The best prospects for large-scale renewable energy production and net-energy performance remain wind and certain forms of solar, according to a study released by two California-based think tanks.

"It is reasonable to conclude ... that a full replacement of energy currently derived from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources is probably impossible over the short term; it may be unrealistic to expect it even over longer time frames," explains Searching for a Miracle: Net Energy Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society. The report was published by the International Forum on Globalization with content provided by the Post Carbon Institute.

The best prospects for large-scale renewable energy production and net-energy performance remain wind and certain forms of solar, according to a study released by two California-based think tanks.

"It is reasonable to conclude ... that a full replacement of energy currently derived from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources is probably impossible over the short term; it may be unrealistic to expect it even over longer time frames," explains Searching for a Miracle: Net Energy Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society. The report was published by the International Forum on Globalization with content provided by the Post Carbon Institute.

A Michigan public university plans to test a floating wind turbine platform to demonstrate how wind energy could work on Lake Michigan.

Grand Valley State University's Michigan Alternative & Renewable Energy Center received $1.4 million in federal funding to conduct the study. The university plans to have the platform installed by the fall of 2010.

Meanwhile, We Energies plans to issue a request for proposals in early November that will be the start of a $3 million study sanctioned by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to determine the feasibility of wind turbines on Lake Michigan.

We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey said the energy utility is not involved in the Michigan study, but will collaborate with Grand Valley State to share information

A Michigan public university plans to test a floating wind turbine platform to demonstrate how wind energy could work on Lake Michigan.

Grand Valley State University's Michigan Alternative & Renewable Energy Center received $1.4 million in federal funding to conduct the study. The university plans to have the platform installed by the fall of 2010.

Meanwhile, We Energies plans to issue a request for proposals in early November that will be the start of a $3 million study sanctioned by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to determine the feasibility of wind turbines on Lake Michigan.

We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey said the energy utility is not involved in the Michigan study, but will collaborate with Grand Valley State to share information

If a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency is correct, then the $2 billion committed by the Alberta government toward the development of carbon capture and storage is nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

The IEA estimates it will cost as much as $10 trillion U.S. between 2010 and 2030 for the world to keep carbon dioxide emissions below 450 parts per million and temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

While that level of investment might be enough for even the most ardent climate change advocate to throw their hands up and surrender, there's a little bit of good news to be found in the report.

If a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency is correct, then the $2 billion committed by the Alberta government toward the development of carbon capture and storage is nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

The IEA estimates it will cost as much as $10 trillion U.S. between 2010 and 2030 for the world to keep carbon dioxide emissions below 450 parts per million and temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

While that level of investment might be enough for even the most ardent climate change advocate to throw their hands up and surrender, there's a little bit of good news to be found in the report.

Jeff Vail has started a series looking at what I've long called the "EROEI hole" problem - making sure we don't leave the transition to renewables too late and find ourselves stuck in a situation where we have shrinking production of fossil fuels which are produced at ever lower EROEI values, thereby making constructing an alternative energy infrastructure a lot more problematic than it would be today - The Renewables Hump: Digging Out of a Hole.

In the first post in this series, I introduced the general notion that renewable energy requires an up-front investment of energy, and that this may dramatically impact our ability to transition to a renewable-energy economy because the transition effort will initially exacerbate the very energy scarcity that is its impetus. Beyond this general notion that the transition to renewables first requires exacerbating our current energy scarcity, the time that it takes a renewable source of energy to return the up-front energy invested in it becomes especially critical. Here's a quick example (for the simplicity of these examples, I'm assuming that 100% of energy requirement is up-front with no maintenance requirement):

I'm not generally a fan of Jeremy Rifkind's work. But, as a commenter is quoted as saying at the end of this BBC News report on Rifkind's latest ideas for energy policy, "The world has room for visionaries."

At a Prague conference, Rifkind outlined a grand scheme for solving economic and energy problems by rapidly moving Europe to distributed renewable energy resources integrated with smart grid systems. If you strip out the seemingly-obligatory-in-public-pronouncements-these-days promise of millions of "green jobs," it is a vision of what a smart grid system can do for distributed energy. Sure, too ambitious by half, but that is part of what makes it a vision and not a program for immediate action.

Although, I'll have to say, there is an odd bit of centralization in a distributed energy proposal in which at "any one time the system will know what every washing machine is doing in Europe" and in the case of "peak demand, [with] not enough supply, software can say to two million washing machines 'forget the extra rinse'." (Though Rifkind notes his system is entirely voluntary and participants would be paid for their contributions.)

With an investment of US $10 billion dollars in energy efficiency improvements, India's economy would benefit from its potentially vast annual energy savings of 183.5 billion kilowatt hours, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI).

"India's energy demand is expected to more than double by 2030. There is a dramatic need for domestic and international energy efficiency technology providers, service providers, and equipment manufacturers to develop innovative ways to conserve energy," said Robin Murphy, WRI vice president of external relations.

Technology Review has an article on new fuel cells that don't require platinum - A Catalyst for Cheaper Fuel Cells.

