A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or pumping water, the device is called a windmill or wind pump. Large wind farms are being built around the world as a cleaner way to generate electricity, but operators are still searching for the most efficient way to arrange the massive turbines that turn moving air into power. To help steer wind farm owners in the right direction, Charles Meneveau, a Johns Hopkins fluid mechanics and turbulence expert, working with a colleague in Belgium, has devised a new formula through which the optimal spacing for a large array of turbines can be obtained.
ADVERTISEMENT
Turbines used in wind farms for commercial production of electric power are usually three-bladed and pointed into the wind by computer-controlled motors. These have high tip speeds of over 200 mph, high efficiency, and low torque ripple, which contribute to good reliability. The tubular steel towers range from 200 to 300 feet tall. The blades rotate at 10-22 revolutions per minute. At 22 rotations per minute the tip speed exceeds 300 feet per second. A gear box is commonly used for stepping up the speed of the generator, although designs may also use direct drive of an annular generator. "I believe our results are quite robust," said Meneveau, who is the Louis Sardella Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the university's Whiting School of Engineering. "They indicate that large wind farm operators are going to have to space their turbines farther apart."The newest wind farms, which can be located on land or offshore, typically use turbines with rotor diameters of about 300 feet. Currently, turbines on these large wind farms are spaced about seven rotor diameters apart. The new spacing model suggests that placing the wind turbines 15 rotor diameters apart - more than twice as far apart as in the current layouts - results in more cost-efficient power generation.The research is important because large wind farms ? consisting of hundreds or even thousands of turbines ? are planned or already operating in the western United States, Europe and China. "The early experience is that they are producing less power than expected," Meneveau said. "Some of these projects are underperforming."Earlier computational models for large wind farm layouts were based on simply adding up what happens in the wakes of single wind turbines, Meneveau said. The new spacing model, he said, takes into account interaction of arrays of turbines with the entire atmospheric wind flow.Meneveau and Meyers argue that the energy generated in a large wind farm has less to do with horizontal winds and is more dependent on the strong winds that the turbulence created by the tall turbines pulls down from higher up in the atmosphere. Using insights gleaned from high-performance computer simulations as well as from wind tunnel experiments, they determined that in the correct spacing, the turbines alter the landscape in a way that creates turbulence, which stirs the air and helps draw more powerful kinetic energy from higher altitudes.A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research. It is used to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles (primarily airplanes) in free flight. The wind tunnel was envisioned as a means of reversing the usual paradigm: instead of the air's standing still and the aircraft moving at speed through it, the same effect would be obtained if the aircraft stood still and the air moved at speed past it. Air currents in the tunnel pass through a series of small three-bladed model wind turbines mounted atop posts, mimicking an array of full-size wind turbines. Data concerning the interaction of the air currents and the model turbines is collected by using a measurement procedure called stereo particle-image-velocimetry, which requires a pair of high-resolution digital cameras, smoke and laser pulses. For further information: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/jhu-syb012011.php Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home
Home Power Generator
Green Energy
Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
Monday, January 31, 2011
Department of Energy Offers Support for Arizona Solar Project
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
January 20, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Agua Caliente Solar, LLC for a loan guarantee of up to $967 million. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 290-megawatt photovoltaic solar generating facility located in Yuma County, Arizona that will use thin film solar panels from First Solar, Inc. The project sponsor, NRG Solar, estimates the project will be the largest photovoltaic generation facility in the world when it is completed.
"Solar projects like this are helping the U.S. to compete globally for the clean energy jobs of today and the future," said Secretary Chu. "The Obama Administration is committed to bringing innovative renewable energy technologies to the market to support the country's transition to a clean energy economy."
According to NRG estimates, the Agua Caliente Solar project will create 400 construction jobs in addition to generating state and local tax revenues. The company anticipates the project will avoid approximately 237,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to taking over 40,000 cars off the road annually. In addition, at full capacity, NRG estimates the project will also provide clean, emissions-free electricity for approximately 100,000 homes.
The Agua Caliente Solar project will deploy fault ride-through and dynamic voltage regulation, technologies that are new to solar power plants in the United States. These technologies will improve the reliability and predictability of the electricity generated by solar power plants and supplied to the electricity grid. Pacific Gas & Electric Company will purchase power generated from the project and deliver clean, renewable electricity to California consumers.
The Department of Energy, through the Loan Programs Office, has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling over $17 billion to support 17 clean energy projects. Together, these projects will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours, enough clean energy to power approximately 3.5 million homes. Additional DOE-supported projects include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office Web site.
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
January 20, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Agua Caliente Solar, LLC for a loan guarantee of up to $967 million. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 290-megawatt photovoltaic solar generating facility located in Yuma County, Arizona that will use thin film solar panels from First Solar, Inc. The project sponsor, NRG Solar, estimates the project will be the largest photovoltaic generation facility in the world when it is completed.
"Solar projects like this are helping the U.S. to compete globally for the clean energy jobs of today and the future," said Secretary Chu. "The Obama Administration is committed to bringing innovative renewable energy technologies to the market to support the country's transition to a clean energy economy."
According to NRG estimates, the Agua Caliente Solar project will create 400 construction jobs in addition to generating state and local tax revenues. The company anticipates the project will avoid approximately 237,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to taking over 40,000 cars off the road annually. In addition, at full capacity, NRG estimates the project will also provide clean, emissions-free electricity for approximately 100,000 homes.
The Agua Caliente Solar project will deploy fault ride-through and dynamic voltage regulation, technologies that are new to solar power plants in the United States. These technologies will improve the reliability and predictability of the electricity generated by solar power plants and supplied to the electricity grid. Pacific Gas & Electric Company will purchase power generated from the project and deliver clean, renewable electricity to California consumers.
The Department of Energy, through the Loan Programs Office, has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling over $17 billion to support 17 clean energy projects. Together, these projects will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours, enough clean energy to power approximately 3.5 million homes. Additional DOE-supported projects include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office Web site.
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
Alaska Launches New Small Wind Working Group
Alaska Launches New Small Wind Working GroupDate: 1/18/2011Location: AKContact: Kat KeithThe Small Wind Working Group is a new focus and networking group for Alaska small wind issues (wind turbines less than 50 kilowatts). During the first meeting, hurdles to small wind development in the state were identified: the impact of severe weather (rime ice build-up, low temperature, turbulence, and bi-direction wind gusts), economical resource assessment, manufacturer support, stringent permitting requirements, and existing net metering laws. The group will begin documenting small turbine installations around Alaska, noting important details and highlighting failures. In addition, the group would like to support the development of a small wind test site.This information was last updated on 1/18/2011
Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
The Peak Oil Catastrophe-in-waiting
Peak oil is the point at which global oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. The speed of the decline is a key unknown and if it is relatively fast, the results could be truly dire for economies around the world.�
We saw prices as high as $147 a barrel in mid-2008 (the dominant factor for gasoline prices well over $4 a gallon), which played a strong role, perhaps the dominant role, in the global Great Recession -- as high oil prices have in most recessions over the last fifty years. Once the recession hit, oil demand dropped and prices plummeted as low as $33 a barrel.
Prices steadily recovered since their low in early 2009 and are back to dangerous levels in early 2011 (about $90 a barrel). We can expect far higher prices as the global recovery continues. An increasing number of analysts are projecting prices as high or higher than the 2008 peak in the next couple of years.
More importantly, global net exports of oil continue to drop as major oil exporters increase their own consumption at the same time as their production is stagnant or falling. As a major oil-importing nation (about 2/3 of our oil is imported, by far the largest import dependency in the world), net oil exports are far more important to the U.S. than total oil production. Even if global oil production increases in the coming years, if there is less available for oil-thirsty nations like ours the situation will be far worse than total oil production figures would otherwise suggest. More on this below.
It is time for public discussion of this issue to reach the same prominence as climate change. Indeed, many solutions to these ?twin crises? are the same because reducing petroleum dependence will ameliorate peak oil and climate change.
This article is an update on the peak oil situation at the beginning of 2011 and a follow-up to my many previous pieces on peak oil (one with Nobel Prize winner Walter Kohn). First, some facts.
Global oil production has plateaued since 2004, despite the fact that oil prices have risen dramatically. Figure 1 shows this history, demonstrating that oil production has not been very response to market forces, suggesting strongly that we are at a global peak.
Figure 1. Global oil production and oil price 2004-2010. (Source: EIA, chart courtesy of www.TheOilDrum.com).
Bloomberg reported a summary of oil price forecasts for 2011, selecting for their summary those forecasters who have the most accurate track records. The dominant view was that average oil prices will rise almost as high in 2011 as seen in 2008 ? to $87 a barrel for the year as a whole (the average price for 2008 was $99). It?s likely, however, that the actual average 2011 price will be significantly higher because we are already over this price at about $90 a barrel in early January and the large majority of economic forecasts project a robust global recovery this year, with attendant increases in oil demand.
More anecdotally, but with perhaps more impact because of its source, Shell?s recent ex-president John Hofmeister predicts $5 gas by 2012 due to the global economic recovery and very tight supply.
A number of comprehensive reviews of the global oil supply situation have appeared in the last year.
Lloyds and Chatham House: ?We are heading towards a global oil supply crunch and price spike.? ?A supply crunch appears likely around 2013? given recent price experience, a spike in excess of $200 per barrel is not infeasible.?
The U.S. Department of Defense issued a stark warning in its 2010 Joint Operating Environment (JOE) report, including discussion of ?peak oil?: "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day.?
Similarly, the German military is taking peak oil very seriously, made clear by a report leaked to Der Spiegel in 2010: ?[The report] warns of shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the ?total collapse of the markets? and of serious political and economic crises.?
The same article reports on secret British government planning for peak oil: ?The leak has parallels with recent reports from the UK. Only last week the Guardian newspaper reported that the British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is keeping documents secret which show the UK government is far more concerned about an impending supply crisis than it cares to admit. According to the Guardian, the DECC, the Bank of England and the British Ministry of Defence are working alongside industry representatives to develop a crisis plan to deal with possible shortfalls in energy supply.?
The UK?s Industry Task Force on Peak Oil and Energy Security (a non-governmental group) issued its second major report on peak oil in late 2010, concluding: ?[W]e face a situation during the [next few years] where fuel price unrest could lead to shortages in consumer products and the UK?s energy security will be significantly compromised. This has the potential to hit UK business and commerce as well as the most disadvantaged in society with yet another crisis.?
In August of 2009, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the official energy watchdog for the western world, was even more strident in its warnings. The UK?s Independent newspaper reported:
The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.
Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries.
Later in 2009, two IEA whistleblowers went public and claimed that the situation was even worse than the IEA was stating publicly. The UK?s Guardian newspaper reported in November of 2009: ?A ? senior IEA source, who has now left but was ? unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organization was that it was ?imperative not to anger the Americans? but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as has been admitted. ?We have (already) entered the ?peak oil? zone. I think that the situation is really bad,? he added.?
IEA has changed its public tune yet again, however. IEA?s 2010 World Energy Outlook (WEO), a major forecast released each year, apparently ignored the IEA?s own previous analysis by reverting to its previous policy of simply assuming ? literally ? that projected petroleum demand will be met with the needed supply. IEA states in WEO 2010: ?Energy prices ensure that projected supply and demand are in balance throughout the Outlook period in each scenario?.?� In other words, IEA simply assumes that supply will meet demand due to market forces. This is obviously true at a very basic level: supply will always match demand if we define demand as that which is actually consumed. But if we define demand instead as the desired oil consumption, all else being equal, we reach a very different conclusion ? far more in line with the US JOE report that projects a possible 10 million barrel per day shortfall by 2015.
WEO 2010 does, however, include some discussion of peak oil and it projects that the 2006 peak in global conventional oil production will never be exceeded (p. 8 of the Exec. Summary). That is, IEA has officially concluded that 2006 was the annual peak for conventional oil production. We are, accordingly, past the point of peak oil if we define this term to include only conventional oil.
Even based on official IEA projections (which are likely far too rosy considering the whistleblower claims), we have a major problem facing us, made clear by the chart below. The key point from this chart is that IEA thinks we?ve already passed the peak for global conventional oil production, as just mentioned. As a consequence, a huge amount of new oil must be found to replace declining conventional oil production ? a deficit of about 75 million barrels per day by 2035. This is equivalent to nine new Saudi Arabias coming online by 2035 (Saudi Arabia currently produces about 8 million barrels per day).
IEA projects (Figure 2) that this new oil will come from a combination of new conventional oil production, from known fields yet to be developed and fields not even found yet; from natural gas liquids; and from unconventional oil like tar sands and oil shale.
Figure 2. IEA projections for oil supply through 2035 (Source: IEA WEO 2010.)
For those who worry about national security and energy dependence, the report offers an even more worrying conclusion: the large majority of new oil will come from OPEC nations, with only Brazil, Canada and Kazakhstan as non-OPEC nations projected to have significant new production (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Sources of new oil by 2035 (Source: IEA WEO 2010).
We must keep in mind, however, that these new production figures don?t take into account the growing petroleum demand in these producing nations. The key issue, from a U.S. national security and energy dependence perspective, is not oil production itself but ?net oil exports.? The public version of the 2010 WEO does not discuss net oil exports, but private analysts Jeffrey Brown and Samuel Foucher have produced forecasts of net oil exports, concluding that the top five oil exporters will have literally zero oil for export by 2030. Even if, for some reason, their model is substantially off the mark (it?s not been peer-reviewed, to my knowledge), we must consider the net export issue in our analysis because any analysis that ignores rapidly growing consumption in oil-producing nations will be highly inaccurate.
Figure 4. Brown and Foucher?s 2008 projections for top five oil exporting nations? net oil exports by 2030, in millions of barrels per day (mbpd).
It?s not all bad, however. A more encouraging forecast from the IEA report can be found in their cost savings projections. They conclude that the ?new policies scenario? (what used to be called the ?reference scenario,? which codifies existing policies) and the 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent scenario (which codifies new policies required to prevent atmospheric emissions from reaching this level) result in very substantial net cost savings on a global basis and, in particular, for oil importing nations. This is the case because fossil fuel demand is dramatically reduced in these scenarios. This reduction in demand lowers both average prices for fossil fuels and the amount of fossil fuel that needs to be purchased.
Figure 5. Oil-import bills as share of gross domestic product in selected countries (Source: IEA WEO 2010).
It is time to get very serious about managing a reduction in petroleum demand in the U.S. and around the world. I write ?managing? because it is my view that this reduction in demand will happen whether we want it to or not due to declining oil supplies. The question, then, is how we best manage this decline. A high quality analysis of the possible scenarios for an oil-constrained world, by Oxford University professor J�rg Friedrichs, appeared in 2010. Friedrichs examines three possible trajectories: ?Predatory militarism,? ?totalitarian retrenchment,? and ?socioeconomic adaptation.?
At least two rigorous policy solutions have been offered in recent years. The Rocky Mountain Institute completed Winning the Oil Endgame in 2007, suggesting a suite of policy and technology solutions that can get the U.S. off oil, ?led by business for profit.? Richard Heinberg offered his own book-length solution, The Oil Depletion Protocol, in 2008, suggesting how the U.S. and other nations could manage declining oil supplies by achieving a three percent per year reduction in demand through various policies.
