From the Alternative Energy blog, who quote the BBC news-site
The company said it is now looking into placing the wind power micro-turbines on more of its 200 sites.Gary Thomas, head of property and facilities at CFS, said taking a greener approach to business also had financial benefits.”Embedding renewable energy in buildings reduces the need to buy electricity and I anticipate a payback on the initial investment within around three years,” he said.Ken Lewis, resources director added: “Forty per cent of Europe’s energy use is associated with buildings and this project, along with the Solar Tower development, demonstrates that these piles of steel and concrete have tremendous potential for future energy generation.”Councillor Neil Swannick, Manchester City Council executive member for planning and the environment, has applauded the move saying CFS have made a practical contribution to energy conservation.”The Manchester Energy Strategy endorses the view that wind turbines are not just for rural sites,” he said.”A world-class city such as Manchester has a responsibility to use energy more efficiently and to generate it from renewable sources where we can.”
If more companies started to take such steps then surely it would lead to a drop in production costs for renewable enrgey source generation equipment. If that happens then surely its a good thing for businesses and consumers if it helps to reduce their energy bills whilst also helping to improve the envirnoment (however small the step, its still a step).
Its becoming clear to me that if my business ever takes off then i intend to invest in micro generation of some sort - there are some good products out there that enable wind and solar power.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Water sparks new power source
What we have achieved so far is to show that electrical power can be directly generated from flowing liquids in microchannels,” said Professor Larry Kostiuk from University of Alberta.
The team says its “electrokinetic” battery could be further developed to provide a clean, non-polluting power source that could eventually drive small devices such as mobile phones.
I am always impressed when something truely new is discovered. The team from Canada (great country!) have come up with something that could certainly power small devices. Exactly how big is a matter for conjecture according to this report from the Beeb, with some ‘experts’ suggesting that this discovery will only have an application at a nano-technology level.
Still it shows how inveetive as a species we are, and maybe we can use science in the right way to progress sensibly in tune with our environment. I hope that this is one of those discoveries which allows us to do that.
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
Blood-powered “human batteries”
Researchers at Panasonic’s Nanotechnology Research Laboratory in Japan are developing a way to draw power from blood glucose — mimicking the way the body produces energy from food. The result could be a device capable of producing electricity from blood, effectively turning bodies into “human batteries”. The estimated power output per person? Around 100 watts, or enough to turn on an average lightbulb. Link
I’m sure there is a joke in here somewhere. In the meantime, it might make my laptop last longer 
BBC NEWS | UK | Boost for off-shore wind power
Excellent to this this type of investment in renewal energy sources. Its a shame and I suppose ironic that an evironmentally friendly form of energy could have an adverse impact on the environment.
Recent Comments