Recently in Business Energy Solutions Category
California committed to getting a third of its electricity from
renewable sources by 2020 in a Monday executive order by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. This expands on the earlier commitment to produce 20%
of its power from renewables such as wind and solar by 2010 as part of
its plan to cut emissions of carbon that contribute to global warming.
Read more at California Green Solutions
Sustainable Brands International, December 9-11, 2008 in Miami Beach, FL.Join Andrew Winston, co-author of the critically acclaimed "Green to Gold," for a summit of leading innovators who are leveraging sustainability to drive new operating efficiencies, reduce risks and costs, and build stronger ties to shareholders, employees and the communities in which they work.
Welcome to Sustainable Brands International!
Over 100 sustainable brand leaders are already registered and 300 are
expected to convene at Sustainable Brands International, December 9-11
in Miami Beach, FL.
What is Sustainable Brands International (SBi)?
At SBi you'll find the antidote to negative world news. A place where change makers gather to share their latest learning and ideas about how to create new business value in today's rapidly changing landscape.
SBi convenes a dynamic mix of big global brands and innovative start ups. Of product designers, sustainability thought leaders and brand communications experts. This mash up people from different market sectors, geographic regions, company sizes and business responsibilities creates one high energy, thought provoking, personally challenging experience that past participants say goes down as among their best conference experiences ever. Its no wonder that past speakers become the first to return as registrants to the next event.www.sustainablebrandsinternational.com
David Roland-Holst, a professor of agriculture and resource economics at UC Berkeley. "We cannot afford to miss this market opportunity."
California's per-capita electricity use is about 40% less than the national average, Roland-Holst said, largely because of government-mandated energy efficiency standards for utilities, buildings and appliances put into effect over the last four decades.
Roland-Holst found that the lower use has enabled Californians to save $56 billion on energy since 1972. That money was spent in the local economy, he said, instead of on imported oil, out-of-state electricity or building new power plants. The result: 1.5 million additional California jobs with a total payroll exceeding $45 billion.
Programs like AB 32 will have a multiplier effect
California's Environmental Innovation Advantage
Some of California's leading companies agree with Roland-Holst's assessment that environmental innovation could become a pillar of the California economy.Read more about the report: Energy Efficiency, Innovation, and Job Creation in California (by David Roland-Holst, UC Berkeley, Oct. 2008)
Some policy experts argue that blind faith in technology is a harmful distraction from the hard sacrifices needed to control global warming.
"The temptation is to say, 'Let's get John Wayne on horseback or Bill Gates . . . and solve this problem,' " said Dale Jamieson, director of environmental studies at New York University.
But some scientists say that the potential of such ideas cannot be ignored given the world's political paralysis on controlling emissions and its myopic addiction to cheap and dirty coal. LA TIMES
So it's technology VS conservation VS politics...? Or is it all three in balance and harmony? And maybe a few additional ingredients such as education, values and discipline, collaboration, and paying attention to history lessons about how our ancestors lived, thrived, and survived challenges.
Technologists work their way through the "heavy industrial" stage to get to more practical applications of their breakthrough solutions. The cost of that maturation is sometimes born by a society that eventually have to clean up the damage created by this long pathway. When diversity is included, technology solutions can draw on the elegance of nature's design, history lessons, and common sense based on affordability to vett the technology. Great designers have generous doses of those inspirational sources within one person...others work in teams of siblings or families or buddies to balance their perspectives.
But diversity has been shown time and again to be very smart in the solution process. DIVERSITY takes into account the diverse ingredients in reality.
NREL's fiber optic hydrogen sensor utilizes a non-ignitable, flexible, thin, glass or plastic, fiber optic strand that transmits light to a thin film material. The material changes color in response to the presence of hydrogen. The CRADA allows NREL and Nuclear Filter Technology to develop a full-scale prototype of this technology, which ultimately will result in commercially available products.
Applications include those for the following industries:
- Petrochemical
- Transportation
- Fuel cell
- Fuel production
- Food processing
- Natural gas
- Nuclear waste
Nuclear Filter Technology is also licensing several NREL inventions related to the fiber optic and thin film materials that sense the presence of hydrogen.
SOURCE: Technology Transfer department of National Renewable Energy Laboratoryfor growth in renewable energy supply.
In 2007, total utility green power sales exceeded 4.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 20% increase over 2006. Approximately 600,000 customers are participating in utility customer choice programs nationwide.
