Clean Energy Digest

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.

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.

As much as anyone I look forward to the day when I’ll be able to drive a car that doesn’t use gasoline as the primary fuel source. And when I use the word “car” I mean a car like the ones we’ve become accustomed to. In general most people want cars that are stylish, economic, safe, affordable, flexible and have reasonable power. Each vehicle in the current field of electric vehicle contenders has one or more of those traits but none of them satisfies all the things that people expect out of a car. In fact I’m hard pressed to find vehicles that satisfies more than three of the six criteria mentioned above.

Consider the Aptera electric vehicle (pictured at left) which is made in California by Aptera Motors. With three wheels and just enough room for two passengers this vehicle has more in common with a motor cycle than a car. But with an expected price tag between $20,000 and $40,000 the Aptera sure does have a car-like price tag.

Then there’s the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) which is made by a Chrysler subsidiary called Global Electric Motorcars or GEM. The GEM e4 (pictured at right) is touted as, “…perfect for visiting family and friends or just recreational driving.” Unfortunately it’s only perfect if your family lives on the same block as you do. That’s because the top speed of the vehicle is  25 miles per hour and it has no doors. The vehicle is essentially a golf cart. But at a base price of over $11,000 the GEM e4 will set you back more than most used cars in very good condition.

If you’re part of the champagne and caviar set you have the option of going fully electric in a way that makes few compromises. The Tesla Roadster all electric vehicle made by Tesla Motors looks and performs like a sports car. It also has an impressive range of over 200 miles per charge. But the price tag of the Tesla Roadster is north of $100,000 and the production schedule only allows for about twenty vehicles each month. And with a 1,000 person waiting list you’d probably have to wait four to five years to get one even if you had the money to burn on this hot rod.

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The presentation below was created as the term project for my graduate level economics class. Our analysis explored the key factors contributing to the rapid growth of wind generation in the United States between 1997 and 2007.

I think that one of the greatest threats to the clean energy movement is the myriad of misinformation and confusing rhetoric that is peddled by companies (large and small) who profess to be “green” or offer “green” solutions.

A web based service called CO2stats is a great case in point for illustrating both of those issues. The owner, Alex Wissner-Gross Ph.D.appears to be a very smart guy. Dr. Gross and his service hit the news recently via reports of a study he conducted that measured the “carbon footprint” of Google searches.

CO2stats, which is run out of a Boston apartment (source) sells “green certified site” badges. CO2stats is also offering to make websites “carbon neutral.” How does one make a website carbon neutral? You pay them of course and they’ll do it for you by purchasing, “…the appropriate amount of audited renewable energy from wind and solar farms.” (source) Anyone who knows anything about energy knows that no amount of credit purchases can “offset” the burning of a fossil fuel or the release of emissions into the atmosphere. You just can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

This company also claims to be able to know, “…what type of energy is being used to power the networks that are connecting your visitors’ computers with your servers.” Let me be one of the first to call that claim highly suspect. You can create a model to speculate on what type of power is being generated based on the location of the server and the fuel diversity profile of the region, if available. But no one can really know what percentage of fuel is powering a particular computer at any given time. So perhaps the “team” at CO2stats has some sort of a model. How accurate is that model?

What is really instructive to me when scanning the value proposition contained on the CO2stats website are the claims that they can assist with growing your business. The site exclaims, “Your subscription includes free advertising on one of the web’s largest green ad networks, spanning thousands of sites.” Could we see a comprehensive list of those sites please? CO2stats also claims that the presence of their special “green” badge will increase the amount of time that visitors stay on the website. All this leads me to wonder. Is there anything that CO2stats can’t do for a business? Click the huge SIGN UP NOW button, enter your credit card and find out.

Excuse me for being skeptical and a bit cheeky. I’m of the opinion that enterprises like CO2stats are merely marketing exercises, selling carbon offsets that are of dubious value to both the holder and the environment. Purchasing a carbon offset is tantamount to buying a get out of jail free card in the game Monopoly. And who knows what type of “green” extortion could occur the (hopefully not near) future? It’s possible that “environmental” groups could start charging companies that don’t have the approved “green” symbol on their websites with crimes against the earth.

The clean energy movement needs real solutions to difficult problems. It doesn’t need rhetoric designed to make people feel guilty about using their computers, having children, starting a business or doing anything else that uses energy. The clean energy movement certainly doesn’t need get out of jail free cards either. My hope is that in 2009 more people look beyond the hype and the marketing to realize that the long term energy problems can’t be solved by paying someone to allow you to post a certified “green” badge on your website.

The credit market freeze, stock market devaluations and commodities markets collapse are having a chilling effect on clean energy projects around the globe.

Pickens delays world’s biggest wind farm project

T Boone Pickens, a renowned Texan oilman who is raising the capital for the wind farm, told a US television station today that the twofold problem was slowing down his ambitious plan. Pickens, who made a fortune from the oil industry but has been converted to renewable energy as a means of ending US dependence on foreign oil, announced the original plan for the wind farm last year and construction was supposed to start in 2010.

Chrysler Launches New Hybrids, then Cancels Production

In a sign of these strange economic times, Chrysler LLC is simultaneously preparing to launch its first hybrid vehicles and to shut down their production. Chrysler announced that it will close the Newark Assembly Plant in Newark, Delaware, at the end of this year, a move that will bring an end to the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen in all their forms, including the new hybrids.

Evergreen Solar files suit against Lehman Bros.

Evergreen Solar Inc., a Marlborough manufacturer of solar power panels, said today it has filed suit against Barclays and Lehman Brothers in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy cases. Evergreen Solar said it is demanding the immediate return of Evergreen stock shares loaned to Lehman Brothers in July as Evergreen Solar seeks to challenge Barclay’s ownership claim to shares transferred during Lehman Brothers bankruptcy proceedings.

FPL Group to cut spending, wind power growth

FPL Group, the largest operator of wind-power generation in the United States, said on Monday it would slash its 2009 spending because of the economic slump, reducing its wind turbine additions. The company said it would cut 2009 planned capital expenditures nearly 25 percent to $5.3 billion and add 1,100 megawatts in new wind-power generation rather than the 1,500 megawatts it originally had planned.

More items on the news page. Follow all of the clean energy news that I pick up around the web by bookmarking my link account at http://delicious.com/cleanenergydigest.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in California has rejected a contract between PG&E and Finavera Renewables.

The chief reason given for the rejection was related to viability of the project. According to the story, “The commission noted that a prototype buoy deployed by Finavera off the Oregon coast in 2007 sank before its six-week test period was concluded.”

The buoy in question sank in November of 2007 just one day before it was to be removed from the ocean.

Now that BMW has announced production of an electric version of their very popular Mini Cooper subcompact, interest in electric cars for urban use is likely to increase.

Popular Mechanics reports, “Dubbed the Mini E, it will be available for lease in three states—California, New York and New Jersey—and only to those companies and individuals participating in the 500-unit pilot program. A 204-hp electric motor resides under the hood and powers the front wheels, a single-speed gearbox provides motive power and a 35 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack supplies the juice. Unfortunately, the battery pack takes the space normally occupied by the rear seats, so this Mini is just a twofer.”

It all sounds great, but there is a problem with small, stylish electric cars that must be considered. While these vehicles are likely to excite young, urban dwellers with a decent amount of disposable income, this same demographic is also less likely to have access to an outlet to plug into the car for charging.

Generation Y urban dwellers are more likely to live in an apartment building with a parking garage than a 3-bedroom house with a private garage. Adding electric in a shared building garage (or outdoor parking lot) requires the buy-in of building management and/or apartment owners. As a former condominium and co-op owner in the New York City area I speak from experience when I say, “Good luck with that.” It is very hard to get building boards to agree on basic building upgrades let alone ones that will require tens our thousands of dollars in electrical system upgrades.

Given the lack of available charging infrastructure in and around major cities, it stands to reason that sales of plug-in electric vehicles will fare much better in the suburbs where vehicle emissions due to traffic congestion is a much smaller issue.

The problem is clear. Plug-in electric vehicles are most needed in areas that tend to have more vehicle congestion, higher emissions and higher gas prices. But people living in those same areas also have much less access to a reliable charging infrastructure. A solution to this problem will likely make the difference between plug-in electric cars as novelty, second vehicles for the suburbs and plug-ins as the standard for urban private transportation.

The outlook for clean energy projects has started to change as a result of the current economic situation in the U.S. and around the world. A pair of news items underscore the wider issues that are likely to develop.

Wind-farm Workers Laid Off

Noble Environmental Power has stopped work at its Bellmont and Chateaugay wind-energy projects and laid off its workers. And it appears the bankruptcy of one of its major financial backers may have played a part. “Due to conditions in the financial markets, Noble Environmental Power has had to scale back its development plans for 2009,” Noble Chief Executive Officer Walter Howard said in a written statement.

Tesla Motors Hits Brakes Amid Credit Crisis

Citing “extraordinary times,” Tesla Motors, maker of the battery-powered, $109,000 Roadster, said Wednesday that difficult market conditions were forcing it to delay production of its next-generation vehicle, close two offices, lay off an unspecified number of employees and replace its chief executive.

Like all power projects, clean energy projects rely on investment capital. Investment capital is in short supply right now and is likely to be in short supply for the foreseeable future.