Sunday, December 28, 2008

Home Energy Saver

Description: 

designed to help consumers identify the best ways to save energy in their homes, and find the resources to make the savings happen. The Home Energy Saver was the first Internet-based tool for calculating energy use in residential buildings. The project has been sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as part of the national ENERGY STAR Program for improving energy efficiency in homes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's PATH program, the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, and Touchstone Electric Cooperatives.

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Sunday, December 21, 2008

Technosanity #20: World Energy Outlook 2008

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

The World Energy Outlook is a yearly publication from the International Energy Agency giving the official projection of the future energy outlook. They just released the 2008 report and there are a couple slide decks available giving some hints of what is contained in the report.

WEO 2008 Presentation at COP 14 Side Event

Launch of World Energy Outlook 2008

World primary energy demand in the reference scenario - they say it's "unsustainable" without explaining why. World energy demand expands by 45% between now and 2030, a very rapid rise, an average rate of increase of 1.6% per year, with coal accounting for more than a third of the overall rise.

Demand for coal has been growing faster than any other energy source & is projected to account for more than a third of incremental global energy demand to 2030

World oil production by source is very scary. The IEA figures show a decline in crude oil production from the currently producing fields begining in 2008. er.. That decline has already begun? There is a growing gap in production of the currently producing fields and their claimed future oil production. What makes up that gap is crude oil from fields that are yet to be developed, and this includes use of enhanced oil recovery techniques. They further explain that 64 million barrels per day of capacity needs to be installed between 2007 and 2030, which is six times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia. From where will the money come to pay for this infrastructure even if the oil is there to fill the demand?

97% of the projected increase in emissions between now & 2030 comes from non-OECD countries –three-quarters from China, India & the Middle East alone

OECD countries alone cannot put the world onto a 450-ppm trajectory,
even if they were to reduce their emissions to zero

These last two slides show that the problem is coming from the developing countries, primarily China and India. They are of course where the hugest quantity of industrialization is occuring.
World primary energy demand in the reference scenario - they say it's "unsustainable" without explaining why. World energy demand expands by 45% between now and 2030, a very rapid rise, an average rate of increase of 1.6% per year, with coal accounting for more than a third of the overall rise.

Demand for coal has been growing faster than any other energy source & is projected to account for more than a third of incremental global energy demand to 2030

World oil production by source is very scary. The IEA figures show a decline in crude oil production from the currently producing fields begining in 2008. er.. That decline has already begun? There is a growing gap in production of the currently producing fields and their claimed future oil production. What makes up that gap is crude oil from fields that are yet to be developed, and this includes use of enhanced oil recovery techniques. They further explain that 64 million barrels per day of capacity needs to be installed between 2007 and 2030, which is six times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia. From where will the money come to pay for this infrastructure even if the oil is there to fill the demand?

97% of the projected increase in emissions between now & 2030 comes from non-OECD countries –three-quarters from China, India & the Middle East alone

OECD countries alone cannot put the world onto a 450-ppm trajectory,
even if they were to reduce their emissions to zero

These last two slides show that the problem is coming from the developing countries, primarily China and India. They are of course where the hugest quantity of industrialization is occuring.

Current energy trends are patently unsustainable —socially, environmentally, economically

Oil will remain the leading energy source but...

-- The era of cheap oil is over, although price volatility will remain

-- Oilfield decline is the keydeterminant of investment needs

-- The oil market is undergoing major and lasting structural change, with national companies in the ascendancy

To avoid "abrupt and irreversible" climate change we need a major decarbonisation of the world’s energy system

-- Copenhagen must deliver a credible post-2012 climate regime
-- Limiting temperature rise to 2°C will require significant emission reductions in allregions & technological breakthroughs
-- Mitigating climate change will substantially improve energy security

The present economic worries do not excuse back-tracking or delays in taking action to address energy challenges

Technosanity #20: World Energy Outlook 2008


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Technosanity #20: World Energy Outlook 2008

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

The World Energy Outlook is a yearly publication from the International Energy Agency giving the official projection of the future energy outlook. They just released the 2008 report and there are a couple slide decks available giving some hints of what is contained in the report.

