Motorola W233 Renew

The new Motorola features the industry's first mobile housing made from plastics that contain recycled water bottles and the device is the first certified Carbonfree cellphone on the market. Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola offsets the amount of energy required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone. You can also enjoy your music! Not a beautiful phone, but it's a start. More features and specifications can be found here. There are more coming like the Samsung E200 (blackle it!).

Biomass

Biomass is organic material made from plants and animals. Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called photosynthesis. The chemical energy in plants gets passed on to animals and people that eat them. Biomass is a renewable energy source because we can always grow more trees and crops, and waste will always exist. Some examples of biomass fuels are wood, crops, manure, and some garbage.

When burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat. If you have a fireplace, the wood you burn in it is a biomass fuel. Wood waste or garbage can be burned to produce steam for making electricity, or to provide heat to industries and homes.

Burning biomass is not the only way to release its energy. Biomass can be converted to other usable forms of energy like methane gas or transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Methane gas is the main ingredient of natural gas. Smelly stuff, like rotting garbage, and agricultural and human waste, release methane gas - also called "landfill gas" or "biogas." Crops like corn and sugar cane can be fermented to produce the transportation fuel, ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats.

Aguçadoura Wave Park

For the last post of this year, I want to inform you of the first ever wave farm. Enjoy it and Happy New Year!

Aguçadoura Wave Park is the world's first commercial wave farm. It is located three miles offshore near Póvoa de Varzim north of Porto in Portugal. The farm uses three Pelamis wave energy converters to convert the motion of the ocean surface waves into electricity. The farm was officially opened on the 23 September 2008 by the Portuguese minister of the economy.

Developed by the Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power (formally Ocean Power Delivery), the Pelamis machine is made up of connected sections which flex and bend relative to one another as waves run along the structure. This motion is resisted by hydraulic rams which pump high pressure oil through hydraulic motors which in turn drive electrical generators. The three machines which make up the Aguçadoura farm are each rated at 750kW, giving an installed capacity of 2.25MW, enough to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1,500 Portuguese homes.

A second phase of the project is now planned to increase the installed capacity from 2.25MW to 21MW using a further 25 Pelamis machines.