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The Economist has a decent piece up about natural gas fracking, Shale gas: Fracking great. I say only “decent” because it underplays the side effects of fracking, like ground water contamination, the spread of who-knows-what chemicals, etc., but it does end with this graf: "By itself, switching to gas will not reduce emissions to anything like the levels required to avoid a high risk of serious climate change. This will take much crunchier policies to boost renewable-energy sources and other clean technologies—starting with a strong price on carbon emissions, through a market-based mechanism or, preferably, a carbon tax. Governments are understandably unwilling to take these steps in straitened times. Yet they should plan to do so; and in the coming years cheap gas could help free cash for more investment in low-carbon technologies. Otherwise the bonanza would be squandered." Which leads me to a point I’ve been trying to hammer home for some time: Natural gas is the biggest single climate challenge facing the developed countries, just as coal is the biggest single challenge in the developing countries. (Oil is a big deal in both places, because of existing infrastructure in one camp and quickly developing and growing infrastructure in the other.) Click headline to read more--
A total of $7.5 million of research grants has been allocated to pushing down the cost of utility-scale solar in the U.S. The grant is being given to the Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium (BAPVC), an industry-supported program led by Stanford University and UC Berkeley. Set up last year by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the consortium is a key part of the DOE SunShot Initiativeto reduce the installed price of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems from $3 per watt to $1 per watt without government subsidies. The deadline for the price drop is 2020. A partnership between universities and business, the BAPVC is not focused on one single aspect of solar but, among other things, will invest in efforts to improve solar cell reliability and develop novel transparent electrodes and low-cost solar absorbers. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
Renewable energy is becoming ever more prevalent in developing as well as developed countries worldwide. The implications that this wider use has never really been examined though the interest and role of women have been well noted. Knowledge from other sectors as well as the information that has been gathered from the energy sector, suggest without a doubt that women have an important role to play in the development of sustainable energy. This article will highlight some of the cases in which women are involved and look at a few reasons why women need renewable energy. Click headline to read more--
Japanese in Tokyo recently celebrated a Hotaru (in English, “firefly”) Festival by lighting up the Sumida River with 100,000 softball-sized, blue LED balls. The balls drifted slowly down the river, creating a glowing blur when viewed from afar. They were powered by the sun, and they were collected by a large net at the end of their route. Click headline to read more and view pix--
The UK has fallen well behind other European countries with attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption despite topping the table until 1999, according to a new report from the Office of National Statistics. The new analysis shows the UK has slumped from heading the European Union of 27 nations to now being in 23rd position. And the UK is also fast falling behind other EU countries with its share of renewable energy. The details are contained in a new ONS report published to coincide with the United Nations World Environment Day next week and this year's theme of “The Green Economy: Does it include you?” The short article of UK Environmental Accounts has been released for this event to show how the economy impacts on the environment. Key highlights of today's report include: Click hea to read more--
Konarka Technologies, a maker of organic solar thin films, said Friday it’s going bankrupt, an announcement that may not be so surprising to many who have watched and waited for the venture-backed company to try to build a viable business. The Massachusetts company filed for Chapter 7 and plans to liquidate its assets to pay back creditors. The company developed organic thin films that it wanted to see installed as part of building façades, and despite raising close to $200 million by our last count, it struggled to find success. The fact that Konarka, founded in 2001, has lasted this long has been puzzling to some. The low efficiency of organic thin films – the company was selling products that could convert only a few percent of the sunlight that falls on them into electricity as of last year – and the difficulties of finding buyers in the building design and construction market have been persistent challenges for Konarka over the years. Click headline to read more--
268 public schools across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi are all set to benefit from high-speed advanced Internet connectivity as the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), in collaboration with Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) announces the completion of an ICT Infrastructure and Technical Support Project. The AED 330 million project aims to improve the quality of learning outcomes across schools by integrating the latest technology and offering both wire and wireless high-speed Internet connectivity. Click headline to read more--
We tend to rewrite the histories of technological innovation, making myths about a guy who had a great idea that changed the world. In reality, though, innovation isn’t the goal; it’s everything that gets you there. It’s bad financial decisions and blueprints for machines that weren’t built until decades later. It’s the important leaps forward that synthesize lots of ideas, and it’s the belly-up failures that teach us what not to do. When we ignore how innovation actually works, we make it hard to see what’s happening right in front of us today. If you don’t know that the incandescent light was a failure before it was a success, it’s easy to write off some modern energy innovations — like solar panels — because they haven’t hit the big time fast enough. Click headline to read more and learn about all 32 innovations--
That is a question that online readers debated this week. Gov. Rick Snyder told the Associated Press that he has doubts about requiring Michigan utilities to raise their renewable-energy goals, saying it’s too early to set such an ambitious goal. The state’s current energy-reform law requires that utilities have 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2015. The Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs coalition is hoping to get the 25-percent initiative on the November ballot, saying that the proposal will spark $10 billion in investments and lead to around 50,000 jobs in Michigan. FormerMichRes thought that Snyder’s doubts were valid and questioned the coalition that is pushing the initiative: Click headline to read the online comments--
