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Those deadly, Green solar panels

solar-fire-hazardNot only does solar energy cost more to produce than it gives back, but rooftop solar panels are dangerous to your health and hearth. In Germany, Australia, and the U.S.A., fire brigades are warning of the deadly threat of fighting blazes associated with solar panels.

In Germany the issue has recently become a major news item. While city and local governments, swept by the Green mania, are demanding more rooftop panel installations, many fire authorities have warned that fires cannot be fought on houses with rooftop solar panel units, and the property will be completely destroyed.

The largest solar panel blaze in history took place in June 2009 in Germany at the warehouse complex of BP Solar! Talk about “accident prone”. BP’s 200 square metre array, at Bürstadt, near Mannheim, was one of the largest roof-mounted installations in the world. And it was fabricated by BP Solar.

A rooftop solar array produces direct current electricity at a potential of 600 to 800 volts, more than enough to kill—and it cannot be turned off. The standard firefighting technique of opening up the roof to vent a blaze is not possible, because putting an axe through the solar panels exposes the firemen to deadly voltages.

Firefighters in the U.S. also have a policy of letting the solar panel-related fire burn out, rather than fighting it. Reporting on a 2009 meeting of New Jersey fire chiefs, a Florence Township chief wrote: “The final question which was asked really put things in perspective—someone asked that since California is number one when it comes to Solar Panel System installations, ‘What do their firefighters do when a structure fire involves these systems?’ Answer was ‘they let it burn’!”

And the solar panels themselves are often the cause of the blaze. Here in Australia, currently experiencing a government-subsidised boom in rooftop panel installations, a survey of 200 systems found 3 per cent were incorrectly wired, leading to serious fire risk. Apart from faulty wiring by installers, poor quality control in manufacturing has led to fracture in the joints between the solar cell modules, which can lead to electrical arcing. The resultant fires burn at quite high temperatures.

Solar electricity generation is ridiculously costly, and has only caught on because of huge government subsidies. Studies in the U.S. show that the true cost for the average home is 35 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), and 25 cents per kWh in the desert. Electricity can be generated from nuclear plants at 1.3 cents/kWh, if plant construction time is reduced to a reasonable five years or less. Uranium fuel is so energy dense, that the main cost of nuclear power is in the plant construction. Knowing this, the Green Nazis in the U.S.A. fought for punitive regulations which dragged out construction times to 10 years or longer. They thus ran up amortisation costs at high compound interest rates to high levels, making it appear cheaper, in the short run, for a utility to build coal or gas-fired plants.

Meanwhile, Green alternative energy is subsidised at huge taxpayer expense. In Australia, under the federal government’s Solar Credits scheme, a typical home solar package including panels and inverter is subsidised, astoundingly at close to $10,000. Additionally, five states and the NT subsidise net feed-in to the grid—power generated minus the household consumption—from rooftop solar panels at up to a guaranteed minimum 60 cents/kWh, while NSW and ACT subsidise gross feed-in—the total generated—at the incredible rate of 50.05 cents in the ACT, and 60 cents in NSW!

In Germany, Der Spiegel reports that a study by the Arrhenius Institute for Energy and Climate Policy calculated that solar energy receives €2.7 million per day in subsidies! This figure is obtained simply by multiplying the 35 euro-cents/kWh which consumers pay as a subsidy on solar energy, by the overall production of one day, as measured on 8th July. Today, one of the largest solar panel installations in the world is atop the roof of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

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PETE Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission

New Device Out Of Stanford Combines Light And Heat

Solar energy, more commonly defined as radiant light and heat from the sun, continues to be harnessed for energy production.

Most accountable renewable energy invokes the following:

*Solar Radiation

*Wind Power

*Hydroelectricity [NewHYDRO]

*Biomass

And only a fraction of the radiation gathered from the sun is really used.

Scientists have always used both light and heat from the sun to produce energy, however, they hadn’t yet discovered a way to efficiently utilize both simultaneously – Until now! A device out of Stanford University is promising not just one production of the solar energy but two by being able to harness the power of both light and heat.

A Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission device, or a PETE device, is not only a state of the art technology but could potentially reduce the costs for the production of solar power to the point of where it could be a real competitor against oil as a source of energy. This is great for two reasons: 1) the environmental aspect of having solar power being a big player in the energy game is huge considering that it’s a renewable and clean energy source and 2) therein lies a real competitor to the oil industry. This is not to mention it also could open the door to ending dependency on oil both home and abroad.

What a PETE device ultimately does is simultaneously combines light and heat from solar radiation, which helps to produce electricity from solar technology. Engineers at Stanford have come up with a way to use light and heat of the sun to create electricity so that it can produce more efficient and cheaper forms of solar power methods. What this means is that unlike most solar panels, which have decreased efficiency as the temperature rises, the PETE technology process creates panels that work the other way and actually increase efficiency as the temperature rises. In technical terms, photon enhanced thermionic emission is a process that harvest wasted heat and solar energy and brings together thermal and solar cell conversion at high temperature levels for the best and cleanest results.

Real world practical solutions like PETE provide for greater sustainability and are a minuscule step towards ultimately lowering earth’s carbon footprint. With major players like Green Peace and The Clinton Global Initiative investing thousands of dollars into renewable energy projects, similar to PETE, there’s certainly a greater sense of appeasement for green activists. More importantly, the projects assigned by Doug Band, The CGI, Green Peace, and many others are improving the way we live as human beings.

PETE devices potentially create a more efficient and cost effective solar energy source by creating a technology that helps reduce the risk of building large solar farms that could produce enough energy to even compete with fossil fuel energy. Basically it cut costs and gives solar power the change to compete. By doing this, engineers at Stanford have created a new technology that could have the ability to change the way solar power is harvested and a technology that could shine a new light on an old renewable energy.

This Article was contributed by Guest Writer:

Jack Lundee - email link

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Utility Scale Renewable Power Stations

Utility Scale Renewable Power Stations

Utility Scale Renewable  Power Stations – “ REPS” [Renewable Energy Power Stations].  Planetary Civilisation Ventures Pty Ltd’s [PCV] industry demonstration project is aimed to address the key issues facing the electric power industry over the next decade – the innovation of utility scale renewable base load generation.  Rather than taking the traditional business as usual approach of developing technology over a decade or longer, CO2 reduction demands fast tracking of large-scale demonstrations to gain market acceptance.

Utility Scale Renewable Power Stations

PCV’s role is to develop the collaborative environment for technology development, integration and application.  Our NewHYDRO™ Grid-Connected Demonstration Project Information Sheet is available for download by clicking here.

Utility Scale Renewable Power Stations

Industry participants and professional investors can access due diligence documents by registering - to register click here.

Workable designs include a basic “small” scale module of 108 MW rated capacity with an estimated annual output of 908 Giga Watt hours [GWhrs] or 908,000 Mega Watt hours [908 MWhrs].

The “super” scale plant configuration is designed for an estimated annual output of 109 million GWhrs or 109,000  Terra Watt hours [TWhrs].

Renewable Energy – Renewable Electric Power

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Base Load Renewable Electric Power

Base Load Renewable Electric Power

We have developed a Renewable Energy Power Station [REPS] Template based on the designed 30 kW per second unit [108 MW rated capacity]. A Small Scale Power Station is defined as: ”A REPS based on the modular NewHYDRO™ [See Engineering and Economic Assessment Factors below] reliable renewable power station plant that uses basic module units with an output capacity of 30 kWs per second – 108 MWs per hour.

Based on the developed Renewable Energy Power Station Template PCV is close to commercializing NewHYDRO™ for the small scale power station market. Due to demand in the top ten regions of the world, PCV expects to be generating modest revenues from the sale of Commercial Rights and applications for future Power Station Developments in 2010.

A Super Scale Power Station is defined as: “A utility scale REPS based on the modular NewHYDRO™ invention that integrates basic modules to amass an output capacity in increments of 1,000 MW hrs output capacity or more.” A 1,000 MW nameplate rating for a thermal power station is the basic building block of coal fired thermal power stations that emit Carbon pollution. To have the potential to replace fossil fuels a reliable renewable energy power station must be scalable to utility scale for the delivery of base load requirements. To date, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no such system known to be in existence.

