Nissan Plans All-Electric Car for 2010
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Speaking at a press conference in Portugal last week, Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault and Nissan, announced ambitious plans to introduce a battery-powered car for the mainstream American automobile market by 2010 and a complete range of affordable electric vehicles for global launch by 2012. This announcement follows on the heels of another just-unveiled initiative by Renault-Nissan, in partnership with the Silicon Valley venture Project Better Place, to introduce all-electric cars and a network of charging points throughout Denmark and Israel by 2011. Through such bold endeavors, Ghosn is clearly positioning Renault-Nissan to corner the market in “affordable zero-emission vehicles”. Although the company is investing in the production of both parallel and plug-in hybrids as well as hydrogen-powered automobiles, it clearly favors the all-electric approach for large-scale retail markets; Nissan plans to offer its first electric model to the public for around $25,000. According to Ghosn, except for the batteries, the technology is already in place for such a democratic endeavor. But with rapid improvements being made in lithium-ion batteries and massive investment from Nissan as well as other companies, practical and affordable battery technology is simply a matter of time.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Technology, Transportation | Permalink
Storing Solar Energy May Not Be Such a Problem After All
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
An article in this week’s Science Times offers an intriguing glimpse of the potential of solar thermal, a form of renewable energy generation that, while not nearly as hyped as PV solar, may ultimately be more feasible for large-scale energy production.
One of the biggest issues with photovoltaic (PV) technology (i.e. - solar panels) has been how to store the energy once it’s generated to meet demand during times of low production, such as at night or on cloudy days. Solar thermal systems avoid this problem because they rely on generating energy from the sun’s heat, which can be more easily stored than the sunlight-generated energy of PV systems. At the core of solar thermal is a surprisingly simple concept: the sun’s rays are used to boil water, which then generates steam to power turbines. The energy is then stored in tanks of molten salt, which can reach about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit without becoming too pressurized. This allows the energy to be stored for hours, even days, until it is needed. Most current systems achieve this by focusing a field of hundreds to thousands of specially designed lenses on a large water tank or pipe system, then pumping the resulting heat through a closed loop consisting of hot and cold salt tanks, a steam generator and a turbine.
“Nevada Solar One”, the 64 MW Acciona power plant which opened in Boulder City last year and was featured on this very blog just last month, is one such system. The largest solar power plant to be built around the world in the past sixteen years, Nevada Solar One can produce enough energy to power 15,000 households. Now other visionary companies are experimenting with variations of this basic design to further improve efficiency.
Proponents of solar thermal boast other benefits, as well, including greater potential at higher latitudes and other places that don’t get much sun and its greater affordability; solar thermal systems based on a parabolic trough design produce energy at a rate that is 50-75% cheaper than its PV equivalent. As these technologies develop further, different niches may emerge for each. While PV panels may ultimately become the industry standard for individual home-owners and relatively small, off-the-grid systems, solar thermal’s double-barreled promise of storage and price make it a strong candidate for that clean, large-scale power source we’ve all been clamoring for.
Posted in Energy, Technology | Permalink
New Capacitor Technology Could Lead to Even Cleaner Cars
Friday, April 4th, 2008
At this year’s Detroit auto show back in January, the AFS Trinity Power Corporation opened some eyes with its XH-150, an automobile prototype that uses more efficient ultracapacitor technology to store energy. Even with continued improvements in lithium-ion battery efficiency and storage, this latest development could be the most significant revolution yet for the hybrid car industry.
A three-way hybrid, the XH-150 adds these more efficient capacitors to the standard battery-and-gas-engine dual-system set-up found in most commercially available hybrids. This new wrinkle allows a vehicle to accelerate more quickly, as well as recharge and discharge electricity more quickly, than with a battery. Industry insiders believe that, as the capacitor technology progresses, it may even replace batteries entirely.
Even in their conventional form, capacitors supply energy more quickly than batteries, but are only able to achieve a fraction of the storage capability. The new ultracapacitors combine the best of each technology; they are able to store more energy because they don’t simply rely on static charges the way conventional capacitors do. They also make use of ionic flow and an electrolytic medium much like batteries, but do so without resorting to the slower electrochemical reaction that normally facilitates this process. This is achieved in part by increasing the surface area of the electrodes without increasing volume, a tricky process that engineers are finally beginning to control through nanotechnology. Other alternate approaches utilize new insulating materials such as barium titanate, eschewing increased surface area for higher electric potential.
