December 17, 2009 8:21 AM PST
Study: The road ahead for electric cars
by Candace Lombardi
While hybrid and all-electric cars are about five years away from becoming commonplace, 2010 will be a crucial year in determining how an electric car is designed, built, fueled, and used, according to a paper released Thursday by Pike Research.
The auto industry is already headed toward official decisions on technology and standards, and still to come is a natural market evolution determining industry leaders.
(Credit: Pike Research)
The most interesting part of the report is how Pike Research analysts see driver habits and electric cars evolving.
Currently, the report said, many automakers, like General Motors with its Chevy Volt, are following a strategy in which the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) being offered "seeks to satisfy the approximate 80 percent of drivers estimated to commute 33 miles per day or less."
Cost will be a key factor in the evolution of the market. The Pike report says it's debatable whether hybrid and all-electric cars will prove cheaper to drive mile for mile, given fluctuating gas prices and the cost of lithium-ion batteries. A survey cited in the report, meanwhile, found that only 17 percent of drivers would pay a premium for a PHEV over a gas-powered car.
Once the market of environmentally conscious drivers is saturated, automakers will have to come up with a plan B, according to Pike Research.
"If a significant consumer audience fails to embrace the initial class of PHEVs because of the cost, it is likely that automotive OEMs may shift to designing vehicles with shorter all-electric range, and smaller, less costly battery packs," said the report.
The group's paper, "Electric Vehicles: 10 Predictions for 2010," was published in conjunction with HybridCars.com, leaving the reader to question some of its more subjective conclusions on hybrids vs. electric cars or efficient gas-powered vehicles.
But the report also includes many interesting statistical predictions for anyone following the evolution of the green transportation industry:
- By 2015 there will be 5.3 million places around the world to plug in and recharge a car.
- Despite a U.S. push to revive its failed auto manufacturing economy with green technology manufacturing, it will actually be Asia that becomes the "dominant supplier and consumer of electric vehicles and batteries." Pike Research attributed this to the Chinese government's initiative to produce 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
- The U.S. electrical grid upgrade will be sufficient to handle the influx of plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars overall, but neighborhoods with a concentrated volume of EVs could overwhelm a local utility.
- Most people will charge their cars at work or home, and use public charging stations sparingly and mostly when traveling.
- The majority of people will charge their cars after work between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. putting a strain on local utilities, which will then in turn offer incentives for charging after 10 p.m.
The full paper is available for free download from Pike Research
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Kendall-Jackson to drastically cut water usage
January 6, 2010 9:05 AM PST
by Candace Lombardi
The majority of water used in wineries goes toward rinsing barrels, tanks, and equipment.
(Credit: Kendall-Jackson)
Jackson Family Wines, known for its Kendall-Jackson label, has developed a process to reduce winery water usage by 70 percent.
The majority of water consumed in wineries typically goes toward rinsing wine barrels, tanks, and equipment.
A new system developed by Jackson Family Wines recycles and filters the hot water used for rinsing, losing only about 10 percent of that water in the process, the company said Tuesday. The system also retains 75 percent of the water's heat. As a result, the process also saves energy.
The company developed and tested the process in conjunction with the University of California at Davis, winery waste-water specialist Heritage Systems, and civil engineering firm Riechers Spence and Associates.
After a year-long pilot program, Jackson Family Wines has decided to implement the process in its Kendall-Jackson winery in Sonoma County, California. The process is expected to save the winery up to 6 million gallons of water, 133,000 kWh of electricity, and 73,000 therms of natural gas each year, according to company estimates.
"This is the first time that the wine industry has seen a water filtration system that is so efficient and cost effective. We expect this to have a major beneficial impact on water and energy use not only in the wine industry, but in many industries throughout the state," Jess Jackson, founder and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines, said in a statement.
If 35 percent of California wineries adopt the process, it will save the state 1 billion gallons of water annually, according to Jackson Family Wines, which is seeking grant money to help other wineries implement the system.
by Candace Lombardi
The majority of water used in wineries goes toward rinsing barrels, tanks, and equipment.
(Credit: Kendall-Jackson)
Jackson Family Wines, known for its Kendall-Jackson label, has developed a process to reduce winery water usage by 70 percent.
The majority of water consumed in wineries typically goes toward rinsing wine barrels, tanks, and equipment.
A new system developed by Jackson Family Wines recycles and filters the hot water used for rinsing, losing only about 10 percent of that water in the process, the company said Tuesday. The system also retains 75 percent of the water's heat. As a result, the process also saves energy.
The company developed and tested the process in conjunction with the University of California at Davis, winery waste-water specialist Heritage Systems, and civil engineering firm Riechers Spence and Associates.
After a year-long pilot program, Jackson Family Wines has decided to implement the process in its Kendall-Jackson winery in Sonoma County, California. The process is expected to save the winery up to 6 million gallons of water, 133,000 kWh of electricity, and 73,000 therms of natural gas each year, according to company estimates.
"This is the first time that the wine industry has seen a water filtration system that is so efficient and cost effective. We expect this to have a major beneficial impact on water and energy use not only in the wine industry, but in many industries throughout the state," Jess Jackson, founder and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines, said in a statement.
If 35 percent of California wineries adopt the process, it will save the state 1 billion gallons of water annually, according to Jackson Family Wines, which is seeking grant money to help other wineries implement the system.
Ford's Fusion pulls ahead of the hybrid pack
A fuel-efficient sedan that comfortably carries five normal-sized people
The Ford Fusion Hybrid, which our reviewer calls the best hybrid model on the U.S. market.