As we continue a global economic recovery in 2011, higher oil prices are inevitable, super price spikes are a strong possibility, and even shortages are not out of the question. We must ask ourselves: should we manage the decline in a way that avoids economic catastrophe or do we continue our generally laissez faire attitude toward this major problem?
Tam Hunt is president of Community Renewable Solutions, LLC, a renewable energy consulting and project development company. He is also a Lecturer in climate change law and policy at UC Santa Barbara?s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. His blog, Thought, Spirit, Politik, is at www.tamhunt.blogspot.com.�
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
We saw prices as high as $147 a barrel in mid-2008 (the dominant factor for gasoline prices well over $4 a gallon), which played a strong role, perhaps the dominant role, in the global Great Recession -- as high oil prices have in most recessions over the last fifty years. Once the recession hit, oil demand dropped and prices plummeted as low as $33 a barrel.
Prices steadily recovered since their low in early 2009 and are back to dangerous levels in early 2011 (about $90 a barrel). We can expect far higher prices as the global recovery continues. An increasing number of analysts are projecting prices as high or higher than the 2008 peak in the next couple of years.
More importantly, global net exports of oil continue to drop as major oil exporters increase their own consumption at the same time as their production is stagnant or falling. As a major oil-importing nation (about 2/3 of our oil is imported, by far the largest import dependency in the world), net oil exports are far more important to the U.S. than total oil production. Even if global oil production increases in the coming years, if there is less available for oil-thirsty nations like ours the situation will be far worse than total oil production figures would otherwise suggest. More on this below.
It is time for public discussion of this issue to reach the same prominence as climate change. Indeed, many solutions to these ?twin crises? are the same because reducing petroleum dependence will ameliorate peak oil and climate change.
This article is an update on the peak oil situation at the beginning of 2011 and a follow-up to my many previous pieces on peak oil (one with Nobel Prize winner Walter Kohn). First, some facts.
Global oil production has plateaued since 2004, despite the fact that oil prices have risen dramatically. Figure 1 shows this history, demonstrating that oil production has not been very response to market forces, suggesting strongly that we are at a global peak.
Figure 1. Global oil production and oil price 2004-2010. (Source: EIA, chart courtesy of www.TheOilDrum.com).
Bloomberg reported a summary of oil price forecasts for 2011, selecting for their summary those forecasters who have the most accurate track records. The dominant view was that average oil prices will rise almost as high in 2011 as seen in 2008 ? to $87 a barrel for the year as a whole (the average price for 2008 was $99). It?s likely, however, that the actual average 2011 price will be significantly higher because we are already over this price at about $90 a barrel in early January and the large majority of economic forecasts project a robust global recovery this year, with attendant increases in oil demand.
More anecdotally, but with perhaps more impact because of its source, Shell?s recent ex-president John Hofmeister predicts $5 gas by 2012 due to the global economic recovery and very tight supply.
A number of comprehensive reviews of the global oil supply situation have appeared in the last year.
Lloyds and Chatham House: ?We are heading towards a global oil supply crunch and price spike.? ?A supply crunch appears likely around 2013? given recent price experience, a spike in excess of $200 per barrel is not infeasible.?
The U.S. Department of Defense issued a stark warning in its 2010 Joint Operating Environment (JOE) report, including discussion of ?peak oil?: "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day.?
Similarly, the German military is taking peak oil very seriously, made clear by a report leaked to Der Spiegel in 2010: ?[The report] warns of shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the ?total collapse of the markets? and of serious political and economic crises.?
The same article reports on secret British government planning for peak oil: ?The leak has parallels with recent reports from the UK. Only last week the Guardian newspaper reported that the British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is keeping documents secret which show the UK government is far more concerned about an impending supply crisis than it cares to admit. According to the Guardian, the DECC, the Bank of England and the British Ministry of Defence are working alongside industry representatives to develop a crisis plan to deal with possible shortfalls in energy supply.?
The UK?s Industry Task Force on Peak Oil and Energy Security (a non-governmental group) issued its second major report on peak oil in late 2010, concluding: ?[W]e face a situation during the [next few years] where fuel price unrest could lead to shortages in consumer products and the UK?s energy security will be significantly compromised. This has the potential to hit UK business and commerce as well as the most disadvantaged in society with yet another crisis.?
In August of 2009, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the official energy watchdog for the western world, was even more strident in its warnings. The UK?s Independent newspaper reported:
The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.
Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries.
Later in 2009, two IEA whistleblowers went public and claimed that the situation was even worse than the IEA was stating publicly. The UK?s Guardian newspaper reported in November of 2009: ?A ? senior IEA source, who has now left but was ? unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organization was that it was ?imperative not to anger the Americans? but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as has been admitted. ?We have (already) entered the ?peak oil? zone. I think that the situation is really bad,? he added.?
IEA has changed its public tune yet again, however. IEA?s 2010 World Energy Outlook (WEO), a major forecast released each year, apparently ignored the IEA?s own previous analysis by reverting to its previous policy of simply assuming ? literally ? that projected petroleum demand will be met with the needed supply. IEA states in WEO 2010: ?Energy prices ensure that projected supply and demand are in balance throughout the Outlook period in each scenario?.?� In other words, IEA simply assumes that supply will meet demand due to market forces. This is obviously true at a very basic level: supply will always match demand if we define demand as that which is actually consumed. But if we define demand instead as the desired oil consumption, all else being equal, we reach a very different conclusion ? far more in line with the US JOE report that projects a possible 10 million barrel per day shortfall by 2015.
WEO 2010 does, however, include some discussion of peak oil and it projects that the 2006 peak in global conventional oil production will never be exceeded (p. 8 of the Exec. Summary). That is, IEA has officially concluded that 2006 was the annual peak for conventional oil production. We are, accordingly, past the point of peak oil if we define this term to include only conventional oil.
Even based on official IEA projections (which are likely far too rosy considering the whistleblower claims), we have a major problem facing us, made clear by the chart below. The key point from this chart is that IEA thinks we?ve already passed the peak for global conventional oil production, as just mentioned. As a consequence, a huge amount of new oil must be found to replace declining conventional oil production ? a deficit of about 75 million barrels per day by 2035. This is equivalent to nine new Saudi Arabias coming online by 2035 (Saudi Arabia currently produces about 8 million barrels per day).
IEA projects (Figure 2) that this new oil will come from a combination of new conventional oil production, from known fields yet to be developed and fields not even found yet; from natural gas liquids; and from unconventional oil like tar sands and oil shale.
Figure 2. IEA projections for oil supply through 2035 (Source: IEA WEO 2010.)
For those who worry about national security and energy dependence, the report offers an even more worrying conclusion: the large majority of new oil will come from OPEC nations, with only Brazil, Canada and Kazakhstan as non-OPEC nations projected to have significant new production (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Sources of new oil by 2035 (Source: IEA WEO 2010).
We must keep in mind, however, that these new production figures don?t take into account the growing petroleum demand in these producing nations. The key issue, from a U.S. national security and energy dependence perspective, is not oil production itself but ?net oil exports.? The public version of the 2010 WEO does not discuss net oil exports, but private analysts Jeffrey Brown and Samuel Foucher have produced forecasts of net oil exports, concluding that the top five oil exporters will have literally zero oil for export by 2030. Even if, for some reason, their model is substantially off the mark (it?s not been peer-reviewed, to my knowledge), we must consider the net export issue in our analysis because any analysis that ignores rapidly growing consumption in oil-producing nations will be highly inaccurate.
Figure 4. Brown and Foucher?s 2008 projections for top five oil exporting nations? net oil exports by 2030, in millions of barrels per day (mbpd).
It?s not all bad, however. A more encouraging forecast from the IEA report can be found in their cost savings projections. They conclude that the ?new policies scenario? (what used to be called the ?reference scenario,? which codifies existing policies) and the 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent scenario (which codifies new policies required to prevent atmospheric emissions from reaching this level) result in very substantial net cost savings on a global basis and, in particular, for oil importing nations. This is the case because fossil fuel demand is dramatically reduced in these scenarios. This reduction in demand lowers both average prices for fossil fuels and the amount of fossil fuel that needs to be purchased.
Figure 5. Oil-import bills as share of gross domestic product in selected countries (Source: IEA WEO 2010).
It is time to get very serious about managing a reduction in petroleum demand in the U.S. and around the world. I write ?managing? because it is my view that this reduction in demand will happen whether we want it to or not due to declining oil supplies. The question, then, is how we best manage this decline. A high quality analysis of the possible scenarios for an oil-constrained world, by Oxford University professor J�rg Friedrichs, appeared in 2010. Friedrichs examines three possible trajectories: ?Predatory militarism,? ?totalitarian retrenchment,? and ?socioeconomic adaptation.?
At least two rigorous policy solutions have been offered in recent years. The Rocky Mountain Institute completed Winning the Oil Endgame in 2007, suggesting a suite of policy and technology solutions that can get the U.S. off oil, ?led by business for profit.? Richard Heinberg offered his own book-length solution, The Oil Depletion Protocol, in 2008, suggesting how the U.S. and other nations could manage declining oil supplies by achieving a three percent per year reduction in demand through various policies.
As we continue a global economic recovery in 2011, higher oil prices are inevitable, super price spikes are a strong possibility, and even shortages are not out of the question. We must ask ourselves: should we manage the decline in a way that avoids economic catastrophe or do we continue our generally laissez faire attitude toward this major problem?
Tam Hunt is president of Community Renewable Solutions, LLC, a renewable energy consulting and project development company. He is also a Lecturer in climate change law and policy at UC Santa Barbara?s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. His blog, Thought, Spirit, Politik, is at www.tamhunt.blogspot.com.�
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
London shopping centre uses Europe's largest heat pump
A shopping centre in London has officially started to use the largest geothermal heat pump in Europe. Climate change minister Greg Barker unveiled the system, which will heat and cool One New Change in the heart of the City.The pipework is 60km long and it is hoped that it will reduce the carbon emissions of the building by at least ten per cent and save �300,000 on energy bills every year, its owners say.On opening the renewable energy technology, Mr Barker said: "This is British innovation at its best, using the earth's natural resources to solve our energy needs."Extracting warmth from the ground underneath London will help save on the building's heating bills and will cut carbon."In addition to the large-scale system, the building has solar-controlled glass, reducing the need for air conditioning, and green roof terraces to encourage biodiversity.It has also received an 'excellent' sustainability rating under the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, which could signal the future of commercial buildings in achieving sustainability and reducing carbon emissions.Posted by Emily Thomas Sign up for regular email updates to help you save money and energy
For more information please see: One New Change� The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited � and do not represent the views or opinions of the Energy Saving Trust.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
For more information please see: One New Change� The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited � and do not represent the views or opinions of the Energy Saving Trust.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
Urban permaculture - 10 ebooks about sustainable city strategies, community and guerrilla gardening
In urban situations, space is limited, there may be little or no access to land, and various regulatory restrictions when it comes to gardening or backyard animals. We want to share some of the concepts that people have used in urban settings which allow them to circumnavigate these obsticles. Below is a list of some solutions practiced by various groups in cities across the nation. It is a mix of approaches, ranging from gardening to co-parenting, going across of aspects of sustainability.
Inspirational ebooks on Permaculture Media Blog:
Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community - Food Not Lawns doesn?t begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden?simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community?to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot of land; work with children to create garden play spaces.
Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices- shows how cities and their residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with nature?s organizing principles in mind. Taking cues from living systems for sustainability strategies, Newman and Jennings reassess urban design by exploring flows of energy, materials, and information, along with the interactions between human and non-human parts of the system.
Community Gardening (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide) - This all-region guide, filled with hands-on tips, offers a snapshot of today?s vibrant North American community gardening movement. Whether you are already a member of a community garden, want to get involved in one, or are just curious, this guide will inform and inspire you. Models include vegetable gardens, aesthetic and art gardens, children?s and youth gardens, and several others. Using real-life case studies from around North America, the expert contributors show how community gardening produces safe, eco-friendly food; brings neighbors together; offers valuable lessons for children; and gives each participant the personal satisfaction that comes with cultivating the land and making things grow.��
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway - This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.
Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening?which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants?can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it?s fun and easy to create a ?backyard ecosystem? by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:
* Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
* Catching and conserving water in the landscape
* Providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
* Growing an edible ?forest? that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods
Critical Mass: Transport, Environment and Society in the Twenty-First Century - This book, pointing out that car-dependency is shared throughout Europe, Asia and North America, argues that the problems can only be solved globally by a shared recognition of common needs. In addition, with transport inextricabley linked with consumerism and the lifestyles that car ownership has created, the book argues that the challenge is to replace the current technology with an alternative that is sustainable and will solve the fundamental problems of poverty, inequity and social development.
City Farmer: Adventures in Growing Urban Food - celebrates the new ways that urban dwellers across North America are reimagining cities as places of food production. From homeowners planting their front yards with vegetables to guerilla gardeners scattering seeds in neglected urban corners, gardening guru Lorraine Johnson chronicles the increasing popularity of innovative urban food growing.
"Vibrant and alive... a spirited journey to meet those who are rediscovering the economic, social, and healing power of growing food in the city"
Ecocities: rebuilding cities in balance with nature- is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and health of the Earth?s biosphere. Unique in the literature is the book?s insight that the form of the city really matters ? and that it is within our ability to change it, and crucial that we do. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future.
Sustainable urban planning: tipping the balance - introduces the principles and practices behind urban and regional planning in the context of environmental sustainability. Its publication reflects a growing recognition in the fields of planning and environmental studies that cities, where the majority of humans now live, need to be developed in a sustainable way. The text takes a balanced approach, weaving together the concerns of planning, capitalism, development, and cultural and environmental preservation. It helps students and planners to connect the needs of the environment with the need for financial gain. This approach is mirrored in the structure of the book which is divided into two parts, one focusing on theories and the other on techniques.
Climate Resilient Cities: A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters - provides city administrators with exactly what they need to know about the complex and compelling challenges of climate change. The book helps local governments create training, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities. A step-by-step self-assessment challenges policymakers to think about the resources needed to combat natural disasters through an innovative hot spot risk and vulnerability identification tool. This primer is unique from other resources in its treatment of climate change using a dual-track approach that integrates both mitigation (lowering contributions to greenhouse gases) and adaptation (preparing for impacts of climate change) with disaster risk management.
Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change - The authors of this spirited book don?t believe that oblivion is necessarily the destiny of urban areas. Instead, they believe that intelligent planning and visionary leadership can help cities meet the impending crises, and look to existing initiatives in cities around the world. Rather than responding with fear (as a legion of doomsaying prognosticators have done), they choose hope. First, they confront the problems, describing where we stand today in our use of oil and our contribution to climate change. They then present four possible outcomes for cities: ?collapse,? ?ruralized,? ?divided,? and ?resilient.? In response to their scenarios, they articulate how a new ?sustainable urbanism? could replace today?s ?carbon-consuming urbanism.?
