Environment: November 2009 Archives

Yesterday, we wrote about the debate over the "green power superhighway."  Today, we'll highlight some technologies that will help with reducing greenhouse gases regardless of whether that is built.

A company named FloDesign Wind Turbine has developed a compact wind turbine that is three times more efficient than turning wind into electricity.  The design takes features from jet engines to boost air flow and thus the amount of energy generated.  Two hoops channel air into patterns that create what is essentially a miniature tornado as the air passes through the blades.

This new design has the chance to change the wind power industry.  First, the size of the turbines is much smaller.  That allows the FloDesign turbine to be carried on a single tractor trailer instead of requiring a caravan of truck.  Obviously, that will save energy and reduce emissions even before the turbine is installed.

Second, it allows wind turbines to be put in places where the traditional three blade turbines don't make sense.  It generates electricity at lower wind speeds and can handle more variation in the wind speed.  The smaller size allows installation in places like cities and beaches where larger turbines don't fit.

These factors allowed FloDesign to get a grant from the Department of Energy, as well as funding from the well known venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers.

Another company that has developed a machine that addresses the water and energy consumption from the every day task of doing laundry.  Commercial organizations like hotels, hospitals, and cleaners run tons of laundry through their machines every day.  This creates a lot of wastewater and requires the use of a lot of electricity.  The machines obviously use electricity but there's also a lot of power needed in order to clean the water both before and after it's used.

Now Xeros, which was spun out of the University of Leeds in Great Britain, is rolling out a commercial washing machine that trades 90 percent of the water used in traditional washers for rice sized nylon beads.

During the washing process, the beads, combined with squirts of water and detergent in a rotating drum, act as chemical magnets.  They absorb dirt, grime, and soap as they tumble over the laundry.  The beads are collected after the wash cycle and used hundreds of times before they are replaced.

According to the Xeros, the process they've developed cleans laundry to industry standards while cutting water used by 90 percent and energy used by 30 percent.  Xeros has received funding of $3 million in public and venture capital.  They hope to begin selling these units to commercial laundry clients by the end of 2010.

We hear a lot about how the push to go green will destroy jobs and kill the economy.  Companies like FloDesign and Xeros show that's just not true and that the opposite is the case.  These companies will create new jobs and their innovative new technologies will help address global warming.

As you know, one of the problems with building solar and wind projects is that the places where the wind blows and the sun shines are often far away from the places that need them.  While lots of wind blows on the Great Plains and lots of sun bakes desert in the southwestern United States, those places are far away from most major population centers, especially those on the East Coast.

Because of the lack of transmission lines to carry green energy to population centers, as much as 300,000 megawatts of green power projects are being put on hold.  One of the projects in the headlines which was held up was the wind farm that T. Boone Pickens proposed.

The lack of transmission capacity has caused some to call for government investment in a "green power superhighway."  According to ITC Holdings, which is biased because it builds transmission lines, this green power superhighway "will cost a tiny fraction of the money we spent on the highways and do a ton more good."

Some powerful politicians, such as Senate majority leader Harry Reid, agree.  Reid sees an improved power grid as a way to address climate change and as a catalyst for jobs in his home state of Nevada.  As debate begins on cap and trade legislation, many are pushing for funding to improve the transmission system.  This will be paid for by a surtax that all electric consumers would pay.

However, opposition to this is coming from an unexpected source -- utilities.  The CEO of PSEG, based in Newark, NJ, says that this would actually undermine the development of green power.  He says that his company's plans to build wind turbines off the Jersey shore and to put solar panels on rooftops would make less economic sense if wind and solar energy from the Great Plains and southwestern United States came into his region.

And the Environmental Defense Fund says that if new transmission lines are built, there is nothing to keep utilities from building coal fired plants to take advantage of it.  The EDF cautions that there is a possibility that building this green energy superhighway "will simply facilitate more of the same old conventional stuff."

What is not up for debate is that the grid does need to be modernized.  It is using old technology and according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission "is not built to do this job."  As much as nine percent of all electicity generated is lost over transmission lines.  All parties agree that billions must be spent to upgrade the system.

And the Sierra Club seems to have found a logical way to handle the upgrades.  First, since the upgrading the current system will take years, we should make better use of the existing grid and promote small scale green energy projects such as rooftop solar panels and mini wind turbines.  Then after that's done, the focus should shift to building whatever power lines the country needs most.

The person working on analyzing how best to move forward for the Sierra Club says that the current project is "one of the most important things I've ever worked on."  He's right.  And his advice makes a lot of sense.  By implementing smaller projects on a local basis, companies like PSEG can start the shift away from polluting sources of electricity to green ones now, with the current infrastructure already in place.  And then, once that's done, logical investments in a new transmission system can be made.