QUICK NEWS, 2-3: CA UTILITY BUYS BIG PV SUN; ANOTHER NUCLEAR LEAK; NEXT-GEN BIOFUELS BREAKTHROUGH; WHERE TO SAVE ENERGY

CA UTILITY BUYS BIG PV SUN
Recurrent Energy Signs Agreement for 50 MW of Solar Projects with Southern California Edison; SCE agrees to buy power from three of Recurrent Energy’s projects
February 2, 2010 (Recurrent Energy)

"Recurrent Energy, an independent power producer and a leading developer of solar power projects…has signed agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE)…[to sell the] utility… 100 percent of the power from three of Recurrent Energy’s California solar projects.

"Recurrent Energy will build and operate the solar power systems, located in Kern County and San Bernardino County, which have a combined peak output of 50 megawatts of DC power (MWDC). The projects are expected to be completed in early 2013…"

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"The three solar photovoltaic ground-mounted power systems, two in Kern County (6 MWDC and 22 MWDC) and one in San Bernardino County (22 MWDC), are sited on private land leased by Recurrent Energy and construction is expected to begin in 2012."

[Arno Harris, CEO, Recurrent Energy:] “These projects are a great example of the potential for distributed-scale solar to deliver significant quantities of power on relatively short timeframes…Distributed-scale solar has an important role to play in helping to meet near-term renewable energy goals. This is a clear validation of our approach to developing and marketing solar power in California.”


ANOTHER NUCLEAR LEAK
Vermont Power Plant Continues to Leak Radiation
Matthew L. Wald, February 1, 2010 (NY Times)

"Technicians seeking the source of a leak of radioactive tritium at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant have found concentrations in groundwater there that were three times higher than what was discovered last week…

"Tritium was measured at 70,500 picocuries per liter, which the spokesman, Rob Williams, characterized as a low level. The highest level discovered so far [is not considered a risk to public health or safety]…But it does put Vermont Yankee over the threshold at which it is obligated to make a report to federal regulators within 30 days, and say what it will do about the problem. The limit, 30,000 picocuries, was crossed on Sunday."

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"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already been at the site to study the problem, and Vermont Yankee is well into an attempt to find the leak and map the pollution.

"The Environmental Protection Agency standard for the allowable level of tritium in drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter, lower than the N.R.C. reporting threshold. But so far no contamination has been found in drinking water sources…"

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"The new, higher level of 70,500 picocuries per liter of radioactive tritium was measured in a monitoring well, one of six that the owner, Entergy, is drilling to try to find the problem…At a new well, the tritium concentration was 1,840 picocuries.

"Vermont Yankee is seeking a 20-year extension of its operating license, which expires in 2012, from the regulatory commission. Renewal is also subject to state approval…Gov. Jim Douglas said that recent events had cast ‘dark clouds of doubt’ over the plant, and recommended that the Legislature delay a decision."


NEXT-GEN BIOFUELS BREAKTHROUGH
Biofuel advance made in Bay Area, researchers say
Suzanne Bohan, January 28, 2010 (San Jose Mercury News)

"Researchers [at the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBI) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)] have engineered a microbe that produces biodiesel fuel directly from plant waste and grasses…The development was hailed as a major milestone in a federal initiative to develop new forms of [non-petroleum, non-ethanol] transportation fuels…

"Energy Secretary Steven Chu sent an excited message praising the advance…The institute, which opened in late 2008 with the mandate of developing commercially viable alternates to corn-based ethanol within five years, has a $125 million Department of Energy grant…[A] federal law [mandates] for energy security and environmental reasons production of at least 36 billion gallons per year of biofuels by 2022. It also limits the amount allowed for conventional biofuels, such as those made from corn, to 15 billion gallons annually by 2022."

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"Energy officials are pushing to limit ethanol production, partly because it uses a human food crop and valuable cropland to produce fuel. Ethanol also has to be delivered in trucks — a pollution source — because it corrodes pipelines…

"Institute scientists…collaborated with researchers at LS9, a biotechnology firm in South San Francisco, to engineer a bacteria that overcame the primary challenges of extracting fuel from tough plant material called ‘cellulosic biomass’…The bacteria, a strain of the laboratory workhorse E. coli, can convert materials such as straw, wood chips [and other agricultural waste] or grass [grown on marginal land unsuitable for farming] directly into fatty acids used as fuels. These plant-derived fatty acids are called ‘nature's petroleum.’"

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"To enable that, scientists spliced in genes that allowed the E. coli to create an enzyme that breaks down the plant material, releasing complex sugars…To produce enough fatty acids to make [the process] commercially feasible, [the scientists] had to rig the bacteria to keep eating, even after it no longer needs to, and to release the fatty acids it produces…[and] succeeded in taking off the bacteria's internal controls over fatty acid, or biodiesel, production.

"The challenge now is going from laboratory flask to commercial-scale fermentation tanks to produce vast quantities of fuel…[The scientists and researchers have] hopes of developing an economically viable production system within two years…[They] also plan to manipulate bacteria to produce biodiesel for jet planes."


WHERE TO SAVE ENERGY
US energy savings: Opportunities and challenges; There is great potential to reduce energy consumption and minimize its total cost by using existing technologies—and without changing the everyday habits of consumers.
Jon Creyts, Hannah Choi Grenade and Kenneth J. Ostrowski, January 2010 (McKinsey Quarterly)

"The specter of more expensive energy, along with concerns about its availability and environmental impact, has renewed interest in finding more efficient ways to use it. For executives, this shift could bring not only new challenges, including stringent regulations, but also new business opportunities. And for society as a whole, the potential savings are huge: more than $1 trillion in the United States alone.

"…[T]here is great potential to reduce [energy] consumption and minimize its total cost by using existing technologies…without changing everyday habits…[but for 4] fundamental barriers…[1] efficiency typically requires large upfront investments…[2] it has low mindshare…[3] opportunities are fragmented across billions of devices in more than 100 million locations…[and, 4] the organizations that would be primarily responsible for implementing energy efficiency find it hard to measure, which makes them less motivated to act…the full range of savings may require a comprehensive energy policy…in three key sectors…"

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"Let’s start with the residential sector, which accounts for 35 percent of the end use potential for energy savings. The incremental investment to make 129 million US homes—and the appliances, devices, and climate control systems in those homes—more energy efficient would be $229 billion, providing present-value savings of $395 billion…[Click thru to “US energy savings: Opportunities and challenges…” for details]…

"…Because several commercial clusters—especially new homes and office devices—resemble their equivalents in the residential sector, we’ll stress the differences. The net present value–positive upgrades would require a $125 billion investment and provide present-value savings of $290 billion. Buildings and the devices used in them offer 87 percent of the opportunity…[Click thru to “US energy savings: Opportunities and challenges…” for details]…

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"The processes, support systems, and buildings of the US industrial sector not only consume more energy than the others combined but also offer the greatest NPV-positive energy-efficiency opportunity (3.65 quadrillion BTUs)—although the smallest (18 percent) as a percentage of end-use consumption. Capturing this opportunity would save $447 billion though present-value investments of $113 billion…[Click thru to “US energy savings: Opportunities and challenges…” for details]…

"McKinsey has looked long and hard for ways to obtain an affordable, secure energy supply while controlling climate change. Energy efficiency stands out as the single most attractive and affordable component of the necessary shift in energy consumption…Although significant challenges stand in the way, solutions not only exist but can also be scaled up to a national level, which would cut the US energy bill by 23 percent and save a net $680 billion by 2020. But that isn’t very far in the future, and each wasted day makes this—or any goal whatsoever—more difficult to reach."