Green Energy -

So here, we go again, higher oil prices, good f...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Story from Associated Press.

Oil prices jumped to a nine-month high above $105 a barrel on Monday after Iran said it halted crude exports to Britain and France in an escalation of a dispute over the Middle Eastern country's nuclear program.

By Monday afternoon, benchmark March crude was up $2.02 to $105.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since May. The contract rose 93 cents to settle at $103.24 per barrel in New York on Friday.

Iran's announcement will likely have minimal impact on supplies, analysts said, because only about 3 percent of France's oil consumption is from Iranian sources. Britain had not imported oil from the Islamic republic in six months.

"The price rise is more a reflection of concerns about the further escalation in tensions between Iran and the West," said commodity analyst Caroline Bain of the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Banning the tiny quantities of exports to the U.K. and France involves very little risk for Iran — indeed quite the opposite, it catches the headlines and leads to a higher global oil price, which is something Iran is very keen to encourage."

Markets in the United States are closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.

Iran's oil ministry said Sunday it stopped crude shipments to British and French companies in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc-imposed sanctions on Iran's crucial fuel exports. They include a freeze of the country's central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July.

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran's oil exports.

Tehran also is considering extending the embargo to other European countries, a semiofficial Iranian news agency reported Monday.

The head of Iran's state oil company Ahmad Qalehbani was quoted by the Mehr agency as saying that the country would stop selling crude to nations who take action against Tehran.

The EU sanctions, along with other punitive measures imposed by the U.S., are part of Western efforts to derail Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran denies the charges, and says its program is for peaceful purposes.

Oil prices also rose on hopes that Greece's new bailout deal will be approved on Monday as well as by China's decision to boost money supply bid to spur lending and economic growth. China's central bank said Saturday it will lower the ratio of funds that banks must hold as reserves, a move that frees tens of billions of dollars.

Oil has jumped from $96 earlier this month amid optimism the global economy may grow more this year than previously expected.

J.P. Morgan raised its Brent crude price forecast to as high as $135 from $120 — on Monday, the April Brent crude contract was up 79 cents at $120.37 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

"Building economic momentum has the potential to pull oil prices higher for the next 12 to 24 months," J.P. Morgan said in a report. In other energy trading in March contracts, heating oil gained 3 cents to $3.22 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 3.2 cents to $3.22 per gallon. Natural gas lost 7 cents to $2.62 per 1,000 cubic feet.

From E3 Wise
Considering all the products derived from oil, will we have a repeat of 2008’s economic crisis if oil continues to rise? What do You think.

Water bottle brings light into the slums

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:04:05 +0000

A simple mix of water and chlorine is brightening homes in the Philippines.

‘Appropriate’ technologies such as the wind-up radio are all about clever devices that use less energy than their hi-tech equivalents, with the added benefits of being controlled by local people and easily replicable.

It’s incredibly rare to find examples of technologies that go further and negate the need for power altogether. But in the slums of Manila a device called the ‘Liter of Light’ [sic] is doing just that. The design – popularised by aYouTube video – is so brilliant in its simplicity it makes you gasp.

The Liter of Light uses discarded plastic drink bottles to bring light into dark slum homes, without the need for a single watt of electricity. The bottles are filled with water and a few spoonfuls of chlorine (to deter algae), and are cut into the corrugated iron roofs of shacks, where slum dwellers live in near darkness. It’s a highly appropriate technology for a country like the Philippines, where electricity supply is in many areas either unavailable, unreliable or prohibitively expensive.

The bottle doesn’t only let light in, but refracts it; on a sunny day, it provides as much light as a 50 watt bulb. At just £2, it takes an hour to install. The device was pioneered by the charity, MyShelter Foundation, which trains residents on how to make them, and the City of Manila government supported the scheme. The aim is to light up a million homes in the Philippines by 2012. – Charlotte Sankey

Siemens to increase power transmission capacity...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:46:50 +0000

The grid connection between Scotland and England,
. . .designed as a low-loss high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission system,
. . . will have a rating of 2200 megawatts (MW).

It will be the first submarine interconnector ever
. . . using a DC voltage level of 600 kilovolts (kV).
. . . The highest voltage level used to date was 500 kV.

The Western HVDC Link project will provide much needed additional power
. . . transmission capacity on Britain’s transmission system
. . . as the UK heads toward a low carbon economy.
The power link will help to balance supply and demand within the grid sections
. . . in light of the continued growth of remote and fluctuating renewables.

Raising the voltage level in the cable by 20%
. . . also enhances its transmission capacity by 1/5th.
. . . The transmission losses in the cable are simultaneously reduced by 1/3rd,”
. . says Udo Niehage, CEO of the Power Transmission Division of Siemens Energy.

Higher voltage levels in the cables allow higher power transmission capacity
. . . with the same diameter of copper in the cable and
. . . thus reduce the cost of material used.
. . . They also mean lower transmission losses.
The total power loss in the link, caused by the 2 conversions
. . . from AC to DC and back to AC
. . . as well as by the ohmic resistance of the cables
. . . will be less than 3%.

