Fusion Power Experiment Readied July 7, 2009
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives.Tags: fusion energy, hydrogen power, Ian Hutchinson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, MIT, National Ignition Facility
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The $14 billion ITER project in France is hoping to demonstrate fusion – in 2014. But researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA hope to achieve that goal much earlier, hopefully before the end of 2009.
In a sprawling building covering the area of three football fields, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is taking shape. The LLNL approach will use 192 powerful lasers to heat a 2 millimeter hydrogen pellet to a temperature of 100 million °C and a density 100 times that of lead–enough to start a fusion reaction. The planned experiment will only fire the lasers for less than 20 nanoseconds, but the hopes are that will be enough to fuse the hydrogen into helium, with a release of releasing neutrons and x-rays.
If it all works, the lasers will deliver a pulse of power 500 times greater than the peak electricity-generating capacity of the United States. The pulse will ignite the thermonuclear explosion–essentially creating a tiny star.
The resulting chain reaction should continue to burn until the hydrogen fuel runs out, and demonstrate the way forward for a lasting supply of energy. That is, if the system can be made more efficient. While the fusion energy is more than the power of laser energy, it will take 10 times more power to generate the reaction than it will give off.
“Even if NIF is as successful as hoped, they’ll still be a very long way from being in a position to turn this into a practical energy source,” says Ian Hutchinson, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT. But it will, as he says, be “an incredibly impressive technological achievement.”
source: Technology Review/Igniting Fusion, by Kevin Bullis
Energy Saving Parking Solution July 5, 2009
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives, building green.Tags: energy savings, robotic garage, Robotic Parking, William A. Berry & Son
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Energy savings is not just about better fuel choices or smaller cars. Companies are also introducing innovation in building design and development. Robotic Parking is one way to reduce auto fuel usage and reduce emissions by building parking structures with fewer materials and less stress on the environment.
With a robotic garage, the operator can park twice the number of cars in the same space as a conventional garage – or use half the space to park the same number of cars. It does this by removing the ramps and aisles needed to self-park.
According to William A. Berry & Son, Inc, a Boston-based building construction firm that does installations,
“patrons pull into an entry/exit portal that resembles a garage door and stop on a pallet system. Patrons then turn off their car, take their keys and exit their vehicle. Inside the portal is a computer system where patrons scan their card (either a credit card or parking card) and watch as their vehicle is transferred from the pallet onto a lift. Orchestrated by a master computer system, this lift moves the vehicle and parks it in an assigned space. To exit, the patron enters a well-lit lobby, where they scan their card and wait safely as their vehicle is retrieved and delivered to them facing out and ready to go. With its patented pallet system, robotic parking retrieves the vehicle in approximately two minutes.”
Imaging trading fuel of three hundred cars rolling up or down the ramps for an efficient electric motor. Imaging the fuel and materials savings erecting a structure that is half the size and one quarter the weight. Fewer construction vehicles working fewer days.
We’re not getting rid of autos for many of our cities – they just aren’t designed for public transportation to the suburbs. But having a more efficient place to put all those autos during the daytime when their owners are working can produce aggregate energy savings.
For more information on Robotic Parking, visit their website.
Dollar-a-Watt Solar March 1, 2009
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives, solar.Tags: cadmium telluride, CdTe, first solar, photovoltaics
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This week, First Solar, Inc announced tests for thin-film photovoltaic panels that dropped the cost per watt generated below $1 per watt. When First Solar began operation in 2004, they were manufacturing panels at $3 per watt.
First Solar, of Tempe, Arizona, is using cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology and needs to get the costs below 65 cents if the installed costs make it beneficial to be installed commercially. Solar panels generally cost $4.81 per watt in commercial quantities. (The lowest thin film module price commercially available is $3.57 per watt in a 60 watt module.)
Unfortunately, a Popular Mechanics review suggests this technology can’t scale up fast enough or easily enough to make much of an impact on national energy needs. CdTe raw materials are difficult to extract and require a great amount of energy to convert into a usable crystalline form.
Cyrus Wadia, a researcher with Univerity of California – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, warns that
“Even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10 years—slightly higher than the rapid growth of the past year — photovoltaics would still only account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity”
Wadia admits First Solar is capable of producing small quantities of solar cells, “But as soon as they have to start rolling out terawatts, that’s where I believe they will reach some limitations.”
