Future Energy Technology News

[Graeme]

Major progress in technology needed for 25 percent renewable energy use to be affordable

Dramatic progress in renewable energy technology is needed if the United States desires to produce 25 percent of its electricity and motor vehicle fuel from renewable sources by 2025 without significantly increasing consumer costs, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

Produced by the RAND Environment, Energy and Economic Development program, the study provides a "snapshot" of the nation's potential energy expenditures if a requirement was imposed that 25 percent of electricity and motor vehicle fuels used in the United States by 2025 would come from renewable resources (a goal activists have described as "25 x '25").

The study finds that biomass resources and wind power have the greatest potential to contribute toward reaching the 25 x '25 goal.

eurekalert

physorg

[Graeme]

Ghosn: Nissan Can Lead in Mass-Marketing EVs

Nissan will focus on battery electric vehicles (EVs) as a core product and will offer a range of high-quality products that are reliable, well-engineered, attractive and fun to drive, said Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in a speech at the company’s annual general shareholders meeting in Japan.

When I say “zero-emission” vehicles, I am referring to electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, cars that do not burn oil and release zero emissions into the air. Fuel cell vehicles are promising for the future—and Nissan continues to invest in their development—but the production and distribution of hydrogen is yet much more problematic than electricity or batteries. Because the battery technology is more advanced, we will introduce electric vehicles first.

For the next-generation of EV cells, AESC is working on a new cathode material of a nickel-mixed Mn spinel and a graphite carbon anode. The cell will feature an enlarged footprint, but will be thinner to increase heat discharge, and have a capacity of 30 Ah.

greencarcongress

Falx Air unveils multi-purpose hybrid aircraft design

The latest airborne example to come to our attention is this Hybrid Transport Aircraft design from Falx Air. In addition to being used as a standard light cargo platform, mid-air light re-fueling or surveillance aircraft, the Very Light Hybrid Transport (VLHT) can be adapted to carry six passengers, or four stretchers and two medical staff. Like the company's hybrid-electric tilt-rotor aircraft platform unveiled earlier this year, the design combines automotive hybrid electric technology with a fast charge battery system and solar cells to deliver exceptional fuel economy.

Falx puts the fuel consumption of the two engines at at 6.6 gallons (20 liters) per hour based on bench testing under load.

gizmag

[Graeme]

Brazil Signs Deal to Export Sustainable Ethanol

A group of Brazilian ethanol companies signed a deal to export certified sustainable ethanol to Sweden, in the world's first agreement of such a kind, they said Wednesday.

Brazilian groups Cosan, Guarani, NovAmerica and Alcoeste agreed sell to Sweden's Sekab 115 million liters of anhydrous ethanol that will adhere to certain social and environmental standards.

He said flex-fuel cars, which are normally filled with E85 in Sweden, account for 25 percent of all new cars sold. Ethanol consumption in the country will surpass that of gasoline in eight years if this trend continues.

planetark

[Graeme]

In an Age of Fossil Fuel, Returning to the Water for Electricity

Hydropower supplies 19 percent of all the world’s electricity, and between 7 and 9 percent of electricity in the United States. But most of it comes from large hydroelectric projects — with dams at least 200 to 300 feet high — that environmental advocates say can be harmful, flooding large areas upstream and damaging animal habitats. The promise of micro, or low-head, hydropower, using dams under 100 feet high, is that it is carbon neutral, renewable and has little or no impact on the environment. The United States Department of Energy estimates that low-head hydropower could eventually meet a third of the nation’s electricity needs, while reducing carbon emissions from fossil-fuel-burning power plants by 35 percent.

In New Jersey, HydroCoil Power, a two-year-old Wynnewood, Pa., company with offices in Hackettstown, has set its sights on 700 to 800 dams less than 100 feet high that could potentially be used to generate electricity with the company’s patented turbines.

Microhydropower is not a well-known concept, and even in environmental circles it is not as highly promoted as an alternative power source as solar energy or windmills are. But HydroCoil’s president, Dr. Jonathan Rosefsky, said the 6-by-36-inch turbine he invented costs about half as much as solar panels or a wind turbine and can pay for itself in as little as two years — as opposed to 5 to 10 years for wind and 20 to 30 years for solar.

nytimes

[Homesteader]

Brazil Signs Deal to Export Sustainable Ethanol

A group of Brazilian ethanol companies signed a deal to export certified sustainable ethanol to Sweden, in the world's first agreement of such a kind, they said Wednesday.

