San Francisco Bay Area-based Eco-Fuel Global this week signed an agreement with the Government of Rwanda to produce bio-fuels from Jatropha Curcas. The deal, estimated to be worth in excess of $250 million, would replace up to 20 percent of the Rwandan fossil fuel requirement with low emission bio-fuels.

Jatropha Curcas is a poisonous shrub whose seeds contain oil that is used to produce biodiesel fuel that is usable in a standard diesel engine.

“This marks the beginning of one of the largest sustainable biofuel projects in the world,” Mark O’Brien, CEO of Eco-Fuel Global, said in a statement. “Rwanda is leading the world in a new generation of environmentally friendly and economically responsible energy production.”

Eco-Fuel Global said some of the benefits of the project include:

• Increased fuel security and reduced price risk
• Direct employment estimated at 6,500 jobs
• Environmental benefits such as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, soil stability and watershed protection
• Expanding U.S. exports through the use of U.S. – based biofuel refinery equipment and technology
• Food security through production of fertilizer as a by-product of the biofuel and the potential to increase agricultural yields with intercropping

The company plans to grow Jatropha Curcas on 10,000 hectares of land near Akagera National Park, which is projected to yield an estimated 20 million liters of bio-fuel annually.

Most commodities come with a clear price attached to a distinct amount. A bag of potatoes, a can of beans, a jar of peanut butter….the cost of these is stamped on a sign at the grocery and an individual label breaks down the nutritional details.

Zerofootprint's Talking Plug

Electricity is sold with a price tag also, a price per kilowatt. Every month, customers pay a provider based on how many kilowatts their household has used. But there’s no label breakdown.

We don’t know how much electricity was expended to power the HVAC or dishwasher or fridge or computer. It’s a mystery what caused that spike in our bill. Our worst power phantoms are hiding.

Could the problem be those old incandescent light bulbs?

We don’t know. We’re in the dark.

“The way we use electricity is quite antiquated and quite dumb,” said Zerofootprint founder and CEO Dr. Ron Dembo, in a news conference Monday to introduce his group’s solution, the Talking Plug ™.

If we knew more — like how much, when and on what we were spending our electricity dollars, we’d be wiser consumers, he said. We could shift electricity use to off-peak hours making utilities happier  –  reducing our bills and our carbon pollution.

The TalkingPlug™ can be the starting point for all that because it takes energy monitoring to the micro level. It exposes errant appliances and runaway energy hogs in the home, but unlike similar, competitor devices that merely signal high or low energy use, it sends a stream of information to a software program (Zerofootprint’s web-based VELO software) so residents can monitor or re-tailor their energy use, and turn things on and off remotely via the Internet.

Set top box not needed today? Turn it off from your office or laptop computer.

“It’s win, win, win,” said Dembo, whose  Toronto-based carbon management company launched in 2005.

The TalkingPlug, he explained, is not just another cool gadget, but a foot in the door toward a new way of thinking about electricity. By putting more transparency into electricity consumption, Dembo proposed that it could lead to a paradigm shift that’s needed to fight climate change.

“It’s about changing culture more than anything,” he said. And changing the culture is necessary. Right now, green buildings are producing wonderfully new efficient buildings, he noted, “But if you leave the electricity on it doesn’t make any difference.”

His theory: You’ve got to develop precise measurements so people can compare their usage. “In short, it’s understood that if you want to change culture you compare things. These products allow you to compare very easily,” he said. This will take environmental consciousness to a new level, he predicts.

As the information bubbles up, and becomes accessible, there could be many applications, Dembo said, such as these:

• 

  A computer screen would register energy use using the TalkingPlug (Photo: Zerofootprint.)

  A school could track its precise energy consumption using TalkingPlug technology, and it could be made public with a meter over the door showing if current energy use was in the red, orange or green zone. Such a device could inform the public and exert pressure on schools — or businesses — to watch their watts.

• Appliance companies could track how their products worked in the home, and aggregate that information and use it for marketing. They could prove their claims of lower energy use, and do research.

• Utilities and residents could make deals to idle, by remote, certain appliances at certain times, resulting in a rebate for the user and a reduction of peak demand for the utility. (Utilities are built for peak demand to avoid blackouts, Dembo explained, but “it’s only a few minutes a year that we hit full peak.” So at the commercial level a lot of electricity is generated to be on “stand by” that is not needed, and never used.)

