ENERGY NEWS

ENERGY!

'06.

A quarter of earth's population --1.6 billion people-- have no electricity.

The Kill A Watt meter ($59.95 from Energy Alternatives) is a small electronic meter that measures the amount of power your appliances use, so you know exactly where your electro dollars are going.

New fridges (models released in 2001 or later) are so energy-efficient that they run on about a third to one half of the power the old fridges use.
. . Upright freezers are 25% less efficient than chest freezers.
. . Side-by-side refrigerator/freezers are the least efficient design available. Refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom use about 16% less energy than side-by-side models. Units with the freezer on top use about 13% less energy than side-by-side fridges.
. . A manual defrost fridge or freezer actually uses about half the energy of an automatic defrosting model, but the catch is that it must be defrosted by hand regularly.

One watt --on all the time-- costs you about a dollar a year.

Oct 18, 06: Congress in its [infantile] wisdom doesn't levy the tax on light trucks, Minivans and SUVs. Therefore, folks who buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD (rated at 12/15 mpg) don't have to pay the guzzler tax, while those who buy Mercedes AMG Wagon (14/20) must.
. . The gas guzzler tax was established in 1978, and the formula used to calculate the tax has never been updated. So only cars that get gas mileage that was viewed as crappy nearly 30 years ago are penalized. If we are to have this tax, it should be updated at least every quarter century."

THE NEWS

Dec 29, 06: Biofuel from a mix of native prairie grass would yield more energy than ethanol from corn or switchgrass and would do more to combat global warming.
. . A recent study found that a diverse mixture of grasses can produce more raw material than a single-species planting of, for example, switchgrass. The University of Minnesota research compared several such plantings on poor-quality soil without fertilizer. If turned into ethanol, the grass mixture would theoretically yield a higher ratio of energy output to input than corn-based ethanol. With improved technology, it also could slow global warming by capturing CO2.
. . The results show that diverse mixtures average more than triple the productivity of grass monocultures. Growing these mixtures for several years also removes about 1,750 pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere per acre. Planting, harvesting and transporting the material only releases about 400 pounds of CO2 per year, Tilman said.
. . Tilman says it probably would not make economic sense to transport grass more than 50 miles from the field to the processing plant.

"While GM was mobilizing the Third Reich [w its sub, Opel], the company was also leading a criminal conspiracy to monopolistically undermine mass transit in dozens of American cities that would help addict the United States to oil.
. . Intrigued? Skip down:
. . At the center of the conspiracy was National City Lines, an Enronesque company that suddenly arose in 1937, ostensibly run by five barely educated Minnesota bus drivers, the Fitzgerald brothers. Yet the Fitzgeralds miraculously marshaled millions of dollars to buy up one failing trolley system after another. Soon, through a patchwork of subsidiaries, the brothers owned or controlled transit systems in more than 40 cities.
. . Now, turning the déjà vu dial up to 11:
. . Generally, when National City Lines acquired the system, the tracks were pulled from the street, the beloved electric trolleys were trashed or burned, and the whole system was replaced with more expensive, unpopular and environmentally hazardous motor buses that helped addict America to oil.
. . For further details about the scheme, the players (guess who?), the profits, the indictments, and the verdicts, see Black's article. You'll also want to consider GM's response to the broader story. FYI, Black also wrote the award-winning IBM and the Holocaust and the recently published Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881835577&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Dec 22, 06: A computer system --thousands of microcomputers working together-- would be capable of performing a quadrillion operations a second, which is 1,000 times faster than the fastest computer now, which can perform a trillion calculations a second. The petascale supercomputer would help find better drugs through computational chemistry and help design buildings more resistant to earthquakes.
. . Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics, said part of the funding for the Helios project will go for research on nanotechnology that could lead to better photovoltaic cells to make solar power. Also, Chu said, the funds could help develop biofuels beyond the current popular answer to conventional gasoline, ethanol, which uses a lot of fossil fuels in its production.

California Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed nearly $95 million in state spending on "clean" energy, biotech and nanotech research. Much of the proposal --$40 million-- would be spent only if California universities win a $500 million grant for research from oil giant BP to develop alternatives to fossil fuels.

Dec 24, 06: The humble cow pat could become the latest weapon in the fight against global warming. An agricultural college is using methane from the muck produced by its dairy herd to power its working farm.
. . The dairy cows at Walford and North Shropshire College are housed for eight months a year and their dung is collected and pumped into a digester. There it is converted into methane and used to power a generator. This produces enough energy to run the farm. "And what we get out is 7,500 kilowatts - or £7,500 worth. [That's nonsense, of course. They probably mean KW/Hrs per year.]
. . Not only does the anaerobic digester produce electricity, it also reduces the amount of methane --which accounts for around 7% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions-- produced by the dairy herd. There are 2.2 million dairy cows in the UK which, along with sheep, produce a quarter of the UK's methane emissions.
. . Roger Higman, of green pressure group Friends of the Earth, said: "Anaerobic digestion is a great idea --not least because manure from animals is also a major cause of water pollution."
. . The digester works by collecting the cows' dung, in liquid form, and pumping it into an airtight tank. Here it is heated to a temperature of 35C -2 less than human body-temp-- the temperature at which methane-producing bacteria live. The methane produced is then fed into an engine which runs on the gas and is attached to a generator which produces electricity. The heat produced by the engine is then recycled into the system to heat the cow dung to the required level.
. . The technology is used at more than 1,000 farms in Germany but only at a handful in the UK.

Dec 21, 06: major battery makers are recharging their offerings with new models that promise to hold their power longer and don't have to be plugged in for hours before the first use.
. . Wright, who's been trying out Rayovac's new batteries, is impressed. In the month since he snapped them into his camera, he hasn't had to recharge them once. "It's nice being able to just pop them in there", said Wright, an Athens, Ga. home remodeler who says he's been using his camera frequently.
. . Battery makers see a big potential in rechargeables, a small but steadily growing part of the $3.5 billion-a-year battery industry. They're also improving the technology to address consumer complaints.
. . Madison-based Rayovac, the nation's third-biggest battery maker, is broadly launching its revamped rechargeables in a few weeks. The batteries, which are fully powered out of the box, are now only available at Wal-Mart locations with a suggested retail price of $8.99 for a four pack of AA or AAA batteries. Chargers cost $9.99 to $19.99.
. . called Hybrids, they not only ship fully charged but also can hold that power for about nine months when they're not used. They're made of the same elements as standard nickel-metal hydride rechargeables, but the nickel-metal alloy is treated with a chemical process that allows the batteries to hold their juice longer, the company said. Sanyo has a similar nickel-metal hydride rechargeable called the Eneloop on sale at Circuit City, Ritz Camera and other chains. They also are fully charged out of the box, & can hold their power for up to two years.
. . Duracell also has a new nickel-metal hydride charger with a lighted display that shows the progress for each battery.
. . Duracell and Energizer, the No. 2 battery seller, have shortened the time it takes to charge their products to as little as 15 minutes with a $25 charger.
. . Rechargeables currently make up less than 5% of all battery sales. Still, they're considered among the fastest-growing segments. All the major brands figure rechargeable revenues are growing at least 20% a year.
. . As high-drain gadgets —like digital cameras— become more popular, rechargeable batteries sales will increase, battery makers say. Duracell said it expects more than 80% of households to have digital cameras by 2008, up from about 50% today.

Dec 21, 06: Electric utility Southern California Edison and Australian-based Allco Finance Group Ltd. have signed the biggest contract for wind power in U.S. history, the two companies said.
. . The pact is to generate at least 1,500 megawatts of wind power on more than 50 square miles in the windy Tehachapi region in southern California, with the first new windmills expected to begin spinning in 2011. The new turbines would generate twice the power of the biggest U.S. wind farm, the Horse Hallow Wind Farm in Texas. "This project alone will be almost as much wind power as the entire country had at the beginning of this century."
. . California has set a goal that 20% of the state's electricity will be from renewable sources --in addition to hydro power-- by 2010. So Cal Ed with 1,021 megawatts of delivered wind power generation at the end of 2005 was second in the US behind Xcel Energy Inc. of Minneapolis, at 1,048 megawatts.
. . In 2000, total U.S. wind power generation was about 2,500 megawatts, compared to about 10,000 to 11,000 megawatts now. In general, a wind turbine can generate 30 to 35% of its rated production capacity, which is based on constant wind.

Dec 21, 06: The California Pubic Utilities Commission today issued requirements and other details for a new energy program that aims to make the state one of the world's biggest producers of solar energy.
. . The CPUC issued a 92-page handbook to guide California's investor-owned utilities, customers, contractors, and solar equipment sellers through the rules for installing and operating solar photovoltaic projects.
. . The state's goal is to install 1 million rooftop solar panels on homes, businesses, farms, schools and public buildings over the next 10 years to produce 3,000 megawatts, or the equivalent of six large power plants.
. . The program has a budget of $2.2 billion that will pay incentives for solar projects beginning on January 1, 2007. Solar projects will be eligible for performance-based incentives linked to the number of kilowatts of electricity generated by the systems.

Dec 21, 06: [ironic...] Logging and agriculture has accelerated to meet the booming demand for palm oil, used in one in every 10 products on supermarket shelves --and now to feed the growing drive for biofuel, the "green" alternative to petrol and diesel.

Dec 20, 06: Based on figures from the National Energy Foundation and Infosource, more than six million PCs will be left on over Christmas, consuming nearly forty million kilowatt hours of electricity.
. . Together with the printers and other hardware they will waste enough electricity to microwave 268 million mince pies, pumping 19,000 unnecessary tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, at a cost of around £8.6m.

Dec 18, 06: The SkySails system has been used on the open seas on a pair of smaller ships, including the MS Beaufort, a 55-meter, 800-ton former buoy tender. The company says the system could contribute the equivalent of as much as about 6,800 horsepower. The 5-year-old company says that the new technology can cut annual fuel costs by between 10% and 35%.

Dec 18, 06: Top UK supermarket chain Tesco says it plans to run 75% of its delivery fleet on biodiesel from January 2007.

Dec 18, 06: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the UK's environment ministry gave the go-ahead to the 1,000 megawatt London Array and 300-MW Thanet schemes to build two of the world's largest offshore windfarms.

Dec 14, 06: Our love of driving is killing us. While we think of car crashes as causing fatalities, the production and transportation of fuel also significantly undermines public health. In his book Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction, Terry Tamminen outlines the direct and indirect impact that petroleum consumption has on millions of Americans every year.
. . Terry Tamminen: Nationally about 100,000 people die every year from preventable air pollution, and another 6.5 million go to the hospital with respiratory and other diseases related to smog and polluted air.

Dec 11, 06: Nissan said it would also develop the world's first car that can run 100 km (62 miles) on three liters of gasoline by improving the conventional internal-combustion engine, aiming for a 2010 launch in Japan.
. . It plans to sell 1 million vehicles equipped with continuously variable transmissions (CVT) by the end of the 2007/08 business year, or around 24% of its global sales volume. CVTs are more expensive than automatic transmissions but emit up to 10% less CO2.
. . It is also developing a new lithium-ion battery.

Dec 11, 06: Officials from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority met along the shores of the Dead Sea to settle details of a study to save the shrinking body of water, agreeing to proceed with plans to draw water from the Red Sea. The surface level of the Dead Sea —-the saltiest water in the world and the lowest point on Earth-— has fallen about a meter a year in the past 20 years because of evaporation and allegedly the diversion of rivers by Syria and Israel.
. . The Dead Sea and its surrounding has been the source of much human social history and it is linked to the three monotheistic religions —-Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
. . In 2005, the three concerned parties appealed to the World Bank to coordinate financing the feasibility study. The World Bank have agreed and appealed to the donor countries. They —-France, Japan, the United States and the Netherlands-— have committed themselves to participate in financing the $15 million study. The study will look at the environmental and social consequences of transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. It will disappear in 50 years, if current trends persist.
. . The Red-Dead Sea canal project, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion, would exploit the 1,320-foot difference in altitude between both areas. If implemented, the 248-mile desert area between the two seas would benefit from the fresh water to turn the region into an agricultural hub for the benefit of the three countries. A desalination project is also envisaged to provide drinking water for Amman, using power from that 1320-foot fall of water. [If it was utilized in only one generating station, it would probably be the greatest head in the world, but the pressure in the pipes would be enormous.] Israel and the Palestinian territories would also benefit from the drinking water.

Dec 8, 06: Scientists at MIT have genetically altered yeast to more efficiently assist in ethanol production. According to the researchers, ethanol production was increased by 50%. Researchers altered the yeast genome enabling the faster production of ethanol, according to the latest issue of Science. Scientists caused the overexpression of genes so that it can continue to function in higher ethanol concentrations and increase the rate of fermentation.

Dec 3, 06: Putting a harness on ocean winds, a German shipping company plans to unfurl a giant high-tech kite over a cargo ship next year to boost the vessel's propulsion and to conserve fuel. It will make its maiden voyage in early 2007.
. . The "SkySail", a 160 square-meter kite tethered to a mast, has successfully undergone years of trial runs and Bremen shipowner Beluga Shipping believes it will help its vessels cut fuel use by 15 to 20%.
. . The technology he has developed is a throwback to an earlier age of maritime travel when ships relied solely on wind. But it also addresses a key concern of the modern age: climate change. Backers of "SkySail" call it a "green" project --by cutting fuel use, it could help reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
. . Wrage said that depending on the vessel and the winds, fuel costs for shippers could be cut by more than $1,000 a day. They tested it last year on a 55-meter vessel.
. . SkySail's price tag --at between 500,000 euros and 2.5 million euros ($660,000 - $3.3 million)-- along with doubts it will deliver promised savings, and its reliance on fickle ocean winds could limit demand at first.
. . Wrage said ships will initially need to carry an engineer to operate the sail, which is about as big as a medium-sized passenger jet. SkySails can use powerful offshore winds between 100 and 300 meters above the surface with the help of the high-tech control pod, but they would be useless with head-on winds and would not benefit ships traveling above 16 knots.
. . The sails are unlikely to make much of an immediate impact on the overall fuel and environment problems facing shippers. Shipping carries more than 90% of the world's traded goods. There are 30,000 merchant ships carrying everything from oil, gas, coal, and grains to electronic goods.
. . Wrage has a staff of 33 and in 2007 expects to equip three more ships with the SkySail. He projects 1,500 vessels will have the system by 2015, when he reckons he will have 800 employees.
. . Fuel prices have more than doubled from about $150 per ton in 2004 to between $300 and $400 per ton this year and he fears prices may soon rise to $450. On top of that, European Union restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions threaten penalties for those who fail to act to curb them, and the heavy fuels that ships use are deemed especially dirty. "From the European Union point of view, you will have restrictions with CO2 emissions and they'll fine you", said Frank. "You've got to find ways to avoid that. As restrictions are coming, every shipper must rethink their strategy."

Nov 30, 06: High gasoline prices not only slowed fuel demand growth and cut sales of gas-guzzling vehicles in 2005, they also prompted Americans to drive less for the first time in 25 years, a consulting group said.

Nov 30, 06: Existing fuel-saving technologies used on many cars and trucks already include six-speed automatic transmissions, cylinder deactivation and simply better aerodynamic designing. The cost, he said, would be $500 to $1,200 per vehicle, which Mark claims would be recouped over the life of a car's warranty in fuel savings. And it would, within a decade, cut U.S. oil consumption by 2.3 million barrels per day, or about as much as is imported from Saudi Arabia and its neighbors.
. . What he wants to see more widely used are also are continuous variable transmissions which can provide a countless number of gears for better fuel efficiency, increasing the number of valves per cylinder to four from three, and variable valve timing.

Nov 30, 06: General Motors became the first automaker to commit to make a rechargeable hybrid vehicle, a move intended to distance the world's largest automaker from its harmful reputation for producing gas-guzzling trucks. [easily said...]
. . Wagoner said he was uncertain about when a plug-in hybrid would be commercially available. For GM, which has been stung by criticism alleging that it had conspired to kill an experimental vehicle program in California earlier this decade, Wagoner's appearance in Los Angeles marked an attempt to generate renewed goodwill at a time of declining U.S. sales, industry sources said.
. . But in a sign of the continued tension around the issue of oil consumption and the Detroit automakers, protesters appeared on stage as soon as Wagoner had concluded his speech at the show, urging him to sign a corporate "pledge" on fuel economy.

Nov 28, 06: The energy generated by British soccer dynamo Wayne Rooney as he sprints around the pitch [rounds the bases] during a match is enough to boil water for 16 cups of tea, according to research. It's equal to 1.86 kilowatt/hours of electricity. It would run a standard TV for 6.5 hours.

Nov 27, 06: US Environmentalists are fighting a proposal to build another coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners area, saying the region cannot handle more pollution.

Nov 27, 06: Nissan Motor Co. plans to develop and start selling subcompact electric cars powered by self-developed lithium-ion batteries in about three years. Japan's number-two automaker also plans to develop and sell gas-electric hybrid cars by 2010 in an attempt to catch up with rivals Honda and Toyota. In co-operation with its French partner Renault SA, Nissan will speed up the expansion of its line-up of diesel cars, that are in growing demand globally.

Nov 26, 06: Southern California is gambling its future power needs on its constant sunshine, wind and the ability of engineers to effectively harness those and other alternative energy sources.
. . Officials in Pasadena, Anaheim and several other large cities notified the Intermountain Power Agency this week that they would not be renewing their contracts for cheap, coal-fired power. Those contracts expire in 2027. That leaves the cities two decades to secure the alternative energy sources they'll need, from wind farms to desert solar power.
. . The moves could put the region in the forefront nationally of the commercial use of alternative energy in coming years, but researching and building the infrastructure to replace coal-fired power will be a costly, risky business.

Nov 26, 06: In 2005, Plano collected 1,200 gallons of cooking oil, the vast majority turkey fryer fat. The bulk of it is picked up during the Thanksgiving and Xmas holidays. The turkey fat is donated to Biodiesel Industries, the first renewable energy-powered plant producing biodiesel fuel in the state of Texas. Biofuels are gaining favor as an alternative "clean" fuel amid growing concerns about carbon emissions linked to climate change. "The City of Plano has a rolling stock of 700-800 vehicles, and 59 of these are using hybrid or alternative fuels."

Nov 26, 06: A University of Idaho professor is devising a new form of solar cell she says could lead to a breakthrough that would make solar energy commercially feasible.
. . They worked on creating better materials and combining them in new ways that could more than double the efficiency of present solar cells. If successful, she said the new technology could help the U.S. break its oil dependency.
. . Shapiro's team has created a compound called a "quantum dot" that is made of elements that include copper, indium and selenium. Shapiro said that the quantum dots would be embedded between layers of a solar cell and would absorb energy that is otherwise wasted due to overheating. She said her team has created the quantum dots, but that a working prototype is years away.

Nov 28, 06: State and local governments are launching programs to see if it's possible to convert their hybrid cars and trucks into plug-in cars. Plug-ins are like regular hybrids in that they have both electric and gas motors. But they come with more battery packs, so the car can run more on electricity than on gas. They can get about 100 miles to the gallon, get charged from a wall socket and generally emit fewer greenhouse gases than conventional cars or other hybrids.
. . The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority recently solicited contract bids for nine plug-ins. If the trial succeeds, the state will try to convert the 535 hybrids it owns into plug-ins. It will also use the program to demonstrate the economic viability of plug-ins and promote the concept with the public. The anticipated budget for the program is $10 million.
. . Gov. George Pataki, who is also boosting the state as a semiconductor and nanotechnology center, was the force behind getting the program through the New York legislature this summer.
. . The Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California is conducting a three-year test on a couple of plug-in vehicles, and the city of Austin, Texas, last year teamed up with the local power company to launch a $1 million plug-in incentive program. Also in California, San Francisco has ordered diesel hybrids from DaimlerChrysler for its municipal transportation fleet. (Another company, Enova Systems, a plug-in conversions specialist, is promoting hybrid diesel school buses.)
. . Converting a hybrid to a plug-in could drop in a few years to $5,000 or less, if larger volumes of orders start to come in.
. . A 210kg battery can take a vehicle about as far as three liters of gasoline can. As a result, electric cars can only go 70 to 200 miles before needing a recharge. With plug-ins, the battery gets drained quickly if there's a lot of freeway driving, which means that consumers are really just driving gas cars.

Nov 23, 06: Nuclear power is a viable option for meeting Australia's future energy needs, a new government report says.

Nov 23, 06: Representatives of more than 30 countries signed a deal today to build the world's most advanced nuclear fusion reactor, aimed at developing a clean, cheap and abundant energy source as the end of fossil fuels looms.
. . After months of wrangling, France edged out Japan last year to host the 10-billion-euro ($12.8-billion) International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER --also latin for "the way"). Its backers say that would be cleaner than existing nuclear reactors, but critics argue it could be at least 50 years before a commercially viable reactor is built, if one is built at all.
. . ITER will aim to fuse deuterium derived from seawater with tritium made from lithium, which is abundant in the Earth's crust. A giant electromagnetic ring will force the atoms together at around 100 million Celsius.
. . In the lengthy negotiations over who would host the project, the EU and its member France made huge financial and industrial concessions to the Japanese, agreeing to pay for roughly half the 4.6 billion euro construction cost, at 2000 prices.

Nov 23, 06: China, seeking to ease its dependence on coal to fuel its booming economy, said it will build the world's largest solar power station in the poor but sunny northwestern province of Gansu. The 100 megawatt (mw) project would cost approximately 6.03 billion yuan ($766 million) and construction would take five years.
. . China's economy is racing along at more than 10% growth a year, and miners are struggling to meet booming demand for coal, which fuels about 70% of the nation's energy consumption. China has also stepped up investment in energy projects abroad and nuclear power, keen to cut down on pollution, which hit the maximum "hazardous" level in the capital y'day.
. . "Covering a total area of 31,200 square meters, Dunhuang boasts 3,362 hours of sunshine every year. Xinhua claimed the world's current largest solar power station was a 5mw project in Leipzig, Germany, with 33,500 solar panels. But a solar plant in Arnstein near Wuerzburg in southern Germany has a 12mw capacity, according to its operator S.A.G. Solarstrom.

Nov 17, 06: To ensure there's enough corn to fuel humans as well as vehicles, scientists are urging more research into boosting corn yields and improving ethanol production.
. . Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, and a vocal opponent of ethanol, said many of the poorest countries around the world that use corn as a food staple will have to compete for supplies gobbled up by ethanol production. They'll also pay more because of increases in corn prices, which he said have climbed 40% this year.
. . For U.S. consumers, Brown said, the price of animal products — meat, eggs, cheese and dairy products — will increase if livestock operations have to pay more for feed. "We used to have a food economy and an energy economy. Now you can't draw a line between them anymore", he said.
. . Since January 2001, U.S. ethanol production has grown dramatically, climbing from 1.7 billion gallons to 4.8 billion gallons in June 2006, according to the report.
. . In some areas, including northwestern Iowa, the ethanol industry is already using up much of the available corn, Bonner said. In turn, that can pressure the livestock industry. "It puts quite a strain on the livestock industry ... because of the amounts they can use and the sensitivity to corn price."
. . A byproduct of ethanol production called distiller's grains can be used as feed, but experts say it isn't the best source of food for some livestock, including poultry and swine.
. . Other considerations, the scientists say, are the effects of ethanol production on the economy and the environment. "We have abruptly entered a new era for agriculture that no one predicted", Cassman said. "That is an era where the value of agriculture and its commodities are being determined more by the price of energy than by the value of commodities for food or feedstock."

Nov 16, 06: A state regulatory board approved Gov. Ed Rendell's proposal to make deeper cuts in mercury emissions from Pennsylvania's coal-fired power plants, despite opposition from power plants and mining companies.

Myth: Hybrid batteries will fail and stick you with a $2,000-plus repair bill. Reality: Unlike digital camera and laptop batteries that are fully charged and discharged, a hybrid operates in the middle 60% of its charge, without being charged beyond 80% or discharged less than 20%. In addition to that, fans in the battery pack that keep it cool, plus the fact that the battery does not charge or discharge below freezing temperatures, help to ensure its longevity. Dave Hermance, Toyota's executive engineer for advanced technology vehicles, says that with these conservation measures, "we think it's a life-of-the-vehicle battery." Toyota said it has yet to have a charge-related warranty claim.
. . Myth: Hybrids are slow. Reality: Most hybrids are a tick faster than the same cars without hybrid electric motors. The Lexus GS450h hybrid goes from 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds.
. . Myth: It takes a long time to recoup the hybrid price premium, if you ever do. Reality: Toyota didn't have a lot to say on this one. My take: Tax credits with per-maker caps ($500 to $3,400) cut the payback to a year or two. But if the credit isn't available, you're looking at five-plus years for payback.

Nov 14, 06: A European consortium has improved the efficiency of silicon solar cells, hoping to reduce the cost of generating solar power to around one euro per watt. Researchers increased the conversion efficiency of large-area multicrystalline silicon solar cells to a record value of 18%. ECN said the consortium believed that its new technologies could halve the cost of producing cells.
. . Solar electricity currently costs more than eight times as much as that produced from fossil fuels [IF you ignore the huge costs involved AFTER the fuels are burned!! ]. The market is growing at a rate of over 30% a year but solar power still produces less than 1% of the world's energy.
. . The consortium also developed a process for manufacturing extremely thin solar cells, allowing efficient use of high-purity silicon material. Silicon is the ingredient in a photovoltaic cell that transforms energy from the sun into electricity. The world silicon market is currently in shortage with solar cell makers competing with the electronics sector for supplies.
. . The bottleneck is expected to ease by 2008, so expect a boom then!

Nov 11, 06: Knight & Carver's new blade design is the latest --it is curved, which allows it to fit 27.5 meters of length onto a wind machine that normally uses a 25-meter blade. That extra length means it will start cranking out energy at a lower wind speed.
. . The curved blade also solves mechanical problems. "Normally, if a blade is longer, it would either break the machine or break the blade when the wind got real strong", said Gary Kanaby, manager of the company's blade division. "The blade is curved like a scimitar, and when the wind is strong, it twists the blade so it automatically sheds some of the load."
. . The first blade is now in San Diego, where its response to stress will be tested using a series of weights. Another blade will be sent for fatigue testing at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. Finally, the company will test three of its blades on a windmill, at a site to be determined next spring.

Nov 10, 06: General Motors will likely unveil a prototype plug-in hybrid at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. It would have an extended driving range on battery power, with a diesel or gasoline engine that could power the car when the battery was low. [But is it a prototype... or a showcar for publicity?]
. . GM has been criticized for relying heavily on gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles. This year, it has also drawn sharp criticism for its decision to kill its EV1 electric car program. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said killing the $1 billion EV1 program was his worst decision. He said it did not affect the automaker's profitability, but did hurt its image.
. . Other automakers are also researching plug-in technology, including Toyota, the world's leading producer of hybrid vehicles.

Nov 8, 06: Knight & Carver's Wind Blade Division has completed the first in a series of 27.5-meter wind blades as part of a U.S. Department of Energy project that ranks among the industry's most innovative advances in wind energy production. Knight & Carver's wind blades are manufactured in Howard, S.D.
. . With the name "STAR" --which stands for "Sweep Twist Adaptive Rotor"-- the blade is the first of its kind ever built. Its most distinctive characteristic is a gently curved tip, which unlike the vast majority of blades in current use, is specially designed for low-wind-speed regions. "Depending on the wind farm's site, this blade will capture between 5 and 10% more energy."

Nov 8, 06: Posted by John Gartner: "With Democrats now chairing the House Energy and Commerce Committee (Michigan's John Dingell) and likely the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee (New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman), an accelerated move to diesel and alternative fuel vehicles is likely.
. . According to the Washington Post, Dingell said yesterday that "he would back measures to promote new energy technologies, diesel fuel and cars, electric vehicles, and conservation in buildings." However, Dingell is opposed to raising CAFE standards (Oh yes, Detroit is in Michigan, isn't it), which means that incentives for producing and buying alternative fuels is more likely than trying to force automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicles.
. . I'm not sure that the change in Congressional leadership will be enough to get rid of two of the dumbest tax rules that favor big SUVs, namely, being able to write off part of the cost of a big SUV as a business expense, and exempting them from the gas guzzler tax.

Nov 7, 06: The world could be dependent on "dirty, insecure and expensive" energy by 2030, an influential report has warned.
. . Current trends showed that demand for power was set to grow by 53% by 2030, the International Energy Agency said. But if governments delivered on their promises to push cleaner and more efficient supplies, demand could be cut by about 10%, the agency suggested.

Nov 7, 06: The International Energy Agency urged governments to build more nuclear plants to slow climate change and increase energy security, throwing its weight behind the push for nuclear power.
. . In its annual World Energy Outlook, a 596-page response to a G8 call for a sustainable energy blueprint, the agency said unless leaders took action world demand for fossil fuels would rise by more than 50%, along with carbon emissions. Energy conservation and investment in nuclear power could cut consumption by 10% by 2030, the IEA said, equivalent to China's energy use today. Carbon emissions would drop by 16%, what the United States and Canada emit together.
. . By 2030, oil could soar to $130.30 a barrel if energy investment and government policies fall short, the IEA warned.
. . Nuclear power is on an international growth path despite concerns over safety and the risk of radioactive material falling into the hands of al Qaeda or other similar groups.
. . At a G8 meeting in March, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said he hoped for "a rebirth of the global nuclear industry." Last week, a British report by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern called for urgent action on climate change. Supporters of nuclear power seized on the report, which warned of huge economic and environmental damage. Even anti-nuclear Germany has suggested it may look again at its plan to phase out nuclear plants.
. . "It costs up to 10 times as much as energy efficiency measures to get the same carbon savings and creates huge security and environmental threats that will last for tens of thousands of years."
. . Barring tough measures to tackle oil demand, consumption --led by China and India-- would surge nearly 40% to 116 million barrels per day by 2030, leaving consumers more dependent on OPEC as other reserves run out, the IEA said.
. . The IEA said more spending was needed to lift nuclear capacity by more than 40% to 519 gigawatts by 2030. Nuclear plants provided just 15% of the world's electricity last year. Coal, a major source of greenhouse gases, and gas generate the vast bulk of the world's electricity.
. . The IEA also called for more efficient use of energy, in light bulbs and cars, for instance. Consumers will have to pay up initially, but those costs will be far exceeded by the savings. "On average, an additional $1 invested in more efficient electrical equipment and appliances avoids more than $2 in investment in power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure", Mandil said.

Nov 6, 06: Salt Lake City is exploring a pilot project that would convert sewer waste into energy to run a heating a cooling system in a downtown building. The heat, Niermeyer explains, will come partly from solid waste, and mostly from warm water that runs in sewage pipes after draining out of toilets, showers and sinks.
. . The sewage temperature —-between 55 and 60 degrees-— combined with a constant ground temperature of about 55 provides a viable ground source for a heat-pump system. The system should sufficiently heat and cool Lear's 8,000-square-foot building about 95% of the time. For the remainder, Lear will pool 1,800 gallons of water in the basement, also using the water to irrigate the building's lawn.
. . It's a bit expensive —-the system costs $20,000 more than traditional systems-— but if it works well, Lear hopes it could be eventually used by the masses.

Nov 6, 06: Ethanol producer VeraSun Energy has said it will build a plant that can produce biodiesel from the oil from distillers' grains --the waste product from ethanol. In effect, the same corn being fed into the plant to produce ethanol will help make a second alternative energy. VeraSun said it will be the first company to do this.
. . The announcement, and ultimate implementation, could help resolve one of the lingering problems in cleaner car fuels produced from plants: Namely, that making money off them is going to take a lot of work. Ethanol provides fewer miles per gallon than gasoline, and several analysts have predicted that producers will have to move from corn and sugar cane to switchgrass to make ethanol more economical. (An acre of corn produces about 480 gallons of ethanol, according to Ceres, an agri-fuel company.)
. . Brookings, S.D.-based VeraSun is currently evaluating a site for a facility that can produce 30 million gallons of biodiesel a year. Production is slated to begin in 2008. VeraSun did not indicate whether it would get all of the feedstock for its biodiesel facility that it would need from the ethanol waste product.

Nov 6, 06: Light-emitting diodes will become economically attractive as replacements for conventional lightbulbs in about two years, a shift that could pave the way for massive electricity conservation, according to a researcher.
. . Right now, consumers and businesses can buy a light-emitting diode, or LED, that provides about the same level of illumination as an energy-hogging conventional 60-watt lightbulb. It lasts about 100,000 hours, far longer than the conventional filament bulb. Unfortunately, the LEDs that can perform this task cost about $60.

But prices have been declining by 50% a year, so two years from now the same LED should cost around $20. "At $20, the payback in energy occurs in about a year."
. . Approximately 22% of the electricity consumed in the United States goes toward lighting. Traditional lightbulbs are incredibly inefficient. Only about 5% of the energy that goes into them turns into light.
. . If 25% of the lightbulbs in the U.S. were converted to LEDs putting out 150 lumens per watt (higher than the commercial standard now), the U.S. as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs, cumulatively, by 2025, and it would alleviate the need to build 133 new coal-burning power stations. In turn, carbon emissions in the atmosphere would go down by 258 million metric tons. "Multiply that by three and you get the worldwide savings."
. . We shoot a lot of light into space --a total waste.
. . Fiberstars has come up with a way to replace hot fluorescent tube lights with light-emitting optical fiber in freezer cases in grocery stores. Hewlett-Packard spinoff Lumileds is also producing LEDs for a variety of applications. LED technology is improving as well. UCSB has created an experimental LED that can put out 117 lumens per watt, while a Japanese company has developed one that can put out 130.
. . Getting LEDs to produce white light has also greatly improved. They do it two ways. One is to package red, green and blue LEDs --the combined light shines white. The other way is to make blue LEDs and coat them with a phosphor --a luminescent substance commonly used on fluorescent lamps.

LED bulb: 100,000 hours of use.
Compact flourescent: 15,000 hours of use.
Incandescent: between 750 - 2,500 hours of use.

energy usage:
. . LED: about 3W
Compact flourescent: about 15W
Incandescent: 60W

. . and light output per watt:
. . Luxeon LED's & high intensity LEDs up to 50 Lumens per watt.
. . Compact flourescent: about 15W: 90 to 130 Lumens per watt.
. . Traditional lightbulb: 60W: 14 Lumens per watt.

Nov 4, 06: by John Gartner: "In the quest for oil-free power, a handful of small companies are staking claims on the boundless energy of the rising and ebbing sea. The technology that would draw energy from ocean tides to keep light bulbs and laptops aglow is largely untested, but several newly minted companies are reserving tracts of water from Alaska's Cook Inlet to Manhattan's East River in the belief that such sites could become profitable sources of electricity.
. . The trickle of interest began two years ago, said Celeste Miller, spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agency issues permits that give companies exclusive rights to study the tidal sites. Permit holders usually have first dibs on development licenses.
. . Tidal power proponents liken the technology to little wind turbines on steroids, turning like windmills in the current. Water's greater density means fewer and smaller turbines are needed to produce the same amount of electricity as wind turbines.
. . After more than two decades of experimenting, the technology has advanced enough to make business sense, said Carolyn Elefant, co-founder of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, a marine energy lobbying group formed in May 2005.
. . In the last four years, the federal commission has approved nearly a dozen permits to study tidal sites. Applications for about 40 others, all filed in 2006, are under review. The site that is furthest along in testing lies in New York's East River, between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, where Verdant Power plans to install two underwater turbines this month as part of a small pilot project.
. . Power from the turbines will be routed to a supermarket and parking garage on nearby Roosevelt Island. Verdant co-founder and President Trey Taylor said the six-year-old company will spend 18 months studying the effects on fish before putting in another four turbines. If all goes well, New York-based Verdant could have up to 300 turbines in the river by 2008, Taylor said. The turbines would produce as much as 10 megawatts.
. . Experts believe only a few sites will prove profitable. The ideal sites are close to a power grid and have large amounts of fast-moving water with enough room to build on the sea floor while staying clear of boat traffic. "There are thousands of sites, but only a handful of really, really good ones."
. . Ocean Renewable Power Co. in Miami. The two-year-old company is awaiting approval for federal study permits in Cook Inlet and Resurrection Bay in Alaska, and Cobscook Bay and the St. Croix River in Maine. Other prime tidal energy sites lie beneath San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and in Knik Arm near Anchorage
. . As of June 2006, there were small facilities in Russia [arctic], Nova Scotia and China, as well as a 30-year-old plant in France. [Rance river.]
. . "I expect the first real big tidal plant in North America is going to be built in Nova Scotia", said Bedard, who led the study. "They have the mother of all tidal passages up there." [A dam was begun during the Roosevelt administration! ...not finished.]
. . In the United States, wave energy technology is less advanced than tidal, and will need more government subsidies, Bedard said, however, the number of good wave sites far exceeds that of tidal. Wave power collection involves cork or serpent-like devices that absorb energy from swells on the ocean's surface, whereas tidal machines sit on the sea floor.
. . Aqua Energy could start building a wave energy plant at Makah Bay in Washington state within two years. The commission has received applications for three wave energy permits in Oregon, all filed since July.

