Green Tech

When it comes to the U.S. biofuels strategy, it's no longer just about ethanol.

The Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that $564 million in stimulus act funding would be used toward constructing biorefineries to make liquid fuels from plants. Out of the 19 projects receiving funding, nearly half focus on the development of "drop-in" replacements for gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel. The rest focus on technologies for making ethanol or chemicals from sources other than corn. (Click this PDF for a full list of recipient projects).

Green crude from algae

(Credit: Sapphire Energy)

In one example, San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, which counts Bill Gates as an investor, received a $54.5 million loan guarantee to build a pilot facility to convert algae into "green crude" that can replace jet fuel and diesel.

These fuels are the chemical equivalents of petroleum-based gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel so they can fit into the existing distribution fuels infrastructure, backers say.

The Energy Department-funded projects, which will be matched with private money for a total of $1.3 billion, are meant to test a number of biofuels techniques at demonstration scale. Chemical and energy company UOP, for example, received a total of $31.7 million to make a renewable diesel and jet fuel from wood wastes by treating biofeedstocks with hydrogen during its process.

Different methods to produce ethanol will also be tested through the Energy Department program. In the 2007 Energy Act, the federal government set an aggressive goal for production of advanced biofuels made from plants other than corn, such as agricultural residue and wood.

Algenol Biofuels received almost $59 million in total to produce ethanol from seawater algae and carbon dioxide in Freeport, Texas. Cellulosic-ethanol company ZeaChem, meanwhile, received $25 million from the Energy Department to supplement a planned project to make ethanol from poplar trees in Oregon using a microbe that breaks down wood. And waste-to-fuel companies BlueFire Ethanol and Enerkem received grants for their gasification-based systems for converting municipal solid waste into ethanol.

In a statement, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said advanced biofuels are a key part of the country's goal to create a cleaner, more sustainable transportation system and generate jobs.

In a statement, the Biotechnology Industry Organization said the government funding will help innovative companies attract capital from private sources to commercialize their technology.

Coca-Cola said Thursday that it will eliminate a major greenhouse gas in its new vending machines and coolers, raising the bar for climate-friendly refrigeration in the food and beverage industry.

Coke's Chief Executive Muhtar Kent said that the company, which sells everything from soda and juice drinks to water, will replace hydrofluorocarbon, also known as HFC, in its new vending machines and coolers by 2015.

While Coke's 10 million vending machines, coolers and other refrigeration equipment around the world keep its drinks chilled, they also are the biggest contributor to the company's carbon footprint.

The sticker on this Coca-Cola vending machine reads: "This Cooler is from the Future. Wait, that's Now. This cooler is an HFC-free pioneer, reducing direct green house gas emissions by 99% and energy consumption by up to 40%."

(Credit: Coca-Cola)

Together the refrigeration systems emit 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year--about 40 percent of the company's total.

Greenhouse gases from hydrofluorocarbons are partly blamed for global climate change and are expected to make up 28 percent to 45 percent of carbon emissions by 2050.

That has prompted the food and beverage industry to find other ways to cool products and cut their environmental impact. Earlier this year Pepsico launched a pilot program for greener vending machines with carbon-dioxide cooling.

Coke executives said that carbon dioxide is the company's preferred replacement, followed by hydrocarbon refrigeration.

While carbon dioxide is a global-warming gas, proponents point to its lower environmental impact--more than 1,400 times less than conventional refrigerants.

To ramp up the transition to greener machines, Coke and its bottling partners will buy 150,000 units of HFC-free equipment in 2010, doubling the company's current pace for buying the systems.

"Our hope is that our initial investments will trigger adoption by other companies in the food and beverage industry," Kent said in a conference call with reporters.

He added that wider adoption will help drive the cost of the replacement technology down.

Coke has invested $50 million in research for climate friendly replacements. The company expects the move to greener equipment to cut its emissions by nearly 53 million metric tons--the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road for a year--over the 10-year life-span of the equipment.

Even as businesses like Coke take their own initiative, regulations on HFC are needed eventually, Gerd Leipold, former executive director of Greenpeace International said Thursday. The environmental activist group helped jump start Coke's move to greener refrigeration several years ago.

Leipold expects some regulations to come forward from the U.N. climate talks being held this month in Copenhagen and from environmental trendsetter California.

