ASPA News

National Research Council of Canada has approved Aero-Solar Predictive Algorithm (ASPA) Validation Project for funding through the Industrial Research Assistance Program. 

Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability at University of British Columbia in Vancouver  and Ascent Systems Technologies has agreed in principle on the concept of mutual cooperation. CIRS will provide their energy consumption and production data for testing ASPA against it. Ascent Systems will provide results to CIRS for analysis and further system optimization consideration.

ASPA is designed utilizing principles of Systems Architecture. The first build of the ASPA software has been transferred to a relational database, providing ease of access, flexibility and scalability.

Ascent Systems completes Phase 1 of the ASPA Project

Aero-Solar Predictive Algorithm (ASPA) is able to calculate the optimal configuration of the sustainable technology package - solar thermal system, high-efficiency thermal storage and thermal energy booster - within 10% margin.

Critical Succes Factors

Critical Success Factors

re-posted from Sunrise Story with some changes:

1.  Clear Vision
2.  Realistic Expectations
3.  Clear Requirements
4.  Proper Planning
5.  Smaller Milestones
6.  Executive Support
7.  Ownership
8.  User Involvement
9.  Competent Staff
10.  Dedicated Staff

The Lesson of SOYUZ

It is ironic. 20 years ago Americans were accusing Soviet Union of copying the Space Shuttle design for their own multipurpose space system Energia-Buran (for which I happened to design the guidance & navigation algorithms of the atmospheric stage of the ascent trajectory).

Today NASA for their newest manned space system, SLS-Orion, is essentially "coming back" to the old Soviet design of Soyuz rocket and spacecraft. Soyuz, which survived several generations of the manned US space programs - Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle - is a perfect example of successful implementing the principles of Systems Architecture: modularity, extensibility, scalability and evolvability.

   

The Lesson of Apollo 11

How do you engineer a breakthrough? It is not luck. There is a process to it – one that any one of us can follow.
To achieve a breakthrough is to surpass one’s old boundaries. It is to break down a wall no one thought could be toppled. It is to push past your limits and arrive on a new stage for the first time.
The problem is, walls are often hard to see. Apart from athletes, most people do not routinely consider their own limits.
How can you clearly see your own limits and walls? The answer is revealed in one of my favorite stories: the launch of Apollo 11.
In May of 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced that by the end of that decade, the United States would send a man to the moon. The world of space exploration was a competitive one at that time. The former Soviet Union had launched the first satellite, Sputnik, and even the first manned spacecraft.
Kennedy’s announcement was part of a plan to wipe out the “Sputnik Shock” that gripped the nation. By setting a specific timeframe – not “someday” but “before this decade is over” was brilliant. It allowed the US space program to see the walls, understand the current limits, and commit to pushing past them into the breakthrough.
If Kennedy had said “someday” instead of “this decade” I do not believe the breakthrough would have been achieved.
The landing of Apollo 11 greatly influenced me. It clarified my thinking to see that success is never aimless. If you carry out routine work aimlessly day after day, you will never succeed.  Set a goal, use every effort to move towards it, dream big. Goals alone are what lead people and companies to amazing breakthroughs.

 This was posted by Hiroshi Mikitani. I sign under every letter of it.

AERO SOLAR web site

Ascent Systems Technologies

We have our own web site: www.ascentdevelopments.ca

Check it out to find more about our company, our projects and contact information.

You can also contact me directly at: VG@ascentdevelopments.ca

Russia's Skolkovo Tech Picks First Research Centers

First 3 Skolkovo RCs:

• Infectious Disease and RNA Therapeutics: proposed by leading partners from MIT, and Lomonosov Moscow State University, (MSU), with participation from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
• Stem Cell Research: proposed by leading partners from University Medical Centre Groningen in the Netherlands, and Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in Russia.
• Electro-Chemical Energy Storage: proposed by leading partners from MIT and Lomonosov MSU.

Reliable efficient and affordable energy storage is one of the key components of the high-performance sustainable technology package.  Not surpisingly, I would like to know more about the last one.

Skolkovo again

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SkTech) launches a very interesting concept - Research Centre within the University. These centres will be one of the main pillars of the new university, comprised from at least one international (non-Russian) university, at least one Russian university, and a SkolkovoTech. While following the development of this initiative, I came across of this interesting article:
    
Skolkovo's Trickle-down Effect

When Continental Drift Was Considered Pseudoscience

One hundred years ago a German scientist was ridiculed for advancing the shocking idea that the  continents were adrift. Today it is a common knowledge.

Smithsonian

Skolkovo Tech’s Innovation Workshop underway at MIT

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/sktech-innovation-workshop-underway.html

Hybrid Solar Thermal / Solar Electric System

One of the several concepts in this direction. These look very much like familiar vacuum UV collectors. Take for example our favorite Sunda S1-16.  If you insert PV elements inside the tube, you will get the Naked Energy system.  The main idea is to offset the drop in efficiency of overheated PV elements by cooling them with the embedded solar thermal system module.

