San Onofre Wave Farm Idea Churns Up Concerns. By Tony Barboza, LATimes, 3/30/11. “The waves off San Onofre have for generations beckoned surfers and sport fishermen to a wild stretch of coastline in the shadow of domed nuclear reactors. Now, an Orange County entrepreneur wants to tap the power of that legendary surf in a novel but highly controversial plan to build one of the nation's first hydrokinetic wave farms. Federal energy regulators have given JD Products of Fountain Valley permission to begin a three-year study looking at the feasibility of installing thousands of ocean wave electricity generators a mile off San Onofre State Beach. The firm's general manager, Chong Hun Kim, said he chose the site because it is close to transmission lines that serve the San Onofre nuclear power plant…

“Environmental groups, which are broadly supportive of renewable energy projects, said putting the devices in the waters of San Onofre could harm marine life and potentially mar the view from the coastline. Surfers are worried it would dampen waves and alter seafloor terrain along a stretch of coast famed for its surf breaks. Sport-fishing groups said a wave farm could block off favored waters for sand bass, bonito and barracuda fishing.”

Renewing Support for Renewables. By Nancy Folbre, NYTimes, 3/28/11. “The biggest positive result of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi could be renewed public support for the development of renewable energy technologies. Many influential policy makers, including President Obama, continue to insist that we must expand nuclear power to help meet our energy needs. But plenty of experts disagree… renewable energy sources (including hydropower and biofuels) already account for almost the same share of total energy consumption in the United States as nuclear power… The cost per kilowatt hour of generating electricity from wind and solar power has declined steadily in recent years and is projected to decline further… The cost of nuclear power, by contrast, has increased, even without factoring in the huge social costs imposed by accidents... In Nuclear Power: Climate Fix or Folly, Amory Lovins, a physicist with the Rocky Mountain Institute, and two colleagues argued that expanded nuclear power does not represent a cost-effective solution to global warming and that investors would shun it were it not for generous government subsidies lubricated by intensive lobbying efforts…

“Can wind, water and solar power be scaled up in cost-effective ways to meet our energy demands, freeing us from dependence on both fossil fuels and nuclear power? Yes, they can, say two highly respected scientists, Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University and Mark A. Delucchi of the University of California, Davis. In 2009 they published A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables in Scientific American. The article persuasively addresses a number of concerns, such as the worldwide spatial footprint of wind turbines, the availability of scarce materials needed for manufacture of new systems, the ability to produce reliable energy on demand and the average cost per kilowatt hour. A more detailed and updated technical analysis can be found in a two-part article (see Part I [PDF, 16 pp] and Part II , [PDF, 21 pp] recently published in the journal Energy Policy)…

“The proven dangers of nuclear power amplify the economic risks of expanding reliance on it. Indeed, the stronger regulation and improved safety features for nuclear reactors called for in the wake of the Japanese disaster will almost certainly require costly provisions that may price it out of the market. The role of the market, however, is small relative to political battles over relative levels of subsidy to fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewable energy. While both the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries are dominated by large companies with considerable political clout, renewable energy is a more decentralized, small-business-oriented sector that often finds itself outmaneuvered on Capitol Hill.

“As Professors Jacobson and Delucchi put it, ‘The barriers to a 100% conversion to wind, water and solar power worldwide are primarily social and political, not technological or even economic.’”

~ Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Senate Democrats Approve Extension of Incentives for Renewables. By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters, 12/10/10. “The compromise tax package unveiled by Senate Democrats on Dec. 9 includes a one-year extension of a popular renewable energy grant program, which supporters say is vital for the clean energy sector. The potential extension of the program… allows solar, wind and other renewable companies to receive cash grants in lieu of tax credits.”

