GM says the Volt has saved a supertanker of gas
That’s one small step for man, and one less really big barge full of fuel for mankind.
That’s basically what General Motors’ Chevrolet division is saying in its latest effort to pitch the Voltextended-range plug-in as a way for prospective drivers to save both money and the earth.
Chevrolet estimates that Volt drivers have saved more than 2.1 million gallons of gas – or one supertanker – by driving their vehicles in electric mode. Since the model launched in late 2010, Volt drivers, who, on average, use electricity 60 percent of the time and fuel from the car’s on-board generator the rest of the time, have put on 40 million electric-only miles on the car, saving a combined $8 million in unused gasoline the process.
While the Volt fell about 2,300 units short of Chevy’s goal to sell 10,000 units last year, 2012 sales through April tripled from a year earlier to 5,377 units. We anxiously await Nissan’s own claim on how many fleets worth of gas its Leaf drivers have saved…
Solar Prices Much More Competitive than Typically Thought
A new study from Bloomberg New Energy Finance finds that solar power is a much more competitive power option than many think. Basically, the technology has changed so fast that many people just don’t realize it’s such a good option now.
From Bloomberg: “Many decision-makers have yet to catch up with the improvements in the economics of solar power from recent reductions in the cost of the technology, a working paper released by the London-based research firm said today.”
In the past 3 years, solar power has grown four-fold. With this and also largely because of this, solar panel prices have dropped about 75% in that time. If you happened to check solar prices 4 years ago but not since then, that means you’ve got a pretty warped sense of the price of solar.
Solar power is now “competitive with daytime retail prices in at least five major economies,” Bloomberg notes. That includes world-leading Germany (where solar is at an extreme low now).
“This competitiveness is often underestimated because inadequate metrics are used to compare the costs of different energy sources. It has major implications for policy and investment decision-makers, the report’s authors from seven organizations and companies said.”
Of course, the price of solar compared to the price of fossil fuel alternatives still isn’t nearly accurate, since the societal health, environmental, and grid externalities of those other options still aren’t being internalized by fossil fuel companies. Those companies still are not forced to have their goods accurately priced in the marketplace. Additionally, the lifetime of a solar power system is still greatly underestimated when determining solar prices, further warping the true story. That issue was not addressed in the report.
“The authors’ aim is to inform policy-makers, utility decision-makers, investors and advisory services, in particular in high-growth developing countries, as they weigh the suite of power generation options available to them,” Bloomberg New Energy Finance itself writes. “The paper is being submitted for publication in the peer-reviewed literature.”
The authors of the report include: Morgan Bazilian and Ijeoma Onyemi of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization; Michael Liebreich and Jenny Chase of Bloomberg New Energy Finance; Ian MacGill of the University of New South Wales; Jigar Shah of KMR Infrastructure; Dolf Gielen of the International Renewable Energy Agency, IITC; Doug Arent of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis; Doug Landfear of AGL Energy; and Shi Zhengrong of Suntech Power Holdings.
Check out the full working paper, Reconsidering the Economics of Photovoltaic Power, at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Source: Bloomberg
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1cdEo)
This Bright-Red Housing Complex Is Actually Green
The residents of these bright-red social housing units in Salburua, Spain, are the envy of every bill-paying apartment (and house!) dweller everywhere. In a feat of remarkable design innovation, these affordable apartments—designed by ACXT—actually produce too much energy!
The U-shaped structure abounds with energy-efficient design strategies: A continuous ventilation system extends from one side of the roof to the other, mitigating the need for chimneys. The floor plan of each apartment is positioned for maximum solar exposure; kitchen and living area on the outer edge facing the street, bedroom facing in towards the courtyard. And its waste and energy generation services are clustered together to ensure maximum efficiency.
The projects most energy-lucrative component is its co-generation plant. The system—which uses both natural gas and conventional thermal energy—harvests heat from motor and exhaust fumes, enough so that excess energy is occasionally available to sell back to the grid. [Inhabitat]
Package Free, Zero-Waste Grocery Store to Debut in Austin
I don’t get to toot my own city’s horn quite as much as I would like to, so I’ll gladly take that opportunity now. I recently heard about a new grocery store debuting this summer in Austin called In.gredients. They will be the first package-free and zero-waste grocery store in the United States, an idea with small footholds in Latin America and Europe.
I’m really intrigued by this idea. You bring in your own reusable containers for, well, everything. That means no package waste, which is a huge fraction of the waste that goes into our landfills. It means less processed foods, which support subsidized and often unhealthy corn and soy products, in addition to a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals. It means seasonal, local foods, reducing transportation costs, pollution and promoting natural agriculture. It means less food waste, since you only buy what you need, and you don’t throw away spoiled food.
