July 08 - This is an update on the most promising developments in moving away from a world oil economy. We account for 25% of global oil demand and possess less than 3% of proven reserves. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of our country this year alone, four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion, greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind and the prime cause in the downfall of our country if we continue supporting a world oil economy. The most promising developments in bringing cleaner and alternative energies to the world are reported here and rated 1-10 in importance. But before I describe those developments, I need to highlight three significant facts …
* Governments in countries other than the U.S. are leading the way with alternative energy tax credits, cheap loans, and laws to accellerate clean technology production and mining. The U.S. is lagging far behind. All we can come up with is a drum beat for drilling for more oil, a continuation of our energy ignorance. Four dollar gas has awaken a sleeping giant who is charging off in the wrong direction.
* American technology is being exported to other countries because our government has become stingy in giving out incentives and tax credits for alternative energy starts. Case in point (one of many) - First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, opened its newest facility in Germany in April 2008 with 540 high-paying engineering jobs, because German government incentives have created a booming solar market while our government has put the damper on solar.
* The world has awakened to the fact that biofuels from food crops are creating enormous hardships on countries because of the huge increase in food prices. Crop-derived fuels have been the ultimate cause of food riots, starvation and high prices around the world. Biofuel crops must be non-food crops that can be planted in areas where food crops cannot grow.
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(1) Japan - Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) - June 11, 2008
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/AUTO01/806110418/1148/rss25 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid. Considering that this new technology is the key to the next step in hybrid vehicle development, PHEV’s using lithium-ion batteries are going to keep Toyota Motor Company at the front of the line to the futher demise of the big three U.S. automakers. The ecological PHEV’s can be recharged from a home electrical outlet or operate without plug-in just as current hybrid models operate today. PHEV’s can run longer as an electric vehicle than regular hybrids, and are much cleaner. With 100+ MPG estimates foreign oil dependency could be a non-issue long before fuel cells and the hydrogen economy move from myth to reality. http://www.soultek.com/clean_energy/hybrid_cars/batteries_the_key_to_the_automotive_revolution_part_1.htm
So far Toyota has taken a giant step forward here with Honda breathing down Toyota’s tail pipes. On June 11, 2008, Toyota introduced a PHEV with a next-generation lithium-ion battery and said mass production would begin in Japan, the U.S., and Europe by 2010. The next generation Prius, due around calendar year 2009, will almost certainly use a plug-in system. The car may launch as a normal hybrid and later, once the lithium ion battery technology is ready, switch to plug-in capability. Or, it may be a plug-in from the beginning using the existing hybrid battery pack and switch to lithium ion later. Whichever route they go, Toyato will certainly increase its share of vehicles on the road. They have publicly announced their goal is to sell 1-million hybrids each year beginning early next decade. And PHEV’s are sure to make up a healthy portion of those vehicles.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4227944.html
Not only did our government fail to step in with any kind of incentives for development of next-generation lithium-ion batteries, but the tax credits for new hybrid cars expired in Sep 2007. The energy legislation of 2005 was meant to protect U.S. automakers who have yet to become competitive with hybrid vehicles. http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/09/toyota-hybrid-c.html. So by capping the credit, our Congress has limited the incentives available to companies that have been at the forefront of hybrid technology. "Ironic isn't it?" said Ed Cohen, Honda's vice president. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/business/30hybrid.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Buying a high gas mileage vehicle is the best way to conserve energy because 43% of the 21 million barrels of oil we Americans use daily goes into our vehicles, but it’s too bad that conservation will continue to be hampered by our government to the delight of Japanese automakers. We need to turn this around! http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn355energyfactsed
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(2) U.S. Rio Hondo Texas - Algae-To-Biofuels Facility. PetroSun began operation of its commercial algae-to-biofuels facility on April 1 2008.
http://gas2.org/2008/03/29/first-algae-biodiesel-plant-goes-online-april-1-2008/comment-page-3/
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(3) Mexico - Algae Farm in Mexico To Produce Ethanol in '09
June 12, 2008. A Maryland-based company has committed $850 million to build a saltwater algae farm in the Sonoran Desert in northwest Mexico. Production is scheduled to begin next year. The ethanol produced at the farm will cost $1 less than today's gasoline, or about $3 per gallon. The company chose from a collection of 10,000 strains of algae and used molecular biology to enhance certain traits. Specifically, company engineers enhanced certain algaes' ability to make sugar and, through their enzymes, to ferment sugar into ethanol. http://current.com/items/89020201_algae_farm_in_mexico_to_produce_ethanol_in_09
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(4) U.S. - Colorado Jul 2008 - Pond Scum Promising Alternative Fuel Source
Unlike corn or other biofuels, algae can be harvested daily and can produce 100 times more oil per acre than conventional crops.
http://bioenergy.checkbiotech.org/news/2008-07-28/Algae_may_fuel_new_power_for_motorists/
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(5) Canada - The Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance June 14, 2008. The Alliance is making an all out effort to promote natural gas vehicles - http://www.ngvontario.com/ & http://www.cngva.org/about.htm.
