China Chokes on Its Green Dysfunction

China's massive investment bubble has taken many forms over the past few years. One of the most damaging aspects of China's overproduction bubble is the great green dysfunction -- massive overproduction of wind and solar hardware and infrastructure.

President Barack Obama has held up China’s investments in green energy and high-speed rail as examples of the kind of state-led industrial policy that America should be emulating. The real lesson is precisely the opposite. State subsidies have spawned dozens of Chinese Solyndras that are now on the verge of collapse.

Unveiled in 2010, Beijing’s 12th Five-Year Plan identified solar and wind power and electric automobiles as “strategic emerging industries” that would receive substantial state support. Investors piled into the favored sectors, confident the government’s backing would guarantee success. Barely two years later, all three industries are in dire straits.

This summer, the NYSE-listed LDK Solar, the world’s second largest polysilicon solar wafer producer, defaulted on $95 billion owed to over 20 suppliers. The company lost $589 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and another $185 million in the first quarter of 2012, and has shed nearly 10,000 jobs. The government in LDK’s home province of Jiangxi scrambled to pledge $315 million in public bailout funds, terrified that any further defaults could pull down hundreds of local companies.

...Wind power is seeing similar overcapacity. China’s top wind turbine manufacturers, Goldwind and Sinovel, saw their earnings plummet by 83% and 96% respectively in the first half of 2012, year-on-year. Domestic wind farm operators Huaneng and Datang saw profits plunge 63% and 76%, respectively, due to low capacity utilization. China’s national electricity regulator, SERC, reported that 53% of the wind power generated in Inner Mongolia province in the first half of this year was wasted. One analyst told China Securities Journal that “40-50% of wind power projects are left idle,” with many not even connected to the grid.

A few years ago, Shenzhen-based BYD (short for “Build Your Dreams”) was a media darling that brought in Warren Buffett as an investor. It was going to make China the dominant player in electric automobiles. Despite gorging on green energy subsidies, BYD sold barely 8,000 hybrids and 400 fully electric cars last year, while hemorrhaging cash on an ill-fated solar venture. Company profits for the first half of 2012 plunged 94% year-on-year.

...Many in Washington have developed a serious case of China-envy, seeing it as an exemplar of how to run an economy. In fact, Beijing’s mandarins are no better at picking winners, and just as prone to blow money on boondoggles, as their Beltway counterparts.

In his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Obama declared, “I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China . . . because we refuse to make the same commitment here.” _Patrick Chovanec

China's huge overinvestment in wind and solar is becoming a serious problem for the middle kingdom, as bad investment and bad debt threaten the destroy all the economic gains previously made in the 1990s and 2000s up to 2008. But despite all that, Obama -- and several leaders in the EU -- have still not learned their lesson.

If the great global green dysfunction has made a monkey out of Warren Buffett and T. Boone Pickens, US President Obama should not feel too badly about being hoodwinked.

But Obama has already done untold damage to the current and future US economies, but the US cannot afford to let the "empty stool" continue to spew his purulent green policies all over the landscape.

Perhaps China is "in too deep" to cut its losses and move on, but if the US can throw off its own green dysfunction -- as embodied by the Obama regime from top to bottom -- it can still step through the doorway into an abundant energy future.

More -- China: Getting three times the GDP bump when a bridge collapses

Limits to Growth of Green Energy

Despite the best efforts of green thinking politicians, ideologues, and opportunists, there are real world limits to the application of big wind and big solar energy. Besides the exorbitant expense of big green, and the relative short lifetimes of the hardware compared to nuclear and fossil fuel plants, there is the huge problem of intermittency -- which is nowhere near to being solved.

WattsUpWithThat?!?!?

Technology alone won’t help the world turn away from fossil fuel-based energy sources, says University of Oregon sociologist Richard York....Based on a four-model study of electricity used in some 130 countries in the past 50 years, York found that it took more that 10 units of electricity produced from non-fossil sources — nuclear, hydropower, geothermal, wind, biomass and solar — to displace a single unit of fossil fuel-generated electricity.

...For the paper — published online March 18 by the journal Nature Climate Change — York analyzed data from the World Bank’s world development indicators gathered from around the world. To control for a variety of variables of economics, demographics and energy sources, data were sorted and fed into the six statistical models.
_WUWT

Big wind and big solar can not displace fossil fuel plants, because of the need to provide reliable backup power for the inherently unreliable big green projects. The intermittency of the wind and sun assure the need for more reliable power load-following power plants -- usually fossil fuel based -- to remain constantly on stand-by.

But York's analysis of nuclear in this regard is particularly suspicious, since nuclear plants consistently provide a reliable, high capacity factor baseload power. The only sense in which York's analysis can be true for nuclear is if he did not correct for the need for load-following and peaking power, which is separate from baseload power needs. In other words, by providing reliable baseload power, nuclear is not likely to displace load-following or peaking fossil fuel plants -- but that is not their purpose.

The apparent inability to distinguish between different types of power plants, and the fact that neither wind nor solar fit cleanly into the needs of a power grid, is particularly sloppy of York, and calls into question the professionalism of the journal Nature Climate Change.

York further exposes himself as an anti-growth zealot in the U. Oregon news release which discusses the journal article.

York's badly designed and misleading study is particularly counter-productive for society's future, coming at a time when serious choices about energy futures must be made, to prevent the entry into a full-scale economic stasis and stagflation for western economies -- immersed as most of them are in the twin quagmires of debt and demographic decline.

If these societies turn away from reliable and affordable sources of energy, their declining futures will be set in a hardening concrete of dimwittedness and dysfunctional ideology.

Barack Obama: A Fashionable Failure?

The Presidents and the Forgotten Man
Of all US Presidents, Obama is the one most noted for the crease of his pants and the cut of his suits. Mr. Obama is well-suited for fashionable vacations, retreats, and hideaways, and is always among the best dressed on the golf course. When he was elected US President in 2008, he was riding a veritable wave of fashion.

But now that the world has had a chance to see the man in action, as the leader of the world's richest and most powerful nation, it is clear that the current US president leaves much to be desired. Take Obama's energy policies:

President Obama, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, have all made it clear they want to make fossil fuels more expensive. And after their failed attempt to crush fossil fuels in one fell swoop with cap and trade legislation, they’ve turned to federal agencies to impose a long list of selective and foolish regulations on America’s oil and natural gas producers.

Of course each of these regulations on their own won’t be the death of fossil fuels. But combined, they’re setting the stage for a chilling ending that will mean the loss of millions of jobs, billions in tax revenue and weaker national security.

...In 2010, the EPA slapped a remediation order on a natural gas producer in Texas while the state’s oil and gas regulation agency was still conducting tests regarding alleged water well contamination. After testing was complete, the contamination was found to be naturally occurring and in no way related to drilling. But the EPA’s arbitrary and shameful actions proved the agency can target any company at random and force them to clean up, at their own expense, a problem they had nothing to do with.

