Everybody knows about solar and wind power, and using renewable energy was a big issue in the recent election. But a lot of amazing green technologies have been developed since solar panels and wind turbines captured the nation's attention. From algae-based biofuel to electric-vehicle batteries to garbage that creates ethanol, the ways we can push aside fossil fuels are multiplying at a rapid pace.
Follow the Continue link to read about the seven most promising green technologies that could be juicing us up in the near future.
1. Algae-Made Biofuels from Carbon Emissions
WHAT IT IS California's Sequesco uses microbes to capture carbon dioxide from power plants, converts it into feedstock for biofuel. Making biofuels from algae isn't new, but doing it in a closed environment without photosynthesis is. This tackles one of the biggest issues around today's energy generation — carbon emissions — while competing less with food production or natural habitats for biofuel production, like corn ethanol.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN If Sequesco uses emissions from an oil- or diesel-powered power plant, you could capture the emissions on site and turn it back into biofuels, running them through the plant again and again.
Sequesco
2. Nuclear Fusion Tokamak
WHAT IT IS Sure, nuclear fusion is great: Heat some hydrogen to millions of degrees Fahrenheit, and boom — a cheap, plentiful energy source for everyone, with little waste. But the problem with fusion is that it needs the right box to contain that superheated "fuel," or plasma, and right now it can burn through anything man-made. So researchers from around the world working on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) are trying to build a better plasma trap. The 17-meter-wide vessel, called a tokamak, will be surrounded by superconducting coils that create magnetic fields 100,000 times as powerful as the Earth's. They've got a $15 billion budget, or about half of what's needed to bail out General Motors.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN The feedstock for a fusion reactor — hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium — is readily available in our oceans. And the process produces some useful waste: helium, especially important if either zeppelins or making funny noises with party balloons is your thing.
3. Electric Vehicle Retrofitting
WHAT IT IS Hacking your old car to turn it electric has been a hobby for gearheads for a while, but San Francisco's ElectraDrive has created a process so it can retrofit virtually any fossil-fuel car to run on electricity. The company's electric drivetrain replaces your car's current gasoline-powered one, and can adapt almost any passenger vehicle to electricity, whether it's that gas-guzzling Hummer, a '60s muscle car, or that bland sedan you've become attached to for some reason. And their all-electric system promises the same or better performance. Each conversion costs about $20,000, but they figure it'll pay for itself in six years if you're a typical SUV owner.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN America has 250 million cars. Even if new electric vehicles were widely available tomorrow, it would take a while to replace that entire national "fleet." ElectraDrive makes repurposing those vehicles and extending their usable lives much easier, and its plans include certifying installers to do conversions.
4. Vehicle-to-Grid Technologies
WHAT IT IS Rather than build 100 new power plants, why not build several million small ones? Google's founders have been looking into the idea of using hybrid and electric vehicles as batteries to store energy to be used by the larger electrical grid at peak times, such as mid-day when the cars sporting those batteries are parked and plugged in, doing nothing. In October, Boulder, Colorado, launched a "phase one" project for vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, technologies, starting with 60 customers with hybrids. Technologies in development now will skip the plugging-in part, using wireless systems to tap your car's battery. Picture this technology allowing you to program how far you're traveling when you get into your car, then driving over roadbed transducers that will pull energy from your moving vehicle to power nearby office buildings, and you arrive at your destination with enough credit in your energy account money to buy lunch.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN "Distributed energy" is a concept you'll see a lot more of in coming years. This means that rather than replacing a coal power plant with a wind farm, why not replace it with 100,000 smaller systems that are already out there? This means a more secure power grid for everyone with redundancies built in.
The Boulder Daily Camera and Google.org
5. The New Net Metering
WHAT IT IS Think of the vehicle-to-grid idea above. Now extend it to homes that produce renewable energy as well. 30 states have net-metering laws, meaning that utilities in those states are required to "net out" any excess power production generated by a customer — like one with a house with solar panels — against any power they've bought to keep the TV on at night. That fascinating spinning dial on the side of your house is nearly 100 years old, but that old-school meter can run backwards. Firms like Fat Spaniel are offering web-enabled, wireless monitoring system to keep an eye on your energy production and your efficiency of energy use.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN Some states have had net metering for a while, but if you couple distributed energy technologies with rewards for efficient energy use, you're well on your way to helping our national energy needs without enormous amounts of infrastructure. And unless people start putting their own coal-fired power plants in their backyard, it'll likely be adding only renewable energy to the grid.
