CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--A group of academics on Friday considered the ultimate engineering challenge: building machines to stabilize the earth's climate.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology convened a symposium here to discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of geoengineering, also called climate engineering. Everything from shooting light-blocking particles into the atmosphere to "artificial trees" is being seriously studied, despite trepidation among researchers and opposition from others.
During talks Friday morning, academics said climate engineering techniques are not well understood and, because of the complexity of the global climate system, individual approaches are pockmarked with uncertainties.
Still, speakers at the event said it's time to step up research in geoengineering to sort out which approaches are worth serious consideration. But they cautioned against expecting easy fixes or abandoning efforts to ratchet down the growth of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.
"At this point the fear is that if we talk about this, people will stop cutting emissions, which is a rational fear. But the idea that we shouldn't have a research program would be a real mistake," said David Keith, the director of the ISEEE Energy and Environmental Systems Group at the University of Calgary during his talk the symposium, which was called Engineering a Cooler Planet.
Speakers said each climate engineering approach needs to be viewed with an associated cost and risk. For example, one relatively inexpensive idea is to shoot particles, called aerosols, into the air in order to block the amount of heat from the sun that reaches the earth's surface.
The cooling effect from aerosols, such as sulfur dioxide, in the atmosphere is rapid--measured in days or years. But they also impact the planet's water cycle. Early models show that large-scale efforts to inject aerosols in the atmosphere would likely make certain areas drier and affect the monsoons in India and Asia, said Joyce Penner, a professor of atmosopheric sciences at the University of Michigan.
Even with the risks and uncertainties of climate engineering, speakers said that there is risk with the so-called business-as-usual scenario where the concentration of greenhouse emissions continues to increase at its current pace.
These heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere are forecast to raise average global temperatures, speakers said. But there are a number of regional impacts from global warming, which will likely spur more research in planet-level engineering, said Thomas Karl, the director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
For example, higher temperatures directly affect water and agriculture. The productivity and ability to reproduce of common crops goes down after certain temperature levels, Karl noted. Pests have a longer time to populate and weeds grow better with more carbon dioxide, too, he said. The west of the U.S. is already feeling the impact of droughts, which will continue if mountain snowpack decreases.
"It's an important choice to make even if we don't do a thing--that's a choice itself," said Karl. "The consequences of not studying this are enormous--understanding the physical, ecosystem, and societal impacts."
Engineering for a cooler planet
There are two general approaches to engineering for a cooler planet: reflecting sunlight back into space or removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it.
Injecting sulfur-based aerosols in the atmosphere have a known cooling effect observed in volcanic eruptions, including Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The approach is more practical than, say, placing mirrors in space. But there still isn't suitable understanding of how the entire climate system would react, including potential changes to ocean circulation, ocean ecosystems, and land precipitation, said Penner.
Also, blocking sunlight from space does not address the problems caused by higher concentrations of carbon dioxide on earth, notably ocean acidification which makes it more difficult for marine animals with shells or corals to grow, speakers noted.
(Credit:
Philip Boyd, University of Otago in Dunedin.)
Other approaches for reflecting heat back into space include spraying sea salt from special-purpose boats to enhance the reflectivity of clouds or installing white roofs on buildings to bounce more sunlight back into space.
Land-based approaches to reducing greenhouse gas concentrations include growing algae-based fuels at massive scale, storing carbon dioxide in underground geological formations, and making charcoal with plants to create a soil amendment called biochar.
There have also been 12 tests to stimulate plankton growth by "fertilizing" the ocean with iron. The goal is to create a rapid "plankton bloom" which will remove carbon dioxide and sequester it in the ocean. But this technique is difficult to verify and risks transforming the existing ocean ecosystems, said Tim Lenton, professor of earth system science at the University of East Anglia.
Because of the risk and uncertainly, Lenton said he is not convinced that climate engineering proposals to block solar radiation makes sense. On the other hand, land-based approaches create competition with other uses of land, notably agriculture.
One area that clearly needs further research is the life-cycle analysis of different climate engineering idea, Lenton said. For example, dumping iron into the ocean to grow plankton has an associated carbon footprint.
"You'll find out when you do the full calculation, it's very difficult to make it carbon negative," he said. "Because of the emissions in simply deploying the technology, it will veto a number of options."
