Energy storage coming to a power grid near you

Someday, the electricity grid will operate with the equivalent of a giant hard drive. But in the short term, grid storage will look more like a PC's cache or RAM, able to serve up small bursts of power to keep things from crashing.

A panel of experts, organized by the New England Clean Energy Council, earlier this week said that the utility storage field has enormous potential. But rapid deployment of storage devices is held back by concerns over technology risk and financial complexity.

Technology optimists say that wide-scale energy storage will change the face of the transmission grid and make wind and solar power more compelling economically.

In this scenario, utilities store electricity made from renewable sources or produced during off-peak times. Then, when demand for electricity peaks in the middle of the day, they could draw from the stored-up charge.

This "peak shaving" practice avoids the need to build new power plants to meet growing demand. Utilities could also idle dirty and expensive "peaking plants," which are only turned on during times of high demand, such as very hot summer days when air conditioners max out the load.

But moving megawatts' worth of electricity around the grid like files on a computer is more theory than practice these days.

"Buying power at night and then selling it during the day--something like that will happen maybe in 30 or 40 years when storage technologies are one-tenth the costs they are today," said Ric Fulop, co-founder and vice president of business development at lithium-ion battery company A123 Systems.

But as utilities try out new technologies for different uses, Fulop and others predicted that storage will start to take hold in a variety of ways.

"I think we will see a lot of deployments in the next few years that will change how the grid works," Fulop said. "Then we'll see utilities jump on the bandwagon."

Two markets for energy storage
A123 Systems, which makes batteries for plug-in hybrids and power tools among other devices, is actively pushing into utility storage with more than 100 people dedicated to the market, said Fulop.

It's targeting what's called grid stabilization, or grid support, where warehouse-size installations of lead-acid batteries are the incumbent technology. That alone is a multimillion dollar market and will pave the way for different grid storage applications, he said.

With grid stabilization, kilowatts' or a couple of megawatts' worth of electricity are pumped onto the grid for a short amount of time, from a few seconds to under an hour. It's used to match grid demand and supply to make generators run more efficiently or to ensure a steady frequency.

Earlier this year, grid operators in Texas had to shut down power to its customers because the wind died down momentarily, effectively cutting off supply from its wind farms, noted Lawrence Gelbien, vice president of technology at utility NStar.

"If you could take the wind power, store it in batteries, and discharge when the wind starts again, then that's a fine application of storage," he said.

Gelbien said that storage units could be deployed in place of installing more "wires and poles" in a place that isn't served with enough electricity to meet demand for only a few days of the year. Because storage devices are movable, they could be redeployed in other places after a few years as the need arises. more...

Five Ways To Attract Green Customers – From Yahoo Green

Green entrepreneurs, like any business man or woman, are constantly seeking the best way to attract new customers. In the eco friendly arena, these customers come in a variety of rapidly changing consumer profiles. As I wrote about in my post, How to Reach Green Consumers - Using Psychographics To Define Your Target Market, green consumers range from the super committed LOHAS who are very progressive on environment and society, to the Drifters who not too concerned about environment, figuring we’ve got time to fix environmental problems.

Trying to reach these varied consumer groups can be challenging. Advice is always welcome.
So some interesting information from Yahoo Green, a website launched last year by the venerable internet giant, sheds some light on the best way to do that. Yahoo managers have been tracking click-throughs, purchases and eyeballs on their new site. Incremental changes in the sight have revealed nuances not considered before and at the recent Sustainable Brands Conference,Erin Carlson, director of Yahoo’s social responsibility department, went over a few.

1. Consumers don’t want doom and gloom. They want to hear about optimistic innovations – to hear about what’s possible. For example, a story on an air-powered car proved a powerful draw

2.There’s a lot of skepticism about celebrities’ green endorsements. “People want to know if there’s been a back-room deal signed to promote that star’s image,” Carlson said. “Green and celebrities are not necessarily a good match.” Imagery of real people making a difference is much more effective.

3.Consumers love surprises. Some of last year’s biggest clickthroughs? An article about a woman who lives in an 84-square-foot house, and a feature on the Pope adding environmental degradation to list of sins. “People want to be able to drop these tidbits at the next cocktail party,” said Carlson.

4.What’s in it for me? Consumers are interested in new gadgets that save money and products that offer health benefits.

5.There’s a shift from awareness to action. Top-searched environmental term in 2006? “Climate change.” Top-searched in 2007? “Recycling.”

Reported in Sustainable Brands Weekly, the advice provided by Yahoo Green is applicable for both web based and more traditional, bricks and mortar companies.

Carlson’s advice to online marketers? Piggyback green promos on traditionally high-interest categories (remember all those consumers that are curious about green products and services, but only if they’re served up on a platter). For example, Yahoo’s holiday gift guide last year featured a green product alongside the latest hot gadgets and toys – and traffic on those products went through the roof.

EIA Predicts 50% Increase in World Energy Consumption by 2030

World marketed energy consumption is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2005 to 2030, according to a new report from the United States Energy Information Agency. Total energy demand in non-OECD countries is projected to increase by 95 percent, while OECD countries are expected to increase consumption by 24 percent.

According to the annual report, International Energy Outlook, the robust growth in demand among the non-OECD nations is largely the result of strong projected economic growth. In all the non-OECD regions combined, economic activity is predicted to increase by 5.2 percent per year, as compared with an average of 2.3 percent per year for the OECD countries.

I’ve gleaned some of the notable highlights from the report and digested/paraphrased so you wouldn’t have to. The full report will be out in July.

Carbon dioxide emissions

World carbon dioxide emissions will continue to increase steadily in the IEO2008 reference case, from 28.1 billion metric tons in 2005 to 34.3 billion metric tons in 2015 and 42.3 billion metric tons in 2030—an increase of 51 percent over the projection period. With strong economic growth and continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels expected for most of the non-OECD economies, much of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is projected to occur among the developing, non-OECD nations. In 2005, non-OECD emissions exceeded OECD emissions by 7 percent. In 2030, however, non-OECD emissions are projected to exceed OECD emissions by 72 percent.

Coal and carbon

In the absence of national policies and/or binding international agreements that would limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, world coal consumption is projected to increase from 123 quadrillion Btu in 2005 to 202 quadrillion Btu in 2030, at an average annual rate of 2.0 percent. Coal’s share of world energy use has increased sharply over the past few years, largely because of strong increases in coal use in China, which has nearly doubled since 2000 and is poised to increase strongly in the future. more...

Volkswagen to Produce Plug-In Hybrid Electric Cars in 2010

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Mercedes will produce electric cars, comes the news that fellow German manufacturer Volkswagen plans to produce a test fleet of plug-in hybrid electric cars by 2010.

A few months ago, to much excitement from the automotive press, the company unveiled a diesel-electric Golf but, according to VW chief Martin Winterkorn, “the future belongs to electric cars.” To help in mapping out the road to this electric future, the company have unveiled a plug-in hybrid powertrain, called the Twin-Drive, which will make its first appearance in a Golf kitted out with a 122-horsepower diesel engine, twinned with an 82-horsepower electric motor.

A key difference between the VW approach and typical hybrids is that instead of the battery providing supplemental power to the combustion engine, the Twin-Drive will work the other way around. According to Winterkorn, “here the diesel or gasoline engine supplements the e-motor.”

The car will use lithium-ion batteries and have a range of 31 miles on purely electric power. Over the last few months, Volkswagen has invested heavily in li-ion battery technology. In addition to teaming up with Sanyo in a $769 million dollar development project, the company has also formed the Lithium-Ion Battery 2015 Alliance (LIB2015) with Bosch, BASF, Evonik and others, backed up by a €60 million investment from the German government.

Volkwagen says it will have a test-fleet of twenty Twin-Drive Golf’s on the road in 2010, but there is still no news on plans to ramp-up commercial production. Given the level of investment being ploughed into the technology, I have a hunch that such an announcement won’t be too long in coming.

The Bottom Line: Green Home Upgrades & Home Values

With many cities experiencing a real estate “slump”, homeowners around the country are looking for ways to stand out from the slew of homes on the market, while improving their home’s resale value. Other homeowners are planning for the future: a future of ever-rising energy prices.

Regardless of your situation, you may be asking yourself if green home improvements increase the home’s value. The answer isn’t as straight-forward as some might hope.

The old rules still apply…

Before we dive in, there are a few things to consider when thinking about making home improvements – green or not. First, remember the three rules of real estate: location, location, location. The return on your investment will depend on the value of your house and others in the neighborhood, as well as your local housing market. Other factors like the quality of the workmanship, and how soon you move after making the improvements weigh in as well.

One man’s treasure…

That said, there are actually two different values to consider when judging the return on home improvements, according to Dr. Harold Hunt, a research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University: value in use and value in exchange.

To explain these concepts, let’s use a little story. Ted owns a home, but is looking to move soon. Ted is concerned about climate change. After some research, Ted decides to make a few eco-friendly improvements around his home that will increase its resale value, including a new energy-efficient air conditioning system and installing bamboo floors. This is exciting to Ted. He looks forward to bragging about going green to all of his friends, and selling the house at a premium.

Bill is looking to buy a house. Bill wants to get the best deal that he can on a new home, closer to work. When Bill sees Ted’s house, he is excited – with high energy costs, the new air conditioning system will save him money. Bill looks forward to seeing how much smaller his energy bills will be in his new home. Oh, and the new floors look nice, too.

OK, back to reality! Ted provides a very good example of value in use. His satisfaction in the green improvements can be measured in both monetary terms (saving money on energy) and non-monetary terms (reducing his impact by using bamboo versus hardwood flooring, and bragging to his friends). Unfortunately, Bill may not value the non-monetary rewards enough to pay a premium for them, illustrating value in exchange.

So how does Bill and Ted’s adventure apply to you? If you’re not planning on moving any time soon, invest in changes are eco-friendly and that you’ll most enjoy. Until green features become mainstream – and corresponding increases in home values can be measured – it’s hard to know what buyers will be willing to pay for. Just keep in mind that come moving time, green amenities and features may not appeal to everyone, but energy- and money-saving green features will.

Hedge your bet… more...

Thin film and solar cell analysis

Semicon West 2008, San Francisco, will see the debut of a new release of Panalytical's proven software for thickness and composition of thin films by X-ray fluorescence (XRF)

The new SuperQ 4.0 Thin Film package features updated fundamental parameter software (FP Multi) for the analysis of complex multi-layer stacks, with best in class performance on up to 16 layers It is also now possible to measure and track wafers throughout various deposition steps, until a film stack is completed

For each measurement, the results of the previous steps are taken into account, delivering rapid and automatic verification of layer and stack thickness and composition across the complete wafer.

The software makes it easy for even relatively inexperienced staff to run day-to-day analysis.

At the same time, it delivers powerful data on thickness, composition, stoichiometry, dopant levels and uniformity for a wide range of layer types and stacks.

Stop by booth 106 (South Hall) for a demonstration.

Panalytical's X'Pert Pro MRD and X'Pert Pro MRD XL X-ray diffraction (XRD) systems are valuable tools for R+D and process control for III-V, and other, types of solar cells.

Superior resolution and advanced detectors characterise the systems and unique Prefix modules allow reconfiguration without the need for extensive alignment.

X'Pert Pro systems are the ideal choice for studying a wide range of parameters including film thickness, roughness and density, texture in films, and thin film stress.

Depth resolved phase analysis of layer stacks, precise measurement of lattice parameters and assessment of epitaxial layer strain, composition and relaxation are also common applications.

Crystallite size and porosity can be analysed too.

As thin film technology advances, semiconductor and hard disk manufacturers increasingly rely on XRF analysis.

Panalytical's Semyos energy-dispersive XRF wafer analyser can play a vital role.

The system combines the company's extensive know-how on thin film XRF analysis and best in class sensitivity with a less than 23um FWHM (full width, half max) measuring spot, to enable direct measurement on production wafers of up to 300mm.

Semyos perfectly meets the needs of the semiconductor and data storage industries.

Applications include: characterisation of films containing elements from Al onwards in metrology areas in the scribeline, accept/reject assessment of complex stacks, control of the metallization processes, analysis of barrier films, and characterization of read/write heads and magnetic media thin films.

A versatile front end module enables Semyos to load 100-300mm wafers from a user-selected combination of SMIF, FOUP and open cassette load ports.

The Solar Industry Grows Up

The recent announcement on June 2, 2008 , that Robert Bosche GmbH (privately-held) plans to buy German-based Ersol Solar Energy AG [FRA:ES6] provides another example of how global industrial conglomerates are carefully watching for opportunities in the fast-growing solar sector.

Bosch bought a majority stake in Ersol for 546 million euros from Ventizz Capital Partners at a 63% premium to Ersol’s closing price on May 30. Bosch plans to make a public tender offer for the remaining 50.45% of the company, according to Bloomberg News. Ersol’s stock rallied 63% on June 2 in response to the takeover news and has since remained near that level, indicating market confidence that the takeover will be completed.

Ersol Solar Energy AG is a diversified solar player that has a scrap silicon recycling operation and produces polysilicon, silicon wafers, silicon solar cells, and thin-film solar cells and modules. Ersol has about 1,000 employees. Revenues in Q1-2008 roughly doubled year-on-year to 52.4 million euros and net income was 3.2 million euros.

Ersol’s management expects to have 180 megawatts of wafer production capacity and 220 megawatts of crystalline solar cell production capacity by the end of 2008. Ersol has provided guidance for 300-320 million euros of revenue in 2008 and 70-80 million euros of operating profit. Ersol said that its production output for 2008 is already completely sold out.

What is one of the world’s largest automotive component part maker, with 46 billion euros in sales, doing buying into the solar sector? The simple answer is diversification into the promising solar sector and away from the low-margin automotive components industry.

The solar industry has grown at a 47% average annual rate in the past six years and is poised to grow at an annual rate of about 40% for at least the next several years. The solar industry has reached mass production stage with about $30 billion in sales in 2007, according to Photon International. The upside for solar is truly massive since solar power accounts for only 0.06% of world electricity generation at present (according to Photon Consulting), meaning the sector has room to grow at double-digit rates for literally decades without hitting saturation levels.

There are a handful of large industrial conglomerates that have already been in the solar business for years. Several Japanese-based conglomerates were pioneers in the industry and have long ranked in the top 20 global solar cell/module producers. In 2007, Sharp (SHCAY.pk) ranked as the second largest solar cell/module producer (behind Q-Cells FRA:QCE in first place), Kyocera (KYO) as fourth, Sanyo (SANYY.PK) as seventh, and Mitsubishi Electric Corp [TYO:6503] as twelfth, according to PV News’s 2007 rankings (www.prometheus.org).

Other global conglomerates have also been players in solar for years including BP (BP), General Electric (GE) and Boeing’s Spectrolab (BA). Two large companies, Swiss-based OC Oerlikon AG [VTX:OERL] and U.S.-based Applied Materials (AMAT) have quickly become the two leading players in producing turn-key thin-film solar module fabrication lines that other companies can buy to produce solar modules in their own factories.

Large utilities and construction companies have also entered into the business of developing solar photovoltaic or solar thermal projects, including (among others) Spain-based Acciona (ACXIF.PK), Spain-based Iberdrola SA [MCE:IBE] and its recent spin-off off its Iberdrola Renovables unit [MCE:IBR], and FPL Group (FPL).

In another example of large companies moving into solar, Moser Baer India Limited [BOM:517140], the world’s second largest manufacturer of optical storage media, has entered the solar sector in a big way with both crystalline silicon cell technology and thin-film technology. Moser Baer plans to use its world-class manufacturing know-how to drive down the costs of solar cell production and become a major global player.

What’s going on here? Simply put, the solar industry is growing up. The solar industry is simply following the tried-and-true industry model where small, specialized players blaze the way with revolutionary technology and a big dose of risk-taking and fortitude. Then the large players in the sector snap up the winners after they prove their technology and sales traction. This is akin to the old adage of letting the pioneers in the industry get shot in the back with arrows and then buying up the ones that are ultimately successful. The solar industry has now reached a level of maturity where there are likely to be more cases of large industrial companies buying up mid- to larger-tier solar companies.

Shipbuilder Hyundai strengthens solar activities

Hyundai Heavy Industries (009540.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's largest shipbuilder, ordered five solar cell production lines from Centrotherm (CTNG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), strengthening its activities in the lucrative sector.

Hyundai ordered five turnkey production lines for crystalline solar cells of 50 megawatts (MW) each from Germany's Centrotherm, to be delivered to South Korea next year, Centrotherm said on Tuesday in a statement.

The total order volume adds up to more than 50 million euros ($77.82 million), it added.

Last year, Hyundai completed a solar cell and module factory in South Korea, investing over $30 million.

The Hyundai order drove Centrotherm's order book position to 712.9 million euros, it said. (Reporting by Eva Kuehnen, editing by Will Waterman)

Community Solar Power

A community in Canada has an unusual form of solar power that can provide over 90% of the annual heating and hot water needs for the homes, despite being situated in a cold Alberta location where winter temperatures can reach -33 degrees C (-27 F).

The Drake Landing Solar Community collects solar energy in a heat storage fluid through an array of solar panels on the roof of each home and covering all of the garages at the back of each home. The heated fluid is transferred to a neighborhood energy center, and then into the ground beneath an insulated layer, where the heat is stored in the earth.

Combined together, the 52 home community is able to collect and store enough energy from the sun during the summer that the ground storage temperatures reach 80 degrees C (176 F). This heat is sufficiently insulated beneath the ground that it can be drawn from throughout the winter to provide heat and hot water.

The homes in the community are moderately sized, ranging from 1,492 to 1,664 square feet, and are insulated to a level 30% higher than the average home in Canada in order to keep the energy needs low enough to work with the system. The homes are also closely located to one another. This provides a more walkable neighborhood, as well as reducing the lengths that the fluid for the solar heating system needs to travel.

Entire Neighborhood Has Shared Solar Heating

The system works in part due to the scale of the project utilizing the combined capacity of the entire community. A similar system scaled down to a single family home version would not work as efficiently simply because too much heat would be lost. But the scale of a system for 52 households makes this a feasible project.

While the technology is similar to a ground source heat pump, which relies on a relatively stable, constant temperature of the ground, the Drake Landing Community is actually storing heat throughout the summer and then relying on that banked heat during the winter.

Solar heating is a more exciting prospect than solar generation of electricity because heating is a much larger percentage of a home’s total energy use (60% for space heating, 20% for water heating, and 20% for appliances, lights, and other electrical loads).

Hybrid Fest 2008: July 19th & 20th in Madison, WI

Now that you know when it is and what it’s called, I’ll tell you a bit about what it is. Firstly, it’s a bit of a misnomer. Hybrid Fest isn’t really all about hybrids. I know this because my website is a sponsor this year, and we’re definitely not all about hybrids.

So what is HF really? It’s a get together with tons of green car enthusiasts, including hybrid owners, biodiesel producers, ecomodders, and everyone else. The show will be kicked off early on Friday with a fuel economy competition and then get down and dirty on Saturday and Sunday with speeches, discussions, hybrid test drives, and a whole host of other goodies you can find out about on the website. HF will also be a time for companies to show off new green tech, including some of the big guns like GM and Toyota, but also many smaller companies working on things like plug-in hybrid conversions.

