Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

There's no such thing as perfectly clean energy: even a person riding a bicycle generator exhales carbon dioxide. And once you factor in the energy and materials used to produce and transport wind turbines or solar panels, those renewable sources have their modest downsides, too.

So if our goal is to do the least damage to the environment, and in particular to climate stability, it's important to analyze all the lifecycle implications of our energy choices.

Benjamin K. Sovacool, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, did just that in a recent issue of Energy Policy magazine. His ranking probably comes as no surprise, but his numbers highlight the enormous difference between alternative technologies.

In terms of grams of total lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity, here's how several major sources of energy stack up:

• Coal - 960
• Natural Gas - 443
• Nuclear - 66
• Solar photovoltaic - 32
• Wind (onshore)  - 10

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

In the old days, kitchen grease was a messy waste product that unscrupulous restaurant owners dumped illegally to avoid disposal fees. In today's greener age, this leftover sludge has instead become a valuable target of thieves who reportedly convert it into clean biodiesel at a cost of less than $1 per gallon. That's progress for you.

On Friday, Governor Schwarzenegger of California addressed that problem by signing into law a bill that will slash fees imposed on individuals who collect and recycle fryer grease for their personal use as a substitute for diesel fuel.

The law, sponsored by Good Earth Grease Haulers in Monrovia, aims to support biodiesel production by cutting vehicle transport fees from $400 to $75. In theory it will also discourage the stealing of oil by getting more haulers to register with the authorities.

Now if we could only lick the problem of thieves who rip off solar panels from rooftops and then resell them on eBay. Is nothing sacred?

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Most new technology companies all but hit reporters over the head to get noted in news columns and blog items. A few extra inches of coverage can potentially translate into thousands of new orders and millions of dollars in new funding.

But Berkeley-based PVT Solar is trying a different tack: as soon as it reached the pinnacle of PR success--an item in the New York Times Green Inc. blog--the company promptly took down its web site, www.pvtsolar.com, citing concerns over intellectual property.

Was this a rare case of entrepreneurial modesty, or a genius marketing ploy to get people to troll the Web all the more diligently in search of the scoop on this company, which already enjoys the cachet of funding from Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist extraordinaire?

Despite his apparent shyness, company President Gordon Handelsman didn't mind telling the Times that his approach, although still a work in progress, harvests "around 100 percent more energy than a regular PV system."

The "secret" lies in making use of the waste heat from traditional solar panels. They typically convert only a quarter of the sun's energy into electricity. The rest becomes heat (or is reflected). By reusing that "waste" heat to warm water or rooms, PVT Solar's system can potentially increase overall efficiency.

Last February, Venture Beat listed PVT Solar as one of "Ten great cleantech startups on the prowl for funding." It cited company estimates that it could double efficiency at an additional system installation cost of only about 20 percent, "helping to reduce the time to break-even on the investment by 25 to 50 percent."

Another apparent convert was Joel Kauffman of Independent Energy Systems, who compared a PVT system against a standard solar hot water system of similar cost. The calculations he presented favored the PVT system with overall annual savings of almost $800, versus $400 with traditional models.

Of course, given the base cost of $22,000, the total payback time would still be considerable for either investment. So investors and buyers may want to wait until the PVT Solar web site is back up before betting the bank.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is making another energy play, announcing on the weekend that his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. will purchase about 10 percent of China's BYD Company Ltd., a maker of rechargeable batteries and automobiles, for $230 million. The move -- Buffett's first strategic investment in China -- follows MidAmerican's announcement earlier this month that it would acquire East Coast utility Constellation Energy Group Inc. for $4.7 billion. 

MidAmerican and BYD will work on new rechargeable battery technologies for vehicles and to store electricity from wind and solar power generation. "The rationale behind this investment is BYD's unique exposure to both lithium-ion batteries as well as its related hybrid electric vehicle business," Merrill Lynch analyst Daniel Kim told Bloomberg News. The "HEV market growth is exploding."

BYD aims to sell gasoline-electric hybrid cars in China later this year and to introduce hybrid vehicles in the U.S. and Europe in 2010. The Big Three U.S. automakers are scrambling to develop hybrids, and they got a boost on the weekend when the Senate approved a spending bill that included $7.5 billion to start a $25 billion low-interest loan program to retool old plants and help the industry develop new fuel-efficient vehicles. The House has already approved the bill.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

This week brought significant news about climate change, both in terms of the accelerating problem and tentative steps to address it in the United States:

• The Global Carbon Project, based in Australia, reported this week that global carbon dioxide emissions last year soared nearly 3 percent, a bigger jump than expected by all but the most pessimistic researchers. Although the United States is the second largest source of carbon dioxide, researchers said China, India and other developing countries are the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gases.
• 10 Northeastern states, members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Inititiative, this Thursday held the nation's first auction of pollution credits aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to cap carbon emissions in the region and create price incentives that will motivate polluters to curb them. The bigger goal is to pave the way for a national cap-and-trade market. "It is the shape of things to come," said Dale Bryk, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• Following suit, seven Western states and four Canadian provinces this week unveiled a draft plan to institute their own cap-and-trade market for greenhouse gas emissions. While many details remain to be hammered out, the Western Climate Inititiative was greeted enthusiastically by at least one governor: "This is an important road map for what will be the most comprehensive climate program in North America," said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Finally, after months of wrangling, the U.S. Senate passed a major tax bill Thursday evening that would extend federal tax credits to the renewable power industry, among other measures. The wind and solar industries pressed hard for the measures, as did many utilities that seek to offer their customers more renewable energy, including Pacific Gas and Electric. The House passed similar legislation Friday, but it remains unclear whether the two houses can reconcile their legislation before Congress adjourns.

