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Image: © Wind Turbines in Holland

Last Friday the pro-environment business organisation the Aldersgate Group convened a meeting to discuss the EU proposals to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 30% by 2020. Currently the EU is committed to a 20% reduction. What would be the consequences, both environmental and economic of going for the higher target?

A heavyweight panel met in the headquarters of Band of America Merrill Lynch in the centre of London. Chaired by Andrew Raingold, Aldersgate’s Executive Director, the panel members were: Guy Turner from Bloomberg; David Kennedy, Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change, which is the UK Government’s advisory panel on tackling and preparing for climate change; Abyd Karmali, BoA Merrill Lynch; and Neil Johnson from DECC (the UK government Department of Energy and Climate Change).

Guy Turner opened with a clear presentation of the costs of moving to a higher target based on Bloomberg research. The net cost would overall be small in terms of the total EU budget: “In the simplest scenario, [Bloomberg] estimate that a change from a 20% to a 30% emissions reduction target for the EU as a whole would result in an additional cost of Euro3.5bn per year up to 2020.”

Panel: L-R, Neil Johnson, David Kennedy, Abyd Karmali, Guy Turner, Andrew Raingold. Photo by Amy Parton

This equates to $4.5bn at today’s exchange rates. Though this is a large sum, the costs of fossil fuels like natural gas, coal, and oil are rising continuously and in 2020 more renewable energy may actually be cheaper so this could be a bargain, although it is impossible to predict.

Abyd Karmali explained that the effects of the EU trading scheme and other factors had meant that no coal-fired power stations had been built in the EU since 2005 and financial organisations were scrambling to invest in biomass or to convert existing power stations to use the fuel.

David Kennedy agreed that the move to a 30% GHG reduction by 2020 was possible. It would mean a large number of electric vehicles on the roads and further electrification of the railway system.

Neil Johnson said, “The UK is making the case for a 30% target this year in EU negotiations.” He then talked about the political difficulties. Some of the less-developed parts of the EU such as Poland are reliant on old, dirty, coal-fired power stations. So they are not in favour of a higher commitment, unless they can receive sufficient subsidy. One of the audience called this “Stuffing their mouths with gold.” As the EU negotiates as a bloc, then unless these objections are overcome, the 30% target will not be instituted but Johnson was hopeful that with sufficient incentives the tail-enders could be brought on board.

Julian Jackson (left)in the audience as Doug Parr of Greenpeace asks a question about nuclear power. Photo by Amy Parton

There was a vibrant question-and-answer session afterwards. One questioner suggested that biomass was not a particularly good way of removing carbon from the atmosphere, as growing trees usually takes too long for it to be effective, although other participants thought that fast growing trees were a good way of capturing carbon. Nuclear power and the revenue impact of subsidies was also discussed and it could have gone on much longer but the event had reached its time limit.

The general conclusion of the meeting was that it is the political difficulties in moving to a higher target that are the obstacles, not the technical or financial aspects.

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Installation of solar panels via Shutterstock

Three student housing developments in America are to be run on clean energy. More than 9,000 solar panels are to be fitted at The Grove student accommodation in Flagstaff, in Arizona, Greeley, in Colorado, and Las Cruces, in New Mexico.

The installation by top renewable energy company, SolarCity, will generate more than 2.3 million kilowatt-hours of power each year.

Toby Corey, the Chief Revenue Officer at SolarCity, says, “Campus Crest is showing future generations there are better energy options available by giving students access to renewable power. It’s possible for many housing developers to pay less for solar electricity than they pay for utility power and pass on the benefits of clean power to their tenants–SolarCity has completed more than 100 solar projects for housing developments in the U.S.”

The solar power will halve the need for traditional electricity generation and will save more than 80 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. This saving equals the CO2 emissions of around 7,000 cars each year.

Campus Crest Communities says sustainable living initiatives are key to the company’s business and beliefs and it is delighted that the students share its philosophy.

Generating more solar energy will contribute to Campus Crest’s mission to be a leader in the clean energy field and will help limit carbon dioxide emissions and cut energy bills, as well as giving increasing the energy efficiency of the student homes.

As part of Campus Crest’s drive to make a positive impact on the environment, the economy and student housing communities, it is working with two like-minded organisations. The Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) based at Colorado State University, encourages stewardship and sustainability of natural and built environments and the non-profit Center for Living Environments and Regeneration (CLEAR) promotes global regeneration.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Campus Crest, Ted W. Rollins, and Vice President and head of Campus Crest’s sustainability initiative, Andrew H. Young, say the scheme contributes to the company’s commitment to clean energy and regeneration. It shows that economic and environmental factors can come together and help make a thriving company.

Director of Projects for the IBE and Executive Director of the CLEAR, Josie Plaut, says Campus Crest is an ideal example of a responsible company with a balance approach to achieving excellent results. It is looking forward to working with a responsible company that cares for the environment, while making strong financial returns.

