Like Putting Lightning in a Bottle

Energy is all around us.

Wind, solar, hydro, tidal, geothermal – all of these alt-power sources are so promising because they are able to harness the energy created by the very forces of nature, rather than by consuming finite resources.

Now, perhaps we can add a new option to this list. Brazilian researchers say they have developed a way to extract electricity from the atmosphere. That’s right, just pull power from the air.

Everyone knows the skies are full of electricity – ever see a wild lightning storm? Now that’s a lot of energy!

But until now, nobody really knew how this power was generated. The key, it turns out, is water.

The old thinking was that water droplets in the air were electrically neutral, but scientists at Brazil’s University of Campinas have proven otherwise. In fact, water picks up charges from dust particles in the air, and the more humidity in the air, the more electricity is being stored. Makes sense, since lighting is usually accompanied by heavy rain.

Fernando Galembeck, lead researcher on the project, found “clear evidence that water in the atmosphere can accumulate electrical charges and transfer them to other materials it comes into contact with.

Galembeck calls this effect “hygroelectricity,” or “humidity electricity.”

Though this is still just a lab project, Galembeck says it could be possible to commercialize the concept and create hygroelectricity collectors that would draw electricity from the air that could be routed to homes or businesses. These would be most effective in regions with high-humidity, including many developing countries.

One extra benefit: siphoning off power from the air would electricity from accumulating in the air, and perhaps head off any damage caused by lighting strikes. Though we might miss watching those really dramatic lighting storms.

Poor Planning

Remember way back in 2007, when we tweaked the United Kingdom for building wind farms in areas that don’t get enough wind?

Well, we have a similar problem here now; according an article in Wired magazine, a significant number of turbines in rural areas, especially in west Texas and Iowa, are situated in sparsely populated areas that lack the high-power lines needed to carry electricity back to the big cities where it’s needed.

The problem is so bad that some operators actually have to pay the local utilities to take surplus electricity off their hands, instead of selling the juice they feed into the grid. (Technically, it’s called “negative electricity pricing.”) Wow, that just seems amazingly… dumb.

Why does this happen? Well, here’s the part that does make a little sense. Wind farms take up space, a lot of space, and people in the cities and the suburbs don’t want to devote precious acreage to turbines. Hello, NIMBY politics!

Out in the country, of course, there’s a lot of space, often filled with struggling farmers who see windmills as a potential new source of revenue. Tax subsidies for running wind farms makes turbines even more appealing. But the low populations in these areas (as well in the deserts and other undeveloped areas where wind and solar projects spring up) mean utilities have never built the transmission lines needed to bring the juice back where it’s needed.

One expert says developers can build a wind farm in a year or two, but it takes about five years to install the transmission lines needed to carry the power back to the cities. And that’s assuming there aren’t any bureaucratic headaches getting the rights to string the wires through public and private lands.

The lesson here is that government incentives, like the ones that encourage people to build alt-energy project, are good, but they also need to be smart. And sometimes it seems like “smart” and “planning” are two words that rarely go together.

Winds of Change

So there are some signs of positive change.

According to data released this week by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, overall power consumption in the United States is falling, and the amount of energy generated by renewable sources is climbing.

Power generated from coal, natural gas and petroleum in 2009 is down from the year before, according to the new figures, while solar, hydroelectric, geothermal and, most significantly, wind all gained.

Total power usage in the U.S. was 94.6 quadrillion BTUs last year, down about 4.6 percent. In part, the decline in overall power use is tied to the recession – less economic activity means people and businesses use less power, researchers say. Another key factor was the growing use of energy-efficient appliances.

Meanwhile, renewable power sources became a more important part of the mix. Wind saw one of the biggest spikes, up more than 37 percent, to 0.7 quadrillion BTUs. And since most of that fed right into the grid, it offset the need for coal-fired electricity plants.

"The increase in renewables is a really good story, especially in the wind arena," Lawrence Labs researcher A.J. Simon told Science Daily. "It's a result of very good incentives and technological advancements. In 2009, the technology got better and the incentives remained relatively stable. The investments put in place for wind in previous years came online in 2009. Even better, there are more projects in the pipeline for 2010 and beyond."

Wind Power Dangerous to Birds

Birds, bats and wind turbines – still a bad combination.

