The European Union is in the process of drafting legislation that would encourage renewable energy, but it appears the UK is attempting to water down the effort.

According to Claude Turmes, a member of the European Parliament representing Luxembourg, Britain is trying to obstruct the EU's efforts to increase renewable energy so that the UK can protect traditional energy suppliers along with their coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Turmes is the architect of the EU renewable energy initiative. He told the Guardian, "This would take us backwards and would weaken the possibilities of connecting renewable energy to the grid. A government that says it wants to promote renewables cannot go for other policies behind the scenes."

The energy initiative supports the EU's goals to rely on renewable energy for 20 percent of Europe's needs by 2020. The nations making up the European Union will be required to provide priority access to their power grids for renewable energy sources. But the U.K. wants to make that requirement optional. Turmes has argued that such a change would undermine the initiative — the current plan is based on successful policies that have been put into place in Germany, Spain and Denmark. He says that the requirement will help countries "kick dirty energy sources like coal off the grid."

This question actually directly addresses a key issue facing renewable energy in Britain: there are very connections to the national grid that renewable energy sources can access. Currently, 9.3 GW of power — in the form of completed wind farms in Scotland — is waiting for a connection to the national grid. The wind farms are standing idle in the meanwhile. The British government has justified their actions with the argument that it is concerned about relying heavily on renewable sources of electricity which operate intermittently. Giving priority access to renewable energy sources would make it more difficult to access back-up systems.

The EU's energy initiative looks very promising in the long run. Even if the legislation is amended in Britain's favor, there is little question of it becoming law. And no matter the priority the U.K. gives to offering access to their national power grid for renewable energy sources, the nation will still be required to generate 15 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2020. It may not be the ideal adoption that Turmes envisioned, but the U.K. will be adopting a significant amount of renewable energy.

Image — Binary Static

On most desks these days, you'll find an LCD monitor. Microsoft researchers say that they have a replacement, though, that is significantly more energy efficient.

LCD screens are backlit and less that 10 percent of that light actually reaches the surface of the screen. But Anna Pyayt, a researcher from the University of Washington, in conjunction with two Microsoft engineers, have built a prototype display screen that uses less energy and operates faster than an LCD. The new screen mimics the reflective optics used by telescopes by turning every pixel into a minature telescope. With this method, a user actually sees about 36 percent of the actual light a monitor uses. Michael Sinclair, one of Microsoft's research engineers, thinks that number could go as high as 75 percent.

A number of projects have attempted to develop energy efficient display screens in the past, but most consumers have been dissatisfied with their efforts. These projects have all been unable to produce the bright pictures that consumers demand. But Pyayt's telescopic pixel design meets those requirements. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, Pyayt expressed high hopes for the new technology: "It's not a final, perfectly working system, but it's in progress, and I believe it's possible to optimize it to be fully functional."

Photo — barjack

Be Green Packaging has been certified as sustainable in every step of the production of their packaging materials by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC). The Cradle-to-Cradle certification guarantees that, among other questions of sustainability, a product does not go to a landfill — it doesn't have a cradle-to-grave cycle. Instead, the product must be wholly recyclable.

Be Green Packaging produces a variety of food containers such as bowls and trays. Their products are entirely compostable. They distribute their products throughout 37 states, as well as Canada and the U.K. Their packaging does not rely on plastic or use trees; instead, Be Green produces packaging from bulrushes, a wetland plant that is known to grow quickly.

There is a clear issue that, while many companies are making their production practices more sustainable, they still take few measures to deal with their products after their usefulness is over. Disposal is generally left to a consumer, who has few options beyond the landfill. A Cradle-to-Cradle certification from MBDC guarantees that the consumer has easy options, such as the nearest compost pile. More companies are stepping up to take responsibility for disposing of their own products in the end, and that's a trend that should be rewarded. It seems like many consumers are willing to do just that — saving a consumer the cost and effort of disposing of a product is an incentive for the consumer to keep buying.

Image — Be Green Packaging

One hundred years ago this week, Henry Ford brought the automobile to the American people with the cheap, reliable, mass produced Model T. In the century that followed, Ford and other American auto manufacturers grew to become some of the most powerful, successful corporations in the world. 

But centennial celebrations in Detroit have not been joyous.  Ford posted a $9 billion dollar loss in the second quarter of 2008, and it’s not as if the prior years had been especially rosy. General Motors and Chrysler have been suffering from similar problems, while around the world, foreign manufacturers are thriving. So what went wrong?

In many ways, it was a lack of innovation that brought Ford to its current precarious situation. At the time of its release, the Ford Model T averaged between 13 and 21-miles-per gallon;  today the average Ford light truck gets a mere 22.2.  Some might argue that for a majority of Ford’s existence, there has been no market pressure to create more fuel efficient vehicles, and to a certain extent, that’s true; between 1908 and 1970, the real cost of gasoline actually declined.

When Honda released its innovative Insight hybrid in 1999, American manufacturers took little notice. American companies didn’t produce a single hybrid until 2004, when the Ford Escape was launched, and since then a continued lack of attention to smaller, more efficient cars has brought record losses to the industry.

