Biodiesel is now Sustainable thanks to new Fuel Cells

A new fuel-cell concept, developed by an Michigan State University researcher, will allow biodiesel plants to eliminate the creation of hazardous wastes while removing their dependence on fossil fuel from their production process.

The platform, which uses microbes to glean ethanol from glycerol and has the added benefit of cleaning up the wastewater, will allow producers to reincorporate the ethanol and the water into the fuel-making process, said Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist and one of the co-authors.

“With a saturated glycerol market, traditional approaches see producers pay hefty fees to have toxic wastewater hauled off to treatment plants,” she said. “By cleaning the water with microbes on-site, we’ve come up with a way to allow producers to generate bioethanol, which replaces petrochemical methanol. At the same time, they are taking care of their hazardous waste problem.”

The results, which appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, show that the key to Reguera’s platform is her patented adaptive-engineered bacteria – Geobacter sulfurreducens.

Geobacter are naturally occurring microbes that have proved promising in cleaning up nuclear waste as well in improving other biofuel processes. Much of Reguera’s research with these bacteria focuses on engineering their conductive pili or nanowires. These hair-like appendages are the managers of electrical activity during a cleanup and biofuel production.

First, Reguera, along with lead authors and MSU graduate students Allison Speers and Jenna Young, evolved Geobacter to withstand increasing amounts of toxic glycerol. The next step, the team searched for partner bacteria that could ferment it into ethanol while generating byproducts that ‘fed’ the Geobacter.

“It took some tweaking, but we eventually developed a robust bacterium to pair with Geobacter,” Reguera said. “We matched them up like dance partners, modifying each of them to work seamlessly together and eliminate all of the waste.”

Together, the bacteria’s appetite for the toxic byproducts is inexhaustible.

“They feast like they’re at a Las Vegas buffet,” she added. “One bacterium ferments the glycerol waste to produce bioethanol, which can be reused to make biodiesel from oil feedstocks. Geobacter removes any waste produced during glycerol fermentation to generate electricity. It is a win-win situation.”

The hungry microbes are the featured component of Reguera’s microbial electrolysis cells, or MECs. These fuel cells do not harvest electricity as an output. Rather, they use a small electrical input platform to generate hydrogen and increase the MEC’s efficiency even more.

The promising process already has caught the eye of economic developers, who are helping scale up the effort. Through a Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization grant, Reguera and her team are developing prototypes that can handle larger volumes of waste.

Reguera also is in talks with MBI, the bio-based technology “de-risking” enterprise operated by the MSU Foundation, to develop industrial-sized units that could handle the capacities of a full-scale biodiesel plant. The next step will be field tests with a Michigan-based biodiesel manufacturer.


Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113153782/fuel-cell-concept-makes-biodiesel-sustainable-052314/#tGpZtUysDUk4Vzo5.99

Tin-Based Solar Cell The Photovoltaics of The Future

Using readily available equipment, researchers at from Northwestern University have developed a new type of solar cell based on tin instead of lead perovskite, according to a new report in Nature Photonics.

“This is a breakthrough in taking the lead out of a very promising type of solar cell, called a perovskite,” said study author Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist at Northwestern. “Tin is a very viable material, and we have shown the material does work as an efficient solar cell.”

When made with lead, the perovskite structure has about 15-percent efficiency in converting solar energy into electricity. The Northwestern researchers said their new tin-based cell should be able to eventually equal and potentially surpass that level of efficiency. Being hailed as the new frontier of solar energy technology, perovskite cells have been increasingly researched in recent years.

“Our tin-based perovskite layer acts as an efficient sunlight absorber that is sandwiched between two electric charge transport layers for conducting electricity to the outside world,” said study author Robert P. H. Chang, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern.

The solid-state tin cell is comprised of five levels, with each level being a crucial component. The first layer of the novel cell is electrically-conductive glass, which permits sunlight to get into the cell. The next layer, Titanium dioxide, is placed onto the glass and the two first layers act as the front contact side of the solar cell.

Next, the light-absorbing tin perovskite layer is laid down. This is carried out in a protected environment called a nitrogen glove box that prevents oxidation.

The next level is the hole transport layer, which is necessary to close the circuit and achieve a functional cell. This layer demands exact chemistry to prevent destroying the tin below. This essential chemistry was determined by learning the reactivity of the perovskite structure. This level also is put down in the glove box. The nearly-completed cell is then enclosed and can now be exposed to the air.

A slim layer of gold is used to top off the solar cell and act as the back electrode. Once completed, the entire device is approximately one to two microns thick.

The scientists then analyzed the device under simulated full sunlight and documented an efficiency of 5.73 percent. They added that the tin cell can absorb the majority of the visible light spectrum and the perovskite salt can be dissolved – reforming upon solvent removal.

