I want to mark July 4^th, Independence Day for Americans, by noting a few good renewable energy stories.  There are scores of these stories, all over the world, every week, and I’m just sharing what I think are some of the plums that I’ve been seeing.  Renewables are a theme I’ve visited here time and again and I don’t see any end in sight.  Daniel Yergin, one of the world’s foremost energy economists, predicted a year and a half ago that we could have an investment of as much as $7 trillion made in clean energy by 2030.

I’ve also highlighted the many “externalities” of fossil fuel and nuclear power, including the air pollution, the toxic and radioactive liquid and solid waste, the massive capital and operating costs and the extraordinary inefficiency of conversion loss in conventional central power generation, as well as the health impacts, among others.  I’ve touched on the “resource curse” too.  So, what we’re saying is let’s all of us, in the developed and the developing world, be free of these many and diverse drags on our societies.  It’s well past time.  Here are a few more ways to get at our freedom and independence.

Britain Could Be Wind and Wave Titan is the headline from the excellent “NY Times” blog, Green Inc.  The UK government-funded Carbon Trust says that “With carefully targeted subsidies and regulations, Britain could build 29 gigawatts of capacity compared to a global total of 66 gigawatts by 2020, giving it 45 percent of the offshore power market…”  More numbers on this?  $114 billion for the economy and almost 250,000 jobs from offshore wind and wave power.

We’ve looked at the exciting Desertec Concept a few times as well.  This is an idea that is rapidly gaining traction that would be a supergrid of renewable energy sources linking the Middle East and North Africa with Europe.  An article from Reuters the other day highlighted a new study from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy that says the project “…could create 240,000 German jobs and generate 2 trillion euros ($2,822 billion) worth of power by 2050.”  There is huge potential in Desertec, including the ability to power massive desalinization plants to green the Sahara.

(courtesy of Desertec Foundation)

How’s China doing with renewables?  Pretty smokin’ (pun intended) according to this from the “NYT” this past week.  There are “…six immense wind power projects now being built around China, each with the capacity of more than 16 large coal-fired power plants.”  China will have 30 gigawatts of windpower deployed by the end of 2010 - and that’s ten years ahead of their target date!  What else is so good about this?  The blistering pace at which China was building coal-fired plants is slowly down rapidly.

Solar Power Experiences Strongest Year of Growth Yet reports the venerable Worldwatch Institute.  The article discusses both solar photovoltaic (PV) and thermal.  There are very encouraging statistics here, including the fact that “Cumulative PV power installed worldwide jumped from 9,000 MW in 2007 to almost 15,000 MW in 2008.”  Here’s a chart detailing the dramatic global rise in annual production of PV cells.

(courtesy of Worldwatch Institute)

For much more on the renewables “war for independence,” visit the REN21 website.  You should also note the early, promising steps of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) which was born in Bonn in January.  It was only last week that IRENA established its new home in Abu Dhabi and chose French diplomat Hélène Pelosse as its first director-general.   The choice of Abu Dhabi is particularly interesting as it will be housed at Masdar City, the home of the exceedingly ambitious Masdar Initiative.

Big things are happening, from America to Arabia.  Maybe it’s not too late, after all, to make peace with the planet and be free from the death grip of fossil fuels.

I wrote here recently about some developments in concentrated solar power (CSP). The “NY Times” had a really interesting read the other day on the confluence of American labor - in the shape of California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) - and the exploding solar power industry. The article wraps up with, to my mind, a particularly compelling quote from Carl Zichella, the Sierra Club’s director of western renewable programs. Zichella, in referring to CURE’s focus on getting the union label on CSP projects and improving the environmental profile of these projects, noted: “”It’s not a warm fuzzy thing they are doing; it’s a very self-interested thing they’re doing. But it has a large ancillary public benefit.”

I went to GreenBuildingsNY 2009 the other day and had a fine time. The show had everything from windows and doors, to toilets and garbage disposals, to solar PV and green roofs - and beyond. Knowledgeable vendors, great stuff. Green building, for my money, has nothing but upside. As I wrote in my article for the FPA on the international green building movement, the building and construction trade has “…111 million people directly employed with 75% employed in developing countries with the industry accounting for 10 percent of global GDP.” There is a growing emphasis on green building from groups like the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, the Clinton Climate Initiative, the World Green Building Council, UNEP’s Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative, the Union Internationale des Architectes and the American Institute of Architects, among thousands of other local, regional, national and international NGOs and firms.

