Denial: problems of hydrogen, nuclear coal energy - vs. geothermal, electric cars

September 2, 2008

The Elephant Under the Rug: Denial and Failed Energy Projects

by Thomas R. Blakeslee, Clearlight Foundation At the World Renewable Energy Conference in Glasgow I recently witnessed the strange phenomenon of group denial first hand. After a paper about hydrogen-fueled cars, some embarrassing questions were asked about the practicalities of storing and delivering hydrogen to the cars. The questions were dismissed and the questioners meekly backed down. I wanted to jump in and set them straight but keenly felt the group pressure to not ruin the party. I couldn't do it!

Groupthink is a strange phenomenon resulting from our deep genetic programming as herd animals: If our peer group is ignoring the giant lump in the living room rug, we will naturally imitate their behavior and walk around the elephant hidden there. We tend to be drawn into a sort of mass hallucination where everyone conforms to an unspoken agreement to ignore the inconvenient but obvious truth. We walk around the lump without consciously seeing it.

Group denial can be dangerous. The housing bubble and the dotcom bubble are recent disastrous examples. The loan officers, realtors, journalists, investment bankers and regulators that caused the housing bubble were all blind to the developing problem as they rationalized and convinced themselves that every thing was OK. It is now painfully clear that they were unconsciously caught up in a fantasy world of denial. When you're making lots of money, it's natural to think that you must be brilliant. Your peer group supports you and nobody wants to spoil the party. It's not intentional, just human nature.

I learned a lot about group denial eight years ago when I lost millions on dotcom stocks. It seemed so certain that those hot stocks would regain their past glory. I was drawn deeply into dotcom denial. There were voices speaking the truth then, but my peer group and I kept the faith and laughed together at them.

U.S. energy policy has developed several similar delusions where people are still getting rich pursuing failed projects that should have been abandoned years ago. Mare than half of our US $4 billion DOE science budget is being spent to keep alive failed programs. Saving face and saving contracts has made denial the order of the day. Billions in subsidy money finance a war chest for lobbying that keeps these programs alive.

Let's look closer at the denial of fatal flaws in three major DOE programs where money is being spent recklessly and entire industries, government agencies and journalists are in group denial:

The Hydrogen Initiative: US $246 million 2009 budget

Honda now has a few beautiful, finished-looking, FCX hydrogen cars on the road. But wait! How do we produce and distribute the hydrogen that runs them? The tanker trucks that replenish gasoline stations can carry about 300 fill-ups. However, hydrogen takes up much more space and requires high-pressure cylinders that weigh 65 times as much as the hydrogen they contain! One giant 13 ton hydrogen delivery truck can carry only about 10 fill-ups! By ignoring this fatal flaw in the hydrogen economy idea we have created the illusion of success that is grossly inefficient compared to electric cars. Well-to-wheel efficiency analysis of the Honda FCX shows that the Tesla pure electric car is 3X more efficient and produces 1/3 the CO2 emissions!

Group denial makes us ignore obvious but inconvenient truths like the inherent inefficiency of the hydrogen economy. It was overlooked when the project was conceived, which is forgivable, but now denial makes us overlook it when we should know better. Batteries charged from the grid are clearly a better way to go; yet the DOE budget for battery development is less than one-fifth of the hydrogen budget.

Electrical distribution for overnight recharging is already installed in virtually every home that has a car. Batteries can store and retrieve that electricity with 95% efficiency to drive motors that are 90% efficient. Hydrogen would require a whole new fueling infrastructure. But why bother? It can't begin to compete with electricity because the efficiency of producing, transporting, storing and then converting hydrogen to electricity with a fuel cell is pathetic by comparison.

When I have a writing deadline it gives me great energy for fixing things around the house to avoid facing the real problem. That's exactly what we have done in the hydrogen initiative. We had great fun creating a nifty looking car. Now if we could just figure out a way to get fuel to it that is competitive with charging a battery we would really have something.

