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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capitol, has slowly transformed into a sprawling city over the years, full of silver skyscrapers and modern buildings. The city is home to over 5 million inhabitants and bears little resemblance to the land that used to be covered with date trees and orchards. Riyadh roughly translates to “garden” in Arabic and it is a suitable name for a region with such fertile soil.

It is only fitting that the world’s largest greenhouse will reside in the garden city of Saudi Arabia. Barton Willmore, a British design and architectural planning company is working with the civil engineers at Buro Happold to create the 160 hectare King Abdullah International Gardens (KAIG).

This garden will be housed in two giant interlocking crescent domes with 120ft high ceilings. Costing almost a million dollars per hectare, KAIG will do more than just house a variety of pretty plants: The structure is meant to showcase the various global ecosystems with an underlying lesson in sustainable development.
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King Abdullah International Gardens – The Master Plan (Source: www.kaig.net)

The high domes eliminate the need for constant air-conditioning by allowing the hot air to float to the ceiling, trapping the cool air below. Rainwater is harvested and stored in underground reservoirs and used for irrigation. Solar panels and wind turbines will generate a large portion of the electricity needed to power the structure.

Once the project is completed in 2010, visitors will walk through a wide range of gardens meant to illustrate the evolutionary history of plants, current ecosystems and finally, the earth’s potential in the future. The last exhibit-”The Garden of Choices” – allows those interested to see how today’s choices directly impact global ecosystems. Various paths stimulate what the world would look like depending on the choices made: visitors zig-zag through lush gardens indicating what would eventually become reality if new environmentally friendly technologies and ideals were adopted. These gardens gradually recede and transform into an unappealing dry and charred landscape to indicate what would potentially happen with indifference and the continued trends of pollution.

KAIG will hopefully educate visitors in making the right environmental choices, but even if that isn’t the case, at least this man-made wonder will provide breathtaking glimpses into the earth’s botanical past, present and potential future.

Most of us have heard about the “Hydrogen Highway,” that mythical roadway which, along with bullet trains and bridges to nowhere, may actually get built someday at a staggering expense to the taxpayer (to be fair – we’re as hopeful as anyone the formidable technological barriers to using hydrogen as a transportation fuel are eventually overcome). But meanwhile, as of last week, the first ethanol highway in the United States is open for business – I65, stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Corn ethanol is a viable transportation fuel today, not someday, and implementation of this ethanol highway, the first of many, is an exercise in practicality, not pipe dreams.

For 886 miles, from Gary, Indiana, all the way to Mobile, Alabama, drivers of flexfuel vehicles who wish to purchase E85 fuel (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) are now no more than one quarter-tank away from a filling station offering the blend. To make this a reality, a consortium of partners including General Motors, the States of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, as well as the DOE, Clean Cities, and many others, worked to convert and certify hundreds of retail fuel stations along the entire length of I65. Overall, there are now over 1,800 retail filling stations offering E85 in the USA, just over 1% of the total stations.

The future of ethanol depends on a few key factors: The availability of flexfuel vehicles, the availability of retail outlets that offer E85, and the quantity of E85 available to the consumer. There are about 7.0 million flexfuel vehicles already on the road in the USA, and in many parts of the country – the Midwest in particular – E85 is readily available. Gaining UL certification for ethanol refueling equipment, which should occur early next year, will greatly accelerate the adoption of ethanol pumps at major chains of gasoline retailers. The real wild card is the availability of ethanol.

As specified in the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, the United States has committed to blending up to 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2030. Currently the United States consumes about 130 billion gallons per year of gasoline, meaning – taking into account a somewhat lower energy content per gallon in ethanol vs. gasoline – by 2030 ethanol can replace over 20% of today’s gasoline consumption. Given the potential of electricity and natural gas powered vehicles to also offset gasoline demand, combined with the increasing average fuel economy of the US light vehicle fleet, it is possible these 36 billion gallons of ethanol will actually provide more than 20% of liquid transportation fuels being consumed by 2030.
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EISA 2007 – RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD

Cellulosic ethanol is mandated via EISA to provide nearly 50% of total ethanol production by 2022. In reality, cellulosic ethanol can provide up to about 100 million gallons per year, far more than EISA’s goals. (Source: General Motors)

With 2008 production of corn ethanol projected to reach nearly 10 billion gallons, and with additional refineries already under construction to produce another 2 billion gallons, it is evident the potential for corn crops to supply ethanol is reaching its limit. Whether or not corn ethanol production reaches 15 billion gallons, or is throttled down to somewhat less than that, the future of ethanol lies in the ability to produce it from cellulosic material. Dozens of companies are hot on the trail of commercializing cellulosic ethanol production – via two primary technologies, biochemical conversion or thermochemical conversion. Two companies at the forefront of this process are Coskata, who have a hybrid process that relies initially on thermochemical conversion of cellulosic feedstock, and Mascoma, who are pioneering a 100% biochemical conversion process.