Still, American manufacturers aren’t dead in the water. Ford and other manufacturers create a variety of smaller cars for European markets, which they have now pledged to bring to American markets.  Chevy has built on GM’s experience with the EV1 to create the Volt, a sporty-looking plug-in hybrid that can runs entirely on electricity for 40 miles. It’s due to be released in 2010. GM is cutting  back on truck and SUV production and will focus more on smaller cars.

The only question now is whether the American auto giants can ride out more foreign competition in an increasingly rough market until these initiatives pay dividends.

In the battle for America’s climate future, it’s “The Terminator” versus “The Decider.” 

Upset over continuing problems with global warming emissions, high oil prices, and a complete lack of action from the nation’s capital, Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with a group of other governors from Western states and Canadian provinces, has formed his own climate coalition, dubbed the Western States Initiative.

The WSI has announced a draft cap-and-trade plan that aims to bring global warming emissions for each of its 11 member states and provinces to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Even more notably, the plan aims to limit carbon reductions achieved through somewhat controversial carbon offsets, which allow businesses that exceed their carbon caps to buy an offsetting amount of clean energy to make up the difference.

As national- and international-scale action has been limited on anything but long-term carbon reductions, it may be that local initiatives such as the WSI are the most viable method to achieving meaningful greenhouse gas reductions within the next decade. 

While many companies tout the energy-friendly properties of their products during production or useful life cycle, very few products can make claims for eco-friendliness after they’ve been thrown away.  In fact, some sources have claimed that keeping a gas-guzzler on the road is still more eco-friendly than buying a hybrid and tossing your old car away.

But now, a running shoe company is looking to bring some of the buzz back to biodegradable. According to Brooks Sports, some of the materials in running shoes can take up to a thousand years to biodegrade fully. But thanks to a new non-toxic additive, the company’s new BioMoGo material should break down in roughly 20.

The additive is designed to take effect only in conditions found in landfills, so you can expect no reduction in durability. Brooks has also taken a cue from the software world, and decided to release the product as an open-source project, making it free of charge to any other interested companies. 

This development both reduces landfill impact and refocuses consumer and industry attention on the environmental impacts of their products well after their useful life cycle has been completed.

Fresno-Yosemite International Airport may be the greenest airport in the world. The airport is installing a record number of solar panels — the largest solar project completed by any commercial airport in the U.S.

The airport has quite a bit of undeveloped land surrounding landing strips and other airport facilities. Rather than letting it remain empty, the airport is covering 9.5 acres of its open land with solar panels. That's the equivalent of covering seven football fields and requires 11,700 solar panels. Fresno hasn't become self-sufficient, but the panels can generate about 40 percent of the airports annual electrical needs.

A private company, Worldwater and Solar Technologies, is handling the design, installation and maintenance of the panels. Airport officials have announced that this plan will decrease the overhead costs required to run the airport and will help the airport with the soaring energy costs it has struggled to meet. Fresno's energy needs will be reduced by an approximate 170,000 barrels.

Alan Autry, the mayor of Fresno, and other local government officials considered the plan simple common sense. Autry said: "So you take land that's basically idle and useless and turning it into 11-million dollars worth of taxpayer's savings, that's a good day for Fresno."

Image — Caribb

Aspen, Colorado's city council has approved efforts to draft an ambitious revision of local building codes. The city's building department is focusing on commercial construction — such as the various ski resorts located in the area — and aims to reduce energy consumption by 50 percent by 2030.

New construction will be required to either include a photovoltaic solar panel system or pay into a renewable energy fund for any exterior energy use, such as the heated pools and snowmelt systems that are relatively common in the area. The building department is also mandating the use of building materials that meet minimum efficiency standards.

The only section of the proposed code that the city council did not greenlight was a plan to require that buildings larger than 25,000 square feet submit to energy audits every five years. The results of such an audit would create a credit/debit system that Aspen's mayor, Mick Ireland, referred to as a potential enforcement nightmare.

Local contractors' associations have argued that the new green requirements could raise building costs by as much as 5 percent. Aspen's building department has argued that properties will be worth more, making building costs less of a concern.

Aspen has had a renewable energy initiative for residential construction for several years now.

Image — Travis Church

Like most greentech junkies, I think the plug-in electric revolution is moving much too slowly. To feed the demand of the just-can't-wait crowd, there's a device coming onto the market this fall that will turn just about any car into a PHEV.

The Poulsen Hybrid system attaches two 7 HP electric motors to each of a vehicle's rear wheels, giving your rust bucket a boost that the company says can take over 70-85% of motoring duties.

Conceptually, the idea is that a car traveling at highway speeds requires only 10-15 HP to keep pace. The snap-on plug-in will handle the majority of that load, with the internal combuster piling on power for starts, hills, and acceleration.

At around $4200 (including $600 for installation), it will take quite a few fill-ups to offset the cost. Including the batteries, the setup weighs about 300 lbs, but unlike a similarly hefty friend, it won't leave Cheeto dust in the back seat. Acid-lead batteries are being used for the time being, but a lithium-ion model (100 lbs less and 2x total cost) is planned.

Poulsen claims it will have installable kits ready by this Fall, but initial conversions will happen at the company's Connecticut headquarters. Eventually, though, they intend for dealers around the country to serve as installation stations. Poulsen believes their kit can be installed by the owner in 3-4 hours, but advises against marketing it as DIY "until issues of product liability have been resolved."

