New Technology Could Offer Solution to Seemingly Unreliable Renewable Energy Technologies-


An avant-garde technology is being implemented into wind turbines and solar panels which may potentially offer secure energy storage even when wind and sunlight is not readily available. By allowing electricity to be stored while environmental elements are out of reach, giant-sized batteries made with gravel are anticipated to improve renewable energy generation and will dampen constant criticism of opponents who claim that the renewable energy technology is not economically viable. “If you bolt this to a wind farm, you could store the intermittent and relatively erratic energy and give it back in a reliable and controlled manner,” says Jonathan Howe, founder of Isentropic and previously an engineer at the Civil Aviation Authority. The gravel-based battery would, according to Isentropic, be capable of storing energy equal to that of the former all while using less space – and cash. The company’s technology begins with two silos filled with a pulverized rock such as gravel. Then, electricity is employed to heat and pressurize argon gas which is fed into one of the silos; and, by the time the gas escapes the chamber, it has cooled to an ambient temperature while the gravel itself is heated to 500°C (or 932°F).

The gas is then directed into the second silo where it expands back to normal atmospheric pressure. This stage acts as an oversized refrigerator – causing the gas and rock temperature inside the second chamber to drop to -160°C (or -256°F). Any energy originally produced by the wind turbines is stored as a temperature variation between the two rock-filled silos – so to release the energy, the cycle is reversed, and as the energy changes from hot to cold it powers a generator that makes electricity. Isentropic guarantees an energy efficiency of up to 80 percent and, because gravel is inexpensive, the cost of a system per-kilowatt-hour of storage would be between $10 and $55. According to Howe, the energy in the sizzling silo can be easily stored for extended periods of time; and by his calculations, a silo that stands 50m tall and was 50m in diameter would only lose half of its energy through its walls if left undisturbed for three years. David Bott, director of innovation programs at the Technology Strategy Board, one of the sponsors of the 2010 Clean and Cool trade mission said: “Isentropic have done something very exciting, by revisiting scientific theory and coming up with a new technology that answers the need to match the generation of electricity with its use. For instance, the system could enable the more efficient use of wind power, by storing the energy generated by a turbine until it is needed. We need ways to store the energy we generate when we have a surplus, so that it can be used when we need extra and this innovative new system could provide the answer.”

Natural Grocery Chain Aims to Reduce Energy Consumption 25 Percent by 2015-

According to a recently released statement, Whole Foods, Inc. aims to cut its energy use 25 percent per square foot during the next five years. The natural foods grocer currently offsets 100 percent of its North American electricity consumption with wind energy credits, and is now taking additional steps to lighten its impact on the environment with on-site renewable energy technologies and sustainable initiatives. Developments include more use of wind, solar, and fuel cell technology as well as an electric car charging station at its headquarters in Austin, Texas. To boot, company stores will implement more rigorous green building standards, advanced refrigeration infrastructure and more efficient transportation. “With this combination of strategies, we intend to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent per square foot by 2015,” said Kathy Loftus, Whole Foods Market global leader, sustainable engineering. “Saving energy costs less than buying it, so we are reducing our energy appetite from both traditional and renewable sources.” Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Energy will help sustain the costs of existing store retrofits and new store design and, as part of the stimulus grants, Whole Foods will work with National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) to create, test and validate green building concepts. At present, thirty Whole Foods stores are either LEED-certified, Green Globes accredited, or enrolled and preparing for certification.

