The boom in U.S. natural gas production from shale rock could help the country reduce dependency on coal, because coal emits twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas when burned. Thus, the percentage of natural gas used to generate U.S. electricity has risen to 23 percent from 20 percent two years ago, as shale gas comes to market.

"We must stand behind the underpinnings of what our leaders agreed to last year," Jonathan Pershing, the head of the U.S. delegation, told reporters on the first day of the annual two-week talks, held in Mexico this year. "The United States is standing behind the commitments we made in Copenhagen", he added.

Despite this success, Obama’s emissions pledge has also been considered meager by many countries as it is the only developed country that never joined the Kyoto pact. The failure of Congress to pass a climate bill and big Republican gains in this month’s congressional elections have also led many to ask whether the United States can reach Obama’s goal.

Developed countries also committed to providing $100 billion annually, starting in 2020, to help developing countries deal with the worst effects of climate change. But Washington wants rapidly growing countries like China and India to accept firmer emissions obligations in any global pact that would succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which will end in 2012 unless a new round is negotiated.

The scenario is complicated because the United States and China, the world’s top two emitters, don’t agree on how to tackle their responsibility of fighting climate change. Let’s see what happens in the aftermath of the Cancún negotiations.

Via: ENN | Reuters

If you are from British Columbia, Washington or Oregon and you are planning to buy an electric car now it’s the time. Starting this fall and with an investment of $1.32 million the Washington State Transportation Department plans to turn Interstate 5 into the nation’s first "electric highway". The highway will hold enough charging stations so electric vehicles will be able to make the entire 276-mile trip from the Canadian border to the Oregon state line.

10 Level-3 electric charging stations will be installed along the route. Each station will be capable of charging at 400 volts and 30 amps or more. A typical electric vehicle will be 80% charged in just about 30 minutes, so you will have the excuse to, while plugging in the car, grab a cup of coffee, chat with other car-pluggers, and be on your way. There will be stations every 80 miles, so if your future electric vehicle is a Nissan Leaf or a Ford Focus Electric type, with a nominal range of 100 miles, you can relax during the trip.

The Seattle area is getting 2,500 charging stations as part of the $230 million electric vehicle project, more than half of which will be public. Altogether, 4,700 electric vehicles and nearly 15,000 charge stations will be introduced in four states -Washington, California, Arizona and Tennessee- and the District of Columbia.

The project also helps further the West Coast Green Highway, a partnership of Washington, Oregon and California to encourage more use of cleaner fuels. Officials hope it will help turn more people to electric cars and help reduce greenhouse gases. Furthermore, Washington is an ideal spot for the implementation of the electric highway project because the state relies mostly on clean hydro-power.

Via: Inhabitat | Green Auto Blog

The whole scheme by Desertec Foundation hopes to achieve sustaining a 20% of the continent’s energetic demands by renewable resources by 2020. Gerhard Knies, one of the foundation’s founders explains "within 6 hours deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes within a year".

The EU is currently constructing new electricity cables known as inter-connectors, under the Mediterranean Sea, to carry this renewable energy from northern Africa to Europe. European Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, explains "over the next few years initial volumes would come from small pilot projects, but the amount of electricity would go up into the thousands of megawatts as projects including the 400 billion euro Desertec solar scheme come on stream", which sets a long-term plan of about 40 years until the project is completed.

The reality is that if just 1 percent of the Sahara Desert were covered in solar panels it would create enough energy to power the entire world. So Europe’s clever idea to take advantage of this untapped energy source may bring a huge positive environmental impact at a global scale by saving remarkable amounts of natural resources.

Via: Inhabitat

That is the difficult part. For this reason Dr Takashi Yabe (of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Heroe of the Environment 2009) has developed a MAGIC process (Magnesium Injection  Cycle) that uses new laser technology specially designed to this end. The laser includes an important innovation: it uses small Fresnel lenses, transparent and relatively thin planar lenses made up of concentric rings of prisms. These lenses allow around 80 percent of incident light to focus on the magnesium crystal, instead of the 10 percent that lasers typically can reach.

The process results in refined magnesium is obtained, which can be used as a fuel. But when is mixed with water, it produces heat which can boil water and produce steam that can then drive a turbine and produce useful work.

In partnership with Mitsubishi, Dr Yabe has built a demonstration plant capable of producing 80 watts of power from the laser, enough to extract 70% of the magnesium in seawater. Once the power reaches 400 watts the process will be commercially viable. It could happen later this year, according to Dr Yabe.

