Pulau Semakau
About 5 miles off the coast of mainland Singapore, adjacent to two mangrove habitats, a small island is being created out of the country's waste, section by section, at a rate of just under 2000 tons per day.
Semakau Landfill, the world’s first offshore landfill and Singapore’s only waste destination, has been described by Singapore’s government as “Scenic Waste Disposal.” The site has been open to the public for recreational activities since 2005 and has been envisioned as an eco-park featuring renewable energy generation and educational facilities. Commissioned in 1999, the landfill was designed to work in harmony with the bio-diverse surrounding areas; it physically connects the islands of Pulau Sakeng and Pulau Semakau. A perimeter bund includes an impermeable membrane, marine clay and rock layers, which prevent waste and its byproducts from leaching into the surrounding water.
Initially expected to reach full capacity in 2040, the landfill’s lifespan has been extended due to the country’s efforts at waste reduction. Singapore now has a goal of recycling 60% of its waste by 2012.
World’s first osmotic power plant
Norway-based company Statkraft has just opened the world’s first osmotic power plant, tapping into the emissions-free energy produced when fresh water and salt water mix. Osmotic power harnesses osmosis, the natural process by which a solute in solution travels from an area of lower to higher concentration across a semi-permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent but not the solute). In the case of osmotic power, the combination of salt water and fresh water produces movement from areas of lower to higher salinity. Osmotic pressure created during this process is the potential force that can be used to power energy generation turbines in an osmotic power plant.
The Statkraft plant is being opened as a testing site for the technology, but it has the potential to output up to 1,600-1,700 terawatt-hours per year, or approximately 50% of the European Union’s total power production.
(via CleanTechnica)
Trash begets fuel on a large scale
Partners Waste Management and Linde Group have begun processing fuel at the world’s largest Landfill Gas (LFG) to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, located at Altamont Landfill near Livermore, CA. Waste Management–the leading US waste services company and largest national operator of refuse and recycling trucks–collects the garbage, and Linde, an engineering company, purifies and liquifies the LFG produced by the waste. LFG goes through a purification process and is then fed into a natural gas liquifier, where it is cooled below the natural gas boiling point of -260 degrees Fahrenheit, yielding LNG. Unlike the energy harvested from LFG at the Freshkills Park site, which is used for residential energy needs, the Altamont facility’s Liquified Natural Gas can be used as a gasoline or diesel fuel substitute in heavy duty vehicles.
(via Treehugger)
Open source live solar mapping
The Open Source Live Solar Mapping Project, recently released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, tracks private installations of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels by location in the US and maps them in time. The map-video, spanning from 1998 to the present day, highlights the spatial concentration of solar energy harvest with changing colors that indicate the number of PV installations in each state. Solar energy has been identified as the world’s fastest-growing energy technology, with the number of photovoltaic installations doubling every 2 years since 2002. The Solar Mapping Project is community-driven, relying on information submitted by individuals, industry professionals and government officials.
(via Clean Technica)
Green infrastructure: pavement
As part of its Green Infrastructure Research Program, The EPA has announced that it will begin long-term testing of porous paving materials, in an effort to combat storm water runoff from streets and parking lots. Storm water from parking lots often contains grease, antifreeze, oil and other toxins that can contaminate nearby soils and bodies of water. This is particularly important in places (like New York City) that have combined sewers–where storm water mixes with untreated human and industrial waste–which tend to overflow into local harbors during heavy rains.
At its site in New Jersey, the EPA is testing three kinds of material: interlocking concrete pavers, porous concrete, and porous asphalt, as well as multiple rain gardens that naturally filter rain water. Companies at work developing types of permeable pavement include Xeripave and Vastpavers; other alternative pavement under development includes Pavegen Systems’ Energy Generating pavement, which redirects kinetic energy created by footsteps either to power nearby lights and displays or to be stored in lithium polymer batteries.
