Need For New

In the past, meaning only a month ago, I can say that I was not a big believer that human actions were contributing to the global warming issue. Aside from not believing that it is our fault, I failed to see the magnitude of the problem. I did not realize how catastrophic global warming can be to life here on Earth until I watched a video, titles Sea Change, that was posted on the blog. The video defined the importance of us immediately changing our way of life. If we continue living the way we are, the ice caps will eventually run out, and the temperature will shoot up. It follows the basic laws of thermodynamics. The ice is melting and absorbing all the heat we are putting out, keeping the planet at a relatively steady temperature. When all the ice is gone, there will be nothing to buffer the heat flux.
This realization has greatly increased my interest in renewable energy sources, so I began looking around at what options are available. I came upon a news webpage that talks about different renewable energy issues. It discusses new ideas that are in early development stages and show much potential for the future.
One such idea is to use solar power to produce electricity. This sounds like it is probably something that we have heard about many times, but it is not based on the traditional solar energy harnessing technique of using photovoltaic silicon panels. It is based on the simple idea of reflecting the sun’s light at a tank, heating up the water inside the tank. Using a field of mirrors, which orient themselves based on the sun’s position, to reflect the light at the tank (or boiler), it acts as a magnifying glass. The water inside the boiler is heated and cycled through a turbine, producing electricity. Based on the need for rapidly change, this technique is ideal because the manufacturing is much simpler and environmentally friendly than creating silicon panels.
Another creative renewable energy technique that I found on the webpage dealt with hydro power. One issue that exists with hydro power is the need for a strong current. This technique overcomes that by using the vortexes created by fluid flow over a cylinder to oscillate the cylinder up and down. The technique works in current flow as little as one knot. This is a difficult concept to understand without seeing, so take a look at the video .
Both of these techniques are very simple in design, yet have been overlooked. I am sure there are many more answers to replacing fossil fuels. We just need to find them. Until recently, renewable energy sources have simply been cool ways of getting energy that makes minimal impact. Now I realize the importance of research for renewable energy, and I hope that major discoveries are made in the near future.

High-Voltage Lines Wouldn’t Need State Action Under Senate Plan

(Here is an update on legislation pertaining to the transmission corridors meant to bring renewable energy from the central U.S. to the coasts):

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators would take from states the authority to approve certain high-voltage power lines in order to speed development of renewable energy, under draft legislation released by a Senate panel today.

The proposal by the Democratic staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, posted online, would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to approve lines that would carry electricity such as wind and solar energy.

President Barack Obama has called for the U.S. to build 3,000 miles of new transmission lines and double renewable energy use by 2012. The proposed legislation would eliminate an obstacle to the goal that has been cited by builders of power lines: individual states blocking multi-state projects.

“This is only one step toward a truly comprehensive energy security bill, but it is an important one,” said Robbie Diamond, president of Securing America’s Future Energy, a nonpartisan group that supports reducing U.S. oil dependence.

The draft measure would increase the authority FERC gained under 2005 legislation, which let it approve power lines if states failed to act within a year of an application. Federal siting authority would apply to power-line projects of 345 kilovolts or higher that are included in a FERC-designated group’s regional transmission plan.

Economic stimulus legislation signed last month by the president includes $11 billion for new transmission lines and improving the nation’s power grid.

The energy committee, led by Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, plans to hold a hearing on March 12 to consider new transmission-line legislation.

“It’s not a Bingaman draft, necessarily,” David Marks, spokesman for the committee, said of the proposal in a telephone interview. “These are ideas that the committee staff has proposed.”

Reid’s Plan:
The committee will also consider transmission legislation offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, last week introduced legislation that would give FERC authority to step in to approve transmission projects in areas designated as “renewable energy zones.”

Rob Thormeyer, a spokesman for the Washington-based National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said in an e-mail his group is “still analyzing” the legislation.

Renewable-power supporters, including wind-power developer T. Boone Pickens, have called for greater federal authority over high-voltage transmission. Renewable-energy projects such as wind and solar power are often located in areas far from major urban centers, where the demand for power is greatest.

A study released last month by regional grid operators estimated that more than $80 billion in new transmission infrastructure spending would be needed to get 20 percent of the eastern U.S.’s electricity from wind by 2024.

Source: Bloomberg.com

What to Expect on the Energy Front from Congress in 2009

In his State of the Union address, President Obama identified energy above healthcare and education as one of the most critical areas to the future of the American economy. President Obama announced his support for increased domestic manufacturing of clean technologies such as solar panels and batteries along with more R&D spending and a cap-and-trade policy to incentivize corporations to implement these new technologies. Yet regardless of President Obama's popularity, congress has the ultimate say regarding if and how these policies will be written. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined his three step plan to turn President Obama’s goals into realities:

1) Congress will pass a bill establishing a renewable energy portfolio standard, among other increased efficiency requirements.

2) To help meet this portfolio, Congress will then pass a bill to support the development of "a highway to transmit electricity to where it's needed," which could bring the nation’s vast but isolated solar and wind resources to markets.

