Alternative . Renewable . Energy

Exxon-funded scientist says CO2 increase is good

This one left me scratching my head.

[Hat tip to Barry Katz at The Future is Green for the link.]

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T. Boone Pickens using social media to promote Pickens Plan

Here's an interesting post on how T. Boone Pickens is using social media to promote the Pickens Plan.

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Wind power forecasting in the US

As the prevalance of wind power increases, so does the importance of being able to answer the question, "Is the wind going to blow?" As this article on wind power forecasting points out:

An unexpected lack of wind in the US can cause blackouts. This is one problem that many regions in the United States of America may face on the short and medium term as a consequence of the country's growing dependence on renewable energies, particularly wind power.

With that in mind, a project is underway to make wind power forecasting more accurate.

With this project, it will be possible to achieve more precise wind power forecasting in a timeline that can go up to three days.

Errors in wind power predictions "can have more severe consequences in the USA than in any European country" due to the country's temperate and subtropical climate and local geography...

It is expected that a less uncertain wind forecasting in a given location will have a considerable impact on the North-American electricity industry, thus allowing a reduction of wind power prices in the United States.

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How wind farms work

Here's an interesting interactive page on the National Geographic site on how wind farms work.

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50 ways to improve your gas mileage

Looking for a way to squeeze more distance from your tank of gas? Here's a great list of gas-saving tips.

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GM says RIP to SUV

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

Once upon a time those gasoline-slurping SUV's fairly flew out of the auto dealerships, but with gas prices hovering at $4.00 a gallon, people are looking at the big ol' gas hogs and thinking, "Just say no."

Which, if you happen to be a major auto manufacturer that has relied on those gas hogs for a big chunk of your revenue, poses a bit of a problem.

Today GM announced that it was deep-sixing its longstanding love affair with the SUV, as described in this Wired article.

The company's announcement that it is embracing compact cars, shutting down four truck plants and possibly even dumping Hummer shows GM -- and, by extension, Detroit -- realizes fuel prices aren't coming down and SUVs are a dead-end. It's a fundamental change of direction for the world's largest automaker, which has for more than 10 years counted on pickups and SUVs to provide the bulk of its sales -- and profits -- while all but ceding the passenger car market to Japan and Europe.

Oh sure, it doesn't take the existing SUV's off the road (though gas prices are taking care of some of that), but hey, progress is progress. And unless you happen to work in one of the truck plants GM is shutting down, this is excellent news.

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T. Boone Pickens voices alternative energy support

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

In another indication of the momentum building behind alternative energy development, T. Boone Pickens, a man who made his billions in the oil biz, recently voiced his support for alternative energy.

...Pickens, who heads the $4 billion BP Capital Management hedge fund, also voiced some support for alternative energy development, saying a half-trillion dollars a year is leaving the United States economy to buy oil.

Pickens said solar power technology is "almost there," and there could be "corridors" of wind power developed from Texas through the Great Plains and west to California.

...Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Thursday, Boone Pickens's support for alternative energy sources will help build the case for energy diversification in the United States.

"T. Boone Pickens's support is important in that oil industry players, not just non-oil energy companies, will begin or expand alternative energy source research and development," Langan said. "Granted, leadership support doesn't carry as much weight when oil is at $30 or $40 per barrel, but it does now, given what we know $100 oil can do the U.S. economy and U.S. wealth."

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Power-generating clothes

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

Out and about and need to charge up your iPod? Just plug it into your...shirt?

Could happen, if this new technology has anything to say about it.

Someday, your shirt might be able to power your iPod just by doing the normal stuff expected of a shirt.

Scientists have developed a way to generate electricity by jostling fabric with tiny wires woven inside, raising the prospect of textiles that produce power simply by being stretched, rustled or ruffled by a breeze.

The research, described in the new edition of the journal Nature, combines the precision of nanotechnology with the elegant principle known as the piezoelectric effect, in which electricity is generated when pressure is applied to certain materials.

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US government missing the boat on alternative energy

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

The idea that there is incredible potential behind the green economy of the future is exciting and hopeful. But the question today still remains, how much potential is there? Part of the answer depends on the choices governments make in supporting, for example, alternative energy. Currently in the US, that's been lacking.

Here's a good article on the issue in BusinessaWeek. Referring to a recent study that projected that "the green economy could produce as many as 40 million jobs and $4.53 trillion in annual revenue by 2030," the article suggests...

Despite the undeniable green momentum, a $4 trillion-plus U.S. green economy is far from likely—even in 22 years—because there simply is no "aggressive, sustained" federal policy. The federal government has failed to create and adequately fund the programs that would make the U.S. a world leader. And that's what the government should be trying to do, for reasons that go far beyond rising carbon levels. The U.S. risks falling way behind other countries in the development of green technologies. On its current course, this country could trade oil dependence for reliance on alternative energy products built by other nations already far ahead of it.

It goes on to talk about the positive developments on state and local level, as well as from the private sector. But...

Silicon Valley didn't become a global tech leader thanks to private equity alone. From the funding of the Arpanet, the granddaddy of the Internet, to research and development tax credits, the federal government helped the technology industry grow. The green economy envisioned by the ASES report will never be realized unless the government takes a similar approach. Despite condemning "America's addiction to oil" and promoting the importance of alternative energies in his State of the Union addresses, President Bush has consistently failed to follow through on his promises to fund for alternative energy research. He's generous with the green rhetoric, just not with actual greenbacks.

"Every robust energy technology has existed because of government support and tax subsidies," says Joel Makower, editor of GreenBiz.com. "But there hasn't been the appetite [in Washington] to do that for clean energies."

And if the federal government doesn't get its act together?

