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What would you think if someone offered you, for $1000, to increase your fuel mileage by almost an order of magnitude?  How about a statement that every single vehicle in America can be pushed above 100 miles per gallons?  Well, one exhibitor at WIREC made this claim.

Okay, perhaps you and I are fellow citizens because, for this, I’m from Missouri: Show Me! 

And, a booth display and lavish claims just don’t provide the proof of the pudding that makes me embrace this claim that would, if true, do a tremendous amount to solve America’s oil challenges overnight.

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In the United States, traditional hydropower (dams) provides roughly 10% of the electricity.   Traditional hydro plants, in many cases, are century+ old with embedded technology that is far from 21st century in terms of productivity for every gallon that passes by.  Thus, opportunities exist for taking existing hydropower facilities and making them more productive with the existing water resources. And, there are literally 1000s of dams and spillways across the country that do not have existing electricity production.  But, modernization operations can cost millions and take years to go through regulatory processes to seek to minimize environmental impacts (or, in the case of old facilities, perhaps to reduce environmental impact). The hydro industry often comments that the hydro regulatory process is more difficult than nuclear power’s.

Is there, however, an opportunity for getting a quick 3-7% increase at existing hydropower facilities and to put electricity production at some non-power producing dam sites with a far easier regulatory process, low per kilowatt installation costs (with, then, near free fuel), and do so quickly?  Until yesterday, at WIREC, the options didn’t really seem apparent. Now, however, my head is whirling with the possibilities. [Read more →]

NewEarth Renewable Energy is moving from development to true commercializatio of its ECO Clean Coal or E-Coal.  NewEarth is promoting E-Coal as a green coal supplement or, even, substitute.   E-Coal comes from processed biomass such as trees, seaweed, algae, bamboo, switchgrass or otherwise.  The process: “Eco Torrefactio” and “ECO-Densification” which process the biomass into a coal subsitute that can be made into basically any Btus per ton to match the coal that a plant would be using anyways.

What does E-Coal offer? This is biomass (a renewable fuel) that go directly into coal-boilers, displacing on a lb for pound basis coal being burned without any special infrastructure for moving between non-eco coal and E-Coal or for mixing them.  Facing a 20 percent renewable standard, for example, a utility could decide to replace simply replace 20% of its fossil fuel coal with E-Coal, without changing any other processes or establishing a new infrastructure.   

This is a quite exciting prospect for traditional coal-fired electricity plant operators looking at the growing likelihood of carbon limitations and the increasing renewable portfolio standards across the nation. In addition, the (claimed) low polluting nature of E-Coal might obviate requirements for pollution abatement devices as the E-Coal has no mercury or sulphur content. 

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Newsweek magazine has published a hagiography of GM Vice Chair Bob Lutz.  This one-pager, Bob Lutz: The Man Who Revived the Electric Car, focusing on his role in resuscitating the electric car after GM’s efforts to kill the electric car.  The 75-year Lutz is given the last word as to his vision.

Detroit’s horsepower jockey insists the Volt will be his crowning achievement—and his swan song. “This is like JFK’s call for the moon shot,” he says. “I want to stick around to see the Volt come to market. Then I’ll pack it in around 80.” And ride off into the sunset on electric power. 

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Al Gore talked to the Southern Baptist Convention with a somewhat unheralded talk that, reportedly, went over strongly.  From Robert Parham’s editorial at Ethics Daily.COM, Gore Delivers Most Important Baptist Address in 30 years

Former Vice President Al Gore delivered the most energetic, substantive and potentially transformative speech made by a Baptist to a Baptist audience in 30 years.

From my first Southern Baptist Convention in June 1978 in Atlanta to the New Baptist Covenant celebration last week in that same city, I can remember no address that matches the urgency and profundity of Gore’s riveting presentation.

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This coming week in Washington is a hot one when it comes to renewable energy, as the United States hosts the Washington Internation Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC).  WIREC is a combination of official ministerial (and other government) meetings and presentations; a business conference about renewable energy developments; a trade show; some real interesting looking “official side events“; and a chance for related presentations and demonstrations.   This really is a “be there or be square” event for those concerned about renewable energy (and its potential to help address Peak Oil, Global Warming, social justice, and other critical issues before us/US).

