Public Transportation uses more Renewable Energy
By John Addison (9/29/09). More Americans ride on public transit than any time in the past 50 years as more live in cities and most watch their transportation costs. Remarkably, transit operators are moving more people, yet reducing our dependency on oil and generating less carbon emissions. Increased use of solar, other renewables, vehicle electrification, and low-carbon fuels are all part of solution.
New Jersey Transit is preparing for a future where parked cars can be charged with sunlight while people use public transportation. New Jersey Transit is installing 402 kW solar canopies on the rooftops of two large parking garages at the Trenton Amtrak Transit center.
These parking structures are also equipped with 110v charging stations for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Participating in the opening ceremony was the Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Cars (MAGIC) consortium, which includes the University of Delaware, Pepco Holdings, PJM Interconnect, Comverge, AC Propulsion, and the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, created to further develop, test, and demonstrate vehicle-to-grid technology.
A few years ago, Los Angeles Metro invested $5 million to install 2MW of solar power as part of a three-year plan to install solar panels on every Metro Bus and Rail facility within its Los Angeles County service area. For example, the solar panels installed on Metro Bus Division 18’s maintenance building rooftop and shading parking structures consist of about 1,600 solar panels that generate 417 kilowatts of electricity, enough power pay for itself in 10 to 11 years.Now LA Metro will receive $4,466,000 to make its rail system more energy efficient. Red Line Westlake Rail Wayside Energy Storage System: Install wayside energy storage substation (WESS) at Westlake passenger station is at-grade level on the high-speed heavy rail subway Red Line. The nearby traction power substation will be switched off when the WESS is operating. The WESS flywheel technology captures regenerative braking energy when trains slow or stop and transfer back to same train or another train when it starts or accelerates, reducing energy demand and peak power requirements.
This month, the federal administration announced $100 million in Economic Recovery Act funding for 43 transit agencies that are pursuing cutting-edge renewable energy and efficiency technologies to help reduce global warming, lessen America’s dependence on oil, and create green jobs. The 43 winning proposals were submitted by transit agencies from across the country as part of a nationwide competition for $100 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds. Selection criteria included a project’s ability to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and also to provide a return on the investment. The Federal Transit Administration reviewed more than $2 billion in applications for these funds.
AC Transit in Oakland, California, is awarded $6,400,000 to increase photovoltaic capacity to generate “green” hydrogen: Install multiple PV modules at its Central Maintenance Facility in Hayward. Combined with AC Transit’s already-installed solar capacity, this solar installation will produce the renewable electricity equivalent to what will be required to produce 180 kg/day of “green” hydrogen for 12 buses carrying up to 5,000 riders daily, for the current 3 zero-emission buses that carry about 1,000 riders daily.
VIA Metropolitan Transit, San Antonio, Texas, was awarded $5,000,000 to replace conventional diesel transit buses with 35-ft composite body electric transit buses. The project includes quick-charging stations at this terminal layover in route to recharge bus batteries. Grid sourced electrical energy used to recharge the bus batteries will be augmented with solar energy collected with panels procured and installed under this project.
The nation is becoming less dependent on oil as record numbers escape solo driving in gridlock and increasingly use public transit. Electrification of light-rail and buses coupled with renewable energy makes this transportation greener.
Public Transit Renewable Energy ERA Awards
California: City of Santa Clarita, $4,620,000. Photovoltaic Modules on Transit Maintenance Facility: Add photovoltaic (PV) modules to the Transit Maintenance Facility (TMF) to generate electricity to offset the electric power consumed at the TMF site. The PV modules will be placed on top of canopies that will generate electricity while providing shade for full-size inter-city and commuter buses.
California: North County Transit District (North San Diego, headquarters in Oceanside), $2,000,000. PV Solar Implementation at facilities: Install PV solar in a variety of facilities.
Colorado: Denver Regional Transportation District (Aurora, headquarters in Denver), $770,000. Heating upgrades at East Metro bus maintenance facility: To improve the heating system at its East Metro bus maintenance facility located in Aurora, CO. This project will replace the three existing boilers with three new 15-psi, 20-ppm NOx boilers with Advanced Hawk Integrated Control Systems. The advanced control system will operate the boilers based on load demand as opposed to outside temperature.
Connecticut: Connecticut Department of Transportation (statewide) $7,000,000. Stationary Fuel Cells and Hybrid Transit Buses Incremental Costs: The purchase of diesel-electric hybrid transit buses and stationary fuel cells for use in the statewide bus system in Connecticut. This grant would allow ConnDOT to upgrade the upcoming purchases of buses and would fund the incremental cost of a hybrid bus compared to a conventional bus. It would also fund stationary fuel cells to provide primary and emergency back-up power for the bus maintenance and storage facilities.
Delaware: Delaware Transit Corporation (statewide), $1,500,000. Solar Panel Installations at DTC facilities: Retrofits Delaware Transit Corporation facilities with solar panels, which will generate cost savings through fossil fuel energy reductions.
Georgia: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, $10,800,000. Shade structures with integrated, grid tied photovoltaic cells will be erected on a bus storage lot, generating renewable electricity while reducing heat islands. This will be the largest PV installation in Georgia.
Illinois: Chicago Transit Authority (Chicago), $1,500,000. North Park Electrification – Electric Power Delivery System for Outdoor Bus Parking: Construct electrified stalls that will deliver electrical power for up to 80 vehicles and provide services such as heating and air-conditioning to vehicles that would otherwise be left idling during overnight cleaning and prior to morning pullout.
Illinois: Rock Island Metro (Rock Island), $600,000. Solar Thermal System: A solar thermal system on the building roof will provide hot water for the operations building and the maintenance building. This is a solar thermal project not based on PV-based solar.
Illinois: Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District – CUMTD (Champaign-Urbana), $450,000. Facility upgrade with Geothermal Heat Pump System: CUMTD will replace the existing conventional HVAC system with an efficient geothermal HVAC system.
Indiana: Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation (Lafayette), $2,180,000. GLPTC will reduce its electrical energy usage by installing wind power at its facility for use by its garage and maintenance facilities.
Massachusetts: Lowell Regional Transit Authority (Lowell), $1,500,000. Hale Street Solar Photovoltaic system: The installation of a photovoltaic panel array on the roof of the Hale Street garage facility owned by the LRTA. The facility is used by the LRTA to store, fuel, maintain, and repair transportation vehicles (buses, vans, tow trucks etc.) as well as administrative and dispatch services. The facility is a 70,000 square foot building located in an industrial zone in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (Boston), $2,500,000. Renewable Wind Energy: MBTA will design and construct wind energy generation turbines in eastern Massachusetts (from among Kingston, Newburyport, and Bridgewater).
Minnesota: Productive Alternatives/Transit Alternatives (Fergus Falls), $845,000. Energy Reduction Consolidated Projects: A variety of building energy-efficiency upgrades, hybrid vehicle upgrades, wind generator power systems, and the equipment needed to convert cooking oil to a blend with vehicle fuel to operate some of their buses.
Oregon: Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Portland), Pennsylvania: Red Rose Transit Authority – RRTA (Lancaster), $2,450,000 is awarded for energy efficiency and geothermal for heating and air conditioning. A green roof on the new office addition, and two waste oil burners to heat the vehicle storage building using waste oil generated by RRTA from the vehicle fleet.
Washington: Link Transit (Chelan-Wenatchee), $2,925,000. Battery Powered Zero Emission Circulator Buses: Innovative Quick Opportunity Charge, Lithium-Ion “Titanate” Battery Powered Community Bus program. This project replaces five diesel powered buses operating on high frequency circulator routes and will also create a “quick charge” automated opportunity charge station with two charging podiums at Link Transit’s Intermodal Transportation Center. An additional manual charging station would be installed at Operations Base.
Washington: Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area (Vancouver), $1,500,000. Facility Improvement Project: Improve various systems and install solar panels at several Clark County facilities. System improvements include high performance fluorescent lighting, LED exit signs, retrofitting existing pole lights; and installing occupancy sensors for private offices, conference rooms and bathrooms. HVAC upgrades include DDC control system covering all buildings, expanded control system with advanced control strategies. Solar PV system installations range from 5kW to 20kW.
Share and Enjoy:
By John Addison. John Addison publishes the Clean Fleet Report and speaks at conferences. He is the author of the new book - Save Gas, Save the Planet - now selling at Amazon and other booksellers.
Link to website:
http://www.cleanfleetreport.com/renewables/public-transportation-renewable-energy/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Greenest Big Companies in America
The Greenest Big Companies in America
By Daniel McGinn NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Sep 28, 2009
Recommended (6)
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When David Roberts was growing up near the oilfields of West Texas in the early 1960s, it never got dark. Back then, oilfields were lit 24/7 by the gas flares used to burn off natural gas, a byproduct of oil drilling. The flares released massive amounts of CO2, and over time, oil companies halted that harmful practice in the U.S. But gas flares remain the norm in the developing world—and today Roberts oversees a team at Marathon Oil that's trying to end the practice. In 2007, Marathon opened a $1.5 billion liquid-natural-gas plant in Equatorial Guinea to capture the natural gas that once went up in smoke. The plant is one factor that helped Marathon, No. 100 in NEWSWEEK's Green Rankings, cut its CO2 emissions by 40 percent between 2004 and 2008—and the plant earns a profit.
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It's a small example of how the economic case for going green is becoming more compelling. Economists view environmental damage as a classic "externality"—a cost that impacts society but isn't imposed on producers or consumers. But with scientific consensus that carbon emissions threaten our climate, there's growing political will to curb them, particularly with the global powers set to meet in Copenhagen in December. The Obama administration is pushing for a cap-and-trade system that would turn companies' emissions into a bottom-line cost. Smart companies are working to better understand—and cut—those emissions ahead of new regulations.
The inaugural NEWSWEEK Green Rankings recognizes those efforts. For more than a year, the magazine worked with leading environmental researchers KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com to rank the 500 largest U.S. companies based on their actual environmental performance, policies, and reputation.
Ranking companies based on sustainability is a huge challenge. That's largely because comparing environmental performance across industries is a bit like analyzing whether Tiger Woods or LeBron James is the world's greatest athlete—there's an inevitable apples-and-oranges element. Some industries are far dirtier than others: a typical financial-services company exacts a smaller environmental toll than even the best-run utility or mining company. Also, many corporations are secretive about key environmental data, if they track the numbers at all. Even among companies that do report green data, there's no uniform standard, so their numbers often aren't comparable.
The Greenest Big Companies in America
An exclusive ranking
Why Newsweek Produced the Green Rankings
Gordon Brown's Copenhagen Climate Plan
Greenwashing Corporate Reputations
Sum Total: Being Green Isn't New
Big Oil Goes Green for Real
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Despite those obstacles, we worked hard to design a ranking system that makes sense. More than half of companies' overall Green Scores are based on their environmental policies and reputation, industry-neutral metrics that help even the playing field for companies in carbon-intensive businesses. To overcome limited corporate emissions numbers, NEWSWEEK used data from Trucost, which has created a widely acclaimed system for estimating emissions of companies that fail to provide them. (Note, however, that among our Top 100 best-performing companies, 70 voluntarily disclosed the data.) Over time, we hope NEWSWEEK's rankings will become more precise as more companies begin to report their numbers. "One of the purposes of this is to improve the transparency of corporations…and encourage them to provide an even higher level of disclosure," says Thomas Kuh, KLD's managing director.
Many of the companies that finished in our Top 100 are recognized leaders in sustainability. Intel, No. 4 in NEWSWEEK's ranking, recently launched an initiative in which every employee's annual bonus is tied, in part, to how well the company does in meeting sustainability goals. Wal-Mart, No. 59, recently announced plans to create a Sustainability Index that will help consumers better understand which products sold in its stores are greener than others.
Rankings inevitably provoke controversy—and we welcome that. Our hope is to open a conversation on measuring environmental performance—an essential first step toward improving it. The NEWSWEEK Green Rankings for 2009 on the pages ahead provide a snapshot of companies poised at this most important starting line.
© 2009
Link to Newsweek:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215577
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
By Daniel McGinn NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Sep 28, 2009
Recommended (6)
Media: Is Ebony Magazine Up for Sale?
Why Esquire's Abortion Story Got It Wrong
Media: Magazines Aren't Dead Yet
NEWSWEEK Statement on Maziar Bahari
NEWSWEEK Issues Statement on Detained Journalist
NEWSWEEK Reporter Arrested Without Charge in Iran
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When David Roberts was growing up near the oilfields of West Texas in the early 1960s, it never got dark. Back then, oilfields were lit 24/7 by the gas flares used to burn off natural gas, a byproduct of oil drilling. The flares released massive amounts of CO2, and over time, oil companies halted that harmful practice in the U.S. But gas flares remain the norm in the developing world—and today Roberts oversees a team at Marathon Oil that's trying to end the practice. In 2007, Marathon opened a $1.5 billion liquid-natural-gas plant in Equatorial Guinea to capture the natural gas that once went up in smoke. The plant is one factor that helped Marathon, No. 100 in NEWSWEEK's Green Rankings, cut its CO2 emissions by 40 percent between 2004 and 2008—and the plant earns a profit.
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It's a small example of how the economic case for going green is becoming more compelling. Economists view environmental damage as a classic "externality"—a cost that impacts society but isn't imposed on producers or consumers. But with scientific consensus that carbon emissions threaten our climate, there's growing political will to curb them, particularly with the global powers set to meet in Copenhagen in December. The Obama administration is pushing for a cap-and-trade system that would turn companies' emissions into a bottom-line cost. Smart companies are working to better understand—and cut—those emissions ahead of new regulations.
