Power brokers, pt. 5: Daniel Nocera, chemist, MIT

Again, from Discover

Nocera's "bright idea": Split water to generate hydrogen energy - but do it in a cheap way.

Since he puts it so well himself, this is verbatim:

"Nature is the best solar fuel enerhy storage machine known, so let;s figure out how it works. Light comes in four photons, and then it hits the leaf, and it splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. A leaf makes twice as much hydrogen as it does oxygen, and then it stores the result as a solid fuel. So you've stored the sunlight in a fuel,and the energy is in the chemical bonds. Then you eat that fuel, and you get all the sunlight back out in a time-released way. So you are literally chewing the sun.

"Our lab at MIT invented a process that splits water and performs photosynthesis cheaply, outside the leaf. Lately we've found out we can use the Charles River as a water source. We can use waste streams as water sources. We can use the ocean as a water source. So you can generate hydrogen through artificial photosynthesis whenever you need it. I'm very interested in the nonlegacy world, especially Africa and India. Giving a little kid in Africa 500 watts of energy will change his life. And that's not much energy.

Al Gore has been walking around saying: "Just use the technologies. They're on the shelf. Take them off." But he's gone a bit over the deep end. Yes, we do have the technologies. I have photovoltaics. I can store hydrogen in a fuel cell and get all the energy out. I can build any number of systems for you right now, but guess what? They're too expensive. The reason you need scientists like me to discover my little cobalt phosphate catalyst - the material that can drive photosynthesis outside the leaf and in the lab - is because I'm going to do it cheaply.

"To take care of the average house in a day, you need 20 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to only 5.5 liters of water. To drive that point home, I'm holding the amount of water in my hands that you need to power a very big house on the California coast. That amount of water takes care of that house as well as powering a fuel cell car around town. So that's the future. There's no way to stop it. Nature already did this 2-billion-year experiment and decided on this process, and it's coming soon."

There ya go!

Green jobs floundering, will recovery help?

Speculation is that hiring in the alternative energy industry will increase in the next 12 months but probably won't become a bigger part of the US job market. This is according to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in an Associated Press story from the second National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

What is lacking is investment, which supporters hope to see increase over the next year. This will only happen, however, if people get back to work and pique interest in expanding. Sound like a Catch-22? Solis hopes not.

"There'll be more, hopefully, credit available for this expansion because there will be more confidence because that's what we're lacking right now - that investment and confidence in the market."

That's a big "hopefully."

Former veep Al Gore put in his two cents (of course) by saying: "The economic crisis, the security crisis and the climate crisis are all intertwined, and the common thread running through them is our absurd and dangerous overdependence on carbon-based fuels."

I have no problem with, nay I very much enjoyed and agree with An Inconvenient Truth, but such rhetoric is doing more to alienate potential supporters than it is winning them over.

But despite the above statement, venture capitalists increased investments by 73 percent in the last three months over the previous three (see the KBR blog below) according to Ernst & Young. However, this is far below investments from just a year ago.

Before government initiatives were announced last year, investments were at a record high. That was well before the recession's full impact was felt.

The big downside has been the loss of jobs in wind, solar and other alternative energy companies. Projects were scuttled when credit markets froze and venture capital dried up.

Investments have been slow in coming as those with money conduct research to make the "wisest possible investments."

Union leaders are calling for large federal public works projects due to the fact that commercial and new housing projects are virtually non-existent.

Time will tell, but with the economy in dire need of stimulation and increasing proof of human involvement in global warming, such projects are beyond needed.

That said, give me a job!

Director of New Energy Institute Named At The University of Texas at Austin

Maybe this will get the ball truly rolling on alternative energy research and ways to reduce Texas' carbon footprint.

From the University of Texas website:

July 14, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Raymond Lee Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's first undersecretary for science, has been appointed director of The University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute, a multi-disciplinary institute that combines the strengths of the university's schools and colleges to advance solutions to today's energy-related challenges.

Dr. Raymond Lee Orbach

The Energy Institute is developing multi-disciplinary research programs and educational materials to overcome the scientific and technological barriers to a secure and sustainable energy future, while helping policy leaders make the informed decisions required to reach this goal.

