A personal quest to promote the use of wind energy and hydrogen technology in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The Great Lakes area is in a unique position to become an energy exporting region through these and other renewable energy technologies. *Update 2014: Just do it everywhere - Dan*
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 5:23 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| Electric Vehicles: A Case for Electricity | ||
| The past and future decade in business at a glance | ||
Copenhagen May Have Failed But We Can't Afford To |
Grassroots Enterprise Action Alert 
University of New Hampshire Enters Third Year of Using Biodiesel Blends
Dear Daniel,
The University of New Hampshire (Durham) is entering its third winter using biodiesel blends -- trouble free. Garage Supervisor Ray Myatt says they have had "zero problems" with biodiesel blends in the winter months. Myatt uses a cold weather additive to treat the fuel from late fall through early spring and says its "been a win, win." As the coldest months approach, Myatt says he doesn’t plan to change a thing and expects "no problems at all."
Vehicles and equipment running on biodiesel blends have operated problem-free in some of the nation's coldest locations, including: Colorado; New Hampshire; Massachusetts; Minnesota; Michigan and Wyoming. Good fuel management and high quality fuel can help ensure that biodiesel blends operate smoothly in cold climates, throughout the winter months.
Lambert St. Louis International Airport powers its entire diesel fleet with B20, including snow removal equipment. They have used biodiesel blends since the mid-1990s. "Thousands of passengers each day count on this equipment to clear runways in a timely manner during snowstorms," said Lambert Airport Fleet Manager Mike Bernich. "If I had any doubt about the reliability of biodiesel in cold weather, we wouldn't be using it. It's that important."
According to SkiNH (http://www.skinh.com/index.cfm), biodiesel blends have become popular with many New Hampshire ski resorts. Cranmore Mountain became the first ski area in the state to run its grooming and other equipment on biodiesel in 2003. Now, Bretton Woods, King Pine, Loon Mountain, Mount Sunapee, Ragged Mountain, Jackson XC, Mount Washington Valley Ski Touring and Waterville Valley have all made the move to biodiesel fuel for their grooming fleets, heavy equipment and/or facility heating sources. In addition, several other NH ski areas are actively researching making the switch.
NBB's website includes a number of resources about the operability of biodiesel blends in cold climates -- www.biodiesel.org/cold. In addition, biodiesel blends are reaching beyond transportation fuel as an increasing number of people rely on Bioheat ® heating oil to keep their homes and offices warm this winter. For more information on Bioheat ® heating oil visit: www.biodiesel.org/markets/hom/default.asp.
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Plan B 4.0 Book Byte
BOOK BYTE
December 21, 2009Stabilizing Climate: Beyond International Agreements
http://www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/book_bytes/2009/pb4ch0_pref
Lester R. BrownNote: the following was written in July 2009, before the Copenhagen climate change conference.
>From my pre-Copenhagen vantage point, internationally negotiated climate agreements are fast becoming obsolete for two reasons. First, since no government wants to concede too much compared with other governments, the negotiated goals for cutting carbon emissions will almost certainly be minimalist, not remotely approaching the bold cuts that are needed.
And second, since it takes years to negotiate and ratify these agreements, we may simply run out of time. This is not to say that we should not participate in the negotiations and work hard to get the best possible result. But we should not rely on these agreements to save civilization.
Some of the most impressive climate stabilization advances, such as the powerful U.S. grassroots movement that has led to a de facto moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, had little to do with international negotiations. At no point did the leaders of this movement say that they wanted to ban new coal-fired power plants only if Europe does, if China does, or if the rest of the world does. They moved ahead unilaterally knowing that if the United States does not quickly cut carbon emissions, the world will be in trouble.
We are in a race between political tipping points and natural tipping points. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to save the Greenland ice sheet and avoid the resulting rise in sea level? Can we close coal-fired power plants fast enough to save the glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau, the ice melt of which sustains the major rivers and irrigation systems of Asia during the dry season? Can we stabilize population by reducing fertility before nature takes over and stabilizes our numbers by raising mortality?
