A British business offering turnkey solutions for micro wind power is aiming to become one of the top five producers in the world by 2016. Its innovative new design will provide a fully installed wind turbine for as little as $7000, according to the company’s CEO.

Totempower is planning to produce 15,000 wind turbines each year by 2016 which will be “as easy to install as a (natural) gas boiler”. “There will be no huge excavations in your garden,” the company promises, and “any maintenance is a matter of minutes rather than hours”.

It almost sounds too good to be true .. is it?

At the heart of the company’s ambitions is the Passive Air Jet Vortex Generator (PAVOG), a patented technology researched at City University in London, UK.

PAVOG is a form of blade configuration which allows the turbine to operate at far lower wind speeds than conventional turbines, increasing efficiency by up to 20 per cent. This also means it can be sited at lower elevations and on free standing masts. Hence the company’s claims about installation and maintenance.

The free standing nature of the masts also means they can be developed using more environmentally friendly materials: no concrete foundations and a mast made from natural fibres instead of the traditional steel. The company believes these innovations alone will cut each turbine’s carbon footprint by a staggering 90%.

The domestic version of the turbine is expected to produce 2,000 kWh per year, while a larger version will produce 15,000 kWh per year. The company believes customers will see a return on their investment within six years, meaning the turbine will be able to survive without subsidies or tax credits.

The company has only recently been spun out of City University and is currently negotiating $3m investment for final prototyping and production work. For further details see the Totempower website.

UK renewable energy production fell steeply in the first half of this year, according to figures released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). In the period January to March they fell by 7.5% and then fell by a subsequent 12.1% April to June.

The figures now show that only 5.9% of energy generated in the UK came renewable sources, down from 6.7% in 2009 and woefully behind its 2010 target of 10%.

Despite this the industry body, RenewableUK, believes the country will still hit its target of 15% of energy coming from renewables by 2020; earlier this year it called for the 2020 target for wind power to be raised from 12GW to over 20GW.

DECC’s figures point to a number of other trends within the UK energy market, including a 10% drop in energy consumption between 2007 and 2010. Coal imports have halved in the same period and the production of natural gas has dropped by 25%. The demand for gas and aviation fuel has stayed relatively flat.

The drop in renewable energy generation has been blamed largely on lower than expected wind and rainfall but it has been greeted calmly by industry, government and campaigners alike.

Louise Hutchins, climate campaigner for Greenpeace, said: “At the moment it [renewable energy] is a very small share in electricity and small fluctuations in weather can have an impact on the percentage of supply. When we have a lot more renewable energy there will be a lot more stability.”

^{Picture Credit: Windenergy by Wagner Christian under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.}

Around 1.7 billion people live in poverty around the world.

That’s a quarter of the world’s population; more than the US and China combined and over three times the population of the EU.

Of that 1.7 billion, a full 700 million live in India; over 60% of the country’s population.  If want to alleviate poverty, India seems like a good place to start.

This is why a recent report by the World Resources Institute and the Institute for Financial Management and Research is of great importance.  It’s looked at India’s poverty stricken population and identifies four key clean energy strategies which should go a long way to alleviating poverty and suffering in the country.

However, if left in the hands of “traditional” businesses this bottom of the pyramid (BoP) selling will do little more than reinforce the destitution within which these people live.  So these strategies must be backed up with sustainable business practices which will seek to bring advantage to these communities and genuinely increase well being, not just strip mine wealth to the top of the pyramid.

^{Picture Credit: Sunset by BalijiB under Creative Commons Attribution License, trimmed by Chris Milton.}

As you may have heard, WWF has launched a bank for holding details of the world’s top green gamechangers in order to inform and inspire people around the world. This post is my compilation of the top five clean technology gamechangers from WWF’s current list.

The bank is not a static enterprise and has new gamechangers added all the time .. this is just a snapshot! The current list can be viewed on the WWF website, as can WWF’s report on Green Game-Changing Innovation (PDF).

Jaguar Land Rover has scooped a big slice of $80m in grants made available by the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board to further low and zero carbon motoring.

The grants were shared out between six projects; Jaguar are the lead developer for three of them and a consortium partner for another one. All consortium partners will be expected to bring their own funding to the projects as well.

Other big name manufacturers winning grants include Ford, Nissan and Lotus and consortia members include EVO Electric, Axeon, BP, Johnson Matthey and a range of UK universities.

The projects are as follows:

Highly Integrated Urban Commercial Vehicle: a lightweight and highly maneuverable refuse collection truck designed to halve carbon emissions per tonne of waste collected. Lead developer: Dennis Eagle.

Vehicle Integrated Powertrain Energy Recovery: a system to harness, store and use the heat generated by a typical  powertrain, thus driving overall emissions down further.  Should be available to all vehicles by 2020.  Lead developer: Jaguar Land Rover.

Evolution of REEV (or EREV, a lá the Volt) Technologies: a follow up to a previous project to extend the range of hybrid cars to over 600 miles while keeping emissions below 50g/km.  Advanced electric powertrains are expected to be completed by the end of 2012.  Lead developer: Jaguar Land Rover.

Lightweight Ultra Low Emissions Van: an urban delivery vehicle designed in conjunction with the Royal Mail and including ergonomic seating.  A hydrogen fuel cell version is expected to be available by 2017.  Lead developer: Intelligent Energy.

CO2 Reduction Through Emissions Optimization: the next step after catalytic converters, a project to reduce the energy drain of emissions control systems while maximizing CO2 emission cuts, which will be cut by 15% by 2025.  Lead developer: Ford.

Aluminum Matrix Composite Materials for Vehicle Weight Reduction: a project to investigate strengthening aluminum with fibers so that it can give the protection of steel but at a fraction of the weight (and therefore emissions).  Lead company: Jaguar.

A further $65m was also announced to provide a retail-side subsidy of $7,500 per plug in car until April 2012.