A new utility-scale fuel cell system that could potentially power more than 600 homes and produce one megawatt of electricity, is being tested by FirstEnergy and Ballard Power Systems at the former’s Eastlake plant in Ohio.

The companies claim it is the world’s largest proton exchange membrane hydrogen-powered fuel cell, a 54-foot-long unit mounted on a tractor-trailer to give it mobility. The good news: the device produces only heat and water as by-products. Energy is produced from a combination of hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air.

“Finding new sources of clean, renewable peaking energy is important for meeting our customers’ energy needs and helping us meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements,” said Gary R. Leidich, executive vice president and president of FirstEnergy Generation.

Over the next five years, the system will undergo tests in real-world operating conditions so that the companies can get a better understanding of its capacity to provide generating capacity during peak usage periods between May and September. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will collaborate with the evaluation of the performance and operating data gathered in that period.

“This fuel cell system has the added benefit of being mobile, so it can provide peaking power when and where it’s needed”, said Mr. Leidich.

The system is comprised of nine fuel cell modules, a compressor compartment that provides air for the fuel cell reaction, an inverter compartment that converts the power from 640-volt direct current to 380-volt alternating current (AC), and a transformer to step up the voltage to 480-volt, three-phase AC power to the electrical system.

“With the increasing interest in clean energy solutions, we are seeing demand for this scalable product across a number of different distributed power generation applications” said Michael Goldstein, Ballard’s chief commercial officer.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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In the last 15 months, President Obama and his Administration have made significant progress in changing the way America thinks about energy and the environment, making the vision of a 21st century clean energy economy a reality.  From historic investments in clean energy infrastructure and technology; improved efficiency for buildings, appliances and automobiles; more diverse energy production from domestic and renewable sources; and reduced emissions that contribute to climate change – the President’s comprehensive strategy has put Americans back in control of their energy future, created new jobs and laid the foundation for long-term economic security, and led by example in exercising good stewardship of our environment.

To continue the progress, we need your help.  President Obama believes, “…that change won’t come from Washington alone. It will come from Americans across the country who take steps in their own homes and their own communities to make that change happen.” So today [April 13, 2010], in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, President Obama is challenging Americans to take action to change our nation’s energy and environmental future.

Visit WhiteHouse.gov/earthday to learn more about what you can do in your homes, communities, schools and businesses to answer the President’s call-to-action to help lay a new foundation for energy and the environment.

Anthony Russell is the Communication Advisor for the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change.

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NASA, U.S. Navy and university researchers have successfully demonstrated the first robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy. Though not quite a perpetual motion machine it is close to that.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle uses a novel thermal recharging engine powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths.

Scalable for use on most robotic oceanographic vehicles, this technology breakthrough could usher in a new generation of autonomous underwater vehicles capable of virtually indefinite ocean monitoring for climate and marine animal studies, exploration and surveillance.

Article by Andy Soos appearing courtesy ENN

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On November 16-17, 2009 in Beijing, China — one of the pioneering countries of clean technology – the U.S.-China Green Tech Summit will share innovative solutions to deploying renewable and energy efficient technologies. The conference is expecting over 300 clean tech leaders from the United States and China, including speakers from BP Solar, General Motors China Group and UC Berkeley. It will discuss and analyze international projects that will aid in development of sustainability, alternative energy and more.

As official media partner of the U.S. China Green Tech Summit, CleanTechies is happy to offer you a special discount of $300 dollars off the ticket price. Simply mention “CleanTechies” when you register.

“Climate change, clean and efficient energy and environmental protection are among the greatest challenges facing the United States and China. Cooperation between the United States and China is critical to enhancing energy security, combating climate change, and protecting the environment and natural resources…”— U.S.-China Memorandum of Understanding to Enhance Cooperation on Climate Change, Energy and the Environment (July 2009)

With guest speakers such as Dan Kammen, author of over 90 publications and a book on environmental, technological, and health risks and numerous reports on renewable energy and development, Jonathan Woetzel, Director of McKinsey and Co., Greater China Office, and numerous others hailing from China’s leading clean tech companies such as Tsing Capital and Trina Solar, this conference is sure to bring new light to the world’s dependency on foreign oil, global warming concerns and other inefficiencies we currently face.

The panels of experienced speakers will give a glimpse into several topics including a vision of a low carbon future and what it takes to achieve it. This includes turning current research on climate change into practical implementation on certain green tech projects.