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

Tomorrow, San Francisco's new Academy of Sciences, one of the greenest museums in the world, will open its doors for the first time. After more than a decade of planning, the new building stands as an embodiment of the Academy's mission to explore, explain and protect the natural world. Expected to earn a LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the new Academy is topped with a 2.5-acre living roof and employs a wide range of energy-saving materials and technologies, as NEXT100 has reported.

In addition to the environmentally-responsible building, the Academy will unveil its climate change and sustainability exhibits, which take California as a case study to demonstrate the effects of global warming.

As part of PG&E's sponsorship with the Academy, all are welcome to visit tomorrow on us. They expect folks to begin lining up very early in the morning, so take public transportation and bring blankets and something to keep you entertained until the opening ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

A roundup of green headlines that caught our eye this week:

• Sustainable is one of the top categories featured on NEXT100, so Andy Revkin's post on sustainable cities on his DotEarth blog seemed right for this week's roundup. Portland, Oregon, again topped a list of 50 U.S. cities compiled by SustainLane.com, a publisher that reviews things that are supposed to be good for you. The Rose City has topped the list for social and environmental sustainability since it began in 2005. San Francisco was No. 2 for the second consecutive year.
• Another piece on sustainability:environmental and aid groups are urging wealthy industrial countries to pay poorer nations to preserve their forests and jungles. Tropical forests absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Deforestration releases large volumes of CO2, threatening to cancel out emission reductions elsewhere. 
• A U.N. report this week -- "Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World" -- says more than 20 million jobs could be created as countries move toward new energy sectors, including wind, solar and geothermal power. Some 2.3 million people are now working in alternative energy jobs, with half in biofuels, according to the report.
• Shifting gears to plug-in vehicles, Montreal-based Dorel Industries is introducing a lithium-ion-battery-powered "e-bike" -- the Schwinn Tailwind. It claims to recharge the battery in only 30 minutes compared with four hours or more for a standard e-bike. The price: $3,200 (U.S.). 

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

"Filling up" your car from an electrical outlet rather than the gas pump is a winning strategy for the environment, according to a new study by San Diego Gas & Electric.

The Southern California utility spent a year testing two plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, converted from standard hybrid models with a lithium-ion battery kit. Regular hybrids typically use a gasoline or diesel engine to recharge their relatively small batteries; plug-in hybrids recharge from a wall socket in a few hours and are designed to go much longer distances on battery power alone.

The results were impressive:

When compared with the standard hybrid, the plug-in hybrid achieved a 60-percent increase in gas mileage, a 37-percent decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) tailpipe emissions, and an 18-percent reduction in fuel costs. When compared with conventional gasoline-fueled vehicles that average 22 miles per gallon (MPG), the fuel cost savings jump to 57 percent.

The economics of operating plug-in hybrids suggest that owners will feel as good about their pocketbooks as about the environment. At today's average gasoline prices, drivers of plug-in hybrids would save an average of about $1,500 per year in lower fuel costs, the utility reports.

Plug-in hybrids should begin hitting auto showrooms in significant numbers by 2010; the main holdup has been manufacturing high-performance batteries that are safe, reliable, and affordable.

PG&E, an early supporter of plug-in hybrids, has been testing a converted Toyota Prius hybrid with similar results.

This year, PG&E also joined a research and development initiative led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to smooth the integration of new fleets of plug-in hybrids into the nation's electric grid.

Between 2010 and 2050, according to a study by EPRI and the Natural Resources Defense Council, such vehicles could help the United States cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10 billion tons, an enormous contribution to fighting global warming.

Posted by: Katie Romans

Among all the new reports and parties, such as those from Earth2Tech, not to mention former Vice President Al Gore coming out at the West Coast Green conference currently underway at the San Jose McEnery Convenion Center, PG&E has a bit of our own news.

So, in the spirit of tooting our own horn...today, we announced two initiatives that will help communities achieve LEED certification by the USGBC.

The first combines charitable causes with environmental efforts: in a double-dose of green, PG&E is granting $200,000 to Global Green USA for the LEED-Silver certification of 14 Habitat-built homes. This will help Habitat homes in Oakland, Strawberry, Fresno and Cotati achieve LEED certification.

In addition, PG&E will become the first utility to enable customers to receive LEED credit for a natural gas GHG emission reduction by voluntarily enrolling in the ClimateSmart program. I can save trees AND receive LEED credit for it?? Thanks!

For those planning to attend the conference, don't miss the shipping container house. PG&E's own Lead Hydrologist/Systems Engineer, Jan Grygier, thought this was such a good idea, he built one of his own. Not sure of his LEED status, but pretty sure he is well on his way to Gold!

Lesson of the Day: Green things come to those who LEED.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Amid all the financial doom and gloom this week, San Francisco-based GreenVolts, an award-winning solar power technology startup, offered welcome good news:  It secured $30 million in new venture funding to accelerate advanced R&D efforts and continue work on its GV1 project, billed as "the world's largest non-silicon concentrating photovoltaic power (CPV) plant." (More on what that mouthful means in a minute.)

The news was good not only for the company's founders, but for customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., who will likely begin consuming clean energy from the GV1 project before the end of the year.

Last year, PG&E signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with GreenVolts to take two megawatts of power from the eight-acre GV1 solar plant, now under construction in Byron, a rural community in eastern Contra Costa County, just south of Brentwood.

When complete, GV1 will supply enough power to serve more than 1,000 homes--not enough for PG&E's system operators to notice, but big enough to prove the technology and help launch a promising provider of renewable energy.

