Palm | Kelapa Sawit

I read a Reuters article about the first Hydrokinetic Power Turbine, that was successfully installed in January of 2009 at the existing hydropower plant on the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minnesota.
It was the nation's first-ever commercial hydrokinetic power project.

The City of Hastings, MN now owns and operates a 4.4 MW hydropower project at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Lock & Dam No.2.

Hydrokinetic Power Turbine is a special turbine that is submerged or partially submerged into the river and is connected to a floating barge. This turbine is generating electricity by using river currents without the harmful impacts associated with dams.

The article says that the hydrokinetic turbine will send clean, environmentally-friendly, renewable electricity to the Minnesota electric power grid.

"With the successful installation of our first turbine, Hydro Green Energy has taken another historic step and has strengthened its status as the industry leader," said Wayne F. Krouse, Chairman and CEO of Hydro Green Energy.

Once the project is operational, extensive water quality and fish survival studies and monitoring will be performed by Hydro Green Energy.

To read more about the project you can go to:
http://hgenergy.com/hastings.html

To read the Reuters article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS142130+05-Jan-2009+PRN20090105

-Peter Y.

While doing some research on Internet, I came across a very interesting article written by Martin LaMonica "GE: Smart grid yields net-zero energy home". In his article LaMonica was saying that on July 14, 2009, General Electric unveiled a project at its research labs that will let homeowners cut annual energy consumption to zero by 2015!
I have heard about a Zero Energy Home projects before, but never heard about such a big project planned to be implemented around the country!

A Zero Energy Home or (ZEH) is a new or specially remodeled home that is very energy efficient, and also can produce its own power. Zero Energy Home is called this way because it can produce enough energy during the year to offset the amount purchased from the utility, and as a result the electricity bill will equal zero or almost zero at the end of the year.

Net-zero of Zero Energy Home is producing electricity using solar panels and wind turbines. It also saving a lot of energy by great weatherization and by using energy efficient appliances. On cloudy days or at night, it uses energy from the electric utility. During sunny or windy days when a lot of electricity is produced from renewable resources, an excess power is then sent back into the utility grid. Electric utility company can install the smart electric meter which can be reversed when power is going back into the grid and as a result the homeowner will get zero or very small energy bill.

For this project, GE will be using a special Home Energy Manager, or a device with which consumers will get detailed energy data and would be able to control appliances. This device is expected to cost between $200 and $250. This control unit could evaluate electricity rates and see, for example, that running a dishwasher when the solar panels are producing is cheaper than running the load at off-peak times. Or a clothes drier can go into "conservation" mode during peak times where it will operate at a lower temperature and take longer to run.

To read more about this project go to website:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10286278-54.html

To read about seven steps to ZEH, go to: http://www.toolbase.org/ToolbaseResources/level4CaseStudies.aspx?ContentDetailID=2472&BucketID=2&CategoryID=58

-Peter Y.

Rock Port Missouri in 2008 announced that it was the first city in the United States to become a 100% wind powered city. Rock Port is a small city in Atchison County. It has a small population of 1,300 people.

The entire city is receives its electricity from just 4 wind turbines. These 4 turbines produce 16 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which is just over the 13 million the city uses each year.

Northwest Missouri is being looked into for more turbines, as it is a great place to capture this wind energy. Landowners also profit from leasing their land for wind power. They say its easier then growing crops, both ways they profit from it.

Please check out Science Daily for more info.