The Solar Factory in Your Garden
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
These days the efficiency of solar technology is improving at a dizzying rate; newspapers and websites are filled with daily reports about novel approaches and applications that are helping to make solar power a practical large-scale energy source. One new approach gets its inspiration from the plant kingdom.
The majority of plants utilize photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy, and do so at nearly 100% efficiency. New research sheds a fascinating light on the process by which this is accomplished.
Conventional wisdom has long held that light-collecting chromophores absorb and then transfer energy in a linear manner, passing energy from molecule to molecule, sort of like a biochemical assembly line. New studies, however, reveal a radically different process, with potentially seismic implications for solar technology. Instead, energy flow appears to adopt a wave-like motion along all paths at once, arriving at its destination almost instantaneously and ensuring that this energy takes the most efficient route. Researchers are not yet sure how plants accomplish this, but greater understanding of this quantum-like effect could be applied to improvements in the process by which photovoltaics gather and distribute energy, especially regarding issues about the feasibility of solar over a large-scale network.
Scientists at the University of Chicago are investigating this process by zapping green sulfur bacteria with ultrashort laser pulses to track the energy flow through the plant’s internal system. I anticipate that future steps of this investigation will look at the same process in more complex plants.
Posted in Energy, Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Sustainability, Technology | Permalink
Solar Coming Soon(er)?
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Our solar-powered future may arrive sooner than anticipated, according to recent comments by solar pioneer and visionary Ray Kurzweil.
Kurzweil, as part of a panel convened by the National Association of Engineers to address 14 “grand challenges of the 21st century”, believes that solar power will be cost-competitive with fossil fuels within 20 years, much sooner than pundits and industry insiders anticipate. It will also become efficient and feasible enough to fulfill nearly all of our energy needs within that time, if not sooner. “We also see an exponential progression in the use of solar power,” reported Kurzweil. “It is doubling now every two years… At that rate, we’ll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in twenty years.” He adds that, due to revolutionary new processes and materials such as nano-engineered fuel cells and solar concentrators constructed from parabolic mirrors, the panel is “confident that we are not that far away from a tipping point where energy from solar will be competitive with fossil fuels,” possibly within the next five years.
For more information about the panel and their list of the grand challenges facing us in the near future, please click here. See also the summary of the panel’s findings on solar on the National Association of Engineer’s website.
Posted in Energy, Energy Efficiency, Photovoltaics, Technology | Permalink
Two Strikes Against Corn
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Few agricultural markets in the U.S. are currently more robust than the corn market; even with prices at their highest point in a decade (reaching $4 a bushel in 2007), already generous federal subsidies to corn farmers are set to increase to $10.5 billion over the next five years, thanks to a bill recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Another bill passed by the Senate would double the federal mandate for corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel source, also music to corn farmers’ ears.
But don’t go investing in corn futures just yet. Two recent news articles report findings that may limit the market’s long-term viability. One article combines the results of two reports that suggest that corn-based ethanol may increase rather than lower greenhouse gas emissions. While previous reports had reached a similar conclusion concerning corn’s efficiency when converted into biofuel, these new studies focus on other by-products of this latest corn craze — the replacement of soy fields with corn in the U.S. is leading to higher food prices and the clearing of Amazonian rain forests to plant more soy. This land conversion is creating an even greater carbon debt than that produced by standard fossil fuel consumption. According to one study, “Corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20-percent savings [in greenhouse gas emissions], nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years… We can’t get to a result with corn ethanol where we can generate greenhouse gas benefits.”
The other by-product of this increase in the production of ethanol created from food crops such as corn — a decline in global food supply and a subsequent increase in food prices — adversely affects millions of people in developing countries. According to ecologist David Tilman, coauthor of one of the studies, “We are converting their food into fuel. The typical driver of an SUV spends as much on fuel in a month as the poorer third of the world spend on food.”