The result, in the case of the XH-150, is a hybrid vehicle that will be capable of up to 80 mph and 150 mpg in normal use (as opposed to around 50 mph and 100 mpg for regular hybrids), and an all-electric range of 40 miles before the gasoline engine kicks in (400 miles on both electric and gas). The use of ultracapacitors also means it can be charged much more quickly than current electric vehicles, thereby increasing their range even more, since the possibility of convenient electric “refueling” will further reduce the need to make use of conventional fuel.
Ultracapacitors may not be the final word in the hybrid revolution, as battery technology is also improving by leaps and bounds. The ensuing competition between technologies will pose an embarrassment of wealth that the burgeoning industry will eventually need to resolve. But what a great problem to have!
Posted in Technology, Transportation | Permalink
Acciona Unveils New CSP Power Plant
Friday, March 21st, 2008
Las Vegas is known for many things, but cutting-edge solar technology has never been one of them. Until recently, that is. Just a few miles outside of Las Vegas sits a prototype 64MW power plant called “Nevada Solar One“. Though its official opening was held on February 22, the plant has been up and running since last June and can generate enough energy to power more than 14,000 homes. In effect, Nevada Solar One uses a combination of solar and steam to operate; this technology, known as “concentrating solar power” (CSP), generates electricity by using the sun’s rays to boil water and the resulting steam to power turbines. If successful, CSP could revolutionize the energy industry.
The brainchild of Acciona SA, a Spanish conglomerate that specializes in civil engineering, construction and infrastructures, Nevada Solar One uses parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight on a tube of fluid above them. Other CSP plants, including an 11MW facility that opened in Spain last year, utilize different designs. The plant in Spain uses a dense array of smaller mirrors to focus light on a water tower at its center. Other variations use long, flat mirrors or devices that look like satellite dishes. Some even continue to provide power after the sun sets by storing energy in molten salt. CSP is also more cost-effective than traditional solar installation, in that it doesn’t rely on pricey and energy-intensive silicon panels.
CSP’s future clearly seems sunny. According to the SEIA, another 11,000MW worth of CSP plants are supposedly in the pipeline thanks to generous federal tax breaks that offset up to 45% of initial costs. If all goes according to plan, viable solar power may be right around the corner.
Posted in Energy, Energy Efficiency, Global Warming, Renewables, Technology | Permalink
Oceans Becoming More Acidic
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
By now you’ve probably heard most of the doomsday scenarios regarding global warming. Temperatures and sea levels are rising, glaciers and ice caps are melting, and shifting weather patterns are wreaking havoc with ways of life that have otherwise changed little for centuries. Climate change has been connected with everything from water-rights squabbles to failing crops to an increasing prevalence of malaria and dengue fever. Some scientists have speculated that these scenarios may be avoided by sequestering greenhouse gases in large bodies of water, but this short-sighted approach begs the question: what exactly are these emissions doing to our oceans?
“Ocean acidification” was a hot topic at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). According to researchers, our oceans have lower pH levels now than at any point in the last 40 million years, and at the present rate these levels will drop by another .3 units by the end of the century. This is due to the chemical reactions that result when carbon dioxide is dissolved in water, forming carbonic acid. Over the long term, this process could affect the food chain in significant ways. First, many organisms will not grow as large or will produce fewer offspring, as increased levels of CO2 render respiration and other physiological processes less efficient. Also, the absorption of greenhouse gases is likely to create dead-zones at some depths where the CO2-oxygen ratios are too low to support life. This is apparently already happening and is somewhat similar to the poisonous volcanic crater lakes that exist in central Africa, where high levels of CO2 and other gases are kept at the lake bottom due to water pressure — until something stirs up the water, leading to the release of noxious plumes that can have lethal, large-scale consequences, such as the 1700 people killed in Cameroon in 1986.