Bottom Line: Ford Fusion Hybrid
Base price: $27,270
As tested: $30,245
EPA gas mileage: 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway
Pros: Outstanding fuel efficiency, styling doesn’t announce the driver’s moral superiority (which is good for some drivers), cool technology
Cons: A four-cylinder Fusion with a manual transmission is more cost-effective, styling doesn’t announce the driver’s moral superiority (which is bad for some drivers), not much else
Verdict: The Fusion Hybrid should be on every family car shopper’s must-drive list
Standard equipment: 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, hybrid-electric drive, continuously variable automatic transmission, 17-inch aluminum wheels, dual-zone automatic climate control, leather-wrapped steering wheel, seat heaters, Sync voice control, satellite radio
Major options: Back-up camera, blind spot alert, cross traffic alert, power moonroof, 12-speaker Sony stereo
REVIEW
By Dan Carney
msnbc.com contributor
updated 7:38 a.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 6, 2010
Some new cars gain notoriety for a specific attribute, like artful style, sublime comfort or incomparable safety. The Ford Fusion Hybrid is gaining notoriety for introducing the idea that U.S. carmakers can take the lead in fuel-saving, hybrid-electric drivetrain technology.
That may surprise drivers who have paid only passing attention to hybrids, and it may upset those who worship at the throne of Toyota. But the truth is that the Ford Fusion Hybrid is the best hybrid model in the U.S. market.
It is the best in the U.S. in part because it is the best for the U.S. It wears no egg-shaped hypermile bodywork, doesn’t ask its occupants to contort themselves to fit inside like the old pack-college-students-in-a-VW stunt and doesn’t demand any creative financing for regular Americans with regular jobs to purchase it.
Instead, the Fusion sits demurely in the driveway, offering no commentary on the neighbors’ lack of environmental concern. Yet for a base price of $27,270 (right around the new-car average of $25,500), customers can buy a fuel-efficient family sedan that easily carries five normal-sized people in comfort. It also has sufficient trunk space for their luggage, a compliant suspension and enough high-tech gizmos and widgets to evoke a smile from even the most indifferent automotive appliance owner.
Motor Trend magazine named the model its Car of the Year for 2010 and it is one of three finalists for the North American Car of the Year award to be announced Monday. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the panel that votes on the latter award.)
The EPA says the Fusion Hybrid gets 41 mpg in the city and 36 mpg highway. In a week of mixed suburban driving, the test model scored 38 mpg. The Prius gets 50 mpg on the EPA’s city test, but that extra 9 mpg is not worth the tradeoffs in space, ride and handling for many customers.
My gas mileage was achieved in normal driving, with no babying it to boost efficiency. But the Fusion does have a novel dashboard video display that shows virtual vines which can, if the car is driven gently, sprout leaves to produce a nice, healthy-looking dashboard garden.
Share your stories
Has the recession forced you to go into business for yourself because you weren’t able to find a job in your field? Has that been a good thing or a bad thing? Selected responses may be used in an upcoming msnbc.com story.
Failure to drive in a way that cultivated this garden sparked howls of outrage from the back seat, where my kids complained I was killing the leaves as they disappeared. So while it would be easy to dismiss the efficiency display as a silly gimmick, it is a hard-to-ignore reminder that with just a bit lighter pressure on the pedal, the Fusion Hybrid can get spectacularly good mileage. Hypermile fanatics do even better, but there are few regular drivers who are interested in driving as if the fuel in the tank is their last.
Ford previously launched a hybrid version of its Escape SUV, but it was more primitive than the Fusion. In addition its size and weight conspired against it, so the Escape only gets about 25 mpg in everyday mixed driving, hardly enough to bother buying a hybrid.
The Fusion features Ford’s second-generation hybrid system, a design which, like the one in the Escape, is technically similar to that used by Toyota. The Fusion Hybrid goes Toyota one better with its ability to drive on electric-only power at speeds as high as 47 mph. That electric power ultimately comes from gasoline in hybrid electric cars, but it is still fun to know that you can drive on electric-only power for longer periods and higher speeds, keeping the gas engine shut off. The Prius automatically starts its gas engine at 25 mph.
Ford Motor Co.
A virtual garden grows on the dashboard display if you drive the Fusion gently.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because of the conceptual similarities the companies recognized the potential for inadvertent infringement of one another’s patents, so they wisely signed a cross-licensing agreement to avoid future legal headaches. It was a good plan but unfortunately was portrayed by some as a case of Ford buying Toyota’s technology. Ford’s design is entirely its own. The cross-licensing agreement was just an immunization against a plague of lawyers.
Ford’s less-heralded but skilled engineers also achieved a smooth driveability as the car switches modes between gas and electric when driving and between regenerating electricity and using regular hydraulic brakes when stopping. It is still possible to detect some of the mode changes, especially as the car regenerates power when slowing, but Ford’s balance of these modes is the best execution in a constantly improving science.
Click for related content
Ford sales surge; GM, Chrysler lag
More junked cars than new ones bought in '09
Ford has improved the whole Fusion model line for 2010. The original Fusion was a handsome car with strong specifications that promised to deliver an experience that would place the car ahead of the likes of Honda’s Accord. Alas, some of the details were amiss in that first iteration. It was a good, but not great, car.
For 2010, Ford has made the Fusion great. They tweaked the steering to make the car respond to input more faithfully. They upgraded the interior, with soft surfaces on the dashboard replacing hard plastic. They freshened the exterior styling to keep the car up-to-date in appearance. The result is a car that beats Accord and Camry across the whole model line. But the hybrid is the gem in Fusion’s crown and serves notice that Ford and the rest of the domestic industry should not be overlooked as relics of the industrial age.
The Ford Fusion Hybrid, which our reviewer calls the best hybrid model on the U.S. market.
