The Associated Press
Published: August 15, 2008
PHOENIX: With the price of oil still above $100 a barrel, everything from wood chips to chicken fat is being scrutinized as an alternative to traditional fuel. But when it comes to airplanes, finding the right mix poses a special challenge.
"When you're in an airplane, you don't want your fuel to start solidifying," said Robert Dunn, a Department of Agriculture chemical engineer who is studying biodiesel jet fuel.
The airline industry is aggressively pushing for homegrown alternatives to petroleum-based jet fuel, while leaning on customers with a variety of new travel charges to help control a projected $61 billion industrywide fuel expense this year. A number of alternatives to standard jet fuel have been studied for years, though aircraft manufacturers say the challenge is to find ideas that will work now.
Jet engines can be retrofitted to run on hydrogen, for example. But hydrogen does not pack the same punch as traditional jet fuel — kerosene — and would require airlines to buy planes designed with massive tanks. That is a tough choice for cash-strapped carriers, said Billy Glover, managing director of environmental strategy at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The best bet right now for non-conventional fuel comes from South Africa, experts said. The country has powered its airline industry for a decade using a coal-based jet fuel blend developed by petrochemicals group Sasol. It's technically a "synthetic" fuel, which means it can be used without altering engines or other aircraft equipment.
A number of U.S. companies are developing a variety of similar synthetics. Airline experts say three companies in particular could provide as much as three million gallons (more than 11 million liters) a day of synthetic fuel by 2012: American Clean Coal Fuels of Portland, Oregon, Baard Energy in Vancouver, Washington, and Rentech Inc. of Los Angeles.
Though significant supplies will not be ready for several years, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) — a coalition that includes the Federal Aviation Administration, airline, manufacturing and airport associations — wants to set standards by the end of the year for a 50-percent synthetic jet fuel. CAAFI wants standards for a totally synthetic fuel ready in two years.
Executive Director Richard L. Altman said the push for new fuel standards is meant to show investors that airlines will buy synthetic fuel. Doing so will send needed dollars to energy startups that may one day replace foreign oil, Altman said.
"Nobody will invest unless the fuel is certified," he said. "So we have a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem."
With more companies investing in alternative energy, the thinking goes, the more synthetic jet fuel eventually becomes available. The more fuel available, the easier it will be for airlines to unshackle themselves from volatile petroleum markets.
Meanwhile, Boeing and Air New Zealand later this year will test a biofuel made from the oil-rich seeds of the jatropha tree, a Mexican plant that grows in warm climates. Other synthetic fuel tests will follow on Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines flights. In February, Boeing partnered with Virgin Atlantic to test a flight that included a biofuel mixture of babassu oil, which comes from a palm tree in northern Brazil, and coconut oil.
"We're looking for something that is so correct in its performance that it can be interchanged with petroleum-based kerosene," Glover said. "From a distribution standpoint, from a technical standpoint, it needs to fit without modifications or special handling."
Many biofuels may create more problems than they solve, however. Using edible feedstocks such as corn and sugar could raise the price of food. And palm trees for babassu and coconut oil could lead to clearing large chunks of rain forest.
These are some of the reasons why algae-based synthetic fuel is getting a lot of attention.
Algae is inedible, and it has a relatively high yield compared with other crops, using less land to produce the same amount of oil.
"It can be grown anywhere you can have a pool of water and expose it to sunlight," said Stanford Seto, an expert in aviation fuels who works with ASTM International, a Pennsyvania-based organization that develops standards for jet fuel.
Investors have pumped almost $84 million into companies developing algae-based fuel so far this year, up from $29 million in all of 2007, according to the Cleantech Group, an industry research firm.
Despite its promise, it will be years before algae biofuel could be sold at a price that would make sense to an airline, said Dave Jones, co-founder of LiveFuels, an algae fuel startup in San Carlos, California.
"If anyone is below $50 a gallon, I'd be stunned," he said. "We have a pretty good idea on how to grow algae. The biggest challenge is in the harvesting and how to extract it from the water."
Even if prices come down, most airlines see synthetic fuel as a chance to run a greener airline, not necessarily a cheaper one, said Nancy Young, vice president of environmental affairs for the Air Transport Association.
More fuel sources could temper the effect oil speculation has on gas prices, and they could give carriers fuel at a cost they can count on, she said. But "you aren't going to find a fuel that's pennies on the dollar than what we find today," she said.
For travelers, that means that fewer flight options and charges for checked bags, drinks and other items are here to stay.
"Even if we were to double the volume we were to make in biofuels every year for the next 10 years, we're still looking at maybe this will impact 15 percent of the overall fuel supply," said Brian Fan, Cleantech's senior director of research.
"Realistically, for anything to be happening at scale, enough to actually impact an airline's bottom line, we're years away," Fan said.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
Toyota to Make Hybrid Engine Available on All Its Models
By MATTHEW DOLANAugust 15, 2008 4:49 p.m.
Hot off its success with its best-selling Prius sedan, Toyota Motor Co. announced Friday that it would make hybrid-engine systems available on all of its models by 2020.
The announcement came as all of the auto makers at an industry conference this week in northern Michigan maneuvered to carve out their own niches in fuel-efficient design, from expansion of the gasoline/electric hybrid technology already available in the Prius to the new plug-in hybrid vehicle known as the Volt under development by General Motor Corp.
Ford Motor Co., the Dearborn-Mich. auto maker with few of its vehicles with hybrid options, plans to double its hybrid-vehicle lineup and production next year. And Honda Motor Co. said this week at the Traverse City, Mich., conference that in 2009, it will import a new hybrid to compete directly against the new Prius in the U.S. market -- and at a lower price.
The Chevrolet Volt is still scheduled to go on sale in 2010 and its chief designer Bob Boniface gave the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefings Seminars an early look at the most recent styling changes adopted create a sleeker front end and extend its range on battery power through better aerodynamics. The Volt will be able to go at least 40 miles on its lithium-ion battery, but the vehicle will also contain a small gas tank that would recharge the battery if necessary. Consumers would be able to recharge the vehicle at home using a conventional household outlet.
The entire auto industry in the U.S. has scrambled to meet shifting consumer demand toward small, fuel-efficient cars and away from trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Even though gasoline prices have recently retreated from this year's high above $4 a gallon, most auto makers have said they consider the changes toward small cars to be more or less a permanent change in the overall mix of vehicles customers want and the companies intend to build.