The computational models to simulate the regional impact of climate changes need to be improved as well, said David Battisti, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. In research he presented on Friday, Battisti found that once models took into account ice and ocean effects from aerosol injection, there was a significant variation on the projected impact on temperatures and precipitation.
The symposium at MIT is not the first meeting of scientists to consider geoengineering--the idea has been discussed for decades. But some of the academics on Friday said the current trajectory of climate change argues in favor of at least doing research on climate engineering techniques, even if these projects are ultimately never launched.
There is also a uncertainty around climate policy and how effective policies will be at cutting emissions, noted Keith. "It doesn't mean that we have to do it. But it means that you do need to have the capability to do it," he said.
In the near term, research in the field should be focused on ranking different proposals, addressing both scientific and political issues, said Philip Boyd, a professor of ocean biochemistry from the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Boyd has created a model that ranks geoengineering schemes in terms of efficacy, affordability, safety, speed of implementation, and the ability to stop a project. Societal and political factors need to be considered because conflicts over use of land, water, and the ocean creates a "geopolitical mess."
"We pump up the potential for conflict," he said. "It's just a minefield in terms of teasing these apart."
Fuel efficiency is the No. 1 factor in equipment purchases within the trucking industry, a new report from IBM says.
At the same time, brand name has fallen to the bottom of the criteria list and "faces the risk of slow death," according to the report.
The combination of those two factors means that new players in the trucking industry will give established brands a run for their money.
(Credit:
IBM)
"The truck ecosystem will thrive because of--rather than in spite of--a chaotic introduction of new players," the report said.
"Truck 2020: Transcending Turbulence," which came out of IBM's Institute for Business Value, was based on interviews of 91 executives from 13 countries and from across the industry, including truck and bus original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), suppliers, regulators, and industry associations.
The trucking industry has been faced with financial hurdles, higher energy costs, and the image as a polluter in recent years, according to IBM. And the necessary advances for the industry are not restricted to strides in fuel efficiency.
Telematics will also be key, the report said. Evaluating and diagnosing vehicles remotely and in real time will be a useful tool in preventative maintenance. It will cut down on unexpected breakdowns that disrupt service and that cost trucking companies time and money, according to the report. Telematics tools that collect real-time data can also be useful for curbing litigation over accidents, the report noted.
While the growing significance of telematics may be entirely true, it should be noted that IBM has a vested interest in that field.
Big Blue has said it sees automotive computing as the company's next frontier and has been actively developing telematics and infrastructure technology for at least the last six years.
As far back as 2003, IBM began developing XML-based data retrieval architecture that would allow vehicles to receive real-time traffic and speed data from highways. In 2005, it signed a $125 million telematics deal with United Arab Emirates. And in 2006, it began partnering with manufacturer Magna Electronics to develop smart car parts.
Appliance manufacturer Whirlpool has received $19.3 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding as part of its Smart Grid Investment Grant program, the company announced Thursday.
Whirlpool, which markets appliances under the brand names Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Brastemp, Consul, and Bauknecht, joins General Electric in what seems to be a quest for designing the most well-behaved appliances.
The Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer is part of the company's 2009 line of eco-efficient laundry appliances. With Department of Energy funds, it plans to have a million smart-grid-compliant dryers ready for sale by 2011.
(Credit: Whirlpool)Similar to GE's smart-appliance ambitions, Whirlpool plans to develop home appliances that can connect and communicate with municipal smart grids. The machines will be able to receive signals from a smart grid, letting it know of off-peak hours, a good time to turn on and run.
Whirlpool, which will get its funding over a two-year period, plans to match the funds in order to have a million smart-grid-compatible dryers available for public purchase by 2011. The smart dryers will be manufactured in the United States, and the company estimates that the dryers could save consumers $20 to $40 per year in energy savings.
In addition to the smart dryers, Whirlpool has pledged that by 2015, it will discontinue making appliances sans the ability to communicate with smart grids. It will no longer make "dumb" appliances at all.
That promise, however, is dependent on a few things happening.
"This commitment is dependent on two important public-private partnerships: the development by the end of 2010 of an open, global standard for transmitting signals to, and receiving signals from, a home appliance; and appropriate policies that reward consumers, manufacturers, and utilities for using and adding these new peak-demand reduction capabilities," Whirlpool said in a statement.