If you live anywhere nearby, it should be great fun, and I highly suggest you come out. Personally, I’m driving 925 miles from NJ to run a booth and show off my car. If you care to swing by, I’ll have my heavily modified CRX out for show as well as Ben Nelson’s DIY electric motorcycle. The show was a big success last year, and the plans are even bigger for this go around, so don’t miss the opportunity to see in real life the kinds of things talked about on gas2.0.

Want to Be the Change? Here’s How

These days there is an increasing amount of people who care about the health of the planet, their community, their family, themselves. Where they come from is also increasing in breadth, now including people far beyond the usual suspects, even from 5 years ago. You don’t have to be a Greenpeace activist chaining yourself to ships to make an impact these days. In fact, it seems there’s an overwhelming amount of options, big and small, to make a positive impact. It’s enough to leave anybody dumbfounded as to what to do.

Along comes Be The Change, an environmental leadership program from Silicon Valley based Acterra. They sum it up best when they say:

The program emphasizes building skills that enable people to act within the organizations where they work, live, worship and play to bring about significant changes in how they relate to the natural world.

Basically, they give you the framework, tools, knowledge, and help give direction to and cohesiveness around your desire to make a difference, so that you can powerfully help affect change, wherever you are. And this is where action needs to happen. Yes, we have leaders in government duking it out to sound as climate positive as possible, but in the end, it’s multiple, deeply ingrained actions among multiple types of community and workplace that will lead to a sustained impact.

What does it look like? In a nutshell, it meets once a month for a year, with solo and group activities in between. Just the title of the curriculum components tells a lot: Visionary Leadership, Environmental Information, Skill Building, Networking, Personal Mastery, and Practice.

This practical, ongoing, dedicated approach to creating effective change agents is a model that I think should be studied and replicated in other parts of the world. How about where you live?

Natural Gas Can Power Vehicles OR Electric Power Plants

There is nothing really new about using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a vehicle fuel. It works well in internal combustion engines and it is possible to squeeze enough energy on board in a reasonable size tank at a reasonable pressure to provide gasoline or diesel equivalent range. There are modification kits available for a number of automobiles, there is at least one production automobile (Honda Civic GX) and there are a number of options for buses (Viking CNG BS-III, New Flyer C/L30LF, C/L35LF, C/L40LF, etc.) suitable for municipal fleets.

The new thing, the reason that talk about CNG is growing, is that natural gas now costs about half as much per unit energy as gasoline and has an even greater cost advantage over diesel fuel.

With new software and lean-burning regimes available, CNG powered engines have improved their fuel economy to the point where they have reached essential parity with engines powered by the sister fossil fuels of gasoline and diesel. To compare fuel cost per mile, it is not a bad approximation to compare fuel costs per BTU, (or MMBTU, or therm).

I know, there are enough different units out there to cause some confusion, but if you want to do battle with the energy suppliers, you have to learn their language. Two thumb rules worth knowing - multiply the cost of natural gas in $/MMBTU by 6 and you will find out how much an oil equivalent barrel of natural gas costs. Multiply the cost of a gallon of diesel fuel by 7 and you will find out its cost in $/MMBTU.

One of my most frequently visited web sites is Bloomberg.com: Energy Prices where you can find the market prices for a number of different fuels. There you can find daily market prices (without taxes and retail mark ups) for natural gas, gasoline and distillate fuels (heating oil and diesel fuel are essentially the same composition.) Example: today, natural gas delivered to New York City gate (a trading hub) costs $13.92, the equivalent of $83.50 per barrel when converted to oil equivalent units. Diesel fuel costs $3.92 per gallon, the equivalent of $27.50 per MMBTU. Arm yourself with this information and you can see why people in decision making positions are looking hard at CNG again... more here

Stunning Eco Home To Be First Andalusian Zero Carbon Footprint House!

The team at Diseño Earle was kind enough to pass along some info and images of their stunning design of The Eco Home -- a knockout that's aiming to be the first 'zero carbon' footprint home in Andalucia, or even Southern Spain for that matter! D Earle designed the home with two objectives in mind: (1) zero carbon footprint, and (2) reduce operating costs to almost a self-sufficiency level. The 6995 sf home, which is absolutely enormous, will be built with 75% less waste than a traditional design and operate 80% more efficiently than a similar sized home. And although the home design was constrained by the narrow, non-flat site, you can tell there was no restraint in creating the ultimate, luxury, green pad.

The Wing-Like Rooftop:
A key environmental aspect of the home is the wing-like roof. Not only does the roof bury and embed the solar panels out of sight, but it's at the right angle to capture and convert the sun's rays into energy. In addition, the design calls for space between the roof and home so that less direct heat is absorbed by the home and air can pass over it, cooling the structure in the process.

The Eco Home has all the green features you would expect in a luxurious green abode, including: rainwater reclamation system, grey water recycling, radiant heating system powered by the solar panels, geothermal energy for back-up cooling and heating, low VOC paints, LED lights, environmentally-sensitive smart glass and abundant natural lighting, and energy and water efficient appliances.

D Earle anticipates that the home will be available for purchase in 2009.

First glimpse of ZAP Alias prototype revealed in video

We recently got word that a ZAP Alias prototype had been built but at the time, we couldn't find any pictures. With a link supplied by commenter "Jay," that situation has been somewhat rectified. Although we don't have photos beyond the screen grabs you see above, there is a news video from NBC24 showing off the car from different angles. They even chat with the Craig Winn of Applied Technologies, the man responsible for this first iteration.

From what we can tell, the prototype stays quite true to the drawings and video renditions previously released. It looks real and not made of styrofoam. He hope to get more and better pictures soon as well as an updated production schedule. If Electric Cars Europe want to import it, seems like the pace ought to be picked up a bit, no?

Schwarzenegger criticizes McCain's offshore drilling proposal

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a veiled swipe at Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday when he said at a climate conference here that anyone suggesting offshore oil drilling could bring down gas prices was "blowing smoke."

The remark was also a dig at his host, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who riled environmentalists, tourism promoters and the state's political leaders on both sides of the aisle last week when he voiced support for McCain's proposal to lift bans on exploring for oil off the coasts of California, Florida and the Eastern Seaboard.

McCain and Crist, whom the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is rumored to be considering as his running mate, have come in for heavy criticism for backing exploration that many Floridians and Californians fear could pollute the coastal playgrounds that are vital to their states' tourism-dependent economies.

Crist, who thrilled environmentalists Tuesday with the announcement of a major land purchase to speed restoration of the Everglades, has since modified his stance on offshore drilling to say he would support it only if guarantees were in place that no environmental harm would result.

From his podium at the conference, Schwarzenegger said, "Politicians have been throwing around all kinds of ideas in response to the skyrocketing energy prices, from the rethinking of nuclear power to pushing biofuels and more renewables and ending the ban on offshore drilling," Schwarzenegger said. "But anyone who tells you this would bring down gas prices any time soon is blowing smoke."

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear later contacted The Times and other news media to say the governor's remarks were not aimed at McCain or Crist.

The Austrian-born governor also chastised U.S. energy consumers for lagging behind those in his state and Europe in using renewable resources and likened the challenge of combating global warming to defeating communism and putting a man on the moon.

Schwarzenegger also touted California's leading role in the green revolution, repeating pledges to have the state using renewable sources for a third of its electrical generation by 2020 and to have 7 million more hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by then.

The skyrocketing cost of America's "oil addiction" threatens the nation's energy security and its image in the world as an innovative leader in science and engineering, he told Crist's second annual forum aimed at bringing the fight against climate change down to the grass-roots level.

"Working together we can create a comprehensive, innovative energy policy that helps consumers, protects our planet and builds a stronger and more secure America," Schwarzenegger said. "We can make America No. 1 in fighting global warming."

Schwarzenegger hailed his state's landmark global warming law as a blueprint for the country to follow and urged the federal government to "get on board." He called it "shameful" that the United States as a whole gets less than 2% of its energy from renewable sources, compared to 12% in California.

Denmark gets 20% of its power from wind turbines and Germany and Brazil lead respectively in the development of solar power and ethanol, the governor noted.

"I want America to be No. 1. America can and should do better," Schwarzenegger vowed.

Washington has been "unwilling to hold automakers' or oil companies' feet to the fire" to get them to build more fuel-efficient cars and find less-polluting substances to power them, he said, noting that the average passenger vehicle in the U.S. gets less than 25 mpg.

"The Model T did better than that," Schwarzenegger said. "But since the Model T disappeared, America summoned the political will to put a man on the moon, end legal discrimination and bring down the Berlin Wall."

He said "big science, big technology and smart policies will help America reach its rightful place in the world."

Both governors appealed to those with the real power to make change -- average citizens -- to drive slower, keep engines tuned and tires properly inflated, to buy hybrids and lower overall consumption.

"We all do have the power. Let's not wait for government," Schwarzenegger concluded. "Energy prices are not going back to the good old days."

Florida and California have some things in common, he said playfully:

"We each have a governor that is nice and tanned. Each has a governor that can rip off his clothes and look great in a swimsuit on the beach. And each of us has a governor who can run as vice president."

Power Plant Efficiency Hasn’t Improved Since 1957

Americans have a habit of framing our scientific history as a series of Great Inventors, from Eli Whitney to Thomas Edison to Afrika Bambaataa. The history books say each was prodded by Adam Smith’s invisible hand to come up with the great technological advances that have made our country a home of innovation.

There’s a problem with this mythology: sometimes there’s no invisible hand. Sometimes short-sighted government regulations give preference to bad technologies over good ones — stifling innovation and blinding us to our own ability to make progress.

Nowhere is this mythology more evident than in our energy system, the most heavily regulated and subsidized industry in the country. A host of bad regulations have made this system grossly inefficient, contributing both to global warming and to high power costs.

The US today converts fossil fuel into electricity at 33% efficiency, throwing away two-thirds of every unit of fuel we burn in cooling towers and smoke stacks. That’s the same conversion efficiency we had last year. That’s the same efficiency we had in 1980. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1957 to find a year when the electric sector wasted more energy than they do today.

During the same period, we’ve seen automobile fuel economy skyrocket (especially on a horsepower-adjusted basis). We’ve seen massive increases in the efficiency of our electric appliances. We’ve even seen boring old steam boiler efficiency increases with modern controls, recuperators and preheaters. And yet the efficiency of electricity generation is stagnant.

It’s not stagnant because we’ve hit any fundamental limit. Indeed, studies by the US Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency have identified a whopping 200,000 MW of potential (that’s 20% of the peak power demand of the US) for proven technologies that either recover waste energy from industrials and/or cogenerate heat and electricity from a single fuel source.

The worst of these technologies is twice as fuel efficient as the current electric grid. Fully deploying that potential would not only cut CO₂ emissions by 20% — about the same as if we took every passenger car off the road — but would also cut our energy costs, simply by burning less fuel. And those are just the technologies we’ve taken the time to quantify.

So what’s holding these technologies back? Nothing more than our regulatory paradigm.

A couple of examples:

1. Our century-old electric regulatory model pays utilities a return on their capital investment, but compels them to pass along all operating costs to consumers at zero mark-up. This creates a great incentive to build capital-intensive boondoggles. It completely isolates electric utilities from the economic principles that drive “normal” businesses, wherein capital and operating cost reductions are a route to greater profits. This has conspired to make our electric sector openly hostile to efficient power generation. It explains why their efficiency hasn’t moved since 1957, and why that sector now accounts for 42% of US CO₂ emissions.
2. The Clean Air Act mandates end-of-pipe pollution control technologies that universally impose additional parasitic loads on industrials and power plants to run baghouses, catalyst beds, electro-static precipitators and any number of other technologies. All these parasitic mandates have the perverse consequence that our environmental policy mandates reduction in criteria pollution and mandates increases in CO₂ emissions. Worse, a facility that has the temerity to improve the energy efficiency of their process will almost certainly trigger New Source Review, under which they will have to come into compliance with new, more stringent permits than the one they currently operate under. These two features of the Clean Air Act conspire to make many industrials openly fearful many otherwise sensible steps to lower their greenhouse-gas signature (and lower their operating expense.)

None of this is to suggest that we should not continue to pursue technological revolutions, of course. But if those technologies bring about cheaper, cleaner, more efficient energy, they will find themselves blocked by precisely the same regulations that are keeping existing technologies out of the market. Technology is important — but regulatory reform to remove our barriers to energy efficiency is the critical path.

Build Your Ultimate Green Kitchen

Making your new kitchen as green as possible, without regard for cost. Remember, often the greenest options is to keep your current kitchen; many choose to repaint their cabinets with non-VOC paint or to tackle DIY cabinet projects. This article is for those building a whole new kitchen or are remodeling from the ground up. It’s up to you to determine the balance between what is the most green and what is the most practical for your project.

The three categories that determine a product’s green-ness are health, sustainability, and energy. Health takes into account the product’s offgassing of VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, especially urea-formaldehyde. In order to even consider something as green, it must contain very low to no VOCs. Sustainability looks at the life cycle of the materials used not just in the final product but in the manufacturing process as well. Products that are made from recycled materials or renewable resources fall into this category, as well as products whose manufacturing process embraces sustainability. Energy includes the water and energy usage of products such as plumbing fixtures and appliances, as well as the product’s embodied energy, which takes into account the energy used to produce and deliver the product.

Step 1: Design. If possible, design the kitchen with plenty of energy efficient windows or a skylight to maximize natural light and give you that important connection to the green outdoors (or the red bricks of the building next door.) For indoor air quality, make sure your hood vents to the outside rather than recirculating the air.

Step 2: Cabinets. We are in an in-between phase right now where the major cabinet manufacturers realize they need to go formaldehyde-free but are still a few years away from mass production. Currently, formaldehyde-free cabinet choices are limited, and Neil Kelly Cabinets stands out as the leader. They offer Forest Stewardship Council certified wood cabinets with low VOCs. Midwesterners might choose to go with ultra low VOC wheatboard cabinets manufactured in Kansas by Koch Cabinets.

Step 3: Countertops. Silestone offers several colors with recycled content, one as high as 70%, which makes the Greenguard certified countertop one of the greenest. But IceStone recycled glass and concrete countertops, with their Cradle-to-Cradle Certification, take the crown as the greenest among an ever growing list of green countertops. Not just limited to countertops, IceStone has earned points for LEED’s “innovation in design” credit.

Step 4: Flooring. I’m not quite sold on bamboo, yet. I do, however, like some of the cool patterns you can get with cork and linoleum. But the green flooring that impresses me the most is reclaimed wood flooring by Terramai. Offering a stunning mix of FSC certified wood from around the world, Terramai promotes conservation and sustainable building. Not limited to flooring, Terramai’s reclaimed wood creates a mosaic of wood in a cool mix of colors.

Step 5: Appliances. Because of the advances in energy efficiency in appliances, it is often better to replace your old energy wasting appliances, especially refrigerators, with new models. Visit the ENERGY STAR website for appliance lists, which show energy savings by model. For dishwashers, some of Bosch and Asko’s models are at least 140% more energy and water efficient than the federal standard. Fisher & Paykel sells dish drawers that can save water and energy if you just use one for small loads. (And yes, most energy saving dishwashers are more efficient than washing your dishes by hand.) For the cutting edge on refrigerator energy efficiency, check out Sun Frost, whose refrigerators are by a large margin the most energy efficient on the market - and they’re ready for solar, wind, or standard power inputs.

Step 6: Plumbing. Although the EPA’s WaterSense program doesn’t rate kitchen faucets, you can choose to install an aerator or go with a touchless faucet. While stainless steel and cast iron sinks contain recycled material, I’ve become a fan of recycled content hammered copper sinks that over time can develop a natural patina that is, you guessed it, green.

Step 7: Accessories. Recycled glass tile can make for a beautiful backsplash. Instead of a trash compactor, stick one of these home composters from Sun Frost right outside your kitchen door. Many of the products listed above can be used in creative and innovative ways. IceStone can be used as a backsplash. Terramai can be used as paneling.

Low Cost Gas Engine Innovation Doubles Fuel Economy

Revetec, a little known company from the Gold Coast region of Australia, may be on to something huge: they’ve created an engine that is 50% smaller, 50% lighter, has 50% lower emissions and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional internal combustion engine of the same horsepower. Oh yeah, did I mention that it doubles the fuel economy too.

What that means is a car like the 2007 Toyota Yaris, which is rated at 40 mpg on the highway, would get 80 mpg with a Revetec engine.

This isn’t some hoax… They have a prototype which has been attached to an actual vehicle and independently tested to substantiate their claims.

In personal communication with Mr. Brad Howell-Smith, the Chairman, Inventor and CAD Designer for Revetec, he says “road tests have estimated that [the engine] uses around 50% less fuel than a conventional engine” and if it were converted to run on diesel, that performance gain could be much higher.

Also, because the engine delivers higher torque, and can perform and operate well at much lower rpm’s than a conventional one, the noise levels are lower.

To illustrate how serious he is, Mr. Howell-Smith said that since 2001 his company has been in touch with the US Military Head of R&D for the Southern Hemisphere on a “regular basis” for the purpose of developing one of their engines for light aircraft.

The current prototype engine, the X4v2, is what Revetec calls a “controlled combustion engine.” The meat of the engine comprises two counter rotating multilobate cams, which are acted upon by two pairs of diametrically opposed pistons which are rigidly interlinked by connecting rods.

If that sounds like complete gibberish to you, you’re not alone. Which is why I included an animation of the process to the left. A more simplified animation of the general motion of an engine of this sort is also included below.

Mr. Howell-Smith said that “if [the engine] uses 50% less fuel given that it has the same top end as a conventional engine, emissions would be reduced by 50% if the bottom end was utilized.”

What does all that stuff about “bottom end” and “top end” mean? The X4v2 has a huge amount of torque over a much larger range of rpm’s than a conventional internal combustion engine.

If a person were to drive a vehicle fitted with this engine in a non-aggressive fashion and keep the rpm’s at the “bottom end” (meaning no “jack-rabbit” starts) they could expect to see a 50% reduction in emissions.

Alternatively, according to Mr. Howell-Smith, a person could see a 30% reduction in fuel use and a 30% reduction in emissions if they used the full acceleration power of the X4v2 all the time. This would provide a 20% increase in acceleration capabilities.

We could debate about whether or not the internal combustion engine has a place in the future of transportation or whether it’s going to be all-electric or fuel cell or whatever… but in the meantime, Revetec has a product that could revolutionize the the transportation industry now, and provide a much needed large reduction in fuel consumption and emissions.

Just imagine a bunch of 80 mpg Toyota Yarises (Yarisi??) running around all over the place. A little scary, I know, but… an 80 mpg conventional automobile? I must be dreaming, wake me up before I get too excited.

Storing the Sun: Molten Salt Provides Highly Efficient Thermal Storage

Despite their widespread use, solar technologies suffer the limitation of most renewable technologies: an unpredictable operating profile due to weather variations. However, using the highly efficient properties of molten salt for heat transfer, one technology insulates electricity production from weather volatility and, more importantly, it offers the capability to dispatch electricity as needed without requiring the use of natural gas. This technology is a concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, built around a proprietary central receiver tower and molten salt loop.

Thermal storage is widely regarded as the future for the renewable energy campaign because, unlike many intermittent renewable resources such as wind energy, it offers a "zero-emissions" technology with firm capacity and dispatchability characteristics. The thermal storage system provides an added benefit: allowing the plant to be designed to optimize the electricity load profile to meet specific market needs. A plant can be designed, for instance, to maximize electricity production during a period of peak demand or to continue to produce electricity after the sun goes down.

