A Carbon Project

A carbon project refers to a business initiative that receives funding because of the cut the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that will result.

To prove that the project will result in real, permanent, verifiable reductions in Greenhouse Gases, proof must be provided in the form of a

• project design document and activity reports validated by an approved third party in the case of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI) projects.

Carbon projects are developed for reasons of voluntary environmental stewardship, as well as legal compliance under a Greenhouse Gas Cap & Trade program.

Voluntary carbon (GHG) reducers may wish to monetize reductions in their carbon footprint by trading the reductions in exchange for monetary compensation.

The transfer of environmental stewardship rights would then allow another entity to make an environmental stewardship claim.

There are several developing voluntary reduction standards that projects can use as guides for development.

Carbon projects have become increasingly important since the advent of emissions trading under Phase I of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005.

They may be used if the project has been validated by a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Designated Operational Entity (DOE) according the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The resulting emissions reductions may become Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) when a DOE has produced a verification report which has been submitted to the CDM Executive Board.
There may be new project methodology validated by the CDM EB for post phase II Kyoto trading.

The Rest @ Wikipedia

Introduction to Photovoltaics

McKinsey Projects US Energy Efficiency Savings

New report suggests the United States could save $1.2 trillion by investing $50 billion a year through 2020.

Management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. released a report today suggesting the U.S. could reduce its non-transportation related energy consumption by as much as 23 percent by 2020 if
it invests enough political and financial capital.

The report indicates that reducing energy consumption by 23 percent by 2020 could eliminate more than $1.2 trillion in waste (at a rate of $130 billion annually), which would dramatically exceed the $520 billion investment required, i.e. $50 billion each a year over the next decade, plus program costs that would be required to put such energy efficiencies in place.
“If we do nothing we will waste $1.2 trillion of energy,” said Ken Ostrowski, a senior partner from McKinsey’s Atlanta office, in a briefing at the U.S. National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
But the report’s authors caution that these energy savings can only be realized if the United States adopts a comprehensive strategy to overcoming significant barriers. Solutions should include information and education, incentives and financing, codes and standards, and third-party involvement, the report said.
“The awareness levels aren’t there today, and that’s one of the barriers we have to overcome,” Ostrowski said.

“It’s not that we haven’t been making progress,” said Ostrowski. “We haven’t been making progress fast enough relative to the magnitude that’s out there.”
Ostrowski said today’s report builds on a previous McKinsey study released in 2007 on U.S. greenhouse gas abatement. Today's report includes a GHG abatement cost curve through 2030, showing the potential costs and benefits of using various means to reduce GHG emissions.
McKinsey is known for its abatement cost curves—calculations showing how much it will cost or generate for the economy to take emission cuts from particular sectors or using certain technologies. The curve shows that much of the energy efficiencies can be achieved through residential and commercial devices, such as Energy Star appliances (see Saving energy at the U.S. DOE).

Today’s report only looks at stationary energy uses across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, including combined heat and power. It also focuses on existing and readily available technologies that can be deployed, rather than those in development, Ostrowski said.
“We identified the potential for energy efficiency, not how much will actually be achieved,” he said. “How much is out there, how much gets captured will be decided by policymakers and business leaders.”

The report’s authors include Hannah Choi Granade, Jon Creyts, Anton Derkach, Philip Farese, Scott Nyquist, and Ken Ostrowski. The team said it modeled more than 650 technologies and analyzed more than 20,000 micro-segments of energy consumption.

The United States, including utilities and private companies, is currently spending between $10 billion to $12 billion on energy efficiency programs, said Choi Granade, a partner in McKinsey’s Stamford, Conn., office. But that doesn’t include $13 billion in additional stimulus funds (see Smart grid could be early winner in U.S. stimulus package). She said the U.S. government would need a four-to-five fold scale up in stimulus funding to achieve the potential outlined in the report.

If executed at scale, a comprehensive energy savings strategy could reduce the annual non-transportation energy consumption addressed in the report from 36.9 quadrillion BTUs in 2008 to 30.8 quadrillion BTUs in 2020—saving 9.1 quadrillion BTUs relative to a business-as-usual baseline, according to McKinsey estimates. The energy use reduction could also result in the abatement of 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

Read a full copy of McKinsey's new report, Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy, here.

The investment community is already indicating it is backing some of the report’s goals. One week in May alone, five startups pulled in $32 million in venture capital financing for energy efficiency plays in manufacturing, lighting and solar (see Energy efficiency rules week's cleantech roost).

The report’s focus on energy efficiency is also what Cleantech Group’s Executive Chairman Nicholas Parker picked in December, 2008 as the top trend to watch in 2009 (see Nine clean technology predictions for 2009).

Commercial Load Demand Estimator

OGE ( An Oklahoma Power Utility) has a very useful Energy use calculator for commercial buildings. A clean tech Engineer I know uses it for a very quick load demand estimation at the begining of an energy audit.

-Editor.

Negawatt - A Measure of Energy Saved Through Efficiency Gains

Negawatt power is the idea of creating incentives to reduce demand for electricity to ease the load at peak times or alleviate the need to build more generation plants. In theory, these negawatts can be aggregated and an arbitrage market could be created to trade these.