You can also take some inspiration here:21 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Permaculture and Guerrilla Gardening Activists in Your LifeThe Essential Gardening and Food Resilience Library
��
Powered By WizardRSSGreen Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity Free Energy Generator
Inspirational ebooks on Permaculture Media Blog:
Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community - Food Not Lawns doesn?t begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden?simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community?to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot of land; work with children to create garden play spaces.
Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices- shows how cities and their residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with nature?s organizing principles in mind. Taking cues from living systems for sustainability strategies, Newman and Jennings reassess urban design by exploring flows of energy, materials, and information, along with the interactions between human and non-human parts of the system.
Community Gardening (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide) - This all-region guide, filled with hands-on tips, offers a snapshot of today?s vibrant North American community gardening movement. Whether you are already a member of a community garden, want to get involved in one, or are just curious, this guide will inform and inspire you. Models include vegetable gardens, aesthetic and art gardens, children?s and youth gardens, and several others. Using real-life case studies from around North America, the expert contributors show how community gardening produces safe, eco-friendly food; brings neighbors together; offers valuable lessons for children; and gives each participant the personal satisfaction that comes with cultivating the land and making things grow.��
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway - This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.
Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening?which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants?can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it?s fun and easy to create a ?backyard ecosystem? by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:
* Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
* Catching and conserving water in the landscape
* Providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
* Growing an edible ?forest? that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods
Critical Mass: Transport, Environment and Society in the Twenty-First Century - This book, pointing out that car-dependency is shared throughout Europe, Asia and North America, argues that the problems can only be solved globally by a shared recognition of common needs. In addition, with transport inextricabley linked with consumerism and the lifestyles that car ownership has created, the book argues that the challenge is to replace the current technology with an alternative that is sustainable and will solve the fundamental problems of poverty, inequity and social development.
City Farmer: Adventures in Growing Urban Food - celebrates the new ways that urban dwellers across North America are reimagining cities as places of food production. From homeowners planting their front yards with vegetables to guerilla gardeners scattering seeds in neglected urban corners, gardening guru Lorraine Johnson chronicles the increasing popularity of innovative urban food growing.
"Vibrant and alive... a spirited journey to meet those who are rediscovering the economic, social, and healing power of growing food in the city"
Ecocities: rebuilding cities in balance with nature- is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and health of the Earth?s biosphere. Unique in the literature is the book?s insight that the form of the city really matters ? and that it is within our ability to change it, and crucial that we do. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future.
Sustainable urban planning: tipping the balance - introduces the principles and practices behind urban and regional planning in the context of environmental sustainability. Its publication reflects a growing recognition in the fields of planning and environmental studies that cities, where the majority of humans now live, need to be developed in a sustainable way. The text takes a balanced approach, weaving together the concerns of planning, capitalism, development, and cultural and environmental preservation. It helps students and planners to connect the needs of the environment with the need for financial gain. This approach is mirrored in the structure of the book which is divided into two parts, one focusing on theories and the other on techniques.
Climate Resilient Cities: A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters - provides city administrators with exactly what they need to know about the complex and compelling challenges of climate change. The book helps local governments create training, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities. A step-by-step self-assessment challenges policymakers to think about the resources needed to combat natural disasters through an innovative hot spot risk and vulnerability identification tool. This primer is unique from other resources in its treatment of climate change using a dual-track approach that integrates both mitigation (lowering contributions to greenhouse gases) and adaptation (preparing for impacts of climate change) with disaster risk management.
Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change - The authors of this spirited book don?t believe that oblivion is necessarily the destiny of urban areas. Instead, they believe that intelligent planning and visionary leadership can help cities meet the impending crises, and look to existing initiatives in cities around the world. Rather than responding with fear (as a legion of doomsaying prognosticators have done), they choose hope. First, they confront the problems, describing where we stand today in our use of oil and our contribution to climate change. They then present four possible outcomes for cities: ?collapse,? ?ruralized,? ?divided,? and ?resilient.? In response to their scenarios, they articulate how a new ?sustainable urbanism? could replace today?s ?carbon-consuming urbanism.?
You can also take some inspiration here:21 Holiday Gift Ideas for the Permaculture and Guerrilla Gardening Activists in Your LifeThe Essential Gardening and Food Resilience Library
��
Powered By WizardRSSGreen Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity Free Energy Generator
Two-thirds of drivers change habits as fuel price soars
Two-thirds of motorists have changed their driving habits since fuel prices have increased, according to new research.A study by moneysupermarket.com reveals that 67 per cent of respondents admit that the rising cost of fuel has taken its toll, leading 62 per cent of drivers to spend less time behind the wheel.This could be a sign of things to come, as commuters look for alternative methods of transport that are not only cheaper, but also greener."With the effects of the VAT rise taking hold, and the latest inflation data highlighting the pressure on our wallets, fuel is another day to day cost that people are really struggling with," commented Kevin Mountford, head of banking at the website.Meanwhile, treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander told the BBC that introducing a fuel stabiliser to control prices would be "difficult to achieve" and a further fuel duty rise is expected to come on April 1st.Such an impact on personal and business finances could lead more people to consider alternative fuel vehicles and reduce or eliminate reliance on petrol and diesel.Posted by Emily Thomas Find out how the Energy Saving Trust can help you manage your fleet
For more information please see: BBC interview� The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited � and do not represent the views or opinions of the Energy Saving Trust.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
For more information please see: BBC interview� The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited � and do not represent the views or opinions of the Energy Saving Trust.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
Energy: Hydrocarbons in North America
EXCERPT:
North America is at the top of the food chain when it comes to consuming energy: Its inhabitants have nearly four times the average global per capita energy consumption.
Although Mexicans consume less than the global average, Americans consume 4.5 times and Canadians nearly 6 times as much. In absolute numbers, we in North America consume one-quarter of the world?s primary energy production, even though we make up less than 7 percent of the world?s population.
North America?s massive energy diet is largely made up of hydrocarbons?a full 83 percent comes from oil, gas, and coal, and if we include nuclear energy, 91 percent comes from nonrenewable fuel sources. In 2008, North America consumed 27 percent of the world?s oil production, 25 percent of natural gas production, and 18 percent of coal production. Most of the rest of our energy consumption was derived from nuclear power and large hydropower, with renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind, photovoltaics, and geothermal aking up less than 2 percent of our total. Moreover, despite a several-fold growth in non-hydropower renewable energy sources, nonrenewable sources are still forecast to supply 88 percent of our primary energy consumption by 2030 (figure 17.1).
The sheer scale of our dependency on nonrenewable, energy-dense ?fossilized sunshine? is often lost on those who believe that renewable energy sources can supplant hydrocarbons at anything like today?s level of energy consumption. Thus it is prudent to examine the prognosis for fossil fuels within North America, as they will make up the bulk of our energy consumption for many decades to come.
The North American fossil-fuel story is largely driven by consumption in the United States, the biggest user of energy in the world and, until China overtook it in 2006, the biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Also critical to this story is the vulnerability of the U.S. economy given its addiction to hydrocarbons. It is highly dependent on imported oil and may soon be dependent on imported natural gas. For these reasons, this chapter will focus primarily on the future availability and vulnerability of supplies of hydrocarbons to the United States, and will look in detail at oil, natural gas, and coal.
From the Post Carbon Institute/Watershed Media Book:
The Post Carbon Reader
Managing the 21st Century?s Sustainability Crises
Edited by Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch
Overview
Table of Contents
Content available for download
Order the book
about The Post Carbon Reader
How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world?s most provocative thinkers on the key issues shaping our new century, from renewable energy and urban agriculture to social justice and community resilience. This insightful collection takes a hard-nosed look at the interconnected threats of our global sustainability quandary and presents some of the most promising responses.
Contributors to The Post Carbon Reader are some of the world's leading sustainability thinkers, including Bill McKibben, Richard Heinberg, Stephanie Mills, David Orr, Wes Jackson, Erika Allen, Gloria Flora, and dozens more.
Published by Watershed Media, October 2010
552 pages, 6 x 9?, 4 b/w photographs, 26 line illustrations
$21.95 paper 978-0-9709500-6-2
�
Like this report?
Keep the information flowing: Donate to Post Carbon Institute
Stay connected: Receive our monthly e-newsletter
Reposting: See our reposting policy
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator
North America is at the top of the food chain when it comes to consuming energy: Its inhabitants have nearly four times the average global per capita energy consumption.
Although Mexicans consume less than the global average, Americans consume 4.5 times and Canadians nearly 6 times as much. In absolute numbers, we in North America consume one-quarter of the world?s primary energy production, even though we make up less than 7 percent of the world?s population.
North America?s massive energy diet is largely made up of hydrocarbons?a full 83 percent comes from oil, gas, and coal, and if we include nuclear energy, 91 percent comes from nonrenewable fuel sources. In 2008, North America consumed 27 percent of the world?s oil production, 25 percent of natural gas production, and 18 percent of coal production. Most of the rest of our energy consumption was derived from nuclear power and large hydropower, with renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind, photovoltaics, and geothermal aking up less than 2 percent of our total. Moreover, despite a several-fold growth in non-hydropower renewable energy sources, nonrenewable sources are still forecast to supply 88 percent of our primary energy consumption by 2030 (figure 17.1).
The sheer scale of our dependency on nonrenewable, energy-dense ?fossilized sunshine? is often lost on those who believe that renewable energy sources can supplant hydrocarbons at anything like today?s level of energy consumption. Thus it is prudent to examine the prognosis for fossil fuels within North America, as they will make up the bulk of our energy consumption for many decades to come.
The North American fossil-fuel story is largely driven by consumption in the United States, the biggest user of energy in the world and, until China overtook it in 2006, the biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Also critical to this story is the vulnerability of the U.S. economy given its addiction to hydrocarbons. It is highly dependent on imported oil and may soon be dependent on imported natural gas. For these reasons, this chapter will focus primarily on the future availability and vulnerability of supplies of hydrocarbons to the United States, and will look in detail at oil, natural gas, and coal.
From the Post Carbon Institute/Watershed Media Book:
The Post Carbon Reader
Managing the 21st Century?s Sustainability Crises
Edited by Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch
Overview
Table of Contents
Content available for download
Order the book
about The Post Carbon Reader
How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world?s most provocative thinkers on the key issues shaping our new century, from renewable energy and urban agriculture to social justice and community resilience. This insightful collection takes a hard-nosed look at the interconnected threats of our global sustainability quandary and presents some of the most promising responses.
Contributors to The Post Carbon Reader are some of the world's leading sustainability thinkers, including Bill McKibben, Richard Heinberg, Stephanie Mills, David Orr, Wes Jackson, Erika Allen, Gloria Flora, and dozens more.
Published by Watershed Media, October 2010
552 pages, 6 x 9?, 4 b/w photographs, 26 line illustrations
$21.95 paper 978-0-9709500-6-2
�
Like this report?
Keep the information flowing: Donate to Post Carbon Institute
Stay connected: Receive our monthly e-newsletter
Reposting: See our reposting policy
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator
Sunday, January 30, 2011
eIQ Energy?s Parallel Solar Technology Chosen For 1.8 Megawatt Solar Power Install in Murrieta, CA
eIQ Energys Parallel Solar Technology Chosen For 1.8 Megawatt Solar Power Install in Murrieta, CA
Visit http://www.eiqenergy.com for further information
Six-figure up-front savings achieved by shifting array wiring away from traditional series-wired string architecture
Submitted on 01/25/11, 10:54 AM
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 25, 2010 eIQ Energys Parallel Solar technology has been selected for a new 1.8 megawatt solar power installation at a Bee Safe Storage facility in Murrieta, Calif., creating significant up-front cost savings and ongoing energy harvest benefits. Installation will be completed by EcoOneEnergy of Escondido, Calif., using crystalline solar modules driving multiple inverters. An array of this size requires thousands of solar modules. Traditionally, they would have been connected in series-wired strings (each typically containing a dozen or two modules), with each string being wired to a combiner box and then routed to an inverter. By opting instead for the parallel wiring approach enabled by eIQ Energys vBoost DC-to-DC voltage optimizer, the need for cabling, combiner boxes, and other hardware is sharply reduced as is the amount of labor needed during installation. Hardware savings alone on the Bee Safe Storage project will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than offsetting the cost of the eIQ Energy vBoost, which are installed on each panel or group of panels. Over the lifetime of the installation, eIQ Energys Parallel Solar technology will also provide distributed MPPT, precision panel-level monitoring of performance, and Web-based access to operational data. The vBoost also eliminates power-sapping interactions between panels on the same string that have different output levels due to shading, soiling, aging, or other issues. The Parallel Solar approach was an obvious choice for this installation, said Eugene Wilkie, CEO of EcoOneEnergy. It freed up our designers to focus on what would provide the best power output, rather than having to worry about string architecture and voltage management. Were also saving a substantial amount on combiner boxes, cable and conduit, and the snap-together connection on the vBoost modules are a tremendous time-saver. As we approach the first anniversary of vBoosts entry into the market, were seeing Parallel Solar gaining increasing traction in the marketplace, noted eIQ Energy CEO Oliver Janssen. The Bee Safe Storage project is our largest to date, and an indicator of the interest were seeing in commercial-scale installations where the cost savings really add up. In addition to generating electricity, the trellis installation at Bee Safe Storage in Murrieta will provide valuable shading for a vehicle storage area located at the storage facility, stated Mike Delaney, CEO of Bee Safe Storage. About eIQ Energy eIQ Energy, Inc. uses unique power management technology to make solar energy more effective and affordable. The companys Parallel Solar technology, built around the vBoost converter module, reduces overall system costs and enables a true parallel architecture, benefiting system designers, installers and operators. eIQ Energy was founded in 2007 with the principal goal of improving the performance and the return on investment for clean energy sources such as photovoltaic systems. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., eIQ Energys executive team combines sophisticated knowledge of power supply design, semiconductors and energy management with broad entrepreneurial skills. For more information, please visit www.eiqenergy.com About EcoOneEnergy EcoOneEnergy, LLC is a renewable energy systems developer and integrator specialist focused on renewable energy projects (PV solar and wind) for power generation and the reduction of energy consumption in the industrial, commercial and educational markets. The company's target markets are the Southwest United States and Mexico. Projects range in size from commercial roof mount systems to utility size PV solar ground mount and wind farm systems, anywhere from 1MW to 1GW in size.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator
Abu Dhabi: Rise of a Renewable Energy Titan?
Its foray into this new venture has just started, and already its leaders are discovering that making the transition from a fossil-fuel based economy isn?t easy, given the resources they are pursuing aren?t simply buried underneath their soil.
Four years after Abu Dhabi started down this path, its officials have had to redraw their master plan for the brand new Masdar City, whose build out has been significantly delayed. They have scrapped a plan to build a solar panel factory in Abu Dhabi. They also raised a second venture capital fund and saw opportunities in countries with clearer national renewable energy policy, such as China.
