April 22 is Earth Day. Check out the Earth Day Network for ideas on what to do. You can always go see Disney Nature - Earth, opening in theaters on Earth Day. It looks like most of the movie is made up of footage from the BBC’s Planet Earth. It might be worth going to see it in a theater. When you buy a ticket opening week, Disney will plant a tree in your honor.

On Thursday, March 26, 2009, Tesla Motors announced they are now taking orders for the Model S, the much anticipated follow on to the Tesla Roadster. The Model S is an all electric family sedan that can travel up to 300 miles on a single charge. The S is listed as seating 7, thanks to a couple of child seats in the “way-back.” There’s even additional trunk space under the front hood.

The Model S can be recharged in 45 minutes using a 480V outlet, though I’m not sure where you get one. You can also recharge using 110V and 22V outlets with longer recharge times. The battery pack comes in 3 sizes, equating to 160, 230 or 300 miles. The battery pack can be swapped out in 5 minutes, which could lead to battery swapping stations as a business.

Tesla Motors is still relatively unproven with regards to mass production. they have delivered only 300 Roadsters so far. They are looking to receive $350 million in federal loans to build an assebly plant in San Jose, California. The Model S should qualify for a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government, but that still leaves you with a price tag of nearly $50,000. They do provide some long term savings with less maintenance (no oil change) and and expected cost to drive 230 miles of about $5.

Earth Hour for 2009 is on March 28. Vote for Earth by turning off your lights for 1 hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 PM in your local time zone.

Dr. Martin Summerkorn, Senior Climate Change Advisor for the World Wildlife Fund Arctic Program, talks about the Arctic as the “canary in the coal mine” for climate change.

See more World Wildlife Fund videos on their YouTube Channel.

Geothermal power is energy generated from the heat stored beneath the earths surface. The inside of the earth is hot. Sometimes this heat finds its way to the surface in the form of volcanoes, geysers and steam vents. Some of the heat warms pockets of the oceans or atmosphere. The heat can be used to create steam to drive a turbine to create electricity. This is geothermal power.

Geothermal power, like many renewable sources of power, is more readily available in some geographical locations than others. For example, Iceland has a lot of surface level geothermal activity, and produces nearly 20% of its electricity and heats more than 85% of its homes using this resource. But Iceland is one of just over 20 countries around the world that utilize geothermal power.

Geothermal resources have been used for centuries for bathing and heating. It wasn’t until 1904 that the first geothermal power generator was tested in Italy. The first commercial geothermal power plant was built in the same location in 1911. New Zealand built the second commercial plant nearly 50 years later, in 1958. Most of these early power plants relied on existing steam vents. Hot Dry Rock (HDR) geothermal power was developed by pumping water down into the porous hot rock a few kilometers below ground. The resulting steam powers generators and is recollected as water to be pumped into the ground again. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) use cold water or chemicals to create the cracks and pores necessary to generate sufficient steam and therefore power. As EGS technologies continue to improve, the energy potential for geothermal can reach 2,000 ZJ as reported by an MIT study in 2006. The study predicted that this would be enough to sustain the worlds present energy consumption for several millennia.

Like solar and wind, geothermal power utilizes a free source of energy with very little harmful emissions. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal power is fairly constant and unaffected by the weather, allowing it to be easily used for base load power generation. It is considered nearly sustainable since the heat extraction is small relative to the total heat reservoir. Geothermal power is already economically competitive in some geographic locations and can often scale to provide large generation capacity. The largest dry steam field in the world is at The Geysers, north of San Francisco, CA, which can produce 1,360 MW of electricity. One of the power plants at The Geysers is pictured on the left.

There are some drawbacks to geothermal power. Geothermal fluids are corrosive and realtively low temperature (compared to steam). The lower temperature causes less efficient transfer to power. Trace amounts of toxic elements such as mercury and arsenic may also be present, so the fluids must be disposed of properly. Some systems such as EGS can cause land stability due to the injection of water. Some plants emit low levels of carbon dioxide, nitric oxide and sulfur, but at roughly 5% of the level of fossil fuel plants. Most of these emissions can be captured and sequestered back in the earth to drop the emission levels to less than 0.1%. While the overall geothermal source is relatively limitless, some local cooling may occur. Care must be taken to design plants at sustainable production levels, allowing their heat reserve to replenish from deeper in the earth’s mantle.

Like most of the renewable sources I have looked at, geothermal is probably not the single answer to the problem. However, it appears to be a viable solution for large base load power generation which can be supplemented with various other renewable sources. My next challenge is to start a head-to-head comparison of the various energy sources to really see how they stack up over a full life cycle assessment; or maybe I’ll take the easy way out for now and jump into transportation alternatives. Check back to find out!

In a speech he made earlier today (highlight clip above) in Washington, D. C., Al Gore challenged America to “end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.” Mr. Gore contends that our over-reliance on carbon-based fuel is at the core of our three biggest challenges today: the economy, the environment and national security.

“We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.”

The former vice president alludes to some of the potential solutions with the following factoids:

• Enough solar energy reaches the earth every 40 minutes to supply 100% of the worlds energy needs for a year.
• Enough wind blows through the Midwest corridor to supply 100% of the US energy needs.
• Geothermal is another relatively underutilized source of energy.

Mr. Gore’s ultimate challenge was this:

“Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.”

He likened this challenge to Kennedy’s challenge to land a man on the moon and return him safely in 10 years. Mr. Gore makes reference to falling prices of the specialized silicon for solar cells, the continuing performance increases in the semiconductor industry and the rising prices of oil as indicators that now is the time when we can meet a challenge such as this. Mr. Gore also notes some of the obstacles to reaching this goal, such as the need for a Unified National Grid for power distribution and a switch to an all electric vehicle fleet. He also stresses the need for an increased commitment to efficiency and conservation.

