Many environmentalists suggest that China will be the country that makes carbon capture and sequestration viable — but Chinese officials remain unconvinced.
Some Chinese leaders are skeptical of carbon sequestration efforts.With its vast manufacturing base and heavy reliance on coal for electricity, China, already the world’s top emitter of global warming gases, is beginning to dominate some clean-tech sectors, including solar and wind power. Environmentalists, and the U.S. government, think it can replicate that success with storing carbon.
Some of China’s biggest state-owned companies are actively trying to develop carbon-sequestration technology. Its leading power company, state-owned China Huaneng Group, is leading a consortium in building GreenGen, an advanced power plant that it plans to fit with machinery to siphon off carbon emissions.
The technology that strips out the primary global warming gas for storage underground, however, is extremely costly and consumes energy. Just this week, Peng Sizheng, an official from the Ministry of Science, was quoted by Chinese media saying that carbon capture shouldn’t be promoted in China because it’s too expensive.
His skepticism echoes earlier comments by energy czar Zhang Guobao. Carbon capture and sequestration “does not work as well as planting more trees or reducing desertification,” he told a conference last summer.
The high cost of storing carbon is affecting other initiatives to turn coal into oil. Chinese officials who used to back the process as a way reduce reliance on oil imports have now sharply cut support, and are allowing only a handful of coal-to-liquids projects, such as one proposed by South Africa’s Sasol Ltd., to proceed.
– Shai Oster
Monday, 26 July 2010
BAE to assist green energy project
Britain's biggest arms manufacturer will contribute its marine engineering expertise to a wave-power project off Orkney
Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 18.30 BST Article history
Marine engineering for an innovative wave-power project off Orkney is to be provided by Britain's biggest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems. The defence firm, which builds Type 45 destroyers and Astute nuclear submarines, is to develop the hi-tech remote ballasting and problem-solving systems in co-operation with Aquamarine Power, which owns the device, known as the Oyster wave energy converter.
The converter uses a floating himged flap to pump water through a hydro-electric turbine, generating electricity for the National Grid.
BAE and Aquamarine have received a £450,000 grant from the government's technology strategy board to support a 30-month research and development scheme to try to make Oyster cost-effective. "This is a great opportunity for us to apply skills developed in naval design and the management of large, complex maritime engineering programmes to support the emerging marine energy industry," said Kevin McLeod, engineering director at BAE's surface ships division.
Aquamarine, which has already installed and tested its Oyster 1 demonstration device at the European Marine Energy Centre, in Orkney, said the firms shared "a belief in the global potential of wave energy".
Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 18.30 BST Article history
Marine engineering for an innovative wave-power project off Orkney is to be provided by Britain's biggest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems. The defence firm, which builds Type 45 destroyers and Astute nuclear submarines, is to develop the hi-tech remote ballasting and problem-solving systems in co-operation with Aquamarine Power, which owns the device, known as the Oyster wave energy converter.
The converter uses a floating himged flap to pump water through a hydro-electric turbine, generating electricity for the National Grid.
BAE and Aquamarine have received a £450,000 grant from the government's technology strategy board to support a 30-month research and development scheme to try to make Oyster cost-effective. "This is a great opportunity for us to apply skills developed in naval design and the management of large, complex maritime engineering programmes to support the emerging marine energy industry," said Kevin McLeod, engineering director at BAE's surface ships division.
Aquamarine, which has already installed and tested its Oyster 1 demonstration device at the European Marine Energy Centre, in Orkney, said the firms shared "a belief in the global potential of wave energy".
Engineers race to design world's biggest offshore wind turbines
British firm to design mammoth offshore wind turbines with 275m wingspan that produce three times power of standard models
John Vidal The Guardian, Monday 26 July 2010
The revolutionary 10MW Aerogenerator X, a new breed of mammoth offshore wind turbine in development by British firm Arup. Illustration: Wind Power Limited and Grimshaw
British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines – giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before – that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale.
Today, a revolutionary British design that mimics a spinning sycamore leaf and which was inspired by floating oil platform technology, entered the race. Leading engineering firm Arup is to work with an academic consortium backed by blue-chip companies including Rolls Royce, Shell and BP to create detailed designs for the "Aerogenerator", a machine that rotates on its axis and would stretch nearly 275m from blade tip to tip. It is thought that the first machines will be built in 2013-14 following two years of testing.