Figure 1 (left) illustrates how the thermal storage system can be utilized to "shift" electricity production to the peak demand period. Solar energy is collected when the sun begins to shine, but electricity is produced approximately 6 hours later in order to generate electricity during a period of peak demand. The red line represents direct solar irradiation, the solid blue line represents the production curve without storage and the dotted blue line represents the production curve with 6-hr storage.

Technology Description

Thermal storage technology uses a solar "power tower" design, which generates power from sunlight by focusing energy onto a tower-mounted central heat exchanger or receiver.

more here ...

Politicians intervene in Iberdrola merger

Some business leaders and politicians are upset that a state agency is putting roadblocks in the way of a merger between a Spanish power company and RG&E's parent company.

They like the idea of a merger between Iberdrola and Energy East, which owns RG&E and NYSEG, largely because the company promises to invest up to $2 billion in wind energy development. Greater Rochester Enterprise, for example, pitches Rochester as a high-tech community on the forefront of renewable energy development. Its leaders see Iberdrola as a good fit in the community.

The state's regulatory watchdog, the Public Service Commission, has the final say on the merger. Its staff, as well as a judge involved in the proceedings, have recommended against the merger as proposed. They are concerned it would give the company too much clout in the power market. Competition could be stifled, they say, because Iberdrola would own both the means of producing and distributing energy. If the commission does allow the merger, Iberdrola should have to sell off its wind power assets, they say. Iberdrola officials, meanwhile, have said that they will walk away from the deal if they're forced to give up those assets.

"I think it's good the PSC has asked the questions, but I think clearly the right decision is to endorse the proposal," says Sandy Parker, CEO of Rochester Business Alliance.

Iberdrola owns a 50 percent stake in the state's largest wind farm, Maple Ridge, and has plans to develop around a dozen more. Worldwide, they are one of the largest wind energy producers.

Politicians think the company could be a valuable partner in helping the state meet its renewable energy goals - 25 percent of the state's power is supposed to come from renewables by 2013. So some influential Republicans and Democrats are starting to run interference with the process.

During a radio show appearance, Republican State Senator Joe Bruno said the judge involved in the proceedings should be "dismissed" for ruling against the merger.

United States Senator Chuck Schumer has been especially vocal on the merger, which he favors. He's called the demand that Iberdrola sell off its wind farm assets "irrational and illogical." He'll meet with PSC chair Gary Brown to discuss the judge's recommendations that the company not be allowed to own renewable energy facilities, including wind farms.

The PSC staff and the judge are just doing their jobs - to independently review whether the transaction is in the public interest - and politicians shouldn't criticize their recommendations, says Fairport resident Charles Straka. He's not involved with the merger case, but he is an unpaid representative of the average customer - an intervener in technical terms - in an ongoing RG&E rate case. And much of his interest in the merger deals with competition and its effect on rates.

"If the Public Service Commission process is overruled, who's going to control rates at all?" he says. more ...

One Way Nuclear Power Can Help Ease the Motor Fuel Crisis

Robert Bryce, the managing editor of Energy Tribune is one of my favorite energy thinkers. He is a throwback journalist with an inquiring mind who asks hard questions and really thinks through the answers. He has recently written a book titled Gusher of Lies.

I have not yet had a chance to read the book, but I recently listened to a Tavis Smiley show interview with Robert where he talked a little about one of the topics discussed in the book - the use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel.

This topic caught my interest as my energy obsessed brain began weaving several threads into a new pattern. One thread is the growing disconnect between the cost per unit energy of natural gas compared to diesel fuel in the United States. Another thread is a story that has been playing on my drive time radio station about the challenges that local school districts are facing as they prepare their student transportation budgets in the face of rapid increases in the cost of diesel fuel. The final thread is my continuing belief that new nuclear power plants have a role to play in alleviating our current energy crisis.

Let me try to weave those thread together in a cohesive way. In Europe, oil prices and natural gas prices have a definite linkage, but in the United States there are often market conditions where one fuel develops a significant cost advantage over the other. Such a situation exists today. To compare different energy fuels, we should think about convenience of storage, flexibility in consumption, delivery mechanisms, and cost per unit energy.

The traders have not made that last bit easy, over the many decades that energy fuels have been bought and sold, some rather unusual units have become the standard. Most of us are familiar with diesel or gasoline prices in $/gal, but natural gas trades in a unit that looks really strange the first time you see it - $/MMBTU. MM is the Roman numeral representation of thousand thousand or 1 million. A reasonably accurate thumb rule is that 7 gallons of diesel fuel contains one MMBTU. more...

Airlines Looking for Alternatives: Air New Zealand Tests Biofuels

Recently, Virgin Airlines garnered a lot of support and criticism for their announcement that they would be experimenting with biofuels. Now, Air New Zealand has annoucned that it will begin testing a new generation of biofuel this year. With the goal of converting a portion of its domestic fleet to run on the renewable fuel source within five years, the airline will be the first in the world to test a biofuel derived from jatropha, a bush grown in India that produces seeds with a high oil content.

An airline spokesperson commented that early tests showed biofuels cost about half the price of normal aviation fuel and produced half of the environmental emissions. Of course, regulators will have to approve the fuel for “safety” before they can officially convert the fleet, but rising prices for aviation fuel and falling support of the airline industry are spurring the search for an alternative.

This is just a preliminary step and is in a research phase. Alternatives to the jatropha plant, such as algae, exist. Not to mention, availability and infrastructure for international as well as domestic flights doesn’t currently exist and won’t until airlines and fueling companies are able to reach an agreement.

Helio Introduces Residential Solar Plan

Helio Micro Utility Inc. (Helio mU) has announced the launch of its Helio Green Energy Plan for residential customers to go solar. The Helio Green Energy Plan does not require an upfront payment for panels, consumers pay only for the electricity produced by the system.

The Helio Green Energy Plan is initially available to homeowners in Santa Monica and other select California markets, according to the company.

"Financing a residential solar panel system, particularly in our current economy, has been the major stumbling block for even the most enthusiastic green consumer," said Mo Rousso, Helio mU's CEO. "The Helio Green Energy Plan puts the power of choice into the hands of the consumer. Now they can save money and the environment. The program will also greatly accelerate the adoption of solar power in California.

Solar panels, clothesline help family slash energy bills

For the past few years, Dan Redmond has been on a mission to change the way his household uses energy.

As concerns about global warming and rising energy costs grow, many families like the Redmonds are looking for ways to change the way they use energy.

Three years ago Redmond began embracing solar energy to power his suburban Washington home.

And he's not alone in turning to the sun for energy. The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates there are about 250,000 homes in the United States with some sort of solar power, although not all of them have taken the concept as far as the Redmonds. Last year, 13,000 homes installed solar power.

"We're just making different decisions about how we live our life," Redmond said, "And what's important to us as well, as being able to show our two boys that when they grow up they're going to need to know to be more flexible in most parts of their life and they're going to need to be adaptable." more...

News Siemens Plant To Produce Mechanical Drives for Wind Turbines

Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. announced that it plans to invest more than US $20 million to develop a second plant in Elgin, Illinois for its Drives Technologies business. Siemens is the largest producer of wind turbine gear drives in the United States.

The new plant, expected to be completed in March 2009, will create approximately 300 new jobs in production and 55 new office jobs over the next three to four years. The State of Illinois and the City of Elgin provided a number of incentives to Siemens to help secure the investment including a Wind Energy Development Grant and Employer Training Investment Program job training funds.

"Siemens is committed to providing technologies that promote energy efficiency and reduce costs," said Anne Cooney, vice president of the Power Conversion Division for Siemens Energy & Automation. "Combined with the expertise and product knowledge we have in Elgin, the new facility will enable Siemens to increase production of our mechanical drives to help our customers meet the growing demand for sustainable energy resources."

EcoPower Faucet Saves Energy by Recharging with Each Use

We are all familiar with touch-less faucets, which not only decrease infection rates but keep lazy people from letting the water run as they brush their teeth. Great idea, but an idea that requires electrical energy or a battery to run the infrared sensing device. Now Toto, the Japanese company that makes simple, elegant, and water-saving bathroom fixtures, has developed a touch-less faucet that also saves energy.

The EcoPower faucet contains a small turbine inside. The turbine, powered by the water running through the faucet, creates an electrical current that is stored in rechargable cells. The faucets supply the very energy they consume by using the flow of water to spin a high-efficiency turbine to both create and store power. Eco Power replenishes its charge with as few as 5 uses per day, and with as few as 10 uses a day, the backup battery itself is seldom used and can last up to 19 years. Elegant!

McCain Proposes $300 Million Prize to Developer of “Super Battery”

On his campaign swing through the west, Sen. John McCain proposes awarding $300 million to the first developer of a battery technology that exceeds all known technology today. The package would have to be superior to any technology known today, to power plug-in hybrids or electric cars.

McCain is also focusing on alternative fuels, suggesting a $5,000 tax credit for every person who buys a zero-emission vehicle. He says that should level “the playing field for all alcohol fuels that break the monopoly of gasoline”.

It seems like McCain is jumping from one side of the fence to the other in his campagin. Last week he sided with President Bush, calling for resumption of off shore drilling, now he’s beating the drum for alternative fuels.

And let’s not forget McCain’s call for 45 more nuclear reactors by 2030.

I’m confused. Could he be appealing to those who hear only what they want to hear? That might cover both bases and get a few more votes.

Meantime, Senator Barak Obama opposes the idea of offshore drilling, saying it won’t answer the immediate problem facing motorists around the world. He blames, in part, the speculation of energy traders for the upswing in oil prices.

Dyson Plans Solar Powered Car

Vacuum Cleaner Whiz Going To The Streets

The king of vacuum cleaners, James Dyson, is betting that a souped-up version of his vacuum cleaner and hair dryer motors will power cars over hundreds of miles.

Using technology developed for his lightweight electric motors, Dyson hopes to partner with Honda or another car maker, rather than build a car from the ground up.

Solar panels on top of the vehicle, or on the garage where it is stored, would provide electricity to charge the car’s battery. Of course, the best performance would probably come from a country where there’s abundant enough sunshine to keep the battery charged.

Of course, he could also think about adding a plug-in function, just in case it stays cloudy for days on end.

Engineers at his Wiltshire HQ are currently said to be developing the motor at its facility in the Uk.

The British inventor has made a fortune with his bagless vacuum cleaner and hand dryer.

His first endeavor was the Ballbarrow, a wheel barrow he invented in the 1970’s, which led to the vacuum cleaner, the “supercharged” hand dryer, and more recently a two-drum washing machine.

Dyson believes electric cars are the future for city driving at present, but with his new motor they could reach much higher speeds and have a longer range.

Just think, you could whiz down the road, vacuuming up dust and debris, then blowing it to the side of the road or into a side-car Ballbarrow for dumping at an appropriate site.

What a concept.

Free Global Warming eBook

Island Press is marking the 20th anniversary of ‘global warming’ as a term entering the public consciousness with a free electronic copy of The Challenge of Global Warming, an early book addressing the issue.

On June 23, 1988, NASA Scientist James E. Hansen testified on Capitol Hill before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Hansen told the Senate committee that global warming was real – and was happening now.

Other news sources also had articles and coverage of the 20th anniversary of ‘global warming.’ Links to some of those stories can also be found on the Island Press site.

Download the entire book (15.7MB) or James E. Hansen’s chapter, “The Greenhouse Effect: Impacts on Current Global Temperature and Regional Heat Waves” (3. 6MB) in PDF format from Island Press at: http://www.islandpress.org/content/index.php?pid=142

Japan arrests environment blogger for exposing a whale meat scandal

Japanese police have arrested two Greenpeace activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, for exposing a whale meat scandal in Japans government-sponsored whaling programme last month. According to the police the activists are “being investigated for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat which they presented as evidence.”

Junichi Sato is a well-known anti-whaling blogger in Japan and Greenpeace claims that this was, on the eve of the International Whaling Commission meeting, “an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for whaling.” The Japanese media are, according to Brian from Making Waves, saying that this arrest is “a warning to other activist groups that as the G8 approaches, voices of dissent in Japan will not be tolerated.”

“This was not a police action - it was an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for whaling - and the kind of harassment of whistleblowers that a modern democracy should not allow. Our first news that an arrest was imminent came from Japanese television stations. Someone leaked the information to ensure images of Greenpeace activists in handcuffs appeared on news reports in Japan.

More than 40 police officer raided our offices and the homes of the activists, and spent 10 hours seizing cell phones, documents, and computers, despite the fact that we had documented every step of how we obtained the whale meat, turned the full dossier over with the evidence, and made ourselves available to police to help with the investigation at any time. A simple phone call could have brought Junichi and Toru to the police station. Instead, the government made a public spectacle of shutting Greenpeace down.”

Jun Hoshikawa, Greenpeace Executive Director, says that the arrests are the counterattack from the Japanese Government for exposing the black market trade of stolen whale meat from the government-supported whaling fleet.

“This is the backlash. We’ve uncovered a scandal involving powerful forces in the Japanese government that benefit from whaling, and it’s not surprising they are striking back. What is surprising is that these activists, who are innocent of any crime, would be arrested for returning whale meat that was stolen from Japanese taxpayers. In whose interest were these arrests made? Because it would appear to us that this is an intimidation tactic by the government agencies responsible for a scandal.”

Greenpeace are now asking people to take action, they also demands that Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki will be released from custody and that the real criminals are put into jail instead.

Top 10 Green Building Products [Sustainable Industries]

Just recently, Sustainable Industries announced their list of the Top 10 Green Building Products for 2008. To get that magic number of 10 products, SI accepted roughly 80 nominations and narrowed those products down based on their ability to meet the following criteria: LEED compatibility, environmental performance, value, scalability / market impact, innovativeness, and design aesthetic. Without further ado, here are the Top 10 Green Building Products for 2008:

• Compressed Earth Blocks (link)
• EcoTop by Kliptech (link)
• Lamberts Channel Glass Walls (link)
• Masa Cabinet Hardware (link)
• MetroPaint (link)
• Resource Monitor (link)
• Solar Tracking Skylights (link)
• Straw Wall by Green Design Systems (link)
• Thermastrand Radiant Barrier Sheathing (link)
• Salvaged Hardwood Tables (link)

Saudis invest in silicon nanowires, trying to bury battery breakthrough?

All right everyone, it's time to warm up your conspiracy theories. Back in December we reported on a potential breakthrough in battery technology from Stanford University's Professor Yi Cui. Dr. Cui developed a silicon nanowire material for use in battery electrodes. The beauty of the tiny wire bundles is that they have exponentially more surface area than a conventional flat surface electrode. That allows the electrodes to absorb and release far more electrons for greater energy density. Now we have news that Cui has received a $10 million grant for the expansion of his research. The money will be used to hire more students and staff for Cui's research lab at Stanford.


All this is well and good, except ... the money is coming from Saudi Arabia. The new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in the oil-rich monarchy is giving grants to Cui and eleven other researchers around the world. Cui and the other grant recipients will spend time each year at the new university helping to develop curriculum. The important question is what conditions are put on the research results. Will silicon nanowires ever see the light of day?

Heating Plug-in Hybrids

The potential of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles to curb petroleum use has grabbed a lot of attention lately. But there is still a big obstacle to clear before such cars can become the dominant vehicles on the road: automakers will need to find an efficient way to supply them with heat and air conditioning. That's because conventional heating and cooling systems either don't work or are inefficient in such vehicles, significantly lowering their range in hot and cold weather.

One of the leading candidates for an alternative system is based on thermoelectrics, semiconductor devices that can provide either heat or cooling, depending on the direction the electric current is flowing. Major automakers, such as GM and Ford, are now developing systems based on existing thermoelectric semiconductors, and experimental materials that use nanotechnology promise to make such systems even more appealing.

The first plug-in hybrids--cars that can be recharged by plugging them into an electrical socket, but have small gasoline engines to extend their range--will make use of electric heaters. When they start appearing from major automakers near the end of 2010, they'll cost thousands more than conventional cars, so automakers are looking for ways to make them less expensive to broaden their appeal. One way to do so is to find more-efficient systems of heating and cooling, which make it possible to use smaller, less expensive batteries. As a result, thermoelectric systems could start appearing in cars in 2012.

The heating systems in today's cars rely on the fact that internal combustion engines are terribly inefficient--about two-thirds of the energy gained from burning gasoline does nothing to propel the car. But this inefficiency does generate massive amounts of heat. Some of that heat is used to warm passengers. Plug-in hybrids, which run mostly or entirely on electricity for local driving, don't generate such quantities of waste heat. So, heat has to be generated using power from the battery, draining thousands of watts that could otherwise have been used to propel the vehicles. While plug-in hybrids consume dramatically less gas thanconventional cars in mild weather, in cold weather the benefit will be much less, according to Clay Maranville, a senior researcher at Ford Motor Company.

A similar problem holds true with air conditioning--the electric range of plug-in hybrids will drop in hot weather, either because the gasoline engine needs to kick in to spin a conventional compressor, or because an electric compressor will drain the battery.

Green Campaign Watch: Obama in Bed with Ethanol?

You know ethanol’s public image is poor when the media starts using it as a discovered skeleton in the closet. The New York Times takes a look at presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s Midwestern ethanol interests. The senator from Illinois’ “close links” with the ethanol industry are more like mere associations.

But the article does spark discussion on the extreme differences between Obama and McCain on biofuels. McCain is an ardent free trader and while he’s not against biofuels specifically, he’d rather the market dictate our energy winners and losers (unless it’s nuclear). McCain wants to do away with the massive subsidies corn growers and ethanol blenders enjoy and our 54-cent protectionist tariff on imported ethanol.

Obama thinks this is a bad idea because replacing imported Middle Eastern oil with imported Brazilian ethanol will not help our energy security. Domestically produced ethanol, both corn and cellulosic, can provide jobs and increased self-reliance, Obama says. We hope to see ethanol come up as a debate issue as we move toward the general election.

Here’s the list of the ethanol connections the Times reports:

• Obama has been joined on the campaign trail by former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle who the Times reports now sits on the boards of three different ethanol companies, including Mascoma.
• Jason Grumet, Obama’s lead adviser on energy and the environment, previously served on the National Commission on Energy Policy, an initiative associated with Daschle and Bob Dole. Dole is a big ethanol backer and has close ties to agribusiness giant Archers Daniel Midland.
• Early in his Senate career Obama broke decorum and flew twice on subsidized corporate jets owned by Archers Daniel Midland which is headquartered in Obama’s home state of Illinois and is the largest producer of ethanol in the country.
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None of these links seem particularly damning, but Obama’s associations with individuals have plagued his campaign, from Reverend Wright to Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. While these ethanol connections are important to keep in mind, none of them seem to warrant an all out attack on Obama’s energy plan.

Japan Airlines plans cellulosic biofuels flight

The company will work with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney on the demonstration flight.

Tokyo-based Japan Airlines announced today that it's planning a demonstration flight using second generation biofuel, which would be the first such demonstration by an Asian carrier.

The company said it would work with Chicago's Boeing (NYSE: BA) and East Hartford, Conn.-based Pratt & Whitney on the biofuel flight.

In March, Houston-based Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) said it would conduct a biofuels demonstration flight in the first half of 2009 (see Continental Airlines to test biofuels).

And earlier in the year, the U.K.'s Virgin Atlantic completed the world's first biofuel-powered test flight of a commercial aircraft (see Virgin takes off with commercial biofuel test flight).

