Tokyo subway flooring converts commuter footfalls into electricity
Heavy foot traffic at busy subway stations could soon be widely used to power station lighting and other electrical equipment thanks to technology currently being trialled in Tokyo.
In a small-scale experiment at Tokyo Station, one of the city’s busiest subway stops, so-called hatsudenyuka floors were installed at station gates, hallways and staircases.
The technology features elements capable of generating piezoelectricity, which are embedded in 0.4mm flooring tiles and covered by a mat. The piezo elements convert the pressure and vibration of commuter footsteps into electricity, which is used to power the station’s lights….
The trial, which started in 2006, was put on hold in March to analyse data, and early indications are that the energy harvesting system could be rolled out more widely. East Railway said it now hopes to eventually use the flooring as a clean source of supplementary power for other station technologies such as automatic ticket barriers and display panels.
Piezoelectricity applications have now been trialled at a number of locations around the world, including stations and nightclub dance floors, and while large-scale systems are yet be launched, wider roll out of the technology is being planned.
Research is also underway to use kinetic energy technologies for a number of different applications, such as recharging mobile electronic devices.
Okay, we aren’t talking about anything approaching a half a wedge [see "How the world can (and will) stabilize at 350 to 450 ppm: The full global warming solution].” But this is the kind of innovative clean energy thinking that we need much, much more of.
Shell says U.S. oil refiners need more CO2 permits
Major oil company Royal Dutch/Shell urged the U.S. Senate on Wednesday to give oil refiners a bigger share of free pollution permits under a cap-and-trade plan to fight global warming than the House of Representatives provided in its climate change legislation.
U.S. oil refineries received only 2 percent of the allowances, or pollution permits, in the House bill passed last month, even though they account for much more of the total carbon dioxide emissions produced by the United States.
The oil sector says it was short-changed compared to other big carbon dioxide emitters, like electric utilities, which were given 30 percent of the permits.
I see that carbon dioxide emissions from petroleum refineries came to about 280 million metric tons in 2002, which is certainly more than 2% of the 7000 million total U.S. GHG emissions (see here for full breakdown of emissions by industry). Their problem is that most of the petroleum refineries are in states represented by people who are either never going to vote for a climate bill or who are not in the pockets of the refineries. Now if they only had a Democratic Senator in a swing state with a lot of refineries, like, say Louisiana….
Glenn Nye applauds climate bill — then his nay vote
Talk about having it both ways. After liberal blogger David Campbell contacted Rep. Glenn Nye’s office, urging the congressman to support climate change legislation, Campbell got a resounding thumbs up from the Virginia Democrat’s office. Which is odd, considering Nye voted against the bill.
“You will be pleased to know H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, passed the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009,” Nye wrote in a form e-mail.
But Campbell later received a second e-mail from Nye’s office denouncing the legislation.
“You will be pleased to know I voted against H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, because we do not need another tax on American families during this time of economic hardship,” this e-mail read.
Reid pushes back deadline for committee action to Sept. 28
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has bumped back the deadline until Sept. 28 for the six committees working on a comprehensive climate change and energy bill.
“This was always going to be a huge undertaking,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley told reporters yesterday following a meeting in the Capitol with the Senate committee leaders and President Obama’s top energy adviser, Carol Browner. “The timeline has shifted slightly, to get them more involved.”
G8 emissions cut target ‘unacceptable’: Medvedev aide
A target set by the G8 for developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 is unacceptable for Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev’s top economic aide said Wednesday.
“For us the 80 percent figure is unacceptable and likely unattainable,” Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters.
“We won’t sacrifice economic growth for the sake of emission reduction,” he added.
Dvorkovich declined however to unveil Russia’s precise targets, saying that releasing them would be premature.
Duke to boost rates as part of carbon study
Customers would see agarage increase of 1 percent Duke Energy is planning to finance at least part of the cost to study a proposed carbon dioxide storage project by increasing its customers’ electric rates.
Customers would see an average rate increase of 1 percent spread across the three-year period of the study, beginning in 2010, according to the company. The increase would be a rider added on customer bills and could fluctuate, depending on the company’s needs, said Angeline Protogere, a company spokeswoman. It would not be an increase of the base rate.
Just 96 months to save world, says Prince Charles
Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned in a grandstand speech which set out his concerns for the future of the planet.
The heir to the throne told an audience of industrialists and environmentalists at St James’s Palace last night that he had calculated that we have just 96 months left to save the world.
Beyond Carbon Dioxide: Growing Importance Of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) In Climate Warming
Some of the substances that are helping to avert the destruction of the ozone layer could increasingly contribute to climate warming, according to scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and their colleagues in a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The authors took a fresh look at how the global use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) is expected to grow in coming decades. Using updated usage estimates and looking farther ahead than past projections (to the year 2050), they found that HFCs””especially from developing countries””will become an increasingly larger factor in future climate warming.
Ice Volume Of Switzerland’s Glaciers Calculated
Swiss glaciers have lost a lot of ice in recent years due to increased melting. As temperatures climb, so do the fears that the glaciers could one day disappear altogether. Until now it could only be estimated approximately how big the ice volume in the Swiss Alps actually is and how it has changed in recent years.
A team of scientists headed by Martin Funk, ETH-Professor at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) at ETH Zurich, however, has now developed a novel procedure for determining the ice volume of a glacier. Their results are presented in the current issue of Global and Planetary Change.
Some Particles Cool Climate, Others Add To Global Warming
There is large scientific agreement that human made emissions of CO2 and other gasses give global warming. But human activity doesn’t just cause gas emissions. Burning of fossil fuels and biomass also causes emissions of the particle black carbon. Other kinds of particles are formed in the atmosphere as a cause of human made emissions.