WEO 2008 Presentation at COP 14 Side Event

Launch of World Energy Outlook 2008

World primary energy demand in the reference scenario - they say it's "unsustainable" without explaining why. World energy demand expands by 45% between now and 2030, a very rapid rise, an average rate of increase of 1.6% per year, with coal accounting for more than a third of the overall rise.

Demand for coal has been growing faster than any other energy source & is projected to account for more than a third of incremental global energy demand to 2030

World oil production by source is very scary. The IEA figures show a decline in crude oil production from the currently producing fields begining in 2008. er.. That decline has already begun? There is a growing gap in production of the currently producing fields and their claimed future oil production. What makes up that gap is crude oil from fields that are yet to be developed, and this includes use of enhanced oil recovery techniques. They further explain that 64 million barrels per day of capacity needs to be installed between 2007 and 2030, which is six times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia. From where will the money come to pay for this infrastructure even if the oil is there to fill the demand?

97% of the projected increase in emissions between now & 2030 comes from non-OECD countries –three-quarters from China, India & the Middle East alone

OECD countries alone cannot put the world onto a 450-ppm trajectory,
even if they were to reduce their emissions to zero

These last two slides show that the problem is coming from the developing countries, primarily China and India. They are of course where the hugest quantity of industrialization is occuring.
World primary energy demand in the reference scenario - they say it's "unsustainable" without explaining why. World energy demand expands by 45% between now and 2030, a very rapid rise, an average rate of increase of 1.6% per year, with coal accounting for more than a third of the overall rise.

Demand for coal has been growing faster than any other energy source & is projected to account for more than a third of incremental global energy demand to 2030

World oil production by source is very scary. The IEA figures show a decline in crude oil production from the currently producing fields begining in 2008. er.. That decline has already begun? There is a growing gap in production of the currently producing fields and their claimed future oil production. What makes up that gap is crude oil from fields that are yet to be developed, and this includes use of enhanced oil recovery techniques. They further explain that 64 million barrels per day of capacity needs to be installed between 2007 and 2030, which is six times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia. From where will the money come to pay for this infrastructure even if the oil is there to fill the demand?

97% of the projected increase in emissions between now & 2030 comes from non-OECD countries –three-quarters from China, India & the Middle East alone

OECD countries alone cannot put the world onto a 450-ppm trajectory,
even if they were to reduce their emissions to zero

These last two slides show that the problem is coming from the developing countries, primarily China and India. They are of course where the hugest quantity of industrialization is occuring.

Current energy trends are patently unsustainable —socially, environmentally, economically

Oil will remain the leading energy source but...

-- The era of cheap oil is over, although price volatility will remain

-- Oilfield decline is the keydeterminant of investment needs

-- The oil market is undergoing major and lasting structural change, with national companies in the ascendancy

To avoid "abrupt and irreversible" climate change we need a major decarbonisation of the world’s energy system

-- Copenhagen must deliver a credible post-2012 climate regime
-- Limiting temperature rise to 2°C will require significant emission reductions in allregions & technological breakthroughs
-- Mitigating climate change will substantially improve energy security

The present economic worries do not excuse back-tracking or delays in taking action to address energy challenges

Technosanity #20: World Energy Outlook 2008


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A look at Swift Wind Turbines

Wind turbines could feasibly provide a lot of electricity to the world and building integrated wind turbines is an interesting model to use. A building integrated wind turbine is mounted on e.g. a rooftop. Roofs often have better wind than on the ground, but as I noted in the earlier article there is a bit of controversy in that earlier designs transmitted vibration to the building causing damage. However there are several new designs which have better behavior.

The Swift Wind turbine is one of these. It is said to be quiet, vibration free, simple to install, zoning compliant, etc.

The design includes mounting brackets that incorporate damping systems specifically designed to absorb a wide range of frequencies. The design includes an outer ring diffuser which minimizes turbine noise by preventing turbulence vortices at the blade tip.

The Swift Wind Turbine was developed by Renewable Devices in Scotland. The Swift turbine is mounted on an aluminum mast with a minimum blade-roof clearance of approximately 2 feet. It is usually mounted at the highest point of a roof, in a position which benefits from maximum prevailing wind, but it will work effectively in almost any location. The Swift is designed to be both aesthetically pleasing and quiet.

