QUICK NEWS, November 9: WIRING THE NATION FOR NEW ENERGY; SIEMENS UPS STAKE IN TIDAL ENERGY; THE COST CHALLENGE FOR BIOFUELS

WIRING THE NATION FOR NEW ENERGY
Renewable-Specific Transmission Projects Gain Steam
Dave Levitan, November 1, 2011 (IEEE Spectrum)

"It isn't intermittency or storage that really presents the biggest stumbling block for wind power scale-up, it's transmission. Huge wind farms in the middle of the plains sound great, but if there isn't a network of high-voltage lines to bring the power toward load centers -- cities -- then those farms don't get built. There is a growing move to build up these transmission networks, though, by companies and projects with specific goals of getting renewable energy on the grid as quickly as possible.

"Clean Line Energy recently announced approval to conduct business as a utility in Oklahoma; this will allow the company to start work on…[connecting] 7,000 megawatts of clean energy generation from western Oklahoma, southwest Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Arkansas, and other southeastern markets…"

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"Further north, ITC Holdings has long been in development for the Green Power Express, a transmission network designed to move 12,000 MW of renewable power around; it has since been incorporated into a larger network of transmission plans…In 2010 Southern California Edison completed three segments of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project to bring renewable power toward the Los Angeles area…

"…[A] report from Edison Electric Institute in 2009 outlined more than $21 billion in investments by utilities and regional transmission operators to build out renewable energy transmission networks…These projects -- and their cousins, like the Google-backed offshore ‘backbone,’ the Atlantic Wind Connection, that is in development -- are going to be key if renewable energy buildout is to…speed up…"


SIEMENS UPS STAKE IN TIDAL ENERGY
Siemens increases stake in ocean power specialist Marine Current Turbines
November 4, 2011 (Siemens)

"Siemens is increasing its stake in Britain’s Marine Current Turbines Ltd. to 45 percent…[as part of the expansion of its] newly founded Solar & Hydro Division within Siemens’ Energy Sector…Effective October 1, 2011…[the] Renewable Energy Division was split into two new divisions Wind Power and Solar & Hydro…

"Marine Current Turbines (MCT) evolved from a pioneer to a technology leader in horizontal-axis marine current turbines and has 25 employees. In February 2010, Siemens acquired a minor stake…MCT has already successfully implemented its first commercial-scale demonstrator project SeaGen in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Since November 2008, two axial turbines with a combined capacity of 1.2 MW have been feeding power into the grid…his project has thus produced the largest amount of electricity in the whole marine current power sector."

SeaGen, the MCT tidal energy device now generating electricity from tides in Northern Ireland's Strangford Lough (click to enlarge)

"Marine current turbines generate electricity by utilizing tidal current flows. The SeaGen turbine is fixed on a structure and is driven by the flow of the tides, with a key advantage that the generated power is precisely predictable in the tidal cycle. This technology is effectively similar to a wind turbine, with the rotor blades driven not by wind power but by tidal currents. Water has an energy density more than 800 times that of wind. Twin rotors rotate with the movement of the tidal flow and the blades pitch through 180 degrees to optimally track tidal current direction and speed…

"…[Ocean power is emerging with strong growth rates driven by global CO2 reduction commitments. Until 2020, experts anticipate double-digit growth rates for the ocean power business. Based on further estimates the global potential for power generation using tidal power plants is 800 terawatt-hours (TWh) per annum…That is equivalent to 25 percent above the total power demand in Germany and between three and four percent of power consumption worldwide]…"


THE COST CHALLENGE FOR BIOFUELS
Generating Ethanol from Lignocellulose Possible, But Large Cost Reductions Still Needed

"The production of ethanol from lignocellulose-rich materials such as wood residues, waste paper, used cardboard and straw cannot yet be achieved at the same efficiency and cost as from corn starch. A cost comparison has concluded that using lignocellulose materials is unlikely to be competitive with starch until 2020 at the earliest. The study…[identified] many opportunities for reducing costs and improving income within the lignocellulose-to-ethanol process, and provides insight into the priority areas that must be addressed in coming years.

"...The last 15 years has seen a massive growth of so-called first-generation processes that use enzymes and bacteria to turn the starch and sugars in corn and sugarcane into ethanol. But corn and sugarcane are also important components of the human food web, so using them for ethanol production has the potential to affect the price and availability of these basic commodities."

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"On the other hand, lignocellulose materials are often hard to dispose of, but they are rich in sugars that can be fermented into ethanol following appropriate processing…[C]ellulose [is] the most abundant polymer on Earth…[and] cannot be digested by humans, so using it for fuel production does not compete directly with food…The race is on to commercialize this second generation ethanol.

"…[T]he cost of building large scale ethanol-producing facilities will likely be higher for second generation ethanol compared to first generation technologies…[because] sources of lignocellulose may require significant and costly pre-treatment…Another reason costs are higher is that…[c]orn starch can be reduced to glucose with low-cost amylase enzymes, while pre-treated lignocellulose requires a [costly] cocktail of cellulase enzymes…"