Innovative wind turbine prototype features aerospace technology
Wilbraham, MA-based FloDesign Wind Turbine, a spin-off from the aerospace and defense company, FloDesign, is building a full-scale prototype for demonstration, a 12ft diameter, 10KW turbine. According to MIT Technology Review, the company intends to build turbines as large as one megawatt, yet it is unclear how much it will cost to build and maintain the turbine before it goes to market.
FloDesign Wind Turbine has raised several million dollars of venture financing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the massive U.S. private equity firm that Al Gore joined as a partner late last year.
According to FloDesign president Stanley Kowalski, the new technology has vast potential to bring wind power to areas where it is currently impractical.
More on FloDesign:
westernmassedc.com — FloDesign Has Innovation Down to a Science
How to shop for lower-priced natural gas
You’ve weatherized your home or apartment but your gas bills still seem high. What else can you do? Yes you can always put on an extra sweater and pair of socks and lower your thermostat a couple degrees. However, you can also shop for lower-priced natural gas…
For information on the status of natural gas residential choice programs in your State, check the EIA’s Status of Natural Gas Residential Choice Programs by State as of December 2007. Click on the link and then click on your state for details.
You may live in a state that has “unbundled” the natural gas commodity from the distribution service. In states with unbundled prices, the sale of the natural gas commodity is deregulated, which means that you can refer to a list of suplliers in your area and find the best deal. It just takes a couple phone calls to check on competitors’ rates, and then you can lock-in to a fixed rate for a year (e.g. $11.99 per thousand cubic feet or MCF of gas).
It’s easy to do. Your local distribution company (LDC) or public utility commission representatives can help you do it. You will save money and rest assured that you are getting the best deal in your area.
In states with complete unbundling, once you choose a gas supplier, your local distribution company will continue to provide local distribution services, as well as a unified billing service for you.
Lies, Damn Lies, and… Henry Gifford critical of LEED study
Henry Gifford, a maverick NYC mechanical systems designer, has written a highly critical objection to the first broad study done by the US Green Building Coucil (USGBC). The study intended to determine how much energy LEED rated buildings actually used.
USGBC commissioned the New Buildings Institute (NBI) of Vancouver, Washington, to conduct the study, Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings, which claimed that “On average, LEED buildings are 25-30% more efficient than non-LEED buildings.”
Gifford has presented a different analysis, critical of the USGBC / NBI study. Gifford suggests that in reality the LEED rated buildings are, on average, 29% less efficient than average U.S. buildings. If you haven’t seen Gifford’s presentation, it’s worth a watch (youtube clip below). The full critique, “A Better Way to Rate Green Buildings“, is also available on his website, along with the US Green Building Council’s response to Gifford’s criticique in an e-mail that USGBC sent to its chapter leaders, and Gifford’s rebuttal to the USGBC response.
Gifford points out a few flaws in the study…
California: First State to Mandate Disclosure of Energy Use at Time of Building Transaction
California is the first state to mandate disclosure of commercial buildings’ energy use to prospective buyers, lessees, or lenders, and it is requiring building owners to use the EPA ENERGY STAR online tool, Portfolio Manager, to get the job done. A new California law, Assembly Bill 1103, requires all commercial building owners or operators to disclose their buildings’ benchmarking data and Portfolio Manager performance rating to prospective buyers, lessees of entire buildings, or lenders starting in 2010. The state also has broken new ground by requiring all state-owned buildings to be benchmarked with Portfolio Manager.
BuildingGreen.com – Regulations Demanding Actual Data Are Leapfrogging LEED
BYD Adds Plug-In as China Gets Edge on Toyota, GM
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — BYD Co., the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett, started selling the world’s first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, gaining an edge on Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. in electric-powered vehicles.
The F3 DM can run for 100 kilometers (62 miles) using only batteries, Shenzhen-based BYD said in a statement today. Toyota plans to begin testing plug-ins, which can be recharged from household powerpoints, late next year, it said in August. GM aims to start selling the Volt plug-in in late 2010.
