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10 Ways to Shrink Your Energy Billsby Keith PandolfiSpend a little, save a lot, or spend a whole bunch and save even more. Here are 10 ways to shave your energy bills this winter …more
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ENERGY NEWS Archives Farmer saves $200,000 with poo powerROCKWOOD, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Four generations of Saylors have worked the family's dairy farm for nearly a century, but for the past three years, the cows have been doing something besides providing milk: They've been helping power the place. Growing up on the sprawling spread 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, 36-year-old farmer Shawn Saylor developed into a self-described science buff. So it was no surprise that, when faced with rising energy costs, Saylor turned to technology. He tapped into an abundant and easily accessible energy source: manure from about 600 cows. "It's a pretty simple process. There's not really a lot to it," Saylor said. "Manure comes from the cows, and there's energy left in the manure." The process is known as anaerobic digestion, and here's how it works: With the help of a mechanical scraper in the barn, manure drops into a 19,000-gallon tank. The slurry then moves into the digester, which is 16 feet deep and 70 feet in diameter. It's heated there for about 16 days while the bacteria break down the organic matter in order to produce methane gas. That gas is burned in two engine generators to make electricity. Heat created by the generators keeps the digester hot, heats the buildings around the farm and helps provide hot water. The electricity is used to power this farm and a dozen neighboring homes, Saylor said. And there's still some left over, which he sells back to the grid. Overall, the poo power helps Saylor's bottom line. "In savings, there's $200,000 a year, in either extra income from sale of electricity or cost offsets," he said. "So you're talking about system project costs of over a million dollars to build the system but a payback of five years or less." Before he installed the system, the pungent smell from the cows could linger for three to four days, Saylor said. "The farm used to get a lot of complaints from motorists, which is understandable. It used to stink a lot." Now, the digesters reduce 98 percent of all odor, although he admits that if the wind blows, you still "get a whiff." The farm's leftover solid waste is sold to the community. "We use it for bedding for the animals," according to Saylor. "A lot of people like to get it for their gardens ... because it doesn't smell much." Farm-based digesters became popular in the United States during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. But the technology didn't catch on, possibly because of the high operational costs and declining energy prices, according to the Department of Agriculture. Although Saylor had been interested in digesters for years, his dream didn't become reality until 2006. That's when he received a $600,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection. But Saylor's work isn't done. He intends to make his farm entirely self-sufficient by using waste vegetable oil to make biodiesel fuel. He said his goal is to waste nothing. "In a biodiesel system, all the waste products can either be used or fed back into the digester to make more gas," he said. "I've always looked at new technologies and believed you kind of have to work with that stuff to stay with the future."
Leaving PCs on overnight costs companies $2.8B a year
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
Even during an economic meltdown, when companies
are scrambling to cut costs, businesses are wasting billions of
dollars by leaving their PCs on at night.
U.S. organizations squander $2.8 billion a year to power unused machines, emitting about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide roughly the equivalent of 4 million cars according to a report to be released Wednesday. About half of 108 million office PCs in the USA are not properly shut down at night, says the 2009 PC Energy Report, produced by 1E, an energy-management software company, and the non-profit Alliance to Save Energy. The report analyzed workplace PC power consumption in the USA, United Kingdom and Germany.
Wastefulness does not just affect a company's
bottom line, it creates environmental concerns, the report says. If
the world's 1 billion PCs were powered down just one night, it would
save enough energy to light the Empire State Building inside and out
for over 30 years, it says.
"Workers do not feel responsible for electricity bills at work, and some companies insist PCs remain on at night so they can be patched with software updates," says 1E CEO Sumir Karayi. He says 63% of employees surveyed said their companies should take more steps to save PC power.
"It is scary how much energy is wasted," says
Michael Murphy, senior manager of global environmental affairs at
Dell, a business partner and customer of 1E. It has used 1E software
to efficiently manage its 50,000 PCs globally, saving about $1.8
million a year.
Simply shutting down PCs at night can save a company with 10,000 PCs over $260,000 a year and 1,871 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the report says. "PCs can be a tremendous drain on electricity," says Doug Washburn, an analyst at Forrester Research. "During a nine-hour workday, it isn't always in use because of lunch, meetings and other things."
