Holland opens their first offshore wind farm

Wednesday marked the opening of the Netherland's first offshore wind farm, built by Shell and Nuon, a Dutch power utility. The 200 million euro project boasts a 108 megawatt farm on the North Sea, which will also be function as a research center to expand knowledge and observe how marine life is affected.

Going off land seems to be the only way that Holland's new coalition government can accomplish their (and the EU's) goal of 20 percent of their energy coming from renewable sources by 2020. In 2006, 2.37% of the Netherlands' total electricity came from wind power. Until recently, the licensing process for wind power projects took five years, and the government had prohibited building wind farms on the North Sea.

Offshore windfarms are good for several reasons. For one thing, the wind is much stronger at sea, and the open space allows for much larger turbines. The trend is more popular in Europe, where land area is limited and shallow water is abundant and accessible. The US generally has enough land space to accomodate windmills, although an offshore park is to be built off Cape Cod in the next two years. Much of America's coast is to deep for off-shore farms to be a practical solution, as production cost increases with a greater water depth and larger waves.

Offshore farms are said to be barely visible from land and designed in a place that won't interfere with shipping. Boston based energy consulting firm La Capra Associates predicts the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts to save the New England electricity market $25 million per year, and will decrease the region's harmful emissions. The system will lower demand for natural gas, which could lead to lower natural gas prices in the region.

The nation rallies for response to climate change

While I was chained to a desk for three hours on Saturday morning taking a Psychology GRE Exam, millions of people across the country united to spur Congressional action against climate change. Thousand of New Yorkers clad in blue gathered in Battery Park to create a "sea of people," just one of the many stunts that colored the first National Day of Climate Action. They lined the edge of lower Manhattan to create an aerial image of what the island will look like after the effects of climate change set in-- significantly shrunken, as sea levels are projected to one day rise 10-20 feet.

The organization behind this grassroots effort is Step It Up, and the goal is to persuade Congress to pass pass a bill to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. Though it sounds like a radical request, it would only mean a 2% decrease per year-- and we're clearly facing a problem that calls for drastic measures.

The nation saw more than 1300 rallies on Saturday, covering all 50 states on the map. Scuba divers in Florida went under water and held a Step It Up sign to draw attention to the damage that climate change will incur on coral reefs. Folks in the San Francisco area created a caravan of clean fueled cars and went to a Hummer dealership to protest the gas guzzlers. New Orleans saw citizens form a human chain that spelled out Step It Up, while students at Middlebury College in Vermont rose before dawn to send out a Step It Up message with flashlights.

Bill McKibben is the guy behind the movement-- a Middlebury Alum and environmental guru. Hes the author of "The End of Nature," a global warming treatise, and has organized several other similar events, including leading a 50 mile walk across Vermont to attend an environmental rally in Burlington.

The impressive turnout on Saturday was the first step in the appeal to Congress. The group is now in the process of sending all the pictures to Capitol Hill. They will send each U.S. Senator a copy of every picture that was taken at a rally in their state, and each U.S. rep will receive the same from all rallies in their district.

This action incited wild national and international media, and will likely be a significant push for legislative action thats already on the table in D.C. Step It Up is teaming up with Moveon.org to circulate a national e-petition for Congress, and encouraging all to make a pledge to put climate change on the front burner in the 2008 elections. Voters can pledge themselves at ClimateVoters.org. Step It Up's websites has many other ways that regular citizens can make a difference by working together-- I guess it just takes a bunch of hippies from Vermont to cultivate the grassroots approach.

Ethanol craze affecting food supply

President Bush has gone on something of an ethanol kick, his response to recent reports warning about the verity and consequences on the horizon as a result of climate change. Yet a recent article in The Economist sides with Fidel Castro's take on "the sinister idea of converting food into fuel." The price of corn has already risen as a result of America's fuel needs. Farmers are dedicating more land to corn, which in turn is increasing prices of other crops which are losing land. On top of that, corn is largely used as animal food, so the price of meat has gone up as a result of ethanol fuel. Our need for independence from foreign oil comes at a cost.