“Other scientists will see what we have done and improve on our methods,” Kanatzidis said. “There is no reason this new material can’t reach an efficiency better than 15 percent, which is what the lead perovskite solar cell offers. Tin and lead are in the same group in the periodic table, so we expect similar results.”

The researchers said their cell offers the possibility of both higher efficiency and lower fabrication costs while being environmentally friendly.

“Solar energy is free and is the only energy that is sustainable forever,” Kanatzidis said. “If we know how to harvest this energy in an efficient way we can raise our standard of living and help preserve the environment.”

Source redorbit.com

Should Renewable Energy be Necessarily Stored?

The question if Renewable Energy should be stored or not is an important one. The Technology about Energy Storage Systems is improving day by day but the costs are still high. So it's important to understand if there are different ways to use Renewable Energy since is the Energy of future.

At the moment one can think about Renewable Energy generation that since the global quota produced is small compared to the global quota of Energy produced it would be convenient to use it at the same moment when Renewable Energy is produced.

This could be true if the Global net we know with the name grid would so simple to understand as to switch a button. Unfortunately it is not!

What seems so straightforward on our end –turn on the lights and bam, electricity! – is truly a complex system designed to move huge amounts of power staggering distances, all so that we can exercise our right to run the washing machine, dishwasher, and power drill all at the same time.

When you plug your smartphone into the wall outlet, you’re tapping into the grid. “The power grid is like a massive pool,” says Charles Barnhart, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project. “There are lots of hoses pouring in, and lots of taps pouring out.” The hoses pouring in come from power generators, including everything from coal to nuclear to hydroelectric to wind to solar sources. The taps pouring out are our smoothie blenders, refrigerators, stereos – and that dead phone battery of yours.

 Here’s one key thing to know about the grid: It doesn’t function unless energy demand (from us) and energy supply (from power plants) balance out. Too much demand, and we lose power. Too much supply, and we also lose power, as the aging grid can’t handle much surplus energy. Grid operators prevent this by carefully monitoring and predicting energy demand (for example, they often expect a surge in demand on hot days when we all crank up our air conditioners), then calling on power producers to deliver that precise amount.

The problem with the ever-fickle wind and sun is that they’re not so easy to predict and control.

Overall, energy from renewable sources does make up a decent slice of the country’s total power – about 13 percent. But the grid is constantly fluctuating, and at any given (sunny, windy) time and place, renewables might be humming hard enough to overwhelm our demand for energy (as it did during this Pacific Northwest storm, or on most nights in Texas).

All right, you might say. I get it – but when wind and solar are pumping, shouldn’t we dial back all the grid’s dirty power sources and let renewables shine? I’ll let Paul Denholm, Senior Energy Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, handle this: “You can only turn a power plant down so much. A Prius comes to a stop at a red light and the engine shuts off. When the light turns green, the engine starts up again. Power plants aren’t like that – if you turn it off, you have to keep it off for hours. Also, it’s really expensive to turn a power plant on and off. “It would be great if in the middle of the day, when the sun is shining, we could turn power plants off.

But the sun will set, and you wouldn’t have the plants back on again in time.” And so we’re left with a situation where we use renewable energy when the demand is high enough. When the wind is blowing/ sun is shining but we don’t need the energy, however, we can either curtailwind/solar production or figure out a decent way to store the excess.

That’s why renewable energy storage is a bright idea today, not years in the future. There’s lots of exciting science being done in this department, from high-tech batteries to pressurized air stored in volcanic rocks to hydropower reservoirs to residential water heaters. This is all part of the Smart Grid, a broad collection of ideas aimed at modernizing our creaky power system and integrating renewables more seamlessly. Some day, we may wash our hands of our dirty power sources.

Energy production of a photovoltaic system. The best online tools

Being able to calculate how much energy produces a photovoltaic system is essential in order to assess its economic performance. The owner of a photovoltaic system is in effect an Energy producer and it is precisely on the basis of this energy production that some Countries have created a Feed-in-tariff (FiT) mechanism. A photovoltaic system that produces, for example 1000 kWh / year, will be incentivated on this amount. Hence one is thinking about to install a photovoltaic system on his house needs to have an idea in advance of what will be the annual energy production available for FiT.

What Is Solar Energy

What Solar Energy is explained in the following video. Other than what solar energy is, the video explains what is the futur of Solar Energy in our diversified energy future.

Biomasse plant with sawmill residues in Honduras

This carbon offset project in Honduras installs a biomass plant which will run on biomass residues of about 20 saw mills. CO2 emissions are being reduced by displacing the use of fossil based electricity by clean and sustainable electricity produced by this renewable energy source.

In Talanga, Honduras, in the Regional Association of Sawmills Francisco Morazán (ARIDEMA- Asociación Regional de Industriales de la Madera de Francisco Morazán) a ‘first of its kind’ two Megawatt gasification reactor will be installed. It will run on biomass residues of about 20 small saw mills that are associated in the ARIDEMA. The generated clean and sustainable electricity shall be exported to the Honduran national grid. CO2 emissions are being reduced compared to the situation without project by displacing electricity from other sources like the national on fossil fuel based grid or generators running with fuel oil. 