And “even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10 years—slightly higher than the rapid growth of the past year—photovoltaics would still only account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity.”
sources:
popular mechanics
First Solar Press Release
Solarbuzz Module Prices, Feb 09
Carbon Sequestration Moves Forward November 23, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives.Tags: Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, CO2 storage, Department of Energy
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Montana’s Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership got a boost this week from the Department of Energy, which agreed to pay $67M toward the project’s $130.6M cost. The project will store more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide some 11,000 feet underground.
In earlier studies funded by the partnership, it was estimated that the area could potentially yield more than 3,000 billion metric tons in potential storage capacity.
This is the seventh commercial-scale carbon storage award given so far by the DOE.
source: ClimateBiz.com
Onsite Energy Generation November 23, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives.Tags: carbon-offset projects, co-generation, Feed-in tariffs, grid parity, Schuchard
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Should your company generate at least a portion of its own energy needs? Ryan Schuchard thinks so.
In an article for ClimateBiz.com, he looks past the recent drop in oil prices to the likelihood that prices will rebound in the next decade, and now is a great time to make the investments, when demand for the equipment is down.
In some regions, the cost of generating onsite renewable energy is already beating electricity bought from the grid. This “grid parity” is currently happening in places like California, Hawaii and Japan, where electricity costs are high and renewable resources are abundant. By 2012, Australia and Italy will likely achieve grid parity, and by 2015 much more of the United States will as well.
The costs can be covered in part with “Feed-in tariffs,” which require utilities to connect small, onsite renewable projects to the grid and pay their generators for surplus energy generated. There are options for funding in the carbon markets for carbon-offset projects.
Partnerships are also a good option to consider. A company could help fund generation devices on a partner’s facility and share the results, with excess returning to the grid.
I’ve heard of projects where the waste heat from manufacturing (in that case, a brewery) is used to drive steam turbines to generate electricity and then provide supplemental heating for an adjoining company.
Schuchard also mentions the value being able to stablize your operating costs by generating your own power. “Investing in onsite renewable energy generation can insulate your company from the shocks, scarcity, and rising prices of energy.”
Solar Power Prospects Dim September 7, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives, solar.Tags: photovoltaic, solar power
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According to an article in Scientific American, harvesting the sun’s rays for electricity production holds the promise of producing 2/3 our current and projected energy needs by 2050. “Converting only 2.5 percent of that radiation (that falls on the USA) into electricity would match the nation’s total energy consumption in 2006.
The energy in sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to global energy consumption for a year. The U.S. is lucky to be endowed with a vast resource; at least 250,000 square miles of land in the Southwest alone are suitable for constructing solar power plants, and that land receives more than 4,500 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of solar radiation a year. Converting only 2.5 percent of that radiation into electricity would match the nation’s total energy consumption in 2006.”
Unfortunately, that doesn’t include the costs to improve the technology. For this magic to work means a 50% increase in efficiencies: the article assumes 14 percent efficiency, but current state of the art is barely 10%, and efficiencies have been improving only slowly.
It also doesn’t account for the economic incentive to install that systems. The current break-even point means that the solar generators would have to cost no more than $1.20 per watt, and the current cost is $4 per watt. That means that when the article says it will cost $400B, the real cost is more than a trillion.
And you’d have to cover vast tracts of land, around 30,000 square miles of photovoltaic arrays. I know there’s a lot of open land in the southwest USA (the area around the Grand Canyon is pretty empty). But you’d also have to solve transmission problems.
In short, despite the opportunities for solar power, the prospects aren’t near as bright as they’d have you believe.
Oregon Wind Farm Gets Go-Ahead August 18, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives, Wind Power.Tags: Caithness Shepherds Flat, Shepherd's Flat Wind Farm, T. Boone Pickens, wind energy, Wind Power, world's largest wind farm
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The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council has approved construction of what will be one of the world’s largest wind energy generation plants.
The Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm, which stretches into both Gilliam and Morrow counties in north-central Oregon, is planning 303 wind turbines. At peak capacity, the new plant will be capable of generating 909 megawatts, more than all other wind-generated plants operating in Oregon today (889 megawatts). Until it is finished, the Horse Hollow wind farm will hold the title of largest operating wind farm in the United States, operating at 736 MW. (Texas oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens has plans to build a wind farm in Texas by 2014 that would reach 4,000 MW.)