In an interview with NEXT100, GreenVolts CEO Bob Cart said the company's funding success shows "there is still money available for good quality companies with good business plans and good technology. It's more difficult in today's environment, there's more scrutiny, but with the right fundamentals in place [you can still find] money."

(Indeed, a KPMG survey of 301 venture capitalists, released today, confirms that they are still very bullish on the green technology sector.)

Cart founded GreenVolts in 2005, following an 18-month sailing odyssey that gave him hands-on experience with the promise and pitfalls of living off-grid with solar panels.

Previously he held leadership positions at a precision tool-and-die manufacturer, an Internet advertising company, and a bank.

GreenVolts' technology is based on photovoltaic cells, which convert light energy directly into electric current. But unlike typical rooftop systems that use silicon, it uses less familiar materials like gallium arsenide, germanium, and gallium indium phosphide.

This combination--developed originally for applications in outer space--allows it to capture energy from infrared and ultraviolet as well as visible light, making it almost twice as efficient as most silicon cells.

To offset the cost of these materials, GreenVolts concentrates large amounts of solar energy on its solar cells using mirrors and other optical elements. Each GreenVolts PV cell receives 625 times as much energy as a traditional solar cell of equal size.

This combination of high-efficiency PV cells and solar concentrators will soon allow GreenVolts to produce power at prices comparable to fossil-fuel plants, Cart said: "The cost of traditional modules has declined 20 percent for every doubling of manufacturing capacity; we think we'll be on a similar path."

Any developer of solar technology has to make tradeoffs dictated by the costs of manufacturing, installation, site acquisition, and other variables. In weighing those tradeoffs, GreenVolts concluded that the best way to deliver solar power to customers is through efficient utility-scale plants rather than labor-intensive rooftop installations.

"We can easily deliver power for half the cost or less," Cart said.

But the company also realized that huge solar plants in remote areas bring difficult challenges of their own: getting permits for hundreds of acres of land, often in environmentally contested areas, and building expensive transmission lines to serve them. Both challenges can add years to the final delivery of a major solar plant.

By maximizing efficiency, GreenVolts' technology requires less land for any given output of power. The company aims to build compact solar plants of modest output, typically from 1 to 20 megawatts, which can be sited near existing utility distribution substations, dramatically reducing project completion time and cost.

Of course, GreenVolts will need a lot of projects to equal a 500 MW solar plant being developed by one of its competitors.

"There's no single solution that's best for every area," Cart concedes. "It is going to take a combination of many different technologies to provide clean energy and we see CPV as major part of the solution."

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took a lot of heat for his claim last February that global warming is a "total crock."  (He defended his claim on The Colbert Report earlier this month.) Needless to say, his credentials as a climate scientist leave something to be desired.

But as many bloggers and other commentators have noted in his defense, Lutz is also the major force within GM behind development of the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, and a variety of other hybrid models that promise improved gas mileage and thus reduced CO2 emissions.

"My thoughts on what has or hasn't been the cause of climate change have nothing to do with the decisions I make to advance the cause of General Motors," he wrote in response to critics.

As a business leader, at least, Lutz appears to be well attuned to the forces that will shape GM's future success in the marketplace. That's just as well, because a new study by The Climate Trust, an independent company set up by the British government to accelerate the country's move to a low carbon economy, reports that automobile makers have two-thirds of their value at risk if they fail to position their products and companies for a low-carbon world. Other major economic sectors face similar risks and opportunities.

In a statement accompanying the report, Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, said:

Climate change will cause a revolution in business and our findings should act as a trillion dollar wake up call to the investment and business communities.  Companies and investors that prepare now and develop new strategies will reap the commercial rewards of the move to a low carbon economy. The financial risks of inaction are just too vast to ignore.  We can see a trillion dollars of company value change, with leading, well-positioned companies gaining and badly positioned or slow companies losing out.

He added:

We have a short window of opportunity to act but at present business and investor actions are way out of step with the need to tackle climate change. They must be urgently re-aligned by developing new business and investment strategies and by working with governments to develop policy frameworks that reward early and effective action to rapidly reduce carbon emissions.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Human beings are seemingly hard wired for one-upmanship, so it's no surprise that the renewable energy industry, for all its polite social consciousness, has its share of healthy competition.

The latest example comes courtesy of Fortune magazine, which reports that Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, California plans to upscale its previously announced plans to sell the world's largest wind turbine to The Crown Estate, which controls the Queen of England's holdings. The proposed offshore turbine is gargantuan enough to scare even a T-Rex: 574 feet high, with blades stretching the length of two soccer fields. Its peak production capacity will be 10 megawatts, enough to power several thousand homes (when the wind is blowing).

The current wind turbine record holder, by some accounts, is the Enercon E-126, a 6-7 megawatt German behemoth with a rotor diameter of 413 feet. The Führlander wind turbine, also made in Germany, produces "only" about 2.5 MW, but stands an incredible 672 feet tall, almost half the height of the Empire State Building.

Turbine makers aren't producing such monsters just to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. If you remember your high school math, the area of a circle--the area swept by the turbine's rotors--increases with the square of the radius. There are also economies of scale in terms of the costs of land acquisition, construction, electronics, and grid connections.

Of course, there are downsides, too - starting with the fact that one of these machines might be a bit too big for your backyard!

Posted by: Katie Romans

The ever-growing Oracle OpenWorld descends upon San Francisco today, complete with its full cadre of patrons, partners...and, this year, green techies.

As part of an overarching green focus, leading panelists will discuss topics such as data center efficiency, smart meters and other ways to "green the enterprise."