The production of ethanol for fuel in America has only been around 3.5% of total fuel consumption, but the amount is expected to increase at a rate of 25% a year, which is causing a building boom in refineries in the midwest. Subsidized by government funds, ethanol is the only alternative energy source that has widespread political support, as farmers, carmakers, and the oil industry all benefit.

However, according to some studies, corn-based ethanol isn't as green as we might have thought, as it calls for almost as much energy to produce as it uses when burned. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, government funds for ethanol are costing $5.5 billion and $7.3 billion in taxes per year. Sugar cane based ethanol, on the other hand, creates much more energy than is required to produce it, and places where it is currently produced (Brazil's a big one) aren't affecting food supplies as there's sufficient land available for crops. Sugar-based ethanol could be a great export for many developing countries with tropical climates.

Ethanol produced from wood, grasses, and agricultural wastes which contain a great amount of cellulose is a more environmentally viable solution than both sugar and corn, but the process is quite expensive. With more development, this system would be most ideal, as it wouldn't affect food supplies and would create a constructive use for farm waste. I fear that it could lead to the gung-ho use of trees in the production of cellulosic ethanol, which wouldn't help in the fight against global warming.

America presently taxes imported ethanol, which is soon to anger taxpayers as they see the rise in food prices. Importing sugar-based ethanol would both help developing countries and allow us a much more significant impact against global warming, which is one of the reasons that brought the US to this spot in the first place. It seems to me that even when the country tries to do something right, we screw it up by choosing the most convenient option-- in this case "bad" corn-based ethanol.

Scientist turning plastic into fuel...

Richard Gross is onto something. A chemistry professor at Brooklyn's Polytechnic University, Gross has recently developed a "fuel latent plastic," which can be turned into diesel fuel after its been used for it's packaging purposes. Plant oils are already in use in the making of biodiesel, and Gross thought to use the material to first create plastic, which with the help of a naturally occuring enzyme(cutinase) and warm water can then convert the plastic into fuel.
This development could be big for the military. A soldier produces an average of more than 7 pounds of packaging waste a day, which, according to the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency requires special transportation, especially for far away bases. This special plastic would cut transportation needs in half and save substantially amounts of fuel money. Although the process still requires further research, the Pentagon threw in $2.34 million to spur on development.
The process itself takes 3-5 days. The plastic is shredded (a paper shredder would do the trick) and placed in water with a bit of the enzyme. A few days later, the fuel surfaces on top of the water. Gross says that the amount of biodiesel produced by a gallon of soy oil remains the same, regardless of whether it is first made into plastic form or not.

The pentagon refers to the initiative as Mobile Integrated Sustainable Energy Recovery program (MISER), and aims to recapture 90% of packaging energy to convert to electricity.

Depending on the future of oil prices in the US, and if the government decides to tax carbon emissions, this technology could gain economical dependence. Furthermore, the plant base of the plastic/fuel means that it leaves a much smaller carbon fooprint on the atmosphere-- the carbon that is released will be absorbed by subsequent crops that are grown to make the plastic.

Supreme Court decision rules against EPA

Yesterday was a big day in the battle against global warming, as the Supreme Court voted against the EPA in the Massachusetts v. EPA case. The decision, which is perhaps the most important environmental case of the decade, rejected a long list of excuses that the Bush Administration EPA gave for failing to control the emission of greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Hopefully the monuemental decision will spur Americans into action-- the US is one of the leaders in greenhouse gas emissions, yet an international BBC poll found that Americans and Europeans are the least concerned about climate change. Go figure. The decision will likely bring regulations into the car industry and other large scale industrial outfits, but personal regulations for emissions aren't likely for any time soon.

However, there are hundreds of small things that we can each do to reduce our carbon imprint, and Time magazine compiled a list of 51 things that the average person can do to cut their emissions, from using public transportation to insulating your water heater.

Although the EPA isn't on the list of favorites at the current moment, their Energy Star program (shared with the department of Energy) is dedicated to promoting energy efficiency for the sake of saving the environment AND saving money. In 2006, ENergy Star helped people to save $14 billion in Utility bills at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of 25 million cars. Homes, household appliances, and renovation plans which are Energy Star approved supposedly enable customers to pay one third less in utility bills, and reduce emissions by roughly the same amount. In February 2007, more than 3,200 buildings had earned Energy Star approval, and they rate almost any household and business appliance you can conjure up, from dehumidifiers to vending machines. New York has 696 businesses that have become Energy Star partners, including NYU medical center, among many others.