The inaugural NEWSWEEK Green Rankings recognizes those efforts. For more than a year, the magazine worked with leading environmental researchers KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com to rank the 500 largest U.S. companies based on their actual environmental performance, policies, and reputation.
Ranking companies based on sustainability is a huge challenge. That's largely because comparing environmental performance across industries is a bit like analyzing whether Tiger Woods or LeBron James is the world's greatest athlete—there's an inevitable apples-and-oranges element. Some industries are far dirtier than others: a typical financial-services company exacts a smaller environmental toll than even the best-run utility or mining company. Also, many corporations are secretive about key environmental data, if they track the numbers at all. Even among companies that do report green data, there's no uniform standard, so their numbers often aren't comparable.
The Greenest Big Companies in America
An exclusive ranking
Why Newsweek Produced the Green Rankings
Gordon Brown's Copenhagen Climate Plan
Greenwashing Corporate Reputations
Sum Total: Being Green Isn't New
Big Oil Goes Green for Real
placeAd2(commercialNode,'bigbox',false,'')
Despite those obstacles, we worked hard to design a ranking system that makes sense. More than half of companies' overall Green Scores are based on their environmental policies and reputation, industry-neutral metrics that help even the playing field for companies in carbon-intensive businesses. To overcome limited corporate emissions numbers, NEWSWEEK used data from Trucost, which has created a widely acclaimed system for estimating emissions of companies that fail to provide them. (Note, however, that among our Top 100 best-performing companies, 70 voluntarily disclosed the data.) Over time, we hope NEWSWEEK's rankings will become more precise as more companies begin to report their numbers. "One of the purposes of this is to improve the transparency of corporations…and encourage them to provide an even higher level of disclosure," says Thomas Kuh, KLD's managing director.
Many of the companies that finished in our Top 100 are recognized leaders in sustainability. Intel, No. 4 in NEWSWEEK's ranking, recently launched an initiative in which every employee's annual bonus is tied, in part, to how well the company does in meeting sustainability goals. Wal-Mart, No. 59, recently announced plans to create a Sustainability Index that will help consumers better understand which products sold in its stores are greener than others.
Rankings inevitably provoke controversy—and we welcome that. Our hope is to open a conversation on measuring environmental performance—an essential first step toward improving it. The NEWSWEEK Green Rankings for 2009 on the pages ahead provide a snapshot of companies poised at this most important starting line.
© 2009
Link to Newsweek:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215577
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
DOE Solar Decathalon on National Mall
October 9-13 and 15-18, 2009
Plan to attend the Solar Decathalon on the national mall in Washington, DC.
About Solar Decathlon
For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.
Exact dates of the 2009 event are:
Oct. 1—Teams arrive at the National Mall and begin assembly of their houses-->
Oct. 8-16—Teams compete in 10 contests
Oct. 9-13—Houses are open to the public
Oct. 15-18—Houses are open to the public
Oct. 19-21—Teams disassemble their houses.
The Solar Decathlon houses will be open for public tours 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Monday–Friday and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Please note that all homes will be closed Wed., Oct. 14.
The Solar Decathlon consists of three major phases:
Building: This is where most of the work—and the learning—happens. In addition to designing houses that use innovative, high-tech elements in ingenious ways, students have to raise funds, communicate team activities, collect supplies, and work with contractors. Although the Solar Decathlon competition receives the most attention, it's the hard work that students put in during the building phase that makes or breaks a team.
Moving to the Solar Village: When it's time for the Solar Decathlon, the teams transport their houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and rebuild them on site.
Competing: During the competition itself, the teams receive points for their performance in 10 contests and open their homes to the public.
Purpose
The Solar Decathlon brings attention to one of the biggest challenges we face—an ever-increasing need for energy. As an internationally recognized event, it offers powerful solutions—using energy more efficiently and using energy from renewable sources.
The Solar Decathlon has several goals:
To educate the student participants—the "Decathletes"—about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies. As the next generation of engineers, builders, and communicators, the Decathletes will be able to use this knowledge in their studies and their future careers.
To raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency, and how solar energy technologies can reduce energy usage.
To help solar energy technologies enter the marketplace faster. This competition encourages the research and development of energy efficiency and energy production technologies.
To foster collaboration among students from different academic disciplines—including engineering and architecture students, who rarely work together until they enter the workplace.
To promote an integrated or "whole building design" approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design/build process because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.
To demonstrate to the public the potential of Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, as they consume. Even though the home might be connected to a utility grid, it has net zero energy consumption from the utility provider.
Link to the website:
http://www.solardecathlon.org/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Plan to attend the Solar Decathalon on the national mall in Washington, DC.
About Solar Decathlon
For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.
Exact dates of the 2009 event are:
Oct. 1—Teams arrive at the National Mall and begin assembly of their houses-->
Oct. 8-16—Teams compete in 10 contests
Oct. 9-13—Houses are open to the public
Oct. 15-18—Houses are open to the public
Oct. 19-21—Teams disassemble their houses.
The Solar Decathlon houses will be open for public tours 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Monday–Friday and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Please note that all homes will be closed Wed., Oct. 14.
The Solar Decathlon consists of three major phases:
Building: This is where most of the work—and the learning—happens. In addition to designing houses that use innovative, high-tech elements in ingenious ways, students have to raise funds, communicate team activities, collect supplies, and work with contractors. Although the Solar Decathlon competition receives the most attention, it's the hard work that students put in during the building phase that makes or breaks a team.
Moving to the Solar Village: When it's time for the Solar Decathlon, the teams transport their houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and rebuild them on site.
Competing: During the competition itself, the teams receive points for their performance in 10 contests and open their homes to the public.
Purpose
The Solar Decathlon brings attention to one of the biggest challenges we face—an ever-increasing need for energy. As an internationally recognized event, it offers powerful solutions—using energy more efficiently and using energy from renewable sources.
The Solar Decathlon has several goals:
To educate the student participants—the "Decathletes"—about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies. As the next generation of engineers, builders, and communicators, the Decathletes will be able to use this knowledge in their studies and their future careers.
To raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency, and how solar energy technologies can reduce energy usage.
To help solar energy technologies enter the marketplace faster. This competition encourages the research and development of energy efficiency and energy production technologies.
To foster collaboration among students from different academic disciplines—including engineering and architecture students, who rarely work together until they enter the workplace.
To promote an integrated or "whole building design" approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design/build process because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.
To demonstrate to the public the potential of Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, as they consume. Even though the home might be connected to a utility grid, it has net zero energy consumption from the utility provider.
Link to the website:
http://www.solardecathlon.org/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Friday, September 25, 2009
How Much Will Gas Cost Drivers This Winter?
How much will gas prices be this winter?
Anyone want to predict? Anyone have a crystal ball?
Premium = $3.25/gallon?
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Anyone want to predict? Anyone have a crystal ball?
Premium = $3.25/gallon?
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Bloomberg Pil Prices 25 September 2009
Bloomberg Oil Prices
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
66.02 .13 .20 09/25
Dated Brent Spot
64.55 .25 .39 09/25
WTI Cushing Spot
65.87 .15 .23 09/25
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
167.71 -.43 -.26 09/25
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
162.05 -1.61 -.98 09/25
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
3.98 .03 .76 09/25
Henry Hub Spot
3.60 .05 1.41 09/25
New York City Gate Spot
3.80 -.01 -.26 09/25
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
36.70 2.06 5.95 09/25
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
34.42 1.01 3.02 09/25
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
37.07 7.80 26.65 09/25
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
From: http://www.bloomberg.com/
From: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
66.02 .13 .20 09/25
Dated Brent Spot
64.55 .25 .39 09/25
WTI Cushing Spot
65.87 .15 .23 09/25
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
167.71 -.43 -.26 09/25
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
162.05 -1.61 -.98 09/25
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
3.98 .03 .76 09/25
Henry Hub Spot
3.60 .05 1.41 09/25
New York City Gate Spot
3.80 -.01 -.26 09/25
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
36.70 2.06 5.95 09/25
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
34.42 1.01 3.02 09/25
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
37.07 7.80 26.65 09/25
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
From: http://www.bloomberg.com/
From: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Major Newspapers On The Pickens Plan
Break the Curse of Oil Addiction – Austin American-Statesman – 9/16/09By The Editorial Board “We should not let desire to argue over the messenger and his message rob us of the necessity to shed our oil dependence. Rigs that burn natural gas may not be the whole solution, but that certainly is a move in the right direction.” *** T. Boone Pickens Has a Plan to Reduce our Dependency on Foreign Oil – Standard-Examiner (UT) – 8/30/09By Rick Stewart “Well, as you may have heard here, he has a plan. And the backbone of that plan is natural gas…and the best part of all this natural-gas, clean-energy talk for red state, Republican Utahans? You don't have to be a tree-hugger to support it.” *** Pickens: A Man with a Plan – Daily Herald (UT) – 8/25/09 “So why haven't we (cut our gasoline dependence)? It's all a matter of leadership...He's right about that...It's time to kiss the naysayers goodbye and watch our economy take off.” *** Pickens Has Changed Energy Debate – The Wichita Eagle – 7/30/09 “A year into his multimedia campaign, Pickens has more than 1 million followers and the confidence to say that the American people want his plan...give the 81-year-old oilman credit for waking up Americans and their leaders to the urgent need to import less oil and make the most of domestic energy sources. When Pickens speaks, people not only listen but also act.” *** One Year Later: Pickens Plan Impacts Energy Debate – Fort Worth Business Press – 7/20/09By Will Brackett “With his continued push, Pickens will help to transform our nation’s energy usage away from foreign oil and more toward cleaner-burning, affordable and abundant natural gas – which best of all, is ours. We support Pickens in his efforts and wish him the best of success in his endeavor to bring us to a day when our nation can achieve a realistic degree of energy independence.” ***CabinWindow: Pickens Man with a Plan – Log Cabin Democrat – 6/11/09 “Pickens has a sensible notion, and we hope all of America hears his ideas, but at the end of the day, change will only come when our elected leaders say with a united voice that our future won't hinge on foreign oil.” *** Join Army Working for Energy Freedom – Springfield News-Leader (MO) – 5/13/09By Wade Palmer “The Pickens Plan is not the only solution, but it's an important piece of the machinery. Still less than one year old, The Pickens Plan boasts an army of nearly 4 million activists and the larger this army grows, the more they can influence our nation's energy policy. The men and women in Congress listen only when the voices are very loud . Real progress toward energy independence will take years (decades) so we cannot afford to wait ... now is the time to act.”
Link to: http://www.pickensplan.com
From: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Link to: http://www.pickensplan.com
From: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
House On Rock In Ocean - Solar Power & Rainwater
House On Rock In Ocean
Uses Solar Power and Rainwater Storage
Any men want to send your mother in law there to live?
Any women want to send their husbands there?
Here is link to video:
http://appetiteforlife.msn.com/?source=msn>1=25052#/viewlocation/c_12_a/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Uses Solar Power and Rainwater Storage
Any men want to send your mother in law there to live?
Any women want to send their husbands there?
Here is link to video:
http://appetiteforlife.msn.com/?source=msn>1=25052#/viewlocation/c_12_a/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Sunday, September 20, 2009
GE To Manufacture Offshore Wind Turbines
GE To Manufacture Offshore Wind Turbines
September 18th, 2009
GE, the US industrial group, is promoting and showing confidence in offshore wind technology by buying ScanWind, which makes direct-drive turbine components. This move will help in generating thousands of new jobs in the field of designing and manufacturing turbines. This move will affirm the confidence of investors in the fledgling offshore wind industry, which has been weighed down by concerns about costs and reliability. GE is moving ahead with establishing turbine manufacturing facilities to serve the European markets at first. They have to make up their mind about the size of the investment and location.
GE is already a force to reckon with in onshore wind power: it sells about fifty percent of the new turbines being installed in the US. GE’s global share amounts to about 20 per cent. GE was not an enthusiastic participant in the offshore business till now. They were running the show for a small demonstration facility in Ireland. Their executives were quite apprehensive about the economics of offshore generation. But we know that none of the business ideas are permanent and they get approved or disapproved according to the external environment of a country or world. When we live in a country which is densely populated with coastal reasons, we know that there is not enough space for on-shore wind projects. But we have to cater to the clean and green energy demands of a nation. So off-shore wind turbines are the one of the best answers for such countries. Off-shore wind speeds are generally higher and wind blows at a steadier pace. We can use larger turbines to harness more wind energy – larger turbines that can be easily transported via marine route. If offshore turbines are directly connected to the power grids then there is no need for overland high-voltage transmission lines in heavily populated areas. Therefore GE executives are taking advantage of the external challenges of the European continent to provide clean and green energy. The EU has a bigger target of deriving 20% of its overall energy from renewable resources by 2020 and this requires huge expansion of offshore wind production.
Vic Abate, GE’s vice-president for renewable energy, said: “The company now believed the subsidies in place for offshore wind, such as Britain’s Renewables Obligation, were robust enough to encourage large-scale investment. Offshore wind is more expensive, so without the subsidies and other supports the economics can’t stand up.” Now governments too are creating the right kind of environment to invest in off-shore wind technology. Industrial houses are quick to grab the incentives offered by the governments.
Of course the viability of offshore wind production hinges a lot upon reliability because the turbines will be maintainable only by boats, or may be ships.
