Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) Turbine Development Status

 

Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) is continuing research, analysis and design of its proprietary turbine-generator unit (TGU) to optimize TGU performance.  Field testing of the TGU will continue as part of the development of the design of the commercial TGU in our tidal project sites in Eastport, ME until mid-November.  ORPC will deploy and test a TGU built to the commercial design specifications in the Eastport tidal sites (Western Passage and Cobscook Bay) in the summer of 2009.  This TGU commercialization project will result in a commercially viable TGU design that can be installed in river and shallow tidal energy project as early as the summer of 2010.

Rentech (AMEX: RTK) produces Synthetic Fuels that exceed quality expectations at the only operating Synthetic transportation fuels facility in the United States

 

Rentech, Inc. (AMEX: RTK) today announced the successful completion of the first full production run at the Company’s Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colorado.

Thousands of gallons of ultra-clean synthetic fuels and specialty chemicals were produced during the nearly 800-hour continuous production run at the facility. A variety of synthetic fuels were produced, including military jet fuel, commercial Jet A and Jet A-1 and ultra-low sulfur diesel, all of which met or exceeded applicable specifications. The Company has shipped these fuels as well as specialty chemicals for testing to potential customers, including the U.S. Air Force.

Finavera Renewables’ (TSX-V:FVR) charts wave energy path after California Public Utilities Commission decision

Finavera Renewables Inc. (‘Finavera Renewables’ or the ‘Company’) (TSX-V: FVR) announces that the California Public Utilities Commission (‘CPUC’) has recently denied Pacific Gas & Electric’s (‘PG&E’) application to approve a power purchase agreement (‘PPA’) for a 2 megawatt wave power project in Humboldt County, California signed between Pacific Gas & Electric and Finavera Renewables on December 18, 2007. In response to the CPUC’s draft decision, PG&E argued that the rate was reasonable because the technology is new and the project is small. PG&E also said that ratepayers would not be affected if the project is not viable and that a failure to approve the project could negatively affect wave power development in California.

Geothermal systems to be used at airport

By Juneau Empire

The Juneau Airport secured funding earlier this month to use geothermal energy instead of heating oil for planned new airport facilities.

Airport Manager Dave Palmer said the project will cost $1 million more for the so-called ground-source heat pump than to install a conventional oil-fired boiler system, but that it would pay itself off whenever heating fuel is more than $3 a gallon.  … http://juneauempire.com/stories/102408/loc_347891137.shtml

Peak Coal; Soon

By chasevectors.blogspot.com

Coal provides over a quarter of the wold’s primary energy needs and generates 40% of the world’s electricity.   Two thirds of global steel production depends on coal.

Global consumption of coal is growing faster than that of oil or natural gas – a reverse of the situation in earlier decades. From 2000 to 2005, coal extraction expanded at an average of 4.8 per cent per year compared to 1.6 per cent per year for oil: although world natural gas consumption had been racing ahead in past years, in 2005 it actually fell slightly. …..

http://chasevectors.blogspot.com/2008/10/peak-coal-soon.html

Sekoko plans CTL plant, power station in Waterberg

By Esmarie Swanepoel (Miningweekly.com)

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Sekoko Energy, part of the black-owned mining and energy company Sekoko Resources, was investigating the possibility of developing a coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in the Waterberg region, its chairperson said on Tuesday.

Sekoko Energy has more than four-billon tons of indicated coal reserves in the Waterberg region of South Africa.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article.php?a_id=146212

Time to fire up CTL fuel policy

By The Economic Times (India)

NEW DELHI: Technology, it has been noted, does not drive change-it actually enables change.  Consider, for instance,technology for transforming coal into liquid (CTL) fuels, including “ultra-clean” diesel and jet fuel.  Given India’s substantial coal reserves, viable CTL technology would be transformative and change-inducing for out energy economy and well beyond.  What’s necessary is proactive policy to acquire and diffuse proven CTL technology.  The payoffs would be massive.

Already, estimates suggest that with CTL a mere 2% of India’s extractable coal reserves could well add 20% to our proven oil reserves. Concurrently, there could be positive spinoffs on the power and fertiliser fronts. What’s required is a forward-looking CTL policy that subsumes issues pertaining to energy efficiency, environment and fuel pricing. About time too.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3648166,flstry-1.cms

Foster Wheeler (Nasdaq: FWLT) awarded Coal-to-Liquids feasibility study in China

 

Foster Wheeler Ltd. (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced today that its subsidiaries, Foster Wheeler Energy Limited and Foster Wheeler International Engineering & Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., together with its consortium partner, Wuhuan Engineering Company, have been awarded contracts by Sasol Synfuels International (Proprietary) Limited (Sasol) and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Company Ltd. (Shenhua) to perform a feasibility study for an 80,000 barrels per day coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the coal-rich western part of the People’s Republic China. ..

Research for EOn’s nuclear future

By World-nuclear-news.org

Germany-based power giant EOn is to cooperate on research for the future of nuclear energy with France’s main research institute.

The company is not allowed to invest in new nuclear power plants in Germany due to legislation which limits the operating lives of nuclear plants such that all are expected to close down by 2022.  However, EOn still operates six nuclear plants in Germany, which provide about one third of its power.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN_Research_for_EOns_nuclear_future_2810081.html

After oil: The future of energy

By mantrionline (AsiaMiningStock.com)

Last October, the city of Houston and the UH College of Technology sponsored the third annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA. There, Matt Simmons, T. Boone Pickens and other oil experts discussed the concept of peak oil: how close the world is to producing as much oil as it can. Some, like Pickens, think the peak has already passed. Statistically, the current peak occurred in May 2005 and world oil production has declined (slightly) since then. Others disagree since recent price increases have spurred more exploration and development.

The rest of the article can be read at AsiaMiningStock.com