Dave’s Top 10 Cleantech & Energy Stories From Last Month
June 17th, 2013 by David L Roberts
As part of staying current, literally hundreds of clean energy articles are reviewed each month. Thank you, Google. Dozens of relevant stories are found and reported to my network at month’s end and could be sent to you at your request. Some of these leap out, to me anyway, as significant to a wider cleantech audience. By this I mean, both clean (renewable) energy generation as well as conservation, globally. These news tips have been condensed here and formatted as an admittedly plagiarized “Dave’s Top 10” list. Here they are in reverse order:
While all sources have potential for mitigation, biggest challenge will be coal that serves industry.
Due to proliferation of wireless EMS equipment, compatibility with new phones, increasing awareness, and savviness of consumers, HEMS’s are set to boom. A recent report estimates 16% of homeowners now plan to purchase home EMS systems.
Projections for 2025 include natural gas & flex-fuel vehicles (6.5%), hybrid (6%), battery-only (3%), and fuel cell (0.5%) vehicles. A wide variety of hybrid formats are in development, including: gas-battery (Prius), battery-assisted gas engine (Insight), gas-assisted battery (Volt), flywheel (Volvo), etc. Notably, others have projections for a much greater number of fully electric vehicles, while others have higher projections of natural gas vehicles, etc. It depends on who you ask.
7. The CBO makes an economic case for taxing carbon.
However, political headwinds continue making it unlikely.
6. Good news about the US reducing its GHG emissions by 4.2% 2000 to 2010.
However, more curious is how CA (the lowest user of coal for electricity generation) has reduced its emissions by only 3% since 2000. A parallel report for Europe shows reduction of GHG emissions by 3.3% vs. 1990 — UK down 7%, owing (they say) to a milder winter.
… not the least of which is that methane is 20-25 times more potent as a contributor to global warming vs. CO2. And natural gas is 80% methane!
Fracking has stimulated such a boom that it challenges development of — and investment in — alternative (clean) fuels.
If natural gas is included, this could dramatically change the ethanol business.
2. Experts are going out on a limb about the future of alternative fuels.
More and more experts are saying that ethanol, and especially E15, is not as promising as natural gas (and its derivations) or electricity (for EV’s) for transportation use.
Dave’s Top news story (my opinion) from May:
While not stating a timetable of exact amounts, the announcement is a key step in reconciling “who goes first” and may be a turning point in setting global GHG standards at the next climate change summit in Paris 2015. So far, the US has not committed to strong cuts “due to” China’s reticence.
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