With the blooming presence of political stability and massive investments in renewable energy across the continent, Africa is destined to be the world power house in the next decade. This prediction is based on the massive price decline in renewable energy technologies, recent political developments and the specific benefits of renewable energies for off-grid regions. At the just concluded African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA) annual meeting, Professor Salah Arafa from the American University in Cairo and member of the AREA Steering Committee posited that “Africa will be the powerhouse of the world.” “It will be the number one continent to do business and it will be leading in renewable energy projects,” he said. The AREA network is a multi stakeholder dialogue aiming to accelerate the deployment of decentralized renewable energy on the African continent. Founded by the World Future Council in 2009, the group has about 900 members from 72 countries. Click headline to read more--
A collection of nine Japanese technology and energy companies came together recently to inaugurate a new joint project with the U.S. to help develop smart grid technology. Pulled together by the Japan-U.S. Collaborative Smart Grid Demonstration Project, these nine companies joined with the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Public Service Company of New Mexico and several U.S. research institutions to institute a new test study for the smart grid. The study will implement a variety of smart grid technologies into a large 75,000 square foot building, including its own microgrid, designed to provide power locally. The building is also equipped with a major solar power installation, a gas-fired generator, fuel cells and a battery. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
Thin film solar company Nanosolar announced on Friday that it has raised $70 million, a round which includes the previously announced $20 million. Overall Nanosolar has taken in at least $450 million since its start in 2002. Investors in this latest round include OnPoint Technologies, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Ohana Holdings, and Family Offices. Nanosolar says the funds will be used to expand production. The move highlights that some investors are still willing to support these thin film solar companies that have taken a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars to move into commercial production. Even in the wake of Solyndra, these investors are still willing to pony up funds, because they either believe in the company, or they are looking to protect their previous investment. Click headline to read more--
Coal is going down in the United States, and that's good news for the Earth's climate. The US Energy Information Administration has announced that coal, the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive conventional fossil fuel, generated only 36 per cent of US electricity in the first quarter of 2012. That amounts to a staggering 20 per cent decline from one year earlier. And the EIA anticipates additional decline by year's end, suggesting a historic setback for coal, which has provided the majority of the US' electricity for many decades. Even more encouraging, however, is the largely unknown story behind coal's retreat. Mainstream media coverage has credited low prices for natural gas - coal's chief competitor - and the Obama administration's March 27 announcement of stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants. And certainly both of those developments played a role. But a third factor - a persistent grassroots citizens' rebellion that has blocked the construction of 166 (and counting) proposed coal-fired power plants - has been at least as important. At the very time when President Obama's "cap-and-trade" climate legislation was going down in flames in Washington, local activists across the United States were helping to impose "a de facto moratorium on new coal", in the words of Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, one of the first analysts to note the trend. Click headline to read more--
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India plans to more than double its amount of clean power generation capacity to almost 53,000 megawatts by 2017 under the latest five year plan. India plans to add 29,800 megawatts of renewable power generation in five years, more than twice the 12,871 megawatts added during the previous five year plan, according to data from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Click headline to read more--
Lowering consumption in the developed world, renewables, ending land grabs, a price for natural resources, private sector investment – what’s the answer? How do you ensure access to safe water, energy and land in a way that benefits the poorest people on the planet but does not harm the environment? The latest European Development Report (EDR), launched in Brussels on Wednesday, sketches out a few broad ideas, but the big question is how do we translate this 200-page document into practical action? The overriding message of the report, Confronting scarcity: managing water, energy and land for inclusive and sustainable growth, is one of urgency – we have to act now to find sustainable ways to meet the increasing demand for resources. Fair access to water, energy and land can no longer be addressed in a piecemeal fashion. There needs to be joined-up thinking to meet the challenges. The authors have called this the “WEL nexus". Click headline to read more and access hot links--
Companies today are often so focused on growth that they commit one (or several) software development sins. As a developer at RightScale, a SaaS cloud management solution, I have borne witness to, and at times even been guilty of, the following temptations. Click headline to read about the 7 deadly sins--
Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western University, has been writing a very interesting series of posts at The Atlantic on conservative approaches to various environmental problems. Herehe lays out the libertarian case for tackling climate change: "It is a well established principle in the Anglo-American legal tradition that one does not have the right to use one's own property in a manner that causes harm to one's neighbor. There are common law cases gong back 400 years establishing this principle and international law has long embraced a similar norm. As I argued at length in this paper, if we accept this principle, even non-catastrophic warming should be a serious concern, as even non-catastrophic warming will produce the sorts of consequences that have long been recognized as property rights violations, such as the flooding of the land of others." Click headline to read more and access hot link--
