New Energy Currents: 2005-06-17

This week, debate in the Senate began in earnest on the federal energy bill - and the debate in the US, around the world, and on the internet shows no signs of abating. In a widely cited poll, Yale University researchers found that an overwhelming majority of Americans are worried about dependence on foreign oil (92%) and want government to develop new energy technologies to address it (93%). Apparently, they haven't been reading their Kunstler, or else they'd know that there are no solutions other than the long-overdue destruction of our sinfully consumptive civilization - or maybe they've been reading their Engineer-Poet instead, and know better than to buy into sci-fi catastrophilia.

...Or maybe they've been keeping up with New Energy Currents here at Winds of Change, a broad, monthly roundup of new developments in energy science, technology, and policy. By John Atkinson of chiasm

• Bio
• Electricity
• Fossils
• Nuclear
• Solar
• Wind
• Policy

Bio

• Highland Feeders of Alberta, one of Canada's largest feedlots, has begun operation of an Integrated Manure Utilization System, or IMUS, that produces just under 1 MW of power from the feedlot's manure. The plant combines anaerobic digestion, biogas utilization, liquid/solid separation, nutrient recovery and enrichment processes, to produce methane gas to run turbines. While this isn't the first power plant to harness the power of manure to generate electricity, it is the first to utilize the high-solid manure found in most outdoor North American feedlots - previous manure-powered plants used liquid manure produced by indoor feedlots.

• Oregon's first large-scale biodiesel production plant is getting ready to break ground, and it will be powered in large part by used cooking oil from potato chips. The plant will produce 1 million gallons of biodiesel a year, and will utilize cooking oil from local suppliers that include Kettle Foods, the all-natural potato chip company that is the first natural foods manufacturer to recycle all of its waste oil into biodiesel and the first of its size to contribute to the new facility.

• A new combined gasification/biocatalytic process can co-produce electricity and ethanol (and/or hydrogen) from any carbon-based source. Carbon-containing materials are gasified and then converted into ethanol by acetogenic bacteria; the process also produces enough steam to drive electrical turbines. The size of these plants is limited by the size of today's gasifiers, but in theory, a mid-sized plant could process 1,000,000 tons of municipal solid waste, waste tires and/or biosolids per year, producing 80 million gallons of ethanol and generating 35 MW of excess power.

• Microbiologists from the Medical University of South Carolina have discovered that pollution-eating bacteria known as Desulfitobacterium can also generate constant, low levels of electricity. Researchers were looking to take advantage of the bacterium's ability to clean freshwater ponds by breaking down PCBs and other toxic substances - the electricity production was a surprise.

• A new process developed by University of Wisconsin researchers can convert corn and other biomass-derived carbohydrates into a diesel-like liquid fuel that is roughly twice as efficient as using corn to make ethanol. Via Crumb Trail, who also links to news of (and hosts some interesting comments on) new research on producing ethanol more efficiently from biomass sources.

• UPDATE: The Engineer-Poet's got a rock-solid post up looking at these new biofuel breakthroughs aqui.

Electricity

• Gas-Optional Hybrids have been getting a lot of buzz over the past couple of months, and Worldchanging takes a look at the likely benefits as well as costs of the new technology. The post also adds a couple of interesting excerpts from the (GO-HEV advocate) CalCars mailing list and comments from CalCars' Felix Kramer, including a comment on their #1 target for conversion - the Ford Escape. Good link in the comments from the Engineer-Poet as well.

• In the process of developing a new rechargeable battery for electric scooters, French and Spanish European researchers have discovered how to extend the life of nickel zinc batteries from 20 to over 1000 charging cycles. NiZn batteries have been tapped as potential replacements for nickel cadmium batteries because of their lower cost and relative environmental friendliness, and this breakthrough may allow them to ascend the throne. (via Worldchanging)

• Knowledge Problem's Lynne Kiesling reports back from the Center for Advancement of Energy Markets convention on the importance of articulating the benefits of competition to the public. Some folks down in Texas aren't so happy about recent deregulation there, if she's looking for someone to articulate to, and there's a ballot initiative coming up this November in California to re-regulate their electricity markets. Maybe we need a KP speaking tour?

