The 3 big players are solar energy, nuclear power CO2 capture/storage

December 17, 2007

Why did solar energy lose its flare?

Underutilized alternative source could curb bad gases
msnbc.msn.com

	Cells in most solar panels are made of silicon, which is abundant in sand. But demand in the electronics industry for silicon wafers has caused a shortage of high-grade silicon, which spells potential trouble for the solar industry. View related photos
Andrea Danti / Dreamstime.com

"Wind can play some role, as can biofuels and geothermal, but they are all too small," said Erin Baker of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "The three really big players are solar energy, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage."

Over the course of a day, the amount of energy in sunlight striking the continental United States is more than 2,500 times the amount of the nation's daily electricity consumption. Despite this potential, solar power is far behind other renewables, making up just 0.07 percent of the U.S. energy portfolio, according to the Department of Energy.

"Solar energy would have to provide 20 percent of the energy supply to have a climate change impact," Baker told LiveScience. "We'd like it to be more than that."

In a report released earlier this year, Baker and her colleagues looked at the technologies that might bring solar out into the full light.

Sand in demand
Solar panels contain photovoltaic cells that turn light into electricity without releasing any greenhouse gases. One of the attractive features of solar panels is that they can be relatively easily added to a home, as opposed to the bigger construction projects typically associated with wind turbines or other energy-gathering setups.

Almost all cells in current use are made of silicon. Although silicon is abundant in sand, it must be processed to make it usable in solar cells and computer chips. In fact, the current high demand from the electronics industry for silicon wafers has caused a shortage of high-grade silicon, which means the solar industry could have even more trouble trying to become competitive.

For a typical home's electricity needs, the cost of solar panels is several tens of thousands of dollars. Over the lifetime of the panels, this works out to about 30 cents per kilowatt hour, three times what most utilities charge.

To reduce this price, much of the current engineering effort is focused on making solar cells from thin films that either use less silicon or replace it with other photovoltaic materials. Baker said that many experts think this should be the first goal of research and development.

"We could fund a lot of people to look for other materials," she said.

Solar on the horizon
There are other ideas as well, such as organic solar cells based on cheap, flexible plastic. However, organic cells are currently inefficient at converting sunlight into electricity, and what's worse, said Baker, "they tend to fade and breakdown in the sun."

Some researchers are working on future "third generation" solar cells, which could employ a number of new technologies, such as lenses, chemical dyes, multi-layer cells or tiny quantum dots that trap more of the incoming sunlight.

But even if highly efficient solar panels could be made cheaply, they can't make electricity at night or on a cloudy day.

"The biggest problem for solar is the intermittency of supply," Baker said.

For solar to be a major energy provider, there will need to be better electricity storage. Giant flywheels or improved batteries could help smooth out the power flow.

Diversify
None of the technological options are sure to work, so Baker thinks policy makers and the solar industry should fund research into several possibilities, much like a diversified stock portfolio.

"You don't invest all your money in Google; instead you buy 10 or 100 different stocks," she said.

Interestingly, Google just announced plans to invest tens of millions of dollars next year in the development of a gigawatt of power from renewables, enough to supply roughly a million households. One of the companies selected by Google is eSolar Inc., which specializes in solar thermal power.

The ideal situation of communities running on renewable energy, creating jobs

December 17, 2007

Renewable Energy Powers Italian Town and Its Economy

Europeans believe that renewable energy will bring economic benefits. But in Varese, Italy that prosperity has already arrived.

by Jane Burgermeister, European Correspondent

Varese, Italy has added 140 jobs in the past ten years. That's pretty good for a town with a population of only 2,400. The town, which is located in Liguria in the northern part of Italy, is experiencing an economic boom fueled by renewable energy.

The town has seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.

Varese became the first municipality in Europe to get 100 percent of its power from renewable energy sources six years ago. It now generates three times more electricity than the people living in Varese need and there are plans in the pipeline for even more renewables.

For this pioneering role, the town won a prize from the European Union (EU) in 2004.

What has happened in Varese is unusual. On a national level, Italy is set to fall short of its EU objective of generating 25 percent of its gross electrical consumption from renewable energy sources by 2010. Italy's share of renewables was just 13.93 in 2005.

But the mayor of Varese, Michaela Marone, and her predecessor, Maurizio Caranza, turned their vision of a town driven by renewable energy into reality by leveraging funds from the EU and using their authority to cut through red tape.

The town uses wind, solar and small-scale hydropower, a mix best adapted to its hilly terrain covering a total of 140 square km — and it has plans for more hydropower.