Researchers are studying wind farm in the Northwest to determine their impact on the local raptor population (that’s hawks, eagles, vultures and other big birds of prey). Big wind farms, naturally, are located in areas with strong, consistent wind patterns; unfortunately, those winds are also appealing to large birds, allowing them to glide for hours while scouting for prey. And when a diving hawk comes into contact with the whirring blade of a wind turbine, well it’s not pretty. Turbines also are a danger to bats, for all the same reasons.

“It’s like a crime scene,” says one researcher in this article from The Seattle Times, who’s been keeping track of the number of bird-kills for the wind-power industry. The initial results show that wind power is not a major threat to wildlife (but the studies were commissioned by the power companies, so were you really expecting a different answer?).

Still, this is an issue that won’t go away. I covered it back in 2005, when the Altamont Pass wind farm in California was temporarily shut down so environmental researchers could find a way to minimize the number of bird kills. A 2004 report found 880 to 1,300 raptors were killed at Altamont every year, including red-tailed hawks and the federally protected golden eagle.

The best answer, it seems, is finding locations for wind farms without a major population of raptors. Of course, if you don’t do your homework, then a big wind farm will eventually make sure the local area doesn’t have a substantial raptor population.

Focus On: Tidal Energy

Tidal power has always been one of our favorite ideas, and now it’s starting to evolve from cool theoretical concept to a practical source of energy.

Ocean Power Technologies is one of the front-runners here, with ongoing projects in Australia, Spain, two in the United Kingdom, Hawaii, New Jersey and two in Oregon.

Most of these are small deployments, mainly to test the technology, but the Oregon projects are noteworthy because they are slated to be full-scale, commercial power wave parks. In Coos Bay, OPT has proposed installing up to 200 of its PowerBuoys about 2.7 miles offshore, enough to generate up to 100 MW – the company says this will be the largest wave-power plant in the world.

Not far up the coast, in Reedsport, OPT expects 10 PowerBuoys offshore. It’s currently waiting for all the necessary federal permits; if it actually happens, it will be the first such commercial wave power site on the West Coast.

OPT has been testing the PowerBuoy near Atlantic City for more than two years, but the energy produced is simply dissipated. (These are big machines – see the pic above.)

Wave power is simple, in theory, but really hard to pull off. Like windmills, these systems convert kinetic energy into electricity. As the tide and waves move, the PowerBuoys move up and down, generating power.

Tide power has some key advantages over other green energy concepts. The tides, they never stop, so there’s a seemingly infinite supply here, and it could be more consistent than wind power. Plus, the tide is everywhere, so tidal power systems could be installed in a wide variety of sites.

But the sea is a very tough environment. Water and salt don’t mix well with electricity, metal and electronics, and it’s tough to send out a maintenance crew. But OPT’s systems seem to be holding up over time, so maybe we’ll see more of these. In fact, despite these not-so-trivial challenges, the main hurdle may not be the technology, but the regulatory process (see Cape Wind).

A Modest Proposal

I have to give these guys plenty of credit for being bold.

As part of an effort to come up with a series of futuristic projects that could remake the world of tomorrow, researchers at the Japanese tech company Shimuzu Corp. have suggested turning the surface of the moon into a massive solar power plant.

Wow. That’s really all I have to say about that.

The idea behind the Luna Belt, as they call it, is to build a series of enormous solar arrays all the way around the moon’s equator, nearly 7,000 miles. It would initially be a few miles thick, and would eventually grow to as wide as 250 miles.

The power would be beamed back to Earth via lasers or microwave, and then converted into electricity.

And how would this enormous project be built, you might ask. Good question. Shimuzu says that much of it could be constructed using the rocks and dust found on the moon, including cement, bricks and glass fibers, and most of the work could be handled by robots. Shimuzu even says it can combine hydrogen with moon dust to generate water (but it’s BYOH from home, unfortunately).

Modestly, the company says the idea will lead to “the infinite coexistence of mankind and the Earth.”

Tilting at (Green) Windmills

Cape Wind makes the cover of The New Yorker!

This totally awesome image says so so much about this project’s years-long approval process. Which, by the way, is still not over even though Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave it the thumb’s up last month.

Native American groups still oppose the wind farm, which they say desecrates sacred ground. That’s an argument that may still carry some weight, I think, though other groups that claimed the project could interfere with fishermen and wildlife probably have little ground to continue their appeals.