GreenBuildingsNY 2009 was largely put together by the very good writers and editors at GreenerBuildings.com. Some of the interesting folks I spoke with at the expo included Helios Energy Systems who install solar modules, and Long Island Compost who had a hand in the exciting new High Line Park and who also work on green roof projects.

There were, to me, a surprising number of green roof specialists, including Roofscapes, Green City and GreenGrid. That this area of green building is burgeoning so is a wonderful sign. What’s in it for us? Radically reducing heating and cooling costs - and energy use, diminishing the urban heat island effect, dramatically lowering the impact of stormwater runoff in the urban environment, and, surprise, surprise, creating a whole new felicitous architectural aesthetic. Just look at the pictures at the websites of these two companies, or at this recent NGM article. Fun fact: There are over 100 million square feet of planted roofs in Europe today.

Energy companies were there, including the folks from the energy efficiency programs at National Grid and Con Edison. GDF Suez was also at the expo with some interesting takes on energy efficiency and renewables. New York State’s energy agencies were there as well. The NYS Public Service Commission has several relevant programs, including on Green Power and energy efficiency and conservation. The NYS Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) also has key programs including those on saving energy and renewables.

Energy efficiency is a recurring theme at the blog. It’s also one of the most prevalent targets for all the green stimulus packages that have been rolling out around the world. The folks at US Energy Group are focused on maximizing building energy efficiency, as are also the professionals at Sustainability Partners. There is so much bang for the buck in this - something now wholly recognized by everyone from energy policy wonks to contractors.

What other options are there for maximizing the sustainability of your new and old buildings? Lots. Paint, for instance. See this from the folks at Pittsburgh Paints. What about your cleaning products and systems? Those can have a big impact. One local vendor, Edmar, has a range of green cleaning products. Toilets and other fixtures? You bet. Moen and Kohler were there.

Green Seal, not incidentally, certifies a lot of these sorts of products and services throughout the country.

I had a nice chat with one of the folks from InSinkErator. Environmental benefits in garbage disposals? How about reducing the burden of wastes to landfills, for a starter, and then, because the organic waste is going to wastewater treatment plants, enhancing the flow of biosolids that can be put to beneficial use as fertilizer at the end of the process.

Renewable energy is never too far from my mind. Pfister Energy has a diverse portfolio of options, including architectural wind and daylighting. Wesco had a display that combines an Easco boiler with a Capstone microturbine giving 85-95% total system efficiency. You can’t beat that!

So, to make a long story short, while sustainability writers like me, and policy wonks and policymakers, and activists are all out here trying to save the planet, many of the very good folks who were at the green building expo are doing it, day by day, with increasingly greater effectiveness. Good on ya!

I continue to be knocked out by all the innovation and hard-driving progress in building out a zero-carbon world.  I was telling a young man today, a very smart carbon offset development consultant, that I truly never thought, 15 years ago, that I’d live to see the day when we would have the activity and growth in renewables that we’re seeing now.  I’ve written about this dozens of times at the blog.  Here are some more great stories.

Turkey - There are two eye-catching stories coming from one Turkish construction giant in a special report from the “FT” this week.  BM Muhendislik has revived a moribund hydroelectric project by addressing all the environmental concerns that had held it up for decades.  “Key to achieving this is the replacement of the old design’s enormous dam with eight small cascade regulator units.”  This means the same MW in power production, no flooding behind the project, full river flow below it preserving valuable wetlands, and an enhanced ability to regulate regional flooding problems.  Sweet.

The other big project is a first-of-a-kind geothermal/concentrated solar power (CSP) hybrid.  “The geothermal-solar plant would use geothermal steam to power a first series of generators after which the hot water, now below 100 degrees centigrade, would be reheated in a “solar tower” - a kind of vertical furnace heated by an array of large mirrors.”  Unbeatable.

