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Federal Stimulus and Cleantech Infrastructure

Friday, May 1st, 2009

No doubt, cleantech companies were upbeat when the White House stimulus package allocated 13 percent of the total $104 billion stimulus package for green technology. Much of the economic stimulus will flow to cleantech infrastructure, but exactly where will it go?
Cleantech sectors, which were big winners, include smart grid technology with $4.5 billion, energy efficiency for federal buildings with $4.5 billion and wind and solar with $6 billion for new loan guarantees.
It’s an unheard of sum for cleantech. And a recent survey of technology experts by Changewave Research sheds some light on where the impact will be felt most. Changewave surveyed 409 members of the Changewave Research Network, people who work for companies involved in infrastructure projects. The March 12-17 survey covered infrastructure spending in the transportation, electricity/smart grid and broadband sectors. But for this blog I’m going to focus on the results for the smart grid.

Industry respondents were asked which infrastructure areas they think will benefit most from the U.S. economic stimulus package in the next 12 months. Not surprisingly, transportation infrastructure (62 percent) was the winner, followed by alternative energy (44 percent). Electricity/smart grid (29 percent) and water infrastructure (11 percent) also stood out.
In terms of outlook on areas expected to experience the most growth over the next 12 months, electric powerline projects were viewed by surveyed experts as being strong, accounting for 36 percent of the growth. Control systems like generators, switches and circuit breakers registered only 22 percent. On the smart grid side, the investment in smart meters or meter infrastructure registered 37 percent.
What are the companies most likely to benefit from the uptick in spending on the electric grid infrastructure? The survey identifies General Electric and Siemens AG as well-positioned grid infrastructure suppliers. ABB and EMCOR are seen as the prime beneficiaries in the area of powerline infrastructure.
How about the downsides? Those surveyed indicated the biggest barrier to the upgrading of the electric power grid as not-in-my-backyard issues (NIMBY, 43 percent). The other barriers cited included too much bureaucracy (41 percent) and not enough funding (37 percent).
Those barriers will be challenging but the need for an overhaul to the 40-year-old infrastructure is long overdue. –Lee Bruno

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Posted in CleanTech, Electricity, Energy | No Comments »

Is Nuclear Power Renewable?

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

As a physicist, my belief is that one of the reasons that intelligent energy policies have not gained sufficient traction is that we are allowing those with political agendas to define some key energy terms.

Probably the most significant concept that we have unwittingly gone along with is the definition of the word “renewable.” Giving some critical thought to this moniker is no academic matter, as the majority members of the US Senate’s Energy Committee is currently pushing for a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (see: “Title VIII - Renewable Portfolio Standard” to view a draft). Their decision as to what is a “renewable” will have profound technical, economic and environmental consequences on the United States.

To my knowledge there is no official definition of this bandied about term. When asked, the meanings proffered vary quite a bit, but the key difference between a renewable and non-renewable is usually the rate of replenishment. Consider this typical definition: “Renewable is an energy resource that is replaced in a reasonable amount of time (our lifetime, our children’s lifetime)…”

Such a word as “reasonable” is subjective — not scientific. Who determines what is a reasonable amount of time, and what is it: 20 years? 100 years? 500 years? The reason the definition of renewable is focused on time, derives from the concern that we may exhaust some electrical energy sources, relatively soon.

But how much is enough to have? For instance, if we have 100 years of some fuel, would the replenishment rate really be that important? Clearly, within the next 100 years of use, there will be some profound changes made regarding the efficiency and applications of said fuel’s implementation — in ways we have little understanding of today.

Look at the well-reasoned expectations that were had in 1950 about what would happen in 2000 from this article published in Popular Mechanics in February 1950 entitled “Miracles You’ll See.” The message is that almost ALL of the best guesses were wrong.

In the same vein, prior technology predictions by experts (like Einstein) have also proven to be significantly off the mark. From Listverse, take a look at this list of “Top 30 Failed Technology Predictions.” Who among us will stand to say that we have a better understanding of technology than did Einstein?

