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December 13, 2016  by

Super rich set up $1 billion climate fund for clean energy innovation

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and nineteen fellow investors have set up the Breakthrough Energy Venture (BEV) which is focussed on fighting climate change by investing in forms of clean energy. Jack Ma (Alibaba), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Hasso Plattner (SAP), Richard Branson (Virgin) and former energy hedge fund manager John Arnold are just several of the multimillionaire investors who are committed to developing commercial clean energy technology. According to Forbes Magazine the combined net worth of the directors is estimated to be close to $ 170 billion.

Over the next 20-years BEV will aim to commercialize clean energy by investing in new technologies that reduce greenhouse- gas emissions and deliver affordable and reliable energy for future generations. This news follows the latest reports of president-elect Donald Trump appointing vocal climate-change deniers who advocate for traditional energy sources such as gas, oil and coal, the exact opposite of the emission-free future that BEV is striving to realize.

Here at Blue21 we are thrilled with this news. Generating renewable energy on land and of course on sea!! is the only way to keep our blue planet habitable.

Online newspaper Quartz has published an article about the BEV initiative.

Image source: Breakthrough Energy

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December 5, 2016  by

Alternative offshore energy storage being investigated

Wind farms and solar-energy plants produce free energy, but the availability can change from minute to minute. In order to be able to compete with more traditional forms of energy production it is important to store surpluses on a large-scale for times of scarcity. Pumped storage, as it is called, was until recently, dependant on convenient geography to be built and done so on a two-reservoir-model. Two individual projects are investigating how to adapt the principle of pumped storage to cheap and reliable systems in order to smooth the output of energy and to become large-scale contributors to power generation.

The first project has been running for a year in Toronto, Canada and is situated at the bottom of Lake Ontorio. Compressed air is pumped to a storage vessel 55 metres below the surface of the water where it is stored in spherical bags made by proprietary material. When energy is needed, the air is released to the onshore plant, its expansion there back to normal pressure drives a turbine.

In Germany the StEnSea system (Storing Energy at Sea) has been launced at a depth of 100 metres in Lake Constance. Rather than storing compressed air, this system uses water to pump energy to and from a series of concrete pressure vessels, turning turbines as it travels.

In The Economist an interesting article about both projects and their expected storage capacity.

Image source: © HOCHTIEF Solutions – Storing Energy at Sea

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October 25, 2016  by

How would you design a floating city?

You can share your ideas on designing a floating city during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven from the 22nd to 30th of October, where our floating city design is part of Regeneration.

Our floating city design will be on display and open to feedback from visitors. This way we want to raise awareness on floating development as a solution to sea level rise, land shortage and climate change. And of course all feedback will help us in further developing our vision and design for floating cities of the future.

I am unable to attend the DDW but here are

 my ideas on designing a floating city

Thank you for sharing!

Location and opening hours Floating City @DDW

ddw-2016_2

Photos © Cleo Goossens @DDW 2016

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October 18, 2016  by

Blue21’s floating city at Dutch Design Week 22nd -30th October


What ideas do you have when it comes to designing a floating city? You can share them with us during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven from the 22nd to 30th of October. There our floating city design will be on display and open to feedback from our visitors.

Will you not be visiting the Dutch Design Week? Or have you obtained new insights since you have visited our exhibition?

Then you can share your ideas with us here. In doing so you will help us in further developing our vision and design for floating cities of the future. Thank you!

On Regeneration
Our floating city design is part of Regeneration, an exhibition curated by Transnatural.

Regeneration explores the possibilities of regenerating our current, ecosystems. The exhibition will show a variety of projects by artists and designers who deal with issues involved with this ecological regeneration and, simultaneously, they investigate newly possible resources derived from these regenerated ecosystems.

Transnatural composed and curates the exhibition and offers an ongoing cultural program on balancing nature and technology and represents an Art & Design Label. After the DDW the exhibition will travel home to Transnatural where you can visit it until April 28th 2017.

Projects and participants
Caravel / Ivan Henriques (BR), The Salt Project / Eric Geboers (NL), Interwoven / Diana Scherer (NL), The Floating City / Blue21 (NL), Post-Fishing / Inês Marques (PT), Mist Collecting Surface / Robyn Tayler Payne (UK), ReGen Villages / ReGen Labs (NL) & Effekt architects (DK)

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October 18, 2016  by

Hawaii surf is generating renewable energy

Hawaii is famous for its surfing and legendary waves that attract surfers from all over the world. The American state situated in the Pacific Ocean is testing how they can use these very waves to produce renewable energy that will power homes on the islands.

For this trial two wave turbine machines have been placed in the waters of the Kaneohe Bay. The machines, installed by the U.S. Navy, have been producing enough energy to power around a dozen homes, but the expectation is that future versions will be be able to supply hundreds of homes with renewable energy.

Upworthy.com posted an interesting article on the subject.

Image source:Northwest Energy Innovations

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