Toyota and Ford, for example, have said they have not been able to build enough hybrid vehicles to meet rising consumer demand. Though most auto makers are assumed to lose money on hybrids, Toyota's Bob Carter, head of North American sales, said in an interview this week that his company makes a profit on its Prius hybrids, which recently exceeding sales of 1 million units globally.
In another sign of the shifting market demand away from trucks, Toyota confirmed this week that the Japanese auto maker abandoned its plans to resume pick-up production at its plant in Indiana this fall. Originally, the company planned to restart production of its Tundra pick-up there in November after a suspension earlier this year. Production instead will only be revived at its Texas facility this fall and the plant in Princeton, Ind. will take on production of Toyota Sequoia and Highlander, which are both SUVs.
• GM to Invest in Ohio Plant, Unveil Chevy Cruze
Write to Matthew Dolan at matthew.dolan@wsj.com
Hot off its success with its best-selling Prius sedan, Toyota Motor Co. announced Friday that it would make hybrid-engine systems available on all of its models by 2020.
The announcement came as all of the auto makers at an industry conference this week in northern Michigan maneuvered to carve out their own niches in fuel-efficient design, from expansion of the gasoline/electric hybrid technology already available in the Prius to the new plug-in hybrid vehicle known as the Volt under development by General Motor Corp.
Ford Motor Co., the Dearborn-Mich. auto maker with few of its vehicles with hybrid options, plans to double its hybrid-vehicle lineup and production next year. And Honda Motor Co. said this week at the Traverse City, Mich., conference that in 2009, it will import a new hybrid to compete directly against the new Prius in the U.S. market -- and at a lower price.
The Chevrolet Volt is still scheduled to go on sale in 2010 and its chief designer Bob Boniface gave the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefings Seminars an early look at the most recent styling changes adopted create a sleeker front end and extend its range on battery power through better aerodynamics. The Volt will be able to go at least 40 miles on its lithium-ion battery, but the vehicle will also contain a small gas tank that would recharge the battery if necessary. Consumers would be able to recharge the vehicle at home using a conventional household outlet.
The entire auto industry in the U.S. has scrambled to meet shifting consumer demand toward small, fuel-efficient cars and away from trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Even though gasoline prices have recently retreated from this year's high above $4 a gallon, most auto makers have said they consider the changes toward small cars to be more or less a permanent change in the overall mix of vehicles customers want and the companies intend to build.
Toyota and Ford, for example, have said they have not been able to build enough hybrid vehicles to meet rising consumer demand. Though most auto makers are assumed to lose money on hybrids, Toyota's Bob Carter, head of North American sales, said in an interview this week that his company makes a profit on its Prius hybrids, which recently exceeding sales of 1 million units globally.
In another sign of the shifting market demand away from trucks, Toyota confirmed this week that the Japanese auto maker abandoned its plans to resume pick-up production at its plant in Indiana this fall. Originally, the company planned to restart production of its Tundra pick-up there in November after a suspension earlier this year. Production instead will only be revived at its Texas facility this fall and the plant in Princeton, Ind. will take on production of Toyota Sequoia and Highlander, which are both SUVs.
• GM to Invest in Ohio Plant, Unveil Chevy Cruze
Write to Matthew Dolan at matthew.dolan@wsj.com
Suffocating dead zones spread across world's oceans
Critically low oxygen levels now pose as great a threat to life in the world's oceans as overfishing and habitat loss, say experts
David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk,
Friday August 15 2008 00:01 BST
With more than 400 oxygen-starved dead zones in global coastal waters, scientists are calling for such dead zones to be recognised as one of the world's great environmental problems
Man-made pollution is spreading a growing number of suffocating dead zones across the world's seas with disastrous consequences for marine life, scientists have warned.
The experts say the hundreds of regions of critically low oxygen now affect a combined area the size of New Zealand, and that they pose as great a threat to life in the world's oceans as overfishing and habitat loss.
The number of such seabed zones – caused when massive algal blooms feeding off pollutants such as fertiliser die and decay – has boomed in the last decade. There were some 405 recorded in coastal waters worldwide in 2007, up from 305 in 1995 and 162 in the 1980s.
Robert Diaz, an oceans expert at the US Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, at Gloucester Point, said: "Dead zones were once rare. Now they're commonplace. There are more of them in more places."
Marine bacteria feed on the algae in the blooms after it has died and sunk to the bottom, and in doing so they use up all of the oxygen dissolved in the water. The resulting 'hypoxic' seabed zones can asphyxiate swathes of bottom dwelling organisms such as clams and worms, and disrupt fish populations.
Diaz and his colleague, Rutger Rosenberg of the department of marine ecology at the University of Gothenburg, call for more careful use of fertilisers to address the problem.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say the dead zones must be viewed as one of the "major global environmental problems". They say: "There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically over such a short time."
The key solution, they say, is to "keep fertilisers on the land and out of the sea". Changes in the way fertilisers and other pollutants are managed on land have already "virtually eliminated" dead zones from the Mersey and Thames estuaries, they say.
Diaz says his concern is shared by farmers who are worried about the high cost of fertilisers. "They certainly don't want to see their dollars flowing off their fields. Scientists and farmers need to continue working together to minimise the transfer of nutrients from land to sea."
The number of dead zones reported has doubled each decade since the 1960s, but the scientists say they are often ignored until they provoke problems among populations of larger creatures such as fish or lobsters. By killing or stunting the growth of bottom-dwelling organisms, the lack of oxygen denies food to creatures higher up the food chain.
The Baltic Sea, site of the world's largest dead zone, has lost about 30% of its available food energy, which has led to a significant decline in its fisheries.
The lack of oxygen can also force fish into warmer waters closer to the surface, perhaps making them more susceptible to disease.
The size of marine dead zones often fluctuates with the seasons. A massive dead zone, some 8,000 square miles across, forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico as floodwater flushes nitrogen-rich fertiliser into the Mississippi River.
Experts said it was slightly smaller than expected this year because Hurricane Dolly stirred up the water. Dead zones require the water to be separated into layers, with little or no mixing between.
As well as fertilisers rich in nitrates and phosphates, sewage discharges also contribute to the problem because they help the algal blooms to flourish.
Diaz and Rosenberg say: "We believe it would be unrealistic to return to pre-industrial levels of nutrient input [to oceans], but an appropriate management goal would be to reduce nutrient inputs to levels that occurred in the middle of the past century," before the rise in added nutrients began to spread dead zones globally.
Climate change could be adding to the problem. Many regions are expected to experience more severe periods of heavy rain, which could wash more nutrients from farmland into rivers.
