Solar Lion

Shell Game: Oil Giant Pulls out of U.K. Wind Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:26:00 +0000

We’ve mentioned before the belief that high oil prices will inevitably spur more alternative energy.

Royal Dutch Shell said it is pulling out of the “London Array,” which—if it ever gets built—will be one of the world’s largest wind farms.

Shell’s departure leaves the other two partners, Germany’s E.On and Denmark’s DONG, holding the bag on an increasingly expensive and complex project

The Times of London called the departure a “huge blow” to Britain’s ambitious plans to harness offshore wind to meet growing energy needs. The Guardian is harsher:

Even though it isn’t clear if or when U.S. federal clean-energy subsidies will be renewed, European utilities are champing at the bit to enter the U.S. wind market.

Answers About Alternative Energy in New York City

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:46:00 +0000

clipped from cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

Following is a first set of answers from Carol E. Murphy, who is taking questions from City Room readers about alternative energy choices for consumers, what New York City is doing to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels and how city dwellers can decrease their “carbon footprint.” Readers are invited to submit additional questions using the comment form below.

Is New York doing enough to promote solar? Incentives, research, tax breaks?

New York is playing catch up with the rest of the nation when it comes to investment in and policies promoting solar energy. Gov. David A. Paterson’s Renewable Energy Task Force calls for a comprehensive program for solar photovoltaic and solar thermal (heating water for domestic use and space heating) with a goal of 100 megawatts of installed solar PV systems and 1,100 solar thermal systems across New York by 2011.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

, Audubon

Ask About Alternative Energy

DOE Seeks to Invest up to $60 Million for Advanced Concentrating Solar Power Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:33:00 +0000

clipped from www.energy.gov

U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Clarence “Bud” Albright today announced the issuance of the Solar Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $60 million in funding over five years

Increasing the use of solar energy is an important component of the Administration’s efforts to diversify our nation’s energy sources in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security.

The FOA makes funding available for projects from industry and academia that develop advanced thermal storage concepts and heat transfer fluids to further increase the efficiency of concentrating solar power plants

Read more information on the President’s Solar America and Advanced Energy Initiatives and the Department of Energy’s commercialization efforts on the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's website.

Financial Opportunities page or Grants.gov.

The World's Biggest Clean-Energy Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:37:00 +0000

Use the links to read the full story and to view the pictures and descriptions of the biggest clean energy projects.

clipped from www.forbes.com

In Pictures:
The World's Biggest Clean-Energy Projects

clipped from www.forbes.com

Read the full story

William Pentland

Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:17:00 +0000

clipped from smartclips.blogspot.com

Don't forget. Free cone day at Ben & Jerry's is Tuesday, April 29, 2008.

To find a scoop shop near you Go Here. Enjoy!!!

Gadgets that help Preserve Energy at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:47:00 +0000

DOE Selects Projects for up to $50 Million of Federal Funding to Modernize the Nation’s Electricity Grid

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:58:00 +0000

clipped from www.energy.gov

Demonstration Projects Aim at 15 Percent Reduction of U.S. Peak Load Electricity Demand

announced the Department’s plans to invest up to $50 million over five years

in nine demonstration projects competitively selected to increase efficiency in the nation’s electricity grid

these projects aim to reduce peak load electricity demand by at least 15 percent at distribution feeders—the power lines delivering electricity to consumers

Cutting-edge technologies that enhance the efficiency and dependability of the nation’s electricity grid are critical

The projects were selected in response to DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability

Allegheny Power will develop the “West Virginia Super Circuit”

ATK Launch Systems, along with partners Rocky Mountain Power and P&E AUTOMATION, will demonstrate load reduction through an integrated network of diverse renewable generation technologies and intelligent automation

For more information

www.oe.energy.gov.

eSolar scores $130 million from Google, other investors

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:51:00 +0000

clipped from greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com

Solar power plant builder eSolar has raised $130 million from Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, and other investors.

Sunday night as Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference

The other investors include Idealab and Oak Investment Partners

eSolar could help break the logjam that has put Big Solar on the slow track in California.

“We just completed tests at our test site this week and we will be able to produce electricity that is competitive with coal,” said an animated Gross Sunday evening.

