november 2011 4th issueheat electricity synth. natural gas (biosng) liquid synth. fuels...
TRANSCRIPT
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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CONTENTS
World News – Chinese Study Says Dam Didn’t Affect Climate Change .......... 2 Case Study – The Güssing Model .................................................................. 4 Company Profile – Nyírtávhő Ltd., the District Heating Company ............... 10 Project – Regions for Sustainable Change (RSC) ......................................... 12 Ideas – 5 big alt-energy letdowns: Ideas that sounded good but... ............. 15
November 2011 – 4th ISSUE
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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By EDWARD WONG
Published: November 12, 2011
BEIJING — A scientific study has found that the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest
hydropower project, has not contributed to climate change, according to a report by Xinhua, the
Chinese state news agency.
The study, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press under the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, focused on climate change and found that the dam’s environmental impact was
limited to a 12-mile radius, the Xinhua article said.
“No direct link has been found between the dam and local severe droughts and floods in recent
years, according to the report, which instead laid the blame on extreme weather conditions
caused by abnormal atmospheric circulation and air temperature mainly incurred by changes in
ocean temperature and snow conditions at the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,” according to the article,
which was published Friday.
The results of
the study
were the first
to be
released
publicly since
controversy
over the dam
has grown
this year.
Critics of the
dam and
some Chinese news organizations raised questions in the spring about whether the dam had
worsened the effects of a drought that hit the Yangtze River region of central and southern
China. The Three Gorges Dam stands in the middle of the Yangtze River.
The newspaper Shanghai Daily reported in early June that an official in the drought relief and
flood control bureau said that the dam’s planners had failed to gauge its impact properly.
The official, Wang Jingquan, said that water levels in two lakes downstream from the dam,
Dongting in Hunan Province and Poyang in Jiangxi Province, had fallen, in part because of the
storage of water in the reservoir behind the dam.
WORLD NEWS
Chinese Study Says Dam Didn’t Affect Climate Change
Forrás: http://faculty.washington.edu/nemati/3gorges/
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„ there was no evidence that the dam had caused the drought”
In May, two Chinese officials warned of “urgent problems” associated with the dam.
The drought was the worst in the region in 50 years, and water levels in the Yangtze and bodies
of water linked to it fell drastically. This led to greater scrutiny of the dam. On the Internet,
many Chinese asked whether the dam was at least partly responsible for the drought. Several
scientists, including at least one American, said then that there was no evidence that the dam
had caused the drought. Rainfall in early June began to alleviate the drought.
The Xinhua report on Friday said the recent study, called “Green Book of
Climate Change: Annual Report on Actions to Address Climate Change,”
recommended that “the authorities strengthen monitoring, evaluation
and research of the climate condition in regions around the dam.”
The drought this year also raised questions about another ambitious water
project, the South-North Water Diversion, which will cost $62 billion. Chinese
leaders aim to transfer at least six trillion gallons of water a year via canals from
the Yangtze and its tributaries to cities in the north, where droughts are much worse than in the
center and the south.
The middle route of the project, which starts at the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hubei Province, is
expected to begin operating in 2014. The eastern route, which runs alongside the ancient
Grand Canal, is expected to be operational by 2013. Critics say the government has not done
enough studies to determine the project’s impact on waterways in the south.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/world/asia/china-dam-didnt-worsen-climate-change-study-
says.html?_r=1&ref=earth
Hydropower requires the use of dams which can alter river ecosystems.
Hydropower today provides about 20 % of the world's electricity
and is the main energy source for more than
30 countries.
DID YOU KNOW?
Hydropower can have
negative ecological impacts,
especially on fisheries and
water ecosystems, this
especially applies to large-
scale hydropower.
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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THE GÜSSING MODEL
CASE STUDY
The Güssing Model
Situation at the end of the 1980s
- 50 years alongside iron curtain
- no industry - high rate of unemployment - 70% commuters - high rate of migration - small structured agriculture - bad traffic infrastructure
The Goal:
… to get independent from fossil energy in order to strengthen the
regional added value!
