A quarter of earth's population --1.6 billion people-- have no electricity.
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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.
A "hydrogen economy" --or corn-ethanol-- provides little more than official cover for near-term political inaction.
Today, a Californian has an electric bill no larger than the average American's but generates just one-third the CO2.
A megawatt is enough to power about 300 homes.
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ENERGY NEWS
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Dec 31, 07: A Dutch company is now siphoning heat from roads and parking lots to heat homes and offices. As climate change rises on the international agenda, the system doesn't look as wacky as it might have 10 years ago when first conceived.
. . Solar energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar. And all that under normally cloudy Dutch skies, with only a few days a year of truly sweltering temperatures.
. . A latticework of flexible pipes, held in place by a grid, is covered over by asphalt, which magnifies the sun's thermal power. As water in the pipes is heated, it is pumped deep under the ground to natural aquifers where it maintains a fairly constant temperature of about 68 F. The heated water can be retrieved months later to keep the road surface ice-free in winter.
. . Though it doubles the cost of construction, the system is designed to provide longer life for roads and bridges, fewer ice-induced accidents and less need to repave worn surfaces. And the same system can pump cold water from a separate subterranean reservoir to cool buildings on hot days. "We found we were gathering more energy in summer than we needed, so we asked a building contractor what we can do with the extra energy." It must go through an electricity-powered heat pump for an extra boost.
. . The installation cost is about twice as much as normal gas heating, but the energy required is about half of what would otherwise be needed. That translates into lower monthly heating bills and a 50% savings in CO2 emissions.
. . "The prospect of relying on the sun for all our power demands is finally becoming realistic", says a report in New Scientist.
. . Experimental technologies involve new methods to concentrate the sun's energy by using mirrors or lenses, or devices that track the sun's path across the sky. New materials are being developed to make better cells. And scientists are working with electrochemical cells using a liquid rather than a solid component to absorb light.
Dec 28, 07: A new type of super-efficient household light is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs. Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market. The technology had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting. But Glasgow U scientists said they had resolved the problem.
. . The project involves making microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs to increase the level of light they give off. This is a process known as nano-imprint lithography.
. . "We believe we have found a way of imprinting the holes into billions of LEDs at a far greater speed, but at a much lower cost." Granted, the holes are made through a technique of nano-imprint lithograph, a resource-consuming technique. But researchers believe that the idea could be commercially viable within just three years.
Dec 27, 07: Free hybrid-car parking. Cash rebates for installing solar panels. Low-interest loans for energy-saving home renovations. Money to tear up desert lawns and replace them with drought-resistant landscaping.
. . Frustrated by what they see as insufficient action by state and federal government, municipalities around the country are offering financial incentives to get people to go green.
In Parkland Florida, where the motto is "Environmentally Proud", the city plans next year to begin dispensing cash rebates to its 25,000 residents for being more environmentally friendly. "We will literally issue them a check", said Vice Mayor Jared Moskowitz. "We're sick of waiting for the federal government to do something, so we've got to do what we can."
. . Residents who install low-flow toilets or shower heads will get $150. Replacing an old air conditioner with a more energy-efficient one brings $100. Buying a hybrid car? An additional $200 cash back. Based on an estimate of 1,000 residents participating in the rebate program during the first year, the city predicts it will cost up to $100,000. Many states already offer similar rebates and incentives through tax breaks, loans and perks.
. . Utilities have long provided incentives to buy energy-efficient appliances, solar panels and toilets that use less water. The federal government, too, offers tax incentives for purchases of many hybrid vehicles and energy-saving products.
. . Still, for many cities, it's just not enough. Starting next year, San Francisco will offer homeowners rebates of up to $5,000 for installing solar panels if they use a local contractor. Coupled with state and federal incentives, that could cut in half the $21,000 cost for an average household, Blumenfeld said. The city will also cover up to 90% of the costs of making apartment buildings more energy-efficient, and will pay residents $150 to replace old appliances.
. . The neighboring city of Berkeley is financing the cost of solar panels for homeowners who agree to pay the money back through a 20-year property tax assessment. Nearby Marin County offers a $500 rebate to homeowners who install solar systems.
. . "Just living near your job and taking transit or walking to meet your daily needs provides basically the same environmental benefit as buying a hybrid car", said Amanda Eaken of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
. . Residents of Albuquerque, N.M., get fast-track building permits and other perks if they agree to make their homes more energy-efficient.
. . In Arizona, many cities pay residents to replace grass with artificial turf or plants that use less water. Scottsdale, outside Phoenix, will pay up to $1,500. "We're in the middle of a desert and water is absolutely the most precious resource we have", said city spokesman Mike Phillips.
Dec 27, 07: Environmental design has come to be defined by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) ratings. A point system, LEED rewards technological fixes like rooftop solar panels or energy-efficient insulation.
. . That's great, and there are enormous energy savings that can be achieved with basic improvements in building design, but the LEED system doesn't take into account the context of a building —-where it is. A design could win a Platinum LEED rating —-the highest possible award-— but it can't really be described as environmentally friendly if it's part of a sprawling neighborhood that just adds to car dependency. "It doesn't matter how green you are if your house in the suburb still generates 14 car trips a day, which is the American average", says Duany. "But that's complicated to get across, because it's not high-tech."
. . There are encouraging signs that New Urbanism is beginning to take root in American design. The U.S. Green Building Council has begun using a pilot system called LEED Neighborhood Design (LEED-ND), which will include location and transportation use in its green ratings. Duany and his peers in the movement are helping city and town planners to dismantle the postwar zoning regulations that helped make the car king, and you can find New Urbanist projects sprouting across the country.
Dec 27, 07: [I'm waiting foe these!] Organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays should attract crowds of drooling onlookers once again. OLED displays can deliver an inky dark black for superb apparent contrast and color saturation, and they do so with a screen that measures only a few millimeters thick as it requires no backlight system like that used with LCD technology. Sony recently started offering an 11-inch OLED TV called the XEL-1 in Japan, and the company demonstrated a 27-inch 1080p resolution prototype at the 2007 show. Samsung is also keen on OLED development, and it seems likely that bigger and better OLED TVs are in the future for 2008.
Dec 27, 07: South Korean display screen maker Samsung said it had developed a 31-inch ultra-thin organic screen, raising the stakes in an accelerating worldwide race for organic displays.
Dec 26, 07: China promised today to develop renewable energy for its fast-growing economy but warned that coal consumption will grow dramatically and avoided embracing binding limits on its greenhouse gas emissions.
. . In a report on its energy plans, the government announced no new initiatives but said it wants to curb reliance on oil and gas to drive an economy that is the world's second-biggest energy consumer after the US.
. . "China gives top priority to developing renewable energy", said the 44-page report. The report said Beijing will promote hydroelectric, nuclear, solar and wind energy, as well natural gas extracted from garbage dumps and coal mines. The share of renewable sources and nuclear power in China's energy consumption rose from 4% in 1980 to 7.2% last year, the report said.
. . Communist leaders worry about the mounting damage to China's battered environment from fossil fuel use and see mounting reliance on imported energy as a strategic weakness.
Dec 24, 07: The energy bill President Bush signed last week mandating tougher fuel-economy standards sent a simple message to automakers: lighten up. A 10% drop in weight yields roughly a 6% improvement in fuel economy. The new rules certainly give makers of aluminum, carbon fiber and other lightweight materials something to smile about, analysts say, though the steel industry's piece of the auto-industry pie is likely to shrink.
. . Today, steel accounts for about 60% of an average vehicle's weight in the U.S., down from a generation ago when much more of the metal was used. Still, the popularity of trucks, minivans and SUVs has caused the average vehicle weight to rise by more than 25%, to about 4,100 pounds, over the past 20 years. Even so, the percentage of aluminum in cars has been on the rise for decades since the last boost in fuel economy standards.
. . Carbon fiber makers also stand to benefit from tougher fuel-economy rules. Their lightweight composite materials, which are significantly more expensive than steel, already are used in some Mercedes, BMW and Audi vehicles and in GM's new Corvette, as well as in the aerospace industry.
. . Ford Motor Co. last month said state-of-the-art engines and power-steering systems will help it meet a portion the fuel efficiency mandates, and that greater use of aluminum and high-strength steel could help shed 250 pounds to 750 pounds per vehicle.
. . In November, sales of Toyota's Prius, the most popular hybrid in the U.S., jumped 109%, compared with a 5% drop in sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Dec 24, 07: The Pentagon, which is investigating whether space-based solar power —-beaming energy down from satellites-— will provide "affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and expandable energy for mankind."
. . In September, American entrepreneur Kevin Reed proposed at the 58th International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India, that Palau's uninhabited Helen Island would be an ideal spot for a small demonstration project, a 50 Meter-diameter "rectifying antenna", or rectenna, to take in 1 megawatt of power transmitted earthward by a satellite orbiting 500 km above Earth. That's enough electricity to power 1,000 homes.
. . Reed said he expects his U.S.-Swiss-German consortium to begin manufacturing the necessary ultralight solar panels within two years, and to attract financial support from manufacturers wanting to show how their technology —-launch vehicles, satellites, transmission technology — could make such a system work. He estimates project costs at $800 million and completion as early as 2012.
. . At the U.N. climate conference, a Reed partner discussed the idea with the Palauans, who Reed said could benefit from beamed-down energy if the project is expanded to populated areas.
. . Solar energy is eight times more powerful in outer space than it is after passing through Earth's atmosphere. The energy captured by space-based photovoltaic arrays would be converted into microwaves for transmission to Earth, where it would be transformed into direct-current electricity. Low-orbiting satellites, as proposed for Palau, would pass over once every 90 minutes or so, transmitting power to a rectenna for perhaps five minutes, requiring long-term battery storage or immediate use —-for example, in recharging electric automobiles via built-in rectennas.
. . Most studies have focused instead on geostationary satellites, those whose orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth keeps them over a single location, to which they would transmit a continuous flow of power. The scale of that vision is enormous: One NASA study visualized solar-panel arrays 3 by 6 miles in size, transmitting power to similarly sized rectennas on Earth.
. . Each such mega-orbiter might produce 5 gigawatts of power, more than twice the output of a Hoover Dam. Patrick Collins of Japan's Azabu U, who participated in Japanese government studies of space power, said a lower-power beam, because of its breadth, might be no more powerful than the energy emanating from a microwave oven's door.
. . "It is imperative that this work for `drilling up' vs. drilling down for energy security begins immediately", concludes October's Pentagon report.
. . Some seem to hear the call. The European Space Agency has scheduled a conference on space-based solar power for next Feb. 29. Space Island Group, another entrepreneurial U.S. endeavor, reports "very positive" discussions with a European utility and the Indian government about buying future power from satellite systems. To Robert N. Schock, an expert on future energy with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, space power doesn't look like science fiction.
Dec 6, 07: Energy-efficient LEDs are being used to light up computer screens and stereos. But the humble LED is heading for a brighter future. New generation Light Emitting Diodes will purify water, make lights that mimic the color of sunshine, and keep private data immune from hackers.
. . Dr Rachel Oliver, an LED researcher from the U of Cambridge, thinks that they could easily succeed tungsten bulbs as the main way to light our homes. "LEDs have enormous benefits over standard light bulbs because they're a great deal more efficient, come in a range of different colors and have a very long lifetime. They are also good at saving energy too", she said. "We could also light up out of the way places where normal bulbs are unsuitable", she added. "Because they last such a long time, architects could cover the side of a building with exciting lighting effects without worrying about constantly replacing the bulbs."
. . LEDs are made from two halves of a special material called a semiconductor. One half is filled with negatively-charged electrons and the other with positively-charged areas called holes. Where the two halves meet, the positive and negative charges join together --causing the electrons to emit energy as photons of light. The color of this light, and thus the LED, depends on the material that is used. Gallium arsenide gives off red light, while gallium nitride produced blue.
. . "Blue LEDs were the holy grail for a long time", said Professor Jan Evans-Freeman, head of the Center for Electronic Devices and Materials at Sheffield Hallam U. "But now blue LEDs are used everywhere, including the backlighting on mobile phones. Gallium nitride has proved to be a very effective material."
. . Researchers are now using gallium nitride to move beyond blue and into the ultraviolet. The hope is to convert this into white lighting suitable for our homes. White light is produced in an LED when UV light reacts with a phosphor coating on the inside of the diode.
. . As LEDs are around 40% efficient, this makes them an attractive alternative to the 5% efficiency of tungsten bulbs. The problem is the type of white light they produce. "The white light they give off is a cold light because it contains lots of blue."
. . Ultraviolet LEDs also have the potential to revolutionize water quality in the developing world. A high-energy form of ultraviolet light known as deep-UV kills bacteria and viruses without the need for chemicals. For this reason, deep-UV is commonly used for sterilising water. But conventional UV lamps are bulky and need replacing regularly. LEDs are significantly smaller, cheaper and have lower energy requirements.
Dec 20, 07: The aim of the AXP is to prime the market to demand cars that use less oil and produce fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. "There's a very large industrial complex married to an old solution", says X Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis. "If we do this right, we're going to draw a line in the sand and say all the cars we drove before this date are relegated to the history museums." Who killed the electric car? Who cares. Dangle a $10million carrot and watch as engineers deliver both crackpot schemes and genius innovations, any one of which could upend the existing automotive industry.
. . The rules, which will be finalized later this year, have three broad components: efficiency (cars must get at least 100 miles per gallon); emissions (cars must produce less than 200 grams of greenhouse gases per mile); and economic viability (mass production of the cars has to be feasible, and the company has to have a plan to make 10,000 a year).
. . A winning vehicle has to be safe, comfortable, and ready to be mass-manufactured at a reasonable cost — that will separate the fantasy-mobiles from those that could actually be put into production and sold for a profit. "We do not want toys", says S. M. Shahed, a Honeywell corporate fellow who, as a past president of the International Society of Automotive Engineers, serves as an adviser to the AXP. In other words, a one-off, carbon-fiber-ensconced motorized recumbent bicycle isn't going to cut it.
. . Known as the AXP, the competition will award at least $10 million to the team that builds a 100-mpg machine and then wins a race against other green vehicles. Some 43 teams are already working on their rides, even though the competition won't be formally announced until early 2008.
Dec 20, 07: The US should take a more positive role in tackling climate change while developing nations improve their own domestic energy efficiency, China's chief climate change negotiator said today.
. . China is satisfied with the result of the recent Bali climate change negotiations and will cooperate in international talks while working to improve its energy efficiency, Yu Qingtai, China's special representative for climate change negotiations, told a news briefing.
. . A contentious U.N. climate conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali ended with the US, facing angry criticism from other delegations, relenting in its opposition to a request from developing nations for more technological help fighting climate change.
. . Yu welcomed the move by the U.S., saying the country "should play a more positive and constructive role in dealing with climate change, and should make its own contributions against the common challenge."
Dec 19, 07: The Environmental Protection Agency today slapped down California's bid for first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, refusing the state a waiver that would have allowed those restrictions to take effect.
. . The long-awaited decision amounted to a serious setback for California and at least 16 other states seeking the new car regulations to achieve their anti-global warming goals. The tailpipe standards California adopted in 2004 would have forced automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in new cars and light trucks by 2016, with the cutbacks beginning in the 2009 model year.
. . "It is disappointing that the federal government is standing in our way and ignoring the will of tens of millions of people across the nation", said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "California sued to compel the agency to act on our waiver, and now we will sue to overturn today's decision and allow Californians to protect our environment."
. . Twelve other states —-Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington-— have adopted the California emissions standards, and the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah have said they also plan to adopt them. The rules were also under consideration in Iowa. [=17 states]
. . California had been waiting for y'day's decision for two years. EPA put it off while a Supreme Court case was pending on whether the agency could regulate greenhouse gases. In April, the Supreme Court said it could.
Dec 20, 07: Thanks to nanotechnology, an assistant professor at Stanford U has come up with a breakthrough in the longevity of Lithium-Ion batteries. As well as being able to power your laptop for up to 20 hours—10 times more than current levels—Yi Cui thinks that his design could also work on iPods and other handheld devices that rely on small batteries to work.
. . The problem with current designs is that they are limited in the amount of lithium they can hold, as carbon is needed for the battery's anode. Yi Cui's design uses a nest of silicon nanowires to hold the lithium in place, allowing far more of the element to fit into the battery. Because so little silicon is used, there should be none of the traditional swelling damage that often occurs when too much of it is used.
. . Since the design uses technologies that are already mature, Cui reckons it will not take long to market his nanowire battery. He has already filed for a patent and hopes either to work with existing companies in order to start shipping the idea into existing products, or to form his own company.
Dec 19, 07: The largest transit agency in North America has ordered 850 diesel-electric buses and will have the world's largest fleet of hybrids when the vehicles hit the streets of New York in 2010.
. . Daimler said the buses use about 30% less fuel than conventional models. The Orion VII is a series hybrid, meaning it is powered entirely by an electric motor. The small diesel engine runs a generator that charges the vehicle's lithium-ion battery. The buses also use regenerative braking in which braking forces produce current to charge the batteries. Daimler claims the Orion VII emits 90% less soot than conventional buses because the diesel engine runs at a nearly constant speed.
. . OC Transpo of Ottawa ordered 202 Orion VII buses.
Dec 19, 07: The light bulb Thomas Edison invented 125 years ago is getting more than a make-over. The government is pulling the plug on it.
. . The landmark energy bill President George W. Bush signed into law today will require lighting to use up to 30% less energy, which will basically phase out the traditional light bulb because it won't be able to meet the new efficiency standards. Almost 90% of the energy used by today's incandescent bulbs produces heat and only 10% goes to giving off light.
. . When the 4 billion light sockets in the US eventually make the switch-over, the efficiency standards will lower household utility bills by more than $18 billion a year, and they will prevent 100 million tons of CO2 emissions at power plants.
. . The higher efficiency requirements under the new energy law DOES NOT kick in for the 100-watt bulb UNTIL 2012 [WHAT?!], followed by the 75-watt bulb a year later and then 40- and 60-watt bulbs will be phased out in 2014. Australia, Ireland and other countries are already getting rid of the incandescent bulb. [& American states, too.]
Expanded polyurethane insulation: R-6.2/inch
Self-cleaning toilet: 0.05 gal. A fine mist applied to the toilet's ultraslippery nanotech coating would clean it of any residual waste and bacteria. Such coatings exist, but advances are needed to reduce the amount of water used.
8-27-07: Solar Power Could Cost Half As Much 3 Years From Now
Dec 19, 07: From concept to construction, the Solar Impulse has been hailed as a savior -—the first major attempt to fly a plane without fuel, with eco-eyes set on a sun-powered trip around the globe. And for record-setting adventurer Bertrand Piccard, whom we profiled in a cover story on the aircraft two years ago, Monday’s unveiling of its prototype was a long time coming: He showed off a mock-up of the Solar Impulse at the 2005 Paris Airshow, but now the 201-ft. plane is set for a test flight next fall.
. . The $94-million Solar Impulse prototype weighs in at just 3300 pounds thanks to its carbon-fiber body, but has to compensate for the still-developing world of solar cells by sprawling panels across its huge wingspan.
. . Bertrand and Co. have designed Solar Impulse to fly for 36 hours at a maximum altitude of 27,000 ft. Under the hood, the plane draws solar power during the day and stores it in batteries to fly at night.
Place a rolled bath towel or custom-made "draft snake" across the bottom of leaky doors and windows. This will improve the efficiency of heating and cooling, which are typically the biggest energy uses in the home, as well as make your rooms more comfortable. Recycle old neckties into adorable draft snakes.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest
The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper a year, anyway --that's the world's highest per capita figure. 42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper. # The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among US manufacturing industries, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector's CO2 emissions.
# Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste).
# Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is CO2). Compared to using virgin wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50% less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and --of course-- 100% less wood.
Approximately 17 million new cars and trucks roll out of dealer showrooms every year in this country.
Wind Power: Some sites could host two lakes...one at a higher elevation than the other. Wind turbines could pump water to the higher lake and when the winds have died down, then hydroelectricity could be produced from letting the water flow back into the lower lake.
Electrolysis is terribly inefficient for energy storage, with round-trip efficiency well below 50%.
Wind energy increases with the cube of its velocity, so siting is critical. Even if it means more transmission lines, it's almost always more economical to place wind turbines where the wind is rather than where the electicity is used.
Bosch's Evolution 800 refrigerator is 16% more energy-efficient than federal energy-use standards require.
A new study says that broad acceptance of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could cut up to 6.12 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year —-about 2.5 times the amount currently emitted by power plants.
. . The next-generation Toyota Prius. The inside word from Japan is that the '09 version of the landmark hybrid will deliver both better fuel economy and more power. Engine size increases to 1.8 liters. New batteries and refinements to the Hybrid Synergy drive —-maybe even a solar panel on the roof and eventually plug-in capability-— could up city economy to 80 mpg. It may not look it, but the body will be all-new, growing 1 in. wider, but getting 1 in. shorter in overall length.
Making bio-diesel is a weeklong process that involves kitchen grease, potassium hydroxide, methanol, lab equipment —-and lots of caution. Sure, he could just buy it, or conventional diesel fuel, but the added effort pays off. "I make mine for 65 cents a gallon."
He bought a used 1986 BMW R80RT touring bike, removed the original 800cc engine and replaced it with a 26.5-hp Daihatsu diesel engine designed for commercial lawn equipment.
The world uses a cubic mile of petroleum each year, and demand keeps rising as the global economy booms.
The research of Cornell U professor David Pimentel estimates that it takes approximately 1.3 gal. of oil to produce a single gallon of ethanol.
. . It would take 450 pounds of corn to yield enough ethanol to fill the tank of an SUV. Producing enough ethanol to replace America’s imported oil alone would require putting nearly 900 million acres under cultivation—or roughly 95% of the active farmland in the country.
. . There’s a simple reason that ethanol is popular with politicians: money. Substituting corn ethanol for a large fraction of the gasoline we burn will mean sluicing gushers of cash from more populated states to politically powerful farm states. And a lot of that cash will wind up in the pockets of the big agribusinesses, like Archer Daniels Midland, that dominate ethanol processing—and whose fat checkbooks wield enormous influence in Washington.
. . If enacted, current proposals will amount to a huge hidden tax on consumers, with benefits flowing to the politically connected. Once set in motion, such a program would be all but impossible to stop—even if other alternatives, like cellulosic ethanol, turn out to be vastly superior. And every dollar spent on corn ethanol is a dollar not spent on those other, more promising approaches.
With researchers estimating that our rivers and estuaries could provide up to 130,000 gigawatt-hours per year —-about half the yearly production of the country's dams-— it's only a matter of time before major energy utilities begin testing the waters.
. . They're called tidal turbines, and their rotors are propelled by tidal currents instead of wind. The largest test of this new type of power production is under way in New York City's East River, with six 35-kilowatt turbines scheduled to be installed by mid-March in a channel that's off-limits to large vessels. As the 16-ft.-dia. rotors spin, as close as 6 ft. to the water's surface, they'll provide power to a supermarket and a parking garage. Once the test wraps up in June 2008, Virginia-based Verdant Power hopes to add hundreds more turbines, potentially reaching a total capacity of as much as 10 megawatts — enough to power 4000 homes. The test should answer real-world questions, such as whether the rotors will become encumbered by barnacles. But with researchers estimating that our rivers and estuaries could provide up to 130,000 gigawatt-hours per year — about half the yearly production of the country's dams — it's only a matter of time before major energy utilities begin testing the waters.
Adoption of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) might be able to halve lighting energy consumption and cut CO2 emissions by 258 million metric tons a year.
One of the most promising technologies is whole datacenter DC power distribution. Validus DC Systems announced that it has raised $10 million to further develop its data center power supplies that use direct current (DC). This isn’t a point solution: it requires that servers and other gear be converted to run on DC power.
. . Still, the benefits are pretty big: estimates are the using DC power in the data center would reduce power consumption by between 15 and 40%. The reason is simple thermodynamics: every conversion from AC to DC or DC to AC results in power being lost to heat. In a traditional data center, power gets converted back and forth several times. In a DC data center, the conversion happens once–when it enters the building.
Today's fridges can consume as little as 380 kilowatt-hours, compared with fridges built in the 1970s, which used up to 1580 kwh per year.
Canada uses 540 Billion kwh of electricity per year (2005 figure).
Americans threw out some 3.6 million tons of major appliances in 2005, and another 0.9 million tons of small ones.
Power plants consume about 3.3 kilowatt-hours’ worth of fuel for every 1 kwh that reaches a home outlet.
1 kwh = 3413 BTU.
About 58 million homes heat their water with gas, while 42 million use electricity. But electric systems account for about 50% more CO2 emissions, because so much power is lost in generation and transmission.
A typical family shells out nearly $1300 a year on utility bills. 27,022 kilowatt-hours. That's how much electricity the average U.S. home uses in a year.
Dec 18, 07: California's Pacific Gas & Electric has signed an agreement with Finavera Renewables to supply 2 megawatts of electricity that will be generated by a "wave farm" set 2.5 miles off the coast near Humboldt County. This move is expected to offset 245 tons of CO2 annually. At the heart of the project will be Finavera's AquaBuoy —a fairly simple set involving a floating buoy that generates electricity by bobbing up and down, forcing a piston to drive seawater into a pressurized chamber. The pressure then cranks a turbine.
. . A full-scale buoy is capable of generating enough electricity to power 80 homes. In PGEs setup, 8 buoys will be used in total. If the project succeeds, the wave farm will be expanded to 100 megawatts —but don't expect any of this to happen soon. The farm will produce electricity starting in 2012..."ideally."
Dec 18, 07: A government and industry research project to learn ways to burn coal without emitting global warming gases took a major step forward today as an industry group said it would build the facility at a site in Illinois, choosing the location over two potential sites in Texas. The futuristic $1.8 billion power plant, known as FutureGen, will be built on several hundred acres near Mattoon, Ill. [CO2 sequestration]
Dec 18, 07: Nanosolar, a privately held solar energy company whose backers include Google Inc's (GOOG.O) co-founders, said it has started to sell what it calls "the world's lowest cost solar panel. We have begun shipping panels."
. . The company, which got early stage financing from Google Inc co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, uses a thin-film technology that requires only a fraction of the amount of silicon needed in conventional solar cells. Nanosolar's technique allows it to make panels profitably for less than $1 per watt, it says.
Dec 17, 07: Thank goodness there was no one sitting in the Smartcar when it hit the test-wall at 70mph, but even though the German-made Mercedes vehicle is tiny, it's built like a truck. Remarkably, the door still opens after that tremendous impact. This demo certainly changes our opinion of the safety of the diminutive Smartcar. We saw these cars all over the place on a recent trip to Montréal, and thought they looked way-cool.
Dec 17, 07: The SkySails system, a huge computer-controlled kite that can tow cargo vessels and superyachts, reducing their fuel consumption by up to 30%, has been successfully tested this weekend. The ship HV Beluga Skysails started its maiden voyage from the city of Hamburg and deployed its 1,722-square-foot to save around 10% of fuel. The SkySail is completely automatic, and looking at it in motion makes you wish all ships had one.
. . The technology is different than traditional sailing systems because the sail (parachute-looking) area and the ship are separated by a towing rope. According to them, this result in higher power, easier deployment and higher safety than traditional sails (even automated ones.)
. . The company plans to sell kites that will generate 6,800HP (5,000kW.) And while fuel consumption can be reduced by 50% under optimal wind conditions, they say the average will range from 10 to 35%, enough to guarantee that transportation companies would adopt it, if not to reduce resources, save the planet and hug trees, to help their bottom line against oil prices.
Dec 17, 07: Technological advances and Americans' hearty appetite for natural gas have given Anadarko Petroleum Corp. the opportunity to break new ground —-literally and figuratively-— in this remote, rugged region of the Rocky Mountains. On a cliff several hundred feet above the White River, Texas-based Anadarko is drilling 17 wells from a single location —-a dozen more than it's drilled from a single site in the past.
. . Rather than spread the wells across the landscape, they'll be concentrated in a relatively small area, reducing their "environmental footprint" throughout the Rockies and elsewhere. They're doing so primarily by consolidating wells to groups of 17, 22 and even larger combinations, then drilling in a variety of directions to reach reservoirs — some previously inaccessible.
. . In Utah, where Anadarko plans to go from 1,200 to 3,500 wells, the company is targeting 24-well combos next year. Its 17-well site occupies about 7 acres; a single-well pad is typically 2 to 2 1/2 acres.
. . Such clusters cost more because they require the latest equipment and techniques in directional drilling. But analysts say the economics make sense because multiple-well operations allow companies to work more efficiently, decrease environmental disturbance and, in some cases, find new sources of fuel in unconventional geologic formations once deemed too costly to tap.
. . Shell says it built only two new pads this year but added more than 70 wells.
Dec 17, 07: Norway has drawn up plans to build the world's first shipping tunnel which would save time and money for vessels passing through a coastal area known for its dangerous seas. Strong winds, high waves and powerful currents in the area of Stad on the southwest coast of Norway cause long delays while ships wait for calmer conditions.
. . A recent report from the Norwegian Coastal Administration recommended building the 1,700-meter tunnel and concluded that it would be cost effective. The tunnel, estimated to cost around $310 million and take five years to build, would cut through a peninsula, saving ships the risky journey around the coastline.
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/832/
July 27, 07: Enercon, one of the most innovative wind power companies in the world, has just announced begun selling a six megawatt wind turbine! That's a good 20% more powerful than any other turbine on the market, producing enough power per turbine to power 4,000 homes. Enercon doesn't spend much time figuring out names for it's turbines. Their most popular model, the E-40, has a turbine diameter of 40 m, while this new turbine, the E-112, has a turbine diamter of 112 meters!
. . Interestingly, this isn't the world's largest wind turbine, it just produces the most power, a testament to Enercon's innovative strategies. The turbine blades are specially designed, and Enercon's patented gearless generator keeps noise, friction, and maintenance to a minimum.
http://www.lazyenvironmentalist.com/
Dec 13, 07: As wind turbines get bigger, wind power gets cheaper. But the economies of scale are henceforth being blown to new heights...and widths, and weights, with this gigantic maglev wind turbine. [thimble-shaped]
. . The largest wind turbines in the world produce 5 megawatts of power. This monster would produce a full gigawatt...more than most nuclear power plants, enough to power 750,000 homes.
. . The turbine is colossal, with a footprint of roughly 100 acres. I can't find statistics onhow tall this thing is, but my guess is several hundred meters. It's huge, and it looks like it would be really quite expensive to build. But the owners of the patent are coming out with some astounding figures. Power could be produced at a price of as little as one cent per kilowatt, and investors would recuperate 100% of their money after just a single year.
. . Something tells me that these numbers won't be so astoundingly good after the design leaves the drawing board. But a 1 cent per kilowatt hour estimate leaves an awful lot of room before it becomes unmarketable.
. . The biggest problem, of course, is that it would be a huge addition to any landscape, and requires fairly significant wind speeds for maximum efficiency. We'll see if we can strike a compromise that allows people to have cheap power with a new two-hundred-meter-high neighbor on the horizon.
Dec 15, 07: Proving that we really are all in this together, Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5 billion on a system of large solar power stations in North Africa. This proposed solar power plan could provide the EU with a sixth of its electricity needs, and, as a bonus, provide fresh water to African nations. Though Europe would be the beneficiary, the panels and power stations would be placed along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East, with the electricity transmitted via underwater cables to EU nations.
. . At least that’s the plan, thanks to a $48,000 grant from the City of Sydney Council to Wheeler’s group. The grant was given for research the possibility of installing green roofs on existing buildings. Most buildings weren’t designed to hold green roofs and, as is, don’t have the capacity to handle a green roof installation. The group will study the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of this plan. So far, estimates say that greening a roof of a standard building could cost up to $1,500 per square meter.
. . The plan, named Desertec, would produce billions of watts of power, providing Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs while significantly cutting CO2 emissions. The northern Africa stations would also be used as desalination plants to provide African countries with fresh water.
. . While you may be skeptical of the outsourcing of energy production, proponents agree that the desert is an untapped resource of sunlight, and the plan would benefit both Europe and Africa. “We don’t make enough use of deserts,” said physicist Gerhard Knies, co-founder of the scheme. “The sun beats down on them mercilessly during the day, and heats the ground to tremendous temperatures. Then at night that heat is radiated back into the atmosphere. In other words, it is completely wasted. We need to stop that waste and exploit the vast amounts of energy that the sun beams down to us.”
. . Desertec has garnered support from the EU, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Jordan, and other nations in the region. It is currently being developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation.
Dec 13, 07: The Senate passed a trimmed-back energy bill today that would bring higher-gas mileage cars and SUVs into showrooms in the coming decade and fill their tanks with ethanol.
. . The measure was approved with strong bipartisan support 86-8 after Democrats abandoned efforts to impose billions of dollars in new taxes on the biggest oil companies, unable by one vote to overcome a Republican filibuster. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky predicted President Bush will sign the bill. The measure calls for the first major increase by Congress in required automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years, something the auto companies have fought for two decades. The car companies will have to achieve an industrywide average 35 mile per gallon for cars, small trucks and SUVs over the next 13 years, an increase of 10 mpg over what the entire fleet averages today.
. . The increased efficiency by 2020 will save 1.1 million barrels of oil of a day, equal to half the oil now imported from the Persian Gulf, save consumers $22 billion at the pump, and reduce annual greenhouse gases emissions by 200 million tons, said Sen. Daniel Inouye.
. . The energy legislation would require that ethanol use as a motor fuel be ramped up at an unprecedented pace to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. And at least 21 billion gallons will have to be ethanol from feedstock other than corn such as prairie grasses, switchgrass and wood chips.
. . The legislation also would increase energy efficiency requirements for appliances and federal and commercial buildings and require faster approval of federal energy efficiency standards. These measures, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., "will eventually save more energy than all our previous energy efficiency measures combined."
. . "The Senate Democrats should show some backbone", said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "If Republicans want to block progress on clean energy and global warming, they should be forced to mount a real filibuster — for weeks if necessary."
Dec 12, 07: A vast new energy supply in hard-to-tap older oil fields may be generated simply by feeding "fertilizer" to some deep-dwelling, gas-making microbes, new research suggests.
. . Canadian and English researchers were able to convert oil into usable methane in small glass tubes during two years of lab research, instead of a process that takes tens of thousands of years underground. The next step is to do it in real oil fields. The new method takes advantage of the natural process that occurs when microbes slowly degrade oil into methane, the chief ingredient in natural gas.
. . Larter said it was hard to come up with just how much energy they could produce, but speculated it could be near the equivalent of the world's conventional oil reserves. The new product would be natural gas, not oil, a cleaner-burning fuel that contributes far less to global warming. Such an approach would be most promising in places with heavy oil, such as Alberta, Venezuela and Utah.
. . The concept makes sense and is already being applied to getting methane from coal beds.
Dec 12, 07: Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has become the first European airline to complete a transatlantic flight with a "green" descent profile designed to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
. . A planeperformed a successful continuous descent approach (CDA) to Arlanda using flight-idle power. For a continuous descent to be possible, air traffic control (ATC) must not require the aircraft to level off and hold at an intermediate altitude during any part of the descent.
. . "The system is based on arrival punctuality", explained Alain Siebert, head of Scandinavian Airlines' Fuel Cost Saving Initiative. "An optimal trajectory to a specific arrival time is given" by ATC, and then --taking account of wind speed-- the pilots manage the speed of the aircraft throughout the descent to ensure that it lands at the designated arrival time.
. . SAS estimates the A330's CDA saved approximately 150 kilograms of fuel and produced 470 kg less CO2 than a usual descent and approach would have generated. In performing the trial flight, SAS became the first European airline to demonstrate its commitment to the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE).
. . Next year, SAS intends to build on research carried out by Lufthansa at Munich International Airport into optimizing ground movements, to minimize taxi time between the terminal and the runway after an aircraft is pushed back at departure.
. . When an airline is able to reduce the fuel-burn of any phase of a flight, it has a multiplying effect on reducing CO2 emissions. This is because the aircraft needs to carry less fuel to burn just to transport the weight of the fuel used in that phase of the flight.
. . The goal under AIRE is to complete an entire transatlantic "green" flight, gate-to-gate, by late 2008 or in early 2009. The airline estimates that if it could conduct CDAs on all its SAS International division's long-haul flights, it would save 492 tons of fuel and would reduce its CO2 emissions by 1,550 tons annually.
Dec 12, 07: Toshiba plans to make a quick-charging new battery for forklifts, construction machinery and other industrial use. Their Super Charge ion Battery, to ship in March, can recharge to 90% of its full capacity in less than five minutes. Toshiba, a newcomer in rechargeable batteries, said the new lithium-ion battery, with a life span of 10 years, could be used in hybrid and electric cars by 2010.
Dec 12, 07: It doesn't seem like an ideal place to promote solar energy, but foggy San Francisco has come up with an ambitious plan to encourage businesses and homeowners to tap the sun's power for their energy needs. The new program would offer companies and residents government-funded loans and rebates to offset the costs of installing solar panels, city officials said.
. . "There is a perception, a myth in our city, that because of our climate we are not ideally situated for solar", Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "The reality is the climate in the Bay Area, the climate in San Francisco specifically, is ideally situated for solar."
. . Many states, including California, offer tax credits or rebates to encourage solar power, and some small utility companies provide financing incentives. But San Francisco's program may be the most ambitious because it couples refunds and loans.
. . The initiative comes on the heels of a solar incentive plan approved last month in the neighboring city of Berkeley, which is financing the cost of solar panels for homeowners who agree to pay the money back through a 20-year property tax assessment. Marin County offers a $500 rebate to property owners who install rooftop solar systems.
. . Under San Francisco's proposal, which must be approved by voters and legislators, businesses would be eligible for rebates of up to $10,000. Residents would receive $3,000 to $5,000 off the cost of installing solar panels.
. . About 660 homes and other buildings in San Francisco already have solar installations. Officials said they hope to bring the number up to 10,000 over the next decade by cutting property owners' out-of-pocket costs by half, if not more.
. . For a typical homeowner in San Francisco, installing a 3-kilowatt, rooftop solar electric system costs $24,000, according to Barry Cinnamon, president of the California Solar Energy Industries Association. Between a $4,000 city rebate, a similar $7,000 refund available through the state and a federal tax credit of $2,000, they would be able to get the price down to $11,000.
Dec 11, 07: MPK, a company that has made a name producing glow-in-the-dark paint, has developed self-luminous micro particles called Litrospheres. The new material is said to be inexpensive (35 cents to light up a 8 ½ x 11 piece of plastic that is 1/8" thick), non-toxic, and capable of staying constantly lit for over 12 years thanks to a betavoltaic technology that uses a radioactive gas.
. . Fortunately, the gas is involves a "soft" emission of electrons that cannot penetrate the glass or polymer wall of the microspheres. So theoretically, you don't have to worry about brain tumors or taking on super powers when using it.
. . The Litrospheres, which can be injected molded or added to paint, are not affected by the heat or cold and they can withstand up to 5000 pounds of pressure. They can also give off light that is equivalent of a 20-watt incandescent bulb in almost any color imaginable. As you might expect, the first applications of the technology will most likely involve safety equipment.
Dec 11, 07: The street lights in the Indian town of Thiruneermalai are run on digested curry. As National Geographic describes it, the human waste from an area housing complex collects in a sump, where the methane gas produced by the "sludge" is used to operate a generator. This biogas produces 3,000 watts. Grand Coulee Dam generates just short of 7 gigawatts.
. . BMW's U.S. manufacturing plant uses methane gas from a nearby landfill to power the ovens in its paint shop.
Dec 11, 07: Ireland will ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs in 2009. These bulbs use technology invented during the age of the steam engine. By getting rid of these bulbs, they will save 700,000 tons of CO2 emissions every year.
Dec 11, 07: Britain's wind-swept coasts and shallow waters are ideal for offshore turbines, but wind generated power currently accounts for less than 2% of its energy generation. Business secretary John Hutton said the government planned to reach the target through a fourfold increase in the amount of space off Britain's shores allocated for wind farms.
. . The move would change Britain's coasts, Hutton acknowledged, but said the need for energy self-sufficiency left the country no choice. He said the plans would depend on environmental impact studies.
. . Massive new offshore wind farms, such as the 1 gigawatt London project planned for the Thames estuary in the country's southeast, are due to go online by 2014. According to the BWEA, the country is on track to overtake Denmark as the world's largest generator of offshore wind power next year.
Dec 10, 07: Britain said every UK home could be supplied by wind power alone by 2020 by making full use of its wind-swept seas but denied it was backing away from thoughts of more nuclear power.
. . The target was greeted with wide skepticism, including from the Renewable Energy Foundation, which accused the government of "green exhibitionism."
. . Britain has some of the best wind conditions in the world for generating CO2-free electricity, but high construction costs and a sluggish planning process have curbed growth.
. . The UK already plans 8 gigawatts of offshore wind farms but the government thinks another 25 GW could be added. "By 2020, enough electricity could be generated off our shores to power the equivalent of all of the UK's homes", Energy Secretary John Hutton said.
. . "Uncontrollable fluctuations in the output of 33 GW of wind would, if unconstrained, almost certainly place exceptional technical demands on the indispensable conventional generators." It said a much more realistic target for offshore and onshore wind would be 10 GW.
. . Analyst David Cunningham at Arbuthnot Securities said building wind turbines at sea made less economic sense than building on land, at 1.6 million pounds per megawatt, compared to around 1 million pounds onshore. "And they also have higher operating costs as you have to use boats and helicopters to get out there for maintenance."
. . Greenpeace called on the government to guarantee premium prices for clean electricity so the power industry could take the risk of investing in thousands of turbines at sea. "Hutton is proposing nothing less than a wind energy revolution, but it won't become a reality on the back of a speech", said Greenpeace director John Sauven. "There will now need to be a revolution in thinking in Whitehall, where the energy dinosaurs have prevailed for too long", he added.
. . British Gas owner Centrica, which has just completed foundations for a windfarm at Lynn and Inner Dowsing about 5 km off the coast of eastern Britain, welcomed the news, but said it was too early to weigh up the economics.
Dec 7, 07: It takes more energy to create a gallon of corn ethanol than the energy that gallon of ethanol creates. Without the 51-cent per-gallon government subsidy, ethanol is noncompetitive.
Dec 7, 07: Agora Research obtained this information from a geological resource map prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy. Approximately 50 miles south of Pierre, SD, in an area that spans approximately 150 square miles is a geological lake of fire. This hotbed could provide a heat source of more than 200 degrees Celsius to be used in the production of electricity. South Dakota ought to begin now to study and develop this significant and potentially environmentally friendly and inexpensive energy source.
. . The state of California is vastly expanding its supply of geothermal energy. Gov. Schwarzenegger recently signed legislation requiring that 20% of California's electrical generation be produced via alternate energy sources by 2010. California sits over a huge geologic lake of fire. Because California is less than friendly toward the construction of electric generation facilities within its borders, it has leased land in Nevada where it is building geothermal energy plants and intends to transport that energy to California.
Dec 6, 07: Pennsylvania-based startup CeeLite is working on a different technology for bendy displays of a much larger order. CeeLites are just 1/8" thick and use up just 4 watts of power per square foot, but can be made into banners 12 feet long and 30 inches high. Rather than OLEDs, they use light-emitting capacitors that emit electricity into a phosphorescent substrate.
. . They can be contained in simple plastic, which makes them more easy to bring to market than OLEDs. You might start seeing illuminated wall panels in restaurants and or self-lighting ads on the sides of buses.
. . OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) -—the same devices that light up screens in cellphones—- are now able to emit brilliant white light when electric current is applied. They can be printed in thin sheets, and can turn walls, ceilings, furniture, or anything else into a light-emitting source. They don't heat up like conventional light bulbs, either.
. . Best of all, once they get this thing perfected, researchers think the devices will be 100% efficient, turning all of the energy applied to them into light. As soon as they work out that pesky problem of moisture sensitivity, these OLEDs will be good to go for sheets of light.
Dec 6, 07: Homeowners would be encouraged to generate their own energy under plans to be announced by UK Conservatives. The party wants to encourage more small-scale electricity generation at homes, schools and hospitals in a bid to tackle climate change.
. . The Tories' new energy policy would make it easier for people to buy and install renewable power equipment. The plans would also allow homeowners to sell the generated electricity to energy companies at a fixed price.
. . The Conservatives say much of the electricity Britain's big power stations create is wasted, lost travelling along the wires to the consumer. They claim it would be more efficient to get people to make their own energy. "This really is power to the people. Once people start generating their own electricity they also become more conscious of the way in which they use it. They will therefore become more responsible about energy use and their own environmental impact."
Dec 6, 07: A Canadian biofuels developer said it plans to build a $24 million plant in southeast Missouri that would convert wood scraps into fuel to operate factories and heat office buildings.
. . Dynamotive Energy Systems Corp. said the plant, to be built 180 miles south of St. Louis in Willow Springs, could generate up to 12 million gallons of fuel per year, consuming up to 73,000 tons of wood byproducts and other residue from nearby sawmills.
. . The company said it would be the first commercial plant in the U.S. to produce liquid biofuel from wood residues, & said it already uses the fuel to generate electricity at one of its two BioOil plants in Ontario and is negotiating with potential U.S. industrial customers.
. . Industrial boilers are responsible for a large percentage of the oil imported into the country. "Approximately 20 to 25% of hydrocarbon usage is industrial purposes, so it's a significant segment", Kingston said.
Dec 5, 07: Massachusetts-based start-up General Compression, which is building a wind turbine that compresses air and stores it underground in caves or other geological structures. The compressed air is drawn when needed and expanded to drive electricity generators.
. . Flywheels from companies like Beacon Power have been approved by regulators for maintaining a steady frequency over the grid as power demand fluctuates minute to minute. The flywheels --essentially huge rotating cylinders-- are designed to absorb energy when the grid is making excess energy and feed the energy back to meet shortfalls in supply.
. . For several hours of storage, utilities are testing different battery technologies. "There's been more going on in energy storage in the last six months than in decades (prior)", said Garth Corey, an electrical storage consultant and former Sandia National Labs scientist.
. . An energy bill, now making its way through Congress, may include a provision that would boost the amount of renewable energy that electric utilities need to generate.
. . Compressed air energy storage (CAES) allows utilities to store hours' and even weeks' worth of electricity. The idea is to use power generators to compress air during off-peak hours, like during the middle of the night, and then tap into it later in the day, when they can command a higher price for electricity.
. . A similar system is being tested at the Iowa Stored Energy Park, where a group of municipally owned utilities intend to store compressed air in porous sandstone. It will be released, as needed, to help turn a traditional gas turbine. The Iowa project is expected to cost $200 million and operate by 2011 with the capacity to store 200 megawatts of power, enough for several days. Both the Iowa and Alabama installations can draw air to make power within 15 minutes.
