For solar to become a primary source of electricity, vast amounts of affordable storage will be needed. And today’s options for storing electricity just aren’t practical on a large enough scale.
Enter MIT chemist Daniel Nocera, who has mimicked the step in photosynthesis in which green plants split water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight and an inexpensive liquid catalyst. read article in Technology Review
Click on map through to your state to find out which organizations offer green power in your state. The results will include utility green pricing programs, retail green power products offered in competitive electricity markets, and renewable energy certificate (REC) products sold separate from electricity. For additional information about these distinct products, see the EERE Overview of Green Power Markets.
AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY
from The U.S. DOE – Energy Effieciency and Renewable Energy
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AND… don’t forget to check the DSIRE resource:
Federal Incentives
from Biofuel Review: (Posted by Giles Clark, London Friday, 02 November 2007)
Five senior scientists have written to the head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr R K Pachauri, to highlight what they see as “serious and dangerous deficiencies” in the notes on biofuels in the recently released IPCC AR4 Mitigation book. The concerns of the scientists, and the letter, were revealed on the Grain website (www.grain.org) yesterday (1st November) ahead of the IPCC Synthesis Report’s which is expected to be approved by national delegations this month.
full text of the letter
Their letter highlights that no proof has been given, even when requested from the relevant Author, of the claim in the SPM (Summary for Policy Makers) that biofuel blending, as a policy, measure or instrument, had been “environmentally effective…in at least a number of national cases.”
That claim, being a Brazilian amendment passed at the last IPCC plenary session, has reappeared in a bolder form in the latest UN Global Environment Outlook.
The Transport chapter, they say, omitted to warn that even modest growth of biofuels, by using up farmland or pasture, often leads to cropland as a whole expanding at the expense of natural forests and grassland. The carbon emissions from such land-use change can negate any benefits for decades or centuries. This was occurring in South East Asia, and possibly now in South America, in partial response to EU and US biofuel incentives.
The studies of biofuel emissions balances used by the IPCC did not model the effects of such outcomes. Yet these would need to be included in any assessment of whether biofuel blending programmes or incentives had been “environmentally effective”, said the five scientists.
They are now calling for the full basis for this claim in the SPM to be revealed, or for the claim to be withdrawn.
The IPCC advice also failed to note that growing biofuels was currently a very inefficient use of land for mitigation, compared with growing solid fuel to replace coal. “That is elementary to any discussion of bioenergy,” said Helmut Haberl of Klagenfurt University.
David Pimentel, of Cornell University, added: “Climate change is a most pressing issue for humanity, and world leaders need to take the issue of mitigation much more seriously than they have to date. Having said that, decision-makers need to be given balanced and justified advice. These particular notes, as they stand, will be used to support erroneous and disastrous decisions, and that is simply not right”.
Well, it was mostly business as usual this past week on Capitol Hill. The US Senate voted down a national energy bill which was said to be a comprehensive approach to reducing carbon emissions. The bill included requirements for utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and provided $21B in tax incentives for the production of clean energy (production tax credit, or PTC) . Both the two-year extension of the PTC and the small wind credit fell one vote short of the 60 needed to avoid a filibuster. Those wind credits, the solar investment credit and most federal renewable energy tax credits are set to expire in 2008. The bill buckled under pressure from Republican minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, who threatened to filibuster the bill due to it’s repeal of $13B in oil company tax breaks.
After negotiation, a revised bill was passed in which a $13B tax increase on oil companies and the requirement for utilities nationwide to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable sources, was left out of the bill.
Freedom Fuels takes an in-depth, solution orientated look at renewable fuel sources, such as biodiesel, ethanol and vegetable oil. It explores the petroleum industry’s suppression of alternative fuels and examines the potential positive and negative impacts of biofuels.
Download the free full version at Mofilms.org
(Running time: 50 min, File size: 196.05 MB)
The Mountain View company announced Tuesday that it will open its deep pockets to foster innovation in solar, wind and geothermal technology in the hopes of making green energy cheaper than power produced by burning coal. The plan is to generate one gigawatt of renewable energy -and do it soon- enough to power a city the size of San Francisco.
In general, Google said it will make investments and give grants to projects that show promise in developing energy at a cost below coal-fired power plants. Companies, universities and research and development labs will be eligible.
Last year the company said it would become carbon-neutral by the end of this year, meaning that it will be responsible for zero carbon emissions. Already, Google has built a solar panel installation at its headquarters that generates 1.6 megawatts, making it among the biggest corporate arrays in the country. In addition, the company has put out a request for proposals to fund up to $10 million in research and development of electric and hybrid cars.
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Current Solar Electricity Generated at the Googleplex
Last 7 days: 7,394 kilowatt-hours
Last 24 Hours: 1,067 kilowatt-hours
Since Jun 18, 2007: 606,229 kilowatt-hours
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above 3 from becauseaction network
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