I must admit, I had kind of a difficult time finding stories to include in today's diary. I don't take this as some ominous sign mind you, I'm just putting it out there. Do with it what you will.
Louisiana State University is embracing biofuels:
LSU Dining serves hundreds of students every day, but the cooking oil used in one dining hall feeds something other than mouths — the University’s lawnmowers.
After it is used to make meals for students, cooking oil from the 459 Commons is converted to biodiesel and used to fuel the lawnmowers maintaining the University’s landscaping.
Facility Services has supplemented its regular petroleum diesel with biofuel for about two years, said Fred Fellner, assistant director for Landscape Services. The biodiesel is mixed with regular diesel to create a mixture called B20 or B30, which contains 20 or 30 percent biodiesel, respectively, Fellner said.
Today's obligatory poo story comes from China:
The manure from the 250,000 cows at the Huishan farm, located in Shenyang, China, will be converted into biogas and is expected to produce 38,000 MWh a year through four GE JMS420 Jenbacher gas engines. The energy generated will be sold to the state grid in China.
One of the features of the project is the utilization of fuel circulation. In addition to the use of biogas for power generation, the liquid (residual from biogas production) will be used to nourish the grass in the pasture, and the solid waste can be sold as organic fertilizer, thus the surrounding land will become a base for organic agriculture.
When the new biogas power generation project is completed, it will be the world’s largest cow manure project. It will not only serve China’s national economic and environmental development goals, but it also is expected to reduce about 180,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
It's not enough to create green energy. You also need to be able to transmit it. Caliornia took a step this week to accomplish that goal:
Southern California Edison (SCE) announced yesterday that the first phase of their Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP) was completed. When all phases are developed, TRTP will include a series of new and upgraded high-voltage transmission lines capable of integrating electricity from wind farms, solar and other generation resources to deliver 4,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3 million homes.
The completed segment of TRTP is capable of delivering 700 megawatts according to Theodore F. Craver Jr., chairman, president and chief executive of SCE’s parent corporation, Edison International.
SCE predicts it will invest $21.5 billion to expand, green and strengthen the region’s power grid over the next 5 years. A total of $5.5 billion is directed toward the transmission grid.
In the last few round-ups, I mentioned a push by the EPA to "recycle" brownfield sites and use them to house renewable energy projects. This push is starting to bear fruit:
As capable as he was of creating bold visions, Gregory Adanin could not have imagined this moment. The Ventower Industries founder stood atop a post-World War II-era industrial landfill, where the blue sky on that sunny Michigan spring day belied both the smokestacks towering on the horizon near Lake Erie and the grimy history of the ground underneath his feet.
The contrasts didn’t stop there. Gathered with him in this setting, which juxtaposed rural wetlands and farmhouses in one direction against old-industry infrastructure in another, was a small crowd of between 150 and 200 people. Among them, standing atop the 20th-century industrial landfill, was an impressive contingent of dignitaries that included Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D), U.S. Representative John Dingell (DMich.), and a host of other officials...
He certainly will remember it, though, and not because of who was there. On that day, March 30, Adanin and the assembled gathering were celebrating the groundbreaking for Ventower Industries’ new wind energy tower manufacturing plant, to be located in Monroe, Mich. Ventower is the brainchild of CEO Adanin, who worked to make the plant happen for close to two years, from the time he first started meeting with economic development officials, many of whom were present that day. The company aims to supply wind turbine manufacturers with towers.
The 115,000 square-foot plant, scheduled to come on-line March 2011, will employ 150 new workers.
It was thought by many that the approval of the Cape Wind energy project may spur an off shore wind energy movement throughout the country. Well, it's started:
The next day, in New Jersey, a company called Fishermen’s Energy launched a buoy to measure wind speed and temperatures to determine the best location to site turbines. If all goes as the company hopes, construction on up to 100 offshore turbines could begin next year, says spokeswoman Rhonda Jackson.
In Delaware, where another offshore project is in the works, officials also were watching the federal government’s decision closely. "People that I know were not doing anything else that morning, waiting for that announcement," says Willett Kempton, a wind energy expert at the University of Delaware. "It was a month of buildup." The Delaware proposal recently cleared a hurdle of its own when the U.S. Interior Department last month issued a "Request for Interest" from developers interested in locating turbines in federal waters.