Campus Crest Communities, Inc. develops, builds, owns and manages more than 6,300 high-quality, purpose-built student apartments close to campuses.

SolarCity offers clean energy products and services-providing homeowners, businesses and government bodies with cleaner, cheaper options to their utility bills.

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Cystic fibrosis via Shutterstock

Researchers say they may have found a way to treat cystic fibrosis, a disease that has always been fatal. If the genetic therapy works in monkeys, human tests could begin within the next 12 to 18 months.

Patients might simply use inhalers to get a genetically altered cold virus into their lungs and reverse the abnormalities that cause the disease. But it’s not known how long the treatment is effective, and patients may have to repeat it.

“It would not be a one-time cure, but the strategy is a cure,” said Dr. Ronald Crystal, head of the research team at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. So far, the researchers have successfully used the method in test tubes and have tried it on rats.

The results are being published today in the scientific publication Cell. Cystic fibrosis, an inherited disorder that affects some 40,000 people in the United States, causes the lungs to produce a thick mucous that eventually damages the lungs and leads to respiratory failure and death.

The average age at death is 27, Crystal said. Until recently, little could be done for cystic fibrosis patients except to help them cough the mucous out of their lungs. But there are new treatments that alter or reduce the secretions in the lungs, said Dr. Robert J. Beall, executive vice president for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Crystal’s approach represents the first attack on the underlying genetic cause, he said.

Altered gene therapy usually involves taking cells from the body, changing them and putting them back. But the inside of the lung is too complicated for such a procedure. “The idea has been obvious,” Crystal said. “The problem technically has been doing it.” His team altered a common cold virus to carry the cystic fibrosis gene into the lungs of test rats.

“We modified it so that it cannot cause damage,” Crystal said. The lungs pick up the correct gene, which instructs the cells in the lining to produce the right kind of protein. That protein, in turn, ensures that the abnormal transfers of sodium and chloride that cause the thick mucous don’t occur.

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Flower image via Shutterstock

Scientists have made a fresh discovery about how flowers reproduce so prolifically. Researchers at Brown University, Rhode Island, in America, have investigated the way flowers control sperm distribution to female gametes.

They discovered that Arabidopsis flowers ensure gamete fusion has happened before additional pollen is repelled. This leads to successful fertilisation even if the initial pollen is faulty.

Senior author Mark Johnson, a Brown associate professor of biology, says. “There is a mechanism that prevents too many pollen tubes from delivering too many sperm. But the other cool thing is that there is also a way to salvage fertilisation if the first father is a dud.”

During the process of pollination, hundreds of pollen grains carry sperm as they fix on a flower’s stigma and grow a pollen tube along the style shaft approaching the ovules that house two female cells.

The process could be chaotic, but the researchers found that flowers have developed an efficient safeguard to ensure two fertile sperm reach the female cells and are successful.

When the gametes and sperm fuse, the signals that attract the tubes to ovule stops, discovered study author Kristin Beale, a Browns graduate student who works alongside Mark Johnson.

Previous studies believed that if one pollen tube was used, others were discouraged, but Brown researchers found the gamete fusion was the trigger, because until then, seed formation was not guaranteed.

Even though the reproduction of plants has been investigated for many years, it was only recently that new techniques using pollen mutant helped further advance research.

The team, including report author Alexander Leydon, carried out a number of experiments on Arabidopsis, the rockcress weed.

They found the pollen mutant hap2 creates a pollen tube to an ovule and then bursts on the release of sperm. But its sperm is unable to fuse with the gametes.

The researchers carried out a new technique that added fluorescent colours to the pollen tubes and its sperm. This allowed them to investigate how the tubes behaved with the ovules.

In one experiment they used healthy sperm carried by red and green coloured tubes in equal measure. Just 1% of ovules received multiple tubes (a process named polytubey by Kristin Beale).

The researchers then used sperm with 25% that was faulty. Polytubey rose 10-fold and one ovule attracted four tubes, which suggests polytubey is accepted until a sperm is successful at fertilisation.

They then used red tags for mutant sperm and green tags for wild pollen and discovered that polytubey only occurred with the mutant sperm.

They found that ovules targeted with mutant sperm could accept additional pollen, but if wild pollen sperm was attracted, any other pollen tubes were blocked.

The also discovered that one of the cells attracting pollen tubes keeps going in the ovule until the gamete fusion is successful. The team did not find out which signalling molecule blocks the process of polytubey after fusion, but it had to be strong and quick.

The study could help farmers overcome fertilisation problems in corn crops, Mark Johnson adds.

The research was financed by The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health Brown University Initiative to Maximize Student Development.

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Credit: AORA

A garden of flowers that produce- rather than consume- energy sounds unreal, but that is the concept behind AORA’s innovative solar plant.

Located in the Arava desert in Israel, a solar “garden” comprised of tulip-shaped sunlight collectors towering to more than 35 meters generates power by using ultra-high temperature concentrating solar power (CPS) technology.

