Alternative . Renewable . Energy

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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Positive predictions for hydrogen vehicles

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

Yesterday I posted about the prediction in India that hydrogen energy will be a viable alternative to fossil fuels for its transportation sector by 2020. In a story about efforts to develop hydrogen options, there are more glowing predictions for hydrogen fuel's potential...

Honda, BMW and General Motors Corp. report they are developing vehicles that will run on hydrogen, the simplest, lightest and most abundant of elements.

GM predicts it could have cleanburning, hydrogenpowered fuel cell vehicles on the road within the next five or six years. The company estimates that fuel cell propulsion is about twice as efficient as that of an internal combustion engine.

Earlier this year BMW presented its new hydrogen vehicle, the Hydrogen 7, as part of the company's global clean energy promotional campaign.

Not everybody has a rosy view though...

Other major automakers do not predict mass production of hydrogen vehicles until at least a decade from now, citing the difficulty and cost of producing, storing and transporting the element in either its gaseous or liquid form.

But even in that arena, some are decidedly bullish on the possibilities...

The FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, made up of the U.S. Department of Energy along with BP America, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Shell Hydrogen LLC and a council of three major automakers, believes that by 2010 it can create the national hydrogen fuel infrastructure needed to support fuel cell vehicles.

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India predicts hydrogen fueled transporation by 2020

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

According to scientists in India, hydrogen as a viable energy source for transportation is not as far off as some might think...

"India will be ready with Hydrogen fuel for its transport sector as a major alternative to fossil fuels by 2020, according to scientists.

Hydrogen will be ready in terms of production, storage and supply chain to be used in the transport sector by the end of the next decade, they said.

Various laboratories in the country are developing different technologies of production, storage and transportation and "we are sure that by 2020, India can use hydrogen as an alternative fuel," Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Director S Banerjee said."

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Energy conservation tip: Choose your refrigerator wisely

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

Refrigerators use 14 percent of a home’s electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Today’s most efficient 20-cubic-foot refrigerators use 47 percent less electricity than 1993 models. Beware of these resource hogs:

• side-by-side refrigerator/freezers use 10 percent more electricity than freezer-on-top models;
• through-the-door water and ice dispensers and automatic icemakers can increase electricity use by up to 20 percent; and
• automatic defrost models can use up to 40 percent more energy than manual defrost models,

Source:
GreenHomeGuide - Creating a Green Kitchen

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Energy conservation tip: Install a whole-house fan

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

Consider a whole-house fan. Because some nights are cool, but have no breeze, you may benefit from using a whole-house fan to force cool air through your home. A whole-house fan is permanently installed in your attic and draws cooler air into your home and forces warmed air out through the attic vents.

Source:
SDGE Heating/Cooling tips

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State-by-state carbon dioxide emissions comparison

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

When it comes to CO2 emissions, some states get it, some states don't. The associated press recently did a state-by-state comparison of emissions. What did they find?

The review   shows startling   differences in states’ contribution to climate change.

The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.

•   Wyoming’s coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just     eight hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year.

•   Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next     two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have     twice Texas’ population.

• In sparsely populated Alaska, the carbon dioxide produced per person   by all the flying and driving is six times the per capita amount generated by   travelers     in New York state.

The article points out that, for example, Wyoming "exports" a large amount of the electricity it generates through coal, so some of Wyoming's poor performance on emissions can be attributed to energy consumption in other states. Still...

On a per-person basis, Wyoming spews more carbon dioxide than any other state     or any other country: 276,000 pounds of it per capita a year, thanks to burning     coal, which provides nearly all of the state’s electrical power.

Yet, just next door to the west, Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per     person, less than 23,000 pounds a year. Idaho forbids coal power plants.     It relies     mostly on non-polluting hydroelectric power from its rivers.

Texas, where coal barely edges out cleaner natural gas as the top power source,     belches almost 1-1/2 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide yearly. That’s     more than every nation in the world except six: The United States, China,     Russia, Japan, India and Germany.

Of course, Texas is a very populous state. North Dakota isn’t, but its     power plants crank out 68 percent more carbon dioxide than New Jersey, which     has 13 times North Dakota’s residents.

And while Californians have cut their per-person carbon dioxide emissions     by 11 percent from 1990 to 2003, Nebraskans have increased their per capita     emissions     by 16 percent over the same time frame.

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Interview with Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weil

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

In June, Google announced that it planned to be carbon neutral by 2008. Here's an interview with Google's Green Energy Czar, Bill Weil.

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