Italy Against Nuclear. Boost in Renewables Hope

Italians have voted against rebooting nuclear power generation, thwarting prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s nuclear ambitions and signalling a potential shift toward renewable energy.

This week’s two-day referendum saw nearly 95% of voters reject the reintroduction of nuclear power generation. Berlusconi had wanted to revive the country’s nuclear programme after it was dropped more than two decades ago following the Chernobyl disaster.

The referendum – in which the electorate also rejected the privatisation of municipal water supplies and legislation that protects the prime minister from prosecution – attracted a turnout of around 57%, more than the 50% required to make the results legally binding. As the outcome of the referendum became clear, Berlusconi told media on Monday that Italy “must probably say goodbye” to nuclear and commit itself to renewable energy.

Shares in Enel Green Power, the renewable wing of Italian utility Enel, rose more than 3% to €1.99 ($2.87) following news of the referendum.

Lee Clements, an investment manager at Impax Asset Management in London, said Italy’s nuclear rejection may be positive for renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives in the long run. However, with nuclear now firmly off the table and solar power subject to continued regulatory uncertainty, natural gas is most likely to fill the gaps in additional energy capacity in the short- to medium-term.

The nuclear result may also push Italy to be more proactive in expanding its European grid connections, he added.

Italian voters echo German anti-nuclear sentiment
Italy’s poll comes hot on the heels of the recent nuclear backlash in Germany.

Last month, Germany announced that its oldest seven nuclear reactors, which were suspended in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, will be permanently closed, with a total of 17 nuclear plants to be shut down by 2022. Chancellor Angela Merkel also vowed to double Germany’s 2020 renewables target.

Italy’s referendum also points to the waning popularity of the Italian prime minister. Berlusconi – who features on the cover of this week’s edition of The Economist as “The man who screwed an entire country”– was defeated in local Milan elections last month and is widely said to have used his media influence to dissuade voter participation in the referendum.

environmental-finance.com

6 Alternative Energy Stocks With Upside: Analysts

Solar power, wind power and other clean energy sources are set to form a major portion of global energy supply in the future, thanks to increasing capital investment in the renewable energy sector, a recent United Nations report said. According to the report, currently almost 13% of the world's energy needs are met through renewable resources. Moreover, decline in prices of solar installations, wind turbines and other such technologies will likely attract more investment in the sector. The report estimates global renewable investments to range between $1.4 trillion and $5.1 trillion from 2010 to 2020.

Global wind market is estimated to grow in 2011 with more than 40 GW of new wind power capacity, according to a report by the Global Wind Energy Council. Further, the report adds that by 2015 the global installed wind power capacity will more than double to 450 GW from 194.4 GW recorded at the end of 2010.

The American Wind Energy Association says the country's wind power industry installed 1,100 MW of new capacity in the first quarter of 2011. For the second quarter, it had another 5,600 MW under construction which is almost twice the megawatts reported in 2010 and 2009.

We have identified six stocks in the alternative energy industry spanning across sectors such as independent power producers, manufacturers of instruments used in energy control, power conversion and supply equipment companies which can leverage the anticipated growth in the sector.

These stocks have potential upsides of anywhere between 11% and 103% based on its latest quarterly earnings and estimates. The average mean upside value is 53%, based on analysts' consensus estimate polled by Bloomberg.

The stocks are stacked based on upside, great to greatest.

Biomass and Renewable Energy Sources

Biomass are composed of substances of animal and vegetable, not fossils, that can be used as fuel for energy production. With the advent of the deregulated energy market and its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol by many countries, Biomass are candidates as a very competitive renewable energy. The EU attempts to encourage the use of biomass but some local opposition are raising.

The following video explains what the biomass are and how can be used as renewable energy sources.

Windmill Homemade Construction

How to construct a Windmill? For those who know Spanish this video shows very well as a windmill is built and how it can be connected to a wind turbine. The Dyscovery channel video is of excellent quality. Enjoy!

Italy’s fourth Conto Energia signed; strong growth predicted

Italy’s fourth Conto Energia has finally been signed into law. While this is good news, analysts believe the delay has been "extremely disruptive". The 200 kilowatt ground-mounted market has also taken a blow. Nevertheless, 3.5 to four gigawatts (GW) of installed photovoltaics capacity is expected in the second half of 2011, with further growth predicted in 2012.


Italy's fourth Conto Energia has been signed. The market is now expected to be robust.
Having waited anxiously for the past two months, Italy’s Government has finally accepted the new solar regulations. Analysts at Jefferies and Co. Ltd believe that, overall, the outcome is more positive than previously expected.

