My Clean Break column today takes a look at a few startups that are trying to make wind farms more reliable and productive. Most of the companies I’ve mentioned in the past — Whalepower (blade design that mimics humpback whale flippers); Premium Power (utility-scale zinc-bromide battery storage cheap enough to couple with wind turbines/farms); and Catch The Wind (LIDAR adapted for integration into wind turbines). In the column I also discuss Vancouver-based ExRo Technologies, which has developed a new kind of generator with a built-in electronic transmission rather than an external mechanical transmission. This is a potentially game-changing innovation. (more…)

The mainstream business press, always eager to say “We told you so” and “history will repeat itself,” appears quite eager to announce the demise of cleantech and all the associated buzz it carries. The bubble is bursting, they say. The return to cheap oil will kill the green movement, they declare. They point to some weakling companies in the cleantech sector that are struggling, or to the dramatic drop in sector stock prices, and say cleantech’s days are numbered. A front-page business story today in Canada’s Globe and Mail features the headline: “Has the sun set on cleantech?” Apparently financial investors are giving up on cleantech and, like the dot-com bubble, it’s all about to burst.

Such pronouncements are getting rather tired. (more…)

I have a feature today in the Toronto Star about local solar power innovator Morgan Solar, which has developed an approach to concentrating photovoltaics that keeps manufacturing costs low and efficiency high. The design, based on a proprietary optic developed by company founder Jean Paul Morgan, could prove to be a big breakthrough in the search for low cost, high-efficiency solar power.

You can read the article for a detailed explanation of how the optic works, or click on this link for a diagram. The bottom line is that Morgan Solar has developed a concentrating PV system that is lighter, more durable, lower-profile, and less expensive than competing options on the market. (more…)

Those who read this blog know from past posts that I support development of biofuels as one of many climate-change solutions, but strictly conditional on how it’s made and how it’s used. Cellulosic ethanol can play an important role when we move to plug-in hybrids that still require gasoline, though to a much smaller extent. And, of course, I’m a big fan of developing biofuels as a climate-friendly alternative to jet fuel.

Air New Zealand has been making some serious progress on that front with its partners Boeing, Rolls-Royce and UOP (Honeywell). A team led by Rolls-Royce is putting a jatropha-based jet fuel through rigorous tests to further validate what preliminary data has so far shown: that the fuel meets all required specifications for commercial aviation. Once testing is completed later this fall, and assuming all conditions are met, the new fuel will be tested on an Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 sometime in December. The jetliner will be powered by four Rolls-Royce engines, one of which will run on the Jatropha-based jet fuel. (more…)

Okay, the “spider sense” part is a bit of a stretch, but being a Spider Man fan I had to throw it in. Actually, what I’m talking about is a new type of LIDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) device that’s designed to integrate into the nacelle of a wind turbine. The laser system, developed by a Manassas, Virginia-based company called Catch The Wind Inc., projects three beams up to 1,000 metres in front of a wind turbine. The colour frequency of the beams change when dust particles pass through them, and the colour is directly proportional to the distance of the particle — and thus the wind. Using this approach, based on the Doppler principle, the three beams work together to calculate both the speed of the wind and its direction.

Why is this important? (more…)