Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• Toyota aims to build a small car with a bioplastic body made of seaweed. The vehicle would be based on the Japanese automaker's 926-pound 1/X plug-in hybrid concept car which has a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic body made from oil. A Toyota manager sees a future for new car materials manufactured from plants, saying he wants to create such a car from seaweed because Japan is surrounded by the sea.
• Portugal's Energias de Portugal and Seattle-based Principle Power Inc. plan a utility-scale, deepwater floating wind farm offshore Portugal but details for now are slim. Principle Power would first install a single "WindFloat" platform for a technology demonstration. The company also plans to build a 150-megawatt deepwater wind farm off the  Oregon coast.
• Closer to home, the popular Muir Woods National Monument across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco will revamp its cafe in the redwoods park to a sustainable menu and toss out bottled water, soda, refined sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. All the provisions will come from within 50 miles, mostly from Marin Organic, an association of organic producers in Marin County. Local farmers will also meet with park visitors. We'll be on alert for similar steps at other state and national parks.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• It's tough times for makers of wind and solar power equipment. The credit crisis and deep recession are a double whammy forcing manufacturers to lay off workers as prices for turbines and solar panels fall, while industry groups forecast 30 to 50 percent declines in installation of new equipment. Wind and solar companies hope that President Obama's stimulus bill will help but it will take time.
• The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) will supply Xcel Energy with wind forecasts to help the utility maximize power production from Xcel wind farms in Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. "One of the major obstacles that has prevented more widespread use of wind energy is the difficulty in predicting when and how strongly the wind will blow," William Mahoney, program director for the research center, tells Reuters. NCAR will develop the wind forecast system over the next 18 months; forecasts will be provided every three hours.
• More wind news: A company called WePOWER plans to place advertisements on its PacWind turbine blades. Each of the turbine's air foil blades will reflect an image and as the blades spin on a vertical axis the images will appear to move, creating an animated ad. "If the estimated 500,000 billboards that are currently found along U.S. highways were to adopt the Windvertising branded media platform, these billboards, at an average speed of 10 miles per hour, would generate roughly 16.8 billion kWh of electricity. At this level they could power approximately 1.5 million homes and would reduce about 5.3 million tons of CO2 from being emitted into the air per year," WePOWER says, adding it will erect its fist Windvertiser in Times Square in the coming weeks.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• Green cars were in the spotlight at the Detroit auto show this week, with Toyota's small electric car -- the Furure Toyota Electric Vehicle, or FTEV -- attracting a lot of attention. The FTEV is to go on the market in 2012, Toyota's first electric car in the U.S. since an electric version of its RAV-4 sport utility vehicle was around between 1997 and 2003. Toyota is aiming the FTEV at the growing market for car-sharing such as CityCarShare in San Francisco and Zipcar, but setting up enough recharging stations could be a  hurdle.
• Stanford University is adding a $100 million energy research institute to its climate and energy efficiency projects, with the financing coming from three alumni. The new Precourt Institute for Energy will develop new solar cells, other energy technologies and ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Stanford also has a $225 million climate and energy center funded by Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Toyota and Schlumberger.
• A 10-megawatt solar powr plant, the largest in the Middle East, will supply the first electricity to Abu Dhabi's $22 billion Masdar City, a planned carbon-neutral "green" home for 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. The $50 million plant would save 15,000 tons of carbon emissions a year. No cars will be allowed in the desert city. U.S.-based First Solar Inc. will supply half of the plant's solar panels and power production is to begin this year.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• California is beginning the new year with a requirement for new 2009 cars sold in the state to display a sticker that shows information on the vehicle's environmental impact. The sticker will provide a global warming score and a smog score on a 1-to-10 scale, with 10 the best score and 5 the average. The California Air Resources Board has set up a consumer Website with more information on the cleanest and most efficient cars.
• Toyota Motor Corp. is said to be secretly developing a solar-powered car. Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes, Japan's Nikkei newspaper says. Toyota also plans a car powered totally by solar cells on the vehicle.
• Two electric utilities in Europe are offering their customers plans to purchase carbon-free electricity generated at nuclear power plants. Germany's R.W.E. utility is marketing a purchase plan that promises customers 70 percent of their power will come from nuclear generation with the remainder from hydroelectricity and renewable energies. Finland's Fortum power company offers two plans for business customers in Finland and Sweden -- Fortum Carbon Free, a mix of nuclear and hydropower, and Fortum Renewable, a blend of renewable resources.

