Eco Factor: Desalination plants to provide freshwater to animals in Abu Dhabi.

Water resources experts from the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi have planned to deploy 30 small-scale solar-powered desalination plants over the next 15 months to provide potable water to animals living in Abu Dhabi’s desert environment. Two of the plants are already operational and convert brackish water from underground aquifers to fresh water.

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Solar-powered desal plants to provide potable water to animals in Abu Dhabi

If you’ve been yearning to own a Tesla Roadster, but can’t afford the six-figure price tag, the car company will start leasing their popular electric sports car for a minimum of $1,658 a month, meaning you probably still can’t afford it.

The three-year, 30,000-mile contract requires $12,453 at signing, which includes a $9,900 down payment and a $895 acquisition fee.  Then at the end of the lease you’ll need to pay a $350 disposition fee and $.25 for every mile you go over the 30,000 mark.  Plus you’ll owe for any wear and tear on the vehicle.

So, what could possibly be the perks of this fee-laden lease agreement?  During the lease, you have full access to the Tesla Ranger service squad that will make house or office calls to perform inspections, firmware upgrades and maintenance, and you have the chance to drive the sexiest EV on the planet before they halt production in 2011.

Could those reasons make a car lease that costs as much as a mortgage worth it?  Well, that’s up to you.

via Earth2Tech

TXU Energy, a large Texas utility company, will lease rooftop solar power systems to their customers in the Dallas area.

Homeowners can sign up for the program with TXU and their partner in the project, SolarCity, will design and install the systems.  After tax incentives, an owner of a three-to-four bedroom house would owe about $35 a month for a lease, though for $26,000 they could buy the array outright.  When leased, SolarCity continues to own the array and performs any maintenance.

Currently, the state utility infrastructure company Oncor has funds to offer rebates on about 400 home installations, but SolarCity expects the program to grow quickly over the next five years.

This is not the first program like this in the country making residential solar affordable for homeowners, though it is the first one run by a utility.  The state of Connecticut and the cities of Berkeley, San Diego and Palm Desert have all started solar financing programs for their residents and a California non-profit organization started a statewide financing program.

via Green Inc.

Eco Factor: Bacteria colony reacts with mud and seawater to generate electricity.

Scientists have for long known that bacteria can generate electricity when mixed with mud and seawater, which led to the development of microbial fuel cells. However, till date these researchers weren’t able to provide the reasons of just how bacteria create electric networks that serve as long distance communication.

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Bacteria colonies could grow nanowires to create a living battery

Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely excited about Bloom Energy. I honestly think that their technology is a good thing for the world and that it might very well revolutionize the power infrastructure in America and throughout the world. And yes, it will create jobs and make a select few people very rich.

In fact, I think it’s so revolutionary that it doesn’t need to be inflated by false or misleading claims…which is why I’m a little put off by a few naughty little lies in the Bloom press release I got this morning.

Annoying press point #1: The Bloom Box “energy server” works with “nearly any fuel source.” To me, “nearly any fuel source” means anything containing carbon/hydrogen compounds, ranging from gasoline to wood. The Bloom Box doesn’t run on “nearly any fuel source” it runs on methane or methane or methane. That methane can be pumped out of the ground or captured from landfills, but it’s still methane, and as I count it, that’s one fuel source.

Annoying press point #2: Companies using the Bloom Box can “expect a three to five year payback on their capital investment.” This is insane. The average cost per kW/h in California is 14 cents and a Bloom Box produces 100 kW. 100 kW multiplied by 8760 hours in a year times $0.14 per kW means 100 kW of continual electricity consumption over the course of the year will cost a company about $122,000 a year. Add in the cost of the fuel (in whatever form) the cost of maintenence and financing, and I doubt these companies are saving more than $60,000 per year per box. So I don’t see how they’re going to pay for a $700,000 piece of equipment (even with a 50% government subsidy that won’t last forever) over the course of three years. That number seems to be just plain false.

Annoying press point #3: Probably what annoys me most about Bloom’s press release is that they claim the box “provides a cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable alternative to both today’s electric grid as well as traditional renewable energy sources.” Again, if it’s not an outright lie, it’s at least very misleading. The Bloom Box might be more reliable than both, but it isn’t cheaper than the grid and it isn’t cleaner than solar or wind. Marketing double-speak isn’t good for anyone. If you take that sentence at face value, then you might as well cease all development of solar and wind and put 100% of the country’s resources into Bloom Boxes.

Bloom Energy’s technology is fantastic and exciting. It’s much cleaner than our current electricity infrastructure and more practical than distributed solar. It’s great, but there’s no reason to make false claims when your product is this revolutionary.

By telling 60 Minutes that the device can run on solar power (Huh? How?) and saying that it doesn’t perform “dirty combustion” they’re implying that this is the same order of clean energy as solar or wind power. But it’s simply not, they’re turning hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide (and a host of other pollutants, of course) just like every other power plant in the world.