Nuclear Power: US $1.4 Billion 2009 budget, $44 billion spent so far

The heavily subsidized nuclear industry died in 1979 when the Three-mile island and Chernobyl accidents made it painfully clear that the radioactive substances used were just too dangerous to be spread all over the map. Both accidents could have been much worse had a real meltdown occurred.

Denial has become easier today as memories fade it is much easier to pretend there is no problem and get on board the "nuclear renaissance." It's very similar to the recent housing bubble (renaissance), which was only possible because memories of the previous housing bubble that burst in 1990 had faded. The federal government bailout from our housing bubble may cost a trillion dollars before we are through. Amazingly, the "nuclear renaissance" is built on the promise of a similar bailout included in the 2005 energy bill: Nuclear accidents will have a maximum liability to the builder of only US $10.9 billion. If there is a meltdown, taxpayers have been generously volunteered to pay for any excess damages! Sandia estimated that damages could reach US $600 billion but we are optimistic because our memories have faded since the last disaster.

The 9/11 attacks showed us how easily a meltdown could be arranged by a well-aimed terrorist-hijacked airliner crash. In fact, if you're a terrorist, the possibilities with nuclear fuel and waste stored all over the map will be endless. The "nuclear renaissance" will be a bonanza for terrorists.

A Safe Way to Harness Nuclear Power

Nuclear elements in the earth are continually decaying, producing so much heat that the core of the earth is about 6000°C, hotter than the surface of the sun. In fact, 99.9% of the earth's volume is hot enough to boil water. We can generate all the electric power we need from that heat by simply drilling through the earth's crust and using water to carry the underground heat up to turbine generators on the earth's surface. This way we leave the dangerous radioactive elements where they are and simply use the heat they naturally generate to run our power plants.

This may sound like an impossible dream, but it is already being done profitably, producing 10 gigawatts of electricity worldwide at costs competitive with coal. It is called geothermal power generation. The source of heat in geothermal power is the decay of uranium and thorium in rocks safely sequestered underground. It is crazy is to dig these dangerous elements out, concentrate them and ship them to dangerous reactors just to boil water to run generators.

With geothermal power we boil the water by sending it down a well to the hot rocks. Steam comes out of a second well nearby and drives a turbine generator. Simple and safe! The steam is condensed and recycled, so water consumption is minimal. No pollution no dangerous waste and no fuel cost. What's the catch? Geothermal power is as cheap as coal in areas where the earth's crust is thin but drilling costs currently make it too expensive in most parts of the world. A breakthrough in drilling technology could make it practical everywhere.

Geothermal drilling is expensive mainly because we are using technology developed for oil exploration. Geothermal power requires deeper, larger holes, often through hard rock. If just 5% of the US $70 billion in federal money already lavished on nuclear power had been spent on drilling technology, we could have geothermal power virtually anywhere today. Hydrothermal spalling technology is capable of drilling five times faster through hard rock but zero federal money is available for its development. Google recently made a US $11 million investment in this technology.

No new nuclear power plants have been built in thirty years. The few plants now under construction are years behind schedule and billions over budget. Any plants in planning today will not be complete until at least 2020 and will be very expensive. With an aggressive drilling research program geothermal plants could fill our baseload power needs much sooner and at lower cost.

Clean Coal Technology: US $754 million 2009 budget

Coal power generation began a steep decline in 1983 when the horrendous pollution problems it was creating became impossible to ignore. Memories fade so denial has created a "renaissance" in coal spurred by a marvelous invention called "clean coal." This oxymoron doesn't actually exist but sounds like just the thing for solving our energy problems.

The problem is that "clean coal" will never be economical because when we burn coal each carbon atom joins with two oxygen atoms so every ton of coal we burn produces 3.7 tons of CO2! That currently amounts to nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 per year! One of the research projects budgeted for 2009 will try to sequester one million tons of CO2 per year. That's a mere fraction of the amount we need to hide! It's only 5% of what a single large power plant can produce.

