Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Several stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

• Seasonal ice coverage is steadily decreasing on the Great Lakes, which could lead to greater evaporation and depletion of the world's largest system of freshwater lakes, according to the Great Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The loss of ice is also affecting spawning fish and winter recreation. 
• Congressional opposition may force the Obama administration to delay signing the international agreement on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, according to a report in the London Guardian.
• President Obama called for a cap-and-trade market to help move the U.S. economy toward cleaner energy sources. At his press conference on March 24, Obama said, "I think cap-and-trade is the best way, from my perspective, to achieve some of those gains, because what it does is it starts pricing the pollution that's being sent into the atmosphere. The way it's structured, it has to take into account regional differences. It has to protect consumers from huge spikes in electricity prices."
• The Environmental Protection Agency this week concluded that greenhouse gas pollutants endanger the public's health and welfare by warming the planet. That finding could be the first step toward subjecting those emissions to control under the Clean Air Act, a move lauded by some environmentalists but attacked as too costly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 
• A new report finds that city dwellers emit much less greenhouse gases than those in the suburbs or rural areas. The report, issued by the International Institute for Environment and Development, noted that New York City residents had average emissions of just over 7 tons per person in 2005, less than a third of the U.S. national average.

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

Peregrine falcon fans are keeping their eyes glued to PG&E's San Francisco's headquarters at 77 Beale Street these days. Bird watchers meet every Thursday evening at the intersection of Main and Mission to check out San Francisco's most popular love birds, Diamond Lil and Dapper Dan. The pair arrived in early February to begin courtship at the nest box that PG&E hosts.

Dan's and Lil's union has produced four eggs. Glenn Stewart, program manager for the UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group (SCPBRG) and falcon expert, estimates the eggs will hatch around April 14 or 15. Anyone wishing to witness the blessed event can do so online, courtesy of a nest cam at http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcamera.htm.

 
Not Your Average Bird of Prey
Peregrines hold the title of the world's fastest animal. They've been clocked reaching horizontal cruising speeds of 68 mph. When stooping, they can fly as fast as 273 mph.

Peregrines have adapted well to urban environments, nesting on tall city structures that are similar to the sheer cliffs they prefer in nature. SCPBRG began noticing peregrine falcons using PG&E's downtown skyscraper as a perch in the mid-1980s and placed a nest box on the ledge of the 33rd floor with hopes that someday peregrines might nest there. Finally, in 2003, a peregrine pair named George and Gracie selected PG&E's building as their nesting site. Since then, the utility has teamed up with the SCPBRG to look after the birds, including annual charitable donations to support SCPBRG's research efforts, nest cam, and education programs.

According to Wendy Pulling, PG&E's Director of Environmental Policy and bird-watcher, "It's thrilling to watch the peregrines swoop down past our offices. Pigeons in our neighborhood may not share our enthusiasm for the return of these birds to downtown San Francisco, but PG&E is proud to partner with the UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group to share the peregrines' family story via webcam to peregrine watchers around the world."

Peregrines are a fully protected and endangered species in California. Their population declined to zero known nesting pairs east of the Mississippi, and just two known nesting pairs in California by 1970. Thanks to the work of organizations like SCPBRG, today there are an estimated 250 peregrine falcon nesting pairs in California. SCPBRG credits the striking recovery of peregrines in California and throughout most of the world in large part to the widespread ban on the use of DDT.

SCPBRG will visit PG&E's headquarters about three weeks after the hatching in early May to tag the eyases before they take their first flight. Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed for a better outcome than last year, when the eyases died a few days after being hatched.

If you'd like to follow the progress of Dapper Dan and Diamond Lil in the meantime, check out the Yahoo! Discussion group at: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SF_PGE_Falcons/

 

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• Thinking about splurging to celebrate a special event like a honeymoon or a wedding anniversary? Think eco-luxury; you'll feel super. Check out six "green" international luxury resorts in the Bahamas, Australia, Costa Rica, Thailand, Kenya and our nearby Napa Valley combining  "pampering with a pronounced eco-sensibility." Notes Treehugger.com: "Because luxury resorts frequently are located in the world's most beautiful (and delicate) spots, a built-in need for a conservation and sustainability approach is growing fast--nobody will sign up for a safari if the animals are all dead."
• Down Silicon Valley way, it looks like Google co-founder Larry Page plans to build a 6,000-square-foot, four-bedroom eco-mansion on a 0.75-acre lot in Palo Alto. Page will apply for a Green Point Certification for the new digs, including a roof garden with solar panels and special paving to let rainwater seep into the ground, among other green features. "The house is designed to minimize the impact on the environment," a Page spokesman tells the local newspaper.
• Tata Motors, part of India's Tata Group, is preparing to market what is pegged as the world's cheapest car -- the $2,000 Nano. The car may produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than India's ubiquitous two-wheel motor scooters, but environmentalists warn the Nano could create more traffic congestion and strain in urban centers.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Northern California is a world leader in at least two markets: growing marijuana and high tech. But just as PG&E doesn't know how many marijuana farms grow under lamps inside innocent-looking homes, neither does it know for sure how many IT data centers draw power in its market. PG&E reads the meters but doesn't peek inside customers' premises.

Nonetheless, it's possible to make some informed estimates. The big commercial colocation centers and Internet "hotels," like 365 Main in San Francisco, are no secret; together they draw about 200 megawatts of power within PG&E's service area. The utility's best guess is that private data centers in high-rise office buildings and campuses probably consume an equal amount of power. Then there are the smaller server closets in law firms, boutique financial companies and the like, which might add another 100 megawatts to PG&E's load.

