The Energy Blog

NanoeXa Lithium Ion Batteries

NaoneXa and Decktron have entered into a definitive agreement with Argonne National Laboratory to develop and transfer into commercial use next-generation rechargeable lithium battery technologies from Argonne's Battery Technology Department.

Lithium batteries are the most popular rechargeable battery for consumer electronics, as a result of their success in these applications, lithium batteries are now used in other applications such as electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, power tools and specialty battery applications which typically rely upon less efficient NiCD (nickel cadmium) or NiMH (nickel metal hydride) technologies. Lithium batteries are 20-50% lighter than either NiCD or NiMH and can provide greater energy and power per unit of volume and weight.

Analysts predict that by 2010 automakers will annually sell more than 3 million hybrid cars around the world, generating battery sales of over $3 billion. Lithium batteries already represent a global market of $6 billion, growing at 10-15% per year.

Group IV Semiconductor Solid State Lighting

Group IV Semiconductor, Inc., Ottawa, CA, has announced a three-year, $9.1 million initiative aimed at developing solid state lighting products made of silicon that use 90 per cent less energy than a traditional incandescent light bulb and last up to 50 times longer.The goal of Group IV's silicon-based technology is to dramatically reduce the cost of solid-state lighting—overcoming the critical price barrier and enabling widespread adoption.

While compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) have caught on lately with their promise of energy savings, they’re still only about 20 to 25 percent efficient. Lamps that use solid-state lighting (SSL) technology, by comparison, can achieve efficiency levels as high as 80 percent.

The global lighting market is worth about $12-billion, Group IV estimates. The company says about 20 per cent of the world's electricity demand is for lighting through light bulbs.

Heliovolt Wins Two WSJ Solar Technology Awards

HelioVolt Corporation was chosen as the Overall Silver winner of the prestigious Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award, as well as the first-place winner in the Energy and Power category. The awards recognize the pioneering work of Dr. B.J. Stanbery for his novel FASST(TM) thin film manufacturing technology and underscore a year of growth for the company. Other recent technology and innovation accolades for HelioVolt include a Nanotech Briefs' Nano 50(TM) award, a Frost & Sullivan 2006 Innovation Award, and a finalist for Small Times' Best of Small Tech Business Leader award.

HelioVolt is gaining momentum with its proprietary manufacturing process FASST(TM) that produces photovoltaics at least ten times faster than thin-film competitors. Marking a paradigm shift in solar technology, HelioVolt's thin-film CIGS can be applied directly onto conventional construction materials including steel, architectural glass, and roofing materials creating power-generating buildings.

Google Offers to Share Power Saving Technology

Google, the internet search engine giant whose service is powered by hundreds of thousands of servers, is lobbying the computer industry to improve the power efficiency of its products.

Simple changes to PC power supplies could save billions of dollars for industries with high computer use, the company told computer hardware developers yesterday, and Google's top engineers offered to share its secret in-house technology to help create an industry standard.

Power supplies to standard PCs and servers typically waste 30-40 per cent of their energy, but Google engineer Luiz Barroso told attendees at the Intel developers' conference in San Francisco that it had cut that waste to just 10 per cent.

New Stimulation Technology Improves Gas Production

Halliburton has added a breakthrough stimulation technology, GasPerm 1000(SM) service, which helps improve production from unconventional reservoirs including tight gas, shales and coalbed methane. Based on a newly developed microemulsion surfactant, the service helps remove water drawn into the formation during the fracturing process. Removing the water can improve permeability to gas at the fracture face and help increase gas production. In addition the service represents a safety and environmental advancement, replacing methanol in many applications.

In the fracturing process, water can be drawn (imbibed) into the formation from the fluid used to create the fracture. The water drawn into the pore spaces is held there by capillary pressure and surface tension and can block gases from flowing into the wellbore. Commonly called "water block," this process is especially pronounced in unconventional gas reservoirs where the lower permeability results in increased capillary pressure.

The service has been shown to enable the imbibed liquids to be expelled from the rock matrix and fracture system, thereby enabling improved gas production.

BP Executive Draws Attention to Climate Change

Vivienne Cox, BP Chief Executive, Gas, Power & Renewables gave a speech on Sept. 27 to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council entitled "Why Clean Electricity Is Critical in Combating Climate Change- Steps to Accelerate America's Low Carbon Power Economy."  Some exerpts from her speech are alarming, bring attention the seriousness of our CO2 emmissions and explain what BP is planning to do about them.

The power sector is the world's single largest source of CO2 emissions. Globally, and in the United States it accounts for over 40% of these emissions. That's twice the level of CO2 emissions from the transport sector. ... A recent study projected that global CO2 emissions will be around 75% higher than they are today by 2030. ...  One projection by Cambridge Energy Research Associates indicates that power will contribute 50% of total global emissions by 2030 - if there are no significant policy interventions. ... We have bought a wind developer Greenlight. ... Greenlight has a pipeline of 39 development projects across the US with a total potential capacity of 6.5GW. ...