Nov 4, 06: At least six Arab countries are developing domestic nuclear power programs to diversify energy sources. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have shown interest in developing nuclear power primarily for water desalination. The United Arab Emirates and Tunisia have also shown interest in nuclear power, but their plans are at an infant stage.
. . Egypt's nuclear program is the Arab world's most advanced. Russia is looking to take part in a tender to construct nuclear power stations in the country, a Russian official said. Egypt has ordered studies into building atomic power stations after President Hosni Mubarak in September called for a national dialogue on the issue.

Nov 4, 06: According to the DOE, natural gas "has a favorable hydrogen to carbon ratio (4:1) compared to coal (0.7:1) or biomass (1:1)" and "is the most affordable near term resource for producing large amounts of hydrogen."
. . "That may be true, but affordable financially is not the only factor. We use natural gas today in buses, cars and taxis as an alternative to the more polluting and mostly imported petroleum. So by converting natural gas to hydrogen, and losing energy efficiency along the way, we are reducing the amount of oil we can displace compared to burning natural gas in an ICE.
. . And when we get competitive electric cars, the same argument of increasing pollution and decreasing energy efficiency can be made for hydrogen from electrolysis. I'm still trying to believe that hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles will eventually make sense, but the justification doesn't seem to be there (unless microbes do the work instead of electricity)."

Nov 1, 06: Last week, 100 scientists from 20 countries convened in Edinburgh to discuss the best way to progress with gas hydrate research, and it will not be their last meeting. Gas hydrate, an ice-like crystalline solid that exists in the oceanic sediment, is a mixture of water and gas --usually methane. It may become one of the great energy sources of the 21st century, with the power both to enhance our lives, and, if approached without care, to damage our planet irreparably.

Nov 1, 06: In his book, "Solar Revolution", Bradford argues that the high price of oil, advances in solar technology and an easing in the cost of silicon used to make panels will combine to make solar the cheapest source of power within the next 20 years.
. . Skeptics say short supplies of silicon will cap output of solar panels. But panels use less silcon every year, and plants coming on line will ease supply in 2008, Bradford said. Bradford is founder of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, a group based in Cambridge Massachusetts that promotes the use of sustainable technologies.
. . As a slice of the total energy pie, solar is almost insignificant, producing just 0.1% of electricity in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer. But it is growing 30 to 40% a year while the cost of making solar panels has been dropping about 7% annually.
. . Environmentalists and many financial analysts envision a not-too-distant future when the 35 cent per kilowatt hour cost of power from solar panels will halve to equal the average cost of power from fossil fuels. Solar panels could keep the grid stable and cut the need for new power plants in the future as electricity demand rises at 2 or 3% per year.

Oct 27, 06: U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced today $450 million in grants during the next decade to further research into technology that would lessen the environmental impacts of coal use. The Department of Energy projects that a process called coal sequestration could play a major role. The process involves capturing emissions, separating the carbon dioxide and sequestering it for commercial use or for injection back into the earth to flush out oil.
. . Kentucky ranked third in the nation in coal production in 2005, behind Wyoming and West Virginia.

Oct 27, 06: Vermont's Green Mountain College is getting greener with a new program that uses cow manure to generate power. The 750-student Green Mountain College in Poultney aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by joining Central Vermont Public Service's Cow Power program, which harvests waste from local farms.
. . The program capitalizes on a common byproduct from one of the northeastern state's top industries, with a typical Vermont dairy cow producing around 50 liters of manure daily. Vermont boasts the highest cow-to-people ratio in the United States, with 300,000 cattle and calves and just over 600,000 people.
. . "This initiative helps the college do its part to address global warming by reducing its carbon emissions by approximately 3500 metric tons per year, or the equivalent of removing 758 passenger cars.

Oct 26, 06: Standard solar photovoltaic panels are generally 12% to 15% efficient at converting light to electricity, though some can go up to 22%. Infinia's planned 3-kilowatt Stirling engine will operate at 24% efficiency.
. . Stirling engines were invented in the 19th century as an alternative to steam engines. A Stirling motor has a closed cylinder that houses a gas, such as hydrogen, and a piston. Applied heat expands the gas to move the piston that, in turn, pumps other mechanisms, such as a crank, to create energy.
. . Perhaps better known in solar circles is Stirling Energy Systems, which is building power plants with arrays of giant dishes with more than 80 mirrors in the California desert to generate hundreds of megawatts of electricity. It has signed two power generation contracts with California utilities.
. . The initial solar Stirling engine design from Infinia calls for 3-kilowatt systems, which roughly suits the power needs of a residential home. Besides planning to make a far smaller product, Infinia's generator will have a different design from those built by Stirling Energy Systems.
. . Infinia builds what is called "free-piston machines." This relies on changing air pressure to move motor components without having parts rub against each other. That design eliminates the need for lubrication and substantially cuts down on maintenance.

Oct 26, 06: While LED taillights have become commonplace, we haven't seen them in the front of vehicles until now. The first production cars to use LED headlights will be the Audi R8 and Lexus LS, with more on the way. LEDs last longer and use less power.
. . It's not easy engineering these LEDs for headlight use, because, efficient as they are, they still get hot. LED front lights are up to 55% thinner than their non-LED counterparts --a cm deep.

Where the Blubber Meets the Road! Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That's the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage.

Oct 26, 06: Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, set up in April 2005 to oversee the dismantling of old nuclear power stations, said it would cost 65 billion pounds ($122 billion) to clean up civil nuclear sites.

Australians should stop singing and daydreaming in the shower because they are wasting money on hot water, one of the country's largest power suppliers said.

Oct 25, 06: Australia will build the world's biggest solar power plant amid warnings of blackouts within five years unless it can increase electricity generation to meet growing demand for air conditioners.
. . With climate change becoming a major issue in Australia as a severe drought eats into economic growth and cities impose water restrictions, the government has begun to support alternative forms of energy.
. . Besides the new $420 million ($318 million, US) solar power plant, the government also announced on Wednesday a A$360 million pilot project to produce cleaner energy through brown coal drying and CO2 capture and storage.
. . Australia, one of the world's biggest producers of greenhouse gases per capita, refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol aimed at lowering greenhouse gases which cause global warming. It is the world's largest coal exporter and relies on coal-fired power stations for its power supplies, supplemented with gas fired plants. Environmentalists welcomed news of the solar power plant, but were disappointed the government continued to fund coal power.
. . "The government still does not get the simple fact that climate change cannot be dealt with by burning coal", said Danny Kennedy from environmental group Greenpeace. "We need a long term energy policy that moves us away from our dependence on coal to real deep cuts in emissions and sustainable investment in genuine renewable energy technology. If we don't move away from coal, we won't deal with climate change."
. . Demand for power in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, may outstrip supply by 2010 or 2011, fueled mainly by air-conditioning. The smaller states of Victoria, South Australia and Queensland could experience power blackouts much earlier, starting from 2008.
. . Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in 100 years and has experienced severe early season bushfires and record unseasonal temperatures as an El Nino develops, bringing hotter, drier conditions.
. . Treasurer Peter Costello said the new solar concentrator with a capacity of 154 megawatts would be built in Victoria state, and would reach full capacity by 2013. "The project aims to build the biggest photovoltaic project in the world and this is by using mirrors which concentrate the sun's rays on a power plant." [Ah; the "power-tower" type: a tower ringed w steerable mirrors.]

Injecting small quantities of ethanol into car engines at moments of peak demand --such as accelerating sharply or climbing a steep hill-- could improve the fuel economy of gasoline engines by 20% to 30%, a scientist said.
. . A team of researchers at the MIT is working on the system, which scientists say would allow carmakers to use smaller engines in their vehicles, reducing weight and improving fuel economy at a lower cost to consumers than by adding a hybrid engine. He estimated that adding the ethanol injection system to a car would cost about $1,000 and that cars using the new system could be in mass production by 2011. Cohn estimated the ethanol tank in cars using the technology would need to be refilled every three months or so.
. . A turbocharger is added to produce more power. The ethanol injection system with the turbocharger would give a driver more power than a conventional engine of the same size. The higher pressures and temperatures of a turbocharged engine can lead to a problem known as knock, which occurs when the fuel and air in the engine explode prematurely, hurting performance and potentially damaging the engine.
. . Cohn said his group's technology avoids that problem by injecting ethanol into the engine when knock is likely to occur. The ethanol vaporizes and cools the fuel-air mixture, keeping it from exploding until the engine is ready.

Oct 23, 06: Britons are the worst energy wasters in Europe with bad habits which could cost £11bn by 2010, a survey of Europe's five most populous nations suggests. Leaving mobile phone chargers plugged in, appliances on standby and lights on are among their most common failings.
. . If the levels of wastage continue, an extra 43m tons of carbon dioxide will be pumped into the atmosphere by then, the Energy Saving Trust said. It interviewed 5,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
. . Figures in the Habits of a Lifetime report, commissioned to mark the start of Energy Saving Week, said 71% of UK consumers admit to leaving standby buttons on once a week. Meanwhile, 65% of UK consumers leave chargers on once a week and 63% forget to switch the lights off when leaving the room.

Oct 20, 06: East Japan Railway today rolled out the world's first fuel cell hybrid train. The train, which zooms along at up to 90kph for 45 to 90 km, carries two 65-kilowatt fuel cells along with six hydrogen tanks and a second battery.

A Roomba eats up a piddling 43 cents of an annual electrical bill.

Oct 19, 06: An action plan to cut Europe's energy consumption by 20% before 2020 has been outlined by the European Commission. The Energy Efficiency Action Plan (EEAP), unveiled by Mr Piebalgs in Brussels, will be introduced over the next six years and has identified 10 priority areas, including:
. . * updated eco-labels on electrical goods
. . * possible legislation to deliver car emissions targets
. . * encouraging investment in energy efficiency
. . * making power plants more efficient
. . * energy saving taxes and incentives

Oct 19, 06: Exotic microbes living around mud volcanoes on the seabed are helping to offset global warming by munching heat-trapping methane seeping from the depths, scientists said.
. . They said the microbes, studied at a mud volcano on the floor of the Arctic Barents Sea between Greenland and Norway, were part of fragile habitats that could also hold industrial clues about how to convert methane into more easily used fuels. "Methane-consuming microbes ... are helping to control climate change", the journal Nature said of the report it published by scientists at German and French institutes.
. . Microbes around the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano are a pinprick in offsetting climate change by consuming thousands of tons of methane, the main component of natural gas and which is also a powerful greenhouse gas.
. . The scientists found a new methane-consuming microbe --an oxygen-hating type of single-celled archaea dubbed ANME-3-- living alongside two other known types of microbes by the mud volcano in waters 1,250 meters deep.
. . The study, the first description of a subsea mud volcano habitat including archaea, bacteria and tube worms, found the microbes were able to consume less than 40% of methane emitted because they thrived only in a thin layer of mud. "They have enough to eat but they suffocate elsewhere", Boetius said. The microbes lived only where they could get both nutrients from the sea and methane from the volcano.
. . She added that the findings might help unravel how methane-munching microbes work and give clues about how to convert the gas into a more easily transported liquid. "Industry is interested into converting methane into another energy-rich molecule, such as methanol or butane. Industrialists can do it chemically but they are hoping for a microbe that could do it much more efficiently", she said.
. . Boetius said it would cost far too much to trap methane from most subsea vents. In California, however, methane bubbling from the seabed near Santa Barbara is trapped by tent-like metal structures, providing energy for almost 200 homes.

Oct 17, 06: Indonesia, land of earthquakes and volcanos, is literally sitting on top of the solution for its energy needs: Vast reservoirs of hot water deep beneath the earth's crust can be harnessed to generate electricity. What's more, it's a clean, renewable energy source.
. . Yet the country continues to import millions of barrels of oil and fuel annually. Legal uncertainties, financial risks and government bureaucracy have repelled international investors from developing its geothermal resources.
. . Indonesia vows to pass regulations soon it hopes investors will find attractive, but after years of foot-dragging, not everyone is convinced.
. . Tapping geothermal energy makes sense for a cash-strapped government that still subsidizes fuel for its citizens, who are steadily demanding more power in the face of routine blackouts and brownouts. The sprawling archipelago sits on what is believed to be the world's largest geothermal resource base, with the potential to provide 21,000 megawatts —enough to supply *all* the energy needs for its 220 million people.
. . But so far, existing plants have a combined capacity of just over 800 megawatts, or 4% of Indonesia's potential, putting it behind the United States (2,100 MW), the Philippines (1,775 MW) and Mexico (975 MW).
. . Since the mid-1980s, Chevron has operated two fields, Salak and Darajat, on the main island of Java. Its largest plant in Salak towers over the lush rainforest —-home to gibbons, ant eaters and eagles-— where massive pipes wind through some 25,000 acres of jungle, transporting steam that turns giant turbines to produce electricity. The water is then returned to the underground reservoir and reheated by magma to temperatures as high as 570 degrees Fahrenheit, completing the renewable energy cycle.
. . Though long-term costs are low, the technology requires an upfront investment of more than $100 million. And because the energy must be used close to its source —-unlike coal or oil, which can be exported-— what a company gets for its electricity is key. At present, the cash-strapped government is offering just 4.5 cents/kilowatt hour — around 30% less than the going rate in the United States, and as much as 2 cents lower than what the Suharto government had offered. "At that price, we're just not going to get new investment into the country", Andrews said.

Only about 10% of computers today have power management features enabled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Screen savers, for example, use even more power than just letting a machine idle, since the CPU and even the graphics chip are often needed. General Electric saves $2.5 million a year by using sleep mode on its PCs and monitors.

Oct 17, 06: Google Inc plans a solar-powered electricity system at its Silicon Valley headquarters that will rank as the largest U.S. solar-powered corporate office complex, the company said. It is set to begin building a rooftop solar-powered generation system at its Mountain View, California, headquarters
. . Capable of generating 1.6 megawatts, it will supply nearly a third of the electricity consumed by office workers at its roughly one-million-square-foot headquarters. This excludes power consumed by data centers that power many of Google's Web services worldwide. "It's roughly 30% of the power that we use." A utility industry rule of thumb is that data centers consume 10 times more electricity than buildings used to house office workers.
. . Earlier this year, Google rival Microsoft got the jump on Google with a 2,288-panel solar system at its research site in Mountain View that is expected to produce 480 kilowatts at peak capacity.
. . Silicon Valley's Cypress Semiconductor, majority owner of solar cell maker SunPower Corp., has a 336-kilowatt system generating more than 10% of its corporate-office electricity needs
. . Sharp Electronics is supplying 9,212 solar panels for the Google project. Sharp Corp, parent of the solar panel maker, has a 5.2 megawatt solar generation system, the world's largest corporate solar system, at a Kameyama, Japan factory.
. . The world's largest dedicated solar-powered generation station is a 12-megawatt facility in Arnstein, Germany, near Frankfurt. The top U.S. dedicated solar facility generates 4.6 megawatts and sits in the Arizona desert near Tucson.

Oct 16, 06: The world needs a 20-fold expansion in nuclear energy in order to prevent dangerous climate change, the head of a leading industry body has said. John Ritch, director-general of the World Nuclear Association, made his comments at a conference in Sydney. He said nuclear power was the only way to fuel fast-developing nations without big rises in greenhouse gases, and that nuclear weapons is an unrelated issue.
. . His comments have been condemned by environmental groups.
. . "We will be moving... to a world in the next 25 years in which we have more than 1,000 reactors, and by mid-century I would expect we would have 2,000 to 3,000 reactors in the world", he said.
. . If scientific projections of human-induced climate change are true, Mr Ritch continued, the effect would be "the death of not just millions, but billions of people, and the destruction of much of civilisation on all continents."
. . Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth UK was scathing: "Finland and South Korea might be exceptions; but in Britain, for example, we built the Magnox reactors to equip nuclear-armed bombers and submarines, and to say there's no reason to be concerned about the spread of civilian nuclear power is complacent to the point of being foolhardy."
. . Mr Juniper pointed to recent research showing that Britain and other countries could make swingeing [what?] cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from combinations of energy efficiency, better public transport, carbon capture and storage, and renewable resources without the need for nuclear reactors.
. . Mr Fleming's research suggests that as remand rises, mining companies will turn to poorer-grade ores. At some point, more energy will have to be put in to process the ore than the reactors will generate.

Oct 16, 06: It is three meters tall and productive even in poor soil, it holds up in droughts and typhoons, and it yields twice as many stems as most sugarcane. It's grown on a test field on the tiny island of Ie in Japan.
. . Researchers at major Japanese beer maker Asahi Breweries Ltd. are hoping that someday farmers across Okinawa will be growing Monster Cane not only for sugar but also to fuel cars, raise cattle and fertilize farmland.
. . Formally known as "high-biomass sugarcane", Monster Cane is Japan's first variety designed to produce ethanol without sacrificing sugar output. In a few months, the cane grown on Ie will be harvested to feed a pilot plant run by Asahi Breweries, which aims to test its technology for producing ethanol from cane at a cost of just 30 yen (25 cents) per liter, making it competitive with gasoline.
. . Tokyo, which has signed an international accord to cut emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, is getting serious about promoting ethanol.
. . Critics also say ethanol is no solution to global warming if massive inputs of fossil fuels are required to grow the crops and power the facilities used to produce ethanol. To address these concerns, Asahi has developed a carbon-neutral process of producing ethanol from high-biomass sugarcane.
. . Asahi says the new cane variety can produce three times as much ethanol as other strains, and slightly more sugar. It also yields more bagasse, or crushed sugarcane refuse, which is burned to generate the energy to run a sugar-ethanol plant.
. . Asahi estimates the yield of the new sugarcane at 37.4 tons per hectare excluding moisture, which can be processed into 7.1 tons of sugar, 4.3 kiloliters of ethanol and 24 tons of bagasse.
. . This compares with the yield of a conventional cane type at 17.4 tons per hectare, sugar output at 6.9 tons, ethanol production at 1.4 kiloliters and bagasse volume at 7.8 tons, which is too small to produce sufficient energy for a processing plant.
. . The volume of bagasse from high-biomass sugarcane is more than enough to generate energy for the Asahi plant. Surplus bagasse is used as bedding for premium beef cattle on Ie Island, and as fertilizer after being mixed with animal excrement.

Oct 16, 06: Actions to fight global warming now and introduce environmentally clean and efficient energy technologies will cost the world less than doing nothing, an international conference heard. "The cost of action is much less than the cost of inaction", the World Bank's Chief Scientist Robert Watson told the conference. "It is not a question of do we adapt or do we mitigate. We clearly need to do both", he said. He said an increase in temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celsius could lead to a loss of global economic growth by up to 3% and the costs of inaction could run between tens to hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
. . By contrast, additional investment needed to carry out a transition to a low-carbon economy was likely to cost the world just 1% of global GDP, he said. Participants at the conference agreed that increasing energy efficiency was one of the key actions needed to be taken.

Oct 16, 06: A building boom that would add scores of new coal-fired power plants to the nation's power grid is creating a new dilemma for politicians, environmentalists and utility companies across the US.
. . Should power companies be permitted to build new plants that pollute more but are reliable and less expensive? Or should regulators push utilities toward cleaner burning coal plants, even if it means they will cost more and are based on newer, yet still unproven, technology?
. . Nowhere do these competing interests play out with such force as in Texas, where 16 new coal-fired plants are proposed. The scope of TXU's 5-year, $10 billion plan is considered bellwether and being closely watched. Some 154 new coal-fired plants are on the drawing board in 42 states.
. . Coal now accounts for about 50% of the power generated in the U.S. By the year 2030, that share will increase to 57%, according to Energy Department forecasts. The U.S. has the world's largest coal reserves, enough to last for the next 200 to 250 years, analysts believe.
. . Critics, however, counter the company is driven by profits and is rushing to beat more stringent federal restrictions on CO2 emissions in an era of escalating concerns over global warming. Texas already produces more CO2 than any other state.
. . The debate soon could end up in federal court. Dallas attorney Rick Addison recently announced plans to sue TXU, alleging potential violations of the federal Clean Air Act.
. . Coal gasification plants can cost up to 20% more to build than a conventional plant. But they also can be more efficient to operate and save utilities the hassle and expense of adding pollution-control devices. Already, American Electric Power, of Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. and Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp, are reviewing plans to implement this technology. Mike Morris, chairman for American Electric Power, said the pressures on power companies to burn fuel in the cleanest way possible will only gain momentum in coming years.

Oct 10, 06: About 80,000 homes in Britain are producing electricity with small renewable power generation units such as turbines. Now turbines have been embraced by mainstream retailers like B&Q, a chain of hardware stores run by Kingfisher Plc, which sells them for 1,500 pounds ($2,800). "(They) can be easily attached to your home and can save around a third of your electricity bill. And with energy high on the government's agenda, grants are available to cover up to 30% of the installed cost", the store gushed in a statement launching turbines last month.
. . Solar panels could, if the price were reduced, also supply 4% of electricity needs and reduce domestic emissions by up to 3%, it said in a report last year.
. . Small turbine producers have sprung up in Britain. One manufacturer, Futurenergy, sells domestic wind turbines for 695 pounds ($1,200) on its Web site (www.futurenergy.co.uk) and began shipping them four months ago. They now sell about 100 a week to customers all over the world.

Oct 10, 06: Palm and pumpkin seed oil could soon be generating electricity to help power cell phone networks across Africa under a plan to replace fossil fuels with sustainable biofuels made from crops grown by local farmers. They want to start replacing diesel with biofuels in electricity generating stations powering mobile phone base stations in rural Africa.
. . "We're planning to replicate this in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. India and Bangladesh have also expressed interest." Starting in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, fuel will be processed from palm, groundnut, pumpkin seeds and jatropha.
. . The crops to generate the biofuel will be cultivated close to the base stations, helping local farmers, cutting dependency on fossil fuels and reducing fuel transportation needs. The cost of fuel, including security to protect transport and storage, can be 80% of the cost of a rural phone network.
. . Ericsson estimates 25,000 liters of fuel are needed every year to power a base station. The same amount would power close to 20 cars, each driving 20,000 kilometers, for a year. Ericsson estimates around 0.5 square km of palm oil crops are needed to generate the fuel for 20 base stations, the equivalent of 83 football fields.
. . Solar and wind energy are also being investigated as alternative power sources for remote base stations.

Oct 10, 06: It looks like Mitsubishi is planning to bring an all-electric compact car to the United States. According to Automotive News, Mitsubishi president Osamu Masuko made the announcement last week in Las Vegas, saying that the lithium-ion battery-powered, zero-emissions car would be launched first in Japan then shipped eastward to the U.S. market.
. . Citroen's parent company plans to sell diesel electrics by 2010.

Oct 10, 06: Ocean Power Delivery Ltd has developed a novel offshore wave energy converter called Pelamis. Building on technology developed for the offshore industry, the Pelamis has a similar output to a modern wind turbine. The first fullscale pre-production prototype has been built and is being tested at the European Marine Energy center in Orkney.
. . It is anticipated that future `wave farm' projects would consist of an arrangement of interlinked multi-machines connected to shore by a single subsea cable. A typical 30MW installation would occupy a square kilometer of ocean.
. . The Pelamis is a semi-submerged, articulated structure composed of cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. The wave-induced motion of these joints is resisted by hydraulic rams, which pump high-pressure oil through hydraulic motors via smoothing accumulators. The hydraulic motors drive electrical generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable.
. . Wave power is currently a largely untapped resource but is the most concentrated form of renewable energy. In the UK for example, the total wave resource is equivalent to 2-3 times current electricity demand.
. . The kites are anchored to a revolving structure on a vertical axis, analogous to a giant merry-go-round, which conveys the energy thus generated to the alternators and turbines of a classical power-plant, incorporated within the structure itself. Overall power conversion efficiency ranges from around 70% at low power levels to over 80% at full capacity. The present project is the object of six years of previous research and development and five European patents.

Oct 10, 06: Italy has until 2010 to bump up renewable energy to 22% of total electricity supply, in order to meet the EU Renewable Energy Directive. Wind power is a key component and competition from national and foreign enterprise is expected to be stiff.
. . A new wind-power generator that resembles a backyard drying rack on steroids. Despite its appearance, the Kite Wind Generator, or KiteGen for short, could produce as much energy as a nuclear power plant.
. . The kites are not your Saturday-afternoon park variety but similar to those used for kite surfing --light and ultra-resistant, capable of reaching an altitude of 2,000 meters.
. . A control system on autopilot optimizes the flight pattern to maximize the juice produced as it sails on night and day. A radar system can redirect kites within seconds in case of any interference: oncoming helicopters, for example. Or small planes or even single birds.
. . Research by Sequoia Automation, the small company near Turin heading the project, estimates that KiteGen could churn out one gigawatt of power at a cost of just 1.5 euros per megawatt hour. That's nearly 30 times less than the average cost in Europe of 43 euros per megawatt hour. They envision a 2,000 meter-hi version that would generate 5 gigawatts of power. Speculation is that KiteGen may soar above the former Trino Vercellese nuclear power plant, already a no-fly zone, in the region.
. . Buts: it is still basically a concept on the drawing board. Feasibility has to be proven."

Oct 9, 06: Work is set to begin on constructing what will become the largest onshore wind farm in Europe. The £300m Whitelee project will see 140 turbines built on the Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow. It is claimed that they will generate 322 megawatts. The project will take three years to complete, and will be three times the size of the UK's current biggest wind farm.

Oct 4, 06: Turn CO2 back into fuel? [you gotta input the same amount of energy to do it!] Chemist Gabriele Centi of the University of Messina in Italy uses solar energy gathered by a titanium dioxide film to ionize CO2 in its liquid form. Mixing this ionized liquid CO2 with water, chemists can create longer carbon chains, much like photosynthesis in plants. In current tests the process can create some natural gas and methanol, but the number and type of carbon chains cannot be controlled.
. . It might prove useful on a manned mission to Mars, which cannot easily carry enough fuel for its return, to be able to make it on the Red Planet itself.

More than 300 megawatts worth of light is wasted skywards from UK streetlights alone, at an annual cost of about £100m ($190m). Street lighting in Rome dims after midnight, reducing lighting costs by 40%.
. . Germany and the Netherlands reuse or recycle 80% of construction waste, while Denmark has passed 90%.

A kite that generates 10,000 horsepower. KiteShip (.com) has football-stadium-size kites that help cut 20% of fuel and emissions from commercial ships --oil tankers to 12 meter yachts.

Oct 3, 06: Why this Mead, Nebraska, farm is so exciting to me: The ethanol made here is not only clean but also cheap – this is perhaps the first ethanol plant to achieve both. More important, it is an early demonstration of the great potential of biohols – liquid fuels derived from biomass for internal combustion engines. The facility is the first data point in what I call the biohol trajectory. Like Moore's law, this trajectory tracks a steady increase in performance, affordability, and, importantly, yield per acre of farmland. A number of biohols appear along this performance curve, among them corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, higher-energy-content butanol, and other biomass-derived fuels that are even more energy-rich than butanol. We'll see fuels with higher energy density and better environmental characteristics, and we'll develop engines better optimized for biohols. Ethanol and the newer fuels will yield better fuel efficiency as innovations like higher compression-ratio engines make their way into vehicles. In addition, we can count on the emergence of complementary technologies like cheaper hybrid vehicles, better batteries, plug-in hybrids, and more efficient, lighter-weight cars.
. . But the single most critical variable in the biohol trajectory is the coming rise in the number of gallons of fuel produced per acre. As we migrate from biomass derived from corn to biomass from so-called energy crops like switchgrass and miscanthus, I estimate that biomass yield will reach 20 to 24 tons per acre, a fourfold increase. At the same time, new technologies will enable us to extract more biohols from every ton of biomass, potentially to 110 gallons per ton. The result: We'll be extracting 2,000 to 2,700 gallons of fuel per acre (as opposed to about 400 gallons with today's technology). With better fuels and more-efficient engines improving mileage by about 50%, we can safely predict a seven- to tenfold gain in miles driven per acre of land over the next 25 years. Given this biohol trajectory, a future of independence from gasoline becomes not only possible but probable.
. . What makes the E3 Biofuels facility so novel isn't its spectacular equipment but the way the equipment is fueled. The most important structures here happen also to be the least beautiful: a pair of four-story, 4 million-gallon fuel tanks, each filled to the brim with cow manure. Historically, ethanol plants were fired by coal or natural gas. Not only do no fossil fuels go into the plant, very little pollution comes out.
. . Almost nothing goes to waste: Components of the corn kernel that aren't good for ethanol –-the protein-– are valuable additions to the cattle feed. The biodigestor waste left after methane production from cow manure is processed to produce ammonia fertilizer for the cornfields. The system is also environmentally friendly. Normally, groundwater pollution from cattle feedlots is a serious problem. But the process of producing fertilizer from the cattle manure keeps the phosphates out of the groundwater. Significantly, the energy system also prevents the venting of methane into the atmosphere, which is notable because methane is 23 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Another benefit: Even under a blazing mid-August sun, I can barely smell the cattle.

Oct 1, 06: Subaru announced that it was putting the finishing touches on a new horizontally-opposed diesel engine, which hopefully will find its way into a future Outback or Legacy. It will take a few years for the turbo diesel to make it into a production vehicle.
. . Volkswagen is also planning on reintroducing the Jetta diesel wagon in 2008.

Oct 1, 06: The Technology Review's Emerging Technologies Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted a panel titled "Innovation and the Energy Crisis", where speakers cast global warming as an urgent problem.
. . Growing energy demand, notably from developing nations such as India and China, coupled with climate change caused by global warming, have created a situation that requires both technology and new government policies, panelists said.
. . Joseph Romm, founder and executive director for the Center for Energy & Climate Solutions, said that a breakthrough energy technology is not required to address global climate change, which is caused by a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. "The answer is we should spend every last dime on technology available today and technology available in the next five years. All the technology in the world won't be worth anything if we don't act now", said Romm, who is a former director of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. Romm said that science around global warming "has gotten incredibly solid and alarming", with projections pointing to significant rising sea levels this century.
. . The public dialogue around global climate change, however, indicates that most people do not fully understand the breadth or urgency of the problem, said Nathan Lewis, professor at the California Institute of Technology.
. . Lewis advocated conservation efforts to reduce energy consumption. But even with those, the planet has only "four cards" left to consider when addressing a problem of this scale.
. . "clean coal", where CO2 from coal is captured during extraction and sequestered underground.
. . nuclear power at a large scale. And he urged use of solar electricity and cheap storage of renewable energy through chemical fuels.

. . All panelists called on the federal government to establish policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions. These would take the shape of a carbon tax, or a cap and trade system of buying carbon credits.
. . Romm responded, saying that the U.S. could reduce its energy consumption and still enjoy the same comfort and quality from consumer products. He noted that California's per capita in-door electricity consumption has dropped in the past 20 years without a degradation in lifestyle. "People talk about cost and talk about burden. What is the cost of rising sea levels?" {What will it cost to move New Orleans alone?! ...or what's left of it.]

Sept 29, 06: U.S. researchers have designed a reactor fuel that they believe can make nuclear power plants 50% more powerful and safer, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said. Researchers say their new technology should be ready for commercial use in existing reactors in about 10 years.
. . Already, one pickup truck full of uranium fuel [not really *together*, or it go boom!] in a nuclear reactor can supply a city with enough electricity for a year. The MIT scientists believe they have found a way to make the fuel go even further, boosting output by about 50%. The scientists changed the shape of the fuel from solid cylinders to hollow tubes, adding surface area that allowed water to flow inside and outside the pellets, increasing heat transfer.
. . The new fuel design also is much safer because it reaches an operating temperature of about 700 degrees Celsius, much lower than 1,800 degrees for conventional fuel and further from the 2,840 degrees melting point for uranium fuel.

Sept 28, 06: Chinese scientists made their first successful test of a thermonuclear fusion reactor today, raising the energy-hungry country's profile in the new but uncertain technology that promises clean power, state media reported.
. . Thermonuclear fusion seeks to generate power by joining nuclei of atoms together, releasing energy that can be tapped without producing greenhouse gases but creating a small amount of nuclear waste.
. . The scientists called the device "the first of its kind in operation in the world," but the report did not specify what tests it had passed. Xinhua cited the scientists as saying that deuterium and tritium atoms fused together at a temp of 100 million degrees Celsius for nearly three seconds.
. . The report did not specify whether the device, called Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), had succeeded at producing more energy than it consumed, the main obstacle to making fusion commercially viable.
. . Today's nuclear power plants employ fission, in which atoms are broken apart, not fused together. Scientists say fusion could potentially produce virtually unlimited, clean energy from readily available resources, such as seawater. China is a partner in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, a 500-megawatt experimental reactor to be built in southern France.
. . China, pressed for energy sources as its economy grows by around 10% per year, has been increasingly turning to nuclear power. It plans to spend about $50.7 billion on building around 30 nuclear reactors by 2020, about three times the number it already has in operation.

Sept 27, 06: [Who *hasn't* thot of this?!] British billionaire Richard Branson today proposed changes to aircraft movements at busy airports and the way planes land under a plan he said would cut the world's aviation emissions by up to 25%.
. . Branson, who last week committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail businesses to combat global warming, is lobbying airlines and airports to consider his cross-industry proposal to slash emissions.
. . The Virgin Group chairman proposed "starting grids" be set up at major airports which would allow a plane to be towed from its stand by a small tug closer to the runway before takeoff, reducing the time engines are running. This would reduce fuel consumption and on-the-ground carbon emissions for Virgin Atlantic aircraft by more than 50% ahead of take-off at London's Heathrow Airport and almost 90% at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, Branson said.
. . Branson also proposed changes to the way air traffic is controlled and a more efficient way for planes to descend and save fuel. He also said airlines can reduce the weight of planes by using lighter materials and even removing empty champagne and beer bottles before take-off. "If they do so, up to 25% of the world's aviation emissions can be cut."
. . The proposal is the next stage in Branson's public pledge to help tackle global warming. Branson has created Virgin Fuels, which will invest $400 million over three years in renewable energy initiatives as part of his pledge. International aviation is not covered by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change but its emissions are projected to grow, causing concern.

Sept 26, 06: Oil shale is said to be "rich" when it contains 30 gallons of petroleum for each ton of rock, but pound for pound that amounts to only 1/10th of the energy of liquid crude oil. Those tough economics have defied efforts at oil shale development for more than a century, most recently in 1982, when Exxon shut down its $5 billion Colony project in western Colorado and laid off 2,200 workers.

Sept 25, 06: The 44-year-in-the-making Suvarnabhumi airport will open up later this week, replacing Bangkok's old Don Muang airport. Most interesting, this airport has no air conditioning, rather it uses a very eco-friendly "co-generation plant" system, or water-cooling as I like to call it. Cold water flows directly underneath the floors on all levels, keeping the air a steady 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit up to 8.2 feet above the ground.

Sept 25, 06: Microreactors have already been used for on-site reforming of fuels, such as methanol or propane, to produce hydrogen to be used in fuel cells. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have designed very efficient ceramic microreactors to do this task. The scientists say that their microreactors are much better than other fuel reformer systems. They are now trying to reform gasoline and diesel, which are more widely distributed than propane.
. . "Applications include power supplies for small appliances and laptop computers, and on-site rechargers for battery packs used by the military."

Sept 26, 06: Honda has done it again. The car maker that floored the world in the 1970s with the first gasoline engine to meet U.S. clean air guidelines without a catalytic converter said it has developed a new and simple diesel powertrain that is as clean as gasoline-fuelled cars.
. . The technology marks a big step forward for Honda at a time when rivals are racing to come up with ways to clear the world's strictest emissions regulations, called Tier II Bin 5, that the United States will usher in next year.
. . Diesel engines, which now power half of Europe's new cars, are slowly gaining traction with fuel-conscious consumers around the world since they typically get 30% better mileage than gasoline cars. Their weakness has been the higher exhaust levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), a greenhouse gas.
. . Honda said its new diesel drivetrain features a unique method that generates and stores ammonia within a two-layer catalytic converter to turn nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen.
. . But Japan's third-biggest auto maker said it planned to roll out the advanced diesel engine in the United States within three years. DaimlerChrysler is preparing its next-generation diesel car for a 2008 launch. Earlier this year, it became the first in the world to announce voluntary global CO2 reduction targets for its products and production processes.
. . Honda's new FCX fuel-cell car now has a driving range of 570 km (354 miles) --a 30% improvement from the 2005 model-- a maximum speed of 160 km (100 miles) per hour and can be driven in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. Honda plans to begin marketing the car in limited numbers in 2008 in Japan and the US.