Bottom Line: Ford Fusion Hybrid
Base price: $27,270
As tested: $30,245
EPA gas mileage: 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway
Pros: Outstanding fuel efficiency, styling doesn’t announce the driver’s moral superiority (which is good for some drivers), cool technology
Cons: A four-cylinder Fusion with a manual transmission is more cost-effective, styling doesn’t announce the driver’s moral superiority (which is bad for some drivers), not much else
Verdict: The Fusion Hybrid should be on every family car shopper’s must-drive list
Standard equipment: 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, hybrid-electric drive, continuously variable automatic transmission, 17-inch aluminum wheels, dual-zone automatic climate control, leather-wrapped steering wheel, seat heaters, Sync voice control, satellite radio
Major options: Back-up camera, blind spot alert, cross traffic alert, power moonroof, 12-speaker Sony stereo
REVIEW
By Dan Carney
msnbc.com contributor
updated 7:38 a.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 6, 2010
Some new cars gain notoriety for a specific attribute, like artful style, sublime comfort or incomparable safety. The Ford Fusion Hybrid is gaining notoriety for introducing the idea that U.S. carmakers can take the lead in fuel-saving, hybrid-electric drivetrain technology.
That may surprise drivers who have paid only passing attention to hybrids, and it may upset those who worship at the throne of Toyota. But the truth is that the Ford Fusion Hybrid is the best hybrid model in the U.S. market.
It is the best in the U.S. in part because it is the best for the U.S. It wears no egg-shaped hypermile bodywork, doesn’t ask its occupants to contort themselves to fit inside like the old pack-college-students-in-a-VW stunt and doesn’t demand any creative financing for regular Americans with regular jobs to purchase it.
Instead, the Fusion sits demurely in the driveway, offering no commentary on the neighbors’ lack of environmental concern. Yet for a base price of $27,270 (right around the new-car average of $25,500), customers can buy a fuel-efficient family sedan that easily carries five normal-sized people in comfort. It also has sufficient trunk space for their luggage, a compliant suspension and enough high-tech gizmos and widgets to evoke a smile from even the most indifferent automotive appliance owner.
Motor Trend magazine named the model its Car of the Year for 2010 and it is one of three finalists for the North American Car of the Year award to be announced Monday. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the panel that votes on the latter award.)
The EPA says the Fusion Hybrid gets 41 mpg in the city and 36 mpg highway. In a week of mixed suburban driving, the test model scored 38 mpg. The Prius gets 50 mpg on the EPA’s city test, but that extra 9 mpg is not worth the tradeoffs in space, ride and handling for many customers.
My gas mileage was achieved in normal driving, with no babying it to boost efficiency. But the Fusion does have a novel dashboard video display that shows virtual vines which can, if the car is driven gently, sprout leaves to produce a nice, healthy-looking dashboard garden.
Share your stories
Has the recession forced you to go into business for yourself because you weren’t able to find a job in your field? Has that been a good thing or a bad thing? Selected responses may be used in an upcoming msnbc.com story.
Failure to drive in a way that cultivated this garden sparked howls of outrage from the back seat, where my kids complained I was killing the leaves as they disappeared. So while it would be easy to dismiss the efficiency display as a silly gimmick, it is a hard-to-ignore reminder that with just a bit lighter pressure on the pedal, the Fusion Hybrid can get spectacularly good mileage. Hypermile fanatics do even better, but there are few regular drivers who are interested in driving as if the fuel in the tank is their last.
Ford previously launched a hybrid version of its Escape SUV, but it was more primitive than the Fusion. In addition its size and weight conspired against it, so the Escape only gets about 25 mpg in everyday mixed driving, hardly enough to bother buying a hybrid.
The Fusion features Ford’s second-generation hybrid system, a design which, like the one in the Escape, is technically similar to that used by Toyota. The Fusion Hybrid goes Toyota one better with its ability to drive on electric-only power at speeds as high as 47 mph. That electric power ultimately comes from gasoline in hybrid electric cars, but it is still fun to know that you can drive on electric-only power for longer periods and higher speeds, keeping the gas engine shut off. The Prius automatically starts its gas engine at 25 mph.
Ford Motor Co.
A virtual garden grows on the dashboard display if you drive the Fusion gently.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because of the conceptual similarities the companies recognized the potential for inadvertent infringement of one another’s patents, so they wisely signed a cross-licensing agreement to avoid future legal headaches. It was a good plan but unfortunately was portrayed by some as a case of Ford buying Toyota’s technology. Ford’s design is entirely its own. The cross-licensing agreement was just an immunization against a plague of lawyers.
Ford’s less-heralded but skilled engineers also achieved a smooth driveability as the car switches modes between gas and electric when driving and between regenerating electricity and using regular hydraulic brakes when stopping. It is still possible to detect some of the mode changes, especially as the car regenerates power when slowing, but Ford’s balance of these modes is the best execution in a constantly improving science.
Click for related content
Ford sales surge; GM, Chrysler lag
More junked cars than new ones bought in '09
Ford has improved the whole Fusion model line for 2010. The original Fusion was a handsome car with strong specifications that promised to deliver an experience that would place the car ahead of the likes of Honda’s Accord. Alas, some of the details were amiss in that first iteration. It was a good, but not great, car.
For 2010, Ford has made the Fusion great. They tweaked the steering to make the car respond to input more faithfully. They upgraded the interior, with soft surfaces on the dashboard replacing hard plastic. They freshened the exterior styling to keep the car up-to-date in appearance. The result is a car that beats Accord and Camry across the whole model line. But the hybrid is the gem in Fusion’s crown and serves notice that Ford and the rest of the domestic industry should not be overlooked as relics of the industrial age.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
US Confirms Plans to ‘Fast-Track’ Solar on Federal Lands in 3 Western States
First Wave of 14 Solar Facilities to Bump into Desert Activists
by Stacy Feldman - Jan 4th, 2010 in Clean Energy Clean Tech Sector concentrating solar power Governors Investors Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 solar energy
With the new year, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reaffirmed its commitment to 'fast-track' the nation's first utility-scale solar energy projects on public lands.