Source: 86wind

ARPA-E to host workshop on “Transportation Beha...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:51:06 +0000

This workshop will explore approaches that combine behavioral economics; consumer marketing; recent technology advances (such as smartphones and social networking); and large-scale data processing and analysis to give consumers more options for their personal transportation decisions.

Specifically, ARPA-E is interested in technology solutions which connect advanced transportation technologies to consumer behavior. The workshop will highlight existing consumer education and technology marketing efforts by industry and attendees will brainstorm new behavioral and technology concepts that will lead to more personalized, easy-to-use, and engaging solutions to help consumers make informed transportation decisions.

Information gained from the workshop will assist ARPA-E leadership in the development of potential funding programs targeting key technological roadblocks relevant to the ARPA-E mission.

Summaries of the workshop will be provided on the ARPA-E website shortly following the event. Those interested in attending need to apply. The workshop is not open to the media.

Source: greencarcongress

Leaked: Conservative Group Plans Anti-Climate E...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:49:07 +0000

By Stephanie Pappas | LiveScience.com

Update, 4:55 pm ET: The Heartland Institute released a statement this afternoon calling the document leaks "criminal" and claiming that one of the documents, which purports to be the organization's climate change strategy, is faked. However, blogger Anthony Watts and geologist Robert Carter have confirmed online and to news organizations that they have been paid or pledged money by the Institute as outlined in the documents. James M. Taylor, a senior fellow at the Heartland Institute, confirmed to ThinkProgress Green that the school educational project is ongoing.

Leaked documents from the free-market conservative organization The Heartland Institute reveal a plan to create school educational materials that contradict the established science on climate change.

The documents, leaked by an anonymous donor and released on DeSmogBlog, include the organization's 2012 fundraising plan. It lists Heartland Institute donors, from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation (established by Koch Industries billionaire Charles G. Koch), to Philip Morris parent company Altria, to software giant Microsoft and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

The climate change education project is funded so far by an anonymous donor who has given $13 million to the Institute over the past five years. Proposed by policy analyst David Wojick, who holds a doctorate in epistemology and has worked for coal and electricity generation companies, the project would create education "modules" written to meet curriculum guidelines for every grade level.

"Many people lament the absence of educational material suitable for K-12 students on global warming that isn't alarmist or overtly political," the report reads. "Heartland has tried to make material available to teachers, but has had only limited success."

Funding skepticism

Heartland focuses on free-market issues across the board, including promoting charter schools, lobbying for business-friendly finance, insurance and real estate rules and promoting prescription drug availability before full Food and Drug Administration testing.

In the area of climate change, the leaked documents revealed that the group funds vocal climate skeptics, including Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change founder Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), physicist Fred Singer ($5,000 plus expenses per month), and New Zealand geologist Robert Carter ($1,667 per month). They've also pledged $90,000 to skeptical meteorologist Anthony Watts, who blogs at WattsUpWithThat.com.

The documents also reveal a communications strategy aimed at "keep[ing] opposing voices out" of publications such as Forbes Magazine, where the audience is "reliably anti-climate."

On the education front, Wojick would be paid $5,000 per module, or $25,000 per quarter, according to the report's tentative estimates, to produce the Heartland climate curricula. The Institute's anonymous donor has pledged $100,000 to the project, which the Institute hopes to match from other donors.

Each module would inject skepticism into the scientific consensus on climate change. Example statements in the report include: "Whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy;" "Models are used to explore various hypotheses about how climate works. Their reliability is controversial;" and "Whether CO2 [carbon dioxide] is a pollutant is controversial." The modules would also teach that the idea of carbon dioxide as a pollutant is "controversial," arguing that carbon dioxide is crucial to life on Earth and that natural emissions are 20 times those of human emissions.

Creating controversy

In fact, while some of these statements may be politically controversial, they are not particularly scientifically controversial. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, which synthesizes global scientific findings about climate change, states: "Since the start of the industrial era (about 1750), the overall effect of human activities on climate has been a warming influence. The human impact on climate during this era greatly exceeds that due to known changes in natural processes, such as solar changes and volcanic eruptions."

Likewise, while models cannot represent the climate system perfectly (thus the uncertainly in how much the Earth will warm for a given amount of emissions), climate simulations are checked and re-checked against real-world observations and are an established tool in understanding the atmosphere.

And while carbon dioxide is crucial for plant life, the carbon balance on Earth is a delicate cycle, with oceans and land able to absorb only so much CO2. Humans do emit only a fraction of the 750 gigatons of CO2 that move through the atmosphere each year, but small changes in the total amount can overwhelm so-called carbon "sinks" such as the ocean, resulting in important, and cumulative, changes in the atmosphere. [10 Ways the Weather Changed History]

"These documents are breathtaking, and they reveal what many of us have long suspected: That there is a campaign afoot by groups directly funded by the fossil fuel industry and right-wing foundations such as Koch Industries to mislead the public about climate change," Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael Mann wrote in an email to LiveScience.