Electromagnetic Induction And Photovoltaic Solar Energy

The planet we are living on never stops in providing renewable sources of energy good enough to sustain our daily needs. And when it comes to renewable powers, some places are able to utilize this power as an alternative to mechanical electricity.
The properties of the earth, sun, and wind will never stop feeding us the energy we need to develop, store, and generate its current form into usable power for our use. Depletion of fossil fuel though requires a serious approach to be taken to transition into alternative energy sources.
Considering the what it took during the last century to make fossil fuels into crude, it makes generating energy from alternative fuels look easy. And then when you think about what it took to further refine it into different types of gas, diesel, and even petroleum blends. The extensive process cost over millions of dollars.

Transitioning to a new form of energy seems crazy to most of us, it’s very important to preserve our earth, and improve the atmosphere. It will also help us to gain control over global warming and continue enjoying the lifestyle that we have grown to love.
Solar electricity is just one example of renewable fuel. To purchase all the necessary equipment for solar energy is a lot more expensive than what we pay now to mechanically generate power. Eventually we will need to learn how to accept it as we transition into alternative energy. To change over to solar or wind power overnight and stop using petroleum-based energy is impossible, but everyone will need to accept the changes and expenses eventually.
Michael Faraday, a British scientist discovered electricity back in the 1800’s. Electricity was the same then as it is today. With even different methods of changing energy into electrical energy, the most common is the induction electromagnetic. That is when kinetic energy is transformed into electricity. To just put the basics of electricity to work for us in a different way will take a bit of training, skills, and education.
Not photovoltaic technology is moving a lot quicker than it had been in the past. The biggest problem found with photovoltaic is the solar panel is much higher than the mechanically generated power. We are now growing by leaping up 40 percent, Germany, Japan, California, are in the lead. We hope that within then next few years the market will turn around, and solar power will be a lot more feasible than petroleum.
Learning new methods or techniques to develop this energy into renewable fuels is possible. Students of this generation are being taught in school to be aware of the depleting condition of the mother earth because of the global warming. Perhaps some of them would be trained to help in the development of new methods and equipments to be used for transitioning the energy from the sun, the wind, and the earth into alternative energy that are not harmful to the environment. This will make a great improvement for the planet we all live in.

Dale Green - freemoneyonlinesite.com

U.S. awards $503 mln for renewable energy projects

The U.S. Energy and Treasury Departments on Tuesday announced $503 million in government cash grants to companies developing renewable energy projects.

The funding will help meet the Obama administration's goal of doubling U.S. renewable energy production over the next three years, creating jobs and providing financing on easier terms than many companies can obtain in the private sector.

This the first round of some $3 billion in direct payments to companies in lieu of tax credits to eventually support an estimated 5,000 biomass, solar, wind and other renewable energy production facilities.

"These grants will help America's businesses launch clean energy projects, putting Americans back to work in good construction and manufacturing jobs," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The money comes from the economic stimulus package approved by Congress earlier this year.

Previously, energy companies could file for a tax credit to cover a portion of the costs of a renewable energy project. Under the new program, companies would forgo the tax credits in favor of an immediate reimbursement of a portion of the property expense.

"This renewable energy program will spur the manufacture and development of clean energy in urban and rural America, allowing us to protect our environment, create good jobs and revitalize our nation's economy," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Twelve projects were awarded grants. The companies receiving the most money were the Penascal wind farm ($114.1 million) in Sarita, Texas; the Locust Ridge II, LLC wind project ($59.2 million) in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania; the Canandaigua Power Partners, LLC wind project ($52.4 million) in Cohocton, New York, and the Wheat Field wind farm ($47.7 million) in Arlington, Oregon.

Iberdrola Renewables Inc., a subsidiary of Spain's Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), was awarded $294.9 million for five wind projects, bringing the company's investment so far in U.S. wind power to about $1 billion.

The 12 winning projects would be able to produce 840 megawatts of electricity, representing a 3 percent increase in total U.S. renewable electricity generation capacity, the Energy Department said. One megawatt powers about 800 homes.

The American Wind Energy Association welcomed the grants, which it said would help wind energy companies get through the recession.

"For these grantees and many other projects that are preparing their applications, we are seeing business activity picking up and turbine and parts orders being sent all the way up the value chain," said AWEA Senior Vice President for Public Policy Rob Gramlich. "That activity had all but dried up and it is very encouraging to see this turnaround under way."

source: reuters.com

Competing Technologies Push to Commercialize Renewable Petroleum

Here's the Earth's recipe for petroleum: Take plants. Add pressure and heat. Bake for hundreds of millions of years. Today, companies are racing to cook the same products, but they want to do it in hours or days.

Converting crops, plant residue and even trash to fuels avoids unleashing the fossil carbon buried millennia ago. More importantly, experts say, "biogasoline," renewable diesel and clean jet fuel would not face the major infrastructure barriers that have limited the expansion of ethanol use, or, for that matter, electric cars.

