Vattenfall is one of the biggest energy company in Europe. The problem is that they produce coal-based energy which produces high amounts of CO2 that harm the environment and cause global warming. Now, thanks to a new project, Vattenfall will be able to produce coal-based energy without any CO2 emissions.

Seems pretty unbelievable but Lars Josefsson, President and CEO of Vattenfall, says that “this technology will become more important than offshore wind farms.” The Swedish company is looking to produce energy from coal while capturing carbon and storing it.

This technique is called CCS (carbon capture and storage) and is the only way that in the future companies will produce coal-based energy.

“Our project at Schwarze Pumpe puts us at the forefront of this technology in the world,” said Tuomo Hatakka, Senior Executive Vice President at Vattenfall, who believes that “coal has a future, we are convinced of that, but the carbon dioxide emissions from it have no future.”

As clean technology will be their main objective, Vattenfall is planning to build its first “large-scale CCS power station” by 2020.

For the moment, they will build two CCS demonstration plants in Germany and Denmark, but the problem is that “Vattenfall managers talk a lot about supposedly environmentally friendly coal power stations but they are still planning and building conventional coal-fired power stations with high levels of CO2 emissions.”

We are very sorry to hear that, but Tuomo Hatakka gave us hope by saying that “in tandem with EU-wide trading in emission rights, CCS will be economic. At 30 to 35 euros per emission certificate, the technology breaks even.”

We should have thought that the money are a problem as this is what the big companies are after. Well, we are pleased to hear that the costs CCS power plants will compete against the costs of coal power plants with high amounts of CO2 emissions.

The Paris Motor Show is coming and we are not so interested in it, but we are looking for green cars that will be unveiled there. Here is the Mazda Kiyora which is the next-gen urban car, and unfortunately only a concept for the moment.

The Mazda Kiyora will be lightweight, but in the same time very safe, and it’s part of Mazda’s vision about the future - Sustainable Zoom-Zoom. Kiyora means clean and pure in Japanese and this is what Mazda had in mind when they designed it. The car was inspired by water as it is clean and pure.

Kiyora Concept will have very-low CO2 emissions and impressive fuel economy, and in combination with a cute design and good performances for a green car, Mazda are very likely to draw everybody’s attention next month at the Paris Motor Show.

Probably by now you already know that in the future fossil fuels will no longer be used as they harm our planet therefore researchers are trying to design cheaper and more efficient ways to harness renewable energies. Solar, wind and tidal power are the best solution for the moment and these were improved greatly during the past years.

Today we are going to talk about tidal power as a team of researchers from Oxford University have designed a new underwater turbine that is cheaper and easier to be maintained. It’s called Transverse Horizontal Axis Water Turbine besides the 60% lower costs and 40% maintenance costs, it’s also more efficient as one THAWT will generate about 12 megawatts of energy which is enough to power 12,000 homes.

The THAWT has only one problem as the engineers don’t know if it will be approved as it could affect the underwater life. Hopefully, the underwater turbine will not have any ecological negative effects the the THAWT will be deployed soon.

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Scientists from the Kyushu University in Japan have designed a massive floating power plant that will combine photovoltaic arrays with windmills. This power plant will be deployed off-shore and it will measure 1.25 miles by 0.5 miles and preliminary tests showed that it’s possible and a new generator like this should be ready in about three years.

Besides generating clean energy, the power plant will feature LEDs which will provide lighting for the sea therefore seaweed growth will be stimulated and the fish will be attracted there.

The modular floating power plant will feature units shaped like a hexagon and will generate electricity thanks to wind turbines and photovoltaic generators. In total, there will be about 200,000 photovoltaic generators that will produce about 300,000 kilowatts of electricity.

“The new generating units also could be used in an inland reservoir. They can be used to manufacture hydrogen–CO2-free fuel–by electrolysis,” said Toshiaki Ota, professor at Kyushu University and leader of the research team.

Well, until that we can only hope that the project will be approved and that in three years time we’ll see these floating power plants generating electricity.

I already knew that most of the structures of the future will be green, but I didn’t expect to see a green dome like this. It’s not that domes can’t be or shouldn’t be green, it’s just that this one looks like it was designed for a circus.

As you can see from the pictures, the dome is multicolored and designer Daniele Gualeni decided to call it Art. Rainbow. The multicolored dome will feature solar panels that will harness energy during the day so that it can be used at night.

After I watched the pictures closely, the Artificial Rainbow looks kinda cool despite my first impression and if it’s green then why shouldn’t it become a reality?

Well, it seems like not only the cars of the future will be powered by solar energy as two Japanese companies unveiled a project consisting of world’s first solar powered ship. Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp said the the ship will be just “partially solar-powered” thanks to the solar panels and each will generate around 40 kilowatts of electricity.

The ship will be a 60,000-ton, will transport cars of the Toyota Motor Corporation, and “the ship system is expected to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1 to 2%, or about 20 tons per year,” said Hideyuki Dohi, GM at Nippon Oil Corp.

Although Nippon Yusen KK will subsidize $1.4 million for this solar-powered ship project, the fact that this will lead to a cleaner world helps the company to forget about the money. If the estimations are correct, the solar panels would lead to a 6.5% less fuel usage, however, we are expecting to see this percentage highly increased until the ship will not be powered by diesel engines (but this is many years away.)

“If it’s possible, we want to aim for the full commercialization of the system in the next three to five years,” said Ikutoshi Matsumura, executive vice-president at Nippon Oil Corp, but in the meantime the ship should be completed by December this year.

NewScientist via EcoFriend