Rated power output: 1.5kW @ 14 m/s; Annual Power Supplied: up to 2000 kWh; Electric power: 240VAC, 60Hz output voltage; Noise: less than 35 decibels for all wind speeds

External Media

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Friday, December 19, 2008

Fungus Fuel

Who says biofuels have to be a diversion of food crops? Biological life is very flexible and I believe it's possible for biologists to genetically engineer a biological life form which can directly produce massive quantities of liquid fuel. Maybe. In any case... A Montana State University professor has found a fungus from the Patagonia rainforest that produces a new type of diesel fuel. This is like the algae research, but this fungus could do even better than that.

The output from the fungus can be called “myco-diesel”. The gas composition of G. roseum included hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. A spoonful of the stuff could run a diesel engine with further refining or modifications to it. A big question remains of whether the microbe can be scaled up to commercial levels.

The biologist who found this speculates that organisms such as G. roseum may be responsible for the world’s crude oil deposits. If true it would be a huge departure from all prior theories of how fossil oil deposits developed. The traditional view is that fossil oil formed from decaying ocean micro-organisms, while the Abiogenic theory holds that the planet has some inner process that produces fossil oil just as there are methane deposits all over the place.

The production of myco-diesel hydrocarbons and their derivatives by the endophytic fungus Gliocladium roseum (NRRL 50072): Gary A. Strobel, Berk Knighton, Katreena Kluck, Yuhao Ren, Tom Livinghouse, Meghan Griffin, Daniel Spakowicz and Joe Sears

An endophytic fungus, Gliocladium roseum (NRRL 50072), produced a series of volatile hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives on an oatmeal-based agar under microaerophilic conditions as analysed by solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME)-GC/MS. As an example, this organism produced an extensive series of the acetic acid esters of straight-chained alkanes including those of pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, octyl, sec-octyl and decyl alcohols. Other hydrocarbons were also produced by this organism, including undecane, 2,6-dimethyl; decane, 3,3,5-trimethyl; cyclohexene, 4-methyl; decane, 3,3,6-trimethyl; and undecane, 4,4-dimethyl. Volatile hydrocarbons were also produced on a cellulose-based medium, including heptane, octane, benzene, and some branched hydrocarbons. An extract of the host plant, Eucryphia cordifolia (ulmo), supported the growth and hydrocarbon production of this fungus. Quantification of volatile organic compounds, as measured by proton transfer mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), indicated a level of organic substances in the order of 80 p.p.m.v. (parts per million by volume) in the air space above the oatmeal agar medium in an 18 day old culture. Scaling the PTR-MS profile the acetic acid heptyl ester was quantified (at 500 p.p.b.v.) and subsequently the amount of each compound in the GC/MS profile could be estimated; all yielded a total value of about 4.0 p.p.m.v. The hydrocarbon profile of G. roseum contains a number of compounds normally associated with diesel fuel and so the volatiles of this fungus have been dubbed ‘myco-diesel’. Extraction of liquid cultures of the fungus revealed the presence of numerous fatty acids and other lipids. All of these findings have implications in energy production and utilization.

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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Powering down on drying clothes

The clothes dryer at my house seems to have broken. It's a typical american big-as-heck clothes dryer and I've measured its power use as being 750 watts. Last week it stopped getting hot and hence the clothes did not dry out and the dryer just spun and spun and spun for hours. I suppose there may be a simple thing busted inside it, like a heating element, or a fuse, or some such. Or it may mean replacing the whole thing. Since I don't own the house nor the clothes dryer there's a little bit of complication. And in any case I have the idea to use this as an opportunity to experiment with powering down.

"Power Down" is a phrase I learned through the Transition Towns initiative. Transition Towns is asking us to recognize twin crises facing us -- peak oil and climate change. Peak oil and the peaks of other resources says that our society is going to be facing a crunch in available resources very soon and that the wise thing to do is to find ways to decrease the required power and resource usage in order to maintain our lives. We americans use far more resources than do other countries and we could very well be more efficient about our resource utilization while still maintaining a high quality of life.

In any case .. drying clothes. Obviously our clothes will still get stinky and dirty and still need to be cleaned. Cleaning clothes means they get wet, and then have to be dried. Obviously in power down we'll still have to dry our clothes somehow, the question is "how".