GE is expected to invest hundreds of millions of dollars setting up the business, and at the same time hold out the prospect of thousands of jobs being created. These jobs will create both directly employment such as in designing and manufacturing operations, and indirectly in activities such as installation and support services.
GE is also teaming up with a company with offshore oil and gas expertise, so that they can gain an insight into the sitting structures in challenging marine environments.
Mr. Abate said GE is still in the process of exploring its new offshore wind facilities location. He stated it was likely to be where the company was offered the best partnerships by governments and local businesses.
Related posts:
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
Retail Wind Turbines from B&Q Superstore
Using Existing Infrastructure for Wind Turbines
New Wind Turbines for 11 Minnesota Cities
What factors affect the output of wind turbines?
From:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/ge-to-manufacture-offshore-wind-turbines/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
September 18th, 2009
GE, the US industrial group, is promoting and showing confidence in offshore wind technology by buying ScanWind, which makes direct-drive turbine components. This move will help in generating thousands of new jobs in the field of designing and manufacturing turbines. This move will affirm the confidence of investors in the fledgling offshore wind industry, which has been weighed down by concerns about costs and reliability. GE is moving ahead with establishing turbine manufacturing facilities to serve the European markets at first. They have to make up their mind about the size of the investment and location.
GE is already a force to reckon with in onshore wind power: it sells about fifty percent of the new turbines being installed in the US. GE’s global share amounts to about 20 per cent. GE was not an enthusiastic participant in the offshore business till now. They were running the show for a small demonstration facility in Ireland. Their executives were quite apprehensive about the economics of offshore generation. But we know that none of the business ideas are permanent and they get approved or disapproved according to the external environment of a country or world. When we live in a country which is densely populated with coastal reasons, we know that there is not enough space for on-shore wind projects. But we have to cater to the clean and green energy demands of a nation. So off-shore wind turbines are the one of the best answers for such countries. Off-shore wind speeds are generally higher and wind blows at a steadier pace. We can use larger turbines to harness more wind energy – larger turbines that can be easily transported via marine route. If offshore turbines are directly connected to the power grids then there is no need for overland high-voltage transmission lines in heavily populated areas. Therefore GE executives are taking advantage of the external challenges of the European continent to provide clean and green energy. The EU has a bigger target of deriving 20% of its overall energy from renewable resources by 2020 and this requires huge expansion of offshore wind production.
Vic Abate, GE’s vice-president for renewable energy, said: “The company now believed the subsidies in place for offshore wind, such as Britain’s Renewables Obligation, were robust enough to encourage large-scale investment. Offshore wind is more expensive, so without the subsidies and other supports the economics can’t stand up.” Now governments too are creating the right kind of environment to invest in off-shore wind technology. Industrial houses are quick to grab the incentives offered by the governments.
Of course the viability of offshore wind production hinges a lot upon reliability because the turbines will be maintainable only by boats, or may be ships.
GE is expected to invest hundreds of millions of dollars setting up the business, and at the same time hold out the prospect of thousands of jobs being created. These jobs will create both directly employment such as in designing and manufacturing operations, and indirectly in activities such as installation and support services.
GE is also teaming up with a company with offshore oil and gas expertise, so that they can gain an insight into the sitting structures in challenging marine environments.
Mr. Abate said GE is still in the process of exploring its new offshore wind facilities location. He stated it was likely to be where the company was offered the best partnerships by governments and local businesses.
Related posts:
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
Retail Wind Turbines from B&Q Superstore
Using Existing Infrastructure for Wind Turbines
New Wind Turbines for 11 Minnesota Cities
What factors affect the output of wind turbines?
From:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/ge-to-manufacture-offshore-wind-turbines/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Friday, September 18, 2009
12 million Homes Powered by German Off-Shore Wind
Germany’s position as the world wind leader was consolidated today with an announcement of 40 offshore wind farms to be built in German waters more than 12 miles off the coast.
The goal is to get a total of 25,000 megawatts just from ocean-sited wind power by 2030. This would provide the first half of that; from a 12,000 MW wind farm.
Germany is only just starting to dip its toes into off-shore wind production. It signed its first offshore wind project of just 15 megawatts a few months ago with the Alpha Ventus project that was co-financed by German energy giants Vattenfall, E.on and EWE and subsidized by the German government.
» See also: Google Reveals Plans to Develop More Efficient and Cost-Effective Solar Thermal Technology
» Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
The same financing consortium of the three energy giants; Vattenfall, E.on and EWE is financing the 40 farms; working closely with the government. Germany has set aside about 100 square kilometres for offshore wind projects; in order to advance renewable power.
The nation already leads the world in wind power with 22,000 Megawatts-worth, on-shore till now. The similarly sized would-be “nation” of Texas, in America, comes a distant next with 8,000 megawatts of wind power.
Thirty of these forty new wind farms would be in the North Sea with ten in the Baltic Sea. Twenty-two have already received government approval.
The 40 farms would supply 12,000 megawatts of power. Enough to supply 12 million households, which sounds great, till you realize that there are well over 82 million people in Germany - comprising perhaps 30 million households. Currently Germany provides only 3% of its own hefty power needs from its current 22,000 megawatts of land-based wind.
These 12,000 additional megawatts will get Germany well on its way to meeting its overall renewable energy goals under the Kyoto accords set decades ago and modified over time under European Cap and Trade legislation. To meet those goals it must get 30% and possibly now 36% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 with wind energy providing probably half of that.
Related stories:
4 Reasons Why Germany is a Renewable Energy Success Story
Which states Get the Most Renewable Energy and How They Made it Happen
42% of Electricity Added in 2008 Was Wind Power
Image: advertisement from Zeekracht seen at Inhabitat covering news of a similar venture in the NetherlandsVia the UK Standard
Tweet This Post
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
The goal is to get a total of 25,000 megawatts just from ocean-sited wind power by 2030. This would provide the first half of that; from a 12,000 MW wind farm.
Germany is only just starting to dip its toes into off-shore wind production. It signed its first offshore wind project of just 15 megawatts a few months ago with the Alpha Ventus project that was co-financed by German energy giants Vattenfall, E.on and EWE and subsidized by the German government.
» See also: Google Reveals Plans to Develop More Efficient and Cost-Effective Solar Thermal Technology
» Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
The same financing consortium of the three energy giants; Vattenfall, E.on and EWE is financing the 40 farms; working closely with the government. Germany has set aside about 100 square kilometres for offshore wind projects; in order to advance renewable power.
The nation already leads the world in wind power with 22,000 Megawatts-worth, on-shore till now. The similarly sized would-be “nation” of Texas, in America, comes a distant next with 8,000 megawatts of wind power.
Thirty of these forty new wind farms would be in the North Sea with ten in the Baltic Sea. Twenty-two have already received government approval.
The 40 farms would supply 12,000 megawatts of power. Enough to supply 12 million households, which sounds great, till you realize that there are well over 82 million people in Germany - comprising perhaps 30 million households. Currently Germany provides only 3% of its own hefty power needs from its current 22,000 megawatts of land-based wind.
These 12,000 additional megawatts will get Germany well on its way to meeting its overall renewable energy goals under the Kyoto accords set decades ago and modified over time under European Cap and Trade legislation. To meet those goals it must get 30% and possibly now 36% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 with wind energy providing probably half of that.
Related stories:
4 Reasons Why Germany is a Renewable Energy Success Story
Which states Get the Most Renewable Energy and How They Made it Happen
42% of Electricity Added in 2008 Was Wind Power
Image: advertisement from Zeekracht seen at Inhabitat covering news of a similar venture in the NetherlandsVia the UK Standard
Tweet This Post
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Google To Develop Improved Solar Technology
Google Plans To Develop More Efficient and Cost-Effective Solar Thermal Technology
As if Google isn’t already doing enough for the world of technology, they’re actually joining the solar technology movement in order to help increase the progress, which they believe has been disappointing to date. Their goal is to use mirror technology for solar energy that will be cheaper and therefore more accessible to the masses, so cost isn’t such a contributing factor to why many are unable to make their homes a little bit greener.
» See also: 12 Million Homes Powered By German Off-Shore Wind
» Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
The technology available on the market today a 250-MW solar thermal installation costs $0.12 to $0.15 a KWh and Google’s goal is to reduce costs by at least half, but ideally by 66% to 75% so costs come in around $0.05 or less. In order to reach this goal of lowering costs and increasing efficiency, Google is currently testing different materials to find a better solution, and plans to unveil a prototype model within the next few months, and part of that evaluation process will include ensuring that the material used for a solar thermal installation will be able to withstand the tests of time.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Google is hoping to make green technology a little more efficient and accessible, and as a leader in technology, they are trend-setting their way to cleaner and greener tech!
Via: Reuters , Image Via: Flikr Phil LaCombe with a Creative Commons License
Tweet This Post
Tags: affordable green energy, affordable solar energy, energy efficiency, Green technology, mirrors for energy, solar thermal energy
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
As if Google isn’t already doing enough for the world of technology, they’re actually joining the solar technology movement in order to help increase the progress, which they believe has been disappointing to date. Their goal is to use mirror technology for solar energy that will be cheaper and therefore more accessible to the masses, so cost isn’t such a contributing factor to why many are unable to make their homes a little bit greener.
» See also: 12 Million Homes Powered By German Off-Shore Wind
» Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
The technology available on the market today a 250-MW solar thermal installation costs $0.12 to $0.15 a KWh and Google’s goal is to reduce costs by at least half, but ideally by 66% to 75% so costs come in around $0.05 or less. In order to reach this goal of lowering costs and increasing efficiency, Google is currently testing different materials to find a better solution, and plans to unveil a prototype model within the next few months, and part of that evaluation process will include ensuring that the material used for a solar thermal installation will be able to withstand the tests of time.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Google is hoping to make green technology a little more efficient and accessible, and as a leader in technology, they are trend-setting their way to cleaner and greener tech!
Via: Reuters , Image Via: Flikr Phil LaCombe with a Creative Commons License
Tweet This Post
Tags: affordable green energy, affordable solar energy, energy efficiency, Green technology, mirrors for energy, solar thermal energy
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
12 Year Old Invents New Type Of Solar Cell
Now here’s a story that makes me feel profoundly unaccomplished: a 12 year old boy in Beaverton, Oregon recently developed a new type of 3D solar cell that makes other solar cells look inefficient by comparison.
» See also: Google Reveals Plans to Develop More Efficient and Cost-Effective Solar Thermal Technology
» Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
William Yuan’s 3D cell can absorb both visible and UV light. According to his calculations, solar panels equipped with his 3D cells could provide 500 times more light absorption than current commercial solar cells and nine times more light than existing 3D solar cells.
>> Like this post, please subscribe for our main RSS feed or our Newsletter!
Yuan received a well-deserved $25,000 scholarship for his research. The next step? Getting his invention to market. Of course, the viability of his solar cells will ultimately depend on their cost efficiency—but Yuan has his whole life ahead of him to work on that.
You can check out the original press release here.
>> Calculate your own solar potential with Renewzle’s California solar power calculator.
Posts Related to Solar Tech:
New Concentrated Solar Tech: Simple, Cheap, and Efficient
New Technology Could Make Roads a Solar Energy Source
Solar Power From Outer Space Could Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence
Oregon Launching First Solar Highway in the US
Tweet This Post
From :
http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/17/12-year-old-boy-invents-new-type-of-solar-cell/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
» See also: Google Reveals Plans to Develop More Efficient and Cost-Effective Solar Thermal Technology
» Get CleanTechnica by RSS or sign up by email.
William Yuan’s 3D cell can absorb both visible and UV light. According to his calculations, solar panels equipped with his 3D cells could provide 500 times more light absorption than current commercial solar cells and nine times more light than existing 3D solar cells.
>> Like this post, please subscribe for our main RSS feed or our Newsletter!
Yuan received a well-deserved $25,000 scholarship for his research. The next step? Getting his invention to market. Of course, the viability of his solar cells will ultimately depend on their cost efficiency—but Yuan has his whole life ahead of him to work on that.
You can check out the original press release here.
>> Calculate your own solar potential with Renewzle’s California solar power calculator.
Posts Related to Solar Tech:
New Concentrated Solar Tech: Simple, Cheap, and Efficient
New Technology Could Make Roads a Solar Energy Source
Solar Power From Outer Space Could Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence
Oregon Launching First Solar Highway in the US
Tweet This Post
From :
http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/17/12-year-old-boy-invents-new-type-of-solar-cell/
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Green Zone At Gaithersburg, MD Celebration Event
Gaithersburg, MD Celebration Event
Green Zone
Sunday 20 September 2009
Back by popular demand is a hands-on educational Green Zone, sponsored in part by My Green Guide DC. Learn about the many creatures under the sea at the Virginia Aquarium Mobile Tank, explore how science impacts our every day life at the Mad Science Activity Station, and visit a variety of informational booths with plenty of resources to help you go green in Gaithersburg. . . .
Green Zone (Train Station) STAGE II
Reptile's Alive! with live reptiles. 30 minute shows starting at: Noon 1 p.m. 2 p.m. 3 p.m. 4 p.m.
Mad Science - Make slime, ultra violet key changes and learn about our environment.