The project is being developed by Caithness Shepherds Flat, LLC of Sacramento, Calif.
(This report from the Portland Business Journal, 28 Jul 08)
Energy alternatives for Africa August 17, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives, Wind Power, energy conservation.Tags: africa, biofuels, energy independence, solar, Wind Power
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“Africa is fast becoming an important player in cleaner energy sources. If only 0.3% of sunlight falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts can potentially provide all of Europe’s energy needs because of its intensity, how about everything else?”
With these words, Sam Aolo Ooko (a writer for Green Options), introduced a bold idea – switch Africa from eco-costly investments into planting and developing biofuels, but instead jump-start more developed continents by developing alternative energy sources and innovating conservation measures. He continues:
“How much wind blows from Nouakchott to Natal, and how much of this is ever utilized as an alternative energy source? How much water flowing in the Zambezi is used to power villages in Zambia and Zimbabwe; and how much more of the great Nile waters that flow into the Mediterranean can sustainably be harnessed to run corn mills in Nakuru and cotton ginneries in Jinja and Khartoum or fisheries in Cairo?”
Ooko quotes Ester Nyiru, a respected African economist, as saying “African countries are not using alternative power supplies since international combines do not encourage the switch; indeed, the use of such technologies may damage their business.”
Ooko is on to something. There are vast deserts with abundant sun and wind. In those regions, there is little reason to use oil and coal to generate electricity. Africa has vast coastlines and many rivers capable of producing hydro- and tidal generation.
Ooko’s future is hopeful: “Every single village in Africa can have cheaper, cleaner, sustainable energy and we can re-write every book that proclaims the end of poverty. Forget oil, alternative energy is the way to go for Africa.”
Predictions for Wind Energy August 6, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives, Wind Power.Tags: electrical transmission, wind energy, Wind Power, windmill
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A new report from the Department of Energy suggests that Wind Energy has the potential for being a major factor in meeting our nation’s energy needs.
The report is called “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030” and suggests that use of this clean and readily available source of energy. Wind energy, they say, could also avoid 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 by 2030; it could save 825 million metric tons in 2030 – and every year thereafter.
Today, the US produces 16.8 gigawatts (GW) with wind energy. Not shabby, but nowhere near the estimated 304 GW the DOE thinks we will be generating by 2030.
The U.S. wind energy industry invested approximately $9 billion in new generating capacity in 2007. This has helped the industry grow with a 30 percent annual growth rate over the last 5 years.
But for the US to reach this 20% goal, several things must happen. The US transmission infrastructure will need to be upgraded, to limit transmission losses from wind-prone areas to areas where the energy is needed.
And there will need to be more wind farms. The number of generating facilities must increase from approximately 2000 in 2006 to almost 7000 in 2017. OF course, that means process improvements are needed to streamline siting and permitting for new transmission lines.
The goal will also require improvements in reliability and operability of wind systems.
This report presents an in-depth analysis of the potential for wind in the United States. It identifies opportunities to bring the US to produce 20 percent of the nation’s electricity mix by 2030.
To write the report the DOE drew on the expertise of the American Wind Energy Association and Black and Veatch engineering consultants, and the report reflects input from more than 50 energy organizations and corporations.
The pdf of the report is available from the DOE website.
Biofuel from Sawdust July 24, 2008
Posted by OldGuy in Alternatives.Tags: dimers, monomers, Peking University, sawdust
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ABC News is reporting on a breakthru from China to turn waste woodchips into a petroleum substitute.
They report that “Peking University (Beijing, China) scientist Yuan Kou and his team have come up with a lignin breakdown reaction that more reliably produces the alkanes and alcohols needed for biofuels. Lignin contains carbon-oxygen-carbon bonds that link together smaller hydrocarbon chains. Breaking down those C-O-C bonds is key to unlocking the smaller hydrocarbons, which can then be further treated to produce alkanes and alcohol.”
Unlike other attempts, that use bacteria to create the starting material, or simply liquify a suable hydrocarbon, Kou’s method involves heating water above 300 °C at high pressures, using a platinum-carbon catalyst and organic additives such as dioxane to create monomers and dimers in the solution. Then the water is cooled and the fuel sources separate by themselves.
The monomers and dimers can then be refined into gasoline, diesel and methanol.
This is exciting research, but don’t count on it to solve the world fuel problem any time soon. this process has only so far been done in the lab, in small quantities.
Source: abc news online
