Pros

• VAWT construction allows for the wind turbine to draw upon lower wind speeds, enabling energy conversion in areas with less-than-desirable constant wind conditions
• Vertical axis kits are easy to purchase, ship and assemble on-site and can easily be installed even relatively close to the ground if no suitable high ground is available
• For those interested in creating their own home wind turbine from scratch many VAWT designs can be assembled easier than horizontal designs as they do not need to have a central pivot point to rotate into the wind
• Due to potentially smaller overall sizes VAWT structures can easily be installed and used in many residential areas where other forms of alternative energy generation other than strictly solar power may not be allowed.
• The vertical design and balancing of a VAWT means that noise is constantly kept at a minimum, generally between 2 to 3 decibels, making it a quiet energy conversion system that can be used year round with little disturbance.

Cons

• VAWT construction can not generate as much power in any given wind situation compared to conventional horizontal designs (typically only converting approximately 30% of the wind’s energy into usable power).
• Limitations on power production make VAWT units undesirable for many people as they cannot generally produce enough power for conventional home use unless a larger unit is used.
• Because of the additional materials needed in blade and structural support many VAWT packages offered commercially may cost the same or more than conventional horizontal packages, meaning overall consumers will be getting less for their money in terms of power conversion.
• In a commercial sense most VAWT designs offer too little benefit verses development costs, therefore even though they can operate at lower wind speeds the overall benefit gained is marginal and therefore they do not pose a viable solution to many developer needs for wind farms.
• Because of the vertical design the turbine cannot rotate out of dangerous wind conditions, meaning that should an area with a VAWT be prone to sudden wind gusts it may actually pose a safety hazard.

Overall vertical axis wind turbines are a good solution for many home owners looking at implementing some sort of alternative power generation device on their property but feel that their location is not suitable for expensive solar panels or does not have a constant enough wind speed to sustain a horizontal wind turbine design. In a commercial sense, however, other conventional designs are better suited for mass power production and will offer a better overall benefit to consumers as they will be able to convert more energy for use – particularly in offshore platforms where strong wind speeds are fairly constant year round.

While many of these concerns are quite valid, particularly when it comes to biomass derived from rain forests and other “untouched” regions there are alternatives, however, that can be found. Tree farms around the world, for instance, plant and develop crops of trees specifically used for the production of building material, paper mulch and, of course, biomass fuel. One such tree used in these farms that has become quite popular as of late is known as the Royal Empress.

The Royal Empress tree originates in China and is a highly resilient, highly adaptable hardwood tree with beautiful flowers that grows anywhere from 10 to 20 feet a year. Not only can it grow in virtually any environment from the arid lands of Arizona to the lush farm lands of the Pacific Northwest it is also naturally resistant to parasites and disease, requiring little to no maintenance as it grows. Further, it can be cut down for harvesting and re-grow out of its own stump up to 7 times in its life and can comfortably live for 70 years. As an added bonus in order to facilitate its quick growth and development it requires large quantities of CO2, making it up to 200% more efficient in carbon-dioxide filtering than most conventional trees.

Because of the hardy nature of these trees as well as their quick growth (and beauty, as they blossom with amazing flowers each Spring) the Royal Empress has become the tree of choice for tree farmers and residential home owners alike. For a tree farmer a one acre plot of land, for instance, could yield approximately 30,000 board feet of hardwood every 7 years – and at an average of $3 per board foot that means a profit of $90,000 every cycle. A 15 acre plot of land using one acre for a home, therefore, could yield approximately $180,000 off of little to no work every year if harvesting was cycled 2 acres at a time, and since the trees can grow again up to 7 times after they have been cut down that means virtually effortless money for the next 50 years of a tree farmer’s life.

On an environmental standpoint for those concerned about CO2 emissions the Royal Empress’ ability to absorb and convert roughly 200% more CO2 in the atmosphere than conventional trees also helps offset any loss caused by harvesting them regularly and using their wood for fuel. This in essence makes any fuel used from Royal Empress stock actually “green” rather than carbon neutral like many other biomass products are. The only downside about the tree is that it is so hardy and resilient that it could easily become an invasive species in many natural environments and push out native plants, thus potentially causing ecosystem imbalances. Thankfully to counter this most trees sold today are sterilized before being distributed in order to prevent unwanted spreading and make them save in a variety of areas.

For anyone interested in purchasing a Royal Empress you can do so comfortably online through a number of vendors as well as at many local garden stores. For less than $30 per tree (or even less than $15 a tree for large orders) this is a great, inexpensive way to make a big difference in your environment while helping to clean up the air around you. Alternatively it could also be a potentially highly lucrative business to consider entering, as a mere 7 years after starting you would be set for virtually the rest of your life – and again, all while helping the planet at the same time. In short, biomass from Royal Empress trees and others like them pay you back in more ways than one and are, overall, a strong benefit to society and the environment alike.