On the climate front, everything seems to be moving faster. Only a few years ago summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean was shrinking, but it was projected to last for several decades. The most recent reports indicate that it could disappear in a matter of years.
Only a few years have passed since the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but already the rise in carbon dioxide emissions, the rise in temperature, and the rise in sea level are all moving faster than even the IPCC’s worst-case scenario.
The good news is that the shift to renewable energy is occurring at a rate and on a scale that we could not imagine even two years ago. Consider what is happening in Texas, in the heart of oil country. The over 8,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity in operation, the 1,000 megawatts under construction, and a huge amount in development will give it over 50,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity (think 50 coal-fired power plants). This will more than satisfy the residential needs of the state’s 24 million people.
China, with its Wind Base program, is working on seven wind farm mega-complexes with a total generating capacity of 110,000 megawatts. And this is in addition to the many smaller wind farms already in operation and under construction. A recent report in Science on an inventory of China’s wind resources concludes that the country can increase its current electricity generation sevenfold from wind alone.
Most recently, a consortium of European corporations and investment banks has announced a proposal to develop a massive amount of solar thermal generating capacity in North Africa, much of it for export to Europe. In total, it could easily exceed 300,000 megawatts—roughly three times the electrical generating capacity of France.
And we could cite many more examples. The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is moving much faster than most people realize. In the United States, for example, while coal use has dropped 11 percent over the last two years, an estimated 190 new wind farms with over 16,000 megawatts of generating capacity have come online.
The question we face is not what we need to do, because that seems rather clear to those who are analyzing the global situation. The challenge is how to do it in the time available. Unfortunately we don’t know how much time remains. Nature is the timekeeper but we cannot see the clock.
In my recent book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, I lay out a strategy to stabilize climate, curb population growth, eradicate poverty, and restore the earth’s damaged ecosystems. The climate component of that plan calls for reducing net carbon emissions worldwide 80 percent by 2020. The 2020 goal looks at what is needed to avert dangerous climate change, not just what is politically convenient. Plan B is ambitious simply because this is what it is going to take to turn things around. Will it be difficult? No question. Are the stakes high? No question.
The thinking that got us into this mess is not likely to get us out. We need a new mindset. Let me paraphrase a comment by environmentalist Paul Hawken in a 2009 college commencement address. In recognizing the enormity of the challenge facing us, he said: First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it is possible.# # #
Adapted from the preface of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), available on-line at www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/books/pb4
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American Wind Energy Association 2009 Wrap-Up
Dear Daniel,Although not without its triumphs, 2009 has been a challenging year for Americans, and for the wind energy industry as well. President Obama took the reins in January, inspiring the country with hope for better times ahead, encouraging us to muster the strength to "brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come." While the country has seen another year of economic instability and sky-high unemployment numbers, the wind energy industry has also experienced a year of ups and downs, and looks to 2010 with optimism, tempered by a business outlook that remains bleak.Thankfully, the legislative year began with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided a desperately-needed lifeline for our industry. The wind industry is expected to install nearly 7,000 MW in 2009, thanks in part to $1.5 billion in U.S. Treasury grants that helped finance 33 wind projects across the country. The Recovery Act helped keep the industry afloat and enabled it to preserve many newly-created American jobs.Congress also made some progress this year in the national energy and climate dialogue, though not nearly enough to provide the foundation for long-term investment and job growth the American wind industry needs to stay competitive with global markets. While the House passed a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) of 20% by 