Two pieces of good news on clean energy....

Today's post: Wednesday, 6-9-2010

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.

And, of those, the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.

Today’s post:

Today, most personal transport and most shipping of products depends heavily on oil in the form of gasoline and diesel fuel.

We may be about to experience peak oil as knowledgeable Kuwaiti scientists recently estimated (2014 was their estimate.) And, we may have already used up the Earth’s capacity to absorb CO2 & to keep a climate humans can live in well.

So, we are likely risking severe economic downturns or even a virtual collapse of our economy and severe weather or food shortages or both if we do not switch to using all electric and plug-in hybrid cars that mostly run on electricity.

And, close to 100 % of that electicity needs to come clean energy sources only -- from renewable sources with perhaps some increased nuclear power if it can be managed safely. Lastly, 100 % reliable safety management of dangerous energy and power sources has taken a very serious hit to its credibility lately. So, if we are wise, the vast majority of that clean energy will be from renewable sources only.

So, if definite progress shows up in building a network of electric and plug-in hybrid cars and renewable sources of the electricity needed, that clearly is very valuable good news indeed.

In the last few days, we have had one of each!

1. Coulomb Technologies of Campbell, California announced that it will build 4600 charging stations for such vehicles in nine initial regions across the United States. And, they will partner with FORD to make these available to the electric and plug-in hybrid cars Ford is planning to build and market within the next 2 or 3 years.

This news combined with the earlier news of a similar partnership between Toyota and the maker of all electric cars and electric car technology and components, Tesla Motors, means that within five years we will have the foundation in place for beginning to switch to mostly all electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

2. The major sources of renewable energy are wind, solar thermal, and solar photovoltaic. Of those sources, the one that can be installed most widely and at or very near where the electricity will be used is solar photovoltaic.

So, any news of how such systems can be installed more quickly, with less labor, and for less money is significant and positive.

And, since many if not most of the locations where we might install solar photovoltaic systems will have mixed sun and shade, any technology that can increase the electricity produced under such conditions, is also significant and positive.

It was recently announced that Enphase Energy of Petaluma, California has just such a product.

So, it’s also no surprise that they were recently able to raise $63 million to begin to build it and sell it more widely.

Photovoltaic cells produce DC or one-way direct current. The grid most people are connected to is AC or alternating current since this form of electricity can easily be changed in voltage and suffers less transmission losses. So the lights and electric devices in our homes and businesses are set up to run on AC current. For these reasons, solar photovoltaic systems need inverters that the solar cells connect to so that their DC power can be converted to AC.

But there are two problems with what we have been using.

The larger inverters now in use collect from many solar cells where some are in the shade and some in direct sunlight. This winds up reducing the output that the total set of solar cells generates to less than the total of the electricity they produce.

Second, these inverters are large enough that it requires several men to install each one.

Enphase Energy solves both problems by making inverters small enough that virtually every solar cell only supplies one inverter. This has been tested to improve the net output of the solar photovoltaic system by 5 to 25% over what it would have been with the larger inverters now in use.

In addition, each inverter is small enough that one installer can install them. A team with several men in it is now longer required to install the inverters.

So these announcements mean that we are getting closer to when the new energy and transport system we need is available, affordable, and in increasing use.