Category Archives: advanced energy structures

Renewable Energy To Replace Coal And Oil – If they keep going like this they will

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They are starting to build steam – oh what a mixed metaphor. But first I must say…

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14050919

World’s largest solar project prompts environmental debate

 

By Paul Rogers

progers@mercurynews.com

Posted: 12/22/2009 07:00:00 PM PST

Updated: 12/23/2009 07:24:46 AM P

Panoche Valley is known mostly for cattle and barbed wire, a treeless landscape in eastern San Benito County that turns green every spring but for much of the year looks like rural Nevada.

A posse of lawmen gunned down the famous Gold Rush bandit Joaquin Murrieta, an inspiration for the fictional character Zorro, near here in 1853. Nothing that exciting has happened since.

But now the remote valley 25 miles south of Hollister is finding itself at the center of a new showdown. A Silicon Valley company is proposing to build here what would be the world’s largest solar farm — 1.2 million solar panels spread across an area roughly the size of 3,500 football fields.

“This is renewable energy. It doesn’t

 

cause pollution, it doesn’t use coal or foreign oil, and it emits no greenhouse gases,” said Mike Peterson, CEO of Solargen Energy, the Cupertino company behind the $1.8 billion project.But critics — including some environmentalists — say green energy isn’t always green. In a refrain being heard increasingly across California, they contend the plan to cover this ranch land with a huge solar project would harm a unique landscape and its wildlife.

From the Bay Area to the Mojave Desert, green energy supporters are frustrated that a state that wants to lead the green revolution is facing roadblocks.

Peterson, a former vice president of Goldman Sachs, looked across the Panoche Valley last week and noted its attributes.

t sits 20 miles from the nearest town. It has 90 percent of the solar intensity of the Mojave Desert. Five willing sellers, mostly longtime ranching families, have signed options to sell his company 18,000 acres. And huge transmission lines run through the site, negating the need to build the kind of costly and controversial new power lines that have stalled similar projects.”From our standpoint, this is a perfect place,” he said. “If not here, where?”

Opposition mounts

The project would produce 420 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same as a medium-sized natural gas power plant, and enough to power 315,000 homes.

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Wind made huge strides too.

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=3012

Wind Energy Industry Highlights of 2009

23 de diciembre de 2009

Reflecting on a year that opened with high expectations for renewable energy from the new Obama Administration and was buffeted by economic storms, AWEA identified the wind industry’s top accomplishments in 2009.

Wind Energy Industry Highlights of 2009

“Wind power is a symbol of hope in our economy and supports thousands of jobs, but U.S. wind turbine manufacturing is lagging at the very time that the global clean energy race is heating up,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “One of the most urgent measures that our government can enact is a national Renewable Electricity Standard, which will unleash in the U.S. a wave of manufacturing investment that will otherwise go overseas. Many companies are eager to enter or ramp up their activities in this sector, as this year’s highlights show, but all need to see a long-term commitment with hard targets to renewable energy in order to be able to invest.”

The top accomplishments and developments include:

* American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 Funds a Lifeline: The ARRA included several provisions to spur development of wind and other renewable energy industries along with the Treasury Grant Program, which by year end had supplied over $1.5 billion in crucial capital. Since the early July announcement to implement the stimulus bill, at least 37 different wind projects, using large and small turbines, have been recipients of the grant program, powering the equivalent of 800,000 homes and providing a lifeline for the industry and sustaining wind power as a bright spot in the economy.

* … But Manufacturing Still Lags: Wind turbine manufacturing, however, has fallen behind 2008 levels in both announcements and in production activity. While this is bad news, the good news is that a solution is readily available: A strong national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) will create the market certainty that manufacturers need in order to invest, enabling the U.S. to become a wind turbine manufacturing powerhouse creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

* Strong Support for a National Renewable Electricity Standard (RES): An RES is included in the House version of climate legislation passed this spring and in pending Senate energy legislation. The wind industry, backed by popular support, continues to advocate for swift passage of a strong RES. A poll released by AWEA in May showed that over 75% of Americans, including 71% of independents and 62% of Republicans, support an RES requiring that 25% of the nation’s electricity be generated from renewable energy by 2025.

* COP15: AWEA sent a delegation to the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen this month. AWEA’s participation at the conference is another indication of America’s reengagement in the international climate change process and of the key role that wind power plays today in the transition to a clean energy economy.

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There is much more to the article please read it

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THAT’S Amazing

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Smart Car By Bizzaro – Dan Piraro

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I post about 4 of Dan’s cartoons a year because:

a. he’s hilarious

2. he’s brilliant

[]. he is good for the environment

b. his wife is gorgious

5. all of the above

You decide.

bz-smart-12-06-09-wb.jpg

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In The Wake Of Copenhagen The Future May Be In Natural Gas – It could be a cross over to sustainable energy sources

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Could it be that T. Boone Pickens was right. I mean not HIS natural gas as he presented it but the whole world’s natural gas…?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jkOuIcimVaOGqCJzYDMNtgf5ELmgD9CNK5A00

Gas could be the answer in global warming fight

By MARK WILLIAMS (AP) – 7 hours ago

An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands that the United States do more to fight global warming: It’s cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil and a 90-year supply is under our feet.