Memorial Day weekend kicked off the summer travel season and vacationers everywhere are turning to a vast array of broadband-backed technologies and apps to hit the road and enjoy summer fun. Road travelers (even those with older vehicles) can upgrade their cars’ capabilities with a few Internet-connected tools to maximize every moment and keep the family safe. The navigation device TomTom Go Live 1535M features live traffic updates every two minutes, and will reroute you to avoid time-intensive delays. The gadget also integrates travel apps from Yelp to TripAdvisor to quickly guide users to local restaurants and attractions. If you have a teen borrowing the car for summer activities, you may want to install the PocketFinder Vehicle under your hood. The device uses a web browser to keep tabs on the car’s location, speed and travel history. Parents can even set speed limits and travel boundaries in the system, and receive text or e-mail updates if those parameters are broken. Or try the Schosche Cellcontrol (in combination with an app designed for Android and Blackberry phones) which effectively disables texting, web-surfing, and emailing functions on the driver’s smartphone when the car is in motion. If the driver tampers with the device, Cellcontrol alerts the owner immediately. Click headline to read more--
In a way, the Internet's proximity and ease of use is a shame; it enables complex situations to be oversimplified, which, in the long run, can hurt public policy making. There's no better example than renewable energy, which is the supposed salve for our fossil-fuel problem. Now, solar power is being specifically touted as a way to power the cloud's huge, energy-slurping data centers. Amazon web services engineer and vice president James Hamilton touches on the challenge in a recent post (you'll need to scroll down to the headline "I love solar power but…"). In short, Hamilton says the numbers and the real estate don't add up. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
The Angolan Oil company "Sonangol" is installing solar cells and wind energy systems along national roads where there are transponders of its telecommunication subsidiary, MStelecom. This was said by Sonangol's Environment programme coordinator, Maria Luísa Ndembo, who added this is part of the company's commitment to reduce the emission of gases into the atmosphere. The project was displayed at the 2nd International Fair on Environmental Technologies taking place in Luanda, the source said. Clik headline to read more--
West Virginia University at Parkersburg recently completed a solar energy "Train the Trainer" event to help develop adjunct instructors for its energy programs and increase knowledge and awareness of solar technology in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Midwest Renewable Energy Association of Wisconsin and the Northern Mid Atlantic Solar Education and Resource Center of Penn State University provided the training to 13 students. The training was made possible by a grant from the West Virginia Division of Energy. This accelerated solar training program covered such topics as solar energy basics, radiation, appropriate roof, ground and pole mounting systems, meters and inverters, voltages and complete system design. Participants in the program included representatives from local architectural and engineering firms, local contractors and instructors from out-of-state colleges. Click headline to read more--
In one of the first major solar energy projects in the Middle East, Bahrain yesterday announced plans to implement a solar smart grid in Awali, paving the way for future smart cities in Gulf. "The Middle East has for some time evaluated the integration of solar energy for reduction of reliance on non-renewable energy sources. However, Bahrain is among the first in the region to implement a project of this kind, demonstrating a serious commitment to long term solutions," Marty Youssefiani, CEO of Caspian Energy Holdings, said. Bahrain's National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) is implementing five megawatt solar capacity into a wireless smart grid network in cooperation with Petra Solar, Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) and Caspian Energy Holdings. Click headline to read more--
Dedicated to eliminating energy poverty through the use of solar power, Washington, D.C.’s Solar Electric Light Fund yesterday announced it has installed solar electric systems at 11 health care facilities and one hospital in Haiti. At just over 38 kW, the power capacity of the solar PV systems pales in comparison to the beneficial social and environmental impacts such initiatives can have in troubled, poverty and disaster-stricken nations around the world. The non-profit Solar Electric Light Foundation (SELF) worked with the Haitian government and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on the project, which “will help to improve the quality of medical services provided to more than 170,000 Haitians by powering lights, microscopes, centrifuges, autoclaves, vaccine refrigerators and other life-saving equipment,” SELF explained in a press release. Click headline to read more--
The electrolyte part of a battery is like the guts or the basic building blocks of the battery — for a lithium ion battery, the ions flow back and forth from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte. If battery makers could enhance just the basic electrolyte, it could provide a major breakthrough for batteries. That’s what a year-and-a-half-old startup called Boulder Ionics is trying to do, according to a profile in MIT Tech Review. The company is developing an electrolyte made of ionic liquids that can function at high temperatures and voltages and is lower cost to make than the more standard way to make ionic liquids. Such an electrolyte used in a lithium ion battery — like the kind used for both electric cars, cell phones and gadgets — could potentially create a battery that can store ten times as much energy as a traditional lithium ion battery, says the article. Earlier this year Boulder Ionics raised $4.3 million according to a filing. Clck headline to read more--
Swiss power giant ABB plans to acquire wireless mesh networking company Tropos Networks, the companies announced on Friday. Founded in 2000, Tropos started out making wireless networks for cities and emergency responders (remember MuniFi), and more recently has been selling its wireless mesh networks to utilities for smart grid deployments. The companies didn’t release terms of the deal. Tropos has 55 employees and is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Tropos’ customers include Burbank Water and Power, Anderson Municipal Power and Light, DTE Energy, Glendale Water and Power, and a variety of other municipal utilities. ABB, and other power companies like Siemens, have been on acquisition sprees in recent months, buying up hardware and software companies to add digital intelligence to their power gear products. Siemens bought eMeter late last year. ABB also invests in startups through its venture arm and the power company has invested around $100 million into energy-related startups over the past two years. Click headline to read more--
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