Climb a Palm Tree
Green Zone Exhibitors
Animal Ambassadors - Educational information and live animals
Ocean in Motion Mobile Aquarium courtesy of Virginia Aquarium
Zosimos Botanicals – Eco friendly make-up
Arbonne International – All natural products & make-up
Environmental Fund of Maryland – Fly tying demonstrations
Eco-Coach – Creating a green environment (test your green knowledge)
Wild Bird Center – Make a bird feeder out of recycled products
Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste – Create new paper out of old
Maryland Department of Natural Resources Watershed Division – Information and activities
Stadler Nurseries – Sustainable landscaping and natural products
Standard Solar – Solar energy exhibit
The Green Building Institute – How solar, geothermal and wind energy can be used
Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County ReStore
City of Gaithersburg Environmental Services – Rain barrel & recycling programs
• Recycling Effort at Celebrate Gaithersburg Festival Needs Volunteers
• Celebrants Encouraged to Bike to Gaithersburg Festival
-->
http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/celebrate/09/green_Zone.html
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Green Zone
Sunday 20 September 2009
Back by popular demand is a hands-on educational Green Zone, sponsored in part by My Green Guide DC. Learn about the many creatures under the sea at the Virginia Aquarium Mobile Tank, explore how science impacts our every day life at the Mad Science Activity Station, and visit a variety of informational booths with plenty of resources to help you go green in Gaithersburg. . . .
Green Zone (Train Station) STAGE II
Reptile's Alive! with live reptiles. 30 minute shows starting at: Noon 1 p.m. 2 p.m. 3 p.m. 4 p.m.
Mad Science - Make slime, ultra violet key changes and learn about our environment.
Climb a Palm Tree
Green Zone Exhibitors
Animal Ambassadors - Educational information and live animals
Ocean in Motion Mobile Aquarium courtesy of Virginia Aquarium
Zosimos Botanicals – Eco friendly make-up
Arbonne International – All natural products & make-up
Environmental Fund of Maryland – Fly tying demonstrations
Eco-Coach – Creating a green environment (test your green knowledge)
Wild Bird Center – Make a bird feeder out of recycled products
Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste – Create new paper out of old
Maryland Department of Natural Resources Watershed Division – Information and activities
Stadler Nurseries – Sustainable landscaping and natural products
Standard Solar – Solar energy exhibit
The Green Building Institute – How solar, geothermal and wind energy can be used
Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County ReStore
City of Gaithersburg Environmental Services – Rain barrel & recycling programs
• Recycling Effort at Celebrate Gaithersburg Festival Needs Volunteers
• Celebrants Encouraged to Bike to Gaithersburg Festival
-->
http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/celebrate/09/green_Zone.html
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Bloomberg Oil Prices 18 Sept 2009
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
72.23 -.24 -.33 13:14
Dated Brent Spot
70.49 .14 .20 13:23
WTI Cushing Spot
71.81 -.66 -.91 12:10
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
184.47 .38 .21 13:13
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
184.53 -.59 -.32 13:13
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
3.66 .20 5.87 13:13
Henry Hub Spot
3.46 .18 5.49 09/17
New York City Gate Spot
3.75 .17 4.75 09/17
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
41.28 -4.10 -9.03 09/17
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
35.89 1.20 3.46 9/17
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
35.58 6.48 22.27 09/17
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
From Bloomberg.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
72.23 -.24 -.33 13:14
Dated Brent Spot
70.49 .14 .20 13:23
WTI Cushing Spot
71.81 -.66 -.91 12:10
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
184.47 .38 .21 13:13
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
184.53 -.59 -.32 13:13
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
3.66 .20 5.87 13:13
Henry Hub Spot
3.46 .18 5.49 09/17
New York City Gate Spot
3.75 .17 4.75 09/17
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
41.28 -4.10 -9.03 09/17
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
35.89 1.20 3.46 9/17
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
35.58 6.48 22.27 09/17
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
From Bloomberg.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Solar Cells Made With Silicon Ink
JA Solar, one of the big players in the solar industry, is working with Innovalight to commercialize the latter's method for making silicon-ink-based, high-efficiency solar cells, the companies said this week.
Innovalight first got noticed in 2007 for perfecting a process in which it could essentially ink-jet-manufacture solar cells using a proprietary silicon ink it had developed. The solar cells are created by pouring an ink solution incorporated with silicon nanoparticles and then decanting the excess liquid to leave behind a crystalline silicon structure.
This is Innovalight's crystalline silicon solar cell.(Credit: Innovalight)
At the time of the 2007 announcement, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Innovalight claimed its method not only resulted in solar cells that were cheaper to produce by as much as half, but that the crystalline structure resulting from the process made its cells more efficient at converting electricity.
Those claims now appear to be validated.
On Tuesday, Innovalight announced that an independent study of its method by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany confirmed that its silicon ink-based cells "demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion of efficiency."
Shanghai, China-based JA Solar said the process will lower its production cost for this type of solar cell.
"Innovalight's silicon ink in conjunction with JA Solar's leadership in high-volume solar cell manufacturing with demonstrated yield, conversion efficiency, and low production costs, provides a very promising solution to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar cells utilizing our existing solar cell manufacturing lines," Qingtang Jiang, JA Solar's chief technology officer, said in a statement Tuesday.
JA Solar plans to further develop the process at its research and development plant in Yangzhou, a city on China's coast about 630 miles south of Beijing.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10355500-54.html
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Innovalight first got noticed in 2007 for perfecting a process in which it could essentially ink-jet-manufacture solar cells using a proprietary silicon ink it had developed. The solar cells are created by pouring an ink solution incorporated with silicon nanoparticles and then decanting the excess liquid to leave behind a crystalline silicon structure.
This is Innovalight's crystalline silicon solar cell.(Credit: Innovalight)
At the time of the 2007 announcement, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Innovalight claimed its method not only resulted in solar cells that were cheaper to produce by as much as half, but that the crystalline structure resulting from the process made its cells more efficient at converting electricity.
Those claims now appear to be validated.
On Tuesday, Innovalight announced that an independent study of its method by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany confirmed that its silicon ink-based cells "demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion of efficiency."
Shanghai, China-based JA Solar said the process will lower its production cost for this type of solar cell.
"Innovalight's silicon ink in conjunction with JA Solar's leadership in high-volume solar cell manufacturing with demonstrated yield, conversion efficiency, and low production costs, provides a very promising solution to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar cells utilizing our existing solar cell manufacturing lines," Qingtang Jiang, JA Solar's chief technology officer, said in a statement Tuesday.
JA Solar plans to further develop the process at its research and development plant in Yangzhou, a city on China's coast about 630 miles south of Beijing.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10355500-54.html
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Solar Panel Production Plant By RFD A Go
Solar-panel production plant by RFD a go
By Mike Wiser
RRSTAR.COM
Feb 26, 2009 @ 06:52 PM
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Five months ago, county administrators and board members grudgingly approved a 2009 budget that included across-the-board department cuts as well as an early buyout program to close a $3 million operations gap in the county budget.Thursday night, board members were told that the budget shortfall might be close to double that by the end of the year. Winnebago County Administrator Steve Chapman said the county’s first quarter results were in — the county runs on an October to September fiscal year — and extrapolating the early numbers through the entire year would leave the county with a $5.6 million shortfall by the end of the year.Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen said expenses have been less than budgeted so far this year, but the county really got hurt on the revenue side with everything from tax receipts to fees and interest payments down anywhere from 1.5 percent to 48 percent of where budget planners thought they would be. “I was shocked when we started getting these in,” Christiansen said. “You know, the wheels really started falling off (of the economy) in October which is right after we approved our budget. ... Knowing what was going on in the economy, I wasn’t surprised we took a hit, but I was shocked at how far it had fallen.”Christiansen said county department heads have already begun meeting on what looks to be another tight year and he said he’ll likely come to the County Board with an amended 2009 budget for their consideration. In other business, the board approved a development agreement with a Chinese solar-panel manufacturing company that is being courted by city, county and airport officials. Wanxiang Group has been eyeing two pieces of property by the airport — one for a manufacturing plant and another for a solar farm — but it wanted some assurances from local governments before it would locate here. The county’s stake in the agreement was to promise to buy $200,000 worth of solar panels over the next two years. “Following the dire news of a $5.6 million budget shortfall and 12 percent unemployment, I have some good news,” said John Ekberg, who chairs the board’s economic development committee. Ekberg said the project would bring 282 construction jobs in the immediate future when construction on the facility begins this summer and has the potential of bringing up to 200 full-time manufacturing jobs to the area in the “next five to 10 years.”Staff writer Mike Wiser can be reached at mwiser@rrstar.com or 815-987-1410.
From http://www.businessrockford.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
By Mike Wiser
RRSTAR.COM
Feb 26, 2009 @ 06:52 PM
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Five months ago, county administrators and board members grudgingly approved a 2009 budget that included across-the-board department cuts as well as an early buyout program to close a $3 million operations gap in the county budget.Thursday night, board members were told that the budget shortfall might be close to double that by the end of the year. Winnebago County Administrator Steve Chapman said the county’s first quarter results were in — the county runs on an October to September fiscal year — and extrapolating the early numbers through the entire year would leave the county with a $5.6 million shortfall by the end of the year.Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen said expenses have been less than budgeted so far this year, but the county really got hurt on the revenue side with everything from tax receipts to fees and interest payments down anywhere from 1.5 percent to 48 percent of where budget planners thought they would be. “I was shocked when we started getting these in,” Christiansen said. “You know, the wheels really started falling off (of the economy) in October which is right after we approved our budget. ... Knowing what was going on in the economy, I wasn’t surprised we took a hit, but I was shocked at how far it had fallen.”Christiansen said county department heads have already begun meeting on what looks to be another tight year and he said he’ll likely come to the County Board with an amended 2009 budget for their consideration. In other business, the board approved a development agreement with a Chinese solar-panel manufacturing company that is being courted by city, county and airport officials. Wanxiang Group has been eyeing two pieces of property by the airport — one for a manufacturing plant and another for a solar farm — but it wanted some assurances from local governments before it would locate here. The county’s stake in the agreement was to promise to buy $200,000 worth of solar panels over the next two years. “Following the dire news of a $5.6 million budget shortfall and 12 percent unemployment, I have some good news,” said John Ekberg, who chairs the board’s economic development committee. Ekberg said the project would bring 282 construction jobs in the immediate future when construction on the facility begins this summer and has the potential of bringing up to 200 full-time manufacturing jobs to the area in the “next five to 10 years.”Staff writer Mike Wiser can be reached at mwiser@rrstar.com or 815-987-1410.
From http://www.businessrockford.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Winnebago County Chinese Solar Panels
Winnebago County ponders how to pay for solar panels
By Mike Wiser
RRSTAR.COM
Feb 20, 2009 @ 07:08 AM
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A committee of Winnebago County Board members committed the county to buying $200,000 worth of solar panels from a Chinese manufacturer to help convince the company to set up an operation here.The Wanxiang America Corp. has been working with the city, county and the airport authority to come to a deal that has the potential of bringing 60 manufacturing jobs immediately and more than 200 in the future to the area.Although they ultimately approved the deal unanimously, board members had about an hour’s worth of questions for Rob Lamb, industrial development manager for the city of Rockford, who was taking questions about the proposal. Lamb said the county’s portion of the deal was pretty straightforward, in that the county would be committing to buy $200,000 worth of solar panels manufactured at Wanxiang’s eventual Winnebago County operation site over the next two years.The cost of the panels does not include installation of them on county buildings, which Lamb estimated would be $200,000 more. But he said the county also had the option to have the company set up the panels at a proposed solar farm near the Chicago Rockford International Airport where the county would then get into the power-selling business.“I think this is the right thing for this county and this economy,” said board member Frank Gambino. “But I have to ask, how are we going to pay $200,000 when we’re already in the red?”Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen, who sat in on the meeting and indicated his support for the deal, said staff was still figuring out where the money could come from.He said it’s possible some of it could be paid for from grant money available through the federal stimulus package recently signed by President Barack Obama. “So we’re pretty sure that this can be paid for by the stimulus?” asked board member John Eckberg.“Whoa, whoa. Way too heavy with the language there,” Christiansen said. “It’s a possibility. That’s all.”Christiansen said the Winnebago County Justice Center and the MetroCentre could lend themselves quite readily for solar-panel installation, but that, and other proposals, would have to be studied in greater detail. “We really have a small part of this,” said board member Rick Pollack as he leafed through the pages of the agreement.“Looking at this, if I was a City Council member, I would have been sweating bullets.”Earlier this week, the Rockford City Council approved a deal with the company that gave Wanxiang 10 acres of land, more than $1 million in tax incentives and committed the city to buy at least $200,000 worth of solar panels for itself among other incentives.The deal is scheduled to go to the full County Board next week.Staff writer Mike Wiser can be reached at mwiser@rrstar.com or 815-987-1410.