The holy grail is a renewable fuel that no one can tell is renewable. Its price would be similar to that of a barrel of oil. It would be dropped into existing pipelines, refineries and vehicle engines that already process millions of barrels of petroleum a day.

It is clear to experts that ethanol, whether produced from corn or cellulosic feed, is not that fuel. Unlike gasoline, ethanol mixes with water, produces about a third less energy to the gallon, and also burns differently. As a result, typical car engines and refueling stations would need to be changed to massively increase its use. And today, trains, not pipelines, are needed to move ethanol from the Midwest to the nation's coasts.

"This is a must-do type of situation. Ethanol has been very important in establishing a very large market, but it can only go so far," said Andy Aden, a senior research engineer at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Big oil backers, such as Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, have taken note, investing in and funding the research of companies and scientists working to step up their technologies from the lab to the commercial scale.

'No clear winner, yet'

"There's no clear winner that's coming yet. Almost everybody is facing the same challenges. Almost all of the ideas are scientifically sound," said Caroline Taylor, a bioenergy analyst with the Energy Bioscience Institute, a collaboration of two universities, DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and BP PLC, which has invested $500 million.

As with cellulosic ethanol, the difficulty is the scaling up. That's when all of the little costs become big ones. That's when problems no one even noticed in a test tube arise. "What will make the winner is who can adapt to that," said Taylor.

The absence of a clear front-runner isn't from lack of trying. Dozens of companies are adopting nearly as many approaches, according to Michael McAdams, executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Coalition, which represents many of the companies.

Take Virent Energy Systems Inc., one early leader. Since starting up the company seven years ago, founder and chief technology officer Randy Cortright has worked to convert a range of sugar molecules into petroleum products and other chemicals in a process called aqueous phase reforming. The company uses a chemical catalyst in a refining process that is conceptually similar to how fuel refiners operate today, which Cortright said is a big advantage and does not waste a lot of energy.

Virent aims to eventually produce fuels competitive with crude oil priced at $60 a barrel and is now building a pilot plant in Madison, Wis., that will turn corn and sugar beet into 10,000 gallons of fuel a year, with hopes of getting to the full 100-million-gallon-a-year production scale by 2015.

The main challenges, said Cortright, will be to improve on their yields when converting sugar to gasoline and to ensure a low-cost feedstock. For that reason, Virent will have an early focus on traditional crops, like corn, beets and sugarcane, in both Brazil and the United States.

As with ethanol, cellulosic feed, such as corncobs or grasses, will cost more until it's cheaper to break down these materials into simple sugars. Cortright said, however, that for Virent's process, the needed treatments will be simpler and less costly.

Designing bugs to do the work

Other companies are also using catalysts, but in different ways. One, said Aden, uses extreme heat to first gasify biomass into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Then catalysts help convert the "syngas" into fuel, whether that is ethanol or hydrocarbons. Taylor said that a major problem with gasification is the energy costs of heating up the biomass.

Pyrolysis, also involving heat and catalysts, is another approach, but the bio-oil it produces is, right now, not high quality, Aden said.

Source: nytimes.com

Renewable Energy and the price of oil

How much easily recovered oil is really left? At what high-end prices are practices like directional drilling and 4D exploration financially feasible? At which low-end prices does renewable energy cease to become a financially feasible option?
It appears from the many news reports, opinion pieces, and general facts that easily recovered oil reserves are running out. There are new discoveries of relatively easy recovered oil, but the frequency of these ‘finds’ are few and far between. At 140 per barrel, projects like OCS deep sea drilling and Canadian oil sands are viable. The spike last summer where the price of a barrel of oil reached 140 dollars was, in essence, an indication of the volatility inherent in oil markets; couple that together with lower global reserves and international affairs with Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia…and you have the perfect ingredients for a rough investment ride.

