Alternative Energy on EARTH Magazine

Geologic Column: Saving the World? Or Just Saving Money?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

It all started with a reporter.

I had just signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which pledges that my university will try to decrease its carbon footprint and develop a plan to become carbon neutral, when a reporter from the local newspaper challenged my personal credentials, my knowledge of and commitment to the environment. Forget my background as an earth scientist, the many years I taught environmental geology, the summers I worked at a conservation-education camp. He wanted to know what kind of car I drove.

A whale of a wind turbine

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Humpback whales flout conventional hydrodynamics by sporting 10 to 11 tubercle bumps along the front edge of their flippers. Christopher M. Keane

A Whalepower 'Tubercle Technology' turbine blade. Whalepower

According to conventional wisdom, things that need to move efficiently through air or water should be sleek and streamlined. Dolphins, jets and Olympic swimmers stick to this rule, but humpback whales, with their massive knobby-edged flippers, buck the trend.

Around the world in the Solar Taxi

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Swiss schoolteacher Louis Palmer stands beside his brainchild, the Solar Taxi (half car, half trailer bearing solar cells). Carolyn Gramling

There's really plenty of legroom. But no air conditioning. Carolyn Gramling

The car's interior. No frills, but fairly comfy. Carolyn Gramling

Nine square meters of solar cells, mounted on a trailer towed behind the car, power the battery. It's enough to keep the car rolling for 100 kilometers a day. Carolyn Gramling

The Solar Taxi gets under way. Carolyn Gramling

We can build it. We have the technology.

One thing you can say about the Solar Taxi is that it’s eye-catching. I showed pictures of it from a press conference Wednesday to my co-worker. “Hey, I saw that on the street this morning and wondered what it was,” she says. “That’s the solar car?”

As Green As It Gets: Algae Biofuels

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Vertical photobioreactors. Vertigro Images, per Valcent Products, Inc.

A scientist with the Department of Energy's Aquatic Species Program analyzes the oil content of microalgae in laboratory ponds. Warren Gretz, courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory

A scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory sudies how green algae can produce hydrogen directly from water and sunlight. Combined with water in a fuel cell, the hydrogen produces clean energy. Jack Dempsey, courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory

In September 2008, Algenol signed an $850 million deal with Mexico-based BioFields to grow algae in the Sonoran Desert. Algenol

Sapphire Energy unveiled its 'green crude' over the summer of 2008. Sapphire Energy

One way to grow a lot of algae: Go up. Valcent Products CEO Glen Kertz displays his company's vertical photobioreactors in El Paso, Texas. Vertigro Images, per Valcent Products, Inc.

Instead of squeezing algae and collecting their oil, Algenol is trying to engineer the algae to produce ethanol directly. Algenol

It’s hard to think of a humbler organism than algae, or a less-likely prospect to become savior of our energy future. “Algae fuel” does not conjure up images of power, big business or high-tech gadgetry; it suggests a modest picture of a murky pond covered by a greasy, greenish film. But unassuming algae, some researchers think, have the potential to become the ultimate in “green” fuel, powering everything from cars to jets — and perhaps putting an end to one of the more bitter battles in the biofuels industry: the “food versus fuel” debate over how best to use arable lands.

Bailout bill passes, extends renewable energy tax credits

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. government

The new legislation extends the production tax credit for wind energy for one year, and for solar, biomass and hydropower for two years. It also includes tax credits for people who buy plug-in cars and includes an eight-year extension for investment tax credits for people to install small-scale wind equipment or solar energy equipment. As a result, some solar industry stocks are already on the rise.

Biofuels and food: Mutually exclusive?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Global energy demand is forecast to double by 2025. Fossil fuel supplies are finite and increasingly politicized and insecure. Yet viable alternative energy sources on the required global scale are lacking. In this context, major energy consumers, especially the United States and the European Union, are expanding their use of biofuels as one of the few sources of affordable and secure energy. Assuming this trend continues, biofuels will expand despite public concerns about the implied pressure on food prices and expansion of agriculture into environmentally sensitive areas like rainforests. The biofuels genie is out of the bottle and here to stay, and it is now just a question of how fast and in what ways the industry will grow.

Dry dock to wet tap: Old ships become floating desalination plants

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Last year’s hurricane season was not kind to Haiti. First, tropical storms Fay, Gustav and Hanna hit the Caribbean nation; then Hurricane Ike pummeled the island, flooding much of the country, wrecking roads and bridges and leaving Haitians desperate for food, water and other basics. To help the battered country, the United States sent hundreds of metric tons of supplies and hygiene kits aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge. The Navy deployed helicopters, landing craft and personnel to help local residents. And they brought in thousands of gallons of freshwater.