Green Power Marketing Industry
Utility green pricing programs are one segment of a larger green power marketing industry that counts Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and colleges and universities among its customers, and helps support more than 3,000 MW of new renewable electricity generation capacity.Green Marketing Tips
NREL analysts attribute the success of many programs to persistence in marketing and creative marketing strategies, including in some cases, utility partnerships with independent green power marketers. In addition, the rate premium that customers pay for green power continues to drop.NREL performs analyses of green power market trends and is funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.
Pricing programs give consumers clean power choices
April 22, 2008 -- The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) annual ranking of leading utility green power programs provides insights into how consumers change their power-use behaviors.Under these voluntary programs, consumers can choose to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as solar and wind. More than 800 utilities across the United States offer these programs.
Using information provided by utilities, NREL develops a Top 10 ranking of utility programs in the following categories:
- total sales of renewable energy to program participants
- total number of customer participants
- customer participation rate, green power sales as a percentage of
- total utility retail electricity sales
- the lowest price premium charged for a green power program using new renewable resources.
Clemson
International Center for Automotive Research, has served as a hub and a symbol of the South's
emergence over the last two decades as a powerhouse in automotive
manufacturing. A 2007 industry-wide event, part of the Tennessee Valley Corridor Southeast Partnership, was designed to bring together the region's collective transportation research talent to focus on ways to support continued growth of the automotive industry.
The gathering was symbolic of a growing realization that in matters of
economic development, the South has learned the importance of teamwork.
In the case of transportation, this regional teamwork has resulted in
the cooperation of lawmakers, business leaders and research
institutions on a broad array of initiatives, from creating new fuels
to helping the world's auto manufacturers build lighter, stronger, more
energyefficient cars and trucks.
ORNL Leader in Transportation Research
Oak
Ridge National Laboratory for years has been the leader in
transportation research for the Department of Energy's energy
efficiency programs. More recently, the Laboratory has sought to
connect to the growing automotive presence in the Southeast. The region
is now home to 3,000 automotive suppliers and 10 major automotive
assembly plants including Toyota in Kentucky and Mississippi; BMW in
South Carolina; Ford in Georgia; Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda in
Alabama, as well as Saturn and Nissan—which recently relocated U.S.
headquarters to Nashville—in Tennessee.
Universities and ORNL Provide Research for Supply Chain, Sustainable Manufacturing, Heavy Vehicle Research, Power Electronics, Engines and High-Performance Materials
Surrounding these plants is a set of universities that, along with ORNL, represent extensive expertise in supply chain management, sustainable manufacturing, heavy vehicle research, power electronics, engines and high-performance materials. In 2007, ORNL and the University of Tennessee, along with six southern research universities, announced the Automotive Research Alliance, a regional effort to provide southern automakers access to unique research capabilities.
Research
capabilities outside automakers' own R&D organizations are crucial
to development of new technologies and products, says Tom Bologa, vice
president of engineering, United States, for BMW of North America.
Detroit Center Coordinates ORNL, DOE, DOD and Automotive Suppliers
Although
the South's largest research laboratory, ORNL is not restricting
automotive research efforts to the Southeast. The Department of Energy
recently announced an initiative headquartered at automotive supplier
Delphi Automotive's former R&D center in Detroit that pulls
together ORNL, DOE, the Department of Defense and a consortium of
automotive suppliers. Called USAutoPARTs, the effort will provide both
expertise and facilities to second- and third-tier automotive
suppliers, most of which cannot afford a program of in-house research.
SOURCE: ORNL overview of automotive alternative energy research
(left) Researchers
hike Yellowstone National Park, left, on the hunt for microbes that
could potentially be used in bioenergy production.
(right) They analyze the samples back home in the lab
Bioenergy from Microscopic Organisms
Oak Ridge National Laboratory microbiologist Tommy Phelps sees the untapped potential of bioenergy in shelves of bottles and beakers containing microscopic organisms that just might hold the elusive bug or enzyme capable of digesting large quantities of plant matter into ethanol.
Phelps's current batch of microbes, stockpiled in dozens of bottles of
silt, rocks and soils, was collected from Yellowstone National Park,
where the hot springs that draw millions of summertime visitors also
nurture microscopic life in their boiling waters. These bugs, in turn,
beckon microbiologists like Phelps, who seek a solution to transform
Earth's abundant cellulosic sources into a modern energy supply.
Yellowstone's warm waters offer the promise of microbes that can
rapidly and efficiently degrade cellulose—the woody, leafy matter that
makes up plants. Scientists hope to tap the power of these microbes for
industrial-scale consolidated bioprocessing of plants, including trees
and switchgrass, the species central to the BioEnergy Science Center's
research efforts.
