The current rankings put the US 18th according to GDP (2nd in absolute terms) and the UK is 19th. Australia “squandered an early technical lead in solar energy” and is 28th.
Spain is 4th relative to GDP, Finland is 5th and China 6th.
In absolute terms, the top ten countries are: 1. Germany, 2. the US, 3. Japan, 4. China, 5. Denmark, 6. Brazil, 7. Spain, 8. France, 9. the UK, 10. Korea.
New energy efficiency standards for home water heaters being proposed by the US Administration do not go far enough, says the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
The new standards will cover the nine million residential water heaters sold every year that account for an estimated 20% of a typical homes’ energy consumption. Savings on the order of 2.6 quads of energy over 30 years will result, says the Department of Energy (DOE), reducing customers bills by around $15.6 billion and emissions by 154 million metric tons.
Engineers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Florida State University are closer than ever to launching a new generation of high-field magnet, being 3,000 times stronger than an ordinary refrigerator magnet and will be able to generate a field about 45% more powerful than the strongest superconducting magnet currently available.
The new high tech magnet will be made of a high-temperature superconductor that is far less expensive to operate than its conventional counterparts and more energy efficient. According to the researchers, it could mark the beginning of a new generation of super powerful magnets that help lower both the carbon footprint and cost of scientific research.
The researchers there have developed a system that is simpler to assemble and manufacture, and laid out their suggestion in a paper (pdf) presented at the 2008 European Wind Energy Conference.
Till now; the blades of wind turbines have been connected to a generator via a gearbox. Their technology substituted a “C” shaped core generator (initially in a 20 kW prototype) to test to see if by changing the mechanical structure of the generator they could still maintain rigidity and structural integrity while cutting the weight by more than half.
The design is simply a novel arrangement of the electromagnetically active components: the magnets, steel and copper inside the generator and the copper coils.
Construction will start next week on the £42 million Wave Hub marine energy project in South West England.
The Wave Hub, which will be located 10 miles off the north Cornwall coast, will serve as a test bed for wave energy devices by providing an electrical connection from the seabed at a depth of around 50 m to the national grid.
Initially, the Wave Hub will have four berths for wave energy devices up to a maximum capacity of 20 MW, but has the potential to scale up to 50 MW in the future.
Ocean Power Technologies has signed up to take the first berth when it becomes available to test the performance of its PowerBuoy wave energy converter.
The first devices are expected to be deployed in 2011, once the cabling and connectors have been constructed. Starting on Monday, civil engineers will drill ducts from Cornwall coast at Hayle to connect to the subsea cable and a new electricity substation on the site of a former nearby power station.
Colin Bennett
