Green Options

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released The Open PV Mapping Project showing the progress of solar installations on private roofs from 2000 to (currently) now, beginning with a flurry of activity in California, then moving to Wyoming, of all places, and WIsconsin. Gradually the states turn yellow and then orange over time as they add more solar power.

SMUD has introduced a Feed-in Tariff to pay producers for renewable energy beginning in 2010. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is the nation’s sixth largest publicly owned utility, with 1.4 million customers in Northern California.

California already does offer a little known Feed-in Tariff or FIT, but the rates are somewhat anemic; paying between $0.08 and $0.19 cents a kWh. The costs to “feed in” are so undefined,  it has few takers, totaling only 14 MW, according to a new NREL analysis of FIT policy design. Of developers and residents who adopt solar; 97% opt for the California Solar Initiative rebate which pays a known amount upfront for estimated production.

Utilities may soon be helping to bring biofuels to your gas tank in an unexpected way. Montreal-based Enerkem recently announced it has finished building what it’s calling its first commercial-scale plant, one that will make cellulosic ethanol, methanol and various biochemicals from discarded utility poles.

After 14 months of construction, the Westbury, Quebec, factory was “mechanically completed” in December, but it isn’t yet fully operational. The company is now working to get the gas part of the plant – the part that will convert the poles into what’s called “syngas,” a mixture that includes carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and will use it to make methanol — up and running now and expects it to be running constantly by early February, CEO Vincent Chornet says.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) are shacking up in hopes to better develop and commercialize biofuels

Chinese and Swiss researchers announced earlier this week that they have reached the highest efficiency yet for dye-sensitized solar cells (Grätzel cells). The photovoltaic cells are cheaper than silicon-based solar cells, but until this week’s discovery their drawbacks have outweighed their benefits.

While Karsner has not given any reason for the resignation, the underlying point is that he resigned from a one-of -a-kind job at a time when there is major political discord about how the U.S. should be moving forward with its energy policy. The news came on the same day that, for the fourth time this summer, Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to extend funding for renewable energy tax credit.

Houston, TX - The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab has just announced three research and development partnerships with Siemens and the University Houston.

NREL Director Dan Arvizu made the announcement at a press conference on Tuesday at the American Wind Energy Association’s annual conference in Houston. “We are very excited to be a part of this new movement,” said Mr. Arvizu. He added that wind power has come a long way in a relatively short period of time, and that things have changed quite dramatically.

The announcement came just one day after Vestas Wind Systems, and DOE’s Andy Karsner announced that it had chosen Houston, Texas as the location for its new research facility in the U.S.

From time to time the National Renewal Energy Lab (NREL) reminds us that the US used to be a leader in innovation. This time it’s in the area of solar thin film technology. The goal with solar thin film technology is to surpass the efficiency level of silicon solar cells. Efficiency refers to the rate at which sunlight falling on a solar cell is converted to electricity. Silicon has been the most efficient material, but it is is expensive and limited, so the world is seeking alternatives. (Picture above from the Dept. of Energy shows thin film manufactured by Iowa Thin Film Technologies.)

NREL has set a new world record using CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) thin film, which in tests has reached 19.9 percent efficiency, coming very close to the 20.3 percent level of multicrystalline solar cells.