Cleantech Update

SOLAR Size of industry:Worldwide: $29.6 billion U.S.: $3 billion, accounting for 0.4% of the nation's electricity Major players: First Solar, SunPower, China Sunergy (China), Suntech Power (China) Potential: Could provide 10% of the nation's electricity by 2025. Worldwide sales could grow to $81 billion by 2018. Problems: Solar energy wonÕt be cost-competitive with other forms of energy until 2015Ñtoday it relies heavily on subsidies. Also, growth depends heavily on the development of nationwide power grids. WIND Size of industry:Worldwide: $51 billion- U.S.: $17 billion, accounting for 1.3% of the nation's electricity Major players: General Electric, Vestas (Denmark), Gamesa (Spain), Siemens (Germany), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) Potential: The industry seeks to produce 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030. Sales could hit $35 billion a year in a few years. Worldwide: $139 billion by 2018. Problems: Getting the electricity to major cities from remote wind farms will re...

The hydrogen economy goes down the toilet: Energy experts have mixed opinions on whether hydrogen might make sense as a portable fuel of the future. It can be made using electricity from renewable sources, which is good, but the process is inefficient and requires fresh water, which is already in short supply in many areas of the globe. All of which makes a recent paper on an alternate method of producing hydrogen rather intriguing. The method dispenses with splitting water entirely and instead generates hydrogen from one of the things that frequently ends up fouling water: urine or, more specifically, the urea it contains. Getting urea to break down and liberate hydrogen requires much less energy input, but still faces a substantial challenge: namely, getting to it before bacteria have the chance to metabolize it. The Rest @ ARS Technica

July 9, 2009 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which was enacted in February, permits an applicant to receive a grant from Treasury in lieu of claiming investment tax credits (ITCs) or production tax credits (PTCs ). Today the U.S. Treasury Department issued much-anticipated guidance concerning applications to receive cash grants in lieu of claiming income tax credits for certain renewable energy projects. Although the guidance includes a sample application form, the U.S. Treasury has stated that it will not accept applications until August 1. Click here to read the full analysis on this guidance including grant details, eligibility and the application process at www.stoel.com . The Rest @ Stoel Rives

Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines. Pickens has already ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall — taller than most 30-story buildings. "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace." Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric Co. — a $2 billion investment — a little more than a year ago. Pickens said he has leases on about 200,000 acres in Texas that were planned for the project, and he might place some of the turbines there, but he's also looking for smaller wind projects to participate in. He said he's looking at potential sites in the Midwest and Canada. In Texas, the problem lies in getting power from the proposed site in the Panhandl...

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP – Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger today toured The Bridge Business Center in Bristol Township, Bucks County, where $1 million in federal recovery funds are being used to install a modern energy system in a former Rohm & Haas laboratory. Secretary Hanger witnessed a milestone in the project’s development, as seven micro-turbines were lifted by crane and placed on the roof of a building at 360 George Patterson Blvd., where renovations are underway in the 50,000-square-foot, multi-tenant facility. “This is how recovery funds are making a real difference in people’s lives,” said Hanger. “In a community that has suffered from an economic downturn, we see this developer making not only a $4.5 million investment in adaptive reuse of a building on a designated brownfield site, but also in providing a clean, affordable and reliable source of energy for its tenants.” In March, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced the $1 million Penns...

HELMSFORD, N.Y. -- Coca Cola Enterprises signed a 10-year contract with UTC Power that will bring two fuel cells to its southern New York bottling plant. The UTC Power fuel cells will produce heat and energy that can satisfy nearly a third of demand at Coca Cola’s bottling plant in Elmsford, N.Y. The project received $2 million in funds from the state’s Energy Research and Development Authority . South Windsor, Conn.-based UTC Power will retain ownership of the fuel cells, in addition to operating and maintaining them. The company began offering the 10-year energy services agreement a few years ago, according to company spokeswoman Peg Hashem.“It’s helpful for those who don’t want to spend the capital upfront,” she said. Fuel cells produce electricity, heat and water by combining hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical process. The PureCell 400 fuel cells to be deployed at Coca Cola’s bottling plant are more than twice as energy efficient as traditional power sources and can ea...