Fat Spaniel
6. Trash-to-Ethanol Plants
WHAT IT IS Biofuels have a problem: Making them can be more costly environmentally and economically than the benefits they give. But what if you could make biofuel from stuff lying around? Not content with just turning agricultural waste into fuels, Fulcrum BioEnergy wants to turn your home trash to waste, a la Back To The Future. Municipal solid waste comes into their plant. Any remaining recyclables would be pulled out, and the leftovers — your leftovers — are gasified through application of heat and pressure and turned into alcohols to be used as fuels. Since they're using something we pay to get rid of anyway, they have a "fixed-price, long-term, low-cost feedstock," meaning their ethanol production cost is less than $1 a gallon, or about 65% lower than corn-based ethanol.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN Biofuel production is great, but Fulcrum's concept does a lot more. Cheaper ethanol means wider adoption of gas-ethanol blends, and if every city of any size had a Fulcrum plant as part of the waste management stream, it would save transportation costs for refined gasoline.
7. "Run of River" Hydro Power
WHAT IT IS In the world of renewable energy, "intermittency" is the word that makes utility managers wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Solar and wind power require sun and wind — not something that's happening 24/7, and is especially weak at peak usage times, like at night… in winter… in the Northeast. Enter hydropower, the oldest renewable energy source we know. Until recently, its biggest nuclear-power-like drawback was the giant dams that made it possible. But now some utilities, especially in the Northeast, use smaller "run of river" hydro, where water is partially directed into a turbine and allowed to carry on without a dam, headpond, or flow interruption.
WHY IT'S THE NEW GREEN This is the ideal renewable energy choice. It provides clean energy with equipment that isn't too energy- or resource-consuming to make, generates power around the clock and doesn't create an environmental hazard to do it.
Energy Systems and Design and Low Impact Hydropower Institute
editor@dvice.com
By jay jay at 3:47 PM ON 11/20/08
Hopefully these technologies will bear fruit but, you don't need to develop new "GREEN" ways of generating electricity to stop global warming. emmission of green house gases could be cut drastically if this nation invested more in conservation and making things more energy efficient. such as using better insulation for your home, car pooling, recycling, and making more energy efficent appliances among other things. just a thought.
By Yogurt at 5:44 AM ON 11/21/08
It snowed in May out here in Seattle. Since it very rarely snows in the cold months (November-January) a snow fall in May is quite rare.
Is it just me or does it need to COLD for it to snow? All I really know is that when I was shivering my parts off, I was wishing for a little GLOBAL WARMING.
By Tim at 11:25 AM ON 11/21/08
These green tech ideas are very promising, but we must always remember that they need to 100% green.
And while intermittent power is a problem with solar and wind technologies, when you combine them in one system - they could essentially produce power 24/7.
I believe making wind and solar power on a domestic level is the way of the future. This will spark mass production, which decreases unit costs, making it affordable for everyone to implement. And no longer will e have to rely on the utility companies, and their exorbitant prices to power our homes.
By CoolProducts at 2:46 PM ON 11/21/08
We definitely are going to need to utilize many methods in our quest for clean, secure energy. We won't be able to bring in all of our energy from one source, such as wind or solar, but a combination of the two as well as other sources should vastly improve our energy problem.
By soahc at 1:29 AM ON 11/22/08
You can't become more efficient without consuming more energy. If you look at total energy draw compared to a decade ago, it has increased. but if you compare that to how much the population, and particularly the first world population of energy consumers has increased, you will see that we have actually become more efficient per capita than in the past.
By Wil at 12:31 PM ON 11/23/08
Why not use the highway as the stator and the cars as the rotor to produce power during rush hour?...or all day long on california ;)
By Dan at 6:21 PM ON 12/02/08
they should put solar panels at the poles, where there's sun all day round for half the year ^^ of course its a problem tryin to get the electricity back i guess...lol
By Uncle B at 1:17 PM ON 12/21/08
Post (GRD) great republican depression America will be energy independent, and use the power it gets from solar, wind, tides and waves in much less wasteful ways. We will all have solar, battery installations for lighting using LEDs in our homes and "redesigned for natural lighting" offices. Advances in food preparation and storage will put new low power microwave cooking in the forefront in homes. Solar oriented homes for passive solar heating, with massive super-insulation and ground heat storage will replace nonsensical multi-room McMansions. The energy required for daily living in these post GRD homes will be so dramatically lower, Solar, wind, wave and ground heat will quite adequately provide it, and for free, leaving line power for industry and electric car battery charging! Currently we waste all of this power, and are sliding towards bankruptcy daily! Turning the "status quo" around will result from the pressure applied to the American soul by the GRD. Wind farms, first, off-shore, not to offend the nimbys, then commonplace in all advantageous spots, to satisfy societies demands, will flourish in the face of $20.00bbl oil, once its carcinogenic and political natures are fully understood by everyone with children of soldiering age, and wind will reign clean and supreme!