Chart courtesy of Seattle P.-I.
Courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer comes this nifty side-by-side comparison chart (see here for a blown-up version). The article does a nice job of running through the (many) problems associated with biofuels, citing two studies by The Nature Conservancy and a team of U.S. scientists.
Engineers Malcolm Knapp and Heather Fleming of the San Francisco Chapter of Engineers without Borders helped design this $100 wind turbine. ( I also love her "club sandwiches, not seals" T) Wired reports that unlike the large-scale assemblies found in wind farms, the roughly two-foot-wide and three-foot-tall turbine has a vertical axis. McLean said that orientation worked better in the choppy conditions likely to meet the turbine out in the field, where it'll be bolted on to buildings, towers or even trees.
It will be built in Guatemala, designed to be a cheap replacement for the kerosene lamps that are a fire and health risk. Project leader Matt McLean says "We've had to simplify the way we were thinking and get rid of the idea that everything had to be as efficient as possible," such as using teflon plumbing tape. "It's normally used for sealing pipes," said McLean. "But it's a very low cost way of reducing friction." ::Wired via ::Materialicious
Last week, three of the world's biggest oil companies reported record-breaking quarterly profits in excess of $27 billion. It's pretty hard to fathom that kind of money - but what is easier for the rest of us to see in real terms is also breaking records: the cost of a gallon of gas.
And of course as the gas prices skyrocket yet again, rather than getting the energy leadership our country really needs, we hear the same old calls to drill for more domestic oil - especially in some of our last wild places, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Polar Bear Seas (the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the coast of Alaska).
Making Solar Power Competitive with Coal?
Sunrgi recently made an impressive claim at the National Energy Marketers Association’s 11th Annual Global Energy Forum in Washington, DC: They say that their system will soon be able to "produce electricity at a wholesale cost of 5 cents per kWh (kilowatt hour). [A] price competitive with the wholesale cost of producing electricity using fossil fuels and a fraction of the current cost of solar energy."
They do it with Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics (XCPV) by concentrating the Sun's light close to 2,000 times (!) into extremely efficient solar photovoltaic cells. Part of Sunrgi's patent-pending technology has to do with the cooling of the solar cells, dual-axis sun tracking, and the way the whole system is optimized for mass-production.
Hydro-Power and Wind-Power: A Good Match
The Canadian province of Quebec is a world leader in hydro-electricity production, and that's not very surprising to anyone who looks at a hydrological map of the region. Maybe things would have been different if they had been sitting on lots of oil or coal, but what they have is rivers, and lots of them.
But in recent years, Quebec has started to realize that it has another resource to tap: Wind. It's a lot less capital-intensive than big hydro dams, it produces clean energy, and it works well in conjunction with hydro (when the wind blows, you can reduce the flow at dams and save that water for later, a bit like charging up a battery).
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"has a Québec resident, I'm very happy to use hydro-electricty. Our dams lasts for decad..." [read]
The Hydrogen Education Foundation "educates people about how incorporating hydrogen within the world's energy portfolio will simultaneously reduce our dependence on oil, while improving the world's carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, and spark worldwide economic development." It has also set up a website to promote hydrogen at ::H2 and You.
There is a reason Graham set up TreeHugger with correspondents all over the world; we might throw things at each other if we were in the same room. I called it blatant greenwashing, paraphrasing Mary McCarthy: Every word in it is a lie, including "and" and "the". Tim thought otherwise, as did John. I took the page "ten things to remember about hydrogen" and made a point about each. Tim responded with a counterpoint. I copy it below the fold.
The Yucatan Peninsula, in addition to being a corn producing region in Mexico, also contains abandoned sisal plantations, where the growing of Jatropha for biodiesel production would not displace food. So this investment could make sense - depending on current land use.
Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: GCEH) through its subsidiary GCE Mexico I, LLC has acquired approximately 5,000 acres of land in the State of Yucatan in Mexico. The property will be used for the cultivation of Jatropha curcas. When fully planted the land will be home to over 4.0 million Jatropha trees, which will produce a high quality seed oil and biomass, for more than 30 years.We think they could go it one better, however. It turns out that non-toxic subspecies of J. curcas are native to Veracruz and Quintana Roo States, and could be used to produce mast that is suitable for both human and domestic animal feed.
See also:- Switch Grass Rush Starts In Oklahoma
Via:Centre Daily, "Global Clean Energy Holdings Acquires 5,000 Acres of Land in Mexico to Develop Jatropha Plants" Image credit::John Sokol, Jatropha fruit.
Leader in Net Wind-Power Usage, if Not in Ratio
The University of Pennsylvania is leading the way among U.S. universities for wind-power. It committed to buying more electricity coming from wind in the next two years, purchasing an additional 80,000-megawatt hours per year, bringing its total to about 200,000 megawatt hours per year, or nearly half of Penn's electricity use.
"Up until this announcement, Penn trailed New York University's wind power consumption - NYU buys 100 percent of its power from wind sources." But while NYU has a higher ratio of power coming from wind, Penn can brag about getting more total power from wind: 200,000-megawatt hours per year vs. about 118,000-megawatt hours per year (that's the NYU wind-power number for 2006).
New ideas always take twice as long and cost twice as much as one hopes when first envisioned; when we were among the first to cover the Magenn air rotor system (MARS) back 2005, it was projected that units would be available in 2006. Three years later, the first full scale version is floating in an airship hangar in North Carolina. Pierre Rivard, CEO of Magenn tells Tyler Hamilton that "This is an historic moment...This is a world’s first, there has never been a rotating airship test done before."
The prototype will be moved to an outdoor location for further testing, and then by four demonstration projects. They are now concentrating on the larger 100Kw model for remote industrial sites; the small 4Kw model for campers and cottages has been put on the back burner for now. ...
Triodos, the European ethical savings bank, has made our pages many times before, and there’s a reason it is so popular with the green crowd. Triodos annual meetings are far from the usual bank fodder, seeing experts convene to discuss everything from food security to ‘ethical consumption’, and their recycled credit cards with carbon offsets built in and savings accounts that promise to reinvest your money in specific good-for-the-world industries are a great reassurance to folks who want to know what their money is doing. Now Triodos are offering another great opportunity for would-be green investors, with an UK£8.5 million (US$17 million) share issue dedicated to promoting renewable energy projects:
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How much gas can Switch Grass switch, if we could switch gas with Switch Grass? Check out our analysis below the fold. In the mean time: Let the planting race begin.
Oklahoma Bioenergy Center (OBC), a state-initiative championed by Gov. Brad Henry, secured land to enable the planting of more than 1,100 acres of production-scale demonstration fields for cellulosic energy crops, such as switch grass and sorghum to contribute to the United States' bioenergy effort. Planting will take place within the next 45 days....
California government agencies are supporting a large-scale project to better manage garbage and recyclables in a California joint venture between Linde North America , a Linde Group subsidiary, and Waste Management . The project - the first of several across the State - will create the world’s largest facility to convert landfill gas into clean vehicle fuel. Waste Management, North America’s largest waste management company, and Linde North America have announced a joint venture to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, located at the Altamont Landfill near Livermore, California to convert landfill gas into a clean vehicle fuel. The project offers a unique opportunity to “close the loop” by fueling hundreds of collection trucks with clean fuel produced from garbage....
Photograph:- The Daybreak Residential/Commercial Community in South Jordan, Utah features Energy Star homes.
Energy efficiency has been a consistent part of America's energy security policies and increasingly become an essential framework for abating carbon emissions. In fact, the federal government now offers several tax credits for everything from green home improvements to fuel cells.
But the effectiveness of energy efficiency does not go undisputed.