Today, renewables bring not only environmental benefits but also improved living standards to a town that had suffered from years of steady decline. An additional 350,000 euros [US $514,000] in tax revenues is handed over to the council each year by the private company that owns the renewable energy network.

"We fulfill all the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and are non profit. We use all of our profits towards paying the electricity bills of the people in the town," Michaele Marone, the town mayor, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

Four wind turbines located on a ridge 1100 meters above sea level — where the average annual wind speed is 7.2 meters per second — generate 8 million kWh of electricity a year that is fed into the local grid managed by Acam, a power company in La Spezia.

The electricity from the wind turbines alone reduce carbon emissions by 8,000 tons, representing 0.05 percent of the region's total annual carbon emissions.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels have been installed on the town hall and the local school. The town hall has 102 PV panels covering 95 square meters and generating 12,700 kWh a year, which supplies 98 percent of the total energy consumption of the building.

Varese's secondary school has 39 PV panels covering 36 square meters and producing 4,600 kWh a year, which supplies 62 percent of the energy used.

In addition to that, the town's swimming pool is heated by solar power and a program to promote the use of wood pellet stoves is in the works.

In conjunction with the development of a renewable energy infrastructure, the town has also launched initiatives to make Varese 100 percent sustainable. A total of 108 organic farms now supply 98 percent of the town's food; water is purified using environmentally friendly technology and waste has been significantly reduced.

The town has seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.

Varese Not Alone

Although certainly a pioneer in Renewable Energy, Varese is not the only town in Europe to adopt such measures. The same thing is happening in many towns across Europe.

Güssing in Austria with 27,000 inhabitants has also switched to renewable energy sources — and has also moved from poverty to prosperity, underlining the potential of renewable energy for creating new jobs and new investment.

And it's not only rural towns that are forging ahead with renewable energy projects. There has been a marked increase in the numbers of cities across Europe adopting initiatives to cut carbon emissions and develop green energy.

Following Rome and London, Paris launched a new "Plan Climat" or climate plan on October 1st 2007 to reduce carbon emissions.

Munich, Germany has also developed a strategy for cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Beatrice Alcaraz from Energie-Cités, an association of European local authorities for the promotion of local sustainable energy policies that represents more than 500 towns and cities, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com that the driving force behind all of this expansion was EU policy.

"Municipalities have to adapt their national policies to the European directives, that is the European directive of public building. They also have to develop the renewables to achieve the EU energy and climate objectives," she said.

The EU is targeting urban areas because more than 80 percent of the European population lives there, and the energy consumption of cities is growing.

The latest figures from French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie (Ademe)) show that the energy consumption of French cities grew by 14.5 percent between 1990 and 2005 from 27 billion KWh in 1990 to 31 billion kWh in 2005.

"The rapid development of renewable energy in so many towns and cities across Europe augurs well," said Beatrice Alcatraz, speaking about how cities are combating this increase in energy consumption while keeping down carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

Though cities cover only 0.4 percent of the world's total area, they consume 75 percent of the energy and generate about 80 percent of the carbon emissions according to a study by the Münchener Rück.

Jane Burgermeister is a RenewableEnergyAccess.com European Correspondent based in Vienna, Austria.

Intel: Penny-sized flash drive holds 16GB

linuxdevices.com/news

Dec. 17, 2007

Intel has announced a flash memory companion module for its forthcoming "Menlow" chipset for Linux-based mobile Internet devices (MIDs). The Z-P140 SSD (solid-state drive) measures 0.7 x 0.5 x 0.07 inches (18 x 12 x 1.8mm), and will be available in capacities up to 16GB.

(Click for larger view of the Z-P140 SSD)

Intel describes its new SSD as "smaller than a penny, and weighing less than a drop of water." The part is "400 times smaller in volume than a 1.8-inch hard drive," Intel boasts, "and at 0.6 grams, 75 times lighter."

Intel Z-P140 SSD

The Z-P140 comprises a small 12mm x 12mm dual-channel PATA (IDE) controller module powered by a 32-bit RISC processor, and connected to the host board via a standard 40-pin interface. The physical connector is a 168 BGA (ball grid array).

Atop the PATA module, between one and four NAND flash modules can be stacked via a 122 BGA package-on-package (PoP) interface. Each PATA channel supports up to two modules. Currently supported NAND modules include Intel's SD54B 2 GB and SD58B 4 GB NAND modules.

Intel Z-P140 package-on-package (PoP) configurations with SD58B 4GB NAND modules

The Z-P140 parts have a standard PATA interface, and thus could serve as a drop-in replacement for IDE hard drives in most any computer system. However, the parts will be marketed initially at least for use with Intel's "Menlow" chipset for MIDs (mobile Internet devices).