In fact, PG&E will be one of few accepting Oracle's Empower the Green Enterprise award for our SmartMeter program. Presented to select customers and partners that utilize Oracle's products to take an environmental lead, while reducing costs and improving business efficiencies, the award will be presented to PG&E for managing billing, payments, credit/collections and meter inventory using Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing on an Oracle enterprise grid.

Oracle's OpenWorld will also feature such fodder as laptop-charging stationary bicycles and other interactive tips and tricks for reducing the conference's -- and one's own -- carbon footprint. While many of these displays serve more of an "edu-active" purpose, the need for such large-scale conferences to control their carbon footprint is very real. Check out the numbers, per today's San Francisco Chronicle: 

• 43,000 local and out-of-town attendees, each with a host of chargeable electronic equipment
• 72,000 lunches, complete with disposable packaging and utensils

Then, there's the conference crowds and traffic, likely more of a headache for locals than a significant environmental threat.

With this footprint comes great opportunity for sustainable practices. Oracle's efforts to balance out some of its own environmental footprint have the potential to make a big -- or smaller -- impact compared to that of last year.

Usually met with moans and groans of local SOMA-ites, this year's more sustainable OpenWorld should be welcomed with OpenArms.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Californians have one month left to register their views on an innovative proposal by the state Department of Insurance to help the environment by fundamentally reforming the way we pay for auto insurance.

The new insurance option, proposed by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, would let drivers pay by the mile, linking their costs more closely to actual car use--and thus car pollution--than is the case with traditional premiums. His proposal has reportedly been endorsed by the California Air Resources Board.

A study published this summer by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. explained the linkage between auto insurance and the environment:

The current lump-sum pricing of auto insurance is inefficient and inequitable. Drivers who are similar in other respects--age, gender, location, driving safety record--pay nearly the same premiums if they drive five thousand or fifty thousand miles a year. Just as an all-you-can-eat restaurant encourages more eat­ing, all-you-can-drive insurance pricing encourages more driving. That means more accidents, congestion, carbon emissions, local pollution, and dependence on oil. This pricing system is inequitable because low-mileage drivers subsidize insurance costs for high-mileage drivers, and low-income people drive fewer miles on average.

A better approach is simple and obvious: pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) auto insurance. . . . With insurance costs that vary with miles driven, people would be able to save money by reducing their driving, and this incentive would lead to fewer driving-related harms. PAYD would also be more equitable because it would eliminate the cross-subsidization of insurance costs from low-mileage to high-mileage drivers.

The Brookings research team concluded that California would see significant benefits from such a scheme:

• PAYD would result in an 8 percent driving reduction from light-duty vehicles.
• Estimated gross annual social benefits from an 8 percent driving reduction total $10.8 billion based on current driving levels, and $21.1 billion based on 2020 projections.
• The California state government would save $54 million annually based on 2006 data and $60 million annually based on 2020 projections.
• PAYD would generate 7 to 9 percent of the total CO2 reductions needed to meet California's emissions targets for 2020.
• Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of households in California would have lower premiums under PAYD. The average savings for that group would be $276 per vehicle per year (in 2007 dollars). Low-income drivers would benefit especially.

The Insurance Commissioner's office says it has scheduled a public hearing on October 20, at 45 Fremont St. in San Francisco at 10 a.m., to take final comments on the plan. If approved, the plan will take effect not later than next fall.

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

With the development of renewable energy ramping up worldwide to meet increasing demand, it's easy to be dazzled by

the steady introduction of record-setting renewable projects. But as the saying goes, good things do come in small packages. As utilities look to supplant fossil fuel generation more and more with renewable energy resources, small projects have the potential to play a big role for those keen on developing balanced and diversified renewable energy portfolios like PG&E.

In fact, Calfiornia's first small renewable energy project recently began delivering emission-free power to PG&E customers. Sized at 1.5 megawatts (MW), Buckeye Hydro is the first of ten small projects to add to our qualifying renewable energy portfolio. Although we've only received interest from businesses to date, any of our customers can sign up if they'd like to sell excess renewable energy to the grid. Renewable energy projects that are elgible for the Feed-in Tariff program can be up to 1.5 MW in size and come from such resources as solar PV or thermal, biomass, wind, geothermal, fuel cells (using renewable fuels), small hydroelectric, digester or landfill gas and municipal solid waste, among others.

If you want to learn more, check out this interview with Etopia News and David Rubin, director of service analysis, pricing and payment products for PG&E.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

A roundup of green headlines that caught our eye this week.

• A $10,000 premium for the GM plug-in Chevy Volt's lithium-ion batteries probably means a long wait for affordable electric cars.
• Wanted: Wildlife Biologists. Solar energy developers are snapping up biologists to survey power plant sites in California (including a PG&E project) and the desert Southwest for protected species and to prepare habitat-protection plans.
• A rival for Cow-Power? Food giant Kraft has found a way to turn whey, a cheese byproduct, into biomethane gas to power dairy plants. Will this frighten Little Miss Muffet?
• While Google eyes wave-powered floating data centers on the high seas, San Francisco-based International Data Center plans to dock retrofitted data center ships at piers and take electricity from nearby utilities, reducing operating costs.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Yesterday was a busy day for energy efficiency advocates, who contend that drilling offshore for oil is not a panacea for U.S. energy needs. In addition to the Energy Future Coalition statement discussed below, the august American Physical Society issued a major report on Tuesday titled Energy Future: Think Efficiency, calling for active federal promotion of energy efficiency research and development.

The society's web site notes that the APS "represents more than 46,000 U.S. physicists in academia and industry and includes nearly 60 Nobel Prize Laureates." The APS has a history of advocating energy research dating back to 1975, during the first oil crisis.

