September 2009 Archives
Sep 30 2009
While you're relaxing with a fine bottle of wine from Napa Valley, some microbes may be hard at work turning the winery's wastewater into hydrogen that can run vehicles and power supplies.
Bruce Logan, a professor of environmental engineering at Penn State, has enlisted Napa Wine Company in Oakville to test his refrigerator-sized hydrogen generator. Tiny bacteria break down the organic waste from the winemaking process--pulp, seeds, stems and cleaning water--in an electrolysis plant to create hydrogen gas. The process is called electrohydrogenesis.
His demonstration system processes about 1,000 liters of wastewater each day. "There is almost 10 times more energy in the wastewater than we use to currently treat it," Logan said.
Napa Wine Company, which offered its facilities for the test, grows grapes on more than 635 acres. It has produced more than 100 consecutive harvests and is now 100 percent organically certified.
In 2005, Popular Mechanics magazine gave Logan and two colleagues a Breakthrough Award for his early work using microbial electric generators to produce hydrogen. The National Science Foundation heralded their early device as being up to twice as efficient as other biological systems for creating hydrogen, and flexible enough to digest human or animal waste as well as plant material.
"Bruce Logan is a clear leader in this area of research on sustainable energy," said Bruce Hamilton, director of the environmental sustainability program at NSF, which funds his work.
To learn more--or build a microbial fuel cell yourself--check out Logan's helpful web site.
Sep 29 2009
The following dispatch, regarding disturbing new findings about the acidification of the ocean due to rising CO2 levels, comes from John Lindsey, a colleague of mine at PG&E based in San Luis Obispo County:
Since the industrial age, concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased by about 100 parts per million (ppm) to about 380 ppm. Ice core samples from the Arctic show it is now higher than it has been in the last 650,000 years.
Scientists surveying the near shore waters off the California coastline have discovered higher levels of dissolved carbon dioxide in the water column.
"The absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ocean lowers the pH of the waters" said Burke Hales, an associate professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. "This so-called ocean acidification could have important consequences for marine ecosystems," he noted.
Hale recently co-authored a paper called "Evidence for Upwelling of Corrosive Acidified Water onto the Continental Shelf."
As the world's oceans absorb growing levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a greater amount of carbonic acid is formed. That has a corrosive effect on aragonite, the calcium carbonate mineral that forms the shells of many marine creatures.
This condition could have a profound effect on zooplankton, pteropods and other marine invertebrates that sustain many of our commercial fish, such as juvenile salmon. Other research indicates that abalone may also be adversely affected.
Over the last few years, the northwesterly winds have blown with greater strength and consistency, with fewer periods of relaxation. As surface waters are blown out to sea, this condition produces a greater amount of upwelling from the ocean depths and cooler near-shore seawater temperatures along the northern and central coast of California.
"The upwelling and the phytoplankton blooms have been larger along the West Coast," Hales said. "When the material produced by these blooms decomposes, it puts more CO2 into the system, decreases the levels of dissolve oxygen and increases the acidification."
"Even if we somehow got our atmospheric CO2 level to immediately quit increasing," Hales added, "we'd still have increasingly acidified ocean water to contend with over the next 50 years."
His study was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and is part of a planned series of biennial observations of the carbon cycle along the West Coast of the continent.
Sep 25 2009
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
A solar installer company and the Dutch bank Rabobank are jointly building battery charging stations on Highway 101 between San Francisco and Los Angeles for Tesla Motors' electric roadsters. The $109,000 sports car has a range of 250 miles. Five charging stations set up by SolarCity will be at Rabobank branches in Salinas, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria and Goleta. The bank will pick up the tab for the electricity, about $4 for a full charge.
Update on the bag wars: The San Jose City Council votes to outlaw most plastic and paper shopping bags and calls on other cities in Silicon Valley to support the ban. The ordinance, which would take effect in 2011, would prohibit stores from giving out free plastic bags but would allow paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled materials, but only for a fee. Meanwhile, Ireland, the first nation to tax plastic bags, plans to double the charge to 44 euro cents (59 U.S. cents) per bag to reinforce the deterrent.
The California Energy Commission proposes the nation's first energy efficiency standards for televisions, effective in 2011 with tougher standards to follow in 2013. The rules would save about $8.1 billion on Californians' electricity bills over 10 years, or $30 a year per household. The CEC is concerned about the growing demand for electricity-guzzling, big-screen sets. TVs account for 10 percent of the state's residential power use.
Sep 25 2009
Climate researchers now say the global thermometer will rise an average of more than 6 degrees F over the rest of the century even if countries around the world follow through on their promises to slash emissions, according to a new forecast released by the United Nations Environment Program. Such warming is double what many scientists and policymakers say the world can sustain without catastrophic consequences.
Satellite observations show severe thinning of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica--as much as 30 feet per year along parts of the coast of Antarctica. "It's the way that some ice sheets in the past--at the end of the last ice age--appear to have collapsed and caused very rapid sea level rise," said Hamish Pritchard, lead author of the study published in Nature.
The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that large emitters of carbon pollution--about 10,000 facilities that emit the equivalent of more than 25,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide--must begin collecting and reporting their emissions data. The EPA has threatened to begin regulating carbon pollution if Congress fails to act on climate legislation.