Poulsen hopes to be a contender for the Automotive X-Prize too by achieving the contest's 100 MPG threshold and launching their company into stardom.

It's a little unfortunate that the add-on somewhat resembles automotive orthodontic headgear. Actually, that may be an appropriate analogy, given that the car of the future is very much in its pimply adolescence. Still, it couldn't be any more embarrassing than driving around in mom's station wagon could it?

Four hundred years before towering white windmills announced the arrival of modern, renewable energy, towering while sails announced the arrival of the first truly global trade markets. And now, thanks to the high cost of oil and consumer interest in renewable technologies, they may yet come symbolize it again. 

Thirty thousand wine bottles are currently en route to Dublin from the wine country of France, sitting in the hold of a century-old square-rigged merchant ship. While the six-day, wind-powered voyage will take roughly twice the length of time it would on a modern ship, CTMV, the French company chartering the voyages, is optimistic that wind-powered freight will catch on. 

The French Association of Shipowners estimates that wind power could retake .5% of the market—which is 11 million tons of cargo—but CTMV predicts that once it buys its own vessels, thus eliminating the charter fee, the costs of wind-powered shipping could fall below the rates of fossil fuel vessels, attracting even more business.

Though I doubt, due to constraints on speed, capacity, and seaworthiness, we’ll see a return of East Indiaman fleets for transcontinental shipping, on shorter hauls, sail-powered ships could indeed help consumers to reduce carbon footprints, and smaller companies to save cash.

While the Environmental Protection Agency has spent much of the past eight years infuriating biofuel advocates by not taking action in deciding whether or not greenhouse gases endanger the public health, it may spend much of the next few weeks infuriating biofuel opponents by delaying a decision on U.S. ethanol production. 

Legislation currently mandates the U.S. produce some nine billion gallons of ethanol this year, to be used as a fuel additive. However, the legislation also grants the EPA the ability to reduce or eliminate the quota should it be shown that production levels would “severely harm the economy or environment.”

With world food prices hitting record highs, and a growing mountain of research indicating that biofuel production from corn actually results in far more carbon being released into the atmosphere, the measure would seem to fit that “severe harm” clause on both counts; inexplicably, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has put off a final decision until August. 

It’s yet another twist from an administration whose record on the environment, from unopened emails, to oil addictions can only be described as bizarre. 

At the Plug-In 2008 Conference & Exposition this week, one company has a solution for a safety concern about electric and hybrid vehicles. Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics (EVA), a Santa Clara, California-based company notes that already eight states and two senators are proposing to increase emitted sound requirements for potentially silent-running vehicles. EVA summarizes that “the absence of acoustic cues currently produced by combustion engines poses a public safety threat to pedestrians, cyclists, children and animals.”

EVA, which has received seed funding from the National Federation of the Blind, has developed a speaker system that mounts externally underneath any EV or hybrid vehicle such as a Toyota Prius that sometimes runs or idles on battery power alone. Controlling the speaker system is a small, embedded computer that monitors what the vehicle is doing - accelerating, slowing, turning, or idling. The computer then sends programmed sounds to one or more speakers on the appropriate side of the car, providing audible cues to unwary pedestrians. Each independent sound is designed to be a psychological clue about the vehicle’s speed and direction. EVA says this increases safety at a fraction of the overall sound output of an ordinary combustion engine vehicle.

The sounds EVA demonstrated at the exposition were acoustically equivalent to a combustion engine doing its thing - accelerating or idling, for example. However, EVA also said that it has already begun working with manufacturers to develop sounds specifically attributable to their brands. Car companies already spend considerable money mechanically engineering the sound of their door slam. Porsche strives for a distinctive rev from its exhaust pipes. Would Porsche consider an electronic match for their 2009 Cayenne Hybrid?

Since the sound files are simple MP3s, personalization seems inevitable, just as people have embraced cellular ringtones. I’m sure at least one early Aptera owner will fly by sounding like he’s driving the Jetson-Mobile. What would you want your vehicle to sound like?

Investors are always looking for the next millionaire-maker. For quite a while now, various Internet businesses have received tons of venture capital because investors considered them good bets to make money over time. But now, even mainstream investment publications are recommending cleantech as a better investment.

Yesterday, The Motley Fool published an article recommending investors take a good close look at cleantech. The Fool's main audience isn't venture capital firms or professional investment groups, though. This major website — past partners include AOL — provides financial information for the layperson. Most of its readers are just people looking to manage their own money and perhaps make a few investments for retirement.

The Motley Fool is pointing to cleantech stocks as good picks for average investors, the sort of people who only started investing in various internet-based businesses as they became household names. While these investors may not recognize the three solar energy stocks that the article discusses — Trina Solar, SunPower and First Solar — many cleantech companies are becoming recognizable names. Just the word 'cleantech' is starting to make some investment opportunities popular with average investors. Mutual funds focusing on cleantech stocks or moving towards cleantech investments, like the Fidelity Magellan, are seeing good returns and more investors. 

Cleantech has gone mainstream, at least for investors.