In May, scientists reported that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding. They analysed oxygen levels in samples of seawater and found the effect was largest in the central and eastern tropical Atlantic and the equatorial Pacific. The increase could push oxygen-starved zones closer to the surface and give marine life such as fish less room to live and look for food.
The scientists, led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, say the change could be linked to warming seas. At 0C, a litre of seawater can hold about 10ml of dissolved oxygen; at 25C this falls to 4ml. Stramma said: "Whether or not these observed changes in oxygen can be attributed to global warming alone is still unresolved." The reduction could also be down to natural processes working on shorter timescales, he said.
David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk,
Friday August 15 2008 00:01 BST
With more than 400 oxygen-starved dead zones in global coastal waters, scientists are calling for such dead zones to be recognised as one of the world's great environmental problems
Man-made pollution is spreading a growing number of suffocating dead zones across the world's seas with disastrous consequences for marine life, scientists have warned.
The experts say the hundreds of regions of critically low oxygen now affect a combined area the size of New Zealand, and that they pose as great a threat to life in the world's oceans as overfishing and habitat loss.
The number of such seabed zones – caused when massive algal blooms feeding off pollutants such as fertiliser die and decay – has boomed in the last decade. There were some 405 recorded in coastal waters worldwide in 2007, up from 305 in 1995 and 162 in the 1980s.
Robert Diaz, an oceans expert at the US Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, at Gloucester Point, said: "Dead zones were once rare. Now they're commonplace. There are more of them in more places."
Marine bacteria feed on the algae in the blooms after it has died and sunk to the bottom, and in doing so they use up all of the oxygen dissolved in the water. The resulting 'hypoxic' seabed zones can asphyxiate swathes of bottom dwelling organisms such as clams and worms, and disrupt fish populations.
Diaz and his colleague, Rutger Rosenberg of the department of marine ecology at the University of Gothenburg, call for more careful use of fertilisers to address the problem.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say the dead zones must be viewed as one of the "major global environmental problems". They say: "There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically over such a short time."
The key solution, they say, is to "keep fertilisers on the land and out of the sea". Changes in the way fertilisers and other pollutants are managed on land have already "virtually eliminated" dead zones from the Mersey and Thames estuaries, they say.
Diaz says his concern is shared by farmers who are worried about the high cost of fertilisers. "They certainly don't want to see their dollars flowing off their fields. Scientists and farmers need to continue working together to minimise the transfer of nutrients from land to sea."
The number of dead zones reported has doubled each decade since the 1960s, but the scientists say they are often ignored until they provoke problems among populations of larger creatures such as fish or lobsters. By killing or stunting the growth of bottom-dwelling organisms, the lack of oxygen denies food to creatures higher up the food chain.
The Baltic Sea, site of the world's largest dead zone, has lost about 30% of its available food energy, which has led to a significant decline in its fisheries.
The lack of oxygen can also force fish into warmer waters closer to the surface, perhaps making them more susceptible to disease.
The size of marine dead zones often fluctuates with the seasons. A massive dead zone, some 8,000 square miles across, forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico as floodwater flushes nitrogen-rich fertiliser into the Mississippi River.
Experts said it was slightly smaller than expected this year because Hurricane Dolly stirred up the water. Dead zones require the water to be separated into layers, with little or no mixing between.
As well as fertilisers rich in nitrates and phosphates, sewage discharges also contribute to the problem because they help the algal blooms to flourish.
Diaz and Rosenberg say: "We believe it would be unrealistic to return to pre-industrial levels of nutrient input [to oceans], but an appropriate management goal would be to reduce nutrient inputs to levels that occurred in the middle of the past century," before the rise in added nutrients began to spread dead zones globally.
Climate change could be adding to the problem. Many regions are expected to experience more severe periods of heavy rain, which could wash more nutrients from farmland into rivers.
In May, scientists reported that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding. They analysed oxygen levels in samples of seawater and found the effect was largest in the central and eastern tropical Atlantic and the equatorial Pacific. The increase could push oxygen-starved zones closer to the surface and give marine life such as fish less room to live and look for food.
The scientists, led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, say the change could be linked to warming seas. At 0C, a litre of seawater can hold about 10ml of dissolved oxygen; at 25C this falls to 4ml. Stramma said: "Whether or not these observed changes in oxygen can be attributed to global warming alone is still unresolved." The reduction could also be down to natural processes working on shorter timescales, he said.
Why we should turn off our electrical appliances
Richard Wray
The Guardian,
Thursday August 14 2008
British households are wasting the annual output of a large power station by failing to switch off their flatscreen televisions, set-top boxes, and internet networks when they are not being used, according to Ofcom's latest Communications Market report.
The equivalent output of the 1,500MW Didcot B power station in Oxfordshire could be saved each year if every home with a set-top box switched it off at night; that would conserve enough electricity to make 80bn cups of tea.
Consumer electronics account for about a third of home energy use, according to the Energy Saving Trust, but that use is forecast to balloon to 45% by 2020 as more people buy more gadgets.
The rise in average residential energy bills to just over £1,000 a year has made people more energy aware, but only when it comes to buying obviously power-hungry devices such as fridges and freezers, according to Ofcom.
Almost three quarters of Britons, when quizzed by the regulator, classed themselves as caring about the environment, and more than half said they had compared the green credentials of white goods before making a purchase. But only 39% of people think about the environmental impact of a new TV, DVD player or computer.
When they get it home, meanwhile, most people leave their new kit switched on all the time, unnecessarily wasting electricity.
Three quarters of people rarely switch off their set-top box, according to Ofcom, and that figure jumps to 83% for owners of a wireless home network. Plasma screens are particularly power hungry, according to the regulator, with the average set using three times the power of a normal TV when in use, and twice the power when left on standby.
The average satellite set-top box gobbles up four and a half times the power of a flatscreen LCD television in the same state. Even a Freeview box uses twice the power of a flatscreen TV when left on standby.
Almost half the country's mobile phone users, meanwhile, waste electricity by charging their handsets overnight, when in fact most models only need to be plugged in for about two hours. People aged between 16 to 24 are particularly guilty of this, with 80% doing it at least some of the time.
The Guardian,
Thursday August 14 2008
British households are wasting the annual output of a large power station by failing to switch off their flatscreen televisions, set-top boxes, and internet networks when they are not being used, according to Ofcom's latest Communications Market report.
The equivalent output of the 1,500MW Didcot B power station in Oxfordshire could be saved each year if every home with a set-top box switched it off at night; that would conserve enough electricity to make 80bn cups of tea.