For more information on cellulosic ethanol, read our in-depth report “Cellulosic Ethanol.” We will be covering this extensively in future posts, given the potential of cellulosic ethanol is to deliver quantities of fuel well beyond the 16 billion gallons per year targeted by the U.S. Congress for delivery by 2022. Cellulosic ethanol production, if successfully commercialized, based on known feedstocks, could conceivably reach 100 billion gallons per year – which when considered along with the other ways gasoline is destined to be either replaced or used far more efficiently, is another reason we are on the verge of an age of plenty, not an age of scarcity.

Developers in areas bordering forested lands can use fire-resistant landscaping and building materials, particularly for roofing.

Allowing natural fires to burn, forest thinning (especially near homes), using fire resistent building materials, and being prepared – these steps dramatically reduce fire risk.

More and more homeowners on the forest’s edge are realizing that they cannot rely on the Forest Service for protection from wildfires.

One striking example comes from last summer’s fires in the resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho—a hotspot for high-dollar second homes. Among the seasonal residents are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood.

Last summer, as flames from the Castle Rock fire threatened multi-million dollar mansions in Sun Valley and nearby Ketchum, insurer American International Group, Inc. (AIG) took notice. Members of AIG’s elite Private Client Group pay an average yearly premium $10,000, and in return they are protected with special emergency services. Tom Futral, AIG’s fire protection contractor, rolled into town as authorities were issuing evacuation orders and Forest Service firefighters were working round the clock.

Armed with a spray gun and a truckload of fire retardant, Futral coated AIG’s premium customers’ homes and the surrounding landscaping. One neighbor, not an AIG client, asked if he might be able to hire Futral’s services. But Futral’s docket was full—if you were not already on the list, you were out of luck.

The results were striking. When flames did approach the treated homes, a clear line was visible on shrubs—half black, half green—where the fire had been halted by the retardant. This service is a nobrainer for AIG; the potential payout if just one of these homes was lost to fire dwarfs the cost of Futral’s services.

Although this last-ditch protection was available only to the very wealthy, anyone can take low-cost preventative measures that significantly reduce the risk of home ignition in the event of a wildfire. This prevention is often much more effective than Forest Service fire suppression efforts.

The key is to begin long before the sparks fly. For example, developers in areas bordering forested lands can use fire-resistant landscaping and building materials—particularly for roofing. Ongoing maintenance by homeowners is also important; trimming branches back from structures and keeping lawns and gutters free from debris like pine needles or leaves. A complete and detailed list of these simple, inexpensive preventative measures is available at www.firewise.com.

Research shows that fire-resistant landscaping within a 120-foot radius, combined with non-flammable roofing material, can significantly increase the ability of a structure to withstand a wildfire. Fuels reduction treatments outside of the 120-foot radius were found to be ineffective and inefficient for protecting structures from wildfire. So, the burden for home protection—from a preventative standpoint—largely falls on the private homeowner.

Fire and the Feds
Federal agencies bear much of the responsibility for wildfire control. Some claim that the Forest Service is to blame for creating hazardous fire conditions—and therefore is responsible for protecting its neighbors from the consequences of its mistakes. Indeed, in some national forests, decades of fire suppression by the Forest Service has resulted in hazardous accumulations of flammable fuels.

Historically, fires sparked by lightning or by Native Americans burned through some forests every 15 to 35 years, clearing out brush and favoring the growth of older, thick-barked, fire-resistant trees. One Forest Service study estimates that, due to past federal fire suppression policy, 30 percent of national forests have been “significantly” altered from historical conditions, and another 39 percent have been “moderately” altered.

That leaves 31 percent of national forests that have not been altered from their historical conditions, for several reasons. Some forests burned during the last century, despite Forest Service suppression efforts. Other areas have been treated by the Forest Service in recent years for hazardous fuels reduction, either through mechanical removal of fuel or prescribed burning. And some forests are not historically prone to frequent fire and so have not been disturbed by decades of Forest Service fire suppression.

