MORE NEWS (GREEN GRID, RES BILLS COMING; QUESTIONS ABOUT EV LIFE; SOLAR ENERGY LIKE PRINTING MONEY; THE LESSON OF LESS)

GREEN GRID, RES BILLS COMING
US Senate to tackle renewable energy grid in weeks
Ayesha Rascoe (w/ Marguerita Choy), February 23, 2009 (Reuters)

"…U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he plans to introduce legislation [February 26] aimed at facilitating the development of an electricity grid that can deliver power generated by clean energy sources from remote locations to urban populations.

"Reid's bill would require the president to designate areas that have the potential to produce significant amounts of clean energy. Planning for the grid would then begin in those selected areas. Reid stressed, however, that the federal government would have authority to complete transmission lines without the approval of local governments…"

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"'We cannot let...state regulators hold up progress,' Reid told reporters at the National Clean Energy Project event he hosted along with the Center for American Progress...Reid said state regulators would have opportunities to try work out a plan for the grid, but as in the cases of other national projects such as building railroads and interstate highways, 'there may come a time when the federal government has to step in.'

"Once Reid's bill is introduced, the bill would go to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee…Separately, the energy committee's chairman Senator Jeff Bingaman said… he hopes to have a package that would deal with energy efficiency and renewable energy power generation on the Senate floor in four to six weeks.

"Bingaman has already begun holding hearings on the possible energy legislation, that is set to include a measure that would require utilities to produce a certain amount of electricity from clean energy sources…"We'll proceed as rapidly as we can," Bingaman told reporters…Bingaman said he hoped to be able to fold Reid's proposal into the energy committee's package. Climate change proposals that would begin to regulate carbon dioxide emissions will not be included in this upcoming legislation…Reid said the Senate will tackle global warming issues later in the year…"


QUESTIONS ABOUT EV LIFE
Electric Cars: What if There’s a Blackout?
Kate Galbraith, February 23, 2009 (NY Times)

[Kate Galbraith, NY Times]: “…I attended a panel discussion on the future of the electric cars…I emerged with some questions…about how exactly driving around in a plug-in vehicle that has a range of only 100 or so miles would work…Better Place aims to create networks of electric cars, which can be recharged at home or at work over the course of several hours. Much like cellphone subscription plans, drivers will be able to choose when and how much to recharge. When the battery is nearly drained and drivers have no time to wait for a recharge, they will be able to stop at a “battery exchange” station and, in a five-minute procedure, swap out the battery…what if I need to go to the hospital in the middle of the night and my car battery is nearly drained?”

[Sven Thesen, Better Place]: “…your batteries won’t ever be drained down to zero…People…will always have a certain amount of range…in their batteries…a mid-sized city [will provide] two to two-and-a-half charge spots per vehicle…Obviously one at home or in the parking garage when you park your car…A city would also contain a couple of hundred battery exchange stations…exchange stations will be sited perhaps every 20 miles or so along the major highways…”

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[Kate Galbraith, NY Times]: “…[W]hat if my car battery is low and I get stuck in a big traffic jam, inching along and using a disproportionate amount of energy?”

[Sven Thesen, Better Place]: “You don’t actually use a disproportionate amount of energy at low speeds…The electric car network seems potentially well-suited to commuters, who travel short, predictable distances each day. For driving long distances…battery exchange stations… provide an opportunity to get out of the car and stretch the legs.”

[Kate Galbraith, NY Times]: ‘[What about the hassle of stopping every few hours to swap out the battery while driving from, say, New York City to Nashville[?]”

[Sven Thesen, Better Place]: “Given that it’s such a huge distance, you might rent a car. But for 99 percent of your driving, a battery exchange station is fine.”

Better Place. From twenny12 via YouTube.

[Kate Galbraith, NY Times]: “[W]hat if there is a blackout?”

