The development of alternative energy has to go hand in hand with a reinforcement of the electrical grid, otherwise the latter will eventually become so busy and will cap the production to its capacity. Such is the case with Germany’s grid, which is an example of an imbalanced structure of solar and wind energy harvesters on one hand and the outdated grid, on the other.

Following a report from published in the NY Times, we find out the opinion of Oxford University economist Dieter Helm, who stated that “basically, governments have allowed the buildup of wind without thinking through the grid consequences. There are two responses: Stop wasting so much on the rapid development of wind and its questionable economics.

In most cases, the proliferation of alternative energy is done by government subsidies, but these are made without taking into consideration that it’s also necessary to invest in the grid. Up to 100 billion euros ($138 billion) are necessary to upgrade the grid over the next decade.

The projected production capacity, the one that’s been heavily invested in, is not always working at maximum parameters, but when that happens, the companies managing the grid need to put a hold on everything, because there’s too much energy to cope with. For example, when wind blew harder in Germany recently, their usual 5 GW reached 20 GW, and cross-border connection with grids in neighboring countries had to be shut down because they couldn’t handle the spike.

Read more: http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2011/03/03/european-supergrid/#ixzz1FbDvcWkm

German car maker BMW has recently announced that it plans to sell around 30,000 units of its i3 electric car in order to serve the growing market. BMW’s newest two models, i3 and i8, will be launched by the end of 2013.

“We are targeting volume production for the i3,” said Ian Robertson, BMW’s global sales and marketing boss. The i8 two-door coupe is based on the 2009 BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept study. It also combines the fuel consumption and emissions of a small car with the the performance of a sports car.

Whilst BMW has not officially announced the price of the i3, but according to some sources, it will have a price of about 40,000 euros in Europe. “As with all BMW Group products, the BMW i3 will be a premium car,” Robertson said.  The i8 and i3 also will share parts for powertrain electronics, electric motors and lithium ion batteries. The models will be built in BMW’s plant in Leipzig, Germany. After their official launch, the automaker will expand its BMW “i” lineup to include more vehicles.

This looks like a promising move towards less reliance on fossil fuels:

The Department of Energy has $29.5 billion available for the fiscal year 2012. About $8 billion would be invested in solar, wind and advanced batteries. “Whomever leads in the global, clean energy economy will also take the lead in creating high-paying, highly skilled jobs for its people,” the administration said about the budget.

Novel small-sized nuclear energy technologies, such as modular reactors, will also be funded $853 mln from this budget. To raise funds for clean energy, the White House asked the Congress to withdraw $3.6 billion in oil industry, coal and natural gas subsidies, a move that will lead to the loss of $46.2 billion by these industries over ten years.

Many Republicans are opposed cutting subsidies for fossil fuels, claiming that it would affect industries that offer jobs at a time when the economy is still fragile.

“Given the broad difference in priorities between House Republicans and the White House on energy issues, we believe that few of the proposed cuts and expansions … will become law,” Whitney Stanco, an energy policy analyst at MF Global, said in a research note

A system that converts the energy of sunlight directly into hydrogen has been discovered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Scientists there have managed to design what they call a “biohybrid photoconversion system,” which consists in the interaction of plant proteins responsible with photosynthesis and a synthetic polymer they created.

The Light Harvesting Complex II proteins (LHC-II) in a spinach plant have been determined of being able to self-assemble with polymers in a synthetic membrane structure which can produce hydrogen from water in the presence of sunlight. The researchers used a technique called “small angle neutron scattering” at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor.

Butanol can be made greener by the research of a Japanese institute, who developed an energy-saving biobutanol with a density of at least 80 percent. They derived their biobutanol from a 1 percent concentrated butanol and used a zeolitic separation membrane.

Being derived from biomass sources, biobutanol’s overall carbon emissions are zero, since the carbon dioxide it emits when burned is reabsorbed by the next biofuel crops. Unlike ethanol, which has a relatively smaller energy density (27 MJ/kg), biobutanol has 34 MJ/kg and has the same cost per calorific value. Moreover, biobutanol is easier to store and the tanks don’t have to have special designs. It doesn’t mix with water, like ethanol, which is a plus.

To read more go to:  http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2010/11/29/biobutanol-efficient-production-research/

I read this with interest...

A variety of interests are involved in the controversy about clothes lines, including: frugal living, global warming, individual rights, the economy, private property, class, aesthetics, health, energy, national security and nostalgia.

When mechanical dryers were first introduced, only well-to-do families could afford them and they became associated with affluence. However, now that most people can afford a mechanical dryer, clothes lines have become associated with a "home-town" character in neighborhoods because they are indicative of a low-crime area. (Clothes lines are used less frequently in high-crime areas because of the risk of clothes being stolen.) Also, environmental concerns and higher energy prices have created a new generation of clothes line advocates. Still, the old association with poverty persists in some people's minds.

Those against the use of clothes lines include:

• some associated with oil and coal companies
• some associated with electric and gas utilities
• some associated with peddling idealized life styles
• mechanical clothes dryer manufacturers and retailers
• some associated with appliance repair shops
• people who find clothes lines aesthetically displeasing
• older people who still associate mechanical dryers with wealth

Those in favor of using clothes lines include:

• people who believe that clothesline use will reduce reliance on foreign energy for national security reasons
• people who believe that clothesline use will reduce global warming
• people who believe that clothes blowing in the breeze are aesthetically pleasant
• older people who are nostalgic for times when everyone used clothes lines
• people who associate them with low-crime areas
• people who prefer to use clothes lines for personal reasons (save money, get exercise, no static cling, etc.)

The controversy surrounding the use of clothes lines has prompted many governments to pass "right-to-dry" laws allowing their use.^[1] According to Ian Urbina, a reporter for The New York Times, "the majority of the 60 million people who now live in the country’s roughly 300,000 private communities" are forbidden from using outdoor clothes lines.

Here is an interesting article about electric cars...

A transition to electric cars isn’t just a matter of the cars, but also of the infrastructure that goes with them, including public charging stations. The Electric Power Research Institute and the Tennessee Valley Authority plan to cut the ribbon on Tuesday on a prototype of a new kind of charging station, one that uses solar cells and batteries. But they do not work together in quite the way the public might expect.

The initial installation has six parking stalls, one of them extra wide for handicapped drivers, with carport roofs covered with solar panels. There are three refrigerator-size battery packs in a building that is heated and air-conditioned.

Read more on:  http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/if-you-build-it-will-they-charge/