Much like the thank-God-it's-finally-over Energy Bill, New Energy Currents for July is a little late. Hey, it's summer. New Energy Currents is a broad, monthly roundup of new developments in energy science, technology, and policy, by John Atkinson of chiasm.
- Green Car Congress takes a look at a new study published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences examining the total ecological footprint of ethanol production in the US and Brazil, which finds that ethanol is not environmentally sustainable. On a similar note, anti-ethanol mainstays Pimintel and Patzek released their latest study claiming that ethanol production is net energy negative. This information was apparently not weighed heavily in the decision to include a 7.5 billion barrels-by-2012 mandate in the aforementioned Energy Bill.
- The US National Biodiesel Board and American Soybean Association are moving to protect their hard-won biodiesel subsidies from foreign suppliers of less expensive palm oil. Is this energy security?
- Alt-E James joins in with links to several recent articles debating the value of subsidizing ethanol production, including a good recent piece by Slate on why the ethanol subsidy is 'worse than you can imagine'.
- Lynne Kiesling notes the recent investment in BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) company by the folks at Google, then links to a post on the Progress & Freedom Foundation's blog about the potential of BPL to make electricity markets more dynamic.
- Green Car Congress looks at some recent improvements made by Syntroleum to its Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) process, and notes that they may begin using its GTL process for CTL (Coal-to-Liquids) plants.
- Knowledge Problem examines a new FTC report on the factors that influence retail gasoline prices, giving particular attention to the role that requirements for boutique formulations of gasoline can play in exacerbating price variability. Includes a link to a nice map of the USA color-coded by different formulations - suitable for framing!
- Peak Oil Rob links to recent discussion about a possible slowdown in the growth of Chinese oil demand. Don't get too excited, though - Geoff Styles notes that the one of the most significant short-term effects of China's recent move to revalue the yuan may be a re-stimulation of oil demand.
- Gothamist reports that NYC will be seeing hybrids in service in the city's yellow taxi fleet as soon as this fall.
- Mike MilliGCC notes a new addition to the Southern California Air Quality Management District's small fleet of plug-in hybrids (which previously included five Dodge Sprinter PHEV vans) - a PHEV-converted Toyota Prius. The Prius PHEVs will be modified by Energy CS in a partnership with CalCars, who in late June announced a commercial version of the conversion kit.
- One of Gov Schwarzenegger's top environmental initiatives hit a stumbling block this month, as the California state legislature approved only 60% of the funds requested for the construction of the Hydrogen Highway.
- Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed durable catalytic support materials that can reform liquid hydrocarbon fuels into hydrogen for vehicles even at high temperatures.
- BP has announced plans to build a hydrogen-fueled power plant in Scotland that will use natural gas as a feedstock. Natural gas will be converted into hydrogen for electricity generation and carbon dioxide that will be shipped to North Sea oilfields for sequestration and enhanced oil recovery.
- Years of under-investment in supply and suddenly-soaring global demand for nuclear power have pushed uranium prices to nearly $30/lb, triple prices from just a few years ago - and 'industry watchers' expect the price to rise further in the years to come.
- The Nuclear Energy Institute's blog is on the grind, doing yeoman's advocacy work with detailed rebuttals to recent anti-nuclear research by the Rocky Mountain Institute and the New Economics Foundation.
- Peak Oil Rob takes a look at the latest round of sonofusion research-and-reaction.
- Rob also continues to keep tabs on the state of conventional (?) fusion research, noting that India wants in on the hugely expensive ITER international experimental fusion reactor project
- Worldchanging FOCUSES on new developments in PV concentrator systems - recent announcements of conversion efficiencies approaching 40% in the US and in Europe, and a new San Diego startup making similarly exciting claims about PV concentrator systems that can be built for $2-3/watt.
- On the other end of the efficiency spectrum, Alan Monkeysign takes a look at new work from a Danish national laboratory on plastic solar cells, which are much cheaper - but much less efficient (5%) - than silicon cells. They're also much shorter-lived, although the most notable feature of the new Danish technology is that their plastic cells have a relatively long 2-year lifespan.
- The UK Royals announced plans for the construction of a micro-hydroelectric power plant on the Thames which will provide electricity directly to Windsor Castle. The plant will produce a third of the energy required to run the castle, offset approximately 600 tons of CO2 a year, draw attention to the potential in England for electricity from small-scale hydroelectric generators - and cost a cool million pounds.
- The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has decided to approve a plan to shut down wind turbines in the Altamont Pass during winter months to protect bird populations that have been dying in large numbers there. The plan will shut down half of the 4,000 turbines in the pass from November to February.
- ...Meanwhile, a new study by the Dutch Bird Protection Charity and the Dutch utility Nuon claims that wind turbines kill only a third of the birds predicted by earlier models. Researchers claimed that 50,000 birds were killed every year by the Netherlands' 1,700 wind turbines - far less than the 2 million birds killed annually by Dutch motor vehicles.
- Worldchanging takes a look at the recently-award winning "Swift" micro-turbine, a UK-manufactured, 1.5 kW capacity, low-noise and low-vibration model designed for urban rooftops.
- Universisty of Alberta engineers have developed a new design for inexpensive, small scale wind turbines that can harness even light winds to produce electricity for homes. I like the project leader: "My work is something that can make a small change, and it's probably a bunch of small changes here and there that will add up and one day have a big impact."
