Podcast about Solar Thermal
Renewable Energy World did an in depth podcast on the solar thermal earlier this year that I just listened to last week. It’s a good listen for anyone interested in solar energy technoloogy to heat their domestic hot water, what types of technology are out there, and some important things to consider before selecting a solar thermal system.
Listen to the Podcast: Realizing the Potential of Solar Thermal
Small Wind Turbine Federal Tax Credit is Law
Small Wind Turbine Federal Tax Credit is Law (GEO)
The legislation signed into law on October 3, 2008 — the Energy Improvement and Extension Act as part of (i.e. Division B) H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 — also includes a new federal investment tax credit to help consumers purchase small wind turbines for home, farm, or business use. Owners of small wind systems with 100 kilowatts (kW) of capacity and less can receive a credit for 30% of the total installed cost of the system, not to exceed $4,000. The credit will be available for equipment installed from today through December 31, 2016. For turbines used for homes, the credit is limited to the lesser of $4,000 or $1,000 per kW of capacity.
Earlier this week I posted another entry about this legislation with respect to the extension and expansion of a similar credit for the solar industry that was first passed in 2005. Residential and commercial solar PV installations can receive a 30% credit, capped at $4,000 for residential applications and uncapped for commercial uses.
Provisions of solar investment tax credit (ITC) extension & expansion
Last week I highlighted some of the energy-related tax incentives that passed with the bailout bill earlier this month. One of those incentives is the 8-yr extension and expansion of the solar investment tax credit (ITC).
Federal Solar Tax Credits Extended for 8 Years (Green Energy Ohio)
This landmark legislation is part of H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, designed to address the U.S. financial crisis. It is the most significant federal policy ever enacted for the solar industry. The solar investment tax credit (ITC) provisions will:
- Extend for 8 years the 30-percent tax credit for both residential and commercial solar installations;
- Eliminate the $2,000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations, creating a true 30-percent tax credit (effective for property placed in service after December 31, 2008);
- Eliminate the prohibition on utilities from benefiting from the credit;
- Allow Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) filers, both businesses and individuals, to take the credit;
- Authorize $800 million for clean energy bonds for renewable energy generating facilities, including solar.
According to a Navigant Consulting report, extending the ITC is expected to create 440,000 jobs and encourage $325 billion of private investment in the solar industry.
House of Representatives approves offshore-drilling bill…
What’s in the House offshore-drilling bill?
(Christian Science Monitor)
The House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday September 16th, 2008 that would relax the federal ban on offshore drilling and try to expand renewable energy.
The bill, which was adopted by a vote of 236 to 189, was backed by Democrats, who long fought the lifting of the 26-year ban but have been under intense political pressure to look as though they are taking steps to ease high gas prices. Republicans, whose vociferous calls for expanded offshore drilling have been met with widespread public approval, opposed the bill, claiming that it did not offer enough financial incentives to coastal states. On the final roll call, 221 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted for the bill; 176 Republicans and 13 Democrats voted against it.
The 290-page Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act, as the bill is known, contains a number of important provisions. Here’s a succinct breakdown from Christian Science Monitor.
Impacts of Increased Access to U.S. Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Resources
I recently looked into the prospect of additional offshore U.S. oil and natural gas resources. Lifting the moratorium would increase access to oil and gas fields in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. President Bush recently lifted the executive moratorium, which was set to expire in 2012. The Congressional moratorium comes in the form of an annual appropriations rider. It must be renewed year to year by a vote in the Congress. The current 2008 ban is set to expire on September 30th, 2008 – the end of the federal government’s fiscal year – unless Congress approves a bill extending the ban and the president signs it into law. This post looks at the impact of increased access to offshore areas, based on estimates made by the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Minerals Management Service.
The first thing that jumped out at me in Table 10 is that most of the technically recoverable, undiscovered offshore oil and natural gas resources are currently open to oil and gas companies for leasing and drilling. These areas are located mostly in the western and central Gulf of Mexico.
The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) leasing program is administered by the Minerals Management Service (MMS), an agency within the US Department of the Interior responsible for oil and gas leasing in the US offshore. MMS estimates that there are currently 85.9 billion barrels of oil and 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are technically recoverable from all federal offshore areas, including 26.6 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore Alaska.
The oil and gas offshore Alaska is available for leasing and development. Therefore, the total portion of technically recoverable, undiscovered, offshore oil and natural gas that is available for leasing and development from all federal offshore areas, including offshore Alaska, is 67.5 billion barrels oil (79%) and 342.4 trillion cubic feet gas (82%). The offshore moratorium denies access to the other 21% of oil and 18% of gas from federal offshore areas.
