19Jan

Windlens: Three Times More Efficient Wind Turbine Developed in Japan

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Windlens Three Times More Efficient Wind Turbine Developed in Japan

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After the Fukushima disaster wiped out the future of nuclear energy, wind energy has taken on a new swing: a wind turbine that could generate twice or even three times the energy that regular turbines put out so far.

Ever since March last year, a team at the Kyushu University have been testing their “Windlens” – turbine units with a capacity of 70 to 100 kW (blade diameter of 12.8) – in an attempt to bring down wind power costs so it can rival coal and nuclear energy.

The idea behind them is to introduce to the Japanese and eventually the global market a brand new wind turbine concept, since previous models left a lot of users and policy makers disappointed: the turbines were underdeveloped, which led to a short, inefficient and noisy life.

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9Jan

2011: The Year Renewables Overtook Nuclear in the US

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2011 was, it’s generally agreed, a crappy year. There were tornados in the US, flooding in Asia, an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, and financial turmoil in Europe. Even the Arab Spring, which we’ve all been so excited about, has yet to produce any definitively democratic governments.

But here’s a statistic to feel a bit warmer about: 2011 was the year renewable energy overtook nuclear energy in the US.

You might recall the milestone was first reported back in July, when the Energy Information Administration released figures for power generation in the first three months of the year. They showed that renewable sources were providing around 12% of the US’ energy production. Nuclear was only providing 2%.

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21Dec

Germany Uses More Renewable Energy Than Ever Before, Surpassing Nuclear

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Germany Uses More Renewable Energy Than Ever Before, Surpassing Nuclear

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Among the world’s most developed countries, Germany seems to be on the right track concerning renewable energy production. The country’s renewable resources have been used more than the classic ones this year, reports BDEW, Germany’s Federal Association of Energy.

Therefore, nuclear power dropped to 17.4 percent after Chancellor Angela Merkel had decided to show down the oldest eight reactors, as a reaction to the disaster at Fukushima, Japan. Plans are that by 2022 they’ll have phased out all of the nuclear power plants today in function.

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30Nov

Germany vs. the UK on Nuclear Power

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While Germany and Japan are backing away from nuclear power, the United Kingdom is looking in completely the opposite direction – 8 new nuclear plants are scheduled to be built. As a close neighbor, Germany has a number of words on the topic (all of them polite, but not particularly flattering).

Germany’s announcement of zero nuclear was prompted by the Sendai quake and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown last spring, as Clean Technica readers may remember, but those phase-out plans were already in place. The announcement gave rise to fears of insufficient power feeding into the grid anyway. However, Jochen Flasbarth, president of Germany’s EPA, pretty much thinks the entire idea is ridiculous, and furthermore that nuclear power is not the answer to a stable power supply:

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21Nov

Still plugging new nuclear power tech post-Fukushima

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If you thought the Fukushima disaster derailed nuclear power worldwide, look again.

Evacuations and the havoc caused by meltdowns at four reactor cores at the Fukushima power plant earlier this year prompted Japan to shift away from nuclear power and recatalyzed a nuclear phase-out in Germany. But many countries remain enthusiastic about nuclear power, and interest in newer technologies has increased because they are safer, according to a panel of industry professionals here at the MIT Energy Finance Forum on Friday.

“Our investors have a very long time horizon and the reason they supported it is the long-term societal implications and the potentially significant returns from that (so) we haven’t seen any wavering of support,” said Tyler Ellis, a project manager at TerraPower. “Our development partners are trying to accelerate the time scale (of building plants) due to the energy security and safety.”

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26Oct

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Released Far More Radiation than Government Said

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Global radioactivity data challenge Japanese estimates for emissions and point to the role of spent fuel pools

The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March released far more radiation than the Japanese government has claimed. So concludes a study1 that combines radioactivity data from across the globe to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the shattered plant.

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14Sep

Solar Power Plant to Open Near Fukushima

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Japanese children’s theme park company Kids City Japan KK has announced that it has plans to open new solar power plant just 15.5 miles from the still leaking Fukushima nuclear reactor.

The company has a chain of theme parks called  KidZania where children are educated about differing professions. The company has plans to open the one megawatt plant by October of next year. They will be conducting tours where children will see first hand how workers maintain and monitor the plant.

Understandably, there’s an anti-nuclear sentiment growing across Japan after the quake and tsunami damaged the various nuclear plants.

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