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2010

First US EV Fast Charger Gets Installed in… Vacaville!
Lake Erie Non Profit LEEDCo Wins GE Turbines
ExxonMobil Shareholders Demand Natural Gas Fracking Risk Assessment
House/Senate Jump for Electric Vehicle Legislation in Climate Bill
Inventor Uses Biomimicry to Create Dew
First US State to Codify Law for Carbon Sequestration is Wyoming
Peak Day Pricing Begins for Large Commercial PG&E Customers
Republicans Having Second Thoughts About Dirty Energy
More Wind Farms Mean Cheaper Energy
Gamesa and Cannon Build One of The Largest Wind Farms In North America
Climate Change to Rob Your Grandchildren of Nutrients in Pies, Bread, Pizza or Spaghetti
53 Megawatt Ice Energy Storage Project Begins In Glendale, California
DOE Finalizes Environmental Review for Abengoa Solana Project in Arizona
Massive Offshore Waves Sink Australia’s Oceanlinx Wavepower Pilot
We’re No. 11! USA! USA! USA!
Tesla and Toyota to Collaborate on Building the Affordable Electric Car
The Key Votes We Need to Pass the Climate Bill
Border Dispute between Arizona and California Could Shut Down Power to LA
Top Utilities Added 66% More Solar in 2009
Why AB32 Goes After the Cement Industry
Oklahoma Sets a Renewable Energy Standard!
Coal Plant Troubles Free Up Proposed Transmission for South Dakota Wind
French Policy Expert to Advise California on Feed-in Tariff Design
1 in 5 to Take Foot off Gas After Gulf Gusher
Clever Photosynthetic Breathing Building “Skin” to Cut Need for Energy
Humans Won’t Survive on Half of Earth by 2300
Why California Has Nearly Quadrupled Solar Installations Since Last Year
California’s Early Actors on Clean Energy to Benefit Under Today’s Unveiled Fed Climate Bill
Bleeding Gulf Appears Unquenchable in Leaked Video
What Really Matters in Climate Policy
Unlikely California Electricity Hog Could Green the Grid in November
Mapping the Scale of the Oil Gushing From the Gulf Coast Ocean FloorListening to Rush Raises Your Utility Bills
Solé Power Tile to be CEC-Approved For California Roofs
Reagan’s Shultz Protecting California’s Clean Energy Law From Texas Oil Companies
Is BP’s Spill Like The ‘69 Santa Barbara Spill? Read more...

How Fort Irwin Just Signed The Largest Solar Farm in Dept of Defense History: 1,000 MW

Written by Susan Kraemer

Published on October 16th, 2009

Posted in business, solar energy

In a win-wIn move for the US Army and the USA, a mutually beneficial financing arrangement was signed this week between the US Army and a new partnership (”Irwin Energy Security Partners LLC”) comprising Clark Energy Group and multinational solar power giant Acciona. By using Enhanced Use Leasing they can now not only finance the solar project for Fort Irwin, but double the size to 1,000 megawatts.

The solution they came to this week provides a model for how to get around the difficulties encountered by utility scale solar companies in getting past NIMBY opposition and other roadblocks to developing big solar in the desert.

Read more at cleantechnica.... Read more...

60% of US States Could Supply 100% of Their Own Power From Renewable Energy, New Rules Project Shows

Written by Susan Kraemer

Published on October 17th, 2009

Posted in policy, solar energy, wind energy

Using just the resources that are currently commercially deployable; 31 of our 51 states, or 60% of US states could get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources in-state, and another 14 percent could generate 75 percent of their electricity in-state, according to a paper published by New Rules Project that focuses on the potential for local production.

In some ways, very local; which actually makes this a conservative estimate. For example:

>>Find local group discounts on solar power for your home.

Solar. The New Rules Project study looked only rooftop solar potential, and not the obviously far larger utility-scale solar potential as the idea was to see what could be done with existing resources only in each state, and not adding transmission lines.

(Strangely; the authors inexplicably omit waste biomass or waste fueled electricity, like from landfill gas, cow power and sewage sludge as sources for producing electricity, that has tremendous potential. There is no peak poop, after all. )

But it still has a wealth of detailed data (2007), well presented in these graphs showing the relative resource for each state for

Pg 2 Wind
Pg 3 Off-shore Wind
Pg 4 Micro Hydro
Pg 5 Combined Heat & Power
Pg 6 Geothermal
Pg 7 EGS
Pg 8 Negawatts
Pg 9 Transmission Potential (my notes)
Pg 10 Relative Costs

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Prius Powers Home in Ice Storm

Ice Storm Victim Improvises Prius-to-Home Energy Generator

A Massachusetts man - faced with no power in the recent ice storm, powered up the family Prius to create electricity: The hybrid car made enough electricity to run the essentials; the fridge, the lights, the TV, the wood-stove fan. During the power outage, it supplied 17 Kilowatt hours of energy to his home for three days.

How did he do it?



The Harvard Press described how the hybrid’s battery ran the house essentials for electrical engineer John Sweeney and family. He dug up an inverter which made 120v AC from 12v DC current and he wired it into the hybrid electric Prius, creating V2G technology on the fly.