 Naked Emergy hybrid solar PV - solar thermal collector

Sunda Seido vacuum UV solar thermal collector

National Clean Energy Summit 2012

President Clinton's speech at the National Clean Energy Summit 5.0 

It is quite long, but very worth watching (you can right away move to about 8:40).

My favorite parts:
- The most successful species on Earth are the cooperators: termites, ants, bees and humans
- The aggregate weight of ants on Earth is more than the aggregate weight of all humans
- One of the most respected opponents of the global warming Prof. of Physics at Berkley Dr. Muller in a study funded by the Tea Party, confirmed the global warming is real  
- The wind in North Dakota can provide electricity for all America
- Painting black roof white in the city of New York will save 18-20% on air-conditioning  
- In one day Germany produced 22 GW of solar energy - equivalent to 20 nuclear power plants
- Germany has on average the same amount of sunshine as London and less than any state in America except Alaska 
- The most expensive electricity is in Caribbean countries (Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, pays 36 cents per kilowatt of electricity) 
- Costa-Rica decided to not develop its own oil reserves, but use only clean energy

Carson Graham goes green

Yesterday had an opportunity to observe the upgrade of Carson Graham Secondary School
in North Vancouver.  Among number of efficiency features there are solar thermal and PV
systems installed by my friends from Future Energy. They will not only provide energy, but
also serve for educational purposes.

Drake Landing Solar Community

A showcase for solar heating with central storage:
 Drake Landing Solar Community

Location: Okotoks, Alberta. 51.1 deg N, 114 deg W, 1084 m elevation
Weather: Winter -33 C; Summer 28.3 C DB/15.6 C WB
                (Sun Peaks has a similar, slightly milder range)

• 52-house subdivision to have space and water heating supplied by solar energy
• Solar energy captured year round by 800-panel garage mounted array
• Combination of seasonal and short-term thermal storage facilitate collection and storage of solar energy in the summer for use in space heating in winter
• Borehole thermal energy storage is an in-ground heat sink for seasonal energy storage
• Short-term thermal storage tanks are central hub for heat movement between collectors, district loop / houses, and borehole thermal energy storage
• District loop moves heat from the short-term thermal storage tanks to the houses

 Cool feature: you can view the current system performance in real time.  

Solar Energy Heat Storage

Not very new, but quite interesting and useful source:

Solar Energy Heat Storage for Home, Farm and Small Business:
Suggestions on Selecting and Using Thermal Storage Materials and Facilities

Purdue University. Cooperative Extension Service.  Department of Agricultural Engineering.


Some of other useful links:
European Heat Storage Technologies Consortium
http://www.preheat.org/
International Energy Agency's Solar Heating and Cooling Program
http://www.iea-shc.org/
Solar District Heating
http://www.solar-district-heating.eu/

Adams Lake "green" vision

On August 2nd I had a chance to visit the Adams lake Indian Band and speak with the Band Manager. That was quite an interesting and eye-opening meeting. Adams Lake Indian Band has initiated several significant projects in the area of sustainable energy. Among them: a number of micro-hydro projects, test wind tower at Sun Peaks and possibly solar farms. Other plans include a fully "green" resort village  on Shuswap Lake and others. One cannot fail to admire the scale of these plans and their commitment to environmental sustainability.














I also had a chance to see their newly retrofit gymnasium facility and was quite impressed. This is totally not what I thought it was. They basically have two rotating towers on the roof, with the large number of solar thermal flat panels attached to one side of each tower at almost perfect angle.

In the morning the towers look to the East, midday, when I was there, to the South, and in the evening - to the West. Quite an assembly! The facility is also equipped wit the geothermal system. Combined they are expected to provide at least 50% of energy required for heating, cooling and domestic hot water needs.

Sun Peaks Fire Hall Sustainable Upgrade - Day Three & Four

A piece of space on Earth - vacuum solar tube, capturing solar energy

Liquid transferring heat and preventing system from freezing

The collector is installed at the highest point for the best exposure

The collector is "flying" above the roof surface

Let it shine !

Clean energy will keep firefighters clean

Carbon Tax is increasing

British Columbia is boosting its controversial carbon tax by $5 a tonne on July 1, further driving up the price of gasoline and other petroleum products as the province attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020.
Environment groups have applauded the province’s carbon levy, which was offset by cuts to personal and corporate income taxes when it was introduced four years ago. The carbon tax has contributed to a 15 per cent drop in British Columbians’ use of petroleum-based fuels since it was introduced in 2008, said an Ottawa-based think tank, Sustainable Prosperity, in a report issued Wednesday.

At the same time the carbon tax on natural gas increasing from $1.2415 to $1.4898 per gigajoule. This constitutes 20% increase. Time to go green !

Sun Peaks Fire Hall Sustainable Energy upgrade - Day Two

The installation of the solar thermal system began today. Solar storage tank has been installed and most of the piping made ready to be connected to the solar collector to be mounted on the roof.

Photo report of the day:

 
 solar storage tank has arrived

               
curious visitor

spectator

getting ready for the job

where are the tubes ?

going through the roof

soldering

looking for a signal from space

still working

Motto of the day: