500 People for Israel Plant Trees in the Galilee

Over people have come on this trip from all parts of this trip from all parts of the United States. As Christians, we came to Israel to say – we're with you! Israel's fight is our fight, especially now. More than 70% of the American people stand solidly behind Israel, and we want the people of Israel to know that we support them," said Pastor John Hagee, the founder and national chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), in a phone interview on Thursday, September 11. 

 

At exactly the same time, his followers, members of CUFI, were planting at the KKL-JNF Golani tree planting center in the Lower Galilee. The members of the mission, many of whom were visiting Israel for the first time, arrived in ten busloads, each of which was accompanied by a spiritual guide and a tour guide who described KKL-JNF's work on behalf of Israel and the environment during their trip in the north of Israel.  

Hagee is also the president and CEO of John Hagee Ministries. His national radio and television ministry is broadcast in the United States on ten television networks and reaches more than 150 million households. He has been to Israel more than two dozen times and has met with every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin. 

"If you take away the Jewish contribution from Christianity, there's no Christianity. God promised Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For us, support for Israel is a religious imperative, not a political issue. God has an everlasting covenant with the Jewish people, and forever means forever – right now, and a thousand years from now." 

SunPower has Produced 1 Billion Solar Cells

California-based solar cell manufacturer, solar module manufacturer, and solar power developer SunPower said recently that it had produced its one billionth solar cell. The company started making them 11 years ago. SunPower solar cells are high efficiency compared to other commercially available cells, currently achieving about 24.2% efficiency. When the company started making them in 2003, the efficiency was 20%.

Regarding the news, CEO Tom Werner said: “SunPower is proud of the role we’ve played to help the global adoption of solar, which, over the past 11 years has experienced a 45 percent annual growth rate resulting in nearly 155 gigawatts of installed power capacity today. This is enough to offset the electricity needs of over 25 million homes.”

SunPower is adding more fabrication capacity. A new 350 MW facility is expected to start producing in early 2015. This one will be in the Philippines, but might not reach full production capacity until the year after 2015. However, a 1.8 GW factory is being planned for construction in 2017.

If SunPower’s average annual solar cell production was about 90,000 solar cells, it appears that SunPower will go well beyond this output. So the next billion solar cells they produce will probably occur in just a handful of years.

Werner remarked: “The SunPower team has worked continually to improve our manufacturing and cost reduction processes in concert with advancements in research and development, always raising our own innovation bar. Solar is now more affordable, with demand for the residential, commercial and utility scale power plant markets at historic highs.”

SunPower’s solar cells are known for efficiency and reliability. It will be fascinating to see what happens in the solar industry over the next two years. If prices continue dropping, it appears that both consumer and commercial demand will rise.

Tesla’s gigafactory may become operational by 2017, and there could be a SunPower gigafactory coming online not long afterwards. How long will it take for SunPower to get its next billion solar cells?

Sunpower’s headquarters are in San Jose but the company also has offices in other North American locations, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe. Founded in 1985, it has about 5,200 employees.

Maruti Suzuki aims to make hybrids affordable

Maruti Suzuki is working on a low-cost hybrid technology to make its cheap-to-own cars even more frugal. Maruti is aiming to make hybrids affordable and wants to offer the technology on cars right from the Alto, the cheapest in its product portfolio, to the Swift premium hatchback over the next three to four years, said people with knowledge of the carmaker's plans. In the process, it is taking the 'Kitna Deti Hai' (how many miles does it give) slogan to the next level.

 These people said Maruti's hybrid solution could deliver 20-30% more fuel economy. Hybrid vehicles usually have a non-conventional propulsion system, such as an electric motor, in addition to the engine that runs on conventional fuel. They also often include mechanisms to capture energy, such as while braking, to recharge the battery. While hybrid vehicles offer better fuel efficiency and are more environment friendly, heftier price compared with those running on conventional fuels has been the biggest hurdle for their wider adoption globally. 

Finland's Biggest Waste-to-Energy Plant Opens

Vantaan Energia officially opened a new waste-to-energy incinerator on Wednesday. The new plant is Finland’s biggest of its kind, and will produce half of the district heating demand and 30 percent of the electricity needed in the municipality of Vantaa, part of the greater Helsinki area.

The facility has been thoroughly tested, with the first waste entering the system this spring. It’s the biggest investment the local electricity company has ever made, replacing one unit at the company’s existing incinerator in Malminlaakso.