Consumer electronics account for about a third of home energy use, according to the Energy Saving Trust, but that use is forecast to balloon to 45% by 2020 as more people buy more gadgets.
The rise in average residential energy bills to just over £1,000 a year has made people more energy aware, but only when it comes to buying obviously power-hungry devices such as fridges and freezers, according to Ofcom.
Almost three quarters of Britons, when quizzed by the regulator, classed themselves as caring about the environment, and more than half said they had compared the green credentials of white goods before making a purchase. But only 39% of people think about the environmental impact of a new TV, DVD player or computer.
When they get it home, meanwhile, most people leave their new kit switched on all the time, unnecessarily wasting electricity.
Three quarters of people rarely switch off their set-top box, according to Ofcom, and that figure jumps to 83% for owners of a wireless home network. Plasma screens are particularly power hungry, according to the regulator, with the average set using three times the power of a normal TV when in use, and twice the power when left on standby.
The average satellite set-top box gobbles up four and a half times the power of a flatscreen LCD television in the same state. Even a Freeview box uses twice the power of a flatscreen TV when left on standby.
Almost half the country's mobile phone users, meanwhile, waste electricity by charging their handsets overnight, when in fact most models only need to be plugged in for about two hours. People aged between 16 to 24 are particularly guilty of this, with 80% doing it at least some of the time.
US drivers log 12bn fewer miles in June
McClatchy newspapers
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 14 2008 17:05 BST
To the six leather-clad Harley riders from Montreal who pulled off the interstate to eat lunch in Chicago on Wednesday, the open road seems even more open this year.
The dining area was more than half empty, and so were many of the highways on their 1,800-mile trek to and from a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, this year's destination on their annual visit to the US.
"There was much less traffic, much less congestion," said Nathalie Miousse, 36. "This was our first time to Sturgis, and they told us it was less crowded than in other years."
Higher prices for petrol and other necessities are forcing more Americans to downshift on their summer road trips, and everyone from filling station owners to restaurant servers is feeling the pinch.
Americans drove 12.2bn fewer miles in June compared to a year ago, the government said Wednesday, a reduction of 4.7 percent to 250.2bn, the lowest for June since 2002 and the biggest monthly drop this year.
Driving on rural interstates fell nearly 7 percent, which is "a pretty good indication that multi-state commercial traffic and regional vacation travel are down," said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.
Highway officials expected metropolitan areas to show the biggest decline because people have mass transit as an option, but it came in rural areas instead.
"There may be broader economic reasons," Hecox said, including high food prices and a tough job market. "The effects of that may be digging deeper in rural areas," he said. "People in the middle of the country may just be staying home."
Rockford, Illinois-based Road Ranger USA, operator of 73 service stations in seven Midwestern states, most in rural towns and near interstates, has seen petrol sales fall 5 percent this year along interstates and urban areas and 15 percent in rural areas such as Freeport, Illinois, said Dan Arnold, the company's president.
"We're in the eye of the storm," Arnold said. "Summer travel is down a little bit, but in smaller communities it's down more significantly.
They have less disposable income, so higher fuel prices affect them disproportionately. It just comes down to having less money to spend, so you stay home"
Petrol prices aren't the only deterrent, Lisa Schweitzer, a transportation policy expert at the University of Southern California, said.
"Not only is it expensive to get anywhere, but you have to pay more for whatever you do when you get there," she said.
June was the eighth straight month of decline in driving, and 2008 is on pace to be the first year of decline since 1980. Americans also used 400 million fewer gallons of petrol in the first quarter, according to the highway administration.
Driving miles are expected to decline again when July numbers come out because that's when petrol prices peaked at more than $4 nationally. But highway officials expect motorists will get back behind the wheel eventually and the miles to start climbing again.
"That trend will resume. We just don't know when," said Hecox, but he predicted the trend of using less gas will continue because Americans will buy more efficient vehicles such as hybrids and electric vehicles.
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 14 2008 17:05 BST
To the six leather-clad Harley riders from Montreal who pulled off the interstate to eat lunch in Chicago on Wednesday, the open road seems even more open this year.
The dining area was more than half empty, and so were many of the highways on their 1,800-mile trek to and from a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, this year's destination on their annual visit to the US.
"There was much less traffic, much less congestion," said Nathalie Miousse, 36. "This was our first time to Sturgis, and they told us it was less crowded than in other years."
Higher prices for petrol and other necessities are forcing more Americans to downshift on their summer road trips, and everyone from filling station owners to restaurant servers is feeling the pinch.
Americans drove 12.2bn fewer miles in June compared to a year ago, the government said Wednesday, a reduction of 4.7 percent to 250.2bn, the lowest for June since 2002 and the biggest monthly drop this year.
Driving on rural interstates fell nearly 7 percent, which is "a pretty good indication that multi-state commercial traffic and regional vacation travel are down," said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.
Highway officials expected metropolitan areas to show the biggest decline because people have mass transit as an option, but it came in rural areas instead.
"There may be broader economic reasons," Hecox said, including high food prices and a tough job market. "The effects of that may be digging deeper in rural areas," he said. "People in the middle of the country may just be staying home."
Rockford, Illinois-based Road Ranger USA, operator of 73 service stations in seven Midwestern states, most in rural towns and near interstates, has seen petrol sales fall 5 percent this year along interstates and urban areas and 15 percent in rural areas such as Freeport, Illinois, said Dan Arnold, the company's president.
"We're in the eye of the storm," Arnold said. "Summer travel is down a little bit, but in smaller communities it's down more significantly.
They have less disposable income, so higher fuel prices affect them disproportionately. It just comes down to having less money to spend, so you stay home"
Petrol prices aren't the only deterrent, Lisa Schweitzer, a transportation policy expert at the University of Southern California, said.
"Not only is it expensive to get anywhere, but you have to pay more for whatever you do when you get there," she said.
June was the eighth straight month of decline in driving, and 2008 is on pace to be the first year of decline since 1980. Americans also used 400 million fewer gallons of petrol in the first quarter, according to the highway administration.
Driving miles are expected to decline again when July numbers come out because that's when petrol prices peaked at more than $4 nationally. But highway officials expect motorists will get back behind the wheel eventually and the miles to start climbing again.
"That trend will resume. We just don't know when," said Hecox, but he predicted the trend of using less gas will continue because Americans will buy more efficient vehicles such as hybrids and electric vehicles.