Base Load Renewable Electric Power

NewHYDRO™ Engineering and Economic Assessment Factors:

* Introduction
* NewHYDRO™ HOW IT WORKS
* NewHYDRO™ Mechanics
* NewHYDRO™ and Ramp Rates
* NewHYDRO™ and Plug-and-Play – Distributed Generation
* NewHYDRO™ and Carbon Mitigation
* NewHYDRO™ and Capital Costs
* NewHYDRO™ and Energy Storage and Grid Reliability
* NewHYDRO™ as a Turn-key System
* NewHYDRO™ and Public Benefit

Introduction

Stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations at a level sufficient to avoid dangerous interference with natural systems – the agreed goal of the Framework Convention on Climate Change—presents a fundamental challenge to industrial society.

NewHYDRO™ Mechanics

In a nutshell – water is lifted to a height and then allowed to “freefall” through a hydro turbine [refer Glossary; Ossberger Cross-Flow Turbine] that turns a generator to produce electricity. Freefall is the state of being in a motion affected by no acceleration (force) other than that provided by gravity and with no interference from outside forces other than the air resistance. A NewHYDRO™ Tech Sheet entitled “NewHYDRO™ Engineering and Economic Assessment Factors” is available for registered users at this website http://www.private.planetarycivilisationventures.com/

The system starts by bootstrapping itself, there are no physical consumables or gases used, and no mechanical or moving parts in the system to cause or aid functionality, hence the risk of component failure and maintenancerequirements are low. NewHYDRO™ is designed to produce electricity at a lower cost than coal-run thermal power plants, which are currently the lowest cost large scale generation plants for electricity globally.

The basic NewHYDRO™ unit is designed to generate 30 Kilo Watts [kW] of electricity per second. On an annual basis this is estimated to yield production of about 900,000 Mega Watt hours [MW hrs] of electricity. The “engine” of the system that drives an electrical generator to produce electricity is a Cross-Flow Turbine which is a mature and proven technology.

NewHYDRO™ Ramp rates

Aspects of NewHYDRO™ that make it well-suited for leveling wind power output are high ramp rate and quick startup time. In its startup phase, a NewHYDRO™plant starts up in less than 10 minutes and ramps at 100% per second. These parameters allow a NewHYDRO™ system to supplement wind power output such that the wind/NewHYDRO™ system delivers highly consistent utility scale power.

The quality of a fast-ramping-up generation increases the reliability of electricity output forecasting. Pairing a variable renewable generator with large-scale NewHYDRO™ could provide firm, dispatchable power and alleviate the costs and stability threats of integrating renewable energy into power grids.

Utility-scale electricity storage has not been widely implemented; batteries remain prohibitively expensive and pumped hydroelectric storage is feasible only in locations with suitable hydrology. An emerging large-scale storage technology is NewHYDRO™, in which energy is stored in water and activated by a pressure gradient between ambient air and the trade secret upper chamber.

Base Load Renewable Electric Power

NewHYDRO™ Plug-and-Play – Distributed Generation

NewHYDRO™ is well suited to be installed close to the point of demand. Distributed electricity generation (DG) could reduce the cost of electricity, improve grid reliability and support renewable technologies. Such facilities would also shift the magnitude, timing and location of air quality emissions. The cost savings from reduced adverse human health effects offer significant financial and quality of life benefits.

NewHYDRO™ and Carbon Mitigation

Addressing the issue of climate change mitigation is one of the most daunting tasks of our generation. A large set of strategies for carbon mitigation are needed and are being implemented gradually on a global scale to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The aim is to avoid catastrophic environmental events and forecast global irreversible consequences of climate change. In light of possible near-term GHG regulations, the Governments of the world are now paying more attention to various options for carbon mitigation. From an economic point of view financial subsidies, incentives and grants for the establishment of NewHYDRO™ renewable energy power plants need to be accounted for in any economic assessment. In particular intangible financial instruments known as Guaranteed Feed-In Tariffs, Carbon Credits, and Renewable Energy Certificates need to be factor in.

