My posts have become woefully infrequent these past two weeks. Regrettably, I have not had the time to focus on this blog due to the fact that I was finishing up working on two separate projects, one for the University of Washington, and the other for eComponents Technology.
As these projects came to an end I shifted my focus to packing my belongings away, and preparing for life on the road. I will be leaving Seattle in three days and heading south to Latin America. I don’t know how long the trip will last, or all the places that it will take me to, but I do know that it is going to be one heck of an adventure.
Despite the recent absence of posts I will be continuing my writing one I get settled into my trip. In addition to this blog my previous travel blog, The Wandering and Wondering of August Flanagan, which I kept when I traveled from August 2007 - April 2008 as a Bonderman Fellow, will be starting again as well.
In the meantime the links below are for a couple of articles that I found interesting this week.
Ocean waves have been an area of big interest in clean tech for a while now. There are plenty of design teams out there, working on the perfect tidal turbine, that is, one that can efficiently harness the energy generated by the waves that occur with the ebb and flow of the tides. A lot of interesting designs are being tested, and several companies are starting to have a bit of success, but there has not been a lot of discussion or design focused on harnessing power from slow moving bodies of water, such as rivers.
Earlier today ScienceDaily reported on an interesting new device that uses the vibrations that occur in fluid flow (i.e. moving water) to generate electricity. The device, which was developed by University of Michigan engineer Michael Bernitsas, is known as VIVACE - Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy.
The name is quite a mouthful, and despite the acronym the device is neither quick or lively. Rather, the machine is designed to sit in slow moving water and…well…it just sort of sits there. The key to how VIVACE works is in its name, Vortex Induced Vibrations. These vibrations are undulations that are caused by a rounded or cylindrical-shaped object when it is exposed to fluid flow (As an aside air can also be treated as a fluid and it is these vibrations that caused the incredible collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.). These vibrations cause the object to be pushed and pulled in directions perpendicular to the current. As the device (which is essentially nothing more than a cylinder attached to springs) undulates it transfers the energy from these vibrations into mechanical energy which can then be converted into electricity.
Bernitsas estimates that just a few of these cylinders could generate enough electricity to power an anchored ship, and a large platform the size of a running track could power up to 100,000 houses, with an estimated energy cost of 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour, making it cheaper than coal!
“There won’t be one solution for the world’s energy needs,” Bernitsas said. “But if we could harness 0.1 percent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people.”
Currently, Bernitsas and his team are working on deploying a pilot project in the Detroit River within the next 18 months.
We talk a lot about cutting back on our foreign oil dependency, going carbon neutral, creating jobs through the development of clean energy technologies, but often in these discussions leave out one of the most fundamental keys to achieving these goals, energy efficiency. While it is certainly critical that we continue to develop new alternative energy technologies it is equally important that we step up our efforts to implement energy efficiency standards in our building codes.
For some reason, that I have not been able to comprehend, we have yet to see the implementation of large scale energy efficiency programs across America. Certain cities (I’m looking at you Chicago) have gotten a jump on the game by passing stricter building code regulations that would require new buildings to meet certain efficiency targets, but in general we are way behind where we need to be, and where we could be if we just started to pursue this endeavor head one.
For years now the U.S. Green Building Council has offered LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications for commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings whose designs meet a standard for environmentally sustainable construction. Mainstream construction practices have been slow to adapt to the need to reach the efficiency targets required for LEED certification, but this is changing rapidly and “green buildings” are beginning to finally take off.
Earlier today the Executive Editor of GreenerBuildings.com, Rob Watson, released his Green Building Impact Report 2008 to the U.S. Green Building Council at its annual conference. The report, which is the first of its kind, provides a comprehensive look at the environmental impact of LEED buildings. To sum up the report in one sentence: LEED buildings drastically reduce their energy consumption (and thus greenhouse gas emissions) when compared to similar buildings that do not meet LEED certification requirements, however, a drastic increase in the number of LEED buildings must take place to make a large dent on our country’s emissions.
“Our findings are both encouraging and cautionary,” said Watson. “Overall, we believe that LEED buildings are making a major impact in reducing the overall environmental footprint of individual structures. However, significant additional progress is possible and indeed necessary on both the individual building level and in terms of market penetration if LEED is to contribute in meaningful way to reducing the environmental footprint of buildings in the U.S. and worldwide.”
Some encouraging figures released in the report include:
The 295 million square feet of LEED-certified floor space in the U.S. could increase to 5.6 billion square feet by 2015, and 11.1 billion by 2020.
LEED buildings reduce energy consumption by about 25% on average.
LEED buildings have thus far prevented the burning of about 1.3 million tons of coal. This could increase to 26 million tons by 2015.
