Gribble - the future of power generation?

Alternative energy sources are always being sought, it was not that long ago that solar, wind and heat pump were slightly off the wall alternative energy sources – now they are regarded as perfectly normal and needed.

Recently I was reading and interesting blog that offered some other sources of energy you may not have thought about (positiveenergy) – maybe alternatives that will be become fully accepted in the not to distant future.

Nations and governments may rely of Gribbles to combat concerns over energy security, let alone climate change – Gribble, yes Gribbles, check out what the future energy sources could be:

Waste tea leaves. Scientists at a Pakistani university used a gasification process to create biodiesel from used tea leaves. Considering that the world today consumes several million tones of tea annually, the leaves could be a reliable fuel source.

Gribbles. A tiny, wood-chewing crustacean called Limnoria quadripunctata, or the gribble, has been shown to have a digestive trait that could convert wood and straw into liquid biofuel. Researchers at the universities of York and Portsmouth have proposed using the enzymes that fill the creatures’ long digestive tracts to break down cellulose and lignin into energy-rich sugars.

Grass clippings. Again at the University of York, scientists are experimenting with using microwaves to heat garden and wood waste in the absence of oxygen in a process called pyrolysis. The resulting biofuel could be blended with fossil fuel or used by itself.

Frog foam. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are creating an artificial photosynthetic material that uses enzymes from plants, bacteria, fungi, and frogs, all trapped within a foam housing, to create solar energy in an entirely new way. Foam was chosen because it can effectively concentrate the reactants but allow very good light and air penetration. The design was based on the foam nests of a semi-tropical frog called the Tungara frog, which creates very long-lived foams for its developing tadpoles.

Poke berries. The fruit of the pokeweed — the ubiquitous purple-stalked plant that grows rampantly across the south and whose red berries Civil War soldiers used to write letters home – could be the key to spreading solar power across the globe, according to researchers at Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. Scientists have used the red dye made from pokeberries to coat their efficient and inexpensive fiber-based solar cells. The dye acts as an absorber, helping the cell’s tiny fibers trap more sunlight to convert into power.

Household garbage. A consortium of companies in Australia is investigating the viability of constructing an ethanol plant that would turn household rubbish and building waste into more than 200 million liters of fuel per year. The process, developed by a U.S. biofuel company, Coskata, Inc., uses sources like municipal, commercial, and industrial waste at the end of its life cycle—waste otherwise bound for the landfill, and turns them into renewable energy.

Cow power. Using the methane gas byproduct of cattle is old news, but William Taylor, a farmer in Northern Ireland, has rigged up an entirely new way of deriving renewable energy from cows. Instead of letting his cows free range while they graze, he puts them on a treadmill. The electricity generated from one cow on a treadmill is enough, says the farmer, to power four milking machines. And as a bonus, cows that exercise produce more milk.

Tomatoes. Designer Cygalle Shapiro created a tiny LED lamp powered off circuits running off several tomatoes sitting next to it. The lamp draws power off of the chemical reaction among the tomatoes’ acids, zinc, and copper. And the “batteries” run out when the tomatoes turn stale.

Tobacco. Maybe there’s hope for this cash crop. Researchers in Virginia have suggested that tobacco could be genetically modified to use as a biofuel, with the added benefit that it is not a food source, like corn and soybeans — and therefore the object of a battle over resources. Because it can generate high quantities of oil and sugar, its potential as a fuel crop is high, but commercial use as a biofuel may be more than five years away.

Picture by Auguste Le Roux

Public bodies, such as Universities and Hospitals, are heavy users of energy and a few basic measures can save a substantial amount financially and environmentally.

Wright State have their own newspaper “The Guardian” which in part reported the following details:

Dayton Power and Light has awarded $118,000 in rebates to Wright Sate in just the first year of the University’s energy conservation project.

Wright State could potentially receive an additional $200,000 for using new lighting techniques to save energy. The rebates from DP&L have allowed WSU to upgrade all lighting on campus.

“Upgrading light fixtures everywhere on campus was phase one,” said Wright State Energy Manager, John Howard. “It touched every room within the university, which has never been done before.”

These upgrades have already saved WSU 32 percent on lighting energy alone….

