Solutions

There is hope for a future where we can live and prosper without the need to literally burn the resources of our planet - and destroy it in the process. We need to stop focusing on fossil fuels to drive our energy engine. We need to stop feeding our addiction by drilling for more oil and instead find ways of using less oil.

Solving the global warming problem will be a win-win. As Al Gore states in his book 'An Inconvenient Truth', "The major roadblocks to the new energy era are no longer technological; they are political and bureaucratic. If we can overcome them, the payoffs are huge: We'll reduce trade deficits, enhance national security, and create millions of non-exportable jobs. We'll ease an overwhelming array of environmental problems and make America far more competitive and self-sufficient in the process."

According to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, "We already have many of the technology and techniques that we need to reduce global warming pollution, and American ingenuity will supply the rest. It is time to act."

There are many better ways to meet our energy needs. And it's not just able energy. It's about finite resources. Water for example.

Water and Power Generation

Traditional power generation takes lots of water. Pumping water takes power. As the nation struggles to meet electricity demand - expected to surge 50 percent in the next 30 years - big sections of the country are suffering from drought conditions.

"We're going to have both water and power shortages, maybe in areas where we aren't used to them," said Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute, an environmental research organization. "Atlanta in the last few years is a good example of that."

Most people don't realize how closely power and water are linked. In California, the water pumps that keep the Los Angeles area hydrated are the single largest users of power in the state, according to Gleick. Running a hot water faucet there for five minutes uses as much energy as keeping a 60-watt light bulb on for 14 hours, he said.

Gleick said that California could achieve 95 percent of its energy conservation goals 58 percent more cheaply by targeting water consumption rather than power consumption.

"Water and energy are tightly linked, but these links are poorly understood and rarely used in policy," he said.

Utilities are struggling with this issue as they attempt to build new power plants amid the current water shortage in large parts of the Southeast and Southwest.

Most types of power plants use water for cooling - a lot of water. About 40 percent of the freshwater used in the U.S. - or 136 billion gallons a day - is used for power generation, nearly as much as is used for crop irrigation, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A typical nuclear or coal energy plant could use 30-40 million gallons of water a day.

While most of this water is returned to the source, about 3 billion gallons a day are lost to evaporation. In places where water sources are drying up, utilities are scrambling to reduce the amount of water they use.

"Water is becoming one of the most contentious issues when siting a new power plant," said John Maulbetsch of Maulbetsch Consulting, which specializes in electricity and energy issues. "People feel fresh water is too precious."

In the Southwest, where Lake Powell has lost half its water amid a 7-year drought, the New Mexico utility PNM Resources is finding ways to cut its water use or utilize new reserves.

It has started using waste water from sewage treatment plants and oil wells, capturing water lost to evaporation, promoted energy efficiency, and considering installing massive arrays of solar power cells, said Greg Nelson, director of Advanced Generation Development at PNM.

In the Southeast, the Florida and Carolinas utility Progress Energy Carolinas is installing additional pumps, considering drilling additional wells or shipping in water via pipeline to bring scarce water to its power plants.

Utilities could also install systems that cool their equipment with air instead of water, although these systems are expensive, costing $20 million or more on a new, small plant and reduce plant efficiency.

Nonetheless, "I think you'll have more dry systems, more retrofits in your future," said Maulbetsch.

Clean Cars

There is a host of emerging technologies on the automobile front, including hybrid, plug-in hybrid, all-electric, Compressed Air Technology (CAT), and hydrogen (in the distant future). See the 2006 London Motor Show debuting a slew of new fuel-sippers.

A battery electric vehicle (BEV) is an electric vehicle storing chemical energy in rechargeable battery packs to power one or more electrical motors. Traditional gasoline-powered cars produce harmful carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. In the United States alone, approximately 6.6 tons are emitted by the average person in a given year. About 82% of these emissions are from the burning of fossil fuels used to power our cars.¹⁰ Contrast that with electric vehicles, which produce zero emissions at the tailpipe. However, the electricity used to charge the batteries do contribute carbon emissions if using coal-powered electricity. However, the use of solar to charge the batteries would produce zero emissions - period.

BEVs were among the earliest automobiles, and are more energy efficient than common internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. They produce no pollution while being driven, and almost none at all if charged from most forms of renewable energy. Many are capable of acceleration performance exceeding that of conventional gasoline powered vehicles. New models can travel hundreds of miles on a charge, even after 100,000 miles of battery use. BEVs reduce dependence on oil, mitigate global warming, are quieter than internal combustion vehicles, and do not produce noxious fumes. While limited travel distance between battery recharging, charging time, and battery lifetime have been drawbacks, new battery and charging technologies have substantially improved in these areas.