Concept Menlow-based chat device
(Source: Intel)

Additional claimed characteristics for the Z-P140 SSD include:

• Read speeds of 40 Megabytes-per-second (MB/s)
  
• Write speeds of 30 MB/s
  
• Active power use 300mW (milliwatts)
  
• Sleep mode power use 1.1mW
  
• 2.5 million hours MTBF (mean-time between failures)

Intel calls the SSD an "optional part" of the Menlow platform. The chip giant announced Menlow in Beijing in April, a day after revealing its vision for Linux-powered Linux-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Menlow includes Intel's "Silverthorne" mobile device processor, based on a 45nm silicon process and "High-K" metal gate transistor technologies, along with the "Poulsbo" companion chip (integrated northbridge/southbridge).

Pete Hazen, director of marketing for Intel's NAND products group, stated, "Our customers are finding the Intel Z-P140 PATA SSD to be the right size, fit, and performance for their pocketable designs."

Availability

The Z-P140 is currently sampling, with mass production slated for Q1, 2008. The 2GB version will ship first, followed by the 4GB version.

Intel's currently shipping Z-U130 SSD connects via a USB interface. An SSD with a SATA interface will be announced as a product line in 2008, Intel said.

World's Firsts lowest-cost solar panel from printed thin-film solar

	Nanosolar Ships First Panels December 18, 2007 Posted by Martin Roscheisen, CEO

After five years of product development – including aggressively pipelined science, research and development, manufacturing process development, product testing, manufacturing engineering and tool development, and factory construction – we now have shipped first product and received our first check of product revenue. We are grateful to everyone who supported us through all these years and the many occasions where there appeared to be mile-high concrete walls in our path; the unusual intensity and creativity of our team deserves all the credit for achieving this major milestone today. Our product is defining in more ways I can enumerate here but includes: - the world’s first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product; - the world’s first thin-film solar cell with a low-cost back-contact capability; - the world’s lowest-cost solar panel – which we believe will make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as $.99/Watt; - the world’s highest-current thin-film solar panel – delivering five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today and thus simplifying system deployment; - an intensely systems-optimized product with the lowest balance-of-system cost of any thin-film panel – due to innovations in design we have included. Today we are announcing that we have begun shipping panels for freefield deployment in Eastern Germany and that the first Megawatt of our panels will go into a power plant installation there. As far as the first three of our commercial panels are concerned: Panel #1 will remain at Nanosolar for exhibit. Panel #2 can be purchased by you in an auction on eBay starting today. Panel #3 has been donated to the Tech Museum in San Jose. [These are obviously not the first three we ever produced – we have produced loads for testing – but these are the first three of what we consider our commercial panels.] Related Info: Nanosolar Shipping for Megawatt Municipal Power Plant Named Innovation of the Year November 13, 2007 Posted by Martin Roscheisen, CEO Popular Science magazine — which many of us read when we were little — just came out with its annual innovation awards. Our solar electricity technology was named the top Innovation of the Year 2007. Ranked #1 overall, we even came out ahead of the Apple iPhone and many other great technologies (and companies with much larger marketing budgets too in particular). It’s great to see our hard work — and greentech in general — recognized so enthusiastically! Now we have no choice but to actually make sure that there’s going to be a solar panel on every building in the future. See also: Popular Science press release, website

Israel slowly advancing towards an awareness of environmental hazards

December 13, '07 Israel to Reduce Greenhouse Gases (IsraelNN.com) According to Galei Tzahal, Israeli delegates in a conference in Bali on global climate issues will promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The delegates are expected to say Thursday that Israel will reduce its emissions beginning in 2012. The head of the Environmental Protection Ministry, Dr. Yossi Inbar, will tell conference participants that he cannot say at this time to what degree Israel will reduce emissions, but that Israel will sign an agreement specifying a percent decrease in 2009. Many scientists believe that greenhouse gas emissions are a central factor in global warming.

http://www.electroauto.com/info/pollmyth.shtml

The Israeli delegates will also announce Israel’s readiness to assist other nations in dealing with water shortages. Israel is internationally known for expertise in water conservation.

Israel Advancing with cars running on renewable energy

Hybrid Cars: The New Israeli Fashion?

Posted: 10 Dec 2007 07:23 PM CST

(Image: Volvo ReCharge plug-in hybrid, Credit: Reuters via Ha'aretz)

It looks like when it comes to choosing which vehicle to drive, Israeli's are thinking "green." Despite being a tiny share of the Israeli car market, hybrid cars seem to be gaining ground in Israel, which is a testament to their outlook on the environment.