Plug-in hybrid from GM is nearly ready for testing
By Nick Bunkley
Published: August 15, 2008
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan: General Motors said Thursday that it had "essentially finished" designing its first plug-in hybrid car, the Chevrolet Volt, and would have production-ready prototypes within 10 days.
The automaker still has considerable work to do on the car's lithium-ion battery and other technology in the two years before the Volt is scheduled to go on sale, but completing the design is a milestone for what is arguably the most crucial car in decades for GM.
The Volt would be able to travel at least 40 miles on battery power alone, GM said. The battery is recharged by plugging a cord into a household outlet.
Bob Boniface, the director of design for the Volt, showed sketches of the car and photos of its front and rear corners at an industry conference in northern Michigan. He said GM had made the Volt more aerodynamic and attractive since displaying it as a concept car at the Detroit auto show in January 2007.
The changes, including a shorter hood and more rounded front end, have increased the car's battery range by about 6 or 7 miles, Boniface said. By year's end, GM expects to have 50 prototypes for testing.
The Detroit automakers have been criticized for making gas-thirsty vehicles, and the Volt has gained interest from consumers who see it as a way to save on gasoline.
As of Thursday afternoon, 35,750 people from all 50 states and 63 countries had signed up on an unofficial waiting list for the car at gm-volt.com, a Web site run by a neurologist in New Jersey who is not affiliated with GM. The doctor, Lyle Dennis, started the site as a fan when GM announced the car.
GM has said it will charge $30,000 to $40,000 for the four-door Volt. Frank Weber, GM's vehicle line executive for the Volt, said that the company did not expect to make money in the near term but that the "E-flex" battery technology will ultimately allow GM to sell a profitable line of ultrafuel-efficient vehicles.
GM aims to be the first automaker to sell a plug-in hybrid, but Toyota Motor also says it plans to introduce such a vehicle in 2010.
Published: August 15, 2008
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan: General Motors said Thursday that it had "essentially finished" designing its first plug-in hybrid car, the Chevrolet Volt, and would have production-ready prototypes within 10 days.
The automaker still has considerable work to do on the car's lithium-ion battery and other technology in the two years before the Volt is scheduled to go on sale, but completing the design is a milestone for what is arguably the most crucial car in decades for GM.
The Volt would be able to travel at least 40 miles on battery power alone, GM said. The battery is recharged by plugging a cord into a household outlet.
Bob Boniface, the director of design for the Volt, showed sketches of the car and photos of its front and rear corners at an industry conference in northern Michigan. He said GM had made the Volt more aerodynamic and attractive since displaying it as a concept car at the Detroit auto show in January 2007.
The changes, including a shorter hood and more rounded front end, have increased the car's battery range by about 6 or 7 miles, Boniface said. By year's end, GM expects to have 50 prototypes for testing.
The Detroit automakers have been criticized for making gas-thirsty vehicles, and the Volt has gained interest from consumers who see it as a way to save on gasoline.
As of Thursday afternoon, 35,750 people from all 50 states and 63 countries had signed up on an unofficial waiting list for the car at gm-volt.com, a Web site run by a neurologist in New Jersey who is not affiliated with GM. The doctor, Lyle Dennis, started the site as a fan when GM announced the car.
GM has said it will charge $30,000 to $40,000 for the four-door Volt. Frank Weber, GM's vehicle line executive for the Volt, said that the company did not expect to make money in the near term but that the "E-flex" battery technology will ultimately allow GM to sell a profitable line of ultrafuel-efficient vehicles.
GM aims to be the first automaker to sell a plug-in hybrid, but Toyota Motor also says it plans to introduce such a vehicle in 2010.
Discredited pseudoscience or a newly useful technology?
Isomer triggering is controversial, but military researchers are quietly working to find ways of applying the technique
David Hambling
The Guardian,
Thursday August 14 2008
A novel nuclear technology is making a comeback - but why are the researchers keeping quiet about it?
There was uproar in the scientific community in 2003 when it emerged that the US military was funding research into miniature warheads based on nuclear isomers. The science behind the project was attacked and even ridiculed.
Nuclear isomers are atoms with a "metastable" nucleus. Perhaps the best analogy is to consider the nucleons as snooker balls. In a normal atom, the balls are all flat on the table. In a metastable isomer, they are piled in a pyramid, ready to collapse and release energy, given the right sort of prod.
Everyone agrees that nuclear isomers can store vast amounts of energy - less than is released in other nuclear reactions, but thousands of times more than chemical fuels. The question is whether the isomeric decay is random, or whether it can be triggered by interaction with an x-ray or other high-energy photon. Triggering could release an intense burst of gamma rays, lethal to both humans and electronic devices. The planned weapon was dubbed "the death ray bomb" and "the atomic hand grenade" (US military pioneers death ray bomb, August 2003).
Trigger happy
Triggering of the 178m2 isomer of Hafnium was reported by Carl Collins of the University of Texas in 1999. But others, notably the Argonne National Laboratory, were not able to repeat his results.
Academic opposition was intense, and a panel of scientists urged a review of the evidence "before proceeding to study applications that may not make physical sense". Unsurprisingly, the US Congress cut the project's funding.
Many still treat isomer triggering as a classic example of pseudoscience. But the phenomenon is becoming more accepted, and several military isomer projects are under way. The focus is now on a slow energy release for batteries - but not everyone has completely given up on bombs.
Youngstown State University, Ohio, recently announced funding from the Pentagon for fundamental research into the physics of nuclear isomers. This academic effort is led by James (Jeff) Carroll. He regards applications such as exotic batteries as speculative, since much more solid data is needed to prove they are feasible, but believes that any form of weapon is unlikely. "One should differentiate between an 'isomer programme' and what might be called the 'Hafnium programme', " says Carroll. "The former has added significantly to the body of science, as documented by many peer-reviewed and published results that have achieved acceptance in the nuclear physics community.
"The Hafnium program was focused, to my knowledge, on proving a specific claimed effect that has even now not been successfully observed by any independent and sceptical group. It would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bath water by equating these two overlapping, yet distinct programmes with quite different aims and outcomes."
The US army has been quietly running an isomer project for years. The researchers have published several papers about using isomers for micro-batteries and portable power generation. Rather than Hafnium, they are working with isomers of silver, lutetium and holmium.
This team also distances itself from earlier work, noting: "This approach differs dramatically from suggestions for use of isomeric materials in explosives applications".
However, the army estimates that isomer power plants will be too expensive for anything except small-scale use. Nuclear isomers have to be charged up with energy, and there is no cheap way of doing this.