From: http://www.businessrockford.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
By Mike Wiser
RRSTAR.COM
Feb 20, 2009 @ 07:08 AM
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A committee of Winnebago County Board members committed the county to buying $200,000 worth of solar panels from a Chinese manufacturer to help convince the company to set up an operation here.The Wanxiang America Corp. has been working with the city, county and the airport authority to come to a deal that has the potential of bringing 60 manufacturing jobs immediately and more than 200 in the future to the area.Although they ultimately approved the deal unanimously, board members had about an hour’s worth of questions for Rob Lamb, industrial development manager for the city of Rockford, who was taking questions about the proposal. Lamb said the county’s portion of the deal was pretty straightforward, in that the county would be committing to buy $200,000 worth of solar panels manufactured at Wanxiang’s eventual Winnebago County operation site over the next two years.The cost of the panels does not include installation of them on county buildings, which Lamb estimated would be $200,000 more. But he said the county also had the option to have the company set up the panels at a proposed solar farm near the Chicago Rockford International Airport where the county would then get into the power-selling business.“I think this is the right thing for this county and this economy,” said board member Frank Gambino. “But I have to ask, how are we going to pay $200,000 when we’re already in the red?”Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen, who sat in on the meeting and indicated his support for the deal, said staff was still figuring out where the money could come from.He said it’s possible some of it could be paid for from grant money available through the federal stimulus package recently signed by President Barack Obama. “So we’re pretty sure that this can be paid for by the stimulus?” asked board member John Eckberg.“Whoa, whoa. Way too heavy with the language there,” Christiansen said. “It’s a possibility. That’s all.”Christiansen said the Winnebago County Justice Center and the MetroCentre could lend themselves quite readily for solar-panel installation, but that, and other proposals, would have to be studied in greater detail. “We really have a small part of this,” said board member Rick Pollack as he leafed through the pages of the agreement.“Looking at this, if I was a City Council member, I would have been sweating bullets.”Earlier this week, the Rockford City Council approved a deal with the company that gave Wanxiang 10 acres of land, more than $1 million in tax incentives and committed the city to buy at least $200,000 worth of solar panels for itself among other incentives.The deal is scheduled to go to the full County Board next week.Staff writer Mike Wiser can be reached at mwiser@rrstar.com or 815-987-1410.
From: http://www.businessrockford.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Chinese Solar Panel Production Deal
Solar-panel production deal moving forward
By Thomas V. Bona
BusinessRockford.com
Feb 09, 2009 @ 05:35 PM
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A pending deal to bring a Chinese solar-panel manufacturer here could add 240 well-paying jobs, help nearby businesses go green for less money and put Rockford on the map for future such developments.The cost? More than $1 million in tax breaks, 10 acres of free land and commitments by city and county officials to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in solar panels.City officials who are negotiating the deal with Wanxiang Group say it’s more than worth it.“They’re just a huge, huge corporation, so obviously we want them to be happy here, comfortable here and welcome here,” said Rob Lamb, the city’s industrial development manager. “They also were impressed by Rockford in that we didn’t look at this as just a deal. We look at this as the start of a relationship that would continue over a long period of time.”The Rockford City Council’s planning and development committee recommended approval of the deal tonight. It’ll go to City Council for approval next week. Winnebago County and Greater Rockford Airport Authority officials also need to approve their parts in the deal.If approved, the photovoltaic solar-panel facility would be at the city’s Logistics Park near the airport. Wanxiang is planning four phases totaling 160,000 square feet. Lamb said each phase would include about 60 jobs, paying $40,000 to $70,000 a year plus benefits. The company hopes to fill most positions locally.Construction on phase one would start by July, with the facility up to full production within 18 months of starting. Future phases would roll out according to demand for the panels.Wanxiang would invest $4 to $6 million in each phase.The company would get at least $1.2 million in tax increment financing money generated from the project over the next 18 years for the first phase. Future phases could guarantee Wanxiang more TIF money. The company also would get other state tax benefits by the River Edge Redevelopment Zone.Besides the 10 acres it’s getting — worth about $650,000 — Wanxiang would have an option on an additional 10 acres. That land could be used for additional expansion, for a Wanxiang sister company or for another company attracted here by Wanxiang.In the deal, city officials would commit to buying about $200,000 worth of Wanxiang solar panels to power some water pumping stations, while county officials would commit to $200,000 worth for its justice center. The airport would donate 100 to 200 acres for a solar farm operated by Wanxiang.The city also would pay half the cost of acquisition and installation of solar panels by companies in the surrounding Global Trade Park in the first five years of the deal, also using TIF dollars. For the following 10 years, the city would pay half the cost of acquisition only.“It helps these other companies diminish their electric loads, thus saving money,” Lamb said. “It helps the city and the community to pursue going green.”Wanxiang is China’s second-largest privately held company, with revenues in the billions of dollars annually. Its Wanxiang America subsidiary had $1 billion in sales last year.Last summer, Wanxiang and local officials signed an agreement to work on the deal, and have been ironing out specifics since. The company considered communities throughout the Midwest, and Rockford area officials feel by winning this deal they also attract other companies looking to invest in the United States. They’re particularly excited about alternative energy as a growth industry for the region, replacing well-paying manufacturing jobs that have been lost.“Wanxiang in China produces electric cars, electric buses, all kinds of things which they have not brought to the U.S. as of yet,” Lamb said. “There are other energy-related opportunities that fall into the realm of manufacturing, which is something Rockford excels at.”Staff writer Thomas V. Bona may be contacted at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.
From: http://www.businessrockford.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
By Thomas V. Bona
BusinessRockford.com
Feb 09, 2009 @ 05:35 PM
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A pending deal to bring a Chinese solar-panel manufacturer here could add 240 well-paying jobs, help nearby businesses go green for less money and put Rockford on the map for future such developments.The cost? More than $1 million in tax breaks, 10 acres of free land and commitments by city and county officials to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in solar panels.City officials who are negotiating the deal with Wanxiang Group say it’s more than worth it.“They’re just a huge, huge corporation, so obviously we want them to be happy here, comfortable here and welcome here,” said Rob Lamb, the city’s industrial development manager. “They also were impressed by Rockford in that we didn’t look at this as just a deal. We look at this as the start of a relationship that would continue over a long period of time.”The Rockford City Council’s planning and development committee recommended approval of the deal tonight. It’ll go to City Council for approval next week. Winnebago County and Greater Rockford Airport Authority officials also need to approve their parts in the deal.If approved, the photovoltaic solar-panel facility would be at the city’s Logistics Park near the airport. Wanxiang is planning four phases totaling 160,000 square feet. Lamb said each phase would include about 60 jobs, paying $40,000 to $70,000 a year plus benefits. The company hopes to fill most positions locally.Construction on phase one would start by July, with the facility up to full production within 18 months of starting. Future phases would roll out according to demand for the panels.Wanxiang would invest $4 to $6 million in each phase.The company would get at least $1.2 million in tax increment financing money generated from the project over the next 18 years for the first phase. Future phases could guarantee Wanxiang more TIF money. The company also would get other state tax benefits by the River Edge Redevelopment Zone.Besides the 10 acres it’s getting — worth about $650,000 — Wanxiang would have an option on an additional 10 acres. That land could be used for additional expansion, for a Wanxiang sister company or for another company attracted here by Wanxiang.In the deal, city officials would commit to buying about $200,000 worth of Wanxiang solar panels to power some water pumping stations, while county officials would commit to $200,000 worth for its justice center. The airport would donate 100 to 200 acres for a solar farm operated by Wanxiang.The city also would pay half the cost of acquisition and installation of solar panels by companies in the surrounding Global Trade Park in the first five years of the deal, also using TIF dollars. For the following 10 years, the city would pay half the cost of acquisition only.“It helps these other companies diminish their electric loads, thus saving money,” Lamb said. “It helps the city and the community to pursue going green.”Wanxiang is China’s second-largest privately held company, with revenues in the billions of dollars annually. Its Wanxiang America subsidiary had $1 billion in sales last year.Last summer, Wanxiang and local officials signed an agreement to work on the deal, and have been ironing out specifics since. The company considered communities throughout the Midwest, and Rockford area officials feel by winning this deal they also attract other companies looking to invest in the United States. They’re particularly excited about alternative energy as a growth industry for the region, replacing well-paying manufacturing jobs that have been lost.“Wanxiang in China produces electric cars, electric buses, all kinds of things which they have not brought to the U.S. as of yet,” Lamb said. “There are other energy-related opportunities that fall into the realm of manufacturing, which is something Rockford excels at.”Staff writer Thomas V. Bona may be contacted at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.
From: http://www.businessrockford.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
iPod and iPhone Touch Solar Charger
For those of you with the latest iPod or iPhone Touch, in a months time you'll be able to charge your Apple gadgets with a fancy schmancy new solar case. Novothink, a manufacturer of alternative electronic devices, has just released their Solar Surge for the iPod and iPhone Touch. Your igadget slides easily into the hard case solar charger and can get fully juiced up from the sun! With something this handy and easy, you’ll never have to worry about a dead battery. It’s brilliant really. Can they please make one for Blackberrys too?
The integrated solar panel on the back of the case allows you to charge your iPhone or iPod soley from sunpower without the need for any other energy source. However, for convenience, there is an additional USB cable that can help you charge your device should there be no sunlight in your vicinity. Four LED indicators let you know whether you have sufficient light source for solar charging and approximately how much charge level remains in your case. When all 4 indicators are green, the Surge is fully charged. And when your device is not in the case, the Solar Surge stores power in an internal battery.
These chargers are the first to be licensed by Apple and only work on the newer devices, so sorry, your older ones aren’t compatible. Novothink’s Solar Surge will be available for the iPod Touch 2G later this month and will sell for $70. The iPhone 3G and 3GS model will be available fall 2009. At a reasonable price of $70
These chargers are the first to be licensed by Apple and only work on the newer devices, so sorry, your older ones aren’t compatible. Novothink’s Solar Surge will be available for the iPod Touch 2G later this month and will sell for $70. The iPhone 3G and 3GS model will be available fall 2009. At a reasonable price of $70
Link to iPod and iPhone Touch Solar Charger at Inhabitat.com:
Linkto: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/03/first-ever-apple-licensed-ipod-solar-charger-case-unveiled/
Maryland College 20-acre Solar Panel Project
Monday, August 10, 2009 at 4:17:08 PM - by Nate Lew
Maryland college plans 20-acre solar panel projectA historically black college in Maryland made news this week with its announcement that it will meet a sizeable portion of its energy needs with a new photovoltaic project. This week, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore announced it will build a solar farm on 20 acres of its campus land. The project will be financed, developed and maintained by SunEdison under a solar power service agreement. According to the university, the 2.1 megawatt system will be the largest solar plant in Maryland and will allow the university access to stable energy prices in the coming years. Construction is set to begin this fall and should be completed by the end of the year. "This program can be a model for other universities. We are excited that we can be a part of the energy future that Maryland puts forth in its plan for 1,500 megawatts of solar generation capacity by 2022," said Brian Jacolik of SunEdison. The university also noted that the terms of the project require no up-front investment on its part.
From: http://www.coolerplanet.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Maryland college plans 20-acre solar panel projectA historically black college in Maryland made news this week with its announcement that it will meet a sizeable portion of its energy needs with a new photovoltaic project. This week, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore announced it will build a solar farm on 20 acres of its campus land. The project will be financed, developed and maintained by SunEdison under a solar power service agreement. According to the university, the 2.1 megawatt system will be the largest solar plant in Maryland and will allow the university access to stable energy prices in the coming years. Construction is set to begin this fall and should be completed by the end of the year. "This program can be a model for other universities. We are excited that we can be a part of the energy future that Maryland puts forth in its plan for 1,500 megawatts of solar generation capacity by 2022," said Brian Jacolik of SunEdison. The university also noted that the terms of the project require no up-front investment on its part.
From: http://www.coolerplanet.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
PG&E Save Energy and Money
PG&E Save Energy and Money
Home solar prices falling, even as rebates shrink
By Brandon Bailey
bbailey@mercurynews.com
Posted: 09/14/2009 06:53:08 PM PDT
Updated: 09/15/2009 03:06:32 AM PDT
Joseph Levine has just had 106 solar panels installed on the two-level... ( KAREN T. BORCHERS )"," Left to right: Felipe Saldana, Dave Bischoff and Nick Buckman from Akeena Solar... ( Gary Reyes )
Even as a state rebate is shrinking, the price of residential solar power is dropping, thanks to lower installation costs and a glut in the supply of key components.
That's putting it in reach of more people and prompting solar advocates to say the day is coming when rebates and tax credits won't be needed to spur the growth of the renewable energy industry.
The cost of a typical 4,000-watt home solar system has dropped as much as 10 percent in the past year — falling below $20,000 in the Bay Area, after factoring in the California rebate and a federal tax credit that increased this year. Installers say a homeowner can recover the upfront costs of a solar system through lower utility bills in less than 10 years.
"The net economics of all this is getting better," said Barry Cinnamon, CEO of Los Gatos-based Akeena Solar, which sells residential and commercial systems. "We foresee a time, a few years from now, where we won't even need the state incentives."
One major subsidy is already starting to decline. The flood of applications for installation rebates under the California Solar Initiative is triggering a reduction this month in the size of rebates available from Pacific Gas & Electric, which administers the program in most of the Bay Area.
The $2.2 billion program, funded by utility ratepayers, was designed to provide bigger financial incentives at first, to jump-start consumer interest. As more people install solar
Advertisement
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function ebIsFlashExtInterfaceExist(){return true;}
systems, the dollar amount of rebates decreases in incremental steps. For PG&E customers, the rebate for a 4,000-watt system will drop from around $6,200 to about $4,400.
On the other hand, the federal stimulus bill enacted in February removed a $2,000 cap on a 30 percent federal tax credit for home solar panels, allowing many homeowners to recoup several thousand dollars of their costs.
Even without those subsidies, experts say, changes in the global market are driving costs down.
"There's been a rather dramatic decline in the last six months," said Adam Browning, who runs a nonprofit advocacy group called the Vote Solar Initiative. He said he expects the trend to continue.
After several years of lagging behind demand, silicon refiners have ramped up production and solar-panel makers have increased their manufacturing capacity, particularly in China. Those factories came on line last year, just as a worldwide recession knocked down corporate spending for commercial solar installations.