But the all-British team of designers and engineers, which includes Eden project architects Grimshaw, is in stiff competition with other groups. Earlier this year US wind company Clipper, which has close ties with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, announced plans to build 10MW "Britannia" turbines in north-east England.
Based on a scaled-up version of the conventional wind turbines now common in the British landscape, these giants would be fixed to the sea bed but would stand nearly 600ft high above the waves. If they prove technically and financially feasible, each turbine should be able to generate enough electricity to provide 5,000-10,000 homes and, says Clipper, should create energy equivalent to 2m barrels of oil in their 25-year lifetime.
Meanwhile, Norwegian firm Sway is planning to build massive floating turbines that would stick straight out of the sea from 100m-deep floating "masts" anchored to the sea bed. An EU-sponsored research project is also investigating 8–10MW turbines, and other American and Danish companies are planning 9MW machines. Full-scale prototyes of all three leading designs are expected to be complete within three years.
"There is a wonderful race on. It's very tight and the prize is domination of the global offshore wind energy market," said Feargal Brennan, head of offshore engineering at Cranfield University, where much of the Aerogenerator development work has been carried out.
"The UK has come late to the race, but with 40 years of oil and gas experience we have the chance to lead the world. The new [Aero-generator] turbine is based on semi-submersible oil platform technology and does not have the same weight constraints as a normal wind turbine. The radical new design is half the height of an equivalent [conventional] turbine," he said. He added that the design could be expanded to produce turbines that generated 20MW or more.
The largest wind turbines currently installed are mostly rated at around 3MW. By comparison, coal power stations typically have a capacity in gigawatts, or thousands of megawatts – it would take 180 of the new giant turbines to generate the equivalent capacity of a coal power station proposed this year for North Ayshire, Scotland.
Engineers say that scale is the key to wind power. Doubling the diameter of a conventional wind turbine theoretically produces four times as much power, but weighs eight times as much and can increase costs by a factor of eight. Offshore power is widely regarded as the future of renewable energy because the wind is much more reliable at sea, larger machines are possible to transport and install and there is far less public opposition.
On land, massive cranes and blades have to be driven to remote hilltops, and planning permission can take many years. However, the present generation of offshore turbines are 30-50% more expensive than their terrestrial counterparts, are harder to maintain and are more prone to corrosion.
The market for offshore power is expected to grow to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Last year the European Wind Energy Association predicted that Europe would increase its offshore wind power from less than 2GW today to more than 150GW by 2030.
Britain, which has little upland space available for large wind farms, overtook Denmark in offshore wind generation in 2008 and now leads the world with 330 offshore turbines installed. It also has the world's most ambitious plans to develop the wind resource, being committed to installing 12GW of offshore power by 2012. This is the equivalent of 2,500 of the largest 5MW machines presently developed.
John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, said: "It is critical that the UK government does not hinder the development of offshore wind power by cutting budgets for short-term gain. All our energy needs depend on this."
BAE joins wave energy project
By Nick Clark
Monday, 26 July 2010
BAE systems has teamed up with the wave energy developer Aquamarine Power in an almost £1m project to produce more reliable alternative energy sources for the UK. BAE and Aquamarine put up £450,000, to match a grant from the Technology Strategy Board. The funding is to support the development of the commercial production of Aquamarine's Oyster wave energy converter.
The group described the device as a "buoyant hinged flap" that attaches to the seabed. As it moves backwards and forwards in the waves, it pumps high pressure water onshore to drive a turbine that generates electricity for the National Grid. BAE will work to develop systems to bring down the costs of the device and help to boost energy production. The device has already been tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, and the companies hope to roll it out to clean energy farms globally.
Monday, 26 July 2010
BAE systems has teamed up with the wave energy developer Aquamarine Power in an almost £1m project to produce more reliable alternative energy sources for the UK. BAE and Aquamarine put up £450,000, to match a grant from the Technology Strategy Board. The funding is to support the development of the commercial production of Aquamarine's Oyster wave energy converter.
The group described the device as a "buoyant hinged flap" that attaches to the seabed. As it moves backwards and forwards in the waves, it pumps high pressure water onshore to drive a turbine that generates electricity for the National Grid. BAE will work to develop systems to bring down the costs of the device and help to boost energy production. The device has already been tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, and the companies hope to roll it out to clean energy farms globally.