Abu Dhabi?s ambition has received at least good publicity if not admiration from political leaders and companies that see good business opportunities. It also has no shortage of skeptics who question whether the emirate is setting unrealistic goals and lacks the ability to reach them.
Emirate officials they have modified their ambitions to reflect the lessons they?ve learned. These changes will still enable them to reach their broader goals of becoming a cleantech hub and a seller of renewable energy.
?It?s not fair to say what was decided in 2006 will be held forever,? said Dale Rollins, chief operating officer of Masdar, the company created to oversee Abu Dhabi?s transition into renewable energy.
?Given the technology and market, the (initial plan) seemed like a good idea. The technology has moved on and the market has moved on. We say we can do it better and we can do it in less expensive ways,? said Rollins at a press conference at the World Future Energy Summit hosted by the Abu Dhabi government last week.
Taking On a New Role
Abu Dhabi, which is one of the seven emirates and the richest in oil reserves, publicly announced its foray into renewable energy and cleantech in general in 2006. It called the big plan the Masdar Initiative. The company to oversee the effort, Masdar, is made up of five businesses that include a power company, Masdar City, a research institute, an investment company and a business to develop carbon capture and sequestration projects.
The emirate has taken stakes in a series of renewable energy generation projects abroad, including the London Array offshore wind project in the United Kingdom, solar thermal power plants in Spain, and others in places such as Egypt and the Seychelles. Its first $250 million cleantech venture capital fund put money mostly in American companies, such as Solyndra and HeliVolt. Masdar and its partners have spent the fund and saw two exits for its portfolio companies: an initial public offering of HaloSource (water purifying and anti-microbial coating) and the sale of SiC Processing (recycling waste materials from silicon wafer manufacturing).
It raised a second, $290 million fund by early 2010, and plans to seek more investment opportunities in Asia. The fund has put $25 million into Chinese wind power developer, UPC Renewables China.
In 2008, Masdar announced it would inject $600 million to start Masdar PV and build a factory in Germany and then one in Abu Dhabi to make amorphous silicon thin films. Masdar planned to eventually put in roughly $2 billion to create a thin film manufacturing empire.
Masdar PV has struggled to grow in a global market that is dominated by companies with far larger fleets of factories. Masdar PV bought production equipment from Applied Materials, which decided to stop selling them last year. The seemingly sudden departure of not only its chief executive but also the chief operating officer last May raised questions about the health of its operation. Last September, Masdar PV said its solar panels could achieve 7.4 percent efficiency, which falls far behind other types of thin film panels (more than 10 percent) as well as the market-dominating crystalline silicon panels (typically around 16 percent).
Masdar PV, which built its first factory in Germany, had planned to build a factory in Abu Dhabi to supply panels to the Middle East. Company CEO Frank Wouters told Abu Dhabi?s newspaper, The National, earlier this month that they had abandoned the plan to build a factory in Abu Dhabi because of a lack of local demand for its product.
Abu Dhabi also is developing renewable energy projects on its home turf, where demand for energy is rising. Construction of a $600 million, 100-MW solar thermal power plant in Abu Dhabi began in the third quarter of last year and is set for completion in late 2012. The plant will use technology from Abengoa Solar, which uses parabolic mirrors to concentrate the sunlight onto fluid-filled tubes to produce steam, which then drives turbines to produce electricity.
The project, called Sham 1, is the first full-scale renewable energy plant for the emirate, said Mohamed Al Zaabi, general manager of Sham 1, during an interview. There is a 10-MW photovoltaic project built in 2009, but that was more of an effort to see how solar panels would fare in the hot and dusty desert environment. Masdar is planning to solicit bids for the 100-MW photovoltaic project, to be located in Abu Dhabi, later this year, Al Zaabi said.
Financing for Sham 1 is set to close in March this year, Al Zaabi said. Masdar is negotiating with 10 banks, most of them in Europe, to get the funds, added Al Zaabi, who declined to disclose their names.
Abu Dhabi wants 7 percent of its electricity supply to come from renewable sources by 2020, and most of that will come from solar. The plan is to install 1,500 MW of centralized and distributed solar energy generation by then, Al Zaabi said.
The emirate is developing a 30-MW wind energy project at home, but wind won?t play a key source as it had initially anticipated. It also looked into geothermal energy and drilled two, 2.5-kilometer test wells. The results showed its underground reservoirs aren?t hot enough to generate the steam necessary for driving turbines. But the resource could be enough to run heat exchangers to run air conditioning and pipe the cold air throughout homes and offices in a district-wide network, said Afshin Afshari, head of energy management for Masdar City, during a media?s tour of Masdar City grounds.
Cooling technologies are hot in the emirate, which faces summer temperatures around 47 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit). A pilot project that started last summer has been testing two methods of generating thermal energy to cool buildings. Engineered by Masdar City folks, the project uses two sets of mirrors to heat water to 180 degrees Celsius and send it to a double-effect absorption chiller to generate cool air for an office building on Masdar City site. One set of mirrors are Sopogy?s metal parabolic trough collectors. Mirroxx provided the second set, which are linear Fresnel collectors.
Re-Architecting the Cleantech Metropolis
The planning and construction of Masdar City is perhaps the most high-profiled undertaking by Abu Dhabi. Its planners originally pegged its cost at $22 billion and hoped to complete it by 2016 (construction started in 2008). They had imagined a city powered only by renewable energy generated within city limits and a network of mass transit. People would park their cars in garages at the city?s perimeter and walk or ride the public transport.
Abu Dhabi leaders want to use Masdar City to attract international investments. The city would house hundreds of companies, a research institute and 40,000 residents, as well as accommodating 50,000 commuters. Abu Dhabi has set aside about 6 square kilometers near its international airport for the city.
In short, Masdar City will be carbon neutral, city planners said.
City planners have changed the master plan significantly since 2006. The revised plan, announced last year and partly driven by the global economic downturn, no longer counts onsite generation as the only source of power. One of the original ideas was to paper the commercial and residential rooftops with solar panels. But doing so is more expensive than building a centralized solar power plant, Ahmed Baghoum, associate director of Masdar City, told me. Locating centralized power plants within the city isn?t critical, apparently, because Masdar City isn?t meant to be self-contained by operating its own electric grid. Instead, electricity generated within the city will feed into the national electric grid anyway.
Abu Dhabi?s goal to get 7 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 also forced changes in the city?s power generation plan. Political leaders set the goal a few years after they started planning for Masdar City, and that prompted an emirate-wide evaluation at where to locate renewable power plants.
The 10-MW photovoltaic plant that came online sits on Masdar City land, and is supplying electricity for use at construction sites within the city and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a campus that opened last September and became the first set of permanent buildings to rise from within the city boundaries. The institute, which is undergoing expansion, features 1 MW of solar panels on its roofs. That system will provide 30-35 percent of the institute?s current needs.
The institute is tasked with developing clean technologies for use within the city and for selling them in the global market. In fact, Masdar officials see the city as a test bed for new technologies.
?Masdar City is the glue that integrates the R&D, energy production, and commercialization efforts; it?s where everything gets tested and deployed,? Baghoum said.
The institute already is doing that. The graduate school, which includes student housing, is outfitted with sensors and software to monitor and measure its energy consumption frequently, including electricity and water, and to restrict the use of air conditioning. School officials will know if they and students don?t meet the goal of using at least 50 percent less energy than comparable buildings in rest of Abu Dhabi. And they will have to do modify their behavior to meet the goal. This type of demand-response system is being reviewed and tested in parts of the United States.
Another significant change to the master plan involves public transit. City planners initially were enamored with what?s called ?Personal Rapid Transit,? which would be a network of driverless electric pods that move along tracks of magnets embedded in the ground. They put in a pilot route at the institute that shuttles campus denizens and visitors for 800 meters between a parking lot and the school.
The plan was to build PRT network would run under an elevated street level. Instead of digging an underground network, the PRT would run above ground. On top of the PRT network would be a platform built throughout the city to render them the street level for pedestrians to move about.
The idea to re-define the street levels came because of the high water table and the salty ground water in the region, said Inaki Azaldegui, development manager for Masdar City. You can hit the water table at 1 meter below ground, and the water?s high salinity is a corrosive force to reckon with, he added.
But building a new street level citywide is expensive, and so is the PRT network. The emergence of electric vehicles also made Masdar officials wonder whether electric rides, which are far less polluting than gasoline cars, might not be an equally clean if not a more convenient means of transportation within the city. Would Masdar residents and office workers want to walk after they?ve gone shopping and need to carry bags of goods?
Electric taxis might end up plying the streets, Azaldegui said.
?Initially we were thinking more vertical for the pedestrians, transportation and utility. Now we rather have pedestrians and vehicles on the same level,? Baghoum said. ?We are looking at convenience for the residents and visitors.?
The idea of running a light rail service remains intact. The rail service also will connect Masdar to other communities.
The overhaul of the master plan will allow the government to save about 15 percent of the original $22 billion cost estimate, Baghoum said. The government has already invested a few ?billions of dollars? into developing the new city so far, said Dale Rollins, chief operating officer of Masdar.
The new plan also sets new deadlines. Instead of completing the entire Masdar City by 2016, which seemed overly ambitious to begin with, city officials plan to build the first phase by 2015 and complete the entire project no earlier than 2020 (and possibly by 2025).
Phase 1 will build out the Masdar Institute and add office and residential communities. Siemens, which will provide building energy management and power grid products to Masdar City, has reserved an office complex next to the institute, Azaldegui said. Headquarters for Masdar the company and the International Renewable Energy Agency also will materialize. A ?Swiss Village? for companies from Switzerland, as well as a complex for South Korean companies might start to take shape during phase 1, he added. This first phase will accommodate 7,000 residents and 12,000 commuters, Baghoum said.
Whether the carbon-neutral city will materialize as planned of course remains to be seen. Abu Dhabi leaders appear committed to spending the money and moving ahead with plans not just involving the new city but also investments in renewable energy technologies and generation worldwide. And what drives them is the recognition that their fossil fuel reserves won?t last forever.
Bader Al Lamki, a senior project manager of Masdar working on carbon capture and sequestration projects sees Masdar as a place for future generations.�?We want to be a major energy supplier for decades to come,? he said.
Disclosure: The Abu Dhabi government paid for my travel and lodging for the 2011 Future World Energy Summit.
Powered By WizardRSSHome Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity
Four years after Abu Dhabi started down this path, its officials have had to redraw their master plan for the brand new Masdar City, whose build out has been significantly delayed. They have scrapped a plan to build a solar panel factory in Abu Dhabi. They also raised a second venture capital fund and saw opportunities in countries with clearer national renewable energy policy, such as China.
Abu Dhabi?s ambition has received at least good publicity if not admiration from political leaders and companies that see good business opportunities. It also has no shortage of skeptics who question whether the emirate is setting unrealistic goals and lacks the ability to reach them.
Emirate officials they have modified their ambitions to reflect the lessons they?ve learned. These changes will still enable them to reach their broader goals of becoming a cleantech hub and a seller of renewable energy.
?It?s not fair to say what was decided in 2006 will be held forever,? said Dale Rollins, chief operating officer of Masdar, the company created to oversee Abu Dhabi?s transition into renewable energy.
?Given the technology and market, the (initial plan) seemed like a good idea. The technology has moved on and the market has moved on. We say we can do it better and we can do it in less expensive ways,? said Rollins at a press conference at the World Future Energy Summit hosted by the Abu Dhabi government last week.
Taking On a New Role
Abu Dhabi, which is one of the seven emirates and the richest in oil reserves, publicly announced its foray into renewable energy and cleantech in general in 2006. It called the big plan the Masdar Initiative. The company to oversee the effort, Masdar, is made up of five businesses that include a power company, Masdar City, a research institute, an investment company and a business to develop carbon capture and sequestration projects.
The emirate has taken stakes in a series of renewable energy generation projects abroad, including the London Array offshore wind project in the United Kingdom, solar thermal power plants in Spain, and others in places such as Egypt and the Seychelles. Its first $250 million cleantech venture capital fund put money mostly in American companies, such as Solyndra and HeliVolt. Masdar and its partners have spent the fund and saw two exits for its portfolio companies: an initial public offering of HaloSource (water purifying and anti-microbial coating) and the sale of SiC Processing (recycling waste materials from silicon wafer manufacturing).
It raised a second, $290 million fund by early 2010, and plans to seek more investment opportunities in Asia. The fund has put $25 million into Chinese wind power developer, UPC Renewables China.
In 2008, Masdar announced it would inject $600 million to start Masdar PV and build a factory in Germany and then one in Abu Dhabi to make amorphous silicon thin films. Masdar planned to eventually put in roughly $2 billion to create a thin film manufacturing empire.
Masdar PV has struggled to grow in a global market that is dominated by companies with far larger fleets of factories. Masdar PV bought production equipment from Applied Materials, which decided to stop selling them last year. The seemingly sudden departure of not only its chief executive but also the chief operating officer last May raised questions about the health of its operation. Last September, Masdar PV said its solar panels could achieve 7.4 percent efficiency, which falls far behind other types of thin film panels (more than 10 percent) as well as the market-dominating crystalline silicon panels (typically around 16 percent).
Masdar PV, which built its first factory in Germany, had planned to build a factory in Abu Dhabi to supply panels to the Middle East. Company CEO Frank Wouters told Abu Dhabi?s newspaper, The National, earlier this month that they had abandoned the plan to build a factory in Abu Dhabi because of a lack of local demand for its product.
Abu Dhabi also is developing renewable energy projects on its home turf, where demand for energy is rising. Construction of a $600 million, 100-MW solar thermal power plant in Abu Dhabi began in the third quarter of last year and is set for completion in late 2012. The plant will use technology from Abengoa Solar, which uses parabolic mirrors to concentrate the sunlight onto fluid-filled tubes to produce steam, which then drives turbines to produce electricity.
The project, called Sham 1, is the first full-scale renewable energy plant for the emirate, said Mohamed Al Zaabi, general manager of Sham 1, during an interview. There is a 10-MW photovoltaic project built in 2009, but that was more of an effort to see how solar panels would fare in the hot and dusty desert environment. Masdar is planning to solicit bids for the 100-MW photovoltaic project, to be located in Abu Dhabi, later this year, Al Zaabi said.
Financing for Sham 1 is set to close in March this year, Al Zaabi said. Masdar is negotiating with 10 banks, most of them in Europe, to get the funds, added Al Zaabi, who declined to disclose their names.
Abu Dhabi wants 7 percent of its electricity supply to come from renewable sources by 2020, and most of that will come from solar. The plan is to install 1,500 MW of centralized and distributed solar energy generation by then, Al Zaabi said.
The emirate is developing a 30-MW wind energy project at home, but wind won?t play a key source as it had initially anticipated. It also looked into geothermal energy and drilled two, 2.5-kilometer test wells. The results showed its underground reservoirs aren?t hot enough to generate the steam necessary for driving turbines. But the resource could be enough to run heat exchangers to run air conditioning and pipe the cold air throughout homes and offices in a district-wide network, said Afshin Afshari, head of energy management for Masdar City, during a media?s tour of Masdar City grounds.
