Recently in Conservation Category

Image from: Inorg. Chem., 2009, 48 (21), pp 10001-10017

Earlier this year, JRSE reported on a New York Academy of Sciences meeting that included mention of Prof. Daniel Nocera's (MIT) presentation on hydrogen production. In January, I wrote:

Nocera recently gained worldwide attention for his recent discovery of an inexpensive, abundant, and safe catalyst that efficiently and rapidly splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The remarkable discovery has been covered in MIT's Technology Review and the New York Times, to name a few. Although some chemists have balked at calling the discovery "groundbreaking" it's hard not to get excited by Nocera's energy and charm. Nocera is willing to bet that a "personal energy production and storage system" (like one based on his technology) will change the way the world functions.

Now Nocera is making some more exciting noise. This time, he has just published an article in Inorganic Chemistry outlining his vision of the day when "personalized solar energy" is the norm. The article describes an inexpensive method of solar energy storage that could theoretically provide power for homes and plug-in cars—all without the need for a grid. Nocera explains that the demand for energy worldwide will double by 2050 and triple by the end of the century—concluding with "...a research target of solar [personal energy] provides the global society its most direct path to providing a solution for its sustainable energy future."

It's hard to ignore such a powerful voice in the research world, and if you didn't take the hint the first time, keep your eye on Dr. Nocera's team and their research.

According to the 2009 SCHOTT Solar Barometer,^TM solar energy has now become the most popular thing since baked potatoes (toppings? your choice). A remarkably high 94% of all Americans say it's important for the United States to develop and use solar energy. The findings break down along party lines like so:

• 98% of Independents, 97% of Democrats, and 91% of Republicans support development of solar
• 74% of Independents, 72% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans favor extension of Federal tax credits for renewable technologies
• 77% of Americans feel Federal government should make solar power development a national priority

Not to sound to cynical about a very positive thing, but... what the heck? Aren't these types of high approval ratings usually reserved for inoffensive things like cute little kittens or walks on the beach? I honestly don't even think kittens would have such a high approval rating. And I just have two words about the walks on the beach: broken glass.

The results seem to definitively say that Americans overwhelmingly want the government to push forward with solar energy right now. In fact, looking over the questions, there are no glaring flaws in the survey's methodology.

A few more interesting results from the survey:

• When asked to choose one energy source to provide financial support for:
  • Solar was picked by 41% of respondents compared to coal (3%), nuclear (10%) and natural gas (15%)
  • Renewable energy (solar or wind) was selected nearly 20 times more than coal.
• When asked "How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The development of solar power and other renewable energy sources, including the financial support needed, should be a major priority of the federal government"
  • Nearly eight in ten (77%) Americans say the development and funding of renewable energy should be a "major priority" for the federal government.
  • More Independents (86%) than Democrats (84%) or Republicans (75%) agree that such support should be a "major priority".
  • Only one out of ten Americans felt development of solar power should not be a major priority of the federal government.

Far be it for me to argue with numbers like these. I wonder how many Americans would approve of these numbers? One might guess that the support for the results of this survey would be far lower than the actual survey results were.

The Road to Sustainability (Physics World)

George Crabtree from Argonne and John Sarrao from Los Alamos give a us a view of what technology looks like when it's sustainable; they proceed to lay out an outline of what hurdles researchers need to overcome to achieve a truly sustainable energy economy.

Democrats Unveil Ambitious Draft Climate Change Bill To The US Senate (WorldChanging.com)

Led by Senators Barbara Boxer (CA, D) and John Kerry (MA, D), the Democratic congress has set before the Senate a bill that pushes for a 20% reduction of CO2 from 2005 levels by 2020 and an 83% reduction by 2050. Kerry and Boxer are stressing that the bill could create 1.9 million new jobs by 2020 and that decreasing the reliance on foreign oil will increase the security of the United States.

Energy Awareness Month 2009 (DOE)

October is Energy Awareness Month, a national effort to empower citizens to reshape the energy economy and be part of the solution to climate change. This year, the theme is "A Sustainable Energy Future: Putting All the Pieces Together."

1st International Conference on Materials for Energy (Dechema.de)

The program of this conference will cover current topics and recent progress in the science and technology of energy and new materials, including the nanoscale origin of macroscopic properties. All aspects of materials for energy production and conversion, energy storage, energy transport, and energy saving will be addressed.

