Future Hi: Alternative Energy Galor

December 19, 2004

Alternative Energy Galor

Iceland geothermal vents

In the wake of the very interesting discussion on Peak Oil last week I spent a couple of hours seeing what's happening on the frontiers of alternative energy. I found so much it overwhelmed me. Here's a sampling:

Solar Cell and Battery all-in-one:

Scientists from Toin University of Yokohama in Japan have designed a single, compact device that can both convert solar energy to electricity and store the electricity. "We succeeded in incorporating both photovoltaic and storage functions in a single cell with a thin, sandwich-type structure," said Tsutomu Miyasaka, a researcher at the University.
The researchers' photocapacitor is also efficient at capturing energy from weak light sources like sunlight on cloudy or rainy days and indoor lighting.

Many countries around the world are moving aggressively to move their energy production over to alternatives. Here are a few countries - including Iceland, Great Britain and Spain.

Iceland is movng forward to be the first country to have a complete self-sustaining Hydrogen Economy:

The Icelandic government is now backing an ambitious programme to remove all fossil-fuel requirements from Icelandic society within a generation. The key is to use hydrogen or hydrogen-rich compounds in vehicles powered by fuel cells. The first hydrogen buses will hit the streets of Reykjavík early next year, filling up with hydrogen-rich methanol at a new filling station built by Shell, one of the major corporate backers of the project along with Norsk Hydro and DaimlerChrysler.

UK: Solar power for all new homes :

John Prescott has demanded that all new homes built in Britain be designed so that they can receive solar power. Draft building regulations from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, due to come into effect in January 2006, stipulate the change. The move is significant since the government is on the cusp of a major housebuilding drive. It will infuriate housebuilders, adding millions to the cost of constructing homes. But it will delight environmentalists as concerns mount over the effects of climate change. The government's own agency, the Energy Saving Trust, is trying to ensure that all new homes will be powered in part by solar power before the end of 2010.

Spanish government has mandated that solar power be incorporated into all new buildings.

UPDATE: Germany Shines a Beam on the Future of Energy - Nation Gambles on Amped-Up Push for Renewable Power.

Germany is showing how to get alternative energy done. Wind and solar, combined with higher taxes on carbon fuels, all while creating jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The biggest solar energy power plant in the world just went online in Bavaria, and is expected to quickly turn a profit. 16,000 windmills generate 39 percent of the world’s wind energy; wind and solar now provide more than 10 percent of the country’s electricity, a number expected to double by 2020. 60,000 people are employed in the design and manufacturing of wind and solar equipment. (Germany’s population is 83 million.)

Taiwan moving to Wind Power for at least 10% of total energy needs.

Maldives: Solar Power for Water Purification.

A solar energy powered, off-grid, water purification project will begin in the Maldives in January 2005. The units use solar power to draw the water up and pass it through a system of reverse osmosis units to remove all pathogens, metals and dissolved solids, using just 20% of the power of a standard reverse osmosis unit. Each unit can produce 500 litres of water per day from a single 100 Watt (1 square metre) solar panel. Most systems using reverse osmosis are usually powered by diesel. Using solar power can be both cheaper (based on per litre cost) and avoid air pollution.
Two obstacles to renewable energy powered infrastructures in remote areas have been high up-front capital costs and the difficulties ensuring maintenance of the system. Using a new business model where the water itself is sold rather than the purification equipment have helped avoid these. This is also applicable in other off-grid island communities such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Solco expect to be able to six litres of clean water for less than 10 cents (U.S.) per person per day.

Alternative Energy Cambodia: 100% rural electrification by 2020

Green Power can cost the same as non-green (via Worldchanging):

As the Houston Chronicle reports, Green Mountain Energy now offers Houston-area customers electricity from all-renewable sources for the same price as the non-green power sold by the area's major producer, Reliant Energy. Though there are other local providers that have lower rates, Reliant's was the "price-to-beat", and it's a trend that will only continue as oil prices rise. Over the next few years, green power will get more and more competitive, even without advances in renewable-generation technology.

Want to use Hydrogen Now? Hydrogen without the Hiccups.

High Altitude Wind Power

The picture above is of a Laddermill kite assembly for wind power generation (story courtesy of Alt-Energy Blog).

High-altitude kites could be used to generate clean energy at a cost comparable with that of fossil fuel generation , researchers claim.
The "Laddermill" is a chain of controllable wing-like kites attached to a looped cable stretching more than five miles into the sky. Strong high altitude winds acting on the "kitewings" produce as upward force on one side of the loop and a downward force on the other, causing it to rotate. The slowly turning cable drives a power generator in the Laddermill base station.

Although the concept sounds far fetched, its developers at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands hope to build a working model in the next four years. They claim one Laddermill could generate 100 megawatts of electricity, compared with only a few megawatts from a conventional wind turbine.

Winds at 30,000ft are 20 times more powerful than at sea level.

Professor Ockels, an ex-astronaut and head of the European Space Agency's education office, told The Engineer magazine: "Above a certain altitude there is a massive amount of wind power. "Kites that can tap into that wind can generate a great deal of energy."

Molecular Manufacturing vs. Peak Oil - great article that points out how nanotechnology will empower us to create alternative energy technologies before we run out of oil. Read the comments section for some excellent follow-up discussion.

The potential of nanotechnology has long held promise of delivering very very cheap solar power. Here are three companies working on using nanotechnology to create cheaper and more efficient solar cells.

At least three startups -- Nanosolar, Nanosys and Konarka Technologies -- are using nanotech to try to make solar energy more viable. In time, such work could become "world changing," said Josh Wolfe, a managing partner of nanotech-focused investment firm Lux Capital in New York. Lux has invested in Nanosys.
"All three of these firms have a different approach, but all of them are trying to create solar energy anywhere, any time," Wolfe said.

Needs To Hit 7-Cent Mark.

Nanotech solar cells could come down to fossil-fuel prices within a few years, says Steven Milunovich, an analyst with Merrill Lynch. Electricity now costs 7 cents per kilowatt-hour in the U.S. and 19 cents in Japan. Solar cells run about 43 cents. "There could be significant adoption" if nanotech solar drops below 7 cents, said Milunovich in a recent research note. Nanotech could have "a significant impact" on the $3 billion-plus solar power market.

"Cheaper manufacturing plants and processes could make solar competitive with fossil fuels," he wrote.

Nanosolar, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is building nanotech panels that are 100 times thinner than current solar panels.

If it's a 100 times thinner then that means 100 times less material to achieve the same or greater energy about. This equates to a lot less cost for making solar cells.

The Future of the Car: Plug-In Hybrids?

The next step may be the "plug-in" hybrid... unlike the electric cars of the 1990s, none of today's hybrids needs to be plugged in - but if plugging were an option it would be a good idea. Andrew Frank and his team at the University of California Davis' Hybrid Electric Vehicle Centre are working exclusively on plug-in hybrids, which can operate as pure-electric vehicles over short distances (up to 60 miles, with a large enough battery pack) but can switch to a hybrid system when needed. Since the average American driver travels about 30 miles a day, plug-in hybrids could be recharged overnight, when electricity is cheaper to produce, and need never use petrol at all, except on longer trips.