How an Eggbeater Could Power the Future By Michael Schirber
From Holland, the country famous for its windmills, comes a new design for home wind power. Looking like an eggbeater, it spins more quietly and at lower wind speeds than a lot of traditional propeller-type turbines. It's now standard for big wind turbines to have propeller blades. Much of the turning force is generated at the tips, which slice perpendicularly through the air, causing a swooshing noise that some residents nearby have said they find unnerving. By contrast, the so-called Energy Ball, sold by Dutch-based Home Energy International, has rotors bent around in a ball shape so that they primarily move parallel to the wind. This generates less noise.
"A small wind turbine has to be silent, otherwise it will be annoying to the community," said Erik Aurik, Home Energy's marketing manager. The noise from an Energy Ball is always less than the sound of the wind, Aurik told LiveScience. And what's more, the device continues to work even when the wind speed dips down to as slow as 4.5 mph (2 meters per second), whereas the average turbine needs roughly twice that wind speed to turn. Venturi effect This is not the first wind turbine to resemble an egg-beater. The Darrieus wind turbine has a similar shape and has been around for almost 80 years. What's different with the Energy Ball is that it has a horizontal axis, not a vertical one. And it uses a different kind of physics, called the Venturi effect. The Venturi effect is characterized by a low pressure that occurs when a flow of air or liquid speeds up as it is constricted. Some perfume bottles use the Venturi effect to suck up perfume into the spray nozzle. The Energy Ball's design constricts the wind, thereby causing the pressure to drop inside the ball. This sucks in air flowing around the ball and helps turn the rotor blades. Because of this sucking action, Venturi-based turbines use more of the wind — and can therefore be 40 percent more efficient — than a propeller-style turbine of the same diameter, according to research by Technical University of Delft in Holland. Decorative windmills
Energy Balls currently are sold in sizes of either 1 meter or 2 meters in diameter. They can be installed on a pole or a flat roof in as few as four hours, Aurik said. In places where the wind is relatively strong — blowing 15 mph, or 7 meters per second, on average — a 1-meter ball can generate up to 500 kilowatt-hours per year, while the 2-meter ball can supply 1,750 kilowatt-hours per year. The typical U.S. household uses 11,000 kilowatt-hours per year, so additional electricity will have to come from somewhere. However, these are optimum values that assume the small turbine is mounted at least 40 feet (12 meters) above the ground and is free from surrounding trees and buildings that block the wind. The cost of the Energy Ball is between $3,500 and $7,000, not including installation.
"There is a lot of interest worldwide," Aurik said. "Everybody likes the design. It looks like an art piece."
Long-Lasting Jetpack Unveiled at Air ShowWednesday, July 30, 2008
 APJuly 29: Harrison Martin takes a jet pack for a test flight at the annual EAA Airventure Fly-in Oshkosh, Wis. Fly the dream, baby. That's the slogan, more or less, of New Zealand's Martin Jetpack company, which debuted its $100,000 personal flight apparatus Tuesday at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis. As thousands looked on, inventor Glenn Martin's 16-year-old son donned a helmet, fastened himself to a prototype and revved the engine, which sounded like a motorcycle. Harrison Martin eased about three feet off the ground, the engine roaring with a whine so loud that some kids covered their ears.
With two spotters preventing the jet pack from drifting in a mild wind, the teenager hovered for 45 seconds and then set the device down as the audience applauded. "Wow, that went better than expected," Glenn Martin said afterward. "People will look back on this as a moment in history." • Click here to watch demonstration videos on the Martin Jetpack Web site. • Click here for FOXNews.com's Patents and Innovation Center. The imposing machine, technically an ultralight aircraft, weighs 250 pounds and doesn't exactly clip onto the user's back. Rather, you strap yourself into it, and both and the machine are supported by a pogo-stick-like stand.
