10 Eastern States Join Wind Energy Consortium
The governors of 10 East Coast states have joined federal authorities to form a consortium that will promote the development of offshore wind energy.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday the establishment of the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium will promote safe and environmentally responsible development, enhance the nation’s energy security, and create jobs.
Salazar says a regional renewable energy office has been set up to coordinate and expedite the development of wind, solar and other renewable energy resources off the Atlantic coast. Salazar in April authorized the nation’s first offshore wind farm off Cape Cod.
The states are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Coming into Focus: Are Concentrating PV Players Finally Getting Respect?
It is no mirage. The largest concentrating photovoltaic power plant in North America has materialized in a corner of the California desert, and it may well serve as a shiny billboard for other CPV companies as they struggle to gain a beachhead in the solar market.
Victor Valley College and SolFocus last month brought state and local dignitaries to celebrate the completion of a 1-MW (AC) solar energy field in Victorville, a town northeast of Los Angeles. Planted in dusty earth, each of the 122 systems comes with a dual-axis tracker holding up a giant array with 8.4-kW of generation capacity. The college, which spent roughly $4.66 million to own the project, expects the field to generate about 54.76 million kilowatt hours (kWh) over 25 years, enough to supply 30 percent of its needs.
“SolFocus has borrowed a lot of technologies from the automotive industry in terms of manufacturing, so it has a highly automated and very inexpensive manufacturing process,” said Rob Koch, managing director of NGEN Partners, a SolFocus investor. “That’s very different from thin-film manufacturing, which requires a huge amount of capital for factories.”
SolFocus, based in Mountain View, Calif., is one of a few CPV companies that have found true believers “” customers and investors “” lately. Seal Beach, Calif.-based Amonix, is another one, having lined up $129.4 million in private equity. Amonix also has partnered with an undisclosed developer to build two projects totaling 14 MW (DC) and sell the electricity to Tucson Electric Power, said Carla Pihowich, senior director of marketing at the company. Solaria in Fremont, Calif., meanwhile, raised $45 million. Emcore Solar also has scored with a deal to sell power from a 2-MW (DC) plant to Tucson Electric Power, the utility said.
Climate Change Linked to Major Vegetation Shifts Worldwide
Vegetation around the world is on the move, and climate change is the culprit, according to a new analysis of global vegetation shifts led by a University of California, Berkeley, ecologist in collaboration with researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
In a paper published June 7 in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, researchers present evidence that over the past century, vegetation has been gradually moving toward the poles and up mountain slopes, where temperatures are cooler, as well as toward the equator, where rainfall is greater.
Moreover, an estimated one-tenth to one-half of the land mass on Earth will be highly vulnerable to climate-related vegetation shifts by the end of this century, depending upon how effectively humans are able to curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study.
The results came from a meta-analysis of hundreds of field studies and a spatial analysis of observed 20th century climate and projected 21st century vegetation.
New UN climate chief calls for more ambition
The incoming head of the UN climate convention has said rich nations must pledge bigger emission cuts if climate change is to be tackled effectively.
But Christiana Figueres said she was confident that leaders would meet the challenge “because humanity has to meet it – we don’t have another option.”
Ms Figueres was speaking at a two-week session of UN negotiations in Bonn.
She said the mood was “constructive”; but major differences are evident between different groups of countries.
Why Wait for a Climate Bill, G.E. Argues
Given the dicey odds for congressional approval of climate legislation, at least in the near term, a company that sells equipment for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is promoting a new strategy: federal money for tactical planning.
That company would be General Electric, which makes equipment that removes carbon dioxide from coal through a gasification process and stores it underground, preventing it from entering the atmosphere. Coal is the most carbon-rich fuel in common use.
The technology is expensive and will remain that way until several commercial-scale projects have been built, said Monte Atwell, general manager of gasification at G.E. But few emitters in the United States will deploy the capture equipment until there is a government mandate to do so or a charge for carbon dioxide emissions, the thinking goes. By that time, the world may be in a big hurry to slash carbon dioxide emissions, Mr. Atwell said in a meeting with reporters.
