July 31st, 2009

Bathing the earth in acid?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 1:14 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, conservation, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, ocean, research

Tags: Acid, Carbon Dioxide, Harry Fuller

The head of NOAA says global warming has an evil twin. It’s a variety of oceanic acid stomach. The chemistry is pretty straight forward for those who managed first-year chemistry in high school. CO2 + H20 = H2CO3. That would be carbonic acid, not the worst on the pH scale but significant. It is much of what has helped underground streams carve the millions of miles of caverns through limestone.
NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco says additional CO2 into the atmosphere means additional CO2 dissolved in the ocean. That ushers in the above chemical reaction leading to more carbonic acid. And Lubchenco says the acidified ocean will mean trouble for pelagic plants and animals.
A recently released study from Hawaiian scientists shows a gradual acidification of the ocean over the past 20 years. Because of minimal scientific concern in the past and lack of datasets, it may be some time before the scope of the CO2 effects on the ocean becomes clear.
If CO2 in the ocean becomes a serious concern this will lead to even more clamor for carbon sequestration. This could be bad news, good news. Terrible for ocean creatures, great for carbon capture tech.

July 31st, 2009

Head 'em up. Move 'em out. Keep those clunkers rollin'

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 10:48 am

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy

Tags: Car, U.S. Congress, General Motors Corp., Sales Strategy, Sales, Harry Fuller

Let’s spend more money, says Congress. They may not see their way to helping Americans get universal health care, but auto care? Big support in Congress for auto care. The House just approved another $2 billion for the “cash for clunkers” program, that started out with half that, and spent most of its original cash in one week. This bill will likely pass the Senate next week. It would be un-American to not support auto sales, right? Likely, also, it’ll be signed by Obama. The government’s already put billions into GM and Chrysler so why not keep people buying cars?
Not only more money for clunkers, but a longer life to the program that would have expired this fall, but was destined to be broke far before then. Now it will extend another $2 billion dollars worth, Congrss expects that to last until they get back from their hard-earned August vacation. Then they can always vote for yet more money when theyroll back into town.
Here’s my earlier blog on the clunker program. All those old cars going off to the chop shop for crushing and recycling and landfilling.
Will this program be extended to hit the launch of some of the plug-in cars and next generation of hybrids? Will GM Volt’s get some sales boost from clunker rebates?
FOLLOW THE MONEY
As always in Wsashington, it’s crucial to know whose ox is being gored? This $2 billion did not fall from the sky, after all. The House bill would take it away from rewenable fuels funding. Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), on the House vote today to give $2 billion from the Department of Energy’s renewable energy loan program to the “Cash for Clunkers.”
“The ethanol industry understands the trying economic times this country finds itself in and thus supports ideas like the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program, but is concerned to see the program paid for by depleting the renewable energy loan guarantee program. We hope Congress will move quickly to replenish the renewable energy] fund.”
Clunkers trump even corn-based ethanol. This could get interesting.

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July 31st, 2009

McKinsey: Saving energy could have huge economic impact

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 5:26 am

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: Energy Efficiency, McKinsey & Co., Energy Consumption, Heather Clancy

Forget carbon footprint measures for a moment. How much money could be poured back into the U.S. economy if people spent more time worrying about wasted energy consumption?

McKinsey & Company has come up with a number in a new report about “unlocking energy efficiency in the U.S. economy.” According to the consulting company, businesses have the potential to cut non-transportation related energy consumption by 23 percent between now and the year 2020. This translates into about $1.2 trillion, although it would require an upfront investment of about $520 billion to realize these savings.

According to McKinsey, the following will be central to realizing these savings:

• The declaration that energy efficiency measures are just as important to the national debate about energy consumption as are the development of alternative energy sources.
• The development of national and regional approaches to energy efficiency programs.
• Sources of funding.
• Better alignment between utilities, regulatory bodies, government agencies, manufacturers and consumers.
• Innovation in next-generation energy-efficiency technologies.

