Space-grade solar cells
 
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The central message here is something I have been arguing for years.

www.abc.net.au

Yet another fuel shock proves renewables are a matter of national security

From UN leaders to former Australian Defence Force chiefs, a growing chorus of voices argues that dependence on fossil fuels is not just a climate issue, but a national security risk — exposing countries to volatile prices and supply shocks.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
 
It isn't like anyone is going to bomb the Sun.
Sit down, Elon.

New solar tech

Fuel cells

gas

In terms of the grid:

Development

Buildings

Deltas

Waste heat

Carbon capture
 
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www.doi.gov

Interior and TotalEnergies Agree to End Offshore Wind Projects, Lowering Costs for American Families | U.S. Department of the Interior

Today, the Department of the Interior announced a landmark agreement with TotalEnergies for the company to redirect capital from expensive, unreliable offshore wind leases toward affordable, reliable natural gas projects that will provide secure energy for hardworking Americans
www.doi.gov www.doi.gov
In an effort to ease the financial burdens of US taxpayers, the US government is paying French energy company Total $1 billion to stop it building offshore wind parks.
Department reaches an agreement with TotalEnergies to renounce costly offshore wind leases and redirect company’s investment into U.S. LNG production
Click to expand...
 
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Harvesting heat and electricity when needed

Other solar advances
hackaday.com

Solar Balconies Take Europe By Storm

Solar power has been around for a long time now. Once upon a time, it was mostly the preserve of research projects and large-scale municipal installations. Eventually, as the technology grew ever c…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Methanol and biofuels

capture

For plants

For supercapacitors

Models

How to soften tech risks

Sawdust, lignin, etc.
hackaday.com

Heating A Woodshop With Sawdust

Most carpenters and woodworkers find themselves with the problem of disposing of all the sawdust they create when performing their craft. There are lots of creative solutions to this problem, such …
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Wearables

The trouble with wind farms
 
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Aviation fuel alternatives

ATC

On emissions

Solar boost

Common sense solutions
hackaday.com

Chicken Coop Door Performs In Harsh Environment

One of the pitfalls of modern engineering is that it’s entirely possible to end up in a situation where a product or solution has been designed by someone who has never left a desk. Which wou…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Energy poverty and the working homeless

Paneling

Catalysts

Hope?

Gates
 
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Observing sunlight-to-fuel first hand

Somebody tell the Donald that chloroplasts and such don't snipe at downed pilots...

Meanwhile, my state's Governor, who put the Guber in Gubernatorial---actually did rate-payers a solid:
www.alreporter.com

Gov. Ivey signs HB475, freezing electric rates and reshaping PSC

Supporters argued the legislation provided immediate relief to consumers while allowing a wider range of perspectives in utility regulation decisions.
www.alreporter.com www.alreporter.com

The coal magnates and timber barons run my state, but even the GOPpers can't take votes from poors for granted anymore...

Oops

Recycling

Good news

hydrogen and more
 
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Britain Urges G7 to Accelerate Clean Energy Push Amid Global Turmoil

oilprice.com

Britain Urges G7 to Accelerate Clean Energy Push Amid Global Turmoil | OilPrice.com

Britain is urging major economies to accelerate the transition to renewable energy as geopolitical disruptions expose the risks of global fossil fuel dependence.
oilprice.com oilprice.com

  • The U.K. is pushing G7 nations to speed up clean energy adoption to reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets.
  • New data questions the effectiveness of North Sea oil and gas expansion, reinforcing the case for renewables.
  • The Iran-related disruption and Hormuz blockage highlight the urgency of diversifying global energy systems.
Click to expand...

Regards,
 
For example I know for a fact that wind farms in my region have been often officially listed as having being producing their full output when they were actually fully or partly down for maintenance or other reasons (such as, ironically, wind speed limits during stormy weather). Also, a number of areas including my own are experiencing what are in effect continuous unannounced brownouts. Which would also seem to give the lie to the increasingly rather desperate reassurances of the renewable energy advocates. And that's even before things like ever rising electricity bills. All of which are clobbering families and businesses alike.
 
California’s Battery Boom Is Rewriting Power Markets

oilprice.com

California’s Battery Boom Is Rewriting Power Markets | OilPrice.com

Grid-scale batteries are rapidly moving from a niche role to replacing gas plants in peak demand, as seen in places like California where they now supply a large share of evening power.
oilprice.com oilprice.com

Finally, hopefully others will follow.

Regards,
 
Grey Havoc said:
For example I know for a fact that wind farms in my region have been often officially listed as having being producing their full output when they were actually fully or partly down for maintenance or other reasons. Also, a number of areas including my own are experiencing what are in effect continuous unannounced brownouts.
Click to expand...
Where is this and any info that someone online can verify with? It would be interesting to figure out what kind of stats manipulation could be going on.