Sixty-nine percent of the national forests—116 million acres—have been altered to some extent by fire suppression. The Forest Service has proposed fuels reduction treatments in these areas to restore the ecological role of fire and to protect their neighbors from the risks of catastrophic wildfire. But fuels reduction on most Forest Service land will not be effective in protecting neighboring structures from wildfire—since most Forest Service land is more than 120 feet from structures. Except in the few cases where national forest boundaries fall within that 120-foot radius, the most valuable preventative efforts will be on private land and are the responsibility of the homeowner.

Private Fire Protection
Examples abound where fire tears through a wildland-urban interface neighborhood, and some housing developments are almost totally destroyed while others remain unscathed. Last fall in southern California, the Witch Fire swept through five San Diego subdivisions that were built, landscaped, and maintained to “firewise” standards, without a single home igniting. Nearby, 1,125 homes burned to the ground.

As more homes (particularly more expensive ones) encroach on forested lands, the insurance industry is taking more notice. AIG’s premium wildfire protection services is one example. State Farm Insurance Company takes a different approach, offering lower premiums to homeowners in six western states, who take preventative steps—clearing debris, moving woodpiles away from structures, trimming back branches—to protect their homes from wildfire.

Local jurisdictions are also adopting regulations that require homeowners to reduce the risk of home ignition. Regulations exist at the state, county, or city level in California, Oregon, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington. Some local fire departments and zoning boards have enacted fire standards for new developments in high-risk areas. But these regulatory and insurance mechanisms are still relatively small-scale, compared to the scope of the wildland-urban interface fire threat.

Vigilantes Fight Back
The concept of homeowner responsibility is gaining recognition, and with this trend, some rural residents are exploring additional possibilities. Although most of the focus thus far has been the preventive measures that homeowners can take, there may also be a way for homeowners to participate in fire suppression.

A model exists in Australia, where a policy of “evacuate early, or stay and defend” encourages those who are able to remain at home to protect their own property from fires. This policy recognizes three key points: carefully built and maintained homes can protect residents from the radiant heat of wildfire, residents can protect structures by extinguishing small spot fires ignited by stray embers long after the fires (and firefighters) have passed through, and hasty last-minute evacuations create the most dangerous and deadly wildfire situations. Children, the elderly, and the disabled are encouraged to evacuate long before the flaming front approaches. Those who remain behind keep a vigilant watch for embers, which can travel miles from the flaming front and enter homes through vents or eaves,smoldering for hours.

This “shelter-in-place” concept contrasts sharply with the U.S. approach, which favors complete evacuation of large areas under threat from wildfire. Although the intent of this policy is to keep people out of harm’s way, the results can be devastating. Some residents linger too long and are not aware that they are safer at home than attempting to evacuate as the flames encroach.

Seventy-five percent of fatalities in California’s 2003 Cedar and Paradise fires occurred during evacuations. Complete evacuation can also result in the loss of more structures. Even the most elite firefighters cannot track every ember or keep an eye on every building. With watchful residents on site, more homes are likely to survive blazes.

Of course, no approach to wildfire is without risk. With shelter-in-place, there is the risk that some people will still attempt dangerous last-minute evacuations, or that residents will try to stay and defend homes that are not constructed or maintained to firewise standards. U.S. agencies prefer to avoid these risks, and instead favor evacuation—keeping people away from the flames, even if some houses may be lost to stray embers.

Primed for Change
Although the United States might not be ready for shelter-in-place during wildfires, the country is certainly primed for a change in its approach to wildfire. The Forest Service has long recognized the importance of fire to North American ecosystems, but most fires on national forests are still suppressed—in 2005, more than 99 percent— largely because of the threats to private property in the wildland-urban interface.

The risk escalates as communities continue to push their boundaries into forested areas. Between 1970 and 2000, the developed portion of the wildland-urban interface grew in size by 52 percent, and this trend is expected to continue, according to a 2007 study from Colorado State University.

With more development comes a higher bill for fire suppression. One USDA audit reports that between 50 and 95 percent of Forest Service fire suppression budgets, which have averaged more than $1 billion per year since 2000, is spent protecting private homes in the wildlandurban interface.

As more developments encroach on forested lands, federal agencies cannot continue to take responsibility for their neighbors, passing the bill on to the taxpayers at large. It would behoove residents of the wildland-urban interface to recognize the threats that exist in their locations and to take preventative steps to protect themselves in the event of wildfire.

Alison Berry is a research fellow at the Property & Environment Reseach Center (PERC) specializing in forest economics and policy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Vermont and a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Montana. Prior to joining PERC, she worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a supervisory botanist and forestry technician. She has also been a restoration specialist with the Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts. Her research has been published in the Journal of Forestry and the Western Journal of Applied Forestry. Alison Berry can be reached at aberry@perc.org. This article originally appeared in PERC Reports in the summer of 2008 and is republished with permission.