V2G; vehicle to grid technology - is what will make it possible to reduce the amount of new power that we would otherwise need to add to the grid, because electric cars can act as rolling storage batteries to supply emergency extra electric power.

As such, V2G is of great interest to utlities and state governors seeking to reduce expenses and NIMBY issues associated with building more power stations. Vehicle to Grid technology reduces the need to build more power stations, by evening out grid loads; by swapping power back and forth as needed between electric vehicles and the grid.

But we don't call it V2G when it's your electric Prius powering your home, of course; the correct technical acronym is P2H; Prius2Home.

Last year the NYT reported on a similar case of another disaster victim powering his home in the same way; but this one employed his P2H power during a hurricane.

Related stories:

Electric Car Plows 4 Feet of Snow!
Boring Electric Car Still Coming in 2010

Photo of electrical damage in an ice storm by WindsurfGirl
Via NYT Green Inc

Published at Gas 2.0 Read more...

Your Clothes Dryer could Make Electricity Too

Clothes dryers throw off waste heat that could be a useful form of energy --if it could just be harnessed.

Even enough energy to run half of all your household appliances.

Co-generation; sometimes called combined heat and power (CHP) is already starting to be used by factories and data centers to save energy by creating both heat and power.

But until now, low heat has not been harnessed in creating electricity. Most existing technologies are efficient only at temperatures above 400 °F, and a lot of waste heat just isn't that hot.

But Ener-G-Rotors has just developed an innovative new technology that one day might have your clothes dryer supplying half the electricity in your house as well, and cheaply enough to deliver a payback in two years.

They initially plan for commercial use but also hope to target consumers with a one-kilowatt system.

That would be enough to supply half their electricity. Check your utility bill to see your total kwh used in the month: if it is approximately 500 kwh per month, a two-kilowatt system is enough to supply your electricity needs.

Ener-G-Rotors says "Our technology is more efficient and simpler than anything else out there right now," he says. "There aren't many technologies that are going to work here. And we think we have the lowest cost of any of the technologies out there."

So imagine getting half your electricity from your dryer...with help maybe, from that other energy hog - your fridge.

From MIT
Photo by Olivia Megalis

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Inventor Wants to Geo-Engineer a Planetwide "Refrigerator"

Bailing out the entire human race might turn out to be cheaper than bailing out Wall Street:

Spray gigatons of seawater into the air, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, and let Mother Nature do the rest, suggests inventor Ron Acer in a patent petition for "a colossal refrigeration system with a 100,000-fold performance multiplier."

"The Earth has a giant air-conditioning problem," he said. "I'm proposing to put a thermostat on the planet."

He estimates that his design would cost only a few billion dollars to implement on a global scale. (Much less than $700 billion)
He suggests installing devices that spray seawater up to 200 feet into the air next to deserts and other arid or windy sites near seawater, such as the African, South American and Mediterranean coasts.

An internationally known climate scientist has roughly simulated Acer's idea on a model that's used extensively by top scientists to study global warming, and estimates that this could cool the world by nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit every 30 years, reducing the current warming rate.

In addition, it would be the cheapest way to transport water to drought-stricken regions, counteract desert expansions, increase natural irrigation for crops and boost the output of hydroelectric power plants.

The scientist, Stanford's Kenneth Caldeira at the Department of Global Ecology, says that Ron Acer's giant humidifier might just work. He will submit his computer findings for peer-reviewed publication this spring. Caldeira is among the scientists who met last year in a last-ditch effort to brainstorm geo-engineering climate change solutions.

As Caldeira put it: "Every brilliant innovation in the history of technology looked a little bit loony when first proposed." Ron Acer holds 70 patents worldwide but has had commercial success on fewer than 20 of them.

Related technology:
Seawater Greenhouse
Teatro Del Agua

From Greg Gordon at McClatchey Newspapers
Image Credit: fjny via flickr.com on a Creative Commons license the rest of it.

For Cleantechnica Read more...

The Synergy of Solar Panels and Greenery

Solar panels don't have to fight for space on green roofs. Two experts suggest combining solar with green roofs works best.

If a solar roof is placed over plants, both the roof and the plants do better. The plants make the solar panels more efficient, because their evaporation cools the back of the exposed panels. Solar panels work better when they are cool.

Likewise, the dappled shade that the solar panels provide the plants below is similar to the canopy effect of taller trees protecting plants underneath from harsh direct sun.

That is the finding of Neubrandenburg Professor of Landscape Ecology Manfred Köhler, who has been involved with research on green roofs and façade greenery since 1981.

In his paper, Positive Interaction between PV-systems and Extensive Green roofs Dr. Köhler says

On some of these greened roofs a photovoltaic –research power plant (PV) was installed in 1999.

Results: Under the shade of the PV panels the vegetation is modified significantly. It changed from a Moss-Sedum roof to a vegetation stand dominated by higher taller plant species likArtemisia and other. The biomass of plant species increased through the years.

A green roof reduces the maximum temperature during the day time. This has a positive influence on the production of electricity by the PV-panels and makes them more efficient in the summer months.

