HOME > NEWS & PRESS > NEWS ITEM Home Clean Energy Solar Energy Biofuels Wind EnergyShareCleanEnergySector.com Sorry for the delay in publishing, folks. We’re just a two-man team. One of us got married (not me) and the other one was on the conference trail, digging up the green numbers and hot stories to pass along to you. Here’s the first one. Future Sources of Energy Clean energy has come a long way. But there is still a long way to go. In fact, there is still so far to go that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has said clean energy demand will outstrip supply by 37% in 2010. Take solar energy, for example. Besides wind energy, it’s been one of the most widely used sources of clean energy to date, with an estimated 12-15 gigawatts (GW) to be installed by 2010. Sounds like a lot, right? That’s about enough energy to power China for eight weeks. And take a look at renewable energy’s share of the overall energy mix, in terms of cubic miles of oil:
World Energy Sources So you can see the daunting task ahead. But don’t worry, that means it’s only the beginning. Not only are there copious amounts of clean power to come, but also abundant amounts of green profits. New Energy Ideas Some of the information I received while attending conferences over the past week or so left me with an empty feeling inside. A parade of speakers seemed to paint the most bleak energy picture possible, leaving us with little option for future success. In one presentation, a tested energy professional said we’d need the following energy sources just to meet one year’s of energy use: 2 coal-fired power plants a week for 50 years It’s going to be an AND approach not an OR approach. Get ready, there are plenty of problems and solutions ahead. The solutions we have so far are great. In coming years, they will greatly improved upon, meaning higher efficiencies and lower cost. We’ll also see some new, game changing technologies, with the possibility of (don’t call me crazy) nuclear fusion being pursued by some heady start-ups. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and top schools like MIT are in hot pursuit of next-generation energy technologies and projects. And they’re licensing aggressively. We’re also seeing new interest in distributed power (generated near its point of use) rather than centralized power stations. This eliminates the need for expensive transmission and storage projects. For now, I want to take a look at some existed technologies while prodding their problems and potential. NOTE: These are my notes from various conferences transcribed to make some sort of sense. Sorry for any gaps or anything not easily understandable. Just add a comment below if you have any questions.
Future of Nuclear Power Despite waste, still cleanest central source of power Future of Ocean Power. One of the few fully predictable renewables Trend toward small or individual turbines: Marquiss, Southwest Windpower, FloDesign (backed by Kleiner Perkins), and Mass Megawatts Three dimensional (3D) solar modules: Solyndra, Bloo Solar, Sunflake Solar New age of biogas: Ze-Gen makes H2 and CO syngases For now, take into consideration the following question, which along with the info in this article, were given in a presentation by Michael Kanellos, Senior Analyst at Greentech Media: How many of these new technologies will ever make it out of the lab and how long will it take? How big is the local power market? Will concentration on solar and established technologies postpone investments in new ones? Can local nuclear and wave surmount regulatory and durability tests? Only time and more research will answer these questions. I’ll stay on top of them here at cleanenergysector.com, and continue to bring you up-to-date news on everything cleantech is our quest for green energy and profits, Chris |
