A recent study found that solar thermal power could provide 25 percent of the world’s electricity needs if investments increased and the technology was put in place.  That makes the new design by Stirling Energy Systems for harvesting that energy particularly compelling.

The company claims it has come up with a new solar thermal system that is simpler than other versions of the technology and will make the energy cheaper.  The company plans to start building large solar power plants using this design within the next year.

The system called the SunCatcher consists of a large, mirrored dish that concentrates sunlight onto a Stirling engine.  The temperature difference between the hot and cool sides of the engine drives the pistons, which generate electricity.  Each unit can produce 25 kW of electricity and the company plans on using about 12,000 units in its first project in Southern California for a capacity of 300 MW.

The company expects the electricity to cost about 12 – 15 cents per kWh, which is competitive with electricity prices during peak hours in some markets.

This technology has the benefit of using less water than solar thermal plants that collect heat over a large area to drive turbines in a central facility.  The turbines use a lot of water to keep them cool, but Stirling’s design doesn’t require water, making it ideal for desert climates where solar thermal is well-suited.

Another advantage to their system is that it’s easier to increase the amount of energy generated by just adding more units instead of having to make a central facility bigger.  The downside to this is that there’s no central storage for the energy that is produced, so right now the system can only make electricity during daylight hours where other solar thermal plants can continue supplying energy overnight.

The storage issue will definitely have to be solved for this new technology to really take hold, but if they can do that, the advantages make this new system really exciting.

via MIT Technology Review

Exxon Mobil has announced that they’re jumping into the biofuel business.  The oil giant is investing $600 million in researching algae-based biofuels that would capture CO2 and perform as well as oil-based fuels.

The company is teaming up with Synthetic Genomics Inc. to genetically engineer algae strains for testing.  If the partners are successful in developing a greenhouse gas-capturing fuel, Exxon will then invest billions on the production of the fuel.

The company envisions placing the algae farms near power plants and other major CO2 emitters to feed the algae and to help curb the impact of those businesses.  Exxon said they imagine a successful commercial production of an algae-based fuel could take up to a decade.

This venture isn’t the company’s first foray into carbon capture.  In January, they announced they were spending $170 million on carbon capture projects at their natural gas plants.  These projects are undoubtedly more financially driven than environmentally, but if the planet can benefit from their discoveries, it’s worth paying attention.

via Wall Street Journal

Editor’s Note: To view the 500+ different energy and water conservation tips for the home we have collected, simply access our Un-Official Guide To Home Energy & Water Conservation, 2nd Edition

Back on July 2nd, we released our updated Un-Official Guide to Home Energy and Water Conservation, now containing more than 500 money saving suggestions, ideas and tips we have collected from hundreds of households across North America over the past 18 months on ways to reduce energy and water consumption in and around the home.

By doing this, households can save money through reduced electric, water, natural gas, home heating oil, etc. utility bills as well as reduce its direct and indirect consumption of non-renewable energy and clean water resources.

Since this is the summer time we immediately went to describe all of the 80 suggestions related to keeping a home cooler during the summer. Next, we reviewed the 55 ideas on how to reduce the amount of fresh water consumed outside the home, which should be especially useful to those living in areas currently experiencing drought conditions.

In this article we review the 66 ideas for reducing the amount of fresh water families and individuals consume inside their home.

Below we summarize these five articles by:

First, providing the full listing of all 66 home water conservation – outside tips.

Second, providing direct links to each of the 5 articles.

In case you are curious, the money saving tips in the list below with the single asterisk ‘*’ came from our first home energy saving contest in the fall of 2008 while those with the double asterisk ‘*’ came from your second home energy and water saving contest during the summer of 2009.

Lastly, remember to use the horizontal scroll bar at the end of the list to see our classifications of Installation Cost, Installation Complexity, Frequency and Potential Payback for each of these home cooling suggestions. Hopefully you can find a few that you can start using.

And now, here are the direct links to each of the 5 articles on the many, many different ways to reduce the consumption of clean water inside the home:

No Cost Home Water Conservation Tips – Inside – 1

No Cost Home Water Conservation Tips – Inside – 2

No Cost Home Water Conservation Tips – Inside – 3

No Cost Home Water Conservation Tips – Inside – 4

Additional Home Water Conservation Tips – Inside

When we return to this series of article reviewing the 500+ ideas within our Un-Official Guide to Home Energy and Water Conservation, 2nd Edition, we will focus on the tips for reducing electricity consumption in a household. A timely topic what with the high temperatures this season. How did you like your last electric utility bill?

Back in February, we told you about the huge solar project New Jersey utility PSE&G was planning:  120 MW divided among four different programs, all to be completed by 2013.  Well, the project has just received approval from the state’s utility board, but the approved version is a little different from the original.

The so-called Solar4All Program will now top out at a capacity of 80 MW across two separate programs.  The cost of the project has dropped to $515 million from close to $800 million and it will now make up 4.4 percent of the state’s renewable energy requirement (22.5 percent by 2020), down from 7 percent.  The 2013 target remains in place.

Half of the installed capacity will be in the form of small solar panel installations (under 200W) on utility poles across the state.  The other half will be larger installations between 500kW and 25 MW, including solar gardens and rooftop arrays on PSE&G facilities and other privately-owned sites.

With this project, the state will be doubling its existing solar capacity and continue to hold its second-place ranking behind California in installed solar power.

via Treehugger

Italy has been showing its commitment to solar power in a big way.  Just a few weeks ago, plans were announced for covering the Milan Trade Fair with an 18-MW rooftop solar array, the world’s largest, and now the country will also be able to claim the second largest rooftop array.  The new array will be on the Interporto di Padova in Padua and will have a capacity of 15 MW.