Cooling technologies are hot in the emirate, which faces summer temperatures around 47 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit). A pilot project that started last summer has been testing two methods of generating thermal energy to cool buildings. Engineered by Masdar City folks, the project uses two sets of mirrors to heat water to 180 degrees Celsius and send it to a double-effect absorption chiller to generate cool air for an office building on Masdar City site. One set of mirrors are Sopogy?s metal parabolic trough collectors. Mirroxx provided the second set, which are linear Fresnel collectors.
Re-Architecting the Cleantech Metropolis
The planning and construction of Masdar City is perhaps the most high-profiled undertaking by Abu Dhabi. Its planners originally pegged its cost at $22 billion and hoped to complete it by 2016 (construction started in 2008). They had imagined a city powered only by renewable energy generated within city limits and a network of mass transit. People would park their cars in garages at the city?s perimeter and walk or ride the public transport.
Abu Dhabi leaders want to use Masdar City to attract international investments. The city would house hundreds of companies, a research institute and 40,000 residents, as well as accommodating 50,000 commuters. Abu Dhabi has set aside about 6 square kilometers near its international airport for the city.
In short, Masdar City will be carbon neutral, city planners said.
City planners have changed the master plan significantly since 2006. The revised plan, announced last year and partly driven by the global economic downturn, no longer counts onsite generation as the only source of power. One of the original ideas was to paper the commercial and residential rooftops with solar panels. But doing so is more expensive than building a centralized solar power plant, Ahmed Baghoum, associate director of Masdar City, told me. Locating centralized power plants within the city isn?t critical, apparently, because Masdar City isn?t meant to be self-contained by operating its own electric grid. Instead, electricity generated within the city will feed into the national electric grid anyway.
Abu Dhabi?s goal to get 7 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 also forced changes in the city?s power generation plan. Political leaders set the goal a few years after they started planning for Masdar City, and that prompted an emirate-wide evaluation at where to locate renewable power plants.
The 10-MW photovoltaic plant that came online sits on Masdar City land, and is supplying electricity for use at construction sites within the city and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a campus that opened last September and became the first set of permanent buildings to rise from within the city boundaries. The institute, which is undergoing expansion, features 1 MW of solar panels on its roofs. That system will provide 30-35 percent of the institute?s current needs.
The institute is tasked with developing clean technologies for use within the city and for selling them in the global market. In fact, Masdar officials see the city as a test bed for new technologies.
?Masdar City is the glue that integrates the R&D, energy production, and commercialization efforts; it?s where everything gets tested and deployed,? Baghoum said.
The institute already is doing that. The graduate school, which includes student housing, is outfitted with sensors and software to monitor and measure its energy consumption frequently, including electricity and water, and to restrict the use of air conditioning. School officials will know if they and students don?t meet the goal of using at least 50 percent less energy than comparable buildings in rest of Abu Dhabi. And they will have to do modify their behavior to meet the goal. This type of demand-response system is being reviewed and tested in parts of the United States.
Another significant change to the master plan involves public transit. City planners initially were enamored with what?s called ?Personal Rapid Transit,? which would be a network of driverless electric pods that move along tracks of magnets embedded in the ground. They put in a pilot route at the institute that shuttles campus denizens and visitors for 800 meters between a parking lot and the school.
The plan was to build PRT network would run under an elevated street level. Instead of digging an underground network, the PRT would run above ground. On top of the PRT network would be a platform built throughout the city to render them the street level for pedestrians to move about.
The idea to re-define the street levels came because of the high water table and the salty ground water in the region, said Inaki Azaldegui, development manager for Masdar City. You can hit the water table at 1 meter below ground, and the water?s high salinity is a corrosive force to reckon with, he added.
But building a new street level citywide is expensive, and so is the PRT network. The emergence of electric vehicles also made Masdar officials wonder whether electric rides, which are far less polluting than gasoline cars, might not be an equally clean if not a more convenient means of transportation within the city. Would Masdar residents and office workers want to walk after they?ve gone shopping and need to carry bags of goods?
Electric taxis might end up plying the streets, Azaldegui said.
?Initially we were thinking more vertical for the pedestrians, transportation and utility. Now we rather have pedestrians and vehicles on the same level,? Baghoum said. ?We are looking at convenience for the residents and visitors.?
The idea of running a light rail service remains intact. The rail service also will connect Masdar to other communities.
The overhaul of the master plan will allow the government to save about 15 percent of the original $22 billion cost estimate, Baghoum said. The government has already invested a few ?billions of dollars? into developing the new city so far, said Dale Rollins, chief operating officer of Masdar.
The new plan also sets new deadlines. Instead of completing the entire Masdar City by 2016, which seemed overly ambitious to begin with, city officials plan to build the first phase by 2015 and complete the entire project no earlier than 2020 (and possibly by 2025).
Phase 1 will build out the Masdar Institute and add office and residential communities. Siemens, which will provide building energy management and power grid products to Masdar City, has reserved an office complex next to the institute, Azaldegui said. Headquarters for Masdar the company and the International Renewable Energy Agency also will materialize. A ?Swiss Village? for companies from Switzerland, as well as a complex for South Korean companies might start to take shape during phase 1, he added. This first phase will accommodate 7,000 residents and 12,000 commuters, Baghoum said.
Whether the carbon-neutral city will materialize as planned of course remains to be seen. Abu Dhabi leaders appear committed to spending the money and moving ahead with plans not just involving the new city but also investments in renewable energy technologies and generation worldwide. And what drives them is the recognition that their fossil fuel reserves won?t last forever.
Bader Al Lamki, a senior project manager of Masdar working on carbon capture and sequestration projects sees Masdar as a place for future generations.�?We want to be a major energy supplier for decades to come,? he said.
Disclosure: The Abu Dhabi government paid for my travel and lodging for the 2011 Future World Energy Summit.
Powered By WizardRSSHome Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity
FTA Boosts Seven Transit Projects with $182.4 Million
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
January 19, 2011
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced on December 27 that it is advancing a total of $182.4 million in "new starts" funding for seven transit projects already under construction in New York, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Northern Virginia. The grants being awarded will not increase the federal government's overall share in the projects. Rather, a portion of the federal share for each project is being paid earlier than expected because of unallocated funds in FTA's Fiscal Year 2010 budget for new construction.
The projects cover mass transit, such as light rail and commuter rail, including the 21-mile Dallas?Northwest/Southeast Light Rail extension, which opened December 3, 2010 and is to carry nearly 46,000 weekday riders by 2025. Another, the 3.5-mile New York?Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) East Side Access project, will use an existing rail tunnel under the East River to increase LIRR tunnel capacity across the East River and significantly relieve over-crowded conditions throughout the LIRR network, carrying more than 27,000 new transit riders by 2030. The project will cost a total of $8.4 billion, with a federal New Starts share of $2.6 billion. See the FTA press release and the list of projects.
Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Generator Cheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators
January 19, 2011
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced on December 27 that it is advancing a total of $182.4 million in "new starts" funding for seven transit projects already under construction in New York, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Northern Virginia. The grants being awarded will not increase the federal government's overall share in the projects. Rather, a portion of the federal share for each project is being paid earlier than expected because of unallocated funds in FTA's Fiscal Year 2010 budget for new construction.
The projects cover mass transit, such as light rail and commuter rail, including the 21-mile Dallas?Northwest/Southeast Light Rail extension, which opened December 3, 2010 and is to carry nearly 46,000 weekday riders by 2025. Another, the 3.5-mile New York?Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) East Side Access project, will use an existing rail tunnel under the East River to increase LIRR tunnel capacity across the East River and significantly relieve over-crowded conditions throughout the LIRR network, carrying more than 27,000 new transit riders by 2030. The project will cost a total of $8.4 billion, with a federal New Starts share of $2.6 billion. See the FTA press release and the list of projects.
Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Generator Cheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators
Fits and Starts: Ontario's Green Energy Growth
Since the launch of the FIT program in October 2009, several big wind and solar manufacturers have announced plans to set up or expand their operations in the province to capitalize on growing demand for Ontario-made products. Global manufacturer Canadian Solar is building a new facility in the town of Guelph that will be capable of manufacturing 200 megawatts of modules a year and create around 500 jobs. Some sixty miles down the road, Siemens is establishing Canada?s first wind turbine blade factory in Tillonsburg, representing a $20 million dollar investment and the creation of 300 jobs. South Korea?s Samsung is, of course, the largest foreign investor in the market to date with its $7 billion contract from the Ontario government to develop the province?s wind and solar industries.
Through the FIT program, Ontario is becoming a hot bed of green energy development, manufacturing and job creation. In December, Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid said he?d recently announced 1,700 clean energy jobs across the province.
The solar business in particular is seeing a surge in activity with new local content rules driving partnerships and investment. �Starting this year, solar projects must meet a 60% domestic content requirement. Suppliers and manufacturers have responded by developing products and alliances to allow developers to meet the steep local content threshold. SunEdison, for instance, has begun deploying a locally-produced racking system for solar rooftop installations across the region. The company is also manufacturing fully-bankable solar PV panels in Newmarket, Ontario and has doubled production since December due to high demand.
According to data from Toronto-based ClearSky Advisors, prior to FIT?s launch, there were three solar manufacturers in the Ontario market: 6N silicon, SolGate and SatCon. Today, there are 18 module manufacturers, three of which are manufacturing through a local contract manufacturer and 15 inverter manufacturers, six of which are using local contractors. In addition, there are numerous racking/mounting manufacturers that have sprung up since the program?s debut.
Developments on the wind side are slower with many OEMs and suppliers looking for more certainty about the long-term viability of the program before investing. Along with Siemens, Vestas and GE Energy are very active in the region. In terms of new manufacturing facilities, India?s Suzlon Wind Energy is said to be eyeing the province as a possible venue but nothing definitive has been announced. Current wind manufacturing capacity in Ontario will not allow for developers to meet the increased local content requirement of 50% which kicks in next year. So the market needs more OEMs to set up and form partnerships with local manufacturers and service providers.
The big elephant in the room for Ontario?s green energy industries is the upcoming provincial election set for next October. The opposition Conservative party is currently leading in polls and has been making negative comments in the press about the future of the FIT program, which was passed by the current Liberal government. Ontario taxpayers are being subjected to diametrically opposed narratives in the media about the potential impact FIT will have on the provincial economy with critics blaming the program for energy rate hikes while supporters point to job creation and investment. Experts say some of the big players are waiting to see what happens next fall before making a sizable investment in the market.
The other big question is grid capacity. Developers and manufacturers are very concerned about the timing and extent of the province?s transmission expansion plans to accommodate renewables. There are over 250 renewable projects awaiting approval from the OPA which was supposed to begin a testing process last August. The Economic Connection Test (ECT) will determine which grid expansion plans will go forward allowing projects to connect. The timing for this test remains uncertain and with expansion projects requiring long lead times, developers are wondering when or if their projects will get a greenlight.
Despite this uncertainty, Ontario?s green energy industry is continuing to grow and there are plenty of opportunities for wind and solar manufacturers and service providers to play a role in building the local supply chains. The next few months are critical as FIT projects seek financing, transmission expansion plans become clearer and supplier arrangements are finalized. While the future of FIT will not be entirely certain until after the election, the future looks bright for Ontario?s renewable energy industries.
Adrienne Baker is a director of Canadian Clean Energy Conferences and produces the Ontario Feed-in Tariff Supply Chain Forum which takes place April 19-20 in Toronto.�
Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy
Through the FIT program, Ontario is becoming a hot bed of green energy development, manufacturing and job creation. In December, Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid said he?d recently announced 1,700 clean energy jobs across the province.
The solar business in particular is seeing a surge in activity with new local content rules driving partnerships and investment. �Starting this year, solar projects must meet a 60% domestic content requirement. Suppliers and manufacturers have responded by developing products and alliances to allow developers to meet the steep local content threshold. SunEdison, for instance, has begun deploying a locally-produced racking system for solar rooftop installations across the region. The company is also manufacturing fully-bankable solar PV panels in Newmarket, Ontario and has doubled production since December due to high demand.
According to data from Toronto-based ClearSky Advisors, prior to FIT?s launch, there were three solar manufacturers in the Ontario market: 6N silicon, SolGate and SatCon. Today, there are 18 module manufacturers, three of which are manufacturing through a local contract manufacturer and 15 inverter manufacturers, six of which are using local contractors. In addition, there are numerous racking/mounting manufacturers that have sprung up since the program?s debut.
Developments on the wind side are slower with many OEMs and suppliers looking for more certainty about the long-term viability of the program before investing. Along with Siemens, Vestas and GE Energy are very active in the region. In terms of new manufacturing facilities, India?s Suzlon Wind Energy is said to be eyeing the province as a possible venue but nothing definitive has been announced. Current wind manufacturing capacity in Ontario will not allow for developers to meet the increased local content requirement of 50% which kicks in next year. So the market needs more OEMs to set up and form partnerships with local manufacturers and service providers.
The big elephant in the room for Ontario?s green energy industries is the upcoming provincial election set for next October. The opposition Conservative party is currently leading in polls and has been making negative comments in the press about the future of the FIT program, which was passed by the current Liberal government. Ontario taxpayers are being subjected to diametrically opposed narratives in the media about the potential impact FIT will have on the provincial economy with critics blaming the program for energy rate hikes while supporters point to job creation and investment. Experts say some of the big players are waiting to see what happens next fall before making a sizable investment in the market.
The other big question is grid capacity. Developers and manufacturers are very concerned about the timing and extent of the province?s transmission expansion plans to accommodate renewables. There are over 250 renewable projects awaiting approval from the OPA which was supposed to begin a testing process last August. The Economic Connection Test (ECT) will determine which grid expansion plans will go forward allowing projects to connect. The timing for this test remains uncertain and with expansion projects requiring long lead times, developers are wondering when or if their projects will get a greenlight.
Despite this uncertainty, Ontario?s green energy industry is continuing to grow and there are plenty of opportunities for wind and solar manufacturers and service providers to play a role in building the local supply chains. The next few months are critical as FIT projects seek financing, transmission expansion plans become clearer and supplier arrangements are finalized. While the future of FIT will not be entirely certain until after the election, the future looks bright for Ontario?s renewable energy industries.
Adrienne Baker is a director of Canadian Clean Energy Conferences and produces the Ontario Feed-in Tariff Supply Chain Forum which takes place April 19-20 in Toronto.�
Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy
Domestic Solar Power Systems - What's In It For Me?
[WizardRSS: unable to retrieve full-text content]Solar power has been with us for many years now, from the humble solar powered calculator through to the SEGS CSP installation in California's Mojave Desert (capable of producing an incredible 354 MW of power) - it is used to power all manner of devices and supplement grid supply in many areas. Although these massive solar power stations are incredibly interesting and capable of producing vast quantities of electricity (and the solar powered calculator is rather useful), the single most potentially life....Powered By WizardRSSGreen Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
Cheap Electricity
Free Energy Generator
Magnetic Energy Generator
Valentin Software delivers a revolutionary new solar design and sales tool for residential and commercial PV installers.
