THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for June, 2011

Photo: Josh Sommers

Carbon dioxide isn’t the sole contributor to global warming and climate change. An even larger and more dangerous chemical is methane, the abundant naturally occurring gas that can be found almost anywhere — from coal mines to cow farts and composting piles.

To this end, the Global Methane Initiative (GMI) reports that an enhanced global focus on methane is critical for furthering an international response to the real threats of climate change.  GMI gets right to the point: “Methane is a potent and short-lived greenhouse gas whose emissions currently account for over one-third of today’s atmospheric warming.”

The organization points out that numerous commercially proven technologies exist that can reduce or eliminate methane emissions while providing cost-effective clean energy.  The practices of Waste Management (WM) at some landfills in converting waste methane to electricity or liquid fuels provide two shining examples.

Making sound a solid economic platform part of managing methane has helped create market traction. Although actual numbers haven’t been posted, WM at the Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site (DADS) launched the Denver program by producing enough electricity from landfill methane to fuel almost 3,000 homes – and that was over three years ago. The volume has no doubt increased by now – and the global climate has benefitted.

GMI says that its Methane to Markets Partnership, founded in 2004, has served as an important international initiative to focus global attention on the importance of reducing methane emissions. “But we can and must do more,” GMI adds.

Among the key strategies in the Methane to Markets Partnership are efforts to initiate methane abatement and avoidance programs from sources like municipal wastewater, and encouraging all Partner countries to coordinate methane reduction efforts at home and abroad.

GMI reports that the Methane to Markets Partnership has successfully generated methane reduction projects in the agriculture, coal mining, landfill, and oil & natural gas industries. Accomplishments include:

• Building international cooperation on methane mitigation among Partner Building international cooperation on methane mitigation among Partner countries, including all top 10 methane-emitting nations.
• Supporting more than 300 projects that when fully implemented will reduce 60 MMTCO2E/year.
• Leveraging the resources and expertise of over 1,000 Project Network members.
• Complementing and facilitating national actions under the UNFCCC.

Why does methane happen to be so important? GMI provides these sobering facts:

• Methane is the second most important GHG and is 25 times more potent than CO2 over a 100-year period. Methane emissions currently contribute to over one-third of today’s anthropogenic warming.
• Methane is a short-lived GHG and thus methane reduction plays a critical role in reducing the near term rate of warming and avoiding climatic tipping points.
• Methane recovery and use delivers clean energy as well as improving local air and water quality.  Because methane is the primary component of natural gas, reducing emissions can be very cost-effective using available technologies and practices.  U.S. EPA estimates that by 2020, reductions of more than 1,500 MMtCO2E can be achieved at low cost.
• Methane is an important tropospheric ozone precursor.  Studies have shown that reducing global methane emissions by 20% could avoid more than 300,000 ozone-related mortalities globally in 2030.  Reducing methane anywhere in the world helps air quality everywhere.

The significant challenge involves finding better ways of balancing methane emissions by creating sensible energy solutions.

Photo: Josh Sommers

Utility PG&E unveiled a tome (close to 300 pages) detailing the ins and outs of its smart grid plans on Thursday. A lot of the report drills down into information about the smart meter, energy efficiency, and energy storage projects that PG&E has slowly been putting into place for the past few years. But at a high level, the report offers a glimpse of a first-mover utility looking to modernize its power grid with IT, learn from some of its mistakes in the past, and enable the greater integration of clean power, like solar and wind.

Here is what you need to know from the report (because we know 300 pages is a bit of a rough read):