In that light, consider the case for nuclear being “renewable.” First we should answer how much longer will our nuclear fuel supply last. Consider:

a) The Nuclear Energy Institute’s website, on a page entitled “How It [Nuclear Power] Works,” says: “The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2008 jointly produced a report saying that uranium resources are adequate to meet nuclear energy needs for at least the next 100 years at present consumption levels. More efficient fast reactors could extend that period to more than 2,500 years.” It is absurd to say that a 2500 year supply doesn’t qualify this as renewable.

b) In addition, there are several proven alternatives to uranium as a source. One example is Thorium, which is much more plentiful than uranium. For a superior discussion about “The Sustainability of Mineral Resources” (and specifically uranium) read the end of this analysis entitled “Supply of Uranium” from the World Nuclear Association.

c) Bernard Cohen (Professor Emeritus of Physics at Pittsburgh University) has stated in an analysis entitled “How Long Will Nuclear Energy Last“ that breeder reactors have enough raw material energy source to last us over a Billion years. That’s Billion with a “B.” When considering these sample facts, an important thing to keep in mind is this quote from some scientists at an excellent University of Michigan site: “Only 40 years ago, nuclear energy was an exotic, futuristic technology, the subject of experimentation and far fetched ideas.” (ref. Nuclear Energy & Society, by Ilan Lipper and Jon Stone).

Hard as it might seem to believe, but most of this nuclear development has occurred in just the tiny space of 40± years — so having any fuel supply that lasts 100± years could cover an enormous amount of new development.

Secondly, some definitions of “Renewable” include a reference to “power derived from natural sources” (e.g. this opinion piece in the business section of the Arizona Star, published last month, entitled “Don’t Reclassify Nuclear Power as Renewable“). Of course ”natural sources” is amusingly non-descriptive since essentially all sources of electrical power are based on natural materials, and that includes nuclear.

To read more about this I’d strongly recommend Bill Tucker’s excellent book Terrestrial Energy, or a more condensed discussion he wrote here entitled “The Case for Terrestrial Energy.”


CONTRIBUTION TO CO2 EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS
A University of Michigan study calculated that
since 1973, the overwhelming majority of
emissions reductions in the U.S. have been
the result of nuclear power generation.

A third factor sometimes appearing in the definition of “Renewable” is a reference to a power source’s ability to reduce CO2 (e.g. “clean”). That same University of Michigan site (above) has this very informative graph about how (worldwide) we have been able to reduce CO2 since 1973.

Now, for the sake of comparison, let’s quickly look at the flip side of this question, at the poster child for renewables: wind power. The indisputable fact is that an indispensable part of wind power electricity production is the requirement of LARGE amounts of land.

For instance, best estimates are that wind power requires more than a thousand times the land that nuclear does, to generate the equivalent amount of 24/7 power. BUT, that essential element of wind power generation (land) is NOT ”replaced in a reasonable amount of time.”

Before a source is labeled as “renewable” shouldn’t ALL of its major components be renewable? Otherwise, it would be like having all the materials to assemble a car, but no tires. The evidence says that we will run out of appropriate US land for industrial wind power before we run out of fossil fuel for electrical power sources. So considering this information, which is the true renewable: wind power or nuclear energy?

About the Author:  John Droz received undergraduate degrees in physics and mathematics from Boston College, and a graduate degree in physics from Syracuse University. He subsequently worked for GE/AESD (Utica, NY), Mohawk Data Sciences (Herkimer, NY), and Monolithic Memories (Cupertino, CA). For over 25 years Droz has been an environmental activist and is a participating member of several environmental organizations including the Adirondack Council, Association for Protection of the Adirondacks, Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, Sierra Club, and the NYS Federation of Lakes.

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Posted in CleanTech, Energy, Nuclear | 9 Comments »

R&D: Betting on Mistakes

Friday, April 10th, 2009

There’s no better way to take the pulse of innovation than to survey R&D spending. And there’s no better time than during a downturn, because history tells us that this is the opportunity for businesses to gain advantage by investing and growing.

Two recent R&D surveys, one from the Wall Street Journal and the other from McKinsey were released recently and both confirm that many companies are still spending on R&D (for now).

