Thursday, June 30, 2011
NREL Helps Corporate Fleets Go Green
December 28, 2010
Enlarge image
NREL and Coca-Cola Refreshments teamed up for a year-long technology evaluation of their hybrid electric delivery trucks. NREL researchers will provide a comparison of fuel economy and operating costs between the hybrids and the diesel trucks in use.
Credit: Patrick Curran
With all of the delivery trucks on U.S. roadways this holiday season, it is easy to see why researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are focused on evaluating the latest energy-saving technology that is commercially available in the medium and heavy-duty truck markets.
From the beverage industry to package delivery companies, fleet managers are looking for ways to green their fleets by achieving better fuel efficiency and fewer emissions while maintaining an eye on the company's bottom line. "We focus on a number of factors that affect a company's fleet, from emissions to reliability to cost," Senior Project Leader Kevin Walkowicz said. "Cost is the number one barrier to companies using advanced technologies and commercial fleets are always concerned about maintaining profitability. Companies need to understand if these vehicles are going to save them money, or cost them money, over the long run."
Researchers Look for Data, Data, Data
NREL is specifically equipped to tackle this type of research thanks to its Renewable Fuels and Lubricants (ReFUEL) Research Laboratory. ReFUEL is outfitted for testing advanced fuels in heavy-duty engines and vehicles as well as advanced heavy hybrid vehicles. It also was the first independent laboratory in the U.S. with a heavy-duty chassis dynamometer that was able to accurately measure tailpipe emissions from trucks with diesel engines that meet the stringent 2007 standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"There are three main tools we use when evaluating these types of heavy-duty hybrid vehicles ? data provided by the fleet, data we collect at ReFUEL and data we collect by logging it in the field," Walkowicz said. "After we're done with testing, we try to provide information that is useful to other fleets so they can see who has tried the technology, what the results were, and what were the benefits."
While it sounds like a lot of information, using the three data-stream approach allows researchers to compare how the new vehicles stack up against conventional models in the fleet.
"We test a baseline group alongside a similar number of hybrid vehicles so we can compare the new technology against the old," Walkowicz said. "We are looking for differences in fuel economy, emissions, maintenance, operating cost and reliability."
Walkowicz also noted that advances in data logging are helping researchers get a valuable real-time snap shot of how these vehicles perform while "on the job."
"We can log into the vehicles remotely, gather everything from GPS to battery temperatures to all of the information available on the vehicles' computer ? which can consist of hundreds of channels of digital data being monitored. Data is king ? the more data we gather, the easier it is for us to point out a few things to help the operators optimize and use the vehicles more efficiently. Where it can be a trial and error process for the company, we can look at the data and tell them very quickly how these vehicles and advanced technology systems are performing in different operating conditions."
Industry is taking notice of NREL's abilities. In the last two years, FedEx, UPS and Coca-Cola Refreshments have all teamed with NREL to evaluate their hybrid fleets.
Coca-Cola Takes Diesel Hybrids for a Spin
Just this year, NREL and Coca-Cola Refreshments teamed up for a year-long technology evaluation of their Miami-based, class 8, hybrid electric delivery trucks. At the end of testing, NREL researchers will provide a comparison of fuel economy and operating costs between the hybrids and the diesel trucks in use.
Coca-Cola Refreshments' large hybrid trucks are equipped with the latest generation of a parallel hybrid system manufactured by Eaton Corp. These trucks can weigh in at as much as 55,000 lbs. The system includes regenerative braking and lithium-ion batteries that provide energy storage. Energy that is normally lost during braking is captured, stored in the batteries, and used to power the electric motor.
The trucks were tested at the ReFUEL facility in August 2010 using drive cycle data obtained from their Miami fleet as guidance for creating the laboratory test plan. Fuel economy and emissions were measured and the test results will be compared to on-road data that is being gathered currently. Final study results will be available in summer 2011.
FedEx Hybrids Reduce Tailpipe Emissions
Enlarge image
NREL researchers found gasoline hybrids substantially reduce tailpipe emissions in FedEx delivery vans.
Courtesy of Fed Ex
Also within the past year, FedEx Express, California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, CALSTART and NREL teamed up to look at FedEx Express' gasoline hybrid electric (gHEV) delivery trucks.
"Performing a field evaluation of gasoline-hybrid delivery trucks in Los Angeles and then testing them at ReFUEL was a unique project because they are using gasoline engines coupled with a hybrid system, rather than diesel," Walkowicz said. "At the time of the study, the gasoline hybrid option was investigated for use in the Southern California location since it was an option that could reduce NOx and particulate matter while maintaining efficiency compared to the diesels available at the time."
NREL researchers also tested a conventional diesel vehicle and a gHEV from the FedEx Express fleet at the ReFUEL laboratory. Researchers found the benefit for the gHEVs was indeed in the tailpipe emissions. "The fuel economy for the gasoline hybrid wasn't much better than a diesel so there was not much of a fuel savings," Walkowicz said. "But, when we brought them to the lab, it proved out how much cleaner the hybrids were ? the tailpipe emissions were substantially reduced."
The interim report on the FedEx testing was released in May and final results will be published in the coming weeks.
UPS Diesel Hybrids Cut Fuel and Costs
Enlarge image
NREL testing showed the UPS hybrids improved fuel economy by 28.9 percent; resulting in a 15 percent reduction in operating cost per mile.
Courtesy of UPS
Unlike the second generation Eaton hybrid system that Coca-Cola is testing, in 2009, NREL helped UPS evaluate the first generation hybrid diesel delivery vans powered by an Eaton hybrid system. The vans are one of the first applications of a lithium battery pack put into use in the U.S. market.
Compared to conventional vehicles, NREL testing showed the hybrids improved fuel economy by 28.9 percent in the field; resulting in a 15 percent reduction in operating cost per mile. The final report, released in December 2009, details the year-long evaluation, including how the NREL team collected and analyzed fuel economy and other vehicle performance data while the vans stayed in service. The project team also tested a conventional and hybrid delivery van at ReFUEL and documented fuel economy and emissions performance.