Some models are still in limited production, but the most popular BEVs have been withdrawn and most of those have been destroyed by their manufacturers. A handful of future production models have been announced, although many more have been prototyped. In the US, the major domestic automobile manufacturers have deliberately sabotaged their electric vehicle efforts.

In 2001 a coalition of auto makers had succeeded in killing the zero-emissions mandate, and then they proceeded to take their green machines off the market. The oil companies ferociously lobbied against the zero-emissions law and the Bush administration helped out by joining the auto industry's lawsuit against California, which claimed that the mandate overstepped the state's regulatory authority.

The Toyota RAV4 EV was powered by twenty-four 12 volt batteries, with an operational cost equivalent of over 165 miles per gallon. Toyota discontinued the RAV4 EV program one day after the passing of new air-quality requirements by the California Air Resources Board.

Hybrid Prius

You can't beat the Toyota Prius for fuel economy. It has plenty of room for 4, is fun to drive, and it gets the best gas mileage out there (except for the Honda Insight) averaging around 48 mpg. Who wouldn't want to get 48 mpg with today's gas prices?

The Toyota Prius with Hybrid Synergy Drive combines a gas engine and an emissions-free electric motor to achieve an excellent fuel economy.

Good and Less-Good Hybrids

It's important to keep in mind that not all hybrids are created equal. According to Dan Becker, "There are good hybrids and less-good hybrids. There are some hybrids where the manufacturer used the technology to increase power and acceleration rather than to save gas and improve environmental performance. The Honda Accord hybrid, for example, is only about 25 percent more efficient than the normal Honda Accord, compared to a 50 percent efficiency improvement in the Civic hybrid. The Toyota Highlander is not a particularly stunning environmental achievement, nor is the Lexus 400H - both from Toyota. And GM is going to underwhelm everyone with its new Saturn Vue hybrid when it debuts in the Fall. The good news is that Americans seem to be responding appropriately by not buying these cars. They continue to wait in long lines to buy the best hybrids. That's a good sign for the environment and for the manufacturers who are making them." Learn more about what Honda is doing to reduce emissons.

Plug-In Hybrids

Plug-in hybrids (PHEV) offer the most promise as a short-term solution. If plug-ins suddenly replaced all the vehicles on the road today, electricity use would rise by only a sixth while oil use would fall by two-thirds.

Plug-ins currently under development will range from 20 to 100 miles or more without the use of gasoline after being charged in a standard electrical outlet. That means tens of millions of motorists could make their daily commute using little, if any, gasoline. A motorist driving 9,000 annual gasoline-free miles and 3,000 using gasoline would get 100 mpg (based on vehicles that get 25 mpg). These savings would be even more dramatic if plug-in technology is combined with already-existing flexible fuel technology.

Charging the battery each night would cost less than $1.00 at current rates. PHEVs outfitted with a battery pack providing a 40-mile electric range could power, using the all-electric mode, more than 60% of the total annual miles traveled by the average American driver. PHEVs have liquid fuel tanks and internal combustion engines, so they do not face the range limitation posed by electric-only cars. Learn more on plug-in hybrids at RechargeIT.org.

All Electric

Phoenix has developed an electric Sports Utility Truck (pickup) for the California market (watch video below). The company is on target to manufacture and sell 300 fleet-ready vehicles by the end of 2007. A limited number of Phoenix Motorcars all-electric sport utility trucks will be available to consumers in 2007 with an expanded consumer launch scheduled for 2008. Phoenix Motorcars will also introduce an SUV model in late 2007.

ZAP has announced with Lotus Engineering the development of the new ZAP-X Crossover , incorporating distinct technological advancements that will result in one of the most advanced electric cars ever developed. An advanced battery system will enable the car to travel a range up to 350 miles between charges, with a rapid charge technology that can recharge the batteries in as little as 10 minutes.

Tesla Motors is producing an electric sports car, and is currently developing an electric sedan. ( Watch interview with Tesla CEO Martin Eberhard ) At a price of $92,000, the Tesla is powered by the same lithium-ion battery cells that drive the average laptop or smartphone, and you can charge it from an ordinary wall socket.

