Vincent’s post from the The European Wind Energy Conference got me thinking about U.S. offshore wind potential.
Wind on the water has been all the buzz in Michigan. The state’s portion of the Great Lakes has the potential to produce an astounding 322,000 megawatts of electricity from wind, according to a study earlier this year from the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University.
by agathabrown, turtleanddove
No, it’s not the latest CD from Verve, it’s the latest rumble from industry groups and states: Raise the percentage of ethanol blended into unleaded gasoline.
The current cap is 10 percent. An ethanol trade group called Growth Energy has formally requested an increase to 15 percent, saying it will create more than 100,000 jobs and pump more than $24 billion into the economy, Reuters reports. There’s also the added benefit of increasing the demand for ethanol by 6 billion gallons a year, MSNBC says.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is studying whether a higher blend would harm older cars. Some newer vehicles are designed to run on E-85 (an 85 percent blend).
A recent post extolling the virtues of trash as an energy source has stirred up a lot of comments.
Those include an e-mail and phone call from the folks at BlueFire Ethanol, who have a patented process that turns garbage into gas, or cellulosic ethanol, to be more precise.
The company is building a plant in Lancaster, California, where it plans to use a Concentrated Acid Hydrolysis Technology Process to convert “green waste” from an adjacent county landfill into as much as 3.7 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year, a company representative says.
when it comes to renewable energy. The city of Corvallis, Oregon, is No. 1 when it comes to purchasing green power, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Communities Program.
The city of 55,000, about 90 minutes from Portland, purchases 13 percent of its electricity from environmentally-friendly sources, or more than 100 million kilowatts (100,000 megawatts). The largest purchaser of renewable juice there is Oregon State University, thanks to a “green fee” passed by students in 2007. The sources include wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro, according to city officials.
Coal is dirty. Nuclear is dangerous. Wind and solar are intermittent. Trash is a constant, which brings us to landfill gas.
People throw things away. They recycle, sure, but consider all the waste in the world the next time you unpack your groceries. Product packaging alone can fill your trash can after one trip to the supermarket.
Garbage goes into landfills, where it decomposes, and creates methane, a gas much more potent than the whipping boy, carbon dioxide. For years, landfills have gotten rid of this gas, which builds up inside, by flaring it off. Burning it, wasting it.
Courtesy GSEA
“Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind”
You probably know the Ray Charles song. The Solar Energy Industries Association is singing it now. The trade group says Georgia sun is a major, untapped resource. Some of the best rays in the country, even the world, shine down on the state.
Georgia has another distinction, as a primary user and generator of coal-fired electricity in the United States, in part due to the energy-intensive wood and paper products industries centered there, the Energy Information Administration says.
But, done right, rooftop solar alone could generate more than a quarter of the power needs for Georgia, or more than nuclear does today, according to SEIA, the U.S. trade association for solar energy and related businesses.
The expansion of more than two dozen existing solar companies in Georgia could create hundreds of new jobs, too, says Association CEO Rhone Resch.
Georgia has its own Solar Energy Association, with more than 140 members.
U. of Wisc. photo
Depending on where you live, the Great Lakes may seem far from local.
But they hold 84 percent of the freshwater in North America. So if you ever get thirsty, you might want to pay attention.
President Barack Obama has proposed $475 million in funding for a Great Lakes restoration in his Fiscal Year 2010 budget. It would be a downpayment on a $5 billion campaign promise.
Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Fuel cells and hydrogen were the buzz for years in U.S. automotive industry, until foreign competitors began making waves with hybrids.
Problems with the H included the high cost of infrastructure and the fossil-fuel energy needed to make hydrogen stations work.
That could change if new research on enzymes is realized. A team of scientists from Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Lab and the University of Georgia has developed a way of producing hydrogen gas by combining enzymes and cellulosic materials from non-food sources with good old water, according to a news release.
Came across a report from the Congressional Research Service (pdf) on biofuels. Dated Jan. 5, 2009, it’s a decent summary of federal incentives (pre-stimulus).
cursed thing, via flickr
Some numbers: There are 24 U.S. programs that support biofuels, mostly ethanol and biodiesel. They were established over the last 28 years and are administered by five government agencies: Environmental Protection, Agriculture, Energy, IRS, and Customs and Border Protection.
If policy drives business, it looks like there are 101 reasons to develop cellulosic biofuels (from plant waste rather than people food). There’s a $1.01 per gallon credit from the IRS for producers.
The appendix has a summary by agency. Something to chew on.
The Pew Center also has a guide to state incentives.
Check out our links page for these and other great CleanTech Links
Courtesy of BP
Exciting news on the cellulosic ethanol front. The promise of next-generation biofuels is moving from the lab to the factory.
BP has announced a joint venture with Verenium to make cellulosic ethanol from grass and other non-edible plants.
There are all kinds of tax credits and other green incentives in the new economic stimulus bill.
But nonprofits are being left out of the mix. Such organizations are usually ineligible for federal tax incentives for renewable energy projects, according to folks from the National Development Council.
The council, one of the oldest national nonprofit community and economic development organizations in the U.S., aims to change that. The group has secured $1.5 million for a solar installation project at the Gasser Foundation‘s base in Napa Valley, Calif.
Foto: Tracy R. Olson
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the name of the much-touted economic stimulus bill headed for the president’s desk. It’s big, to the tune of $789 billion. What happens now?
Obama plans to sign it tomorrow morning and the money will be spent in short order, in hopes of reviving the economy. Governors will play a big part in how the money is spent, based on lists submitted by state and local agencies.
Time to learn a little Finnish: Picosun Oy. The company is working on a research project funded by the European Union to develop more efficient solar cells.
The project, called ROD-SOL (short for Rods for Novel Solar Cells), aims to create new nanomaterials that are substantially more efficient and less costly than traditional photovoltaic technology, Alternative Energy News reports.
Barack Obama promised change and hope. He’s bringing it when it comes to the mercury control industry.
If you haven’t heard, the new president has directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to drop an appeal of a Bush administration mercury control plan for coal-fired power plants.
Coal, the backbone of America’s electrical grid, runs about 1,100 plants in the U.S., but also spews out about 48 tons of mercury per year. The element is a potent toxic substance that affects brain development. It settles in our rivers and lakes and most people are exposed to it by eating fish.