Orbach, whose appointment begins Aug. 1, also will have joint appointments as a professor with tenure in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering; the Department of Physics, the College of Natural Sciences; and the Jackson School of Geosciences.

The Energy Institute will integrate the most advanced expertise from across the university's schools and colleges, including the Cockrell School of Engineering, Jackson School of Geosciences, College of Natural Sciences, McCombs School of Business, School of Law, LBJ School of Public Affairs, School of Architecture and the College of Liberal Arts, as well as expertise from the private sector.

"I am delighted that Ray Orbach has agreed to serve as the director of our Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin," said Steven Leslie, provost of the university. "He is a world leader of energy research and policy and he will be instrumental in organizing research efforts of our faculty in areas of critical importance to our state's and nation's energy needs."

"It is with great enthusiasm that I look forward to becoming a part of The University of Texas at Austin," said Orbach. "The superb quality of the faculty and students, its supportive relationship with the State of Texas, and its national and international renown make this an opportunity of enormous promise. I am delighted to be a part of the university's faculty, and I look forward to working with the campus, the city of Austin, the Texas legislature and our nation's leaders to solve the technical and policy issues facing our planet's energy future."

Orbach said he sees the Energy Institute as a unifying collaborator to help The University of Texas at Austin mobilize its faculty and academic resources, as well as talent from other universities in The University of Texas System, to make "transformational changes in energy production and usage" of fossil fuel, renewable and nuclear energy resources. He said these changes would address threats to the economic future of Texas, the nation and the world.

Orbach said the energy resource issues to be addressed initially would include:

• Fossil fuel production and use operating in a carbon-constrained environment. The lack of economical technology, combined with an absence of a legal and policy framework, could put Texas' energy resources at risk.
• New concepts and technologies in wind and solar energy for the development of electrical energy storage for these resources.
• Recycling spent fuel from carbon-free nuclear energy. The university has the opportunity to recreate a robust radio-chemistry program to extract the energy contained in spent fuel and to substantially reduce its toxicity and heat load for subsequent storage.

"These three areas combine to form the nexus of the future of energy production and use in the State of Texas requiring game-changing transformational research and development," said Orbach. "With success in this endeavor, our state will enjoy an economy and quality of life in the future comparable to that which it has enjoyed in the past."

Orbach was sworn in as the Department of Energy's first undersecretary for science in June 2006. He was the chief scientist of the Department of Energy, and adviser to Secretary Samuel W. Bodman on science policy as well as all scientific aspects of the Department of Energy, including basic and applied research ranging from nuclear energy, to environmental cleanup of Cold War legacy sites, to defense programs. Orbach was responsible for planning, coordinating and overseeing the Energy Department's research and development programs and its 17 national laboratories, as well as the department's scientific and engineering education activities.

Orbach also was responsible for the department's implementation of the president's American Competitiveness Initiative, designed to help drive continued U.S. economic growth. He led the department's efforts to transfer technologies from Department of Energy national laboratories and facilities to the global marketplace.

From the time of his Senate confirmation in 2002, Orbach also was the 14th director of the Office of Science at the Department of Energy. He managed an organization that was the third largest federal sponsor of basic research in the United States, the primary supporter of the physical sciences in the country and one of the premier science organizations in the world.

From 1982 to 1992, Orbach was the provost of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and from 1992 to 2002, he was chancellor of the University of California (UC), Riverside. Under his leadership, UC Riverside doubled in size, achieved national and international recognition in research and led the University of California in diversity and educational opportunity. In addition to his administrative duties at UC Riverside, Orbach sustained a research program, worked with postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students in his laboratory and taught the freshman physics course each year.

Orbach received his bachelor of science degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1956. He received his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He began his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University in 1960 and became an assistant professor of applied physics at Harvard University in 1961. He joined the faculty of UCLA two years later as an associate professor and became a professor in 1966.