It’s natural gas, the same fossil fuel that was in such short supply a decade ago that it was deemed unreliable. It’s now being uncovered at such a rapid pace that its price is near a seven-year low. Long used to heat half the nation’s homes, it’s becoming the fuel of choice when building new power plants. Someday, it may win wider acceptance as a replacement for gasoline in our cars and trucks.

Natural gas’ abundance and low price come as governments around the world debate how to curtail carbon dioxide and other pollution that contribute to global warming. The likely outcome is a tax on companies that spew excessive greenhouse gases. Utilities and other companies see natural gas as a way to lower emissions — and their costs. Yet politicians aren’t stumping for it.

In June, President Barack Obama lumped natural gas with oil and coal as energy sources the nation must move away from. He touts alternative sources — solar, wind and biofuels derived from corn and other plants. In Congress, the energy debate has focused on finding cleaner coal and saving thousands of mining jobs from West Virginia to Wyoming.

Utilities in the U.S. aren’t waiting for Washington to jump on the gas bandwagon. Looming climate legislation has altered the calculus that they use to determine the cheapest way to deliver power. Coal may still be cheaper, but natural gas emits half as much carbon when burned to generate the same amount electricity.

Today, about 27 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions come from coal-fired power plants, which generate 44 percent of the electricity used in the U.S. Just under 25 percent of power comes from burning natural gas, more than double its share a decade ago but still with room to grow.

But the fuel has to be plentiful and its price stable — and that has not always been the case with natural gas. In the 1990s, factories that wanted to burn gas instead of coal had to install equipment that did both because the gas supply was uncertain and wild price swings were common. In some states, because of feared shortages, homebuilders were told new gas hookups were banned.

It’s a different story today. Energy experts believe that the huge volume of supply now will ease price swings and supply worries.

Gas now trades on futures markets for about $5.50 per 1,000 cubic feet. While that’s up from a recent low of $2.41 in September as the recession reduced demand and storage caverns filled to overflowing, it’s less than half what it was in the summer of 2008 when oil prices surged close to $150 a barrel.

Oil and gas prices trends have since diverged, due to the recession and the growing realization of just how much gas has been discovered in the last three years. That’s thanks to the introduction of horizontal drilling technology that has unlocked stunning amounts of gas in what were before off-limits shale formations. Estimates of total gas reserves have jumped 58 percent from 2004 to 2008, giving the U.S. a 90-year supply at the current usage rate of about 23 trillion cubic feet of year.

The only question is whether enough gas can be delivered at affordable enough prices for these trends to accelerate.

The world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., gave its answer last Monday when it announced a $30 billion deal to acquire XTO Energy Inc. The move will make it the country’s No. 1 producer of natural gas.

Exxon expects to be able to dramatically boost natural gas sales to electric utilities. In fact, CEO Rex Tillerson says that’s why the deal is such a smart investment.

Tillerson says he sees demand for natural gas growing 50 percent by 2030, much of it for electricity generation and running factories. Decisions being made by executives at power companies lend credence to that forecast.

Consider Progress Energy Inc., which scrapped a $2 billion plan this month to add scrubbers needed to reduce sulfur emmissions at 4 older coal-fired power plants in North Carolina. Instead, it will phase out those plants and redirect a portion of those funds toward cleaner burning gas-fired plants

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For the REAL RAW raws try this sight:

http://www.newnaturalgas.org/

Or will it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/propublica/the-future-of-natural-gas_b_211062.html

The Future of Natural Gas Drilling

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica

ProPublica Images

Tomorrow a House Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee will hold its first hearing of 2009 on controversial issues related to the burgeoning natural gas drilling industry, which ProPublica has been covering for the last year. The committee is expected to grill a handful of state regulators and industry representatives about the environmental risks of drilling for shale gas and about the use of hydraulic fracturing, a process where water and chemicals are pumped underground at high pressure.

That fracturing process was exempted from federal environmental oversight in 2005 and now – amidst emerging evidence that it is damaging water resources across the country – Congress is preparing legislation that would reverse the exemptions and require the industry to identify the toxic chemicals it pumps underground. Last week ProPublica wrote in detail about that political effort.

Before the subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources could convene its quorum, the American Petroleum Institute gathered reporters for a conference call to explain why it is prepared to fight such legislation to the grave. Natural gas is the key to the country’s energy independence, representatives of the trade and lobbying group said, adding unequivocally that hydraulic fracturing is the critical process required to get those resources.

The Institute says state regulations are sufficient to keep water supplies safe, and that returning authority to the Environmental Protection Agency – which the bill being written by Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette would do – amounts to a cumbersome additional layer of regulation. The API repeatedly referenced a recent study claiming that federal oversight of the drilling process would cost the industry more than $100,000 per new well and threatened that thousands of jobs will be lost if tougher regulation is passed. It maintains that fracturing has been used reliably for over 50 years, and that is a safe technology proven not to harm water.