Whirlpool's announcement follows President Obama's release this week of plans to overhaul the country's electrical grid to turn it into a smart-grid system. An estimated $8.1 billion is planned to be spent on 100 smart-grid projects in 49 states. Utilities themselves will kick in $4.7 billion, while the remaining $3.4 billion will come from the U.S. government as stimulus money.
Data on third-quarter venture capital shows that green-technology companies are attracting dollars from both investors and government programs.
Ernst & Young on Thursday said that venture investing in green tech rose 46 percent compared to the prior quarter to total $965 million in 50 deals. Solar, auto, green buildings, and biofuels continue to be fast-growing segments within the overall category, according to the Ernst & Young analysis of data from Dow Jones VentureSource.
The numbers show that companies shipping products are garnering more money and that a mix of investors, including private equity firms and corporations, are increasingly part of the picture. Because energy-related businesses are expensive to scale up, venture capital companies need to invest with large corporations, such as GE and Siemens, or late-stage equity companies.
Money from the federal government stimulus program is starting to be disbursed which is also aiding new green-tech companies. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy announced $3.4 billion worth of grants for smart-grid programs. The money is aimed primarily at utilities, but they then contract with smart-grid companies such as meter manufacturers or software providers which do in-home energy management systems.
Another large program is $2.4 billion in grants to promote plug-in electric-vehicle battery manufacturing. New Energy Finance estimates that $9.5 billion in stimulus money has been already spent and that government money will continue to enter the market for two more years.
These programs, including state-level efficiency mandates and ARPA-E research grants, add to the confidence in the overall market, according to Ernst and Young.
Investors and entrepreneurs are also keeping an eye on an energy and climate bill which is now being debated in Congress. One of the key pieces of the bill is a cap and trade system for regulating greenhouse gases. Under this system, large polluters, such as utilities, have a certain number of permits to emit carbon dioxide. To stay under a government-set cap, they can buy and trade these permits.
A survey by law firm Cooley Godward Kronish of green-tech executives found that 80 percent believe that cap and trade would help the U.S. economy. But investors and entrepreneurs are not expecting passage to affect business plans in the short term, according to the survey which was released on Tuesday.
The U.S. electricity grid will get a 21st century upgrade, including installation of millions of smart meters, through a government-led program.
The Obama administration is scheduled to announce Tuesday where it is spending $3.4 billion of stimulus money on 100 smart-grid projects in 49 states. As part of the funding, utilities are contributing $4.7 billion to the projects, pushing the total spending to $8.1 billion.
The injection of capital in the grid will make electricity delivery more reliable and help consumers use energy more efficiently, Carol Browner, the president's assistant on energy and climate change, said during a call with the media Monday night. Improving the infrastructure will also allow the country to use more solar and wind power, she said.
President Obama is scheduled to detail the smart-grid program awards in Arcadia, Fla., the location of one of the largest solar farms in the U.S.
The smart grid covers a range of digital devices and software. The bulk of the smart-grid stimulus grants will be spent on installing new hardware, including 18 million smart meters that have two-way communications to convey information between a home or business and the utility.
Smart meters can be used to shift the electricity load, such as running clothes driers or dishwashers, to off-peak times, which means that expensive and polluting auxiliary power plants may not need to be turned on.
The funding will also result in the installation of 200,000 more reliable advanced transformers and 700 automated substations that will be converted to digital controls, Matt Rogers, senior adviser for Recovery Act implementation at the Department of Energy, said Monday.
In addition to smart meters, over 1 million consumers will get in-home displays to provide information on electricity usage in real time and allow them to program their big appliances. The projects are expected to lead to over 130,000 network-connected thermostats as well, according to the DOE.
The DOE anticipates that the initial 18 million smart meters, which will cover 13 percent of homes, will allow utilities to use the grid more efficiently. That will lead to a higher penetration of advanced meters--as many as 40 million in the next few years, Rogers said.
The giant digital upgrade--anticipated for months--was applauded by companies trying to capitalize on grid modernization efforts, such as Cisco Systems, meter manufacturers, and a raft of start-ups that sell software or devices for the smart grid.
"These grants are an important down payment on building a smarter grid and will certainly jump-start both industry and state regulators to deploy smart-grid technologies," Katherine Hamilton, president of industry advocacy group GridWise Alliance, said in a statement.