Denial allows us to ignore this as a minor detail that can be worked out later. In reality the whole idea is clearly flawed and not economical. The "clean coal" initiative is a crash program to rescue a powerful industry, not a credible attempt to solve our energy problems. If we spent even a fraction of the money wasted on this boondoggle to develop advanced geothermal drilling technology we could quickly solve our energy problems and put a stop to the terrible environmental destruction being wreaked by coal.

Our energy policymaking has been hijacked by the coal and nuclear industries. They have sabotaged appropriations that have real potential for solving our energy problems and directed vast billions instead to keeping their dying industries alive. Technology could solve our energy and pollution problems if we could just free ourselves from the political stranglehold of these heavily subsidized industries.

Thomas R. Blakeslee is president of The Clearlight Foundation, a non-profit organization that invests in renewable energy and other socially useful companies and issues cash grants to individuals who are working effectively for change.

Giant Israeli Firm May Launch Alternate Electric Car Project

August 25, '08

(IsraelNN.com) The giant Israeli holding company IDB may launch its own electric car project and compete with Shai Aggasi's Project Better Place, Globes reported. Aggasi's project is being advanced in coordination with French automaker Renault-Nissan, and IDB is talking with Chinese manufacturer BYD Auto.

The Chinese company's executives said earlier this month that they intended to market an electric car n Israel and in its own country following a meeting with President Shimon Peres.

Thirty Reasons Why Organizations Must Get Off Petroleum Now

August 11, 2008
renewableenergyworld.com
by Charles Cresson Wood
Don't get me wrong -- I am very concerned about global warming and climate change. In the long run, that's one of the most serious challenges that humans face as a species. But in the short run, the world is no longer able to produce petroleum in sufficient volume to satisfy its demand. Soon it will not be able to produce petroleum in sufficient volume to satisfy its needs.

Reflecting this, a majority of the world's major oil producing countries now see that their production is in decline. These post-peak producers include the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Venezuela, Mexico, Nigeria, Canada and the United States. Likewise, the world's discovery of new fields peaked in 1965, and it generally lags production by about 40 years. That means that total world production will decline sometime soon, if it has not already.

What's more, the price of crude oil has risen 95% over the last year, and this reveals that worldwide supply can no longer keep up with worldwide demand. Peak oil and its impacts will seriously affect us much sooner than climate change will, although the sooner we stop burning fossil fuels, the soon we take care of both of these very serious problems.

Although global warming gets a lot of press these days, the major media are strangely silent about peak oil. In a culture that makes it a habit to be short-term in its focus, it is astounding that more Americans are not seriously concerned about peak oil. In this brief piece, I list 30 reasons why we all must immediately start to transition away from petroleum. Although a great deal of transition-related work remains to be done, we now have eleven commercially available alternative fuels that can stand-in for petroleum. Although it looks as though all-electric cars are going to be the long-term winner, depending on the circumstances, a wide variety of other alternatives may be appropriate, at least as transition fuels. The other options include ethanol, butanol, di-methyl ether, bio-diesel, straight vegetable oil, bio-methane, natural gas, propane, hydrogen and synthetic liquid fuel.

Don't take my word for any of this. Look it up on the web or ask the retired expert geologists who used to work for the oil companies, such as Dr. Colin J. Campbell. Read some books such as Richard Heinberg's The Party's Over, or Dale Allen Pfeiffer's The End Of The Oil Age. When you really see the big picture, you will no doubt agree with me that a reorientation away from petroleum, towards renewables, is absolutely required, and it is required now.

By making the transition away from petroleum-based fuels, organizations can or will:

1. Respond to the increasing publicity about, and moral pressure favoring, the adoption of alternatives to petroleum. In the process, they will note that staff morale and public support can be augmented when an organization shows that it is in fact acting in an ecologically-responsible way.

2. Reduce and mitigate the adverse environmental impacts related to the use of oil. These impacts including air pollution from refineries, poisoning of flora and fauna when oil is produced in wilderness areas, and damages done by oil spills on land as well as in the sea. Note that burning fossil fuels contributes about 80% of the worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide.