Image — The Motley Fool

Esquire Magazine is celebrating its 75th anniversary in October and is adding an electronic 'paper' cover to that month's issue. The electronic cover will show scrolling words and images and is the first of its kind. Esquire will be putting 100,000 copies of its October issue into circulation.

In an interview with Folio, Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger said: "We decided to dedicate our 75th anniversary issue not to the magazine's past but to our culture's near future." Many publishers look to various forms of electronic paper to replace the wood pulp variety in the future —the idea is that electronic paper will be reusable, rather than the less-than-sustainable approaches to printing that many publishers take now.

E Ink, the company behind the electronic paper display technology used in both the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, developed the cover for Esquire: "The cover is made up of microcapsules that are thinner than a human hair and are very small in diameter," according to E Ink's vice president of marketing, Sriram Peruvemba. "How it basically works is that the microcapsules contain black and white pigments. When a charge is added, depending on the polarity, the pigment particles rise to the top creating the image you see."

Esquire's October edition may be the first step to a paperless magazine industry.

Image — E Ink

Google is investing in companies it believes will lead in the technologies the company considers aligned with its future plans. Specifically, Google is investing in two companies immediately: Aptera and Actacell. The announcement was made by Dan Reicher, Google's director of climate change and energy initiatives at the Plug-In 2008 Conference. 

Reicher says that in selecting investments, Google is applying lessons the company learned in two of its Google.org initiatives — RechargeIT and RE<C. RE<C is a strategic initiative by Google to build renewable energy through grants and investments. RechargeIT is an initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption of plug-in vehicles: Google.org has built a small fleet of plug-in hybrids, which it plans to continue expanding. It includes retrofitted Toyota Priuses and Ford Escapes. As the fleet expands, Google plans to offer a free car-sharing program to employees at its headquarters.

Investments in Aptera and Actacell fit in ideally with Google's own initiatives. Aptera has constructed an operating prototype vehicle that gets 230 miles to the gallon. The company is already moving toward production. In light of Google's RechargeIT efforts — especially its car-sharing plan — exceptionally efficient vehicles are ideal for the company's purposes. Investing in Aptera will just get the car to market faster, making it a feasible option for Google's fleet of cars. That's really putting your money where your mouth is.

ActaCell, in contrast, is developing high power, next generation lithium ion batteries — a must for plug-in and hybrid vehicles. One of the main concerns for those interested in driving a plug-in car remains the issue of the range of the car. A better battery makes a more extensive range possible. If Google truly creates a company fleet of plug-in vehicles, great battery life is a must: without excellent batteries, company cars will spend more time plugged in than out and about on company business.

Just because Google has invested in these two companies doesn't guarantee that it'll be buying their products, of course. But Google's initiatives depend on making renewable energy and plug-in vehicles easier to obtain, and the fastest way to do that  is to give the manufacturers the money they need to operate. Google has the cash to do so, and can provide for its own interests as well as making investments that will pay off financially. It makes sense — those on the business side of the operation are content because the company is making a good investment, while the more idealistic side of the company is happy because it'll be getting the products it needs down the road.

Image — Google

There’s nothing new about the idea of a census. The Ancient Romans used them to asses potential military strength, and the earliest leaders of the United States thought a comprehensive picture of the population so valuable to the young nation that the wrote it into the Constitution.

Now, however, the British Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn, is looking to extend the concept to fully asses the natural resources of the United Kingdom.  The project aims to asses precise levels of biodiversity, species populations, and natural resources in the island nation, as well as to provide expanded availability of green spaces to the country’s urban residents.

While advocates of smaller government might decry this as yet another pork barrel project, establishing current levels would give the UK markets tremendous insight into both their resource supplies and their impacts on the environment. This in turn could allow them to set prices to be more accurately, without the need for excessive or inefficient government regulation. 

When the "Taxachusetts" state house blasts through a bill to cut gas taxes for biofuels, you know the time must be right to invest. 

To be fair, the financial burden foisted upon taxpayers by the Bay State has decreased significantly after 16 years of Republican governors, but still, even with the state’s liberal reputation, unanimous agreement on Beacon Hill is a very rare thing indeed.

While politicians in Washington have been mulling an increase in gas taxes to help keep up income for highway road projects as Americans reduce their driving in reaction to skyrocketing gas prices, the Massachusetts state reps may have interests beyond a simple reduction in carbon footprint. 

Biotechnology firms are a significant industry in the Boston area, with the governor recently handing out a one-billion dollar boost to help fund the sector. Given the recent spike in interest in bioengineered, biofuel algae, I’d guess that the desire for a clean energy future might have had some significant help in sliding through its first vote. 

Denali National Park may be treating visitors to a smoother, cleaner ride in hybrid buses that are saving cash and public health. Denali has traditionally carted visitors around in school buses, which are now losing favor because of the high concentration of noxious chemicals they spew.

The new hybrid test buses not only look pretty, but are aptly tailored for Denali’s needs. Hybrids are ideal in Denali, where their quieter engines are don’t scare off the charismatic megafauna people have come to see. Hybrids also work best when their drivers stop often, so the braking action can charge the batteries. In this way, buses are ideal hybrid customers as they make many stops all day.