And more costly regulations are on the horizon with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services now considering the addition of 100 Texas species to the endangered species list. It’s estimated that one species alone, the dune sagebrush lizard, could cost oil and natural gas producers, and state and private royalty owners hundreds of millions of dollars over the next ten years.

But perhaps most troubling could be the reporting of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions on oil and gas facilities in the field. And at what cost? Training, consulting fees, data tracking and ultimate reporting will cost one large independent an estimated $10-$20 million per year. The EPA definitions and thresholds will encompass the smallest to the largest domestic producers.

And to what end? Take your pick – regulatory cap and trade, curtailment, or a new carbon tax. The Obama administration will do through regulation what they could not accomplish through legislation.

...you could look to the Administration’s decision to deny the Keystone XL pipeline permit. That decision not only deprives American consumers of oil from a friendly neighbor, Canada, but also means most of the 500,000 bbls per day of oil from the massive Bakken field in North Dakota and Montana will continue to be transported by truck or rail at a much higher cost; ultimately resulting in higher gasoline prices. Of course it’s just a coincidence that Berkshire Hathaway, run by Warren Buffett, one of Obama’s biggest supporters, owns the railroad transporting significant amounts of that oil.

So who’s the ultimate victim in this tale of mounting regulation? The American people. The administration knows that by increasing regulation, it also increases the cost of doing business and ultimately, the price consumers pay at the pump. And by making fossil fuels artificially expensive, they’re clearing the path for their friends in the so-called “green” energy industry.
What’s even more alarming is that all of this comes at a time when America’s abundant supply of oil and natural gas could play a significant role in solving our nation’s most pressing problems—unemployment, debt and national security.

...Any way you slice it, the Obama Administration is out of touch with reality. _Forbes_Mike Cantrell

Obama's suicidal national policy of energy starvation is all the more amazing when one understands that it is based upon the discredited carbon hysteria fad. Mr. Obama's dysfunctional carbon hysteric policies of energy starvation have hamstrung all forms of reliable energy -- from nuclear to coal to oil to gas to oil sands to oil shale kerogens.

High powered economic societies require a large amount of reliable energy, fuel, and electrical power. Mr. Obama's favoured providers -- big money wind and big money solar -- are not reliable. In fact, most European nations which have tried these expensive and unreliable forms of energy production on a large scale, are being forced to back off very rapidly -- for the sake of their economies.

The energy starvation policies of President Obama represent just one aspect of the man's war against the US private sector. When looked at in their entirety, Mr. Obama's economic policies spell doom for the American economy.

Mr. Obama is no doubt still considered a very fashionable president -- particularly by the thug-monkeys of the US skankstream media, and by powerful special interest groups and lobbies. But anyone with clear vision and an honest voice would have to admit that the president is a fashionable failure, best-suited to be sent out to the fashion pasture of former presidents, where he can do much less harm than he is doing in his current position.

Big Wind and Solar Power: When Al Fin Changed His Mind

Actually, Al Fin has changed his mind on many things over the years. But this is one topic that you can check for yourselves. Do a topic search on "Renewable Energy" on either alfin2100 (Al Fin) or alfin2300 (Al Fin Energy). You can trace the progression of Dr. Fin's attitude toward big wind and big solar from "very favourable" all the way to "very unfavourable." What happened? No money changed hands to prompt the transformation. It was merely a question of looking at verifiable facts over time, and being compelled logically to change.

But in the larger world, big wind and big solar still have their champions -- from the US White House to the big money green activist groups to the EU bureaucratic apparatus to big money investors who benefit from government subsidies and tax breaks, such as Warren Buffett.

Now we are being told that "renewable energy" has surpassed nuclear power in terms of "energy generation." Does this mean that big wind and big solar are delivering on their promises? Well, no, not really. Look at the chart below, which breaks down the categories of "renewable energy."

RealClearEnergy

The recent reports that renewable energy has overtaken nuclear power as a source of primary energy for the nation have created the mistaken impression that all the windmill and solar panel construction is having a decisive impact. In fact, as the Energy Information Administration's December Monthly Report reveals, 80 percent of "renewable energy" is still supplied by hydroelectricity, wood and biofuels. Twelve percent comes from wind and 1.2 percent from solar. An additional 6 percent comes from burning waste - which not everyone regards as "renewable" - and 2.5 percent comes from geothermal energy.

...Under this set of definitions, the consumption of renewables actually exceeded nuclear power before 1987, until nuclear gained ground as more reactors were completed. Renewables declined after 2000 while nuclear continued to expand from improved performance by existing reactors, even though no new reactors have been built. The slight ascent in renewables over the last few years has come from the expansion of wood, biomass and wind. _RealClearEnergy

It is important to emphasise that no matter how much big wind "capacity" is built, that is not the same thing as power production. And just as important, one must point out that the wind tends not to blow at the time the power is needed. This is a fatal flaw in the big wind scheme. Not only must expensive backup power capacity be built and kept on constant standby to supply any wind deficits, but if wind power output should happen to be excessive in relation to demand, the utility must find a way to dump significant power. In the US Pacific northwest, federal judges have forced utilities to pay wind developers for power, even if the utility could not use it!

This moment-to-moment unreliability of wind generation has been likened to "throwing a live grenade into the power grid control booth." Wind farms are also harmful to the health of people living nearby, and to birds and bats -- for what that is worth to your tender hearts.

Big solar power has many of the same problems, except it is even more expensive than wind. Mr. Obama invested billions of dollars in US taxpayer dollars into already failed or soon-to-fail big wind and big solar projects. But since the backers of these projects were political backers of Mr. Obama, a few $billion wasted here or there doesn't amount to much.

The Obama administration -- for reasons of its own -- is rather slow at catching on to the ruinous effects of the mad pursuit of big wind and big solar, on the national power system and economy. But the governments of Spain and Japan have already been forced to drop their most of their generous government subsidies for these green wastrels, out of a return to basic economic common sense.

Sharp contraction ahead for solar power industry

Vestas Wind Systems shares lost 92% of value since 2008

General problems with wind power ... articles from Master Resource blog

This slideshare presentation on wind power started the shift in Al Fin's opinion of big wind power

It should be noted that Al Fin took a sabbatical from his day job a number of years ago, in order to get involved in one of his greatest enthusiasms -- renewable energy, esp. wind and solar power. He expanded his knowledge of power systems, electrical engineering, and residential, commercial, and industrial electricity, in order to be able to participate in the installation of renewable power systems. He had a great deal of fun in the process, and felt he was accomplishing some good things.

He had to return to his day job, but he retained his warm feeling toward wind and solar power. But along the way, Dr. Fin learned that there is a tremendous difference in justifiability between a small, off-grid wind or solar installation and a giant wind farm or solar plant. With a small installation, one keeps a close watch on his power usage, power generation, and battery storage state. With large wind or solar installations, there is no way to control for intermittency, unreliability, the huge cost of power standby, and many other problems.

And thus was a mind changed. And a voice that had once promoted big renewables changed to one that criticises them quite harshly.