Nissan Motor Co. (7201.T) plans to sell a hybrid vehicle developed in-house in 2010, limiting its licensing ties with Toyota Motor Corp. Japan's two biggest car makers signed a deal in 2002 under which Toyota would sell its hybrid system to Nissan. Nissan, held 44% by France's Renault, has lagged in the development.
. . Nissan is also working on a plug-in hybrid. Nissan is ditching nickel metal hydride batteries in favor of lithium-ion batteries that (safety issues aside) have more power and are faster charging.
. . Also, battery company Lithium Technology says it developed a battery than can power a sedan for up to 50 miles without using any gas. A plug-in hybrid sedan using its battery would average 75 miles per gallon, according to the company.
. . Toyota is working on a plug-in hybrid.
. . Good AND bad news: Good tech, bad size: Audi's new Q7 sedan provides race car performance with a V12 engine featuring a new generation of diesel technology. The six-liter Q7 is the first to use a 2,000 bar Bosch Common Rail engine that boosts power while burning cleaner to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions. Audi could have added cylinder deactivation technology to boost fuel economy, but didn't!

Sept 20, 06: Britain's leading scientific academy has accused oil company Exxon Mobil Corp. of misleading the public about global warming and funding groups that undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.
. . The Royal Society said today that it had written to Exxon asking it to halt support for groups that have "misrepresented the science of climate change." The letter said Exxon had given $2.9 million to 39 such groups.

Sept 19, 06: An Iowa alternative fuel engine manufacturer has reached an agreement with an irrigation pump maker in California to make the world's first ammonia-powered irrigation pump system. The system will help meet California's new strict emissions requirements scheduled to go into effect in 2010.
. . The engines developed by HEC run on anhydrous ammonia, or NH3, which has been used by farmers for many years as a fertilizer. Customers who need irrigation systems already are accustomed to handling, storing and working with anhydrous ammonia, so it presents none of the problems that hydrogen would.
. . Anhydrous ammonia contains no carbon, stores like propane and is the second most prevalent chemical in the world, Hollinger said. Ammonia contains more hydrogen per cubic meter than liquid hydrogen. Hollinger frequently refers to ammonia as the other hydrogen.
. . Using ammonia to power engines has advantages:
. . _An infrastructure for storage and transportation is already in place.
. . _Usage and safety regulations for ammonia are already in place, therefore, the process of obtaining a permit to use ammonia is usually relatively simple.
. . _Ammonia pipelines can be found in many areas of the United States, including Iowa, and distribution of the fuel is already established.
. . Anhydrous ammonia is currently derived mostly from natural gas and as a result, it's price is tied to natural gas prices, which have been high in the past few years.

Sept 19, 06: Toyota will introduce a two-seater called the Aygo in 2008, according to Edmunds. The teeny car won't be suitable for drag racing as it will feature a three-cylinder 68 horsepower engine. The car will compete head on with DaimlerChrysler's American debut of the Smart Fortwo.
. . Aygo is based on a European model that gets approximately 51 mpg and received a four star crash rating for passengers.

Honda collaborated with the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) to develop a new process for creating ethanol from plant leaves and stalks. According to Honda, the breakthrough includes a new microorganism that increases the ethanol yield by reducing the effect of fermentation inhibitors. Honda will produce ethanol in a pilot facility with the hopes of mass producing the fuel.

Sept 18, 06: There are two sizeable barriers that need to be tackled before second generation biofuels arrive at the pumps --technology and cost.
. . "A number of companies are looking at something called 'cellulose accessing packages' that will allow us to take a bag of enzymes and pour it on to lignocellulose and ferment the whole lot. It is technically far more complicated than current production methods", says Mr Tompkinson. "All the different [sugars] in the plant need their own enzymes to break them down.

Sept 18, 06: Offshore wind turbines are not new, but they typically stand on towers that have to be driven deep into the ocean floor. This arrangement only works in water depths of about 15 meters or less -—close enough to shore that they are still visible.
. . Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a wind turbine that can be attached to a floating platform. Long steel cables would tether the corners of the floating platform to a concrete-block or other mooring system on the ocean floor, like a high-tech ship anchor. The setup is called a "tension leg platform", or TLP, and would be cheaper than fixed towers. [originally made for oil rigs.]
. . The floating platforms to sway side to side but not bob up and down. Computer simulations suggest that even during hurricanes, the platforms would shift by only about three to six feet and that the bottom of the turbine blades would revolve well above the peak of even the highest wave. Dampers similar to those used to steady skyscrapers during high winds and earthquakes could be used to further reduce sideways motion, the researchers say.
. . Like the offshore windmills currently in use, the TLP's would use undersea cables to shuttle the electricity to land. The researchers estimate their floater-mounted turbines could work in water depths ranging from about 30 to 210 meters. This means that in the northeastern United States, they could be placed about 30 to 100 miles out at sea. Because winds are stronger farther offshore, the floating windmills could also generate more energy -—5.0 megawatts, compared to 1.5 MW for onshore units and 3.5 MW for conventional offshore setups.
. . To save money, assembly of the TLP's could be done onshore -—probably at a shipyard—and towed out to sea by a tugboat. Sclavounos estimates that building and installing the TLP's should cost a third of what it costs to install current offshore tower windmills. Another advantage of using floating platforms is that the windmills could be moved around. If a company with 400 wind turbines in Boston needs more power in New York City, it can unhook some of their windmills and tow them south.

Sept 18, 06: Mexico needs to expand its nuclear energy program and should start by building a new $3 billion power plant, its outgoing energy minister said. He would meet with conservative President-elect Felipe Calderon in coming days to propose that his new government build a nuclear plant with a capacity of 1,500 megawatts in the next four or five years. The plant would have two reactors.
. . Mexico currently has one nuclear plant, which opened in 1990 and produces 1,365 megawatts.

Sept 19, 06: Researchers at Brown University say their plastic battery produces 100 times the power of today's alkaline cells. The technology combines the power surging capabilities of a capacitor with the storage characteristics of conventional batteries. The result is a battery that can be charged quickly but at the same time can deliver its energy over an extended period. Conceivably, you could even make fabric out of this composite.
. . The next problem to be solved is the batteries' decreased storage capacity after they've been repeatedly recharged. No word on when the technology might find its way to market.

Sept 18, 06: A group of Swiss people will soon attempt to realize the first Atlantic crossing with a solar boat. This ship, named "sun21", is a 14-meter-long catamaran able to sleep 5 or 6 persons. This solar-powered boat will achieve its 11,000 km trip at a speed of 5-6 knots (10-12 km/h) by using photovoltaic cells and without spending a single gallon of fuel.
. . A large deck roofed with photovoltaic modules has been installed between the hulls. The boat is equipped with solar modules, batteries and motors allowing a constant speed of 5–6 knots (10–12 km/h) 24 hours a day, equivalent to the average speed of sailing yachts."

Sept 18, 06: British policies on bioenergy from plants and other natural materials lack ambition and clarity, MPs have said.
. . The Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (Efracom) says the UK is lagging behind other countries. It urges the government to look beyond its existing 5% target for biofuels in road transport, and promote bioenergy for heating homes and aviation. However, it says that wide adoption of currently available biofuels could have serious consequences for wildlife.
. . The government's target, announced last year in response to a European directive, is to have 5% of road transport fuelled by bioethanol and biodiesel by 2010. in 2003, France and Germany combined produced 100 times more biofuel than Britain.
. . The report is optimistic too about "second generation" technologies which could take organic waste such as wood chips, chicken litter, or straw and either burn them or convert them into other fuels. It notes with particular interest that kerosene could be produced this way for use in aviation, currently the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.
. . Efracom concludes the government is not doing enough in these areas. "Policy... amounts to disjointed piecemeal incentives, allowances and grant schemes", it says.

Sept 17, 06: For centuries, Dutch windmills have pumped water out of the low-lying country, and old-fashioned wooden mills are as closely linked with the Netherlands' international image as its dikes and bikes. But in the face of a large and growing lobby against the windmill's modern electricity-generating counterpart -—the wind turbine-— the country has started moving them offshore and out of sight.
. . The Egmond aan Zee wind farm, the first major offshore Dutch project, is nearing completion 12 km from Haarlem and is scheduled to go on line this fall. It has 36 turbines, each with arms reaching higher than a football field, capable of producing a combined 108 megawatts.
. . It's the first in a flood of similar-sized offshore projects proposed for Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and the United States, in Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
. . In the Netherlands, which targets having 9% of its electricity generated from renewable sources by 2010, the need to move offshore is growing more urgent due to the increasing number of wind turbine critics. They say the towering mechanical structures are blighting landscapes.
. . Europe has 40,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity, the U.S. has 9,000 megawatts, and an additional 10,000 megawatts are scattered around the globe, mostly in Asia. But so far just 600 megawatts are generated offshore —-more than half in Denmark.
. . Christian Kjaer, policy director for the European Wind Energy Association, predicts onshore wind generation will continue to grow. But he expects offshore generation will grow even faster, increasing its share to a third of all wind energy in Europe by 2020 and half by 2030.
. . Building the turbines offshore means they don't spoil anybody's view, and they can harness more consistent and stronger offshore winds. But they must be rugged enough to weather salty sea air and the pounding of ocean storms.
. . The big, 1,000-megawatt London Array project in Britain is stalled by a similar fight over the location of a substation. In the Netherlands, the Dutch government has carefully mapped out space for 65 wind farms in the North Sea during a 10-year consensus-building phase.
. . They chose sites in shallow waters, out of sight except under extremely clear conditions, avoiding shipping lanes around Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, and far enough from shore to reduce the danger of their whirling blades to coastal and migratory birds. "It's too bad when any bird is killed, but as a nature organization we are for wind energy", he said. "You must balance the threat to birds from turbines in the short term against the threat of global warming in the long run."
. . Peeters said his group drew hope from a Danish study that found fewer migrating birds were killed by offshore turbines than expected. "Apparently, birds see the turbines and avoid them."

"Moralizing will not break our addiction to oil, but sustained high prices certainly would. People would respond to such a market signal by slowly changing their behavior --cars would become smaller, more efficient. Better mass transit would be built and used. More people would live close to their workplaces. Traffic jams would shrink. The air would clear.
. . The discovery of a new oil source in the Gulf of Mexico makes that scenario less likely. An oil supply close to home is a good thing, but cheap oil has a downside. Gas prices at $4 per gallon might be the only way to break America's oil addiction. With the news from Jack field, $2 per gallon is more realistic. The former looks like the better bargain to me."
. . • Paul McDonnold is a freelance writer and adjunct economics instructor.

Sept 15, 06: Add reduced car insurance premiums to the list of benefits of driving a hybrid vehicle. Farmers Insurance Group, which last year became the first company to discount car insurance to hybrid owners in California, is giving Kansans a similar break.
. . Farmers reduces insurance premiums by 10% for hybrid owners. Farmers believes that hybrid owners are more sensitive to the environment, more likely to drive less, and therefore cost less to insure.
. . So driving in HOV lanes, tax credits, better parking spots --the hybrid perks just keeps on growing. For those of you driving gas guzzlers, remember that the all those gallons of gasoline saved by hybrid drivers are keeping fuel prices from going even higher.

Sept 14, 06: Researchers have deciphered for the first time the genetic code of a tree, which could lead to new varieties better at producing wood, paper and fuel. The work could vastly increase cultivation of the black cottonwood, a fast-growing poplar already used by the timber and paper industries.
. . Fifteen years from now, fully domesticated varieties of the tree, optimally tuned to grow faster and longer, better resist insects and disease and require less water and nutrients, could be growing like any other crop on tree farms spread across large regions of the United States, researchers said.
. . One goal is to create a poplar variety that can be used as a source of ethanol, which can be burned as fuel. Currently, ethanol is more expensive and difficult to produce from wood than it is from crops like corn. Researchers also would like to create poplar varieties to soak up even more CO2 from the atmosphere and lessen the impact of the gas on global warming.
. . The black cottonwood is the third plant, after rice and a weed called Arabidopsis thaliana, to have its genome sequence published.

Sept 14, 06: The UK government has published details of its plans to create a £1bn energy research institute. The center will investigate ways of generating electricity that minimize the emissions of carbon gases. To be known as the Energy Technologies Institute, it will be funded by energy companies and the government.
. . Worldwide, public funding of energy research has been cut by a half since 1980 and in the UK it is now a 10th of what it used to be. The proposed new investment by government and industry is an attempt to reverse that trend.
. . Critics, though, say that research alone will not be enough. They argue that only a carbon levy to increase the cost of fossil fuels will bring about the cuts in emissions that will be needed.

Sept 13, 06: Chicken feathers and rice straw could become commonplace in clothing in the future, scientists report. These garments won't resemble plumage or lawns. Rather, the feathers and fibers will get transformed into fabrics resembling wool, linen, or cotton. Researchers hope these inventions, made from the farming industry's castoffs, could help reduce the use of petroleum-based synthetic fabrics.
. . World consumption of natural and synthetic fibers amounts to 67 million tons annually, which are used not just in clothing, but in carpets, vehicles, construction materials and a host of other everyday applications. Satisfying the increasing global demand for fibers could prove challenging in the near future, the scientists explained, because of the limited availability of cultivable land, as well as the increasing price and decreasing availability of petroleum.
. . The researchers turned their eyes to the millions of tons of rice straw and chicken feathers available cheaply, abundantly and renewably worldwide as farming byproducts. Unlike petroleum-based fibers, barnyard fabrics are biodegradable, the scientists added.
. . Rice fabrics are the most developed of the two fabric concepts so far. They are based off rice straw, the stems of the rice plant left over after rice grains are harvested. As much as roughly two billion pounds of rice fibers are available from rice straw in the United States, with about 20 billion worldwide.
. . The rice fabrics will look and feel similar to cotton or linen. The total production cost of the rice fiber is estimated at about 50 cents per pound, while cotton currently sells for about 60 cents a pound.
. . Chicken feathers are composed mostly of keratin, the same kind of protein found in wool. The researchers are specifically interested in their barbs and barbules, the stringy network that makes up the fluffy parts of the feather, which may have a similar feel on the skin as wool. "More than 4 billion pounds of chicken feathers are produced worldwide per year, about 50% of the weight of which is made of the barbs", Yang said.
. . The researchers investigated the physical properties of these filaments and found they possessed a sturdy honeycomb architecture containing tiny air pockets, which make them extremely lightweight and resilient. They could possibly serve as an improvement over wool due to their low cost, light weight and excellent heat and sound insulation, Yang said. However, he added they are not ready to make fibers from chicken feathers yet.

Sept 12, 06: A team of scientists are using ultrasound to map rocks deep below the Earth's surface to hunt for oil and gas. They are looking for "sweet spots" --pockets of natural gas and oil contained in fractured porous rocks.
. . The potential payoff is huge. The United States has an estimated 254 trillion cubic feet of gas from these so-called "tight" formations, enough to satisfy U.S. demand for 11 years, government data show.
. . In the energy-hungry United States, demand for natural gas has more than doubled in two decades with supply stagnating and consumption forecast to surge --growing nearly 40% by 2025, according to long-term estimates by the U.S. government.
. . The U.S. Department of Energy, which provided $580,000 to the MIT team, describes "tight gas" as the nation's fastest-growing source of natural gas. Until a few decades ago it was considered nearly impossible to reach.

Sept 10, 06: Surging demand for energy, coupled with high oil and gas prices have revived France's enthusiasm for coal but it may be short-lived without fast development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
. . After the 1970s oil crisis, France gradually switched from heavy use of coal to nuclear power. The last coal pit shut in 2004 and a French company's announcement last month that it planned to mine one in central France caused a stir.
. . Jean-Francois Mayeur, an official of state coal producer Charbonnages de France, warned that a revival of domestic coal mining could only be marginal. "There are virtually no coalfields left in France and the sector is planning an irreversible shut down", he added. "It's clearly uneconomical to produce coal today", he said.
. . But coal imports are growing despite France's heavy reliance on nuclear for nearly 80% of its generated power, which allows the country to be Europe's biggest power exporter. Developing so-called clean coal involves finding an effective and cost-effective way to separate the gas and bury it in porous rock underground or below the sea bed. France is the coordinator of a 15.8 million euros European project called Castor, which aims to halve the cost of CO2 capture in flue gas to 20-30 euros per ton of CO2.
. . The revival of coal use in France is angering green groups, which fear funds from public and private sources will be spent on developing CCS rather than on building up more established renewable energy sources. "The rebirth of coal is the worst thing we could have imagined for global warming", said Morgane Creach from the French Network for Climate Action (RAC).

Sept 10, 06: A Florida county has grand plans to ditch its dump, generate electricity and help build roads —-all by vaporizing garbage at temperatures hotter than parts of the sun.
. . The $425 million facility expected to be built in St. Lucie County will use lightning-like plasma arcs to turn trash into gas and rock-like material. It will be the first such plant in the nation operating on such a massive scale and the largest in the world. Supporters say the process is cleaner than traditional trash incineration, though skeptics question whether the technology can meet the lofty expectations.
. . The 100,000-square-foot plant, slated to be operational in two years, is expected to vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage a day. County officials estimate their entire landfill —-4.3 million tons of trash collected since 1978-— will be gone in 18 years.
. . No byproduct will go unused, according to Geoplasma, the Atlanta-based company building and paying for the plant. "This is sustainability in its truest and finest form."
. . 1: Synthetic, combustible gas produced in the process will be used to run turbines to create about 120 megawatts of electricity that will be sold back to the grid. The facility will operate on about a third of the power it generates.
. . 2: About 80,000 pounds of steam per day will be sold to a neighboring Tropicana Products Inc. facility to power the juice plant's turbines.
. . 3: Sludge from the county's wastewater treatment plant will be vaporized, and a material created from melted organic matter —-up to 600 tons a day-— will be hardened into slag, and sold for use in road and construction projects.
. . For years, some waste-management facilities have been converting methane --created by rotting trash in landfills-— to power. Others also burn trash to produce electricity. But experts say population growth will limit space available for future landfills.
. . Up to eight plasma arc-equipped cupolas will vaporize trash year-round, nonstop. Garbage will be brought in on conveyor belts and dumped into the cylindrical cupolas where it falls into a zone of heat more than 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
. . No emissions are released during the closed-loop gasification, Geoplasma says. The only emissions will come from the synthetic gas-powered turbines that create electricity. Even that will be cleaner than burning coal or natural gas, experts say. Few other toxins will be generated, if any at all, Geoplasma says.
. . But critics disagree. "We've found projects similar to this being misrepresented all over the country", said Monica Wilson of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. Wilson said there aren't enough studies yet to prove the company's claims that emissions will likely be less than from a standard natural-gas power plant. She also said other companies have tried to produce such results and failed.
. . "Municipal solid waste is perhaps the largest renewable energy resource that is available to us", Circeo said, adding that the process "could not only solve the garbage and landfill problems in the United States and elsewhere, but it could significantly alleviate the current energy crisis."
. . He said that if large plasma facilities were put to use nationwide to vaporize trash, they could theoretically generate electricity equivalent to about 25 nuclear power plants.
. . Americans generated 236 million tons of garbage in 2003, about 4.5 pounds per person, per day, according to the latest figures from the EPA. Roughly 130 million tons went to landfills —-enough to cover a football field 703 miles high with garbage
. . Only two similar facilities are operating in the world --both in Japan-— but are gasifying garbage on a much smaller scale. Circeo said that both plants operating in Japan, where emissions standards are more stringent than in the U.S., are producing far less pollution than regulations require.
. . "For the amount of energy produced, you get significantly less of certain pollutants like sulfur dioxide and particulate matter", said Rick Brandes, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency's waste minimization division.
. . Geoplasma expects to recoup its $425 million investment, funded by bonds, within 20 years through the sale of electricity and slag. "That's the silver lining", said Hillestad, adding that St. Lucie County won't pay a dime. The company has assumed full responsibility for interest on the bonds.

Sept 8, 06: A Japanese scientist who invented environmentally-friendly sources of light has been awarded this year's Millennium Technology Prize. Professor Shuji Nakamura was awarded the 1m Euro (£680,000) prize at a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland. The award recognised his inventions of blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser diode. White LEDs could provide a sustainable, low-cost alternative to lightbulbs, especially in developing countries.
. . The Millennium technology Prize is the world's largest technology award, equivalent to the Nobel Prizes for science. It is awarded every two years. The first prize, awarded in 2004, was presented to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
. . As LEDs are more robust than traditional lightbulbs and use relatively little power, they can easily be combined with solar panels to provide lighting in remote areas of developing countries.
. . In his speech, Professor Nakamura said he would donate part of the prize money to organisations that promote the use of LED lighting in such locations. Professor Nakamura is based at the University of California, Santa Barbara where his research into new sources of light continues.

An electric motor company built an electrically driven Mini-car as a demo vehicle to show off its technology. PML Flightlink Ltd., a British company, ripped the drivetrain out of a Mini, replacing it with four in-wheel electric motors, a 300-volt lithium-polymer battery, a 350-volt ultracapacitor, plus a 250cc two-cylinder engine to generate extra electricity, as needed. PML claims 80mpg and a top speed of 150mph. Zero to 62 mph is a blazing 4.5 seconds, and the car can run for four hours on electric-only, according to the company's Web site. The four in-wheel motors also work as regenerative braking systems and as a traction control system. PML calls the car the Mini QED.

Sept 7, 06: "My guess is the earliest we'd see hybrids with lithium ion batteries would be the 2009 model year.
. . People who use tax loopholes when purchasing SUVs will reduce federal tax revenue by $2.6 billion next year, according to a report from Congressman Ed Markey. The Massachusetts Democrat wants to close the loophole with a bill titled H.R. 5579, the No Special Subsidies for Gas Guzzlers Act. Markey points out that SUVs are classified as trucks and therefore don't have to pay the gas guzzler tax that is assessed to vehicles that get less than 22.5 miles per gallon.
. . "The purchase of the 20.5 mpg Audi incurs a $1300 gas guzzler tax; the purchase of the less efficient 15.8 mpg Jeep is gas-guzzler-tax free. Similarly, a 21.7 mpg Chrysler 300C, a large sedan, pays a gas guzzler tax of $1000, but the 13.9 mpg GMC Yukon Sierra, a very large SUV, pays no tax." Another loophole allows business owners to writeoff most of the cost of acquiring the heaviest SUVs instead of a car or station wagon. Markey estimates that if left in place the loophole will reduce tax revenues by nearly $11 billion by 2011
. . The NYTimes car reviewer says it best about the 2007 Dodge Ram SRT10: "This truck could be more politically incorrect only if it ran on whale oil and panda tears." Truly one of the great sentences in the history of auto journalism, by Ezra Dyer, in describing a 510 horsepower pickup that got between 7-8 miles per gallon during his test drive."

Sept 6, 06: Enzymes rather than scarce and expensive platinum may hold the answer to the hydrogen fuel cells of the future to halt global warming and as the oil runs out.
. . Fraser Armstrong, chemistry professor at Oxford University, said that enzymes known as hydrogenases are more effective than platinum at converting hydrogen into electrons, but the chemistry is not fully understood.
. . So far, he has only managed to create a fuel cell in his laboratory capable of powering a wrist watch --and then only for two days-- but he hopes this might lead to bigger and better things.
. . In the first place, H2 is rarely found naturally on earth, it is highly combustible --at concentrations of just 4% in air, it becomes explosive-- and it needs a lot of electricity to produce it, by splitting water into its component parts.
. . However, if the problem of production can be overcome --as they have done in Iceland, with its plentiful supplies of cheap and clean geothermal power-- and it is rendered safe by keeping concentrations to 3% in air, then the main remaining problem is the catalyst to convert it back into power and water.
. . To date, the catalyst of choice is platinum, but the price has already doubled and there are doubts over whether in any case there is enough in the world to meet demand if fuel cells become the power source of the future.

Sept 6, 06: Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), thin sheets of plastic that emit light, into a source of room lighting. OLED lighting --organic because the films that emit light contain hydrogen and carbon atoms-- could be incorporated into fabrics, furniture and other items.
. . Approximately 22% of the electricity consumed in the United States goes toward lighting, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Fiberstars of Solon, Ohio, and Sunlight Direct, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., have come up with ways to deploy high-intensity light and sunlight, respectively, through plastic fiber-optic cables.
. . Incandescent bulbs generate about 10 to 15 lumens of light per watt. Last month, Universal Display showed off experimental white OLEDs covering a 25-cm square panel that generated 31 lumens per watt.
. . A major breakthrough for OLED lighting occurred a few years ago when researchers at Princeton, the University of Southern California and Universal Display published a paper demonstrating how, from the perspective of fundamental physics, nearly 100% of the energy in OLEDs could be converted into light. "Previously, people thought only a quarter of the electricity could be converted." A prototype will convert 50% of the energy.
. . Unfortunately, OLEDs, because they are organic, degrade over time. "The goal is to get to 20,000 hours with 800 to 1,000 nits", Mahon said. It's closer to 10,000 now. (A nit is a measure of how many light rays strike a square meter.)
. . Lighting and OLED manufacturers have begun to contemplate the sort of frame, mounting structure and electrical connections for OLED lighting systems. Prototypes of architectural OLED lights could emerge in two or three years.

Sept 2, 06: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is asking its 5.1 million customers to petition automakers to speed up development of plug-in electric-gasoline hybrid vehicles, California's largest utility said.
. . Along with their power and gas bills for September, PG&E customers will get a request to lobby the automakers. "The petition basically says, 'If you build it, we will buy it."' Automakers say plug-in hybrids are not ready for the showroom floor. Toyota is on pace to sell 198,000 hybrids in 2006, up from 145,560 in 2005.
. . The petition drive and other efforts to pressure automakers could speed up the process of development to mass production. "Automakers aren't convinced there are enough buyers", PG&E's Howard said. "That's why PG&E is hoping to harness the power of its 5.1 million customers." PG&E cited a study by the California Electric Transportation Coalition that says if automakers produce plug-in hybrids within a few years, 2.5 million of them would be on the road by 2020.
. . Utilities like PG&E will not benefit from any increase in power use by its customers, said Taber of PG&E. Their rates are regulated by state agencies and they do not make more profit if they sell more electricity, Taber said. If plug-in hybrids do become common, they will urge customers to plug in at night when the power grid is not as strained as it is during daylight hours.

Sept 1, 06: Northern Iowa could have one of the nation's largest wind farms by 2008. Iowa Winds LLC wants to build a 200- to 300-megawatt farm covering about 40,000 acres. "It's great for national security, so we can start depending on ourselves and the wind." It will create 30 to 40 technical jobs maintaining the turbines.
. . If the county approves the project, construction would start next spring and take about a year. Iowa has nearly 900 wind turbines capable of producing 836 megawatts of electricity. Planned projects —-besides the Franklin County farm-— would add 120 turbines capable of generating an additional 249 megawatts of electricity.
. . Iowa ranks third in the nation in wind energy behind Texas and California. Texas leads the nation with 2,400 megawatts of wind energy installed and California has 2,323 megawatts.

Aug 30, 06: Biotechnology might be used to boost the energy output of crops used in making renewable fuels, a U.S. Agriculture Department advisory committee said. It said genetic engineering could be used to add traits to food crops, such as corn and soybeans, and nonfood crops, like grasses and trees, to enhance energy production. "The large-scale production of such energy crops could have tremendous implications for U.S. agricultural systems."

"Once there is a method of producing hydrogen that is within the ballpark of fossil fuel costs, THEN serious money will be thrown at the power generation (fuel cells), storing, and distribution challenges of hydrogen energy. We keep hearing this is 20+ years away, but once we can create abundant hydrogen, the other pieces will fall into place within a decade."

Aug 30, 06: U.S. wind farms are currently capable of generating enough electricity for about 2.5 million American homes, according to trade group the American Wind Energy Association, which predicts that will rise by 50% by the end of next year.
. . When Maple Ridge is complete, it will have 195 windmills, each one 260 feet high, stretched out in a 19.3km band along a ridge between Lake Ontario and the Adirondack Mountains.

Aug 29, 06: Pennsylvania has doubled the purchase of green electricity to 20% of its needs, becoming the largest U.S. state buyer of power from sustainable sources such as wind and water, the state government said.

Aug 23, 06: Rising production of biofuels from crops might complicate U.N. goals of ending hunger in developing countries, where 850 million people do not have enough to eat, a senior U.N. official said.

Aug 23, 06: Franklin Fuel Cells reported on August 9 that it has successfully "tested, demonstrated, and proven" its patented, proprietary Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) technology on 16 different hydrocarbon fuels. Among the fuels tested on the SOFCs were: propane, methane, ethanol, natural gas and diesel. It has to operate at high temperatures: up to 1000 degrees Celsius.
. . One of the main obstacles keeping SOFC systems out of vehicles is their high operating temperatures. Warming up the fuel cell to 1,000 degrees Celsius can take around 45 minutes, and the material needed to withstand that heat is expensive. Engineers are working to lower the operating temperature under 700 degrees Celsius which would solve some of these issues, the company said.

Aug 23, 06: [I heard of this idea decades ago!] A study of a $2-$4 billion project to top up the shrinking Dead Sea with water from the Red Sea could start in the coming months, a World Bank official said. It would reverse a 25 meter fall in the level of the Dead Sea in the past century. It's shrunk because of increased use of water upstream from the Jordan River, the Dead Sea's main source.
. . Alavian said Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority were committed to the study of the 180 km "Two Seas Canal" plan despite the Lebanon war and clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.
. . Any link between the seas should include a hydro electric plant to capitalize on the huge drop of about 450 meters from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth's surface.
. . The study would also examine environmental impacts. Alavian said the Dead Sea was too salty for all but a few salt-loving micro-organisms. It was unclear whether the sea would be affected by less salty Red Sea water.

Aug 22, 06: Fuel Cells seem like a pipe dream. Typically requiring hydrogen or methane, they require a brand new infrastructure and often more power to product the fuel than they can deliver to the engine. But now there's a fascinating new alternative, called Solid-Oxide. What makes it special? It can run on a wide variety of fuels, including propane, ethanol, natural gas and diesel. Fuel flexibility, and its temperature profile make it much more attractive to car vendors.

Aug 21, 06: Researchers are studying whether microbes can be manipulated by science to expand the life of coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. So far, results look "very promising", said Seth Snyder, a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory.
. . They've been studying whether microscopic bacteria that naturally break down organic materials to create methane can be encouraged to produce the natural gas faster and for an extended period.
. . The microbes live in an anaerobic environment. They are tiny bacteria that chew up the coal or anything else with carbon in it and produce the methane. Making methane is "actually a complex reaction in multiple steps by a whole community of those little microbes."

Aug 17, 06: The world leader in natural gas vehicles: tiny Armenia: Ex-Soviet state Armenia is blazing a trail in the global quest to move to cleaner fuels --not by choice but out of necessity.

Aug 17, 06: Japan, the world's third-largest oil consumer, will set out nationwide biodiesel standards this year in an effort to kick-start demand, but will not force refiners to sell it, government officials said.

Aug 16, 06: Although rollover accidents made up just 3% of all accidents in 2002, they accounted for 33% of all road fatalities. And what kind of vehicles have a tendency to rollover? Why, yes, its the gas-guzzling SUV!
. . If you look at the 2006 NHTSA rollover ratings, most SUVs rated only three stars (see Escalade, Avalanche, Traiblazer, Tahoe, Escape, Expedition, Envoy, Yukon, and Santa Fe to name a few), while the Toyota's Prius, Camry and Scion all rated four stars. Also, the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid, for example got 5 star ratings in three of four NHTSA crash categories, and a four star rollover rating.
. . Safer vehicle designs have offset the bad driving, saving an estimated 5,200 lives in 2004 alone. The full study will be released later this year, and will detail the effect of the introduction of SUVs on death rates. I'm guessing the news won't be good.

The Air Force burns 3 BILLION gallons of fuel a year!! A fighter jet: 28 G/minute! 4-engine tanker, only 1.5 G/min.

Aug 14, 06: Australians were offered cash rebates to convert their vehicles to run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) rather than petrol in a government move to reduce the country's dependence on Middle East oil.

Aug 11, 06: Scientists at MIT are undertaking a big, ambitious, university-wide program to develop innovative energy tech under the auspices of the school's Energy Research Council. "The urgent challenge of our time (is) clean, affordable energy to power the world", said MIT President Susan Hockfield.
. . David Jhirad, a former deputy assistant secretary of energy and current VP for science and research at the World Resources Institute, said no other institution or government anywhere has taken on such an intensive, creative, broad-based, and wide-ranging energy research initiative. "MIT is stepping into a vacuum, because there is no policy, vision or leadership at the top of our nation", he said.
. . * Spinach solar power: Tapping the secrets of photosynthesis --engineering proteins from spinach-- to make organic solar cells whose efficiency could outstrip the best silicon photovoltaic arrays today.
. . * A novel approach to manufacturing conventional silicon photovoltaic arrays by pulling the chips in stringy ribbons out of a molten stew like taffy rather than slicing them from silicon ingots.
. . * A new generation of lithium-based batteries (which power most portable electronics today) to cut the price and charge-time of hybrid and electric car batteries.
. . * Tubular battery tech: Using "supercapacitors" made from carbon nanotubes to store charge --rather than the chemical reactions that power most batteries-- resulting in a lightweight, high-capacity battery that could someday give even the laptop battery competition.
. . * Hold the A/C: Optimizing air and heat flow on a new computer-aided design system, before a building's construction begins, allowing for the building's air conditioning costs to be cut by as much as 50%.
. . * Charging an automobile engine with plasma from a small ethanol tank (which would need to be refilled about as often as the oil needs changing), reportedly increasing fuel efficiency almost to the level of a hybrid --but only adding $500-$1,000 to the car's sticker price.
. . * Generating a car's electricity photoelectrically (using a gas-powered light and a small, specially designed solar panel) rather than mechanically (using an alternator), substantially increasing fuel efficiency.
. . * Coal-powered biofuels: Bubbling exhaust from a coal-fired power plant through a tank of algae that's been bred to siphon off much of the exhaust's CO2 --in the process, fattening the algae that can then be harvested as biodiesel.
. . * A new effort to make cheap ethanol using a biochemical technique called metabolic engineering.

Aug 10, 06: City and utility officials throughout Southern California are eyeing a new system that relies on ice to store energy for air conditioners as a possible way to cut peak commercial consumption and reduce the threat of crippling blackouts.
. . "There's an old saying, a kilowatt saved is more valuable than a kilowatt built", said Bill Carnahan, executive director of the Southern California Public Power Authority, an organization of municipal power agencies. Cutting power use now could delay the need to build new plants, he said. State power consumption reached a record 50,270 megawatts on July 24 during the height of a triple-digit heat wave.
. . The system developed by Ice Energy Inc. consists of a large plastic attachment for commercial air conditioning units that is filled with water, frozen overnight then used to cool refrigerant during the day. "It stores energy at night, when energy is cleaner to produce, cheaper to buy and easier to obtain.
. . The incentives include a special rate structure that will benefit businesses by dropping their cost for power during off-peak hours from 11 cents to 3 cents a kilowatt. The city will also issue credits of as much as $21,000.
. . Ice Energy has sold 75 systems since sales began six months ago. The California Energy Commission authorized use of the technology in the state in June. The desert community of Victorville is buying 54 systems and plans to retrofit its municipal buildings with the help of low-interest loans from the commission. The challenge was creating something smaller for commercial and residential units.

Aug 10, 06: The companies that emphasize fuel efficiency are also rated most highly for quality. Toyota vehicles cause their owners the least amount of headaches in the short and long term, according to J.D. Power and Associates. Toyota and Lexus brands finished at the top of 8 of the 19 vehicle categories. Honda was the only other brand to win multiple categories with its Civic and S2000 at the top of the heap.
. . American Honda Senior Vice President John Mendel, summed up the company's engine strategy by stating that hybrid motors are appropriate for smaller vehicles, while a new diesel engine will be installed in larger Honda vehicles.
. . Honda wants to sell 100,000 of its new small hybrids starting in 2009, and promises to make the vehicle affordable to the masses. No mention of a diesel hybrid, which would give the best of both worlds!

There is a misconception that turning computers off and on again not only uses more energy than leaving them running, but that it is also harder on computers. This is not true. Today's computers are built to handle 40,000 on/off cycles. This is considerably more times than the average user will turn the computer on and off during its five- to seven-year life span.
. . LED screens use a third to half of the power that standard cathode ray tube monitors require. Maybe "page views per kilowatt hour" is the socially responsible benchmark.