Both easy to develop and effective provided the right conditions the developers at Aquamarine Power, the creators of the Oyster, speculate that a mere 20 of these devices placed around a coastal area could produce enough energy to comfortably power over 9,000 homes. Assuming an average of four people living in each home that’s roughly 36,000 people with cheap, effective, clean power all from a few machines placed far off the coast where nobody need be bothered by their presence (except for perhaps some local fishermen, of course).

Currently the first Oyster was deployed off the coast of Scotland near Orkney and has been effectively producing 24-hour power since November of last year. Studies are continuing into the viability of the Oyster in other environments as well as the scalability of the device in order to allow smaller production and the ability for it to be installed in some areas with much less suitable coastal regions that Scotland may have to offer.

Albeit a small step forward the Oyster is a monument to modern development and is proof that progress is being made into further affordable renewable energy sources, particularly in areas such as hydropower outside of conventional dams. With any luck this successful endeavor will encourage additional focus upon hydroelectric energy and may help bring about further advancements away from carbon-heavy energy in the near rather than far future.

Only in recent years, however, has the process of tapping the earth’s crust for the production of electrical energy been adopted in order to provide clean, renewable power for domestic civilization. Much similar to conventional coal or fossil fuel burning power plants most modern day geothermal power facilities utilize a process of pumping steam into holes drilled into geographic “hot spots” and then forcing the produced steam out of a secondary exhaust hole and into a chamber to power a turbine. Unfortunately although this process is highly effective and can yield massive amounts of energy with little to no environmental impact it is only limited to a few select areas on the Earth where the crust is particularly thin and these are generally inherently unsafe for a number of reasons (primarily the fact that they lie along fault lines and developing volcanoes).

Modern-day trends in geothermal power have led researchers to instead of further overly-focus on conventional hot spots to instead look towards alternative methods for harvesting energy from the Earth’s crust. This has involved research into low-heat power generation facilities, a fusion of both heat and energy generation stations, the development of enhanced geothermal stations and even the utilization of abandoned and exhausted oil pumping stations in order to further try to tap into the potential opened up through previous developments.

Many buildings today are also sporting geothermal heat transfers in order to circulate air and other surface and floor heat through geo”synchs” imbedded into the earth where either water, air or antifreeze is cycled through an enclosed home’s system in order to provide low- to no-cost cooling in the summer and the opposite in the winter. In fact these heat-synch systems alone have been responsible for providing significant drops in energy consumption during winter and summer months in certain areas and are particularly popular in mountainous regions such as the northwest United States and many other rocky, mountainous regions with high volcanic activity such as Iceland.

Although research has been slow in recent years in regards to geothermal power and development due to overwhelming public interest in other alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power a number of scientists working around the world are continuing to try and adapt new technology and develop new methods for tapping the inherent power within the earth. The primary limiting factors at this point are both funding and local regional support, two items that are unfortunately hard to come by in many scientific areas – particularly for large developments such as geothermal plants that require a variety of testing over a wide area that many local governments would much rather dedicate to residential zones or other districts.

This gathering is a major event in the wind industry sector as it helps both initiate and promote a number of positive changes in the wind industry sector and is responsible for helping the development of wind power operations, both land-based and off-shore. This has become an area of focus in particular for many budding wind energy companies as the decisions whether or not to fund new and ongoing projects alike can mean the difference between sustainable wind power, particularly in the currently struggling economy where wind power developers are struggling to establish themselves in the fluctuating market for alternative energy sources.

Of particular note at this year’s meeting is the session to be held in the afternoon on the 10th when attendees will be welcomed to personally speak with Members of Congress from 1:00pm to 5:30pm. While this may not seem like a major opportunity to many outside viewers this is in fact the key opportunity many members of the wind industry need to help establish their views and, with luck, begin the process of change that could help transform the wind industry sector in the US both in the near and far future.

Other key notes from the conference include speakers from major alternative energy groups such as Denise Bode, the CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEC) as well as experienced lobbyists such as Steve Elmendorf, the President of Elmendorf Strategies, in order to assist developers in continuing their struggle for funding and support throughout the year. Although registration is currently closed for this event the results of the gathering should be made public later in the week and may help shed some light on where the wind industry sector is heading in 2010.

The speakers weigh in at 290 grams and measure 19.5cm by 11.2cm by 5cm, small enough to keep with you in a medium-sized bag but large enough to give you good sound quality no matter where you may be. Like all solar powered devices these come with a built in battery to store their charge, yet unlike most that quickly run out of juice once the sun is down the Li-Ion battery in these can keep going for up to 8 hours of continuous play once it is fully charged.

These new speakers, though by no means a major landmark in solar energy technology, show how a combination of advancements can help bring about eco-friendly design mergers in order to allow for an all-around more friendly user experience at a reduced price while helping to save the environment at the same time. For speakers in this particular line, for instance, you should be able to purchase them for around $58 once they become available later this month – a major drop in prices for comparable products even at the same time last year.