The first step in my own experimenting was to buy a typical accordion style wooden drying rack from the local hardware store. I really knew better but talked myself into it anyway. Of course one of the wood pieces broke on the first time using it and I had to jury rig a way to keep it upright. But it did to the job of drying the clothes (overnight). I also draped some of the clothes over the space heaters and that worked rather well.

Here's a few resources I found...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothes_dryer - Goes over the types of clothes drying techniques commonly used. But most of the discussion is about the typical "modern" dryer with the spin cycle and all that stuff. The question seems to be what's the effective way to get moisture to evaporate quickly from the clothing.

http://www.urbanclotheslines.com/ - is a vendor selling a variety of low power clothes drying tools. Primarily they have several versions of the outdoors clothes line. They carry a fancy drying clothes rack that looks very tempting.

Clearly there is historical use of clothes lines and drying racks. An outdoors clothes line runs the risk of clothes being rained on etc. One curious result I've seen from air drying towels is they always come out stiff and scratchy, whereas machine drying towels they come out soft and fluffy.

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_Dryer -- A closet dryer consists of a dehumidifier in a large wardrobe, walk-in wardrobe or utility room. The implementation is a wardrobe, you put a dehumidifier in it, hang the clothes in the wardrobe, the dehumidifier automatically switches on and off with rising and falling humidity. This is more convenient than the extra step of putting clothes into a dryer and there is less wear on the clothes (tumble dryers are rough on clothes). They claim it's drastically less power use, on the order of 0.15 kilowatthours of electricity to operate the dehumidifier versus several KWH for a regular tumble dryer.

http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2008/04/25/spin-dryer-saves-energy/ - A spin dryer uses centrifugal force to get the moisture out of clothes. They claim energy savings and I suppose this comes from not heating the clothes.

Real Goods carries a 'laundry airer' which they say is meant for compact living spaces and offers a lot of drying rack in a small place.

http://www.laundrylist.org/ - Project Laundry List is an activist organization aiming to demonstrate that personal choices can make a difference for the Earth and its people. Project Laundry List is making air-drying laundry acceptable and desirable as a simple and effective way to save energy. Air drying clothes is a form of using solar energy, has long historical precedent, etc. It seems that some places are outlawing the practice of hanging your clothes outside to let them air dry.. uh? This is what they're fighting for, the right to do this.

http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen/washing_machine.html -- is an experiment by a guy who's going a lot with using pedal powered machines to generate electricity. Think "exercise bicycle" connected to an electrical generator. He tried to keep up with his normal washer/dryer using his pedal power generator, and was unable to keep up.

http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsGuides/Dry-Your-Clothes-on-a-Clothesline.html -- A nice overview article about drying clothes by hanging them in the air. This is pretty simple stuff but to those of us who grew up with clothes drying machines perhaps we need a little bit of a reminder.

Wall Shelf Drying Rack The wooden Wall Shelf Drying Rack is easy to install on any wall surface. You can put the unit on your porch for solar drying, near back door for easy access or in laundry room for indoor drying. You can also use it as a drying rack for flowers, herbs and pasta. This drying rack is constructed using sturdy, unfinished Eastern White Pine with durable Birch hardwood dowels and four Shaker-style pegs.

Expandable Drying Rack *The expandable drying rack is a space saving must have. *Allows you to dry your clothes then store it a way when it is not needed. *Sets up in seconds. The expandable clothes drying rack is a space saving must have. This hassle free drying rack sets up in seconds and allows you to dry your clothes then store it a way when it is not needed. This unit folds down to just a few inches so it can be stored under the bed, sofa, or in a closet. The steel construction makes this laundry rack sturdy and stable. The shiny chrome finish makes it attractive. Great for dorm rooms.

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080409154707AA2Sv9k -- Someone asked about this problem on Yahoo!Answers and they described ways to diagnose the busted electric dryer. The consensus is it's probably cheap to fix and just call the repair guy already. I'd do that except I'm really interested in the alternatives.

External Media

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Predicting Future Supply from Undiscovered Oil

The amount of danger presented by the peak oil scenario depends on the future decline in oil production. That is, the peak oil scenario says (based on observations from around the world) that after some point of oil extraction and production the worlds oil production will inevitably enter a decline and that once world oil production begins to decline no way will it ever increase.