Minds that are incapable of changing, are minds that have passed their due date -- regardless of the age of the individual. The most fruitful way of understanding a controversial field where the opponents are closely matched, is to study the arguments of those who have changed their minds. Sometimes the arguments justify the change, and sometimes not, but they are typically informative and educational both for what they include and for what they leave out.

Trillions of dollars are on the line in connection with the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming argument. If you want to study a high stakes disagreement, that would be an excellent place to start. BTW, Al Fin changed his mind on that topic as well.

Another CO2 to Fuels Process: Do We Really Want to Do This?

Researchers at Columbia University’s Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, in collaboration with Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, DTU, are investigating the high-temperature co-electrolysis of CO2 and H2O using solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) to produce a syngas for conversion into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. _GCC

GCC
The idea of "re-cycling" CO2 back into a fuel -- skipping the middleman of photosynthesis -- continues to be popular in certain scientific circles. This approach involves the co-electrolysis of H20 with CO2 to create an H2/CO syngas, which can be further processed into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.

The Lenfest/Risø team notes that high temperature electrolysis makes very efficient use of electricity and heat (near-100% electricity-to-syngas efficiency), provides high reaction rates (no need for precious metal catalysts), and the syngas produced can be catalytically converted to hydrocarbons in well-known fuel synthesis reactors (e.g. Fischer-Tropsch). There is no need for a separate reverse water-gas shift reactor to produce syngas, and the waste heat from exothermic fuel synthesis is useful in the process.

An analysis of the system energy balance presented by Christopher Graves at the May conference showed a 70% electricity to hydrocarbon fuel efficiency. Using solar photovoltaic energy at 10-20% efficiency, that would result in an overall 7-14% solar energy to liquid fuel efficiency, he said.

Their analysis of the economics of a co-electrolysis-based synthetic fuel production process, including CO2 air capture (earlier post) and Fischer-Tropsch fuel synthesis, determined that the price of electricity needed to produce competitive synthetic gasoline (at $2/gal wholesale) is $0.02 - $0.03 per kWh. _GCC

GCC
The Columbia / Riso approach involves the use of Ni/YSZ based solid oxide cells for co-electrolysis. This high temperature approach is somewhat similar to the STEP process being developed by George Washington U. and Howard U. researchers, for the explicit purpose of splitting CO2 for purposes of reduction of atmospheric CO2 levels. The STEP process provides the option of turning atmospheric CO2 into solid carbon for easy sequestration, or turning CO2 into CO for conversion to liquid fuels -- as in the Columbia / Riso approach pictured above.

These approaches will require dedicated (small modular) nuclear reactors to provide the large, steady flow of electricity and heat, required for such high temperature electrolytic substitutes for photosynthesis. It comes down to necessary efficiencies at every step in the process -- including the CO2 capture step.

Are these CO2 to fuels approaches a form of renewable energy? They require vast quantities of reliable electricity and heat to be efficient -- nuclear fission reactors, in other words. Nuclear energy could be sustainable for hundreds of thousands of years, given the proper regime of breeder technology, fuel recycling, inter-locking fuel cycles, and efficient removal of fission-killing by-products. But most political activists currently influencing the ruling class do not see nuclear energy as renewable energy, at this time.

Al Fin engineers and atmospheric scientists are uncertain where the large quantities of CO2 required to make these processes economical will be obtained. If political activists are successful in shutting down large-scale coal and other hydrocarbon power generation processes, CO2 could become rather scarce. (the atmosphere possesses only 0.04% CO2 and despite the sensationalist press, atmospheric levels are not climbing quickly) If the current ruling class is successful in its hysterical crusade against CO2, what can we expect? A chaotic tipping point -- in the opposite direction as that taught in schools -- is not out of the question.

The plant life of Earth evolved, for the most part, under conditions of much higher levels of atmospheric CO2, and conditions of much more "acidic" oceans than at present. The planet's natural systems are, if anything, starved for CO2. If political activists ever grow beyond their greedy scamming stage of carbon scheme and tax grifting -- if they become efficacious at carbon reduction despite themselves -- planet Earth will find itself in a desperate situation where the "great human dieoff" being promoted by political activists will not be optional any longer, but instead mandatory.

Adapted from an Al Fin Energy posting

Green Bubbles of Wind and Solar Threaten to Burst

Small wind and small solar can fit very nicely into particular niches -- such as off-grid energy production. But large wind and large solar projects are another thing entirely.

There has never been a good economic justification for large scale wind or solar projects. Europe fell head over heels for the green energy -- carbon hysteria scams long ago, but is just now beginning to pay a tremendous price for its folly. Any other economies that are foolish enough to join Europe in its delusional pursuit of wind and solar power -- to the neglect of clean nuclear and advanced coal $ gas, will pay a huge economic penalty.

... few if any wind energy, solar energy, and other green electric power installations could make money without subsidies. As governments across Europe curb spending and cut subsidies in response to the Greek crisis, the props to green energy are being cut back. As almost each day is marked by a new, and harsher national austerity plan announcement in countries ranging far up the scale from small-size Greece, we can be sure that reining in deficits will not be kind to green energy vanity projects.

On May 6, German lawmakers reduced subsidies to new solar plants by as much as 16%, dealing another blow to the generally high cost German solar energy industry, already faced with rising, low cost competition from China and India. Italian solar industry groups expect government support for new wind and solar energy power generation plants to be scaled back by 25% or more, in June.

In Spain, where subsidies to the country's massive windfarms and their dependent industries is estimated to have attained as much as 12 billion Euros in 2009, either directly or through "feed-in tariff" subsidy for power sales, government proposals target at least a 30% cut in subsidies.

... Sales and profits for North American and Chinese renewable energy companies selling their products in Europe have declined, as the Euro has lost about 15% against the US dollar this year. Affecting profits more than sales in first impact, profits for China's leading solar-cell maker Yingli Green Energy will fall more than 40%, and Yingli's major home rival Suntech Holdings will suffer a 79% drop in profits, according to Barclays Capital analysts, if the Euro stays below $1.25 in the next 6 months.

This has quickly spilled over to stock price valuations. European, North American, Chinese, and Indian wind and solar energy companies are suffering large falls in their stock price value. The higher priced, higher tech sectors have been most affected, shown by Canadian Solar's stock falling about 50% since April 1, while stock of Suntech Holdings is off by 35% since April 1. Spain's biggest producer of wind turbines, Gamesa Corporacion, has lost 43% of its share price value since January 2010, and 19% since April 1. _EnergyTribune

Without Hot Air Energy Facts
Wind Energy Facts
Nuclear Energy Facts Report PDF

Previously published at Al Fin Energy

More:
Arizona's problems with grid-tied photovoltaic
Waiting for big wind and big solar to become competitive
Obama painting US energy into a corner?

