Archive for July 2010
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Materials stories that missed the cut this week
At the end of each week, I end up with a list of a bunch of stories I started to write about, or started to investigate or didn’t even get that far even though the topic looked intriguing, but, I had a meeting to go to . . .
Anyway, it’s Friday, and rather than have these stories evaporate into the ether, I’ve decided to close out each week by providing some raw links to some of these orphan tales. Check ‘em out:
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Sandia, SunPower to cooperate on PV-to-grid modeling and tool development
Credit: SunPower
Sandia National Lab and SunPower Corp. say they have reached a new agreement on research into integrating utility-scale solar energy systems into the national electrical grid.
Although a news release about this new cooperative research and development agreement only mentions photovoltaic systems, I have to imagine that might have been a mistake since it would be pretty nearsighted of them to exclude concentrating solar power systems.
Regardless, the two entities have at least $1 million in funding from the DOE and another $1 million from the California Solar Initiative fund.
In an announcement from SNL, Terry Michalske, director of Energy and Security Systems at the lab, said, “This partnership will enable Sandia and SunPower to capitalize on their respective strengths and bring together PV modeling and analysis expertise with extensive system data to answer many of the urgent questions facing utility companies and their customers who are turning to clean, solar energy resources.”
Generally speaking, the point of their work is how to blend sources with volatile energy levels into a grid whose customers rely on steady levels of power.
Abraham Ellis, one of Sandia’s photovoltaic specialists said, “A question worth asking is: What are the possible impacts of connecting very large PV systems or a lot of smaller, distributed PV systems on the grid, and what are the solutions for mitigating these impacts? It’s not just a rhetorical question anymore. Part of the problem is that we lack specialized tools and data to properly assess the impact on the grid and evaluate mitigation alternatives. This partnership will help address those challenges.”
SunPower recently completed large PV systems for Yolo County, California, and on the South Side of Chicago, using its proprietary PV panels and solar-tracking system.
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Titanium dioxide-coated anti-NOx roof tiles now being marketed in U.S.
Apparently more folks are jumping on the titanium dioxide’s anti-smog bandwagon. A few days ago I wrote about studies underway in Netherlands where they are testing TiO2-coated concrete roadway pavers for their ability to remove NOx emissions in the air.
Two days ago I learned that concrete roof tiles treated with titanium dioxide are now being marketed in the U.S. for their anti-NOx benefits. The MonierLifeTiles company, part of the Australia-based Boral corporate group, claims that in one year, a 2000 square foot roof of the new tiles “destroy the same amount of nitrogen oxides as a car produces from being driven 10,800 miles.”
The company doesn’t provide any references on these numbers, but the implication, of course, is that a consumer could theoretically offset the NOx emissions of his or her car assuming they drove around 10,000 miles a year. According to the company’s website, the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics did confirm the TiO2-treated tiles ability to degrade NO molecules (see below).
Now, apparently Monier-Boral have been selling these tiles for some time outside the U.S., so this isn’t exactly a new product. The company signaled (sort of - I’ll explain below) that it is now interested in the U.S. market when it teamed up with KB Home to outfit a model house in a new KB community, Alamosa, in West Lancaster, Calif., near LA.
The model home also features solar panel-battery-LED lighting system produced by a Chinese company, BYD – the same BYD that is manufacturing electric vehicles). USA today has a brief write up on the model house. (Sunpluggers has a more detailed story about the house’s systems but doesn’t mention the roof tiles.)
But with PV panels covering a chunk of the 1519-square-foot home’s roof, the owners may need to be driving a hybrid to brag that they are offsetting their smog contribution.
The Alamosa house has gained publicity, but it seems to me that the company is stumbling when it comes to actually marketing this line of tile. First, there is nothing about the tiles on the website they promote (www.montierlifetile.com) about the tile. Not even a press release about the Alamosa house. A little Googling leads one to the company’s European site where more info exists, but nothing helpful about sales.
Second, a few calls to some of Monier’s regional sales people in the U.S. led to a lot of unanswered voicemails. When I was finally referred to the MonierLifeTile’s national customer service number, the person at the other end of the line said she had never heard of Auranox and didn’t know what I was referring to. A message with the national sales manager has, so far, gone unanswered. Thus, I can’t tell you what the tiles cost or where they are made.
Third, the company is using untrained PR folks who either don’t know when to put a leash on the hyperbole or, worse, just make things up:
(from one of their emails, emphasis added) “So, if a homeowner has a roof with Auranox tiles he/she can have a net zero impact on the environment.”
(and this) “About 48% of all greenhouse gases and air pollution comes from homes and buildings and 18% from the entire transportation industry.”
The one thing that the company seems to be doing right is its Facebook page.
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Solar sail uses smart glass to steer through cosmos
Artist’s conception of solar sail. (Credit: JAXA.)
Japan has successfully deployed a solar sail on a spacecraft, demonstrating for the first time that such technology can be used to convert the sun’s energy to the power needed to move a vessel in the cosmos. As an added feature, the IKAROS spacecraft uses LCD technology to alter its attitude using the pressure of sunlight – a first for solar sails.
The sail measures 20 meters diagonally, but is only 0.0075 millimeters thick - or about half the thickness of a human hair.
IKAROS launched in May, and soon after became the first solar sail to be propelled by sunlight. Liquid crystal devices along the outer edge of the sail are used to help steer the craft. These devices control the reflectivity of the outer sections of the sail; switching one on creates a mirror-like effect, allowing sunlight to push more on those parts. The sail can slowly be spun by turning the LCD devices on and off, synchronized to the spin cycle.
“With this we can control both the orbit and the attitude using only sunlight,” says Yuichi Tsuda of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Compared with onboard thrusters, which remain the main method of steering spacecraft, the effect of the reflecting devices is slight. The sail can only change its attitude by about 1 degree per day, Tsuda says, and it gets less effective the faster the sail spins.
This short video displays images that IKAROS took of the solar sail from space. Try to ignore the Styx Muzak.
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Rare earth’s brick wall
Lanthanum
This falls into the “must read” category. A few weeks back, I posted on major cuts in China rare earth exports. Science magazine’s Robert F. Service provides more context:
“. . . Obama declared that the plant “is a symbol of where Michigan is going, … of where Holland is going, … of where America is going.”
That is, unless it runs into a Chinese brick wall.
This month, China announced that it will cut exports this year of rare-earth elements (REE) by 40%, leaving demand outside China exceeding the supply for the first time ever. Combined with Chinese export tariffs of 10% to 25%, the policy could ground fledgling efforts to build clean-energy industries in the United States and other Western countries. ‘It will just be untenable to compete’ with companies based in China, says Jeffrey Green, president of J. A. Green and Co., a government-relations firm in Washington, D.C., specializing in rare earths.
[ . . . ]
Although one of the most abundant rare earths, lanthanum could be hardest hit by China’s new export controls, which cap overall exports. Observers worry that companies, to increase profits, may try to export more high-value REEs, such as dysprosium and terbium, and drastically reduce lower-value elements such as lanthanum. That change, in turn, could result in price hikes for some elements.”
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