Tag Archives: solar panels

Countless Individuals Have Decided To Use Solar Panels

by Frank Masterson Posted on May 29, 2015

Many people think that they will not be able to live without electricity. What would happen if the companies that provides electricity is running out of resources and they will not be able to supply electricity to all the houses and companies anymore. This is why it will be useful if you can install solar panels in your home and you businesses.

Now, some of you might not know how solar panels for home work or you might not even know what these are. If you keep reading this article, there are a couple of things that you will learn about solar energy. You will get so much more information about this and you might even want to get one for your own home or even your own business.

Before this whole panel thing is being explained, there is something else that you should know about solar power. When you are planning on buying a panel like this, you need to know that it will cost you quite a bit of money. You will have to buy the whole unit and then once you have the unit, you need to get someone to install the unit for you.

Everyone knows that the sun gives out UV, or ultraviolet rays. This can be used to generate solar power. The power can then be converted into electricity, which can not only save you money, but reduce your carbon footprint.

Some people think that the best thing is to use solar panels Newton experts that use those windmills to get electricity generated. However, what will happen if the wind does not blow for a couple of days or weeks. Now you might wonder what will happen if it keeps raining or if it is cloudy, but your solar panels Newton MA specialist will have it handled.

This is really something that you need to ask Revolusun about, as you it will really help you financially and it will also be good for the environment.

This panel will be exposed to the sun. When the sun is out during the day, you will find that the sun will be charging the batteries by shining on the panel on top of the light. At the end of the day when the sun goes down and it is dark outside, the light will use the power that was placed in the batteries by the sun shining on this panel and the light will be on.

This electricity will then be stored in the batteries that are attached to the panel. These batteries are something like rechargeable batteries. The energy from the sun that is converted by the panel will be stored in these batteries.

The house or building will then be able to use this power as electricity. You will be able to run you whole hose off from those batteries, depending on how big the panel is that you have on the roof. This is why you should know what you want to do with the panel before you go and buy one.

You will be able to eventually run your whole household on this kind of electricity. You would not even need the electricity from the provider as you have the panel that is providing the electricity to your house. This is really something that you can look into. This is also a way to save the environment. You should really consider getting this.

Find a brief summary of the advantages of hiring an installer of solar panels Newton MA area and more information about RevoluSun services at http://www.youtube.com/user/RevoluSunBurlington today.

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Basic For Choosing The Finest Solar Panels For Your House

by Kenny Hanley Posted on May 29, 2015

One of the most important things that we need in the current world is the energy. This we use it in our homes for many things from lighting, cooking and numerous other things. However, we have natural and fabricated sources of energy.

The number of enterprises producing this equipment for solar power are numerous and this makes it difficult to select the best one. The firms with their marketing strategies and advertisements use this might cause confusion in the process. This can influence your decisions negatively. Therefore, you should use referrals and reputation to ease the burden of the research.

Understand that you will definitely find some companies that make solar panels for home but without a status in the market yet their products are being sold to the public. This is possible because their products might not have found a perfect opportunity to create an influence in the market. Status takes time to build and patience too. However, you should not take those products for granted because they might be the best.

Due to a highly demanding market for solar energy, fraudsters can use this opportunity to make money on the unsuspecting members of the public. Therefore, you should take care not to procure an apparatus made by fraudsters. This is the reason why counterfeit products are sold in the market and they appear like the original products. Ensure the company is licensed and the apparatus is certified.

The design the solar panels north and over firms can create is something you ought to think about too. In this scenario, you should consider picking the product that you feel it looks good. Many individuals do not keep this in mind and end up not liking the product once they have bought it. Therefore, to evade this challenge it is critical that you choose one that you like.

Understand that energy is in levels and it all depends on the usage. Therefore, it is a better idea to know the purpose for the energy in order to pick the most suitable solar panels north and over ma firms can create. It is better not to start searching for the equipment before highlighting your needs. Therefore, you must possess a list of all the things you will be engaging in first.

