Hasta La Gadget!

Compressed air batteries have long promised truly clean energy storage, but they haven’t scaled large enough in recent years to be viable companions to renewable power sources. That changes now that SustainX has switched on the first modern air battery large enough to join an electrical grid. The company’s new ICAES (Isothermal Compressed Air Energy Storage) system in Seabrook, New Hampshire can hold 1.5 megawatts of power versus the kilowatt-level capacities of its rivals. Despite its size, ICAES is sustainable; it doesn’t require ‘dirty’ energy for either compression or releasing air to its generator, and the supply won’t degrade like that of a chemical battery. The New Hampshire system is just a demonstrator to attract interest, but SustainX expects to have its first commercial battery running in China next year. If ICAES (and technology like it) proves successful, we could see more solar and wind farms that keep delivering electricity when they’re otherwise idle.

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Via: GigaOM

Source: SustainX

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Urine and cellphones don’t mix — just ask anyone who has ever dropped their phone in the toilet. At least that’s what we thought before learning that a team of UK scientists has created the world’s first pee-powered cellphone, which is based on microbial fuel cells. In other renewable energy news, the Peruvian government is providing free electricity to over 2 million of its poorest citizens by harvesting energy from the sun, and China just became the world’s first country to install 3 GW of utility-scale solar. Wind power is also on the rise as CalTech researcher John Dabiri figured out a way to make cheaper, more efficient wind farms inspired by schools of fish, and construction began this week on the world’s largest offshore wind farm on the Fukushima coast. And in an unusual paring of renewable energy and architecture, Morphocode has designed a futuristic-looking loft that is nestled on top of an offshore wind turbine.

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When a company wants a green data center, it often has to build its own energy sources. Google knows that’s sometimes not practical, even for a company its size. To that end, it’s partnering with Duke Energy on a proposed business model that would let companies explicitly purchase renewable electricity: companies could demand eco-friendly power sources, whether or not they’re the most cost-efficient. The Duke approach goes to a state commission for approval within 90 days, and it might let Google expand a Lenoir, North Carolina data center (above) with a clearer conscience and minimal costs. The real challenge may be getting other utilities to follow in Duke’s footsteps — even if there are no legal hurdles, local power providers still have to implement clean energy on a large enough scale. If they do, however, environmental responsibility may be within reach to those businesses more interested in building server farms than solar farms.

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Source: Google Official Blog

Based on the latest reports, the company once chided for making too large an impact on Mother Earth is now claiming that a full 75 percent of its energy is being sourced from renewables. Apple’s chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, informed Reuters this week that all of its data centers — including the gargantuan facility in Maiden, North Carolina — are now fully powered by renewable energy from onsite and local sources, while three-fourths of the energy used by the whole company is pulled from green sources. For those wondering, that includes solar, wind, hydro and geothermal, and the 75 percent mark is a stark 40 percent uptick from just two years ago. As for what the future holds? According to Apple: “We won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent throughout Apple.” Alrighty then.

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Via: Reuters, Fortune

Source: Apple

Google has made a point of relying on renewable resources for its data centers whenever possible, even down to the cooling. It hasn’t had quite as unique an arrangement as what it’s planning for its data center in Oklahoma, though. The search firm wants to supply its Mayes County location with 48MW of wind energy from Apex’s Canadian Hills Wind Project, but it isn’t buying power directly from the source. Instead, it’s making a deal with the Grand River Dam Authority, a utility, to purchase the clean power on top of what’s already supplied from the GRDA at present. The deal should keep the data center on the environmentally friendly side while giving it room to grow. Wind power will come online at Google’s facility once the Canadian Hills effort is up and running later in 2012; hopefully, that gives us enough time to better understand why there’s a Canadian River and Canadian Hills to be found in the southern United States.

Filed under: Internet

Google data center in Oklahoma to get 48MW of wind power, boost renewable energy in the Sooner state originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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