This is sure to stir up some controversy about the reliability of renewable energy. The following video shows a news report from Minnesota about 12 wind turbines that won’t operate in cold weather due to an issue with the hydraulic fluid. The Minnesota State Municipal Power Association paid $300,000 for each of the turbines. What an amazing and tragic oversight. The news report indicates that there’s a plan to heat the fluid but that would likely require the use of electricity or fossil fuels thereby negating the benefits of the turbine.
There’s a very good lesson to be learned here. As excited as people are about bringing clean, renewable energy to their communities they should always perform due diligence when evaluating clean energy projects or vendors. In Minnesota you would need to have absolute assurance that a system exposed to the elements (which I would imagine could get extreme in Minnesota in the winter) will perform in all weather conditions.
Bill Gates has a new website called Gates Notes where you can find out more about Mr. Gates, his charitable foundation and his thoughts on a variety of topics. One of the posts on his site is a podcast series on energy. There are four audio files in the series in both Windows Media and MP3 format. I’m currently digesting the content right now. For the most part it sounds like a lot of common sense coming from a person (obviously very smart) who has done plenty of homework on the topics discussed. I’ve linked to the MP3 versions of the files below. Have a listen and see what you think.
As I survey the clean energy landscape at the beginning of the new year I think about the prospects for technological milestones and breakthroughs in 2010. We’re coming out of a year where billions of dollars have been either granted or loaned to companies in the name of the next generation of clean energy. You name it and it was probably funded, or at least approved for funding, in 2009. Wind projects, biofuels, battery technology, fuel efficient motor vehicles, energy efficiency, enhanced geothermal, grid-scale energy storage and smart grid are some of the key technology initiatives that were funded. So there’s a lot of hope that we’ll start to see the fruits of this funding in 2010. Don’t count on it though.
When I think about 2010 it seems to me that this will be a year of waiting in the clean energy space. That’s not to say that major projects such as wind and solar farms won’t be completed in 2010. Many projects will be completed but it won’t be the tipping point year for many of the newer and most promising technologies. The reasons for that would make sense to most anyone who knows a little bit about the clean energy space. Take the funding for example. Once the press releases are a day old the hard work on many of these projects begins. After all, you don’t get a check from the Department of Energy one day and start building batteries the next day. Matching funds to meet the government requirements need to be finalized. Planning needs to take place. People need to be hired. Contracts need to be negotiated and signed. Those are just a few things that typically take place before a project begins in earnest. It’s a lot of work and it takes time. The bigger the project, the longer the lead time. And there’s also the matter of projects or technologies that are underway but will not meet expectations.
What follows is a summary of some key clean energy technologies and how they are likely to fare in the current year. Read the rest
Google has done a good job throwing mainstream media reporters off of the scent when it comes to their recent filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The New York Times Bits Blog (which is a tech focused blog) seemed to take the following quote from a Google rep at face value.
“We want to have the ability to procure renewable energy to offset power usage of our operations,” said Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman. Ms. Fenwick said that having access to more renewable energy could help the company fulfill its goal to become “carbon neutral.”
Well that’s what Ms. Fenwick said, but simply procuring renewable energy is probably not the end game here. Here’s why. In Google’s application they have applied to become a power marketer. That means they will be able to buy and sell electricity on the wholesale market. Okay, fine. But check out the following passage from the FERC filing.
In addition to engaging in sales of electricity that are unregulated by the Commission, Applicant proposes to act as a power marketer, purchasing electricity and reselling it to wholesale customers. Applicant may also engage in other, non-jurisdictional, activities to facilitate efficient trade in the bulk power market, such as arranging services in related areas such as transmission and fuel supplies.
That section of the filing clearly indicates that Google Energy plans to do much more than just purchase renewable energy. They plan to sell energy too. Later on in Section III, Paragraph D of the filing you’ll find the following statement.
Applicant requests authority to sell specified ancillary services that the Commission has authorized market-based entities to sell in the markets operated by…
They go on to list almost all of the organized electricity markets in the U.S. as places where they would like to sell ancillary services. For those not in the know, ancillary services involves providing services, such as energy reserves for example, to the electric grid that help to maintain the stability and security of the grid. We don’t need to delve too much further into the details of that to know that it goes beyond merely providing for Google’s own energy needs.
There are many options for Google Energy with respect to electric market participation if their application is approved by the FERC. It’s true that Google Energy could simply purchase electricity to meet their own needs and do nothing more. But Google could do that without becoming a power marketer. The filed application indicates that Google has even larger aspirations than just purchasing power from the markets. We’ll just have to wait and see.
There may not have been two phrases that garnered much more buzz in 2009 than “smart grid” and “cloud computing.” They have a lot in common too. Both refer to a collection of technologies that few people understand in depth. Both are understood to refer to forward looking, game changing technologies. And both have the potential to change the paradigms of their respective industries. Only one of the technologies (that would be cloud computing) is truly consumer focused at this time and although smart grid aspires to be a consumer focused technology it will likely have to piggy back on the cloud to get there.
The consumer side of smart grid involves meters that collect data on usage frequently and then make that data available to the consumer so that they can either manually or automatically (depending on how smart their appliances are) alter their electric usage during times of peak demand. That altered behavior will theoretically reduce the need for expensive and peaking generation that consumers pay for every day but only runs a few hours a year. As a result the system realizes both environmental and economic benefits. It sounds great but before the consumer can alter their usage patterns they need to get access to the data. That’s where the need for cloud computing architecture enters the scenario.
In the world of smart grid utilities will be storing much more data about customer usage than they do now. Most utilities currently take one reading of an electric meter for an entire month. With smart meters in place utilities will be storing thousands of readings a month for each meter. That means utilities will need lots and lots of databases (data centers actually) and applications to access and analyze that data. Computing power is going to be a big deal but it isn’t nearly the sweet spot for utilities. It should come as no surprise that computing giants like IBM, Google, Oracle and Microsoft are lining up to service utilities as they transfer to smart grid technology. So the data storage issues should be sorted out. Don’t forget about the customer though.
During his Presidential campaign President Barack Obama pledged, “…to transform our entire economy – from our cars and our fuels to our factories and our buildings.” In the last few months President Obama’s administration has made good on that pledge by unlocking billions of dollars in government coffers to benefit companies developing clean energy technologies in a wide variety of industries via stimulus grants and Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantees. In fact, the DOE has looked more like the Treasury Department in recent months. Since the beginning of October the DOE has awarded well over $5 billion.
The dollars are flowing to companies large and small. Automotive start ups like Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, companies with little track record and no profits to speak of, have scored nearly $1 billion combined in guaranteed loans. Meanwhile established car companies like Ford and Nissan have been granted $5.9 billion and $1.6 billion respectively to further development of electric vehicles. That’s in addition to the government’s purchase of General Motors at a cost of tens of billions of dollars.
Outside the auto industry we’ve seen companies such as Solyndra, a solar power start up based in Silicon Valley that qualified earlier this year for a $535 million DOE loan guarantee. Prior to the loan guarantee Solyndra had been funded to the tune of $800 million in private venture capital financing. At the beginning of September the DOE also announced over $500 million in grants given mostly to large wind power developers. Since then many large utilities across the country have benefited from over $3 billion in smart grid stimulus awards. More recently the DOE has announced more than $600 million for energy storage projects.
If you look at the entire list of what has been funded so far you’ll see that no technology has been left behind. Electric vehicles, solar, wind, smart grid, geothermal, energy efficiency, energy storage and carbon capture have all received funding. Thus one of the biggest obstacles to the development of new clean energy technologies has been removed. The collapse of the credit markets and oil prices dried up the investment pot. But the U.S. government has stepped in to fill the vacuum. So companies now have access to the capital they need to develop better batteries, construct manufacturing plants, research future technologies and much more.
With the financing obstacle removed for many companies, the only thing that’s left for companies to do now is to deliver on their promises. Electric car manufacturers have promised affordable vehicles that eliminate (or greatly reduce) the need for gasoline use in day-to-day transportation. Solar producers have promised gigawatts of solar facilities across the deserts of the southwest and rooftops across America. Wind power developers have promised clean, reliable, emission free electricity with very low impact to the environment. Smart grid companies have promised a new age of energy information technologies that will virtually eliminate blackouts and give consumers unprecedented control over their energy use and costs. Geothermal developers have promised a vast supply of emission free, uninterrupted baseload power from deep below the surface of the earth. On top of all the promises we’ve heard many times over the past decades there is also the promise of millions of “green jobs” as a result of a new clean energy economy.
The billions of dollars in play right now may only represent a down payment on future possibilities for clean energy development in the United States. Results are important though. If you have an investor who throws in a million dollars most of the time they want to see some progress before they commit more money. In this case the investors are the American people who’ve heard promises about the benefits of affordable electric vehicles and solar technology for decades. If public support for new energy investment erodes in 2010, politicians, especially ones up for re-election, will get the message and adjust their influence accordingly. That’s why it’s so important that clean energy companies show that they can produce the technologies they have promised, with the benefits that they have promised, at a cost that the majority of the public can afford.
About a year ago we mentioned that Google was investing in an enhanced geothermal energy company called AltaRock Energy. In fact, both Google and the U.S. Department of Energy made significant investments in AltaRock’s plan to drill deep into dry but hot caverns in Northern California in a bid to, “…create an EGS reservoir that will drill below the permeable zone, stimulate in the contained zone with infrastructure in place, and increase power production.” In short, they wanted to drill several thousand feet deep, fill the hole with water then use the resulting steam to power a turbine that would create electricity. And while the beginning of the project was announced with great fanfare the end didn’t get nearly as much attention from Google or the DOE.
On September 2nd of this year the New York Times published a story titled, Energy Company Calls Halt to Drilling Project. The main reason the project was halted was due to the fact that AltaRock was unable to drill a sufficient hole, only going down about 800 feet from their starting point of 3,200 feet. In order to move forward the NY Times story states that the drilling needed to reach 12,000 feet. Concerns about the project were already inflated at the time of the shutdown due to the fact that a similar effort in Switzerland had been blamed for an earthquake.
At the time of the original announcement we had our doubts about the viability of the project.
EGS may be indeed be a viable clean energy generation technology. It is also a very a risky and expensive technology that yields its share of negative environmental impacts.
Unfortunately it appears that our instincts were correct. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in power generation. If you want to extract power from the earth the earth makes you pay a heavy price. In this case the price seems to have been too high for AltaRock, their investors and the State of California. AltaRock Energy indicated in their official press release that they continue to seek out other enhanced geothermal projects.
We are continuing with the development of our EGS technology and are currently evaluating a number of alternative well locations, at the Geysers and elsewhere for demonstrating this technology.
Courtesy of Jay Leno, this video provides a very detailed look at the Aptera electric vehicle. This vehicle is not a car. In California this vehicle will be registered as a motorcycle. It is a very cool vehicle, combining futuristic looks with ultra-modern technology. Is it practical? Definitely not. Is it safe? We’ll wait for the official crash tests.
You have to hand it to Google. They keep coming up with innovative ideas to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and the harmful emissions that go along with them. Unfortunately some of the efforts that they trumpet as “low carbon”, “green” or “renewable” don’t pass the common sense test.
You may remember that one time Google turned their home page black in order to help people conserve energy. The only problem with the approach was the fact that computer monitors use the same amount of energy to render a pixel regardless of the color. Google even admits that a black page background, “saves no energy.”
Google’s latest energy saving scheme is just as dubious. They have enlisted a herd of goats to handle the mowing of weeds and brush at Google headquarters. Google calls the goat initiative, “a low-carbon approach” to meeting their needs. Is it really a low-carbon approach?
Consider the fact that the goats need to be transported from their home ranch to Google and back. Our guess is that the truck transporting the goats to and fro runs on diesel fuel. How much fuels is used and how many harmful emissions are created will depend greatly on the travel distance between the home of the goats and Google HQ. At best we think it’s fair to say that it would end up being a wash.
Instead of enlisting goats that will also require care and feeding while onsite, Google should consider investing in the Hustler Zeon which is billed as, “The World’s First All-Electric Zero Turn Riding Mower.”
While this initiative appears to contain more noise than signal Google has made some laudable investments into alternative energy via Google.org with their RechargeIT and Power Meter programs.
An operating wind turbine collapsed at the Noble Altona Wind Park in upstate New York this past Friday. The Press Republican, a local upstate New York newspaper reported on the story.
Neighbors around the Altona wind park reported hearing loud explosions before the turbine apparently snapped in half around 10 a.m. and then caught fire.
Helen Morales, who lives near the fallen Fisher Way turbine, didn’t hear anything, but earlier saw the blades on one turbine “spinning at a high rate of speed” and noted that the air appeared “cloudy” around it.
The 97.5 megawatt facility is run by Noble Environmental Power of Connecticut. Noble released a pair of statements on Friday commenting on the incident. The first statement confirmed the collapse and subsequent fire while also indicating that there were no injuries. The second statement provided an update on the situation and indicated that the collapsed turbine was manufactured by General Electric.
Image of the wind turbine that collapsed at the Altona Wind Farm in Upstate New York. (The Press Republican)
The facility is currently closed and Noble has indicated that an investigation will take several months.
In recent months the installed capacity of wind in New York state has grown to over 1000 megawatts. The Altona wind farm represents a little less than ten percent of the total installed wind capacity in New York State. The outage is likely to affect the wind farm owner a lot more than it will the state electric grid. Like many renewable power companies Noble has cut back on spending in recent months and implemented staff reductions as the credit markets have frozen up.
This incident is likely to raise questions about wind turbine installation and maintenance procedures. Wind power has been exploding in the U.S. over the last few years. And even though the technology is widely used around the world there is still a lot to learn about it. Hopefully wind turbine manufacturers and plant operators will take a cue from this incident and review their procedures to ensure that turbines are manufactured, installed and operated with the highest standards of safety and durability in mind.
You have to hand it to Google. They keep coming up with innovative ideas to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and the harmful emissions that go along with them. Unfortunately some of the efforts that they trumpet as “low carbon”, “green” or “renewable” don’t pass the common sense test.
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