In an unrelated development, France has just announced that it will halt the use of genetically-modified corn while it awaits the EU’s decision regarding a full ban. While this decision is most certainly intended to address concerns about the long-term effects of the consumption of bioengineered crops, not to mention the possibility of cross-fertilization with wild crop strains, it will no doubt affect the price and supply of corn as a cheap (albeit inefficient) fuel substitute, especially when one considers that most industry experts believe that genetic engineering may be the best way to increase the fuel conversion efficiency of corn and other low-cellulose crops.
One thing that seems all too clear is that, unless an informed public takes action, pork-barrel politics may regrettably get in the way of even such a seemingly progressive step as the development of efficient biofuels.
Posted in Biofuel, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Food, Global Warming, Legislation, Sustainability, Technology | Permalink
Future Now (but only in California.)
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
What has 3 wheels, pull-up doors, and gets 330 miles per gallon?
No, that’s not a typo. The super-cool plug-in hybrid Aptera gets more than 10 times the gas mileage of the average new car. Its lightweight, ultra-aerodynamic design and super-luxe interior with room for 2 adults plus luggage and surfboards make it one of the most exciting contenders for the Automotive X Prize, a $10 million grant awarded by the X Foundation to the company that can develop a low-carbon, 100+ mpg car that can be put into production quickly.
While it may look like a prop car from Woody Allen’s Sleeper, the Aptera is actually being put into production now. Californians can log on to Aptera’s website and reserve one for a $500 deposit (ultimate retail price: $25,000 and change.) With 3 wheels, the Aptera is officially classed as a motorcycle, but it packs all the safety features of a conventional full-size car, including air bags. (more…)
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Products, Transportation | Permalink
Another Approach to Solar Storage
Friday, January 11th, 2008
Plants have this whole solar thing down.
They use the sun’s rays to convert water into energy by breaking its chemical bonds, storing the excess as sugar for later use when sunlight may not be available. Sounds simple - water is relatively easy to split into its constituent elements oxygen and hydrogen via electrolysis - but until now cost-effectiveness and storage have remained hurdles for researchers hoping to emulate the photosynthetic process. If it could be produced cheaply enough, hydrogen could become a viable replacement for fossil fuels. Current electrolytic techniques use prohibitively expensive platinum as a catalyst, however, as do the fuel cells in which the hydrogen is stored and reconverted. Now two MIT researchers have developed a more affordable method.
Matthew Kanan and Daniel Nocera have found that, by substituting much cheaper cobalt and phosphates for platinum and running a mild electrical current through the solution via a glass electrode, they could extract oxygen from water in a similar manner. The excess protons left behind during oxygen formation migrate to a second electrode - still typically platinum - and assemble into hydrogen molecules as they pair with available electrons. This hydrogen could then be stored in fuel cells until it is needed. This means that photovoltaic panels could be used both to generate energy for immediate use and create excess energy for storage in the form of hydrogen. Nocera believes that, within ten years, cobalt-based reactions could be combined with pV arrays to power most homes and buildings.
Posted in Energy, Energy Efficiency, Photovoltaics, Renewables, Sustainability, Technology | Permalink
Environmentalism + Biotechnology = Strange Bedfellows
Friday, December 21st, 2007
According to most recent accounts in the press, ethanol is going through a PR crisis. These days the alternative fuel is hardly seen as the clean solution to our fuel problems, as originally touted. It’s apparently not as environmentally friendly as initial reports indicated, and it’s grossly inefficient. The energy-intensive methods needed to extract ethanol from targeted crops such as corn, sugar, soybean and switchgrass produce greenhouse gas emissions at only slightly lower rates than the direct consumption of traditional fossil fuels, though this debate is far from settled; in addition, the allocation of agricultural resources to the production of ethanol-suitable crops has raised a plethora of concerns, ranging from potential food shortage to inefficient land use to excessive fertilizer run-off.
