Future Energy Technology News

[Graeme]

I've started this thread after seeing the suggestion by Ohanian in this thread, and also a recommendation by MD. I will put all my energy news stories only in this thread even if the technology described is thought not make enough impact on oil consumption or solve peak oil at all! That's not the point. Posts here are about ANY energy technology news that is currently published in the news media. One will never know what impact it will have in the future. Anyone can post technology news stories here. If you don't like them, then don't comment or simply ignore the entire thread. I will continue to post stories about space solar, hydrogen, solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, new vehicles in this thread.

I'll start with this story.
Brazil's Lula defends biofuels, hits out at oil speculation

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected Sunday claims that biofuels made from sugar cane are contributing to the global food crisis, and argued that oil speculation was a factor.
In Rome ahead of an FAO food summit June 3-5, Lula asserted that biofuels from sugar cane -- such as that produced in Brazil -- "is not a threat to food production" although he denounced those sourced from corn and wheat.

physorg

And this:
Brazil battling back against biofuel critics

One of Brazil's preeminent scientific scholars on the environment, Jose Goldemberg, said that the "current attack on biofuels is ... based on four myths."
He said it was not true that Brazilian ethanol: contributes to deforestation, causes famine, does not reduce greenhouse gas emission and is only suitable for niche markets.
Big oil companies who are worried about losing market share to biofuels, U.S. soy producers concerned about losing farmland to corn and "ill-informed environmentalists" were the interests behind these myths, Goldemberg added.
At a time when international oil prices continue to hit daily high-water marks, Brazil is strategically positioned as the world's largest ethanol exporter but the biofuel has not fully come into its own as a world commodity yet.

Reuters

[Graeme]

Greening your work: Easy tips for a more sustainable business

1.Choose an energy company committed to 100 per cent renewable energy.
2.Develop a supplier policy that outlines what you expect from suppliers to help you achieve sustainability. The SBN website ( www.sustainable.org.nz ) has an example of such a policy.
3.Purchase eco-friendly office equipment (furniture that is locally built to last) and supplies (eco-friendly cleaning products).
4.Buy recycled products (paper, stationery, pens made from recycled materials), or products that have a certification (eg Forest Stewardship Council, Fair Trade endorsement).
5.Take practical steps to reduce the impact of business-related travel:
* Think about ways to encourage staff to make the best and most sustainable choices for commuting and business-related travel (subsidised public transport, secure bicycle parks, lockers, showering facilities, flexibility around start/finish time, working at home/telecommuting).
* Be transport-efficient by planning trips carefully and driving smoothly.
* Consider tele- or video-conferencing to minimise the need for travel to meetings, especially air travel.
* Select the most appropriate, most efficient vehicles that will meet your needs (like hybrids or smaller-engine cars).
* Offset the impacts of your vehicle by planting native trees.
*Join GreenFleet, a SBN programme which helps business to green their vehicle fleets. Visit www.greenfleet . org.nz for more information
6.Undertake a waste audit to get an understanding of what your waste is and where it is going.
7.Use posters and signs to educate and remind staff to consider their waste practices.
8.To find out who can take your recycled goods, see the Recyclers of New Zealand website _ www.ronz.org.nz _ which has a directory of recycling operators.
9.Check the information on waste minimisation on the Ministry for the Environment's "Simply Sustainable" website _ www.sustainability . mfe.govt.nz _ which will direct you to a number of useful resources and websites.
10.Undertake a "switch off" campaign _ ensure computers, monitors and all appliances are turned off overnight and when not in use. Turn lights out when rooms are empty.
* Longer term, consider investing in sensor lighting controls that automatically switch off lights in areas not occupied. Get your heating and air-conditioning units serviced regularly to ensure that they are functioning correctly.

nzherald

[Graeme]

Mercedes-Benz drives new CNG sedans into India

You needn’t loosen your purse strings on this one as it runs on compressed natural gas (CNG), the cheapest auto fuel in the world. The three-star iconic luxury brand, Mercedes-Benz, just drove in with a CNG-complaint engine, making it more fuel efficient than the India’s cheapest car Maruti 800, which runs only on petrol.
New CNG variant of Mercedes-Benz runs over 20 km on a kg of CNG against its petrol sibling which guzzles a litre for every 12 km. Moreover, CNG comes at less than half the price — Rs 19 — against Rs 45.52 for petrol in Delhi. And it’s much more cleaner than petrol.

indiatimes

[BigTex]

Nice.