The term was coined by Amory Lovins, who saw a typo — "negawatt" instead of "megawatt" — in a Colorado Public Utilities Commission report. He adopted the term to describe electricity that wasn't created due to energy efficiency.[1]


An electricity supplier that needs more electricity can invite suppliers to bid to supply it and invite customers to bid to reduce demand. The electricity supplier can then compare these quotations to establish the most economic alternative. This comparison can refer to peak load management - how much per additional kW to get the power company through the peak load due to air conditioning on an unusually hot day - or may refer to longer-term investments - comparing the cost of building a new power station with the cost of, for instance, providing customers with low energy light bulbs.


A genuine market for negawatts requires regulatory failure elsewhere: the price of electricity at peak times must be lower than the marginal cost of supplying additional peak demand, or there must be constraints on the installation of new capacity.


Establishing a market may require legislation and cooperation between primary producers, distributors, traders and consumers. For instance, generators' income is commonly derived from selling electricity and their cash flow may be reduced by trade in efficiencies, but increasing supply by raising consumption efficiency is often less expensive than building new powerplants.
New markets have developed in several regions across the United States to allow "demand side resources" to participate in wholesale energy markets. These markets are commonly referred to as demand response.


The naming concept could be expanded; cf. negajoules or negawatt-hours. [2]



The Rest @ Wikipedia

Hydrogen-HCNG Car from Norway

FYK is a Norwegian sports car designed to run on a blend of hydrogen and natural gas. It was developed by a Norwegian company named Aetek and received backing from Statoil, the largest petroleum company in the Nordic countries and Norway's largest company in all categories.

FYK was launched in 2006 as a technology demonstrator and there are currently no plans on putting it into series production.

FYK was launched in august 2006, at the same time as Statoil opened up the first filling station in Norway for hydrogen, Natural Hy and natural gas.

• This filling station can be found in Forus, Stavanger. F


• YK is powered on NaturalHy (HCNG), a blend consisting of 8-20% hydrogen and 92-80% compressed natural gas.


• The car is built almost entirely in aluminium in order to reduce weight and the car is fitted with cutting edge wireless communications solutions from Norway.


• Not only body and chassis, but suspension, motor, wheels and the entire has been made from recyclable aluminium and exterior as well as interior is formidable display of various aluminium-shaping techniques and surface treatments.


• Critics has put forward that just like gasoline, natural gas is a fossil fuel that contributes to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Natural gas is found in oil fields, natural gas fields and coal beds. (There is another type of methane-rich gas that can be produced by non-fossil organic materials as they decay, but this type of gas is commonly referred to as biogas, not natural gas.)

According to Statoil and Aetec, FYK should however only be seen as the first step towards future hydrogen powered cars. Aetec, the company behind the ground-breaking FYK is a Norwegian design- and prototype development company focused on the development of environmentally friendly concepts for the transport sector.

According to Aetec, they wish to combine environmentally friendly designs with excitement, and it therefore comes as no surprise that they are behind innovative creations like a hydrogen/natural gas powered sports car.

The Rest @ XM3 CArs

US Treasury Guidance for Grants over ITC and PTC

July 9, 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which was enacted in February, permits an applicant to receive a grant from Treasury in lieu of claiming investment tax credits (ITCs) or production tax credits (PTCs).

Today the U.S. Treasury Department issued much-anticipated guidance concerning applications to receive cash grants in lieu of claiming income tax credits for certain renewable energy projects.

Although the guidance includes a sample application form, the U.S. Treasury has stated that it will not accept applications until August 1.

Click here to read the full analysis on this guidance including grant details, eligibility and the application process at www.stoel.com.

The Rest @ Stoel Rives

Commercial Dye-sensitised solar cells - Graetzel cells- Are Two Years Away

JERUSALEM, July 9 (Reuters) - It may take a little bit of colour to create cheaper solar energy.
Israeli start-up 3GSolar says it has developed the world's first commercial-size solar energy system that uses coloured dyes to turn sunlight into electricity.

The technology emerged from a relatively new field in solar energy that uses simple organic dyes instead of rare or costly materials, like silicon, which scare many consumers away from solar power.

Energy companies have been struggling for years to make dye-sensitised solar cells (DSC) large enough to be used in commercial-size systems. Such next generation cells could be used in cutting-edge applications, like windows that turn passing sun rays into electricity.

Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony Corp (6758.T) said last year it had developed dye-sensitised cells with an energy conversion efficiency of 10 percent, a level seen necessary for commercial use, but that its technology was still in the research and development stage.

A 1.5 square metre (16 square foot) prototype, boasting red panels, stands on the rooftop of the 3GSolar's Jerusalem laboratories. The company's founder, Jonathan Goldstein, says it is by far the largest in the world.

It transforms just seven percent of the sunlight it absorbs into electricity, but he said that its efficiency would increase steadily in the coming years.

Scaling up the size of solar panels has been hampered by problems of metal corrosion in their grids. 3GSolar would not disclose the exact process it used to overcome the obstacle.

"These cells, each individual one of 225 square centimetres (34 square inches), we believe are the largest of this type in the world and give a record-breaking current," Goldstein said.
Dye-sensitised solar cells are also known as Graetzel cells, after Michael Graetzel, a professor at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, who discovered them about 20 years ago.

He found that sunlight excites the dye and creates and electronic charge without the need for pricey semiconductors, similar to the way a plant uses chlorophyll to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis.

Graetzel told Reuters the dye-based technology has been gaining momentum in the renewable energy market.