LEED buildings have saved the U.S. 9.5 billion gallons of water. This could increase to 133 billion gallons by 2015.
Now is the time to being this expansion. Sure, the building boom of the past few years may have gotten us into a bit of a financial mess, but that was due to sketchy lending practices, negligence, and a lack of oversight. If we invest sensibly in the construction of green buildings in the U.S. we can expand the current green building materials market from the current $10.5 billion to well over $100 billion in the next 12 years. I know I must be sounding like a broken record to a lot of you, but it seems to me that once again the path out of our current economic crisis, and our current climate crisis go hand in hand.
No, investment in alternative energy technology, building efficiency, and an improved electrical grid alone will not solve either of these problems out right, but by recognizing the fact that these two areas are inextricably linked we can begin to move in the right path.
Yes! We finally are going to have a president that understands the direction America needs to move in to reduce our emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels. Now if only he would give up his ideas on bailing out our automakers…
You know how everything cause cancer? Smoking - cancer. Drinking - cancer. Talking on the phone - cancer. Walking down the street - cancer. Well it seems the same thing can be said about global warming. Because it is now official, even water causes global warming.
Actually climate scientists have long recognized the fact that water vapor in the atmosphere will trap heat in much the same way that CO2 does. However, until recently that long standing assumption lacked the empirical evidence necessary to build a model that would accurately describe the effects of water vapor on global warming.
That all changed earlier this week when Andrew Dessler and his colleagues at Texas A&M released their findings confirming that water vapor has enough heat trapping potential to double the global warming caused by CO2 in the atmosphere. Dessler’s team used data collected by NASA’s Atmospheric Infared Sounder satellite to precisely measure the humidity throughout the lowest 10 miles of the atmosphere. By then combining this information with data on shifts in global temperature the researchers were able to build a model that shows the warming effects of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases.
“This new data set shows that as surface temperature increases, so does atmospheric humidity,” Dessler said. “Dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere makes the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from carbon dioxide.”
Despite the fact that this finding has long been accepted by many in the field of climate science, it still makes me pause and shudder at the implications. The eloquence of our destruction is in its simplicity. We polute the atmosphere enough to warm the earth a couple of degrees. This causes increased levels of water vapor to enter the atmosphere, thereby doubling the warming effect. This in turn leads to even more water vapor entering the atmosphere (and of course we can’t forget the massive amounts of greenhouse gases we keep sending up there), which leads to an even greater increase in temperature, and MORE water vapor entering the atmosphere. And so on and so on. The cycle of destruction is well on its way. I’m getting the fuck out of here.
While I have never been super obsessed with having the latest gadget, I have always been fascinated by how rapidly technology changes, and the way in which social and political issues can shape the direction in which these changes occur. Ten years ago it would be hard to imagine the massive consumer demand for technologies designed to help users move towards a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle. While there certainly were those who recognized the potential in this market, it has taken a while for it to really take off. But over the last three or four years we have seen a big rise in the products targeted at consumers who are trying to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
Earlier today Scientific American released their 2008 Green Gadget Guide. The slideshow showcases 11 new socially concious gadgets designed. While some of them are simply cool toys (the digital readers are pretty sweet!), in one way or anther they all aid in the reduction of either energy or toxic chemicals, or help provide basic services such as clean water, sanitation, and light to areas that need them.
Earlier today the United Nations released the most detailed report to date on the phenomenon known as “atmospheric brown clouds.” The report concluded that a thick cloud of soot, toxic chemicals, and smog was blocking the sun in many areas of the world, including Africa, the Amazon basin, parts of North America, and above all others, Asia (big surprise).
The brown “shit cloud” as I have dubbed it (and yes I will be trademarking that one) is comprised of particles from coal-fired power plants, automobiles, toxic chemicals, and the burning of biomass to name just a few.
The cloud, which is more than a mile thick in some places spans from the Arabian Peninsula to the Yellow sea, and often drifts past Japan, and as far east as California.
According to the U.N. report the cloud can block up to 25 percent of the sunlight that should be reaching the ground. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a professor of climate and ocean sciences at the University of San Diego, who led the U.N.’s scientific panel said that some studies have concluded that this cloud has led to a 5% decrease in Asian rice harvests over the last 50 years.
While the cloud is reeking havoc on agriculture and human health - it is estimated that 340,000 people a year in China and India die from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases caused by the burning of fuels and biomass - it may actually be slowing the rate of global warming. This is because the shit cloud is blocking so much of the suns rays that it is actually reflecting a good deal of solar energy away from the earth.
It’s time’s like this that I find myself left with only one thing to say. “Shit.”