Asked what recent scientific studies support that notion, however, the Institute’s senior policy analyst, Richard Ranger, answered: “That’s a good question. I’m not aware of any.”

Abrahm Lustgarten is a reporter for ProPublica, America’s largest investigative newsroom.

Follow ProPublica on Twitter: www.twitter.com/propublica

Related News On Huffington Post:

Pennsylvania Faces A Tainted Wastewater Onslaught Due To Natural Gas Drilling Workers at a steel mill and a power plant were the first to notice something strange about the Monongahela River last summer. The water that…

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Copenhagen Wraps Up With An Agreement As Thin As Gruel – Cold gruel at that

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First it is Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVs6X9yIM_k

Things have gone pretty dismally in Copenhagen. The Developed Countries tried to bully the Developing Countries. The Newly Industrializing Countries sniffed at the DeIndustrializing Countries. The US yelled at China and China yelled back and jingled the coins in its pockets. After all that excitement I must say:

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t291-e4FLs

GRUEL

Gruel is a food preparation consisting of some type of cereal— oat, wheat or rye flour, or also rice— boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and need not even be cooked. Historically, gruel, often made from millet or barley, or in hard times of chestnut flour and even the less tannic acorns of some oaks, has been the staple of the human diet, especially that of the peasantry. The importance of gruel as a form of sustenance is especially noted for invalids[1] and recently weaned children.

Gruel consumption has traditionally been associated with poverty. Gruel is a colloquial expression of any slop that is of unknown character, e.g. pea soup; soup is derived from sop, the slice of bread which was soaked with broth or thin gruel.[2

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM77dUW-DBI )

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-climate-change-summit-liveblog

 

Copenhagen climate change summit – final day live blog

World leaders are still trying to thrash out a last minute compromise climate deal. These are the final day’s main developments:
• In a disappointing speech Obama admitted that the talks are in the balance.
• Leaked documents showed a draft agreement is extremely weak.
• Obama held two crucial talks with the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

Matthew Weaver Posted by Matthew Weaver Friday 18 December 2009 08.14 GMT guardian.co.uk

4.43pm:
Greenpeace has expressed its disgust at the draft Copenhagen accord currently doing the rounds.

Its climate campaigner Joss Garman said:

This latest draft is so weak as to be meaningless. It’s more like a G8 communique than the legally binding agreement we need. It doesn’t even include a timeline to give it legal standing or an explicit temperature target. It’s hard to imagine our leaders will try to present this document to the world and keep a straight face.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dnrosVyamY

All this haggling is going to get us right where the top 500 POLLUTERS want us, sucking up their soot and poisons:

4.57pm:
A third draft of the climate is agreement being considered by world leaders, according to AP. But they are some way off the pace, according to our environment editor John Vidal – he’s looking at sixth version.

For what its worth the third version reinstates targets omitted from earlier ones. It says rich countries should reduce their greenhouse emissions by at least 80% by the year 2050.

It adds that developing countries’ emissions should be 15-30% below “business as usual”.

Stay tuned for more details on that later version.

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8jw-ifqwkM )
This not the way that JESUS would have acted:

5.28pm:
Tim Jones climate policy officer from World Development Movement, joins the chorus of disgust.

This summit has been in complete disarray from start to finish, and now appears to be culminating in a shameful and monumental failure that will condemn millions of people around the world to untold suffering. The leaders of rich countries have refused to lead and instead sought to bribe and bully developing nations to sign up to the equivalent of a death warrant. The best outcome now is no deal. Leaders of rich countries should go home and adopt new year resolutions to become low carbon economies and pay their climate debt. Then we may have a chance of a properly just and effective agreement in 2010.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3354flS1KJs&feature=related

On A Happier Front:

Energy-thrifty White House turns deeper shade of green 

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House complex and the federal government are going green — and not just with Christmas trees and holly.

As President Obama meets with world leaders at the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen today, the government he runs at home is quietly engaged in an unprecedented effort to reduce its carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, cut waste and more.

In the complex that includes the White House, that means more efficient heating and cooling systems as well as organic paint, low-flow toilets and lights that turn off by themselves. Even the 800 Christmas ornaments adorning the 18-foot tree in the White House Blue Room were recycled from previous administrations in a nod to the environment and the bad economy.

 

GREEN HOUSE: Eco-friendly living tips

In many of the federal government’s other 500,000 buildings, the effort to go green includes cutting the amount of garbage produced in half and installing more efficient lights.

“This is a big leap forward for the federal government,” says Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of Obama’s White House Council on Environmental Quality. And the effort will be “sustainable itself beyond this president.”

Sutley says the federal government is the country’s single largest energy consumer, using 1.6% of all the power used nationwide, so reducing energy consumption will mean big savings.

The nation is the world’s second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, behind China, and the cuts could help there, as well, environmentalists say.

Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth says, “There are many economies of scale that President Obama can achieve by forcing the federal government to rethink its energy habits.Dot Dot Dot (as they say)

Environmental groups say Obama’s efforts go far beyond what’s been done before. “There’s real substance behind the rhetoric,” says Joel Makower, editor of GreenBiz.com, which reports on the greening of mainstream business.

Under a 15-page executive order Obama signed in October, government agencies must implement a host of changes, Sutley says. Among the requirements:

• Agencies must reduce waste by 50% by 2015.

• Agencies must show a 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020.

• All new buildings and any major renovations to existing buildings must be eligible for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification given by the U.S. Green Building Council to environmentally responsible buildings. In and around Washington, the Pentagon and the ornate 121-year-old Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House are in the process of becoming LEED-certified.

• The government’s 600,000 vehicles must operate with 30% less petroleum by 2020.

Pentagon officials, Sutley says, are “thinking about how they can power their vehicles in different ways, so they don’t have to transport as much fuel,” a change that would save money and improve safety for servicemembers.

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So Copenhagen was pretty much a bust but it’s Christmas so let’s rock out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQXMT_QhguI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYcCnL7cu10&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBKPhD1LIqA

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Technology That Will Take Us From A Carbon Based Economy – And makes the world smell better too

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This just in “let’s create electricity using the wind and NO Moving Parts”. Yes indeed. Though this has to be some kind of “static electricity thingy” if they can liberate enough electrons then why not. They can not say because it is proprietary but I must say:

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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This is pretty amazing and it is a sign of what is to come. As I said before when an old source of energy runs out or loses favor there is a flurry of innovation and creation. This happened right as whale oil was running out and the car was being developed. This could be really revolutionary though as reported here:

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/model-t-of-wind-energy-accio-energy-lands-250000-darpa-contract/

and here:

http://blog.mlive.com/businessinnovation/2009/02/ann_arbor_tech_companies_chall.html

Wind energy device without moving parts

‘Model T of wind energy’? Accio Energy lands $250,000 DARPA contract

Ann Arbor-based Accio Energy recently won a $250,000 federal contract to continue developing its potentially revolutionary wind energy device, which would generate electricity without the moving parts associated with a traditional wind turbine.

Accio General Manager Jeff Basch said the firm received the contract with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue the design and creation of its prototype device.

“It’s a real vote of confidence in us,” Basch said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIWTRwM9UKc

Basch said Accio (pronounced AK-SEE-OH) is considering expanding its laboratory facilities 5-fold to support the startup company’s growth. He declined to discuss the company’s personnel count but said the firm is hiring engineers.

The contract comes as Accio executives have been reluctant to discuss the details behind their potentially explosive technology until the “aerovoltaic” device is ready for a wider spotlight. The technology has yet to be proved on a wide scale.

But Accio President Dawn White, who also founded Ann Arbor-based defense technology firm Solidica, recently revealed some details about the technology in a speech to an entrepreneurial group in DetroiDot Dot Dot

Accio executives have said they believe their device could generate electricity at twice the rate per square meter of solar panels.

Among the details White revealed:

-The device, which wouldn’t using any moving parts or generate noise, uses the wind to separate electrical charges on thin engineered tubes and create electricity.

“Opposing electrical charges, just like magnets, are attracted to each other,” White said. “It takes energy to pull those charges apart. That energy is provided by the wind and we convert it directly to electricity in the same way that a solar panel takes sunlight. And we convert that directly into a current. It’s very much like what happens inside a thunderstorm actually.”

Dot Dot Dot

Accio is still reluctant to discuss the history behind its technology. Accio’s scientific developers have said they’re enhancing intellectual property that expired years ago, which would lead to competitive concerns that the technology could be duplicated elsewhere.

The basics of the technology, however, have impressed experts. The National Science Foundation in February distributed a $97,000 grant to Accio in an award generally seen as a validation of the device’s technological concepts.

The company also received $80,000 in early-stage venture capital financing from the student-run Frankel Commercialization Fund at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

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I would be willing to bet that it is something like this:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4146800.html

The invention relates to apparatus for and method of generating electricity from wind energy.

The apparatus comprises means such as a foraminous condenser plate and a condenser surface, e.g., the earth, for producing an electrostatic field in the open through which wind can blow, means such as needle points and balls or fine wires and cylinders capable of creating a corona discharge or equivalent ion or electron generator for producing charged particles to be entrained in and carried by the wind against the direction of movement imposed on the particles by the field, which results in an increase in the electric potential across the field, means such as a second foraminous plate or the earth for collecting the charged particles and means such as a high voltage power regulator and converter for making the increased potential available for utilization.

The method comprises operations corresponding to the means, viz., producing an electrostatic field in the open through which wind can blow, generating charged particles to be entrained in and carried by the wind against the direction of movement imposed on the particles by the field, resulting in an increase of the charged particles and making the increased potential available for utilization.