In addition, discussion will then cover China’s focus to further build its solar power capacity. The conference will discuss how to produce solar power competitively and steadily to compete with traditional electricity, as well as analyzing an upcoming project of building an international communication and R&D center without harming the surrounding area, including water and soil quality. The agenda will then focus on electric vehicles and where the sector stands and how the U.S. has invested more than $25 billion in the emerging division, yet China is the forefront leader in electric vehicles.

This dynamic discussion with the cooperation between the United States and China, two leaders pioneering clean tech advancements, will surely bring best practices to obstacles facing green technology. This is truly a conference you do not want to miss!

Register for the 2009 Green Tech Summit here, and visit the CleanTechies Events Calendar for more clean tech conferences.

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The world stands to gain 6.9 million jobs by 2030 in the clean energy sector if a strong deal is reached in Copenhagen, according to a report released recently by Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

A switch from coal to renewable electricity generation will not just avoid 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions, but will create 2.7 million more jobs by 2030 than if we continue business as usual. Conversely, the global coal industry — which currently supports about 4.7 million employees worldwide — is likely to contract by more than 1.4 million jobs by 2030, due to rationalization measures in existing coal mines.

“Global leaders can tackle the twin crises of global economic recession and climate change head on by investing in renewable energy,” said Damon Moglen, Greenpeace USA global arming campaign director. “For each job lost in the coal industry our green energy scenario, known as the Energy [R]evolution, creates three new jobs in the renewable power industry. We can choose green jobs and growth or unemployment, ecological and social collapse.”

Greenpeace’s latest research provides a model for cutting emissions while achieving economic growth, illustrates how the transition to clean energy will provide more jobs by 2030 in the power sector than would be available if it stays on the current carbon-intensive path. However, leaders and governments must act on this information as soon as possible to provide necessary jobs and retraining.

“Now is the time to put in place a ‘just transition’ to sustainably transform the jobs of today and develop the decent and green jobs of tomorrow,” added Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). “The union movement, as well as the authors of this report, believe ambitious climate action by world leaders can and must be a driver for sustainable economic growth and social progress.”

The report: “Working for the Climate: Renewable Energy & The Green Job [R]evolution” (PDF) is based on Greenpeace’s Energy [R]evolution and research from the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology Sydney.

The report shows that by 2030, 6.9 million people could work for the renewable power industry, and another 1.1 million jobs would be created due to higher efficiency in electrical applications.

“There are already 450,000 people working in the renewable energy industry in Europe, representing a turnover of more than EUR 40 billion. This research proves that renewable energy is key to tackling both the climate and economic crises,” said Christine Lins, Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

The report was developed in conjunction with specialists from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Dutch Institute Ecofys and more than 40 scientists and engineers from universities, institutes and the renewable energy industry around the world.

Greenpeace undertook this new study to determine whether there would be jobs created by this nine-fold increase in renewable energy, and massive global energy efficiency measures required for the Energy [R]evolution by researching jobs in power generation and electrical efficiency (excluding heating, cooling and transport). Efficiency to improve building insulation is not included in this number and would be additional.

Article appearing courtesy of Green Economy Post.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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Article by Michael Grabell appearing courtesy of ProPublica.

Stimulus money for transportation projects is being spent far more slowly than expected.

When the economic stimulus act passed in February, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the U.S. Department of Transportation would spend about $5 billion by the end of the fiscal year, which was Wednesday.

But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday that only $3.4 billion has been spent so far – about a third less than forecast. Rep. John Mica, the top Republican on the House transportation committee, said the spending rate was disappointing, noting that unemployment figures released today were expected to hit 9.8 percent.

“Of the $48 billion in transportation stimulus funds, so far DOT has paid out only $3.4 billion, or 7 percent of the total,” said Mica, R-Fla.

Overall, about $191 billion in stimulus spending had gone out the door in spending and tax cuts as of Sept. 25 – well ahead of the $185 billion the budget office estimated would be out by Wednesday.

More stimulus money per person has been spent in states with high unemployment, according to an analysis of outlays so far by ProPublica.

Bidding and red tape add delays

While transportation and infrastructure money is just a fraction of the $787 billion stimulus package, it has received a lot of attention because it is expected to account for more than half the 3.5 million jobs the Obama administration says the stimulus will create or save.

From the start, transportation money was expected to move into the economy slower than stimulus spending on food stamps, unemployment benefits and some other programs. For transportation projects, states had to cull lists, prepare environmental assessments, get federal approval, put out bids and sign contracts before any money could be spent.

DOT spokeswoman Jill Zuckman said the amount of money spent on highways isn’t as important as the amount of money that’s been approved, which has reached $19.4 billion.