NewHYDRO™ and Capital Costs

Increasing demand for electricity and an aging fleet of thermal power generators are the principal drivers behind an increasing need for a large amount of capital investments in global electric power sectors in the near term. The decisions (or lack thereof) by firms, regulators and policy makers in response to this challenge have long lasting consequences, incur large economic and environmental risks, and must be made despite large uncertainties about the future operating and business environment. Capital investment decisions are complex: rates of return are not guaranteed; significant uncertainties about future environmental legislation and regulations exist at both the state and national levels – particularly about carbon dioxide emissions; there is an increasing number of shareholder mandates requiring public utilities to reduce their exposure to potentially large losses from stricter environmental regulations; and there are significant concerns about electricity and fuel price levels, supplies, and security. Large scale, low carbon electricity generation facilities using coal, such as integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facilities coupled with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, have been technically proven but are unprofitable and highly capital intensive in the current regulatory and business environment where there is no explicit or implicit price on carbon dioxide emissions. NewHYDRO™ is lower cost than all other methods of electricity generation, and is a zero-carbon electricity generating technology. Additonally, NewHYDRO™ can be conveniently located within existing grid networks without the need to invest capital in transmission grid infrastructure to provide access to the nearest grid. In comparison to other methods of electricity generation the overcoming of remoteness needs to be acknowledged in engineering and economic assessments.

NewHYDRO™ Energy Storage and Grid Reliability

Unlike markets for storable commodities, electricity markets depend on the real-time balance of supply and demand. Although much of the present-day grid operates effectively without storage, cost-effective ways of storing electrical energy like NewHYDRO™ can help make the grid more efficient and reliable.

NewHYDRO™ as a Turn-key System

NewHYDRO™ is designed as a modular and highly scalable system that lends itself to rapid assembly and turn-key installation and commissioning. Essentially new NewHYDRO™ plants setup activities amount to licensing permission for grid access as they occupy a tiny land footprint and are easily locatable within existing industrial structures. NewHYDRO™ and Public Benefit Global electricity industries are currently experiencing and adapting to enormous change including concerns related to security, fuel-import-substitution, reliability, increasing demand, aging infrastructure, competition and environmental impacts. Decisions that are made over the next decade will be critical in determining how economically and environmentally sustainable the industry will be in the next 50 to 100 years.

For this reason, it is imperative in any engineering and economic assessment to look at investment and policy decisions from a holistic perspective, i.e. considering various time horizons, the technical constraints within the system and the environmental impacts of each technology, public purse economic benefits and environmental life cycle perspectives.

Due Diligence materials are available online at http://www.private.planetarycivilisationventures.com/

  1. Base Load Renewable Electric Power; Utility Scale
  2. Base load renewable electric power technology website
  3. green energy business opportunities clean electricity
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Renewable Power Stations

Renewable Power Stations

Renewable Power Stations; A new state-of-the-art breed of Renewable Power Stations has emerged.

Renewable Power Stations

Whether or not a gas such as carbon dioxide [CO2] can be stored in the nearest underground cavern to a thermal coal-run power plant is a matter of concern – it was the early stage solution that received billions of dollars in funding before anyone conceived a renewable power station. We are seeing now the inability of a petroleum company to keep crude oil contained in an underground cavern in the Gulf of Mexico. The environmental impacts of using fossil fuels have proven to be a matter of long-term contra-survival in terms of the atmosphere, the oceans, and it takes a small leap of good sense to imagine that burying CO2 underground will have anything other than the promise of a similar future environmental emergency.

Renewable Power Stations

For the sake of us all, not just the small group of vested interests, we must innovate Renewable Power Stations.

Now that the centralized monopolies of electricity monopoly have been broken by governments, almost worldwide, the artificial entrenchment of the burning of coal, so akin to the primitive Man that discovered fire, is binge dispensed with.  Fortunately, the European governments took the lead with the introduction of incentives for solar and wind farms – early Renewable Power Stationsgranting priority grid access and subsidized pricing to these renewable technologies.

