Demand for Solar Soars in California

The financial crisis hasn’t cooled California’s ravenous demand for residential solar power:

Despite a credit freeze that’s stunting renewable-energy projects throughout the country, 2008 was a hot year for solar power in California.

Encouraged by state rebates, Golden State residents and businesses last year installed a record 158 megawatts of photovoltaic panels on their rooftops to turn the sun’s rays into electricity, the California Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday. That’s more than double the 78 megawatts installed in 2007.

Residential demand appears to be hanging tough in the face of the shaky economy. December saw the largest volume of homeowner rebate requests since the state launched the California Solar Initiative program two years ago.

My Dream Piano/Solar Post

I love pianos, particularly Steinway grands. I also love solar power. So you can imagine my joy when I came across this piece on CleanTechnica:

Steinway & Sons recently announced that it is installing the world’s largest solar-powered rooftop system to dehumidify its factory and protect the pricey pianos inside. A grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority helped fund the $875,000 system, which is a beta site for the tri-state area.

The Least Sexy, Most Useful Technologies Get Their Due

This week, companies unveiled their latest innovations in energy efficient products at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas. The Wall Street Journal reports that pragmatism seems to be this year’s theme:

Manufacturers typically don’t roll out their glitziest offerings like talking refrigerators and crystal-encrusted faucets in downturn years, but this year’s emphasis on green features has spurred some innovation in practical products.

I can’t imagine this year’s conference has an upbeat atmosphere. But despite the circumstances, it’s good to see efficiency technologies get the attention they deserve.

The stars of this year’s show were a solar HVAC system by Texas’ Lennox Industries, a super-efficient fridge from Whirlpool and Honeywell International’s new line of wireless thermostats.

Lead-Acid Batteries Go Back to the Future

Most of the buzz surrounding battery technology these days focuses on lithium ion or nickel hydride batteries. But battery researchers are starting to juice up old-fashioned lead-acid batteries with carbon. And firms such as Pittsburgh’s Axion Power are looking to make what is old new again. From The Economist:

A conventional lead-acid battery is a simple affair, made up of a series of cells each containing a positive electrode made of lead dioxide and a negative electrode of metallic lead. These are immersed in an electrolyte of dilute sulphuric acid. …

In Axion’s battery the negative electrode is replaced with one made from activated carbon, a material used in supercapacitors. Normal capacitors—those that power the flashguns in cameras for instance—can be charged and discharged rapidly, but cannot store much energy. Supercapacitors are meatier versions that are able to hold a reasonable amount of energy as well as taking it in and releasing it quickly. Some, indeed, are already used in tandem with the lithium-ion batteries in electric cars to boost acceleration and recapture energy during so-called “regenerative” braking. Axion’s plan, therefore, is to have the best of both worlds by building a lead-acid/carbon hybrid, or PbC.

The carbon in the hybrid, which is protected within a sandwich of other materials, is more effective than metallic lead at releasing and absorbing protons to and from the acid during charging and discharging. In tests, Axion says, its PbCs have withstood more than 1,600 charges and deep discharges before they failed, which is three times better than standard lead-acid batteries specifically designed for such deep cycles.

The lead-acid carbon batteries could be used in both hybrid vehicles and in mobile energy storage systems. The best part? An infrastructure for lead-acid battery production has existed for decades, and it wouldn’t take long to scale up production of a new and improved version.

A Clean Energy Wish List Fulfilled

UPDATE: Green Wombat is not impressed. He points out that only 7% of the package is earmarked for clean tech. Plus, “the the bill does not address the most pressing issue facing renewable energy companies today: the credit crunch has dried up financing just as billions are needed to fund factories and the construction of solar power plants and wind farms that will be connected to smart grids and new transmission lines.”

What a difference a change in power can make. Just look at the green goodies included in the House stimulus package:

• $11 billion for research and development, pilot projects, and federal matching funds for the Smart Grid Investment Program
• $8 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy power generation and transmission projects
• $6.7 billion for renovations and repairs to federal buildings including at least $6 billion focused on increasing energy efficiency and conservation
• $6.9 billion in local government energy efficiency block grants
• $2.5 billion for energy-efficiency housing retrofits for HUD-sponsored, low-income housing to increase energy efficiency
• $2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy research
• $2 billion in grants and loans for the development of advanced battery technologies
• $1.5 billion in grants and loans for energy sustainability and efficiency in school districts, institutes of higher education, local governments, and municipal utilities
• $6.2 billion for low-income home weatherization

SHOCKER: Exxon CEO Not Bullish on Clean Energy

Here’s a not-so-interesting development:

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said on Thursday it would be difficult to meet President-elect Barack Obama’s goal to significantly boost U.S. alternative energy production. …

“I think that’s going to be very challenging to do,” Tillerson told reporters following a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. …

“I’m not wanting to be critical of his aspirational goal. Aspirational goals are good because they challenge us all to go out and find the right answer,” Tillerson said of Obama’s plan.

But he added: “Let’s be realistic about timeframes. Let’s not fool ourselves.“

Indeed, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking the CEO of an entrenched corporate behemoth, whose future profits lie in maintaining the status quo oil economy, would support making a quick transition to carbon-free energy sources. That would be silly.

Mr. Clean Tech Goes to Washington

“[Clean tech] is the mother of all markets,” John Doerr, one of the most successful venture capitalists in the world, told Congress. He called it “perhaps the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century.” Yet he warned that the US is “on the verge of being left behind in the green tech revolution.”

Columnist, author, and clean tech crusader Tom Friedman agreed with Doerr’s assessment, and laid the blame squarely at the feet of politicians in DC:

“If I were to draw a picture of America today, it would be a picture really of the space shuttle taking off. You know, all of this incredible thrust coming from below,” he said. “But in our case the booster rocket – Washington, D.C. – has been cracked and leaking energy. And the pilots in the cockpit are still fighting over the flight plan.”

Doerr laid out a clear clean tech flight plan for Congress to put into place starting today:

1. Unified National Smart Grid.
2. Put a PRICE on CARBON and a CAP on Carbon Emissions. Pass a 100% REFUNDABLE Carbon TAX
3. We need a National Renewable Portfolio Standard.
4. Utility regulations (and incentives) to drive efficiency, decoupling
5. Let’s get serious about funding R&D and D at scale. (The second “D” is for “decoupling.”)

It never hurts to have heavy hitters like Doerr and Friedman go to bat for your issue. We should know from the various (green??) stimulus packages coming out of Congress whether politicians were actually paying attention.

Man Bites Dog: A Billionaire Critiques the Free Market

Whatever one thinks of the “Pickens Plan,” it is still astounding to think that T. Boone Pickens–an oil-drilling, billionaire, free market ideologue–is now saying things like this:

Pickens acknowledged his plan is a step back from the free market ideology he has embraced for so long.

“The free market is fine, but waiting on the free market sometimes can be disastrous,” he said. “I think you’re at a point where you have to act, and we have the resources here to solve the problem in a way that could be cheaper.”

The savings gained by diverting funds from foreign oil would pay for efforts to move toward alternatives “pretty easily,” he said.

Amen, T. Boone.

(HT: Environmental Capital)