REGCN: 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Green cities on the cheap: Low-cost solutions for a sustainable world

Green cities on the cheap: Low-cost solutions for a sustainable world:

by Jared Green.

This interview originally
appeared in The Dirt.

Jaime
Lerner was elected mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, in 1971, and reelected two more
times before serving as governor of the Brazilian state of Paraná. As mayor, Lerner
devised a number of low-cost solutions and innovative partnerships with the
public and private companies that turned Curitiba into a model green community. He has won
a number of major awards for his transportation, design, and environmental
work, including the United Nations Environment Award. In 2002, Lerner was
elected president of the International Union of Architects. Today, he is
principal of Jamie Lerner Associated Architects.

Q. You’ve argued that cities
are the solution to climate change, not the problem. What is the case for this?

A. Well, my point of view is
that there are many, many answers to what would be the best way to avoid
climate change. A lot of people are talking about new materials. Or new sources
of energy. Or wind turbines. Or recycling. They’re really important but not
enough. When we realized that 75 percent of car emissions are related to the
cities, we realized we can be more effective when we work with the concept of
the city. It’s through cities that we can have better results.

Q. What do you see as the
relationship between livability and sustainability?

A. Every time we try to
create a solution, we have to have a good equation of co-responsibility with
the public. That means it’s not a question of money and it’s not a question of
skill; it’s how do we organize the equation of co-responsibility?

For example, when I was
governor we had to work hard to reduce pollution in our bays. Of course, it’s
very expensive to do environmental cleanup work and we didn’t have the money.
Another region had taken out a huge loan from the World Bank, about $800
million. For us though, the question wasn’t about money; the question was about
mentality. We started to clean our bays through an agreement with fishermen: If
the fisherman catches a fish, it belongs to him; if he catches garbage, we
buy the garbage. If the day was not good for fishing, the fishermen went to
fish garbage. The more garbage they caught, the cleaner the bays became. The
cleaner the bay was, the more fish they would have.

It’s that kind of win-win
solution we need. We need to work with low-cost solutions.

Q. You also decentralized
garbage collection. One program to clean up dirty, narrow streets that were
inaccessible to trash collectors gave residents bags of groceries or transit
passes in return for their garbage. How well did this program work?

A. It’s been working for more
than 20 years in Curitiba. In many cities, there are places where it’s
difficult to provide trucks access to collect garbage. In many cities, if the
slums are on the hills or deep in valleys, they’re difficult to access. In
these places, people are throwing away their garbage and polluting the streams.
Their children are playing in polluted areas. In 1989, we started a program
where we said, “Okay, we’re going to buy your garbage as long as you put your
garbage in a bag, and bring it to the trucks, where it’s more accessible.” In
two or three months, all these areas were clean, and these very low-income
people had an additional source of income.

We also started public
education programs on the separation of garbage [into separate streams for
recycling, composting, etc.] because we realized that we could transform one
problem if we separated garbage in every household. We started teaching every
child in every school. Children taught their parents. Since then, Curitiba has had
the highest rate of separation of garbage in the world for more than 20 years.
Around 60 or 70 percent of families are separating their garbage at home.

Q. As mayor of Curitiba, you
created the world’s first bus rapid transit system (BRT), “Speedy Bus,” which
works like a surface subway system but at far less cost. How did you form the
public-private partnership that made it cost-effective?

A. We didn’t have the money
for a completely new fleet, which would have cost $300 million. What was the
equation? What was the solution? We said to the private sector, private
companies, “We’ll invest in the itinerary as long as you invest in the fleet.
We’ll get loans for the work on our side, for public works, for the itinerary,
if the private sector gets loans for the fleet.” We paid them by kilometers and
there are no subsidies. The system pays for itself. Now, there are more than 83
BRT systems around the world.