A Stupid Stumbling Into Spain's Green Quagmire

On eight occasions, the occupant of the White House referred to the Spanish model as an example to follow. The paradox is that it is a model that Obama himself wants Spain to abandon, as made clear in his call to Zapatero last week in which he asked him to change his strategy on the crisis. _La Gaceta (English translation,)

For every green job created by the Spanish government, Alvarez found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed elsewhere in the economy because resources were directed politically and not rationally, as in a market economy. _IBD

ImageSource PDF
The US President Obama has bought into Spain's "green economic miracle" lock, stock, and barrel. According to Mr. Obama, the way of the "Spanish green" will be the path to widespread economic prosperity, employment, and well-being for all. Unfortunately for the US president, the Spanish green has proven to be a mass delusion of lies, incompetence, and criminality.

The president of the United States, Barack Obama, doesn’t seem to have chosen the right model to copy for his “green economy,” Spain. After the government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero demonized a study of different experts about the fatal economic consequences of renewable energies, an internal document from the Spanish cabinet that it is even more negative has just been leaked.

To one of the authors of the first report, Gabriel Calzada, “the government has leaked it intentionally in order to turn the media against renewable energies and to be stronger in negotiations with businesses.”

Because even though Zapatero himself opposes abandoning his grand bet, some voices — such as the minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastián — are beginning to express their worry over the enormous debt that has been generated by the investment in so-called clean energies, which could even delay Spain’s exit from the economic crisis.

On eight occasions, the occupant of the White House referred to the Spanish model as an example to follow. The paradox is that it is a model that Obama himself wants Spain to abandon, as made clear in his call to Zapatero last week in which he asked him to change his strategy on the crisis.

The internal report of the Spanish administration admits that the price of electricity has gone up, as well as the debt, due to the extra costs of solar and wind energy. Even the government numbers indicate that each green job created costs more than 2.2 traditional jobs, as was shown in the report of the Juan de Mariana Institute. Besides that, the official document is almost a copy point by point of the one that led to Calzada being denounced [lit. "vetoed"] by the Spanish Embassy in an act in the U.S. Congress.

The presentation recognizes explicitly that “the increase of the electric bill is principally due to the cost of renewable energies.” In fact, the increase in the extra costs of this industry explains more than 120% of the variation in the bill and has prevented the reduction in the costs of conventional electricity production to be reflected on the bills of the citizens. _La Gaceta_via_PJMedia

Anyone who has taken the time to educate himself about wind energy and "green energy" could have predicted the horrendous economic fallout for Spain and any other jurisdiction that fell for the slimed over green sales pitch.

And tragically, in the US, it is states such as California and Massacussetts -- states already drowning in public sector union obligation debt -- who are falling head over heels for the ruinous green energy scam.

You may be thinking that this economic quagmire is just one of many economic quagmires that Mr. Obama is leading the US into -- the greatest quagmire being the massive acceleration of government debt accumulation. You would be correct to a certain extent, but energy in a high tech society is the same as prosperity, and very close to life itself for the masses. Without energy there is no food and without food there is starvation, disease, insurrection, and widespread death. Without energy there is no industry, commerce, nor jobs.

The green Spanish quagmire represents not only an increase in economic hardship, unemployment, and a massive waste of resources. It represents the intentional neglect of genuine energy -- which is the neglect of life.

Update: More on the "Green Jobs Myth"

For every green job created by the Spanish government, Alvarez found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed elsewhere in the economy because resources were directed politically and not rationally, as in a market economy.

"The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices," the professor told the press.

Alvarez's findings, of course, were rejected by the environmental left, which tried to smear him as a stooge of the oil industry.

But inconveniently for the eco-conscious, his results have been backed up by Carlo Stagnaro and Luciano Lavecchia, a couple of researchers from the Italian think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni. _IBD

Wind Power Emerges as Scandalous Failure

Hundreds of European offshore wind turbines have a design flaw that causes them to slide on their bases . More, expensive gearbox failures are an industry-wide problem . Worst of all,wind energy is unpredictable and massively expensive for power utilities to integrate into a dynamic power gridPDF. Big wind turbines are gaining a well-deserved reputation as expensive failure-prone hobby-horses for incompetent green activists and politicians.

Now that we have discovered how deep and wide the problem of organised crime infiltration into the wind industry is becoming, it is long past time for taxpayers to begin to confront their elected officials with the massive waste and fraud that their tax dollars are being diverted to support.

Whenever klutzy monolithic governments are made to scramble to solve a nonexistent manufactured problem such as carbon climate catastrophe, waste and fraud are guaranteed to occur -- probably on a massive scale. Indeed, that is what we are seeing across a broad panorama of wind industry investment, lobbying, and media public relations. There are literally trillions of dollars to be made in the "clean energy industry", and political reputations to be made. Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of the juggernaut -- not even the stark cruel facts.

Wind power is expensive, unreliable, and prone to massive breakdown at any time. Siemens and General Electric are attempting to evade one massive problem of wind turbines -- ubiquitous gearbox failures -- but the new turbines have their own problems, and faulty gearboxes are just one piece of the ugly puzzle. Even if wind turbines could perform as specified for their full "20 year lifetime", they would not be close to competitive with nuclear, coal, or gas for electric power production.

The Obama - Pelosi regime is in too deeply to back out of the crime-ridden enterprise now. They have to "tough it out" and hope that they can keep the media under their thumb so that the masses of taxpayers never learn what they are doing.

Bioenergy Poised to Become Largest Renewable

BiofuelsDigest
Comparing different sustainable energy sources, biomass and biofuels are clearly poised to come out on top. Hydroelectric is limited due to geography and climate -- as well as environmental concerns. Further investment into big wind installations is simply pouring resources down a sewer. Solar has potential, but it is limited by insolation to specific regions -- and badly needs cheap energy storage.

Visual aids help to get a better grasp of the different strengths, weaknesses, and potentials of different energy sources. Fuel alcohols production and biodiesel production are both growing exponentially. And while investment in new wind power is significant, the actual power output from all the investment in wind is not significant.

Biomass can be grown virtually anywhere on land and sea. Take the new method of seaweed cultivation, developed in Norway.

In Norway, Seaweed Energy Solutions has patented the first ever modern structure to enable mass seaweed cultivation on an industrial scale in the world¹s oceans. The structure, known as the Seaweed Carrier, makes a clean break with past seaweed cultivation methods that have all been based on ropes. The Seaweed Carrier is a sheet-like structure that basically copies a very large seaweed plant, moving freely back and forth through the sea from a single mooring on the ocean floor.

The Seaweed Carrier will allow seaweed cultivation to become a possibility in deeper and more exposed waters, opening the way for large scale production that is necessary to make seaweed a viable source of energy. According to SES, growing seaweed in farms covering an area of just less than 0.05 percent of Europe’s coastal regions would yield a yearly production of 75 million tons of seaweed. This biomass could be converted into an estimated 846 Mgy (3.2 billion litters) of ethanol, about 4.7 percent of the global ethanol production in 2008. _BiofuelsDigest

And one does not necessarily think of Poland as a bioenergy giant, yet giant French utility GDF Suez has chosen Poland as the site for a new 190 MW bioenergy plant.