Brazilian groups Cosan, Guarani, NovAmerica and Alcoeste agreed sell to Sweden's Sekab 115 million liters of anhydrous ethanol that will adhere to certain social and environmental standards.

He said flex-fuel cars, which are normally filled with E85 in Sweden, account for 25 percent of all new cars sold. Ethanol consumption in the country will surpass that of gasoline in eight years if this trend continues.

planetark

Quote from the article:

"Among the standards is zero tolerance for child or slave labor. Mills must use at least 30 percent mechanized harvesting today and increase this to 100 percent by 2014. An independent international company will audit all the groups production units twice a year."

The title of the article is a lie. They are relying on the adage "if your current lies aren't working tell a bigger lie".

[Graeme]

GreenField Ethanol and Enerkem Partner on Commercial MSW-to-Ethanol Facility in Alberta

The city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has signed a 25-year agreement with GreenField Ethanol, Canada’s largest ethanol producer and Enerkem, the developer of a thermochemical (gasification and catalytic synthesis) process to produce synthetic fuels, for a facility to produce biofuels from municipal solid waste (MSW).

The C$70 million facility will initially produce 36 million liters (9.5 million gallons US) of ethanol per year, according to the partners. As part of the agreement, the City of Edmonton will supply a minimum of 100,000 tonnes of sorted municipal solid waste per year.

greencarcongress

[Graeme]

SKorean fusion reactor takes step forward: scientists

The KSTAR reactor generated a sustained super-hot plasma field during a demonstration in the central city of Daejeon, the ministry of education, science and technology said.

The ministry said KSTAR is one of the world's first research reactors to create plasma, which has been studied by scientists for the commercial use of fusion energy.

The reactor is a pilot device for the planned International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, which is intended to be the world's first reactor emulating the sun's nuclear fusion principle to gain unlimited energy.

"Today's demonstration was highly successful," Kwon Eun-Hee, spokeswoman for the National Fusion Research Institute which operates the KSTAR reactor, told AFP.

physorg

[Graeme]

Commercialization of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen stations to commence in 2015

��Leading automakers in and outside Japan and Japanese energy companies have agreed on a scenario which sees commercialization of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and hydrogen stations beginning in 2015.

��They have also identified the challenges facing future energy diversification and post-Kyoto Protocol talks.

��Under METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), activities for overcoming the challenges are being accelerated through the Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Demonstration Project, through promotion of technology development programs led by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), through investigations into a large scale pilot project, and through other unique initiatives by individual energy and automobile companies.

FCCJ

[Graeme]

German expert predicts US solar energy boom

But that's was happening this week in San Francisco, where organizers of the world's largest solar exhibition, Germany's Intersolar, launched an American version of their confab amid predictions of a massive solar boom in the ailing US economy.

Conference chairman Professor Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, insists that it makes perfect sense for Germans to bring their solar accumen to the Golden State.

As soaring fuel costs combine with rapidly changing public perceptions about the dangers of climate change, the US embrace of solar power is at a tipping point, he predicts. Soon, the US will follow the massive investments already made in Europe in renewable energy, where thanks to strong government support the solar industry is years ahead of its American counterpart.

'Before, our only argument was the environment, but now with oil at 140 dollars a barrel, I think the much stronger argument will be the pocketbook,' he says. 'That's why I think solar energy will have a great future in the United States.'

monstersandcritics

[Graeme]

Hydrogen Power To Have "Dominant Effect" On Transportation Industry, Study Shows

Hydrogen powered vehicles could potentially, in the best case scenario, result in the elimination of all oil from U.S. transportation over the next 50 years, a National Research Council study released Thursday revealed.

In a press call with reporters, the chair of the National Research Council committee Mike Ramage analyzed the findings of the study, which focused on the best case outcomes for the use of hydrogen energy by the year 2023. Best case means that "technical hurdles are solved - vehicles are cost- effective, and that consumers will buy them," Ramage said.

In the short term, over the next 15-20 years, Ramage urged the continued use of biofuels, noting that they "would have most likely impact on oil reduction and carbon dioxide reduction." However, as technology allows hydrogen to maximize its potential, hydrogen will overtake biofuels and have a "dominant effect" on the industry, Ramage said.

