Russia turning from oil and gas to solar panels

Published on: 01:41

          Russia is widely known as being the biggest oil and gas exporter but now it seems that the country is going to be known for another thing, solar panels.

          Russia has begun to make small inroads into solar farms and developer Hevel Solar is putting up an investment of $450 million into building the solar panel farms in Russia between now and 2018. The company is a partnership between the company owned by Viktor Vekselberg, Renova Group, and Rusnano, the nanotech company. They plan on making their own solar panels along with building solar panel farms.
          Hevel Solar hopes to finish off their third solar panel farm by the summer and their first project is located in East Siberia. They have another in Orenburg which is close to the southern border of Kazakhstan and this finished construction last week.
          Of course Russia isn’t known for its sunny climate as other successful solar farms have been built in such as Chile and the US. They are more known for their gas and oil. However, the company has faith in solar panel farms and they have built them in the sunnier regions of the country. They said that there is a market for replacing off-grid diesel generators as these are expensive when it comes to maintenance and fuel.

Read More

Architects propose converting old oil tankers into living communities

Published on: 01:39

          What do you do with the gigantic oil tankers that are no longer used? Just leave them to rust? Well a team of architects have another idea about what to do with them and they would like to re-use them as infrastructure by turning them into living communities.

         At the moment decommissioned oil tankers are scrapped in ship graveyards in developing countries and it is here that workers have to take the ships apart by hand and this is a task that isn’t without danger. The workers have to deal with toxic chemicals and oil that has been left behind and all they get from it is salvaging metal that is sold for scrap for a pittance of profit.

          Now the shipping industry and the Government is trying to put an end to this but this leaves us with the issue of what to do with the oil tankers when they are decommissioned. A team of Dutch designers, Sander Bakker, Chriss Collaris, Rubern Esser and Patrick can der Gronde think they have the answer with a project named Black Gold as they want to re-purpose the vessels.

          At the moment the project is only a concept as the team have been talking about taking a vessel that has been abandoned and then reusing it as a public building. The designers talked about how oil tankers are becoming irrelevant thanks to changes in the transportation system. The designers want to take the internal structure of the tanker out and replace it with floor-plates. As the tankers have big beds it wouldn’t be difficult to make an ad hoc structure in the big shell. An open rectangle would be cut in the sides and this would allow air glow along with styling on the interior that would be similar to that of an airplane hanger and there would be free passage of wind and sun.

          They plan on ensuring that the entrance would be connected to the coast with a pedestrian walkway, while the top of the vessel could be used for farming and inside there could be a commercial plaza or sculpture garden. The team propose a cultural centre in a country in the Persian Gulf as this is where the majority of the oil comes from.

Read More

Why is there a tiny hole in airplane windows?

Published on: 01:36

          If you have already traveled by airplane, chances are you’ve noticed a tiny hole on the lower portion of all passenger windows. And, well, you have probably been wondering what on earth is the purpose of a hole on an airplane window. It’s definitely not there because it looks good, it’s actually quite relevant to your safety during the flight.

          Marlowe Moncur, the technology director of aircraft window manufacturer GNK Aerospace explained the purpose of the “breather hole” to io9. It’s a hole designed to balance out the pressure between the last two layers -yes, there are a few layers – of a typical pressurized-cabin window.
          Before  we go any further into the purpose of the “breather hole“, we will first check out how a window in a pressurized passenger cabin is set up. As shown in the Boeing 737 maintenance manual (the most widely produced jet airliner in aviation history), the window structure consists of three layers of acrylic – a tough, transparent and flexible resin – although only two of them have an actual structural function.

          These structural layers are the intermediate and outer ones – while the inner layer (called “scratch pane”) only serves as a buffer between the passengers and the structure of the window itself. These layers prevent the cabin from reaching the external pressures that, depending on altitude, are too low for the vital functions of the human body.
Basically, the primary structural window garantees the cabin remains at a constant pressure equivalent to an altitude of 7,000 feet, which is still quite acceptable for the body. However, in most cases, only the last acrylic layer is responsible for ensuring such conditions; the intermediate layer is just there for extra safety. Having said that, let us get back to the misterious little hole.
          As can be noted in the diagram shown above, the breather hole is located in the middle layer of the window. This little puncture acts as a bleed valve ensuring that the pressure between the last two layers and the cabin always remains the same. This is necessary as a way of preserving the middle layer (the extra safety one) so it is only exposed to severe pressure differences in cases of emergency – that is, if the last layer the window is fractured in some way.
          However, the effective use of this security layer is incredibly rare. As Moncur explained, all windows are exposed to rigorous testing before receiving the seal of approval.