Algae can grow in the desert, thriving on wastewater and brackish water. Various species of biomass and biofuels crops are adapted to cold, moderate, and very warm climates -- but using genetic tools, they can learn to thrive in virtually any climate.

Microbial fuels -- custom made to generate virtually any chemical or fuel -- are being adapted to mass production at any scale. Microbial production of fuels, chemicals, animal feed, materials, etc. will become more important to world commerce than petroleum.

First published at Al Fin Energy

Jive Castles In the Air

President Obama promises to save us from carbon climate doom, using the wind. Should you trust this man's promises?

A recent detailed analysis (focusing mainly on Spain) finds that for every job created by state-funded support of renewables, particularly wind energy, 2.2 jobs are lost. Each wind industry job created cost almost $2-million in subsidies. _FP

In an earlier Al Fin post, I alluded to the high cost of maintenance for wind turbines. We are not supposed to notice or talk about such things as maintenance -- even though such mundane matters are often the ruin of great and ambitious undertakings. But wind turbines are expensive, precision made machines that are exposed to the elements, and subject to prolonged and violent motion. They break down -- expensively and often.

The wind energy industry has experienced high gearbox failure rates from its inception [1]. Early wind turbine designs were fraught with fundamental gearbox design errors compounded by consistent under-estimation of the operating loads. The industry has learned from these problems over the past two decades with wind turbine manufacturers, gear designers, bearing manufacturers, consultants, and lubrication engineers all working together to improve load prediction, design, fabrication, and operation. This collaboration has resulted in internationally recognized gearbox wind turbine design standards [2]. Despite reasonable adherence to these accepted design practices, wind turbine gearboxes have yet to achieve their design life goals of twenty years, with most systems requiring significant repair or overhaul well before the intended life is reached [3,4,5]. Since gearboxes are one of the most expensive components of the wind turbine system, the higher than expected failure rates are adding to the cost of wind energy. In addition, the future uncertainty of gearbox life expectancy is contributing to wind turbine price escalation. Turbine manufacturers add large contingencies to the sales price to cover the warranty risk due to the possibility of premature gearbox failures. In addition, owners and operators build contingency funds into the project financing and income expectations for problems that may show up after the warranty expires. _NREL.gov PDF

Gearboxes for large turbines will cost many millions of dollars to replace. And think of all the downtime for all those turbines sitting out in the weather, waiting to be restored to action.

The multiple wheels and bearings in a wind turbine gearbox suffer tremendous stress because of wind turbulence, and a small defect in any one component can bring the turbine to a halt. This makes the gearbox the most high-maintenance part of a turbine. Gearboxes in offshore turbines, which face higher wind speeds, are even more vulnerable than those in onshore turbines. _TechReview

Part of the problem is the constant need for expensive human labour and upkeep -- an expense which many operators of wind farms are reluctant to undergo.

Many wind farm operations and maintenance teams are so resource constrained that they are barely able to keep up with unscheduled maintenance repairs. Even regularly scheduled preventative maintenance such as gearbox lubrication and oil changes are falling behind. It has also been reported that some wind farm operators do not want third-party companies to do the work for them as they want to keep control of the maintenance.

Gearbox failures account for the largest amount of downtime, maintenance and loss of power production for wind farm operators. Failures can total between 15%-20% of the price of the turbine itself. _GearboxMaintenance

Living anywhere within 5 miles of a wind farm can be an unbearable torture as well as a hazard to life and property when blades break and go flying.

These huge wind turbine behemoths are exquisitely susceptible to metal fatigue and mechanical failure. Placed out in wind, rain, ice, and sun, these expensive space-age materials begin to break down the moment they are put in place.

It is not uncommon to pass by a large wind farm on a windy day and see only a relatively small number of turbines actually driven by the wind. In fact, wind energy has become more symbol than substance. Both Warren Buffet and Boone Pickens understand that the tax breaks and other government incentives alone are enough to justify a quick investment in big wind -- whether or not these giant hunks of steel ever produce meaningful power for electrical customers.

Take several minutes to look over this slideshare presentation on wind energy facts. Then ask yourself whether it is worthwhile to build Obama's jive castles in the air, knowing what you know.

Cross-posted to Al Fin Energy

Big Wind? Bad News All Around

The video above explains how big wind projects lead to higher use of fossil fuels, rather than lower use.

But much worse, from the viewpoint of power grid managers -- constantly maintaining the delicate balance between power supply and power demand -- the unpredictability of big wind energy is the equivalent of sabotage.  In fact, it would be easier to deal with an eco-terrorist dynamiting a high voltage tower, than to deal with the violent fluctuations of power output from large scale wind. (Source PDF)

In America, some wind-farms are now being built solely for tax credits, and to fill renewable energy portfolios. Such "tax credit" wind farms are likely to end up idle and rusting in the weather -- never having generated significant power, but still having served the purpose of providing tax breaks for wealthy and cynical green investors.

Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy project calculates that it can break even after six years, without ever producing any electricity. And Boone Pickens is offering his investors a 25% return on a 4000 MW wind-farm based entirely on federal tax credits.

Energy Facts PDF

And I am not mentioning one of the worst facts of all:  the massively expensive machines are constantly breaking down -- requiring expensive repairs amounting to millions of dollars, every few years, for each giant turbine. Multi-million dollar gearboxes break down on a regular basis, requiring massively expensive replacement and repairs. The same goes for expensive ultra-precision bearings.

Placing these massive, precision made fine steel turbines and drive mechanisms out in the elements to corrode and degrade, is the ultimate in bad energy planning and low IQ wishful thinking. Imagine the problems that will be faced with turbines placed in a highly corrosive offshore environment, which would not be accessible for maintenance most of the year.

And by all means, never never live or work near one of these incredibly dangerous structures:

Pieces of blade are documented as traveling over 400 m, typically from much smaller turbines than those proposed for use today. In Germany, blade pieces have gone through the roofs and walls of nearby buildings. This is why CWIF believe that there should be a minimum distance of at least 2 km between turbines and occupied housing - in line with other European countries - in order to adequately address public safety and other issues including noise and shadow flicker. _Source PDF

Anyone who cares whether the lights stay on -- or go off permanently -- should take some time to study where the Obama - Pelosi regime wants to risk our increasingly scarce energy investments.

For much more information, consult this slideshare presentation on Wind Energy Facts Once you become informed, you will never fall for the clown prince's energy jive again.

A confession: Earlier in the history of this blog, Al Fin was highly optimistic about the future of big wind energy. Al Fin has personally installed wind turbines, and has been a renewable energy enthusiast for decades. But over the last few years, the sad facts of big wind energy have become too obvious to ignore any longer.

When I find out that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?

Taken from an earlier post at Al Fin Energy

Aye, Chihuahua! No Mortgage for Me, Cucaracha!

Vela
Abe and Josie have forsaken a big city mortgage for the Chihuahuan desert, a house made of dirt, and off-grid energy.