Other donors giving more than $10,000 a year to the Institute include Allied World Assurance Company, Amgen, USA, AT&T, Bayer Corporation, Comcast Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline and General Motors. Links to all documents can be found at DeSmogBlog.

enXco’s Pacific Hybrid Wind-Catalina Solar proj...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:25:19 +0000

Across Antelope Valley on the southern slopes of the Tehachapi Mountains, enXco’s Pacific Wind-Catalina Solar project, fully permitted by Kern County, has begun construction. Pacific Wind will be 140 megawatts and Catalina Solar will be 110 megawatts. Conceived separately but almost immediately adjacent to one another, the installations will share a transmission gen-tie and facilities at the point of interconnection, according to enXco Vice President for Southwestern Region Development Mark Tholke. It will be, Tholke said, a “world-class solar-wind hybrid.”

The project is positioned to take advantage of the new Whirlwind substation that Southern California Edison (SCE) is building as part of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP) for thousands of new wind and solar megawatts. The high desert has one of the country’s richest wind resources and is also “great for solar,” Tholke said. “The isolation is strong and it’s a little cooler because we have some elevation.”

Though California’s transmission system operator has advanced its management of variability, Tholke explained, a hybrid project makes the task somewhat simpler because, he said, studies show that wind and solar generate at different times. “Wind,” Tholke said, “might feed the transmission system 30 percent to 40 percent of the time. When you layer in the solar, that puts more power onto those same lines.”

Solar-wind hybrids are not uncommon in backyard setups in the U.S. and around the world. Where there is no grid service or in locations where someone wants to minimize grid reliance, a combination of solar panels and a small wind turbine may capitalize on local resources.

According to China state news agency Xinhua, North China Grid Co., a subsidiary of State Grid Corp, China's biggest transmission operator, recently brought on-line a 140-megawatt wind-solar hybrid project composed of 100 megawatts of wind and 40 megawatts of PV solar. It may be the only generating full-size, utility-scale, solar-wind hybrid project in the world. Described as a “demonstration project” in Hebei Province, the project reportedly also incorporates a 20-megawatt battery storage capability.

There are small utility-scale U.S. experiments combining solar and wind around the country. The first and most widely known is Western Wind’s “fully integrated” 10.5-megawatt system in Arizona. It is composed of five two-megawatt Gamesa turbines and a 500-kilowatt Suntech crystalline photovoltaic solar array. A number of developers have announced plans to retrofit solar energy systems immediately adjacent to producing wind projects to test their grid operators’ capability to integrate the two.

There is nothing in the U.S. on the scale of the enXco undertaking. It will use 70 two-megawatt REPower turbines and it will be the biggest Solar Frontier copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) PV installation in the world. EnXco has long aspired to build a hybrid project, Tholke said, to show how effective it can be to feed the grid with both resources. The physical proximity of Pacific Wind and Catalina Solar offered the opportunity.

EnXco has other hybrid projects in various stages of development, and, Tholke said, the company remains interested in the concept’s potential. Building this one has taught them much. “There are lessons learned along the way,” he said. “It would have, for instance, been more efficient if we had figured out the mechanics of how to share the gen-tie earlier.”

EnXco success is partially due to a tradition of energy development in Kern County that goes back to its days as an oil center. Another reason was what Tholke called “a robust outreach to landowners in the vicinity.” Finally, Tholke noted, the wind-solar project involved “over 300 landowners” and therefore offered a lot of people a personal interest in seeing it go forward.

Osorb: the nemesis of water pollutants?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:51:57 +0000

A high-tech chemical sponge that separates oil and other pollutants from water has enormous market potential.

It’s often said that oil and water don’t mix – but all too often they do, like in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, a high-tech chemical sponge has been developed that soaks up oil and other pollutants, separating them from water.

Marketed by ABSMaterials as Osorb, this organically modified silica attracts small organic toxins into its matrix, swelling up to eight times its initial size – but repels water. It can be cleaned for re-use up to 100 times, and generates no solid waste. Chemist Paul Edmiston, who created Osorb and founded ABS, has been known to prove its efficacy by spiking a glass of water with oil, adding Osorb, and then drinking the water.

The US Department of Energy carried out field tests and declared it highly effective, removing more than 99% of oil and grease from water and over 90% of poisonous volatile organic compounds.

ABSMaterials is on a fast track towards success. It was recently listed by Forbes as one of the most promising companies in the US, ranking 67/100. Investment has been raised to the tune of $15 million, and the product is already selling into the US, Canada, the EU, Korea and India.

Needless to say, challenges remain. The main ones, according to Taylor Lamborn, Head of Marketing at ABS, are getting the commercial price right and developing machinery compatible with a radical material. But the potential is massive. The most promising applications for Osorb are environmental remediation (following an oil spill, for instance), and cleaning up water used in drilling and mining for oil and gas. These are enormous global markets: an estimated $80 billion or more, according to ABS. Smaller-scale solutions include a soil blend that can capture and break down common pollutants in stormwater runoff, such as pesticides and harsh fertilisers.

This article by Carl Frankel originally appeared in Green Futures, published by Forum for the Future.

London gets wireless charging for EVs

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:00:13 +0000

Transport authorities hope wireless charging will increase the take-up of electric vehicles.

If you think it’s strange to plug your car into the mains overnight, then how about this for something even weirder: a recharge that’s completely wireless. Just park over a special pad, and your electric car’s batteries start to charge.