This report--drafted with the help of local experts such as Dan Kammen at UC Berkeley, Mark Levine at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Burton Richter of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Dan Sperling at UC Davis--focuses on the need for more research funding and tighter federal energy standards in the transportation and building sectors. Together those sectors account for 68 percent of U.S. oil consumption and about 70 percent of U.S. carbon emissions.

Their recommendations won't break the bank--for example, they'd like to see a relatively modest increase of about $150 million in federal R&D for building energy efficiency, as well as a significant boost in research support for battery technology for electric vehicles.

More controversially, they support mandating fuel economy of at least 35 miles per gallon for gasoline-powered light-duty vehicles (including SUVs and pickups) by 2020, rising to 50 mpg by 2030.

In addition, they propose measures to achieve "signifcant levels of construction of cost-effective residential zero energy buildings (ZEB) -- buildings that use no fossil fuels -- by 2020."

Fuel efficiency is an old idea, but the ZEB concept is catching on fast. Last year, New York Senator Hillary Clinton introduced the "Zero-Emissions Building Act of 2007," which directed federal agencies to steadily reduce the carbon footprint of new or renovated federal buildings until all became "zero-emissions" buildings by 2030.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

With U.S. energy policy still tied up in congressional knots, complicated by the imminence of national elections, a diverse coalition of more than 30 trade associations, NGOs, labor unions and businesses, including Pacific Gas and Electric Co., today called on federal and state governments to make energy efficiency a national priority.

Their goal: $100 billion a year in energy savings by the year 2025.

As they point out in a joint statement released by the Energy Future Coalition, "energy efficiency is a fast and low-cost way to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Rapid adoption of policies and programs that drive greater energy efficiency in our homes, businesses, industries, and government facilities will make electricity more affordable and reliable, enhance our standard of living, create new jobs, and protect the environment." 

The group urges state regulators to treat energy efficiency on an equal footing with kilowatt-hour sales, a policy called "decoupling," thus giving utilities an incentive to promote energy savings. It also notes the need for "coherent tax, regulatory, and workforce policies" at the national level to "promote investment in energy efficiency technology and its application in commercial and residential markets."

The signers further call on the president to direct several major federal agencies to make energy efficiency a priority and to appoint a National Energy Efficiency Advocate to promote greater efficiency gains throughout the economy.

Signers include the AFL-CIO, Steel Manufacturers Association, State of California Controller and Treasurer, and Real Estate Roundtable.

Besides PG&E, backers from the power industry include Duke Energy, Edison Electric Institute, National Grid, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Their advocacy on behalf of energy efficiency deserves a wide and enthusiastic hearing. As two experts with the McKinsey Global Institute wrote this summer:

One hundred and seventy billion dollars a year invested in efforts to boost energy efficiency from now until 2020 could halve the projected growth in global energy demand. What's more, these investments could also deliver up to half of the emission abatement required to cap the long-term concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases at 450 parts per million, the level experts suggest will be needed to prevent the global mean temperature from rising by more than two degrees centigrade.

Certainly the signers will find relatively few critics in California, which has led the nation in energy efficiency. Far-sighted state promotion of energy efficiency has kept per-capita energy consumption in California almost flat for thirty years, saving customers tens of billion of dollars.

PG&E estimates that its programs alone have saved customers more than $22 billion in  energy bills and avoided the release of more than 135 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The California Public Utilities Commission rewards investor-owned utilities for meeting ambitious energy-saving targets. PG&E's goal for 2009-2011 on the electric side is to save more than 3,000 gigawatt hours of power consumption over this coming period.

PG&E's CEO, Peter Darbee, told an energy summit at Stanford University this July that efficiency "is our single most important opportunity...the 'first fuel' and among our most cost-effective solutions. Our plan is to meet half of PG&E's aggregate demand growth in the next 10 years through efficiency savings." Darbee added, "If we get the incentives right, utility energy efficiency programs can be a big part of the solution for California and the country."

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

One little-noticed bit of fallout from the bankruptcy of the major U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers is the closure of its carbon emissions trading desk, according to a report today from Reuters.

The IntercontinentalExchange, which provides access to the European Climate Exchange, described as "the world's largest emissions trading exchange," suspended Lehman's membership in the wake of the bank's Chapter 11 filing on Monday.

Also thrown into disarray are Lehman's plans to finance international clean-energy projects through the Kyoto Accord's Clean Development Mechanism, which provides tradeable offset credits. Lehman reportedly had about 10 projects in the works, worth just under $400 million.

Lehman was the first non-Japanese bank to win permission, earlier this year, to trade United Nations-sponsored emissions credits in Japan.

As it happens, Lehman's new business line was somewhat shaky. The value of carbon credits has been weakening in many markets. In the United States, the price of carbon futures on the Chicago Climate Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange has fallen 40 percent in the last three months, according to today's New York Times.

The culprit, according to economist John Whitehead, is simply that the U.S. market (in this case, the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Inititiative) is being flooded with too many carbon permits. Supply goes up, price goes down.

Europe suffered an extreme version of the same problem--in 2006, the price of carbon fell almost to zero. Note to regulators: cap-and-trade markets work well only if the cap is meaningful. Needless to say, sectors that emit greenhouse gases tend to exert a lot of political pressure to relax the cap as much as possible.

To learn more about the economic implications of global warming and the role of emissions trading markets, one of the best resources is a report issued last September by none other than Lehman Brothers: The Business of Climate Change II. Grab it online while you still can.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

This year's H. Ross Perot award for "eccentric Texas billionaire who most captures the public's imagination" undoubtedly goes to T. Boone Pickens, the oil wildcatter and corporate raider who has become a born-again proponent of wind power.