Abe and Josie have the smarts to survive well in the big city, but they have chosen a different life, a remote life, off grid, debt free, and on their own terms and timeline. What is refreshing about this couple is that they are not rebelling against modern times. On the contrary, they are embracing it, and are in a sense early adopters of a lifestyle that was not possible until very recently. That is because their off grid, pay as you go lives are dependent on emerging technologies such as affordable DIY energy harvesting, satellite internet, and other modern advances. While off grid systems can be a costly investment, Abe and Josie have found the lo-fi, affordable route, proving that there is no reason to wait for off grid technology to improve or become more affordable. Anyone can do this now. It is a simple choice to opt out of an enslaving, over priced, city life. _Treehugger

Stay up to date with Abe and Josie's adventure in low cost desert living via their blog, Vela Creations. At the rate President Obama is hacking away at the US economy and energy infrastructure, these will soon be essential skills for all of us lucky enough to escape the trap of urban decay.

Basic Facts About the Energy Challenge

Here are a few basic energy numbers from David MacKay. As the importance of moving away from dictator-controlled energy grows more apparent, we will need to pay more attention to the underlying numerical comparisons between various energy loads and energy supplies. We will need to become more literate in the mathematics of energy.

One kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the energy used by leaving a 40-watt bulb on for 24 hours. The chemical energy in the food we eat to stay alive amounts to about 3 kWh per day. Taking one hot bath uses about 5 kWh of heat. Driving an average European car 100 kilometers (roughly 62 miles) uses 80 kWh of fuel....

To supply 42 kWh per day per person from solar power requires roughly 80 square meters per person of solar panels.

To deliver 42 kWh per day per person from wind for everyone in the United States would require wind farms with a total area roughly equal to the area of California, a 200-fold increase in United States wind power.

To get 42 kWh per day per person from nuclear power would require 525 one-gigawatt nuclear power stations, a roughly five-fold increase over today's levels....

Most prototype hydrogen-powered vehicles use more energy than the fossil-fuel vehicles they replace. The BMW Hydrogen 7, for example, uses 254 kWh per 100 km, but the average fossil car in Europe uses 80 kWh per 100 km.

.....The problem with hydrogen is that both the creation and the use of hydrogen are energy-inefficient steps. Adopting hydrogen as a transport fuel would increase our energy demand. And, as I hope the numbers above have shown, supplying energy to match our demand is not going to be easy. _CNN

H/T Ron Rupper

For a genuine education in the numbers of energy, go to David MacKay's website and download a free PDF version of Without Hot Air.

Cross posted at Al Fin Energy

Renewable energy such as solar and wind are useful on a local scale -- particularly for off-grid applications. But they are not practical for large scale utility use, given their enormous problems with intermittency, unreliability, huge instabilities inflicted on the power grid, and a lack of affordable utility-scale energy storage means.

Multi-Turbine Wind Turbines: Torque & Power

Multiple rotors on the same shaft can provide higher torque. Torque and power are related by the equation:

hp = (torque * RPM) / 5250

Inventor Doug Selsam has devised a way to put multiple blades on the same shaft, without having the blades interfere with each other's wind.

Of course, more rotors also means more-complicated physics. The key to increasing efficiency is to make sure each rotor catches its own fresh flow of wind and not just the wake from the one next to it, as previous multi-rotor turbines have done. That requires figuring out the optimal angle for the shaft in relation to the wind and the ideal spacing between the rotors. The payoff is machines that use one tenth the blade material of today’s megaturbines yet produce the same wattage. __PS_via__NextEnergyNews

Selsam is the type of inventor who is not afraid to go up against conventional wisdom. Even better, his ideas make a lot of sense.

The image at top is just an artist's conception. The shaft would not actually bend in Selsam's device.

A flexible shaft loses a great deal of power by flexing. If a shaft could be made that is both strong enough and light enough in weight to double as a "tether" and a multi-blade shaft, you may see attempts at multi-turbine "kite" configurations, or multi-blade lighter than air configurations, as suggested by the image at top.

Previously published at Al Fin Energy
Update 15May08:Here is a drawing of Selsam's approach. The generator is at the center of the shaft, balanced over the tower. The shaft is angled to the wind to allow each blade to catch its maximum wind allotment. Speed would be roughly the same as a small blade design, but torque would be almost ten times greater, hence more power. Power in a wind turbine is directly proportional to the square of the blade radius and to the cube of wind velocity. Although not a wind blade designer, I suspect the orientation of the shaft may invite some slight alterations in blade design.

Update 17May08: Actual photographs of the invention and inventor. In these photos, the shaft flexes downwards at the unsupported ends, while being supported in the center at a central generator by two bearings.

Making Photovoltaics Cheaper and Easier

Three different approaches to speeding up the production of photovoltaic surfaces--print-on PV , paint-on PV, and quantum PV--may provide product designers and architects with novel energy solutions. First, "print-on PV" uses ink-jet printer technology to rapidly print out PV surfaces.

Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company we first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an inkjet printer. In addition to decreasing production costs because it relies on existing inkjet technology, the printable Power Plastic cells can be applied to a range of small-scale, highly variable power opportunities, from indoor sensors to small RFID installations. ___PopMech__via__BayouRenaissanceMan

Next, paint-on PV

The University of Swansea said it would now begin working with Bangor University, the University of Bath and Imperial College London on the project....Dr Dave Worsley, a reader in the Materials Research Centre at the University's School of Engineering, who led the first phase of research said that the breakthrough could have enormous implications for the way new buildings are powered.

"[Corus' pre-finished steel division] Corus Colours produces around 100 million square metres of steel building cladding a year," he observed. "If this was treated with the photovoltaic material, and assuming a conservative five per cent energy conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4,500Gw of electricity through the solar cells annually. That's the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind farms."

It is also hoped that the solar cell material could be applied to steel using existing paint rollers used during steel manufacturing processes. The researchers said they hoped to develop a way of applying layers of solar cells to a flexible steel service at a rate of 30-40m sq per minute, potentially making the process relatively cost effective.___Source

Eventually, every conceivable (non-living) surface could be generating electricity while the sun is shining. As engineers provide more flexible methods of adding PV to virtually any product, it is up to designers to incorporate the technology in such a way as to be unobtrusive, safe, and reliable.The third new PV approach is custom-sized quantum dot PV for catching solar energy across the solar spectrum.

The researchers used four different sizes of quantum dots (between 2.3 and 3.7 nm in diameter) which exhibited absorbent peaks at different wavelengths (between 505 and 580 nm). The group observed a trade-off in performance corresponding with quantum dot size: smaller quantum dots could convert photons to electrons at a faster rate than larger quantum dots, but larger quantum dots absorbed a greater percentage of incoming photons than smaller dots. The 3-nm quantum dots offered the best compromise, but the researchers plan to improve both the conversion and absorption performances in future prototypes.

