Renewable Energy World Blog

Posted on February 9, 2010 by NewEnergyNews

Another Nail in Nuclear's Coffin

The New Energy industries keep underestimating their growth. The most recent example is wind’s just announced unexpected 9+ gigawatts of 2009 installed capacity after predicting something more like 5 gigawatts in the face of the recession.

The solar industry expected to flounder in 2009 in the wake of the bursting in late 2008 of the Spanish bubble but surpassed its previous year's installed capacity, setting a new annual record.

In contrast, the nuclear energy industry keeps predicting a grand “renaissance” in which it recaptures its 1960s and 1970s glory. Yet its actual new installed capacity is virtually nonexistent and its existing facilities are wearing out and leaking. What new capacity is being built, largely in the developing world, is offset by the decommissioning of decaying plants. Except the piling up of radioactive waste, for which there is still no safe solution, anything increasing in the nuclear energy industry besides hype is getting progressively hard to find.

The Future of Nuclear Energy to 2030 and It’s Implications for Safety, Security and Nonproliferation explains why. It validates what visionary energy guru Amory Lovins has been saying since at least 2005: Nuclear energy has a lot of problems and nobody is going to risk the enormous amount of money a nuclear plant costs with those problems unsolved, especially when New Energy and Energy Efficiency are relatively cheap, safe and offer comparatively prompt payoffs on the capital invested.   continue

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Posted on February 9, 2010 by APanzer

Clean Tech in Hollywood?

The year is 2010.  An environmentally friendly president is in the White House, advocates of CO2 regulation are stronger than ever, and the world appears hungry for change.  This is the equation for a successful Clean Tech Revolution, a major battle in the war against climate change.  The problem… One of the most imperative parties has been left off the guest list.

Hollywood has proven time and time again to be one of the most influential players in the world.  The trends that have come from film and television throughout the decades have changed the lives of Americans and millions of others around the world.  The visualization effect is immeasurable.  The ability to watch characters they can relate to give viewers a high level of acceptance in day-to-day activities.  Friends and Frasier both illustrate this point perfectly.  By using a coffee shop as a meeting place amongst friends and/or family, a place to catch up on the non-sense of the day, habits in the real world have been forever influenced.  The “coffee shop” has become a part of American culture.  It’s no coincidence that the coffee shop boom took place over a time period similar to that when these two shows originally aired.  continue

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Posted on February 7, 2010 by TheMushyPea

Climate Confusion - Blame the Press

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand – which I have been trying to do – you will know that these are hard times in the climate change debate. There have been a couple of scandals and mistakes, and we have gone back ten years to discussing whether climate change is even real. Those who say that the evidence supports the idea that humans are altering the climate are under attack, with even sympathetic journalists lining up to say that scientists need to show their workings, and a little more humility. But these calls from the press miss a real problem with the climate discussion, and that is the inability of the media to understand and communicate complex science.

The reasons are obvious. By and large the media do not have the training, the time or the inclination to process papers and data, and so they need to ask the scientists to summarize extremely complex information in soundbites. At the same time, every normal twist and turn, every refinement and retesting of climate science is pounced upon by the press. ‘Does this undermine/support the case for climate change’, is asked of every single new piece of information. This forces scientists to state their views, to become political.   continue

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Posted on February 5, 2010 by ColoradoSolarSister

Continuing Walt's Mission

Solar Energy International friend, alumni, supporter, and instructor Walt Ratterman remains among the missing in Haiti. Walt was working there on a series of renewable energy projects with SunEnergyPower International for rural hospitals including Partners in Health when the earthquake hit.

Walt is an amazing, dedicated individual who was featured in Adrian Belic's 2006 award-winning film, "Beyond the Call." Knightsbridge International (KBI), a humanitarian relief organization which Walt was part of, has sent a rescue and relief team including medical personnel and "Live Find K9 Teams" to Haiti. SEI is asking people to please donate to these efforts, as the costs associated with moving these skilled and very dedicated volunteers and their highly trained canines and equipment is costly.

Make a donation by visiting KBI's Haiti page or via PayPal by going to KBI's website and hitting the DONATE ICON found there. You can also support Walt via Facebook by visiting Walt Ratterman - Haiti Mission. SEI's heart goes out to Walt's family and all the people of Haiti during this tragedy.

Solar Energy International will screen "Beyond the Call" at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11 at Dos Gringos in Carbondale, Colo. The screening is a fundraiser for SunEnergyPower International, which Walt co-founded to complete solar projects in Haiti.

Money raised supports search and rescue efforts in Haiti after the devastating earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12. Funds raised will also support future solar work in Haiti. There is no charge at the door, and donations are welcome.

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Posted on February 5, 2010 by ElisaWood

Podcast: Making solar more efficient

Lisa Cohn of Energy Efficiency Markets interviews Joe Grimes, chief operating officer of XsunX, about how the company has made solar thin film more efficient. In the lab, XsunX’s solar technology has reached 20% conversion efficiency, the highest in the world for thin film. The challenge is transferring this efficiency to the field.

