Vector is to start trialling rooftop wind turbines imported from Scotland. The Swift turbines, manufactured by Renewable Devices in Edinburgh, are rated at 1.5kW and quiet enough for urban use. The first trial site is the Waitakere City Council building (Waitakere has a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050). In NZ conditions, it’s expected that the Swifts will deliver between 2,000 and 3,000 kWh per year – around a quarter of the average household’s electricity usage. I wonder how the Swifts might cope with a North Canterbury nor’wester?
Category: Climate science
Mummy, can I have one of these, please?
Great article in Wired on new battery technologies being developed for electric vehicles leads me to discover something I really, really want (but can’t afford): the new Lightning GT. A British-built electric supercar. 700hp through motors in each wheel, 0-60mph in about 4 seconds, 250 mile range, and thanks to Altairnano’s nanotech re-engineering of lithium batteries, a 10 minute recharge time. Snag? The £150,000 cost. Even with the NZ dollar soaring, that’s not far short of $400,000. And only two seats.
Kill possums and save the world
Possums eat trees. Trees take carbon from the air. Kill possums, tree growth increases, and more carbon’s sucked out of the atmosphere. The Department of Conservation’s been keen on this idea for some time, to the extent of claiming last year that $200 million spent on possum and goat control would sequester enough carbon to meet New Zealand’s complete Kyoto emissions overshoot. They’ve finally convinced the cabinet that this is worth pursuing: conservation minister Chris Carter announced yesterday [Scoop, Stuff] that DoC will tender for commercial investment in six carbon offset trials.
Details of the projects are still being developed but they are likely to be of two types. The first will set aside specific areas of conservation land for either replanting or natural regeneration of forests on land which was not in forest prior to 1989, thus making these measures Kyoto compliant. The second type of project, likely to be the largest of the two, will involve major pest control initiatives on conservation land to measure and assess increases in carbon storage, both through the removal of pests which may emit methane and through increased growth in shrubs and trees with the pests gone.
Interestingly, Carter notes:
“Companies have already been approaching DOC with multi-million dollar conservation and carbon storage proposals. The government’s decisions mean that all New Zealand companies are put on a level playing field in a tender process for the carbon storage opportunities conservation land offers.
Do android farmers dream of electric tractors?
Here’s a way to reduce agricultural emissions: the electric tractor. Global Public Media make the case for the electric tractor as a means to eliminate fossil fuel use (and helpfully explain why farms can’t be self-sufficient in biofuels):
This week we took a (petroleum-powered) scenic drive through the redwoods to the Mendocino coast to visit Stephen Heckeroth and demo his “Solar Electric Tractor.
The answer lies in the… superconducting magnets
Superconducting electrical motors could replace conventional aircraft engines, and if run on hydrogen could offer low-carbon air transport, a team of US researchers claim.
“We could potentially build a superconducting motor and generator smaller than a gas turbine, which would make possible electric propulsion,” says [Phillppe] Masson [of Florida State University]. Electrical propulsion would not only decrease emissions but also reduce to a minimum the needs for maintenance as all hydraulic systems would be eliminated, he adds. The team has designed such systems with high fidelity models and optimization tools. Masson adds that the team is now looking for an industrial partner to build a prototype of the superconducting turbofan. “The technology is there,” he says, “it is a matter of finding a source of funding.”
Meanwhile, the UK Telegraph investigates the rush to green air travel…