Alternative Energies


Programme: Biofuels: challenges and opportunities

May 2, 2011 in Biofuels

Biofuels are in an ambiguous position in the field of sustainable energy, and in this programme we focus on their production in an effort to understand how they can be made, what impact they have on the environment, and how they should develop in the future. Dismissed outright by some environmentalists as a polluting threat to the natural environment, biofuels are also championed by others as a necessary product to feed demand for low-carbon fuels in shipping, aviation and road freight.

Discussion: What are the opportunities and challenges in biofuels production?

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Live debate: De-carbonised transport: with or without biofuels?

Programme: The thorny question of biofuels

Discussion: What would it take to unlock the full potential of biofuels?


Programme: The thorny question of biofuels

November 1, 2010 in Biofuels, Other

To overcome dwindling oil supplies and to reduce greenhouse gases, we can derive our transportation fuels from plants. But environmentalists argue biofuels encourage unsustainable agriculture and sacrifice food for fuel. So, are biofuels really the green saviour?

Discussion: What would it take to unlock the full potential of biofuels?

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Live debate - De-carbonised transport: with or without biofuels?

Live Debate - The future of biofuels

Live Debate - The new challenges of sustainable agriculture


Programme: Energy from the tides

October 1, 2010 in Tidal and Wave Energy

The seas and oceans are one of this planet’s greatest resources. The movement of
waves and tides are a naturally occurring phenomenon and, like the sun and wind, can be harnessed to produce vast amounts of electrical energy. Marine energy has not, thus far, attracted the investment that the former have done, though its potential is slowly being recognised. Comment Visions October programme interviews Peter Fraenkel, Technical Director of Marine Current Turbines. Peter Fraenkel is the engineer behind  Seagen, the world’s first commercial electrical turbine that uses the tides to generate 1.2 megawatts
of electricity in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. Seagen will be tested in the Pentland Firth project in Scotland where Marine Current Turbines is planning to use its technology to produce up to 300 Mw by 2020.

Discussion: Is lack of investment the only challenge holding back wave and tidal energy?

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Live Debate -- Global Warming and Lifestyle Changes


Programme: Is Wind the Solution?

May 1, 2010 in Wind Energy

Along with solar, wind power is touted as one of the solutions to our energy problem, but wind turbines have their critics. Standing at 100 meters tall and boasting blades that equal the wing span of a Boeing 747, their size can be intimidating and their dependability is in question due to their reliance on a capricious resource. This month on Comment:Visions, we look at wind power and meet Christina Grumstrup Sorensen, a mechanical engineer based in Copenhagen and Senior Vice President of one of Denmark’s leading energy providers.

Sorensen is pragmatic on the visibility issue. She explains: “Obviously you can’t avoid seeing them, they have to be in the landscape as they have to catch the wind. That’s how they produce the energy”. There are other options, such as relocating the turbines to the ocean, but they too have their drawbacks. “If you move them to the sea the impact on the people and on the living areas will be less, but then, of course, you have other issues with birds and fish. But in fact, our initial studies of the wind farms that have been installed for ten years show that the effects that we were most worried about proved to be much less than we anticipated.”

Discussion: To what extent should we encourage the growth of wind energy in our future energy mix?

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Programme: A Tale of Energy Independence

September 1, 2009 in Geothermal Energy

Unterhaching is a town of around 25,000 people a few kilometers south of Munich, Germany. In most respects it is typical of small towns in Europe, except for one thing, it has built and now operates its own power generating station using hot water from deep within the Earth’s crust.

The idea first arose in the 1990’s and over the following decade the town secured the venture capital and the engineering resources to drill down three-and-a half kilometers to tap into a permeable limestone layer containing hot water. The drilling was successful and a pump house was built – in effect, a mini power station – where the thermal water is used to generate 3.4 megawatts of electricity a year.

The Geothermie Unterhaching project provides a perpetual sources of energy that is virtually free of greenhouse gas emissions – entirely owned and operated by the town.