The production of 50 tones of magnesium per year is anticipated using a total of 300 lasers. But that is just the beginning of a beginning. Current worldwide magnesium production is estimated at 600,000 tons per year which only would satisfy, once converted into usable energy, 0.004% of the amount needed to meet the world’s energy consumption from fossil fuels every year.

According to Dr Yabe, there is enough magnesium to meet the world’s energy needs for the next 300,000 years. Let’s follow the white light, that might be the energy of the future.

Via: Economist | Technology Review | Physorg | La Vanguardia

Across the globe numerous public events will be organized simultaneously, this day is an awareness campaign for the promotion of wind energy worldwide, stressing that clean energy tackles climate change and boosts energy independence.

Vestas is the No. 1 company in providing wind energy, they handle everything from project planning, construction, and operation of wind-powered power plants. They state: “As energy consumption soars, where are the fuels that will meet the demand? Fossil fuels are a finite resource that will gradually disappear. But already, their natural replacement is sweeping freely around the earth. Wind. Renewable, predictable, fast to install, clean . . . and commercially viable.”

This company is spreading the positive message about wind power. Not only do they prove that it is clean and eco-friendly since no CO2 or other greenhouse gasses are produced, no hazardous waste is left behind as a poisonous legacy for future generations either. They also go out to demonstrate that it is actually a great business investment, competing on price with conventional energy providers such as oil and gas. Vestas has taken wind power to a level of technological maturity which allows this competition to be possible.

Our world today is struggling to satisfy it’s energy demands, consuming natural resources and polluting along the way. A clear and simple solution to this is wind energy. Predictions by Vestas state that by 2020 as much as 10 per cent of the world’s electricity consumption could be satisfied by energy from the wind. It is time to embrace the reality that now is the moment to switch to clean energy.

Today, on June 15th, people from every corner of the world participating in the events organized for the Global Wind Day will have the possibility to learn about the numerous benefits of wind energy. Hopefully they will join the fight to a cleaner, simpler energy source.

Magnesium has an advantage, its energy storage density is about 10 times higher than that of hydrogen. The element is also highly abundant, with about 1.3 grams found in every liter of seawater, that is to say about 1,800 trillion metric tons located in the oceans. For that reason, experts say magnesium has great potential as an energy source. “It would be ideal for storing electricity from renewable sources”, says Dr Aurbach of Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

But of course, there are disadvantages. “Its production is neither cheap nor clean”, states Takashi Yabe of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, named Heroe of the Environment 2009 by the TIME magazine. “Producing a single kilogram of magnesium requires 10 kg of coal”, adds Dr Yabe.

One kilogram of magnesium generates 25 Mega Joules of heat, including that which is generated by burning hydrogen. This is slightly lower than coal, which generates 30 Mega Joules per kg. However, the burning of coal emits a large amount of carbon dioxide, and leaves behind cinder, which is not easy to dispose of. Instead, the burning of magnesium does not emit carbon dioxide, and only produces two substances: water and magnesium oxide, which can be recycled to obtain magnesium.

Thus far, researchers have focused their works on the potential use of magnesium as an energy source. Dr Aurbach has created a magnesium-based version of the lithium-ion rechargeable cell, a type of battery known for its long life and stability. Engineers at MagPower in White Rock, British Columbia, have developed a metal-air cell that uses water and ambient air to react with a metal anode (with magnesium fuel) to generate electricity. Andrew Kindler, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is developing a way for cars to generate hydrogen on board by reacting magnesium fuel with steam.

But is there a clean way to obtain magnesium from the sea? Dr Yabe has the answer. He has devised and developed a new process, using only renewable energy, to obtain the embedded energy in magnesium. See the next post to find out more about how the process works!

Via: Economist | Technology Review | Physorg | La Vanguardia

Obama gave a speech at Carnegie Mellon University, where he talked addressed this issue. “The catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf right now may prove to be a result of human error – or corporations taking dangerous short-cuts that compromised safety. But we have to acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth – risks that are bound to increase the harder oil extraction becomes. Just like we have to acknowledge that an America run solely on fossil fuels should not be the vision we have for our children and grandchildren”.

In his speech he stresses the need to once and for all embrace a clean energy future. He encourages people to continue making the effort to make everything, from homes and businesses, to cars and trucks more energy efficient. Right now it is a priority to invest in clean energy research and development.