After the NREL study, UPS ordered an additional 200 Eaton hybrid vans for its fleet. NREL is continuing to work with UPS into 2011 to evaluate vehicles from the additional order in a UPS fleet in Minneapolis.
As these recent examples show, "Our testing helps NREL, DOE and industry understand how much progress is being made for these types of vehicles," Walkowicz said. "It also helps us understand the technical and commercial barriers that need to be overcome in order to make these vehicles mainstream products in the industry."
These projects are part of a series of evaluations performed by NREL for the AVTA, DOE's Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity. AVTA bridges the gap between research and development and the commercial availability of advanced vehicle technologies that reduce petroleum use and improve air quality in the United States. The main objective of AVTA projects is to provide comprehensive, unbiased evaluations of advanced vehicle technologies in commercial use.
Learn more about NREL's Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems and the Renewable Fuels and Lubricants (ReFUEL) Research Laboratory.
? Heather Lammers
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Vids 4 Grids
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), in partnership with George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College, is producing a series of videos designed to inform today?s students about tomorrow?s possibilities. Targeting high school seniors and first-year college students, Vids 4 Grids will (when all have been produced) consist of 12 ten-minute videos and three 30-minute podcasts to be posted on YouTube. Each video in the series will highlight a particular piece of grid equipment or fundamental concept integral to the deployment of Smart Grid systems.
Through integration into curricula and online posting for open usage, Vids 4 Grids aims to increase awareness and create interest in power systems careers, and ultimately lead to expanded enrollment in classes leading to power system careers. The project encourages industry participation in curriculum development for power engineering and, through the open access of YouTube, increase general public knowledge of the power sector. NEMA expects Vids 4 Grids to help develop the well-trained, highly skilled electric power sector workforce that is essential to implementing a national clean-energy Smart Grid.
Vids 4 Grids is funded by the Department?s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability as one of 52 Recovery-Act funded awards for Workforce Development, and is the only one of those selected specifically developing videos. Filming for the videos is done on-site at the facilities of leading power equipment manufacturers. The Podcasts will incorporate open-ended questions with student-selected experts on their experiences in the power sector.
Below are the first two videos in the series:
Check back for more updates at: http://www.youtube.com/vids4grids.
Deborah J Buterbaugh is Energy Project Specialist with the National Energy Technology Laboratory.�
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Stan Bull, Long-Time NREL Leader, Named AAAS Fellow
News Release NR-0111
January 11, 2011
Stanley R. Bull, former associate director for Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Energy?s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Bull, a Midwest Research Institute vice president when he served at NREL, is now MRI?s director of Energy Programs and an NREL emeritus researcher. He was cited for ?distinguished leadership in creating new programs, development of students and staff, and outreach to the technical, policy, and public communities on sustainable energy.?
Bull said he was honored to be tapped for the distinguished award, and said his greatest satisfactions have been the successes of the students he mentored and the NREL colleagues he supervised. His goal always has been ?to empower, motivate, support, and protect them so they can be innovative and productive.?
The best way to accelerate the commercialization of renewable energy is to partner with existing energy companies, including the fossil-fuel industry, and to ?provide our technologies in forms that integrate seamlessly and have inherent advantages with their existing infrastructure,? Bull said. He is confident that renewable energy scientists and engineers at NREL, MRI, and elsewhere will close the technological gap soon to bring solar, wind, biomass and other renewables to cost parity with carbon-based fuels.
Bull has a Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University and a B.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.� His degrees are in chemical engineering and mechanical engineering.� Professional recognition and honors include a Senior Fulbright-Hays Professorship in Grenoble, France, and the Secretary of Energy Outstanding Program Manager Award.
New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) on Feb. 19 from 8 to 10 a.m. at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association?s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members, or by the AAAS chief executive officer. This year, 503 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world?s largest general scientific society, serving 10 million people. Its mission is to ?advance science and serve society? through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. The AAAS is publisher of the journal, Science, which has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world.
NREL 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, a limited liability company that is equally owned and governed by Battelle and Midwest Research Institute.
###�
Visit NREL online at�www.nrel.gov
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.
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Forest Service Extends Comment Period On Vt. Wind
Aquarius
The changing Moon enters your tenth house of career and status, bringing about a power struggle between you and someone in authority. Hold your ground if you are currently involved in a project that will eventually improve the overall structure. Pick your battles wisely, compromising where necessary but standing firm for important principles and issues..
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The changing Moon enters your tenth house of career and status, bringing about a power struggle between you and someone in authority. Hold your ground if you are currently involved in a project that will eventually improve the overall structure. Pick your battles wisely, compromising where necessary but standing firm for important principles and issues..
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UK leads Europe for off-shore wind power capacity
The UK has the largest off-shore wind power capacity in Europe, installing a total of 1,341 MW, highlighting the nation's firm position in renewable energy technology.Figures from the European Wind Energy Association show that Denmark has the second-largest capacity (854 MW), followed by the Netherlands (249 MW) and Belgium (195 MW).In addition, the statistics showed that Europe's total offshore wind power capacity has reached almost 3 GW, which could supply around three million households, while another 19 GW of offshore capacity has been consented.Peter Madigan, head of offshore renewables at RenewableUK, commented: "The UK's offshore wind roll out is continuing at full speed."He noted that the first turbines at Walney and Greater Gabbard have started delivering electricity to the grid, which once completed will see the UK generate a total of more than 2 GW nationwide."We now need to ensure that we are best poised to capture the full benefits such a massive infrastructure project offers, including increased employment and business activity," Mr Madigan said.Posted by Mark Stephens Sign up for regular email updates to help you save money and energy
For more information please see: European Wind Energy Association figures� 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.
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For more information please see: European Wind Energy Association figures� 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.
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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
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?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
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How Would You Use Your Mobile Device to Save Energy?
On Tuesday, Shannon told you about some mobile tools on FuelEconomy.gov that can help you find and compare fuel efficient vehicles.
More and more, people are using their phones and mobile devices to find information, whether they're on the go and need the info now or if they're just at home and choosing to use a phone instead of a computer. Whatever the reason, we know that mobile information and tools are important.