3. Benefit from government incentives, such as loans, subsidies, and special tax credits. Organizations should expect that these incentives will become not only more common, but also considerably more compelling in the years ahead. The current U.S. alternative fuel vehicle tax credit of up to $4,000/vehicle is an example.

4. Exploit new business opportunities in alternative energy. Many progressive companies, such as General Electric and Siemens, see the transition away from oil as a significant business opportunity. These companies have invested a great deal of money in the development of new products and services to support this transition.

5. Take advantage of the marketing opportunities afforded to those organizations that paint themselves as green. Polls show that consumers are willing to pay considerably more for products and services that are indeed better for the environment.

6. Go beyond the massive spin campaign now underway to obfuscate the peak oil message. Countries such as Saudi Arabia conceal the real numbers about their available petroleum reserves and there is ample evidence that many producing countries are over-estimating these reserves. It is time for organizations to go beyond the "we need to study this" or "the jury is still out" phase, and time for organizations to enter the "begin transitioning right now" phase.

7. Show real thought leadership and catapult the organization into a position of public prominence. The U.S. government is clearly resisting change when it comes to transitioning away from oil, in fact there is ample evidence of gridlock in Washington on these issues. As a result, individuals, communities, and organizations need to all initiate their own plans for the transition away from petroleum.

8. Prepare for government-dictated mandatory changeovers to alternative energy sources, and away from petroleum. Recent research indicates that the world has, at most, thirty years to get the gasoline completely out of cars, and to otherwise stop burning fossil fuels. So while there are no current laws or regulations that require a complete conversion to new transportation technologies, for certain types of organizations, there are already partial mandatory conversion laws and regulations in place (in the U.S., one such law is the National Energy Policy Act of 1992).

9. Limit the likely future damage caused by government fuel rationing. They should expect that there will soon be rationing because even conservative organizations like the International Energy Agency (IEA) have developed plans to impose rationing via the authority of the United Nations.

10. Avoid restrictions in the petroleum-based fuel supply created by government-imposed price controls. In an effort to look as though they are doing something about the rapidly increasing price of petroleum-based fuels, many governments will impose price controls, as Richard Nixon did on oil in the 1970s. But the record is clear that these price controls do not work — they in fact create shortages.

11. Avoid a black market in petroleum-based fuels and the related government corruption. Government interventions (price controls, rationing, etc.) in the oil market will become increasingly common in the years ahead. The real-world experience in countries, such as Nigeria, shows that fuel adulteration, political bribes for favors, and related corruption problems will soon follow.

12. Prepare for a new business environment where energy is scarce. Reflecting the difficulties that we as a species are having when it comes to transitioning to renewable energy systems, over the next decade, the total amount of available energy, on a per capita basis, is likely to be considerably lower than it is today. In large measure this is because the available quantities of fossil fuels will be considerably reduced. Politician claims about the "American way of life being non-negotiable" don't in any way change this fact of life.

13. Recognize that conversion will take years of sustained and dedicated effort. Warnings about peaking world oil supply were issued more than 30 years ago, so we have had plenty of time to prepare. Unfortunately, very little has been done, and we are now in an oil crisis. Nonetheless, it still takes years to establish the new technologies, the new infrastructures, the new habits, and the new economic systems needed to fully support and exploit alternatives.

14. Begin to recreate themselves so that they are truly independent from oil, so that they open up new and previously unappreciated options. Oil is now used, in one way or another, in just about every industrial product produced (such as paints, carpets, detergents, food additives, fertilizers, and pesticides). Organizations are more likely to see and create new possibilities, such as organic and natural products, when they move away from their dependency on oil.

15. Formally acknowledge just how many of their internal costs have been oil dependent. An examination of the income statements for many organizations over the last several years will indicate that fuel has been a relatively minor and immaterial cost. But this will dramatically change in the years ahead, as the airlines and trucking firms are already coming to appreciate.

16. Lower the future cost of goods sold and/or future overhead costs. By moving to alternatives, organizations can at least partially unhook themselves from the direct correlation between the increase in the price of oil and the increase in the price of other goods. For example, studies show that a 33% increase in the price of oil translates to a 0.6% to 0.9% increase in the consumer price of food.