CSP - See Big Solar here from me on CSP, among some other places at the blog.  Here is a good read on the state of affairs from the invariably indispensable Technology Quarterly from “The Economist.”  CSP is cookin’ in the American southwest, Israel and Spain, among other places.  BrightSource Energy, for instance, is actively developing more than 4 gigawatts.  O brave new world.

Smart Grid - I’ve also written about this several times, including at my article for “Planning,” and think, based on a number of conversations, all the coverage, logic and numbers, that the smart grid is the future.  In the same Technology Quarterly as the CSP article cited just above, here is a pretty comprehensive look at what is in play.  Among the many pluses in the smart grid is the ability to manage distributed generation.  “Moreover a smart grid will make it easier to co-ordinate the intermittent and dispersed sources of power, from rooftop solar panels or backyard wind-turbines, for example.”  What’s not to love?  “One problem is that power companies are understandably reluctant to invest in technologies that will reduce consumption of the product they sell, even if there are other benefits.”  Solution?  “One way to realign the public interest with that of the utilities is through a process called ‘decoupling’ which breaks the direct relationship between electricity sales and profits, a measure that has been successfully employed in California.”  As my utility, Con Ed, says:  “We’re on it.”

Floating Wind Turbine - Now I took our friends at one of the world’s more progressive big energy companies, StatoilHydro, to task recently for its involvement in one of the world’s worst environmental nightmares - see Alberta Tar Sands - Pressure is Building.

Let’s put that aside for the moment to look at their promising Hywind project, a 2.6 MW floating wind turbine.  This kind of approach to windpower can potentially eliminate some objections such as noise, visibility, and proximity to sea lanes.  It also saves you a ton of kroner in construction costs.  Here’s a video from Reuters outlining Hywind.  Party on.

There’s a characteristically comprehensive special report on energy in today’s “Financial Times,” a series of interesting articles, mostly on the state of play of fossil fuels.  There’s also a great guest column from Jeremy Leggett the founder of Solarcentury, a provider of “intelligent generation.”  Nota bene:  According to Leggett, “In 2008, for the first time, both the European Union and the US added more capacity from renewables than from fossil-fuel and nuclear sources.”

He also tells the story here of a smashing distributed generation success story in which it was demonstrated that “…renewable power can produce baseload electricity in a secure and reliable manner without help from conventional power.”  We keep hearing about the “intermittency” of renewables from naysayers and the fossil fuel industry.  This test was a good way of refuting that particular canard.  (Energy storage, not incidentally, is going to be a very big story indeed as renewables continue to burgeon.)

A deal has been done between the Democrats in the House driving for a strong, aggressive, meaningful climate change and energy bill and those who are fearful for and/or protective of the special interests of the big utilities, the oil & gas industry, the auto manufacturers and some other heavy industries.  The “discussion draft” of the bill that Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, chair of the Energy and Environment subcommittee, released at the end of March pointed toward some quantum leaps forward, but left the famous 600-pound gorilla at liberty:  the question of whether to auction GHG-pollution allocations or make them freebies.  The deal lets a percentage of these be distributed for free.

This advisory from the Energy and Commerce Committee describes the allocation of allowances provision to “major energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries.”  Waxman said:  “We are establishing strong protections to ensure America’s industrial capacity can thrive without being disadvantaged by overseas competition.”  There are also agreements for protecting the auto industry and on renewable electricity and energy efficiency standards.  Markey said of the latter agreement, “This clean energy standard will increase the power we use from the sun, wind, and earth, all without increasing electricity prices.”  Here is a useful “factbox” from Reuters on the bill.

These provisions are not as strong as many might like.  (That includes me.)  The renewables and efficiency standard, for instance, is a combined standard:  “By 2020, utilities would be required to obtain 15% of their electricity from renewable energy sources and demonstrate annual electricity savings of 5% from energy efficiency measures.”  Others, the EU notably, are shooting higher.  The EU has called for 20% of power from renewables and a 20% increase in efficiency by 2020, along with a 20% reduction of GHG (from 1990 levels).  Too bad the EU thinks it can do that and the US doesn’t.

