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How to keep the lights on when all is still and the local windmill won’t budge? A small Norwegian island testing a way to store wind-generated energy for calm days may have found the answer.

The tiny, windswept island of Utsira, situated off Norway’s southwestern coast, is home to what is said to be the world’s first full-scale system for cleanly transforming surplus wind power into hydrogen.

Perched atop a 40-metre-high wind turbine on a perfectly windstill day, technician Inge Linghammer explains that at times like this or on days when the gales whipping the unsheltered island get too strong the windmill shuts down and stops pumping out power.

“You need to have back-up power when this happens,” he says, nodding towards the motionless blades.

On a good day, the island’s two wind turbines, planted on a small hill overlooking several red-painted wooden houses, produce more energy than the 210 people living here can use.

When they are down however, most of Utsira, which measures only six square kilometres, is furnished with electricity from the mainland.

But 10 households receive clean, wind-generated electricity regardless of the weather conditions, thanks to a pilot project launched here in July, 2004 making it possible to store wind power by transforming it into hydrogen.

Surplus wind-generated energy is passed through water and, using electrolysis, the hydrogen atoms are separated from the oxygen atoms that make up water molecules.

The hydrogen is then compressed and stored in a container that can hold enough hydrogen gas to cover the energy needs of the 10 households for two windless days.

“Utsira has more than enough wind power to be self-sustained … but the problem arises on a day like today when there is not enough wind,” explains Halgeir Oeya, who heads up the hydrogen technology unit at Norwegian energy giant StatoilHydro, which is running the project.

“This system allows us to deliver power with expected quality and reliability,” he says, standing next to the large metal electrolyser box baking in the spring sun.

Combining renewable energy and hydrogen, he says, makes most sense in secluded areas like the numerous islands lining the European coast or in remote Australian communities, which until now have been heavily dependent on carbon dioxide-spewing diesel fuel provided by a constant flow of truck convoys.

Islands like Utsira have long been considered ideal laboratories for renewable energy due to their total dependence on outside energy supplies and their access to powerful wind energy.

Oeya boasts that the people participating in the Utsira test project have no restrictions on how they use power, switching on the lights, dishwashers, television sets and stereos without a thought to how the wind is blowing.

And amid growing alarm over greenhouse gas-promoted global warming, they can do so with a clean conscience, he says, pointing out that “the only emission is oxygen.”

Producing and storing energy this way however is still, nearly four years after testing began, far more expensive than the hydraulic power produced on Norway’s mainland.

StatoilHydro has no intention of building up the system to compete with large-scale energy production, but even making it competitive in the small, remote communities far off the grid that make up its target market remains years off.

“This is not a commercial project as it stands,” Oeya acknowledges.

“We must have a bigger scale in order to compete … and this will take a number of years,” he says.

Utsira mayor Jarle Nilsen is nonetheless ecstatic about the system and its effects on his small island community.

“This is a fantastic project that has been good for Utsira,” he says, pointing out that initial concerns about noise levels and birds getting caught in the turbines had been laid to rest.

“We haven’t found a single dead bird,” he says.

Most importantly, the system was helping nudge his Utsira towards its goal of zero emissions within the next decade and had become a major tourist attraction.

“The tourists go over to the lighthouse first, but then they go to look at our windmills. They want to see the world’s first full scale wind and hydrogen project in action,” he says proudly.

Alternative-energy firm starts testing its innovative airborne wind turbines

The Canadian startup Magenn Power has started testing its airship-based wind turbines. The Magenn Power Air Rotor System, or MARS, consists of a blimp-like device that is tethered to the ground, and rotates about its horizontal axis in the breeze. This action generates electrical energy, which is sent down the tether to a transformer, and eventually routed through to the grid.

Magenn says that it’s air-based turbine system will surpass all the other wild airborne wind-power schemes out there in terms of cost, efficiency and more. The advantage over ground or sea-based turbines is that the blimps, floating at high altitudes, should be able to tap into stronger, more consistent breezes. Depending upon the size of the model, it should produce between 10 kilowatts and several megawatts of power. Of course, that’s assuming that it works.

The company recently tested a scale version in a massive indoor facility, and plans to move outdoors for testing soon. The first working versions will probably be at industrial sites, with commercial versions to follow. More on how it works here.

Via MetaEfficient

A natural disaster that may have been preventable has a global impact

With a death toll steadily rising, the effects of Myanmar’s devastating cyclone have yet to be quantified, but days after the storm one thing is clear: they will be long-lasting and far-reaching.

“Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself,” said Caryl Stern, head of the U.N. Children’s Fund. Four days on, electricity and water supplies are still cut throughout the country. With broken sewage lines, mounting trash, impassable roads preventing access to clean water and food, and damaged hospitals, the nation faces a likely-devastating public health crisis. The World Health Organization has pinpointed malaria and tuberculosis—two diseases that thrive amidst overcrowding and bad water—as especial threats. Meanwhile, the spread of communicable diseases is speeded by blocked roads, which trap sick people in and keep health workers out.

They also prevent the easy egress of rice: one of Myanmar’s major exports. Last year the country exported 400,000 tons of rice. Now, shipments to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which would have fed some of the world’s poorest, have been halted. While the government assesses the extent of damage to paddies and citizens clear the roads, these countries are turning to a market already stressed by increased emphasis on biofuels and rising oil prices, among others. Though it is unclear whether worldwide food prices will rise as a result; in Myanmar the cost of rice and cooking oil has already tripled.

The real tragedy surfacing from reports is that this fallout may very well have been prevented. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami, scientists studying the devastation discovered that dense and healthy mangrove forests slowed the massive waves and curtailed damage. Fish and shrimp farms, tourism and population growth have led to the worldwide loss of millions of acres of mangroves over the past few decades. The bulk of the harm caused by Nargis was attributed not to the storm, but to the waves—something the formerly mangrove-crammed coastline of Myanmar could have blocked. Meanwhile, the UN has fingered the government’s failure to install an early warning system as a major contributor to the loss of life; the cyclone formed five days before touching down.