. . One obvious restraint on CAES is available geological formations to store the compressed air. But Marcus said there are enough locations, such as depleted gas fields in Texas, to last for several years. Wind farms could be located directly above underground storage or, potentially, the compressed air could be sent through existing natural gas pipelines. "There are a lot of salt domes that will handle 300 psi (pounds per inch) of compressed air."
. . In the absence of underground storage to provide on-demand renewable energy, truck-size battery packs can do the trick. Smart Storage Pty of Australia is seeking to combine the high-energy density of a supercapacitor with well-understood lead-acid batteries to make a single unit capable of storing large amounts of electricity. The company claims that its batteries will be able to charge up to 50 percent more power and will last three times longer than other lead-acid batteries. The company's vanadium-based batteries use two tanks of an electrolyte, which flows over a stack of fuel cells to generate electricity. The system is capable of storing hours or even days of power and can last longer than traditional lead-acid batteries, it says.
. . Ohio-based utility American earlier this year said it is purchasing sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries from NGK Insulators of Japan. One of these multi-megawatt batteries --part of a plan to install 25 megawatts of storage this decade at the utility-- will be attached to a wind farm next year.
Dec 3, 07: New research into capturing CO2 produced by coal-fired power stations and burying it beneath the Firth of Forth has received funding. Scottish Power plans to capture CO2 emissions and bury them deep beneath the seabed in the estuary. Edinburgh U will search for the best sites, which will require specific rock formations. They will be looking for porous rock into which the CO2 can be piped, covered by impermeable rock, to stop the gas escaping.
Dec 3, 07: Approximately 998 billion tons of recoverable coal sits underground, according to a 2006 estimate from the International Energy Agency. The U.S. has the most, with 268 billion tons, followed by Russia (173 billion tons), China (126 billion tons) and India (102 billion tons). The four collectively hold 67% of the recoverable reserves.
. . In 2006, 1,438 U.S. mines produced 1.163 billion short tons of coal, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, a 2.8% increase from the year before. A short ton was 2,000 pounds.
. . A ton of coal, depending on the grade, has as much heat energy (25 million BTUs) as 4.5 barrels of oil (PDF). There are probably only 1.9 trillion barrels of conventional oil left for human consumption, and not all of it can be recovered. Thus, there's more than twice as much coal out there than oil.
. . China last year erected 90 gigawatts' worth of coal plants last year alone. That's bigger than the electrical grid of the U.K.
. . Where does it get used? Primarily in electrical power plants. In the US, roughly 1.03 billion tons of the 1.1 billion tons of coal consumed (PDF) in 2006 got gobbled up by power plants. Coal accounted for 49% of the electricity generated in the U.S. in 2006, a slight decline from 2005 due in part to warmer temperatures. (Nuclear power was second, with about 20.2%, while natural gas clocked in at 18.8%. Solar and wind barely account for 2.4%.)
. . Coal accounted for 39% of CO2 emissions in 2004 (behind oil) but is expected to pass oil for the No. 1 spot in 2010, according to the EIA.
. . "The only fossil fuel that can fuel global warming is coal. If you stop coal, you stop global warming. End of story", Mazria said.
. . Other pollutants include nitrogen compounds, sulfur, aluminum, silicon, and even trace amounts of radioactive materials like uranium. China has banned the use of coal burners in homes in cities like Beijing, but coal pollution remains a large health hazard in the country.
. . Environmental and health problems include acid rain, polluted water systems, stripped forests, and mining hazards. Deaths attributed to coal range from several hundred to several thousand a year, depending on who does the counting and which respiratory deaths get attributed to coal.
. . In the early '70s, natural gas was a cheaper source for generating electricity, but coal surpassed it in 1976 and has been at the bottom ever since. In 2005, generating a million BTUs from coal cost $1.54, compared with $8.20 for natural gas. Coal prices are rising, but so is the cost of everything else. Solar thermal plants, which generate electricity with heat from the sun, are approaching the cost of natural gas plants.
. . When the whole process is taken into consideration, liquid fuels derived from coal generate more CO2 than just burning coal itself. If a quarter of the world's coal reserves became liquids, it would increase atmospheric greenhouse gases by 300 parts per million. Increasing the amount of oil coming from tar sands --which accounts for 3 million barrels of the 80 million barrels consumed a day-- would have a similar effect.
. . Since coal-power can't disappear overnight, several start-ups and industrial giants have gravitated toward ideas for storing CO2 and other pollutants that come from it. Powerspan is building a facility in Sugarland, Texas, that will capture the emissions equal to a 125-megawatt generator. The company has developed a process called Electro-Catalytic Oxidation that filters out nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and fine particles from smokestacks. The remaining CO2 is captured by an ammonia-based solution, which is later recovered.
. . Then there is Skyonic, which has come up with an industrial process called SkyMine that captures 90% of the CO2 coming out of smoke stacks and mixes it with sodium hydroxide to make sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. The baking soda can then be used as a safe material for landfills or sold to industrial buyers. "It is cleaner than food-grade (baking soda)."
. . The big issue for these companies will be cost--capture systems like this will likely cost tens to hundreds of millions--and how difficult it will be to retrofit existing facilities to accommodate this stuff.
. . How good is CO2 capture and sequestration? No one knows. Ideas range from putting gases into empty, underground chambers and ringing it with warning sensors (plans are being sketched out for trials in North Africa) to pumping it into porous rock formations (where it will bind with rock) or saline aquifers.
. . Beginning in the fall, SECARB scientists will start to inject a million tons of CO2 a year into a brine reservoir near Natchez, Miss. The large scale of the projects raises questions, though. What about soil contamination, leakage, or earthquakes?
. . Jiang Lin, a scientist with the China Sustainable Energy Program with Lawrence Berkeley Lab in a recent speech. "Without CO2 capture and sequestration, we are all toast."
Nov 30, 07: Mack Kennedy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Matthijs van Soest of Arizona State have created a new technique for finding geothermal sources. By evaluating samples from surface wells for a high ratio of Helium 3 (common in the mantle) to Helium 4 (common in the crust) isotopes, the scientists can identify potential geothermal heat sources anywhere they exist, not just in volcanic regions. That could open up resources in less environmentally sensitive areas than, say, Yellowstone. "We believe we have found a way to map and quantify zones of permeability deep in the lower crust that result not from volcanic activity but from tectonic activity.
. . A few months ago at a conference in Silicon Valley, leading greentech VC John Doerr (of Al Gore fame) said that the lack of investment in tapping geothermal energy sources bordered on criminal. Geothermal power has admirable characteristics after all: it's clean, available in the US, and consistent, which makes the power grid engineers happy.
. . But finding and tapping geothermal power has been difficult. Iceland generates about 25% of its power from geothermal, but globally, geothermal is responsible for less than 1% of energy generation.
. . The scientists' discovery could reduce the cost of finding geothermal reservoirs. Exploration can account for up to one-third of the cost of a geothermal power plant (although that scales down as the size of the plant grows). This is important because the high up-front costs of building geothermal plants has handicapped them in competing with fossil fuel plants. However, the costs of fossil fuel plants are rising as companies are forced to clean up their toxic and greenhouse gas emissions. That will make geothermal plants, along with all cleaner energy technologies, more attractive options in the near-future.
Nov 29, 07: The 16 big flasks of bubbling bright green liquids in Roger Ruan's lab at the U of Minnesota are part of a new boom in renewable energy research.
. . Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source.
. . Some varieties of algae are as much as 50% oil, and that oil can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is slashing the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon. Algae's advantages include growing much faster and in less space than conventional energy crops. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae.
. . An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It wouldn't require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water. And algae can gobble up pollutants from sewage and power plants.
. . They're working to figure out what they can make from the residue that remains after the oil is removed.
. . Because sunlight doesn't penetrate more than a few inches into water that's thick with algae, it doesn't grow well in deep tanks or open ponds. So researchers are designing systems called "photobioreactors" to provide the right mix of light and nutrients while keeping out wild algae strains.
. . Ruan's researchers grow their algae in sewage plant discharge because it contains phosphates and nitrates —-chemicals that pollute rivers but can be fertilizer for algae farms. So Ruan envisions building algae farms next to treatment plants, where they could consume yet another pollutant, the CO2 produced when sewage sludge is burned.
Nov 30, 07: All five nations with Arctic borders —-Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the US-— have engaged in at least some saber rattling over the frozen territory. And it wouldn't be happening without global warming. Roughly 386,000 square miles of Arctic ice melted in 2007 alone, opening the fabled Northwest Passage for the first time in recorded history. The melt also made the billions of barrels of oil thought to be under the Arctic suddenly seem within our grasp. Some are calling it the Cold Rush.
. . The squabbling will be a prelude to —-and even set the tone for-— eventual sovereignty claims on Luna. At the same time that it was making Arctic claims, Russia announced plans for manned lunar missions by 2025 and a permanent base there by 2032. Japan might beat them to the punch with a 2030 base. Both will be able to stop over and share a glass of Tang with US astronauts, who are supposed to start setting up shop in 2020. China also has lunar aspirations, though officials will say only that they plan to get to Luna sometime after 2020.
. . It's been several hundred years since a virgin patch of Earth was successfully claimed by anyone. Now that we may be facing valuable unsullied territory again, it would be wise to come up with a better system. Do we really want to see a repeat of the Americas, colonial Africa, or the Middle East? "As I tell my students, when humans have a conflict there are only two options: to reach agreement or to fight", Gabrynowicz says. "Even agreeing to disagree or doing nothing simply puts these options further into the future; it does not create additional options. At the level of nations, these options are law or war."
Nov 30, 07: As part of its proposed Green Vision 15-year plan, San Jose has pledged to cut its per capita energy in half and move to alternative energy sources for 100% of its electrical power. Right now, clean and renewable sources contribute 12% to 13% of the city’s energy.
. . Collin O’Meara, the city’s CleanTech Policy Strategist, says there are already more than 130 “clean tech” companies located in San Jose, including those that are part of the Environmental Business Cluster. The city’s proposed plan calls for the creation of 25,000 in clean tech jobs and 50 million square feet of green buildings (including new construction and retrofit).
Nov 30, 07: The two sunniest spots on earth are in the Pacific south of Hawaii and in the Sahara in the nation of Niger. Lots of sun, no clouds. This map is based on over two decades of digital date collected by satellites.
1. Approximately 22% of the electricity used in the US goes to lighting lights.
2. If each U.S. household replaced five of their most frequently used light fixtures with more efficient lights, we could collectively save up to $8 billion annually in energy AND cut the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of 10 million cars.
3. The simple act of convincing people around the world to adopt more efficient lighting would have larger impact on energy consumption than the positive impact offered by current wind and solar projects.
4. Switching 25% of the light fixtures in the US to an LED format would thwart the release of roughly 5,700 pounds of airborne mercury annually.
5. Finally, the site reports that about 600 million pounds of fluorescent lamps make their way into landfills each year, translating into about 30,000 pounds of mercury waste.
Truth #1 : Energy consumption for all lighting in the U.S. is estimated to be about 22% of the total electricity generated.
. . truth #2 : If every U.S. home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures with energy efficient lighting, we would save close to $8 billion per year in energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that produced by 10 million cars.
. . truth #3 : A global switch to efficient lighting would dwarf cuts achieved by existing wind and solar power sources, and trim the world's electricity bill by nearly a tenth!
. . truth #4 : If just 25% of U.S. lighting fixtures were converted to LEDs, we could save $115 billion in utility costs; alleviate the need to build 133 new coal-burning power stations; reduce CO2 emissions by 158 million metric tons and avoid releasing 5,700 pounds of airborne mercury per year.
. . truth #5 : Each year, an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in U.S. landfills, amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste. Astonishingly, that's almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year. It only takes 4mg of mercury to contaminate up to 7,000 gallons of freshwater, meaning that the 30,000 pounds of mercury thrown away in compact fluorescent light bulbs each year is enough to pollute nearly every lake, pond, river and stream in North America.
HP’s first agreement, with SunPower, will see the vendor support the installation of a 1-megawatt solar electric power system near its facility in San Diego. The second pact, with Airtricity, calls for HP to purchase more than 80 gigawatt-hours of electricity from onshore and offshore wind farms in Ireland over the next year.)
. . - The system will actually be financed and owned by an unnamed third party; it will include the installation of 5,000 solar photovoltaic panels on top of five of the seven buildings at HP’s San Diego site.
. . - HP will buy back power at a reduced, locked rate under the SunPower Access program.
. . - The agreement covers the plant installation and maintenance for 15 years.
. . - HP estimates that it will save about $750,000 in energy costs over the 15-year period through the SunPower pact.
. . - It will earn renewable energy credits that will reduce CO2 emissions by 1 million pounds per year.
Another really cool thing (no pun intended) about the SunPower deal is that HP has negotiated a program that it hopes will encourage its employees to purchase solar power. HP employees are eligible for a $2,000 rebate from SunPower if they use a SunPower dealer to install a solar power system in their own home. HP will match that rebate with up to $2,000 per installation.
Nov 28, 07: Google initially hopes to harvest cleaner-burning electricity to meet its own needs and sell power to other users or license the technology that emerges from its initiative, dubbed "Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal", or "REC." "If we achieve these goals, we are going to be in the (electricity) business in a very big way", Page said. "We should be able to make a lot of money from this."
. . Al Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts to educate people about the perils of global warming, has been a Google adviser for several years. Page said the former vice president influenced Google's decision to accelerate its investment in renewable energy.
Nov 27, 07: Search giant Google is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy technologies. The Californian firm wants to make green energy sources of electricity cheaper than that produced from coal. Its new initiative is known as RE < C, and will focus initially on solar thermal power, wind power and enhanced geothermal systems.
. . The support, to be channelled through philanthropic arm Google.org, will go to firms, R&D labs and universities. Google also plans to do research itself, and will hire its own engineers and energy experts. "Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades." One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.
. . The company itself has a 1.6-megawatt solar panel system installed at its headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Nov 26, 07: Green computing is mostly about CO2 footprints. One medium-size data center can generate 10,000 metric tons of CO2 per year (because of the power it uses). The key insight is that power is expensive and getting more so–to the point where Gartner VP Ramesh Kumar predicts that it could go from 10% of an IT budget to 50% “within a matter of years”.
. . Further, there are cities (and there will be more) to which power companies literally cannot deliver more electricity: Their grids are maxed out. According to ComputerWorld (March 26th, 2007), for example, “You can’t buy any more power in Boston or Houston, and other cities are either on the tapped-out list or about to be. It doesn’t matter if you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, you can’t buy any more."
Nov 25, 07: Thailand may allow its police officers to cool off by wearing a new short-sleeve uniform, a move they hope will also help save energy at police stations.
Nepal has a potential of producing 83,000 Megawatts of hydropower, while due to lack of capital, it's producing just 600 Megawatts.
Nov 21, 07: "God is Brazilian", Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, in relation to his government's announcement earlier this month that massive new oil reserves had been discovered offshore.
. . Brazil's government and the state-run oil company Petrobras announced two weeks ago that exploration of its Tupi offshore field showed it had enough to increase national oil reserves by 50%. A new discovery nearby still being explored also appeared to contain enough petroleum to propel Brazil among the top 10 oil producers in the world, they said.
Nov 19, 07: By Chuck Squatriglia. There is growing concern within the petroleum industry that we are approaching a limit to the amount of oil that can be pumped each day, and it might arrive before alternative fuels can be adopted on a large enough scale to avert severe energy shortages, the Wall Street Journal reports.
. . The story offers what the Journal calls "a significant twist" on the theory of peak oil while underscoring the urgent call to move beyond oil that the International Energy Agency made earlier this month in its annual World Energy Outlook. Taken together, they make a convincing argument that we've entered the end of oil and must move quickly, boldly and decisively to supplant oil as our primary source of energy.
. . No one, least of all the oil industry executives, is saying the wells will run dry in our lifetime, or even our children's lifetimes. There's still a lot of oil left to be pumped. But there is a growing belief that several factors are converging to create a practical limit to how much we can pull from the earth each day.
. . In other words, after seeing worldwide production rise an average of 2.3% annually since 1965, we may be approaching a plateau beyond which production will not climb. According to the Journal, that ceiling could be 100 million barrels a day, and said we could hit it as early as 2012.
. . The World Energy Outlook says worldwide demand for energy will climb 55% by 2030, with the burgeoning economies of China and India driving almost half the increase. The IEA said that "alarming" growth will within a generation threaten energy security, accelerate global climate change and possibly bring worldwide shortages and conflict if we do not adopt sustainable energy in a big way, and soon.
. . Fossil fuels will remain the leading source of energy, providing 84% of our needs, and oil will continue to dominate the picture as daily demand rises from 85 million barrels today to 116 million in 2030, according to the report. The IEA - an energy watchdog group representing 26 nations, including the US - says we've got enough oil to meet demand even if we don't do anything to change course. That may be so, but as the Journal notes, producing it is another story entirely.
. . In the past three weeks, Christophe de Margerie (chief executive of the French oil company Total SA, the world's fourth-largest petroleum company), James Mulva (chief executive of ConocoPhillips, the third-largest energy company in the U.S.) and Shokri Mohamed Ghanem (chairman of the Libya National Energy Corp.) all have said publicly that they don't see worldwide production topping 100 million barrels a day, and we could hit that ceiling as early as 2012. UPDATE: You can add Lee R. Raymond, a career oilman, former chief executive of ExxonMobil Corp. and current head of the National Petroleum Council.
. . Most of the world's biggest oil fields are aging, and their production is falling. There is widespread speculation that the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest, is petering out, which is significant because it likely has produced more than half the oil that has flowed out of the kingdom. At the rate oil fields are being depleted, simply maintaining our current production of 85 million barrels a day will require producing at least another 4 million daily barrels every year.
. . And that doesn't account for any increase in demand at all. So it might already be too late, Matthew Simmons, a peak oil proponent said.
. . There's been a lot of talk about Canada's oil sands helping out, with proponents saying they could hold as much as 180 billion barrels of oil. But despite years of effort and tens of billions of dollars of investment, we're only getting 1.1 million barrels of crude a day - and few expect to pull more than 3 million a day by 2015, the Journal notes. Nuclear's a tough sell in many quarters, but it will undoubtedly grow more attractive as oil prices climb. But using coal, oil sands and other fossil fuels does nothing to address the problem of global climate change.
. . Of course, as crude oil prices continue climbing --the IEA, in the World Energy Outlook, says we could see it hit $159 a barrel by 2030-- it will make alternative sources of energy more appealing and more viable and more cost-effective.
Nov 19, 07: New solar panels are said to abolish roof racks, brackets and other cumbersome hardware. That's because they're stick-ons!
. . Developed by DRI Energy, the panels use a "peel and stick" approach and can be literally slapped on to any flat roof. Of course, this convenience is not without sacrifice. Ecotality points out that DRI's stickables generate less electricity than the conventional, mountable panels, which is "due to the panels not being tilted to optimize the angle of the sun." They are also not impervious to the elements and can ironically sustain heat damage from sun's radiation.
. . No labor or racking costs --so far so good. The stick-ons' retail value will be the only thing that either makes them or breaks them.
Nov 16, 07: Consumer Reports writes about the pros and cons of LED Christmas tree lighting. In summary:
. . • Not surprisingly, LEDs womp all over incandescents for power saving, using ~33% less power, saving you up to $10 bucks every 300 hours.
. . • Not surprisingly, LEDs won the durability test, failing to burn out over 4,000 hours, with standards burning one or two out per strand before half that time.
. . • LEDs were not brighter, but ran cooler -—Did you know 14 people a year are killed as a result of Christmas tree fires?
. . • Surprisingly, LEDs and incandescents tied for initial price, at about an average of 7 bulbs per buck.
Nov 16, 07: Automakers racing to find affordable ways to make cars environmentally sustainable are zeroing in on polluted, fuel-scarce China to help them take clean car concepts from the laboratory to the market.
. . Mounting alarm over global warming and soaring crude oil prices was evident among automakers showcasing their latest green technologies at the Challenge Bibendum, held this week in Shanghai's "Auto City".
Nov 16, 07: China has sought to curb an expansion in biofuel production to help protect food supplies and control prices. Thus automakers such as Ford, Daimler and Volkswagen AG are focusing on diesel, which can be processed from a variety of resources, including coal and natural gas. "Our aim is to make diesel as clean as gas engines and gas engines as efficient as diesel", Kohler said.
. . Meanwhile, tire makers and chemicals manufacturers are developing new materials to reduce vehicle weight, wind resistance and ground friction — factors that can account for about a third of the CO2 emissions that cause global warming. Even road contractors have a crucial role to play in reducing pollution, recycling materials and using paving that can maximize efficiency.
Nov 15, 07: A federal appeals court sharply rejected the Bush administration's new pollution standards 'for most sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans and ordered regulators to draft a new plan that's tougher on auto emissions.
. . The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration failed to address why the so-called light trucks are allowed to pollute more than passenger cars and didn't properly assess greenhouse gas emissions when it set new minimum miles-per-gallon requirements for models in 2008 to 2011.
. . California and 10 other states, two cities and four environmental groups sued the administration after it announced the new fuel economy standards last year. "It's a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration and its failed energy policy", California Attorney General Jerry Brown said. "The idea of raising vehicle efficiency 1 mile per gallon is pathetic and shocking."
. . The court ordered the administration to draw up new rules as soon as possible, but automakers complained they're already deep into developing light trucks through 2011 based on the new standards. The court ordered the White House to examine why it continues to consider light trucks differently than cars. Fletcher also wrote that the administration failed to consider the benefit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
. . The court also took the administration to task for refusing to include in the new standards trucks weighing more than 8,500 pounds, a class that includes the Hummer H2, Ford F250 and other popular large vehicles. The court ordered NHTSA to develop fuel standards for these large trucks or give a better reason than the agency's argument that it has never regulated those large trucks and that more testing needs to be done.
. . "This historic ruling vindicates our fight against fuel economy standards that are a complete sham and a gift to the auto industry", said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who also joined the lawsuit.
. . Along with California and Connecticut, plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed last year include Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York City, the District of Columbia and several environmental groups.
Nov 15, 07: Fujitsu Siemens may not be a brand typically associated with LCD monitors, and its latest project is equally unusual. The companies have developed a prototype 22-inch LCD monitor that incorporates solar panels working with a capacitor and special relay to cut power usage when on standby.
. . In fact, according to Personal Computer World, it can operate in zero consumption mode for five days on standby and, when active, sips just 0.6-0.9W of electricity. That certainly wouldn't do much pocketbook damage when the utility bills arrive. Word is the company's also looking to use its green tech in TVs, with the monitors slated to be come out first by the second quarter of 08.
Nov 15, 07: Building-integrated solar power for cookie-cutter housing. DRI Energy has developed roofing tiles with solar cells built in them. For commercial customers, it has solar panels that literally glue onto flat roofs. The products, branded under the Lumeta name, will be available in the second quarter of 08.
Nov 15, 07: Most cars sold in Europe are becoming more efficient, but German carmakers are going backwards, a study finds.
Nov 15, 07: There's a proposal to suspend the first wind dam across a gorge at Lake Lagoda in north-west Russia. If granted planning, the dam will be 25m high and boast a 75m span when it goes on site next year. The wind dam, a sail-like structure to harness wind energy, and thought to be the first of its kind in the world. If the project is given the green light, the $5 million dam, which is designed by British architect Laurie Chetwood, will be going up next year on Lake Ladoga, in the northwest of Russia.
. . The dam consists of a spinnaker sail, similar to that of a yacht, which captures the wind, & funnels it through a turbine. Measuring 75 meters wide and 25 meters high, the dam may be joined by a second one in a gorge further up the valley.
Nov 14, 07: A recent application to build the first American nuclear power plant in nearly 30 years has the nuclear community aglow with talk of possible industry resurgence.
. . In September 2007, NRG Energy filed a proposal with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a nuclear power plant in Texas. Last month, NuStart, a nuclear consortium, also filed an application. These represent the leading edge of a wave of renewed interest in domestic nuclear energy.
. . "We are expecting an additional three (applications) before the end of this calendar year", said Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesman, who said another 16 applications, some for multiple power plants, are likely by the end of 2009. "If all of these applications were approved, we would end up with a total of 32 new reactors in the US", Burnell said.
. . Currently, 104 reactors are spread across the US --approximately 20% of domestic-energy output. Assuming all goes well, the first plants could come online as early as 2015, according to Burnell.
. . This resurgence of commercial attention to nuclear power is coming about for several reasons. The increased attention on greenhouse gases and their effects on the global climate is spurring interest in CO2-neutral power-generation technologies, including nuclear power. Improved technologies make new nuclear plants safer and more reliable, supporters say. And federal tax credits and subsidies (.pdf) tucked into the Energy Policy Act of 2005 have kick-started a once-dormant industry.
. . However, industry analysts and scholars are not quite as bullish as industry representatives seem to be, and don't see a nuclear renaissance at all.
. . "We really see it as essentially a number of companies are getting in line for a set of significant taxpayer subsidies", said Geoffrey Fettus, a senior attorney with the National Resources Defense Council. "At this point we're years away from commitments from any of these companies to build."
. . The subsidies that Fettus refers to include a tax credit of up to $125 million total per year, estimated at 1.8 cents per kw/hour during the first eight years of operation, for the first 6,000 megawatts of capacity --the same credit offered for plants that use renewable fuels.
. . In addition, the law provides support for construction of new nuclear plants costing over $1.18 billion, and an extension until 2025 of the Price-Anderson Act, which mitigates financial and legal risk for nuclear plant accidents.
. . Despite the incentives, experts point out that new nuclear construction may still be prohibitively expensive.
Nov 13, 07: Six proposed dams on the Mekong River could displace up to 75,000 villagers and harm hundreds of species like the endangered giant catfish and Irrawaddy dolphin, conservationists warned.
Nov 14, 07: The slopes of Chenjialing Village have shuddered and groaned lately, cracking and warping homes and fields, and making residents fear the banks of China's swelling Three Gorges Dam may hold deadly perils. Tremors returned several times in past months.
. . The vast hydro scheme was meant to subdue the River. The 6,300-km Yangtze, which rises on the Tibetan plateau, flows through the towering Three Gorges to irrigate, and often flood, much of the country's central and eastern plains. From 1919, a succession of leaders argued that a dam would end devastating floods and generate power. That dream eluded the revolutionary founder Mao Zedong, whose plans for a dam foundered in political turmoil and poverty.
. . Along the 660-km reservoir, residents pointed to erosion, slides and deformed terrain they said have seriously worsened since last year, when the water level was raised a second time. Poor farmers worry about being swallowed up by landslides.
. . The Three Gorges Dam is the world's biggest, an engineering feat that seeks to tame the world's third longest river while displacing 1.4 million people. Construction began in 1994. Since the 2,309-meter-long dam was finished in 2003, the reservoir has been filled with water in stages. If all goes to plan, it will reach its maximum capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters of water by the end of 2008
. . A hulking old tree has begun to tilt riverward, a nearby earth terrace suddenly subsided, and many houses show cracks and warping, all since last year, villagers said. "Only families with flooded homes get compensation."
. . In the rainy summer of 2007, landslides across the dam area killed at least 13 people. A Xinhua news agency report last year cited over 1,900 geological hazards around the dam, including 362 urgently needing safety work. Thirteen had received it.
Nov 14, 07: Ethanol: By Michael Butler and Randy Shefman, News.com: We neglected to factor in the increased cost of transporting commodity feedstocks to the plants that make fuel as well as the cost of bringing the finished product to the blending market. Most of this cargo is moved by rail. The cost of train trips from the corn fields of the Midwest to our national refining centers, where ethanol is blended with gasoline, have increased markedly, for example, and have a significant effect on business models and the bottom line.
. . Oil is surging to nearly $100 a barrel, soy beans selling at $9 a bushel, and corn rising to just under $4 a bushel.
. . While the latest ethanol boom was driven by the need to replace MTBE as a gasoline oxygenate and the blending requirements promulgated by the Renewable Fuel Standard set out in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, many investors expected these early drivers to be augmented by increasing consumer demand for ethanol in higher concentrations, such as E85--a mixture that contains 85% denatured fuel ethanol and 15% gasoline.
. . As always, the debate will be about whether the government is funding basic sustainable technology research or pre-annointing industry winners.
Nov 13, 07: They might measure a mere 2.5 meters (eight feet) in length and only be capable of carrying two passengers, but tiny Smart cars are aiming to make it big in the US.
. . As more than one million car enthusiasts prepare to descend on this week's Los Angeles Auto Show, one of the central attractions is expected to be Daimler's "Fortwo" Smart car, which goes on sale in the US next year.
. . Retailing at 11,600 dollars, Smart cars are cheap, easy to maneuver, and fuel-efficient, running at around 40-45 miles (65-72 kilometers) to the gallon.
Nov 13, 07: Researchers at Penn State U say they've developed a way to use bacteria to extract hydrogen from almost any biodegradable organic substance, from grass clippings to wastewater.
. . The method uses bacteria called exoelectrogens to break down acetic acid --produced by fermenting cellulose, glucose or other biodegradable organic matter-- in a microbial electrolysis cell to create hydrogen.
. . Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but it rarely appears alone and must be extracted from other substances. The cheapest and most common method is steam reforming, where natural gas and steam create a chemical reaction that yields hydrogen and CO2. This method produces almost half the hydrogen available today.
. . Greener methods use wind, solar and other sustainable energy to generate electricity for electrolysis, which divides water into hydrogen and oxygen. But it requires a lot of water and energy, making it relatively inefficient, and accounts for just 4% of all hydrogen produced.
Nov 10, 07: America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both by cutting calories and CO2 at the same time. How? Get out of your car and walk or bike half an hour a day instead of driving. And while you're at it, eat less red meat. The average American man eats 1.6 times as much meat as the government recommends.
. . The payoffs are huge, although unlikely to happen. One numbers-crunching scientist calculates that if all Americans between 10 and 74 walked just half an hour a day instead of driving, they would cut the annual U.S. emissions of CO2, the chief greenhouse gas, by 64 million tons. About 6.5 billion gallons of gasoline would be saved. And Americans would also shed more than 3 billion pounds overall.
. . Last year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the meat sector of the global economy is responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Much of that is indirect, including the fertilizer needed to grow massive amounts of feed for livestock, energy use in the whole growing process, methane released from fertilizer and animal manure, and transportation of the cattle and meat products. Similar calculations were made in a study in September in the medical journal Lancet.
The 11 most bike friendly cities? 1. Amsterdam . 2. Portland, Oregon . 3. Copenhagen . 4. Boulder, Colorado . 5. Davis, California . 6. Sandnes, Norway . 7. Tronheim, Norway . 8. San Francisco, Cal . 9. Berlin . 10. Barcelona . 11. Basel, Switzerland
. . We all know Amsterdam leads the list --since bicycles account for 40% of all traffic in that city. Virgin has put together a list of the top 11 friendliest cities for bikes in the world, based on criteria advanced by the League of American Bicyclists. And what would those criteria be? Why, they're enshrined in the Five Es:
. . 1. Engineering (bike parking, designated lanes, etc.)
. . 2. Encouragement (events and campaigns)
. . 3. Evaluation and Planning (ongoing political bodies that make changes to existing laws and plan for the future)
. . 4. Education (bike maps and awareness campaigns)
. . 5. Enforcement (making motorists heel)
Nov 8, 07: Land clearances in Indonesia to meet the growing global demand for palm oil pose a serious threat to the environment, a report has warned. Forests are being burned and peat wetlands drained for plantations, causing huge releases of CO2 into the atmosphere, Greenpeace said. The environmental group warned of a potential "climate bomb" and called for the clearances to stop.
. . Palm oil is an ingredient in foods and a bio-fuel added to diesel for cars. It is already controversial because it is often grown on rainforest land in South-East Asia, says the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin.
. . But Greenpeace's "Cooking the Climate" report investigates the cultivation of the crop in Indonesian peat swamps, thought to be one of the most valuable stores of carbon in the world.
. . In normal rainforest, there is much more carbon stored in microbes in the soil than in the leaves and branches of the trees. In peat wetlands, that is magnified with soils many meters deep. But these wetlands are fast being cleared and drained, causing large quantities of CO2 to be emitted. According to the report, every year 1.8bn tons of CO2 --a major cause of climate change-- are released by the destruction of Indonesia's peat wetlands.
. . In July, environmental groups said a huge project planned for Borneo would cause irreparable harm to the territory and culture of indigenous people.
Nov 8, 07: If there are any lingering doubts as to whether the age of oil is nearing its end, the International Energy Agency has put them to rest and made it clear that only a massive and immediate investment in sustainable energy will prevent a global crisis.
. . The agency states in no uncertain terms, in its annual World Energy Outlook, that "alarming" growth in worldwide energy needs will within a generation threaten energy security, accelerate global climate change and possibly bring worldwide shortages and conflicts.
. . It's an unusually pessimistic view from an agency that has long said oil production, with trillions of dollars of investment, could meet rising energy needs. But the explosive growth of China and India has caused a seismic change in thinking at the IEA, which says we must move swiftly, boldly and decisively beyond fossil fuels if we are to avert a crisis.
. . The CEO of the French oil firm Total recently told the Financial Times the industry is going to have a hard time producing even 100 million barrels a day, and IEA officials told the Guardian that crude oil could hit $159 a barrel by 2030.
. . More and more of the energy we need will come from the Middle East, as oilfields in the North Sea and Mexico peter out and Canada's oil sands generate just 3 million barrels a day, the IEA says. That will leave the industrialized world ever more dependent on an increasingly volatile region for its energy.
. . As an overall piece of the global energy pie, oil will shrink as demand for coal skyrockets 73% and the use of natural gas and electricty climb too, the IEA says. Meeting the demand for all that fossil fuel will require investing $22 trillion in the supply infrastructure.
. . But of perhaps greater concern is the environmental impact of such growth. Without sweeping changes, the report states, CO2 emissions will rise 57% to 42 gigatons by 2030. Even under the best case-scenario, which assumes the various proposals by industrialized nations to reduce emissions come to pass, emissions will climb 25%.
. . So what can we do? The IEA doesn't offer a whole lot of solutions beyond saying improving energy efficiency --of everything, from automobiles to refrigerators-- will be the quickest and cheapest way to begin curbing energy demand and carbon emissions. Clearly that won't be enough, and the IEA makes that point clear when it says we must explore every option and "a substantial increase is called for in public and private funding for energy technology research, development and demonstration."
. . Wind, solar and geothermal power and cellulosic ethanol, to name a few, also hold promise, and nuclear power can serve as a stopgap while they mature. The IEA says "we do not have the luxury of ruling out any of the options for moving the global energy system onto a more sustainable path", and it's right. It's time to move beyond oil.
Nov 8, 07: Ships belching toxic fumes from diesel fuel contribute to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Europe, Asia and the US each year, claims a U.S. report released this week.
. . As many as 60,000 people living in coastal communities along major shipping routes died from lung and heart complaints as a result of high sulfate emissions from ships in 2002, according to the study by the American Chemical Society.
. . With international maritime trade on the rise and little regulation of ship emissions, that death toll could rise to as many as 82,000 by 2012, says the report. Diesel-powered ships burn some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet today —-on average, having almost 2,000 times the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel in the US and Europe.
. . While air pollution from diesel trucks and buses has been reduced by more than 90 percent over the last few decades, emissions from ocean-faring ships —-using the same diesel engine technology-— have risen virtually unchecked, it said.
. . Weldon said ships could reduce pollution by cutting speeds near shores and switching to cleaner fuels as they approached ports. Already, port cities such as Rotterdam and Los Angeles have imposed their own strict emission standards on ships entering their waters.
. . Arthur Bowring, of the Hong Kong Ship Owners Association, said voluntary regulation was not the answer as cleaner fuels, such as distillate, were nearly double the cost of the fuel most ships currently use. "International regulation is the only way to bring in the use of cleaner fuels and ensure there is no competitive disadvantage when using it", he said.
Nov 7, 07: The global demand for energy is set to grow inexorably through to 2030 if governments do not change their policies, warns a top energy official. Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said such a rise would threaten energy security and accelerate climate change. He said energy needs in 2030 could be more than 50% above current levels, with fossil fuels still dominant. Mr Tanaka was speaking at the launch of the IEA's World Energy Outlook report.
. . Rapid economic growth in China and India would be the main drivers behind the rise, he said. Energy-related CO2 emissions could rise by 57% --from 27 giga-tons in 2005 to 42 giga-tons in 2030, it said. Even in the report's "alternative policy scenario", which takes into account the governments' proposed action to save energy and cut emissions, CO2 levels are set to rise by 25%.
. . It described a notional strategy for governments to stabilise CO2 levels in the atmosphere at about 450 parts per million (ppm), which some scientists and policy makers suggest is an acceptable concentration. "Emissions savings come from improved efficiency in industry, buildings and transport, switching to nuclear power and renewables, and the widespread deployment of carbon capture and storage", the report said. This approach would see global emissions peak in 2012 then fall sharply below 2005 levels by 2030, it suggested.
. . But it added: "Exceptionally quick and vigourous policy action by all countries, and unprecedented technological advances, entailing substantial costs, would be needed to make this case a reality."
7-05-05: [old, & now worth a repeat] Fueling nuclear reactors with the element thorium instead of uranium could produce half as much radioactive waste and reduce the availability of weapons-grade plutonium by as much as 80 percent. But the nuclear power industry needs more incentives to make the switch, experts say.
. . Scientists have long considered using thorium as a reactor fuel --and for good reason: The naturally occurring element is more abundant, more efficient and safer to use than uranium. Plus, thorium reactors leave behind very little plutonium, meaning that governments have access to less material for making nuclear weapons. But design challenges and a Cold War-era interest in using nuclear waste byproducts in atomic bombs pushed the industry to use uranium as its primary fuel.
Nov 7, 07: Poet, a Sioux Falls, SD-based company, which has been making ethanol from corn for more than 20 years, is working with Ihnen and several farm equipment manufacturers to develop ways to harvest, store and transport cobs that could one day join kernels as an alternative fuel source.
. . Poet plans to expand its plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, to produce 125 million gallons of ethanol per year —-25 percent from corn cobs and fiber. Farmers typically leave cobs and stalks behind in the fields, but cobs —-which are the densest part of corn-— can be removed without causing soil erosion or stealing soil nutrients.
. . The company estimates it will pay somewhere between $30 and $60 a ton. Poet will need about 275,000 acres of cobs to supply its expanded Emmetsburg plant, which is scheduled to begin operation in 2011.
. . In addition to ethanol production, there's a huge cottage industry for corn cobs, which are used as an organic abrasive on metal, plastic and wood. Poet officials said the company's cellulosic ethanol research should allow it to squeeze 27 percent more fuel from each acre of the crop.
Nov 4, 07: Most people are ready to make personal sacrifices to address climate change, according to a BBC poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries. Four out of five people indicated they were prepared to change their lifestyle --even in the US and China, the world's two biggest emitters of CO2.
. . Opinion was split over tax rises on oil and coal --44% against, 50% in favor. Support would rise if the cash was used to boost efficiency and find new energy sources, the poll suggested.
. . Opinions were divided on proposals to increase taxes on fossil fuels. Worldwide, 50% are in favour and 44% are opposed. The Chinese are the most enthusiastic when it comes to energy taxes --85% of those polled saying they were in favor, 24 percentage points more than in the next most-supportive countries.
. . However, when people opposed to energy taxes were asked whether their opinion would change if the revenue from the taxes were used to increase energy efficiency or develop cleaner fuel, large majorities in every country were in favour of higher taxes.
. . And when those opposed to higher taxes were asked whether they would change their minds if other taxes were reduced in order to keep their total tax burden the same, the survey again discovered large majorities in every country in favor of higher green taxes.
Nov 5, 07: Marvell's launching a new chip for more efficient power supplies that cuts down energy use by automatically adjusting the amount of juice drawn by a computer depending on what it actually needs, slashing waste -—it can chop peak energy use by up to 50%, according to Marvell.
. . It also supposedly rolls the functionality of 20 components into the single processor, allowing for the "Honey I Shrunk the Power Brick" magic (by up to a third) at lower costs for OEM manufacturers.
. . Expect products with the new chips to start showing up in a few months. While we'll see them in desktop and notebook power supplies first—Marvell's hitting them because of the size of computers' CO2 footprint and its potential reduction—they could also make their way into flatscreen TVs, portables and other consumer electronics. It was tipped that they're talking to at least one manufacturer now.
. . According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are more than 10 billion AC-DC power supplies used in computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics worldwide, an estimated 2.5 billion in the United State alone. More efficient power supply designs could cut U.S. energy usage in half, saving nearly $3 billion and about 24 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.
. . 80 PLUS is an electric utility-funded incentive program to integrate more energy-efficient power supplies into desktop computers and servers.
Nov 5, 07: The concept is refreshingly simple: make an ultra-efficient car that’s light, has exceptionally low drag, and sips diesel with a small engine. This is the Loremo AG, a car that is a combination of innovative technology and back-to-basics thinking. To be shown at the upcoming car show in Geneva, this German creation claims a fuel economy of 157 mpg with no fancy hybrid drive train, fuel cells, or plug in paraphernalia. Weighing less than a thousand pounds, the sporty rear-wheel drive 4-seater is designed to be maximally aerodynamic. the Loremo sports a modest 2-cylinder, 20 hp turbo diesel motor, has a top speed of 100 mph, and does 0-60 in ten seconds. If that sounds like less than elite performance, the anticipated $13,000 price tag should put it in a bit more perspective. The Loremo is due to come onto the European market in 2009.
Nov 5, 07: Living Power Systems, a company being spun out of Harvard U, has made a microbial fuel cell that is able to tease a trickle of electricity from garden-variety bacteria in the ground. The ability to generate a tiny flow of electrons from organic material has been understood for decades and is a staple at elementary school science fairs.
. . Living Power Systems has developed a system that it says can create a useful amount of power, at least for specialized uses. Its technology consists of a material that encourages microbes in the ground to grow across the surface of an electrode and specialized circuitry that siphons off the electricity microbes create during metabolism.
. . Although the company is targeting a few specific markets initially, Girguis said that microbial fuel cells have the potential to provide 15% to 20% of household energy by tapping into the electricity in people's yards or septic systems. The technology could be used to power a cell phone tower today, he said.
. . Right now, its devices can generate about one half a watt from a square meter of ground, or 12 watt-hours per day. In its labs, it's been able to generate 10 times that amount.
. . Company executives call microbial fuel cells the "bicycle of electricity" because they are simple to operate and can be manufactured locally in developing countries.
. . For the past two years, a device using the company's technology has been drawing electricity from the sediment at the bottom of Monterey Bay in California. The sonar navigational beacon for nuclear submarines was deployed as part of a military grant. A device in a lab has been operating for six years.
Nov 5, 07: Google intends to generate 50 megawatts of electricity from renewable forms for its operations by 2012.
Nov 3, 07: It takes five to 10 days for the pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the US, like a slow-moving storm.
. . It shows up as mercury in the bass and trout caught in Oregon's Willamette River. It increases cloud cover and raises ozone levels. And along the way, it contributes to acid rain in Japan and South Korea and health problems everywhere from Taiyuan to the US. This is the dark side of the world's growing use of coal.
. . Worldwide demand is projected to rise by about 60% through 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year, most of it going to electrical power plants. But the growth of coal-burning is also contributing to global warming, and is linked to environmental and health issues including acid rain and asthma. Air pollution kills more than 2 million people prematurely, according to the World Health Organization.
. . "Hands down, coal is by far the dirtiest pollutant", said Dan Jaffe, an atmospheric scientist at the U of Washington who has detected pollutants from Asia at monitoring sites on Mount Bachelor in Oregon and Cheeka Peak in Washington state. "It is a pretty bad fuel on all scores."
. . Cornstalks lining a highway outside the city 400km southwest of Beijing are covered in soot. The same soot settles on vegetables sold at the roadside, and the thick, acrid smoke blots out the morning sun. At its worst, the haze forces highway closures and flight delays. "They look at polluted places like Taiyuan and say it's so polluted there so it doesn't matter if they have another five power plants."
. . Health costs related to air pollution total $68 billion a year, nearly 4% of the country's economic output, the report said. And acid rain has contaminated a third of the country. It is said to destroy some $4 billion worth of crops every year.
. . But the costs go far beyond China. The soot from power plants boosts global warming because coal emits almost twice as much CO2 as natural gas. And researchers from Texas A&M U found that air pollution from China and India has increased in cloud cover and major Pacific Ocean storms by 20% to 50% over the past 20 years.
. . Mercury, a byproduct of some coal-mining, is another major concern. The potent toxin falls into waterways and shows up in fish. Asia's contribution to U.S. mercury levels has shot up over the past 20 years. Jacob estimated half of the mercury in the US comes from overseas, especially China.
. . China has closed some polluting factories and says it will retire 50 gigawatts of inefficient power plants, or 8% of the total power grid, by 2010. The government has also mandated that solar, wind, hydroelectric and other forms of renewable energy provide 10% of the nation's power by 2010, and ordered key industries to reduce energy consumption by 20%.
Nov 3, 07: Venture capitalists invested $2.4 billion in green-energy companies last year, three times what was spent in 2005.
Nov 3, 07: With the price of crude oil all but assured of topping $100 a barrel after a quick succession of all-time highs, the future of alternative energy has never looked better.
. . Oilpump500_2 As Wired reported in "Why $5 Gas is Good For America", the higher crude prices climb, the more attractive --and viable-- emerging technologies like biofuel, hydrogen and plug-in hybrids become. It also bodes well for other forms of fossil fuels, such as methane hydrates and oil shale, once thought too expensive to develop.
. . Cheap oil has historically undermined large-scale investment in alternative energies because the cost of developing them exceeded the profit potential. But as the price of crude has climbed, so has the incentive --and the capital-- to find alternatives.
Nov 2, 07: In the Kenyan slum of Kibera, outside of Nairobi, an oven fueled by garbage is now in testing. At its heart is a superheated steel plate that vaporizes drops of water. The oxygen released burns discarded sump oil from vehicles, reaching even higher temperatures up to 930° F. Garbage is then used to maintain the heat.
. . Residents can use the oven to cook hot meals or make hot water for washing. The system's added benefit is that it reduces waste in the area, a problem that has gotten so bad that it is beginning to destroy Kenya's plains.
. . Recognized as the first of its kind, the concept has caught on quickly, and plans for 20 more are already in the works. As people are increasingly drawn to urban areas, excess waste is rapidly becoming a critical problem. There are still some obvious kinks to be worked out, such as containing the fumes from the burning garbage.
. . The oven was built with the help of a $10,000 grant from the United Nations Environment Program. Advocates of the oven hope that the technology works well enough to be employed in large cities everywhere.
Nov 2, 07: Dallas Zoo officials are moving forward with a plan to turn animal droppings, cardboard and tree limbs into power for several buildings and irrigation for the zoo's landscaping.
Nov 1, 07: The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa. The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans. "Their life stops or is very narrowed when the sun goes down", she said. "Two extra hours of light would make a big difference to their life."