Buses in Denali drive a combined 1.2 million miles per a year. With that scale, the 70% fuel savings offered by the hybrid technology becomes quite significant. Diesel prices have risen in tandem with all oil products, and parks have struggled to afford fuel costs with their limited budgets. Though the hybrid buses cost twice as much as a normal diesel bus, they pay themselves off over time, and faster as oil prices continue to rise.

Rainwater collection systems have been a fundamental element of green building design. However, as larger green building projects incorporate larger cisterns and water systems, or worse, rely on rainwater for anything but supplemental use, an interesting problem arises. Collecting too much water is against the law.

Water law is a complicated animal, to be euphemistic. It varies depending on what state you live in, and is built upon very old common law principals that immigrated from England with the colonialists. There are two types of water laws: riparian, and prior appropriation. Riparian water laws are from the East Coast where water is plentiful, almost a first come, first served ethos. Appropriative rights however, which is the type of law that dominates most of the West, means that the average flow of a river has been calculated, and that amount of water has been divided among users, who own rights to it.

For instance, the Colorado River is so appropriated that by the time it gets to Mexico (which apparently has no rights) it’s dry. We use 100%+ of the Colorado every year. One hundred percent appropriation is not good water policy, but its common in the West. Now, it’s easy to understand why droughts are so completely disabling in the West; there is very little “extra” to spread around in a pinch. So when green builder XYZ builds a large-scale water cistern system for a development, he or she may be taking a volume of water that has already been assigned -- that other people already own. The rain is destined for specific uses and users before it falls.

Many people who own water rights today have had them in the family since the Native Americans were displaced. Water rights have tremendous value, especially in the arid West. As commodities, water rights have skyrocketed in monetary value based on predictions of long terms droughts resulting from climate change. Farmers, who often hold rights to large quantitites of water, are making huge profits by leasing their water rights in the Southwest and Rockies.

So far, the issue has not seen a serious legal challenge or regulatory attempt. Paul Fleming, who manages climate and sustainability projects for Seattle Public Utilities, told reporters "Since it's been an unsettled issue, I think there was a feeling that we'll [continue promoting rainwater collection] and test it." Some hope for changes to water laws, and there probably will be, but it is unlikely they will become more equitable. Water law is archaic but draws its strength from that tradition.

People who hold water rights will hardly give them up without a fight, and in some cases are willing to kill for them. The Park Rangers in Death Valley, for example, warned my backpacking group in all seriousness that they’d shoot us if we got too close to their water source. Water rights are serious, life-and-death matter in the West; it will be interesting to see where rainwater collection ends up. 

When you think you have it bad, just consider the Palestinians, who are paying $50 a gallon for gas. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be hoofing it when we hit $10.

As a solution, a duo of Palestinian engineers figured out how to spend $2500 to stock a ’94 Peugeot with 30 car batteries. Tada! Electric car.

Their design is insanely efficient, and gets 110 miles out of a standard charge. (By way of comparison, the Chevy Volt, over which hundreds of GM engineers have sweated for years, will get 40 miles to a charge.) It goes 60 mph and has enough horsepower to haul some people around, basically over-meeting the transportation needs of most Palestinians -- and most Americans, for that matter.

The engineering pair, struggling to attain parts, has been deluged with orders. Ironically, the duo turned to Israelis for assistance with financing. Fayaz Anan, one of the engineers, hopefully offered “Maybe we, Israelis and Palestinians, can save the world together.”  

One of the major concerns for biofuel producers has been the material used to manufacture biofuel. No one wants to use food crops if that can be avoided, but there are also price concerns. But what if sawdust is an option?

Sawdust is waste and easily obtained, along with a long list of plant materials that may have just become options for making biofuels thanks to a breakthrough in converting plant molecules into liquid hydrocarbons. Yuan Kou, a researcher at Peking University in Beijing, China have found a reaction for breaking down lignin — the molecule in plants used to create biofuels — that reliably converts more of a plant's lignin into the alkanes and alchohols used in biofuel. Other reactions are inefficient.

Kou's team used hot pressurised water, known as near-critical water, as a slovent for the reaction and add a platinum-carbon catalyst and dioxane as an organic additive. The combination created high yields, even from plant matter not known for biofuel applications. One of Kou's team members, Ning Yan, said, "For the first time, we have produced alkanes, the main component of gasoline and diesel, from lignin, and biomethanol becomes available."

This reaction, with further research, may provide a clear route to cheaper biofuels.

Photo — Steve Lodefink

The U.S. Department of Energy is looking for entrepreneurs in the early stages of developing renewable energy concepts. The DOE started an entrepreneurial program with Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Arch Venture Partners and have brought more venture capital firms on board since. Effectively, the DOE has created an 'entrepreneur -in-residence' program, where entrepreneurs with an idea for an energy startup have easier access to venture capital than they might otherwise get.

Michael Bruce, the senior advisor for finance in the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, discussed the agency's entrepreneurial efforts at the first Nano Renewable Energy Summit yesterday. Bruce delivered the summit's keynote, focusing on the use of nanostructures in energy innovations. He believes that the 'technology incubators' that academic institutions often create in partnerships with private industry aren't as effective as bringing in business development specialists during public-private collaborations.