All these are all potential applications for the TalkingPlug technology, Dembo said, adding that this new technology will be compatible with Smart Meters that are being installed by some utilities to get a better handle on how energy is used in a given home. But they won’t require rewiring or any retrofitting of appliances.

The SmartPlug and Smart Meter technologies could work “in tandem,” Dembo said. “I see this as a rapidly convergent market.”

Right now, the TalkingPlug is being custom produced, and each one costs about $50. But that will come down to somewhere in the $30s after the first of the year, and drop further as it’s adopted and can take advantage of economies of scale, Dembo said.

ZeroFootprint operates a for-profit software and carbon management programs aimed at helping companies reduce their carbon footprint through better risk management and new technologies. The organization also operates a non-profit foundation with a mission of reducing carbon pollution.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The world is running out of oil faster than the “official” report from the International Energy Agency suggests, according to an exclusive news report in the UK’s Guardian.

Whistleblowers, one inside the agency and one who has left the agency, say that the IEA has been downplaying the coming shortage of oil for fear of triggering a panic.

Further, the whistleblower still employed by the IEA (described as a “senior official” who wished to remain anonymous), says that the agency’s reluctance to come clean about oil supplies has been the result of pressure from the United States.

These allegations raise questions about the IEA’s prediction that oil production could be raised from its current level of 83 million barrels a day to 105 million barrels a day to meet increasing demand expected as the world comes out of the recession.

Looked at another way, the leaks from inside the IEA, which released its 2009 World Energy Outlook this week, give credence to critics who have been saying the world is close to or past the point of “peak” oil production.

The Guardian quoted the insider source as saying:

“Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources,” he added.

Said the Guardians’ second source:

“We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad.”

The IEA report is not stripped of bad news, however. A look at the Executive Summary shows the IEA projects that:

• Oil demand will grow from 85 million barrels a day in 2008 to 105 million barrels per day in 2030 with the transportation sector accounting for 97 percent of the increase in oil use.
• Falling investment in oil and gas energy will have “far-reaching and depending on how governments respond, potentially serious consequences for energy security, climate change and energy poverty. …Any prolonged downturn in investment threatens to constrain capacity growth in the medium term, particularly for long lead-time projects, eventually risking a shortfall in supply.”

The IEA report further warns that it is important that world leaders develop a treaty at Copenhagen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (though it talks in terms of holding the planet to 450 ppm of carbon in the atmosphere  instead of the emerging consensus for 350 ppm).

“Energy needs to be used more efficiently and the carbon content of the energy we consume must be reduced…” yet in 2030, the report predicts, fossil fuels, with the exception of coal, will remain the dominant energy sources.

For a larger discussion on peak oil, a look at the bell curves and some postulations about life on planet Earth in the post-fossil fuel era see Matt Savinar’s blog Life After the Oil Crash.

Officials gathered in a tiny corner of Utah yesterday to celebrate a new age of energy production that will carry the power of the wind to where it is needed most, in this case, to population centers in California.

Wind tubines outside Milford, Utah (Photo: First Wind)

The occasion was the opening of the “Milford Wind Corridor Project,” which is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 45,000 Southern California homes.

The project by First Wind, an independent power company based in Boston, is the largest renewable energy facility in Utah and comprises 97 giant wind turbines. This first phase of the project cost nearly $86 million (including “indirect” spending on wages and taxes) and created 250 development and construction jobs, according to a spokesman for the company.

Those attending the ribbon-cutting outside Milford, included Utah Lt. Governor Greg Bell and officials with the federal Bureau of Land Management, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the cities of Burbank and Pasadena and the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA).

“This development primes Utah’s economic engine, while also protecting our environment,” said Bell. “We’re pleased this project is online and look forward to the next phases of the project getting underway.”

“Not only is this First Wind’s largest project to date, but it is the largest wind farm in Utah and one of the largest in the West. We’re looking forward to expanding it in the months and years to come,” said Paul Gaynor, CEO of First Wind. “This project is a great example of the kind of development that helps create jobs and helps stimulate the economy.”

The details of the project:

• The 97 wind turbines include 58 2.5-MW wind turbines and 39 1.5-MW turbines. Components of the large turbines are made in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The smaller wind turbines, made by General Electric, are made outside the US.

• It was financed with the help of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which helped arrange a package of financing through   many other foreign banks.

