Japan to Put Power-Producing Wind Turbines on Floating Barges

Ever since that giant earthquake and tsunami knocked out many of Japan’s nuclear power plants, the country has been scrambling to provide enough electricity for its people and businesses.

Things have gotten so bad that the Japanese plan to bolt power-producing wind turbines onto barges and float them in the ocean near where the nuclear plants were lost.

Call it “floating offshore wind.” This will be different than other offshore wind turbines that are anchored into the earth. This also may turn out to be the largest single wind farm in the world – off or on shore – producing as much as 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

That’s roughly the equivalent of two traditional coal or natural gas-fueled power plants.

To learn more, check out this Bloomberg article.

Company’s Technology Could Cut Oil Use and the Pollution Oil Creates

We don’t often write about specific companies, but in the case of Siluria Technologies Inc., we’re willing to make an exception.

That’s because Siluria’s business shines a light on how the world can use new technology to help solve its energy and environmental problems.

San Francisco-based Siluria is developing technology that will enable products that have always been made with oil to be made instead from natural gas.

You have heard about all the natural gas that’s recently been found in the US. While that’s great, today natural gas can pretty much by used only to generate electricity and heat and cool buildings.

What’s needed are new markets for natural gas, especially markets where natural gas can be used instead of oil, taking advantage of the fact that using natural gas emits less carbon dioxide gas than oil.

Siluria envisons substituting natural gas for oil in the making of a wide variety of chemicals and fuels – the building blocks of everyday life.