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This was proposed in 1979…wonder what happened to it? What if they were made out of nanotubes?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube

Electrical

Because of the symmetry and unique electronic structure of graphene, the structure of a nanotube strongly affects its electrical properties. For a given (n,m) nanotube, if n = m, the nanotube is metallic; if n ? m is a multiple of 3, then the nanotube is semiconducting with a very small band gap, otherwise the nanotube is a moderate semiconductor. Thus all armchair (n = m) nanotubes are metallic, and nanotubes (5,0), (6,4), (9,1), etc. are semiconducting. In theory, metallic nanotubes can carry an electrical current density of 4 × 109 A/cm2 which is more than 1,000 times greater than metals such as copper .

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes with interconnected inner shells show superconductivity with a relatively high transition temperature Tc = 12 K. In contrast, the Tc value is an order of magnitude lower for ropes of single-walled carbon nanotubes or for MWNTs with usual, non-interconnected shells

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OHHHHH I like that…

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AltaRock’s Project Blows Up In Their Faces – Hot Rocks Goes Bust

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Ever since June, I have struggled with how to write this headline. This concept, Deep Hot Geothermal, has so much potential. It promises limitlessness pollution free energy BUT its execution requires great care. It also probably means more cost in drilling and a closed loop system rather then the current use of open loop rock fracture like for hot swimming pools or basements. The real issue was should I do a fun title like the above or a more serious title? But first I must say:

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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First there was the shut down of the Swiss project, (I mean really, deep well drilling in a historic district?), because of alleged earthquakes. Then there were Earthquakes off Jamaica caused by another smaller project. Finally there were the Earthquakes attributed to a deep well injection and rock fragmentation project in Texas. So it was only a matter of time. Tick Tick Tick. You know that drilling anywhere in earthquake prone California was going to be fraught with nightmares.  Courtney Roby tackled the headline issue like this:

http://www.greenmomentum.com/wb3/wb/gm/gm_content?id_content=2930

AltaRock’s Little Earthquakes

Maybe, possibly, engineered geothermal systems like those being demo-ed by AltaRock bring an increased risk of small earthquakes. It’s not a reason to abandon their promise as an energy resource.

By Courtney Roby | June 25, 2009

AltaRock Energy, a California-based company specializing in engineered geothermal systems (EGS), was the subject of a story in today’s New York Times which was certainly alarmist, if not genuinely alarming. AltaRock is currently preparing to put into action a design for a demo geothermal project in California’s NCPA Geysers Geothermal Field area. This area, which has been producing geothermal energy from steam wells since 1983, is located in the seismically shaky San Francisco Bay Area. The same geological factors that make the area a good place for geothermal energy extraction make it a high-risk area for earthquakes, and it is on these fears that the Times article centers.

The article does not have much to say about the particular risks involved with AltaRock’s project. Instead, it recounts the story of a 2006 project run by the Swiss company Geothermal Explorers, which aimed to extract geothermal energy from the bedrock near Basel. Geothermal Explorers used a technique that involved shooting a jet of water into drilled holes, which then produced fractures (a technique known, to the delight of Battlestar Galactical fans everywhere, as “fracking”) in the hot bedrock below, where the water was heated, rose back to the surface, and upon expansion emerged as steam, which powered turbines to produce usable energy. The result was an always-on source of non-polluting, waste-free energy, which seemed like a good bargain until reports of small earthquakes started coming in. In response to these reports, the project was immediately shut down.

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Then in September this:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10344441-54.html

September 3, 2009 6:59 AM PDT

Geothermal start-up AltaRock suspends drilling

by Martin LaMonic A new company pursuing an advanced geothermal energy technology has had to suspend its first attempt to drill a deep well in Northern California.

AltaRock Energy on Wednesday said it ran into problems during drilling for a demonstration project, “resulting from geologic anomalies particular to the formation” at the Geysers Geothermal field.

The project, said to be budgeted at $17 million, was partially funded by a Department of Energy grant given to several companies to explore the viability of enhanced geothermal systems. Sausalito, Calif.-based AltaRock was funded by Google and venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

dot dot dot

(Credit: AltaRock Energy)

Although technical difficulties are normal in drilling projects, the progress of AltaRock is significant because it is one of few companies pursuing enhanced, or engineered, geothermal systems. It’s a technology that holds great promise but that has raised safety concerns.

Traditional geothermal power draws on naturally occurring underground hot-water reservoirs to make electricity. With enhanced geothermal systems, wells are dug a few miles underground, and rock formations are fractured. Then water is injected into the wells, heated by the rock, and pulled back up. That hot water is converted to steam to turn an electricity turbine.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study two years ago found that using this enhanced method of geothermal power generation could supply 10 percent of the electricity in the United States. It could also be done in a wide variety of locations, rather than just the limited number of locations that have traditional geothermal resources.

In its statement, AltaRock didn’t offer many details on why it suspended drilling but said it is evaluating other locations to build a demonstration facility, including other spots at the site where it had been working.

Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET’s Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin.