The speech includes some specific steps to get us moving in the the right direction. One of his key objectives is to sharply reduce payroll taxes and start taxing carbon emissions. Mr. Gore summed this up with “tax what we burn, not what we earn.” Another objective is for the US to rejoin the global community and lead efforts to secure an international treaty to cap CO₂ emissions.

Personally, I think this is the call to arms we really need to get moving. Unfortunately, unlike JFK in the 60’s, Mr. Gore is not the President of the United States of America. It remains to be seen what sort of influence this former VP and noble prize winner will have on the next administration. Will anyone running for the presidency or any of the top offices in the Congress be bold enough to take up this challenge?

“We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.”

For more information, join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org. You can find the text of the full speech here.

Wind is a fairly abundant, widely distributed potential source of clean energy. Most commonly it is harnessed by a wind turbine and converted to electricity. It is estimated that wind power could account for as much as 72 TW of energy world wide, though it accounts for less than 1% of current electricity generation. Some countries manage to produce significantly more, such as Denmark which generates nearly 20% of their nationwide energy from wind.

While wind has wider distribution and better availability throughout the day compared with solar, it is intermittent. Typical wind farms generate energy at about 20-40% of their theoretical maximum output. The ratio of actual production to the theoretical max is called the capacity factor. For example, a 1 MW wind turbine with a 35% capacity factor will produce 0.35 MW on average. This still leaves the need for either overproducing and storing energy during peak product or reverting to an alternative energy source during low wind periods.

In addition to intermittency, there are some environmental concerns for wind power. While no greenhouse gases are emitted during the operation of wind turbines, there is some concern that due to the intermittent nature of wind generation, the quick-start back up generators may be more polluting than the standard fossil-fuel plant they are replacing. Also, wind farms require large, unobstructed areas of land. There is also a concern that these wind farms have a negative impact on wildlife, especially birds and bats. While some studies have shown significant impact to bat populations in especially sensitive areas, most studies show that the impact on birds is fairly negligible. Another potential concern is whether noise produced by wind towers at sea could pose a risk to ocean mammals.

It doesn’t seem likely to me that wind can solve all of our energy generation needs. It does seems like a good complement to other alternative energy sources. Perhaps a combination of well placed wind farms and solar farms could meet most of the world’s energy needs. It seems like we would still need to make some major improvements in energy storage and transmission for this to come about. I certainly hope we will all start to feel the winds of change…

Do you know about the Climate Security Act? It is a bipartisan bill introduced to the Senate in 2007 by Senator Lieberman (I-CT) and Senator John Warner (R-VA). It is the most comprehensive global warming bill to make it out of committee. Read more about it and send a letter to your Senators from National Wildlife Federation’s Climate Action Center.

Surf around on the NWF page to learn more about topics like the Arctic Refuge and the Everglades.

Last night I attended a panel titled “Clean Technology - Sustainable Growth: Innovating and Implementing in the Developing World.” The panel was at Santa Clara University and sponsored by the California Clean Tech Open and the university’s Engineers Without Borders student chapter. Outside the theater there were some displays set up showcasing some of the SCU Engineers Without Borders projects, including the low pressure solar distillation apparatus pictured on the right. Other displays showed low cost building insulation derived from denim and pictures from previous projects.

The main assembly began with a presentation by an SCU-EWB co-chair, Yasemin Kimyacioglu, about the low pressure solar distillation project. The apparatus uses an array of solar tubes and coper pipe to pre-heat the water. An electric powered vacuum allows the water in the pressure cooker to boil at 57 degrees Celcius, rather than the normal 100 degrees. The purified steam runs through a condensing coil which utilizes the original contaminated water as a coolant. The prototype is nearly complete and testing will begin soon. There are still some technical hurdles to overcome before deployment, such as elimination of the contaminants from the pressure chamber.

The panel began immediately following the SCU EWB presentation. It was moderated by R. David Hague, VP of Business Development at GreenMountain Engineering, a consulting firm focused on renewable energy and clean technology. The panel included:

• Patrick Freeburger - Co-founder of BuildFast, winner of the CCTO 2007 prize for Green Building
• Rebeca Hwang - Co-VP BASES Social E-Challenge and Judging Chair for CCTO
• Dr. Ashok Gadgil - Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• John Rockwell - Managing Director, Element Partners, a clean technology investment firm

The bulk of the panel session centered around the problems with deploying clean technologies in the developing world. One of the main problems is a difference in values. Each panelist had a personal anecdote illustrating the common misunderstanding of the problems people in the developing world face. For example, Ms. Hwang described a project to deploy water filters in Nicaragua only to find the local men would rather spend their money on beer. Dr. Gadgil told of an unsuccessful attempt to utilize cheap, single family open space housing plans in Afghanistan, where extended families live together with separate areas for the men and women.

Mr. Rockwell pointed out that the only way to be successful in the developing world is to figure out how to make money. Mr. Freeburger described how his company, BuildFast, changed their business model from building complete housing solutions to providing key materials and knowledge to local builders. Dr. Gadgil pointed to SELCO in India as a good example of meeting the needs of the local people. They provide renewable energy solutions to Indian homes and businesses which could not normally afford them. They are able to replace kerosene lighting with CFLs powered by batteries charged by solar arrays. The service provides pre-charged batteries and the lighting solution delivered where needed replacing kerosene with a clean, more affordable, better lighting solution.

Understanding the culture, the value and needs are more important in many ways than the technology. You can be the foremost authority on water decontamination, but unless you really understand the local situation, your solution will probably not be successful. You are simply adding to the junkyard of Western technologies in the third world, as Dr. Gadgil called it. Sometimes you need to learn before you can teach.