Fossils

• Alberta (Canada!), the Saudi Arabia of oil sands, is getting rich rich rich rich off their generous bitumen endowment, and it's changing the place, as detailed in this Washington Post article. It's got a good overview of the kinds of barrels and bucks we're talking about, but mainly worth it for all the entertaining local detail - like, there's a new oil sands museum that includes a sample of oil sands for visitors to smell, and the museum proudly tells them "Sniff the smell of money!" I want to go to Alberta. (via Peak Oil Optimist, who also comments on the article's implication that natural gas shortages could halt the money machine)

• The British Government has offered £40 million in funds for the development of a carbon sequestration system that would capture CO2 emissions from UK power plants and store it in depleted North Sea gas and oilfields.

• The New York Times has written up a fairly lengthy overview of plans to build much-needed new LNG terminals in the US - and the opposition that they face. For example, California Energy Blog notes some pretty emotional debate over a proposed terminal in Long Beach. Travelin Geoff Styles has brought back an old post debunking some of the more outsized fears about LNG terminals that is still completely relevant.

• White Lightning Axiom notes the US coal industry's concern that the (conglomerated, mergered, and downsized) US railway system isn't going to be able to handle the expected increase in demand for coal due to the resurgence in construction of new coal-fired power plants - exhibit A being his home state of Pennsylvania, "the abandoned railway capital of the world." Via Peak Oil Optimist, with further thoughts.

• FuturePundit has a typically forward-thinking post up comparing our projected future energy needs (281 GW added capacity by 2025) to the costs of next generation coal and nuclear power plants, and asks: Would you rather have 281 1 gigawatt coal-fired electric generator plants or 281 1 gigawatt nuclear powered electric generator plants? Good discussion in the comments as usual, wherein a third possibility - efficiency and conservation - is proposed and debated.

• A Swedish shipping company has developed a high tech and extremely green cargo ship, powered by a combination of wind, wave, and solar energy. The ship, called the Orcelle (after an endangered species of dolphin!), was designed with an eye towards 2006 International Maritime Organization regulations for the use of low-sulfur diesel and in anticipation of further emissions regulations for oceangoing ships.

Nuclear

• Officials at South Carolina's Catawba Nuclear Station say that the plant has been operating on mixed-oxide (or MOX) fuel containing weapons grade plutonium for a week now. The reactor is the first in the world to be fueled with MOX containing weapons grade plutonium, and if the test goes well the process will be used in Russia as well to reduce their stockpile. Via NEI Nuclear Notes, who wrote about this "nonproliferation success story" last month.

• Peak Oil Optimist points to a long LA-T article on the enormous difficulty nuclear facilities in the US are having - and will continue to have for the forseeable future - in disposing of their nuclear waste. Engineer-Poet, in the comments, blames Jimmy Carter.

• Robba-POO also has a post up with several links on the incredible ongoing freeway pileup that is ITER, the international experimental nuclear fusion reactor. Really, what edition of New Energy Currents would be complete without another chapter in this epic saga? Not this one - note particularly the 'exciting' plot twist that is new complications on the US$$$$ end.

• Worldchanging notes a recent success in the quest for desktop fusion - UCLA researchers have produced a fusion reaction using a pyroelectric crystal. The reaction produces much less energy than it uses at this point, but the crystal fusion technique could lead to breakthroughs in energy production in the future.

• Nuclear energy proponents are increasingly tying the development of new nuclear power plants to greenhouse gas emissions, but environmental advocates in Australia are claiming that nuclear power doesn't do as much to reduce emissions as claimed. The Engineer-Poet takes a critical look and does some basic calculations that seem to indicate some major problems with this claim.