3) The first two bills will hopefully build enough political momentum to pass a cap-and-trade policy by the end of the year.

Perhaps 2009 could be the year the US government finally passes what could be considered a comprehensive energy policy: one that tries to manage both supply and demand with the same end-goal of reduced emissions. While details of the proposed bills are scarce and political gimmicks like corn ethanol or hydrogen may still find their way into the policy, at least the mention of a new electricity transmission infrastructure shows that Congress understands a fundamental obstacle to expanded clean energy generation capacity. Jeff Otto recently discussed the inherent contradiction between clean energy and “shovel-ready” projects. Additionally, while the stimulus bill does cover 30% of the costs of new wind and solar farms, that is not enough to make up for the disappearance of capital that once profitable banks invested in exchange for tax write-offs.

Despite the pervasive economic gloom, 2009 could be a seminal year for clean energy in the US.

A new way to look at efficiency

With all the discussion of renewable energy we hear these days, we repeatedly hear how inefficient many of these energy conversion processes are. The real question is how important are these numbers and should we be looking at efficiency in a different manner?

Let us consider the case of solar power. Our very own Dr. Webber commented, in a lecture on Renewable Power, that solar has “lower efficiency than power plants”. It is safe to assume that he is referring to the ability to convert the suns radiation to electricity via photovoltaic converters or concentrated solar power systems (not solar thermal energy conversion). And of course the statement is not inaccurate; the energy out of these systems divided by the incident energy is less than many other forms of energy conversion. But of what significance is this comparison? I would argue that efficiencies of these sorts have no relevance when comparing energy conversion processes of different types. To abuse an overused phrase, it is like comparing apples and oranges. The maximum theoretical efficiency that a photovoltaic conversion process can achieve (assuming a band-gap of 1.1 eV from the sun with incident radiation of 1000 W/m^2) is 43% (Da Rosa 2005). Does this mean that we should not consider solar power as a vital part to our future energy portfolio? I think not, instead it means that we should compare PV cells to the maximum theoretical efficiency. Simply stating that the solar to electrical is not as good as a traditional method is the argument not the correct argument.

So how should we compare energy conversion processes? That is a difficult question to answer because many of the effects of energy conversion are difficult to quantify. For example we can quantify the kWh per dollar, kWh per lb CO2, or kWh per square meter, but those don’t accurately describe the entire picture. In my opinion we must attempt to compare “Gala” to “Granny Smith” apples or at least oranges to tangerines. For example when comparing a natural gas fired Rankine cycle power plant to a natural gas driven Brayton cycle plant thermodynamic efficiencies, cost, and emissions output are an accurate ways to compare the systems. Renewable energy conversion processes should be compared to other process that require the same basic inputs, for example, wind and solar energy conversion. These two energy conversion processes both require large amount of land, so doesn’t it make since to compare them on that basis. We should evaluate the power output per unit area available as compared to the traditional efficiencies of these processes.

In conclusion I hope that as we encounter quoted efficiencies of energy conversion processes that we search for a more meaningful comparisons.

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Da Rosa, A.V. (2005). Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes. New York: Elsevier Academic Press.

Webber, M. (Speaker). (2009, February 12). Renewable Power. Austin: University of Texas at Austin.

Policy to Unclog the Renewable Energy Development Pipeline

Across the cleantech industry in 2008, the pain was evident. Commercial-scale renewable energy developers suffered as most tax equity players suffered financial losses, thereby losing their “tax appetite”. Seed-stage cleantech suffered as Venture Capitalist’s tightened their purse strings and shifted focus to keeping existing portfolio companies alive. Public equity, both IPOs and follow-on offerings also dried up, forcing many cleantech firms to delay much needed manufacturing scale-up strategies. The nail in the coffin was a massive sell-off in energy commodities due to the downturn in global consumption. Lower demand for coal and natural gas used for electricity generation caused a sell-off to ripple through power markets and the global carbon and emissions markets - dropping carbon allowance prices in the EU-ETS, RGGI, and offset credit prices in the CCX, CCAR, and CDM markets. Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) also sold-off in many U.S. states making electricity produced from renewable energy generation assets less competitive in the market.

According to New Energy Finance, the newly elected Obama administration is looking to appropriate about $78 billion of the still-in-the-works $825 billion economic stimulus package to clean energy, energy efficiency, and smart grid technologies. This impressive amount of funding illustrates the new administrations long-term commitment to energy security and desire to rejuvenate the clean energy industry after a very challenging 2008.

The remaining challenge is to see how effectively new policy out of the House and Senate can deploy this capital. Unfortunately, a critical element to the bill given the current economic conditions has already been tossed out of the Senate’s version.

In the House version, project developers may forgo the benefit of the Production Tax Credit (PTC/ITC) altogether and instead receive the equivalent benefit in the form of a cash grant from a program administered by the US Department of Energy. This component was aggressively lobbied by the wind and solar industry just before Obama’s inauguration.