Aug 7, 06: Today, Hetch Hetchy Valley attracts more than 50,000 visitors a year who can walk across the O'Shaughnessy Dam, hike around the reservoir and get away from the 3 million visitors who clog neighboring Yosemite Valley's roads and campgrounds each year. "If it was restored to something like Yosemite Valley, it would be overcrowded, too."
. . The Hetch Hetchy system delivers some of the country's highest quality drinking water to 2.4 million Bay Area residents.
. . Conservationists see an opportunity to restore what Muir called a "wonderfully exact counterpart" to Yosemite Valley, the park's more famous attraction, known for towering monuments like El Capitan, as well as its clogged campgrounds and roadways. They say it's possible to dismantle the 312-foot concrete dam, replace the lost water storage downstream on the Tuolumne River and find other sources of clean electricity.
. . A state review found that the job would be "technically feasible" for an estimated $3 billion to $10 billion. The city and others political leaders, however, pounced on the multibillion-dollar cost estimate. They also argue that the project would compromise the Bay Area's water supply when California needs more water storage and electricity, not less, given its growing population and predictions that global warming could lead to more droughts and melting snowpack. What's more, they say, Yosemite's visitors enjoy the valley's dramatic landscape and 11-km-long reservoir just as they are now.

Aug 7, 06: Taxes on air travel and "gas guzzling" cars should be raised to cut greenhouse gas emissions, says a committee of British MPs. Their report criticizes the Department of Transport for adopting a "fatalistic" attitude towards cutting emissions caused by increased travel. The report also calls for speed limits to be dramatically cut or rigorously enforced on motorways and trunk roads.
. . Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman said taxes on gas guzzlers had already been raised and could go up further.
. . The report notes that emissions from air traffic are projected to rise five-fold and suggests that the duty should be charged per flight, rather than per passenger.
. . The MPs welcome the recent introduction of variable Vehicle Excise Duty, which means that the lowest-carbon cars pay no road tax, while gas-guzzling 4x4s pay an increased rate of £210.

Cities across the country are giving hybrid vehicles free or reduced parking. San Antonio is the latest of many cities to give free parking to hybrid owners who sign up.

Aug 7, 06: "Yes, we're on the verge of exhausting the oil, gas, and coal we've come to depend on over the past 150 years. Demand for these fossil fuels will exceed supply by the year 2020, according to the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory. But our one and only planet offers another natural fuel that could power our lives for centuries more. That's right, centuries. It's called methane hydrate, and there's over 200,000 trillion cubic feet of it in the U.S. alone.
. . Methane hydrates are essentially ice crystals laced with gas molecules. They form under high pressures or low temperatures when these fuel molecules get trapped in the lattice structure of frozen water. "A hydrate looks like ice", Patil explains. "But one cubic foot of it has roughly 164 cubic feet of natural gas trapped inside." If you can decrease the pressure or raise the temperature, the gas is released, and you're in business.
. . Patil's research focuses on hydrate reserves trapped beneath his home state. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska holds roughly 590 trillion cubic feet of hydrate crystals, and a good portion of it (about 60 to 90 trillion cubic feet) is sitting on the North Slope, directly under equipment already used to drill for oil.
. . Harvesting hydrates is no easy task. When you drill for hydrates, you risk damaging the crystals before you even get the chance to convert them into gas. Then, trying to convert them into gas is a bit like that proverbial horse trying to reach that carrot dangling just in front of his nose. Hydrate decomposition is an endothermic reaction. As the gas is released from the ice, it draws large amounts of heat from the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, this temperature drop tends to recool the gas.
. . By the time it runs out, the University of Alaska–Fairbanks will undoubtedly provide a means of tapping an even greater reserve of methane hydrate: In the not-too-distant future, it too will travel down that Alaskan pipeline."

In '05, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi introduced a campaign called Cool Biz, which encouraged over-dressed businessmen to strip down to their shirt sleeves, open their collars and turn down the office A/C. The campaign managed to reduce Japan's carbon-dioxide emissions by 460,000 tons in 2005.

Aug 4, 06: A company is considering a $150 million to $200 million plant in south Georgia that would make 50 million gallons of ethanol annually from the cellulose in wood.
. . With almost 25 million of Georgia's 37 million acres covered with forests, there's a big push to produce ethanol from pine trees. But experts say the technology for doing it on a commercial scale is still years away.
. . The state already generates 18 million dry tons of waste wood each year, including limbs and tree tops. The amount of ethanol available from the waste wood alone --80 gallons per ton-- would be enough to replace 18% of the gasoline and diesel fuels consumed in the state each year.

"If we replaced the old fridge, the mostly empty freezer and the beer fridge with one high-efficiency Energy Star refrigerator/freezer, we'd pay about $44.00 --stedda $361-- annually for refrigeration. And we could also unplug the water cooler and use --here's a thought!! --ice cubes."

25% of Canada's electricity comes from burning coal, and 84% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions come from coal. And because nuclear power plants are being shut down, it means coal-fired electricity production is going up.

Aug 1, 06: global warming project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Launched by former President Bill Clinton's foundation, the initiative will allow cities to pool their purchasing power and lower the price of energy-saving products and provide technical assistance to help them become more energy efficient.
. . Urban areas are responsible for more than 75% of all greenhouse gas emissions, making reduced energy crucial in the effort to slow the pace of global warming.
. . Energy-efficient traffic lights (LEDs), street lighting, the use of biofuels for city transport, and traffic congestion schemes were some of the practical steps that cities are expected to take to reduce greenhouse gases.

http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/7/24/202222/351
. . theoildrum is a web site dedicated to the problem of diminishing oil supplies.

Aug 1, 06: An engineer said he has seen a 1 to 1.5 mpg increase since he began filling his tires with nitrogen, which is touted as maintaining tire pressure longer and resisting heat buildup on hot summer days.
. . Nationwide, fewer than 10% of tire dealers offer nitrogen, but the number is growing. Most dealers charge $2 to $5 per tire for the nitrogen fill-up, he said. The dealers generally offer free lifetime refills.
. . Skeptics will question how much can be gained by filling tires with pure nitrogen when the air we breathe is already 78% nitrogen. Nitrogen molecules are bigger than oxygen molecules, so nitrogen seeps out more slowly from tires than air; nitrogen resists heat buildup better than air, which contains moisture; and nitrogen reduces oxidation, which can damage the tire from the inside out, proponents say.

July 31, 06: The Census Bureau dubs them "extreme commuters." At least 2% of Americans wake up to a commute of 90 minutes or more one way.
. . Studies of lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims found only small differences in life satisfaction between these groups and control subjects. But certain experiences --living near a noisy highway, for example-- become more aggravating over time, something scientists call "sensitization." Commuting falls into this category.
. . A 2004 study by two economists at the University of Zurich found that people tend to overestimate what they'll get by commuting long distances --i.e., a bigger paycheck, a more prestigious position, the ability to buy more stuff-- and underestimate what it will cost them in stress, health, and loss of connection to family and friends.
. . The poll found that only 2% of adults who work telecommute full time; another 9% telecommute part time and 8% have home-based businesses. Of those who could feasibly telecommute, less than half would choose to do so more than two days per week, and 14% would not telecommute at all.
. . The study suggests that our unwillingness to sacrifice our social lives at the office, combined with our love affair with cars, costs $3.9 billion in fuel and time annually.

July 31, 06: It is now "time to get on with the job" of burying the UK's radioactive waste deep underground, a nuclear advisory group has said in its final report. "We have about 30 years' worth of not managing the long-term problem of radioactive waste at all satisfactorily."

July 25, 06: Long known as a top oil- and natural gas-producing state, Texas has gained new energy acclaim by becoming the nation's top producer of wind energy.
. . Texas capacity stands at 2,370 megawatts, enough to power 600,000 average-sized homes. That puts Texas slightly ahead of California, the nation's leader since 1981. California has 2,323 megawatts of capacity. The total U.S. capacity is 9,971 megawatts.
. . So far this year, Texas has added 375 megawatts. Last year, wind energy generation grew 35% nationwide, adding 2,431 megawatts, but that fell short of the projected 2,500. The wind association believes it can add 3,000 megawatts nationwide this year. "There are substantially more developments in the pipeline." Long-range plans include offshore wind farms on the Gulf Coast.
. . For the next 18 months, projects coming online receive these credits of 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour. Those incentives are good for 10 years thereafter. But there is no guarantee that any projects completed after 2007 will receive those tax credits and that discourages long-term development, energy officials said.

July 25, 06: Gasoline prices at near-record highs are fueling a big increase in the number of riders on buses and trains, prompting cities around the country to improve their public transport systems, transportation agencies said.

July 21, 06: According to the National Biodiesel Board, biodiesel production has tripled since 2004 to 280 million liters last year. This year, it is expected to double to 56 million liters. In comparison, US consumption of traditional diesel fuel extracted from crude oil stands at 227 billion liters per year.

The year 2000 saw for the first time an efficient, low-cost compact low-wattage supply dedicated solely to the standby power requirements of appliances, process control equipment, timers, large switching power supplies, and other applications. The 1-in.3 1/4-W Bias power supply (see Electronic Products, Jan. 2000, p. 91) not only generates 250 mW of standby power for 3 to 15-Vdc functions, it does so at 50% efficiency.
. . By contrast, traditional standby power methods use the main power source. These techniques--which include a parasitic winding on the main transformer or a linear regulator connected to a bulk capacitor--are typically just 2% to 10% efficient, thus wasting a lot of energy.
. . No mercury-vapor lamp ballasts may be manufactured after January 1, 2008. This requirement was chosen as a practical means of increasing the efficiency of alternative high-intensity discharge (HID) systems, such as metal halide by phasing out low efficiency mercury-vapor technology.
. . Many believe that continuously operating fluorescent lights is cheaper than turning them off for short periods of time. Actually, turning off fluorescent systems saves energy. A second myth says that turning off lights shortens lamp life and increases maintenance costs. In truth, fluorescent lamps last many years more if they are turned off when not in use. Switching may shorten the average rated life of fluorescent lamps; however, switching extends the service life, which includes the time the lamps are off.
. . T8 lamps operated continuously have an average rated lamp life of about 34,000 hours (calendar life of 3.9 years). Turning these lamps off for 12 hours each day decreases the average rated lamp life to 30,000 hours, but the service life increases to 6.8 years.
. . Electric motors are the largest end use of electricity in the U.S. industrial sector. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), an estimated 40 million motors use 70% of the electricity used by industry at a cost of $30 billion a year. In addition, DOE predicts that up to 18% of industrial motor energy would be reduced by applying proven efficiency technologies. DOE recommends motor efficiency upgrades and application improvements.
. . Only an estimated 10% of all motors in use today meet the minimum efficiency targets set by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct).

From June 2007, people in England and Wales selling their home will have to obtain an "Energy Performance Certificate". It will grade a property's energy efficiency between A-G, similar to the system already used for electrical goods.
. . The government, in its recently published Energy Review, listed efficiency as one of the key areas for action. The review's recommendations include improving public awareness and encouraging the take-up of energy efficient measures.

July 20, 06: Ambitious plans to build dams and hydro power projects throughout the hills of India's remote northeast have trodden on some sensitive toes in the troubled region.
. . The Indian government and the World Bank say there is enormous --and so far unrealized-- potential to tap rivers throughout the eight northeastern states. The projects could generate around 60,000 MW of power --which is double India's current hydro output and more than half of today's total generating capacity-- while the country's demand for energy is growing rapidly. Project revenues could potentially double the region's net domestic product and even curb flooding, experts say.
. . But locals fear that tens of thousands of people will be forcibly evicted from their homes, the environment irrevocably damaged, and ancient ways of life imperilled. Anthony says the dams will submerge thousands of hectares of land, including some towns, and displace more than 30,000 people.
. . India's track record in rehousing the displaced from major development projects leaves little room for confidence. Dam construction could also disturb the fragile ecology of the eastern Himalayas, home to thousands of plant species. A dam on the Subansiri river threatens one of the last remaining habitats of the endangered Gangetic dolphin, environmentalists say.

July 20, 06: If the world continues to get warmer, vast amounts of methane gas trapped in ice under the sea could belch up and worsen climate change, according to a study. "We may have less time than we think to do something (about global warming)", Dr. Ira Leifer, a marine scientist. Leifer is the main author of a study that looks at how "peak blowouts" of melting undersea formations called methane hydrates could release the potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
. . The distribution of methane hydrates throughout the world is so vast that energy companies hope one day to tap the resource. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that such formations could harbor as much as 200,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
. . Hydrate formations exist under hundreds of meters of water in places like the Gulf of Mexico and closer to the surface in permafrost areas of the Arctic. Methane, the main component of the fossil fuel natural gas, has two faces. When burned it releases less CO2, the main greenhouse gas that scientists believe are warming the earth, than any other fossil fuel. But if it escapes to the atmosphere without being burned, it can trap heat rapidly because it is a greenhouse gas at least 20 times stronger than CO2.
. . The study measured the amount of methane that escaped to the atmosphere from a peak blowout from small volcanoes on the ocean floor off of California. It found that virtually all of the methane escaping from the deep water reached the atmosphere, countering some theories that methane seeps out in tiny bubbles that harmlessly dissolve in the ocean.
. . Leifer said rising temperatures could warm the oceans, creating a feedback loop in which warm temperatures make global warming even worse. Nearly all scientists believe emissions of heat-trapping gases from cars, industrial sources and the burning of forests are warming the earth. NASA has said that 2005 was the warmest year at the earth's surface since records began in the 1860s.
. . While deep ocean temperatures have been more stable, currents of gradually rising sea-surface temperatures could eventually warm the ocean's depths and release gas, said Leifer. "If you expose a hydrate to water that's warmer than normal it starts destabilizing", he said. "I have no doubt that if we warm the atmosphere too much the oceans will follow and will cause the problem to become severe at some point." Aaaand...

July 20, 06: Our one and only planet offers another natural fuel that could power our lives for centuries more. That's right, centuries. It's called methane hydrate, and there's over 200,000 trillion cubic feet of it in the U.S. alone.
. . Funded by the Department of Energy and the global energy company BP, researchers at the University of Alaska–Fairbanks are working to unlock this untapped reserve. They're confident the task will be completed well before that hard-and-fast deadline in 2020.
. . Methane hydrates are essentially ice crystals laced with gas molecules. They form under high pressures or low temperatures when these fuel molecules get trapped in the lattice structure of frozen water. "A hydrate looks like ice", Patil explains. "But one cubic foot of it has roughly 164 cubic feet of natural gas trapped inside." If you can decrease the pressure or raise the temperature, the gas is released, and you're in business.
. . Patil's research focuses on hydrate reserves trapped beneath his home state. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska holds roughly 590 trillion cubic feet of hydrate crystals, and a good portion of it (about 60 to 90 trillion cubic feet) is sitting on the North Slope, directly under equipment already used to drill for oil. "As most people know, we have a huge infrastructure in place for oil production on the Alaskan North Slope, and most of the oil wells actually penetrate through the hydrate zones."
. . Which leads to the big question: Why haven't we already harvested this stuff? For one, Alaska still offers plenty of old-school fossil fuels. There's more than 35 trillion cubic feet of ordinary natural gas on the North Shore. Two, harvesting hydrates is no easy task.
. . Hydrate decomposition is an endothermic reaction. As the gas is released from the ice, it draws large amounts of heat from the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, this temperature drop tends to recool the gas, and you're right back where you started.

R-12 has been the best refrigerant so far, giving the most cooling at low pressures, hence the most energy efficient and cheap to make. All other refrigerants are waaaaay more expensive and require more pressure to compress thus making them less efficient and the equipment more expensive.

July 20, 06: A Spanish company claimed today to have developed a method of breeding plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel.
. . Vehicle tests are some time away because the company, Bio Fuel Systems, has not yet tried refining the dark green colored crude oil that phytoplankton turn into. "Bio Fuel Systems has developed a process that converts energy, based on three elements: solar energy, photosynthesis and an electromagnetic field."
. . Phytoplankton, like other plants, absorb CO2 as they grow. Scientists have examined the possibility of stimulating growth of the single cell plants as a means of reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
. . Bio Fuel Systems said its new fuel would reduce CO2, was free of other contaminants like sulphur dioxide and would be cheaper than fossil oil is now. "Our system of bioconversion is about 400 times more productive than any other plant-based system producing oil or ethanol", it said, referring to currently available biofuels made from plants like maize or oilseeds.
. . Bio Fuel Systems is working with scientists at the University of Alicante on the project. It has drawn up industrial plans to make the fuel and says it will be able to start continuous production in 14 to 18 months.

July 18, 06: Toyota sees a future in plugging in vehicles --instead of simply pulling in for gas. Already a leader in the hybrid market with its Prius sedan, Toyota Motor Corp plans to develop a hybrid vehicle that will run locally on batteries charged by a typical 120-volt outlet before switching over to a gasoline engine for longer hauls. The technology is far from being ready --and there's no timeline for when such cars might be offered for sale.

July 17, 06: The BetaBattery is not based on chemical reaction. Instead, it relies on the decay of the hydrogen isotope tritium. This continuous emission of electrons is the key to the ever-present charge in BetaBatteries. Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, so after 12.3 years, its output is half its original charge. At 40 years, it has one-tenth its original charge.

July 17, 06: Mitsubishi Fuso, part of DaimlerChrysler's Truck Group, has started to sell its Canter Eco Hybrid light-duty truck in Japan. It claims that this is the cleanest light-duty truck in the world. According to the company, which doesn't disclose the methodology it used, this truck releases 41% less nitrogen oxide and consumes 20% less fuel than conventionally-powered models. This hybrid diesel-electric truck 'switches its operational mode according to the driving situation.' The company expects to sell several hundred Canter Eco Hybrids by the end of 2006 in Japan but has no firm plans for selling it on other markets.
. . The 3-liter DOHC, 16-valve intercooled turbo-diesel engine. When slowing down or braking, the electric motor/generator functions as a generator to brake the vehicle. The generator converts brake energy into electric energy and stores it in the Lithium-ion battery.

July 14, 06: An ignition technology that is a hybrid of compression and spark ignition could make gas-electric or gas-only vehicles burn much cleaner.
. . HCCI, or Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition technology, features multiple ignition points and is being developed at the EPA, Stanford, and Berkeley. This lack of heat concentration keeps the burn temperature lower, which reduces the amount of NOx emissions and increase fuel efficiency.
. . In October, the Wall Street Journal reported (as quoted by the Green Car Congress) that Honda was working on an HCCI engine, which the company confirmed, but would not offer further details.

July 14, 06: The Department of Energy published a strategy roadmap for commercializing cellulosic ethanol that could make up 30% of our transportation fuel by 2030.
. . The DOE (which didn't say anything about funding this research) will first focus on understanding plant genomics so that it can engineer plants that are easier to convert into ethanol as well as bacteria and fungi that are adept at breaking down the plants. Knowledge gleaned from the Human Genome Project (who'da thunk it) will be used to engineer plants with more cellulose and less lignin. Another technological hurdle will be making it easier to break down the cell walls of plants that mother nature has created to make them disease resistant.
. . We will need to harvest 1.3 billion tons of cellulosic material to create the anticipate 60 billion gallons of ethanol, a 1400% increase over today's ethanol output.
. . The GMO plants will be designed to yield more feedstock per hectare, and the DOE will also develop enzymes or organisms that will take the place of the fermentation used today. The DOE expects (PDF) 5 years of biological research to be followed by a testing phase, and then streamlining the process within the current fuel industry within 15 years.

July 14, 06: the much higher cost of repairs and maintenance that many analysts factor into hybrid ownership seems to be untrue. ABI Research analysts interviewed companies using hybrid trucks and buses and found that "reliability is equal to, or better than, conventional equipment."

July 14, 06: Would you believe around the world on 80 pints of gasoline? The winner of this year's Shell Eco-Marathon achieved 10,128 miles per gallon with a one-person vehicle design. Team Microjoule of France won the competition at the 30th annual competition at Rockingham Motor Speedway, but failed to break its 2003 record of 10,705 mpg.

July 11, 06: The folks at Autobytel tested the performance differences of using ethanol versus gasoline.
. . On the plus side, high octane ethanol slightly increases the horsepower and acceleration. However, the fuel economy decreased by 20%, according to Autobytel's tests, and the environmental impact of using ethanol is still hotlly debated. Since ethanol costs as much or more than gasoline in most states, those good feelings about supporting the U.S. economy and burning cleaner fuel will be offset by the additional dollars and more frequent trips the fueling station. [I'm not buyin' any ethanol!!]

July 11, 06: The U.S. Department of Energy said recently it expected the world's nuclear energy generating capacity to surge by around 20% over the next 24 years with several new plants under construction or in the pipeline from China to the United States.
. . "Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unnecessary", said Tony Juniper, head of Friends of the Earth lobby group.

July 11, 06: Britain must build new nuclear power plants, generate more electricity from wind and waves and curb domestic demand to fight global warming as well as keeping the lights burning, PM Tony Blair's spokesman. He also stressed the need to reduce rising dependence on imported oil & gas as supplies from the North Sea dwindle.
. . "What we have to do is move beyond wishful thinking to the hard realities of a world in which energy has become more expensive, in which this country is moving from a state where it was self-sufficient on energy to potentially being 90% dependent on foreign imports", he added. Nuclear power accounts for 20% of Britain's electricity, but that is due to slump to just 6% as all but one of the aging plants closes within 20 years.
. . The government wants power companies get more of their supplies from renewables and to boost local generation such as rooftop wind turbines and solar panels.
. . But it has a dilemma in that it has also repeatedly ruled out any public subsidies for new nuclear power stations in view of the 70 billion pounds it will cost to clean up the lethal waste from the existing fleet.

July 10, 06: Ethanol is far from a cure-all for the nation's energy problems. It's not as environmentally friendly as some supporters claim and would supply only 12% of U.S. motoring fuel --even if every acre of corn were used.
. . A number of researchers, the latest in a report today, are warning about exaggerated expectations that ethanol could dramatically change America's dependence on foreign oil by shifting motorists away from gasoline.
. . As far as alternative fuels are concerned, biodiesel from soybeans is the better choice.
. . The paper said development of nonfood materials such as switchgrass, prairie grasses and woody plants to produce cellulosic ethanol would be a major improvement with greater energy output and lower environmental impacts. But creation of cellulosic ethanol remains in the laboratory research stage. And even nonfood sources of ethanol would fall far short of replacing gasoline, most researchers agree.
. . Biofuels such as ethanol are "not a practical long-term solution", and their widespread use --even from nonfood crop sources-- could have a "devastating" impact on agriculture, two researchers at the Magleve Research Center of the Polytechnic University of New York, argued recently.
. . "Ethanol from 300 million acres of switchgrass still could not supply our present gasoline and diesel consumption, which is projected to double by 2025."
. . Compared with gasoline, it produces 12% less "greenhouse" gasses linked to global warming, according to the study. But the researchers also said it has environmental drawbacks, including "markedly greater" releases of nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticides into waterways as runoff from corn fields. Ethanol, especially at higher concentrations in gasoline, also produce more smog-causing pollutants than gasoline per unit of energy burned.
. . Last year about 14% of the corn crop went to ethanol, compared with 11% four years ago. This year the amount of corn for ethanol could be nearly one in every five bushels grown, or 19%.

July 5, 06: Onshore wind farms will provide about 5% of Britain's electricity by 2010, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). In a new report, it says turbines are being installed faster than predicted. If this is correct, onshore wind farms will take the government halfway to its target of generating 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.
. . The BWEA says that projects already constructed and those already approved will give a capacity of 3,000 megawatts (MW) by 2010. Taking into account potential barriers such as planning consent and grid capability, it identifies a further 3,000MW capacity which it says is "forecast to be consented and built" by the decade's end.
. . BWEA figures show that only four offshore wind farms are currently in operation. Though output can be higher per turbine and wind more consistent, construction costs are also higher and grid connection is a bigger issue.
. . Photovoltaic solar panels produce less than 1% of the nation's electricity, and wave and tidal technologies remain in the development stage.

Bits Seen: "Yes, there will always be the individualists who will have to have the keys to their SUVs ripped out of their cold fingers (probably as the result of a rollover)."

"For years now, the 60MPG+ SmartCar has been available in Europe. Europe and Japan have plug-in hybrids too. American Automakers are so far behind it's pathetic. Only when GM and Ford declare bankruptcy with oil at $80+ a barrel will government officials "Get it".

"Plastics take 8% of world oil consumption. As the price of oil goes up and its availability goes down, the same will happen to plastic. And fertilizer."

July 3, 06: Fear of the catastrophic consequences of global warming is finally prompting Britons to start changing their lifestyles, a survey said today.
. . It is not before time, said the Energy Saving Trust's report "The Rise of the Machines" which predicts that energy used by consumer electronics will double in the next four years. The report said large plasma television screens consumed up to four times as much power as normal cathode ray tubes.
. . But with warnings ringing in their ears from scientists that gases from burning fossil fuels for power and transport will warm the planet, causing floods, droughts and storms, consumers were starting to sit up and take notice, the EST said. It said just over half the people surveyed said they were willing to pay a premium for products that benefited the environment, ahead of designer labels and even organic products.
. . It found that more than 80% of people said they tried saving energy on a day-to-day basis --with opting for public instead of personal transport one of the most popular choices.
. . The report comes as consumers reel from steep rises in gas, petrol and electricity prices and with the government due to set out this month the shape of the country's energy supply network for at least the next two generations. Environmentalists want the Energy Review to focus on renewables such as wind and waves and far greater energy efficiency from generation to consumption.
. . But British Prime Minister Tony Blair has made it clear that while he supports renewables, he is also strongly in favor of big, centralized power technologies like nuclear and so-called clean coal where the carbon from burning coal is captured and stored.
. . Biodiesel reduces CO2 emission by 78% and soot emissions by 32%, according to an NREL study.

July 3, 06: John Gartner: "On the 4th of July, we celebrated our independence from Britain, but we won't be celebrating independence from Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia anytime soon. While President Bush said his goal was to cut dependence on foreign oil by 75% by 2025, a Department of Energy agency says that his goal is unattainable.
. . The Energy Information Administration says oil consumption in North America (mostly from the U.S.) will increase by 38% between 2003 and 2030, while the global demand for oil (due in large part to China and India) will increase by 47% to 118 million barrels per day.
. . The country expected to provide the most of the additional supply will be... Iran!
. . More depressing facts from the report:
. . Worldwide marketed energy consumption is projected to grow by 71% between 2003 and 2030.
. . The report projects an increase in OPEC supply of only 11.8 million barrel per day over the same period (so I hope we stay friends with Venezuela and Canada, since that's 27 million barrels short of what the world will need).
. . Oil could be has high as $96 a barrel by 2030, or one-third more than today.
. . IF we are serious about addressing oil dependence, it would take a magnitude higher amount of research dollars into alternative fuels, mass transit system, and energy efficiency devices, and not some simple feel good rhetoric."

July 3, 06: Silicon dioxide forms very slowly at room temperature. In order to speed up the process, chip-makers heat the silicon wafers, from which chips are cut, to between 900C and 1,200C in the presence of oxygen. This consumes a huge amount of energy. Also, as the wafer is heated, chip components that have already been incorporated can warp and distort its structure. Heating the wafer with these densely packed chips can cause contamination of individual components as they become more fluid and "bleed" into one another.
. . This is a particular problem as researchers continue to chase Moore's Law, which says the number of transistors on a chip will double every couple of years.
. . The UV lamp is about 30cm long and looks like a common fluorescent tube. It is filled with argon gas that has a high voltage applied to it. The emitted light causes oxygen molecules to break down into separate atoms.
. . The team says it is already talking to companies about using the technique. The researchers believe that eventually it could be used not just in chip manufacturing but also to create circuits on other materials including cloth, for smart clothing, paper for electronic books or in plastic electronics.

June 30, 06: The cows at the Audet family's Blue Spruce Farm make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk a day --and about 35,000 gallons of manure.
. . It's long been the milk that pays, but now the Audets have figured out how to make the manure pay as well. They're using it --actually, the methane that comes from it-- to generate electricity. With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets have devised a way to extract the methane from the manure and pipe it to a generator. They make enough electricity to power 300 to 400 average Vermont homes.
. . GHD Inc., which built a device that the Audets use to harvest the methane. One in Washington uses tomato waste from a salsa factory and waste from a fish stick plant as fuel.
. . For the Audets, the electricity has created an important new income stream at a time when low wholesale milk prices have squeezed their margin. The utility pays 95% of the going New England wholesale power price for electricity from the Audets' generator.
. . In addition, the utility charges customers willing to pay it a 4-cents-per-kilowatt-hour premium for renewable energy and then turns the money over to the Audets. So far, more than 3,000 CVPS customers have signed up to pay the premium to support the renewable energy effort.
. . The bottom line is more than $120,000 a year from electricity sales. When they add in other energy savings enabled by the project, the Audets expect their $1.2 million investment in project equipment to pay for itself in about seven years.
. . An "alley scraper", which looks like a big squeegee on wheels, comes by to push their manure down the row and through grates to a conveyor belt below. From there, the manure goes to an anaerobic --oxygen-free-- digester, a 30-by-20-meter structure similar to a covered swimming pool built by Brickl's company. The manure spends 20 or 21 days in the digester, being pushed slowly from one end to other as more is added.
. . Three products result: a liquid that contains enough nutrients that it can be used as fertilizer for the farm's feed crops; a dry, odor-free, fluffy brown substance that is used as bedding for the cows and some of which goes to a local firm that bags and sells it as fertilizer on the home-and-garden market; and methane. The methane is piped into an adjacent shed that contains a big Caterpillar engine that powers the 200-kilowatt generator.
. . Audet said the farm was saving the $1,200 a week it formerly spent on sawdust bedding for the cows, as well as some of the cost of heating the milking barn.

June 29, 06: A global switch to efficient lighting systems would trim the world's electricity bill by nearly one-tenth. That is the conclusion of a study from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which it says is the first global survey of lighting uses and costs. The CO2 emissions saved by such a switch would, it concludes, dwarf cuts so far achieved by adopting wind and solar power.
. . Better building regulations would boost uptake of efficient lighting, it says. The CO2 produced by generating all of this electricity amounts to 70% of global emissions from passenger vehicles, and is three times more than emissions from aviation, the IEA says.
. . Not many inventions last for more than 100 years without major modifications. The incandescent light bulb, developed a century and a quarter ago by luminaries including Sir Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison, is one, and still produces almost half of the light used in homes around the world. But incandescent bulbs are very inefficient, converting only about 5% of the energy they receive into light.
. . The biggest consumer is the fluorescent tube. Commercial and public sector buildings account for 43% of the electricity used for lighting; and here, fluorescents dominate. The report notes that the efficiency of tubes can vary widely, between about 15% and 60%.
. . The IEA reserves particular ire for that favorite of the western middle-class lounge, the halogen uplighter. "This... is the least efficient of all commonly used electric lighting systems", it says. "They add a large amount of heat into the living space, which requires additional air-conditioning energy for its removal."
. . Such codes could, for example, mandate the use of highly-efficient fluorescent tubes and ballasts, the devices which regulate input voltages for the lamps; at worst, these can consume 40% of the energy going into the system. China, the IEA reports, has recently developed such codes. If they are implemented in all new build, this would "...offset the need for a new Three Gorges Dam project every eight years".
. . "The overall cost of 10,000 hours of light provision from incandescents is 85 euros", said Paul Waide, "but for CFLs it's 25 euros, because they use so much less energy, and because you might have to buy only one CFL for every 10 incandescents."
. . LEDs hold out the most promise; currently four times as efficient as incandescents, manufacturers are aiming for 80% efficiency by the end of the decade, which would represent a 16-fold improvement on the traditional bulb. But, the IEA concludes, there is no need to wait for LEDs. Policy measures and individual action to bring the switch would slash 38% from the global electricity bill for lighting by 2030.
. . . EIGHT FOR THE SCRAPHEAP
. . Incandescent bulbs
. . Halogen uplighters
. . High-loss halogen transformers
. . Fuel-based lighting in developing countries
. . Compact fluorescent lighting.
. . Low-efficiency fluorescent tubes
. . High-loss "ballasts" for fluorescent tubes
. . Mercury discharge lamps (often used in street lighting)
. . Low-efficiency vehicle lighting

June 28, 06: Researchers at the University College London have discovered that ultraviolet light can be used to replace the ovens used to bake silicon chips, possibly saving semiconductor manufacturers significant energy costs.

June 28, 06: Creating artificial seismic waves, similar to those that occur during an earthquake, could help squeeze more oil from natural reservoirs, scientists said today. They discovered that in addition to sending tremors that knock down buildings, earthquakes greatly increase the permeability of rocks to transmit fluids including oil. They also found that the amount of permeability is directly related to the amplitude of the shaking.
. . The scientists made their discovery after studying 20 years of data of water seeping in and out of wells during seven earthquakes in an area of California. They noticed that every time an earthquake occurred the permeability jumped and the surrounding rocks became up to three times more permeable. A few months after the tremor the permeability returned to normal levels.

June 27, 06: Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think they're on the verge of making traditional batteries obsolete. The researchers are working on a new device that uses carbon nanotubes to store and release electrical energy in a system that could carry as much power as today's lead or lithium batteries.
. . But unlike the rechargeable batteries used on today's cellphones and laptop computers, these devices could be recharged hundreds of thousands of times before wearing out. And instead of taking hours to recharge, they could be powered up in about the same time it takes to fill up a gas tank.
. . Schindall et al are using acetylene gas to deposit carbon nanotubes on pieces of silicon. "It's a long way from being commercially viable and competitive in price." He says he hopes to have a finished example by the fall.
. . It isn't a battery, but a capacitor. A capacitor briefly stores incoming electricity, they releases it at a predictable rate. Capacitors can't store very much power, compared to traditional batteries. But while it takes hours to recharge a battery, capacitors charge almost instantly. And while most batteries can only be recharged a few hundred or thousand times before wearing out, capacitors can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times.
. . "I think that in five years, you could see limited use", Schindall said. "Then in 10 years, you begin to see the cost crossover point", when capacitors become as cheap as standard rechargeable batteries.

June 26, 06: A shortage of silicon, a key material in making solar panels, is slowing the growth of the solar energy sector but the problem is set to ease by 2008. Sales of photovoltaic solar panels are growing by around 35% every year.
. . Solar cell makers currently compete with the electronics sector for silicon supplies, with about half of the 40,000 tons expected this year to go the solar industry. Makers of microchips need smaller amounts and greater purity of silicon, and are prepared to pay more for it than solar companies are.
. . One of the companies aiming to avoid silicon is Shell Solar, which pioneered so-called thin-film technology and is betting on a variant based on copper indium di-selinide (CIS). But he admitted CIS was not yet commercial.
. . Germany's Wuerth Solar started mass production of CIS thin film a year ago and says it will be producing at full capacity, churning out 200,000 modules annually, by the end of the year. The technology could produce solar power as cheaply as 60 cents/watt by 2015. This compares with around $2.30/watt for solar cells now.

June 23, 06: More than 20 teams from Europe and the United States are gearing up for the Nuon Solar Challenge, a contest to build and race a solar-powered boat. While a similar competition is held on land in Australia under a blazing sun, these contestants have built crafts to navigate the lakes, rivers, and creeks in the far northwest of the Netherlands. All competitors in the race are powered by solar energy, which charges the batteries that turn the boats' propellors, but wind, currents and navigation all play a role.
. . On the fifth stage of the 140-mile boat race, racers will be required to portage their boats over two dams.

June 22, 06: Want to cut your fuel bills in half? Put a gas station in your garage! Honda is coming out with Phill --your very own personal filling station. What's the rub? It's natural gas out of your pipe, not gasoline. Oh, and you'll need a special natural gas car to go along with it.

June 21, 06: A new hybrid hydraulic system built for the Environmental Protection Agency by Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. A UPS truck that will test the system on the streets of Detroit starting in August. The new system replaces a truck's transmission with hydraulics and that, combined with a low-emission diesel engine, yields a 60% to 70% saving on fuel use.

June 21, 06: By the end of 06, most of the new LCD panels on the desktop will begin the transition to LED backlighting. This will improve the color gamut, lower power consumption, and add years to the product's life cycle. Most of the backlighting technologies used in flat panels are thin, fragile little fluorescent tubes with a limited life.
. . Fluorescent isn't completely dead, however, as a new flat fluorescent map technology is being developed.

June 20, 06: Drivers may soon have a third option for fuel produced from plants: biobutanol. Butanol from petroleum has been used for decades as an industrial solvent, but two companies say they are close to commercializing a process for creating the fuel from corn, sugar beets, or even grasses.
. . BP and Dupont today announced that they will begin selling Biobutanol in the United Kingdom next year. The companies co-developed a fuel that can be combined with gasoline and ethanol. Biobutanol is superior to ethanol because it has a higher energy value and is less water soluble and evaporative than ethanol, so it is safe to transport via existing gasoline pipelines.
. . BP says Biobutanol is complementary to ethanol. Initially the fuel will be produced from sugar beets, but the companies are also developing cellulosic materials as well. EEI says it is building a prototype production plant, and that its fuel can be used as a 100% gasoline replacement.

June 20, 06: Honda Motor, which is breaking ranks with the other Japanese, says in three years it will offer a new, low-emissions four-cylinder passenger car diesel engine in the United States. At the same time, Honda is covering all angles by announcing it will have an all-new, unique hybrid car, meaning something like Toyota's Prius, and will be looking for 100,000 sales a year.
. . While the Europeans and Honda are committed to diesels, other auto companies are showing little interest at present. Another complication: VW claims its new turbocharger/supercharger combination on small displacement gasoline motors gives near-diesel economy without the cost and pollution problems.

