Results: Calendar of Events
November 30, 2009
This was an editorial by the Anchorage Daily News: The most powerful message in Sunday’s Daily News story about wind turbines and other renewable power projects in Alaska is simply that they exist. They are working. They are lighting and heating homes and businesses and villages. From the chiropractor in Palmer to villages like Chevak, people are cutting their dependence on fossil fuels and tapping clean, renewable energy and saving money in the process.Oil and gas will provide our mainstay fuels for some time to come. But look around, as reporter Rindi White did in the story “Power hungry,” and you can see both an intriguing present and a growing future. Read more
November 30, 2009
An interesting story from New Scientist about a new osmosis power plant in Norway. Obviously they have a ways to go with the technology to make it cost efficient
The world’s first prototype osmotic power station
came on stream this week. Sited on the banks of the Oslo fjord in southern Norway, it generates electricity using the natural process that keeps plants standing upright and the cells of our own bodies swollen, rigid and hydrated. Osmosis occurs wherever two solutions of different concentrations meet at a semipermeable membrane. The spontaneous passage of water from dilute to concentrated solutions through the membrane generates a pressure difference that can be harnessed to generate power. Read more
November 29, 2009
Big ideas always deserve skepticism, but this article from PopSci.com is a conversation sparker if nothing else.
Solar power is an exciting source of renewable energy, but has so far mostly been used to power little things like homes, cars and small villages. But what if solar energy was used on a scale that would power the majority of Europe? The Desertec Foundation, a Jordanian and German company are hoping to secure financing for a radically ambitious project to harness solar energy in the world’s most barren, sun-drenched expanse, the Sahara Desert. Desertec claims that if only 0.3 percent of the expanse of the Sahara was covered with solar panels, it would power the entire European continent. If up to 1 percent of the desert were covered, it could power the entire world. Read more
November 29, 2009
James Meyer/Alaska Center for Energy and Power
From Rindi White at the Anchorage Daily News: PALMER — Two spinning turbines dot the sky above Palmer, putting the quaint colony-era town on the forefront of a grass-roots make-your-own energy movement sweeping Alaska. One of the wind-power turbines — like a streamlined pinwheel or a futuristic windmill — stands above a local chiropractor’s office. The other is a green addition to an elementary school playground. The turbines are part of a move toward renewable energy in Alaska. Wind turbines dot rural Alaska. Solar arrays power a building in Nome. Tourists soak at Chena Hot Springs Resort, a getaway powered by geothermal energy. And increasingly, homeowners are using energy derived from the sun and wind to heat their homes, keep the refrigerator running and charge their iPhones. Read more
November 24, 2009
This Popular Mechanics’ story on smart grid offers an esoteric, but interesting look on what exactly is meant by “smart grid” and why it’s important in thinking about the electric grid of the future. Here’s a snapshot from the story:
There’s another potential problem with lumping the entire future of the grid into a poorly defined buzzword. Utility-controlled refrigerators and grid visualization software might help grid managers predict a mid-August brownout, but these are emergency countermeasures, intended to kick in during brief spikes in demand. These aspects of grid management won’t make possible permanent increases in power consumption. What if plug-in hybrid electric vehicles become a mainstay in American households? This switch could lower American consumption in oil while significantly increasing the demand for electricity. “Can our existing system handle it? Given that the grid is stressed already, probably not,” says Brad Allenby, a professor of civil, environmental and sustainable engineering at Arizona State University. “The difficulty with the smart grid, as a term, is that it implies a technological issue. The biggest barriers to implementing more intelligent electrical systems are probably not going to be technological, but financial and institutional. We’re trivializing the problem in ways that almost guarantee that we will optimize subsystems, while the entire system remains vulnerable.” Read more
November 24, 2009
From the Anchorage Daily News: Cook Inlet Region Inc. recently lost its key partner in the Fire Island wind project, but the company plans to spend millions to get the wind farm built and generating electricity in Anchorage by the end of 2011. Citing mismatched business goals as the reason for the split, the Anchorage Native corporation said that it and California-based EnXco, agreed to part ways in October. Until then, EnXco had been the developer of the 54-megawatt wind farm and CIRI’s equity partner in the project. CIRI said it hopes to sign a deal with another well-known wind farm developer in early December. CIRI can fund the project without an equity partner, if need be, said Ethan Schutt, a CIRI vice president for land and energy. Read more
November 24, 2009
From the New York Times: WASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official said Monday. President Obama, the official said, will announce the specific target “in coming days.” The announcement of a target will take the current legislative stalemate over a climate bill into account, the senior official said, and thus might present a range of possible reductions rather than a single figure. Read more
November 24, 2009
From APRN: NOAA’s Juneau facilities are going green in an effort to reduce diesel fuel consumption by 75 percent. The maintenance staff is busy making mechanical modifications to buildings, installing pumps to extract heat from seawater, and putting up a mini-farm of wind turbines with a unique design. To listen to the story, click here
November 19, 2009
From the Homer News: The perennial issues of oil, energy and how to fund state government after the North Slope declines were topics Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, discussed on a visit this week to Homer. Stevens spoke at the Homer Chamber of Commerce, met with city officials and held an informal town meeting at Captain’s Coffee on his visit Tuesday. While revenues from North Slope oil fields fund 90 percent of state government, those fields are declining 5 percent a year, Stevens said. Rising oil prices offset that decline somewhat. While many Alaskans pin their hopes on a natural gas pipeline, Stevens said he has to be realistic about the current gas situation. Read more
