Alternative Energy News has the latest on alternative energy technology including: tidal power, wave power, fuel cell technology, landfill gas extraction, geothermal energy, the Smart Grid, nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. If it’s not oil, coal or natural gas it’s an alternative energy. One day, we hope, that in this country it will just be called energy.

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What happens when an unstoppable object meets an immovable object in Georgia? It stops, according to this piece in the Newnan Times Herald. Global warming and global oil demand is making the expansion of free electricity technology through photovoltaics irresistible across the country. Yet, stubborn bureaucracy in the form of arcane laws is hobbling the solar power industry in a state with plenty of sun, Georgia. Buildings ideal for solar panels like schools and big box stores are barred from installing them despite state tax incentives encouraging the solar industry, according to the article linked above. Sadly, the piece is nearly incomprehensible. So those scratching their scalps by the fifth paragraph may not experience the frustration NBN did--after a third read--over an unnecessary impediment to a very promising alternative energy industry in a state that these days leans decidedly away from alternative anything.

_For more wide-spread enjoyment of the frustration mentioned above, NBN offers up this much clearer piece in Saturday’s New York Times about the pros and cons Pennsylvanians are reporting with the expansion of the natural gas fracking mania in that states. To cram a 1,700-word article into one sentence: the Times weighs the immediate economic benefits the state’s enjoying exploiting a resource whose long-term benefits fall far short, locally and nationally, of the promise of alternative energy. Cramming what’s missing in the article into one sentence is a little easier: The opening anecdote for the piece discusses a former rock quarry operator making jillions off hauling polluted water from the fracking well sites with no mention in the piece where all this polluted water is going. For that you need to read this superb NYTimes piece from last spring. (Thank you again NYT, for your brilliant work on this subject.)

_ Taking the first paragraph in this column and then the second we have the divisive paradox facing this nation. Do we fix our economy with broken technologies or hang tough and do what’s right. About the only thing clear in the Georgia solar power piece is solutions will be as expensive and elusive as the rewards will be long-lived. Georgia lawmakers must thwart corrupting oil interests--not a strong suit in the peach state—and then tap broke tax-payers to move solar power forward. Pennsylvania can sit back and let the petro-dollars roll in and let those receiving those rivers full of fracking wastewater worry about the clean-up. This is a microcosm of what Americans must resolve nationwide in tough economic times. It’s awfully hard to say no to the cash-in-hand oil interests at a time when not doing so might cost future generations so much more. One thing is for sure, it’s gonna be fun.

Here's a story that is a badly needed, honest assessment of the state and future of tidal energy technologies in this country. It says that as fast as permits are being handed out to explore areas with potential tidal power supplies, permits from failed projects in other areas are being handed in. The article makes some interesting points along the way. First is that wind energy once was in its infancy, and overcame similar skepticism to become a driving force in the alternative energy market. The article also notes that harnessing water power isn’t quite the same as wind. Water weighs 7 pounds per gallon while wind is as light as air. There’s a whole new set of engineering challenges in water power that have yet to be nailed down as these casualties pictured here from a New York City pilot project suggest.

Environmental impacts of tidal power are also far from fully understood. Here’s a Science Daily piece that says water pressure changes from the turbines might shock those fish that aren’t chopped up by the spinning blades. Sediment settlement around turbines is also a concern. So, is it fair to say it we’ll not see large-scale tidal projects anytime soon, if ever? NBN predicts that what's more likely to happen is we'll see small, boutique installations that will provide very local power in very specific locations.

We offer this piece on the success of the  NYC project mentioned above as proof. Verdant Energy has been fishing around for a decent underwater hydro project for years, including efforts in the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers in Massachusetts and NH respectively. However, a trial project in NYCity’s East River using a handful of turbines has proven itself by providing power for a few years now to an area supermarket and parking garage. There have been set-backs as the picture above suggests. However the turbines pictured here have held up well enough that Verdant Power wants to turn trial into triumph and has submitted formal plans for a permanent installation.  Here is a great New York Times video piece on the project.