MIT Researchers Develop New Nuclear Fuel and Improve Cooling Water Properties

From MIT press release ... MIT researchers are working on several innovations that could make existing (nuclear) plants more efficient and safer to run. These include a new fuel and a way to boost the cooling capability of ordinary water.

New fuel

In a three-year project completed recently for the U.S. Department of Energy, MIT researchers Hejzlar and Kazimi teamed up with Westinghouse and other companies to look at how to make a fuel for pressurized water reactors (PWR), 30 percent more efficient while maintaining or improving safety margins.

Uranium fuel typically is formed into cylindrical ceramic pellets about a half-inch in diameter. The pellets look like a smooth, black version of food pellets for small animals. They changed the shape of the fuel from solid cylinders to hollow tubes. This added surface area that allows water to flow inside and outside the pellets, increasing heat transfer.

Small Cars Sales Continue to Increase

From USA Today:

Small-car sales could set a record this year ...This year will see the highest percentage of small cars, compacts and subcompacts sold since at least 1987, predicts consultants AutoPacific. Small cars will account for 31.5% of the total passenger car market, up a percentage point from last year. Market share will keep climbing through 2010, AutoPacific says. ...

Small cars and CUVs are going to rule," says George Pipas, market analyst for Ford Motor. That's bittersweet news for Detroit, he adds, because 72% of small cars sold are foreign makes. Small cars are also notorious for delivering slim profits.

The big reason behind the small-car shift is no surprise: gasoline prices. ... The sales pace may dampen somewhat with the retreat in gas prices, but AutoPacific says the drop-off won't be enough to change its estimates.

Suzlon Energy; Indian Wind Power

The New York Times had an article on an Indian wind power company that indicates how fast the technology is spreading.

Wind power may still have an image as something of a plaything of environmentalists more concerned with clean energy than saving money. But it is quickly emerging as a serious alternative not just in affluent areas of the world but in fast-growing countries like India and China that are avidly seeking new energy sources. And leading the charge here in west-central India and elsewhere is an unlikely champion, Suzlon Energy, a homegrown Indian company.

Suzlon already dominates the Indian market and is now expanding rapidly abroad, having erected factories in locations as far away as Pipestone, Minn., and Tianjin, China. Four-fifths of the orders in Suzlon’s packed book now come from outside India.

Suzlon passed Siemens of Germany last year to become the fifth-largest producer by installed megawatts of capacity. It still trails the market leader, Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark, as well as General Electric, Enercon of Germany and Gamesa Tecnológica of Spain.

Firefly Energy Receives Frost & Sullivan Award, Reveals More About its Technology

After a long time without any news, Firefly Energy (previous post) has received a Frost and Sullivan award in the field of advanced lead acid battery technologies for developing an innovative graphite foam lead acid battery that could cause disruptive changes in the market. The following is directly from Frost & Sullivan's press release:

"While somewhat newer battery technologies like Lithium Ion and Nickel Metal Hydride offer alternatives to traditional lead acid cells, they have their own set of issues including higher costs," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Sivam Sabesan. "Even though these advanced batteries have certain features that improve upon the traditional lead acid cell, they cannot match all its features and consequently, innovators such as Firefly Energy believe they can improve the lead acid cell to match lithium ion and the nickel metal hydrides."

The approach used by Firefly Energy, a spin-out of Caterpillar, is radical but simple. The company’s new battery removes past obstacles such as heavy weight, extensive corrosion and sulfating positive and negative lead metal grids by substituting them with carbon-graphite foam, increasing the surface area, to enhance the chemistry taking place. The result is a battery that can rival the advanced chemistries in performance, take advantage of an existing manufacturing base and address environmental concerns through the removal of one-half to two-thirds of the lead content.

GE Ships First 60-hertz 7H Gas Turbine

GE Energy's first 60-hertz 7H gas turbine, one of the most efficient and advanced machines of its type in the world, has completed testing and is on its way to the Inland Empire Energy Center near Riverside, California. A few 50-hertz units have been sold in Europe but this will be the first installation of 60-hertz H System(TM) technology.

The 7H is the world's first combined-cycle platform with the capability to reach 60+ percent thermal efficiency.

The 7H, the first of two units planned for the 775-megawatt Inland Empire project, was shipped from GE's Greenville, South Carolina facility on September 15. Operating on natural gas, the two GE 107 H combined-cycle units at Inland Empire will produce enough power to supply nearly 600,000 households while reducing future carbon dioxide emissions by more than 146,000 tons a year, compared to a typical gas-fired power plant of a similar size. The new power plant is expected to enter commercial service by the summer of 2008.

Wave Energy for South Africa

Finavera Renewables, a company developing wind and wave energy projects, has committed to build a 20 megawatt (MW) wave energy power plant off the coast of South Africa over the next five years.

Finavera Renewables CEO Jason Bak made the commitment at the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference last week in New York.

Southern Africa suffers from intermittent power disruptions and a serious power crisis is expected to affect much of the region by 2007. Regional demand for electricity has already begun to outstrip supply and the disparity is expected to increase.