June, 06: Legislators in Minnesota unanimously approved legislation that will require the state to purchase plug-in hybrid technology and encourages Minnesota State University-Mankato to develop a flex-fuel plug-in hybrid.
. . Toyota, which previously derided plug-in hybrid technology, surprisingly reversed itself and said it is researching the technology.

SUV owners inflamed about their vehicles burning too much gasoline are torching their own vehicles. Edmunds.com reports of a SUV owners in southern California who teamed up with a car dealership to set fire to the vehicles to get rid of the payments and collect the insurance money.
. . After two SUVs were found afire, law enforcement set up a sting operation to trap the arsonists. In Texas a schoolteacher paid her uncle to ignite her SUV because she was under financial stress.

"Here's a thought --we should require coal strip miners and oil exploration companies to plant over the terrain that they have laid waste with trees or switchgrass now. That way, when the technology is ready we have the source material rather than having to wait for the plants to grow. The worst that could happen is that we have more plants to clean the air and pretty the landscape."

June 20, 06: France announced major increases in rates for energy from renewable sources that has to be purchased by the state-owned electricity provider, EDF. A new tariff had been created for wind generated by offshore turbines, of 13 euro cents (16.4 US cents) per kWh. The existing rate structure for land-based wind turbines is being reviewed, in order to give incentives to operators who invest in high-efficiency equipment and place generators in areas where winds are average, as the windiest sites in France are already being harvested.
. . France's goal is to drive renewables' share of electricity generation from 14% as of today to 21% as of 2010. Around three-quarters of the country's electricity comes from EDF's nuclear plants, under a vast program launched in the 1970s after the first oil shock.
. . Among the projects being launched in the renewables sectors, two stand out for their size or ambition. One is the France's first offshore windfarm, a facility 7 km from the small Channel resort of Veulettes-sur-Mer, which is scheduled to start operations in 2008. It will have a designed capacity of 300 million kWh per year.
. . The other is a new-generation geothermal scheme.
. . In Brussels, meanwhile, the European Parliament voted to dedicate two-thirds of the European Union's non-nuclear energy research to renewable energy and efficiency, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) said.
. . If approved by EU ministers, non-nuclear energy research will total 2.4 billion euros (3.024 billion dollars) from 2007-2013. Two-thirds of this for renewables and energy efficency would equal about 226 million euros (284.75 million dollars) per annum.

June 20, 06: They want to make traditional airplanes more fuel-efficient. Boeing says its new 787 jetliner, scheduled to enter service in 2008, promises to be as fuel-efficient per person as a hybrid car traveling with two passengers.

June 20, 06: A car with a diesel engine won the 24 Hours at Le Mans race for the first time in the history of the 74-year old race. The Audi R10 TDI won by four laps.

June 18, 06: City officials in Champaign and Urbana took notice when they heard that an ethanol plant proposed nearby would use about 2 million gallons of water per day, most likely from the aquifer that also supplies both cities. "There was concern about impacting a pretty valuable resource", said Matt Wempe, a city planner for Urbana. "It should raise red flags."
. . It would take about 300 million gallons of water for processing the product and cooling equipment to make 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.
. . The possibility of a new ethanol plant is one reason the city of Aberdeen, S.D., decided to seek new water sources, perhaps from deeper wells, Mayor Mike Levsen said. "We felt that for the current demand we had plenty of water to supply them, but that would begin to run us up to our limit", he said.
. . "When you get down to the local level, there will be impact", Wehrmann said. "You can't take the water out of the ground without lowering water to some degree. Other well owners may see water levels fall. In some cases, their pumps may go out of the water, and that may mean lowering a well or pump."

June 18, 06: Vampires: as California Lawmakers are referring to electronics that suck power when they’re plugged in even when they’re not being used.
. . DVD Players, battery chargers, and game consoles are culprits of having standby modes that draw power when not in full use. This recently introduced bill requires electronic makers to label their devices to show how much power is being drawn when in standby mode.
. . Levine's bill, which now goes to the Senate after its 44-33 vote in the Assembly, would require electronic devices be labeled to tell consumers how much energy is used when the device is in standby mode. Although the amount of energy consumed by the devices can be small, cumulatively it can ratchet up household energy bills.
. . The stereo system he demoed consumed 46 watts just plugged in, but the amount of energy electronic devices use in standby varies sharply. A laptop charger that draws 1 watt in standby would add $3 a year to an energy bill.
. . Supporters of his bill, AB1970, say that vampire appliances cost the average household about $200 annually and consumers should make an informed choice when they purchase one.
. . Levine's bill does not go as far as the California Energy Commission has in regulating standby power. In 2004, the commission passed standards to decrease the use of power by smaller household electronic devices. When fully phased in, the rules will affect everything from television sets to microwave ovens and stereo systems.
. . Last week, the commission adopted regulations setting minimum efficiency standards for power adapters that convert AC power to DC and charge batteries used to power cordless tools, digital cameras, cell phones, iPods, Blackberries and laptop computers, among other things.
. . Starting Jan. 1, 2007, smaller adapters could draw no more than a half watt when in standby mode. Larger ones, like those that power laptops, could consume no more than three-quarters of a watt. Regulations restricting the amount of power televisions, DVDs and VCRs can use in standby also took effect in January.
. . Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to take a position on the bill.

June 16, 06: If, hypothetically, all U.S. cars ran on 100% corn-based ethanol, and if one Ivy League professor's analysis is correct, then 97% of the entire country's land area --including real estate now occupied by cities-- would be needed to grow corn.
. . Now, the fifth largest country in the world is producing enough home-grown sugarcane-based ethanol to equal 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Ethanol currently supplies half of the fuel needs of Brazilian vehicles, and the government is expected to announce energy self-sufficiency within a year.
. . In 2001, David Pimentel, a professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, decided to find out. His study accounted for the energy involved in planting, harvesting, irrigating, and processing corn. His conclusion: Corn-based ethanol takes about 70% more energy to produce than is actually contained in the fuel.
. . The Department of Energy, on the other hand, found that corn-based ethanol yields 25% more energy than what is required to make it. The DoE contends that Pimentel's study uses old data from when less-efficient processing methods were the norm.
. . Regarding Brazil's energy miracle, environmentalists are worried that pressure for land will lead to further clearing of the Amazon rain forest.
. . Such concerns over land are even more pronounced in the United States. Corn is not as sweet as sugarcane, which means corn burns off less energy. As a result, Brazil's ethanol has eight times as much energy as any corn-based variety.
. . That means more raw material is needed to achieve the same results. Pimentel's study found that, in the U.S., an estimated 11 acres are needed to grow enough corn to fuel one vehicle for one year. How much land is that for all of us, exactly? If, hypothetically, all U.S. cars ran on 100% corn-ethanol, and if Pimentel's analysis is correct, then 97% of the entire country's land area --including real estate now occupied by cities-- would be needed to grow corn.
. . Ethanol can be made from any organic material that contains sugar, such as sugarcane or sugar beets, or that contains starch or cellulose that can be converted to sugar, such as corn. Barley, soybeans, or wheat could also be used. In France, ethanol is made from sugar beets -- and, unsurprisingly, from low-grade wine.
. . But organic leftovers can also be used. For example, Coors Beer is brewing 1.5 million gallons of ethanol fuel each year from wasted material --offering future alternative meanings for the term "getting wasted."
. . The fibrous content of plants --the stalks, the leaves-- or other organic material, such as prairie grass, switch grass, or willow trees, or even industrial organic waste such as sawdust or paper pulp, can produce ethanol. Making this kind of "cellulosic ethanol" could reduce the price of fuel, increase energy efficiency, decrease greenhouse gas emissions --as much as 80% over gasoline-- and reduce the need for farmland.
. . By one estimate, there are at least a billion tons of unused organic waste [/year?] in the U.S. alone that could be converted into ethanol. For instance, paper sludge from paper mills, currently dumped at a cost to the mill, can be turned into ethanol. The Union of Concerned Scientists backs cellulosic ethanol over its kernel-based sibling.

June 17, 06: Ethanol as a primary energy source for all cars doesn't add up: an acre of corn produces 300 gallons of ethanol per season, and all the U.S. ethanol refineries last year turned out 4 billion gallons of ethanol —but Americans burned 200 billion gallons of motor fuel. There isn't enough farmland in the U.S. to grow food, along with the feedstock for ethanol. You'd need to use 675 million of the nation's 938 million acres of farmland to make enough ethanol. Then what'd you eat?
. . In addition, ethanol is corrosive and has only 2/3 the energy of gasoline. Some critics even say ethanol is energy-negative (in other words, more energy is expended farming, harvesting, fermenting, and transporting it than is saved in vehicles) The Department of Energy says the process is about 35% positive.
. . Methanol is ethanol's poor cousin. Also called methyl alcohol or wood alcohol, it's poisonous, has only half the energy of gasoline, and is much more corrosive than gas on fuel tanks and fittings. Methanol can be made from a variety of sources. Most typically, natural gas is converted to methane and then into methanol. But sewage, manure, landfill emissions, coal, sawdust, grass clippings, and other plants can also be used. In FFVs, methanol is mixed with gasoline, often to make M85 (85% methanol). Methanol's future as a motor fuel appears dim compared to ethanol. But in a couple years you may be using methanol to power your laptop: Methanol runs the compact fuel cells intended to power portable devices.
. . Natural gas runs cleaner than gasoline, and when compressed, may have more energy (on a volume basis). It's also cheaper than gasoline, especially since there are no motor fuel taxes. However, scrubbing the methane out of natural gas and compressing it to 3,000-plus pounds per square inch takes energy --about 2 kilowatt hours (20 cents' worth) for the equivalent of a gallon of gas. And though the U.S. has lots of natural gas, much of it is already spoken for.
. . A gallon of diesel has about 10% more energy than gasoline and extracts even more power than that, because it's compressed more in the engine. Bio-diesel can be grown very efficiently, besides.
. . Even with low-sulfur fuel, California and four other states have tighter emissions rules that make passenger-car diesels unlikely until 2008. Some automakers have said they won't introduce diesels until they can be sold in all 50 states. But Mercedes-Benz will forge ahead in the U.S. with an ultra-clean diesel technology called BlueTec, and Honda announced a diesel-engine passenger car for the U.S.

June 14, 06: Every house sold in England and Wales will be given an energy efficiency rating like those found on electrical goods, the government will announce. The Energy Performance Certificate will be part of the new Home Information Packs being introduced next June. The reports, prepared by an independent inspector, will give houses an A to G rating, with A being the best. They will show energy efficiency and the impact of a house on the environment in terms of carbon dioxide.
. . Homes use about a third of the UK's total energy requirements and scientists say that must be reduced significantly to help avoid climate change. "You can get this kind of consumer information on fridges and washing machines so why not on a home where the emissions --and the savings-- are so much greater?"

June 11, 06: In vehicle quality, Toyota had five winners. Hyundai scored a sleeper hit with consumers, with the Hyundai brand coming in No. 3. Nameplate Problems per 100 vehicles: Porsche 91, Lexus 93, Hyundai 102, Toyota 106, Jaguar 109, Honda 110.

June 10, 06: NORTHFIELD, Minn. - In the shadow of Carleton College's majestic wind turbine, Daniel Pulver has cooked up an idea for creating even more renewable energy: turning used cafeteria oil into fuel for cars.
. . Carleton and St. Olaf are among hundreds of colleges and universities across the country trying to be more self-sustaining to stretch budgets and conserve energy. But the green-mindedness is also spurring old-time school rivalries like the friendly competition between the two schools in Northfield.
. . "The vision ... is to make sustainability the foundation of everything we do for education", said Jen Everett, an assistant philosophy professor at Carleton who teaches an environmental ethics class. "We need to graduate students who are going to be radically different kinds of thinkers than we were trained to be."
. . More than 600 schools in the United States and Canada have sustainability efforts under way, said Judy Walton, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Cochise College in Douglas, Ariz., recently broke ground on a new solar field that is expected to save $15,000 annually in heating and cooling costs. And at Smith College, in Northampton, Mass, a $5.7 million co-generation plant is expected to save $870,000 in fossil fuels and electricity. The project includes one generator to produce electricity and another to capture heat that's normally wasted.
. . Carleton began operating a 1.65-megawatt wind turbine in 2004, and St. Olaf is building one of similar size this summer. The turbine can produce about 40% of the school's electricity. St. Olaf's wind turbine, which covers about a third of its needs, is expected to save as much as $300,000 a year.
. . While Carleton may be ahead on wind energy, St. Olaf leads in composting. The school's composter, in use since the fall, keeps 3.5 tons of weekly food waste from the area's landfills. Pulver, a 21-year-old Carleton senior, wants to convert the 1,000 gallons of vegetable oil the school throws away annually into biodiesel fuel for on-campus vehicles.

June 8, 06: The President of the Worldwatch Institute Christopher Flavin told a London conference. "I believe we will look back on this period as being a turning point", Flavin told the Cleantech-sponsored conference on green technology investing.
. . "The population of hippopotamus, for example, has dropped from 29,000 in the mid-1970s to less than 1,000 today."
. . Flavin saw the environmental threat as a massive opportunity to developers of new, green technologies which either cut industry contribution to climate change, or help adaptation to global warming.
. . Such technologies can combat dwindling water supplies --through desalination or water recycling and other methods-- or by improving access to clean energy, whether wind, solar or biofuels. Biofuels grew at over 20% in 2005, while wind power was consistently growing at 25 to 30%, and solar photovoltaics at over 30%, he said.

June 9, 06: A U.N. scheme to promote renewable energy use in poor nations is growing sharply and will axe emissions of greenhouse gases by more than a billion metric tons by 2012, the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said. "The known project potential ... is presently estimated to generate around a billion tons of emission reductions by the end of 2012."
. . It said that the program, part of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol meant to combat global warming by curbing fossil fuel use, has more than 800 projects such as wind farms in India or power plants burning sugar cane waste in Brazil.
. . The first project under the scheme was approved only in late 2004. By giving rich nations incentives to invest in green energy ranging from hydro to solar power, the program aims to brake a build-up of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
. . Annual world greenhouse gas emissions from human activities --mainly from fossil fuels burned in power plants, vehicles and factories-- exceed 25 billion tons. About a quarter is from the United States --6 plus b tons --10 times Britain's 650 million tons of carbon dioxide. Spain's is 350 million.
. . Under the CDM, rich nations can invest in renewable energy projects in developing nations --such as hydroelectric power plants in Guatemala or a methane capture scheme in China-- and then claim credits back home for the emissions they save.

June 8, 06: Canada's vast oil sands, the biggest source of oil outside Saudi Arabia, don't give up their riches easily.
. . Mining the earth for molasses-like bitumen that can be turned to oil involves clearing vast swaths of land, stripping off layers of soil and digging out lake-sized holes with giant shovels that scoop up to 56 cubic meters of material a swing. The world's largest haul trucks --house-sized monsters with wheels the size of pick-up trucks-- ship the muck away for crushing and mixing with hot water before further extraction and upgrading. The start-up costs are huge, but with oil around $70 a barrel, the rewards are large as well.
. . But while the black gold brings billions of dollars to the oil firms and the province of Alberta, critics say the operations are taking too big a toll on the environment. Lindsay Telfer, the Prairie chapter director of the Sierra Club of Canada. She said oil sands production generates about three times as much greenhouse gas emissions as conventional oil production, and it takes three to six barrels of water to produce a barrel of oil --much of it from the nearby Athabasca River.
. . But the companies point proudly to areas where they have restored the land after they finished mining, and they say they are committed to bringing the wilderness back to its former splendor once the mining ends. One such rolling green plot, which was an oil-sands mine about 20 years ago, looks idyllic, bordered by young trees and populated by bison. But every few seconds, a loud pop breaks the calm as propane-powered cannons scare waterfowl away from nearby ponds. The water in those pools is contaminated by leftovers from oil-sands mining and could harm the birds.
. . Syncrude mines about 180 million tons of oil sands a year, turning it into some 250,000 barrels of oil a day. Like other companies developing the region, it is eyeing further expansion.
. . Syncrude expects to cut its per-barrel carbon dioxide emissions by 24% between 1990 and 2012, partly with the help of a lower-temperature extracting process and new technologies. It says it has cut its emissions of sulfur dioxide per barrel by 50% since 1983, and plans to reduce them further by adding flue-gas scrubbers to a pair of its cokers -- the units that crack bitumen into smaller molecules at the start of the upgrading process.

June 7, 06: Construction work has begun in southern Portugal on what is set to be the world's largest solar power station --200km south of Lisbon, to produce enough electricity for 8,000 homes when it starts next January. The 11-megawatt solar power plant, comprising 52,000 photovoltaic modules, is being built in one of Europe's sunniest areas. Portugal plans other installations.
. . The 11-megawatt solar power plant, to be made up of 52,000 photovoltaic modules, will cover a 60-hectare (150-acre) southern-facing hillside. The panels will be raised around two metres off the grass which, Catavento's Piero Dal Maso says, the sheep will take care of. It will save 30 tons of CO2 emissions, so that is probably around 1% of domestic consumption of Portugal.
. . The plant will use PowerLight's PowerTracker technology which follows the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day. The firm say this generates more electricity than conventional fixed-mount systems.

The trouble with the old EPA tests: optimistic ratings that understate fuel use by as much as 50%. For example, the Toyota Prius goes through about one-quarter of the route with only its electric motor running for seemingly-exceptional fuel economy.

How to make a home-made wind-turbine: otherpower.com
. . http://otherpower.com/otherpower_experiments.html
. . http://www.velacreations.com/chispito.html

June 6, 06: The Three Gorges Dam was completed last month but its power-generation facilities are not slated to be finished until 2008. Its 18.2 thousand megawatts is about 11% of China's output. It is designed to eventually produce 22.4 thousand megawatts. At 185 meters high and 2,309 meters long, it used 28 million cubic meters of concrete. [Easy to calc in your head: that = a km sq & 28 meters high]
. . Launched in 1993, it cost US$22.5 billion. More than 1.13 million people have been relocated to make way for the dam and its reservoir, and officials are keen to show they are sensitive to the dam's massive environmental impact.

June 5, 06: A new plant source for biodiesel production is being propagated in the Philippines. The Jatropha seedlings from India are nuts containing 30% oil, so the country is distributing the plants nationwide to encourage use.

Keeping your hybrid humming healthily requires using only a synthetic grade when changing the oil. Since hybrid engines can shut off when the car is not in motion (and some while at low speeds too), fast and efficient oil flow is necessary to minimize engine wear during the frequent restarts. That means changing the oil on schedule, and using only synthetic 0W-20 oil.

Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), which includes just 15 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur, down from the previous standard of 500 ppm. The fuel, which reduces hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions to almost zero, will be available at many retail pumps by October and is expected to cost about a nickel more than today's diesel.

The new diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee is expected to get 30% better mileage than its gasoline equivalent.

June 5, 06: For as long as people have cared what wafts from vehicle tailpipes, diesel motors have had the rap as the dirtiest, smelliest, noisiest engines on the road. That could soon change.
. . In a move that may presage diesel's Cinderella-like transformation, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday required US refineries to begin making ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), a fuel with 97% less sulfur than ordinary diesel that, as a result, slashes soot emissions. The rule, which mandates that 80% of the diesel produced for highway use be ULSD-compliant, was just the first step. By Oct. 15, all filling stations now selling diesel will be required to sell ULSD instead of or in addition to diesel.
. . All who drive diesel vehicles --which account for only about 3% of sales of light-duty vehicles-- will immediately emit about 10% less pollution upon shifting to ULSD. But the biggest pollution abatement --as much as 90% cleaner-- will come with the EPA-mandated debut of "clean diesel" engines, probably late next year or early in 2008.
. . Heavy-duty trucks and buses will be first to take full advantage of the new fuel, with new clean-diesel engines slated to hit the road in early 2007 - cutting soot and nitrous-oxide (smog-forming) emissions by 90%, Mr. Kassel says. Some city bus fleets, like New York's, already use ULSD.
. . Off-road diesel vehicles --including farm and construction equipment-- won't be required to shift to ULSD immediately. Their emissions requirements will be phased in from 2007 to 2010.
. . Diesel engines have always had their virtues: high torque, durability, and good mileage. They also produce less greenhouse gases per mile than do gasoline-powered engines because of their greater fuel efficiency. The new clean-diesel vehicles are expected to be no louder or dirtier than gasoline engines, but they get 20 to 40% better mileage per gallon.
. . They may account for 7 to 15% of vehicle sales by 2010, some analysts say. Today, diesel fuel sells for about what gasoline does. As the number of clean diesels on the road grows, so might the number of drivers filling up with even cleaner biodiesel fuel from organic sources. The hope is that more fuel options will help put a big dent in US dependence on foreign oil.
. . Once the new diesel rule is fully implemented in 2030, it is expected to yield a 90% cut in pollution from the nation's 13 million diesel trucks and buses. That would mean more than 8,000 premature deaths averted each year and about $70 billion annually in health benefits as a result of cleaner air, the EPA estimates.

June 1, 06: Researchers at North Dakota State University are developing new varieties of soybeans and canola with higher oil content to be used for producing biodiesel, and genetically modified plants might not be far away.

June 1, 06: British scientists fed Escherichia coli bacteria a diluted mix of waste caramel and nougat. The germs tucked into the sugar and in the process produced hydrogen, using their own enzyme, called hydrogenase. The hydrogen was used to power a fuel cell, generating enough electricity to drive a small fan.
. . The experiment has applications far beyond the lab. Waste chocolate, instead of being thrown away by confectionary companies, could be turned into hydrogen and used to help power their factories or sold to energy companies.
. . The British team, led by Lynne Mackaskie at the University of Birmingham, central England, got the same bacteria to tuck into [eat] catalytic converters taken from old cars. The bacteria cleverly recovered the precious metal palladium after they were immersed in a vat with hydrogen and liquid waste from spent converters.

June 1, 06: Belgium will build the first polar station powered solely by renewable sources of energy --wind & solar-- at a site in the Antarctic that will study climate change. The base will be constructed from November 2007 to March 2008. The station, the Antarctic summer home to 20 people, including 12 to 16 scientists, will focus on studying climate change and will mark Belgium's return to the continent after an absence of over 30 years.

If ya can't find a place where geothermal heat is close to the surface, go down to where it is! A French project is injecting cold water into hot rocks 3 km down and bringing steam to the surface.

2004: ON THE dusty red dirt of an old sheep station, a 6-hour drive from Melbourne, plans are afoot to build the world's tallest tower. Forget quibbles about whether an antenna or flagpole should count in the final measurement. If this concrete structure makes it off the drawing board it will smash every record in the book. It will stand a staggering 1 kilometer tall, and its base will sit at the centre of a shimmering field of glass and plastic 7 km across.
. . If the tower's dimensions are awe-inspiring, its aim is breathtaking. The planned structure will be Australia's biggest solar power plant by far. Air heated by the sun will rise up the tower, where 32 turbines will generate about 650 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to meet the demands of 70,000 Australians. EnviroMission, the company behind the project, hopes to start building work next year [that was 2005!]

Iceland gets some electricity and over 80% of its heating and hot water from geothermal energy sources.

[undated] BRYAN ROBERTS has great plans for outback Australia. Somewhere in a vast swath of land stretching northwest from Sydney, he dreams of building massive power stations churning out hundreds of megawatts of electricity. Although each of these stations would be huge --up to 28 kilometers across-- you probably wouldn't object if you lived nearby. In fact, you probably wouldn't notice it at all.
. . Roberts is an engineer at the University of Western Sydney, and he's hoping to build wind farms in the sky. He has worked out how to extract energy from the atmosphere with a fleet of whirring "gyromills" tethered more than 4 kilometers above the ground. Here, rivers of air called jet streams race around the globe. Compared to the fickle winds that waft about closer to the Earth's surface, this air flow is a torrent, rocketing along at a top speed of 500 kilometers per hour.

Fuels: Biomass, Coal, Ethanol, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Hydrogen, Methane hydrates, Natural gas, Nuclear fission, Nuclear fusion, Oil, Oil shales and tar sands, Solar - photovoltaics, Solar - thermal, Tidal, Waves, Wind.
. . Ethanol and biodiesel supply about 2% of world vehicle fuel.
. . Coal: The most abundant fossil fuel, with reserves perhaps ten times those of oil and natural gas combined. Widely burnt in power plants.
. . • Supplies about 22% of worldwide energy consumption.
. . • But it is the dirtiest fossil fuel.
. . Hydroelectric: Large dams on rivers hold back water, to provide a regular flow through turbines. The technology works best in hilly terrain. where deep canyons can be dammed.
. . • Generates up to a fifth of the world’s electricity and a tenth of total world energy.
. . Methane hydrates: Trillions of tons of methane are trapped -by high pressure and low temperature- inside frozen lattices of water, in shallow ocean sediments and permafrost. The methane is probably made by bacteria in sediments.
. . • If released into the air by climate change, hydrates could accelerate global warming; but if the methane could be harnessed, it might be burnt as a major new fuel source.
. . Natural gas: At 21% of total world energy consumption. Maybe a century’s worth left at current rates of use.
. . Nuclear fission: Produces 6% of energy worldwide. Dominant energy source in France.
. . Oil: The world’s most important fossil fuel. Ubiquitous in road vehicles but also burnt in power stations.
. . • Serves 34% of total worldwide energy production.
. . Oil shales and tar sands: As oil prices rise, these unconventional reserves of bitumen and tar in surface geological formations becomes increasingly economic.
. . • May now comprise the majority of surviving oil reserves.
. . • But the large amounts of energy needed to extract and refine them makes their “greenhouse effect” even greater than conventional oil.
. . Wind: The kinetic energy of wind is harnessed to power wind turbines or windmills. Currently the cheapest widely-available source of renewable energy.
. . • Worldwide capacity growing by 30% a year, but still represents less than 1% of total energy use.

China's Three Gorges Dam, which has just been completed, is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US's Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China's entire electricity demand. Surprisingly, some argue [with data] that hydroelectric dams significantly contribute greenhouse gases. [decomposition of drowned biomass. AND: loss of cropland that could've produced biofuels, eg.]

A typical mast turbine is around five times less expensive than photo-voltaic solar panels that produce the same power.

May 3, 06: The UK last month gave the go-ahead for the EU's largest onshore wind farm. The electricity company Scottish Power won permission on April 27 to erect 140 wind turbines on 55 square kilometers of moorland and forest south of Glasgow. When completed in 2009, the £300 million Whitelee wind farm will generate a peak of 322 megawatts.
. . Whitelee is expected to supply 5% of the capacity required to meet Scotland's target of generating 40% of its electricity from renewables by 2020.

May 30, 06: Columbia and Oregon State University have a plan to plant buoys off the coast of Oregon that can harness enough wave energy to supply about 20% of the state’s electricity. The magnetic part of the buoy is anchored to the sea floor, while an electric coil is secured to the heaving buoy. The modulation of the waves sends that neodymium-iron magnet back and forth through the electric coil. Feasibility studies are underway, with the researchers planning to set up these direct-drive wave energy buoys using federal funding.

May, 06: Ocean wave power can be tapped to provide a reliable and clean source of affordable renewable energy. "This remarkable technology is part of my vision for energy independence and renewable energy in Oregon", said Governor Ted Kulongoski, during a visit to wave energy labs on the Corvallis campus.
. . The team came up with several prototype buoys, designed to be anchored one to three miles offshore in typical water depths of greater than 100 feet, where the buoys will experience gradual, repetitive ocean swells. Advanced designs of these prototypes are currently being developed to achieve higher efficiencies and power output performance.
. . OSU has been working closely with Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) to promote Oregon as an optimal location for the nation's first commercial wave parks
. . WaveEnergy also has creative plans for re-using old deep sea oil platforms (talk about reuse and recycle). The oil rigs are perfect, primarily because they are already in rough seas and have electrical and pipelines (say for hydrogen?) back to the mainland. WaveEnergy began their pilot program in January, 06. [They could support a couple wind turbines as well!]
. . They estimate that a 10 Megawatt PowerBuoy station would only occupy 4 acres of open ocean (how large is a coal plant, and roads, and mine?). Also, they estimate that a 100 Megawatt PowerBuoy Station would cost LESS then fossil fuels. That is only 40 acres of open ocean (not that much) and you have a technology which is cheaper then oil, and sustainable. One of the best things about this technology is it is simple. It is a buoy. It moves up and down, and that motion creates an electrical charge which is turned into DC and sent to the shore. The minimal size and placement of the buoy is also a plus, as it has a low environmental, and social impact. The buoy is not readily visible from land, and it can even act to attract fish and create an artificial reef.
. . Located on the island of Islay, off Scotland’s west coast, the Limpet design takes the wave into a funnel and drives air pressure past two turbines, each of which turns a 250 kW generator. The clever part of this design is that it takes the wet works out of the engineering solution. By placing all moving parts and generators above the sea swell, they mechanics stay in an easy location for maintenance.

May 29, 06: By using other crops and forest waste along with the entire corn plant, not just the kernels, the Department of Energy says enough cellulosic ethanol could be produced by 2030 to lower U.S. gasoline consumption 30%.
. . Scientists at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria are among those on a mission to expand ethanol beyond a wasteful grain-based fuel, working intensely on how best to break down the cellulose of biomass into sugars and complex chemicals in order to produce ethanol economically. An optimal solution might still be a decade away.

May 25, 06: Fields of swaying giant grass and patchwork patterns of willow plantations could become common sights as Britain turns to crops for heating and electricity to tackle the effects of global warming. The use of crops to generate electricity is touted by some experts as one of the best ways to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed by many scientists for global warming.
. . Biomass --products from forestry, energy crops and a variety of other materials which might otherwise be treated as waste-- generates about 1% of Britain's electricity and provides a similar proportion of heat generation.
. . In late April, the government announced measures to promote biomass as it seeks to rapidly expand the proportion of Britain's energy needs derived from renewable resources. "We are going to need everything we can lay our hands on if we are going to reduce our carbon footprint in the world", said Ben Gill, a former president of the National Farmers' Union who leads the British government's Biomass Task Force.
. . Britain is seeking to produce 10% of its electricity from renewable sources such as biomass by 2010 and to double that proportion by 2020. A government-commissioned task force last year said biomass could reduce Britain's carbon emissions by almost three million tons a year if used for heating --the equivalent of taking 3.25 million cars of the road.
. . Miscanthus, or elephant grass, and short rotation coppice willow, are already helping fire up power stations, heat schools, hospitals and factories. It's a woody grass which originated in Asia and has very high growth rates. It can reach about 3.5 meters in height and can be harvested each year.
. . Short rotation coppice (SRC) are densely planted varieties of either poplar or most commonly willow. They grow to about 4 meters and are normally harvested every 3 years.
. . Greenergy said in May it had started taking deliveries of SRC willow wood chips for a 30 megawatt biomass power station in northeast England, expected to come online next year.
. . Biomass crops require less care and maintenance, giving farmers the chance to either semi-retire to spend time on other ventures. "You just stare out of the window and watch the money growing."

May 24, 06: Seven international parties involved in an experimental nuclear fusion reactor project have initialled a 10bn-euro (£6.8bn) agreement on the plan. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) will be the most expensive joint scientific project after the International Space Station.
. . Wednesday's agreement in Brussels gives the go-ahead for practical work on the project to start. Participants will aim to ratify their agreement before the end of the year so construction on the facility can start in 2007. Officials said the experimental reactor will take around eight years to build. If all goes well with the it, officials hope to set up a demonstration power plant at Cadarache by 2040.

May 24, 06: The winners of the European Eco-Shell Marathon 2006 weren't the fastest but they were the most fuel efficient. Teams had to battle changing temperatures and wind conditions and use the least amount of fuel after completing seven laps of the Nogaro Circuit in southwest France.
. . The first 27 teams broke the 1,000-kilometer-per-liter (2,825-mile-per-gallon) barrier, according to officials.

To drive a hybrid car about 1 km, takes about the same electricity as to light a 150 watt bulb for one hour! 150 watt-hrs.

May 22, 06: Prime Minister John Howard says he has an open mind on the development of nuclear power in Australia, which has 40% of the world's known reserves of uranium, and has called for a full debate on the issue.
. . While the European Union attempts to form a common energy policy, one subject continues to divide: nuclear power. Praised by some for creating almost no environmentally harmful CO2 emissions but loathed by others because of its radioactive waste, nuclear has long been controversial in Europe. But the push for a new energy policy in the 25-nation bloc, fueled by concerns over rising dependence on imports from countries such as Russia, has put nuclear back in the picture.
. . Finland, which wants to avoid high-polluting coal and has a population that generally supports nuclear power, preferred building its own plants to importing nuclear-generated electricity from Russia. "In Finland you have to choose between two evils: nuclear power or coal, and nuclear power is not as bad as coal." A fifth nuclear plant in Finland would decrease the country's CO2 emissions by 10 million tonnes from their present levels.

May 19, 06: Brazil's state oil company Petrobras said it would introduce a pioneering low-sulphur diesel producing technology involving vegetable oils at two refineries by 2008. The so-called H-Bio technology will combine diesel fractions from distillation, cracking and retarded coking with soy oil and hydrogen as raw materials to churn out high-quality diesel with mineral fuel qualities.
. . "It's a groundbreaking technology and we've asked for patents. Vegetable oil substitutes diesel fractions and adds value ... It's a revolution for Brazil, and I'm sure it's going to spread in the world from here", Costa said. "We'll be planting diesel from now on."
. . Brazil is already a world pioneer in mass use of sugar cane-based [cellulosic] ethanol in cars and in blends with gasoline and some sector experts say it could with time become a "Saudi Arabia" of organic fuels as the world looks increasingly for alternatives to petroleum. They will blend 2% biodiesel with all normal diesel starting in 2008.
. . Petrobras plans to use 10% soy oil in the two refineries where the technology will be installed next year and in 2008. The program should be expanded to five refineries in the following few years, with tentative vegetable oil usage of 5%. That could rise depending on the availability of vegetable oils.
. . 10% non-mineral oil usage at two refineries requires 256,000 cubic meters of soy oil per year, which makes up about 10% of Brazil's soy oil exports. At the same time, that would reduce diesel imports by 10% of last year's total of 2.5 million cubic meters. Brazil exports gasoline but is short on diesel.
. . As opposed to biodiesel, which requires special transesterification plants and additional storage capacities, the new process can be carried out at existing refineries next to soy producing areas, and only needs additional amounts of hydrogen, which is already used in the process.
. . Other vegetable oils, such as cotton, palm and sunflower, can be used in the process, but soy oil is the favourite because Brazil produces huge quantities of it. Last year, it produced 5.6 million cubic meters of soy oil.

GREAT NEW COMPACT CARS: Replacing the ho-hum Echo in the U.S., the diminutive Yaris come as a three-door hatch and four-door sedan —a complete redesign of the car that has been by far Toyota's best seller in Europe.
. . Dimensions: 150 x 67 x 60 in.
. . Weight: 2,326 lbs.
. . Fuel Economy: 39 mpg (hwy)
. . Engine: 1.5-liter 4-cylinder
. . Power: 106 hp; 103 lb.-ft. torque

Honda Fit: Called the Jazz in Europe (Honda's youth-directed approach), the five-door Fit is already a tuner favorite and has its own enthusiast Web site, fitfreak.net . Though smaller than a Civic, it has more interior room and versatile seats that fold into the floor to form a bed!
. . Dimensions: 157 x 66 x 60 in.
. . Weight: 2,514 lbs.
. . Fuel Economy: 38 mpg (hwy)
. . Engine: 1.5-liter 4-cylinder
. . Power: 109hp; 105 lb.-ft. torque
. . Honda is developing a smaller motor and battery to reduce the hybrid's cost and weight. It will twin the hybrid unit with a one-liter engine for the Fit. The newspaper said the Fit hybrid would have fuel economy comparable to that of the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, which the auto makers advertise in Japan as getting around 35-36 km to a liter (82-84 miles per gallon). [I WANT ONE!!]
. . The most efficient gasoline-only Fit, with a 1.3-liter engine and continuous variable transmission, gets 24 km to a liter (56 miles per gallon).

May 17, 06: A group of scientists urged Congress to fund research for plug-in hybrid vehicles, touting the technology as another way to reduce the nation's dependence on oil through the help of a simple electrical socket. [obviously, that'll help only if we develop a better way to generate elec!]

May 17, 06: Honda will introduce its smallest hybrid car and a new diesel engine in 2009 (but alas, no diesel hybrid). The new Honda hybrid will cost substantially less than the Civic Hybrid.

The Department of Energy says that gas mileage drops sharply at speeds over 60 mph, and that drivers can assume that each 5 mph over 60 is like paying an additional 20 cents per gallon of gas.

