Boundless Opportunities in Green Energy

August 20, 2006 – Vol.11 No.22

BOUNDLESS OPPORTUNITIES IN GREEN ENERGY.

Anyone who says that cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions would be economically damaging may not be looking at the full cornucopia of clean, efficient and renewable energies needed to do the job. Solar energy, wind power, biofuels, what-have-you, are just a few choice varieties in the garden of technologies that can be harvested to make the emission cuts while at the same time reducing the world’s over dependence on fossil fuels, particularly waning oil.

Somewhere down the line, if significant emission cuts are sought, many new green technologies will flourish to create new business opportunities, new jobs, and yes, profits and wealth.

Here are some fresh pickings from the garden.

--- Nippon Yusen K.K. and TCM Corporation of Japan have announced plans to begin testing a hybrid transfer crane at at NYK's Tokyo Container Terminal in Shinagawa for 12 months starting in September.

Transfer cranes lift containers off container ships, move them around and put new ones on board. In operation electric power in the hybrid crane would be consumed when containers are lifted and electricity would be generated when containers are lowered. Stored generated electricity would be used for the next lifting operation.

The developers say energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 40 percent with the hybrid crane. Visit TCM at http://www.tcmglobal.net/

--- Harbin Tech Full Electric Co, of Harbin, China has entered into a joint development agreement with the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) to produce linear motors and systems for railways.

Conventional rotating electric traction motors in rail vehicles turn drive wheels to move rail cars along a track: A rotational motion is used to propel a vehicle along a linear track. Why not use a linear device to move a vehicle in a linear motion?

The company says high power linear motors, not unlike those the used in automated production lines, could save 30 percent on energy.

The joint development agreement is to build industrialized-scale production of high power linear traction motors, track reaction plates, control systems and a test vehicle. Visit parent company Harbin Electric at http://www.harbinelectric.com/

--- Much of quest for energy savings is understanding and identifying where it’s being lost and wasted. Once those evils are identified programs or technologies can be employed to arrest them.

BizEE Software of the UK has developed Energy Lens software that can be used to examine patterns of energy consumption in business concerns based on half-hour data that can be supplied by utility companies. By analyzing short term consumption, businesses can better pinpoint problem areas and make corrective measures, such as a switch to a more efficient technology, to reduce energy consumption.

The company offers a free trial software package. Visit the Energy Lens site at http://www.energylens.com/