Going green is an increasingly hot trend nowadays with not only the growing risk of global warming, but also the cost of oil. When I think of renewable "green" energy, like the most of us, its likely limited to the more well known sources such as solar, wind and hydro power (geothermal if you want to delve deeper). One source that has seemingly escaped the main stream however, is wave power. That is what the Pelamis Wave Power Limited, the worlds first commercial wave power project, seeks to harness.
Three miles off the coast of Agucadoura in Portugal, three Pelamis Wave Energy Converters (PWEC) have recently been inaugurated. Each machine is a semi-submerged structure composed of cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. Current converters are 140m long and 3.5m in diameter, each is rated at 750kW.
Phase two of the $13 million project seeks to install twenty five machines, this would bring the capacity up to 21 MW. Once the project is completed, it is expected to displace more than 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, all the while powering more than 15,000 Portuguese homes. Due to Portugal's geographical location, Portugal's State Secretariat for Industry and Innovation have predicted wave power to account up to thirty percent of the country's gross domestic product by 2050.
Large wave farms could yield as much as three times the energy production of wind turbines of the same cost. This has led to interest from other countries. Scottish Executive Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen announced that money has already been set aside for the installation of PWECs at the European Marine Energy Center in Orkney. According to Friends of the Earth chief executive Duncan McLaren, wave and tidal power could supply a fifth of the U.K.'s energy needs.
http://www.pelamiswave.com/
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
LHC Computing Grid
The LHC Computing Grid is a distribution network that was built to store, analyse, and distribute massive amounts of data provided by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire [European Council for Nuclear Research])near Geneva. This data includes velocities, images of microscopic size in videos that capture each nanosecond, and other statistical data to study the molecule reactions in the LHC. The LHC itself will produce roughly 15 Petabytes of data annually, which thousands of scientists around the world will access. In order to distribute this information over the Internet, which has never been accomplished at this scale, the computing grid will utilize private fiver optic cable links and already existing high-speed portions of public Internet.
The data that is streamed into the Net at approximately 300 GB/s, which is then later filtered for "interesting events", which result into a "raw data" stream of about 300 MB/s. This data will be distributed around the world, according to a four-tiered model. The CERN computer center, considered "Tier 0" which has a 10GB/s connection to the counting room is used as a primary backup of the data. After the initial processing has been finished, the data will be distributed to a series of Tier-1 centers, which constitute of large computer centers with sufficient storage capacity and round-the-clock support for the Grid.
The data from Tier-1 centers will be able to Tier-2 centers, that consist of one or many collaborating computing facilities, which can store sufficient data and provide adequate computing power for suficient compute analysis tasks. Finally, individual scientists will access the data from these Tier-2 centers through Tier-3 computing resources. These consist of local clusters in a University Department or even individual PCs.
The LHC Computer Grid allows the internet to distribute data at new levels for users.This new system allows computer users to access Petabytes of data from the comfort of their own computer.
Diagram of LHC Computer Grid: http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/5B5F475B-ECAF-2FA0-ACACF46F8491EB2D_2.jpg
The data that is streamed into the Net at approximately 300 GB/s, which is then later filtered for "interesting events", which result into a "raw data" stream of about 300 MB/s. This data will be distributed around the world, according to a four-tiered model. The CERN computer center, considered "Tier 0" which has a 10GB/s connection to the counting room is used as a primary backup of the data. After the initial processing has been finished, the data will be distributed to a series of Tier-1 centers, which constitute of large computer centers with sufficient storage capacity and round-the-clock support for the Grid.
The data from Tier-1 centers will be able to Tier-2 centers, that consist of one or many collaborating computing facilities, which can store sufficient data and provide adequate computing power for suficient compute analysis tasks. Finally, individual scientists will access the data from these Tier-2 centers through Tier-3 computing resources. These consist of local clusters in a University Department or even individual PCs.
The LHC Computer Grid allows the internet to distribute data at new levels for users.This new system allows computer users to access Petabytes of data from the comfort of their own computer.
Diagram of LHC Computer Grid: http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/5B5F475B-ECAF-2FA0-ACACF46F8491EB2D_2.jpg
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Due Dates for Blog Posts
9/23/08 Dan Trujillo comments/responses due 10/1/08
10/1/08 Nick DeGiacomo comments/responses due 10/8/08
10/8/08 Jay Rosenberg comments/responses due 10/15/08
10/15/08 Jon Filipe comments/responses due 10/22/08
10/22/08 David Aquino comments/responses due 10/29/08
10/1/08 Nick DeGiacomo comments/responses due 10/8/08
10/8/08 Jay Rosenberg comments/responses due 10/15/08
10/15/08 Jon Filipe comments/responses due 10/22/08
10/22/08 David Aquino comments/responses due 10/29/08
Monday, September 15, 2008
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