The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Swedish TVs show “Vetenskapens Värld” (The World of Science) Documentary about Cold Fusion and Andrea Rossi.
We get to see interviews with Andrea Rossi, Mats Lewan, Sven Kullander, Hanno Essen, Magnus Holm.
Russia to emerging countries: We’ll build, operate your nuclear reactors
Do you run a developing country where you’d like to build and operate nuclear reactors, but you just don’t have the expertise or the money?
Then you could turn to Russia for an all-in-one 60-year bargain.
State nuclear power company Rosatom “is offering a special package deal to build and operate nuclear power stations abroad in a bid to win business from developing countries, a company official was quoted on Monday as saying,” Reuters reports. “The offer to ‘Build, Own, Operate’ (BOO), also includes financing to countries seeking to build nuclear plants.”
Rosatom, which competes against the likes of Toshiba’s Westinghouse subsidiary and France’s Areva to construct reactors around the world, has in the past handed over the day-to-day operations of finished reactors to utilities. Now, it’s offering to hang around onsite after completion.
“Under the BOO model, Rosatom not only builds the nuclear plant, but also owns it and runs it for up to sixty years,” Reuters writes, citing French publication Le Figaro. “Rosatom also delivers nuclear fuel to the plants.”
“With this model, we are fully responsible for the plant’s security,” Le Figaro quoted Rosatom deputy CEO Nikolai Spassky as saying.
Spassky said that Turkey is already following the BOO model with the plant that Rosatom agreed in 2010 to build there (Turkey has also ordered a reactor from a French-Japanese partnership).
Rosatom has agreements to build 19 reactors outside Russia, Reuters states. According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), in addition to Turkey those countries include Vietnam, China, India, Bangladesh, Belarus, Ukraine and Bulgaria. Russia has already built nuclear plants in China, India, Iran and Ukraine, WNA notes.
Startup New Energy Technologies says that it has made a significant advancement toward large-scale production of “spray on” solar power generating windows.
New Energy debuted a prototype of its “SolarWindow” technology in 2010. It has been gradually moving toward commercialization ever since, and today announced improvements that it says will bring it closer to manufacturing large window panes. That makes future skyscrapers with exteriors that create renewable energy possible – a big advancement for places such as New York City where solar panels may be impractical.
SolarWindow is a process for applying plastic solar films to glass at room temperature and at low pressure. Windows retrofitted with the film can generate energy from the sun’s visible light as well as artificial illumination such as office lighting. They remain see-through, so that the glass’s aesthetic qualities aren’t lost.
Continue reading “SmartPlanet: Closer to Spray-On Solar Power for Windows”
Here is another potential game changer in the transition to non-carbon energy. More and more breakthroughs are popping up. One can only wonder what it would have been like if we had put the trillions we have spent on war into eliminating carbon energy, and transitioning to energy technologies that were non-polluting.
Inventor Claims Solar Energy Discovery That Is Game-changer
GREG GORDON – Idaho Statesman
This is the difference between the U.S. and European food systems. It is not a pretty picture.
Seven Dangerous Food Practices Banned in Europe But Just Fine in America
TOM PHILPOTT – AlterNet (U.S.)/Mother Jones
The Slingshot water purification system was invented by Dean Kamen, the guy who invented the Segway PT. His purpose was to develop a system that was inexpensive to manufacture that could also provide a high volume of purified water. His target market seems to be Third World countries, although he clearly hopes that the wealthy countries of the world will help supply them with this vitally needed resource. He thinks he can get the price down to about $1,000 to $2,000. And he estimates that it could provide enough drinking water for a village of about 100 people.
Dean Kamen is possibly the world's greatest living inventor. Although he has been well-known among futurists for years, he rose to wider fame when he invented the Segway in 2001. His inventions also include the world's first wheelchair capable of climbing and descending stairs, and the world's first drug infusion pump which is used to provide diabetics with insulin on an as-needed basis. Kamen is remarkable because unlike most inventors, he does not work under the umbrella of a large corporation, university, or government agency. He is truly a DIY innovator.
Kamen's latest invention sets the stage to change the lives of billions of people over the next decade. His new water purification system, dubbed the Slingshot, is far cheaper and more accessible than anything that has come before it. The refrigerator-sized Slingshot is capable of taking “anything wet,” in Kamen's words, and transforming it into water that is so pure that it can be both consumed and used in sterile injections. It can convert ocean water, polluted water, or raw sewage from an outhouse into pure drinking water.
Continue reading “Dean Kamen: Slingshot Water Purification System”
Sepp Hasslberger's insight: Some progress on concentrated solar thermal energy generation … coming from IBM this time.
IBM Solar Collector Concentrates Light with the Power of 2,000 Suns
A team of IBM researchers is working on a solar concentrating dish that will be able to collect 80% of incoming sunlight and convert it to useful energy. The High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal system will be able to concentrate the power of 2,000 suns while delivering fresh water and cool air wherever it is built. As an added bonus, IBM states that the system would be just one third the cost third of current comparable technologies.
DIY Wind Turbine Project Goes Open Source
This DIY, vertical-axis wind turbine uses easily attainable parts, can be built by anyone and yields impressive power output. As a bonus, it's open source.
Applied Sciences, which did the work, notes that the intention of this product was to provide supplemental water heating. The result is this wind turbine made of materials that you can find at Home Depot and online. Applied Sciences provides what you need to know to build one yourself, including some videos of the turbine and its parts in action and some other valuable resources that will help hopefully get the turbine connected to your home and operating.
Lots of official “disbelief” is still greeting this revolutionary technology, which has the potential to radically change the energy landscape, to eventually allow us to put burning carbon-based fossil fuels to rest.