Blog Feed

Clean Energy and Climate Protection Bill Accelerates Electric Vehicles and Renewable Energy
Jun 30, 2009
For the first time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation regulating greenhouse gases. Due to intense lobbying by industries that would incur added cost, such as coal powered utilities, HR 2454 barely was approved by a vote of 219 to 212. New battles are ahead in the Senate for the Waxman-Markey Bill. HR 2454 encourages more electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and advanced batteries to be developed and commercialized in the United States. Should HR 2454 become law, cities will more rapidly roll-out convenient electric charging stations. If you want to buy a car with better mileage you will even get more cash for your clunker - $3,500 to $4,500 until March 31, 2010. The bill is also a win for United States energy security. HR 2454 explicitly states, “The status of oil as a strategic...
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Talking Trash
Jun 29, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - Ever wonder whether recycling really works? Or, how it's done? Last week, I found out -- by touring a material recovery facility (MRF) operated by Waste Management (NYSE: WMI). - The process in an MRF is pretty straightforward. The recyclable materials accumulated from various end-user disposal points -- for households, this would be curbside bins -- are trucked into the facility and then dumped. The materials travel along a maze of conveyor belts, along the way being sorted by various means -- mechanical shaking, blowers, magnets, and even some manual labor -- into an increasing number of streams: paper, cardboard, clear plastics (e.g., water bottles), colored plastics (e.g., milk bottles), clear glass, colored glass, aluminum, other metals, and general refuse. - General...
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Biomethane for Energy and Fuel
Jun 25, 2009
OK. I admit it. I am writing this article from a Summit about cow poop. No, this isn't a joke to get 8-year olds rolling on the floor with laughter. This is serious. I am reporting from the inaugural National Biomethane Summit, in Sacramento, California, where over 300 attendees including elected officials, government agencies, farmers, ranchers, landfill owners, facility owners and operators, technology leaders, researchers, regional planners, and carbon trading experts. Biomethane is renewable natural gas because it is from biological sources. In some areas, biomethane is called renewable gas. Biomethane is a low carbon fuel – CH4. John Boesel, President of CALSTART, calls biomethane “Our lowest carbon fuel.” Just like the fossil fuel version of natural gas, biomethane can be converted...
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Announcing Our Cleantech Blog Space Biodiesel Project
Jun 23, 2009
After the recent announcements about space solar projects, Cleantech Blog is announcing our Space Biodiesel project. "We are excited about space solar, it's like a moon shot - huge and available. Suprisingly enough, the near earth orbit biodiesel development rights have not yet been locked up." - SBP cofounder Alexandra Tesla, great granddaughter of the famed inventor of the same name. - So we are launching Space Biodiesel Project, Inc. The program will use solar thermal collectors in orbit and the massive heat sink of space to drive our heat engine providing electricity and processing biodiesel. "The heat differential is so great the cost difference will be game changing and allow us to produce electricity to supply wholesale to other space solar programs as a co-product of producing our all-renewable,...
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Energy - crisis and opportunity
Jun 23, 2009
‘Any plan to switch from gasoline to electricity or biofuels is a strategic decision to switch our dependence from foreign oil to domestic water'. - So says Dr. Michael Webber of the University of Texas at Austin in an interview with Steven Lacey on the Inside Renewable Energy Podcast this week. Webber comments on the links between water and energy, the potential conflicts, but also about the potential opportunities which arise when you start to understand these links and realize that saving water, saves energy, and saving energy saves water. - - The Podcast picks up on some of the issues I wrote about in ‘Energy Vs Water'. Ironically the water footprint of driving your electric car, if the electricity is generated at a thermal power plant, is much greater than the water footprint if...
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Just Say No: Climate Skeptics and Deniers
Jun 22, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - The community against taking action on climate change -- skeptics who honestly or otherwise question the science, and deniers who have already concluded it's all a bunch of bunk -- seems particularly strident these days. For instance, check out the harsh comments underneath this blog post reviewing the recent release of a report from the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program detailing the climatic changes that are already in evidence. - I'm somewhat knowledgeable about technologies to address climate change, but I'm less knowledgeable about climate science per se, and therefore less able to separate the wheat from the chaff in the climate debates. So, I was very pleased to when the Cleveland office of URS Corporation (NYSE: URS) and Ideastream recently hosted a...