According to Bruce, the DOE is not relying on licensing fees and royalties for patents. Instead, the agency is promoting equity-share licenses. Equity shares in private companies are traded for technology licensing rights. Over the past few years, venture firms' interest in renewable energy has skyrocketed, making the DOE'splans financially feasible.

Image — DOE

The California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) has a history of launching some of the most innovative startups in the cleantech industry. It has announced 44 finalists for the 2008 competition. The winners will receive early-stage capital, as well as advice and expertise not easily obtainable by a startup. The CCTO's goal is to create new and innovative businesses in California, focused on the cleantech industry.

Previously, the organizers of the Clean Tech Open had estimated that there would be a total of 50 finalists, in six categories: "Transportation," "Smart Power," "Renewables," "Green Building," "Energy Efficiency," and "Air, Water & Waste."

Reaching the level of finalist can be enough to boost a startup's fortunes. While the CCTO offers impressive prizes, past finalists often find venture capital after the competition. In the last two years, finalists have raised more than $70 million in funding, as well as landing a significant number of customer contracts. Furthermore, of the 95 former finalists, more than 84 percent are still viable companies — a number far and beyond better than the average cleantech startup's odds.

There are plenty of new ideas among the winners, but Solar Ice especially caught my eye; the company is working on a solar-powered icemaker.  How wonderfully ironic.

Air, Water & Waste:

• Clean Coal Inc. — Coal containments removal
• Over the Moon Diapers — High performance reusable diapers and service network
• Porifera — Carbon nanotube membrane for reverse osmosis desalination
• PURE-T — Salt free water softener using nanobeads
• Purite — Zero-energy chemical-free whole house water filtration
• SequesCO —Microbial CO2 capture and conversion to biofuel
• Waste Water Works (WWW) — Microbial wastewater treatment which generates electricity

Energy Efficiency:

• Atomic Precision Systems Inc. — New semiconductor process for ultra-cheap LED lighting
• Enovative Group — Smart pump for hot water circulation
• NexChem — Energy-saving process improvement for zinc galvanizing
• Transoptic — Solar energy assistance for conventional water heaters
• Viridis Earth — Domestic HVAC retrofit to improve efficiency
• WicKool — Energy efficient water recovery for existing rooftop air conditioning

Green Building:

• BottleStone — Ceramic stone countertops include 80% recycled glass
• en-vis-age — Green, modular and customizable buildings
• Green Design Systems — Straw wall building panels
• GreenHomeAnswers.com — Home improvement website for green products and services
• GroundSource — Residential geothermal system with installation services
• ISTN — Eco-friendly building insulation
• Parco Homes — Manufactured green (zero net energy) home kits
• Solar Red — Low-cost rooftop photovoltaic installation system and components
• Team Wawa — Water-conserving shower system

Renewables:

• Covalent Solar — Organic thin film solar concentrators
• Focal Point Energy — Solar thermal water heater for industrial processes
• IEM Applications — Landfill methane accelerated recovery
• Renewable Fuel Technologies — Agricultural waste biomass converted to Green Coal
• Solar Ice — Solar powered ice maker
• Solindis — Optical solar concentrator for thin film photovoltaics

Smart Power:

• 1ARC Energy — Higher capacity lithium-ion batteries
• Cooler — Carbon calculator to allow B2B targeted advertising in LOHAS
• Energy Empowered — Home display and control to reduce standby power usage
• Enverity Corporation — Greenhouse gas tracking and compliance
• Power Assure — Data center energy management software service
• Renewable Voltage — Treats organic waste to provide hydrogen and energy storage
• Tangerine Network Devices — Home energy display and control

Transportation:

• AAA Fleets — Turnkey electric vehicles and solar charging systems for fleets
• E-Chargers — Plug-in hybrid charging station
• ElectraDrive — Gas to electric drivetrain auto conversion
• Electric Drive Research — Plug-in/gas hybrid 2 person, 3 wheel sports car
• ElectronVault, Inc. — More efficient traction battery for hybrids
• Enhanced Vehicle Acoustics — Flexible engine sound generator for quiet cars
• FuelMotion — Series hybrid conversions for the developing world
• Goose Networks — Hosted dynamic scheduler for carpools
• Philo Fuel — GPS-based audiovisual cues to help drivers optimize fuel efficiency

Image — California Clean Tech Open

While genetic engineering has yet to significantly improve worldwide crop yields or increase the drought resistance of many feedstock plants, researchers in Colorado are currently getting underway with a plan to use the technology to build a better biofuel. 

While biofuels as we know them currently offer one the best alternatives to carbon-heavy fossil fuels, the energy it takes growing and refining them reduces their carbon-mitigating abilities. But Copaifera langsdorfi, otherwise known as the kerosene tree, can produce 10.5 gallons of natural oil a year that can be used directly in existing combustion engines.

Researchers at the University of Northern Colorado are now hoping to transfer the genes that produce this oleoresin into an algae and a flowering plant with a completely sequenced genome, two species that can be raised quickly and in quantities, without consuming too much energy, and that can reveal much about the viability of the project. 

The project, if successful, would represent a clear leap forward in biofuel technology. As always, however, care must be taken to ensure that these genetically engineered organisms stay out of the general plant population as a whole; oil-producing algae could wreak untold havoc on any aquatic ecosystem into which they’re introduced. 