The CEO of nanosolar has noticed the same thing. Solar panels can be arranged to drip condensation for plants underneath:

"In a municipal solar power plant, solar panels are mounted onto rails above the ground so that grass and flowers can continue to flourish in between and below the rows of panels. Care is taken that sufficient amounts of rainwater can drop through between adjoining panels so that the flowers and organisms below are not starved. In fact, in dry regions, the solar panels even benefit the ecosystem by increasing the moisture level in the soil.

This synergy is good news, not just for us as homeowners going green, but also for us as a nation:

Implications for Utility Scale Solar

The Solar Grand Plan published in Scientific American last December proposed that we could power 1/3 of the nations electricity with 30,000 square miles of photovoltaic arrays.

(That sounds like a lot of space, but that is actually less square miles than coal per gigawatt produced, when you include the mined areas, not merely coal power stations. It seems like a lot because its all in one place, unlike coal mines.)

The NREL has estimated that more than enough land in the Southwest is available without requiring use of environmentally sensitive areas, population centers or difficult terrain. More than 80 percent is not privately owned. Arizona is very interested in developing this solar potential because coal is water intensive. This could eliminate the need for more than half the nation's coal plants.

If the solar grand plan were designed to allow desert plant growth underneath in the dappled shade -- that could cool the panels in the hot Southwest sunshine.

If the installation were designed as recommended by the green roofing professor and the solar CEO, we might have the best of both worlds.

Photo from Green Roof Magazine

For Matter Network Read more...

Investors Demand Climate Risk Disclosure

Investors are becoming increasingly concerned about potential regulatory risks and economic dangers in a carbon-constrained world

A group of 65 leading US investors with collective assets totaling $7 trillion has teamed up with the European investment management firm, F&C Investment to put a halt to Wall Street financial regulators softening of the rules on tar sands reserves disclosed by oil and gas companies.

The Investor Network on Climate Risk and F&C Investment are concerned that the escalating risks posed by climate change have broad implications for oil and gas companies which could impact their future earnings, and that these risks fall into the category of known trends requiring company disclosure.

At a time when governments around the world are taking an increasingly hard line on carbon pollution, these investor groups feel it is essential that investors be able to assess accurately the risk profile of reported reserves.

As quoted in the UK Guardian, Elizabeth McGeveran, senior vice-president of F&C's governance and sustainable investment team said"Understanding climate risk will assist investors in understanding and evaluating reserves. Regulations already require the disclosure of known trends that companies can reasonably expect will have a material impact on net sales, revenues or income from continuing operations, and we believe that the disclosure of any estimated additional risks posed by the extraction and development of additional reserves will be important."

The SEC had been reviewing the regulations on the way reserves are calculated since 2004, when Shell fell foul of SEC rules and was forced to reallocate a quarter of the assets on its books. The move led to steep fines, the ouster of its chairman and a plunging share price.

Three months ago the SEC changed the rules to allow previously excluded resources such as tar sands to be classified as oil and gas reserves that, as with oil or gas, could be listed as probable, possible and proven reserves.

Previously, tar sands were defined as mining materials, and literally speaking they actually contain no oil in their natural state. Only by heating up the rock to boiling point, can any liquid be extracted. However, such large quantities of heat are required to obtain a usable fuel from the rock means that this is a far less efficient source of energy than conventional oil.

"The energy consumption required to extract a barrel from Canadian tar sands is very different to a barrel of crude from the Gulf of Mexico."said McGeveran. As oil prices rise, companies that use a lot of oil in ratio to the product they sell are obviously far more impacted by price rises. Tar sands mining has an input of 1 unit of fossil energy in for every 3.5 units of energy (their product) out. The lower this ratio, the more the cost of producing oil from shale will rise as fossil energy prices go up.

But mostly, this unusually high carbon method of extraction means that the climate impact of tar sands mining is much worse than that of regular oil and gas. So the move reflects changing attitudes among a very large group of mainstream investors about the impact of commercial activities that could worsen global warming. This group of institutional investors, among them the California Public Employees' Retirement System, Ceres and Parnassus Investments have signed a letter of concern about the tar sands proposals and called for the new carbon implications to be taken into account.

Ceres president Mindy Lubber says that there is a need for financial institutions to evaluate these kind of projects with carbon prices that reflect their true long-term costs once carbon-reducing regulations take hold around the world.

"Much of the problem is our reliance on outdated accounting systems. Our economy uses accounting systems that are precise in measuring capital goods and profits, but weak in measuring natural and human resource impacts. This narrowly-defined accounting system means that companies are often able to "externalize" natural resource costs. In other words, they can emit global warming pollution for free without paying for environmental damage. Society and taxpayers shoulders these costs instead."

We're now seeing the capital markets begin to incorporate the external costs of global warming, especially in Europe where government-supported trading systems and pricing mechanisms for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted have fostered a $30 billion a year carbon emissions trading program. "

Therefore, filers of reserves should be required to provide investors with information about the carbon content of proven, probable and potential oil reserves in their portfolio as well as the potential liabilities posed by their continued extraction and use.

Photo S. Jocz

For Matternetwork Read more...

I've Got Mine

It is well known of course that the rich and their descendants will be completely immune to climate change. Thus, many of them have been driving efficiency-challenged cars that carelessly drain the last of the world's oil, making their carbon footprint heavier than that of lesser beings.