Charging the battery for a 250-mile trip will cost about $3. Even as it reaches the performance of leading sports cars, if you're lucky enough to have access to renewable energy, such as wind or solar, your net carbon emissions are zero. And, based on current electricity rates, it gets the equivalent of 135 miles to the gallon. As rates go up, equivalent MPG goes up too. If you charge your car at night, during off-peak hours, when it makes the most sense to charge it, you're paying as little as one cent per mile. And if you're using electricity from the grid at night, you're using excess capacity which would just go to waste.

Equipped with an AC induction motor that's no larger than a watermelon, it does zero to 60 in about 4 seconds. But it's not just the acceleration that amazes. It's the way this car accelerates. Unlike a gasoline-powered car, which has very little torque at low RPMs, the Tesla reaches 100 percent torque from the instant it starts forward. You don't wait even a moment for that acceleration to kick in. It kicks in immediately. The effect is like nothing you've ever experienced.

The car's 900-pound battery, or Energy Storage System, includes 6,831 lithium-ion cells, each about the size of a double-A alkaline. Plugged into an ordinary wall socket, it charges in about 7 hours. But if you use a specially designed in-home charging unit, which the company plans to include with the car at no extra cost, you can charge up in under four hours. A full-charge gets you 250 miles of driving on the open road.

The entire package is monitored and controlled by an onboard computer known as the PEM (Power Electronics Module), also situated in the rear of the car. The Linux-based PEM controls and monitors everything from the speed and rotation of the motor to braking and battery charging. From a digital display just under the steering wheel, you can monitor performance stats on your own. You can even see if someone has recently opened the trunk.

The AC motor weighs a mere 70 pounds, and there are no more than two moving parts. It sits in the rear of the car, along with the battery and the cooling system. Under the hood, you'll find only the radiator and an air conditioning unit (the one used to cool the passengers).

Next up: the sedan, which will start at $50,000, will also have a range of 250 miles and will accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds. That car, which Eberhard said is still in the "clay model" stage, is being designed at Tesla's recently opened design center in Michigan and will compete with luxury marques like BMW.

Musk said plans are in the works to build a higher-volume $30,000 car, and rapid advances in battery technology mean the Tesla's range could be increased to 500 miles in less than a decade.

Founder Martin Eberhard says he registered the TeslaMotors.com domain name on the same day in 2003 that Sacramento defanged the zero-emissions mandate. He started the company to build his dream car: an economical, ecofriendly car that's also a ton of fun to drive. The company's timing is impeccable. Gas was cheap when GM and Ford released their electric vehicles. Now, the price of gas keeps climbing, along with fears about climate change and the impact of foreign oil dependence on U.S. security. Read the Tesla white paper that compares electric cars to existing internal combustion engines.

The Tesla Roadster, powered by more than 6,800 lithium-ion batteries, can go zero to 60 mph in about four seconds. Top speed: 130 mph. Tesla is betting that pump-weary Americans are ready for an electric car rebirth. More on the Tesla.

Compressed Air

Compressed Air Technology (CAT) is another promising new way to power cars, and could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. CAT vehicles provides significant economical and environmental advantages. When it is compared to traditional gasoline powered engines, the CAT engine is far superior in terms of energy used and thermodynamics.

Hydrogen

What about the much-talked about hydrogen? In short, the use of hydrogen has many short-term issues, but has long-term promise. But right now, it is providing the Bush administration and the oil and auto industries a much-needed illusion of due diligence as a solution to the climate and energy crisis.

Using current technologies, it is much more efficient and non-polluting to use electricity directly in a battery than to turn it into a hydrogen fuel. The hydrogen fuel cell is attractive to the oil and auto industries because most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels. Even if hydrogen were made from renewable electricity, it would still be delivered as a fuel—instead of via an electric utility. By touting Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars as the great hope of the future, political leaders who are beholden to the oil and auto lobbies can appear to value innovation and conservation while promoting these lobbies’ interests.¹⁰

When asked in an Sierra Club interview about the future of hydrogen fuel cell cars, Dan Becker, Sierra Club's senior representative in its Washington, D.C. legislative office and one of the nation's leading experts on global warming and clean cars, he responded with the following: "There may be (a future), but it's a distant future. In order to run vehicles on fuel cells, there are a number of difficulties we need to get beyond. For starters, where are we going to get the hydrogen? It takes a lot of energy to create it. And then you've got to store it. And if you store it as a gas, you can't put very much of it on a vehicle, because you need a pretty thick tank to hold it, for safety. So the driving range of the vehicle isn't going to be very great. To store it as a liquid, it needs to be kept at minus 423 degrees F, which means you're using a lot of your energy just to keep it cold. Someday, we may have a solid that we can use, but we don't have one now. All that said, the fuel cell is a really neat technology with lots of potential applications. My guess is that it will most likely be used to run stationary plants first - buildings rather than cars."