Cities are hot: Filled with skyscrapers, traffic and hot pavement, heat simmers between buildings causing the “heat island effect”. Stagnant heat is trapped in the narrow city gaps and air conditioners cooling the inside of buildings spill even more heat out the walls. Trees offering natural cooling and shade are minimal and soil that helps water evaporation (thereby cooling the area) is non existent. Replacing the trees and soil are dark streets that store heat and reach temperatures up to 70F (21C) hotter than lighter surfaces. Stifling heat is depressing (unless you’re at the beach), and the added smog and clouds that form because of it, don’t help matters either.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that “for millions of Americans living in and around cities, heat islands are of growing concern. This phenomenon describes urban and suburban temperatures that are 2 to 10°F (1 to 6°C) hotter than nearby rural areas. Elevated temperatures can impact communities by increasing peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution levels, and heat-related illness and mortality.”

Sure White Fully Adhered EDPM (Photo: Carlisle SynTec)

Carlisle Syntec Incorported, one of the biggest single-ply membrane roofing companies, provides a product that helps cut down on the ‘heat island’ issue. If, however, energy costs need to be cut back because of heat escaping in winter climates, they have solutions for that too.

Carlisle has developed membranes for over 40 years and their popularity has increased substantially in that time: Demand exploded as early as the 1970s, during the Arab Oil Embargo when Asphalt became scarce. In the 1980′s Carlisle stretchable roofing technology accounted for 40% of the non-residential roofing market. Now, as continued in their company timeline, “Carlisle reaches out domestically from 21 manufacturing locations, 80 manufacturer and representative offices and eight regional sales offices to serve the non-residential single-ply roofing marketplace.”

Their roofing materials are developed for a variety of needs. Their thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO), is a white reflective material that, after easily being rolled over and attached to rooftops, cuts down on buildings’ cooling costs and energy usage. Logically, the reflecting material also helps cut back on the heat island effect. Cool roof products are becoming increasingly popular: in the past three years, for example, Carlisle has rolled out more than 400,000 square feet of TPO.

Carlisle specializes in a variety of roofing needs: For cooler climates, where it isn’t necessarily beneficial to reflect heat, darker heat absorbing membranes are used on rooftops. The company also designs unique skylights and a variety of roof gardens.

With the ease of application, the environmental benefit and the aesthetic appeal of these roofing systems, it won’t be a surprise if bland dark roofs are soon a thing of the past.

The evolution of the global energy economy is dependent on transitioning to the “smart grid,” a term to describe an upgraded electric power transmission and distribution system that encompasses a broad range of innovations. The smart grid will be mostly invisible, but will impact virtually everything we do, and will facilitate a future where energy will be abundant, clean, and more than ever before, electric. There is possibly no company in the world more in the center of this transformation than GridPoint, located in Arlington, Virginia.

Last week I spoke with Karl Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer for GridPoint, who described in detail his company’s services. Understanding how GridPoint is addressing the market opportunity is a very good way to understand how the smart grid is evolving.

As Lewis put it, GridPoint, which initially emphasized electricity storage solutions, is now an “enterprise software company for utilities.” At the heart of GridPoint’s products are intelligent, “grid aware” systems, embedded in products that span the entire grid, from electricity generators, to storage systems, to grid management systems at the utility, to large appliances in the home – including electric vehicles. The management challenges introduced by the growth in intermittant sources of electricity such as wind and solar, combined with the proliferation of new large electricity consumers such as flat screen televisions and, soon, electric vehicles, along with the imperative to use electricity more efficiently, make the need for next-generation systems to manage the electric power grid more necessary than ever.
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A grid-aware energy management system such as GridPoint’s “Xcel” product will reduce energy consumption during peak periods. Xcel will be able to measure, control and verify select loads from electric water heaters, pool pumps, and home appliances, and adjust thermostats. (Photo: GridPoint Inc.)

A few years ago, GridPoint’s “Connect Series” electricity storage solution, available in 12 kilowatt-hour modules, grid-aware, and including a management interface to intelligently harvest or release electricity depending on market conditions and demand profiles, was – and probably still is – the best in its class. Storage solutions were – and still are – a huge missing piece as solar and wind generators contribute an ever increasing percentage of grid electricity. But GridPoint executives realized that despite the current lack of availablity, storage solutions would quickly become commoditized, whereas grid management systems was an area of huge opportunity still in its infancy.