But this cover – so fun. A pilgrim (that would be Cape Cod locals, I assume) riding a whale (to represent fishermen? Or is that pro-environmental groups?) tilting at windmills. Are they saying the whole Cape Wind debate was a Don Quixote-style fight they could never win? A total waste of time?

But for who – Cape Cod residents who opposed the wind farm project, or environmentalists who embrace green energy?

The ambiguity is the best part.

Offshore Wind - More Delays

Here’s an important lesson for anybody trying to develop a major alt-power project: work with your neighbors.

Cape Wind, the proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound, appears to be sinking after years of controversy. Last week a federal panel recommended that the government reject the project; interior secretary Ken Salazar is expected to make a final ruling this month.

Among other missteps, Cape Wind developers failed to win over the powerful Kennedy clan, which reportedly was concerned about the environmental impact of the turbines. (Also, big windmills might mess up the view from the Kennedy compound.) When a green project gets the thumbs-down from the famously pro-environment Kennedys, that’s a bad sign. Fishermen were also reportedly concerned the turbines would interfere with their nets, and Native Americans said the project would intrude upon culturally significant areas and rituals.

And in New York, NIMBY politics also scuttled in 2007 an offshore wind proposal that would have been visible from one of Long Island’s most popular beaches, though Long Island Power Authority is currently working on another proposal that might address these concerns by planting the turbines farther out in the Atlantic.

But in Rhode Island, another windy Northeast state, wind-power advocates are taking a different approach. Instead of letting developers take the lead, that state is trying to do its homework first. The state is expected to finish in August a three-year study of potential offshore wind sites. It’s evaluated bird migration, fish populations, local fishermen and Native Americans’ concerns. That seems like it should cover all, or at least most, of their bases.

Peas - More than Just Good Food

I’ve always thought photosynthesis was cool.

Yes, photovoltaic solar power is cool too, but converting light energy into electricity doesn’t seem like such a huge transformation. Light – a type of energy we can’t see or touch – being converted into electricity – another form of energy we can’t see or touch.

But photosynthesis, now that’s something. Plants convert light into… well, I always thought it came close to creating life. Using the energy of the sun to help plants grow, to literally form living organic mass.

The news today is that researchers at Tel Aviv University have managed to harness the engine of photosynthesis to create electricity, using nanotechnology.

In a plant, solar energy energizes electrons, triggering a biochemical reaction that leads to sugar production. The mechanism is something called Photosystem 1, a very sophisticated nano-scale arrangement that converts solar energy into chemical energy.

The Tel Aviv researchers managed to isolate tiny crystalline elements of the PS1 from a common pea plant, and tweaked them to generate not chemical energy, but electrical energy. In fact, they created an array of these crystals on top of a layer of gold (an excellent conductor) and laid it out in the sun. The result: 10 volts of juice.

The message: peas are good tasting, good for you, and may be an important part of a balanced energy diet as well.

A Power Source Blooms

Who is Bloom Energy

This Silicon Valley startup emerged from stealth mode last week promising to solve the word’s energy crisis and make sure everybody gets double portions of ice cream for dessert.

Well, actually, they announced a solid oxide fuel cell that the company claims will enable homes and businesses to generate their own electricity. They call it the Bloom Box, which I admit is a catchy name, but I wish they provided more details about how it works.

Here’s what we do know: the company has raised boatloads of VC money, somewhere around $400 million, from some very well-known names. Ebay, Fed-Ex and Googleare said to be testing Bloom Boxes now to power their corporate campuses.

Here’s what we need to know: how it works and what it will cost. Fuel cells aren’t a new concept; they generate power through a chemical reaction, but Bloom isn’t revealing what’s in its secret sauce. Sure, the boxes can put out juice, but it’s hard to tell now if they’re affordable. And with an up-front cost of more than a half-million dollars, Bloom Box power will need to be substantially cheaper than other options to make this a viable product.

We would be thrilled if our initial skepticism was proven unfounded, but then we also fell, briefly, for cold fusion.

Nuclear Power, No Cold War Flavor

Thorium – will this be the future or nuclear energy?

I admit, I had never heard about the stuff until I saw this article in Wired recently, but the idea of thorium-based reactors has been kicking around for decades. In fact, back in the 1950s, when nuclear energy was just getting off the ground, thorium was a leading candidate to become the basic fuel of reactors around the world. In the end, uranium won out (you’ll see why shortly), but some researchers are taking another look at thorium

Here’s what’s cool about it. First, it’s really abundant. There’s lots of it out there. Uranium, by contrast, is less common, especially the U-235 isotope that’s used in reactors.