The largest grants are $200 million while the smallest are less than $10 million. Altogether, there are 25 large-scale projects and 75 smaller ones, officials said. There were 400 applications for funding.
A list of projects by category can be found here and by state here. A map of the awarded projects can be found here.
The Department of Energy on Monday named the first winners of a program aimed at generating breakthroughs in clean-energy technologies.
The program, called Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), began taking applications earlier this year for research ideas that reduce imports of foreign fuel, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy efficiency. Funding for the agency is part of the Obama administration's goal to improve the economic competitiveness of the U.S. by investing in energy technology.
The DOE is awarding $151 million in 37 grants to both academics and green-tech companies, most of which are start-ups. The ideas are meant to be high-risk and high-reward, with a number not expected to meet their goals.
Authority to create the agency, roughly modeled on the DARPA defense program that spawned the space race, happened in 2007 but it wasn't funded until earlier this year. ARPA-E now has authority to fund as much as $400 million in research. A second tranche of grant awardees is scheduled to be announced later this fall.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)The naming of ARPA-E grants is being closed watched in the green-tech start-up community and among researchers. There were 3,600 concept papers submitted, followed by 300 full applications and ultimately 37 awardees.
One awardee is an effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to make an all-liquid battery, which would make storage of storage of solar and wind power more cost effective.
Another is funding for a bioreactor developed by the University of Minnesota that proposes using two microorganisms to make a vehicle fuel. One bacteria would convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into a sugar, and another would convert the sugar into a fuel.
Two other efforts include developing enzymes that would more effectively capture carbon dioxide from power plants and a low-cost material for making LED lighting. The full list of awardees is at the ARPA-E site (click for PDF).
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled to speak at Google Monday morning in Google to make an announcement, after which Google CEO Eric Schmidt will speak with Chu. Through its philanthropic arm Google.org, Google has invested in a number of renewable energy companies. It has also developed Web-based energy monitoring software for consumers.
A standard for a universal phone charger was approved this week by the International Telecommunication Union, a branch of the United Nations.
Side by side view of a Micro-USB connector and a regular USB connector.
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)The Universal Charging Solution will enable the creation of one-size-fits-all chargers that can be used on any future phone, according to the ITU.
The standard is based on input from the GSM Association, which expects the shift to eliminate 51,000 tons of redundant chargers, or 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
Based on Micro-USB, the new chargers will also be energy efficient.
"Universal chargers are a common-sense solution that I look forward to seeing in other areas," Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU's telecommunication standardization bureau, said in a statement.
Manufacturers are not required to adopt the new chargers, but some have already signed up, such as Sony Ericsson, according to the BBC.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--President Barack Obama on Friday called on the U.S. Congress to pass energy-and-climate legislation, a move he said would stimulate technology innovation and improve the economic competitiveness of the United States.
Obama delivered a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here after touring student laboratories and before attending a fund-raiser for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
President Obama speaking on clean energy at MIT on Friday.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)A "comprehensive" energy-and-climate bill will address both environmental and economic problems, Obama said. Countries around the world recognize that energy supplies are limited while demand is rising. That situation is giving rise to a "peaceful competition" among countries to develop clean-energy technologies that "will propel the 21st century."
"There are going to be all sorts of debate both in (the) laboratory and on Capital Hill, but there is no question that we have to do these things," he said. "The nation that wins that competition will be the nation to lead the global economy. I'm convinced of that, and I want America to be that nation."
Obama urged Congress to pass an energy-and-climate bill the Senate is now considering, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. He specifically praised the bill co-sponsor Democratic Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who was present at the talk, and Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham. The senators co-wrote an editorial in the New York Times earlier this month outlining the main components of a desired bill, which was seen as a key step toward passage.
The House bill, which narrowly passed in May, includes a national mandate for utilities to use renewable energy and a cap-and-trade system in which large polluters can buy and sell permits for carbon dioxide emissions.
The president did not weigh into the details of the existing bills, but he did outline the contours of an energy policy that reduces the country's reliance on fossil fuels while making better use of natural resources.
The ingredients of energy policy should include clean use of coal, oil, and natural gas; "safe nuclear power;" sustainably grown biofuels; and energy from wind, solar, and wave power, Obama said.