Maybe you would find an energy-saving app useful when you're in a store comparing products, or wondering if a product is eligible for an incentive. Maybe you'd like to follow do-it-yourself instructions from your phone when you're working on an energy project around the house. Maybe you'd like to use an app to conduct an energy assessment and keep track of your home energy improvements.
These are just a few ideas we've had for how mobile apps could help you save energy, but we'd like to hear yours.
How would you use your mobile device to save energy?
Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments.
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Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wind Energy Development Can Revitalize Rural America
Wind Energy Development Can Revitalize Rural AmericaDate: 1/25/2011Source: Stacia Cudd, National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.Audio with Tom Potter, Colorado Wind for Schools Facilitator (MP3 1.3 MB) Download Windows Media Player. Time: 00:02:46
Many rural communities have seen the benefits of wind energy development in action ? but some concerns and doubts remain.
Tom Potter is the Colorado facilitator of the Wind for Schools program and has spent quite a bit of time in the rural communities of the state. He's heard people questioning the viability of harnessing wind for energy and whether it's even worth it. But according to Potter, many of the concerns are being overcome by a desire to fix an even bigger problem in the countryside.
"People in rural areas that I talk to, really have a big concern about what they call the depopulation of their county and of their town and of their farm areas. The major concern is that they don't see their kids again because there isn't a future for them here. They already see, as we're building out wind farms and the like, that some of the kids are coming back and the flight of the youth is being reversed somewhat."
In fact, Potter has seen that in action. He's visited several schools and says there's a general buzz ? an excitement ? about wind energy projects in schools. Potter recalls a visit to the high school in Burlington, Colorado, where he had a chance to hear what students think about wind energy and what it means to their future.
"The seniors there were talking about a very high interest in renewables projects. They were talking about the future. And that could include a future of, for instance, engineering school to be a wind engineer ? or the future that could include some commercial operation with wind."
Of course, as Potter points out, that future depends a lot on the actions of the parents of these students and today's leaders. That's why Potter decided he'd like to adapt the well-known "A Christmas Carol" story to an energy story.
"If we really understood what the energy picture is and how we're impacted by it and how our shortsighted decisions are making long-term difficulty for the next generations, would we continue doing that? And in our age, I think the polar bears are in some ways like the Tiny Tims ? each of those photos of a polar bear jumping off an ice flow that's melting giving us a chance to focus for a minute and rethink the energy habits we've gotten into and what do they mean about where we're going."
Potter believes new energy interests could revitalize the rural way of life and make a big difference in the country's future ? and likely even the future of the entire world.
"At every scale wind can bring benefits. At the small scale, increased energy security. At the community scale, financial benefits to the areas entrepreneurs and some improved economic choices for the community. And then finally at large scale, tax relief, lease income, and new rural jobs."
Potter says wind energy is the future of rural America.This information was last updated on 1/25/2011
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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.
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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.
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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.?
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?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.?
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Public health in the era of peak oil (Canada)
Introduction by EB contributor Dr. Dan Bednarz
Donald Spady, MD, discusses the potential impacts of peak oil on the social determinants of health in Canada. These are the factors that are associated with keeping people healthy and are critical to maintaining personal health in a post-peak world. They also are integral to the infrastructure of both the health care system and the public health system.
There are at least three salient differences between Canada the United States. First, Canada is geographically large with a relatively small population of approximately 34 million. Approximately 21 million live in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, with 13 million spread across the vast geography of the eight other provinces and three territories. The entire province of New Brunswick, for example, is 28,000 square miles and has approximately 750,000 residents; in contrast, Massachusetts has 6.5 million residents on 7,800 square miles. The point is that health care systems must cover wide expanses.
Second, Canada has a national health plan; anyone who has seen Michael Moore?s ?Sicko? will recall the scenes from the health clinic in Windsor, Ontario ?across the river from Detroit- in which Moore asks Canadians how much their medical care will cost; they don?t know and find his question humorous. In 2006 Canada spent US $3,678 per capita on health care, while the U.S. spent $6,714, per-capita for health care.
Third, Canada is a relatively energy rich nation and an exporter to the US. These importance differences shape Canadians vulnerability to the health consequences of peak oil.
Excerpts from the Interview
Human life is impossible without energy. It can indeed be understood as a process of energy exchange between human beings and their environment. Oil today is the single most important energy resource for the lives and the way of life of Canadians.
However, oil is a finite resource, and there is an ongoing debate surrounding what has been termed ?peak oil? . Current discussions are not so much focused on whether peak oil will happen, but rather, on when it will happen, and what will be the scope and range of its effects.
Some U.S. researchers have begun to examine how this phenomenon affects health outcomes and to consider possible responses by the public health sector. Many of these researchers attended a conference entitled ?Peak Oil and Health? organized by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in March, 2009. Canadian public health circles have thus far been less engaged with these issues. To begin to clarify what is at stake specifically for Canadian public health with regards to peak oil, Fran�ois Gagnon from the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) interviewed Dr. Donald W. Spady, a paediatrician/epidemiologist in the Departments of Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who is keenly interested in this issue and has been following these debates and engaging in conferences and webinars about them for the past few years.
---
Fran�ois Gagnon (NCCHPP) ? Why should public health professionals be concerned with peak oil?
Dr. Donald Spady (DS) ? Since there are no clear and easy sources of energy to replace oil, and adequate amounts of affordable energy are essential to Canadian life, peak oil could affect the health of Canadians in significant ways. It will affect many parts of the infrastructure of Canadian society that largely determine the health of the Canadian population. For public health professionals, peak oil is significant because it will affect what are commonly called the social, environmental and economic determinants of health. For example, it will significantly affect, and require some reorganization of, our economic, transportation, and food systems. It is also important to public health professionals because it will very likely affect how health services are organized (the use of products and services dependent on petroleum permeates our health care system), but I understand the mandate of the NCCHPP does not cover this area and thus I will not expand on this now.
---
NCCHPP ? Can you share your thoughts on the links between peak oil, the food system and health outcomes?