Texas Completes $1 Billion Wind Energy Complex (CNET.com)

A couple hundred miles west of Dallas, 100,000 acres of land are covered with wind turbines. One of the world's biggest wind farms was completed and is now operational near Roscoe, Texas. The 627 wind turbines will provide 781.5 Megawatts to 230,000 Texans.

I'm allowed to be a little tough on the Cincinnati Reds. They may be16 games behind the Cardinals, but as an Ohio native, there'll always be a soft spot in my heart for them. So you can imagine my pleasure as I opened up an email this morning and found the statement: "The Reds' Great American Ball Park is among the greenest ballparks in the country." Reds win! (Sort of...)

The quote came from a recent press release issued this morning from the National Biodiesel Board, which quotes Red's outfielder Chris Dickerson, Kansas City Chiefs' quarterback Matt Cassel, and the Indianapolis Colts' tight end Dallas Clark. All of whom are members of We Play Green, a group that works to unite athletes in encouraging environmental awareness and promoting alternative energy. We Play Green was founded by Dickerson with help from Cleveland Indian Jack Cassel. That whole state is pretty awesome.

What the teams are actually doing are really just implementing some simple ideas, but because they're being put into place on such a large scale (for example, last season, the Reds sent 8,234 gallons of used cooking and motor oils to be refined for biodiesel), they can result in big savings. Plus We Play Green's bigger goal is to promote using biodiesel as a fuel, as well as to demonstrate conservation in practice to their fans.

The "green" changes at the Great American Ballpark include:

• Composting grass clippings
• Using biodiesel blends for facility vehicles, such as maintenance vehicles and equipment, tractors, and emergency generators
• Waste oil from kitchen and concession stands are collected to produce a biofuel blend

Visit WePlayGreen.org to find out more about all the athletes who contribute.

Read the original press release at the National Biodiesel Board.

For more info on the NBB's activities, visit they're homepage, biodiesel.org.

The most recent items highlighted in the "Energy Related News and Media Articles" section of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy website:

• Electricity Harvested From Trees (Livescience)
• First Solar to Build World's Largest Solar Power Plant in China (Bloomberg)
• China Racing Ahead of U.S. in the Drive to Go Solar (New York Times)
• The Battery Made from Salt and Paper (Wired UK)
• J. Craig Venter to Receive National Medal of Science From President Obama (JCVI.org)

RSS Feed for Energy Related News and Media Articles from JRSE

Regular capacitors are just ok. Supercapacitors, though, will blow your mind.

Well, maybe not, but they do have a much higher energy density than regular old capacitors, like the ones that you can buy at Radio Shack. Not just a little bit more either, but they can hold up to thousands of times more energy than a typical electrolytic capacitor (the ones used in high-current and low-frequency electrical circuits like power-supply filters or in audio amplifiers).

The point is this: supercapacitors—or ultracapacitors—could be used in electric-gas hybrid cars to increase their efficiency, according to a study done at Argonne National Laboratory. Technology Review covered the story.

"Ultracaps" can cut down the size of a hybrid's battery, as well as increasing the lifespan. Not to mention the lower cost and associated drop in price (TR estimated "hundreds of dollars of net savings").

Chad Hall, COO of Ioxus, a company which manufactures ultracapacitors, points out that the function of ultracaps is a little different from the battery, adding, "If you need to start a motor, an ultracapacitor is a good way to do that," he said.

For oh so long, arguments against implementing renewable energy have focused on cost. Of course, the financial cost is only part of the picture—the other part being the immeasurable cost of long term damage to our environment if we don't change the way we consume energy.

Normal old coal is dirty and cheap. Clean coal is still kind of dirty, but really expensive. Photovoltaics, wind energy, geothermal plants, are pricey, but very clean. Even with arguments such as this, the reality is that renewable energy sources are expensive to implement. There is hope, however, for a competitive market. It seems that prices have declined fairly dramatically in the past six months. According to New Energy Finance, a London-based research firm:

The price for long-term silicon contracts has fallen about 50 percent this year from a year ago and come close to the spot market price of $67 per kilogram, or about $0.50 per watt.

click for larger image

image from Dominic's pics on flickr.com
under Creative Commons

Adding to that, there is the Wall Street Journal, who point out that selling prices for solar panels have come down about 40 percent in the last six months alone. These lower silicon costs will hopefully result in larger markets for solar panels.