The technology has been developing rapidly in the last few years. Now it’s being piloted in London, with 50 ‘wireless-enabled’ electric vehicles (EVs) let loose on the city’s streets. The Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) trial will test technology made by Qualcomm that exploits a phenomenon called inductive charging to ‘refill’ EVs without any electrical sockets.

It works like this. Current passing through a charging pad in the ground generates an electromagnetic field that induces a current in a receiving unit fitted to the base of the car and connected to the battery. Many electrical toothbrushes are charged in exactly the same way. The charge time is the same as for a standard charge point and is 97% efficient. Similar systems are also being developed by WiTricity in the US, although nothing on the scale of the WEVC trial has ever been attempted so far.

The trial is backed by the Government, the Mayor of London and the capital’s transport authority, Transport for London, all of whom hope that wireless charging could increase the popularity of EVs. “It’s attractive for public charging points because it saves space and minimises visual impact", commented Ed Metcalfe, Institute for Sustainability.

Overcoming public suspicion of the novelty of EVs will be crucial to their success. A technology which does away with the need for charging posts and trailing wires could play a part in that. – Hywel Curtis

This article originally appeared in Green Futures, published by Forum for the Future.

2011 Another Year Toward The Alternative Energy...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:30:00 +0000

By Lois Moore e3wise.com

For all those people who keep saying that big oil, coal, and natural gas companies are keeping Alternative Energy from going main stream, 2011 has been another example of how the economics and profitability of Alternative energy is making a dramatic impact on the United States energy future. Main stream news media has been full of stories such as the downfall of Solyndra and the so called demise of the United States solar and wind markets yet a review of the advances made in new facilities coming on line in 2011 shows that while many alternative energy companies are struggling the development of new facilities is actually growing at a record pace. So to set the record straight here is a review of just a few of the recent advances coming on line in 2011.

In California a leader in alternative energy several new facilities have come on line in 2011. Western Wind Energy recently completed a 106 megawatt wind farm in Tehachapi California. A megawatt is roughly enough electricity to power 750 average American homes. This facility will complete the last 14 megawatts by late February 2012 to bring the total to 120 MW’s that’s enough electricity for 90,000 homes. This development along with five others new or expanded projects in California has added almost 480 megawatts of capacity in 2011 alone, that’s 360,000 homes of added capacity in California alone and it does not stop there. New wind farms were announced in 2011 for Oklahoma 60 MW, Michigan 59 MW, Washington State 105 MW, Texas 180 MW, and even Hawaii first wind farm 69 MW and this is just a small portion of newly constructed or approved wind and solar farms in 2011.

Next let’s review Solar increases. Driven on by the rapid decrease in cost of Photovoltaic (PV), Concentrated Photovoltaic’s (CPV) and Concentrated Solar (CS) 2011 will set new records for instillations. In the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone developers set a new record of 449 MW of new solar capacity roughly 337,000 homes, in one three month period alone. In fact more solar was installed in this three month period of 2011 then in all of 2009. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) estimates that 2011 numbers are on track to set a new record with increases estimated at 140% over 2010. Not bad for a year when the United States is still struggling to come out of the biggest economic crisis since the great depression.

Finally on the storage front 2011 is setting records for new battery and hydrogen storage instillation capacities to transform alternative energy from an intermittent energy source to a permanent long term energy provider. Storage has always been critical to make alternative energy available for when the sun is not shining or the wind blowing. In November the largest battery storage system to date 97.6 MW came on line at the Laurel Mountain facility in West Virginia delivering 260,000 Megawatt hours (MWh) of clean, flexible power to the grid for homes and businesses in 13 eastern states and the District of Columbia. Likewise several hydrogen storage facilities are being integrated into Utility and Military instillations to provide backup and primary energy, when ever and where ever needed. Add to this new bio-fuels, geothermal, hydro and hydrogen facilities and the picture becomes clear- Alternative Energy’s decreasing cost and overall profitability will make 2011 a record year for utilities, businesses and home owners. So to all those saying alternative energy can’t compete we say take a look at the facts, the alternative energy revolution is now and it’s here to stay.

Secretary Salazar Approves Two Utility-Scale Re...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:31:30 +0000

By Joseph Baker on December 20, 2011
On Tuesday, the US Department of Interior – (DOI) approved two utility-scale renewable energy projects to be built on public lands. Secretary Ken Salazar signed approvals for the Sonoran Solar Energy Project and the Tule Wind Project’s.
The Sonoran Solar Energy Project is being developed by Next Era Energy Resources. Located on 2,013 acres of public land in Maricopa County, Arizona, the proposed project will employ solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to produce up to 300 MW of solar power. The initial plans were for the project to use concentrated solar technology - which the Department's Bureau of Land Management says will reduce the amount of land (originally proposed 3,620 acres) and water the facility will require. However, this change of technology is consistent with the growing trend in the U.S. to move away from concentrated solar for the less expensive PV solar installations.
The Tule Wind Project, which is being developed by Iberdrola Renewable, Inc., will be located on 12,360 acres of public land San Diego County, California. The wind facility consist of 62 wind turbines that will have the capacity to generate 186 MW of renewable energy on public land and another 14 MW generated on private lands. Iberdrola Renewable business developer Harry McDonald said that the DOI's approval is one of many the project needs to obtain in the coming months.
“It is important that all our permits are secured in the next few months, so the project can have a chance to be built and deliver energy before the end of 2012 when the current tax credits expire,” said McDonald.
This announcement marks the 24 and 25 large scale renewable energy project the Secretary and the DOI have approved in two years. Commenting on the this accomplishment Salazar said that the 25 projects "will produce the clean energy equivalent of nearly 18 coal-fired power plants" and quickly followed by saying "a renewable energy revolution."
Posted by e3wise.