Skeptics such as the Energy Tribune's Robert Bryce point out that total energy use in the United States continues to rise, despite efficiency gains. Per capita, we're using more energy even as sales of hybrid cars increase and more green buildings get erected.
The argument hinges on an economic theory called Jevons' Paradox....
GMZ Energy has announced the availability of a new thermoelectric material, a nanostructured bismuth antimony telluride bulk alloy, that will support design of more energy-efficient products.
In the near-term, the GMZ material will be used in cooling applications and to create products that consume less energy or capture energy that would otherwise be wasted. Longer term, it can provide more advanced solutions, such as cars partially powered by the exhaust system and solar thermal panels with heightened performance. The GMZ material, currently in advanced testing stage at select U.S. and Asia-Pacific manufacturers and being sampled by early customers, integrates easily into existing and new product designs for a rapid time-to-market.See the full abstract from Science here. See full coverage in MIT News, here. Via::NanoWerk Image credit: Boston College, MIT, and GMZ Inc., "A cross-section of nano-crystalline bismuth antimony telluride grains, as viewed through transmission electron microscope. Colors highlight the features of each grain of the semiconductor alloy in bulk form." ...
Residential wind power is the too often forgotten little brother of the wind power industry that builds turbines on the scale of jumbo jets. But it's starting to grow up and come out of the shadow of its bigger sibling. "improved generator technology [lighter magnets in the generators, blades that adjust to wind conditions, and units that wirelessly report how much power they're making], more financial incentives, rising electric rates, and energy-security concerns have opened the way for small-wind power to bloom in unlikely places."
That's right, they aren't just for the farm anymore. You should see more and more small wind turbines in suburbs and urban settings as time goes on. Of course, we're still talking small potatoes compared to big wind power, on the order of only 3 megawatts in 2007 according to the American Wind En ergy Association (AWEA), but that's triple the generating capacity of 2006. A few more years of tripling and doubling, and the power of exponential growth will be felt....
Spiegel Online published a series of pictures titled "Desertec: Strom aus der Wüste" (translation: Desertech: Electricity from the desert). It includes this image of how much land would be needed to power the world, Europe or Germany with solar-thermal power. The idea is similar to a post we did a year ago: How Much Land to Power The Whole World with Solar?
The red square on the left is for the whole world, in the middle for Europe-25, and on the right for Germany. Below you can see pictures of the kind of technology they're talking about. It's a bit similar to Ausra's solar-thermal power system, but with curved mirrors. We're mentioning Ausra here, because they claim they're able to produce electricity from solar even at night (by storing some of the heat)....
While record oil prices are responsible for a small car comeback and solid growth in hybrid car sales in the USA despite a sector-wide slowdown, China seems to be falling in love with big cars.
"If you look at the fastest-growing market segments in China, there are two — SUVs and luxury cars," said Joseph Y.H. Liu, GM China's vice- president for sales and marketing. That's why GM put its ginormous Escalade front and center of its display at the Beijing Auto Show. Dongfeng and Auto Works, Chinese automakers, even have models clearly descended from Hummers....
As we reported before, many solar power farms are planned in the province of Ontario, Canada. Major players include SunEdison of Baltimore and Skypower of Toronto, who just broke ground on a solar project, and OptiSolar, a California manufacturer of thin-film silicon solar cells (the composite image above is of their Sarnia project).
The Toronto Star reports that the province now has contracts for 407 megawatts, while it initially predicted that it would get 88. We suppose that's enough to call their program a success! But it's not surprising considering that they are paying 42 cents (!) per kilowatt hour for electricity produced via solar power farms....
Time to buy a bike: Gasoline prices in North America will soar over the next four years to $7.00, causing a massive jolt to the continent's manufacturing base not seen since the oil shocks of the 1970s, a leading economist is warning. Jeff Rubin of CIBC World Markets was laughed at three years ago when he predicted $ 100 per barrel oil, and now thinks it will climb to $225 in four years. (Houston Chronicle quotes him as saying gas will cost $10 per gallon) From the National Post:
"Stripping out natural gas liquids, oil production has not grown for over two years, which certainly goes a long way to explaining why oil prices have doubled over that period," Rubin said. "It is increasingly clear that the outlook for oil supply signals a period of unprecedented scarcity."