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Bela Legosi in the House
Jun 15, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - - In a world where people are both tightening their fiscal belts and aiming to reduce their environmental footprint, the topic of standby power -- sometimes called "vampire loads" -- has gained increasing attention. - - Vampire loads surround you all the time, from just about anything with digital intelligence. These appliances suck surprising amounts of power all the time they are plugged in, even when they're not actually being used. - A recent post on the Yahoo! Green blog provided some very interesting statistics, developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. For someone paying 11 cents/kwh (pretty typical for the average American), a household can easily blow hundreds of dollars per year on vampire...
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Addressing Cost Concerns in the Climate Debate -- Focus on Offsets
Jun 10, 2009
By Lisa Jacobson - After hundreds of Congressional hearings and over a dozen legislative proposals, the House of Representatives took historic and concrete action last month to advance federal climate change legislation. Through a largely collegial and efficient committee “mark-up” of the American Climate and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), a deal was reached that earned the support of several conservative Democrats and one Republican. The bill establishes a national cap-and-trade program -- with opportunities for domestic and international offsets to help meet compliance obligations while containing costs -- as well as incorporating critical complementary energy policies. - The House is now poised to move the bill through other key committees with jurisdiction in June and could take floor...
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Peter Huber: Low-Confidence in Low-Carbon
Jun 08, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - A few weeks ago, I wrote here that it is often a good thing to read and reflect upon intelligently-crafted opinions that differ from those you hold. - A good example is offered by the essay “Bound to Burn” by Peter Huber, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In this thought-provoking piece, Huber makes the following interesting statements about the challenges to be faced in moving to a lower-carbon economy: - · “We rich people can't stop the world's 5 billion poor people from burning the couple of trillion tons of cheap carbon that they have within easy reach….We don't control the global supply of carbon.” - · “We no longer control the demand for carbon, either. The 5 billion poor – the other 80 percent – are already the main problem, no us. Collectively,...
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Fusion, Lasers, and Cleantech Research on a Grand Scale
Jun 08, 2009
Thanks to a friend who is an engineer at Livermore, last weekend I had a chance to visit Livermore Labs and the National Ignition Facility when LLNL had a once in 7 years family and friends day. All in all and amazing experience. - The highlight of the show was a tour of NIF, "the world's largest and highest energy laser". As far as I can wrap my head around, it's a massive building consisting of one single, tremendous piece of test equipment, hereby known as "that big fusion tester in Livermore". Which of course has its own mascot, Niffy, a replica of the baby mammoth whose remains were unearthed during the construction. - Essentially the entirety of NIF exists to hold and direct 192 lasers that after being pumped to full power can be directed at a single millimeter sized target (holding...
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Auto-psy
Jun 01, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - - as published to Huffington Post - - Lately, I've been listening a lot on my iPod to a number of pop songs from the late 1960's: “Wichita Lineman”, “Love Is Blue”, “Everybody's Talkin'”, “To Sir With Love”, “Classical Gas” and so on. These are some of the AM radio songs of my youth, sitting in the back seat of the car while watching the scenery go by. - My parents' cars were always big and always American – Detroit steel. Although we did own a few Ford cars, my dad generally favored General Motors products: typically Chevy Impalas in my earliest memories, escalating to Cadillacs by the end of his too-short life. - In addition to the music from forty years ago, I remember most of those long-ago cars very well. For some reason, circa 1968, I vividly...
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Top Utilities Grow Solar Power Despite Recession
May 28, 2009
By John Addison. Today, the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) whose membership includes 110 utilities issued a new report - “2008 Top Ten Utility Solar Integration Rankings” - which identifies the utilities in the U.S. that have the most solar electricity integrated into their portfolio. - The report demonstrates that the utility segment is making a major investment to increase the amount of solar energy in power portfolios, with many utilities doubling the amount of solar power in their portfolio in just one year. The installed solar capacity of the top ten ranked utilities rose 25 percent in a tough economy, from 711 megawatts to 882 megawatts. - The Top 10 Utilities in cumulative megawatts installed represent six states stretching from California to New York: #1 Southern California...
