Whalepower turbines in Guelph, Ont.
Environment
Examining green technologies of the future
As Earth Day prompts us to think about the untempered consumption of the world’s resources, here’s a look at some of the cutting-edge technologies that might help shrink our damaging human footprint on the planet.
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Officials and media on a tour cast shadows on a solar panal as Enbridge Inc. and First Solar, Inc. held a grand opening celebration of the completion of the Sarnia Solar Project, the largest operation photovoltaic facility in the world, in Sarnia, Ont., on Oct. 4, 2010. The 950 acre site has a peak capacity of 80 megawatts of power.— Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press
It’s no longer a novelty to see a neighbour’s roof covered in solar panels, and one of the world’s biggest solar farms is in Canada – Enbridge’s 80-megawatt project on 380 hectares near Sarnia, Ont. But generating electricity from photovoltaic cells is still expensive, and subsidies are the name of the game for big projects.
The goal now is to make solar cells more efficient – even the best convert just a small proportion of the sun’s energy into electricity. Dozens of companies are researching new and cheaper materials, or simplifying their manufacturing so solar cells can be printed or sprayed on the surface of objects. Toronto’s Morgan Solar Inc. has developed a system to concentrate the sun’s energy onto cells, making them much more efficient.
Watch for claims of “grid parity” – the point where the cost of solar power is the same or lower than traditional energy sources. At that point, it’ll be cheaper to get your power from the panels on your roof than to buy it off the grid.
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Lithium-Ion cell, the foundation for Electrovaya's battery technology.
Many clean-power technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels, and run-of-river hydro plants, produce electricity intermittently – when the wind blows, sun shines or water flows. If that power could be stored until it is needed, it would dramatically reduce the need for “baseline” sources such as coal and nuclear.
While small-scale rechargeable lithium batteries have advanced enough to get electric cars such as the Chevy Volt onto the market, bigger batteries or storage technologies that can handle the output of a power plant are still largely untested.
But there are lots of ideas out there, and some come from Canadian entrepreneurs. Electrovaya Inc., of Mississauga, has developed a large-scale lithium-ion battery that it says can efficiently store 100 megawatt-hours of electricity; Riverbank Power’s proposed underground hydroelectric power stations store water in caverns, then pump it back to the surface for reuse; and Hydrostor proposes to store compressed air in undersea balloons, to be used when needed to run turbines.
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Whalepower turbines in Guelph, Ont.
You don’t have to build as many new power plants if you use electricity more efficiently, and that’s what the “smart grid” is all about. It is a catch-all term for a range of hardware and software that ensures electricity goes from the transmission site to the place it’s used in the most effective way possible.
In the home, it will mean using appliances – such as air conditioners and water heaters – that can communicate with the utility and operate so power costs are minimized. Some studies have shown that having smart devices “talk” to the power system can reduce electricity use by more than 10 per cent, without a homeowner even noticing.
On a larger scale, smart-grid technology will make sure electricity is sent along transmission wires in a way that minimizes power loss. Intelligent equipment can allow lines to carry more power, and reduce the need to build more. And as smaller renewable power sources such as wind farms, solar arrays and small hydroelectric plants become more widespread, figuring out how to get the power to where it is needed at exactly the right time will require complex controls. Add thousands of electric-car chargers to the mix, and the challenge is even greater.
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A worker walks between giant transfer pipes at Britain's first-ever mainland de-salination plant, which is known as the Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works on June 17, 2010 in Beckton, England.— Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
In a few years, there will be eight billion humans on the planet, and all will need fresh water to live. There just isn’t enough to go around the way we’re using it now, but technology may help change that.
New filtering techniques will not only clean up waste water, but also allow for the harvesting of the contaminants so they are usable – solids that can become biofuels, or metals that can be refined and sold.
Desalination will be key to providing water in many developing countries where supplies are short. Firms such as Vancouver’s Saltworks Technologies Inc. are figuring out how to cut down on the huge amounts of energy needed to turn salt water into fresh water, by using the energy from the sun.
Eventually, water recycling will be the norm. Like the astronauts on the Space Station, you’ll just reuse all the water you have with you in your house, with no need for a connection to the municipal supply.
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Close-ups of a Wenvor test turbine blade retrofit with Tubercles on the leading edge.
More of a technique than a technology, biomimicry uses nature’s models to make technological advances. In the coming years, following this philosophy may help us push through barriers that have prevented some clean technologies from taking hold.
There are many examples of biomimicry in play already. Velcro was inspired by the burrs that stuck to the fur of the inventor’s dog. Speedo replicated the scale-like features of shark’s skin to reduce drag on a swimsuit line.
On the green front, Toronto-based WhalePower Corp. has created an innovative wind turbine blade that has a series of bumps along the leading edge of the blade, like those on a whale’s fin. Rather than interfering with air flow, they actually create greater lift and generate less drag when the blade moves through the air.
Watch for more eureka moments that borrow from nature’s problem-solving.