Japan Airlines said the cellulosic biofuel for its flight would be blended with jet fuel and tested in one of the four engines of a Japan Airlines Boeing 747-300 aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines.

The airline said the short demonstration flight out of an airport in Japan would take place by the end of March 2009.

"Our participation in the search for a viable second-generation biofuel is a clear signal to everyone of our strong commitment to increasing the environmental sustainability of the JAL Group and the airline industry," said Haruka Nishimatsu, president and CEO of Japan Airlines.

"Not only are we endeavouring to reduce our own footprint on the environment, but we are throwing our support and resources behind projects such as this, which will help in the wider battle against climate change and global warming."

The company said it has not yet made a decision on which biofuel to use, but said that second-generation biofuels do not compete with natural food or water resources or contribute to deforestation practices.

Japan Airlines is targeting a 20 percent cut in the carbon dioxide emissions per available tonne kilometers of its fleet by 2010, compared to 1990 levels.

The company said it has already achieved a nearly 16 percent reduction since 1990.

What can we learn from China?

As new figures condemning China as the world’s biggest producer of CO2 were reported in the Western world last week, many observers shook their heads and pointed their fingers towards the East as an excuse to avoid personal responsibility for climate change, before moving on to the next news item on their Chinese manufactured computers or plasma tv screens.

China may be the dirty nation of the world today, but what went widely unreported is the fact that of all nations, and despite a reluctance to commit to too much during climate negotiations, China is taking the kind of direct action that Western democracies in all their self righteousness have so far failed to do.

China is well aware of the danger that global warming presents. In 2006, a 415 page report produced by the Chinese government warned of significant shortages in agricultural production, and an increase in floods, typhoons and the prevalence of some diseases. The Himalayan glaciers which feed China’s major rivers, supporting 1.3 billion people, are retreating. Some estimates forecast their total loss, with disastrous consequences, within 50 years.

Reducing its contribution to climate change makes sense for China not only for ecological reasons. The communist state also has major concerns over energy security. Whilst 70% of China’s electricity is provided by domestic coal, it is almost completely reliant on imports for oil used in transportation - “Save energy, cut emissions” has become one of the communist parties favourite slogans along with an investment program of $10 billion aimed at doubling it’s renewable energy output by 2020.

Furthermore, China is particularly sensitive to its international reputation, being keen not be cast as a global warming villain. The Olympic games, to be hosted in China this Summer, will be fully carbon neutral, with aggressive measures being taken to improve Beijing’s toxic air quality.

Finally, China offers numerous potential benefits to Western firms in it’s bid to become greener. Still having many relatively inefficient manufacturing processes, the introduction of global carbon trading schemes will ensure an abundant supply of cheap carbon credits for Western firms through the low hanging fruit offered by clean manufacturing upgrade programs. In fact, this process has already started with $5.4 billion being invested by rich world polluters in 2007 to outsource the clean-up of their emissions to China.

The important point in this discussion is that change is the operative word in climate change. The solution we must seek involves changing our practices to avoid changing our climate. China may be the global warming bogeyman today, but it is demonstrating a willingness to change that few other nations can match. Whilst we procrastinate over the smallest changes and debate scientific minutiae, China is taking the positive actions that the Western world are not.

Al Gore endorses Barack Obama

Al Gore has just sent out this email:

“A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States.

Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges — including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.

[...] Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action.

With the help of millions of supporters like you, Barack Obama will bring the change we so desperately need in order to solve our country’s most pressing problems.

[...] On the issues that matter most, Barack Obama is clearly the right choice to lead our nation.

We have a lot of work to do in the next few months to elect Barack Obama president and it begins by making a contribution to his campaign today.”

This means we won’t see Al Gore run for the presidency this election.

Nation's Largest Single-Building Solar Energy Project Planned for Atlantic City

Atlantic City Convention Center has just signed a 20-year agreement with Pepco Energy Services to have a 2.36 megawatt solar roof installed on the building. When completed by the end of this year, the project is projected to be the largest single-building solar energy project in the United States. That's 13,321 photovoltaic panels covering roughly two-thirds of the building AND a savings of roughly $4.4 million in electricity costs over the 20-year deal.

Under the terms of the agreement between the convention center and Pepco, Pepco will pay for the installation and the convention center will then purchase electricity generated from Pepco.

Financial details of the multi-million dollar project have not been released. The installation is set to begin within 30 days and be completed by the end of the year. Jetson Green

Iberdrola signs €6.3B turbine deal

Spain's electrical giant, Iberdrola Renewables said it signed a €6.3 billion supply contract for wind turbines from Madrid's Gamesa, a wind turbine manufacturer.

Touting it as the "sector's largest ever transaction," Iberdrola, also Madrid-based, said it is acquiring turbines with a total capacity of 4,500 megawatts for wind projects in Europe, the U.S. and Mexico.

According to Iberdola, the €6.3 billion figure is to encompass overall costs associated with installing the turbines, including the cost of the turbines, cost of transport, and moneys associated with civil works and interconnections, both at the wind farms and to the grid.

In addition to installation, Iberdrola said the contract covers turbine startup, operational services and maintenance during the life of the guarantee.

Iberdrola said the deal would help the company meet more than 70 percent of its requirements up to 2012. The company said its current turbine supply stands at 42,280 MW.

The company asserts the deal would help to "avoid one of the major uncertainties in the business by assuring the installation of a significant portion of its projects for the medium term."

The Spanish electric company's last turbine contract with Gamesa was in 2006 and was for a reported 2,700 MW of power.

Iberdrola's most recent turbine contracts include General Electric for 300 MW, Mitsubishi for 300 MW, Suzlon Wind Energy for 700 MW, and Ecotencia for 310 MW.

In addition to the supply contract, the Iberdrola and Gamesa announced a partnership to combine efforts to promote, develop and exploit wind farms in Spain and continental Europe.

Under the partnership, two joint companies are to be formed, one in Spain and the other abroad.

Iberdrola is to hold 77 percent of the new Spanish venture and Gamesa is to hold 23 percent, while Iderbola said its shareholdings in the international venture would be 76 percent, with Gamesa holding 24 percent.

Once the partnership is approved by antitrust authorities, Gamesa said it can increase its shareholding in the jointly owned Spanish company up to 32 percent, relative to the number of additional megawatts that correspond to new wind farms.

SF Mayor to Sign Largest City Solar Program in U.S.

Last week we brought you news that San Francisco was oh-so close to getting the largest city-backed solar incentive program in the U.S.; all the project needed was the John Hancock of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Well, this morning the mayor’s office says the city’s solar incentive energy program will get the official signature today and could go into effect as early as July 1.

The program will dole out up to $6,000 per project in tax credits annually to San Franciscans who put solar on their roofs for a total of $3 million. This will make some solar system installations cost less than $10,000 — well within “credit card territory.”

The program is part of the city’s effort to become a solar leader. In an interview last week, Mayor Newsom told us his goal is to make San Francisco the American version of Berlin — a city that has both high solar generation and a strong solar industry, backed by aggressive city incentives.

It’ll be a long haul. Currently, the city has less than 5 megawatts of rooftop solar, the least capacity per capita of all the counties in the Bay Area. San Francisco officials hope that this $3 million a year in public funds will leverage an additional $1.5 million in private investment and fund 55 megawatts of distributed solar over the next decade.

Newsom will sign the legislation this morning at Project Open Hand’s solar rooftop near San Francisco City Hall, bringing together Newsom’s two big causes — solar and homelessness — in one perfect photo opp. We’ll check out the festivities and bring you the latest.

Norway's REC solar panel group to build US$2.5 billion plant in Singapore

The Renewable Energy Corporation ASA announced plans Wednesday to invest 13 billion kroner (US$2.5 billion) in a new plant in Singapore to produce solar panel components.

The Oslo-based company, often called REC, said the plant is slated to start production of solar wafers, cells and modules in 2010, and is expected to generate annual revenues of up to 11 billion kroner (US$2.1 billion) by 2012, a company statement said.

"This investment supports REC's position as a leading provider of highly competitive solar energy solutions, and in achieving our main corporate goals of reducing costs and securing profitable growth," said Erik Thorsen, company president and chief executive.

REC also announced plans for a 400 million kroner (US$77.7 million) expansion and upgrade of its Heroeya wafer plant in Norway, and said that will be completed by the end of 2009.

The group's shares rose nearly 4 percent to 153.25 kroner (US$29.76) in morning trading on the Oslo stock exchange after the announcement.

REC said the Asian plant, based on multicrystalline solar technology, is the first of several phases envisioned in Singapore. The company said it had already secured contracts for the raw materials needed, and has organized financing through its own cash flow and loans.

"Our entry into Singapore ensures continued revenue growth beyond the significant growth to come from all the ongoing capacity expansions across all REC's business activities," said Thorsen.

The company was founded in 1996 under the name Fornybar Energi AS, which was changed to its current name in 2000. The group has about 1,800 staff, and currently operates in Norway, the United States, South Africa and Sweden.

Its revenues were 6.6 billion kroner (US$1.28 billion) for 2007, a more than 50 percent increase from a year earlier. Herald Tribune

Intel Spins off Solar Company SpectraWatt

Intel Corporation is spinning off the key assets of a start-up business effort inside its New Business Initiatives group to form an independent company called SpectraWatt Inc. SpectraWatt will manufacture and supply solar photovoltaic (PV) cells to solar module makers.

SpectraWatt expects to break ground on its manufacturing and advanced technology development facility in Oregon in the second half of 2008 with first product shipments expected by mid-2009.

Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, is leading a US $50 million investment round in SpectraWatt and is joined by Cogentrix Energy, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund and Solon AG. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2008.

"SpectraWatt is a great example of technology resulting from entrepreneurial efforts inside Intel," said Arvind Sodhani, President of Intel Capital and Intel Executive Vice President. "This is an important investment for Intel Capital in the growing cleantech sector and we look forward to working with the company to support its expansion."

Study Finds Solar Could Provide 10% of U.S. Generation by 2025

A new study from Clean Edge says that solar energy could reach cost parity with retail-electricity rates in most regions of the U.S. in less than a decade. The "Utility Solar Assessment (USA)" study, produced by Clean Edge and Co-op America, provides a roadmap for utilities, solar companies and regulators to reach 10% solar in the U.S. by 2025.

The study finds that significantly scaling solar power in the U.S. will require the active involvement of utilities and delivers a to-do list to reach this goal for the three key stakeholders in the nation’s solar industry.

Utilities will need to take advantage of the value of solar for peak generation and alleviating grid congestion, implement solar as part of the build-out of the smart grid and adapt to new market realities with new business models, according to the study.

Solar companies must bring installed solar systems costs to US $3 per peak watt or less by 2018, streamline installations and make solar a truly plug-and-play technology, Clean Edge said. In addition, regulators and policy makers will need to pass a long-term extension of investment tax credits (ITC) for solar and other renewables, establish open standards for solar interconnection and give utilities the ability to “rate-base” solar.

The study finds that:

• As solar prices decline and the capital and fuel costs for coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants rise, the U.S. will reach a crossover point by around 2015.
• Installed solar PV prices are projected to decline from an average US $5.50-$7.00 peak watt (15-32 cents kWh) today to US $3.02-$3.82 peak watt (8-18 cents kWh) in 2015 to $1.43-$1.82 peak watt (4-8 cents kWh) by 2025

“One of the big takeaways from this report is that, in many ways, the future of solar is in the hands of utilities,” said Ron Pernick, Clean Edge Co-founder and Managing Director and USA Study Co-author. “Reaching 10 percent of our electricity from solar sources by 2025 will require the active participation of utilities along with the support and participation of regulators and solar technology companies.”

Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extension Vote Fails in U.S. Senate

On Tuesday, The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6049) failed to pass a procedural vote to limit debate and proceed to consideration of the bill. The vote count was 52-44, 8 votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a potential filibuster. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) reserved the right to bring the bill up again at a later date, possibly following the Senate's Fourth of July break.

The issues bringing the clean energy tax extensions to a stalemate have to do with how H.R. 6049 will be paid for. Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress have said that extensions must be paid by a decrease somewhere else in the federal budget. Republican leadership has said that tax credit extensions don't fit that rule because they are in fact a stimulus and have gotten behind extension legislation deviod of offsets.

“The longer these extensions are delayed, the more workers are shed and renewable energy projects are undermined," said Scott Sklar, President of strategic energy policy and market firm The Stella Group. "Time for Congress to get off the stalemate and move the extensions which over ten years cost the same as one month of the Iraq War.”

San Francisco Launches Solar Energy Incentive Program

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation to implement a 10-year solar rebate program for the city's residents, businesses and non-profits. The proposal was originally announced by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting on December 11, 2007. It had eight legislative hearings over the last seven months and passed this week by a vote of 8-3.

The incentive program provides solar rebates to local residents ranging from US $3,000-$6,000. It provides up to US $10,000 for non-profits and businesses that install solar. It also provides up to US $30,000 for non-profit affordable housing to install solar systems.

"This rebate program further establishes San Francisco as America’s solar energy leader and symbolizes the commitment of the City to make affordable solar power available to those who want it," said Mayor Newsom. "This program will ensure San Francisco’s ongoing leadership for providing the opportunity to thousands of residents to economically place solar on their rooftops. I want to thank Supervisor Bevan Dufty and Assessor Ting for their leadership on this legislation."

Intersolar 2008 Showcases Worldwide Growth for Solar

It's been a couple of years since the organizers of Intersolar saw the event was rapidly outgrowing its first home in Freiburg, the "solar capital" of Germany in the southwest. Boldly, Intersolar headed for Munich where its record 1052 exhibitors and 40,000+ visitors last week occupied no fewer than seven light and airy halls at the Munich Messe. An additional outdoor area was dominated by an impressive array of large-scale trackers for ground-mounted megawatt-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) installations.

With an exhibition space twice the size of the Freiburg 2007 event, the companies exhibiting were able to stretch their wings with stands of a size and scale that would have been unimaginable a few years back. A+F spent a week bringing in and building a full-size SunCarrier 6.1 tracker (40 kWp) that dominated the corner of one hall.

Trackers and other large-scale solutions were matched with innovative roof-integrations for solar PV, plus module, cell and manufacturing technology highlights. Applied Materials and their customer Signet Solar were able to show a 5.7m² frameless thin-film module manufactured using the technology announced at PV-SEC in Milan last September.

The solar heating section — spread across three halls with one dedicated exclusively to solar heating — was always going to be strong here, in Germany, where the solar heating market is expected to grow again by 30%-40% this year. But the very recent introduction of new legislation requiring all new buildings to have a proportion of renewable heating (solar, biomass, geothermal heat pump), along with the current high cost of oil and gas, have given the market additional confidence.

Germany is home to much of the solar industry, yet 50% of the exhibiting companies are now from outside Germany. A quarter of Intersolar’s non-German exhibitors came from China this year, with those from Spain in second place. Intersolar organizers have deliberately worked to internationalize the event and next month will see their first conference and tradeshow taking place on the other side of the Atlantic, in San Francisco. There they are partnering with the semiconductor association SEMI. Many businesses in the semiconductor sector are bringing their expertise to solar PV manufacturing, so there is an affinity in place — the event, however, will cover all solar technologies and applications, not exclusively PV. And in 2009, SEMI will be partnering in the Munich event to build up the PV manufacturing technologies side in Munich, as well.

Clean Tech of the Week: Wash Clothes Without Water

Not exactly washing without water, but with less than 2% of a normal washing machine. That’s only 1 cup of water for those sweaty gym clothes, grubby kid-wear, and foul socks.

Washing with soap and water has been THE WAY to clean most clothes for so long, it’s hard to imagine reducing H2O by 98%. What this technology lacks in sexy bells and whistles, it gains in implications. Billions of gallons of clean water could be conserved every year simply by adopting this dry cleaning technology. Less water also means less drying, which can add energy savings to those with energy-hungry clothes dryers.

The process uses plastic granules, which tumble with your laundry and a little water and detergent. The plastic absorbs the dirt or grit and can be reused for up to six months.

“A range of tests, carried out according to worldwide industry protocols to prove the technology performs to the high standards expected in the cleaning industry, show the process can remove virtually all types of everyday stains as effectively as existing processes whilst leaving clothes as fresh as normal washing. In addition, the clothes emerge from the process almost dry, reducing the need for tumble-dryers.” (Source)

The company bent on developing this technology is called Xeros, which started out of the UK’s University of Leeds School of Design. Professor Stephen Burkinshaw is the founder of Xeros, and hopes to use £500,000 in funding to bring a product to market as soon as 2009.

Dry cleaning companies have already shown interest in the technology, especially in areas with growing concerns over solvents involved in some dry cleaning techniques. Let’s hope this technology is affordable and spreads like wildfire. Cleantechnica

IBM in solar power venture

IBM has joined forces with semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo to develop more efficient solar power technologies to cut the cost of the clean energy source, the companies said on Monday.

The move is the latest by large technology companies to enter the growing field of photovoltaic solar products, which turn sunlight into electricity.

International Business Machines will contribute its expertise in manufacturing cells, while TOK will bring its technology used in the semiconductor industry and for coating LCD panels.

The partnership is seeking to create techniques that double the efficiency of thin-film solar modules.

IBM Research's Supratik Guha, who leads its solar photovoltaic activities, said the companies did not plan to enter the solar module production business, but hope to licence their technology to producers in the next two to three years.

"We've already been in discussions with photovoltaic manufacturers,'' Mr Guha said.

"There are problems to be resolved, but this is the time we're starting to talk to them.''

The partnership will focus on developing new methods for printing copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells that can turn more than 15% of sunlight into power - a significant improvement on the 6%-12% efficiency that current solar CIGS makers have achieved.

Mr Guha declined to specify the companies' projected sales from the technology that will come from their link-up, but described the potential market as huge.

Currently, an estimated 90% of photovoltaic solar equipment uses silicon to turn sunlight into electricity. That technology is more efficient than CIGS, often converting more than 20% of sunlight into power.

But those cells are much thicker than thin-film applications, limiting how they can be deployed, and they rely on silicon, which has skyrocketed in price in recent years as the solar industry uses up limited supplies.

IBM looked into various solar technologies before settling on CIGS, Mr Guha said,

"Traditional silicon is a very mature field already, the scope for dramatic improvement is probably not there,'' he said. "We felt that this is where we could make a bigger impact.''

Researchers at the US Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced in April that they had set a new efficiency record of 19.9% for CIGS cells, nearing the record for multicrystalline silicon cells of 20.3%.

However, no company has approached that CIGS record on the factory floor, where cells must be cheaply mass-produced.

Mr Guha said the goal of the partnership was to create a process for making the cells cheaply enough that they reach "grid parity,'' the level at which solar power is competitive with traditional forms of electricity generation.

"I think that if we can get to a module cost of less than $1 per watt, and be able to keep a handle on the system costs, then one should be able to get to grid parity ... photovoltaics still need roughly a 2 (times efficiency) improvement,'' he said.

Research shows that PlayStation 3 uses 500% more energy than a refrigerator

The Australian Consumer Association recently published a list on Computer Energy Costs for various home gadgets such as your computer screen, DVD player, cordless telephone, gaming console, laptop etc.

Interesting with this list is that it shows how much energy these gadgets consume weekly, monthly as well as yearly, even when they are supposed to be off.

According to the study, the Sony PlayStation 3 consumes 33.34 kWh (weekly consumption) when on and playing a game. That is more than a Plasma TV who uses 29.68 kWh when on and playing a DVD.