They will all be in one place now.

[americandream]

Don't know if you are a kiwi and remember the days when we had CNG pumps on many forecourts. What a waste.

[Graeme]

Mesa-made mirrors to help generate solar energy

Thousands of mirrors manufactured in Mesa are helping the world become a greener place.
California-based SolFocus, a designer solar energy solutions firm, is fulfilling its first commercial order at its Mesa glasswork facility, one of the company's global manufacturing sites for its photovoltaic systems.
The company's first order is being made for a power plant in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.
"We're just starting to deploy our technology commercially," said Hartsoch, adding that the Mesa glasswork facility began its operations in December.
"The worldwide goal for solar technology is to be able by 2020 to provide 10 to 15 percent of the world's energy. The growth rate today is over 40 percent a year of the amount of solar energy produced."

azcentral

[Graeme]

Drifter, Thanks for your positive message. Maybe some of the readers looking at your thread may be interested in this one! I've already shown that CNG is the cheapest auto fuel in the world.

If I can change subject and suggest that "space solar" looks more likely to happen in view of this:

Arms race takes to the skies

Chinese military experts have warned of an expanding arms race in outer space as Beijing and other rival powers seek to counter US ambitions to dominate the heavens.
The United States and other Western nations have criticised China's efforts to build a presence in space, especially a test in January 2007 when it shot down one of its own aged satellites.

stuff

[Graeme]

Plant waste biofuels benefit from food debate

But turning plant waste into fuel is not easy. Plant cellulose is woven into a tight grid, making it difficult -- and costly -- to extract the glucose needed to make ethanol.
"There is a technology out there for biofuels from cellulosic material, but it does involve acid and steam," said Clarke. "Both require energy to produce. So more energy is going in, currently, and expense, then is being recovered."
With the current technology, cellulose delivers less energy than corn. But if the scientists can make their dream technology work, cellulosic ethanol could be three to eight times more energy efficient than corn ethanol.
Clarke and his colleagues are using micro-organisms that produce cellulose-munching enzymes -- much like ones that let a cow digest grass -- to try to make the dream a reality.
The goal is to create an inexpensive and natural way to produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale.
The research is supported by Ottawa-based Iogen, a leader in second-generation biofuels.
Iogen, backed by Royal Dutch Shell and Goldman Sachs Group, has run a demonstration plant in Ottawa for four years, and hopes to soon be pumping out cellulosic ethanol from a C$500 million ($504 million) commercial-scale plant in the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan. The company is planning a similar plant in Idaho.
While Canada is on the forefront of cellulosic innovation, its actual ethanol industry is small, producing less than 1 billion liters in 2006, compared with 18.5 billion in the United States and 13 billion in Brazil.

reuters

[Ming]

But you have a whole Energy Technology forum for this kind of news...
Dont you like it?

[Graeme]

According to Monte's guidelines, this is the correct forum for energy news. I post only a portion of a news article without any further comment. Monte suggests that if you want to discuss part of a news article in depth, then it is appropriate to discuss that portion in the tech form. Bit of a fine distinction I agree. Feel free to pull any aspect of the news articles I post and discuss it in the other forum.

[Graeme]

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 of the German Geothermal Association [Geothermische Vereinigung], told RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
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.
Though geothermal electricity is in its infancy in Germany, geothermal heat has been around for a long time, and its use is also expanding rapidly. In 2007, there were an estimated 130,000 geothermal heat pumps operating in residential and commercial buildings. About 25,000 to 30,000 new pumps are being added each year.
Bussmann said it costs about EU €18,000 [US $28,000] to build a geothermal heat pump for a family-sized house with a surface area of about 150 square meters in northern Germany where geological conditions make drilling easier.

renewableenergyworld

[dohboi]

I enjoy most of your postings, too, even when I (mostly) think they are techno-fantasies.