The United Nations' climate chief, Yvo de Boer, this week praised China for surpassing the United States in plans for energy efficiency, renewable power, vehicle emissions standards and shutdowns of dirty plants. "China and India have announced very ambitious national climate change plans. In the case of China, so ambitious that it could well become the front-runner in the fight to address climate change," de Boer said. "The big question mark is the U.S."
European officials who gathered in New York this week for climate talks also expressed dismay at slow action by the United States to address global warming. However, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., says she hopes to kick off hearings on climate legislation next week before the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Sep 24 2009
If an environmentalist were to give just one word of advice to a young adult seeking a green career, it certainly wouldn't be "plastics." But it could well be "buildings."
While experts debate the relative merits of solar and nuclear power, CO2 sequestration technology and algae biofuels, one of the biggest untapped clean resources lies underfoot and over our heads: potential energy efficiency improvements in the buildings where we work and live.
Buildings globally consume more energy than any other sector of the economy or society--38 percent of all energy produced worldwide, versus 26 percent for transportation. Counting all the energy used in materials and construction, the total soars to more than 50 percent. In the United States, they consume three-quarters of all electricity produced.
Those facts make tackling energy efficiency in the building sector priority number one in the battle against global warming. At the same time, major progress would hold down energy bills for renters, homeowners and businesses.
Barack Obama gets it. The president-elect said in December,"First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs."
A new study by Trevor Houser, visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and senior advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change, makes a key point: "aggressive, whole-building improvements in energy efficiency" can cut harmful emissions more cheaply than most other proposals for slashing carbon pollution.
Experts at McKinsey & Co. have popularized the notion that the building sector is rife with opportunities for money-making investments in better lighting, heating and cooling systems, insulation and other means of lowering energy costs.
Houser isn't convinced these improvements will come so cheaply, but he agrees that market failures are slowing progress--for example, the disconnect between building owners and renters often prevents energy-reducing investments that would save end-users big money.
In all, he concludes, the building sector could slash carbon emissions 8.2 billion tons by 2050 at a net cost (beyond energy savings) of about $180 billion worldwide. That's the target needed to reach an overall 50 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.
That works out to be cheaper, per ton of carbon, than emissions reductions from the power sector or from industry. But getting there will require tough new building standards to overcome market barriers. To that end, the Obama administration has announced significant new standards--for example, covering building lighting--and hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funding for building energy efficiency.
There's still a long way to go, but it's an important start.
Sep 22 2009
In the past several weeks, two high-profile companies - Duke Energy and Alstom - publicly gave up their membership in the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy in protest over its opposition to federal climate change legislation.
Other companies that similarly favor climate change legislation faced uncomfortable questions this summer over their memberships in similar groups that have mounted aggressive campaigns to defeat pending climate bills.
Most responded to critics by pointing out that climate change is only one of many issues these organizations address.
Fair enough. But not every issue is created equal, and sometimes companies decide they have to take a more decisive stand on the really big ones.
Duke and Alstom made that decision. Now PG&E has as well.
In a letter to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, PG&E Chairman and CEO Peter Darbee cited "fundamental differences" over climate change to explain why the company is pulling out of the organization, despite the Chamber's "long history as a positive force for America's businesses and its economy."
The letter criticized the Chamber for taking an extreme position on climate change, which Darbee said does not represent the range of views among Chamber members. In particular, he took the Chamber to task for its recent demand that there be a "Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" to challenge the science on climate change:
We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored. In our opinion, an intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing; disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges are quite another.
Darbee also drew a sharp contrast between the Chamber's approach and the constructive, consensus-driven positions forged by Edison Electric Institute and the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.
Instead, he said, "I fear it has forfeited an incredible chance to play a constructive leadership role on one of the most important issues our country may ever face."
Brian Hertzog assisted with this posting.
Sep 22 2009
PG&E has won many environmental awards for its commitment to climate action at the state and federal level, its innovative programs like ClimateSmart(tm), its leadership on energy efficiency and its relatively clean portfolio of electric power.
Still, it was a special honor to be named as the greenest utility in the United States in Newsweek magazine's green ranking of America's 500 largest publicly traded companies. The magazine cited in particular PG&E's "strong efforts" to promote energy efficiency and its growing use of renewable energy.
The rankings were based on several criteria, including emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic wastes, management of environmental issues and policies, regulatory compliance, policies concerning climate change and environmental reputation.
The magazine also assembled a panel to review its methodology and ranking list, including experts from Yale University, The Conference Board and Natural Resources Defense Council.
"This is the first time a media organization has ranked companies in this way," said Kathleen Deveny, Global Business Editor of Newsweek. "Most green lists are anecdotal -- ours is the result of a massive database research project conducted in collaboration with three of the leading players in environmental research: KLD, Trucost and Corporate Register."
Sep 21 2009
Vocal naysayers claim it's too expensive to combat climate change, but a new survey suggests that a majority of large corporations now think otherwise--indeed, that their self-interest requires taking action.
The Carbon Disclosure Project's Global 500 Report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers and released today, shows that 51 percent of Global 500 companies report emission reduction targets, up from 41 percent in 2008.
More and more large companies are becoming transparent in their disclosures of carbon emissions as well, with more than four out of five now reporting greenhouse gas emissions they generate through direct burning of fossil fuels or indirectly through purchases of electricity.
