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"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

China's largest copper deposit Yulong copper mine in the Tibet Autonomous Region is to start copper cathode production end-September with its output expected to reach 1,800-2,000 mt in 2008, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. The first phase of the Yulong project is expected to be fully completed in 2010, which will reach a copper cathode output capacity of 30,000 mt/year. The mine in the long run aims to reach a copper output of 100,000 mt/year. Preliminary copper reserves estimated at Yulong copper mine is at above 6.5 million mt and its copper reserves in the long run could reach 10 million mt in the long run. The mine is the country's largest resources deposit and the second largest in Asia, the report said.

It's been a long, challenging endeavor, but there are signs that the economic ecosystem built up around wave and tidal power generation is at long last gathering enough momentum to make the jump from R&D-driven to full-fledged commercial industry. Scotland, with its long stretches of west-facing coastlines, North Atlantic latitude and longstanding tradition of maritime engineering and commerce, is now at the leading edge of change when it comes to fostering development of marine renewables. Wavegen's Limpet 500 system has been pumping electricity from the western Scottish Isle of Islay shoreline since 2000 while the company and project developer npower renewables have continued to move forward with plans to develop the Siadar Wave Energy Project, potentially the first under the Scottish government's Marine Supply Obligation program. Marine Current Turbines is getting ready to flip the switch and fully commission a grid-connected 1.2-megawatt (MW) Seagen tidal turbine-based system in Northern Ireland's Strangford Narrow, while elsewhere in the EU, project developers and the marine renewables community await the much-anticipated commissioning of Pelamis's novel, serpent-like wave power system off the northern Portuguese coast.

A new era for commodities Cheap resources underpinned economic growth for much of the 20th century. The 21st will be different. NOVEMBER 2011 * Richard Dobbs, Jeremy Oppenheim, and Fraser Thompson Source: McKinsey Global Institute, Sustainability & Resource Productivity Practice In This Article Exhibit: In little more than a decade, soaring commodity prices have erased a century of steady declines. About the authors Comments (2) Has the global economy entered an era of persistently high, volatile commodity prices? Our research shows that during the past eight years alone, they have undone the decline of the previous century, rising to levels not seen since the early 1900s (exhibit). In addition, volatility is now greater than at any time since the oil-shocked 1970s because commodity prices increasingly move in lockstep. Our analysis suggests that they will remain high and volatile for at least the next 20 years if current trends hold-barring a major macroeconomic shock-as global resource markets oscillate in response to surging global demand and inelastic supplies. Back to top Demand for energy, food, metals, and water should rise inexorably as three billion new middle-class consumers emerge in the next two decades.1 The global car fleet, for example, is expected almost to double, to 1.7 billion, by 2030. In India, we expect calorie intake per person to rise by 20 percent during that period, while per capita meat consumption in China could increase by 60 percent, to 80 kilograms (176 pounds) a year. Demand for urban infrastructure also will soar. China, for example, could annually add floor space totaling 2.5 times the entire residential and commercial square footage of the city of Chicago, while India could add floor space equal to another Chicago every year. Such dramatic growth in demand for commodities actually isn't unusual. Similar factors were at play throughout the 20th century as the planet's population tripled and demand for various resource

"Centuries ago, Nikola Tesla envisioned and pioneered the concept of wirelessly transmitting power over long distances through the Earth's ionosphere. In the recent past, wireless energy transfer has occurred by way of an electromagnetic (EM) field set to a certain frequency level. While transmission efficiency over longer distances is attained to an extent by this method, it becomes increasingly difficult when complicated pointing and tracking mechanisms are mandatory to maintain the right wavelength between the transmitter and the receiver. Another drawback to this approach is that any object that falls between the transmitter and the receiver impedes the beam, thus interrupting power transmission to a potentially harmful degree if the power level goes beyond a certain threshold point. Even though microwave frequencies could prove effective to transmit power over long distances through a radiated EM field, the aforementioned caveats still apply. The other possible way to wirelessly transmit power is by non-radiative fields. For instance, a transformer operates by magnetic induction drawing similarities to wireless power transfer. Energy transfer in a transformer happens from the primary coil to a secondary coil in the absence of a direct electrical connection. The same approach can be seen in inductive chargers found in electric toothbrushes, for example. However, for this functionality to operate smoothly, primary and secondary coils must be positioned in close proximity to one another."

Monday, 28 July 2008 \nGuangdong Chigo Air Conditioner, a large-sized modern enterprise integrating the development, production and sales of household and commercial air conditioners, recently announced its agent in Egypt successfully won the contract for the Huawei correspondence station in Egypt after seven hardworking months.\n\n Huawei is said to have already achieved 12.56 billion dollars sales revenue, becoming one of the top five global telecommunications equipment producer, now with primacy globally, especially in Africa. Contracts for the correspondence station of Huawei in Egypt were mainly in the hands of Carrier for a long time, which means other brands could not compete with it and usually did not pass the test phase. Because the equipment for each station was valued at over 300 thousand yuan, the AC units could not run for a long time without a reliable capability guarantee. Right now the first set of Chigo splits is already installed in the station.\n\nThe vice president of Chigo Overseas Marketing Department , Mr. Peter Liao, said :"The success of this project means a lot for us. The intergrated ability of Chigo is already at new stage, being the supplier of a globally famous communication company. The cooperation with Huawei is meaningful for Chigo's development in the North African and African markets." For the success of the Huawei project, Huawei's subsidiaries in Libya and Sudan have also started to cooperate with Chigo, reveals the company's press release. \n\n\n

That plastic pipe systems continue to gain market share through supplanting competing pipe materials such as copper, concrete and steel due to easy and low cost installation as well as long term performance, Stephen Boros who is also VP Engineering for Pipelines Plastics, LLC explained. "In North America, these inherent advantages are now further supported by the development of the shale oil and gas industry. This development not only benefits the energy market but also represents a more secure long‐term supply and cost advantage from a power costs to raw materials stand point. Technology transfer will undoubtedly propel the growth of demand for plastic pipe systems in other world markets."