I like knowing where to come to find your latest. I will come here regularly.

[Dezakin]

I will continue to post stories about space solar, hydrogen, solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, new vehicles in this thread.

I guess nuclear power isn't a future energy technology.

[Graeme]

I will post nuclear stories too. It was MD's idea. All stories will be the best current energy news stories I can find.

[Graeme]

Sand an unlikely energy source - scientist

Prof Bardsley said solar energy could be used to create the silicon from sand at smelters on the desert margins.
While the silicon would then have to be transported, this could eventually be done using silicon-powered bulk carriers, he said.
A large solar power system in Australia could provide silicon fuel for a modified Huntly power station, he said.
There was no direct research yet about silicon power stations, but Prof Bardsley said work was already underway in the silicon chip industry to develop carbon-neutral methods of making small amounts of silicon, and research in Japan was looking at adapting this to large-scale silicon production.
He said Singapore, China or Abu Dhabi were likely to be the first to build prototype silicon power stations.

nzherald

[Graeme]

Harnessing Microbes To Meet Our Future Energy Needs

"Photosynthetic bacteria can capture sunlight energy at rates 100 times or more greater than plants, and they do not compete for arable land," Rittmann said. This high rate of energy capture means that renewable biofuels can be generated in quantities that rival our current use of fossil fuels.
In addition, non-photosynthetic microorganisms are capable of converting the energy value of all kinds of biomass, including wastes, into readily useful energy forms, such as methane, hydrogen, and electricity.
"Microorganisms can provide just the services our society needs to move from fossil fuels to renewable biofuels," said Rittmann. "Only the microorganisms can pass all the tests, and we should take full advantage of the opportunities that microorganisms present."

sciencedaily

[Graeme]

Cost of Solar Panels Expected To Plummet

Solar photovoltaics have their challenges, from shortages of silicon to the sheer cost of purchasing and installing solar panels, but a new report from the Prometheus Institute says that both these problems will be addressed over the next few years, leading to cheaper solar and an abundance of capacity to produce.
Based on their research, Travis Bradford, president of the Institute, says that prices for traditional silicon-based panels should fall from $3.66 per watt (2007 figures) to $2.14 per watt in 2010, and more impressively, thin-film PV should go to $1.81 per watt from $2.96. When coal, currently the least expensive source of power, is about $1.00 per watt to generate, the expected drop in price for solar will make it far more competative.
The current global production capacity for silicon and thin-film panels is around 3.14 gigawatts, but will hit 12.36 gigawatts in 2010. That's an increase of just under 400%, an enormous amount that is sure to be welcomed by the environmental community.
It may also, though this is probably wishful thinking, push governments to start offering more incentives to those who install solar in a bid to use up the remaining capacity and financially support their manufacturers who by this point will be a very large industry, employing tens of thousands of people.

ecogeek

[mos6507]

Sand an unlikely energy source - scientist

Prof Bardsley said solar energy could be used to create the silicon from sand at smelters on the desert margins.
While the silicon would then have to be transported, this could eventually be done using silicon-powered bulk carriers, he said.
A large solar power system in Australia could provide silicon fuel for a modified Huntly power station, he said.
There was no direct research yet about silicon power stations, but Prof Bardsley said work was already underway in the silicon chip industry to develop carbon-neutral methods of making small amounts of silicon, and research in Japan was looking at adapting this to large-scale silicon production.
He said Singapore, China or Abu Dhabi were likely to be the first to build prototype silicon power stations.

nzherald

In the other thread the presumption was that solar panels can't create solar panels. Hopefully that will be disproven.

[Graeme]

Jatropha plant's oil studied as jet fuel

If all goes well this summer, an Air New Zealand 747 jumbo jet will take off from Auckland this fall powered by fuel refined from the seed of a fast-growing weed.

The three-hour test flight could mark one of the more promising -- and more unusual -- steps by the financially strapped airline industry to find cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuel.

The secret: oil from poisonous seeds of the jatropha tree, which grows in warm climates around the world. For the last year, scientists here have been perfecting a process for turning the oil into jet fuel. On Wednesday, the airline announced plans to use the new fuel for 10% of its needs by 2013.

latimes