The BLM pledged to complete environmental impact studies for 31 of America's "most promising" renewable energy projects by December 2010. Fourteen of these are proposed solar plants — 10 to be built in California and the rest in Nevada and Arizona. The other projects include seven wind farms, three geothermal plants and seven transmission projects.
Together, these fast-track proposals have the potential to power 900,000 homes. The hope is to make them eligible for stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which expires in less than a year.
BLM Director Bob Abbey said the move will help the nation reach its "green energy future."
For the solar industry, the announcement "is great news," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Washington-based Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a trade group representing 1,100 solar-related firms.
The BLM manages 253 million acres of public land, one-fifth of the country's landmass. Studies show that much of that is rich in sun and wind.
So far, the agency has identified 23 million acres with solar energy potential in six southwestern states, and more than 20 million acres with wind power potential in 11 western states.
While some 20 percent of the nation's installed wind capacity of over 20,000 MW has been built on federal lands — mainly in the Midwest — the BLM has "not approved one acre for solar power development," Resch told SolveClimate.
It is not for lack of trying.
Nearly 160 applications for large-scale solar projects have been stalled at the BLM. Some of these go back five years, when the Bush administration first opened up public lands to renewable energy projects under the Energy Act of 2005.
If all of those projects were built, solar panels and mirrors would carpet 1.8 million acres of federal lands in six western states and generate 97,000 MW of electricity, or enough to power 29 million homes, according to BLM figures. That's almost one-third of the nation's total residential electricity consumption.
The BLM is only promising to complete environmental studies for 14 solar projects, but it has to start somewhere, Resch said.
"Although we want BLM to move forward on all of the applications, dealing with the first group of projects will streamline the process for additional solar projects to be approved in the near future," he said.
Sluggish action has long concerned the solar industry, whose representative say the sector's emerging growth depends on access to remote Western expanses.
The industry also says jobs are at stake. Solar plans in the pipeline would create nearly 40,000 new jobs, according to SEIA figures.
After some fits and starts, the BLM appears to be moving towards some semblance of pro-solar regulatory reform.
We're seeing "a significant shift from the Bush administration," Resch said.
In June 2008, the BLM under President Bush slapped a 22-month moratorium on new solar power plant applications in order to complete an environmental impact study. One month later, after a storm of public and industry protest, the agency dropped the freeze.
In June 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced for the first time a series of 'fast-track' initiatives that would speed the reviews of solar proposals and assess utility-scale development on lands in 24 "Solar Energy Study Areas."
As part of the effort, the Interior called for the BLM to create local renewable energy offices to help process the piles of applications. To date, the BLM has done so in California, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming.
The progress, said Salazar, is part of "President Obama's comprehensive energy strategy," which calls for "rapid development of renewable energy, especially on America's public lands."
Eco-Opposition
As the nation inches closer to its first-generation of desert solar farms, not everyone is cheering, though.
Land preservationists, concerned with habitat conservation for endangered species, have been fighting solar companies on some plant proposals. The battles are pitting environmentalists against each other in what could be the green-on-green struggle of the next decade.
One of the most high-profile cases involves California-based BrightSource Energy.
In September, the company dumped its plans to build a 500-MW solar facility in the eastern part of California's 25,000-acre Mojave Desert. The reason is that the site was expected to be given a national monument designation under coming legislation from California's Sen. Diane Feinstein.
Sure enough, on Dec. 21, the senator introduced the long-awaited California Desert Protection Act of 2010. The bill would create two national monuments covering roughly 1.1 million acres of land. The act is supported by wilderness protection groups, including the California Wilderness Coalition, The Wilderness Society and The National Parks Conservation Association.
"This bill, if enacted, will have a positive and enduring impact on the landscape of the Southern California desert, and I hope it will stand as a model for how to balance renewable energy development and conservation," Feinstein said.
BrightSource has other plans for Mojave solar, though.
Since 2007, the start-up has been seeking approval to build the 440-MW Ivanpah concentrating solar power facility near the Nevada border.
The facility, made up of three plants, is expected be the first such installation to get built on BLM lands. The project calls for 400,000 sunlight-gathering heliostat mirrors to sprawl across a 4,065-acre desert expanse, providing power to 150,000 homes.
While it appears a done deal, government scientists have revealed that the site is home to the threatened desert tortoise — and now activists are recommending the plants be moved.
But the facility is on the BLM's new fast-track list, and the company said last month it plans to to break ground in 2010, "following final permitting" from the agency.
Further, in mid-December, BrightSource announced an agreement with two labor organizations for the construction of the plants, creating 1,000 jobs. It also has secured contracts to sell the electricity to Southern California Edison and the Pacific Gas and Electric.
Some desert advocates have said they want solar plants only built on land already used for farming or other development. BrightSource claims its Ivanpah site qualifies. According to the company, the area already contains two major power transmission lines and one natural gas line. It also overlooks a big block of Nevada casinos and sits across the highway from a natural gas plant.
"Solar projects will be developed with the utmost regard for the environment," Resch said. "If the U.S. is serious about addressing climate change and reducing our pollution, then developing our solar resources in the desert is critical."
The Oil & Gas Advantage
For the solar industry, one of the defining tests of progress in 2010 will be how many permits solar projects get from the BLM, compared with the number awarded to oil and gas.
The oil and gas industries have been granted access to 45 million acres of public lands in total. In 2007, more than 7,000 such permits were issued for BLM lands, SEIA says.