Orbach's research in theoretical and experimental physics has resulted in the publication of more than 240 scientific articles. He has received numerous honors as a scholar, including two Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowships, a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship at Oxford University, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship at Tel Aviv University, the Joliot Curie Professorship at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle de la Ville de Paris, the Lorentz Professorship at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, the 1991-1992 Andrew Lawson Memorial Lecturer at University of California, Riverside, the 2004 Arnold O. Beckman Lecturer in Science and Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Outstanding Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology in 2005.

Orbach is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has held numerous visiting professorships at universities around the world and is a member of 20 scientific, professional and civic boards.

For more information, contact: Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 512-475-7847.

Happy Energy Independence Day!

T. Boone Pickens makes further strides in the natural gas business. Sure, he's making a ton of money, but at least its Green and clean. Well, cleaner than petroleum by half.

Dallas Morning News, Monday July, 6.

When a company the size of AT&T says it plans to make a massive investment in compressed natural gas-powered vehicles, the rest of us need to take notice.

The Dallas-based communications giant recently promised to spend $565 million over the next decade to buy 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles. At least $350 million of the investment, believed to be the largest of its kind by a U.S. company, will go toward purchasing 8,000 compressed natural gas vehicles.

This effort deserves immense praise. For the sake of national security and economic prosperity, the United States needs to wean itself from imported oil. And although natural gas is also a fossil fuel, it's a step in the right direction.

Efforts such as this one by AT&T can boost a technology that has been slow to take hold in the United States. Large companies often have thousands of fleet vehicles that they replace periodically. It makes perfect sense to replace aging dirtier-burning gasoline-powered vehicles with cleaner natural gas and hybrid varieties. Each drop of gasoline that isn't burned benefits the environment and cuts the apron strings to foreign oil.

AT&T's investment is just the latest validation of ideas coming from T. Boone Pickens, the legendary oilman who has become a Pied Piper for domestic energy independence. A year ago, Pickens introduced a broad energy plan that, among other things, would convert trucks and company fleets that burn diesel and gas into vehicles running on compressed natural gas.

At the time, many dismissed him as a shrewd, self-serving businessman who stood to profit handsomely if the country adopted his plan, which also included investments in wind and solar energy. Indeed, he has invested in companies that produce natural gas, sell natural gas vehicle fuel and build wind farms.

But Pickens also has pumped millions of dollars into efforts to encourage Americans to change their energy habits and has supported federal legislation designed to shift the nation from foreign energy sources. His advocacy has been bipartisan and broad: He has buttonholed mayors, business executives and lawmakers in his crusade to change the way Americans produce and use energy.

Still, the nation lacks a comprehensive network of natural gas refilling stations or, for that matter, many natural gas-powered cars and trucks owned by private individuals. That's why it's essential that operators of commercial fleets become an aggressive part of the solution. AT&T, for example, says it will help build about 40 compressed natural gas fueling stations.

The compressed natural gas industry also could use some help from Congress, namely the extension of natural gas fuel, vehicle and infrastructure tax credits for 18 years and incentives for auto manufacturers to produce natural gas vehicles.

Pickens deserves a big share of the credit for the progress so far. His relentless advocacy for this issue is part of the reason the nation is thinking about energy in new ways.

Natural gas in D.C.
Key provisions of H.R. 1835 to encourage the use of natural gas. A Senate version is expected to be introduced this week.

--Extend for 18 years the alternative fuel credits for natural gas used as a vehicle fuel, the purchase of natural gas-fueled vehicles, and the installation of natural gas vehicle refueling property credit.

--Make all dedicated natural gas-fueled vehicles eligible for a credit equal to 80 percent of the vehicle's incremental cost.

--Make all bi-fuel/natural gas-fueled vehicles eligible for a credit equal to 50 percent of the vehicle's incremental cost.

--Allow the vehicle and infrastructure tax credits to count against the AMT provisions and make them transferable.

--Provide grants for light- and heavy-duty natural gas vehicle and engine development.

Astros play Green

Starting on Earth Day, April 22nd, The Houston Astros are encouraging green practices, including building a Habitat for Humanity home with the following Green features.