• Compared with traditional electricity generation by oil- or coal-powered plants, the Milford project will save 210,000 tons of carbon dioxide in a year, the equivalent of taking 37,000 cars off the road.

• The project is the first wind energy facility permitted under the Bureau of Land Management’s “Wind Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” for Western States. Selma Sierra, Utah state director for the BLM lauded it as an example of how quickly and efficiently the US can produce “positive, clean, renewable energy” when federal and state agencies partner with private industry.

• The project broke ground in Nov. 2008, bringing its first phase to fruition in just under a year

• The project helps fulfill a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) that First Wind completed in 2007 with Southern Califronai Public Power AUthroity (SCPPA) on behalf of the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and the cities of Burbank and Pasadena.

“This is another significant source of renewable energy that will help us meet Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s and the City of LA’s goal to achieve 20 percent renewables by 2010, reduce our carbon footprint, fight global warming, and foster cleaner air,” said LADWP General Manager S. David Freeman.

First Wind also is working on a project in Maine, and announced earlier this month that it has contracted with Harvard University to be a buyer of that wind. Harvard expects the wind farm to supply at least 10 percent of its power needs at its Cambridge and Allston campuses. The wind project, called the Stetson II, is near Danforth, Maine.

Back in California, the SCPPA will soon be gathering more wind from another source, a Cannon Power Group wind farm in Washington state.

Cannon, a veteran in the wind energy field with installations around the world, announced today that it has received $19.4 million in federal renewable energy grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to start construction of a 400 megawatt wind farm in Washington state. The power from the Windy Point/Windy Flats project will be used by California cities.

This new project is expected to take 18 months and employ more than 300 people in construction and permanent jobs, providing a “much needed financial cushion for many area families,” noted Gary Hardke, president and managing director of Cannon, which is based in San Diego.
The project is expected to produce enough electricity to supply more than 250,000 households.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Today, environmentalists, climate change activists and Americans who want legislation to control carbon pollution were cheered to see climate action take another step forward.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the Clean Energy Jobs for American Power Act, meaning the full Senate will now get to debate the bill which aims to put America on a clean energy path. (Other Senate committees will add components before a complete bill is assembled.)

This isn’t quite like being a gladiator pushed into the Coliseum to meet the lions. But the hotly fought bill is expected to get full scrutiny, and climate change deniers were gathering stones within minutes of the bill’s committee unusual passage.

Typically bills in committee are voted upon by all members. In this case, though, Republicans had boycotted the hearings this week, saying they wanted another analysis of the bill’s effects by the Environmental Protection Agency. Democrats felt the bill had been vetted enough, and one EPA official testified that the requested additional analysis would have delayed the process by another five weeks, effectively killing action on the bill for 2009.

Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) appealed to Republicans to participate in the process, reaching out to ranking minority member Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). Inhofe, who has famously denied that globally warming exists, rebuffed the invites, saying that the bill is too costly.

Other Democrats also called on Republicans to get involved and debate the merits of  the legislation in committee.

“The party of no has now devolved into the party of no show and I hope they will reconsider their strategy,” noted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) on Wednesday.

Finally, Boxer broke the boycott, calling for a vote on Thursday, and passing what’s known as the Kerry-Boxer climate action bill on a vote of 10-1 with all those in favor being Democrats. The seven Republican committee members declined to register a yea or a nay.

Afterward, Inhofe accused Boxer of violating rules that require two minority party members to be part of the vote; but Boxer told Politico that the rules also allow for passage with a simple majority. (See Inhofe’s complaints on this YouTube video of an interview with Fox News.)

The bill calls for a reduction in greenhouse gases of 83 percent by 2050, a level that scientists around the world agree should help steer the planet clear of disaster.

Now if the climate bill can just steer its way through the U.S. Senate.

• (While environmentalists are happy with this progress, some experts consider it faint effort in the face of a large foe, with the bills in both the US House and Senate containing far too many concessions to entrenched industries and polluters. For this  analysis from the peanut gallery see the Institute for Policy Studies.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The Roscoe, Texas, project became the world's largest wind farm.

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The US wind industry will finish 2009 ahead of projections for wind installations, though the numbers will still fall behind the industry’s record-breaking year in 2008.

“It’s not a bad year given the financial crisis,” said Liz Salerno, director of industry data and analysis at the American Wind Energy Association, in a news conference this week.

