The U.S. military owns more stuff on wheels than any other single entity on the planet, and in the future more of those vehicles will be less reliant on fossil fuels.  The latest maneuver is a test run of hydrogen fuel cells for the venerable Abrams tank.  The Army has a prototype under development in the lab, with the goal of providing electricity to power up the growing amount of radios, computers, and other electronic equipment aboard the Abrams.

Despite the calls for more oil drilling from some quarters, the U.S. military has been trying hard to move the country away from all forms of fossil fuel for a number of years now.  Military research into alternative fuel vehicles picked up speed last year with the construction of the new 30,000 square foot Ground System Power and Energy Laboratory.  The facility is strategically located in the Detroit area, the better to coordinate its work with the civilian market.

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The consumer face of the Smart Grid looks like you and me.  It is tall and short, conservative and liberal, lazy and driven.  In short, it is everyone, which means that it can be both random and ordered depending on changing conditions, geographic realities, and discordant behavioral patterns.
Capitalizing on Smart Grid opportunities in the residential [...]

While it’s remained mum on anything pertaining to its IPO — scheduled for June 29 — Tesla Motors tipped its hand today about its forthcoming line of electric vehicles, as well as how it plans to put together its highly anticipated mid-market sedan, the Model S.

Drumming up excitement about the impending $178 million IPO, CEO Elon Musk is shopping the business around to potential investors, including a line of several different vehicles that most people have never seen before (not the Roadster or Model S). It’s unlikely that any of this is set in stone, but it’s interesting to see how the company is selling itself.

Here’s a look at the presentation Musk is delivering on this so-called roadshow.

SunRun, a company working to make rooftop solar panels more affordable for average households, just took a big leap forward today, announcing a $100 million joint program with major utility Pacific Gas & Electric. Together, the companies say they will help the utility’s customers finance more than 3,500 rooftop solar systems across five states.

This is a huge win for SunRun, which has been locked in a dead heat with rival SolarCity — a firm that’s gotten a lot of press simply because it’s backed by Tesla Motors’ colorful CEO, Elon Musk. Both companies help homeowners find financing options that fit their budgets and desires, including relatively low monthly payments. But PG&E only signed on for $60 million, and 1,000 rooftops with SolarCity in March.

Based in San Francisco, SunRun also competes — albeit less directly — with Sungevity, a startup that uses satellite technology to measure and stake out roofs, and then help people pay for panels. It’s unclear whether its satellite spin will be enough to keep it afloat with the big boys in the space getting even bigger.

Atchison County, Missouri has just dedicated the new Farmers City Wind Power Project, consisting of 73 turbines that produce 146 megawatts of clean power, enough for 33,000 homes.  In stark contrast to the destruction caused by fossil fuel harvesting, the massive renewable energy project will coexist with farmland, which will continue to yield corn and soybeans.

Between the poverty and health impacts of mountaintop coal mining in Appalachia and the devastating effect of BP’s oil spill on businesses on the Gulf Coast, large numbers of Americans have sacrificed their well being to the risks involved in digging fossil fuels out of the earth.  The Atchison wind project shows that large scale energy projects don’t have to be the enemy of the local economy, environment, and public health.

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Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are hot on the heels of a discovery that could more than double the efficiency of solar cells. The trick is to use tiny nanoscale crystals called quantum dots to capture more of the available energy in sunlight, including energy at the high end of the scale.  The researchers estimate that the use of high energy sunlight could boost efficiency from its present rate of about 31% for conventional solar cells, up to a whopping 66%.

Update: A team from The University of Minnesota initiated this research.

What this all means is the potential for solar energy to become cost-competitive with fossil fuels at an increasingly rapid pace.  Paired with next-generation flywheels and other new energy storage technologies, intermittent sources such as solar and wind can provide an energy stream that is every bit as steady and reliable as oil, coal, or natural gas.

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Today is the start of the 2010 American Solar Challenge (ASC) race. Solar-powered vehicles will leave from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and head to Naperville, Illinois today. In three days, drivers will start in Topeka, Kansas and go to a checkpoint in Jefferson City, Missouri before heading to Rolla, Missouri.

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Air conditioners are a pain. They use an incredible amount of energy, reflected in incredibly high electricity bills in the summer months. But in some places, like Texas and Arizona, it’s hard to go without them. Now, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory may have an answer to the problem: A brand new air conditioning design that could make AC units 90 percent more efficient than they are today.

This is not just a new spin on the traditional design. NREL has ditched major components of today’s AC units, including their condensers and compressors. It generates colder air by evaporating water off a wet surface with a built-in fan. There is a desiccant included to make sure the air is dry.

In addition to slashing the amount of energy needed to run a typical AC unit, the NREL model, called the DEVap, also eliminates the need for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), toxic chemicals used in many of today’s air conditioners that pollute the atmosphere.

Previously, this evaporative air conditioning process only worked in dry, hot climates, because the cool air generated would otherwise contain too much moisture. The addition of the desiccants has made it functional in a range of climates, even very humid environments, NREL says.

The challenge now will be to make the NREL air conditioner cost competitive with those already on the market. It might be as many as five summers before consumers can get buy the units to cool their houses, the laboratory says. It will be licensing the deign for commercial distribution.

Steeply reducing the amount of energy sucked by air conditioners could have a major impact on overall energy use in the U.S. and abroad. After all, air conditioners account for 5 percent of energy used in the U.S. every year.

[Photo: boliston]

Tags: air conditioners, DEVap, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL

Western premiers and territorial leaders annual meeting begins today in Victoria, BC. Water policy is on the agenda of the the two-day meeting.  (Winnipeg Free Press article, 14.06.10)

Novozymes of Denmark and Lignol Energy Corporation of Burnaby, BC, sign a research and development agreement to make biofuel from cellulosic feedstock such as wood chips and forestry residue. The goal is to develop a process for making biofuel from forestry waste at a production cost down to $2 per gallon, a price competitive with gasoline and corn [...]