California's Clean-Tech Industry is Booming. By Tiffany Hsu, LATimes, 10/7/10. “The clean-tech industry is booming in California, with more money being invested in solar and other alternative energy start-ups than anywhere else in the world. But the state's dominant position is being threatened by competition from China and an upcoming ballot initiative [Proposition 23] that could undercut the industry's growth, according to two new studies unveiled Wednesday. So far, the state's green-tech industry, which includes electric vehicles, eco-friendly buildings and solar energy projects, has provided California with a much-needed economic boost… Clean-tech companies in Los Angeles and the Bay Area together employ about 20,000 manufacturing workers, according to the Next 10 study [2010 California Green Innovation Index, PDF, 72 pp], which was conducted by Collaborative Economics. Competition from overseas is also intensifying. China's green industry has lower labor costs, higher productivity and better incentives, according to Clean Edge Inc., a Portland, Ore., research firm that also released a report [Clean Tech Job Trends, 2010, PDF 29 pp] Wednesday [10/6/10].”

Can CO2 Be Turned Back Into Fuel? By David Biello, SciAmerica, September 23, 2010. "Turning CO2 into fuels is exactly what photosynthetic organisms have been doing for billions of years, although their fuels tend to be foods, like sugars. Now humans are trying to store the energy in sunlight by making a liquid fuel from CO2 and hydrogen."

Central America Taps Volcanoes for Electricity. By Sarah Grainger, Reuters, September 21, 2010. "Dotted with active volcanoes, Central America is seeking to tap its unique geography to produce green energy and cut dependence on oil imports as demand for electricity outstrips supply. Sitting above shifting tectonic plates in the Pacific basin known to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the region has huge potential for geothermal power generated by heat stored deep in the earth. Guatemala, Central America's biggest country, aims to produces 60% of its energy from geothermal and hydroelectric power by 2022. The government is offering tax breaks on equipment to set up geothermal plants and electricity regulators are requiring distributors buy greater proportions of clean energy.

"Run by Israeli-owned Ormat Technologies, the plant harnesses energy from water heated by chambers filled with molten rock deep beneath the ground. The company has been operating two plants in Guatemala for three years and wants to expand but is weighing the risks of drilling more costly exploratory wells… More than a fifth of El Salvador's energy needs come from two geothermal plants with installed capacity of 160 MW and investigations are being carried out to build a third. Costa Rica, which has 152 megawatts of capacity in four geothermal plants, is due to bring a fifth plant online in January 2011 and is looking into building two more. Nicaragua generates 66 MW from geothermal energy and in the next five years plans an increase to 166 MW."

Boom Times Back at Alberta's Oil Sands. By Sandro Contenta, GlobalPost, September 17, 2010. "The boom times are back at Alberta's oil sands. What environmentalists describe as one of the worst emitters of greenhouses gases on earth has shaken off the recession. Its massive oil extraction projects now employ 27,700 workers - 3% more than the previous peak in 2008. It's a sign that the United States' gluttonous appetite for the tar-like mix of bitumen and sand isn't expected to subside any time soon. America, after all, is pretty much the only client for what President Barack Obama's advisers once derided as Alberta's 'dirty' oil…

"It's no surprise, therefore, that when Nancy Pelosi visited Canada last week, lobbyists on both sides of the oil sands debate requested face time with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Pelosi obliged. Accompanying her was Congressman Edward Markey, the Democratic chair of the House energy and environment subcommittee. The backdrop to their meetings at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa is a growing battle on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. It pits those who see oil sands development as the biggest single source of new greenhouse gases against those who see it as a secure source of oil and high-paying jobs."

Getting 100 Miles a Gallon. By Joseph B. White, WSJournal, September 17, 2010. "Three teams of engineers won shares of a $10 million prize Thursday [September 16] in a contest to design a vehicle capable of traveling 100 miles on the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline. Among the exotic-looking vehicles that shared the Progressive Automotive Insurance X-Prize was the Very Light Car, winner in the 'mainstream' class. The four-passenger vehicle, developed by the Edison2 Team, achieved the equivalent of 102 miles per gallon. It weighs just 830 pounds and burns E-85 ethanol in a one-cylinder, 40-horsepower engine.