17. Insulate themselves from volatile oil prices caused by increasing political involvement in the oil market. Uncertain future supplies of petroleum are making prices for oil volatile, and we can expect that this volatility will get worse in the near future. This volatility will be made worse by the maneuvers of certain governments, such as that of Russia, as they attempt to gain greater power and influence using their energy resources as weapons.

18. Insulate themselves from volatile oil prices caused by speculators participating in the oil market. While speculators have recently been blamed for the run-up in the price of oil, the presence of speculators is really only a reflection of the widespread belief that there is major money to be made in the futures market and similar commodities exchanges. While speculators may be able to change the price of oil in the short run, in the long run they are not able to affect the market price, because they do not change the underlying supply and demand. Organizations transitioning away from oil can thus eliminate the need to be in competition with speculators for a dwindling supply of oil.

19. Expect that real oil prices will significantly increase because governments will add new taxes, and eliminate the existing subsidies that have encouraged the consumption of oil. While many countries, such as Iran and the United States, have subsidized both the oil industry and consumers using oil, as global supplies become tighter in the years ahead, governments will change their policies to discourage the consumption of oil. These same organizations will thus avoid having to pay the much higher cost of future petroleum-based fuels. Note that a full-costing analysis recently done by Milton Copulos at the National Defense Council Foundation indicated that the true cost of American gasoline is now US $8/gallon (this includes government subsidies, the cost of the war in Iraq, etc.).

20. Anticipate that government attempts to buffer the volatility in the oil market will diminish and soon cease. Many governments such as China and the U.S. have invested in "strategic petroleum reserves" to help buffer their domestic markets against oil shocks in the world market, but these and related approaches will soon become too costly and as a result they will be abandoned. The world is facing a shortage of certain raw materials, such as oil, and no measure of government meddling can protect consumers of oil from that fact.

21. Prepare for carbon taxes intended to reduce greenhouse gases and deal with climate change. Western Europe is currently setting an example for the rest of the world in terms of adopting laws and regulations to discourage carbon dioxide emissions. The approaches found there (including cap-and-trade systems) are likely to be found in many other countries in the years ahead. So organizations that have adopted certain alternatives, such as electric vehicles, will be well prepared for these new laws and regulations.

22. Set their organizations free from the traditional link between economic growth and inexpensive oil. The recent economic growth of both China and India has been inextricably tied-up with, and enabled by, the availability of relatively inexpensive fossil fuels. But in the future, when these fuels are much more expensive, economic growth will still be possible when renewable alternatives are employed.

23. Achieve freedom from the oil supply problems occasioned by the super-sensitivity of the oil market to small disruptions. The oil embargo against the United States in 1973 provided an example of how a relatively small reduction in the supply of oil can cause a profound impact, and although the world has changed since then, the panic and impact associated with such disruptions will still be quite serious. For example, Dr. Henry Kissinger called this oil embargo "the most threatening event for the world's developed economies since World War II."

24. Obtain freedom from oil supply problems caused by trouble in the complex oil transportation network. The routes taken to deliver oil from producing country to consuming country are often long and complex, and because the buffers in the system are now so small, relatively small disruptions in that highly tuned system, perhaps caused by terrorist incidents, can cause serious supply disruptions for the consumers of oil.

25. Avoid damage from fuel supply interruptions caused by resource wars. Research by Professor Michael T. Klare indicates that the cause of recent wars and violent conflicts has in many cases been competition for resources, often petroleum. Without question, the struggle for control over these scarce and valuable materials will worsen in the years ahead.

26. Obtain freedom from supply shortages caused by the long time it takes to build new oil production facilities. Many oil producers have been under-investing in infrastructure in the recent years. It can take five years or more before new wells are able to produce oil. This means that even if there are vast and economically accessible reserves of oil locked under the ground or ocean, it will still be many years before this oil can be brought to market.