[Sven Thesen, Better Place]: “What happens if we had a major earthquake and all the pumps and the gasoline stations stopped working? …[D]isasters can affect oil as well as the electricity system…A long blackout is unlikely.”

[Kate Galbraith, NY Times]: “…[W]hat’s to stop people from turning in a faulty battery to the battery-exchange station?”

[Sven Thesen, Better Place]: “We’re the ones that own the battery, so we’re going to do our best to ensure its longevity…If anything happens to the battery…Better Place will know…”

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[Kate Galbraith, NY Times]: “…[W]hat about thieves?”

[Sven Thesen, Better Place]: “[A battery is] 400 pounds…We’re going to have communication with it in the form of LoJack.”


SOLAR ENERGY LIKE PRINTING MONEY
New solar cells you can bank on
Conrad Walters, February 24, 2009 (Sydney Morning Herald)

"…Prototypes of a new generation of flexible solar cell have been produced using equipment built to print Australia's polymer banknotes.

"The breakthrough, conceived by the [Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)], has the potential to enable mass production of solar sheeting at a far lower cost than traditional silicon-based cells.

"A trial of the technology was conducted successfully…at the facilities of Securency International, north of Melbourne, where the nation's currency is printed…"

Schematic of a DuPont version of the thin film "printing" process. (click to enlarge)

"The new generation of solar cells is still relatively inefficient at converting the sun's rays into usable power. A CSIRO project leader, Dr Gerry Wilson, put the figure at 3 per cent. Normal photovoltaic solar cells are typically 25 per cent efficient…

"Dr Wilson was confident this would improve [to]…7 per cent efficiency by next year and double digits after that. But he said the main benefit of the flexible sheets of solar cells was the ability to mass-produce them…[for] the roof of a house or…walls of a commercial building…

"'Ultimately we want to print these at 200 metres a minute," said Dr Wilson, the speed used to print banknotes. 'If you could produce a 10 per cent efficient solar cell … in about five months you would have enough solar cells to produce one gigawatt of power. That's about the size of a nuclear power station. But in this case, we're using that big, free nuclear power station in the sky.'"

"Dr. Wilson…[hopes the] solar cells would be in production for general use in about five years."


THE LESSON OF LESS
Living With Limits
Rudy Baum (Editor-in-Chief), February 9, 2009 (Chemical & Engineering News)

"The Global financial crisis and recession is providing those who do not want to address global climate change another excuse for inaction. It is a familiar refrain. It is also a tired one.

"It seems that whenever a concrete proposal that would limit the amount of CO2 being poured into the atmosphere is floated—whether it's California's effort to limit tailpipe emissions from cars or the Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act—someone is sure to respond, "We just can't afford to do that. It will put us at an economic disadvantage." Now it is the recession…"

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"…CO2 is unique among greenhouse gases in that climate change as a result of CO2 emissions is largely irreversible on a 1,000-year time scale… [A National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration paper:] "Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected…are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the 'dust bowl' era and inexorable sea level rise." …

"…According to the [Monaco Declaration of 155 ocean scientists from 26 nations], ocean acidification is under way, it is already detectable—the pH of ocean surface waters has dropped…and it is accelerating. Severe damages to marine organisms is imminent because of acidification. It will have socioeconomic impacts …By the end of this century, if atmospheric CO2 is not stabilized, the level of ocean acidity could increase to three times the preindustrial level. Recovery from this large, rapid, human-induced perturbation will require thousands of years…"

"This is an emergency, folks. We have to begin the painful and difficult process of ceasing to treat the atmosphere and the oceans as a carbon dioxide sewer…And here's the hard truth: To do it, we're going to have to live with less, and we are going to have to accept some limits on our endless acquisition of goods because we cannot afford all the material stuff we produce and consume…[W]e are not paying the full cost of the material goods we consume. The only way that will change is through imposition of a carbon tax or a CO2 cap-and-trade system that will internalize the cost of burning fossil fuels into the products we consume. That is not going to be painless…[I]t has to be done. And done soon…"