Besides investigating the quantum dots’ size quantization effect, the researchers also experimented with two different nano architectures – particle films and nanotubes – that act as scaffolds for transporting electrons from the quantum dots to the electrodes. The group found that the hollow 8000-nm-long nanotubes, where both the inner and outer surfaces were accessible to quantum dots, could transport electrons more efficiently than films. ___NextBigFuture

Solar energy is available in quantities too large for humans to use. By incorporating PV into more products and installations, we can use ever more of the plentiful resource.

Of course, the real solar revolution happens when we can store as much energy as we can collect.

Fast Train to Hell and other News

The Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Superhighway is due to begin construction sometime in 2008, to link Ann Arbor with Detroit.

The public transit system would combine high speed magnetically levitated cars running on elevated parallel magnetic rails, laminated solar cells, and the conduit cluster that would be used to distribute electricity, water, fuels, etc. Each mile of rail should produce about 844,800 watts of electricity per hour using solar energy. Hydrogen would be used in fuel cells, internal combustion engines, micro turbines and other energy conversion devices to generate power. ...The cars will be able to carry both people and normal vehicles and move on four runners attached to the metallic polls and will be managed by TCP/IP signaling.____NextEnergy

Yep, that should remediate Detroit, certainly.

Another interesting approach to generating clean energy is the Cool Earth Solar Balloon.

Because its design uses relatively cheap and readily available components, these solar concentrators can generate electricity at a cost comparable to that of natural-gas plants. The inflated solar collectors can withstand 100 mile-per-hour wind....The setup can also be unfurled globally, rather than only in places with available funding for expensive energy projects. The company says it's negotiating with utilities to sell electricity from its solar farms....Although most people envision rooftop panels when they think of solar electricity, many new solar technologies are being developed for power plants. Utilities in some US states, notably California, need to comply with renewable-energy mandates. And certain regions, such as the desert in America's southwest and parts of Spain, are well-suited for solar-thermal power plants. ___Source

Finally, here is a video of an interesting roof-top wind turbine design (PDF). It is made in modular sections which can be connected to construct ever longer turbines. It can be installed horizontally, or vertically.

Peak Oil: Meet Moorella and Her Friends

Bioethanol has the inside track in the race for sustainable alcohol biofuels. While those of us who are salivating for the development of economical bio-butanol processes will have to wait, the race for the best bio-ethanol process is shaping up nicely. The current dark horse is Zeachem, the California startup that is using moorella thermoacetica--the termite gut microbe--to convert cellulose to acetic acid (acetate), then on to ethanol. The hybrid process is illustrated above.

The process can yield 50 percent more ethanol from a given amount of biomass than conventional processes. The net energy ratio of biofuel produced this way is between 10 and 12, compared with first generation biofuels like corn ethanol, which come in at around 1.5. The new net energy ratio benchmark radically changes any biofuel policy debate....The company has demonstrated the new method in a laboratory setting and is now drawing up plans for an ethanol plant that will produce about two million gallons of ethanol a year. Construction could begin as early as this year, says Dan Verser, a founder and vice president of research and development at ZeaChem.

...ZeaChem replaces yeast with a type of bacteria called Moorella thermoacetica, which can be found in a number of places in nature, including termite guts and the ruminant of cows, where it helps break down grass. Instead of making ethanol and carbon dioxide, the bacteria convert sugars into a component of vinegar called acetic acid, a process that releases no carbon dioxide....To convert acetic acid into ethanol, ZeaChem turns to chemistry. First, the company's researchers convert the acid into a common solvent called ethyl acetate - something that chemists have long known how to do. The final step - making ethanol - requires adding energy to the system in the form of hydrogen.___More details at Source___

The frontrunner in competition with Zeachem is Coskata, which claims to be in a position to produce US $1 a gallon bio-ethanol by 2010.

Using patented microorganisms and efficient bioreactor designs, Coskata uses a unique three-step conversion process that turns virtually any carbon-based feedstock, including biomass, municipal solid waste, bagasse, and other agricultural waste into ethanol (schematic, click to enlarge). The technology is globally applicable. The process is environmentally sound, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 84 percent compared to gasoline, as well as generates up to 7.7 times as much net energy as is required to produce the ethanol, according to Argonne National Laboratory____Source

The Coskata process is illustrated in the graphic below:
Both ethanol processes above involve multi-step hybrid processes to yield between 7.7 times and 10 times the energy consumed in the process. Compare those yields to the 1.5 times input from maize (corn) bio-ethanol. Maize is not even in the running.

Finally, there is the algal biodiesel/bio-alcohol hybrid process from Green Star Products, Inc.

First generation algae production can produce 4,000 gallons of oil per acre per year (versus 50 to 100 gallons for other oil crops) and later generations will produce 10,000 gallons or more per acre.”___Green Star

Some of the claims should be taken with a grain of salt, but eventually science will unlock the promise of abundant energy from biology. Whether the key production breakthroughs will occur within 5 or 10 years, the actual high volume production of quality biofuels should occur within 20.

If the newer in situ processes for producing oil from shales and tar sands pay out, there is enough liquid fossil fuel to power world industry for approximately 100 to 200 years. We should not depend on those promises, but conventional oil yields alone should be sufficient for 30 years at current consumption. If prices go too high, economies will slow and consumption will go down. Price drops will follow reduced demand. It is a cyclic process, with negative feedbacks.

Biofuels are scalable far above current projections. Earth's biosphere is extremely expandable and contractible. But it is unlikely that biofuels will be the main long-term solution to human energy needs. Transportation is another story, but aside from aircraft, alternatives to liquid fuels and solid fossil fuels will probably take over within 50 years.

Electricity can drive automobiles, and other forms of transportation aside from aircraft. Electric power is versatile, and better methods for producing electricity are being developed on an almost daily basis.

Nuclear fission energy will provide a necessary bridge to nuclear fusion energy, large scale geothermal, and massively interconnected renewable energy power grids (HVDC HT superconductor transmission interconnect) of much improved reliability and stability. Utility scale storage (eg redox flow cells) will provide further stability.

De-centralised production and storage of energy will also become more economical and feasible, for those living "off the grid." Residential renewable energy generators (wind, solar, neo-bio etc) paired with both electrical storage and fuel cell backups, should provide remote haciendas with clean, safe, reliable power.

The long term goal is technology that allows humans to roam the solar system and beyond, carrying with them all they need for life support and other needs for thriving in the universe.

Combined Heat and Power Biomass, More Biofuels

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a highly efficient form of power production. One such plant in Denmark that utilises biomass in its fuel mix meets the heating demands of 200,000 homes and the electrical demands of 1.3 million homes.

Avedore 2, inaugurated in 2002, made the green switch successfully and is now a set of superlatives: it is the world's largest biomass power plant as well as the cleanest and most efficient cogeneration power station. It meets the heating demands of 200,000 households and supplies electricity to over 1.3 million homes (Denmark has a population of 5.47 million). The green plant covers more than 20% of Eastern Denmark's needs - the most densely populated region of the country - and supplies 570MW of heat to Greater Copenhagen's district heating system. The combined heat and power efficiency comes in at a whopping 95%.
___Source

A new type of external combustion engine that will burn biomass-based syngas, is developing 10 1MW generators for the Florida market.