The average large data center consumes as much power as 25,000 households, according to McKinsey. Mark Bramfitt, principal program manager for high tech in PG&E's customer energy efficiency group, says the combined data center market now represents about 2.5 percent of PG&E's total demand, and is growing 15% to 20% per year.

"Last year we hooked up 75 MW of new data centers," Bramfitt told a gathering of the Business Council on Climate Change at PG&E's Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco today. "That's a big challenge for any utility to serve."

To make it easier--and to spare the environment--PG&E has become a leader among the nation's utilities in educating the market and providing incentives to promote more efficient use of energy in data centers.

The waste of energy in most data centers is staggering--on the order of 25% to 50% of total consumption. For one thing, power-hungry servers typically operate at less than 10 percent of their capacity. For another, they receive air conditioning around the clock, even when outside temperatures drop to freezing. Such practices aren't surprising when the IT experts who run the data centers don't pay the power bills.

Computer servers tend to be vastly underutilized because they are assigned specific tasks, like handling email, that may run only occasionally. With so-called virtualization software, servers can share multiple applications. Servers can then be consolidated, freeing up space in overcrowded centers and dramatically lowering overall power consumption.

Energy efficiency champion Autodesk managed to squeeze 296 servers down to only 7. "The energy savings are phenomenal, and now they have room to grow," Bramfitt said.

PG&E offers rebates for businesses that virtualize their servers. The utility currently has more than 200 applications for this incentive program, according to Bramfitt.

PG&E also offers incentives for companies to install software that turns off spinning storage disks when they aren't needed to access data--a measure that can save 75 percent of normal energy consumption. "A certain social networking site, which will remain faceless, bought this application," Bramfitt said. "If you are popular, your page gets moved to the spinning disk where people can access it quickly. But if you are not so popular, they move you onto another disk and turn it off. People can still access your page, it just takes slightly longer."

The next big wave of energy savings may come from turning off around-the-clock cooling systems. "Free cooling is this simple: When it's 50 degrees outside, open a window and turn on the fan," Bramfitt quipped. (Don't forget the dust filter, of course.) NetApp recently scored a $1.4 million incentive check from PG&E for moving to free cooling at its Sunnyvale datacenter. Even without the utility's incentive, a payback time of 6 months is typical when the technology is deployed in a new data center, Bramfitt said.

Last year, PG&E paid out about $7 million in energy efficiency incentives to data centers, reducing overall loads by about 7 MW. "Out of an overall load of 500 MW, that doesn't make me happy at all," Bramfitt said. "We need to drive at least 25 MW a year out of our load." To that end, he's got $50 million to spend over the next three years.

Much as Bramfitt likes his clients, he reminds them that they'll never really be "green." "IT is a big honking energy user," he concluded. "But it can be more sustainable by squeezing the most efficiency out of that energy."

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

San Francisco's gritty Tenderloin district will shine a little brighter thanks to a new streetlighting program announced today by Mayor Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and PG&E.

At a press conference this morning on Turk St., joined by PG&E's senior vice president for public affairs, Nancy McFadden, Newsom said the city is installing 50 ultra-efficient, energy-saving LED streetlights in the depressed neighborhood, a smart move to enhance public safety while demonstrating environmental leadership and saving money.

In addition, city authorities are working with PG&E to evaluate "smart controller" technology that will monitor the performance of individual streetlights, adjust their intensity, and signal when they are about to fail. Flexible controls will give officials to ability to turn selected lights on or off, dim them, or flash them to alert emergency personnel.

As NEXT100 reported in February, a pilot test of LED streetlights outside PG&E's headquarters on Beale St. in San Francisco helped pave the way for this announcement by demonstrating that remote management of LED streetlights can potentially save money by providing real-time billing information and automatic alerts to field repair teams. (Test lights are also in operation near City Hall on Fulton, between Larkin and Hyde.)

Cities also stand to save money simply by virtue of the fact that LEDs use only half the energy of traditional streetlights and last two- to three-times longer. Adding to their luster, PG&E is developing special energy rates and rebates to encourage cities to install LED streetlights. 

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

"Turn out the lights when you leave" is advice thrifty parents often give their heedless children who don't pay the bills. Yet half of U.S. office workers forget those words when they leave their PCs running all night and on weekends, according to a newly released survey by London-based software services company 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy.

The report's findings are striking, for both the economic and environmental implications of this simple act of neglect:

Collectively, US organizations waste $2.8 billion every year powering 108 million unused PCs. In 2009, these unused PCs are expected to emit approximately 20 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions - roughly equivalent to the impact of 4 million cars. As an example, for an organization with 1,000 PCs, this amounts to approximately $26,000 per year.

(The report's cost figures assume an average price of electricity of $0.10 per kilowatt hour--well below the average rate in California.)

The report adds, "If all of the world's 1 billion PCs were powered down for just one night, it would save enough energy to light up New York City's Empire State Building--inside and out--for more than 30 years."

Among U.S. employees who leave their PCs on overnight or on weekends, more than a quarter say turning it off takes too long or they simply forget. They clearly need a nudge in the right direction--or, better yet, an automatic command to put their computers in sleep mode or turn them off entirely when they are gone.

PG&E business customers are eligible for rebates of $15 per PC for installing power management software on network servers to control large numbers of PCs remotely. That's a hard deal to pass up, especially considering it makes economic sense even without the incentive.  

