Energy

An apartment with a view is coveted property. After a hard day at work, sitting down in front of a panoramic window while sipping a glass of wine is a wonderful way to unwind. A decent view is hard to come by. Not only that, but when actually given options, it may be hard to decide between the ocean view, city view, west side, or east side facing apartments. The answer: Individual rotating floors. Just make a choice and viola! The apartment slowly turns to face whatever you are in the mood to see that day. Dubai, home to 1/3 of the world's cranes, is constantly expanding. High rise buildings, hotels and skyscrapers are popping up like daisies. The latest technology and newest ideas are...

With renewable energy sources like wind and solar constantly on hand, it is no wonder that everyone wants to harness this energy with constantly evolving technology. Cars and buildings are going solar, why not boats and massive cruise ships? Solar Sailor, an Australian company that owns the patented 'solarsail' technology, has developed devices comparable to 'wings' that attach to ocean-going vessels to harness the ever-popular wind and solar energy. Both sources of energy are especially abundant when floating on the ocean. This hybrid marine power (HMP) technology comes in the from of a 'solar wing', which typically rests on top of the ship like a solid metal sail (to take advantage of wind) and...

Earlier this year, on October 27th, Ausra commissioned their first solar thermal pilot plant, a 5.0 megawatt facility located in Kimberlina, just north of Bakersfield, California. It is the first solar thermal power facility to be commissioned in California in over 20 years - significantly, the approximately 350 megawatts of solar thermal power installed back in the 1980's are all still operating. There are three basic types of utility scale solar thermal power, all of which have strengths and weaknesses and all of which currently compete to become the most cost effective version. Bright Source Energy has been working on an improved "power tower" design, where a field of two-axis tracking mirrors (which can be...

Imagine trekking through the snow in one of the most remote places in the world. Wind whips around your whole body. Your fingers and toes are numb from the cold. A thick fur lined hood obstructs your peripheral vision, but there is nowhere to walk but straight ahead, anyway. When it comes time to call in for help, the satellite phone fails to pick up a signal. Then the unthinkable happens...the battery dies. A dying cell phone in the remote wilderness is a disaster. A dead mp3 player, camera or GPS system is not as serious, but also an incredible annoyance. Solio, the world's most advanced hybrid solar charger, has ensured that no one has to ever be without power. The lightweight design of...

As the winds of change blow through America on this historic election day, here's an update on wind energy. The last two years have seen an astonishing growth in wind capacity worldwide, particularly since the installed base of wind generating capacity now constitutes a substantial denominator over which to calculate percentage growth.  Sometime this year, the installed base of wind generating capacity worldwide crossed 100 gigawatts. By comparison, the estimated total installed base of photovoltaic capacity worldwide at the end of 2007 was only about 10 gigawatts - and the yields from wind energy are now reliably over 25% - in some cases much higher - whereas the yields from solar average...

Few plants show up on the table in as many forms as the soybean. This hairy legume has been an important component of various foods and drugs in asia for over 5,000 years. In that time, it has been squeezed, pressed, boiled and engineered into soymilk, tofu, edamame, sprouts, flour, or vegetarian cheeses. Soybean oils are also found in soaps, cosmetics, plastics, clothes and biodiesel. Soy is everywhere and now we can literally surround ourselves with the stuff by using it as foam insulation in our homes. Insulation is appealing to homeowners because it reduces energy costs: A properly insulated home will stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter since the flow of heat...

It is difficult to put both sides of any initiative into a few words and capture all the nuances, but here are some observations for voters to consider as we go into the last days before the election.  The points made here are based on very recent conversations with people intimately involved with the campaigns both for and against Prop 7.  While everything revealed here was on the record, sources will not be disclosed. Here is the Legislative Analyst analysis of Proposition 7.  If you wish to view for yourself the areas in the bill cited below, click here for full text of Proposition 7 (this is a .pdf and will not accommodate text searches, if you prefer to keyword search the text, please click here for the full text in a format that...

On Thursday 10-16-08 I attended the User Group meeting of Plexos Solutions LLC, a boutique firm providing software and consulting to the rapidly changing California electric market. One of the presentations covered issues surrounding integration of renewable energy resources into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). This is important to sustainable energy investors because virtually all the growth in generating capacity is forecast to come from renewable resources. While the fundamentals of this market have been overwhelmed by broader market conditions this last month, over time the fundamentals provide the tailwind that will lift stocks. And the growth expectations for renewables are very high in the California market. Over the...

RE Power's "5M" offshore wind turbine is definitely the King of wind turbines - a single unit that generates 5.0 megawatts of electricity at full output.  With a rotor diameter of 126 meters (412 feet) and a hub height between 90 and 120 meters, RE Power's 5M unit is the biggest wind turbine available in the world, with a total height up to 183 meters (max. hub height plus rotor radius - 600 feet).  It represents the next generation in large scale wind.  With this turbine, a 200 tower wind farm would generate 1.0 gigawatts at full output.  Wind turbines this big are game changers, because the fewer towers involved, the more efficient wind power becomes, especially offshore. RE Power's 5M is designed...

If you want to imagine the Western Hemisphere's equivalent to China's Three Gorges Dam, look no further than the proposed Severn Barrage, which at peak output will deliver over 8 gigawatts of electricity, or about 50% of what the Three Gorges delivers. Even though the Three Gorges output decisively exceeds that of the Severn Barrage, if this massive civil engineering project is ever completed, it will dwarf every other power station in the world. Environmental groups bitterly oppose the Severn Barrage, and if they are to strive for consistency, they certainly should oppose this monstrosity. The ten mile long dam will connect the English coast to the Welsh coast across the Severn Estuary...

Cities are hot: Filled with skyscrapers, traffic and hot pavement, heat simmers between buildings causing the "heat island effect". Stagnant heat is trapped in the narrow city gaps and air conditioners cooling the inside of buildings spill even more heat out the walls. Trees offering natural cooling and shade are minimal and soil that helps water evaporation (thereby cooling the area) is non existent. Replacing the trees and soil are dark streets that store heat and reach temperatures up to 70F (21C) hotter than lighter surfaces. Stifling heat is depressing (unless you're at the beach), and the added smog and clouds that form because of it, don't help matters either. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that...

The evolution of the global energy economy is dependent on transitioning to the "smart grid," a term to describe an upgraded electric power transmission and distribution system that encompasses a broad range of innovations. The smart grid will be mostly invisible, but will impact virtually everything we do, and will facilitate a future where energy will be abundant, clean, and more than ever before, electric. There is possibly no company in the world more in the center of this transformation than GridPoint, located in Arlington, Virginia. Last week I spoke with Karl Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer for GridPoint, who described in detail his company's services. Understanding how GridPoint is...