It's not over, but the federal government needs to take meaningful action, matching the bottom-up efforts of state and local governments, activists, and venture capitalists. If it doesn't, it won't just mean jobs lost. Even worse, today's dependence on foreign oil will transform into tomorrow's dependence on foreign alternative energy technologies.

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New studies say biofuels make greenhouse gases worse

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

Two new studies are giving biofuels a big fat thumbs down when it comes to their impact on greenhouse gases. This article gives a nutshell description of what the studies have to say:

These studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.

The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse-gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted — directly or indirectly, intentionally or not — in new lands being cleared for food or fuel.

"When you take this into account, most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gases substantially," said Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University.

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Big business taking climate change more seriously

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

A recent report shows that the largest companies are paying increasingly more attention to their energy use and carbon emissions.

The world's biggest companies are making climate change a higher priority, in part through more widespread disclosure of carbon emissions, according to an annual report released Monday by a nonprofit group.

The report from Carbon Disclosure Project tracked how companies plan to deal with the risks and opportunities associated with greenhouse gas emissions and energy use.

"The big thing this year is the huge increase in the level of seriousness with which climate change is being incorporated into the corporate strategy of companies," said Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Chief Executive Paul Dickinson.

Not so surprisingly, the more they're addressing the issue, the more they seem to be willing to talk about it...

Among the 500 companies ranked by the Financial Times newspaper as the world's largest by market capitalization, 75 percent responded to this year's survey, up from 47 percent when the survey started four years ago.

The response rate by companies in North America rose in all industry sectors, and nine of 10 sectors had a response rate of more than 50 percent. The increased willingness by companies to disclose their carbon emissions and find ways to reduce them reflects the changing political and regulatory landscape over energy efficiency.

Of the companies that responded, 76 percent implemented programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 48 percent last year.

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VC investors clean up with clean energy

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

Here's a good sign that we'll be seeing continued interest in the clean energy industry from the VC community...

Venture backers of European clean energy startups reaped a 55 percent annualized return on their investments from 1998 to 2007, the London-based research group New Energy Finance said Tuesday.

The analysis, which was commissioned by the European Energy Venture Fair to take place this weekend in Zurich, looked at returns earned by 37 venture capital and private equity investors in 129 early stage companies dealing in low-carbon technologies such as renewable energy, fuel cells, power storage since 1998.

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Bill aims to swap out old light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

There's a bill in the US Senate right now aimed at aiming out old-style incandescent light bulb and replacing them with energy efficient bulbs. It looks like it has a good chance of passing.

If the bill passes and Americans gradually switch out bulbs over the next seven years, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee estimated annual energy savings would reach $6 billion.

Energy-efficient bulbs could save more than 65 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., a House of Representatives co-sponsor of the bill. That's the equivalent of 80 coal-fired power plants, Upton said.

"This is more than just one light bulb at a time," he said at a Senate energy committee hearing Wednesday.

The legislation requires that light bulbs be 300 percent more efficient by 2020, said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., another House sponsor of the legislation. The bill's sponsors also would like light-bulb manufacturers to find a way to keep mercury from being released in the manufacture and disposal of the new energy-efficient bulbs.

They're also working on encouraging manufacturers to make the newer bulbs in the United States, Harman said, and would like to see the federal government, the world's biggest buyer of light bulbs, switch to more efficient lighting.

The legislation would require that 40-, 60-, 75- and 100-watt incandescent light bulbs be phased out by 2014. They would be replaced with the "curlicue" compact fluorescent light bulbs and other, more energy-efficient forms of lighting being developed.

If it does pass, it will have a significant impact on the sum total of energy consumed by light bulbs worldwide. The article say that the US is the single-largest market for incandescent bulbs and accounts for nearly a third of the global market.

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White Zombie electric car dominates gas-powered dragsters

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

I've never been a big fan of motor sports, but here's a story that makes me want to jump in my car, drive down I-5 to Portland, Oregon, and cheer on the White Zombie.

On a recent Friday night at the Portland International Raceway, John Wayland scanned the dragsters, looking for an opponent for his geeky looking 1972 Datsun sedan. Finally, he challenged the owner of a souped-up 2005 Corvette, the hottest-looking car at the track, to a quarter-mile race.

When the starting light flashed, the Datsun, known as White Zombie, shot silently past the Corvette and kept widening the lead as the two cars faded into the distance. "Oh man, right off the [starting] line he had me," said the Corvette's owner, Robert Akers, shaking his head.

Electric cars are typically known for their fuel efficiency and environmental bona fides, not for their speed and muscle. But Mr. Wayland, 47 years old, is changing that, and has become something of a hero to a small group of hot rodders dedicated to humiliating gasoline-powered cars. The night White Zombie beat the Corvette, it also trounced two other "gassers," as Mr. Wayland calls them -- a blue BMW and a bright orange 1964 Pontiac Tempest.

Check out the video that goes with the article. Just looking at it, you wouldn't think the White Zombie would strike fear into the hearts of drivers of souped up muscle cars. In fact, it looks like it has no business being on the track...until it gets the green light.

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Wind power capacity growth strong in 2006

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

Wind power grew by leaps and bounds last year, according to the Worldwatch Institute:

The 15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines installed worldwide last year will generate enough clean electricity annually to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of 23 average-sized U.S. coal-fired power plants, according to a new Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute. The 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced in 2006 is equivalent to the emissions of 7,200 megawatts of coal-fired power plants, or nearly 8 million passenger cars.

Global wind power capacity increased almost 26 percent in 2006, exceeding 74,200 megawatts by year’s end. Global investment in wind power was roughly $22 billion in 2006, and in Europe and North America, the power industry added more capacity in wind than it did in coal and nuclear combined. The global market for wind equipment has risen 74 percent in the past two years, leading to long backorders for wind turbine equipment in much of the world.

[via the CNET Tech news blog]

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