Renewable Energy in the form of smart grids, batteries and energy storage, biofuels, EVs, geothermal, solar, wind, pollution control, waste, and water, all seem to be a natural substitution to the high-end instability of oil markets; but there seems to be a low-end price of oil that represents the point at which renewable energy markets reach a bottom. That point was in early 2009.
They didn’t vanish; renewable energy companies withstood the 30 dollar per barrel storm coupled together with economic recession force winds and emerged with a bright future. Recent oil prices passed the 70 dollar per barrel barrier recently, and the weekly count of the number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas rose for only the second time this year. Obviously, the price of oil is tied to an economic recovery, but the instability that was put into the oil markets in the past six months is and will always be a defining characteristic of oil from here forward. Oil plunged from 140 to 30; there could be a day in summer 2010 and beyond where oil reaches 200 dollars per barrel. Renewable energy markets, to the contrary, will only increase their share of the energy markets as time goes on.
At the high-end of the spikes in oil, renewable energy investments more than pay for themselves; at the low-end, renewable energy goes through a consolidation period. The most extreme example of this consolidation period in the renewable energy markets pertains to biofuels. Even though the U.S. government has recently affirmed its 36 billion gallons of domestically generated ethanol by 2022, investors are still distrustful of biofuels because of the whole food vs. fuel and lifetime cost debates, as well as the industry’s subsequent fall from grace. While biofuels were suffering through a full-frontal media attack, the price of oil dropped to 30 dollars per barrel. The biofuel industry didn’t disappear, though, companies consolidated or were absorbed into the larger oil industry. Oil over 100 per barrel makes EVs and flex-fuel vehicles (running on less gas or on ethanol blends) an attractive offer, so we can expect expansion as oil continues to climb.
The timeframe referenced by most Peak Oil advocates is somewhere between now and 2016; already, more than half of all significant oil producing states are past their peak of production. A panic ripple entered the oil markets making dramatic swings entirely possible on a yearly basis; this instability in the oil markets, in turn, injects some instability into the renewable energy markets; not as much, however, as the economic recession did, preventing everyone from being able to strategically invest in the future. As the economy recovers, renewable energy markets are bound to grow, even alongside oil’s volatile ride.
Many companies are beginning to see the long-term stability of investing in renewables. In the solar industry, the slow-down in the economy created a glut of PV panels as orders slowed and manufacturing facilities tried to keep pace cutting back; still, utility companies and solar manufacturers continued to increase their amounts of electricity from renewables on a yearly basis. In June, the U.S. passed Germany as the number one wind developer. The smart grid initiative got more than enough funding to weather the duration of the recession. The nearly complete bankruptcy of the U.S. auto industry created a climate of innovation that is making companies like GM and Chrysler begin their development of EVs and other hybrids.
Oil has begun climbing, giving some people signals that a second dip in the recessionary curve is imminent; but the push for clean energy is gaining traction in the world of public opinion, governmental policy, and business executive decisions. It is apparent that the future will be powered by a growing field of renewables. For the time being, the larger oil markets will continue to drive renewables in the energy sector, but as companies increase their revenues on the back side of this recession, more capital will be available for clean energy projects of virtually every sort. The 150 Dollar Panic made us all aware of exactly what we were betting our future on.
From almost every angle, it seems as though the transition of business, government, and to the renewable energy side of the equation is just beginning. Perhaps, we could all use a little more stability over the long-term in our energy markets.

Source: examiner.com

Green Jobs Sector 'Poised for Explosive Growth,' Study Says

Green-collar workers -- who include everyone from energy-efficiency consultants to wastewater plant operators -- constitute a tiny but fast-growing segment of the U.S. economy, according to a study published today by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The "clean-energy economy" grew 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007 to 777,000 jobs. While that is just half a percent of all U.S. jobs, the clean-energy economy is poised to grow significantly with financial support from the public and private sectors, the Pew (pdf) concludes. "The nation's clean-energy economy is poised for explosive growth," said Lori Grange, the Pew Center on the States' interim deputy director. "The trends include surging venture capital investment ... a critical growth rate in clean-energy generation, energy efficiency and environmentally friendly products."

About 80 percent of venture capital investments in 2008 were in the clean energy and energy efficiency sector, broadly known as "cleantech." And while cleantech slumped with overall venture capital in the first quarter of 2009, the sector outperformed telecommunications, media and other sectors, according to an analysis of Thompson Reuters data by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

"[Cleantech] is faring better than the rest of the venture capital sectors -- that's driven by the sense that the government policy thinking has changed radically with the new administration," said David Prend, a NVCA director and managing general partner at the venture capital firm RockPort Capital Partners.

Indeed, the Pew report cites the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which President Obama signed in February, as a significant force driving the clean-energy economy. The stimulus includes nearly $85 billion in direct spending and tax incentives for energy- and transportation-related programs.

The report finds that job growth in the clean-energy economy outperformed total job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia between 1998 and 2007, the most recent year for which data are available. The total number of jobs grew 3.7 percent during that period, which included the dot-com boom and bust and the beginning of the current recession.

The nation's most populous state, California, had the most clean-energy jobs -- nearly 17.6 million workers, or about 0.71 percent of its total work force. Texas ranked second, with 11.7 million workers.

On a per capita basis, Oregon had the nation's most robust clean-energy economy. The Beaver State had more than 1.9 million clean-energy jobs -- about 1.02 percent of its total work force. Mississippi ranked last on a per capita basis, with about 1.4 million clean-energy jobs -- 0.24 percent of its total work force.

The report defines the clean-energy economy as including 16 sectors: energy generation, energy transmission, energy storage, energy efficiency, transportation, manufacturing/industrial, construction, agriculture, energy production, materials, air and environment, recycling and waste, water and wastewater, business services, finance/investment, and research and advocacy. The authors counted only companies and jobs on the supply side, not the demand side.