The problem is in many
countries, government wants to invest in everything. That doesn’t work. I’ll
give you an example. Why don’t we have a good system of transport in New York
on the waterfront? This could be a very good approach for reducing congestion
in the city’s bridges and tunnels. The city could have a very pleasant system
of water public transport. But instead, the policymakers are holding it up,
saying there are no passengers and we don’t want to invest in the fleet. First,
they need to create a good partnership and create an attractive system, then
they will have the passengers, and then they will have a low-cost solution.

Q. You’ve also mentioned
that many poor copies of your BRT are out there, and are actually setting back
BRT as a transportation movement. What are other cities doing wrong?

A. BRT can’t be designed as
a transportation solution. It has to be planned as a whole city. Why? Because
the city is a structure of living, working, and leisure. Everything together.
Transportation has to provide a structure for living and working together. It
can’t just be a system of transport. You will just have a kind of commuting system,
which is more difficult to make feasible. With that kind of approach, you will
only use public transport twice daily, concentrated in just a few hours. If you
have a system that works always and connects working and living activities,
it’s more a city [approach] than just a corridor of public transport.

Q. Now you have your own
architecture and urban design firm and you are working with major city
governments and private clients throughout the Americas. What kind of projects
are you working on?

A. Sustainability is an
equation between what we save and what we waste. There are so many problems of
mobility or integration of systems, but we have to work fast. If we understand
the city as a structure of living, working, moving together, we can work more
effectively ...

For instance, in Sao Paolo,
they have three subway lines. They are working on fourth line of the subway,
with 84 percent of the trains running on the surface. It’s the surface that has
to operate better. At the same time, the suburb railroad is being improved. The
idea is to take advantage of the existing path of the suburb railroads and
build above the rail a kind of linear park like the High Line. However, this
linear park would link the whole city, where you can connect people of all income
levels. In every place, you could have good public transport and you have a
huge park linking it all. Within this park, you could walk, bike, or take small
electric cars.

Sometimes there’s an idea
and it has to be improved. In other cases, we use “urban acupuncture.”

Q. At the street level,
you’ve been experimenting with “portable streets,” creating informal and spontaneous
market street life.

A. Some places in some
cities have become decayed. There’s no life. When that happens, it’s very
difficult to bring back life because people don’t want to live in a place like
that. However, the moment we bring street life, people will want to live there
again. That’s why we designed the portable streets. On a Friday night, we can
deliver a portable street and remove it Monday morning. We can put a whole
street life in front of a university or any place, bringing street life back ...

These are small
interventions that can provide new energy to the city, and provide assistance
during the process of long-term planning, which has to take time. But we have
to work fast.

Related Links:

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Affordable solar?

Affordable solar?: A new analysis shows that solar photovoltaic systems are very close to achieving the tipping point in many regions: they can make electricity that's as cheap -- sometimes cheaper -- than what consumers pay their utilities.

Greener US schools could save $20 billion in energy

Greener US schools could save $20 billion in energy:

Making school buildings more energy efficient does more than help cut electricity, gas and water bills. Over the long term, the money saved could help schools improve education and expand jobs, according to the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

“Why green our schools?” asks Rachel Gutter, director of the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools. “Three words: education, sustainability and jobs.”

Greener schools produce tax and energy savings that can leave more money for equipment, books and teachers. The USGBC points to reports that show more efficient schools save an average of $100,000 per year in operating costs, and use 33 percent less energy and 32 percent less water than conventional school buildings. Those savings could cover the salaries for two new teachers per school, help pay for 200 new computers or buy 5,000 new textbooks.

Extended to every new school built and every existing school that’s renovated, improved efficiency could save $20 billion in energy costs alone over the next 10 years.

To recognize US schools that have made an effort to become more efficient, the USGBC and United Technologies Corp., the founding sponsor of the council’s Center for Green Schools, have awarded its first-ever Best of Green Schools list. The 2011 winners in each category include:

Moment for the Movement – The US Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, which is the first comprehensive and coordinated federal initiative to focus on the intersection of environment, health and education.

Region – Sacramento, where Mayor Kevin Johnson helped to bring together mayors and superintendents from across northern California to create a $100 million revolving loan fund for green school retrofits.