30 percent cut in carbon-dioxide footprint

Around 320,000 metric tons of rubbish will arrive at the plant every year, before it is sorted and incinerated to produce some 920 gigawatt-hours of heat and 600 gigawatt-hoursof electricity. That will reduce Vantaan Energia’s carbon output by 30 percent.

The plant’s emissions will be monitored continually, and the unit will be shut down if it exceeds a certain limit. Handling waste in this way is becoming more common in Finland, but the country still lags behind neighboring Sweden. About 90 percent of Swedish waste is recycled or used to produce energy, while in Finland the corresponding figure is just 40 percent.

The new plant will burn rubbish collected across the Uusimaa region of southern Finland.

1mn Tyres at Waste Management Facility

Besides treating 2,300 tonnes of domestic wastes, the Domestic Solid Waste Management Centre (DSWMC) is also home to 1mn old tyres occupying a certain area at the 300 hectare facility.

DSWMC general manager Oon Ee Heng said they had stopped taking more since the allotted lot has reached its maximum capacity.

He noted that it was safe to stock 1mn tyres at an open area, with appropriate measures to prevent fire.

He also disclosed that the area for tyres had rooms for expansion. However, the establishment of an 8-tonne per hour plant for recycling tyres will cost about $20mn. He estimates it as around 1.3mn tyres per year – an average of one tyre per person a year (benchmark).

Two other smaller (unlined) landfills also operate at Al Owaina and Rawdat Rasheed for disposal of construction and demolition wastes.

The DSWMC is operated by Singaporean company Keppel Seghers which was awarded two contracts by the Ministry of Municipality Affairs and Agriculture in Qatar (now known as the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning) to design and build four waste transfer stations and one integrated DSWMC and to maintain it for 20 years.

The facility is comprised of state-of-the-art waste sorting and recycling facilities, an Anaerobic Digestion composting plant, a 1,500-tonne-per-day incineration plant, and a sanitary landfill satisfying the most advanced standards in the world.

Keppel Seghers uses “dano drum” in treating mixed domestic wastes, separating recyclable materials from organic wastes.

The entire process of waste treatment can help recover 90% of metals and 50% plastics for recycling.

Organic waste is sent to the Anaerobic Digestion and Composting plant to produce soil enhancers for agriculture use and landscaping.

The remaining non-recyclable waste is sent to an advanced and fully controlled incineration process to generate clean energy.

Heng also expects wastes to grow due to the rapidly increasing population in Qatar.

“I know that the rate of population growth in this country is very fast, one can think what will happen in the next couple of years to come,” he added.

Waste Growth Rate is about 10% fuelled by rapid development, high GDP, rapid population growth and increasing living standards.

Domestic waste is collected by General Clean Project managed by Q-Kleen which sends it to the four transfer stations.

Indian Giants Bet on Renewable Energy Space

In mid-2014, Banmali Agrawala, president and CEO of GE South Asia, journeyed from the steel and chrome of his office building in Gurgaon to a village in Maharashtra's Satara district, some seven hours south of Mumbai. This wasn't an opportunity for the $146-billion GE to scout for some new business in the hinterland; instead, Agrawala, a former Tata Power executive, was visiting the wind farms of Greenko, a renewable energy developer. 

Since October 2011, when GE made a $50-million investment in Greenko, its wind energy capacity has increased from 65 MW to over 600 MW in 2014. Investors had flocked to the firm too, most recently in July this year when it raised $550 million in an overseas bond sale (the largest debt sale by a firm with low or sub-investment grade ratings). Greenko's order book is valued at over $1.4 billion.

Agrawala sees a spring in the step of renewable energy developers. "I think things have changed," he says. "Traditional energy sources have faced serious challenges for the past three or four years and this has pushed developers towards renewable energy." He contends that while the earlier phase was driven by tax breaks, this round will be more focused on building long-term businesses. "Now, we have a more serious set of players...their emphasis is not on that one-off tax break, but on building power projects that will run for a long time and operate efficiently and profitably," he adds.

Rush of Players

GE and Greenko are hardly the only two firms eyeing the renewable energy opportunity. Across the country, a raft of companies ranging from global conglomerates such as GE to Indian giants such as the Tatas, Aditya Birla Group, Adani Group, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Mahindra Group are all rushing to make investments and expand their renewable energy pipeline.