The US is expected to have installed about 7,000 new megawatts of wind energy in 2009, falling short of  the 8,500 megawatts of 2008, but ahead of analysts’ predictions for the year and ahead of 2007’s installations.

With 31,000 megawatts of wind power online, the US currently leads the world in wind energy development, ahead of China, which is fast developing wind power, and traditional leader Germany.

The AWEA attributes the strong showing in 2009 to grant money provided by the US government, which allowed wind entrepreneurs and developers to show lenders they had seed money for projects. That helped companies secure credit, which was difficult in the wake of the financial fallout of late 2008, Salerno said.

“We know things were tough, and it was very difficult to get a deal done earlier in this year. But what we’re hearing from our wind community is that things are slowly being unlocked.”

Some private capital has helped fund projects as well, and utilities, which are able to access lower cost money, also continue to move into the wind market, she said.

Companies developing installations include large and small firms, including General Electric, Vestas, Siemens, Suzlon, Gamesa, Clipper, Mitsubishi, Acciona and Repower.

To keep wind aloft, advocates say a consistent and dependable national policy will be needed; keeping projects in the pipeline will require continued federal incentives, either as grants or production tax credits.

Click to enlarge

The AWEA also wants Congress to pass a strong Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), a measure that would require states to produce/obtain a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar or geothermal power.

A strong RES, combined with continued investment incentives, would send a signal to developers and the world that the US was committed to wind power and would buoy developers on the wind generation side, as well as the manufacturing sector related to wind, Salerno explained.

US wind parts manufacturers have experienced a slowdown with the 2009 global recession, she said.

“We can’t ignore the fact that we are competing with other countries for these manufacturing facilities and for these jobs…We have to step up and show that the US is a good place to do business compared to other countries.”

Congress also needs to invest in new transmission lines to get wind from outlying areas to population centers. Coupled with a strong RES, that would demonstrate the public commitment that the wind business has been seeking for years.

“Having a stable market in place,” she said, “will be the foundation for growing wind.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Tomorrow’s leaders are already working towards a cleaner future — that could be as bright as the sun.

The Solar Decathlon, an international competition hosted by the US Department of Energy (DOE), is showcasing solar-powered home designs created by students from around the world.

Students selected to participate were given two years to design and build the prototype solar homes, which must be carbon neutral and completely powered by the sun. The projects, many costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, are on display at the National Mall in Washington through Sunday (Oct. 18).

Two thousand students came together to form 20 teams, which are competing to win prizes in several categories, such as best architecture or engineering or “comfort zone”.

The Solar Decathlon Proposal Review Committee, which is made up of engineers, scientist, and other experts from the DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory, selected the teams that they thought had the ability to meet the strict structural and safety requirements. Once selected, each team was given $100,000 to get started. Projects often require more, so individual teams then raise any additional funds.

“The U.S. Department of Energy supports the Solar Decathlon to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. DOE also supports the event to help move solar energy technologies to the market place faster. The Solar Decathlon helps accelerate the research and development of energy-efficiency and energy production technologies,” said John Horst, spokesperson for the Department of Energy.

The Solar Village

The 800-square-feet homes must be completely powered by the sun. They are meant to be prototype zero-energy, zero-carbon homes. The hope is that this competition stimulates research that will reduce the cost of solar-powered homes and the advancement of solar technology. While the Solar Decathlon aims to find ways to save money with solar technology, design and comfort are important as well.

The student teams represent universities from across North America, and two from Europe:

Reflective Louvers

• Cornell University
• Iowa State University
• Penn State
• Rice University
• Team Alberta (University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic, Alberta College of Art + Design, Mount Royal College)
• Team Boston (Boston Architectural College, Tufts University)
• Team California (Santa Clara University, California College of the Arts)
• Team Germany (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
• Team Missouri (Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of Missouri)
• Team Ontario/BC (University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, Simon Fraser University)
• Team Spain (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
• The Ohio State University
• The University of Arizona
• Universidad de Puerto Rico
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Kentucky
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• University of Minnesota
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Virginia Tech
  

  A student built solar home

There are a total of 10 contests throughout the competition, which began Oct. 8.

• Architecture: Architectural elements, holistic design, and inspiration are evaluated when looking at a house’s design. Market Viability: Houses are marketed to an audience of the team’s choice. Points are given based on a realistic approach to affordability, livability, ease of building, and marketability.
• Engineering: Houses are assessed based on reliability, innovation, efficiency, and functionality in engineering excellence.
• Lighting Design: Houses must include functional, energy-efficient, and aesthetically pleasing lighting systems. The judges score on the following categories: electric lighting quality, day lighting quality, ease of operation, flexibility, energy efficiency, and building integration.
• Communications: Teams are scored based on their verbal, written, and photographic communication of their houses. Messages must be consistent, effective, and able to engage a wide audience.
• Comfort Zone: In order to score points in this contest, houses must maintain a certain temperature and humidity inside during the competition.
• Hot Water: This contest displays how solar hot water systems are able to supply enough hot water daily.
• Appliances: House appliances must run like those of the average US home while using less energy. Throughout the contest, the houses must keep refrigerator and freezer temperatures within the typical range, wash and dry laundry, as well as run the dishwasher.
• Home Entertainment: This contest exhibits the houses’ ability to go beyond basic functions, like powering modern electronics and conveniences.
• Net Metering: The newest contest, measures how much energy the houses produce and consume throughout the competition, and rewards teams for producing more energy than they consume.

“Certainly it’s also important to raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency and what technologies are available — that is, commercial off-the-shelf materials and supplies – today that can be used to help reduce energy use,” said Horst.

The Solar Decathlon encourages students to find practical solutions to a global problem. Their research is expected to be influential in the marketplace and bridge the worlds of science and business, showing that they have both dollar and environmental value.

The need for alternative energy is no longer an issue for the future. According to the US Department of Energy, the United States consumes about 100 quads of energy per year, with 22% of that coming from the residential sector. The cost of that energy is almost $1 million per minute, and the US consumes one-fourth of the world’s energy resources, but only contains 5% of the world’s population.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Plastic Package Inc., which manufactures 100-percent post consumer recycled plastic containers, said it will installing the largest cylindrical thin film solar system west of New Jersey to power its operations.

The project will use solar technology from Solyndra.

The Sacramento, Calif., company said it will use solar technology from Solyndra for the project. That Bay Area company recently was funded by a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. Plastic Package officials said the installation will be done by Premier Power Renewable Energy of El Dorado Hills.

The new 208 kilowatt system being installed on the roof will initially handle all of Plastic Package’s peak demand and assist its local power provider, Sacramento Municipal Utility District to reduce its summer peak loads during the hottest part of the day.

The company noted that with solar, the production peaks simultaneously with energy demand. As the sun heats up into midday, power demand increases. With the sun higher in the sky the output from the rooftop solar system is increased.

Solyndra can boost production even further by adding a white membrane roof. Solyndra has devised the cylindrical modules that enable its solar panels to capture sunlight over a 360-degree photovoltaic surface.

“If you build a better solar panel, the world will beat a path to your door,” US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “Building a better solar panel is what Solyndra has done. Compared to traditional solar panels, these innovative thin-film systems produce more energy for less money and less hassle.”

That approach appealed to Jim Kaye, Plastic Package Inc.’s chairman, and Jennifer Kaye, the company president. The Kayes said they spent the last couple of years researching solar technologies and investigating solar integrators that could provide them with a packaged solution that would help them to offset their increasing electrical consumption as their business grew.

“The plastics business is not normally thought of as a green business”, Jim Kaye said in a statement, “but we are making major strides in that direction by using recycled soda bottles as well as bio-based materials in our products. Now that we’ve added solar, we want to let the community and our clients know, so they can feel comfortable that when they use our packaging, they are part of the sustainable process.”

Farm Power, a Washington-based renewable energy company, and Washington utility company Puget Sound Energy (PSE) are giving new meaning to making something new out of something old. Farm Power says it has developed a “manure digester” –  a system that turns cow manure into electricity — in Skagit County, Wash.

The manure digester captures the methane biogas from the waste, and holds it in an air tight tank, which then heats the manure to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The harvested methane becomes an alternative fuel and is sold to PSE. The leftover processed manure is then taken to other farms and used as an organic fertilizer.

This process prevents methane from being released into the atmosphere. Not only is there a reduction in greenhouse gases, Farm Power says the manure digester limits nitrate runoff, a problem common with dairy farm waste.

“Our environment, and our tradition of family farming in the Skagit Valley, both demand new ways of solving old problems,” said Kevin Maas, cofounder of Farm Power, in a statement. “Our Rexville dairy digester is the result of many state, community and business leaders coming together to help turn our vision of a renewable energy facility into a new source of opportunities for Skagit County farmers.”