Finavera Renewables, through its wave energy division (former AquaEnergy Group Ltd), plans to build a phased 20MW wave energy power plant in the Republic of South Africa for a total investment of more than US$40 million over five years. The project will save US$2 million per year in fuel and avoid approximately 20,000 tons of CO2 emissions. A material percentage of the return from the project will be used to alleviate energy poverty and will provide economic benefits to local communities through the creation of jobs.

Volkswagon Chameleon Concept Electric Microbus

The Volkswagen Chameleon concept is based on the 1964 Microbus and showcases the latest in electronics and electric-car technology.  Volkswagen's Electroniconics Research Laboratory (ERL), located in Palo Alto, California has taken a 1964 Deluxe Microbus and retrofitted it with a collection of cutting edge technologies.

The concept vehicle, dubbed the Chameleon, uses roof-mounted surfboards lined with flexible solar panels that provide an additional source of energy to this 100% electric vehicle.

The engine in the Microbus has been replaced with an all-electric drive engine powered with lithium polymer batteries in collaboration with Hybrid Technologies. The exterior features keyless entry, LED lighting and wide-angle parking cameras. The interior has an interactive digital instrument cluster, embedded touch pads and speech-activated controls.

Was it Necessary for GM to Annouces Plans for a Home Hydrogen Fueling Station?

General Motors is following the lead made by Honda (previous post) by developing a home hydrogen refueling unit.  GM's unit would use either electricity or sunlight to make the hydrogen.  Developing an infrastructure to supply hydrogen for their fuel cell vehicles, besides making economical fuel cells, is the most pressing task that fuel cell automakers have.  GM and several other auto companies would like to introduce, at least a limited number of vehicles, most likely for lease in the 2007-2011 time period. Wide scale production of fuel cell vehicles is thought by most to be at least 10-15 years away.

Just one week ago GM announced that they would build 100 fuel cell vehicles that would be deployed in California, New York and Washington, D.C. in 2007.  It is highly probable they they would be use in those areas, at least in part, because there are some hydrogen fueling stations located in those areas.

DIY Electric Pickup Saves Money

According to Redding.com (CA) Mark Willmon, an electrical engineer from Anchorage, AK, overhauled a Mitsubishi pickup, replacing its gasoline engine with an electric motor that runs on batteries to give him an electric vehicle that is more economical to commute to work with than a gasoline ICE car.

About a year ago, facing soaring gas prices and a 20-mile-a-day commute, Willmon said he did some math and figured he'd come out ahead if he invested the time and money to build an electric-powered vehicle.

He's part of a small but growing group of people nationwide who are putting together vehicles that run on electricity instead of expensive gasoline or diesel fuel.

Build it Yourself Microcar

Jory Squibb, Camden, Maine, built the Moonbeam, which cruises at 40 mph and gets 100 mpg.  The "Microcar" was made from a 1987 Honda Elite 150 motorscooter in excellent condition for most of the running gear, controls and instruments. Additional parts were from a 1984 Elite 125, the frame and body were fabricated by Jory. It cost $2339 in materials and 1000 hours of labor.

The best cruising speed is 35-40 mph with occasional times of 45. The car goes 53 MPH on the level, but Jory finds that speed worrisome. Fuel economy has been tested many times.  On economy runs at a steady 40 MPH, it gets 105 to 106 MPG.  Around town, it's usually 80-85 MPG.

Tidal Power for San Francisco

According to a San Francisco Chronicle article turbines submerged in waters below the Golden Gate Bridge could generate enough alternative energy to provide power to nearly 40,000 San Francisco homes. City officials hope that these turbines will capture tidal energy and generate as much as 38 megawatts of power.

The tides at the Golden Gate offer one of the best locations on the western coast of North America to generate that power, according to a study conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute.

Further studies need to be done, however, to answer questions about where the turbines would actually be located, how big they would be, and the potential environmental impacts they would have on the bay and marine life.

Altairnano, Phoenix and Boshart to Demonstrate Electric SUV at Zero Emission Vehicle Symposium

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTI - News), with their electric vehicle partners, Boshart Engineering and Phoenix Motorcars, will road demonstrate a full size electric SUV at the California Air Resources Board Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Technology Symposium, held next week, September 25-27, 2006 in Sacramento, California.

The demonstration electric SUV is an early model of the commercially available vehicle, targeted for volume delivery in Spring 2007. This vehicle is planned to be capable of road speeds up to 95 mph, a driving range that is configurable up to 200 miles, a battery recharge time potential of less than 10 minutes, and an acceleration of 0 to 60mph in less than 10 seconds. Another configuration of the vehicle as a Sports Utility Truck, previous post, will also be on display at the Symposium.

Nissan to Produce Plug-in for Release in 2010

From the Daily Yomiuri Online, Japan, Sept. 23:

Nissan Motor Co. will develop a new hybrid vehicle technology on its own, which would end a joint agreement with Toyota Motor Corp., sources said Friday.

The independently produced low-emission and fuel-efficient models will be released on 2010, the sources said. ...

The new compact car models will be equipped with a lithium-ion battery system and include a plug-in hybrid vehicle that can be recharged at home.