Why do we desperately need a replacement for fulvalene diruthenium and why do we care such stuff even exists? Because this liquid may be a means of using solar energy on cloudy days, or at night, without inefficient silicone solar panels or bulky, dangerous batteries. MIT scientists say you can place fulvalene diruthenium in the sun, and it doesn’t get hot, it gets powerful. Sort of like changing water into wine. To use arguably oversimplified language, the sun’s heat twists the fulvalene diruthenium molecule into a new shape that it can hold indefinitely. Then with a little push it releases all that stored energy in the form of heat. The push can come from another chemical catalyst or just warm the stuff up a bit, according to the press release. In some ways, it’s a lot like gas, only it doesn’t burn. In theory you can carry a jug of this stuff to church with you.

How is it different from those little handwarmers you can also take to church or hunting or to a  football game? You can reuse fulvalene diruthenium indefinitely. Put it in the sun, and it stores heat for a rainy day. What are the drawbacks? The ruthenium part of the molecule costs a fortune and we’ll need a lot of it to put it to good use. However, scientists say knowing the structure of the molecule and how it behaves should make the search for a cheaper replacement fairly easy.  Once they find it, what’s to stop us from storing it in 500-gallon basement containers piped up to rooftop solar panels?

If this declaration of success of Maine river water turbines is measured in comparison to previous similar efforts in other areas, than these celebrants might hold off on the Champaign. Turbines are being dropped into fast moving waters all over the country. A company called Verdant Power ran similar pilot projects in the Merrimack and Piscataqua River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire respectively five and four years ago. We haven’t heard a word on those projects since. However, another project in New York’s East River is powering a parking garage and supermarket, awaiting final Army Corp approval. So, it’s clear that tidal energy is finally going mainstream, PTP, and this article is predicting it won’t have nearly the labor pains wind energy technology experienced. However, water turbines are expected to have about a tenth of the power capacity of wind in this country while wind and water turbine technologies have none of the passive convenience of solar panels. But each clearly has its own appeal and will likely be deployed in different combinations in different parts of the country.

Which brings us to the point of this piece; How is this motley crew of energy sources going to be corralled into a reliable power supply that makes sure that Family Feud comes on when we pick up the remote at 7 each night? That will be left up to the as-yet undeveloped smart-grid, a computerized power supply grid that throws certain switches when it’s sunny or windy, cloudy or calm or any combination thereof. Those switches then direct the energy from solar panels atop your roof, or the wind turbine down the street, or the nuclear power in the next state, into your TV. It will be left to the smart grid to channel all these power supplies into one seamless source that not only bring the Beverly Hillbillies to life, but insure the respirators stay on in your local hospital.

That’s a tall order in the face of the abundant, reliable single source power supplies now running this country and pouring a mind numbing level of soot and greenhouse gasses into the air. What we have here is a Hobsons Choice. Going down this clean energy road is going to be expensive and time consuming. Staying with fossil fuels could mean a wholesale reconfiguration of the planet’s societies and ecosystems, should Global Warming theory produce the ecological Armageddon being forecast these days. We wish there was something more to contribute to this conversation. This country faces hard choices in its near and long term future. About all we can add is that it’s going to be expensive. Anyone who says it won’t be is lying or courting disaster.

These days everyone is an auditor for the laundry list of suspect science experiments we've been asked to shell out for in the Stimulus package. So, we thought we'd weigh in on federal financing for plans in California to build a baby sun that will solve all the nation's energy woes. First, lets talk about the pros of such profligate spending. If they can get this hot fusion project to work it will be like creating a small sun fueled by deuterium and tritium, two forms of hydrogen that can be extracted by the bucketful from seawater. How cool is that? Endless energy in oceans of water.

