TMCnet GreenTech Week in Review

As 40,000 people— including heads of state, diplomats, business leaders, and activists —made a showing, but very little progress, at Rio+20 this week, Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace, compared their efforts to “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” However, the cleantech business sector continued to hustle, with deals and developments that will help drive the environmental agenda.

Estonia, a Baltic country slightly larger in size compared to Connecticut and Massachusetts combined, has installed the first of a border-to-border network of 200 DC fast chargers for electric vehicles—making it the first nation worldwide to deploy a full EV infrastructure. On June 18, officials of Zurich-based ABB, a leading power and automation technology group, KredEx, a state-owned financing unit, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Estonia, attended the public installation of a Terra 51 DC fast-charging station in the nation’s capital, Tallinn. The remaining 199 DC fast chargers will be installed throughout the country. The locations of an additional 168 confirmed and contracted locations of DC fast chargers for highway and inner city use also have been announced, including 27 fast- charging points in Tallinn; 10 in Tartu; four in Pärnu; and two in Narva. The project is scheduled to be completed by next fall. BMW is attempting to maneuver its way to the forefront of next-generation technology with its just-unveiled electric bikes. The sleek looking i Pedelec bikes boast 200-watt electric motors that will enable riding enthusiasts to cruise at around 16 MPH, as well as climb up big, daunting hills. These ultra-cool bikes even will store energy that has been gathered while braking or riding downhill. They can be folded into a compact bundle weighing in at 44 pounds—equivalent to the weight of a small child. Two hundred i Pedelecs will be deployed in an effort to promote the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London, a global event that has selected BMW as its only vehicle supplier.

The world’s largest online marketplace has put something new on its own shopping list: San Jose, California-based eBay (News - Alert) Inc. is designing renewable energy into the core of its global commerce platform—incorporating 30 Bloom Energy servers into the architecture of its flagship data center. Renewable energy will be the facility’s primary power source; the electric utility grid will be used only as backup. Partnering with Sunnyvale, California-based Bloom Energy, eBay is building the country's largest non-utility fuel cell installation. The new six-megawatt (MW) Bloom installation is being designed and engineered into eBay’s expanded data center facility in Utah, and will be fully functional by mid-2013. Each of the 30 Bloom Energy servers will generate 1.75 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually. The company’s fuel cells will be powered by biogas, a fossil-fuel alternative derived from renewable organic waste.

Some companies have found a way to make carbon capture a game-changer in the clean energy industry, with both the economic and environmental benefits to drive a profitable new market segment. In fact, for every ton of carbon that they capture and inject into an oil field, up to five additional barrels of oil may be gainfully extracted. Just this week, General Electric has agreed to provide a gas turbine to Oslo-based Sargas AS for one of the world’s first natural gas-fired plants with integrated carbon capture for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The Sargas plant will combine a GE LMS100 gas-fired turbine package with Sargas’ patented combustion and carbon-capture technology—which is designed to remove 95 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) and virtually eliminate nitrogen oxide (NOx), sodium oxide (Sox), and mercury (Hg) emissions. The Sargas power plant delivers significantly cheaper electricity and captured CO2-per-ton and, therefore, enables the Sargas-led engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) consortium to offer industrial-scale volumes of economically competitive CO2 for EOR applications worldwide.

In early May, as a participant in a conference on “Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Small Island Developing States,” the Republic of Maldives pledged to achieve carbon neutrality within its energy sector by year 2020. Now, Maldives—an archipelago that is, itself, the smallest nation in Asia—is receiving some help from Japan in achieving that goal. Kyoto-based Kyocera (News - Alert) Corporation, a solar power systems provider, has announced that, in collaboration with Nagoya-based Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Tokyo-based Wakachiku Construction Co., Ltd, it is deploying a total of 675 kilowatts (kW) of solar generation at ten locations in the Maldives Islands. The Project for Clean Energy (News - Alert) Promotion will be executed in Malé, the capital and most populous city in the Maldives. It is being funded by the Japanese government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), a unit of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and provided through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan International Cooperation System (JICS).  Kyocera has been supplying solar power generating systems to developing countries since 1984 as part of the Japanese government’s ODA project.

Topping out at 328 feet (100 meters) above the ground, wind turbines truly represent a “higher power.” Until now, an inspector would examine the massive turbine blades from ground level, using a high-powered telescope. However, last week, General Electric announced an easier, more efficient way to conduct an accurate inspection—using machine-to-machine (M2M) technology. Partnering with Ithaca, N.Y.-based International Climbing Machines (ICM), GE engineers have found a way to do the work using a remote-controlled, robotic device that can scale the wind tower with a wireless, high-definition video camera strapped to its back. From the safety of the ground, an inspector can use the robot to obtain a real-time detailed view of the blades from less than 33 feet (10 meters) away, facilitating a much more thorough examination and evaluation.

Finally, Greenway Design Group’s South Korean dealership has received an order for Cool-n-Save system installations within three Korea Telecomfacilities for their data and networking operations. The facilities are located in Osan, Seoul, and Suwan. Engineers expect the facilities to save approximately 22 percent of their air conditioning costs, making the Cool-n-Save system pay for itself within one year. The ROI figures included the cost of the installation, equipment, and maintenance for the first year. This is just the beginning of the national Cool-n-Save installations that will take place in the future. Korea Telecom (News - Alert) puts the possible participation at approximately 500 buildings.

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