“To save energy, sometimes it takes a considerable investment because you need to have greater equipment,” said Howard. “There’s always something more efficient out there.”

Associate director of the WSU physical plant, Bill Knotts further explained the process.

“Florescent lights at Home Depot used to run about ten bucks and now you can get them for a dollar,” said Knotts. “That was part of the rebate from Dayton Power and Light. This project is the same thing, just on a much larger scale.”

In addition to the money gained from the rebates, Wright State will also benefit from an estimated annual energy savings of $45,000.

This is interesting as these projected savings are just by changing the lighting, they are obviously benefiting from the rebates from the utility company and there will no doubt be grants available from the Federal or State government.

Although WSU are changing lights to more energy efficient products an intelligent lighting management system would also contribute to major savings.

All WSU needs now is a way of monitoring their energy use to discover where the greatest savings could be made, as Bethune-Cookman University did in Florida (Check out the story).

Universities and other public bodies can make serious savings on harmful emissions and in money which will boost hard hit budgets and services – but as in the case of Wright University action has to be taken and consideration of energy monitoring for effective energy management.

The 11 nations, the Pacific Small Island Developing States, have written to members of the Security Council, which oversees threats to international peace and security, and have argued that the threat to them from a warmer world along with rising sea levels is similar to armed conflict and invasion.

“Climate change can devastate a country just as thoroughly as an invading army,” stated Nauru’s UN Ambassador Marlene Moses.

Moses wants the Security Council to intervene because the UN-led negotiations on mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases and help to the most vulnerable nations has stalled.

“If the international community fails to take immediate action, then it will be complicit in the extinction of entire nations,” Moses added.

The group claim that climate change is responsible for severe food and water shortages throughout the Pacific and already making refugees of people in Vanuatu, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.

The group’s letter to the Security Council was critical of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that sponsored the climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of 2009.

Apart from an interesting article there was a great quote in the piece that could be used powerfully to industry and commerce.

Rob Murray-Leach, the Chief Executive of the Energy Efficiency Council said:

”Economic purists have been telling us that if there were $100 notes lying around, industry would have already picked them up. This report shows that companies have blind spots – sometimes you have to help them find the $100 notes.”

What a great line, but how true as well.

The article further highlighted that investment is needed by business into energy efficiency but what do you expect if you want a great return – as Murray-Leach, a former adviser to the climate economist Ross Garnaut, said energy efficiency should be viewed in the same way as other business investments – you need to spend to generate a return.

”Some people say that tackling climate change is too expensive, we should wait to see what the world does first. This report shows that there is a huge amount we could do right now to cut our emissions and grow our economy.”

The Australian government report shows that industry their could “pick-up”, as it were, $736 million – not may not seem too much in industrial terms but we are talking about a country with just under 22 million population so in context it is a sizable amount, for the US it would be well over $10 billion from just one sector!

It just show what money is “lying around” and yet being ignored – it is about time industry opened it’s eyes, they may not be concerned about climate change but why walk by billions of dollars just sitting there when they could be picking it up, particularly in these tougher times?

The US government is certainly driving energy efficiency with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu usually describes himself as an “energy-efficiency nut.”

Venture capital investment in energy efficiency hit a record in 2009: at least 115 deals worth nearly $1 billion, according to a preliminary tally by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte. That’s an increase of 39 percent from 2008. In comparison, solar was down 64 percent from 2008, and there’s increasing talk about solar being “overfunded.”

Scott Smith, U.S. cleantech leader for Deloitte stated: ”In 2009, there was a pullback and realization by investors that because of the capital intensity of solar, there may be safer places to put their money.”

Energy efficiency generally covers a wide range of technologies that are designed to cut energy use such as improved lighting, greener building materials and sophisticated software that monitors power consumption, such as Eniscope and it’s related software.

Energy efficiency is also increasingly proving an effective way to create desperately needed jobs, save struggling consumers and businesses money and reduce carbon emissions — all at the same time.

Kevin Surace has seen the shift firsthand. For years, the CEO of Serious Materials, which makes energy-saving windows and drywall, was the only energy-efficiency executive at industry conferences.

“I remember standing with a piece of drywall at the Cleantech Forum in 2006,” he said. “Every other company was solar, wind and biofuel. People were like: What are you doing at our conference?”