Yesterday's historical first supreme court decision to deal with global warming brought the issue into the news spotlight, and maybe people will begin to realize that by cutting emissions they can actually save a lot of money. Who can say no to that?

Ahoy, Mate! Solar Powered Boat Crosses the Atlantic

After 117 days at sea, the Sun 21 Catamaran docked Thursday in Miami. The craft, manned by 4 Swiss academics and one Swiss sailor, is the first solar powered boat to cross the Atlantic. The team departed from Seville, Spain, and followed the same route as Christopher Columbus did when discovering the new World over 500 years ago. The crew hoped the voyage would resonate around the world the potential of renewable energy to fight climate change.
The 46 foot long boat is outfitted with 48 solar panels on its 700 square-foot roof, which absorb energy from the sun during the day and store it in batteries, which keep the boat powered during the night. Designed bysolar boat company MW Line, the boat sailed from Basel, Swizerland on October 16th, 2006, and made route via the Rhine River to the North Sea, where it continued along the coast of Europe to Spain and departed onto the open water. The boat, which travels at a rate of 10 kmh, is capable of running for 20 hours with a fully charged battery. A comparably sized gas powered boat would use around 72 liters of diesel each day on the same voyage.

The spokesman for the group, Daniel Weiner, said about the feat "Just as Columbus changed the mindshift [mindset] of his time [by showing] that the Earth was round and not flat, we want to show that the energy future looks different than the past."

Several European lakes and rivers are already home to solar powered boats, which cruise around lakes and rivers (in France and Austria), and then plug into docks where they disperse excess energy to the grid. In Australia, the Solar Sailor ferries passengers around Sydney Harbor, with a design of movable solar panels (they resemble wings) which catch the wind for even more power. A larger version of the Solar Sailor will soon have a home in San Francisco bay as a passenger ferry.

The Sun 21 catamaran will continue its voyage from Miami to New York, where it will remain on display for a period. The fact that a boat can make the long and treacherous Atlantic crossing relying solely on solar power might show skeptics the large scale potential of solar power, and lead people to think outside of the box when it comes to alternative energy uses. A solar powered car may not be such a crazy idea, right?

The Mother of all Solar Plants Built in Portugal

Wednesday marked the inaugeral run of the world's largest solar power plant, as it pumped electricity into 8,000 southern portugal homes. GE Energy Financial Services, PowerLight Corporation and Catavento Lda are the three companies behind the 11 megawatt powerhouse, which covers 150 acres and is priced at $75 million. Located near the town of Serpa in Portugal's Alentejo region, the area is one of Europes sunniest, with a reputation as both an agricultural spot and a poor part of the world.

The plant was supposed to have the highest solar power capacity, but a recently built solar plant in Germany beat them to it. However, Portugal wins the prize for porximity to the equator, which means the greater sunshine will allow it to produce the most power of all the solar energy plants in the world. The 52,000 photovoltaic modules create more than 20 gigawatt-hours per hour.

Portugal, whose greenhouse gas emissions have soared 37% since 1990 is hoping that this plant will save the country from reliance on foreign energy, and curb Portugal's contribution to global warming. Compared with fossil fuel generation, the solar installation will reduce greenhouse gas emission by more than 30,000 tons per year. On top of that, many hope that this addition will be the start of economic growth in the poor region.

Solarworld, a German company, has just announced plans to build the largest solar energy plant on the American continent, in the state of Oregon. Planned for 2009, the plant would have a capacity of 500 megawatts, and will cost upwards of $500 million.

These large scale forms of renewable energy are what the future of energy is apt to look like. The phenomenol difference in greenhouse gas emissions between traditional energy sources and solar systems mean that the world will have no choice but to convert in the coming years. Companies that are looking ahead to invest in renewable energy will be the ones who come out on top here. Even on a smaller scale, I doubt it too be too long before a large chunk of the homes have their own solar panel energy system.