May 17, 06: In dissociating water with sunlight, engineers have available three technologies: One is solar cells, which hold the record for water-splitting efficiency but are comparatively expensive. Another approach uses microorganisms, which are inexpensive but so far produce only minuscule amounts of hydrogen. The third option is photocatalysis, which relies on momentarily freed electrons in a semiconductor. Electrons that encounter water molecules replace the electrons in the bonds between hydrogen and oxygen. They thus break water apart and generate hydrogen gas. Photocatalysts are potentially less expensive than solar cells and produce more hydrogen than microorganisms.

May 16, 06: Prime Minister Tony Blair is giving his strongest signal yet that he backs the building of a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK. He says Britain faces the prospect of being largely reliant on foreign gas imports for its future energy needs. Critics claim Mr Blair had decided to opt for nuclear power even before the government energy review launched.
. . Friends of the Earth's Tony Juniper meanwhile said: "It's probably no coincidence that a number of nuclear skeptics were removed from key Cabinet posts earlier this month."
. . Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said Mr Blair had made his mind up to support new nuclear power stations. "The economic case for nuclear is extremely weak. There are many other options for a secure low carbon energy supply."

California-based Thermo Life Energy --a subsidiary of RFID maker Applied Digital Solutions-- says it has developed a smaller, more powerful version of its thermoelectric generator that enters the realm of practical micro-power generators.
. . The Thermo Life generator is 9.3 millimeters in diameter and 1.4 millimeters high, about half the size of a penny and within the size range of 1.55-volt watch batteries. The company has packed 5,074 thermocouples (electricity-producing circuits) into the generator, and the device provides a relatively high voltage from a smaller temperature difference: At a difference of 5 degrees Celsius, the generator produces 3.1 volts at 36 microamps, yielding 110 microwatts of electrical power.

It's about time!! The grandaddy of Hummers is being laid to rest. GM has terminated the largest model, the H1 (or Alpha). The H1 listed for $140,000

May 14, 06: A British inventor unveiled a car he claims is the world's most fuel efficient --capable of doing 8,000 miles (12,875 km) to the gallon (4.5 liters). Andy Green, 45, spent just 2,000 pounds (2,925 euros or 3,732 US dollars) over two years creating the three-wheeled contraption in his spare time.
. . The car, named "TeamGreen", is 3.1 meters long and a mere 0.6 meters wide, weighing just 30 kg. The car is powered by a single cylinder four-stroke engine of just 35 cc.
. . The winner of the Shell Eco-Marathon championships will be the car that runs the longest on an average speed of 30 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour). He holds the British record for fuel-efficiency, having achieved 6,603 miles to the gallon in one of his previous cars.

May 12, 06: According to the Bureau of Transportation, there are almost 200 million vehicles on the road, of which 133 million are passenger cars. Of these, about 300,000 are hybrids.

May 12, 06: A British fuels company has quantified for the first time carbon dioxide emission savings made through the sale of biofuels.
. . Greenergy, which supplies biofuels which are retailed predominantly through supermarket forecourts, said more than 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions have been saved during the first quarter of 2006. The savings, independently assessed by the Edinburgh Center for Carbon Management, are equivalent to taking more than 50,000 family cars off the road for the three month period.
. . Biofuels can be made from a wide variety of different crops including grains, sugar cane and oilseeds as well as waste products such as used cooking oil.

May 9, 06: Norman Mineta said he would support legislation requiring that new vehicles purchased by the federal government get the highest gas mileage possible. The government buys about 60,000 vehicles annually for 75 government agencies nationwide. Many government vehicles in Washington, including those that ferry officials like Mineta and members of Congress, are large sedans or sport utilities, which get average to poor fuel economy. The presidential limousine, an armored Cadillac made by General Motors, gets about 14 miles per gallon in city driving.

May 11, 06 -China: Dam builders have their eye on Tiger Leaping Gorge not only for the power it would generate but because it would help prevent silt from flowing into the reservoir behind the huge Three Gorges Dam, now near completion, some 930 miles downriver.
. . The decision whether to go ahead has yet to be taken. But surveying work has been going on now for 18 months, fanning talk that construction of the proposed 912-foot-high dam could begin as early as 2008. The dam, just one of a dozen proposed for the upper reaches of the Yangtze, where the river is called the Jinsha, would create a vast lake that would back up for 200 km.
. . As many as 100,000 people, many of them from the Naxi ethnic minority, would be forced to abandon fertile land their families have worked for centuries.

May 8, 06: Construction of China's Three Gorges Dam is likely to be finished by 20 May, nine months ahead of schedule, according to state media reports. But several generators will still have to be installed and the dam is expected to become fully operational in 2009. Once completed, the dam, begun in 1993, will become the world's largest hydroelectric power project. It's expected to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually.

May 2, 06: When this alloy is placed in a magnetic field, it gets colder. Karl Sandeman and his co-workers think that their material --a blend of cobalt, manganese, silicon and germanium-- could help to usher in a new type of refrigerator that is up to 40% more energy-efficient than conventional models. The “magnetic fridge” envisaged by the Cambridge team would use a phenomenon called the magnetocaloric effect (MCE), whereby a magnetic field causes certain materials to get warmer (a positive MCE) or cooler (a negative MCE). Although the effect was discovered more than 120 years ago, it is only recently that magnetocaloric materials have been found with the right properties for use in everyday refrigeration.

All AC's and heat pumps manufactured after Jan 23, 2006 must meet a minimum efficiency standard of 13 SEER.

May 1, 06: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the electricity used to light businesses represents 25% of the energy they spend, so it's important to develop energy-saving devices. Now engineers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have designed a simple switch which can help to reduce lighting energy consumption by 30%. This switch includes a photosensor which detects if there is enough daylight and a microcontroller that turns the lights off and on. Because of its simple circuitry, this switch is cheap to produce and can work with all kinds of light fixtures. And the researchers say that its cost can be recovered in one year by owners of new buildings.
. . It is estimated that the DaySwitch™ will be able to reduce lighting energy consumption by 30% in buildings with significant daylight contribution through windows or skylights.

May 1, 06: The single most subsidized crop in America is corn. Between 1995 and 2003, federal corn subsidies totaled $37.3 billion. That's more than twice the amount spent on wheat subsidies, three times the amount spent on soybeans, and 70 times the amount spent on tobacco.
. . The ethanol lobby claims there's a 30% net gain in BTUs from ethanol made from corn. Other boosters, including Woolsey, claim there are huge energy gains (as much as 700%) to be had by making ethanol from grass.
. . But the ethanol critics have shown that the industry calculations are bogus. David Pimentel, a professor of ecology at Cornell University who has been studying grain alcohol for 20 years, and Tad Patzek, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, co-wrote a recent report that estimates that making ethanol from corn requires 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel itself actually contains.
. . The two scientists calculated all the fuel inputs for ethanol production—from the diesel fuel for the tractor planting the corn, to the fertilizer put in the field, to the energy needed at the processing plant—and found that ethanol is a net energy-loser. According to their calculations, ethanol contains about 76,000 BTUs per gallon, but producing that ethanol from corn takes about 98,000 BTUs. For comparison, a gallon of gasoline contains about 116,000 BTUs per gallon. But making that gallon of gas—from drilling the well, to transportation, through refining—requires around 22,000 BTUs.
. . In addition to their findings on corn, they determined that making ethanol from switch grass requires 50% more fossil energy than the ethanol yields, wood biomass 57% more, and sunflowers 118% more. The best yield comes from soybeans, but they, too, are a net loser, requiring 27% more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced. In other words, more ethanol production will increase America's total energy consumption, not decrease it.
. . Adding more ethanol will also increase the complexity of America's refining infrastructure, which is already straining to meet demand, thus raising pump prices. Ethanol must be blended with gasoline. But ethanol absorbs water. Gasoline doesn't. Therefore, ethanol cannot be shipped by regular petroleum pipelines. Instead, it must be segregated from other motor fuels and shipped by truck, rail car, or barge. Those shipping methods are far more expensive than pipelines.
. . There's another problem: Ethanol, when mixed with gasoline, causes the mixture to evaporate very quickly. That forces refiners to dramatically alter their gasoline to compensate for the ethanol.
. . Ethanol contains only about two-thirds as much energy as gasoline. Thus, when it gets blended with regular gasoline, it lowers the heat content of the fuel. So, while a gallon of ethanol-blended gas may cost the same as regular gasoline, it won't take you as far.
. . Patzek points out that if we channeled the billions spent on ethanol into fuel-efficient cars and solar cells, "That would give us so much more bang for the buck that it's a no-brainer."

Apr 29, 06: Germany, which helped launch the green roof trend beginning in the 1950s, now has 32,000 acres (50 square miles) of green roof space and adds an additional 13 square km per year.
. . The US has only a fraction of the green roof space found in Germany --but a study this month found U.S. green roof space grew 80% last year. North America has a total of 200,000 square meters, according to the study by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Chicago was the U.S. leader, planting nearly 27,900 square meters (300,000 square feet) of green roof space last year.
. . Experts say green roof installation can be as cheap as $9 per square foot, and increased property value, energy cost savings and longer life for the roof can offset the investment.

Apr 28, 06: Manufacturing accounts for approximately 10% of the energy consumed by an automobile during its life cycle.
. . 6.1% of our 2004 energy consumption came from renewable sources. But half of this energy is provided by hydroelectric power, which environmentalists usually don't regard as "alternative". Strip away the hydroelectric, then, and you're left with a less impressive figure that encompasses geothermal, solar, wind, and biomass (which includes everything from switchgrass and ethanol to "sludge waste") sources: a piddling 3.4%. Solar energy accounted for less than 0.1% of our 2004 total consumption.
. . Keep transportation costs in mind. A 2005 report in the journal Food Policy, calculated the energy expended to truck produce from farm to market, and concluded that consumers would do less environmental damage by buying locally grown *conventional food than *organic produce from across the continent. [health issues aside...]

Apr 28, 06: With the cost of oil at or near record territory and gasoline prices hovering around $3 a gallon, the government is advocating new measures to sooth growing public concern over rising prices at the pumps.
. . But the fixes are only temporary and largely symbolic, scientists say. They will do little to address the more serious threat of what will happen when demand for oil outstrips the ability to produce it. And that's an inevitable problem that could be just around the corner, though nobody knows exactly when it will occur.
. . Scientists warn that there will come a day when rising oil prices will not be due to political or economic pressures, but because a natural peak in global oil production will have been reached. Once we reach this tipping point, known as “Hubbert’s Peak”, global oil production will begin an irreversible decline and less oil will be available with every passing year, scientists say. Energy experts no longer debate about whether Hubbert’s peak *will occur, but when. On this point, estimates vary wildly. Kenneth Deffeyes, a Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, believes it has already happened -—in late 2005. Others figure we still have another 20-30 years.
. . In testimony given before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality last December, Hirsch said "The era of plentiful, low-cost petroleum is approaching an end ... We would like to believe that the optimists are right about peak oil being a distant problem, but the risks of error are beyond imagination."

Apr 27, 06: Britain announced measures to promote the production of electricity and heat from biomass, including a capital grant scheme for "green" boilers and continuing support for energy crops. Biomass, coming from forestry, energy crops and a variety of materials that might otherwise be treated as waste, currently generates about 1% of Britain's electricity and provides a similar proportion of heat generation.
. . Britain is seeking to produce 10% of its electricity from renewable sources such as biomass by 2010 and to double that proportion by 2020. Energy minister Malcolm Wicks told a news conference that biomass could make a significant contribution, although he noted that "a great proportion" of the 10% target for 2010 would come from wind energy.
. . The main energy crops in Britain are miscanthus, also known as elephant grass, and willow coppice.

Apr 25, 06: Coal-burning power plants spend millions disposing of fly ash, a fine powder loaded with mercury, lead and other toxic chemicals. An estimated 70 million tons of the byproduct is produced in the U.S. each year, and most of it is buried in specially designed ponds and landfills.
. . Henry Liu, a retired civil engineering professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has a solution to the quandary of fly ash disposal. He wants to bring it into your homes and offices —-literally. He recently received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, his second such award, to further study ways to make weather-resistant bricks out of fly ash. He hopes to bring the product to market within two years.
. . Cement manufacturers and brick makers already use fly ash —-which has strong adhesive properties-— as an additive. [remember... cement is a powder!] But unlike those efforts, Liu's bricks are made almost entirely of the powder.
. . Clay-fired bricks are heated in kilns to temperatures of 2,000 degrees, burning fossil fuels that produce air pollution and green house gases. The limestone used to make Portland cement found in concrete bricks also must be burned at high temperatures, emitting similar pollutants into the atmosphere.
. . No such emissions exist with fly ash bricks, said Liu. He added that fly ash bricks are cheaper and more uniform in size than conventional bricks. The pressurization process hardens and traps the trace elements of mercury and other toxins within the bricks, said Liu. He plans to further study that aspect by building an 11-square-foot cell entirely of fly ash bricks, including the floor and ceiling, to monitor air quality. But even should those tests prove favorable, whether consumers can accept a home constructed of power plant remnants remains to be seen.

Apr 23, 06: The World Bank is urging its steering committee to approve a new breed of loans and grants that would go to developing countries to help them make power generation cleaner and more efficient.

According to the Department of Energy, more than 85% of all the energy consumed in the United States comes from fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas. Some 2,700 pounds of carbon per person each year, or 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, come from operating individual homes, the U.S.

Apr 19, 06: If you're curious about the temperature of objects in your world, the ThermoHawk 200 Touchless Infrared Thermometer by Q3 Innovations can give you instant readings of the surface temperature of just about anything. About half the size of a ballpoint pen, it has a range of between -27°F and 230°F, and uses an infrared sensor to figure out how hot or how cold something is, quickly showing you its results on a monochrome LCD within one second. "We tested this instrument in a variety of circumstances, and found it to be quite handy at measuring the temperature of various things like the inside of a freezer (4 degrees), a car engine (147 degrees), and the temperature of the water at the old fishing hole (52 degrees). We came to appreciate its ability to touchlessly measure things like boiling water, a substance that we don't want to get too close to, especially for the half a minute it would take to get an accurate reading using a conventional thermometer. It's a lot of fun to play with this device -—along the lines of a laser pointer—- but it's a pretty expensive impulse item at $59.95. [But for teating for infiltration in my superinsulated house...!]

Apr 21, 06: At present, nine reactors contribute barely 2% of China's power -- just one eighth of the global average. The target is to raise this to 40 gigawatts, or 4% over the next 15 years by building 30 new reactors. They started late, but want to build two major reactors a year.
. . The pebble bed reactor being developed at Tsinghua University is meltdown-proof. It uses fuel "pebbles" --roughly the size of tennis balls and wrapped in graphite with a higher melting point than the uranium inside-- to prevent runaway reactions. The passive safety mechanism does not rely on humans to control the temperature.
. . As nations trying to cut pollution take another look at nuclear power, world uranium prices have risen, more than tripling since 2004. Disposing of the over 1,000 tons a year of radioactive waste that the expansion could produce, according to the World Nuclear Association, is another minefield.

Apr 20, 06: Peugeot will set the bar higher with two diesel hybrids in development that could get even better fuel economy, although the proposed 82 mpg probably isn't achievable.
. . Previously, there was a flat $2,000 deduction for hybrids, but this year buyers get the more advantageous tax credit based on the fuel economy of the vehicle purchased versus its class. So if you bought a Prius in December instead of January, you cost yourself a few grand (sorry).
. . BUT, and this a biggie, the credit for vehicles from each manufacturer begins to shrink three months after the company reaches 60,000 total hybrids sold. Toyota like will have hit this quota by June, so if you purchase a Prius after September, the tax credit is only $1,575.
. . 2005 Toyota Prius $3150
. . 2006 Toyota Prius $3150
. . European car makers are defaulting on a vital target to tackle climate change, according to an environmental group. Their efforts to boost fuel efficiency are falling "far short" of a commitment made to the European Union in 1998, Transport & Environment says. Last year, European manufacturers sold cars that produced on average 160g of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer. This was down 1% on the previous year, according to sales figures analysed by Transport and Environment (T&E).
. . T&E says car makers will now need an improvement rate of 4.3% per year over the next three years to meet their commitment. To date, T&E says, the best performance was 2.9%, recorded in 2000. Jos Dings, director of T&E, said car makers "put all their technology into making cars heavier and more powerful, rather than more fuel efficient". T&E is pushing for regulation of the industry to control CO2 emissions from cars in the same year that the European Commission is reviewing its climate policy on cars. "The Commission has decided to rely on the pledge from industry to bring down average emission levels; but it is clear now the industry is not making good on that promise. Therefore, it is time for the Commission to stop relying on that pledge and move forward with regulation", said Mr Peterse.

Apr 21, 06: Imagine a car that gets 82 miles a gallon --doubling the average fuel efficiency of the green-automotive market leader Toyota Prius. French auto maker PSA Peugeot-Citroen believes it can deliver such a car by 2010 with hybrid diesel engines that will join two fuel-efficient technologies. "That's the future. It combines the best of both worlds."
. . At the Geneva Auto Show this month, PSA showed off its vision of that future with two hybrid diesel models, the Peugeot 307 and the Citroen C4. Diesel engines, which are up to 40% more fuel-efficient than gasoline, cost about $1,500 more than gasoline engines. But Europeans are happy to pay more for fuel-efficient cars: Diesel-powered models already account for 50% of new-car sales in Europe.
. . The company's top management believes it can bring the differential with diesel models down to around $1,200 to $1,800 by targeting the cost of the batteries, electric motor, and regenerative braking system. "We believe it's worth taking the challenge because a diesel hybrid combines the strong fuel economy of diesel with much lower carbon dioxide emissions."
. . They come equipped with 1.6-liter engines --the latest generation of clean, powerful, direct-injection common-rail diesel machines-- and are "full hybrids." That means the cars can use the electric engine not only for stopping and starting, but also for city driving and for an extra power boost when the diesel engine is running.
. . The electric motor, which recovers energy during deceleration and braking, would operate up to 30 miles per hour, at which point the diesel engine would kick in. The electric engine would give an acceleration boost when passing other vehicles. If PSA can make hybrid-diesels for a $1,200 premium or less, "the technology will propel sales."
. . Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and Toyota are also exploring the possibility of developing diesel-hybrid cars. Europe will most likely lead the drive to bring such models to market. Diesel cars may also start to gain traction in the U.S. market starting later this year as oil companies are forced by federal law to convert to "clean diesel" fuel that reduces harmful sulfur emissions. Europe has long mandated clean diesel at pumps. DaimlerChrysler and Europe's largest auto maker, Volkswagen, are leading the charge in the U.S. market with fuel-efficient, clean diesel cars. So if diesel hybrids take off in Europe, American car buyers may not be far behind.

Apr 20, 06: Twenty years after Sweden alerted the world to the meltdown at Chernobyl, it aims to phase out nuclear power and end dependency on fossil fuels, putting the country in the vanguard of green energy policy. With soaring oil prices, rising demand, uncertain supply and the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, energy is in focus and the European Union is calling for coordinated policy.
. . But the Nordic region --united by history, a shared concern for the environment and a harsh climate which puts heavy demand on power-- is divided on energy, not just nuclear power. Long before radiation on a Swedish power worker's shoes alerted the world to history's worst nuclear accident, Sweden had voted to get rid of atomic energy, in a 1980 referendum.
. . It now aims to break with fossil fuels by 2020, when it also wants greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many for global warming, cut by 25% against 1990 levels. "We have to transform into a non-oil economy", said Stefan Edman, who heads the Swedish government's oil dependency panel. "We have very high ambitions, although I don't think it is realistic that not a drop of oil will be used in 2020."
. . Sweden has already cut oil use in home heating by 70% in the last 20 years and has kept consumption flat in industry since 1994, despite a 70% increase in production. The big challenge will be to do something about oil used in the transport sector, where it accounts for 98% of energy used. "The aim is to break dependence on fossil fuels by 2020. By then, no home will need oil for heating. By then, no motorist will be obliged to use petrol as the sole option available. By then, there will be better alternatives to oil." Sweden produces around 35% of its energy from oil and with nuclear power on the way out, finding alternative power sources is a priority.
. . In Finland, however, nuclear power is seen as part of the future and its fifth atomic power plant -- the first built in Europe for more than a decade -- is due to come online in 2009. Finland does not want to rely on neighbors Russia, Sweden and Norway for power and has many old fossil fuel plants which have to be replaced in order to meet climate change goals.
. . In Norway and Denmark, atomic power has never been an option. In the 1970s, when other Western nations were building nuclear plants, Norway started developing the vast oil and gas reserves that make it the world's third biggest oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. But the fact that hydropower dams still generate almost all the nation's electricity has dampened environmental concerns.
. . Controversy surrounds opening up new areas of the Arctic for oil exploration, and using natural gas to supplement hydropower to meet growing demand. But opposition to nuclear power is so entrenched that the center-left government did not even mention it when outlining its policies on taking office in October.
. . Denmark --home to Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine maker-- hopes use of sustainable sources such as wind and biofuels will reach 36% by 2025, from 25% in 2003.
. . Iceland also aims to become the world's first oil-free nation, setting its sights on 2050, by shifting cars, buses, trucks and ships over to non-polluting hydrogen. By then, in theory, the only oil used on the volcanic North Atlantic island would be in planes. About 70% of energy needs are already met by geothermal or hydropower --only the transport sector is still hooked on oil.

Apr 20, 06: In European countries, Herr Doktor Rudolf Diesel's 1892 invention purrs along under the hoods of one-third to two-thirds of all cars. But here in the U.S., only a dozen passenger-vehicle models with diesel engines are offered: a bunch of brawny American trucks/SUVs, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and four Volkswagens.
. . California, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont effectively outlaw diesels, and some automakers say they won't introduce diesel cars until they're allowed in every state.
. . If you're a stop-and-go driver, hybrids make sense. But if you rack up a lot of highway miles and/or spend a lot of time idling, a diesel may be your best bet. [But it's possible to have both! & turbocharged too!]
. . In March, an Audi won the Sebring 12-hour endurance race, four laps ahead of the gasoline-powered runner-up. This is the first time a diesel engine vehicle has triumphed in a major automobile endurance race, and it's a shot in the arm for the image of such vehicles. Diesels account for nearly half of all passenger cars sold in Europe but for only a fraction in the U.S.

Apr 19, 06: At the Palo Gordo refinery two hours' drive south of Guatemala City, a Brazilian-designed ethanol processing plant hums next to decades-old machinery turning freshly cut cane into sugar. The plant is part of a new push across Central America to reduce the region's reliance on expensive imported oil by following the example of Brazil, Latin America's alternative energy powerhouse.
. . Sugar-producing countries are looking to ethanol to breathe new life into the decades-old sugar industry. The fuel, also known as ethyl alcohol, is made from a sugar by-product. Three-story ovens burn cane fiber to generate all the electricity used by the refinery.
. . In Honduras, sugar producers are planting 11,000 hectares of new sugar cane to provide raw materials for two ethanol refineries. Zelaya's government is also promoting a four-year project to grow 200,000 hectares of African palm, a tree with oil that can be converted into biodiesel.
. . In Brazil, three-quarters of all new cars burn either ethanol or gasoline depending on which is cheaper at the pump, and ethanol is now available at nearly all of the country's 34,000 gas stations.
. . The European Union set a target for biofuels to account for 2% of all transport fuels used in Europe by 2005, rising to 5.75% by 2010.
. . El Salvador last month opened Central America's first biodiesel plant with money from Finland, to produce 400 liters of the fuel a day. The plant will process seeds from the Higuerillo tree, commonly used to provide shade for coffee plants in the region and the fruits of the Jatropha bush, a plant native to Mesoamerica and ideal for biodiesel production.

Apr 19, 06: Scottish Ministers have already made clear they favor a mix of energy sources, including nuclear generation, and aim to make renewable power a growing part of that mix. They want 10% of *Britain's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2010.
. . Around 15% of the electricity *Scotland uses already comes from renewable sources. Scotland --home to around 5 million of Britain's 60 million people-- has set even loftier targets, aiming for 18% by 2010 and 40% by 2020.
. . Scotland already has substantial hydro power and they see its blustery climate and long coastline as ideal for harnessing energy from tides, waves and offshore wind. But onshore wind farms are the most advanced technology and must provide the lion's share of the effort, they say. Each turbine would stand 125 meters high from its base to the tip of a rotor in its highest position.

Apr 20, 06: Dave Givens drives 370 miles to work and back every day and considers his seven-hour commute the best answer to balancing his work with his personal life. He leaves home before dawn and returns after dark, & spends about $185 a week on gasoline. The winner of a nationwide contest to find the commuter with the longest trek, Givens is one of millions of people who are commuting longer and farther than ever before.
. . In the most recent Census Bureau study, 2.8 million people have so-called extreme commutes, topping 90 minutes. Added to long commutes is increased congestion, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility Report. Commuters typically spent 47 hours a year in traffic jams, up from 40 hours a decade earlier.

Apr 19, 06: Driving from England into Scotland, one of the first sights to catch the eye amid the green hills and pine trees could one day be a series of giant wind turbines, each higher than London landmark Big Ben. The planned project would be an apt welcome sign from a region in the grip of a "wind rush."
. . Dozens of wind farms are up and running with hundreds more planned as developers scramble to take advantage of Scotland's blustery climate and lucrative subsidies for renewable energy.

Apr 19, 06: Electrowetting uses the science of microfluidics to actually manipulate tiny quantities of ink or oil using electrical voltage. When an electrical voltage is applied to a drop of liquid, the shape of the drop will expand or contract. If the microdroplet is compressed under glass and a similar voltage applied, the drop will expand to fill the space, or contract to "disappear", according to Liquavista.
. . The technology can be used to form simple black-and-white displays, or, with the appropriate color dyes, can also be used to create color displays.
. . Technically, the electrowetting technique can offer a clearer, brighter display than competitive technologies, since the background material can be designed to reflect ambient light, cutting the power needed. For mobile displays, the cost is expected to be comparable to a transflective LCD, Liquavista said, while the reflectivity and contrast are expected to be slightly better. Since the material does not have to provide its own light, the power consumption is expected to be about eight to ten times less than an LCD. [Laptop city!!]
. . The reflective electrowetting display can be used under all conditions in which people can use paper, ranging from very dimly-lit rooms to bright day-light conditions." However, Liquavista has not publicly announced displays that use the electrowetting technique to simulate color pixels. However, the company said it feels that the individual microfluidic elements could be manipulated fast enough to render video.

Apr 19, 06: A tiny chemical reactor that can convert vegetable oil directly into biodiesel could help farmers turn some of their crops into homegrown fuel to operate agricultural equipment instead of relying on costly imported oil.
. . The device —-about the size of a credit card-— pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly.
. . By comparison, it takes more than a day to produce biodiesel with current technology. Conventional production involves dissolving a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide, in alcohol, then stirring it into vegetable oil in large vats for about two hours. The mixture then has to sit for 12 to 24 hours while a slow chemical reaction forms biodiesel along with glycerin, a byproduct.
. . The glycerin is separated and can be used to make other products, such as soaps, but it still contains the chemical catalyst, which must be neutralized and removed using hydrochloric acid, a long and costly process.
. . The microreactor under development by the university and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute eliminates the mixing, the standing time and maybe even the need for a catalyst. "If we're successful with this, nobody will ever make biodiesel any other way."
. . The device is small, but it can be stacked in banks to increase production levels to the volume required for commercial use, he said. Biodiesel production on the farm also could reduce distribution costs by eliminating the need for tanker truck fuel delivery, part of the growing effort to meet fuel demand locally —-instead of relying on distant refineries and tanker transport.

Apr 18, 06: Sun Microsystems recently unveiled the Sun Ray 2 and Sun Ray 2FS, their latest in super-efficient, low-consumption PCs. In addition to being slim and sexy, the Sun Ray’s typical power consumption is very low: approximately four watts, compared to a typical desktop which consumes over 80 watts.

Apr 18, 06: Researchers have developed a method of manipulating molecules that could pave the way for converting coal into diesel fuel. By reorganizing hydrocarbon chains, the scientists can turn coal and natural gas into more useful petroleum products.

Peter Brown of London proposes this innovation:
. . I was in New Zealand in 2001 when they had a highly effective energy saving drive. Their strategy was simple --they put on regular adverts giving advice on how to save energy and then, twice a week, the news would report on how each region had done. This effectively turned energy-saving into a competition between the different regions --if one region fell behind, it was shamed into doing better. In addition, everyone was able to see the positive effect that their efforts were having. People were happy to put in the effort to both help the environment and the country as a whole to save energy.

Apr 15, 06: The UK will need more gas-fired power stations soon to avert widespread power shortages, a group of MPs has warned. The Commons Environmental Audit Committee said the UK could not rely solely on plans for a new batch of nuclear power stations.
. . The government's energy review, due later this year, is expected to recommend more nuclear power. But the committee said the UK faced a "generation gap" which nuclear power could not bridge. The first nuclear power plants would not come online until 2017, and the proposed network would not be generating at full capacity until as late as 2030. The committee's report also warned of the dangers of terrorist attack on the UK's nuclear power stations.
. . The committee also claimed it was "scandalous" that not enough research was being carried out into alternative technologies such as carbon capture, which could limit the emissions from fossil fuels. It said renewable energy sources could provide 20% the UK's electricity by the year 2020.

Apr 15, 06: Japan's biggest rail company will soon test using fuel cells to help power a train.

Apr 13, 06: Now, in 29 states, homeowners on the grid can get state rebates or tax breaks that subsidize up to 50% or more of the cost of clean energy systems. Seventeen states, and some power companies themselves, now offer utility customers rebates on the purchase and installation of solar or wind systems, up from three in 2000.
. . The number of states with "net metering" laws --which permit customers to sell the power they produce to the electric company at retail rates-- has doubled to 40 in the past six years. The movement got an added jolt in January when utility customers could start taking advantage of a new $2,000 federal tax credit for solar power system purchases as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
. . Last year, U.S. wind-generating capacity grew 36% to 9,149 megawatts. It could expand by another 50% this year.
. . The cost of wind-generated electricity has fallen from 38 cents per kilowatt-hour in the early 1980s, to 4-6 cents today. Indeed, many consumers of 'green electricity' --wind energy, for the most part-- now pay less for their electricity than do customers using conventional power.

Apr 13, 06: What do you get when you put polluted water, fossil-fuel exhaust, sunlight and heat-loving green slime into a metal box? If the box belongs to David Bayless, you get pure oxygen, clean water and a potential means to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
. . Bayless, director of Ohio University's Ohio Coal Research Center, thinks that the easiest way to eliminate the carbon dioxide given off by coal-burning power plants is nature's way, through photosynthesis. The algae use the available CO2 and water to grow new algae, giving off oxygen and water vapor in the process. The organisms also absorb nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which contribute to acid rain. Current plans call for automatically hosing off and collecting the excess algae, which, dried, might be used as fuel.
. . Right now, Bayless has a prototype handling 140 cubic meters of flue gas per minute, equivalent to the exhaust from 50 cars or a three-megawatt power plant. If a test using a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant works, Bayless hopes to have a full-scale bioreactor, with 1.25 million square meters of algae screens handling the output of a 10-megawatt power plant, running by 2010.

Apr 13, 06: A light source that could put the traditional light bulb in the shade has been invented by US scientists. The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) emits a brilliant white light when attached to an electricity supply. The material can be printed in wafer thin sheets that could transform walls, ceilings or even furniture into lights. The OLEDs do not heat up like today's light bulbs and so are far more energy efficient and should last longer. They also produce a light that is more akin to natural daylight than traditional bulbs.
. . Today, more than 20% of electricity used in US buildings is eaten up by lights and nearly half that amount is used by traditional, incandescent light bulbs. Until now, they have been unable to generate sufficient light to illuminate a room.
. . To create the new material, the scientists build up ultra-thin layers of plastics coated with green, red and blue dyes. When an electric current passes through them, they combine to produce white light.
. . Previous attempts to make OLEDs like this have largely failed to make an impact because traditional phosphorescent blue dyes are very short lived. The new polymer uses a fluorescent blue material instead which lasts much longer and uses less energy. The researchers believe that eventually this material could be 100% efficient, meaning it could be capable of converting all of the electricity to light.
. . Before this becomes a reality, the scientists need to work out a way to seal the OLEDs from moisture which can contaminate the sensitive material, causing it to no longer work. If that barrier can be overcome, the new polymer could eventually become the material of choice for stylish, environmentally friendly lighting.
. . The new material replaces the blue screen with a dyed sheet, which cuts power consumption by 20% but still allows the panel to remain clear when not supplied with current. This would allow the panels to be used as skylight by day or as the transparent top to a laptop. "There's no plastic that's hermetic enough to make devices that will last a long period", Thompson said, while predicting that this problem can be solved.
. . Despite more than a century of refinements, an average bulb emits just 15 lumens of light per watt. As a result, simple lighting accounts for 22% of the electricity used by buildings in the U.S.

Apr 12, 06: Russia's leading space company laid out an ambitious plan to send manned missions to the moon by 2015, build a permanent base to tap its energy resources and dispatch a crew to Mars between 2020 and 2030.
. . The vision presented by Nikolai Sevastyanov, the head of state-controlled RKK Energiya, relies on attracting private investment. But the company's lack of government support calls its feasibility into question.
. . Energiya hopes to set up a permanent moon base complete with a nuclear power plant and equipment to start tapping helium-3 as an energy source to satisfy the energy demands back on Earth around 2020. [...assuming we perfect fusion power plants by then!]
. . Scientists believe that the moon's supply of helium-3 could be used in futuristic fusion reactors on Earth that would generate electricity without producing nuclear waste. Sevastyanov said that a moon exploration program envisaging the delivery of 10 tons of helium to Earth would cost about $40 billion.
. . A flow of oil income that's flooded Russian state coffers over the last few years already has led to an increase in military spending, and space officials hope to get a share of the nation's oil wealth. But despite the recent fund increases, Russia's space budget stood at around $660 million last year compared with NASA's budget of $16.5 billion.

Apr 11, 06: Upstate New York's continuing battle over wind farms just took a weird and interesting turn: One of the biggest opponents has flipped and now supports the construction of large wind farms --as long as they're built his way.
. . Until recently, billionaire Tom Golisano was the driving force behind Save Upstate New York, a very vocal anti-wind power organization. But now he's traveling the region, advising towns and municipalities about how to start their own, community-owned wind farm projects.
. . Golisano says even small municipalities of 500 to 1,000 citizens could earn huge profits --as much as $9 million per year-- for a fairly average 30-turbine wind farm. The profits would be evenly distributed amongst the town's residents.
. . Golisano is quick to claim that he will not personally make any money from his proposed projects. He claims to be only interested in lending his expertise and business contacts to help the impoverished Finger Lakes region. He also claims to have the support of gubernatorial candidate Elliot Spitzer, the attorney general and other members of the New York State Government.

Apr 10, 06: A study concluded that Chicago spends $190 for every ton of material recycled, much more than any of the other six cities surveyed, including Denver ($35), Boston ($62), New York ($94) and Madison, Wis., ($121).

We had to take notice when we got word that the next Toyota Prius will be capable of 94mpg. That’s double the mileage the best hybrid vehicles get now. The Prius’ redesigned electrical system will depend even more on the electric motor, using it by itself at slower speeds but kicking in the internal combustion engine when higher speeds are needed. Even with this higher mileage, the car’s 0-to-60 time will be faster, reportedly under 10 seconds.
. . This kind of performance is possible by using the latest lithium-ion batteries which are better in every way than the currently-used nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, being lighter, smaller, longer lasting and able to produce more energy per pound.
. . Currently, the lowest-economy vehicle that's EPA-measured is the Dodge Ram 1500 two-wheel drive pickup truck, with an 8.3-liter gasoline engine and automatic transmission. It's rated at 9 mpg city, 12 mpg highway.

Apr 10, 06: More than half of all Americans say they would seriously consider buying or leasing a fuel-saving hybrid car, according to a new poll. Price is the obstacle for many, however.
. . The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found 48% of Americans have cut back significantly on the amount they drive because of higher gas prices. The figure is 59% for those living in households earning less than $50,000 per year and 36% for those making $50,000 or more.
. . More than half of all Americans (54%) said they have reduced household spending on other items because of high gas prices.