"In this infographic, we examine long-term trends and the outlook for copper supply."

As China's economic lifeline, the iron and steel industry used to be a black smoke maker and blue-sky killer in the eyes of many people. In 2007, SO2 emissions by China's large and medium-sized steel and iron enterprises were estimated at 756,368 tons, down 0.51 percent year-on-year. And the discharge of industrial coal ash was 382,275 tons with a 2.79 percent decline. Otherwise, soot discharges increased 3.02 percent, totaling 156,648 tons. The Long March of environmental protection and energy efficiency for China's steel and iron enterprises is still challenging, though many in the iron and steel industry have launched a green revolution in order to improve their old image. Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp (WISCO) is one such environmental protection warrior. As China's thrid largest steel and iron manufacturer, WISCO used to be a major polluter in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. Many residents complained and criticized the firm, joking that sparrows would turn black after flying over WISCO's mills.

It looks ordinary, like a razor-thin metal ribbon. But the high-temperature superconductor power transmission cable the Long Island Power Authority recently installed in Ronkonkoma revolutionizes how electricity is delivered, utility and federal officials said. The cable -- which is a fraction of the size of a traditional copper wire but can carry three times the power -- made its ceremonial debut yesterday with officials from LIPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and officials from the company that makes the cable. It went online April 22, the world's first use of the new technology in a commercial power grid. Utilities around the world are looking at superconductivity to improve efficiency of their grids and make them less vulnerable to blackouts. LIPA has buried three 2,000-foot wires in its right-of-way, and it will be installing a second generation of the wire in the same area as a test. "We view superconductor power cables as an important option that will help us further enhance the reliability of our grid as we meet our customers' increasing demands for electric power," LIPA chief executive Kevin Law said. He said the new cable allows the utility to increase capacity where its system has bottlenecks while increasing reliability and longevity and lowering costs. The wire, manufactured by American Superconductor Corp., conducts 150 times the electricity of the same sized copper wires, strand-for-strand. This means transmission cables can be far smaller and still conduct as much as three to five times more power in a smaller right-of-way.

SYDNEY -(Dow Jones)- BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) said Tuesday it expects stainless steel demand to be robust over the long-term, underpinned by China's ongoing urbanization and industrialization, the miner said in a presentation to analysts on a site tour at its nickel operations in Western Australia.

24/06/2009 - The slowdown in OECD economies is reaching the bottom following the deepest decline for more than 60 years, says the OECD's latest Economic Outlook. But recovery is likely to be weak and fragile, and the economic and social damage caused by the crisis will be long-lasting.

"The rise to the top of global construction, which coincides with China's displacement of Japan as the world's second-largest economy, underlines a decade- long power shift in the industry from the mature markets of the US, Japan and western Europe to China, India and a clutch of smaller emerging economies."

"As offshore wind farms are being built farther from the coast and more offshore oil and gas installations are powered from shore, there will be an increasing need for long-distance underwater power transmission in the years to come."

Xinxing Zhunguan, a Zhejiang-based manufacturer of copper wirerod, plans to increase production at its facility to 165,000t in 2013, up by 10% from 150,000t in 2012. Despite low profitability at Chinese wirerod producers, an official at the company said Xinxing Zhunguan still plans to increase output in 2013 in order to enhance competitiveness. The company said it expects orders to be subdued in the run up to the Chinese Lunar New Year, but then expects a strong rebound after the holiday period. This is consistent with another report on 11th January from Reuters which cited several Chinese copper traders as expecting the period between now and the holiday to be quiet, followed by a strong rebound.

According to an official from Chinalco Kunming Copper Co., the Chinese wirerod manufacturer, the company produced 10,000t of copper wirerod in March, up from 7,000t in February. The official said that March's output of wirerod had risen because of a week-long shutdown in February for the Chinese New Year. However, output had still fallen short of the company's 13,000t target. Chinalco Kunming plans to produce 150,000t of wirerod in 2013, utilising around 68% of its 220,000t/y capacity. According to a report from Asian Metal, the company has recently settled its long-term charges for processing 8.0mm wirerod at RMB1,150/t (US$183/t).

Wirerod production at Hebei Dawufeng Copper has been temporarily suspended since early April in order to carry out maintenance. The company elected to halt production for a month in order to carry out equipment maintenance, owing to the currently sluggish wirerod market. Production at the plant, which has a wirerod production capacity of 100,000 t/y is scheduled to re-start in early May.

Light weighting as a strategy to combat emission and mileage targets has carved a niche corner in automotive original equipment manufacturers' (OEMs') and supplier's research and development. Almost all OEMs have been working on ambitious weight reduction strategies to adhere to future regulations. Light weighting has a profound effect as a long-term strategy, as OEMs transit from making ICE-powered vehicles to battery electric and fuel-cell vehicles. Light weighting as a strategy has implications in other industries such as aviation and power generation. This market insight provides insights on the key factors such as emissions, mileage targets, emission test cycles, electrification, urbanization, and cost and their influence on OEM light weighting strategies.

"Substitution of raw materials likely to increase next year"