Nor is it quite a jetpack, despite the company's name. The 200-horsepower gasoline engine powers two high-powered downward-thrusting propellers, enclosed in airflow-focusing cowlings, that push the craft and its rider off the ground. That's possibly the most groundbreaking aspect of the Martin. True jetpacks, such as this one reported on by FOXNews.com in January, tend to sputter out in a matter of minutes or even seconds as their rocket fuel runs dry. But the Martin's more conventional propulsion give it much longer staying power -- a whopping 30 minutes in the air, far longer than any of its rivals. In theory, it can fly an average-sized pilot about 30 miles on a full 5-gallon tank of gas. And as long as the FAA classifies it as an ultralight, American owners won't need a pilot's license. But don't expect to see commuters rushing to work by air instead of land. Ultralights can't be operated over congested areas, according to FAA regulations, and are to be used "exclusively for sport or recreational purpose." That's fine, Martin said. He predicts the jet packs will start out as toys for the wealthy. Then, as law enforcement officials become more familiar with them, Martin envisions jet packs used by the military, border-patrol officials and search-and-rescue teams. His white jet pack with black trim stands on a brick-sized base with two legs sprawled behind it.
The pilot steps backward into the straps of a shoulder harness, his shoulder blades resting against two wide upward-facing fans that provide the thrust. There's an emergency parachute that's effective above about 400 feet, and an impact-absorbing undercarriage that can soften a rough landing or short fall, Martin said. He's still refining the safety features for those heights in between. "A lot of it comes down to how do you fly, at what speed, at what angle," he said. Like Kent Couch, the Oregon man who flew 235 miles earlier this month with 150 helium balloons attached to his lawn chair, Martin always wanted to soar through the air. He quit his job as a pharmaceutical sales rep to launch his jet-pack company. Martin says venture capitalists are backing him, but he didn't give names. Reaction to the test flight was mixed. Attendees with aviation backgrounds raved, calling it an engineering marvel and saying the 45-second flight was fantastic proof that the idea works. Others who hoped to see the machine go higher and move in different directions seemed generally disappointed. Martin began taking orders Tuesday for jetpacks to be delivered at next year's AirVenture, though he's keeping his sales expectations in check. After all, other entrepreneurs who chased the idea for about 50 years were unable to get off the ground. German scientists experimented with jetpack technology during World War II as a way to help soldiers avoid mines. Then scientists at Bell Labs produced a version that ran on hydrogen peroxide and provided a few seconds of lift. Later a California company spent six years and millions of the military's dollars on the 8-foot-tall SoloTrek Exo-Skeletor Flying Vehicle. During a disappointing 2002 test flight the machine hovered a few feet off the ground for 19 seconds. Two other companies are trying to sell jet packs now. Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana in Cuernavaca, Mexico produces a custom-made rocket belt that costs $125,000. It uses hydrogen peroxide to power 20-second flights, according to the company's Web site. The rocket belts are mostly sold for use in advertising and promotions, such as halftime appearances at football games.
Jet Pack International, based in Denver, produces two hydrogen-peroxide models and one $200,000 jet pack that runs on jet fuel. An average-sized pilot could travel about nine minutes and 11 miles on the 5-gallon tank, the company said. Jet Pack has "hundreds" of people on a waiting list for its jet fuel pack, spokeswoman Kelly McLear said, but she wouldn't say when it would be available. "Our No. 1 priority is safety," McLear said. "We're not going to put a product on the market unless we've checked it a million times over and worked all the bugs out." No other major companies have revealed plans to produce jetpacks. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,393541,00.html
U.S., China lead way in tapping wind power
 
By Stephanie Busari
CNN LONDON, England (CNN) -- From Dallas, Texas to Dabancheng, China, energy companies are staking fortunes on harnessing wind power.
Texan energy companies are investing heavily to build wind turbines following a landmark ruling last week. 
Several Texan transmission companies announced Monday they were forming a consortium to invest in the $5 billion cost of building new power lines to take advantage of the state's vast wind power. The consortium, comprised of existing transmission operators, includes Dallas-based Oncor, the state's largest power delivery company, Electric Transmission Texas (ETT) and units of American Electric Power Co. among others. Those new lines, dubbed by Oncor as a "renewable energy superhighway," will accommodate about 18,500 megawatts of wind generation by 2012-- enough energy to power 4 million homes. Texas currently leads the nation in wind capacity at about 5,500 MW. The companies are hoping to take advantage of a landmark ruling on Friday that gave Texas preliminary approval for a $4.9 billion plan to build transmission lines to carry wind power from West Texas to urban areas. It is said to be the largest investment in clean, renewable energy in U.S. history. Texas citizens will have to assist with the plan's construction; paying an extra $3 to $4 per month on their bills for the next few years. However, they stand to recoup these costs in what they will save in energy bills later. Not surprisingly,
energy companies are eager to jump on the bandwagon to
build a large part of the superhighway.