• On a similar note, the California Energy Blog links to a report from the American Nuclear Society's annual convention in San Diego, which included a discussion panel on "Engaging the Anti's: Communications with Environmental Groups." Despite the continuing push to include the increased use of nuclear power on the climate change agenda, the 'antis' apparently aren't having it - nearly 300 international, national, regional and local environmental, consumer, and 'safe energy' groups have just issued a joint public rejection of the nuclear lobby's overtures.

• There's (at least) one place where nuclear absolutely, positively beats solar - Pluto. NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto (scheduled to depart in 2006 and arrive in 2015 if all goes well) will be powered by a new nuclear space battery, since Pluto is too far away from the sun to make solar panels practical.

Solar

• Alt-E James continues to track the ambitious Australian solar tower project - which has been redesigned to be a bit less ambitious, but more efficient. While the original concept planned for a 1 km tall tower - which would be the tallest man-made structure in the world - capable of generating 200 MW of electricity, the designers have decided that several shorter towers (of unspecified height, capacity of 25 MW and up) would allow for significantly greater efficiency.

• Worldchanging, noting that California's "Million Solar Homes" proposal is steadily making its way through the California legislature, goes on to look at new "solar shingles" (aka BIPV - Building Integrated Photovoltaics) on the market that may play a big role in serving the growing market for residential solar power.

• @Monkeysign looks at new research indicating the potential to produce solar cells with 65% efficiency (doubling today's most efficient photovoltaics) using 'quantum dots' to achieve 'multiple exciton generation' aka MEG. If that sounds complicated, it definitely definitely is, but @Monkey helpfully walks you through the history of this research and evaluates its potential.

Wind

• The UK's largest onshore windfarm was switched on this week in west Wales. The Cefn Croes Wind Farm includes 39 turbines with 58.5 MW capacity.

• Plans have also been proposed for the construction of an enormous offshore windfarm off the coast of London, dubbed the London Array. The US$2.75 billion farm will require up to 270 wind turbines to provide 1,000 MW generating capacity.

• Of course, wind power doesn't just come in super-sizes - London homeowners will soon have the opportunity to purchase small rooftop wind turbines to help lower their energy bills and pitch in on those emissions targets.

• New Zealand's Meridian Energy has submitted a proposal to develop a 70-turbine wind farm west of the nation's capital, Wellington. The location's generous wind resources would make the plant one of the best performing in the world - Meridian claims that the wind farm will generate electricity over 90 percent of the time and operate at its full capacity of 210 MW 47 percent of the time, double the international average of 23 percent.

• A newly proposed three-to-five turbine windfarm off the coast of Savannah, Georgia would not only be the first offshore windfarm in the southeast but could be the first anywhere in the US, depending on the progress of the heavily-resisted offshore wind projects in Cape Cod and Long Island.

Policy

• The Senate has voted to incorporate the ethanol lobby's target of 8 billion barrels of ethanol/year by 2012 into the federal energy bill, over objections from 28 senators from several non-ethanol producing states, including NY's Chuck Schumer, who called it Ònothing less than an ethanol tax levied on every driver."

• The Ocean Renewable blog - the blog of a newly formed trade association to promote the development of renewable ocean resources, cofounded by Carolyn Elefant - takes a look at renewable energy provisions in the Senate energy bill.

• A new bill introduced in the Senate, the National Security and Bioenergy Investment Act of 2005, would expand research and development of biomass energy and biobased products, establish the position of Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Energy and Biobased Products at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and provide incentives to businesses producing biofuels.

• House Democrats introduced their alternative energy legislation, the New Apollo Energy Act, last week. The bill doesn't have much of a chance to pass, but it could provoke some more ambitious 'green' thinking.

• NEI Nuclear Notes happily links to some news and commentary on the controversial new version of the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which includes incentives for the development of advanced nuclear power plants.

That's it for now - as always, please send any links, tips, questions, and (especially) hottt gossip to newenergy - at - windsofchange.net. See you in July -