That's it for the good news, now for the fault finding. Assuming these folks all have Ph.Ds, we still have to ask: is anyone on earth qualified to build a replica of the sun outside San Francisco? Isn't this work better left to God? Or at least move over to Detroit, not San Francisco. The scientists involved say this model sun will be a pinpoint several times thinner in diameter than a human hair. And, it will only burn for 200 trillionths of a second. Roast a few marshmallows and we're done. "There's no danger to the public," said Lynda Seaver, spokeswoman for the project. But to play it safe they've encased the 900-foot -ong lab in 6.5 feet of concrete. That's either incredible overkill or this woman is lying. Either way, our search for the truth lands us between the quotation marks of a group NBN has previously labeled as professional environmental saber rattlers, the National Resources Defense Council. They suggest our tax dollars might be better spent on stuff that works right now like solar panels and wind turbines. Particularly given the looming threat of global warming.

We agree, but what this group misses in its critique, and we feel is key to this whole concept, is the problem with centralized power generation sources, a.k.a. great big power plants. Do we really want to pursue energy technology that keeps us tethered to massive power plants, whether they burn coal or sea water? Particularly in the face of growing threats to the security of these installations. At the same time, the price of solar and wind power just keeps going down and no one can hack into your solar power system and shut you down. These scientists have spent $2 billion in tax dollars. That's enough to outfit 40,000 homes with solar panels that deliver results and wean the nation off centralized power supplies. We love science at NBN, but we also love results.

Looking down from outer-space, one might laugh at a civilization sitting atop a ball of molten lava at the same time ruining its economy and environment by burning fossil fuels to heat their homes and water. That's pretty much the story down here on planet earth. So, we thought we'd give a little ink to a completely anonymous group called the Geothermal Energy Association which is apparently gaining a little traction in this energy hungry world. That's the message from this website's report on a recent NYC summit on the subject. Attendance doubled over last year.

This 5-minute video and this Wikipedia link show just a little of how geothermal goes from high hopes to hardhats. It's an amazing process. To oversimplify it here, geothermal heating systems consists of drilling a hole into the ground and sinking a bunch of pipes into the hole. Cold water goes into pipes and hot water comes out. Important variables include how deep you drill—the deeper you go the hotter it gets.—and if you use heat pumps, which work like air conditions in reverse and use refrigerants, like freon. Those holes can be 20 or 30 feet deep, but then you'll need the heat pumps, which are not cheap. Or you can drill a couple hundred feet down, in which case you don't need the heat pumps, but the holes are more expensive harder to drill and maintain. Worse, about one in five of these holes needs to be redrilled.

Those are a few of the variables involved in geothermal heating which, again, we're grossly over simplifying. But, it's neat to think you don't have to live in Iceland or on a tectonic plate to take advantage of the earth's heat these days. Here are some other fun facts pulled from the piece linked up top:
Despite the recession, geothermal energy added 750 full time jobs and 2,827 construction-related jobs from roughly $800 million that was invested in the industry in 2009. The United States is the largest producer of geothermal energy in the world. Nevada, has about 450 megawatts of conventional geothermal power in production.

Here is some fun stuff out of the University of Florida. They are investigating tapping energy from the Gulf Stream using underwater turbines to generate electricity. The gulf stream is pumping enormous amounts of water right past Miami, a city that's been know to flip on an air conditioner or two. How cool would it be, if you'll pardon the pun, to have those AC units power by DC out of the Gulf Stream via turbines just a quarter mile offshore. Here's a very well written story about similar efforts farther north. We are surrounded by environmental energy. We should tap into every bit we can. Above is an artist  rendering of the plan. The little things on the bottom are the turbines with cable linking them to the hotels.

Mass High Tech also had this piece on a tidal energy project in Newburyport, MA. a while back. Anyone who has spent any serious time body surfing knows there is a lot of energy in waves, but the technology has always seemed gimmicky. These Newburyport folks are the third attempt in this area to harness all the water sloshing around here. However, the technology is showing promise. MIT and some Portuguese scientists announced a new tidal energy machine that might eventually make this technology work. It looks pretty cool.