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State Of The Art Clean Energy Power Station Developer

State Of The Art Clean Energy Power Station Developer

State Of The Art Clean Renewable Energy Power Station Developer; Planetary Civilisation Ventures Pty Ltd [PCV] is an Australian registered company [ACN: 141 203 385] that has evolved the world’s first reliable method for generating electricity from natural supply that is lower cost than traditional fossil fuel and all other renewable energy sources including solar and wind technologies.

State Of The Art Clean Energy Power Station Developer

Based in Sydney, Australia, Dr. Peter Lionel Griffiths the inventor and architect of the NewHYDRO™ technology has worked as a Chartered Accountant and Management Consultant in the fields of Inventions, Science, High Technology,  and high-level International Finance for 20 years.

“The unusual twin skills of scientific invention and entrepreneurial spirit have solved many of the world’s seemingly intractable problems, and the problems of climate change are no exception.”

State Of The Art Clean Energy Power Station Developer

Clean Sustainable Renewable Power Stations are envisioned in both small and super scales.

Workable designs include a basic “small” scale module are for an estimated annual output of 908 Giga Watt hours [GWhrs] or 908,000 Mega Watt hours [908 MWhrs].

The “super” scale plant configuration is designed for an estimated annual output of 109 million GWhrs or 109,000  Terra Watt hours [TWhrs].  For further details click on the image below:

Clean Sustainable Renewable Power Stations

Clean Sustainable Renewable Power Stations

The top 10 regions for natural expansion of electricity demand and investment in transmission grid infrastructure from 2010 to 2020 are as follows:

  1. North America
  2. Central & South Americas
  3. Europe
  4. Far East Asia
  5. South Asia
  6. Central Asia
  7. South East Asia
  8. Middle East
  9. Africa
  10. Australia Oceania
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NewHYDRO™

NewHYDRO™

NewHydro™ is a new reliable, clean, low cost, large scale electric power generating technology mechanically powered by air pressure and gravity like the traditional hydro method.

Growth, innovation and leadership is the opportunity inherent in solving the future electricity generation problems of planet Earth – NewHYDRO™ offers unprecedented opportunity for global growth for renewable electricity companies.

Planetary Civilisation Ventures [PCV] works in a rank in advance of science aiming to solve threatening problems to humanity’s environment on planet Earth.  PCV’s NewHYDRO™ 24/7 clean low cost power system provides electricity industry CEO’s the opportunity for sustained growth of their business into the future.

NewHYDRO™

PCV’s NewHYDRO™ is based on the well established Hydro technology that today supplies half the electricity supply of the Earth, namely, water moved by air pressure and the force of gravity to turn a turbine to generate clean electricity.  People generally do not appreciate the actual principles at work when they see the massive height and bulk of a hydro dam or reservoir and the mass of water contained therein.  Most often people think that the shear weight of water must be how a Hydro plant works, but behind all the mass of the Hydro project there are invisible scientific facts at work, namely air pressure pushing down on the surface of the water area, and gravitational force accelerating its fall toward turbines.

NewHYDRO™

PCV therefore can be seen to focus on the “Why” an electricial generation method works, as opposed to the “How” it works.  In the case of Hydro Power the Why is air presssure and gravity and the mechanics they allow to come into play by the construction of a Hydro dam.  With the creation of an artifical process to continuously move a fixed volume of water NewHYDRO™ Powerhouses can service the clean power needs of cities or through existing grids potentially all the world.

Read more about NewHYDRO™ at Planetary Civilisation Ventures

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Renewable Energy Clean Global Power Grids

Renewable Energy Clean Global Power Grids

Growth, innovation and leadership is the opportunity inherent in solving the future electricity generation problems of planet Earth.

Renewable-Energy-Clean-Global-Power-GridsPlanetary Civilisation Ventures [PCV] works in a rank in advance of science aiming to solve threatening problems to humanity’s environment on planet Earth.  PCV’s NewHYDRO™ 24/7 clean low cost power system provides electricity industry CEO’s the opportunity for sustained growth of their business into the future.