Learn more on clean cars.

Biofuels

Ethanol

In the US, ethanol is largely derived from corn, but the amount of fossil fuel put into growing the crop means that the use of corn-derived ethanol in transportation provides little in the way of carbon savings.¹ Ethanol can be made from plant fiber, which is cheaper and cleaner than regular ethanol. This cellulosic ethanol can be made from cotton, cornstalks, switchgrass, and other high-fiber plant materials, could cut greenhouse gases by as much as 86%.⁶ Brazil is a leader in the use of ethanol produced by sugar cane waste material and are now completely independent of foreign oil. The Brazilian ethanol program provided nearly 700,000 jobs in 2003, and cut 1975-2002 oil imports by a cumulative undiscounted total of $50 billion. ⁹

Producing ethanol isn't without problems. In an Sierra Club interview with Dan Becker, he states the following: "Certainly there is some level of ethanol, if it were produced from cellulosic material - not corn or soy, but switchgrass and other woody feedstocks - that could help us back out some of our addiction to gasoline. But above some level there will be other problems. You may be using more pesticides and water to produce your crop. You may be displacing food production. You might end up importing feedstock from tropical countries where they're already growing biofuel crops, but where any further increase will damage the rainforest. This is already happening in countries like Indonesia and Brazil. In Indonesia they're planning to cut a thousand-mile swath of rainforest to plant biofuel plantations for the Chinese automotive market. And if we become dependent upon ethanol in this country, it's likely that the rainforests could pay some of the price."

Clearly, there is good ethanol and bad ethanol. As with almost everything, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that can be made from many oil feedstock plants like soybeans, sunflower seeds, rape seeds, palm oil and even some types of algae. Recycled vegetable oil from local restaurants and other used sources are also a useful reservoir of renewable fuel for diesel engines as approximately 4.5 billion gallons per year of used vegetable oil is available in the USA.

The concept of using vegetable oil as a fuel dates back to 1895 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel developed the first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. He demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and described an experiment using peanut oil as fuel in his engine. In 1911 Rudolf Diesel stated: "The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it." In 1912, Diesel said "the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time." More about biodiesel.

Earth Biofuels produces biodiesel and ethanol, which can cut engine emissions by 78%.

However, it's important to understand that there is good biodiesel and bad biodiesel. Read the article " Sustainable Biodiesel: The Ecological Cost of Fuel " to learn more.

Changing World Technologies has perfected a bioreactor that can turn almost any organic material into oil. "The first production facility adjoins a Butterball factory in Carthage, Missouri. Take 270 tons of turkey guts, add 20 tons of pig fat, process them, and you end up with 500 barrels of high-grade biodisel. Sewage, used tires, and plastic bottles can now be transformed into fuel."⁶ (Reminds me of the movie "Back To The Future" where the DeLorean used garbage as fuel.)

Agricultural wastes alone make up approximately 50% of the total yearly waste generation (6 billion tons) in the U.S. With the Thermal Conversion Process, the 6 billion tons of agricultural waste could be effectively converted into 4 billion barrels of oil. Realizing this incremental domestic energy production is clearly in our national interest, because it ensures greater national energy independence. At the same time, this production provides a permanent solution to serious environmental problems caused by current waste disposal practices.⁷
Learn More

Biofuels are Heating Up

In the US and Canada, the race to find a cost-effective way of producing biofuel is heating up. Rapacious entrepreneur Richard Branson is the latest to enter the field as part of a $3 billion ploy to green his image. With many new technologies emerging, it could be tough to decide which is worthy of investment – and which will receive your household dollars. Branson is the emperor with no clothes, “a maverick marketeer, sitting on a bubble empire, inflated by the breath of lazy media,” in the opinion of one commentator.

Here are six legitimate and successful biofuel techniques that are close to rollout:-

Chevron want to transform California’s transport fuel

Chevron Technology Ventures has committed to invest up to $25 million in the University of California, Davis over the next five years to research, develop and advance technology aimed at converting cellulosic biomass into auto fuel.