• Exterior walls have a bottom seal layered between the wall unit and the foundation to prevent water and air leakage.

• The entire home is wrapped in 7/16" OSB sheathing then covered with a 3/4" sheet of Dow High Performance Energy Star Rated Underlayment. The exterior is then covered with a durable vinyl siding requiring little maintenance.

• Roof consists of 30-year architectural shingles (versus 20-year used by most builders) in a light color to reflect sun and reduce the amount of heat entering the attic.

• Roofing structure has a two inch roof overhang to reduce the amount of sunlight entering the windows and the underside of the overhang consists of 12" vented soffit for additional ventilation to the attic reducing heat entry to the home.

• The windows are Low E, double bane with a sunglass tint.

• Air conditioning unit is a high rating Tempstar 14.5+ seer, 2.5 ton cooling system with 80% annual fuel utilization efficiency for gas heating.

• The home is painted with Valspar low volatile organic compounds and is non-toxic as certified with the Green Seal Certification (Standard GS-11).

• Houston Habitat homes exceed the energy efficiency requirements for designations as an EPA Energy Star qualified home.

• Houston Habitat for Humanity is the recipient of the 2007 Energy Star, Excellence in Affordable Housing

Right Fielder Hunter Pence (an All-Star! Congrats Hunter) and 3rd Baseman Geoff Blum are the club's official "Green Ambassadors."

Click here for more, including videos of Pence working on the house and Blum visiting a Houston area elementary school while they were conducting a recycling drive for the school.

Thomas Friedman on E.T. China

On Independence Day, Thomas Friedman explained why the U.S. needs to up research into E.T. (that's energy technology, not the cute little guy that phoned home).

In his column, he states, "this energy thing isn't just about global warming. In a world that is adding one billion people every 15 years or so — more and more of whom will be able to live high-energy-consuming lifestyles — the demands for energy and natural resources are going to go through the roof. Therefore, E.T. — energy technologies that produce clean power and energy efficiency — is going to be the next great global industry, and China needs to be on board. Well, China has gotten on board — big-time. Now I am worried that China will, dare I say, “clean our clock” in E.T."

Although China was once (and in many ways, still is) one of the dirtiest countries in the world environmentally speaking, "[it] is increasingly finding that it has to go green out of necessity because in too many places, its people can’t breathe, fish, swim, drive or even see because of pollution and climate change."

In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, Beijing required an enormous overhaul because the air was worse then L.A. on a bad smog day and countries were worried about the health of their athletes and the long-term effects the atmosphere of the city may have had on them.

But China is working it and working it hard. In a list compiled by the investment bank Lazard, China is third in alternative energy manufacturing and production behind #1 Japan and #2 Europe. The U.S. places fourth.

So what, one might say. Obama has put the energy bill on the back burner and focused most the administration's energy on health care. While this is an important subject and one that has been a major issue in elections and administrations throughout this century and the last, Friedman says that the energy bill needs more attention and needs it now.

"If we do not impose on ourselves the necessity to drive innovation in clean-technology — by imposing the right prices on carbon emissions and the right regulations to promote energy efficiency — we will be laggards in the next great global industry," he states.

But he is not poo-pooing the need for health care reform.

He puts it in no uncertain terms:

"Health care and the energy/climate bill go together. We need both now. Imagine how poor we would be today if U.S. firms did not dominate the top 10 Internet companies. Well, if we don’t dominate the top 10 E.T. rankings, there is no way we are going to be able to afford decent health care for every American. No way."

Makes sense, no?

Skyscrapers and historical buildings going Green

While I have often admonished greed in this blog, sometimes financial motivation can lead to Green improvements.

Many iconic American buildings, including the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Christman Building in Lansing, Mich. (an 81-year-old Elizabethan Revival office that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places) have all modified their energy consumption.

This is primarily due to the fact that "Many high-profile tenants won't even consider moving into a property without the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, said Allan Skodowski with Transwestern management group. They may not even know what the certification means, he said, but they demand it nonetheless," according to an article in today's Yahoo! News.

The renovations include:

- The Empire State Building has "blanket[ed] its towering facade this year with thousands of insulating windows."

