Green Energy News | September 2, 1996

September 2, 1996 – Vol.1 No.23

ENERGIES... for the week of September 2, 1996

BALLISTIC SAPLINGS. Trees could be planted quickly by the billions by using ground penetrating shells in a project underway by doctoral candidate Moshe Alamoro at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dropped from cargo planes, the aerodynamic and biodegradable shells would penetrate earth and ground cover at about 200 mph in areas designated for reforestation, but normally difficult to reforest by conventional methods. The shells would carry a small sapling along with enough water and nutrients to help the tree take hold in its new home.

Alamoro is setting up an international consortium to airdrop the trees. The project’s best hopes are in Europe, where power companies can get tax credits for planting more trees to offset new taxes on carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and a main contributor to global warming. An acre of pine trees, for example, can absorb up to 10 tons of CO2 in a year.

FLYING BY THE SUN. In Germany a million dollar solar-powered experimental aircraft has flown over 20 hours on electricity generated from 226 square feet of integrated wing and tail-mounted photo-voltaic panels. A small electric motor and propeller pushes the plane along while its sailplane-like design allows it to take advantage of free lift from thermals.

The airplane “Icare” was developed at the University of Stuttgart in Germany by a 40-student team headed by Professor Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann. Clean and silent bird-like flight has always been the dream of aviation visionaries, but projects like this also showcase advancements in solar energy technology.

TIGHT LASER. A new laser beam has been developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico which should shoot through air indefinitely without spreading. The thin beam, about two or three times the thickness of a human hair, supposedly creates its own plasma center as it travels, and light tends to feed into that core keeping the beam tight and focused.

Los Alamos is looking for commercial developers for the laser. One idea is to use its intense beam to ionize air particles to create an easy path for lightning from thunderstorms to ground itself. Drawing lightning from the sky, aside from being exciting to see, could help protect power plants from strikes - not of the union kind, however.