Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines

Wind turbines, once used primarily for farms and rural houses far from electrical service, are becoming more common in heavily populated residential areas as homeowners are attracted to ease of use, financial incentives and low environmental effects. No one tracks the number of small-scale residential wind turbines — windmills that run turbines to produce electricity — in the United States. Experts on renewable energy say a convergence of factors, political, technical and ecological, has caused a surge in the use of residential wind turbines, especially in the Northeast and California.

“Back in the early days, off-grid electrical generation was pursued mostly by hippies and rednecks, usually in isolated, rural areas,” said Joe Schwartz, editor of Home Power magazine. “Now, it’s a lot more mainstream.” “The big shift happened in the last three years,” Mr. Schwartz said, because of technology that makes it possible to feed electricity back to the grid, the commercial power system fed by large utilities. “These new systems use the utility for back up power, removing the need for big, expensive battery backup systems.”

Some of the “plug and play” systems can be plugged directly into a circuit in the home electrical panel. Homeowners can use energy from the wind turbine or the power company without taking action. Federal wind energy incentives introduced after the oil crisis of the late 1970s helped drive large-scale turbine use. But the federal government does not currently provide a tax credit for residential-scale wind energy, as it does for residential solar applications, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group for wind-power developers and equipment manufacturers.

A number of states, however, have incentive programs. In New York, “we have incentive levels for different installations, but a homeowner could expect to get approximately $4,000 per electric meter for a wind turbine,” said Paul Tonko, president of the New York State Renewable Energy Development Authority, which administers the state’s renewable energy incentives. “That would cover about 30 to 40 percent of the project cost.”

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

ENERGY: US Coal Exports on the rise, but what of Global Emissions Control?

The worldwide demand for coal coupled with the recent cancellation (see Jan 20, 2008 post) of many coal-fired power plants in the US has begun to drive US coal prices higher. The price for Appalachian and Wyoming coal rose 93% and 67%, respectively in the last year.

Most US utilities have long-term contracts with fixed pricing for coal. But the need for coal for utilities and steel manufacturing in developing countries (e.g., China and India) is rising. US exports rose from 5% of production in 2005 to 8% in 2006, and the trend is expected to continue. This means that sooner or later the US utilities will have to negotiate expiring contracts, the price will go up, and our utility bills will rise. Coal makes up 50% of US energy usage!

Like the discussion about global reduction of greenhouse gases, coal presents another situation where the developed world can try to preach to the developing world about becoming green (e.g., less coal-fired plants, etc.). But, the developing countries counter that we've contributed most to the current climate situation and we've had our industrial boom - why shouldn't they have theirs?

We have 27% of the world's coal reserves and we continue to sell it overseas. It makes 'green' a tough sell around the world.

ENERGY: Turn off unused appliances when not in use

Consumer electronics suck as much as 25% of their power when not in use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Your PC grabs 85% when it's not in use.

Eleven watts even when powered down adds 66 cents to a typical Californian's monthly energy bill. These silent siphons of energy, known as phantom loads, add about $28 to the average annual household power bill, according to the energy department.

Because unplugging everything in your home and office is unrealistic, consider buying a SmartStrip, a power strip and surge protector that automatically cuts off power to devices that are shut down.

A top-of-the-line AA nickel metal hydride MaxE battery from Ansmann Energy, distributed in the U.S. by Horizon Battery, costs about $4 and can be recharged 1,000 times. At 3 cents in electricity per charge, the battery's total cost comes to about $34. By contrast, 1,000 disposable AA batteries costing 30 cents apiece would cost about $300.

(classic Bacsik)

ENERGY: Current biofuels create a 'Carbon Debt'!!

Two studies released February 7, 2008 (by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy; and Princeton University) determined that almost all biofuels produced today (particularly corn-based ethanol) produced more CO2 emissions than conventional petroleum when all production factors, especially land-use changes, are taken into account. Even though biofuels emit 50 to 95% less CO2 than conventional petroleum.

Holy rain forest destruction, batman!

Basically, many acres of farmland are being converted to products like corn for ethanol instead of for food and the slack has to be picked up somewhere. The studies suggested that the slack is picked up in places like South America and Asia where rain forest, peatland, and grasslands are being converted to crops.

Here's the kicker - the carbon, which is stored in the original plants and soil, is released as carbon dioxide. So much so that the carbon reduction benefit of the CO2 reduction can take hundreds of years to offset!!!

This "carbon debt" must be paid before the biofuels produced on the land can begin to lower greenhouse gas levels and have a positive effect on global warming.
The analysis calculated that a U.S. cornfield devoted to producing ethanol would have to be farmed for 167 years before it would begin to achieve a net reduction in emissions.

The conversion of peatlands for palm oil plantations in Indonesia ran up the greatest carbon debt, one that would require 423 years to pay off.

Researchers did note that some biofuels do not contribute to global warming because they do not require the conversion of native habitat. These include waste from agriculture and forest lands and native grasses and woody biomass grown on marginal lands unsuitable for crop production.

Some European countries (and Canada) are trying to fashion laws that restrict biofuel imports to those that were grown in an environmentally friendly manner. We'll be talking about the pros and cons of these laws later.

(classic Bacsik)

ENERGY: Coal for electricity: important and dirty

Coal is used to generate more than 50% of our electricity needs in the US and President Bush made coal the centerpiece of his plan for meeting future energy needs. The US has over 200 years of reserves. But in the increased threat of regulation, the lack of adequate transportation from source to customers, and increased worldwide demand have made the future of coal-fired plants in their current incarnation less certain in recent years.

These three factors (regulation, transportation, and demand) have led companies to cancel over 50 new US coal-fired plants in 2007 because: 1) regulations for increased use of renewable energy by utilities and for carbon emissions limits will almost surely be enacted in Washington in the next few years; 2) our transportation infrastructure requires considerable upgrade to economically deliver coal to market; and 3) increased coal consumption by countries like India and China has caused world prices to rise which increases the cost of coal-fired plants (the coal production and consumption graph is courtesy of the BP statistical review of world energy 2007).

US electricity costs are rising and will continue to do so in this environment.

Based on the assumption that carbon emissions control legislation will be passed in the next few years, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimates coal power costs will pass nuclear and natural gas by 2030. The most likely legislation will require plants to collect and sequester CO2, and we will discuss more about this technology soon.

The EPRI uses a bathtub analogy for our energy policy discussion: the carbon dioxide faucet (emissions) has to be slowed enough to allow the drain (renewable energies brought online) to keep the tub from overflowing (climate change). The coal industry will have plenty to say about that whether they're selling here in the US or across the developing world.

More renwable energy news soon.


(classic Bacsik)