Cave ‘batteries’ will store wind power

For Uninterrupted Supply, Air Compressed Into Special Caverns Will Run Turbines Even When It’s Less Windy

Dominic O’Connell

Promoters of wind-power projects tout them as the feel-good alternative to burning fossil fuels. Energy secretary Ed Miliband seems to agree, saying last week that it should become “socially unacceptable” to oppose new windfarm developments in your area.

Wind power has an Achilles Heel, however. It is fickle — as fickle as the wind. Energy planners who have to make sure the lights don’t go out cannot guarantee power will arrive, no matter how many turbines are built. Conventional power plants, probably run on coal or gas, have to be ready to pick up the slack if the wind doesn’t blow. Now two British companies are putting money into a technology that could overcome this problem. Electricity from wind farms will be used to compress air, which will be stored in caverns below ground. When power is needed, the compressed air will be released, driving turbines to generate electricity.

If the technology works, energy planners will be able to rely on power from wind farms when it comes to planning the next day’s output — and the plants that burn fossil fuel can be stood down. Such a development could be critical to Britain, which wants to increase wind power tenfold by 2020, as part of the government's plan to have 35% of electricity generated from renewable sources.

The compressed-air technique may sound far-fetched, but it is already in operation. At Huntdorf in Germany, a 290MW plant — powerful enough to run 290,000 homes — has been running for 25 years. A 110MW facility at McIntosh, Alabama, opened in 1991. Neither stores wind power, but excess production from conventional stations. They were built to store electricity generated at periods of low demand, with it being sold to the local grid when whenever demand surged.

Sirius Exploration, a group quoted on the Alternative Investment Market, London’s junior stock market, has a huge stake in an ambitious power-storage project in North Dakota. The state is America’s windiest, and power from the it is destined for mid-western cities, including Chicago.

Sirius has invested in an American company, Dakota Salts, which has a lease on 5,000 acres of salt pan. It plans to mine potash found in deposits beneath the surface, leaving behind caverns that have the ideal geology to store compressed air. The technique will allow wind farms to take on the characteristics of conventional power plants. SUNDAY TIMES

WINDFALL: Underground caverns to hoard energy will allow wind farms to take on the characteristics of conventional power plants

Wind-powered vehicle breaks speed record

A British engineer has smashed the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles, becoming the fastest naturally powered human on the planet.

Richard Jenkins clocked 126.1mph in the Greenbird, harnessing winds of just 30mph in the futuristic vehicle.

The Greenbird, that resembles a stretched missile with a giant fin, set the top speed on the dry bed of Lake Ivanpah on the border of California and Nevada in the US.

The team beat the previous American-held record of 116mph, which was set by Bob Schumacher in the Iron Duck almost 10 years ago to the day at the same location. The fifth-generation Greenbird, which Jenkins designed and built on his 10-year quest to beat the record, uses a combination of technology found in aircraft and Formula 1 cars.

“It has been an incredibly difficult challenge,” he said. “Half the challenge is technical, having to create a more efficient vehicle than the previous record holder, then the rest is luck, being in the right place, at the right time, with the right people watching. AGENCIES

Richard Jenkins’s Greenbird is the fastest naturally-powered car

Expelled kids framed by school: Parents

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: Hectic mediation efforts were mounted late on Saturday to broker a settlement between Ecole Mondiale World School, Juhu, and the parents of five Class XII students expelled for their alleged role in doctoring marksheets and sending these to foreign universities.

Speaking to this newspaper, the parents of some of the students who were expelled on March 17 claimed that their children were innocent and had been framed by the school. The school has, however, reiterated that it has proof of the students’ complicity.

A report on the students’ expulsion was carried by this paper on Saturday.

A parent whose child was expelled said, “For admissions to foreign varsities, the school has to send the necessary papers directly to the universities, signed by the principal and school counsellor.’’

Inflating grade row: School to let students take exams

Mumbai: Claiming that it is the school that sends documents directly to foreign universities, a parent of a Std XII student expelled by Ecole Mondiale World School for allegedly doctoring marksheets, said, “In this case, the school has made discrepancies in the marksheets of the entire batch of 40 students in Class XII while sending their applications to foreign universities. In order to cover its own tracks, it has victimised our children and attempted to frame them in this case.

“The school is involved in a huge scam and has not shown us any evidence of our children being involved in doctoring marksheets. They have intimidated our children in order to extract information from them. We have filed a police complaint against the school, as well as a suit in the city civil court,’’ added the parent.

“The school has even sent out letters to all 700 parents in the school, asking for their support for the school’s decision to expel our children,’’ the parent said.

The principal, Finbarr O’Regan, however, denied the parents’ allegations. “This is preposterous and absolutely untrue,’’ said O’Regan, adding that he had had a detailed meeting with each of the five parents individually and had shown them proof of their child’s involvement in doctoring marksheets. “I have taken great care to protect these children and have ensured that they finish their IB diploma course. The school will allow them to appear for their IB exams in May as we see no connection between them finishing their exams and what we believe they are involved in,’’ he said.

O’Regan adds that the school sent out an e-mail to all parents in the school over the action taken against the five students as well as the reasons for doing so. “Nowhere have I asked parents for their support. My email says that I expect their support in this situation,’’ he added.

IIT classes from Std VII, 6 yrs before test [Can we get any crazier than this!]

Rao Jaswant Singh | TNN

Kota: So what if they haven’t a clue about calculus or are still to learn about protons and electrons? Surely that can’t stop a child from training to be an IITian.

This may seem unthinkable elsewhere, but in Kota, the coaching hub for IITians that routinely sends hundreds to the top institutes, students from Class VII can receive special training from this year to crack the IIT entrance test. Never mind that they can take a shot at it only six years down the line.

To make life easier for these students, who until now had only routine tuitions to worry about after school, faculty from the centres will go to the different schools to hold special classes.

The special course—Prefoundation Career Care Program (PCCP)—is apparently aimed at “better conceptual understanding’’. To enrol, one needs to have scored at least 70% in Class VI. Those who don’t manage the 70% have the option of taking an admissions test.

Manoj Sharma, additional director (administration and management), Resonance, a coaching institute, said the objective was to develop qualities such as a scientific temperament, mathematical aptitude, problem-solving skills, reasoning and competitive psychology, among students at an early stage.

“These qualities help develop the competitive quotient among students so that they perform better in school as well as in competitive exams,’’ Sharma added. Resonance has tied up with the Sawai Man Singh School in Jaipur and DPS in Chandigarh and efforts are on to cover others.

Pramod Maheshwari, CEO of Career Point, another coaching institute, said early preparation was always beneficial, especially now that the number of attempts for the IIT-JEE had been restricted to two. Career Point is holding classes under its programme Synchro School Education at schools in Kota, Assam and Punjab. Efforts are on to rope in more. “We have launched a website on which students can test their skills by solving test papers,” he said.