This strategy can be adapted individually wherever resources are
available.
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Milestones in Güssing Since 1990: Energy efficiency measures and beginning with production of heat out of biomass Since 2001: Production of electricity (biomass and photovoltaic) Since 2008: Beginning of important research projects (production of synth. natural gas and production of synth. liquid fuels). New research institute! Goal for 2011: Pilot project 2MW demonstration plant, gasification of waste
The district heating system of Güssing Since 1996: Gradual grid-development Current grid 35km
Convincing arguments: No loss of comfort!
Stable energy price!
Photovoltaic plant Güssing& production of photovoltaic cells
Since 2004 Capacity: 27,9 kWp Average amount of Energy: ca. 30MWh Since 2008: 140 jobs Invest. 50 Mio€ Average efficiency of monocrystalline solar cells: 17,5% Annual output: 85MWp
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Heat
Electricity
Synth. Natural
Gas (BioSNG)
Liquid synth.
fuels
Biomass power plant-wood gasification
Since 2001 2MW electr ./ 4,5MW heat
Anaerobic digestion plants Güssing & Strem
Since2004 Strem – Heat – Electricity – Biomethan
Methanisation demonstration plant Güssing
Since 2008 420 kWh heatand182 Nm³ BioSNG produced out of 1 ton of woodchips 1Nm³ SNG -> 10kWhSince
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„ the town authorities had to develop a strategy
for making Güssing more
attractive”
Initial Stages
The European Centre for Renewable
Energy (German abbreviation EEE) is
located in Güssing, a town with around
3 700 inhabitants in the province of
Burgenland. Burgenland is the most
eastern of the Austrian provinces and is
still – despite catching up – the province
which is economically least developed.
Against this backdrop, Burgenland was
defined as an objective-1 region in the mid 1990s. Güssing was
at that time facing rather grim economic prospects. Located in Southern Burgenland and close
to the Hungarian border, it was “…one of the last corners in Europe” (expert interview), a result
of the cold war. Employment possibilities in the region were scarce, and the economic situation
of the farmers and agricultural firms dominating the local economy was deteriorating. A large
part of the population had to commute to work to other areas, such as Vienna. Güssing was also
disadvantaged because of the lack of transportation infrastructure. To date, the town has no
railway station and reachability by car was and is improvable. Out-migration was a logical
consequence, and with it also a decline in local tax income for the town.
The idea
Against this backdrop, the town authorities had to develop a
strategy for making Güssing more attractive. As part of the
first stock taking exercise, a SWOT analysis for living and
working in Güssing was performed. It found that the
inhabitants of Güssing had to pay considerable amounts of money
for heating, as most of the households used oil-fired systems. At the
same time, one of the strengths identified was a large availability of biomass in the region. The
idea was hence to develop a local system for the production of district heating (in German
“Fernwärme”).
The implementation
Using national funds (communal loans) and ERDF funds, the first prototype and demonstration
facilities were established in 1996 in order to convince the population to take part in the
initiative. In parallel, the EEE was established. The response from the population was excellent,
and in the course of seven stages of expansion (the last in 2006), not only the production
facilities were enlarged but also an extensive network of pipes for district heating was set up.
LOCATION Burgenland Area (km²) 3.966 Population 281.190 District of Güssing Area (km²) 485 Population 26.507 Town of Güssing Area (km²) 49,3 Population 3.764
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„ the first prototype and demonstration
facilities were established in 1996 in order to convince the
population to take
part in the initiative.”
“The facilities, and in particular
the biomass electric plant,
attracted demand for R&D.”
An intended and positive outcome was also that local agriculture and
forestry firms found new (local) demand for their products.
Encouraged by the success of the approach taken (i.e. developing
demonstration/prototype facilities for renewable energy
production with subsequent take-up through local households,
which then pushes demand for local biomass products and
services), Güssing wanted to repeat this success also in other
related areas of renewable energy production. A whole series of
demonstration and prototype facilities was established for further
study, among which was also a power station utilising biomass as a source of
energy. The novel process employed is based on the
gasification of biomass and allows all waste material
to be recycled. Other demonstration facilities
concerned biodiesel fuels or biogas. While not all of
the facilities were commercially successful, some
were. One impact visible was that results from
demonstration runs in Güssing were also used for similar facilities operating in neighbouring
regions in Burgenland.