. . The Foundation said the lights would replace the expensive, polluting and unhealthy alternatives many Africans currently use to light their homes. Field testing of the prototypes will start in Kenya in the next few months.
. . The World Bank estimates that more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity supplies. Buying kerosene or batteries can consume up to 15% of a household's budget, said Ms Pearson. In addition wood was hard to gather and unhealthy to burn.
Nov 1, 07: Energy savings in UK households could be up to 30% lower than previously thought, jeopardizing efforts to cut the nation's CO2 emissions. As people cut their bills by using more efficient devices, they tend to spend the extra money buying additional goods that cancel out some of the savings.
. . The government has set a binding target of cutting CO2 levels by 60% by 2050. This has increased the need for accurate measurements.
. . "In the end, I may drive further because driving is cheaper and that will offset some of the energy savings. The energy consumption per mile may be less, but I am driving more miles."
Nov 1, 07: The biggest teams --Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota among them--each spend $200 million or more a year on fossil-fuel technology with little real-world application. But now the sport's ruling body has said, "Enough", and banned further investment in F1 engines. Teams must now focus on hybrid systems and other eco-friendly means of producing power.
. . The 10-year "total freeze" on engine development announced in Paris Oct. 24 is a stunning move. It shows the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile --the Paris-based organization that governs much of the world's auto racing-- is serious about having F1 lead the way to a greener future. More importantly, it will spur rapid innovation in hybrid and alternative fuel systems.
. . Kinetic-energy recovery systems, which make their F1 debut in 2009, are one area where F1 is already advancing green car technology. These systems use a flywheel in the transmission to capture the energy generated during braking and store it for use during acceleration. It improves the current technology used in hybrid cars, which rely on heavy batteries to store recovered energy.
. . Flybrid Systems will generate as much as 80 horsepower without burning an additional drop of fuel. Looking ahead to 2011, the FIA wants exhaust gases and heat generated by the cars' 2.4 liter, eight-cylinder engines captured and used for propulsion.
Oct 31, 07: IBM's new breakthrough recycling process, promising to turn semiconductor byproduct into the raw material for silicon-constrained solar panel production, is a shining example of a waste-to-energy success.
Oct 31, 07: The latest estimates show 5% of electricity used in the US goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year.
. . In California, lawmakers passed a proposal last year —-dubbed the Vampire Slayers Act-— to add vampire electronics labels to consumer products, detailing how much energy a charger, computer, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave or coffee maker uses when on, off or in standby mode.
Oct 29, 07: General Motors announced it would set up a $250 million alternative fuel research center in Shanghai. Beijing has made cleaner cars a policy priority, targeting the field as one of 11 priority areas in a 15-year technology development plan issued in February 2006. It promised grants and tax breaks to support industry efforts. General Motors announced previously that it plans to start selling a gas-electric hybrid vehicle in China next year. General Motors has estimated market share in China of 11.8%.
. . China already is the world's No. 2 oil consumer after the US and saw imports soar by 14.5% in 2006, driven by economic growth that has topped 10% for the past four years.
Oct 29, 07: How many electric car and plug-in start-ups are there in the world today?
I count 16. They are: Tesla Motors (sports cars), Wrightspeed (sports cars and plug-in drivetrains for trucks), Fisker Automotive (electric sedans), Zap (low-speed and sports cars), Miles Automotive (low speed), Zenn Motors (low speed), AC Propulsion (retrofitting Scions for electric), Phoenix Motorcars (SUVs), Aptera (three-wheelers), Porteon (low speed electrics), Lightning (sports cars in England), Reva (economy cars), Ultramotor (electric trishaws), Myers Motors (freakish three-wheelers featured in Goldmember), Think (electric economy cars) and Venture Vehicles (three-wheeled electric cars.).
. . That doesn't even count the major car companies --GM and Nissan-- committed to coming out with electric cars and plug-ins, or the people doing diesel hybrid buses. And there are also the three electric scooter and motorcycle guys: Zero Motorcycles, Vectrix and Brammo. And it doesn't count the golf cart guys. Or the battery guys like Altair Nanotechnologies.
Oct 29, 07: CFLs contain mercury which is also harmful to the environment, that is true and you’ll need to recycle old CFLs properly. But mercury emitted from power plants during generating electricity to feed your incandescent light bulbs could be even higher.
Oct 29, 07: Wind energy may be emerging as an important alternative power source for the Northwest, but there are concerns about the danger to hawks and eagles as turbines expand to wild areas of the Columbia River Gorge.
. . By year's end, more than 1,500 turbines will churn out electricity in the windy gorge. Until now, most of the projects have gone up in wheat fields —-cultivated land that long ago drove away the rodents that raptors hunt. But as wind energy developers move into wilder areas along the ridge of the gorge, near canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, birds could be at risk from the 150-foot blades of giant turbines.
. . Nationwide, wind turbines kill an average of 2.3 birds a year, studies show. In the Northwest, it's about 1.9 birds per turbine.
. . Golden eagles and ferruginous hawks —-a threatened species in Washington-— already are few in number, said Michael Denny of the Blue Mountain Audubon Society. Even a few fatalities could prove devastating, he said.
. . Raptors are known for their keen eyesight and might learn to negotiate the turbines and their spinning blades, studies suggest.
Oct 29, 07: It is estimated that each year in the USA:
. . * 57 million birds die in collisions with vehicles
. . * 1.25 million in collisions with tall structures (towers, stacks, buildings)
. . * more than 97.5 million in collisions with plate glass
. . * 4 million to 10 million night-migrating songbirds in collisions with telecommunications towers
. . * household cats in the U.S. are estimated to kill 100 million birds each year
. . In comparison, each wind turbine kills 0 - 2 birds per year at worst.
. . Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) figures show that total installed wind energy capacity in 2006 was 74,223 MW.
Oct 29, 07: A subsidiary of coal giant Shenhua is building a 200-megawatt wind farm in the waters off China's east coast. "The goal is to raise both efficiency and turn to renewables while backing out of coal in the process", said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank in Washington. "The question is, can we move fast enough?"
Oct 29, 07: Almost nonstop, gargantuan 145-ton trucks rumble through China's biggest open-pit coal mine, sending up clouds of soot as they dump their loads into mechanized sorters.
. . The black treasure has transformed this once-isolated crossroads nestled in the sand-sculpted ravines of Inner Mongolia into a bleak boomtown of nearly 300,000 people. Day and night, long and dusty trains haul out coal to electric power plants and factories in the east, fueling China's explosive growth.
. . Coal is big, and getting bigger. As oil and natural gas prices soar, the world is relying ever more on the cheap, black-burning mainstay of the Industrial Revolution. Mining companies are racing into Africa. Workers are laying miles of new railroad track to haul coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. And nowhere is coal bigger than in China.
. . An average of 13 Chinese miners die every day in explosions, floods, fires and cave-ins. Toxic clouds of mercury and other chemicals from mining are poisoning the air and water far beyond China's borders and polluting the food chain.
. . So far, attempts to clean up coal have largely not worked. Technology to reduce or cut out CO2 emissions is expensive and years away from widespread commercial use.
. . Use is projected to rise 60% by 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year, according to the International Energy Agency. Worldwide electricity consumption is expected to double by 2030, the World Energy Council says.
. . In America, about 150 new coal-fired electrical plants are proposed over the next decade. In China, there are plans for a coal-fired power plant to go on line nearly every week. Emissions from these plants alone could nullify the cuts made by Europe, Japan and other rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol treaty.
. . China mined a record 2.4 billion tons of coal in 2006, up 8.1% from a year earlier. But even that can't keep boilers and blast furnaces stoked in an economy growing more than 10% a year. So China became a net coal importer for the first time this year. While Chinese authorities are closing down older, heavily polluting plants, they can't keep up with a massive expansion in urban housing and industry and the coal that feeds them.
. . U.S. coal production hit a record 1.2 billion tons last year, and is forecast by the government to rise 50% by 2030.
. . Coal is the Earth's most abundant fossil fuel, with reserves expected to last some 250 years — far longer than forecasts for petroleum. And whether in China, India, the US or Europe, coal is available at home, away from the instability of the Middle East. The U.S. has under its own soil at least a 200-year supply of coal.
. . "The decade 1997-2007 was a lost decade" for clean coal technology, Catelin conceded. "We should have done much more. Now we're playing catch-up."
. . Qian Jingjing, an expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York and co-author of the report "Coal in a Changing Climate." She and many other experts believe coal can only be made environmentally sustainable through the more experimental technology of capturing CO2 emissions and storing them underground.
. . A joint government-private project in the US aims to build such a "zero emissions" plant by 2012. Separately, Xcel Corp. of Minneapolis, a major electric and natural gas utility, is studying building a CO2 capture and storage power plant in Colorado.
. . Across the Atlantic, the European Union may require CO2 capture and storage systems for all new coal-fired power plants, with a proposal expected by year end. The gas would be buried in aquifers, depleted coal mines or geological faults deep underground.
. . "It takes a lot of money since you have to go so deep", said Brock of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "There is not one commercial CO2 capture and storage project yet. It's yet to be proven." With such high costs, few utilities will embrace these technologies without a strong push or subsidy from government. The U.S. Congress is weighing several proposals, but their fate remains uncertain.
Oct 26, 07: A U.N. expert called the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuel "a crime against humanity", saying it is creating food shortages and price jumps that cause millions of poor people to go hungry.
. . Jean Ziegler [male], who has been the UNs' independent expert on the right to food since the position was established in 2000, called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt what he called a growing "catastrophe" for the poor. Ziegler, a sociology professor at the U of Geneva and the U of the Sorbonne in Paris, presented a report to the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee.
. . Scientific research is progressing very quickly, he said, "and in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste" rather than wheat, corn, sugar cane and other food crops.
. . The world price of wheat doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries, especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their people, he said. And poor people in those countries are unable to pay the soaring prices for the food that does come in, he added.
. . As an example, he said, it takes 510 pounds of corn to produce 13 gallons of ethanol. That much corn could feed a child in Zambia or Mexico for a year, he said.
. . Researchers are looking at crop residues such as corn cobs, rice husks and banana leaves, he said. "The cultivation of Jatropha Curcas, a shrub that produces large oil-bearing seeds, appears to offer a good solution as it can be grown in arid lands that are not normally suitable for food crops", he said.
Oct 25, 07: To curb greenhouse gas emissions, India is poised to dramatically increase its reliance on nuclear energy --but there'll be no overall benefit to the planet if China's coal binge continues.
. . A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency forecasts India will increase nuclear production eight-fold by 2030 to account for 26% of its power grid. However, China plans to use nuclear power for only 4% of electricity generation by 2030. Globally, the IAEA estimates there'll be drop an overall drop in nuclear energy from around 15% in 2006, down to 13% in 2030. "The world should be encouraging China to get out of coal into non-greenhouse gas emitting energy production", said Alan McDonald, a nuclear-energy analyst with the IAEA.
. . Coal is a dirty, CO2-spewing energy source, but like gasoline, it is cheap, scalable and reliable. The Pew Center for Climate Change estimates that coal contributes 20% of the total greenhouse gases emitted on earth.
. . Among the green alternatives to coal, nuclear is the only technology with proven capacity. Worldwide, nuclear power generates 370 gigawatts of energy; estimates of global wind capacity are around 74 GW and solar-power capacity at only 1.7 GW.
. . India plans to increase nuclear-energy production by more than 9% a year through 2050. Seven new nuclear reactors are already under construction and more are planned, despite political hurdles that threaten to derail a U.S.-India nuclear fuel pact.
. . 63% of Americans think nuclear should be in the U.S. energy mix, up from 49% in 1983. The main factor holding nuclear power back in North America remains up-front costs.
. . Thirty new nuclear plants are on the drawing board in the US, but no new nuclear sites have been built in decades. Stanford's Carl pointed out the elephant in the room when it comes to nuclear energy: risk. "All it would take is one dirty bomb event or one Chernobyl to freeze nuclear plant production", he said.
Oct 23, 07: China currently has four reactors under construction and is planning a nearly five-fold expansion by 2020, the IAEA said. Nevertheless, with China growing so fast, nuclear power would still amount to only 4% of total electricity by 2020, the agency projected.
. . Out of the 31 new nuclear power plants currently under construction around the world, half of them --16 in all-- are being built in developing countries, with most of those in China and India. The US has the most nuclear power plants in operation around the world, 104 in all, with a further 18 in Canada.
. . If Britain replaced its retiring nuclear power plants with other sources of energy, such as natural gas, and if Germany and Belgium were to phase out their nuclear programs, "then you get a decrease (in nuclear capacity) of 40% by 2030."
. . With worldwide electricity demand expected to grow even more rapidly in the coming decades, the proportion covered by nuclear power was actually projected to decline to 12.9 - 13.3% by 2030, the IAEA said.
Oct 23, 07: Ferreira Construction, which is creating buzz here locally because of its leadership stance in the green building movement. Its new headquarters in Branchburg, N.J., developed in conjunction with Live Data Systems, is one of the first if not THE first commercial building to boast a Net Zero Energy status. That is, the systems in the building have AT LEAST a neutral impact in terms of a CO2 footprint. Indeed, Ferreira’s building is capable of creating excess electricity that is being pushed back to the grid to be used by other businesses.
. . Driving Ferreira’s Net Zero Energy Profile are 1,200 solar photovoltaic panels, solar thermal technology, a 96% efficient boiler system and a radiant-slab heating system. The systems are being monitored by sensors and management technology from Sensicast Systems. Among other things, these sensors report on energy consumption patterns and report any issues that could lead to a decrease in operating efficiency.
Oct 23, 07: A start-up wind energy firm just ordered $350-million worth of wind turbines from General Electric. Third Planet Windpower will place these on windmills in Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska and Wyoming starting in 2009. Here’s what the wind folks say on their website about their new company, “Third Planet Windpower (TPW) was established in 2006 to develop, acquire, own and operate a diversified portfolio of wind generation assets. The company has 20 projects under development, comprising more than 7,500 megawatts.”
Oct 22, 07: Aerowatt is in talks with Mauritius to invest 70 million euros ($99 million) in a wind farm that could produce 5% of the Indian Ocean island's electricity needs, a company official said.
Oct 17, 07: How many Ann Arbor city workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Soon, none.
. . Instead, they will be installing light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to replace about 1,400 street lights. The two-year project is being funded by a $630,000 grant from the city's Downtown Development Authority.
. . "LEDs pay for themselves in four years", said Mayor John Hieftje, who announced the city's plans this week as it joined Raleigh, N.C., and Toronto in the LED City initiative. "They last 10 years. We had to replace the old ones every two years."
. . Ann Arbor's lighting conversion will reduce the city's production of CO2 and gases that contribute to global warming in an amount equal to taking 400 cars off the road.
Oct 16, 07: A cheap system to recycle human waste into biogas and fertilizer may allow 2.6 billion people in the world access to toilets and reduce global warming, an Indian environmental expert said.
. . The organization is dedicated to providing toilets to nearly 730 million people in India who lack them. He said India's contribution would be a toilet system that organically breaks down faeces into trapped biogas that can be burned to provide cooking fuel and electricity, and convert urine into fertilizer.
Oct 17, 07: A new plastic membrane could be key to making biofuels a viable and clean fuel alternative to natural gas and coal. The membrane could be a major advance in CO2 capture --it's four times better than current technologies at separating out CO2. The plastic acts as a molecular sponge, allowing only CO2 to pass into it, while preventing larger molecules like methane from following suit.
. . Many environmentalists advocate using "biogas", which can be made from manure and other types of waste. The problem --which could be addressed by the new plastic-- is it contains high levels of CO2.
. . Using a CO2 capture system, biofuels manufacturers could sequester naturally occurring CO2. Clean energy companies would like to scrub CO2 out of the fuel but CO2 capture has been costly. "We modify our generators to run with the CO2 in the biogas." "You need 500x less membrane to treat the same amount of gas, so you could reduce your capital costs enormously."
. . The seven natural gas processing plants in the US already purify CO2 out of mostly methane raw gas using membranes made of cellulose acetate, one of the first bioplastics. Then they release that CO2 into the air. According to a Department of Energy report (.pdf), natural gas processing in 2004 produced a fairly meager 0.13 million metric tons of CO2. By comparison, Antarctica's roughly 1,000 temporary residents generated 0.24 million metric tons of CO2 in the same year.
Oct 13, 07: When this quiet city in southern Sweden decided in 1996 to wean itself off fossil fuels, most people doubted the ambitious goal would have any impact beyond the town limits. A few melting glaciers later, Vaxjo is attracting a green pilgrimage of politicians, scientists and business leaders.
. . From London's congestion charge to Paris' city bike program and Barcelona's solar power campaign, initiatives taken at the local level are being introduced across the continent — often influencing national policies instead of the other way around.
. . London Mayor Ken Livingstone's Climate Action Plan calls for cutting the city's CO2 emissions by 60% in 2025, compared to 1990 levels. However, planners acknowledge the cuts are not realistic unless the government introduces a system of CO2 pricing.
. . Barcelona, Spain's second biggest city, has, since 2006, required all new and renovated buildings to install solar panels to supply at least 60% of the energy needed to heat water.
. . Several U.S. cities including Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle have launched programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Bogota, the capital of Colombia, has reduced emissions with the TransMilenio municipal bus system and an extensive network of bicycle paths.
. . In Vaxjo, (pronounced VECK-shur), the vast majority of emissions cuts have been achieved at the heating and power plant, which replaced oil with wood chips from local sawmills as its main source of fuel. Ashes from the furnace are returned to the forest as nutrients. Not only does it generate electricity, but the water that is warmed up in the process of cooling the plant is used to heat homes and offices in Vaxjo.
. . A similar but much larger system is in place in Copenhagen, Denmark's capital, where waste heat from incineration and combined heat and power plants is pumped through a purpose-built 800-mile network of pipes to 97% of city.
. . Copenhagen is often cited as a climate pioneer among European cities. It cut CO2 emissions by 187,600 tons annually in the late '90s by switching from coal to natural gas and biofuels at its energy plants. Its goal is to reduce emissions by 35% by 2010. In 1995, the city became one of the first European capitals to introduce a public bicycle service that lets people pick up and return bikes at dozens of stations citywide for a small fee. Similar initiatives have since taken root in Paris and several other European cities. Next, Copenhagen plans to spend about $38 million on various initiatives to get more residents to use bicycles instead of cars.
. . So-called "green cars" running on biofuels park for free anywhere in Vaxjo. About one-fifth of the city's own fleet runs on biogas produced at the local sewage treatment plant.
. . Using biofuels instead of gasoline in cars is generally considered to cut CO2 emissions, although some scientists say greenhouse gases released during the production of biofuel crops can offset those gains.
. . Vaxjo has also invested in energy efficiency, from the light bulbs used in street lights to a new residential area with Europe's tallest all-wood apartment buildings. Wood requires less energy to produce than steel or concrete, and also less transportation since Vaxjo is in the middle of forests.
Oct 12, 07: A Pentagon-chartered report urges the United States to take the lead in developing space platforms capable of capturing sunlight and beaming electrical power to Earth.
. . Space-based solar power, according to the report, has the potential to help the United States stave off climate change and avoid future conflicts over oil by harnessing the Sun's power to provide an essentially inexhaustible supply of clean energy.
. . The report calls for the U.S. government to underwrite the development of space-based solar power by funding a progressively bigger and more expensive technology demonstrations that would culminate with building a platform in geosynchronous orbit bigger than the international space station and capable of beaming 5-10 megawatts of power to a receiving station on the ground.
. . Aside from its potential to defuse future energy wars and mitigate global warming, Damphousse said beaming power down from space could also enable the U.S. military to operate forward bases in far flung, hostile regions such as Iraq without relying on vulnerable convoys to truck in fossil fuels to run the electrical generators needed to keep the lights on.
. . As the report puts it, "beamed energy from space in quantities greater than 5 megawatts has the potential to be a disruptive game changer on the battlefield. [Space-based solar power] and its enabling wireless power transmission technology could facilitate extremely flexible 'energy on demand' for combat units and installations across and entire theater, while significantly reducing dependence on over-land fuel deliveries."
. . Damphousse, however, cautioned that the private sector will not invest in space-based solar power until the United States buys down some of the risk through a technology development and demonstration effort at least on par with what the government spends on nuclear fusion research and perhaps as much as it is spending to construct and operate the international space station.
. . Military officials involved in the report calculate that the United States is paying $1 per kilowatt hour or more to supply power to its forward operating bases in Iraq.
. . With oil currently trading today as high as $80 a barrel and the U.S. military paying dearly to keep kerosene-powered generators humming in an oil-rich region like Iraq, the economics have changed significantly since NASA pulled the plug on space-based solar power research in around 2002.
. . On the technical front, solar cell efficiency has improved faster than expected. Ten years ago, when solar cells were topping out around 15% efficiency, experts predicted that 25% efficiency would not be achieved until close to 2020, Mankins said, yet Sylmar, Calif.-based Spectrolab –-a Boeing subsidiary-– last year unveiled an advanced solar cell with a 40.7% conversion efficiency.
. . Mankins said commercially-viable space-based solar power platforms will only become feasible with the kind of dramatically cheaper launch costs promised by fully reusable launch vehicles flying dozens of times a year.
. . While the upfront costs are steep, Mankins and others said space-based solar power's potential to meet the world's future energy needs is huge. According to the report, "a single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today."
Oct 12, 07: A new composite material that contains layers of aluminum and glass fiber could save operators of transport aircraft many billions of dollars in maintenance and operating costs, researchers say.
. . The U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa, materials-technology company GTM Advanced Structures and scientists at Delft U of Technology in the Netherlands have patented a fiber metal laminate (FML) called CentrAl reinforced aluminum, or CentrAl, for use in aircraft manufacture.
. . CentrAl provides some 25% more tensile strength than high-strength aluminum alloys, is extremely resistant to metal fatigue and is highly damage-tolerant. It is so light that a transport-aircraft wing made from a combination of CentrAl and aluminum would not only be much stronger than a wing made from carbon-fiber composites, but also could be 20% lighter.
Oct 10, 07: It looks like it just might happen, which would spell bad news for the gadget gurus down under. If a revised Australian energy rating guide gets passed, then all plasma televisions would be banned from sale by 2011. That's right, all plasmas and even many power-hungry LCDs would be taken off store shelves due to their high energy consumption. But listen to this, it gets worse.
. . Tim O'Keefe, Australia's Digital Suppliers Industry Forum coordinator, believes that due to the country's/continent's small purchasing power, the energy requirements imposed will not be met by TV manufacturers. Well, here's to hoping that the manufacturers hear the energy-conscious cry of Australia, and produce some more energy-efficient TVs.
Oct 10, 07: As attention turns more and more toward using corn and other products to produce ethanol for fuel, experts warn that increased production of these crops could pose a threat to the nation's water supplies. Both water quality and the availability of water could be threatened by sharply increasing crops such as corn.
. . A stated goal is to increase biofuel production about six times, to 35 billion gallons by 2017, Schnoor said. "That would mean a lot more fertilizers and pesticides" running into rivers and flowing into the oceans, he said.
. . In an area needing irrigation, it takes 2,000 gallons of water for every bushel of corn. And that's in addition to the secondary issue of how much water is needed by the factories that produce the ethanol, he said.
. . What is needed is a breakthrough in technology so that ethanol can be produced from cellulose such as grass, wood and sawdust. Brazil uses waste from the cane to fuel its ethanol factories, while the U.S. uses natural gas or other fuels.
. . The report suggests the possibility of irrigating crops for biofuel with wastewater that would not be suitable for food crops.
Oct 10, 07: Photovoltaic solar power plants are springing up throughout Spain, capitalizing on special tariffs for renewable energies and exceeding the government's expectations.
Oct 10, 07: Italy will not reverse its Chernobyl-era ban on nuclear power, its government said.
Oct 9, 07: UK: Air taxes will be switched from individual passengers to airline flights to encourage more efficient use of planes. The new tax will take effect from November 2009. Chancellor Alistair Darling said the measure would help tackle climate change. The government is also launching a consultation on how to link the tax to the distance the flight is travelling.
. . "A tax that penalizes airlines for flying half-empty planes makes a lot of sense, but the Government's support for the unrestrained expansion of UK airports seriously undermines its credibility", said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace.
. . Easyjet warned the government not to increase the overall levels of tax from airline passengers but accepted the need for reform.
Oct 9, 07: High gas prices are forcing deputies in Utah's third-largest county to watch the odometer.
Oct 8, 07: Plans to build Australia's largest wind farm have been announced by the German company Conergy. The project would involve installing about 500 turbines near the outback town of Broken Hill in New South Wales.
. . The Australian government wants renewable sources to generate 15% of the country's energy needs by 2020. The giant wind farm could generate enough electricity for 400,000 homes and put quite a dent in Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Research has shown that the sparsely populated site is particularly blustery. Scientists have said it has some of Australia's "best wind resources".
. . The $1.8bn project is the idea of Conergy --one of Germany's largest solar power companies. A spokesman for the firm said construction of the facility was expected to begin in 2009 and would take about three to four years to complete.
Oct 4, 07: American Electric Power and General Electric's GE Energy will cooperate to build and deploy advanced electricity "smart" meters designed to help consumers cut their energy costs, the companies said.
. . The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a technology that would allow customers to gauge the costs of electricity at different times of the day, enabling them to cut their power costs. AEP said it plans to roll out the meters to 200,000 customers by the end of 2008, pending approval by regulators, and expand that to more than 5 million by the end of 2015.
In addition to consuming less power and producing better colors than LCDs, FED also supports faster frame rates. At Ceatec, Field Emission Technologies showed off an FED display running at a rate of 240 frames per second-- twice the number that can be handled by the latest models in Sony's Bravia line of LCD televisions.
. . Field Emission Technologies claims FED screens can be produced more cheaply than LCDs because they do not require a backlight. In addition, FED screens can use the same driver as an LCD. The only problem is that Field Emission Technologies does not have a production line for its displays, and startup costs for a line will initially drive up prices.
Oct 2, 07: Reducing TV's energy use per model by 25% by 2009 could save more than 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year in the US alone, the IEC said.
Oct 1, 07: An influential UK government advisory body has endorsed proposals for a tidal barrage across the Severn estuary. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) says the project should meet "tough" environmental conditions and remain in public ownership.
. . The SDC, chaired by Jonathon Porritt, says the UK could get at least 10% of its electricity from tidal power. Its report, Turning the Tide, was launched at parallel events in London and Cardiff.
. . SEVERN BARRAGE STATS
. . Length: 16.1km
. . Generating capacity: 8.64 gigawatts (GW)
. . Annual average output: 17 terrawatt hours (TW/h)
. . Percentage of UK electricity: 4.4%
. . Estimated cost: £15bn
Sept 29, 07: One of the world's largest tidal energy projects has been unveiled off Orkney in a bid to help make Scotland "the energy powerhouse of Europe". The site will house energy converters, capable of generating electricity for thousands of homes. "All we have to do is make sure we are leading in these technologies and find a way export power from power rich Scotland to power poor Europe. Orkney's abundance of renewable resources, especially wave and tidal streams gives it an advantage in marine renewables."
. . The center offers developers the opportunity to test prototype devices in wave and tidal conditions. Wave and tidal energy converters are connected to the National Grid via seabed cables.
Sept 29, 07, UK: Plans to phase out the traditional lightbulb by 2011 have been announced by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn. Mr Benn told the Labour conference he wanted to see an end to the sale of 150-watt bulbs from next January. Less powerful traditional bulbs would be taken off the shelves in stages under the voluntary energy-saving scheme by 2011. Greenpeace said the move was "long overdue" and would help the UK reduce its CO2 emissions.
. . "And so our aim is for traditional 150-watt lightbulbs to be phased out by January next year, 100-watt bulbs the year after, 40-watt bulbs the year after that and all high-energy lightbulbs by 2011." Mr Benn estimated that the move would save five million tons of CO2 a year and take the UK closer to its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050. Mr Benn said he also wanted to see an end to products such as energy-wasting TVs.
. . Greenpeace said most retailers had already agreed to stop selling high-energy bulbs following a campaign of its own.
Sept 29, 07: Two of the nation's biggest power companies are teaming up with a solar start-up to create one of the world's largest solar power projects, which they say could make electricity at a competitive price.
. . PG&E Corp, FPL Corp and solar thermal power generator Ausra Inc unveiled plans on Thursday for utility-scale solar plants which they claim will produce electricity at a price comparable with conventional fossil-fuel power plants.
. . The announcement represents the commitment among the three companies to build 2,000 megawatts of solar thermal plants in several states, starting in California where PG&E is based, and Florida, where FPL has its headquarters. It was made at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. The overall project of at least $5 billion will be able to generate enough power for almost 1 million homes.
. . Developing large-scale thermal solar power plants is seen as a major step in cutting costs for renewable power and making it an economically viable alternative to coal-fired power, even without government subsidies.
. . A document issued by the Clinton Global Initiative shows that solar thermal advocates think they are ready to revolutionize electrical power production. "Ausra recently published a major study ... which shows that solar thermal generation can deliver over 90% of all U.S. electric power, at prices directly competitive with (or cheaper than) coal-fired generation", the document said. The 2,000 MW of power will produce virtually no CO2 emissions and represent more power than all the photovoltaic solar panels installed in the world last year.
. . Ausra uses acres of mirrors it places near the ground to focus reflected sunlight on a long tube 8 feet above the mirrors. The tube carries water that becomes steam to turn turbines. Using tanks to store heated water and steam, thermal plants can keep running at night.
. . The first plant in California is to be a 175-MW project in the central part of the state.
Sept 28, 07: German utility RWE, Europe's largest polluter, said it plans to develop a new process to remove CO2 from the emissions of coal-fired power plants as countries throughout Europe make it more expensive to emit the greenhouse gas. Germany's largest power producer will spend 80 million euros ($113.5 million) on the process.
. . BASF will test technologies and solvents for the process to remove CO2, known as scrubbing, while Linde will supply the engineering and construction for the test site at an RWE, lignite-fired power plant.
. . A number of utilities across the world are studying the so-called sequestration of climate-harming CO2, as burning fossils for power generation is one of the most highly polluting activities. No commercial-scale power plant uses the technology yet and critics say lack of public funding, legal doubts and safety worries leave the full realization far from being a done deal.
. . The three German companies said they were aiming to remove 90% of CO2 from their pilot plant's combustion gas, and ultimately bury it underground. If the pilot plant proves to be successful, they will build a subsequent demonstration plant which will pave the way for commercial use.
. . RWE separately hopes to start producing power from a CO2-free plant in western Germany from 2014, using another removal process called integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), on which it is spending one billion euros.
Sept 27, 07: SolFocus, a company spun off from Xerox's Palo Alto Research Park, is building arrays of solar panels around a honeycomb design. Each dish magnifies the light 500 times and focuses it on very high-efficiency cells.
Sept 27, 07: China's giant Three Gorges Dam project could lead to an ecological "catastrophe", Chinese experts warned. Environmental problems triggered by the dam began to emerge at the world's largest hydropower project after it started operations last year. "If no preventive measures are taken, the project could lead to catastrophe", the report quoted experts as saying.
. . The head of the office in charge of constructing the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, warned of a plethora of problems sparked by the construction of the dam, including landslides, soil erosion and water pollution. He said the shore of the reservoir had collapsed in 91 places and a total of 36 km of shoreline had caved in. Landslides around the reservoir had produced waves as high as 50 meters, which crashed into the adjacent shoreline, causing even more damage.
. . Local government officials around the dam area also reported to the conference that the water quality in Yangtze river tributaries had suffered and threatened drinking water safety for residents. Pollution caused by sedimentation put at risk the drinking water supply to 50,000 residents in one county and led to a proliferation of algae in many local rivers
. . The dam, which cost over 22 billion dollars to build, has also led to much criticism because of the forced resettlement of around 1.4 million people, and has been plagued by corruption.
Though much of the media coverage around solar power focuses on the incremental improvements of converting sunlight to electricity, the actual work of installing photovoltaic panels remains 30 to 50% of the total cost.
. . Solar City's twist on solar installation is group buying. The company canvasses residential neighborhoods. When it gets 50 or so committed customers, it purchases the panels and then sends out teams of five or so installers to erect them. Volume discounts and concentrated installation leads to a reduction of about 20% in the overall cost, according to the company.
. . Akeena Solar's Andalay panel is supposed to cut installation time from four hours to 30 minutes. It's also meant to be more attractive and look like a skylight.
. . Sharp Solar, the largest solar panel maker in the world, has started to promote a pre-fab solar system to the U.S. market.
. . The OnEnergy system essentially integrates everything --the solar panels, the racks on which the panels sit and the inverters (which convert DC current to AC current that can be used in a home)-- into one package tailored for the home. Contractors measure the roof and study the installation site, and then place an order with Sharp. Sharp then cuts the panels and pieces of the frame, drills the appropriate holes and then ships the kit for the contractor to assemble.
Sept 25, 07: The government has announced a fresh feasibility study into the Severn Barrage (dam), a tidal power plan that could provide about 5% of UK electricity from the South Wales coast. Business and enterprise secretary John Hutton said the concept was "truly visionary".
. . The idea was first floated about 150 years ago, but environmental and cost concerns have always blocked approval. It was last seriously considered in the 1970s and 80s. Now Mr Hutton has signalled that a multi-million pound feasibility study will go ahead, citing climate concerns as the main driver.
. . Some environmental groups have warned the barrage could affect wildlife. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the barrage would put thousands of birds, salmon and other fish at risk. The estuary contains mudflats, saltmarshes, rocky islands and food that support some 65,000 birds in winter.
. . The feasibility study should examine tidal lagoon and tidal stream schemes which could do less damage and generate more energy." Tidal lagoons are artificially created offshore pools.
. . Water would flow through turbines in and out of the lagoons as the tide rose and fell. Some analysts say this could generate more power than the barrage with less local environmental disruption.
. . With the barrage carrying an estimated £14bn price-tag, some believe the lagoon concept would also be cheaper.
Sept 25, 07: Grass to Gas. Step 1: Thermochemical treatment The raw plant feedstock is treated with chemicals —-often dilute sulfuric acid-— to break down cell walls and make the cellulose accessible. Step 2: Enzymes A mix of cellulase enzymes is then added to convert the cellulose and hemicellulose molecules into the simple sugars glucose and xylose. Step 3: Fermentation Yeast or bacteria are added, converting the sugar into a mixture of ethanol and water, what refineries call "the beer." Step 4: Distillation The ethanol is refined and purified, producing a fuel.
Sony announced an initiative with Sharp and Hitachi to create an LCD display that can be powered through only half the electricity needed by today's models. Re-engineering LCD architecture coupled with advanced LED backlighting will bring the energy savings.
Sept 21, 07: China could become the world's top wind power market in three to five years but will grow faster if it reforms its subsidy system, executives of major wind turbine maker Vestas said. China, with its 1.3 billion population, has less installed wind power than Denmark, with fewer than 6 million people.
. . Currently the world's number two consumer of oil and top producer of coal, Beijing is keen to boost the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources to clean its skies and improve energy security.
. . But it has chosen to subsidize wind power through a bidding system that analysts and industry figures say pushes prices too low to fuel the rapid development China could enjoy. Most analysts think Beijing's target of 30 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2020 is too modest, as China is already nearing its 2010 goal.
Sept 21, 07: The UK has a 100-ton plutonium stockpile --enough to make 17,000 bombs, the Royal Society says. [or power many reactors...]
Sept 20, 07: Approximately 20% of Denmark's energy consumption is fulfilled by wind power, according to the Danish Wind Industry Association. The US, on the other hand, generates less than 1% of its electricity with wind power.
Sept 19, 07: The French city of Lille is to power a 100-strong bus fleet using biogas fuel made from organic household waste, thanks to a pioneering recycling plant.
Sept 19, 07: The deployment of space platforms that capture sunlight for beaming down electrical power to Earth is under review by the Pentagon, as a way to offer global energy and security benefits – including the prospect of short-circuiting future resource wars between increasingly energy-starved nations.
. . A proposal is being vetted by U.S. military space strategists that 10% of the U.S. baseload of energy by 2050, perhaps sooner, could be produced by space based solar power (SBSP). Furthermore, a demonstration of the concept is being eyed to occur within the next five to seven years.
. . "Energy may well be the first tangible commodity returned from space", said Joseph Rouge, Associate Director of the National Security Space Office. "Geopolitics in general is going to be a large issue. I don't think there's any question that energy is going to be one of the key next issues, along with water ... that's going to be the competition we're going to fight."
. . Rouge said that moving out on the proposed SBSP effort would be the largest space venture yet, making the Apollo Moon landing project "look like just a small little program." As a caveat, however, he noted that the U.S. Department of Defense is cash-strapped and is not the financial backer for such an endeavor.
. . Marzwell pointed to advances in micro and nano-electronics, lightweight inflatable composite structures, & ultra-small power management devices.
Sept 19, 07: The budget airline Easyjet has announced its support for a green tax on air travel. The carrier says current air passenger duty should be scrapped and replaced with a tax based on the amount of CO2 produced on each flight. It believes such a tax would mean Easyjet passengers would pay less than they do with passenger duty. Ministers say including aviation in the EU's CO2 trading scheme is the best way to ensure meeting emission targets.
Sept 5, 07: An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries", meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.
. . By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.
. . "It's a paradigm shift", said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-based ZENN Motor Co., which has licensed EEStor's invention. "The Achilles' heel to the electric car industry has been energy storage. By all rights, this would make internal combustion engines unnecessary."
. . Clifford's company bought rights to EEStor's technology in August 2005 and expects EEStor to start shipping the battery replacement later this year for use in ZENN Motor's short-range, low-speed vehicles. The technology also could help invigorate the renewable-energy sector by providing efficient, lightning-fast storage for solar power, or, on a small scale, a flash-charge for cell phones and laptops.
. . The result is an ultracapacitor, a battery-like device that stores and releases energy quickly. Batteries rely on chemical reactions to store energy but can take hours to charge and release energy. The simplest capacitors found in computers and radios hold less energy but can charge or discharge instantly. Ultracapacitors take the best of both, stacking capacitors to increase capacity while maintaining the speed of simple capacitors.
. . Georgia Tech has used the same material to double the amount of energy a capacitor can hold. Perry says EEstor seems to be claiming an improvement of more than 400-fold, yet increasing a capacitor's retention ability often results in decreased strength of the materials.
. . Skeptics, though, fear the claims stretch the bounds of existing technology to the point of alchemy.
Sept 18, 07: EnerDel says it will come out with a lithium-ion battery for plug-in hybrids that will cost $1,500, a development that could go a long way to making these cars palatable in price. EnerDel asserts that the company's batteries will cost half as much or less as nickel-metal hydride batteries.
. . The Indianapolis-based company, which recently received a $6.5 million grant from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), hopes to deliver the battery to car manufacturers for their 2010 lineups, according to Charles Gassenheimer, vice chairman of the company. The 2010 model cars will start coming out in September 2009, he said.
. . It's a lithium titanate battery. Competitor Altair Nanotechnologies uses a similar chemistry. Meanwhile, A123 Systems, which has received millions in venture funds, builds a lithium potassium battery. Gassenheimer stated that his company's lithium titanate batteries run at lower temperatures than potassium ones and thus are more safe. Lower operating temperatures also mean that car manufacturers won't have to include additional cooling systems for the battery alone. (Notebooks use lithium cobalt batteries, which run hotter.)
Sept 17, 07: The government has given planning approval for the world's first large-scale wave project off the coast of England. The hub --which would collect energy from wave turbines-- could collect electricity for 14,000 homes. It should deliver electricity to the national grid by 2009.
. . The proposed power station will involve up to 20 sets of machines, with pumps, pistons and turbines. Up to 30 wave energy devices are expected to be deployed at the Wave Hub and will float on the surface of the sea. The Wave Hub --a seafloor "socket", will connect wave energy machines to the mainland.
The average company can save $40 per PC per annum simply by turning the system off at night. If a company has 10,000 PCs, that’s $400,000. The company publicly estimates that it has helped Verizon save $500,000 per year in energy costs.
Sept 11, 07: "Productivity is higher for those who telecommute", said Snyder. "There's less sick time and higher employee engagement. The federal government wants to see 25% of workers telecommuting. Seven point six million people telecommuted between 2000 and 2004. That number jumped to nine million in 2005, and we believe that number is still growing."
Sept 11, 07: Sugar cane, wood chips, and switchgrass. Such "cellulosic" ethanol could lower the output of greenhouse gases and deliver up to six times as much energy as its production requires.
. . Yes, ethanol subsidies are a scam. Yes, we should drop our trade barriers and let Brazilian sugar cane wipe out American corn. Yes, we need solar power, conservation, and efficiency. But don't give up on biofuel. It just needs time to grow.
Sept 10, 07: An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century. John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.
. . The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said. [obviously, more energy must be put into the beam than is available in the flame. So it is NOT a SOURCE of energy.]
Sept 10, 07: Solar thermal start-up Ausra is expected to disclose that it has begun the permit process to build a 175-megawatt power plant in California that should be operating in about three years.
. . Ausra, which has sought to keep a low profile, said that its product design will make its power plants competitive with fossil fuel-based electricity in the next few years. "We're talking about the U.S. producing its electricity and electricity for vehicles entirely within its borders. The implications for this are enormous."
. . Ausra's plants are made up of hundreds of glass-covered metal "collectors" that concentrate sunlight on a tube filled with water. The water becomes steam which turns a conventional steam turbine.
. . High-pressure water storage tanks allow the company's solar thermal power plants to keep several hours' worth of electricity on tap, addressing one of the biggest hurdles of large-scale renewable energy. "Energy storage is the key to enabling renewable sources of power to move from 10 to 20% of electricity generation to 90-plus %."
. . Ausra executives said that the system can now deliver electricity at 10 cents per kilowatt hour, more than the 9 cents per kilowatt hour that natural gas power plants cost. Once Ausra's manufacturing is working on a large scale, its production costs and cost of capital will go down below the price of coal-fired plants which are 6 cents per kilowatt hour, he said.
. . Because of regulations that require renewable sources of electricity, a number of companies are now pursuing utility-scale solar thermal power plants. Another start-up, Green Volts, recently signed a supply deal with Pacific Gas & Electric in California.
. . The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratories estimates that solar thermal technology can supply hundreds of gigawatts of electricity, or more than 10% of demand.
. . The EPA reports that data centers ate up an estimated 60 billion kilowatt-hours in 2006, or about 1.5% of total U.S. electricity consumption. The EPA estimates that this usage will almost double by 2012. HOWEVER, it also believes that existing technology that calls upon green technology design principles could help cut the energy use for an average server by 25%. And that’s not counting what may come.
Sept 10, 07: A lightweight solar-powered plane has smashed the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight. UK defence firm Qinetiq, which built the Zephyr unmanned aerial vehicle, said it flew for 54 hours during tests. Zephyr reached a maximum altitude of more than 18k. The researchers believe it is the first time a solar-powered craft has flown under its own power through two nights.
. . The previous unmanned endurance record was set in 2001 by a jet-powered US Air Force Global Hawk surveillance aircraft which flew for more than 30 hours.
. . The experimental Sky-Sailor craft is much smaller than Zephyr, with a wingspan of just 3.2m, and is designed for use on Mars.
. . The lightweight plane (31kg) is launched by hand. It flies autonomously and can climb to more than 18km. By day it flies on solar power and recharges batteries. By night it is powered by rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries.
Sept 9, 07: A climate scientist says "High altitude wind power represents the most concentrated flux of renewable energy found on Earth. Wind energy in the jet stream can reach 100 times the average amount of solar energy on the surface of the Earth per unit area. The kinetic energy in high altitude wind surpasses even the kinetic energy of the Gulf Stream and other ocean currents."
. . Roberts, a professor of engineering at the U of Technology, Sydney, believes there is enough energy in high-altitude winds to satisfy the world's demands. Wind-tunnel data suggests a cluster of 600 flying electric generators, or FEGs, could produce three times as much energy as the US' most productive nuclear power plant.
. . After 25 years of research, Roberts has designed a helicopter-like rotorcraft to hoist a wind turbine high into the air, where winds are persistent and strong. The craft, which is powered by its own electricity and can stay aloft for months, feeds electricity to the ground through a cable.
. . The company has Federal Aviation Administration approval to conduct tests of the technology in the California desert, but needs $3 million to build full-size flying generators. The company is having trouble raising the cash because there isn't likely to be an immediate return on investors' money.
. . At certain locations, the efficiency of a flying generator can be as high as 90%, three times higher than its grounded counterpart, according to Sky WindPower. At this efficiency, FEGs could become the nation's cheapest source of electricity, with an estimated cost per kilowatt hour of less than 2 cents, about half the price of coal.
. . According to the Department of Energy, waves could generate 2 terawatts of electricity --enough to meet the world's current electricity needs. Energy embodied in the world's ocean currents and tides is twice that much. And thus far, efforts to do so have cost more than the energy they've generated.
Sept 6, 07: U.K.: Householders who generate electricity via solar panels should be paid more by power firms, the Green Party has said. Utility companies pay homeowners for energy generated by their panels but charge more when selling power back.
Sept 6, 07: The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Osaka U Institute of Laser Engineering are going to launch plates made of chromium and neodymium into orbit, which will convert 42% of solar light into lasers, which shoot down onto a facility that converts it into usable power.
. . This scheme hopes to go live by 2030, and will be able to use solar power 24 hours a day, instead of the slightly less efficient output solar has on the ground. By improving the solar-to-laser efficiency and having solar collectors from 100 to 200 meters long, they'll be able to match a 1-gigawatt nuclear power plant.
Sept 3, 07: Installed capacity of photovoltaic systems, which turn sunlight into power, will triple by 2010 to 3 gigawatts (GW) in Europe due to efforts to fight climate change, the sector's industry association said. "We would like to go forward to have, in 2010, an installed capacity in Europe in the range of 3 GW, (up) from about 1 GW last year."
. . Sunny Italy, which lags behind Europe's solar energy leader Germany, plans to boost its photovoltaic energy capacity to 3,000 megawatts in 2016 from about 50 MW installed by the end of 2006 thanks to new incentives approved earlier this year.
Sept 3, 07: There is no shortage of wind in the densely-populated Netherlands but there is a shortage of space and in a nation which likes its houses small and its gardens cosy, opposition to wind farms is immense. That is why a new Dutch wind farm is being built so far out to sea it is barely visible on the horizon, reducing the visual impact of its 60 turbines to virtually nil whilst at the same time harnessing higher offshore wind speeds.
. . 14 miles from the Dutch North Sea coast, is the farthest offshore wind park anywhere in the world, and its developers Econcern and Eneco Energie say a further five to 10 such wind parks will likely follow in the next few years. Blessed with shallow sandy soils around their coastline, Dutch engineers say the foundations for the turbines can be hammered 82 feet into the ground in just a matter of hours, although there are myriad other challenges.
