TPT September 2016

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E

› Ms Shankleman took note of earlier, similar projects in the form of barrages: artificial obstructions run across watercourses to force the current to flow past hydroelectric turbines. Tidal barrages have been built in La Rance in northern France and on Lake Sihwa in South Korea. The lagoons under consideration for Swansea do not fully obstruct water flow and would have less impact on the environment. Bloomberg New Energy Finance confirmed that they would also be cheaper to build than barrages. The project will require about 92,000 metric tons of steel. The truly smar t city will install wind turbines alongside solar panels to harvest the most renewable energy possible ReadWrite , a website for entrepreneurs, focuses on the Internet of Things (IoT) and the connected world. A contributor, David Curry, recently considered “the IoT revolution” that is raising productivity and saving time – and spotted a missing link. In the rush into connected devices, he asserted, a corresponding increase in energy consumption is being overlooked. In Mr Curry’s view the omission is no minor matter. If smart- city planners are unable to develop renewable systems that provide energy with only minimal intrusion into daily life, their efforts could have a net effect of increasing carbon emissions. In an urban environment – where solar panels are too little, wind turbines too much – a combination of the two technologies could provide a solution. (“Will Wind Turbines and Solar Panels be IoT Juice Of Choice?” 11 June) As reported by Mr Curry, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, in the US, and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, in Beijing, China, have achieved just that: a renewable system that utilises both wind and solar power and can be installed on the roof of a city building. The system is capable of harvesting 8 milliwatts (mW) of solar power and 26mW of wind power, enough to power 3,400 LED lights. For low-power IoT devices, Mr Curry wrote on readwrite.com , “This is perfect as it doesn’t require a huge amount of space and is fully renewable energy.” In ACS Nano , the peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Chemical Society, the team behind the new hybrid system noted that, while solar energy is readily harvested with existing technologies, the large volumes and safety issues associated with conventional wind turbine generators relegate them to remote areas. The considerable wind energy in cities is wasted. As solar panel sales soar, wind energy has taken a back seat to solar in sustainable-energy circles. The dual setup from the Georgia-Beijing team – yoking both technologies on a city rooftop to individually and simultaneously scavenge sun and wind – holds promise for restoring the parity.

Norway, Europe’s biggest supplier of gas after Russia, reached record production of 117.2bcm (billion cubic metres) last year as European demand rose. The country will achieve similar levels over the next few years, according to Statoil ASA, the biggest Norwegian producer. › The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), the agency charged with regulating the state’s oil and gas industry, said on 13 July that it was investigating a cluster of earthquakes recorded near Blanchard, about 30 miles south of Oklahoma City, including three of magnitude 3.0 or higher. (According to the educational site UPSeis , 30,000 such tremors, classified by seismologists as minor, are reported every year in the US). As a preventive measure the OCC in February issued a series of directives asking the operators of nearly 250 injection wells in northwestern Oklahoma to reduce the amount of wastewater they inject underground by 40 per cent. But the Blanchard area does not come under these directives. As reported on the local enidnews.com , the US Geological Survey had recorded at least eight tremors in the area over the week preceding the OCC announcement. Energy Novel Welsh marine power project could result in a “hallmark” UK global expor t industry As described by Jessica Shankleman of Bloomberg News (8 July), the world’s first tidal lagoons would employ a rock wall 7.15 miles long off the coast of southern Wales to enclose an area in Swansea Bay where 16 turbines generate 320 megawatts of power from the ebb and flow of ocean tides. The turbines would each have a diameter of slightly more than 23 feet, about as wide as the Channel Tunnel. The turbines planned for Swansea are similar to those deployed in thousands of river-based hydroelectric projects, but have variable speeds and can operate with the tide flowing in either direction, said Mike Unsworth, director of engineering and construction for Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd, the developer. The company is based in Gloucestershire in southwest England, close to the Welsh border. In the context of expectations that more than a dozen coal- fired plants in the UK will be shut down by 2025, Tidal Lagoon Power is proposing a carbon-free power alternative that it expects will also create thousands of jobs in a depressed area. The $1.7bn project is currently under review by the British Department of Energy and Climate Change, which could take a decision as early as November. If subsidies are provided, the five-year build-out could commence in 2017. The Swansea lagoons are to be constructed by the Austrian plant engineering group Andritz AG and General Electric Co, of the US. According to Mark Elborne, CEO of General Electric’s UK unit, their completion could mark the first step of a “hallmark” global export industry for the UK.

Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)

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