When the same game console is off (back switch on) it still consumes 0.30 kWh. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 consumes 0.40 kWh when off and 26.00 kWh when on and playing. The Nintendo Wii is a bit better, it consumes 3.14 kWh when on and playing a game. But it consumes 0.32 kWh when off (WiiConnect24 is off). That is more than PlayStation 3.

“Our tests also found that leaving a PlayStation 3 on while not in use would cost almost $250 a year in electricity bills (charged at 15c per kWh). This alone is around five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period.

The Xbox 360 was not far behind the PlayStation 3 in energy usage costs per year, serving as an important reminder to turn off videogame systems after use.”

The only way to be sure these energy hungry gadgets don’t consume energy (and your money) is to make sure they are switched off and unplugged when you are not using them.

Google Adds Auto Industry to Its List of Revolutions

Google’s conference this week on plug-in electric vehicles and related federal policy clearly positions the search company’s RechargeIT program as an EV incubator for startups, R&D initiatives and policy discussions. Dan Reicher, Google.org’s director of climate change and energy initiatives, opened the conference, which was heavily attended by beltway insiders, by announcing that Google would invest in multiple ventures to make wide-scale plug-in electric cars viable.

The move is almost as bold as Google’s R E Less Than C initiative, which calls for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on renewable energy projects and startups. With this week’s announcement, the search giant now adds transportation to the list of industries it will attempt to revolutionize.

Google certainly has the capital and innovative spirit to tackle such ambitious problems and they are working on building their cred on the Hill. The company only opened its Washington office in 2005, with one employee, but is now hobnobbing with senators and secretaries like the best of them, which it will need to do if it plans to take on the auto and energy lobbies.

The Plug-in Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington? conference, co-hosted by the Brookings Institute, was an opportunity for big auto makers, policy makers, advocacy groups and startups alike to mingle and discuss the automotive future, all for Google’s observation. Google knows it has a lot to learn about this sector before it commits too much capital.

Valleywag puts the Gawker take on it saying: “[E]veryone really needs to stop referring to Google.org as any sort of philanthropic enterprise, and call it what it is — a venture-investment subsidiary.” As Google tries to free its Internet business from wires, it is working increasingly hard to give all of our cars plugs and tie them to the grid.

Bicycle powered water pumps and filtration systems

Bikes and water: could the two really be related? To my pleasant surprise, they are indeed!

I learned about several organizations dedicated to providing people in developing nations with the means to get clean water through the use of bicycles.

One group from the Engineering for Developing Communities (EDC) program at the University of Colorado at Boulder developed a prototype of a human powered bicycle for pumping water in communities where electricity is unavailable. Their model was able to pump at a maximum of 18 feet below ground, at 2.5 gallons per minute. The specifics of their project is detailed here.

Another great organization I found online is the Working Bikes Cooperative, a Chicago-based nonprofit that takes old bikes and repairs them to donate to charities in Chicago, the Gulf Coast, Cuba, Guatemala, Ecuador, and other places of need. The primary purpose of the donated bikes are to provide affordable and healthy transportation to people from underdeveloped nations, but other bicycles are used to create water filtration systems in communities plagued with unsanitary water.

I also found a company called McEdwards Manufacturing and Distribution, Inc. that sells a “Third World Water Pump” setup, which supposedly can pump clean water from wells with depths of 200 feet or more.

And here’s a quite informative and inspiring video on a pedal-powered water transportation and filtration vehicle created by a San Bruno, California team which won Google’s “Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Challenge” this year:

Aquaduct: Mobile Filtration Vehicle YouTube Clip (1:59 min)

The neat-looking bike filters the water as you bike from point A to point B.

What a concept! I’d love to get my hands, and legs, on one of those!

Photo: Working Bikes Cooperative

Is it Crunch Time for Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Iniatives?

My editorial work keeps me hopping, so I’m a bit late getting started on reporting about my trip last week to Bentonville, Arkansas, for Wal-Mart’s annual Media Day and Shareholders’ Meeting. As always, it was a whirlwind of activity combining trips to company stores in the area, press meetings with company executives, and a little entertainment thrown in. I skipped the Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban concert Thursday night, but did see Joss Stone, Jennifer Hudson and David Cook perform early Friday morning… with Queen Latifah handling the MC duties.

Yes, Wal-Mart does a fantastic job entertaining the troops, but my real interest was in further news on company sustainability initiatives. Over the next week or so, I’ll be reporting on those. Today, I just wanted to provide some initial thoughts, and perhaps get the conversation going.

In case you haven’t noticed, the economy’s in a bit of slump… and that means more people are turning to discount retailers for their basic needs and luxuries. Sales figures are up for the company, and all of the executives that spoke at various portions of the media conference noted the company’s founding value of saving people money. At some points, I began to wonder just a bit if the much-heralded sustainability initiatives of the past few years were taking a back seat to it’s ability to provide goods (and services) at low prices.

Is “Save Money. Live Better” just a marketing slogan, or is it, as company executives claimed, a restatement of the company’s mission? That’s a question I want to explore as I look back on last week’s event. Over the past few years, I’ve become more and more impressed by Wal-Mart’s transformation. As I note in the headline, though, an influx of customers because of tighter pocketbooks really does mean it’s crunch time for the company. It might be easy to forsake some of the promises made about doing business more sustainably. Yet, the message was definitely there: executives from around the world almost always included sustainability initiatives in their presentations (and our press packages came in Wal-Mart reusable shopping bags…with a bottle of concentrated laundry detergent!).

Were these just words? I’ll let you judge for yourself as a I present some of the stories I heard. Obviously, at the Shareholders Meeting, executives had a friendly audience. Still, when I talked to an associate walking into the meeting, and asked her if she’d undertaken a “personal sustainability project,” she not only told me about her efforts to switch to CFLS and recycle, but also her pride in the company’s movement in this direction. It’s the ripple effect that still gets me: Wal-Mart can make greener consumer choices the norm by setting standards for suppliers; it can also educate consumers and shareholders at a massive level. It’s easy to focus on what the company’s done wrong… I still think we’ve got reasons to be hopeful that they’re moving in some really positive directions.

Greener Solar Plants Turn to Biofuels By Night

How do you make those solar thermal power plants, which are being built in California’s desert, even greener? Add biofuels to the mix. At least that’s what San Joaquin Solar (a subsidiary of power gear company Martifer Renewables) is doing. The company is building solar plants, which when the sun goes down, switch over to power its steam turbines via biofuels. How cool is that? And the company got a big customer this morning: Northern utility PG&E says it has entered into two contracts that will deliver 106.8 MW of solar thermal-biofuel hybrid power.

San Joaquin Solar will build these solar-biofuel projects, expected to begin operation in 2011, near Coalinga, Calif., which is smack dab in California’s Central Valley, between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. The plants are expected to deliver a total of 700 gigawatt-hours per year of renewable electricity for PG&E’s California customers. PG&E says that each hybrid project will require 250,000 tons of biofuel per year, which will come from local wastes, both from agriculture and livestock.

How do these things work? During the peak times of available sunlight, San Joaquin Solar’s projects will function the same way other solar thermal plant are supposed to — using the suns rays to heat liquid to run turbines that generate electricity. But at night, or when there’s little sun, the steam turbines will kick over to run off of biomass, solving one of the key problems of solar generation.

While it sounds like a good idea, we’re not sure how much output the biofuels-run turbines will add to the plants (we have a call to Martifer and are waiting to hear back). The added biofuels generation also sounds like a system that can be easily copied. If it works, those 11 solar thermal companies building plants in the desert should follow suit.

BrightSource Energy / Luz II Dedicate Solar Energy Development Center

BrightSource Energy, Inc. and subsidiary Luz II, Ltd., developers of large scale solar thermal power plants, will dedicate their Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) in the Negev's Rotem Industrial Park, Israel tomorrow, Thursday, June 12. The dedication of the SEDC is a major milestone in the development of solar energy worldwide. The Center is an operational solar field that will provide the company with the ability to test equipment, materials and procedures as well as construction and operating methods.

“The completion of this project is a tribute to tens of thousands of hours of hard work and dedication from our people – the brightest and most dedicated team of experts in the business,” said Arnold Goldman, chairman and founder of BrightSource Energy and Luz II. “It is a testament to the power of the vision shared by everyone who works for this company as well as our partners and suppliers.”

This solar field is a scaled cross-section of a typical commercial plant and includes more than 1,600 full-size glass mirrors (heliostats) and a 60 meter tall tower topped by a solar boiler. The power tower and surrounding heliostats concentrate the sun's energy onto the boiler, heating the water inside to 550° C, or over 1000° F. In a commercial plant, the utility-grade superheated steam will be piped from the boiler to a standard turbine where electricity will be generated, all at a much higher operating efficiency and lower cost than other solar power plants. From here, transmission lines would carry the power to homes and businesses. In order to conserve water, BrightSource uses air cooling to convert the steam back into water. The water is then returned to the boiler in a closed loop.

“This is an important step forward for the entire solar industry and for anyone who cares about generating clean energy at significant scale,” said John Woolard, chief executive officer of BrightSource Energy. “With the launch of this Center, we are proving that clean energy can be generated reliably, more efficiently, and at lower cost than ever before.”

In March, BrightSource entered into a series of power purchase agreements with PG&E for up to 900MW of electricity. BrightSource is currently developing a number of solar power plants in Southern California, with construction of the first plant planned to start in 2009. In May, BrightSource announced that it had secured $115 million in additional corporate funding from its Series C round of financing, bringing the total the company has raised to date to over $160 million.

Operating more efficiently than older solar thermal methods, and costing much less to build, BrightSource’s technology will change the way utilities generate electricity. The solar power plants that BrightSource is actively developing will provide enough electricity to power more than 3.2 million homes and remove emissions equivalent to what is produced by approximately one million cars.

About BrightSource Energy, Inc.

BrightSource Energy, Inc. designs, builds, finances and operates utility-scale solar power plants that deliver clean, low-cost solar energy to utility and industrial customers worldwide at prices that compete with fossil fuels. BrightSource was formed with seed capital from VantagePoint Venture Partners, which has increased its investment steadily over time. Privately held, BrightSource is headquartered in Oakland, California.

Luz II Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy, Inc. Based in Israel, Luz II is responsible for solar technology development, plant design and engineering.

Further information about BrightSource Energy and Luz II may be found at www.brightsourceenergy.com.

Clear Skies Could Produce Sunny Future

Clear Skies Solar plans to launch a renewable-energy monitoring system this month that will cost customers nothing up front – and will pay them a quarterly check, CEO Ezra Green has told Greentech Media.

The company's Xtrax monitoring system collects electricity-production data from wind, solar-electric, geothermal and solar-thermal power systems, and delivers it via cell-phone text messages, satellite or Zigbee wireless technology.

Other companies, such as Fat Spaniel Technologies, already have renewable-energy management systems on the market. But Clear Skies – which trades over the counter under the ticker symbol "CSKH" -- expects to be able to manufacture its system for a cost of less than $100 completely installed, compared with competitive products starting at installed prices of $1,000 today, Green said. (Yes, he says that's his real name.)

The Massapequa, N.Y.-based company has developed all the software and firmware itself, designed its own circuit boards and tested the system for a year with no problems, he said. Green claims the system is "far more" than 99 percent accurate.

Clear Skies also is going after a different market than Fat Spaniel, which focuses mainly on larger systems with capacities of 100 kilowatts and up. Fat Spaniel's prices for residential systems start around $900.

Clear Skies plans to target small systems instead, such as individual homes with only one to two kilowatts of capacity.

"We don't even want the larger ones," Green said. "We'll do it of course, but there's no reason for it. We're going to deal with the masses."

One reason might be that larger systems might require more information than the Xtrax provides. The company cut out some of the bells and whistles of other systems to keep the cost down.

"We like to keep things simple," Green said. "Life's complicated enough. There's no reason to have devices that can do everything from sing and dance to record the temperature. Who needs that? We're stripped it down to what you need to know – the actual production of the system in kilowatt hours, as well as system failure and brownouts."

Green claims that the additional information that other devices report, such as the temperature and the panels that aren't performing right, are "inconsequential as a rule."

"If you're doing a scientific study, absolutely there's no question you need that information," he said. "But how many of these are going on? If you want to hit 10,000 homes and truly capture the carbon-credit market, what you need is an accurate reading of what is [being produced]."

The low cost of the systems will enable Clear Skies to make money selling carbon credits from systems normally considered too small to be worth the effort, Green said. more...

Home-made power? It's a breeze

With hydro lakes at their lowest levels in years and talk of a looming power crisis, some New Zealanders are turning to alternative energy sources - really big ones.

Graham Purchas, who is considering buying a 4m-high wind turbine for his farm north of Wellington, was among the thousands who yesterday poured through the gates for the opening day of the 40th Fieldays at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton.

The four-day event is the biggest agricultural show in the Southern Hemisphere and last year had a turnover of $300 million.

More than 1000 exhibitions over the show's 94ha are displaying farming innovations and new technology, ranging from smart phone systems which can oversee any aspect of farm management to recycled pieces of plastic which dry the insides of your gumboots overnight with the right wind conditions.

"You'd probably be surprised at how many people have shown an interest in these things," said Jonathan Prince, a co-creator of a wind-driven gumboot dryer he calls "Windry".

But Mr Purchas, a 48-year-old software developer, had his eyes firmly on the wind turbine.

"Given how windy it gets down in Wellington, it's probably ideal," he said. . And with the cost of electricity these days and all the other problems we've had lately, it's probably the way to go."

With a 20km/h wind, the 2.4kW wind turbine, which works in conjunction with a grid-tied power situation, can generate enough power to keep a four-bedroom home powered.

"A lot of people are freaked out by the cost of energy, so we are getting people who are hedging their bets against rising energy prices," said Hamish Littin, general manager of Elemental Energy. He said the turbines were environmentally-friendly and economically sound.

"If we are generating more than the home is consuming, then we export energy back out to the grid and the energy companies credit you back at retail rates."

With a $20,000 price tag, the turbines are not cheap, but Mr Littin said they lasted for at least 20 years and would pay paid for themselves well before that.

Google’s Sexy Bicycle Giveaways and Africa’s Versatile Bike Trucks

The Internet search engine company Google, now a reputable green icon with its solar powered Mountainview headquarters, last year gave away bicycles to its staff in Europe, Asia and Africa as part of its efforts to reduce the impact of transportation on the environment.

Nearly 2,000 members of Google permanent staff benefited from this scheme that also provided free helmets emblazoned with the famous brand name.

The great bit about this stuff is that they had freedom to choose from a variety of trendy, sexy models from Raleigh, the German bike maker, and these included men’s and women’s hybrids, as well as a Google cruiser. Another sexy model, the Dahon Curve folding bike, was retailing at about US$ 280 in 2007.

But while this may have been intended for the environment or to inculcate healthy habits in the Google staffers, a bicycle may be much more than that. Sexy or trendy may not be provide the demands of versatility that is a way of life elsewhere.

In Africa, bicycles to those who can afford them are everything and never to come in sexy, trendy models as those Google, or the Swedish furniture maker, Ikea, were offering their staff for free. Versatility is everything and depending on where you are, a bicycle can be a large farm truck or an ambulance saving lives deep in the African jungle.

Versatility is the catch word, and this comes with the carrying capacity (the larger the better) and improved handling. Quality is best when it can be flexible enough in terms of cheap repair-ability and maintenance with the easiest available spares.

But mobility that a bicycle provides means passibility in difficult terrain and on poor road conditions; there are those home made wooden ones that can carry loads of potatoes that are 6 times bigger than the bike itself. This smart, hardy ingenuity borrowed from the ant, supposedly.

These black mamba bicycles are manufactured in mild steel components, which makes the products relatively heavy in comparison to more modern light weight bikes available. This makes them considerably less expensive at just US$ 50 a piece on average.

There are those people who have maximized on the load carrying capacity of a bicycle through altering the design of a normal bike to carry very heavy loads adapting a rear 20” heavy duty wheel to allow for lower gravity which in turn means even larger loads.

But those that are truly remarkable are those that have been modeled after the Asian rickshaw tricycle. They can carry extremely heavy loads - anything from 200 liters of water, livestock, fruits, animal feed, commodities to garbage - at areas with flat and relatively hard surfaces.

Bicycles are also being used for transporting sick or injured persons in the rural areas to medical centers. Fitted with a detachable stretcher, suspended in shock-absorbers, a bicycle of this type provides the patient with a comfortable place to lie while being transported.

The choice between sexy or trendy and versatility really depends on where you are riding and why. But both ways, it could save lives. ecowordly

Ready to Write that Green Book?

Now may be as good a time as any: publisher Chelsea Green, home to authors ranging from Daily Kos‘ Markos Moulitsas to our own Lee Welles, is looking for proposals for its Green Guide series, and has launched a contest to find them. The winner of their Green Guide Contest will receive a publishing contract, and a $1000 advance against royalties.

There’s no time to waste on this one, though: the deadline for entering is July 4… “in honor of the local, independent communities we hope the Green Guides will help create—free from the domination of fossil fuels, global warming, and toxic pollution.” By that time, you will need to put together a regular book proposal… overview, table of contents, and sample chapters… the works. CG spells it all out on the contest announcement.

I’d love to get something together myself, but don’t see it happening by Independence Day. If you’ve got something in the works, though, send it to them… and let us know about it!

First Time Ever: Prius is Most Searched New Car

Cars.com has announced that for the first time ever, the Toyota Prius has become the most searched for new vehicle on the popular vehicle classifieds site — surpassing long time favorites such as the Accord and Camry.

Not only that, their top ten list for new car searches (see below) now contains mostly fuel-sippers including the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit.

The Prius first appeared in the top 10 most searched vehicles list last summer.

Patrick Olsen, Cars.com editor in chief, had this to say about it:

“It’s not surprising that the Prius became the No. 1 most searched vehicle on Cars.com at the same time gas reached a $4 national average. Surveys have shown $4 to be the tipping point in consumer purchase behavior, and we are seeing that ring true in shopping patterns on Cars.com.”

One of the surveys he’s probably referring to in his statement was recently conducted by the Ipsos News Center on how high the price of fuel has to go before Americans change their driving habits. The main conclusions of that survey are:

• 67% say they have already changed their driving habits as a result of rising gas prices.
• Of those who have already made changes to their driving habits, the pressure price for this group was $3.20/gallon.
• At $3.00/gallon, 35% of Americans had changed their habits.
• By $4.00/gallon — now a reality in the US — it is 74%.
• By $5.00/gallon, 85% of all Americans will have changed their driving habits

The Ipsos study also found, interestingly, that one in ten Americans say they will never change their driving habits, regardless of the how high the price of gas climbs.

Cars.com Top Ten New Car Searches for May 2008:

1		Toyota Prius
2		Honda Civic
3		Honda Accord
4		Toyota Corolla
5		Toyota Camry
6		Honda Civic Hybrid
7		Toyota Yaris
8		Nissan Altima
9		Ford Mustang
10		Honda Fit

I don’t know about you, but to me that Ford Mustang sure looks out of place on this list.

Turning algae into ethanol, and gold

Is it, in fact, a watershed in biofuels from algae?

Naples, Fla.-based Algenol Biofuels says it has found a way to inexpensively bring third-generation biofuels to industrial scale.

And, unlike most algal biofuel companies, it's apparently got a licensing deal for an $850 million project to show for it.