The organization praised several U.S. companies for leading efforts to deal with global warming, including Cisco Systems, Boeing and Pepco Holdings along with Consolidated Edison, EMC, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Hewlett Packard.
Leaders in disclosure include Bayer, BASF, Wal-Mart Stores and Comerica. PG&E also ranked near the top of the list, along with Cisco Systems, Chevron and Public Service Enterprise Group.
When it comes to climate, corporations "are demonstrating they are willing, ready and able to engage with it," Carbon Disclosure Project chief executive Paul Dickinson told the Washington Post.
The goal of the Project's survey is to "help investors gain exposure to companies that actively manage their impact on the environment."
Companies that are still hiding their carbon footprints may soon have to come clean. The EPA plans to issue a final rule any day that would require large emitters--who release 25,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide annually--to declare their pollution levels.
The not-for-profit Carbon Disclosure Project was founded in 2000 "to collect and distribute high quality information that motivates investors, corporations and governments to take action to prevent dangerous climate change." With more than 2,200 organizations around the world now reporting on emissions and climate change strategies, the Project claims to have "assembled the largest corporate greenhouse gas emissions database in the world."
The organization represents about 475 global institutional investors, with more than US $55 trillion in assets under management.
Last week, a separate group of 181 institutional investors representing more than $13 trillion in assets released a major policy statement calling for a tough international treaty to impose binding constraints on greenhouse gas emissions and promote "massive global investments in low-carbon technologies."
Signers included the California and New York state employees' retirement funds, he California State Controller and Treasurer, and a host of private assets managers.
Sep 18 2009
"The world's ocean surface temperature was the warmest for any August on record," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "and the warmest on record averaged for any June-August (Northern Hemisphere summer/Southern Hemisphere winter) season." In addition, NOAA reported, "the global land surface temperature . . . was 1.33 degrees F above the 20th century average . . . and ranked as the fourth warmest August on record."
A sweeping new economic report from the World Bank says the world must overcome its inertia and commit to spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year by 2030 to promote clean energy and deal with natural disasters caused by global warming. "We are particularly good at acting on threats that can be linked to a human face, that present themselves as unexpected, dramatic or and immediate," the report states. "The slow pace of climate change as well as the delayed, intangible and statistical natures of its risks simply do not move us." 
A leading British economist and author of the British government's report on climate change, Lord Stern, says rich nations may need to think about foregoing future growth as the price of preventing runaway global warming. To give everyone in the world the same carbon footprint by 2050 would require cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent, he said.
A dollar spent on family planning reduces carbon emissions more than four times as effectively as a dollar spent on low-carbon technologies, according to report from the London School of Economics. Giving access to contraception to all women who want it would reduce the world's population by half a billion people by 2050, saving 34 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions, the study estimated.
Beer drinkers have a special reason to care about climate change: Higher global temperatures are damaging the quality of Saaz hops used in pilsner lager, according to a climatologist at the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. The heat reduces the production of alpha acids that give the hops their prized taste.
Sep 18 2009
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
Where are the electric cars? Coming soon, say some of the automakers at the Frankfurt car show this week. Renault says an electric sedan will be in showrooms by 2011. Volkswagen is adding an electric model to its Up concept car. BMW will roll out a plug-in diesel-electric concept car. GM says the Chevy Volt is one of its "comeback" cars. Nissan will introduce an electric car in late 2010 in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. "This is not a false dawn. This is the real thing," says Paul Scott, vice president and founder of Plug In America. Skeptics, however, say limited range and high prices will continue to plague electric cars. Stay tuned.
Twenty teams from universities around the world will compete in the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon October 8-18 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The teams will compete to design, build and operate energy-efficient, completely solar-powered houses. Winning teams will receive $100,000 over two years to support the competition's goal of reducing the cost of solar-powered homes and advancing solar technology. Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley and California College of the Arts will make up Team California. All the entries will demonstrate smart metering in the decathlon.
Canada's Nova Scotia Province has given the green light for a tidal energy demonstration project to place turbines in the Bay of Fundy to convert the bay's huge tides into electricity. A full-scale project, if viable, would involve hundreds of turbines and generate about 100 megawatts, or 10 percent of the province's energy needs. Utility Nova Scotia Power expects to put a test turbine into the water late in October. Fishermen have expressed concerns about the effects of turbines on catches.
Sep 17 2009
If you care about your carbon footprint, there's a new place you can go to shrink it down: a kiosk at San Francisco Airport.
San Francisco International Airport is launching a "Climate Passport" program to let travelers to offset the impact of their flights by purchasing carbon offsets before they take off. Kiosks are available in the International Terminal and Terminal 3, or you can buy your offsets online.
The offsets are arranged by the San Francisco firm 3Degrees, which "provides a range of renewable energy and climate mitigation products and consulting services." 3Degrees was one of five organizations around the country recognized by Secretary Steven Chu on Monday as "Green Power Network Leaders" for "exceptional achievements in supporting increased market deployment of renewable energy technologies through green power programs."
3Degrees is obtaining carbon offsets for SFO's new program from the Garcia River Forest, which absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows in a protected environment. That's also one of the primary sources of offsets for PG&E's ClimateSmart(tm) program, which offers customers a way to offset the emissions caused by their use of electric power. The typical cost is only about $5 a month per home.