The solar panels n and over producers use special equipment to assemble this product. This is because it has to arrest the rays and turn them into the energy that you need. For this to happen successfully, the materials need to be of good quality and appropriate for this work. Therefore, contemplate on this aspect and find the equipment manufactured with good quality materials.

The amount of money that has been imposed on the equipment should be something to consider too. This is because the manufacturers of these products charge different prices on their equipment. These prices are just meant to meet the targets of the companies in accumulating more profits. Therefore, you should select the equipment that is selling at a sensible price.

Find an overview of the advantages you get when you hire an installer of solar panels North Andover area and more information about a reliable installer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCzFkica5uM&list=PLLZmhGXTTVAeb0n3_ciAAEdgo36F-bINf today.

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Solar Power Is Being Utilized More Frequently

by Parker Kenny Posted on May 13, 2015

There has been an upsurge of interest in alternative power sources in the last decade. It is no longer out of reach of the average homeowner. A roof full of photovoltaic panels in a moderate to hot climate can provide all the power needed in the home, with some left over. Solar energy is free to use after the initial investment.

When PV panels generate electricity, they do not also generate harmful gas to pollute the environment. The installation can remain functional for twenty to twenty five years. That longevity justifies the initial investment.

The cost is being reduced and will continue to go down. Therefore solar energy boston ma and other locations has a sunny future. The photovoltaic panels produce electricity in a direct way. The maintenance costs are low.

It is a quiet and unobtrusive method of powering an entire household. In many large cities noise is a problem. For example, windmills are noisy. When the houses are on small lots and close together, noise might be a problem. It can prevent a good nights sleep.

There are government subsidies available for some installations. There may be a cash rebate or a savings on taxes. Due to everyones interest in saving money, more and more homeowners are planning to acquire the technology.

In boston solar energy can be collected on panels installed on the roof or on the ground. They are easy to install. Plus, they do not have any moving parts.

The downside is that on days when the sun is not shining, alternate sources may be required. Most homeowners will be on a grid to obtain it from that source on cloudy days. It serves as a backup to make sure they have adequate electricity on cloudy days.

If you convert direct electricity to alternating electricity, inverters must be added to the system. If the homeowner wants a continuous supply, Inverters and storage batteries are both required. Since the panels are somewhat delicate, extra insurance may be needed in case of damage.

When solar power, sunlight, reaches the Earth, only about 50 percent is absorbed. The amount that is reflected back into space is approximately 30 percent. Any amount of power from the sun is that much less that must be produced using fossil fuels.

Each 10 kw photovoltaic panel can generate approximately 17,000 kwh on an annual basis. That prevents 7 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being dissipated into the air. It is as much as 2.3 cars emit each year.

Another way of stating it is that the 17,000 kw are the equivalent of CO2 emissions from the energy used in a home in one year. You can also think of it as equal to the CO2 that results when 27.3 barrels of oil are burned.

Energy from the sun can be stored as thermal energy to heat hot water for example. It can be used for cooling as in air conditioning and space heating. It can function to heat under-floor heating elements.

Even children can understand the benefits of replacing sun power for fossil fuel whenever possible. Their future and the future of their children will be greatly enhanced by the further development of solar power. PV storage units are an ever-growing item to preserve and improve our environment.

To take advantage of solar energy Boston residents should first review the posts online. If you are interested in installing solar panels on your roof, simply contact us today via http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJaYk8QQbRU&list=PLLZmhGXTTVAfbygFC8xkQF5EDsTMWDYKQ.

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Choosing The Most Ideal Solar Panels

by Frank Masterson Posted on May 13, 2015

One does not have to rush when purchasing a system that will suit their needs. There are a number of factors to think through in the first place. These are what will guide when seeking to find an appropriate system for their homes.