. . The proportions are breathtaking. The turbines extend about 320 feet from the ocean, with three sharp narrow blades, each 130 feet long. It is hoped that when they start rotating in early 2008 they will cut CO2 emissions by 225,000 tons, helping the Dutch to meet a target of 20% renewable energy use by 2020.
. . The turbines are so massive they can only be transported by sea and there is just one factory in Europe which can weld and construct the 15-foot-diameter piles, which must be first driven into the sea to form the base of the turbines.
Aug 29, 07: Consumers face a jump in meat prices as farmers pass on the cost of surging animal feed prices, a report warns. [Such as corn, used to make ethanol.]
Aug 29, 07: The European Commission has decided to retain import tariffs on Chinese-made energy-efficient light bulbs for up to another 12 months. The tariff extension will require the majority backing by EU member states. They now have a month to decide.
. . The decision was made even though only one of Europe's four energy-efficient light bulb producers, Germany's Osram, had called for more time to adjust. The tariffs, introduced to stop cheap Chinese imports entering Europe, can add up to 66% to the price of bulbs. Osram's rivals, including the Netherland's Philips, which already makes bulbs in China, had wanted the duty cancelled.
. . Environmental group Worldwide Fund for Nature said the Commission was displaying a "severe contradiction" in extending the import tariffs at the same time as lecturing consumers on the need to save energy. Replacing old light bulbs with energy-efficient ones has long been hailed as a particularly effective way of reducing energy consumption. Less than 20% of energy-saving bulbs on sale in Europe are made within the European Union, with more than two thirds imported from China.
The alternative to silicon --called gallium arsenide-- was still too expensive, and at a very early stage, but that coupling its use with mirrors could cut costs. Faiman's team have designed a reflector made of mirrors that collects and intensifies the light a thousand times over. This concentrated light, which Faiman says is strong enough to burn organic material, is directed at the solar panel.
. . Silicon solar panels both collect and convert sunlight into electricity. The panels Faiman and his team use can handle the intensified light and convert it into energy with twice the efficiency of ordinary panels, they say. Faiman said he is collaborating with an Israeli start-up company, Zenith Solar, to create a home solar energy system that uses a 10 square meter (107.6 sq ft) reflector dish.
. . A solar energy system built on 12 square km in the Negev would produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity, or approximately 10% of Israel's general electricity needs.
Aug 29, 07: Households should receive council tax rebates to encourage them to install solar panels and wind turbines, an independent think tank claims. The New Local Government Network says planning laws should be relaxed to increase the take-up of green energy. It also suggests local authorities could offer interest-free loans towards the cost of installation. But the Campaign to Protect Rural England says precious landscapes must be safeguarded.
. . Currently, the government offers a grant of up to 30% towards the cost of installing wind turbines or solar panels. It has also been consulting on whether they should be permitted without planning permission where the impact on neighbors is minimal.
. . The New Local Government Network report, Finding the Energy, says ministers need to be bolder by allowing councils to be even less restrictive. "Let local people decide and they can be the ones regulating it, rather than a Whitehall piece of legislation that won't necessarily fit local circumstances."
. . The Campaign to Protect Rural England says it has no objection to using the planning system to encourage domestic renewable energy generation. A spokesman added: "Energy efficiency measures in existing buildings, and an approach that encourages development of energy sources by local communities as a whole, are likely to be a cheaper and more effective method of reducing CO2 emissions."
Aug 22, 07: Long Island's utility company intends to dump plans to build a $700 million wind energy park in the Atlantic Ocean, a top official said. "It's just too expensive", Long Island Power Authority Chairman Kevin Law said.
. . A developer in South Texas called off construction of about 170 turbines there after determining it no longer made economic sense to proceed. That developer said building an offshore farm would have been more than double the cost of one on land.
. . Plans are proceeding for an offshore wind farm in Massachusetts, where a company called Cape Wind hopes to build 130 windmills in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind has not said how much that project would cost. Developers in Delaware also are planning an offshore wind farm.
Aug 22, 07: Protesters --who had demonstrated outside Heathrow all of last week-- were trying to draw travelers' attention to the impact on climate change of the CO2 gases emitted by the aircraft in which they fly. A placard from one activist at Heathrow expressed it thus: "You Fly, They Die."
. . Airplanes operate on petroleum fuel, which means they release large amounts of CO2 when they fly. Commercial air travel is currently responsible for a relatively tiny part of the global CO2 footprint --just 3.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But the unique chemistry of high-altitude jet emissions may produce an additional warming effect, while the explosive growth in air travel makes it one of the fastest-growing sources of CO2 gases in the atmosphere. And unlike energy or automobiles, where CO2-free or lower-CO2 alternatives already exist, even if they have yet to be widely adopted, there is no low-CO2 way to fly, and there likely won't be for decades.
. . Airplane manufacturers and airlines are working on ways to cut CO2 emissions by raising fuel efficiency - building lighter and more aerodynamic planes, towing jets on the ground, and improving engine capacity. Designers are looking at running planes on biofuel, and Virgin Atlantic head Richard Branson has promised to build a biofuelled jet by next year. But industry experts believe such incremental changes could improve efficiency by 1% or 2% a year at most, while passenger miles are set to grow at 5% to 6% annually.
. . Even as CO2 emissions from air travel grow rapidly, scientists are investigating claims that they may double the warming effect because of the altitude at which they're emitted. As jets soar they leave behind contrails, vapor threads of condensation that can persist for hours, especially in colder areas, and behave like high-altitude cirrus clouds. Those clouds seem to have a net warming effect, trapping heat in the atmosphere. Planes also create ozone, a greenhouse gas that has a stronger warming effect at high altitudes than low. The science is still being nailed down, but the side effects of high-altitude emissions could double air travel's contributions to global warming, says Dan Lashof, science director for the Natural Resource Defense Council's Climate Center.
Aug 21, 07: Scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have found a much better way to make biodiesel. Their new method could lower the cost and increase the energy efficiency of fuel production.
. . Instead of mixing the ingredients and heating them for hours, the chemical engineers pass sunflower oil and methanol through a bed of pellets made from fungal spores. An enzyme produced by the fungus does the work --making biodiesel with impressive efficiency.
. . Typically, biodiesel is made by mixing methanol with lye and vegetable oil and then heating the brew for several hours. This links the methanol to the oils to produce energetic called esters. Unfortunately, heating the mixture is a huge waste of energy, and a major selling point of alternative fuels is efficiency. An enzyme called lipase can link link oil to methanol without any extra heating, but the pure protein is expensive.
. . Potumarthi has a simple solution. Why bother purifying the lipase? It would be easier to just find an organism that produces plenty of the enzyme and squish it into pellets. In this case, the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae does the trick.
Aug 21, 07: A country with an exploding population of drivers, India has a red-hot market for cheap autos. With that in mind, Indian company Tata Motors (oh, grow up) is selling a plastic car that'll run about $2,400 total. Yes, that makes it the cheapest car in the world. We hope it's safer than the cars they make in China.
. . The four-door car, which will be about as big as a VW Rabbit, will come with a less-than-impressive 30-horsepower engine. But hey, for that price, what do you expect? The car has yet to be named. [plate sez Indica V2! 2-cyl?]
Aug 21, 07: DenBaars said that if 25% of the lightbulbs in the US were converted to LEDs putting out 150 lumens per watt (higher than the current commercial standard), the country as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs, cumulatively, by 2025. That would alleviate the need to build 133 new coal-burning power stations. Approximately 22% of the electricity consumed in the US goes toward lighting, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
. . In the coming prototype, the conventional phosphor is replaced with a sheet of polymer, which sort of applies itself to the LED, almost like a layer of shrink wrap. The switch to a polymer does mean that other aspects of the LED must be changed. LEDs emit some heat, which can melt plastic. Thus, the LEDs with polymer phosphors will have to be larger than conventional ones so the heat is dissipated over a wider range.
Aug 18, 07: Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed onto flexible plastic sheets. The process is so straightforward, researchers say, that home users might eventually be able to print their own solar cells with inexpensive inkjet printers. You could then slap the printed cells on your roof and start generating power.
. . Unlike traditional solar cells, which are made from purified silicon, these cells are made from organic compounds: carbon nanotubes and carbon fullerenes (also known as buckyballs).
. . Here's how it works. The nanotubes are arranged with the buckyballs in a structure where they compliment each other. When photons of light strike this material, electrons are produced and captured by the buckyballs. The nanotubes act like wires, to extract the electrons, and allow the buckyballs to capture more. Connect it all together and you've got a power source.
Aug 18, 07: California's adoption of low-fuel standards: "Instead of saying, 'We want X billion gallons of ethanol", which is the federal approach, they're saying, 'We want our transportation fuel to become 10% less greenhouse gas intensive over the life cycle of each gallon.'"
. . In California as elsewhere, fuel companies cut regular gasoline with biofuels. But if the bottom line is sheer biofuel volume, then a CO2-inefficient biofuel is given the same value as a CO2-efficient biofuel. There's no incentive to use one over the other. But since California makes efficiency the measure, fuel companies are going to pick the biofuel that saves the most CO2.
Aug 17, 07: The world's biggest nuclear plant performed safely during and after an earthquake in Japan, but it may take more than a year to restart power production, U.N. inspectors said.
Aug 17, 07: The EU target of ensuring 10% of petrol and diesel comes from renewable sources by 2020 is not an effective way to curb carbon emissions, researchers say. Biofuels Can't Offset Envionmental Costs of Deforestation. Scientists say the environmental cost of clearing carbon-dioxide-absorbing forests is much too high be offset by planting and using biofuel crops like corn and soy.
. . A team of UK-based scientists suggested that reforestation and habitat protection was a better option. They said forests could absorb up to nine times more CO2 than the production of biofuels could achieve on the same area of land.
. . The growth of biofuels was also leading to more deforestation, they added. "In all cases, the amount of CO2 sequestered (by forests) over a 30-year period is considerably greater than the amount of emissions avoided by using biofuels."
. . The researchers also examined the impact of clearing forests in order to convert land to grow crops used to make biofuels. "It would take --in all the cases we examined-- between 50 to 100 years to recover this carbon through the production of biofuels."
. . However, he said that so-called second generation biofuels, which used feedstocks such as straw, grasses and wood (lignocellulosic material) rather than grains or palm oil, offered a much better opportunity. "It was the one route than seemed to offer some possibilities in terms of CO2 mitigation.
. . Two US researchers say that rising grain prices could make the technology commercially competitive sooner. Mark Wright and Robert Brown, from Iowa State U, US, said that a second generation biorefinery cost four to five times as much as a bio-ethanol plant that used grains, such as corn. However, the overall cost of producing second generation biofuels would be similar to biofuels produced from food crops when corn prices exceed $3 (£1.50) per bushel, they explained.
. . The adoption of second generation biofuels would be welcomed by environmental groups and food agencies, who view first generation fuels as unsustainable. Experts at the World Water Week conference in Stockholm have voiced concern that growing food crops to be used to make biofuels could jeopardize water supplies.
Aug 16, 07: According to the Green Electronics Council, EPEAT standard adherence carries tremendous environmental gains. Computers, registered under this system will end up reducing hazardous waste by 13 million pounds. They will also save over 600,000 Megawatts of energy.
Aug 16, 07: Nova Scotia is finally starting to move on taking advantage on the huge amounts of tidal power potential in the Bay of Fundy. The province is taking tide power proposals from developers for the bay, and is looking to reduce their use of coal power.
. . The Offshore Energy Environmental Research Association will also assess environmental and social impacts of a project --on marine wildlife, fishing, cost, energy security. Another separate assessment would be made by the Environment Department.
. . Currently, Nova Scotia uses a lot of locally-mined coal. They've also just tapped an offshore natural gas reservoir. But the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world--thanks to a geographical quirk, the water level rises and falls about fifty feet twice a day, at a rate of 2 to 2.5 meters per hour.
Aug 16, 07: 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 initial project uses four Pelamis machines with a combined output of 3MW.
Aug 16, 07: Spain just passed a new law allowing wind farms to be built offshore--maybe Cape Cod could take a lesson. Spain is already produces a lot of wind power--it's ranked #2 in the world, behind Germany, and currently has the capacity to produce almost 11,000 MW. By 2020, they plan to generate between two or three thousands megawatts offshore, which would be a substantial chunk of their regular use. Conveniently, Spain has about 4,000k of coastline. Under the new plan, private companies will be able to build wind farms in designated areas.
Aug 16, 07: Sustainable Industries just announced their Top 10 Green Building Products of 2007. On the list is the Skystream 3.7 backyard wind generator--so if you're tired of waiting for energy companies to start mass-producing wind power, you can produce your own.
. . Each generator can create between 30 and 80% of the energy needed to power the average home. It was developed by Southwest Windpower along with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab. Curved blades make it quieter.
. . It's apparently quite easy to install, requiring no external parts. It does, however, require about an acre of land and winds above 8mph. It costs around $8,500 (including installation) and is about 11 meters high.
On August 4, the House passed the Udall-Platts Renewable Energy Amendment, focusing on curbing the domestic electrical power consumption. Known as the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), the new House energy plan is already adopted by 23 states and will require renewable energy sources to account for 15% of nationwide electricity use by 2020.
. . According to Udall-Platts, environmentally-savvy utilities would be rewarded for each green kilowatt through a specific tradable credit system. Clean energy sources will include wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, ocean, biomass, etc. The Union of Concerned Scientists endorsed the policy.
Aug 16, 07: Wells Fargo's biggest solar energy investment to date will be a 64-megawatt facility, southeast of Las Vegas. It will cover 400 acres, where 182,000 parabolic trough-shapred panels will track the sun throughout the day.
Aug 16, 07: Commercial jetliners are getting a new look these days. It's those little upturned pieces at the tips of the wings. On a Boeing 747-400 they're nearly six feet tall. They make the plane fly with less induced drag and that makes it fly more efficiently.
. . By installing winglets, airlines will enjoy significant fuel savings, reduced engine maintenance costs and increased carrying capacity on each aircraft.
. . The winglet concept is at least 100 years old, according to Craig McCallum, director of sales and marketing for Aviation Partners, the sole airliner winglet manufacturer in the US. But it didn't become commercially viable until a Boeing employee, after retirement, started fiddling around with the concept.
. . New materials (winglets are mostly made of graphite) and software came together to make winglets a reality. But they're not right for every airline or type of aircraft, which is why they're not industry-wide and fleet-wide. Over 90% of future Boeing 737s (the 600, 700, 800, and 900 versions) will have winglets pre-installed at the factory.
. . On Aviation Partners' website (www.aviationpartners.com) the company claims that its innovation is saving fuel at the rate of almost 5 gallons per second. Also, on the front page it has a real-time tracker of the gallons of fuel winglets are saving-their contribution to a greener Earth.
Aug 13, 07: Downing St has said its climate change targets are "ambitious" but it remains fully committed to renewable energy. It was responding to a report in the Guardian that officials had told ministers the UK would miss EU targets by a wide margin.
. . Gordon Brown's official spokesman said: "It will be a major challenge not just for the UK but for the EU." Tony Blair signed up to the EU targets in March --before he resigned as prime minister in June. They include a 20% reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 1990 levels, or 30% if other developed nations agree to take similar action. The targets also include an increase in the use of renewable energy, to 20% of all energy consumed, and a 20% increase in energy efficiency.
Aug 13, 07: It would cost up to $1.8 trillion to dramatically reduce U.S. CO2 emissions by 2050, but spending $35 billion on research into cutting edge technology for nuclear and low-emission coal plants could cut the price tag in half, researchers said.
. . U.S. electric utilities that currently rely on coal-burning, greenhouse-gas emitting plants for about half their generation capacity face the rising likelihood they will have to spend billions of dollars to comply with a government-imposed cap on heat-trapping emissions.
. . The Electric Power Research Institute, nonprofit electric sector researchers based in Palo Alto, California, said U.S. industry must start investing in cutting-edge research now to avoid a much bigger compliance bill in future decades.
That money would go into emission-reducing technologies like CO2 capture, new nuclear power plants, electric "plug-in" hybrid cars and coal-burning plants that sequester their CO2 emissions in underground reservoirs. "You get a pretty big payoff for a small investment", James said.
. . Coal-burning power plants emit the most U.S. CO2, about 40% of the total, and cars emit about a third of the total.
. . Nearly half of the R&D price tag --$690 million a year through 2030-- would go toward research into advanced coal technology and capturing and storing CO2, as specified by EPRI. EPRI called for all new coal plants built after 2020 to be capable of capturing 90% of their CO2 emissions, which would yield the single biggest reduction in sector emissions.
. . The study also counts on a massive U.S. nuclear plant build-out, about five times the amount predicted by Energy Department forecasters, to reduce CO2 emissions. The group said U.S. nuclear capacity could grow to 64 gigawatts by 2030 --five times the government's estimate, which would account for 26% of U.S. electric generation.
. . On the transportation side, EPRI called for wider use of plug-in hybrid vehicles. EPRI's goal would be for such vehicles to account for 10% of new U.S. sales of light vehicle sales by 2017, rising to 30% by 2030.
Aug 10, 07: Streetlights aren't really necessary when there's a full moon out, what with it bouncing all that sunlight down at us and everything. But your average streetlight isn't smart enough to know when it isn't needed, so it sits there, dumbly shining away for no real reason. That's not the case with the Lunar-Resonant Street Lights, conceptual LED-based lamps that dim down and turn off completely as Luna waxes. When it's a new moon, it'll be fully lit up, showing you your path. What results is an energy savings of 90-95%.
Aug 6, 07: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program has submitted a report to Congress calling for tax incentives to promote IT energy conservation. The report predicts that energy consumption by servers and data centers will double by 2011 and calls on the federal government to lead by example to achieve energy conservation goals.
. . The report stresses that the industry must focus on building only low-power, Energy Star-rated servers in order to slow demand for electrical power. It also outlines existing and emerging opportunities for energy efficiency and voluntary programs to promote energy-efficient servers and data centers. The Energy Star certification is similar to existing programs for household appliances, such as refrigerators, ovens and clothes dryers.
The EPA's Aug. 3 report to Congress highlights these key findings:
. . * Assuming current trends continue, the national energy consumption by servers and data centers is expected to nearly double by 2011.
. . * Data centers consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006, roughly 1.5% of total U.S. electricity consumption, or about $4.5 billion in electricity costs.
. . * Federal servers and data centers alone account for approximately 6 billion kWh (10%) of this electricity use, at a total electricity cost of about $400 million per year.
. . * Existing technologies and strategies could reduce typical server energy use by 25% -—even greater energy savings are possible with advanced technologies.
The EPA report recommends a mix of programs and incentives, as well as a holistic approach to achieve significant savings. Recommendations include the following:
. . * Financial incentives, e.g. tax credits and utility rebates
. . * An Energy Star whole-building performance rating system for data centers
. . * Standardized performance metrics for data centers
. . * Federal leadership through best practices, public/private partnerships, education, training and development of Energy Star specifications for servers and related product categories
. . * Federal/industry research and development
NetApp felt it was important to engage in this process with the EPA, given the company's own success with these innovations. "In fact, since implementing these solutions, we have already reduced our electric bill by $60,000, eliminated 94 tons of air conditioning, and cut our storage footprint by 75%", Bennett said. "Our engineers have calculated that these energy savings are the equivalent of taking 212 cars off the road."
Aug 6, 07: Movidas Inc., a Santa Cruz start-up, has gotten a good reception to its MIPS-based Revolution x16, which runs a version of the MIPS processor from Cavium Networks.
. . The product, which was first introduced at LinuxWorld last year, is a blade server that pulls just 60 watts of energy, against 300 watts for a dual-Xeon box.
When running as a black box pulling down Web pages, CEO Ken Goldscholl says the Revolution x16 takes just 2% of the Xeon’s energy load, a 98% savings.
Aug 5, 07: It's not archival quality, isn't suitable for inkjets, and shouldn't be used for documents that are meant to be kept for a long time or that are official, such as contracts and the like, but it's fine for transactional jobs such as printing up invoices or for use in ordinary office black-and-white printing. Xerox says that the paper is the first of its kind that works reliably in digital printers and copiers, partly because it doesn't curl.
. . The paper comes from a mill using hydroelectricity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75% compared to other mills. The paper also weighs less than paper made using traditional chemical processes, so it comes with about 10% more pages per pound, making it less costly to ship and mail, and less expensive in cost overall. Comparatively, it's about 5% less than the company's 4200 business paper.
. . Wood chips are ground in machines to loosen their fibers and make pulp, but wood chemicals stay in the fiber, so twice as much paper is produced per tree, according to Xerox.
. . "We knew up front that there was an environmental story", Katz says. That's because of the physical characteristics of newsprint, which is lighter than typical office paper, so he and other Xerox engineers knew that when the wood was ground for pulp the capacity of the newsprint would be better than chemically produced fiber. They knew it would cost less to produce and use fewer trees in the process. "That's when we really saw a big, big opportunity on the environmental side."
Aug 5, 07: The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver will need a lot of transportation, so the B.C. government is assembling the largest collection of hydrogen fuel-cell buses on the planet. Twenty hydrogen buses will be in Whistler for coastal transport during the Olympic Games. Each bus costs about $2.1 million, or four times the price of the diesel variety. But they are zero emissions vehicles, providing 37 seats and a 60-person standing capacity.
Aug 5, 07: A London data center run by hosting provider Ultraspeed claims to have cut its energy needs by 40% through a combination of direct current electricity supply, diskless servers and low-voltage quad-core Xeon processors.
Aug 2, 07: BASEL, Switzerland, on the Rhine: A 3.4 magnitude tremor on the evening of Dec. 8 was no ordinary act of nature: It had been accidentally triggered by engineers drilling deep into the Earth's crust to tap its inner heat and thus break new ground — literally — in the world's search for new sources of energy.
. . Basel authorities told Geopower Basel to put its project on hold. But the power company hasn't given up. It's in a race with a firm in Australia to be the first to generate power commercially by boiling water on the rocks three miles underground.
. . On paper, the Basel project looks fairly straightforward: Drill down, shoot cold water into the shaft and bring it up again superheated and capable of generating power through a steam turbine.
. . Scientists say this geothermal energy, clean, quiet and virtually inexhaustible, could fill the world's annual needs 250,000 times over with nearly zero impact on the climate or the environment.
. . A study released this year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said if 40% of the heat under the US could be tapped, it would meet demand 56,000 times over. It said an investment of $800 million to $1 billion could produce more than 100 gigawatts of electricity by 2050, equaling the combined output of all 104 nuclear power plants in the U.S.
. . A so-called hot rock well three miles deep in the US would cost $7 million to $8 million, according to the MIT study. Also, rocks tapped by drilling would lose their heat after a few decades and new wells would have to be drilled elsewhere.
. . Steve Chalk, deputy assistant secretary for renewable energy, said the Department of Energy won't spend more money beyond the $2 million it has already allocated to hot rock technology.
. . Still to be drilled are the two wells that would suck the pressurized, superheated water out of the cracks and up to the surface to create steam for driving a turbine and generating electricity. The water, having cooled to around 340 degrees, would heat hospitals, public buildings and homes before being pumped back into the ground for another waste-free, gas-free cycle.
. . Experts say hot rock geothermal energy can operate 24 hours a day and doesn't depend on sun or wind. But it's decades away from serious rivalry with existing energy sources.
Aug 2, 07: A group of north European companies aims to show how fuel cells can clean up ship engines, which now use filthy fuels such as oil refinery residues and can spew out hundreds of times more pollutants than automobiles.
. . The companies plan to install a clean fuel-cell engine aboard a supply ship in 2008 and believe that a large share of the marine world will follow suit within 25 years. "Green" engines for ships will gain footing in the fiercely competitive global shipping industry, they say, as technology advances and relatively lax environmental norms toughen.
. . Iceland already plans to convert its entire fishing fleet to hydrogen fuel cell engines as part of its environmental drive. The shipping industry says it is more green than other modes of transport considering the huge amount of trade that ships carry, although the heavy fuel used in shipping emits 700 times more sulphur dioxide than diesel exhausts from road vehicles.
. . DNV estimates that fuel cells now cost about six times more than diesel generators. But the technology can be up to 50% more efficient and much cleaner, helping to curb high costs of fuel and, as many expect in the future, the high costs of polluting.
. . When powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), as the first full-scale test model will be, CO2 emissions are cut in half compared to diesel engines running on marine bunker fuel and sulphur and nitrogen oxide exhausts are nearly eliminated.
. . Fuel cells have no moving parts, slashing maintenance needs and making them inherently silent and vibration-free.
. . LNG tanks take up precious onboard space and need to be filled relatively often --about once per week according to Eidesvik-- limiting the ships' range to coastal waters of regions with developed LNG infrastructure.
. . Iceland's idea is to use its cheap thermal energy and hydropower to the produce hydrogen that would drive its fishing fleet, one of the world's biggest, and cut emissions.
. . Other options for ship-based fuel cells, said DNV, could be methanol or biofuels, which are liquids in normal temperatures and more readily available throughout the world than LNG.
Aug 2, 07: The DOE's Solar America Initiative has set a goal to make solar energy totally cost competitive by 2015. In the meantime, tax credits at the federal, state, and local levels are succeeding in encouraging homeowners to adopt solar technologies now.
Aug 2, 07: Flat cement tile, white S-shape cement tile, terra-cotta S-shape "Spanish" tile, white metal... the dark gray roofs reflected only 8% of the sun's heat. On the other hand, the white metal roof reflected 66%, the S-shape cement tiles reflected 74%, and the flat cement tiles reflected 77% of the sun's energy. White shingle and terra-cotta tile roofs fell in the middle, reflecting 25 and 34%, respectively. Overall, though, the white, galvanized metal roof saved the most energy because it cooled down the most at night.
. . Florida Power & Light suggests a Florida homeowner in an average-size home (1,770 square feet) can cut annual cooling costs 23% by choosing a white, galvanized metal roof rather than a dark gray shingle roof.
Aug 1, 07: Solar cells just got a boost in efficiency thanks to a couple of scientists at the U of Delaware. The news cells can convert 42.8% of the light that strikes them into electricity, which is a step up from the previous record of 40.7%.
. . The cells do this by splitting light into high energy, low energy, and medium energy chunks. The light is then directed to different materials depending on what type it is, eeking electrons out of it. DARPA is pushing for a goal of 50% efficiency, which would go a long way towards making solar power a more practical alternative energy source.
Aug 1, 07: Kanguru claims that by reducing power consumption by up to 75%, it can both extend the life of your hard drive and be eco-conscious at the same time. The Eco Drive works by going into an idle mode after three seconds of inactivity, which has 80% of normal power consumption, and standby mode after three minutes of inactivity, which works at 10-20% of normal power consumption. And when you don't touch it for five minutes, it goes into power-down mode and uses 5-10% of the normal power.
. . The Kanguru Eco Drive is also RoHS compliant. RoHS, or the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, is an international directive to restrict the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of certain types of electrical equipment. These materials are lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE flame retardants.
. . The high-speed (480Mbps) USB2.0 hard drives are available in capacities of up to 750GB. The Kanguru Eco Drive is compatible with Windows (98 and above), including Windows Vista, and with Mac OS X and above. SATA support will be available soon.
July 31, 07: The focus on reducing CO2 emissions has blinded us to the real problem --unsustainable lifestyles, says Eamon O'Hara. He argues that bigger problems await us unless we shift our efforts. Focusing on the need to reduce CO2 emissions has reduced the problem to one of CO2 rather than on the unsustainable ways we live.
. . Renewable resources might provide a safer alternative to oil and gas and other finite resources, but it will not remove our energy and resource dependency. The world simply does not have the resources, renewable or otherwise, to sustain Western lifestyles across the globe. 75% of the world's population --more than 4.5bn people-- live on just 15% of the world's resources, while we in the West gorge on the remaining 85%.
. . Every day we wait, another 30,000 children needlessly die; between 100-150 plant and animal species become extinct; 70,000 hectares of rainforest is destroyed and another 150m tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.
. . Meanwhile, another $3.0bn (£1.5bn) is spent on arms and weapons of mass destruction.
July 31, 07: Straddling a 619-pound motorcycle, Scotty Pollacheck tucks in his knees and lowers his head as he waits for the green light. When he revs the engine, there's no roar. The bike moves so fast that within seconds all that's visible is a faint red taillight melting in the distance.
. . Pollacheck crosses the quarter-mile marker doing 156 mph; he's traveled 1,320 feet in 8.22 seconds, faster than any of the gas-powered cars, trucks or motorcycles that have raced in the drag sprints on this weekend at Portland International Raceway. It's particularly impressive given Pollacheck is riding a vehicle that uses no gasoline and is powered entirely by lithium-ion batteries.
. . The KillaCycle runs on 990 lithium-ion battery cells that feed two direct current motors, generating 350 horsepower. The bike accelerates from zero to 60 mph in just under a second. The fastest quarter-mile time by an electric vehicle is the KillaCycle's 8.16 seconds -—that's 2.36 seconds off the nitromethane world record.
. . In December, the KillaCycle will receive a second-generation battery pack that will have twice as much juice as its current 374-volt system, giving it close to 1,000 horsepower. Fulop said he believes the KillaCycle can break the drag racing motorcycle record within the next year.
. . The price of lithium-ion is expected to drop. In addition, the latest generation of batteries offers a higher rate of conductivity and takes less time to charge —the KillaCycle's battery pack can be juiced up in five minutes.
July 31, 07: Researchers at UC Davis have used nanocrystals made of diamond-like cubic zirconia to develop cooler fuel cells. Even if hydrogen fuel cells have been touted as clean energy sources, current fuel cells have to run at high temperatures of up to 1,000 °C. This new technology will allow fuel cells to run at much lower temperatures, between 50 and 100 °C. Obviously, this could lead to a widespread use of fuel cells, which could become a realistic alternative power source for vehicles. The researchers have applied for a patent for their technology, but don’t tell when fuel cells based on their work are about to appear.
July 31, 07: Britain's Department of Transport has launched a Web site designed to let new car buyers choose the most environmentally friendly vehicle for their needs. The site, on www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2, allows buyers to search models by category, transmission and fuel type and to be given a list of the lowest CO2 emitting models. [the same-named model may be a bit different in other countries...]
July 31, 07: The socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has seen the future and it's got two wheels, three speeds, an adjustable seat, indestructible tires, a basket, and a bell. It's 50 pounds of ecofriendly handlebars.
. . The French are turning Paris into a bicycle zone, pretty much overnight. Even now, astride small alleys and behind boulangeries, paving stones are being ripped to fit 750 bicycle rent "stations."
. . On July 15, a day after the French Revolution anniversary, the city of lights will kick off a "vélorution" with 10,648 rentable bikes, or vélos. By January, some 1,400 rent stations and 20,600 bikes are scheduled to be in place. In Paris proper, one will never be more than 900 feet from a set of cheap wheels.
. . Amsterdam, a city not unfamiliar with bikes, tried a similar experiment that foundered. But the French think they've conquered the kinks. A bike-rental program started in Lyon in 2005 is working. One clincher for the Paris project: Vélib isn't costing the city anything, and should be self-supporting.
. . The concept is computerized and credit card driven. Each station has a large ATM-sized panel that gives instructions in French, German, English, and Chinese. Riders buy in for a day (1 rules), a week (5 rules), or a year (29 euro). The panel issues a card that can be swiped over a small locking pod to release the bike.
. . It is also a concept designed mainly for commuters, not tourists seeking a languid ride along the Seine. Riders have 30 minutes to get to their destination before any charge is made. After 30 minutes, the cost is 1 euro ($1.36). The bike is 2 rules for 1.5 hours, and 4 euro for 2 hours. "We hope each bike is used 10 to 14 times a day", says Pierson, who notes that the stations are open 24/7.
. . Initial membership in the Paris program puts a 150 euros hold on the credit card. People are charged for bikes that aren't returned, placing an emphasis on rider care and oversight. Should a bike not be returned, an alarm inside the bike will go off.
July 29, 07: It rains year round in Germany. Clouds cover the skies for about two-thirds of all daylight hours. Yet the country has managed to become the world's leading solar power generator.
. . Even though millions of Germans flee their damp, dark homeland for holidays in the Mediterranean sun, 55% of the world's photovoltaic (PV) power is generated on solar panels set up between the Baltic Sea and the Black Forest.
. . So far, just 3% of Germany's electricity comes from the sun, but the government wants to raise the share of renewables to 27% of all energy by 2020 from 13%. There are now more than 300,000 photovoltaic systems in Germany --the energy law had planned for 100,000. Spread out across the country, they are owned by legions of homeowners, farmers and small businesses who are capitalizing on the government-backed march into renewable energy.
. . By tapping the daylight for electricity --which power companies are obliged to buy for 20 years at more than triple market prices-- they are at the vanguard of a grassroots movement in the fight against climate change.
. . There are now 250,000 jobs in Germany in the renewables energy sector. Asbeck expects the number of jobs in solar power alone to double to 90,000 over the next five years and hit 200,000 in 2020. The law has also since served as a model for other countries including Spain, Portugal, Greece, France and Italy.
. . Germany's photovoltaic systems generate about 3,000 megawatts of power --1,000 times more than in 1990. Many German towns have annual sunshine of some 1,500 hours --about half as much as in Spain. "But the energy would have be transported and that's difficult. So it makes sense to build solar panels where people need them."
July 29, 07: Microsoft and other big Internet companies are building massive data centers in eastern Washington and Oregon. Those regions offer cheap electricity powered by hydroelectric plants. MS said the data center at Quincy will be its largest yet, and that it was designed to have minimal or no carbon footprint. Yahoo Inc. is also building a data center in Quincy and Google Inc. is building one in Oregon.
July 29, 07: The exhaust from biodiesel contains half the carbon monoxide of regular diesel. In addition, one gallon (3.78 liters) of biodiesel lets off just 0.68 kg of CO2, compared to 22 pounds per gallon for regular petrodiesel, he said, so biodiesel has a much smaller impact on the environment. They're cautious about filling them with biodiesel because it has a shorter shelf life compared to petrodiesel.
July 29, 07: A two-car train in rural northern Japan is the latest entrant in the battle against global warming. Following its runaway success with hybrid cars, Japan is bringing the world hybrid trains. Regular passenger runs are set to begin Tuesday on a short mountain route, the first time a diesel-electric hybrid train will be put into commercial service.
. . The Kiha E200 train, which boosts fuel efficiency by 20% and reduces emissions by up to 60%, cost nearly $1.7 million, twice as much as a standard train. It has a diesel engine, two electric motors under each car and lithium ion batteries on the roof. The diesel engine only kicks in with a rumble when needed to climb a hill or if the batteries run low.
. . The batteries are recharged when the train slows down. After the power is switched off, the motors continue to turn for a while, and that energy --wasted in a non-hybrid train-- is used to recharge the batteries.
. . In North America, Railpower Technologies Corp. has developed a hybrid train called the Green Goat for moving freight cars in a rail yard. Railways contribute just 4% of U.S. transportation-related emissions of CO2.
Switzerland, renowned for its clean Alpine air and pristine ski slopes, has named Toyota's Prius the world's greenest car.
July 26, 07: Renewable energy could wreck the environment, according to a study that examined how much land it would take to generate the renewable resources that would make a difference in the global energy system.
. . Building enough wind farms, damming adequate number of rivers and growing sufficient biomass to produce ample kilowatts to make a difference in meeting global energy demands would involve a huge invasion of nature, according to Jesse Ausubel, a researcher at the Rockefeller U in New York. Ausubel came to this conclusion by calculating the amount of energy that each renewable source can produce in terms of area of land disturbed.
. . According to the study, in order to meet the 2005 electricity demand for the US, an area the size of Texas would need to be covered with wind structures running round the clock to extract, store and transport the energy. New York City would require the entire area of Connecticut to become a wind farm to fully power all its electrical equipment and gadgets.
. . You can convert every kilowatt generated directly into land area disturbed, Ausubel said. “The biomass or wind will produce one or two watts per square meter. So every watt or kilowatt you want for light bulbs in your house can be translated into your hand reaching out into nature taking land.”
. . But wait! Other scientists are not on board with Ausubel’s analysis and say that his use of energy density -—the amount of energy produced per each area of land—- as the only metric may not be the correct way to calculate the impact of energy from renewable resources on the environment.
. . “In general, I would say his use of energy density just does not capture the entire scope of issues and capabilities for all the different resources", said John A. Turner, a principal scientist at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, who was not involved in the study. Turner explains that if the entire US were to be powered by solar cells with 10% efficiency, an area about 10,000 square miles would have to be covered by solar panels in a sunny place such as Arizona or Nevada. There’s 3.7 million square miles of area in the continental U.S.
. . Ausubel’s analysis concludes that other renewable sources such as solar power and biomass are “un-green”. According to his findings, to obtain power for a large proportion of the country from biomass would require 965 square miles of prime Iowa land. A photovoltaic solar cell plant would require about 58 square miles.
. . However, new land doesn’t have to be put into use just for a solar plant. Some scientists say already existing infrastructures could be doubled up for use to cover such an area. “We could do with just rooftops of buildings and homes, land area we’ve already covered.”
. . Turner said: “We could meet 25% of our annual electrical demand by just putting solar panels on already existing rooftops of homes and businesses. Similarly, wind farms use up a lot of land area but they only really take up 5% of the land they cover”, he explained. “The rest of it can be used for farming so it doesn’t really impact the land area that much.”
. . And... “It’s unconscionable to dismiss the issue of nuclear waste", Turner said, “because you have to store that waste for hundreds of thousands of years and nuclear wastes are particularly damaging to the environment and have social impacts also.”
July 26, 07: Texas has the most entries on a list of the dirtiest U.S. power plants, while New England and the Pacific Coast make less CO2 because they have fewer coal-burning plants, an environmental group said.
July 26, 07: Wind power could generate enough electricity to support the world's energy needs several times over, according to a new map of global wind speeds that scientists say is the first of its kind.
. . The map, compiled by researchers at Stanford U, shows wind speeds at more than 8,000 sites around the world. The researchers found that at least 13% of those sites experience winds fast enough to power a modern wind turbine. If turbines were set up in all these regions, they would generate 72 terawatts of electricity. That's more than five times the world's energy needs, which was roughly 14 terawatts in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The 72-terawatt figure is likely to be on the low side.
. . The researchers readily admit that existing buildings, land rights and other obstacles would make it impossible to set up turbines in every single one of the identified regions. But they point out that even 20% of those sites could satisfy world energy consumption as it stands today. More importantly, the study shows that wind can be a feasible alternative to fossil fuels.
. . Approximately 20% of Denmark's energy consumption is fulfilled by wind power. The US, on the other hand, generates less than 1% of its electricity with wind.
July 26, 07: Fueling nuclear reactors with the element thorium instead of uranium could produce half as much radioactive waste and reduce the availability of weapons-grade plutonium by as much as 80%. But the nuclear power industry needs more incentives to make the switch, experts say.
. . Scientists have long considered using thorium as a reactor fuel --and for good reason: The naturally occurring element is more abundant, more efficient and safer to use than uranium. Plus, thorium reactors leave behind very little plutonium, meaning that governments have access to less material for making nuclear weapons. But design challenges and a Cold War-era interest in using nuclear waste byproducts in atomic bombs pushed the industry to use uranium as its primary fuel.
. . In January, India --which has the world's second largest reserve of thorium behind Australia--announced it would begin testing the safety of a design of its own.
. . The anticipated surge in demand for thorium has led at least one mining company to begin buying as many thorium deposits and stockpiles as it can. "We feel that it's inevitable that the U.S. and other countries in the world --India of course-- will exclusively use thorium in the future", said Novastar Director of Strategic Planning Seth Shaw.
. . But there's just one problem: The nuclear power industry has already built its infrastructure around uranium and has little reason to invest in changing it, according to Mujid Kazimi, director of MIT's Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems. "This is a market economy so the economics will have to be in favor for thorium to move that way", said Kazimi. "It could take another 50 years for us to reach the level where uranium prices are so high that thorium looks attractive." As an interim solution, the US could change the way it charges power plants for the nuclear waste that they produce, said Kazimi.
. . Thorium Power has been working with Russian researchers to find ways to dispose of stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium by burning it in thorium reactors. In March, the House voted to give $5 million to the project.
. . Change could be driven by customers from the bottom up. As deregulation allows multiple electric providers to compete in a region, customers are increasingly getting to choose where to spend their money. This means customers can essentially use their money to vote for companies that invest in responsible technologies.
July 26, 07: One of Shanghai's main business districts is urging office workers to ditch their suits and ties for shorts and T-shirts as temperatures approach 40 degrees C.
July 25, 07: Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm-waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study.
. . Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve --where the administration of President George W. Bush wants to increase oil drilling-- possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. The BLM has already cleaned and plugged the J.W. Dalton well in 2005 after more than 300 feet of shoreline was eaten away in a single summer. That well, drilled in 1979, is now underwater.
. . Environmentalists find it ironic that BLM is on the verge of authorizing new oil developments in the Teshekpuk wetlands. "On the one hand, they're having to scramble and clean up old wells that may soon be covered by water. And on the other hand, they may be proposing to expand that oil-field infrastructure in the same area", said Stan Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska.
July 21, 07: The Environmental Protection Agency today introduced its first complete refresh of its Energy Star specification for computers. The EPA estimates that over the next five years, the updated Energy Star computer spec will save American businesses and consumers $1.8 billion in energy costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the emissions of 2.7 million cars.
. . The computer Energy Star spec, designed to help save the environment and save consumers money, was first introduced in 1992. Now in its fourth iteration, the spec has broadened its scope to encompass a wider breadth of computer usage. The EPA says that only the most energy-efficient computing products will qualify for the Energy Star label. It's evolved into an international platform; the European Union uses it, as does Canada and many Asian countries.
. . One of the big changes in the requirements of Energy Star 4: Newly qualified computers must include a more energy-efficient power supply. "We're hoping to make 80% efficient the standard."
. . At launch, 122 desktop and notebook PCs met the 4.0 qualification. Additional products are undergoing testing now. The EPA expects 25% of computer products, or less, to qualify under the 4.0 spec --down from the current 98%. "We expect that rate to jump up quickly, though."
July 20, 07: If motorists used rechargeable "plug-in" hybrid-electric vehicles in large numbers, the U.S. could see a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, says a study.
. . Researchers estimated that with a market share of about 60% or more plug-ins, the vehicles could help reduce approximately 450 million metric tons in greenhouse gas emissions a year by 2050. The reductions would be the equivalent of removing 82 million passenger cars, or about one-third of the cars currently on the road.
. . The study was conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit research group, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. It was based on an analysis of data from the federal Energy Information Agency and EPRI.
. . Researchers said a significant increase in plug-ins would lead to only a minor increase in demand for electricity. An increase of 7% to 8% of electric use would reduce nearly 4 million barrels of oil per day by 2050
. . A separate study by the organizations found that plug-in vehicles also could lead to small improvements in the nation's air quality. Most regions of the country would see improvements in ambient air quality and the reduction of pollutants, they found.
. . The study assumed that three-quarters of the charging would take place at night during the off-peak hours of the electric grid.
July 20, 07: In 2000, Germany decided to phase out nuclear plants by 2020, and it has adopted legislation promoting the development and use of renewable energy sources. Renewables made up more than 5% of Germany's total primary energy supply in 2006, according the Environment Ministry. The government's goal is to increase the share of electric power from renewables to 12.5% by 2010 and 20% by 2020.
. . Wind energy remains the country's leading renewable source of electricity, but solar power use has increased to about 750 megawatts installed in 2006, up from 83 megawatts in 2002.
. . Renewable energy in the Freiburg region makes up almost 4% of energy production. The city has set a target of 10% of renewable usage by 2010. Freiburg already has set some low energy requirements for home buyers. It helped that Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act, passed in 2000, set a healthy price to be paid for renewable energy fed into the electricity grid, and that figure was revised upward in 2004.
New York City consumes more power on hot summer days than the entire nation of Chile.
July 13, 07: The American West's vast open spaces provide all the ingredients for alternative energy plants --vast tracts of cheap desert land, steady winds and year-round sunshine. Florida's expensive real estate, unreliable wind and severe rainy season limit its prospects, according to experts.
. . FPL Group, the parent of Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, is the top U.S. wind power generator with 47 wind farms in 15 states. Yet it does not have one in Florida. Florida has twice the sunshine of Germany, a global leader in solar power, and believes local utilities are ready to hop on the bandwagon.
July 11, 07: Chinese scientists have developed a "Wing-In-Ground" (WIG) aircraft which can fly long distances just a few feet above the sea surface, state media said.
. . The plane can fly as low as half a meter off the surface, hitting speeds of up to 300 km per hour and can carry up to 4 tons on takeoff. "It's as safe as ships, although five or six times faster. And it can carry much more weight than ordinary planes while costing half as much and using half as much fuel. This cuts back at least one third on fuel consumption."
. . Wing In Ground effect refers to the reduction in drag experienced by an aircraft as it approaches a height approximately twice a wingspan's length off the ground or other level surface such as the sea.
. . Xu said the plane could be flown for military use and border control. Tongji U planned to develop a 50-seat WIG by 2013, with 200 prototypes capable of carrying 200 to 400 tons scheduled for 2016 or 2017.
July 10, 07: University researchers are training sheep to clean up vineyard weeds but stay off the grapes. Enthusiastic and unpicky eaters, sheep are already being used in some vineyards as a green alternative to trac.
July 10, 07: Brazil has given the initial go-ahead for the construction of two hydro-electric dams to be built on the longest tributary of the Amazon River. The Madeira River projects have divided opinion even within government and in recent years have been one of the most environmentally sensitive issues.
. . The river is said to have one of the most diverse fish stocks in the world. Environmentalists fear they could be threatened by the development of the dams costing billions of dollars.
. . The government believes the two dams, when built, could supply around 8% to 10% of the national demand for electricity. Critics fear it will cause damage to the Amazon area by disturbing the flow of sediments in the Madeira River, as well as bringing thousands of workers and their families to an area where resources are already overstretched.
. . There are also worries that the construction would stir up mercury levels in the river and one of the conditions attached to the project is that this should be carefully monitored. Thousands of families also depend on the river for their income and the impact on their lives could be significant.
July 10, 07: The cost of pasta in Italy is set to rise because durum wheat is increasingly being used as a bio-fuel, manufacturers say. [Feed your car OR yourself!]
July 10, 07: A sensitive Spot on North Slope May Be Opened to Oil, Gas Drilling. The lust for energy and profit may trump environmental concerns if the Bureau of Land Management pushes ahead with its plans.
July 10, 07: While the seashore mallow might be handy for a quick snack, the sturdy plant has provided Gallagher food for thought in addressing a smorgasbord of environmental problems, from global warming to the disappearance of coastal farmland.