To see what it will cost you to offset your next flight, go to the Climate Passport web site and give the calculator a try. My recent trip to Seattle, with my wife, would have cost an extra $12.33 to offset. That's a small price for peace of mind.
Note: I was tipped off to this story by an occasional blogger named Gavin Newsom. He describes himself as a Santa Clara University graduate (with partial baseball scholarship), a supporter of gay marriage and universal health care, and the "youngest San Francisco mayor in over a century."
Sep 16 2009
San Jose's City Hall almost reached critical mass today, as Mayor Chuck Reed was joined by representatives of PG&E, IBM, Cisco Systems, local civic organizations, congressional offices and, last but not least, major Bay Area print and broadcast media.
What brought them all together was an announcement of the details--and wider implications--of PG&E's recent application to the U.S. Department of Energy for a $42.5 million Smart Grid investment grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The grant would fund half of an $85 million Customer Energy Management Project that will allow PG&E to build the next stage of Smart Grid applications upon its existing SmartMeter™ program, already the largest and one of the most advanced in the nation. (The count is 3.5 million high-tech meters deployed to date, and growing one every two seconds.)
PG&E's Andrew Tang, who runs the utility's Smart Energy Web program, said the project would provide 75,000 business and residential customers with state-of-the-art energy use displays to help them better understand and control their energy usage in near-real time.
These devices are just a starting point for more sophisticated energy management appliances that will help customers take advantage of voluntary utility programs that let them save money by cutting back or shifting their energy use from peak to off-peak periods.
That lowers costs, improves grid reliability and spares the environment by reducing the need to build more peak generation, Tang said.
The Customer Energy Management project would also enhance electric reliability by helping PG&E manage wider adoption of clean customer solar. When large numbers of solar installations exist in a neighborhood, passing clouds and changing weather can cause voltage fluctuations. By installing high-tech sensors on distribution lines, Tang said, the utility will be able to detect and respond to those fluctuations before they create power quality issues.
This project represents just a few of the many ways smarter grids will help PG&E and other utilities integrate more intermittent renewable energy (read: wind and solar power) into their systems, improve reliability and lower costs.
By setting the stage for future Smart Grid investments and innovations, this project will reinforce California's technological leadership, provide valuable lessons for other utilities nationwide and stimulate clean tech jobs.
Among PG&E's major partners are the City of San Jose--the largest city in PG&E's service area --IBM, Cisco Systems, ABB and Stanford University. The project has been endorsed by Governor Schwarzenegger and many Bay Area business, labor and civic assocations.
Mayor Reed kicked off the announcement with comments about the tremendous importance of Smart Grid to the region and the nation, including its potential for creating new jobs.
"There is no better place than San Jose to demonstrate how new technology can be used to address our country's energy problems," he said. "An investment here will help set the foundation for using 'Smart Grids' across the country."
IBM and Cisco both emphasized how strategic the partnership promises to be.
"This project is leading edge and one of the most impressive that I've seen in the country," said Marianne Dickerson, Associate Partner in IBM's North American Energy & Utilities Practice.
Sep 15 2009
Americans love being number one. But sometimes, leading the pack isn't all it's cracked up to be--like being number one in medical spending as a percent of GDP.
Happily, the United States has finally slipped from its traditional number one ranking in another questionable area: carbon emissions per capita.
Out of 185 countries surveyed, Australia now holds that dubious distinction, according to Mapplecroft, which bills itself humbly as "the leading source of global risks intelligence."
According to its "CO2 Energy Emissions Index," Australia emits 20.6 tonnes (metric tons) of carbon dioxide per person per year, nearly a tonne more than the average American and almost two tonnes more than third-ranking Canadians.
While China as a whole has become the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases by virtue of its huge population, the typical Chinese generates only 4.5 tonnes of carbon emissions. And the average Indian puts out a miserly 1.2 tonnes.
Australia is simultaneously a major exporter of coal, the most carbon-intensive of the major fossil fuels, and one of the countries deemed most at risk from climate change caused by the greenhouse effect. Recent heat waves, devastating fires, floods, spreading disease and other calamities have made those risks all too real.
But Australia is also a country that has come under the sway of influential climate change skeptics, so its swings in public opinion are being closely watched as a harbinger for the United States.
Sep 15 2009
For many construction projects, the biggest challenge is getting past all the reviews and winning all the approvals needed to actually put shovels in the ground.
PG&E's 2 megawatt solar photovoltaic pilot project--named the Vaca-Dixon Solar Station after the electrical substation it neighbors--has achieved that milestone and is moving quickly to become a reliable source of clean, renewable electric power later this year.
This photo, taken September 14, shows the first panels going up. They are polycrystalline modules from Solon Corporation, which PG&E selected after competitive bid as the turnkey supplier to build the facility.
Solon is building the facility with help from Silverwood Energy, Inc., a California disabled veteran business enterprise.
The pilot represents the utility's first step in implementing its plan to promote 500 MW of clean new PV power over five years--250 MW to be built by the utility and 250 MW by independent developers. (The plan, proposed in February, is under consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission.)
If the projects are approved and finished by 2015, they are expected to deliver more than 1,000 gigawatt hours of power each year, equal to the annual consumption of about 150,000 average homes. In all, this program would meet over 1.3 percent of PG&E's electric demand.