"The two other winning teams, which were awarded $2.5 million each at the ceremony in Washington, D.C., fielded even more exotic vehicles in what contest organizers called alternative classes. Li-Ion Motors Corp.'s Wave II, a battery-electric car designed to seat two people side by side, achieved the equivalent of 187 mpg. Li-Ion said the car can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 12 seconds and hit a top speed of 80 mph… The other prize winner was the E-Tracer, a two-wheel electric vehicle developed by a Swiss team. The vehicle looks like a large motorcycle with a wraparound body. The passenger sits behind the driver. The battery-powered E-Tracer has a small set of training wheels that fold out to stabilize the vehicle. Contest judges said it could get the gasoline equivalent of 205 mpg."

Shoppers 'Panic Buying' Old 75W Bulbs Before EU Ban Comes into Force. London Daily Telegraph, August 28, 2010. "Last year 100W incandescent light bulbs were outlawed, triggering the first wave of stockpiling by worried consumers who do not like the more expensive energy saving alternatives. Now it will be an offence to import or manufacture 75W bulbs, although shops can continue to sell the model until stocks run out. The European Lamp Companies Federation said shoppers around Europe are already snapping up the last remaining stocks."

Older Activists, Younger Crowd Team to Fight Nukes. By Melanie S. Welte, AP, August 28, 2010. "After years of believing they had won the fight against nuclear energy, activists suddenly feel the battle is starting all over again. And they're trying to figure out how to win in an era of Facebook and Twitter as well as get the younger generation involved in the movement... For one group in Georgia, it's the newer crop that really has brought those technological skills to the table and a passion to educate others via the Internet, said Glenn Carroll, the coordinator with Nuclear Watch South, which opposes the proposed reactors in Georgia... For many, the issue isn't as simple as it once was. Concerns about global warming have left several environmentalists unsure about what really is the 'green' side of the issue, and it's been more than 30 years since the last high-profile accident in the U.S. Some, like Patrick Moore, have simply changed their minds. He was once a leader in the anti-nuclear movement, and now he's co-chair of the Clean and Save Energy Coalition, which supports the expansion of nuclear power."

Green Energy Funds Not Getting Spent. By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, August 13, 2010."The recession is lingering, and so is the unspent stimulus money that was meant to help end it. The latest example is the $3.2 billion that Congress voted in February 2009 as part of an economic stimulus package to simultaneously provide jobs and improve energy efficiency through block grants to states and cities. Only about 8.45% of the money had been spent by the beginning of this month, according to an audit released on August 13 by the inspector general of the Energy Department, and it has produced or saved only about 2,300 jobs as of the second quarter of this year. The program was to provide money for the purchase of better lighting or heating and cooling equipment for buildings like city halls and schools. But it is off to the same slow start as a bigger program that was initiated at the same time to weatherize the homes of low-income people around the country. An audit of that program in February, also by the inspector general, found that only $368.2 million of $4.73 billion, or less than 8%, had been spent... The problems cited are similar to the ones reported with the weatherization grants: when Congress approved the program, the Energy Department did not have the regulations or the staff to process applications. Local governments lacked the staff to make applications or handle the money they received. And federal money comes with strings attached."

Mammoth Tidal Turbine Unveiled in Scotland. By John Collins Rudolf, NYTimes, August 13, 2010. "What is being described as the world's largest tidal power turbine was recently unveiled in Scotland. Dubbed the AK1000 by its developer, the Atlantis Resources Corporation, the one-megawatt turbine weighs 1,430 tons, stands nearly 75 feet tall and has six 60-foot diameter blades that can produce enough electricity to supply more than 1,000 homes. The turbine will be installed later this summer at the European Marine Energy Center in the far north of Scotland, where it will be used to power a computer data center... The allure of producing clean, reliable power from the daily in-and-out flux of the tides continues to attract significant investment. And Atlantis faces substantial competition in the race to develop affordable commercial-scale tide power, with dozens of other companies developing a variety of turbine designs... The majority of [the] turbines in operation are experimental prototypes deployed in Europe."