The full committee is going into session next week to finalize this bill.  Speaker Pelosi wants the legislation passed this year.  President Obama had nothing but praise for the work of the Energy and Commerce Committee.  See this from Greenwire via the “NY Times.”  Obama said “I want to take a moment … just to congratulate Chairman Waxman and the Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats, who’ve made such extraordinary progress in reaching a deal on comprehensive energy reform and climate legislation.”  The Senate, of course, is going to be a whole other kettle of fish.

One of the top analysts on climate change and energy, Joe Romm, had a thorough analysis, in two parts, of the draft legislation.  Paraphrasing Stanley Kubrick, he writes, courtesy of the indispensable Worldchanging, about “How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Waxman-Markey,” Part 1 and Part 2.  (You should also check out Romm’s provocative I Predict U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Peaked In 2007! I hope he’s right.)

I think there is some considerable reason to be optimistic, not only on federal legislation, but on the whole clean energy gestalt.  I have noted, over the past two years plus at this blog, that there are startling technological, business and political breakthroughs happening all over the place, all the time.  I do think this extends to the sociological in that people are finally starting to get sustainability.  I do think we’re getting there and moving this particular critical bit of legislation forward is a great step.  Let’s get this thing passed in the House and then concentrate on the Senate.  It will take a lot of will power but it’s there and just needs to be tapped and properly focused.  Hey, that’s not unlike what we need to do on renewable energy.  Coincidence?

The Financial Times had a great series of articles the other day in a special report on Energy-Efficient Buildings.  The FT team on this, led by environmental reporter Fiona Harvey, covers topics from design, climate-proofing, and microgeneration to supply chains and waste reduction.  Look at the interactive graphic, as an amuse gul:  a blueprint for sustainability.

Even the ads are cool.  One is from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) describing some of the findings in the new report from their four-year, $15 million Efficiency in Buildings research project, which they describe as “the most rigorous study ever conducted on the subject.”  Their release says the central message of the study is “…energy use in buildings can be cut by 60 percent by 2050 - essential to meeting global climate change targets - but this will require immediate action to transform the building sector.”

Meanwhile, over at the New York Times today, there’s a special section on the Business of Green:  Smarter Tools.  Matt Wald and Kate Galbraith lead the reporting here with articles on the smart grid, advances in solar PV, ocean power, and improving the performance of aircraft, among other topics.  There’s a nice smorgasbord of graphics, slide shows, and a podcast - the entertaining and informative “Back Story” feature.  (I’ve had some articles out there my ownself on the smart grid and on sustainability at airports.)

Get over to these special reports and dig in for some truly edifying stuff.

Computers - This is, as you might suspect, an area where lots of energy gets consumed.  According to Emerson, at their “Energy Logic” webpage:  “Data centers in the United States alone soaked up about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), or $4.5 billion worth of electricity in 2006. If current energy usage trends continue, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicts U.S. data centers will use more than 100 billion kWh by 2011, representing $7.4 billion in annual electricity costs and 2.5 percent of the nation’s total electricity.”  It’s clearly in the best interests of industry to get these numbers down.

I used to live across the street from a million-square-foot “telco hotel” that Cisco routers and other high-energy equipment packed from wall to wall and floor to ceiling.  Think that stuff doesn’t generate heat?  They had AC going all the time in all weather.  Lot’s of noise as a result, which was our community’s main concern.  In any event, to get the energy consumption down, one thing you want to do is cut down on the heat, and thus the need for the AC.  That’s one of Emerson’s strategies.  For more from them, see this information.

Green IT is a big, critically important and rapidly growing field.  Nobody covers it better than GreenerComputing, part of the complex of “GreenBiz.”  (I referenced one of the sister sites, “Greener Building News” and its editor, Rob Watson, at this post recently.)  There’s a huge quantum of useful and well-crafted information at GreenerComputing.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is an initiative embraced by industry and supported by such environmental pioneers as NRDC and WWF.  Its members include Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft and a very good number of other big and medium-sized IT players.

Concrete - Here’s an area of the “old economy” that is still very much with us and essential to growth and economic well-being throughout the world.  However, there’s a real GHG burden:  making Portland cement is responsible for about five percent of carbon dioxide from anthropogenic sources.  Concrete Is Remixed With Environment in Mind from the “NY Times” highlights some breakthroughs in this essential industry, including sequestering carbon by bubbling carbon dioxide through wet cement.