"It is a transformation that will be made as swiftly and carefully as possible, to ensure we are doing everything we can to grow this economy in the short, medium, and long term. And I do believe that a consensus is growing to achieve exactly that," he said.
Obama said the Pentagon and energy security hawks are stepping up efforts to reduce oil imports while businesses and environmentalists are working together. Young people, too, view energy-and-climate as the challenge of their generation, he added.
"We are seeing a convergence. The naysayers, the folks (who) would pretend this is not an issue--they are being marginalized," Obama said.
He said key pieces of the Senate bill have been approved in various committees but he warned that opposition to passing an energy-and-climate bill will increase as passage gets closer.
There were about 700 people at the MIT talk, including a number of local green-technology entrepreneurs, investors, and students at the university, which has become a hotbed for energy science and technology research.
Solar incentives seem to be working to both increase the number of solar installations in the U.S. and bring down the initial cost, according to a report released Wednesday by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"Findings...show that, after a three-year plateau, costs decreased by 3.6 percent from 2007 to 2008, marking a pivotal year for the American solar industry," said the report (PDF).
Broken down into real 2008 dollars, the report estimated that the actual cost of installing photovoltaic solar systems--excluding tax credits or financial incentives--was $10.80 per watt in 1998 versus $7.50 per watt in 2008.
That initial cost to the installer dropped significantly once incentives and tax credits were factored in.
Last year, the average cost of installation was $2.80 per watt for residential photovoltaic, when incentives and tax credits are counted, and $4.00 per watt for commercial.
The report attributed rising fuel prices since 1998 and government incentives for alternative energy to the solar market boom. There has been a significant increase in photovoltaic installations in the U.S. since 2007. Of the 566 megawatts of solar added to the U.S. grid since 1998, an estimated 293 megawatts of photovoltaic were added in 2008 alone. That recent uptick was attributed in part to "more lucrative" federal investment tax credits adopted for commercial photovoltaic systems in 2006.
If that figure of 566 megawatts seems low given the plethora of solar installation announcements from private and public organizations over the past few years, keep in mind these figures are for grid-connected systems only.
The report data evaluated the cost outlay for 52,000 residential and commercial installations, about 71 percent of all the grid-connected photovoltaic systems that were installed in the U.S. between 1998 and 2009. The report data did not include cost outlay for those residential or commercial systems operating off the grid.
But the report did include outside data for comparison of markets.
It showed that the recent growing popularity of solar is not just a U.S. phenomenon. About 5,948 megawatts of photovoltaic were installed globally in 2008 compared to 2,826 megawatts in 2007. Spain was the largest photovoltaic market in terms of installation in 2008, followed by Germany and then the U.S., according to the report.
Undoubtedly, the global installation figure will increase even more dramatically in the coming years. China alone has announced plans for large-scale photovoltaic installations ranging from 500 megawatts in Baotou, Inner Mongolia to 2,000 megawatts in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. In the U.S., First Solar has been given rights to develop a 550-megawatt plant in California.
Automakers are expected to agree this week to use the SAE J1772 five-pin charging system and coupler as the standard connection for plug-in vehicles.
(Credit: SAE International)The Society of Automotive Engineers International, the organization that sets the standard for aerospace and automotive industry technology, will vote this week to make the SAE J1772 charging system and coupler the standard connection for plug-in vehicles, according to a General Motors executive.
Britta Gross, director of GM's Global Energy Systems, shared the news during a live Web chat at GM's Fastlane blog on Tuesday evening.
"As Jon Lauckner said this morning, the Volt comes with a 120-V charger and if you can find a normal outlet, you can charge the Volt," Gross said.
She went on to add that all major automakers will eventually equip cars with the same charging coupler when their respective plug-in cars in the pipeline reach the consumer market because a standard agreement was being reached.
"Yes, GM's Gery Kissel is chair of the SAE J1772 standards committee. The standard is going to a vote this week after two and a half years of work. All major automakers are expected to agree to adhere to these charging standards. All infrastructure that goes in from now on should be J1772 compliant so all plug-in vehicles can use it," Gross said.
Gross is referring to the SAE J1772 or SAE electric vehicle conductive charging cable and coupler which has five pins and can be used with 120V or 240 V single phase electrical systems.
The agreement would allow charging stations throughout the world to plug in to any standard plug-in vehicle in the same way nozzles at gas stations are standardized to fit gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, respectively.