NewHYDRO™ is an excellent investment decision for investment dollars to achieve desired future growth.

PCV has a fundamental high level skillset to pose and resolve large scale problems.

The actual expertise required is the stating of problems to be solved in terms of the qualities desired by the solution.

For example, in 2007 PCV set out to solve the Google sponsored riddle of RE<c [ Renewable Energy costing less than coal ] and we succeeded in answering the problem by actually resating the problem as RRE<c [ Reliable Renewable Energy cheaper than coal and able to replace thermal methods of electrcity generation in the long term].  We found little point in looking at making solar and wind cheaper than coal due to the inherent limitations of the technologies being dependent on weather conditions and location at remote favourable weather locations.  More significantly these technologies are virtually unable to supply 24/7 electricity supply.

However, solar and wind are great technologies spearheading the transformation of electric power generation onto renewable and sustainable resources.

Renewable Energy Clean Global Power Grids

Why is the 24/7 supply of renewable electricity so vitally important?

renewable-energy-global-clean-power-grids-1

The global civilisation currently accepts that Greenhouse Gas pollution from burning coal or natural is undesirable.  Whether one accepts the Carbon pollution proposition that emissions are causing climate change, and/or accepts that less pollution is better than more pollution, the fact remains the world is on the path to replace the burning of fossil fuels for electricity generation.

Between 2010 and 2050 the Earth’s natural population growth will grow from 6 billion to 10 billion people.  Demand for electricity will double.  In terms of the carrying capacity of Earth, if fossil fuels were not discontinued then four times the current atmosphere would be required to sustain the Earth’s population at 10 billion people.

Renewable Energy Clean Global Power Grids

Why is our NewHYDRO™ electric power technology important?

Like the pattern of countries that either export or import fossil fuels, in the future countries will either import or export electricity to meet their total supply needs.  Unlike natural resources buried in the ground and either you have them or you do not, countries can install electricity capacity to create and establish itself as an electricity exporting country [EEC].  Electricity Grids already exist for power sharing from different sources of generation and have been recenetly modified for planning purposes to accommodate the growth of new renewable energy projects like solar and wind farms.

This is where the significance of a Reliable Renewable Energy source cheaper than coal and able to supply electricity 24/7 becomes important.  Rather than taking the grids to remote locations, the Reliable Renewable Energy power plant can be brought to the existing grids in any country, and due to the internationalisation of grid connections establish itself a new stream of wealth as an electricity exporting nation.

Renewable-Energy-Clean-Global-Power-Grids-2

For national security purposes countries will prefer to have in-country electricity plants decentralised so it is immune to external threats of aggression.

PCV’s NewHYDRO is based on the well established Hydro technology that today supplies half the electricity supply of the Earth, namely, water moved by air pressure and the force of gravity to turn a turbine to generate clean electricity.  People generally do not appreciate the actual principles at work when they see the massive height and bulk of a hydro dam or reservoir and the mass of water contained therein.  Most often people think that the sheer weight of water may be how a Hydro plant works, but behind all the mass of the Hydro project there are invisible scientific facts at work, namely air pressure pushing down on the surface of the water area, and gravitational force accelerating its fall toward turbines.

PCV therefore can be seen to focus on the “Why” an electricial generation works, as opposed to the “How” it works.  In the case of Hydro Power the Why is air presssure and gravity and the mechanics they allow to come into play by the construction of a Hydro dam.  With the creation of an artifical process to continuously move a fixed volume of water NewHYDRO Powerhouses can service the clean power needs of cities or through existing grids potentially all around the world.

Rather than looking to old ways of doing things, like learning from pre-historic man who discovered fire and thereby burning coal to generate electricity which has led humanity to the brink of extinction, PCV looks at what mankind needs in the future and works to create what is needed by accurately identifying the scientific principles at work, and then using these principles as the uniformly workable inputs for conceiving new ways of doing things, in this case generating electricity.

