In the article ‘Building an Oasis in the Desert‘ in the Fall 2009 edition of ArcNews Online, the work of CH2M Hill company is presented. It describes the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology that is being used to develop the Masdar City project located in UAE.
From the article – “”GIS is imperative in managing the overall spatial information necessary for designing, building, and operating Masdar City,” says Derek Gliddon, GIS manager, Property Development Unit, Masdar. Staff members at the City of Masdar use GIS to model building information throughout the life cycle of the project. For the city to meet its challenging goals, CH2M HILL carefully considered the geography of the area: sun angles, wind patterns, street widths, and building density and height. The orientation of buildings on a diagonal grid to provide maximum natural shading was modeled in ArcGIS.”
GENI is an ambitous strategy that would connect global energy grids together. The website provides a wide range of maps and information about global energy grids on a country-by-country basis. Renewable resources figure prominently into the overall strategy.
A key value to this website lies in the fact that it enables everyone to see and understand energy grids.
From GENI – “GENI’s mission is to conduct research and to educate world leaders and the public about the critical viability of the interconnection of electric power networks between nations and continents, with an emphasis on tapping abundant renewable energy resources, what we call ‘the GENI Initiative.’ Our research shows that linking renewables between all nations will mollify conflicts, grow economies and increase the quality of life and health for all. This is a strategy rooted in the highest priority of the World Game simulation developed by Dr. Buckminster Fuller three decades ago.”
Chatham House has a long tradition of publishing on many topics in current news. ‘Managing Energy Data’ is a report as part of the Managing Energy for Climate and Security program.
Written by Walt Patterson, the report begins with the following:
“How you manage energy data depends on how you see energy. To most of us, energy suggests vigour, vitality, an ability to get things done. Scientists and engineers make that impression more precise. To them energy is not just a metaphor; it is a quantity they can describe with numbers. A scientist or engineer can watch something happen and measure the energy involved. The measured energy describes not just a vague ability to get things done,
but how much gets done and how fast it happens. Scientists and engineers call such measurements energy data. ‘Data’ is the Latin plural of ‘datum’, meaning ‘given’. By using measured energy data as the starting point, scientists and engineers can draw important inferences about natural systems and human technologies. When scientists or engineers gather and analyze energy data they always have a purpose in mind. The purpose determines what data to gather and how, how to analyze them and what inferences to draw. Scientists and engineers manage the data accordingly. Energy data help them understand how the world works.”
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF in Magdeburg, Germany have been addressing the issue of designing new power plants in a virtual environment. Their work has “developed a method that visualizes the processes inside energy conversion plants, e.g. such as photovoltaic, wind, biogas and hydroelectric power stations. To do so, they have coupled 3-D plant engineering and simulation results with a virtual reality (VR) program developed at the IFF. “A special software tool has enabled us to visualize all the motion sequences for the first time ever – at just the push of a button,” explains Dr. Matthias Gohla, Manager of the Process and Plant Engineering Business Unit.
Learn more about this work.
The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan is designed to meet the challenge of decreasing overall carbon emissions by 40%. To meet this goal, small generation capacity will increase and 40% of all energy will be derived through renewable resource means.
In practice this will be a steep challenge to complete by 2020. Nuclear power remains a key component of the future energy policy as well.
Research between US and Dutch researchers is investigating the structure and natural properties of cellulose. The work will hopefully lead to increasing efficiency and production of biofuels.
From the article -”The work, produced by scientists at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US, was funded in part by the ‘New and Emerging Science and Technology’ (NEST) activity of the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).
Science’s understanding of cellulose, how it forms and its underlying processes, is rather limited. Nevertheless, its potential to help develop renewable, plant-based biofuels is enormous. It is for this reason that the US-Dutch team targeted the fibrous molecule in their research, to bring research one step closer to new sources of energy.”
The Canadian government launched a new Sustainable Communities Initiative today. The new EQuilibrium Communities Initiative program is designed to build energy efficient communities.
“Our Government is investing in more than just clusters of energy-efficient homes, we’re creating cost-efficient, sustainable neighbourhoods,” said Minister Raitt. “Building communities that use new, clean-energy technologies will create high-quality jobs for Canadians while protecting and preserving our environment.”
Communities Initiative will provide financial, technical and promotional assistance to sustainable community projects chosen through a national competition. It will showcase the talents and innovation of Canadian residential developers, planners, designers and municipalities. The initiative is being led and funded equally by NRCan and CMHC.
A large number of people on the Kenyan shore of Lake Victoria are not connected to the power grid. The fees are too high and there is a lack of infrastructure and power capacity.
Energy-saving lamps, which can be recharged at small solar 
“filling stations”, can bridge this gap. However, the lamps are not only used to light houses – fishermen also use the light to earn their living: they use the lamps to attract small sardine-like fish. Up to now, fisherman attracted their prey with harmful kerosene lamps.
The “Energy for All” project initiated by OSRAM and the Global Nature Fund aims to provide neighboring communities of the lake with clean and safe light at a low cost.
(Siemens Press Image)
The Babcock Ranch development is taking shape near Fort Meyers, Fla., with a commitment from Florida Power and Light to build a 75 megawatt solar power plant on 400 acres. The solar plant is coupled with plans for solar power on rooftops and a smart grid to put this city on the cutting edge of renewable energy.
Babcock Ranch has a 91,000 acre parcel, but has entered into an agreement with the state to preserve 80 percent ( 73,000 acres) as a state conservation area. The remaining 17,000 acres are designed as a series of villages and hamlets that all connect to a town center. The individual comunities feature town halls, day care facilities and schools surrounded by parks. The city is located close to the Southwest Florida International Airport and I-75.
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Welsh Assembly Government, Defra, and the South West of England Regional Development Agency have launched a £500,000 fund to generate interest and new opportunities for tidal generated electricity in the Severn Estuary.The new fund is named the Severn Embryonic Technologies Scheme.
“The tides in the Severn estuary are among the highest in the world and have the potential to deliver some 5% of the UK’s electricity from a domestic, low carbon and sustainable source. A public consultation is underway on a proposed shortlist of schemes to generate clean, green electricity from the power of the tides in the Severn estuary. The shortlist includes a mixture of barrages and lagoon schemes. “
