NewEnergyNews: QUICK NEWS, February 6: WIND IS BEST DEAL EVER; SOLAR PANELS FROM GRASS; WAVEBOB READY FOR BACKING/

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YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
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  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

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  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Monday, February 06, 2012

    QUICK NEWS, February 6: WIND IS BEST DEAL EVER; SOLAR PANELS FROM GRASS; WAVEBOB READY FOR BACKING

    WIND IS BEST DEAL EVER
    Cost Of Wind Energy Trending Toward An All-Time Low
    2 February 2012 (North American Windpower)

    "The levelized cost of wind energy (LCOWE) is headed toward an all-time low - approaching approximately $0.03/kWh in the best wind resource sites…[A] new report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)…notes, however, that these numbers are dependent on the continuation of current federal tax incentives, such as the production tax credit, which is set to expire for wind energy at the end of this year.

    "When only capital cost and capacity factor trends are considered, the LCOWE based on current turbine pricing is estimated to be approximately 5% to 26% below the previous low in 2002-2003, depending on the quality of the wind resource. When plausible assumptions for operations and maintenance (O&M), financing and turbine reliability trends are also considered, levelized cost reductions are estimated to be between 24% and 39% since 2002-2003…"


    click to enlarge

    "These trends have been driven primarily by sizable improvements in capacity factors within individual wind resource classes due to hub-height and rotor-diameter scaling, and by the drop in wind turbine prices over the last two years. Longer-term improvements in O&M, reliability and financing are also playing a role…

    "…[L]ow-wind-speed technology [advances] have…[opened] new areas of the U.S. for potential development…[T]he amount of land area in the U.S. that can support 35%+ project-level capacity factors has increased by 130% to 270% since 2002-2003…The amount of land area that can support wind projects with costs of under $0.05/kWh (with federal tax incentives) has increased by almost 50%..."



    SOLAR PANELS FROM GRASS
    Harnessing nature’s solar cells; Photovoltaic panels made from plant material could become a cheap, easy alternative to traditional solar cells.
    David L. Chandler, February 3, 2012 (MIT News)

    "Within a few years, people in remote villages in the developing world may be able to make their own solar panels, at low cost, using otherwise worthless agricultural waste as their raw material…[according to] MIT researcher Andreas Mershin…he work is an extension of a project begun eight years ago by Shuguang Zhang, a principal research scientist and associate director at MIT’s Center for Biomedical Engineering…

    "…Zhang was able to enlist a complex of molecules known as photosystem-I (PS-I), the tiny structures within plant cells that carry out photosynthesis. Zhang and colleagues derived the PS-I from plants, stabilized it chemically and formed a layer on a glass substrate that could — like a conventional photovoltaic cell — produce an electric current when exposed to light."




    "But… it required expensive chemicals and sophisticated lab equipment…[and the] solar cell was weak…Mershin says the process has been simplified to the point that virtually any lab could replicate it…[and the] efficiency is 10,000 times greater than in the previous version — although…it still needs to improve another tenfold or so to become useful…

    "…Mershin thinks that because he and his colleagues have now lowered the barrier to entry for further work on these materials, progress toward improving their efficiency should be rapid…Because the system is so cheap and simple, he hopes this will become…low-tech electricity to people who have never been thought of as consumers…He hopes [that within a few years] the instructions…[a] sheet of cartoon instructions…[and the] only ingredient to be purchased would be [inexpensive] chemicals to stabilize the PS-I molecules…"



    WAVEBOB READY FOR BACKING
    Irish Wave-Energy Technology Developer Wavebob in Funding Round
    Louise Downing, January 13, 2012 (Bloomberg News)

    "Wavebob Ltd., the Irish technology company seeking to harness the power of the ocean to produce clean energy, is seeking to raise 10 million euros ($13 million) by the end of March…[and is] in due diligence with two strategic investors and…[throughout] the financial community…

    "Energy from the waves has the potential to supply as much as 13 percent of current world electricity consumption…[but] currently costs about $434 a megawatt-hour…compared with about $76 a megawatt-hour for coal-fired power…"


    click to enlarge

    "Wavebob in March teamed up with Spain’s Abengoa SA (ABG) to evaluate potential locations for wave-energy farms around the world and to commercialize Wavebob’s technology, in a six-year agreement…Wavebob plans to install three machines, in Scotland, Portugal and the U.S., in the next two years…

    "…It’s in the process of finalizing a manufacturing tender for its project in Scotland and is seeking to have a 100-kilowatt machine installed and working by the first quarter of 2013. The company then expects to install a device in Portugal in the third quarter of that year and is working toward a 500-kilowatt system in the U.S. in 2014…[It hopes to seek partners in three-to-four years]…Possible buyers include wind-energy developers and engineering companies."

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