If it is a brownout it should be possible to just measure voltage and freq directly to verify right?
 
Grey Havoc said:
For example I know for a fact that wind farms in my region have been often officially listed as having being producing their full output when they were actually fully or partly down for maintenance or other reasons (such as, ironically, wind speed limits during stormy weather). Also, a number of areas including my own are experiencing what are in effect continuous unannounced brownouts. Which would also seem to give the lie to the increasingly rather desperate reassurances of the renewable energy advocates. And that's even before things like ever rising electricity bills. All of which are clobbering families and businesses alike.
Click to expand...
May I ask whether the state you live in has democrat or republican governor and/or parliament (yeah, you heard me...)?
 
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martinbayer said:
May I ask whether the state you live in has democrat or republican governor and/or parliament (yeah, you heard me...)?
Click to expand...
The rule in Getmany e.g. is, that even if wind or solar plants have to he shutdown because of an oversupply of electricity, they get their full payment for the hypothetical produced electricity. Also the fictional electricity is used in statistics as "produced electricity".
 
I’m
martinbayer said:
As ever, CA leads the way in the union, if not the world.
Click to expand...
Never in a positive way. California shuts off the electricity to millions of residential customers every time the wind blows and the typical Californian now suffers without air conditioning during peak hours because of “smart meter” billing. I can’t think of a state with a worse track record in managing energy, green otherwise.
 
Nicknick said:
The rule in Getmany e.g. is, that even if wind or solar plants have to he shutdown because of an oversupply of electricity, they get their full payment for the hypothetical produced electricity. Also the fictional electricity is used in statistics as "produced electricity".
Click to expand...
And in Canada, Ontario in particular, hydroelectric generation is often shut down because solar and wind investors have the first call to sell electricity. Due to this policy and a lack of separate slipways, Canadian green energy policies have caused massive flooding behind the dams when the hydro turbine are shut down to protect privileged wind and solar investors. None of this takes into account the massive unpaid “carbon debt” of the new wind and solar projects while the carbon debt of the decades old hydro dams are long since paid off.

The real problem with “green” energy is the corruption, with a handful of wealthy investors buying legislators and member of parliament in just about every developed country.
 
And if that wasn't bad enough, newer solar panels are suspect:


Data centers may at least be able to run hotter... perhaps require less cooling:
viterbischool.usc.edu

USC Scientists Build a Memory Chip That Survives Temperatures Hotter Than Lava - USC Viterbi | School of Engineering

A discovery using graphene has produced a record-breaking high-temperature memory device, with implications for space exploration, deep-earth drilling, and the future of AI hardware.
viterbischool.usc.edu viterbischool.usc.edu

Solar thermal doesn't rely on expensive PV cells, simply needing reflectors that could better resist holes. Working fluids--though hot--are still enough to perhaps cool tougher chips and not rely on as much water--are more resistant to EMP and space use....etc.

Hmm
hackaday.com

Flying Cell Towers For Lower-Latency

When the inevitable Kessler Syndrome cascade sweeps Starlink and its competitors from Low Earth Orbit in what will doubtless be a spectacular meteor shower of debris, the people behind Sceye and it…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Um
 
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Grey Havoc said:
The Republic of Ireland, actually....
Click to expand...
If it makes you feel better, actual Irish Ministers talking about potential nuclear capacity in the future, in fact hell has just frozen over with Eamon Ryan writing an article saying nuclear could have a role in Ireland's future energy mix... Pity he didn't come to that view when he was the leader of the Greens.
 
No matter what country you live in nuclear is years away from getting up and going.

You are looking at 15 years +++ before it goes online. Here in Aus every Govt project is double time frame and huge cost blowout, probably just like every other country.

So, if you're looking for something in 20+ years nuclear is potentially the way to go, yet if you need something now, as in 2~3 yrs renewables are the real only option.

Regards,
 
Halcyon66 said:
No matter what country you live in nuclear is years away from getting up and going.

You are looking at 15 years +++ before it goes online. Here in Aus every Govt project is double time frame and huge cost blowout, probably just like every other country.

So, if you're looking for something in 20+ years nuclear is potentially the way to go, yet if you need something now, as in 2~3 yrs renewables are the real only option.

Regards,
Click to expand...
It's Ireland, every Capital program is always 15+++ years from coming online, just keep shifting the timeline.
 
This could be useful across a wide range of fields:

Droplet control can be useful for combustion

Algae

Emissions findings

Soil

Eddy

Concrete

Plastic eater

New catalyst

Hydrogen

Ocean energy

Fuel cell

Mutant 59, 60, 61...the plastic eaters

bio-oil
 
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