As a result, the wholesale price of high-end solar panels has fallen by 50 percent, to about $2.40 a watt, according to analyst Nathaniel Bullard at the research firm New Energy Finance. Since Chinese manufacturers can make panels for close to $2 a watt, he said, prices are likely to fall further.
Panel prices are only about a third of the cost for installing a system. Labor costs are as much or more of a factor, said Curtis Seymour, a regulatory analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission.
The commission, which oversees the state subsidy program, has worked with solar contractors to devise more efficient installation procedures. Manufacturers and contractors have also come up with new hardware designs that take less time — and therefore cost less — to install.
One study found labor costs for installing solar panels have dropped 25 percent in the past two years, Browning said.
On average, a home solar power system cost about $8 a watt last year in California, according to researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That figure has dropped about 50 cents a watt in the past year, according to Vote Solar's analysis of state statistics. Cinnamon said he believes it will fall to $7.25 a watt this year.
"When we looked at it three years ago, the cost didn't make any sense for us. But compared to then, it's come down about 30 percent," said homeowner Susan Hollingshead, who recently signed a contract with Sungevity, a Berkeley company, to install a solar panel system for her four-bedroom house in Walnut Creek.
All told, PG&E has approved rebates for more than 11,400 residential solar installations since the program began in January 2007. Municipal utilities in Palo Alto and Santa Clara have separate programs for their customers.
Citing previous experience, Seymour at the utilities commission said the lower rebates may put a temporary crimp in applications, but consumer interest should rebound again.
Some people see the rebate step-down as bad news, he added, "but to us, it's a sign the program is working."
Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022.
solar resources on the web:
PG&E customers can find information on rebates from the California Solar Initiative at: www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/solarenergy/csi/csifaqs/Homeowners, business-owners and contractors can find useful information from the California Public Utilities Commission and state Energy Commission at: www.gosolarcalifornia.com/A directory of solar power vendors and installers, plus information on financing and other issues, can be found at: www.findsolar.com/A handy list of FAQs for homeowners considering solar is at: www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=faqInformation on solar power advocacy can be found at: www.votesolar.org/index.html
solar resources on the web:PG&E customers can find information on rebates from the California Solar Initiative at: www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/solarenergy/csi/csifaqs/Homeowners, business-owners and contractors can find useful information from the California Public Utilities Commission and state Energy Commission at: www.gosolarcalifornia.com/A directory of solar power vendors and installers, plus information on financing and other issues, can be found at: www.findsolar.com/A handy list of FAQs for homeowners considering solar is at: www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=faqInformation on solar power advocacy can be found at: www.votesolar.org/index.html
Here are some links to Saving With Solar:
http://www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/solarenergy/csi/csifaqs/
http://www.gosolarcalifornia.com/
http://www.findsolar.com/
http://www.votesolar.org/index.html
From: http://www.mercurynews.com
Home solar prices falling, even as rebates shrink
By Brandon Bailey
bbailey@mercurynews.com
Posted: 09/14/2009 06:53:08 PM PDT
Updated: 09/15/2009 03:06:32 AM PDT
Joseph Levine has just had 106 solar panels installed on the two-level... ( KAREN T. BORCHERS )"," Left to right: Felipe Saldana, Dave Bischoff and Nick Buckman from Akeena Solar... ( Gary Reyes )
Even as a state rebate is shrinking, the price of residential solar power is dropping, thanks to lower installation costs and a glut in the supply of key components.
That's putting it in reach of more people and prompting solar advocates to say the day is coming when rebates and tax credits won't be needed to spur the growth of the renewable energy industry.
The cost of a typical 4,000-watt home solar system has dropped as much as 10 percent in the past year — falling below $20,000 in the Bay Area, after factoring in the California rebate and a federal tax credit that increased this year. Installers say a homeowner can recover the upfront costs of a solar system through lower utility bills in less than 10 years.
"The net economics of all this is getting better," said Barry Cinnamon, CEO of Los Gatos-based Akeena Solar, which sells residential and commercial systems. "We foresee a time, a few years from now, where we won't even need the state incentives."
One major subsidy is already starting to decline. The flood of applications for installation rebates under the California Solar Initiative is triggering a reduction this month in the size of rebates available from Pacific Gas & Electric, which administers the program in most of the Bay Area.
The $2.2 billion program, funded by utility ratepayers, was designed to provide bigger financial incentives at first, to jump-start consumer interest. As more people install solar
Advertisement
yld_mgr.place_ad_here("adPosBox");
function ebBannerFlash_0_9200726270614883_DoFSCommand(command,args){ebScriptWin0_9200726270614883.gEbBanners[0].displayUnit.handleFSCommand(command,args,"ebBannerFlash_0_9200726270614883");}
ebBannerFlash_0_9200726270614883_DoFSCommand(command,args);
function ebIsFlashExtInterfaceExist(){return true;}
systems, the dollar amount of rebates decreases in incremental steps. For PG&E customers, the rebate for a 4,000-watt system will drop from around $6,200 to about $4,400.
On the other hand, the federal stimulus bill enacted in February removed a $2,000 cap on a 30 percent federal tax credit for home solar panels, allowing many homeowners to recoup several thousand dollars of their costs.
Even without those subsidies, experts say, changes in the global market are driving costs down.
"There's been a rather dramatic decline in the last six months," said Adam Browning, who runs a nonprofit advocacy group called the Vote Solar Initiative. He said he expects the trend to continue.
After several years of lagging behind demand, silicon refiners have ramped up production and solar-panel makers have increased their manufacturing capacity, particularly in China. Those factories came on line last year, just as a worldwide recession knocked down corporate spending for commercial solar installations.
As a result, the wholesale price of high-end solar panels has fallen by 50 percent, to about $2.40 a watt, according to analyst Nathaniel Bullard at the research firm New Energy Finance. Since Chinese manufacturers can make panels for close to $2 a watt, he said, prices are likely to fall further.
Panel prices are only about a third of the cost for installing a system. Labor costs are as much or more of a factor, said Curtis Seymour, a regulatory analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission.
The commission, which oversees the state subsidy program, has worked with solar contractors to devise more efficient installation procedures. Manufacturers and contractors have also come up with new hardware designs that take less time — and therefore cost less — to install.
One study found labor costs for installing solar panels have dropped 25 percent in the past two years, Browning said.
On average, a home solar power system cost about $8 a watt last year in California, according to researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That figure has dropped about 50 cents a watt in the past year, according to Vote Solar's analysis of state statistics. Cinnamon said he believes it will fall to $7.25 a watt this year.
"When we looked at it three years ago, the cost didn't make any sense for us. But compared to then, it's come down about 30 percent," said homeowner Susan Hollingshead, who recently signed a contract with Sungevity, a Berkeley company, to install a solar panel system for her four-bedroom house in Walnut Creek.
All told, PG&E has approved rebates for more than 11,400 residential solar installations since the program began in January 2007. Municipal utilities in Palo Alto and Santa Clara have separate programs for their customers.
Citing previous experience, Seymour at the utilities commission said the lower rebates may put a temporary crimp in applications, but consumer interest should rebound again.
Some people see the rebate step-down as bad news, he added, "but to us, it's a sign the program is working."
Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022.
solar resources on the web:
PG&E customers can find information on rebates from the California Solar Initiative at: www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/solarenergy/csi/csifaqs/Homeowners, business-owners and contractors can find useful information from the California Public Utilities Commission and state Energy Commission at: www.gosolarcalifornia.com/A directory of solar power vendors and installers, plus information on financing and other issues, can be found at: www.findsolar.com/A handy list of FAQs for homeowners considering solar is at: www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=faqInformation on solar power advocacy can be found at: www.votesolar.org/index.html
solar resources on the web:PG&E customers can find information on rebates from the California Solar Initiative at: www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/solarenergy/csi/csifaqs/Homeowners, business-owners and contractors can find useful information from the California Public Utilities Commission and state Energy Commission at: www.gosolarcalifornia.com/A directory of solar power vendors and installers, plus information on financing and other issues, can be found at: www.findsolar.com/A handy list of FAQs for homeowners considering solar is at: www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=faqInformation on solar power advocacy can be found at: www.votesolar.org/index.html
Here are some links to Saving With Solar:
http://www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/solarenergy/csi/csifaqs/
http://www.gosolarcalifornia.com/
http://www.findsolar.com/
http://www.votesolar.org/index.html
From: http://www.mercurynews.com
Silicon Valley - San Jose,CA
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Bloomberg Oil Prices 11 September 2009
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
69.29 -2.65 -3.68 09/11
Dated Brent Spot
67.40 -2.51 -3.59 09/11
WTI Cushing Spot
69.29 -2.65 -3.68 09/11
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
173.08 -5.77 -3.23 09/11
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
175.98 -4.38 -2.43 09/11
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
2.96 -.30 -9.09 09/11
Henry Hub Spot
2.94 .26 9.70 09/11
New York City Gate Spot
3.17 .19 6.38 09/11
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
42.14 4.68 12.49 09/11
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
27.60 -1.35 -4.66 09/10
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
26.98 .54 2.04 09/11
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
From: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/energyprices.html
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
69.29 -2.65 -3.68 09/11
Dated Brent Spot
67.40 -2.51 -3.59 09/11
WTI Cushing Spot
69.29 -2.65 -3.68 09/11
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
173.08 -5.77 -3.23 09/11
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
175.98 -4.38 -2.43 09/11
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
2.96 -.30 -9.09 09/11
Henry Hub Spot
2.94 .26 9.70 09/11
New York City Gate Spot
3.17 .19 6.38 09/11
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
42.14 4.68 12.49 09/11
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
27.60 -1.35 -4.66 09/10
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
26.98 .54 2.04 09/11
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
From: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/energyprices.html
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Thursday, September 10, 2009
China and India Increasing Energy Consumption
China and India Increasing Energy Consumption
China and India are Asia's two largest emerging economies. Both have large populations, industrializing economies and rising living standards and energy consumption. This slide show compares energy production, consumption and efficiency of both countries head-to-head and the environmental issues both are confronting as a result of their growing energy use. The numbers are drawn form official statistics, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency and are the latest available full-year estimates. The energy intensity comparison is based on purchasing power parity conversion rates.
Total Energy Consumption
China: 59.6 quadrillion Btus: Coal (69%), Oil (22%), Hydroelectricity (6%), Natural Gas (3%),
Nuclear (1%), Other Renewables (0%)
India: 14 quadrillion Btus: Coal (52%), Oil (34%), Natural Gas (7%), Hydroelectricity (5%), Nuclear (1%), Other Renewables (0%)
Per Capita Energy Consumption
China: 34.9 million Btus
India: 3.2 million Btus
Energy Intensity
China: 9,080.4 Btu per $2,000 GDP
India: 4,825 Btu per $2,000 GDP
Proven Oil Reserves
China: 18.3 billion barrels
India: 5.4 billion barrels
Oil Production
China: 3,806.2 thousand barrels per day, of which 96% was crude oil.
India: 838.9 thousand barrels per day, of which 76% was crude oiL.
Oil Consumption
China: 6,899.6 thousand barrels per day
India: 2,524.7 thousand barrels per day
Crude Oil Distillation Capacity
China: 6,246 thousand barrels per day
India: 2,254.6 thousand barrels per day
Proven Natural Gas Reserves
China: 53.3 trillion cubic feet
India: 30.1 trillion cubic feet
Natural Gas Production
China: 1.4 trillion cubic feet
India: 1 trillion cubic feet
Natural Gas Consumption
China: 1,350.5 billion cubic feet
India: 957 billion cubic feet
Recoverable Coal Reserves
China: 126,214.7 million short tons
India: 101,903.2 million short tons
Coal Production
China: 2,156.4 million short tons
India: 403.1 million short tons
Coal Consumption
China: 2,062.4 million short tons
India: 430.6 million short tons
Installed Electricity Capacity
China: 391.4 gigawatts
India: 126.3 gigawatts
Electricity Production
China: 2,079.7 billion kilowatt hours
India: 556.8 billion kilowatt hours
Electricity Consumption
China: 1,927 billion kilowatt hours
India: 519 billion kilowatt hours
Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions
China: 3,541 million metric tons: Coal (81%), Oil (17%), Natural Gas (2%)
India: 1,024.8 million metric tons: Coal (65%), Oil (30%), Natural Gas (5%)
Per-Capita Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Energy-Related
China: 2.7 metric tons
India: 1 metric tons
Carbon Dioxide Intensity
China: 0.7 Metric tons per thousand $2,000-PPP**
India: 0.4 Metric tons per thousand $2,000-PPP**
Environmental Issues
China: air pollution (sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered species
India: Deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and rapidly growing population is overstraining natural resources.
Major Environmental Agreements
China: Party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
From: http://www.forbes.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
China and India are Asia's two largest emerging economies. Both have large populations, industrializing economies and rising living standards and energy consumption. This slide show compares energy production, consumption and efficiency of both countries head-to-head and the environmental issues both are confronting as a result of their growing energy use. The numbers are drawn form official statistics, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency and are the latest available full-year estimates. The energy intensity comparison is based on purchasing power parity conversion rates.