It is unlikely that the presence of such dead-zones in the oceans will present any significant danger to human populations, except in that such zones will lower the productivity of the ecosystem, affecting subsistence fishermen and others who rely on the sea for their sustenance and livelihood. But there is one more way in which ocean acidification could have serious consequences. Shellfish, coral and echinoderms may not be able to form their exoskeletons, as the calcium carbonate on which they depend dissolves during carbonic acid formation. One researcher referred to the massive volcanic explosions at the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago which caused oceanic pH levels to change suddenly, leading to the extinction of 90% of oceanic species, particularly those that make shells from calcium carbonate. Another researcher, looking into the combined effects of acidification and temperature increase, conducted experiments on purple sea urchins that replicated the ecological conditions that will exist in 2100 if emissions levels continue unabated. Her results indicated that the urchins had to work up to three times harder to create their shells, and that these shells were often deformed.
All this goes to show that you can’t simply shrug off greenhouse gases by pumping them underwater.
Posted in Art, Global Warming, Technology, Waste, Water | Permalink
FutureGen Already Past? (Clean Coal - The Sequel)
Friday, March 7th, 2008 Back in December, we posted a report about what was billed to be the world’s first zero-emissions coal-burning power plant - FutureGen - slated for operation by 2012 in Mattoon, Illinois (Click here to read the original post). FutureGen was intended to be the first large-scale energy production facility to utilize a new technology known as Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), a process by which carbon dioxide and the other impurities that result from the burning of coal are pumped and stored underground in porous rock strata and saline aquifers, thereby keeping harmful emissions from accumulating in the atmosphere.
Despite the apparently noble intent of this project, our initial report voiced some reservations. First, that CCS had not been adequately tested, with regard to both its large-scale feasibility and its lack of environmental impact (especially on groundwater and subterranean rock/mineral formations). Second, that massive cost overruns and delays were becoming an increasing burden to the project before ground had even been broken.
It now seems that those reservations may have been more than idle speculation. The Economist reported last month that FutureGen is, according to DOE parlance, being “restructured”. In their typically blunt fashion, the eminent policy journal translates this to mean “starting from scratch” (See “Up In Smoke”; Jan. 31, 2008). The DOE is now requesting more information on CCS from the private sector with an eye towards building several smaller plants based on the technology in place of Mattoon’s grand enterprise. This reconsideration was based partly on a March 2007 report issued by MIT suggesting the need for more extensive investigations into CCS and the adoption of less cumbersome federal legislation. The new plan pushes back the completion of the first wave of CCS power plants to 2015 and promises to “at least double the amount” of impurities sequestered. No one yet knows if Mattoon or a reincarnated FutureGen Alliance will be involved.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Legislation, Politics, Pollution, Technology | Permalink
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
Building a Stronger, Tougher Bollworm
Friday, February 15th, 2008
It was only a matter of time.
Every farmer and gardener knows by now that pesticides are a fool’s gold solution, increasing short-term yields at the expense of the long-term. So it should come as no surprise that insect pests are evolving resistance to genetically modified crops with built-in pesticides.
The results of a new study provide the first evidence of resistance to transgenic cotton crops, analyzing data from six different experiments conducted on various insect pests in GM crop fields in such disparate global locations as the U.S., Australia, China and Spain. The evolution of this transgenic resistance, however, has only been detected in bollworms in the cotton fields in Missouri and Arkansas.
Why only in these locations? Researchers speculate that the absence of “refuges” within these vast cotton fields may be at least partly to blame. These GM-free patches provide havens for pest populations where the intense selection pressures effected by transgenic crops are absent, slowing down the evolution of resistant populations in theory; by providing habitat for such non-resistant populations, the probability of mating between a resistant and non-resistant pest increases, thereby slowing the spread of resistant genes.
Ultimately, however, the presence of such refuges will not prevent the continued evolution of transgenic resistance; it will only momentarily slacken the rate at which such resistance develops. As the study asserts, the large-scale adoption of bioengineered crops has induced “one of the largest selections for insect resistance ever known.”
This spells eventual trouble for farmers of these crops and the populations that are dependent on them, as this manufactured defense against these tiny enemies of agriculture becomes less dependable. In addition to the more obvious repercussions, the cost of licensing GM crop seeds from companies such as Monsanto will become a greater burden, as harvest yields and their attendant profits begin to dwindle. What this could mean down the line is a potential wave of farm foreclosures similar to that faced by small-scale farmers around the world in recent years as a result of the battle over Monsanto’s Terminator and Roundup Ready seed technology, when proprietary strains often spread to fields sown with their traditional counterparts.
Posted in Food, 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