(Photo: Battelle Institute)

So what about green investment? Are companies spending on cleantech? They should be, since transforming energy markets (which is critical) will require an unprecedented level of R&D.

But the challenges are enormous. The energy industry is the largest on the planet, with sales of more than $2 trillion a year, and industrial labs and government have scaled back R&D drastically over the past 20 to 30 years.

Still, the Obama administration seems at least to recognize the need. It has outlined an ambitious policy to invest in energy R&D, a big reversal from previous years of shrinking energy R&D budgets. Whether the government can sustain the investment is unclear (R&D is expensive) but the gains from R&D today will far exceed the up-front cost 20 years down the road.

Encouragingly, the Battelle Institute, which tracks R&D investment, predicts cumulative spending by companies, government and universities will rise 3 percent this year, although it predicts a decline in 2010. Battelle notes that R&D cuts during the downturns of the 1980s and 1990s took more than five years to return to prior spending levels.

Companies keeping up R&D funding include Microsoft, which spent 21 percent more in fourth quarter 2008 over 2007, while revenue was virtually flat. IBM is also spending on R&D, partly because of government-stimulus money. IBM says it plans to keep its R&D spending at the same level it was last year. Corning claims it will cut everything else possible before cutting R&D. Corning executives devised a strategy last summer called “rings of defense” to put into play during this downturn. In this strategy, R&D is in the innermost ring.

On the flip side, McKinsey cites evidence that some companies are pondering reductions in R&D spending. In its survey, 40 percent of respondents say their companies are actively seeking to reduce R&D costs. Some 34 percent of executives surveyed said R&D budgets are lower in 2009 than they were in 2008. The majority also said they’re taking a new approach to R&D in the current economic circumstances, with many turning to shorter-term, lower-risk projects.

That’s a little alarming, considering the historical benefits of investing in long-term innovation. But at least some realize that slowing R&D amounts to gradual self-destruction. “Companies by and large realize that large reductions in R&D are suicidal,” said Jim Andrew, senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group, in the WSJ story. “It is the last shoe to drop.” –Lee Bruno

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Smart Grid on Your Radio

Friday, March 6th, 2009

The electric grid has been on the sideline as digital innovation has made many other systems smarter and more agile. Yes, the grid is one complicated mesh of interconnects but it’s about time it got some attention.

The Obama stimulus package promises to do that. Of the $104 billion going to green tech, there’s roughly $4.5 billion allotted to help the grid get smart. How it’s going to happen is still uncertain but at least the grid is now in the game.

One startup making a run at the smart grid is e-Radio. The company, based in Los Altos, is an angel-backed venture that has developed what it claims is a low-cost and highly reliable smart-grid communication system.

Its system employs the FM RDS radio standard widely used in the automobile industry to allow suppliers to pass along pricing and grid status to customers. It’s intended to work with the new class of smart-grid devices like communicating thermostats and air-conditioning load-control switches.

As for the competition, it’s fierce and heating up with Cannon Technologies, Gridpoint and Comverge offering hardware and software systems. But E-Radio maintains its system costs less and offers better signal and reception features.

E-Radio operates a network of FCC-licensed FM radio stations using subcarrier broadcasting signals to provide one-way delivery of data content to smart-grid devices containing an e-Radio receiver.
Research by UC Berkeley determined FM RDS to be a reliable, low-cost and ubiquitous communication system for demand response and better than competing technologies. It would complement the LAN smart-grid technology Zigbee, which is currently used in utility sensors for home and business.

The California Energy Commission is pursuing adoption of an FM RDS receiver module in smart-grid devices on a statewide basis for demand response beginning in 2009. The e-Radio product is going to be available first quarter 2009 and the company is currently seeking a $3 million A round. We’ll see if e-Radio can bring some smarts to our senile electric grid. –Lee Bruno

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Biofuel Myths and Realities

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Pamela Contag is a microbiologist who’s as comfortable in the lab as she is in the boardroom, dealing with the business of running a company. She has plenty of experience there, having helped found two startups: Cobalt Technologies and Xenogen. She also sits on the Department of Energy’s Biomass Advisory Board.