To help make the process more affordable, Farm Power has developed regional digesters that multiple farms can access. The Skagit County digester uses manure from two farms, Beaver Marsh Farms and Harmony Dairy. The energy output from the manure at these two farms is 750 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 500 homes.

While cow manure is the main component, other agricultural waste is being used as well including: spoiled fruit, chess whey and parts from chicken processing.

PSE has a voluntary Green Power Program that allows customers to buy renewable energy equal to the amount of the electricity they use. This gives people the ability to support local renewable energy projects. PSE says 24,000 customers are currently participating in the Green Power Program.

Not only is Farm Power creating clean energy to benefit the community, it also is providing new green jobs to benefit the local economy.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Coulomb Technologies, Inc., the creator of ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations, said it will take its electric vehicle charging stations to Norway. Europe is already familiar with ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations, with locations in Holland, Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

“The Scandinavian countries are quite progressive about clean air projects.  The Kyoto protocol has some impact as these countries are serious about rolling back emissions.  Norway is a proud leader in the EV world because of their company Think Global, which developed one of the premier and early electric vehicles,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies, Inc.

ChargePoint stations are controlled by the ChargePoint Networked Operating System. This software connects all the charging stations to a system that allows for remote station monitoring. The software manages station access, gives current station availability, and supports station maintenance. Customers have online access to multiple tools such as usage reports and charging station behavior.

With their ChargePoint Smart Card, customers can charge their vehicles at any ChargePoint station worldwide. Customers receive a text message when their car is fully charged. The payment process is easy; the stations simply process the driver’s subscription.

The charging stations are compatible with all Electric Vehicles and even Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

While there are some ChargePoint Charging Stations in the United States, the company is planning on that number rising soon. “We think that by 2015, Europe and the US will each need 2 million charging stations,” said Richard Lowenthal.

As far as pricing goes, electricity is cheaper than gasoline depending on your location. “In California gasoline is now about 14 cents a mile (23 mpg average and $3.10 for a gallon of gas) and our pricing is around 5 cents a mile for charging at our stations,” said Lowenthal.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The Roscoe, Texas, wind farm (Photo: E.ON Climate & Renewables)

Global energy company E.ON Climate and Renewables today announced the completion of what it says is the world’s largest wind farm near Roscoe, Texas. The new wind complex has an installed capacity of 781.5 megawatts (MW), which can generate enough electricity to power more than 230,000 homes.

The project area spans parts of four West Texas counties and covers almost 100,000 acres — an area several times the size of Manhattan. The wind farm has a total of 627 wind turbines manufactured by Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens.

North American CEO of EC&R Steve Trenholm said the wind farm is the result of a billion dollar investment, and involved the coordination of more than 300 landowners and 500 workers. “Today is a great day for our company and the team that made this a reality,” he said in a statement.

EC&R is constructing an offshore wind project near London that it says will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world. The company operates wind farms producing more than 2,600 megawatts worldwide, including 1,488 MW in the U.S.

“Texas continues to lead the nation in the development of renewable energy and has more wind generation capacity than any other state and all but four countries,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. “We are pleased that E. ON Climate & Renewables North America has chosen to open this facility in Roscoe that will further expand our state’s diverse energy portfolio.”

However, Gov. Rick Perry continues to oppose any federal cap and trade legislation.

Yesterday he met with business and industry leaders in Houston to discuss the impact of the proposed legislation in Washington. He emphasized the importance of diversifying the state’s energy portfolio by pursuing innovative energy sources as an alternative to the “burdensome regulations” associated with federal cap and trade rules. And he warned the proposed legislation would increase the cost of living for Texas families and “crush Texas and the nation’s energy producing sectors.”

“Texas has shown you don’t need federal mandates to improve the environment or foster the next generation of energy technology,” Gov. Perry said in a statement. “Rather than emulate Texas’ success, Washington seems determined to cripple our economy by imposing sweeping mandates and draconian regulation. Texans should be wary about a cap-and-trade bill that would not only impose the largest tax hike in the history of the United States, but also inject the federal government further into every Texas home, farm and workplace.”