The company believes its seawater-based process can generate up to a billion gallons of algal ethanol per year from a facility in Mexico.

“We’re not in the biodiesel business, the lipids business or oil business,” according to CEO Paul Woods. “We believe we have the most advanced third-generation technology. Our process is completely different.”

Algenol claims to use algae, sunlight, CO² and seawater in closed bioreactors to produce ethanol, not the biodiesel most conventional algae companies are pursuing.

Woods told Cleantech Group today that because his company does not use freshwater and does not harvest the algae, the process is much less expensive.

“You have to do it cheaply, or you have no process,” said Woods.

Woods did not specify how cheap, however.

With a reported 11 years of research and 10 years of patents under its belt, Algenol formally introduced itself and an $850 million project with Sonora Fields S.A.P.I. de C.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mexican-owned BioFields.

The privately-funded company said it is expecting yields of 6,000 gallons per acre per year, and expects to increase that figure to 10,000 by year end.

By contrast, corn yields approximately 360 gallons per acre per year, and sugarcane 890 gallons, according to Woods.

“Basically we can take in 1.5 million tons of CO² and convert it into 100 million gallons of ethanol,” said Woods.

“We will be the largest consumer of CO² on the planet.”

The Algenol process occurs in bioreactors that are three-feet by fifty-feet and shaped like soda bottles, said Woods.

According to Woods, during the process, algae consumes sunlight and more than 90 percent of the system's CO² through photosynthesis, wherein the sugars are converted into ethanol. The ethanol is immediately pumped out and evaporates into the bioreactor which is captured every night.

“This process overcomes the enormous problems other companies face,” said Woods. “We don’t use food. We don’t use feedstock. We don’t use freshwater,” emphasized Woods. “All this really helps the cost structure.”

When asked why the company, which was founded in 2006, finally decided to reveal itself, Woods said that it was keen on keeping mum while it was bringing the process to scale, which has been a difficult feat in the algal biofuel industry.

Companies like LiveFuels, GreenFuel Technologies, Aquaflow Bionomic and others have all experienced ebb and flow when it comes to announcing commercial scale production.

The only other algal biofuel company touting “scale” production is San Francisco-based Solazyme, which, coincidentally, today announced its microalgae-derived fuel has become the first algal-based biodiesel to pass the American Society for Testing and Materials D-975 specifications.

Solazyme had no comment on Algenol's development, but has experienced momentum in commercializing its fuel. more...

Green energy goes wherever it pleases

The cell-phone charger doesn't get unplugged as often as it ought to.

The ancient water heater uses far more juice than a newer, more energy efficient model would.

The sheets and towels would dry perfectly well out on the clothesline, but it takes so long, the dryer is more convenient.

The mercury barely crept above 90 degrees this weekend and already the air conditioners set to whirring.

When it comes to our electrical use, most of us thoroughly deserve our guilty consciences. Noble though it may be, conserving electricity is one serious pain in the butt.

We could do better. We could use less.

That's one way to unburden our guilt, but it's not easy.

The other way is the American way: We can buy our way out of our guilt.

Two large Vermont electric utilities -- Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power -- each offers a program that allows customers to voluntarily pay a higher rate for their electricity that is generated from renewable sources.

That way, even though the aquarium pump has been running continuously even though the last tetra died during the Snelling administration, you can look at the tank and grin knowing that the electricity powering the pump was produced by cow poop, or a hydroelectric dam, and precious little harm came to the environment as a result.

No filthy coal electricity for you. You're coughing up an extra 3 or 4 pennies per kilowatt-hour so that you can proudly tell your friends and family that you're wasting only solar power, or wind electricity, or biomass- or biogas- or hydro-power.

Or are you?

Ah, if only the universe were so simple as that, so orderly, so easily manipulated.

Fact is, even if you shell out the big bucks for electricity zapped out of cow manure, the power toasting your seedless rye bread and percolating your shade-grown, fair-market coffee could be coming from the filthiest coal belching power plant in all the land.

This is not the utilities hornswoggling you. If you must blame someone for the pollution product flowing into your home through the outlet, blame our pesky pal the electron.

Yup, electrons. Not protons, not neutrons, not even the whole atom. Just the electron, a founding member of the subatomic trilogy.

This is how Green Mountain Power explains what's going on to its customers in the terms and conditions of its GreenerGMP program: "I understand that signing up for GreenerGMP does not change the electrons that provide service to my home. Due to the complexity of the power grid and the laws of physics, actual electrons flow to the nearest need and cannot be directed to specific locations."

CVPS uses similar language in its renewable-energy program, Cow Power.

All electricity, whether it's produced by splitting atoms at a nuclear plant, or from venting methane gas out of a landfill, pours into the same grid of power lines and transmission towers. Just because you agree to pay 3 cents more per kilowatt-hour doesn't guarantee that the electricity coming into your house comes directly from a bunch of friendly Vermont Holsteins.

The utilities admit, in the fine print, that they'll invest in renewable energy or will buy green-energy credits with your money.

Bedworks Laptop Platform by Reform

When you spend most of the day sitting in front of a computer, you learn to relish the moments when you can get up, stretch your legs and step away from the desk. And now that the weather is nice enough, I love to occasionally take the laptop out to the front patio or back porch so I can enjoy nature while I’m writing about ways for decorators to protect it. However, it’s not very comfortable to use a laptop on your lap. I need a little leverage. This laptop platform by Reform gives me leverage and style.

Made of solid bamboo, it will give you a few inches of added height and protect your legs from the heat of your battery. It also gives you a stylish reason to unchain yourself from your desk by still stay connected to your work. Thanks to a nifty design, there’s a storage compartment for your gadgets, magazines or papers so your entire desktop will be close at hand. Sit or lay on the living room floor, sit up in bed, or go outside. It’ll be good for you.

Why It’s Green:

• Made of solid bamboo
• It is formaldehyde-free with a non-toxic water-based finish
• As a company, Portland-based Reform is dedicated to designing and fabricating quality sustainable furnishings. They require materials be biodegradable or fit within a continuous cycle of use.

Price: $250
Via Green your Decor

NPD Finds Consumers Making Long-Term Changes in Driving Patterns to Cope with Rising Gas Prices

The NPD poll of 43,000 drivers captures the temporary/short-term changes consumers are making to cope with rising gas prices — modifying vacation plans, carpooling — and the longer-term changes, like changing jobs to work closer to home or moving closer to work, which began to emerge when inflation-adjusted gasoline prices soared to unprecedented levels.

“Gasoline prices reached inflation adjusted highs in the fall of 2005, which is different than previous gas price spikes when gas was still relatively inexpensive,” says David Portalatin, director of industry analysis for NPD Group's automotive division. “The longevity and degree to which gasoline prices have surpassed inflation adjusted highs have caused people to make significant, long-term changes to deal with high gasoline prices.”

According to Portalatin, the shorter term changes are likely to reverse when gas prices go down but the longer-term changes will most likely be permanent.

“People don’t decide overnight to change jobs or move,” he says. “As in 1981, the last period when we saw record high inflation-adjusted gas prices, these decisions are made over time when gasoline price spikes sustain historic highs for more than a year. Even if gas prices drop, many of these behaviors will remain, representing a new ‘normal’ level of driving pattern behavior.” NPD

Telework: Sun Runs the Numbers

One reason why many web workers love the way they work is that they’re helping to save the planet. We know that not physically commuting and occupying office cubicles cuts down on pollution - but by how much? Some new findings from Sun Microsystems (who, like many corporations, have their own flexible work program) give us concrete numbers to refer to. Among their conclusions:

• The average worker only used 64 watts per hour at home, compared to 130 watts per hour in a Sun office.
• Commuting was responsible for 98% of each employee’s carbon footprint.
• Working from home two and a half days per week saves two and a half weeks of commuting time per year.
• The same amount of work at home saves 5400 kilowatt hours of energy per year.

All in all, a confirmation of what most of us already believed - but it’s nice to get some hard numbers to show that we’re not just shifting energy use from one place to another. Via WWD

Green Campaign Watch: Big Oil Tax vs Gas Tax Holiday

Now that the presidential election has been narrowed down to two contenders who will essentially determine the fate of how the United States deals with global warming, we decided to start a new feature here on Earth2Tech: Green Campaign Watch. Because one of these two will be deciding the fate of key climate change weapons like carbon regulation and federal support of renewable energy — all those good things that the cleantech industry is betting on — we’re going to be following them closely. What happened this week?

• Obama said this week that his tax on oil company windfalls would be used to help families pay their energy bills. Obama also lay into McCain’s proposed policies and said McCain’s plan would give billions to corporations in tax breaks, including “$1.2 billion for Exxon alone.”
• At a fund-raiser in Virginia McCain promoted his gas tax holiday, but admitted he doesn’t “pretend that it’s an answer to our energy problems;” McCains says he thinks it will help those who “deserve a break.” But among the much-sought-after Independents, a gas tax holiday was a turn-off, by 18 percentage points, according to a May Quinnipiac poll.
• In response to Obama’s accusation that McCain represents a third term for Bush’s policies, McCain fired back on CNBC last night, likening Obama’s energy policies to the the widely unpopular policies of cardigan-wearing President Carter during the 1979 energy crisis. Does this make McCain a Reagan when it comes to energy? Reagan not only squashed Carter’s solar initiative but also ripped the solar water heater off of the White House roof and allowed the tax credits for residential solar to lapse.

Envisioning Solar Trees as Future Energy Stations?

As you can see above and below, Envision Solar plans to make parking lots into beautiful power plants with their Solar Groves and Solar Trees. Envision Solar takes the hassle out of designing structures for solar with their turn-key solutions. Although the company is working on a next generation design for the Solar Tree, the current iteration includes 64 Kyocera solar modules laid out in total measuring 30' x 40'. The panels sit at a five degree angle and provide shading for six vehicles, too. Envision Solar has found success installing these parking canopies near commercial buildings and retail parking lots because the energy can be sold to businesses through power purchase agreements.

What's interesting, though, is what our country would be like with Solar Groves all over the place. With plug-in electric vehicles and plug-in slots near Solar Trees, parking lots could be the transportation energy stations of the future. Electric vehicles wouldn't be nearly as bad as they are right now if they're getting the bulk of their power from renewable sources.

As far as costs are concerned, Envision Solar seems to be aggressive in their pursuit of good deals. Depending on site conditions, the company says a good Solar Grove could pay for itself in five years. That's quite good -- so I expect we'll hear a lot more from Envision Solar going forward. Via Jetsongreen

Mainstream Energy, a local solar installer, gets $40M from Norwegian firm

Renewable Energy Corp., a vertically-integrated solar supplier based in Norway, has put $40 million into San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based Mainstream Energy for a 20 percent stake in the company.

Mainstream supplies and installs solar modules to consumers and businesses, and also negotiates supply agreements with utilities. The investment gives REC an entry-point into the US market.

Mainstream itself has stakes in two smaller companies: AEE Solar, a wholesale solar distributor, and REC Solar (no relation to the Norwegian company), which handles sales and installation of systems.

The agreement also gives REC the option to acquire a majority stake in Mainstream by exercising options that will remain valid for three years. [Via Reuters]

Enphase Energy Starts Selling Its Solar Inverters

Enphase Energy, a startup that has been developing solar management systems with a network of distributed inverters, says its solar inverter setup is now commercially available. That means the company, which announced it had raised $6.5 million at the end of January, has started selling its inverter system to solar installers that build solar systems for both businesses and residential homes. Inverters convert solar power from DC to AC so that it can be used in standard household circuits.

While the company is doing its first shout-out about the availability of its product, Enphase’s CEO Paul Nahi tells us that the company has actually already tested its system with 1,000 or so users. Enphase also says that its distributed micro-inverter system can deliver a more reliable, more efficient, and lower cost solar setup, and that distributed solar systems are more efficient than a centralized system in general; a distributed solar inverter system can increase energy harvest by a range of 13 percent to 15 percent, according to the company.

Enphase’s Nahi says this distributed micro inverter system is the future of solar. “This is a huge change for the solar industry and we are the only micro-inverter company around,” Nahi says. We haven’t heard of many other companies claiming a lead in micro-inverters, and we’ll watch and see if the solar industry is heading in this direction. Vi earth2tech

Duke Energy Launches 20-MW Solar Plan

Duke Energy Carolinas has proposed a US $100 million plan to install electricity generating solar panels at up to 850 North Carolina sites including homes, schools, stores and factories. The company filed an application with the North Carolina Utilities Commission asking for approval to implement this solar distributed generation program.

If the program is approved by regulators, Duke Energy Carolinas would spend two years installing approximately 20 megawatts (MW) of distributed solar generation within the company's North Carolina service area. The company plans to recover its US $100 million investment through North Carolina's new REPS cost recovery mechanism. The company estimates that, over its life, the program will increase the average customer's bill by no more than 25 cents a month.

"We believe an initiative of this scope and scale will help us meet the requirement of North Carolina's new Renewable and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS)," said Keith Trent, Chief Strategy, Policy and Regulatory Officer for Duke Energy Carolinas. "This program also will enable us to evaluate the role of distributed generation on our system, and gain experience in owning and operating renewable energy resources."

94% of Americans Say Solar Energy Development Is Important

According to the recently released SCHOTT Solar Barometer report, a majority of Americans, across all political parties, overwhelmingly support development and funding of solar energy. Ninety-one percent of Republicans, 97 percent of Democrats and 98 percent of Independents agree that developing solar power is vital to the United States, the survey results said.

The survey revealed that 77 percent of Americans feel that the development of solar power and other renewable energy sources should be a major priority of the federal government. Independent voters felt strongest about this, compared to voters in other political parties, with 86 percent of Independents supporting the statement. When asked which one energy source they would support if they were President, 41 percent of Americans picked solar. Solar and wind together were favored nearly 20 times more than coal (3 percent).

According to the survey, nearly three-quarters of Republicans (72 percent), Democrats (72 percent) and Independents (74 percent) favor an extension of the federal investment tax credits (ITC) as a way to encourage development of solar power and fund continued development of the technology. In contrast, only 8 percent of Americans believe the ITC should not be extended.

“These results are an undeniable signal to our elected leaders that Americans want job-creating solar power, now,” said Rhone Resch, President of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “The U.S. Senate has an opportunity to act decisively by passing the Renewable Energy & Job Creation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6049) this month. This is smart policy that will help solar become a powerful economic engine for the country, stabilize energy prices for consumers and businesses and improve America’s national energy security. A vote against this bill is a vote against what the vast majority of Americans are demanding.”

The SCHOTT Solar Barometer Survey was conducted by Kelton Research between May 29th and June 2nd, 2008 using an email invitation and an online survey. The Solar Energy Industry Alliance (SEIA) and SCHOTT Solar commissioned the survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population ages 18 and over. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

Low Impact Living: Who’s the Greenest? Obama vs. McCain

Editor’s note: Let the race begin! As Senator Obama is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, it’s time to start comparing his plans and record with that of presumptive Republican nominee Senator McCain. Our friends at Low Impact Living get the ball rolling… This post was originally published on Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

Now that we seem to have a Democratic candidate, we all need to be digging into the environmental views and policy plans of Senators Obama and McCain.

To help us sort it out, Reuters has published a featured called FACTBOX: U.S. Presidential Candidates on the Environment and Energy. It’s a good piece and we encourage you to read it. Here are some highlights:

On Climate Change

• Obama would cut carbon dioxide emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and require fuel suppliers to cut carbon content by 10 percent by 2020.
• McCain favors a cap-and-trade approach to carbon emissions. He sponsored legislation in 2007 to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2050.

On Oil Use

• Obama would reduce overall U.S. oil consumption by at least 35 percent by 2030.
• McCain has no specific targets. He says he will unveil a strategy to reduce reliance on foreign oil sources.

On Biofuels

• Obama would boost the renewable fuel standard to at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol by 2030. He would also mandate that all new vehicles be “flex-fuel” by the end of 2012.
• McCain favors ethanol incentives after opposing them in the past. He generally opposes subsidies and tariffs that distort the marketplace.

Grist has also done some excellent interviews with the candidates on their environmental positions. Click here to read McCain on the Record, and click here to read Obama’s views.

What do YOU think of the candidates’ stances on the environment? Who are you supporting and why?

Turbine Engine: No Pistons, No Lube, 30% Better Fuel Economy

There are more than 5,000,000 heavy duty trucks running up and down US highways each day. Every one of those trucks gets an average of 7 mpg, carries upwards of 200-300 gallons of diesel, and spews out potentially harmful emissions.

Like it or not, we depend on them to bring us our food, fuel, and products for everyday living. It’s a connection that most of us often forget about, only remembering it long enough to curse them as they slow us down on the highway.

It’s also an industry that has recently been hit hard by soaring fuel prices, and now, with the average price of diesel in the US at $4.70/gallon and climbing, it’s sure to get worse.

Needless to say, there’s a rising cacophony of voices within the trucking industry clamoring for relief. Most of this noise currently comes in the form of wanting a break in fuel prices, but really that’s just a temporary fix. Any solution with sticking power would have to offer both economic and environmental benefit — you know, win-win.

Enter Turbine Truck Engines. The company has developed an engine for heavy duty trucks called the Detonation Cycle Gas Turbine (DCGT). Key features of this engine technology include:

• Uses over 30% less fuel than current heavy duty engines
• 30%+ fewer emissions including nitrogen oxide (NO, NO₂, N₂O₂) and carbon monoxide (CO)
• Operates on all fuels and mixtures of fuels: biofuels, hydrocarbon fuels, hydrogen and synthetic
• Has few moving parts, requiring much less maintenance
• Has no pistons or valves, and uses no lube oil, filters or pump
• Is air cooled and lightweight (less than 2 lbs. per hp)

The company has been aggressively seeking investors recently and last year won the prestigious Frost and Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation.

Currently Turbine Truck Engines holds several patents and has a few prototypes under its belt. When (and if) their technology finally reaches the market, the combined savings on maintenance and fuel, as well as environmental benefits, could make this engine extremely popular with truck drivers and trucking companies worldwide.

What do you think? Is it worthwhile to invest in this type of technology, or should we move past fuel altogether and focus on other things such as our rail infrastructure for movement of goods? Is that even possible? Are big rigs a permanent feature of our society? Is there any way to run them entirely on electricity? Gas 2.0

LEED Double Platinum for Construction Offices

The headquarters of a construction firm in Michigan has the distinction of being the first building to achieve LEED “double platinum” certification. What is more, according to the company, the cost of construction was no greater than conventional building practices.

The Christman Construction offices in Lansing MI occupy roughly half of the 64,000 square foot building which was initially built in 1928. The project cost $12 million, and also benefited from brownfield credits as well as state and federal historic preservation tax credits.

The project managed to achieve the unprecedented “double platinum” by registering the Core and Shell using LEED CS for the building renovation, and then separately registering the interior build-out with LEED CI (Commercial Interiors). Other tenants in the building may or may not pursue LEED certification for their spaces.

In addition to meeting the requirements for LEED for both the building core and shell and the Christman office interiors, the project also followed the guidelines for historic preservation for this building:

All of the preservation work on the building was approved by the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service to ensure that standards protecting the National Register building were upheld. Restoration of historically significant building features included the main entrance doors and plaques, the mica shade light fixtures and Pewabic wall tiles in the main hall, and the light fixtures and verdigris bronze handrail finish in the stairwell and lower level. Other restored and reused building components included door hardware, wood trim, wood windows, and floors in the entry and historic stair made of Bluestone or black and white linoleum. Bricks salvaged from the removal of the penthouse were used to patch exterior walls.