Contag is an astute observer of the biofuels industry. With much of the discussion today focused on second-generation biofuels, she points out that it’s still critical for people not to mix up biofuel feedstocks with human foodstocks. That sure spelled a lot of trouble during the first-generation corn-ethanol buildout, which alarmed the public and still dampens enthusiasm for the biofuels market.

Contag says there’s a list of myths that need to be addressed in order to keep biofuels on track.

“I think the three biggest myths are, one, technology or feedstock will solve our problem. The second is that climate change, energy security and water security are not somehow related. And the third myth is that solar energy to electricity is going to solve all of our problems.”
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The biofuels life cycle - can biofuels eventually
compete with petrochemicals, and if so, when?
(Photo: U.S. Dept. of Energy)

 

As for feedstocks, she says, “I don’t think we have the answer now. But I think we’ll have it in the next five years. What’s needed is for entrepreneurs and investors to look at smaller crops with a unified theme of being able to keep a lot of different seed crops. Think of crops as being renewable but also sustainable in terms of agricultural practices.”

Contag is putting her views to work in her latest startup, Cygnet Biofuels. The company is approaching biofuels with three core fundamentals: low energy, low water and local biomass. It wants to harvest local feedstocks and create fuels like biodiesel for communities, mirroring the early days of electrical utilities in the U.S. “Cygnet believes this isn’t an engineering project but an ecosystem project,” Contag says.

Part of Cygnet’s plan is to integrate a wide-variety of technologies into its power-generation plants, including solar, biodiesel, biobutanol, co-generation and digesters. In the company’s first phase, it plans to produce biodiesel with a business model that calls for extensive partnering to sell the company’s capabilities.

No doubt it will take several years to build out on a local biofuels model. But it sounds like an important step forward. –Lee Bruno

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Posted in Biodiesel, Biofuel, CleanTech, Energy, Ethanol, Land Use, Politics | No Comments »

Low-Hanging Fruits of Efficiency

Monday, February 9th, 2009

The push to reduce energy consumption is broad and deep. And for homeowners who are looking to reduce their energy costs, there are standard practices, such as turning down the thermostat, changing out light bulbs and purchasing energy-efficient appliances.

But the U.S. building sector’s energy consumption is still expected to increase by 35 percent between now and 2025 and commercial energy demand is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.6 percent, reaching 25.3 quads (1015 Btu) in 2025.

That translates into a critical need to develop and deploy emerging energy-efficient technologies that can deliver reliable energy and peak-demand reductions throughout the lifespan of a building. And we all know we like energy savings right alongside the comfort of a home that is reflective of our lifestyles and concerns for our environment.

What’s the urgency and why push for energy efficiency?
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Arun Majumdar, professor of department of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley puts climate change and energy efficiency into perspective.

“We are sitting on the Titantic and takes three miles to turn the ship to avoid the iceberg, which is 2.5 miles in front of us,” Majumdar said recently at the JUNBA Symposium in San Francisco. “And some are shuffling the deck chairs.”

“Energy efficiency is the lowest hanging fruit you can find,” Majumdar said recently at the JUNBA symposium in San Francisco. “We need to look at the demand side and the energy efficiency side of the picture.”

There’s an assortment of low-tech innovations that can address this need in buildings, which are energy sieves. Experts say that automated technologies such as motorized roller shades and daylight-controlled dimmable fluorescent lighting systems have big upside potential.

That’s because those technologies principally target two of the largest categories of energy consumption in commercial buildings: lighting and space conditioning (cooling/ heating). Keep in mind this last figure about buildings and energy: some 40 percent of the energy used in California is consumed by buildings. And some 12 percent of energy goes into the actual building of the structure.

Recently, the New York Times built its new headquarters in Manhattan and decided to invest in an assortment of these energy efficient technologies showcased on Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division.