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California Needs Texas for Cleantech Success
May 28, 2009
By Joel Serface - May 28, 2009 - When I moved from Silicon Valley to Austin in 2006, many of my VC friends were left scratching their heads… Why would someone who has been leading the cleantech charge in California want to move to Texas?  After all, there was conventional thinking in California that there was no hope for Texas and that only the California-way would lead to cleantech success. - I had many motivations including helping Texas become a renewable energy state.  The rationale was this…. If you want the greatest leverage in mitigating carbon emissions, start with the most carbon-polluting state in the most carbon-polluting country in the world (this was before China surpassed the US in carbon emissions).  If you make progress in Texas, then other states and countries...
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Feed-In Tariff = Feeding at Trough?
May 25, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - One of the more popular policy prescriptions often made by ardent renewable energy advocates is the adoption of a “feed-in tariff” (FIT). - With a FIT, the government sets a price for electricity supplied by a qualifying renewable energy source, and the price is usually sufficiently high to produce a good return for the investor to install the renewable energy project. This, in turn, provides a substantial economic motivation for the growth of the renewable energy sector. - Supporters love the fact that a FIT policy provides a long-term, stable, predictable, and lucrative return on renewable energy investment. Naturally, this leads to booming markets for renewable energy where FITs are in place. - FITs are in wide use in many parts of the world – mainly in Europe,...
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The Efficacy of Biofuels from Algae on Cleantech.org
May 23, 2009
I usually don't do this, but a couple of days ago we had a post on Cleantech.org's Linked In group around algal processes, feedstocks, and the recent DOE solicitation, that engendered a lively discussion, in part taking off from the recent demise of Green Fuels. - While many of you know I am not personally a fan of algal fuels, I have posted it en masse, unedited, so enjoy, as the discussion ranges across a decent chunk of the issues facing algae processes and provides some food for thought. - - Urgent - Algae Oil Production or Algae Methane Production Needed! - We are completing a DOE grant application design to meet our Notice of Intent by next Friday and need to find one or two companies with a process to make Algae Oil or Algae Methane, or either, for our process. Please email any information...
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New Cars that Already Meet 2016 Fuel Economy Standards
May 21, 2009
By John Addison. President Barack Obama announced that automakers must meet average U.S. fuel-economy standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. This will be an exciting opportunity for automakers that already deliver vehicles that beat 35.5 mpg such as the Ford (F) Fusion Hybrid, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Toyota (TM) Prius, Honda (HMC) Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, and the Mercedes Smart Fortwo. You can buy these gas misers today. A number of other vehicles offered in the U.S. now come close to the 2016 standard, and will see mileage improvements next year. In Europe, over 100 models can be purchased that meet the 2016 standards, thanks to the popularity of cars that are smaller, lighter weight, and often use efficient turbo diesel engines. Over the next three years, dozens of exciting cars will...
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If Larry King Wrote My Column....
May 18, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - You heard it here first: the energy consultancy Douglas-Westwood is claiming in a May 11 white paper that “peak oil” may have already happened, as far back as October 2004, and that the oil price boom followed by economic collapse is indicative of how things will play out over the decades to come as oil supplies are unable to expand in the face of increasing demands. Stay tuned.... - The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) exposition WINDPOWER 2009 attracted 23,000 attendees to Chicago earlier this month. Glad AWEA didn't ask me to do the headcount!.... - Your stock portfolio isn't the only thing that's plummeted. According to a snippet in the March 2009 issue of Power, so too have PV prices fallen, by an estimated 10% since last October, with a further 15-20%...
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Biofuel Industry Hopes to Recover with Next Generation Fuels
May 15, 2009
By John Addison. Scientists know how to make fuel from prairie grasses growing on marginal land. They know how to make fuel from fast growing trees with root systems that extend 25 feet into the ground, sequestering carbon emissions and enriching the soil. They even know how to make fuel from algae. They do all this in their labs every day. The problem is making cellulosic and algal fuel in large quantities at costs that compete with fuels from petroleum such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. - This is my second article (previous article) from the 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals sponsored by NREL. 800 global bioscientists gathered in San Francisco to share their research and showcase their progress. - Their progress with biofuels from cellulosic sources is important....
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My Year as NREL’s Entrepreneur in Residence
May 14, 2009
by Joel Serface - I just spent an amazing year at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), but have no start-ups to show for it (yet). - - A year ago, I was asked by Kleiner Perkins to be the first Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at NREL. As a person who has been into energy and environmental technologies since gradeschool and as an early cleantech investor, it was an opportunity of a lifetime to become the first NREL EIR. It was a fantastic time spent with some of the best cleantech researchers in the world. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I tremendously added to my depth and breadth of cleantech history and knowledge. - The program itself was a grand experiment that I commend the Department of Energy for attempting. DOE's calculus was that if they inserted a serial...
