"Urine" Is Now Used To Study Past Climate Changes

There are many scientific methods to study past climate changes - ice cores, sediment layers, fossils, etc. Recently, new method has been used to investigate the changes by digging into ancient layers of dried urine left by the rock hyrax.

Why hyrax? Hyrax is a highly sociable animal forms communities and will live in the same rock fissures for long long time. They are highly disciplined when come to pee. Young hyrax was taught to pee at the same place every day, and that place will be the common toilet for the community for centuries and millennia. In South Africa, one nest was found to have urine layer that had been building up for the past 55,000 years.

According to Brian Chase, project leader from Montpelier University in France, hyrax's urine is thick and viscous, and will dry quickly. It contains pollen, bits of leaves, grasses and gas bubbles that provide precious information of the climate at the time.

"Once we have found a good layer of solid urine, we dig out samples and remove them for study. We are taking the piss, quite literally – and it is proving to be a highly effective way to study how climate changes have affected local environments.", said Chase.

This is just one of the many methods and studies done on climate changes, but it shows how creative scientists can be about finding climatic clues from the past.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/16/rock-hyrax-toilet-habits-climate-scientists

German Solar Is Half The Cost Of USA Solar

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has studied why it costs double to install solar system in USA than in German. LBNL found that residential German solar system goes for $3.00/watt and a residential U.S. solar system goes for $6.19/watt. The price difference is mainly due to the soft cost. Below picture shows the breakdown of solar system cost.

So, here’s a summary of LBNL’s findings of the causes of cost difference:

• Total non-hardware costs for residential PV in Germany are ~$2.70/W lower than in the USA
• Customer acquisition costs average just $0.07/W in Germany, or roughly $0.62/W lower than in the USA
• Installation labor requirements reportedly average 39 hours for German systems, leading to $0.36/W lower costs than in the USA
• PII processes require 5 hours of labor, on average, in Germany, with no permitting fee, resulting in PII costs roughly $0.21/W lower than in the USA
• German residential systems are exempt from sales/value-added tax, while USA systems are subject to an average sales tax of roughly $0.21/W (accounting for sales tax exemptions in many USA states)
• The remaining gap in soft costs between Germany and USA (~$1.32/W) is associated with overhead, profit, and other residual soft costs
• Shorter project development times in Germany contribute to ~$0.2/W lower
• Residential PV systems are larger in Germany (partly due to differences in policy design), benefiting from economies of scale ($0.15/W effect)

Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/17/why-german-solar-is-so-much-cheaper-than-u-s-solar-updated-study/

Breakthrough In Clean Coal Technology

The impression given by coal-fired power plant is highly polluted and bad for the environment. Recently, Ohio State University at USA has reached a milestone in clean-coal technology. The technology is able to capture 99% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by the research-scale coal combustion system. Now it is ready for large-scale operation.

Coal combustion is a chemical reaction that consumes oxygen and produces heat. The byproduct of the reaction is CO2. For every MWh of electricity generated, 2,000 lbs of CO2 is produced. CO2 is difficult to capture and bad for the environment. Ohio State University found a way to release the heat without burning. They carefully control the chemical reaction so that the coal never burns. Since the coal was never burned so the CO2 is entirely contained inside the reactor.

In the new process, the coal is been ground into a powder and metal beads made of iron oxide composites are used. The coal particles have size about 0.1 mm and the iron beads are 1.5 - 2 mm

The coal and iron oxide are heated to high temperatures, where the materials react with each other. Carbon from the coal binds with the oxygen from the iron oxide and creates CO2, which rises into a chamber where it is captured. Hot iron and coal ash are left behind. Because the iron beads are so much bigger than the coal ash, they are easily separated out of the ash, and delivered to a chamber where the heat energy would normally be harnessed for electricity. The coal ash is removed from the system.

The CO2 is separated and can be recycled or sequestered for storage. The iron beads are exposed to air inside the reactor, so that they become re-oxidized to be used again. The beads can be re-used almost indefinitely, or recycled.

Since the process captures nearly all the carbon dioxide, it exceeds the goals that USA's Department of Environment has set for developing clean energy.

Source: http://blog.cleantechies.com/2013/02/08/advancement-in-clean-coal/

France: Conserving Energy By Shutting Off Light

Effective first of July this year, France's government is mandating all non-residential buildings to turn off their light one hour after the last employee leaves the office or by 1 a.m. The light only can be turned on again until 7 a.m., or before business starts.

By doing so, this simple, yet effective way, can save France the amount of energy to power 750,000 homes. Of course, major tourist attractions are exempt, like the 20,000 flashing bulbs on the Eiffel Tower, and public displays like Christmas tree decorations at the Champs-Elysees.

By turning off the lights, France is not just saving energy and reducing carbon footprint, but also reducing light pollution. According to France's Environmental Minister Delphine Batho, night lighting can "cause significant disruptions on ecosystems by changing communication between species, migrations, reproduction cycles or even the prey-predator relationships,". She hopes that the ban will reduce the negative impact that artificial lights have on ecosystems and wildlife, as well as on human sleep patterns

The law is one of many measures the new government is implementing to increase energy efficiency and renewables. The country, which for so long has been held up as a model for relying on nuclear is moving away from that and toward renewable energy. The French government also wants to ban natural gas fracking.

Source: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/24539