Green Options

Asia is investing hundreds of billions of dollars more than the US in clean technology, according to a new report by two research institutions. In the future, the US may be importing trillions of dollars of needed clean technology (and losing countless jobs to Asia) as a result.

In total, the report showed that China, Japan, and South Korea will invest about $509 billion in clean tech over the next 5 years, whereas the US (with our greenest President in decades, maybe ever) is only expected to invest $172 billion (about 3 times less) — this is assuming the climate and energy legislation in Congress passes.

If the US were to invest the same percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as South Korea, it would invest almost $140 billion per year ($700 billion over this five year period)! Compared to China, the anticipated per-GDP investment ratio is 1:4 (US to China).

In 2008, Japan almost matched US R&D spending on energy and achieved almost the same number of international clean energy patents despite having dramatically lower GDP.

The financial investment is not the only thing giving these countries a major advantage in this field, though.

Off they go into the wild green yonder: the 97th Air Mobility Wing at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma has just earned the top “Green” rating from the Air Force’s Environmental, Safety and Occupational Health compliance program.

The 97th spent months prepping for its evaluation and earned a “you knocked our socks off” comment from the ESOHCAMP program manager, but that’s not the only sustainability feather in Altus’s cap.  The base is also home to one of the Air Force’s premier green remediation sites.

A new report by Environment North Carolina’s Research and Policy Center, “Growing Solar in North Carolina,” found that North Carolina (home of my UNC Tar Heels) could be a solar power giant soon.

The new report found that North Carolina has a lot of solar energy potential due to its “vast” solar energy intensity (which is nearly as much as Florida’s) combined with other economic, policy and technological factors.

DOE’s new renewable energy Venture Capital unit ARPA-E has just funded an entirely new kind of liquid battery innovation from MIT professor Donald Sadoway, that works like an aluminum plant running in reverse; producing power instead of consuming it.

Under the ARPA-E program at the DOE, the Obama administration has provided record-setting funding for advanced breakthroughs in renewable energy technology - that could propel America to the front of the post-oil age economy.

Just 37 technologies were selected for their potential transformational impact in the world, out of 3,600 applicants. Of the 37 winners; Sadaway’s has received the most funding; with $7 million.

As part of developing new energy resources that don’t emit carbon dioxide, the DOE is funding 9 trials that use supercritical CO₂ to extract more geothermal energy.

The idea started in 2000 at Los Alamos National Laboratory; when physicist Donald Brown thought of pumping geothermal fluid using supercritical CO₂ - a pressurized form that is part gas, part liquid; instead of water.  Theoretically this should flow more freely through rock than water, because it is less viscous than water.

Then, six years later; in modeling the technology Lawrence Berkeley hydro-geologist Karsten Pruess projected that not only should it perform as expected but that it would also yield a 50% hotter geothermal resource.

Now the DOE is funding this promising research with $16 million in nine trials to see if this will work in the real world.

Under the new Green FDR administration of President Obama, there has been such an increase in renewable technologies funding, that keeping up with qualifying and selecting the best of the best in innovative new renewable energy tech is overwhelming the Department of Energy.

So Nobel-prizewinning scientist Steven Chu of the DOE has hired a professional Venture Capitalist to help run the DOE renewable energy loan guarantee program. VC Jonathan Silver of Core-Capital Partners will help the DOE eliminate the so-called “Valley of Death” between the university lab and commercialization of groundbreaking renewable technologies.

It seems that the more time that goes on, the more we see poop being converted into a useful energy source. The latest nation to jump on board this new green trend in alternative energy is the Netherlands with the opening of a cow dung powered plant this Friday.

A team of researchers from UC Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Lab have discovered a new lead-free material that produces an electrical current when exposed to stress.  The phenomenon, called piezoelectricity, sounds exotic but it could some day become as common as backyard grills.

Piezoelectricity is a sustainable way to generate energy.  It works by applying pressure or stress to certain crystalline materials, including certain ceramics and even bone, so it’s a green alternative to burning fossil fuels.  Up to now, though, the most popular piezoelectric materials contain lead, a notorious neurotoxin.  The discovery of a lead-free material could open the door to a piezoelectric energy future in which people generate significant amounts of electricity just by moving through the civic infrastructure, from highways to flooring and revolving doors.

A new report by iSuppli Corp. predicts that by 2013, 31% of the solar panel market will be accounted for by thin-film solar panels. These thin-film panels are rapidly replacing traditional crystalline photovoltaic panels.

Thin-film solar is being used in a variety of new applications, from solar roof shingles to solar tiles (like clay tiles) to solar panels glued right onto the roof. Its flexibility in use is one major benefit of this technology.

Lower cost is the number one factor responsible for its anticipated growth, but there are trade-offs as well.

On this Veterans Day, set aside to honor the sacrifices and contributions of U.S. military veterans, another contribution can be added to the rolls: veterans are playing a strong part in America’s transition away from fossil fuels into a more sustainable, healthful environment and a more secure energy future.

Veterans groups including Operation Free, VoteVets, and an ad hoc group of retired senior military officials are calling for more sustainable fuels and a lower carbon footprint, a position that reflects the Pentagon’s growing urgency to free its high mobility, high tech 21st century warriors from the burden of using fossil fuels that harken back to the days of kerosene lamps and horse drawn buggies.  It also reflects an under-the-radar green metamorphosis in the philosophy of U.S. national defense itself.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has signed a lease for exploring geothermal potential in Imperial County near the Salton Sea; as part of meeting its goal to make 40% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

It is offering to lease the land, initially for 5 years of exploration and study at $295,000 annually representing $100 per acre per year, under a MOU regarding “Imperial Valley Geothermal Feasibility and Exploration” while it determines the feasibility of geothermal production there.