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(6) Israeli Innovation Turns Trash Into Electricity - April 30, 2008 http://web.israel21c.net/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El2090&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology The Israeli thermolysis gasification technology system turns trash into syngas, which can be burned for fuel like any other material. One ton of garbage can generate 0.4 kilowatts of electricity an hour, which isn't a huge amount, but can definitely contribute somewhat to the energy pool in a locality, and at the same time the garbage is gone. The electricity is forwarded to a central grid. In Israel the electric company pays double the amount of what it sells a kilowatt-hour for, to TGE generated power providers, because the TGE system is recognized by governments as a "green," clean, environmentally sound system, the electricity generated by the system gets sold to local utilities at a premium - mandated by law, in most countries except not in the U.S. The system is cheap to install and run, and can gasify trash - and generate power - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
TGE is planning a large project in Israel, which will burn up to 200 tons of garbage a day.
Systems are also set to be installed in several South American and European countries. It could be the ultimate Israeli technology trick - turning today's trash into tomorrow's electricity.
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(7) Mexico - The Plant Salicornia and Salt Water - the Key to Abundant Renewable Energy. CNN - June 18, 1996 Salt water could be key to greener world. PUERTO PENASCO, Mexico (CNN) -- There's a limited amount of fresh water in the world and more demand for it than the supply can fill. That's one reason scientists are working on turning salt water into an alternative to fresh water for agriculture. The main crop is salicornia. http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9606/18/t_t/saltwater.farms/index.html
Carl Hodges is growing salicornia, a crop nourished by ocean water that holds the potential to provide food and fuel to millions.
By Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 10, 2008 - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-fi-seafarm10-2008jul10,0,5000326.story
Story - The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And plant has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming. Carl Hodges, the founding director of the University of Arizona's highly regarded Environmental Research Lab, has attracted an admirers including heads of state, corporate chieftains and Hollywood stars. In the northern Mexican state of Sonora, is channeling the ocean into man-made "rivers" to nourish a commercial aquaculture operations by greening a desert coastlines thereby adding acres of productive farmland and sequester carbon dioxide. Hodges contends that massive commercialization of this process will neutralize sea-level rise by using exhausted freshwater aquifers as gigantic natural storage tanks for ocean water. A halophyte, or salt-loving plant, the briny succulent salicornia thrives in hellish heat and pitiful soil on little more than a regular dousing of ocean water. Several countries are experimenting with salicornia and other saltwater-tolerant species as sources of food. Known in some restaurants as sea asparagus, salicornia can be eaten fresh or steamed, squeezed into cooking oil or ground into high-protein meal. Hodges has plugged salicornia for years as the plant to help end world hunger. Then oil prices exploded. That's because salicornia has another nifty quality: It can be converted into biodiesel. And, unlike grain-based ethanol, it doesn't need rain or prime farmland, and it doesn't distort global food markets. NASA has estimated that halophytes planted over an area the size of the Sahara Desert could supply more than 90% of the world's energy needs. In 2007 Hodges formed a for-profit company called Global Seawater Inc. to produce salicornia biofuel in liquid and solid versions. Global Seawater is attempting to lease or buy 12,000 acres there for what it envisions will be the world's largest seawater farm.
The plan is to cut an ocean canal into the desert to nourish commercial ponds of shrimp and fish. Instead of dumping the effluent back into the ocean, the company would channel it further inland to fertilize fields of salicornia for biodiesel. The seawater's next stop would be man-made wetlands. These mangrove forests could be "sold" to polluters to meet emissions cuts mandated by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.Nothing is wasted. Global Seawater already has a small refinery to process salicornia oil into biodiesel fuel which can be produced for at least one-third less than the current market price of crude oil. Leftover plant material is converted into solid biofuel "logs" that burn cleaner than coal or wood. Hodges has spent a lifetime studying the Earth's ecosystems and is determined to help get earth back in balance. Hodges’ project has met all environmental requirements posed by Mexico. As head of the Environmental Research Lab in 1967, at the age of 30 Hodges determined that farming must be adapted to utilize saltwater which accounts for 97% of the world's water supply. His team's work on shrimp cultivation fueled the explosion in Mexico's aquaculture industry. NASA's Bushnell says seawater agriculture has enormous potential. Still, he said algae might ultimately prove to be the best plant-based biodiesel fuel because it can produce much more fuel per acre. Hodges is on a mission to save the world."
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(8) U.S. - Huge Natural Gas Discoveries Made in the Last Five Years. This is more natural gas (most of it within the continental U.S. and not offshore) than any other country on Earth has discovered and ups our supply to more than 100 years. We can now take oil down by emphasizing natural gas. Use it for cars. Use it for plants. Oil comes down big to about a buck a gallon under a plan to switch the word’s oil economy to a natural gas economy for the next decade until renewable energy sources are up and running. Natural gas is cheap to get out of the ground and its most recent high price is the result of it being mostly under governmental lock and key, treating it in the same way as dirty oil prone to spills. You can expect companies and developers to switch to natural gas from coal (which is too dirty) from oil (which is too expensive) and from nuclear (which takes too long to build). Another point to consider is that natural gas will pass the muster of the environmentalists. When you talk about fuels, there is only one fuel that has no enemies. That's natural gas.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21997402/
* Proven Natural Gas deposits in the U.S.
