“The analysis indicates that a network of land-based 2.5-megawatt (MW) turbines restricted to nonforested, ice-free, nonurban areas operating at as little as 20%of their rated capacity could supply >40 times current worldwide consumption of electricity, >5 times total global use of energy in all forms. Resources in the contiguous United States, specifically in the central plain states, could accommodate as much as 16 times total current demand for electricity in the United States.”
With hydro, concentrated solar, demand response, existing nukes, and natural gas as a bridging/firming fuel — we’ve got all the low-carbon power we need.
Study Suggests Wind Power Potential Is Much Higher Than Current Estimates
Global wind energy potential is considerably higher than previous estimates by both wind industry groups and government agencies, according to a Harvard University study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
“¦Using data from thousands of meteorological stations, the Harvard team estimated the world wind power potential to be 40 times greater than total current power consumption. A previous study cited in the paper put that multiple at about 7 times….
“Large-scale development of wind power in China could allow for an 18-fold increase in electricity supply relative to consumption reported for 2005,” the Harvard study said.
Palin’s stimulus veto prompts special session
The Alaska Legislature has called itself into a special session to consider overriding Gov. Sarah Palin’s veto of federal stimulus funds for energy-related projects.
“¦Palin initially said she would not accept about one-third of the $930 million Alaska was eligible for under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, citing ‘strings’ that could bind the state to federal mandates and increase the size of government.
Legislators found few strings and passed a bill accepting all federal money. Palin accepted all the stimulus funds except for $28.5 million in energy cost relief. Lawmakers have been mulling an override vote but said it would be difficult during the summer as the state’s 60 lawmakers were traveling and enjoying summer activities.
U.S. and China Agree to Study Ways to Make Buildings More Energy-Efficient
Ending his first official visit to China, the United States energy secretary, Steven Chu, said the two nations had agreed to plan joint studies on ways to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, a major issue in addressing China’s contribution to climate change.
Mr. Chu said that the United States and China had drafted a memorandum of understanding for creating a team of experts that would study ways to provide heat, air-conditioning and light for buildings while minimizing their electricity needs.
Some see Exxon investments signaling ‘paradigm shift’ for Big Oil
Is Big Oil warming at last to the notion of an alternative-energy future?
So say some analysts who are pondering Exxon Mobil Corp.’s recent moves. Breaking from years of steadfast commitment to fossil fuels, the behemoth has announced big investments in electric cars, unconventional natural gas and algae-based biofuels.
‘I think they see changes to the energy system coming over the next decades,’ said Michael Webber, an energy expert and engineering professor at the University of Texas. ‘It’s pretty transparent that the energy field will be different 30 years from now. They’re an energy company, so they had better be prepared than to wait.’
Governments trying to reel in ‘ocean sprawl’
We all know what happens when urban sprawl gets out of control: Commutes back up, smog thickens, and concrete suburbs gobble up green spaces.
But what about ‘ocean sprawl’?
Until recently, no one gave that idea much thought. But the oceans, like the land, have gotten crowded, and now scientists and policy makers are looking for ways to plan ocean development — with the aim of preventing our public-owned seas from turning into sprawling, watery versions of Houston, Texas, or Atlanta, Georgia.
Britain gives green light to four new ‘eco-towns’
Britain gave the green light on Thursday to four new towns that will provide 10,000 homes built to strict environmental standards by 2016.
“¦The so-called ‘eco-towns’ still need planning approval and could face opposition from local groups who fear the developments will blight rural areas.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England had urged the government to scale back the program to just one or two ‘exemplary schemes.’
It said the government should concentrate on refurbishing existing properties, redeveloping derelict brownfield sites and helping bring back into use 800,000 empty homes in England.
Gordon Brown announced his plan to build up to 100,000 homes in five eco-towns shortly after succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister in 2007.
“¦The new towns are designed to tackle Britain’s housing shortage while minimizing damage to the environment.