The co-funding through ERDF funds was and is considered essential for closing funding gaps
with respect to development of the prototype and demonstration facility and for initiating
further investment. The facilities, and in particular the biomass electric plant, attracted demand
for R&D. Researchers from various organizations asked the town and the EEE
about possibilities to use the renewable energy facilities for their projects.
Güssing recognized that R&D could not only help the town solve
particular technological problems, but also maintain the lead as
innovator among regions in using and exploring the possibilities of
renewable energy sources. This has helped the settlement of production
facilities of foreign firms active in the renewable energy sector, sparked the
development of eco-tourism and the demand from other regions for know-
how from Güssing. Güssing now cultivates this ‘habitat’ for renewable energy activities, is
actively collaborating with many national and international R&D organisations, and is also
developing and offering training and education in the renewable energy sector. A case in point
is training on the new profession of ‘Solarteur’ in the solar (photovoltaic) field, a technology field
now also tackled by Güssing.
The EEE
with its currently 14 employees is instrumental for the
particular strategy Güssing is exploiting. The centre is
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“EEE manages the demonstration
facilities (administration, access control,
accounting) as a service to its users”
organized as an association and has around 60 members, such as local
firms, private persons but also the Federal State of Burgenland. The
centre´s main aim is to contribute to regional development by
developing “…lasting regional and community-based concepts for
energy conservation and for the generation and use of renewable
energy”. Against this backdrop, EEE manages the demonstration
facilities (administration, access control, accounting) as a service to its
users. It is also involved to a small extent in R&D projects. The participation in
R&D projects is, however, for the most part limited to a management function. Actual research is
carried out by dedicated research partners such as the Technical University of Vienna or the
Technical University of Graz. Respective labs and offices have been established at the biomass
plant and in newly established office buildings. It is also noteworthy that Güssing hosts a branch
of the research centre ‘BioEnergy 2020+’, a centre funded by the national COMET programme
and headquartered in Graz.
The EEE does not have any ‘base’ institutional funding. It attempts to finance 30% to 40% of its
financing needs by drawing on several funding channels. These include at the national level
FFG´s Structural Programmes (COMET – Energy 2020+ as stated before, protecnet, COIN) and
FFG’s General Programmes. At the international level, Structural Funds are particularly drawn
upon (LEADER and LEADER+). Programmes used comprise former INTERREG, the Central Europe
programme, and the South Eastern Europe (SEE) programme. EEE has also been involved in the
Framework Programmes, namely in ‘traditional’ cooperation projects, and in the EU’s Lifelong
Learning programme. Questioned on how the EEE selects among the various schemes, EEE
officials answered that the main selection criterion was “…that drawing on a particular
programme should make sense from our strategic point of view”. Against this backdrop, the
concept of ‘synergies’ between different funding programmes – in particular between FP7 and
ERDF funds – would be hard to define because, eventually, “…all that´s possible and feasible in
terms of combining funding schemes is being pursued by us in practice”. The impacts of using
the various R&D, and especially the EU, funds are hard to quantify and to assign to particular
projects. However, Güssing officials feel that without the European programmes, “…a large part
of what Güssing constitutes today would not exist”. In particular, Güssing is rather skeptical that
without European programmes it
would have been possible to
engage in transnational
collaboration, to learn and get to
know distinctive partners or
obtain access and learn about
certain technologies to the
realized extent.
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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Nyírtávhő – the District Heating Company
COMPANY PROFILE
„A service
company does a
good job if the
consumers are
satisfied with it”
The NYÍRTÁVHŐ Nyíregyházi Távhőszolgáltató Limited Company (NYÍRTÁVHŐ
Kft.) operates in the second biggest city of the North-Great Plain Region of
Hungary, in Nyíregyháza. The owner, the Local Government of Nyíregyháza
founded the company in 1992, by the reorganisation of the predecessor
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County District Heating Service Company. The
objective of the company is to accomplish the clear profile district heating
service.