Press release: Energy Department Awards More Th...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:46:03 +0000

Energy Department Awards More Than $7 Million for Innovative Hydrogen Storage Technologies in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

The U.S. Department of Energy announced more than $7 million to fund four projects in California, Washington, and Oregon to advance hydrogen storage technologies to be used in fuel cell electric vehicles. The 3-year projects will help lower the costs and increase the performance of hydrogen storage systems by developing innovative materials and advanced tanks for efficient and safe transportation. These investments are a part of the Department's commitment to U.S. leadership in advanced fuel cell technology research to help domestic automakers bring more fuel cell electric vehicles into the mainstream market.

"Targeted investments in cutting-edge hydrogen storage technologies will spur American ingenuity, accelerate breakthroughs, and increase our competitiveness in the global clean energy economy," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "As we focus on energy security, strengthening our portfolio to include domestically-produced hydrogen and American-made fuel cells for transportation and energy storage applications will create new jobs and reduce carbon pollution."

The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is providing more than $7 million to the selected organizations, which are in turn providing close to $2 million in cost share. The projects focus on lowering the cost of compressed hydrogen storage systems and developing advanced materials for hydrogen storage. Compressed hydrogen storage provides a near-term pathway to commercialization, and reducing the costs of compressed tank systems will accelerate their market availability and adoption. Advanced materials-based hydrogen storage technologies will enable more efficient storage at lower pressures than current compressed hydrogen tanks.

As part of DOE's portfolio of zero-emission electric vehicle technologies that reduce dependence on foreign oil, the innovations achieved through these projects will address technical barriers to storing hydrogen onboard fuel cell electric vehicles. The research may also advance energy storage applications that could enable more efficient use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

The four projects selected for award are:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – Richland, Washington – Up to $2.1 million
DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in collaboration with Ford Motor Company, Lincoln Composites, Toray Carbon Fibers America, Inc. and AOC Inc., will use a coordinated approach to reduce the costs associated with compressed hydrogen storage systems. The project will focus on improving carbon fiber composite materials and the design and manufacture of hydrogen storage tanks. Through these advances, the team expects to lower the cost of manufacturing high-pressure hydrogen storage vessels by more than a third relative to current projections.

HRL Laboratories, LLC – Malibu, California – Up to $1.2 million
HRL Laboratories will investigate an innovative approach to hydrogen storage using engineered liquids that can efficiently absorb and release hydrogen gas. Liquids confined in porous structures have been shown to absorb significantly more gas and could create sites for hydrogen molecules that did not exist in the bulk liquid alone. HRL will use this concept to develop composite materials capable of dissolving up to 50 times greater quantities of hydrogen than in the bulk liquid, with the goal of enabling a high density, compact hydrogen storage option.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Berkeley, California – Up to $2.1 million
DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and General Motors, will use a theory-guided approach to synthesize novel materials with high hydrogen adsorption capacities. The team will develop and test "metal-organic framework" materials that have surfaces allowing high density of hydrogen, as well as materials with pores engineered to enable hydrogen storage at near-ambient temperatures.
University of Oregon – Eugene, Oregon – Up to $2.0 million
The University of Oregon, along with The University of Alabama, DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Protonex Technology Corporation, will develop and test promising new materials for hydrogen storage. The proposed chemical hydrogen storage materials could enable liquid refueling, and regeneration of the hydrogen storage material, within temperature and pressure ranges suitable for both onboard mobile and stationary fuel cell applications.

DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy invests in clean energy technologies that strengthen the economy, protect the environment, and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Find out more about DOE's support of research, development and deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

U.S. Solar Industry Posts Best Quarter Ever

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:21:36 +0000

New Hampshire, USA -- Judging by the headlines, the American solar industry is going through some rocky times. The Solyndra bankruptcy, the solar trade complaint filed against China and the pending expiration of a wildly popular grant program continue to provided fodder for an increasingly politicized discussion.

