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The ECO2 process is a post-combustion CO2 capture process for conventional power plants. The technology is suitable for retrofit to the existing coal- fired, electric generating fleet as well as for new coal-fired plants.

The 15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines installed worldwide last year will generate enough clean electricity annually to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of 23 average-sized U.S. coal-fired power plants, according to a new Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute.[1] The 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced in 2006 is equivalent to the emissions of 7,200 megawatts of coal-fired power plants, or nearly 8 million passenger cars.

The electricity sector accounts for almost 35 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, and 40 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Over 80 percent of GHG emissions associated with electricity generation are from the combustion of coal, with nearly all the rest due to natural gas and petroleum combustion. U.S. electricity sales are split among the residential (37 percent), commercial (36 percent), and industrial (27 percent) sectors, where primary uses vary by sector. Over the past 30 years the U.S. electricity sector has become less carbon intensive, and the U.S. economy has grown less electricity-intensive.

Their PowerSheet cells contrast the current solar technology systems by reducing the cost of production from $3 a watt to a mere 30 cents per watt. This makes, for the first time in history, solar power cheaper than burning coal. These coatings are as thin as a layer of paint and can transfer sunlight to power at amazing efficiency.

Good news

If any country can do it, it should be Australia.

Rather than use a working fluid to capture and transfer the waste heat, GE has developed a new evaporator to transfer it. The new design means that ORCs can be used to convert relatively low-temperature heat (under 500 degrees Celsius) into electricity on a wide range of power sources, including the equipment in coal power plants and small gas turbines, said Thomas Fry, a researcher in GE's Munich offices.

"The weaknesses of federal regulatory agencies have been exposed by recent high-profile accidents. Guest columnist Tom Carpenter fears the Department of Energy will reduce its oversight of cleanup at the nation's nuclear waste sites. By Tom Carpenter Special to The Times PREV of NEXT Related Millions of gallons of oil gush continue to rush unabated from BP's mile-deep well in the Gulf of Mexico, and 11 workers are dead from the massive explosion that caused the biggest oil spill in decades. Weeks before this event, the news was dominated by the preventable explosion that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners. In both cases, the not-so surprising news was that the mine and the oil rig had abysmal records of safety violations before the explosions yet were still allowed to operate by the captive regulatory agencies. Where is the government accountability? It is the government's job to assure that ultra-hazardous industries operate safely and responsibly. Is nuclear next? The Department of Energy sits on the nation's biggest nuclear nightmare. Its inventories of highly radioactive and toxic wastes defy comprehension. Washingtonians are familiar with the DOE's No. 1 accomplishment, the Hanford nuclear site, which holds the lion's share of the nation's radioactive detritus. Suffice it to say that the escape of even a small fraction of such material into the environment would constitute a Chernobyl-sized catastrophe."

"In the wake of the BP Gulf oil disaster, the natural gas explosion in Texas this month and the coal mine diaster earlier this year. It seems like public consciousness is finally shifting. While being green and supporting renewable energy was a good public relations move for the last few years, it now seems like a practical one as well to prevent disasters like these from occurring again. It seems like the mood is ripe for the transition to renewables and other sustainable energy technologies to begin in earnest. I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Amory Lovins, chief scientist and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, to talk about how the transition to renewables will make the U.S. energy system more secure and stable and where the country currently stands in that process."

My Clean Break column today is actually more of a feature looking at compressed-air energy storage (CAES) and how Ontario, geologically, would be an excellent location to give it a try. About 50,000 natural gas and oil wells have been drilled in southwestern Ontario over the past 150 years and most of them are depleted. Turns out that depleted gas fields are one of several types of underground reservoir that can be used to store compressed air. Salt caverns are another option, and we have plenty of those as well. In fact, 60 per cent of Canada's natural gas storage is in the region. Compressing and storing air wouldn't be that different technically. Another benefit is that southwestern Ontario has strong wind resources, so building a 1,000 MW-plus CAES facility on its own or as part of a partnership with area wind developers could prove quite economical. The idea, of course, is that cheap wind power generated overnight when demand is down could be used to compress and store the air. The air could then be released to generate electricity during daytime peaks, making wind a dispatchable resource in Ontario and more of a realistic replacement for coal power as it gets phased out of the province. Surplus overnight nuclear power, when we have it (mostly during the summer), could also be stored this way.