The wind energy industry has benefited from the support of billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, who is planning to build the world's largest wind farm on about 200,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle. When completed, his 2,700 turbines will be capable of producing enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes. Pickens spoke to CNN about his plans to increase reliance on natural resources like wind and solar. He said: "What I want to do is to fold in the great resource we have in the central part of this country, which is wind. And then you have resource from Texas west to California. "You've got solar. Those two resources have to be developed. So when you develop the wind, you can then remove natural gas from power generation and put it into a transportation fuel market. "Wind power is ... clean, it's renewable. It's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy. It's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind." Meanwhile, China could well be on its way to blowing the U.S. out of the water when it comes to harnessing wind energy. This is a rare energy success story for a country whose carbon emissions were recorded as the highest in the world last year, according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. But the Chinese energy revolution has been quietly gaining strength, observers say. Like their American counterparts, Chinese tycoons are increasingly directing their investment into renewable power. Zhu Yuguo, ranks at 102 on the Forbes China Rich List, with a personal fortune of 5.71 billion Yuan and has invested heavily in the wind power industry. Steve Sawyer of the Global Wind Energy Council said: "China's wind energy market is unrecognizable from two years ago." "It is huge, huge, huge. But it is not realized yet in the outside world," Sawyer said in an interview with London's Guardian newspaper. China's wind generation has increased by more than 100 percent per year since 2005 and 20 per cent of the power supply to the venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will come from wind generators, according to the official state agency, Xinhua. It was initially hoped the country would generate 5 gigawatts of wind by 2010, but that goal was met three years early in 2007. The 2010 goal has now been revised to 10 gigawatts but experts say this could well hit 20 gigawatts. The Guanting Wind Farm in Beijing has installed capacity of 64.5 megawatts and has supplied 35 million kilowatts of electricity to Beijing so far. The wind farm is estimated to supply 100 million KWH per year to Beijing, or 300,000 KWH per day, enough to satisfy the consumption of 100,000 households. However, China still relies heavily on using coal, which supplies 70 per cent of China's energy needs. But Junfeng Li of the China Renewable Energy Industries Association has a more optimistic outlook. In a paper last month, he wrote: "China is witnessing the start of a golden age of wind power development and the magnitude of the growth has caught policymakers off guard. "It is widely believed that wind power will be able to compete with coal generation by as early as 2015." http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/28/wind.energy/index.html
Oil billionaire Pickens puts his money on wind power
(CNN) -- Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power. 
T. Boone Pickens talks about the advantages of wind power on CNN in May. The legendary entrepreneur and philanthropist on Tuesday unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States' dependency on foreign oil by more than one-third and help shift American energy production toward renewable natural resources. "The Pickens Plan" calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind, and switching from oil to natural gas as a transportation fuel. In a news conference outlining his proposal, Pickens said his impetus for the plan is the country's dangerous reliance on foreign oil. "Our dependence on imported
oil is killing our economy. It is the single biggest problem
facing America today," he said.