As per Worldwatch‘s announcement of one of the sessions with their staff speaking:

WIREC 2008 provides a center of knowledge transfer among industries, finance, academia, civil society, and government. …  an impressive group of high-level speakers and attendees for the Trade Show at WIREC 2008, … 60+ official side events …

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This coming week in Washington is a hot one when it comes to renewable energy, as the United States hosts the Washington Internation Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC).  WIREC is a combination of official ministerial (and other government) meetings and presentations; a business conference about renewable energy developments; a trade show; some real interesting looking “official side events“; and a chance for related presentations and demonstrations.   This really is a “be there or be square” event for those concerned about renewable energy (and its potential to help address Peak Oil, Global Warming, social justice, and other critical issues before us/US).

The government and business conferences don’t start until Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean that Monday, 3 March, doesn’t have a pretty full agena.

What has my eye at the moment?  A prayer for sun inside a conference room Monday, 3-5 pm, as some of the best in the solar cooking “industry” (is it right to call it an industy, I wonder) will combine for a presentation on solar cooking:

Solar cooking is a rapidly growing practice in both the developing and the developed world. Its proven benefits are environmental, health-related, economic and social. In this session, a who’s who from the nonprofit and for-profit worlds will brief attendees on the state of the art in solar cooking technology transfer, technical innovation and public policy reform. Each sponsoring organization will lend its unique perspective and hands-on perspective in conveying the promise, progress and challenges ahead for solar cooking. Examples of popular solar cooking devices will be featured.

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British Petroleum has made much in recent years with advertising that “BP” stands for “Beyond Petroleum”.  The latest news from this fossil-fuel giant indicates that “Beyond Petroleum” is becoming a question:  “Beyond Petroleum to what?” 

Todd Hayward, BP’s Chief Executive Officer, has put the Corportion’s green businesses on the auction block.  The price tag he’d be willing to sell BP’s solar and wind energy businesses: reported $5-7 billion.  This isn’t a trifling amount but with the ravenous appetite in the investing community for “green” opportunities, it is far from a roadblock number (dependent, of course, on the real value of the assets). 

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Black holes collapse on themselves, with a such a density that they change the path of light with no light escaping them.  In coming days, the Global Warming disinformation organization, the Heartland Institute (“the leading propaganda mill sowing confusion about climate science“), will convene a Global Warming skeptic/delayer/denier coven with the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change.  RealClimate asked a great question:

What if you held a conference, and no (real) scientists came?

For anyone concerned about a polite (an overly polite) shredding of a front organization’s event, take the time to read it.  

Heartland was a centerpiece of tobacco industry efforts to deny linkages between smoking and cancer. many of the same “scientists’ and Heartland have been involved in seeking to confuse the public’s understand of Global Warming.  In face of the reality that skeptics and denialists can’t stand up to scientific scrutiny and are unable to get published in peer-reviewed literature (since the work can’t stand up to review), Heartland intends to create a “peer reviewed” journal that will give a stamp of approval for these people who are so intent on rejecting reality. In short, Heartland is trying to coalesce enough bodies, enough energy, to create a dense pack to have a black hole to bend and distort the light when it comes to Global Warming issues and the public understanding/discussion of them.

And, sadly, without a doubt there are going to be “journalists” at this coven who will be confused, who will report on it in complimentary ways, who will (knowlingly or unknowlingly) contribute to the Black Hole’s effectiveness. 

To understand reasons why journalists should be wary, join the discussion after the fold …

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In the face of the potential for catastrophic climate change and global warming, “geo-engineering” is an arena getting a little attention and some press, such as W Broad, NYT Times

Geoengineering is the deliberate modification of Earth’s environment on a large scale “to suit human needs and promote habitability”.

One can argue that all efforts to control carbon emissions (to reverse past emissions) falls within GeoEngineering, but that is not the general context of consideration, which often focuses on efforts that would, somehow, have a direct impact on Earth’s temperatures (and not, necessarily, on carbon loads).

One step back question, which does not necessarily seem to occur in many conversation, is what principles should guide Geo-Engineering efforts and prioritization of their potential.

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