With such developments occurring regularly and new advancements being made into solar energy production the overall costs of solar-powered products and external chargers is likely to continue to drop with even more energy efficient solar converters coming out in the coming months and years. This could eventually bring around a whole new line of solar-powered products and, with any luck, potentially even eliminate entirely our need for conventional energy sources to power our portable gear.

In order to function the nanowire design utilizes a radial energy transfer concept where a p-type silicon nanowire is surrounded by n-type silicon, providing a much more energy efficient transfer over 360 degrees than the typical layered p/n-type designs where energy is gathered from the electron dispersal between the opposing poles of two layered films and energy can only be gathered effectively in one direction. This means that the nanowires have a much higher efficiency rate than other conventional methods and, because they do not require purified silicon in order to transfer energy through the separate layers, can be easily created with most silicon sources.

Another major advantage silicon nanowire cells have over other conventional solar energy cells is their production process. Being created in a lab using a chemical process rather than a machine-centered plant where expensive new machines are the only way to develop the cells the nanowire design is both scalable and able to be implemented into existing solar cell factories around the world. This means that the primary drawback from converting to a different design can be easily subverted and many companies can quickly shift over to a much more energy effective and cost saving form of solar energy production almost immediately.

Though it is true that the nanowire technique is only expected to have a 10% energy conversion efficiency, much lower than current high-efficiency solar cells, the overall reduction in costs is expected to make these forms of solar cells much more readily available to governments and companies alike looking to implement wide-scale solar energy collection developments.

The current primary concern of the EPA lies not with the source of the fuel itself but with the actual effects the fuel blends may have on car engines and what the overall environmental impact might be. While it is well known that biofuel blends generally produce significantly less carbon dioxide than conventional petroleum based fuels this does not mean that they do not produce any harmful emissions at all and, if handled improperly, could potentially do more damage to vehicles and increase their emissions over what is currently seen in the market.

Regardless, this news comes as a welcome break to the US biofuel sector after a hard time a few years ago thanks to dropping crude oil prices as well as the deepening recession in 2008. Over the past two years multiple biofuel companies have actually gone bankrupt and have been unable to keep up with the market trends, particularly when their own fuel dropped to a mere $30 a barrel.

As for the time frame of the decision Lisa Jackson, an EPA administrator, has reportedly stated that they are aiming for a decision to be made by late summer at the latest. This would be good news for the US corn sector in particular as summer is the main harvest season and ethanol’s reliance upon corn for high-yield production may well help stimulate the corn industry as well.

For Argentina, however, this target is not so unobtainable. In fact, in 2009 alone Argentina was able to produce over 1.2 million tons of biodiesel, while estimates put this year’s total in the 1.6 to 2.2 million ton range. This balance of both high demand mandated by the government as well as high production has helped spark a number of new biodiesel development initiatives domestically as well as internationally, with Argentina opening its doors more freely to foreign biomass producers such as Glencore, Louis Dreyfus and Vicentin.

Utilizing its vast amount of rich farmland, Argentina is already the number one soybean oil provider in the world and one of the world leaders in biodiesel production. This further initiative will only work to strengthen Argentina’s standings in the world market as well as provide a good market example for other countries to follow in their wake should they be successful.

The only question now remains as to whether and when many of the highly-developed industrial nations around the world will adopt a similar strategy in order to reduce their own dependence upon foreign petroleum and reduce their own carbon emissions thanks to standard diesel usage. While it’s true that a highly diesel-dependent nation such as the United States could not run entirely on biodiesel due to the overall nationwide high usage a mixture would still allow for much greater improvements over current trends. Realizing this many petroleum companies such as Pacific Pride that provide a large amount of diesel regularly have already begun mixing biodiesel into their own products, however an actual regulation mandating the usage of such mixtures is still yet to be seen.

Still, should Argentina’s development prove successful and production be stepped up accordingly it would be no surprise to see greater reliance upon biofuels and biofuel blends around the world in order to supplement regular diesel dependence.

For Biox and consumers alike this means a major step forward in creating sustainable alternative fuels, as currently Biox is one of the largest providers of biofuels within the country. In fact, according to many company statements, Biox production in its Hamilton plant alone produces a continuous 67 million liters of biodiesel each year and has been labeled “one of the largest continuous flow biodiesel plants in the world”.

Utilizing the additional funding Biox intends to develop further production facilities throughout Canada with a primary focus on Quebec. These facilities will contribute to the overall biodiesel production and, utilizing modern technology, provide a 100% vegetable oil to fuel conversion rate for all products.

While it’s true that biofuels are not as eco-friendly as many other alternative energy sources such as solar or wind power due to their higher levels of carbon emissions through the burning process they are still significantly cleaner than conventional petroleum fuels used today. In fact, it is speculated that the production facilities being developed will be able to provide for up to a 40% reduction in carbon emissions through their fuels initially alone while assisting with the recycling of waste vegetable oil and provide a more “carbon neutral” solution to local and international consumers alike while reducing the overall dependence on foreign oil – a major positive point for all consumers.