Solar, Wind, and Human Powered Trike Goes Around the World

Imagine a post-apocalyptic future, but not the kind of BS “everyone wears eyeliner and leather” post-apocalyptic future of so many (so many) Hollywood movies. Just imagine that the oil dried up, some big war was fought, and all the people who worry about stock algorithms were taken out as collateral damage. Imagine, in other words, that the s*** went down, and only the nice guys were left. Real “the meek shall inherit the Earth” stuff.

That rig up there? That’s what those nice guys will be driving across the deserts.

It’s called “Project Icare” (pronounced something like “ee-kahr”), and it combines some of the best electric bicycle, solar power, and wind turbine tech around into a single, long-distance future car.

The brainchild of Marc Muller, Project Icae is far more than a pie-in-the-sky “what if” build or vaporware computer rendering, however: Icare works! The Icare shown above just completed a 10,000 mile journey using only human power, solar power and wind power, combining all three into a single, capable, globe-trotting adventure!mobile.

To build the Icare, Marc started off with a commercially-available Twike 3-wheeler (itself a human-powered/electric hybrid that’s similar, in concept, to Smart’s new pedal-assist bike). Marc then built the solar-panel trailer out of aluminum and lightweight composites, integrating a collapsible wind turbine into the design for extra power generation during long rests or overnight stops. 

With the 15kWh li-ion “LiFeP04” battery fully charged, the Icare can hit over 45 mph with a maximum range of over 150 miles (250 km) … and keep in mind: if that 150-mile range is just a bit shy of your destination, you can always pedal!

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A sustainable world

We are used to see how the companies seek only their own benefit, which usually correspond to leave his mark on environmental protection, but when a company is working to achieve both issues not always is news, but yes for this blog.

It is the time to start telling the achievements, make mention of companies which work for sustainability. We speak of Acciona.

Acciona is a company that is committed to sustainable development and achieves it through three fundamental aspects: innovation, environment and its Master Plan.

Innovation

Acciona spends increasingly more budget for innovation, but innovation that respects the environment hence its important presence in programs of innovation of the Government and at the same time, its presence in the European framework.

Its innovation projects focus on renewable energy, construction and sustainable transport, water technologies focusing on this very precious asset management.

Environment

One of the most important aspects in this undertaking is the introduction of the environmental variable in its decisions and operations.

Its programme "To act against climate change" is focused on the control and reduction of emissions, build mechanisms and markets of carbon, the search for new products and services, and in turn, promote awareness and awareness through social debate on climate change.

Master plan

Acciona as time-consuming working for sustainability because they are aware that things must be done in another way in which natural resources are respected, and the important thing is that it can be achieved.

Solar 1/3 of World Energy Supply in 2060? Conservative IEA Thinks So

This article was originally published on Climate Progress and has been republished with permission.

The International Energy Agency is notoriously conservative on projections for renewable energy. The agency has embraced the need for more clean electricity and fuels to address climate change and peak oil, but its outlook for the future is usually far more conservative than how reality plays out.

So when an official at the IEA says we could get up to one third of our global energy supply from solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and solar hot water by 2060, that’s a fairly big piece of news. But even that projection may be conservative.

Speaking to Bloomberg News, the head of IEA’s renewable energy unit explained said he thought the target is feasible:

“The strength of solar is the incredible variety and flexibility of applications, from small scale to big scale,” Paolo Frankl, the agency’s head of renewable energy, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Economic activity will shift toward the sunnier zones around the equator by 2050, making solar energy a viable power source for most of the global economy, the report said. Those regions will be home to almost 80 percent of the human race by the middle of the century, compared with about 70 percent today, and their energy needs will be higher as living standards in countries such as Brazil and India approach those of the U.S. and Europe.

The IEA is clearly responding to the fast-changing world of solar energy. It has released a new publication, Solar Energy Perspectives, that mirrors one of its flagship research products, Energy Technology Perspectives.

But in its recent World Energy Outlook, IEA barely gave solar much attention. The organization predicted fairly modest growth in the solar PV and CSP sector through 2035, with a projection that it would only make up 4.5% of electricity supply.

While solar only makes up a fraction of the global electricity supply today, the downward cost curve of technologies is pushing it toward a breaking point. By sometime in 2012, the installed cost of a crystalline-silicon solar PV system over 1 MW in the U.S. could dip to around $2.50 a watt. At around 2$ a watt we could cost-competitively meet around 30% of global electricity supply, says solar expert and Carbon War Room CEO Jigar Shah.

Shah believes solar can reach a 5% penetration level in the U.S. by 2020, with cost reductions coming mostly from innovations in hardware and installation, not dramatic improvements in the lab.

While the IEA is far less ambitious in its projections, the agency seems to agree that a “systems-based approach” to manufacturing and installation will be the key driver to reaching high penetration levels of different solar technologies. And rather than focus on specific subsidies for solar in the long-term, IEA says the most important incentive will be a price on carbon.