U.K.'s Largest Coal-Fired Power Plant Could Switch to Biomass Within 10 Years. By Tim Webb, Guardian (UK), August 3, 2010. "Drax, Britain's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, could stop burning coal by the end of the decade. Finance director Tony Quinlan said the company was looking to convert all six units of the coal-fired power station so they only burn biomass, such as wood chip, within the next 10 years... Greenpeace energy campaigner Joss Garman said: 'There's a serious question about whether it's sensible to use biomass in this way. While sustainable biomass is possible, the precious supplies available should be used in much smarter ways.'"

A Spanish Breakthrough in Harnessing Solar Power. By Richard Covington, Smithsonian, August 2010 issue. "Twenty miles west of Seville, the Solúcar solar farm, built by the company Abengoa, is part of Spain's push to produce more energy from renewable sources. The nation currently produces up to 3.65 gigawatts of power from the sun, second in the world after Germany. Those gigawatts make up about 3% of the country's power, the highest percentage in the world. (The United States generates less than 1% of its energy from the sun.)... The Solúcar farm is pioneering technologies that are being replicated in the United States, including concentrated solar power, or CSP... [which] deploys huge banks of mirrors to focus solar radiation... [which] drives steam turbines... 'If you want to be optimistic,' Tisdale [Reese Tisdale, solar research director for Emerging Energy Research in Cambridge] said, 'there could be as much as eight gigawatts supplied by solar power plants [in the United States] by 2025.' That would be enough to power a U.S. city of six million."

Growth in Wind Power Makes Life Difficult for Grid Managers in Northwest. By Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian, July 17, 2010. "On the afternoon of May 19, in a single chaotic hour, more than a thousand wind turbines in the Columbia River Gorge went from spinning lazily in the breeze to full throttle as a storm rolled east out of Hood River. Suddenly, almost two nuclear plants worth of extra power was sizzling down the lines -- the largest hourly spike in wind power the Northwest has ever experienced. At the Bonneville PowerAdministration's control room in Vancouver, it was too much of a good thing. More electricity than its customers needed. More than the available power lines could export from the region. And more than the grid could readily absorb by ramping down generation at the region's network of federal dams. So the edict went out: Feather your turbine blades; slash output…

The pace and geographic concentration of wind development, coupled with wild swings in its output, are overwhelming the region's electrical grid and outstripping its ability to use the power or send it elsewhere... The renewables explosion, and pressure to reduce carbon emissions, is forcing the transmission issue to center stage now… Only 15%nt of the electricity generated by wind farms in the Northwest goes to the public utilities that buy power directly from BPA, which sells power from federal dams in the Columbia Basin... That makes it BPA's job to balance their up-and-down output, blending it with other sources of power so total generation at any given time matches total demand -- a requirement to maintain grid reliability... In extreme situations, however, the agency continues to dump wind. At the current rate of wind development, says the BPA's Mainzer, the region's system of dams and power lines will start running into consistent operational problems around 2013, when wind in the agency's territory reaches total capacity of some 6,000 megawatts. Above and beyond that, he said, will require major structural changes."

A Colossal Fracking Mess Along the Delaware Watershed. By Christopher Bateman, VanityFair, June 21, 2010. “Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers. That’s because large swaths of land -- private and public -- in the watershed have been leased to energy companies eager to drill for natural gas here using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing. ‘Fracking,’ as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside...

“The town of Dimock [PA], population 1,400, makes all too clear the dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing. You don’t need to drive around Dimock long to notice how the rolling hills and farmland of this Appalachian town are scarred by barren, square-shaped clearings, jagged, newly constructed roads with 18-wheelers driving up and down them, and colorful freight containers labeled ‘residual waste.’ Although there is a moratorium on drilling new wells for the time being, you can still see the occasional active drill site, manned by figures in hazmat suits and surrounded by klieg lights, trailers, and pits of toxic wastewater, the derricks towering over barns, horses, and cows in their shadows. The real shock that Dimock has undergone, however, is in the aquifer that residents rely on for their fresh water. Dimock is now known as the place where, over the past two years, people’s water started turning brown and making them sick, one woman’s water well spontaneously combusted, and horses and pets mysteriously began to lose their hair.”

Feds Pull Plug on Cities' Green Home Loans. By Robert Selna, San Francisco Chronicle, July 7, 2010. “San Francisco's new, $150 million program to help property owners finance solar and other energy-saving programs is all but dead, according to city officials, after a federal agency announced Tuesday that the program and others like it across the state are potentially risky and inadvisable for mortgage lenders. The programs have been widely championed as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills and to create green jobs. Generally, the programs allow a property owner to obtain a low-interest loan from local governments that are backed by bonds. The property owner then repays the loan over 20 years through a tax assessment, which is attached to the home, even if it is sold… The problem, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is that the local loans attach to the properties as liens if they are not paid off and those liens, because they are property taxes, trump banks for who gets paid back first from proceeds of a foreclosed home... San Francisco launched its version of the idea, called GreenFinanceSF, with great fanfare in April and $150 million in financing, making it one of the nation's most ambitions efforts.”

Hydrofracking: The Next Drilling Disaster? By Kara Cusolito, Nation, June 21, 2010 edition. “Hydrofracking is a hugely lucrative and rapidly expanding industry -- the consulting firm PFC Energy recently reported that shale gas production accounts for about 10% of US natural gas production, up from 1% in 2000. It is bolstered not only by a powerful lobby but also by growing awareness of the threats posed by climate change and America's dependence on foreign oil... For a long time, shale gas was thought to be unattainable. But in the 1990s, first in Texas and later in other Western states, new drilling techniques, sophisticated technology and industry exemptions from environmental laws paved the way for economically viable fracking. Many of those exemptions -- from provisions in the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Superfund Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act -- are longstanding. The most notable among them was introduced by Vice President Dick Cheney as an amendment to the 2005 energy bill. The so-called Halliburton Loophole, named after Cheney's former employer and the company that pioneered the fracking process in the 1940s, stripped the EPA's authority to regulate hydrofracking through the Safe Water Drinking Act. Companies were essentially given free rein to drill however and wherever they see fit, and to use and dispose of proprietary fracking fluids without any disclosure or safety requirements. The only remaining shred of federal oversight was a voluntary agreement with the three largest companies not to use diesel fuel -- which they proceeded to ignore.”

Chinese Engineers Propose World's Biggest Hydro-Electric Project in Tibet. By Jonathan Watts, Guardian, May 24, 2010. "Chinese hydropower lobbyists are calling for construction of the world's biggest hydro-electric project on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra river as part of a huge expansion of renewable power in the Himalayas. Zhang Boting, the deputy general secretary of the China Society for Hydropower Engineering, told the Guardian that a massive dam on the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo - the Tibetan name for the river - would benefit the world, despite the likely concerns of downstream nations, India and Bangladesh, which access water and power from the river. Zhang said research had been carried out on the project, but no plan has been drawn up. But documents on the website of a government agency suggest a 38 gigawatt hydropower plant is under consideration that would be more than half as big again as the Three Gorges dam, with a capacity nearly half as large as the UK's national grid."

War Against a Super Grid. By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, April 30, 2010. "After several years of debate, a coalition has emerged around the idea of a strong national electric grid, centrally planned and broadly financed, that would promote renewable energy. The group includes giant investor-owned utilities, public power entities, influential elected officials of both parties and state energy officials, and they speak with a single voice. And they oppose it. The group, the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy, founded in January, is trying to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from approving a series of major transmission paths from wind-rich areas in the middle of the continent to load centers all over and then spreading the cost of the new lines around the whole country. 'It is fundamentally about fairness,' said Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday with Sen. Robert Corker, Republican of Tennessee, to denounce such a plan.

"That approach seems counter to three studies in the last two years that propose a transmission 'overlay.' This would be somewhat like an interstate highway system added to a network of local roads and would turn electricity from a product that is mostly locally produced and locally consumed into a national commodity. The most recent of the studies, produced for the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory at the beginning of the year, stressed that wind power would become more valuable as it was dispersed around the country and connected with powerful grid links. Once wind was available from all over the country, it explained, production levels would average out and a steady supply could be predicted."