Discussion: Should local communities be encouraged to develop their own sustainable solutions, such as geothermal energy, to power generation?

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Programme: The Question of Nuclear Energy

June 1, 2009 in Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power; the feared and unloved energy source, which proved so controversial during the second half of the 20th century, is back.

Professor Janne Wallenius is a reactor physicist at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. In this eye-opening interview he talks about the advances made in the technology around nuclear power, both in terms of the safety of the plants themselves and new techniques for storing used fuel.

Could nuclear power provide 40% of the planet’s electricity needs in the future? Professor Wallenius believes that this is not only possible, but inevitable and desirable as it would reduce our dependence on oil using existing technology. Watch the interview now for a new view of nuclear.

Discussion: What role should nuclear technology play in our future energy mix?

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Programme: Harvesting the Sun

May 1, 2009 in Solar Energy

The sun has long fascinated scientists. It’s immense power keeps the globe alive and as long as there is a planet earth there will be solar energy.

Dr Eduardo Zarza Moya has been studying solar energy for more than 20 years and in this interview he delineates the technology involved in solar concentration and its potential. Using large scale mirrors to harness solar radiation in order to produce steam, which then drives electricity turbines, solar concentration is a clean process reliant on the sort of solar radiation apparent in the hottest parts of the planet. Dr Moya is currently involved in a project to build a solar energy plant in North Africa and while he admits transmitting the electricity produced is currently prohibitively expensive he remains positive about the future.

Discussion: Climate change and the world’s growing energy needs demand that we increase the use of alternative energies, but is it happening fast enough?

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Programme: A greener future with biofuels?

March 1, 2009 in Biofuels

In this months’s Comment Visions, we discuss the hot topic of whether biofuels are an ecologically-sound solution to the world’s increasing energy needs, or a potentially disastrous cause of deforestation and food shortages.

Dr Jeremy Woods, Lecturer in Biofuels at Imperial College London, believes that there are many challenges facing the world when it comes to energy in years to come, and also that biofuels will be a major factor in dealing with them, if it is managed properly.

Can bioethanol and biodiesel power the world of the future? Comment Visions meets Dr Woods at the British Sugar factory in Wissington, Norfolk, to find out.

Discussion: What role should biofuels play in our future energy mix?

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Live Debate - The future of biofuels

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Programme: Food, Fuel and Biodiversity

August 1, 2008 in Biofuels

They were touted as the environmentally-sound and sustainable solution to fossil fuels, but in recent years biofuels have become one of the most controversial topics in the broader debate over the planet’s energy needs.

Professor José Esquinas-Alcázar is a Spanish scientist specialising in biodiversity. With background in plant genetics he has been a champion of policies promoting genetic diversity. As the cost and effects of the increase in biofuel production continues to make headlines and demand research, Euronews talks to Professor Esquinas about global interdependence, the need to protect against overreliance on certain crops and the future of the planet’s delicate ecological balance.

Discussion: Do we know enough about biofuels to encourage increased production as many governments are doing?

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Live Debate - The future of biofuels

Live Debate - The new challenges of sustainable agriculture


Programme: Air conditioning from the sun

May 1, 2008 in Solar Energy

Renewable energy has been both praised and derided as an alternative source of power over the past two decades. To its detractors it is inefficient, unreliable and economically unsound. To its advocates it is free, clean, and unlimited in its potential. With global reliance on dwindling oil reserves an international political priority, attention continues to focus on renewable energy and its applications.

This month’s Comment Visions examines the developments in renewable energy by talking to a man whose work harnesses the power of the sun to produce cooling technology. Dr Ahmet Lokurlu is a Turkish engineer and scientist whose company produces air conditioning systems run by solar power. Generating energy from the sun and turning it into cold air in countries where fuel-hungry air conditioning accounts for more than 40% of totally energy use vividly demonstrates the innovative solutions renewable sources can provide.

Discussion: Renewable energy: can it ever replace fossil fuels, or do other sources have to be explored?

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