After 18 months of negotiations, an agreement has been signed today between the ITER parties to build the experimental fusion reactor in Cadarache, France.

The 10 billion project will be the most expensive joint scientific collaboration since the International Space Station.

Nuclear fusion extracts energy from same reaction that powers our sun. It is much cleaner than nuclear fission and fossil fuels, producing very little radioactive waste with no risk of meltdown.

Temperatures of over 100 million degrees celcius (many times the temperature of the centre of the sun) are required to sustain a fusion reaction capable of producing large amounts of energy. The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) will be the first fusion reactor to produce thermal energy comparable to the levels of conventional power stations.

Relevant stories

France gets nuclear fusion plant (BBC)

France wins fusion project (Nature.com)

Europe beats Japan to ITER prize (physicsweb)

Bangui, Philippines - The opening of Southeast Asia’s first wind farm in the Philippines is a vital step forward in efforts to promote renewable energy in some of the world�s fastest growing economies, according to WWF.

Together with Northwind Power Development Cooperation (NorthWind), WWF-Philippines celebrated the commissioning of the US$44 million, 25MW project, which is now ready to supply electricity to the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative.

“The future of Southeast Asian wind power starts here,” said Atty Ferdinand Dumlao, chairman of NorthWind. “We see huge potential for this technology in the Philippines and beyond.”

WWF estimates that the Philippines could save US$2.9 billion in avoided fossil-fuel imports over the next ten years if the country’s vast renewable energy resources are tapped. According to an analysis done by WWF’s PowerSwitch! campaign, the wind resource potential could be as much as 7,400MW in the Philippines, enough to power 19 million homes.

This potential is already under development. Later this year, the Philippines National Oil Company will start constructing a 40MW wind farm near to the Northwind site. Smith-Bell RESCO will soon start the construction of a 30MW wind farm in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. And WWF, in collaboration with private sector partners, is also developing two wind farms in Panay.

A new Philippines Renewable Energy Bill, strongly supported by WWF and Northwind, is expected to be passed by the Filipino government later this year increasing the opportunities for wind power.

“Wind power takes us one crucial step closer to energy independence,” said WWF-Philippines President Lory Tan.

“This, in turn, builds economic strength by stabilizing business costs, insulating us from pollution and the unpredictable prices of imported oil and coal, while preserving foreign exchange for other more critical needs.”

But wind power is not just being developed in the Philippines, but is picking up speed throughout Asia.

South Korea inaugurated its first wind farm in 2005. In February 2005, China passed a Renewable Energy Law to drive the government’s target of 20,000MW of wind power by the year 2020. And as of March 2005, India already has 3,595MW of wind power, making it fifth largest win generator globally.

“Across Asia-Pacific the message is the same; spiralling coal and oil prices and dependency upon imported fuels, combined with health and environmental risks are forcing governments to radically rethink the way they supply their people with energy,” said Liam Salter, WWF International’s Regional Climate and Energy Programme Director.

“Wind and other renewables are central to a new way of thinking; we predict the trend will continue.”

Original press release: Southeast Asia�s first wind farm launched (WWF)

An international research project has for the first time successfully stored carbon dioxide in European coal beds.

Scientists from CSIRO’s Petroleum Division who were involved in the four year project, say its success could have major implications for Australia, leading to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions associated with electrical power generation.

CSIRO has set up a Flagship Program, Energy Transformed, to develop and implement technologies to halve Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions from the energy and transport sectors by 2050.

Flagship Director John Wright says, “The storage of CO2 in unusable coal beds demonstrated in the project is very exciting. Because of the structure of our energy industry, Australia has one of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the developed world. It is a national imperative to reduce this, particularly from fossil fuel power generation.”

The RECOPOL project (Reduction of CO2 emission by means of CO2 storage in coal seams in the Silesian Coal Basin of Poland) was a research and field demonstration involving numerous research institutes, universities and industrial partners, including CSIRO.