- Many older buildings are plugging porous walls, adding high tech water systems and using recycled material in carpets and tile.

- Making use of long-life, high-efficiency light bulbs.

- At the Christman Building, the limestone exterior was repaired and unique details like the mica light fixtures were preserved, but "the building owners spent $8.5 million to add water-efficient plumbing and increased the amount of natural light. They also capped the building with a reflective "cool" roof."

- And "Chicago's Sears Tower announced late last month that it will embark on a five-year, $350 million green renovation. The 110-story, staggered skyscraper, which turned 36 this year, will crown its rooftops with solar panels, wind turbines and up to 35,000 square feet of sunlight-absorbing gardens."

While the motivation may be to lure tenants to the dozens of empty offices in these buildings, the outcome is energy saving and relies less on municipal energy, much of which is furnished by dirty coal power plants.

Who says capitalism and environmentalism can't scratch each others' backs?

Toyota Center goes green thanks to Rice student

Carin Giga, a Rice MBA grad student, is interning at the Toyota Center this summer as part of the Environmental Defense Fund's 10-week Climate Corps program. Not only is this good for the environment but for the companies as well, saving $40,000 per 50,000 square feet of office space annually.

The Houston Chronicle ran an interview with Ms. Giga Saturday.

Among some of the strategies:

- Reuse water for mechanical equipment that uses it or use it for irrigation

- Encourage employees to turn off computers and lights when leaving for the day.

- Make use of daylight rather than artificial illumination.

- Make use of occupancy sensors so lights are only on when someone is present and turn themselves off immediately upon exit.

- Kick the thermostat up a mere one or two degrees (or down in colder weather).

- Turn climate control off in unoccupied areas.

Much of this seems like common sense but apparently it takes an MBA candidate to implement such policies.

Grassoline

Now this is pretty @#*!ing cool.

In the July 2009 issue of Scientific American, the cover story explores the already-tested practice of using second generation bio-fuels (ethanol would be considered first generation) made from the inedible parts of plants like corn stalks, scrap wood (including sawdust) and plants like switchgrass (which grows in sandy, low water areas that are not suited to agriculture) to create viable bio-fuels.

By using heat or chemical processes to break down cellulose, the plant waste can be converted into fuels such as bio-diesel, reducing our dependence on foreign (and declining domestic) oil without reducing the amount of biomass for food (a problem with ethanol, which is primarily made from corn).

This "scrap" biomass has the potential to produce more than 100 billion gallons of grassoline per annum - "about half the current annual consumption of gasoline and diesel in the U.S."

In addition this biomass can be converted into a vast array of fuel - "ethanol, ordinary gasoline, diesel, even jet fuel."

As a bonus, some plants "such as the short-rotation willow coppice, will decontaminate soil that has been polluted with wastewater or heavy meatals as it grows." This means that not only will carbon emissions be reduced (bio-fuels burn cleaner than petroleum based propellents), but damaged land can eventually be restored to an agriculturally sound state.

And while one of the by-products of the rendering process is CO2, the emissions are negligible in comparison to the burning of fossil fuels. Plus, agriculture jobs could be created in areas of the country where they did not exist before.

Win, win, win, win and WIN again.

T. Boone Pickens on Meet the Press

Be there.

Texas coal-powered electrical plants

According to a Daily Texan article, Texas currently has "10 coal plants permitted or awaiting approval," says the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. "Three more have been proposed."

At a panel discussion and film screening Thursday night, representatives of the Sierra Club, ReEnergize Texas and Power Vote organizations promoted alternate energy sources. Citing the fact that Texas produces a third of the nation's wind power, the panel lamented the fact that companies prefer staying with "ancient technology" - because the infrastructure is in place, it's cheap and there really isn't a profit in cleaning up carbon emmissions.

Cyrus Reed of the Sierra Club stated that only "One-tenth of one percent of profits is dedicated to developing new energy technology," adding "Even the dog food industry spends more of its money on development."

What needs to happen is politicians need to quit worrying about oil industry lobby money and become more involved in ensuring that the climate doesn't get any warmer and that Texas stays as clean as it is.