Now Surace is the keynote speaker at many of the conferences he attends.

“All the cleantech conferences are efficiency, efficiency, efficiency,” said Surace.

“When you really break it down, every dollar spent on energy efficiency pays back the investment four or five times. It saves people money and creates jobs. And it has bipartisan support.”

“Energy efficiency is very capital-efficient,” said Rob Coneybeer of Shasta Ventures. “We like the idea of people using IT to measure, monitor and improve their energy usage.”

In an Energy Efficiency Assesment report issued on Tuesday (click here to see report) New York State provided very interesting recommendations that could move the Empire State to the lead position in the US as far as a clean energy economy is concerned and it makes financial sense as well.

The plan recommends energy efficiency as a major focus for commerce and industry and a new state building code that would also require stricter energy efficiency. Not only will this bring environmental benefits but the costing is a no-brainer, as the return on investment in energy efficiency is substantial – to quote the report:

“The 2008 Optimal Report concluded that opportunities for electricity end-use efficiency in New York are extensive and inexpensive compared with available supply options. Results of the study estimate the State’s achievable potential through 2015 to be about 26,000 GWh, representing a reduction of approximately 14 percent from the forecast of electricity demand in 2015…….Programs that would capture this achievable potential would cost $7.2 billion in 2008 dollars over seven years, or an approximate average annual program portfolio budget of $1.0 billion. Net benefits to the New York economy would total $12.8 billion, including $20.8 billion in total statewide benefits and $8.0 billion in societal costs. The benefit-cost ratio of the electric efficiency measures is estimated to be 2.60, which means that the New York economy would capture approximately $2.60 in benefits for every dollar invested in efficiency.”

The report also highlights how the commercial sector has the greatest potential for energy saving and emphasised the main areas that can be affected, again to quote the report:

“Similarly, the end-users with the greatest efficiency potential for the commercial sector are indoor lighting, cooling, ventilation, and refrigeration. Within the commercial sector, the study concludes that the building type with the greatest energy savings potential is office space, which accounts for 33 percent of the efficiency savings opportunities. Finally, for the industrial sector, the greatest efficiency savings opportunities are in industrial process end-uses and indoor lighting.”

From my point of view it is interesting to see where they stress the efficiencies can be made, all areas where I know the company I am associated with, Enigin PLC, have products to intelligently control energy use.

The report also focuses on the importance of advance meters, such as the Eniscope, to supply end-users with real-time energy consumption feed-back, the report states:

“By enabling customers to receive information regarding system costs in real time and to take actions to respond to higher electricity peak prices, AMI (Advance Metering Infrastructure) has the potential to reduce peak demands. In addition, the ability to monitor customer usage would improve a utility’s ability to measure the actual effects of energy efficiency measures.”

This is an important efficiency and money saver for many organisations. In Daytona, Florida, Bethune-Cookman University made savings of 43% after monitoring just one cooling station using an Eniscope advance meter, which identified areas where they were spiking their energy use and hence being penalised financially. The Eniscope enabled them to intelligently change usage patterns and make financial and energy savings, plus seeing reductions in maintenance costs.

I hope New York State will be able to put their recommendations into practice and provide not just a national lead but an international one as well.

They interviewed Sir John Parker, who is Chairman of the National Grid in the UK, but has been involved in many other varied major industrial and commercial corporations. In most of these he has championed sustainability and has implemented many environmental and energy policies.

Andrew Cave, the writer of the piece, described Sir John as evangelical about the need for companies to invest in energy efficiency. What Sir John stated in the interview was the highlight for me and I would like to share his words with you.

Sir John told the Telegraph regarding energy efficiency:

“It’s the area that doesn’t always seem to me to get the highest attention and it’s the lowest-cost way of reducing one’s carbon footprint,

“With energy efficiency improvements you get a triple win: you reduce energy consumption; you make your business more cost efficient, which protects and creates jobs; and you reduce emissions. So, it seems to me that we ought to put much more effort into reducing our energy consumption.” Sir John said.

He was also asked this question by the paper:

If you had one message to fellow business leaders on building a low carbon business, what would it be?

“Start with energy efficiency; I think it’s that simple.

