Altaeros balloon boosts wind turbine power

A prototype of Altaeros Energy's high-altitude wind turbine in Maine.

(Credit: Altaeros Energy)

Startup Altaeros Energy is going up for more energy.

The company yesterday said it has successfully tested a prototype of its
airborne wind turbine, which is a traditional small wind turbine enclosed
in an inflatable shell. The Boston-based company is seeking to partner
with others to build and test a commercial-scale turbine.

Altaeros Energy is one of a few companies developing systems to
capture the stronger and steadier winds at high altitudes.
Others include Makani Power, Joby Energy, and Windlift.

For its prototype test in Maine, Altaeros Energy placed a Southwest
Skystream turbine, which is normally placed on a pole, inside a helium-filled shell.
The entire machine is tethered by a cable which transmits electricity
and was lifted to 350 feet.

At that height, the Skystream turbine produced more than twice the
power than a typical tower-mounted one, according to Altaeros Energy.
The prototype test also automatically hoisted and lowered the
airborne turbine, which was attached to a towable trailer.

"Modern inflatable materials can lift wind turbines into more
powerful winds almost everywhere -- with a platform that is cost
competitive and easy to setup from a shipping container,"
CEO Ben Glass said in a statement. The technology is designed
to capture wind over 1,000 feet, he added.

Altaeros Energy is going after a very specific market with its first-generation
product of locations that rely on diesel generators.
That could include military bases or remote off-grid industrial sites or villages.
Longer term, it hopes to deploy its inflatable turbines offshore.

The shell itself was made by a sail-making company and the l
auncher was converted from industrial blimps called aerostats used
 for heavy communications and radar equipment.

Geothermal Energy Market worth $12.94b

"The Geothermal Energy Market to be Worth $12.94bn in 2012" According to New Visiongain Report As traditional fossil fuel energy sources dwindle and increase in price, renewable energies become a more attractive prospect and more cost competitive. Geothermal energy, whether used to produce electricity by driving a turbine, or used directly for heating, has considerable potential for growth due to its ability to consistently deliver energy. This new report explains how the market will develop as a multi-billion dollar sector, revealing geothermal energy developments throughout the world and including regional or country specific forecasts and analysis for both the electricity and direct use parts of the market. This report covers all the major companies involved in the industry and includes the latest contract developments, newest partnerships and the most significant technological advances. A wealth of data is analysed to provide a clear breakdown of how the geothermal energy market will develop over the next ten years. The report includes 158 tables and graphs quantifying the geothermal energy market in detail, and includes two original interviews with companies involved in geothermal energy. In addition, the report provides a SWOT analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the market over the next ten years, and offers profiles of 23 leading companies involved in the geothermal energy industry. The various drivers and restraints of the market are evaluated in order to provide readers with specific insights into the future direction of the geothermal energy market. This visiongain energy report will be valuable to those already involved in the geothermal energy market or to those wishing to enter this important market in the future. For sample pages and further information concerning the Visiongain report The Geothermal Energy Market 2012-2022 please visit: www.visiongain.com/Report/838/The-Geothermal-Energy-Market-2012-2022 For an executive summary of this report or to order it today, please contact: Email: Sara Peerun on sara.peerun@visiongainglobal.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7336 6100 About visiongain Visiongain is one of the fastest growing and most innovative independent media companies in Europe. Based in London, UK, visiongain produces a host of business-2-business conferences, newsletters, management reports and e-zines focusing on the Energy, Telecoms, Pharmaceutical, Defence, Materials sectors. Visiongain publishes reports produced by its in-house analysts, who are qualified experts in their field. Visiongain has firmly established itself as the first port-of-call for the business professional, who needs independent, high quality, original material to rely and depend on.

A Wave Power Generator with a Twist: It Generates Electricity On Dry Land

By Nicholas Brown On January 31, 2012 — Leave a Comment

A relatively new* type of reciprocating wave-powered electricity generator called Searaser has been developed and is moving forward. Searaser, acquired by Ecotricity, is not a typical wave power plant.

The first peculiarity is that it does not generate electricity out at sea. Due to the fact that waves move up and down in the ocean, they can continuously move a float attached to a reciprocating pump that can pump water through a water-powered onshore electricity generator for the sake of keeping the electrical parts of the system out of the water.

As Damian Carrington of The Guardian notes, its is a bit like an aquatic “bicycle pump.”

Searaser Skips the Challenges of Ocean- or Sea-Based Electricity

“If you put any device in the sea, it will get engulfed in storms, so it all has to be totally sealed,” the inventor, Alvin Smith, says. ”Water and electricity don’t mix – and sea water is particularly corrosive – so most other devices are very expensive to manufacture and maintain.”