Khosla's Four Steps to Promote Ethanol

CNNMoney.com reports that, speaking at a Cleantech Venture Forum conference in New York City, Sun Microsystems co-founder and ethanol investor Vinod Khosla outlined four steps he said would help the country use more ethanol.

• a government mandate that 70 percent of all cars sold in the U.S. be flex-fuel - which is having the ability to run on gas, ethanol or other alcohol-based fuels - by 2014, and that 10 percent of all major-branded gas stations in the U.S. sell E85, a fuel that contains 85 percent ethanol.
• the current government ethanol subsidy of 50 cents a gallon should be based on a sliding scale corresponding to the price of oil: 25 cents a gallon if oil is at $75 a barrel ranging up to 75 cents a gallon if oil falls to $25 a barrel.
• lifting tariffs on imports of ethanol from Brazil, a move strongly opposed by U.S. farmers, in exchange for increasing corn-derived ethanol in gasoline from 10 to 15 percent, a move he said was supported by some in the agriculture industry.
• it would be up to to industry or the government to pay for these mandates. He said installing the gas pumps would cost something less than a billion dollars and making cars flex-fuel amounts to $35-$100 a vehicle.

"The president loves biomass, the farmers love biomass, even evangelicals love biomass" because it decreases the county's reliance on the Middle East, he said. "As investors we should make this happen because its good for the country."

Methane From Coal Using Microorganisms

BASF Venture Capital America Inc., Fremont, CA, is investing $3 million in LUCA Technologies LLC, Golden, Colorado. LUCA develops biotechnology that uses microorganisms to reactivate or intensify the production of methane (natural gas) from finite fuels such as coal or oil.

This methane production is the result of indigenous populations of microorganisms that, in the absence of oxygen, metabolize the large hydrocarbon molecules present in coal and oil into smaller hydrocarbons, principally methane. The company describes these naturally occurring methane factories as "Geobioreactors(TM)".

To leverage this discovery, LUCA has undertaken a program to understand and manipulate these microorganisms in order to ultimately maximize methane production in existing Geobioreactors, and hopefully stimulate its production in currently non-reactive hydrocarbon deposits. Methane is the least polluting and most energy efficient of all the available hydrocarbon fuels.  LUCA believes that, if developed and managed properly, methane-producing Geobioreactors have the potential to meet U.S.  energy needs for the foreseeable future.

Daystar Production Exceeds Expectations

DayStar Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSTI), a developer and manufacturer of CIGS Photovoltaic Foil(TM) products, reported that production throughput and performance objectives for cells produced on the Gen II production line are exceeding expectations, and anticipates reaching 10 percent or greater cell efficiencies by the end of this year. DayStar has ramped up its operations, and is now running three production shifts, five days a week. TerraFoil(TM) cells from the Gen II line are being used for two purposes: by current customers for early market acceptance, and as a means to secure new strategic relationships.

Dr. Stephan DeLuca, Chief Operating Officer of DayStar commented, "As the first manufacturer to successfully begin factory production of discrete CIGS solar cells on metal foil substrates, that are compatible with wafer Si cell module operations, we have initiated a paradigm in the expanded adoption of thin-film PV products. This vital step now clears the way for our next generation of higher volume production, required for achieving our goal of Gigawatt-scale manufacturing."

See previous posts for desciption of their technology and their producrion milestones.

Miasole to Go Public

Miasole, San Jose, CA, a CIGS solar cell developer (previous post) and one of the darlings of the investment community, will try to do an IPO within 12 to 18 months, according to CEO David Pearce. In May they announced that they had raised about $16 million in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The timing is pretty good because of the high demand for solar cells and the shortage of silicon used by most solar cell suppliers. Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) cells do not contain silicon and unlike silicon solar cells, CIGS cells can be printed on flexible sheets of foil or other material.

Silver-Zinc Battery to Debut

Zinc Matrix Power of Camarillo, CA will debut its silver-zinc battery at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Sept. 26-28. Zinc Matrix Technology™ is an advanced sealed maintenance-free version of silver zinc technology which has been used by the military and NASA for over 50 years.

The batteries offer an extremely high ratio of energy to volume (Wh/l) in applications such as notebook computers, cell phones, and on-body power for military electronics with up to 2X the runtime of lithium-ion battery packs of the same size.

Zinc Matrix Technology™ is a long life sealed variant of the military battery having these advantages:

• Advanced, low resistance polymer matrix and separator formulas
• Ultra-thin electrodes
• Ultra-thin walled plastic cases, yielding a very high active material to case ratio
• Mixed mode AgO + super oxide chemistries

The result of these technologies is that our standard 12 Ah medium rate cell can achieve about 200 Wh/kg at low rates and over 800 W/kg peak from the same cells with a service life of well over 100 deep cycles (hundreds of float cycles).

Ammonia Powered Engine to Drive Pump

An Iowa alternative fuel engine manufacturer has reached an agreement with an irrigation pump maker in California to make the world's first ammonia-powered irrigation pump system.