DS ? Petroleum is used in virtually all aspects of food production and transportation, therefore peak oil presents a significant threat to Canadian food security. While this could pose a problem as petroleum supplies diminish, the immediate problem in Canada is not food production, it is food security; i.e. finding and buying adequate amounts of affordable and nutritious food. Peak oil will likely affect every component of food security: accessibility, availability, adequacy, acceptability, and agency. It will do so mainly and initially through economic factors, but ultimately also through the consequences of the lack of fuel and fertilizers which will be secondary to an absolute lack of petroleum. Food security is a common problem in an economic downturn where unemployment is high, but it is always and specifically the case in more remote areas of the country and on native reserves, where food is expensive and choice is limited. As well, some segments of the population, such as the elderly or single parent families, are always more exposed
to food insecurity because they may lack the ability to find and purchase adequate amounts of nutritious food.
The 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey found that 9.2% of Canadian households were food insecure at some point in the previous year and 8.8% of the population lived in food insecure households in 2004. It was the poorer person, often on social assistance, worker's compensation or unemployment insurance, who was at greatest risk. Another group, at risk for many problems besides food insecurity, was the Aboriginal household living off the reserve. Lone-parent families, larger families, and families with young children were at particular risk. Housing costs can play a role in determining food security status in low-income households and living in rental housing posed a particular risk. Quite possibly rent trumps food; these days a mortgage or a high energy bill may do the same.
In Canada in 2008, food prices rose 7.3% over the year, as compared to a rise in the Consumer Price Index of only 1.2%. Reasons for these rises include: high oil costs, climate change and associated crop losses and decreased yield, more land and food crops being used for biofuel production, and market speculation. It is reasonable to expect that these factors will persist over the next decades.
Depending on where you live, food prices in Canada can vary by as much as six-fold for the same product, and it has been reported that between 14% and 40% of Canadians face a problem of no or limited access to desirable nutritious foods, even when money is adequate. Food costs and value are particular problems in remote areas of Canada, especially Northern Canada, the high Arctic and on First Nations Reserves, where the types of food are less varied and the food is often of lower quality. For all Canadians, a lack of food access and variety may become a significant issue as long distance transport becomes increasingly expensive or even absent.
Two other issues that may affect the Canadian food supply are long-distance foods and corn-based biofuels. Much of our food travels thousands of kilometres to reach our table. These ?long-distance? foods may be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than similar local foods, especially if foods are transported in large volumes, and thus long-distance foods should not be dismissed arbitrarily. Biofuels grown in North America are more problematic, with concerns about their energy benefits, their high fertilizer, fuel and water requirements, and their potential competition with food production contributing to concerns of food security. Other forms of biofuel, such as sugar cane and palm oil, are less 'food' based and have better energy characteristics; but, they also can have significant environmental impacts.
Full interview is here:
English: http://www.ncchpp.ca/67/New_Publications.ccnpps?id_article=541.
French: http://www.ccnpps.ca/88/Nouvelles_publications.ccnpps?id_article=542.
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Donald Spady, MD, discusses the potential impacts of peak oil on the social determinants of health in Canada. These are the factors that are associated with keeping people healthy and are critical to maintaining personal health in a post-peak world. They also are integral to the infrastructure of both the health care system and the public health system.
There are at least three salient differences between Canada the United States. First, Canada is geographically large with a relatively small population of approximately 34 million. Approximately 21 million live in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, with 13 million spread across the vast geography of the eight other provinces and three territories. The entire province of New Brunswick, for example, is 28,000 square miles and has approximately 750,000 residents; in contrast, Massachusetts has 6.5 million residents on 7,800 square miles. The point is that health care systems must cover wide expanses.
Second, Canada has a national health plan; anyone who has seen Michael Moore?s ?Sicko? will recall the scenes from the health clinic in Windsor, Ontario ?across the river from Detroit- in which Moore asks Canadians how much their medical care will cost; they don?t know and find his question humorous. In 2006 Canada spent US $3,678 per capita on health care, while the U.S. spent $6,714, per-capita for health care.
Third, Canada is a relatively energy rich nation and an exporter to the US. These importance differences shape Canadians vulnerability to the health consequences of peak oil.
Excerpts from the Interview
Human life is impossible without energy. It can indeed be understood as a process of energy exchange between human beings and their environment. Oil today is the single most important energy resource for the lives and the way of life of Canadians.
However, oil is a finite resource, and there is an ongoing debate surrounding what has been termed ?peak oil? . Current discussions are not so much focused on whether peak oil will happen, but rather, on when it will happen, and what will be the scope and range of its effects.
Some U.S. researchers have begun to examine how this phenomenon affects health outcomes and to consider possible responses by the public health sector. Many of these researchers attended a conference entitled ?Peak Oil and Health? organized by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in March, 2009. Canadian public health circles have thus far been less engaged with these issues. To begin to clarify what is at stake specifically for Canadian public health with regards to peak oil, Fran�ois Gagnon from the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) interviewed Dr. Donald W. Spady, a paediatrician/epidemiologist in the Departments of Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who is keenly interested in this issue and has been following these debates and engaging in conferences and webinars about them for the past few years.
---
Fran�ois Gagnon (NCCHPP) ? Why should public health professionals be concerned with peak oil?
Dr. Donald Spady (DS) ? Since there are no clear and easy sources of energy to replace oil, and adequate amounts of affordable energy are essential to Canadian life, peak oil could affect the health of Canadians in significant ways. It will affect many parts of the infrastructure of Canadian society that largely determine the health of the Canadian population. For public health professionals, peak oil is significant because it will affect what are commonly called the social, environmental and economic determinants of health. For example, it will significantly affect, and require some reorganization of, our economic, transportation, and food systems. It is also important to public health professionals because it will very likely affect how health services are organized (the use of products and services dependent on petroleum permeates our health care system), but I understand the mandate of the NCCHPP does not cover this area and thus I will not expand on this now.
---
NCCHPP ? Can you share your thoughts on the links between peak oil, the food system and health outcomes?
