News in the New Year | Green Energy News

January 1, 2010 – Vol.14 No.41

NEWS IN THE NEW YEAR.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

Good morning 2010. Good riddance 2009.

Often I’ve used this space to look back at the previous year and make predictions for the year upcoming.

Not this year. I’d rather not look back, and looking ahead is blurry. As I said last year at this time, I have no idea what’s going to happen in the next 12 months.

However, I’ll let you in on news items I’ll be searching for in 2010.

1) Barack Obama learns the power of the bully pulpit. It’s been hoped that the job-producing engine of the economy would be in greener technologies. So far – but it’s early yet in his presidency – this hasn’t been the case. Developing industries and creating jobs isn’t just about technology and investment, it’s about salesmanship. There’s no better position to sell the country on an idea than from behind the President’s podium and teleprompters. The President always gets media coverage whenever he speaks. Green energy could use a little free advertising right now.

2) Climate legislation gets debated (again). I’m not expecting anything major to come out of Washington on climate change in the early part of the year, perhaps not at all in 2010. However there are a few wild cards out there that could push legislation forward:

If the weather gets whacky – a real hot summer or a lot of hurricanes – then people and Congress will get nervous and pass some laws. (But, as you know, never count on the weather.)
Oil skyrockets. If the U.S. economy drags there won’t be a huge leap in the cost of a barrel. However, China is still growing and every new car put on the road is one that wasn’t there before, adding slightly to the global demand for oil. The consumption of oil in China could soon dictate global oil prices. Sustained high priced fuel at the pump will cause public outcry for real action on energy and thus, by default, climate change.
Someone (maybe us) bombs Iran, or Yemen for that matter, sending the price of oil through the roof with the same affects as B.

3) Ford’s Transit Connect electric truck goes on sale. Ford is still promising the electrified version of its petite van in 2010. Unlike other highway-capable electric vehicles, this one is targeted to a specific market – as working vehicles for urban areas. Any business from package delivery to small job contracting to catering might make use of the perky little van. If the expected high cost of the electric truck can be justified (no price yet from Ford) then many may leap into the front seat making it a success in the market Priced right, the Transit Connect should attract some trendsetting people, too: Think of the Transit Connect Electric as the Volkswagen Bus of the 2010’s.

4) Storing electricity in zinc grabs more attention. Intermittent renewables need energy storage and excess electricity on the grid should be stored. There’s no need for expensive, light and small batteries using lithium chemistries. Stationary energy storage can be big and heavy as long as it’s cheap. Zinc bromide flow batteries are beginning to get some minimal attention now. (I’ll cover them in greater detail in a subsequent story.) I’ll be looking for more interest in this technology in 2010.

5) Using metals to generate hydrogen gives new boost to fuel cells. A primary battery (use once and throw away) when tossed in a bucket of water will separate that water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis as one of the metal electrodes in the battery oxidizes. Tweaking that reaction, which is what AlumiFuel Power is doing, could turn this simple age-old electrochemistry into a new way of generating hydrogen for use in fuel cells. One would hope that fuel cell developers are making calls right now to the company, since production models of the company’s hydrogen generator are ready to go.

6) After 100 years, piezoelectricity moves into the energy limelight. Putting some materials, such as certain crystals or ceramics, under physical stress creates some relatively high voltage electricity. The technology is not new: It’s about a century old. It was first used in sonar equipment. It’s used in high and low tech applications. Most spark ignitors on gas barbecue grilles use piezo. Push the red button. Some material is squeezed that makes a spark and the grill lights up. A continuing source of pulsating stress on piezo materials could translate into a new way to generate electricity for our homes or cars.

Conversely, when electricity is applied to piezo materials those materials will twitch a little bit. Small piezo motors using the twitch are already in use, such as in cameras. What would a really big piezo motor be like? I’ll be looking for more piezo in 2010.

7) Terra Preta is sold at Lowes and Home Depot. It’s becoming more established that biochar can be buried in the soil to sequester carbon drawn from the atmosphere by plant life. Taking biochar a step further (or back) as the Amazonian Indians did eons ago, manmade soil can be made with biochar and other materials that is both fertile and carbon-storing. Perhaps in 2010 the first bag of Terra Preta will be sold in a building or garden supply outlet and the first cubic yard will be sold to a farmer. When either of those news items happens it will mark the first effort to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to be stored virtually forever in the soil.

There’ll be much more news of course. Hopefully some real surprises too. Necessity is the mother of invention. In these lean times survival means getting creative. Creativity is just what world economies need as they enter the new decade.