Ecotricity founder, Dale Vince, claims: “We believe Searaser has the potential to produce electricity at a lower cost than any other type energy, not just other forms of renewable energy but all ‘conventional’ forms of energy too.”

A prototype of the Searaser has already been tested successfully.

Where the Idea for Searaser Came From

Smith’s Searaser idea has fun but simple origins, as so many great technologies do. “The idea of Searaser came to Smith when he was playing with a ball in his swimming pool and felt the energy released when the ball bobbed to the surface,” Carrington writes. “He said the device has the advantages of being extremely simple – like a bicycle pump – contains no lubricating or hydraulic oil, and is not a rigid structure and so can go with the flow in heavy seas.”

Another benefit of the system is that the energy produced could be stored in reservoirs and released for later use, helpful given the increasing amount of intermittent renewable energy going on the grid.

Wave-powered generators are a member of the family of hydroelectric power plants, which all use the movement of water to generate electricity. But it’s obviously a bit different than the hydroelectric power technologies you’re used to, isn’t it?

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/15tYS)

Wave power: worth another look. And another, and another…

Much like nuclear fusion, wave power always seems to be at least ten years away.

The basic idea of using ocean waves to produce electricity may be simple, but the execution isn’t. The sea has a tendency to thrash the devices we stick in it, including tethered buoys that generate electricity as they bob up and down.

But a study released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy suggests wave power remains a dream worth pursuing. Especially in California.

Wave power devices stationed along California’s long coastline could generate up to 166 terawatt hours of electricity per year, according to the study, if those devices were placed in the water above the outer continental shelf. Wave power buoys would generate a little less, about 129 terawatt hours, if stationed above the inner continental shelf, in waters no more than 50 meters deep.

For comparison, the United States as a whole uses 4,000 terawatt hours of electricity each year, according to the Energy Department. The California Independent System Operator, which manages the electricity grid for 80 percent of California, says its territory uses about 225 terawatt hours per year.

“The takeaway message here is, it is a resource worth considering and worth doing more work on,” said Hoyt Battey, with the Energy Department’s water power program. “For the West Coast in particular — for those states — it could be a significant contribution.”

Tidal power too could benefit the state, although not to the same degree.

A related study released by the Energy Department on Thursday looked at the energy-generating potential of harnessing ocean tides at key “hotspots” across the United States, including the Bay Area’s Golden Gate. Using underwater turbines to tap the Gate’s strong tidal currents was a pet project of former Mayor Gavin Newsom. It went nowhere.

The Energy Department estimates that Golden Gate tides could generate a maximum of 178 megawatts of energy. A megawatt is a snapshot figure, roughly equal to the amount of electricity used by 750 typical homes at any given moment.

While it isn’t trivial, 178 megawatts is far less electricity than many of the large solar power plants under construction in California will be able to generate.  It also pales in comparison to the 18,239 megawatts of tidal power that Alaska’s Cook Inlet could produce, according to the Energy Department study.

“What we have heard from developers and experts who’ve looked at the Golden Gate is it’s somewhat marginal — on the fence — in terms of development,” Battey said. “That’s not to say it couldn’t be developed at some point.”

china output

China's Wen to visit key Mideast energy powers

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Analysis & Opinion

• Huntsman wouldn’t be the only U.S. president to speak Chinese
• Iran sanctions’ impact could prove slippery

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• Environment »
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By Chris Buckley

BEIJING | Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:59am EST

(Reuters) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao will visit three key Middle Eastern oil and gas suppliers -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- from the weekend, amid signs that Beijing wants to expand its options in the face of U.S. sanctions aimed at Iran.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Wen would meet host leaders, including Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, to "thoroughly exchange views on developing bilateral relations and on international and regional issues of common concern."

Wen's six-day trip comes while Iran faces tightening Western sanctions over its nuclear program. Beijing faces pressure to go along with the U.S. sanctions by cutting what it pays for Iranian oil, if not the volume it buys.

China already cut oil imports from Iran in January and February in a dispute over contract terms, and has been looking for alternative supplies.

Wen's talks are sure to cover, at least in general terms, energy cooperation with his Middle Eastern hosts, said Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University in east China.

"On any visit to the Middle East, these issues will be discussed," Lin told Reuters by telephone.

"Generally, there will be something that comes out of a visit like this, because a visit by a premier is not your average visit," he said of discussions on oil and gas.