At the same time, it was clear that intelligent storage systems, able to arbitrage electricity rates by collecting electricity during moments of low spot prices, and releasing electricity during moments of high spot prices, were really only going to make economic sense for utilities, not for commercial or residential customers. This is because commercial and residential customers have guaranteed prices, which while tiered to reflect daily and seasonal variations in demand and supply, fluctuate within relatively narrow bands. Since a battery’s charge/discharge efficiency is about 85%, and since the resale of electricity back into the grid will incur transaction costs, price variations would have to be substantial in order for a storage unit to deliver an adequate return on investment at the commercial or residential scale.

On the other hand, wholesale electricity price fluctuations for utilities, where the spot price of electricity can literally swing from a low of $.02 per kilowatt-hour to a high of $2.00 per kilowatt-hour, are so severe that a smart, utility scale storage unit can quickly deliver a financial payback and ongoing return on investment. This reality, combined with the acute need utilities everywhere face as they attempt to integrate an increasingly complex network of distributed assets, inspired GridPoint to leverage the head start they’d acquired developing the Connect Series to become an enterprise software company, targeting utilities.

There are four interrelated areas utilities must address in order to manage the challenges presented by the new smart grid: (1) Measure and control electricity load at the point of consumption, (2) integrate distributed generation, (3) store energy, and (4) integrate plug-in vehicles. Each of these four challenges present unique requirements.
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GridPoint provides a standard enterprise software solution for utilities that enables them to develop custom interfaces both for the utility and the consumer, which in-turn allows load management, distributed storage management, renewables management, and plug-in vehicle integration. (Photo: GridPoint Inc.)

In order to measure and control electricity load at the point of consumption, the utility needs to be able to remotely monitor activity at every electricity customer’s meter. This “inside the meter” activity is accomplished by installing IP addressable appliances – or upgrading them to be IP addressable – as well as upgrading each customer’s meter to collect this data and transmit it to the utility. A variety of services can be performed once these upgrades are in place. The utility, working with each customer, can prepare a customized program whereby when there are electricity shortages, the thermostat can be adjusted automatically to reduce the collective energy required by air conditioners, for example. The utility can provide each customer with a detailed analysis of their electricity consumption, allowing them to see what individual appliances and thermostat settings are costing them, and allowing them to set a profile to manage how much electricity they use. Demand management, collectively at the utility level, and individually on the part of electricity consumers, is an essential part of the new smart grid. As Lewis pointed out, using network based intelligence to measure and control load can sharply reduce the necessity for the utility to invest in plants designed to only operate during peak demand. Managing load at the point of consumption is a huge factor in flattening demand as well as reducing overall demand, and represents a “generation-equivalent resource.”

Integrating distributed generation requires a variety of innovations both in terms of technologies deployed as well as the business models that govern utilities. As regulators move towards requiring two-way metering in order to facilitate distributed generation, utilities and suppliers must take steps to ensure that power is safely conveyed back into the grid – on both sides of the meter. Repairing severed power lines, for example, is not the same challenge as before, if power is flowing not only from the utility to the customer, but from the customer to the utility.

Distributed generation also has to be regulated in a manner that provides incentives both to the utility and to the consumer. The traditional business model for utilities is that they make money when they invest in generating assets. Decoupling a utility’s return to investors from the volume of electricity they produce is a complex exercise that can produce unintended consequences. Regulations to decouple financial return from electricity volume have already been written in California and other states, but as the smart grid evolves and as we learn what works and what is counterproductive, these regulations will require frequent adjustments. It is likely, for example, that utilities will begin to own distributed generating assets. Particularly at the commercial scale, where a fairly substantial amount of capacity can be deployed per customer, this can provide a commercial electricity consumer with guaranteed lower rates, and the utility can finance and install the entire system. A solar system on a 100,000 square foot warehouse roof is a typical example of how such a program would work. Using GridPoint’s enterprise management software, the utility can manage myriad distributed systems, which in aggregate can obviate the need for new power plants, or even make possible the decommissioning of power stations dependent on imported fuel.

Electricity storage, despite eventually becoming a commodity, is nowhere near enjoying such status at present. With over 20 gigawatts of wind generated output now in the United States, and with plans in many states to bring wind and solar generating resources up to 20% or more of total electricity capacity within a few years, electricity storage must quickly catch up. Other than pumped hydro storage, which has been built out pretty much to the limit of available resources, the installed base of electricity storage capacity in the United States is still negligible.