First of all, buyers have to have in their thoughts the fact that there are various models of solar panel. However, their functionality is the same. The greatest difference between them is the fact that all of the models are not effective. A number of them are effective whereas others will not meet the factor. Therefore, consider buying a suitable model from a known maker.

Equipments are bought with a purpose. Mainly in respect to this is that, they are purchased purposely to generate solar power. This is used in various areas including lighting up the house. Besides, it is required to warm the water which for instance will be used for bathing. What matters most here is the effectiveness of the equipment and adequate solar energy can be generated.

Besides, as mentioned above, clients who are in the process of buying a solar panel for their homes should consider sellers. It is not a guarantee that every seller in the market will give the best. The product varies depending with the maker. One has a responsibility of identifying one that has the finest one. This is very imperative for every client.

What a person will pay for the equipment will depend with the various solar panel Newburyport shops. Their effectiveness first of all is one of the central factors. It is not a guarantee that it will give sufficient results. However, some will not meet what customers desires in them. This is to say that quality is one of the central determinants of all times and it brings a difference on the cost.

However, one does not have to pay excess for the machine. There is a way that people can use so as to identify the most affordable and efficient solar panel Newburyport, MA. The technique is that, households should pick price quotations from various suppliers. Thereafter, they will have to make a comparison that will make certain the one that charges competitive rates with efficient products.

There is another way in which buyers can use so as to easily find what is best for them. Friends can be a source of knowledge on the issue. By enquiring from friends you will be in a position to find suitable Newburyport solar panel sellers who will give suitable equipment. It will never be a challenge identifying a worthy individual if there are friends who have the experience of some suppliers.

Therefore, every client should think through every dynamic outlined above. They all have significance on the kind of decisions that a person would want to make. This is to say that, whenever you are planning to purchase the facility, one has to first of all think through the points. At the end they will definitely find the exact system they have been dreaming of.

If there is a need for solar panels Newburyport MA residents should look no further than our site. We have included all the related information right here at http://www.youtube.com/user/RevoluSunBurlington.

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Can This Awesome Solar-Powered Plane Make It Across the Pacific?

by EleanorZavala Posted on May 5, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

This story originally appeared on Wired and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Later this week, a single-seat, solar-powered plane with a wingspan longer than that of a Boeing 747 will take off from Nanjing, China, headed for Honolulu. For a normal passenger jet, that’s about a 12-hour flight. Solar Impulse 2, the 5,000-pound plane powered by nothing but sunshine, will take five days.

This is by far the hardest part of the plane’s journey around the world, which started in Abu Dhabi last month, and should finish there in August. Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg have been working up to this for 12 years, and they’re fully aware of how trying it will be.

“If we are optimistic, we will say that we’ve done six legs out of 12,” Piccard says. “And if we are pessimistic, we will say have have traveled 8,000 kilometers out of 35,000.”

Which is to say, things are going according to plan, but there’s much left to do, including the flight to Honolulu, then a 3,000-mile leap over the rest of the Pacific to Phoenix, Arizona.

The trick to staying aloft for days at a time is straightforward. The solar panels that cover the wings and fuselage of Solar Impulse 2 charge four extra-efficient batteries, which power the 17.4-horsepower motors. You charge up when the sun’s out and cruise at up to 28,000 feet. At night, you drop to about 5,000 feet, converting altitude into distance.

There are two factors that make the Pacific crossing especially challenging: The ocean’s size and the pokey speed of the plane (try 20 to 90 mph) mean each pilot will need to spend four or five days and nights aloft to reach land, in a cockpit that resembles a tube hotel in miniature. The second problem is the weather: Solar Impulse 2 needs pretty specific conditions to takeoff, cruise, and land—and that all needs to be planned out five days in advance.

André Borschberg has spent 72 hours at a time in a simulator to prepare for this flight. Niels Ackermann/Rezo.ch/Solar Impulse

Borschberg is scheduled to take off from Nanjin on May 7, at the earliest. If the flight goes as expected, he will take five days to make the trip to Honolulu. Then Piccard will make the four-day trip to Phoenix.