While some conglomerates are vocal about their ambitions, two of them are flying under the radar. Mukesh Ambani, India's richest person and promoter of RIL, has only made occasional statements of his interest in renewable energy. "We will transit from [a] hydrocarbon presence which is coal, oil and natural gas into a fully renewable, sustainable future over the next many decades and solar really will be at the heart of it," Ambani said in a TV interview last year. RIL's Reliance Solar has been quietly working on building both upstream clean energy products such as home lighting systems and solar lanterns as well as products used in building renewable energy plants.

Another ambitious billionaire, Gautam Adani, who plans to build over 20,000 MW capacity in power by 2020, is also considering expanding in this space. After unveiling his first solar project in 2012, as the economy has picked up and renewable energy norms improved, Adani is interested in renewable projects across the country, a spokesperson said without providing further details.

Joining these conglomerates is a clutch of start-up renewable energy firms such as Greenko, ReNew Power and Azure Power that have announced plans to expand. Investors too are jumping into the fray, with marquee names such as IFC (a World Bank company), KKR and speciality investors such as Berkeley Energy willing to provide financing. Add to this power gear makers frantically looking to keep pace — one wind energy equipment manufacturer was swamped with over a hundred enquiries in August — and this is an industry with a new sense of purpose. The rush for renewables is perhaps most evident with the deluge of orders power gear companies like ABB, Bhel and Alstom are racing to fulfil. ABB is seeing a strong rise in demand for power electronics for wind turbine manufacturers and plant engineering solutions and substations for wind farms that connect the facility to the main grid. In May this year, the state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) opened a Rs 3,000-crore solar fab unit in Maharashtra and in September commenced work on a 20-MW solar power plant in Odisha. French giant Alstom is a top provider of equipment for hydroelectric projects and is now looking to expand its presence.

Supply Issues

There is little doubt that India needs the power generated by renewable energy projects. The country has a peak power deficit of some 5% and the conventional power units expected to fill the breach are months, if not years, behind schedule. Renewable power project developers don't have to worry about issues such as fuel linkages and price escalations and their projects take a few months to get operational. Add to this falling power prices (wind power is today cheaper or comparable, per unit, to the power spluttered out by diesel gensets, for example). With the government making a firm push to promote renewable power — tax rebates, focused schemes, and possibly fixed tariffs instead of competitive bidding for solar power — the excitement in the sector is only expected to grow.

Suzlon Goes Large on blades for its Wind Turbines

Indian manufacturer Suzlon has produced the first 54.8-metre blade for its S111 2.1MW wind turbine.

The S111 evolved from the S88 and S97 2.1MW family and is engineered to deliver a 20% increase in annual energy production over the S97, the company said.

Project manager Laurens van der Sande said: “The first SB54 blade is the longest and cleanest aerodynamic profile Suzlon has ever produced.

“This milestone has been achieved due to an effective integration between the product design, production unit and the tool design. The result is reflected in a shorter production timeline with a high yield product.”

Suzlon Group chairman Tulsi Tanti added: “We believe in offering optimal energy solutions to our clients, which is why we continue to leverage on our technological edge and create products that derive maximum energy yield. The S111/SB54 blade is based on previous Suzlon designs with innovative and optimized improvements.”

The first S111 turbine prototypes are being assembled and will be erected and tested later this year in India and in the US. Certification is expected in the first half of 2015.

Wind Farms and Sea Links Drive Global HVDC Converter Station Market Growth

This report estimates the HVDC converter station market size in terms of value. The volume market is estimated on the basis of the total number of projects commissioned from 2012 till 2019.

The report estimates the market size of HVDC converter station while comprising overhead and underground systems.

The HVDC converter station market is driven by increment in offshore wind farms, government incentive policy to establish HVDC converter station, demand for efficient power transmission, and the need for connecting Asynchronous Grids. The leading market for HVDC converter station is the U.S. due to its largest operational onshore wind farms and sea links which supply alternating current to the HVDC grids, followed by China.

We have used various secondary sources such as encyclopedia, directories, and databases to identify and collect information that was useful for this extensive commercial study of the global HVDC converter station market. The primary sources – experts, manufacturers, and service providers from the industry have all been interviewed to obtain and verify critical information, as well as to assess the future prospects of the HVDC converter station market.