As 1E's CEO remarked, "Employers today have a golden opportunity to demonstrate environmental and financially astute thought leadership by taking a few simple, energy-saving measures, such as setting up processes to power down PCs. Every day that passes is a lost opportunity to save money and reduce your carbon foot-print."

If you want to estimate how much money and power your organization is wasting by leaving computers on around the clock, check out 1E's convenient calculator. It might save you some bucks and help save the planet. 

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

The San Francisco Bay Area is Ground Zero of the local food movement.  In 2005, a group calling itself Locavores challenged local residents to eat only food produced within a 100 mile radius of their home. Only two years later, their name was added to the Oxford American Dictionary as 2007 Word of the Year. 

There are lots of reasons to eat locally produced food, including freshness and to preserve farm-based greenbelts, but the most widely cited reason is to cut down on "food miles," the environmentally costly transportation of meat, fruits and vegetables thousands of miles by truck, ship and plane to your local supermarket.

But even if you are a committed Locavore, how should you buy your food? Should you drive to local farms? Should you drive to a farmer's market, to which sellers converge by truck from throughout the region? Or should you subscribe to a service that drops off organic produce at your door?

A recent study from the University of Exeter in the UK finds that less fuel is generally burned when customers take home deliveries of vegetable boxes than when they travel to their local farm shops. Although delivery vans may travel a couple of hundred miles to service their routes, they can schedule travel much more efficiently than individual customers who travel four miles or more to market.

The Bay Area is served by numerous deliverers of organic produce, such as Planet Organics, Farm Fresh to You and Spud (these are listed as examples, not recommendations). Customers may suffer sticker shock when they see the prices, but a handy calculator may convince you that the time and fuel saved on shopping makes it all worthwhile.

Food delivery may become even more efficient if a new web-based tool called FarmsReach catches on. It's designed to help producers and buyers find each other, prepare optimal delivery schedules and arrange payments.

Said Melanie Cheng, founder of FarmsReach, "While we're not there yet, it's easy to see a day when a farmer uses an iPhone to track picklists, get driving directions, accept orders and so on. Ten years ago, this was proprietary technology for companies like Fedex--now, with a website and a phone, it's in the hands of a local farmer."

All that's well and good, but as earnest consumers learn more about the economics and environmental impact of the food business, they risk becoming hopelessly confused.

For example, the New York Times cited a research study that found that "lamb raised on New Zealand's clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard."

And an informal survey by Salon magazine last year of the farmers market at San Francisco's Ferry Plaza found that traditional wholesalers probably produce fewer carbon dioxide emissions per pound of apples, oranges, lettuce and greens than farm stall operators.

The author admitted that a full calculation--taking into account all lifecycle energy costs including fertilization, refrigeration and a host of other factors--might have changed the results, but it would take a massive study to know for sure.

All of which suggests, to me at least, that ethical consumers will be much better off when carbon emissions are finally priced correctly, either with a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade market. All the hidden costs of fossil fuels in the production of food (and every other product) will finally be incorporated in the final sales price. Then we can, in good conscience, go back to buying our food based on freshness, nutrition, and visual appeal rather than pulling out our environmental calculators every time we buy a strawberry.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Whoever coined the term "clean energy" probably didn't have mounds of rotting food and squirming maggots in mind. But EcoSystem Corp. of New York--a place that really knows garbage--has requested $1.75 million in federal subsidies to harvest Black Soldier Fly larvae for biofuels.

Most cookbooks are silent on the topic, but according to an informative press release from EcoSystem, dried up Black Soldier Fly larvae consist of about 42 percent protein and 35 percent natural oils, suitable for biodiesel feedstock and other chemical applications.

Although most people view them as nasty pests, EcoSystem welcomes the flies as cooperative business partners. With no prompting, they will happily lay countless eggs in food scrap waste, which totals tens of billions of pounds a year in the United States.

Best of all, according to the company's web site, the flies are "clean, energy-efficient and voracious. They rapidly consume large quantities of feed during maturation, without regard for the chemicals, toxins, bacteria and pathogens that would cripple algae and other bioreactor technologies." (The company might also have mentioned a new British medical study, which found that flesh-eating maggots can clean wounds five times faster than conventional treatments.)

Converting the larvae to usable oil is "insanely simple," the company's president told GreenTechMedia's Jeff St. John.

Based on the volume of usable food waste available in the United States, the company estimates that it's maggots could produce up to 100 million gallons per year of natural oils as feedstock for biofuels production. However, as one skeptic noted, "100 million gallons is 2.4 million barrels, about what the U.S. consumes in nine hours."

 

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• First Solar has reached a milestone of producing one gigawatt of clean, solar electricity with its thin-film solar modules since it began commercial production in early 2002. The company, with manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Germany, and Malaysia, has enough capacity to produce more than one gigawatt per year - the equivalent of an average-sized nuclear power plant (at least when the sun is directly shining).
• The place that calls itself the happiest place on Earth is now also seeking to become one of the greenest. The Walt Disney Company announced a sweeping sustainability initiative to reduce emissions, waste, electricity and fuel use, and its impact on water and ecosystems. Its long-term goals include achieving zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions, zero waste and net positive impact on ecosystems, among others.  For more highlights, visit www.disney.com/crreport. 
• In other entertainment news, Fox's "24" has become the first television program to go "carbon neutral." The show took a variety of steps to reduce its impact, including purchasing renewable energy, incorporating alternative fuels on-set, and offsetting the rest through the purchase of carbon offsets.