He said there were key advantages over other systems.
These included lower costs, its ability to create electricity in cloudy areas or in non-peak sunlight, and the smaller amount of energy needed to manufacture the panels, which leaves a smaller carbon footprint.

Other companies, including Australia's Dyesol (DYE.AX) and Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T), have been racing to "scale up" dye solar cells to a commercial size, Graetzel said.

"3GSolar came up with a solution. They report to have a collector that doesn't corrode," Graetzel said. He added that the company has shown promising results from durability tests on their panels carried out over 1,500 hours at 85 degrees Celsius.

"They are not the only company working with DSC, but they have deliberately pushed their particular current collector technology first," he said.

CANDLE-LIT VILLAGES

Ken Zweibel, director of George Washington University's Solar Institute, said dye cells should be pursued but they remain among the "low efficiency" group of solar cells.

"They are inching their way up in efficiency, and they appear to have some headroom," Zweibel said.

He added that the different colour options and range of applications may make dye cells more attractive. But he emphasised the importance of durability: "Can they warrantee 25 years outdoors as their competitors do?"

3GSolar says its first system -- with two solar panels, a charge controller and a battery -- will hit the market in two years. It will target the off-grid market in developing countries, where many villages still depend on candlelight.

The Brussels-based Alliance for Rural Electrification estimated the off-grid market at $1.5 billion.

3GSolar said its system will have a lifespan of about seven years and have an output of 110 watts, enough to power many types of refrigerators.

It will cost $400, less than similar silicon-based systems, when produced locally. That translates into 30 cents per kWh, which is still much higher than fossil fuels.

The company expects the price will come down as the lifespan increases and production costs drop.

The Rest @ Reuters

By Ari Rabinovitch, Editing by Anthony Barker)

Wood Biomass Gasification Combined Heat and Power in the UK

I pulled this from a Alfagy's website: They are developing wood mass gassification in a high heat low oxegen invironment, the burining the clean gas. Very interesting...

-CTE Editor

The range of fully automated Wood Gasified Heat and Power Plants are as follows:


The ENERCARB wood gas technology offers customers a turn-key automated solution for heat and power generation from wood. We can provide a complete solution covering the full value chain from wood preparation to power generation in the 250 kW to 1,000 kW range. This is a gap in the market where the company believes there is a potential £725m market worldwide.A full scale 500 kW wood gasification plant was built for a client and has been operating since April 2009.

Over the next 3 years sales of wood gasification plants are expected growing rapidly with the introduction of new support structures.

Biomass accounts for around 5 per cent of total energy consumption in Europe. In countries such as Finland, Sweden and Austria its contribution reaches 15-20 per cent as biomass is supported with specific policies.

It is primarily used for both production of electricity and heat in cogeneration plants and as a fuel in municipal district heating facilities.

Biomass is likely to have an important role in Europe's ability to meet its targets for renewable use by 2020, according to Frost & Sullivan. There are five accepted technologies for converting biomass fuels into electrical energy; the Schmitt ENERCARB plant is focussed on addressing the second technology:

1. Conventional steam cycle – biomass is burned to produce steam which is then used to drive a turbine

2. Gasification – biomass is converted to a gas using a high temperature oxygen starved environment

3. Pyrolysis – biomass is converted to a liquid rather than a gas

4. Anaerobic digestion – typically sewage sludge is digested to produce methane

5. Landfill gas – collection of gas from landfill sitesGasification is possibly the most attractive of the technologies, but also one of the least developed.

There are a number of practical and engineering issues with gasification which, until now, have been a barrier to full commercial roll out of this technology.The particular issues are:

• Quality of feedstock – can a system be developed to work with a range of different biomass fuels.
• Supply chain – can the fuel be provided in an efficient consistent way.
• Consistency of gas produced – can a plant produce gas of a standard quality that can be burned cleanly.
• Tar free gas production – can the resulting gas have low tar levels which will allow it to be burned for extended periods without maintenance.

The gasification plant has been developed to address all these issues. The Alfagy gasified heat and power plant offers a highly efficient solution to producing electricity from biomass in the 250 kWe – 1,000 kWe range.

Through careful engineering of the gasifier and scrubbing of the gas output, Schmitt has developed a virtually tar free wood gasfier. Specific aspects of the Alfagy Woodgas CHP system that give us a competitive advantage include:
• Improved process for automated fuel feeding
• Effective automated gas scrubbing and filtering systems to produce tar free gas.
• Modular approach offering a simple scalable solution with operational security
• Well engineered, automated, turn-key product giving customers an easy to implement plant.The benefits of producing tar free wood gas include:
• Increased running time between maintenance, in some cases from 24 hours to 8,000 hours
• Higher Return on Investment (ROI)


The Rest @ Alfagy

Nano Wire Mapping - Essential for Photovoltaic Technology

Nano wires are essential for the increase in efficiency of Photo Voltaic Technology. Since the PV effect can occur on wires one 1000th of the diameter of a human hair. The ability to build a mesh of nano wires within a PV cell or PV material is important toward increasing PV Materials.

Now a Company has created a mapping machine that can find a sugar cube in 25 square kilometer of three dimensional space....

Read this article to fin out more.