Pilot Preparation

It doesn’t sound like much fun: There’s no walking around, or even standing up in, the 135-cubic foot cockpit. The cabin is neither heated nor pressurized, though it is insulated.

To get used to the cramped conditions, the pilots have spent long stretches in a simulator. They use meditation, breathing exercises, and whatever yoga they can manage to keep their bodies and minds feeling as fresh as possible.

Piccard and Borschberg will sleep in 20 minute stretches (the aircraft has autopilot functions and there’s not much to collide with over the Pacific), six to eight times a day. It’s hardly a good night’s rest, but it’s enough to get by, and the seat fully reclines. They have an alarm set to wake them up, but their bodies have gotten used to the routine, and don’t really need it, Piccard says. “It’s very interesting how the human mind can adapt to this type of new situation.”

The grub sounds pretty good, especially for air travel: Nestlé made special meals that can survive temperatures from -4 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. There’s mushroom risotto, chicken with rice, and potatoes with cream and cheese. “It’s very nice,” Piccard says. The toilet, FYI, is built into the seat.

It may seem difficult to stay focused when you’ve seen nothing but ocean for days on end, but it’s not a major concern to the pilots. “There’s quite a lot of things to do,” Borschberg says. More importantly, they’ve been working up to this for more than a decade. They’re jazzed.

Of course, they’ve got to be ready for things to go wrong. In the event of a sudden catastrophe, like an engine or battery fire, they’ve trained for bailing. If cloudy weather stops the panels from charging the batteries adequately, Piccard and Borschberg will take their time putting on the dry suit, preparing the parachute, alerting mission control, and switching on an emergency beacon. “You get out very peacefully,” Piccard says.

The cockpit of Solar Impulse 2 resembles a tube hotel, in miniature. Solar Impulse/Pizzolante

They key in any situation is getting away from the plane—there’s a serious risk of electrocution when you fly a pile of electronics and batteries into the ocean. Then you settle into your life raft, because you’re thousands of miles from land, and major shipping lanes, it may take two or three days to be picked up.

The Weather Game

There’s a lot to take into account, says team meteorologist Luc Trullemans. Routes are decided using radar and satellite data, and flight simulations. Equipment from engineering consultancy Altran and a team mathematician lend a hand. Cloudy skies mean the solar panels can’t recharge the batteries. Wind conditions are crucial: Tailwinds are best, and the team will tolerate cross tailwinds up to 45 degrees (90 degrees would be blow fully sideways). Headwinds are a problem for a plane with limited power: Between Myanmar and Chongqing, China, Piccard found himself flying backwards at one point.

The six legs of the Solar Impulse 2 journey already completed have been relatively short affairs, between 15 and 20 hours. That’s not so tricky to plan, because at the time of takeoff, you have an excellent idea of what the weather will look like for the whole flight.

All that gets way more difficult now, because the team can’t predict the weather with the accuracy it wants more than three days in advance. “We must be 100 percent certain with our weather forecasts for the first three days of the flight and of course, the takeoff conditions,” says Trullemans. After that, the route can always be changed … on the fly … but major deviations are best avoided. The plan is to keep a sharp eye on coming conditions. The pilot can fly to the north or south to avoid a cold front, for example.

Beyond that, you hope for the best: Tailwinds, clear skies, and no need to inflate that life raft.

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Can This Awesome Solar-Powered Plane Make It Across the Pacific?

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Coal Is Dying and It’s Never Coming Back

by OmaRedefzlunub Posted on April 14, 2015

Mother Jones

Coal, the No. 1 cause of climate change, is dying. Last year saw a record number of coal plant retirements in the United States, and a study last week from Duke University found that since 2008, the coal industry shed nearly 50,000 jobs, while natural gas and renewable energy added four times that number. Even China, which produces and consumes more coal than the rest of the world put together, is expected to hit peak coal use within a decade, in order to meet its promise to President Barack Obama to reduce its carbon emissions starting in 2030.