Shares of Coke closed down 1.19 percent at $57.27 each on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Story Copyright (c) 2009 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

California regulators on Thursday approved an ambitious project to beam solar energy from space starting in 2016.

Under a power purchase agreement approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, utility Pacific Gas & Electric will purchase electricity from technology provider Solaren if it successfully deploys its space-based solar collectors, which would be the first of its kind.

PG&E has contracted to buy 1,700 gigawatt hours per year for 15 years from Solar for its space-based solar arrays, which will have a generating capacity of 200 megawatts. That's smaller than a full scale nuclear or natural gas plant but enough to supply thousands of homes. The anticipated date of operation is June, 2016.

(Credit: PG&E)

Space-based solar, an idea that has been around for decades, is being pursued by companies and researchers around the world. Its key advantage over land-based solar or wind power is that can generate renewable energy around the clock. The California Public Utilities Commission gave the go-ahead to the project in an effort to meet the state's aggressive renewable energy goals.

Solaren's plan calls for using satellites equipped with solar photovoltaic panels and mirrors to generate electricity, which is transmitted via microwaves to a ground receiver station in Fresno County, Calif. The receiver then converts the radio frequency energy to electricity and it is fed into the power grid.

Based in Southern California, Solaren is run by veterans from aerospace companies. Engineers have designed a relatively lightweight system around a Mylar mirror that's 1 kilometer in diameter to concentrate light onto the solar panels to squeeze more electricity from them, according to an article in Grist.

A PG&E representative on Thursday said that the utility will only pay Solaren if it delivers the power. The cost of the electricity is competitive with land-based renewable energy sources, he added.

"If this works, it would be a real game changer. But for our customers, there's really no or little risk, so it's worth supporting something that has credible people behind it with years of experience who think they can make it work," said Jonathan Marshall from PG&E.

When announcing the PG&E deal in April, Solaren CEO Gary Spirnak said the company plans to run pilot tests before an actual launch, drawing on company employees' experience in aerospace.

"Once in geosynchronous orbit, a series of SSP (space solar power) pilot plant system tests will validate the satellites and ground receive station functions and verify performance, safety and key parameters to ensure successful operations. When we complete these steps, we will then be ready to deliver power to PG&E in 2016," Sprinak said.

The Panasonic TC-P50V10 plasma flat-panel HDTV.

(Credit: Panasonic)

Panasonic plans to invest $1 billion by 2012 to develop green technologies for the home that would include energy-monitoring systems, marking a major shift in the company's focus.

Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said in an interview with the Bloomberg news service this week that growing consumer interest in more efficient products has led Panasonic to decide to develop new core businesses.

"Our growth is not enough . So we want to change our fighting ring from our current categories to a different field," Ohtsubo told Bloomberg.

The company plans to offer home energy management systems, as well as develop existing interests in lithium ion batteries for electric cars, solar panels, and smart appliances.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that the world's leading plasma-TV manufacturer is getting rid of its star product.

As one of its green product ideas, Ohtsubo told Bloomberg about a system in development that would allow people to monitor the electricity generation of their solar panels and the electricity use of their home appliances through their television sets.

One can't help but wonder if Panasonic's interest in a new core business was in any way influenced by the U.S. Department of Energy's decision to curb Energy Star seals for supersized televisions. Very large televisions could fall out of favor if an increasingly energy-conscious public relies on the Energy Star seal when deciding which products to purchase for their home.

It also remains to be seen if this means Panasonic is going to abandon its plasma TVs in favor of the increasingly popular LCD and LED-based LCD televisions. Panasonic already does make LCD televisions, in addition to plasmas.

Google Earth and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that Google is developing a tool to map out disturbing scenarios of how California can be affected by climate change.

The project comes out of a collaboration with the California Natural Resources Agency, Schwarzenegger, and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), an organization funded by the California Energy Commission and Google.org.

"There is a serious bottleneck in delivering relevant information, much of which is map-based, to decisionmakers in a manner that allows them to turn climate change research results into effective climate change adaptation decisions and policies," according to a statement from SEI.

The CalAdapt Google Earth tool, which will allow individuals to view how their specific community would be changed, will not be ready for public use until September 2010. But on Wednesday, Google.org released two related videos narrated by Schwarzenegger. Both the three-minute video (see below) and seven-minute video demonstrate the kind of data the Google Earth CalAdapt tool will make more palatable. The extended version additionally highlights Schwarzenegger's concerns and political initiatives.

