Progress Made On Carbon Capture, Despite Conservative Sniping

May 14, 2010

Companies developing carbon capture technologies to sweep the CO2 out of coal and natural gas power plant emissions reported Friday progress with the complex technology.

Alstom reports clean 90 percent of the CO2 out of the emissions from a West Virginia coal plant

Cost efficiencies need to improve. But the ability of capture technologies to clean escaping plumes has risen considerably. This achievement comes as carbon-capture is gaining support among lawmakers but drawing snipes from conservatives opposed to government spending and regulation.

According to Patrick Fragman, vice president at power-plant equipment maker Alstom, the technologies are now proving themselves and moving toward “large-scale demonstration projects that allow us to focus on improving the efficiencies and economics.”

The company, which has 11 early-stage projects underway, reported the results of several, including one at a Wisconsin plant run by We Energies. The plant is using a chilled-ammonia system Alstom developed jointly with Dow Chemical.

According to independently confirmed results, the system captured 90 percent of CO2 and delivered that CO2 with a high, 99.5 percent purity for reuse. Only 10 parts per million of ammonia were released in 7,000 hours of testing, Alstom said.

The results paralleled those at a larger coal-fired plant in West Virginia – a pilot project that has been closely watched since it was announced last year. The pilot is testing an amine technology, also developed with Dow Chemical, and according to a preliminary report, sifted out 90 percent of CO2 emissions and generated CO2 of equal purity. The amine system has operated for 4,500 hours.

While carbon capture is improving, it is clear the technologies are at an early stage and costs are still high. One National Energy Technology Laboratory study projected operating a carbon capture system at a large refinery will cost $100 million a year – adding considerably to the cost of power.

In an op-ed published this week in The New York Times, the conservative Manhattan Institute jumped on the issue of cost by arguing energy-hungry carbon capture soaks up 28 percent of the power a plant produces.

So far, the Department of Energy has allocated $3.4 billion of stimulus funds for capture and storage projects. Another $2 billion is included in the Senate climate bill introduced earlier this week.

Obviously further technological progress is needed. But it is good to see progress being made since about 40 percent of U.S. electricity still comes from coal plants.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Green Plastics, Water Tech And Management Software Are Hot Among Clean Tech Investors

May 14, 2010

Clean-tech investors appear to be shifting their focus from energy efficiency to water technologies, green plastics and software tools to manage the horde of data expected to flow across the smart grid.

Water is the next carbon, says H-P's Judy Glazer

With the economy on the mend, money again has been seeping into green start-ups. But a shift in focus appears to reflect the limits of a still capital-constrained environment.

VCs appear to be betting on companies that can do more with less. The exception is where technologies have the chance to turn a market on its ear – such as plastics made from carbon and materials other than oil.

This is certainly the case for Gerd Goette, managing partner at Siemens Venture Capital, an organization with 40 different funds and investments in 150 companies.

Goette says he is interested in software and services that connect power generators and customers – systems that turn bills into real-time communications and put supply and demand face to face. Some interesting business models might bypass utilities entirely, he said.

One particular need is for software tools to manage the flood of electric cars expected to enter European, U.S. and Chinese markets in coming years. When millions of cars draw power, the demands on the electric grid will multiply.

Software infrastructure also is a focus for Andrew Williamson, a director at Physic Ventures in San Francisco. Corporations need clean-tech tools for metrics and measurement, he says.

Other areas where he is starting to invest are green plastics and water technologies that could offer big returns by muscling bottled water out off the shelves of retail stores.

“Water is going to be the next carbon,” agrees Judy Glazer, director of global, social and environmental responsibility at Hewlett-Packard. That seems to be the consensus of the environmental community, she notes.

Goette says he is intrigued as well with sensing technology that might monitor plants, equipment and the like.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

New York Times Op-Ed Blasts Carbon Capture

May 13, 2010

Carbon capture technologies are expensive, wasteful and woefully unprepared for the large volume of carbon that will need to buried, reused or otherwise discarded.

Carbon capture is energy intensive and the volume of the waste stream is equal to the world's daily oil production, says Robert Bryce

This according to a Op-Ed piece in The New York Times urging Senators to excise $2 billion in carbon capture research funding from John Kerry’s and Joseph Lieberman’s newly introduced climate bill.

