In response to worsening air pollution problems in many of Europe’s largest cities, Barcelona (Spain) and Munich (Germany) have been moved to action. In Barcelona’s case, voluntarily, and in Munich’s case, as the result of a court order.
From 2018 there will be bans on diesel cars in Munich.
The court order in Munich follows legal action taken by Transport and Environment’s German member DUH to force action on Bavaria’s breaching of EU air pollution limits in some locations.
With Hyperloop One, we will create a new means of transportation, keeping our region at the forefront of transportation technology and innovation
Hyperloop One has signed an agreement with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority that could see the firm’s technology applied in the UAE in a new feasibility study.
The Hyperloop concept is based on the idea of people traveling in autonomous pods from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in just 12 minutes (typically a ~2 hour drive). Read More
A worldwide survey had identified potential StEnSEA sites with a cumulative storage capacity of around 817 terawatt-hours.
Why not store energy In hollow tanks on the bottom of the sea? The German Fraunhofer Institute started a test with spherical storage tanks.
In November 2016, the first tank has been placed at the bottom of the Bodensee, near the German border with Switzerland.
Ultimately, the aim is to place the tanks in the area of offshore wind farms. But for now, the institute choose the lake because it is more practical for the tests. Read More
Orison’s plug in home battery could help homeowners ditch the grid by connecting to an alternative energy source like solar or wind and saving money because of low rate energy prices
The new Orison plug and play home battery system, stores electricity when electricity rates are low, so the electricity can be used later to avoid paying the higher rates.
Best of all: this new system requires no installation like other home battery setups; you just plug it in and away you go. Read More
Circular building is more than reusing the existing structure. All added materials, such as the concrete tiles, furniture and the insulation material, are recycled products and materials.
How do you give four dated bunched offices a second life without wasting material? Simple: build circular.
Energy Company Liander did it.
We have seen it. And it’s an amazing ‘new’ future proof and circular building. Read More
During reel-out, the kite is fl ying figure-eight maneuvers at high speed (70 to 90 km/h). This creates a high traction force (3.1 kN at 7 m/s wind speed) which is converted into electricity by the drum and the connected 20 kW generator.
Kite Power by harnessing high altitude wind next step in Dutch Icon project ‘Afsluitdijk’.
Even NASA has started to work on airborne wind energy. This field is very new and has much room for innovation.
Flight testing with actual consistent measured power production is the next step.
Last week the German government reported that the Portugal produced so much renewable energy on a particularly sunny, windy Sunday that there was a power surplus.
In may 2016, Portugal ran for more than half a week without having to resort to fossil fuels. Thanks to a big push toward solar, wind, and hydro power and a little nudge from the EU, for four days, Portugal produced enough clean, sustainable electricity to meet the needs of its people. Read More
Formic Acid is produced by using electricity. Wind farms or solar panels supply the power that is needed for the production of Formic Acid, thus it is completely carbon neutral.
It is coming: A city bus which is fueled by formic acid.
VDL and the Team Fast – a student team at the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU / e) are developing the world’s first city bus that runs on formic acid. The bus is already operational. Read More
Aquion did come up with a breakthrough saltwater battery. It is environmentally friendly, cost effective and has a life cycle way beyond any other battery: up to 5,000 cycles.
The development of sustainable saltwater batteries enters the next level.
The American company Aquion Energy has received $ 33 million extra finance.
Previously, Bill Gates invested in Aquion Energy.
Saltwater conductor
Aquion developed batteries that can store solar and wind energy to serve as backup for times when there is no wind nor sun. Saltwater batteries are not new, but the batteries from Aquion are special because they are using salt water as a conductor, instead of acids or bases.
Aquion has come up with a clever twist on a 200 year old salt water battery technology using:
Activated carbon (anode)
Manganese oxide (cathode)
And basically a salt water electrolyte
They have come up with a breakthrough solution. It is environmentally friendly, cost effective and has a life cycle way beyond any other battery: up to 5,000 cycles
So what’s Aquion’s energy storage innovation?
The startup — which was backed by Bill Gates and VCs like Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital — is making a low cost, modular grid battery made from basic materials like sodium and water.
The battery pairs a carbon anode with a sodium-based cathode, and a water-based electrolyte shuttles ions between the two electrodes during charging and discharging.
The technology was developed out of Carnegie Mellon University by founder and chief technology officer Jay Whitacre.
By using basic materials, Aquion is hoping its product is inexpensive enough to disrupt the current grid battery market.