420 trillion cubic feet of gas – Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
231 trillion cubic feet public lands
423 trillion cubic feet private lands
Total – 1,074 trillion cubic feet or at the current rate of 23 trillion cubic feet per year usage, that’s 46 years supply of natural gas (not counting coalbed methane and natural gas from Shale). New technologies have allowed drillers to go after deeper in gas basins from the Northern Plains to the Southwest, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains. Wyoming has some of the largest natural gas reserves in the country -- underneath public land -- leading to a debate over whether to drill or preserve the land for other uses. Environmental concerns have held up production. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/excel/aeotab_13.xls
http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/unconvent_ng_resource.asp
http://www.mines.edu/outreach/cont_ed/emfi-pdf/CoalbedMethane.pdf
* Coalbed Methane Is Booming. Coalbed methane resources in the contiguous United States and Alaska are 1,777 Tcf (77 years supply at current the usage rate of 23 trillion cubic feet per year). Coalbed methane is a gas generated and stored in coal beds. It is a high-quality clean gas fuel. Coal bed methane exploration is booming in the Powder River Basin (Montana and northeast Wyoming) and the Green River Basin (southwestern Wyoming). Since its inception in 1988, development of Virginia’s coalbed methane resources has proceeded rapidly. By the end of 2002, over 2200 wells were producing coalbed gas, with 350 new wells being drilled each year.
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/abstracts/2004hedberg_vancouver/extended/scott/scott.htm
* Natural Gas from Shale - Extraction from shale is more difficult but the price of energy has made extraction profitable. The biggest impediment is local and national environmental coalitions who are hampering development. Recent finds have been extensive and include…. (http://www.platts.com/Natural%20Gas/Resources/News%20Features/shalegasboom08/index.xml):
- Texas - Barnett Shale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnett_Shale
- Arkansas - Fayetteville Shale http://www.reostarenergy.com/fayetteville.asp
- Northeastern Utah, northwestern Colorado, and southwest corner of Wyoming - Green River Valley. Note: this could soon become the major natural gas-producing region of the U.S. http://www.uppergreen.org/
- Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and adjacent states - Marcellus Black Shale http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2008/01/fyi-marcellus-b.html
- Tennessee and Kentucky - Appalachian Basin Devonian Shale http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/unconvent_ng_resource.asp
- Louisiana - Haynesville Shale
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Chesapeake_Reports_Haynesville_Shale_Discovery_in_Louisiana_and_Announces_CapEx_Increase/92f01da5.aspx - Michigan - Antrim Shale http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=45411
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(9) U.S. - Huge Steps Forward in Solar Panel Technology - July 2008 (Science July 11, 2008 High-Efficiency Organic Solar Concentrators for Photovoltaics 11 July 2008 - http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/gca?gca=321%2F5886%2F226&sendit.x=28&sendit.y=12). New research by MIT scientists published in the journal “Science” marks the second recent major advance in solar panel technology. The first breakthrough was the use of light concentrators and thin-film solar cells which uses dyes to print solar cells on cheap plastic. The most recent discovery puts the two technologies together that marks the way toward cheaper solar power. Using cheap dyed glass concentrators, researchers have borrowed some tricks from fiber optics. The solar concentrator are placed on top of existing solar arrays where they capture some wavelengths of visible light and guide them to high-voltage solar cells on the edges of the array while still allowing the infrared light that largely powers current solar systems to pass through. Because the technology is simple and inexpensive, it will be easy to manufacture and deploy in the field within a few years (or less depending on America’s priorities in the coming months).
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/see-through-sol.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719011151.htm
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(10) U.S. - The Pickens Plan. T Boone Pickens is a wealthy oil man who is spending tens of millions on promoting his ideas and will be putting pressure on legislators. His overarching theme is, as he says, “It's Time to Stop America's Addiction To Foreign Oil.” http://www.pickensplan.com/
“America is in a hole and it's getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. We can't drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil.
The U.S. Great Plains states are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world.
The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country. Wind power currently accounts for 48 billion kWh of electricity a year in the United States — enough to serve more than 4.5 million households. That is still only about 1% of current demand, but the potential of wind is much greater. A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.
Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain. Developing wind power is an investment in rural America.
A Cheap New Replacement For Foreign Oil. The Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Vehicle is the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle in the world according to the EPA. Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today. According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline. Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. The natural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world. According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States. The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one-third of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles. Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of the new vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas. Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations. Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially and industrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow. Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoing development of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves. While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation. We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.
The Pickens Plan is a Bridge To The Future. A blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies. Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership. On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.”
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Also see Biofuels Current Technologies - http://current.com/topics/76102002_biofuels
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