That is the Holy Grail of renewable energy

eSolar has been operating in stealth mode but Gross shared details of the company’s technology and how it intends to produce greenhouse gas-free electricity so cheaply

use fields of mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on a tower containing a water-filled boiler

The resulting heat will create steam that will drive an electricity-generating turbine

The tipping-point innovation

mirrors and the software that controls them as well as the modular design of the power plants

Venturi Eclectic EV

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:40:00 +0000

clipped from www.alternative-energy-news.info

Venturi Eclectic EV

A look at the Venturi Eclectic solar powered car courtesy of Venturi

The Solar House, Part Two and Three

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:32:00 +0000

clipped from photovoltaicsolarpower.blogspot.com

In fact, because we now generate more solar energy than we can use, we welcome friends who own electric vehicles over to charge their car batteries for free.

Looking Forward, an Energy Scramble or a Blueprint?

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:41:00 +0000

This article is long and worthwhile reading. Follow the link for more detailed information.

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

Like many institutions and individuals, Shell, the oil giant, is trying to divine what lies ahead in a world with limited energy options, a fast-growing energy appetite, and a climate system almost assuredly disrupted should carbon dioxide emissions from today’s fuels of choice continue their seemingly inexorable rise.

Earlier this month, the company’s forecasters produced two energy scenarios for the next two generations, which they call “the world of scramble” and the “world of blueprints.”

In 2002, I wrote about a report, “Great Transition,”

ranging from Eco Communalism to Fortress World.”

the real future will likely be a messy mix similar to the present

There’ll be instability, poverty, overpopulation, and pollution in some places (they tend to go hand in hand, as in Haiti)

that is the goal of Dot Earth (slide show), both this blog and a set of stories I plan to write in coming months.

So coal makes a big comeback in some regions

solutions that are politically straightforward

Wind Power Becoming More Affordable

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:58:00 +0000

clipped from wnyt.com

Making electricity from wind is becoming a realistic option.

A wind turbine system suitable for powering a family house or small farm is now priced at about 15-thousand dollars, according to conference participants.

Almost all of the expense is upfront, so that after seven or eight years at current rates the cost is paid back and the owner is now enjoying basically free electricity.

The wind doesn't always blow, so a wind turbine owner would need to stay on grid, have back up generators or other sources of power for complete reliability. But if it means reducing demand for current sources of juice, increasingly people are saying where do I sign up?

Although it is non-polluting and renewable, there are real problems with wind power, including visual impact objections and risk to flying birds. For wind to be fully utilized those problems will have to be worked out.

$100 million investment to help solar energy plan

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:11:00 +0000

clipped from www.signonsandiego.com

Under an agreement announced yesterday, Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems said it has landed a $100 million investment from NTR, an international holding company in Dublin, Ireland.

for Stirling, which has come under fire from environmentalists who question Stirling's role in the 150-mile Sunrise Powerlink proposed by San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

the Arizona startup with 40 employees plans to develop a power plant, consisting of 12,000 solar energy dishes, near El Centro at an estimated cost of $400 million.

The plant would generate enough electricity for nearly 300,000 homes in San Diego

Environmentalists say they are skeptical of the Stirling proposal. They doubt that the company can move from its prototype models to large-scale production in time to enable San Diego Gas & Electric to meet a statewide mandate that requires it to use renewable energy for 20 percent of its total power supply by 2010.

Waste not, want not

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:02:00 +0000

clipped from www.tbnweekly.com

As Floridians demand a new vision for the future, Florida politicians are jumping on the “green” wagon. Taking baby steps forward, Florida legislators are testing fertile new ground.

In February, the newest and largest solar power facility in sunny Florida was switched on at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota County

he array, the second-largest in the Southeast, consists of 1,200 solar photovoltaic panels mounted at ground level, covering more than 28,000 square feet

or about half the size of a football field

The solar panels convert sunlight into electricity, producing 250 kilowatts of clean energy, enough energy to power 55 average homes

Operating them prevents the release of more than 654,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year

FPL’s Sunshine Energy Solar Array

Stern Reality: Is Global Warming Even Worse than You Thought?

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:59:00 +0000

clipped from blogs.wsj.com

Nicholas Stern, author of the gloomy, eponymous review that sparked a debate among environmental economists in 2006, said he was wrong. Things are actually much worse. From the Independent:

“We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change,” said Lord Stern in a speech in London yesterday. “All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought a couple of years ago.” […]He also reiterated his previous estimates that governments and business must invest the equivalent of between 1 to 2 per cent of global GDP annually up to 2050 in new technologies and efficiency measures or face climate change of catastrophic proportions.

The Stern Review

“People who said this was scaremongering are profoundly wrong. If anything, I was too reticent. What we are playing for is the transformation of the planet,” he said.