This is an environmentally-friendly idea that I think could be adapted in almost any city. It could also give major grocery chains some ideas on how to improve their big box offerings.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is this an admirable but unscalable solution? Or is this something you’d like to see everywhere?
Source: jtotheizzoe
Could Superweeds Mean the End of Genetically Engineered Crops?
Forget the lowly dandelion. There’s a bigger menace threatening the American landscape: “superweeds,” agricultural intruders that are all-but-impossible to kill because they’ve evolved a resistance to traditional chemical herbicides. These virulent growers are choking out the country’s corn, cotton, and soybeans, costing farmers millions of dollars in lost crops. Superweeds have spread their roots to more than 12 million acres of American crop fields so far, and they show no signs of being uprooted.
The superweed problem now runs so deep that it’s captured national political attention. A summit of weed experts convened in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss how to manage the growing issue of out-of-control superweeds. Countless media outlets covered the saga. A scary nickname like “superweeds”—the “pink slime” of agricultural policy—doesn’t hurt. Farming woes have rarely been so sexy.
Shining the national spotlight on superweeds will hopefully bring us closer to a fix for the rogue plants that are destroying our food supply. But there’s another benefit to the superweed hype—it helps build public awareness around genetically engineered crops. Superweeds could be the final nudge needed to prompt an about-face on America’s acceptance of GE foods.
Superweeds have spread thanks to the industry-wide adoption of GE plants on American farms—namely, Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops. The industrial ag firm engineered a suite of corn, cotton, soybean, and other plants resistant to its own herbicide, Roundup, which it’s been selling to farms since 1980. Monsanto promised that if farmers doused their fields with Roundup, valuable crops would thrive while weeds died. Big ag billed its Roundup Ready crops as a way to save farmers money while decreasing the use of chemical herbicides, as a targeted application of Roundup could do the work of a suite of products. It worked: Today, superweeds’ roots in American agriculture run deep. About 85 percent of America’s corn, 88 percent of its cotton, and 91 percent of its soybeans are now genetically modified.
But nature proved to be too smart for Monsanto’s scientists. Roundup Ready crops worked well for several years, but weeds soon became accustomed to routine Roundup sprayings. The same weeds that once fell victim to Roundup’s noxious chemicals are beginning to withstand the dousing and build up a resistance to it. Farmers are forced to spray on even more herbicide to save their crops, a practice that costs cash-strapped growers more money and results in greater chemical exposure for wildlife and the surrounding environment.
Superweeds are a blight on America’s agricultural fields. But the publicity surrounding superweeds has been a boon to anti-GE activists, who have labored to convince consumers of just why they should be wary of genetically-modified foods on their plates. Take “Just Label It!,” an ambitious advocacy campaign that’s urging the Food and Drug Administration to mandate that all GE foods come with labels. Food safety and environmental groups have been pushing the FDA to do this for years, but only recently has the support behind such a proposal accelerated. Just Label It’s organizers and its 500 partners recentlydelivered a petition to the FDA with more than 1.1 million consumer signatures, more than the agency has received on this issue than ever before.
Now, opposition is growing to the latest GE crop poised for approval: Dow’s “Enlist” suite of GE corn, cotton, and soy crops, designed to be resistant to 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, also known as the active ingredient in Agent Orange. Environmentalists and consumers, now familiar with Roundup Ready’s disastrous environmental impacts, are fighting this GE crop like never before. Protestors are urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reject the approval of Enlist crops, andthey have been so vocal that the USDA even extended the public comment period on the first Enlist crop up for approval, GE corn.
Until recently, Monsanto and other purveyors of GE crops have had little incentive to change their business models. Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and the crops the company engineered to survive it still make up half of the company’s annual profits, which total in the billions. Public pressure over superweeds could be the issue that breaks GE food’s reign—if superweeds don’t destroy those crops first.
“Largest Solar Power Plant in World” Now Under Construction, & Largest Solar PV Plant in North America Now in Operation
Largest Solar Power Plant in World?
There’s a bit of confusion surrounding a recent MidAmerican Solar and First Solar statement saying that “the largest solar electric power plant in the world,” a 550-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif. known as Topaz Solar Farms, was under construction. Why? Well, Mathias noted last month that India just dedicated a 600-MW solar power plant. Nonetheless, the 550-MW project is huge by current solar power standards. The project, which will create about 400 jobs and “generate nearly $417 million in local economic impact” in the three years it will take to be built, will supply enough power for about 160,000 California homes when completed. For more information on this project, check the news release linked above.