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and in a war, there’s no shortage of either. No coincidence, then that military conflicts have birthed the jeep, radar, atomic energy, and, in its earliest, room-sized incarnations, the computer. 

Now the modern battlefields in Iraq have lead to a modern invention that may have applicable functions well outside of combat zones. The Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (or “Tiger” since military acronyms always have to spell something) combines a shredder, an ethanol generator, a gasifier, and some diesel fuel to run an electric generator on a crude form of biodiesel. 

Two Tiger prototypes, with a combined price tag of $3 million, are currently undergoing field testing in Baghdad, but are reported to have performed well thus far, save some problems from the extreme heat.  

While the high cost makes the Tiger too expensive for most municipalities, its mobility (it’s wheeled and fits in a 20-to-40 foot container) could be useful for large events, such as concerts or New York City’s New Year’s Eve festivities, which require power for lighting, and have an excess of trash that needs to be dealt with.

Energy bars often come in wrappers lined with foil. They aren't easily recycled, but Terra Cycle has created a solution. They've set up the Energy Bar Brigade, asking groups to join up and send their wrappers to Terra Cycle.

In the last seven months, the Energy Bar Brigade has collected 200,000 'post-consumer' — ready to be thrown away — wrappers. That adds up to two tons of waste that have been diverted from landfills. Terra Cycle doesn't quite recycle the wrappers their organization collects. Instead, the company repurposes them into products like pencil and tote bags.

The Energy Bar Brigade is growing rapidly. While Terra Cycle is based in New Jersey, the Energy Bar Brigade has hundreds of members across the country. In the state of California alone, there are over 100 members sending in their energy bar wrappers.

Terra Cycle maintains similar recycling projects, collecting such items as drink pouches and yogurt cups. It's a brilliant business decision. The materials that Terra Cycle needs to create the company's products could have been expensive even with the decision to repurpose materials already used by consumers. Instead, Terra Cycle essentially pays postage to get all the materials they need to make their products. They have no costs to collect the energy bar wrappers and yogurt cups they need. Terra Cycle has even convinced the makers of a number of energy bars — and therefore energy bar wrappers — to sponsor the Energy Bar Brigade.

Image — Terra Cycle

Sterling Planet announced the first purchase of Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUS) in the U.S. marketplace this morning. The credits are verified with the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS).

The credits come from the VCS-certified Greenville County landfill gas utilization project, located in Greer, South Carolina. The landfill, though not required to by federal air quality regulations, captures methane that would otherwise be released into the air. The project is estimated to prevent the emission of 6,000 metric tons of methane yearly. That figure is equivalent to 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Sterling Planet provides a variety of power solutions for clients, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon projects. The company purchases carbon credits to offset its footprint and will be adding the VCUs from the Greenville County project to the company's carbon offset portfolio. Mel Jones, Sterling Planet's CEO said in a press release, "Sterling Planet is excited to partner with a project team so focused and dedicated to the development of the U.S. voluntary carbon market. The VCS-certified Greenville project will help support the demand that Sterling Planet has created for credible, high-quality carbon offset solutions."

The variety of carbon offsets available to buyers are increasing, and it's important to know what standards a project's certifier requires. The VCS is a well known standard, guaranteeing carbon offsets that follow certain rules.

Image — Sterling Planet

Fresno, California is putting the ever-present sun to work with a 2MW solar system at its airport. To get the effort off the ground, the airport teamed with Solar Power Partners -- a company that has completed a range of municipal and private solar projects in California. Xantrex Tech will supply the inverters and Sharp Solar will provide the panels for the solar project, which will provide enough electricity to meet 40% of the airport’s energy needs. The project will cover a total of 9.5 acres of land in panels (7 football fields). Over 20 years, the solar array is predicted to save the airport $13 million.

Airports are ideal places for solar installations because they use as much power as a small city. In other words, they need all the power they can get. Additionally, airports often need to operate in emergencies, and solar can help charge generators, or can supply energy when other parts of the electricity output are non-functional. Airports also boast big, expansive buildings with flat roofs, and plenty of spare asphalt, the structural situation most conducive to building solar arrays. Additionally, airports have a lot of open space around them, making them ideal for solar installations.  

In these days of high heating oil prices, demand for outdoor furnaces, which cost about $5,000, has increased sharply Some say that at current fuel rates, these furnaces could pay themselves off in just one winter.

Furnaces’ economic benefit depends on what it burns, how abundant that source is and what it costs. For instance, wood may seem plentiful now, but that wouldn't be the case if people went back to depending heavily on it for fuel as they did in 1890. In Bill McKibben’s Hope, Human and Wild, he examines the fact that much of the greenery we see now did not exist in the 1800s; we used to use wood the way we use oil now, and therefore trees weren't all that plentiful. A wood-reliant economy is unsustainable unless timber is harvested and grown very carefully. A move to a timber-centric energy system would require the implementation of drastic lumber management and forestry policy changes to establish and sustain a sufficient fuel stock.

Furthermore, wood is a fossil fuel; trees are carbon sinks that release carbon when they're cut. Burning neither wood nor coal yields clean results. Nor does burning tires, trash, or the assortment of other things people tend to toss into furnaces, which usually result in toxic gas releases and dramatic decreases in air quality.