The companies' plans are to power these industrial generators using a glycerol-based synthesis gas produced through Florida Syngas' proprietary plasma gasification process called GlidArc. Glycerol (glycerin), the waste product of the biodiesel industry, yields a hydrogen-rich, carbon neutral gas with its only waste products being hot water and useable heat.....Cyclone engine technology is a new type of external combustion engine but relies on established technologies, such as those used in gas turbines, diesel engines, and steam engines. The engine is based on the Schoell cycle, a cross between a Rankine, Diesel and Carnot cycle engine (schematic, click to enlarge). Its main characteristic is that it will burn any combustible fuel, including biomass and municipal waste. Advent Power Systems claims the engine has other advantages:

* Clean burning – Provides complete combustion and a very clean exhaust
* Efficiencies comparable to diesels, when all required subsystems are included
* High horsepower to weight ratios – about a 2.5 to 1 advantage over full diesel systems.
* Low noise, vibration, and infrared signatures.
* Large range of sizes possible – from 1 KW up to over 1 Megawatt.
* Facilitates conversion to a range of synthetic fuels, including biomass.
* Provides an ideal power source for hybrid and conventional vehicles.
* Does not require a radiator, water pump, oil pump, complex fuel injection, or catalytic converter, reducing cost, weight, space and increasing reliability.___Source

I am particularly curious to learn more about the external combustion engine mechanism, that will be driving the 1 MW generators. The global glycerol glut from world biodiesel production should provide inexpensive fuel, and the ability to convert to biomass fuels, there should be no "peak fuel" scenario for these facilities.

Finally, China and Brazil are said to be collaborating on development of bio-ethanol from a newly discovered type of cassava--a sweet cassava mutant.

China currently cultivates around half a million hectares of cassava, of which 200,000 are destined for ethanol production. The People's Republic chose cassava as one of its future biofuels crops, because it is considered to be an industrial plant, and not a food crop. According to Wenquan Wang, researcher at CATAS, cassava has gained importance because of its low environmental footprint and because it has a well established industrial presence. "For 30 years, cassava was a staple for many Chinese people, later it became a crop for animal feed, and nowadays 60% of the entire harvest is destined for the industrial production of starch, 20% goes to ethanol and the remainder is turned into pig feed."

However, China's cassava ethanol initiative is mainly based on starch rich varieties. Together with Brazil it is now looking at introducing the sweet varieties instead, which demand less costly and complicated conversion steps.

Source

I wonder how the sweet cassava alcohol yield will compare with the yield from sugar cane? Regardless, it has to be a much higher yield than from maize.

Energy Peak Manpower: Wind Energy

Across the energy sectors, from oil to biofuels to solar to wind, the true peak is peak manpower. The shortage of trained engineers, technologists, technicians, tradesmen, craftsmen, and skilled labourers, is hamstringing the energy industry's attempt to grow.

"Finding experienced techs is impossible with wind growing as fast as it is," Martinson said. "You get one year's worth of experience and it's like dog years."...Last year, wind farms installed almost 3,200 turbines, boosting the nation's wind energy capacity by 45 percent and cranking out an additional 5,200 megawatts, or enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes for a year. The industry, which now accounts for a little more than 1 percent of the U.S. electric supply, expects to repeat that surge in 2008.

Critics of wind power have called the mammoth turbines eyesores and environmentalists have fought against them, warning the giant rotors could pose a hazard to migratory birds and other wildlife.

But wind power officials see a much larger obstacle coming in the form of its own work force, a highly specialized group of technicians that combine working knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics, computers and meteorology with the willingness to climb 200 feet in the air in all kinds of weather.

That work force isn't keeping up with the future demand, partly because the industry is so new that the oldest independent training programs are less than five years old.

Physorg

Wind energy is only a tiny part of the energy industry. But the problem wind energy shares with all the approaches to providing energy to North America, is the dire shortage of skilled and trained workers. Peak manpower, not peak oil, not peak energy.

Renewable Energy: High-Tech Wind, and Fuel from Garbage and Sewage

Update 4Feb08: Be sure to check out this careful analysis of the FloDesign turbine at New Energy and Fuel.

Although solar energy gets most of the press coverage among renewables, wind energy is experiencing some impressive high-tech design evolution as well. This interesting design allows wind turbines to be smaller, more efficient, and less expensive.

FloDesign Wind Turbine has developed a turbine capable of Nor’ Easter gale force winds in subzero conditions. The system uses fixed shrouding in lieu of large rotating blades. The shrouds are used to entrain air beyond the shrouds maximum diameter and convert the energy to a backpressure on a smaller blade. The key component is the Mixer/Ejector. FloDesign is a recognized leader in Mixer/Ejector technology. This allows for a smaller, more durable blade. The low inertia small blade provides energy extraction at both lower wind speeds and higher wind speeds. The small faster spinning blade also reduces/eliminates the need for complex gear boxes. The primary components of the shroud are, an integrated Mixer Ejector, Inlet vanes to eliminate swirl, shielding to eliminate tip losses and high circulation ringed airfoils._____FloDesign_via__EcoGeek_via_Ecofriend

A less trendy form of renewable energy is the use of an unsavoury blend of sewage and garbage to produce methane--which can be converted to electricity via either gas turbine generator or fuel cell generator.

Landfill garbage breaks down relatively slowly due to the small amounts of bacteria and the separation of the organic matter by plastic bags and other non-degradable materials. While landfills do promote decomposition and the production of methane, this process is quite slow. With the Septage Bioreactor Landfill technology, septage is blended with ground garbage, allowing the organic matter to decompose much faster than it otherwise would. This creates large quantities of methane in a short period of time, which can be tapped for fuel. The other advantage of this technology as a fuel source, is it produces methane constantly as long as there is organic material fed into it. We have no shortage of garbage or sewage, so this will create a very plentiful and reliable source of energy.___GreenGeek__via_Ecofriend

One can easily imagine the coming "garbage wars" and "sewage wars" where various energy producers compete among themselves for access to landfills and waste treatment plants. The old eco-fears of "death by garbage" only apply to the news media these days.

Yet another form of "energy from waste" being explored, comes from the new Biofuel Research Centre at Napier University, Edinburgh.

The most promising line of development now focuses on butanol, a fuel that potentially can be produced by fermentation from a diversity of organic material, including waste products from industrial processes, thus ensuring that the raw materials and harvesting involve no extra emissions.

The molasses left behind by sugar production is one of the most suitable bases; whey from cheese production is another possibility. Butanol has several advantages over ethanol: it has a higher energy output, is easily blended with diesel and, because it is less subject to evaporation, is easier to transport....Tangney adds: “We are putting together an EU consortium to identify dominant waste products across different regions and assess how many could be used to produce fuel.”___Times

Even nuclear wastes are likely to become much in demand by future, safer nuclear reactors (thorium, gen IV, etc) that will safely utilise discarded fission rods.