         Furthermore, any possible cracks in the outermost layer of the window is enough to justify an emergency landing – even if the middle layer is fully capable, in principle, to maintain the appropriate cabin pressure conditions. Better safe than sorry, right?

            Finally, Moncur also clarifies that the breather hole also serves to prevent freezing and fogging between the outer layers of the window. Of course, that doesn’t always work since it is not rare to find photographs showing some frost on the windows.

Read More

LucidPipe – Truly Elegant Water to Wire Generators

Published on: 01:28

          It’s a stone, cold fact that many great ideas are very simple things. And of that genre, the ones that really shine are those that make you think, ‘why hasn’t anyone thought of that before?’ LucidPipe, a truly elegant water to wire electric power generation system, is such an idea. Portland, Oregon based Lucid Energy has developed LucidPipe to generate electrical power from water flowing within the supply pipes that feed our cities and towns – Clean energy generated from an existing resource that remains virtually uninterrupted after installation. The company has recently installed a system in their home town, and has many more in the works, worldwide, from here in the U. S. to Europe, and South Africa.

          LucidPipe is stunningly simple. A lift-based, vertical axis, spherical turbine is attached inline to water supply pipe. When water flows, it drives the hydrodynamic turbine and generates electricity, which is then fed back into the electrical grid. The Portland project, once fully operational, will generate upwards of 1,100 MW hours, roughly enough to energize one hundred and fifty homes. The company states that the energy produced will be worth in the neighborhood of two million dollars annually – Those are significant numbers, without a doubt; depending on specific conditions, “one mile of 42” diameter pipeline could produce as much as 3 megawatts or more of electricity.”

           Inline water pipe power generators are not a new idea, but one of this level of efficiency and flexibility certainly is. A few decades back, there was a resurgence in interest in small hydro power, everything from old abandoned systems to single home versions sprung up. Generally, the failure of such systems to catch on is predicated on two things, the fact that relatively few homes and places have access to a sufficient water source, and that the small, one house systems required some fairly serious pressure to generate effectively.

          LucidPipe is a completely different concept, using large diameter, municipal water supply pipes coupled with very efficient generators. What this provides is truly viable, renewable source power generation, without the environmental vagaries that solar and wind generation face. Furthermore, since municipal water supply systems are in an ongoing state of repair and replacement, installing a system can be integrated into a city’s infrastructure and budget with relatively low impact.

Read More

Over Water Highway in China

Published on: 01:14

Proposed back in 2013, China opens their newest engineering masterpiece on August 9th 2015. Locals have been referring to it as the “Over-Water” highway. It’s the first eco-friendly highway built over water in China and boasts beautiful scenic views spanning a 10.9km distance around the country’s mountainous Hubei Province landscape. A 4.4km section of the highway was built over the river valley and connects to the G42 express highway which links Shanghai to Chengdu.

When deciding the route for the newly proposed highway one of three routes was possible. Two of them would involve tunneling through the mountains and devastating the neighboring woodlands and ecosystems. In the end the decision was made to proceed with the third choice or “the road less traveled” and involved a ton of ingenuity. Taking this route would require the construction of a 4.4 km viaduct to carry the highway over the water, through the valley and around the mountains. This part of the new roadway does not fail to impress travelers with stunning views of the surrounding mountain peaks, communities, and river.

The final budget for the over-water highway project was 4.4 million Yuan (US$700,000) and the cost of the viaduct section used up approximately 45% of that at 2 million yuan (US$320,000).

The new roadway shortens the distance for motorists and takes 40 minutes off the existing travel time turning a boring hour-long commute into a 20 minute picturesque gallop. The Highway links Xingshan County in Hubei to the G42 Expressway which is a high speed route connecting Shanghai in East China to Chengdu in Southwest China.
It’s an exciting step forward for China’s highways that will save travelers valuable time with a much improved view in an innovative and Eco-friendly way.

Read More