Perhaps lost in all of this is that a whole lot of people are quietly putting up a whole lot of solar. According to new data presented Wednesday by GTM Research, the third quarter of 2011 was easily the best ever for American installers.
There were 449 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected PV installed in the third quarter alone, putting the cumulative yearly total above 1 gigawatt (GW) for the first time. And that’s with the fourth quarter, traditionally the quarter with the most activity, yet to come. By the time 2011 is over, there could be 1.7 GW of new PV in the U.S. Perhaps most striking was that the third-quarter numbers were 140 percent higher than the third quarter figures from 2010.
Digging Deeper
The residential market grew by a healthy 21 percent over the third quarter of 2010. The utility sector, meanwhile jumped 325 percent year-over-year. The commercial sector, meanwhile fell 24 percent during the quarter.
The sharp growth in utility installations included 23 projects totalling 200 MW that were connected during the third quarter. (No concentrating solar power and concentrating photovoltaics projects came online during the quarter.) More than 500 MW of utility PV is currently under construction in the U.S., with expected completion dates later this year and into 2012.
The rise in the residential market comes after two down quarters. California saw its residential installations grow from 23 MW in the second quarter to 33 MW in the third quarter.
The commercial market’s 24 percent drop is attributed to simultaneous difficulties in the four largest markets — California, Arizona, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A rush to "safe harbor" projects so that they can qualify for the 1603 grant will likely lead to a surge over the first half of the year. However, New Jersey and Pennsylvania show little prospect for recovery in 2012.
Very Real Factors
The American solar industry faces two scenarios that could severely dampen prospects, at least in the short term.
Panel prices have fallen 40 percent in 2011, and this drop has helped drive the American market. But it isn’t coming without a potential cost. SolarWorld in October filed a trade complaint against China alleging that the country is unfairly subsidizing companies in its country, and that those panel makers are illegally dumping their products into the American market. An investigation is underway, and a ruling could come within the next month. Many industry executives are fearful that a prohibitive tax placed on lower-cost Chinese panels would derail the industry as it gains momentum.
A companion to the installation boom has been the Section 1603 Treasury Department grant, a financial tool that is credited with helping to finance tens of thousands of projects across several renewable industries. The grant, which was extended at the last minute in 2010, is set to expire on Dec. 31.
Very few analysts, however, see the extension of the 1603 grant as a plausible scenario given the extremely short timetable, the political makeup of the House and the polarizing effect of Solyndra.
The Solar Energy Industries Association continues to lead the charge, though, to urge lawmakers to extend the program for another year. The grant, developed during the height of the 2008 economic crisis and set in motion in early 2009, allows developers to receive 30 percent of the project’s cost after completion rather than waiting for a 30 percent tax credit, which doesn’t expire until 2016. The thinking goes that since the economy is still struggling to gain traction, there remain very few investors with an appetite for tax equity. The grant, however, allows these projects to go forward.
According to a letter sent Nov. 30 to leaders in the House and Senate and signed by 764 businesses and trade groups, the 1603 program has supported 22,000 projects in all 50 states and has helped spur nearly $23 billion in private investment. A report released by SEIA in October projected an extension would help add 37,000 jobs — 18,000 directly in the solar industry and 19,000 in industries affected by industry growth.

By Steve Leone, Associate Editor, RenewableEnergyWorld.com

China Emerges as an Unlikely Hero at COP 17

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:25:17 +0000

China is often criticized for being the world’s biggest carbon emitter, but at COP 17 the country has emerged as an unlikely hero.

China is in the process of reinventing itself and it is looking increasingly towards the green economy to do so.

Chinese delegation head Xie Zhenhua said China might be willing to sign a legally binding agreement for reducing emissions, post-2020 — if other countries keep their commitments, and depending on China’s state of development, and other pre-conditions.

Unlike the positions of the U.S. and Canada, “China is open,” Xie told reporters at COP 17.

According to booklet at the country’s official pavilion China is interested in “Working hard to tackle climate change.”

These claims as more than just hot air as China's new five-year government plan makes the country a global leader with its green growth and low-carbon initiatives.

However, China has repeatedly stated that as a developing nation, with no historical responsibility for carbon emissions, it cannot be held to the same standards as industrialized countries.
“China will shoulder the responsibility that is appropriate to its development,” Xie reiterated Monday.

South African international relations minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said "China is laying its cards on the table. Other negotiators will be laying the cards on the table and work then gets escalated. And that is what makes us hopeful we are moving in the right direction,” she said.

Despite a steller communications initiative China is unlikely to consider signing an internationally binding deal until after 2015, when a scientific assessment ends, and it wouldn’t take effect until 2020 at the earliest.

Until then China will focus on its domestic policies related to climate change, and the particularly tough task of implementing emissions controls in a country with runaway growth and the world’s biggest population.

Google retired PowerMeter service on September...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:12:39 +0000

Google launched PowerMeter as a free energy monitoring tool to raise awareness about the importance of giving people access to their energy information. PowerMeter included key features like visualizations of your energy usage, the ability share information with others, and personalized recommendations to save energy.

It's been yanked since September. See details here.

Visit: Old PowerMeter site.

Energy Saving Light Bulbs | Which save the most...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:15:12 +0000

Do you know that lighting up your home is about 11% of all the electricity you use? Do you know that switching to energy saving light bulbs can decrease your energy costs with at least $50 per year, if you give up 15 traditional light bulbs? The energy saving light bulbs are not only a great green step forward, but also a good money saver. The more energy efficient are your light bulbs, the bigger the savings. Here is a comparison of the major types of energy saving light bulbs used at home, the pros and cons.
Incandescent bulbs – What has changed after 130 years?