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Blogroll Review: Corny Carpet, Cocoa Car, and Carbon Consolidation
May 12, 2009
Pretty much everything you eat these days contains corn, whether in the form of corn syrup, sauces, starch, or other food additives. Pretty soon, we will also get upholstery made from this plant. Already being used for biofuels, corn is also a chemical feedstock. - Joel Makower shared this story from his attendance of a gathering of investors and entrepreneurs in cleantech: - For example, there's a carpeting fiber made from corn instead of petro-based nylon that requires nearly a third less energy and emits nearly two-thirds fewer greenhouse gases. It is being manufactured at a repurposed polyester factory. - This is just one example of many, where businesses see as an opportunity to further sustainability goals into their plans. - Imagine eating your furniture once it's ready to be disposed!...
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Thank Goodness for Contrarians
May 11, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - - One of my favorite bumper-stickers of all-time reads "My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma". - In addition to being a wonderful word-play, the one-liner reflects my deep disdain for those who are far-too-certain of their positions -- whatever their positions may be. I haven't done any statistical analysis, but I often find that the strength of people's opinions is inversely correlated with their knowledge of the subject. - So, it's actually a service to be reminded by intelligent people offering alternative views with substantial supporting evidence that what we think we really know may not actually be truth. In the energy realm, I've encountered a number of articles by or about very accomplished and expert individuals who don't subscribe to conventional wisdom.For instance,...
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Biofuel Industry – No Money, No Respect
May 11, 2009
For the moment, the price at the pump is reasonable. A spike in demand or a terrorist disruption, however, will quickly remind us that we are desperately dependent on oil as we continue to consume 140 billion gallons of gasoline per year. Even in these recessionary times of moderate demand, we are running out of easy to extract oil from dessert sands. We are turning to sources of unconventional oil, such as tar sands in Canada, to produce oil with ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions. - For a while corn ethanol looked like a promising way to end our addiction to oil. Now we are like the character in a Woody Allen comedy who explains, “I used to be a heroin addict; now I'm a methadone addict.” At a time when a billion people go hungry, many as a result of disappearing water on this heating...
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Director of Congressional Bugdet Office on Cap and Trade
May 11, 2009
A couple of days ago the Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote about his Senate testimony on cap and trade revenue redistribution on his blog late last week. Worth a quick read, the main text below. The full 28 page testimony is linked in his note. It's worth noting that the homepage of the CBO has a climate temperature chart on in front and center this week. - "Testimony: The Distribution of Revenues from a Cap-and-Trade Program for Carbon Dioxide Emissions I testified this morning before the Senate Finance Committee on the distribution of revenues from a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide emissions. My comments emphasized these points: A cap-and-trade program would lead to higher prices for energy and energy-intensive goods, which would provide incentives...
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REDD – The Basis of a “Carbon Federal Reserve”?
May 08, 2009
Avoiding tropical deforestation - or REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in the parlance of the emerging policy dynamic - is the most mind twistingly complex endeavor in the carbon game. The fact is that REDD involves scientific uncertainties, technical challenges, heterogeneous non-contiguous asset classes, multi-decade performance guarantees, local land tenure issues, brutal potential for gaming and the fact that getting it wrong means that scam artists will get unimaginably rich while emissions don't change a bit. You can understand why back in 1997 in Kyoto everybody threw their hands up and just decided this was too hard to try. But the unfortunate failure to ascribe any economic value to living carbon storage means that forests – mainly tropical –...
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What the FERC?
May 04, 2009
by Richard T. Stuebi - The Federal government is a mighty bureaucracy, so it's impossible to keep track of all the parts. Still, few areas are as unknown by the general public as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). - The FERC (it's always referrred to as "The FERC") is responsible for interstate regulation of energy markets, which in practice means the transmission or transportation of electricity and natural gas. As a result, the FERC is going to be a key player in all Smart Grid developments, which in turn will be a key driver of a variety of new energy technologies -- renewable energy, energy storage, advanced meters, and so on. - President Obama recently appointed Jon Wellinghoff to be Chairman of the Commission. Wellinghoff is a long-time proponent of environmental protection,...
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