Sep 11 2009
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
Engineering and construction giant Bechtel Corp. is moving into the solar energy business, joining with BrightSource Energy to build a 440-megawatt project to supply electricity to PG&E and Southern California Edison. Bechtel Enterprises will take an equity stake in the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System and handle engineering, procurement and construction. The project is expected to get underway in 2010.
Search engine giant Google plans to develop a mirror technology to lower the cost of building solar thermal power plants. The company aims to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun, by a least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four," says Bill Weihl, green energy czar at Google. The company also is working on running gas turbines on solar energy rather than natural gas to reduce the cost of electricity.
The first "Global Cleantech 100" list of private clean technology companies "regarded as having the potential and likelihood to achieve high growth and high market impact" arrived this week, with the U.S. topping the list with 55, followed by the U.K. with 13 and Germany 10. The list was organized by San Francisco-based Cleantech Group LLC and Britain's Guardian newspaper and represented "the collective opinion of hundreds of leading experts from cleantech innovation and venture capital companies." Northern California companies included BrightSource Energy, Imara Corp. Silver Springs Networks, Serious Materials and Tesla Motors.
Sep 11 2009
Several news stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:
A diverse group of leading U.S. corporations, including PG&E, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Dell and Johnson & Johnson, issued an open letter to the U.S. Senate urging swift action to fight climate change. "Passing legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions will send a strong signal to the private sector unleashing new business opportunities, leveling the playing field for all U.S. businesses and ensuring that the U.S. economy can compete in growing global markets for clean energy," the letter said.
Bipartisan experts say that curbing global warming is an urgent matter of national security. A group of 32 former officials, including former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Senators Nancy Kassebaum Baker and John Warner, and former CIA Director James Woolsey, called on Congress to pass a "clear, comprehensive, realistic and broadly bipartisan plan." However, Senate Democrats say climate legislation is on hold while Congress debates health care reform.
Studies of the economic cost of climate change legislation are a dime a dozen. But what about the costs of inaction? As the globe continues to warm, those costs include flood damage, threats to public health, droughts, and impacts on transportation and recreational resources, among others. Read all about them in a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Automobile Dealers Association have filed a motion with the US Court of Appeals seeking to overturn the EPA's approval of California's strict tailpipe standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
France may become one of the first countries to impose carbon taxes if French President Nicolas Sarkozy overcomes public opposition to his newly announced plans for a fee of $25 per ton of carbon dioxide. It would apply mainly to gasoline and natural gas. Sarkozy proposes offsetting tax cuts on small businesses.
Sep 10 2009
On Tuesday, NEXT100 reported that algae is hot--a prime target of venture funding for the next generation of biofuels.
Now it's getting even hotter.
South San Francisco-based Solazyme, Inc.--a microalgae biotechnology company named by BusinessWeek as one of "25 companies to watch in Energy Tech"--reports that it has been selected by the Pentagon to "research, develop, and demonstrate commercial scale production of algae-derived advanced biofuel that meets the United States Navy's rigorous specifications for military tactical platforms."
If successful, the transition to high-performance biofuels would reduce dependence on foreign oil, a national security issue, and reduce the U.S. military's enormous carbon footprint. (It burns more than 10 million gallons of fuel a day, according to Forbes.)
Just as the Department of Defense played a major role in promoting the early Internet, so it is pumping up advanced green tech. Last December, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded $35 million in contracts to General Atomics and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), both based in San Diego, to investigate biofuel alternatives to military jet fuel.
Given that the military fuel market alone is worth $12 billion a year, investors are taking notice.
Said Paul Bollinger, a vice president of SAIC, "The military has the potential of serving as a market initiator and the airlines as a market maker."
Sep 10 2009
How's this for the ultimate in renewable green energy: tree power.
A team of University of Washington researchers has tapped the minute electrical currents in trees to power an electronic circuit for what they say is the first time.
Last year, MIT scientists demonstrated the existence of very small voltages between trees and the ground. You can see for yourself a demonstration on YouTube (as well as this cautionary tale).
Using a power booster, the University of Washington team was able to amplify the few hundred millivolts of potential between the ground and bigleaf maples on the university campus to run low-power sensors at 1.1 volts.
In this case, low power really means nanopower: The circuits consumed only 10 billionths of a watt.
"It's not exactly established where these voltages come from," said co-author Babak Parviz, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the university. "But there seems to be some signaling in trees, similar to what happens in the human body but with slower speed."
"As new generations of technology come online," he added, "I think it's warranted to look back at what's doable or what's not doable in terms of a power source."
Hmmm . . . Maybe if PG&E customers keep saving forests through their contributions to the ClimateSmart(tm) program, we can wire all those trees with electrodes and hook them up to our grid. Should be enough for a few fluorescent bulbs at least. Who could object to such green power?
Sep 09 2009
The European Union issued a directive to save energy by phasing out what they are calling energy hungry traditional light bulbs. CNN reports hardware stores in Germany are seeing customers pack their carts full with the traditional incandescent bulbs, as by 2012 fluorescents will be the only choice available to European customers. Customers say they like the soft coziness of a traditional bulb.
Not all Europeans are jumping on the bandwagon just yet; OSRAM, a German manufacturer, says Germany and Austria are the only two countries in the EU where incandescent sales have spiked.