These are the traditional light bulbs that we use for the last 130 years. We are so much used to them that we hardly pay attention to how often we have to replace them. The life of one incandescent bulb is between 700 – 1000 hours. Their major drawback is that 90% of the energy is produced as heat instead of light. That’s why they get so hot once they are switched on.
Finally, beginning 2012 the Energy Independence and Security Act will come into effect and will require the light bulbs in use to be 25 – 30% more efficient than the current incandescent light bulbs. We will use the so called halogen incandescents, which will last 3 times longer than the traditional ones.
Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)

They are the same as fluorescent lights but smaller and with a warmer light. CFLs live longer than the incandescent bulbs – between 7500 and 10000 hours. A 14 Watts CFL is equivalent to 60 Watts incandescent bulb. There are also dimmer switch CFLs. If you want to match the warm white light of the incandescent bulbs, choose CFLs with K (Kelvin) number between 2700 – 3000.
CFLs are more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but they use 75% less energy and will pay for themselves in about 9 months. After that you start saving!
Apart from being energy saving light bulbs, CFLs have some disadvantages:

the small amount of mercury (toxic metal) in the lamp is considered as health thread if the bulb gets broken; Note: Always recycle your CFLs!
CFLs need 1 – 3 minutes of warming up till they reach their full light power, so this makes them a good choice for rooms where lights are left switched on more than 15 minutes;
if CFLs are switched on and off very often they lose much of their lifespan;
CFLs are sensitive to high and low temperatures as well as dampness.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) – The Most Energy Saving Light Bulbs for Your Home

LEDs have stopped to be used as pen lights only and are now considered as the most energy saving light bulbs to lighten up our homes. The 60 Watts incandescent bulb is equivalent to 6 Watts LED. Their lifespan is 50000 hours. They are mercury-free and very solid.
The initial cost of LEDs is higher than the one of CFLs, but these bulbs require 75 – 80% less energy, so they will pay back the investment you have made. Moreover, LED technology evolves very quickly, which makes the price of LEDs continuously drop.
How to Conserve Energy – Final Tips:

make sure you replace your conventional holiday light strings with LEDs to save energy and money;
look at the label of the energy saving light bulbs before shopping. 1600 lumens is equivalent to a 100-watt incandescent bulb. The higher the number of lumens, the brighter the light is.
find energy star appliance rebates in your state.

5 No-Sew Projects for Old Jeans

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:35:49 +0000

Most of us have them -- old jeans stuck in the back of closets or drawers that we no longer wear. They might be shredded beyond belief or they might not fit because we lost weight. We aren't interested in turning them into cutoff shorts because we aren't teenagers any more, and let's face it, sewing new things out of old jeans sounds great, but many of us just don't have the skills. Or the patience.

If you can't donate your old jeans to worthy causes or charities (which is the ideal option), do something fun and funky with them. The holidays are coming up and these projects make terrific gifts for tweens and teens. In most cases all you need is a hot glue gun and a pair of scissors. Although, based on one of the projects, investing in a roll of Gorilla tape is not a bad idea for a myriad of projects.

Denim Pocket Bulletin Board - with or without the pockets this is a great idea. If your fabric isn't enough to cover the board all in one piece, think about making it a patchwork board.

Jeans Book Cover - perfect for covering boring and old 3 ring binders

Denim Pocket Magnets - sweet magnets perfect for refrigerators and lockers that are easy to customize with your own style

Simple no-sew messenger bag from an old pair of jeans - this is where the Gorilla tape comes in handy - and looking at the project I can think of all sorts of cool-looking uses for it

Blue Jeans Denim Bootie Bag Purse - you might not want to put anything too heavy in it, but it's cute

And for a bonus sixth project, dress up cheap flat wood picture frames by cutting pieces of old jeans or other fabrics and gluing them onto the frames to give them new life and style.

Small Cities for a Sustainable Future

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:31:38 +0000

In 1975 Ernest Callenbach published a novel called "Ecotopia" in which he explored the idea of an ecologically sustainable society. In order to create this society, the states of California, Oregon and Washington secede from the USA and proceed to dismantle industrialized cities. The book addresses many of the topics and issues involved with the maintenance of a stable ecosystem that minimizes the footprint of humans, including transportation, pollution, agriculture, housing and workplaces.

One idea that Callenbach's fictional state espouses is the concept of mini-cities. His ideal mini-city had a population of less than 10,000 people all living within half a mile of a rapid transit station. Chains of mini-cities were separated by open green spaces and farms, and the next mini-city in a chain could be reached in 5 minutes by rapid transit. Private vehicles were not allowed inside mini-cities. Housing, retail stores and workplaces were interposed throughout the city, with schools and recreation facilities on the outer edges.

It sounds idealistic, but is it completely unrealistic? It might be easier to build from scratch rather than remake our existing large cities, but the US is scattered with small cities that could provide a template for such a plan.

