California Makes Progress with Bio Fuels

Despite all the buzz around biofuels, commercial production has been slow to scale up. As a result, the EPA scaled back its goals for advanced biofuels earlier this year. Still, some Bay Area scientists recently made a breakthrough that could move us one step closer to a day when our cars run on fuels from plants.

The idea behind biofuels is pretty simple. Plants take sunlight and use that energy to make sugars. The biofuels industry wants to transform those sugars into fuel. That requires some molecular rearranging, so they’re looking to microbes to do the job.

At the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in Emeryville, e.coli is the microbe of choice. Researcher Greg Bokinsky shows me racks of glass tubes that are home to e.coli cultures that have been biologically engineered. They’ve created e.coli that munch on a woody plant called switchgrass.

If you’ve heard anything about biofuels, you’ve probably heard about ethanol that’s made from corn, which you can buy at gas stations today. But ethanol can’t be transported long distances because it corrodes pipelines. And using corn for fuel has also raised some concerns.

"Corn is used extensively to feed animals. Corn is also used for some food as well, human consumption. So we want to be very careful about using corn itself,” says Jay Keasling, CEO of JBEI.

Read More on Science.kqed.org

A new £50million centre that will accelerate the commercialisation of green technologies has been announced today by the Business Secretary Vince Cable.

The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult will be headquartered at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow with an operational centre at the National Renewable Energy Centre in the North East of England.

The national centre will focus on technologies for offshore wind, wave and tidal power and is designed to bridge the gap between university research and full commercialisation. It will have a UK wide remit, and build strong links with centres of excellence such as Wave Hub and the marine energy park in the South West of England.

Speaking at the launch event in Glasgow, Cable said: "Our offshore renewable sector can compete on a global scale and has huge potential for growth. If we can harness that we will generate billions of pounds for the economy whilst creating thousands of job opportunities at the same time."

Today's announcement is part of the government's investment in a network of Catapult centres across a number of sectors. The £140million High Value Manufacturing Catapult is now operating across seven locations around the UK. A £50million Cell Therapy Catapult, a Satellite Applications Catapult and Connected Digital Economy Catapult are due to be set up later this year.

Professor Jim McDonald, chairman of the Energy Technology Board and Principal of the University of Strathclyde, said: "I am delighted that this truly collaborative bid has been successful. By securing the UK Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, the country will build on our already globally competitive reputation for advances in renewable technology and deployment.

"Our world class research base offers distinct advantages and will accelerate industrial innovation. We will help to develop and drive the industry over the coming ten years and beyond."


Author
Laura Hopperton
Eureka Magazine

British Energy Company Develops Next Wave in Ocean Power

Ecotricity, a British alternative energy provider, announced on its website that it is financing a new technology called Searaser. The company says the new technology tackles two of the main obstacles faced by the renewable energy industry: cost and intermittency.

The Searaser was invented by Alvin Smith, an engineer from Devon (UK). It uses ocean power, which is constant, to create electricity on demand.

Read more on CleanTechies.com

Hydrokinetic Power Developers Face Technical and Regulatory Hurdles in Bid to Tap Tides

The quest to turn the motion of the world's waterways into a significant source of energy may still be in its nascent stage, but several tidal power projects are making headway. Whether they operate in lakes, rivers or the oceans, projects attempting to harness the tides share the same mission: to improve the technology and offer an economical alternative to fossil fuels.

Renewable hydrokinetic power comes from a number of different sources, including the up-and-down motion of waves and the smooth flow of the tides caused by the sun and moon's gravitational forces on Earth's bodies of water. Tidal power is seen as a promising source of energy because of its predictability and from the potential to draw it from ocean currents and estuary channels that connect rivers with the sea.

There are only a handful of tidal energy projects in place around the world, and none is producing commercially available electricity at this time. Most of these projects use some sort of turbine to capture the tide's kinetic motion. In general, as the turbines slowly spin, they turn the gears in an attached gearbox to create electricity. Cables connected to those gearboxes carry that electricity ashore.