A new design for fuel cells could make them fault tolerant and resilient to adverse environmental and internal influences.A team from Imperial College London is developing the technology through a project sponsored by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Current fuel cells are designed with electrodes connected in a series. The weakest link in the cell dictates performance and reliability. Imperial College chemist Anthony Kucernak and his team will redesign fuel-cell stacks so they can switch out bad units and allow the cell to continue operation. 'We will do it with a series parallel geometry,' he said. 'The stack will look like a normal stack but the electrodes will be in parallel with one another. 'While electrodes in a current fuel-cell stack are integrated with one expensive insulated gate bipolar transistor, the Imperial team proposes integrating less expensive multiple field-effect transistors with each and every electrode in the sta...

Charlottesville to be First City in Dominion Virginia Power's 'Smart Grid' Network Innovative program opens doors to wide range of energy conservation options Press Release June 18, 2009 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Charlottesville has been selected as the first city in Virginia and one of the first in the nation to benefit from "smart grid" technology that will make the delivery of electricity more efficient and less costly while improving customer service. Smart grid capabilities also will promote energy conservation and environmental responsibility. Dominion Virginia Power executives joined Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, University of Virginia President John Casteen, state and local officials, and private industry partners today to unveil SmartGrid Charlottesville. The $20 million program begins with the installation of about 46,500 "smart meters" in the city of Charlottesville and Albermarle County. More than half of the meters have been installed, with completi...

The Administration is trying to publicize funding for Geothermal and Solar Recovery Act Funding projects: So far, it is putting the funds in the hands of government , not business, and these institutions are inceted to make the programs last as long as possible, not to be profitbale. When I Read these Funding Opportunities , it seems to me that 16 of the 18 opportunities are for research and development or demonstrations of technology we already know works. Yes, we will learn new things Yes, contractors who put up the demonstrations will earn money for the one project; maybe they will even get more contracts. Yes Solar manufacturing plants, even thinfilm plants will be built It is a hit near the target, but sorry sir, no cigar. Geothermal A Geothermal mapping program is a good idea, but lets generate some economy NOW by granting energy companies money to build plants in the places we already know they will work, like they Texas Gulf Coast, Northern California. Make them pay the money...

In 1996, a sagging power line in Oregon brushed against a tree, and within minutes 12 million customers in eight states lost power. Such is the vulnerability of today's power grid. To address this weakness, Berkeley Lab scientists are helping to develop a new approach to power generation in which a cluster of small, on-site generators serves office buildings, industrial parks, and homes. Called a microgrid, the system could help shoulder the nation's growing thirst for electricity — estimated to jump by almost 400 gigawatts by 2025 — without overburdening aging transmission lines or building the 1,000 new power plants required to meet this demand. And it may make statewide blackouts a thing of the past, or at least ensure that service to critical equipment is maintained. "Catastrophic loss of power to all systems like the 1996 blackout should be impossible," says Chris Marnay, an energy scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. ...

Signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, President Barack Obama has included a new tax credit to encourage investment in efficient energy production equipment manufacturing facilities. A new 30% investment tax credit is available for projects that establish, re-equip or expand manufacturing facilities for fuel cells, micro-turbines, renewable fuel refineries and blending facilities, energy saving technologies, smart grid technologies and solar, wind and geothermal technologies. In addition, as part of the Act, close to $17 billion of funding for the Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The funding is a nearly tenfold increase for EERE, which is expected to use the bulk of the new funding in direct grants and rebates, although $2.5 billion will support its applied research, development and deployment activities, including $800 million for biomass. A further $400 million will support the establishment of an agency to suppo...

On Tuesday, Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi will announce a proposal for a five-year, $50 million spending program designed to boost the state’s clean energy sector, mainly by providing seed grants for early-stage technologies, retraining experienced entrepreneurs from other industries to navigate the energy business, and overhauling vocational-ed programs. Investors and executives are greeting the proposal as a breakthrough for the clean energy business in Massachusetts. But to raise money for the program, DiMasi proposes taking money away from an existing renewable energy program, funded by a surcharge on residential ratepayers’ electric bills, that supports construction of solar, wind, and hydropower facilities through grants and rebates. The Rest of the Article from Xconomy

THis is the House Bill H.R.1 These amounst may change as the House and Senete reconcile the bills ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research Development, Demonstration and Deployment Recovery funding: $2.000 billion Renewable energy and energy efficiency research, development, demonstration and deployment can contribute to strengthening the United States' energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. This funding provides for activities to support this goal, including $800 million for projects related to biomass and $400 million for geothermal activities and projects. The remaining $800 million will be used for base program activities, such as research and demonstrations for additional renewable energy technologies, including water power and solar energy, and energy efficiency demonstrations for industrial and commercial practices, such as combined heat and power projects. These funds may also be used to accelerate resear...