The district heating service in the city of Nyíregyháza – as
far as the history of the profession is concerned – has a
significant history and now it managed to reach the level
that it is one of the most modern district heating service of
Hungary.
The task of the NYÍRTÁVHŐ Kft. is to transfer and distribute
the thermal energy purchased from the Nyíregyházi Erőmű
Kft. to the consumers.
In these days the 45 year-old district heating service of Nyíregyháza provides 15 700 flats and
more than 1 000 public consumers with district heat supply. The total heated air volume is
3 951 000 m3, and the amount of the provided hot-water is 530 000 m3/year.
The transportation of heat takes place mostly under the surface by the vehicle of hot water
through a district-heating pipeline that is located in a ferroconcrete protecting tube. The length
of district heating service pipeline network is 46 km.
Our organisation currently operates 258 heat-centres and 215 heat receivers. In the heating
centres intelligent controlling automations, which are connected to the district-controlling
system and operate according to the DDC principle, are used in order to control the production
of heating and consuming hot-water.
Our organisation maintains a planned technological improving activity. The annual business
plans are adjusted to the objectives of the long-term strategy plan.
The energy- and cost-sparing operation of the district heating network is managed as a key task.
Significant emphasis is placed on the modernisation of the consumer side as well as on the
reconstruction of the primary side. Foremost among the Hungarian district heating services –
following the European model – we enabled the consumers to pay over the heat-consumption
by the secondary sided reconstruction, known as the “NYÍTÁS” programme, which was launched
in 1997.
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Our significant duty is to operate the heating equipment of the
local government institutions. After taking into possession of the
boiler-room technologies of the institutions with natural gas
operating systems, the attendance of improving, modernising and
maintaining tasks became the duty of the Company from 1
January, 2005.
The characteristics of district heating service – our prime activity –
basically determine the sphere of our key supplier partners.
Our prime activity expanded with a new supplier partner, beside
our most important heat-supplier, in 2003. A heating station with gas engine was built by an
external investor that enabled to get more heating energy into the district heating network.
The implementation accomplishing partners are selected chiefly from the experienced
companies of the region following a strict qualification process.
Our technological equipment includes mainly the equipment located in the heat-centres and
heat receivers. The transportation of our „product” takes place via the district-heating primary
and secondary pipe-network. The most modern equipment and achievements of the profession
are utilised for the technical, technological improvement.
CONTACT INFO:
Istvan Gerda
Executive Director
Tel: +3642 314433
The mission of our company is to perform its district heating service and other related service activities
in the area of the city of Nyíregyháza so as to fulfil the
customer/consumer needs to a greater extent by providing a convenient and ecologically
beneficial service with the help of quality and efficiency.
Our vision presents a continuously
modernising, rational expenditure
managing organisation; moreover,
the mission of the company is
completed with the satisfaction of
real and latent needs of the
customers at high and continuously
rising standard
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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Final Conference was held in Newquay,
Cornwall, UK
19-20 October, 2011
“While the move towards a low-carbon
economy is an environmental
necessity, it also represents an
economic and social opportunity
SShhoowwiinngg tthhee WWaayy ttoo aa LLooww--CCaarrbboonn FFuuttuurree ffoorr
EEuurrooppeeaann rreeggiioonnss
European regions have great potential to contribute to sustainable growth
through lower emissions and to implement innovative climate change
mitigation and adaptation measures. However, currently regions tend to
focus on economic growth while lacking the experience, knowledge and
practical tools needed to integrate climate change issues into policies and
practices.
What’s behind the Regions for Sustainable
Change
Regions for Sustainable Change (RSC) is a three-
year partnership of 12 organisations from 8 EU
member states. Through regional cooperation, and
by providing regions with suitable methodological
means, the project aims to promote an EU-wide
shift to economies with minimal greenhouse gas
emissions. As RSC brings together regions at
different levels of preparedness to tackle climate
change, the partners are willing to learn from one
another, to exchange experiences, and to share
the results of their efforts. The project was
launched in October 2008 and is co-funded by the EU programme INTERREG IVC, part of the
European Territorial Cooperation objective, and aims to improve the effectiveness of regional
development policies and to contribute to the economic modernisation
and increased competitiveness of Europe.