Apr 7, 06: In an extreme energy project tapping heat from raw sewage, Oslo's citizens are helping to warm their homes and offices simply by flushing the toilet.
. . Large blue machines at the end of a 300-meter long tunnel in a hillside in central Oslo use fridge technology to suck heat from the sewer and transfer it to a network of hot water pipes feeding thousands of radiators and taps around the city. "We believe this is the biggest heating system in the world using raw sewage."
. . The heat pump, a system of compressors and condensers, cost 90 million Norwegian crowns ($13.95 million) and has an effect of 18 megawatts (MW), enough to heat 9,000 flats or save burning 5,900 tons of oil a year. And experts say sewers could be exploited elsewhere.
. . A bigger heat pump in Sweden, with a 160 MW capacity, exploited heat from treated sewage. And in Finland, a 90 MW plant ran on waste water. In Oslo, untreated sewer flows --from toilets, bathtubs, sinks and rainwater from the streets. Sewage was flowing into the system at 9.6 Celsius (49.28 F) and coming out at 5.7 Celsius after heat is extracted with a refrigerant.
. . The energy in turn goes to warming the water in the 400 km (250 mile) pipe system, fed to offices and homes, to about 90 C from a temperature of 52 C when it reaches the sewerage plant. Other plants, burning industrial waste, also heat the water.
. . Among other sewage energy projects worldwide, U.S. scientists are looking to exploit sewage-eating bacteria to generate electricity. "The microbial fuel cell work is going well, but we still are not out of the lab on this technology."

Apr 3, 06: "We just demonstrated what we call a direct carbon fuel cell. So imagine if you had a device that could burn coal cleanly with about 70% efficiency, which is twice what you get if you burn coal today. That's how we are building that system, and it could have a revolutionary impact."

Apr 3, 06: Britain's fledgling offshore wind power industry, offering itself as a key player in fighting global warming, appealed on Tuesday for more government money. In a report to its annual meeting, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) said that with extra cash, offshore wind could be producing enough electricity to power five million homes by 2015 --more than eight times current output. Without that help, the industry might only be able to generate two gigawatts of electricity or one quarter of its potential, he said.
. . The government last week admitted that while it was on target to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it was falling short of its tougher, self-imposed goal of cutting carbon dioxide output by 20% by 2010. It also announced a campaign to promote local power sources like rooftop wind turbines and solar panels, to cut demand.

Apr 1, 06: Philadelphia's plumbers are seeing red about an attempt to install "green toilets" in a new high-rise building, saying their work may dry up. Plumbers Union Local 690 has come out against the installation of waterless urinals in the Comcast Center, a 975-foot building that will be the city's tallest when completed in 2007.
. . Jeanne Leonard, a spokeswoman for Liberty Property Trust, the building's developer, said the urinals had been used in many other buildings around the country and would cut water use by 1.6 million gallons a year.

Apr 1, 06: The German government plans to invest around 500 million euros ($605.8 million) in alternative fuel technology research over the next 10 years, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said.

A handful of hybrids --two, actually-- may earn back their price premiums, Consumer Reports says. In its April issue, the magazine was more pessimistic. Oops, CR now says; we calculated depreciation twice, which made hybrids seem more costly than they really are.
. . That said, only two vehicles will likely save you money over five years of driving, according to CR: The Toyota Prius would save about $500, and the Honda Civic Hybrid, about $300. In comparison, the magazine says, the Ford Escape Hybrid (and sibling Mercury Mariner), Honda Accord Hybrid, Lexus RX400h, and Toyota Highlander Hybrid will cost owners $1,900 to $5,500 more over five years.
. . All those calculations assume you can take advantage of the hybrid-vehicle tax credits. Toyota will and Honda may sell enough hybrids that the credit phases out, which means a year from now they won't be such a good deal.

Mar 29, 06: The Bush Administration is requiring the auto industry to increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles by 8% between model years 2007 and 2011. CAFE standards increase from 22.4 mpg in 2007 in 24 in 2011. [Sounds good, right? so far...]
. . The largest SUVs, which previously were exempt from meeting CAFE standards (set by NHTSA) , are now included in manufacturer's mix. In 2011, manufacturers won't have to meet an average across all of their vehicle lines, but instead will have to meet specific goals for each size of vehicle.
. . According to the Sierra Club, this gives manufacturers and incentive to make larger vehicles. For example, if a truck is only going to get 23 mpg, it could be built a few inches longer and wider to fall into the larger (and less stringent) category. [Ah-HA!]

Mar 29, 06: As hybrid car owners know, having a fuel consumption gauge on the instrument panel is the most effective mechanism for convincing drivers to drive more efficiently. By coasting when possible, not gunning it off the line, and slowing to a stop instead of slamming on the brakes, it's easy to add anywhere from 1-7 miles per gallon to your fuel economy. If you have the gauge, you can't help but compare numbers between trips and drivers and you'll continually look for methods to add one more mpg. These gauges are available as after-market products such as the ScanGauge --costing as much as 44 gallons.
. . For aggressive drivers that try and shave a few seconds off their commute by gunning it, 44 gallons saved is about 4 trips to the gas station you won't have to make, which would save more time in the long run than all of those needless lane changes.

Mar 29, 06: Brazil exports of ethanol grew by 20.7% to more than 145 million liters in February over last year, according to the Energy Management Institute. The United States, which is in need of an MTBE replacement, was the primary client, purchasing 79 million liters, up nearly 500% over the previous year.
. . The average wholesale price of ethanol stands at $2.43, which in some areas is up over 80% from this time last year. We will have to substantially increase domestic production if that price is to fall back to previous levels.

Mar 29, 06: Rooftop windmills and solar panels could help turn every home into a power station and play a key role in beating global warming, experts said. They were speaking at the launch of the government's new strategy to boost microgeneration as part of the fight against cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The initiative will use 80 million pounds over the next three years to develop and promote microgeneration from solar to wind, water and combined heat and power.
. . The Energy Saving Trust (EST), funded by government and the private sector, said microgeneration could supply more than one-third of energy needs within a few decades. The technology was available. What was needed, said EST's strategy director Nick Eyre, was investment to get production rolling and bring prices down, along with a tearing down of bureaucratic barriers and a clear demonstration of the benefits. "By 2050, all these microgeneration technologies will be cost-effective and delivering a very large contribution", he said. "Every home could be a power station, not only providing all its own electricity and heat but selling the surplus."
. . The launch came a day after the government admitted that while it would hit its Kyoto target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% by 2012, it would miss its own, tougher goal of cutting CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010.
. . The nuclear lobby, which says microgeneration is only part of the solution, is pushing hard for a major new building program, saying that nuclear power is carbon free and therefore holds the answer to the conundrum. The coal industry --noting that coal is in plentiful supply worldwide and can be burned without seriously polluting the atmosphere by capturing and storing the carbon emissions-- says it should be the natural choice.
. . Environmentalists, on the other hand, say a combination of energy efficiency and technologies like combined heat and power plants and renewables like wave, wind, solar and biomass are clean and can solve all the problems at a stroke.

Mar 27, 06: Onshore wind farms will provide about 5% of Britain's electricity by 2010, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). In a new report, it says turbines are being installed faster than predicted. If this is correct, onshore wind farms will take the government halfway to its target of generating 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The BWEA says that projects already constructed and those already approved will give a capacity of 3,000 megawatts (MW) by 2010. Taking into account potential barriers such as planning consent and grid capability, it identifies a further 3,000MW capacity which it says is "forecast to be consented and built" by the decade's end.
. . Only four offshore wind farms are currently in operation. Though output can be higher per turbine and wind more consistent, construction costs are also higher and grid connection is a bigger issue. Photovoltaic solar panels produce less than 1% of the nation's electricity, and wave and tidal technologies remain in the development stage.
. . Windy Scotland would be the focus of the expansion, which could see capacity of 6,000 megawatts in place by 2010, up from an expected 665 megawatts by the end of this year. The BWEA said the new wind capacity could save millions of tons of emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, by displacing coal and gas-fired power plants.

Mar 22, 06: A perfect storm of high energy prices, government subsidies and renewed interest from Wall Street is boosting investment in wind, solar and other alternative energy projects, said fund managers and other experts at a conference on renewable energy. Well known investors such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the Carlyle Group and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. have all made recent investments in wind and solar power.
. . In 2005, U.S. wind generating capacity jumped 35% as companies invested $3 billion to bring an additional 2,400 megawatts online. This year, capacity is expected to grow by another 3,000 megawatts, said the American Wind Energy Association.

Mar 20, 06: Mule Lighting has created a substitute for neon that’s made up of flexible LEDs that are just as bright but 70% more energy efficient. The lights also last longer than neon and are more durable, too, with their specially-designed LEDs cleverly inserted inside tough yet flexible tubes.

Mar 7, 06: New tests slated to go into effect beginning with model year 2008 vehicles should give consumers a substantially more accurate window into how much gas their new car or truck will use in real-world driving because the revised numbers will be based on more realistic driving patterns, including higher speed/higher load driving and more frequent use of accessories such as air conditioning.
. . For example, under current tests, an '05 Chevy Silverado is rated at 17.8 mpg in city driving. Under the proposed revised testing system, the same vehicle's published city mileage would fall to 13.9 mpg, which is probably a lot more in line with what the typical owner is getting. The Toyota Camry's projected city mileage would likewise drop from the current 28.5 mpg to a more realistic 24.2 mpg.
. . One class of vehicles expected to take a major hit is hybrids, whose best-case fuel efficiency often founders on the shoals of real-world driving. The city rating of the Honda Civic hybrid, for instance, would drop some 12 mpg from the current 48.8 mpg to a much-less-spectacular 36 mpg.

Mar, 06: There has been a lukewarm reaction to the government's strategy on microgeneration, launched on Wednesday. While some industry figures have welcomed the strategy, others say it is short on concrete action and funding. They say it will keep the UK behind countries such as Germany and Japan in uptake of these technologies.
. . The strategy comments on the successes achieved by the German and Japanese governments, which have issued grants for more than 200,000 solar photovoltaic installations each. In Sweden, it says, policies have led to 10% of houses installing heat pumps, devices which extract and concentrate heat from the ground.
. . The UK can muster a total of 82,000 micro-power installations, of which 78,000 are solar hot water heaters.

March, 06: A handful of hybrids --two, actually-- may earn back their price premiums, Consumer Reports says. In its April issue, the magazine was more pessimistic. Oops, CR now says; we calculated depreciation twice, which made hybrids seem more costly than they really are.
. . That said, only two vehicles will likely save you money over five years of driving, according to CR: The Toyota Prius would save about $500, and the Honda Civic Hybrid, about $300. In comparison, the magazine says, the Ford Escape Hybrid (and sibling Mercury Mariner), Honda Accord Hybrid, Lexus RX400h, and Toyota Highlander Hybrid will cost owners $1,900 to $5,500 more over five years.
. . All those calculations assume you can take advantage of the hybrid-vehicle tax credits. Toyota will and Honda may sell enough hybrids that the credit phases out, which means a year from now they won't be such a good deal.

Feb 28, 06: the M1 battery, a hand grenade of electrons that promises to transform mobile power.
. . The M1, based on the same lithium-ion technology used in your cell phone and laptop, is the first product from MIT spinoff A123 Systems. Cofounder Yet-Ming Chiang, a materials science professor, succeeded in shrinking to nanoscale the particles that coat the battery's electrodes and store and discharge energy. The results are electrifying: Power density doubles, peak energy jumps fivefold, and recharging time plummets. Going nano also solves a safety problem. Regular high-capacity Li-ion batteries tend to explode under severe stress, like if they're dropped from a ladder.
. . The cells could lighten a Toyota Prius' 45-kg battery by as much as 80% and help boost any hybrid's performance. The quick recharging time --the M1 takes five minutes to reach 90% capacity-- plus high peak power also would be ideal for plug-in versions of gas-electric vehicles.

Mar, 06: The UK's nuclear waste clean-up program could cost more than £70bn, according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The authority's previous estimate of the cost was £56bn. Finding a long-term solution to dealing with Britain's existing nuclear waste is considered essential before any decision can be made about building new nuclear power plants in the UK.
. . Environmentalists were also angry. "Every time the costs of cleaning up nuclear sites are looked at, the cost for the taxpayer spirals", said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Jean McSorley. "It's just one more reason why it would be insane to countenance building more nuclear power plants across Britain."

Jan 20, 06: A British man and his Australian wife set off from London in a bid to drive round the world by filling up on petrol less than 50 times in a bid to promote fuel efficiency. [...and how much gas did they burn?] The 70-day road trip across 25 countries will cover 28,970 km with a standard-sized petrol tank. Mar 20, 06: Researchers hoping to ease America's oil addiction are turning sawdust and wood chips into bio-oil, a thick black liquid that could become a green substitute for many petroleum products.
. . Bio-oil can be made from almost any organic material, including agricultural and forest waste like corn stalks and scraps of bark. Converting the raw biomass into bio-oil yields a product that is easy to transport and can be processed into higher-value fuels and chemicals. "It is technically feasible to use biomass for the production of all the materials that we currently produce from petroleum", said professor Robert C. Brown, director of the Office of Biorenewables Programs at Iowa State University.
. . The United States can grow enough fresh biomass --more than a billion tons each year-- to supplant at least a third of its annual petroleum use, according to an April 2005 study by the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy. Brown advocates turning much of that biomass --including scrap materials currently used in power generation-- into bio-oil to ease America's dependence on foreign oil and help slow global warming.
. . The biomass is converted into bio-oil through a process called pyrolysis, in which the organic scrap materials are finely ground and heated at 400 to 500 degrees Celsius, without oxygen. In just two seconds, about 70% of the material vaporizes and is condensed into bio-oil --a dark liquid resembling espresso that contains more than a hundred organic compounds. Pyrolysis also produces a gas, which is burned to fuel the process, and carbon-rich soot called "char", which can be burned as fuel, used as a soil fertilizer or processed into charcoal filters or briquettes. Resins utilized in the manufacture of plywood and particleboard can be extracted from the bio-oil.

Mar 9, 06: The nuclear industry says its technology emits no carbon and does not cause global warming... but for many, still wary after disasters like the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, the lingering fear is that the toxic waste might leak and kill.
. . Sellafield, and a plant at La Hague in northern France, can each reprocess 5,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel each year, accounting for roughly a third of annual global output. But there will be more waste. China plans to build 30 new nuclear reactors by 2020, India has struck a deal with the United States to build several more plants, the United States is lining up tax incentives for new generators and Britain is considering new plants to plug a looming energy gap.
. . In shielded chambers with technicians watching through meter-thick leaded glass windows and using remote mechanical arms, the toxic stew is cooked down to a powder, combined with molten glass and poured into stainless steel urns. These are cooled, closed and scrubbed before being sealed in insulated steel flasks and taken away for storage where, standing 10 deep in a concrete core and capped by a three-meter plug, the heat from the radiation is still tangible. There are nearly 4,000 of these containers stored at Sellafield, which was the world's first commercial nuclear power plant when it opened in 1956, with room for 4,000 more.
. . Final disposal of the waste involves burying it in geologically stable formations. The half-life of plutonium is 24,000 years --in other words, it would take up to 250,000 years before it degrades completely.
. . Chilton said waste comes from Britain, which has 11 nuclear plants, and from countries as far away as Japan, the third biggest nuclear power user after the United States and France.
. . "Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive", said Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. "We are only talking seriously about nuclear power again because of climate change. But it is not the answer." Environmentalists say the costs of nuclear energy are not clear because of government subsidies and the toxic waste. The latest estimate on the cost of cleaning up the waste from the last 50 years is 56 billion pounds ($97 billion), Juniper said.
. . Public opinion in Britain is gradually swinging toward accepting nuclear energy to help combat climate change --54% were in favor according to a poll this year-- despite worries about the waste and security.
. . At Sellafield, 49 years after a fire forced the closure of the Windscale I military reactor, scientists are still trying to work out how to dismantle the chimney-top filter that trapped the radioactive smoke and stopped a nuclear catastrophe.

Sri Lanka will put the clock back by half an hour and revert to its original time after a 10-year experiment that largely failed to save energy.

Mar 8, 06: Marketers are jumping on the green-car movement and the gears are audibly grinding over what counts as a "hybrid vehicle." First applied to small sedans emphasizing fuel economy, the term is now blithely used to encompass a vast array of trucks, SUVs and luxury cars that in some cases offer only modest fuel savings over traditional vehicles, some critics charge.
. . According to UCS, the upcoming 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line SUV along with the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado hybrids, make claims that are "hollow" and classify them as "mild hybrids" that should not be considered the same class of vehicles. Nathanson said that while the Saturn Vue hybrid includes useful fuel-saving features such as deactivating cylinders when not in use and shutting off the engine while idling, a hybrid should include a battery with a minimum of 60 volts of electricity. By way of comparison, the Saturn hybrid's batteries (produced by Ovonics' subsidiary Cobasys) are rated at 36 volts, while the Toyota Camry hybrid includes 244-volt batteries.
. . While hybrid vehicles from Honda, Toyota, Ford and Lexus include battery packs that can recover substantial amounts of energy from the braking system (known as regenerative braking), the Saturn hybrid battery pack "doesn't have sufficient power to provide an assist to the engine."
. . To inform consumers about the variations of hybrids, UCS set up the HybridCenter website. The DOE did provide funding to advance the nickel metal hydride, or NiMH, battery technology used in today's hybrids. But its involvement came nearly a decade after the NiMH battery was first developed, providing an assist to existing technology. And its efforts have not yet led to products in use in cars that are on the road.
. . The Bush administration handed credit to the Department of Energy for developing the batteries used in hybrids -- a statement that more or less runs out of gas on closer examination. The NiMH battery was invented in the early 1980s. However, the NiMH batteries in the hybrid vehicles sold by Toyota, Honda and Ford are from Panasonic and Sanyo of Japan, companies that were not allowed to participate in USABC because they were based outside of the United States. Panasonic and Sanyo had each begun work on NiMH batteries before the Department of Energy project started.

Mar 7, 06: Building new nuclear plants is not the answer to tackling climate change or securing Britain's energy supply, a government advisory panel has reported. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) report says doubling nuclear capacity would make only a small impact on reducing carbon emissions by 2035. The body, which advises the government on the environment, says this must be set against the potential risks.
. . As North Sea supplies dwindle, nuclear is seen by some as a more secure source of energy than hydrocarbon supplies from unstable regimes. Proponents say it could generate large quantities of electricity while helping to stabilize carbon dioxide CO2 emissions. But the SDC report, compiled in response to the energy review, concluded that the risks of nuclear energy outweighed its advantages. "The government is going to have to stop looking for an easy fix to our climate change and energy crises --there simply isn't one."
. . Research by the SDC suggests that even if the UK's existing nuclear capacity was doubled, it would only provide an 8% cut on CO2 emissions by 2035 (and nothing before 2010). While the SDC recognized that nuclear is a low carbon technology, with an impressive safety record in the UK, it identifies five major disadvantages:
. . * No long-term solutions for the storage of nuclear waste are yet available, says the SDC, and storage presents clear safety issues
. . * The economics of nuclear new-build are highly uncertain, according to the report
. . * Nuclear would lock the UK into a centralised energy distribution system for the next 50 years when more flexible distribution options are becoming available
. . * The report claims that nuclear would undermine the drive for greater energy efficiency
. . * If the UK brings forward a new nuclear program, it becomes more difficult to deny other countries the same technology, the SDC claims.
. . The report concludes that Britain can meet its energy needs without nuclear power. "With a combination of a low carbon innovation strategy and an aggressive expansion of energy efficiency and renewables, the UK would become a leader in low carbon technologies", the SDC claims.

Mar 6, 06: The global wind energy industry is expected to enjoy continued strong growth in coming years with total installed capacity seen more than tripling from current levels by 2014, an industry survey showed. Over the next eight years, international installed capacity is expected to increase to about 210,000 megawatts from today's installed total of about 59,000 megawatts, a study by the German Wind Energy Institute (DEWI) showed. In the world's largest wind power market, Germany, the onshore market is expected to continue to grow, while the offshore market is seen subject to delays.
. . Total installed power by 2010 in Germany will be about 23,700 megawatts onshore and 1,300 megawatts offshore against current capacity of 18,428 megawatts, all on land, according to the survey.
. . The cost of wind power continues to drop as larger multi-megawatt turbines are developed and improved.

3-7-06: Stirling Energy Systems is constructing huge farms of mirrored dishes in the California desert to generate electricity. It expects to deliver on its contracts to build facilities that generate hundreds of megawatts of power in late 2008. Konarka, which recently raised an additional $20 million in venture funding, is pursuing organic photovoltaics, where solar cells are made from plastics.
. . Although still in development, this process of "printing" organic solar cells results in flexible strips which can be used for a wide range of applications, from solar-powered cell phones to portable Army structures covered in photovoltaic material.

Mar 7, 06: Wind turbines may one day replace hydropower as China's second-largest source of electricity, if the country continues with a drive to boost renewable generation, a Chinese energy expert said.
. . China has the potential to install up to 100 gigawatts of wind power, equivalent to nearly one fifth of its total current generating capacity, said Wang Weicheng, an energy professor at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University. The turbines will likely provide the country with more energy than its nuclear stations in 20 to 30 years, and may become more important than China's large collection of hydropower dams by the middle of the century, he said. "By 2020, wind power capacity is predicted to reach 30 gigawatts." In 2005, China got around 15% of its electricity from dams including the world's largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam. But that year, it also added 500 megawatts of new wind power capacity.

Feb 27, 06: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia agreed to build a new nuclear power plant to meet their joint energy needs.

Feb 26, 06: The Elwha River Restoration Project, scheduled to begin in 2008, represents an extraordinary about-face in a nation that has been swiftly erecting dams since before the Declaration of Independence was signed. All told, more than 2.5 million dams --both publicly and privately owned-- now block U.S. streams and rivers. More than a quarter have passed their 50-year average life expectancy; by 2020, that figure will reach 85%.
. . Once past the half-century mark, dams begin to degenerate: Concrete walls degrade, earthworks erode and seep, spillway gates rust and lose tensile strength, and sediment clogs reservoirs, reducing their capacity. In the worst-case scenario, an aging dam could fail, causing catastrophic flooding.
. . As maintenance and liability costs rise, economic returns drop. Many older dams are obsolete. Many others, including the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, need upgrades such as fish passage structures that would cause the power they produce to soar above market prices.
. . Because of growing pressure from conservation groups, fishermen, tribal councils, and state and federal agencies, more dams are now being considered for removal in the United States than are being built. Nearly 200 have been torn down in the past six years. Most were small, low or involved a single stretch of waterway. The Elwha project, however, aims to restore an entire river system.
. . As it plunges 1200 meters from the snowfields of the Olympic Mountains to sea level west of Port Angeles, the Elwha River spans 45 miles. Fed by up to 240 in. of precipitation yearly, it was once phenomenally productive. Making 11 annual spawning runs were hundreds of thousands of fish: coho, pink, chum, sockeye and chinook salmon, plus steelhead, bull and cutthroat trout.
. . The Elwha Dam has generated up to 14.8 megawatts of electricity for the local paper mill since it was first constructed.
. . By late 2011, both dams will be history, reservoirs drained and raw banks softened by sprouting trees. It will take three to five years for the river to flush out excess sediment, but the fish, Winter says, will likely reappear in a few months. It will be 30 years before the population is fully restored.

Feb 26, 06: An innovative new device that harnesses the power of waves to produce cheap, clean electricity. Pioneered by scientists at Energetech, a small alternative-energy company in Randwick, Australia, a prototype of the $1.5 million device is now in testing off the Australian coast, and Energetech hopes to build another one near Rhode Island by 2007. Moored several kms offshore, Energetech's 12-meter-tall rig relies on the up-and-down motion of waves to force air in and out of a chamber, turning a turbine that produces electricity. The company's president, Tom Engelsman, says that a full-scale unit could power up to 5,000 homes.
. . Step 1: Enhance Waves
. . The height of a wave increases as it moves into shallower water—that's why waves get steeper as they approach the sand. According to scientists Xinhua Hu of Iowa State University and Che Ting Chan of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a football-field-size array of solid columns, situated some 100 meters from the rig, could effectively act as a false ocean bottom. The part of the wave that flows through the columns would behave as if it had reached the shallows, doubling in height.
. . Step 2: Corral the Swells
. . The cylinders amplify only the part of the wave headed straight for the converter, so there's no danger to beachgoers. As the wave enters the Energetech converter, the parabolic wall increases its height and further focuses its energy.
. . Step 3: Turn the Turbine
. . When the trough of the wave passes beneath the chamber, air is sucked downward. Then, as its peak rolls through, air is forced back up, spinning the turbine faster. Bigger waves mean more airflow and, "The more air you pump through, the more energy you get."

Feb 24, 06: Windmills are sprouting on hillsides across the Midwest, but Mason City, Iowa is encouraging the use of electricity-producing wind turbines everywhere — even in homeowners' backyards. Mason City this week became the first Iowa town to set rules that allow windmills in commercial, industrial and residential zones. The City Council unanimously approved the ordinance. City planner Tricia Sandahl says the council initially considered permitting windmills only in industrial areas. "Then we decided, let's just take a bolder step", she says. "We wanted to encourage small wind systems in residential areas. With electric prices going up, it just makes sense." Minnesota passed a law last year that encourages new windmills by cutting red tape and offsetting some construction costs.
. . • Michigan's public service commission changed its policies last year to allow consumers to sell excess electricity from windmills back to utilities.
. . • North Dakota last year reduced application fees and made it easier to get permission to build windmills.
. . Tax credits and low-interest loans are making windmills more affordable. A small home-based system costs about $40,000.
. . Last year, a record 9,149 megawatts of electricity was produced by wind in the USA, says Christine Real de Azua of the American Wind Energy Association. Production this year is expected to top 12,000 megawatts and keep climbing.
. . Marv Schlutz helped make Mason City a wind-energy pioneer. He asked the zoning board for a variance so he could put a 100-foot windmill at Mason City Warehouse, his storage business. He figured he'd save enough on electric bills to pay for a $40,000 system in eight to 10 years. Opposition faded as gas and electricity prices kept rising.
. . Tom Hurd, a Mason City architect, installed two 10-meter-tall windmills outside his office. His windmills and solar-energy panels produce 90% of the electricity used by his company, Spatial Designs. "If the wind is 15 mph or less, you don't even hear it", he says. "Once a year you have to check whether the blades are tight, and that's all you have to do."
. . Mason City's ordinance requires permits for windmills and sets limits on where they can be built. Residential windmills can't exceed 100 feet tall and can be put only in backyards. The lot has to be big enough so that if the windmill topples it doesn't cross property lines.

Feb 23, 06: Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have engineered a strain of pond scum that could, with further refinements, produce vast amounts of hydrogen through photosynthesis. If it proves correct, it would mean a major breakthrough in using algae as an industrial factory, not only for hydrogen, but for a wide range of products, from biodiesel to cosmetics.
. . The new strain of algae, known as C. reinhardtii, has truncated chlorophyll antennae within the chloroplasts of the cells, which serves to increase the organism's energy efficiency. In addition, it makes the algae a lighter shade of green, which in turn allows more sunlight deeper into an algal culture and therefore allows more cells to photosynthesize. "An increase in solar conversion efficiency to 10% ... is thought to be enough to make the mass culture of algae viable." Polle points out that Melis has probably already reached that 10% threshold. But further refinements are still required before C. reinhardtii farms would be efficient enough to produce the world’s hydrogen, which is Melis’ eventual goal.
. . Currently, the algae cells cycle between photosynthesis and hydrogen production because the hydrogenase enzyme which makes the hydrogen can’t function in the presence of oxygen. Researchers hope to further boost hydrogen production by using genetic engineering to close up pores that oxygen seeps through.
. . They figured out how to get hydrogen out of green algae by restricting sulfur from their diet. The plant cells flicked a long-dormant genetic switch to produce hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide. But the quantities of hydrogen they produced were nowhere near enough to scale up the process commercially and profitably. "When we discovered the sulfur switch, we increased hydrogen production by a factor of 100,000", says Seibert. "But to make it a commercial technology, we still had to increase the efficiency of the process by another factor of 100."
. . A bigger challenge, and one that’s further down the road to solving, is improving the efficiency of the hydrogenase itself. "Right now the electron chain that goes into the system should produce a lot more hydrogen than comes out, and we don’t know what’s causing the bottleneck", says Seibert.
. . Some algae are also viewed as an ideal source for biodiesel because they can produce oils at a much higher rate than other plants (which can then be converted into vehicle fuel without adding any carbon dioxide to the environment).

Feb 24, 06: Souped-up microscopic fungi could help cut the U.S. gasoline habit by converting a billion tons of agricultural waste into domestic fuel, while also slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Filamentous fungi and other microbes can be bred to break down an array of feedstocks, including wood chips, corn stalks and switch grass, that require no fertilizer and less input than traditional sources of the fuel.
. . James Woolsey, former CIA director under Bill Clinton, compared the state of the science for the new ethanol to the quick rise of the aero industry after the first flight. Woolsey and other experts say the biggest factors supporting the growth of an ethanol derived from native grasses and crop waste is that the science to make it is already within reach, and cars that burn it are already on the road.
. . To make cellulosic ethanol, enzymes spewed from fungi convert cellulose from the fibrous parts of plants, such as stalks, into sugar that then is fermented. In traditional ethanol, yeast breaks down sugar from the starchy parts of plants, such as corn kernels. The current price is high, about $2 to $3 per gallon, compared with about $1.07 a gallon for conventional ethanol. But as the first commercial plants open and processing is perfected, costs should quickly fall, Woolsey said.
. . Feedstock abounds. The U.S. government estimates that more than 1 billion tons of crop and forest waste are available. Potentially, that amount of waste could make 80 billion gallons a year of ethanol --about a third of U.S. gasoline demand. And native crop switchgrass and other low-input feedstocks can be grown far away from the current Gulf of Mexico and Midwest oil refining centers. That would allow the fuel to be produced nationwide and could cut the need to transport fuels thousands of miles. What's more, the fuel can cut carbon dioxide emissions. At least one big energy company under mandate by the European Union to cut greenhouse emissions is investing. Royal Dutch Shell has invested $40 million in Iogen, which has been operating a pilot plant making the fuel in Canada for two years.
. . Brazil has slashed imports of Middle Eastern oil by expanding its conventional ethanol program. If fungi or bacteria can be engineered to break down sugar cane waste, it could even cut its dependence on its own oil, experts say.
. . U.S. conventional ethanol output grew 17% last year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. That could lay the groundwork for growth in cellulosic ethanol. "Corn is a transitional technology."

Feb 24, 06: The Bush administration should remove federal limits on the amount of nuclear waste that could be stored at a proposed waste dump in the Nevada desert, U.S. nuclear industry lobbyists said.

Nuclear waste, the specter haunting the industry, will not pose a problem if Britain decides later this year to build a new generation of nuclear power plants, scientists said.

Feb 23, 06: "As an insulator, aerogel is two to four times more efficient than anything else out there", said George Gould, the director of research for Aspen Aerogels. Aspen Aerogels makes economical aerogel textiles by impregnating "blankets" of fabric with silica gel, then pressurizing the impregnated fabric and extracting the now-supercritical liquid. The result is a flexible fabric with aerogel integrated into its matrix.
. . Prices for the material vary, but a typical price is a few dollars per square foot for quarter-inch thick material. When Aspen Aerogel's second factory is completed later this year, Gould said, the company will be able to produce 100 million square feet per year of its aerogel textiles, bringing costs even lower.
. . Aspen's products have been used to to insulate the pipelines used in deep-sea oil drilling operations, in winter jackets by Burton Snowboards and even to make shoe inserts. A Swedish company, Airglass, sells aerogel-based insulated windows.
. . The problem these companies face is that, while aerogel is a vastly superior insulator, the alternatives (like fiberglass or plain glass windows) are dirt-cheap.
. . The high pressure needed to create aerogel (around 800 pounds per square inch) means that producing even a tiny amount requires costly lab equipment. You can buy aerogel samples on eBay but they cost around $30 to $50 for small, nickel-sized chunks. That means aerogel is unlikely to play a major role in construction or clothing unless its makers can bring the price down much further --or capitalize on its space-age reputation enough to make customers willing to pay extra for cachet. "The costs are not necessarily prohibitive", said Gould. "Relative to something like fiberglass, the costs are certainly greater, but a lot of it has to do with capacity."

Feb 22, 06: In an attempt to store hydrogen, researchers bombarded a film of carbon nanotubes with a hydrogen beam. Then they studied the film with different x-ray spectroscopy techniques to see if any hydrogen atoms had formed chemical bonds with the carbon. To their delight, they found that about 65% of the carbon atoms had bonded to hydrogen atoms. "It was a surprise that we could get so many carbon-hydrogen bonds. It gives us hope it can be used as a material for storing hydrogen."

Feb 20, 06: European Union countries must "speak with the same voice" on energy issues, integrate gas and electricity grids, diversify fuel supplies and lead the world in energy savings, the EU's executive Commission will recommend. Official predictions show the EU's import dependence could grow to 70% of general energy consumption by 2030.
. . The paper, entitled "Secure, Competitive and Sustainable Energy Policy for Europe", explores diversifying EU supply "by fuel, by source and by supply route", establishing ways to intervene if specific EU nations face energy crises and acting together when addressing the rest of the world on energy issues. The report also renewed a call to improve connections between EU countries for gas and electricity. "For a real European electricity and gas market to develop, the electricity and gas grids have to function as European grids", it said.

Feb 14, 06: Industrialized countries must boost spending in research and development in renewable energy and not focus on subsidizing the use of green but costly electricity, the West's energy watchdog said. The International Energy Agency (IEA), adviser to 26 industrialized nations on energy policy, said that spending in renewable energy research and development by its members had dropped to two-thirds of peak levels of $2 billion reached after the oil shocks of the 1970s.
. . IEA head Claude Mandil stressed the importance of renewable energy sources, such as hydro, solar, wind, and bioenergy. "We need to use public funds as effectively as possible in achieving this. There is much at stake."

Feb 15, 06: MIT researchers say they have greatly increased the efficiency of ultracapacitors by using nanotubes to store electrical charges. "Capacitors store energy as an electrical field, making them more efficient than standard batteries, which get their energy from chemical reactions." Ultracapacitors can provide much more power than lithium ion batteries, but because they have less energy density, they must be much larger. The new ultracapacitors could offer the benefits of longer life, power and ability to work under extreme temperatures while offering the same energy density.

February 2006: Last month, Peugeot Citroen unveiled a diesel hybrid sedan prototype, and promised to deliver vehicles by 2010. Now the company is looking for a company with hybrid expertise to help build the vehicle. Diesel hybrids combine the strengths of diesel (better fuel efficiency when hauling or maintaining high speeds) with the advantages of hybrids (shutting off the engine when stopped, assisted acceleration, and all-electric power at low speeds).

Feb 14, 06: People will soon cool their homes with power from the searing desert sun, according to companies investing in a little-used solar technology. Deserts are becoming hot spots for solar thermal power in which futuristic troughs concentrate the sun's rays and create steam to run power-producing turbines at power plants.
. . Tiny experimental plants built in the 1980s in California ran into problems when energy prices dropped. But as oil, natural gas and electricity costs soar, companies are racing to build commercial solar thermal plants that are the size of conventional power plants. Mandatory caps and potential limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels have also promoted the new technology, industry officials said.
. . Utah-based International Automated Systems Inc. will install a $150 million, 100-megawatt power plant for Solar Renewable Energy in Nevada. And North Carolina based-Solargenix, in which Spanish building and services company Acciona SA is buying a 55% stake, will break ground over the weekend on a 64 MW, $100 million solar thermal plant called Nevada Solar One. The company said it will be the first U.S. commercial solar thermal plant, coming on line in 2007. SCHOTT will provide components for at least one 50 MW plant per year in the U.S. Southwest deserts every year until 2010. SCHOTT will provide parts for 500 MW of solar thermal in Spain by 2010.
. . Currently, all the types of solar energy provide only about 1% of U.S. power. One hurdle is price. Solar thermal at present costs about 12 to 15 cents per kilowatt hour, Westerholt said, compared with natural gas power which costs 10 cents per KWH. But as production grows, solar companies expect costs to slip to 8 cents per KHW in five years.
. . A white paper produced by environmental group Greenpeace, the International Energy Agency's SolarPACES, and the European Solar Thermal Industry Association, claims that by 2040 solar power could satisfy more than 5% of the world's electricity demand. The best places for it are Australia, the United States, Spain, the Middle East and North Africa, which could export power from the sun to Europe on high-tech power lines, the report said.
. . Fred Mayes, an alternative energy expert at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said that solar thermal is pricey compared with wind energy and fuel from biomass. But it does have advantages, he said. Power from the desert sun is more reliable than wind power during the day --the time of peak prices. And unlike biomass fuels, it emits no greenhouse gases.