2020, energy legislation has yet to come to the Senate floor. Meanwhile, wind manufacturers are seeing few new orders, and layoffs are already beginning. We'll need your support in January to push the RES across the finish line and help our industry create thousands of new clean, renewable energy jobs.Amidst the holiday season have been flowing headlines about the 15th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The American Wind Energy Association sent a delegation to highlight the advantages of wind power within the climate change discussion, including its ability to be deployed immediately and help reduce carbon emissions, while fostering economic development. (Check out our blog to see pictures and video from the events at COP15.) The Christian Science Monitor got it right, reporting last week that on AWEA CEO Denise Bode's "list this Christmas is a strong statement or agreement coming out of both the climate summit and Capitol Hill committing the U.S. and the rest of the world to shift away from fossil fuels and put in place clear requirements - a mandate - to build renewable energy."We at AWEA wish you and yours the very best for this holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to hearing from you in 2010.Cheers,Tom GrayDirector of Communications, Public Affairs
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 5:12 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| National Solar Mission puts Renewable Energy Sector on the move during 2009 | ||
| Automakers work to improve fuel economy | ||
| 2009 Year In Review Green Edition: Long Island's Environmental Milestones | ||
Notes From Antarctica: It's Not Too Cold to Embrace Renewable Power | ||
| Wednesday Readers' Forum | ||
| Under The Hood With Duncan Williams - GE Hitachi – ESBWR |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 5:35 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| BMW Halts 7 Series Hydrogen Vehicle Real World Testing Program | ||
Energy 2.0: What Comes From After Oil | ||
| Top 10 most widely read stories of 2009 | ||
The Dangers of Nuclear Energy and the Need to Close Vermont Yankee |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 5:15 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| S. Korean manufacturing firms to commit $3.4B to cleantech in 2010 | ||
| Design and Power | ||
| New deflector cuts in-car wind | ||
Robins home to Southeast's first-of-its-kind solar technology | ||
| Investing in CleanTech, Post Copenhagen | ||
First Solar opens utility-scale power plant |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 5:18 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| Bloom Energy, India-Based VNL Named WEF Tech Pioneers | ||
| Emera invests in greener energy | ||
| You Say Potato, I Say Potahto; You Say Fossil Fuels, I Say Future Fuels | ||
| New deflector cuts in-car wind | ||
Clean Coal and The Two Faces of China's Coal Industry | ||
| EnerSys' Investment in Altergy Systems Expands Collaboration to Bring Green ... | ||
| Our Stock Picks for today (www.hypergrowthstock.com) | ||
| Trulite, Inc. - Alternative Energy - Deals and Alliances Profile--Aarkstore ... |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 5:11 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| Hornblower Hybrid ushers in quiet technology at Embarcadero |
| US Senate OKs bill that benefits some Michigan companies, jobless |
| Put the Stimulus Money to Work for You |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 5:25 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| IBM forecasts the next 5 big ideas for the next 5 years |
| EWEB funds science projects | The public agency gives schools grants for hands ... |
| Coalition Says MN Climate Solution Includes Nukes |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12/16/09 CONTACT: Volker Radeloff, 608-263-4349, radeloff@wisc.edu; Patrick Culbert, 608-628-9647 (cell Dec. 14-18), 608-265-9219, pdculbert@wisc.edu SURVEYING BIRD BIODIVERSITY FROM SPACE? MADISON - A fundamental rule of wildlife ecology says that diverse habitats foster greater biodiversity: The Amazon has far more species than Greenland. But how do habitat and biodiversity relate in a state like Wisconsin, with its range of farms, forests, wetlands, cities, suburbs and highways? In a presentation at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union today (Dec. 16), Patrick Culbert, a Ph.D. student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology, reported on a study correlating satellite images with results from an annual survey of breeding birds. The strongest relationship between satellite imagery and bird biodiversity was found in the Laurentian mixed forest ecoregion province, an area of mixed deciduous and coniferous forests, Culbert says. The region includes the southern halves of Wisconsin and Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, and portions of Indiana, southern Illinois and southern Missouri. Culbert's survey used Landsat images, taken