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The city of San Francisco put the pedal to the metal on its commitment to using and buying solar power this week, choosing Recurrent Energy to build what will be the country's third-largest solar photovoltaic system.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission selected Recurrent Energy to install 30,000 solar panels on the roof of the Sunset Reservoir, and on top of a recycling facility at Pier 96 along thew waterfront of San Francisco's famous bay front.
Good to see the city by the bay leading the way in solar devlopment.
DuPont and Genencor of Palo Alto, CA have announced they are working together to create the World's-Leading Cellulosic EthanolCompany. Why is this important? Well as you may have read lately there is a large debate over making ethanol from existing food stocks and causing shortages and price in creases for those items such as corn and sugar.
If these companies can create viable ethanol product using no food stock sources then it will mean a boom to our economy of energy production and not a bust.
Here is the announcement of the joint venture:
DuPont and Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, today announced an agreement to form DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a 50/50 global joint venture to develop and commercialize the leading, low-cost technology solution for the production of cellulosic ethanol — a next generation biofuel produced from non-food sources – to address a $75 billion global market opportunity.
The partners plan an initial three-year investment of US$140 million, which will initially target corn stover and sugar cane bagasse. Future targets include multiple ligno-cellulosic feedstocks including wheat straw, a variety of energy crops and other biomass sources.
“With food and gas prices surging at double-digit rates, there is an imperative for sustainable biofuels technologies. This joint venture addresses this issue head on,” said DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday, Jr. “By integrating our companies’ strengths and expertise in this new venture, we are significantly increasing the potential to make cellulosic ethanol from multiple non-food sources an economic reality around the world.”
“By combining the world-class capabilities of DuPont and Danisco, our joint venture will offer the technology standard for cellulosic ethanol production,” said Danisco CEO Tom Knutzen. “This joint venture will be a powerhouse of discovery, development and engineering. It represents a major step forward in Danisco’s new strategic intent to be a leading force in the field of industrial biotechnology.”
Through the scientists and technologies of both companies, DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC will launch an accelerated effort to integrate the unique cellulosic processing capabilities of both companies to economically produce ethanol from non-food sources. The parent companies will license their combined existing intellectual property and patents related to cellulosic ethanol. The goal is to maximize efficiency and lower the overall system cost to produce a gallon of ethanol from cellulosic materials by optimizing the process steps into a single integrated technology solution.
In the United States, the joint venture will scale up an optimized technology package for corn cobs from integrating the proprietary DuPont pretreatment and ethanologen technologies with the innovative enzyme technology of Genencor, while DuPont continues to analyze the collection and storage of cellulosic feedstocks. The global joint venture expects its first pilot plant to be operational in the United States in 2009, and its first commercial-scale demonstration facility to be operational within the next three years. The joint venture will be headquartered in the United States and will be formed after receipt of required regulatory approvals.
The joint venture will license its technology package directly to ethanol producers for deployment in the United States and around the world, as well as through the establishment of regional cellulosic ethanol affiliates. The regional ethanol affiliates will invest in equity interests with strategic partners, including ethanol producers and energy companies, to enable the rapid deployment of the joint venture’s cellulosic ethanol technology at commercial scale. The joint venture’s technology package can be used both as a “bolt-on” to an existing ethanol plant — expanding its capacity to accept cellulosic feedstocks — or as the design basis for a stand-alone cellulosic ethanol facility. The joint venture expects to enable production of commercial volumes of cellulosic ethanol by 2012.
Imagine that. The DOE has come out with a report that actually supports wind power and the role it could play in our energy strategy going forward. Instead of belittling it as an energy source as many have in the past the DOE study shows that wind power could help get us up to 20% of our energy supply by the year 2030.
"To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale level will be necessary, and will require us to take a comprehensive approach to scaling renewable wind power, streamlining siting and permitting processes, and expanding the domestic wind manufacturing base," said Andy Karsner, DOE assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The report, "20% Wind Energy by 2030," was released Monday.
Now of course there are obstacles to overcome in this wind development, such as building transmission lines, the pace of building turbines would have to quicken significantly, and the industries ability to ramp up would have to be increased. But the bottom line is that it is a positive step in the right direction. Instead of saying these energy sources won't help we are now saying let's give it a go and that is the right way to approach it in my opinion.
Still, the benefits are clear. Supplying 20 percent of our electricity from wind could reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the electric sector by 825 million metric tons, according to the report. It would also reduce water used in electricity generation, while reducing demand for fossil fuels.
Other impacts the DOE notes are a new source of income for rural landowners from leasing land for wind farms, tax revenues for municipalities in local communities, and the creation of well-paying jobs in a green industry.
Several new instructions and guidelines as well as laws or local regulations have been enforced since the early 1980's. Each state differs in laws and penalties for windmill power. Before you invest time and money in a windmill, find out these important facts.
Although wind turbines have gained a lot of acceptance in the United States, locally you might have ordinances that regulate free standing wind turbines like height or noise restrictions. But these ordinances aren't extensive to the point of making it impossible to own a wind turbine. Some consumers read more into the regulations and guideline laws than they need to. Taken in the right perspective, a homeowner can have a wind turbine and still abide by these laws, in most cases.
Almost every state has restrictions, including a law that wind turbine fields cannot be built where birds are migrating. The state with the most conflict on building and raising windmills is California. There have been a few documented cases of lawsuits over windmills and their existence in different counties. Out of all the arguments made against wind turbines there is one point that is addressed by almost every state: how wind turbines affect the scenery. However, small wind turbines are being installed all over the United States without permits or fees to any government agencies.
Would you like to listen to the keynote speech by General Motors’ Larry Burns in which he makes a call for a vast expansion of hydrogen stations to fuel the current and future generations of fuel cell vehicles? As a result of recent studies completed with Shell Hydrogen, he stated with confidence that a hydrogen fueling infrastructure is less challenging and less costly than many people think.
Last month, the National Hydrogen Association wrapped up its Annual Conference and Hydrogen Expo, held this year in Sacramento, California.
H2Gen’s Sandy Thomas presented the findings of a comprehensive, life cycle analysis of hybrid, plug-in, ethanol and hydrogen vehicles showing that while all of these fuel and technology pathways should be pursued for near-term benefits.
Will be used to fuel SMUD hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as well as others in the region
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is taking a bold step into the future of
automotive technology. Earlier this month SMUD formally opened a solar-powered hydrogen fueling
station for fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV).
The station is part of a joint SMUD, BP, Ford and U.S. Department of Energy project to
demonstrate FCEVs and generation of hydrogen from renewable sources. The station produces hydrogen
onsite using power from the sun produced by a large solar panel array. The hydrogen will be used to fuel
SMUD FCEVs and other hydrogen-powered vehicles in the region. The project is the next step in a
nearly two-decade-long effort by SMUD to improve local air quality by advancing alternative-fuel clean
transportation, as well as cleaner power sources.