In her new book, Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World, Catherine Tumber explores the concept of a renaissance of smaller cities and their future. According to a review by Scott Carlson on Urbanite, she looks at the

Quote

"potential in many busted and booming-again cities in the Northeast and Midwest, cities like Flint, Michigan; Muncie, Indiana; Peoria, Illinois; and Youngstown, Ohio... These places, she writes, are both big enough and small enough to manage a coming societal transition, in which people may have to live on constrained oil supplies and rely more on local networks for food and other goods...

So how do these small cities, long derided as provincial and irrelevant, prepare for the future that Tumber sees coming? She focuses on several broad topics...: controlling sprawl and redeveloping the suburban fringe, developing agriculture in and around the city, reviving small-scale manufacturing, and redesigning economic networks and school systems. All of these topics involve interlocking policy conundrums that may be more easily navigated in small cities, where relationships are closer and bureaucracy less entangling."

Sounds like at least part of Callenbach's vision, 40 years later.

Tumber's book will be released in November and is available for pre-order through the publisher, MIT Press.

Save Money and Energy: Insulate Your Home

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:07:09 +0000

To make your house more energy efficient you need good insulation of floors, walls, roof and windows. When you reduce heat loss your house will be more comfortable to live in, and it will certainly lower your electricity bill at the end of the year.

Let us start with the windows. The best way to prevent heat loss is to use double glazing. Double glazed windows are windows formed by two glass panes with a space in between. The air trapped between the panes forms a layer of insulation. Once installed throughout the house your heating costs will decrease considerably.

If drafts roam freely through your home you may consider doing something about cracks and crevices in walls and frames. It does not matter whether you use weather strips or other materials like putty, drywall mud, as long as you make sure seams and cracks are closed. Do not be too fanatic in sealing everything tight as some ventilation of the house is necessary.

Wall insulation depends on how your home was built, with cavity walls or not. A cavity wall consists of two walls separated by a cavity. For wall insulation this cavity can be filled with insulating material, glass wool. This glass wool guarantees a perfect insulation and prevents moisture penetration. Nowadays newer houses, built after 1980, all have wall insulation (Holland!).

Roof insulation keeps the house warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Insulate the roof on the inside with thermo sheets and make sure the roof is windproof to prevent heat loss in winter. When there is an attic which is not used as a bedroom and not heated in winter one can also insulate the attic floor.

Investing in insulating your home will save substantially on energy costs en thus returns your investment in the long term.

Leaf Blowers are Bad - Here's Why

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:49:14 +0000

It's a beautiful, crisp morning as I write this. The sun is burning off the remnants of wispy fog, revealing trees cloaked in vivid, startling colors of red, orange and yellow. Birds are rioting through the trees and squirrels scamper around in the fallen leaves. The peaceful morning is suddenly interrupted by the roar of a leaf blower. With a shriek, the birds take flight and the squirrels take refuge high up the trees. I have an instant headache.

Defenders of leaf blowers usually concentrate on complaints about the noise they make, comparing them to other city noises and pointing out the regulations that only allow their use during times least likely to annoy most people. Yes, the noise is bad, but that's just the beginning.

Gasoline powered leaf blowers are the most unnecessary piece of landscaping equipment ever invented. They use fossil fuels and blow eye-watering exhaust fumes into the air, contributing to air pollution.

Despite regulations in many cities, many people handling leaf blowers blow the leaves into the street where they clog storm drains, causing or contributing to flooding and polluted run-off.

Blowing leaves stirs up dust and mold, contributing to allergies and asthma.

The average sized city or suburban yard doesn't need a leaf blower. Rake leaves and use them for mulching and composting. Alternatively, use a special piece of equipment called a Leaf Collector that costs about the same as a leaf blower and makes it fast and easy to sweep up leaves from your lawn.

Creole-Style Vegetarian Jambalaya

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:11:36 +0000

Total Time:

Prep Time: 25 mins
Cook Time:1 hour

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups yellow onions, small dice
1 cup red onion, small dice
1 cup bell pepper, small dice
1 cup celery, small dice
2 cups eggplants, small, diced
1 cup yellow squash, diced
1 cup zucchini, diced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons shallots, chopped
3 cups tomatoes, chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons creole seasoning, to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 bay leaves
4 cups long grain rice
1 cup tomato paste
8 cups vegetable stock
1 cup green onion, chopped

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat.
Add the onions, shallots, celery, bell peppers and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the eggplant, squash, and zucchini, and saute until they're tender, about other 5 minutes or so.
Add the tomatoes.
Season with salt, Creole seasoning, and additional cayenne, if desired.
Add the bay leaves.
Add the rice and stir for 2 to 3 minutes.
Heat the tomato paste in a non-stick pan and stir, making sure it doesn't stick or burn, until the sugars in the paste begin to caramelize, and the paste begins to turn a deep mahogany color.
Deglaze with some of the vegetable stock, stir and combine thoroughly.
Add the tomato paste to the rest of the vegetable stock and stir until well-blended.
Add the vegetable stock/tomato mixture to vegetables, stir and cover.
Cook for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed.
Do not stir the jambalaya while it's cooking.
Remove from heat and let stand for 2-3 minutes.
Add the green onions and mix thoroughly.
Garnish with some fresh long chives, and serve with a salad and good beer.

Souce: Miss Annie