So, from a climate-change point of view; who better to target with the security of their own driveway supply to power their gas guzzlers --from a carbon free fuel in place of oil? A secure supply.

Those who own bars, restaurants, breweries, micro breweries or are in the winery business could pump their own almost free fuel for life. Those who drive gas guzzlers could easily recoup the cost in a bit over a year.

How?

Because this home ethanol distillation unit cum driveway pump invented by the California company E-Fueler can distill ethanol from a nearly free feed stock; waste alcohol from vineyards or restaurants.

Currently, waste alcohol is hardly ever recycled commercially. Wineries, breweries and distilled spirits refineries can easily discard over a million gallons of alcohol a year. Even bars and restaurants discard thousands of gallons of alcohol annually.

A CEO of a brewery, restaurant, bar or vineyard could recycle the business waste product right into the Rolls Royce instead of throwing it out; making him forever free of foreign oil.

While still pricey after Federal rebates at $7,000 it is no worse than spending for a year of gasoline in a pair of efficiency-challenged vehicles, at prices from just a few months ago (that will likely return, as we continue the bumpy ride down the other side of Hubbert's peak).

Assuming typical annual driving of 12,000 miles each; calculate two 13 mpg vehicles on $3.50 gas would run a household $6,462 annually. Distilling ethanol from liquor waste runs as little as $0.10 cents a gallon, so the same 24,000 miles on waste liquor would only cost around $7, 185 including the distiller. The break-even is somewhere under a year and a half:

1. A year and a half of emitting more carbon $9,692,
2. A year and a half; with distiller = $7,277 (And then its pretty darn cheap. Almost free fuel.)

While the company also does offer a sugar/yeast feedstock of disputed cost-effectiveness to make the ethanol --and you hate to think of some greedy person pouring somebody else's sugar into their car -- any free/waste on-site feedstock is what will make an ethanol distiller sustainable. The key to making planet-friendly ethanol is to find a waste feedstock close to you and make that work. And although sugar is far more efficient than corn, it has many carbon miles to travel in most of this country.

Waste alcohol liquids like beer, wine, fermented juice and liquor are the perfect feed stock for distilling into ethanol. But whatever is close is best. Ethanol distilleries in Midwestern states make use of leftover wood chips and tree parts to produce ethanol. If you live on a farm, you can use leftover straw, husks and grain.

There are more spartan looking ethanol distillers for homemade-fuel mavens of a more down-home sensibility, but this one is designed to be simple and no bother. It has dials and gages to show whats going on, and how much fuel is left.

So this would be a fancy recycling bin. But a recycling bin that can dispense a very eco-friendly fuel for a fleet of vehicles. Indefinitely.

Published at Gas 2.0

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A $50 Billion CalCars Plan to Save Detroit

As the age of oil ends we have stopped buying the cars Detroit makes, so now they don't have the money to build the fuel efficient vehicles we do need.

Yet many near-term solutions such as the Volt (which had been on track for 2010) could have driven us out of the age of oil. We have come to an impasse.

An interesting idea CalCars founder Felix Kramer is proposing would be a way to generate $50 billion for the auto industry and just get us the low carbon driving options America needs.

Put together 5 million deposits on EVs and PHEV orders at $10,000 each.
Give the $50 billion that that would generate to automakers to build the orders.
Refund $7,500 to the buyers within a year via the EV tax credits passed in October.
Allow orders placed up till next April to count towards the 2008 tax year for tax credits.

Between public and private fleets, those buyers could account for nearly a million orders alone. Private fleet orders would come from car share and taxi companies and universities. Some construction companies are paying to convert truck fleets to electric. The Federal government alone buys 75,000 cars a year. There is pent-up demand for the post oil age vehicles.

The genius of the CalCars plan is that it addresses that demand, and utilizes its force in a judo - like move.

WHY ARE CAR SALES FALLING? Not just because of the economic crisis. The more Americans hear that better cars are on the way, the more individuals and fleets will be reluctant to commit to inefficient vehicles whose resale value may fall quickly because they run only on price-volatile, polluting fossil fuels. We can harness these impulses.

As taxpayers, we have already invested in all the R&D that created these vehicles; last year's Energy bill had $25 billion for EV development under Section 136 of the 2007 Energy bill --almost $800 million of that went into the Volt alone. However, getting from the design room to the factory floor has been like pulling teeth.

Ford, for example, has now successfully test-driven its PHEV for over a year with Southern California Edison. Yet, despite a year of real-world driving success, Ford has no plans to produce their PHEV before 2015.

But $10,000 deposits on particular models would enforce specific action, and not waste autocompanies precious financial resources making more of what customers do not want. For small companies, deposits help focus precious resources where they can generate a certain return. Big companies need to have the same focus.

The automakers would not be able to start collecting deposits on the orders till they issue a maximum price estimate and specs. They would be given till Dec. 31, 2012 to fill the orders.

It is a novel idea but not untried. SmartForTwo and Tesla both took deposits to help them fund their production and gage the level of customer interest. But are there five million customers in the country who care enough? I think so.

The extraordinary number of people who were willing to donate their hard-earned money this election season to ensure that the country gets safely out of the Bush Error might suggest that there are more of these idealistic and altruistic people willing to put down hard money on a better future for the planet than the economic news would suggest.