State – Ohio, which leads the nation in green school projects, with 315 LEED-registered and certified projects, and 19 schools registered in 2011 alone.

City – Philadelphia, where the school district made “significant steps” this year to green the city’s 291 public schools.

School – Lake Mills Middle School in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. In March 2011, it became the first public school in the nation to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

Higher Ed Innovator – University of Texas at Dallas. The University’s new LEED Platinum Student Services Building features terra-cotta shades on the exterior to provide a unique energy-efficient shading strategy, and was built $1.1 million under budget.

Collaborators – Kentucky Representatives Jim DeCesare (R) and Mary Lou Marzian (D), for working with their colleagues in the Kentucky General Assembly to unanimously adopt resolutions in support of green schools, and for encouraging other states to work across party lines on similar efforts.

Convener – Boston: In September 2011, Mayor Thomas M. Menino hosted the Research Summit on Childhood Health and School Buildings, which brought together a team of interdisciplinary researchers to explore the connection between school facilities and student health. Boston’s public school district is also home to one of the first Center for Green Schools Fellows — a coordinator who will work with the district for three years to advance whole-district sustainability initiatives.

Policy-makers – District of Columbia City Council. In May 2010, the Washington, DC, council unanimously passed the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, building upon the district’s existing LEED Silver requirement and encouraging schools to achieve LEED Gold certification. In 2011, the council also began participating in the US Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, making DC the first — before any state — to sign up for the voluntary federal program.

K-12 Innovation – A public-private partnership in Illinois this past March released a report outlining a plan to green all K-12 schools in the state.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Switchgrass as Ideal Biofuel Feedstock?

Switchgrass as Ideal Biofuel Feedstock?:

The biofuel sector is aimed at weaning us off our dependence on oil, but what of biofuel producers' dependence on corn?

American bioethanol production is still vastly reliant on corn as a feedstock. In the short term, with total output volume still relatively low, corn remains a viable feedstock option. But as ethanol production continues to ramp up, corn prices will likely increase as biofuel producers compete with corn purchasers in the food and grain markets.

What alternatives do we have? A new research review published today in the journal GCB Bioenergy states that switchgrass is indeed viable as a cellulosic feedstock, as has been previously suggested, and that it may have advantages in carbon accumulation over other options.

"We reviewed over 100 articles on switchgrass, which found that this crop has a considerable ability to accumulate carbon in the soil compared to several other grasses, and especially row crops,” lead author Dr. Andrea Monti of the University of Bologna, Italy said in a release.

The review focused on research that measured the uptake of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide by switchgrass over the course of its lifecycle, including cultivation and processing. Estimates varied throughout the body of research Monti reviewed, which is due to variables ranging from how the switchgrass was cultivated and variations in biofuel production processes. But overall, the research reviewed suggests that switchgrass has carbon-sequestration advantages over other feedstocks, especially over row crops like corn that require more intensive cultivation.

There is one caveat: there's a lack of data concerning the effects of converting land for switchgrass cultivation. In the long term, it's unknown whether switchgrass crops would continue to have a positive net gain in greenhouse gas sequestration over the land it was converted from, as is suggested by shorter-term studies.

“Although switchgrass has recently received a lot attention as an environmentally beneficial energy crop, it is important to consider that switchgrass had not been planted as a monoculture crop until the mid-20th century,” Monti said. “Information needed to make long-term predictions on carbon sequestration, such as land use change, carbon turnover rate, and the economic lifecycle length are lacking."

What the research reviewed doesn't cover is whether producing biofuels with wild grasses is economically viable. We've been talking about switchgrass for some time now, and it generally looks like grasses are a cheaper feedstock than corn and sugar, even without the competitive economics that come into play as biofuel production grows.