Also, thorium leaves behind very little waste material. We all know that nuclear waste is a pretty major issue with current reactors. And, the byproducts of thorium reactors are only dangerous for a few hundred years, compared with uranium’s leftovers, that are harmful for thousands of years.

And here’s the kicker: when thorium breaks down, none of the resulting materials can be used to produce nuclear weapons. Uranium, of course, begets plutonium, the key ingredient to bombs.

Obviously, this was seen as a perk during the Cold War – hey, we get electricity and explosives! That’s a win-win.

But our priorities have changed now, and maybe that means the world is ready for a nuclear power plant that doesn’t have much to offer the Pentagon.

Algae - A Reality Check

Algae biofuel companies are up in arms this week over a new study that cast serious doubts about the environmental benefits of what many had seen as a promising technology.

Yes, there are plenty of advantages to algae over other biofuel source-crops: it generates more power than other commonly used plants, and because it grows in water instead of soil it doesn’t compete with farmland that can be used for food.

But the report, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, focuses on other factors. The main problem isn’t the algae, it’s the fertilizer needed to grow it. More specifically, it’s the energy used producing fertilizer and the carbon dioxide emitted by the trucks that haul it to the ponds where algae is raised.

While producing biofuels from crops such as corn and canola can ultimately cut down on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the report concluded that the algae production could actually increase greenhouse gases.

This is an important point – everything is connected. Even if algae delivers more energy than fuels from other sources, it’s not necessarily a gain if the entire process, start to finish, is less efficient than other source crops.

But don’t rule out algae just because of this report. It’s still a promising concept, and it’s hard to imagine that smart people can’t develop new manufacturing processes that are more efficient than what we’re using now.

Team Effort: Supergrid

When the government really gets behind a project, sometimes it can pull off some pretty impressive work.

In this case, a continent-spanning, green “supergrid” in Europe. Nine countries are collaborating on a massive energy project that would link wind turbines, tidal energy systems, solar farms and hyrdro power sites all across the North Sea region.

The nine nations – Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom – are expected to formally approve the project this month, and hope to have firm plans in place by Fall. Various estimates have pegged the cost at close to 30 billion euro.

The vision is to connect wind farms in Scotland, solar facilities and Germany and tidal power systems in Belgium and Denmark through a vast network of high-capacity, undersea DC cables. Direct current transmission lines cost more than AC, organizers say, but lose less energy over long distances.

The project has one more component that seems especially clever: all these alt-energy systems will be linked to a network of hydroelectric plants in Norway. When the wind is a’blowin’ and the waves are a’crashin’ and the sun is a’shinin’ there’s going to be plenty of juice, and the excess power can be diverted to Norway, to push water uphill. Then, when the weather is less cooperative, the water can flow downhill to power the hydro plants.

The EU has pledged to generate 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020; that’s an ambitious target, but projects like this one could certainly help them get there.

3 Gorges X 5

Amazing article in The New Yorker last month, about China’s green energy programs, and more importantly, how they absolutely dwarf anything we’re trying to do here in the U.S.

I had known that China was a big force in renewables – that the country was a major supplier of wind turbines and solar systems, and that their manufacturing capacity was huge, and growing. But I hadn’t really appreciated the scale, not of what they are able to do now nor of what they are going to be able to do in the near future.

In fact, Chinese researchers have been pushing hard to develop green energy for decades, through an initiative called the 863 Program – so-named because it was the result of a scientific call to action in March of 1986. 1986! That was more than three decades ago.

With such a big head start, it’s no surprise that China has moved into such a leadership position. Here’s my favorite stat about the country’s impressive progress: in the next decade, China is expected to install enough wind power equipment to generate FIVE times energy of the Three Gorges Dam, which is already the world’s biggest electricity producer.

Chinese scientists have also garnered respect for other advanced systems, including clean-coal gasification, batteries for electric cars, thin-film solar cells and more.

And it’s not just scientific progress that’s boosting the country’s green progress; Chinese policy shifts have allowed the price of coal to increase, giving the billion-plus consumers there incentive to seek an alternative for what has long been one of the most common sources of household energy.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Reagan and Bush administrations moved in the opposite direction, dismantling green research projects and developing policies that encourage the use of oil and other sources of greenhouse gases.

This was a powerful reminder of what can result from far-sighted leadership.