THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for October, 2010

The Heartland Institute, which has made its name by fighting anti-smoking laws, has just rolled out a campaign in support of California’s Proposition 23.  Prop 23 is a ballot measure designed to nullify AB 32, California’s new law regulating greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s no surprise that out-of-state oil companies are investing heavily to campaign for it. So, why is a tobacco industry lobbying organization putting its muscle behind Prop 23?

Heartland and The Oil Industry

For those of you familiar with Heartland, there is a pretty strong logic to its affinity for Proposition 23: the organization has a solid history of promoting the denial of climate change science. In past years it received a good deal of funding from Exxon, but recently Exxon has tried to put some distance between them, by ceasing to fund the organization. However, it’s not clear that all the ties have been severed. According to exxonsecrets.org, in 2007 Heartland launched a website with the aim of shooting down the scientific consensus on global warming, which includes links to other think tanks that have received funding from Exxon (in a related note, last February the New York Times reported that Exxon is still funding similar climate-denying efforts in the U.K.)

Heartland and Proposition 23

I’m not interested in promoting Heartland’s websites so feel free to look them up for yourself. The new campaign features a press release that positions Prop 23 as a ballot measure that will protect jobs and “quality of life.”  In contrast, a long (very long) list of California companies, community groups and trade organizations are opposing Prop 23, along with the green jobs coalition Appollo Alliance.

Image: Cigarette by SuperFantastic on flickr.com.

Local jurisdictions in Red state America, increasingly unable to agree to taxes to jointly afford repaving at peak oil prices are simply letting roads decline – in the same way as after the fall of the Roman Empire, in the dark ages there, many roads in Europe returned to mud tracks.

But an innovative new oil-free way of surfacing roads could be on the way to save us from peak oil. This “sandstone” road surface is built by bacteria just using sand, so it’s cheaper. The idea from Thomas Kosbau + Andrew Wetzler is the winning entry in the Korean green design iida awards, announced by designboom.

The idea is to use an abundant resource – sand – and to mix the sand with a solution containing the microbe Bacillus Pasteurii, which cements the sand into a biologically engineered hardened sandstone. Then the sand-and-microbe solution is sprayed onto a layer of sand underneath and hardens the whole thing into a tough road surface made of bio-sandstone.

Currently roads are built of asphalt – a toxic material made of crude oil, that creates heat islands and is subject to peak oil. The advantages of replacing asphalt are both financial and environmental.

It takes 320 barrels of oil to build one kilometer of asphalt roadway.
Made from crude oil, asphalt had a price rise of 222% between 2003 and 2008, which is symptomatic of peak oil and likely to keep happening as we use up the remainder of a finite resource.
Asphalt off-gasses, especially in hot weather, and is carcinogenic, causes birth defects, and is harmful to skin and the immune system.
Asphalt roads contribute to the heat island effect, reaching temperatures of up to 150 degrees, transferring the heat to air.

If their “sandstone” is strong, durable and long-lasting enough, this bio-engineered road would appear to be brilliant solution. Not only does it take less energy to light a light-colored road surface at night, but the reduction in the heat island effect alone could reduce city temperatures up to 3 degrees C, further lowering city needs for air conditioning, which in turn further reduces CO2 emissions.

Susan Kraemer@Twitter

The Coca-Cola company has been introducing more electric vehicles and other low-emissions trucks into its massive fleet, and now researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University are developing yet another alternative energy option. The team has been working on a solar powered air conditioning system that would significantly reduce or eliminate beverage delivery truck emissions related to cooling.

Solar Powered Air Conditioning for Beverage Trucks

Polytechnic has been collaborating on the Solar Energy System project with Green Power Industrial Ltd. and Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong, and a prototype truck is in operation on campus. It consists of a rooftop system that collects solar energy and stores it in a battery, so the use of alternative energy can continue during inclement weather. The battery storage system is also almost a necessity for using solar energy in high density urban delivery driving, when you consider that a delivery truck may frequent roads that are shaded by tall buildings, to say nothing of getting stuck in traffic, especially in a tunnel.

Solar Power and Air Conditioning

Solar air conditioning almost sounds like an oxymoron, but not when you consider that it simply refers to an air conditioning system that runs on electricity harvested from solar energy. The U.S. Navy caught on to the solar air conditioning concept several years ago, and commissioned some test models from a company called GreenCore.  Like other branches of the armed forces, the Navy has also been installing solar power parking lots, which conceivably could be used to power up electric vehicles and provide solar energy for on board air conditioning.