Aquion’s CEO Scott Pearson:
“When the battery has been manufactured at a commercial scale for awhile, the price point of the battery could be $300 per kilowatt hour. That’s about a third of the cost of some of the more expensive lithium ion battery grid products.”
Advantages
Saltwater batteries are tolerant to wide temperature ranges, partial state of charge cycling, and daily deep cycling with minimal degradation.
In addition to the safety and sustainability advantages of using water as electrolyte, another advantage is the thermal mass of the embodied water means that Aquion products neither heat nor cool rapidly. As such, the products can operate in a very wide operating temperature window because they simply take so long to heat and to cool.
The saltwater battery chemistry relies on charge/discharge mechanisms which are unaffected by partial state of charge – these batteries can sit indefinitely at partial, or even no state of charge, without irreversible capacity loss like lead acid batteries.
In June 2016, Aquion Energy has introduced the Aspen 24S, a 24-volt version of its award-winning Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery.
The new product is designed for energy-intensive applications that use solar panels, such as off-grid solar-powered LED lighting, as well as small pumps and motors. It is also an ideal drop-in replacement for existing systems using 24-volt lead-acid batteries.
This glider, called the ‘PowerPlane’ is a green energy turbine that extracts energy from the wind much more economically than conventional wind turbines.
PowerPlane systems convert wind power into mechanical power by having an autopilot-controlled glider plane creating pull on a tether by flying repetitive cross-wind patterns at an altitude of 300 to 600 meters. Read More
Sam Molenaar believes that, with further optimization, the bacteria-based battery could rival the performance of lithium-ion batteries at a lower cost and with greater safety.
A rechargeable battery driven by bacteria? Lithium-ion batteries are limited by safety issues, high costs and other factors. Sam Molenaar and his colleagues from Wageningen University wanted to come up with a less expensive, more sustainable solution.
The research team combined two separate microbial energy systems. One system used bacteria to form acetate from electricity, while the other one converted the produced acetate back into electricity. Read More
The double layer provides electrical power and provides a voltage, similar to how a battery works.
Clumsy, that solar panels do not generate energy while its raining. Chinese scientists have just figured out that solar panels even generate electricity for all-weather: even when it is raining.
Rainy weather
Solar modules are most effective when they are exposed to direct sunlight, but what happens when it rains? Read More
If this large-scale storage of renewable energy in liquid ammonia succeeds, communities can cover long low wind and solar energy periods
Is liquid Ammonia the solution for energy storage?
Big energy company Nuon, together with the Technical University Delft started a pilot project in which renewable energy will be stored in liquid ammonia. Read More
The world’s first floating wind park, Hywind, offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, after Scotland, will store it’s renewable energy in a 1MWh lithium battery.
In 2018, Norway’s Statoil intents to test the battery which is named ‘Batwind’. Read More
in 2014, companies in the electric transportation sector accounted for 820 million euro.
In 2014, the number of employments in electric vehicles increased by 25% to 3,200 jobs in the Netherlands.
Young entrepreneurs
Dutch companies in circular electric transport are doing a great job. National and international. Important, because they do not only contribute to our economy but they also are part of the solution to the global energy and climate issues. Read More
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has announced a comprehensive plan to significantly increase investment in renewable energy projects.
Announcing its annual budget, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) stated that it will float tenders worth Dh 27 billion (US$7.35 billion) to set up renewable energy projects. The projects are expected to be commissioned through the independent power producers model.
The Authority did not give any details for the likely renewable energy projects that will be pursued. However, among the largest tenders would be for the next phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar power park.
The first large phase of the solar park, with 200 MW capacity, is being constructed by ACWA Power-led consortium. Another tender for 800 MW capacity has attracted interest from global project developers, and the winner of this phase is expected to be announced soon.
DEWA plans to increase the total capacity of the solar park to 3 GW by 2030, so a number of tenders are expected to be issued. The Authority is expected to develop other renewable energy and clean energy projects.
Dubai has set a target to increase the share of renewable energy in its total energy mix to 7% by 2020. The medium-term and long-term targets for renewable energy share are 25% by 2030 and 75% by 2050.
Global New Investment in Renewable Energy by Region from 2004 to 2014
Bloomberg New Energy Financereported beautiful news. Since 2013 the world develops more capacity for the generation of green electricity than there is for coal, gas and oil together!
143 GigaWatts renewables versus 141 GigaWatts fossils.
And even better: the developing countries India, Kenya and Brazil have been investing more in renewables than all OESO countries together! Read More
In Normandy (France) the first electric road has been build. In 2016, 
