tagged w/ Green Initiative
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Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through pipes at the Andasol 1 power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?
The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.
Part of a so-called parabolic trough solar-thermal power plant, the salts will soon help the facility light up the night—literally. Because most salts only melt at high temperatures (table salt, for example, melts at around 1472 degrees Fahrenheit, or 800 degrees Celsius) and do not turn to vapor until they get considerably hotter—they can be used to store a lot of the sun's energy as heat. Simply use the sunlight to heat up the salts and put those molten salts in proximity to water via a heat exchanger. Hot steam can then be made to turn turbines without losing too much of the original absorbed solar energy.
The salts—a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate, otherwise used as fertilizers—allow enough of the sun's heat to be stored that the power plant can pump out electricity for nearly eight hours after the sun starts to set. "It's enough for 7.5 hours to produce energy with full capacity of 50 megawatts," says Sven Moormann, a spokesman for Solar Millennium, AG, the German solar company that developed the Andasol plant. "The hours of production are nearly double [those of a solar-thermal] power plant without storage and we have the possibility to plan our electricity production."Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through... more
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The great global cola war has spilled into a new theater of operations: the environment.
Hardly a week passes without the two soft-drink behemoths, the Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo, announcing new environmental initiatives. Both have launched ambitious water-conservation and recycling drives, and the two are now working feverishly to improve their energy efficiency.
Most of what they do saves them money and bolsters their bottom lines. But a recent barrage of press releases from both touting small-scale efforts in single bottling plants and massive global initiatives suggests Coke and Pepsi are engaged in combat over which will wear the "greenest beverage company" crown.
In the latest round, Coke is working with a New York company to encourage the glitterati at Fashion Week, which is ongoing, to recycle cans and bottles. Each day, Boro Recycling will empty recycling bins bearing Coke's "Give It Back" logo that are scattered throughout Bryant Park.
Meanwhile, PepsiCo says it is also making strides in expanding recycling. At least 10 percent of the plastic that goes into the average bottle of Pepsi is recycled material, and the company says it is trying to boost that percentage, aware that a greater reliance on recycled material will likely save the company money in the long term.
"If it didn't help the bottom line, it would be hard to justify -- especially in this economic environment," said David DeCecco at PepsiCo. "It is our belief that the sustainability efforts that save money are the ones that are going to last."The great global cola war has spilled into a new theater of operations: the... more
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Marks and Spencer is to introduce a 5p charge for plastic grocery bags in England, the company announced Nov 6th 2007.Marks and Spencer is to introduce a 5p charge for plastic grocery bags in England, the... more
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Another green initiative by FirstRide, FRMAG represents a new interactive publishing space for the next generation of readers, publishers and advertisers A publishing space without paper.
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Another green initiative by FirstRide,... more
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