PV*SOL� basic was created to keep things fast and easy, in order to help solar contractors save time and money, while simplifying the decision process for prospective buyers. It has a intuitive, straightforward, easy-to-use user interface. The program, which was developed specifically for the US market, incorporates leading edge technology combined with Valentin Software?s 20 plus years of experience developing industry leading solar sales, design and simulation tools that are recognized worldwide for their accuracy and ease-of-use.
?Two of the greatest challenges facing the solar industry today are how to reduce system prices and how to increase the mass market adoption of solar?, stated Paul DeKleermaeker, Valentin Software?s North American General Manager. ?We developed this tool to help address these needs while also offering contractors a resource to increase their productivity.? Contractors will save time traditionally spent on tracking solar incentives, electricity rates, product specifications and climate data, while also saving time on employee training. Additionally, PV*SOL� basic can either eliminate the need to perform site visits or reduce their time and increase their safety.
PV*SOL� basic includes an impressive new integrated photo dimensioning tool called Photo Plan�. Using a digital photo of the house, Photo Plan can measure the roof's dimensions, obstructions and pitch, layout the array, and then photo-realistically place the array onto the photograph. Thus allowing customers to peek into the future and see how the proposed PV system will look on their own roof.
PV*SOL� basic lets users to quickly and accurately design and simulate grid connected PV systems containing up to 1,000 PV modules. The program?s graphical interface easily guides users through the design process, while performing all the complex technical calculations and simulation automatically out of user sight. The program selects the combination of modules and inverters, as well as the cable cross sections. Climate data, incentives and utility rate tariffs are determined by the project's ZIP code.�PV*SOL� basic then calculates the energy production, system performance, and system financials.
PV*SOL� basic?s component database contains detailed data on approximately 6,000 PV modules and 1,400 inverters, and climate data for over 1,000 US locations and thousands of international locations. The program and component databases are kept up to date via automatic internet updates.
�
About Valentin Software
Valentin Software has been providing solar professionals with industry leading design, simulation and sales software programs for over 20 years. The company?s powerful, yet easy-to-use, software tools are used by solar professionals in over 70 countries throughout the world for the development of residential, commercial and utility-scale projects.
Free demo versions, tutorials and detailed information on Valentin Software?s full range of programs for photovoltaic and solar thermal systems are available at www.valentin-software.com.
�
Contact
Valentin Software, IncPaul DeKleermaeker, (760) 931-5680North American General Managerpd@valentin-software.com
Powered By WizardRSSHome Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity
?Two of the greatest challenges facing the solar industry today are how to reduce system prices and how to increase the mass market adoption of solar?, stated Paul DeKleermaeker, Valentin Software?s North American General Manager. ?We developed this tool to help address these needs while also offering contractors a resource to increase their productivity.? Contractors will save time traditionally spent on tracking solar incentives, electricity rates, product specifications and climate data, while also saving time on employee training. Additionally, PV*SOL� basic can either eliminate the need to perform site visits or reduce their time and increase their safety.
PV*SOL� basic includes an impressive new integrated photo dimensioning tool called Photo Plan�. Using a digital photo of the house, Photo Plan can measure the roof's dimensions, obstructions and pitch, layout the array, and then photo-realistically place the array onto the photograph. Thus allowing customers to peek into the future and see how the proposed PV system will look on their own roof.
PV*SOL� basic lets users to quickly and accurately design and simulate grid connected PV systems containing up to 1,000 PV modules. The program?s graphical interface easily guides users through the design process, while performing all the complex technical calculations and simulation automatically out of user sight. The program selects the combination of modules and inverters, as well as the cable cross sections. Climate data, incentives and utility rate tariffs are determined by the project's ZIP code.�PV*SOL� basic then calculates the energy production, system performance, and system financials.
PV*SOL� basic?s component database contains detailed data on approximately 6,000 PV modules and 1,400 inverters, and climate data for over 1,000 US locations and thousands of international locations. The program and component databases are kept up to date via automatic internet updates.
�
About Valentin Software
Valentin Software has been providing solar professionals with industry leading design, simulation and sales software programs for over 20 years. The company?s powerful, yet easy-to-use, software tools are used by solar professionals in over 70 countries throughout the world for the development of residential, commercial and utility-scale projects.
Free demo versions, tutorials and detailed information on Valentin Software?s full range of programs for photovoltaic and solar thermal systems are available at www.valentin-software.com.
�
Contact
Valentin Software, IncPaul DeKleermaeker, (760) 931-5680North American General Managerpd@valentin-software.com
Powered By WizardRSSHome Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity
President Obama Signs Bill Extending Energy Efficiency, Renewable Provisions
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
January 05, 2011
President Obama on December 17 signed a bill that temporarily extends through 2011 various energy efficiency and renewable energy provisions, including Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provides cash assistance to energy producers in place of tax credits. Under this program, the federal government provides a cash payment in lieu of a tax credit totaling 30% of the qualifying cost of the project. The measure, passed by the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and hailed by renewable energy industry associations, extends for one year the start-of-construction deadline for projects such as wind and solar power that are eligible under Section 1603.
Other provisions extended through 2011 include a $1-per-gallon production tax credit for biodiesel as well as diesel fuel created from biomass; credit for manufacturers of energy-efficient residential homes; a 50-cent-per gallon alternative fuel tax credit; the existing per-gallon tax credits and outlay payments for ethanol; credits for U.S.-based manufacture of energy-efficient washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators; certain credit for energy-efficient improvements to existing homes; and a 30% investment tax credit for alternative vehicle refueling property. See the President's remarks upon the signing of the bill, the bill summary with energy provisions on pages 6-7, and statements on the passage by the American Wind Energy Association, and the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
January 05, 2011
President Obama on December 17 signed a bill that temporarily extends through 2011 various energy efficiency and renewable energy provisions, including Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provides cash assistance to energy producers in place of tax credits. Under this program, the federal government provides a cash payment in lieu of a tax credit totaling 30% of the qualifying cost of the project. The measure, passed by the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and hailed by renewable energy industry associations, extends for one year the start-of-construction deadline for projects such as wind and solar power that are eligible under Section 1603.
Other provisions extended through 2011 include a $1-per-gallon production tax credit for biodiesel as well as diesel fuel created from biomass; credit for manufacturers of energy-efficient residential homes; a 50-cent-per gallon alternative fuel tax credit; the existing per-gallon tax credits and outlay payments for ethanol; credits for U.S.-based manufacture of energy-efficient washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators; certain credit for energy-efficient improvements to existing homes; and a 30% investment tax credit for alternative vehicle refueling property. See the President's remarks upon the signing of the bill, the bill summary with energy provisions on pages 6-7, and statements on the passage by the American Wind Energy Association, and the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
Scientists Generate Two Energetic Electronic States from One Photon
News Release NR-4410
Double yield via singlet fission could mean 35% efficiency boost for solar
December 2, 2010
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy?s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Colorado, Boulder (UCB), have reported the first designed molecular system that produces two triplet states from an excited singlet state of a molecule, with essentially perfect efficiency.The breakthrough could lead to a 35 percent increase in light-harvesting yield in cells for photovoltaics and solar fuels.The experiments, using a process called singlet fission, demonstrated a 200 percent quantum yield for the creation of two triplets of the molecule 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPIBF) at low temperatures.In singlet fission, a light-absorbing molecular chromophore shares its energy with a nearby non-excited neighboring molecule to yield a triplet excited state of each. If the two triplets behave independently, two electron-hole pairs can be generated for each photon absorbed in a solar cell. This process could subsequently increase by one third.the conversion efficiency of solar photons into electricity or solar fuels.The researchers identified DPIBF as a promising candidate while searching for molecular chromophores that have the required ratio of singlet and triplet energy states.Earlier, NREL and Los Alamos National Laboaratory had demonstrated an analgous two-electrons-from-one photon bonus using semiconductor quantum dots in a process NREL termed Multiple Exciton Generation. The latest advance is the first to demonstrate the electron multiplication phenomenon via �the singlet-fission process in molecules.Until this most recent advance, singlet fission had been known as a somewhat obscure phenomenon occurring at low efficiency in a small number of molecular systems. In 2004, NREL and UCB revisited singlet fission as a potential way to maximize solar photon conversion efficiency. In 2006, NREL?s Arthur J. Nozik and Mark C. Hanna calculated the gains in thermodynamic efficiencies that were possible with solar cells based on singlet fission. These activities led to a much more extensive search for the best candidate molecules in a collaboration between NREL and the research group at the UCB led by Josef Michl.The research has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.� Authors are NREL?s Justin C. Johnson and Arthur J. Nozik, and UCB?s Josef Michl.� For a technical summary of this article, please visit http://www.nrel.gov/news/pdfs/technical_summary_20101202_press_release.pdfNREL 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 the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.�###�Visit NREL online at�www.nrel.govNR-4410
For further information contact NREL Public Relations at 303-275-4090.Subscribe to receive new NREL releases by e-mail. Subscribe to RSS feed. About RSS.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator
Saturday, January 29, 2011
RHS urges gardeners to go green
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has urged gardeners to become more environmentally sustainable and help to combat climate change from their garden.It has issued advice to members, calling for homeowners to avoid using a hosepipe unless necessary for reducing water waste and avoid using peat as this releases greenhouse gases.Planting 'drought resistant' species will help gardeners conserve water.Speaking to the Telegraph, Roger Williams, head of science at the RHS, said: "Whether or not you accept climate change is man made there is lots of evidence that we have a more unstable climate and it is getting warmer. What will that mean for gardeners and how can we adapt to that?"Homeowners with greenhouses were advised to use climate controls and install double glazed cladding.City dwellers are also being encouraged to turn their patio into grassy garden space or plant trees to help absorb carbon dioxide emissions, while planting certain flowers can attract bees and insects to boost biodiversity.Posted by Mark Stephens Sign up for regular email updates to help you save money and energy
For more information please see: Sustainable gardening� The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited � and do not represent the views or opinions of the Energy Saving Trust.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
For more information please see: Sustainable gardening� The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited � and do not represent the views or opinions of the Energy Saving Trust.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
Steven Chu Wants To Hear From You
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu would like to hear directly from you about wh...
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
Capturing Waste Heat with Organic Rankine Cycle Systems
In Brisbane, Australia, a 240-kW ORC unit at a timber plant will soon harvest heat from an existing biomass burner and generate electricity to power kilns for drying lumber. Similar ORC systems are becoming killer add-ons for other heat-based renewable energy plants, including concentrating solar and utility-scale geothermal systems.
?People are realizing now that, if you throw away heat, you?re throwing away money,? said David Paul, international business development manager for Pratt & Whitney, which designed the system for the Gympie Timber Company in Australia.
Typical geothermal systems generate electricity when water-based steam at high temperatures powers turbines. An ORC system uses a different fluid, such as thermal oil or silicon-based oil, which powers turbines at lower temperatures than those required for steam. ORC power plants have been known to generate power from geothermal sources with temperatures as low as 73.3�C (165�F) in Alaska. Utility-scale geothermal plants with steam turbines typically require water temperatures in excess of 350�F.
The ability to use lower temperature fluids make the ORC systems ideal for harvesting heat from industrial exhaust systems. They are typically configured with the following components:
Heat source ? This can be a geothermal water well, exhaust from an industrial facility, or heat from a biomass furnace or concentrating solar power system.
Thermal oil ? This intermediary component transfers heat from the source to the ORC unit.
Rankine cycle� ? Oil from the thermal oil system warms oil in the ORC unit, creating temperatures high enough to power a turbine.
Pratt & Whitney is among the growing number of companies trying to introduce ORC en mass to the United States market. ORC systems have been generating heat and electricity with woody biomass sources for 20 years overseas. Europeans have embraced combined heat and power (CHP) ORC plants (such as the one in Australia) because they can operate with at to 85 percent efficiencies.
?When you look at the stacks on a nuclear plant or coal plant, they?re releasing all that excess heat into the atmosphere, so they?re only 20 to 30% efficient,? said Bob Larson, CEO of Pennsylvania-based 1st Renewable Energy Technologies. ?An ORC captures that excess heat, making 85% efficiencies possible.?
Europe has 120 to 150 ORC CHP plants with capacities of multiple megawatts. Many use waste wood as biomass feed sources. Larson said environmental concerns, coupled with high fuel costs, jump-started Europe?s investments in ORC plants in the 1980s. His company has formed a partnership with Maxxtech AG, one of Europe?s leading ORC manufacturers, to target the American market, where cement plants and other industrial facilities have been capturing waste heat for years.
Paul said Pratt & Whitney has received a notable increase in inquiries about ORCs as waste heat has become a hot topic over the past year. The company, a division of United Technologies, recently sold a unit to the city of Albany, New York. Similar systems are also marketed by geothermal heavyweight Ormat Technologies Inc.
Challenges remain in expanding ORC use in the United States, especially when retrofitting at industrial plants. In many configurations, the ORC itself is only 50% of the total installation costs, which include heat transfer equipment and condensers to cool the systems.
?A lot of times there have to be incentives in place [to make the economics work],? Paul said.
Incentive programs have helped his company?s ORC business expand to in India, Thailand and Indonesia.
Pratt & Whitney spokesman Bryan Kidder said its systems run $1,000 to $2,000 per kW. Larson said his CHP ORC systems can cost $925 kW compared to $5,000 to $7,000 per kW for other forms of renewable energy.
Larson envisions a time when Americans might install relatively small (2 to 5 MW) distributed ORC plants that provide heat and power to regional districts while operating independently of large transmission lines.� He believes smaller, distributed plants are more efficient and could take advantage of ORC technology more sustainably.
?There?s talk about 50 MW biomass plants in the U.S., but you kind of shoot yourself in the foot if you need to truck in biomass from 100 miles out just to fuel [the plant],? he said. ?Smaller plants allow for more sustainable forestry.?
Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy
?People are realizing now that, if you throw away heat, you?re throwing away money,? said David Paul, international business development manager for Pratt & Whitney, which designed the system for the Gympie Timber Company in Australia.
Typical geothermal systems generate electricity when water-based steam at high temperatures powers turbines. An ORC system uses a different fluid, such as thermal oil or silicon-based oil, which powers turbines at lower temperatures than those required for steam. ORC power plants have been known to generate power from geothermal sources with temperatures as low as 73.3�C (165�F) in Alaska. Utility-scale geothermal plants with steam turbines typically require water temperatures in excess of 350�F.
The ability to use lower temperature fluids make the ORC systems ideal for harvesting heat from industrial exhaust systems. They are typically configured with the following components:
Heat source ? This can be a geothermal water well, exhaust from an industrial facility, or heat from a biomass furnace or concentrating solar power system.
Thermal oil ? This intermediary component transfers heat from the source to the ORC unit.
Rankine cycle� ? Oil from the thermal oil system warms oil in the ORC unit, creating temperatures high enough to power a turbine.
Pratt & Whitney is among the growing number of companies trying to introduce ORC en mass to the United States market. ORC systems have been generating heat and electricity with woody biomass sources for 20 years overseas. Europeans have embraced combined heat and power (CHP) ORC plants (such as the one in Australia) because they can operate with at to 85 percent efficiencies.