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

The amount of solar energy PG&E will deliver to its customer in 2009 just increased today with our purchase of 10 megawatts of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar energy from Sempra Generation. Sempra Generation's El Dorado Energy Solar facility is located in Nevada on 80 acres of desert property designated as a renewable energy zone and adjacent to the company's existing gas-fired power plant. Completed today, this solar facility is expected to begin renewable power deliveries to PG&E by January 1, 2009.

In addition to being PG&E's first contracted solar project to come online, Sempra Generation can now boast of having the largest thin-film solar power installation in North America. The facility features more than 167,000 of First Solar's PV modules. A Pacific Crest equity analyst claims that First Solar has achieved the elusive goal of grid-parity with conventional power when measuring cost on a kilowatt-hour basis.

Although there are some reports that the solar industry will be shaky in 2009, Fast Company's comprehensive look at the industry's leap into the mainstream shows there are many bright spots as well.  

For those interested in solar on the home, TIME reported today that engineering company CH2M Hill is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy to provide Internet solar maps of 25 American cities, using Google Earth technology. The maps will allow homeowners to plug in their address to pull up detailed information on their estimated solar energy potential, utility bill savings and all available incentives, among other things. San Francisco is the first city to be completed and you can check out its solar map here.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several stories on the science and politics of climate change caught our attention this week:

• Climate change and pollution may be possible causes for the giant swarms of jellyfish showing up recently in Hawaii, Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. East Coast, Australia and other regions around the globe, says a report from the National Science Foundation. The gelatinous creatures can damage fisheries, fish farms, ships and even nuclear power plants. Jellyfish visited PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant on the central California coast in October, clogging the cooling water intake systems. The plant was forced to curtail power production briefly to clear the jellyfish from the intakes. The NSF report also suggests the introduction of non-native species, overfishing and structures such as oil and gas drilling rigs may have something to do with the jellyfish outbreaks.
• Efforts by President-elect Obama's administration to cut greenhouse gas emissions and seek federal climate change regulations are likely to spur new opportunities in the legal profession and at the nation's law schools. Columbia University's law school says it has hired environmental lawyer Michael Gerrard to establish and direct a new center for climate law. "Very complicated legal regulations are going to be established and the center will provide a framework in which these regulations can be examined and future leaders in climate change law can be trained," Gerrard said. Gerrard is the former head of Arnold & Porter's New York office and author of a textbook on climate change law.
• Emissions of carbon dioxide from U.S. energy sources by 2030 are forecast to be 9.4 percent less than projected last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, citing increases in renewable energy and higher prices for fossil fuels. "Efficiency policies and higher energy prices ... slow the rise in the U.S. energy use," the EIA says. "When combined with the increased use of renewables and a reduction in the projected additions of new coal-fired conventional power plants, this slows the growth in energy-related (greenhouse gas) emissions." Carbon emissions are forecast at 6.410 billion tonnes in 2030, compared with last year's forecast of 6.851 billion tonnes by 2030 last year, the EIA says. Consumption of renewable fuels are foreast to grow by 3.3 percent a year through 2030.
• Finally, there is some concern among politicians and tree farmers in North Carolina that global warming may affect growing conditions for the state's Christmas tree industry. The Tarheel state is the nation's second largest producer of the holiday trees and takes in $100 million a year mainly for Fraser Firs which grow at higher elevations in cool temperatures. The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that a rise in global temperatures could push the Fraser Fir climate zone to states in the north.

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

A roundup of items relating to clean energy that caught our attention this week:

• The windpower industry appears to be holding its own in spite of fears that the economic recession, tight credit and weak oil and gas prices would stall clean energy investments. Wind turbine majors such as Denmark's Vestas, Spain's Gamesa and General Electric are booking new orders for next year. Vestas recently landed 500 megawatts of new turbines to boost its order book to more than 4,000 MW. Analysts say Vestas' success is a sign that bigger power companies with stronger balance sheets may shove aside smaller windpower developers.
•  Hawaii plans to set up the nation's first statewide electric car battery recharging stations as part of a wider clean-energy program to reduce the islands' dependence on oil imports for almost all of their energy needs. The goal is to cut fossil fuel consumption by 70 percent by 2030. Hawaii is joining with Better Place, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that will build the charging infrastructure to open in 2011. Better Place also plans a charging infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nissan Motor Co.-Renault SA has agreed to make electric cars to be recharged at the stations in Hawaii. Hawaii's Blue Planet Foundation also is working on clean-energy programs including solar, wind, tides and waves to slash oil use.
• The first solar-powered car to travel around the world completed its 32,000-mile journey in Poznan, Poland, where a United Nations meeting was underway to explore a new treaty to combat global warming. Pulling a trailer of solar cells, the two-seater car departed Lucerne, Switzerland, 17 months ago and traveled through 38 countries. Louis Palmer, a Swiss schoolteacher and adventurer who made the trip, said: "It's ecological, it's economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warming." Palmer added: "This car runs like a Swiss clock." The vehicle was developed by scientists at Swiss universities.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