Feb 14, 06: The key to kicking what President Bush calls the nation's oil addiction could very well lie in termite guts, canvas-eating jungle bugs and other microbes genetically engineered to spew enzymes that turn waste into fuel. It may seem hard to believe that microscopic bugs usually viewed as destructive pests can be so productive. But scientists and several companies are working with the creatures to convert wood, corn stalks and other plant waste into sugars that are easily brewed into ethanol —-essentially 199-proof moonshine that can be used to power automobiles.
. . Thanks to biotechnology breakthroughs, supporters of alternative energy sources say that after decades of unfulfilled promise and billions in government corn subsidies, energy companies may be able to produce ethanol easily and inexpensively. "The process is like making grain alcohol, or brewing beer, but on a much bigger scale."
. . Using microbes may even solve a growing dilemma over the current ethanol manufacturing process, which relies almost exclusively on corn kernels and yielded only 4 billion gallons of ethanol last year (compared to the 140 billion gallons of gasoline used in the U.S.). There's growing concern throughout the Midwestern corn belt that the 95 U.S. ethanol plants are increasingly poaching corn meant for the dinner table or livestock feed.
. . The idea mentioned by Bush during his State of the Union speech —-called "cellulosic ethanol"-— skirts that problem because it makes fuel from farm waste such as straw, corn stalks and other inedible agricultural leftovers. Cellulose is the woody stuff found in branches and stems that makes plants hard. Breaking cellulose into sugar to spin straw into ethanol has been studied for at least 50 years. But the technological hurdles and costs have been so daunting that most ethanol producers have relied on heavy government subsidies to squeeze fuel from corn.
. . Ottawa-based Iogen is already producing ethanol by exploiting the destructive nature of the fungus Trichoderma reesei, which caused the "jungle rot" of tents and uniforms in the Pacific theater during World War II. Through a genetic modification known as directed evolution, Iogen has souped up fungus microbes so they spew copious amounts of digestive enzymes to break down straw into sugars. From there, a simple fermentation —-which brewers have been doing for centuries-— turns sugar into alcohol.

Feb 8, 06: Sweden says it aims to completely wean itself off oil within 15 years --without building new nuclear plants. The attempt is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, car manufacturers, farmers and others. The country aims to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change damages economies and growing oil scarcity leads to price rises. According to the Guardian newspaper, a Swedish minister said oil dependency could be broken by 2020.
. . The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is worried that oil supplies are peaking, shortly to dwindle, and that high oil prices could cause global economic recession.
. . Sweden now gets the majority of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power. In 2003, 26% of all energy consumed came from renewables, compared with an EU average of 6%.
. . The oil committee is to report to parliament in several months. Swedish energy ministry officials said they expected the panel to recommend further development of biofuels derived from its substantial forests. It was also expected to expand other renewable energies such as wind and wave power.

Honda announced it will began building a new fuel cell vehicle, with the first Honda FCX model hydrogen-powered fuel cell car rolling off the assembly line "within three or four years."

Windmills make a lot of sense, giving us free energy that’s all around us. But what happens when it’s not windy? Build the windmills up high, very high --we’re talking between 4.5 km and 13.5 km high, where powerful jet stream winds blow pretty much all the time. Worldchanging describes how to accomplish this with three different approaches to a ground-tethered windmill: a graceful-looking flying windmill with 35-foot rotors (pictured above), a blimp, and a kite. The result? These could be the most cost-effective power generators on or off the planet, cranking out the kilowatts at pennies per. The problems of the things falling out of the sky, acting as highly efficient lighting rods, and being run into by airplanes haven’t quite been solved as of yet.
. . 1% of the jetstream's wind power could supply *all* US electrical demand.
. . The three most notable projects: Sky Windpower, Laddermill, and Magenn.
. . Sky Windpower is the furthest along, with functional prototypes tested in the field.
. . --a windmill tethered to the ground but flying like a whirligig in the jetstream, at 15,000 to 35,000 feet altitude. According to their figures, one flying windmill rated at 240kW with rotor diameters of 35 feet could generate power for less than two cents per kilowatt hour--that would make them the cheapest power source in the world. For greater power needs, several units would be operated in the same location--Sky Windpower says that an installation "rated at 2.81 megawatts flying at a typical U.S. site with an 80% capacity factor projects a life cycle cost per kilowatt hour at 1.4 cents." And they would have far better uptime than most windmills--since the jetstream never quits, they should operate at peak capacity 70-90% of the time. Output would also be less dependent on location than it is on the ground, simply because terrain doesn't matter much when you're at 35,000ft; however, since the jetstream and other "geostrophic" winds don't blow much at latitudes near the equator, it would be useful primarily for middle- and higher-latitudes.
. . They can't promise uninterrupted power all the time, however. In an electrical storm, the power-carrying tether becomes the biggest lightning rod you've ever seen. (Move over, Ben Franklin!) Their website says this problem is "frequently brought to our attention, and must be addressed." Their plan is to take the flyers down to land before a storm gets bad, and wait for it to end.
. . The flying windmills would initially get in position under their own power, using their motors to drive the propeller blades and helicopter upwards until they reached altitude. Then the motors would turn off and become generators as wind pushes the propeller blades, and the whirligig would float instead of fall because when tethered, the lift generated by the wind would overcome the craft's weight as it also generates power.
. . The obvious question is safety. What happens if one of these things falls out of the sky? The proposed design has quadruple-redundancy in the propellers used to hold it up and generate power, and the units could be located away from population centers, so that seems reasonable. What about planes running into them, or more likely, their tethers? They would fly in restricted airspace. Sky Windpower points out that there are already many high-altitude tethered balloons in the US that have not had problems, and that enough installations to generate 100% of the US's power needs could fit in 1/400th of the nation's airspace. What about birds getting killed? They say that the flying windmills could make noise that would keep birds away; this would be prohibitive for ground-based turbines, but at high altitude no people will be around to be annoyed by it.
. . The prototypes Roberts has been making for the last 25 years have gone from wind tunnel to field trial, and they apparently work, with no new technologies required. However, they have been stalled seeking funding for the last three years. The text on their website shows a woeful lack of marketing savvy, leaning towards crackpottyness, so they may not be getting funding anytime soon. But hopefully they will find someone willing to give them a shot, since they seem the most promising of the three.

Magenn is a more modest design, which makes it more feasible. The inventor is Fred Ferguson, a Canadian engineer specializing in airships. He envisions a range of devices from the household scale (possibly even luggable by RV's or backpackers) to the megawatt power-plant scale.
. . Magenn's design is radically different from other windmills on the market--it would not use propeller blades. Instead, it would be a helium blimp, with Savonius-style scoops causing it to rotate around motors at the attachment-points to its tether. The household device would be the size of a mobile-home floating at 150-400ft. altitude, generating up to 4kW of power. Megawatt-size versions of the device would be the size of a normal blimp and would be tethered at 400-900ft. altitude.
. . The blimp-like design has several advantages: its Savonius scoop design lets it operate in winds as low as 3 kph; it is safer in a crash, because it would fall slowly and be mostly made of flexible material; it is safer for airplanes, because it sits below legally usable airspace; it is safer for birds, because the moving parts are visible and travel with the wind, not perpendicular to it; and it is a less risky investment, because it is smaller, cheaper, and easier to build than one of Sky Windpower's devices. Their estimated price for a household system is $10,000. (It should even be cheaper than existing tower-mounted turbines, watt-for-watt.) There are tradeoffs, though --Sky Windpower's flying windmills would be in higher winds and more constant winds, which would be better-suited to large applications; Magenn says their devices are likely to operate at capacity 40-50% of the time. There may be other bugs to work out, too; Magenn's site is too slick to admit shortcomings of their plan like Sky Windpower's does (e.g. what to do about thunderstorms). The Toronto Star wrote about Magenn and its skeptics in December, but its main critic apparently doesn't know that the limits of legal airspace around cities would prevent planes from hitting the power-blimps.
. . The critic's valid point is that the devices are currently vaporware, with not even a working prototype built yet. Despite this, Magenn has a distribution partner lined up, once they do get into production. It looks like the power-blimps would be mechanically simple and easy to build, so I would give them good odds of pulling it off by the end of the year, as promised. But it will no doubt take a few years before their invention is optimized and debugged.

Laddermill was a research project at TU Delft in the Netherlands. They imagined a series of kites strung together by cables into a loop hundreds of meters --possibly even a few km-- high. The kites would be computer-controlled to change their attitude and generate more lift from the wind on one side of the loop than the other. This would cause the entire loop to rotate, and its rotation would push a generator down on the ground to create electricity. It sounds ludicrous, but the folks at TU Delft are smart, and we need to seriously investigate more out-of-the-box approaches. In some ways, this design is simpler than Magenn or Sky Windpower because it does not have to have the power-generation equipment aloft, and does not require a power-carrying tether, just a mechanical one. The elimination of power-generation hardware from the flying parts of the device also means that it should be safer, because the bits that can crash are small and light.
. . It appears nothing much has been done on the project since 2003, so it may be dead.

# 10 wire, 35000 feet would weight over 1000 pounds. I think line losses would be significant. You'd also have to run at tremendous DC voltages to over come the internal resistance in the wire --say 500 volts DC.
. . If you're worried about weight or power loss, just crank up the voltage.
. . Why not carbon nanotube wires --these can be conductive and very light (see space elevator ideas)?
. . There are several challenges with the jet stream helictopter idea, including, getting the thing to altitude. Right now, helicopters find it hard to get that high. It takes too much power to develop the lift, so it would be difficult to design a ship that could get to 25 or 30K feet and still have enough reserve lift capability to generate electricity. Remember, the generators take energy from the rotors, slowing them down in effect, so you have to be able to maintain altitude with the helicopter running at less than full power, and in a hover to boot.
. . The jet stream changes course quite often.
. . They suggest freeing up portions of the microwave spectrum and using them exclusively for sending down energy.
. . Helium is expensive, & a bag that holds enuf'd have drag... use hydrogen, better lift, isn't that dangerous.
. . Helicopters designed to hover with loads at low altitude have increasing trouble as air density decreases and motion of the air mass has no benefit. However, the faster moving airmass at high altitude far more than compensates for the lower air density in the case of the tethered FEGs.
. . Windpower says that an installation "rated at 2.81 megawatts flying at a typical U.S. site with an 80% capacity factor projects a life cycle cost per kilowatt hour at 1.4 cents." And they would have far better uptime than most windmills --since the jetstream never quits, they should operate at peak capacity 70-90% of the time. That would make them the cheapest power source in the world.

Feb 2, 06: The United States must make more energy-efficient cars and raise taxes on gasoline if it wants to kick its addiction to oil from the volatile Middle East, analysts said. They said rather than promote better efficiency, the U.S. administration is increasing funding aimed at developing technologies for hydrogen-powered cars and raising biofuels such as ethanol in gasoline. Experts say competitive hydrogen power is decades away and biofuels can only substitute for a small percentage of gasoline consumption.
. . They also note that Bush was silent on fuel taxes in his address to the nation. Taxes in the U.S. account for about 23% of the price of gasoline, whereas in Europe, taxes --and prices-- are much higher. British consumers pay nearly 68% tax on gasoline.
. . "In the short-term, there is relatively little that the U.S. can do to reduce its dependence on oil, short of raising taxes and fuel economy standards, neither of which the current administration has shown any inclination to do", said Kevin Norrish in a report for Barclays Capital.

Jan 30, 06: Scientists have discovered an undersea deposit of frozen methane just off the Southern California coast, but whether it can be harnessed as a potential energy source is unknown. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in tapping methane hydrates, ice-like crystals that form at low temperatures and high pressure in seabeds and in Arctic permafrost.
. . Scientists estimate that the methane trapped in previously known frozen reservoirs around the globe could power the world for centuries. But finding the technology to mine such deposits has proved elusive. The newly discovered deposit, believed to be substantial in size, was found about 15 miles off the coast at a depth of about 2,600 feet, at the summit of an undersea mud volcano. Scientists were conducting an unrelated study when they came across the volcano, which sits on top of an active fault zone in the Santa Monica Basin.
. . The ecosystem surrounding the methane hydrate site was unlike any of the other vast hydrate deposits around the world. Scientists found seashells and clams with unique chemical characteristics, suggesting the area experiences an extreme flux of methane gas mixing with water.
. . Some scientists also worry about the environmental effects of such large-scale gas deposits. Hydrates are estimated to contain about three times as much methane as is currently in the atmosphere, and some scientists say releasing it could lead to global warming and change the world's climate.

Jan 27, 06: Work has started on a £90m biomass power station, hailed as the largest project of its kind in the UK. The green scheme --which converts waste timber products into energy-- should supply enough power to meet the needs of around 70,000 homes. 220,000 tons of fuel would be required each year and this would be sourced from the local environment.

Jan 27, 06: Opponents of nuclear power have seized on an initial report which indicates that a solution to managing radioactive waste may be some way off.
. . The Scottish Green Party said the warning shows the scale of the problem. The Scottish Executive said there would be no more nuclear power stations until the waste issue has been resolved. The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management is due to deliver its conclusions in July.
. . "On top of the costs, dangers, risks and a failure to truly tackle climate change - nuclear power creates waste that is not going to be magicked away by the CoRWM report." Scottish National Party energy spokesman Richard Lochhead said: "No solution for dealing with nuclear waste means no more nuclear for Scotland. "Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and unwanted in Scotland, and this report only shows that our objections to nuclear power are totally justified."

.. in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Science:
. . The study refined results from several previous studies by comparing the total energy that goes into making ethanol gas from corn, such as harvesting and refining, and comparing it to the energy needed to produce gasoline from fossil fuels. Kammen's team looked into levels of greenhouse gases produced by both the production and the use of each fuel.
. . They found inconsistencies and errors in the previous work, which had suggested ethanol gas might not be beneficial. After correcting the errors -—which ranged from incorrect unit conversions to reliance on data from outdated methods more than a century old—- the researchers arrived at a very different conclusion: not only does corn-based ethanol gas reduce petroleum use by 95%, it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions about 13%, although that decrease is within a range of uncertainty for the imprecise data involved.
. . "Making ethanol from corn is a good thing if you want to offset fossil fuels from overseas", Kammen said. "On the greenhouse gas side of things, it is not clear if corn, as grown today, is a good thing. We just don't know yet, but it appears to be a mildly good thing."
. . While corn-based ethanol is an improvement over gasoline, ethanol from woody, fibrous plants would pack even more energy. Willow trees, switch grass, farm waste and specially grown crops are all feasible sources. The main energy components of these plants are cellulose and lignin, which produce more energy per unit—in the form of breaking hydrogen bonds—than the starches from corn. "It looks to be that you can get just about twice the amount of energy by going the cellulose route, and greenhouse emissions are very small", Kammen said.
. . Assuming replant rates equal harvests, there is a 95% emission reduction from producing cellulosic ethanol over gasoline production in all three production phases—farming, refining, and use. However, the real benefits of ethanol gas are not yet fully known, Kammen said, and the advantages could be even greater.
. . In the United States, some 5 million of the cars and trucks on the road are "flex-fuel", meaning that they can run either on traditional gasoline or E85, a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Converting an automobile to run on flex-fuel costs about $100. "This is actually one of the cheapest possible transitions you can make", Kammen said. "It cuts the cost of fuel by half at the pump."
. . However, there are very few pumps offering ethanol fuel. Despite the number of flex-fuel automobiles -—California boasts more flex-fuel than diesel vehicles—- ethanol-blended fuel accounted for only 2% of all fuel sold in the United States in 2004. While it doesn't yet make sense to convert the entire economy to corn-based ethanol, Kammen said, improved methods for processing corn or using other ethanol-rich materials could drive such a change.
. . Brazil has converted nearly all its cars and gas pumps to run on a 96% ethanol fuel produced from sugarcane. Brazilians have already seen the benefits of sugarcane fuel—not only is it cleaner burning, but since it is produced within the country, it is half the price of imported gasoline.

Jan 25, 06: Wave and tidal power can provide a fifth of the UK's electricity needs, according to a new report. The Carbon Trust, which helps firms develop low-emission technologies, urges the government to increase support for wave and tidal concepts. They are currently costly ways of generating electricity but the Trust's report says prices will come down.
. . A barrage (dam) on the Rance estuary in northern France has been operating since the 1960s but the concept has been restricted by concerns over cost and local environmental impact.
. . Wave-based devices generate electricity from movements of the sea surface, whereas tidal stream installations sit on the sea floor and use the regular ebb and flow of tides. "Wave and tidal stream technologies are at an earlier stage of development than solar and wind which are more mature."
. . Despite Britain's long shoreline and the vast power contained in its breakers and tides, the Carbon Trust believes only about one fifth of the country's electricity could economically come from the sea.
. . The tidal flow at Strangford Narrows will soon be generating electricity. It says that wave farms could generate 50 terawatt-hours (TWh - one billion kilowatt-hours) per year, and tidal stream installations a further 18TWh. These figures compare to the current UK total consumption of 350TWh per year.
. . Currently, only a handful of wave and tidal stream devices are installed around the UK. Scotland hosts two prototype wave machines, the Pelamis deep-water system and the Limpet shoreline device, while Marine Current Turbines has been testing a prototype tidal stream concept in Devon and is about to install a commercial device at Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland.

November 12, 2004: Give a German a skateboard and some kitesurfing gear and what will he do? Fly unsupported, up the middle of the Australian outback, coast to coast, covering 3,000 km (~1,900 miles) in a mere 17 days. Dirk Gion was pulled over by the police on a couple of occasions. Well, if you heard of a skateboarder managing up to 300 km per day, you'd be suspicious too. But he is undeterred and now wants to take his special board around the world. It is 130 cm (4.3 ft) long with 4 pneumatic tires and brakes. Given that his various kites can see him reach 50 kph (31 mph) you can see why brakes might be useful. He is now working on a idea for kite-powered boat. Have wind —will travel.

The world has maybe 4 times as many bicycles as cars, (some estimates as high as 2 billion!)

Jan, 06: There's a burgeoning market for green roofs, where plants help keep out the summer heat and winter cold while also managing storm water runoff and absorbing carbon dioxide. Plants selected for that job have to be what some might call bachelor tolerant.
. . Chicago put a green roof on its City Hall in 2000 and since then about 150 public and private buildings have followed, including a downtown McDonald's restaurant and an Apple computer store. The construction of green roofs has been spurred in part by the city's green building and green roof policies, which apply to new public buildings, and private developments and structures that are subsidized by the city. In addition to requirements that a certain percentage of roof space be constructed as green roofs, the city is also awarding 20 $5,000 grants to help the owners of small commercial properties and residential buildings install green roofs.
. . The City Hall roof also has two beehives from which honey is collected for sale at auction each year. Chicago installed its City Hall roof after Mayor Richard Daley visited Europe, where a mature green roof industry already exists. In San Francisco, dozens of plants were tested for a 2.5-acre green roof planned for the new California Academy of Sciences building, which is to be completed in late 2008. And at Ford's Rouge Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Michigan, 10-acres of green roof have been installed.
. . They also have practical advantages. Green roofs extend the life of roofs because they protect the roof from weather extremes. It brings temperatures down on a roof from 160 to about 80 degrees in the summer. While each installation is different, studies have found green roofs can cut summer cooling needs and winter heat losses by about 25%, according to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities North America, a not-for-profit industry association. Few residential homeowners install green roofs because the size of their homes usually prohibits them from enjoying the economies of scale available to larger buildings.

Jan 23, 06: The British government launched an urgent public consultation on future energy policy but was accused of using it as a smokescreen to cover a decision already taken in secret to build new nuclear power plants.
. . Highlighting Britain's dwindling oil and gas supplies from the North Sea and the urgent need to cut carbon emissions in the face of global warming from burning fossil fuels, trade minister Alan Johnson said crucial decisions had to be taken quickly. "One-third of our electricity generating capacity could go off-line over the next 10 years ... so doing nothing is not an option." He said that by 2020 Britain could be importing 80% of its gas.
. . Guy Thompson of lobby group the Green Alliance noted that the terms of the review appeared to be too narrowly drawn, focusing on meeting expected demand rather than on measures to enhance energy efficiency and so curb that rising demand. "If this turns out to be an exercise in predict-and-provide then it will have failed as a means to develop a coherent future energy policy", he told Reuters. "New nuclear is simply not necessary. Renewables and energy efficiency can solve the problems."
. . The review comes barely two years after a government report in 2003 said there was no need to replace Britain's aging nuclear power plants with a new generation.
. . Keith Taylor, the Green Party principal speaker, said nuclear power was "astronomically expensive", was "incredibly dangerous" and used fossil fuels at every stage in the process apart from fission itself.
. . Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "We can tackle climate change and meet our energy needs by cutting waste, harnessing the power of renewables and using fossil fuels more efficiently." Britons waste the equivalent of around two power stations' worth of electricity each year by leaving TV sets and other gadgets on standby. Last June, Environment Minister Elliot Morley, responding to an MP's question, revealed that electrical equipment in sleep mode used roughly 7 T/Wh of energy and emitted around 800,000 tons of carbon.
. . If so much electricity is wasted by devices being left on standby, one obvious question to ask is: do we need standby buttons on electronic devices? Definitely not, says Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat's environment spokesman. He has calculated that the CO2 emissions from electrical equipment being left on standby are equivalent to 1.4 million long-haul flights. To put it another way, the entire population of Glasgow could fly to New York and back again and the resulting emissions would still be less than that from devices left in sleep mode.
. . "At Gleneagles, G8 leaders --led by the UK-- agreed to promote the application of the IEA's One Watt initiative which aims to reduce standby requirements for all new appliances to below one Watt by 2010", a Defra spokesman said. "Some of these standby modes for televisions use two-thirds of the electricity that it would if it were on.

Jan 20, 06: A British man and his Australian wife set off from London in a bid to drive round the world by filling up on petrol less than 50 times in a bid to promote fuel efficiency. The 70-day road trip across 25 countries will cover 28,970 km with a standard-sized petrol tank. [but they & the vans with them will burn lots themselves!]

Jan 19, 06: U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, aiming to boost the ailing domestic auto industry and encourage conservation, outlined details of proposed tax breaks for people who buy hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles. At a Ford Motor Co. research center in suburban Detroit, Snow discussed tax policy changes that would give people who buy or lease increasingly popular hybrid cars and trucks a tax credit up to $3,400. "Development and use of hybrid vehicles is a key step toward reducing gasoline consumption, emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions", Snow said.

Jan 17, 06: Waste incineration is 'set to rise' in England. Ministers believe rubbish can be a green source of fuel. They're preparing to back a large increase in the amount of rubbish that is incinerated instead of being buried, according to documents seen by the BBC. An environment department paper suggests the proportion of burned waste could rise from 9% to 25% in the next 15 years. It urges making "energy from waste", a process in which incinerators are used to power electricity generation plants.
. . Ministers were keen to stress their priority was to minimize the amount of waste created in the first place. He said government plans could be summed up as: "If you must [create waste] then preferably recycle it, failing that burn it to make electricity, and only bury what is left. Incinerators are extremely inefficient generators of energy, producing more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than an old-fashioned coal-fired power station.
. . Friends of the Earth labelled as "myth" claims refuse can provide green energy.

Jan 17, 06: Britons are split on N-power. The government is to review the future of energy. A majority of people in Britain would accept new nuclear power stations if they helped fight climate change, a poll suggests. Some 54% said they would accept new stations being built for this reason. But in general, more people were against nuclear power than in favour. Nearly 80% thought renewable technologies and energy efficiency were better ways of tackling global warming. The survey suggested 78% of people believed promoting renewable energy sources was a better way, and 76% thought reducing energy through lifestyle changes and energy efficiency was better, too. And in terms of energy mix, the poll found 63% believed that Britain needed a combination of energy sources, including nuclear and renewables, to ensure a reliable supply of electricity.
. . Part of this review will consider whether the UK needs to replace its ageing nuclear power stations as a step towards its climate objectives. Tony Blair has made it clear he believes a new generation of nuclear power stations could be part of that future.
. . Supporters of replacing old nuclear stations say it is not a question of either nuclear or renewables, but that all alternatives to fossil fuels must be exploited to the full.
. . Dr Kevin Anderson, from the Tyndall center for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester, appealed for the whole debate to be raised to another level of sophistication. He said discussion about the UK's future energy mix should place far greater emphasis on issues of consumption --of demand. In this context, he said, nuclear was a very small component; accounting for about 3-4% of total energy used.
. . "We could swap out all the nuclear stations for coal or gas and see very marginal increases in our carbon emissions", he argued. Although there were arguments for supporting nuclear for energy security reasons, it was not essential to fight climate change, he said. Far better, he believed, was a policy which sought significant emission reductions through greater efficiency. "Why are we still selling fridges with a B, C, D, and E ratings? An A-rated fridge is a standard and you set it. You make sure all new buildings are well built with very high energy efficiency.
. . You inform industry that standards will be incrementally increased so that they have market signals. You tell car manufacturers, for example, that to sell a car ... by 2010, it must meet a minimum fuel economy."

Edmunds estimates that the 176,000 hybrid vehicles purchased in 2005 saved their owners approximately $112 million in fuel.

Jan 12, 06: Hoping to make California a world leader in solar power, state energy regulators approved some $3 billion in customer rebates over the next decade to encourage people to install solar panels on their roofs.
. . The goal is to get Californians to install equipment capable of producing 3,000 megawatts of solar electricity on 1 million homes, businesses and public buildings over the next 10 years. That is enough energy to power about 800,000 homes. Only about 100 megawatts, about 0.3% of California's electricity capacity, now comes from rooftop solar panels, installed on about 15,000 homes and businesses.
. . The initiative rewards people who act fast. Home or business owners who install panels this year will be eligible for a $2.80 rebate for each watt of capacity installed. So a homeowner who installs a typical 2,500-watt system costing $20,000 would receive a $7,000 rebate. The rebate drops to 25 cents per watt by 2016.

Jan 12, 06: Isaac Berzin is a big fan of algae. The tiny, single-celled plant, he says, could transform the world's energy needs and cut global warming. He's a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. About three years ago, while working on an experiment for growing algae on the International Space Station, he came up with the idea for using it to clean up power-plant exhaust. If he could find the right strain of algae, he figured he could turn the nation's greenhouse-gas-belching power plants into clean-green generators with an attached algae farm next door.
. . Bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a brick-and-glass 20-megawatt power plant behind MIT's campus are rows of fat, clear tubes, each with green algae soup simmering inside. Fed a generous helping of CO2-laden emissions, courtesy of the power plant's exhaust stack, the algae grow quickly even in the wan rays of a New England sun. The cleansed exhaust bubbles skyward, but with 40% less CO2 (a larger cut than the Kyoto treaty mandates) and another bonus: 86% less nitrous oxide. After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested daily. From that harvest, a combustible vegetable oil is squeezed out: biodiesel for automobiles.
. . Berzin hands a visitor two vials - one with algal biodiesel, a clear, slightly yellowish liquid, the other with the dried green flakes that remained. Even that dried remnant can be further reprocessed to create ethanol, also used for transportation.
. . GreenFuel has already garnered $11 million in venture capital funding and is conducting a field trial at a 1,000 megawatt power plant owned by a major southwestern power company. Next year, GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demo projects scaling up to a full production system by 2009.
. . One key is selecting an algae with a high oil density --about 50% of its weight. Because this kind of algae also grows so fast, it can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre. Just 60 gallons are produced from soybeans
. . Berzin calculates that just one 1,000 megawatt power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. That would require a 2,000-acre "farm" of algae-filled tubes near the power plant. There are nearly 1,000 power plants nationwide with enough space nearby for a few hundred to a few thousand acres to grow algae and make a good profit, he says.
. . In 1990, Sheehan's NREL --National Renewable Energy Laboratory-- program calculated that just 15,000 square miles of desert (the Sonoran desert in California and Arizona is more than eight times that size) could grow enough algae to replace nearly all of the nation's current diesel requirements.

Diesels get 20 to 40% better fuel economy than gasoline vehicles and now power more than half of all cars sold in Europe.

Jan 9, 06: The make of your car makes a big difference in how much it pollutes, according to a comprehensive comparison of pollution levels by manufacturer. Age is a huge factor, too. A vehicle from 1985 emits almost 38 times more carbon monoxide than a 2001 model, on average.
. . BMWs did best. Hondas and Volvos also tended to pass exams more often than other makes, but were inconsistent from state to state. Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Chrysler, and GM cars were the most likely to fail.
. . # The older the vehicle, the higher the likelihood of test failure due to increased engine and emissions equipment deterioration.
. . # Automobiles emit fewer pollutants on average in spring and summer, probably because of different atmospheric conditions and changes in fuel mixtures produced by refineries.
. . Toyotas have the least difference between older and newer cars, because their older cars *already polluted less.
. . The finding that cars with better gas mileage also polluted less is important, Guldmann said. It suggests that current regulations, which measure emissions in grams per mile driven, should be changed to grams per gallon of gasoline used. [better: liters!] "This would ensure that higher fuel economy standards are automatically translated into emissions reductions."

Jan 6, 06: Peugeot Citroen will unveil two demonstrator models for diesel-based hybrid cars, which seek to cut emissions and reduce fuel consumption, that the carmaker expects to be on the market from 2010. France's second-biggest carmaker said on Thursday it would show off a Peugeot 307 and a Citroen C4 demonstration car with a hybrid diesel system on January 31.
. . Most hybrids, which were pioneered in the volume car industry by Japanese manufacturers, are currently based on petrol, while in France most new cars use diesel.

Jan 6, 06: Xcel Energy deserves a kudos for its leadership on renewable energy. Colorado's largest utility says it will boost wind power purchases across the 10 states it serves, to total 2,300 megawatts by 2007. The purchases from independent wind farms will make Xcel the largest U.S. wind-energy user and set an important example for other utilities. But more wind power is just one of many steps Colorado can take to curb fossil fuel use, for both economic and environmental reasons.
. . Xcel says wind power will mostly supply intermittent and peak power - energy demands that fluctuate day to day or even hour to hour. Unfortunately, that means it still must rely on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, supplemented by natural gas, the most expensive fossil fuel, for its base load (the kind of electricity that's always on). But there are other, creative ways to trim fuel use and costs.
. . Consumers should encourage Xcel's proposal to expand demand-side management, a sophisticated conservation program. The plan would go beyond the long-standing practice of having industrial customers limit power use when residential demands are high, and do more than existing programs, like the saver switch that lets homeowners cut electricity used for air conditioning. The efficiency push could better insulate, light and even reconfigure buildings.
. . Demand-side management reduces the need for new generating capacity by freeing up existing power plants to meet energy needs from population or business growth. Xcel says the program will give it another 320 megawatts of electricity - without adding power plants or burning more fuel. Indeed, once in place, the program keeps "producing" energy with no additional fuel or construction costs.
. . U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman says conservation is the fastest, most affordable way the nation can address energy costs and shortages.

Jan 6, 06: Waste products make a better biofuel than traditional British crops such as rapeseed and grain because of the energy it takes to grow them, a former chairman of Shell Trading and Transport said.
. . "The attractive thing about waste is that it represents a problem", Lord Oxburgh told reporters at the annual Oxford Farming Conference. He said rapeseed and grain required fertiliser inputs, effectively negating much of the savings they might otherwise provide when changed into biofuels. "You really have got to think very hard about the amount the energy that goes into producing your biofuel."
. . Lord Oxburgh pointed to the production of ethanol from waste straw in Canada as one example of a project which was energy efficient and had environmental benefits. By way of contrast, he said the most expensive method was being employed in the United States using maize, which consumes an enormous amount of energy before being turned into fuel. "You put in nearly as much energy into producing energy than you get out of it. It doesn't actually make a lot of sense."

Jan 5, 06: President Jacques Chirac announced plans today to cut oil consumption in France, including the launch of the latest nuclear reactor prototype so that French trains will not use a drop of oil in 20 years' time. Chirac sealed France's commitment to nuclear power by announcing the launch of a fourth generation prototype reactor to be in use by 2020.
. . France has become the world's second largest nuclear power producer after it decided after the 1970s oil shocks to reduce its oil dependence by building a fleet of 58 nuclear reactors. Chirac also said in a New year's speech that France had to develop solar energy, electronic and hybrid diesel cars, and increase production of biomass fuels five times over the next two years.
. . State-owned nuclear operator Electricite de France has already launched plans to start up a new 1,600 megawatt (MW) European pressurized water reactor (EPR) in 2012, the so-called third generation reactor. But no new large power plants have been built since 1993 and France still needs to build more new power stations to meet growing demand and to compensate for aging units, according to a study by the French grid RTE.
. . The more sophisticated and supposedly safer fourth generation reactors, that have a pebble-bed reactor, where graphite pebbles are filled with particles of uranium dioxide fuel, are still being developed.

Jan 3, 06: Beijing is fitting out 50 of its buses with experimental braking systems that it hopes could cut fuel use by up to 30% and help clear its smoggy skies. The 50 buses in the trial will be fitted with hydraulic hybrid vehicle technology, which absorbs energy released as a vehicle brakes and allows it to be released when they restart or speed up. The test run would last one to two years, but if it's successful Beijing could add the technology to its whole fleet of 18,000 buses.
. . It is also planning to build special networks of high-speed buses in exclusive lanes, to make the vehicles run more efficiently and tempt travelers on to public transport.

Jan 3, 06: Innovative lights were installed by the Grameen Surya Bijli Foundation, a Bombay-based nongovernmental organization focused on bringing light to rural India. Some 100,000 Indian villages do not yet have electricity. The GSBF lamps use LEDs --light emitting diodes-- that are four times more efficient than an incandescent bulb. After a $55 installation cost, solar energy lights the lamp free of charge.
. . LED lighting, like cellphones, is another example of a technology whose low cost could allow the rural poor to leapfrog into the 21st century. LED lamps, or more specifically white LEDS, are believed to produce nearly 200 times more useful light than a kerosene lamp and almost 50 times the amount of useful light of a conventional bulb. "This technology can light an entire rural village with less energy than that used by a single conventional 100 watt light bulb."
. . In a scenario in which nearly 60% of India's rural population uses 180 million tons of biomass per year for cooking via primitive wood stoves - which are smoky and provide only 10-15% efficiency in cooking - Jhunjhunwala emphasizes the need for a clean energy source, not just for lighting but for other domestic purposes as well.
. . At $55 each, the lamps installed in nearly 300 homes by GSBF cost nearly half the price of other solar lighting systems. Jasjeet Singh Chaddha, the founder of the NGO, currently imports his LEDs from China. He wants to set up an LED manufacturing unit and a solar panel manufacturing unit in India. If manufactured locally, the cost of his LED lamp could plummet to $22, as they won't incur heavy import duties. "But we need close to $5 million for this", he says. "And investments are difficult to come by."
. . The rural markets would be able to afford it, says Mr. Irvine-Halliday, if they had access to micro-credit. He says that in Tembisa, a shanty town in Johannesburg, he found that almost 10,000 homes spent more than $60 each on candles and paraffin every year. As calculations revealed, these families can afford to purchase a solid state lighting system in just over a year of paying per week what they would normally spend on candles and paraffin - if they have access to micro-credit. LUTW is in the process of creating such a micro-credit facility for South Africa. "Then more than 4 million homes in South Africa will be able to afford this lighting system."
. . In villages neighboring Khadakwadi, the newly installed LED lamps are a subject of envy, even for those connected to the grid. Those connected to the grid have to face power cuts up to 6 or 7 hours a day. Constant energy shortages and blackouts are a common problem due to a lack of power plants, transmission, and distribution losses caused by old technology and illegal stealing of electricity from the grid. LED systems require far less maintenance, a longer life, and as villagers jokingly say, "no electricity bills."
. . The lamps provided by GSBF have enough power to provide just four hours of light a day. But that's enough for people to get their work done in the early hours of the night, and is more reliable than light generated off India's electrical grid.

Jan 1, 06: Ten new green energy projects have been named as best in the UK for leading the way in cutting carbon emissions and promoting renewable energy. The schemes, which began operation in 2005, were exciting and innovative, the Department of Trade and Industry said. They include offshore wind-turbines in Kent, the solar-powered CIS tower in Manchester and a wave buoy in Cornwall. The list includes three wind farms, three solar-power projects, and two examples of microgeneration, or projects with lower outputs.
. . A target of supplying 10% of the UK's electricity from renewable energy by 2010 has been set by the government.

Jan 1, 06: According to the Department of Energy, the average American household uses 29-plus kilowatt-hours per day; the standard U.S. household uses 35 kwh a day.
. . Water and wastewater treatment consumes 5% of U.S. energy. As of 2004, nuclear energy supplied one-fifth of U.S. electricity. But the nation's 103 nuclear power plants are now, on average, more than two decades old. No new nuclear plants have been ordered since 1973. Electricity produced by existing plants still costs more than that from fossil-fuel-burning plants--unless the intrinsic cost of emissions is factored in with a carbon tax.
. . Two emerging technologies could help break the gridlock. "Pebble bed" modular reactors use high-temperature gas as a coolant, and can operate on a much smaller scale than conventional nuclear plants, potentially reducing prohibitive startup costs. "Fast reactors" could recycle nearly all their long-lived radioactive waste as fuel, leaving only short-lived waste. But a lot more research is needed to make these models work, Moniz says: "If they do pan out, it will be 50 years before they make a major impact."
. . A typical 100-watt light bulb radiates roughly 95 watts into its surroundings as waste heat. The Sandia team estimates that switching to LEDs could reduce the nation's electrical consumption by 10%.

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