“There’s a danger that you can get too esoteric about this. If you take the mine-head power stations that we have at Anglo American, they capture methane which would otherwise escape – but we’re also capturing a free fuel to create the power.

“So, it’s sustainability and energy, it’s energy efficiency, and it’s reduction of carbon capture. It’s a lovely three-way hit, but it’s driven by energy sustainability in its wider sense.”

Just further evidence, this time from someone who has been there and done it, that energy efficiency and using innovative energy saving technology is the way forward for commerce and industry.

It is good to see someone in the higher echelons of the business world realising the importance environmentally of energy saving but also the fiscal advantages that it brings to businesses.

He has a great interest in sustainability and it is worth reading the whole piece – Curbing The Carbon Culture – The Daily Telegraph.

Sir John Parker’s CV as published by the Telegraph:

Over 27 years, Sir John, 67, has been on 13 quoted company boards, nine of which he has chaired.

He is still much in demand, adding the chairmanship of mining and minerals giant Anglo American to his non-executive portfolio this summer – just in time to see off a hostile takeover bid from rival Xstrata. His past chairmanships have included three dual-listed companies in cruise ship operator Carnival, pallets giant Brambles and paper group Mondi.

In addition to chairing Anglo American and National Grid, he is vice-chairman at DP World and a non-executive director at Airbus maker EADS and US cruise ship operator Carnival. He has only recently relinquished the joint non-executive chairmanship at paper group Mondi.

The article, most of which appears below, states how often finding the money for the energy monitoring solutions and the load-side products can be a stumbling block, but the article explains that the money saved from reduced energy bills over a fairly short period provides a great return on investment.

What is also of interest is the article does highlight how Indonesia is now realising how important it is to become energy efficient. I know from speaking to people from Indonesia that climate change, energy efficiency and security has not been a concern – hence it is good to see they are sitting up and taking notice.

The article mentions how they need to become efficient to make the best of a strained power generation system – a situation faced by most of the world.

Part of the article:

Living in a tropical country, air conditioned high rises often serve as our oasis. Little do we realize that the comfort they provide comes at a cost.

Since the 1980s economic boom in Asia, high-rise offices, malls and residential compounds have been sprouting here and there. Most of them are more than a decade old now and seem in dire need of a makeover.

Not so much for the sake of appearance, but to curtail their use of high-priced energy, as the building sector currently the second largest consumer of energy.

Retrofitting – in this context, the changing and adding various energy-efficient features in an existing building – has thus become the new buzzword in the field of green construction.

Sucking up between 31 and 40 percent of the total energy produced globally, buildings, especially existing ones, are places where energy can be saved, experts at a recent International Green Building Conference in Singapore say.

“We can potentially save two thirds of the energy consumed in existing buildings by retrofitting them,” World Business Council Energy Efficiency in Buildings co-chairman Constant Van Aerschot said.

“The amount of carbon dioxide emissions originating from buildings, through their use of energy, has been underestimated. While most of us thought the rate stood at around 19 percent, it has actually reached 38 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions,” Aerschot added.

Buildings set to be retrofitted are first audited to identify key inefficient areas, then upgraded with newer and more energy-efficient equipment and monitored to ensure they are run in an energy–efficient manner, Singapore minister for national development Mah Bow Tan added at the launch of the Singapore Green Building Week.

Sounds like three simple steps, but how does one retrofit existing buildings then?

Well, companies in recent years have been busy developing an array of technologies to assist with this process, ranging from energy measurement devices for the auditing process, adjustable glaze on glaze walls to reduce heat absorption, to automated building operation systems.

Even a simple coating of acrylic on the roof of a house can potentially help reduce the energy consumption required for air conditioning.

But, then comes the one thing that often hampers the process. Money, money, and yes, money.
But, guess what, despite the extra investment required, retrofitting a building with energy-efficient features only costs around 5 to 11 percent more than business as usual operational costs.

“We initially had to invest an extra 8 percent into [retrofitting] our headquarters, but quickly recovered our expenses in just a couple of years,” India-based hotel developer ITC Limited technical general manager H. C. Vinayaka said.

Through annual savings in energy consumption, the costs incurred retrofitting buildings are recovered in two to four years time, green building practitioners say.