To listen to our podcast, click here

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Posted on February 5, 2010 by NewEnergyNews

Sun Gets Even

One of the truest observations ever made about solar energy (famously attributed to Nathan Lewis of the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) by NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman) is that, unlike the emergence of the hand-sized cellular phone which was such a breakthrough people were immediately willing to pay whatever it cost, solar energy-generated electricity does nothing "new." People already have electricity. Why should they pay more for it?

Concerns about global climate change and other degradations associated with fossil fuel-generated electricity somewhat diminish the profundity of Professor Lewis’ observation. But only somewhat, which is why researchers at Cal Tech and many other innovation centers around the nation and around the world are working hard to achieve a grid parity cost for solar energy.

The grid parity point (also called the break-even cost) is defined in Break-Even Cost for Residential Photovoltaics in the United States: Key Drivers and Sensitivities, from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as the point at which the cost of solar energy-generated electricity from residential photovoltaic (PV) panels is even with the cost of electricity purchased from the grid.

It turns out residential PV electricity has achieved grid parity in some places and under some circumstances. But in other places and under other circumstances, it is far from parity. The variables influencing the prices of electricity and PV electricity are so wide-ranging that the grid parity point can be as low as $1 per watt or as high as $10 per watt.   continue

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Posted on February 5, 2010 by ElisaWood

Hot Sectors for Energy Efficiency

It’s clear that the energy efficiency industry is undergoing an unprecedented boom, spurred by state and federal support and movement toward a smarter grid. But for those in the industry, where exactly can the new business – and the jobs – be found?

Two new reports by Colorado-based Pike Research shed some light.

After years of focusing on bringing efficiency to manufacturing, policymakers are turning attention to deep retrofits for the home. Tax credits, low-cost financing, and other incentives make it easier for homeowners to install efficient heating systems, replace windows and insulate attics.

  continue

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Posted on February 4, 2010 by StephenLacey

EPA Lowers Cellulosic Ethanol Targets: A Sign of the Times

It seems like only yesterday when cellulosic biofuels were being championed as the fuel of the not-so-distant future. Corn ethanol was just a stepping stone, we were told. It won't be long before new, more sustainable feedstocks are used. Well, yesterday, that future was greatly extended into....the future.

In response to the technical and financial problems that cellulosic ethanol producers have been facing, the Environmental Protection Agency revised its 2010 mandate for next generation fuels from 100 million gallons to 6.5 million gallons.

Yep. That's correct – a 93.5% decrease in production requirements. That reduction wasn't much of a surprise, but it certainly highlights how badly this sector of the industry has faired in the last year.

 Given how tough it has been to round up capital, there weren't too many analysts who believed the industry could scale up dramatically in 2009 and 2010. Most of the problems companies have faced stem from the limited sources of financing. At the same time, these companies complain that the federal government has been slow to issue over a billion dollars in loan guarantees, making it difficult to attract financing.   continue

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Posted on February 4, 2010 by Joe_Walsh

Salazar Hears Wampanoag Worries on Cape Wind

It is an absurdly paradoxical photo, and a perfect fit in the tragicomic nine-years-and-counting Cape Wind narrative. A Coloradoan in a cowboy hat aboard a vessel in windswept Nantucket Sound, meets a New England tribe who have fished from and worshipped over the waters below for centuries, to talk about planting hundreds of windmills that will stand, spin and deliver energy long into the shared futures of the Coloradoan, the tribe and the rest of New England. Go ahead, choose your favorite literary, cultural, or historical theme and run!

 The Coloradoan, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, came by way of Washington, and was in town to give the Wampanoag what the Boston Globe described as “a hearing” on the Cape Wind turbine farm. The Wampanoag – representing two distinct tribes, the Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard and the Mashpee on Cape Cod itself – came (by some accounts) out of the woodwork as the public process on Cape Wind siting entered its ninth year.  continue

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Posted on February 4, 2010 by NewEnergyNews

New Energy Pays for People and Innovation Instead of Fossils

New Energy consistently beats Old Energy at job creation in study after study.

Wind Energy’s New Role in Supplying the World’s Energy: What Role will Structural Health Monitoring Play?, a new study from researchers at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory about the technical aspects of making wind projects work better, is a concrete demonstration of how New Energy gets its jobs advantage.

What it comes down to is this: The fossil fuel industries have to get the fossils they burn from the earth. They have automated the dirty and expensive processes so as to eliminate as much of the costly human components as possible.

As demonstrated in studies like Many Shades of Green, Creating Opportunity… and, most significantly, Greenpeace’s working for the climate, the New Energies use the richness of human resources to draw on the gifts of the natural environment. In doing so, they put people to work and nurture the innovation needed to better receive the gift of earth's powers.   continue

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