Hydrogen Engine Center Inc. (HEC) is working with Sawtelle & Rosprim Inc. to integrate HEC ammonia-powered engines with Sawtelle's pumps to complete a prototype system for testing and evaluation. The prototype system is being designed to run 24 hours a day and is expected to be tested in California during the 2007 irrigation season. HEC intends to begin selling the finalized system into California during 2008.

The engines developed by HEC run on anhydrous ammonia, or NH3, which has been used by farmers for many years as a fertilizer. Ammonia contains more hydrogen per cubic foot than liquid H2. HEC considers ammonia the “other hydrogen".

HEC manufactures and sells its brand named Oxx Power internal combustion engines capable of running on a multitude of fuels, including ammonia, hydrogen, propane, natural gas, ethanol and gasoline.

Hymotion Plug-in Hybrid

On top of the recent announcement by HybridsPlus, Hymotion, a manufacturer of conversion systems for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), announced that it had delivered one of its L5 Prius Plug-in Hybrid systems to HOURCAR, a car-sharing program that serves the Twin Cities, MN.

The Hymotion L5 plug-in system claims to double the already admirable fuel efficiency of Toyota’s Prius hybrid. The Hymotion system boasts 100 mpg at speeds of 70 mph, for the first 30-35 miles and an amazing 250+ mpg in the city at speeds up to 35 miles. To recharge the battery system, you simply plug it into a regular household electrical outlet.

Improved Lead Acid Battery

Alternative energy company Power Technology, Inc., Houston, TX, (OTCBB: PWTC.OB) announced that it has begun the manufacturing of its patented current collectors in its new pilot plant. The plant has successfully manufactured reticulated vitreous carbon onto which a custom designed plating system applies a lead tin alloy to create patented current collectors for use in the company’s advanced batteries. They had previously received formal written notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office of the Allowability of a Patent for its core battery technology. Joey Jung, Chief Technology Officer of Power Technology, is an inventor and developer of the technology.

The Power Technology invention is a battery comprised of electrical current collectors constructed of reticulated vitreous carbon covered with a thin layer of a lead tin alloy. The current collectors create up to four times higher surface area for electrochemical reactions to take place compared to those in a typical lead acid battery, which results in a battery with higher efficiency and higher capacity meaning more electricity is generated. A comparison of their current collector and a typical lead-acid battery collector grid is shown in the picture.

Tax Break Proposed for Fuel Efficiency

Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden unveiled legislation Monday to offer a tax break of between $630 and $1,860 for consumers buying new, fuel-efficient vehicles as motivation to wean the nation off its oil dependence. The tax break - which they say could also be used as a cash rebate on a car purchase - would be offset under the duo's plan by rolling back a tax deduction used by large oil companies for drilling and development costs. Vehicles that get 25 percent more fuel efficiency than current standards would qualify under the legislation

Under the bill, consumers would receive a $630 tax credit if they purchase a passenger vehicle with fuel economy of 34.5 miles per gallon. That tax credit gradually increases to a maximum $1,660 for passenger vehicles with fuel efficiency of at least 59.5 miles per gallon. Light trucks qualify for a $630 tax credit at 27.5 miles per gallon, going to $1,860 with fuel efficiency of at least 59.5 miles per gallon.

Report Shows the Renewable Path to Energy Security

The Worldwatch Institute and the Center for American Progress have released a comprehensive report, American Energy: The Renewable Path to Energy Security, that shows that an energy future based on abundant and clean renewable resources is not only urgently needed, but achievable.

The report is very comprehensive and gives excellent background information on almost all of the technologies needed for The Energy Revolution.  Unforgivably they omit plug-in hybrid vehicles and energy storage.  Because of the agenda of the two sponsoring organizations they do not include any discussion of IGCC technology, liquefaction technologies or nuclear energy.  Despite these omissions it is a highly recommended read for anyone interested in Renewable Energy and Energy Policy.  I have extensively excerpted some highlights from the report:

Today, renewable resources provide just over 6 percent of total U.S. energy, but that figure could increase rapidly in the years ahead. Many of the new technologies that harness renewables are, or soon will be, economically competitive with the fossil fuels that meet 85 percent of U.S. energy needs.

Another EEStor Update

Tyler at Clean Break has another post on EEstor referring to a write up about them in Business 2.0.  The three main points of the article are:

• Feel Good Cars, which plans to incorporate EEStor's technology in vehicles by 2008. That is a year later than previously reported.
• An EEStor-powered engine with a range roughly equivalent to that of a gasoline-powered car would cost about $5,200. That's a slight premium over the cost of the gas engine and the other parts the device would replace.
• Their aim is to compete with the internal combustion engine. The engine technology is not just for the small passenger vehicles, but could easily replace the 300-horsepower brutes in today's SUVs.

Prius PHEV Will Have V2G Capability

A new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, capable of 125 mpg and receiving electricity from or sending it to the grid, has been acquired by the Colorado Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation (OEMC) as part of a NREL program. HybridsPlus, Inc. converted a 2006 Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) for demonstration purposes.

HybridsPlus, based in Boulder, Colorado, is the newest company offering to convert Priuses to plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV).