-Editor

Nano Measurement In The 3rd Dimension

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2009) — From the motion sensor to the computer chip - in many products of daily life components are used whose functioning is based on smallest structures of the size of thousandths - or even millionths - of millimetres. These micro and nano structures must be manufactured and assembled with the highest precision so that in the end, the overall system will function smoothly.
See also:

Because of this, details are important. Scientists at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have now developed a meteorological scanning probe microscope into a micro and nano coordinate measuring instrument.

This allows dimensional quantities with nanometer resolution also to be measured on three-dimensional objects in an extraordinarily large measurement range of 25 mm x 25 mm x 5 mm. The new device is already extensively being used at PTB - to a large part for calibration orders from industry and research.

Often, such small dimensions can be grasped only when they are transferred to everyday life. If we assume, for example, that someone lost a cube of sugar within an area of 25 square kilometres – the new micro and nano coordinate measuring instrument would not only be able to find it, but it would also be able to determine its exact position and shape. This does not only apply to plane surfaces, but also to three-dimensional landscapes, for example if the cube of sugar were stuck to a steep wall.

As increasingly, components with structures in the micro- and nanometer range are being used in industry, dimensional metrology on such structures is becoming increasingly important. To meet the increasing requirements for 3D measurements of micro and nano structures, 3D measuring probes newly developed at PTB were incorporated in a metrological scanning probe microscope based on a commercial nano-positioning system with integrated laser displacement sensors of the company SIOS Messtechnik GmbH. The new functionalities given by the measuring probe and the software extend the scanning probe microscope to a metrological micro/nano coordinate measuring machine (CMM) which also allows 3D measurements conforming to standards to be performed on micro and nano structures.

International intercomparisons on step-height standards and lattice structures have shown that the measuring system is worldwide one of the most precise of its kind. For step heights, measurement uncertainties in the subnanometer range - and for measurements of the mean structure spacing on extensive lattice standards even in the range of 10 picometers - have been achieved and confirmed in comparison with optical diffraction measurements.

The new measuring instrument is available for dimensional precision measurements with nm resolution on 3D micro and nano structures such as micro gears, micro balls, hardness indenters and nano lattice standards as well as for comparisons of measures; moreover, it serves as a platform for research and development tasks. It is an important link between nano, micro and macro coordinate metrology.

The Rest @ Science Daily

Matter & EnergyNanotechnology
Materials Science Detectors
Computers & MathMobile Computing
Statistics
Computer Graphics
Reference
Confocal laser scanning microscopy
Scanning tunneling microscope
Nanorobotics
Scanning electron microscope

Coca Cola Bottling with Fuel Cell in New York

HELMSFORD, N.Y. -- Coca Cola Enterprises signed a 10-year contract with UTC Power that will bring two fuel cells to its southern New York bottling plant.

The UTC Power fuel cells will produce heat and energy that can satisfy nearly a third of demand at Coca Cola’s bottling plant in Elmsford, N.Y. The project received $2 million in funds from the state’s Energy Research and Development Authority.

• South Windsor, Conn.-based UTC Power will retain ownership of the fuel cells, in addition to operating and maintaining them.
• The company began offering the 10-year energy services agreement a few years ago, according to company spokeswoman Peg Hashem.“It’s helpful for those who don’t want to spend the capital upfront,” she said.
• Fuel cells produce electricity, heat and water by combining hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical process.
• The PureCell 400 fuel cells to be deployed at Coca Cola’s bottling plant are more than twice as energy efficient as traditional power sources and can each generate up to 400 kW of electricity and up to 1.7 million Btu/hour of heat, according to company materials.
  UTC Power's PureCell 400 can generate up to 400 kW of electricity and 1.7 million Btu/hour of heat
• UTC Power, which is a unit of United Technologies Corp., has seen the most success with its energy services contract program in states that offer incentives, she said, such as California, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
• There must also be access to natural gas.
• Hashem believes the Coca Cola deal will be the fuel cell’s first application in a bottling plant when they are delivered next year.

Coca Cola said in a prepared statement it plans to deploy fuel cells to other facilities in North America and Western Europe.

In addition to producing fuel cells for transportation applications, UTC Power has also installed more than 260 stationary fuel cells in 19 countries.

Ideal sites for stationary fuel cells, Hashem said, should operate continuously. “

It also makes the most sense when it is not only generating power, but can take waste heat and put it to work by heating the facility or running it through a chiller for cooling,” she said.

Previous sites include hospitals, data centers, hotels and supermarkets.

For example, a Whole Foods Market in Dedham, Mass., will become the first supermarket in the state to use the PureCell 400 fuel cell to generate 90 percent of its power. The system will also produce almost all of the hot water used at the store when it begins operating later this year. The state provided a $400,000 grant for the project, which is also governed by an energy services contract.

The Rest @ Greenbiz

Fremont, CA School System Goes Solar With $30M Bond

(June 5, 2009) Campbell, CA - Real Goods Solar (NASDAQ: RSOL) announced today it has signed a contract to design and install solar electric systems totaling 3.65 megawatts for the Fremont Union High School District in Sunnyvale, Cupertino and west San Jose, California.

• The new solar systems will be constructed as carports at all five high schools in the District and are expected to save District taxpayers over $12 million in the total cost of electricity over the next 25 years.
• The five systems will contribute enough electricity to cover about 45% of the power usage of each school.
• This solar program, exceeding $30 million, is believed to be the largest direct purchase by a secondary school system in North America, financed by a portion of a $198M school bond approved by the District’s voters in June 2008.
  