"Wind power is ... clean, it's renewable. It's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy," Pickens told CNN in May. "It's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind." Pickens' company, Mesa Power, recently announced a $2 billion investment as the first step in a multibillion-dollar plan to build the world's largest wind farm in Pampa, Texas. Pickens said Tuesday that if the United States takes advantage of the so-called "wind corridor," stretching from the Canadian border to West Texas, energy from wind turbines built there could supply 20 percent or more of the nation's power. He suggested the project could be funded by private investors. Power from thousands of wind turbines that would line the corridor could be distributed throughout the country via electric power transmission lines and could fuel power plants in large population hubs, the oil baron said. Fueling these plants with wind power would then free up the natural gas historically used to power them, and would mean that natural gas could replace foreign oil as fuel for motor vehicles, he said. Using natural gas for transportation needs could replace one-third of the United States' imported oil and would save more than $230 billion a year, Pickens said. "We are going to have to do something different in America," Pickens told CNN. "You can't keep paying out $600 billion a year for oil." His energy plan could be implemented within 10 years if both Congress and the White House treat the current energy situation as a "national emergency and take immediate action," he predicted. Pickens, a lifelong Republican, says he is not advising either presidential candidate, but is prepared to work with the next president. The Web site for the plan urges people to sign up and help spread the word. Oil analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover, an energy risk manager, said Pickens' plan could definitely reduce the country's dependency on foreign oil. "The best thing about it is that it's a definite plan -- it's not something that either party has pitted itself outrightly against. It therefore has a tremendous chance for success on Capitol Hill." Analyst Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., an investment firm, added that such a plan "has been on the drawing board for years." At least 21 states and the District of Columbia have set deadlines or goals for utilities to obtain electricity from clean, renewable sources instead of fossil fuel-burning plants. See where states stand on renewable resources » The scramble has triggered construction of large-scale wind farms throughout much of the nation, including proposals for the first U.S. offshore facilities. Delaware and Galveston, Texas, have offshore projects in the works, although a farm proposed off New York's Long Island was shelved this year because of high projected construction costs. n Massachusetts, where utilities are under the gun to obtain four percent of electricity from renewables by 2009, builders await federal approval of a hugely controversial wind farm off historic Cape Cod. The Cape Wind project envisions 130 wind turbines each rising 440 feet above Nantucket Sound by 2011. State officials said the farm will eliminate pollution equal to 175,000 gas-burning cars. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/08/pickens.plan/index.html
McCain Offers $300 Million Prize for New Auto Batteryby Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. — John McCain is hoping to solve the country’s energy crisis with cold hard cash. The presumed Republican nominee on Monday proposed a $300 million government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology. The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, “a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency,” McCain said at Fresno State University. McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.” The Arizona senator also proposed stiffer fines for automakers who skirt existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as incentives to increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol. In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S. automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell. “In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure,” said McCain. “From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success.” The proposal comes as gasoline has reached a record cost of more than $4 a gallon. That has boosted the price of virtually all goods and services, sent commuters flocking to public transportation and increased tensions between the United States and its Middle Eastern oil suppliers. Last week McCain suggested one way to ease supply concerns would be to lift a federal ban on offshore oil drilling if individual states want to allow it even though he favored the decades-old moratorium on drilling in the 2000 campaign. His Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, opposes that idea, saying it would do nothing to address immediate price concerns. On Sunday, Obama told a Washington audience he would strengthen government oversight of energy traders whose futures speculation he blames in large part for the skyrocketing price of oil. McCain told a town-hall questioner on Monday that he was unsure of the extent of any oil speculation, but if it has boosted the price of a barrel by 50 percent — as he has heard from some analysts — or just 1 percent, “then it seems to me there should be a thorough and complete investigation.” He added: “If there is anybody who took advantage of Americans in order to enrich themselves, then it’s unacceptable.” In his remarks, McCain expressed exasperation both with the federal government and the private sector. He said rising costs during a time of stagnant wages evokes the 1970s era of “stagflation.” Without blaming his fellow Republicans in the Bush administration or Democrats who control Congress by name, McCain said: “It feels the same today, because the unwise policies of our government have left America’s energy future in the control of others.” The pork-barrel opponent also blasted “a hodgepodge of incentives” for the purchase of fuel-efficient cars. “Different hybrids and natural-gas cars carry different incentives, ranging from a few hundreds dollars to four grand. They’re the handiwork of lobbyists, with all the inconsistency and irrationality that involves,” McCain said. Following the speech, McCain was scheduled to attend fundraisers in Fresno and Santa Barbara, part of a money push that helped the senator raise a personal record of $21 million last month.