 

 

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Several news items on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

• Political and business leaders have just 20 years to prepare for a "perfect storm" of crises related to shortages of food, water and energy due to population growth and global warming, warns John Beddington, "a specialist in the economics and biology of sustainable management of renewable resources" and the chief scientific adviser to the UK government. Failure to act now could lead to public unrest, social conflict and mass migration, he said. 
• The National Association of Insurance Commissioners now requires large insurance companies in the United States to disclose risks they face from global warming. "Climate change will have huge impacts on the insurance industry and we need better information on how insurers are responding to the challenge," said Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario. "As regulators, we are concerned about how climate change will impact the financial health of the insurance sector and the availability and affordability of insurance for consumers."
• One of the hottest growth industries these days is lobbying to influence federal policy on climate change. As of the end of 2008, some 2,340 lobbyists representing more than 770 companies and interest groups were pressing their case on Capitol Hill, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. That works out to more than four climate lobbyists for every member of Congress.
• Even as the Obama administration calls for more action against global warming, public skepticism is on the rise. A Gallup poll shows a six percent drop in the number of people who worry "a great deal" or a "fair amount" about global warming and a record-high 16 percent who are convinced global warming is a myth. A Pew survey in January found that global warming ranked 19th out of 19 issues in public priorities. Experts say public concern over the environment drops off in times of economic hardship.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

The renewable energy industry saw records broken and dreams dashed this week:

• Installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells worldwide reached a record high of 5.95 gigawatts (GW) in 2008, a jump of 110% over the previous year, according to a market analysis by Solarbuzz LLC. Spain installed the most capacity (2.46 GW), followed by Germany (1.86 GW), with the United States a distant third (0.36 GW). China and Taiwan increased their market share of cell production to 44 percent from 35 percent in 2007. The United States, notes Joseph Romm, cannot claim even one of the world's 10 biggest PV factories.
• Spain set a world record by generating fully 40 percent of its electricity from wind power last week. Taking advantage of powerful and sustained winds, its wind farms managed to operate at 69 percent of their potential rated power--roughly three times normal. The United States produces more wind power, but here it accounts for only about 1 percent of total electric power generation.
• The world's first commercial wave power project, sited off the coast of Portugal, has been dismantled by developer Pelamis Wave Power due to technical and financing issues. The company set no date for fixing the problems and getting the pioneering 2.25 megawatt project back on track. Only about 20 sites around the world now have test devices operating in the ocean. PG&E hopes to add to that number with its WaveConnect project off the coast of Northern California. Meanwhile, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden says he is pushing the federal government "to elevate the role of wave energy."

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

A year ago it was tough to get your hands on one. Today, even with hefty rebates and tax credits, sales of hybrid cars have hit a brick wall. Dealers sold a mere 15,144 last month, a drop of nearly two-thirds from the peak last April, and much worse than traditional vehicles have suffered. 

The reason isn't hard to guess: consumers lost interest in fuel efficiency when gasoline prices plummetted from over $4 to less than $2 a gallon.

If you were an auto executive, with half a dozen new hybrid models in the pipeline and a balance sheet in the red, you might be a little panicked right now.

You could launch a new green marketing campaign and hope for the best. Or you could go to the heart of the problem and try to give customers another kind of "green" reason to rekindle their love affair with hybrids.

That's exactly what General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner did yesterday, when he signalled Congress that raising the price of gasoline to $4 a gallon by boosting federal gas taxes was "worthy of consideration."

You heard that right. A GM spokesman told the Washington Times, "Until gas prices hit $4, nobody saw any shift in consumer behavior. Only then did people put fuel efficiency front and center."

Wagoner's counterpart at Ford Motor Co., Alan Mulally, tacitly endorsed higher gas taxes this month at the Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics conference, where he said low gas prices translate into consumer demand for bigger, less efficient cars. "Until the consumer is involved, we are not going to make progress" toward reducing fuel use," he said.

More direct was Michael Jackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc., the largest auto dealer in the United States, who called four-dollars-a-gallon gasoline "a good start." He declared, "We need more expensive gasoline to change consumer behavior."

AutoNation went from having a mere two-day supply of Honda Civic hybrids last summer to 148 days' stock by the end of the year. "The price of gasoline dictates what people buy," Jackson said. "Gas fell to $2, and now my lots are filled up with fuel-efficient cars that aren't moving." 

Calls for increased gas taxes--or taxes on vehicle miles traveled--are also coming from fiscal analysts who warn that existing revenues fall far short of meeting the nation's transportation needs.

According to a new report by the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, the shortfall amounts to about $10 billion per year:

We will face increasingly deteriorating roadways, bridges and transit systems. We will suffer from more accidents and fatalities... We will endure even greater spans of our lives stuck in traffic, wasting our time and robbing our businesses of vital economic activity and productivity. We will waste non-renewable petroleum and harm our environment unnecessarily. And, finally but importantly, every day of delay is a day when inflation, neglect, and inefficient use waste scarce taxpayer and system-user dollars.

Needless to say, politicians aren't rushing to raise gas taxes. But unless and until they do, a little sympathy may be in order for beleaguered automakers who are expected to help save the world by producing green hybrids that hardly anyone wants to buy.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

At President Obama's direction, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recently called for "more aggressive" energy efficiency standards on home appliances--including a "superstar" category of the 5-to-10 percent of top performers among Energy Star labeled products.

His idea is great, because it's not easy for consumers to find out what products use the least energy. One way is to visit the official Energy Star products web site, followed by some spreadsheet manipulations or eye-fatiguing scanning of columns in the site's many appliance databases.