(Ha'aretz) Sales figures of hybrid vehicles in the first 11 months of 2007 show a big rise in their popularity: 1,719 hybrids were sold. This is almost 1 percent of the total number of new cars sold this year, a 280 percent increase from 2006. [...]

Dror Goralnik, Toyota's sales manager in Israel, says the growth in hybrid sales points to an increasing awareness of environmental issues. "For many people it is important to drive an environmentally friendly car," he says.

Honda also credits its success to its advertising campaign, as the hybrid car has become a fashion statement, showing drivers to be concerned about the pollution they emit.

This probably should not come to a surprise, with Israel's own government considering electric cars as a way to become energy independent.

Israelis: 'Energy Towers' offer major source of alternative energy

'Energy Towers' offer major source of alternative energy By Deborah Frenkel December 07, 2007
Professor Dan Zaslavsky: We could easily produce between 15 to 20 times the total electricity the world uses today. Israeli collaboration with Exxon fuels hopes for a greener future Israel's Solel to build largest solar park in world in California Israel's Ormat makes clean fuel that is good to go Energy Tower		The Israeli inventors call it an Energy Tower, and if it's adopted worldwide it could become a major source of cheap electricity. So what is it? Project founder, Professor Dan Zaslavsky of the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the Technion - Israel Institute of Science, explains. It's a tall tower, 1, 000 yards in height and 400 yardsin diameter, located somewhere hot and dry with a source of water at the ready nearby - either the sea, brackish estuarine, or drainage water. The water is used to cool the air at the top of the tower. The heavier cooled air sinks downwards, gathers speed as it falls, finally powering turbines at the tower's base. Put simply, it's the principle of convection - warm air rises above cool air - a law so fundamental that it is taught in elementary schools. "It's a radically simple idea," Zaslavsky told ISRAEL21c. "We could easily produce between 15 to 20 times the total electricity the world uses today." Renewable energy is one of the hottest areas of growth these days. With global warming accelerating and fossil fuels expected to run out in decades, the hunt is on for alternative energy sources. The Technion researchers began work on the Energy Tower in 1983 and since then more than 150 man-years have been spent on its development by professors, engineers, PhD students and even the Israel Electric Corporation. They all agree that the project is sound in every respect except one - the lack of a major investor. "We need funds," says Zaslavsky. "The development stage is over; the work is viable. But there are a lot of obstacles to getting it off the ground." Ironically, one of these obstacles has proven to be the very condition that has allowed the research to flourish - a burgeoning global interest in alternative energy sources. It's a crowded market now, Zaslavsky points out, and with so much politically and economically at stake, "everyone has his own baby." This baby, though, aims higher than its competitors, and not just in a literal sense. According to Zaslavsky, the basic tower design could be easily modified to incorporate facilities enabling desalination, producing fresh water reserves at only half the cost of existing desalination technologies. Such reserves could then be used nearby for the production of bio-fuels such as sugar, for example, or used in fish farming, a remarkably energy-efficient form of agriculture. "We can produce cheap desalinated water, we can irrigate the desert, we can produce bio-fuel, we can boost aquaculture," Zaslavsky recites. His team estimates the running costs of the electricity for this project at 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than a third of the cost of electricity in Israel today, and far cheaper than any mooted alternative such as solar, hydro-electric or wind power. Such promise might be enough to convince anyone of the technology's merits. But Zaslavsky isn't done yet. The team has calculated that the towers may actually be able to reverse the mechanism of global warming. "There is a natural process by which the earth cools itself known as Hadley Cell Circulation. This naturally happens mostly over the equator, where air is already humid," he told ISRAEL21c. "But if we find a way to humidify desert air, this global cooling process can occur over desert latitudes too. And the energy towers work by doing exactly that." It's a compelling scenario. But none of these benefits will ensue, of course, unless the towers actually get built. And while the team has already identified regions in about 40 countries where towers could be viable - in the Middle East, Australia, North Africa, California and Mexico, for example - construction remains a far-off dream. "This technology is so fascinating and exciting," Zaslavsky enthuses. And indeed, the benefits the energy tower promises - a cheap, 24/7, eternally renewable source of power, combined with desalinated water, desert agriculture, plus some progress towards healing our planet's wounds - are undeniably huge. But will that be enough to launch the project? Interest has come from a number of investors in the United States, the former USSR and elsewhere in the Middle East - but as yet, no deals are concluded. So is there a real chance our future will be one of tower-power? "Oh, yes; in 25 years we could take over the world," he laughs. "But all we need is a chance today."