How it all began
The idea behind RSC arose during the INTERREG IIIC project
Greening Regional Development Programmes (GRDP),
implemented between July 2004 and October 2007. At the end
of the project, seven GRDP partners expressed an interest in
continuing the successful cooperation. As climate change is a
priority issue for the regions, they decided to create a
partnership to promote the move towards a low-carbon economy.
PROJECT
Regions for Sustainable Change (RSC)
Newquay, Cornwall
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Cornwall Council
Commune of Wroclaw
University of Debrecen, Centre for Environmental Management and Policy (CEMP)
LaMoro Development Agency
Liguria Region
Le Marche Region
Malta Environment and Planning Authority
Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works
Burgenland Regional Management
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
Cornwall Development Company
La Rioja Region
PARTNERS
Who we are
The partnership comprises national, regional and local public authorities and bodies governed
by public law from Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Malta, Spain and the UK. The
partners intend to work together to encourage a shift to climate-friendly economies and to
unlock the potential of regional development programmes to stimulate the mitigation of and
adaptation to climate change.
Why the project is important
While the move towards a low-carbon economy is an environmental necessity, it also represents an
economic and social opportunity. European regions have great potential to contribute to sustainable
growth through lower emissions and to implement innovative climate change mitigation and
adaptation measures. Regions tend to focus on economic growth while lacking the experience,
knowledge and practical tools needed to integrate climate change issues into policies and practices.
The RSC partners hope to capitalise on the regions’ potential and to support them in tackling climate
change.
Expected Project Outputs
1) Low-carbon indicators Toolkit: a user-friendly, online and interactive tool that aims to inspire and
assist European regions to review and apply existing low carbon indicators and develop new ones.
The toolkit contains a low-carbon indicators library, which is an extensive review of existing
CONTACT
Venelina Varbova: [email protected] Dora Almassy: [email protected]
Tel: +3626 504 000
To subscribe to the RSC newsletter, please send a message to [email protected]
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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www.rscproject.org
In order to enhance the impact of the project, the RSC partners would be happy to
get in touch with other similar initiatives,
individual regions with good practice in the field, as well as companies and/or
organisations carrying out research on the topic.
- Low-carbon indicators Toolkit
- Regional Climate Confidence Index
- Discussion paper and guidelines
- Methodology for assessing costs and benefits
- Methodological Handbook
sustainability or environmental indicators and indices relevant to low-carbon economic development
used by various organizations. A second module contains the online RCCI (see below).
2) Regional Climate Confidence Index (RCCI): an innovative self-assessment tool for examining and
evaluating European regions’ strengths and weaknesses in dealing with climate change. The index is
based on seven key issues, which represent the main characteristics of
climate confident regions as identified by the RSC partners. The
online RCCI does not only assess regions’ status and progress,
but it also provides additional materials for better
understanding of the received results and scoring
methodology.
3) Discussion paper and guidelines on the use of
Strategic Environmental Assessment/Sustainability
Appraisal for integrating climate change and low-carbon
issues into regional policy planning documents.
4) Methodology for assessing costs of and benefits for
implementing a low-carbon economy. An analytical transferable
framework and tools have been developed to assess the costs and benefits of meeting GHG
reduction targets. The methodology was tested and applied in three partner regions (Marche,
Cornwall and Burgenland) but is transferable to other regions.
5) A Methodological Handbook capturing all lessons learned and summarizing the results of the
project. The publication was created as a concise guidebook for regions and covers each step of the
policy cycle, describing the applicable tools and methodologies for each step and providing good
examples and best practices to inspire readers.
The project has also carried out pilot actions in several partner regions and included capacity-
building workshops and seminars that further addressed the issue of low-carbon transition.