Another good source of information is the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, which lists some of the most efficient products in a few categories. And PG&E, along with national environmental and energy efficiency organizations, is backing a new consumer information service called Top Ten USA, whose mission is to "help residential and commercial users find and purchase the most energy efficient products in the U.S. marketplace" in order to "accelerate world-wide competition among manufacturers to save energy and stabilize the climate."

In the meantime, the energy it takes to scrutinize the numbers on the Energy Star web site can be repaid many times if you are in the market for a new appliance. Today's products span an enormous range in terms of energy use--even among those with Energy Star ratings--so careful selection can help you save significantly on utility bills and do your bit to stave off global warming.

For example, the two most efficient air conditioners I could find are respectively 36 percent and 33 percent more efficient than the federal standard, according to the Energy Star database. If you live or own a business in Bakersfield, such performance could add up to big summer savings.

Clothes washers represent another big load. Two models from Samsung appear to boast efficiency 127 percent better than the federal standard. Both use very little water as well, increasingly important in this drought-prone state.

Among refrigerators with freezers, the Energy Star database indicates that two of the most efficient mid-sized models are made by Frigidaire, with performance 58 percent and 36 percent better than federal energy standards, respectively.

Finally, I checked out 42 inch LCD TVs and discovered two models from JVC that consume only about 112 watts when turned on. You could buy another Energy Star-rated model that would cost you almost 50 percent more to power each year.

Several big caveats apply. First, I haven't tried or inspected any of the models cited here. The most efficient models may lack features that are important to you.

Second, the Energy Star program doesn't guarantee that the models in its database are still available, so unless you find them on Craig's List, you might be out of luck. 

Finally, high-performing models are often more expensive, so whether you save money will depend on the rates you pay and how long you keep the appliance. If you trade in your TV every year, chasing after energy savings may not pay off. But you'd never be so environmentally wasteful, would you?

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

One month ago, on Feb. 17, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the $787 billion spending bill to stimulate millions of new jobs in America's ailing economy.

One sector that will be deservedly blessed by new funding is energy efficiency, an area Californians have invested in successfully over several decades for an estimated saving of $56 billion in energy costs. It's one of the cheapest and most reliable ways to deliver energy services, and a powerful weapon against greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

In addition to providing billions of dollars for retrofits of federal buildings and new research, the new law offers $3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation block grants. According to a March 13 presentation by the California Department of Community Services and Development (CSD), local governments in California can expect to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in such grants. An additional $56 million should flow to the California Energy Commission (CEC), mostly for distribution to small municipalities.

The law also directs $5 billion nationwide to home weatherization programs for low-income residents (those within 200 percent of the federal poverty level), up from the $227 million authorized last year. This program lowers energy bills for those who need it most by hundreds of dollars a year. CSD is expected to receive $185 million for California's share.

Energy Star appliances will become eligible for $300 million in new rebates, of which about $30 million will be administered by the CEC in California.

Under a separate $3.1 billion pot of money for state energy programs, which include building, industrial and transportation energy efficiency and renewable energy, the CEC should reap an additional $226 million, according to recently published Department of Energy guidelines. 

In addition to helping Californians lower their energy bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, these investments will help put some of the state's two million unemployed back to work. The Department of Energy projects that its energy efficiency program funds will create nearly 90,000 jobs across the country.

Although California has great experience with energy efficiency, administering the surge in funds won't be easy. For example, thousands of workers will need to be trained in proper construction retrofit techniques.

"The stimulus bill puts a premium on spending a lot of money in a timely way, which will be a challenge," said Bill Miller, manager of customer energy efficiency strategic issues at PG&E. "Time will tell how well we do."

Miller said PG&E hopes to help local governments use the money to best advantage. "The role we are interested in, since we've been doing this kind of activity for a long time, is to partner with those who will get the money," Miller explained. "For example, if a city gets a grant to upgrade its facilities, we could engage them in our new construction program and give them design assistance to help meet and exceed the state's Title 24 requirements on energy usage."

Miller concluded, "It's a wonderful opportunity that will allow government buildings to become state of the art while reducing their energy usage and carbon footprints."

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

Several items on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

• Want to know the good news coming out of the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen? Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany jokingly forecasts that global warming will increase usable land space by 10,000 percent. On the downside, Dr. Schellnhuber estimates the carrying capacity of Earth is less than one billion people.
• For California, global warming will cost a pretty penny. The Climate Action Team, a California interagency, issued the first of 40 reports that outline the potential impacts to the state's economy, property owners and government. Overall, global warming could cost California between $2.5 and $15 billion annually. This estimate includes the cost of fighting rising waters, wildfires, agricultural losses and meeting increased demand for potable water and electricity.
• Put down that hair spray. A new report published in Science indicates that sky visibility has decreased significantly over the past 30 years thanks to aerosols, resulting in "global dimming." Not only does global dimming impact beautiful vistas, the airborne particles also reduce the amount of direct sunlight reaching earth. That's bad news for solar energy concentrating systems because they rely on direct sunlight to produce renewable electricity. Flat photovoltaic and hot water panel systems, which utilize both diffused and direct sunlight, are less affected.
  

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

A couple of weeks ago, PG&E made a splash with its proposal to help develop 500 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power over five years--250 MW to be built by the utility and 250 MW by independent developers.

Now PG&E is taking its first public step to move the project forward since filing its request with the California Public Utilities Commission on Feb. 24: It has set up a Web link to seek potential suppliers for a 2 MW pilot PV plant to be completed late this year.