DS ? Petroleum is used in virtually all aspects of food production and transportation, therefore peak oil presents a significant threat to Canadian food security. While this could pose a problem as petroleum supplies diminish, the immediate problem in Canada is not food production, it is food security; i.e. finding and buying adequate amounts of affordable and nutritious food. Peak oil will likely affect every component of food security: accessibility, availability, adequacy, acceptability, and agency. It will do so mainly and initially through economic factors, but ultimately also through the consequences of the lack of fuel and fertilizers which will be secondary to an absolute lack of petroleum. Food security is a common problem in an economic downturn where unemployment is high, but it is always and specifically the case in more remote areas of the country and on native reserves, where food is expensive and choice is limited. As well, some segments of the population, such as the elderly or single parent families, are always more exposed
to food insecurity because they may lack the ability to find and purchase adequate amounts of nutritious food.
The 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey found that 9.2% of Canadian households were food insecure at some point in the previous year and 8.8% of the population lived in food insecure households in 2004. It was the poorer person, often on social assistance, worker's compensation or unemployment insurance, who was at greatest risk. Another group, at risk for many problems besides food insecurity, was the Aboriginal household living off the reserve. Lone-parent families, larger families, and families with young children were at particular risk. Housing costs can play a role in determining food security status in low-income households and living in rental housing posed a particular risk. Quite possibly rent trumps food; these days a mortgage or a high energy bill may do the same.
In Canada in 2008, food prices rose 7.3% over the year, as compared to a rise in the Consumer Price Index of only 1.2%. Reasons for these rises include: high oil costs, climate change and associated crop losses and decreased yield, more land and food crops being used for biofuel production, and market speculation. It is reasonable to expect that these factors will persist over the next decades.
Depending on where you live, food prices in Canada can vary by as much as six-fold for the same product, and it has been reported that between 14% and 40% of Canadians face a problem of no or limited access to desirable nutritious foods, even when money is adequate. Food costs and value are particular problems in remote areas of Canada, especially Northern Canada, the high Arctic and on First Nations Reserves, where the types of food are less varied and the food is often of lower quality. For all Canadians, a lack of food access and variety may become a significant issue as long distance transport becomes increasingly expensive or even absent.
Two other issues that may affect the Canadian food supply are long-distance foods and corn-based biofuels. Much of our food travels thousands of kilometres to reach our table. These ?long-distance? foods may be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than similar local foods, especially if foods are transported in large volumes, and thus long-distance foods should not be dismissed arbitrarily. Biofuels grown in North America are more problematic, with concerns about their energy benefits, their high fertilizer, fuel and water requirements, and their potential competition with food production contributing to concerns of food security. Other forms of biofuel, such as sugar cane and palm oil, are less 'food' based and have better energy characteristics; but, they also can have significant environmental impacts.
Full interview is here:
English: http://www.ncchpp.ca/67/New_Publications.ccnpps?id_article=541.
French: http://www.ccnpps.ca/88/Nouvelles_publications.ccnpps?id_article=542.
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Mayor looks to expand cycle schemes beyond London
London mayor Boris Johnson has said that expanding a cycle hire scheme to outer London boroughs would be "a wonderful thing to do".Speaking at City Hall, the mayor encouraged the use of alternative transport and cycling schemes in the capital, which would reduce congestion, improve air pollution and lower the city's carbon emissions."We want generally to see a London where motorists feel that they can find cyclists on any road," he said, as cited by the Guardian.However, Mr Johnson said that it would take time to implement a cycle hire scheme outside central London as it is "logistically difficult", but he is looking into it.Praising the success of the cycle superhighways, which provide a safer environment for cycling commuters and could give rise to more cycle to work schemes, the mayor said: "By putting in these measures, these very visible encouragements, we are getting people who aren't interested in cycling or have been a little bit timid, to try it out."Posted by Mark Stephens Find out more about travel planning
For more information please see: Barclays superhighway� 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.
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For more information please see: Barclays superhighway� 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.
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How Would You Use Your Mobile Device to Save Energy?
On Tuesday, Shannon told you about some mobile tools on FuelEconomy.gov that can help you find and compare fuel efficient vehicles.
More and more, people are using their phones and mobile devices to find information, whether they're on the go and need the info now or if they're just at home and choosing to use a phone instead of a computer. Whatever the reason, we know that mobile information and tools are important.
Maybe you would find an energy-saving app useful when you're in a store comparing products, or wondering if a product is eligible for an incentive. Maybe you'd like to follow do-it-yourself instructions from your phone when you're working on an energy project around the house. Maybe you'd like to use an app to conduct an energy assessment and keep track of your home energy improvements.
These are just a few ideas we've had for how mobile apps could help you save energy, but we'd like to hear yours.
How would you use your mobile device to save energy?
Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments.
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Monday, June 27, 2011
European Producers Want Credit Relief
BY JOHN W. MILLER
BRUSSELS?European ethanol producers say the extension of a U.S. ethanol tax credit for 2011, approved by Congress last month as part of the $858 billion tax-reduction bill, could prompt them to file a trade complaint with the European Union. European producers failed in lobbying efforts to halt the credit, however, the extension would apply only on sales to U.S. buyers, and not on sales abroad. The tax credit has helped fuel record production by U.S. ethanol producers. Combined with high sugar prices in Brazil and a wheat shortage in Europe, the tax credit has made mostly corn-based U.S. ethanol the ...Powered By WizardRSSGreen Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity Free Energy Generator
BRUSSELS?European ethanol producers say the extension of a U.S. ethanol tax credit for 2011, approved by Congress last month as part of the $858 billion tax-reduction bill, could prompt them to file a trade complaint with the European Union. European producers failed in lobbying efforts to halt the credit, however, the extension would apply only on sales to U.S. buyers, and not on sales abroad. The tax credit has helped fuel record production by U.S. ethanol producers. Combined with high sugar prices in Brazil and a wheat shortage in Europe, the tax credit has made mostly corn-based U.S. ethanol the ...Powered By WizardRSSGreen Energy Green Energy Sources Magnetic Generator Cheap Electricity Free Energy Generator
Farmers now delivering biomass to POET's Project LIBERTY storage site
Area farmers harvested 56,000 tons of corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk this fall but had been waiting to deliver the biomass to POET while guidelines for the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) were finalized. Farmers on Monday began completing the application process, and they started delivering bales soon after.