"The numbers are probably on the conservative side," conceded Kil Huh, the report's lead researcher.

Source: New York Times

Renewables beat fossil fuels in investment

Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, figures released on Wednesday by the UN showed. Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted US$140 billion investment compared with US$110 billion for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Europe.
The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to boost energy security and tackle climate change.
“There have been many milestones reached in recent years, but this report suggests renewable energy has now reached a tipping point where it is as important — if not more important — in the global energy mix than fossil fuels,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN’s Environment Program.
It was very encouraging that a variety of new renewable sectors were attracting capital, while different countries such as Kenya and Angola were entering the field, he said.
The UN still believes that US$750 billion needs to be spent worldwide between this year and 2011 and this year has started ominously, with a 53 percent slump in first-quarter renewables investment to US$13.3 billion.
Counting energy efficiency and other measures, more than US$155 billion of new money was invested in clean energy companies and projects, even though capital raised on public stock markets plunged 51 percent to US$11.4 billion and green firms saw share prices slump more than 60 percent over last year, said the report, Global Trends in Sustainable Energy, which was drawn by the New Energy Finance (NEF) consultancy in London.
Wind, where the US is now the global leader, attracted the highest new worldwide investment, US$51.8 billion, followed by solar at US$33.5 billion. Wind represented annual growth of only 1 percent, while the latter was up by nearly 50 percent year-on-year.
Biofuels were the next most popular investment, winning US$16.9 billion, but down 9 percent on 2007, as the sector was hit by overcapacity issues in the US and political opposition, with ethanol being blamed for rising food prices.
Europe is still the main center for investment in green power with US$50 billion being pumped into projects, an increase of 2 percent on last year, while the figure for the US was US$30 billion, down 8 percent.
But while overall spending in the West dipped nearly 2 percent, there was a 27 percent rise to US$36.6 billion in developing countries led by China, which pumped in US$15.6 billion, mostly in wind and biomass plants.
China more than doubled its installed wind turbine capacity to 11GW of capacity, while Indian wind investment was up 17 percent to US$2.6 billion, as its overall clean-tech spending rose to US$4.1 billion last year, 12 percent up on 2007 levels.
Several green new deals — government reflationary packages designed to kickstart economies and boost action to counter climate change — have been laid out by ministers around the world.
The slump in global renewable investment during the first quarter of this year has alarmed the UN and NEF.
NEF chief executive Michael Liebreich said the second quarter had revealed “green shoots” of recovery, which indicated this year could end up with investment at the upper end of a US$95 billion to US$115 billion range, but still a quarter down on last year at the least.
About US$3 billion of new money had been raised via initial public offerings or secondary issues on the stock markets in the second quarter, compared with none in the first three months of this year.
The New Energy Index of clean-tech stocks, which had slumped from a 450 high to 134 by March, had since bounced back to 230, while more project financing had been raised in the last six weeks than in the 13 before that, he said.
But Steiner and Liebreich are still anxious that politicians do more to stimulate growth.
“There is a strong case for further measures, such as requiring state-supported banks to raise lending to the sector, providing capital gains tax exemptions on investments in clean technology, creating a framework for green bonds and so on, all targeted at getting investment flowing,” Liebreich said.
It is important stimulus funds start flowing immediately, not in a year or so, he said.
“Many of the policies to achieve growth over the medium-term are already in place,” he said.

Source: taipeitimes.com

European bank in invest US$20.8 billion in renewables, efficiency

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to leverage investments up to 15 billion euros (US$20.8 billion) in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects over the next three years.

The first stage of EBRD’s Sustainable Energy Initiative was launched in May 2006 in response to the rising challenge of climate change. Since then it has sharply increased investments in energy efficiency and renewables to a total of about 3 billion euros (US$4 billion). (HydroWorld 10/12/07)

EBRD said its own investments in sustainable energy projects of between 3 billion and 5 billion euros (US$4 billion and US$7 billion) through 2011 are expected to attract further co-financing of up to 10 billion euros (US$13.9 billion).

The bank’s strategy to help mitigate the effects of climate change is to attack widespread waste of energy with energy efficiency projects and to foster investments in sustainable renewable energy sources.

Previous EBRD investments in renewable energy have included a major syndicated loan to a hydropower complex in Russia and renewable energy investments in Armenia and Bulgaria.

Source: hydroworld.com

Growth of Renewables Transforms Global Energy Picture

In 2008 for the first time, more renewable energy than conventional power capacity was added in both the European Union and United States, showing a "fundamental transition" of the world's energy markets towards renewable energy, finds a report released today by REN21, a global renewable energy policy network based in Paris.

Global power capacity from new renewable energy sources in 2008 was up 16 percent over the world's 2007 capacity from new renewable sources, the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report shows.

