water, as a problem.

[repulsewarrior]

[repulsewarrior]

[repulsewarrior]

Agreement for solar powered desalination

THE GOVERNMENT and the Cyprus Institute have signed an agreement for the production of electricity and desalinated water with solar power.

The first phase of project involves the construction of a prototype solar thermal unit for the simultaneous production of electricity and desalinated water by the use of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP).

It will cost €18 million, which will be taken from EU structural funds to construct a prototype desalination unit that will be driven by solar-thermal power.

“Solar energy is by far the most abundant and reliable renewable energy resource in the region and by building hybrid electricity-desalination plants that utilise CSP, both desalinated water and electricity can be produced at competitive prices,” a statement from the Cyprus Institute said yesterday.

“This option will address both the water and electrical power shortage issues and increase the renewable energy capacity on the island.”

The Cyprus Institute is a non-profit science and technology research and educational institution founded in 2005.

The statement said that in order to specifically evaluate the potential of CSP-desalination plants in Cyprus, the Institute in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA, had launched a project that would assess the available CSP technologies and evaluate the economic viability of such plants on the island.

The results of the research are expected to be complete by early 2010, and once the results have proven to be technologically and economically viable the government will proceed with the project based on the framework of the European Commission Operational programme ‘Sustainable Development and Competitiveness 2007 – 2013’.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

[city]

at least a step in the right direction! I have always asked myself why solar power is not used much more extensive on this sunny island.....

[repulsewarrior]

futuristically, any policy on water and its production must include a policy on energy, and recycling which compliment each other. to produce water, it takes an enormous amount of energy. the sun is a part of this, so too the garbage (and human waste) from which we can extract energy as well.

cyprus would do well to focus on this research, the waste from desalination is enourmous and toxic. similarly the need for this type of production is at its advent, and its need will increase significantly. it is very scary. all projections i have found predict that our island will be mostly a desert in less than one hundred years, while our population will triple, naturally.

[repulsewarrior]

[stavrizatz]

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Extraordinary ideas for extraordinary circumstances
By Elias Hazou

A NOBEL Prize-winning scientist has drawn up an emergency plan to save the world from global warming, by altering the chemical makeup of Earth’s upper atmosphere. Professor Paul Crutzen, who won a Noble Prize in 1995 for his work on the destruction of the ozone layer, believes that political attempts to limit man-made greenhouse gases are so pitiful that a radical alternative is needed.

The Netherlands-born professor was on the island this week for a workshop on “Climate change: causes and impacts” organised by the Cyprus Institute, a research foundation.

In a polemical scientific essay published two years ago, Crutzen suggested an “escape route” if global warming begins to run out of control.

He has proposed a method of artificially cooling the global climate by releasing particles of sulphur in the upper atmosphere, which would reflect sunlight and heat back into space.

A fleet of high-altitude balloons could be used to scatter the sulphur high overhead, or it could even be fired into the atmosphere using heavy artillery shells or rockets, said Professor Crutzen, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany.

“It’s the last resort. Unless CO2 emissions are cut - and the outlook is very grim - I’m afraid we shall have resort to this experiment,” Crutzen told the Sunday Mail in an interview.

For the experiment to work, a million tons of sulphur would have to be injected every year into the stratosphere, 16 km above the earth.

“Right now, chimneys spew out 10 times more sulphur into the lower atmosphere every year,” Crutzen said, addressing concerns about the side effects.

His plan is modelled partly on the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption in 1991, when thousands of tons of sulphur were ejected into the atmosphere causing global temperatures to fall.

Pinatubo generated sulphate aerosols in the atmosphere which cooled the Earth by 0.5C on average in the following year. The sulphate particles did this by acting like tiny mirrors, preventing a portion of incoming sunlight from reaching the ground.

Although climate cooling by sulphate aerosols also occurs in the troposphere, Crutzen says the great advantage of placing reflective particles in the stratosphere is their long residence time of about one to two years, compared to a week in the troposphere. The chemical would also need to have a short half-life, say 10 years.

The professor admits the idea is extreme, but says extraordinary measures are necessary in extraordinary circumstances.

“I hope we never have to do this experiment. But for CO2 levels to get back to normal, current emissions would need to drop by about 60 to 80 per cent. I don’t see that happening.”

CO2 emissions, released by the burning of fossil fuels in power stations, factories, homes and vehicles, are growing at almost three per cent a year.

The United Nations Panel on Climate Change estimates that world temperatures may rise by between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius (3.2-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. The Group of Eight industrial nations agreed in July to a goal of halving world emissions by 2050.

Assuming Crutzen’s idea is feasible, it would cost some $10 billion a year to spray the upper atmosphere with enough sulphur.

“But this is peanuts.” He pauses. “Especially if you compare it with the enormous sums of money mentioned in the international credit crisis.”

Other 'geo-engineering' ideas include deploying giant unfolding mirrors in space, laying reflecting film in the deserts, or floating white plastic islands in the ocean to mimic the reflective effect of sea ice. Boosting the population of marine plankton, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is another thought.

More recently, scientists have considered bombarding clouds with salt to produce a similar reflective effect - this is still at the theoretical stage, although experiments on a small scale are not that far away.

Crutzen says he was under “a lot of pressure from many circles” not to air his idea two years ago.

Some scientists had even opposed its publication in the peer-reviewed scientific press. There was concern that it may encourage the view that a quick fix to climate change was preferable to addressing the causes of the phenomenon.

Crutzen is well aware of this point, which is why in his essay he also points out that the possibility of the sulphur experiment “should not be used to justify inadequate climate policies, but merely to create a possibility to combat potentially drastic climate heating.”

He told the Sunday Mail that much of the initial brouhaha generated by his proposal has since died down, and the idea is now being taken seriously by a number of researchers, including at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Studies and Rutgers University.

Far from being dogmatic, Crutzer says he will be the first to admit he’s wrong if experiments show the idea is dangerous or unfeasible.

“It’s not my baby,” he said, mimicking a cradling motion.





Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

[city]

[stavrizatz]

Thanks city for the article.

[repulsewarrior]

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