According to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), this is all the fault of President Barack Obama’s “war on coal”—specifically the administration’s new limits for carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, which probably will force many power companies to burn less coal. If there is a war, McConnell has long been the field marshal of the defending army. His latest maneuver came last month when he called on state lawmakers to simply ignore the administration’s new rules, in order to resist Obama’s “attack on the middle class.”

His logic, apparently, is that if Kentucky can stave off Obama long enough, the coal industry still has a glorious future ahead. That logic is fundamentally flawed. While Obama’s tenure will probably speed up the country’s transition to cleaner energy, the scales had already tipped against coal long before he took office. Kentucky’s coal production peaked in 1990, and coal industry employment peaked all the way back in the 1920s. The scales won’t tip back after he leaves. The “war on coal” narrative isn’t simply misleading, it also distracts from the very real problem of how to prepare coal mining communities and energy consumers (i.e., everyone) for an approaching future in which coal is demoted to a bit role after a century at center stage.

That’s the conclusion of a sweeping new account of the coal industry, Coal Wars, authored by leading energy analyst Richard Martin. The book dives deep into a simple truth: As long as we’re still burning coal for the majority of our energy, all the solar panels, electric cars, and vegetarian diets in the world won’t do a thing to stop global warming. Saving the planet starts with getting off coal.

The good news, Martin reports, is that transition is already underway, regardless of stonewalling by congressional Republicans, and with or without Obama’s new regulations. Martin documents evidence of coal’s decline from the mountain villages of Kentucky to the open pit mines of Wyoming, and from lavish industry parties in Shanghai to boardrooms in Germany. Everywhere he looks, market forces (for instance, natural gas made cheap by the fracking boom), technological advances, and environmental laws are conspiring to favor cleaner forms of energy over coal. At the same time, Martin writes, more and more financial institutions and private investors are starting to factor climate change into their investment decisions, which “would be a death blow that no EPA regulation could equal.”

Whether the transition will happen fast enough to limit the damage of climate change is a different story. China still gets nearly three-quarters of its energy from coal. The United States, while substantially reducing its own coal consumption in recent years, still has huge amounts of coal, especially in the West, that can be profitably mined and shipped overseas. Many billions of dollars have been sunk into mines, power plants, shipping terminals, and other infrastructure that can’t simply be shut down overnight, especially when all that stuff forms the backbone of a basic commodity like electricity.

Still, for coal, there is no resurgence on the horizon. “There’s no question which way the curve is headed, and it is down,” Martin tells Climate Desk.

Much less clear than the fate of coal is what will happen in the countless communities, from the American Southeast to northern China, that have long depended on coal to put food on the table. Martin has managed to locate dozens of compelling personal narratives that show the human face of a debate that is too often reduced—by environmentalists as much as by the coal industry—to numbers and yawn-inducing energy wonkery. These include the head of a small coal mining company in Kentucky who was forced to sell off the business he inherited from his father and lay off workers who were also friends and neighbors. The manager of a coal town coffee shop in Colorado is also facing closure. In China, self-contained cities are built around coal mines, but young people there are unable to get work and have no other employment opportunities.

The environmental imperative to get off coal is obvious, and even if you think climate change is a hoax, basic economics are already driving the coal industry to contract. But so far, according to Martin, the United States has done a terrible job of helping coal industry workers and their families find life after coal.

There are many guilty parties here, including coal barons like Don Blankenship (who is currently facing charges in federal court for flagrant safety violations) and profit-hungry utility company execs who are keen to squash competition from solar and wind energy. But Martin saves his most damning critiques for leaders like McConnell who are hung up on pointless political squabbling rather than finding innovative ways to revitalize former coal economies.