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Then this 2 days ago:

http://www.theoildrum.com/

Drumbeat: December 13, 2009

Posted by Leanan on December 13, 2009 – 10:02am
Topic: Miscellaneous

Geothermal Project in California Is Shut Down

The company in charge of a California project to extract vast amounts of renewable energy from deep, hot bedrock has removed its drill rig and informed federal officials that the government project will be abandoned.The project by the company, AltaRock Energy, was the Obama administration’s first major test of geothermal energy as a significant alternative to fossil fuels and the project was being financed with federal Department of Energy money at a site about 100 miles north of San Francisco called the Geysers.

But on Friday, the Energy Department said that AltaRock had given notice this week that “it will not be continuing work at the Geysers” as part of the agency’s geothermal development program.

The project’s apparent collapse comes a day after Swiss government officials permanently shut down a similar project in Basel, because of the damaging earthquakes it produced in 2006 and 2007. Taken together, the two setbacks could change the direction of the Obama administration’s geothermal program, which had raised hopes that the earth’s bedrock could be quickly tapped as a clean and almost limitless energy source.

There’s more… (3458 words) | Comments (173) | Permalink | Without comments | PDF version

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Too bad too because it has such promise…Still I like the title, AltaRock Energy Drills Dry Hole for all kinda reasons. For condolences please go to:

http://www.altarockenergy.com/

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The Top 50 Environmental Blogs – They are cheaper by the dozen

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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We start out today’s enumeration with a blog that if you believe its title is the Environmental Blog of all time. They are pretty good but they only post once a week:

http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Chromium 6 Emissions from ESCO in Portland

ESCO, chromium 6

This story comes the NW Examiner in the Northwest Neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. http://www.nwexaminer.com/issues/11November2009.pdf

Hexavalent chromium accumulates in organisms and does not break down in the environment. No level of human exposure is considered safe.

The EPA says that the respiratory tract is the major target organ for chromium 6 toxicity, both for acute (short term) and chronic (long-term) inhalation exposures. Shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing were reported from a case of acute exposure to chromium 6, while perforations and ulcerations of the septum, bronchitis, decreased pulmonary function, pneumonia and other respiratory effects have been noted from chronic exposure. Human studies have clearly established that inhaled chromium 6 is a human carcinogen, resulting in increased risk of lung cancer.

Most of the of the 64 toxic substances emitted by ESCO have multiple health consequences. In addition to seven substances known to cause cancer, another 12 are suspected carcinogens.

ESCO is increasingly the topic of discussion among anti-toxics groups in Oregon. Neighbors For Clean Air, the Northwest District Association, and now the Oregon Toxics Alliance are all taking note of ESCO’s toxics emissions. Please join these groups to help put pressure on the DEQ to do its job.

Thoughts, Comments, Questions…

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OK that was pretty yuckie. Next we have to include the transportation world.  This is a pretty geeky site:

http://www.greencarcongress.com/

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Japan Delivery System Corporation Develop EV Charging System for Apartment Buildings in Japan

1 December 2009

Icharger
Over view of the i-CHARGER system. Click to enlarge.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) and Japan Delivery System Corporation (JDS) have jointly developed an electric vehicle (EV) charging system for apartment complexes. The system, called i-CHARGER, is to be sold by JDS starting 1 December.

Installation and management of EV charging infrastructure for shared parking lots of apartment complexes is an issue in Japan for the popularization of electric vehicles. The i-CHARGER addresses this problem by utilizing existing “delivery box” systems. A “delivery box” is a system of lockers that allow for delivery or sending of packages when tenants are not at home. The “delivery box” notifies tenants when a package has arrived, and the package can be retrieved by the tenant by PIN code or verification card.

Continue Reading “Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Japan Delivery System Corporation Develop EV Charging System for Apartment Buildings in Japa

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Those guys got acronyms out the yingyang. If you are after something a bit more sporty:

http://www.greenercars.org/

greenest vs. meanest: highlights of the model year ratings

GREEN DRIVING TIPS

Buying green is just the first step in reducing the environmental impacts of automobile use. Your choice of vehicle is most important, but how you drive and how well you maintain your car, van, or light truck will also make a difference. More…

  

2009 MARKET TRENDS

Reading the tea leaves for the vehicle market is greatly complicated by the current turmoil in the auto industry. New vehicle sales in 2008 barely broke the 13 million mark, the lowest since 1993 and down from over 16 million in 2007. More…

  

LEED CERTIFIED VEHICLES

A downloadable excel spreadsheet of all model year 2000 – 2009 vehicles that meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED criteria can be found he

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If you are in Bellevue Washington you might get ahold of these guys:

http://www.thegreencarco.com/about_us/contact_us.php

 

 

About Us

>> Contact Us
Current Events
Employment
Environmental Commitment
GCC Staff
Investor Relations
Green Links
Hymotion Event
BACKUP–current Events
BACKUP–contact Us

The Green Car Company
Sales Department

We Have Moved!!!!
Address: 345 – 106TH AVE NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
Telephone: 425-820-4549
Hours: Now Open 7 days a Week for your convenience!!!
Hours Have Changed For The Winter::
Service:: Monday through Friday 8am to 4pm | 9am-6pm for sales
Sales:: Saturday from 9am-6pm and Sunday 11am-5pm

Email: Sales@greencarco.com
The Green Car Company is located just off the NE 4th St. exit off of the I-405.  From the NE 4th exit, go west toward downtown Bellevue.  Turn Left at 106th Ave NE. We will be immediately on your right hand side.  The building has a funny round roofline and used to be Backstreet Frame and Art.  We are next door to Bellevue Auto House and two doors down from Taco Time.

