Eccentric Energy: The sun can be a friend… or foe!
11th July 2019
While Wimbledon and sunny weather aren’t always synonymous, they’re both with us at last. This got our eccentric minds thinking about the sun’s power – and perils.
Read more below:

France facing nuclear meltdown?
With France experiencing record temperatures of over 45°C in its current heatwave, the nation’s rivers have been steadily overheating and reducing in volume.
This is a significant concern for French nuclear power plants, which supply around 75% of the country’s electricity and need river water to cool their 58 reactors. A nuclear plant in Civaux (western France) cooled by water from the River Vienne that’s supplemented by two dams. Even so, the local authority criticises the company for putting local farming, leisure activities and tourism at risk through its use of the river’s water.
According to Reuters, the French environment ministry recently announced the goal of reducing water use by 10% in five years and by 25% in 15 years. Encouraging wastewater recycling and using less water overall were two of the recommendations for achieving these targets – apparently the result of lengthy discussions with local authorities and utilities.

Ice cream vans to play zero-emissions tune?
When the summer comes, so do the ice cream vans. However, a recent article in “The Guardian” reported that some councils in London have banned the mobile, diesel-powered confectionery dispensers because of concerns about air pollution.
While these vehicles use their engines on the move, of course, they also use them when parked to power their onboard freezers and soft-serve ice cream machines. Critics point to the resulting emission of harmful carbon and nitrogen dioxide, especially in the light of the UK’s net-zero emissions 2050 target – as justification for the bans.
However, Nissan has a news-scoop to help counter these restrictions, having retrofitted its all-electric e-NV200 model to include a battery-powered ice cream maker, fridge and freezer. This prototype uses the vehicle’s standard 40kWh lithium-ion battery to drive the motor, plus a new 700Wh-capacity ROAM portable power pack to run the equipment.
Scottish ice cream producer Mackie’s of Scotland is helping Nissan to refine the vehicle before it continues development.

Who needs the sun when night generation’s possible?
One of the few drawbacks of solar power is that its source – the sun! – is only available in either hemisphere for around half of each day. So, wouldn’t it be great if we could generate power at night too?
Essentially, solar panels are photodiodes; they convert the sun’s light particles (photons) into electricity by exciting the electrons in a semiconducting material (e.g. silicon). The website ScienceAlert reports that Stanford University is trying to take advantage of the "negative illumination effect" – the flow of outgoing radiation created as heat escapes from Earth into space.
The experiment uses a sky-facing infrared semiconductor to convert this flow into an electrical current. While the 64 nanowatts per square metre of power produced is only miniscule, it does prove the concept. And with the right materials and conditions, it may be possible to produce a million times more power (4 watts per square metre).
However, this would still fall short of the capacity of today's solar panels: up to 200 watts per square metre. All of which means that the sun won’t be setting on renewable power for the foreseeable future.
Related articles

Eccentric energy: Poo is powerful
Welcome to our latest instalment of Eccentric energy, where we explore the weird and wonderful ideas behind electricity in the modern world.

Eccentric Energy: You’ve got the power!
Our Eccentric Energy post for June 2019 focuses on two of the ways that every human can contribute to generating electricity. Read more below:

Eccentric Energy: Unlocked cells to set decarbonisation free
The electricity industry – as well as governments, academics and climate-change activists – see power storage using batteries (or cells) as a key to...

Eccentric Energy: Food… glorious food?
Not-for-profit social enterprise Food AWARE estimates that 18 million tonnes of food go into UK landfill sites every year. Producers and the supply chain,...

Eccentric Energy: Something in the air tonight
Our most recent Eccentric Energy blogs have related to the elements - specifically, the sun and sea - so this month is all about...

Eccentric energy – Sustainability is “in” with the fashion industry
You may have seen recent news reports about the clothing industry’s detrimental impact on the environment. Writing to Britain’s top 10 fashion retailers, Parliament’s...

Eccentric Energy: Animal Power
This month, the new David Attenborough TV series “Dynasties” and food retailer Iceland’s controversial advert about palm oil deforestation destroying orangutan habitats have hit...

Eccentric Energy - Plastic fantastic?
To follow up on our May 2018 blog about the merits of plastic power, this month’s Eccentric Energy firstly looks at replacing plastic packaging...

Eccentric Energy: Plastic Power
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about the detrimental impact that plastics are having on our oceans and the environment. So this month’s...

Eccentric Energy: The drive towards a better environment
For March 2019's Eccentric Energy blog, we’re looking at the relationship between vehicles (or their manufacturers) and the environment - from Nottingham to Barcelona...

Eccentric Energy: Shining a light on solar
With the UK enjoying sunny weather over recent weeks, we thought it’d be a good time to focus on eccentric energy ideas that harness...

Eccentric energy: Rock down to Electric Avenue
Welcome to our latest instalment of Eccentric energy, where we explore the weird and wonderful ideas behind electricity in the modern world.