Largest North American Solar Power Plant in Operation
In addition to Topaz Solar Farms, First Solar, MidAmerican Solar, and NRG Energy also announced that North America’s largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant is now in operation.
The first 100 MW of the 290-MW (AC) Agua Caliente solar project inYuma County, Ariz. are now delivering electricity to the grid.
Once completed, the companies state that the project will be able to deliver power to about 225,000 homes (I guess Arizona homes are quite a bit less energy-hungry than California homes). Construction of this solar farm is also creating about 400 jobs, about 80% of which are Arizona jobs.
“Getting to this milestone of our first 100 megawatts at Agua Caliente illustrates the success of public-private partnerships to stimulate the construction of these large-scale solar projects, creating hundreds of construction jobs and providing clean, renewable power to thousands of homes,” said Tom Doyle, president of NRG Solar. “Large-scale projects like this also help drive down the price of solar, which will make it even more cost-competitive with conventional electricity generation in the near future.”
For more information on this story, check the First Solar news release.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1bZww)
New EPA Initiative to Boost Green Jobs & Environmental Tech Exports
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and Department of Commerce Secretary John E. Bryson announced efforts to launch an environmental technology initiative to help create American jobs in the growing environmental industry. Announced at EPA’s first Technology Market Summit, this initiative, which will include a comprehensive web based portal, will promote American environmental technology, products and services in the global marketplace.
The Environmental Technologies Export Initiative builds on President Obama’s National Export Initiative, which aims to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014 and support millions of American jobs.
The American environmental industry generates approximately $312 billion in revenues each year, with a global market of more than $800 billion. This growing industry employs nearly 1.7 million Americans and includes over 60,000 small businesses across the country.
“When it comes to technology that conserves resources and protects the environment, America leads the rest of the world by a mile. This is largely thanks to the value Americans place on environmental protection and to the innovation of our entrepreneurs,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “As other countries start to take environmental challenges more and more seriously, there is a growing global market for the technologies that have been and continue to be developed by innovators on our shores. Today we’re taking steps make it easier for American companies to enter and succeed in that market.”
”Two years ago, the President launched the National Export Initiative, a government-wide effort led by the Commerce Department. We have made historic progress on the path to achieving the President’s goal, but we must continue to do everything we can to support U.S. companies in selling their goods and services all around the world,” said Secretary Bryson. “One of the important strategies in the NEI is to build on our industrial strengths, and it is clear that environmental technology is one of those strengthens.”
The web-based tool, which is scheduled to be launched in fall of this year and hosted on export.gov, will offer U.S. environmental companies detailed information on U.S. government support activities including market research, scientific analysis, regulatory information, and financial support programs. EPA and Commerce are also partnering with trade associations to highlight potential growth opportunities for U.S. companies by increasing access to EPA’s scientific, technical and regulatory information and Commerce’s foreign market analysis and export promotion infrastructure. When launched, this portal will provide a more systematic approach for U.S. companies looking to expand markets for their environmental products and services abroad.
EPA co-sponsored [this week]’s summit with American University’s Center for Environmental Policy, bringing together government, academia, investment and industry leaders to discuss the acceleration of technology development and adoption to achieve economic growth through environmental protection. Stimulating innovation and expanding the technology markets to protect people’s health and the environment will help to create jobs, develop partnerships, and identify concrete actions that the public and private sectors can take to increase investment and broaden business opportunities.
More information on President’s National Export Initiative: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-national-export-initiative
More information on EPA’s export initiatives: http://www.epa.gov/international/trade
More information on Department of Commerce’s work promoting environmental technology: http://www.export.gov/envirotech
More information on EPA’s Technology Summit: http://www.epa.gov/envirofinance/2012summit.html
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1bY1n)
Prius Plug-In Hybrid is Third Quickest Selling Vehicle in US
Cars.com posted its most recent “Movers and Losers” list, which calculates the average number of days it takes to sell vehicles from the day they arrive on the lot until the final paperwork is signed by a buyer. The list focuses solely on 2012 and 2013 Model Year vehicles.
The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In was third on the Cars.com list. In fact, the Prius Plug-In was the third quickest selling vehicle in the US in April and number two on the list in March. On average, the Prius Plug-In spent approximately five days on the lot.
The obvious explanation is that the PIP was burning off a long list of pre-orders, including a lot of California customers looking for a quick and relatively affordable way to gain access to the HOV lane. Toyota tallied 891 sales of the Prius Plug-in Hybrid in March, and 1,654 sales in April. The vehicle qualifies for a $2,500 federal tax credit, and a $1,500 California rebate.
For reference, the average 2012 or 2013 Model Year vehicle spent nearly 45 days on the lot in April and 41 day in March. Other quick selling vehicles worth mentioning include the two Beemers atop the chart—2013 BMW X3 and X5 at four days—and the 2012 Toyota Prius c at seven days.
The question going forward is if the Plug-in Prius will continue to sell at that rate even after advanced orders have subsided. If so, then it would confirm that Toyota has the right formula for gaining consumer acceptance of plug-in vehicles—a blended hybrid model with a relatively affordable battery granting about 10 to 15 miles of all-electric range.
Organic Photovoltaics Market to Grow 1300% by 2022
A new market research report from IDTechEx has found that the organic photovoltaics (OPV) market is projected to hit $630 million by 2022, growing more than 1300% from the $4.6 million it’s at today.
The report summary notes: “OPVs bring the following attributes to the market: (a) excellent form factor, (b) good performance under indoor lighting conditions, (c) low capital expenditure, and (d) potentially very low energy production costs using printable plastics. Based on these value propositions, OPVs will not only target existing markets, but will also enable new ones, which existing solutions may not have been able to address.”
OPVs have downsides as well, of course. “The efficiency levels are low, despite the fact that the active semiconductor can be synthesised from many different molecular and polymeric materials. The lifetime is in the order of days if the device is exposed to ambient conditions and existing commercial encapsulants can extend it only to 2-3 years. The constituent materials are still in low-volume production and therefore command high prices.”
So, while OPVs aren’t likely to dominate the solar market, it’s expected they grow a decent niche for themselves.
Check out the report, Organic Photovoltaics Technologies, Players and Forecasts 2012-2022, or report summary for more.
Image Credit: University of Arizona (via this CleanTechnica article)
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1bYZT)
GM’s Bat House Project Draws Cartoonist’s Attention
You might remember GM’s work to convert scrap Chevrolet Volt battery covers into wildlife habitats—from wood duck nesting boxes to bat houses.
Instead of sending that material to a landfill, we reuse it to benefit wildlife. So far, GM has created and installed more than 150 of them at designated wildlife habitat areassurrounding its facilities, as well as various locations across the United States. And that number is ever-increasing.
The project is a fun and rewarding one, with GM environmental engineers oftentimes working alongside students and community groups to convert them. The team enjoys spreading the word about recycling and helping instill a deeper understanding and appreciation for nature.
Birgit Keil, a green and cause-minded cartoonist and blogger, recently came to us to learn more about the bat house project. After talking with GM Manager of Waste Reduction Efforts,John Bradburn, she drew the cartoon above. Visit her blog at http://justbeacartoon.com/ for more information about GM’s effort and why swapping out insect killer for a bat house might be a smart, nature-friendly choice.
Military's Clean Energy Focus Not Just Political
Last month, the U.S. Army announced the opening of a 30,000-square foot research facility in Michigan for developing fuel cells, hybrid systems, battery technologies and advanced alternative fuels for the next generation of vehicles. Under Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal described the benefits of the lab in his dedication speech:
The work done [here] will make our Soldiers’ loads lighter, reduce their energy requirements, and reduce the number of Soldiers we put into harm’s way to supply energy. This facility will not only make us more efficient and save resources, but will save lives in combat as well.
This sounds like (and is!) a win-win for the military and the planet, but some people aren’t happy. Recently, critics in Congress have tried to discredit the military’s energy initiatives, claiming that the Department of Defense is succumbing to a green fad, or even trading favors with clean energy businesses. Critics wrongly allege that our military’s investments in clean energy and energy efficiency are undermining national security.
The facts do not support these allegations.
There is strong evidence that the military’s efforts are saving lives, saving money and improving mission effectiveness. I have blogged here, here, and here about the military’s leadership on climate, efficiency and clean energy action, and why it makes sense for DoD, the nation’s largest energy consumer, to make these investments. Here’s a quick glance at how the military’s smart energy policy is making things better already on the battlefield and in the budget:
- The Navy alone uses 30 million barrels of oil per year. When oil climbs just $1 per barrel, the Navy is charged an extra $30 million. This year’s price spike is going to cost the Navy $1 billion unplanned for. In response to these uncertainties,President Obama, with strong support from military officials, has proposed doubling the Department of Defense’s efficiency spending to $1 billion in his budget for 2012. This is a smart policy recommendation that should be supported by practical thinkers on both sides of the aisle.