The suppliers it recruits (by competitive bid) may also be tapped to build many more such projects in the 1-to-20 MW range if the CPUC approves PG&E's proposal.

The pilot facility will be ground mounted and adjacent to a PG&E substation. PG&E will provide the site (not yet specified), permitting and grid interconnection.

According to PG&E's contract opportunity announcement, the chosen supplier will be required to provide a complete solar generating system, including engineering and procurement of all equipment. The supplier may also choose to build, start-up and commission the pilot facility. 

The utility plans to use the pilot project to help develop its processes for building and operating PV facilities while it seeks regulatory approval for the full 500 MW proposal. If approved and completed, that mega-PV program could meet over 1.3 percent of PG&E's electric demand and deliver as much power as consumed by 150,000 average homes.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week.

• Honda's new Insight hybrid for the 2010 model year hit its goal of under $20,000 at a list price of $19,980, or $2,200 below Toyota's base Prius. The Insight offers two trim levels and is rated at 41 miles per gallon for city and highway combined, while the current Prius is rated at 46 mpg by the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Looking for a green home? Check out house construction plans on the Internet. Boston-based FreeGreen.com offers free code-approved green building plans with engineering drawings and virtual tours. Houseplans.com in Novato, California, will provide downloadable building plans and drawings for about $5,000. Both companies feature contemporary designs and offer plans that can be customized for a fee.
• Walt Disney Co. has set out some green goals for its theme parks over three-to-five years, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste, electricity and fuel use, as well as impacts on water and ecosystems. Earlier this year, Disneyland started using recycled cooking oil to power its steam trains, which is expected to save the resort about 200,000 gallons of petroleum diesel annually.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

If visionary scientists have their way, California may someday build one of the world's biggest prisons--to incarcerate not scofflaws but greenhouse gases.

It turns out that California is one of the country's richest sources of  "ultramafic" rocks (like serpentine), whose minerals react with carbon dioxide by sucking it out of the atmosphere to form harmless, even useful, magnesium and calcium carbonates.

In theory, carbon dioxide could be pumped into the appropriate mineral formations, where it would form new rocks like limestone and chalk. Or the ultramafic rock could be ground up and exposed to concentrations of CO2 to speed the process. As a side benefit, the chemical reaction would destroy waste asbestos that was once mined from such rocks.

"The technology offers a large capacity to permanently store CO2 in an environmentally benign form via a process that takes little effort to verify or monitor after disposal," according to a new study from the U.S. Geological Service and Columbia University's Earth Institute.  "These characteristics of the technology are unique among its peers in greenhouse gas disposal technologies."

The technology was extensively studied in the mid-1990s at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was discussed by the 2005 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. At the time, however, no one knew for sure where the best mineral deposits were located.

The new report, titled "Mapping the Mineral Resource Base for Mineral Carbon-Dioxide Sequestration in the Conterminous United States," says three of the country's best sources of CO2-absorbing rocks are the Klamath-Trinity region of the western California-Oregon border, the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and the Coast Ranges of California, running from the southern end of the Klamath Mountains to Monterey County.

The downside is that many proposals require large amounts of energy and water--scarce resources we can't afford to squander. And somehow I can't imagine many environmentalists taking kindly to building industrial-scale CO2 processing facilities in some of the state's most pristine mountains.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Why would reputable entrepreneurs try to mimic the Mafia by entombing their enemies in cement?

Because their enemies--and ours--are not business rivals but greenhouse gases that produce global warming.

Production of cement, which typically requires heating ingredients to 2,640 degrees F, is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, ahead even of aviation. By some estimates, cement makers globally emit about 2.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, amplifying global warming.

If the amount of energy required to produce cement could be radically reduced--or better yet, if production methods could be reengineered to absorb rather than emit carbon dioxide--the world would stand a much better chance of preventing runaway warming and environmental disaster.

Traditional cement makers complain that environmental standards are already too tight and put their business at risk. For example, CalPortland, already hurt by the recession, says retrofitting just its Colton, Calif. Plant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only 12 percent would cost well over $200 million.

But some entrepreneurs instead see a huge green opportunity--in both senses of the word. Vinod Khosla, Silicon Valley's green venture capitalist extraordinaire, is banking on a startup called Calera, founded by a Stanford University scientist, to turn carbon dioxide into cement, in effect sequestering the greenhouse gas in the ubiquitous building material.

Although the company has said little about its progress, it aims to turn CO2 into carbonic acid and then into carbonates suitable for making cement. The CO2 could come from flue gases emitted by fossil-fueled power plants.

Said founder Brent Constatntz, "All we need is water and pollution."

While Calera has grabbed most of the limelight thanks to Khosla's PR prowess, many other firms are also playing with their chemistry sets to achieve breakthroughs in converting CO2 into cement and other industrial products:

• London-based Novacem says it has devised a process for making recyclable cement at much lower temperatures using magnesium silicates, which absorb large quantities of CO2 as they harden--therefore offering "the unique potential to develop a range of 'carbon negative' construction products."  With a pilot plant under construction, the company hopes to bring products to market within five years.
• Canada's Carbon Sense Solutions is commercializing a process to lock carbon dioxide into concrete while dramatically reducing the time to produce the building material.
• Santa Barbara-based Carbon Sciences claims "a breakthrough technology to transform CO2 emissions into a high value chemical compound, calcium carbonate," which could be used in drywall, paper, pharmaceuticals, and plastics.
• Carbon8 Systems, an award-winning UK startup, has a process to turn waste CO2 into carbonate salts, which "can be used as a secondary aggregate, engineering fill or specialist construction materials." 