His multibillion dollar initiative to build the world's largest wind farm in West Texas, and his "Pickens Plan" to wean the country off foreign oil, have spawned media headlines, crowds of admirers, and copycat investors aplenty.

While much of the reaction has been admiring, contrarian author Matthew Quirk, in the October issue of Atlantic Monthly, takes issue with all the hype in a story titled,  "Blowback: Is Wind the New Ethanol?"

Quirk spotlights two big problems with wind power. The first is the need to build billions of dollars worth of high-voltage transmission lines to connect new wind farms, often located in remote areas, with cities that need power. This need is particularly pressing given the stupendous growth of the wind industry, which reportedly doubled its installed capacity in the United States in just the last two years to more than 20,000 MW:

"Accommodating wind power on the scale foreseen nationally may require 12,000 to 19,000 miles of new high-power lines crisscrossing the country (by way of comparison, the interstate highway system runs 46,837 miles), plunging large parts of America into NIMBY hell."

The second problem is that no one can control when the wind blows. As every sailor knows, winds have a way of disappearing just when you are farthest from shore. The same goes with wind power: it often dies down on hot summer afternoons, just when demand for air conditioning peaks.

Just as annoying, wind power can surge late at night, forcing transmission grid operators and utilities to "spill" unused power in order to avoid overloading the system.

Quirk concludes that "it's hard to ignore the parallels to the recent ethanol boom, which was also fueled by mandates and subsidies, and which is now viewed almost universally as a disaster." A "turbine-building frenzy" could lead to higher energy prices, unreliable operations, and ultimately a wind-power bust, he warns.

But casual readers may not realize that his caveats about wind power have been discussed and analyzed for years. For example, the California Independent System Operator last year reported favorably on the feasibility of integrating intermittent renewable power into the state's electric system. And this July, the Department of Energy released a report supporting the ambitious vision of "20% Wind Energy by 2030."

"Transmission and power variability are real concerns but not showstoppers by any means," says Michael Goggin, electric industry analyst at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) in Washington, D.C. "We can overcome those concerns through better policies and operational procedures. There will be some costs involved but they aren't insurmountable."

The cost of power transmission, for example, is actually a relatively small fraction of customers' bills. Finding politically acceptable routes for high-voltage lines is admittedly no easy task, but this challenge applies to most kinds of power generation, not just wind.

Utilities can deal with power variability by acquiring backup gas-fired generation, for use when the wind stops blowing. But here again, wind doesn't represent a unique problem. Utilities must have power reserves on hand to meet unpredictable loads or to deal with a failure at a conventional generation plant.

Utilities can also store excess wind energy at night for use during peak-load periods in the day. PG&E operates a suitable storage system that uses off-peak power to pump water into the Helms hydropower reservoir, and the utility has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build two more similar facilities.

Hal La Flash, director of emerging clean technology policy at Pacific Gas and Electric, says wind power is not only clean but one of the most affordable kinds of renewable energy, though costs are rising along with other forms of power.

PG&E has signed two wind power contracts this year, bringing the utility's total amount of renewable wind energy under contract or delivered to more than 1,250 MW.

But La Flash adds, "Nothing is perfect. That's why we have a diverse renewables portfolio of wind, geothermal, biomass and solar. We don't hype any one kind of power. Everything should be done in a balanced way."

Posted by: Katie Romans

I recently read on ecorazzi.com that the DOE launched a new campaign, featuring PSAs with that twinkling little Tinkerbell and friends, for kids who want to save energy.

Harnessing the themes of friendship, fairies and magic, the PSAs encourage energy efficiency through energy-efficient light bulbs, power strips and simply turning off lights and gaming equipment. And, ever so slightly more sophisticated than those Captain America energy conservation PSAs of my childhood. From shutting the refrigerator door to turning off gaming equipment, energy efficiency for kids has come a long way.

Upon further investigation, I discovered the Tink PSAs are joined by another group of PSAs with the theme, "What's Your Excuse?," characterizing energy efficiency as easy and simple.

Though it may not be a new idea, engaging children on a level that is fun for them allows educators to reach a demographic that is still essentially forming their energy use habits.

Both websites feature PSA shorts and also invite kids to play various energy games and provides links to kid-focused sites that seek to educate and build a young, online community around energy efficiency -- from Greenpeace UK to Energy Quest, USA.

Keep an eye out for Tink as she flexes her pixie power for kids who want to save energy.

Posted by: Katie Romans

A roundup of green headlines that caught our eye this week.

• Professors and execs sound off about energy-efficient data centers.
• T. Boone puts forth a national wind energy policy.
• Duke announces wind plans of its own -- expanding its use of wind-produced electricity and purchasing more wind turbine generators.
• Energy experts urge legislators to use renewables and efficency to handle high fuel costs.
• Toyota's plug-in hybrid launch carries with it UK's hopes for becoming number one location for low-carbon vehicles.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

We Californians rightly take pride in our state's contribution to high tech, but sometimes it takes low tech to change the world for the better.

That's one of the great insights of a group of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), who won widespread attention this week for their finding that simply by painting roofs white and making pavements more reflective, the world could become measurably cooler, healthier and more affordable--whether you live in Africa or Los Angeles.

In a summary released this week of a paper to be published in the journal Climate Change, Hashem Akbari and Surabi Menon, scientists at LBNL, and Arthur Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission who formerly worked at LBNL, report that lightening up on roofs and pavement would reflect enough sunlight to offset the heating effect of 44 billion tons of CO2, or more than the world's total annual emissions of that greenhouse gas by 2025. Cool!