Intergovernmental Budget Request to Offer Clean Energy Funds Nationwide-

On February 1st, President Obama announced a $28.4 billion budget request for the Department of Energy (DOE) to utilize in 2011, which includes $2.36 billion toward the new DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Maintaining America’s shift toward clean energy and conservation, the proposed plan targets untenable energy use, renewable energy sources, and clean energy research. The budget consists of significant increases for several EERE projects; with a 53 percent increase for wind energy, 43 percent for the Weatherization and Intergovernmental program, 32 percent for the Federal Energy Management Program, 25 percent for geothermal energy, and a 22 percent boost for solar energy. An additional $57.5 million will also be applied for facility and infrastructure development at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and $50 million will go towards a new program called ‘Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge’ (Re-Energyse) which will educate and guide students, as well as workers, to pursue careers in science, engineering, and entrepreneurship related to renewable energy; professions which are seriously lacking in America. Moreover, Obama’s initiative necessitates a 43 percent increase in funding for program management; virtually doubling the total amount exhausted for program support. Budget resources will grant the DOE $500 million to support approximately $3-5 billion in loan guarantees for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, along with $10 million to support the continued management of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. $35 million of the proposed funds will also work to develop clean energy transmission and reliability, $39.3 million will be applied toward Smart Grid research and improvement, and $40 million will be used to develop energy storage on the electrical grid. The Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA-E) is also included in the budget proposal with $300 million to aid in transformational energy research; while Energy Frontier Research Centers are anticipated to receive a whopping $140 million for two new facilities, and $107 million for Energy Innovation Hubs. Both the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior are planning to increase renewable energy funding and energy efficiency program fulfillment in their budget requests for 2011 which span from wildlife protection to biofuel production, and are available in-depth by visiting Energy.gov.

President Obama Highlights Initiatives & Goals for 2010-


Last night, President Barack Obama gave his first official State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress and went into heavy detail on the topics of federal deficit and national job loss. The President proposed policy changes that would eliminate programs which are unaffordable or do not work; repeal the ‘don’t-ask-don’t tell’ policy which currently bans homosexual persons from being allowed to serve in the military; reform immigration laws; improve earmark allocations; provide major reorganization in the health care industry; nearly double the child tax credit for the middle class; expand tax credits for the middle class workforce who starts a retirement fund; refinance to make mortgages more affordable; increase Pell Grants for students; as well as renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

New legislative initiatives and goals were also proposed, such as placing fees on the country’s largest banks to follow up on the Trouble Assets Relief Program (TARP); offering $30 billion from recovered TARP funds to community banks to extend credit to small businesses; building clean energy facilities to spur the nation into affordable, renewable energy generation; providing rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient; encouraging new jobs by cutting tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas, as well as giving incentives to companies that create jobs in the U.S.; building nuclear power plants for domestic energy production; exploring off-shore for oil and gas to eliminate the country’s need for foreign oil; investing in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies; adding a comprehensive energy and climate bill to make clean energy economically lucrative; launching a National Export Initiative which would double exports in 5 years; giving access to a retirement account for every worker; revitalizing community colleges to encourage sustainable education in America; ending taxpayer subsidies for student bank loans; supplying a $10,000 tax credit for families that enroll a student in for years of college; allowing all student loan debt to be pardoned after 20 years, or after 10 years if they choose a career in public service; cutting costs at colleges and universities; immobilization in government spending for 3 years on discretionary programs (excluding Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and national security), starting in 2011; extending middle-class tax cuts; restoring the pay-as-you-go law; implementing a bipartisan fiscal commission to provide solutions; and some of the most important which aid to cease dishonesty in legislation, with the proposed policies requiring lobbyists to disclose every contact they make; placing limits on contributions that lobbyists give to candidates; as well as cracking down on violations of equal pay laws. His wife and First Lady, Michelle Obama, also added an inventive program which will help to tackle childhood obesity. The speech appeared very dubious indeed to many, seeing that there is still much further to go in the battle for a sustainable future; however, if President Obama is able to push these policies through with bipartisan support, America may be on the right track after all. Video below is the full State of the Union 2010 video speech, courtesy of CBS News.

Current Administration’s Efforts for Sustainable America-

Despite Republican criticism over the current administration’s lack of initiative, President Barack Obama has overcome many obstacles in his goal to provide a green, sustainable future for America. As today marks the one-year anniversary for the 44th U.S. President, he remains vigilant in the fight for ecological conservation and protection by increasing gas mileage standards; rewriting environmental policies set by the Bush administration; placing carbon caps on certain industries; protecting federal forests by prohibiting logging, mining and road building in certain areas; and not to mention, offering tax incentives for commercial and residential renewable energy utilization and research. Above and beyond his conscientious standards in environmental fortification, the president has also spurred steady job growth in several renewable energy industry sectors, from green building and construction to energy audits. The Obama administration’s accomplishments are as follows:

• Introduced hard-wearing national smog standards from the EPA this month.
• Signed a bill in March adding 2.1 million new acres of federally protected wilderness, which bans logging, mining and road-building on federal forests & deserts in nine states.
• Established EPA regulations which require large U.S. ships to cut soot emissions by 85 percent.
• Amplified gas mileage standards for automobiles by 40 percent, up from today’s 25 mpg to 35 mpg by 2016.
• Signed a stimulus package that offered more than $50 billion in funding and tax credits for renewable energy projects; with billions of dollars going to supply grants to companies building solar and wind farms, weatherize federal buildings, and fund research on biofuels and other green technologies.
• Opposed Bush administration policy to open the California coast and 77 federal sites near Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands national parks to new oil & gas drilling.
• Initiated the first development of its kind, in which the EPA will confine the amount of greenhouse gases industry can release.
• Reversed Bush administration regulations allowing more snowmobiles in Yellowstone and fewer federal agency reviews of endangered species.
• Began the LEED certification process to retrofit the White House; signifying the most substantial effort by a single president to “green” the executive mansion.

In the face of constant antagonism, the current administration has achieved a good deal in developing renewable energy policies and standards; however much more needs to be realized before America will be free from the dangers of toxic waste. For example, many have voiced concerns in regards to the present state of the country’s national electricity grid, as it remains insufficient for ample storage and transmission. Additionally, mountain top removal using explosives is exceedingly common in coal mining areas because the process is more economically viable considering that less labor is required. This crude technique for coal extraction is tremendously perilous to natural surroundings, though, not only due to emissions but because it has been linked to local drinking water contamination and increased flood risk. Much policy reform in the president’s term is accredited to executive branch rules; in effect, changes can be overturned by future presidents. Furthermore, although President Obama met in Copenhagen to discuss a new global warming treaty, he neglected to achieve an arrangement with obligatory reductions.

Researchers at the University of Texas Develop Nano-Ink to Coat Directly on Buildings & Rooftops-

In an extensive solar energy research project conducted at the University of Texas, engineers have discovered an effective, more economical alternative to solar photovoltaic panels utilizing nanoparticle inks. The proprietary nano-ink application could potentially be an extraordinary replacement for standard solar cell manufacturing processes, as they require smoldering temperatures and are comparatively steep in cost, says Brian Korgel of the University of Texas at Austin. “The sun provides a nearly unlimited energy resource…but existing solar energy harvesting technologies are prohibitively expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuels,” said Korgel. Currently, spray-on inks are only 1 percent efficient – while present solar panel technology ranges between 25-50 percent in performance efficiency. Nano-ink, ten-thousand times thinner than a strand of hair, has become a lucrative bond in creating a more sustainable, more efficient solar application that may allow solar cell ink to be coated directly on buildings themselves in the near future. “If we get to 10 percent, then there’s real potential for commercialization,” Korgel said. “If it works, I think you could see it being used in three to five years.” Researchers also expressed that the future of nanotechnology is not just limited to building structures, but may also allow windows to double as solar cells in the future as the inks are semi-transparent. The research project, available in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

One-Gigawatt Producing Solar Power Station to be erected in Outer Space-

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a leading manufacturer of solar panels, has joined forces with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to launch a $25 billion solar farm in outer space within the next three decades. The solar hub is to be positioned approximately 26,000 km above the earth’s surface, will contain four square kilometers of solar panels, and is projected to generate 1 gigawatt of solar energy – enough to power 294,000 standard Tokyo residences. Before the development is completed, JAXA will send a smaller solar powered satellite sometime in the year 2015 to assess beam energy concentration in space. The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), a division of JAXA, has effectively engineered the 10-megawatt producing solar power satellite for trial analysis, and are now currently working on a tentative strategy which would employ a satellite to supply several hundred kilowatts of wireless power. Nevertheless, much more research and assessment is still required before the solar farm project can be fully secured to begin operations, especially as there are ongoing concerns of space debris and additional unforeseen consequences that must be considered when developing in vast, and often volatile, outer space.

