![]() The Manitoba government plans to spend $20 million over the next 10 years to help fuel the development of more "green" products made from things like hemp and wheat or flax straw. The funding, including $4 million set aside this year for product-development projects, is part of a new provincial bioproducts strategy unveiled Thursday by Premier Greg Selinger. Bioproducts are materials or fuels made from agricultural and forestry products. Selinger told a news conference in Riverton that millions of tons of agricultural and forestry products are produced in Manitoba each year, creating an abundant supply of biomass for the production of biofuels, biomaterials and biochemicals. He said research and development initiatives in the province are already turning hemp, flax and wheat byproducts into things like paper, insulation, roofing tiles, biodegradable food packaging and ultra-lightweight components for the aerospace and transportation sectors.
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![]() Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies, amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds. Failure to secure alternative long-term sources of rare earth elements (REEs) would affect the manufacturing and development of low-carbon technology, which relies on the unique properties of the 17 metals to mass-produce eco-friendly innovations such as wind turbines, low-energy lightbulbs, and even free energy devices such as the Searl Effect Generator. China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw REE materials are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export. Industry sources have said that China could halt shipments of at least two metals as early as next year, and that by 2012 it is likely to be producing only enough REE ore to satisfy its own booming domestic demand, creating a potential crisis as Western countries rush to find alternative supplies, and companies open new mines in locations from South Africa to Greenland to satisfy international demand. ![]() A new Californian startup, Solaren, claims to have committed to deliver 200 MW power from the Space, beamed down to the Earth by 2016. In the interview CEO of Solaren Gary Spirnak revealed : "This will be the world's first SSP plant. While a system of this scale and exact configuration has not been built, the underlying technology is very mature and is based on communications satellite technology. " For over 45 years, satellites have collected solar energy in earth orbit via solar cells, and converted it to radio frequency (RF) energy for transmissions to earth receive stations. This is the same energy conversion process Solaren uses for its SSP plant. Interestingly enough that the Solaren website remains very scarce on the information about the company. Except for the flashing logo and contact email address there is nothing to see. I would think this page belongs to geocities free websites rather than leading to the brightest rocket science entrepreneurs. ![]() Photo: Solar Thermal Power Tower Courtesy of affloresm from WIki Commons Gemasolar has completed the construction of the world’s first solar power plant capable of generating electricity all day and night. As significant as the “all night” feature sounds, keep in mind that the fact that solar power plants do not normally generate electricity at night is not actually their biggest reliability obstacle — the electricity generation interruption from clouds is more problematic (see more on that below). Luckily, this power plant design tackles both issues. This plant is able to produce electricity all day and night due to the fact that it has 15 hours of energy storage to back it up, when cloudy and at night too. The fact that weather varies unpredictably during the day, causing power production to fluctuate is much more important than the lack of sunlight during the night, because power plant operators know exactly when night time starts, so any other power plant can be scheduled to start for night time operation. ![]() Many bird species in the Amazon rainforest previously isolated and thought to be extinct in the quarter-century following deforestation have reappeared in these same areas. Lead author Philip Stouffer, an ornithologist at Louisiana State University and his co-authors measured bird populations over 25 years in 11 forest fragments of varying sizes as small as 2.5 acres in Brazil's rainforest. In the first decade of the long-term study, birds abandoned forest fragments and, ornithologists believed, went extinct. Then in the past 20 years, many bird species returned. "Through long-term observations of fragmentation in tropical forests, this study provides verification that local extinction is accompanied by continual recolonization," said Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. The area was fragmented in "cookie cutter chunks" as a result of policies that encouraged use of the land -- mostly for cattle -- but required landowners to leave a portion of the area uncleared. |
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