WHY NOT ENLIST THE AMERICAN PUBLIC'S BUYING POWER? We're inspired by how Americans rose to past challenges: We raised $17 billion Liberty Bonds in two years in World War I. And 85 million Americans bought $185 billion in War Bonds during World War II. Especially since dollars back then were worth over ten times more than now, our proposal is small in comparison.

Here's the kicker. Any automaker that wants to receive federal loan guarantees beginning in January 2009 would have to commit by the end of this month to have at least one eligible plug-in vehicle for sale by the end of 2010 in volumes greater than 10,000.

The other funding ideas, such as robbing the Section 136 Innovation funding that jumpstarted the EV and PHEV industries, are counterproductive. So, if you think the CalCars idea is workable, you might want to spread it around.

Photo by Flikr user joshmeister
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Let's Pay Detroit To Bring Their Gas Sipping Cars Home To The U.S.A.

Who hasn't been enraged to read about how Ford and G.M. can make perfectly good little gas sippers in Europe, but just can't bring themselves to make a fuel efficient car for us back home?

Well, now that they need some funding from us, here's an idea. Let's fund Detroit just to set up their efficient European car factories — back here, where they are really needed. Let's get some better gas mileage out of their money troubles.

Apparently, it only costs $75 million to completely retool a plant, to produce an efficient little car instead of the gas-guzzling behemoth they were fobbing off on us fools all these years.

Read more...

Life-form with Million Year Lifespan

Microbes Devise Superior Evolutionary Strategy

One of the prerequisites for us humans to achieve interstellar travel is faster spaceships.

But what if we could do the opposite: what if instead we could evolve as slower people?

Imagine us with million year lifespans. Imagine if we lived on a geologic timescale.

If we could live a million years, then travel to a star 60,000 light years away would have all the traveltime investment of a bus trip cross town.

And here is Compared to us, a butterfly doesn't seem to get much done in it's tiny two week span. Imagine how much more we would achieve as a species if we could live a million years.

For one thing, locating and colonizing other planets looks a lot easier. So it is exciting news that scientists have found a new life form that looks to be working on exactly this evolutionary feat: learning to live for millions of years.

No doubt this is to make sure that theres a more feasible exit strategy when they evolve to our level and need 5 more planets for all the stuff they make, like we do.

This new lifeform is just a speck of stuff right now, living under the sea floor, but hey, where was your big fancy SUV a billion years ago? You too evolved from a tiny speck of stuff just like these newly discovered lifeforms.

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2008)

Tiny microbes beneath the sea floor, distinct from life on the Earth's surface, may account for one-tenth of the Earth's living biomass, according to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, but many of these minute creatures are living on a geologic timescale . While the Bacteria Escherichia Coli, as an example, doubles its numbers every 20 minutes, these Archaea double on the order of hundreds or thousands of years and consume very little energy.

"In essence, these microbes are almost, practically dead by our normal standards," says House. "They metabolize a little, but not much."

According to House, organisms metabolizing at such slow rates is what we could expect to find in other areas of our solar system because such environments have much less energy available than on Earth. Perhaps, similar organisms may be in hydrothermal vents beneath the ice of Europa -- the second moon of Jupiter -- or in subsurface aquifers of Mars.

"We do not expect the microbes in other places to be these microbes exactly," says House. "But, they could be living at a similar slow rate."

"For example, how do they die?" asks Biddle. "It is a simple question that we cannot answer."

Photo from NASA Read more...

LEED to Rate Solar-Powering Your City: Worthless

Or they they will… unless you weigh in:

California has a requirement that all new buildings be zero carbon by 2020; every electron a building uses must come from power generated onsite. Obama plans the same requirement nationwide by 2030.

So you would think that to meet their new neighborhood certification, on-site renewable energy would be a LEED requirement, not just an option. But it won’t be. What’s worse, it will be worth a measly 3 points out of the total 110 possible points to get LEED certification. But you can change that.

Recently LEED started their pilot program to certify neighborhoods. They have opened up their plans in a 50 day open comment period for review of the new neighborhood certification. Until this point, LEED has certified only buildings. But now, while they are “open to comment”, is the time to ask them to make a change — before a feeble standard is enshrined in convoluted plans that achieve little.

Presently, zero carbon or “On-Site Renewable Energy Sources” is more than half-way down the LEED list and can only garner only 3 out of the possible 110 points. So even if your neighborhood was 100% solar powered, you could only get 3 points. Or 100% geothermal powered, etc.

There are so many ways that entire neighborhoods can make renewable electricity. These tested technologies are in current use and are widely available now for neighborhoods:

1. Solar roofs on all big buildings, solar thermal outside town.
2. A wind turbine on the edge of town.
3. District heating: (CHP) combined heat and electric power. A boiler heats water or (or even better material) that turns a turbine to make electricity and the still warm waste water can be circulated throughout a neighborhood for heat. A CHP can be fueled by almost any biomass waste; from sewage to pig parts and from any cellulosic waste from walnut shells to woodchips.
4. Geothermal power in the Western and Southwestern states.

Several more are on the cusp of wide application.