CNN reports that traditional bulbs only turn five percent of energy they consume into light; the rest is lost.
According to Eartheasy, CFLs are four times more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent. A 22 watt CFL has about the same light output as a 100 watt incandescent. CFLs use 50% - 80% less energy than incandescents.
Sep 09 2009
PG&E Corporation was named last week to two of the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI), listings of companies that lead their industries in corporate economic, environmental and social performance. To learn more about the significance of these indexes, NEXT100 interviewed PG&E's Steven Kline, Vice President, Corporate Environmental and Federal Affairs.
What are the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes?
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes represent prestigious annual lists of leading, sustainability-driven companies based on a thorough analysis of their overall financial, environmental and social performance. There are indexes for different regions--North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the World--and each measures the quality of a company's strategy, management and performance against both broad and industry-specific opportunities and risks to select leading companies for investment purposes.
For the first time, PG&E was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and, for the second consecutive year, we've been selected for the North America Index.
Why was PG&E selected for these Indexes?
The selection reflects PG&E's strong and long-standing commitment to corporate responsibility, including protecting the environment, providing for the safety of our employees and customers, giving back to our local communities, having strong corporate governance structures in place and making positive contributions to the quality of life in the areas where we live and work.
From our work on climate change to renewable energy to energy efficiency and demand reduction, earning a spot on both indexes is a validation that we're on the right track.
Being selected is truly an honor.
Can I invest in the Sustainability Index?
The index is used by asset managers in 16 countries to manage a variety of sustainability-driven financial products, including mutual funds. So, it depends on how you manage your personal investments. I recommend checking with your financial advisor.
What industries are represented in the Indexes?
The World and North America indexes include a group of 317 and 139 top-performing companies, respectively. Each represents a diverse range of industries, including insurance, health care, technology, food and beverage, telecommunications and retail. The North America list includes many household names--and PG&E customers--such as Intel, Safeway and FedEx. PG&E was one of only two U.S. utilities to be selected for the World index and one of ten U.S utilities in the North America index.
We see and hear the term "sustainability leaders" often these days. What does it mean?
It's a term that's not uniformly defined. Dow Jones arrives at its definition by looking at more than 100 specific areas for a given company--from environmental topics such as investments in clean energy to worker safety and corporate philanthropy. Importantly, it's not just about the environment--it's about people, the health of your company and how you serve your customers and communities.
Focusing on sustainability makes good business sense by building trust with stakeholders and making PG&E an employer of choice. It also means making smart investments today--from energy efficiency to renewable energy--that will reap financial and environmental benefits down the road.
How do you measure sustainability?
Our company's four overarching goals reflect the different threads of sustainability--engaging employees, delighting customers, rewarding shareholders and environmental leadership. One of the ways we track our sustainability performance is through specific goals and targets, which we publicly report each year in our corporate responsibility report. We are making good progress against our sustainability metrics, as is evidenced by our inclusion in both indexes. That said, there is always room for improvement, and on several metrics, such as environmental compliance, safety and customer reliability, we're working especially hard.
NEXT100 thanks Chris Benjamin, Manager-Environmental Leadership, for his assistance in preparing the interview.
Sep 08 2009
Today, a modified Prius sets out from San Francisco on a 10-day, cross-country tour to promote green vehicles. What makes this car special isn't its plug-in hybrid technology, which gives it a claimed 150 miles per gallon, but that fact that its internal combustion engine runs on gasoline made from algae. Thus its name: Algaeus.
Eons before human beings began tinkering with renewable energy, algae was one of earth's first and most productive solar cells--based on carbon, not silicon. It captures solar energy to convert carbon dioxide--a greenhouse gas--into various organic materials. With the right genetic tinkering, it can produce biofuels and other substitutes for petroleum.
Startups developing algae-based fuels are one of the hottest sectors of venture capital these days. At least 57 firms are competing in this niche space for a market that could someday be worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, which is supplying the fuel for the Algaeus, has raised more than $100 million from various venture investors, including Bill Gates' Cascade Investments.
The Department of Energy is also supporting algae, with promises to devote up to $85 million in stimulus funds to algae-based and other advanced biofuels. And the California Energy Commission has awarded six-figure grants to NASA Ames Research Center and South San Francisco-based Solazyme Inc. to develop algae technology.
More impressively, Big Oil is starting to place some bets on algae. Exxon recently signed an R&D deal worth more than $300 million with Synthetic Genomics; BP has partnered with Marktek; and Chevron has a development deal with Solazyme, one of the algae industry's leaders.
But not even Big Oil can make a success of algae unless these startups master their biggest challenges: scaling up production and lowering costs. So far "no one is close to competing with petroleum," Jeff Matais, a senior executive at A2BE Carbon Capture, LLC, told NEXT100.
Few algae companies have even demonstrated significant production, much less competitive costs. California-based Aurora Biofuels says it has developed a strain of algae that is twice as productive as other species. The company also projects that it can produce fuel for about $1.75 per gallon, but so far, according to the New York Times, "the new algae strains have been producing a gallon of biodiesel a day in an Olympic pool-sized pond."
Sapphire says that by 2011 it will be producing 1 million gallons of diesel and jet fuel per year. But Tim Zenk, its vice president for corporate relations, conceded to NEXT100, "that's really just an R&D level. The real thing to focus on is 2018 and beyond when we get to commercial quantities."
