photosynthesis for energy

from shortlist magazine . 17.01.2008
click to enlarge for text

Scientists at Sandia National Lab USA had made progress attempting to generate energy for consumption from sun light - something like photosynthesis for plants to make its food.

more info @ http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2007/sunshine.html

driven by breezes

the wind-powered car - mazda furai


click the above article to enlarge & read (extracted from shortlist magazine, london, 17.01.2008)

more info @ http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/27/mazda-furai-breaks-cover/

Air Tree @ Madrid

 

The city of Madrid soon plans to add a striking new structure that will “climatically transform” its urban architecture. Designed by Urban Ecosystems, the Air Tree pavilion is to be built from recycled materials and will be 100% energy self-sufficient. Using photovoltaic cells, the Air Tree produces a substantial amount of energy, which is then sold back to the local electric companies, the profits being used for maintenance of the structure. The second byproduct is of course oxygen - hence the name ‘Air Tree’!

 More from: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/01/24/stunning-air-trees-only-byproducts-are-h2o-energy/#more-8095

the good & bad of beijing

photovoltaic-powered street lights are becoming a frequent sight on roads.





eating utensils like these in food stalls & restaurants galore are raising both health & environmental concerns yet proper action seems had not been carried out to tackle this.

13 reasons why oil industry will soon fail to supply enough for the world's demand

(extracted from sublime magazine, issue 7/2008)

1. Growing numbers of experts are warning of a premature peak in oil production
2. Old oilfields are showing that production can collapse unnexpectedly fast
3. The industry is discovering fewer & fewer giant oilfields, and those it does discover are pront to long delays between discovery & production
4. Resource nationalism is strangling growth prospects for the international oil companies to find more, or enhance production in existing reserves
5. Large portions of supposedly proven reserves may not be proven at all ... or even exist
6. The tar sands will not be able to plug the gap between supply & demand
7. The industry's infrastructure is laden with aging problems
8. The industry ins't investing enough to fix its problems
9. The industry has a huge human resources problems
10. When the peak oil cunch comes, all the indications are that key exporters may slow, or even shut off, the taps
11. Gas has problems of its own, and cannot come to the rescue
12. Many in the oil industry are in denial about the peak oil problem ... and they are not alone
13. Climate change sill increasingly squeeze the industry's options

For more details, read the magazine's full story.


today's fresh lime -

A forum with discussions about energy & our future -
http://theoildrum.com/

recycling is good?

Some people would think that recycling is a good practice for the planet and it should always be.

This is not always true.

Because when you put your waste into recycling bins, you only made step 1 of the recycling process. Somebody would come to collect your waste and send them to the central collection points for sorting-out and distribution to recyclers. Then the recyclers would re-process the waste into usable semi-finished / finshed products. These products would then be transferred back to the end-users (i.e. the consumers). Just think about the whole process you could imagine how much energy would be required to achieve all these.

It is not worth recycling certain things if the finished products would require more energy to produce than the same made from new materials. If the energy saving is negligible or even negative, one should consider to put the waste for passive "recycling", such as burning them to provide heat for electricity generation. In that way, it could still recover part of its inherent energy credits. Of course scientific analysis should be carried out to ensure no side effects would be induced.

This practice has been carried out by some responsible manufacturers in collaborations with in-house researchers or academics. It is time government officials to take initative to lead the research as well, as whoever gets more from these green researches, he/she would be the one that leads the world in the sustainable era.