Play video of F3 DM car.
Rapid expansion of geothermal energy resources underway in Western U.S.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. electric power plants generated approximately 4 billion Megawatthours of electricity in 2006, and about 0.4% of that total came from geothermal power…
But that half percent is growing with large capital investments from investors such as Warren Buffett, Google, and others. A lot of the new investment is in the United States, where more than 80% of the country’s 3,000 geothermal megawatts lies in California.
In October, the Bureau of Land Management announced plans to offer more than 190 million acres of federal lands for geothermal leasing, potentially resulting in a tripling of U.S. geothermal power capacity by 2015.
Interior Department’s estimates of potential geothermal power production may actually be low, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In late September, the USGS released its first assessment of geothermal resources in more than 30 years. The study found that identified geothermal resources in the West could produce 9,057 MW of power, while another 30,033 MW of power could be generated from conventional geothermal resources that have not yet been discovered. The use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, which involves creating or expanding a geothermal resource through the high-pressure injection of a fluid, opens another 517,800 MW to potential development. For comparison, the U.S. currently has an installed geothermal power capacity of about 2,500 MW.
Raser Technologies, Inc. recently announced that it completed major construction of its Thermo geothermal plant, the first commercial geothermal power plant built in Utah in more than two decades. The 10-megawatt facility combined 50 modular, low-temperature PureCycle power units from UTC Power, United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), allowing power plant construction in just a few months.
Utah is also slated to host a new 100-megawatt geothermal power plant, to be located on lands owned by the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, and many other geothermal plants are springing up across the Western U.S.
Smart appliances and dynamic demand in the US and the UK
In the the first quarter of 2009, General Electric will introduce a suite of ”smart” appliances or energy management enabled appliances that will receive a signal from the local utility and react based on the appliance’s internal programming. GE needs utility companies to collaborate in this endeavor. There are over 3,000 utilities in the US. GE is currently conducting a pilot program in Louisville, KY in partnership with Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E).
A similar pilot program in the UK will evaluate smart fridges. The electric and gas utility npower, is working with the RLtec to trial a dynamic demand program that substitutes load response for generation station response, balances supply and demand, improves the thermal efficiency of the electric grid, facilitates renewable generation integration, and mitigates system faults, all with no discernable impact on load performance. In the first phase of the UK program, 300 fridges fitted with RLtec’s technology will be distributed to npower consumers. Eventually the trial program will deploy 3,000 fridges and freezers of different types and models and assess the benefits of the technolgy.
Hawaii signs agreement for statewide electric car infrastructure
Hawaiian Electric Companies and Better Place signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on both the infrastructure and the energy sources to power Better Place’s unique network of public charging spots and battery swapping stations with renewable energy. Hawaiian Electric is the first utility in the United States to sign an agreement with Better Place. The partnership will enable the island to capitalize on abundant renewable energy resources with statewide deployment of the electrical vehicle infrastructure.
Better Place, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, will build the car recharging stations and provide recharged batteries for electric cars.
Hawaii currently uses petroleum to generate about 3/4 of it’s electricity! In terms of vehicle miles / BTU energy input, vehicles powered by electricity are typically more efficient than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles. But the island would need to increase it’s proportion of renewable resources and coal in order to truly ween itself from imported oil. Imported oil and coal are extremely expensive in Hawaii, so the island is expected to develop greater renewable resource capacity with its ample access to solar, wind, wave and geothermal power.
American Municipal Power-Ohio Inc. adding hydroelectric plants along Ohio River
HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — Many decades ago, cost-conscious Henry Ford turned to hydroelectric plants to power his car factories like the one by the Great Miami River, near this Cincinnati suburb. That assembly plant is long gone, but the power plant and the technology behind it isn’t. Read More.
AMP is preparing to construct five hydroelectric power plants at existing dams along the Ohio River (see map), totaling an overall investment of nearly $2 billion.
For more information:
Mandates driving surge to the river for hydropower
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EIA: Retail Prices
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