The spending would come on top of $2.4 billion in Recovery Act money already being spent on capture and sequestration technologies. The theory, of course, is that these projects will remove carbon, a greenhouse gas, from the exhaust plumes of coal-fired power plants and reuse it, perhaps to enhance oil extraction at depleting wells.

But Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, argues the effort may be a fool’s errand. For one, he writes carbon capture is an energy intensive process that could siphon away 28 percent of a plant’s output, cutting into fuel efficiency.

In addition, as much as 23,000 miles of new pipeline will need to be laid to transport the large carbon stream. That stream could amount to 8.2 million tons a day – or roughly the equivalent of the world’s daily oil production.

Capture and sequestration is not the Holy Grail of climate change fixes, he writes.

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Green Supply Chains Lead To A Rise In Partner Policing

May 13, 2010

Companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard impose new demands on their supply chains.

But do they simply take yes for an answer? Or do they ask for proof?

Company officials and experts say the push for green suppliers and customers is leading to a surge of partner policing – audits and verifications are on the rise.

With no green supply chain standards in place, "we can (only) measure ourselves compared to ourselves," says P&G's Stephen Meller.

“We’re seeing much, much more,” says Alex Salkever, director of marketing communications at Picarro, a maker of gas analyzers. “We’re seeing much more of a trust and verify” atmosphere.

Experts say the increase in so-called green forensics has been occurring for several years. But it appears to be intensifying as corporations place new hurdles for suppliers to clear.

Last month, IBM for the first time required its suppliers to adopt formal management systems to reduce energy use and emissions – and to disclose results publicly. H-P placed similar requirements on its supply chain last September when it imposed management systems on partners and ordered them to report directly to the computer maker.

Judy Glazer, director of global, social and environmental responsibility, says H-P has increased its use of onsite audits, which require a couple of employees to spend several days at a partner site, even pull workers off assembly lines.

The activity may intensify, she said at an SDForum sponsored Modern Green Supply Chain event. It also is beginning to shift the responsibility to suppliers. Suppliers would rather be certified once rather than numerous times by their top 20 or 30 companies, Glazer points out.

With corporate clean-energy policies on the rise, increased supply-chain probing can be expected to continue.  It also should renew calls for standards.

At present, “there is no definition of what green means,” says Stephen Meller, chief innovation catalyst at Procter and Gamble. “We can (only) measure ourselves compared to ourselves.”

The industry needs to address this, he says.

But Glazer says she doesn’t expect quick agreement on benchmarks for air, water, chemicals and pollution. “It will be quite some time before different kinds of rating systems converge,” she says.

Until then, verification will require many companies to see supply chain improvements for themselves.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

SolarCity Jumps On Retrofit Bandwagon With Building Solutions Buy

May 12, 2010

Home-energy retrofits are the latest way to go green.

That’s why SolarCity announced Wednesday it will acquire the assets of Building Solutions, a self-described home performance contractor that does energy audits and energy remodeling work.

SolarCity says the two companies have been working together and will now combine to offer a broader range of services

Silicon Valley-based SolarCity said the merger enables it to offer a broader range of services, from evaluating home heating and cooling systems to installing solar on rooftops. And at just the right time.

President Obama’s HOMESTAR legislation is moving through Congress and will offer $6 billion in rebates for home energy retrofits. The legislation appears to have a good chance of passing, with the House adopting it last week.

Fifteen states, including California, also are putting money behind energy retrofits through low-interest PACE, or Property Assessed Clean Energy, loans. In February 2010, San Francisco debuted the nation’s largest PACE program with $150 million in funding.

SolarCity, a solar installer, said it plans to offer San Rafael-based Building Solutions’ energy remodeling across its five state service area of California, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Texas. The Foster City company expects to be able to complete hundreds of energy-efficiency projects each month, making it one of the largest green-home contractors in the country.

According to a press release, the two companies have been working together for some time, as SolarCity has referred its customers to Building Solutions. Tighter integration is planned.

“SolarCity will integrate its proprietary solar project modeling, management and monitoring software with Building Solutions’ Web-based energy efficiency assessment software to create a powerful new analytical tool,” according to the release.

No Building Solutions employees will be let go because of the merger.

