Zero-Blade -NewType of Wind Turbine Blades!

 When it comes to the future of wind energy, a company thinks of cost savings and efficiency. Thus, Tunisia has established a new technology called Zero-Blade. New type of wind turbine blades can not be twice as efficient without being a danger to birds

But what's that Zero-Blade technology? The knives are replaced by a candle-shaped body while hub and gearbox are eliminated, thereby increasing the efficiency of the devices existing wind power conversion.

According to the company an average wind turbine captures only a 30 or 40%, while the turbine is said to Saphon 2.3 times more efficient. Additionally, it is expected to reduce the cost of 45% less than a conventional turbine, mainly due to the fact that no sheets, cube, and with no gears in the units.

The most important of the Zero-Blade is the storage of energy. Most of the kinetic energy can be stored (via a hydraulic accumulator) or can be converted into electricity by a hydraulic motor and a generator. "We have developed several prototypes.  

We are in our second-generation prototype. We did the test and the second is twice as efficient as a three-bladed turbine in terms of production is at least 50% cheaper. "Commented Labaied Hassine, one of its creators.

The company is now looking for manufacturing partners for the turbine to market.




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Nuclear energy like a fantastic vaccine?

In the 1950s, “too cheap to meter” was the tag line for then-nascent atomic energy. That promise, which Bill Gates now calls a “fantastic vaccine,” has thus far been more of an intractable virus.

Last week Mr. Gates revived the “nuclear is cheap” message to promote his TerraPower nuke startup venture. He also came off decidedly pessimistic about the world’s prospects for combating climate change.
The nuclear industry has long touted “cheap” alongside “clean” in its bid against renewable energy to supply electricity to a power-hungry world. It has also argued loudly against subsidies for renewables, and claimed that nuclear is the only way to slow global warming.

Gates has joined that chorus, stating that he’s skeptical that the world can dramatically cut greenhouse-gas emissions in less than 75 years, and suggesting that wind and solar subsidies should be conditional upon commercializing energy storage technologies first.

To make the “cheap and clean” argument, you have to ignore some significant externalities. A big problem with “cheap” nuclear power has been the cost — construction budget overruns, bailouts, storing spent rods, site clean-up, and human lives. The caveat with “clean” (low-carbon) nuclear power is its multigenerational legacy of radioactive waste.

The traveling wave reactor technology revealed in 2008 as the core of TerraPower’s development is a half-century-old breeder-reactor technology that could run on some of the waste stream from nuclear fuel production. A TWR has been computer-modeled, but never built.

If Gates and his TerraPower partner Nathan Myhrvold want to change the world with nuclear energy, they need to overcome several major issues, and quickly, before the widely imagined nuclear renaissance completely loses steam:

Developed nations, the ones the world is most comfortable with having radioactive materials, have for the most part stopped building nuclear power plants. Emerging nations, even if they can afford to experiment with this new technology, will need to handle the radioactive fuel and waste, including the eventual decommissioning of plants themselves. Convincing populations of a TWR plant’s safety will be a significant hurdle.

Even before Fukushima, John Rowe, chief executive of nuclear power heavyweight Exelon, said in a Politico interview that “except with massive subsidies, there’s really nothing one can do to make a whole lot of nuclear plants economic right now.” The company bought a major renewable energy firm and started moving into wind power.

Nuclear Power Going Down — More Facts (& VIDEO)

Piggy-backing on the news that Japan has just shut down its second-to-last nuclear reactor and that France still subsidies nuclear power to get it down to the price of consumer electricity, here are some rather interesting nuclear versus renewable facts (shared by a reader):

“… between 2004 and 2011, more nuclear-power capacity was decommissioned worldwide than was installed. Last year alone, the world installed 50 percent more new wind-power capacity (41.2 gigawatts) than all new nuclear capacity installed from 2002 to 2011 (27.3 GW). In terms of electricity production, the wind-power industry has installed the equivalent of 1.3 nuclear reactors per month over the past three years.” (emphasis added)

The European Commission projects that only 3% of all new power capacity installed from 2011 to 2020 will be from nuclear power, while it projects 71% will be from renewable energy sources.
Here are some more staggering facts (emphasis added):

In October 2011, former UK Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said that two-thirds of the budget for the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, or €2.4bn a year, is spent on nuclear power. But that is a drop in the ocean compared to decommissioning costs. According to Huhne, “the provisions for nuclear decommissioning costs in total were £2m in 1970, £472m in 1980, £9.5bn in 1990, £22.5bn in 2000, and now, £53.7bn. When nuclear power was held up to the cold, hard light of the market, it proved to be uneconomic.”

Wind power has received a fraction of the financial support that nuclear energy has received – and yet wind can provide electricity at less than half the cost of new nuclear-power plants. According to the European Environment Agency, 80 percent of the total energy subsidies in the European Union is paid to fossil fuels and nuclear energy, while 19 percent goes to renewables.

Moreover, wind energy has zero fuel costs, minimal waste-disposal and decommissioning costs, and a tiny fraction of nuclear power’s risk to human health or the environment.

Wind Power Blows Strong in the UK

Wind power in the UK has reached the 6GW threshold. The landmark figure was reached by the Ormonde offshore wind farm, off the coast of Cumbria and with 120 megawatts (MW) operational, which is enough to power more than 67,000 homes.

“There’s a great feeling of pride throughout the industry that we’ve reached a record high of 6 gigawatts, and there’s a further 19.5GW of capacity under construction, consented, or in planning,” said Renewable UK‘s Chief Executive, Maria McCaffery. “The Government’s Renewable Energy Roadmap is calling for 31GW of onshore and offshore wind combined by 2020, and we’re confident that we can deliver this if we continue to get the right level of Government support”.

The news was announced at RenewableUK’s Annual Parliamentary Reception last Wednesday. To give a better idea of what 6GW represents in terms of power, the UK now has enough installed wind power energy to supply over 3.3 million homes.