Although it is unclear just how much electrical energy that the tides have the potential to generate, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has studied several tidal power project sites. In 2008 EPRI estimated those sites together have the potential for generating as much as 115 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, although the practical potential for energy generation from those sites is about 14 terawatt-hours per year. (Total electricity consumption in the U.S. is about 4,000 terawatt-hours per annum, according to EPRI.) Much of that energy would come from Alaska, thanks to high power density and large-size sites in southeast Alaska, Cook Inlet and the Aleutian Islands. Other locations studied were in Maine, San Francisco and Washington State's Puget Sound. Although New York City and the Chesapeake Bay were not studied for the 2008 report, EPRI concluded these sites could also make use of tidal hydrokinetic energy resources.


Read more from Larry Greenmeier in Scientific American

Tidal Energy - Another step closer to waving goodbye to Fossil Fuels?

 As the world's non renewable energy sources begin to run out, tidal power could become very important for us to consider. By building barrages and dams across some rivers ,it will allow the tide to ebb and flow. As the water moves through these relatively small pipes, the power of the movement pushes turbines, which in turn power huge electrical generators. However, this process can end up changing the ecosystem greatly,owing to the dams of water it creates. Many countries oppose Tidal Barrages because of these changes to the ecosystem. Animals like certain birds, fish, and other species could end up becoming extinct for several miles. However, barrages could also help protect the shoreline from floods and storms and they do not pollute the environment with chemicals or greenhouse gasses the way fossil fuels do.

The good thing about tidal power is that you can predict it and rely upon it. As the tide ebbs and flows at certain times of the day, operators know exactly how much power will be generated and when. However. a tidal power plan can only generate electricity for ten hours a day, the barrages being built of course, when the tide is out. It requires little upkeep and no fuel or energy to run and overall, it is a very dependable and consistent source of energy.

More research is needed for Tidal Power to become efficient, the main problem being the limitations on the number of sites that there can be plants. Furthermore, it could not be considered as an incredibly strong source of power owing mainly to the 14 hour down-time. However, it can be free and the power source is renewable. So, on balance it could make a good alternative to fossil fuels that is cheep and cost effective but the effects upon the ecosystem would have to be taken into consideration and concurrently, the possibility that it may only be a good option for some countries.

From Smart Power to Smart Heat

Just read a very interesting article about the next conundrum for the Alternative Energy community called Smart Heat. It is one thing looking for smart ways to power our civilisation but we haven't looked yet properly at the effects the amount of heat being emitted from the various methods of energy production will have on our climate. The article entitled "Power Paradox:Clean might not be Green forever" published recently in New Scientist proposes the argument that even Green Energy can effect a change in climate, if as a civilisation we continue to increase power production to feed our ever more demanding need for electricity. One example is that of Solar Panels, that produce a small amount of excess heat that is burned off into the atmosphere. Considering the size of some of the Solar Power fields already in place in the world that could pose a problem in years to come. However, there are likely already technologies being investigated to compensate for this and it's hardly, in my humble opinion, an argument against the use of sustainable energy, in relation to the more compelling and ravenous effects the burning of fossil fuels has on our climate.

Curry Boss Uses Fighter Jet to serve the Rich!

A recent article in http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/298211 talks of how a curry boss has bought a fighter jet to serve customers his curry takeaways around the world. Is this acceptable in the current ecological climate? Why are we paying green taxes? The whole country is being told to become more Energy Efficient and this sort of behaviour is allowed to go on. The rich live in a totally different world to the rest of us as we all know and anyone who accepts a curry takeway delivered in a Fighter Jet obviously could not give a damn about environmental issues or the impact their decadence is having on our planet. When the planet goes into meltdown will their money save them? I seriously doubt it. Re-tweet, share and generally make a noise as loud as a jet plane taking off about this story. Wtf??? (Excuse my unprofessional-ism)