?While we shared the farmers? frustration with delays to BCAP, we are happy to see that the program is being implemented and farmers are now delivering biomass to POET,? Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant said. ?I know they are eager to deliver their bales, just as we are eager to validate our receiving and handling procedures at the new biomass stackyard.
?BCAP is important to helping these first farmers get the new biomass market off the ground. BCAP?s inclusion in the next Farm Bill is an important part of continuing to develop this market.?
BCAP is a USDA program that provides matching funds of up to $45 per ton to an individual farmer for a maximum two years. It is meant to offset startup costs for developing the feedstock market for cellulosic ethanol and other alternative energy endeavors.
Bales this year will be used primarily to test procedures for delivery, receiving, quality assurance, storage and handling at the stackyard. When operational, Project LIBERTY will use about 300,000 tons of biomass annually to produce ethanol.
About POET
POET, the largest ethanol producer in the world, is a leader in biorefining through its efficient, vertically integrated approach to production. The 23-year-old company has a production capacity of more than 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed annually from 27 production facilities nationwide.�POET also operates a pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, which uses corn cobs and light stover as feedstock, and will commercialize the process in Emmetsburg, Iowa. For more information, visit http://www.poet.com.
�
###
�
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?While we shared the farmers? frustration with delays to BCAP, we are happy to see that the program is being implemented and farmers are now delivering biomass to POET,? Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant said. ?I know they are eager to deliver their bales, just as we are eager to validate our receiving and handling procedures at the new biomass stackyard.
?BCAP is important to helping these first farmers get the new biomass market off the ground. BCAP?s inclusion in the next Farm Bill is an important part of continuing to develop this market.?
BCAP is a USDA program that provides matching funds of up to $45 per ton to an individual farmer for a maximum two years. It is meant to offset startup costs for developing the feedstock market for cellulosic ethanol and other alternative energy endeavors.
Bales this year will be used primarily to test procedures for delivery, receiving, quality assurance, storage and handling at the stackyard. When operational, Project LIBERTY will use about 300,000 tons of biomass annually to produce ethanol.
About POET
POET, the largest ethanol producer in the world, is a leader in biorefining through its efficient, vertically integrated approach to production. The 23-year-old company has a production capacity of more than 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed annually from 27 production facilities nationwide.�POET also operates a pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, which uses corn cobs and light stover as feedstock, and will commercialize the process in Emmetsburg, Iowa. For more information, visit http://www.poet.com.
�
###
�
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Vertical supply chain integration gathers pace in the offshore wind sector
In May 2010 French energy giant Areva took full control of German wind turbine manufacturer Multibrid, forming a new subsidiary called Areva Wind. A few months later in October a long-term partnership agreement was sealed with Beluga Hochtief Offshore, a joint-venture between Hochtief Construction and Beluga Shipping, securing the use of a purpose-built jack-up vessel for offshore wind park installation. Other notable examples of vertical integration in 2010 included energy conglomerate Siemens buying a 49% stake in A2SEA, a supplier of installation vessels for offshore wind farms, for 115million euros and last December?s move by RWE Innogy to invest in purpose-built vessels for installation of turbines and foundations. United Technologies Company (UTC) also recently completed its �139.5million buyout of wind turbine maker Clipper Windpower.
There is a serious limitation in terms of specialised providers across the supply chain in offshore wind. Whether it?s cables, turbines, skilled workers, ports or logistics it is a nascent industry that is in the process of specialisation. There are bottlenecks that need to be overcome in just about every part of the supply chain.
Other sectors such as coal, gas or nuclear have an existing pool of suppliers who can provide services on a turnkey basis. In wind however, the utilities are discovering that they need to do a bit more on their own balance sheet.
There is growing interest being shown in wind by oil service firms. Before wind was seen as a distraction but now it is a much more interesting business. Oil companies have the natural skills and resources for it.
The offshore wind supply chain is just not robust enough yet. Increasing demand, interest and investment in wind will make resources even scarcer. There is a bit of a chicken and egg game going on between the resource suppliers and the companies. They know they want them but they don?t want to have to pay for them now as the financing difficulties make the process uncertain. There isn?t a lot of money to invest ahead of the game but companies are equally nervous that if they wait a year they will be at the back of the queue.
In March, Wind Energy Update is hosting the Offshore Wind Energy Supply Chain Conference. The leading Developers and OEMs are represented at the conference to establish an industry blueprint of what it takes to succeed as a trusted supplier in the European Offshore wind energy industry.
Head of Procurement - Offshore - RWE Innogy
Director - Head of Technology and Procurement - Vattenfall Wind Power
Managing Director, Offshore - GAMESA
Offshore Product Deployment Manager - GE Wind Energy
Managing Director - Beluga Offshore
Learn to develop deeper relationships with long term suppliers, how to cope with order fluctuations and demands for greater manufacturing flexibility and reduce your risks with carefully selected strategic partnerships.�Find out more on this event at http://www.windenergyupdate.com/offshorewindsupplychain/
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There is a serious limitation in terms of specialised providers across the supply chain in offshore wind. Whether it?s cables, turbines, skilled workers, ports or logistics it is a nascent industry that is in the process of specialisation. There are bottlenecks that need to be overcome in just about every part of the supply chain.
Other sectors such as coal, gas or nuclear have an existing pool of suppliers who can provide services on a turnkey basis. In wind however, the utilities are discovering that they need to do a bit more on their own balance sheet.
There is growing interest being shown in wind by oil service firms. Before wind was seen as a distraction but now it is a much more interesting business. Oil companies have the natural skills and resources for it.
The offshore wind supply chain is just not robust enough yet. Increasing demand, interest and investment in wind will make resources even scarcer. There is a bit of a chicken and egg game going on between the resource suppliers and the companies. They know they want them but they don?t want to have to pay for them now as the financing difficulties make the process uncertain. There isn?t a lot of money to invest ahead of the game but companies are equally nervous that if they wait a year they will be at the back of the queue.