They aim to develop commercially viable processes for fuel production from renewable resources such as new energy crops, forest and agricultural residues, and municipal solid waste.

Working with the California Biomass Collaborative, research will also focus on renewable feedstocks available in California, including agricultural waste such as rice straw.

”California’s huge agricultural industry could be a key source of the raw material for the new biofuels,” said Rick Zalesky, Vice President of biofuels and hydrogen for Chevron Technology Ventures. “Once developed, next-generation processing technology will allow locally grown biomass to be harvested, processed into transportation fuels, and distributed to consumers.”

Corn-to-Ethanol and more

Purdue University scientists have developed an environmentally friendly, cost-effective method for creating ethanol from corn. Using a machine originally designed to make plastics, the new Chen-Xu Method grinds the corn kernels and then liquefies the starch with high temperatures.

The process produces about 2.85 gallons of ethanol for every bushel of corn processed. That output is slightly higher than current methods, but the same process that creates the ethanol also creates other marketable products.

Professor Li-Fu Chen explains:

“This process also produces corn oil, corn fiber, gluten and zein, which is a protein that can be used in the manufacture of plastics so that the containers are good for the environment because they are biodegradable and easily decompose. The containers would actually be edible, although there probably wouldn’t be much market for that.”

Sugar Beets

Agritech Ethanol Corporation is planning to build a $2-million pilot plant in the eastern P.E.I. community of Georgetown, the first plant in North America able to convert sugar beets into ethanol. If the pilot proves successful, the company plans to build a larger facility capable of producing 40 million litres of ethanol in 2008.

Lowe says in addition to the ethanol, by-products of the production process will include high protein animal feed for the dairy industry and captured carbon dioxide for the beverage industry.

The company president expects the demand for ethanol to increase in the next five years due largely to the federal government’s plan requiring gasoline and other liquid fuels to contain five per cent renewable fuels by 2010.

Termites to the rescue

Turns out termites might be useful creatures after all. Scientists have been trying to discover new enzymes that convert agricultural biomass to clean burning fuel, and surprisingly, one rich source of these enzymes has been found in the digestive tracts of termites.

They have been able to isolate the enzymes using DNA extraction and cloning technologies and create industrial ethanol production enablers. Termites can convert 95% of what they consume into energy within 24 hours – or, more accurately, the bacteria that inhabit their digestive tracts can.

Cellulosic biomass is possibly the most underutilized energy asset on the planet; and cellulose-containing natural waste products are widely abundant and can be sustainably produced. So far, biomass has been a challenge to convert to ethanol with scientists using harsh acids and high temperatures – but looking at how it happens in natural environments has led them to a solution that could impact quite significantly on our energy use.

Fuel from bacteria

A breakthrough in the production of biofuels has been developed by scientists in Germany. Research published in last year describes how specially engineered bacteria could be used to make fuel completely from food crops.

“Biodiesel production depends on plant oils obtained from seeds of oilseed crops like rapeseed or soy”, explains Professor Steinbüchel. “However, production of plant oils has a huge demand of acreage which is one of the main factors limiting a more widespread use of biodiesel today. In addition, biodiesel production must compete with the production of food, which also raises some ethical concerns”.

Microdiesel, as the scientists have named it, is different from other production methods because it not only uses the same plant oils, but can also use readily available bulk plant materials or even recycled waste paper if engineering of the production strain is more advanced.

Also, it does not rely on the addition of toxic methanol from fossil resources, like many other biodiesels. The bacteria developed for use in the Microdiesel process make their own ethanol instead. This could help to keep the costs of production down and means that the fuel is made from 100% renewable resources.

What is The Ultimate Fuel?

At the California Clean Tech Open event Tuesday, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said the ultimate fuel probably won’t be ethanol.

“Contrary to what you might believe, I think it’s extremely unlikely that in 20 years we will be using any ethanol in cars,” – a surprising statement from one of ethanol’s most enthusiastic backers. Mr. Khosla has invested millions in ethanol companies such as Altra, Mascoma, and Cilion.

“Biomass is going to be an important tool in fighting poverty and generating wealth in a meaningful way,” he said. “It’s not only good for this country, but it’s good for the planet.” But corn-based ethanol—and even cellulosic ethanol, made from plant waste—are only steps along a larger trajectory toward other fuels, he suggested.