In Britain, the Atomic Weapons Establishment is looking at whether an ultra-short pulse laser can trigger uranium isomers by stimulating the electron shell around the nucleus into an energetic state. The technique is called Nuclear Excitation by Electron Transition, and involves zapping a quantity of material so it becomes a plasma. "This process requires a resonance between the nuclear and atomic electron transition energies," says Peter Thomson, a scientist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. "In principle these might be adjusted within a high-temperature plasma to bring an appropriate atomic transition into resonance with the nucleus."
Voodoo science
The AWE's emphasis is on basic research and the potential for energy storage. But Thomson does not believe that an isomer bomb can be ruled out, saying that the controversy over Collins' claims has not been fully resolved. He adds: "A secondary role of AWE is to provide independent advice to the UK government on potential threats to the security of the UK, so an understanding of the fundamentals of isomer physics is essential."
The US navy also has an isomer programme. A recent presentation lists nuclear isomers as a possible replacement for explosives in warheads. This continued belief may stem from the Triggering Isomer Proof Experiment, which was sponsored by the US Department of Defense to determine conclusively whether high-energy Hafnium isomer triggering was possible. In spite of failures to reproduce results elsewhere, there are strong hints that the results of the experiment were positive.
Meanwhile, isomer triggering is edging towards the mainstream. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was previously a stronghold of isomer scepticism. Last year, researchers announced they were working on triggering energy release from a thorium isomer. They say this would be a world first, showing continued disbelief in the earlier triggering claims.
The earlier results have been disowned by many, who refer to their work as "quantum nucleonics" rather than the sensitive "isomer triggering". Nobody wants to be accused of voodoo science, and military funding is at the whim of politicians who can be swayed by the scientific community. No wonder researchers are treading very carefully.
David Hambling
The Guardian,
Thursday August 14 2008
A novel nuclear technology is making a comeback - but why are the researchers keeping quiet about it?
There was uproar in the scientific community in 2003 when it emerged that the US military was funding research into miniature warheads based on nuclear isomers. The science behind the project was attacked and even ridiculed.
Nuclear isomers are atoms with a "metastable" nucleus. Perhaps the best analogy is to consider the nucleons as snooker balls. In a normal atom, the balls are all flat on the table. In a metastable isomer, they are piled in a pyramid, ready to collapse and release energy, given the right sort of prod.
Everyone agrees that nuclear isomers can store vast amounts of energy - less than is released in other nuclear reactions, but thousands of times more than chemical fuels. The question is whether the isomeric decay is random, or whether it can be triggered by interaction with an x-ray or other high-energy photon. Triggering could release an intense burst of gamma rays, lethal to both humans and electronic devices. The planned weapon was dubbed "the death ray bomb" and "the atomic hand grenade" (US military pioneers death ray bomb, August 2003).
Trigger happy
Triggering of the 178m2 isomer of Hafnium was reported by Carl Collins of the University of Texas in 1999. But others, notably the Argonne National Laboratory, were not able to repeat his results.
Academic opposition was intense, and a panel of scientists urged a review of the evidence "before proceeding to study applications that may not make physical sense". Unsurprisingly, the US Congress cut the project's funding.
Many still treat isomer triggering as a classic example of pseudoscience. But the phenomenon is becoming more accepted, and several military isomer projects are under way. The focus is now on a slow energy release for batteries - but not everyone has completely given up on bombs.
Youngstown State University, Ohio, recently announced funding from the Pentagon for fundamental research into the physics of nuclear isomers. This academic effort is led by James (Jeff) Carroll. He regards applications such as exotic batteries as speculative, since much more solid data is needed to prove they are feasible, but believes that any form of weapon is unlikely. "One should differentiate between an 'isomer programme' and what might be called the 'Hafnium programme', " says Carroll. "The former has added significantly to the body of science, as documented by many peer-reviewed and published results that have achieved acceptance in the nuclear physics community.
"The Hafnium program was focused, to my knowledge, on proving a specific claimed effect that has even now not been successfully observed by any independent and sceptical group. It would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bath water by equating these two overlapping, yet distinct programmes with quite different aims and outcomes."
The US army has been quietly running an isomer project for years. The researchers have published several papers about using isomers for micro-batteries and portable power generation. Rather than Hafnium, they are working with isomers of silver, lutetium and holmium.
This team also distances itself from earlier work, noting: "This approach differs dramatically from suggestions for use of isomeric materials in explosives applications".
However, the army estimates that isomer power plants will be too expensive for anything except small-scale use. Nuclear isomers have to be charged up with energy, and there is no cheap way of doing this.
In Britain, the Atomic Weapons Establishment is looking at whether an ultra-short pulse laser can trigger uranium isomers by stimulating the electron shell around the nucleus into an energetic state. The technique is called Nuclear Excitation by Electron Transition, and involves zapping a quantity of material so it becomes a plasma. "This process requires a resonance between the nuclear and atomic electron transition energies," says Peter Thomson, a scientist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. "In principle these might be adjusted within a high-temperature plasma to bring an appropriate atomic transition into resonance with the nucleus."
Voodoo science
The AWE's emphasis is on basic research and the potential for energy storage. But Thomson does not believe that an isomer bomb can be ruled out, saying that the controversy over Collins' claims has not been fully resolved. He adds: "A secondary role of AWE is to provide independent advice to the UK government on potential threats to the security of the UK, so an understanding of the fundamentals of isomer physics is essential."
The US navy also has an isomer programme. A recent presentation lists nuclear isomers as a possible replacement for explosives in warheads. This continued belief may stem from the Triggering Isomer Proof Experiment, which was sponsored by the US Department of Defense to determine conclusively whether high-energy Hafnium isomer triggering was possible. In spite of failures to reproduce results elsewhere, there are strong hints that the results of the experiment were positive.
Meanwhile, isomer triggering is edging towards the mainstream. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was previously a stronghold of isomer scepticism. Last year, researchers announced they were working on triggering energy release from a thorium isomer. They say this would be a world first, showing continued disbelief in the earlier triggering claims.
The earlier results have been disowned by many, who refer to their work as "quantum nucleonics" rather than the sensitive "isomer triggering". Nobody wants to be accused of voodoo science, and military funding is at the whim of politicians who can be swayed by the scientific community. No wonder researchers are treading very carefully.
Jamaica to build solar energy plant, ease costs
The Associated Press
Published: August 14, 2008
KINGSTON, Jamaica: Jamaica plans to build a solar energy plant in the island's southeast to help reduce its annual US$3.7 billion energy bill.