around the year 2000, covering parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. The images covered about 585 "routes" of the annual Breeding Bird Survey. During the survey, amateur ornithologists traverse these 25-mile routes and record which species of birds they hear singing. Culbert compared the number of bird species along the routes with measures of "habitat complexity," which is how wildlife ecologists describe the range of niches within a particular location. A forest with many levels of vegetation or an area with a mixture of wetlands and forest are two examples of complex habitat that, in repeated studies, tend to support higher biodiversity. To explore the same relationship on a larger scale, Culbert says he focused on variation among the pixels in satellite images. "Some areas have a richer texture in the pattern of pixels than others. In an agricultural field, all the pixels are very similar, but in an old growth forest, we see lots of gaps, with a much more varied texture." And more species of birds would live in an old-growth forest than in a farm field. Measures of biodiversity can have a practical significance in land-use decisions, says Volker Radeloff, an associate professor who is Culbert's adviser. Radeloff says the current effort grew from previous studies by graduate students who focused on smaller areas. "A scrub desert in New Mexico had a pretty strong relationship between landscape texture and species diversity. And there was a very strong correlation in grasslands around Fort McCoy, Wis., but these were on much smaller areas. Patrick is studying the Upper Midwest to see if what worked on tens of square miles can be expanded to a broader area." "We are trying to come up with a quick, easy way to identify areas with high biodiversity," says Culbert, "because we don't have a good handle on where it is and where it's not. Birds are a good indicator of habitat quality, because they are mobile and can quickly respond to changing conditions, and the breeding bird survey provides a wealth of data because it has been performed annually since the 1960s." Eventually, the goal is to make a "plug-and-play" system that could use remote sensing to support a more realistic and logical approach to planning, says Radeloff. "The habitat changes that ensue from building a new subdivision, highway or mall inevitably affects the mix of the species that live on that land." Although the need to predict land-use changes is growing along with the expanding human footprint, "The traditional data-gathering approach of wildlife ecology is too slow to advise local governments about land use," Radeloff says. "If somebody says, 'We want to develop this land,' and you ask for five years to do a survey to get the answers, you will no longer be asked. For land managers, this could be a huge step forward." Scientific results that could help a planning commission or a county board are not useful when sequestered in obscure journals, Radeloff says. "We want biodiversity to be a key measure when people decide on land use. We are learning a lot about the relationship of bird biodiversity to habitat features, and Patrick, by making the data useful, is making a major contribution." ### **************************************************** For questions or comments about UW-Madison's email news release system, please send an email to: releases@news.wisc.edu For more UW-Madison news, please visit: http://www.news.wisc.edu/ University Communications University of Wisconsin-Madison 27 Bascom Hall 500 Lincoln Drive Madison, WI 53706 Phone: (608) 262-3571 Fax: (608) 262-2331
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12/16/09 EDITOR'S NOTE: An image is available at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/schneider_urban09.html CONTACT: Annemarie Schneider, 608-890-0557, (hotel Tuesday-Thursday during meeting: 415-616-6500), aschneider4@wisc.edu NEW PROCESS LEADS TO SMALLER ESTIMATE FOR GLOBAL URBAN AREA MADISON - Urbanization is one of the most important trends of the 21st century, yet we don't have a good idea of how much land cities occupy. Different studies vary by as much as a factor of six, which confuses efforts to understand how urbanization is affecting farming, conservation, climate and essential "ecosystem services" like watersheds. More than half of the global population now lives in cities (according to recent United Nations estimates), making the impact and importance of urban areas greater than ever before. In a presentation today (Dec. 16) to the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco, Annemarie Schneider, an assistant professor at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described results based on 2001 data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua satellites. Cities, defined as places dominated by the built environment (including all non-vegetated, human-constructed elements, such as buildings, roads and runways), covered 657,000 square miles in 2001. That