Figuring out the science and ironing out the new manufacturing processes for CO2-aborbing cement and other materials is only the first of many steps needed to succeed in these markets, however.

As one spokesman for the Portland Cement Association noted, "The construction industry is very conservative. It took PCA about 25 years to get the standards changed to allow 5 percent limestone [in the Portland cement mix]. So things move kind of slowly." 

Posted by: Katie Romans

Yesterday, E&ETV posted U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu's remarks about the need for greater efficiency in all sectors, followed by an expert panel discussion about incentives to drive efficiency, specifically in the utility sector.

Of note, Secretary Chu mentioned that in discussions with EPA's Energy Star program, he proposed an energy superstar category, which would give companies bragging rights for ultra-efficient products that would save consumers even more money over their lifecycles.

Chu was joined by a panel of experts from a cross-section of organizations, including the Electric Power Research Institute, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the New York State Research and Development Authority and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates.

Ralph Cavanagh of the NRDC, clearly stated the business case for decoupling, the regulatory structure in California that creates and aligns incentives for utilities to drive energy efficiency. "If you're a for-profit utility, and you're good at energy efficiency, and good at helping your customers do more of it, I think you ought to be more profitable than companies that are less effective," Cavanagh said.

Angela Beehler, of the Energy Regulation section of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., spoke with great optimism at what the future holds for energy efficiency and stated Wal-Mart's commitment to make a difference and keep energy efficiency on the agenda going forward.

Francis Murray, of the New York State Research and Development Authority, piled on, highlighting this commitment as part of the public and private sector support the country will need to accomplish nationwide energy efficiency goals.

Finally, David Springe, of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, gave the audience something to ponder -- the role of the current economic recession in demand reduction and the role of decoupling in protecting utilities from the adverse effects of this demand reduction.

From this discussion it is clear that, as the new Administration sets forth to help the United States gain energy security, energy efficiency will be the first line of defense.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• Stormy seas offshore San Francisco. The city is trying to block Seattle-based Grays Harbor Ocean Energy from building a 100-megawatt wave power project 20 to 25 miles off the city's Ocean Beach in marine sanctuaries near the Farallon Islands. The project has drawn fire from environmental groups, surfers and commercial fishermen. San Francisco  asked the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission to give priority to the city's Oceanside Wave Energy Project that would be eight miles offshore and outside the sanctuaries.
• Now we head to the San Francisco waterfront where a small group is building a 60-foot catamaran made of used plastic bottles filled with dry ice. Huh? The boat, named Plastiki, is to sail across the Pacific to Australia. Project leader David de Rothschild, scion of the Rothschild banking family, says the adventure is to draw attention to plastic bottles, which consume a lot of energy to manufacture, are rarely recycled, and are "a symbol of waste." By constructing the all-plastic boat (the masts are metal) and sailing it across the Pacific, the Plastiki will show what recycled materials can do, he says. Bon Voyage!
• Prisons are going green. Several states are embracing energy efficiency, solar and wind power, biomass boilers, organic produce grown by inmates, and other green projects. Washington State's Department of Corrections has 34 LEED-certified facilities, while Federal Correctional Institute No. 3 in North Carolina is the first LEED-certified federal prison. Closer to home, a new $176 million juvenile detention center in Alameda County recently became the first jail in the country to receive LEED gold certification.
  

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Several items on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

• The world's largest rainforest--the Amazon--is slowly dying from drought, threatening to reduce its effectiveness as a global carbon reservoir and accelerate global warming, according to a 30-year study published in the journal Science.
• New research by Australian scientists indicates that rainforests worldwide may die off substantially if global temperatures rise an average of only two degrees Celsius. The increase in tree mortality could release nearly 50 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• We've all heard the warnings that glaciers may disappear in Montana's Glacier National Park by 2030. Now a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist says the glaciers are retreating even faster than predicted and may vanish by 2020, putting the park's ecosystem at risk.
• The nominations of two of President Obama's top science advisers have been blocked in the U.S. Senate by a "hold" placed by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who objects to the new administration's Cuba policy. The two nominees, Harvard physicist John Holdren and Oregon State marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, are considered leading experts on energy and the environment.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to package controversial legislation on cap-and-trade with a national renewable energy standard and other energy provisions into one large bill, raising concerns whether he can find 60 votes to overcome an inevitable Republican filibuster.

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

For €330, Europeans can now pre-order a new all-electric vehicle that will begin production later this year. Named Bluecar, this four-door electric vehicle is a joint effort between Italian firm Pininfarina and French manufacturer Bolloré.

Bluecar's lithium polymer batteries give this snazzy little ride a range of over 155 miles and a top speed of 80 mph. There's also a sleek set of solar panels on the roof that generates energy to help power the car's electrical equipment as well as its heating and air-conditioning system. But Pininfarina didn't stop there. This alternative fuel vehicle goes the extra mile with such sustainable features as leather-like seat covers produced from vegetable sources and other natural products that respect the environment.  

Beati loro!

Posted by: Katie Romans

Shortly after First Solar last week announced bringing the cost of manufacturing solar modules to 98 cents per watt, shattering the one dollar per watt barrier, the state of California, in conjunction with PG&E, launches its own Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) program to bring solar to the masses.

In an ongoing effort to lessen the blow of the up-front capital required to "go solar," government, industry and utilities are all exploring innovations in technology, manufacturing, policy and financing structures in the search for affordable sun.