The District researched many alternative energy options before choosing Real Goods Solar for these installations across school campuses.

The system monitoring that Real Goods Solar provides will enable campuses to track their electricity offset in the years ahead.

Glenn Evans, COO/Associate Superintendent, stated, “Electricity is our single largest expense other than teachers and staff and we can only use school bond funds for facilites and equipment.

By investing bond dollars in solar, we will save many tens of millions of dollars on electric utility bills over the coming decades and that savings will go directly into supporting educational programs and students.

Real Goods Solar worked very closely with us to develop a solar power system customized to our energy needs. Solar electricity will be a huge win for everyone – for taxpayers, for students, for our community and for the environment.”

A Groundbreaking ceremony will take place at the Homestead High School site on June 9 at 12:45 p.m.

About the Fremont Union High School District:

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area in the State of California, the Fremont Union High School District currently serves over 10,000 students in a 42 square mile area covering all of the City of Cupertino, most of Sunnyvale and portions of San Jose, Los Altos, Saratoga, and Santa Clara in Santa Clara County. People move to the community because of the outstanding elementary and high school districts. The five high schools — Cupertino, Fremont, Homestead, Lynbrook, and Monta Vista — continue to hold top ranking throughout the region, state, and nation.

About Real Goods Solar:

Real Goods Solar is a leading solar energy integrator, having installed over 4,500 solar electric systems for both residential and commercial properties. Real Goods Solar offers turnkey solar energy solutions, and has 30 years of experience in solar energy, beginning with its sale of the first solar photovoltaic panels in the United States in 1978. With offices in San Rafael, Richmond, Campbell, Fresno, Santa Cruz, Murrieta, and Hopland, California, as well as in Boulder, Colorado, Real Goods Solar is one of the largest residential solar installers in the United States. Real Goods Solar is publicly traded under the symbol RSOL (NASDAQ). For more information, go to www.realgoodssolar.com or call 1-888-507-2561.
###

The Smart Grid to Cost $400 Billion

When the intelligent grid gets built, will anyone notice?" Don Von Dollen, EPRI's IntelliGrid program manager, is only partly joking when he asks this question. Of course utilities will notice the benefits that come from greater intelligence in the power-distribution network--better diagnostics, & The Smart Grid
Provides Smart Grid Technologies Reliability Efficiency Utilization

Energy Efficiency for Utilities Smart Operations, Networks & Metershttp://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=BGA6ldxhJSpPlLIjEmwaOocXmA8K3yYgBnNqHhgzAjbcBsNxZEAIYAiDO45ECKAM4AFCH_5uQ_v____8BYMmm7ozkpMATsgETd3d3LmFsbGJ1c2luZXNzLmNvbcgBAdoBPWh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWxsYnVzaW5lc3MuY29tL3V0aWxpdGllcy91dGlsaXRpZXMvNDA1NjQ0MC0xLmh0bWyoAwHoA5IF6APpAegDsgPoA8kC9QMCBAAE&num=2&sig=AGiWqtxYNsBXf0NXdfFTQY1J_E4E0UJojQ&client=ca-pub-2905054723170537&adurl=http://www.telvent.com/sites/telvent/en/areasnegocio/energia/electricidad/descripcion/Guardian Water & PowerSubmetering Products and Services Water, Gas, Electric, greater reliability, more efficient use of assets, improved customer service, and greater control over load patterns.

At the same time, however, these advancements generally are occurring in small steps rather than giant leaps.

Very few utilities will flip a switch and wake up the intelligent grid, like a mundane version of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's because grid intelligence does not emerge from a single rollout of revolutionary technology, but from strategic planning and targeted investments--a substation here, a metering project there--all aimed at a long-term vision.

"The book value of U.S. T&D assets is something like $400 billion," Von Dollen observes. "That huge investment will not be transformed, but will evolve through incremental investments that knit together this new intelligent infrastructure, with communications networks and embedded processing."

The Rest @ All Business
And there's the rub for the intelligent grid.

Charlottesville, VA Becomes A Smartgrid City

Charlottesville to be First City in Dominion Virginia Power's 'Smart Grid' Network
Innovative program opens doors to wide range of energy conservation options

Press Release
June 18, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Charlottesville has been selected as the first city in Virginia and one of the first in the nation to benefit from "smart grid" technology that will make the delivery of electricity more efficient and less costly while improving customer service. Smart grid capabilities also will promote energy conservation and environmental responsibility.

Dominion Virginia Power executives joined Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, University of Virginia President John Casteen, state and local officials, and private industry partners today to unveil SmartGrid Charlottesville. The $20 million program begins with the installation of about 46,500 "smart meters" in the city of Charlottesville and Albermarle County. More than half of the meters have been installed, with completion scheduled by the end of this year.

"This program launches a new era in energy efficiency and customer empowerment for Virginia," said Thomas F. Farrell II, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dominion. "As the smart grid develops, energy conservation capabilities and programs will grow and provide additional benefits for our customers, the environment and our company."

Pending regulatory approval where required, the highlights ultimately are expected to include:
Automatic energy usage reduction of about 4 percent or more annually for typical residential customers through more-efficient management of energy delivery by Dominion. That will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 12,000 tons annually, equal to removing 2,100 cars from the road.