A Plug-in Hybrid car can be fueled by electricity from an electrical outlet or by gasoline. Initially, a PHEV uses less gas than an hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), because it can draw energy longer, from its larger battery. For example, a Toyota Prius' 50 mpg efficiency can be improved to about 100 mpg when operated as a PHEV. Eventually, when that storage of electrical energy is depleted, a PHEV is no more efficient than an HEV.

Rentech May Benefit From Military Use of FT Fuels

Rentech, Inc. (Amex: RTK - News) has commented on the landmark test flight (previous post) by the Air Force of a B-52 utilizing Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels at Edwards Air Force Base. The Company believes this is an important step in the development of the coal-to-liquids (CTL) clean synthetic fuels industry for the United States and the U.S. military to ensure both energy security and the security of the country's borders. Rentech believes it is uniquely positioned to be the first domestic CTL technology provider with the ability to deliver commercial quantities of these synthetic fuels made from coal.

The U.S. Military has affirmed that it wants to implement the use of FT fuels made from coal mined in the U.S. "This is an extremely important moment," said Michael A. Aimone, the Air Force Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics in articles in the Los Angeles Times and San Jose, Mercury News. "Our goal is by 2025 to have 70 percent of our aviation fuel coming from coal-based sources."

Gasification Process Key to Low Cost Diesel

Researchers at UC Riverside have unveiled a new process that can convert sewer sludge, wood, agricultural waste, plain old trash or even plastics into diesel oil for $1.00 a gallon. Viresco Energy, will pay $15 million for a pilot plant to be built in the next two years.

The the hydro-gasification conversion process, originally developed to produce clean-burning gases from coal has been adapted to be used with wet wastes.  Whereas traditional gasification uses oxygen, the new technique uses hydrogen and steam at nearly 1,500 degrees to break apart the feed stock into a gas made up of its molecular components.

After gasification, the resulting gas then go through a couple of other steps and It comes out as water, wax and diesel. There is little waste, up to 85 percent of the feed material becomes usable liquid fuel at the other end.

"The system requires no additional fuel or energy other than the chemical energy in the waste feed," said Colin Hackett, manager of the Alternative Fuels and Renewable Energy Program at UCR.   "This process has enormous potential for energy conversion from any wet-waste that contains carbon."

Engineers' magnesium solution to hydrogen storage debacle

According to ferret.com.au, A team of Australian scientists have developed a solid state hydrogen storage technology that is safer, lower cost, and stores a higher density of hydrogen than the gaseous and liquid systems presently used in industry.

It is claimed that the magnesium alloy developed by Arne Dahle and Kazuhiro Nogita from Queensland University’s School of Engineering has seven times the storage density of a standard hydrogen pressure cylinder.

“Any application that uses hydrogen is coming across this issue of hydrogen storage, because with pressurised gas or liquid you just don’t store enough hydrogen safely,” says CEO, Jeffrey Ng of a new company called Hydrexia that has been established to realise the commercial potential of the technology. Ng defined four key things that people look for when it comes to hydrogen storage: safety, hydrogen storage density, low cost and manufacturability. On all of these fronts, Ng says Dahle and Nogita’s new magnesium alloy performs better than the two most common storage methods to date.

Deeya Energy Storage

Deeya Energy is a Silicon Valley technology venture company developing novel energy storage devices, based on its proprietary L-Cell technology, for Load-shifting, UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) and Renewable Energy industries. 

The company announced Sept. 18 that it has raised its first venture capital funding round, worth about $7.5 million, from BlueRun Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), and DFJ Element. The investment will be used for product development and global market expansion.

World’s first CNG ship approved for construction

Sea NG Corporation (www.coselle.com) announced that the American Bureau of Shipping ("ABS") has approved for construction its Coselle compressed natural gas ("CNG") ship. This is the first ship and cargo system in the world for the transport of CNG to be so approved by ABS or any other international marine classification society.

Coselle CNG ships will be deployed to carry moderate volumes of natural gas (30 to 500 mmscf) over medium distances (200 to 2,000 km), a segment of the marine gas transportation market that has not been economically served by pipelines or liquefied natural gas.

Iowa State Researchers Developing More Powerful Solar Cells

According to Science Daily, Iowa state is working with PowerFilm Inc., an Ames company that manufactures thin, flexible solar cells. Powerfilm uses thin-film cells made from amorphous silicon that is about 2 micrometers thick compared to the 300 micrometers thick crystalline wafers used in conventional solar cells. The result is thin solar cells that can absorb lots of light and can be mounted on flexible plastic and other materials. But the thin cells produce about half the electricity as crystalline silicon. And their performance drops by about another 15 to 20 percent over time.

Iowa State researchers have made discoveries in materials science and plasma chemistry that can improve hydrogen bonding to the silicon in the thin solar cells, which can improve the performance of the cells by about 35 percent and eliminate about 15 percent of the drop in performance.

They're expected to be a potential boost to PowerFilm, the new techniques should work with essentially the same manufacturing processes and equipment now used by PowerFilm.

