The experience of Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer, who in 2006 became the commander of the coalition forces in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, exemplifies the changing strategy of fighting insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before coming to Iraq, Zilmer focused on the importance of space-related warfighting technologies and capabilities. In Iraq, his concerns were often a little more down to earth — his command's dependence on oil. Seventy percent of all convoys carried liquid fossil fuels, and attacks on convoys, the general learned, account for about half of all the casualties. Generators ... Read More
Can Mining Provide a Renewable Energy Future?
August 22, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
It's difficult to look out over miles of waste rock and tailings from a century of copper mining in the American Southwest and see anything but environmental destruction. But a growing number of mining companies and renewable energy developers are beginning to use these vast plains of disturbed dirt as the ideal spots for large-scale solar and wind power projects. Mine sites in the region attract developers such as Tessera Solar for several reasons, said communications manager Janette Coates. Existing transmission lines, available water and roads capable of supporting wide, heavy loads ... Read More
Locally Owned Wind Power: Quaint it Ain’t
July 11, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Kent Madison, a third-generation farmer in eastern Oregon, used to cuss when the wind blew hard and kicked up dust and kept him from spraying his crops. But now, with 18 windmills on his farm, he sees dollars, not dust, every time the wind blows. Those windmills are each bringing in $6,000 to $8,000 in rent yearly. In a dozen years or so, Madison, who farms wheat, alfalfa and vegetables on 17,000 acres, will own three windmills virtually outright, plus the revenues from the electricity they produce, plus he'll still be getting rent for the other 15. "It's a pretty good little retirement," ... Read More
The Empowering Power of Ice
February 8, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
Just when most of the country has "had it up to here" with ice, a coalition of publicly run electric utilities in Southern California say it has plans to cool the state's energy problems by making even more. The Southern California Public Power Authority announced last month it plans to construct a 53 megawatt energy storage project over the next two years to store power — in blocks of ice. David Walden, energy systems manager for the authority, said on-peak power demand is the one of the biggest problems facing the region's electric utilities. He told Miller-McCune that power ... Read More
Power to the Far-Flung People
November 11, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Imagine being able to produce fuel on a small scale near your home. With a facility no bigger than a shipping container, enough diesel fuel could be processed for your community using crops that neither compete with food crops nor use a lot of water. Perhaps that sounds crazy in the context of developed nations, where energy is generated and consumed at a tremendous rate and often transmitted hundreds or thousands of miles through expensive cables and pipeline, but there are many remote places in the world where large-scale production facilities are unheard of. These are places that still ... Read More
Are America’s Winds Taking a Breather?
September 29, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
It's easy to take the wind for granted. We count on it for all kinds of things, like propelling sailboats, turning giant power-producing turbine blades and keeping kites aloft. But what if the wind doesn't blow as hard as it used to? That possibility presents itself in a new, cautiously worded report suggesting that wind speeds may have been declining in the Midwest and northeastern states since the 1970s by 0.5 to 1 percent a year. The finding is based on data collected from wind-measuring anemometers placed at weather stations throughout the United States. But it is only one component ... Read More
The Largest Solar Water Heater Plant is in … Denmark?
August 21, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
The cobblestone streets and historic houses and shops create the impression that nothing on the Danish island of Ærø (aka Aero) has changed for centuries, and its biggest tourist attraction traditionally was its ship-in-a-bottle museum. But a trek just outside its largest towns will bring a 20th-century surprise — giant solar water heating plants. Interest in the solar alternative began on the island in the 1970s with Denmark's "No to Nuclear" movement. The two oil shocks of that decade when petroleum prices leapt and availability plummeted added to solar's attraction. "Ordinary ... Read More
Surely Some Flora Out There Can Fuel My Car
August 7, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Biological fuels received a black eye earlier in the decade when the rush to embrace corn ethanol came to a crashing halt as the technology's economics and carbon footprint became clear, Doug Struck wrote in Part I ("Reality Pricks Corn Ethanol's Bubble"). William Frey holds up a beaker of brown slush, plucked from the clutch of an automated carousel swirling dozens of glass containers. The liquid, a mix of ground corn stocks and a microscopic organism named the Q-Microbe, may just be the fuel of the future, Frey says. "We're on the right path. This works," says Frey, president of ... Read More
Reality Pricks Corn Ethanol’s Bubble
August 6, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
While corn may not be the answer, biologically derived fuels remain the holy grail for many researchers. In Part II ("Surely There's Some Flora Out There to Fuel My Car"), Doug Struck looks at efforts ranging from other cellulosic ethanol options to pond scum. The vision of vast golden fields of corn supplying the fuel for our cars, once the dream of environmentalists and farmers, is disappearing, its allure dimmed by science and reality. Corn-based ethanol was seen as such an ideal solution for our transportation fuel that Congress leaped to write it into law. In a swoon over ethanol in ... Read More
The Sourdough Approach to Biomass
July 29, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
The folks at Dovetail Partners, a Minnesota-based nonprofit corporation whose stated vision is "to be the most trusted source of environmental information," released a report today detailing some best practices for harvesting "woody biomass" for energy. And the takeaway message is sourdough. Burning twigs to power the world, as it were, isn't an environmental pipe dream — if you think about it, the whole planet pretty much used to be wood-powered back in the day — although the West still sees this as a "new" use of forests. Dovetail notes the International Energy Agency "believes the ... Read More