But in the Senate version, these DOE grants were tossed out. “Appropriating $78 billion dollars to clean energy without the DOE grants is the equivalent of turning the water tap on but not unkinking the hose”, industry lobbyists argue (New Energy Finance, Week in Review, 1/27/2009). This is because the economic downturn has dried up the tax equity that developers need to complete the bottom layers of the capital structure in renewable energy projects. Without sufficient equity capital, the project financing stalls before debt capital can be raised. The option to receive the DOE grants instead of federal tax credits is a quick-thinking patch to the bill that solves for the lack of tax appetite in the market today.

Many industry fingers are crossed that the Senate will recognize the current and foreseeable tax equity shortfall and agree to an alternative incentive structure.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Technology Aims To Help Electricity Grids Use Renewable Generation

Newly elected President Obama just unveiled his 'American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan'. Part of this plan is a push for renewable energy, including a promise to double it in three years. Possibly more telling and exciting is the inclusion of a commitment for “3,000 miles of new or modernized transmission lines and 40 million 'Smart Meters' in American homes.” The reason this is important is because the current system cannot handle significant increases in renewable energy.

Our nation's industrialization and subsequent use of fossil fuels has given our society access to a switchable utility system. That is, when steam engine train conductors or coal plant operators wished to alter a supply of energy, they could simply add fuels to burn and convert to energy at any time they wished. Because of this, our electric grid is designed to simply deliver peak-load supply, i.e. the grid is built to have the necessary capacity for the maximum energy use on a hot day in the summer. If users are pulling more Watts from the system, grid operators can just switch the system to deliver more Amperes.

Renewable generation technologies including photovoltaic (PV) modules and wind turbines do not follow this model. These sources of energy cannot be controlled such as those provided by fossil fuels. These sources require the sun to shine and the wind to blow, respectively. For grid operators, increasing the use of these sources adds undesirable fluctuations of available energy. This is especially true for localized distributed generation sources such as solar panels on residential homes. Connecting these sources to the grid changes the makeup of the grid in unpredictable ways that make grid operators unable to properly evaluate system load requirements and locate system faults. Additionally, energy consumers cannot be expected to utilize renewable generation at the instant it is most abundant. Consumers are unlikely to dim their lights until the sun is bright or to complete their most power intensive computing when an impeding storm causes high wind speeds. Clearly, our electric grid will need to be updated in order to use more renewable energy.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology is one possible way researchers hope to improve the stability and reliability of our grid when incorporating renewable generation. The idea, originating from University of Delaware Professor Willett Kempton, is that the electrification of our transportation fleet goes hand-in-hand with the inclusion of renewable energy in our grid. He and other researchers argue that the Lithium-ion batteries on fully electric and partially electric vehicles can be used to temporarily store and redistribute energy to and from the grid. This means that your future Prius may come with a two-way connection to the grid. Professor Kempton argues that because 95% of vehicles are parked at any given time, a significant number of electric vehicles could potentially end reliable concerns of variable energy supplies.

An analogy with a different technology that you are using as you read this post may help illustrate how this works. Imagine that our information superhighway was changed to where there was no storage involved. Each bit and byte had to be available at all times so it could be delivered instantaneously upon request by the consumer. This is how our energy system works today. However, due to Internet protocols and storage technology, we do not have those requirements. As you access this post you are utilizing storage components within the Internet structure, and as you read this post you are utilizing storage on your personal computer. In fact, one crucial component of a V2G system is information technology that tells the grid when and where to pull and deliver energy.

The city of Newark, Delaware, is now testing a demo V2G system. Professor Kempton envisions a situation where consumers will be compensated by energy companies to enable V2G to pull from their vehicles. The Smart Meters necessary for V2G could also be used to give energy prices that correspond to the demand. This would encourage the public to buy into V2G systems because they could opt to sell energy when the price was highest.

Of course, problems still need to be clarified and researched further including the impact of V2G on the life-cycle on the Lithium-Ion batteries currently installed on electric vehicles. However, hope is increasing for V2G as politicians accept the need to modernize our electric grid as we increase our use of renewable energy.

Deep Water Wind in Scotland is a good sign for Texas

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting story today about the installation of the world's two largest wind turbines in deep water off the east coast of Scotland. The United Kingdom has rapidly declining oil and gas production in the North Sea, requirements to generate 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2020, and excellent off-shore wind. Because they are concerned about unemployed energy sector workers from the loss of oil and gas production, the idea is to convert them into wind energy workers, which also allows industry to take advantages of its deep-water assets (that is, its platforms), while making progress towards their renewable targets. Seems promsing.

I often joke that the wind is where the people are not, because no one wants to live where it's windy. Except for the Scots. And now they can turn their hardy indifference to wind into a money maker.

Sounds like a great idea, and Texas can do something similar. We have extensive expertise in offshore construction, excellent wind in the Gulf of Mexico, and declining oil and gas production. Maybe it's time for us to accelerate our offshore wind farm construction? The only thing we lack are similarly aggresive renewable power targets for 2020...

....oh, and a whole lot of money. Deep water wind capacity is almost a factor of ten more expensive per kilowatt than wind-fueled capacity in the West Texas flatlands. But, at least it doesn't ruin any rachers' views.