In addition to the technically recoverable, undiscovered oil and natural gas resources estimated in Table 10, as of October 2, 2006 there were 3,911 active oil and natural gas production platforms on the Gulf of Mexico’s Federal OCS as illustrated in the following figures.
Active Oil & Gas Platforms in Western Gulf of Mexico
Active Oil & Gas Platforms in Eastern Gulf of Mexico
In the U.S. EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2007, an “OCS access case” was prepared to examine the potential impacts of lifting Federal restrictions on access to OCS oil and natural gas resources in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The OCS access case assumes that the current moratoria will expire in 2012, leasing will begin by 2012, and oil and natural gas production will begin by 2017.
Offshore oil production (Figure 20) is projected at 2.4 million barrels per day by 2030 in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in the reference case. EIA notes that oil prices are determined on the international market, so any impact on average oil wellhead prices would be insignificant in the OCS access case.
Offshore natural gas production (Figure 21) is projected to increase 18% (0.6 trillion ft^3 per year) in the OCS access case by 2030, and the average wellhead price of natural gas is projected to decrease slightly: $0.13 / MCF (2005 dollars per thousand cubic feet) by 2030.
One precaution, the OCS access case in Figure 20 and Figure 21 only account for off-shore production in the U.S. However, domestic on-shore production is more predominant than offshore — over 3/4 of the natural gas and over 1/2 of the oil produced in the U.S. are projected to come from onshore fields even in the OCS access case.
Total domestic production in the U.S. (i.e. offshore and onshore) is projected at 6 million barrels per day of oil, and 19 trillion ft^3 per year of natural gas, by 2030; so the overall projected increase in domestic production — 0.2 mmbpd more oil and 0.6 trillion ft^3 more gas — would only provide the U.S. with approximately 3% more oil and 3% more natural gas by 2030.
One other precaution according to the EIA summary, the average field size in the Pacific and Atlantic regions tends to be smaller than the average in the Gulf of Mexico. This implies that a significanct portion of the newly available fields in the OCS access case would provide less attractive return on investments than fields that are already available for exploration in the western and central Gulf of Mexico.
Building a 1000 Watt Wind Turbine (part 1)
This post kicks off a new category of entries on energy self-sufficiency and “homebrew” projects. Nothing is more inspiring than do-it-yourself stories. This entry includes the first set of photos of a windmill construction project sent to me by my fiance’s freind’s brother-in-law, who is building a 1000 Watt wind turbine in his backyard. The plans for his wind turbine come from www.otherpower.com — which is actually a very interesting site for anyone interested in installing or building a wind turbine, or anyone who wants to read about Options for Getting Started in Wind Power. A few pictures of the stator windings, spindle, yaw bearing and tail pivot are shown below. I will definitely try to follow this project and post any additional pictures provided by the wind turbine builder!
Remote, off-grid dwellers have found wind power to be an excellent complement to solar power because the wind often blows at night and during cloudy weather. Even on-grid folks may install wind turbines to offset the rising cost of electric power from the grid. You can find the average wind speed at your geographic location using average wind speed map from NREL, which will show you how much wind power you might be able to harness before you consider building a wind turbine.
According to the Small Wind Turbine Basics series, statistical wind speed distribution in most locations worldwide is typically represented by a Weibull or simplified Rayleigh distribution curve. The Weibul distribution of wind speeds image on the left is fairly common.
Wind power is directly proportional to turbine diameter squared x wind speed cubed.
The Small Wind Turbine Basics series explains what kind of power you can expect from common small turbine diameters and wind speeds.
In a 10 mph wind (very common), there are 100 Watts of power available with a 5 foot diameter wind turbine. Betz lowers this to 59.26 Watts, and with Klemen’s “good” turbine losses we are down to at most 35 watts of output. That’s only enough power to fire up a couple of efficient CF light bulbs. By comparison, a 10 foot turbine has 401 Watts available, 238 W with a “perfect” turbine, and 140W output in an excellent turbine design. Much better, but not anything that’s going to make your electric meter run backwards! A “good” 20-foot turbine could possibly give 740W at 10 mph.
When we double the wind speed to 20 mph, the exponential increase in power available becomes apparent 280 possible Watts from a “good” 5-footer, 1,100W from a 10-footer, and 5,900W from a 20-footer. Now we are talking some real power for a sailboat or cabin (the 5-foot machine), an off-grid home (the 10-foot machine), or an on-grid house trying to offset the power bill (the 20-foot machine). Of course it varies by location, but on a good wind power day that most people would call breezy, the wind will usually be between 10 and 20 mph.
Advertised wind turbine ratings in terms of Watts are commonly based on peak output in high winds of 28-30 mph, which are relatively rare.
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EIA: Retail Prices
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