The Energy Blog

Yergin: Climate Change and Energy are Converging into New Era of Clean Energy

The sometimes outspoken Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and executive vice president, IHS Inc., spoke at the 2008 National Governors Association (NGA) Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 23. Some of his remarks may be of interest to readers of TEB.

“High energy prices, climate change and energy security are converging as the new engine driving the development of clean energy, There is a major shift in public opinion towards clean energy, which is being bolstered by the growing conviction that new carbon policies will reshape the competitive landscape of the global energy business.”  . . .

Citing CERA’s new study, Crossing the Divide: the Future of Clean Energy, Yergin said that renewable power and biofuels could be supplying as much as 16 percent of the global electric and transportation needs by 2030.  . . .

On current oil prices, he added, “A major reason for the current leap to around $100 a barrel is the economy – but now a weak U.S. economy, rather than the strong global economy that has been so important the last few years. A slowing U.S. economy, rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and expectations of more, and a weak U.S. dollar – along with the reappearance of inflation around the world – are driving investors into oil and other commodities. Instead of the traditional ‘flight to the dollar’ during times of uncertainty, we are seeing a ‘flight to oil.’”  . . .

Two of his key insights from the Crossing the Divide study may be of special interest to readers:

Renewable power technologies are poised for substantial growth – Wind will make the largest gains, followed by solar power and biomass — despite near-term bottlenecks in wind turbine manufacturing, supply shortages in silicon and competitive pressures from escalating component costs.

Conventional emission-free technologies – Nuclear and hydroelectric generation will account for most of the clean energy impact for the next decade, and almost half the gross clean power additions by 2030. The coal resource base and utilization in the United States and China will create a powerful drive to develop “clean coal” technologies.

Happy New Year

It has been a good year for The Energy Blog and I hope each and everyone of you also had a good year. We passed several milestones and received some recognition throughout the year. Excuse me for bragging up our successes.

The number of visitors per month to The Energy Blog increased from about 70-75,000 at the beginning of the year to over 100,000 at the end of the year.  Our peak was 105,000 in November, with some trailing off in December due to the lower number of posts. Our advertising revenue increased significantly with Google's purchase of FeedBurner and their subsequent posting more mainstream ads at the end of the top post and in the feeds to the site.

We were recognized by the London Times as being one of the 50 best business blogs. The Cleantech Blog was the only other alternative energy/environmental blog that that was recognized by the Times. It was very surprising, I had no idea that the blog was under consideration.  They didn't even notify me, I read about it on the Cleantech Blog.

The Wall Street Journal started a new blog in their online edition, Energy Roundup. We were mentioned in their initial edition and have been mentioned several times since then.

Best wishes, happiness and good health in the new year,

Jim

Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

"There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there."

"With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal.  We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades."

-- Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products

Biofuels Can Match Oil Production

Biopact has a post on a sure to be controversial article by a Harvard professor that claims that biofuels can match oil production.  Read the post and the Financial Times article and form your own opinion.

Even though some vested interests are trying to downplay the potential of biofuels, energy analysts and scientists know that their potential is truly vast - at least in theory. The director of Harvard University’s Center for International Development (John F. Kennedy School of Government), professor Ricardo Hausmann, joins those analysts and presents a well argued view on what would be needed for a sustainable bioenergy future to emerge. Writing in the Financial Times, he goes so far as to state that 'biofuels can match oil production'.  . . .  more

LED Lights Reduce Energy Consumption 48% in Cree Headquarters

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting components, released the results of the first phase of the conversion of its Durham headquarters to LED lighting, which has resulted in the use of 48% less energy than the lights they replaced and plans to convert all lighting at the headquarters and manufacturing facility to LED lighting. The parking lots, entryways, lobby and conference rooms at Cree’s headquarters building are now 100-percent lit by energy-efficient, environmentally friendly XLamp(R) LEDs.That means replacing everything from high-pressure sodium parking-lot lights to the fluorescent tubes in offices and hallways to the spotlights on the flagpole out front.

“Conventional wisdom is that LED lighting is years away from widespread adoption. The truth, however, is that the performance of Cree’s LED technology enables real LED lighting solutions today,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “The conversion of Cree’s site demonstrates that the LED Lighting Revolution is well underway and will illustrate the benefits in energy savings, maintenance costs and environmental impacts.”

The new LED lights use 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced. Cree began the process in October 2007 and will continue until it replaces the tens of thousands of bulbs and tubes that light the campus, inside and out.

Cree claims that the combination of the energy savings, reduced maintenance and disposal costs and the environmental savings demonstrate that LED lighting is now a real alternative to traditional lighting solutions.

The Power Revolution as seen by U. S. News

USNews.com has a very, but good, article on the "Power Revolution" that is developing now. They attribute venture capitalists as the prime mover of this revolution with Vinod Khosla being emblematic of this technology entrepreneurship. They focus on concentrating solar power, "deep geothermal", cellulosic ethanol and plug-in hybrids as prime examples of these technologies. A brief excerpt is given below:

Khosla views climate change as the gravest threat the world has ever faced, and he knows others see America's foreign oil dependence as an urgent crisis. But in his calculus, we've been pitching pebbles at these Goliath problems. "Building a biofuels plant here and a solar plant there is not enough," he says, "unless we can replace 50 percent and hopefully 100 percent of the fossil energy sources." . . . more.