Bill Gates of Microsoft envisions fighting hurricanes by manipulating the sea
If you thought domination of the world’s software market was cool, get a load of Bill Gates’ next technological vision: giant ocean-going tubs that fight hurricanes by draining warm water from the surface to the depths, through a long tube.
A second tube could simultaneously suck cool water from the depths to the surface.
Microsoft founder Gates and a dozen other scientists and engineers have a patent pending for deploying such vessels, which they say would collect water through waves breaking over the walls of the tub. Some variations have the water moving through turbines on their way down, which would in turn generate electricity to suck up the cooler water.
Solar Power: New SunCatcher Power System Ready For Commercial Production In 2010
Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar recently unveiled four newly designed solar power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Called SunCatchers„¢, the new dishes have a refined design that will be used in commercial-scale deployments of the units beginning in 2010.
‘The four new dishes are the next-generation model of the original SunCatcher system. Six first-generation SunCatchers built over the past several years at the NSTTF have been producing up to 150KW [kilowatts] of grid-ready electrical power during the day,’ says Chuck Andraka, the lead Sandia project engineer. ‘Every part of the new system has been upgraded to allow for a high rate of production and cost reduction.’
First ‘climate friendly’ labels appear on foods
SWEDEN is to become the first country to slap ‘climate-friendly’ labels on food products. The hope is that the labels will prompt consumers to buy greener products, but there are worries that some companies may use the scheme to ‘greenwash’.
A small milk producer north of Stockholm is expected to be the first company to sport the ‘climate-certified’ tag. One way it cut its use of energy and nutrients was by switching from chemical-based fertilisers to manure.
The scheme is voluntary and firms must prove they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions in order to earn a label. ‘The only thing we’re guaranteeing is that improvements have been made,’ says Anna Richert, an adviser to the Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF), and head of the team developing the criteria for labelling products. ‘This could mean reductions in emissions of anything from 5 to 80 per cent.’
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
My dad, a professor emeritus in in his eighties, is fond of sending his acerbic observations to newspapers, with any errors in grammar or spelling attributed to the paper’s editor, since they are sent in longhand.
This one about Palin was written during the election, but not much has changed since then.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/brewster/news/opinions/x1824789369/Guest-Commentary-The-alternative-to-Darwinian-science-ignorance
I posted earlier today on the current methane numbers (including a link to the June temperature anomalies chart JR showed).
Short answer: The level of methane is rising at an uncomfortable clip.
http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/17/methane-checkpoint-2
(You can graph the data yourself via a pretty nifty tool on the NOAA web site, as explained in my post.)
Warmest June ocean surface waters: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090717_juneglobalstats.html
Very good, congratulations article
Sure, great idea. Let Bill Gates tinker around with a hurricane. Because if there’s one thing Bill Gates is known for, it’s technology that works exactly like it’s supposed to.
Onions Produce fuel-cell energy in California !
This from today’s LA Times:
An onion processing plant is using juice from the vegetable to run two fuel cells that produce 600-kilowatts of electricity, enough to operate the plant’s refrigeration units and lighting. That’s slicing $700,000 annually off the electric bill at the 14-acre plant in Oxnard, California.
full story at:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-onions-fuel17-2009jul17,0,5226835.story
Check this out. abc only shows these on cable, on-line, or in the middle of the night on the broadcast network.
http://abcnews.go.com/abcnewsnow/NaturesEdge
Click on “World Leaders Warned…”
Regarding the wind study, if you have a lawmaker who is “on the fence” with regard to a price on carbon, look at figure 5 of this paper. If your state is orange or red, print it out and mail it to them with a friendly letter urging them to support Waxman-Markey. There is a lot of coal in the middle of the country, but there is far more wind.