Second Generation Superconducting Cable Energized

Per press release (edited) and supercables website. A $9 million dollar 200 meters (660 feet) long second-generation high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable was energized on Sept 18 near Columbus, Ohio. The cable is used to efficiently deliver electric power to approximately 8,600 homes and businesses in suburban Columbus through American Electric Power's (AEP) Bixby substation in Groveport, Ohio.

Superconducting cables, operating at extremely low temperatures, eliminate virtually all resistance to the flow of electric current. One Triax HTS cable can carry as much current as 18 large copper cables, with much less energy loss. Although called high-temperature, this HTS system operates at temperatures just below the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (-321 degrees Fahrenheit).

As shown in the illustration, the Triax design places the three phase conductors (red) concentrically around a common central core. The three superconducting phases separated by a thin, 15 kV-class, electrical insulation material (yellow), Cryoflex™.  Thus there is only one cooling pipe (dark grey), and the voltage that the dielectric  has to withstand is the full phase to phase voltage. The advantage to the design is that it is ultra-compact, and uses the least amount of superconductor.

Use of Li-ion PT Cuiser as a NYC Yellow Cab Approved

Hybrid Technologies, Inc. (OTC BB:HYBT.OB - News) www.hybridtechnologies.com, developers of lithium powered products announced that after a unanimous City Council vote, Hybrid will now supply a lithium powered L-PT Cruiser, previous post, for use as a NYC Yellow Cab.

The all lithium taxi, with a top speed of 70 mph and a range of over 150 miles using Kokam batteries, will be hitting the streets of New York City within the next two months. It is anticipated that the L version taxi will also be used to highlight the Yellow Cabs 100th Anniversary in NYC which commences in 2007.

Ballard Power Systems 312V 67 MS electric drive system has been selected for the NYC lithium taxi due to its design and durability

Altair Receive $2.5 million DOE Grant

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTI - News), a battery companiy that already has very advanced technology, announced that it has received a $2.5M grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. This grant funds three significant research and development programs at Altairnano covering battery electrode materials, nanosensors and nanomaterials characterization. The research programs will be conducted over the next 24 months.

A leader in advanced nanomaterials and alternative energy solutions, Altairnano has forged an innovative path in battery chemistry by replacing graphite (which can cause batteries to malfunction or explode under certain conditions) with its patented nano-titanate material which is safe and reliable.

Chevrolet to Build 100 Fuel Cell Vehicles

The Detroit Free Press, among many others, reported that

Today, GM is to announce that it will build the world's largest fleet of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in 2007 -- more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox crossover vehicles to be deployed in California, and the New York and Washington, D.C., areas. ... Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said GM may have affordable hydrogen-powered cars available in mass-production volumes by 2011.

The Auto Channel contributed the following:

The plan dubbed “Project Driveway is " Designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience, Project Driveway constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere. ... Larry Burns, GM vice president, research & development and strategic planning. said “The Equinox Fuel Cell is powered by GM’s most advanced fuel cell propulsion system to date, and demonstrates an important milestone on our pathway to automotive-competitive fuel cell propulsion technology development."

Enabled by GM’s fourth-generation fuel cell propulsion system, the Equinox Fuel Cell is a fully-functional crossover vehicle, engineered for 50,000 miles of life. Importantly, the Equinox Fuel Cell is able to start and operate in sub-freezing temperatures during its 50,000-mile life.

Nuclear Saftey Issues

The New York Times reported that nuclear reactors are prone to long shutdowns, primarily due to safety concerns.

An analysis of nuclear reactors by a safety group has found that they are prone to costly, lengthy shutdowns for safety problems regardless of their age or the experience of their managers. The finding could have implications for companies considering building new reactors.

The analysis, by David Labium, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, counted 51 times that a reactor had been closed for a year or more. Thirty-six of those shutdowns were to restore an adequate level of safety by fixing flaws in equipment, procedures or training; 11 were to replace major components required for operations and safety; and 4 were for damage recovery. In all, of the 130 power reactors ever licensed, 41, were closed for at least a year. Ten were closed twice.

The chart accompanying the article tells a different story to me: plants are becoming much more safer, only one long shutdown has occurred since 1997 and none since 2002. The UCC is known for having anti-nuclear tendencies and the NY Times is following suite.

Bush to Reverse Policy on Global Warming

The Independent had an article "Bush prepares emissions U-turn" which in part stated:

President Bush is preparing an astonishing U-turn on global warming, senior Washington sources say.

After years of trying to sabotage agreements to tackle climate change he is drawing up plans to control emissions of carbon dioxide and rapidly boost the use of renewable energy sources.

Over the past few days rumours swept the capital that the "Toxic Texan" would announce his conversion this week ... (but other) Sources say that the most likely moment is the President's State of the Union address in January.

The Effect of Zero Energy Homes on Peak Load

The effect of distributed solar power used in a zero energy home (ZEH) subdivision on peak demand is disccused in the paper Impact of Distributed Solar on SMUD’S Peak Load. The study was conducted on the Pemier Gardens Zero Energy Homes subdivision in the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

FT Jet Fuel to be Tested in B-52

Syntroleum (Nasdaq:SYNM), a leader in Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology, announced that its ultra-clean jet fuel will be tested in a landmark B-52 flight demo on the morning of September 19, 2006 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This event signifies the first time that FT jet fuel has been tested in a B-52 flight demo.