A demonstration project providing customers Web access, through www.Dom.com, for energy usage and billing information.

The option of time-based rates that give customers the opportunities to shift electricity use to off-peak times for additional savings.

A demonstration project with Arlington, Va.- based Positive Energy to provide periodic reports that show customers how their energy usage compares with other customers.
A demonstration project to test battery storage systems that could promote renewable electricity generation such as solar.

Automatic reporting of outages, allowing for quicker restoration of service.
Increased customer convenience through remote turn-on and turn-off of service and remote meter readings.

A demonstration program for light-emitting diode (LED) street lights.
Assistance for Charlottesville to evaluate an electric transportation program.
The SmartGrid Charlottesville project is in addition to 12 energy conservation programs that Dominion Virginia Power plans to offer across its service area pending approval of the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The company expects to seek SCC approval for those programs in a filing early in July.

The Charlottesville-Albermarle County area was chosen for the project for several reasons.

• Its varied, hilly terrain provides a test of the two-way wireless communications capabilities of smart meters.
• It also has a mix of residential, business and institutional customers, and customers have expressed a high interest in actively managing their energy use.
  

"SmartGrid Charlottesville is a major leap forward in reducing energy consumption in our households and sets a great example for the rest of the Commonwealth," said Gov. Kaine. "As Virginia continues to invest in industries of the future, innovative tools like smart meters will help households save money on their utility bills while reducing our impact on the environment overall."

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, said, "Smart grid technology is our gateway to the frontiers of the new energy economy, and I'm proud that Charlottesville will be leading the way with this demonstration program. I believe our area can be a catalyst for new technologies that will lower costs for consumers while also reducing our carbon footprint."

This initiative gives consumers new tools to make smarter choices in how -- and when -- they use energy," said U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner. "I salute Dominion Virginia Power and Charlottesville and Albemarle County officials for blazing the trail in Virginia with this next-generation energy conservation program."
Pending regulatory approval, the company plans to install smart meters and equipment throughout its service area over the next few years. The $600 million program is part of a plan the company announced in June 2008 that is expected to save customers more than $1 billion over the next 15 years through fuel savings and by potentially avoiding the need for two future power stations and delaying the need for two others.

SmartGrid Charlottesville is in addition to Dominion Virginia Power's green power program and its other energy conservation programs.

• Even with conservation, however, Virginia's demand for electricity will continue growing by an estimated 4,600 megawatts by 2019.
• In addition to improving the infrastructure for transmitting power, the company will meet the growth in demand by pursuing a balanced mix of new generating facilities, including wind, biomass and other forms of renewable energy, emissions-free nuclear, natural gas and clean coal technology.

The Rest @ Housingzone

Geothermal and Solar Recovery Act Funding - Close but no Cigar

The Administration is trying to publicize funding for Geothermal and Solar Recovery Act Funding projects: So far, it is putting the funds in the hands of government, not business, and these institutions are inceted to make the programs last as long as possible, not to be profitbale. When I Read these Funding Opportunities, it seems to me that 16 of the 18 opportunities are for research and development or demonstrations of technology we already know works.

• Yes, we will learn new things
• Yes, contractors who put up the demonstrations will earn money for the one project; maybe they will even get more contracts.
• Yes Solar manufacturing plants, even thinfilm plants will be built

It is a hit near the target, but sorry sir, no cigar.

Geothermal

A Geothermal mapping program is a good idea, but lets generate some economy NOW by granting energy companies money to build plants in the places we already know they will work, like they Texas Gulf Coast, Northern California. Make them pay the money back over the next 2o years, putting the money back into a fund to pay for the next generation of research.

Then, after the EMS Technology Emerges the geothermal wells can be built there as well. Don't worry, we will need ALL the energy.

Solar

We can't make solar energy cost effective by simply ramping up manufacturing of today's solar panels. PV technology is about to move from the model T to the Ferrari ( or at least the Mustang) stage. We shouldn't ramp up the Model T production line.

What we can do today is give more and better direct-to-consumer incentives for putting the stuff we have out now. The solar industry can then stay alive until the new technology rolls out.

I don't mind buying the Model T today if I can get it cheap. and It will still get me to the store and back in the future, and at least I will learn how to drive a car before the Ferrari gets here.

Let's put the money out there into ongoing, production that will produce energy for 20 years, not into the hands of institutions who are not, by nature, inceted to produce economy.

-Editor

Here is the DOE Article

Recovery Act Announcement: President Obama Announces Over $467 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Geothermal and Solar Energy Projects
May 27, 2009

President Obama today announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States.

The funding announced today represents a substantial down payment that will help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come.

Today's announcement supports the Obama Administration's strategy to increase American economic competiveness, while supporting jobs and moving toward a clean energy economy.
"We have a choice. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy," said President Obama. "We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity of our time: the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That's the nation I want America to be."

"We have an ambitious agenda to put millions of people to work by investing in clean energy technology like solar and geothermal energy," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. "These technologies represent two pieces of a broad energy portfolio that will help us aggressively fight climate change and renew our position as a global leader in clean energy jobs."

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is a clean source of renewable energy that harnesses heat from the Earth for heating applications and electricity generation; geothermal plants can operate around the clock to provide significant uninterrupted "base load" electricity, or the minimum amount a power utility must provide to its customers.

• The Recovery Act makes a $350 million new investment in this technology, dwarfing previous government commitments.