Total Energy Consumption
China: 59.6 quadrillion Btus: Coal (69%), Oil (22%), Hydroelectricity (6%), Natural Gas (3%),
Nuclear (1%), Other Renewables (0%)
India: 14 quadrillion Btus: Coal (52%), Oil (34%), Natural Gas (7%), Hydroelectricity (5%), Nuclear (1%), Other Renewables (0%)
Per Capita Energy Consumption
China: 34.9 million Btus
India: 3.2 million Btus
Energy Intensity
China: 9,080.4 Btu per $2,000 GDP
India: 4,825 Btu per $2,000 GDP
Proven Oil Reserves
China: 18.3 billion barrels
India: 5.4 billion barrels
Oil Production
China: 3,806.2 thousand barrels per day, of which 96% was crude oil.
India: 838.9 thousand barrels per day, of which 76% was crude oiL.
Oil Consumption
China: 6,899.6 thousand barrels per day
India: 2,524.7 thousand barrels per day
Crude Oil Distillation Capacity
China: 6,246 thousand barrels per day
India: 2,254.6 thousand barrels per day
Proven Natural Gas Reserves
China: 53.3 trillion cubic feet
India: 30.1 trillion cubic feet
Natural Gas Production
China: 1.4 trillion cubic feet
India: 1 trillion cubic feet
Natural Gas Consumption
China: 1,350.5 billion cubic feet
India: 957 billion cubic feet
Recoverable Coal Reserves
China: 126,214.7 million short tons
India: 101,903.2 million short tons
Coal Production
China: 2,156.4 million short tons
India: 403.1 million short tons
Coal Consumption
China: 2,062.4 million short tons
India: 430.6 million short tons
Installed Electricity Capacity
China: 391.4 gigawatts
India: 126.3 gigawatts
Electricity Production
China: 2,079.7 billion kilowatt hours
India: 556.8 billion kilowatt hours
Electricity Consumption
China: 1,927 billion kilowatt hours
India: 519 billion kilowatt hours
Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions
China: 3,541 million metric tons: Coal (81%), Oil (17%), Natural Gas (2%)
India: 1,024.8 million metric tons: Coal (65%), Oil (30%), Natural Gas (5%)
Per-Capita Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Energy-Related
China: 2.7 metric tons
India: 1 metric tons
Carbon Dioxide Intensity
China: 0.7 Metric tons per thousand $2,000-PPP**
India: 0.4 Metric tons per thousand $2,000-PPP**
Environmental Issues
China: air pollution (sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered species
India: Deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and rapidly growing population is overstraining natural resources.
Major Environmental Agreements
China: Party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
From: http://www.forbes.com
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Monday, September 7, 2009
Treasury, Energy announce $500 m in alternative energy awards
Treasury, Energy announce $500 m in alternative energy awards
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Energy today announced the award of $502 million in cash assistance for energy production companies. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner in a written statement expressed optimism that the awards will generate clean energy initiatives in urban and rural areas of the United States.
The award is part of a $3 billion program authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It provides direct cash payments to energy producers and developers as opposed to tax credits. The Obama administration expects that this round of funding will generate 2,000 jobs in the energy field.
From the Examiner SF
http://www.examiner.com/x-18558-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m9d1-Treasury-Energy-announce-500-m-in-alternative-energy-awards
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Energy today announced the award of $502 million in cash assistance for energy production companies. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner in a written statement expressed optimism that the awards will generate clean energy initiatives in urban and rural areas of the United States.
The award is part of a $3 billion program authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It provides direct cash payments to energy producers and developers as opposed to tax credits. The Obama administration expects that this round of funding will generate 2,000 jobs in the energy field.
From the Examiner SF
http://www.examiner.com/x-18558-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m9d1-Treasury-Energy-announce-500-m-in-alternative-energy-awards
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Books on Energy
Here are some books you might like to read:
Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence by Robert Bryce
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586483218/alteenerblog-20/
A Declaration of Energy Independence: How Freedom from Foreign Oil Can Improve National Security, Our Economy, and the Environment (Hardcover) by Jay Hakes
http://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Energy-Independence-National-Environment/dp/0470267631/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power (Paperback) by Daniel Yergin
http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-Power/dp/1439110123/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (Paperback) by Matthew R. Simmions
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Desert-Coming-Saudi-Economy/dp/0471790184/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better (Hardcover) by Christopher Steiner
http://www.amazon.com/20-Per-Gallon-Inevitable-Gasoline/dp/0446549541/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Oil 101 (Hardcover) by Morgan Downey
http://www.amazon.com/Oil-101-Morgan-Downey/dp/0982039204/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Let me know what you think of the books. I will post more as time allows.
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence by Robert Bryce
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586483218/alteenerblog-20/
A Declaration of Energy Independence: How Freedom from Foreign Oil Can Improve National Security, Our Economy, and the Environment (Hardcover) by Jay Hakes
http://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Energy-Independence-National-Environment/dp/0470267631/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power (Paperback) by Daniel Yergin
http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-Power/dp/1439110123/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (Paperback) by Matthew R. Simmions
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Desert-Coming-Saudi-Economy/dp/0471790184/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better (Hardcover) by Christopher Steiner
http://www.amazon.com/20-Per-Gallon-Inevitable-Gasoline/dp/0446549541/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Oil 101 (Hardcover) by Morgan Downey
http://www.amazon.com/Oil-101-Morgan-Downey/dp/0982039204/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Let me know what you think of the books. I will post more as time allows.
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Bloomberg Energy Prices 04 September 2009
Bloomberg Oil Prices for Friday 04 September 2009
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
68.02 .06 .09 09/04
Dated Brent Spot
66.27 -.53 -.79 09/04
WTI Cushing Spot
68.02 .06 .09 09/04
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
172.05 -1.45 -.84 09/04
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
177.63 -1.65 -.92 09/04
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
2.73 .22 8.77 09/04
Henry Hub Spot
1.88 -.18 -8.74 09/04
New York City Gate Spot
2.00 -.27 -11.89 09/04
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
31.98 2.03 6.78 09/04
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
24.17 -2.69 -10.02 09/04
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
23.88 1.40 6.23 09/04
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Energy Prices
PETROLEUM ($/bbl)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Crude Future
68.02 .06 .09 09/04
Dated Brent Spot
66.27 -.53 -.79 09/04
WTI Cushing Spot
68.02 .06 .09 09/04
PETROLEUM (¢/gal)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Heating Oil Future
172.05 -1.45 -.84 09/04
Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future
177.63 -1.65 -.92 09/04
NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Nymex Henry Hub Future
2.73 .22 8.77 09/04
Henry Hub Spot
1.88 -.18 -8.74 09/04
New York City Gate Spot
2.00 -.27 -11.89 09/04
ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)
PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME
Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot
31.98 2.03 6.78 09/04
Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot
24.17 -2.69 -10.02 09/04
BLOOMBERG, FIRM ON-PEAK, DAY AHEAD SPOT/ERCOT HOUSTON
23.88 1.40 6.23 09/04
*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.
Link to: http://www.usaalternativeenergynow.blogspot.com/
Sunrise for solar heat power
Sunrise for solar heat power
Four technologies aim to use heat from the sun to make electricity. But which one has the edge?
Four technologies aim to use heat from the sun to make electricity. But which one has the edge?
Nearly a century ago, American engineer Frank Shuman erected five immense, trough-shaped mirrors in Meadi, Egypt. The parabolic reflectors directed sunlight onto a tube suspended above their 200-foot lengths. Water inside the tubes boiled and created steam. The steam powered a 65-horsepower engine, which pumped 6,000 gallons of water per minute from the Nile River to nearby cotton fields. It was the world’s first concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.
CSP entails focusing the sun’s rays with a reflective surface and putting that energy to work. These days, the heat usually goes to generating electricity. But the principle is quite old.
The ancient Chinese used concave mirrors to start fires, and, according to legend, the Greek mathematician and scientist Archimedes once used mirrors, perhaps of polished bronze, to ignite and burn an invading Roman fleet.
Shuman was addressing a concern of his time: Fossil fuels, particularly coal, powered the Industrial Revolution – the trains and mills, among other things, that radically changed human experience. But what happens when they ran out?
“One thing I feel sure of, and that is that the human race must finally utilize direct sun power or revert to barbarism,” Shuman told Scientific American magazine in 1911.Fighting during World War I destroyed Shuman’s plant. But in the end it was cheap, abundant oil that obviated his ideas – or seemed to.
The oil crises of the 1970s again piqued interest in CSP, and, in the 1980s, plants resembling Shuman’s began cropping up in the Mojave Desert. Then natural-gas prices plummeted and the cycle repeated itself. No new commercial-scale CSP plants were built for nearly 20 years.
Now CSP is poised for a second – or third, depending on when the count begins – renaissance. And this time, say experts, it’s here to stay. World CSP capacity is forecast to increase nearly 18-fold in the next five years, from its current 588 megawatt potential to around 10.5 gigawatts. (Very roughly, 100 megawatts is enough energy to power 80,000 houses.) More than half of that new CSP capacity will be installed in the United States.
Several factors are driving the CSP boom. Although utility companies have long viewed CSP as an option for generating electricity from the sun, they’ve hesitated to commit to the technology. That’s partly because CSP becomes efficient and cost-effective only at the megawatt (MW) scale.
Photovoltaics, by contrast, can be installed piecemeal on the kilowatt scale – a panel here, another there. And that’s why photovoltaics have so far dominated the solar market.Now, the specter of carbon regulation has shifted attention back toward CSP. The prospect of large-scale solar plants is again attractive. The “renewable portfolio” standard – which requires increased production of energy from renewable sources – has also encouraged investment in CSP. And the investment tax credit – a potential 30 percent credit on qualifying solar projects – has made investors more willing to risk capital in CSP ventures.
Solar is here to stay, now
“Twenty years ago, everyone thought the solar era was upon us, and then the industry basically went away when oil and gas got cheap,” says Cara Libby, project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, Calif. Now, “it certainly appears that solar is here to stay.”
For their part, power companies like CSP for old-fashioned reasons. For one, it uses a technology – steam-driven turbines – that is familiar after decades of use in coal-fired plants.
CSP plants also have thermal inertia. That means that, if a cloud passes overhead, they can continue operating for a time with the heat already gathered, and that’s without storage.
Assuming no rechargeable batteries, photovoltaic fields, by contrast, stop producing electricity when clouds arrive.
Technology for storing heat in molten salts, meanwhile, promises to extend CSP plants’ generating capacity well into the night.
But the bottom line is that natural-gas prices are volatile, an unknown for anyone trying to turn a profit. By comparison, CSP costs – when stretched over the life of a plant – are mostly (80 percent, by one estimate) related to installation. CSP maintenance costs are relatively small, and the sun, its fuel, is free.
“There’s a hedging aspect in building a solar thermal plant,” says Nathaniel Bullard, a solar-sector analyst with New Energy Finance in Washington. “Right now it makes sense to burn gas; it’s really cheap. But you could, in the future, end up losing your shirt on it.”
Inventor Thomas Edison, a contemporary of Shuman’s and the man who gave us the system of steam-generated electricity distributed by wires, told friends late in his life that “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!”
Earth has a natural “sun belt,” a swath of relatively empty subtropical deserts including the US Southwest, the Sahara, the Middle East, and much of Australia. By one estimate, installing CSP plants in just 1 percent of the world’s deserts – an area slightly larger than Ireland – could supply all the world’s electricity.
The German Aerospace Center calculates that, assuming high voltage, transmediterranean transmission lines, just 6,023 square miles of CSP in North Africa could keep all of Europe electrified.
In the US, CSP plants in the Southwest could generate 11,000 gigawatts (GWs) of electricity, says Mark Mehos, principal program manager of concentrating solar power at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. That’s roughly 10 times all the electrical generating capacity currently in place, including coal, nuclear, solar, and hydroelectric – more than enough for the country’s energy needs.
In other words, there’s plenty of sun. The real challenge is making CSP technology competitive with coal.
Currently, CSP costs about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), within striking range of current combined-cycle natural-gas plants, in which a gas turbine generator generates electricity and a steam turbine uses the waste heat to generate more. A combined-cycle natural-gas plant produces electricity for about 12 cents per kWh.
Pulverized coal plants, on the other hand, generate electricity for 6 cents per kWh – less than half CSP’s cost. But, says Mr. Mehos, if you assume that future coal-fired plants will require carbon sequestration, then that cost moves up to about 10 cents per kWh. That means CSP prices still need to drop by nearly one-third to be competitive with future coal plants.
A plethora of CSP companies are racing to innovate and reduce costs. At this point, CSP technology comes in four general “flavors,” each with different perceived strengths and weaknesses.
Parabolic-trough systems focus the sun’s energy onto a tube running their length. Temperatures in the tube can reach 750 degrees F. A medium in the tube – sometimes synthetic oil that transfers its heat to water, sometimes water itself – collects heat to drive turbines. A second troughlike system, called a Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector, uses several mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on a single receiver tube above.
Trough technology benefits from being proven. That was Shuman’s design, and it’s the one the Mojave plants installed in the 1980s and ’90s. A planned 280-MW CSP plant near Phoenix will use trough technology, and store heat for electrical generation in molten salts.
‘Power towers’ more efficientBut experts say that, although it’s a known quantity, trough technology may be less efficient than newer, albeit less-tested, approaches. One reason: Newer systems achieve higher temperatures, which greatly increase efficiency.
So-called “power towers” – thousands of mirrors, or heliostats, directing the sun’s rays at a central tower – can achieve 1,300 degrees F. They also benefit from not having to pump the receiver fluid through tubing, an energy loss.