President Bush’s vague calls f

Jeroen van der Veer has gone red in the face calling for Europe to increase funding of clean-coal technology

Moore’s Law: Why Enviros Are Wrong on Nuclear Power

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:55:00 +0000

Happy looking guy. Contemplating or a case of agita?

clipped from blogs.wsj.com

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore’s cheerleading for nuclear power is hardly news these days

Mr. Moore, who now works as a nuclear-power advocate with the Clean and Safe Energy coalition, drops a few interesting pearls in an interview this week with Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International.

[W]e made the mistake of lumping nuclear energy in with nuclear weapons, as if all things nuclear were evil. I think that’s as big a mistake as if you lumped nuclear medicine in with nuclear weapons.

[S]olar is completely ridiculous. The cost is so high—California’s $3.2 billion in solar subsidies is all just going into Silicon Valley companies and consultants. It’s ridiculous.

Unfortunately now the environmental movement is the primary obstacle here. If it weren’t for their opposition to nuclear energy, there would be a lot fewer coal-fired power plants in the United States and other parts of the world today.

The new 'scuppies' wear a mantle of green

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:15:00 +0000

clipped from www.usatoday.com

First came hippies, followed soon by yippies, then preppies, yuppies, buppies and guppies. Now meet the "scuppies": socially conscious upwardly mobile persons.

You know these people because they're everywhere. They eat, drink and sleep organic. They think it's easy being green. They want to live well while doing good.

"You can't throw a stick and not hit one in Starbucks or the Whole Foods parking lot,"

"My whole living room was done by Novica.com," the do-gooder artisan-promoting website.

"I wondered, why can't we be socially conscious and upwardly mobile at the same time?"

Failla

says he invented this latest neologism 10 years ago

Failla has published "The Scuppie Manifesto" on his website (scuppie.com)

The goal is to make green the norm, not the expensive alternative.

Every generation has its own -ppie acronym for describing groups of like-minded people. How come?

Will the term "scuppie" last as long as, say, hippie?

Thoughts on Bush's latest speech on climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:31:00 +0000

Worth reading. Follow the link.

clipped from gristmill.grist.org

Posted by David Roberts at 11:48 AM on 16 Apr 2008

Same as it ever was

The whole media world is in a frenzy, yet again, over a Bush speech on climate change. A new strategy! An effort to secure a legacy! Exciting new principles and goals! Even my own bosses are pressing me to come up with a thoughtful reaction.

Sigh.

I hate to be the party-pooper. But we've been here before. How many times does Lucy expect us to try to kick this football?

Solar king and the Stalin of windpower

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:57:00 +0000

This article is long and detailed so follow the link for more information.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

Hermann Scheer has been described both as the "solar king" and the "Stalin of windpower"

"Our dependence on fossil fuels amounts to global pyromania,

"And the only fire extinguisher we have at our disposal is renewable energy".

Scheer, chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy

what has become known as "Scheer's law", German households and businesses that generate renewable energy can sell it back to the grid at more than triple the normal market price.

"The key to it working is that consumers have guaranteed access to the grid at guaranteed prices,"

More than 300,000 individuals and small businesses have jumped at the opportunity in Germany, and the number is rising all the time. Scheer's family, whose house is powered by a windmill, is among them.

Scheer's law has created whole new industries - wind power, which employs 80,000 people in Germany, and photovoltaic (solar) power, which employs 40,000

"You give people energy independence and you get social commitment

New Ways to Store Solar Energy for Nighttime and Cloudy Days

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:47:00 +0000

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Solar power, the holy grail of renewable energy, has always faced the problem of how to store the energy captured from the sun’s rays so that demand for electricity can be met at night or whenever the sun is not shining.

The difficulty is that electricity is hard to store. Batteries are not up to efficiently storing energy on a large scale. A different approach being tried by the solar power industry could eliminate the problem.

Storing Solar Energy

The idea is to capture the sun’s heat.

Solar thermal systems are built to gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power, as existing solar thermal power plants do — but not immediately. The heat would be stored for hours or even days, like water behind a dam.

“You take the energy the sun is putting into the earth that day, store it and capture it, put it into the reservoir, and use it on demand,”

SolarReserve, a company backed in part by United Technologies, the Hartford conglomerate.

Save Your Favorite TV Show

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Off track but a little fun.

clipped from www.usatoday.com

It's that time of the year again when flailing television shows need all the help they can get, which is where you come in. Take our survey and vote for the shows you just can't live without next season.