Since Jan. 21, 2009, the BLM has held 35 oil and gas lease sales offering 2.7 million acres across the West, according to the agency's figures.
The solar industry, still at zero permits, is calling for "equal access to public lands" with the fossil fuel industry.
"America has the best solar resources in the world and we can't harness the full potential of the sun without accessing our sun-baked lands of the West," Resch said.
BLM Director Abbey said:
"Diversifying our energy supply does not mean that we will neglect the responsible development of the oil and gas resources on the public lands."
See also:
Solar Could Generate 15% of Power by 2020, If US Ends Fossil Fuel Subsidies
In a League of Its Own: First Solar Breaks the $1-a-Watt Barrier
World's Largest Sky-Scraping Solar Plant Goes Live in Spain
Desert Solar Could Meet 25% of World’s Power Needs by 2050
California Building Power Lines to a Renewable Future
New York Offers 50% Solar Subsidy, as East Coast Pulls Ahead in PV Growth
Knocked Down But Not Out: America Could Be Global Solar Leader by 2014
Stacy Feldman's blog
Solar in Arizona
On January 4th, 2010 Jim (not verified) said:
I am an archaeologist doing the archaeological compliance work on four separate solar projects in Arizona. All but one are located on old abandoned cotton fields. These fields are ringed by access roads, and contain no undisturbed lands. In fact, the one we are surveying this week (a 600-acre portion west of Phoenix) is nearly entirely denuded, no vegetation whatsoever.
I can see no better use for this land than these proposed large-scale solar power plants. If this land is left alone it will simply continue to erode. At least soil erosion on these lands will be dealt with, and that is the LEAST of the benifits.
I say turn every square inch of old cotton fields to solar fields
by Stacy Feldman - Jan 4th, 2010 in Clean Energy Clean Tech Sector concentrating solar power Governors Investors Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 solar energy
With the new year, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reaffirmed its commitment to 'fast-track' the nation's first utility-scale solar energy projects on public lands.
The BLM pledged to complete environmental impact studies for 31 of America's "most promising" renewable energy projects by December 2010. Fourteen of these are proposed solar plants — 10 to be built in California and the rest in Nevada and Arizona. The other projects include seven wind farms, three geothermal plants and seven transmission projects.
Together, these fast-track proposals have the potential to power 900,000 homes. The hope is to make them eligible for stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which expires in less than a year.
BLM Director Bob Abbey said the move will help the nation reach its "green energy future."
For the solar industry, the announcement "is great news," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Washington-based Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a trade group representing 1,100 solar-related firms.
The BLM manages 253 million acres of public land, one-fifth of the country's landmass. Studies show that much of that is rich in sun and wind.
So far, the agency has identified 23 million acres with solar energy potential in six southwestern states, and more than 20 million acres with wind power potential in 11 western states.
While some 20 percent of the nation's installed wind capacity of over 20,000 MW has been built on federal lands — mainly in the Midwest — the BLM has "not approved one acre for solar power development," Resch told SolveClimate.
It is not for lack of trying.
Nearly 160 applications for large-scale solar projects have been stalled at the BLM. Some of these go back five years, when the Bush administration first opened up public lands to renewable energy projects under the Energy Act of 2005.
If all of those projects were built, solar panels and mirrors would carpet 1.8 million acres of federal lands in six western states and generate 97,000 MW of electricity, or enough to power 29 million homes, according to BLM figures. That's almost one-third of the nation's total residential electricity consumption.
The BLM is only promising to complete environmental studies for 14 solar projects, but it has to start somewhere, Resch said.
"Although we want BLM to move forward on all of the applications, dealing with the first group of projects will streamline the process for additional solar projects to be approved in the near future," he said.
Sluggish action has long concerned the solar industry, whose representative say the sector's emerging growth depends on access to remote Western expanses.
The industry also says jobs are at stake. Solar plans in the pipeline would create nearly 40,000 new jobs, according to SEIA figures.
After some fits and starts, the BLM appears to be moving towards some semblance of pro-solar regulatory reform.
We're seeing "a significant shift from the Bush administration," Resch said.
In June 2008, the BLM under President Bush slapped a 22-month moratorium on new solar power plant applications in order to complete an environmental impact study. One month later, after a storm of public and industry protest, the agency dropped the freeze.
In June 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced for the first time a series of 'fast-track' initiatives that would speed the reviews of solar proposals and assess utility-scale development on lands in 24 "Solar Energy Study Areas."
As part of the effort, the Interior called for the BLM to create local renewable energy offices to help process the piles of applications. To date, the BLM has done so in California, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming.
The progress, said Salazar, is part of "President Obama's comprehensive energy strategy," which calls for "rapid development of renewable energy, especially on America's public lands."
Eco-Opposition
As the nation inches closer to its first-generation of desert solar farms, not everyone is cheering, though.
Land preservationists, concerned with habitat conservation for endangered species, have been fighting solar companies on some plant proposals. The battles are pitting environmentalists against each other in what could be the green-on-green struggle of the next decade.
One of the most high-profile cases involves California-based BrightSource Energy.
In September, the company dumped its plans to build a 500-MW solar facility in the eastern part of California's 25,000-acre Mojave Desert. The reason is that the site was expected to be given a national monument designation under coming legislation from California's Sen. Diane Feinstein.
Sure enough, on Dec. 21, the senator introduced the long-awaited California Desert Protection Act of 2010. The bill would create two national monuments covering roughly 1.1 million acres of land. The act is supported by wilderness protection groups, including the California Wilderness Coalition, The Wilderness Society and The National Parks Conservation Association.
"This bill, if enacted, will have a positive and enduring impact on the landscape of the Southern California desert, and I hope it will stand as a model for how to balance renewable energy development and conservation," Feinstein said.
