Génie électrique & Electrical Engineering & الهندسة الكهربائية: Sci-Tech

Morocco launches first solar power plant

King Mohammed VI inaugurated Morocco's first solar power plant

King Mohammed VI on Thursday inaugurated Morocco's first solar power plant, a massive project that the country sees as part of its goal of boosting its clean energy output.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal was among foreign and local officials who attended the opening on the edge of the Sahara desert, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Ouarzazate.

"The solar plant underlines the country's determination to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, use more renewable energy, and move towards low carbon development," its developers said in a statement.

With an electricity production capacity of 160 megawatts, Noor 1 is supposed to allow Morocco to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

The project's next phases Noor 2 and Noor 3 are to follow this year and next, and a call for tenders is open for Noor 4.

Once all phases are complete, it is to be "the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world" and produce 500 megawatts of electricity, providing power to more than one million Moroccans by 2018, its developers said.

It is to reduce Morocco's carbon emissions by 760,000 tonnes per year, they added.

That would be equivalent to around one percent of Morocco's CO2 emissions of around 56.5 million tonnes in 2011, according to World Bank figures.

Morocco launched construction of Noor 1 in 2013, at a cost of 600 million euros ($660 million) and involving roughly 1,000 workers.

Spread over an area equivalent to more than 600 football pitches, the plant's half a million metal mirrors follow the sun as it moves across the sky.

They store thermal energy from its rays and use it to activate steam turbines that produce electricity.

Morocco has scarce oil and gas reserves, and is the biggest importer of energy in the Middle East and North Africa.

Flying car...dream come true

Great news for anyone who has ever dreamed of owning a Delorian, Blade Runner’s Spinners, or even the car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: the first test flights for a flying car have been approved.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has approved test flights for Terrafugia’s TF-X cart.

A two-foot-long autonomous drone version of will take to the skies in the coming months.

The full-size model has a top speed of 200 mph and can fly for 500 miles in one journey. It is a four-seat, hybrid electric semi-autonomous vehicle, designed so an average driver can use it without undergoing pilot training. The driver can input a destination into the computer and the car will be under autopilot controls.

The test version can fly up to 121 meters at a maximum speed of 100mph. It must remain in constant communication with the FAA during its flight.

Terrafugia, a company founded by MIT aerospace engineers, will use the test flights to further develop the flying car’s design. It will examine the hover capabilities and gather data.

Singapore students build personal flying machine

A team of eight engineering students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have built a personal flying machine, dubbed ‘Snowstorm’. It could only be demonstrated by flying it indoors, due to Singapore’s legal requirements for personal aerial vehicles.

Resembling a giant drone, ‘Snowstorm’ comprises of motors, propellers and landing gears set within a hexagonal frame and can be controlled by the person sitting in it, or remotely.

It’s environmentally-friendly too, as the three rechargeable lithium batteries get their energy from solar power.

Joerg Weigl, who came up with the idea and is one of the supervisors of the project, said he wanted ‘Snowstorm’ to help people realize their dreams of flying.

“Because flying is now a community. People can now fly with a jetliner, but the feeling of flying got lost on the way. So ‘Snowstorm’ is our multi-copter where you can get the feeling of flying back, the feeling of flying to anybody who wants to fly,” he said.

The team said the current prototype can technically bear the load of a single person up to 70 kilograms for a flight time of about five minutes and for safety, the seat is installed with a five-point harness that secures the pilot to the center of the machine.

However, a dummy, which is a few times lighter than a human being, was visibly easier to control.

Team member, student Wang Yuyao admitted that ‘Snowstorm’ is still a work in progress.

“The next step is, from an electrical standpoint, it’s definitely to have more fail-safes, better stability and easier control for the pilot, and from the mechanical side of the staff, it’s definitely more structural stability as well as maybe even more power. We can always add more motors to lift a heavier person,” he said.

Rather than a mode of transportation, the team said the flying machine will be more for personal recreational use. Weigl said he could see it being commercialized some years down the road.

“As soon as you make it stable and possible as a fun activity, a fun activity is what people want and if people want this, it’s a product and as soon as it’s a product, it’s a commercial market (product). That’s very simple and it’s a commercial market (product) that doesn’t pollute the environment, so that is a nice thing,” he said.

The personal flying machine was built over a one-year period.

Ford to invest $4.5 billion more in electric car plan by 2020

Ford Motor Co (F.N) plans to invest an additional $4.5 billion by 2020 in programs to broaden its offerings of hybrids and electric vehicles, Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields said Thursday.

Fields said it will launch late next year a new version of its Ford Focus electric car that has a 100-mile range and can recharge in 30 minutes.

Ford also plans to add 13 new plug-in hybrid, hybrid or electric vehicles to its lineup by 2020, moving to more than 40 percent the share of the company’s vehicle lines that will be electrified.

Fields said the company sees plug-in hybrid systems – which allow drivers to operate part of the time on batteries recharged from the grid, and part of the time on gasoline – as the solution many customers will prefer. The batteries for plug-in hybrids are not as heavy or expensive as those required to deliver 200-mile or more range in an all-electric vehicle.