Image: Coca-Cola truck by thomaswanhoff on flickr.com.

A new clean tech company called Totempower Energy Systems Ltd. has come up with an easy way to put wind power within the grasp of everyday homeowners. The company is developing new micro-wind turbines that are designed for close quarters and non-disruptive installation, but the real key to getting more micro-wind turbines into consumers’ hands is the company’s “ease of ownership” plan which provides a soup-to-nuts service including site selection and connecting the turbine to the home electrical system.

Taking the Work out of Wind Power

Totempower’s approach is similar to that of CleanTechnica’s former host, One Block Off the Grid (1bog.org), which arranges group discounts for solar energy installations, performed by pre-vetted solar companies. It relieves homeowners a considerable amount of time that would otherwise be spent in educating oneself about wind power, figuring out if one’s property includes an appropriate location (which includes any local regulations or permitting processes), shopping for a suitable system, and finding a  reputable company to install it. Totempower’s system is designed for easy no-excavation installation, and easy maintenance.

Totempower’s New Micro-Wind Turbine

The new wind turbine was developed under a partnership with the City University London, based on a patented, low cost technology developed by the University called the Passive Air-jet Vortex Generator. The high-efficiency aerodynamics enable the turbine to operate at lower speeds, which presumably would help mute the any noise. More to the point, Totempower’s goal is to make wind turbine ownership as simple as owning any other standard home energy device such as a furnace or hot water heater. Testing at the University is under way and the company hopes to secure financing to bring two models into production by 2012 – a smaller model for individual homes and a larger one for commercial facilities or community power generation.

Image: Kites in the wind by ronnie44052 on flickr.com.

This week BrightSource Energy was the first of the California utility-scale solar projects to make it over the finish line by the deadline of December 31st, 2010. Their 392 MW solar thermal project at Ivanpah has broken ground on time.

Now it qualifies for renewable energy funding under the Recovery Act – the stimulus bill that California’s Senator Boxer was instrumental in getting written into the legislation.

“At Ivanpah, we’re demonstrating that the U.S. can lead in the clean energy race by building the largest solar plant in the world.” said John Woolard, President and CEO of BrightSource Energy at the ground breaking ceremony.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, another booster for renewable energy, opined that “Projects like this one are helping us meet our long-term energy and environmental goals, while creating jobs and moving us toward a cleaner, more sustainable future – a future where California leads the nation and the world in a clean energy revolution.”

Of the 16 gigawatts of new renewable power being put on the grid with support from the Recovery Act, 11 gigawatts is in the West, and most of that is solar on California’s deserts. If all 16 gigawatts make it in time, by the end of December, thus qualifying for the 30% subsidy, it will double the US renewable energy supply, getting more renewable energy on the US grid than in the last thirty years combined.

That sounds sensible.  But there’s a catch, as there always is in any clean energy legislation that has to get through our plutocratic Senate.

The 30% cash grant funding under the Recovery Act for this sea change in US energy is like Cinderella’s coach, that is held together as if by magic, and turns back into a humble pumpkin at the stroke of midnight.

To get funded, projects have to break ground by midnight on December 31st, 2010. Since it easily takes 18 months for solar projects to get through environmental reviews, the proviso is a killer.

So, despite truly heroic efforts from each of the bureaucracies that permit energy -  the CPUC, CEC and BLM – that have had to race to get these approved since the Recovery Act passed in March last year – their approvals are not enough. Even the contracts with the utilities (PG&E, SDG&E and SCE) are not enough. Actually sticking a shovel in the dirt by the end of 2010 is what counts.

It is fitting that BrightSource Energy be the one that makes it through. BrightSource is the heir to Luz, California’s first solar thermal energy company, that was bankrupted by 1992 by low fossil energy prices and poor legislative support for clean energy at both the Federal and state level back then.

Luz built California’s pioneering solar thermal project, back in the ’80s. It is still going strong thirty years later, having pumped out 14,000 gigawatt-hours of clean solar energy – so far – from the California desert.

This year, the Federal government provided a $1.37 billion loan guarantee to its successor, BrightSource Energy.

Image: Senator Boxer of California meets with BrightSource
Susan Kraemer@Twitter