CalAdapt visually demonstrates the effects of climate change as determined by the current scientific data available to the state of California. It includes past data regarding temperature change and water shortages. It includes data modeling what will happen if, for example, the Sierra snow pack disappears at the various rates predicted. It also includes data on which parts of the state's shoreline would be most effected due to storms and rising sea levels.

Certainly, it's a teaching tool to show average folks what scientists believe will happen to the California climate in the coming years. But it also happens to dovetail into Schwarzenegger's executive order that the state develop a "Climate Adaptation Strategy" on everything from agriculture to commercial land development.

It's not the first time, organizations have turned to the Google Earth platform to give the public a tool for avoiding land misuse or harrowing legal battles.

In April Google Earth released the Path to Green Energy tool. Those layers, developed in conjunction with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society, show which lands in the greater western U.S. are prohibited from commercial development, awaiting approval for inclusion into the federal wilderness system, or considered natural habitats for endangered species among other categories.

It's intended to be a preemptive offering to commercial developers who may rather shy away from the hassle of an environmental fight if there are adequate lands available for their needs elsewhere.

(Credit: SmartSynch)

SmartSynch announced Wednesday night that it has a plan for allowing universal communications between appliances, smart grids, and utilities, regardless of which communication protocol is used.

In May 2008, the Jackson, Miss.-company garnered $20 million in a funding round led by Credit Suisse to develop its communications devices and software for smart meters.

What has emerged is the GridRouter, an Internet Protocol-based universal router with an open platform that can communicate with public and private networks whether they be using WiMax, municipal Wi-Fi, or a proprietary network system.

The GridRouter device could become a darling of utilities by enabling them to connect existing proprietary networks to the GridRouter without having to upgrade their entire system, and using existing off-the-self IT management tools to do it.

The company's public relations team has been telling the press that "SmartSynch sees this product doing for the smart grid what Cisco did for the Internet."

While such grid and appliance interoperability claims might only catch the eye of industry wonks, average consumers should also perk up their ears and listen. Progress on that front could mean the difference between paying a premium for a smart-grid-enabled appliance, or having it come standard on most mass-produced appliances within the next half-dozen years.

SmartSynch's upgradable GridRouter is built to allow utilities to add multiple communications technologies from difference companies and make them all interoperable.

(Credit: SmartSynch)

Currently, companies and organizations are jockeying to back what they hope will be the standard of choice for smart-grid interaction when it comes to software and communications tools. The Wi-Fi Alliance announced in November, for instance, that it has a smart-grid task force reviewing how its standards might be modified to become the best choice for smart grids. Google's PowerMeter, while using its existing Web-based portal to provide a platform for smart-grid home data, has partnered with AlertMe, which uses ZigBee instead of Wi-Fi for home devices to communicate with a central hub and smart meter.

Appliance manufacturers like GE and Whirlpool have publicly expressed enthusiasm about incorporating smart technology into their products.

GE announced in July that it's testing Tendril as possible smart appliance software and started several pilot projects in places like Masdar City and Hawaii.

But there has also been some hesitation. Whirlpool said it would like to phase out all "dumb" appliances by 2015, but won't do so until a clear standard communications winner emerges.

Who could blame them? No one wants to be the one left with noncompliant technology once clear winners begin to emerge. But because of this, standardization squabbles could become a hold-up in the smart-grid evolution.

If SmartSynch's GridRouter can provide an easy an out-of-the-box solution to syncing everyone up, as the company claims, it could be the grease needed to quicken the smart-grid build-out.

NEW YORK--New York State is looking for developers to build wind farms on its Great Lakes that could generate 120 to 500 megawatts of power to boost the amount of electricity that comes from renewable sources by 2015.

The New York Power Authority would buy all the power generated from the offshore projects, which could be located in either Lake Erie or Lake Ontario.

Offshore wind power costs about twice as much as land-based wind projects, according to industry estimates. Offshore wind farms cost about $4 million per megawatt if no interest accrued during construction.

However, typically offshore wind farms can generate more power. Five firms are studying the Great Lakes wind project, which was first proposed in April.