If helping the globe isn't reason enough to take action, there's a powerful economic incentive: cooler buildings require less energy for air conditioning. Energy customers in the United States alone could save more than a billion dollars a year, according to Rosenfeld. And by cutting back on energy use, these measures would directly reduce power plant emissions of greenhouse gases, further slowing the pace of global warming.

Last but not least, we could all breathe easier as well. As urban areas heat up from the concentration of dark surfaces that absorb sunlight, chemical reactions speed up the cooking of various air pollutants into unhealthy smog. Worker productivity falls, hospital emissions rise, and people have to cut back on outdoor activities. Making surfaces lighter would slow that process.

Co-author Akbari says he's received about 200 calls and emails this week about the study. It's been reported in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, leading blogs like Green Wombat, and newsletters as far afield as Carbon News in New Zealand.

But his Urban Heat Island group at LBNL didn't just come up with the idea. They've been publishing pathbreaking research along very similar lines for twenty years. (I know because I started writing about it as an editorial writer at the Oakland Tribune in the 1980s.)

Akbari said scientists have long known that as cities grow, replacing vegetation with buildings and pavement, they get hotter. Vegetation cools the air by releasing water vapor; buildings and pavement warm the air by trapping solar radiation. The yearly high temperature in Los Angeles soared 8 degrees F from the mid-1930s to the 1990s primarily due to this effect and not global warming.

The LBL scientists reasoned that if human behavior could cause the problem, more enlightened behavior ought to be able to mitigate the problem, at least in part. Thus they began experimenting with lighter paints, reflective surfaces, and planting trees to shade buildings. They measured the effects both on individual buildings (greater comfort, lower energy bills) and on the broader urban environment (cooler climate, healthier air).

Demonstration projects in more than a dozen "Cool Communities" found that the use of light- and heat-reflective materials, and careful planting of trees, could reduce peak summer temperatures by as much as 5 degrees F, cut the need for air conditioning by 18 percent, and reduce air pollution.

"In a city like Los Angeles, the effect on peak electricity consumption would be huge," Akbari says. "And our simulations show that the effect on smog in that city under some conditions could be the same as converting all cars to electric vehicles."

Based on this research, the South Coast Air Quality Management District concluded a decade ago that the "Cool Communities" strategy was the single most cost-effective way of reducing smog.

Fortunately, their research hasn't gone unheeded, thanks in part to Art Rosenfeld's tremendous efforts to educate legislators and regulators. California's Title 24 already requires non-residential owners of flat roofs to paint them white, and sloped roofs will be required to use "cool" colors starting next year. The three scientists hope to interest 40 major cities around the world to adopt new building standards for white roofs and cool pavements.

It's almost enough to make me believe in a free lunch. Just by changing the color and type of roof and paving materials, we can increase our comfort, save money, and help the planet. As Akbari says, it's a win-win-win for everyone.

 

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Environmentally conscious drivers have been eagerly awaiting mass-market offerings of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which allow recharging at home rather than running only on gasoline. In principal, they should be extremely clean (particularly if charged by a relatively clean utility like PG&E), convenient (fewer trips to the gas station), and relatively cheap to operate (since electricity costs much less than gasoline for equivalent energy).

So many customers will undoubtedly applaud the news that Toyota and a British company, EDF Energy, are now conducting road tests in the UK of a prototype plug-in hybrid successor to the popular Prius.

Toyota says a version of the car may reach salesrooms in the United States as early as 2009--a year earlier than expected--and may use state-of-the-art lithium batteries instead of older nickel metal hydride battery technology. (Lithium batteries tend to provide more energy for any given weight, so vehicles are lighter and can travel farther.)

As the competition between automakers in the hybrid electric space heats up, General Motors can't be happy about critical reaction by some auto enthusiasts to leaked pictures of its much-touted Volt electric vehicle. Disappointed car buffs called the new design "derivative" and even "like Grandma's electric vehicle." (I don't know about you, but my grandma never owned a plug-in hybrid.)

The one thing critics didn't attack was its performance. If the four-passenger Volt can really manage a 40-mile range just on its batteries, drivers could save over 500 gallons of gasoline a year, according to GM, along with lower emissions of CO2 and other pollutants. That looks pretty attractive to me.

 

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Several developers of solar energy under contract to PG&E made significant news this week, testifying to their business momentum.

San Jose-based SunPower Corporation, which plans to build a 250 MW photovoltaic facility in San Luis Obispo County to serve PG&E customers, announced that it has installed a 205-kilowatt solar electric system on the roof of the Department of Energy's headquarters in Washington, D.C., in a ceremony dedicated by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. SunPower said its lightweight solar roofing system provides insulation and protection against weather and UV as well as electric power. It's hard to imagine a better marketing coup for an energy provider than being selected by the DOE!

Solel Energy Systems, which plans to serve several hundred thousand PG&E customers with a 553 MW solar thermal project called Mojave Solar Park, announced the opening of a $9 million factory in Finland to produce its parabolic solar reflectors. Finland may not be the sunniest place on earth, but it's among the leading producers of precision glass products.

Finally, Palo Alto-based Ausra, Inc., which announced a deal last fall with PG&E to build a 177 megawatt solar thermal plant in San Luis Obispo County, said it made several significant additions to its management team, including a new senior vice president for research and product development from 3M Corp. and the addition of the former CEO of Public Service Company of New Mexico to its board.

May the sun keep shining on them all.

 

 

Posted by: Katie Romans

I recently read on Peak Energy that Google is rumored to be exploring computing at sea, using wave power. I always thought water and electricity were a bad mix, but Google sees a match made in data center heaven.