Electric Shirt
Postal Service Pinched by Rising Gas CostsWASHINGTON — Suburban moms and commuters are not the only ones feeling the bite of rising fuel costs — every time the price of gasoline goes up a penny it costs the U.S. Postal Service $8 million. "We are definitely feeling the pressure," Deputy Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe told The Associated Press. Transportation cost the post office $6.5 billion in 2007, $500 million more than the year before. The post office operates the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the country — 215,000 motor vehicles — and also faces rising costs for fuel from its contract carriers including truckers and airlines. It's both a matter or costs and usage, Donahoe explained — looking for ways to reduce costs and change use patterns to reduce the need for fuel. Click here for FOXNews.com's gas trackers. It's easier for the post office to raise rates than it used to be — the price of sending a letter went up a penny to 42 cents in May. Another price rise is expected next May, but postage increases are legally limited to the rate of inflation. That limit does not seem to apply to fuel costs which now top $4-a-gallon (3.8 liters) nationwide. "We've been looking at this, working on this, for the last couple of years," Donahoe said. One advantage the post office has is the ability to buy in bulk, so it can get gasoline and diesel fuel at a discount. Donahoe did not say what prices the agency has been able to negotiate, but even though it is less than retail, it still goes up over time. Highway transport of mail cost the post office $3.1 billion last year, up 5.8 percent from the year before. Still, the deals allow the post office to set up bulk storage to supply its vehicles, and it provides special credit cards to long-haul contractors so they can also take advantage of the discount rather than simply passing along their higher costs. Another step is simply packing the mail more tightly. If you can cram mail that used to go into four trucks into three, that's one truck that's not burning diesel fuel, Donahoe explained. "The key is really usage. The best price on a gallon is the gallon not used," he said. Likewise for airplanes, where more tightly packed mail can take up less cargo space in airline holds or on contract carriers such as FedEx or UPS. Even so, the cost of air transport of mail jumped 7.9 percent to $3 billion last year, at least partly due to rising fuel costs. Of the many trucks and cars the agency owns, about 190,000 are those delivery vehicles that roam through American neighborhoods. Donahoe said the post office is introducing global positioning system technology to streamline delivery routes. "We're ramping up now just to get more efficient on that line of travel," he said. They expect a savings of about 7 percent along improved routes, not just in fuel costs but also in work hours spent delivering the mail. And sometimes the old fashioned "tried and true" methods can be brought back to save money. For example, in cities some letter carriers can walk or takes a bus from the post office to their delivery route rather than driving. At least in some cases, taking the vehicles out and letting people go back to walking saves more in fuel expenses than it costs in terms of extra time spent, Donahoe said. In addition, in some warm-weather areas such as Florida, Texas and Southern California, consideration is being given to launching bicycle routes, he said. "Moving away from a vehicle is also environmentally a good thing to do," he said. Hydrogen fueled vehicles are also under consideration, he said. The agency is working with General Motors on such a vehicle, which could be tested in California where hydrogen filling stations are being established. "We think it's an opportunity if the fuel is available," Donahoe said. Hybrid vehicles also can save fuel, but they may not be best for the Postal Service, he said, because the agency tends to keep its vehicles for a long time. While hybrids save on fuel, if they are kept so long the batteries have to be replaced, and that can be quite expensive, he said. And transport costs are not the only energy problem. Just like homes and offices, the costs to heat and cool and light the post office's 34,000 facilities across the country are also on the rise.
GE calls for cheaper, cleaner energyCEO Jeff Immelt urges utilities to spend more on research and development in order to find new sources of energy.By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, said Monday much of the technology to make energy generation cleaner and more efficient is available now. The challenge, however, is deploying it and making it cheaper. "A lot of the technology is already there," Immelt told a crowd of electric utility executives at an industry meeting sponsored by the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group. "This is a business model issue, not a technical issue. Our job is to make them cheaper." GE (GE, Fortune 500) makes a variety of energy products - from light bulbs and appliances to coal and nuclear power plants - many of them marketed to utilities. The company is part of a consortium of manufacturers and utilities urging lawmakers to pass nationwide restrictions on greenhouse gasses. The Bush administration has so far resisted immediate mandatory restrictions, largely on the grounds that waiting for better, cheaper technology would yield better results. All three major presidential candidates support mandatory restrictions. The climate debate comes as the world is facing a surge in energy demand and a simultaneous desire to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Energy consumption globally is estimated to grow by 50% over the next few decades, while scientists say the world needs to at least halve its greenhouse gas emissions over the same