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Solar Market Is Hot Even If Stocks Are Not

May 12, 2010

Solar sales continue to surge in advance of Germany’s cut in its feed-in tariff. But stocks did not follow suit, as if anticipating difficult times ahead.

Several of the industry’s largest manufacturers offered insight into their businesses this week – and the news was generally favorable. Sales rose sharply over the past three months, even if profits sometimes did not.

SunPower unveiled its Oasis solar power plant in a box, along with 64 percent quarterly sales growth

Among the companies with the strongest gains was SunPower of San Jose, where quarterly revenue rose 64 percent, helped by the company acquisition of SunRay. The company said Tuesday it wasn’t able to meet demand for its products. However, earnings fell short of expectations.

“We were sold out in the first quarter,” said CEO Tom Werner. “We remain sold out in the second quarter.”

SunPower was to be outdone. Chinese solar king Suntech Power Holdings surprised investors with a quarterly revenue forecast of close to $590 million, well ahead of the $542 million analysts expected. And JA Solar Holdings, another Chinese polysilicon cell maker, topped expectations for its first quarter, with sales up 17 percent. The company foresaw more upbeat times and raised its outlook for the year.

LDK Solar and ReneSola, both of China, and Q-Cells of Germany also unveiled impressive sales increases, with previously struggling ReneSola posting quarterly sales that almost doubled.

The wave of favorable reports suggests that Germany remains a strong buyer of solar equipment in anticipation of the July cuts. Sales also were strong in the United States, France and Italy.

SunPower’s Werner predicted panel prices would fall by as much as 20 percent this year, but that demand across the world would remain steady.

SunPower on Tuesday also announced its Oasis “power plant in a box,” a prepackaged solar module assembled into large solar farms. The modules will reduce plant costs up to 25 percent and simplify construction, said Werner. Oasis is expected in the market in early 2011.

Despite the upbeat sales figures, solar stocks turned in a dull performance on Tuesday. After rallying on Monday, when Suntecb and LDK released their financial reports, many drifted lower. SunPower shares fell 4 percent after its earnings were released.

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Solar Costs Will Match Coal In 10 Years, Pessimistic Study Says

May 11, 2010

Solar energy will provide 11 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050. Solar thermal farms will provide another 11.3 percent, according to the International Energy Agency, the agency that advises the European Union on energy issues.

Together, the two technologies will generate almost a quarter of global electricity demand and reduce “gigatonnes” of CO2 emissions each year.

But the conversation to solar energy may be slower than the industry presently projects. According to a pair of IEA studies released Tuesday, solar energy won’t match the cost of oil and coal for as long as 10 years. Industry leaders at the most aggressive solar manufacturers say so-called price “parity” could come in two or three.

This pessimistic account assumes a slower drop in the costs of solar manufacturing and power generation. For photovoltaic systems, the fall should be about 50 percent over the decade as the amount of solar in use grows five fold.

While this seems hard to imagine given that solar cell prices fell 40 percent last year due to the recession and over production, a benign environment is what the IEA says is likely. The only exception is where the sun’s intensity is greatest, and in those spots solar will reach parity by 2015.

The report estimates generation costs for commercial photovoltaic systems will range from 13 cents to 26 cents a kWh by 2020. Residential costs should be 16 cents to 31 cents a kWh. This should equal costs from burning fossil fuels.

Costs at large-scale solar farms could drop as low as 10 cents, making them competitive with the wholesale power costs at the time.

The study says solar thermal is on a similar trajectory. Costs will be competitive with base-load power coming form coal plants by 2020.

The study forecasts that by 2020, the volume of residential solar will be 2.4 times greater than big utility-scale solar farms, not including solar thermal farms, and 5 times greater than solar installed on warehouses and commercial buildings.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Solar Powered Biodiesel Bus To Use 100% Algae Fuel

May 10, 2010

Lon Baylor’s experience with biodiesel buses has had it ups and downs.

But this corporate transit manager says he is ready for the next big step. His firm, Bauer’s Worldwide Transportation of San Francisco, will abandon the 80 percent, 20 percent blend of conventional biodiesel it is using today (if there is such a thing as conventional biodiesel) for a 100 percent biodiesel concoction derived from algae.

The transition may make the Bauer’s the first algae-fuel coach line in the country. Certainly the bus will become a showpiece in a city pushing forward the frontier of green living.