1. Genetically engineered bacteria and nano-engineered algae fuels to replace natural gas fired electric power plants.
2. New non-invasive watermills - if you’re by a river.
3. Tidal or wave power – if you’re near the ocean.
4. Enhanced geothermal systems will soon be nationwide (EGS is what Google just invested $11 million in) because they can go deep enough to where it’s hot all over the world.
5. Solar thermal - normally out in a desert; has just been tested on a building. Why not?

If you want to weigh in on LEED’s strangely low weighting of self-powered buildings within neighborhoods, here’s their comment form. It is possible to improve LEED for neighborhoods. Weigh in.

But be polite. They just don’t know as much as you do about renewable energy.

Photo credit: Texas Finn via Flikr Creative Commons License

Published at Cleantechnica and SolveClimate Read more...

The Real Wall Street Bailout

A mere few centuries after they founded Nieuw Amsterdam , a distant settlement that came to be known as New York City; the worlds leading experts in sea-level adaptations may see their former colony drowned. But will Dutch dykes be enough to save Nieuw Amsterdam?

Beginning with just over three feet of sea level rise, the impact on the US would be calamitous, having the potential to destabilize many highly populated areas of this country, according to a Coastal Impact Study published at Architecture 2030.

The study challenges the notion that has been advanced by the media that only poor nations far from us will be impacted by climate change, leading to complacency about the need to confront global warming.

But even three feet of sea level rise - which is on the low side of most IPPC reports - will displace not just 60% of those other 6 billion far away foreigners, but that number actually includes most of our own coastal residents. As illustrated in these interactive maps of the effects on our own coasts.

"Starting in East Boston and moving down along the East Coast, around Florida and over to the Gulf of Mexico, then up along the West Coast and ending with the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, a picture of inundation, population displacement and catastrophic property loss develops.

With a business-as-usual approach, where fossil-fuel consumption and GHG emissions continue to increase, we will likely see a warming of 2 °C to 3 °C this century with a planetary energy imbalance sufficient to melt enough ice to raise sea level by several meters.

Once the process of ice sheet disintegration begins, the impact on the US is unremitting, and at each additional increment, additional cities and towns will be adversely affected."

If you think that bailing out Wall Street is expensive, you can imagine what its going to cost us to really bail out Wall Street.

Maybe we should just give Nieuw Amsterdam back?

Published at NRDC OnEarth and Red Green and Blue Read more...

Wildfire-Proof Prefab Camp Closes Up When You're Gone

If you live in dangerous drought conditions, wildfires are a worry.

So imagine a campsite dwelling designed so that you can easily just close it up entirely, completely concealed inside a fireproof sheath, whenever you are away. It is perfect for sites like this isolated area of drought-ridden Australia.

When closed, this prefab is completely sheathed in copper. This protects the 10 x10 foot building from brush fire.

And not just fire;



Goldilocks would love to creep upstairs when you are away and sleep in your comfy bed. An occasional-use building like this isolated camp shelter also needs to be protected against wandering vandals like Goldilocks. This design achieves that goal too.



Because how are any wandering vandals going to get in? There's no windows to break.

When you are gone, it looks weird and nasty, presenting a deliberately non-inviting presence to any possible unwelcome "guests". It might have come from another dimension of the universe, even.

But, it is surprisingly luxurious and comfortable inside when its opened up for habitation. Natural breezes flow through it. A spartan approach to green living.



In back, this cistern collects rain while you are gone, so you can put on a pot of tea when you return from your sojourns in this parched landscape.



Not bad, eh?

Architect: Casey Brown
Source: Research Architecture

For GreenBuildingElements Read more...

Rensselaer Researchers Nano-Engineer Solar to ‘Near Perfect’ Efficiency

Nano-engineering students at Rensselaer have created a solar power game-changer: more than 96% absorption of sunlight from all angles, from sunrise to sunset.

The two biggest efficiency hurdles for solar efficiency have been:

1. Solar cells absorb only part of the light spectrum.
2. The sun always moves in relation to the panel.

To solve problem number one, researchers nano-invented an anti-reflective coating to make the solar cell capture the full light spectrum. Currently, solar cells reflect almost 1/3 of the sunlight that hits them. That reflected light is not harvested, which has reduced solar cell efficiency. Problem one solved.

To solve problem two, they stopped the sun in its tracks.

Well, no, actually, that would be a roundabout way to solve that problem.

Instead, they designed a nano-coating to ‘follow’ the sun’s movements and absorb every last photon of light, regardless of the suns moving position in the sky.

The problem:

Most surfaces and coatings absorb or transmit light through them from only a specific range of angles. Your glasses, for instance, absorb-transmit all the light in front of you. But much less from the periphery.

That’s why some solar panels are mechanized to slowly move so they always face the moving sun. But that uses energy, too. So the energy it takes reduces the efficiency of the panel.

‘At the beginning of the project, we asked ‘would it be possible to create a single anti-reflective structure that can work from all angles?’ said Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer and a member of the university’s Future Chips Constellation who led the research project.

‘Then we attacked the problem from a fundamental perspective, tested and fine-tuned our theory, and created a working device,’ Lin said. Rensselaer physics grad student Mei-Ling Kuo played a key role in the investigations.

How their solution works:

Unlike typical antireflective coatings that are engineered to transmit light of only one particular wavelength, this coating stacks seven of these layers, one on top of the other, in such a way that each layer enhances the anti-reflective properties of the layer below it.