time period if it is to avoid the worst effects of global warming. In facing this challenge, Immelt urged utility executives to keep all technologies on the table - from solar and wind to nuclear and cleaner coal - and to not let new technologies languish at the expense of maintaining the status-quo. He said low oil and gas prices historically led to massive underinvestment in the sector, with energy companies spending only about 2% of their revenue on research and development. By way of comparison, healthcare companies have invested about 8% of their sales on R&D, Immelt said. (GE also is a big player in the medical devices industry.) But with high energy prices now soaring, Immelt believes investments in energy will follow suit. "There's plenty of incentive now to drive technology into the industry," he said. Immelt said GE is investing in a wide range of energy technologies. He specifically mentioned solar as one that has great potential. The cost of solar power should fall from 30 cents a kilowatt hour today to under 15 cents "in a relatively short time," he said. "That should open up a sweet spot for solar." By comparison, American consumers currently pay about 10 cents an hour on average for electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration. The U.S. utility industry will likely be a recipient of clean technologies developed outside the U.S., Immelt added, whether it be cleaner coal processes fine-tuned in China or renewable technology pioneered in Europe. But he encouraged the industry and U.S. government to take the lead in capping greenhouse gas emissions and developing clean sources of energy. "The time to act is now," he
said. "When you lead in clean energy, you create jobs. This is a place
the U.S. could lead." http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/21/news/companies/ge_immelt_energy/index.htm?postversion=2008042115
Oceans eyed as new energy source By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer DANIA BEACH, Fla. - Just 15 miles off Florida's coast, the world's most powerful sustained ocean current — the mighty Gulf Stream — rushes by at nearly 8.5 billion gallons per second. And it never stops. To scientists, it represents a tantalizing possibility: a new, plentiful and uninterrupted source of clean energy. Florida Atlantic University researchers say the current could someday be used to drive thousands of underwater turbines, produce as much energy as perhaps 10 nuclear plants and supply one-third of Florida's electricity. A small test turbine is expected to be installed within months. "We can produce power 24/7," said Frederick Driscoll, director of the university's Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology. Using a $5 million research grant from the state, the university is working to develop the technology in hopes that big energy and engineering companies will eventually build huge underwater arrays of turbines. From Oregon to Maine, Europe to Australia and beyond, researchers are looking to the sea — currents, tides and waves — for its infinite energy. So far, there are no commercial-scale projects in the U.S. delivering electricity to the grid. Because the technology is still taking shape, it is too soon to say how much it might cost. But researchers hope to make it as cost-effective as fossil fuels. While the initial investment may be higher, the currents that drive the machinery are free. There are still many unknowns and risks. One fear is the "Cuisinart effect": The spinning underwater blades could chop up fish and other creatures. Researchers said the underwater turbines would pose little risk to passing ships. The equipment would be moored to the ocean floor, with the tops of the blades spinning 30 to 40 feet below the surface, because that's where the Gulf Stream flows fastest. But standard navigation equipment on ocean vessels could easily guide them around the turbine fields if their hulls reached that deep, researchers said. And unlike offshore wind turbines, which have run into opposition from environmentalists worried that the technology would spoil the ocean view, the machinery would be invisible from the surface, with only a few buoys marking the fields. David White of the Ocean Conservancy said much of the technology is largely untested in the outdoors, so it is too soon to say what the environmental effects might be. "We understand that there are environmental trade-offs, and we need to start looking to alternative energy and everything should be on the table," he said. "But what are the environmental consequences? We just don't know that yet." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued 47 preliminary permits for ocean, wave and tidal energy projects, said spokeswoman Celeste Miller. Most such permits grant rights just to study an area's energy-producing potential, not to build anything. The field has been dealt some setbacks. An ocean test last year ended in disaster when its $2 million buoy off Oregon's coast sank to the sea floor. Similarly, a small test project using turbines powered by tidal currents in New York City's East River ran into trouble last year after turbine blades broke. The Gulf Stream is about 30 miles wide and shifts only slightly in its course, passing closer to Florida than to any other major land mass. "It's the best location in the world to harness ocean current power," Driscoll said. Researchers on the West Coast, where the currents are not as powerful, are looking instead to waves to generate power. Canada-based Finavera Renewables has received a FERC license to test a wave energy project in Washington state. It will eventually include four buoys in a bay and generate enough power for up to 700 homes. The 35-ton buoys rise above the water about 6 feet and extend some 60 feet down. Inside each buoy, a piston rises and falls with the waves. The company