While commercial and household consumers, in that order, will begin to deploy storage systems on site, the primary investor in large scale storage solutions will be the utility, since investing in storage can offset the need to construct new power plants, and also enable utilities to avoid paying exhorbitant spot rates for electricity during periods of high demand. Also, utilities will need to invest in large scale storage solutions simply to fulfill renewable energy mandates – if utilities are going to bring renewable generating capacity up to 20% of supply, or higher, they will have to invest in parallel in storage systems to take electricity gathered during the solar peak, or during times of high winds, and store it for distribution during the demand peak. Typically the solar supply peak precedes the demand peak, which in turn is followed by the wind supply peak later in the night. Only storage at the utility scale can manage this cycle.

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A GridPoint energy management system will take plug-in electric vehicle management in stride. (Photo: GridPoint Inc.)

Finally, electric vehicles appear to be within 3-5 years of mass adoption. Sometime between 2011 and 2013, let’s say, there will be over 1.0 million plug-in electric vehicles being owned and operated by American consumers. Given the fact electric vehicles convert energy into transportation miles very efficiently, combined with the potential for electricity powered vehicles to reduce the demand for imported fuel, it is possible growth in the U.S. electric vehicle fleet will not stop at 1.0 million, but could surge within a generation to comprise 50% or more of all light vehicles. The supply and management of electricity for electric vehicles is a huge element to consider when transitioning to the smart grid.

Electric vehicles will need to be “grid aware,” meaning they will need to be programmed to recognize when off-peak rates apply, so they can begin and end their charge cycle during those times – presumably during the middle of the night. Electric vehicles will also need to be able to access and pay for “roam charging,” where they will plug into charging stations on the road, but communicate their consumption to the utility, so the vehicle owner receives these charges as line items on a single bill, similar to the cell phone billing model. There will need to be provisions for rapid charging, where an electric vehicle owner may be on the road and get a quick charge, but pay a premium for this service.

Also, there is potential for vehicle-to-grid charging, where a vehicle owner sells power back to the grid during times when the car has excess charge and utility rates are high. This possibility, however, is less likely than it might immediately seem, since routinely having cars discharge energy back into the grid will accelerate the degradation of the vehicle’s battery, an asset that is significantly more expensive than batteries designed for stationary use. Also there are significant safety issues surrounding having a two-way charging system on a car that would require expensive upgrades both to the vehicle’s power management system as well as the circuitry in the home. These facts, combined with the relatively narrow tiers of electricity price variation sustained at the household consumer level, make it unlikely that vehicle batteries will ever be a significant part of the smart grid’s energy management system.

Putting all of this together is the area where GridPoint enjoys a decisive lead. As this market is just beginning to coalesce, there are still communication protocols that have to be standardized. At the household level there are already standards that have been widely adopted, using IP with the Zigbee communications protocol with standard application profiles – this will enable the consumer’s smart meter, and their utility partner, to interact with large appliances. There are wifi-light communication protocols as well that appear moving towards standardization, so low energy appliances such as thermostats can communicate with household appliances and with the utilities. But at the wide area network level, it is still wide open. Silver Spring Networks is one company with a strong product that is competing, along with other contenders, to become a standard.

GridPoint’s role in all this is not to choose or deliver the communications protocols, nor the storage solutions. Instead GridPoint offers a standardized enterprise software for the utility to adopt and manage these various assets. GridPoint helps the utility customize their software for their unique requirements, they assist them to write their “smart grid roadmap,” and help them choose the technology set they will use as they upgrade to a smart grid. Right now GridPoint is the only company offering these solutions on an open, standardized platform. They offer one software solution to communicate and manage all of the asset types. GridPoint is at the forefront of the emerging electric age.

With Tesla now shipping 10+ vehicles per week, and other automakers, small and large, increasingly announcing electric vehicle programs, what is the latest on the Chevy Volt? At this point, with about 110 weeks to go before the Volt is going to be in showrooms, are they on track? We got an update last week from GM spokesperson Rob Peterson, as well as access to photos of the final Volt exterior and interior design. Here’s what we know:

GM is currently testing two “mule” vehicles with prototype components in an old Malibu body. By the end of this year GM expects to have the next generation of test vehicles in service, using production intent propulsion and chassis components. There will be over 30 of these vehicles, many of which will be used for crash safety testing.