The United States' total fuel ethanol output has grown every year since 1996, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. The RFA states that 13.2 billion gallons of fuel ethanol were produced in the U.S. last year; according to the EPA's Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2), that number will eclipse 20 billion by 2015. In the U.S., corn is still by far the dominant feedstock used; a 2006 report from the USDA pegged corn-based ethanol at 97 percent of the total U.S. ethanol market, a figure that hasn't shifted dramatically since then. But it still can't compete with the yields that perennials like switchgrass offer: the Energy Department reports that corn grain offers a yield of 4.9 tons per acre per year, while perennials would offer eight tons per acre per year. That's a big difference, and it is even larger when you consider corn prices just starting to come down after a 15-year peak.

The issue still remains on the production side. The lignocellulose derived from grasses is still one of the most difficult cellulosic sources to convert to sugars for alcohol production. But technology to ease the process is in development.

Vinod Khosla wrote in a guest spot on GTM in January, "Though multiple cellulose and hemi-cellulose to sugars conversion technologies are in development, personally I am most bullish about some of the recent surprise developments in acid hydrolysis. At scale, HCL-like technologies should be able to produce food and non-food grade sugars at between $0.08 to 0.12 per pound at $50 per ton biomass costs," adding, "This or similar surprise technology developments could make biomass the new feedstock for sugars based processes."

The research suggests that switchgrass has a sequestration advantage over other crop-based feedstocks, and in the long term, its price advantage is likely to hold in the U.S. as corn demand increases. So is it time for switchgrass? Obama thinks so, but a more conservative outlook might be warranted until lignin-cracking technology is proven.

Best Green Schools Honored

Best Green Schools Honored: Green schools save an average $100,000 a year on operating costs.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

New solar-powered classroom brings science to schools in developing countries

New solar-powered classroom brings science to schools in developing countries: An innovative project is using solar generators to provide IT resources and 'hands-on' science for students in developing countries.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Geothermal mapping report confirms vast coast-to-coast clean energy source in U.S.

Geothermal mapping report confirms vast coast-to-coast clean energy source in U.S.: (Source: ScienceDaily: Energy Technology News - References: Sierra Club Compass) New research documents significant geothermal resources across the United States capable of producing more than three million megawatts of green power -- 10 times the installed capacity of coal power plants today.

The World's Best Solar Power Regions are the Coldest Locales

The World's Best Solar Power Regions are the Coldest Locales:

Large expanses of desert have received most of the attention when it comes to large solar power installations, but a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology says that the world's coldest regions are actually some of the best places for solar power generation.

The study found that the Himalaya Mountains, the Andes and Antarctica are some of the most ideal solar power locations, with the ability to produce more energy per hectare than the world's deserts. The Himalayas could provide power to China, while the polar regions see 24 hours of sunlight a day for half the year.

The study used weather data to account for any decrease in solar cell output due to freezing temperatures, snow fall and transmission losses when calculated the areas' power generation potential.

Research bases on Antarctica already successfully make use of solar and wind power for electricity, but transmitting power generated at the poles or deep in the Himalayas to places towns and cities will likely prove to be the biggest hurdle to these solar power "hot spots."

via Fast Company

Friday, October 21, 2011

Empire State Building Achieves LEED Gold for Operations

Top-10 Green Products for 2012 Picked by BuildingGreen

Top-10 Green Products for 2012 Picked by BuildingGreen: BuildingGreen announces its Top-10 Green Products, featuring groundbreaking innovations in flooring, coatings, lighting, and all other aspects of green building.

Habitat for Humanity’s Kent County Chapter Incorporates LEED Gold Standards into All of Their Homes

Habitat for Humanity’s Kent County Chapter Incorporates LEED Gold Standards into All of Their Homes:

Habitat for Humanity, Kent County Chapter , leed, leed certified home, leed silver, green home, eco home, green design, eco design, usgbc, leed gold, green house, kent county

Habitat for Humanity’s Kent County Chapter has always been a leader in the field of affordable and sustainable housing and even built the nation’s first affordable LEED certified home under the LEED for Homes pilot project way back in 2006. Due the success of the first home, the chapter made a commitment in 2007 to make sure future families would live in homes built to a minimum LEED Silver Certification. Currently, they have surpassed the Silver level and have progressed to LEED Gold Certified Homes as their new standard house. It is estimated (based on their earliest LEED Homes) that annual savings costs for electric, water, and heating will be at least $1,000 per home per year. The extra money available every month eases the hard decision between heat and food for families who live close to the poverty line.