?When you look at the stacks on a nuclear plant or coal plant, they?re releasing all that excess heat into the atmosphere, so they?re only 20 to 30% efficient,? said Bob Larson, CEO of Pennsylvania-based 1st Renewable Energy Technologies. ?An ORC captures that excess heat, making 85% efficiencies possible.?
Europe has 120 to 150 ORC CHP plants with capacities of multiple megawatts. Many use waste wood as biomass feed sources. Larson said environmental concerns, coupled with high fuel costs, jump-started Europe?s investments in ORC plants in the 1980s. His company has formed a partnership with Maxxtech AG, one of Europe?s leading ORC manufacturers, to target the American market, where cement plants and other industrial facilities have been capturing waste heat for years.
Paul said Pratt & Whitney has received a notable increase in inquiries about ORCs as waste heat has become a hot topic over the past year. The company, a division of United Technologies, recently sold a unit to the city of Albany, New York. Similar systems are also marketed by geothermal heavyweight Ormat Technologies Inc.
Challenges remain in expanding ORC use in the United States, especially when retrofitting at industrial plants. In many configurations, the ORC itself is only 50% of the total installation costs, which include heat transfer equipment and condensers to cool the systems.
?A lot of times there have to be incentives in place [to make the economics work],? Paul said.
Incentive programs have helped his company?s ORC business expand to in India, Thailand and Indonesia.
Pratt & Whitney spokesman Bryan Kidder said its systems run $1,000 to $2,000 per kW. Larson said his CHP ORC systems can cost $925 kW compared to $5,000 to $7,000 per kW for other forms of renewable energy.
Larson envisions a time when Americans might install relatively small (2 to 5 MW) distributed ORC plants that provide heat and power to regional districts while operating independently of large transmission lines.� He believes smaller, distributed plants are more efficient and could take advantage of ORC technology more sustainably.
?There?s talk about 50 MW biomass plants in the U.S., but you kind of shoot yourself in the foot if you need to truck in biomass from 100 miles out just to fuel [the plant],? he said. ?Smaller plants allow for more sustainable forestry.?
Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy
Department of Energy Offers First Conditional Commitment for a Loan Guarantee for Advanced Biofuels Plant
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
January 20, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Diamond Green Diesel, LLC, the proposed joint venture between Valero Energy Corporation and Darling International Inc., for a $241 million loan guarantee. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 137-million gallon per year renewable diesel facility in Norco, Louisiana, about 20 miles west of New Orleans. Valero Energy Corporation plans to direct the design, construction and operation of the project and market all of its output, while Darling International Inc. will supply feedstock to the project.
"Today's announcement reflects this administration's commitment to promoting the development of advanced biofuels," said Secretary Chu. "Strong biofuels projects like Diamond Green Diesel can help to diversify our transportation fuel supply while creating jobs and strengthening our economy."
"This announcement by the Department of Energy demonstrates the dedication of the Obama Administration to building a robust, domestic renewable fuels industry," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Made-in-America biofuels will increase our energy security, economic security and environmental security?while creating jobs?and help build a brighter future for all Americans."
"This announcement is a great example of something we have been saying at EPA for a very long time?we can protect our health, preserve our environment and improve our economy at the same time," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Clear environmental standards and strong government support have given these companies the certainty they need to invest in new technology and new jobs. It demonstrates the power of American innovators to create a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous future."
"Today's announcement of a $241 million loan guarantee to Diamond Green Diesel in Norco is good for Louisiana and good for our nation's future," Senator Mary Landrieu said. "Oil has paid tremendous dividends to our country. It helped us win World War II, it helped create an industrial revolution and it built the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. But, as we move to new technologies beyond oil, we must embrace the transition to clean renewable energy. Projects like Diamond Green Diesel are a step in the right direction, and I appreciate the commitment Secretary Chu and Administrator Jackson are making to this effort."
The company estimates that the project will create 700 jobs during peak construction and over 60 jobs during operation. The project will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 80% over conventional petroleum-based diesel and is expected to nearly triple the amount of renewable diesel produced in the United States. In addition, the facility will fulfill almost 14% of a national mandate to boost production for biomass-based diesel. Approximately 95% of the project components are expected to be produced in the United States.
The project will produce renewable diesel fuel primarily from animal fats, used cooking oil and other waste grease streams. The project will be the first application of its kind in the United States to use an innovative hydrotreating/isomerization process from Universal Oil Products (UOP), known as Ecofining&0099;, and a pretreatment process from Desmet Ballestra Group, which converts processed feedstock into high-quality diesel.
As part of the Department of Energy's comprehensive strategy to support the production of advanced biofuels, Secretary Chu also announced the launch of a new online collaboration tool and data resource focused on bioenergy. The "Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework" allows researchers, policymakers and investors to share large data sets, as well as the latest bioenergy research. The Framework also facilitates collaborative production, integration and analysis of information. Registered users will be able to contribute data sets that can then be shared, expanding the body of knowledge, better informing this growing industry and eliminating "information silos." The Framework allows simultaneous geographic mapping of complex data sets such as biomass feedstock production, fueling stations and biorefineries on a national, state, and even county-level basis?providing the bioenergy industry an analytical tool for identifying new opportunities for research, supportive policies and project investment.
Through the Loan Programs Office, the Department of Energy has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 18 clean energy projects totaling over $17.5 billion. Together, these projects will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours, enough clean energy to power approximately 3.5 million homes. Additional DOE-supported projects include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, two geothermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office Web site.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
January 20, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Diamond Green Diesel, LLC, the proposed joint venture between Valero Energy Corporation and Darling International Inc., for a $241 million loan guarantee. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 137-million gallon per year renewable diesel facility in Norco, Louisiana, about 20 miles west of New Orleans. Valero Energy Corporation plans to direct the design, construction and operation of the project and market all of its output, while Darling International Inc. will supply feedstock to the project.
"Today's announcement reflects this administration's commitment to promoting the development of advanced biofuels," said Secretary Chu. "Strong biofuels projects like Diamond Green Diesel can help to diversify our transportation fuel supply while creating jobs and strengthening our economy."
"This announcement by the Department of Energy demonstrates the dedication of the Obama Administration to building a robust, domestic renewable fuels industry," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Made-in-America biofuels will increase our energy security, economic security and environmental security?while creating jobs?and help build a brighter future for all Americans."
"This announcement is a great example of something we have been saying at EPA for a very long time?we can protect our health, preserve our environment and improve our economy at the same time," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Clear environmental standards and strong government support have given these companies the certainty they need to invest in new technology and new jobs. It demonstrates the power of American innovators to create a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous future."
"Today's announcement of a $241 million loan guarantee to Diamond Green Diesel in Norco is good for Louisiana and good for our nation's future," Senator Mary Landrieu said. "Oil has paid tremendous dividends to our country. It helped us win World War II, it helped create an industrial revolution and it built the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. But, as we move to new technologies beyond oil, we must embrace the transition to clean renewable energy. Projects like Diamond Green Diesel are a step in the right direction, and I appreciate the commitment Secretary Chu and Administrator Jackson are making to this effort."
The company estimates that the project will create 700 jobs during peak construction and over 60 jobs during operation. The project will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 80% over conventional petroleum-based diesel and is expected to nearly triple the amount of renewable diesel produced in the United States. In addition, the facility will fulfill almost 14% of a national mandate to boost production for biomass-based diesel. Approximately 95% of the project components are expected to be produced in the United States.
The project will produce renewable diesel fuel primarily from animal fats, used cooking oil and other waste grease streams. The project will be the first application of its kind in the United States to use an innovative hydrotreating/isomerization process from Universal Oil Products (UOP), known as Ecofining&0099;, and a pretreatment process from Desmet Ballestra Group, which converts processed feedstock into high-quality diesel.
As part of the Department of Energy's comprehensive strategy to support the production of advanced biofuels, Secretary Chu also announced the launch of a new online collaboration tool and data resource focused on bioenergy. The "Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework" allows researchers, policymakers and investors to share large data sets, as well as the latest bioenergy research. The Framework also facilitates collaborative production, integration and analysis of information. Registered users will be able to contribute data sets that can then be shared, expanding the body of knowledge, better informing this growing industry and eliminating "information silos." The Framework allows simultaneous geographic mapping of complex data sets such as biomass feedstock production, fueling stations and biorefineries on a national, state, and even county-level basis?providing the bioenergy industry an analytical tool for identifying new opportunities for research, supportive policies and project investment.
Through the Loan Programs Office, the Department of Energy has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 18 clean energy projects totaling over $17.5 billion. Together, these projects will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours, enough clean energy to power approximately 3.5 million homes. Additional DOE-supported projects include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, two geothermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office Web site.
Powered By WizardRSSFree Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator
BOEMRE, N Carolina Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) held its first offshore renewable energy task force meeting in cooperation with North Carolina?s Department of Commerce. This intergovernmental task force was established to facilitate communication between BOEMRE and state, local, tribal and federal stakeholders concerning commercial renewable energy leasing and development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coast of North Carolina. The task force includes state government officials designated by Governor Bev Perdue, officials from affected federal agencies, elected local government officials, and tribal leaders.�
?BOEMRE created this task force to facilitate the effective and efficient review of proposed renewable energy projects on the OCS offshore North Carolina,? said BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich. ?We will work together with the state to enable North Carolina to develop renewable energy off its coast, thereby expanding our nation?s energy resource portfolio.?��
?North Carolina appreciates the cooperation of the Bureau and this opportunity for this good start in developing the policies and procedures to expand the state?s renewable energy resources in ways that are compatible with the lives and livelihoods of those who make the coast their home and depend upon it for their livelihood,? said Jennifer Bumgarner, North Carolina Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Energy.
Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Ned Farquhar delivered opening remarks at today's task force meeting. The meeting featured a discussion about the commercial leasing process for OCS renewable energy and a presentation of the draft task force charter. The task force members discussed options for starting the leasing process and the procedure for specific actions required by BOEMRE and the state for developing offshore renewable energy.��
In April 2009, President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the final framework for renewable energy development on the OCS. This framework establishes the process BOEMRE uses for granting leases, easements, and rights-of-way for offshore renewable energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of wind generation facilities on the OCS. The framework also allows BOEMRE to use task forces in carrying out its responsibilities for authorizing OCS renewable energy activities in partnership with state, local, and tribal governments, and federal agencies. As part of the ?Smart from the Start? wind initiative announced by Secretary Salazar in the fall of 2010 to facilitate offshore wind development, this task force will help identify priority areas on the OCS that have generally bountiful wind energy and relatively fewer potential environmental and use conflicts than other areas offshore North Carolina. BOEMRE will use that information to identify wind energy areas along the OCS that may be particularly suitable for potential offshore wind development.
Task forces have previously been established with Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina and New York, and are in process for South Carolina and Florida.Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy
?BOEMRE created this task force to facilitate the effective and efficient review of proposed renewable energy projects on the OCS offshore North Carolina,? said BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich. ?We will work together with the state to enable North Carolina to develop renewable energy off its coast, thereby expanding our nation?s energy resource portfolio.?��
?North Carolina appreciates the cooperation of the Bureau and this opportunity for this good start in developing the policies and procedures to expand the state?s renewable energy resources in ways that are compatible with the lives and livelihoods of those who make the coast their home and depend upon it for their livelihood,? said Jennifer Bumgarner, North Carolina Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Energy.
Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Ned Farquhar delivered opening remarks at today's task force meeting. The meeting featured a discussion about the commercial leasing process for OCS renewable energy and a presentation of the draft task force charter. The task force members discussed options for starting the leasing process and the procedure for specific actions required by BOEMRE and the state for developing offshore renewable energy.��
In April 2009, President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the final framework for renewable energy development on the OCS. This framework establishes the process BOEMRE uses for granting leases, easements, and rights-of-way for offshore renewable energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of wind generation facilities on the OCS. The framework also allows BOEMRE to use task forces in carrying out its responsibilities for authorizing OCS renewable energy activities in partnership with state, local, and tribal governments, and federal agencies. As part of the ?Smart from the Start? wind initiative announced by Secretary Salazar in the fall of 2010 to facilitate offshore wind development, this task force will help identify priority areas on the OCS that have generally bountiful wind energy and relatively fewer potential environmental and use conflicts than other areas offshore North Carolina. BOEMRE will use that information to identify wind energy areas along the OCS that may be particularly suitable for potential offshore wind development.
Task forces have previously been established with Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina and New York, and are in process for South Carolina and Florida.Powered By WizardRSSMagnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home Home Power Generator Green Energy
Vaclav Smil's ?Energy Myths and Realities? - A review
Vaclav Smil, professor of Environment and Environmental Geography at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, has written a new book called ?Energy Myths and Realities.? In the book, he looks at a number of things he considers myths:
1. The future belongs to electric cars
2. Nuclear electricity will be too cheap too meter
3. Soft-energy illusions (local generation, etc.)
4. Running out: Peak oil and its meaning
5. Sequestration of carbon dioxide
6. Liquid fuels from plants
7. Electricity from wind
8. The pace of energy transitions
Smil is well-respected in the world of energy, so I think it is also worthwhile looking at what he has to say. I think that it is even worthwhile looking at what he has to say about peak oil, because it may give us some insights as to where our thinking needs to be refined, or better explained, if it is to be understood by the ?mainstream?.
I might note that Smil is not entirely in disagreement with peak oil. He says,
It is fairly probable that its [conventional crude oil?s] extraction will peak within the next two decades, and it is inevitable that its share of the world?s primary energy supply will continue to decline.
A major point he makes in the peak oil section is that he is not convinced that peak oil will have a terrible impact, even if the decline does occur in the near future?something that quite a number of Oil Drum readers would agree with.
Let?s look at a few things Vaclav Smil has to say:
Electric Cars
Smil points out that electric cars have been around a long time and are still expensive compared to internal combustion cars. But his major concern seems to be that the amount of additional electricity required would be more than could reasonably be added within a short time frame. And, given the limitations of renewables, there would probably need to be a big ramp-up in fossil fuel use, to accommodate the additional cars.
According to Smil:
An electric car whose size would correspond to today?s typical American vehicle (a composite of passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks) would translate to 3 MWh of electricity consumption.
In 2010, the United States had about 245 million passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks; hence, an all-electric fleet would call for a theoretical minimum of 750 TWh/year. . . The charging and recharging cycle of Li-ion batteries is about 85% efficient, and about 10% must be subtracted for self-discharge losses; consequently, the actual need to be close to 4 MWh/car, or about 980 TWh of electricity per year. This is a very conservative calculation, as the overall demand of a midsize electric vehicle would be more likely around 300 Wh/km or 6MW/year.
But even this conservative total would be equivalent to 25% of US electricity generation in 2008, and the country?s utilities needed fifteen years (1993-2008) to add this amount of new production. As this power for electric cars would have to come on top of the demand growth by households, services, and industries, it would be exceedingly optimistic to expect such an increment could be in place in less than twenty years.
He later goes to explain how much fuel would be needed for all this.