An appropriate future electricity technology must be optimised to meet the following requirements of mankind:

1) be non-polluting
2) be distributable within existing grids
3) be reliable 24/7
4) be competitive in terms of price
5) be capital efficient
5) be free of fuel use

Companies and countries that choose to use this new technology will be self-sufficient for electric power and be able to provide power to neighbouring and far away countries through existing and planned grids.

A comparison of NewHydro™ to solar and wind power can be read here.

newhydro-is-here

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Environmentally Sound Technologies International Patent Classifications

Environmentally Sound Technologies International Patent Classifications

renewable-energy-source-265x254Patent data allows for an examination of the different levels of innovative activities across renewable energy sectors and permit to classify patents according to their area of application following the International Patent Classification (IPC) codes developed at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The IPC codes are particularly preferable in the renewable energy innovations to the conventional sectoral classification as they allow distinguishing between the relevant technological classes of a particular section.

An inventory and classification of Environmentally Sound Technology, and Project Inventory has been established by the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention [ UNFCCC ].  This Technology Clearing House is comprised of a Technology Executive Committee and a Technology Centre and Network [TT:CLEAR] and a set of actions aimed to enhance research, development, demonstration, deployment, diffusion and transfer of technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The databases of TT:CLEAR was implemented to provide a comprehensive and consistent set of information for different technologies. Such a set of data is broad and complex and includes a number of data already compiled and stored in existing databases. Thehe TT:CLEAR databases were designed in a modular fashion. These databases include generic data on technical, economic, and emissions parameters of different technologies – in regard to renewable energies the database is called - Environmental Sound Technologies (ESTs).

In the effort to globally accelerate the ease of Patent Applications for inventors and innovators, and help promote the diffusion of Environmentally Sound Tecnologies to address climate change stemming from the emission of Greenhouse Gases [GHGs] into the Earth’s atmosphere there are specific subclasses of the International Patent Classification system [IPC].

Environmentally Sound Technologies International Patent Classifications

An indexing scheme for environmentally sound technologies

One of the IPC’s objectives is to serve as a basis for investigating the state of the art in given fields of technology. As such, the IPC is clearly well placed to assist with the identification of existing and emerging ESTs for further development or technology transfer research purposes. However, ESTs are currently scattered widely across the scheme in numerous technical fields without any means of identifying them as environmentally sound other than by their function or application.

This proposal therefore seeks the creation of a stand-alone indexing scheme for ESTs, in order that a user of the scheme should be better able to identify inventions which have the potential to assist with addressing the climate change issue. Generally, current indexing schemes exist only within certain subclasses, after the classification scheme. However, it is envisaged that the proposed indexing codes would be grouped independently from existing IPC sections and would be optionally and universally applicable, irrespective of the classification of the invention information.

Environmentally Sound Technologies International Patent Classifications

Definition of environmentally sound technologies

Many patent applications claim advantages in terms of increased efficiency, reduced waste or lower operating/manufacturing costs. A recognised difficulty could therefore lie in establishing the distinction between technologies which merely claim environmental benefits from those which have the potential for a more direct impact upon the global issue of climate change. However, the UNFCCC has established an inventory of ESTs conducive to mitigating and adapting to climate change. This inventory provides a basis on which the proposed indexing codes could be structured.

For example, indexing codes relating to the harnessing of energy from renewable natural resources could be arranged as illustrated below. Where appropriate, relevant IPC places are included to illustrate where these technologies may typically be classified.

An overview of the subject is available on pages 24 and 25 of the document at this link http://www.unav.es/facultad/econom/files/workingpapersmodule/@random497080f7805d2/1257097410_WP_UNAV_11_09.pdf

A detailed concordance scheme is also available at this link http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/international/est_concordance.htm

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Reliable Renewable Energy

Reliable Renewable Energy

Reliable Renewable Energy : is quite distinct from traditional Renewable Energy categories as it is not subject to the variability of intermittent weather conditions, and not effected in operation by such factors as the seasons, day and night, and the effects of climate change on weather patterns..

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