+ Habitat for Humanity Kent County

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Manitoba improves energy retrofit incentives

Manitoba improves energy retrofit incentives:
The provincial government is chipping-in some money to a federal government incentive program that encourages people to make energy-saving home improvements.

Friday, October 14, 2011

London’s First Certified Passivehaus Shaves 90% Off its Energy Bill

London’s First Certified Passivehaus Shaves 90% Off its Energy Bill: (Source: Alternative Energy) Filed under: Energy News

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Nissan Working on Ten-Minute Fast Charger

Nissan Working on Ten-Minute Fast Charger:

by Christopher DeMorro

If electric vehicles are ever to be adopted en masse, they're going to have to cut down on charging times drastically. Nissan obviously realizes this, and they are currently working on a system to fully charge a Leaf EV in ten minutes or less.

As it stands, a Nissan Leaf can take anywhere from seven to 20 hours to fully recharge, although quick-charging stations can cut that time down to 30 minutes. Still, 30 minutes is probably longer than most people want to wait to get back on the road. But ten minutes for another 60-80 miles of real world driving? That's not too shabby at all.

The breakthrough has come through a research partnership with Japan's Kansai university, and involves charging an electrode in the capacitor from carbon to tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide. This allowed the battery of the Leaf to be charged in about ten minutes with no impact on battery life or reliability. That's big, big news.

Nissan has made big progress on the charging aspect of EV's, and just last month they announced the development of a smaller, cheaper charging station for Leaf owners. While this fast-charging technology could take a decade to commercialize, Nissan may be able to fast track it for production if EV demand is strong enough. No word on cost...but just the ability to recharge a big battery in a short time is impressive in and of itself.

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0

Friday, October 7, 2011

7 Futuristic Modes of Green Transportation for Land, Sea and Sky

7 Futuristic Modes of Green Transportation for Land, Sea and Sky:

While they may look like something out of Star Wars or The Jetsons, these super futuristic vehicle designs are actual concepts being worked on for production – and in some cases are already exploring the world by land, sea, and air! While it was tough to pick the best of the best, here are 7 spectacular designs we spotted that really push the boundaries of green transportation. Hit the jump for more!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sports Stadiums Looking To Go LEED

Sports Stadiums Looking To Go LEED:

With stadiums in most major cities, sports occupy a huge part of American life and culture. So it is great to see some of these stadiums embracing green ideals by trying to acquire LEED certification. Two new stadiums being constructed will seek LEED certification: the new NFL stadium being built in Los Angeles, and the new Marlins stadium being built in Miami. There are also a host of current stadiums that have achieved LEED certification.

Los Angeles

Although the city of Los Angeles has yet to actually land an NFL team, that hasn’t stopped the AEG company from building a new stadium to host a potential team. The stadium, dubbed Farmer’s Field, is hoping to be the first NFL stadium to receive LEED certification. AEG says it will be working with both the U.S. Green Building Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council to ensure that they meet their green goals. The stadium is guaranteed to be carbon neutral, as the California State Senate and Assembly passed a bill requiring that the stadium be one hundred percent carbon neutral, including the emissions generated from private vehicles taken to the stadium. The stadium will have a MetroLink station on site, which will hopefully offset some of those carbon emissions by making it easier for people to get to and from the stadium without taking their own vehicles. Some of the other planned green features are 100 percent reclaimed water, 50 percent solar power for the buildings, 40 percent less steel used thanks to the natural topography of the area, and 10 percent recycled building materials. The stadium will seat 72,000 people and will be located in downtown Los Angeles.

