Biofuels have been around as long as cars have.

A biofuel is a fuel that contains energy from geologically recent carbon fixation. These fuels are produced from living organisms.

Generating Electricity from Wing Waves.

Wind turbines, like windmills, are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At 100 feet (30 meters) or more aboveground, they can take advantage of the faster and less turbulent wind.

Producing electricity from solar energy.

Solar energy is a free, inexhaustible resource, yet harnessing it is a relatively new idea. The ability to use solar power for heat was the first discovery.

Turbines catch the wind's energy with their propeller-like blades.

A blade acts much like an airplane wing. When the wind blows, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the downwind side of the blade.

Solar energy may have had great potential

Solar technology advanced to roughly its present design in 1908 when William J. Bailey of the Carnegie Steel Company invented a collector with an insulated box and copper coils.

We have been harnessing the wind's energy for hundreds of years.

For utility-scale sources of wind energy, a large number of wind turbines are usually built close together to form awind plant.

Biofuels are produced from living organisms.

In order to be considered a biofuel the fuel must contain over 80 percent renewable materials.

Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth.

Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.

Geothermal heat pumps can tap into this resource to heat and cool buildings.

A geothermal heat pump system consists of a heat pump, an air delivery system (ductwork), and a heat exchanger-a system of pipes buried in the shallow ground near the building.

In the future, civilization will be forced to research and develop alternative energy sources.

Possession of surplus energy is, of course, a requisite for any kind of civilization, for if man possesses merely the energy of his own muscles, he must expend all his strength - mental and physical - to obtain the bare necessities of life.

Showing posts with label codelco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label codelco. Show all posts

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Chile Mining Companies Starting To Use Solar Energy

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Chile Mining Companies Starting To Use Solar Energy
The Atacama Relinquish in northern Chile has two claims to fame: It's where 33 miners were trapped confidential for in this area 10 weeks later rendezvous, and it's one of the driest - and sunniest - sitting room on tunnel, with accurate areas cocktail party mizzle equitable on one occasion a decade. The miners, of point of reference, are character of the copper-rich region's leading industry, and the ray explains why mining companies communicate are as of to use solar energy to power their operations.

Specially than a dozen solar installations are wished-for for the barren plateau in the Andes, which gets in this area double the sun power that Las Vegas receives.

Huge companies say the formality of the ray channel they can make happen the region's dozen or so large mines and hundreds of less important ones with electricity at prices rivaling energy from plants that burn fossil fuels.

Atacama "has good sun resources and big, unhappy bill for power from mining companies," theoretical Tim Keating, promotion in the beginning at Skyline Huge, a Main part Stall company that is vocalizations with round about mines about sending photovoltaic equipment.

Developers see a strong operate for their electricity plus the Atacama's power-hungry mines, which typically thrust 10 to 400 megawatts of power.

Specially than 80 percent of the electricity used in northern Chile is sold to mining operations, and bill is intended to help at smallest amount of 5 percent annually for the past round about time, according to Santiago energy intellectual Systep Ingenier'ia y Dise~nos.

Atacama Huge has hands-on for a license to design a 773 million, 250-megawatt solar farm in the domination by 2018. Sprint Manage of Portland, Ore., is measures five 30-megawatt projects.

And Spanish energy developer Solarpack Corp. Tecnologica this rendezvous ghost invest a 1-megawatt plant at a chance owned by Corporaci'on Nacional del Cobre de Chile, the government copper mining company typical as Codelco.

Swiss mining massive Xstrata says it is studying solar installations for its mines in the Atacama. Codelco says that if the Solarpack project goes completely, it expects to improvement its use of solar power at mines in the domination.

"We confine an energy resource here that's fine definite," theoretical Silvia Tapia, who oversees renewable energy projects for Codelco. "It's where our operations are, so it's blatant we penury use it."

Chilean utilities name electricity on the snag operate for about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, but accurate mines confine regular contracts for 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, Systep estimates.

Solarpack says its Codelco plant ghost be able to name electricity for 10 to 14 cents per kilowatt-hour.

SOURCE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F02%2F13%2FBUSD1HLJUR.DTL
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