It would be interesting to overlay wind, solar, and geothermal potential for the entire country. That would identify which states are truly in need of a helping hand.
ok lower and raise your left pinkie repeatedly if you were waiting for the 100m numbers to blow everyone away. i’ll go first.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Seems that this paper has windpower potential at at least an order of magnitude greater than previous estimates I’ve seen. For example, in a presentation here at ANU recently by Daniel Nocera. Am wondering why the huge difference. He had windpower only able to supply about 10% of energy needs from what I remember.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/all-energy-roads-lead-to-the-sun/
estimating wind turbine performance by wind speed at 10m is like cutting off a runner’s legs and wondering why she didn’t set a record. “these details weren’t in the article.” who left them out? because there are nasty names for omissions like that.
The only reason Exxon might look into other forms of energy is because it’s easy gravy train of oil is about to grind to a halt. That fact alone should be enough to get us off our backsides and ensure a clean, renewable energy supply for the future. The only green Exxon is likely to get is gangrene.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – News1130 Meteorologist Russ Lacate says there was a temperature record broken at YVR today. He says the previous all-time record high for Vancouver was 30 set back in 1941. Lacate says we broke that record with a strong mid-July sunshine combined with an unusual easterly breeze, which sent the mercury soaring so the new record high at the airport is a sizzling 31.
…..
The Vancouver Park Board says this heat is getting to be a bit much for our trees and adds it’s a good idea to water your trees and shrubs. They’re surrounded by concrete in many cases and don’t get that much water even when it rains.
She points out trees and shrubs are exempt from summer time watering restrictions and adds trees are very important to help keep the city cool.
Forty-thousand trees have been planted in Vancouver over the past decade and not only are they useful, they’re worth millions of dollars.
Park Board arborist Paul Montpellier says unlike unwatered lawns, trees do not rebound well if they go into distress, so it’s important to keep them well watered in the first place.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE56G4KA20090717?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
…
Pachauri said the next report by the IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, was intended to guide nations after the planned agreement of a new U.N. climate treaty in Copenhagen in December.
He welcomed an agreement by major economies at a Group of Eight summit in Italy last week to recognize a broad scientific view that world temperature rises should not exceed 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
But he said too little was being done to achieve the limit.
“It’s a step forwards. I wish they would have made some commitments on what would ensure limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees,” he said.
“In the (2007 report) we said if you want to limit temperatures to that range all we have is up to 2015 as the year when global emissions must peak and they must decline thereafter,” he said.
Some misinformation from ‘National Review’ reprinted in my local newspaper:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTlhOTNiOWFlMmMzNmJkOWM3ZTk5NWJkNTU2Nzk5NWI=
The Harvard study of world wind power by Lu, McElroy and Kiviluoma gives a similar estimate of world wind energy potential as Archer and Jacobson’s 2005 study as being X5 present world total energy demand.
Last week you had a post on David MacKay’s book,”Sustainable energy without hot air” where he concludes about world renewable energy, I quote
“ We have a clear conclusion: the non-solar renewables may be “huge” but they are not huge enough. To complete a plan that adds up we must use rely on one or more forms of solar power. Or use nuclear power. Or both.”
To support his claim he miss cites the 2006 Greenpeace study that projects that wind energy could provide 31% of the worlds power by 2050, however the Greenpeace study uses Archer and Jacobson values for potential wind power(X7 times the total world energy demand using just 12% of the land and near coast area), the 31% is what the study thought could be built by 2050.
Just as MacKay’s estimates of UK wind potential or Europe potential, or N America’s potential I quote
“ The bottom line
North America’s non-solar renewables arn’t enough for North America to live on.
his assumptions that wind turbines would be sited at locations receiving average wind rather than the best locations, seem to give a value much lower than these published studies.
here is the last paragraph of the wind study. it deserves close reading. i am breaking it into more paragraphs to make that easier.
there are some big things to think about here. about siting many huge farms so they don’t shade each other. about how winds will change as climate changes.
but that other part is something a few of us have been wondering, right?
WIND TURBINES EAT ATMOSPHERIC ENERGY.
ATMOSPHERIC ENERGY IS A PROBLEM.
“THEREFORE…”