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Everything is so much more fun when you put GREEN in front of it.

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If We Just Changed People’s Behavior We Could Save The Earth – I used to believe this

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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It’s Jam Band Friday ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbFVJvRqOQ&feature=PlayList&p=DA3BD18D4E01082D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=16 )

Until I realized that all the capitol involved for social investments the size of a nuclear powerplant or a huge wind farm of the same megawattage was controlled by people who had a vested interest in one or the other. The simple way to put this is that which Energy Infrastructure we have is a political decision. That means that we will never have an Earth Friendly Economy until we have Earth Friendly governments. Don’t get me wrong people can make a difference. They can try to stop some of the damage being done. They can change themselves and their children to adopt Earth Friendly behaviors. I do not believe that they should have to give up mowing their grass, or back yard barbeques however because it is the big polluters that are causing the problems. But let’s look at the literature:

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/11/19/19climatewire-how-understanding-the-human-mind-might-save-16335.html?pagewanted=2

I know I know the New York Times is hardly literature and the “difficulty” of changing behavior is well understood by anyone who has ever tried to get someone to quit sucking their thumb or give up their bankey.  But it is helpful to show some examples:

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How Understanding the Human Mind Might Save the World From CO2

By ANNIE JIA of ClimateWire

Published: November 19, 2009

What will solve climate change? Will it be technology? Policy? A growing number of researchers and activists say it’s what’s behind it all: people. And understanding them is vital to addressing climate change.The problem is that people don’t understand people very well, research shows.

In the 1970s, a researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University named Scott Geller and colleagues conducted a workshop in residential energy efficiency and then measured its impacts. A newspaper advertisement recruited 40 participants on a first-come-first-served basis, and the workshop lasted three hours. Before and after the workshop, subjects took surveys measuring how much they knew and cared about energy efficiency. The change was significant — participants significantly knew and cared more about the issues after the workshop than before.

But when the researchers looked at the actual actions that people took afterward, the results were discouraging. One person lowered the temperature on the hot water heater. Two additional people had installed insulating blankets around their hot water heaters — but they had done it before the workshop. Eight people did install low-flow shower heads — after all 40 participants had been given the low-flow shower heads at the workshop.

If these were people who cared enough about energy efficiency to attend a three-hour workshop, what hope was there for people who didn’t?

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Of course since this talk is being given by famous environmentalist Doug McKenzie-Mohr who believes that social marketing is the answer to the question, “how do you change people’s behavior”, I will put up a few more cuts from this article because some of it is intriguing . But infrastructure and public policy are controlled by the moneyed elites and the government officials. Good luck with the social marketing scheme with them.

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZVzH5yBFQA )

While the study, spurred by the last energy crisis, was conducted in the 1970s, its lessons about human nature still apply today, said McKenzie-Mohr, a professor of psychology at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and author of the book “Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-based Social Marketing.”

dot dot dot

“Social psychologists have now known for four decades that the relationship between people’s attitudes and knowledge and behavior is scant at best,” said McKenzie-Mohr. Yet campaigns remain heavily focused on brochures, flyers and other means of disseminating information. “I could just as easily call this presentation ‘beyond brochures,'” he said.

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Bridging the gap between attitudes and action

To bridge the gap between attitudes and action, people must first address the barriers that stand in the way of action, McKenzie-Mohr said.

dot dot dot

As the U.S. Senate debates sweeping climate legislation and leaders express increasing doubts that next month’s Copenhagen climate negotiations will lead to a treaty, a poll conducted in October by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed that only 57 percent of Americans believe that climate change is happening. Only 36 percent believe humans are the cause.

Individual behaviors can achieve fast, immediate impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, if they are implemented, presenters said. But Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change and a leading expert on public opinion on climate change, said that what will have the most far-reaching effect is policy changes. And for that, public opinion is critical.

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqeSUAlI5uI&feature=related )

As I said before…they always get around to the politicians and public policy WITHOUT talking about the moneyed elites that hide behind their hedgerow.

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McKenzie-Mohr gave an example of a town’s efforts to reduce idling at schools. After learning that air quality was something residents cared about, leaders of the effort placed signs by where parents parked to pick up their children from school. The signs had no effect. But when, instead, a person dressed as a public health official spoke to parents personally as they waited, the frequency of idling dropped by 32 percent, while the average length of idling dropped by 72 percent.

dot dot dot

Ultimately, McKenzie-Mohr, Leiserowitz and other speakers said, what the climate movement needs is vision — which it currently lacks.