VOTE: Which shows do you want to see back next season?

clipped from www.zoomerang.com

Within the next few weeks the networks will determine which of this season's TV series will return next fall. Tell us — and the networks — what you hope happens to these shows. Please select "Keep," "Drop," or "Don't Care" from the tab under each show. We'll reveal the results later this month.

Rocky Politics: The Coal Question

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:03:00 +0000

clipped from blogs.wsj.com

Which weighs more this election year—the economy, or the environment?

This was supposed to be the year the environment and climate change reached a political tipping point

For the Democrats, the issue is especially prickly. As the WSJ reports today (sub reqd.), coal has become part of the political battlefield as the primaries wind down:

The race for the Democratic nomination hinges on a handful of states where coal is still king. That puts Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a bind: how to attack global warming without threatening an industry that provides half the U.S.’s electricity and more than 80,000 mining jobs.

Sen. Barack Obama called the U.S. “the Saudi Arabia of coal.”

We’ve written before

And both candidates have been taken to task for double-talk on coal, such as Sen. Clinton’s apparent support for mountain-top removal coal mining

This Solar House, Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:59:00 +0000

In this two part feature, Norma and Alan Williamson explain in detail how they went about a zero-energy retrofit of their home, which saves money, energy, and the global climate.

Solar, Part 1 (Dec 2003)
We moved into our 2,300-square-foot house around Thanksgiving 2003. Within a month, in order to make use of state rebates that would decrease after the first of the year, we purchased a 6-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system. Installation occurred in two phases. First, in December, we installed the 4-kW array of 35 sapphire-blue PV panels that you can see on the south-facing side of our main roof; eight months later we added the 2-kW set over the garage (see "Solar, Part 2" below). This 6-kW PV system supplies all our energy needs, from our home's heating and air conditioning to the "fuel" for our electric car. (To learn how PV panels work, see Inside a Solar Cell.) Cost: $36,000 (6-kW system; after rebates and tax incentives totaling $17,500, our out-of-pocket expenditures came to $18,500)

Insulation (Jan–Feb 2004)
As part of our goal to make our home net-zero-energy—that is, generating more energy than is consumed—we set about improving our home's insulation. In January, we contracted a company to inject cellulose (recycled paper) insulation into the walls, bringing them up to an R15 level. (The R-value indicates the resistance of a material to the passage of heat and cold.) The following month, we replaced our leaky, single-glaze aluminum windows with dual-pane thermal windows. These are so-called "low-emissivity" windows, which keep winter heat in and summer heat out. We left our front picture window (behind car in main image and at left) intentionally non-low-emissivity, so the winter sun could warm our living room—a passive solar technique. Cost: $1,300 (insulation), $10,000 (dual-pane windows)

Roof (Mar–Jul 2004)
To further increase thermal resistance, we decided to replace the roof and upgrade our attic insulation. In March, we removed the 4-kW solar array as well as the existing, substandard roof tiles. The following month, we brought the attic insulation up to an R30 level. Then, in June, we installed aluminized solar sheathing on the roof. This is a thermal reflective plywood that keeps external heat out and reflects interior heat back in. We also installed roof jacks (to hold up the solar array) and then a new composite shingle roof. Finally, in July, we put in a whole-house cooling fan and whole-house heat-recirculating system (as well as two skylights, one seen in the center of the roof). The fan cools the attic and ceilings when outside temperatures are high, while the heat fan shuttles warm air from the attic to the ground floor when outside temperatures are low. Cost: $300 (attic insulation), $23 per 4' x 8' board (solar sheathing), $4,000 (new roof), $600 (whole-house fan), $570 (whole-house heater), $1,450 (two skylights)

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:30:00 +0000

Smart Clips: Nuclear Ghosts: On Anniversary, Three Mile Island Still Haunts Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Alzheimer's Reading Room) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:25:00 +0000

clipped from blogs.wsj.com

As nuclear power races back into the energy agenda, it keeps getting waylaid by old ghosts. Today is the 29th anniversary of the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, when a partial core meltdown in one of the reactors led to five days of panic and 14 years of expensive clean-up.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, which opposes the nuclear revival on safety grounds, invoked the accident this week: “Three Mile Island was almost 30 years ago so perhaps the industry and the NRC have forgotten about it,” said Dave Lochbaum, the director of UCS’s Nuclear Safety Project.

It’s doubtful either the NRC or the industry have, but no one else has for sure. When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was in favor of using nuclear energy to help California meet its energy needs, he received a shower of editorial criticism. The L.A. Times, picking up on the Governor’s comments that Three Mile Island references are often just scare tactics, rebutted this week: