The Warmist

Green News: U.S. Patent Office loosens rules for green technology

2010-05-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is trying to cast a wider net to catch more green-technology inventions.

The USPTO on Friday announced that it has changed the patent application process to attract more green technologies into an accelerated patent program.

The Green Technology Pilot program was created last December to encourage more inventors to apply for patents relating to green technology. If accepted, those patent petitions will get priority screening under the one-year trial program.

On Friday, the USPTO eliminated the need for green technology patent applications to comply with the classifications specified by the USPTO. The classifications requirement narrowed the definition of green technology more than is necessary, it found.

"This will permit more applications to qualify for the pilot program, thereby allowing more inventions related to green technologies to be advanced out of turn for examination and reviewed earlier," said David Kappos, undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and director of the USPTO, in a filing in the Federal Register.

The initial target was to have 3,000 patent petitions examined in the first year, with a goal of dramatically cutting down on the average review process of 30 months.

So far, there have been a total of 950 requests with only 342 request for accelerated review granted.

The green technology program is designed to encourage development of businesses with products that reduce use of fossil fuels and protect the environment. It's not yet clear how much commercial impact the expedited review process will have, experts told Scientific American earlier this month.

Often, green-tech products are incremental improvements on existing techniques from multiple fields, many of which are patented, they said. Still, accelerated examination of an invention could help entrepreneurs incubate green-tech companies faster.

According to a notice from the USPTO, Inventions are eligible for the program if they include discoveries related to renewable energy, more efficient use of energy resources, or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: news.cnet.com

Wastewater-to-fertilizer plant captures nutrients

2010-05-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies later this week will dedicate a system that converts wastewater from sewage-treatment plants into fertilizer while recycling valuable phosphorus and nitrogen.

On Thursday, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) in Suffolk, Va., will host the official opening of the facility, the second commercial-scale plant to use Ostara's technology. Long-time clean water advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is an investor in the company through his involvement with VantagePoint Venture Partners, will be a speaker at the event.

Ostara's reactors isolates nutrients from wastewater at sewage treatment plants to make fertilizer.

Because of environmental regulations, some wastewater treatment plants separate nutrients using bacteria to prevent them from being discharged into waterways. Ostara's technology can be added to these plants to convert the separated wastewater into a sellable product called Crystal Green, explained Ostara CEO Phillip Abrary.

Instead of treating that wastewater with chemicals and disposing of the solids, the HRSD facility has installed three vessels that take in wastewater and mix it with the saltmagnesium chloride. Water moves upward into the cone-shaped tank, called a fluidized bed reactor, which prevents the solid material from settling and causes crystals to form through a chemical reaction.

The white crystals are ammonium magnesium phosphate, which is sold as high-phosphate fertilizer pellets to nurseries, turf, and specialty agricultural companies. The technology, which can capture about 85 percent of the available nutrients, can also be used in plants where nutrient build-up is a problem, said Abrary.

In Virginia, these reactors will replace a process that relies on adding chemicals to the wastewater. The sale of fertilizer, handled by Ostara, will finance the sale of equipment and operations. Ostara's first facility in Oregon also purchased the equipment and projects a payback in five years, Abrary said.

The key to the technology, which was originally developed at the University of British Columbia, is the shape of the reactor, which allows the company to make crystals that can be sold as slow-release fertilizer, he said.

In addition to dealing with nutrient run-off, the technology helps preserve phosphorus, which is mined from Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and China, where the majority of reserves are found.

"Discharging nutrients is not a good thing and there are more and more regulations coming," Abrary said. "Phosphorus is a nonrenewable resource that's absolutely necessary. If you don't have phosphorus, you can't grow things."

The facility in Virginia will be able to produce about 500 tons of fertilizer product a year, which is a sliver of the 35 million tons of phosphates sold every year. Because the company's technology is a relatively efficient way to capture the nutrients in waste, Abrary said the company has a significant pipeline of projects under discussion, including one in Pennsylvania where Ostara would own and operate the facility itself.

"The technology is proven, the market believes that it works because it's a chemical process," he said. "The biggest barrier is that many customers are municipal organizations that just don't react as quickly as the private sector."

Source: news.cnet.com

Green News: U.S. unveils new push for more efficient cars, trucks

2010-05-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama unveiled a government push on Friday to boost auto fuel economy for model-year 2017 passenger vehicles and beyond, and introduce a truck efficiency target for the first time.

Obama's policy initiative was characterized by leading environmental groups as an especially welcome step in the wake of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill.

"I believe it's possible in the next 20 years for vehicles to use half the fuel and produce half the pollution that they do today," Obama said at a White House ceremony.

Separately, Canada announced similar steps for heavy trucks and hopes to propose a draft regulation within several months.

Cars and trucks account for more than 60 percent of U.S. oil consumption and more than 25 percent of domestic carbon pollution, environmental statistics show.

David Doniger, policy director for the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said tougher standards for cars and the first-ever efficiency goals for trucks will save consumers billions of dollars in fuel costs.

"These are important steps to cut our oil dependence and carbon pollution," Doniger said in a statement.

The new rules for passenger cars, sport utilities, pickups, and vans will be carried out by transportation and environmental regulators.

California, a leader in the effort to curb vehicle emissions, will play an important role in developing an efficiency framework for the rule that will run from 2017-25.

The Obama administration in April completed regulations for passenger vehicles that will require a 30 percent decrease in carbon emissions and a 42 percent increase in auto fuel efficiency to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

Automakers sought assurances in recent weeks that the Obama administration would seek to extend federal oversight of those standards beyond the 2016 time frame.

Industry believes anything less than a firm government commitment on the subject would open the door to competing state standards that could vary from region to region, complicate product planning and add heavy costs.

But trying to gauge long-term fuel efficiency targets for 2017-25 could be trickier than past efforts that were strictly tied to gasoline use.

Industry has embraced cleaner burning fuels, more efficient engines and advanced battery technologies for gasoline-electric hybrids and full-electric cars that produce few to no emissions.

Automakers are moving fast to boost efficiency, and many cars on the road already meet or exceed the 2016 targets. General Motors and Japan's Nissan are racing to roll out the first mass-produced electric cars later this year and other manufacturers have designs in the pipeline.

The administration has provided important incentives to jumpstart production of vehicles that are powered by advanced technologies.

On trucks, the administration hopes to finalize a regulation by July 2011 covering truck fuel standards for the 2014-18 period, according to an executive order signed by Obama.

Preliminary estimates show that large tractor trailers, which represent half of all carbon emissions from the sector, can reduce that output by up to 20 percent with existing technologies, the administration said.

Trucks mainly run on diesel fuel, while cars use refined gasoline.

Trucking companies say they support new standards as long as they are technically feasible and do not affect the performance of their vehicles.

New diesel engines emit 90 percent fewer environmental pollutants, including those that contribute to smog, than engines made 20 years ago, industry said. Trucking companies also recommend that trucks not exceed 65 miles per hour and reduce idling time to save fuel.

Trucking company executives from manufacturers such as Volvo AB and Navistar International were on hand for the Obama announcement. Auto company officials from GM, Ford Motor, and Toyota Motor also attended.

Source: news.cnet.com

Green News: IBM to help people monitor energy use

2010-05-23T01:01:00.000-07:00

IBM is hoping its new smart metering system can help homeowners learn to use energy more wisely.

Working with energy consultant Hildebrand, Big Blue has embarked on a new project designed to let people view their energy consumption in the home. Hildebrand's monitoring technology analyzes real-time electricity usage, even for individual appliances, to show folks just how much juice they're grabbing.

In a 30-month research project geared specifically for the U.K. and Bulgaria, Hildebrand installed small energy monitors at different homes in five European cities--Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester in the U.K., and Plovdiv and Ivanovo in Bulgaria. Using IBM's software, the homeowners view online information that displays their electricity use, figures out the cost, and compares it with usage by other people.

"Giving citizens more information and better control over their energy use will cut down on costs and consumption as well as reduce their overall impact on the environment," Guido Bartels, General Manager of Energy and Utilities at IBM, said in a statement. "With this collaboration, we can demonstrate how smart and connected communities can be more energy conscious and, in turn, more sustainable."

Though the goal of the project is to help consumers make better decisions on how to manage their power needs, the study will also help researchers monitor the people themselves to measure their attitudes toward energy conservation.

On its end, IBM is supplying the Informix database software to grab the huge amount of data flowing through the system. The challenge is to capture time-series data, which are "pulses" of data that arrive at regular intervals. That can pose a problem for traditional databases, according to Hildebrand, but in initial tests, the Informix software proved up to the task.

"In the first proof-of-concept, we simulated 3 million homes sending readings once a minute and we were able to capture nearly 50,000 readings per second using only a quad-core, dual-processor Intel server," Clive Eisen, chief technology officer at Hildebrand, said in a statement. "In the second, we moved to a slightly larger server and found we could deliver analytics response times of between one and three seconds for a similar load. You don't need to understand the technical details--the point is that suddenly, energy monitoring for 3 million homes or more became a practical proposition."

This latest project is part of IBM's Smarter Planet program and follows the Smarter Building initiative to track and conserve energy use in buildings and factories.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/greentech

A Climate-Change Chameleon

2010-03-08T14:25:00.001-08:00

"The climate world is divided into three: the climate atheists, the climate agnostics, and the climate evangelicals. I'm a climate agnostic."
A direct—some would say brash—man with a penetrating stare, it's hard to believe India's Environment and Forests Minister, Jairam Ramesh, is agnostic about anything. This is the man who dressed down Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year when she pushed for India to adopt binding emissions targets. He was the first politician of a major nation to question the United Nations' claim that the Himalayan glaciers were melting at a rapid pace. And he's spearheaded his country's very own climate-change research institute—a direct challenge to the U.N.'s now-discredited Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
That record makes Mr. Ramesh one of the few policy makers in the world in a position to push a new, more economically rational approach to climate change—and debate the politics of it, too. It helps that he isn't media-shy. And like many Indian men, Mr. Ramesh has a penchant for the dramatic: "You have unlimited time!" he tells me, hands outstretched, as we settle down to a chat in his darkened office, with a single spotlight shining on the minister himself.
India is a "high-growth, low-emission" economy, Mr. Ramesh explains. "We contribute only about 5% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and even if we grow at 8% per year, by 2020, we would still be contributing only about 8% of world greenhouse gas emissions." He jabs at the air above his head to make his point, lowering it with each phrase: "So here is China at 23%, here is America at about 22%, and you have Russia at about 9% and India at 5%. So clearly about 45% of the emissions are coming from two countries. . . who don't want to do anything about it."

Source: climatechallengeindia.org

Tuning the energy innovation engine at MIT

2010-03-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

BOSTON--The MIT Energy Conference here on Saturday covered a little bit of everything--"China speed," climate change, financing gaps, government policy, nuclear and natural gas, and, of course, science experiments--as entrepreneurs, business people, and academics tried to get their arms around big-picture energy challenges.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has become a hotbed for clean-energy innovation over the past four years, attracting students and faculty to the field, some of whom have spun out promising companies.

Driving toward a cleaner energy future

At a showcase there, local companies and researchers working in wind, solar, biofuels, storage, and efficiency displayed some of their ongoing work. But at the conference, discussion focused more on conventional energy sources, policy, and financing.

Science fiction?
The nature of global energy picture is well understood: growing demand in coming years, particularly from developing countries, is expected to result in more fossil fuel consumption and continue to increase greenhouse gas emissions. Governments around the world are expected to devise policies that improve national security by cutting imports of oil and other fuels.

Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, at the MIT Energy conference in Boston.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

But Nobuo Tanaka, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, gave a lunchtime talk that cast those general trends into actual numbers. And the outlook, to put it gently, issobering. The IEA, which was established after the oil shocks of the 1970s to manage the strategic oil reserves forOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Developmentmember countries, compiles statistics on energy and future projections for supply and demand.

Stabilizing carbon dioxide levels at 450 parts per million in the atmosphere--a level that is projected to result in an average global temperature rise of about two degrees Celsius--would require an "energy and environment revolution" with investment in the trillions of dollars, Tanaka said.

Among the technology assumptions in that scenario are a cost on carbon emissions, energy efficiency measures at large scale, and a massive build-out of low-polluting energy generation. That includes the construction of 18 nuclear power plants, 17,000 wind turbines, two or three huge hydroelectric dam projects, and 94 concentrating solar power plants every year between now and 2030.

"This is the scale and magnitude of the infrastructure investment...Can we do that? he said. Without large-scale deployment, the target of 450 parts per million is "science fiction," Tanaka said.

China speed
It's well known that China's rapid economic growth is being fueled by a massive expansion of energy consumption and that the country has deep reserves of coal. But a panel of experts on China argued that China is becoming not just a giant consumer of energy, but a producer of energy technology as well.

Chinese manufacturers have become global players in solar, wind, and batteries, aided by national policies that encouraged rapid deployment of these technologies. But Chinese government leaders have a more holistic approach to clean energy, which also includes investment in research and development, said Julian Wong, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.

"As China's place in the world rises and it gains strength economically and politically, it has experienced a growing sense of insecurity that drives a sense of being self sufficient, not just in energy but also science and technology," he said.

In nuclear power, for example, Chinese companies are deploying technologies originally developed at other countries and improving on them, said Andrew Kadak, professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT. In China, there are 26 nuclear plants under construction, while there are about that many in consideration in the U.S. "While we're talking about government loan guarantees, what to do with nuclear waste, China is building," Kadak said.

Differences in the political system are one reason that China moves so fast, said Hongmei Zhang, deputy general manager at the center for technology strategy and development at Chinese power supplier ENN Group. For example, the government plans to implement another five-year plan for energy starting in 2012.

"There are some cultural differences. To be honest, Chinese people tend to listen better. When our president Hu says something, we say, 'Yes, sir,'" she said. But in the U.S., people respond to directions by saying "Says who?" or offering second thoughts, she said.

Despite China's break-neck industrial build-out, the country faces a number of challenges before it will become the "cradle of new energy technology," said Ning Li, dean of the school of energy research at Xiamen University in China, which is doing research on nuclear, wind, and bioenergy.

"A great deal of work is going on but energy technology takes a long time to be accepted," he said. "(China) stands a very good chance to (make new energy and environment technology) for the world. And in the process, we will all profit and benefit from it."

A successful financial formula?
In the U.S., the federal government has pumped tens of billions of dollars into electric car battery manufacturing, smart grid programs, and energy research through the ARPA-E agency.

But that doesn't mean that entrepreneurs and investors have cracked the code on how to successfully fund a green tech start-up. Because there's been a learning process, many venture capital investors probably would not make the same investments today as they would have a few years ago, said Steven Taub, senior vice president of investment strategy at GE Financial Services.

During a session on financing, conference attendees identified a number of gaps in the "energy investment pipeline," ranging from finding early-stage ideas to project finance for large-scale deployment projects.

Panelists agreed that national governments have a significant role to play, but they could not agree on what exactly that role should be. In general, there was consensus that the U.S. federal government should fund more research and development in energy, but less agreement on how to create the conditions for clean-energy industries to grow beyond the labs.

If a start-up company is able to develop a technology that generates electricity lower than the cost of coal, then it will be adopted regardless of government subsidies, argued David Anthony, venture capitalist at 21Ventures.

But the U.S. also needs to provide loan guarantees to companies that want to scale up energy companies and manufacture goods, said Howard Berke, senior adviser of Good Energies and former CEO solar company Konarka, who calls himself a "green Republican."

"It's our Achilles heel as a nation. We don't have a long-term strategy to secure a manufacturing complex in the United States. When we innovate it, somebody else produces it," he said.

Bill Aulet, a senior lecturer on energy innovation at MIT's Sloan School of Management, finished the conference on an optimistic note, saying that entrepreneurs are the most valuable "renewable resource." "We need to solve this problem not with dictates from above but from innovation from below," he said.

Source: news.cnet.com

The hybrids are coming in Europe

2010-03-05T16:29:00.000-08:00

Chevy showed off the Volt in Geneva, along with its Opel equivalent, the Ampera.

(Credit: Wayne Cunningham/CNET)

Hybrids are big in Geneva (photos)

GENEVA--As hybrids gained ascendancy in the U.S., Europe showed little interest, with diesels proving more popular. But if the 2010 Geneva auto show is any indication, that preference is about to change.

Toyota showed two hatchback hybrids, one under its own brand and one as a Lexus, with both building on the successful Prius power train. BMW and Audi both showed luxury hybrid sedans as concepts, with feature lists that show them ready for production, and Volkswagen announced a hybrid version of its Touareg SUV.

Chevrolet is growing its presence, and brought its Volt to the show, while Opel's Volt equivalent, the Ampera, drove over 300 miles from Germany to Switzerland as a publicity stunt to show the practicality of the car. The Volt and Ampera are the only ones of the current crop to use series hybrid technology, with the wheels driven solely by electric power.

This influx of hybrids can be explained by upcoming European emissions regulations, which are likely to put a damper on diesel production.

Originally posted at Geneva Auto Show 2010

Source: news.cnet.com

It takes a village (of scientists) to reinvent energy

2010-03-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

National Harbor, Md.--Attending the ARPA-E Summit this week was sort of like roaming the halls of clean-tech high school, one investor quipped when I asked him what he thought of the conference. It's an analogy that holds up pretty well.

There were the popular "kids" that everybody wanted talk to--high-profile green-tech investors like John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. Authority figures who set the rules were out in force as well, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, multiple senators, and other high-level Department of Energy officials.

Looking for a clean-energy home run (photos)

And then there were the nerds, the folks who loved taking science classes and building things back when they actually were in high school. These are the types of people who use a vocabulary most of us can barely follow--chemical compounds or industrial processes that you never heard of--because they have deep expertise in a particular field.

As usual, the politicians and money people got lots of attention. But in my mind it's really the class geeks who should be the rock stars at an energy innovation conference.

ARPA-E, which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, was funded for the first time last year with a $400 million budget to award grants to companies and researching pursuing breakthrough clean-energy technologies. On Tuesday, Secretary Chu said that agency is structured around specific technology goals that have a chance at being developed within a few years.

For example, ARPA-E this week announced its grant solicitations for grid storage to complement wind and solar power, for energy-efficient air conditioning, and for efficient power electronics for wind turbines or LED lighting. The agency has already awarded $151 million to researchers developing methods for storing carbon dioxide underground and improving electric vehicle energy storage.

Although it's still young, the agency has gotten off to a good start, according to outsiders and the politicians, such as Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who were instrumental in getting it funding. Outsiders, such as Doerr and Google director of energy and climate initiatives Dan Reicher, said that the DOE has assembled a top-notch team to vet applications.

Competition for the research money is tight: DOE officials said about three-quarters of the grant applications have been rejected. What's in the running right now? Everything from a Velkessflywheel energy storage system to an Algaeventure Systems plan for extracting algae from water. Entrepreneurs are also pursuing nuclear fusion and the conversion of carbon dioxide and methane gas into a low-carbon liquid fuel.

This photo gallery gives example of the technologies still being evaluated for ARPA-E funding. Making it through the selection process in some way pays twice: a number of companies that have already received research funding were also able to raise money from venture capitalists.

It's pretty much guaranteed that many of these efforts will fail, but that's OK if there are a few technology "home runs" that come out of ARPA-E, say DOE officials and investors. After that, though, there's perhaps a bigger challenge: getting great clean-energy technologies to scale.

Source: news.cnet.com

Google opens PowerMeter to energy monitors

2010-03-05T16:23:00.001-08:00

Google on Wednesday released the API for its PowerMeter energy-monitoring Web application, a move that could let people get detailed home energy data without the need for a smart meter.

The Web application gives people a real-time graph of electricity usage and historical data with the goal of providing clues on how to ratchet down power use.

So far, Google has partnered with a few utilities which are offering PowerMeter to consumers as part of smart-meter rollouts. One device maker, which makes The Energy Detective (TED) monitor, has an option to displayelectricity data on PowerMeter.

PowerMeter creates a readout of a home's electricity use over the course of a day.

(Credit: Google)

By making the PowerMeter application programming interface available to outsiders, Google hopes that device makers and software developers will build applications that make energy information available to consumers, wrote program manager Srikanth Rajagopalan on the Google Code blog, adding that the API follows privacy guidelines and give consumers access to their information.

Google started working with smart-meter manufacturers because those two-way meters can be used to track electricity use in detail within a home. For example, one early beta tester of PowerMeter discovered that a pool pump consumed a big chunk of his electricity bill and ran it less frequently to cut electric bills.

There are a number of companies developing home monitoring devices, or displays, which can use different methods for gathering detailed electricity data. For example, TED and Powerhouse Dynamics' eMonitor device are typically installed by electricians who put clamps onto the cables that go into circuit boards to monitor current going to each circuit. Other device manufacturers have proposed getting meter data with a gateway using the wireless protocol used for automated meter reading.

Although Google's goal is to encourage third-party developers to connect to PowerMeter, it's possible that not all device manufacturers will be enthusiastic about doing that because PowerMeter is free at this point. Some energy-monitoring companies are developing proprietary software and, in some cases, plan to charge a monthly fee to get detailed usage electricity information from the Web.

Source: news.cnet.com

Innovations grow at Greener Gadgets confab

2010-03-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

With the Empower device-charging rocking chair, I can juice up my iPhone while telling kids to get off my lawn.

(Credit: Ryan Klinger)

I recently saw the film "2012," where Earth appears to finally tire of the human race and decides to get rid of us. That, coupled with what seems to be an increasing number of natural disasters, makes me think that maybe it's time we take this green-tech thing seriously.

Apparently I'm not alone. Last week in New York, eco-minded thinkers gathered for Greener Gadgets, a conference aimed at sharing ideas for environmentally friendly gizmos. One stand-out event was the Green Gadgets Design Competition, where concepts from around the world were voted on by the public, then assessed by a panel of judges, as well as audience members.

First place went to a concept app using an iPhone as a demo. The Augmented Living Goods project, invented by a student in the U.S., uses your smartphone's camera to scan the bar code on produce. It then consults a database and, after fixing your position with GPS, tells you how far your potential food has traveled and if it's currently in season locally, as well as historical pricing among other data that's useful for helping consumers make more informed, sustainable choices in what they purchase and eat.

Great green gizmos (photos)

Second place went to something I'd actually like to see in every apartment in the near future. It's a solar panel with two integrated USB chargers. As more and more gadgets (cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, etc.) start adopting USB "trickle" charging, the demand for USB power goes up. This Illumi-Charger by U.S.-based GreenWaves.org stores power when it's not charging your devices in integrated batteries. That way the bottleneck is in the USB interface, not the amount of light it's absorbing. Pretty smart.

And third place went to the Empower, a concept for an electricity-generating rocking chair (no, really) by Ryan Klinger also of the U.S. It's simple, but smart. The power is sent through USB ports to trickle-charge your phone or iPod, or even to a regular 110 plug for a laptop or other standard-powered device.

There were lots more great ideas, too. Click through our gallery to see other finalists, including an energy-generating rocking toy that teaches kids about conservation and power generation; a unit that sorts through batteries and only sends power to those in need of juice; and a lamp that doubles as a charging station for small electrical devices.

Then let us know which ones you, the reader, think are not just the most innovative concepts, but also the ones most likely to make it to market. Let's have at it in the comments.

Source: news.cnet.com

Parsing fact from fiction with the Bloom Energy box

2010-03-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

Boy, did I pick a lousy week to leave the country for a family vacation.

What did I miss? Well, a company seems to have come out of nowhere, raised loads of money, has retired Gen. Colin Powell on its board, and made some audacious claims about reinventing the energy business. As I dug through last week's news, I asked myself: Is Bloom Energy's public relations blitz to be believed?

The short answer, it appears, is "yes." But don't expect miracles.

For people in the green-tech industry, digging up information on Bloom Energy has been like the fruitless quest for El Dorado. Finally, last week, Bloom Energy orchestrated a grand introduction to the world, revealing its fuel cell technology and naming a number of companies already using the Bloom Energy Server.

Many viewers of the 60 Minutes segement may have simply been surprised that Silicon Valley's movers and shakers are working so seriously on clean energy. Even for those in the know, though, Bloom Energy's technology is intriguing and brings fuel cells, which many people have dismissed as technically challenged, back into the discussion over the future of energy.

So how do their claims stack up? Based on company-provided materials, they look pretty good. But keep in mind, solid oxide fuel cells are a well known technology with understood benefits and limitations.

Meet the Bloom box (images)

Fuel cell apps in action. Fuel cell technology was most recently on the tech media's radar last year when the Department of Energy proposed cutting research for fuel-cell vehicles, which have been touted for many years as the ultimate green car solution. Mobile fuel cells have formidable technical challenges, notably storing enough hydrogen for a long driving range, and the lack of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure. Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridar told reporters at least twice during last week's press conference that the technology was not developed for cars, an indication of how much people associate fuel cells with vehicles.

Bloom Energy is using fuel cells for stationary power, which is arguably a better application for the technology. For starters, stationary fuel cells can use the natural gas lines already in place for fuel. The Bloom Energy Server can run on different fuel sources, including biogas, a gas made from organic materials. And they can be strung together, much the way servers are clustered to boost processing muscle. An initial customer, eBay, for example, is using a five 100 kilowatt boxes--each about the size of a parking space, to power 15 percent of its headquarters in San Jose, California.

For companies that need on-site power, fuel cells are already in use because they are very reliable. Fuel cells could power data centers, for example, because of their reliability and the potential to supply DC power directly to electronic equipment. Since they are relatively clean sources of power, fuel cells can receive state subsidies, as they do in California.

Bloom is not alone. In getting so much media attention, Bloom Energy certainly benefited from its connections to high-profile investors, such as John Doerr of famed venture capital company Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfied & Byers. Kleiner's connections probably helped line up initial customers for Bloom, including Google, Walmart, Staples, FedEx--all companies which have invested in alternative energy sources for financial and environmental reasons. But Bloom Energy is not the only company making fuel cells for stationary power.

FuelCell Energy, which is based in Danbury, Connecticut, is already selling fuel cell power systems for commercial customers, which fuel cells that can run range from 300 kilowatts to 2.8 megawatts. Another is start-up ClearEdge Power, which recently introduced a smaller fuel cell for homes or small businesses to make electricity and heat. Panasonic is developing fuel cells for homes, which also use natural gas to make both electricity and hot water.

Where Bloom Energy stands out is the design and materials it's using in its fuel cells, which offers the potential to lower costs with higher manufacturing volume. The core of Bloom Energy's technology is a solid oxide fuel cell, which takes fuels and oxygen from the air to make an electrical current.

One technical challenge with this type of fuel cell is that they operate at very high temperatures. That allows for greater efficiency in energy conversion but also requires engineers to deal with high heat. Bloom has designed the system to recycle the heat generated from the energy conversion in the process of mixing incoming natural gas with steam, which is needed with this type of fuel cell. So instead of using the heat to make hot water, for example, the heat is fed back into make electricity, according to the company.

Another significant technical achievement is that Bloom Energy's system doesn't use expensive materials, notably platinum which is used as a catalyst in many types of fuel cells. Bloom Energy is cagey on exactly what it uses but says that the fuel cells use a ceramic made from sand and inks. Researchers have been trying to make fuel cells without platinum for years. Another company trying to make a low-cost fuel cell catalyst is SunCatalytix, a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, although it's a very different technical approach.

Cost. So why all the fuss over a well understood technology? Because Bloom Energy has said that it can deliver its electricity at between 8 cents and 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, including the cost of ongoing maintenance. In many parts of the country, that's cheaper that the grid rate. Because fuel cells are their own source of juice, they also offer back up power in the case that there is a grid outage.

According to Bloom Energy's data, companies which purchase this sort of system can earn back the initial outlay of between $700,000 and $800,000 for a 100 kilowatt system in three to five years. A 100-kilowatt system could be enough to power 10 U.S. homes or a small business, such as a Starbucks, according to the company. But keep in mind, that its stated cost per kilowatt assumes subsidies as high as 50 percent of the initial cost and natural gas prices of $7 per million BTUs, according to an interview. Still, Sridhar claims it can drive down the cost steadily and that it can compete without subsidies in the future.

Given that these fuel cell boxes require a hefty upfront cost, the most obvious customers for these mini-power stations are businesses and utilities, not consumers. Companies can afford to make relatively long-term energy purchasing decisions, particularly if there are economic incentives to buy cleaner sources of energy. Unless a company fixes into a long-term contract for gas, the cost of power from a Bloom Energy Server will vary with the cost of natural gas, which has been volatile in recent years, so fuel cells don't have the same predictability that a solar array would have. On the other hand, on-site solar panels cannot deliver electricity at all times of the day as a fuel cell can.

Bloom Energy executives said that utilities could be interested in purchasing relatively large-scale units to, perhaps, power a neighborhood. One advantage is that a utility would not need to build more transmission lines to meet the growing demand in a specific region. On the other hand, utilities are typically very conservative in adopting different technology. And although Bloom Energy has raised some $400 million, it's still a start-up in the eyes of risk-averse commercial customers.

Sridar told 60 Minutes that he would like Bloom to bring down the cost of a 10-kilowatt fuel cell to less than $3,000 in five years, which brings it into the buying range of homeowners. For somebody who needs reliable back up power or wants to promote cleaner energy technologies, that could be interesting, although that price has not been reached. Another open question for all customers is how reliable these systems will be over ten years of use.

How clean is it? Bloom Energy says that its fuel cells convert about 50 percent of the energy in incoming fuel into usable power, which is the equivalent of a 40 percent to 100 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions compared to centralized power generation. Fuel cells, which operate without combustion, greatly reduce or eliminate smog-producing and other air pollutants as well. But IDC Energy Insights analyst Sam Jaffe points out natural gas power plants can operate near 60 percent efficiency, making the overall efficiency about the same as a Bloom box even after losses of energy in transmission lines are figured in.

That's not to say that Bloom Energy's claims over "clean energy" are bogus. About half of the U.S. gets is electricity from burning coal which produces more carbon emissions and has other environmental problems.

Bloom Energy has also indicated that it can make power using solar energy, which would make it a very clean source of power. During the press conference, Sridar said that the company has technology to convert solar-generated power into hydrogen, which could be used to run its fuel cells to make electricity. In this scenario, the Bloom Energy Server is not only a source of power but also an energy storage device. However, given the cost of the system, he expects the technology won't be commercially viable for eight to 10 years.

Given the technology and the fact that Bloom already has brand-name customers, you can see why it's been so hyped. Having raised hundreds of millions of dollars and not saying a word for eight years also helped build the mystique around what they are doing.

Although company executives say that the Bloom box won't need subsidies forever, the fact is that it does right now. That means its commercial success will rely on those incentives in the short term and companies willing to buy fuel cells because they are relatively clean and reliable sources of on-site power. Also, the company will need sales to scale up from serving a handful of customers to produce higher volumes.

At the very least, Bloom brings fuel cells back into the picture for powering buildings. Given the cost and my needs, I don't expect on installing one in my backyard any time soon. But then again, many people didn't think they'd need PCs at home 25 years ago either.
Source: news.cnet.com

Google develops prototype mirror for solar energy

2010-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

Google has developed a prototype for a new mirror technology that could cut by half the cost of building a solar thermal plant, the company's green energy czar said on Friday.

Bill Weihl said that if development and testing go well, he could see the product being ready in one to three years.

"Things have progressed," Weihl said in an interview. "We have an internal prototype."

Bill Weihl, Google's green-energy czar.

(Credit: Google)

Google has been looking at unusual materials for the mirror's reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted.

In solar thermal technology, the sun's energy is used to heat a substance that produces steam to run a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun's rays on the heated substance.

The Internet search engine company, which has been investing in companies and doing research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy, wants to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun.

"There is a decent chance that in a small number of years, we could have a 2-X reduction in cost," he said.

Global companies are increasingly investing in green technology as the world grapples with global warming and governments strive to implement regulations that could limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Google has invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar and BrightSource, with which it has discussed the new mirror technology, Weihl said.

He said the technology was not at a stage where it could be tested externally, but he added that both eSolar and BrightSource were interested in it.

"If it works, it would absolutely be something they would use," he said.

Source: news.cnet.com

Key senators do not see climate bill in 2010

2010-02-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Senate is unlikely to pass a comprehensive climate change bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this year, according to a Reuters survey of 12 key Democrat and Republican Senators who could hold the swing votes.

While the Obama administration and a bipartisan core of senators still hope there is life for a climate change bill that would put a price on carbon emissions and help reinvigorate ailing international talks, the senators interviewed by Reuters this week were much more pessimistic.

The survey underscores that global warming--a scientific finding still hotly disputed by many Americans--could end up being set aside by politicians focusing on issues that hold more appeal to voters ahead of congressional elections in November.

"The economy has got to be given a major boost, particularly when it comes to jobs. I think that's going to be our focus," said senior Democratic Senator Carl Levin. His home state of Michigan is suffering from high unemployment and manufacturers there fear the higher energy prices a climate bill would bring could make things even worse.

"And if we can do something on health care this year, those two things are going to use up most of the oxygen. So it's hard for me to see how we get to the climate issue," Levin said.

If the Senate fails this year to pass a bill reducing domestic carbon dioxide pollution, which is blamed for global warming, it would be a further blow to global negotiators seeking to cobble together a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

It also would put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in charge, at least for the time being, of forcing such pollution controls. But even EPA this week notified Congress it would move somewhat more slowly with regulations and only against the big polluters.

As Congress returned to Washington from a week-long recess, Reuters queried 16 of the 100 senators this week, most of whom had not yet announced whether they would support or oppose specific climate legislation. As swing votes, they would be the focus of any upcoming Senate fight to pass a bill.

Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana "doesn't think the climate bill will pass this year," a spokesman for the senator said. "I believe it is highly unlikely the Senate will pass a climate bill this year...it will be especially hard given the fragile state of the economy," said fellow Republican George Voinovich of Ohio.

Dynamic still could change
The sober assessment comes despite the latest effort to forge consensus by a trio of senators across the spectrum--Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham, and independent Joseph Lieberman--and after President Barack Obama offered additional measures to entice Republicans, including federal loan guarantees to help pay for more power plants.

After months of work, the senators still haven't produced a bill they think can win broad support, although they say one will be unveiled soon. The House of Representatives passed a bill that included a contentious cap-and-trade mechanism last June, surprising many who thought a consensus could not be reached.

Kerry, admitting he was bucking "conventional wisdom," said that a compromise bill "can change the debate."

Lugar, Voinovich, and Levin were among a dozen of the 16 senators surveyed who see little hope for legislation to cap and then slowly cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming and require power plants, oil refineries, and other sectors of the economy to have pollution permits.

The Senate's rules that usually require 60 votes to pass controversial legislation such as climate change also present a major hurdle.

However, while lawmakers see little hope of the Senate approving a climate change bill this year, they are more optimistic about a stand-alone energy bill that would expand offshore drilling, support building more nuclear power plants, and require a portion of U.S. electricity supplies to be generated by renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. A Senate panel already has approved such a bill.

"It takes so many votes to get something through and I think there's more unity on energy than there is on climate change when it comes to this body," said Democrat Ben Nelson from Nebraska.

Lawmakers are responding not only to the political realities, but to their constituents, who are showing diminishing concern about global warming.

The proportion of people who believe global warming is probably a hoax more than doubled since 2008 to 16 percent of the American public, according to a survey released this week by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities.

Those who are most certain that global warming is happening and caused by humans has fallen to 10 percent from 18 percent.

"Gloomy unemployment numbers, public frustration with Washington, attacks on climate science and mobilized opposition to national climate legislation represent a 'perfect storm' of events that have diminished public concerns about global warming--even among the alarmed," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change.

Even long-time supporters of legislation to fight global warming, like Democrat Dianne Feinstein from California, appear to be throwing in the towel for this year.

"I do want a climate bill," said Feinstein. But when pressed further on whether the Senate would likely pass a bill this year, she admitted: "No, but we should."

Source: news.cnet.com

Vermont bucks Obama's nuclear call by voting to shut plant

2010-02-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

Vermont is bucking President Obama's call to revive the nuclear power industry by voting to shutter its only nuclear plant.

On Wednesday, its senators became the first legislators in the United States to vote on a nuclear plant's future. By a 26-4 vote, they opposed a 20-year extension of Vermont Yankee's license, which expires in March 2012.

Vermont is the only state that requires its House, Senate and governor to approve a nuclear plant's extension, according toStateline.org. In most states, such decisions are made by state regulators or the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The vote comes one week after Obama offered $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build two new nuclear reactors in Burke, Ga., which -- if approved -- would be the first such nuclear plant construction in three decades.

Vermont Yankee, which provides about a third of the state's power, has drawn controversy. In January, the plant announced it was leaking tritium into groundwater near the plant. This is a radioactive substance that can be dangerous if ingested in large quantities.

Plant officials later acknowledged misleading investigators while under oath. A criminal investigation by the state attorney general ensued.

Anti-nuclear activists, who lobbied legislators to oppose the plant's extension, hailed the vote. Vermont Yankee and its owner, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., remained defiant.

"The effort to win a 20-year renewal of Vermont Yankee's operating license is far from over," company spokesman Larry Smith said in a statement reported by the Associated Press. "We remain determined to prove our case to the Legislature, state officials and the Vermont public."

Unless the Vermont Senate reverses itself, Vermont Yankee will be the first nuclear power plant to go offline since 1998, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Source: usatoday.com

Bloom box challenges: Reliability, cost

2010-02-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

In the wake of Wednesday's star-studded, feel-good rollout of Bloom Energy's "Bloom box" server, the start-up now faces the gritty task of delivering products that are reliable and cheap.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Bloom Energy held a press event Wednesday morning detailing the Bloom box fuel cell, which is designed to be stacked into small blocks and housed in a unit about the size of a refrigerator. Luminaries in attendance included California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr, Google co-founder Larry Page, and top executives from heavyweight companies such as eBay, Wal-Mart, and FedEx.

The combination within the Bloom box of oxygen and fuel creates a chemical reaction, producing electricity. The box, which promises to deliver generous amounts of power in a small space and to change people's dependency on traditional power grids--all for less than $3,000 for a home unit--is already in use at places such as Google, eBay, and Wal-Mart.

Probably the single most fundamental promise made by Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar at Wednesday's event was that by starting with a 25-watt fuel cell building block, products can be scaled up from 1kW "home" solutions to systems delivering hundreds of kilowatts for businesses or communities.

Source: news.cnet.com