- After 5 years of trying, the US finally passed a 'comprehensive' Energy Bill. Some things to like and lots to complain about, natch - check out some reactions from Geoff Styles/Energy Outlook, Lynne Kiesling/Knowledge Problem, Mike Millikin/Green Car Congress, Engineer-Poet/Ergosphere, and Randall Parker/Futurepundit.
- Less-heralded, but potentially more significant in the long term, was the other big US energy policy announcement of last week - the unveiling of the 'secret' US-led alternative/complement to Kyoto, the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate. Thoughts from Roger Pielke Jr./Prometheus (also see an absolutely essential post from earlier in the month on the timing of the costs and benefits of climate policy), Worldchanging, and me.
That's it for now - as always, please send any links, tips, questions, and (especially) hottt gossip to newenergy - at - windsofchange.net. See you - from now on - on the last Friday of every month -
The hydrogen fuel cell has been around for a long time yet it has had a hard time getting off the ground.
Reason: energy density.
The methanol fuel cell is not as advanced as the hydrogen cell, however, it will be in mass production for recharging batteries in portable equipment within the next year or two.
This will mean that they come down the cost curve much faster.
At this point in time hydrogen is a boondoggle.
It is good that California is reducing proposed funds for hydrogen. It is premature to pick a winner.
In addition methanol can be extracted from trees.
National Geographic has an article and picture of a fuel cell motorbike that will be available in the US by the end of 2006.
have pushed uranium prices to nearly $30/lb, triple prices from just a few years ago
How is it with Iraq´s uranium mine. Has production been restarted
I remember how the Bass brothers attempted to corner the market on silver, and bid up the price per pound. People starting raking out drawers and scraping up old forks, photographs, coins -- anything with a smidgen of silver in it; adding so much "new" (actually, recovered) silver to the overall supply that the Bass empire nearly collapsed.
I'm wondering, if the US ramped up production of nuclear electrical generation plants and started bidding up (way up, artificially high over and above what we actually needed for the plants built, see why following) the price of U-235 (no fair collecting old depleted uranium ammo WE distributed around the world) and Pu-239 or Pu-241-- if states like NoKo, Iran, Pakistan etc would decide it'd be more in their interests to sell us the stuff that to use it in bombs?
The traditional argument has been that ramping up commericial nuclear power plants would create a mining, refining, and enrichment infrastructure which would afford more states the opportunity to get hold of bomb-grade fissile material. And long term, maybe that's true. But in a decade-long horizon maybe market forces would play in our favor -- and in a decade maybe some rationality (and cheap electricity!) will appear in the troubled parts of the world. Then there would be less incentive to terrorize.
Or maybe the horse will sing. Who knows?
The bike is more like a scooter. About 1.3 hp continuous. 7.8 hp peak.
Also note that although top speed may be 50 mph continuous cruising speed is more likely to be 25 to 30 mph.
As the article said: this is an advertising vehicle.
Also note that PEM fuel cell efficiency goes down rather drastically with increasing load.
Pouncer,
The horse will sing.
Nuclear energy is already a significant part of the global electricity production so the ramp up can't be that large so cost savings are not likely to be large.
Also nuclear energy is simply not cheap. Add to that that a large part of the cost of electricity are fixed cost of distribution so it is unlikely that electricity bills will go down for consumers like us
Dear Sir/Madam:
We are researchers from Shih Hsin University and are launching a new
survey, this is non-profit academic research. In this survey, we would
like to know your opinions about the topics of adoption and safety of
new energy related technology, and your opinion about Kyoto Protocol
related media issues. Your answers will produce valuable information
for our researchers. Your personal details will not be made publicly
available. You can find the URL as below:
http://www.e-mediasurvey.com
As thanks for your participating in our survey, we offer four
screen savers. The screen savers will be available for download on the
final page of the questionnaire. They include photos of BMW H2R
hydrogen vehicle, BMW hybrid car, Honda hybrid cars 2001-2006 and
Honda fuel cell vehicles. Would you please complete the questionnaire
as part of the survey? Thank you for your cooperation.
Project Leader: Mavis Tsai, Ph.D.
Co-project Leader: Scott Warren, Ph.D.
Researchers: PingYuan Sun, BiTing Qiou, YunZe Que
Sponsorship:
UNIDO-ICHET
The CCS Global Group
Screen Saver photos authorized by BMW, Honda.
Dear Sir/Madam:
We are researchers from Shih Hsin University and are launching a new
survey, this is non-profit academic research. In this survey, we would
like to know your opinions about the topics of adoption and safety of
new energy related technology, and your opinion about Kyoto Protocol
related media issues. Your answers will produce valuable information
for our researchers. Your personal details will not be made publicly
available. You can find the URL as below:
http://www.e-mediasurvey.com
As thanks for your participating in our survey, we offer four
screen savers. The screen savers will be available for download on the
final page of the questionnaire. They include photos of BMW H2R
hydrogen vehicle, BMW hybrid car, Honda hybrid cars 2001-2006 and
Honda fuel cell vehicles. Would you please complete the questionnaire
as part of the survey? Thank you for your cooperation.
Project Leader: Mavis Tsai, Ph.D.
Co-project Leader: Scott Warren, Ph.D.
Researchers: PingYuan Sun, BiTing Qiou, YunZe Que
Sponsorship:
UNIDO-ICHET
The CCS Global Group
Screen Saver photos authorized by BMW, Honda.