The article also notes an exciting possibility that I talked about in Desalination and Energy, Plus A Concrete Idea for Carbon Sequestration from last summer, namely using seawater in an industrial process that takes waste heat and carbon dioxide from power plants to make cement.  Calera says it can take more than 90% of the carbon dioxide from power plant emissions to, for all intents and purposes, sequester it in concrete.  Sweet.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has a robust Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI).  See this recent report, Climate Actions, from the CSI for a look at the various fronts on which progress is being made to reduce GHG.  For more on the industry itself, see the Portland Cement Association’s website.

Quote of the Week - From Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero:  “To change the world’s energy model is the most significant challenge facing humanity in this generation, not only for the impact on climate change but also for its effects on the economic model.”  I think he’s got it.  By George, he’s got it!

Spain has got it too.  I referenced Prime Minister Zapatero’s remarks at an FPA event last autumn here, and also noted some of the extraordinary headway Spain is making on renewables.  For an update, see this from the Trade Commission of Spain.  (For the context of Zapatero’s recent statement, see this “FT” article.)

Blockbuster Technology of the Week - In Venice, they’ve taken, in my opinion, a great honkin’ step toward wholly sustainable, zero-carbon energy.  It’s an algae-fed, carbon capture closed loop power plant.  It’s not laboratory scale either.  I wrote about one man’s vision of this in Arizona in my review of “Earth: The Sequel” - and now the Venetians are launching this idea into the reality realm.

Venice seaport eyes algae to fuel energy needs Reuters reports.  This 40 MW plant for the seaport will have excess power that will be used to supply ships when they’re in.  This is in itself another palpable step forward as the ships in port contribute enormously to air pollution and are a huge source of the black carbon that so exacerbates warming.

Back in July, under Ports, I said:  “I wrote here recently about some reports on how shipping is producing GHG and other more localized and highly dangerous air pollution. Here’s a story, World Ports Commit to Reduce Emissions, looking at the recent C40 World Ports Climate Conference.”

Maldives - This island nation, about a thousand miles southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, has declared its intention to become the world’s first carbon-neutral country.  President Mohamed Nasheed made the announcement after a screening of the new climate change film, “The Age of Stupid.”  President Nasheed has also said that he will be looking for land to buy to move his people because of the distinct possibility that his country will be inundated by sea-level rise.  Where will they get the money?  From tourism, while their fantastically beautiful country still lies above the water.

This story from Reuters further highlights the zero-carbon initiative.  “The $1.1 billion plan would require 155 wind turbines supplying 1.5 megawatts each and a half a square kilometre of solar panels to meet the needs of the islands’ 385,000 people.”  Activist and author Mark Lynas worked with the government on their plan and thinks the payback period for the plan could be ten years.

Sicily - This island with its five million people has a similar ambition.  They hope to “…blaze a visionary trail based on intensive small-scale use of renewable energy sources and pinned on the concept that individual consumers of electricity will also become producers through their super efficient buildings.”  This article from the “FT” last week talks about how Sicily’s powerful and popular governor, Raffaele Lombardo, has embraced a plan that he devised in partnership with Jeremy Rifkin, like Mark Lynas, another noted activist, visionary and author.  Rifkin sees a future for Sicily - and the world, for that matter - “based on sun, wind, waves and biomass, and hydrogen technology to store saved electricity.”

This evokes what I wrote last summer about a little Danish island.  “My favorite journalist, Elizabeth Kolbert, has another minor masterpiece, at the ‘New Yorker’ this week, The Island in the Wind.  She’s writing about a nearly zero-carbon enclave of 4,300 people in a Danish farming community.  Using windpower for electricity and biomass for district heating, she uses this microcosm to show what’s possible in the world.”

Dongtan - This story is not as good as the others.  It started out that way, but has gone sour.  I wrote here a while back about Chongming, a 750-square-mile island near Shanghai that was going to be the site for Dongtan, the world’s first “ecocity.”  Well, “The Economist” reports that this City of Dreams has fallen victim to the vicissitudes of politics and real estate development in Shanghai.  It’s not pretty.  As Robbie Burns said:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy.