Tuesday, August 26, 2008
U.S. $2 Billion Maglev Train Construction Approved Between Shanghai and Hangzhou
By Robert L. Candiotti
According to shanghaidaily.com, posted August 17, 2008, a Maglev train route between Shanghai and Hangzhou, China,
has been given approval after a year of delays.
The project was put on hold due to protests from residents that
their health may be affected by radiation from the trains.
The high-speed magnetic-levitation train route will
be built for around U.S. $2 billion between 2009 and 2013.
The Maglev line will be about 200 kilometers long, and
will take about 30 minutes to travel one way. Right now, the bullet train between the city pair takes 90 minutes.
It is reported the Maglev route will be separated from population areas by greenbelts 22.5 meters on both sides.
5:47 pm pdt
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Similar Photovoltaic Array And Arrangement At Nellis Air Force Base Could Work At Ivanpah
By Robert L. Candiotti
Photovoltaic solar power uses solar cells for energy by transforming sunlight directly into electricity.
States the "Photovoltaics" article in Wikipedia, "Photovoltaic production has been doubling every
two years, increasing by an average of 48 percent each year since 2002, making it the world's fastest-growing energy technology."
The solar power plant at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas - inaugurated on December 17, 2007 - is reported to be
the largest solar photovoltaic system in North America.
It generates more than 25 million kilowatt-hours of electricity
annually and provides in excess of 25 percent of the power used at Nellis Air Force Base.
This morning, in conjunction
with the 2008 Renewable Energy Symposium at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a tour of Nellis' photovoltaic solar
system was hosted by UNLV's Office of Strategic Energy Programs.
The solar power plant at Nellis occupies 140
acres and has 70,000 solar panels. According to Wikipedia, MMA Renewable Ventures owns the panels and leases the
land at no cost. Nellis buys the power at about 2.2 cents/kWh. It is stated the arrangement is saving the Air Force $1 million
each year.
It seems a similar array and arrangement would work at the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport which is
now scheduled to open for international and long-haul domestic air traffic south of Las Vegas around the year 2018.
3:28 pm pdt
Monday, August 18, 2008
Reduction Of International Flights To Los Angeles Relevant To Proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport
By Robert L. Candiotti
According to an article in today's Los Angeles Times - "LAX is taken off flight plans," by
Peter Pae and Dan Weikel - 11 percent of international flights to Los Angeles International Airport will cease in November.
This is a result of low ticket demand and high fuel prices, say the writers.
I think such a development is
certainly relevant to Las Vegas' proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport which will be, for the most part, an international
airport.
Surprisingly, the 11 percent deduction will erase "nearly a decade's worth of traffic gains at
LAX."
Some of the airlines cutting back flights to LAX in November are Emirate Airlines, Air India, Thai Airways,
Cathay Pacific Airways, Malaysia Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
The LAX authorities have planned
to make up to $2 billion in improvements at Tom Bradley International Terminal by 2012. Reading the Los Angeles Times article,
it appears to be unclear how this fall's reduction of international flights to Los Angeles will affect these plans, including
the desire to improve the airport's infrastructure for Airbus' new double-deck, 500-plus passenger A380 aircraft.
6:29 pm pdt
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Nocera And Kanan Say Sunlight Is Only Renewable Source Of Energy To Replace Fossil Fuels
By Robert L. Candiotti
Since I first read about it, I have been reflecting on the announcement of July 31, 2008, that Daniel Nocera and Matthew
Kanan of MIT have figured out an inexpensive and efficient way to store sunlight during dark periods.
Their paper,
published in Science on the same day, is titled "In Situ Formation of an Oxygen-Evolving Catalyst in Neutral
Water Containing Phosphate and CO2+." I am no scientist, I admit, but I felt it would benefit me to look over this article.
The day before yesterday I paid $10.00 through the Internet to download the entire paper. I studied it at my own pace,
and, as is often the case with me, my own pace was slow. This scientific article is, I admit, short (10 pages), but it
is also dizzyingly technical.
I readily acquiesce to the brilliance and expertise of Nocera and Kanan. I am
confident they know what they are talking about, and they have, in fact, successfully figured out how to strengthen the
weak link in the chain to the future of solar energy - the necessity of solar power being stored when there is no
sunshine.
But one of the first statements in the paper is not technical at all. To me, it is powerful and refreshing:
"Sunlight is the
only renewable and carbon-neutral energy source of sufficient scale to replace fossil fuels and meet rising global energy
demand."
There it is. The universality of energy from fossil fuels will inevitably fall away, and,
according to Nocera and Kanan, the single adequate substitute for carbon-emitting fuel is solar power, if solar power can
be simply and efficiently stored. And these credible scientists say they have concluded how to do it.
Therefore,
Nocera's and Kanan's paper is quite significant, this layman feels.
7:39 am pdt
Sunday, August 3, 2008
MIT Has Come Up With A Way To Store Solar Energy For Use When There Is No Sunshine
By Robert L. Candiotti
On July 31, 2008, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued a news release reporting that researchers have verified
a way to store solar energy for periods when there is no sunshine.
Daniel Nocera, MIT Henry Dreyfus Professor of
Energy and principal investigator for the institute's Solar Revolution Project, and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow
in Nocera's lab, have, states writer Anne Trafton in the news release, "hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly-efficient
process for storing solar energy."
Through studying photosynthesis of plants - the process by which sunlight
helps green plants make carbohydrates out of carbon dioxide and water - the release says the researchers have defined a process
that enables sunshine "to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined
inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity...day or night."
"This is just the beginning,"
says Nocera. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
The release states James Barber,
the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London, calls MIT's solar energy development a "great
leap" toward creating clean, carbon-free energy on a grand scale. Barber adds, "This is a major discovery with enormous
implications in the future prosperity of humankind."
It is interesting to this writer that only
a few weeks after former Vice President Al Gore made his controversial statement that all energy needs to come from renewable
and and carbon-free sources within 10 years, MIT is announcing an advancement that can overcome solar energy's glaring
weakness - that it can only work when the sun is shining.
6:15 pm pdt