We have also profiled the leading players of this industry, along with their recent developments and other strategic industry activities. Some of the key companies profiled include ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Alstom (France), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (India), Crompton Greaves (India), General Electric (U.S.), Hitachi Ltd. (Japan), and Siemens (Germany), among others.

Currently, Europe dominates the global HVDC converter station market. In Asia-Pacific, China is the largest market in terms of HVDC converter stations installed or planned for the future. ABB (Switzerland) and Crompton Greaves (India) are the global leaders in the field of manufacturing and supplying converters stations and its services.

The report covers the major regions such as Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Americas.

The report also touches upon the various important aspects of the market which include analysis of the value chain, Porter’s Five Forces model, the competitive landscape, market dynamics, market estimates in terms of value, as well as volume and the future trends of the HVDC converter station market.

Siemens to launch low-wind turbine

The German manufacturer will reveal the exact nature of the turbine at the WindEnergy Hamburg trade show next week. But a spokesperson for Siemens said that the turbine will be based on its direct-drive D3 platform with the addition of a larger rotor, as well as "several other innovations".

Siemens currently offers the 3-3.2MW turbines with rotors of between 101 and 113 metres. The largest rotor makes the IIa wind-class turbine suitable for medium-wind sites.

The D3 platform was launched in 2010 as Siemens' largest onshore turbine at the time. It also represented its first move into direct-drive turbines, which the company said lowered the top-head mass and improved reliability.

In March, Siemens revealed an uprated version of the turbine, giving the new machine a 3.2MW capacity and a 4% higher annual yield.

Many turbine manufacturers have been producing low-wind turbines for a number years, allowing them to gain market share.

Nordex has said that its low-wind N117 turbine has been key to the company's impressive showing in recent years, helping to push it into the top ten global turbine manufacturers. Enercon, GE and Vestas also have established low-wind platforms.

Global Wind Tally Hits 336GW

here were 17.6GW of new wind energy installations in the first half of 2014 to drive total global capacity to 336GW, according to a report. The new installations were up from 14GW in the same period of 2013 and by the end of this year the World Wind Energy Association expects worldwide capacity to top 360GW. Figures also reveal Asia has overtaken Europe as the leading wind continent with China close to 100GW of installed capacity. In Latin America, Brazil is now the third largest market for new wind turbines. The increase in global wind capacity was 5.5% in the six-month period compared with 5% in the year-ago period and 7.3% in 2012. 

A Concrete Energy Efficiency Solution

Cement , the key ingredient of concrete,is the world’s most widely used building material. It’s also the product of an energy-intensive process that accounts for about 5% of global greenhouse gases. These emissions threaten to increase as developing countries urbanize and build roads, buildings, and other infrastructure in the decades ahead. 

To pursue a low carbon growth path, the industry needs to adopt the most efficient technologies including waste-heat recovery (WHR). Waste-heat recovery involves capturing the excess heat of an industrial process and using it to generate electric power. The technology can be used in a number of heavy industries, including steel and chemicals, but has not been applied extensively outside of China despite its potential to increase energy efficiency and mitigate climate change. 

Eco Homes That Cut Costs, Save Energy

A four-storey home in Delhi or elsewhere can run on minimum thermal power from the grid if the new guidelines for energy efficient homes issued by the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) are implemented. The voluntary guidelines for the residential sector in hot and humid areas recommends 15 energy efficient features for homes including installation of solar rooftop panels and solar water heaters that can substantially reduce energy requirement annually. 

Implementing some of the measures like proper ventilation, use of light colour on walls and proper wall-to-window ratio would result in substantial savings on power consumption. About 20% of the cooling energy can be saved if internal and external walls have light colours and windows have extended overhangs. 

Shell Looks to Solar Power to Lift Oil Output

In an unusual alliance of old and new energies, Royal Dutch Shell, the European oil group, and a sovereign wealth fund from Oman are leading an investment of $53m into a small solar power company that uses its renewable energy to increase crude oil production.

Glasspoint, a California company, uses rows of curved mirrors in greenhouses to turn water into steam, which is then injected into oilfields to heat heavy crude so it will flow out more easily. The company and its backers say the technology has great potential in oil-producing areas, especially in the Middle East. Even resource-rich countries such as Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are being forced to develop more challenging heavy oilfields, and also have many competing demands for the gas that is burnt to make steam.