A roundup of items relating to clean energy that caught our attention this week:

• Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a proposal--still in the early planning stages--to meet 10 percent of the city's electricity demand from solar energy. Apparently he envisions a combination of residential and commercial rooftop panels and large-scale solar projects in the desert.
• The world's biggest solar tower is scheduled in January to begin generating 20 megawatts of electricity in southern Spain. With more than 1,200 mirrors, each half the size of a tennis court, it will create superheated steam to turn power generators serving about 11,000 homes. Spain reportedly plans to generate more than two gigawatts of power from concentrated solar plants by 2015.
• The UK government plans to institute new energy tariffs that will reward "micro-renewables," primarily residential solar and wind generation, in order to meet the country's target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent come 2050. The Energy Saving Trust, an independent body charged with promoting energy efficiency, predicts a quarter of the country's households could engage in clean energy production.
• Portugal plans to build 1,300 charging stations for electric vehicles over the next three years, in partnership with Renault and Nissan. The country also plans to provide tax incentives, financing subsidies, and reduced parking rates for buyers of electric vehicles, In return, the car companies will make Portugal the first European market for their new generation of electric cars.
  

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

A roundup of green headlines that caught our eye this week:

• A relatively clean-burning diesel Volkswagen Jetta TDI sedan won "Green Car of the Year" honors at the Los Angeles auto show, the first diesel-powered car to win the auto industry's highest environmental honor, Reuters reports.
• Retail king Wal-Mart will purchase electricity from a Duke Energy windpower project in Texas to light up 15 percent of its 360 stores in the Longhorn State, Wal-Mart's first direct purchase of windpower, says Green Tech Media.
• The Stata Center building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology captures runoff waste water from storms in a giant cistern and reuses it in toilets in the building, the New York Times Green Inc. blog reports from the Greenbuild conference in Boston.
• Air Canada flight attendant Marcelo da Luz last month set a Guinness World Record for distance travelled in a sun-powered car of 9,320 miles throughout Canada and Alaska. Now he's pointing his flying-saucer-looking vehicle south to Argentina to extend the record, Canada's Globe and Mail reports.

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Gov. Schwarzenegger yesterday signed an historic executive order directing California's utility's to provide one-third of their power from qualifying renewable sources by 2020, an unprecedented mandate to meet an unprecedented global problem.

"Today is all about changing our goals and raising the bar," he said at a signing ceremony in Sacramento. ". . . This will be the most aggressive target in the nation."

PG&E's senior vice president for public affairs, Nancy McFadden, joined the ceremony to applaud the governor's leadership:

I stand here on behalf of PG&E committed to this process with all of these stakeholders, distinguished group of stakeholders, to move this ball forward . . . so we can meet your ambitious goal, Governor.

The state's investor-owned utilities have been working hard to meet an existing mandate to supply 20 percent of their power from renewable sources (other than large hydropower) by the 2010-2012 timeframe. Progress has been slowed by delays in passing federal tax credits, long lead times in approving and building new transmission lines, disputes over permitting projects sited on sensitive lands, and, in some cases, developer inexperience or financing problems.

The governor acknowledged these problems and pledged to help overcome them. He signed a separate agreement to create a one-stop process for the California Energy Commission and Department of Fish and Game to review permits by renewable energy developers. And he received promises from federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service, to fast-track reviews of projects on federal land.

Still, the challenges will be enormous. Achieving the new goal will require a 225 percent increase in the amount of renewable power available today. As the California Public Utilities Commission stated in a report issued last month, "Serving 33% of California's energy needs with renewable sources will require an infrastructure build-out on a scale and timeline perhaps unparalleled anywhere in the world."

In a previous report, the Commission said that meeting the 33 percent goal could require as much as $60 billion in new investment in generation and transmission.