The average source-to-outlet efficiency of U. S. electricity generation is about 40 percent, and adding 10 percent for internal power plant consumption and transmission losses, this means that 11 MWh (nearly 40 GJ) of primary energy would be needed to generate electricity for a car with an average annual consumption of about 4 MWh.
This would translate to 2 MJ for every kilometer of travel, a performance equivalent to about 38 mpg (9.25L/100 km)?a rate much lower than that offered by scores of new pure gasoline-engine car models, and inferior to advanced hybrid designs or to DiesOtto designs. . .
He explains that there would be no CO2 savings in all of this, unless renewable sources were used for all of the additional energy required. He also notes that a European report by the European Federation for Transport and Environment called How to Avoid an Electric Shock offers analogical conclusions. A complete change to electric cars in the EU would increase European electricity consumption by 15%, and would not lower CO2.
Wind Power
Smil?s conclusion regarding wind is
Conversion of wind?s kinetic energy by large turbines by large turbines can become an important contributor to the overall electricity supply, but, except for relatively small regions, it cannot become the single largest source, even less so the dominant mode of generation.
One of the limits he sees on wind power is the quantity of roads needed to service all of the wind power sites. He says:
But even when assuming a large average turbine size of 2?3 MW, the access roads (which are required to carry heavy loads, as the total weight of foundations, tower, and turbine is more than 300 tons per unit) needed to build roughly 2 million turbines and new transmission lines to conduct their electricity would make a vastly larger land claim than the footprint of the towers; and a considerable energy demand would be created by keeping these roads, often in steep terrain, protected against erosion and open during inclement weather for servicing access.
He also sees wind intermittency as a limiting factor. He says that many studies have shown that these variations do not cause any unmanageable problems as long as the total power installed in wind turbines is no more than about 10% of the system?s overall output.
He quotes P. A. Ostergaard, in the 2008 Energy article ?Geographic Aggregation and Wind Power Output Variance in Denmark,? saying:
Drawing on the Danish experience, he finds, predictably, that demand and wind variations in different areas help even out fluctuations and reduce imbalances in systems with high reliance on wind power, and that exploiting these variations allows for reductions in reserve capacity in other modes of electricity generation. But, no less predictably, he also finds limits to what can be done: The average requirement for the reserve thermal capacity may drop, ?but the same is not generally the case with the maximum required condensing mode capacity. . . . There will simply be times with wind production in neither of the interconnected areas.?
He is also concerned about the high installation rates that would be required to reach high penetrations, and the fact that at this point we cannot be certain of average life spans of wind turbines and of their need for maintenance and replacement requirements, particularly in harsh and offshore environments.
Peak Oil and Its Meaning
In the chapter ?Running Out: Peak Oil and Its Meaning?, Smil starts by looking at individual peak oil predictions that turned out not to be exactly correct. He argues that contrary to the assumptions of Richard Duncan in his Olduvai Gorge theory, average per capita energy consumption did not peak in 1978. Instead, based on BP data for all types of energy and UN population figures, world per capita energy consumption was 10% higher in 2008 than in 1978. He also says,
but even a lower rate would not signify anything catastrophic; because of steadily falling energy intensity?the energy consumption per unit of economic product?of the global economy, it could be a sign of progress for the world to use less energy.
It would seem to me that this is one area where there is considerable additional work that needs to be done. Is oil a limiting factor on all other forms of energy use, or will efficiency and other changes lead to higher GDP relative to energy use? There is probably room for a range of views on this subject.
Smil also points out that the predictions of M. King Hubbert, Andrew Flower, Collin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes and others were not exactly right, partly because the estimates of ultimately recoverable oil were not correct and partly because the deterministic approaches being used were too simple. Smil says:
The fundamental problem with the notion of predicting a peak for oil extraction is that it rests on three simple assumptions?that recoverable oil resources are known with a high level of confidence, that they are fixed, and that their recovery is subsumed by a symmetrical production curve?which happen not to be true. These three claims mix incontestable facts and sensible arguments with indefensible assumptions, and they caricature complex processes and ignore realities that do not fit preconceived conclusions. There is, obviously, a finite amount of liquid oil in the earth?s crust, but estimates of this grand total remain uncertain.
He mentions Adam Brandt?s 2007 article ?Testing Hubbert? from Energy Policy. Smil says regarding Brandt?s article, ?the symmetrical model of oil extraction is just one of many possibilities, and we now have a rigorous quantitative proof that it is not either a dominant or a modal choice.?
He also mentions R. Nehring?s conclusion,
The task facing us now is not to continue to use an obsolete and irrelevant method [that is, Hubbert?s model] but to develop further understanding of recovery growth.
Smil also has sections on untapped resources and non-conventional oil reserves.
The point of all of Smil?s analysis is that the amount of oil available could very well be considerably more than what an analysis simply using a Hubbert curve would project. But I think an equally valid argument could be made in the other direction?the amount of oil that can actually be extracted may prove to be considerably less than what a Hubbert curve would project.
It seems to me that Hubbert curves are valuable as giving a first-order approximation to what may happen in the future. In that regard, Hubbert curves have been helpful in saying that the peak in conventional oil production is about now. Smil mostly agrees with this?he says that there is a high probability that conventional oil production will peak in the next 10 to 20 years.
But it seems to me that Smil is correct in saying that Hubbert curves really don?t tell us precisely what lies ahead. Smil lays out the favorable scenario, where untapped resources, nonconventional oil reserves, and higher percentages of oil recovery act to increase the total amount of oil available to society. But Smil never looks at what the real limiting factor is. It seems to me that this limiting factor is declining energy return from the oil that is extracted, and the impact that this has on the world economy and the ability to do reinvestment. After a certain point, net energy obtained is so low that it is not possible to justify the ever-higher energy investment required to maintain production.
If net energy is the limiting factor, one would also expect that Hubbert curves are, as Smil says, not very helpful in predicting what is likely to happen in the future. In the case of net energy being the limiting factor, the result could well be that the downslope is more severe than a Hubbert curve would suggest.
Perhaps we do need to back away from Hubbert curve as a primary way of estimating what will happen in the future. While that approach was valuable as a rough approximation in the past, now that we are approaching the down slope, maybe we need to be looking at other approaches, to give a more refined understanding of what limits we are really up against, and how these can be expected to affect the entire process. More refined approaches are also likely to give us more credibility with the non-peak oil community, who see Hubbert curves as discredited, and see analyses of demand as important as analyses of supply.
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
1. The future belongs to electric cars
2. Nuclear electricity will be too cheap too meter
3. Soft-energy illusions (local generation, etc.)
4. Running out: Peak oil and its meaning
5. Sequestration of carbon dioxide
6. Liquid fuels from plants
7. Electricity from wind
8. The pace of energy transitions
Smil is well-respected in the world of energy, so I think it is also worthwhile looking at what he has to say. I think that it is even worthwhile looking at what he has to say about peak oil, because it may give us some insights as to where our thinking needs to be refined, or better explained, if it is to be understood by the ?mainstream?.
I might note that Smil is not entirely in disagreement with peak oil. He says,
It is fairly probable that its [conventional crude oil?s] extraction will peak within the next two decades, and it is inevitable that its share of the world?s primary energy supply will continue to decline.
A major point he makes in the peak oil section is that he is not convinced that peak oil will have a terrible impact, even if the decline does occur in the near future?something that quite a number of Oil Drum readers would agree with.
Let?s look at a few things Vaclav Smil has to say:
Electric Cars
Smil points out that electric cars have been around a long time and are still expensive compared to internal combustion cars. But his major concern seems to be that the amount of additional electricity required would be more than could reasonably be added within a short time frame. And, given the limitations of renewables, there would probably need to be a big ramp-up in fossil fuel use, to accommodate the additional cars.
According to Smil:
An electric car whose size would correspond to today?s typical American vehicle (a composite of passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks) would translate to 3 MWh of electricity consumption.
In 2010, the United States had about 245 million passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks; hence, an all-electric fleet would call for a theoretical minimum of 750 TWh/year. . . The charging and recharging cycle of Li-ion batteries is about 85% efficient, and about 10% must be subtracted for self-discharge losses; consequently, the actual need to be close to 4 MWh/car, or about 980 TWh of electricity per year. This is a very conservative calculation, as the overall demand of a midsize electric vehicle would be more likely around 300 Wh/km or 6MW/year.
But even this conservative total would be equivalent to 25% of US electricity generation in 2008, and the country?s utilities needed fifteen years (1993-2008) to add this amount of new production. As this power for electric cars would have to come on top of the demand growth by households, services, and industries, it would be exceedingly optimistic to expect such an increment could be in place in less than twenty years.
He later goes to explain how much fuel would be needed for all this.
The average source-to-outlet efficiency of U. S. electricity generation is about 40 percent, and adding 10 percent for internal power plant consumption and transmission losses, this means that 11 MWh (nearly 40 GJ) of primary energy would be needed to generate electricity for a car with an average annual consumption of about 4 MWh.
This would translate to 2 MJ for every kilometer of travel, a performance equivalent to about 38 mpg (9.25L/100 km)?a rate much lower than that offered by scores of new pure gasoline-engine car models, and inferior to advanced hybrid designs or to DiesOtto designs. . .
He explains that there would be no CO2 savings in all of this, unless renewable sources were used for all of the additional energy required. He also notes that a European report by the European Federation for Transport and Environment called How to Avoid an Electric Shock offers analogical conclusions. A complete change to electric cars in the EU would increase European electricity consumption by 15%, and would not lower CO2.
Wind Power
Smil?s conclusion regarding wind is
Conversion of wind?s kinetic energy by large turbines by large turbines can become an important contributor to the overall electricity supply, but, except for relatively small regions, it cannot become the single largest source, even less so the dominant mode of generation.
One of the limits he sees on wind power is the quantity of roads needed to service all of the wind power sites. He says:
But even when assuming a large average turbine size of 2?3 MW, the access roads (which are required to carry heavy loads, as the total weight of foundations, tower, and turbine is more than 300 tons per unit) needed to build roughly 2 million turbines and new transmission lines to conduct their electricity would make a vastly larger land claim than the footprint of the towers; and a considerable energy demand would be created by keeping these roads, often in steep terrain, protected against erosion and open during inclement weather for servicing access.
He also sees wind intermittency as a limiting factor. He says that many studies have shown that these variations do not cause any unmanageable problems as long as the total power installed in wind turbines is no more than about 10% of the system?s overall output.
He quotes P. A. Ostergaard, in the 2008 Energy article ?Geographic Aggregation and Wind Power Output Variance in Denmark,? saying:
Drawing on the Danish experience, he finds, predictably, that demand and wind variations in different areas help even out fluctuations and reduce imbalances in systems with high reliance on wind power, and that exploiting these variations allows for reductions in reserve capacity in other modes of electricity generation. But, no less predictably, he also finds limits to what can be done: The average requirement for the reserve thermal capacity may drop, ?but the same is not generally the case with the maximum required condensing mode capacity. . . . There will simply be times with wind production in neither of the interconnected areas.?
He is also concerned about the high installation rates that would be required to reach high penetrations, and the fact that at this point we cannot be certain of average life spans of wind turbines and of their need for maintenance and replacement requirements, particularly in harsh and offshore environments.
Peak Oil and Its Meaning
In the chapter ?Running Out: Peak Oil and Its Meaning?, Smil starts by looking at individual peak oil predictions that turned out not to be exactly correct. He argues that contrary to the assumptions of Richard Duncan in his Olduvai Gorge theory, average per capita energy consumption did not peak in 1978. Instead, based on BP data for all types of energy and UN population figures, world per capita energy consumption was 10% higher in 2008 than in 1978. He also says,
but even a lower rate would not signify anything catastrophic; because of steadily falling energy intensity?the energy consumption per unit of economic product?of the global economy, it could be a sign of progress for the world to use less energy.
It would seem to me that this is one area where there is considerable additional work that needs to be done. Is oil a limiting factor on all other forms of energy use, or will efficiency and other changes lead to higher GDP relative to energy use? There is probably room for a range of views on this subject.
Smil also points out that the predictions of M. King Hubbert, Andrew Flower, Collin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes and others were not exactly right, partly because the estimates of ultimately recoverable oil were not correct and partly because the deterministic approaches being used were too simple. Smil says:
The fundamental problem with the notion of predicting a peak for oil extraction is that it rests on three simple assumptions?that recoverable oil resources are known with a high level of confidence, that they are fixed, and that their recovery is subsumed by a symmetrical production curve?which happen not to be true. These three claims mix incontestable facts and sensible arguments with indefensible assumptions, and they caricature complex processes and ignore realities that do not fit preconceived conclusions. There is, obviously, a finite amount of liquid oil in the earth?s crust, but estimates of this grand total remain uncertain.
He mentions Adam Brandt?s 2007 article ?Testing Hubbert? from Energy Policy. Smil says regarding Brandt?s article, ?the symmetrical model of oil extraction is just one of many possibilities, and we now have a rigorous quantitative proof that it is not either a dominant or a modal choice.?
He also mentions R. Nehring?s conclusion,
The task facing us now is not to continue to use an obsolete and irrelevant method [that is, Hubbert?s model] but to develop further understanding of recovery growth.
Smil also has sections on untapped resources and non-conventional oil reserves.
The point of all of Smil?s analysis is that the amount of oil available could very well be considerably more than what an analysis simply using a Hubbert curve would project. But I think an equally valid argument could be made in the other direction?the amount of oil that can actually be extracted may prove to be considerably less than what a Hubbert curve would project.
It seems to me that Hubbert curves are valuable as giving a first-order approximation to what may happen in the future. In that regard, Hubbert curves have been helpful in saying that the peak in conventional oil production is about now. Smil mostly agrees with this?he says that there is a high probability that conventional oil production will peak in the next 10 to 20 years.
But it seems to me that Smil is correct in saying that Hubbert curves really don?t tell us precisely what lies ahead. Smil lays out the favorable scenario, where untapped resources, nonconventional oil reserves, and higher percentages of oil recovery act to increase the total amount of oil available to society. But Smil never looks at what the real limiting factor is. It seems to me that this limiting factor is declining energy return from the oil that is extracted, and the impact that this has on the world economy and the ability to do reinvestment. After a certain point, net energy obtained is so low that it is not possible to justify the ever-higher energy investment required to maintain production.
If net energy is the limiting factor, one would also expect that Hubbert curves are, as Smil says, not very helpful in predicting what is likely to happen in the future. In the case of net energy being the limiting factor, the result could well be that the downslope is more severe than a Hubbert curve would suggest.
Perhaps we do need to back away from Hubbert curve as a primary way of estimating what will happen in the future. While that approach was valuable as a rough approximation in the past, now that we are approaching the down slope, maybe we need to be looking at other approaches, to give a more refined understanding of what limits we are really up against, and how these can be expected to affect the entire process. More refined approaches are also likely to give us more credibility with the non-peak oil community, who see Hubbert curves as discredited, and see analyses of demand as important as analyses of supply.
Powered By WizardRSSCheap Electricity Free Energy Generator Magnetic Energy Generator Magnetic Generators Free Energy Home
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)