So what will replace it? BP and DuPont are already working on butanol, which can be produced by fermentation of biomass. The difference from ethanol production is mainly in the fermentation of the feedstock — producing butanol rather than ethanol as a primary fermentation product, and minor changes in the way it’s distilled. The feedstocks are the same as for ethanol — energy crops like sugar beets, sugar cane, corn grain, wheat and cassava as well as agricultural byproducts such as straw and corn stalks. According to DuPont, existing bioethanol plants can cost-effectively be retrofitted to biobutanol production.

Renewal Energy

Solar

Solar power, long seen as among the most promising of alternative energy sources, may finally get its chance to shine. 970 trillion kilowatt hours of energy fall from the skies every day and it's unfortunate that, as a planet, we haven't figured out how to make better use of this clean, cheap, and sustainable energy source.

Solar equipment manufacturers have been chasing the same goal for decades: producing a cheaper kilowatt of electricity. Now, after years of unfulfilled hopes, experts say that the solar picture is finally improving. The high cost of silicon is setting off a race to improve solar panel efficiency and lower costs. Traditional solar companies are investing to boost silicon capacity and improve manufacturing, while a host of start-ups are betting on new materials and production techniques. Growing demand for clean energy is fueling a surge in investment and new technology development to improve the performance of solar-generated electricity. Read Article

Some of the most innovative solar products are the Sunflower 250 by Energy Innovations and Practical Instruments ' Heliotube rooftop module that consists of rows of miniature solar panels in aluminum troughs. Glass panels that cover the troughs concentrate light onto the cells. The technology uses around 85 percent less PV material than traditional solar cells, dramatically reducing cost.

A few other solar energy companies to watch: Sun Tech Power, HelioVolt, Miasole, DayStar Technologies, Energy Innovations and Nanosolar. More information: US Department of Energy: Solar Energy Technologies Program and how to use the energy in your home more efficiently.

Concentrated Solar

Windsor Locks, Conn.-based Hamilton Sundstrand announced plans to work with Santa Monica, Calif., private equity firm US Renewables Group to commercialize a concentrated solar power system that uses molten salt for energy storage.

The new venture, called called SolarReserve , will operate the utility-scale solar thermal projects using technology and equipment developed and manufactured by Hamilton Sundstrand's Rocketdyne unit.

"The molten salt holds its heat very efficiently and for long periods of time," Dan Coulom, spokesman at Hamilton Sundstrand, told Cleantech.com.

Coulum said the company, a subsidiary of United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), plans to build as many as 10 plants over the next 10 to 15 years, pulling in revenues of $1 billion over that time period.

Wind

Wind power is the world’s fastest-growing energy source. Some solutions are very basic (think Dutch windmills used for centuries) and some are futuristic - (Flying Electric Generators (FEG) - huge squadrons of airborne FEGs hovering in the jet stream like giant kites.) The most promising solutions are those somewhere in the middle. Wind farms in 30 states currently provide less than 1 percent of the nation’s total electricity demand, but according to the U.S. Department of Energy, there’s enough harvestable wind to light up the whole country.

"Hybrid" Solar and Wind Electric Systems

According to many renewable energy experts, a small "hybrid" electric system that combines wind and solar (photovoltaic) technologies offers several advantages over either single system. In much of the United States, wind speeds are low in the summer when the sun shines brightest and longest. The wind is strong in the winter when less sunlight is available. Because the peak operating times for wind and solar systems occur at different times of the day and year, hybrid systems are more likely to produce power when you need it.

Many hybrid systems are stand-alone systems, which operate "off-grid"—not connected to an electricity distribution system. For the times when neither the wind nor the solar system are producing, most hybrid systems provide power through batteries and/or an engine generator powered by conventional fuels, such as diesel. If the batteries run low, the engine generator can provide power and recharge the batteries.

Adding an engine generator makes the system more complex, but modern electronic controllers can operate these systems automatically. An engine generator can also reduce the size of the other components needed for the system. Keep in mind that the storage capacity must be large enough to supply electrical needs during non-charging periods. Battery banks are typically sized to supply the electric load for one to three days.

Geothermal

The U.S. Department of Energy has calculated that geothermal power emits less than one-tenth the carbon dioxide of coal-fired electricity. Below is an article from Renewable Energy Access that discusses the future of geothermal. by Karl Gawell

Considerable geothermal energy potential exists in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. Two types of geothermal resources are of particular interest in the Gulf area: “geopressured” geothermal and “oil field co-produced” geothermal resources.