Even though the BP oil spill is a catastrophe in every aspect, it may still lead to positive changes. It is a good opportunity to reflect about how we are using our natural resources and how we are inevitably compromising our planet. This spill may serve as an example of the risks we are taking in continuously using up our resources. Hopefully new eco-friendly technologies will be put in motion to bring lasting changes to America and the rest of the world.

Via: Climate Progress

Meanwhile ‘Operation Free’ is also working across the nation, its mission: to ‘Secure America with Clean Energy’. This coalition is made up of US army veterans and national security groups that promote the link between dependence on foreign energy and national security. They argue that by becoming more energy independent they will reduce dangerous involvement abroad.

Now, you might not like Hip-Hop and not everyone is a fan of the US Army but the point is that the message cuts across traditional demographics. On an international level the US is not leading the move towards clean energy but the fact that Americans themselves are trying to get organized across the board to push for this shift is a positive sign.

President Obama’s State of the Union address yesterday night was, in my mind, expertly delivered. Like a good politician, Obama played to various interest groups and in no area did he do this more than in the energy sector.

He spoke of the ‘overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change’ and of the need to pass a ‘comprehensive energy and climate bill’. This received a standing ovation. However, so did his arguments that a ‘new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants’ was needed; that new offshore areas needed to be opened up for oil and gas exploration; and that continued investment in bio-fuels AND ‘clean-coal’ was necessary.

To his credit, his speech really centered on creating jobs, and clean energy jobs were a main component of that proposal. Arguably, for the US to put all its eggs in one, truly, ‘clean’ energy basket might not be the best strategy for its future. But haven’t we seen the effects of faulty nuclear power plants? Haven’t we been living with coal for long enough? However ‘clean’ coal may get, it will never beat wind or solar power in this regard. No matter how refined nuclear waste becomes it will never be as safe either. There are plans to try to ‘recycle’, which just means ‘re-use’, nuclear waste but we do not have efficient ways of doing that at the moment and even if we did the question about where to put the waste when we’re done is far from clear. Hiding it deep underground is the best example of sweeping garbage under the rug I have ever heard of.

As always, I was impressed by the President’s ability to deliver a speech, but this time his message only rang half as strong. New jobs in the clean energy sector could help pull the US out of its recession and put it on a path to a more sustainable future. But there was a lack of urgency in his tone and a hint of complacency, or appeasement, in his comments on oil, coal and nuclear power.

Compromise is often necessary, but let us hope it does not go too far.

VIA: Youtube

BBC

Their plan focuses mainly on clean energy. The idea is that the implementation of clean energy will be studied and fostered, and that emissions will be hopefully reduced thanks to natural gas and the development of carbon capture technology.

Main actions to be taken

The US and China will create a common Clean Energy Research Center, that will enhance joint research and the development of clean energy technologies. At least $150 million in the next five years will be dedicated to the Center, and split between the two countries.

Electric vehicles are another key element of the plan. An Electric Vehicles Initiative will be launched, seeking to develop joint standards, educational projects, and demonstration projects.

Energy efficiency could not be left behind, so an Energy Efficiency Action Plan will be established. The US and China will unite their efforts in improving energy efficiency in buildings, industrial facilities, and consumer appliances. Also, common standards will be set. A forum to discuss such topics will, from now on, be held once a year.

As for renewable energies, the two Presidents announced the creation of a Renewable Energy Partnership, through which they will help each other to enhance the development of renewable energy in their countries. They will share information on grid modernization. A forum will be held, also, once a year.

China and the US want to work together to achieve cleaner uses of coal. This is related to their quest for investigating and developing carbon capture and storage.

It is encouraging to see two super powers trying to work together to find possible solutions to the environmental crisis we are all in today. As Al Gore says, “if you want to go far, go together”. Let’s hope all these plans are in fact carried out.

Via: Treehugger

More: White House

Less than a month ago, he announced he will invest $1 billion in clean energy technology. Besides, he will spend $100 million in the creation of a climate policy organization. This organization will advise policy makers, develop policies of its own, and look after public interest in the development of environmental policies.

The initiative is headed by Thomas Heller, professor at Stanford University Law School, and expert in energy law and regulation, and environmental law.

Among other things, the organization will work on carbon emission-trading systems. However, Soros says he prefers a greenhouse-gas tax. He warns that carbon emission-trading systems may be subject to manipulation by investors (something he knows about).

It will work in the US, Europe, China, India and Brazil.

His idea is that these investments need to be profitable, and also make a real contribution to solving the problem of climate change. To him, climate change is a “political problem”.

Via: Ecogeek