The array will take up 2.7 million square feet, consist of 67,500 solar panels and will be able to produce enough power for 5,000 households.  Once up and running, the array will prevent the emission of 9,000 metric tons of CO2 a year or 3,200 metric tons of crude oil.

Construction will start in September by Italian solar PV-maker SOLON.

via Treehugger

The bitter lawsuit between Tesla Motors and estranged founder Martin Eberhard continues to be a distraction from the company’s record of real accomplishment. The company’s announcement of a new showroom in Manhattan was followed by a court date for tomorrow in California’s San Mateo County Superior Court.

Tesla’s Elon Musk wants to put the lawsuit behind him, and he’s seeking to have it tossed out of court. He calls it “a fictionalized, inaccurate account of Tesla’s early years.” Musk maintains he put up 98% of the money for the company ($6.35 million) compared to Eberhard’s $75,000. And he says, “Eberhard has simultaneously implied that I had nothing to do with the creation of the Roadster and that I micro-managed the design and thus caused the cost overruns. Obviously, those claims are mutually exclusive.”

In the lawsuit, Eberhard says he “led the development of the Roadster from its inception and design through the safety and performance testing that validated the Roadster’s ability to achieve zero to 60 mph in less than four seconds, as well as its breakthrough 250-mile range per charge.”

Musk says costs ballooned because every major system had to be redesigned, and “we essentially had to spend the development money twice. Eberhard wants Musk to stop referring to himself as a founder of Tesla. But Musk maintains that his “two years of 100-hour work-weeks” rebuilding the company gives him that right.

Eco Factor: Energy-saving switch makes sure no lights are on unnecessarily.

We’ve seen lo-tech devices that claim to save energy by cutting off power when you leave your home. If you don’t want to depend on lo-tech stuff to do the energy-saving job for you, industrial designer Hyun has designed a hi-tech device that turns off your appliances once you step outside.

Continue Reading »
Eco Gadgets: E-Pick electricity saving switch cuts off power when you’re not at home

I was just on the blog of my neighbor Lewis (yes, he actually lives next door to me and is an has a bike advocacy blog…small world, I know) and came across the above graph. While, certainly, the Toyota Prius has some far more advanced technology than your average transit bus, the bus is the far more environmentally friendly option.

Unfortunately, as anyone who’s recently taken a cross-country bus will tell you, it’s not always the most comfortable experience. Planes are far faster, cars allow for more control, and busses might contain a different class of patron than most suited business travellers are used to. So busses are neglected entirely by environmental writers, it seems, in favor of promoting green options that are more comfrtable.

As the above graph shows, even a half-full bus uses less than half of the fuel per passanger as a plane. My environmental innovation for the day would be to posh up the bus system a bit, increase fares by a fraction, and make busses actually comfortable for long-distance travel while still having them be one of the greenest ways to travel.

As air travel becomes more and more inconvenient (and expensive) travelers are going to be looking for new and better ways to get from place to place.

Thanks to Lewis for his great work at ImagineNoCars.

Flywheel-based utility power storage is one method for dealing with the variability of power from renewable sources such as wind and solar that may be more variable in their output than engineered power plant systems. Utilities like to provide an even level of power, and problems can occur in the grid when power production and power demand are not coordinated.

Using flywheel systems allows for load balancing – adding power when production levels fall below the demand for power, and then storing excess when the production level exceeds that demand. Otherwise, power utilities need to use other methods, such as gas turbine power plants to adjust the power level.

Beacon Power has installed its second megawatt-sized, flywheel-based energy storage system connected to the grid in New England, and is providing energy storage and load balancing for the New England ISO.

This first made news on EcoGeek a couple of years ago when Beacon first sought approvals for grid connection. Now, they have had one system installed and operating since last fall and have a second system now part of the grid infrastructure. At present, these represent only a tiny fraction of a percent of even just the production capacity of the New England grid. But these systems are proving their functional and economic viability, and more of them will find their way onto the forthcoming smart grid in the coming years.

via: AWEA News

Ted Leonsis is the former vice chairman of AOL, and one of the ways he reinvented himself after he left the company in 2006 was as a documentary filmmaker. His Nanking, about the bloody 1937 looting of that city by the Japanese, won the Peabody Award last year.

When Leonsis completed what he calls “Schindler’s List with a Chinese twist,” he discovered that the distribution system for films was, to put it mildly, screwed up. “I quickly saw it was a terribly broken industry, and because of it many people were making high-quality films that nobody saw.”

Being a serial entrepreneur, Leonsis “mashed up my various experiences” and created SnagFilms, which has put 1,000 documentary films online for free viewing. What’s more, bloggers are free to post the docs online too, so that’s what we’re going to do here. This is not a trailer for the film, but the entire 90-minute movie:

The subject of our film, Malcolm Bricklin, is an amazing character. He’s best known for importing Yugos to the U.S., but he also brought Subarus here in the 1960s, made the Bricklin SV-1 “safety car” (it had gullwing doors like the DeLorean, and met a similar fate), sold rebadged Fiats as “Bertones,” and — as the film documents — attempted to become the first volume importer of Chinese cars.

Bricklin’s colorful dealings with the Chinese (including an attempt to “get naked” in a business meeting) are probed in The Entrepreneur, a four-year labor-of-love for Bricklin’s son, Jonathan. It all ended in tears, with a massive billion-dollar lawsuit, but it makes engrossing viewing. If nothing else, you’ll come away fascinated by Bricklin’s creative and frequent use of a certain popular Anglo-Saxon phrase.