Recovery Act funding will support projects in four crucial areas: geothermal demonstration projects;

1. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) research and development;
2. innovative exploration techniques;
3. A National Geothermal Data System,
4. Resource Assessment and Classification System.

Geothermal Demonstration Projects ($140 Million)

• Funding will support demonstrations of cutting-edge technologies to advance geothermal energy in new geographic areas, as well as geothermal energy production from oil and natural gas fields, geopressured fields, and low to moderate temperature geothermal resources.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology Research and Development ($80 Million)

• Funding will support research of EGS technology to allow geothermal power generation across the country.
• Conventional geothermal energy systems must be located near easily-accessible geothermal water resources, limiting its nationwide use.
• EGS makes use of available heat resources through engineered reservoirs, which can then be tapped to produce electricity.

While the long-term goal of EGS is to generate cost competitive clean electricity, enabling research and development is needed to demonstrate the technology's readiness in the near-term.

Innovative Exploration Techniques ($100 Million)

• Funding will support projects that include exploration, siting, drilling, and characterization of a series of exploration wells utilizing innovative exploration techniques.
• Exploration of geothermal energy resources can carry a high upfront risk. By investing in and validating innovative exploration technologies and methods, DOE can help reduce the level of upfront risk for the private sector, allowing for increased investment and discovery of new geothermal resources.

National Geothermal Data System, Resource Assessment, and Classification System ($30 Million)

• The long-term success of geothermal energy technologies depends upon a detailed characterization of geothermal energy resources nationwide.
• In 2008, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) conducted an assessment of high temperature resource potential in the Western United States.
• To fully leverage new low-temperature, geopressured, co-production, and EGS technologies, DOE will support a nationwide assessment of geothermal resources, working through the USGS and other partners.
• Second, DOE will support the development of a nationwide data system to make resource data available to academia, researchers, and the private sector.
• Finally, DOE will support the development of a geothermal resource classification system for use in determining site potential.

Solar Energy

• Solar energy is a rapidly expanding industry with a double-digit annual growth rate in the United States. DOE is focused on supporting the U.S. industry's scaling up of manufacturing, production, and distribution so the technology can become cost competitive with conventional sources of energy.
• DOE will provide $117.6 million in Recovery Act funding to accelerate widespread commercialization of clean solar energy technologies across America.
• These activities will leverage partnerships that include DOE's national laboratories, universities, local government, and the private sector, to strengthen the U.S. solar industry and make it a leader in international markets.

Photovoltaic Technology Development ($51.5 Million)

• DOE will expand investment in advanced photovoltaic concepts and high impact technologies, with the aim of making solar energy cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity and to strengthen the competitiveness and capabilities of domestic manufacturers.

Solar Energy Deployment ($40.5 Million)

• Projects in this area will focus on non-technical barriers to solar energy deployment, including grid connection, market barriers to solar energy adoption in cities, and the shortage of trained solar energy installers.
• Combined with new technology development, these deployment activities will help clear the path for wider adoption of solar energy in residential, commercial, and municipal environments.

Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development ($25.6 Million)

• This work will focus on improving the reliability of concentrating solar power technologies and enhancing the capabilities of DOE National Laboratories to provide test and evaluation support to the solar industry.

For information on these and other Funding Opportunities under the Recovery Act, visit the U.S. Department of Energy's Recovery And Reinvestment Act page on Funding Opportunities.

The Rest from Energy Efficiecny and Renewsbel Energy, Department of Energy ( DOE )

MERCED, Calif. -- A new study suggests converting biomass to electricity rather than ethanol for transportation produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and offers more “miles per acre.”

Researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, Merced, studied the lifecycle of plant-based electricity, or “bioelectricity,” and ethanol technologies to determine which delivered more miles of transportation with fewer environmental impacts.

They concluded battery-powered vehicles that used electricity derived from biomass provided an average of 80 percent more miles of transportation per crop acre than internal combustion engine vehicles running on ethanol made from corn or switchgrass.

"The internal combustion engine just isn't very efficient, especially when compared to electric vehicles," Co-author Eliott Campbell of U.C. Merced said in a statement last week. "

Even the best ethanol-producing technologies with hybrid vehicles aren't enough to overcome this." A small SUV with an internal combustion engine can travel roughly 9,000 highway miles on the net energy produced from an acre of switchgrass, compared to nearly 14,000 highway miles for a small SUV powered by bioelectricity.

Electric cars fueled by bioelectricity avoid twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as ethanol-powered internal combustion engine vehicles, according to the study.
"We found that converting biomass to electricity rather than ethanol makes the most sense for two policy-relevant issues: transportation and climate," Co-author David Lobell of Stanford's Program on Food Security and the Environment said in a statement.

"But we also need to compare these options for other issues like

• water consumption,
• air pollution
• economic costs."

In addition to Lobell and Campbell, the research team included Chris Field, a Stanford professor and director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution.

The trio’s study appeared in the May 8 issue of the journal Science.

Source: Greenbiz.com

RIN Numbers Increase in value 20x

Renewable Identification Numbers are becoming increasingly important not just for people in environmental compliance or accounting, but also for those in marketing, investing and sustainability.

By Anduin Kirkbride McElroy in Ethenol Producer Magazine

Passage of the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, and the dramatically increased renewable fuels standard (RFS) within it, took Renewable Identification Numbers from a necessary pain to a marketable commodity.