Solar is clearly proving itself without a price on carbon. With an effective pricing regime in place, a 30% penetration would almost certainly be low.

JR: I’m not quite sure I agree with the IEA that “Economic activity will shift toward the sunnier zones around the equator by 2050.” They seem to have forgotten global warming, which is going to make many of those sunny areas increasingly uninhabitable by mid-century (see “An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces“). Fortunately, you can string high-voltage DC power lines from the deserts.

The 7 Wonders of the Ecological World

But on this occasion we bring some examples of those sites that have been postulated to become the Natural 7 Wonders (i.e. the seven wonders of the ecological world), in which there is no architecture or construction, but who has designed has been only nature.

The surprise which has been found among the nominees to be one of the 7 Wonders is precisely the Amazon basin, a source of great richness in regard to biodiversity, with a thousand species of animal and plant Kingdom, and many have not yet been discovered.

What is surprising is not this feature, but is one of the zones more danger has, by different activities inherent to its deforestation, and even the extinction of a large number of species. Perhaps protectionist measures being chosen as one of the 7 Wonders of the world to advance and efectivicen even more.

Probably one of the landscapes more famous for his appearances in a few blockbuster Hollywood movies, their training is due to a rain digging caused by the Colorado River, located north of Arizona (United States) product of a constant of millions of years wear.

Account with ranges reaching 29 km of width and depths greater than 1,680 meters, and its greatest asset is the analysis of different sediments and formations from at least 2 billion years of Earth.

This paradisiacal island in the Islands minors of Sonda, a small island formation of Indonesia, stands worldwide for hosting the single species (and unfortunately endangered) Komodo dragons, but the visit to the National Park which houses is not the only attraction.

This volcanic island is frequented by all parts of the world diving fans, those who seek to explore the underwater platform, with a great wealth of shoals of very striking species.

Photovoltaics Among Fastest Growing Industries In The World

The tenth edition of the JRC PV Status Report indicates that in 2010, the photovoltaic (PV) industry production more than doubled and reached a world-wide production volume of 23.5 gigawatt (GW) of photovoltaic modules. Since 1990, photovoltaic module production has increased more than 500-fold from 46 megawatts (MW) to 23.5 GW in 2010, which makes photovoltaics one of the fastest-growing industries at present.

Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity . It is one of the most promising technological options to realise the shift to a decarbonised energy supply.

Current solar cell technologies are well established with sufficient efficiency and energy output for at least 25 years of lifetime. This reliability, in addition to the increasing potential of electricity interruption from grid overloads, and the rise of electricity prices from conventional energy sources, add to the attractiveness of photovoltaic systems.

In 2010, the world-wide photovoltaic production more than doubled, driven by major increases in Europe. For 2010 the annual market volume of newly-installed solar photovoltaic electricity systems varies between 17 and 19 GW, depending on estimates. This represents mostly the grid-connected photovoltaic market, as there are no reliable estimates available for the non grid-connected market. The report, published by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) shows that with a cumulative installed capacity of over 29 GW, the European Union is leading in PV installations. By the end of 2010, European photovoltaic installations provided more than 70% of the total world-wide solar photovoltaic electricity generation capacity.

The photovoltaic industry has changed dramatically over the last few years. China has become the major manufacturing centre for solar cells and modules followed by Taiwan, Germany and Japan. Amongst the twenty biggest photovoltaic manufacturers in 2010, only four had production facilities in Europe, namely First Solar (USA, Germany, Malaysia, Vietnam), Q-Cells (Germany and Malaysia), REC (Norway and Singapore) and Solarworld (Germany and USA).

A special feature is the dramatic price reduction for solar modules by almost 50% over the last three years. This can be explained by the evolution from a supply to a demand-driven market and the resulting over-capacity for solar modules. Business analysts predict that investments in PV technology could double from € 35-40 billion in 2010 to over € 70 billion in 2015, while they expect prices for consumers to continuously decrease.

Even with current economic difficulties, the number of market implementation programmes is still increasing world-wide. Examples of such measures to promote the use of PV technology include renewable portfolio standards, and feed-in tariff tax incentives. Coupled with the overall rising energy prices and pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this will continue to keep demand for solar systems high.

In the long-term, growth rates for photovoltaics are expected to remain high. The study concludes that in order to maintain the high growth rate of the photovoltaic industry, different pathways have to be pursued. There is a need to reduce the material consumption per silicon solar cell because the cost of silicon is one of the main price factors of such solar cells. In parallel, the manufacturing of thin-film solar cells should be increased and the introduction of concentrated photovoltaics (CPVs) should be accelerated. Concentrated photovoltaics (CPVs) is a new technology which substitutes semi-conductor material with cheaper concentrating lenses, typically of plastics.>

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