Read the full story in Biomass Magazine.
Two University of Illinois scientists have developed an environmentally friendly and more economical way of pretreating miscanthus in the biofuel production process.
Category Archives: Energy
Scientists develop ‘green’ pretreatment of miscanthus for biofuel
Illinois’ renewable energy fund lacks power to fulfill purpose
Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
Five years ago, Illinois passed legislation requiring electric suppliers to buy more renewable energy such as wind and solar power and then pass those costs on to customers.
The intent of the mandate was to have so-called green electricity accounting for a quarter of the power flowing into residences and businesses by 2025 while fostering homegrown jobs and cleaner air.
But that was before customers of the state’s two major electric utilities defected en masse to other suppliers that purchase power on the open market. With that move, the state is falling short of its green mandate, because money being collected from customers by these other energy suppliers isn’t being used for green energy purchases.
Instead, the money is going into a fund that’s sitting untapped because of obscure language in state law.
In a related story, the Tribune reports that, although Illinois law requires that renewable energy should come from Illinois or surrounding states, the power it receives is probably from outside Illinois, unless a municipality or business explicitly has stated it wants local renewable power.
NCAR Powers Up Renewable Energy Forecasts
Read the full story from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), building on a pioneering wind energy forecasting system that saved millions of dollars for Xcel Energy customers in eight states, has entered into a new agreement with the utility for even more sophisticated weather forecasts.
New Database Tracks Energy Legislation
Read the full story at DomesticFuel.com.
Colorado State University’s Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) has launched an Advanced Energy Legislation (AEL) Tracker, a database tracking energy-related state legislation pending in all 50 states. Types of energy include solar, wind, biofuels, natural gas and more. The AEL was created in partnership with Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) and the system will also enable CNEE to conduct analysis of trends in state energy legislation.
First Building in the World Covered in Algae
Read the full story at SustainableBusiness.com.
We’ve written about the future of buildings - that they are moving toward those that can adapt and breathe – and now we’re seeing the beginnings of that.
An apartment building in Hamburg, Germany is giving us a peek into the future – it is covered with algae.
Not that algae is hanging on the façade, it’s inside glass panels that also function as solar hot water collectors.
The 5-story Bio Intelligent Quotient (B.I.Q.) building, constructed to Passive House standards, gets all its energy from renewables. The addition of algae on the outside walls will be used to create biofuels to heat the building and also to provide shade and muffle street noise.
Cleaner energy, warmer climate?
Read the full story in R&D Magazine.
The growing global demand for energy, combined with a need to reduce emissions and lessen the effects of climate change, has increased focus on cleaner energy sources. But what unintended consequences could these cleaner sources have on the changing climate?
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now have some answers to that question, using biofuels as a test case. Their study, released in Geophysical Research Letters, found that land-use changes caused by a major ramp-up in biofuel crops—enough to meet about 10% of the world’s energy needs—could make some regions even warmer.
The fluorescent future of solar cells
Read the full story in R&D Magazine.
Scientists at Yale University have improved the ability of a promising type of solar cell to absorb light and convert it into electrical power by adding a fluorescent organic dye to the cell layer. This squaraine dye boosts light absorption and recycles electrons, improving the conversion of light into energy. The results suggest a new route for the development of lower-cost, higher-efficiency photovoltaics, the scientists say.
Energy Efficiency Savings Protocols
This document provides a set of model protocols for determining energy and demand savings that result from specific energy efficiency measures implemented through state and utility efficiency programs. The methods described here are approaches that are — or are among — the most commonly used in the energy efficiency industry for certain measures or programs. As such, they draw from the existing body of research and best practices for energy efficiency program evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V).
These protocols were developed as part of the Uniform Methods Project (UMP), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The principal objective for the project was to establish easy-to-follow protocols based on commonly accepted methods for a core set of commonly deployed energy efficiency measures.
New database demonstrates benefits of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic energy efficiency programs
The Regional Energy Efficiency Database (REED), a project of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP), provides a one-stop resource to readily access energy efficiency program data, including energy and peak-demand savings, costs, avoided emissions, and job impacts. The REED database allows users to generate reports and download underlying data showing the impacts of ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. REED will help inform a broad range of policy issues, including energy, economic, and air quality planning, and help demonstrate the long-term, money-saving benefits of energy efficiency investments. Specifically, policymakers, program administrators and other industry stakeholders can use the REED data for a variety of purposes, including comparing efficiency program impacts across states to help identify best practices in efficiency policy and program design, as well as informing progress toward clean air and climate change goals.
The database currently includes 2011 electric and gas energy efficiency program data and will expand this fall to include 2012 data from Delaware and the District of Columbia, as well as the states currently in the database. Access the REED Database.
NASA Clears Biofuel-Powered Jets for Takeoff
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
NASA researchers say commercial airlines can safely fly using plant-based biofuel, following successful test flights in California.