Particles, also named aerosols, are today one of the main reasons for the uncertainty about how humans affect the global climate. Aerosols like sulfur, nitrate, and organic carbon are formed in the atmosphere and cause global cooling. Thereby they contribute to mask parts of the human induced global warming. On the other hand, black carbon absorbs radiation and thereby has a warming effect on the earth’s climate.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Joe, did the new CAP intern miss this one:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090708103212.htm
[JR: Not really news, for those who follow NSIDC, but I'll get to it.]
Intern’s response:
I submitted that for Joe’s approval yesterday, when it came out – lest you doubt that I am on top of the news.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcxsmhzXexA
looks like El Niño is back, officially too
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090709/ap_on_sc/us_sci_el_nino
The oil sector says it was short-changed compared to other big carbon dioxide emitters, like electric utilities, which were given 30 percent of the permits.
The law requires the utilities to pass the value of free credits through to consumers. Are the oil companies saying they will do the same?
Yes, El Niño is back and is expected to strengthen into the fall and winter.
Interestingly enough, according to the NatCarb database from U of Kansas, oil refineries are very interesting sources of almost pure CO2, which does not have to be scrubbed from a gas stream.
So, the CO2 from refineries is generally pretty pure, and would make good test cases to see how feasible it is to deep inject CO2 from power plants.
On the other hand, these refineries often belong to large, politically powerful oil companies. Here is a list of some of the bigger ones, from the NatCarb database files, downloaded from U of Kansas in dbf format, and then run in Excel:
BP Amoco
EXXONMOBIBAYTOWN
Dakota Gasification Company
Chevron Phillips
EXXONMOBIBATON ROU
ExxonMobil
CITGO PETLAKE CHAR
Equistar
Dow
EXXONMOBIBEAUMONT
PREMCOR RMEMPHIS
DEER PARKDEER PARK
CHEVRON UPASCAGOUL
Sunoco
CHEVRONTEXACO EL SEGUNDO REFINERY
ConcoPhillips Wood River Refinery
NOVA Chemicals Corporation (Joffre)
Flint HilCORPUS CH
Motiva EnPORT ARTH
CHEVRON RICHMOND REFINERY
Dow
LYONDELLHOUSTON
PREMCOR RPORT ARTH
Westlake Petrochemicals
So these refineries are often pure sources of CO2, needing only compression to be ready for deep injection into deep saline aquifers or deep basalt deposits. Other sources of nearly pure CO2 are ethanol plants, cement plants, natural gas plants, chemical refineries, and so on. The ethanol plant CO2 is pretty much carbon neutral, though, because the source is biomass. If they captured and deep injected their CO2, these ethanol plants could become carbon negative.
While the oil refineries are huge sources, they’re generally not as huge as the gigawatt coal fired power plants. So they constitute good test cases, at scales intermediate between individual test wells and the huge volumes of CO2 produced by the coal fired power plants.
But they belong to some of the biggest, most politically influential corporations in the world.
Well, as some of the links there above show, emission reduction could be much simpler!
Sufficient first phase 2020/2030 emission reduction is achieved by acting on ELECTRICITY generation (coal, gas) and TRANSPORT (mainly automobiles) alone, since these 2 sectors typically (as in the USA) account for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The focus on electricity and transport gives several advantages – apart from lowering CO2 emissions:
1. Local environmental benefit from less pollution of sulphur and all else that’s in the emissions, regardless of the less certain or immediate global benefit from CO2 reduction.
2. Electricity supply alternatives which together with improved grid distribution gives better competition and keeps down electricity bills for consumers.
3. Transport alternatives (using electricity, hydrogen and other energy sources), which give variety of choice and competition advantages for consumers, additionally reducing the dependency on oil imports.
4. No trade problems: Unlike Cap and Trade, which involves cement, steel and other industries having to face imports from unregulated countries, the here suggested electricity and transport changes are not just more limited, but also largely local. Since there is little competition between say utility companies internationally, “best practice” results can be compared and shared.
Funding and Impact
Equity and long term loan finance can be used: Long term industrial loans from financial institutions, particularly if federal/state guaranteed, give low yearly interest repayments and lessen the effect on electricity bills or transport cost.
Compare with
today’s all-encompassing Cap and Trade (emission trading) suggestions, with unpredictability, expense, and needless disruption from normal business practice on one hand, or unnecessary profiteering from free allowance handouts with little actual emission reduction on the other hand – together with extensive -and unnecessary- regulation on what people can or can’t buy and use.
Understanding why proposed Cap and Trade is bad, in USA and elsewhere
http://www.ceolas.net/#cce5x
Basic Idea — Offsets — Tree Planting — Manufacture Shift — Fair Trade — Surreal Market — Real Market — Allowances: Auctions + Hand-Outs — Allowance Trading — Companies: Business Stability + Business Cost — In Conclusion
The Way Forward
http://www.ceolas.net/#cc10x
Introduction — Funding and Impact —No Energy Efficiency Regulation — A New Electric World
Electricity Generation — Distribution
Transport Power Generation — Regulation — Taxation
Something I’ve been meaning to ask about. In the WUWT thread I referenced earlier, on the passage of Waxman-Markey, Evan M. Jones posted the following:
I’ve kept an eye out for confirmation or refutation of this, but have seen nothing. Based on his other comments, Jones is politically savvy, so I doubt he would have just made this up. Do you know where it might have come from?
I remember reading a blog post on Treehugger about this concept last year http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/turning-road-traffic-into-electricity-trucks.php. If they installed hatsudenyuka floors at a subway station, why stop there? Why not blanket all of the major pedestrian walkways with this technology. Why not install them on major highways, bridges, tunnels, convenience stores. Think of volume of electricity that could be generated on a daily basis.
Any company provide products on footfalls into electricity?