The battery remains the biggest wild card in GM’s development program. While GM is confident they have a viable battery at this point, there are many performance variables associated with the battery that they still need to fully understand and manage. As Peterson put it, “right now is a very important development period for the battery, we are learning the capabilities of the battery relating to safety, protection, and optimization.” Peterson said GM hopes to have a production contract in place with at least one of their battery suppliers by the end of the year. Currently they are sourcing batteries for testing from LG Chem and A123 Systems.

When asked how much GM intends to charge for the car, Peterson was not specific, noting the price will depend on a variety of factors that can’t be assessed two years ahead of time. Market conditions in 2010 will be a variable, as will the costs. While GM has a pretty good idea of what the Volt will cost at this point, until they have a contract with their battery supplier, one major variable remains unclear. But Peterson emphasized the choice of Chevy to deliver their first extended range electric vehicle was a clear statement of intent – “build an affordable car that fits people’s lifestyles; four seats and a long range capability.”

The Volt remains a unique design, insofar as it has an all-electric drivetrain, but also has an onboard gasoline engine that turns a generator. This makes the Volt distinct from 100% battery powered vehicles such as the Tesla Roadster, but also distinct from all hybrid cars currently on the road, which use complex transmissions to allow the onboard gasoline engine to share traction responsibilities with the electric motors. By completely disconnecting the gasoline engine from the drivetrain, the Volt’s onboard gasoline engine can operate at a constant RPM, allowing extremely efficient use of fuel. This innovation also relieves Volt designers of the need for a complex and very expensive transmission, since electric motors have an extraordinary range of functional RPM. This innovation also allows GM to downsize the battery, which is not an option on a 100% battery powered vehicle, and this also greatly lowers costs. The Volt is designed to deliver 50 MPG on gasoline only, a 440 mile combined range, and for around town, a 40 mile range operating exclusively on electricity. The Volt is not just another plug-in hybrid.

As Peterson put it, “there are a lot of engineers at GM who could retrofit a car and build a plug-in hybrid in a few days, but that is not a repeatable process for mass vehicles.” The fact that not one other major automaker has a credible plan to deliver an extended range electric vehicle (EREV, also referred to as a series hybrid), is indicative of just how much is required to make this leap. But it is also likely the EREV design will become the standard for light vehicles in the coming years.

We have been warning readers about the pension crisis for a few years now. In a nutshell, the problem is the following: California public employee unions – which are virtually unregulated despite the fact they operate in the uncompetitive public sector – have pretty much taken over California’s state and local governments. In recent years they have negotiated pay and benefit increases so dramatic that the average government worker in California often earns 2-4x what globalized private sector workers earn to do jobs of comparable worth. This dramatic disparity is largely due to the value of their retirement pensions. The present value of what someone collects in retirement must be applied to the years they work, in order to correctly value their annual compensation. And by that measure, pretty much every employee working for the state of California is a millionaire.

Please note there is a huge difference between unions that operate in the competitive private sector, and unions that now arguably control our public sector. Also please note this commentary is in no way meant to disparage the good men and women who work in the public sector to perform vital services for us. Moreover, this commentary is not suggesting we eliminate government services – on the contrary, this commentary simply advocates making taxpayer funded government services and benefits apply to all workers equally. Currently the public sector serves itself first, leaving the scraps for the taxpayers. This must be challenged.

During the internet bubble, then the housing bubble, most financial analysts understood we were experiencing unsustainable economic growth. But this didn’t stop the public employee unions from using these temporary surpluses as an excuse to serve their members at the expense of the taxpaying private sector workers. Crowing about excessive “executive compensation” collected by an insignficant handful of corporate executives, they demanded endless hikes in pay and benefits. The fact that they should have been comparing their compensation to their ordinary counterparts who work in the private sector was a fact they conveniently ignored. If politicians opposed them, they could be crushed in the next election. The fact their pension funds invested in the same evil corporations they routinely demonized was also conveniently ignored.

Schwarzenegger’s disastrous attempt to reform the public sector in 2005 was, ironically, perhaps California’s last chance to financially guarantee their state worker pensions.

Back in July 2004 I recall reading an ad in a local newspaper placed by someone who held regular classes to teach people how to get jobs with the State of California. The ad said “Land a State Job and Become an Instant Millionaire.” I read the ad closely, and kept a copy.

Space and copyright laws prevent publishing the entire text of this ad, but it was factual, and filled with comments like the following: “The California state government provides a “defined benefit” pension plan to each of its employees. Such “defined benefit” pension plans are far more generous than any 401K or defined contribution pension plan available from any other employer in the state! In fact, the plan is so generous that it makes the average state employee a millionaire after only 22 years of work!”