Similar offshore wind projects are being considered in Maine and Maryland. Meanwhile, a Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium report last month found that 10 percent of that state’s energy could come from offshore wind. In Rhode Island, however, the Public Utilities Commission sank a plan to build eight offshore turbines. Regulators cited the high cost of the power the project would produce. Gov. Donald Carcieri, a backer of wind energy, called it "an extraordinarily short-sighted and narrow-minded decision." A 2008 report from the U.S. Department of Energy found that the United States could get 20 percent of its energy from offshore wind turbines, many of them in the Atlantic.
Iowa continues to become a leader in alternative energy production:
Clean technology company Fiberight announced today that it has started "commenced production at the nation’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant using enzymatic conversion technology and industrial / municipal solid waste (MSW) as feedstock." According to a company release, Fiberight converted a former first generation corn ethanol plant in Blairstown, Iowa to cellulosic biofuel production. Following a total $24 million investment, the facility will be scaled to final commercial production capacity of approximately 6 million gallons of biofuel per year in 2011.
One overlooked source of carbon-free energy could be hydropower. And apparently, it could be a substantial source of energy:
The U.S. has about 100,000 MW of hydropower capacity. However, a study by Navigant Consulting Inc. shows that the technical potential is around 400,000 MW.
The study estimates the industry could add 60,000 MW of new capacity by 2025. But NHA, which commissioned the study, said an increase of that size "will not occur without a series of changes to the status quo, including improvements in certain aspects of the regulatory process for hydropower development."
Up to 700,000 jobs could be created by 2025 if the potential for new capacity is met, the study shows.
According to the study, there are 5,140 MW of undeveloped hydropower potential in the NE US alone. If that potential was met by 2025, it would create more than 159,000 jobs in the region. Part of the problem is the various levels of red tape that must be broken through to build new projects. The Recovery Act included a 30-percent investment tax credit and grants for building new hydropower capacity at existing plants and non-powered dams.
The Department of Energy dished out a substantial amount of money today:
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the selections of projects for investment of up to $62 million over five years to research, develop, and demonstrate Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems capable of providing low-cost electrical power. This funding will support improvements in CSP systems, components, and thermal energy storage to accelerate the market-readiness of this renewable energy technology. Accelerating breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies supports the Administration’s strategy of diversifying the U.S. energy portfolio to increase our energy independence while fostering a fast-growing clean-energy economy.
"Developing low-cost, renewable energy generation is crucial to meeting our nation’s increasing demands for electricity," said Secretary Chu. "By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can create new jobs and pave the way towards a clean-energy future."
And, speaking of solar, researchers in Germany have made a breakthrough:
A team of German researchers has nudged aside a U.S. record for thin film solar efficiency, previously held by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at 19.9%. The new German solar conversion efficiency record of 20.1% is for CIGS thin film solar technology, which is based on a compound of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. According to a report in Electro IQ, the team from the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research achieved the result in laboratory tests, using a co-evaporation process that is scalable to commercial production – at least in theory.
Meanwhile, a U.S.-Korean research team based at Oregon State University is on to a new low cost process for manufacturing thin film photovoltaic cells based on a variant of CIGS, copper indium diselenide (CIS). Put the two together and we may be taking yet another step forward in making sustainable solar energy cost-competitive with fossil fuels.
And finally, somewhere Lindsey Graham is rolling over in his grave:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in a statement today that passing a climate and energy bill this year is "impossible" after the Gulf oil spill and the Democrats' new push on immigration reform. Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) apparently weren't listening.
Kerry and Lieberman released a statement today announcing their plan to roll out a climate and energy bill on Wednesday.
In their statement, they seemed to imply that events of the last few weeks had helped the climate bill's prospects: "We are more encouraged today that we can secure the necessary votes to pass this legislation this year in part because the last weeks have given everyone with a stake in this issue a heightened understanding that as a nation, we can no longer wait to solve this problem which threatens our economy, our security and our environment."
There was no immediate comment from President Graham.
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