• Capital costs. PG&E plans to spend between $800 million and $1.25 billion in capital investments for its various proposed smart grid projects over 20 years, and another $500 million to $700 million in cumulative operating expenses over 20 years.
• Benefits. PG&E says it expects to generate $600 million to $1.4 billion in lower energy procurement costs, $200 million to $400 million in avoided capital costs of things like more power plants, $100 million to $200 million in avoided operating and maintenance costs. In addition, PG&E plans to achieve a 10- to 20-percent improvement in grid reliability. In terms of emissions, PG&E says it can save 1.4 to 2.1 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions.
• Smart meters. PG&E says it has already installed 8 million meters, which it says is the largest installation in the country.
• How to get a deal with PG&E. PG&E says it will continue to evaluate and test technologies and services from third-party vendors, including ways to build out its network, ways to make the network run more efficiently, options for using public networks for services, and options for public network partnerships. PG&E also says it is looking into ways to potentially lease or buy more wireless frequency. PG&E says it looks at “cost-effectiveness, security and performance,” when evaluating third-party vendors.
• Weighing maturity of OpenADR standard. On whether PG&E wants to embrace the open-source version of the demand response standard OpenADR, PG&E says “[A]s with other technologies being developed in the absence of standards, PG&E will carefully consider the maturity of OpenADR product offering before it will be able to make major investments in its information and telecommunications systems to shift more broadly to OpenADR.”
• ZigBee 2.0 taking more time than expected. Utilities are installing radios in smart meters to wirelessly talk to connected gadgets, thermostats and appliances in homes. Most are using ZigBee radios for this, but the protocol that guides the use of the ZigBee radio is under transition from a first-gen protocol called the “Smart Energy Profile (SEP)” to the next-generation protocol SEP 2.0. PG&E says while the current version of SEP is “not sufficiently mature to support large-scale deployments,”  the approval of SEP 2.0 “is taking longer than expected,” and “creating uncertainty,” for how to offer ZigBee-based home wireless products.
• Energy storage plans. PG&E is working on a project to use compressed air for energy storage, and plans to build a 300 MW plant using porous rock structure for storage in California. PG&E expects the first phase of that project to be competed by August 2015. PG&E also plans to build two demonstration projects using NaS batteries by December 2012.
• Big  data plans. PG&E is building something called the Data Historian Foundation Project, which will be the central data archiving and analytics system for time-series data, and which PG&E wants to have completed by December 2012. The cost: $12.3 million.
• Smarter utility operations. PG&E plans to spend the most money on making its network operations smarter — like substation, and transmission and distribution, intelligence. PG&E plans to spend between $595 million and $850 million in capital on this.
• Cost per customer: PG&E says the nominal cost per customer account for its smart grid plans will be about $12 to $20 per year and $4 to $7 per year for each customer.
• PG&E’s customer outreach: Attempting to learn from its previous mistakes of complaints and angry customers after the first wave of smart meters were installed, PG&E says it will implement a broader outreach plan beginning in 2014. It also lists lessons like: customer education on benefits, tools and pricing options are critical for the success if consumer-facing smart grid projects.

Word cloud courtesy of Wordle:

Image courtesy of Gus Thomson.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution
• Report: An Open Source Smart Grid Primer
• Cleantech Was a Market Leader in Q4

Utility PG&E unveiled a tome (close to 300 pages) detailing the ins and outs of its smart grid plans on Thursday. A lot of the report drills down into information about the smart meter, energy efficiency, and energy storage projects that PG&E has slowly been putting into place for the past few years. But at a high level the report offers a glimpse of a first-mover utility looking to modernize its power grid with IT, learn from some of its mistakes in the past, and enable the greater integration of clean power, like solar and wind.

Here is what you need to know from the report (because we know 300 pages is a bit of a rough read):