Dye-ing for efficient solar power

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Special dyes painted onto glass window panes gather light and transport it to solar cells lining the edges of the panes, increasing solar energy efficiency. Donna Coveney

Solar energy is an abundant resource, but so far, solar panels have tended to be relatively expensive and less efficient than desired. Now researchers at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., may have solved both those problems by inventing a new inexpensive dye that works as a “solar concentrator” when painted on ordinary window panes. The dye gathers light energy over the entire surface of the window, then transports it out to the edge of the pane to a line of energy-collecting solar cells. This system reduces cost as solar cells are needed only around the edges of a pane (as opposed to a whole panel of cells), and early tests show the dyes may increase efficiency by as much as 50 percent, as the team, led by MIT professor Marc A. Baldo, reported July 11 in Nature.

Energy mission: "Kilowatt Ours"

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

In 'Kilowatt Ours,' filmmaker Jeff Barrie asks viewers to think harder about saving energy. Jeff Barrie

“What if every time you flipped a light switch, a mountain exploded in West Virginia?”

Energy's the hot topic this week on the Hill

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. government

UPDATE: The House energy bill, which will allow offshore drilling and gives states incentives by sharing the revenues from drilling leases with them, passed yesterday (Sept. 16). The Senate bill is still pending, but a vote is likely sometime this week.

GSA meeting: Biofuels vs. food - developing countries suffer most

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

HOUSTON – Perhaps it’s because the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting is being held in conjunction with the Soil Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America, or perhaps it’s because it has been a much-discussed topic this year, but biofuels are big at this meeting.

Highlights of 2010: Offshore wind in Texas and the curious case of Massachusetts

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The primary hurdles have finally been cleared to allow Cape Wind to put a wind farm similar to this one in Nantucket Sound. Siemens

Humans have harnessed wind energy throughout history for milling, pumping and transportation — in a way you could say it’s the “original” form of industrial energy. But only recently have we built massive, powerful turbines to convert that wind into electricity. As concerns about pollution, carbon emissions, resource depletion and energy security mount, wind farms are an increasingly attractive alternative for meeting growing energy demand.

Making electric grids smarter

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Digital Vision

The Smart House: Xcel Energy's Smart House would include a smart meter, applicances, thermostat, high-speed connections and a plug-in for a hybrid electric car. Xcel Energy

SmartGridCity customers can view energy savings, calculate hours of backup power and adjust temperature settings online. Xcel Energy

Plug-in electric hybrids can add energy back to the grid by storing energy during braking. Xcel Energy

Smart meters allow power companies and consumers to better monitor electrical usage. Adrian Pritchett

General Electric advertised its involvement in smart grid technology during the Superbowl, with a take-off on 'If I Only Had a Brain' from 'The Wizard of Oz.' GE

How information technology will make America's electrical system cleaner, more efficient and more reliable.

Val and Bud Peterson are passionate about saving electricity — a seemingly hard thing to pull off given their lifestyle. The couple lives in a 650-square-meter (7,000-square-foot) two-story house in the mountains, provided by Bud’s job as chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder. They regularly entertain. But to save energy, Val and Bud don’t subject their guests to a low-set thermostat. And they don’t freeze themselves once the party’s over. In fact, they’re as comfortably warm as ever — yet, recently, their electric bill decreased.

Raising bees and capturing rainwater: U.S. prisons go green

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The flagging economy may complicate federal aspirations for a green revolution, but at least one government entity has adopted the movement in stride: state prisons.

According to a recent report by the Associated Press, prisons across America now host the likes of compost heaps, organic gardens and solar panels in an attempt to save precious state budget money.

Sea sprawl: Into the blue frontier of ocean development

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Picture it: Dozens of kilometers off the coast of Texas, a giant polygon-shaped cage constructed of steel ribs and mesh netting floats 30 or so meters beneath the waves. The cage, moored to the seafloor, is filled with tens of thousands of teeming, silvery fish. Several kilometers away, offshore wind turbines sprout from the sea surface in a curving line, their spindly white arms churning the atmosphere. Still farther along the horizon, a massive oil platform squats heavily on four stumpy legs over its parcel of ocean, pipes plunging 11 kilometers into deep reservoirs within the seafloor. In the open waters between these industries, tankers and commercial fishermen follow snaking shipping lanes that lead them toward the coast.

Wal-Mart to use wind energy

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart’s reputation for cheap prices precedes it, but recently the retailer showed its greener side when it announced plans to supply 15 percent of its total energy load with wind power.

The energy will come from Texas wind farms constructed by Duke Energy, which will go online this spring, a Wal-Mart press release said.