At levels of 100 million gallons annually and up, he says, the company's product should compete with oil at $60 to $80 per barrel. "It's all about scalability. What drew us to algae is we believe it can be turned into an industrial crop through biology, then grown at a world scale. That's what we are building and perfecting."
At last year's Algae Biomass Summit in Seattle, the prince of venture capital, Vinod Khosla, said he had not invested in any algae companies yet because none had demonstrated an ability to achieve reasonable production costs.
But he added, "I believe algae can be a solution. I'm convinced someone here (at the Summit) will break the code." Maybe that breakthrough will be heralded by a cross-country drive starting in San Francisco.
Sep 04 2009
PG&E's presence included a tent on the festival grounds that showcased several ways volunteers can support their communities from opportunities with state and local parks to Habitat for Humanity.
Solar and wind energy powered two large batteries, each weighing 2,000 lbs, to keep festival attendees' and other vendors' cell phones charged.
Check out the video and photos at right to see PG&E at San Francisco's Outside Lands.
Photos, video by Leah Casey and Jack Chang, PG&E Civic Partnership and Community Initiatives.
Sep 04 2009
Several news stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:
It's just the beginning of September, and California has already spent $106.5 million during the fiscal year to fight more than 50 major wildfires. According to researchers at Headwaters Economics, even a slight rise in average spring and summer temperatures could bring an incredible increase in the number and cost of fires. Using Montana as a case study, where an average of $28 million is spent annually to protect homes from forest fires, researchers anticipate a one-degree increase in average summer temperatures would at least double home protection costs. The combination of additional development and hotter summers could push the average annual cost of protecting homes from forest fires even further, to exceed $80 million by 2025.
In South Asia, the effects of climate change are expected to threaten water and food security for more than 1.6 billion people. A report produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute reveals India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal will be most vulnerable to falling crop yields caused by glacier retreat, floods, droughts and erratic rainfall.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded the total funding need for adaptation to climate change by 2030 could amount to $49 billion - $171 billion per year globally. To better understand the level of global investment required to adapt, the UNFCCC commissioned six studies that provided estimates for the year 2030. Areas covered by the studies included agriculture, forestry and fisheries, water supply, human health, coastal zones, infrastructure and ecosystems. Infrastructure accounted for three quarters of the estimated costs.
Sep 04 2009
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
Palo Alto's city-owned electric utility is planning for an influx of electric cars now that Tesla Motors plans a new powertrain plant in the Stanford Research Park. Ten thousand electric cars charging battery packs during the day wouldn't strain Palo Alto's power grid as a whole but some local distribution transformers could run into problems, according to a preliminary report from the city's utility.
Legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has raised $1 billion for investments in renewable energy and clean technologies, the largest amount raised by a venture capital firm since 2007. It is also the first time that Khosla has raised money from other investors. Investors include the California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), the biggest U.S. public pension fund. Investments will include green technologies such as solar power, biofuels and batteries.
The U.S. Energy Department is providing $11 million this year and next for advanced research in water power technologies at national laboratories in Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Illinois and Tennessee. The funding is to evaluate buoys, turbines and other devices to produce electricity from the energy of ocean waves, tides and rivers, says Greenwire. The money will also support research to improve dams and other hydropower facilities.
Sep 03 2009
Mother Nature has played a dirty trick on the clean-tech industry: she hid many of the essential raw materials in out-of-the-way places and mainly in China. And China is in no mood to share.
Just as the 20th century economy was dependent on the Middle East for oil, so the 21st century economy may be dependent on China for supplies of "rare earth elements" that are vital to production of hybrid car motors and batteries, wind turbines, energy-efficient light bulbs, catalytic converters and many other "green" technologies. Every Toyota Prius is said to use 25 pounds of rare earth elements.
A recent story in the London Daily Telegraph reported that China may restrict or completely ban foreign exports of many of these elements. According to Reuters, "That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells."
Rare earth elements, 17 in all, are well named: they are found in commercial quantities only in a few locations around the world. The United States has a once prominent but now closed mine at Mountain Pass, Calif. in San Bernardino County. Australia also has a couple of significant mines, but China today controls 93 percent of all production.
These elements have hard-to-pronounce names like dysprosium, praseodymium, neodymium and ytterbium. Blame the fact that they were named after obscure geographic locations (the village of Ytterby in Sweden) or Greek roots ("dysprositos" means "hard to get").
They are still hard to get, usually from obscure locations. Half the world's production reportedly comes from a single mine in China's Inner Mongolia
Similar concerns over the concentration of world supplies of lithium in a few countries like Bolivia raise questions over the long term viability of clean electric vehicles powered by lithium batteries.
The issue has grabbed enough attention that one conference organizer has scheduled a summit in Washington, D.C. on "the growing risks to Rare Earth Elements, Minor Metals, Lithium and Platinum Group Metals."
U.S. mining interests argue that dependence on China can only be avoided by promoting domestic production, which they claim is being impeded by excessive regulation. "We'd be much better off mining those metals domestically and getting good jobs and doing it in an environmentally responsible way than relying on countries like the Congo and China that may not always be our friends," said Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association.
In the long run, if the value of these materials continues to grow, and if production remains constrained, access may become a growing issue of national security.