G.E.’s proposal? Have the federal government provide money for the planning work on carbon capture and storage, such as the drafting of designs and the drilling of wells to gauge the ability of rock deep beneath the surface of coal plants to hold carbon dioxide. The idea is to speed things up.
Congressional leaders give electric cars a boost
A bi-partisan collection of Congressional leaders dubbed the ” Electrification Coalition” has given the electric vehicle movement in the US new energy with the introduction of new legislation designed to accelerate the deployment of EVs in key markets.
A pair of bills were last week introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives, titled the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act and the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act, respectively.
The legislation proposes that communities should be given up to $800m (£554m) to introduce electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, while consumers would receive up to $2,000 in federal tax credits for the purchase of EV chargers.
Under the new bills, businesses would also be given up to $50,000 to install multiple chargers, while a $1.5bn fund would be created to support battery research.
‘Nanocoax’ Solves Solar Cell ‘Thick and Thin’ Dilemma
A nano-scale solar cell inspired by the coaxial cable offers greater efficiency than any previously designed nanotech thin film solar cell by resolving the “thick & thin” challenge inherent to capturing light and extracting current for solar power, Boston College researchers report in the current online edition of the journal Physica Status Solidi.
The quest for high power conversion efficiency in most thin film solar cells has been hampered by competing optical and electronic constraints. A cell must be thick enough to collect a sufficient amount of light, yet it needs to be thin enough to extract current.
Physicists at Boston College found a way to resolve the “thick & thin” challenge through a nanoscale solar architecture based on the coaxial cable, a radio technology concept that dates back to the first trans-Atlantic communications lines laid in the mid 1800s.
NASA to study arctic climate change
NASA says it will conduct its first dedicated oceanographic field campaign to determine how the changing climate is affecting the Arctic Ocean.
The project, called Icescape, begins next Tuesday aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the newest and most technologically advanced U.S. polar icebreaker.
NASA scientists said the Arctic Ocean, unlike other oceans, is almost completely landlocked, making it an ideal location to study ongoing climate changes in a marine ecosystem.
“The ocean ecosystem in the Arctic has changed dramatically in recent years, and it’s changing much faster and much more than any other ocean in the world,” said Icescape chief scientist Kevin Arrigo of Stanford University.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
As far as vegetation changes there is the giant poison ivy bonanza: compared to the poison ivy of the sixties and seventies the stuff growing is so large and plentiful that it looks like a mutant strain.
Massive vegetation shifts could signal the end of the “Era of Robust Ecosystems” and the “Era of Civilization”.
In 1984 a group of us had lunch with the directors of the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain. This elite group of wealthy and influential landowners, scientists, and politicians had already documented significant changes in vegetation throughout the commonwealth. There was speculation that pollinating insects, migrating birds, and many species of animals would not adapt quickly enough. Births would be out of sync with food sources. Long lived species, primarily trees,would die out. Rapidly colonizing species, primarily weeds, would dominate.
And there was concern for agriculture, particularly in regions of marginal agricultural productivity.
And, if we plant native tree species in the hope of sequestering carbon only to have them perish because of long term changes in weather patterns….
Civilization can survive a couple assaults at once. Adding rapidly changing and collapsing ecosystems to the mix might be the last straw.
Is it possible for the scientific community to convene an emergency session to review the implications of the latest Arctic permafrost / clathrates / yedoma destabilization and massive dislocation of plant species?
I’ve noticed some other plants are also growing much larger than they did in the early 90′s. Some Euphorbia that used to grow only a foot or two tall now grows to about six or more feet tall.
another great place…
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/
Inventor of Photosynthesis-Based Solar Cells Wins Millennium Tech Prize
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-06/inventor-photosynthesis-based-solar-cells-wins-millennium-tech-prize
New Questions about Toxic By-Products of Biofuel Combustion
Study finds spectrum of possible chemicals emerging from biofuel burning process, including formaldehyde.