(via Scientific American and Inhabitat)
Harvesting methane–and money–from sewage
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has identified Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant as a prime site for methane gas harvesting, a process which has been bringing in approximately $11 million annually from the Freshkills Park site. While the decision has not yet been made to implement the plan, collection is proposed to begin in 2011 and would convert methane–a byproduct of anaerobic organic decomposition released during raw sewage processing at the plant–into energy for use in about 2,750 Greenpoint homes. Officials have chosen the Greenpoint facility because of its proximity to a National Grid gas line.
(via The New York Daily News)
Ward’s Island renewable energy park
The City of New York recently signed an agreement with Natural Currents Energy Group that will put a renewable energy generation park on the southern tip of Ward’s Island, near the Triborough (RFK) Bridge. The park will include four 100 kilowatt tidal turbines, a 140 foot wind turbine and 800 square feet of solar panels, generating, in total, enough energy to power 100 homes. The energy will be used to offset the costs of lighting the park and at Icahn stadium on adjacent Randall’s Island. The green “power park” is intended as a demonstration of the cost-effectiveness and suitability of alternative energy and will produce only a fraction of the energy that could potentially be generated on the island. The park will also feature a community center where the public can learn about renewable energy and its potential within the City.
It’s estimated that tidal power generation in the East River alone could generate 3 to 5% of the city’s energy needs. Ward’s Island was identified as a location for implementing tidal turbines due to its location along the Hell Gate, where currents are particularly strong.
(via New York Post)
Estuary power
A rendering of two stacked electrodes in salt water, drawing positive and negative ions apart and creating a field of intense electric charge.
Researchers at the University of Milan Bicocca in Monza, Italy are working to harvest energy offset by the mixture of fresh and salt water. The process uses electrodes to draw apart positively charged sodium ions and negatively charged chlorine ions in salt water, then forces those ions away from the electrodes by flooding them with fresh water. The forced diffusion of ions away from the electrodes to which they’re attracted creates electrostatic energy, which can be extracted as useable power. The methodology is still under development, but it could potentially be used for the continuous harvest of energy from the junctions of fresh water estuaries with salt water bodies, as happens throughout the creeks that flow through the Freshkills Park site.
(via TreeHugger)
Renewable potential of old industrial sites
The Renewable Energy Interactive Mapping Tool on Google Earth allows users to pinpoint EPA renewable energy siting locations and to search for detailed site information via contaminated land type or renewable energy type.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified nearly 4,100 contaminated sites nationally, including abandoned mines, disused factories and some landfills, that could be suitable for renewable energy projects–primarily solar and wind power, and some biomass harvesting. Contaminated sites are considered particularly appealing for renewable energy projects because they are less likely than other sites to be prized for their habitat value.
The EPA survey found about 5 million acres of land appropriate for solar power development and 500,000 acres for wind power (this inventory is available for perusal using the EPA’s new Renewable Energy Interactive Mapping Tool on Google Earth). The EPA estimates that if projects were fully implemented on all of these sites, a potential 950,000 megawatts could be generated, totaling more energy than was expended in the U.S. in 2007. In November, they plan to host a series of workshops to help governments and local leaders step in this direction.
(via Scientific American)
Hybrid infrastructure in new Singapore gardens
Rendering of a new botanic garden in Singapore, to feature giant, solar 'supertrees.'
A master plan by Grant Associates of the UK has been selected from an international competition for the design of Singapore’s largest garden project to date, Marina South Gardens. The architecture and landscape for the ambitious plan are inspired by orchid anatomy and include a series of micro-ecosystem conservatories to house plants from Mediterranean, temperate and tropical climates. Now the “wow, we live in the future!” part: these facilities are proposed to be powered by 50- to 150-foot tall ’supertrees,’ vertical gardens that contain solar hot water heaters, photovoltaic collectors, rainwater harvesting systems and venting ducts. In addition to creating renewable energy, the supertrees will provide shade and evening lighting, and some will be connected to each other by aerial walkways. The first phase of construction is expected to be complete by 2011.
(Via Inhabitat)