“The presence of the coal industry has kept these communities in a state of dependence, and not allowed them to develop a real economy beyond coal,” Martin says. “Whether we pine for the days of these jobs or not, they’re not coming back. We have to get beyond this state of dependency.”

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Coal Is Dying and It’s Never Coming Back

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Are Solar-Powered Homes Jacking Up Everyone Else’s Electric Bills?

by MorganZEEZ Posted on March 25, 2015

Mother Jones

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Illustration by Mr. Biscuit

Solar power is having a major moment. It’s growing faster than any other energy source—in 2014, a new system was installed in the United States every three minutes—while the price of a typical panel has dropped 63 percent since 2010. By 2016, experts predict that solar will be as cheap or cheaper than conventional electricity in most states. But solar companies are warning that the boom could soon end, if utilities and some Republican state lawmakers have their way.

Power companies’ beef with solar boils down to a clever payment system that was largely responsible for bringing about the solar boom in the first place—a practice known as net metering. Most solar homes aren’t actually “off the grid”: They stay connected to transmission lines, using regular power when their panels aren’t operating (like at night). But they also feed electricity into the grid when they produce more than they can use.

Sounds great, right? Not really, say the power companies. They pay solar homeowners for their excess kilowatts—but argue homeowners aren’t paying their fair share for grid maintenance. That has utilities in revolt, and the fight has reached a fever pitch in Northern California, where the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, serves more residential solar homes than any other.

Like many utilities, PG&E charges customers on a multitiered price scheme—the more electricity you use, the more you pay per unit. That can incentivize power hogs to conserve, but it can also mean that a poor family of four in California’s AC-dependent Central Valley can end up paying rates far above the national average (and what it actually costs PG to serve them), while a Google-employed bachelor millionaire gets a bargain. If that tech dude decides to install solar panels, he pays even less—even though he still uses the grid.

To be fair, customers who generate their own electricity also save the utilities money, causing less wear and tear on transmission lines and less power lost along the way. But a study commissioned by California’s Legislature found that in the Golden State at least, these benefits do not fill the hole left by lost revenue. Net metering cost the state’s privately owned utilities $254 million in 2012, a price tag estimated to jump to $1.1 billion per year by 2020 as an estimated 500,000 more homes go solar.

The solar industry shot back with a study of its own, arguing that those costs are minor compared with the roughly $32 billion that California’s major utilities earned in 2013 and that, for PG&E, the problem is not really caused by solar but by the huge gap—about threefold—between the company’s lowest and highest rate tiers. Since solar is attractive to high-tier customers, who stand to save the most money, each one who saves by installing a system is a big blow to the utility’s bottom line. Smooth out the rate tiers, the study suggests, and the problem disappears.

In 2013, California lawmakers told the state’s utilities to do just that. PG&E’s proposed solution, set to be voted on by state regulators in the spring, would reduce the number of price tiers and add a fixed monthly grid maintenance surcharge. The problem is that the fixed charge will erode the cost advantages of going solar, since you can’t avoid it just by using less power from the grid. Sanjay Ranchod, a policy analyst for the solar installer SolarCity, sees the change as a sneaky way for the utilities to kneecap the competition. Imposing a fixed monthly charge, he says, is “one way you can inhibit the growth of distributed solar.”

Similar battles are playing out from Utah to Wisconsin, as utilities fight to roll back net metering, restructure their rate systems, or impose special fees for solar users—and it’s easy to see why power companies are sweating. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the gap between the cost of maintaining the US grid and the available funds will grow by $11 billion per year through 2020, since the revenue streams utilities have traditionally relied on to pay for those costs—investments in big power plants they can recover through increased sales—are drying up.

John Farrell, a program director at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, argues that to succeed down the line, utilities will have to act more like grid managers, connecting power from a host of sources (much like data flowing into a server from many places) and investing in technology that helps consumers use power more efficiently. “There’s no outcome 10 or 20 years from now that looks anything like what utilities have been before,” Farrell says. “It’s going to happen anyway, and you just have to choose whether you’re gonna like it or not.”

