Clean Energy Transition

What was once seen as the solution to all our CO2 problems, the ability of trees to soak up anthropogenic carbon dioxide, trees has itself been hindered by global warming.

Charles Bremner, Times, UK offers up some great news for air travelers. The dream of inexpensive, ecofriendly aviation has come closer to reality after a French test pilot achieved the first flight in a conventional light aircraft powered by an electric motor. The Electra, a wood-and-fabric single-seater, flew for 48 minutes for 50km (30 miles) around the southern Alps, winning a global race to apply battery power to a fixed-wing standard aircraft….Electric power for larger aircraft, including airliners, is also on the horizon, with research by Nasa and Boeing into the holy grail of the field: hydrogen-fed fuel cells. These will drive electric motors with power like those on French high-speed trains.

Various departments at a car manufacturing plant are suffering from regular process outages due to voltage dips. These dips are causing production losses in the Metal Operation, Spray Coating, and Assembly departments that directly affect the productivity of the plant. The cost of those losses is directly related to the profile of the voltage dip (duration and depth). Various options to reduce these costs are investigated, with particular emphasis upon the Spray Coating and Assembly departments. The following conclusions can be drawn: 1. The number and type of dips occurring at the point of connection of the plant is regular. It is similar to what is monitored at other medium voltage stations that have the same grid structure. 2. A detailed analysis of the spray coating process reveals that installing a 'restart on the fly' system on the large conditioning fans substantially reduces the related voltage dip losses. 3. A detailed analysis of the Assembly department shows that there are two main bottlenecks that determine the restart time after a dip (the 'Drive' sub-process and the 'Cockpit', 'Marking', and 'Transport chain' users). These bottlenecks can be removed by installing a Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR), which results in a payback time of 1.4 years. * 1 Introduction

This article is a continuation of my Ten Alternative Energy Speculations for 2008, with picks #8, 9, and10 published last Thursday. If you haven't already, please read the introduction of that article before buying any of the stock picks that follow. These companies are likely to be highly volatile, and large positions are not appropriate for many investors. My least risky picks (#8,9, and #10) are part of that same article; my most speculative plays (#1-3) will follow in a few days.

A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69% of the US's electricity and 35% of its total energy by 2050, according to Scientific American. However, $420 billion in subsidies from 2011 to 2050 would be required to fund the infrastructure and make it cost-competitive, the publication says in "A Solar Grand Plan" presented in its January 2008 issue.

This is a guest article by Dr. David Fleming. Fleming is the Founder Director of the Lean Economy Connection, and an independent writer in the fields of energy, environment, economics, society and culture. The article is based on Fleming's recent 56-page booklet, The Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy, which expands and references the arguments presented. The booklet is available to download here: The Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy

While chemical engineers, microbiologists, agronomists, and others struggle to find ways of making cellulosic ethanol commercially competitive, a few synthetic biologists and metabolic engineers are focusing on an entirely different strategy. More than fifteen hundred miles away from the Midwest's corn belt, several California-based, venture-backed startups founded by pioneers in the fledging field of synthetic biology are creating new microörganisms designed to make biofuels other than ethanol.

Junk Science has a selection of quotations from "leading climate change scientists" that I think are worthy of spreading so people can see what kind of people they are and what their real aims are.

Advanced biofuels, more-efficient vehicles, and solar power top the most notable energy stories of 2007.

Each year, things seem to get more exciting for the renewable energy industries, and 2007 was no exception. Although there was much disappointment about the exclusion of important provisions for renewables in the recent U.S. energy bill, the overall global picture was positive. With 31 gigawatts of renewable energy developed around the world, 17 billion dollars in global market transactions and 21 billion dollars in global venture capital invested in new companies in 2007, clean energy can no longer be considered an "alternative" -- it is simply the natural evolution of energy.