AORA, a pioneer of distributed solar thermal technology (DST) based in Israel, set up their first solar “garden” in Kibbutz Samar in the south of Israel in 2009 on a 2300sq metersplot of land. Since it was first switched on four years ago, the plant of yellow tulips has been generating 100kw of power per hour for the grid. But that was only the beginning.

Recently, AORA set up shop in Spain’s coastal city of Alemria, where it opened Europe’s first gas turbine solar thermal power station in Platforma Solar Almeria (PSA). The station produces 100kw of electric power to the grid and 170kw of thermal power as byproduct, enough to provide energy to nearly 50 average households. In addition to production of electricity, the heat can also be used for cooling and desalination processes.

Credit: AORA

Flower-power

Facing each tulip from the ground are 50 solar panels that focus the sun’s rays into the “bulb” of the flower made of solar receivers, where the air is heated to nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius. Fitted inside the “bulb” are 100kw gas turbines that turn thermal energy into electric energy.

AORA’s smart hybrid operation system enables to continue producing energy even when sunlight in itself is insufficient. More specifically, the system can “run” on natural gas, diesel, bio gas, bio diesel and LPG as well as sunlight to ensure that energy supply is uninterrupted in any weather condition.

Air instead of water

AORA’s solar system can operate in various locations and conditions “as long as it’s not too hot and humid”, says CEO Zev Rosenzweig. Unlike other solar power plants that use steam or oil when transferring energy from solar radiation to the turbine, AORA’s smart system uses pressurized hot air. A compressor pressurizes the air by volume (e.g. one cubic meter). The amount of energy that can be transferred by the reflected solar heat depends on the mass of the air that is compressed and sent to the solar receiver. When the air is hot, its density decreases and after compression, the volume contains less mass. As a result, the energy transfer to the turbine is lower than when the air is cool.

To overcome this weather condition, a very fine water mist (in amounts much smaller than other solar systems) is sprayed into the air ahead of intake. When the mist evaporates, it takes the energy out of the air and leaves it more dense. However, if the relative humidity of the ambient air is too high, like in Dubai, where it can reach 98%, the system simply doesn’t have enough “material” to work with. But these conditions are rare and are, therefore, not a setback for AORA’s expansion plans.

Credit: AORA

Tulips all over the world

The plant in Spain is just the beginning of AORA’s venturing outside of Israel. “Spain has the most developed program to support solar energy development and we were offered a position in a prestigious research park in Almeria”, says Rosenzweig. But 2012 is looking to be the year when AORA’s tulips will blossom all over the world.

A significant order of demo units of the system is headed to the USA and plans are currently being devised to set up sites in Latin America and Eastern Europe by the end of 2012.

Potential uses

Because they are scalable, small and do not require speciphic geographical conditions for set up, AORA’s plants can be built near or around nature reserves, zoos or parks without causing environmental damage. Several small plants connected together can produce enough energy to power entire cities. Thet can also be used in the private sector.

Some of the uses discussed by AORA with potential private buyers include a mine in Cyprus that needs electricity and hot water, an industrial park in India that needs 24/7 power for its industries and power supply for a housing development in California consisting of 60-70 housing units based on high electrical usage.

Rising above the competition

The idea behind AORA’s system, which was first conceived in the Weizmann Institute of Technology in Israel by Prof. Jacob Karni over 30 years ago, is to utilize the maximum of solar power as it travels through the air. It is achieved by building smaller plants where mirrors are all close to the collecting station.

The tulip system, despite not being the first or only solar power plant in the market, still manages to stand apart from the competition, and not only due to its unique design. Although Photovoltaic systems (PV) are also modular and price-wise may be cheaper, they do not provide utility grade power. As opposed to AORA, PV are not hybrid systems, so they can’t work 24/7.

AORA’s plants use considerably smaller amounts of water compared to CSP steam plants, which are also not scalable and provide non solar time power from storage that is very expensive.

Despite the fact that capital cost per megawatt for large scale CSP (without storage costs) is the same as for AORA, the latter uses less land, which means a smaller carbon footprint. “[AORA] can be financed in stages, making it easier to finance a $500 million plant for 100MW”, says Rosenzweig.

An additional advantage of the AORA system is its flexibility in installation and repair. The amount of units to be purchased and installed by potential buyers is tailored to the needs of each buyer, since different uses will require different amounts of electricity. When it comes to repairs, only one unit is shut off each time instead of the entire plant, which means that power supply is not hindered.

Forecast: bright and sunny

Along with requests and orders coming in from the business sector, according to Rosenzweig, AORA has been receiving requests for plants from towns in Spain that wish to acquire their own generating capacity and towns in Mexico that expressed interest in their own plants following them being “subjected to load-shedding by national utility when demand is too high in New Mexico”.

With more and more countries and communities discovering the importance of sustainability and the advantages of solar energy, it looks like AORA’s tulips will soon be a part of many countries’ landscapes.

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