These additional layers also help to ‘bend’ the flow of sunlight to an angle that augments the coating’s anti-reflective properties. This means that each layer transmits sunlight and also helps to capture any light that may have otherwise been reflected off of the layers below it.

The seven layers, each with a height of 50 nanometers to 100 nanometers, are made up of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle.

Each layer looks like (and functions like) a dense forest where sunlight is ‘captured’ between the trees. The nanorods were attached to a silicon substrate via chemical vapor disposition.

The silicon surface absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight, after treating the material with the reflective coating.

Only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested.

The entire spectrum of sunlight from UV to visible light to infrared was absorbed, for the first time.

‘To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity, you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky,’ said Lin. ‘Our new antireflective coating makes this possible.’

The bottom line:

This is a game changer. This nano-engineered coating could be applied to nearly any photovoltaic material for use in solar cells, says Lin. These two huge gains move solar power forward to being cost-effective for mass production.

Photo Credit: Flikr user ZebSnaps via Creative Commons License, Rensselaer press release

Source: Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute

Published at cleantechnica and SolveClimate Read more...

Homo Sapiens Redesign: Homo Sustainabilius

I just knew Mother Nature would figure something out! The 6 Billion of us is such a tight squeeze on this planet, with our unsustainable ways!

Ecologists say that eventually climate change will shrink all species. They don't say, but, well, won't that include our own species?

It turns out the degradation of environments around the world due to climate change is limiting food availability, and as a result, smaller animals are doing better now than larger ones that need more resources.

Warmer temperatures limits species size.

Bergmann's rule says that species size decreases as warmth increases. That's because smaller species can radiate heat better to adapt to warm temperatures. The tropics host smaller species. Larger animals have a lower surface-area-to-volume ratio, allowing them to retain more heat and fare better in a cold climate, smaller ones in warm climates.

As a result, "As the world gets warmer, species will shrink."says Wendy Foden, the World Conservation Union biologist studying the effects of climate change on species.

Another population biologist Andy Purvis says that dying early will also reduce size. He says that all species will gradually evolve into smaller versions because as a result of climate change, they'll be coping with sudden changes in their environment and hence dying prematurely, leading to smaller offspring over time

So this will make sustainability more attainable for our species, won't it?

Imagine if we had been only 1 foot tall from the get-go. We'd have much less impact on the planet's resources. We would have set sail for America - where we now tear through five planets-worth of resources- in a boat about the size of one large log.

But of course, this adjustment is going to be in the very, very, very long run.

If only Gaia had had the foresight to make this adjustment to the size of Homo Sapiens a few million years earlier, we might not need five whole planets now to live the unsustainable way that we live now.

Artwork by Slinkachu

For the NRDC OnEarth

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A Federal Investment Bank For Renewable Energy

With the current financial crisis, the US has become like a typical third world nation –it’s now practically impossible to get investment debt financing, even for renewable energy for electricity we need, and with the paybacks of solar, geothermal and wind power.

Ever since the 60’s, the US Government has helped developers and lenders finance projects in the developing world where commercial lending was previously either non-existent or considered too risky.

Deutschbank and ClimateIntel both propose that we now create that same kind of quasi-governmental agency to jump-start the clean technology sector of renewable energy technologies in the U.S.

The US Government has dealt with this kind of investment problem in the third world by providing government-backed investment through its Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

The creation of a Renewable Energy Private Investment Corporation (REPIC) would provide a market-based mechanism to achieve similar goals.

The current financial crisis could serve a similar impetus in connection with the financing and developing of renewable energy projects that today, because of the crisis, cannot attract debt financing.

Moreover, the experience gained from OPIC would render a REPIC able to provide financial assistance in a sufficiently short time frame to have an impact on the economic crisis.

By creating REPIC and involving it in the financing of not only renewable energy projects along with new technology the Obama Administration could directly facilitate the development of new technology and projects, giving rise to “green” jobs and increased employment.

Not only is solving climate change the mother of all necessities, but there is already legislation that demands investment in renewable energy — but now, no mechanism to finance it.

One piece of legislation — a nationwide Renewable Portfolio Standards bill — will easily pass the next Senate with its near 60 majority. Many of the 26 states that have passed RPS already have utilities in danger of incurring fines for not meeting the new higher percentages it requires of renewable energy. The slowdown will bring only increasing friction between what is required and what can be financed and built in time for each mandated deadline.

Here in California, PG&E is likely going to be fined for missing its 20% renewables target by 2010. It now gets 14% from renewables. Climate change has played a part ,as we now have less snow-pack. But with the investment slowdown, it is now increasingly unlikely that PG&E will hit its target.

However, if a quasi-governmental investment bank were to guarantee utilities the loans they need to meet the mandated investments, that would solve the problem. And it would not expose the bank to risky loans, as renewable energy has a certain payback; the ground is not about to run out of heat or cold any time soon, nor the sky out of wind and sun. In fact, the U.K. is now reaping the financial rewards ( U.K. Guardian) of its mandated investments in renewable energy 15 years ago to meet Kyoto requirements:

The government profits come from a scheme set up in the 1980s to support renewable energy projects by guaranteeing to pay developers building wind, biomass and other non-fossil fuel generation plants a fixed price for their electricity for 15 years.