Perry’s opposition to the Waxman-Markey Bill, also known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, is a sign that even as the state tries to become a leader in alternative energy development, it faces pressure to balance those efforts against the interests of a deeply entrenched legacy energy industry.  Texas supplies 20 percent of the nation’s oil production, one-fourth of the nation’s natural gas production, a quarter of the nation’s refining capacity, and nearly 60 percent of the nation’s chemical manufacturing.

Add it all up and Texas’ fossil fuel-based energy industry employs 200,000 to 300,000 Texans and represents $35 billion in total wages.

We’re used to windy debates in Washington. Now the debates about wind have blown in gale force.

It’s been a while coming. At first, wind power seemed hard to argue against. It is emissions-free, technologically proven, shovel-ready, local and works well on the gusty plains of the US – with one key roadblock, there are some kinks to work out in getting it from there to here on the unprepared national grid system. The plan for many was straightforward: Fix the grid, keep building turbines, replace fossil-fuel dependent energy with renewal wind, and keep adding to an already robust wind sector job force of some 80,000.

Texas wind turbines (Photo: Texas State Energy Conservation Office.)

The Department of Energy jumped on board the trend toward wind, announcing in 2008 that wind energy could supply 20 percent of US electricity needs by 2030.

Then the naysayers caught up. This month, a conservative group called the Institute for Energy Research (IER) presented a study of wind in Denmark that suggested that Danish wind generation, held up as a model of renewable energy, causes more problems than it solves.

The study, Wind Energy, The Case of Denmark, reported that:

• Denmark only supplies about 5 percent of its electricity needs with wind power – not 20 percent as is widely understood.

• Ebbs in wind power mean that Denmark has to network with neighboring countries to import power, which means its wind power system does not reduce carbon emissions.

• National subsidies make Danish electricity “the most expensive in the European Union” and its wind jobs have been so generously supported by government subsidies that they haven’t substantially contributed to the economy.

Wait a minute, cried the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Sensing that oil-interests were lurking behind what it saw as a collection of “misleading” and “outright false claims,” the AWEA released a counter report.

The non-profit advocacy group’s response, outlined in a fact sheet called Wind Power in Denmark and the U.S., reports that Denmark does indeed:

• Produce 20 percent of its electricity needs from wind power. In 2008, it produced nearly 3,200 megawatts of wind power, enough to power roughly 1 million US homes. (“How does the IER twist these numbers to claim that Denmark only produces 5 percent of its electricity from wind?” asks the AWEA blog. “By not counting any electricity that ever flows across the country’s borders, even if  an equal amount of electricity is then transferred back to Denmark.”

• Wind power generated in Denmark does reduce carbon emissions, because it “displaces the most expensive fuel source, commonly natural gas, but also coal and oil. Wind energy can also be used to reduce the output at hydroelectric dams, where water can be stored to later displace fossil fuels.”

• The Danish wind power industry employs nearly 30,000 people in the Scandinavian nation because Denmark also builds turbines and their components.

Government subsidies, the report adds, are not exclusive to the wind industry. In the US, subsidies support an array of energy programs and power utilities, and from 2002 to 2007, the fossil fuel energy sources received five times what renewable energy source did, according to the GAO.

The AWEA, not wanting to leave any pillar of the IER report standing, also pointed out (in its blog) that the price of Danish electricity grew in the 1980s, before the country developed its extensive network of wind turbines.

The IER report appealed to fears that new electricity generation will raise rates.

But, as the AWEA and others advocating wind note, the US has relied mainly on fossil fuels for decades. That infrastructure is in place and to many, it looks more affordable — until one factors in the potential spike in fossil fuels as the Earth’s reserves are depleted.

The AWEA is concerned that entrenched interests in the US could cause the nation to miss an important turn in the road toward sustainable energy generation.

With its great land mass, strong wind potential (it enjoys more land with higher average wind speeds than the European nations who are ahead in wind development), the US could seize the day in wind technology.

The advocacy group wants the companies it represents to be free to develop the wind farms and grid infrastructure that can carry wind power from the high plains to the urban centers where it is most needed.

The wind industry “represents a once-in-a generation opportunity for the U.S. job market as the global wind industry builds out its supply chain and decides where to locate factories,” notes the AWEA report.

Want to read more about the oil-connected sources behind the opposition to wind? See this Natural Resources Defense Council blog and this article from Facing South, the online magazine for the Institute for Southern Studies.

For a non-partisan look at the history and potential of wind power, see the WorldWatch Institute’s recent report Going to Work for Wind Power.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media