The project reused more than 90% of the existing building exterior. The building also allows extensive natural daylight and views to almost all spaces in the building. Building systems include individually controlled HVAC systems for inhabitant comfort. A computerized building management system (BMS) manages the HVAC and lighting to maximize efficiency and maintain comfort based on occupancy and climatic conditions. Building maintenance is also connected to the BMS.

Recycling was also an important aspect of the construction.

By weight, 77% of all CI project construction and demolition waste was diverted from the landfill through a reclamation and recycling program. Many components of the building were reused thereby tapping the inherent embodied energy and avoiding the need to use more energy and resources to produce new products.

Hemlock Semiconductor To Supply Polysilicon for Solar Projects

Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation has started production at its new polysilicon facility. The new plant will nearly double the company's output of polysilicon and will be used in both the solar energy and semiconductor industries. The new facility will produce approximately 9,000 metric tons of new polysilicon capacity.

This will bring the company's annual production capacity to approximately 19,000 metric tons by the end of 2008, making it one of the the largest polysilicon facilities in the world. Hemlock Semiconductor expects to complete an additional expansion with operations and supply beginning in 2010. This expansion will increase the total capacity from the Hemlock site to 36,000 tons by the end of 2011.

"Delivering polysilicon from our new facility as quickly as possible was essential to meet our customers' expectations," said Hemlock Semiconductor President and CEO Rick Doornbos. "These customers have put a lot of faith in us and the additional quantities of silicon feedstock will enable them to advance solar technology throughout the globe." Via RE

Roswell residences a new definition for a green, solar community

Weatherford Place in Roswell is not your usual residential community under construction.

For one thing, there are no Dumpsters on the site. There’s no need because nearly all the excess construction waste is put back to use.

From top to bottom, inside and out, Weatherford Place is developing a new definition for a green residential community. It eventually will have eight homes on 1.6 acres of land bordering Crossville Creek.

The three visionaries behind the development call it a “solar community of net-zero energy homes,” built to the greenest building standards. They call their home designs EcoCraft: designed and built to nature’s code.

“This is the first of its kind,” says Simone du Boise, an architect specializing in environmental design. “There’s not another neighborhood like this.”

Each home is designed to a platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) level and the entire development will be platinum LEED —- the first in the United States, according to business partner Dan Downey.

But it’s the solar power that really sets the development apart.

“Think of each one of these homes as a little power plant,” du Boise says. She explains that the solar energy generated immediately gets put on the power grid. Georgia Power credits each home for the power it generates, and du Boise says design specifications show that each home will generate more power than it needs —- which is how they become net-zero energy homes.

“This home will use two-thirds less energy than the typical home,” Downey says. “We are using the heat generated from the solar panels to heat the water.”

One house, already purchased by an investor, has been built as a model for how the other seven homes will work. Attention was given to every detail: the location of the windows, the wood used, the carpet, the paint, the fixtures (both light and plumbing), the 1,880 gallon cistern placed underground to capture rainwater, and even a manually-operated dumbwaiter to help move groceries, meals, laundry, suitcases and other stuff from floor to floor. The list is endless.

The third visionary behind Weatherford is designer Denise Donahue. She has integrated the project’s themes and philosophy at every level.

For example, there was a “ground blessing” instead of a groundbreaking, held on the summer solstice last summer —- the day with the most light.

The first part of the development was to restore one-third of the land to green space. Workers also stabilized the embankment next to Crossville Creek to prevent runoff of dirt and containments. more...

New World Bioenergy Association Formed

Aiming to be the global voice for bioenergy and to promote the use of biomass in a sustainable and economical way, the World Bioenergy Association (WBA) has been formed.

"Bioenergy use can and should be increased in a sustainable way in light of high prices of fossil fuels and their environmental impact on the climate, and by representing bioenergy producers worldwide, WBA can help."

Douglas Bradley, President of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO) was appointed to represent Canada as a Board Member. Other intended members include the U.S., Australia, Japan, India, Brazil, Sweden and other EU countries.

"Finding the best paths for sustainable biomass use is a global challenge, requiring global solutions," Bradley said. "But the bioenergy industry is fragmented compared to other renewables such as wind and solar power; biomass ranges from animal waste to leftover wood, and end uses range from heat and power to renewable products that can replace synthetic chemicals and plastics...For bioenergy to take off, we need to speak with one voice — this is what the World Bioenergy Association is all about."

The organization will also promote trade with biofuels and biomass, standardization of fuels, technical development and research. The WBA plans to help to develop certification systems to ensure that bioenergy is produced in an environmentally-friendly way, and under acceptable working conditions.

"Up to now there hasn't been any organization for the bioenergy business on the global level," said Kent Nyström, President of the Swedish Biomass Association and Chair of the WBA. "Bioenergy use can and should be increased in a sustainable way in light of high prices of fossil fuels and their environmental impact on the climate, and by representing bioenergy producers worldwide, WBA can help." Via RE

Programmable Thermostats Save Money and Energy

As part of their year-long “Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR” campaign, EPA has launched a website to help you save money and and energy with your programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat properly programmed and used can reduce 1,847 lbs of green house gas emissions a year. According to the EPA, maximizing household energy use through serviced heating and cooling systems, leak-less ducts, and thermostats that are programmed to save energy at night or when residents are away, would prevent 169 billion lbs of greenhouse gas emissions per year. To those who are more swayed by the impact on their wallets, programmable thermostats can save about $180 a year. Find valuable tips and resources, including tutorials and a video podcast, on their new website www.energystar.gov/programmablethermostats.

Some of the helpful tips include lowering the temperature setting by 8 degrees when you’re away or asleep in the winter, or raising the temperature setting by 7 degrees when you’re away and 4 degrees when you’re asleep in the winter. Take advantage of the “Vacation” and “Hold” features to manage temperatures while you’re away from home for an extended period. More helpful tips from the EPA:

Take the time to set. ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostats come with different temperature settings for four different times of the day—wake, daytime, evening, and night. You can adjust these settings based on your personal needs (for example, if you’re at home with children during the day) but if you’re able to maintain these settings, you can maximize energy savings.

Plan before you program. Consider your family’s schedule and comfort level when deciding on your pre-programmed temperature settings. If you override the pre-set programming during the day you’ll waste energy and lose money. Use the recommended energy-saving temperature settings as a guide to find the schedule that will work best for your family.

Protect your settings. Resist the urge to override temperature settings. Once you’ve set your programmable thermostat, leave it alone. Overriding pre-programmed temperature settings is a common mistake made by homeowners, which results in higher energy bills and discomfort.

Cash in on comfort. Raising or lowering your thermostat to extreme temperatures won’t heat or cool your home faster. It just makes your HVAC system work harder. When a programmable thermostat is used properly, the home is always at a comfortable temperature when people are at home.

Know when to “hold ‘em.” Use the “Vacation” or “Hold” button to set your programmable thermostat before you go away for the weekend or on vacation. Set it at a constant, efficient temperature a few degrees above normal in warmer months and a few degrees below normal in colder months.

Placement is the key to performance. Thermostats should always be placed on interior walls, away from heating or cooling vents or other sources of heat or drafts.

Battery check. Don’t forget to change the batteries once a year to maintain your settings. Some programmable thermostats indicate when batteries must be changed.

Get out the manual. Manuals have all the information you need to properly set and maintain your programmable thermostat for optimal energy savings. If the manual is no longer around, visit the manufacturer website for your programmable thermostat. It may have all the information you need to program for optimal settings.

Calculate your individual savings. Visit energystar.gov and explore the new Web-based ENERGY STAR virtual programmable thermostat to learn how you can save energy and money based on where you live. The tool also provides energy and money saving tips and recommendations for ENERGY STAR qualified heating and cooling products.

Ask the experts. When a contractor comes by for your annual pre-season check-up, find out how to optimize your programmable thermostat for maximum savings and comfort. ALSO visit energystar.gov or call 1-888-STAR-YES (1-888-762-7937) for more answers!

Obama’s Plan to Reduce Foreign Oil Dependence

As Americans spend $41 million in foreign oil an hour and are left broke at the pump, what plan does Obama have to solve this problem?

Oil is destined to be a heated issue in this upcoming presidential election and Barack Obama’s opposition to the gas tax “holiday” has already been a hot topic. Obama has made it clear that national energy policy needs to be taken in a new direction.

“We send a billion dollars to foreign nations every single day and we are melting the polar ice caps in the bargain,” said Obama. “That has to change.”

Here are some of the key elements of Obama’s energy plan:

Fuel Economy Standards

Doubling fuel economy standards within the next 18 years is a priority to Obama. Research in engines and advanced lightweight materials will help meet this goal. He also wants to assist auto makers in increasing fuel economy standards through loan guarantees and tax credits for domestic auto manufacturers.

“We are going to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars because that is the only way that we can actually lower gas prices over the long-term and I know you need that,” said Obama.

Next Generation Biofuels

Obama’s goal is to have two billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol in use by 2013. He plans to use tax incentives, government contracts and cash prizes to help this industry mature and specifically wants to encourage farmer-owned refineries. He would like renewable fuel standards to increase, such that 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels are in the fuel supply by 2030.

A National Low Carbon Fuel Standard is a mechanism that Obama plans to use that requires fuel suppliers to decrease carbon emissions from fuels by 10% by 2020 and he specifically wants to encourage non-petroleum fuels to reach this target.

“The only way we are going to seriously reduce the price of gas is if we actually start investing in alternative fuels and we raise fuel standards on cars,” said Obama.

Renewable Energy

By 2025, Obama would like 25% of U.S. electricity to be generated from clean, renewable sources including wind, solar and geothermal with a Renewable Portfolio Standard. Obama calls for $150 billion to be invested over 10 years in clean energy and infrastructure to support it. Investment in a national digital electric grid would allow greater amounts of renewable energy to be utilized and make plug-in hybrids more environmentally sound.

“For the sake of our security, our economy, our jobs and our planet, the age of oil must end in our time,” said Obama. Via CleanTechnica

The dangers of false optimism

Oxfam’s Polar Bears protested in support of humans who are also losing their habitat and natural resources due to Climate Change at the UN Climate Change Conference on Thursday 6 December, 2007. Photo: Ng Swan Ti.

Martin Parry, Jean Palutikof, Clair Hanson and Jason Lowe, all four respected and known scientists from the IPCC, have written on The Nature about the dangers of false optimism regarding climate change. They warn that the “damages will be large” if we continue to believe that we have climate change under control.

“We have lost ten years talking about climate change but not acting on it. Meanwhile, evidence from the IPCC indicates that the problem is bigger than we thought. A curious optimism […] pervades the political arenas of the G8 summit and UN climate meetings. This is false optimism, and it is obscuring reality. The sooner we recognize this delusion, confront the challenge and implement both stringent emissions cuts and major adaptation efforts, the less will be the damage that we and our children will have to live with.”

They also warn that a 50% reduction of global emissions below 1990 levels (note that a 50% reduction is often referred to as “stringent” in the political world), that the G8, EU and the UN climate change conference in Bali last December has urged for, “will not avoid major global impacts.”

According to them even at an 80% reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions “damages will be large” and “likely to be unavoidable.”

“Residual damage will be great unless we invest in adaptation now. Much of the damage could be avoided by adaptation, but again, this would require a much larger effort than is currently planned.

Ten years ago one of the authors, Martin Parry, proposed that adaptation would be unavoidable. This view was criticized as ‘defeatist’, but the data now clearly support it.”

Martin Parry, Jean Palutikof, Clair Hanson and Jason Lowe are just a few of all the other scientists that recently have spoken out about the dangers of playing down the effects and risks from climate change.

Their message is clear.

We need strong actions today. Tomorrow will be too late.

SunPower CEO: No U.S. Solar Incentives? No Solar For You

The CEO of SunPower Tom Werner said this week that if the U.S. federal government doesn’t renew the investment tax credit (ITC) that provides 30 percent on the investment of solar, the company will be forced to move its business “elsewhere” to make up for that. Every company in the solar industry is worrying over this subsidy that is set to expire by the end of the year, but if you’re as big and seemingly global as SunPower, you can make up for a potentially lost subsidy by focusing on markets outside of the U.S.

At the Jefferies 5th Global Clean Tech Conference this morning Werner said “If the ITC doesn’t happen, we can move our business elsewhere and make up for that. Is that a preferred solution? No. Does America lose jobs with that? Yes. But can we as a company hit ‘08 and ‘09 without the ITC? Yes.” When a solar industry leader says the company could be forced to potentially ignore its own domestic market, that’s a depressing thought for the entire solar ecosystem.

Werner repeated the sentiments earlier this week in an interview with Reuters stating: “We control our own destiny, (and) we’ll be able to enter other new markets rapidly.” He specified that a lost ITC would affect the company’s business and commercial markets more than residential, and said it could easily focus more on Italy, Greece, France and Australia.

SunPower isn’t the only company concerned. Back in January at the Concentrated Solar Power’s U.S. summit in San Francisco the President and CEO of solar thermal company Solel Avi Brenmiller said that if there is no ITC, the company won’t be able to build a planned 553 MW solar project. At the same summit Donna Flynn, Washington Council for Ernst & Young, made a more dire pronouncement for the solar industry: “We need something before July 1st or we’re going to die.” Via earth2tech

GreenBuildingTalk: Aerators are Low-Tech Options for Conserving Water

Editor’s note: Green building and resource conservation doesn’t have to involve the latest technology or high prices. Our friends at GreenBuildingTalk take a look at one of the humblest of water-saving devices — the faucet aerator — and show how this low-tech option is a good bet for homeowners looking to conserve water… and lower their bills. This post was originally published on Sunday, June 1, 2008.

About a decade ago, water conserving faucets and low-flow showerheads were the bane of contractors and homeowners alike. But over time, trial and error has led to better product design, education and installation. If your kitchen or bathroom faucet is fairly new, it will probably have an aerator in it. New faucets today typically have 2.2 gallons per minute (gpm) aerators, whereas conventional faucets typically use 4 gpm. If your faucets are more than ten years old, odds are they’re water hogs. Aerators provide a low-tech solution that not only make the flow more forceful, but provide more effective wetting and rinsing. Consider installing an aerator with a lower flow, such as 1.5, 1.0, or the lowest option available to date: .5 gpm.

To help you decide which aerator to purchase, first you’ll need to determine the flow rate of your faucet. If it takes less than five seconds to fill up a one-quart container, your faucet uses more than three gallons per minute. If it takes ten seconds to fill up, your faucet uses 1.5 gpm. Once you know your existing faucet’s approximate output, take along your old aerator or faucet screen to the store to make sure your new one will fit. If you have an old faucet with no threads in the tip for screwing in an aerator, you will not be able to use one, and should consider investing in a new faucet. Imprinted on the aerator, in tiny numbers, is its rate flow of gallons per minute. They typically cost between $0.50 and $3.00. You’ll be hard pressed to find a wiser three-dollar investment.

If you already have an aerator installed but are experiencing weak water pressure, you may just need the aerator cleaned. Another symptom of a dirty aerator is an irregular spray pattern or stray stream of water going off at an odd direction. Cleaning or replacing the aerator is very easy and you should be able to do it with just a set of pliers. All you need to do is unscrew the aerator from the spout, disassemble it and soak the screen and aerator disks in vinegar for an hour or more. After soaking, you may want to scrub them with a small brush to remove lingering residue. Reassemble the aerator and thread the assembly back onto the spout. Tighten it with tape-wrapped pliers to avoid marring the finish.

In early 2008, the EPA began to expand their WaterSense program by developing criteria for water-efficient new homes. These homes must meet both indoor and outdoor water use criteria in order to be considered a WaterSense labeled home. The specification for bathroom faucets under the WaterSense Home Program requires that all bathroom faucets installed be WaterSense labeled faucets. The spec sets the maximum flow rate of faucets and aerators at 1.5 gmp, tested at a flowing pressure of 60 psi. The spec also includes a minimum flow rate of 0.8 gpm tested at a flowing pressure of 20 psi to ensure performance across a variety of different household conditions. Currently, kitchen and utility faucets are not addressed since the different uses (e.g., pot filling) and users expectations (e.g., fill the pot quickly) may not be adequately addressed with low-flow faucets. This specification will be revised as new aerators are labeled under the WaterSense program. For more information on how to find a WaterSense labeled product, visit WaterSense: Find a Product.

Bosch in 1.1 Billion Euro Solar Power Bid for ersol

Bosch has made an EU 1.1B [US $1.7B] takeover bid for ersol Solar Energy AG, the German solar energy company, marking the first big move by one of the world's major industrial groups in this part of the renewable sector.

Bosch, the privately-owned German conglomerate, is offering €101 [US $156] a share in cash, a 63 percent premium to ersol's closing price on Friday. Bosch has secured 50.1 percent of the group through the €546 million [US $ 843 million] purchase of the stake held by Ventizz, a private equity firm.

The offer for ersol is likely to be watched with interest by industrial groups. It, along with Conergy and Q-Cells, are the largest solar groups in the world.

Companies such as General Electric and Siemens have monitored the solar energy sector closely but apart from a few small purchases by GE, the large industrial companies have yet to act.

Some executives remain skeptical and believe that oversupply and a fall in subsidies could hit prices and margins.

However, Franz Fehrenbach, Bosch's chief executive, said the group — owned by a charitable foundation — wanted to add to its renewable energy activities, which included making wind turbines, thermal pumps and drives for marine power.

Bosch already makes solar collectors for hot-water generation and has a partnership with BASF and Heliatek, both of Germany, to produce cheaper organic photovoltaic cells used in the industry.

However the offer for ersol, which had €160m in sales last year and is expected to have €300m this year, represents a significant increase. Via RE

Vintage Inspiration: Sixties Style Restored Phone

A few weeks ago, I offered a simple, eco-chic decorating tip: Use Vintage Furniture. As it turns out, there are lots of other home decor products that have stood the test of time and can be restored and/or repurposed to fit right in with our modern lifestyles. And this Sixties Style Restored Phone from Uncommon Goods is a perfect example. I’ll start with the disclaimer that it is sold out, but I wanted to feature it simply for inspiration.

It is a relic straight from the days when Kennedy was president — in other words, well before my time. It is an actual Siemens telephone model from the 1960s that has been restored by hand. Essentially, the shell of the phone is all original, but the microphone and other internal parts take advantage of more sophisticated modern technology. And the chic baby blue color makes it a great fit for a bedroom decorated in vintage Hollywood glam style, a whimsical teen room or an eclectic office.

My mother actually still owns one of these old-school rotary style phones. This makes it very tempting to find someone to restore it. I don’t know about you, but if I can make my phone an integral part of my decor instead of blending into the background, I’d like to jump at the chance. If you’re willing to do the legwork to find one of these relics at a local antique shop or yard sale, here’s your chance to do the same.

Why It’s Green:

• Restoring vintage objects reduces the demand for and the need to manufacture new products

Via Green Your Decor

Wind Turbines Big and Small at WINDPOWER 2008

This is a guest post provided by Maria Surma Manka direct from WINDPOWER 2008. Maria writes about renewable energy policy, innovation, and private sector leadership at Maria Energia.

Greetings from Houston, site of the American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2008 conference. I am a guest of AWEA and have spent the last few days meeting several of the 12,000 attendees and visiting many of the nearly 800 exhibitors. Below are some of the interesting small wind turbine designs I found.