IBM Silicon Wafer Reclamation Process Saves Energy, Provides Solar Industry with New Supply

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that it has developed and is using an innovative new semiconductor wafer reclamation process at its Burlington, VT manufacturing facility and intends to provide details of the new process to the broader semiconductor manufacturing industry.  The new process uses a specialized pattern removal technique to repurpose scrap semiconductor wafers to a form used to manufacture silicon-based solar panels.

Semiconductor manufacturers are very concerned that intelluctual property on defective wafers might be recovered if they are sold. To avoid this they have been using much more expensive sandblasting, or chopping them up and disposing of them in landfills. IBM's process wipes away any traces of the original chip design, which could ease those worries.

Through this new reclamation process IBM is now able to more efficiently remove the intellectual property from the wafer surface, making these wafers available either for reuse in internal manufacturing calibration as "monitor wafers" or for sale to the solar cell industry, which must meet a growing demand for silicon material to produce photovoltaic cells for solar panels.

According to Cleantech, IBM's machines use an abrasive pad and deionized water to polish the patterns off of scrap wafers, which are thin discs of silicon material used to imprint patterns that make finished chips for electronics.

Startup Plans on Establishing Grids to Sell Electricity for Recharging Electric Cars

Shai Agassi, former SAP executive, announced today the formation of Project Better Place, a company based on one of the 21st century’s biggest challenges – developing a sustainable, environmental solution for converting country-wide transportation systems toward electricity and away from fossil fuel. Electric vehicles would be enabled through an electric recharge grid infrastructure and using charge spots and battery exchange stations. In one of the largest-ever initial fundings for a startup, the company has raised $200 million from a group of investors lead by Israel Corp. The energy cost of all-electric cars would be about 7 cents a mile which is  less than a third of the cost of driving a gasoline-powered car today.

Project Better Place will focus in phase one on establishing a repeatable infrastructure to support electric vehicles, implementing electric recharge grids through local operating companies in multiple countries. They will establish a widespread grid of electric charging spots at current parking locations as well as battery exchange stations, analogous to gas stations, all of which are integrated with software systems. These capabilities will provide consumers with the energy to keep their cars charged and driving without the need to wait for electricity at any point. The new grid presents a practical solution to address barriers to electric vehicle adoption.

In addition, the company will secure partnerships with a supply chain of car makers, technology providers, and global and local financing institutions.  The company is currently in discussions with various governments to establish pilot sites, with plans to begin rollout of the new infrastructure in early 2008.

Tennant Unveils Technology that Turns Water into Cleaning Solution, Uses 70% Less Water

Tennant Company Unveils Green Technology That Makes Water Behave Like a Powerful Detergent, Without Adding Chemicals

Tennant Company (NYSE: TNC), annouced ech2o™ (pronounced “echo”) technology in a press release, a breakthrough cleaning technology that electrically activates plain tap water, making it behave like a powerful detergent without any added chemicals.

According to Tennant, the patent-pending ech2o™ technology offers eco-friendly advantages including lower costs, ease of use and improved operator safety plus an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional cleaning methods. ech2o’s cleaning effectiveness is proven to be the same or better than general purpose cleaners, without the negative environmental impact and health issues associated with producing, packaging, transporting, using and disposing of traditional cleaning chemicals. Among ech2o’s additional benefits, it uses 70 percent less water than traditional cleaning methods. ech2o begins as water and ends as water.

"Our new ech2o technology is a category-changing advancement for the cleaning industry, and delivers on our goal to offer cleaning solutions that lower cost-of-use, improve health and safety and are more environmentally friendly. By changing the properties of plain tap water, ech2o enables it to clean as well as, or better than, traditional chemical-based cleaners. It virtually eliminates any negative impact the cleaning process may have on our natural environment," said Chris Killingstad, Tennant Company's president and chief executive officer.

Report Finds Unconventional Fuels and Efficiency Gains Could Make a Significant Impact on required Oil Imports

In a three volume report that a DOE Task Force prepared it was concluded that "the domestic and global fuels supply situation and outlook is urgent. Increasing global oil demand, declining reserve additions, and our increasing reliance on oil and product imports from unstable foreign sources require the Nation to take immediate action to catalyze a domestic unconventional fuels industry." It further went on to say "Aggressive development by private industry, and encouraged by government, could supply all of the Department of Defense’s domestic fuels demand by 2016, and supply upwards of 7 million barrels per day of domestically produced liquid fuels to domestic markets by 2035." Their most aggressive scenario concluded that oil imports would decrease if significant efficiency gains were made.  The following is a shortened summary of the report from EV World. (click to enlarge graph)

The United States' Task Force on Strategic Unconventional Fuels (www.unconventionalfuels.org) has made public its findings and recommendations on the future role to be played by five non-petroleum energy sources found in America: shale oil, heavy crude, tar sands, coal-to-liquids and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using captured carbon dioxide.. . .

The Task Force . . . takes a comprehensive look at the potential contribution these, heretofore under-utilized resources can make in supplementing the nation's declining petroleum production. They conclude that even under the most aggressive development scenario, these resources could produce about 7.6 million barrels a day of synthetic liquid fuel by 2035. And under current, business-as-usual, conditions -- and assuming a whole host of issues from socioeconomic to technical can be resolved -- unconventional fuels might add 2.3 mbld by 2035, about one-tenth of what America currently consumes. . . .

The contributions made by the various unconventional energy sources under three different utilization scenarios shows America continuing to be largely dependent on imported oil with energy conservation and efficiency making greater contributions then unconventional fuels put together.