Click here for the press release about the report.

Click here to download an executive summary of the report (shorter version!).

Click here to download the full version.

July 30th, 2009

Climate Savers power management seminar transcript now online

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 8:36 am

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: Power Management, Heather Clancy

In case you missed it, Climate Savers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently held a cyber-seminar focused on quantifying the savings that could be associated with various power management programs. Could be a good refresher course, especially as the dog days of August loom and people crank up the air-conditioning.

Data shared during the session included the following:

• Energy costs account for about 10 percent of a typical IT budget. For some more color, I just got off a call where it was suggested to me that energy accounts for about 30 percent of an organization’s operational costs.
• Adjusting enterprise computer power consumption — we’re talking desktops not just servers — can have a profound impact on peak utility consumption. Usually, this is about 26 percent of a company’s electricity use in a given office building.
• A company managing about 1,000 computers per year could save up to $40,000 in electricity costs by addressing wasted consumption.

Click here to go to the Climate Savers seminar recording and the accompanying white paper.

July 29th, 2009

Hottest trend in autos? Dumping the old clunker

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:31 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, law & politics, petroleum

Tags: Dollar, Federal Government, Government, Harry Fuller

The federal government has over $800 million dollars left in its “cash for clunkers” purse. But already one Michigan Congressman is worried the money isn’t enough. This auto-booster wants more federal dollars. Ten percent of the cash for clunkers money has already been spent. Seems car buyers were waiting for such a price break. The current program expires on November 1, or when the money runs out. Bet it gets prolonged.
There’s sufficient evidence, or at least specific stories. More than $9000 off the list price?
The clunker program has one of those fine official federal titles: Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009, or CARS. Here’s the official CARS website. Basically it gives a new car buyer money if the buyer upgrades the MPG from the old to the new vehicle. There is a very low threshhold for new vehicles to qualify. New cars: 22 mpg. New SUVs and small or medium pickup trucks or vans: 18 mpg. New large vans and pickups: 15 mpg. Still, lots of those old V-8 and heavy SUVs are very fuel hungry.
The old cars bought with the clunker rebates are supposed to be scrapped. Not to be resold. That hasn’t pleased auto recyclers who make money selling parts for older cars.
WHICH CLUNKERS?
Some semi-official data already. Early CARS stats: the average clunker trade-in gets 17 miles per gallon and the average new vehicle gets 25. An 8 MPG step up. Over 70 percent of the clunkers are SUVs. 84 percent of the new vehicles are passenger cars.
But Old Ford Explorer SUVs may be less common on the roads soon. They’re high on clunker to junker list. And one dealer says 33 recent sales there show an 11 MPG increase from the clunker to the new replacement model. On the opposite coast: again the 11 MPG step up seems to be the average.

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July 29th, 2009

Intel commits $10M to five clean-tech companies

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 2:15 pm

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: Renewable Energy, Monitoring, Clean Technology, Intel Corp., Intel Capital, Telecom & Utilities, Heather Clancy

Intel Capital is sinking new and additional investment funds into five technology companies, most of which have some stake in the energy monitoring or monitoring marketplace.

Here’s a summary of who snagged the money:

• CPower, a New York company that provides energy management and demand response services and that is part of the Intel Open Energy Initiative. CPower works closely with grid operators and utilities, New York, the Mid-Atlantic region, Texas, California and Ontario, Canada.
• Grid Net, a San Francisco technology developer that has created PolicyNet, which is a management platform for smart grid devices that uses 4G broadband networks.
• Powervation, an organization from Ireland that makes digital power controllers for servers, desktops and communications devices. You would find its technology in power supplies.
• Convey Computer, a business from Richardson, Texas, that focuses on high-performance computing platforms that are designed with reduced energy consumption in mind.
• iControl, a maker of home automation equipment based in Palo Alto, Calif., that is focusing on potential consumer applications for energy efficiency.