The timing of this decline depends on future oil discoveries. The more oil discovered in the future the further out into the future will be the peak, and hence the longer we have to find a solution. But it's rather difficult to accurately predict the future such as future oil discoveries, obviously.

The various estimates of when the oil peak occurs are all based on estimates of this prediction, what is the amount of future oil discovery.

For example: Between 1995 and 2005, nearly 110 Gb of conventional oil and NGL have been discovered. A reasonable, but optimistic, scenario is to assume that this pattern of discovery will remain the same for the next 22 years. However they go on to say this is an unreasonable assumption because it's more likely that the rate of discovery will also decline over time.

Specifically the world peak of oil discovery occurred in 1964 and has been declining ever since.

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Freedom from Oil

Description: 

A campaign working to end America's oil addiction, stop oil wars, and curb global warming by convincing the auto industry to dramatically improve fuel efficiency and eliminate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. Launched by RAN, Global Exchange, and the Ruckus Society in 2003, the campaign is pushing automakers to break their addiction to oil, create more jobs, and meet consumer demand for green cars by producing more fuel efficient vehicles.

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Cree Announces High-Volume Availability of Brightest Lighting-Class LEDs

Cree Semiconductor is a market leader in high efficiency LED lighting. While the compact fluorescent lights are more efficient than incandescent the LED lighting is even more efficient. The important measure is the lumens of light output per watt of electricity.

Cree now offers XLamp XP-E cool white (5,000K - 10,000K CCT) LEDs in a minimum R2 flux bin (114-122 lumens at 350 mA), which is the highest commercially available minimum-flux order code for a single-die LED, at 350 mA, in the industry today.

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Transition Town links & resources

Description: 

Resources list maintained by Transition Towns New Zealand

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Peak Oil (What the Fighting is All About)

Description: 

Peak oil is the point or timeframe at which the maximum global petroleum production rate is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline. If global consumption is not mitigated before the peak, the availability of conventional oil will drop and prices will rise, perhaps dramatically. M. King Hubbert first used the theory in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. His model, now called Hubbert peak theory, has since been used to predict the peak petroleum production of many other countries, and has also proved useful in other limited-resource production-domains. According to the Hubbert model, the production rate of a limited resource will follow a roughly symmetrical bell-shaped curve based on the limits of exploitability and market pressures.

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The Oil Crash - The End of the American Dream

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American need to change their style of life

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How the End Began

Description: 

The Age of Cheap Oil is ending. This film details why, and how our leaders are preparing for it. "Peak Oil" is the motive for some of this century's greatest crimes.

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Peak Oil - 45min. documentary

Description: 

September 2006
Is the age of cheap oil about to come to an end? According to many experts, we are about to reach the point of "peak oil" -- the level at which supply can no longer keep up with demand. This, say the doomsayers, could send economies spinning into turmoil and up-end our comfortable, urban lifestyles. But others claim predictions like this are simply scaremongering. They believe supply will match demand for decades to come. So who's telling the truth? 'Peak Oil' investigates.

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The Oil Age - Turning Point for Mankind

Description: 

A talk given by Colin Campbell in Europe on peak oil.

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Matt Simmons: Feb 4, 2008 -- A presentation to congress

Description: 

Matt Simmons: Feb 4, 2008 -- A presentation to congress

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Richard Heinberg's Peak Everything

Description: 

Waking Up to the Century of Declines. One of the world's foremost Peak Oil educators gives us his insight into the coming century. Recorded in Orewa on Tuesday 9th October 2007.

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Jeremy Leggett - Peak oil meets climate change

Description: 

Jeremy Leggett Lecture in the Cultivate Centre, Dublin where he discusses Peak oil and its effects on climate change

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

Richard Heinberg Defines Peak Oil

Description: 

From cavemen to Peak Oil, a brief history of our current state of energy affairs and the reality of Peak Oil -- the fact that we as we extract more and more oil, there is less and less of it, yet our demand does not seem to decline. Hm, problems? Richard Heinberg explains Peak Oil in detail with a slideshow!

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Transition Town Richard Heinberg 1/2

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Richard Heinberg talks about climate change initiatives at the Transition Network conference 2007

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