PG&E's most recent contribution, the MASH program, is part of the California Solar Initiative (CSI) and offers three incentive levels for multifamily affordable solar housing projects, ranging from $3.30 per watt for common load offset, up to higher, grant-style incentives for projects that provide a direct tenant benefit.

Through the MASH program, PG&E hopes to stimulate the adoption of solar power in the affordable housing sector. No longer are the benefits of solar prescribed only to those who can afford the hefty upfront investment formerly needed. Breaking down this barrier will help improve the energy utilization and overall quality of affordable housing through solar and energy efficiency.

Between the technological innovations brought to us from the solar industry, and policy innovations made by the state of California and its utilities, solar just may become a household product.

So, go on, have some sun.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Solar power is, if you'll pardon the pun, easily the hottest sector of the electric generation market today in terms of public interest. But if California is going to achieve the widely proposed goal of acquring a third of its electrical energy from renewable sources by 2020, wind energy will almost certainly be the flagship carrier of the renewable power industry.

Forecasts indicate that achieving the 33% renewable goal would require ramping up wind energy from 2,100 megawatts in 2006 to at least 12,500 MW by 2020. Solar, by contrast, would likely grow from 330 MW in 2006 to 6,000 MW in 2020.

Wind energy has the advantage of relative technological maturity, but that's also a handicap. Because developers have been installing wind turbines in Californa for three decades, many of the best sites--with high average wind speeds--are already taken. So how will the industry achieve major growth in the state?

In a talk yesterday to the Asia Pacific Partnership, at a wind energy conference sponsored by PG&E, Dora Yen-Nakafuji of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shed light on ways in which the wind industry is reinventing itself.

One remarkable advance is in our understanding of where, at what heights and at what speeds the wind blows in California. Major refinements in wind maps since the 1980s have significantly shifted target areas for new wind turbines. "We now have much more confidence" in the location of wind resources, Yen-Nakafuji said.

The average size of wind turbines has also increased dramatically--from 10 meters in the early days of Altamont Pass to 100 meters (almost twice the wingspan of a 747) today, boosting power output hugely and allowing them to take advantage of slower wind speeds. The newer turbines also have much more sophisticated power electronics and more aerodynamic blades. Older turbines at excellent wind sites can be replaced over time with newer, more efficient models to increase output.

Wind forecasting methods have also improved. As an example, she cited the increased use of Sodar (sonic detection and ranging) technology to measure wind speeds and detect wind shear that could put turbines at risk.

As with most renewables, efforts to accelerate the development of wind power will bring a host of challenges. Environmentalists are concerned by the potential that turbines may kill more bats and birds. Other critics complain of esthetic drawbacks. Energy planners worry about how to build enough transmission lines to new wind farms and how to manage their fluctuating, intermittent power.

But as Yen-Nakafuji demonstrated, these are challenges, not insuperable obstacles. California's winds are a resource that will pay energy dividends for centuries to come.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Wind power today costs California utilities about twice what it did in 2003, due to rising prices for turbines, concrete and labor, but it's still a good value for clean energy, PG&E's top buyer of renewable power told a group of visiting experts from the Asia-Pacific region today.

Fong Wan, the utility's senior vice president for energy procurement, kicked off a five-day meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which is focusing on wind energy generation. The event is being hosted by PG&E.

The partnership, supported by the U.S. Departments of Energy and State, promotes technical collaboration among utilities and other private-sector energy partners in Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United States to improve energy efficiency, reduce pollution and address the threat of climate change.

The member countries together have more than half the world's population and consume over half the world's energy--so finding common ground among them will go a long way toward enabling true global cooperation on energy issues and climate change.

Wan, who has been with PG&E for 21 years, said he could remember some of the early days of the wind industry, when the utility helped give it a major foothold in California. From the 1970s through the 1990s, long before the state mandated specific targets for renewable energy, PG&E contracted for about 580 megawatts of wind power.

Since 2002, PG&E has contracted for another 778 MW of wind generation as the technology has matured and the urgency of global warming has become more apparent.

"We've made tremendous progress from the small eggbeater-style turbines to today's huge towers," Wan said. Having personally climbed one mid-sized (170-foot) tower, he observed, "It's truly amazing how big they are. The blades are huge and move very fast."

With today's efficient turbines, wind is a great producer of energy and displacer of fossil-fueled power, Wan said. But it tends to peak in the evening--when cool coastal air is sucked into the warm Central Valley--well after most customers have turned off their air conditioners and other appliances.

That's why PG&E seeks to diversify its portfolio of power sources. Solar energy peaks around mid-day, closer to the peak in system demand. Geothermal, biomass and clean nuclear power can run continuously, meeting baseload demand. Hydro power can be called upon when needed to serve peaks in demand. In all, PG&E gets about half its power from such sources, which produce no greenhouse gas emissions.

Wan said PG&E now has more than 20 percent of its electric power under contract from renewable energy suppliers, but continually looks for more. The utility last week announced a proposal to invest directly in developing 250 MW of solar photovoltaic power over five years.

Wan said PG&E is also studying the feasibility of building new transmission capacity to British Columbia, which has enough hydro, wind and biomass potential to serve 10 percent of northern and central California's energy needs.

Matching those supply-side programs, PG&E also has a number of initiatives to help customers manage their energy demand, ranging from longstanding energy efficiency incentives to new SmarMeter™ meters that convey price signals to encourage customers to shift demand away from peak periods.

"Our future lies with clean renewable energy and technology to help customers see the energy they use and respond to prices," Wan concluded.