A combined cycle natural gas plant, which does produce carbon dioxide, meanwhile costs just about $1 million a megawatt.

One megawatt powers about 800 homes in New York.

Companies interested in making a proposal have to inform the state-owned power generator by March 20. Proposals are due June 1.

The state will announce any winners by December 2010 with power purchase agreement negotiations completed by May 31, 2011. The Power Authority said it would favor projects completed in 2015 and those that benefit the local economy.

The project would generate much needed Upstate jobs and help the state and its Democratic governor, David Paterson, meet ambitious renewable-power goals and the region's greenhouse gas reduction efforts.

New York's renewable portfolio standard requires 25 percent of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2013, while the governor set a goal of 45 percent of the state's power come from energy efficiency and renewable resources by 2015.

New York is a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which uses a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Wind power produces no greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.

Several firms want to build wind power facilities in New York. The state power grid operator said earlier this year it was studying proposals to interconnect more than 8,000 MW of wind projects. Of course, most of those projects will not be built.

New York already has more than 1,200 MW of wind power capacity, most of which was built over the past year or so in part to capture substantial federal and state incentives.

Story Copyright (c) 2009 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Mazda, EnerDel, Think Global, and others are partnering on a test project that will pair all-electric cars with stationary storage units as charging stations, EnerDel and Mazda announced this past week.

Mazda plans to convert some of its Mazda2 vehicles (known as the Mazda Demios in Japan) to all-electric cars running a Think drivetrain with EnerDel lithium ion batteries.

The Mazda2 (called the Demios in Japan) is expected to become available in the United States in 2010.

(Credit: Mazda)

The cars will be offered to Japanese customers through a rental car program, called the Tsukuba Environmental Style Test Project, which should be up and running by March 2010 in Tsukuba City, Japan, near Tokyo, according to Mazda.

U.S. battery manufacturer EnerDel has described the test project as the Japanese equivalent to Zipcar in the States, a program in which customers join a car club that offers car rentals on an hourly or daily basis.

Instead of recharging stations tapping directly into a smart grid, those in the Tsukuba test project will use stationary grid storage units also developed by EnerDel. The stationary storage units will enable the rapid charging of the all-electric Mazda2 cars, while avoiding the possibility of having to tap into a smart grid during peak usage hours.

"The unique combination of on-site battery storage with rapid charging allows the use of direct current throughout the system, sharply reducing the amount of time needed to charge a vehicle," according to a statement from EnerDel.

The recharging stations, which will draw from solar panels as well as grid power, will be located at Family Mart convenience stores in the Tsukuba City area.

Itochu, a Japanese conglomerate that has partnered with EnerDel on energy projects since 2003, owns the Family Mart chain. It was through a partnership with Itochu that EnerDel and Think Global converted and tested a fleet of trucks to all-electric vehicles for the Japanese Postal Service.

California will be the "lead market" for the Chevy Volt when the electrically driven car is available at the end of next year, General Motors said Wednesday.

California was chosen because the state has the largest U.S. car market, and Californians are "known to be leaders in adopting groundbreaking new technologies," GM's vice president of global Chevrolet brand, Brent Deware, said in a statement pegged to this week's Los Angeles International Auto Show.

Production of the Volt is scheduled to start in late 2010. GM has not announced pricing for the 2011 model, though newly dethroned CEO Fritz Henderson acknowledged earlier this fall that the price would be about $40,000. (GM's board on Tuesday asked Henderson to resign, effective immediately.)

California, here we come.

(Credit: General Motors)

As part of the California rollout, GM plans to make 100 Volts available to three utilities for testing. The cars will be used as fleet vehicles, and performance data will be collected via GM's OnStar in-car communications for a Department of Energy-run research program.

Financially strapped GM has a lot riding on the Chevy Volt. The car is designed to run for 40 miles on its lithium ion batteries and then use an engine-generator combination for longer rides. GM expects that most customers will do the majority of their driving on electric charge only, making the cost per mile cheaper than gas-only cars.

Even with the public excitement over electric cars, automakers are still not totally sure how consumers will adjust to the new technology and how electric components will operate in real-world conditions.

GM, as well as other automakers, plans to offer electric vehicles in certain regions that will invest in the infrastructure to support them. The California research program calls for the installation of 500 charging stations at people's homes, at businesses, and in public places.