. . Gallagher, a marine biosciences professor, says the seeds are a promising source of biodiesel, with an oil composition similar to that of soybeans and cottonseed. Unlike soybeans and corn, which require annual plantings to feed the growing appetite for biofuels, the pink-flowered seashore mallow is both a perennial and a halophyte, or salt-tolerant plant, that grows in areas where other crops can't. "You don't have to divert land that is presently used for producing food and feed to the process of making biodiesel."
. . With the threat of sea water encroaching on farmland and coastal aquifers because of global warming, Gallagher believes the seashore mallow could help preserve the economic value of arable land transitioning to marshland.
. . The meal left over after oil is extracted from mallow seeds has enough protein to be used for animal feed, while the stems have potential for use in cellulosic ethanol, Gallagher said. The roots of the plant could be used to make industrial gum. "It's almost like the pig of the vegetable world; you can use everything but the squeal." The roots sequester CO2 from the atmosphere, making the plant a CO2-neutral source of energy.
. . According to Bushnell, some 250 halophytes are potential food staple crops, while thousands more might be available as fuel biomass. He's chief scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
July 9, 07: The most striking thing about the Miasole solar cell production plant in San Jose is how much of it is empty. Probably less than a fifth of the huge production floor is occupied by machines. But if Miasole's plan comes together, within a couple of years it will house a production line turning out vast rolls of photovoltaic cells, that some believe could help put solar power on a par with coal, gas or oil.
. . California is where this frontier spirit is freest. The state has a long record of taking action on the environment. Tough energy efficiency rules have meant consumption per capita remaining flat in California for 30 years, while it has risen by 50% elsewhere in the US.
. . The state also has a record of technological advancement, not least in the computing and information technology fields. Both elements are being combined in the search for "clean tech" breakthroughs, and another California speciality, venture capitalism, is now pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars for good measure.
. . California firm Planktos is investigating a controversial technique to absorb CO2 by stimulating plankton growth in the oceans. If the idea has as much potential as Planktos boss Russ George believes, it could go a significant way towards reversing global warming all on its own. In doing so, it could earn the firm millions through the CO2 market, by selling credits to firms emitting greenhouse gases. Many environmentalists remain wary of the Planktos plan.
. . California is putting $3bn into a 10-year program to put solar panels on a million roofs, while the federal government chips in 30% of the installation costs.
. . The state has mandated that 20% of its electricity must come from renewable sources by 2010. It has also written big cuts in greenhouse gases into law, and is laying the foundations for a CO2 market that would reward firms for cutting emissions.
. . Rather than using conventional crystalline silicon --which has risen in price due to a shortage-- Miasole uses an alloy of four metals: copper, indium, gallium and selenium (or Cigs). Mr Pearce believes Miasole's "sputtering" method --spraying the alloy onto a flexible steel foil-- is the breakthrough that will open up thin-film solar to mass production.
. . The advantage Cigs has over other thin-film techniques is that it is more efficient in converting the sun's energy into electricity, says Mr Pearce. It beats conventional rigid, heavy solar panels because it is so flexible it can be integrated into roofing felt and distributed in rolls, like carpet.
. . Mr Pearce believes that thin-film technology will compete on price with silicon as soon as 2010. More dramatically, solar power will grow from less than 0.01% of global electrical generation today, to 10% or even 20% at some time in the future, he says.
July 9, 07: Oil-sand, oil-shale, and coal-to-oil projects –-alternative fuel sources that could enhance US energy security-– have always faced one hurdle. They look good only when oil prices are high. Now, they have another challenge: global warming.
. . California has enacted new climate-change policies that make energy companies responsible for the CO2 emissions not just of their refineries but all phases of oil production, including extraction and transportation. If that notion catches on – at least two Canadian provinces have already signed on to California's plan – then the futures of oil-sand, shale, and coal-to-oil projects may look less attractive.
. . The reason: Extracting these alternative sources of oil requires so much energy that their "CO2 footprint" may outweigh their benefits. The issue has gained fresh currency because of the new state legislation and predictions that Congress will call for mandatory CO2 controls in the next two years.
. . California's move came in January, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a state executive order creating a new "low CO2 fuel standard." The standard gives petroleum refiners 13 years to cut the CO2 content of their passenger vehicle fuels by 10%. In May, Governor Schwarzenegger signed agreements committing Ontario and British Columbia to adhere to California's standard.
. . "Schwarzenegger's latest agreements with Canada are groundbreaking in creating consequences for oil producers to address climate change and help the environment", says Drew Kodjak, executive director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, an alliance of air-quality experts and regulators.
. . The contracts break new ground in at least two significant ways, say Mr. Kodjak and others. First, the regulations require oil companies to take responsibility not just for the CO2 in the emissions from their refineries, but also from the fuels they sell into the marketplace, which are then combusted in cars. Secondly, the policies put a bright spotlight on the CO2 emissions that are produced in other phases of oil production that are often overlooked –-including extraction and transportation.
. . "Now the emphasis is on the CO2 footprint left from the entire life cycle of a gallon of gas, from extraction to refining to distribution to burning", says Kodjak. That spells trouble for the booming oil-sand industry in the Canadian province of Alberta, as energy companies warned when Ontario and British Columbia signed on to the California plan. The amount of CO2 emissions produced in the steps to refine oil from oil sands would be far higher –-20 to 50% higher-– than from oil pumped as crude to the earth's surface, Kodjak estimates.
. . That's because the land above the oil sands must be stripped away and the oil-saturated earth-sand mixture must be heated to extract a substance known as bitumen. The further refining of bitumen, a mixture of organic liquids, produces even more CO2.
. . The new standards could diminish Canada's growing role in the North American oil market, especially in the short run, analysts say. Canada has an estimated 179 billion barrels of proven reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia's 262 billion barrels. But almost all of those reserves lie in oil sands.
. . Proposals to get oil from shale rock or even coal face similar greenhouse-gas hurdles, environmental groups say. According to a just-released report by the NRDC and Western Resources Advocates (WRA) –-a group active in the oil-shale issue in the American West-– "tar sands, oil shale, and liquid coal all result in higher global-warming pollution emissions" with liquid coal posing "disastrous consequences" because its production creates twice as much global-warming emissions as ordinary gasoline.
. . "Oil-shale development is all talk and no gain", says Bob Randall, an expert with WRA. "It presents huge risks to both the economic and environmental lifeblood of this state."
July 8, 07: Experimental technology being tested in northern California on a small fleet run by Web search giant Google also allows parked plug-in cars to transfer stored energy back to the electric grid, opening a potential back-up source of power for the system in peak hours.
July 5, 07: Cars with only three wheels are goofy, but we'll make an exception for the "alé" if it can really manage 92 miles per gallon. While you won't be able to take all of your friends on a cruise around the country (without filling up!) in the alé's dual tandem seating [Does that mean 2X2=4? I think not.], whoever is inside is in for what sounds like an awesome ride. Zero to 60 in five seconds, tight turns that can build 1.7g of force, and a top speed of 140mph are impressive for something so eco-friendly.
. . The car uses a Honda engine and suspension, and Porsche steering mechanisms. It'll only hold 10 gallons of regular gas, but it'll put all 10 of those to good use. The "alé" boasts an air and gas mixing ratio of 20:1 -—your average car only mixes at 14.7:1. And it cuts down on CO2 emissions by 30%.
. . The team hopes to be the most fuel efficient production vehicle in the Automotive X-Prize competition, and it looks like they'll have a pretty good shot at the title.
July 4, 07: A new generation of super-thin, power-sipping displays is making its way to the market, stretching battery lives to new limits and perhaps one day posing a challenge to heavier, energy-gobbling LCDs. LCD prices have plunged by a third in the last year.
. . New screens that glow on their own are taking on their clunkier liquid crystal display rivals --which require powerful backlighting-- by producing sharper video images for smartphones, game consoles and portable media players. But industry watchers say it will be years before a clear winner --if any-- emerges with the clout to outdo LCDs.
. . Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and bi-stable technologies are the most likely challengers to LCDs. An OLED screen uses as much as 40% less power than a comparable LCD and could be twice as thin because it does not need backlighting. Sony Corp plans to sell small-sized TVs using the OLED technology later this year. "It makes sense (for Apple) to move to OLED screens. They are working to improve the battery issue."
. . The market for low-power forms of OLED and low power LCD displays is set to grow rapidly, reaching $24 billion in sales by 2012, rising at an annual growth rate of 27%. "The price of an OLED display is 1.7 to 1.8 times higher than that of a LCD and it won't become more competitive until after the price falls sharply."
. . A rival to OLED technology are bi-stable displays, which retain images without power, making them suitable for public displays and sub-screens on devices, although bi-stable displays have image quality issues.
July 4, 07: Flat-screen televisions, computers and other hi-tech gadgets will use nearly half of a typical British household's total electricity by 2020, an energy conservation body said in a report.
. . Britain's Energy Saving Trust (EST) said consumer electronics will overtake kitchen appliances and lighting as the biggest single drain on domestic power. Its report, "The Ampere Strikes Back", said new devices are often more power-hungry than earlier models and many are left on standby rather than being switched off. Some don't even have an "off" button.
. . By 2020, televisions on standby will consume 1.4% of all domestic electricity, the report predicts. Despite attempts by some manufacturers to make more energy-efficient products, some digital radios still use four times as much power as analogue sets.
. . The growth of single person households --many with big TVs, set-top boxes, computers, games consoles, TV and music recorders and digital radios-- will add to the higher energy consumption. The trust said households could save 37 pounds a year on their energy bill by switching devices off at the wall.
July 3, 07: Golden eagles are gravely threatened by a £200m wind farm scheme proposed for the Hebridean island of Lewis, campaigners have warned. The planned 205 megawatt Pairc wind farm in south-eastern Lewis would comprise 57 turbines.
. . Three of the predatory birds a year could be killed in collisions with turbine blades --the highest mortality from any wind power project in the UK. The figures come from the developer's own environmental statement.
. . Golden eagles are on the Amber list of birds of conservation concern and are afforded the highest level of protection under UK law. There are about 60 pairs in total on Lewis.
In Sweden, when they confiscate illicit booze on the border, they don't drink it or pour it down the drain. No, they turn that hooch into fuel for their vehicles.
July 1, 07: The enormous obstacles facing nuclear power are the same as they were in 1996, when the nation's last new nuclear plant opened near the Watts Bar reservoir in Tennessee after 22 years of construction and $7 billion in costs.
. . Waste disposal, safe operation and security remain major concerns, but economics may be the biggest deterrent. Huge capital costs combine into an enormous price tag for would-be investors.
. . There is also fervent anti-nuke opposition waiting to be re-stoked. Jim Riccio of Greenpeace said nuclear advocates are exploiting global warming fears to try to revive an industry that's too risky to fool with. "This isn't just a bunch of environmentalists who think this is a bad idea", Riccio said. "It's most people who aren't being paid to think otherwise."
. . But environmentalists aren't in lockstep on the issue. Bill Chameides, chief scientist for Environmental Defense, said anything that helps alleviate global warming must be an energy option. "I think it's somewhat disingenuous that folks who agree that global warming is such a serious issue could sort of dismiss it out of hand," he said. "It's got to be at least considered."
. . The U.S. has 104 commercial reactors which supply about 20 percent of the country's power. The Department of Energy projects a 45 percent growth in electricity demand by 2030, meaning 35 to 50 new nuclear plants will be needed by then just to maintain nuclear's share of the energy market, said Scott Peterson of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's chief lobbyist. That growing demand, not global warming, "has been the single biggest factor in companies looking at building large nuclear plants again."
. . The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been notified that several companies will pursue licenses for up to 33 new reactors, with the first one online in seven years at the earliest.
. . The waste is currently stored at individual plants, awaiting permanent transfer to the national Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada. But Yucca Mountain has faced stiff opposition and won't open until the early 2020s at the earliest. By then, it will be too small to hold the waste produced nationally.
. . Recycling used fuel, which contains 90 percent of its original energy after one use, can reduce waste. "Reprocessing" also produces a plutonium that's nearer to weapons grade, raising fears that widespread reprocessing could increase the risks of nuclear proliferation. Nuclear energy critics also see the plants themselves as devastating terrorist targets —-"predeployed nuclear weapons", as Paul Gunter of the anti-nuclear Nuclear Information and Resource Service calls them.
. . While opponents fear catastrophe, money may be what kills a nuclear revival. Peterson estimates each new plant will cost about $3 billion, but the industry has a history of construction delays and cost overruns.
. . The new systems have fewer valves and less piping, relying primarily on gravity to deliver cooling water to the reactor.
Jun 27, 07: Russian geologists say they have data that would support a claim to about 1.2m sq km of energy-rich territory in the Arctic. Russia has not staked a formal claim to that area --which is the size of France, Germany and Italy combined, Russian media report.
. . The Law of the Sea Convention allows states an economic zone of 200 nautical miles, which can sometimes be expanded. To extend the zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory. At the moment, nobody's shelf extends up to the North Pole, so there is an international area around the Pole administered by the International Seabed Authority.
. . The Russian team, from the Oceanology Research Institute in St Petersburg, estimates that the Lomonosov ridge area in the Arctic contains oil and gas reserves of up to 10bn tons.
Jun 27, 07: New research centers in Tennessee, Wisconsin and California will try to develop new ways of turning switchgrass, poplar trees and other plants into fuel under a $375 million plan announced by the Energy Department.
Jun 27, 07: Waste Management Inc. said it will speed up its tapping of gas from rotting garbage to generate clean power from 60 landfills over five years. The company, the country's largest landfill operator, will spend $400 million to bring turbines to the dumps, boosting its power generation from such projects to to 700 megawatts of power.
. . Waste Management will earn renewable energy credits it can bank or sell for its projects in states that have such programs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says about 425 U.S. landfills tap gas for power and an additional 560 dumps hold promising supplies of the fuel. Waste Management said landfills are more dependable than other sources of alternative energy. "Unlike wind power, which doesn't always blow, or solar which doesn't always shine, landfills produce gas constantly."
. . Rotting garbage produces a gas that is about half methane, which has about 21 times the heat-trapping potential of CO2, the main greenhouse gas. Most landfills simply vent the gas to the atmosphere and those dumps are the largest source of human-related methane emissions in the country. Waste Management first generated power from garbage in the US more than 20 years ago and about 100 of its 281 landfills tap the gas.
. . Landfills are often placed near urban areas which makes it more convenient than some other alternative sources of power, like wind turbine farms, which can sometimes be placed far from customers.
Jun 27, 07: The Electric Power Research Institute said it will launch a project to study the feasibility of "concentrating" solar power to increase its efficiency at the request of a number of western U.S. electric utilities.
. . Unlike conventional flat-plate solar or photovoltaic panels, concentrating solar power uses reflectors to generate electricity more efficiently and in larger amounts, EPRI said in a release. The institute said the project will study the feasibility of building a solar power plant in the 50- to 500-megawatt range, much larger than traditional solar installations. The industry research group said the US has four such utility-size solar plants: one in Nevada and three in California.
Jun 27, 07: Fujifilm, maker of everything from medical imaging devices to snap-shot cameras, will begin using methane gas from a South Carolina landfill to power its nearby manufacturing center.
. . The Tokyo-based company said that by 2008 it plans to power between 32 and 44% of its Greenwood, S.C., facility with energy from methane gas, which will be converted into usable form and piped in from a landfill that's about 3.5 miles away. The effort is designed to save as much as 50% on energy costs annually, and reduce the company's dependence on natural gas from oil.
. . Natural gas from cow manure or garbage releases fewer pollutants than coal or gasoline. And the fuel stock costs little to obtain and has little independent value. In fact, garbage costs money to eliminate, so using it as fuel can cut other operational costs. Case in point: the amount of CO2-equivalent emissions avoided by the Fujifilm deal would equal the emissions produced by more than 17,000 gasoline-powered vehicles.
The semiconductor technology underlying LEDs is becoming more affordable and efficient at a rate on par with advances in computing speed. Today's LEDs are about as efficient as the latest compact fluorescents, Morgan said, and they are improving faster than fluorescents.
. . "There's been a dramatic increase in just two or three years, where LEDs went from being as efficient as incandescents, to then being as good as halogens, to now being at the level of compact fluorescents."
Jun 22, 07: The cars, SUVS and pickups people will buy in the years ahead are likely to use less fuel, and many will rely on ethanol or household electricity instead of gasoline.
. . The energy legislation pushed through the Senate this week provides a roadmap to the future, demanding higher automobile fuel economy, mandating huge increases in ethanol as a motor fuel and supporting more research into building "plug-in" hybrid-electric vehicles.
. . While Senate Republicans complained that the bill does nothing to increase domestic oil production [that's a good thing, right?], Democrats said that's because the nation must move energy policy away from its heavy reliance on oil. The House is preparing its own version.
. . The Senate bill requires automakers to increase fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon, about a 40% increase over what cars, SUVs and small trucks are required to achieve now. It would lump all the vehicles under a single regulation, but also give manufacturers flexibility so large SUVs wouldn't have to meet the same requirements as smaller cars.
. . In addition to making conventional cars more fuel efficient, the bill seeks to boost research into use of lithium-ion batteries in vehicles.
Jun 22, 07: The sugar found in fruit such as apples and oranges can be converted into a new type of low-carbon fuel for cars, US scientists have said. The fuel, made from fructose, contains far more energy than ethanol.
. . A simple sugar called fructose can be converted into a fuel that has many advantages over ethanol. It is called dimethylfuran --it can store 40% more energy than ethanol, and does not evaporate as easily. The scientists say that fructose can be obtained directly from fruits and plants or made from glucose --but more work needs to be done to assess the environmental impact of this new fuel.
. . Separately, a British report on biofuels says all types of waste products, including plastic bags, can be used to make biodiesel fuel. Critics of biofuels made from food crops say they drive up prices. Researchers say that the technology now exists to create diesel fuel not just from palm oil but from a range of materials including wood, weeds and even plastic bags.
. . This process is called biomass to liquid and experts say that within six years up to 30% of Britain's diesel requirements could be met from this source.
. . The biggest drawback to this process is cost. Setting up new production facilities is estimated to be 10 times higher than for current biofuel refineries.
Jun 20, 07: From that forward-thinking French company Venturi, here's Astrolab, the first commercially available solar electric hybrid car in the world. The company says it can go 74mph and has a range of 68 miles, probably long enough for most commutes. The entire top of the vehicle is equipped with photovoltaic cells—3.6 square meters of them—and they store that energy in batteries, so you can still drive it on cloudy days, too.
. . If you have a long commute, you might want to leave it parked out in the sun so it will be all charged up and ready for you to go back home. This is not just some experiment, either, the company plans to ship these vehicles in January, 2008 for 92,000, or about $117K. But think of all the money you'll save on gas.
And your noisy gas mower? It spews as much pollution in an hour as 11 cars. That'll never get you on Al Gore's Christmas card list.
Jun 20, 07: China is now building about two power stations every week, the top climate change official at the UK Foreign Office, John Ashton, has said. He said there was no point blaming China for rising global CO2 emissions.
. . Rich nations had to set an example of low-CO2 development for China to follow, Mr Ashton told the BBC. His statement came as a Dutch think tank reported that China had already overtaken the US as the world's biggest emitter of CO2. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said China's CO2 emissions rose by 9% last year, compared to 1.4% in the US.
. . "There is also a moral case. Most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have been put there by developing countries without the constraint of having to worry about the climate. That means we should bear the leading edge of responsibility.
. . He pointed out that much of China's emissions growth was being driven by consumers in the West buying Chinese goods, and noted that China's emissions per person were still well below those of rich nations.
. . It is estimated that the average American still pollutes between five and six times more than the average Chinese person. All we've done is export a great slice of the West's CO2 footprint to China, and today we see the result.
. . "Let us not forget that the average Chinese emits just 3.5 tons of CO2 per year, whereas Britons emit nearly 10 tons and Americans 20 tons. "The West moved its manufacturing base to China knowing it was vastly more polluting than Japan, Europe or the US."
Jun 19, 07: Removing salt from sea water to overcome a worldwide shortage of drinking water could end up worsening the crisis, environmental group WWF warned. Desalination, the filtering and evaporation of sea water, is very energy-intensive and involves significant emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are a factor in the shrinking supplies of freshwater, the Swiss-based group said.
. . Spain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and other arid countries should rely more on water conservation and recycling and avoid huge desalination projects that have been linked to pollution and ecosystem damage.
. . "The quite possibly mistaken lure of widespread water availability from desalination ... has the potential to drive a major misdirection of public attention, policy and funds away from the pressing need to use all water wisely", it said.
. . Some farmers have used water from desalination to grow "unsuitably thirsty crops in fundamentally dry areas", the WWF said, an unsustainable trend given its high energy costs: "It seems unlikely that desalinated agriculture is economic anywhere."
. . The WWF, or World Wildlife Fund, estimated there were more than 10,000 desalination plants around the world. It said the sector would likely grow exponentially in coming years as governments seek to supply water to fast-growing arid areas in the US, India, China and elsewhere. Half of the world's desalination capacity is in the Gulf area, where wealthy oil-producing nations use it for about 60% of their water needs.
. . Australian cities have also relied heavily on the technology and Spain has used it extensively to support real estate development, agriculture and even golf courses along its Mediterranean coast.
Jun 18, 07: Sharp has factory capacity to produce enough solar cells to put out 600 megawatts of power in a year, compared with Suntech's 360 megawatts. By 2010, Suntech expects to have the factory capacity to produce 1 gigawatt of solar cells a year.
. . Product quality, solar cell efficiency and access to large amounts of silicon remain key considerations and will hinder many of the new entrants from China, said Paula Mints, an associate director for Navigant Consulting. Most of the other Chinese companies have barely made a dent in the market, and price cutting is already trimming their margins. Then there is the problem of shipping. Solar panels weigh a lot. Shipping them from China virtually eliminates any of the costs saved through cheaper labor.
. . It is also building its own industrial park near its factories, which will house equipment providers (assembling the robots designed by Suntech) as well as component suppliers, to cut down costs and increase efficiency. The strategy neatly mimics what Dell has done in PCs.
. . To top it off, the company is wedging its way into thin-film solar cells, roofing tiles with integrated solar cells through the acquisition of a Japanese company, and higher-margin solar cells that can convert more sunlight into electricity than average cells. "We feel we are going to hit 20% efficiency in a few years, but we will do it with a low-cost structure."
Jun 16, 07: 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.
. . 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."
. . http://www.hybridcenter.org/
Jun 16, 07: Toyota says it's revamping its gas engine lineup to boost fuel economy and lower emissions. The company has designed a new valve system for gas engines that will reduce fuel usage per mile, reduce CO2 emissions and enhance performance, the company announced.
. . The valve system, called Valvematic, controls both the valve timing and valve lift in an engine. A gas engine with Valvematic will adapt intake to give each cylinder as much air as necessary for ideal performance or combustion. The system varies airflow for things like engine speeds, driving habits and differing terrain, and should translate into better overall performance and fuel economy
. . Toyota says the system could improve fuel efficiency by 5% to 10%. The company plans to implement the new technology in all its gas car engines within the next three years. "As a part of its efforts to reduce CO2 emissions through high fuel efficiency and to achieve cleaner exhaust emissions, (Toyota) plans to completely revamp its gasoline engine and transmission lineup by 2010", the company said.
. . Since Toyota garnered a stake in Isuzu, a company known for its expertise in diesel engines, many have been waiting to see if diesel engines will play a more prominent role in Toyota's consumer product lines.
. . The Honda system only had two lobes, one for high speed, and one for low speed. So, you only get two settings. With the Toyota system, it will be infinitely variable.
Jun 16, 07: U.K.-based PML Flightlink put four of its 160-horsepower electric motors in the wheels of a BMW Mini to produce a concept car that shoots from zero to 60 in about four seconds and hits a top speed of 150 miles an hour. The engines also act as brakes, recovering energy that charges a battery and giving the car a range of more than 200 miles. A tiny gasoline motor can be used to recharge the battery for longer trips, on which the car gets 80 mpg.
. . Colorado-based Sturman Industries is working on another type of under-the-hood innovation. Run by former NASA engineer Eddie Sturman, who designed an electronic valve for Apollo spacecraft in the '60s, the company uses digital valves to control the flow of air and fuel to internal-combustion engines, eliminating the need for camshafts.
. . Going digital means the valves work faster and more precisely than mechanically operated ones, and use far less energy. The valves provide such precise control of combustion, Sturman says, that an engine using them will deliver twice the power, with essentially no emissions. Cars and trucks using the technology would be able to adjust to different fuels. "You'll be able to fill up with diesel one day, and gasoline or ethanol the next", says company president and chairwoman Carol Sturman. "The valves send information back to a microprocessor which then adjusts the combustion process as needed."
Jun 16, 07: The energy-saver tech that everybody likes to talk about is OLED or Organic Light-Emitting Diode. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, Sony had a pack of them on display at its booth, and they were clearly one of most compelling items at a trade show that was decidedly short on wow factor. Not only is an OLED display incredibly thin (3mm to 9mm), it has a superhigh contrast ratio (allegedly, one-million-to-one), it boasts faster response times than LCD or plasma, it looks incredibly sharp with colors that really pop --and because OLED screens don't require a backlight, they're more energy efficient than plasma or LCD.
. . The big problem is that it's currently very hard to make OLED TVs in large sizes; for instance, the largest OLED display Sony had on hand at CES was 27 inches. Also, manufacturers are still experimenting with the display's organic materials to increase the lifespan to the point where OLED panels' lifespan would be competitive to that of plasma's. Lastly, OLED also has its own set of patent issues surrounding it--Kodak holds a number of patents--which means manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung will be required to pay a licensing fee for every OLED TV they produce.
Jun 15, 07: A wave energy system which operates at least six meters below the sea's surface will be tested off Orkney. AWS Ocean Energy will have a demonstration version of its Archimedes Wave Swing installed by the European Marine Energy Center (Emec).
. . The Ross-shire manufacturer's device is a cylinder-shaped buoy which is moored to the seabed. Passing waves move an upper casing against a lower fixed cylinder and the movement is converted into electricity. Because the system was submerged below the surface, it's "invisible" and would not cause a visual impact or become a hazard to shipping. It can also survive violent storms.
Jun 15, 07: British low-cost airline easyJet (EZJ.L) has unveiled its vision of a short haul aircraft that it hopes will generate 50% less CO2 than its current planes and can be delivered by 2015. The narrow-bodied plane would have two open rotor engines above a wide tail fin, with a lightweight body constructed of carbon composites.
. . Easyjet said 25% of CO2 emissions would be cut by using open rotor engines, which must be placed above the tail due to their size, while 15% would be cut by using the lighter airframe and 10% by air traffic control improvements. The aircraft design would also cut noise by 25% and damaging nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 75%.
Jun 14, 07: Supermarkets, cafeterias and restaurants like Kentucky Fried Chicken, are partnering with California biodiesel company Energy Alternative Solutions, Inc. to recycle food waste into alternative fuel. EASI said its restaurant-grease biodiesel will be sold at fueling stations in Central and Northern California as a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80 regular diesel known as "B20."
. . According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, using B20 can significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions and smog. San Francisco and Berkeley use biodiesel to fuel city fleets.
The average dry-cell battery uses up to 30 times more energy in production than it can ever deliver in power.
Jun 12, 07: A group of some of the biggest technology companies said they've committed to a plan to improve the power efficiency of equipment they make and use.
. . The Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which includes companies such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc., aims to improve the efficiency of power sources for computers and servers and encourage end users to take advantage of underused power management techniques.
. . Only about 50% of the power that leaves a power outlet reaches a PC, because inefficient power cords leak energy, Google's Senior Vice President of Operations, Urs Holzle said. [sorry; I doubt that! Maybe "gets thru the power supply", tho.]
. . In its own data centers, most of Google's servers already have power supplies that comply with the Climate Savers standards for 2008 and 2009, Holzle said. Google began investing in the more expensive supplies because "it's worth spending a bit more on the power supply to save on the energy bill."
. . He pointed to the solar power used at the company's headquarters and incentives for employees to buy hybrid cars. In addition, he hinted at future energy-saving programs that the company plans to announce soon.
Jun 12, 07: Growth of a new ethanol made from switchgrass and fast-growing trees could be limited by competition from corn growers, ethanol experts said.
. . The fuel, called cellulosic ethanol, is not yet commercially available, but has been touted by U.S. President Bush, environmentalists, and venture capitalists as an efficient low-CO2 fuel. The Bush administration has rolled out nearly $1 billion in funds to research and build new refineries to ethanol producers, including for cellulosic fuel.
. . At the beginning stage, at least, cellulosic ethanol can cost as much as double to produce as traditional U.S. ethanol, currently mostly made from corn. Even if costs fell over time, cellulosic producers could face heavy competition from corn growers because of U.S. incentives to make traditional ethanol. "It's hard to imagine growers have spent 25 years nurturing members of Congress to support tariffs and blenders credits... in order to give this game away to grass", C. Ford Runge, an economics professor at the U of Minnesota, told reporters.
. . The U.S. puts a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imports of ethanol from Brazil, which makes the fuel mostly from sugar cane, and gives comparable ethanol blending credit for producers of the traditional fuel.
. . Ethanol made from sugar cane is much more efficient than corn-based ethanol because it requires far less inputs such as fertilizer and insecticides. The U.S. incentives keep corn ethanol so attractive that cellulosic ethanol producers could have a hard time finding enough land to grow significant amounts of the fuel.
. . "We are going to have to find reasons to tell people to plant switchgrass and not corn", said Runge. "As long as we have the structure of corn subsidies and ethanol subsidies that's driving demand for corn-based ethanol, that's not going to happen."
Jun 12, 07: Energy companies plan to file permit requests in the next two years to build 27 new nuclear reactors in the US, according to a U.S. regulator who said Tuesday his agency expects a "nuclear renaissance."
Jun 9, 07: The first turbine generator on the right bank of China's massive Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydropower project, has started operations. The 700,000-kilowatt turbine started sending electricity to the national power grid Monday morning after a 72-hour trial operation.
. . It is the first of 12 turbines that will be on the right bank of the $22.5 billion dam on the Yangtze River. The 14 turbines on the left bank began operation in September 2005.
. . The dam's 2.5-km-wide concrete wall was finished last year. Construction started in 1993 despite complaints about high costs, environmental concerns and the forced relocation of 1.4 million residents from areas flooded by the dam's reservoir.
. . The government has promoted the dam as a way to control devastating flooding on the Yangtze and as a clean power source, as China tries to cut its heavy reliance on coal. China is investing heavily in hydropower and trying to encourage the use of other renewable energy sources.
Shanghai has been transformed into a global city --but its rapid growth has produced pollution, traffic jams and overcrowding. In becoming one of the centers of the world economy, Shanghai has grown faster than almost any other global city in the past 15 years.
. . The population increased from 13.5 million to 21.5 million as migrant labourers flooded in from the surrounding countryside, and the standard of living rose even faster, with per capita income now at $7,000, the highest in China.
. . The physical size of the city increased sixfold, from just 100 sq km to 680 sq km. Private car ownership has doubled in two years. The increased traffic levels contributed to rising levels of atmospheric pollution.
. . Now the city of Shanghai has begun to tackle some of the environmental problems that could threaten its future growth. Despite its size, Shanghai is still much more densely populated than Western cities, with four times more people per square km than New York.
. . The city sets a strict limit on the number of licences it will issue for private car ownership --currently around 80,000 per year-- and then auctions them off. The current cost of getting a car license in Shanghai is over 40,000 RMB ($5,500).
. . The city is now investing heavily in public transport. Despite the spread of car ownership, two-thirds of private journeys in Shanghai are by two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and scooters. The city has already banned larger motorbikes. It is also building 180km of dedicated bike lanes.
What are the MPG equivalents for electric cars?! Clips: EV-1 FAQ: GM advertises this car as getting 4 miles per kW-hr. Teslamotors (AC power) electric car works out to 2.5 miles per kw-hr.
. . At 4 miles per kWh, the all-electric plug-in Toyota RAV4-EV. The typical EV doesn't get 4 miles per KWh, the Gen2 EV1 barely gets 2 miles per KWh.
. . 7.1 miles per kWh at 60.
. . The Xebra travels about 5 miles per kWh. At $0.08 per kWh, that is about $0.015 per mile. So the total cost is about $0.04 per mile.
. . It takes about 15 kilowatt-hours to charge the batteries (about a $ of electricity), and electric motors are 6 or 7 times as efficient as internal combustion engines (and more than twice as efficient as fuel cells). Thus, the fuel costs are about 1.6 cents per mile (as compared to 7 cents per mile with gasoline prices at $2.00 in a sedan.
Jun 8, 07: Rwanda installs "Africa's biggest" solar plant: Rwanda has unveiled a solar energy plant it says is Africa's biggest, designed to boost the tiny central African country's power capacity by 250 kilowatts, the government said.
Jun 7, 07: A clean-cut vision of a future freed from the rat's nest of cables needed to power today's electronic gadgets has come one step closer to reality. US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires. Measurements showed that the setup could transfer energy with 40% efficiently across the gap. [that's terrible for most practical uses.]
Jun 7, 07: Attempts to power hybrid cars with solar panels have been around for a few years. But now a company called Solar Electrical Vehicles is producing commercially available after-market panels for hybrids, starting with the Toyota Prius. The fiberglass, molded panels fit on top of 2004-2007 Prius models. They are attached using an epoxy glue. Unlike previous attempts, these panels fit the curve of the roof.
. . To maximize your sun power and driving range, you need a larger battery installed than what comes standard with the Prius, according to company founder Greg Johanson, who says that battery storage is the most challenging aspect for solar-powered cars.
. . In distance, the panels will get you up to 20 miles a day, depending on the size of the battery. They can improve fuel efficiency by up to 29%. The standard-equipped Prius battery, recharged by the sun, will take you about two miles at under 35 miles per hour.
. . Johansen said that because of tax credits, getting a 1 kilowatt solar electrical system on your home to charge your car can make better financial sense than getting a solar roof on your car. But that doesn't taking into account the cool factor.
Jun 5, 07: Rich countries meeting in Germany this week will agree that they need to confront climate change, but unpleasant tradeoffs are already emerging. Unless properly managed, a rush to reshape the world's economy to arrest climate change could end up trampling the lifestyles of the rich, the livelihoods of the rural poor, and the earth's most vulnerable habitats.
. . A tequila shortage is perhaps one of the least-expected results of planting lucrative, "climate-friendly" biofuels --as Mexican farmers set ablaze their fields of cactus-like agave to make way for corn, a feedstock for ethanol. Biofuels are also blamed for raising food prices and destroying forests.
. . The result of misguided climate policies could be to undermine public support for action and discourage businesses from buying in. Evidence is emerging of the repercussions. British charity Christian Aid says Colombian rebel groups are forcing poor people off their land to grow lucrative palm oil for biodiesel, likening it to diamonds financing African wars.
. . Hydropower could itself become a victim of global warming as rainfall patterns change, while it brings old problems of obliterating homes and wildlife. On June 1, a Brazilian court allowed the Estreito hydroelectric power project to move forward, over the opposition of indigenous and other groups.
. . Similarly, projects like burying greenhouse gases underground --so-called CO2 capture and storage (CCS)-- could simply delay the phase-out of coal and its associated effects on human health and the landscape. "The biggest negative spin-off is that people continue to mine coal, so if you happen to live in Kentucky they'll strip-mine your backyard."
Jun 5, 07: European light-bulb makers said they want to phase out the standard incandescent light bulb in eight years, replacing it with more eco-friendly, energy-efficient lamps. The group includes General Electric Co., Havells Sylvania, and Philips. The leaders of the 27 European Union nations agreed on new energy and emissions cutting guidelines in March, including phasing out the old incandescent lamps.
. . The manufacturers' proposal, submitted to the European Commission, is similar to plans under way or under consideration elsewhere, including Australia, California, and Canada, as governments seek energy savings and green-friendly credentials. The switch could lead to significant reductions in CO2 emissions from domestic lighting, and savings of $9.4 billion for European consumers.
Jun 5, 07: The U.S. wind power industry will see half a trillion dollars of investment by 2030 to take the renewable source up to 20% of U.S. electricity generation, an industry conference heard. This would be a lofty rise from wind's use for less than 1% of U.S. power today, but many advocates at the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) annual conference this week were bullish as the US develops green energy alternatives. The AWEA's gathering of the wind industry attracted 7,000 participants this week, up from 5,000 a year ago and 1,000 in 2001.
. . Ric O'Connell of engineering and consulting firm Black & Veatch says will total $500 billion in wind energy development in the next 25 years. "It can be bigger than the entire dot-com revolution", said wind energy advocate and former South Dakota Democratic Senator Tom Daschle. "This can have the same economic impact."
. . AWEA and other wind energy advocates have worked to map out how to get to the target: 20% of the nation's power needs. That would mean by 2030 there will have to be 325 gigawatts of installed wind turbines in the US. Current wind turbines can make between 1.5 and 3 megawatts per tower. A large natural gas or coal-fired power unit is often 400 megawatts and larger, while only five U.S. wind farms now have more than 260 megawatts of installed capacity.
. . Wind power in the US grew by 20% in 2006 to about 11,600 megawatts, enough to power about 3 million U.S. homes. It is expected to grow that much again this year, the AWEA says. "From this vantage point, it looks almost impossible", said Robert Lukefahr, president of BP Alternative Energy North America. "But you have to remember that we've made big leaps before." Lukefahr said over the next 15 years, wind power is the least costly and easiest to develop alternative to coal and natural gas.
. . Vic Abate, vice president for renewable energy at GE Energy, which has twice the number of installed U.S. turbines than its nearest competitor, says to cut climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions the U.S. will have to use a diverse mix of alternatives, including solar and nuclear in addition to wind.
May 25, 07: The US may be willing to back an agreement at next month's G8 summit on cutting CO2 emissions, Tony Blair said on BBC TV. Up to now, the Bush administration has championed voluntary agreements as an alternative to imposing binding caps. Germany has made climate change a priority for its G8 presidency.
. . The prime minister said awareness of the issue among Americans was growing and it was possible the US will sign up to "at least the beginnings" of action.
Five areas where nanotechnologies could be used to improve our environment.
. . * Fuel additives: Nanoparticle additives have been shown to increase the fuel efficiency of diesel engines by approximately 5%. This could be implemented immediately across the UK diesel powered fleet.
. . * Solar cells: The high prices of solar cells are inhibiting their installation into distributed power generation, reducing energy generation from renewables. Nanotechnology may deliver more benefits in significantly decreasing the cost of production of solar cells.
. . * The hydrogen economy: Hydrogen powered vehicles could eliminate all noxious emissions from road transport, which would improve public health. [But] the technology is estimated to be 40 years away from universal deployment.
. . * Batteries and supercapacitors: Recent advances in battery technology have made the range and power of electric vehicles more practical. Issues still surround the charge time. Nanotechnology may provide a remedy to this problem allowing electric vehicles to be recharged in less than ten minutes.
. . * Insulation: Cavity and loft insulation are cheap and effective, however, there are no easy methods for insulating solid walled buildings. Nanotechnology may provide a solution which, if an effective insulation could be found with similar properties to standard cavity insulation.
May 23, 07: Two British-based pilots completed a record-breaking helicopter journey to both the North and South Poles, touching down at the Texas airport they left more than five months ago. [Whatta huge waste of fuel... 'cept:] The pilots said they noticed the impact of climate change this time round. "When we landed on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula it was bare of snow."
. . Bodill, 56, is a British helicopter pilot who holds the record for flying around the world in a weightshift microlight or ultralight aircraft.
May 23, 07: Nuclear power is needed to help reduce carbon emissions and to ensure that the UK has secure energy supplies in the future, said Tony Blair. Industry Secretary Alistair Darling told MPs a decision on nuclear power was needed by the end of the year because many nuclear and coal-fired power stations are due to close within the next 20 years.
. . But critics called the consultation a "farce" and nuclear power would be a "dangerous, dirty white elephant".
. . Mr Blair replied: "We are not going to be able to make up through wind farms all the deficit on nuclear power. We are just not going to be able to do it."
. . Chancellor Gordon Brown --who will take over as prime minister in June-- is also thought to back building more nuclear power stations.
. . The Lib Dems, and some environmental groups, said that allowing new nuclear power stations to be built would draw investment away from renewable energy and other "green technologies" --like CO2 capture. For the Green Party, Caroline Lucas said: "By prioritising the construction of new nuclear power stations over reducing demand for energy ... the government is not only missing a trick, it is undermining efforts to tackle climate change."
May 23, 07: All but one of Britain's nuclear power stations will be shut by 2023, and the government insists it must make a decision this year on whether to build new nuclear power plants. Decommissioning ageing nuclear plants, like 40-year-old Oldbury in western England, and storing their toxic waste will cost around 70 billion pounds ($138.3 billion) --buried underground.
. . The complete Oldbury shutdown will cost around 1 billion pounds and could take 110 years, nearly three times longer than the plant has been in operation.
. . Darling said it would make sense for any new nuclear plants to be built alongside existing ones, because all the necessary infrastructure and links to the National Grid were already there.
. . Deep inside Oldbury's two concrete reactors, the remote controlled refueling machine, the size of a small industrial crane, will work around the clock to remove the 53,000 radioactive fuel rods. By 2109, only the empty reactor shells will mark the skyline over the banks of the River Severn and nine years later, all will be gone, unless another company decides to build a new plant in its place.
May 22, 07: Solar power should become a mainstream energy choice in three or four years as companies raise output of a key ingredient used in solar panels and as China emerges as a producer of them, according to a report by an environmental research group.
. . "We are now seeing two major trends that will accelerate the growth of photovoltaics: the development of advanced technologies, and the emergence of China as a low-cost producer", Janet Sawin, a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and an author of report, said.
. . Solar is the fastest growing energy source, but still provides less than 1% of the world's electricity, in part because its power can cost homeowners twice as much as power from the grid. But costs could fall 40% in the next few years as polysilicon becomes more available. Polysilicon's feedstock is abundantly available sand. But a downturn in silicon refining after the high-tech bubble collapse in the late 1990s has constrained the panel market.
. . In some of the world's sunniest places, like California, electricity from solar panels costs the same as power from the grid. A drop in solar panel prices could expand that to places that only get average sunlight
. . "To say that Chinese PV producers plan to expand production rapidly in the year ahead would be an understatement", Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute, a Massachusetts-based group that promotes renewables, said. "They have raised billions from international IPOs to build capacity and increase scale with the goal of driving down costs", said Bradford, who helped write the report.
. . Many companies are producing thin-film solar technologies that cut the amount of silicon used in panels. Thin-film could grab a 20% share of the market by 2010, up from 7% of the market in 2006, the report said.
May 22, 07: The ample sunshine that has made California's San Joaquin Valley among the world's best places to grow everything from almonds to zucchini will also become a source of power at a huge nut farm there.
. . Paramount Farms, which claims the title of the largest supplier of almonds and pistachios to the world, tomorrow will start up a $7.5 million 1.1-megawatt solar farm spread across eight acres. It'll be the largest solar farm on an agricultural site in the US. It will generate about 15% of the electricity used.
. . It's also a sound business deal, said Szeflin, because the money put into the solar farm will be returned to them in the form of cheaper power bills because it won't have to buy as much from its utility. They'll get state and federal tax credits for developing the solar farm.
. . The panels will be amorphous silicon, not the photovoltaic panels popular on house roofs. "We are able to use this material and have no maintenance cost for the next 50 years."
May 21, 07: Consolidated Edison and American Superconductor Corporation have agreed to put a superconducting power line under midtown New York that should lead to a sturdier power grid able to withstand extreme weather and attacks. The Department of Homeland Security will fund up to $25 million for the nearly $40 million superconductor cable.
. . Cables made with ceramic materials can carry 10 times more power than traditional cables, but are costly and face technological challenges. Superconducting cable must be cooled with liquid nitrogen to -382 degrees Fahrenheit (-230 Celsius). At that point, conductivity resistance falls, allowing the cables to carry the extra power.
. . The New York project will be carried out in two stages with deployment of the cable by 2010.
The ocean liner QE2 uses a gallon of fuel for every six inches it travels.
. . Status: False.
. . Origins: Like most modern cruise ships, Cunard's venerable and legendary Queen Elizabeth 2 boasts some impressive dimensions: 963 feet long, 105 feet wide, and 204 feet high; capable of carrying 1,778 passengers (serviced by a crew of 1,016); with nine diesel engines driving it at a top speed of 32.5 knots.
. . So her maximum range would be a scant 94.7 miles. No.
. . We arrive at a rough figure of 39.6 feet per gallon. Cunard itself says that one gallon of fuel will move the QE2 about 49 feet in open seas, so we'd peg the answer at a range of around 40-50 feet per gallon.
May 18, 07: The ZAP Xebra is a three-wheeler running on basic batteries, silent and easy to maneuver. It is more than a golf cart and less than a compact car and costs just under $10,000. They are the VW of the electric cars. Its made in China: Plug it in at home and go up to 40 miles per hour for up to 25 miles. "The key is to keep the car simple", said Schneider, noting that a single-wheel front end is a crucial part of containing costs.
. . ZAP last month anchored a $79 million order from Chicago-based The Electric Vehicle Company, which aims to sell 10,000 ZAP electric cars and trucks to local governments, universities and companies like Domino's Pizza.
. . The Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric car with a small combustion "range extender" engine is still a concept car. GM will begin production as soon as battery costs fall below $3,000 per car. Its experience with the EV1, its defunct electric car featured in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?", has been instrumental in developing the Volt and its battery.
. . "We hope the battery can catch up to us and it is not too far out in the future", said Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Volt. The Volt will have a 40-mile range between charges.
May 18, 07: Pellets made out of aluminum and gallium can produce pure hydrogen when water is poured on them, offering a possible alternative to gasoline-powered engines, U.S. scientists say. [But its a reservoir of energy, not a source.]
. . In an experiment conducted at Purdue U in Indiana, "The hydrogen is generated on demand, so you only produce as much as you need when you need it." This takes care of two stumbling blocks to generating hydrogen, either as a replacement for gasoline or as a means of powering hydrogen fuel cells.
. . On its own, aluminum will not react with water because it forms a protective skin when exposed to oxygen. Adding gallium keeps the film from forming, allowing the aluminum to react with oxygen in the water, releasing hydrogen and aluminum oxide, also known as alumina.
. . What is left over is aluminum oxide and gallium. Recycling the aluminum oxide byproduct and developing a lower grade of gallium could bring down costs, making the system more affordable, Woodall said.
May 17, 07: Applied Materials has said for the past year that it will build turnkey equipment for start-up solar-panel factories, and it appears that the company has begun doing just that.
. . TekSun PV Manufacturing is building a plant for manufacturing 120 megawatts worth of amorphous solar panels a year in Taylor, Texas, CEO Dan Vogler said at the Clean Energy Venture Summit taking place here this week. The production lines for the panels will indeed be turnkey lines provided by another company, he noted. (The 120-megawatt designation refers to the amount of power that, under optimal conditions, could be harvested from all of the panels produced by the factory in one year.)