Dr Wright says, “In Australia we need a pilot project to ensure we can deal with CO2 emissions in a responsible manner. Coal is still the cheapest and most effective means of power generation and as such, it will be with us for many years to come. If we can learn to deal with the downside of burning coal, then there will be significant benefits for Australians and the environment.”

Beyond simply storing the CO2 in coal beds that can’t be mined, researchers say they could potentially use the methane naturally occurring in most deep coal beds for power generation.

Dr Luke Connell of CSIRO Petroleum says, “The coal beds of interest with this approach are those unsuitable for mining due to their depth or other characteristics. These coal beds have a great capacity for storing CO2 and it would be possible to use the injected CO2 to displace methane that could be used for power generation. This combination could allow power generation with zero greenhouse gas emissions.”

Australia’s greenhouse gas emission currently sits at around 27 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per person. This compares to 13 tonnes per person in New Zealand, 10 tonnes in Japan and 21 tonnes in the USA.

Dr Connell says, “The international scientific community, governments and industry all have a vested interest in finding viable solutions to a global problem. The RECOPOL project has significantly improved the scientific understanding of coal beds as reservoirs for CO2 and the experience gained through the project will help the development of future projects.”

[The RECOPOL consortium consists of : CSIRO (Australia), TNO-NITG (co-ordinator, the Netherlands), Central Mining Institute (operator of the site, Poland), Aachen University of Technology (Germany), Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), Institut Fran�ais du P�trole (France), DBI-GUT (Germany), Gaz de France (France), Gazonor (France), Air Liquide (France), Advanced Resources international (USA) and the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, JCoal (Japan), Shell International, and the University of Mons (Belgium)].

Original press release: New hope for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia (CSIRO)

Japan will announce on June 28 that it is giving up on hosting a revolutionary nuclear energy project also sought by France after a long deadlock in negotiations, a newspaper reported Friday.

Japan will drop its bid at a meeting in Russia of the six partners in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) — China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in its evening edition.

An official at the science ministry denied the report, saying Japan was doing its utmost to bring the multibillion-dollar project to the northern village of Rokkasho-mura.

“We are doing our best in preparation for the international conference to be held in late June,” the official told AFP.

Japan dispatched an envoy to the European Union earlier this week to conduct negotiations on ITER which again ended in a standoff.

The Nihon Keizai said Japan concluded after the Brussels meeting that the European Union was determined to bring ITER to the southeastern French town of Cadarache.

Read the complete article: Japan to Announce June 28 Giving Up Nuclear Reactor Bid: Report (The Tocqueville Connection)

The UK wind energy industry has now installed over 1000 megawatts (MW) of wind capacity, making it one of only 8 countries in the world to have surpassed this figure.

The official opening today of the most powerful wind farm in the UK to date, the 39 turbine 58.5 MW Cefn Croes wind farm in Ceredigion in Wales, brings the total to 1037.7 MW from 1273 turbines, which together generate sufficient electricity to meet the needs of well over half a million households, or a fifth of homes in greater London.

BWEA CEO Marcus Rand commenting on this industry landmark stated:
“Wind energy in the UK has now firmly arrived. The industry is experiencing record growth and will continue to grow both on and offshore over the coming years as it plays its key role in helping to meet the Government�s climate and renewable targets.

We anticipate a further six gigawatts of new wind projects will be up and running in the UK by the end of 2010, split evenly between on and offshore developments. Achieving this objective will deliver energy security, environmental and industrial benefits for the UK.”

Breaking the gigawatt barrier comes in a record year of growth for the UK wind industry, with a total of 18 new wind projects totalling some 500 MW of capacity expected to be officially commissioned by year end, taking UK wind generation to over 1% of UK electricity supply, and on track for expectations of the sector. The UK wind industry is projected to meet some three quarters of the Government’s target for renewables by 2010, representing an investment of 7bn into the sector, according to a survey carried out by the British Wind Energy Association.

The news that wind broke the gigawatt barrier coincides with the release of a new opinion poll carried out as part of BWEA’s Embrace the Revolution campaign, which was launched in Wales today. The research shows that an overwhelming majority of people in Wales - three quarters - agree that wind farms are necessary to help meet the country’s current and future energy needs.