Once DOT approves a project, states can begin awarding contracts and contractors can begin hiring workers. But it usually takes several months before any work begins and anybody gets paid.

For the most part, Thursday’s hearing of the House transportation panel provided a glowing assessment of the stimulus.

“When you look at our portion of the economic recovery, a lot of people are working around America,” LaHood told the committee. “Look at the orange barrels. Look at the orange cones. Fly into any airport that I’ve flown into. They’re all resurfacing their runways.”

LaHood said state DOTs are doing a better job of directing stimulus money to economically distressed areas. Representatives of asphalt, gravel and bus companies talked about how the stimulus was the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak economy, allowing them to save jobs.

Job counts “shorthand”

Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said the stimulus money for highways and transit has already created or sustained 122,000 jobs.

But after the hearing, his spokesman Jim Berard clarified that that was 122,000 “job months” – one person working for one month.

It’s difficult to know how many jobs were actually created because some workers will get jobs for years while others will get jobs for days, depending on the scale of the project. So far, workers have worked 22 million job hours, according to the committee.

If those workers had been on the job since the start of the stimulus, it would have created or saved closer to 20,000 jobs – a fraction of what the committee reported.

“There’s really no intention of masking this, no intention of padding the numbers,” Berard said. “It was just a calculation that was done, but just presented orally in a shorthand for expediency’s sake.”

Bus company layoffs

Much attention at the hearing focused on the fate of New Flyer bus company – once a silver lining but now a victim of the recession.

The company was thrust into the spotlight in March when Vice President Joe Biden used the firm’s plant in St. Cloud, Minn., to highlight the stimulus’ focus on green jobs. New Flyer was poised to benefit greatly by the $8.4 billion infusion into public transit, much of which is being spent on hybrid buses.

But in August, the company had to lay off 320 people when the Chicago Transit Authority couldn’t secure state money to complete an order.

New Flyer’s CEO Paul Soubry said things would be much worse without the stimulus through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The company has received orders for 638 buses and transit vehicles – about 30 percent of its annual production – because of the stimulus. Those orders would produce 447 “job years” – or 223 people working for two years, he said.

“We believe that ARRA funds have had a direct and material impact on new bus purchases,” Soubry said.

Back in June, the head of the Federal Transit Administration predicted that 4,000 new buses and transit vehicles would be ordered by September. FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said he couldn’t verify that that happened. But he said FTA had approved funds for 9,933 buses.

Projects pushed to spring

One sour note came from Jeff Taylor, the transportation manager in Elkhart County, Ind., which saw its jobless rate jump from 4.4 percent in October 2007 to 18.9 percent in March at the height of the recession.

Taylor said the county has struggled to get stimulus money for roads and been bogged down in paperwork for projects that he said are “shovel-ready.” Because of the delays, the county won’t be able to bid projects until November, meaning work won’t begin until next April.

“It was my understanding, along with millions of other Americans, that the ARRA was a jobs creation and jobs retention bill,” Taylor said. “If it is true we are in an economic crisis, we should expedite the paperwork process, and target those areas hardest hit by the economic downturn.”

According to the Federal Highway Administration, 59 percent of highway money is being spent in economically distressed counties. In Michigan, 76 percent of the money is going to such counties, where 91 percent of people live. But Kansas is spending only 7 percent of its money in economically distressed counties, even though 35 percent of its population lives in one.

A separate analysis by ProPublica of total spending per state found a strong relationship between per-capita spending and unemployment. Michigan, with about 15.2 percent unemployment and $353 paid out per resident, is about in line with what is should be getting compared to other states.

But there were outliers. Massachusetts, with lower-than-average unemployment, has seen about $402 per person. Meanwhile, $187 per person has been spent in Alabama, where unemployment is 10.4 percent.

Chris Flavelle and Jennifer LaFleur contributed to this report.

[photo credit: Jürgen Schoner/Wikimedia Commons, Atomic Taco]

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Thank billions in government funding for helping to lift clean technology investment in the third quarter, said the Cleantech Group and Deloitte in a report Wednesday.

The quarterly analysis reiterated that the recession has kicked but not killed investments in this sector, which remain down 42 percent from the third quarter of 2008. Biotech and IT combined receive less funding than clean tech, which continues its climb from the second quarter, the report noted.

“The two largest venture deals (Solyndra and Tesla Motors) and the largest IPO (A123Systems) this quarter were all recipients of U.S. government funding,” said Cleantech Group managing director Dallas Kachan in a statement.