"This fourth edition of REN21's renewable energy report comes in the midst of an historic and global economic crisis," says Mohamed El-Ashry, chairman of REN21.

"Although the future is unclear, there is much in the report for optimism," said El-Ashry, an Egyptian national who from 1991 to 2003 served as the first CEO of the Global Environment Facility, which provides grants to developing countries for environmental projects.

Today, at least 73 countries have renewable energy policy targets, up from 66 at the end of 2007. At least 64 countries now have some type of policy to promote renewable power generation.

Companies are devoting an increasing amount of capital to renewables. By August 2008, at least 160 publicly traded renewable energy companies worldwide had a market capitalization greater than $100 million, the report shows.

Globally in 2008, solar heating capacity increased by 15 percent, while biodiesel and ethanol production both increased by 34 percent.

China's total wind power capacity doubled in 2008 for the fifth year running, and developing countries, particularly China and India, are increasingly playing major roles in both the manufacture and installation of renewable energy, the report shows.

"The recent growth of the sector has surpassed all predictions, even those made by the industry itself," says El-Ashry. He attributed much of this growth to more favorable policies amidst increasing concerns about climate change and energy security.

In 2008, renewable energy resisted the credit crunch more successfully than many other sectors for much of the year and new investment reached $120 billion, up 16 percent over 2007. However, by the end of the year, the impact of the crisis was beginning to show.

In his remarks accompanying release of the REN21 report, El-Ashry stressed that "now is not the time to relax policies that support a global, expanding renewable energy sector."

"By maintaining and expanding these policies, governments, industry and society will reap substantial economic and environmental rewards when the economic rebound requires energy markets to meet rapidly increasing demand," he advised.

The report notes that in response to the financial crisis, several governments have directed economic stimulus funding towards the new green jobs the renewable energy sector can provide, including the U.S. package that will invest $150 billion over 10 years in renewable energy.

Global wind power capacity grew by 29 percent in 2008 to reach 121 gigawatts, or more than double the capacity in place at the end of 2005.

Grid-connected solar photovoltaic power continued to be the fastest growing power generation technology, with a 70 percent increase in existing capacity to reach 13 gigawatts.

Spain became the solar photovoltaic market leader, with 2.6 gigawatts of new grid-tied installations. The concentrating solar power industry saw many new entrants and new manufacturing facilities in 2008.

Solar hot water in Germany set record growth in 2008, with over 200,000 systems installed.

India emerged in 2008 as a major producer of solar photovoltaics, with new policies leading to $18 billion in new manufacturing investment plans or proposals.

Geothermal power capacity surpassed 10 gigawatts in 2008, led by the United States. Direct geothermal energy delivered by ground source heat pumps is now used in at least 76 countries.

Among the many new renewable energy targets set in 2008, Australia targeted 45 terawatt-hours of electricity by 2020.

Brazil's energy plan sought to slightly increase through 2030 its existing share of primary energy from renewable energy (46 percent in 2007), and its electricity share (87 percent in 2007).

India increased its target to 14 gigawatts of new renewables capacity by 2012.

Japan set new targets for 14 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity by 2020 and 53 gigawatts by 2030.

The EU formally adopted its target to reach a 20 percent share of renewable energy in final consumption by 2020, setting also country-specific targets for all member states.

Feed-in tariffs were adopted at the national level in at least five countries for the first time in 2008 and early 2009, including Kenya, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, and Ukraine.

The report also shows that several hundred cities and local governments around the world are planning or implementing renewable energy policies and planning frameworks linked to carbon dioxide emissions reduction.

Reprinted with permission from Environment News Service.
source: reuters.com

Spain plans changes to renewable energy aid rules

Spain plans to change rules on state aid for renewable energy generators, an industry ministry spokesman said on Friday, arousing fears in the sector that its lucrative subsidies may shrink.

Under a new regulatory framework that has not yet been finally decided, the government could also change its targets for installed wind capacity, which are now at 20 gigawatts by 2012, rising to 40 GW in 2020, the spokesman said.

"In theory, new targets would be set on an annual basis," he said.

At current growth rates, Spain could meet the 20 gigawatts target well before the scheduled 2012.

The government took a step toward the new regulatory system on Thursday by announcing creation of a register for renewables projects that developers must sign to receive subsidies.

"This adds a new level of bureaucracy to the process of building wind farms...we are very worried," an industry source said.

"The government has committed itself to promoting renewable energy, so we hope that any changes to the current system should be improve remuneration for this technology, although this now sounds highly optimistic," the source added.

Wind farms installed before January 1, 2008, are entitled to a premium of 40 euros per megawatt-hour over electricity pool prices until the end of 2012, whereas those that went online afterwards may receive a maximum of 82/MWh.

Spain has already sliced the amount of solar capacity which qualifies for subsidies by more than half for 2009 after exponential growth in solar farms in 2008.

source: uk.reuters.com