In this ad and others, written with an astonishingly complete lack of irony, the writer explained in detail how much an employee would have to save every year in order to acquire sufficient wealth to retire with an annuity this generous. In other ads, the writer explained how many days off California’s state workers receive – holidays, personal days, vacation, comp. time, and the “9/80″ program where they get yet another day off every two weeks by working nine hour days for nine working days in a row. Show me an example of a conscientious salaried worker in the private sector who doesn’t work nine hours a day! In all, most state workers get between 50 and 75 paid days off per year. There is a staggering cost for all this.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost. For years, California’s public employee retirement funds – and others in other states – have overestimated the rates of return they could earn, at the same time as they underestimated how long their beneficiaries would live. Despite being the biggest collection agencies the average local government has ever seen, and despite being able to heavily influence our elections, and despite salivating over the prospect of collecting carbon auction proceeds (the real reason “the war on global warming has only just begun”), the unavoidable truth is this: California’s public employee pension funds are no longer anywhere close to fully funded. Huge reforms are finally going to come – initiated not by political reform, but by fiscal reality.

The good news is by liquidating public employee retirement funds, and instead giving government workers social security like the rest of us, several benefits will accrue to society:

• What’s left in these public employee retirement funds can be transferred to the social security administration, bolstering the solvency of that fund.
• All workers will receive social security, instead of public sector workers receiving far more generous pensions. Having the same retirement formulas apply to all workers will create the critical mass of voters, at last, to demand genuine upgrades to the social security benefit.
• Public employees will no longer be slaves to their pensions – they can try out work in the private sector. Of course in the private sector they will no longer get 50-75 days off every year, but at least they won’t be slaves to their pensions.
• The biggest liabilities on state and local government balance sheets, their payables to the state employee retirement funds, will be wiped away. Nationally, eliminating these unpayable trillions in debt may very likely prevent the great depression of 2010 from happening.
• Government operating deficits will disappear. State and local governments will be able to fund investment instead of issuing bonds (translation, raising taxes – debt service on a bond is an expenditure, too, requiring tax revenue to service). With payments to public employee pension funds abolished, more cash will be able to go into public works and better public sector services.

For more on the pension crisis and how public sector unions and environmentalists have both helped create this crisis and are attempting to stop reform, read: Unionizing Silicon Valley, Unlocking California Gridlock, California’s Global Warming Act, Public Sector Reform, Unions, Ideals vs. Reality, Unions Aren’t Green, CEQA Hijacked, and California’s Deficit.

Would you be interested in knowing about a previously uninvestigated biomass energy resource with extraordinary potential well beyond any plant currently being investigated?

I do understand that the claim of a major crop plant that has never been investigated for its bioenergy potential doesn’t make much sense, but after reading my web page, please search the ORNL database or any other bioenergy database you like – you will find not a mention of this incredibly high potential resource.

For your information, this unknown bioenergy resource is ordinary tobacco, grown as biomass. Tobacco grown for biomass is completely different than tobacco grown for consumption, and while biomass tobacco has never been investigated for its energy potential, other than my own work, it may turn out to be the cost-effective, unsubsidized biomass resource that the industry has been seeking for so long.

Here are just a few of the relevant characteristics of this potential biomass game-changer:

1. Because of its vigorous coppicing behavior, multiple harvests of tobacco for biomass per season mean that producers can expect a seasonal biomass yield of between 100-300 Metric Tons/Acre of (150-180 MT/Acre has already been demonstrated in trials at North Carolina State University).

2. The dry weight yield of this tobacco biomass will be 10-20 tons per 100 tons green weight

3. Of this dry weight, approximately 20% will be sugars, or approximately 2-4 tons of sugars per 100 tons of green weight.

4. Another 10% or so will be starches, or about 1-2 tons of starch per 100 tons green weight.

5. About 20% of the dry weight will be mixed proteins, which break down into what is called Fraction 1 and Fraction 2 protein, or between 2-4 tons of pure protein per 100 tons of fresh, green weight. These are HUMAN FOOD-GRADE proteins, and can be recovered after energy is produced from the biomass.

7. Also, since tobacco is about 40% cellulose, dry weight equivalent, 100 tons green weight will yield between 4 & 8 tons of very low lignin, easily fermented or digested cellulose.

8. Finally, this biomass crop can be grown on marginal land unsuitable for food crops, and has a wider geographic geographic range than either corn or sugar cane.

If you would like to read complete details on my proposal to utilize this previously uninvestigated bioresource please visit my non-commercial web page

http://home.ktc.com/bdrake/tbe3.html

Best wishes – Bill Drake