The by-gone "Don't Mess With Texas" anti-pollution campaign now seems hypocritical when the leaders of the state are allowing dirty coal plants to continue proliferating.

It's a dilemma

With oil dipping to around $70 a barrel, gas is becoming more affordable and gives Americans less of an excuse to conserve. I'm not bashing drivers; people have families to support and sometimes public and eco-friendly transportation just isn't an option due to location and/or distance. People can make it to work. This is a good thing.

Another upside of lower gas prices is the extra money in people's pockets, money that can be used to stimulate the sorry market economy in its current state. This is a good thing, as well.

In order to halt the slide, OPEC is planning a million barrel a day reduction to drive prices back up to a more profitable level.

This is a good thing because it will force government and researchers to continue concentrating on alternate fuels and other forms of energy.

Without higher priced oil, it is entirely possible that research into alternatives may slow down.

That would be a bad, bad thing.

Tomorrow's energy today Pt. 3: The vanadium redox flow battery

Despite it's name, vanadium is not a product of Stark Industries, nor does it fuel any piece of Iron Man's ragingly cool and seemingly low-emission suit. I didn't notice much of a vapor trail, so I'm assuming the metallic muscle man has a relatively low carbon footprint.

[If anyone knows the fuel specs of Iron Man's suit, I would appreciate a head's up. Not finding anything on the web except how much he can lift, how much damage he does in equivalence to pounds of TNT and how fast he flies. No fuel specs.]

While we're in the Zen mode of exploring what things are not, the vanadium redox flow battery is not an invention of Jack Marlowe's Halo Industries, nor will never be used in a cell phone, lap top or even an electric vehicle.

In fact, the vanadium redox flow battery is even more unwieldy than its name.

The battery is enormous, with two tanks of electrolytic liquids that create a charge in a central chamber then flow back to their tank. The energy can be stored and reused almost indefinitely. The problem was that the membrane separating the two liquids would eventually weaken and when the two mix, they were rendered unusable.

The answer was to use vanadium, a soft whitish metal found abundantly and has four state of oxidation. Each state of oxidation has a different energy capacity diluted in liquid. Even when the two states mix, there is no loss because the vanadium can easily flow from one state to another.

The sun goes down at night and wind is as capricious as the mythical wind gods once believed behind it.

With a vanadium redox flow battery, a power plant will not have to rely on natures whims. With this battery at its core, a plant can run almost indefinitely.

Another green victory in Austin

On Thursday, September 25th, the Austin City Council passed a few resolutions that prove why this fair city, a liberal oasis in a desert of rednecks, deserves its spot on the Top 50 Greenest cities in America. According to Country Home magazine, we are number 33. Popular Science ranks us at 10.

Aside from having one of the cleaner electrical plants (but that's not saying a lot) in the state, Austin's public transportation, its green-conscious citizens and one of the more effective municipal recycling programs around, the city is now installing photovoltaic cells (i.e., solar panels) on certain schools and offering cash incentives to green building.

In a rundown of the council meeting Thursday night, the Austin American-Statesman listed the resolutions passed.

The top 2:

The city council "agreed to give a $51,216 rebate to the Long Center for the Performing Arts for installing high-efficiency lighting, chillers and cooling towers."

And it "agreed to use $100,000 in state grants to buy and install solar photovoltaic systems in six Austin schools."

This is wonderful and groovy and should be applauded. However, though it may be a start, is it enough?

How about more money for all the schools? Why not turn every section of available rooftops at the University of Texas into solar collectors? Initial cost aside, in the long run it would reduce dependence on the power plants and cut down on the emissions that accompany the production of electricity the "old-fashioned" way.

Lastly, how about fining developers that don't make their new buildings energy efficient. It's more expensive to do so in some cases, and those that do should be rewarded. But the condos built as cheaply and as quickly as possible should have to pay for not respecting the land around the spot they just dug up.

The Austonian condos going up downtown have doggie toilets for chrissake. How about some solar panels and maybe a couple wind generators?