In March, Wind Energy Update is hosting the Offshore Wind Energy Supply Chain Conference. The leading Developers and OEMs are represented at the conference to establish an industry blueprint of what it takes to succeed as a trusted supplier in the European Offshore wind energy industry.
Head of Procurement - Offshore - RWE Innogy
Director - Head of Technology and Procurement - Vattenfall Wind Power
Managing Director, Offshore - GAMESA
Offshore Product Deployment Manager - GE Wind Energy
Managing Director - Beluga Offshore
Learn to develop deeper relationships with long term suppliers, how to cope with order fluctuations and demands for greater manufacturing flexibility and reduce your risks with carefully selected strategic partnerships.�Find out more on this event at http://www.windenergyupdate.com/offshorewindsupplychain/
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Vids 4 Grids
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), in partnership with George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College, is producing a series of videos designed to inform today?s students about tomorrow?s possibilities. Targeting high school seniors and first-year college students, Vids 4 Grids will (when all have been produced) consist of 12 ten-minute videos and three 30-minute podcasts to be posted on YouTube. Each video in the series will highlight a particular piece of grid equipment or fundamental concept integral to the deployment of Smart Grid systems.
Through integration into curricula and online posting for open usage, Vids 4 Grids aims to increase awareness and create interest in power systems careers, and ultimately lead to expanded enrollment in classes leading to power system careers. The project encourages industry participation in curriculum development for power engineering and, through the open access of YouTube, increase general public knowledge of the power sector. NEMA expects Vids 4 Grids to help develop the well-trained, highly skilled electric power sector workforce that is essential to implementing a national clean-energy Smart Grid.
Vids 4 Grids is funded by the Department?s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability as one of 52 Recovery-Act funded awards for Workforce Development, and is the only one of those selected specifically developing videos. Filming for the videos is done on-site at the facilities of leading power equipment manufacturers. The Podcasts will incorporate open-ended questions with student-selected experts on their experiences in the power sector.
Below are the first two videos in the series:
Check back for more updates at: http://www.youtube.com/vids4grids.
Deborah J Buterbaugh is Energy Project Specialist with the National Energy Technology Laboratory.�
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Wave and Tidal Energy on the Rise: But Will it Work?
Companies have been developing marine energy devices for more than 100 years ? but success has been limited.
With more advanced materials and a long track record of failures to learn from, a number of companies are working on promising technologies. However, leading technology developers like Aquamarine Power, Atlantis Resources Corporation, Ocean Power Technologies, OpenHydro, Ocean Renewable Power Company and Pelamis have been secretive about the performance of their devices.
Because there is little data to evaluate, it's still uncertain how successful wave and tidal companies will be as larger projects are deployed.
The report from Douglas Westwood highlights the many challenges the sector faces: Reliability, cost of electricity, environmental protection issues and availability of project finance. There are many unknowns facing the industry that may prevent companies from reaching the 150-MW projection outlined in the report.
With that said, more governments are providing R&D funding and incentives for project developers, providing a needed boost for these early-stage companies.
According to Douglas-Westwood, The UK, Canada and US will be the three biggest markets through 2015. The UK leads with 110 MW of projected installations. Driven by a strong tidal resource, excellent R&D and support, Canada is the second largest market. The US is also making progress, again with much R&D funding attracting developers.
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Sunday, June 26, 2011
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.�
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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.�
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NREL Helps Corporate Fleets Go Green
December 28, 2010
Enlarge image
NREL and Coca-Cola Refreshments teamed up for a year-long technology evaluation of their hybrid electric delivery trucks. NREL researchers will provide a comparison of fuel economy and operating costs between the hybrids and the diesel trucks in use.
Credit: Patrick Curran
With all of the delivery trucks on U.S. roadways this holiday season, it is easy to see why researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are focused on evaluating the latest energy-saving technology that is commercially available in the medium and heavy-duty truck markets.
From the beverage industry to package delivery companies, fleet managers are looking for ways to green their fleets by achieving better fuel efficiency and fewer emissions while maintaining an eye on the company's bottom line. "We focus on a number of factors that affect a company's fleet, from emissions to reliability to cost," Senior Project Leader Kevin Walkowicz said. "Cost is the number one barrier to companies using advanced technologies and commercial fleets are always concerned about maintaining profitability. Companies need to understand if these vehicles are going to save them money, or cost them money, over the long run."
Researchers Look for Data, Data, Data
NREL is specifically equipped to tackle this type of research thanks to its Renewable Fuels and Lubricants (ReFUEL) Research Laboratory. ReFUEL is outfitted for testing advanced fuels in heavy-duty engines and vehicles as well as advanced heavy hybrid vehicles. It also was the first independent laboratory in the U.S. with a heavy-duty chassis dynamometer that was able to accurately measure tailpipe emissions from trucks with diesel engines that meet the stringent 2007 standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"There are three main tools we use when evaluating these types of heavy-duty hybrid vehicles ? data provided by the fleet, data we collect at ReFUEL and data we collect by logging it in the field," Walkowicz said. "After we're done with testing, we try to provide information that is useful to other fleets so they can see who has tried the technology, what the results were, and what were the benefits."
While it sounds like a lot of information, using the three data-stream approach allows researchers to compare how the new vehicles stack up against conventional models in the fleet.
"We test a baseline group alongside a similar number of hybrid vehicles so we can compare the new technology against the old," Walkowicz said. "We are looking for differences in fuel economy, emissions, maintenance, operating cost and reliability."
Walkowicz also noted that advances in data logging are helping researchers get a valuable real-time snap shot of how these vehicles perform while "on the job."
"We can log into the vehicles remotely, gather everything from GPS to battery temperatures to all of the information available on the vehicles' computer ? which can consist of hundreds of channels of digital data being monitored. Data is king ? the more data we gather, the easier it is for us to point out a few things to help the operators optimize and use the vehicles more efficiently. Where it can be a trial and error process for the company, we can look at the data and tell them very quickly how these vehicles and advanced technology systems are performing in different operating conditions."