BROADSTAR WINDSYSTEMS
Dallas-based Broadstar Windsystems makes the AeroCam turbine that can be used in urban areas and even to infill rural wind farms (in other words, put these shorter, smaller turbines in between the big ones). What's more, Broadstar made the bold claim that this turbine could achieve $1 per watt installed.

IR WINDPOWER
The three following photos are small turbines from IR Windpower. They currently manufacture both large and small designs throughout Asia, but they're eying the European and U.S. markets next.

Via jetsongreen

Bill Gates Slashing Stake in Pacific Ethanol

Bill Gates is making good on his plans, announced last November, to sell off his 20.6 percent stake in Pacific Ethanol.

Cascade Investment, the private investment and holding company controlled by Gates, has been whittling down the stake trade by trade, according to recent filings with the SEC.

The latest round of selling began with the sale of 300,000 common shares into the market on May 28 . The next day, Cascade converted 1 million shares of preferred stock into 2 million shares of PEIX common stock worth $8 a share each.

Cascade then began to immediately sell those common shares off at a huge discount - in the market, investors paid between $3.40 and $3.75 a share for them. By last Friday, Cascade had sold off a total of 1.4 million shares in three days, or roughly $5 million worth of Pacific Ethanol stock.

The sales came only a few days after Pacific Ethanol reported surprisingly strong earnings for the first quarter, only to erase most of the stock gains with an announcement it would dilute investors with a new stock offering. It seems that Gates may want to cash out some of his stake in Pacific Ethanol before that dilution took effect, even if it meant selling below the $8 a share price that he converted his shares at.

Earlier, in April and May, Cascade had sold more than a million shares in the market, between $3 and $4 a share. All told, Bill Gates has come close to cutting his stake in the company in half over the past several weeks.

A Sacramento Bee story quoted Pacific Ethanol CEO Neil Koehler as philosophical about the steady stock sales from what was its largest investor.

[Gates'] original stake was 20 percent, and “he’s well on his way to 10 percent,” Koehler said. Gates’ $84 million investment in 2005 was a big early boost to Pacific Ethanol, but Koehler said he isn’t particularly bothered by Gates’ recent sales. “That’s the great thing about markets; people are free to buy and sell,” he said.

These days, they are a little freer with their sales. Pacific Ethanol closed Tuesday down 4 percent at $3.30. Via earth2tech

Photovoltaics, Floatovoltaics Bring Sun Power to California Vineyards

Here’s another reason (as if one needs a reason!) to enjoy California wines: Napa Valley wineries are adopting solar power faster than any other business sector in the state.

Among the wine-makers using solar power: Far Niente, Frog’s Leap, Fetzer, Domaine Carneros, Ridge and St. Francis, among others. According to one solar company executive, the region’s wineries are going solar 40-plus times faster than any other type of business in California.

The most innovative adoption of vineyard solar power so far is on view at Far Niente, where a system of so-called “floatovoltaics” gathers up sun energy via 1,000 pontoon-based solar panels floating on an irrigation pond. The installation, developed and installed by California’s SPG Solar, lets the winery tap into sun power without the need to panel over valuable grape-growing land.

All together, Far Niente’s solar arrays can generate up to 770 kilowatts of energy for the winery.

Frog’s Leap, an organic winery that went 100-percent solar in 2005, also takes advantage of geothermal energy. The system keeps the wine-maker’s hospitality building comfortable for visitors, no heating or A/C needed.

And don’t think California’s wine-makers are the only ones concerned about the environment and sustainability. Up in Oregon, wineries have come together to develop a new labeling system to identify wines that are “sustainable, organic and biodynamic.”

What a problem to have, huh? So many “green” wines, so little time!

Planet Green Set to Become World’s First 24/7 Eco-TV Network

Greens come in way more than one shade, so the folks at the Discovery Channel and TreeHugger are hoping to reach as many of them as they can through a new partner-based, 24/7 network dubbed Planet Green.

Calling itself the “first and only 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network,” Planet Green launches Wednesday, June 4. The synergy of the TV/Internet partnership promises to deliver a greater range and depth of green information than either medium could provide on its own, according to Eileen O’Neill, president and general manager of the Planet Green network.

“We didn’t want to be a passive network,” O’Neill said during a blogger conference call this week. She describes the new effort as “Discovery meets Bravo meets PBS.”

One particular strength of Planet Green will be how it can appeal to TV viewers with a wide range of interests, including those who wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves environmentalists of any stripe, O’Neill said. What makes the network different is that it will be able to deliver both entertainment and an opportunity to learn much more, if the mood strikes.

Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger, described how shows on Planet Green will be able to provide Web links to a variety of guides and resources, with the potential to bring Discovery Channel-size audiences to green learning online.

“There are lots of different ways to communicate,” Hill said.

“The entertainment factor is kind of the big carrot, but we absolutely have to have substance with our style,” O’Neill added. Entertainment, she said, “kept coming back as the best way to engage viewers in green TV.”

Planet Green will feature a variety of original green programming, often featuring well known personalities like Emeril Lagasse or Ed Begley Jr. Other celebrities come on board both in front of and behind the camera, as does Leonardo DiCaprio with the network’s series on Greensburg, Kansas, a tornado-devastated community that’s rebuilding in a green and sustainable fashion.

“We wanted certain personalities for the relatability factor, but we also wanted passion,” O’Neill said. “This network is designed to lean forward.” Via Sustainablog

Solar Photovoltaic Training Courses Offered

Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) has announced two new comprehensive solar energy training courses, for those interested in the growing solar industry, to be held at NMC's Energy Demonstration Center in Traverse City, MI.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Electric Systems - Entry Level provides the fundamentals of PV system design in a one-week, 40-hour workshop, June 23 - 27. Participants will gain understanding of solar radiation, and work with system components, designs, assembly, analysis, troubleshooting, and safety. The course provides solar essentials for builders, architects, code officials, construction and energy-related workers, treachers, attorneys, and community leaders. Participants may opt to take the nationally recognized exam for the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) Certificate of Knowledge on June 28.

Advanced Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Electrical Systems is designed for licensed electricians, electrical engineers, and third year apprentices. The 40-hour, one-week workshop meets August 4-8. Content includes site analysis, systems design, grounding, mounting, maintenance, troubleshooting, and electrical code related to solar installation. This course is for candidates seeking to add solar credentials to their existing license or seeking NABCEP PV Installer Certification.

The cost of each course is $775 and includes materials. NMC dorm lodging is available. For more information and to register, contact NMC Extended Educational Services, at 800-748-0566, ext. 5-1700, or visit www.nmc.edu/energy

olar Power Partners Develops 5.1 MW of Distributed Solar Systems

Solar Power Partners, Inc (SPP), a nationwide developer of distributed commercial solar energy facilities, announced that it has completed development for a portfolio of 15 distributed solar PV projects with an installed value exceeding US $35 million and representing a diverse spectrum of commercial solar facilities.

The 15 facilities together make up 5.1 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy generating assets that will sell electricity to the host customers under commercial PPAs. The projects include 8 rooftop systems for one of the largest grocery store chains in America, a 2 MW single-axis tracking ground-mount system for a California airport, a 400 kilowatt (kW) fixed groundmount system for a county juvenile detention center, and systems serving a boutique winery, a series of walnut processing facilities, a northern California water district and the headquarters of a major Central Valley religious organization.

All 15 projects are expected to be completed and fully operational by end of June 2008. SPP teamed with Suntechnics Energy Systems, Borrego Solar, Premier Power, Advance Solar, World Water and Solar, Solar Power Inc. and 3rd Rock Technologies in the development of these facilities.

WINDPOWER 2008 Opens in Houston

Yesterday at WINDPOWER 2008 more than 12,000 wind industry leaders, policymakers and energy professionals converged at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The event, which runs through Wednesday, features over 770 exhibitors, including wind power plant developers, turbine manufacturers and the full range of supply chain manufacturers.

According to show organizer AWEA, the conference is the world's largest annual wind energy industry event.

Attendees of the show are privy to three days of conference sessions, an interactive tradeshow of wind energy products and services and numerous networking opportunities among leaders in all facets of the industry. The show also features a conference program with a total of 300 speakers and moderators, 150 poster presentations and over 50 sessions addressing topics organized into six daily tracks: Finance, Wind Power Growth, Resource Assessment, Policy, Key Issues and Wind at the Epicenter.

In addition, visitors can attend a seminar on careers in wind, which offers those interested in a career in the industry the opportunity to hear from top executives at leading wind energy companies. Via RE

Solar Power Partners Completes Flagship Safeway Solar Project

Solar Power Partners, Inc. (SPP), a leading national retail solar power developer of distributed solar energy facilities, announced today the completion and commissioning of its first Safeway solar facility built to provide electric power for a store in Dublin California. The 250 kW DC project was designed and constructed by SunTechnics Energy Systems of Sacramento California, one of several integration partners working with SPP on behalf of the statewide Safeway Solar Initiative.

"SPP is proud to be one of Safeway's sustainability partners", said Craig Hunt, SPP's CEO. "By installing solar power, Safeway is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, taking action to manage their carbon footprint, addressing climate change and reducing air pollution. The commissioning of the Safeway facility adds another successful milestone to the rapid growth of Solar Power Partners clients."

SPP's industry-leading design standards utilized Sanyo HIT high-efficiency modules, a 20-degree tilt SunLink^® mounting solution, a Satcon PowerGate^® inverter and string-level monitoring in partnership with Energy Recommerce, Inc ^®. It is expected to produce over 350,000 kWh of electricity in the first year, the amount of electricity used by approximately 30 average residential homes.

"Safeway, one of California's largest renewable energy purchasers, has embarked upon a major solar initiative with Solar Power Partners, to augment our comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Reduction Initiative," said Joe Pettus, Senior Vice President Fuel and Energy. "SPP is providing competitive solar power allowing Safeway to leverage its energy resources. There are many items that must come together to make solar economics work, with no two projects being exactly the same. Safeway appreciates SPP's ability to integrate these custom components to meet our business drivers."

The solar sites under development in California will produce enough energy to power more than 600 average U.S. homes each year, and will keep over 10.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually.

"SPP is proud to be one of Safeway's sustainability partners", said Craig Hunt, SPP's CEO. "By installing solar power, Safeway is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, taking action to manage their carbon footprint, addressing climate change and reducing air pollution. The commissioning of the Safeway facility adds another successful milestone to the rapid growth of Solar Power Partners clients."

Geothermal Electricity Booming in Germany

Electricity from geothermal sources is set to soar in Germany -- and all thanks to a law that has made drilling wells deep enough to hit the hot temperature water, which is needed to produce electricity, financially viable.

"Geothermal sources could supply Germany's electricity needs 600 times over."

-- Werner Bussmann, CEO, German Geothermal Association

Less than 0.4 percent of Germany's total primary energy supply came from geothermal sources in 2004. But after a renewable energy law that introduced a tariff scheme of EU €0.15 [US $0.23] per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity produced from geothermal sources came into effect that year, a construction boom was sparked and the new power plants are now starting to come online.

"Geothermal sources could supply Germany's electricity needs 600 times over," Werner Bussmann, CEO of the German Geothermal Association [Geothermische Vereinigung], told RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

He said special, cost effective technology allowed energy to be extracted from geothermal reservoirs containing low- to moderate-temperature water that are so typical of Germany.

Innovative technology is important because Germany, unlike countries such as Iceland, Italy or Indonesia, does not have volcanic activity or the associated dry steam reservoirs that can be used to produce electricity directly.

"Geothermal electricity has the advantage of being available 24 hours a day, 8000 hours a year, and this makes it a great source of baseload power," Bussmann said.

He predicted that Germany could be generating several thousands of megawatts (MW) of electricity from geothermal sources in a couple of decades. There are already four small geothermal power plants successfully operating in Germany, albeit supplying only a tiny amount of electricity.

More plants — some as big as 8-10 MW — are due to go into operation in 2009-2010 in Sauerlach, Dürrnhaar, Riedstadt, Speyer, Gross Schoenebeck and Mauerstetten. And looking 3 to 5 years ahead, there could be more than a hundred plants. About 150 geothermal power plant projects are in the pipeline representing an investment of 4 billion euros, according to the German government.

Just how soon these geothermal power plants will be built, however, depends on whether there is enough drilling equipment available to dig deep enough to hit the hotter water needed for electricity generation. At the moment, a shortage of drilling equipment is pushing up the cost for constructing a geothermal power plant, Bussmann said.

Costs of EU €30 to 40 million [US $47 to 63 million] for a 3.5 MW plant with a life-cycle of 30 years or longer are typical in Germany, he said. The price of drilling equipment accounts for 60 percent of the total cost, and this has doubled in the last 3 to 4 years.

In response, Germany's manufacturing sector is now gearing up to produce more drills, so removing a major obstacle to the future expansion of geothermal electricity. Also, the cost of building geothermal plants could fall in the next few years as more efficient technology is developed, Bussmann predicted. He said the geothermal industry could achieve a price per kWh that makes it competitive with gas and oil in 20 years time depending on how quickly the price of oil and gas increases.

The best geothermal generation opportunities in Germany are located in southern Bavaria — where water of temperatures of 140°C or hotter can be found 5,000 meters below the ground — and in the Upper Rhine region as well as in northern Germany.

Giant Plastic Trees To Save Planet by the Removal of CO2

Scientist who originally coined the phrase “global warming” is backing a radical solution to stem further damage to the planet caused by CO2.

Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival in Powys, Wales, Wallace Broecker suggests the way forward must surely lie with the construction of millions of “carbon scrubbers.”

These carbon scrubbers would be giant artificial trees that would pull CO2 from the atmosphere via a specially designed plastic and the gas would either be liquefied under pressure to be pumped underground or converted to mineral.

So how exactly does this all work? From The Guardian:

The team [led by Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York] says [the device] can trap the CO2 from air on absorbent plastic sheets called ion exchange membranes, commonly used to purify water. Crucially, it has discovered that humid air can then make the membranes “exhale” their trapped CO2. The discovery was “some serendipity and some working out,” Lackner said. “When I saw it the first time, I didn’t believe it.

Guardian coverage in full with a full explanation of the potentials behind the project.

An extremely interesting idea and one I hadn’t personally come across before. The concept appears to me to be a hybrid of Isaac Asimov and Lego and not at all off-putting.

There will of course be those who bleat, maintaining that these pretend trees are going to look somehow ugly. These same people casually watch the news each evening but always find it infinitely more interesting to wander over to the fridge when there’s some feature detailing further destruction of rainforest.

Personally, I find the concept of 60 million of these devices constructed worldwide (the figure given in the BBC report) not nearly so offensive a view as a bunch of apes driving around in machines yelling at each other in a smog of road rage and inconsideration.

Hawaii Law Requires All New Homes Install Solar Hot Water Heaters

All new homes built in Hawaii will be required to install solar hot water heaters beginning in 2010, cutting energy costs by 30%. The state of Hawaii has a goal of at least 70 percent renewable energy use by 2030. “Achieving this goal is nearly impossible without widespread use of solar water heaters,” Hawaii Sierra Club director Jeff Mikulina says. “The solar roofs bill is smart policy, sensibly crafted to smooth a transition toward zero-energy homes of the future.”

The Laundry Room: Make it Green

Excerpted with permission from Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care by Jossey-Bass, A John Wiley & Sons Imprint.

For such a little person, a baby sure goes through a lot of laundry: diapers, bibs, sleepers, undershirts, blankets, sheets, socks, pants . . . and of course all the items the baby spits up on that also need to be cleaned—often. That’s why having a baby in the house turns the mundane washer and dryer into wonder machines of incredible convenience. This increase in laundry loads is also a good reason for you to focus your green efforts on the laundry room.

The Green Washing Machine

If you’re buying a new washer, remember to look for Energy Star models. Traditional top-loading washing machines use about forty gallons of water per load, whereas Energy Star washers use only about 25 gallons per load. That’s a 40 percent savings in water, which translates into an energy cost savings of almost 50 percent.10Make that new machine a front-loader. Front-loading machines work on a horizontal axis that saves both water and energy. A top-loading machine must be filled with water in order to keep the clothing wet and then an agitator swirls the water around, but a front-loading machine uses less water because the tub does not need to be filled completely; the tub itself rotates, making the clothes tumble in the water.

These machines also reduce the energy needed for drying clothes because they spin clothes faster than top-loading machines, which reduces the moisture level before the clothes even enter the dryer. As an extra green bonus, front-loading washers are kinder to your clothing, so your clothes last longer. In comparison to top-loading washing machines, the front-loaders use 50 percent less energy and a third less water. With those savings, it will pay for itself in six years and should last for ten. In addition, a front-loading Energy Star washer will save enough energy annually to light your entire home for a month and a half, and it saves as much water in a year as the average person drinks in a lifetime.

Laundry Detergent

While you’re looking for ways to go green in the laundry room, don’t overlook your detergent. You’ll find that it’s easy to make the switch to green detergents that are plant based (corn, palm kernel, or coconut oil) and to non-chlorine-bleach products made from sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate. For those laundry tasks that require special attention, think simple and homemade. • For stains, try soaking fabrics in water mixed with one of the following:Borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, or white vinegar.

• For fabric softening, add a quarter cup of baking soda to the wash cycle.

• For static cling, add a quarter cup of white vinegar to the wash water.

• To soften water, use a soap-based, rather than detergent-based, cleaner.

• Buy laundry products in containers that are recyclable. There are very good reasons for making the switch to a green product. Most conventional laundry detergents are made from petroleum— a nonrenewable resource. They don’t readily biodegrade, and they threaten wildlife after they go down the drain. Many also contain chemical fragrances and phosphates (which build up in streams and lakes, upset the natural balance, and starve fish of the oxygen they need to survive). They also contain chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive problems. That’s just plain bad for the earth and for your family.

Chlorine bleach should also be banned from your laundry room. This popular whitener and disinfectant is highly caustic; when it goes from your drain into the natural world, it can create organochlorines, which are suspected carcinogens as well as reproductive, neurological, and immune system toxins. They also damage the earth’s ozone layer.

Washing and Drying Tips to Try Today

· When you have several loads to wash, do them back-to-back so you can use the residual heat in the dryer.

· Run the washing machine only when you have a full load.

· Wash with cold water to save 80 to 90 percent of the energy costs of washing.

· To prevent static cling, add one cup white vinegar to the rinse cycle, using your washing machine’s dispenser. Static cling, by the way, is caused by using synthetic fabrics, so you could also switch to cotton. The vinegar also kills bacteria and prevents the buildup of detergent residue. Remove the laundry before it’s overdried.

· Clean out the dryer’s lint trap after every load to improve circulation and reduce energy use.

· Air dry whenever possible using indoor racks or an outdoor line. This conserves energy—and your clothes. They will not wear out or fade as quickly. (You’ll also save about seven hundred pounds of carbon dioxide over six months of warm weather.)

· Remove clothing from the dryer before the cycle ends and line dry to finish. This conserves energy and increases the life span of the clothing.

· Avoid using dryer sheets to soften fabrics. They often contain harsh chemicals that can irritate sensitive skin. Soften fabric with baking soda in the wash cycle. Try a commercial green fabric softener like Natural Choices Home Safe Products’ Safe ’n Soft, Ecover’s Natural Fabric Softener, or Sun & Earth’s Ultra Fabric Softener. Via Eco Childs Play