estimate is up to six times smaller than other calculations, Schneider says. Still, based on recent trends, she expects the area of urban land to double between 2000 and 2050, and notes that 90 percent of population growth during the next 30 years is expected to occur in cities. Schneider uses seven wavelengths of visible and infrared light from the MODIS instruments. "For the global scale of this study, we can't just rely on spectral data," Schneider says. "Instead, we use temporal information to pull out the urban signal. We have 46 snapshots from MODIS over the years, and we can use these to look at how vegetation changes from season to season." Vegetation reflects strongly in the near infrared, Schneider says, but she is less interested in pure vegetation than in the mix of vegetation and impervious, highly reflective surfaces, such as roofs and pavement. "Every city has tree cover for shade and parks, and we can capture this mixed signal with satellite data. The core of the city - downtown areas that may be only 10-15 percent of a city's land footprint - are the only locations that are fully impervious or 'bare.' The rest of the city has a unique mixed vegetation-urban signal that is quite distinct from crops and forests outside the city." The study starts with detailed images from Google Earth, where each pixel records roughly 16 square meters of land surface, and then jumps in two steps to the 0.25 square kilometer pixels recorded by MODIS. "This is a ground-up, not a top-down approach," Schneider says. "We start with the highest resolution data available, so we can be certain that the samples we collect are truly built up or urbanized land." Schneider, with Mark Friedl at Boston University and David Potere at Princeton University, then search the MODIS data for patterns resembling those seen in the views with more details, and generate a map of urban areas around the world. A key issue is encroachment on farmland, says Schneider. "Cities are almost always located on our most productive agricultural lands, and as a result, rapid or unplanned urban growth quickly eats up some of our most precious natural resources. Although cities are expanding, I don't think we are 'paving over the world.' With a global map of built-up lands, we can look at where cities may threaten our best farmland in different parts of the world and start to plan accordingly." A second topic involves global warming, Schneider says. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is developing new global scenarios for economic and population growth, on which a wide range of climate change analyses and modeling will be based. "Tracking historic and future changes in urban growth will be an important component of future IPCC scenarios, so that growth must be accurately assessed," Schneider says. "We can do a better job of understanding where urban areas are now and where they may be in coming decades. If we understand how cities expand, we can start estimating the impacts of urbanization at regional levels, and provide information for policymakers who want to influence city growth in a more sustainable direction." ### **************************************************** For questions or comments about UW-Madison's email news release system, please send an email to: releases@news.wisc.edu For more UW-Madison news, please visit: http://www.news.wisc.edu/ University Communications University of Wisconsin-Madison 27 Bascom Hall 500 Lincoln Drive Madison, WI 53706 Phone: (608) 262-3571 Fax: (608) 262-2331
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 5:16 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
Warren County Technical School students compete in hydrogen fuel cell car races | ||
| Spotlight on CO2 emissions at climate conference | ||
| awsl's 47.5%-Owned Hybridyne Power Systems Canada Inc. and Change Energy Inc ... | ||
| Securing American Primacy While Tackling Climate Change: Toward a National ... | ||
| The wrong way to Copenhagen | ||
Future of Fuel Cells Hinges on Asia Action |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 5:11 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| Climate change could still be Gordon Brown's great legacy | ||
On Green Technology, Germany Is the Envy of the World | ||
| For Scientists, Icy Weather Crystallizes Great Ideas | ||
| NASA launches spacecraft that will map stars, galaxies, asteroids | ||
| Spinning the Earth: The real battle at Copenhagen | ||
| Goal set to cut energy emissions 30% | ||
| Africa aims to reduce carbon emissions | ||
| Is "Clean Coal" A Dead End? |
http://gl-zephyr.blogspot.com/ - Great Lakes area Wind Power & Hydrogen, renewable energy news.
From: Google Alerts
Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 5:11 AM
Subject: Google Alert - hydrogen, wind, power
Google News Alert for: hydrogen, wind, power
| Power play is under way |
| ENVIRONMENT-ICELAND: Do-it-Yourself Renewable Energy Catches On |
| Tackling Energy Deficit : India can gain from Africa |