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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“looking to the very
small – as in
quantum – might
help solve the very
big global energy
need”
Zero-point energy Some have posited that looking to the very
small – as in quantum – might help solve the very big global energy need. According to
quantum mechanics, a perfect vacuum actually contains a bit of energy, which can create
particles that pop into existence out of nowhere before quickly disappearing again. Physicists
have seen this zero-point energy in the form of the Casimir effect in which two
closely spaced plates in a vacuum are pushed together ever so slightly by
this energy. But one of the big problems would be capturing useful
amounts of energy; after all, it takes at least as much energy to pull the
plates apart again. Nevertheless, plenty of so-called "perpetual
motion" devices using zero-point energy have been proposed, but
careful analysis inevitably shows that such schemes violate at least one
law of thermodynamics, and nothing concrete (or even too theoretically
plausible) has materialized just yet.
Cold fusion Also from the realm of the theoretically dubious, cold fusion (or low energy nuclear reaction)
has had a hazy history since it was first reported in 1989. The process, which allegedly created
an unexpected burst of heat in an experiment by electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and
Stanley Pons at the University of Utah, apparently occurred when some heavy water (water that
contained extra hydrogen isotopes called deuterium), was zapped with electricity by an
electrode made of palladium (a rare metal). So far it hasn't been replicated to satisfy either the
scientific community or the Department of Energy, leaving this type of fusion's future out in the
cold for now.
IDEAS
5 big alt-energy letdowns: Ideas that sounded
good but...
As the call for a clean-energy savior — to wash away our fossil-fuel sins — grows
louder, the number of questionable candidates swells. Should we be looking to photovoltaic or fusion? Turbines or tides?
Here's a roundup of five ideas that may one day succeed, but aren't going to save the
globe from a climate calamity anytime soon.
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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Passive energy
collection technology
has been installed in a
Japanese East Railways
station and even the
floor of a dance club
in London
Passive collection What if we could somehow capture all of that energy we're constantly
putting out – the "wasted" energy crossing the office for a cup of
coffee or pounding on the keyboard? Passive energy collection
technology has been installed under turnstiles in a Japanese East
Railways station and even the floor of a dance club in London.
This collected energy can then be turned around to meet some of
the facility's needs. But all the footfalls in all the train stations –
and dance floors, for that matter – aren't likely to be able to power
life at the scale the world currently demands. Not to mention the
hassle of ripping up all of that linoleum.
Hot fusion We know its power well from the sun's rays and a nuclear bomb's wrath, but can nuclear fusion
be replicated on a large (and safe) scale soon enough to power earth? Hot fusion, supported
here in a 1999 article, has proven to be much trickier to tackle than its cousin, fission. It
eventually promises to be more eco-friendly than nuclear-waste-generating fission, but even
the ambitious ITER thermonuclear fusion reactor project, which is a joint venture among the
European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the U.S., has yet to get off the
ground.
Sea movement Tidal power, compliments of the moon's
gravitational pull, has been slow going so far.
Early installations dating back to the 1960s
created massive barrages that, like dams, block a
good deal of water – and wildlife. More recently,
underwater turbines have been dipped into
waters around the world in hopes of replicating
the success of wind power. So far, it's had some
drawbacks, including environmental concern
about marine life safety and the failure of a big
batch of blades in the Roosevelt Tidal Energy Project's installation (which have since been
replaced). Wave power has also been tossed around as a "green" way to harness the oceans'
power. A few floating installations have been riding the waves – some buoy-like others more
serpentine – but this concept will need some large-scale champions if it's going to avoid the fate
of other novel alt-energy ideas that are already dead in the water.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=five-big-alt-energy-letdowns-ideas-2009-03-18
ENERGLOBE NEWS
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ENEREA
Nonprofit Llc.
4400 Nyíregyháza, Sóstói str.
31/B, building ’A’., III/345.
www.enerea.eu
+3642/599-400,
ext.: 2816
+3642/999-635
Imprint
Edited by: Valeria Szabo
International Project Manager [email protected]
Gabor Vamosi Managing Director