During the first decade of the so-called Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation scheme, it ran at a loss, paid for by consumers. But over the last six years, rising electricity prices have allowed the government to cash in on the energy contracts at a substantial profit.

The same thing would happen in the US. Unlike fossil-based electricity, renewable electricity prices will remain stable; once the capital investment is paid off — typically in 15 to 20 years — the fuel is free.

Photo Credit: inside view of a turbine by Flikr user Frogdog*
Via: ClimateIntel and Green Wombat

For Cleantechnica
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How to Build a Zero Carbon America Fast

Here's an idea for legislation to get more solar roofs up fast and cheaply, even during the current financial meltdown:


How?

Write a law saying that if homeowners want to put in a solar roof, then their utility MUST then forward their electricty bill payments to the solar company till the roof has been paid off by the homeowner, and the utility MUST accept the electrons being added to their grid from that customers roof.

How would that work?

1. You would be contacted to see if you would like to put up a solar roof. You would agree. Installation would be done. Your roof would begin sending electrcity to the grid.

2. You would contact your utility to tell them you have switched from being a customer to being a supplier of electricity to them.

3. They would say, ok, take you off their roll and send you an (averaged over the last year) bill which would become your new monthly payment amount towards paying off the solar roof. (Typically someone who pays alow of $80 a month and a high of $120 would be signed up to now paying a regular monthly bill of $100 for ten or twenty years - till the roof is paid off.) The utility would forward the entire payment to the solar company.

4. This billing would go on for as many years as it takes to pay off the solar roof, depending on size. If you move, the next person living there takes over the standard payment.

Why this solution would be attractive to uilities:

Renewable Portfolio Standards, while intended to get utilities to buy more renewables, can be slowed by NIMBYism and also by the ignorance of utilties about renewable power, dragging their feet. At a time of no credit; it's hard to comply. The utility must find credit and spend money to put in new renewable power to comply with RPS.

1. Utilities in 30 states already have to find more renewable power to comply with RPS. (Once congress passes the RPS nationwide (likely this year), even more utilities will have to find more renewables somewhere.) My solution offers a way for utilities to comply, yet not lift a finger to learn about renewables or spend money or credit on financing new renewable power.

2. If the homeowner defaults on the monthly payments the utility can cut you off just as they can now. So the utility, and solar company is more sure than a bank is of getting paid. They are not taking the same risk as a bank in "financing" the solar roofing of America.

Why this would be attractive to homeowners:

1. Most want to help solve climate change, if it doesn't cost more.
2. This way they wouldn't have to pay more than they do now.
3. They get a guaranteed fixed cost for ten or twenty years - and then free. The electricity price would not constantly go up like if they were paying the utility.

I have sold renewable energy, and my experience is that people want renewable power If it cost the same as they are paying currently. They just cannot find financing for the upfront costs.

If it was just "sign here to switch", no money involved - most people would switch to paying off a solar roof instead. With this law they would know that they do not have to apply for financing - they just would send the usual payment to their utility. (Berkeley just sold out of their new financing system involving property tax assessments)

Why this would help grow solar businesses:

Few people will risk having their power turned off by their utility for non payment.
As investers realized that all these solar businesses were cash cows over the long term with reliable mulitple monthly payments coming in for decades, they would loosen their pursestrings and lend to the solar companies to expand. The Federal government could guarantee these utility payments to the solar companies as collateral.

Why this would be attractive to the public:

There is no cost to taxpayers: All it would take is a law. No new taxpayer money is involved. Unlike Feed in Tarfiffs - which the public fears would encourage utilities to just charge you more for electricity since they must pay retail for your electricity.

Why this would cost nothing:

Nobody is inconvenienced.
The solar company is doing a lot more work and getting paid reliably over time (and thus getting loans easier).
The homeowner is paying their usual electrcity bill, except it goes all to the solar company.
The utility is the only one doing a little work for free; a little simple repetitive billing for the solar roof. But in exchange for this pro bono billing work, they do not have to go out and find new electrons to supply this homeowner any more. So, no benefit - but also - no cost. It's a wash. (Part of the business that just is something you have to do, like figuring out sales tax forms. As a former business owner, I know most businesses accept that. This would be just like that: a little inconvenience.)

What the congress can do:

You could guarantee the collateral (monthly payments) like you have the FDIC - so the solar companies have access to credit for expansion, and you could cut the utilities a sweet deal on meeting their Renewable Portfolio Standard requirements, for every customer they can get to pull out of their grid. This should make up for the loss of that customer (but remember - they don't have to find new electricity for that customer, either).

It is likely that you can pass legislation decoupling utilities as well this year, which will make this work well. As part of the green jobs corps, you could employ huge numbers of new green collar workers very quickly to go out and sign people up to make the switch. (I'd be happy to help organise that here in California!)

Why this idea really will make America a carbon free nation faster:

This solution takes no money and is consumer-driven by all of us who get it on climate change, avoiding the ignorance/hostility of fossil utilities or NIMBYs slowing it down. Many of us voted for exactly this kind of change and are excited about making it happen.

Published at the NRDC OnEarth Read more...