Original press release: UK wind breaks gigawatt barrier (BWEA)

The walls are up, the roof is on and the summer crew of Cornell University’s Solar Decathlon Team is working hard to finish its fully functional, self-sufficient, solar-powered house.

Scheduled for completion by the end of June, the only solar-powered house from an Ivy League school to enter the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) international Solar Decathlon competition will be moved to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in time for the Oct. 7 to 16 competition.

The team consists of about 50 undergraduate students from six of the seven undergraduate colleges at Cornell — about 40 percent of them engineering majors, 40 percent architecture majors, 10 percent business or economics majors and 10 percent with other majors — as well as a handful of graduate students. Some of the undergraduates have been designing and building the solar home for more than two years. About a dozen students will work on the house throughout the summer, testing, adjusting and refining it.

The DOE challenged competitors to design and build an 800-square-foot sustainable house that derives all its power from the sun. The houses will be evaluated on criteria ranging from power acquisition and storage and everyday performance to advocating the use of household solar power to potential users. In addition to designing and building the home, decathlon teams also participate in 10 contests during the competition week in which the houses will be judged on such criteria as comfort and how well they perform in providing energy for heating and cooling, hot water, lights and appliances.

“The students will show us how we can live with abundance and comfort in beautiful, energy-efficient, completely solar-powered homes,” says the DOE Web site.

In addition to designing and building the home and soliciting donations for the house’s systems, appliances, furniture and finishing, the team has conducted an extensive outreach effort. “We have developed sustainability and alternative energy programs for local schools,” says Melissa Wrolstad, an incoming senior from Libertyville, Ill., majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering, who serves as the team’s outreach coordinator. “Our aim is to spread renewable energy awareness to students, schools and parents and to encourage teachers to make sustainable energy a part of their curriculum.”

The team also is producing a documentary on the project that will be narrated by Bill Nye ‘77, a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of ‘56 University Professor-at-Large at Cornell.

In 2003 10 undergraduates submitted a proposal to the DOE, which accepted the proposal and gave the team $5,000 in seed money. Since then, the team has recruited dozens of students to participate and has raised about $65,000 in cash from about 15 individuals, mostly alumni, and another $120,000 in product donations from about two dozen companies. The entirely student-run project also has received funding from Cornell’s College of Engineering and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP).

“Although we estimate that the whole project will cost about $250,000, including the cost of donated items, we think that the house could be replicated in the future for as little as $60,000,” says Emile Chin-Dickey, Arts and Sciences ‘05, an economics major from Fairbanks, Alaska, who serves as business manager of the project.

The 16-by-40-foot house consists of a living room/study/kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, numerous nooks and crannies for storage and a large array of photovoltaic cells, an evacuated solar tube collector and a large battery bank to collect and store enough energy to run all the appliances in the house as well as an electrically powered car. All the house’s systems will be controlled by a touchscreen remote. It will be fully furnished and landscaped (with portable trays full of grass, shrubs and flowers) when it joins the solar village in Washington, D.C., to compete against 17 other college and university teams.

“One of the most unique aspects of the house is a Cornell-designed, small-scale desiccant cooling system,” says Tim Fu, Engineering ‘05, from Arlington, Va., one of the major forces behind the project from the beginning and one of its project leaders. Desiccants are materials that absorb moisture (such as those found in pill jars and computer packaging). “The invention boosts the efficiency of the house’s air conditioning system by mediating its humidity and temperature,” he explains.

Project leaders also include Stephanie Horowitz, Architecture ‘05, of Princeton, N.J., and Benjamin Uyeda, a graduate student in architecture from Santa Barbara, Calif., who also have been on the project from the beginning. Although Fu, Horowitz, Uyeda and Chin-Dickey graduated in May, they all are putting their futures on hold until the October competition.

Zellman Warhaft, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been serving as the project’s adviser from the beginning. Nick Rajkovich, visiting lecturer in AAP, is serving as an adviser and the building coordinator over the summer.

Original press release: Reaching for the sun, Cornell’s student-designed solar house is going up (Cornell University)