“I think we have become very, very good at describing that we’re against. … We’re terrible at describing what we’re for. We’re against climate change, we’re against biodiversity extinction, we’re against land-use change, etc., we’re against pesticides … but what are we for?” Leiserowitz said.

For more on the same topic please see

http://www.cbsm.com/public/world.lasso

http://www.conservationpsychology.org/profiles/31/

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSMW4Gwi0y0&feature=related )

Other approaches have been tried but they always “start from the bottom”…why because they are afraid of the “top” that’s why. More on this Monday. Have a good weekend.

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http://eetd.lbl.gov/eetd-org-dc-uecb.html

Washington, DC Projects Office

Clockwise: closeup of a hand using a computer mouse; a checkbook, credit cards, a calculator and bills; a Compact=

Understanding Energy Consumption Behavior

Research to understand the psychological, cultural, and institutional context within which energy-related decisions are made and how these factors influence energy consumption. Applying these insights to help public agencies design and implement more effective energy-saving policies and programs.

Projects

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Thank god for Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLQJ4toj-JY&feature=related )

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Electric Cars Are Coming, Electric Cars Are Coming – Just not to your town yet..

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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I mean unless you happen to live in the 25 lucky towns this model covers. Most certainly not if you want an electric car.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10398375-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

November 16, 2009 9:42 AM PST

CEOs endorse ‘foothold strategy’ for electric cars

by Martin LaMon A group of CEOs on Monday came out favor of a regional roll-out of electric vehicles in up to eight cities to demonstrate the viability of the technology and incubate the fledgling industry.

The Electricifcation Coalition held a press conference in Washington, D.C. and released an Electrification Roadmap, which prescribes the business and policy steps required to ramp up electric vehicle adoption.

There are 13 members of the coalition, including the CEOs of Nissan Motor, FedEx, Pacific Gas & Electric, and battery maker A123 Systems. The coalition was spun out of Securing America’s Future Energy, a lobbying group focused on reducing U.S. imports of oil.

Photos: Plug-in vehicles in Motor City

The Electrification Coalition argues that light-duty electric vehicles are the only technology that can cut oil imports and reduce carbon emissions in the near term. Its report (click for link) focuses on what’s required to make electric cars available at large scale.

“I think we have the conditions for the mass market. But it’s going to take more time,” said Carlos Ghosn, the president and CEO of Nissan. “The investments to be made are huge. To make 50,000 batteries is a $250 million investment.”

Of all the major automakers, Nissan is the most bullish on electrification. It is releasing an all-electric family sedan called the Leaf in the U.S. and Japan next year. It projects that 10 percent of new cars sales in 2020 will be electric, which is higher than most analysts’ projections.

The shift presents challenges to auto makers that are unsure of consumer acceptance. Utilities and municipalities need to prepare in order to make these vehicles more consumer-friendly but they, too, are unsure what the volume of sales will be.

To take some uncertainly out of the picture, the Electrification Coalition advocates a “foothold strategy.” Six to eight cities would create a number of incentives for electric vehicles, such as preferential parking and public charging stations. They would apply for government incentives and then test out the system to help bring electric cars to “critical mass,” explained David Crane, the president and CEO of power generator NRG Energy.

In the first phase, the plan calls for getting 50,000 to 100,000 light-duty plug-in vehicles on the road per year in certain areas starting next year and then expand to 25 cities. Its report sets a target of having 25 percent of new vehicle sales be plug-ins by 2020, which is 5 million vehicles. A jump to 90 percent of new vehicle sales being plug-ins by 2030 would represent roughly 17 million units, according to data from consulting company PRTM.

For consumers, batteries should be owned and financed separately from the car itself, Crane said. Because batteries are an expensive component that makes it more expensive than a comparably-sized gasoline car, auto makers, including Nissan, are looking at ways to keep monthly car payments roughly the same by leasing batteries.

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Course, if you want to get around all this hemming and hawing and get going today there is ZAP:

http://www.zapworld.com/

100% Electric – Zero Air Pollution (ZAP)

ZAP is a leading distributor of affordable, efficient, 100% electric vehicles in the United States and has established a network of licensed automobile dealers throughout the United States. Plans for European distribution are underway as well. In January 2009, ZAP unveiled a high performance electric roadster called the Alias which is planned for deliveries in late 2010. ZAP launched the XEBRA in 2006. Our first automotive product comes in a four-passenger sedan version and a two-passenger utility pickup truck.. Almost all EVs sold are LSVs. With speed restricted to 25 MPH. Xebra Zapcars and Zaptrucks are licensed to go up to 40 MPH to fill the growing demand for electric vehicles in use for urban, in-town driving. Other vehicles sold by ZAP include the XL truck, the Zapvan Shuttle, and ATV called Dude and the always popular Zappy3 scooter line.
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So quit fooling around.

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