Energy Minister Clive Mullings says the plant is one of the government's top 12 projects.
Mullings said Thursday that within three months, officials will announce cost estimates and a start date for construction.
The facility will be financed through Venezuela's Petrocaribe program, which provides poor nations with cheap oil and money for community projects.
Previous administrations have sought to reduce energy costs by installing photovoltaic street lights and promoting the use of ethanol. The government expects to mandate island-wide use of ethanol-blended fuel by April 2009.
Published: August 14, 2008
KINGSTON, Jamaica: Jamaica plans to build a solar energy plant in the island's southeast to help reduce its annual US$3.7 billion energy bill.
Energy Minister Clive Mullings says the plant is one of the government's top 12 projects.
Mullings said Thursday that within three months, officials will announce cost estimates and a start date for construction.
The facility will be financed through Venezuela's Petrocaribe program, which provides poor nations with cheap oil and money for community projects.
Previous administrations have sought to reduce energy costs by installing photovoltaic street lights and promoting the use of ethanol. The government expects to mandate island-wide use of ethanol-blended fuel by April 2009.
Réunion aims for carbon neutrality
By Ed Harris Reuters
Published: August 14, 2008
SAINT-DENIS, Réunion: Ringed by volcanic rock, sandy beaches and swells of the Indian Ocean, Réunion, an overseas department of France, is hardly a major polluter.
But hit by rising fuel costs and worried about the impact of global warming, particularly on its delicate flora and fauna, the island has set itself the ambitious goal of eliminating all its greenhouse gas emissions.
By 2025, Réunion wants to use renewable energy sources to produce 100 percent of its electricity, and to power all of its transportation by 2050.
"We have water, sunshine, we even have an active volcano," Paul Verges, president of Réunion's regional council, said after the Group of 8 agreed a 50 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
"We have more energy than we need for our development."
About 36 percent of Réunion's electricity already comes from renewable energy sources, mostly hydro-energy and bagasse, a sugar cane fiber. But it wants to increase that figure by expanding its existing sources, cutting inefficiencies and exploring new technologies.
"What's possible in Réunion should also be possible in France, and should also be possible for the planet," said the French overseas territories minister, Yves Jégo.
Réunion is expanding its photovoltaic, hydro and wind energy projects to produce as much as 750 megawatts, 120 megawatts and 60 megawatts, respectively, said Jules Dieudonné, who heads a group focused on increasing the use of renewable energy.
About €115 million, or $180 million, of public money is scheduled to be spent from 2007 to 2017 to accomplish the goals, while incentives offered to private energy companies to produce more electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels, Dieudonné said.
Serge Borchiellini, the Réunion representative for Aerowatt, a renewable energy company said wind energy is "at about 15 megawatts, 16 megawatts."
"So there are other projects which are feasible," he said.
Biomass from sugar cane fiber and waste will also be part of Réunion's power future. Scientists, meanwhile, are testing the potential of hydrogen, geothermal energy from La Piton de la Fournaise, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and even ocean energy.
The temperature difference between sea water at the surface and at a depth of 1,000 meters, or 3,200 feet, is about 22 degrees Celsius (71 degrees Fahrenheit), Dieudonné said.
"This difference in temperature can allow us to make electric energy," he said, also citing possible kinetic energy from the ocean swell.
But as in other places around the world, the island has rapidly growing energy demands that threaten to delay the targets.
Living mostly along the coastline, Réunion's population is set to grow more than 20 percent to more than one million people by 2030 from about 800,000 now.
Réunion's average energy consumption per person is growing at 5 percent per year, according to official figures.
"The big problem in Reunion is the summer heat - everybody wants air conditioning," said Pierre-Yves Ezavin an official at Réunion's regional energy agency. He added that air conditioning accounted for about 80 percent of office electricity bills.
Réunion's traditional homes made good use of wood and plenty of windows, but low-cost housing of recent years was built with concrete using cheaper methods that trap the heat inside. "We have to take care of construction," Ezavin said.
His agency is running a public information campaign to encourage the use of green technologies like better construction methods and materials, solar water heaters - already a common sight - and bicycles. But attitudes are slow to change.
"We've heard about it," Jean-François Sery, a taxi driver, said about renewable energy. "I don't know what to think.
"It hasn't yet entered people's thinking," he said, adjusting his air conditioning while he waited in a traffic jam that snaked along the coastal road.
Accounting for 70 percent to 75 percent of Réunion's energy use, transport is the main issue for reducing its greenhouse gases.
And seeking to counter the extra 30,000 cars - about 10 percent of existing traffic - that appear on Réunion's congested roads every year, the island is set to complete the first 34-kilometer, or 21-mile, phase of an electrically powered tram-train by 2013 at a cost of €1.4 billion, Dieudonné said.
At the same time, though, Réunion is building a major road in the west in an effort to ease congestion. And with tourism a major source of jobs and income, airplanes are not part of Réunion's energy targets.
"Our ambition is not to invent a new airplane," Dieudonné said. "Our ambition is to do everything we can do in Reunion to become independent of fossil fuels."
Published: August 14, 2008
SAINT-DENIS, Réunion: Ringed by volcanic rock, sandy beaches and swells of the Indian Ocean, Réunion, an overseas department of France, is hardly a major polluter.
But hit by rising fuel costs and worried about the impact of global warming, particularly on its delicate flora and fauna, the island has set itself the ambitious goal of eliminating all its greenhouse gas emissions.
By 2025, Réunion wants to use renewable energy sources to produce 100 percent of its electricity, and to power all of its transportation by 2050.
"We have water, sunshine, we even have an active volcano," Paul Verges, president of Réunion's regional council, said after the Group of 8 agreed a 50 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
"We have more energy than we need for our development."
About 36 percent of Réunion's electricity already comes from renewable energy sources, mostly hydro-energy and bagasse, a sugar cane fiber. But it wants to increase that figure by expanding its existing sources, cutting inefficiencies and exploring new technologies.
"What's possible in Réunion should also be possible in France, and should also be possible for the planet," said the French overseas territories minister, Yves Jégo.
Réunion is expanding its photovoltaic, hydro and wind energy projects to produce as much as 750 megawatts, 120 megawatts and 60 megawatts, respectively, said Jules Dieudonné, who heads a group focused on increasing the use of renewable energy.
About €115 million, or $180 million, of public money is scheduled to be spent from 2007 to 2017 to accomplish the goals, while incentives offered to private energy companies to produce more electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels, Dieudonné said.