The Basics

A geopressured resource consists of hot brine (salty water) saturated with methane (natural gas) found in large, deep aquifers that are under higher pressure due to water trapped in the burial process. These resources are often found at depths of 3 to 6 km (2 to 4 miles). Water temperature can range from 90 to 200 degrees C (190 to 390 degrees F). Geopressured resources are present in several areas of the country, ranging from California and the Dakotas to Texas, Louisiana and Alabama. This prime resource is considered to be abundant in the area around the Gulf of Mexico, both onshore and offshore.

An oil field co-produced resource makes use of wells already drilled by the oil and gas industry that are either deep enough to encounter hot water, or could be deepened into these hot zones. To the oil industry, producing hot water is at best a nuisance. It is difficult to handle, costs money to pump, and has to be reinjected at an additional cost. What better way to use this hot water byproduct than to produce free, renewable, reliable electricity?

Southern Methodist University (SMU) researchers have documented the large amounts of hot water produced by existing oil and gas wells. In West Texas, for example, for every barrel of oil produced, nearly 100 barrels of hot water are co-produced. In 2002, Texas produced over 12 billion barrels of waste (often hot) water as a byproduct of oil and gas extraction, which was reinjected into the ground at a cost to the producer.

While the extent of oil field co-production is still being assessed, research has identified numerous states where significant hot water is produced from oil and gas wells, including Texas, California, Florida, West Virginia, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.

Potential

The energy potential of these resources is enormous. Experts estimate that geopressured resources could hold as much as a 200-year supply of gas for the entire U.S. at 2002 levels of demand. That’s not even considering the thousands of megawatts (MW) of thermal energy potential from the hot brines. If realized to its full potential, geopressured resources could double the total recoverable natural gas in the United States and meet a significant portion of our electricity needs.

Producing energy from oil and gas fields in Texas alone could produce between 400 - 2200 MW of geothermal power, according to SMU scientists. Looking at all of the oil field production potential, significantly more power production is possible, with estimates in the tens of thousands of MW.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently published a report tiled, Geothermal -- The Energy Under Our Feet, which estimates that co-produced and geopressured resources could supply as much as 70,000 MW of new power -- 10% of our total national electric power needs -- in the next 20 years. Today, geothermal resources supply about 0.3% of US electricity needs, so 10% represents a significant jump.

Outlook for Development

Production from geopressured resources has been completed on a demonstration basis in the past. The US Department of Energy (DOE) built a pilot power plant using a converted gas well in Brazoria County during 1989 and 1990. The project was technically successful, but after 6 months of operation the power plant was dismantled because the low price of gas at that time made the project uneconomic. Today, higher energy prices coupled with national security concerns have regenerated interest in the development of geopressured resources. With changes in the market and advances in technology over the past fifteen years, geopressured resources are once again being considered.

Production of geothermal power from oil and gas wells is a relatively new topic of discussion. One new technological development that has helped raise interest in the co-production of electricity from oil fields is the advent of small power technology that produces energy at lower temperatures. Small-scale geothermal power technology, like that pioneered at Chena Hot Springs in Alaska by UTC Power, demonstrate that small units (250 kilowatts) are feasible at relatively low temperatures (165 degrees F). This technology appears to be what is needed to tap the large amounts of hot water produced from oil fields.

There are, however, questions to be answered about this method of energy generation. The first-ever technical conference on producing geothermal energy from oil fields was held at SMU in May of 2006, and a follow-up conference was held in 2007. These events brought together experts from the oil and gas industries as well as geothermal professionals to talk about how to pursue the large energy potential of this resource.

Congress has recently expressed interest in both of these resources. Representative Ralph Hall (R-TX) introduced an amendment into the Advanced Geothermal Energy Research and Development Act, sponsored by Rep. McNerney (D-CA), which proposes authorizing cost-shared demonstrations for geothermal co-production from oil fields, and a design competition leading to a state-of-the-art demonstration plant for geopressured resources. The amendment was adopted and the bill approved on a bi-partisan basis by the House Science Committee on June 13.

We hope the full House of Representatives will take action on this bill in July. This is a very important bill that could speed the development of geothermal resources in the Gulf of Mexico and across the country. With government partnership and support as proposed by Representative Hall and the Science Committee, along with renewed industry interest, the outlook for developing of these resources is very promising.

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