Black Carbon and Ozone Responsible for Drastic Warming, Moderating these Pollutants will Produce Effective Alleviation-


Minimizing black carbon soot and ground-level ozone emissions would cause quick, considerable changes in alleviating the effects of global warming and would also contribute to overall public health and protect crop yield, according to an essay published in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs. Written by Jessica Seddon Wallack, Director of the Center for Development Finance at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in India, and Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a scientist and Distinguished Professor of Climate and Atmospheric Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, “The Other Climate Changers: Why Black Carbon and Ozone Also Matter,” is a descriptive reasoning into why we need to collectively work on eliminating black carbon and ground level ozone to prevent exceeding climate tipping points. The book asserts that toxins such as these are ideal to pursue, as they are short lived in the atmosphere – around weeks to a few months – and the benefits to moderating them could be experienced almost straight away. “Right now the world is looking at well over a 2 degree rise in temperatures from the pre-industrial age” said Ramanathan. “To avoid the severe consequences associated with such a dramatic change, we need to look at other feasible complementary measures, in addition to reducing CO2 emissions that will provide near-term mitigation.”

Black carbon is generated in large part by diesel vehicles and the burning of biomass, as well as cook stoves in developing countries like China and India; playing an unfortunate role in 7 percent of child deaths worldwide due to serious respiratory infections caused by the pollutant. The carbon by-product is also accountable for almost 50 percent of Arctic warming, as well as wide-ranging snow and ice thaw in the Himalayas. Energy efficient technology that is made available in more industrial countries, such as diesel particulate filters for vehicles, cleaner-burning biomass, and more energy efficient cook stoves, can drastically ease black carbon production. Along with the dangers of black carbon, ground level or tropospheric ozone is extremely deadly to inhale and lowers crop production immensely. Tropospheric ozone, unlike the stratospheric ozone which impedes the sun’s UV rays, is created by “ozone precursor” gases such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, methane, and other hydrocarbons. Increasing the proficiency of industrialized combustion procedures can drastically lessen these gases, as it is extremely important for the growth of new crops in urbanized regions. A recent study uncovered that damage to crop yields caused by ozone gases resulted in an economic loss of $14-26 billion annually. “Tackling these two air pollutants and contributors to climate change will yield regional as well as global benefits. The health and agricultural co-benefits for the areas that do reduce emissions are especially compelling,” said author Jessica Seddon Wallack. “We hope that this article will raise awareness of the opportunity and accelerate local and regional emission reduction initiatives that contribute to global efforts to mitigate climate change.”

Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and John Kerry (D-MA) introduced a black carbon bill earlier this year, as did Congressmen Jay Inslee, Mike Honda (D-CA) and (D-WA), Peter Welch (D-VT). A provision on black carbon is also included in the Waxman-Markey climate bill.

DOE Awards $377 in Funding for 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers Across America-

DOE Secretary Steven Chu has announced the funding for 46 multi-million dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) sited at universities, nonprofit groups, national laboratories and private organizations throughout the country. $277 of the $377 million was made available via the Recovery Act, while the $100 million was acquired through the DOE’s FY2009 budget. The EFRCs are being awarded $2-5 million per year each for an intended five-year period and were chosen from a collection of submissions that were received in reply to a proposal delivered by the U.S. DOE Office of Science in 2008 and announced on April 27, 2009. Applicants were selected based on a demanding merit evaluation course which involved a diverse panel of scientific experts. The new program will utilize new capabilities in high intensity light sources, supercomputing, nanotechnology, neutron scattering sources, and other advanced machinery which will set the foundation for major progression in energy efficiency, biofuels, transportation, electricity storage and transmission, solar energy, clean coal and carbon capture and sequestration, and nuclear energy. The EFRC project is just a portion of a DOE commitment of $777 million over a total of five years for renewable energy financing projects. “As global energy demand grows, there is an urgent need to reduce our dependence on imported oil and curtail greenhouse gas emissions,” said Secretary Chu. “Meeting the challenge to reduce our dependence on imported oil and curtail greenhouse gas emissions will require significant scientific advances. These centers will mobilize the enormous talents and skills of our nation’s scientific workforce in pursuit of the breakthroughs that are essential to expand the use of clean and renewable energy.”