Biotech could change that. According to an article published in a recent issue of the New York Times science supplement, genetic engineers at various public and private institutions are racing to create strains of ethanol-friendly trees. “Treethanol” is seen by many as a significantly more efficient — and controversial — version of ethanol. Given their relatively high amounts of cellulose — the key component for ethanol production — trees seem like a natural resource toward this end. But the lignins that give wood its structure and composition prevent scientists from efficiently tapping this high cellulosity. The obvious solution, according to industry scientists, is to bioengineer trees with lower amounts of lignins. While the genetic pathways by which this could be accomplished are well understood and easily modified, the criticism aimed at these efforts is no less acute than that leveled at other forms of ethanol; the range of concerns includes familiar issues such as the vast amounts of land that will need to be allocated to grow transgenic trees, as well as newer issues such as the admixture of modifed genes with those from wild strains in natural populations and the possibility of unwittingly creating entire forests of structurally unstable trees. While these concerns are very real, as cases of gene mixing between bioengineered and natural crops abound, research is currently thriving; the Energy Department recently granted $1.4 million over three years to a team of Purdue researchers experimenting with lignin reduction.
The Economist published a similar article back in March. Click here to read.
Sources: “”Through Genetics, Tapping a Tree’s Potential as a Source of Energy”, The New York Times; Producing Ethanol from Trees”, The Economist; “The Debate on Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Impacts of Fuel Ethanol”, Center for Transportation Research - Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory; “Biological Containment”, www.answers.com.
Posted in Biofuel, Energy Efficiency, Global Warming | Permalink
The Brooklyn Bridge Goes Green, and Not Just for the Holidays!
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
With support from the city council, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday his energy conservation plan for all city owned buildings and operations to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 30% over the next ten years. The short term action plan include 132 improvements, one of which is replacing the Brooklyn Bridge’s 100-watt mercury vapor lamps that make up its necklace lighting with 24-watt LED lamps. Other improvements include replacing approximately 25,000 street lights with more efficient bulbs, replacing NYPD’s and FDNY’s emergency response vehicles with hybrids, and upgrading some of the city’s aging heating and cooling systems.
Watch Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference announcement here.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Legislation, New York City, Politics | Permalink
Power Users
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Electronics are definitely the ‘it’ gift this holiday season–one of Amazon’s featured gifts for preschoolers is a frog with a keyboard on it. But there are many ways to get great gifts while keeping other things in mind.
All video game consoles are not created equal. Nintendo was recently castigated by Greenpeace for their lack of transparency on toxics and recycling, which took Nintendo by surprise. But their Wii game console uses only 17w of power–roughly 10x less than the other two hot consoles the PS3 and the Xbox 360, which both use close to 200w. If you are shopping for your first console, consider a last-gen device like the PS2 or GameCube, which both use less than 30w, and will be cheap and have lots of games available.
In the market for a new TV? LCD screens, in general, use almost 70% less energy than their tube counterparts. Plasma TVs use a bit more, and rear-projection TVs used the least. But some used way more vampire current than others. A Sharp TV set used a whopping 72w in standby mode. Check out this CNET chart for different models.
“Laptops use half the energy–and are twice the fun,” boasts a ConEdison subway ad. Laptops are designed to use much less power because they must be able to run on a battery. But new laptops (which have been outselling desktops since 2006) have capabilities similar to a desktop–without the power consumption. A new laptop will use around 45w, compared with 200w for a speedy desktop.
And as always, recycle and freecycle any old electronics that are taking up space in your apartment.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Recycling | Permalink
Graphic Design as Treehugging
Monday, November 12th, 2007Below is an entry from the “Love Your Earth” competition from Design Boom.
Pretty neato right?
More images here
Posted in Art, Education, Energy, Energy Efficiency | Permalink
The Hover Train:Put Some Wings On That
Friday, November 9th, 2007
Some of you may remember the maglev trains from a few years back, and while they are still here, the electricity required to run the magnets to make the train levitate is enormous. But a group of researchers at a Japanese University have tried to create a similar effect by putting small wings on the train instead. It looks like a sort of “flying train” and would use lift properties similar to an airplane (Bernoulli’s principle for you fellow dorks).
To add to the sustainable influence of the design, solar panels are installed right along the track of the prototype model.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Transportation | Permalink