The NRC study found that hydrogen could power a few million vehicles by 2020, 60 million vehicles by 2035, and would power 80 percent of new transportation fleet by 2050," Ramage said. Government support for hydrogen would include spending $50 billion over the next 15 years to bring down vehicle costs in order to allow hydrogen vehicles to become a self-sustaining market.

The ethanol subsidy, by contrast, will cost the U.S. government $160 billion over the next 15 years, Ramage said.

fuelcellsworks

greencarcongress

seekingalpha

[Graeme]

Texas approves plan for 18,500 MW of wind power

Texas regulators on Thursday approved a plan to lure $5 billion in new investment to build power lines to move electricity from the state's windiest areas to power-hungry cities.

Texas utility regulators advanced a plan to build transmission lines to accommodate about 18,500 megawatts of wind generation by 2012.

The cost for the plan approved by the Texas Public Utility Commission in a 2-1 vote exceeds $5 billion. While the plan could add $4 a month to Texans' power bills, regulators hope that additional wind power will reduce the state's reliance on costly natural gas-fired power plants.

reuters

[Graeme]

Conference panelists see car battery breakthrough

The lithium-ion battery, already a fixture in personal electronic devices, soon will become the answer to high oil prices and environmental concerns as it bulks up to power rechargeable electric vehicles, government, university and industry panelists predicted Monday.

But although the technology shows great promise, battery makers worldwide still are grappling with high costs, the impact of charging and depletion on battery life, keeping the batteries cool and other issues, according to panelists at the Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose.

Tien Duong, who works in emerging battery technology with the U.S. Department of Energy, told the group he believes lithium-ion batteries are ready to start displacing the nickel-metal-hydride batteries now used in many hybrid gas-electric vehicles.

AP

[Graeme]

Andy Grove Calls for Concerted US Effort to Convert Pickups, SUVs and Vans to 40+ Mile PHEVs

In a lunchtime address at the Plug-in 2008 conference and exposition in San Jose, California, Andy Grove, former Chairman & CEO, Intel Corporation, called for an urgent inter-industry effort in the US to convert pickups, SUVs and Vans (PSVs) to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) with at least a 40-mile electric range.

Characterizing the current energy situation as a “clear and present danger” to the United States, Grove said that an inter-industry task force comprising electric utilities, automakers, high technology companies and academia should develop a plan to have 10 million plug-in hybrid—which he calls dual-fuel vehicles—PSVs on US roads in 4 years, and then present the plan to the new President on 21 January 2009.

greencarcongress

GM and Electric Utility Industry Launch Collaboration in Support of Commercializing Plug-in Vehicles

greencarcongress

Coulomb Technologies Introduces New Smart Charging Infrastructure for Plug-In Vehicles

greencarcongress

Concept: Through-the-Road PHEV Conversion Kit

greencarcongress

[davep]

Solar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity, says EU

Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission's Institute for Energy, said it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts to meet all of Europe's energy needs.

[web]http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/solarpower.windpower[/web]

[Graeme]

Researchers Develop Vanadium Boride Air Cell; Twice the Practical Energy Capacity of Gasoline

A team of researchers led by Dr. Stuart Licht at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has developed a vanadium boride (VB2)/air cell—a new renewable electrochemical energy system which stores more energy than gasoline and has an order of magnitude higher capacity than lithium-ion batteries. A report on their work is published in the 28 July issue of the journal Chemical Communications.

The energy capacity gap between gasoline and electrochemical storage systems has been a fundamental barrier to more widespread use of electric drive vehicles. Gasoline has a practical energy storage capacity of about 2.7 kWh/Liter, Li-ion about 0.5 kWh/L. Zinc-air cells, another high-capacity electrochemical system, have a practical capacity of about 1.75 Wh/L according to Licht and his colleagues. The new VB2 system has a practical capacity of 5 kWh/L, they calculate.

greencarcongress

[Graeme]

Harvest the sun - from space

There is, however, one potential future energy source that is environmentally friendly, has essentially unlimited potential and can be cost competitive with any renewable source: space solar power.

Science fiction? Actually, no - the technology already exists. A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth. These panels would collect far more energy than land-based units, which are hampered by weather, low angles of the sun in northern climes and, of course, the darkness of night.

