Posts Tagged ‘generate electricity’
Solar tower 140 meters high which produces about 392 megawatts of electricity
The company Google is working on an ambitious new project known as Ivan pah. This is a complex located in the Mojave Desert, California, where thanks to a solar tower 140 meters high will generate about 392 megawatts of power.
The initiative, managed by the company Bright Source Energy and built by Bechtel, is a space with three plants that generate electricity for 14 000 homes in California thanks to its structure were used to capture 173 000 hemostat solar energy.
Construction began in 2010 and is expected to be completed in 2013, creating numerous environmental and social benefits. As explained from Bright Source Energy, the project will prevent the emission of 13.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a period of thirty years. In addition, it will generate more than a thousand new jobs and give a major economic boost to the region.
For the realization of Ivan pah, Google has already invested 118 million euros. This initiative is in addition to others developed in recent years, where the company seeks to manage renewable energy to demonstrate its commitment to the environment and society.
It is essential that large companies are responsible for a large part of greenhouse gas emissions, is tipping towards sustainable development to curb the impact of their activities. For Google this is just the beginning and is still a long way to go.
The wind turbine as an energy source that has an important role
From early in the history of mankind, the wind was used as an energy source (motor for boats or windmills pumping water or grinding). Today we explore its use to produce electricity.
The use of wind turbines to generate electricity on a large scale began in Denmark at the end of the last century and has spread worldwide. Through various components, wind turbine generators use their power to produce electricity.
The turbines are operated when the wind reaches a speed of about 19 to 21 km / h (ie, it takes a wind of at least moderate intensity, a breeze is not enough). When the wind stops, the wind farms use batteries to continue to deliver electricity. The wind turbine generators usually have a standard size (15 to 30 meters in diameter, with a capacity between 100 and 400 kW).
In Denmark and the Netherlands, where land-based turbines are typically located in flat terrain, offshore wind turbines produce 50 percent more energy than those in nearby onshore site. The reason is the low surface roughness of the sea.
On the other hand, the construction and installation of offshore foundations require 50 percent more energy than land. Finally, offshore wind turbines have a longer expected lifetime than onshore turbines, about 20 to 30 years.
The disadvantages of wind turbines are, for many users, aesthetic and environmental. Aesthetic because the presence of wind farms interrupted and disturbed by the vision of the landscape and environmental because the birds die because they can not avoid on your routes the blades of wind turbines. Given these disadvantages, the Danes notes:
Tjaereborg radar studies in the western part of Denmark, where there is installed a 2 MW wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 60 meters, show that birds (either day or night) tend to change their flight path about 100-200 meters before the turbine, and pass over it at a safe distance.