- On the ground, meanwhile, the Pentagon spends $20 billion a year air conditioning tents and other temporary buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tab is more than NASA’s entire budget! The service, of course, is an absolute necessity—our soldiers deserve a good night’s rest after carrying 80 pounds of gear all day in 120 degree weather. However, the voracious appetite of our inefficient generators requires nearly continuous shipments of diesel by way of highly dangerous ground convoys. It takes 18 days to drive fuel from Karachi, Pakistan to our bases in Afghanistan on slow-moving roads—an easy target for enemies and thieves—at an average cost of $30/gallon for each shipment delivered. In some years, these convoys are responsible for as many as one third of battlefield casualties, or 1 soldier for every 24 shipments, and have cost 1,300 American deaths already in Iraq and Afghanistan in 10 years. Yes, you read that correctly: 1,300 Americans killed transporting fuel. In one year alone, 2010, we lost 47 fuel convoy drivers. An investment of $95 million in spray-foam insulation for tents in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to save $1 billion—as well as many soldiers’ lives. We need more of this.
- Finally, thanks to a tiny investment last month of $2 million in portable solar, the Navy Seals will soon be able to power up along the way, purify water, and even refrigerate medical supplies and provisions. This will improve the Seals’ self-sufficiency and further reduce the need for dangerous convoys to remote outposts.
These investments are common sense. Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn (ret.) stated bluntly to Scientific American last month that “There is not a shred of political correctness in what the military is doing with energy efficiency or renewable energy.” Or, as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus puts it: “we’re doing this for one reason—to be better war fighters.”
Detractors tend to focus on high upfront costs of developing new technologies. True, R&D can be expensive—but can you imagine where we’d be today without the military’s investment in creating GPS, the internet and microchips? And, at another angle, these investments provide an important economic stimulus when we need it, with wide-reaching and very positive impacts across the civilian population. DOD’s commitment to making bases and vehicles more efficient and toward advancing new energy generation, storage, transmission and alternative fuels technologies is creating jobs and economic opportunity.
MIT Prize Winner Uses Innovation To Save Lives
The $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Program Award was created to celebrate outstanding innovators, and this year’s prize goes to UC Berkeley Professor Ashok Gadgil. The chair of Safe Water and Sanitation at UC Berkeley and director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division atLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was honored for his sustainable inventions designed to help those in the developing world to live healthier and safer lives.
Among his inventions is UV Waterworks, a technology shown to be both effective and inexpensive in using ultraviolet light to kill disease-causing pathogens. The impetus behind this vision was a tragedy in Gadgil’s home country of India in 1993, when more than 10,000 people died from Bengal Cholera contracted via infected drinking water. Gadgil developed his invention shortly thereafter, and it has since been disseminated by WaterHealth International (WHI) and put to work in producing safe, clean drinking water at a price of just 2 cents per 10 liters around the world, making clean water affordable even to those making under two dollars per day.
Source: earthtechling.com
Ford Focus Electric Rollout Continues to Crawl
In March, we questioned the slow rollout of the Ford Focus Electric. That’s why it was gratifying to see Ford announce last week that 67 dealers had been certified to begin selling the EV in the next few weeks. The certification includes things like installing charging stations and making sure that “80 percent of the sales and service staff at each location must meet specific electric vehicle training certification requirements,” according to Ford’s press release.
But then I ran into a friend in Los Angeles this week who called Ford’s dealership in Santa Monica—a red hot hotspot for EV adoption—but couldn’t get any information from the dealership about buying a Ford Focus Electric, despite making it crystal clear that he was a customer with cash in hand and ready to buy. Maybe that’s just one anecdote, rather than any sign of trouble.
I asked Eric Kuehn, Ford’s chief engineer for global electrified programs, about the Santa Monica situation. I’ve been in touch with Eric, related to my review of the Focus Electric in The New York Times last week. The car a great drive, and I enjoyed the faster charger than the one on my LEAF—although the Focus’s pricing and limited cargo space is challenging.
Eric didn’t know specifically about Santa Monica, but said that in Phase One, only selected dealers will do through the certification process. “Not all Ford dealers are part of Phase One,” he said. “Any given Ford dealer or sales person might not necessarily know about the car yet.”
Still, this raises some doubts about previous statement that Focus Electric would be available in “early 2012”—and more recent pronouncements about cars in California, New York and New Jersey “later in the spring,” followed by 19 additional markets in the fall. Let’s hope that any delays are small hiccups in communications and execution, and that it’s only a matter of weeks before we see EVs with the blue oval hitting the streets.