A new catalyst based on iron works as well as platinum-based catalysts for accelerating the chemical reactions inside hydrogen fuel cells. The finding could help make fuel cells for electric cars cheaper and more practical.

Fuel cell researchers have been looking for cheaper, more abundant alternatives to platinum, which costs between $1,000 and $2,000 an ounce and is mined almost exclusively in just two countries: South Africa and Russia. One promising catalyst that uses far less expensive materials--iron, nitrogen, and carbon--has long been known to promote the necessary reactions, but at rates that are far too slow to be practical.

The Times has a story in the "deserts of gold" genre, confusing solar PV (panels) with concentrating solar thermal power - Solar panels in the Sahara 'could power the whole of Europe'. There is a new twist to the story now though, with North Africa's wind power potential also being touted.

All of Europe's energy needs could be supplied by building an array of solar panels in the Sahara, the climate change conference has been told.

Technological advances combined with falling costs have made it realistic to consider North Africa as Europe's main source of imported energy. By harnessing the power of the Sun, possibly in tandem with wind farms along the North African coastline, Europe could easily meet its 2020 target of generating at least 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources.

One of the reasons why smart grid is generating so much interest right now is its ability to enable the integration of renewable energy into the electric power network, leading to a broader generation portfolio and potentially beneficial carbon implications. Lots of the discussion of smart grid in policy and media (including places like Greentech Media, Cleantech, EcoGeek, GreenMonk, and the New York Times blogs Dot Earth and Green Inc.) has emphasized the potential economic and environmental value from having investments in the electric power network that make the accommodation of renewables easier, reducing transaction costs and shifting the margin at which investing in renewables is profitable.

The State Agency that runs California's electric Grid held an online Solar Energy Symposium on 1-29-2009.

This is the library of all the presentations made. Most are PDF files.

This is Part 3 in a series on Passive Solar Design by Will Stewart, a Systems Engineer in the energy industry and longtime reader of theoildrum.com. As a new administration considers how best to make future infrastructure investments, it seems like some of the lowest hanging fruit is better utilization of the daily solar flux, not only directly with photovoltaic and hot water, but also in building construction and placement. I encourage our readers to further their understanding of passive solar concepts by reading/bookmarking this series.

Fred Pearce has framed his latest opinion piece in Yale Environment 360 as one about Europe fiddling around with its climate change commitment (with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as lead violin), while the US is poised to reengage with the world under the Obama administration. What it's really about though is what the US would need to do to take that lead, and it all has to do with renewable energy. Though some of this may be recap for avid TreeHugger readers, it's worth repeating:

Stephen Chu Appointment a Good Sign
Beyond his stated commitment to dealing with climate change during the campaign, Pearce indicates that the appointment of Stephen Chu as energy secretary is the real sign that the US could soon lead the renewable energy/climate change race. Not only has he done pioneering research on solar power, energy efficiency and cellulosic biofuels at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he's also an advocate of a nationwide expansion of the electric grid to bring renewable energy from where it's most easily generated (west of the Mississippi) to where the greatest demand is (east of the river).

My brother, Abe, and his wife, Josie, built an amazing house down in Terlingua, Texas, basically out of mud and empty bottles. OK, that's oversimplifying it, but they built the dwelling with their own hands, mostly out of adobe, rocks they collected from their property, and other scrounged materials. It's a beautiful, self-sufficient abode that includes a rainwater catchment system, solar and wind power, and a groovy Tolkienesque fireplace. They've now moved to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, and are working on another house while raising a new baby.

Electric Car Conversion Kits are equipments and components that can be used to convert a Gas Powered Car to Electric. There are a few different types - AC kits, DC kits, custom kits, universal kits etc - the kits you end up using will depend on your budget, and your need. Once you build your Own Electric Car you will completely eliminate Gas cost and never pay for gas again, Qualify for up to $1000 IRS refund for driving a clean fuel vehicle. Electric car kits vary in cost depending on make and quality and can be quite expensive. This lens looks into how you can put your own electric car conversion kit together and use it to build your electric car thus avoiding the high cost of of electric car conversion kits or buying a new elctric car.

Germany has grand plans to build its first ever offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Sea, a project that energy experts warn still has a long way to go in meeting formidable financial and technical challenges.

This is an internal UK government report documenting the growing windpower potential within the country

China needs a lot of energy to power its economy and the country's reliance on coal has led to major problems with unsafe work conditions and pollution. By 2006, China's energy requirements had become the second highest in the world, doubling its needs from the past decade.

At present, China produces just over 6 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy, making it 5th in the world for total wind energy. (Germany leads with 22.2 GW.) However, with China's massive push for 21st Century renewable technologies, we shouldn't be surprised if China achieves 100 GW by 2020 say energy experts.

BERLIN (AFP) - The German government wants to build up to 30 offshore windfarms in a bid to meet its renewable energy targets, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said in an interview published Sunday.

Tiefensee told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the windfarms would be built in the Baltic and North seas and said some 2,000 windmills should soon be producing 11,000 megawatts of electricity.