hopes later to be the first in the U.S. to operate a commercial-scale "wave farm," situated off Northern California. The project with Pacific Gas and Electric calls for Finavera to produce enough electricity to power up to 600 homes by 2012. Finavera eventually wants to supply 30,000 households. Roger Bedard of the Electric Power Research Institute said an analysis by his organization found that wave- and tide-generated energy could supply only about 6.5 percent of today's electricity needs. Finavera spokesman Myke Clark acknowledged that wave energy is "definitely not the only answer" to the nation's power needs and is never going to be as cheap as coal. But it could be "part of the energy mix," and could be used to great advantage off the coasts of Third World countries, where entire towns have no connection to electrical grids, he said. Nick Furman, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, said he fears the wave technology could crowd out his industry, which last year brought in 50 million pounds of crab and contributed $150 million to the state's economy. "We've got a limited amount of flat sandy bottom on the Oregon Coast where we can put out pots and where we can fish, and the wave energy folks are telling us they need the same flat, sandy bottom," Furman said. "It's not the 10-buoy wave park that has the industry concerned. It's that if it's successful, then that park turns into a 200- or 400-buoy park and it just keeps growing." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080214/ap_on_sc/gulf_stream_energy
Smarter U.S. power usage could save $120 billion: study By Bernie Woodall LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Technology to help Americans reduce electricity use when the grid is stressed could help utilities save $120 billion on spending for new power plants and transmission lines, government officials and researchers said on Wednesday after a study in the Pacific Northwest. A year-long "smart grid" study showed consumers saved 10 percent on power bills and cut power use 15 percent during key peak hours, the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced. The small-scale GridWise Demonstration Project involved 112 homeowners on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Ron Ambrosio of IBM, which participated in the study, said nationwide use of the method could save $120 billion in power plants and transmission lines that won't have to be built. "This research is vital because decreasing power consumption during the busiest times on the power grid improves efficiency and reliability and reduces the need to build additional infrastructure," said Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray. The 112 homeowners were given new electric meters to receive signals from the local utility when power prices are high, and thermostats and computer software that curtail power use at these times. They could set preferences by computer and remotely change preferences while away from home. A companion study called the Grid Friendly appliance project fitted 150 homes in Oregon and Washington with "smart" dryers and water heaters equipped with circuit boards to detect when the power grid is stressed. When that happens, the appliances curtail power use for a minute or two. "Grid friendly" circuit boards could be put in refrigerators, and other big appliances -- Ambrosio said they will be routinely installed in major household appliances by 2020 or so. If every big household appliance in the country were so fitted, the U.S. could cut electricity use by 20 percent, claims the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In five years, the type of smart system used in the GridWise study will be available in 10 to 15 percent of U.S. homes, Ambrosio predicted, and in 10 to 15 years in half the country. Rob Pratt, Pacific Northwest program manager, said the Pacific Northwest study was different from past studies because it offered near real-time responses to stresses on the power grid based on preset presences by consumers. "We were able to engage electric customers in the moment-by-moment operation of the power grid," said Pratt. When the study began in 2006, Pratt said that once the cost of installing such systems at homes dips to $200, it will become almost universal. Ambrosio estimated that the cost is now $500, and falling. Power prices are highest during peak demand periods. If congestion on power lines of regional grids occurs or a key power plant fails during peak demand, prices can spike. Utilities have long had demand-response programs that cut power use by big industrial and commercial users, but the real-time response based on consumer choice is the future of power use in America, Pratt said. Smart grid techniques are a "shock absorber" to the power grid and power plants, giving utilities a chance to "catch a breath" during emergencies, said Pratt. Most of the technology needed for the smart grid is on hand now, but it will take a decade or so before its use is widespread enough to notice major savings, said Pratt and Ambrosio. http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN0961359320080109
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An
artist's representation of Energy Balls installed along a walkway atop a
classic Dutch dike.
A
close-up of an Energy Ball in place at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
An
artist's representation of Energy Balls installed atop a row of suburban
homes.
A
close-up of an Energy Ball in place at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
July 29: Harrison
Martin, right, gets a high-five from his dad Glenn Martin after his test
flight in Oshkosh, Wis.
The Martin Jetpack
during a test flight.
Another view of a
prototype Martin Jetpack during a test flight.
The rear view of a
Martin Jetpack prototype, with support stand clearly visible.
