Fossil fuels

When it comes to power plants, General Electric sees natural gas as solar and wind energy's best friend.

GE today said that it has licensed solar thermal technology from California-based eSolar for use in power plants that use both solar and natural gas. As part of the deal, GE has invested an undisclosed amount in eSolar.

Under the agreement, GE will offer a power plant that incorporates eSolar technology with GE's natural-gas turbines designed specifically for operating with large-scale solar and wind installations. The FlexEfficiency combined cycle natural-gas plant is designed to ramp power generation up and down … Read more

London Mayor Boris Johnson unveiled new diesel-hybrid electric double-decker buses this week that are scheduled to hit London streets in 2012.

The new hybrid buses will get 10 miles per gallon which is almost 40 percent more efficient than a conventional diesel double-decker bus. London already has some diesel-hybrid buses in its fleet, but these newer models will be 15 percent more efficient than those.

"Over the next few months its mettle will be well and truly tested. But I hope that process will confirm we have built a real eco-warrior of a bus that can contribute to improving … Read more

At a Paris event on Wednesday, GE announced a new gas-fuelled power plant it says offers more flexibility and efficiency than many other options currently available.

The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts, has a base-load efficiency of more than 60 percent, and, when fully operational, can provide enough energy to power more than 600,000 European homes, according to GE. The plant is built to incorporate fluctuating power sources like wind and solar, as well as a main source of natural gas, the company said.

"The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is engineered for flexible operation by integrating a next-generation 9FB gas turbine that operates at 50Hz, which is the power frequency that is most used in countries around the world; a 109D-14 steam turbine, which runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine; GE's advanced W28 generator; a Mark VIe integrated control system that links all of the technologies; and a heat recovery steam generator," GE said in a statement.

GE says the plant also conforms to the EU's strict plant emissions standards for NOx and CO2.

The plant represents $500 million in research and development and came out of GE's Ecomagination program to develop clean-energy projects. GE announced in June 2010 that it planned to invest $10 billion over five years in green-focused research and development.… Read more

Consumers should have an easier time comparing the fuel economy of cars and light trucks once new consumer labels unveiled today go into effect.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson unveiled the new set of labels this morning at a live press conference hosted on the Web.

Prior to this, car labels hadn't been updated for 30 years.

Each new label differs slightly depending on the car's drive train or fuel source. (Click for a PDF of all labels.) Labels in the set include those for gas, flex-fuel gas-ethanol blends, … Read more

Australia-based MBD Energy is installing an algae system from OriginOil at its coal power station in Tarong, Australia, both companies announced today.

The system will capture flue-gas emitted from the coal-fired power station using a bio-based carbon capture storage device containing micro-algae. The micro-algae uses the captured CO2 to reproduce more algae biomass, which can then be used for fuel or plastics.

The Tarong power station in Queensland will be able to process up to 300 gallons of algae culture per minute, but is only a one-hectare site. The small station will serve as the test site for a larger … Read more

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said today that renewable energy will be a key pillar of Japan's energy policy after the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years and that its nuclear policy must be reviewed from scratch.

The massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima plant in northeast Japan, and the prolonged crisis could hamper Japan's efforts to reduce its use of fossil fuels. The plant is still leaking radiation.

"The current basic energy policy envisages that over 50 percent of total electricity supply will come from nuclear power … Read more

Renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower could fulfill almost 80 percent of the world's energy demand by 2050 with the right policies, according to a U.N. report which won backing from governments today.

The 26-page study, by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), broadly matched a draft written by scientists. It was approved by government delegates at talks in Abu Dhabi.

Environmental groups hailed the report as a guide to the shift from fossil fuels to combat climate change, a process set to cost trillions of dollars. But they said some draft … Read more

General Electric may have grown its clean-tech business fourfold over the past six years, but Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt wishes he had spent a little less time talking about it.

The head of the largest U.S. conglomerate, who in January was named a top adviser on job creation to U.S. President Barack Obama, said yesterday that GE's focus on the environmentally friendly aspects of its wind turbines and high-efficiency appliances might have led his critics to believe he was more interested in saving the planet than growing the company.

"If I had one thing to do … Read more

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems has signed a deal with Cyclone Power Technologies to partner on developing a version of the all-fuel Mark V "clean-tech" engine.

The Cyclone Mark V is a Rankine Cycle heat-regenerative external-combustion engine that the company says can run on "virtually any fuel" including algae fuel and waste oil while emitting few pollutants.

The engine has a thermal efficiency of over 30 percent and produces fewer emissions than a modern gas or diesel internal-combustion engines, according to Cyclone. Mechanical energy is derived through the heating and cooling of water in a closed-loop, piston-based … Read more