• Capital Costs: PG&E plans to spend between $800 million and $1.25 billion in capital investments for its various proposed smart grid projects over 20 years, and another $500 million to $700 million in cumulative operating expenses over 20 years.
• Benefits: PG&E says it expects to generate $600 million to $1.4 billion in lower energy procurement costs, $200 million to $400 million in avoided capital costs of things like more power plants, $100 million to $200 million in avoided operating and maintenance costs. In addition PG&E plans to achieve a 10 to 20 percent improvement in grid reliability. In terms of emissions, PG&E says it can save 1.4 to 2.1 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions.
• Smart Meters: PG&E says it has already installed 8 million meters, which it says its the largest installation in the country.
• How to Get a Deal with PG&E: PG&E says it will continue to evaluate and test technologies and services from third party vendors, including ways to build out its network, ways to make the network run more efficiently, options for using public networks for services, and options for public network partnerships. PG&E also says it is looking into ways to potentially lease or buy more wireless frequency. PG&E says it looks at “cost-effectiveness, security and performance,” when evaluating third party vendors.
• Weighing Maturity of OpenADR Standard: On whether PG&E wants to embrace the open source version of the demand response standard OpenADR, PG&E says “[A]s with other technologies being developed in an the absence of standards, PG&E will carefully consider the maturity of OpenADR product offering before it will be able to make major investments in its information and telecommunications systems to shift more broadly to OpenADR.”
• ZigBee 2.0 Taking More Time Than Expected: Utilities are installing radios in smart meters to wirelessly talk to connected gadgets, thermostats and appliances in homes. Most are using ZigBee radios for this, but the protocol that guides the use of the ZigBee radio is under transition from a first-gen protocol called the “Smart Energy Profile (SEP)” to the next-generation protocol SEP 2.0. PG&E says while the current version of SEP is “not sufficiently mature to support large scale deployments,”  the approval of SEP 2.0 “is taking longer than expected,” and “creating uncertainty,” for how to offer ZigBee-based home wireless products.
• Energy Storage Plans: PG&E is working on a project to use compressed air for energy storage, and plans to build a 300 MW plant using porous rock structure for storage in California. PG&E expects the first phase of that project to be competed by August 2015. PG&E also plans to build two demonstration projects using NaS batteries by December 2012.
• Big Data Plans: PG&E is building something called the Data Historian Foundation Project, which will be the central data archiving and analytics system for time-series data, and which PG&E wants to have completed by December 2012. The cost: $12.3 million.
• Smarter Utility Operations: PG&E plans to spend the most money on making its network operations smarter — like substation, and transmission and distribution, intelligence. PG&E plans to spend between $595 million and $850 million in capital on this.
• Cost Per Customer: PG&E says that the nominal cost per customer account for its smart grid plans will be about $12 to $20 per year and $4 to $7 per year for each customer.
• PG&E’s Customer Outreach: Attempting to learn from its previous mistakes of complaints and angry customers after the first wave of smart meters were installed, PG&E says it will implement a broader outreach plan beginning in 2014. It also lists lessons like: customer education on benefits, tools and pricing options are critical for the success if consumer-facing smart grid projects.

Image courtesy of Gus Thomson.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution
• Report: An Open Source Smart Grid Primer
• Cleantech Was a Market Leader in Q4

Cell phones can teach us a lot about saving energy: Over the years, they’ve been uniquely designed to operate as efficiently as possible, quickly moving in and out of states of power — from sleep to low power to full power — and utilizing the latest battery innovations. Because of this, new energy technologies that have commonly been introduced first in cell phones are now being mimicked across other industries, leading to information technology and transportation that is more energy efficient.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• What cell phones can teach us about energy efficiency
• What cell phones can teach us about energy efficiency
• Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight

Electric car and motorcycle racing can deliver important breakthroughs and innovations for the future of electric vehicles. I learned that at the ReFuel electric vehicle races at the Laguna Seca racetrack back in 2010, and it’s just as true today. At this year’s ReFuel races, electric vehicle startup KleenSpeed broke a racing record, and electric motorcycle racer Chip Yates broke another one during the Pike’s Peak race climb this week. While it might seem like these events are frivolous and niche (yes, they are small), they are basically the ultimate testing ground for cutting-edge and high-performance electric vehicle technology.

For this year’s ReFuel event, KleenSpeed used a UQM electric drive system, which helped it break a lap speed record, doing one lap at the Mazda Laguna Seca raceway in 1 minute, 38 seconds. The UQM system is small, lightweight, uses the battery as efficiently as possible, and provides super-fast torque.

Motorcycle racer Chip Yates has built what he says is the world’s most powerful and technically advanced electric motorcycle, called the Superbike. Yates says the Superbike has 240 horse power and 295 foot pounds of torque. His run on Pike’s Peak set the world record for an electric motorcycle on that track.

Check out Yate’s Pike’s Peak ride:

Here’s our video of KleenSpeed from ReFuel 2010:

And a racing video of WrightSpeed from ReFuel 2010:

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
• Report: IT and Networking Issues for the Electric Vehicle Market
• Post-IPO strategies for LinkedIn