I think it is worth pointing out that these investments underscore Intel’s broader commitment to the smart grid and renewable energy technology. The company remains the top purchaser of green energy in the United States, according to the latest Green Power ranking by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Renewable energy contributes about 48 percent of the company’s electricity consumed annually.

July 29th, 2009

How clean is that beach?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 1:04 pm

Categories: Blogroll, conservation, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, ocean, water

Tags: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ocean, NRDC, Harry Fuller

NRDC has put together data from the EPA and tied it to specific locations, beaches near many of America’s largest cities. Here’s the full report.
Both chemical and bacterial pollution along American beaches can be dealt with by various existing green technologies. It takes political will and money. Something that is often lacking if the pollution is coming from local utilities, corporations or regional agriculture.

July 29th, 2009

Lean and green? Which corp leads EPA's green practics list?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 12:35 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, building, climate change, conservation, energy, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy

Tags: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Harry Fuller

Kimberly-Clark. Here’s a look at the EPA’s top nine list. The rankings are done based on renewable energy use and conservation. Doesn’t measure whether they get leather from Brazilian cattle or recycled paper shipped in from China. I’m glad to see one of my favorite beer makers is on this list. Note that most of the top greenies are in the western U.S.
EPA also lists the top purchasers of green power among American corps. LIst includes a number of tech firms: Intel, Cisco, Motorola, Sony, Dell, Sprint, Lockheed, AMD. In some cases it’s a specific facility of the corporation.

July 29th, 2009

Don't underestimate the power of the electrical power plug in the smart grid

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 5:46 am

Categories: conservation, energy, green tech

Tags: HomePlug Powerline Alliance, Grid, Powerline, Heather Clancy

Lots of attention is paid to the role of wireless communications devices in the smart grid and smart energy systems build-out, but the dark horse of this movement could be technology that uses the electrical wires living inside your walls to communicate relevant usage metrics.

That’s the position of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, a group of companies that advocates the use of electrical wires to create “reliable” home networking and smart grid applications. HomePlug has about 75 member companies, including the likes of Cisco, Comcast, GE Energy, Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments.

Specifications being worked on by the HomePlug organization are part of the draft standard recently approved by the IEEE p1901 Working Group, which is focused on enabling broadcast communications over powerline infrastructure. The work being done by this group will declare itself in products for retail home networking and IP television, but increasingly the IEEE p1901 working group is looking to establish closer ties with the P2030 Working Group on Smart Grid interoperability, says Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. The video referenced in this link has more information about what’s going on with that working group.

Ranck says powerline broadband communications will be important for smart grid applications in places such as multi-apartment dwellings, where there is a higher potential for wireless communications conflict, or in large homes that can’t be covered completely by one wireless network. Meters could be associated to different apartments through powerlines, instead.

So, don’t think of powerline as replacing the wireless component of smart-grid deployments, think of it as an extension. “It’s a natural fit for the whole green energy movement. After all, many of the devices you are trying to measure are plugged into powerlines,” Ranck notes.

Incidentally, do not write off powerline broadband as simply a consumer issue. As businesses increasingly outfit their employees with the ability to work remotely and seamlessly, powerline technology is definitely a trend to watch.

July 28th, 2009

The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind...

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 6:14 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Canada, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, global warming, green tech, petroleum, renewable energy, research, wind

Tags: Farmers, Insurance, Blogging, Financial Planning, Business Operations, Corporate Insurance, Internet, Finance, Harry Fuller

Bob Dylan was right, as always. A Canadian study says auto emissions would be cut by 90% if we all drove plug-ins, and then re-charged them when the wind blows. Like, overnight. In places like Calgary where they did the study. Where the wind comes sweepin’ cross the plain. Thanks to R&H for my second lyric of the blog.
I have to chime in with this electric car note: we hybrid drivers are proving to be superior drivers, as expected. That’s the word from Farmers’ Insurance that offers nice hybrid driver discounts. Pays off for Farmers.