Canadian autoparts makers becoming green machiners
While travelling in New Mexico earlier this month I got a chance to spend the day at Sandia National Laboratories, which kindly made several of its scientists available to talk about the latest developments around solar, wind, battery, water, and fossil fuel technologies. During a walk of the lab’s solar test facility, I saw several Stirling Energy System heliostats, which concentrate solar heat onto a Stirling engine to generate electricity. I learned the engine is manufactured by Ontario-based Linamar Corp., and upon returning to Toronto also learned that Linamar had just signed a 10-year, $3.6 billion deal to manufacture the first made-in-Ontario wind turbine nacelles based on a unique design by startup CWind. Here’s a story on Linamar’s latest green manufacturing activities that appeared Saturday in the Toronto Star.
Also, here’s a story I wrote in MIT Technology Review updating Sandia’s very cool “Sun-to-Petrol” project.
Tags: CWind, Linamar, Sandia National Laboratories, Stirling Energy Systems
Tyler Hamilton is associate publisher and editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and former business columnist for the Toronto Star. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005.
November 25th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Both are good stories- I have never liked the idea of carbon sequestration- barring not using carbon based fuels at all, which is the best option to utimately achieve, re-formulating carbon emissions back into a fuel is a good option.
I was especially intrigued by the newer design for the Wind Turbine- nice to see advances here with an eye to simpifying the design- which will ultimately bring the overall cost down- so, eventually, we don’t have to worry about sequestering or reformatting carbon;-)
November 29th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Anyone ever heard of the SHEC Laboratory out of Sask.? You will soon…
December 20th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I’ll believe it when I see it. I try not to be pecimistic on issues like this, but so many companies have adopted, then abandoned green philosophies over the years.
I can appreciate your outlook on this topic. We should trade links and join forces.
Good post!