Eco20/20

The conservation of the land and animals has long been a bedrock principle of the United States.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) continues to announce more places where stimulus money is to be spent as more funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is allocated.

Duke Energy announced that it will expand its renewable power business with the development of a second wind energy project in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The company also announced that it has signed a power purchase agreement for the project and has secured turbines.

The US Department of Energy has released the latest edition of their Annual Energy Review (from the Executive Summary): The projections in AEO2009 look beyond current economic and financial woes and focus on factors that drive U.S. energy markets in the longer term. Key issues highlighted in the AEO2009 include higher but uncertain world oil prices, growing concern about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and its impacts on energy investment decisions, the increasing use of renewable fuels, the increasing production of unconventional natural gas, the shift in the transportation fleet to more efficient vehicles, and improved efficiency in end-use appliances. Using a reference case and a broad range of sensitivity cases, AEO2009 illustrates these key energy market trends and explores important areas of uncertainty in the U.S. energy economy. The AEO2009 cases, which were developed before enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA2009) in February 2009, reflect laws and policies in effect as of November 2008.

The US Dept. of Energy has issued a set of spreadsheets on the use of alternative fuel vehicles, available from two web pages: EIA Alternative Transportation Fuels-Supplier Data EIA Alternative Transportation Fuels-User and Fuel Data A few observations:

The virtual march will wrap up on Friday, but between now and then, march organizers are mobilizing Pickens' New Energy Army to voice support for the Pickens Plan, including a bill introduced just today into the House of Representatives called the NAT GAS Act. "I applaud Congressmen Boren, Larson, and Sullivan for introducing the NAT GAS Act today. In doing so, they're showing that a bi-partisan approach to energy policy is not only possible, but do-able," said Pickens in a statement. Pickens will be in Washington this week, attending meetings, bill introductions, press conferences and meeting with the news media.

Brian Keane, who leads a nonprofit called Smart Power, wants to do for renewable energy what the "Got Milk?" campaign does for milk and what the "Fabric of Our Lives" campaign does for cotton-he wants to make wind and solar and hydropower and geothermal energy really cool, and get more people to buy them. Here's one way he is going about it, with a little help from a friend:

Bayer has honored the Professor Eberhard Jochem of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) for "pioneering technical and economic contributions to energy efficiency." Professor Jochem's commitment to environmental causes dates to his childhood, when he observed a cloud of pollution darkening his home while returning to the Ruhr district of Germany from a trip through the Netherlands by bicycle. Professor Jochem believes that a "commercially profitable 80 percent boost in energy efficiency in the industrialized nations" is possible before the end of this century. By combining his theotical and practical expertise, Professor Jochem has proven that hypothesis, making him a particularly effective advocate for energy efficiency. The key contributors to this tremendous goal are described further below.

California's utilities are in a tight spot. They're mandated to procure 20 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by the end of next year. Currently, renewable energy provides only 12 percent of the state's needs. Green energy is needed, and fast. Where to get it? The southeastern corner of California is becoming the state's Wild West of renewable energy. Five years from now this patch of desert will hold one of the largest solar thermal plants in the world. An area of 10 square miles will be filled with 38,000 "sun catchers," which look like enormous satellite dishes with mirrors.

Renewable Energy World has an article on some large scale efforts to map geothermal power resources in the western US - Western U.S. Entities Move Quickly on Geothermal Mapping. Several large geothermal resource mapping projects are heading toward conclusion so that finally, the power source can be more accurately considered in siting new electricity transmission lines for renewable power development. Given the Obama administration's investment focus on new transmission line development, the result of the mapping efforts should be a relatively rapid increase in the number and size of commercial-scale geothermal projects.

Solar Power Authority has a post on the solar powered Google headquarters - Googleplex Solar. The Googleplex headquarters located in Mountain View California has installed one of the largest corporate solar power structures of any other company to date. The array consists of 9,212 solar panels produced by Sharp Electronics and has a capacity of 1.6 Megawatts (MW) which cover's ~30% of the Google campus electricity needs, the equivalent of roughly 1,000 California homes. This installation is said to save Google $393,000 in electricity per year and can be monitored real time at this interactive page that contains data on the electricity being produced. One of the most unique features of the Googleplex array of solar panels is that it contains several clusters of solar trees. These parking lot covers are designed to keep cars cool while also producing electricity and serving it to both the Googleplex or plugin hybrid electric cars (PHEV's).

The LA Times has an article on a new report noting that wind power could meet the entire electricity demand in the US - Wind turbines could more than meet U.S. electricity needs, report says. Wind turbines off U.S. coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation's current demand, the Interior Department reported Thursday. Simply harnessing the wind in relatively shallow waters -- the most accessible and technically feasible sites for offshore turbines -- could produce at least 20% of the power demand for most coastal states, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, unveiling a report by the Minerals Management Service that details the potential for oil, gas and renewable development on the outer continental shelf. The biggest wind potential lies off the nation's Atlantic coast, which the Interior report estimates could produce 1,000 gigawatts of electricity -- enough to meet a quarter of the national demand.

Tips on how to have an eco-friendly kiddie party.

SunEdison has activated a 1.2-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) energy system for Progress Energy Carolinas. Sited on 10 acres of land at Progress Energy's Sutton Plant near Wilmington, the 1.2-MW ground mount system is the largest in North Carolina. SunEdison financed, built, and operates the PV solar energy system. Progress Energy purchases electricity from SunEdison under a 20-year solar energy purchase agreement. Progress Energy also purchases renewable energy credits from SunEdison.

Investment in renewable energy has hit a lull as private-sector money is drying up, but the bulk of government funding has yet to arrive. There was $13.3 billion in new investments in clean energy -- the term used to describe alternative energy such as wind farms, solar power and biofuels facilities -- in the first three months of 2009, down 53%, from a year earlier, according to a report Thursday from research firm New Energy Finance Ltd. The drop came mostly in bank-based financing for building new projects, the report says, as the credit crunch has caught up with this once high-flying sector.

SOLAR cells are expensive, so it makes sense to use them efficiently. One way to do so is to concentrate sunlight onto them. That means a smaller area of cell can be used to convert a given amount of light into electricity. This, though, imposes another cost-that of the mirrors needed to do the concentrating. Traditionally these are large pieces of polished metal, steered by electric motors to keep the sun's rays focused on the cell. But now Cool Earth Solar of Livermore, California, has come up with what it hopes will be a better, cheaper alternative: balloons. Anyone who has children will be familiar with aluminised party balloons. Such balloons are made from metal-coated plastic. Cool Earth's insight was that if you coat only one half of a balloon, leaving the other transparent, the inner surface of the coated half will act as a concave mirror. Put a solar cell at the focus of that mirror and you have an inexpensive solar-energy collector.

Whether it is a job interview, job or just regular day, make sure you dress for success.

In Europe you can trade in your used car for a voucher. A similar proposal has been brought up in the United States.

As of March 2009 this software is free. Both Demo and Purchase buttons go to the same page for download.

RainCycle is a powerful spreadsheet-based rainwater harvesting simulation program.