The first commercial scale “power tower” plant began operating near Seville, Spain, in 2007. The 11-MW plant resembles a gigantic, silver-petaled flower reflecting rays of light toward a central stamen. (Others compare it to the lidless Eye of Sauron in the “Lord of the Rings” movies.)
In the US, eSolar recently brought a 5-MW “power tower” demonstration plant on line near Lancaster, Calif. It includes a number of innovations, says Jim Shandalov, eSolar’s vice president of business development. Its relatively small mirrors – thousands of them about a yard square – rise no higher than four feet. Compared with troughs, which can be up to 10 feet high, or the Spanish plant, which has mirrors mounted on frames more than 120 square meters in area, the four-foot height keeps the wind profile down. A smaller profile also means fewer building materials.
Small, flat mirrors are also cheaper to manufacture, transport, and install, he says. An automated robot on a track can clean and maintain the mirrors, further cutting costs.Finally, new software calibrates each mirror individually, an improvement over the “two walkie-talkie men” method of yore, says Mr. Shandalov, “We’ve made it more efficient.” (He won’t say by how much – that’s a trade secret.)
A fourth CSP option uses a reflective parabolic dish. A Stirling engine, the basic design of which is 200 years old, sits at the dish’s focal point. About the size of a motorcycle engine, it contains hydrogen gas. When heated, the gas drives four pistons, generating electricity on the spot. Stirling Energy Systems and its partner company, Tessera Solar, use this approach in their SunCatcher. A 1.5-MW demonstration plant is slated to begin operating in January near Phoenix.
Most efficient method costs more
Some point out that this method’s large pedestals holding the glass parabolas, some 38 feet across, represent a cost that low-profile, flat-mirror approaches have successfully eliminated.
Nonetheless, in purely thermodynamic terms, the SunCatcher is the most efficient CSP approach so far. It converts 31 percent of the sun’s energy to grid-ready electricity. By comparison, photovoltaic ranges between 8 and 15 percent efficiency, and trough CSP between 15 and 19 percent.
The SunCatcher has one more advantage: The engines aren’t cooled with water. The hydrogen cools in an air radiator similar to that found in a car.
That’s important because, in the arid and semiarid regions of the desert Southwest, where CSP makes the most sense, water is already a hot-button issue. And it’s predicted to become more so.
“The Southwest is a great place to build solar, but it’s not a great place to build water-intensive solar,” says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., a nonprofit devoted to sustainability issues.
Air-cooling CSP is possible, but can decrease efficiency and – in some situations and regions – increase costs by 5 to 10 percent. Yet for some, it’s already a selling point. BrightSource Energy, a company developing a 400-MW “power tower” plant in the Mojave, touts the fact that its plant will be entirely air-cooled.
Other companies are developing new, cost-saving materials. SkyFuel in Albuquerque, N.M., is testing a reflective laminate material that, it says, is more durable than standard glass. Theoretically usable in any of the CSP approaches, it’s 10 to 20 percent cheaper than glass mirrors, says Andi Plocek, SkyFuel’s marketing director.
Many see cost-effective heat storage as the biggest long-term hurdle for CSP. “The cost of storage is higher than we thought,” says Mehos.
Eventually, utilities will want to generate electricity from renewable sources through the night. To do that with CSP, they’ll need to store the sun’s energy.
Molten salts – used as fertilizer in agriculture – are one solution. But they’re also potentially difficult to handle. They freeze below a certain temperature, possibly clogging the system if allowed to cool. Another consideration with any storage is that with each transfer of heat between media, energy is lost and efficiency diminishes.
In other words, on the cusp of a CSP boom, which technology will dominate and how it will store heat is still very much an open question.
“It’s hard to predict who’s going to win in the end, if there is a winner,” says EPRI’s Ms. Libby: “We need to get more hardware on the ground and really test out all the options.”
CSP entails focusing the sun’s rays with a reflective surface and putting that energy to work. These days, the heat usually goes to generating electricity. But the principle is quite old.
The ancient Chinese used concave mirrors to start fires, and, according to legend, the Greek mathematician and scientist Archimedes once used mirrors, perhaps of polished bronze, to ignite and burn an invading Roman fleet.
Shuman was addressing a concern of his time: Fossil fuels, particularly coal, powered the Industrial Revolution – the trains and mills, among other things, that radically changed human experience. But what happens when they ran out?
“One thing I feel sure of, and that is that the human race must finally utilize direct sun power or revert to barbarism,” Shuman told Scientific American magazine in 1911.Fighting during World War I destroyed Shuman’s plant. But in the end it was cheap, abundant oil that obviated his ideas – or seemed to.
The oil crises of the 1970s again piqued interest in CSP, and, in the 1980s, plants resembling Shuman’s began cropping up in the Mojave Desert. Then natural-gas prices plummeted and the cycle repeated itself. No new commercial-scale CSP plants were built for nearly 20 years.
Now CSP is poised for a second – or third, depending on when the count begins – renaissance. And this time, say experts, it’s here to stay. World CSP capacity is forecast to increase nearly 18-fold in the next five years, from its current 588 megawatt potential to around 10.5 gigawatts. (Very roughly, 100 megawatts is enough energy to power 80,000 houses.) More than half of that new CSP capacity will be installed in the United States.
Several factors are driving the CSP boom. Although utility companies have long viewed CSP as an option for generating electricity from the sun, they’ve hesitated to commit to the technology. That’s partly because CSP becomes efficient and cost-effective only at the megawatt (MW) scale.
Photovoltaics, by contrast, can be installed piecemeal on the kilowatt scale – a panel here, another there. And that’s why photovoltaics have so far dominated the solar market.Now, the specter of carbon regulation has shifted attention back toward CSP. The prospect of large-scale solar plants is again attractive. The “renewable portfolio” standard – which requires increased production of energy from renewable sources – has also encouraged investment in CSP. And the investment tax credit – a potential 30 percent credit on qualifying solar projects – has made investors more willing to risk capital in CSP ventures.
Solar is here to stay, now
“Twenty years ago, everyone thought the solar era was upon us, and then the industry basically went away when oil and gas got cheap,” says Cara Libby, project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, Calif. Now, “it certainly appears that solar is here to stay.”
For their part, power companies like CSP for old-fashioned reasons. For one, it uses a technology – steam-driven turbines – that is familiar after decades of use in coal-fired plants.
CSP plants also have thermal inertia. That means that, if a cloud passes overhead, they can continue operating for a time with the heat already gathered, and that’s without storage.
Assuming no rechargeable batteries, photovoltaic fields, by contrast, stop producing electricity when clouds arrive.
Technology for storing heat in molten salts, meanwhile, promises to extend CSP plants’ generating capacity well into the night.
But the bottom line is that natural-gas prices are volatile, an unknown for anyone trying to turn a profit. By comparison, CSP costs – when stretched over the life of a plant – are mostly (80 percent, by one estimate) related to installation. CSP maintenance costs are relatively small, and the sun, its fuel, is free.
“There’s a hedging aspect in building a solar thermal plant,” says Nathaniel Bullard, a solar-sector analyst with New Energy Finance in Washington. “Right now it makes sense to burn gas; it’s really cheap. But you could, in the future, end up losing your shirt on it.”
Inventor Thomas Edison, a contemporary of Shuman’s and the man who gave us the system of steam-generated electricity distributed by wires, told friends late in his life that “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!”
Earth has a natural “sun belt,” a swath of relatively empty subtropical deserts including the US Southwest, the Sahara, the Middle East, and much of Australia. By one estimate, installing CSP plants in just 1 percent of the world’s deserts – an area slightly larger than Ireland – could supply all the world’s electricity.
The German Aerospace Center calculates that, assuming high voltage, transmediterranean transmission lines, just 6,023 square miles of CSP in North Africa could keep all of Europe electrified.
In the US, CSP plants in the Southwest could generate 11,000 gigawatts (GWs) of electricity, says Mark Mehos, principal program manager of concentrating solar power at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. That’s roughly 10 times all the electrical generating capacity currently in place, including coal, nuclear, solar, and hydroelectric – more than enough for the country’s energy needs.
In other words, there’s plenty of sun. The real challenge is making CSP technology competitive with coal.
Currently, CSP costs about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), within striking range of current combined-cycle natural-gas plants, in which a gas turbine generator generates electricity and a steam turbine uses the waste heat to generate more. A combined-cycle natural-gas plant produces electricity for about 12 cents per kWh.
Pulverized coal plants, on the other hand, generate electricity for 6 cents per kWh – less than half CSP’s cost. But, says Mr. Mehos, if you assume that future coal-fired plants will require carbon sequestration, then that cost moves up to about 10 cents per kWh. That means CSP prices still need to drop by nearly one-third to be competitive with future coal plants.
A plethora of CSP companies are racing to innovate and reduce costs. At this point, CSP technology comes in four general “flavors,” each with different perceived strengths and weaknesses.
Parabolic-trough systems focus the sun’s energy onto a tube running their length. Temperatures in the tube can reach 750 degrees F. A medium in the tube – sometimes synthetic oil that transfers its heat to water, sometimes water itself – collects heat to drive turbines. A second troughlike system, called a Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector, uses several mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on a single receiver tube above.
Trough technology benefits from being proven. That was Shuman’s design, and it’s the one the Mojave plants installed in the 1980s and ’90s. A planned 280-MW CSP plant near Phoenix will use trough technology, and store heat for electrical generation in molten salts.
‘Power towers’ more efficientBut experts say that, although it’s a known quantity, trough technology may be less efficient than newer, albeit less-tested, approaches. One reason: Newer systems achieve higher temperatures, which greatly increase efficiency.
So-called “power towers” – thousands of mirrors, or heliostats, directing the sun’s rays at a central tower – can achieve 1,300 degrees F. They also benefit from not having to pump the receiver fluid through tubing, an energy loss.
The first commercial scale “power tower” plant began operating near Seville, Spain, in 2007. The 11-MW plant resembles a gigantic, silver-petaled flower reflecting rays of light toward a central stamen. (Others compare it to the lidless Eye of Sauron in the “Lord of the Rings” movies.)
In the US, eSolar recently brought a 5-MW “power tower” demonstration plant on line near Lancaster, Calif. It includes a number of innovations, says Jim Shandalov, eSolar’s vice president of business development. Its relatively small mirrors – thousands of them about a yard square – rise no higher than four feet. Compared with troughs, which can be up to 10 feet high, or the Spanish plant, which has mirrors mounted on frames more than 120 square meters in area, the four-foot height keeps the wind profile down. A smaller profile also means fewer building materials.
Small, flat mirrors are also cheaper to manufacture, transport, and install, he says. An automated robot on a track can clean and maintain the mirrors, further cutting costs.Finally, new software calibrates each mirror individually, an improvement over the “two walkie-talkie men” method of yore, says Mr. Shandalov, “We’ve made it more efficient.” (He won’t say by how much – that’s a trade secret.)
A fourth CSP option uses a reflective parabolic dish. A Stirling engine, the basic design of which is 200 years old, sits at the dish’s focal point. About the size of a motorcycle engine, it contains hydrogen gas. When heated, the gas drives four pistons, generating electricity on the spot. Stirling Energy Systems and its partner company, Tessera Solar, use this approach in their SunCatcher. A 1.5-MW demonstration plant is slated to begin operating in January near Phoenix.
Most efficient method costs more
Some point out that this method’s large pedestals holding the glass parabolas, some 38 feet across, represent a cost that low-profile, flat-mirror approaches have successfully eliminated.
Nonetheless, in purely thermodynamic terms, the SunCatcher is the most efficient CSP approach so far. It converts 31 percent of the sun’s energy to grid-ready electricity. By comparison, photovoltaic ranges between 8 and 15 percent efficiency, and trough CSP between 15 and 19 percent.
The SunCatcher has one more advantage: The engines aren’t cooled with water. The hydrogen cools in an air radiator similar to that found in a car.
That’s important because, in the arid and semiarid regions of the desert Southwest, where CSP makes the most sense, water is already a hot-button issue. And it’s predicted to become more so.
“The Southwest is a great place to build solar, but it’s not a great place to build water-intensive solar,” says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., a nonprofit devoted to sustainability issues.
Air-cooling CSP is possible, but can decrease efficiency and – in some situations and regions – increase costs by 5 to 10 percent. Yet for some, it’s already a selling point. BrightSource Energy, a company developing a 400-MW “power tower” plant in the Mojave, touts the fact that its plant will be entirely air-cooled.
Other companies are developing new, cost-saving materials. SkyFuel in Albuquerque, N.M., is testing a reflective laminate material that, it says, is more durable than standard glass. Theoretically usable in any of the CSP approaches, it’s 10 to 20 percent cheaper than glass mirrors, says Andi Plocek, SkyFuel’s marketing director.
Many see cost-effective heat storage as the biggest long-term hurdle for CSP. “The cost of storage is higher than we thought,” says Mehos.
Eventually, utilities will want to generate electricity from renewable sources through the night. To do that with CSP, they’ll need to store the sun’s energy.
Molten salts – used as fertilizer in agriculture – are one solution. But they’re also potentially difficult to handle. They freeze below a certain temperature, possibly clogging the system if allowed to cool. Another consideration with any storage is that with each transfer of heat between media, energy is lost and efficiency diminishes.
In other words, on the cusp of a CSP boom, which technology will dominate and how it will store heat is still very much an open question.
“It’s hard to predict who’s going to win in the end, if there is a winner,” says EPRI’s Ms. Libby: “We need to get more hardware on the ground and really test out all the options.”
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