DOE Races Against the Clock: Two Solar Loans Closed, Seven More to Go

DOE Races Against the Clock: Two Solar Loans Closed, Seven More to Go:

The deadline to complete the remaining DOE loan guarantees is 48 hours away from the end of the fiscal year close.

The DOE just finalized a $337 million loan guarantee to Mesquite Solar 1, part of a 700 megawatt photovoltaic project as well as for the Crescent Dunes solar thermal project which includes thermal storage for $737 million.

That's two down but the there are seven more outstanding conditional commitments for solar projects. And two of them (SolarStrong and Topaz), as we've covered, are not going to make it.

Here's the list of projects that are likely leading to some long days and nights at these firms and at the DOE loan guarantee office -- In the free time they have that's not occupied by the Solyndra affair.

First Solar's Antelope Valley 230-megawatt project with a loan guarantee of $680 million remains in the pipeline.

First Solar's 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight project with a partial guarantee of $1.88 billion remains in the pipeline.

First Solar's Topaz project with a partial guarantee of $1.93 billion will not meet the deadline.

Prologis Project Amp partial guarantee of $1.4 billion could close in the next two days.

SolarCity's SolarStrong with a partial guarantee of $344 million will not meet the deadline.

SunPower California Valley Solar Ranch loan guarantee of $1.187 billion for the 250 megawatt project is still in play.

Fotowatio's partial guarantee of $45.6 million for the 20 megawatt Apex plant in Nevada is still in play.

The is also a wind (Nordic Windpower) project and a biofuels project (Abengoa) in the queue.

Note that this deadline is just for the 1705 program and that projects using newer technologies like CPV or new inverters can take advantage of the 1703 program. This interview with Jonathan Silver of the DOE by the folks at GigaOm does a good job of explaining some of the intricacies of the loan guarantee program.

The two solar projects that have just reached the finish line:

Sempra Generation's massive 700-megawatt Mesquite Solar project, located near Phoenix, Arizona with Zachry Holdings as the EPC and Suntech as the panel supplier for the initial 200-megawatt (DC) phase of the build. The project is located near the Hassayampa 500-kV switchyard, a major transmission hub with access to southwestern U.S. markets. Transmission upgrades and site grading for the entire project have been completed in advance on the flat, privately held land. A 20-year power purchase agreements has been signed with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for the first phase of the project. When completed in 2013, Mesquite Solar I will be one of the largest photovoltaic solar installations in North America. The project will use "a non-trivial" number of Pluto panels, Suntech's high-efficiency PV panels. Mesquite will use transformer-less and liquid cooled inverter technology from Advanced Energy.

SolarReserve of Santa Monica, California closed a $140 million venture round in 2008 and just closed a $737 million loan guarantee from the DOE for a 110-megawatt molten salt storage power tower with more than 10 hours of thermal energy storage. This will be the tallest molten salt tower in the world, according to the DOE website. The firm licenses the molten salt power tower solar technology from Rocketdyne, a division of Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of UTC. SolarReserve has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy for this project.

According to this chart from the Las Vegas Review Journal the PPA price for the Crescent Dunes project is $0.135 per kilowatt-hour

Will the DOE be able to close the other five projects?

Will Solyndra take a further toll on these lower-risk solar projects?

And will solar thermal projects be financeable in the future absent a loan guarantee?

We'll be able to answer at least two of those questions in the next 48 hours.

***

Here are some detailed stats on the Crescent Dunes project courtesy of Brett Prior at GTM Research:

Project Name: Crescent Dunes

Developer: SolarReserve

Technology: Power Tower

Capacity: 110 megawatts

Location: Tonopah, Nevada

Total Capital Cost: $983 million

Capital Cost: $8.93 per watt

Capacity Factor: 55 percent

Solar Resource: 2685 kWh/m^2/yr

Electricity generation: 480 GWh/yr

Solar-to-Electricity Efficiency: 17%

Acres: 1600 = 15 acres per megawatt

Cooling Method: Hybrid

EPC: UTC Pratt & Whitney

Operator: SolarReserve

Electricity Purchaser: NV Energy

Construction jobs: 600

O&M jobs: 45

# of heliostats/mirrors: 17170

Tower Height: 165 meters

Heat transfer fluid:Molten salt

Inlet Temperature (°C) 288 °C

Outlet Temperature (°C) 566 °C

Temp Difference 278 °C

Storage (hrs) 10

Break ground Oct-11

On line Jul-2013

PPA Date Dec-09

PPA Rate ($/kWh) $0.135/kWh

PPA/Tariff Period (yrs) 25

PPA approved by PUC Y

Land Type Public

Fast-tracked Y

Draft EIS 9/3/10

Record of Decision 12/21/10

Notes Thermal storage efficiency 99%

Monday, September 26, 2011

New SolarWindows Would Be First See-Through Windows To Generate Electricity

New SolarWindows Would Be First See-Through Windows To Generate Electricity:

Solar technologies are constantly evolving, becoming more and more effective as new designs and discoveries are made in the field. New Energy Technologies continues this trend with the advent of their new product, the SolarWindow. The new windows will be the first see-through windows that can also generate electricity through a specially designed spray put on the window.

They are developing six different types of SolarWindows for different situations:

Commercial- A flat glass window for installation in commercial buildings

Structural Glass- Structural glass walls and curtains for tall structures

Architectural Glass- Textured and decorative interior glass walls, room dividers, etc.

Residential- Window glass for installation in residential homes

Flex- Flexible films that can be applied to existing windows

BIPV- Building product components associated with building-integrated-photovoltaic(BIPV) applications in homes, buildings, and office towers.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

7 Places Poo Will Power the Future

In the not-so-distant future, don't be surprised if you find poo providing energy in any of these places. Read more

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Scientists Developing Fuel Cell that Generates Power While Cleaning Nuclear Waste

Scientists Developing Fuel Cell that Generates Power While Cleaning Nuclear Waste:

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have isolated and explained the phenomenon that causes microbes to generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste. The team is hoping to use their findings to create a microbial fuel cell that is capable of generating renewable energy while it cleans up environments exposed to nuclear waste. The bacteria the team studied is a kind of geobacter that is covered in a coat of tiny, natural nanowires that protect the bacteria from the toxic materials. The nanowires are also the essential elements in immobilizing radioactive material and preventing it from seeping into the groundwater. While completing the complex task of stabilizing radioactive spills, the bacteria simultaneously creates energy that can be harnessed and used as a zero-emissions power supply.

nuclear waste, nuclear energy, fuel cell, microbial fuel cell, nuclear power, nuclear spill, nuclear disaster, toxic waste, toxic spill, toxic clean up

Read the rest of Scientists Developing Fuel Cell that Generates Power While Cleaning Nuclear Waste

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

ENN Group Wants to Invest Billions in US Clean Energy Projects

ENN Group Wants to Invest Billions in US Clean Energy Projects: China's ENN group plans to invest $8 billion in US clean energy projects over the next decade, according to reports.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Concentrated solar power plants are all wet

Concentrated solar power plants are all wet: "

by John Farrell.

Concentrating solar has promised big additions to
renewable energy production with the additional benefit of energy
storage—saving sun power for nighttime—but there’s a catch. Most of the new power plants are big water users despite being planned for desert locations.

With solar photovoltaic (PV) prices dropping so rapidly, does concentrating solar still make sense?

Concentrating solar thermal power uses big mirrors to focus sunlight
and make electricity. Think kids with magnifying glasses, but making
power instead of frying ants. The focused sunlight makes heat, the heat makes steam, and the steam powers a turbine to make electricity. In “wet-cooled” concentrating solar power plants, more water is used to make power than in any other kind of power plant. The following chart illustrates the
amount of water used to produce power from various technologies:

Water consumption can be cut dramatically
by using “dry-cooling,” but this change increases the cost per
kilowatt-hour (kWh) of power generated from concentrating solar power
(CSP). In the 2009 report “Juice from Concentrate,”
the World Resources Institute reports that the reduction in water
consumption adds 2-10 percent to levelized costs and reduces the power
plant’s efficiency by up to 5 percent.