27. Limit fossil fuel supply interruptions occasioned by refinery upgrade problems. The further we go beyond the world peak in supply, the more undesirable the quality of the oil will be (tar sands are a good example). This is because the most desirable oil was produced first because it was more easily obtained, less expensive to process, etc. The less desirable oil produced in the years ahead requires that refineries be retooled so that they can process heavier oil, oil containing more sulfur, and the like. Delays associated with this retooling may lead to local shortages.

28. Avoid having to scramble at the same time that nearly everyone else is scrambling to transition to alternatives. By transitioning now, organizations can take advantage of commercially-available alternative energy products and services, rather than coping with delays when everyone else is attempting to transition at the same time (when an even more severe petroleum crisis occurs).

29. Off-load gas guzzlers and other petroleum-dependent equipment while there is still a market for these machines. At a certain point, the decline in the availability of petroleum will be quite rapid, especially for those consumers in oil-importing countries. Those consumers who get rid of their gas guzzlers and related equipment now will at least receive some money for these machines, while they may receive nothing after the rapid decline takes place.

30. Help to assure that their workforces are able to get to work. As gasoline and petro-diesel prices soar in the years ahead, the poorest segment of an organization's work force may be forced to quit their jobs because they can no longer afford to commute long distances from remote suburbs. So an organization that helps its workers transition to alternatives (including public transportation) will then be more likely to retain these same workers in the years ahead. Reflecting this, a recent Business Week survey indicated 26% of workers were considering quitting their jobs to get a better commute, and 65% thought that their employers should step-up and take the lead in dealing with this problem.

So if your organization isn't already seriously planning for its transition away from petroleum-based fuels, talk to your department manager about it, talk to your firm's Chief Operations Manager about it, talk to the organization's Contingency Planning Manager about it and/or start an employee brown-bag discussion about it. Within your community, write your legislators, meet with your city council representatives, mention it to your neighbors and otherwise help to shift people's consciousness so that they will soon move away from petroleum. The first step is widespread awareness that this transition must in fact take place now; the resulting actions will follow naturally from that awareness.

Charles Cresson Wood is an alternative fuels management consultant with Post-Petroleum Transportation, in Sausalito, California. His latest book is Kicking The Gasoline & Petro-Diesel Habit: A Business Manager's Blueprint For Action. For more information about the book, as well as a mechanism to contact him, go to www.kickingthegasoline.com.

Kibbutz Saves >NIS 100,000 running vehicles on LPG

August 19, '08

Kibbutz Saves More Than NIS 100,000 in Car Fuel

(IsraelNN.com) Kibbutz Be'eri is saving more than NIS 100,000 in fuel for its vehicles by running them on liquified petroleum gas (LPG), instead of gasoline or diesel, according to a report published in the Hebrew-language Haaretz. Of the community's 100 vehicles, 64 are already running on LPG and another 20 will be converted shortly.

According to Avraham Dvori, former head of the Eshkol Regional Council and a member of the kibbutz, LPG technology "as been in use for decades in places such as Australia and South America." The LPG kit is attached to the engine, and can be removed, allowing the vehicle to run on its original gasoline-based engine if need be. Dvori said there are 36 LPG filling stations around the country.

Israeli company squeezes fuel from old tires

Israel21c.com
By Karin Kloosterman
July 24, 2008

As soon as the summer is over and the fall begins, people in the northern United States start winterizing their vehicles. With more than 250 million cars on the road, and winter tires needed for many, it's frightening to imagine where all those old tires go.

Most people do not realize that old tires are a health, safety and environmental hazard. Disease-carrying mosquitoes nest in them, and if they catch fire, they can burn for weeks, releasing toxic fumes into the air, and chemicals into our groundwater.

An Israeli company based in the Ukraine, has found a safe and environmentally friendly way to dispose of old tires: the pollution-free process consumes no energy and produces attractive byproducts, such as gas for your car.

Using an electromagnetic field and depriving the system of oxygen, Coral Group applies its "soft pyrolysis" method to break down old tires into basic components. Pyrolysis is a process that decomposes organic materials in the total absence of oxygen. And in Coral's method, attractive end products are created. They include kerosene (jet fuel), benzene (automobile fuel), diesel, oil and black carbon.