BrightSource has other plans for Mojave solar, though.
Since 2007, the start-up has been seeking approval to build the 440-MW Ivanpah concentrating solar power facility near the Nevada border.
The facility, made up of three plants, is expected be the first such installation to get built on BLM lands. The project calls for 400,000 sunlight-gathering heliostat mirrors to sprawl across a 4,065-acre desert expanse, providing power to 150,000 homes.
While it appears a done deal, government scientists have revealed that the site is home to the threatened desert tortoise — and now activists are recommending the plants be moved.
But the facility is on the BLM's new fast-track list, and the company said last month it plans to to break ground in 2010, "following final permitting" from the agency.
Further, in mid-December, BrightSource announced an agreement with two labor organizations for the construction of the plants, creating 1,000 jobs. It also has secured contracts to sell the electricity to Southern California Edison and the Pacific Gas and Electric.
Some desert advocates have said they want solar plants only built on land already used for farming or other development. BrightSource claims its Ivanpah site qualifies. According to the company, the area already contains two major power transmission lines and one natural gas line. It also overlooks a big block of Nevada casinos and sits across the highway from a natural gas plant.
"Solar projects will be developed with the utmost regard for the environment," Resch said. "If the U.S. is serious about addressing climate change and reducing our pollution, then developing our solar resources in the desert is critical."
The Oil & Gas Advantage
For the solar industry, one of the defining tests of progress in 2010 will be how many permits solar projects get from the BLM, compared with the number awarded to oil and gas.
The oil and gas industries have been granted access to 45 million acres of public lands in total. In 2007, more than 7,000 such permits were issued for BLM lands, SEIA says.
Since Jan. 21, 2009, the BLM has held 35 oil and gas lease sales offering 2.7 million acres across the West, according to the agency's figures.
The solar industry, still at zero permits, is calling for "equal access to public lands" with the fossil fuel industry.
"America has the best solar resources in the world and we can't harness the full potential of the sun without accessing our sun-baked lands of the West," Resch said.
BLM Director Abbey said:
"Diversifying our energy supply does not mean that we will neglect the responsible development of the oil and gas resources on the public lands."
See also:
Solar Could Generate 15% of Power by 2020, If US Ends Fossil Fuel Subsidies
In a League of Its Own: First Solar Breaks the $1-a-Watt Barrier
World's Largest Sky-Scraping Solar Plant Goes Live in Spain
Desert Solar Could Meet 25% of World’s Power Needs by 2050
California Building Power Lines to a Renewable Future
New York Offers 50% Solar Subsidy, as East Coast Pulls Ahead in PV Growth
Knocked Down But Not Out: America Could Be Global Solar Leader by 2014
Stacy Feldman's blog
Solar in Arizona
On January 4th, 2010 Jim (not verified) said:
I am an archaeologist doing the archaeological compliance work on four separate solar projects in Arizona. All but one are located on old abandoned cotton fields. These fields are ringed by access roads, and contain no undisturbed lands. In fact, the one we are surveying this week (a 600-acre portion west of Phoenix) is nearly entirely denuded, no vegetation whatsoever.
I can see no better use for this land than these proposed large-scale solar power plants. If this land is left alone it will simply continue to erode. At least soil erosion on these lands will be dealt with, and that is the LEAST of the benifits.
I say turn every square inch of old cotton fields to solar fields
Trash to Gas: Landfill Energy Projects Increasing
Garbage to gas: Landfill energy projects on rise as government seeks to cut greenhouse gases
By JASON DEAREN Associated Press Writer
LIVERMORE, Calif. January 5, 2010 (AP) The Associated Press
Hundreds of trash trucks across California are rumbling down city streets using clean fuel made from a dirty source: garbage.
A tractor sorts garbage at the Altamont Landfill owned by Waste Management in Livermore, Calif., Friday, Dec. 18, 2009. Dotted throughout the facility are more than 100 wells with black tubes that vacuum up methane from the heap. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP)The fuel is derived from rotting refuse that San Francisco and Oakland residents and businesses have been discarding in the Altamont landfill since 1980. Since November, the methane gas created from decaying detritus at the 240-acre landfill has been sucked into tubes and sent into an innovative facility that purifies and transforms it into liquefied natural gas.
Almost 500 Waste Management Inc. garbage and recycling trucks run on this new source of environmentally friendly fuel instead of dirty diesel.
In a state that has passed the most stringent greenhouse gas reduction goals in the United States, the climate change benefits of this plant are twofold — methane from the trash heap is captured before entering the environment and use of the fuel produces less carbon dioxide than conventional gasoline.
"We've built the largest landfill-to-LNG plant in the world; this plant produces 13,000 gallons a day of LNG," said Jessica Jones, a landfill manager for Houston-based Waste Management. "It will take 30,000 tons a year of CO2 from the environment."
Altamont is one of two California landfills making LNG; the other is a smaller facility about 40 miles south of Los Angeles. Other natural gas facilities are being planned by Waste Management at some of the 270 active landfills nationwide, and the number could grow quickly as communities seek to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency counted 517 active landfill energy projects in the nation's approximately 1,800 operational municipal landfills. That was up almost 50 percent from 2000, and 28 percent from 2004.
Landfills have plenty of the ingredients to produce methane. Bacteria break down the food scraps, paper, lawn trimmings and other organic waste dumped there. Over time, the material ferments, releasing methane and other gases. About 50 percent of the gas emitted from landfills is methane. It is 21 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere, the EPA said.
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide," Tom Frankiewicz, program manager for EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program in Washington, said in an e-mail. "Methane is also the main component of natural gas, so by capturing and using methane as an energy source you get an even bigger bang for the buck."