A hefty portion of President Obama's $825 billion stimulus plan is aimed at generating a triple play for employment energy the environment: The House version of the bill, for example, would put more than $68 billion toward boosting America's green-tech sector, which could in turn reduce the average household's energy bill as well as our costly hunger for fossil fuels. But will the triple play pay off? Some folks on the sidelines worry that billions of dollars could be wasted on technological dead ends, while others complain that all this spending is just a greener shade of pork. The greening of American infrastructure Job No. 1 for the stimulus package, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act , is generating jobs. The plan would follow through on Obama's campaign promise to do that by putting billions toward the greening of the nation's infrastructure (which is in a pretty dark place right now). An analysis by the Center for American Progress ,...

[Jan 15th] House Democrats revealed their proposed stimulus package totaling $825 billion. As hoped, money for renewable energy and efficiency make up 54 billion of those dollars.The biggest proportion, $11 billion, would go towards creating a smart grid, which is dramatically shy of the $400 billion Al Gore thinks should be set aside. Here's a list of some of the larger energy incentives. $11 billion for investment in smart-grid technologies $8 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy and transmission $6.9 billion for energy efficiency help to state and local governments $6.7 billion for retrofits to federal buildings $6.2 billion for home weatherization, targeted at low-income families $2.4 billion for carbon sequestration $2 billion for loans guarantees and grants to automobile battery-makers Feed reported @ Ecogeek from Greeninc

Agni Inc has acquired Connecticut based GenCell Corporation , a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) developer and manufacturer, to complement AGNI’s Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) and biomass / waste-to-energy technology , in its bid to expand into the North American market. GenCell’s high temperature molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) capabilities are well suited for integration in many AGNI renewable energy systems. AGNI’s technology converts a wide range of biomass, biogas, or fossil fuels to hydrogen, producing electricity through its PEMFC based Integrated Fuel Cell Engine power generation block. GenCell’s technology includes a cost-effective fuel cell design that will provide AGNI with more efficient, environmentally-friendly power generation. GenCell has a proprietary fuel cell stack architecture that is "designed for manufacture" to reduce fuel cell cost and improve reliability, which in turn helps make fuel cells more economical and environmentally att...

December 21, 2008 If fuel cells are going to be the energy technology of the future, the state may have to jettison the regulatory mindset of the past. State energy regulators may stop the largest residential construction project in the state from using a Connecticut-made fuel cell to power the building. The project in question is 360 State St., a 32-story, 500-unit apartment building under construction across from the State Street train station in New Haven. The building will contain retail space, including a fitness center and a grocery, and enclosed parking for 500 cars. At nearly 700,000 square feet, it may be the largest single residential building ever built in the state. Developer Bruce Becker also planned to make it the greenest. Becker has included 20 energy-saving technologies — a green roof, double-glazed windows and other features — and hopes to power the building with a 400-kilowatt fuel cell made by UTC Power of South Windsor. He said if it all comes together, the skyscra...

This is the Executive Summary from the 2006 US Departement of Energy White Paper "Partial Roles of Ammonia in a Hydrogen Ecconomy" by George Thomas and George Parks. -Editor Ammonia has a number of favorable attributes, the primary one being its high capacity for hydrogen storage, 17.6 wt.%, based on its molecular structure. However, in order to release hydrogen from ammonia, significant energy input as well as reactor mass and volume are required. Other considerations include: safety and toxicity issues, both actual and perceived The incompatibility of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells in the presence of even trace levels of ammonia (> 0.1ppm). Given the state of the art in ‘cracking’ ammonia to produce hydrogen, there are many issues in the on-board use of ammonia similar to those identified for on-board fuel processors. Specifically, these include: high operating temperature (>500° C) Longevity and reliability of catalysts and other components (at high te...

By Claudia Grisales AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, November 18, 2008 States such as California, New Mexico and Colorado have sprung into action with strategies to capture the emerging clean-energy economy — with plans that range from marketing blitzes to statewide conferences to lure renewable power jobs. Texas should be and can be at the forefront of that race, according to a report scheduled to be released today by the recently formed Catalyst Project. "We should be winning hands down," said Colin Rowan, Catalyst Project founder and author of the report "Igniting Texas' New Energy Economy." But "it appears the other states are out-hustling us." The group, which was formed this summer, is a coalition of business, advocacy and policy groups focused on jump-starting the state's role in the new energy economy. Its report is aimed at the upcoming legislative session, during which a number of clean-energy proposals are expected to be introduced. Amo...