• Between December and late February, the value of RINs grew from 0.25 cents to 5 cents, according to Paul Machiele, fuels center director for the U.S. EPA.
• The program is in its infancy and RINs aren’t well understood, but initial indicators show they have the potential to be a significant environmental currency.

RINs are mechanisms the EPA created to ensure compliance with the first RFS.

• The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated that obligated parties, which include refiners, importers and gasoline blenders, fulfill a renewable volume requirement.
• The requirement is that a certain percentage (released by the EPA every November) of each party’s motor vehicle fuel be renewable fuel.
• This necessitated the development of a flexible accounting mechanism to track compliance with the new renewable fuel blending requirements.
• A RIN is a unique, 38-digit serial number assigned by producers to each gallon or batch of renewable fuel produced.
• An obligated party acquires RINs by blending renewable fuel, or it can purchase RINs to satisfy its requirement.

The Rest @ Ethenol Producer Magazine

$3.2 BIllion In Energy Block Grants Issued to Local Governments

DOE announced on March 26 that it plans to invest $3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation projects in U.S. cities, counties, states, territories, and tribal lands.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will provide formula grants for projects that improve energy efficiency and reduce fossil fuel emissions.

• Funding is based on a formula that accounts for population and energy use,
• to ensure accountability, DOE will provide guidance to grant recipients and require them to report on the:

1. number of jobs created or retained,
2. energy saved,
3. renewable energy capacity installed,
4. greenhouse gas emissions reduced,
5. and funds leveraged.

The funding will support:

• Energy audits and energy efficiency retrofits in residential and commercial buildings,
• The development and implementation of advanced building codes and inspections
• The creation of financial incentive programs for energy efficiency improvements.
• Transportation programs that conserve energy
• Projects to reduce and capture methane emissions from landfills
• Renewable energy installations on government buildings
• Energy-efficient traffic signals and street lights
• Combined heat and power systems
• District heating and cooling systems,
• Other projects.

Cities and counties will receive nearly $1.9 billion under the block grant program.

States and territories will receive nearly $770 million,

More than $54 million will flow directly to tribal governments.

• States will receive and administer funds for those counties and cities that are not large enough to qualify for direct DOE funding.
• In addition, up to $456 million will be made available for local energy efficiency projects under a separate competitive solicitation to be released at a later date.

See the DOE press release and the Web site for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program

S0urce US Department of Energy EERE Program

HCNG or Hythane

Hythane is a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen, usually 5-7 percent hydrogen by energy. Natural gas is generally about 90+% methane, along with small amounts of ethane, propane, higher hydrocarbons, and "inerts" like carbon dioxide or nitrogen. Hydrogen and methane are complimentary vehicle fuels in many ways.

Methane has a relatively narrow flammability range that limits the fuel efficiency and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions improvements that are possible at lean air/fuel ratios. The addition of even a small amount of hydrogen, however, extends the lean flammability range significantly. Methane has a slow flame speed, especially in lean air/fuel mixtures, while hydrogen has a flame speed about eight times faster. Methane is a fairly stable molecule that can be difficult to ignite, but hydrogen has an ignition energy requirement about 25 times lower than methane. Finally, methane can be difficult to completely combust in the engine or catalyze in exhaust after treatment converters. In contrast, hydrogen is a powerful combustion stimulant for accelerating the methane combustion within an engine, and hydrogen is also a powerful reducing agent for efficient catalysis at lower exhaust temperatures.

Source Hythane.com


Hydrogen fuel enhancement is a term used to describe the supplementation of an internal combustion engine (ICE) fuel with hydrogen. The term is used for onboard hydrogen injection to inject either a hydrogen-enriched mixture, or pure hydrogen into the intake manifold of the engine and for hydrogen / compressed natural gas blends (HCNG or H2CNG which is premixed at the hydrogen station .


HCNG (or H2CNG) is a mixture of compressed natural gas and 4-9 percent hydrogen by energy.[1] Hydrogen contents of less than 50% in the HCNG blend have leakage and flammability risks similar to those of CNG alone. With the hydrogen being part of the mixture, there are no special precautions needed to avoid hydrogen embrittlement of the materials coming in contact with the mixture.[2] Premixing is done at the hydrogen station. HCNG stations can be found at Hynor (Norway) and the BC hydrogen highway in Canada.

Source Wikipedia

Microgrids - An emerging Strategy for Reliable Power Generation

In 1996, a sagging power line in Oregon brushed against a tree, and within minutes 12 million customers in eight states lost power. Such is the vulnerability of today's power grid.

To address this weakness, Berkeley Lab scientists are helping to develop a new approach to power generation in which a cluster of small, on-site generators serves office buildings, industrial parks, and homes.

Called a microgrid, the system could help shoulder the nation's growing thirst for electricity — estimated to jump by almost 400 gigawatts by 2025 — without overburdening aging transmission lines or building the 1,000 new power plants required to meet this demand.

And it may make statewide blackouts a thing of the past, or at least ensure that service to critical equipment is maintained.

"Catastrophic loss of power to all systems like the 1996 blackout should be impossible," says Chris Marnay, an energy scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "If we sat down today to devise a power system from scratch, our design wouldn't resemble the one we have."

The Rest from Sciencebeat