At the Altamont landfill, seagulls hover over the sprawling complex, set among the rolling green hills and wind farms of the Altamont pass about 50 miles east of San Francisco. Dotted throughout the facility are more than 100 wells with black tubes that vacuum up methane from the heap.
The LNG is then pumped into the garbage and recycling trucks at a company fueling station in Oakland, while vehicles elsewhere in California get their gas at specially equipped stations.
The idea of turning garbage into clean energy is not a new one — the Altamont site has had a methane-fueled electric power plant since 1989 that can power 8,000 homes a day. Hundreds of other landfills in the U.S. also use methane captured from rotting garbage for electricity projects.
In 2005, the last year data was available, landfill methane electricity projects made up 10.8 percent of the country's renewable energy output, not including hydroelectric power, EPA said.
Given its impact on greenhouse gases, four state environmental agencies contributed grants to help build the $15.5 million Altamont plant. Mike Beckman of Linde Group North America, the company that built and runs the natural gas plant, said the Altamont plant should continue producing fuel for 20 years or more.
That makes the nascent Altamont plant potentially profitable, as the gas is sold to Waste Management and other customers.
But to many who may want to use the technology, the cost of purifying the methane into usable liquefied natural gas can be a daunting barrier. The $15.5 million it took to build Altamont's LNG facility is far more than it costs to build a small electrical plant.
"There is growing interest, but because removing impurities from the methane is currently quite expensive, right now it's only profitable at larger landfills where you have enough landfill gas," Frankiewicz said. "With today's economics, these projects only happen at the biggest sites in the U.S.; the thought is that as the technology becomes cheaper, that will change. "
———
Associated Press writer Terence Chea contributed to this report
Comment
We have PLENTY of trash in the USA, a never-ending source of alternative energy.
By JASON DEAREN Associated Press Writer
LIVERMORE, Calif. January 5, 2010 (AP) The Associated Press
Hundreds of trash trucks across California are rumbling down city streets using clean fuel made from a dirty source: garbage.
A tractor sorts garbage at the Altamont Landfill owned by Waste Management in Livermore, Calif., Friday, Dec. 18, 2009. Dotted throughout the facility are more than 100 wells with black tubes that vacuum up methane from the heap. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP)The fuel is derived from rotting refuse that San Francisco and Oakland residents and businesses have been discarding in the Altamont landfill since 1980. Since November, the methane gas created from decaying detritus at the 240-acre landfill has been sucked into tubes and sent into an innovative facility that purifies and transforms it into liquefied natural gas.
Almost 500 Waste Management Inc. garbage and recycling trucks run on this new source of environmentally friendly fuel instead of dirty diesel.
In a state that has passed the most stringent greenhouse gas reduction goals in the United States, the climate change benefits of this plant are twofold — methane from the trash heap is captured before entering the environment and use of the fuel produces less carbon dioxide than conventional gasoline.
"We've built the largest landfill-to-LNG plant in the world; this plant produces 13,000 gallons a day of LNG," said Jessica Jones, a landfill manager for Houston-based Waste Management. "It will take 30,000 tons a year of CO2 from the environment."
Altamont is one of two California landfills making LNG; the other is a smaller facility about 40 miles south of Los Angeles. Other natural gas facilities are being planned by Waste Management at some of the 270 active landfills nationwide, and the number could grow quickly as communities seek to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency counted 517 active landfill energy projects in the nation's approximately 1,800 operational municipal landfills. That was up almost 50 percent from 2000, and 28 percent from 2004.
Landfills have plenty of the ingredients to produce methane. Bacteria break down the food scraps, paper, lawn trimmings and other organic waste dumped there. Over time, the material ferments, releasing methane and other gases. About 50 percent of the gas emitted from landfills is methane. It is 21 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere, the EPA said.
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide," Tom Frankiewicz, program manager for EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program in Washington, said in an e-mail. "Methane is also the main component of natural gas, so by capturing and using methane as an energy source you get an even bigger bang for the buck."
At the Altamont landfill, seagulls hover over the sprawling complex, set among the rolling green hills and wind farms of the Altamont pass about 50 miles east of San Francisco. Dotted throughout the facility are more than 100 wells with black tubes that vacuum up methane from the heap.
The LNG is then pumped into the garbage and recycling trucks at a company fueling station in Oakland, while vehicles elsewhere in California get their gas at specially equipped stations.
The idea of turning garbage into clean energy is not a new one — the Altamont site has had a methane-fueled electric power plant since 1989 that can power 8,000 homes a day. Hundreds of other landfills in the U.S. also use methane captured from rotting garbage for electricity projects.
In 2005, the last year data was available, landfill methane electricity projects made up 10.8 percent of the country's renewable energy output, not including hydroelectric power, EPA said.
Given its impact on greenhouse gases, four state environmental agencies contributed grants to help build the $15.5 million Altamont plant. Mike Beckman of Linde Group North America, the company that built and runs the natural gas plant, said the Altamont plant should continue producing fuel for 20 years or more.
That makes the nascent Altamont plant potentially profitable, as the gas is sold to Waste Management and other customers.
But to many who may want to use the technology, the cost of purifying the methane into usable liquefied natural gas can be a daunting barrier. The $15.5 million it took to build Altamont's LNG facility is far more than it costs to build a small electrical plant.
"There is growing interest, but because removing impurities from the methane is currently quite expensive, right now it's only profitable at larger landfills where you have enough landfill gas," Frankiewicz said. "With today's economics, these projects only happen at the biggest sites in the U.S.; the thought is that as the technology becomes cheaper, that will change. "
———
Associated Press writer Terence Chea contributed to this report
Comment
We have PLENTY of trash in the USA, a never-ending source of alternative energy.