The report also credited renewable energy tax credit extensions and renewable energy portfolio requirements with emboldening venture capitalists and utilities, which continue expanding wind and solar projects.

Solar comprised 28 percent of clean tech venture dollars in the more recent quarter, although such spending sank to $451 million down from $1.2 billion a year ago. Next best were the transportation sector, which recently received $383 million, and green building startups with $110 million.

Additional big funding news in the third quarter involved Solyndra, SolFocus, Think Global and Serious Materials.

North America led the pack with 67 percent of investments, followed by Israel and Europe with 29 percent, then China at 3 percent. Indian-based startups raised $21.5 million.

The most active funds were Intel Capital; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; New Enterprise Associates and Braemar Energy Ventures.

IPOs included Indian Energy and Euro Multivision of India for its photovoltaic manufacturing arm.

Members of the Cleantech Group’s Cleantech Network can learn more about the report’s findings in a webinar on Oct. 6.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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A key U.S. congressional committee has approved historic legislation that for the first time would put a cap and a price on carbon dioxide emissions. After weeks of debate and an intensive, multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by industry and environmental groups, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill calling for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050.

The bill passed by a 33 to 25 vote, largely along party lines, and the legislation now faces many hurdles — including debate by several other committees — before it will be considered by the full House and Senate later this year. Opposition to the bill from conservative Democrats and nearly all Republicans was so strong that, in order to win committee approval, Chairman Henry Waxman agreed to initially give away 85 percent of permits to emit carbon dioxide; President Obama had called for auctioning all permits. The 1,000-page bill, the “American Clean Energy and Security Act,” sets a declining cap on national carbon emissions that will eventually require all major sources of fossil fuels to purchase permits to emit CO2. The bill also calls for 15 percent of the country’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.

This article originally appeared on Yale Environment 360 at http://e360.yale.edu

[photo: flickr/said&done]

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Is the world warming, cooling or does it matter? Most of us will say it matters, a lot, at least in public anyway. And especially if you are hoping to pay rent or retire one day with a career based around the belief that Amsterdam, New York and Dubai will no longer exist unless we cut greenhouse gases and stop the icecaps from melting. But what has happened now that the earth cooled over the past year? Not to mention former NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson’s claim last year that now that she is “no longer affiliated with any organization nor receive any funding” that she can publicly say that she “remains skeptical.” Recently the name was changed from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ – what is really going on? Or does it matter?

This blog, by the way, is not about proving or disproving global warming, global cooling, or that the earth’s warming and cooling cycles over the past 6 ice ages really were the fault of mankind. This is about the fact that it does not matter what is happening with temperatures but that reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and energy use and creating renewable energy makes complete sense even without climate change political debates.

Republican, democrat, socialist or communist, the following 3 ideas for cutting greenhouse gases without relevance to climate change are hard to argue, but if you can I welcome you to comment below:

1. Releasing black substances that cause cancer into the air in which we breath is not healthy. As if it weren’t obvious enough, the EPA finds greenhouse gases pose a danger to health. That’s for any skeptics out there that think that ‘the solution to pollution is dilution’ and that puffing on a tailpipe is good for your skin. No reference to climate change here.
2. It costs money to put these black cancerous gases into the atmosphere. It is our extreme use of carbon based fuels, oil and coal, for transportation and electricity that our money is going to instead of being used for health care, education, infrastructure and your dividend payout. Who can argue that energy efficient policy and using energy efficient products, therefore, reduces the amount of these black gases that enter the atmosphere while basically paying you to do it. More legitimate reasons with no reference to climate change.
3. Politically and financially we cannot afford to continue to use finite sources of fossil based fuels, that create greenhouse gases, to power our lives. Some believe it is the left’s fear factors that say the earth is running out of oil to push their agenda. Even if true, definitely not the whole picture by any means. Briefly, China and India’s population and need for energy is skyrocketing while oil discovery is steadily declining (left). Therefore the most simple supply/demand curve from your first economics class will explain what that means for our future cost of energy. Renewable energy that does not create pollution nor depend on other nation’s economies and that does not put gases into the air solves more than one problem without the mention of climate change.

Simple enough? So depending on your argument there is a way to curb climate change for some, put money in the pockets of others and finally if neither of those are your flavor, how about not breathing poisonous gases? By using common sense and not trying to pinpoint who is right and wrong, we can appease the masses in one way or another by decreasing energy use and turning to renewable sources of energy. If you are able to think of it, what is a way to argue climate change that does not touch on the topics of health, immediate financial benefits or protecting us from the future cost of energy?

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