"This is a truly wonderful solution," says Roman Berezin, director of the Middle East Bureau in Netanya, Israel who notes that the operational plant in the Ukraine emits no pollution in the process. "There is no smokestack," he says.

"We are an energy production company that sits between recycling and creating energy," says Berezin, noting this is especially relevant today, where the cost of oil is skyrocketing. Although massive amounts of fuel are not generated in the process, Coral's solution becomes economically viable once oil hits $23 a barrel. Today, crude oil is already selling at $130 a barrel.

According to feasibility studies done by the company, a facility that recycles 10,000 tons of old tires a month can generate $8.5 million worth of byproducts after 2 years.

The company is looking to open tire recycling factories around the world, and owns most of the intellectual property associated with the process and the equipment used. A typical processing plant would include a cutting station to chop up the tires, a pyrolysis chamber, and stations that separate the resulting gases, oils and solids. The fully automated system is computer-controlled.

Coral Group is Israeli-owned with R&D and an operating plant in the Ukraine. The company was founded in 2003 and holds about 32 innovative projects in various stages of development, with a number ready for commercialization. Other projects include a high-efficiency drinking water purifier, the Electus and an improved airfoil boat. The company employs 250 people.

The company is now looking to start building a plant in Israel that can recycle 9,000 tons worth of used tires every month. It hopes to continue expansion -- maybe not in time for winter, but hopefully in the US too.

Israeli Army Proves Link between Gas Guzzling and Bad Driving

3 July '08

Israeli Sufa 2 Jeeps

(IsraelNN.com) For the last 18 months, the IDF has conducted the largest ever experiment on the correlation between driving habits and gas consumption.

Electronic monitors were installed in over 500 vehicles used by the IDF Ground Forces Command and the Air Force, which monitored the vehicles for driving aberrations. Aberrations triggered an alarm, which then sent a message to the commander of the unit to which the vehicle belonged. Although some soldiers tried to tamper with the monitors, most chose instead to drive more carefully, according to the IDF.

Results indicate that this was not only safer, it also saved an average of 14% in fuel consumption, leading to enormous savings for the IDF. The 500 cars use about 2 million liters of fuel annually; a 14% decrease means a saving of 280,000 liters. This is increasingly important in view of rising fuel prices. The IDF plans to install the monitors in a few thousand more vehicles shortly.

Private Homes in Israel to sell Solar Power at huge profit to the grid

June 5, '08

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Electricity Revolution: Beginning July 1, every Israeli will be able not only to manufacture his own electricity, but to sell what he doesn't need to the Electric Company.

The Israel Electric Company (IEC) is hoping to encourage consumers to install solar panels, and is willing to pay them NIS 2.01 per kilowatt of "clean" electricity. This is approximately four times the amount that consumers pay the company for their electricity.

Installing the solar panels is expensive, however, and begins at 60,000 shekels. Adequate roof space is also required. Experts say that those who are willing to make the investment will be able to make back their money in ten years.

Dan Lavi of Yisrael HaYom reports that unlike Germany and Spain, Israel's government does not yet subsidize consumer solar panels.

Preparing for the Summer Heat Waves
Meanwhile, the IEC is preparing for record demand this summer. Together with the Infrastructures Ministry, the company held a country-wide drill last week to prepare for such eventualities and to practice the regulation of kilowatt shortages. When demands exceeds available supply, the general practice is to cut back electricity in random neighborhoods until the situation stabilizes.

The exercise left officials confident that the IEC is prepared to deal with the summer demands. Attention is now being turned to educating consumers regarding the need to cut back, and informing them that they might find themselves blacked-out for short periods.

Supply Exceeds Demand - But Just Barely
Globes reports that the IEC is currently able to produce 11,400 megawatts, with available capacity at 10,877. Demand is expected to reach 10,300 megawatts - 100 more than the record set during the cold wave this past January - leaving a reserve of only 5%.

See - SolarPower Israel Ltd.

Residential and commercial systems Grid connected and off-grid