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Are Solar-Powered Homes Jacking Up Everyone Else’s Electric Bills?

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I Went to the Launch Party for the World’s First Pot CSA. Here’s What I Can Remember

by HilarioHowse Posted on March 7, 2015

Mother Jones

“Hello and welcome,” the voice said. “Thank you for joining us on this special evening to learn more about the clean cannabis movement.”

I was in a white van, bouncing up a steep hill to a party at an undisclosed location in Berkeley, California. The voice came from an iPhone held up by one of my hosts, a young woman wearing a cocktail dress and a headband of white flowers. “If you do not wish to participate in the cannabis,” the voice continued, as meditative music played in the background, “do not have anything the flower girls are carrying.”

Duly warned, I was deposited at the front steps of Panoramic Sky, a three-story house designed by a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright that rents on Airbnb, I later learned, for $2,800 a night. I was wearing a suit I’d bought earlier that day from Neiman Marcus, worried that I didn’t own any clothes nice enough for the occasion. “Dress Code: Formal Attire (Great Gatsby meets California),” the invitation had said. A subsequent update noted that lots of “very important people” would be there.

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I Went to the Launch Party for the World’s First Pot CSA. Here’s What I Can Remember

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Scientists want to turn your old sandwich into an indestructible wonder material

by DeclanSullivan Posted on February 21, 2015

Scientists want to turn your old sandwich into an indestructible wonder material

By on 20 Feb 2015commentsShare

Hold on to your food scraps, people! Anaerobic digestion is very in right now, and you know what that means — your self-righteous compost bins might not be the only game in town anymore when it comes to reducing food waste.

What’s anaerobic digestion, you ask? Simple — let a bunch of bacteria feast on your unwanted food (or any organic matter, really) in an oxygen-free environment and out comes biogas, a mixture of mostly carbon dioxide and methane. That biogas can be used to generate heat and electricity; people have already used it to power cars, supermarkets, and even Disney World!

But a new idea from scientists in Europe takes the half-eaten, rotting cake. Ever hear of graphene? You know, the human-made, two-dimensional wonder material that’s stronger than steel, more conductive than copper, and about to revolutionize everything everywhere, just as soon as we figure out how to mass produce and implement it? Well, researchers at a company called PlasCarb are trying to turn biogas into graphitic carbon (a.k.a. the precursor to graphene). The process would also produce plenty of hydrogen, which is a potential renewable fuel source.

If you’re not totally psyched about the miracle material yet, you will be just as soon as you read about these six ways graphene could make the world a more sustainable place — updatable newspapers and flexible smart cards, anyone?

But before you get too excited, I’m going to let The Guardian kill your buzz a little:

Graphene and hydrogen from surplus food are desirable alternatives, but despite the exciting prospects they offer, [project leader Neville] Slack and his team aren’t getting ahead of themselves. There is still a question of scalability and how both small and large businesses could access the technology to deal with their waste. He says the project is still in its infancy — it’s in its second year of its three-year duration — and that the economics of it all need to be ascertained. A pilot trial lasting at least a month will see 150 tonnes of food transformed into 25,000 cubic metres of biogas and then on into the graphitic carbon and renewable hydrogen. The results of this will give the team some indication about future market interest and uptake.

There’s no doubt that, if scaled up successfully, PlasCarb could play a key role in helping prolong food’s life cycle. But Slack suggests that it doesn’t take away from the fact that, in an ideal world, there wouldn’t be any waste at all.

Ah yes, a world without food waste. Grist is firmly with you on that one, Slack, but until we reach that glorious utopia, here’s to hoping the making-gross-old-food-into-fancy-new-tech thing works out — and while we’re at it, here’s to hoping we also get better at using graphene.

Source:
Turning our mountains of food waste into graphene

, The Guardian.

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