Clean Energy Transition

Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., proposes making the biggest utilities across the nation acquire 20% of their electricity from renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal power by 2020. The plan is gaining momentum as the House of Representatives readies for debate on a massive energy bill this week.

IBM may become a player in the solar cell business within the next 18-24 months. The company has made overtures about solar since 1978, but recently has become more active, obtaining about a dozen patents in the area recently. They are said to be developing both both advanced crystalline technologies and CIGS processes with the potential for very high efficiency multi-junction cells in the foreseeable future.

When completed in 2011 this thermal solar project will be the largest in the world, generating 553 megawatts of power for Pacific Gas & Electric in the Mojave Desert in California. The plant is being built by Israeli company, Solel Solar Systems of Beit Shemes, Israel, a successor company to the people that built the nine thermal solar plants in the Mojave Desert, that have operated over the past 20 years and are currently generating 354 MW of electricity.

Maglev Wind Turbine Technologies to Start Operations Sierra Vista, Arizona [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Proposes to build one gigawatt wind turbine requiring less than 100 acres and working at wind speed up to ~150km/h.

As fuel cell technologies are developed, hydrogen-powered vehicles are receiving more interest. The hydrogen economy, particularly hydrogen-powered vehicle penetration into the Korean transportation market, is studied in this paper. Market share was predicted using the currently available data. The results showed that the hydrogen era will not be as bright as predicted by many people. The main barrier is the fuel cell cost.

The significance of the thermal stratification for the energy efficiency of small solar thermal hot water heat stores is pointed out. Exemplary the thermal stratification build-up with devices already marketed as well as with devices still in development has been investigated experimentally and theoretically, taking into account different realistic operation conditions.

A novel form-stable phase change wallboard (PCW) was prepared for low-temperature latent heat thermal energy storage by incorporating eutectic mixture of capric acid and stearic acid and gypsum wallboard. Thermal properties of form-stable PCW were measured by DSC analysis. The form-stable PCW has good thermal reliability with respect to the changes in its thermal properties after accelerated thermal cycling.

The storage of cold with ice slurries - a special type of thermally multi-functional fluids or phase change slurries (PCS) - is discussed. At first an example of a calculation of a thermal energy storage tank in an ice slurry system with a peak load demand is presented.

This paper is focussed on thermal storage technologies using phase change materials (PCMs) in the temperature range of 120-300°C for solar thermal power generation and high temperature process heat. As the state-of-the-art reference system a steam accumulator is described, which typically has a volume-specific thermal energy density of 20-30 kWh m-3.

Newcastle-based national fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) is involved in the Energy Demand Research Project Smart Metering Trial. Roughly 40,000 households will be taking part in energy saving trials in a bid to cut household bills and help in the fight against climate change after the instalment of smart meters.

Transport group Arriva is trialling B20 biodiesel - a blend of normal and plant-derived diesel - for the first time on its buses. The 75 buses in the innovative trial will run from Arriva's Blyth Garage in Northumberland and carry around 130,000 passengers every week. Minimal engineering changes will be required to the fleet as part of the scheme. The company is aiming to reduce total carbon emissions by around 14 per cent by using Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) as a 20 per cent blend. The FAME will predominantly be a mixture of sustainable soya products, along with used cooking oil and tallow.

To get a sense of what seven years of drought in the Colorado River basin looks like, all you have to do is gaze out at Lake Mead from the top of the dam here and view the 108 feet of brightly colored earth below the familiar red walls rising from the water.

Researchers at Intel this week are showing off a silicon modulator that can pass 40 gigabits of data in a second, a new record that indicates that fiber-inside-computers is really coming.

The E-Flight design team plan to build 10 battery "safe boxes" that will hold 8 Li-Poly battery packs per box. Initially for safety purposes, the battery packs must be charged individually but the long-term goal is to develop a single-plug charging system that could remain in the aircraft at all times.

MIT students James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk won first place with the "Crowd Farm," a proposal to produce electricity through stomping feet at the Holcim Foundation Sustainable Construction competition in Japan. Sit and step for power (Credit: MIT)The idea is that the floor would contain a sub-floor made up of several blocks that would slightly depress when someone stepped on it.

Next week, Greenest Host in San Diego is going to start offering carbon-free Web services to consumers. The company plans to start selling Web hosting services for about $14.95 a month. The trick is that its servers and other systems are powered by solar panels or batteries charged by solar panels. In rare instances, a propane-based generator will kick in, but for the most part the services will not contribute greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

What do BP, Sharp and Sanyo all have in common? They are all among the largest producers of solar modules. And recently Honda and Applied Materials have entered the solar business as well. If you are a renewable energy fan, you have to get excited when large semiconductor equipment experts like Applied Materials get in the game. But the most recent prospective entrant (which I have blogged about) is IBM.

Houston-based Trulite is developing a portable hydrogen-powered generator, the KH4. Pour water into the unit, and it will crank out 150 watts of power, and 200 watts at its peak. While that won't run your house, it's enough to recharge power tools or a laptop or run a small appliance

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.