Serge Borchiellini, the Réunion representative for Aerowatt, a renewable energy company said wind energy is "at about 15 megawatts, 16 megawatts."
"So there are other projects which are feasible," he said.
Biomass from sugar cane fiber and waste will also be part of Réunion's power future. Scientists, meanwhile, are testing the potential of hydrogen, geothermal energy from La Piton de la Fournaise, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and even ocean energy.
The temperature difference between sea water at the surface and at a depth of 1,000 meters, or 3,200 feet, is about 22 degrees Celsius (71 degrees Fahrenheit), Dieudonné said.
"This difference in temperature can allow us to make electric energy," he said, also citing possible kinetic energy from the ocean swell.
But as in other places around the world, the island has rapidly growing energy demands that threaten to delay the targets.
Living mostly along the coastline, Réunion's population is set to grow more than 20 percent to more than one million people by 2030 from about 800,000 now.
Réunion's average energy consumption per person is growing at 5 percent per year, according to official figures.
"The big problem in Reunion is the summer heat - everybody wants air conditioning," said Pierre-Yves Ezavin an official at Réunion's regional energy agency. He added that air conditioning accounted for about 80 percent of office electricity bills.
Réunion's traditional homes made good use of wood and plenty of windows, but low-cost housing of recent years was built with concrete using cheaper methods that trap the heat inside. "We have to take care of construction," Ezavin said.
His agency is running a public information campaign to encourage the use of green technologies like better construction methods and materials, solar water heaters - already a common sight - and bicycles. But attitudes are slow to change.
"We've heard about it," Jean-François Sery, a taxi driver, said about renewable energy. "I don't know what to think.
"It hasn't yet entered people's thinking," he said, adjusting his air conditioning while he waited in a traffic jam that snaked along the coastal road.
Accounting for 70 percent to 75 percent of Réunion's energy use, transport is the main issue for reducing its greenhouse gases.
And seeking to counter the extra 30,000 cars - about 10 percent of existing traffic - that appear on Réunion's congested roads every year, the island is set to complete the first 34-kilometer, or 21-mile, phase of an electrically powered tram-train by 2013 at a cost of €1.4 billion, Dieudonné said.
At the same time, though, Réunion is building a major road in the west in an effort to ease congestion. And with tourism a major source of jobs and income, airplanes are not part of Réunion's energy targets.
"Our ambition is not to invent a new airplane," Dieudonné said. "Our ambition is to do everything we can do in Reunion to become independent of fossil fuels."
PG&E orders photovoltaic plant
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: August 14 2008 22:21
PG&E, a California power company, has placed an order for what are believed to be the world’s two biggest photovoltaic solar farms, giving a strong endorsement to a technology that few power generators have yet considered to be ready for utility-scale use.
Between them the two farms, due to come on-stream in 2010 and 2011, are planned to generate 800 megawatts at peak capacity, or more than the 750 MW of the entire photovoltaic grid capacity in the US at the end of last year.
The largest of the plants will cover nine square miles of farmland and produce 550 MW of power at its peak, making it “an order of magnitude” bigger than anything else built or in planning around the world, according to OptiSolar, the company that has been contracted to build the farm.
Photovoltaic systems, which use solar cells to turn sunlight directly into electricity, have been considered too inefficient for utility use, though advances in new materials have steadily brought down the cost per watt of power generated.
Most of the big utility solar projects have instead used concentrated solar thermal technology, which relies on large mirrors to focus the sun’s light to heat water.
The fact that power can only be generated during hours of peak daylight, making it hard to match production with demand, has also reduced its attractiveness as a source of power for electricity grids.
PG&E has already contracted for 1,700 MW of solar thermal generating capacity, while Southern California Edison recently announced an unusual plan to build 250 MW of photovoltaic capacity on its customers’ roofs. The rapid expansion of solar capacity in California reflects a state mandate for local utilities to produce 20 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010.
OptiSolar and Sun Power, which is to build a separate 250 MW plant, said they were prevented by confidentiality agreements from discussing the economics of the plants, and in particular the all-important cost-per-watt of the power produced. However, the companies claimed the contracts were evidence of a leap forward in the efficiency of their technology.
“This is the first time that photovoltaic solar is becoming cost-competitive with other renewables,” a spokesman for OptiSolar said.
PG&E said the projects were dependent on the extension of the US federal tax credit for renewable energy.
Legislation to extend the existing credits, which expire at the end of this year, has so far stalled on Capitol Hill. The solar farms also need local environmental clearance.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Published: August 14 2008 22:21
PG&E, a California power company, has placed an order for what are believed to be the world’s two biggest photovoltaic solar farms, giving a strong endorsement to a technology that few power generators have yet considered to be ready for utility-scale use.
Between them the two farms, due to come on-stream in 2010 and 2011, are planned to generate 800 megawatts at peak capacity, or more than the 750 MW of the entire photovoltaic grid capacity in the US at the end of last year.
The largest of the plants will cover nine square miles of farmland and produce 550 MW of power at its peak, making it “an order of magnitude” bigger than anything else built or in planning around the world, according to OptiSolar, the company that has been contracted to build the farm.
Photovoltaic systems, which use solar cells to turn sunlight directly into electricity, have been considered too inefficient for utility use, though advances in new materials have steadily brought down the cost per watt of power generated.
Most of the big utility solar projects have instead used concentrated solar thermal technology, which relies on large mirrors to focus the sun’s light to heat water.
The fact that power can only be generated during hours of peak daylight, making it hard to match production with demand, has also reduced its attractiveness as a source of power for electricity grids.
PG&E has already contracted for 1,700 MW of solar thermal generating capacity, while Southern California Edison recently announced an unusual plan to build 250 MW of photovoltaic capacity on its customers’ roofs. The rapid expansion of solar capacity in California reflects a state mandate for local utilities to produce 20 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010.
OptiSolar and Sun Power, which is to build a separate 250 MW plant, said they were prevented by confidentiality agreements from discussing the economics of the plants, and in particular the all-important cost-per-watt of the power produced. However, the companies claimed the contracts were evidence of a leap forward in the efficiency of their technology.
“This is the first time that photovoltaic solar is becoming cost-competitive with other renewables,” a spokesman for OptiSolar said.
PG&E said the projects were dependent on the extension of the US federal tax credit for renewable energy.
Legislation to extend the existing credits, which expire at the end of this year, has so far stalled on Capitol Hill. The solar farms also need local environmental clearance.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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