According to Big Gav, Google engineers calculate that an array of pontoons, with pumps to convert wave motion into electricity, spread over a square kilometer could produce 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to operate a single floating data center. To give you a sense, 1 megawatt of electricity powers roughly 750 homes for a year -- that is a lot of energy. I wonder what effects this could have on the temperature of the ocean if we shipped all our data centers out to sea?

Also envisioned is equipment to use the direct current electricity to run DC-capable computers, which some people consider more energy-efficient than using alternating current. Now that could be something land lubbers could get behind as well.

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

Think plug-ins are the next big thing? Think again.

A company called Moller International took plug-ins a huge step forward this week when it announced the completed design of a vehicle which functions like a plug-in hybrid when on the road and gets vertical lift. Moller's Autovolantor can get you out of any traffic jam quickly, by lifting off vertically and flying up to 150 mph for a short distance. While the prototype cost around $5 million, Moller thinks it can deliver a commercial product at $250,000. No word yet on when one of these roadable aircrafts would be available or even the regulatory implications. But if you'd like to get into the nitty gritty, check out this preso from Moller on the autovolantor.

 

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

A roundup of green headlines that caught our eye this week.

• Plug-in hybrid transit buses start hitting the road.
• The BBC looks at how Denmark, which gets 20% of its energy from wind power, keeps the juice flowing even when the wind isn't.
• Treehugger discusses how global warming will not cause sea levels to rise as much as first anticipated.
• Chrysler reveals its plug-in...to dealers.
• The Bright Green Blog shows us non-cheesy environmentally-themed songs are possible.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

The U.S. is now the world leader in wind electricity generation with installed capacity of more than 20,000 megawatts, enough power to serve 5.3 million American homes, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today. The new capacity doubles the 10,000-MW mark reached in 2006.

U.S. capacity of 20,152 MW trails Germany's installed capacity of about 23,000 MW, but AWEA says the U.S. produces more electricity because of stronger winds. AWEA expects more than 7,500 MW of new wind capacity to be added in 2008, expanding the nation's wind power fleet by 45 percent and boosting total capacity to some 24,300 MW.

"Wind energy installations are well ahead of the curve for contributing 20 percent of the U.S. electric power supply by 2030," said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. But the likely expiration of the federal renewable production tax credit "threatens this spectacular progress," he said. The PTC is currently set to expire at the end of this year.

Swisher and other wind industry leaders hailed the 20,000 MW milestone in Minneapolis,  where the Republican National Convention is underway. Xcel Energy, which is  headquartered in Minneapolis, is the host utility for both the Republican convention and the Democratic National Convention held last week in Denver. Xcel is providing wind power from its system to power both events.

AWEA noted that although 20,000 MW is an important milestone, wind power provides just more than 1.5 percent of the nation's electricity, far below the potential identified by energy experts. The 20,000-plus MW can generate as much power as 28.7 million tons of coal or 90 million barrel of oil and displace 34 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to taking 5.8 million vehicles off the road.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Environmentally-friendly consumer goods are drawing attention from shoppers as more companies move into "green" retailing.

Auctioneer eBay announced today it's launching WorldofGood.com to offer "products that have a positive impact on people and the planet." It joins companies such as Nike, Safeway, Whole Foods Market and Clorox to pursue new sales opportunities. eBay's "socially responsible" goods will be verified by third parties "to meet a core set of ethical and environmental standards," the company says. Products include fair trade coffee, home decor items made from recycled materials, organic clothing and animal-friendly cosmetics.

"I believe we're at a tipping point in the green market," Marci Zaroff tells Reuters' Alexandria Sage today. Zaroff is president of clothing, home goods and spa line Under the Canopy, who first coined the phrase "ECOfashion."

Last week, the Magic Marketplace apparel trade show, the largest such show in the U.S., held its first-ever ECOllection in Las Vegas with some 70 exhibitors showing off eco-friendly wares.

The number of people interested in environmentally sound apparel has risen 300 percent since 2003, according to market research firm NPD Group. Meanwhile, the organic product market has grown from $11 billion to $30 billion in the past five years, Zaroff says. "In today's economy, people are looking for a reason to buy. It (the green movement) almost gives them a reason to buy."

Posted by: Katie Romans

As an ever increasing number of electric customers, both in California and across the nation, realize the environmental and economic benefits of rooftop solar power over the long haul, adoption could come to a screeching halt as the sunset for federal tax credits for customer-owned PV looms heavy on the horizon.

Today's Gristmill reports on how the uncertain future of the investment tax credit is playing into campaign stumping across the patchwork of red and blue states. Perhaps most recently, far away from the Presidential limelight, Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall of Colorado outlined a plan whereby money saved by eliminating oil and gas subsidies would go to the investment tax credit, which would, of course, help jump start these industries.

But when can we expect to see 1.) elimination of oil/gas subsidies and 2.) resulting savings? While many of the candidates seem to have a long-term plan that re-infuses the ITC, few account for the fact that, come December 31, there is no ITC.

Not to be daunted in the face of adversity, industry and investor response has only been to pick up the pace, as Todd Woody recently reported. In a continued flurry of industry activity...

• Nanosolar recently secured another $300 million in funding and already has plans to supply solar panels to AES Solar for medium-scale PV plants.
• Kiplinger's named FirstSolar one of the Top 10 Stocks for the Next 10 Years.
• Belgium-based research institute IMEC is teaming up with Pittsburgh, PA's Plextronics to develop a process for making thin-film solar.

• Suntech Power just sealed a seven-year polysilicon supply deal with DC Chemical.

Hopefully, the net effect of campaign stumping and industry activity will be a heroic ITC rescue. Meanwhile, utilities are taking steps to prepare for the expected end-of-year rush.