The performance data helped convince the owners that these technologies were the right stuff for a 21st century building. It will take time to convince a broad base of companies about the costs and merits of putting these technologies into practice. In the long run, the data and case studies revealed on the above reference website should be enough of a testimonial to convince those sitting on the fence. –Lee Bruno

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Posted in Buildings, CleanTech, Electricity, Energy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Buoyed By Power

Monday, January 26th, 2009

With the hunt for powerful energy generation innovations in full swing, there’s been some investment moving into the ocean. Let’s face it, waves and currents aren’t likely to stop anytime soon.

SRI researchers have cleverly applied a biological muscle technology to the guts of a wave generating buoy. The researchers recently demonstrated the buoy in Santa Cruz harbor, an hour drive south of San Francisco.

The bobbing buoy works a bellows like span of special electrical conductive material to generate electricity. Its not something that SRI pioneer Douglas Engelbart predicted at his Jules Verne like demonstration in 1968, but like his innovation inspired to help our thinking and collaboration it springs from our how our muscles work.


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A Wave Generating Buoy
(Photo: SRI)

This new device, which was jointly developed by the Japanese company Hyper Drive and uses SRI’s rubbery material, called electroactive polymer artificial muscle – what a mouthful for the name of a rubbery material.

What’s impressive about this material is it functions like artificial muscle and is able to generate electricity when it is stretched and then allowed to return to its original shape. In 2004, the technology was licensed to Artificial Muscle, an SRI spin off company. In a generation capacity, the researchers say that by comparison to other similar wave generation systems the polymer requires fewer moving parts and is both durable and costs less to produce.

Recently, Wavebob, the Ireland based wave energy specialist, says it is about to close an investment round that would give it 5 million euros ($7 million) of capital to fund the development of a larger, 1.5MW device. Wavebob has been testing a 30kW wave power converter since March 2006 off the coast of Ireland, and is now looking to develop and build the larger device. The company already has collaborations in place with energy majors Vattenfall of Sweden and Chevron of the US.

The SRI demonstration revealed that many of these buoys could be used to harvest wave energy that can help power an industrial park or feed into an on-shore electrical grid. The device only generates small amounts of electricity but researchers said future designs are expected to produce many kilowatts of electricity per buoy, thus making it more cost effective.

Nevertheless, that’s a big step to reducing costs associated with ships having to visit the buoys to replace the batteries every As for these buoys being able to generate higher levels of electricity, that will take several more years and patience. Just remember how long it took to achieve some of SRI’s pioneering genius that Douglas Englebart ambitiously demonstrated more than 40 years ago. Lee Bruno

Posted in CleanTech, Wave | No Comments »

Upgrading the Electric Grid

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

For years engineers and utilities have been waxing on and on about the future of the utility grid and the economic importance of having a smarter, more flexible infrastructure for distributing electricity. But the conversation goes silent when it comes to the price tag: $1.5 trillion.

There’s no doubt that a radical improvement needs to be made to the aged infrastructure that carries electricity from generation plants to homes and businesses. Some places on the grid, like stretches between L.A. and San Diego, are as congested as the freeways at rush hour.

This is where energy intelligence comes in. Energy intelligence is often defined as a subsector of traditional energy efficiency, focused on utility-scale distribution, grid connectivity and two-way communication with end users and devices. It becomes part of the nervous system that helps connect and make the grid more sentient.

By using energy intelligence technologies, grid-connected utilities and providers will be able to manage their generation and supply in accordance with end-user usage patterns. And that means power is distributed more intelligently to minimize load and enable active power-distribution management to optimize resources.
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It may cost the U.S. $1.5 trillion to upgrade to a smart grid.
(Source: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)

With the new infrastructure in place, customers can make informed decisions about their energy use, so they can purchase it at times when it’s cheapest. The way to make much of that happen is with smart meters and power management dispatched to homes and businesses where they will deliver savings and improved efficiency.

Trouble is, the next phase of bringing solar and wind energy sources online will require more engineers trained in power electronics. Unfortunately, power electronics was taught widely at universities 20-30 years ago but now few teach it.

“Power electronics is really going to be the critical area, along with interface technologies for converting AC current to DC and vice versa,” says Dick DeBlasio, laboratory program manager for electricity programs at the National Renewable Energy Labs in Boulder, Colorado.