China bought a combined 1.15 million barrels per day (bud) from these three nations in the first 11 months of 2011, customs data showed, nearly a quarter of its total crude imports.

BANKING SANCTIONS

President Barack Obama recently authorized a law imposing sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, its main clearinghouse for oil exports.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was due to arrive in Beijing late on Tuesday for talks that were likely to cover the banking sanctions against Iran.

The threat of U.S. sanctions could be a worry for China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, followed by India and Japan. Only Saudi Arabia and Angola sell more crude than Iran to China.

"Correctly speaking, it's not a matter of China necessarily reducing imports (from Iran), but of looking to increase imports from elsewhere," said Lin from Xiamen University.

"China, as well as Japan and other big oil consumers, is already turning its attention elsewhere," he said.

China has backed U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on Iran to halt uranium enrichment activities, while working to ensure its energy ties are not threatened.

But China, which as a permanent member wields a Security Council veto, has criticized the United States and European Union for imposing separate sanctions on Iran and said they should take no steps reaching beyond the U.N. resolutions.

On Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, Chen Xiaodong, repeated that opposition.

The unilateral sanctions "are damaging normal trade dealings between Iran and some other countries," Chen, director-general for Middle Eastern and north African affairs, told an online question-and-answer session hosted by the China Daily (www.chinadaily.com.cn).

ARAMCO DEAL

The Chinese announcement did not mention any possible energy or investment deals during Wen's six-day Middle East trip.

But on Sunday, Saudi Arabia's state oil giant, Saudi Aramco, said it would sign a final deal next week to build a 400,000 barrel-per-day (bud) oil refinery in Yanbu with China's Sinopec Group.

Wen's trip, which starts in Saudi Arabia, was planned long before the recent ructions over Iran, but will give Beijing an opportunity to consolidate ties with major Arab partners, said Li Guofu, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing.

"Definitely these three countries are major suppliers of oil and gas to China, and how to increase this kind of cooperation would be a major a topic whenever they meet," said Li.

Aramco said the formal signing of its deal with the Sinopec Group would take place on January 14 in Dharma, the site of the state company's headquarters.

Under the initial agreement, Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake in the joint venture formed to develop the project, and Sinopec will own the rest. Sinopec is the parent of top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp.

Saudi Arabia is already China's top international source of crude oil. In the first 11 months of 2011, it supplied China with 45.5 million tonnes of crude, a rise of 12.9 percent over the same period in 2010. Angola and Iran were the second and third biggest suppliers.

Qatar is a major supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China, and in the first 11 months of 2011 it shipped 1.8 million tonnes of LNG to China, a rise of 75.9 percent over the same period in 2010.

But Lin, the professor from Xiamen University, said China would not turn solely to other Middle Eastern countries, which might also be vulnerable to regional tensions, to bolster any downturn in crude orders from Iran.

"We certainly can't simply rely on other Middle Eastern countries," he said. "To cope with the Iran problem, we'll probably have to draw more on orders from countries around China, and not just the Middle East."

Japanese firm to withdraw from Iran oil field project

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Japan's top oil developer Inpex Corp. has decided to withdraw from development projects in Iran's Azadegan oil field, and the firm has begun making final arrangements for the pullout with the Japanese government, according to government sources.

The move will mean the oil developer will not be listed as a company subject to U.S. sanctions over Iran's nuclear program. However, the sources insisted the decision was simply a business decision by Inpex. The government holds the largest share in the firm.

The withdrawal will press japan--which wants access to oil fields it has helped develop--to redefine its energy strategy and resource diplomacy in the Middle East.

Inclusion in the list of firms subject to the U.S. sanctions would prevent Inpex from doing business with U.S. financial agencies, meaning joint developments with U.S. firms would have to be called off. The sanctions would also negatively impact Inpex's development projects elsewhere in the world.

Inpex and the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry have asked the U.S. government to remove Inpex from the sanction list. As Inpex will likely be taken off the list before it is announced Friday, the firm moved forward with its withdrawal from the Iran oil project.

The government sources said Wednesday that the withdrawal was decided because "iran is asking [Inpex] to invest more in the project, but [the Azadegan project] has several risks."

However, it is expected to take a significant amount of time for the government and Inpex to negotiate the withdrawal with iran.

The Azadegan oil field in southwestern Iran is said to have one of the world's largest oil reserves of 26 billion barrels.

A development contract signed in 2004 with the National Iranian Oil Company gave Inpex rights to a 75 percent stake in interests related to the oil field. However, the development project stalled because of issues surrounding Iran's nuclear program, and Inpex's stake in the project was reduced to 10 percent in 2006.