Electric Car To Be Built In Indiana
Think, the Norwegian electric carmaker, said on Tuesday that it will open its first American assembly plant in Elkhart, Ind.
The Think City, a battery-powered, two-seat hatchback, is set to begin rolling off the Indiana assembly line in early 2011, ramping up to a potential annual production of 20,000 cars by 2013. The factory is expected to eventually employ more than 400 workers.
About 1,500 of the plastic-bodied cars are already on the street in Europe, and Think will begin selling the City in the United States later this year. The car will be imported from a Finland assembly plant until the Indiana factory opens in a former recreational vehicle factory.
Think’s investment in the Indiana facility depends in part on securing a United States Department of Energy loan guarantee to finance the project, according to Richard Canny, Think’s chief executive.
“Our plan is based around the D.O.E. loan,” Mr. Canny said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “If that didn’t happen we would be looking at a slower and shallower investment plan.”
Indiana was one of several states vying for the Think assembly plant. Tax incentives offered by Indiana and Elkhart’s proximity to automotive suppliers in neighboring Michigan helped clinch the deal, according Mr. Canny.
“We thought they had a great vision for developing an industrial base around electric transport, of creating the Silicon Valley of electric transportation,” he said. It also helped that Ener1, Think’s biggest shareholder and battery supplier, is headquartered in Indiana.
“The battery is the most significant cost of the car and you don’t want to have to ship it around the country,” said Mr. Canny.
Think, which also counts General Electric and the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as investors, plans to sell the City in the United States for about $30,000 after incentives. The car has a range of about 112 miles and the American version of the City will have a top speed of at least 70 miles an hour, according to Think.
Mr. Canny said Think will initially target about five markets in the United States, including the San Francisco Bay Area.
The selection of the Indiana site comes as Think resumes production of the City in Europe after emerging from bankruptcy protection last August. The company subsequently shuttered its Norwegian assembly plant and contracted with Finland’s Valmet Automotive to produce the City.
Comment
I own a Prius but I believe the future is in electric cars.
The Think City, a battery-powered, two-seat hatchback, is set to begin rolling off the Indiana assembly line in early 2011, ramping up to a potential annual production of 20,000 cars by 2013. The factory is expected to eventually employ more than 400 workers.
About 1,500 of the plastic-bodied cars are already on the street in Europe, and Think will begin selling the City in the United States later this year. The car will be imported from a Finland assembly plant until the Indiana factory opens in a former recreational vehicle factory.
Think’s investment in the Indiana facility depends in part on securing a United States Department of Energy loan guarantee to finance the project, according to Richard Canny, Think’s chief executive.
“Our plan is based around the D.O.E. loan,” Mr. Canny said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “If that didn’t happen we would be looking at a slower and shallower investment plan.”
Indiana was one of several states vying for the Think assembly plant. Tax incentives offered by Indiana and Elkhart’s proximity to automotive suppliers in neighboring Michigan helped clinch the deal, according Mr. Canny.
“We thought they had a great vision for developing an industrial base around electric transport, of creating the Silicon Valley of electric transportation,” he said. It also helped that Ener1, Think’s biggest shareholder and battery supplier, is headquartered in Indiana.
“The battery is the most significant cost of the car and you don’t want to have to ship it around the country,” said Mr. Canny.
Think, which also counts General Electric and the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as investors, plans to sell the City in the United States for about $30,000 after incentives. The car has a range of about 112 miles and the American version of the City will have a top speed of at least 70 miles an hour, according to Think.
Mr. Canny said Think will initially target about five markets in the United States, including the San Francisco Bay Area.
The selection of the Indiana site comes as Think resumes production of the City in Europe after emerging from bankruptcy protection last August. The company subsequently shuttered its Norwegian assembly plant and contracted with Finland’s Valmet Automotive to produce the City.
Comment
I own a Prius but I believe the future is in electric cars.
Thermostat Becomes a Mini-computer
There are dozens of companies making in-home displays designed to help consumers shave energy use at home. But SilverPac is packing many of those features into a high-tech thermostat.
SilverPac, which makes digital picture frames and other media electronics, on Monday introduced the SilverStat 7, a sleek device that combines the heating and cooling controls of a programmable thermostat with a real-time energy display.
The company plans to show the energy management system at the Consumer Electronics Show, which starts later this week, then release it in June.
The thermostat is built around a 7-inch touch-screen display that runs Windows CE on Intel's Atom processor. It has a Wi-Fi interface that will allow it to get electricity usage information from smart meters and talk to network-aware appliances on a home wireless network.
It has built-in speakers to play FM radio or music streamed from a home network. People can also use the device as a calendar.
According to the company, SilverPac's in-home energy display will rely on getting information from a smart meter, which means that it won't be accessible to everyone. Even with millions of smart meters expected to be installed over the next three years, many utilities will not be making meter information available over home wireless networks, in part because of security concerns.
SilverPac, which makes digital picture frames and other media electronics, on Monday introduced the SilverStat 7, a sleek device that combines the heating and cooling controls of a programmable thermostat with a real-time energy display.
The company plans to show the energy management system at the Consumer Electronics Show, which starts later this week, then release it in June.
The thermostat is built around a 7-inch touch-screen display that runs Windows CE on Intel's Atom processor. It has a Wi-Fi interface that will allow it to get electricity usage information from smart meters and talk to network-aware appliances on a home wireless network.
It has built-in speakers to play FM radio or music streamed from a home network. People can also use the device as a calendar.
According to the company, SilverPac's in-home energy display will rely on getting information from a smart meter, which means that it won't be accessible to everyone. Even with millions of smart meters expected to be installed over the next three years, many utilities will not be making meter information available over home wireless networks, in part because of security concerns.
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