Rubin predicts hybrids will go "from marketing and PR fluff to the core of car production." People will move closer to where they work. "I think there will be fewer people on the road in North America in five years than there is right now." ::Houston Chronicle and ::National Post
See also Stop Whining About Gas Prices and Truckers to Protest High Gas Prices...
That's not a typo in the headline. The meters are running backwards and they're exporting the 23% extra.
Rock Port, Missouri, is a small city of 1,300 people, and they just made history by being the first city in the US to be 100% powered by the wind, also making them #1 in the US for percentage of renewable energy. The Loess Hills Wind Farm, built by the Wind Capital Group, employing 500 workers from 20 states for about a year, is expected to produce about 16 million kilowatt hours annually, while Rock Port only uses 13 million. The excess wind power will be sold to other communities in the area....
The blaring headline on the front cover of the May/June issue really says it all: "It's behind the war, the recession, the ice caps: if we don't confront our energy crisis, we're screwed." As far as "green" issues of major/independent news publications go - and we've certainly seen our fair share over the last few months (Vanity Fair, Time, NYT and The New Republic to name a few) - MoJo's effort stands out as one of the best. ...
The greatest successes in overcoming human-caused environmental problems have come slowly, with collaboration. For example: ozone depleters were not "banned" in a year, they were phased out over decades. Mandates are situational: use of DDT is constrained to nations where malaria is present, and toxicity to birds not in evidence.
In corollary, the climate crisis requires a collaborative decision as to how fast coal must be phased out, and what electricity sources or conservation steps will replace the phased out 'coal-tricity'. Hence it was a pleasure to read Duke Energy's CEO James Rodger's recent speech, in which he advocated energy policies to see the US through a transition period, leading to a low carbon economy. ...
Last year Guardian columnist Ashley Seager crunched some numbers on whether solar was a good investment for his London home, and after including government subsidies he concluded that an installation would be more profitable than putting his money in the bank. But how have his calculations worked out one year on? The payback is looking pretty good it seems, if his latest update is anything to go by:
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The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming
The Earth's environment has limits. Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has long recognized that those limits can ignite economic growth and ecological prosperity at the same time. Earth: The Sequel written by Krupp and Miriam Horn, a journalist and staffer at EDF, begins with a case study of how we can solve global warming and improve our economy by addressing the need for limits.
In the early 1980's sulfur dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants caused acid rain, damaging forests and aquatic life. We had reached the limits of how much sulfur dioxide we could pump into the atmosphere. The knee-jerk reaction to this problem was to create strict 'command and control' regulations that required adding expensive scrubbers to smoke stacks. But this solution was not addressing the problem......
From a great graphic by Bill Marsh of the New York Times
The New York Times writes about the factors causing the rise in the price of oil, which hit $ 116 per barrel this week. Jad Mouawad hits all the usual suspects, such as the weak dollar, worries about terrorism (?) and demand, saying "Producers are struggling to pump as much as they can to quench the thirst not only of the developed world, but fast-growing developing nations like China and India, the two most populous countries." However he then goes on to say "The number of cars and trucks is projected to double in 30 years— to more than two billion — as developing nations rapidly modernize. And twice as many passenger jetliners, more than 36,000, will in all likelihood be crisscrossing the skies in 20 years."
And how much fuel is there to power all this? "A small band of skeptics view today’s record prices as evidence that oil supplies have peaked — that half the globe’s oil supply has already been used up. But most experts believe that there are still enough oil reserves, both discovered and undiscovered, to last at least through the middle of the century."
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TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
Here are a few recommended websites.