I’m tired of news organizations taking this press release at face value, but I’m even more annoyed that Bloom fed them all these exciting bits of B.S..

BrightSource Energy, Inc has received $1.37 billion in loan guarantees from the DOE for 400 MW’s worth of solar thermal energy projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

With the funding, the company is constructing three utility-scale concentrated solar plants that will make up the Ivanpah Solar Complex. Located in the Mojave Desert on federally-owned land, the complex will be the largest in the world and will double the capacity of installed solar thermal in the country.  It will produce enough electricity to power 140,000 California homes.

The first plant will start construction this year and be completed in 2012, while the other two have completion dates of mid-to-late 2013.  PG&E and SCE have entered into long-term agreements to purchase the power generated by the plants.

BrightSource was one of the companies with renewable energy projects biding their time in the Bureau of Land Management approval process glut.  We’re glad to see such a large project make it through and to get federal financing support as well.

via DOE

With even Porsche getting into the hybrid SUV crossover game, there are more and more options (many of them affordable) for buyers looking for fuel-efficiency in an SUV.

Happy America Saves Week! Whatever you do, don’t run out and buy me a present. That would defeat the whole purpose of the holiday.

America Saves Week 2010 (February 21-28) is a nationwide campaign involving more than 1,000 nonprofit, government and corporate groups that encourages individuals and families to save and build personal wealth. Their website is loaded with free resources and advice, including a nifty calculator that allows you to track your net worth. (WARNING: The calculator is easy to use, but the results might be hard to take.)

America Saves Week is a perfect time to start getting your financial house in order and maybe jump-start that flagging New Year’s resolution to spend less and save more. Here are my top five tips to help get you started:

1.) Go on a Fiscal Fast:

Swear-off all spending for a couple of days – or ideally an entire week – as a sort of “spending detox.” It’s time to use it up, make it last, or do without. A fiscal fast will save you some money (put it into savings or pay off some debt with what you save!), and teach you about how you spend — and probably waste — money in a typical week. It’ll also remind you of how many terrific things in life are free.

2.) Practice Spending Procrastination:

When it comes to discretionary spending, it usually pays to put off buying until tomorrow what you’re tempted to buy today. Studies have shown that we have regrets about nearly 80% of the discretionary purchases we make within the first year of making the purchase. Force yourself to wait at least a week between the time you see an item in a store and when you go back to purchase it. Chances are great that you’ll reconsider and never go back to buy it.

3.) Put Your Finances on Autopilot:

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men, “The money? You can’t handle the money!” Have your paychecks and other income deposited directly into your bank account(s), including automatic allocations into designated savings and investment accounts. Then authorize your creditors (e.g. credit card companies, mortgage lender, insurance company, etc.) to automatically withdraw your payments every month from your account. By putting your finances on autopilot, savings becomes automatic and you’ll never have late fees or missed payments again.

For those in the wind power business, or those considering jumping in, last week brought some big news.  A new study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the U.S. could theoretically generate 37 million gigawatt-hours of wind power per year, triple the amount previously thought.

The last study of wind power potential, completed in 1993, came up with an energy potential of about 10.8 million GWh.  According to NREL, the reason for the dramatic jump is better wind technology (taller and more powerful turbines) and better data used in the assessment.  In case you’re wondering, environmentally-protected areas were not included as potential sites.

The new number is over 12 times the amount of energy we consume each year.  Americans consume 3 million GWh of electricity each year and in 2008 only 52,000 GWh came from wind.

The study offers great new maps of wind energy potential across the country, highlighting areas with high wind speeds, access to transmission lines, cheap land and other major factors for would-be wind farm developers.  The maps, created by Truewind, have a resolution of 650 feet, less than the spacing between turbines, so developers could use them not just to located the best area for an entire farm, but for each machine.

via Wired

Leeches drink blood until they’re full and then fall off of their host, but our plugged-in gadgets keep drinking electricity even once they’re fully charged.  The Outlet Regulator changes this by ejecting the plug from the electricity source once the gadget is done charging, turning vampire electronics into leeches.

Designed by Conor Klein, a student at Rhode Island School of Design, this device solves a dilemma faced in every home.  We all want to prevent frivolous energy use by leaving gadgets plugged in too long, but it’s almost impossible to unplug your devices at the exact point they’re done charging.  The Outlet Regulator takes care of that for you as demonstrated in the video above.

The product works by using a timer circuit and electromechanics to eject its plug which disconnects your device from the wall outlet, stopping electricity consumption.

This is an example of a design where you think, “how has no one thought of this before?”  It’s such an obvious solution and could easily be adopted by everyone.  Hopefully we’ll see this product on shelves soon.  My only qualm is this:  why must these things alway involve blood?

via Engadget