Once collected, the solar energy would be safely beamed to Earth via wireless radio transmission, where it would be received by antennas near cities and other places where large amounts of power are used. The received energy would then be converted to electric power for distribution over the existing grid. Government scientists have projected that the cost of electric power generation from such a system could be as low as 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is within the range of what consumers pay now.


Over the past 15 years, Americans have invested more than $100 billion, directly and indirectly, on the space station and supporting shuttle flights. With an energy crisis deepening, it's time to begin to develop a huge return on that investment. (And for those who worry that science would lose out to economics, there's no reason that work on space solar power couldn't go hand in hand with work toward a manned mission to Mars, advanced propulsion systems and other priorities of the space station.)

In fact, in a time of some skepticism about the utility of our space program, NASA should realize that the American public would be inspired by our astronauts working in space to meet critical energy needs here on Earth.

O. Glenn Smith is a former manager of science and applications experiments for the International Space Station at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

IHT

[Graeme]

Boosting Cellulosic Biofuels

The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) is to begin work testing a catalyst developed by Dow Chemical, the industrial giant based in Midland, MI, to see if it can be used to massively boost the production of ethanol made from biomass.

The partnership will attempt ways to make ethanol biofuel from cellulosic biomass, such as waste from corn or wood, using thermochemical processes. Specifically, NREL is looking to use a Dow catalyst to convert syngas--a mix of hydrogen and carbon dioxide made from the gasification of the biomass--into a mixture of alcohols, including ethanol. The joint agreement calls for the partners to demonstrate the process on a pilot scale and evaluate the feasibility of an integrated commercial-scale facility.

The hope is that a molybdenum sulphate catalyst developed by Dow in the 1980s will improve the syngas-conversion process. If successful, a catalytic process could theoretically achieve production rates of 130 gallons of alcohol per ton of biomass, a significant improvement on the 60-to-80-gallon yields produced by existing biochemical fermentation plants, says Mark Jones, a technology strategy development scientist with Dow.

technologyreview

[Graeme]

New Biomass Technology Dramatically Increases Ethanol Yield From Grasses And Yard Waste

University of Georgia researchers have developed a new technology that promises to dramatically increase the yield of ethanol from readily available non-food crops, such as Bermudagrass, switchgrass, Napiergrass—and even yard waste.

The new technology features a fast, mild, acid-free pretreatment process that increases by at least 10 times the amount of simple sugars released from inexpensive biomass for conversion to ethanol. The technology effectively eliminates the use of expensive and environmentally unsafe chemicals currently used to pretreat biomass.

sciencedaily

[Graeme]

Researchers at MIT Develop New Water-Splitting Catalyst That Works Under Benign Conditions; a “Giant Leap”

Researchers at MIT—Prof. Daniel Nocera and Dr. Matthew Kanan—have developed a new water-splitting catalyst that is easily prepared from earth-abundant materials (cobalt and phosphorous) and operates in benign conditions: pH neutral water at room temperature and 1 atm pressure. A report on their discovery was published online 31 July 2008 in the journal Science.

The cobalt-phosphorous catalyst targets the generation of oxygen gas from water—the more complex of the two water-splitting half-cell reactions required (H2O/O2 and H2O/H2). Another catalyst generates the hydrogen. Although the new catalyst requires further work, it opens a very promising pathway for the development of systems that use artificial photosynthesis to store solar energy on a large scale in the form of O2 and H2 for subsequent use in a fuel cell.

greencarcongress

[Graeme]

Interstate Transmission Superhighways: Paving the Way to a Low-carbon Future

In its recently released report "20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030," the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) identified transmission limitations as a chief roadblock to realizing the enormous economic, environmental and energy security benefits of obtaining 20% of our electricity from the wind. Similarly, a poll conducted by NRG Systems Inc. at last month's Windpower 2008 Conference in Houston, Texas, found that participants saw transmission issues as the biggest problem facing continued development of wind energy in the U.S.

The lack of electricity transmission infrastructure is particularly burdensome for wind energy development because wind resources tend to be located at a significant distance from population centers. The bulk of America's best wind resources are located in the plains, stretching south from the Dakotas to Texas, while most of the country's population lives along the coasts. Putting our country's incredible wind energy potential to use requires finding a way to move this electricity from where it would be generated to where it is needed.

renewableenergyworld