Often times we (myself included) think of solar and wind power as the technologies leading the fight in the transition to generating our country’s electricity from clean, renewable resources. This is certainly true, and as regular readers of this blog know, I fully support the development of both these technologies on a massive scale. But what if these energy saviors aren’t the silver bullets they are cracked up to be? What problems could they cause?
A report released today by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), whose mission it is to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system of North America, stated that the organization is “concerned that, when viewed from a continent-wide perspective, current climate initiatives do not adequately address key reliability objectives, particularly the need for a strong and robust transmission system”.
The report concludes that unless there is a major upgrade to our current transmission system rules that enforce carbon reductions by utility providers could impair the overall reliability of the power grid, which would lead to an increase in the frequency of blackouts.
What the NERC sees as being the biggest concern is the location of electrical generation in relation to load centers (i.e. distribution hubs). Currently many large scale coal plants are located close to these hubs because the system was designed that way. It made a lot of sense. As more and more reduction programs take effect and coal plants begin to shut down electrical generation will have to come from other areas. Since most wind and solar farms are in rural areas there will be greater demands imposed upon a transmission system that was not designed for large power tranfers over long distances.“The transmission system is being used closer to its limits more of the time than at any time in the past,” said Rick Sergel, president and chief executive of the group.
According to Mr. Sergel carbon emission initiatives are the “No. 1 emerging issue” for the grid. This may sound like the group is advocating against the implementation of renewable energy technologies, but Mr. Sergel goes on to note that there is no reason that renewable energy sources cannot generate a larger portion of our nations electricity, we simply need to invest in a transmission system that can handle it.
It should be noted that many independent power producers have built their own generations systems that serve customers in distant marketplaces. So once again what this all boils down to is investment and dedication. With our current economic woes investment could be a problem, but we have got to make it happen. The clean tech world may be struggling right now, but I truly believe that it is the key to not only solving our energy problems, but our economic ones as well. This is just one more piece of a very large and complex problem that we must solve.
On Wednesday ScienceDaily reported that a Dutch sponsored researcher, Robin Gremaud, has designed a new metal alloy that efficiently absorbs hydrogen. The alloy, which is composed of the metals magnesium, titanium, and nickel, is incredibly lightweight. Weight has major sticking point in the implementation of mobile hydrogen storage tanks.
Hydrogen is incredibly explosive, making the safe storage of the gas a necessity if it is going to be used for transportation. One safe method is to use a metal to absorb the gas thus forming metal hydrides. However to date the metals used to make the tanks have been not only expensive, but also very heavy. The added weight of these tanks greatly reduces the efficiency of hydrogen powered cars. All three of the metals Germaud used to make the alloy are abundant in many areas of the world, and are all relatively inexpensive making his new storage tank both lightweight and economical.
In making this discovery Germaud utilized a technique called hydrogenography to measure the absorbance of hydrogen by metals. The techniques is based on a phenomenon know as ’switchable mirrors’. The phenomenon refers to the fact that certain materials lose their reflective capabilities when they absorb hydrogen. By using this technique Germaud was able to analyze thousands of different combinations of the metals as opposed to testing each alloy individually. Germaud is the first person to utilize this method for measuring hydrogen absorption.
The other day I was browsing BBC Mundo and came across an interesting article about a Montana State University professor who made one hell of an interesting discovery; a diesel fuel producing fungus that grows in the Patagonia rainforest. The article really provided me with a “trifecta of enjoyment”. One, it was in Spanish and I’ve been making a huge effort to learn the language. Two, it was about an interesting discovery in a field that I am fascinated with. Three, once upon a time I was a student at MSU.
The discovery has huge implications for the bio-fuel industry. Gary Strobel, the researcher who made the discovery, has dubbed the fungus’ output “myco-diesel”, and is publishing his findings in the November issue of Microbiology.
The fungus, whose scientific name is Gliocladium roseum, produces a variety of compounds found in crude oil that are normally associated with diesel fuel. “These are the first organisms that have been found that make many of the ingredients of diesel,” Strobel said. “This is a major discovery.”
Whether we will be driving around with tanks full of fungal fuel remains to be seen. Strobel notes that the road to commercialization will be a long one that is filled with many potential obstacles. The MSU press release notes that a joint research team with researchers from MSU and Yale is being assembled to conduct further research into the matter. One very promising aspect is that the fungus can be grown in cellulose, which happens to be the most abundant organic molecule on earth.
Strobel is calling this discovery even bigger than his 1993 discovery of the anticancer drug taxol. So the guy helps us treat cancer and is working on solving our energy crisis. Does anyone else feel a little insignificant?