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100609/new-questions-about-toxic-products-biofuel-combustion
Why BP’s cap success is turning sour
BP’s containment cap is collecting 630,000 gallons of oil a day. It could be collecting more, but BP failed to send another tanker to increase capacity. And some scientists think the process of fitting the cap on the well made the situation worse.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0609/Gulf-oil-spill-Why-BP-s-cap-success-is-turning-sour
82% of Massachusett’s and 52% of New Hampshire’s coal for electricitycomes from South American.
Wind energy makes economic sense ultimately, if or when the American dollar drops.
Interconnected energy grid – a first step towards an EU energy community
Sustainability, competitiveness and security of energy supply: the three pillars to the foundation of a new EU energy community. A first step would be the interconnection of national energy grids, argued the 250 plus MEPs and MPs gathered for a joint parliamentary meeting in the European Parliament on 7-8 June. “People have great expectations,” said EP President Jerzy Buzek, “and we must deliver on them.”
The debate, entitled “Towards a European Energy Community for the 21st Century” was co-chaired by Mr Buzek and the Speaker of the Spanish Senate, Javier Rojo.
Mr. Buzek launched the initiative on 5 May, together with ex-European Commission President Jacques Delors, building on a report from think tank Notre Europa. The report’s writers were on hand to explain why we need an EU energy community with integrated networks, price stabilisation measures, a diversified energy portfolio and common control over resources.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/051-75598-158-06-24-909-20100607STO75585-2010-07-06-2010/default_en.htm
From above link
Speaking in the debate Professor Marc Van Der Woude of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam said that there was a industrial revolution coming and that it would probably be in the energy sector.
Polish Christian Democrat Jacek Saryusz-Wolski told the hearing that “energy is not just an economic commodity – it is a security issue and a geopolitical force”, referring to the Russian-Ukraine gas disputes in 2006 and 2009.
He said that a grid was a precondition for development of renewable energies, such as wind and solar energy, and reducing CO2 emissions.
Swedish Green Per Bolund stressed the need for solidarity. “We need solidarity, so that when the wind doesn’t blow in Sweden, Spain will share their solar energy.”
Spain’s Energy Minister Pedro Marín said that “to have a “real” internal market, we need to diversify our internal energy supply.”Previous crises have shown us the dangers of being dependent on only one energy supplier,” he said.
Europe’s Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia noted that an energy community can’t be created in one day, but applauded regional co-operation as “very important in the meantime”.
Mr Garcia said energy will play a fundamental role in renewing our energy structures in the EU. “It used to be a wish. Now it’s a need – an urgent need.”
PNG bans legal challenges against resources projects
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/31/2914417.htm?section=justin
TSR predicts very active hurricane season; Atlantic May MDR SSTs warmest on record
The British private forecasting firm Tropical Storm Risk, Inc. (TSR) has joined the ranks of NOAA and Colorado State University in calling for an exceptionally active 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. The latest TSR forecast issued June 4 calls for 17.7 named storms, 9.5 hurricanes, 4.4 intense hurricanes, and an Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) 181% of average. These numbers are much above the 50-year average of 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 intense hurricanes, and are an increase from their April forecast of 16.3 named storms, 8.5 hurricanes, and 4 intense hurricanes. The TSR June forecast numbers are the highest they’ve ever gone for in the eleven years they’ve been issuing Atlantic hurricane season forecasts. TSR predicts a 85-90% chance that activity will rank in the top 1/3 of years historically, and a 85% chance that U.S. landfalling activity will be above average. TSR rates their skill level as 20-34% higher than a “no-skill” forecast made using climatology, though an independent assessment by the National Hurricane Center (Figure 1) gives them somewhat lower skill numbers.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1503
Lowering The Speed Limit To 50MPH Could Reduce CO2 By 30%
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/slow-down-save-planet.php
Mercedes-Benz, Smart to install Elektrobay chargers at dealerships throughout UK
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/10/mercedes-benz-smart-to-install-elektrobay-chargers-at-dealershi/
Ten States Aim for Offshore Wind Boom in Alliance with Interior Department
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100610/ten-states-aim-offshore-wind-boom-alliance-interior-department