Let’s see how that changes Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s original
levelized cost comparison between CSP and solar PV. Here’s the
original chart comparing PV projects to CSP projects, with no discussion
of water use or energy storage:

To make the comparison tighter, we’ll
hypothetically transform the CSP plants from wet-cooled to dry-cooled,
adjusting the levelized cost of power.

Using the midpoint of each estimate from “Juice from Concentrate” (6 percent increase to levelized costs and 2.5 percent efficiency
reduction), the change in the cost per kWh for dry-cooling instead of
wet-cooling is small but significant. For example, all three
concentrating solar power projects listed in the chart are wet-cooled
power plants. With a 6 percent increase in costs from dry-cooling and a 2.5 percent
reduction in efficiency, the delivered cost of electricity would rise by
approximately 1.7 cents per kWh.

The following chart, modified from an earlier post, illustrates the comparison:

With the increased costs to reduce water
consumption, CSP’s price is much less competitive with PV. A distributed solar PV program by Southern
California Edison has projected levelized costs of 17 cents per kWh for
1-2 megawatt solar arrays, and a group purchase program for residential solar in Los Angeles has a levelized cost of just 20 cents per kWh.

In other words, while wet-cooled CSP
already struggles to compete with low-cost, distributed PV, using dry-
cooling technology makes residential-scale PV competitive with CSP.

But there’s one more piece: storage.

Storage

While Nevada Solar One was built without
storage, the PS10 and PS20 solar towers were built with one hour of
thermal energy storage. Let’s see how that changes the economics.

To make the comparison comparable, we’ll
add the cost of one hour of storage to our two PV projects, a cost of
approximately $0.50 per Watt, or 2.4 cents per kWh. The following chart
illustrates a comparison of PV to CSP, with all projects having one hour
of storage (Nevada Solar One has been removed as it does not have
storage):

When comparing CSP with storage (and lower
water use) to PV with battery storage, we have a comparison that is
remarkably similar to our first chart. Distributed PV at a commercial
scale (1-2 megawatts) is still cheaper than CSP, but residential PV is more
expensive.

Even though dry-cooled CSP competes favorably on price, it still uses much more water than PV. That issue is probably why many solar project developers are switching from CSP to PV technology for their large-scale desert projects.

Concentrating solar thermal power had its moment of cost advantage a few years ago, but the rapid pace (and zero water use) of solar PV installations has quickly eroded even the energy storage advantage of CSP.

Want to save energy? Stop wasting water

China working on solar yaks

MIT Creating Low-Cost 24/7 Solar Power

MIT Creating Low-Cost 24/7 Solar Power: "(Source: Climate Progress) Researchers at MIT are designing a new method of building concentrating solar power plants with thermal storage that they say could lower the cost of energy by 50% compared with existing technologies.
Last month, a 19.9 MW power-tower concentrating"

Monday, June 20, 2011

Price of Solar Energy Predicted to Fall to $1 Per Watt by 2013

Price of Solar Energy Predicted to Fall to $1 Per Watt by 2013: "

According to a report released today from the independent consulting firm Ernst & Young, the price of solar energy per watt is expected to fall to $1 by 2013, down from $2 in 2009. The association says in a recent report that the price per watt of solar energy is already down to $1.50 in 2011 and should continue to fall in the near future reflecting reductions in the cost of materials and advancements in efficiency. The report notes that though the price of solar power may be high right now, if governments around the world invest in the infrastructure to support solar power they will be ready to take full advantage of the sun’s energy by the time it becomes more affordable.

solar energy cost, solar power cost, solar panel cost, solar cell cost, solar array cost, how much does solar power cost, solar power per watt, solar energy per watt, renewable energy cost, grid parity, solar energy grid parity

The Price of Solar Energy Predicted to Fall to $1 Per Watt by 2013

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