. . The company's panels will consist of a single sheet of glass measuring 2.2 meters by 2.6 meters. That's the same size as the sheets of glass that LCD makers use to make TVs. (Applied makes a lot of equipment for LCD TV manufacturing.)
. . TekSun plans to start producing panels in the first quarter of 2009. The panels will be made from amorphous, rather than crystalline, silicon. Amorphous panels do not convert as much sunlight into electricity as crystalline panels, but they can be cheaper to make. Amorphous panels also are transparent. "They looked like smoked glass."
May 15, 07: Governments should tax plasma screen televisions because of the large amount of energy they consume, according to a leading expert on climate change.
. . Professor Paul Ekins, who studies the economics of climate change, said taxing plasma screens would reflect their "greater climate change burden". This would encourage development and take-up of more energy efficient diode screens, Professor Ekins said.
. . He said government could label energy hungry appliances as a first step. Plasma televisions, which are 50% bigger than their cathode-ray tube equivalents, consume about four times more energy.
May 15, 07: Gray, gloomy rain. As much as Mount Rainier and salmon, drizzle is the staple image of the Pacific Northwest. The city of Seattle even broke a record last fall for precipitation in one month.
. . But east of the Cascade Range, where sagebrush blooms in a desert climate, power companies see potential in sunshine. Washington state's oldest utility plans to start building the largest solar project in the region next month.
. . A number of factors are pushing utilities to look more closely at solar power, among them the rising cost of fossil fuels, environmental standards and state mandates for increasing renewable energy generation. At least 20 states, including Washington, have passed laws requiring utilities to boost their clean power sources. The secret about solar energy is that it's been increasing at well over 30% a year for about the past 10 years.
. . Germany now generates one-third of the world's wind power, and 50% of the solar modules produced worldwide are installed in the country, which sees less sunlight than Seattle. Japan also now provides significant incentives for solar power, pushing the US to third in an area where 10 years ago, it led the field.
. . Puget Sound Energy plans to start construction next month on a $3.7 million solar project next to its wind farm overlooking the Columbia River, about 115 miles east of Seattle. The 500-kilowatt project, enough to power about 300 homes, would easily be the biggest in the region.
May 14, 07: According to a formula devised by Edmunds, it would take nearly 10 years to recoup the extra costs after buying a 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid, up from 6.6 according to the old mileage ratings. For the 2007 Honda Accord and Honda Civic hybrids it takes 14.5 and 6.5 years, respectively.
. . The 2007 Toyota Prius remains a good bargain when compared to a similarly equipped 2007 Toyota Camry --it takes just 1.2 years to break even. Then it's $ in your pocket!
May 11, 07: Philip New, president of BP Biofuels, a recently created company within the giant British oil producer, thinks it has a solution: butanol. While butanol, like ethanol, can be made from corn starch or sugar beets, its properties are a lot more like gasoline than like ethanol. That means it can be shipped in existing gasoline pipelines. And it contains more energy than ethanol does, which will improve mileage per gallon.
. . Ethanol has around about two-thirds the energy density [of gasoline], with butanol we're in the high eighties
. . It's less volatile [than ethanol]. It isn't as corrosive, so we don't have issues with it at higher concentrations beginning to eat at aluminum or polymer components in fuel systems and dispensing systems. And it's not as hydroscopic--it doesn't pick up water, which is what ethanol can do.
May 11, 07: A group of European researchers say they've found a way to combine a thin-film organic solar cell with a new type of polymer battery, giving it the capability of recharging itself when exposed to natural or indoor light.
May 11, 07: Burning coal to generate one megawatt-hour of electricity produces about 2,100 pounds of CO2. Using that electricity to make hydrogen would yield enough fuel for a fuel-cell car to travel about 1,000 miles, Romm says. But driving those 1,000 miles in a gasoline-powered car that gets 40 miles per gallon would produce just 485 pounds of CO2. In this sense, Romm says, a vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells would indirectly create four times the CO2 emissions of today's most efficient gasoline cars.
. . It *burns hydrogen. Combustion produces thrilling torque, but it's far less efficient than fuel-cell technology. Also counting against the Hydrogen 7 is the fact that it stores hydrogen as a liquid; chilling hydrogen and compressing it into liquid form consumes more energy than storing it as a compressed gas. "It's safe to say this is a pointless activity", Romm says. "BMW has managed to develop the *least efficient conceivable vehicle that you could invent."
May 11, 07: This year, solar panels from Solient Energy mat find their way onto your roof. In its first iteration, available later this year, the devices work like a series of slats that track the sun. Lenses inside these lightweight trough-like panels direct light to highly efficient solar cells, and the best news is that somehow these Solient guys have figured out how to manufacture these suckers at a price that's half as much as those old-timey solar panels we're using today.
. . The next-generation design is even more sophisticated, because instead of those slats that look like adjustable blinds, this solar array has little rectangular concentrators that can tilt vertically and horizontally, more accurately tracking the sun as its position changes in the sky throughout the day. Solient says this design, due by 2010, will require even fewer solar cells, and the panel itself will cost just a quarter the price of today's solar arrays.
. . Initial systems, which can be made at half the cost of conventional solar panels, are set to start shipping later this year, says Brad Hines, CTO and founder of Soliant Energy, a startup based in Pasadena, CA.
. . Concentrating sunlight with mirrors or lenses on a small area cuts the costs of solar power in part by reducing the amount of expensive photovoltaic material needed. The lower installation costs will help reduce the overall cost. It uses 88% less silicon. The company's next-generation system would be even better, producing three times as much power per area. The system fits in a rectangular frame and is mounted to the roof with the same hardware that's used for conventional flat solar panels.
. . The Soliant design combines both lenses and mirrors to create a more compact system. Each module is made of rows of aluminum troughs, each about the width and depth of a gutter. These troughs are mounted inside a rectangular frame and can tilt in unison from side to side to follow the sun. Each trough is enclosed on top with a clear acrylic lid. Inside each trough, a strip of silicon photovoltaic material runs along the bottom. As light enters, some of it reflects off the inside surface of the trough and reaches the strip of silicon. The rest of the incoming light is focused on the strip by a lens incorporated into the acrylic lid.
May 11, 07: Argentina's government is hopping on the biofuels bandwagon by offering tax incentives for new initiatives and saying 5% of the nation's fuel supply must be biodiesel- or ethanol-based in three years.
. . But many Argentines are worried that diverting farmland for biofuels —-made from corn, sugarcane, palm oil and other agricultural products-— will drive up food prices even higher.
. . Today, that tension will come to a head when former Vice President Al Gore addresses experts and financiers wrangling over efficient and environmentally friendly ways of promoting biofuels development at the first biofuels congress of the Americas.
. . In Argentina, where a quarter of the 38 million people remain in poverty five years after an economic crisis, some fear that a growing demand for grains to make biofuels will translate into higher food prices after two years of double-digit inflation. The government has slapped limits on grain and beef exports to ensure local supplies, while corn, soybean and wheat prices continue to soar.
May 10, 07: The light bulb has been running out of friends recently. California and Canada have decided to ban the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012. Australia is banning them in 2010. The European Union is looking at it.
. . A U.S. Senate committee is working on a proposal that would phase out the light bulb in 10 years. And in New Jersey, where the first practical incandescent bulb emerged from Thomas Edison's laboratory in 1879, a bill has been introduced to ban their use in government buildings.
. . In the last two years, the diodes have doubled in energy efficiency and brightness. LEDs produce a yellowish or "warm" light similar to incandescents. Lighting Science Group Corp. showed an LED "bulb" that screws into a standard medium-sized socket and produces a warm light equivalent to that of a 25-watt incandescent bulb, but consumes just 5.8 watts. It costs $50. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting LED lighting in its in-store refrigerators, where the cold dims fluorescents and incandescents produce too much heat.
. . LED's last up to 50,000 hours, according to manufacturers. That compares to about 10,000 hours for fluorescents and 1,000 hours for incandescents.
. . The cost of LED lighting should come down quickly. Polybrite founder Carl Scianna said the cost of individual white-light diodes, several of which go into an LED bulb and make up much of the cost, have come down in price from about $8 to $1.50 in a year. "They're going to keep going down", Scianna said. "By the middle of next year, they'll be priced for consumers."
. . While single LEDs can demonstrate very high energy efficiency in the lab, when they're combined into fixtures, their efficiency is considerably lower. In part that's a heat issue: the diodes produce less heat than incandescents, but they keep that heat in the fixture rather than radiating it, and the hotter the diodes get, the less efficient they are.
. . He sees screwing LED bulbs into standard sockets "as a waste of talent" that doesn't utilize the inherent properties of LEDs, like their small size and longevity.
Industry watchers expect the current Prius to be remodeled late next year or in early 2009, using a lithium ion battery for the first time. Takimoto declined to confirm the speculation but added that Toyota's lithium ion battery, under development with Matsushita Electric Industrial, was technically ready to be mounted on hybrid cars "any time."
May 9, 07: The UK government's decision to reduce individual grants for homeowners wanting to produce their own renewable energy has been criticized. Changes to the Low-CO2 Buildings Program mean that future applicants will be limited to £2,500 for domestic micro-generation projects. Previously, grants of up to £15,000 and £5,000 were available for solar energy and micro-turbine schemes respectively. Ministers said the changes would enable more people to participate.
May 10, 07: IBM is starting a $1 billion-a-year investment program aimed at doubling the energy efficiency of its data centers and those of its corporate customers.
April 18, 2007: Chemists at the U of California, San Diego said that they have built and demonstrated a prototype device that can capture energy from the sun, convert it to electrical energy and “split” CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen.
. . “It also produces CO, an important industrial chemical [oh!], which is normally produced from natural gas. So with CO2 splitting, you can save fuel, produce a useful chemical and reduce a greenhouse gas.”
. . The team is now building a new device using a gallium-phosphide semiconductor, which is described to have twice the band gap of silicon and absorbs more energetic visible light than silicon can. Kubiak and Sathrum believe that this material will we enable the creation of enough energy to drive the catalytic splitting of CO2.
May 9, 07: There are about 4 billion screw-in sockets containing incandescent bulbs in the US. General Electric says it plans to come out with incandescent bulbs by 2010 that will be as energy-efficient as compact fluorescents.
. . Fiberstars has come up with a system for lighting freezer cases in stores with fiber-optic cables. Other companies have come up with organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, that could turn an entire wall into a lamp.
May 8, 07: A Swiss-built solar vessel completed the first sun-powered crossing of the Atlantic Tuesday when it arrived at its final destination in New York, the group behind the project said.
. . Dubbed "sun21", the catamaran reached North Cove Marina after a journey of over 8,000 miles from Chipiona, Spain, to the Caribbean island of Martinique and then along the U.S. East Coast to New York.
. . The 46-foot boat produced 2,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy during its voyage. The group said this showed the crossing could be made entirely without fuel.
May 8, 07: Environment and development ministers from around the world prepare to meet on Wednesday for the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, UN-Energy released its report "Sustainable Energy: A Framework for Decision Makers."
. . The report said the development of new biofuel industries could provide clean energy services to millions of people who currently lack them, while generating income and creating jobs in poorer areas of the world.
. . "But the rapid growth in first-generation liquid biofuels production will raise agricultural commodity prices and could have negative economic and social effects, particularly on the poor who spend a large share of income on food."
. . Biofuels burn cleaner and are fast gaining popularity around the world amid high oil prices and a battle against global warming. Global production of biofuels has doubled in the past five years and was likely to double again in the next four years, UN-Energy said.
. . In March, the US, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and the
European Commission, announced the creation of the International Biofuels Forum, which aims to increase global production and use of biofuels.
. . Among the recommendations by UN-Energy was that crops that require high fossil energy inputs --such as conventional fertilizers-- and valuable farm land should be avoided. But it also warned that sustainable energy crops could have a negative impact if these replace primary forests, "resulting in large releases of CO2 from the soil and forest biomass that negate any benefits of biofuels for decades."
. . The report called for the creation of an international bioenergy certification scheme, including greenhouse gas certification, to ensure that products meet environmental standards "all the way from the fields to the fuel tanks."
May 7, 07: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced today that it has launched a program to test the use of solar power at some of its operations in Hawaii and California.
May 8, 07: A few months ago, we learned that a "dark" Google could reduce global energy use by a whopping 750 megawatt-hours a year, with a black background instead of white. How did we figure? An all white Web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts; with 200 million queries a day, that adds up quick. In response to this idea, a black version of Google emerged called Blackle.com
May 5, 07: The Philippines' biofuels law came into effect today with little fanfare or information and only a partial rollout of the much-vaunted 1% coconut blend diesel. Motorists were surprised to hear use of the cleaner fuel was now mandatory.
. . The Philippine government is pushing biofuels to cut the country's annual $6 billion plus oil import bill and rely more on locally-produced crops such as coconut, sugar, jathropa, palm oil and soybeans. The Southeast Asian country is the world's largest exporter of coconut oil.
. . But despite hailing the new legislation as an economic and environmental breakthrough, the government has yet to explain how it will implement and police the change.
. . The new fuel initially comes at no extra expense, but industry officials say it will eventually cost drivers at least 30 centavos extra per liter, nearly 1% higher. The law envisages that gasoline will contain a 5-percent mix of ethanol by 2009.
May 5, 07: Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians are slowly pushing through the tangle of their disputes and suspicions in a race to save a biblical and ecological treasure, the Dead Sea.
. . The famously salty sea, which lies at Earth's lowest point, is shrinking. It has receded by some three feet a year for the past 25 years, and Jordan and Israel warn that if the trend continues, it will vanish by 2050 along with its unique ecosystem, defeated by river diversions, mineral extraction and natural reasons, like evaporation.
. . A crucial project to boost the water level by piping in water from the Red Sea has long been held up by disputes between Israel and its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbors.
. . The urgency is made clear by a dramatic side effect of the dwindling water: sinkholes. These yawn open in a flash, leaving pits 30 meters deep or more in the sponge-like terrain. At Ghor Haditha, a Jordanian village of 6,000 people on the Dead Sea's southern tip, signs warn of the peril and huge holes dot the vegetable fields. The sinkholes happen because underground aquifers shrink.
. . The placid, sun-baked lake, surrounded by spectacular desert cliffs, has also become a tourist attraction for both Jordan and Israel, due to its curative waters and black mud. Five-star hotels are sprouting on its shores, creating pollution problems which pose a further threat.
. . The Dead Sea lies about 425 meters below sea level--giving the chance of great electrical generation.] It is 68 kms long, up to 17.7km wide and over 330 deep. With salinity of about 30% —-more than eight times that of oceans, it is considered the world's saltiest body of water. It is bounded by Jordan in the east and Israel and the West Bank in the west.
. . The Jordan River which flows into the Dead Sea is part of a river network whose overuse and diversions by Jordan, Israel and Syria compound the shrinkage.
. . After Jordan and Israel signed peace in 1994, they began mulling ideas to save the Dead Sea. One plan, to draw water from the Mediterranean, about 50 miles to the west, was shelved as too costly, so "Med-Dead" shifted to "Red-Dead" — an underground pipeline bringing water from the Red Sea, 200km south.
. . The sides agreed in late 2005 to launch a feasibility study for the pipeline, but Israel balked following the landslide January 2006 election victory of the militant Hamas group and its eventual takeover of the Palestinian government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. With renewed Jordanian prodding to resurrect the project, a compromise was reached to include Palestinian moderates on a committee overseeing the project.
. . The feasibility study finally began this year, with 60% of its $15.5 million cost provided by the US and other Western donors. The pipeline itself will cost $1 billion and take two years to complete, if funding can be found. There are also plans for a $1.5 billion plant to desalinate Red Sea waters for use by Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians.
. . The Aral, once the world's fourth largest inland water body, lies between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, has lost 3/4 of its surface area in less than half a century because of Soviet-era diversion of rivers to promote farming.
. . "The Dead Sea is a worse disaster than the Aral because it's shrinking quicker and the catastrophe it poses is greater to the surrounding ecosystem, the economy from its minerals and the site as a world cultural and religious heritage", al-Alem said.
May 5, 07: Environmental groups have welcomed the UK government's caution over the possibility of a Severn barrage [dam]. The energy review recommended further study of the £14bn project, but said it would raise "strong environmental concerns". Friends of the Earth Cymru said that amounted to a rejection of assembly government support for the barrier. The 16km-long barrier could provide about 5% of the UK's energy needs by 2020.
. . Gordon James of Friends of the Earth Cymru said it was "particularly pleased that the environmentally destructive and costly Severn barrage proposal has not won favor. More cost-effective and environmentally acceptable options, such as tidal lagoons, look more promising." The charity said the estuary was "prized" for its importance to wild birds, particularly in winter and during migration, and was of "international importance".
. . Welsh Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies said he was delighted there would be a study of Severn tidal power. But Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said no other renewable energy project came close to the proposed tidal barrier. "A barrage across the Severn estuary could generate massive amounts of clean, green energy --up to 5% of the UK's energy needs", he said. "The review starkly illustrates the huge challenge we face if we want to achieve energy security over the coming years --and the need for us to make tough choices." [I'd choose the dam. Warming will kill more.]
. . If nothing is done, the share of electricity generated by nuclear will fall from just under 20% now to 6% in 15 years' time. [So let's not do anything!]
May 5, 07: It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Six hundred mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a massive 115m, 40-story tall tower out in the Andalusian countryside. Yet as eerie as it looks, this is Europe's first commercial solar power plant being operated by a company called Solucar. The structure generates 11 Megawatts of electricity --without emitting a single puff of greenhouse gas..
. . The 600 mirrors --each 120 sq meters-- beam sunlight at the tower, which converts the solar energy into steam. The steam is stored in tanks and used to drive turbines.
. . It's enough to power up to 6,000 homes. Thousands more mirrors will be installed, & ultimately the entire plant should generate as much power as is used by the 600,000 people of Seville.
May 4, 07: The calm, blue waters of Lake Kivu in the west of Rwanda belie the energy powerhouse it stores deep underwater. Hundreds of meters down in the inky blackness, the lake is holding enough unexploited energy to meet Rwanda's needs for 200 years.
. . Rotting vegetation which has been deposited for millions of years at the bottom of the lake is giving off a constant regenerating supply of methane gas. Some of that gas bubbles to the surface where it is carried away and dispersed on the wind, but much of it, under massive pressure, is dissolved in the water at the bottom of the lake, which is in places more than 600m deep.
. . Methane is a combustible gas ideal for use in electricity generation and heating, it is the main component of "natural gas" fed to cookers all over the world.
. . Getting the methane out of the water is not too complicated. EcoEnergy is in the process of finalising a deal with the Rwandan government to get the gas to the surface and establish an electrical power generation facility. Put in simple terms, all that is needed to release the dissolved gas is to bring water up from close to the bottom of Lake Kivu, to a depth of about 70m. Because the weigth of the water is the same, no pumping is required to get the water near the surface. Then, at 70m, the reduction of pressure allows the dissolved methane to bubble out of the water, lifting it somewhat. Other gases like CO2 and hydrogen sulphide will remain dissolved in the water, which is then pumped back down to the depths.
. . At purities of more than 80%, the methane can be burnt --they are aiming for purity above 95%. Methane has been taken out of lake for the past 25 years. Bralirwa Brewery on the banks of Lake Kivu had been using methane for most of its energy needs until a couple of years ago. A small pilot methane plant intended to produce methane for just five years, kept going for 18 years until it packed in in 2004.
. . The director of the brewery, Anand Chaurasia, says it was the perfect solution for him. Methane was cheap, accessible and plentiful. Now he has to import very expensive petroleum oil to run his generators and heat the water needed in a brewing operation. The oil has to be driven into land-locked Rwanda from the East African coastal ports of Mombassa and Dar es Salaam.
. . There are billions of cubic meters of methane at the bottom of the lake and recent studies have shown that enough is regenerated every year to supply all of Rwanda's energy needs. This is a resource that could cut the country's reliance on oil, and potentially bring in huge foreign earnings - Uganda to the north and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west are crying out for power.
. . Plus, of course, there are the environmental benefits; methane in this form is renewable and relatively clean. It is a powerful greenhouse gas, 23 times more harmful than CO2. Getting it out of the environment will be very beneficial. So the methane operation ticks all the right environmental boxes.
. . It may in the long term even reduce the wanton tree-cutting that is going on all over Rwanda. Massive forests have disappeared to be used for firewood and charcoal.
. . There is yet another another benefit. Lake Kivu is what is known as a "turnover lake". Geological evidence from around the lake shows that every 1,000 years or so, there have been cataclysmic events which have wiped out all animal life in a huge radius surrounding the lake.
. . What happens is that gradually so much methane and CO2 is dissolved in the water that it begins to acquire buoyancy. Instead of this being released gradually, there is a sudden huge explosion, where the lake effectively turns over. The gas laden water from the bottom of the lake surges to the surface, releasing billions of cubic meters of gas; this settle like a huge toxic blanket over the surrounding area. It is heavier than air, so all the oxygen is forced out and all life is suffocated.
. . This is what happened at Lake Nyos in Cameroon in 1986, when 1,700 people were killed. Lake Kivu is hundreds of times bigger than Lake Nyos and it is estimated that more than two million people would die.
May 3, 07: Wind farms could generate up to 7% of U.S. electricity in 15 years, but scientists want more study of the threat the spinning blades pose to birds and bats. The towers appear most dangerous to night-migrating songbirds, bats and some hunting birds such as hawks and eagles. The risk is not understood enough to draw conclusions, a National Research Council panel said in a study requested by Congress.
. . The blades have diameters ranging from 230 feet to 295 feet and are mounted on towers 197 feet to 295 feet tall. Some farms contain hundreds of towers. The one at Altamont Pass, Calif., has more than 5,000.
. . Growing from almost nothing in 1980, wind powered turbines generated 11,605 megawatts of electricity in the US in 2006, though that was still less than 1% of the national power supply. Wind farms now operate in 36 states. The report says estimates are that wind farms could generate 2% to 7% of the nation's electricity within 15 years.
May 3, 07: Buildings are expected to feature as a crucial area for energy-saving in the UN's third report on climate change this week. Production of concrete, that staple of modern building, alone accounts for up to 10% of man-made greenhouse gas, US scientists believe. Then there is the energy spent on shipping the materials, and finally the power needs of the finished buildings.
. . Tom Woolley, a professor of architecture at Queen's U: One hectare of land can produce enough hemp stalk to build a house. Using about 12% of the UK's set-aside land, you could grow enough hemp to build the 200,000 new houses the country needs. Then you have the fibre and oil for other products.
. . He picks out the Eco Depot in York, a new city council building, as a good example of green architecture, pointing to the straw bale panels used for its walls and its "breathable" lime render.
. . Home to 80% of the world's population, the developing world has access to less than 20% of the world's construction materials, according to figures from the UN's industrial development agency (Unido). Unido's technology promotion unit seeks out cheap, energy-efficient construction technology and introduces it to some of the poorest regions on Earth, suggesting novel ways of using local materials to cut the financial and environmental costs still further.
. . In Herat, Unido has planned a model village of 100 energy-efficient homes, designed by Indian and Chinese architects in consultation with the local authorities. The homes each cost a projected $3,500 and are equipped with bathroom, toilet and solar-powered electricity. Building costs are reckoned to be 30-50% cheaper than existing dwellings.
. . Unido promotes Indian portable brick factories as one answer to cheap construction materials. Another project, now under discussion with Namibia, is a Russian technique for manufacturing building blocks out of sand and seawater.
. . Prof Woolley notes that unfired mud brick (adobe) technology has taken off in the US, dispensing with the energy used in firing traditional clay bricks. Sun-dried bricks were a mainstay of construction among the indigenous peoples of the Americas for thousands of years, and go back centuries in Africa.
. . "Somebody has very cleverly got the vast majority of politicians and the public to think that sustainable buildings is about sticking extremely expensive renewable energy equipment on the roof of the building, which is actually the last thing you should be doing", he says. "The first thing is to reduce the demand and produce buildings which are breathable and well insulated and airtight."
. . Sounds great, but have you ever tried to buy hemp insulation? It costs five times more than glass or rock wool in spite of allegedly using less energy in manufacture. Delivery time is in months, even in the autumn after the harvest, though the factories chopping and spinning the hemp work all year round. It is a rip-off for the gullible.
. . Zeolite or other pozzolanic volcanic materials can be used in cement to reduce the CO2 produced. This cement is just as good, if not better than regular cement and these materials are available in many places in the world.
May 3, 07: Simple steps to save energy such as changing light bulbs or not quite filling up the kettle can also save CO2 emissions, a U.N. report will say this week. The numbers are big: some $122 billion will be saved and nearly a billion metric tons of CO2 emissions avoided globally by 2020 just by screwing in more efficient light bulbs.
. . A "ban the incandescent light bulb" campaign is mounting. Started by Australia in February, EU leaders have also demanded to phase out inefficient bulbs by the end of the decade.
May 2, 07: Scientists and Australian beer maker Foster's are teaming up to generate clean energy from brewery waste water —-by using sugar-consuming bacteria. "Brewery waste water is a particularly good source because it is very biodegradable ... and is highly concentrated, which does help in improving the performance of the cell."
. . The fuel cell is essentially a battery in which bacteria consume water-soluble brewing waste such as sugar, starch and alcohol. The battery produces electricity plus clean water. The complex technology harnesses the chemical energy that the bacteria releases from the organic material, converting it into electrical energy.
. . The 660-gallon fuel cell will be 250 times bigger than a prototype that has been operating at the u laboratory for three months. He expected the brewery cell would produce 2 kilowatts of power —-enough to power a household-— and the technology would eventually be applied in other breweries and wineries owned by Foster's. The cell should be operating at the brewery by September. "It's not going to make an enormous amount of power —-its primarily a waste water treatment that has the added benefit of creating electricity", Keller said.
May 1, 07: Texas A&M U scientists showed off to state and federal officials a genetically engineered crop of sorghum they believe will be a more efficient and economical option to corn in drier areas as we push for alternative energy sources.
. . Sorghum, which as a plant resembles stalks of corn, is a centuries-old grain common around the world but used more in the US as a livestock feed. At Texas A&M, researchers have been working over the past several years to extend its growing season, allowing it to double its height to more than 10 to 15 feet, thicken its stalk and be even more drought tolerant.
. . The genetic changes make it ideal to raise in the South and Southeast where the growing season already is longer than in northern sections of the country. The climate also makes it more suitable than growing corn, which has emerged as a biofuel alternative used in ethanol production, particularly in the Midwest. About 15% of the domestic grain sorghum crop already goes into ethanol production.
. . The cellulose from one version of the sorghum and sugar from another version similarly can be processed for fuel. Researchers said energy yields could top those from corn and at a more reasonable cost, making it an economic windfall for farmers. Some of the new crop could allow for as many as three harvests annually in areas like the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
May 1, 07: The government wants to know what people think about generating energy from wind, currents and waves off the South Carolina coast. The idea is to harvest energy from wind and water turbines and send the power back to shore through cables. The greatest potential for wind energy is beyond three miles off the coast, outside state territorial waters. While some people may not like to see a field of spinning wind turbines offshore, in Europe, such turbines are tourist attractions.
. . Wave energy converters generate power by capturing the constant up-and-down motion of waves. Moored to the sea floor, the converters bob at the surface, resembling a small fleet of fishing boats. Another way to generate power is with other turbines located beneath the surface, where steady currents spin propellers.
May 1, 07: A U.S. team plans to drive from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole later this year to demonstrate the viability of alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuels, a spokesman said. The 1,000-mile journey to the South Pole will take 10 days using alternative fuel vehicles driven along a U.S.-developed ice highway.
. . Three of the vehicles to be used in the expedition will later be used as exhibits in the US to educate youth on global climate change, alternative fuels and the importance of the earth's polar regions.
Apr 28, 07: A Dutch commission proposed a system y'day aimed at ensuring that crops used to create biofuels as replacements for oil and gas do not do more harm than good.
. . The scheme makes the Netherlands a front-runner among nations seeking to tackle the new climate change dilemma. The Dutch panel has drawn up a framework which companies can use to measure the sustainability of crops used for biofuels.
. . The framework evaluates emission reduction compared with fossil fuels and whether the crops supplant other land uses such as food production. It also looks at whether the crops reduce biodiversity, damage the environment or use pesticides.
. . Dutch companies can check some of the criteria, but the government and independent monitoring also will have to ensure they are being met, said Cramer. The Dutch government is not proposing new laws to underpin the system as there are fears they could conflict with World Trade Organization rules.
. . The report also outlined other principles. The production of biofuels cannot contribute to deforestation, deplete reservoirs of CO2 captured in the earth, degrade soil or water supplies, or displace local populations. It also calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by at least 70% for generating electricity, and 30% for transportation fuels.
. . A group of Dutch environmental groups including Greenpeace and Environment Defense called the plan "a step in the right direction" but said it did not go far enough. "In essential areas, the plans fall short", the groups said. "Rain forests can still be cleared for new plantations."
Apr 26, 07: Work on North America's biggest solar power plant will start next year in Ontario, the Canadian province's energy minister said. Once complete in 2010, the 40-megawatt project, near Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, will be able to supply enough emission-free electricity to power up to 24,000 homes. Typically a project in a 10 megawatt range would cost up to C$80 million.
. . The solar farm will stretch across nearly 365 hectares, and about one million panels will be erected as high as 7 meters off the ground. Currie said the company plans to begin building the solar farm in spring 2008.
. . The project is part of 14 new, renewable energy projects awarded through Ontario's Standard Offer Program, which sets a fixed price for small renewable energy projects. It's expected to add up to 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy to Ontario's electricity supply over the next 10 years.
. . The next largest photovoltaic project in North America was announced earlier this week. It is a 15-megawatt solar system to be built at an air force base in Nevada.
Apr 26, 07: It's the new climate change dilemma: finding alternatives for oil and gas without doing more harm than good. In the rush to develop biofuels, forests are burned in Asia to clear land for palm oil, and swaths of the Amazon are stripped of diverse vegetation for soya and sugar plantations for ethanol.
. . Dutch committee will unveil stringent criteria for growing biofuels in ways that don't damage the environment or release more greenhouse gases than they save. Other European countries are working along similar lines and closely watching the Dutch initiative —-the first to reach the level of government consideration.
. . The campaign is driven by evidence that developers in the two Asian countries have burned vast tracks of rain forest to grow palm oil. The fires unleash millions of tons of CO2 and smoke that shroud entire areas of Southeast Asia in eye-watering smog for weeks at a time.
. . The Netherlands is Europe's biggest importer of palm oil, used in a wide range of supermarket products as well as a fuel oil supplement. One Dutch company has plans to build three 50 megawatt power stations exclusively running on palm oil.
Apr 24, 07: Canada will ban the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2012 as part of a plan to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said. Canada is the second country in the world to announce such a ban. Australia said in February it would get rid of all incandescent bulbs by 2009.
. . "By banning inefficient lighting, we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by more than 6 million tonnes per year", Lunn said. The ban will not apply to uses where incandescent bulbs are still the only practical alternative. The Canadian province of Ontario last week announced it would ban inefficient incandescent bulbs by 2012.
You all know that incandescent light bulbs are terribly inefficient, turning only 5% of the electricity they consume into light. Fluorescent lamps are better using up to 25% of its energy as light. And solid state lighting devices lose only 50% of the energy they received. But now, researchers at Arizona State U claim they've developed organic lighting devices which are 100% efficient. The researchers think it's possible to produce these solid-state lighting devices based on OLED technology at low cost.
Apr 20, 07: Ohio - New technology is allowing energy producers to capture speedier wind that environmental activists say has the potential to provide 20% of the state's electricity within 10 years.
. . What's new are taller windmills that can catch gusts that are faster than those closer to the ground. The tallest windmills have been about 250 feet, but now proponents envision windmills whose bases are about 330 feet tall.
. . Texas' windmills produce 2,768 megawatts to lead the nation. Ohio lags, in part, because the state is one of only 12 that have no standards that are established or under consideration for the use of renewable energy sources. However, new Gov. Ted Strickland has said development of those sources is a priority and House Speaker Jon Husted has created the House Alternative Energy Committee to study the issue.
. . Environment Ohio, which promotes the use of alternatives to coal and natural gas to produce electricity, and the DOE presented the department's new wind map Thursday that shows speeds clocked at the height of taller windmills. According to the map, vast areas of northern and western Ohio have winds strong enough to make wind power profitable. Promoters consider winds of about 17 mph strong enough to produce energy.
. . Some Ohio-based power companies are investing in wind energy in states with laws requiring a set percentage of renewable energy. "We urge Ohio's leaders to commit to getting 10 to 20% of Ohio's energy from wind in the next decade", Bomberg said.
Apr 18, 07: Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a fungus in elephant dung that will help them break down fibers and wood into biofuel. Bioethanol firms currently extract sugars from crops like grains and sugar beet, but some are developing technologies to extract energy from fiber such as wheat bran, straw or wood. Production based on the new method can start at the firm's plant in Sas van Gent in 2009, though it will take longer for most of the new feedstocks to become commercially viable.
Apr 18, 07: Peak oil is the point where oil production begins to decline, when we've taken all the easily accessible oil from the ground, and it becomes increasingly expensive to get at what's left. China's growing economy and projected need for gasoline puts added pressure on the peak oil timeline.
A study from the California Institute of Technology says that there is bound to be leakage if we mass-produce hydrogen, and hydrogen destroys ozone in the same way that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) do. We stopped using CFCs in appliances for just this reason, so why should we start using hydrogen in cars? The authors of the study qualify their conclusions heavily, writing that ozone destruction is only a possibility. They write that man-made hydrogen might get absorbed into soil instead of accumulating in the upper atmosphere. Also, knowing this potential danger in advance can prompt us to take preventative measures.
Apr 16, 07: Every household in the UK will be able to request a free device that shows how much electricity is being used in the home at any one particular moment.
. . They hope "real-time monitors" will help cut greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of energy wasted by appliances being left on standby. The government recently committed itself to cut CO2 emissions by 60% from 1990 levels by 2050.
. . "These things are not terribly expensive to make and even with the devices that are available now, research shows that you can save about 7% on your annual energy bill", he added.
Apr 15, 07: NEW YORK: A Virginia company to use the East River for a unique experiment in renewable energy: Six giant turbines are being placed underwater in a $7 million project to harness the energy of the tides and produce electricity.
. . One of the 16-foot-diameter, windmill-like turbines is already operating, supplying power to a grocery store and a garage on Roosevelt Island. The other turbines are being installed over the next two weeks.
. . Project organizers say this is the first time the underwater-turbine concept has been used in the U.S. "We picked New York on purpose, because the regulations are so strict, and because the East River is a tidal strait, there is a high current."
. . The river sometimes moves too slowly. On average, the turbines rotate enough to generate electricity only about 77% of the time. At full capacity, the 10-megawatt project.
. . The fish near the turbines are being monitored with sonar equipment, and the river bottom is mostly bedrock, so no sediment is being churned up. Commercial vessels do not use that section of the river, so shipping is unaffected.
. . Environmental groups would like to see a year's worth of data before deciding whether the 8,500-pound, steel-alloy turbines have any significant effects, but so far, they are pleased. Taylor is thinking bigger. He wants to place the technology in U.S. rivers like the St. Lawrence or the Mississippi, and around the world.
Apr 13, 07: The lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrids can store up to 9 kilowatt/hours of electricity in the trunk of a car. It takes about 5 or 6 hours to fully charge the battery from a common household wall outlet, which costs about the equivalent of 55 cents a gallon to fill up, according to PG&E.
. . The vehicle-to-grid concept could allow owners to sell the electricity they download overnight back to the electrical system during the day when demand--and prices--are high. There are still several challenges to work out, however, including how to identify which car is contributing electricity to the grid and whether people are really interested in this type of model.
Apr 13, 07: Japan's Nissan Motor, NEC and the NEC Tokin unit will form a joint venture to try to produce lithium ion batteries for electric and gas-electric hybrid cars within two years. Lithium ion batteries, once shunned as too unsafe and unstable for vehicle use, are considered a key ingredient for lowering the high premium that consumers and automakers pay for today's gasoline-electric hybrids as they can store power in a smaller and lighter stack. All commercial hybrids now run on nickel-metal hydride batteries. This could put Japan's third-biggest automaker back in the game for offering next-generation "green" vehicles.
. . The technology behind the partners' latest lithium ion battery, which has twice the power of conventional batteries at half the size, is ready and that preparations are now under way for mass production and commercialization.
. . Nissan's first internally developed hybrid car planned for launch in 2010. Other automakers such as Honda, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are also working on lithium ion battery technology.
Apr 11, 07: A new solar panel unveiled this month by the Georgia Tech Research Institute hopes to brighten the future of the energy source. The difference is in the design. Traditional solar panels are often flat and bulky. The new design features an array of nano-towers —-like microscopic blades of grass-— that add surface area and trap more sunlight.
. . Ready said the three-dimensional panels produce about 60 times more than traditional solar cells. [WHAT? I'd doubt it if he said 6!] But current is only half the equation. To generate electricity, a cell has to churn out voltage as well. And so far, that's where Ready's invention has fallen short. There's still too much resistance within the cell to produce the type of electricity that's needed.
Apr 11, 07: The Pentagon's National Security Space Office (NSSO) may begin a study in the near future on the possibility of using satellites to collect solar energy for use on Earth, according to Defense Department officials.
. . The officials said the study does not mean that the military plans to demonstrate or deploy a space-based solar power constellation [many units]. However, as the Pentagon looks at a variety of alternative energy sources, this could be one possible method of supplying energy to troops in bases or on the battlefield.
. . The military's work in this area also could aid development of a system that could provide energy to non-military users as well. While space-based solar power may sound like a high-risk proposal, it is worth investing several million dollars in the near term to study the concept because of the potential high payoff, Kueter said.
. . Mankins said a large constellation could demonstrate a significant launch opportunity to industry, and could provide the stimulus needed for industry to bring reusable launch concepts to fruition.
Apr 10, 07: In a presentation before an audience of Silicon Valley technology industry and government officials, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer criticized Pres Bush for arguing that the U.S. can't regulate CO2 emissions because it would hurt the U.S. economy when fast-growing economies like those of China and India do not control pollution.
. . "Since when does any [U.S.] president look to China for environmental leadership?" asked Boxer, a Democrat from California. "We can't wait for China. We have to be the moral leaders on this."
. . Boxer said she plans to call U.S. EPA officials before a congressional committee to explain how the agency is going to regulate greenhouse gas emissions linked to global climate change. Her move is in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on April 2 that the EPA has the authority to regulate CO2 emissions. The Bush administration had argued that it does not.
Apr 10, 07: Gas mileage-enthusiasts in Japan hacked their Priuses and use zen-like driving techniques to squeeze every mile from their hybrids to the gas-sipping tune of 116 miles per gallon. In further proof that electric vehicles are bitchin', a lithium ion battery-powered motorcycle broke the speed record for the electric motorbike quarter mile, silently zipping along at 155 mph and finishing the quarter mile in less than nine seconds.
. . 1,000 miles on just one fill-up of a 13-gallon tank of gas! Their techniques involve hacking the cars' computer systems, adding special tires and strategically placing cardboard and foam rubber over the engine and grill. They also drive barefoot and strive to perfect what they call the "pulse and glide" driving method, which requires sensitivity when pushing or releasing the accelerator.
Apr 6, 07: Scientists have developed small generators that someday might be able to do away with batteries. They're first trying to develop a way to power those devices that are so minuscule you could fit thousands of them on the head of a pin.
. . The generator uses a clever technique of lining up zinc oxide nanowires inside of a special electrode, where those tiny filaments are sent into movement by forces such as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibration, blood flow, or even movements such as walking. It doesn't sound like it's going to create a lot of electricity, but that'll be plenty of juice to power up cute little nanoscale robots, and even biosensors implanted in the human body.
. . The nanogenerators take advantage of the unique coupled piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc oxide nanostructures, which produce small electrical charges when they are flexed. With optimization, their nanogenerator could produce as much as 4 watts per cc.
Apr 5, 07: If winds are stronger than 10km up in the air, why not build a power plant there to harness that energy? That's what Cali-based Sky WindPower is proposing with their flying power plants. But how would these plants work and more importantly, how much cash would be saved? Well, the ideas is to fit each plant with four rotors to sustain them in the air (they'd essentially look like H-shaped kites) and in the process these rotors would also generate electricity, which would be transmitted back to the ground via aluminum cables. To keep the plants from flying off, they'd be tethered to the ground. Sky WindPower claims they'd be able to generate electricity at 2 pennies per kilowatt hour (versus 3-5 cents from conventional means). The downside of course is maintaining the generators. Otherwise, prototypes are expected as early as next year.
. . Mr Shepard’s flying generator looks like a cross between a kite and a helicopter. It has four rotors at the points of an H-shaped frame that is tethered to the ground by a long cable. The rotors act like the surface of a kite, providing the lift needed to keep the platform in the air. As they do so, they also turn dynamos that generate electricity. This power is transmitted to the ground through aluminium cables. Should there be a lull in the wind, the dynamos can be used in reverse as electric motors, to keep the generator airborne.
. . Estimates are that harvesting just 1% of its energy would produce enough power for the whole of civilization. But even at lower altitudes, the winds are stronger than they are at the surface, and that has attracted the attention of other inventors.
. . In Canada, a company called Magenn Power has developed a proposal for a wind generator filled with helium. It turns around a horizontal axis, rather like a water mill, and could fly at an altitude of up to 1km. The firm sees its system as an alternative to diesel generators in remote locations where ground-level wind is insufficient for a normal windturb.
Hybrid engines aren't just for little sedans anymore. They've found their way into big vehicles such as 18-wheelers. The Kenworth T270 Class 6 hybrid truck has a motor/generator working with the transmission and a 340-volt battery to get help from electricity when traveling at speeds below 30MPH. That improves fuel efficiency by 30% (30% of a lot of gas!)
. . Like that hybrid 18-wheeler, a school district in Florida has just started using the first two plug-in hybrid school buses in the country. While a normal yellow bus gets about 6 mpg, this one gets a whopping 12 mpg. Cutting fuel costs in half is great for school districts, so these buses may pop up all over the place in the near future.
Apr 4, 07: The freewatt system includes a cogeneration unit developed by Honda that produces 3.26 kilowatts of heat and 1.2 kilowatts of electric power, and can be paired with either a furnace or boiler produced by Climate Energy.
. . Actually the fuel is used to heat a typical home twice. In essence, the electric power produced by the system is a by-product of its heating function. That electric power displaces the electricity that consumers would otherwise buy. This can save the average homeowner $500 to $1,000 per year on their electric bills, both companies said. What's more, when a customer replaces his or her typical 80% efficiency home heating system with a freewatt system, that they can still see an average of 30% cost savings.
. . Although only available in certain states, net metering allows homeowners to sell unused electric power back to the grid in their communities. For now, initial sales of the heat and power units will be targeted at customers living in the Northeastern U.S. due mainly to the region's greater heating demands.
. . The freewatt system for Massachusetts customers has a list price of $13,500.
Apr 4, 07: Two UK engineers plan to replace the 350 million concrete blocks manufactured in the UK each year by blocks made almost entirely of waste materials such as crushed glass, pulverized fuel ash, and bitumen, a by-product of the petrochemical industry. The 'Bitublocks' are about six times stronger as concrete and will not be more expensive. These eco-friendly materials should become available in about three to five years, but a house prototype should be available soon.
. . This new material would be beneficial to the environment for two reasons. First, there will be no need for cement which generates huge amounts of CO2. And there will be no more needs to use energy to burn millions tons of waste into incinerators.
Apr 4, 07: Alternative-energy companies are targeting state and local governments as the places to showcase the latest hydrogen fuel technology, but there are still many issues to clear up before the technology becomes a significant part of everyday life.
. . Researchers look at the entire energy chain (the energy equivalent of a food chain) when evaluating a potential alternative fuel. While cars powered by hydrogen are more efficient than those powered by gasoline, the leading production method for hydrogen fuel requires a lot of electricity. And if hydrogen fuel isn't produced efficiently by this method, it becomes less viable as a fuel source overall, according to Ken Kurani, an associate researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the U of California at Davis.
. . To create a hydrogen-based transportation system that has a low overall CO2 footprint, primary methods of producing hydrogen can't be based around coal-fired power plants, Kurani said. Such a process would require a system for capturing and safely storing CO2 emitted by the burning coal --a process called CO2 capture sequestration.
. . The DOE is also looking at tapping into nuclear facilities because they already produce waste heat that could be used to reduce the amount of electricity needed for electrolysis. [does this mean that hot water is more easily converted?]
. . Companies such as Ecotality are thinking of ways to generate hydrogen in a fuel-cell car as the vehicle's fuel cell needs it. Their tech features an apparatus called the Hydratus, which was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Hydratus is built in to a vehicle and makes hydrogen for a fuel cell using a chemical reaction between magnesium and water to liberate the hydrogen. Drivers use a three-prong pump to fill up on magnesium pellets and water, and pump out spent magnesium oxide in powder form. The spent powder is 99.8% renewable and can be recycled (using electricity) right at the filling station. Ecotality is already in touch with several interested municipalities and expects to produce the first prototype bus by the end of 2007.
. . The gas can be stored in highly compressed form. It can also be stored in liquefied form. One solution being researched by DOE programs and private companies is hydrogen in a solid state, in the form of solid-state metal hydride or carbon-based materials.
. . The technology is not cheap. The DOE estimates that hydrogen fuel cells cost about $107 per kilowatt, if the supplier produced the cells at a rate of 500,000 units per year. For the fuel to become economically viable for consumers, the cost per kilowatt would have to be $30.
Apr 3, 07: Venture capitalists are pouring cash into solar power, fuel cells, wind energy, biofuels, new lighting microchips, "smart" power grids, and other innovative energies. "The best brains in the country are no longer working on the next pharmaceutical drug or the next Silicon Revolution. They want to work on energy."
. . Oil companies spend no money on research, especially outside of how you discover more oil. All their efforts are token or nominal. The same is true of the coal business."
. . Biofuels, wind power, solar photovoltaics and fuel cells are likely to pace new energy growth, according to Clean Edge. A growing sense of urgency to reduce the use of carbon-based fuels, which scientists blame for global warming, is driving the move in Silicon Valley.
Apr 3, 07: Motorola has become the first cellphone company to make all of its cell phone chargers Energy Star certified, meaning they use appreciably less energy than other conventional chargers. At first it doesn't sound like too big a deal, but when the EPA added up the effects that a 40% increase in charger efficiency would have, it came to well over 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. There's a lot of cellphones in this country, and if every company took the same steps that Motorola now has, we would save enough energy to light 760,000 homes for a year.
Apr 2, 07: Two-fifths of Britons are doing nothing to cut energy use, although 80% believe climate change is affecting the UK, a report has suggested. Only 4% of people went on holiday without flying, although 32% said they would consider it, the Energy Saving Trust's Green Barometer report showed. The study suggested tougher measures such as road tolls and CO2 rationing were also unpopular.