But, still, additional investment is required. And it’s not always available.

“This is where monetization through carbon trading for buildings can come into play,” said Maria Atkinson, global head of sustainability for Australia’s Lend Lease Corporation.

Buildings can make use of the existing clean development mechanism scheme to finance retrofitting initiatives.

It is time to get the facts and the myths about compact fluorescent bulbs — CFLs — to address the concerns, questions and rumors that seem to be everywhere these days.

And because I often hear from readers complaining that the CFLs they buy never last very long, I tried to find out the best ways to use the bulbs so they reach the promised lifetimes their manufacturers claim. Consider the following:

• Mercury: CFLs do contain about 5 milligrams of mercury. The bulbs do not emit mercury when they are being used. When putting them into lamps, hold the bulbs by their base and don’t force them into the socket.

• Breaking: The only way for the mercury vapor to escape the tube is if the bulb breaks. If that happens, ventilating the room for about 15 minutes will allow the gas to escape. You can then carefully scoop up the broken pieces, double-bag them and throw them out with your trash.

• Sources: The largest man-made sources of mercury are coal-fired power plants If you’re really concerned about the amount of mercury in our air, then, you’re actually better off buying CFLs than incandescents. Since CFLs use less electricity than incandescents, they actually reduce the amount of mercury getting into our environment.

• Disposal: To dispose of unbroken bulbs, it is recommended that you take them to a recycling center in your community. Contact your local municipal solid waste agency to find the locations of recycling centers near you.

• Hazards: There have been reports about CFLs causing fires, smoking and causing other hazards. While there has been little proof that bulbs caused these problems, you should make sure that the CFLs you buy carry the Underwriters Laboratories UL mark that show they have been tested for safety hazards.

• Lifetimes: Frequently turning CFLs on and off will shorten their lifetimes. For uses of about 15 minutes or less (such as in closets or stairways), use incandescent bulbs. For recessed fixtures, three-way fixtures, dimmers, outdoor use or other specialized situations, make sure the package says the bulb is appropriate for this use.

• Cost: Cheap bulbs probably won’t last as long or work as well as those with the Energy Star seal that ensures it meets strict federal standards. Low-quality bulbs often flicker and have short lifetimes.

• Savings: You will save money by using CFLs. It’s estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill is for lighting. CFLs will last seven to 10 times longer than incandescents and use one-fourth of the energy to produce the same amount of light.

By Ken Sheinkopf, who is a communications specialist with the American Solar Energy Society.

Photo from San Franciso Airport

I read an article the other day about a growing trend for air travellers, purportedly allowing them to reset the balance of things environmentally, very conveniently and cheaply, assuaging troubled consciences and all through a modern form of a confessional, a kiosk!.

Apparently air travellers can voluntarily purchase “credit” from a kiosk at airports that will off-set the carbon contribution that the airplane they will travel on spews into the atmosphere. I can hardly believe this.

Can you truly soothe your conscience (that is if you feel guilty) by sending a sum of money to an organization who will then further perpetuate your guilt over carbon usage?

While at this kiosk, you input the trip details and it will calculate the amount of emissions you are producing from your trip.

Example: Travelling from Los Angeles, California to Boston, Massachusetts (USA), it would calculate a carbon (offset) fee of about $11.00 (USD).

What would you get for this $11.00?  A piece of paper that represents the fact that a colorless, odorless gas, which will be emitted on your behalf to shift you through the air to your destination, might be offset and  used in another part of the world therefore balancing the scales a bit.

You might get some indication that your funds went toward the preservation of some rain forest project or a local climate initiative.

It is my opinion that this is way too abstract and will not have any effect on carbon emissions whatsoever.

I do believe that money will continue to fuel the many myths that are being generated about climate change, diverting from any proper discourse on the subject. Save your money and use it yourself to become more environmentally effective.

For my $11.00, I would sooner purchase a piece of rope for drying my clothes, switch out my outdated light bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL’s) or ride a bicycle to the market.  This will offer a true sense of saving and if you are prone to carbon use guilt, these solutions should help remedy that as well.

That is at least some direct action, it also requires more input from myself than simply using my credit card for carbon credits!