It is part of an evolutionary process that aims to bring a grid built on 50-year-old analog technology up to speed with the 21st century shift to digital. “Interoperability is really the big part of the focus for researchers and engineers,” says DeBlasio. Part of the problem is where to place sensors in buildings and on the distribution system.

The control and monitoring of the smart grid it is not easily done, as an estimated 10-15 percent of energy is lost in delivery. Another critical item for the future of the grid is storage and government R&D in this area has been abysmal for a long time.

The targeted areas for smart-grid R&D activities are in four basic categories: architecture and communication standards; monitoring and load-management technologies; monitoring and control for demand-side management; advanced components and operating concepts. . “We have a chance to be an early adopter of this technology,” said John Kunhart, managing director and co-founder of American River Ventures in Roseville, CA., at a recent panel discussion on Energy Intelligence: Investment, Risk and Regulation for Advanced Connectivity and Infrastructure sponsored by the VC Task Force.

Standardized architectural designs and interfaces are important to stimulate developments toward a smart grid. As part of that effort, universal standards have been proposed, like the IEEE 1547 series of standards on interconnecting distributed resources with electric power systems by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

So what will it take for energy intelligence to reach its potential and simultaneously reward investors? Successful growth in this area will require a detailed understanding and navigation of the complex interplay of risk mitigation, regulation and regulatory influence, and infrastructure development. –Lee Bruno

Posted in Electricity, Energy | 3 Comments »

Renewable Electricity Dominates California Utility Plans

Monday, October 20th, 2008

On Thursday 10-16-08 I attended the User Group meeting of Plexos Solutions LLC, a boutique firm providing software and consulting to the rapidly changing California electric market. One of the presentations covered issues surrounding integration of renewable energy resources into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). This is important to sustainable energy investors because virtually all the growth in generating capacity is forecast to come from renewable resources. While the fundamentals of this market have been overwhelmed by broader market conditions this last month, over time the fundamentals provide the tailwind that will lift stocks. And the growth expectations for renewables are very high in the California market.

Over the period 2007 - 2012 the CAISO is planning for increases over existing capacity of:

5,053 MW of wind, a 187% increase,
1,064 MW of geothermal, a 68% increase,
946 MW of concentrating solar, a 203% increase,
508 MW of utility scale PV solar, a 2,032% increase, and
221 MW of biomass, a 28% increase
These are huge numbers representing billions of dollars of projects and electric revenues. Striking are the growth expectations for the two main solar approaches.

The ISO Control Room in Folsom directs the flow
of electricity and ensures access to 25,000 circuit
miles of high-voltage, long distance power lines.
(Photo: California ISO)

In the concentrating solar sector, the state currently has 354 MW of large projects operating with the last one completed in 1990, 18 years ago.

Most of this capacity is owned by FPL Energy, part of a large regulated utility. So the new capacity has to come from a sector that hasn’t, in California at least, been able to construct a project for many years. Equally noticeable it the paucity of publicly traded companies in the concentrating solar sector. Solar Millennium (S2M.DE) is one the few with significant concentrating solar activity.

The state currently has 8 projects with 3,689 MW of large concentrating solar projects in the permitting pipeline. But these numbers are deceptive. Of the 8, two projects are actually “solar/thermal” hybrids like the existing operating projects. These two projects represent 1,180 MW of capacity with 112 MW attributable to solar. The remaining 6 projects are a gamut of technologies ranging from troughs, reflectors, towers, and Sterling engines. These projects are all owned by private companies or municipal utilities and currently don’t present an opportunity for public market investors.

The PV solar sector provides more avenues for public investors to participate via investment in the PV supply chain. If the numbers work out the utility market represents a multi-year, very large opportunity. Let’s take a look.

As of the end of 2007 California had an estimated 279 MW of installed PV in homes and businesses and 25 MW of utility scale projects. This makes sense since the home and business markets are net metering against retail rates whereas utility scale projects have to compete against wholesale markets. So the premise is that PV solar is now becoming sufficiently competitive at the wholesale level to install over 500 MW in the next 5 years.