. . About 75% of people in the UK feel a growing pressure to change the way they live in order to reduce the impact of climate change, the report claimed. Trying to be 'green' is regarded as a virtuous quality by 70% and reducing home energy is considered as virtuous as donating to charity, figures suggest. But only 34% thought green taxes were socially acceptable, while the figure fell to 30% for road pricing and 28% for CO2 rationing.
Apr 2, 07: Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican candidate for president, drives a Cadillac CTS, which gets city mileage in the 15-17 mpg range, the guide says. Romney drives a 2005 Ford Mustang and his wife a Cadillac SRX SUV. The Mustang gets 17-19 mpg in city driving; an SRX about 16.
. . Democratic candidate John Edwards makes a point of telling people that after years of driving a regular sport utility vehicle, he and his wife bought a hybrid.
Edwards announced his campaign would be "carbon-neutral". Republican Rudolph Giuliani gave an energy policy speech in New York last summer that included a pitch for greater use of hybrid cars. Idling outside for him was a Cadillac Escalade.
. . Democratic candidate Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor and former U.S. energy secretary, made a big show in 2005 of giving up his gas guzzling SUV Lincoln Navigator for a hybrid. Hillary Clinton, as former first lady, rides in vehicles owned and operated by the Secret Service. At the Clintons' request, the fleet includes a Ford hybrid.
Apr 1, 07: Only a few years ago, oil from palm trees was viewed as an ideal biofuel: a cheap, renewable alternative to petroleum that would fight global warming. Energy companies began converting generators and production soared. Now, it's increasingly seen as an example of how well-meaning efforts to limit climate-changing CO2 emissions may backfire.
. . Marcel Silvius, a climate expert at Wetlands International in the Netherlands, led a team that compared the benefits of palm oil to the ecological harm from destroying virgin Asian rain forests to develop lucrative new plantations. His conclusion: "As a biofuel, it's a failure."
. . Palm oil is attractive because it is relatively abundant, cheap at about $550 per ton, and requires few or no modifications to existing power stations. Unlike carbon-rich fossil fuels, palm oil is considered carbon-neutral, meaning the carbon emitted from burning it is the same as what is absorbed during growth. But the result of intensified farming has been to unleash far more greenhouse gases than will be saved at power stations.
. . Its carbon-neutral in itself, meaning the carbon emitted from burning it is the same as what is absorbed during growth.
. . About 85% of the world's palm oil comes from the two countries, and about one-quarter of Indonesia's plantations are on drained peat bogs, the report said. The four-year study found that 600 million tons of CO2 seep into the air each year from the drained swamps. Another 1.4 billion tons go up in smoke from fires lit to clear rain forest for plantations. Those 2 billion tons of CO2 account for 8% of the world's fossil fuel emissions, the report said.
. . Deforestation is the No. 2 cause of greenhouse gas emissions after the burning of fossil fuels. Clearing peat swamps for plantations is "a double whammy." It not only releases carbon trapped over many millennia, but destroys the most efficient ecosystem on the planet for sucking CO2 from the atmosphere, Dukes said.
HP aims to cut global energy use by 20 pct. Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest technology company, wants to become a global leader in improving corporate energy efficiency.
Thanks to requests by its customers, Dell Inc. is going to start offering Linux pre-installed on its PCs and notebooks, the company said.
U.S. regulators, manufacturers and environmentalists note that, because CFLs require less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs, they reduce overall mercury in the atmosphere by cutting emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Mar 28, 07: One of the world's largest solar energy plants, covering the hills of a valley dotted with olive groves in southern Portugal, started delivering electricity to about 8,000 homes today. The solar panels, which are raised around 2 meters off the ground, cover an area of 60 hectares and produce 11 megawatts of electricity in one of Europe's sunniest spots --Portugal's poor agricultural Alentejo region. There are also plans to build a solar power plant in the neighboring town of Moura.
. . Kevin Walsh, managing director for Renewable Energy GE, which built the project, said the plant was expected to have the highest capacity of any solar energy project in the world but a plant in Germany had overtaken it. "But as far as we know --thanks to great Portuguese sunshine and high technology-- this plant right here in Serpa is expected to produce the most power-- more than 20 [meg]awatts", Walsh said. The plant has 52,000 photovoltaic modules.
. . The scheme fits into Portugal's plans of reducing its reliance on imported energy and cutting output of greenhouse gasses that feed global warming. Portugal's emissions have surged about 37% since 1990, one of the highest increases in the world.
Mar 24, 07: Energy companies are planning to build dozens of new coal-fired power plants --with the support of the governing coalition in Berlin. Energy provider Vattenfall is planning a project that hardly seems compatible with Merkel's grand plans for saving the climate.
. . The company wants to build a new coal-fired power plant there by 2012. The plan is for the new plant to burn up two million tons of Polish coal a year and provide a solid 800 megawatt electricity output, in addition to 600 megawatts of heat.
. . The chancellor is caught in the climate trap. She's presenting herself as the world's most active climate protector, both on the international stage and back home.
. . Merkel is planning to present an overall model that builds on Gabriel's statement before the end of the year. There is a second exit strategy available to her: If she wins the national elections in 2009, she could join forces with Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP) and make the construction of numerous new coal-fired power plants superfluous --by abandoning the plan to phase out nuclear energy.
Mar 21, 07: UK: Drivers of the biggest and most polluting vehicles are to see their car tax almost double to £400 by April 2008, Chancellor Gordon Brown has said. The rise accompanied a 30% cut in vehicle excise duty (VED) for some of those which emit the least pollution. Mr Brown also promised to work towards special mortgages for energy efficient upgrades on homes, and to abolish stamp duty on some zero-carbon homes. But critics said Mr Brown was not doing enough to confront climate change.
Mar 21, 07: The Nevada Solar One power plant is essentially a tea kettle, just one that happens to take up 300 acres and can provide enough power for 15,000 homes. The plant, which will start to generate electricity for nearby Las Vegas next month, consists of approximately 184,000 mirrors arranged in long, parabolic arrays that focus the sun's energy on a receiver --a metal tube filled with oil that's encased in specialized glass. Sunlight heats the oil to 400 degrees C (about 750 degrees F). The oil gets transferred to a heat exchanger where it makes steam, which then cranks a turbine to produce electricity. If the heat can't be used right away, it gets transferred to vats of molten salt which retain the heat for later use.
. . Solar One will be the third largest solar thermal plant in the world with a 64 megawatt capacity. Potentially, the site could crank out 2,000 megawatts. The U.S. Southwest could ultimately produce 4,000 to 40,000 megawatts of solar thermal power, he speculated, enough for 1 million to 10 million consumers. In California's Mojave Desert, already home to 354 megawatts of solar thermal facilities, Stirling Energy Systems in conjunction with utility company Southern California Edison is erecting a 500 megawatt plant to open in 2009. The construction tab for building Solar One will likely run about $250 million.
. . Solar thermal electricity will cost around 15 to 17 cents a kilowatt hour in the U.S. Residents of Las Vegas now pay around 7 cents a kilowatt hour. Solar thermal fans, however, say the technology represents the most economical way to harness the sun's power on a large scale. The solar plants will last for decades, so by 2030, solar thermal will be a better buy than coal-fired electricity, which is expected to go up in price.
. . In general, silicon PV panels convert 15 to 22 percent of the light that strikes them into electricity; mixing other materials into the panels can increase efficiency, but also adds cost. Solar thermal plants are more efficient, said Cohen, with efficiencies ranging from around 20 percent to 40 percent, according to studies, in part because it's easier to extract heat from sunlight than electrons. The molten salt vats also give solar thermal systems insurance against cloudy days, something that PV doesn't have. One hundred thousand square [cubic?] feet of molten salt holds enough heat to provide electricity for four hours.
. . The big drawback is that solar thermal plants can't be installed everywhere. They work best in warm, dry locations, unlike PV panels which even work well in Germany. Shadows from vapor trails and planes can curb their production. And dust is a major problem. To keep it off, a cart festooned with moist brushes that look like they came from a car wash hoses off the mirrors.
. . Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla recently said during a panel discussion that a thermal plant occupying three percent of Morocco's land could provide Western Europe with all of its power. Maybe so, said other panelists, but that would also make it a potential target for terrorists, or even a political tool.
Mar 21, 07: The latest SolCool unit has an energy efficiency rating (EER) of 30, according to SolCool. (That ratio is calculated by dividing the cooling output by watt hours). Room air conditioners of similar cooling output with an EER of only 9.7 meet the federal Energy Star rating standard by the U.S. Department of Energy.
. . At 18,000 BTUs, the devices are not large enough to cool a very large house, but work well for a couple of rooms or to supplement another system. He estimated the previous version used one-fourth the electricity of other air conditioning units.
. . Needing only 500 watts, SolCool's unit could run on five or six midsize panels, which would cost a fraction of a solar system sized for a full building. SolCool has optimized the air conditioner to run on the direct current generated by the solar panels or batteries, rather than the alternating current that comes from electrical plugs. Building the product for direct current has allowed the company to build a very energy-efficient product.
. . The SolCool includes a sealed, two-gallon water tank that stores cooled water, which the air conditioner draws cooling from during a power outage. The price of the units will be between $2,600 and $3,000 before installation, which could run another $500.
Mar 19, 07: Gordon Brown is expected to raise taxes substantially on larger-engined cars in today's Budget. Some reports suggest that road tax on the least fuel-efficient cars will double to about £400 a year.
. . The Budget's green measures may fall short of those demanded by environmental lobbyists, some of whom have called for road tax to be raised to more than £1,000 for the worst polluting vehicles. Friends of the Earth called for substantial measures to tackle climate change if Mr Brown was to leave a "green legacy as chancellor".
. . Cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases can mute the worst impacts of global warming, such as water shortages for billions of people or extinction of almost half of Amazonian tree species, a draft U.N. report shows.
. . The report, due for release on April 6, foresees ever worsening damage to the planet as temperatures gain, including rising seas that could swamp low-lying Pacific island states or declining crop yields that could mean hunger for millions. "The longer we go without action (to curb greenhouse gases) the more likely it is that some of the big feedbacks will kick in."
. . In the scenarios, the biggest temperature gain comes if the world stays dependent on fossil fuels, with 70% of energy in 2100 from sources such as coal and gas, and sharply raises greenhouse gas emissions.
. . The scenario with the smallest temperature gain, below about 3 C, assumes that CO2 emissions will dip by 2100 by when the world will get about half its energy from renewable sources.
. . A temperature rise above about 3C could mean a sharp expansion in water shortages, for 1.1 to 3.2 billion people. At about that level, potential crop yields would also start to fall in all parts of the world after briefly benefiting farmers in some regions away from the tropics. And above about a 4 Celsius gain, one scenario sees a potential extinction of about 45% of Amazonian tree species.
Mar 19, 07: Stoller's company, TransLoad America, ships municipal solid waste by rail.
It will take a bite out of the US' $45 billion solid waste management business in an environmentally responsible way. TransLoad's equipment compresses tons of garbage into dense cylindrical bales and seals them hermetically in several layers of plastic film. The company intends to load those bales into boxcars, and ship them to its landfills.
. . Compressing the garbage at a rate of 1,400 to 1,600 pounds per cubic yard prevents liquid from pooling in the bales, which in turn prevents putrefaction and foul odors. Sealing the waste in impermeable plastic prevents the escape of groundwater-polluting leachate associated with standard landfill storage. And shipping by rail eliminates the need for greenhouse gas-emitting trucks.
. . One large semitrailer --the kind traditionally used to transport loose trash-- carries approximately 22 tons of garbage. But a single boxcar can carry 100 tons. So every rail car full of neatly wrapped bales takes four or five exhaust-belching big rigs off the road. And it only takes a pound or so of plastic to encase several tons of trash. Garbage has traditionally been shipped by truck. But as fuel costs rise and landfills are located farther away from the municipalities they serve, shipping waste by rail is becoming an increasingly attractive option.
. . A variety of conversion technologies, including ones that use landfill gas to generate electricity, are being explored by garbologists in Europe and the US. Thompson notes that several bioreactors are already in operation across the country. And a company called Geoplasma plans to build a facility in St. Lucie County, Florida, that will use plasma arc technology to convert waste into gas that can be used to generate electricity. Stoller looks forward to the day when TransLoad's bale-stuffed landfills will function as enormous trash-powered fuel cells.
Mar 18, 07: Mammoth Mountain urges its visitors to park their cars and take advantage of an extensive bus network. The Vail resorts, including nearby Heavenly at Lake Tahoe, run their lifts with wind power. In Colorado, the Sunshine Express high-speed quad at Steamboat operates on sunlight.
. . The ski industry is going green to help offset the pollution that feeds global warming —a phenomenon that challenges the resorts' very existence with the threat of later snowfalls and earlier snow melts.
. . Fifty-five resorts in 14 states are buying renewable energy to offset part or all of their power needs, according to the National Ski Areas Association. Of these, 26 are operating 100% on green energy.
Mar 18, 07: Siemens has developed Ostar, an LED that despite its 1 square millimeter size, can put out 1,000 lumens of angelic light. Siemens explains the significance: A 60-watt light bulb emits 730 lm, while a 50-watt halogen lamp has an output of approximately 900 lm.
So LEDs are bright enough to light our houses and last 10 times longer than even halogen technology. We're ready to upgrade. If only we had a price or release date.
. . Siemens made a comparison “A 60-watt light bulb emits 730 lm, while a 50-watt halogen lamp has an output of approximately 900 lm." So it delivers enough brightness to light a room, but with impressive energy savings. For example, the Ostar Lighting LED produces 75 lumens for each watt it consumes. Comparing this with the 730 lm emitted by a 60 watt light bulb, we get around 1/6 the electricity consumed for the same amount of light. Also, such an LED lasts 50 times longer than an incandescent bulb and 10 times longer than halogen products.
. . However, there is a downside [yet]. They usually are way more expensive than the two usual products in our homes. It is true that we yet know nothing on the pricing for the Siemens LED, and there is not even an estimated launch date, but these high efficiency solutions will have huge impacts on power consumption.
Mar 16, 07: John Kessels of Eindhoven U in the Netherlands developed a software tweak that reduced fuel consumption by 2.6% when tested on a Ford Mondeo with a 2-liter gas engine and a five-speed manual transmission ("a normal car for the EU", Kessels said).
. . That doesn't sound like much, but company bosses say such modifications are possible without passing a high cost to customers and without sacrificing performance. It's a small step that can add up over time, kind of like switching to diet soda.
. . The algorithm improves fuel efficiency by monitoring the vehicle's fuel map and other data to strategically switch the generator off and on, thereby using less energy to charge the battery. Standard internal combustion engines use the generator continuously.
. . "Microhybrid" systems: Unlike a traditional alternator that continually leaches power from the engine to top off a car's battery, this system disengages during acceleration. It engages during deceleration to reclaim energy from the spooled-up engine. A major component of the system is a special type of high-capacity battery that can power the car's hungriest electronic peripherals, like the air-conditioning compressor and power steering.
. . Idle-start (or stop-start) technology automatically switches off the vehicle's engine as soon as the car comes to a stop, then restarts the engine when the clutch or accelerator pedal is depressed, using software to link sensors and other components. Kessels estimated that adding idle-start technology alongside his algorithmic fix could increase fuel savings by another 5% to 6%.
. . "Delivery vehicles spend up to 60% of their time idling", Wagener said. "Whenever a microhybrid vehicle stops at a light or a loading zone, the internal combustion engine is shut down. When the driver is ready, it starts up again within milliseconds. Idle-stop can be done for every piston-engine car in the world to good effect." The restart time has to be faster than the driver's reflexes -- we're talking 200 milliseconds maximum. Your starter today won't do that."
Mar 16, 07: Researchers at the U of New Brunswick have developed a method for converting hydrogen gas into a solid that can easily be converted back into a fuel on demand. The scientists are working with HSM Systems to incorporate hydrogen into a powder that would be safer to store in a vehicle than liquid or gaseous hydrogen.
. . Hydrogen is combined with other materials to make it inert, but that reduces its energy efficiency since most of the volume and weight will be in the form of non-energy producing materials. The researchers say the first version will store 6% hydrogen by weight, and they hope to improve it to 9%, so vehicles would be carrying a lot of weight that would be a drag on fuel efficiency.
. . The dream of fuel cell cars and a hydrogen highway won't be realized until a safe way of storing hydrogen is developed that forever eliminates the inaccurate link to images of the Hindenburg. While research continues to be done on building stronger tanks for storing hydrogen under pressure, much of the attention has gone towards developing metals that can absorb and release hydrogen as needed. The most talked-about forms are metal hydrides or solid oxides, so this research is a new twist on the same idea.
Mar 16, 07: Jerry McNerney doesn't just tilt at windmills —-he builds them. An environmentalist and mathematician, McNerney spent 20 years developing wind-farm tech. And in the last election, he beat California representative Richard Pombo, a Republican who was for selling national parkland and against the Endangered Species Act.
. . What’s first on his agenda? "Doing away with subsidies to oil companies and reforming the oil royalty system. A lot of companies have been drilling without paying royalties, and that has to stop. It’s up to government to collect that money, a lot of which will go to developing renewable energy."
. . Your son persuaded you to run for Congress. What did he say? "He said no one was running against Pombo. That was it. I’d never had political ambitions, but I felt this guy was such an extreme anti-environmentalist that it was my duty."
Mar 15, 07: N.J. - Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together –-solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer-– provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days.
. . Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero –-he's off the power grid-– and his system creates no CO2 emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.
. . It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn't contribute to global warming. But does Strizki's method –-converting electricity generated from renewable sources into hydrogen-– make sense for widespread adoption?
. . According to some renewable-energy experts, the answer is "no", at least not anytime soon. The system is too expensive, they say, and the process of creating hydrogen from clean sources is itself laced with inefficiency –-the numbers just don't add up.
. . Strizki's response: "Nothing is as wildly expensive as destroying the whole planet."
Mar 15, 07: The coal industry faces a bleak future unless ways are developed on a commercial scale to capture and store CO2 in the campaign against global warming, according to a new study.
. . The report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says coal, which accounts for half of the country's electricity production, will remain the fuel of choice to produce electricity in the US because it is relatively cheap and abundant. But if CO2 limits are imposed to address climate change, that could change unless the government and industry develop a program to capture and store the tens of millions of tons of CO2.
. . A central message of the MIT report is that CO2 capture from coal burning is technically and economically possible, but that it has yet to be proven on the broad commercial scale that would be needed if limits on CO2 emissions are imposed.
. . The Democratic-controlled Congress is considering a number of proposals that would impose a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, primarily CO2, along with various provisions aimed at reducing the economic cost.
. . With CO2 capture programs, more coal would likely be used in 2050 than is used today, but global CO2 emissions would likely be only slightly more than today, the study said.
. . The report said its doubtful that either China or India will impose CO2 controls anytime soon, although both countries are rapidly expanding coal use in power and industrial plants. Neither China nor India are likely to take such actions without the US moving to curtain CO2 emissions first, the study said. Eventually, CO2 capture from coal burning will be crucial for both China and India if climate change is to be addressed.
. . And the US will have to take the lead, the study concluded. "If the coal industry wants to protect itself from a very bleak future ... they have a great interest in seeing CO2 sequestration practically demonstrated now", John Deutch, co-chairman of the MIT panel that wrote the coal report, said.
. . Deutch, a former CIA director under President Clinton and senior official in both the Defense and Energy departments, said the government is not moving fast enough to develop demonstration projects capable of capturing and depositing in deep geological formations as much as a million tons of CO2 a year.
. . The report said three or four such demonstrations projects should be developed as soon as possible. An experimental coal burning power plant called FutureGen built by 2012 capable of capturing and storing underground a million tons of CO2 a year.
. . But the MIT report said more is needed and that the Energy Department's budget for clean coal programs "falls far short of what is required" to ensure coal remains a primary fuel in a CO2-constrained world. The administration last month asked Congress for nearly $600 million for coal technology research for the next fiscal year, including $79 million for CO2 sequestration and $108 million for the next installment in FutureGen.
. . The report also urged that government tax breaks, loan guarantees and other assistance be directed only at new coal plants that include CO2 capture and sequestration and to programs aimed at retrofitting other plants with such technology.
[Ok, I'm mollified, if not coonvinced.] "What's the logic of burning corn rather than expending the energy to convert it to ethanol... so that the ethanol will ultimately get internally combusted? Corn-powered homes, in other words, might not be as crazy an idea as it may at first sound. "The fuel itself is less expensive than (home heating) oil", he said. "But it is more expensive to buy a corn or (wood)-pellet burning furnace." An oil furnace might set you back $2000-$2500, while a corn/pellet furnace runs in the $3500-$4000 range.
. . The kind of corn Pendray has examined could not be mistaken as scrapings from the Thanksgiving table. Rather, it's a dried field corn that otherwise might be sent to an ethanol plant. In 2005, for instance, generating the same unit of heat energy (one gigajoule) cost $13.76 for oil but only $6 for corn. If corn is particularly pricy one year, many corn-burning furnaces also burn wood-pellets (made from sawdust and other scraps from the lumber industry). One gigajoule of heat generated from pellets cost $8 in 2005.
. . The corn/pellet stove emits 75% less CO2 than its equivalent oil-fueled furnace. (On the other hand, he added, converting that corn to ethanol ends up producing about as much CO2 as the gasoline it would replace.)"
Mar 14, 07: Bats at risk of being killed by the growing number of wind farms could be saved with the use of radars. Deaths at wind farms are thought to exceed those of birds and it is feared some species could eventually become endangered if action is not taken.
. . Researchers at Aberdeen U studied the behavior of bats at radar installations and found they did not forage where electromagnetic radiation could be measured. This raises the possibility that radar could be used to deter bats from approaching wind turbines.
. . A student said when was driving to Aberdeen he would wedge his bat detector in the window of his car and listen out for bats. He noticed that every time he passed the airport radar he could never hear any. Prof Racey said: "We think the bats either feel the heat of the radiation or can actually hear it. Either way, they appear not to like it.
Mar 13, 07: "Google has gotten some hugs before, and now we're giving them a firm handshake and a green pat on the back for their private transit system of 32 biodiesel buses with leather seats, wireless internet and bicycle racks."
Mar 13, 07: Incredibly, the Bush administration wants to eliminate federal support for geothermal power just as many U.S. states are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise renewable power output. The move has angered scientists who say there is enough hot water underground to meet all U.S. electricity needs without greenhouse gas emissions. "In spite of its enormous potential, the geothermal option for the US has been largely ignored", a recent study led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.
. . Leland "Roy" Mink, who until last October was geothermal program director at the DOE, said he thinks the White House's waning interest in geothermal is a mistake. He said he left the DOE when he saw the Department was cutting funding.
. . This year, the DOE's $24.3 billion budget request includes a 38% federal spending increase for nuclear power, but nothing for geothermal. Advocates say they hope Congress can restore at least $25 million in funding to keep geothermal research on track. But U.S. geothermal development will need $300 million to $400 million over 15 years to make this type of power competitive versus other forms of power generation, the study said. The big hurdle for geothermal power is finding out where the hot water is and developing better ways to drill for it.
. . New geothermal power projects by 2050 could provide 100,000 megawatts of electricity --enough to power about 80 million U.S. homes, or as much as U.S. nuclear power plants make today, the MIT study said.
. . Recreational hot springs across the US are examples of where geothermal is easy to access. To be a viable power generator, hot water a mile or more underground has to be developed, said Gawell of the Geothermal Energy Association.
. . While its industry is largely undeveloped, the US is still the largest producer of geothermal electricity in the world. U.S. geothermal power generation in 2005 was 0.36% of national power generation and geothermal capacity is rated at 2,828 megawatts, with almost all in California.
Mar 13, 07: A new, more efficient method for manufacturing biofuels could generate enough fuel to supply the entire U.S. transportation sector while sharply reducing the amount of raw material required to make it, researchers said.
. . By recycling the CO2 wasted in current manufacturing methods, scientists at Purdue U in Indiana believe they could reduce the amount of plant and plant-derived material required to make biofuels. Such a method is still theoretical but once developed it could help address some of the recent backlash against grain-derived biofuels, which are blamed for raising the wholesale price of corn and ultimately boosting the cost of food.
. . In conventional methods of converting biomass to fuel, about two-thirds of the material is lost as CO2 released into the atmosphere. Agrawal and colleagues propose a system that would recycle that lost CO2 into usable fuel by forcing it to react with hydrogen, which suppresses the formation of CO2.
. . A recent U.S. Department of Energy study suggesting that using conventional methods, it would take 1.366 billion tons of biomass, or about the current annual supply, to make enough fuel to supply 30% of the U.S. transportation system.
. . Agrawal and colleagues believe that by boosting the efficiency of biofuel production through a hydrogen-carbon system, the US could use that same amount of biomaterial to supply the entire U.S. transportation system.
. . Agrawal said CO2 absorbed by grasses, grains, and such would balance out the CO2 released into the atmosphere from cars and trucks running on biofuel. "You take CO2 from the atmosphere and you release it to the atmosphere", he said. "The challenge, though, is to make cheap hydrogen from solar or nuclear sources."
Mar 12, 07: An EU official called on Germany to give up the famous freedom of its highways and impose speed limits on the autobahn to fight global warming — a demand that drew angry responses on Sunday in a country that cherishes what it calls "free driving for free citizens."
. . The call came as the German government makes action against climate change a priority. Still, the German environment minister showed little enthusiasm for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas' suggestion.
. . In most European countries, the highway speed limit is either 75 and 80 miles per hour. Britain, Latvia and Sweden have the strictest speed limit with 70 mph. Each 5 mph a car drives over 60 mph reduces fuel economy by 10%, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
. . Germans may be becoming receptive to the idea, however. Last month, a survey by the Forsa institute for Stern magazine found that 60% would favor autobahn speed limits to cut emissions, while 38% would oppose them.
Mar 9, 07: Vegas doesn't seem like a green city at first glance. The zillions of lights of the Strip blaze 24 hours a day, and there's a large Hummer dealership in town. The Las Vegas Valley Water District pays residents $2 for every square foot of grass they remove and then replace with desert landscaping.
. . In addition, a huge portion of the water from the sewage system in this city of nearly 2 million is treated and reused. Some goes to golf courses, while the stuff that goes through most layers of treatment gets returned for human consumption. The city gets 300,000 acre feet a year from Lake Mead, and it reclaims more than 200,000 acre feet.
. . Under one state law, utilities are required to get 15% of their power from renewable resources and 5% from solar by 2015. This explains the solar panels on the roof of the underground pumping stations sending water to the city. The panels provide electricity to run the pumps, which lift water 200 feet into the air so that it can cascade down to holding tanks and homes.
. . The water agency has already put solar panels on four of its pumping stations and will have a fifth completed soon. In all, it will put solar-power systems on six stations for a total of $22.6 million dollars. Solar will likely never fill all of the needs of the pumping stations. In January, the solar system at the Grand Canyon pumping station generated 38,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. Overall, said Mack, the plant consumed 114,000 kWh.
. . Meanwhile, Spain's Acciona Solar next month plans to begin pumping power out of Nevada Solar One, a 64-megawatt facility 40 miles outside of town. Potentially, the site, which is now 300 acres, could be built up to provide 2,000 megawatts of power.
Mar 9, 07: High feed costs, created by the explosive growth of the fuel ethanol industry, will lower U.S. beef and broiler chicken output this year by a quarter billion lbs from earlier forecasts, the U.S. government said.
Mar 9, 07: European Union leaders resolved to slash greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable fuels, challenging the world to follow its lead in fighting climate change.
. . German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the bloc's "ambitious and credible" decisions, including a binding target for renewable sources to make up a fifth of EU energy use by 2020, put it in the vanguard of the battle against global warming. "We can avoid what could well be a human calamity", she said after chairing a two-day summit, stressing the 27-nation EU had opened an area of cooperation unthinkable a couple of years ago.
. . EU leaders called for energy-saving lighting to be required in homes, offices and streets by the end of the decade.
. . Merkel scored a diplomatic victory by securing agreement to set a legally binding target for renewable fuels such as solar, wind and hydro-electric power --the most contentious issue. Leaders accepted the 20% target for renewable sources in return for flexibility on each country's contribution. The UN, which has coordinated global efforts to tackle climate change, applauded the plan.
. . Renewables now account for less than 7% of the EU energy mix and the bloc is falling short of its existing targets both for renewable energy and cutting CO2 emissions. Several EU states are fundamentally opposed to atomic power or, like Germany, in the process of phasing it out.
. . Less than 5% of the world's population consumes almost 25% of global oil production. While gas-guzzling vehicles draw the most criticism, homes and businesses consume even more energy --40% of the U.S. total in 2005 versus 28% for transportation.
. . The U.S. Green Building Council says structures built to its standards can cut energy usage 20 to 80% using available technologies such as compact fluorescent lighting and high-efficiency building shells and water heating.
. . Some states are more aggressive than the federal government. California has called for a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Ten northeastern states including New York have pledged to cut emissions from electricity generation to 10% below 1990 levels by 2019. "We want to drag the federal government into this. We're not going to wait", said Peter Smith, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
. . Tim Carey, president and chief executive of the New York Power Authority, said he would outlaw traditional, incandescent bulbs if he could. Australia plans to phase them out by 2009. "I outlawed them in my house and nobody seemed to mind", Carey said. "We certainly would have to invade a lot fewer countries in the Middle East."
. . In a pilot program, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority built 15,000 energy-efficient homes, which cost on average $7,000 more than a conventional home. That $7,000 investment paid for itself within four years through lower energy bills.
Mar 7, 07: Using plants to feed our fuel needs may be a great idea, and the biofuel goldrush could be a moneyspinner for several poor countries, but some experts warn people may go hungry as food prices rise.
. . Even though the biofuel boom is only just beginning, it has already pushed up the cost of staples in places like Mexico where rocketing tortilla prices have sparked angry protests.Tens of thousands took to the streets in January when the price of tortillas tripled to 15 pesos ($1.36) a kg. Since half of Mexico lives on $5 a day or less, that's no small jump. Some experts foresee a permanent change in food economics if farmers scent higher profit in fuel crops than in growing plants to feed people.
. . China now ranks in the global top four for biofuels output.
. . Also maintaining upward pressure on food prices are the twin needs of economic boomers China and India to be self-sufficient in fuel, but also in food. China's expanding middle classes want to eat more meat, which requires grain production for feed, in turn keeping food prices high.
. . While food prices are likely to be dampened by farmers increasing food crop production in the short term, the scope for switching is limited. Numerous scientists and economists say China and India do not have enough water to increase grain production, whether for animals or fuel. Bangladesh, Central America, Eritrea, Ethiopia and North Korea, for example --will probably be first to feel the pinch.
Mar 5, 07: Wave energy. Sean O'Neill, president of a Washington DC trade association called the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, says: "The total potential off the coast of US is 252 million megawatt hours a year. That's equal to about 6.5% of our total capacity in the US, equal to all the dams that we have in the US right now."
. . In the US, small wave energy projects --using different technologies from the one in Portugal-- are currently being tested off New Jersey and Hawaii, and another project is being planned for Oregon. But Europe is far out in front --The European Union has proposed a commitment to generate 20% of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020.
Mar 5, 07: The government awarded $385 million in grants last week aimed at jumpstarting ethanol production from nontraditional sources like wood chips, switchgrass and citrus peels. What's surprising is that half of the six projects chosen will use a process first discovered almost a century ago to turn coal into a gas.
. . A forecast from the Agriculture Department that half of this year's U.S. corn crop will be consumed by ethanol producers has raised red flags. Critics say surging demand for corn could push up prices of everything from corn-sweetened soft drinks to meats, since corn is a common feed ingredient for livestock.
. . That helps explain why the Energy Department is placing a big bet on a process called gasification. Long hailed as a more environmentally friendly way to turn coal into electricity, the process might also provide a faster and eventually cheaper way to produce ethanol from a variety of renewable sources collectively known as biomass, some scientists say.
. . Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman pegged the current cost of gasification as being about twice as much as the average $1.10 per gallon cost at corn-based ethanol plants. A gasifier turns plant material into a synthesis gas consisting mostly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The "syngas" then could be turned into a variety of fuels including ethanol, hydrogen and environmentally friendly versions of diesel or gasoline.
. . "These gasifiers are some high-tech stuff with high pressures and some more complexities", he said. "But they're probably more versatile at the end of the day to modify them as the demand and supplies change." The syngas would have to be cleaned and conditioned to remove contaminants, which is an expensive task. Energy officials say companies will have to bring down those costs if they're to compete in the market.
Mar 5, 07: The world's two top ethanol producers —-the U.S. and Brazil-— announced the creation of an international forum to help expand the global market for biofuels, just days before the two countries are expected to sign a separate agreement promoting ethanol across the Western Hemisphere.
. . The International Biofuel Forum will meet regularly for a year to draft global standards for biofuel production, find ways to open markets and encourage investment in countries with the potential to develop the industry.
. . Brazil is the world's biggest ethanol exporter, using sugar cane to produce it. Eight out of 10 Brazilian cars run on ethanol, which emits far less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels.
Feb 26, 07: Prime Minister John Howard, who banned incandescent light bulbs yesterday, making Australia the first country to take such direct action to stop global warming. In a move that environmentalists hope will spark a similar move in Britain, the government Down Under said the sale of all incandescent bulbs will be phased out by 2010.
. . After almost a decade as a pariah in the battle against global warming because of its refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol, Australia scored an environmental first yesterday by becoming the only large economy to ban the traditional incandescent lightbulb.
. . The enforced switch to new high-efficiency fluorescent bulbs will cut Australia's CO2 emissions by four million tons by 2012 and reduce domestic power bills by up to two-thirds, the Environment Minister, Bill Turnbull, claimed. Mr Turnbull, whose right-of-center government is a recent convert to action on global warming, said: "It's a little thing but it's a massive change. If the whole world switches to these bulbs today we would reduce our consumption of electricity by an amount equal to five times Australia's annual consumption of electricity."
. . The initiative follows a study by the International Energy Agency last year which found that a global switch to fluorescent bulbs would prevent 16 billion tons of CO2 being pumped into the world's atmosphere over the next 25 years.
. . Artificial light accounts for almost 20% of world's electricity consumption, significantly more than the output of all nuclear power stations in the world. Overall, lighting generates 1.9 billion tons of CO2 a year, about three-quarters of the amount produced by all cars on the planet.
. . California is also considering a similar move. But it is not first time a country has made an enforced switch to energy-efficient lighting: Cuba launched a similar scheme two years ago.
Feb 28, 07: According to a new government fuel-economy ratings, the Honda Civic Hybrid dropped from a city/highway mpg of 49/51 to 40/45 with a combined drop from 50 mpg to 42 mpg. The Toyota Prius dropped from a city/highway mpg of 60/51 to a current mpg of 48/45. That’s 20% drop in its city mpg and a 12% drop in its highway mpg. [NO! It's an improvement in the rating system. The cars' actual mileage hasn't changed.]
Feb 26, 07: One of the world's top scientists on global warming called for the US to stop building coal-fired power plants and eventually bulldoze older generators that don't capture and bury greenhouse gases. NASA scientist James Hansen, who has been one of the earliest top researchers to warn the world about global warming, will call for a moratorium on building new coal-fired power plants.
. . But 159 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to be built in the next decade or so, generating enough power for about 96 million homes, according to a study last month by the U.S. Department of Energy. Coal provides about half of the US' electricity, according to the Department of Energy.
. . Hansen's call dovetails with an edict by the private equity group buying TXU, a massive Texas-based utility. The equity group, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, agreed to stop plans to build eight new coal-fired power plants, not to propose new coal-fired plants outside Texas and to support mandatory national caps on emissions linked to global warming.
. . Hansen's presentation to the press club says all coal-fired power plants that do not capture and bury CO2 "must eventually be bulldozed (before mid-century)."
The world-wide energy consumption of lamps amounts to 19%. When using the Lemnis LED technology this could theoretically be reduced by 90%.
Feb 26, 07: Like other cows in the Midwestern landscape, the animals at the Mead Nebraska plant, part of an experimental scheme dubbed "Genesis", churn out a steady supply of energy-rich excrement each day.
. . But these 27,000 cattle stand on slatted floors to deposit an estimated 726,000 kg (1.6 million pounds) of dung daily into deep pits, which are located adjacent to a new ethanol plant. The pungent waste is then processed into methane gas, which powers the ethanol plant. Other byproducts of the manure include fertilizer for the surrounding corn fields. Corn is then fed back to the cattle or distilled into ethanol.
. . His plants are more cost-efficient than competitors. A traditional ethanol plant requires about 1 British thermal unit (btu) to make 2 to 2.5 btus of ethanol, while Genesis will use 1 btu to make 46.67 btus of ethanol.
. . The Mead facility gets its manure from 300 pits laid under nine cattle buildings, which each hold about 3,000 cattle. The pits are pumped regularly because the fresher the manure, the more gas can be produced.
. . The closed-loop system includes two four-million-gallon anaerobic digesters --special sealed containers-- that let bacteria break down the manure along with thin stillage, a by-product of the ethanol production process. Instead of natural gas, the biogas produced by the digesters powers the boilers in the ethanol plant.
. . The ethanol production process also yields another by-product: wet distiller's grain, which is fed to the cattle as part of their ration. The cattle in turn produce manure which again begins the closed-loop cycle.
Feb 23, 07: California's biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is considering a plan to charge fleets of battery-powered cars overnight with wind energy and let consumers sell back some of the stored electricity during the day.
. . In addition to reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from standard cars, the plan could help stoke production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and give power managers more energy capacity on the grid for hot summer afternoons, speakers said at a "clean technology" investment conference.
. . In California, wind power is the biggest renewable source, with more than 2,500 megawatts. Some 4,600 megawatts of wind are projected to be added to meet the state's goal for renewable supplies. Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy also is studying smart-grid technologies and recharging hybrid electric vehicles and feeding excess power back to the grid.
. . A six-month study in Colorado found that electric cars may reduce the overall cost of owning a car, and with new grid technology, cut harmful vehicle emissions by up to 50%. A power grid-to-car-batteries hookup, however, is probably at least five to six years away. Progress on lithium ion battery packs could help develop a bigger market for plug-in cars.
Feb 23, 07: Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell will try to pass a bill this year in which his state will spend $850 million to increase the use of alternative fuels and attract clean technology companies to the state.
. . The programs will run the gamut of government subsidies, he said Tuesday during a speech and a hallway conversation at the Cleantech Forum taking place here. The state will invest directly in start-ups (as New Mexico has done), invest in VC firms, provide grants and loans to start-ups, build industrial centers, and offer tax breaks. Consumers will also get subsides for putting solar panels on their roofs.
. . "Pennsylvania has 3 billion tons of coal waste and 27 billion tons of coal in the ground", he said. A lot of those empty mines and oil fields could conceivably be used to one day sequester CO2 under ground. The U.S. overall has 28% of the worldwide supply of coal.
. . CoalTek, one of the more notable clean coal start-ups, has come up with a way to remove water out of coal prior to burning it. The process makes coal more energy-intensive, pound-for-pound, compared to regular coal.
. . 52% of all the electricity from U.S. plants comes from coal-fired plants. If every American swapped just one regular bulb for a CFL, it would collectively save more than $8 billion in energy costs, prevent the burning of 30 billion pounds of coal and keep 2 million cars' worth of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere.
Feb 23, 07: EcoRock, an ecologically safer form of drywall, comes from Serious Materials. Conventional drywall is made up of gypsum, and making it requires a lot of heating and mixing stages. "Drywall is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases among building materials. It's behind cement and steel." 200 million tons of CO2 gets injected in the atmosphere a year through drywall production.
. . In the U.S., 50 billion square feet of drywall get produced every year. California and a few other states have also put curbs on opening new gypsum processing facilities. EcoRock is much simpler to manufacture. When the materials used to make EcoRock get mixed together, the chemical reaction takes place on its own.
. . EcoRock actually costs less to make than regular drywall, but the raw materials cost more. In the end, a 4x10-foot sheet of EcoRock drywall might sell for around $20, while standard drywall can range in price from $20 down to $10. The price on EcoRock, however, will decline with mass production, while traditional drywall will likely go up with increases in fuel price.
. . EcoRock is scheduled to come out in the first quarter of 2008. The company is currently trying to raise $30 million. Serious is actually already profitable. It sells QuietRock, a sound-dampening line of sheetrock. The company has shipped 20 million square feet of the stuff.
Mar 10, 06: China currently uses more than four times as much energy to generate a unit of output than the average Group of Seven developed country. A net exporter of oil until 1992, China now imports more than 40% of its needs. Acid rain falls in more than a third of the country and air pollution is linked to some 400,000 deaths a year.
Feb 22, 07: A heat spreader is any device that improves the distribution of heat. Novel Concepts' new IsoSkin is what's known as a thin planar superconducting heat spreader. The material is indeed thin. At 500 microns, these IsoSkin spreaders could eventually be used to replace the outer "skin" of portable electronics, thereby eliminating the need for heat sinks and fans, according to Novel Concepts. The material dissipates heat 20 times more effectively than copper
. . At its core, IsoSkin heat spreader technology uses what's known as a planar capillary. This planar capillary provides the necessary amount of liquid (usually water) to handle power densities of up to hundreds of watts per square centimeter
. . In a vacuum, when the vapor leaves, it moves at sonic velocity because there's nothing to get in its way." So [with IsoSkin] vapor moves at speed of sound to any window, or in this case, the holes in the sheets. "It would be condensing on those windows instantaneously", Thomas said, "looking for the coldest spot instantaneously." "We take advantage of water boiling inside a thin film in a vacuum.
. . Developed for large scale processing, IsoSkin heat spreaders could be manufactured for pennies per square centimeter. IsoSkin is currently being sampled and tested by various microprocessor and electronics companies.
Feb 22, 07: The head of the Catholic church in Germany called on his compatriots today to give up their beloved cars for Lent to make a personal contribution to preventing climate change. Cardinal Karl Lehmann said that the period of 40 days before Easter "requires us to rethink our lifestyle."
. . Germany --home to luxury car makes BMW, Mercedes and Porsche-- this week announced plans to tax vehicles not by engine size, but according to how much CO2 (CO2) and other dangerous emissions they produce.
. . A UN report said this month that global warming was almost certainly caused by humans, and carbon pollution disgorged this century would disrupt the climate system for a thousand years to come.
Feb 22, 07: In just a few months, the EPA will release its first revision to the specification –-version 4.0-– for PCs and other computing devices in more than 15 years.
. . According to the EPA, the Energy Star program alone delivered energy and cost savings equivalent to about $12 billion dollars in 2005 for businesses, organizations, and consumers. That, in turn, has led toward more energy efficient innovations such as LED traffic lights, fluorescent lighting, and power management systems for office equipment. Companies like Transmeta, Intel's Centrino program, and AMD's Cool 'N' Quiet, have also lowered the power consumption of PCs.
. . "What's interesting about the current spec is that pretty much everything meets it. We needed to make this mean something, so the EPA decided to up the standard." Under the new set of specifications –-revised last October, and going into effect on July 20–- energy-efficient PCs, notebooks, workstations, and game consoles will all have to meet new power supply efficiency and "idle power" consumption requirements.
. . Eventually, there will be two tiers of compliance, according to the EPA. Tier 1 requirements, which are designed to distinguish the top 25% of all PCs as measured by energy consumption, will require that they use a power supply that converts at least 80% of incoming electricity for actual use by the PC.
. . The tier-1 specification also includes requirements for when a system is in idle mode, or fully on, but not running any applications. For example, to qualify for the program, a basic desktop PC must consume 50 watts or less when in idle mode
. . On July 1, 2009, Energy Star will also implement a tier-2 specification for PCs that will outline additional standards for computers outside the top tier. The EPA is also currently working on a specification one of the biggest consumers of electricity in today's homes, the flat-screen television.
Feb 19, 07: Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Limited (GGWOL), a joint venture between Irish wind giant Airtricity and Texas-based Fortune 500 company Fluor, received planning permission from the British government for the construction of a 500 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm to be located in the Outer Thames Estuary. It follows on the heels of two consents granted in December for the 341-turbine London Array project and 100-turbine Thanet project.
. . There are currently five offshore wind farms operational in the UK: Scroby Sands, Kentish Flats, North Hoyle, Barrow and Blyth. Ten have received consent (includes the London Array and Thanet in the Thames Estuary) and eight are in the planning stage.
. . According to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), the Greater Gabbard projects brings the UK's consented offshore portfolio to 2,484 MW --with an additional 303 MW already operating and 294 MW under construction.
. . Turbines are getting larger. Those with 2.5-MW capacities are being deployed with increased frequency today. At a recent AWEA event, Jim Lyons, chief engineer at GE Global Research Center, said that 5-MW turbines are not too many years away. Turbines with capacities of 5 MW, he said, can be deployed in such areas as the Great Plains.
As current targets for biofuels have been pushed to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 and 35 in 2017, using corn ethanol alone would require to convert the combined size of Kansas and Iowa into farmland. But researchers have studied other solutions. And the best one could be to use cellulosic ethanol as the fuel of the future. The main advantage of using a wild grass named miscanthus is that you can produce ethanol from the whole plant body as opposed to corn where you can only use the grains. The other one is that you would need to grow this plant only on an area of the size of Massachusetts —-an area 18 times smaller.
. . It uses less water per gram of biomass produced than other plants", he said. "For example, to make a pound of alfalfa or spinach requires about 600 pounds of water, while to grow a pound of Miscanthus requires only about 200 pounds of water.
Feb 20, 07: Fuel prices are on the way up again, and The Detroit News predicts we'll see $3 a gallon this summer.
Feb 20, 07: Scottish ministers have announced funding for what has been described as the world's biggest wave energy farm. The Pelamis device has been tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) on Orkney by Leith-based company Ocean Power Delivery. Scottish Power wants to commission four more at the same site. Ocean Power Delivery has already exported the Pelamis for use in a commercial wave farm.
. . The large, tubular segments were taken to a site off the northern coast of Portugal last year for a project which aimed to generate enough power for 1,500 households.
. . Now, Scottish Power is planning a venture which it believes could create enough power for 2,000 homes. "Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe's marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets."
. . Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive, Duncan McLaren, said: "Wave and tidal power could supply a fifth of UK's electricity needs and Scotland is ideally placed to generate significant amounts of this pollution-free energy.
Feb 20, 07: The Australian government announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country. Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66%, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Australia produced almost 565 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2004, official figures show. Under the Australian plan, bulbs that do not comply with energy efficiency targets would be gradually banned from sale. Exemptions may apply for special needs such as medical lighting and oven lights.
. . Cuba's Fidel Castro launched a similar program two years ago, sending youth brigades into homes and switching out regular bulbs for energy-saving ones to help battle electrical blackouts around the island. The idea was later embraced by Castro's friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who announced his own program to save energy and in recent months has given away millions of bulbs in neighborhoods nationwide.