Industry is taking notice of NREL's abilities. In the last two years, FedEx, UPS and Coca-Cola Refreshments have all teamed with NREL to evaluate their hybrid fleets.
Coca-Cola Takes Diesel Hybrids for a Spin
Just this year, NREL and Coca-Cola Refreshments teamed up for a year-long technology evaluation of their Miami-based, class 8, hybrid electric delivery trucks. At the end of testing, NREL researchers will provide a comparison of fuel economy and operating costs between the hybrids and the diesel trucks in use.
Coca-Cola Refreshments' large hybrid trucks are equipped with the latest generation of a parallel hybrid system manufactured by Eaton Corp. These trucks can weigh in at as much as 55,000 lbs. The system includes regenerative braking and lithium-ion batteries that provide energy storage. Energy that is normally lost during braking is captured, stored in the batteries, and used to power the electric motor.
The trucks were tested at the ReFUEL facility in August 2010 using drive cycle data obtained from their Miami fleet as guidance for creating the laboratory test plan. Fuel economy and emissions were measured and the test results will be compared to on-road data that is being gathered currently. Final study results will be available in summer 2011.
FedEx Hybrids Reduce Tailpipe Emissions
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NREL researchers found gasoline hybrids substantially reduce tailpipe emissions in FedEx delivery vans.
Courtesy of Fed Ex
Also within the past year, FedEx Express, California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, CALSTART and NREL teamed up to look at FedEx Express' gasoline hybrid electric (gHEV) delivery trucks.
"Performing a field evaluation of gasoline-hybrid delivery trucks in Los Angeles and then testing them at ReFUEL was a unique project because they are using gasoline engines coupled with a hybrid system, rather than diesel," Walkowicz said. "At the time of the study, the gasoline hybrid option was investigated for use in the Southern California location since it was an option that could reduce NOx and particulate matter while maintaining efficiency compared to the diesels available at the time."
NREL researchers also tested a conventional diesel vehicle and a gHEV from the FedEx Express fleet at the ReFUEL laboratory. Researchers found the benefit for the gHEVs was indeed in the tailpipe emissions. "The fuel economy for the gasoline hybrid wasn't much better than a diesel so there was not much of a fuel savings," Walkowicz said. "But, when we brought them to the lab, it proved out how much cleaner the hybrids were ? the tailpipe emissions were substantially reduced."
The interim report on the FedEx testing was released in May and final results will be published in the coming weeks.
UPS Diesel Hybrids Cut Fuel and Costs
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NREL testing showed the UPS hybrids improved fuel economy by 28.9 percent; resulting in a 15 percent reduction in operating cost per mile.
Courtesy of UPS
Unlike the second generation Eaton hybrid system that Coca-Cola is testing, in 2009, NREL helped UPS evaluate the first generation hybrid diesel delivery vans powered by an Eaton hybrid system. The vans are one of the first applications of a lithium battery pack put into use in the U.S. market.
Compared to conventional vehicles, NREL testing showed the hybrids improved fuel economy by 28.9 percent in the field; resulting in a 15 percent reduction in operating cost per mile. The final report, released in December 2009, details the year-long evaluation, including how the NREL team collected and analyzed fuel economy and other vehicle performance data while the vans stayed in service. The project team also tested a conventional and hybrid delivery van at ReFUEL and documented fuel economy and emissions performance.
After the NREL study, UPS ordered an additional 200 Eaton hybrid vans for its fleet. NREL is continuing to work with UPS into 2011 to evaluate vehicles from the additional order in a UPS fleet in Minneapolis.
As these recent examples show, "Our testing helps NREL, DOE and industry understand how much progress is being made for these types of vehicles," Walkowicz said. "It also helps us understand the technical and commercial barriers that need to be overcome in order to make these vehicles mainstream products in the industry."
These projects are part of a series of evaluations performed by NREL for the AVTA, DOE's Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity. AVTA bridges the gap between research and development and the commercial availability of advanced vehicle technologies that reduce petroleum use and improve air quality in the United States. The main objective of AVTA projects is to provide comprehensive, unbiased evaluations of advanced vehicle technologies in commercial use.
Learn more about NREL's Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems and the Renewable Fuels and Lubricants (ReFUEL) Research Laboratory.
? Heather Lammers
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Stan Bull, Long-Time NREL Leader, Named AAAS Fellow
News Release NR-0111
January 11, 2011
Stanley R. Bull, former associate director for Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Energy?s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Bull, a Midwest Research Institute vice president when he served at NREL, is now MRI?s director of Energy Programs and an NREL emeritus researcher. He was cited for ?distinguished leadership in creating new programs, development of students and staff, and outreach to the technical, policy, and public communities on sustainable energy.?
Bull said he was honored to be tapped for the distinguished award, and said his greatest satisfactions have been the successes of the students he mentored and the NREL colleagues he supervised. His goal always has been ?to empower, motivate, support, and protect them so they can be innovative and productive.?
The best way to accelerate the commercialization of renewable energy is to partner with existing energy companies, including the fossil-fuel industry, and to ?provide our technologies in forms that integrate seamlessly and have inherent advantages with their existing infrastructure,? Bull said. He is confident that renewable energy scientists and engineers at NREL, MRI, and elsewhere will close the technological gap soon to bring solar, wind, biomass and other renewables to cost parity with carbon-based fuels.
Bull has a Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University and a B.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.� His degrees are in chemical engineering and mechanical engineering.� Professional recognition and honors include a Senior Fulbright-Hays Professorship in Grenoble, France, and the Secretary of Energy Outstanding Program Manager Award.
New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) on Feb. 19 from 8 to 10 a.m. at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association?s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members, or by the AAAS chief executive officer. This year, 503 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world?s largest general scientific society, serving 10 million people. Its mission is to ?advance science and serve society? through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. The AAAS is publisher of the journal, Science, which has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world.
NREL 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, a limited liability company that is equally owned and governed by Battelle and Midwest Research Institute.
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Visit NREL online at�www.nrel.gov
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.
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