Ultimately, furnaces are not a solution to our oil price woes. Burning coal and wood on a heating oil scale is a sooty, dirty, toxic process and an express ticket to deforestation. Furnaces are a Band-Aid for a hemorrhage, with the potential to cause a whole new set of problems.

One of BP’s LA locations includes a green gas station called Helios House. The only gas station in the country to meet LEED USGB standards, it features an array of standard green building techniques. 

Helios House looks very much like a space ship, with its structure made from heat-reflecting, geodesically-cut steel. It is topped by solar panels that also reflect light, a green roof that grows cacti, and bamboo paneled bathroom stalls (nice!). The metalwork is made of recycled aluminum, motion-sensitive lighting, a rainwater collection system, and a team of enthusiastic youths that BP has trained to brief customers on green living techniques.

The only downer is that BP is in the business of selling oil, which is currently environmental public enemy #1. However BP's humble attitude and slogan, “a little better,” makes it hard to dislike, which is probably exactly the point. BP’s efforts are also significant because they indicate an acceptance of climate change, and take some responsibility for the fact that its primary product is a contributing factor. BP’s corporate model is much healthier, and will probably make it easier for them eventually to transition out of the oil business.  

The Federal Trade Commission has been conducting public workshops and grilling green building advocates in preparation for releasing 2009 green marketing guidelines. As environmental priorities have emerged as a public priority, green marketing has been used to sell most products, including those making spurious claims regarding how green they really are. Green advocates hope that FTC rules will provide tough guidance, national standards and a means to fight fraudulent green claims in green building and beyond.

“Greenwashing,” as false green marketing is called, has been applied to everything from SUVs to carpeting. The problem with greenwashing is that consumers believe that higher prices are justified because they are not only purchasing the product, but also its “green attributes”, or the value of its environmental benefits. Greenwashing also hurts the ability of products that are actually green to compete with cheaper imitations.

This could become an especially important issue if carbon markets ever expand to regulate individuals. In that scenario, individuals must account for their carbon output just like big companies soon will. For example if you or I would have a certain carbon limit we’d either have to meet or buy permits to augment. In that case, consumers would be relying on purchasing products that are actually environmentally sound for legal compliance rather than just feel-good or environmental or health concern, as the case may more typically be now.

The greenwashing problem has been a nuisance to the organic food industry for years, solved only when national, third-party organizations verified the truthfulness of green claims. Litigation has been used to fight fraudulent green claims, but the lack of specific laws and overly permissive existing standards have been setbacks for plaintiffs. The FTC guidelines could solve most of these problems.

The FTC is expected to offer guidelines that are more stringent than building codes, that require data about health benefits, system integration and requires a third party to verify the veracity of green claims. In doing so, the FTC validates green markets as a mainstream economic force rather than boutique services for hippies and yuppies. Quite, Michelle More, of the U.S. Green Building Council, told the FTC that green building will be a forty billion dollar business in the next two years, growing even during the economic downturn and housing market decline.

“We need a common lexicon where there is a common vernacular like a nutrition label.” Moore went on. “Screwing in a CFL light bulb and putting in a bamboo floor does not a green-built home make.”  

Xerocoat manufactures a coating for solar PV panels that increases efficiency through greater absorption of solar energy. Their coating is about 100 nanometers thick. According to the company, early test results indicate it does not easily degrade over time. Xerocoat says the coating increases power output by 3 percent, meaning it has great potential for application to large-scale solar panel systems. For example, a 100 megawatt plant would see profit increase from $4.5 million to $8.5 million from the added energy production. The anti-reflective coating is marketed to module makers who do not have to change the manufacturing process. If PV panels can produce more energy per module, the relative cost goes down.

If Adept Technology has its way, robots would take the place of people in assembling solar panels. Automating the process would reduce the cost of solar as robots cost less than laborers, according to the company. Today's robots operate at 25-40% of 1990's costs and provide additional cost savings by allowing automation in inspection and handling.

Solar robotics make up only 15% of Adept's business today, but the company has plans for greatly expanding that part of their business. For example, the company says processes ideal for future automation include laser scribing, assembly, tabbing and stringing, and machine loading and unloading.

Schuco presented a building envelope plan that not only traps and conserves energy, but also generates it. Schuco's product line is focused on harnessing the energy saving potential in heating and cooling buildings. The company has created a Technology Center, which they've outfitted with much of their own products in an effort to reach 50% reduced CO2 emissions. Upon final inspection, they exceeded their goal, attaining 54% reduction.

Schuco made use of some cutting-edge (and potentially pricey) technology: energy-efficient high-insulation glass, skylights with PV modules and shading to reduce AC load in summer, sunshades to control the amount of sun entering the building, a double-glazed thermal collector field to maximize on solar energy (which produces about 140kW more than PV alone), geothermal heat pumps and rooftop solar thermal collectors.

The company installed geothermal coolers under the building in the parking lot, which draw heat from the earth in the winter to power heat production for the building. In summertime, the flow is reversed and heat is pumped back into the surrounding soil to "re-charge" its heat, while solar thermal energy powers the building's cooling system.

Schuco admits that the payback for a sustainable building with these systems in place is currently around 50 years, which is too slow a return on investment for many organizations.