Green Options

Welcome to the no spin zone… The future of renewable energy does not bode well with a candidate who was absent for the eight key votes to extend renewable energy tax credits.

“Stervern lomp hond!”

The Peruvian alternative energy company Iberoperuana Inversiones SAC has commenced construction on a 240 megawatt wind energy farm. It is Peru’s first major alternative energy project. 

Iberoperuana Inversiones plans to invest $240 million in the farm, which is projected to provide clean electricity for an estimated 80,000 families in Peru’s southern desert region of Paracas. The wind energy park will be located near the city of Ica (near Paracas National Park and the Nazca Lines) and will be known as the “Parque Eólico San Andrés” (San Andrés Wind Park).

A study at the University of Calgary has determined that the vast majority of bats found dead below wind turbines at a wind farm in Southwest Alberta suffered severe injuries to their respiratory systems consistent with a sudden drop in air pressure.

We hear a lot these days about the drive to implement renewable energy solutions. Companies and governments alike are looking to solar and wind generation as a way to not only cut costs, but to help the environment. Wind farms are popping up left right and center across the United States, and people are getting excited about a possible future independent of fossil fuels.

Sadly, that enthusiasm is also running up against a very solid and very old wall; bureaucratic red tape and shoddy designs.

The current power distribution system set up in the United States is currently run by about 500 owners, is a hundred years old, and is designed around helping prop each other up in the case of emergencies. What it is not designed to do, is to take a large amount of power and safely store or transport it.

You would think this would have been a justifiable goal for a power distribution system, but I guess things were different.

Recently, MIT discovered a revolutionary method for solar energy storage. And now, less than a month later, a method for wind power storage is being explored.

Earlier today, Public Service Enterprise Group Global announced that it is joining with Michael Nakhamkin to create a company called Energy Storage and Power that will develop new ways to trap wind power in underground reservoirs.

Compressed air storage technology isn’t new, but it has been ignored for many years. Now it’s being rediscovered thanks to the prolific growth of wind turbines and high oil and natural gas prices.

“Students are already interested in the environment and how to help what they perceive as the problems they’ll face when they join the workforce,” said Robb Larson of Montana State University. “So the goal is to get them thinking about wind and alternative energy as a career path.” And to help the students Montana State, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has named Montana State the home for a new Wind Applications Center.

“We’re a land grant institution dedicated to outreach and engineering,” said Larson, who is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. “It makes sense to support this industry that will eventually help students find jobs in their own state and support this clean, renewable energy industry.”

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince and Richard Jenkins, an engineer, will attempt to break the world land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle on Australia’s Lake Lefroy in the coming days. The current record is 116.7 mph.

According to Vince, the Greenbird uses technology found on Formula 1 vehicles and aircraft to achieve high speeds without an engine. The vehicle uses solid sails similar to those found on aircraft wings. The Greenbird, which is made of carbon composites, can transfer up to one ton of side force into the ground, and is so efficient that it can travel three to five times the true wind speed on land.

For renewable energy to be competitive with coal, natural gas, nuclear, and oil, it needs to be cost effective and reliable. Energy storage is key to achieving this.

Here’s why:

Lower Cost of Renewable Energy

High prices are one of the largest barriers facing renewables. Storage can help overcome this because not all watts are created equal. During peak demand on the electric grid, electric companies will pay more for electricity. Often the additional power needs at this time are supplied by natural gas or oil, which have higher fuel costs, yet can produce electricity at a moment’s notice. The opposite is true during times of low demand, when electricity costs are lower. Solar energy tends to correspond with these price fluctuations by generating large amounts of electricity during times of peak demand.

This is because air conditioning loads are largely responsible for increased electric demand. People tend to crank up the a.c. when the sun it out. Wind energy and other renewable energy sources however don’t necessarily correspond as closely. Storage will allow these energy sources to be fed to the grid during the most lucrative times.

State regulators in Colorado have given the green light to plans by Xcel Energy to shut down two coal-powered energy plants in the state, and build one of the world’s largest utility-scale solar-power facilities.

New York City is famous for many things, but wind power generation is not one of them—yet. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke yesterday at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas about his renewable energy policy proposal for the city.

Bloomberg expressed interest in off-shore wind farms, small-scale wind installations, and and tidal power systems, noting that some estimates predict that wind energy could supply 10 percent of the city’s energy needs within 10 years.

Of course, there are barriers to Bloomberg’s proposal. Many people complain about the unattractiveness of wind turbines, and these complaints certainly can’t be ignored in such a densely populated city. And at least one study claims that urban rooftop windmills are actually net carbon emitters.