One of the first test cases was recently announced. On July 10, 2008 the California Public Utilities Commission approved a 7.5 MW contract between First Solar’s (FSLR) FSE Blythe project and Southern California Edison. Unfortunately much of the economic information was not disclosed but some key data can be gleaned from the record. First, the company is projecting an excellent 27% capacity factor for the project, significantly higher than typical estimates for PV projects. But equally important is the company is pursing the development receiving a price at or below the “market reference price” which is based on a highly efficient modern thermal plant. After accounting for some messy seasonal and time-of-use factors I calculate the project will receive approximately USD 0.14/kWh on average plus a 30% tax credit now that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 passed. If First Solar can make money at this project then they are very near the holy grail of grid parity (at least until the credit expires December 31, 2016). And the utility systems can, according to the CAISO, absorb large amounts of solar power for years to come. Game on.

Mark Henwood is the founder of Camino Energy, an information provider specializing in globally traded sustainable energy stocks.

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Posted in Energy, Geothermal, Investment, Photovoltaic, Solar, Solar Thermal, Wind | 1 Comment »

Green Energy After Dark

Monday, September 29th, 2008

One big problem of converting to solar generated electricity is what to do when the sun goes down. To ensure electrical current on the grid doesn’t sharply fall off, requires an industrial-scale electrical storage system to smooth out short term fluctuations. It’s a problem at the heart of realizing a renewable energy economy.

There’s an added urgency for storage systems when considering the California Public Utilities Commission recently mandated that retail sellers of electricity purchase 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010, and the New York Public Service Commission is mandating 24 percent by 2013.

The quest for a large-scale electrical storage system is a complex and challenging proposition. Being able to stockpile electricity for later use has been an area of active research projects for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences. There are six promising energy storage technology research areas being pursued: pumped hydropower, compressed air energy storage, batteries, flywheels, superconducting magnetic energy storage and electrochemical capacitors. Because of the wide range of applications, there’s no one storage technology that’s suitable to span the power requirements from the low end of hundreds of kilowatts to ten gigawatts.

This proposed compressed air storage solution
will store any surplus electricity from the grid.
(Photo: Argonne National Labs)

 

And there are several start ups like EEStor, AltairNano and A123 trying to crack open the problem with varied approaches for industrial scale storage device that connect to the grid.

What to do now in terms of storing energy?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemist Daniel Nocera and his postdoctoral student Matthew Kanan devised an innovative, low energy approach for extracting oxygen and hydrogen from water using small amounts of electricity, common chemicals and a room temperature glass of water. Removing these elements from water is no simple feat. It typically requires lots of energy and lots of maintenance to make it work.

The beauty of the MIT scientists’ discovery is the elegant simplicity of the science at work. The researchers announced their discovery recently in the journal Science.

It’s a given that oxygen and hydrogen are energy rich fuels. So it makes sense that some research efforts have focused on using solar electricity to spit water into those elements. That would generate an energy source, which could be stored long after the sun has set.

Here’s how it works.

To generate oxygen, the researchers had room temperature water and then mixed in cobalt and phosphates. In that mixture, they inserted a glass electrode that conducts electricity. When a current was applied to the mixture, a dark film formed on the electrode and tiny bubbles of oxygen started to appear. The two researchers analyzed the film on the electrode and determined that the cobalt-phosphate mixture was present.

Nocera and Kanan think this mixture acts as a catalyst to break water molecules apart and thus creating oxygen gas. What’s especially intriguing about the water splitting effort is that hydrogen nuclei are released during the process as protons and pick up electrons which allows them to convert back to hydrogen at a partner electrode. It’s this release of hydrogen which has tremendous potential for generating one of the most abundant and cleanest forms of energy known to man.

The MIT researchers also found evidence that the cobalt and phosphates catalyst mixture seems to regenerate itself. That bodes well for a far simpler system for oxygen extraction, but needs further experimentation to confirm.

The catch is there’s still a good deal of work to do. And it will take several years to scale the bench-top science research into industrial scale systems and test them. But the researchers believe they have the right stuff to help power a sustainable energy system, green and efficient for future generations.

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Posted in Electricity, Energy | No Comments »

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