BioEnergy Science Center
The hunt for this cellulosic "super bug" is part of a suite of efforts
under way at the BioEnergy Science Center, headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since
being named one of three $135 million Department of Energy bioenergy
research centers, researchers at ORNL and its partner institutions have
quickly gotten to work.
DOE's ambitious goal is to replace by 2030
one-third of the nation's transportation fuel with cellulosebased
sources. At these centers, researchers are carrying out the targeted,
fundamental science needed to bridge the gap between the potential of
cellulose-based fuels and their reality.
Current microbes and enzymes are relatively slow at attacking plant matter's complicated and protective structure. Researchers will determine precisely the genes involved in the interaction of the microbes and enzymes to break apart cellulose. Other genes responsible for producing undesirable products, such as acetic acids, will be knocked out in the hope of, ultimately, developing the perfect ethanol-manufacturing microbe. Particular enzymes will be isolated as well and genetically analyzed, with a focus on determining the ideal formula of enzyme or microbe and enzyme to serve as the vehicle for cellulosic ethanol production.
Plants with Good Biofuel Sugars
Microbes, however, are just a piece of the puzzle. Other researchers at the Oak Ridge center are going through similar steps to develop plants with qualities most conducive to processing into biofuel. Similar to the microbial work, researchers will analyze thousands of genetically modified switchgrass and poplar tree samples in order to discover and develop the best varieties for ethanol production. As part of the process, the biofeedstock, together with the microbes and the enzymes, will be joined in a complex matrix of analysis and R&D in order to develop the best biofuel recipe.
On the biomass formation side, the partners will produce samples of plant material genetically altered to modify their cell walls for optimum breakdown into usable sugars. Such altered species might feature lower amounts of lignin—the substance that holds cellulose fibers together—or a reduction in the crystallinity of the cellulose. ArborGen and ORNL will be primarily responsible for creating and studying various altered trees, while scientists from the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia and the Noble Foundation will take the lead in switchgrass research.
Read more at ORNL
Technology Review: Tidal Turbines Help Light Up Manhattan
Apr 23, 2007 ... Working from barges and tugboats off New York City's Roosevelt Island, engineers are battling northeasters and this month's heavy spring tides to install the first major tidal-power project in the United States. The project involves a set of six submerged turbines that are designed to capture energy from the East River's tidal currents. The three-bladed turbines, which are five meters in diameter and resemble wind turbines, are made by Verdant Power of Arlington, VA. Thanks to lessons learned by wind turbine designers, tidal power is already economically competitive, producing electricity at prices similar to wind power, according to feasibility studies by the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry R&D consortium. As a result, developers in the United States have laid claim to the best sites up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In the past four years the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC, has issued preliminary permits for tidal installations at 25 sites, and it is considering another 31 applications. SOURCE: www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18567/
VIDEO OF RIVER TURBINE in NEW YORK
OCEAN TIDAL ENERGY
Northern Ireland
World’s Largest Tidal Turbine Successfully Installed
enn.com — The world ’s largest tidal turbine, weighing 1000 tonnes, has been installed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. The tidal turbine is rated at 1.2 megawatts, which is enough to power a thousand local homes. It was built by Marine Current Turbines, and it will be the first commercial tidal turbine to produce energy.A company called Marine Current Turbines
will be installing a 1.2 megawatt tidal turbine in Northern Ireland's
Strangford Lough in August. The SeaGen turbine will be the world’s
largest ever tidal current device by a significant margin. It will
generate clean electricity for approximately 1000 homes. The turbine is
a prototype to be replicated on a large scale over the next few years.
The rotors on the SeaGen turbine turn slowly: about 10 to 20
revolutions per minute. A ship's propellers, by comparison, typically
run 10 times as fast. The risk of impact from SeaGen rotor blades is
small, because the marine creatures that swim in strong currents tend
to be agile, and can avoid slow-moving underwater obstructions.
Future turbines will generally be rated at from 750 to 1500 kilowatts (kW), and will be grouped under the sea, at places with high currents, in much the same way that wind turbines in a wind farm are set out in rows to catch the wind.
SOURCE: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/12_megawatts_wo.php
Island Nations
Tidal energy is the largest sustainable and non-polluting energy resource of Pacific and Indian Ocean island nations.
Cost-competitive turbines to turn tidal currents into electrical currents are already available but are not being used.
This is perhaps due to the fact that tidal energy is yet to be recognized as a viable renewable energy technology, most likely because of lack of adequate information and advocacy to become recognized by funding agencies, even though it is far cheaper than solar energy and more abundant than wind, hydro, or geothermal power.
First looks at these turbines indicate that turbine energy sources could also be used for river power without dams in land locked countries that are not dry and flat.