Michael Klare, Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College, and author of Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, says "resource competition has been a decisive factor in driving conflict since the earliest recorded wars." Today, he adds, "we are becoming ever more dependent on a finite supply of critical materials at a time when the global demand for these resources--driven, in part, by the rise of China, India, and other newly-industrialized countries--is expected to soar. Under these circumstances, all of the conditions that might have prompted conflict over resources in the past are likely to become magnified."
As if to prove his point, an overheated report from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at National Defense University in Washington, D.C. declared, "access to the world's material resources should become an overarching strategic imperative that shapes foreign policy decisions. . . In that light, the U.S. must be capable of applying all appropriate instruments of national power--including military power--to ensure access to currently unanticipated strategic materials markets."
Sep 02 2009
U.S. businesses, government agencies and educational institutions are wasting millions of dollars a year by failing to invest in proven ways of reducing IT energy costs, according to a new national survey of IT professionals by CDW Corp.
The implications are huge, not only for organization budgets, but for the environment, as needless greenhouse gas emissions accelerate global warming.
NEXT100 has already reported that U.S. organizations collectively waste an estimated $2.8 billion every year powering 108 million unused PCs at nights and on weekends--producing about 20 million tons of excess carbon dioxide emissions a year.
But mega data centers represent an even faster growing source of power demand. In PG&E's Northern California service area, they account for an astounding 2.5 percent of all electricity consumption, and nationally their energy use is expected to double by 2011. They thus represent a critical opportunity for energy-saving investments.
CDW's survey of 752 IT professionals offers good news and bad. Organizations are paying more attention to energy waste. 59 percent now train employees to shut down equipment after they leave the office for extended periods, up from 43 percent in 2008. 57 percent now buy ENERGY STAR-rated computers and other devices, compared to only 31 percent last year.
And 46 percent say they are now implementing server virtualization--a technique to reduce the number of physical computers in data centers by hosting several applications on the same device--compared to 35 percent in 2008.
Still, the average IT professional said their organization could save an additional 17 percent, or $1.5 million annually, in energy costs if they really got serious.
A majority said their IT department gets no higher-level directive or incentive to save energy. As a result, only 26 percent said energy efficiency is a very important consideration in purchasing new equipment, down from 34 percent last year.
These professionals did report that utility rebate programs to promote efficiency make a significant difference in their investment decisions. But Mark Bramfitt, who manages the data center efficiency program at PG&E, reports a slowdown in its accomplishments. Efficiency measures prompted by PG&E's rebates saved 7 megawatts of power last year, up from 4 MW in 2007. But results this year are running only about even with last year, in part because of a decline in the pace of construction of new data centers, where the program earns the most bang for the buck.
One especially promising souce of future energy savings in the technology sector could be in communications networks. A new report by Pike Research suggests that wireless networks could slash energy costs 42 percent--and save 100 million tons of CO2--by implementing greener technology. Start Twittering your friends about it today.
Sep 01 2009
The United States beat the USSR in the race to the moon. But in a space race with far bigger stakes--the race to deploy and harvest virtually unlimited space solar power--Japan is showing much greater commitment.
Bloomberg News reports today that Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp. are joining more than a dozen other companies in a $21 billion Japanese project "intending to build a giant solar-power generator in space within three decades and beam electricity to earth."
The project is being led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the country's trade ministry.
Orbiting arrays of photovoltaic panels will gather solar energy, which will be beamed to earth as radio waves, then converted back to electrical energy for distribution over the grid. Unlike terrestrial solar power, the energy would be available almost continuously.
Kensuke Kanekiyo, managing director of the Institute of Energy Economics, a government research body, told Bloomberg, "It sounds like a science-fiction cartoon, but solar power generation in space may be a significant alternative energy source in the century ahead as fossil fuel disappears."
In the United States, government agencies have long studied and even endorsed the concept of space solar power, but have never funded serious R&D efforts. A report by the U.S. National Security Space Office in 2007 concluded that space solar power has "enormous potential for energy security, economic development [and] improved environmental stewardship," but said it "'falls through the cracks' of federal bureaucracies, and has lacked an organizational advocate within the US Government."
In Japan, on the other hand, the government is serious about making clean space solar power a significant contributor to the resource-poor country's energy mix.
JAXA plans first to launch a demonstration satellite to beam tens of kilowatts of power back to earth by 2015; then to demonstrate robotic assembly techniques; next to build a major prototype in geosynchronous orbit; and finally to deploy a commercial-scale system in space by 2030.
As one of their top scientists told EnergyBiz magazine last year, the goal is to start generating a gigawatt of power--roughly the output of a nuclear power plant--within two decades. "We expect space solar power panel systems will be competitive with the existing power plants in 20 to 30 years, if the space transportation cost is considerably reduced," he said.
PG&E and Solaren Corporation announced the first commercial space solar power deal in April. But Solaren, a startup based in Southern California led by aerospace veterans, must raise funds, complete the necessary R&D, and launch a working system into orbit by 2016 without the benefit of government support. "We are on track to meet the objectives we set with PG&E," said Solaren CEO Gary Spirnak.
India, too, is actively studying the potential of space solar power. It is developing an inexpensive reusable launch vehicle that could give "mankind the benefit of space solar-power stations in geostationary and other orbits," former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam told an audience of international space experts in Boston two years ago.