. . "It is a good, positive step. But it is a very small step. It needs to be followed through with a lot of different measures", Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Josh Meadows.
. . Howard has become a global warming convert, conceding in recent months for the first time that human activity is having an effect on rising temperatures. But he has steadfastly refused to bring Australia into line with most of the world and ratify the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas reductions, arguing that doing so could damage Australia's coal-dependent economy.
Feb 16, 06: It's no secret that the servers behind every Web 2.0 company, bank Internet site and corporate e-mail system are consuming ever larger amounts of power. But now a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study to be released Thursday has quantified exactly how much.
. . Servers in the US and their attendant cooling systems consumed 45 billion kilowatt-hours of energy in 2005. That's more than Mississippi and 19 other states!
. . The study also estimated the world's server power consumption in 2005 at 123 billion kilowatt-hours. The server power consumption accounted for 1.2% of total U.S. power consumption and 0.8% of worldwide power consumption, Koomey said. Based on the number of servers IDC forecasts to ship, the world's server power consumption will increase another 40% over 2005 levels by 2010.
. . The study included supporting infrastructure such as data center air-conditioning and lighting, but not other computing equipment such as storage arrays or network switches, Koomey said. That other equipment in total consumes about a third that of servers, he said.
Jan 20, 07: Cyberlux, which specializes in light-emitting diodes, plans to reveal in about four months, prototypes of a new style of white-light LEDs that would both cost substantially less to manufacture and provide more light than conventional LEDs.
. . Combined, the two advantages would enable light fixtures based on LEDs, which are now relatively expensive, to better compete with traditional lamps based on conventional glass bulbs and fluorescent lights.
. . In conventional white-light LEDs, a semiconductor emits blue light. The blue light passes through the phosphor and becomes white light. The phosphor is thin film on a substrate; the substrate has to be placed in intricate proximity to the semiconductor. Positioning the phosphor is one of the more expensive steps in creating an LED.
. . In the coming prototype, the conventional phosphor is replaced with a sheet of polymer, which sort of applies itself to the LED, almost like a layer of shrink wrap. The switch to a polymer does mean that other aspects of the LED must be changed. LEDs emit heat, which can melt plastic. Thus, the LEDs with polymer phosphors will have to be larger than conventional ones so the heat is dissipated over a wider range. Cyberlux's LEDs, however, will last 25,000 to 75,000 hours --fewer than many LEDs can live but more than conventional bulbs can.
. . Meanwhile, the prototype will have a greater efficiency than conventional LEDs because more photons will get through the phosphor and emerge as white light. Currently, many photons bounce off the phosphor because they hit it at weird angles. The scattered photon extraction technology from Rensselaer boosts the output of photons.
. . Approximately 22% of the electricity consumed in the US goes toward lighting. Traditional lightbulbs are incredibly inefficient. Only about 5% of the energy that goes into them turns into light. The majority gets dissipated as heat. Fluorescent bulbs are much more efficient but aren't as prevalent, particularly inside homes. LED advocates say their devices will beat fluorescent bulbs.
. . In a speech last year, DenBaars said that if 25% of the lightbulbs in the US were converted to LEDs putting out 150 lumens per watt (higher than the current commercial standard), the country as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs, cumulatively, by 2025. That would alleviate the need to build 133 new coal-burning power stations, he said. In turn, carbon emissions in the atmosphere would go down by 258 million metric tons.
Raleigh, N.C. is banking on tech. They are going to replace every single public light with brand spankin' new LED's. While it will cost a lot more to purchase LED's, the increased price-tag should be negated by a decreased energy & maintenence bill.
Feb 15, 07: A High Court judge has ordered a rethink of the UK government's nuclear power plans, after a legal challenge by environmental campaigners Greenpeace. A judge ruled that the consultation process before making the decision last year had been "misleading", "seriously flawed" and "procedurally unfair".
Feb 15, 07: The Prius successor is called the Hybrid X, and it's said to have ideas that are so new they'll require a "new design language" to describe them.
Feb 14, 07: A parking garage in Raleigh, N.C. was retrofitted with LED lights. LEDs, the city and manufacturer Cree say, provide better light as well as cutting energy consumption and maintenance. The city now wants to put LEDs in its six other municipal garages and in other public places. The latest LED from Cree can put out 160 lumens per watt.
We've seen our fair share of LED bulbs by now, but they've tended to come up a little short on the light output... until now. This 9W bulb claims to replace a 70W incandescent bulb, and there's a frosted version, too, that cranks out 594 lumens (that's a lot, or a lot more than before, at least). The only caveat: each bulb costs between $60-$70 each.
. . This bulb, however, outputs 308 lumens using 150 warm white LEDs, and is rated at 9 Watts. It is said to be a replacement for a regular 70 Watt incandescent bulb. There's also a frosted version available that outputs about 594 lumens.
Other-worldly cold cathode fluorescent light bulbs are in some ways even better than CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs, because they're easily dimmable and operate at room temperature. They have extremely long life, are wet-rated for outdoor use and can be used as blinking lights in tacky store displays, too. Plus, they save lots of energy because of their lower wattage and nonexistent heat output.
. . Smart, but the only problem with them so far is that they're not too bright. This cold cathode fluorescent (CCF) technology is excellent for computer case mods and backlights for flat-panel displays, but barely bright enough to use as lamps. For instance, a 5-watt lamp, one of the brightest ones available, can only put out the equivalent of a 20- to 25-watt incandescent bulb. But this nascent technology is destined to improve in short order.
. . "Cold Cathode" bulbs are the new kid of the world of efficient lighting. Until recently, cold cathodes lights were only available for recess lighting and niche applications. But what is a cold cathode? In most fluorescent bulbs, a cathode is heated to produce light, but with cold cathodes, the cathode operates at the ambient room temperature. The bulbs offer several advantages: they have a very long lamp life, they're dimmable, and they can used in situations where the bulb is turned off and on frequently (even in flashing signs). The non-profit Energy Federation Incorporated, offers cold cathode bulbs that are rated at 5 watts, making them suitable replacement for 20-25 watt incandescent bulbs. They are "wet rated", meaning they can be exposed to the elements, and they are able to be used on a dimming circuit. Bulbman also sells a range of cold cathodes.
. . Cold cathode technology is relatively new in screwbase lighting, offering exceptional lamp life. TCP 5w Cold Cathode A-Lamp 8A05F US$12.95
http://www.energyfederation.org/consumer/default.php/cPath/2050_2150_1055
. . Neon lamps are a very common example of a cold cathode lamp. If sufficient voltage is present, electrons can still be stripped even out of a cathode operating at ambient temperature. Instant start fluorescent lamps start as cold-cathode devices but soon localized heating of the fine tungsten wire cathodes causes them to operate as ordinary hot cathode lamps.
. . http://www.bulbman.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4595_4596_4597
. . $19.69 --Qty 12+ $15.61
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=refrig.calculator
ZDnet: A PC uses 200 to 400 watts, depending on its configuration and use. By comparison, a refrigerator uses about 725-110 watts, but a DVD player uses only 25 watts, and your TV is right around 100 watts [plasmas go past 300 watts!!]. A high-performance gaming rig with a powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, a flash memory reader, and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts! Leave such a beast running constantly and you might see an extra $40 to $50 on your monthly electrical bill.
. . The typical computer these days contains significant amounts of lead, which is used in soldering motherboards, processors, and other parts. Since the average lifespan of a PC is just three years —according to the EPA— the toxic effects of disposal are quite high.
. . The 80 Plus program (www.80plus.org) is a voluntary certification system for power-supply manufacturers. The term "80 Plus" is a little complicated, so bear with me for a moment. If a PSU meets the certification, it will use only the power it needs at a given load: In other words, it won't use more power than it needs. For example, if your PC requires only 20% of the total power of a 500-watt PSU, the system will consume no more than 100 watts. Only when the PC requires full power will the PSU run at the full wattage load.
. . An 80 Plus power supply can save about 85 kilowatt-hours per PC, per year.
A single-platter drive uses less energy than a two-platter drive would. And second, SATA uses slightly less energy than IDE. Next year, both Samsung and Seagate will introduce new drives with more power-saving features, cycling down faster when not in use. They'll be more energy-efficient, too. If you've got the money, upgrade your green PC with a better drive once they are released.
. . The real culprit in killing trees and causing hazardous waste is the old-school CRT, which can use more than 100 watts by itself. Many contain a lot of lead as well. You can "go green" quickly just by replacing your CRT with a 19-inch LCD, which uses about half as much power and is lead-free.
. . Total: 168 watts ...Note: The watts listed are the highest for normal operation when the component is active. [Jon's PC has an AMD Geode CPU that takes 14 watts! & Linux.]
Feb 12, 07: Although the price of electricity and gasoline vary widely by state, EPRI --Electric Power Research Institute-- says on average electric power is the equivalent of 75 cents a gallon gasoline, or between one-third and one-quarter of the cost of gas. Plug-in hybrid owners who drive 40 miles a day or more would save at least $900 a year.
. . Running on battery power reduces CO2 emissions by 23% and volatile organic compounds by 92%, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or PNNL.
. . Plug-in hybrids would save hundreds of gallons of petroleum per vehicle each year, according to PNL. If 84% of the light-duty vehicle fleet were plug-in hybrids (the theoretical maximum that the electric grid could support), the United States could eliminate 61% of foreign oil imports.
. . They would likely find an instant market with municipal fleets across the country. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed the technology, and many cities have joined with utilities in the Plug-In Partners (.pdf) consortium to promote their adoption.
. . Honda and Toyota are also considering production plug-in hybrids. In 2007, GM will introduce its first two hybrid sedans, the Saturn Aura Green Line and Chevrolet Malibu, eight years after the first hybrid sedans were sold in the US.
Feb 12, 07: Intel developed a programmable processor that can perform about a trillion calculations per second, or deliver a performance of 1.01 teraflops. It accomplishes this feat while consuming 62 watts when the chip is running at a frequency of 3.16 gigahertz.
. . A similarly powerful supercomputer in 1996 at Sandia National Laboratories took up more than 2,000 square feet, used nearly 10,000 Pentium Pro processors, and consumed more than 500 kilowatts.
. . Intel's latest chip is still in the research phase, but it marks an important breakthrough. Building the chip would be a manufacturing marvel, and it's unclear whether there's an operating system intelligent enough to control it.
. . Technology experts praised Intel for devising a clever way to get 80 core calculating engines onto a single slice of silicon. The cores used on the research chip are much smaller and simpler than those used in Intel's latest line of chips, which have two or four cores. The research chip has 100 million transistors on it, about one-third the number on Intel's current line of chips.
Feb 9, 07: China's economy today is ten times larger than it was in 1978, and continues to grow at 10% per year. By contrast, since 1980, roughly the beginning of economic reform in China, up until 2005 yearend, the economy of Latin America as a whole grew 10%; not per year, but cumulatively. And in comparison with 28 years of 9-10% annual growth in China, the growth of India's economy has accelerated to only 6%, and only since 1991. The result is that the Chinese economy is now three times that of India, and the gap is growing.
Feb 9, 07: Arizona: Three models of small hybrid cars will be permitted to use car pool lanes on area freeways under an experiment that also will ban some alternative-fuel vehicles that can now use the special lanes.
. . The federally authorized pilot project was announced by Gov. Janet Napolitano's office. It will permit the Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius to use the 116km of high-occupancy vehicle lanes if owners get required new plates and special permits.
. . While hybrids are in, bi-fuel vehicles are out, under the program. Critics have said that many of these vehicles in Arizona --particularly large utility vehicles and large pickup trucks-- were converted to be able to use an alternative fuel only so the purchasers could qualify for tax breaks.
Feb 8, 07: Last month, California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine announced he would propose a bill to ban the use of incandescent bulbs in his state. And today, New Jersey Assemblyman introduced a bill that calls for the state to switch to fluorescent lighting in government buildings over the next three years.
. . Many states encourage their residents to replace their incandescent bulbs through a federal program supported by the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Feb 8, 07: The UK is about to become only the seventh nation in the world to have more than two gigawatts (GW) of operational wind power capacity. The milestone will be passed on Friday.
. . The government has set a target for 10% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2010. The UK is still a long way behind the world's leading nation on wind power. Germany has more than 20GW of wind energy capacity, 10 times as much as the UK.
Feb 8, 07: Come July, a new voluntary specification will go into effect for energy-efficient PCs and game consoles that includes new recommendations for power supply efficiency and idle power consumption. And later this year, a similar specification update is planned for flat-screen televisions, targeting the increasing popularity of energy-hogging TVs.
. . The new specifications for PCs are designed to distinguish the top 25% of all PCs as measured by energy consumption. To be Energy Star-compliant, PCs must now use a power supply that converts 80% of incoming electricity for use by the PC, Horowitz said. A mainstream power supply these days is about 70% efficient.
. . Idle mode is defined as a system that has booted and is fully awake, but isn't running any applications. For example, to qualify for the program, a basic desktop PC must consume less than 50 watts in idle mode. PCs with multicore processors and powerful graphics processors get more leeway. A basic notebook has to consume less than 14 watts of power, while a notebook with a graphics chip has to consume less than 22 watts of power.
Feb 7, 07: Australia would not end its biggest single export, coal, as part of the government's strategy to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister John Howard said.
. . Scientist and author Tim Flannery, who last month was chosen as Australian of the Year for his contribution to public understanding of the environment, said late Wednesday that Australia could no longer justify being the world's largest coal exporter given the dire consequences of global warming. "We've seen it with asbestos; we'll see it with coal", he added.
. . But Howard ruled out cutting coal exports, arguing that Australia's response to climate change must protect jobs in the coal industry. "We are the largest coal exporter in the world."
. . Global warming is likely to be a major issue at elections due this year with most cities facing drinking water shortages because of the worst drought in a century which is dampening economic growth by slashing farm produce.
. . The government has proposed introducing nuclear power to reduce Australia's dependence on coal —-an option Labor rejects.
Feb 7, 07: Injecting CO2 emissions from electric power plants into deep underground aquifers may be a suitable long-term disposal method for the greenhouse gas, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.
. . A new analysis lead by an MIT scientist showed carbon injected into deep saline aquifers can be trapped as tiny bubbles where it will remain for centuries. A large portion --maybe all-- of the CO2 will be trapped in small blobs in the briny aquifer." One of the biggest risks of a sequestration has been the possibility that carbon would rise to escape into the atmosphere over time.
. . Researchers have studied the sequestration of CO2 in three geologic formations: depleted oil and gas fields, unminable coal seams and deep saline aquifers. The new study looked at what happens when carbon is injected into saline aquifers.
. . Over time, the CO2 will dissolve, leaving a small amount that will adhere to the rock in the form of iron and magnesium carbonates, the report said.
Feb 7, 07: The European Commission has proposed forcing carmakers to increase the fuel efficiency of new cars by 18%, by 2012. It says it is planning legislation to ensure the average car emits no more than 130g of CO2 per kilometer, compared with 162g/km in 2005. Legislation is likely to be drafted later this year, or early in 2008. It will then need to be approved by member states and the European Parliament.
Feb 6, 07: The Bush administration has submitted draft legislation to Congress that would give regulators authority to raise automobile fuel economy standards. The proposal submitted to the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee is a cornerstone of White House efforts to reduce U.S. oil consumption.
. . Bush said last month he wants to reduce fuel consumption by 20% over a decade, or 4% annually beginning in 2009. However, the new plan drafted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not include an annual mileage target. Currently, passenger cars must average 27.5 mpg under the federal government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard.
Modern cars can reduce fuel consumption by more than 2.5% just by adding a piece of software to the engine computer, a Dutch scientist found. Kessels's software dynamically switches the dynamo, which charges the car battery, on and off. [I thot of this many years ago...] The software is not proprietary and can be used in any car with an engine computer, he said. In general, this applies to most modern cars.
. . A more significant fuel saving of 5 to 6% can be achieved if the car engine were to be switched on and off, but this would require adjustments to the car engine, he said.
Feb 5, 07: Algae, a natural oil-producer, offers multiple paths to biofuel. Varieties that produce high levels of oil can be processed into biocrude and refined into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel; those with more carbohydrates can be processed and fermented to make ethanol.
. . Because it can be grown on land that's useless for other crops, using water unsuitable for agriculture, algae doesn't conflict with food production, and oil-per-acre yields can be much higher than food crops like soybeans. New genomic and proteomic technologies also offer the hope of tweaking the genes that increase oil output to make algal fuels economical.
. . GreenFuel is developing systems that use algae bioreactor technology to convert CO2 from smokestack flue gases to clean, renewable biofuels, such as biodiesel, ethanol or methane, while also reducing NOx. The premise is that reusing CO2 in renewable fuels instead of emitting it directly from factory and power plant smokestacks will decrease total emissions — economically and without retooling. Their tests reportedly show CO2 capture rates of about 80% during daylight hours.
. . As Kathe Andrews-Cramer, technical lead researcher for biofuels and bioenergy at Sandia, told MIT Technology News: "We could replace certainly all of our diesel fuel with algal-derived oils, and possibly replace a lot more than that."
Feb 2, 07: A race is on to build the world’s biggest solar power plant, near the southern end of the Iberian peninsula. Three different projects, each with the backing of big companies, have recently been announced in Spain and Portugal, each of which will generate enough electricity to power thousands of homes. Endesa is building a 20MW plant near Cadiz for €140m; GE Energy Financial Services is working on a plant about 200km southeast of Lisbon for $75m, which is smaller at 11MW of generating capacity but may be built first; and BP has teamed with Santander Central Hispano in a €160m deal to construct up to 278 solar plants in Spain with a total capacity of between 18MW and 25MW.
Feb 2, 07: [dams are criticized for destroting lumber...] Reservoir Logs: Underwater timber harvesting is remarkably quiet: no screaming chain saws or smoke-belching heavy machinery. In a steady, splashing procession, tree after tree bobs to the surface, where a small tugboat rigged with a pair of hydraulic claws grabs the trunks and tows them into something called a bunk, a partly submerged U-shaped cradle. I can see three bunks from the barge. Each stores up to 300 trees and can be raised onto a second transport barge that holds up to 1,000 logs. The Sawfish [great name!] and its four-person crew will fill it in just four days.
. . This unusual harvesting method is made possible by a submersible that can probe the deepest reservoirs for under-water trees to cut and deliver to the surface. It was developed by Chris Godsall, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Triton Logging. The company is based near Victoria, but the principal underwater logging operation is at Ootsa Lake, almost 750 miles to the north. The lake was formed in 1954, when Alcan, the world’s second-largest aluminum producer, built a hydroelectric dam here to power its smelter. The water behind the dam flooded millions of lodgepole pine, spruce, Douglas fir, and hemlock trees, leaving some $1.2 billion worth of timber preserved in a kind of suspended animation. In the cold, dark, oxygen-poor water, tree wood won’t decay for thousands of years. And Ootsa is one of 45,000 spots around the globe where dams have inundated valleys and submerged vast forests. By some estimates, there is $50 billion worth of marketable timber at the bottom of these man-made lakes. Godsall is quick to point out that he has the only technology able to retrieve it.
. . Do the math and Godsall’s method starts to make good financial sense. Operated by just one person, a so-called feller buncher -—the fastest and cheapest way to harvest timber on land—- can cut at least 500 trees a day. But then it takes an additional three-member crew up to three weeks to trim and load the trees for transport. A single Sawfish is more efficient. It may clear only 250 trees in an eight-hour shift with four crew members, but there’s no need to skid the logs down a hillside and truck them to a mill. Instead, a barge delivers the trees to the mill faster and more cheaply, and because they’ve been submerged they’re generally already stripped of foliage and bark.
. . A Sawfish, including the control room, tool shop, and power generator, costs $800,000 to $1 million, depending on the gadgetry packed into the ROV. That’s significantly less than the onetime equipment cost of roughly $1.5 million needed to run a comparable feller buncher operation. Add up all the numbers and, while conventional harvesting costs about $50 per cubic meter of wood, Peter Keyes, an executive at a global timber wholesaler and marketer, estimates Godsall’s cost at closer to $40.
. . There are environmental advantages to the Sawfish method as well. Conventional aboveground harvesting contributes to deforestation, a cause of global warming that’s responsible for the release of 25% of the world’s CO2 emissions. But because underwater trees are already dead, cutting them down doesn’t worsen the situation. And with underwater logging, there are no unsightly clear-cuts and no spotted owls to worry about.
Feb 1, 07: MADISON, Maine - Outdoors, the temperature hovered around 10 degrees and snow covered the ground. The glass-covered greenhouse on a former dairy farm stretches nearly as far as the eye can see. At more than 1 million square feet, it's roughly the size of six Wal-Mart Supercenters or more than 20 football fields. With a capacity of 240,000 plants growing up to 10-feet tall, the greenhouse is projected to yield 1 million tomatoes a week. That adds up to 7,700 tons a year.
. . With 11,000 specialized 1,000-watt lights, the greenhouse is a major user of electricity. The greenhouse is heated with propane, but Sellew's plan is to ultimately turn to wood chips.
. . Inside the greenhouse, there are plenty of bees buzzing around to pollinate the tomatoes. The greenhouse uses rainwater, not groundwater, to grow the produce.
Feb 1, 07: GTL, used in diesel engines, is a nearly sulfur-free liquid fuel made from natural gas. It's expensive, but it burns cleaner. Look for it in polluted megacities like Shanghai.
Jan 31, 07: The European Commission has announced plans to force energy companies to produce greener fuels. It says it will propose amendments to a directive on fuel quality, which will require a 10% cut in the CO2 released during production and use of the fuel.
. . The changes would make companies use more biofuel, and develop greener biofuels where the production process results in lower CO2 emissions. The commission says its plan would save 100 million tons of CO2 a year by 2020.
. . Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has been pressing for binding legislation to ensure that new cars produce a maximum of 120g (0.2 lb) of CO2 per kilometer by 2012, compared to 162g on average in 2005.
Jan 31, 07: A growing array of companies offer to calculate how much CO2 such activities give off and how much money should be given to projects that, in theory at least, will reduce emissions by an equivalent amount somewhere else in the world. It can be done in minutes online, paid for by credit card.
. . Opponents say offsetting gives people the mistaken impression that they can keep on polluting or that such individual efforts can solve global warming, when much more fundamental change is needed. The carbon neutral trend "tries to make money from tapping into consumers' guilt", said Jutta Kill of SinksWatch, an environmental group that monitors such projects. "It's worse than doing nothing."
. . Climat Mundi's online "CO2 calculator" works out that a round-trip Paris to London flight for one person in economy class produces 0.2 tons of CO2. It says the best thing is to take the train, but if flying is unavoidable, the fledgling French company suggests contributing $5.30 to two projects it funds. One provides Eritrea with stoves that burn less wood. The other helps maintain a plant near Sydney, Australia, that captures methane —another greenhouse gas— from rotting trash at an adjacent landfill and burns it to power electricity-producing turbines.
. . The French government is funding Climat Mundi's Eritrean stove project to compensate for this week's meeting in Paris on climate change. Bringing together some 500 people from all over the world for the conference is expected to produce some 1,100 tons of CO2. To compensate will require some 360 stoves, said Parent. They burn half as much wood and pollute less than traditional Eritrean stoves.
. . Organizers of the 2006 World Cup in Germany said they would invest environmentally to offset the estimated 100,000 tons of carbon emissions caused mostly by car usage during the June 9-July 9 soccer extravaganza. Fans were also encouraged to take public transport and only recyclable drink cups were used in stadiums.
. . DiCaprio in the past has offset his carbon through organizations that plant trees and is "looking at various options" for 2007, according to Chuck Castleberry of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which the "Titanic" star started in 1998 to promote environmental awareness. The actor switched recently to a Honda Accord hybrid car and has solar panels on his Los Angeles home.
Jan 31, 07: The European Commission has proposed forcing oil companies to cut greenhouse gas emissions from drilling, refining, transporting and burning fuel in new rules aimed at fighting global warming. It also proposed stricter environmental standards for diesel and gas oil, or heating oil.
. . The plan, which seeks to cut emissions from oil's "life cycle" from the ground to a car's exhaust by 10% from 2011-2020, drew criticism from a European refining industry body, which said some of the targets were unachievable.
. . The European Union executive said today the move would reduce emissions by 500 million metric tons of CO2 by 2020.
. . The proposals resemble a similar measure in California, which is seeking to cut carbon in vehicle fuels by at least 10% by 2020. They come just weeks after the Commission challenged the world to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 30% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
. . Dimas favors binding legislation to force car manufacturers to lower CO2 emissions of new cars to an industry average of 120 grams per km in 2012. Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen supports an approach that targets fuel standards and driver behavior.
. . Sulfur content in diesel would be limited to 10 parts per million from 2009. Poly aromatic hydrocarbons --which the Commission says can cause cancer-- would be cut by one-third. The proposal also foresees a new blend of petrol with "higher permitted oxygenate content (including up to 10% ethanol)" to enable more use of biofuels.
. . They must be approved by EU governments and the European Parliament, a process which usually takes about two years. Finish refiner Neste Oil said the Commission's proposals appeared to be on the right track.
Jan 30, 07: A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California's groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Levine is expected to introduce the legislation this week.
. . The "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act" would ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs. "Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications", California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said. "Meanwhile, they remain incredibly inefficient, converting only about 5% of the energy they receive into light." Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) use about 25% of the energy of conventional lightbulbs. CFLs generate 70% less heat than incandescent lights.
. . Cal became the first state to mandate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, targeting a 25% reduction in emissions by 2020.
. . Wal-Mart Stores Inc. alone wants to sell 100 million CFLs at its stores by the end of 2007.
. . Southern California Edison, an Edison International subsidiary and one of the state's biggest utilities, runs a program that cuts the cost of a CFL by $1 to $2.50. In the past year, SCE has helped consumers buy 6 million CFLs, it said. California Energy Commission member Arthur Rosenfeld said an average home in California will save $40 to $50 per year if CFLs replace all incandescent bulbs.
Jan 31, 07: Cement, which is the primary component of concrete, accounts for 5 to 10% of the world's total CO2 emissions, so they're looking at how nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions. They found that the source of concrete's strength and durability lies in the organization of its nanoparticles and that it would be possible to cut world CO2 emissions by up to 10% within five years.
. . When the powder is mixed with water, the energy is released into chemical bonds to form the elementary building block of cement, calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). At the micro level, C-S-H acts as a glue to bind sand and gravel together to create concrete. Most of the CO2 emissions in this manufacturing process result from heating the kiln to a temperature high enough to transfer energy into the powder.
. . The researchers want to find "a different mineral to use in cement paste, one that has the same packing density but does not require the high temperatures during production.
Jan 30, 07: The City of Light wants to soon become a city of bicycles. Paris City Hall announced it has selected a French outdoor advertising firm to operate a new free bicycle service in the capital.
Jan 30, 07: China expects its installed power generating capacity to grow by around one third --to 840 gigawatts by the end of the decade, the official Xinhua news agency reported. A spate of new capacity means a brownout-free summer this year.
. . The world's second largest consumer last year added new capacity nearly equivalent to the whole generating ability of France or Germany and needs expansion to keep pace with the needs of its breakneck economic growth. It leaves China lagging far behind the US, which already has over 1,000 GW of capacity.
. . The portion of coal burning plants would slip slightly to around 70%, or 593 GW, while hydropower would be 190 GW. Wind generation will rise to 5 GW, biomass will be 5.5 GW, nuclear 10 GW, and natural gas a modest 4% or 36 GW, under the forecast which sees GDP growth of around 8.5%.
. . China will shut down small coal power stations and stop new small stations over the next four years in a drive to raise energy efficiency and cut pollution. Zeng, a top industry policy-maker, told a meeting of energy officials that the closures were necessary for China to reach strict energy conservation goals. Many smaller stations that produce less than 50 megawatts of electricity will be closed, and in the next four years, over half the power they produce will be shut off.
Jan 30, 07: In December, an oil platforms, stripped and refurbished by a local startup, returned to sea with a new mission. The first of a flotilla to come, it carried wind-monitoring equipment as well as radar for tracking migratory birds. Those that follow will be topped not by drilling rigs but by windmills. The turbines are bound for an 18-square-mile area roughly 16 km off the coast of Galveston, Texas, where the first offshore wind farm in the US is under construction.
. . In October 2005, WEST signed a contract to deliver 150 megawatts, which should take roughly 50 turbines. A test turbine is scheduled to be in operation this summer; the rest should be spinning by late 2008. Another 50 or so could follow by 2010 if demand warrants. And they'll set up another wind farm for Utila, an island off the coast of Honduras.
. . Superior Renewable Energy, a company owned by an Australian investment firm, is angling to build a 500 megawatt wind farm off Padre Island, near Corpus Christi, Texas
A typical PC left on for 24 hours a day, 220 days of the year, is responsible for up to a ton of CO2 over a 3-year period.
Jan 24, 07: Half of the world's energy needs in 2050 could be met by renewables and improved efficiency, a study has said. It said alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, could provide nearly 70% of the world's electricity and 65% of global heat demand. The study, by the German Aerospace Center, was commissioned by Greenpeace and Europe's Renewable Energy Council.
. . Following a "business as usual" scenario would see demand for energy double by 2050, the authors warned. "We have shown that the world can have safe, robust renewable energy, that we can achieve the efficiencies needed and we can do all of this while enjoying global economic growth." He added that the strategy outlined in the report showed that it was economically feasible to cut global CO2 emissions by almost 50% over the next 43 years.
. . The report calls for ageing fossil fuel and nuclear power plants to be replaced by renewable generation when they reach the end of their operational lives.
. . They had developed 10 regional scenarios to highlight which renewable sources would be most effective in particular parts of the world. "Of course, for the Middle East we have a lot of solar power, while northern Europe and North America will have a lot more wind energy in the mix.
. . A statistic often quoted is that it is effectively bringing a 1GW coal power station online each week. As these plants are expected to be operating for at least 40 years, there is concern that this is "locking" greenhouse gas emissions into the world's energy supply for decades to come. Mr Teske said this had been factored into their figures: "If you look at our scenario for China, you will see that the demand for coal will increase over the next 10 years because we have assumed that all the power plants being constructed will be used."
. . However, plans to introduce legislation to limit CO2 emissions from cars were shelved after disagreements within the commission and further afield. The apparent lack of political consensus on the best way to proceed was a concern, especially as a number of nations were currently reviewing the shape of future energy supplies, said Arthouros Zervos, president of the European Renewable Energy Council.
Jan 25, 07: the world now uses about 13.5 terawatts of energy a year: the figure includes oil, electrical power and other sources of energy. That figure will rise to 20 terawatts per year by 2050.
. . To make wind power, 20% of the source of the electricity in the U.S., it will take $500 billion in infrastructure investments.
Jan 24, 07: Las Vegas-based Power Efficiency, which has developed power controllers that "resize" electric motors by curbing the power that goes into them. "There are millions of motors around the world that are oversized", he said. "We lower the electricity going to the motor to match the load. As soon as the load comes on, we lower the floodgates."
. . The company's showcase product application right now is the escalator. The motors inside escalators are designed to transport 110 kg on each stair. That rarely happens, so the motor is essentially churning too hard. "The U.S. Department of Energy issued a report in 1998 that said that 44% of all electric motors in the U.S. were fully loaded less than 40% of the time."
. . In trials at the Las Vegas hotels Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio, the company's Power Genius product cut power consumption by around 34% on heavy-duty outside escalators. In a year, each Power Genius could cut electricity bills by about $1,500 per escalator, the company estimated. The box itself sells for about $1,000 wholesale, but with installation, the final price to a customer comes to around $2,000 to $3,000.
. . While difficult to design, the technology is fairly easy to describe. The Power Genius box senses the workload of a motor by monitoring the changes in the phase lag, or wave pattern, of the current and voltage. When the device senses that the motor doesn't need all of the required energy, it throttles the current.
. . NASA designed a device like this in the 1970s, but subsequently abandoned it. Several large manufacturers, meanwhile, have come out with "soft start" motors that rev up to maximum power slowly. Power Genius does that too, but also continues to dynamically adjust the power consumption. Because the electric motor most of the time will not run at full speed, wear and tear is lessened.
Jan 23, 07: Wind power generation in the United States will grow 26% in 2007, after increasing by 27% in 2006, the American Wind Energy Association said today.
. . In 2006, 2,454 megawatts of new wind generating capacity was installed, with $4 billion invested, the AWEA said. Only natural gas generating plants accounted for more new power generation capacity last year. A megawatt of wind power can serve between 250 and 300 homes.
. . There are now about 11,604 MW of wind power generation capacity, up from 10,000 MW just four months ago. Texas installed 774 MW of new wind generation last year, followed by Washington (428 MW), California (212 MW), New York (185 MW) and Minnesota (150 MW).
. . The federal "production tax credit" for wind power was recently extended to December 2008, which will help the growth in wind power.
Jan 23, 07: The world's biggest fund for environmental projects is investing for the first time in a non-renewable, polluting fuel --coal-- in what it says is a new pragmatic approach to the energy needs of the developing world.
. . The Global Environment Facility, managed by the World Bank and United Nations agencies, said today it was putting $45.5 million toward an overhaul of some of power-hungry India's aging coal-fired plants to make them more efficient and less polluting.
. . India burns more coal than any other country in the developing world, and depends on it for about 60% of its total energy capacity. Still, that total falls far short of its needs --44% of Indian homes are without electricity, according to the 2001 census. India, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, aims to get all households wired into the power grid by 2012.
Jan 22, 07: Mining heat stored in rocks in the Earth's crust could meet a growing portion of U.S. electricity demand, replacing aging nuclear and coal plants with an environmentally friendly alternative, researchers say.
. . Geothermal power --generated from drilling wells that allow hot water or steam to power turbines-- is already on the rise globally as expensive oil and gas make it increasingly competitive despite high capital costs.
. . The top energy consumer --the US-- is leading the way, with 61 projects in the works to double its geothermal capacity to more than 5,000 megawatts.
MIT's study, described by the researchers as the most far-reaching on the subject in 30 years, said the United States as a first step could achieve capacity of 100,000 megawatts -enough to supply about 25 million homes-- in 50 years, at an eventual cost of just $40 million a year. That would represent about 6% of the current U.S. electricity supply. Coal is now the leading source of U.S. electric power, supplying 49.7%.
. . No fuel is required. Unlike wind and solar systems, a geothermal plant works night and day, offering a non-interruptible source of electric power." The heat and steam, generated in many countries at the point where tectonic plates collide, is nonpolluting.
Jan 22, 07: EEStor, the company that says its battery is 10 times more powerful than all others on the planet and can make a four-passenger sedan drive like a Ferrari, came out of hiding last week, announcing it's going to ship its first product. That'll be a battery inside a car (pictured at left) to be delivered later this year by Toronto-based ZENN motors.
. . A car equipped with EEStore's Electrical Energy Storage Unit (EESU) is said to only need $9 worth of electricity to travel 500 miles, compared to the $60 worth of gasoline needed by a conventional vehicle with an internal combustion engine. The company's goal goes far beyond powering vehicles—it plans to "replace the electrochemical battery" everywhere, from powering laptops, storing electricity at electrical utilities and storing energy from wind and sun.
. . The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. By weight, it will also pack 10 times the power of lead-acid batteries at half the cost and without the need for toxic materials or chemicals, according to the company.
. . The implications are enormous and, for many, unbelievable. Such a breakthrough has the potential to radically transform a transportation sector already flirting with an electric renaissance, improve the performance of intermittent energy sources such as wind and sun, and increase the efficiency and stability of power grids --all while fulfilling an oil-addicted America's quest for energy security.
. . Ultracapacitors store energy in an electrical field between two closely spaced conductors, or plates. When voltage is applied, an electric charge builds up on each plate. Ultracapacitors have many advantages over traditional electrochemical batteries. Unlike batteries, "ultracaps" can completely absorb and release a charge at high rates and in a virtually endless cycle with little degradation.
Jan 20, 07: Not satisfied with biofuels based on corn, cane, and chicken fat, metagenomicists are diving into the digestive tracts of termites in the hope of co-opting the microbial genes that let the house-chewing pests digest wood. MIT Technology Review quotes Jim Bristow of the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute:
. . Converting cellulose in trees and grasses into the simple sugars that can be fermented into ethanol is a very energy-intensive process. "If we had better enzymatic machinery to do that, we might be better able to make sugars into ethanol", Bristow says. "Termites are the world's best bioconverters."
. . Researchers at the institute "have just finished sequencing the microbial community living in the termite gut." They' ve already identified a number of novel cellulases —-the enzymes that break down cellulose into sugar—- and are now looking at the guts of other insects that digest wood.
Jan 20, 07: After nearly 90 years of sawing pine and Douglas fir logs into lumber, Rough & Ready Lumber Co. is branching into the energy business, building a $5 million plant to burn logging debris and to produce electricity that it can sell at a "green tag" premium to the regional power grid.
. . They hope to have a 1.5 megawatt plant up and running by this fall. "There are the economic benefits, the benefits of healthy forests, and the benefit of a country needing renewable energy — clean energy."
. . Leaders in the timber industry realize that energy production can help finance widespread thinning of national forests to combat wildfires and insect infestations. And the concept has a newer, catchier name — biomass energy.
. . Since Congress reauthorized a federal energy production tax credit for biomass, solar and wind power last month, at least two other sawmills in Oregon are going forward with biomass projects. Another is slated for Arizona in conjunction with a long-term U.S. Forest Service thinning project there triggered by the massive 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski fire. More are foreseen in California, which has a long history of generating electricity from forest thinnings.
. . There are three keys. A generating plant needs to be close to the fuel — trucking little trees much more than 35 miles is too expensive. It must be close to a major electrical transmission line. And it needs to be close to a mill to buy the excess steam.
. . Plants burning forest thinnings and waste from lumber and pulp mills generate about 2,500 megawatts nationally —-far behind wind power in production, popularity and government support.
. . I would say restoring the health of the forest is at least as valuable as the energy that is produced", Carlson said. "If the Forest Service got serious about this and wanted to solve 50% of the (forest thinning) problem over the next two decades, there might be 5,000 to 10,000 megawatts of biomass power." That's about 1% of the nation's production by 2015. About half would come from forest thinning. The rest from urban waste and agriculture.
Jan 15, 07: Leaders at an East Asian summit have signed an agreement to promote energy security and find alternatives to conventional fuels. The agreement was signed by 10 South East Asian nations, China, Japan, New Zealand, India, S Korea and Australia.
. . The agreement rounds off a week of talks in the Philippine resort of Cebu, looking at issues as diverse as natural disasters, disease and terrorism. The Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security, signed after a three-hour meeting on Monday, lists a series of goals aimed at providing "reliable, adequate and affordable" energy supplies to a huge region from Australia to India.
. . Greenhouse gas emissions from Asian nations are forecast to grow rapidly in the coming years, with one estimate saying they could treble by 2025. The document does not set any targets for capping greenhouse emissions, but will call for extra investment in eco-friendly fuels. There are also plans to construct a regional electricity grid and a natural gas pipeline across South East Asia.
Jan 15, 07: UAR: When it comes to squandering the earth's natural resources, residents of this desert land of chilled swimming pools, monster 4x4s and air-conditioned malls are on a par with even the ravenous consumption of Americans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
. . The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other, giving the country the world's largest per-capita "ecological footprint", WWF data shows. The United States runs second. But the oil-rich Emirates is considered a developing country, and even as a signatory to the United Nations' Kyoto protocol on global warming, is not required to cut emissions. The United States is not bound by Kyoto.
. . Even so, the Emirates government has been embarrassed by the WWF report, which it says is flawed. The federal environment agency is devising strategies to cut emissions, including a public campaign that may offer economic incentives to those who turn down their air conditioning, Saad al-Numairy, an adviser to agency
. . The WWF rankings are measured in "global hectares" —-the area of biologically productive land and sea needed to provide the resources consumed by an average person. The Emirates' ecological footprint measured 11.9 global hectares per person, compared to 9.6 hectares per person for the United States and a global average of 2.2 hectares a person.
. . In Dubai and Abu Dhabi, desalinated water is lavished, Las Vegas-style, on fountains, artificial lakes, swimming pools, resort greenery and golf courses sitting atop once drifting desert sands. Desalination also produces most fresh water in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Gulf countries that also showed high footprints. The government's energy subsidies give Emirates citizens free water and cheap electricity. Gasoline sells for around $1.70 per gallon.
Jan 13, 07: The cost of "gas-guzzling" cars could soar in five years' time under plans from the European Commission. The commission wants to impose mandatory efficiency standards on all new vehicles sold in Europe as part of a master plan to combat climate change.
. . Some of the UK's best-known carmakers could be hardest-hit. Currently the EU has a voluntary agreement with motor manufacturers --but they have infuriated the commission by missing their target by almost 50%.
. . Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas now wants mandatory standards that will allow the average car to emit just 120 grams of CO2 per kilometer. That would mean a 1.6 liter car would need to cut emissions by a third to qualify as an average vehicle under the new regime.
. . But it is clear that heavyweight luxury cars like Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Range Rovers will have to invest far more in costly low-pollution technology to reduce their emissions than smaller lighter cars. Mr Dimas said the new rules would apply equally to imports, adding that the EU would offer tax breaks to carmakers to help the transition to lower-emission vehicles. He said higher costs for the average consumer would be outweighed by fuel savings over the life of the vehicle.
. . Mr Dimas said that people should start talking about climate change as a war. It could lead to the death of millions of people, and it could transform the world economy into a war economy, where every sector was involved in the fight against climate change.
. . The proposals underpin the commission's recently unveiled climate masterplan, and will be discussed by politicians shortly. The plan may face political opposition, but climate is changing the industrial landscape in a way that may persuade Europe's politicians that it is kind to be tough on their own carmakers.
. . California has set a benchmark for fuel-efficient vehicles that will make it increasingly hard for the manufacturers of gas-guzzlers. Detroit's carmakers --traditional opponents of fuel efficiency standards-- are now finding themselves trailing in the race to make cleaner vehicles.
Jan 12, 07: BP Plc said today it expects to begin construction of five wind power generation projects in the United States in 2007. The projects, located in California, Colorado, North Dakota and Texas, are expected to deliver a combined generation capacity of some 550 megawatts. When completed, these projects will exceed the company's previously announced target to build 450 MW by end of 2008.
Jan 11, 07: Senior members of Germany's government have suggested retaining nuclear power as a way of diversifying the country's sources of energy. It follows concern that Germany has become too dependent on Russian fuel. A year ago it was supplies of Russian gas to Germany which were hit when the Russians turned off the gas taps to Ukraine. Now it is Russian oil which has stopped flowing because of a dispute between Moscow and Minsk.
. . The previous German government under Gerhard Schroeder had voted to close the country's 17 nuclear power stations.
Jan 10, 07: Materials that scientists had hoped would contain nuclear waste for thousands of years may not be as safe and durable as previously thought, researchers said.
Jan 10, 07: The European Commission presented "the most ambitious policy ever" to fight climate change, challenging the world to follow Europe's lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
. . The European Union's executive branch proposed the 27-nation bloc reduce emissions by at least 20% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, with the possibility of going to 30% if other developed countries join in.
. . The targets are part of new proposals for a broad EU energy policy that aims to boost production of renewable fuels, cut energy consumption, and reduce the dominance of big utility companies over EU gas and electricity markets.
. . With oil imports hit by the latest dispute involving Russia, the Commission's vision for an EU-wide energy policy also seeks to ease dependence on foreign suppliers and push the bloc to speak with one voice on the world stage.
. . The EU renewed its calls on the United States --the world's biggest polluter-- and other major economies to drop their opposition to binding targets for emissions cuts. "We need the United States with us", said Barroso, who met President Bush this week. "I personally believe the United States will change and they will be much more ambitious in the future when it comes to climate change."
. . Environmentalists said the plan fell short. "Scientific findings show that it simply won't be enough for the EU to only reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change", said Jan Kowalzig, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe.
. . The Commission proposed that renewable energy sources, such as wind, make up 20% of the EU's energy mix by 2020, up from a non-binding goal of 12% by 2010, which the bloc is likely to miss. The new plan also says biofuels should account for a minimum of 10% of fuel used by vehicles by 2020.
Jan 10, 07: The United States' role as dominant global military and economic power hinges on secure access to crude oil, but U.S. politicians who call for "energy independence" are shouting into the void, experts told a U.S. Senate panel. "Barring draconian measures, the United States will depend on imported oil for a significant fraction of its transportation fuel needs for at least several decades", Stuntz said, citing a Council on Foreign Relations report.
. . Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, agreed that energy independence "offers a false promise to the American people", and called for lawmakers to demand that U.S. automobiles become more fuel-efficient.
. . U.S. military ships routinely patrol key oil routes like the Gulf of Hormuz, which handles about 80% of Middle East oil exports, and the Caspian Sea, Wald said.
. . Energy security could be the Achilles heel of U.S. global competitiveness over the next 25 years, said Flynt Leverett, a director at the New America Foundation who was once a Central Intelligence Agency analyst.
. . Growing cooperation between Russia and China on energy projects could create an "axis of oil" and cement Moscow's role as top supplier to both Europe and Asia, Leverett said.
Jan 9, 07: Efforts to tap energy deep below the earth's crust to provide power for homes in the Swiss city of Basel may have to be scrapped after setting off tremors.
. . The plan to use geothermal energy to generate electricity for 10,000 homes and heat for 2,700 others is on hold after it caused earth tremors twice in less than a month, prompting frightened residents to flood emergency services with calls.
. . A first quake in early December lasted 20 seconds and registered 3.4 on the Richter scale. Water pumped into the depths set off a second, slightly weaker quake on the 6th.
. . Basel, a seismic region, was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1356. Small tremors, often barely perceptible, are common.
Jan 8, 07: General Motors, a company notorious for allegedly conspiring with Big Oil and others to "kill the electric car", is about to roll out a unique, fuel-efficient sedan that could redefine electric vehicles.
. . The new Chevrolet Volt, which premiered at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, is a new spin on hybrids. The Volt runs exclusively on battery power, but a gas-fueled engine onboard runs the motor and recharges the batteries when they run low. The sedan uses liquid fuel in the form of gasoline, ethanol or diesel to power the 3-cylinder generator.
. . It can go 600 miles or more before needing refueling or recharging, according to GM, and the batteries should last for about 40 miles without recharging. To reduce fuel consumption, drivers can plug the Volt into a standard 110-volt electrical outlet to recharge the batteries in approximately six hours. While a hybrid drive train is more energy efficient than the Volt's, the new car will get about 50 mpg when the generator is on.
. . Substituting an electric generator for plug-in hybrids' internal-combustion engine simplifies the engineering process because it doesn't require managing multiple power sources, according to Posawatz, and it cuts costs by eliminating a mechanical transmission.
. . It's only a concept car, but GM is intent on developing a production version, said Tony Posawatz, GM's vehicle line director. He declined to give a date. GM has not stated a target price for the Volt, but the lithium-ion batteries alone would cost upward of $10,000 today.
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