Baylor, whose job it is to find alternative energy equipment for the bus company, anticipates having the algae bus in service next year. He won’t name his fuel supplier. But he calculates the project will have a 4-year investment return, not bad for an effort so new.

The bus's solar panels run an air conditioning system and free drivers from idling their engines to keep the coach cool.

He says this “second generation” biodiesel motor will have some important benefits. The company’s current biodiesel fuel clogs the bus’s ammonia-based catalytic converter, even with a 20 percent biodiesel mixture.

The new business will no longer need a catalytic converter, which takes diesel particulate out of the exhaust, since it no longer burns fossil fuels.

But he acknowledges the second-generation bus may not solve all the difficulties that come with running biodiesel. Bauer’s present biodiesel clogs fuel filters and causes the bus’s turbo drive to run hot. It also gets lower fuel economy, which the company has tried to compensate for by installing a 12-speed automatic transmission.

Bauer’s says it has had to apply for a special extension of the manufacturer’s warranty due to its use of biodiesel.

But all this has not caused it to shrink from biodiesel, despite the extra maintenance. The company has log 5 million miles with the fuel and felt comfortable enough to invest in a complementary set of rooftop solar panels.

The 12 panels perform an important function, says Baylor. Buses idle 40 to 60 percent of the time, largely to keep their air conditioning systems running, Now the solar panels can take over the job, permitting drivers to turn off their engines. Fuel mileage goes up and the air is cleaner.

The problem, says Baylor, is that the solar power air conditioning equipment is still going through troubleshooting, and bolts and latches shake loose with travel.

Nothing is built for (an alternative-energy) bus,” he says. At least not yet.

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Watch Out Better Place, Coulomb Muscles Into Israel

May 10, 2010

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldal isn’t ready to say the world is a Better Place.

Coulomb Technologies appears to have struck a deal to install electric car charging stations in Tel Aviv.

In a blow to Better Place’s dream of turning Israel into its private battery-swapping, electric-car market place, Huldal appears to have signed a deal with company rival Coulomb Technologies.

Coulomb is to install 50 electric-car charging stations in Israel’s capital city Tel Aviv by next year. The reason: the city doesn’t want electric car recharging to become a monopoly, according to a report on Yedioth’s Ynet Web site.

The news appears to put an end to Better Place’s hope that it alone would become Israel’s supplier of electric car charging services. The company has a deal with Tel Aviv and with other Israel municipalities to begin commercial operations next year. By the second half of 2011, company partner, Renault, will begin shipping 1,000 cars a month into Israel.

To be sure the cars will be used, Better Place has signed up 92 commercial fleets – including those from Computer Associates and Motorola. It also enlisted gas station operator Dor Alon to installed battery-swapping stations.

The Better Place business model is to lease lithium ion batteries to car owners and swap them for fresh ones when they are depleted. It also will contract to supply electricity to car owners both at home and on the go. The company plans to install dozens of charging stations in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in the country.

Better Place has its sties on markets in Denmark, California, China and Japan in addition to Israel.

A spokesperson from Coulomb did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

On a separate note, Better Place on Monday closed the $350 million in venture financing it announced in January. The massive round values the company at a hefty $1.25 billion.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Fast Tract Patent Program For Clean Tech Bearing Some Fruit

May 7, 2010

The Patent and Trademark Office put in place a pilot program late last year to accelerate the issuance of clean-tech patents. It appears to be experiencing some success.

Since December, 943 companies have applied to be part of the green-tech patent program

Since the effort began in December, 943 companies have asked that their patent applications to be considered for this fast-track review – roughly six a day. The patent office granted 335 of these requests. Figures on patent approvals weren’t immediately available.

But anecdotally, some companies have found the processes useful. One is Skyline Solar of Mountain View, CA, which announced on Thursday it received a patent covering its solar thermal technology.

The company uses reflective rectangular sheets of metal to concentrate the sun’s rays on inexpensive thin-film solar cells. The technique allows less efficient thin film to match the performance of more efficient polysilicon cells, the company claims.

The patent was approved in slightly more than two months after the Skyline Solar was accepted into the program. Many traditional patents take a year or more to approve.

The company said in a press release that it was one of the first firms to be awarded a patent under the pilot program.

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