The FT aviation fuel will be blended with traditional JP-8 jet fuel for the flight test. Syntroleum's FT jet fuel stems from more than five years of considerable research and development efforts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), focused on producing a high performance alternative fuel for military applications. The flight test is part of the DOD's Assured Fuels Initiative, an effort to develop secure domestic sources for the military's energy needs.

"Having access to adequate supplies of jet fuel is a national security issue, and with an assured source, price fluctuations are reduced which provides stable planning and budgeting," said Bill Harrison, a fuels expert with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

New Corn Ethanol Process Cuts Costs, Produces Byproducts and Reduces Water Consumption

According to this annoucement a Purdue University team led by professor Li-fu Chen and research assistant Qin Xu have discovered a new environmentally friendly method to produce ethanol from corn.

"Our process, which we are calling the Chen-Xu Method, not only makes ethanol, but products that are fit for human consumption," Chen said. "This process also produces corn oil, corn fiber, gluten and zein, which is a protein that can be used in the manufacture of plastics so that the containers are good for the environment because they are biodegradable and easily decompose.

The Chen-Xu Method produces about 2.85 gallons of ethanol for every bushel of corn processed. That output is slightly higher than current methods, but the same process that creates the ethanol also creates other marketable products.

New Lead and Cadmium-Free PV Materials Enable Reduced Silicon Use in Multi-Crystalline Solar Cells

Ferro Corporation (NYSE:FOE - News) annouced that they have developed materials that enables solar cell manufacturers to be able to significantly reduce silicon usage. A compatible lead and cadmium-free system of novel aluminum, rear silver, and front silver metallizations offers improved electrical performance on silicon wafers that are less than 180 microns thick.

The current generation "thin" wafers are 240 microns thick. Ferro's new aluminum product permits further silicon reductions to less than 180 microns thick, with less than 1 mm of camber on 150 mm square wafers. It provides the same BSF thickness at a higher concentration of dopant for a strong BSF (carrier concentration of more than 1019 atoms/cm3), with equivalent or better electrical performance on multi-crystalline wafers.

Ferro's compatible new lead free front and rear silver metallizations provide improved electrical performance and are able to contact emitters with sheet resistivity of 50 to 70 ohms/square. The products also offer improved solderability, and adhesion of more than 800 gms using a 4 mil tabing ribbon. Front silver products are also available in a Hot Melt option for peak performance and line resolution.

Ferro is a leading global producer of a diverse array of performance materials sold to a broad range of manufacturers in approximately 30 markets throughout the world. The Company applies core scientific expertise in organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, polymer science and material science to develop coatings for ceramics and metal; materials for passive electronic component and solar cells.

Renewable Energy Park Completed

A subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), PPL Energy Services, today marked the completion and commercial operation of a renewable energy park comprising three green energy projects in Camden County, N.J. The 3,800 kilowatt (kW) Energy Park located in Camden County, New Jersey is composed of three power generating plants and was built by PPL Energy Services, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation, which owns, operates and maintains them. Kyocera supplied over 5,000 solar modules for the park.

Two projects - a 2800-kilowatt landfill gas-to- energy power plant at the Pennsauken Sanitary Landfill and a 500-kilowatt photovoltaic (solar) power plant at Aluminum Shapes in Pennsauken, N.J. - produce power for Aluminum Shapes. The company uses the output to run a variety of applications, from presses that extrude aluminum to machines that fabricate and coat metal surfaces.

Solar Products for Your Leisure

The Solar Shower and the Solar Grill are two items that you can use in your backyard that were featured on the American Investor Spot, a new blog.

The solar shower is meant for a quick cleanup before you go in the house. Just pop right under it and adjust the temp to your liking. Your garden hose is connected to it to provide the water, and the sun is used to warm up your water (if you want warm water). The Solar Shower can reach temperatures as high as 130F in about 1 or 2 hours in sunny weather. It can also store 5.5 gallons of water.

The Solar Grill from Tammock Trading in Switzerland can barbecue everything you barbecue on a regular grill, except instead of using charcoal, lighter fluid, propane or fire, there is a flexible mirror and the sun to cook your food. Just place your food on the grill and the mirror will focus the sun’s beams on the barbeque cup heating it up and cooking your food. No more grill brushes, coal ashes or burned eyebrows to worry about.

Sustainable Houses More Profitable

HOK, a global architectural firm, made a study of the firm’s profitability on 15 green projects found that they were, on average, 25% more profitable than conventional projects. There is a widespread belief that sustainable design is more time-consuming for the design team and therefore not as profitable as conventional projects. But that isn’t the case. They discovered that the sustainable projects did better than the average for conventional projects completed during the same period. The study did not look into the reasons for this difference, but Lazarus speculates that integrated design helps the firm reduce costs while delivering a better product. Other possible factors include more motivated clients, a more focused design team, or a higher fraction of institutional projects with bigger budgets.

Thanks to tip from TreeHugger