Cutting Energy Waste in Unoccupied Rooms

Energy Eye has developed a wireless energy management system for installation in hotel rooms, apartments, classrooms, offices, or any other building where temperature controls are used. The Energy Eye system utilizes a passive infrared sensor, a motion sensor, and a door sensor to determine if a room is occupied or not. If the door sensor detects that the door was propped open, the sensor notifies the thermostat to shut down. When the system detects that a room is unoccupied, a signal is sent to the thermostat to reduce heating / cooling to a pre-determined level.

Since it is less expensive for a utility company to reduce power consumption than it is to build another power plant or purchase additional power from out of the area, utility companies endorse Energy Eye. Energy Eye boasts energy savings of up to 40% and break even in 6-24 months.

Solar Conference 2007

Solar Energy Conference 2007 in San Diego was hosted by the California Center for Sustainable Energy . Presenter slides are here . Highlights of this well-organized high-quality event included:

• Solar thermal technology (heat water in pipes on your roof) is returning to the USA after dying a political death in the 1980s. Residential solar thermal is required by law in much of Europe, and is standard in China.


• The price of Photovoltaic (PV) is poised to drop 50% by 2012 while also increasing efficiency. There are several flavors of PV, each with advantages & disadvantages.


• Concentrated solar is likewise booming. This technology concentrates the suns rays on a pipe filled with a flowing liquid such as sulfur. The super heated sulfer is then used to turn a turbine to generate electricity.
  

Two vendors demonstrated vacuum-tube solar-thermal technology. The corrugated metal plate sealed inside the 2 meter long glass tube is insulated by the vacuum and heats efficiently when hit by the sun. A piece of the corrugated metal protrudes from one end of the glass tube and heats water that flows by in a pipe. This is the most common form of solar thermal in Europe.

Several conference speakers described why their company's PV technology was superior. Crystalline-based technology is the most efficient at 21% and is starting to benefit from economies of scale. It suffers, however, from the weight of the glass, and the need for a large sturdy frame to hold the glass.

Thin layers of metal vapor are applied to rolled sheet steel to create thin coat PV technology. The resulting PV module is flexible, lightweight, and does not require a frame. Thin coat is, however, only half as efficient as crystalline-base PV.

The event was keynoted by California Public Utility Commission Executive Director Paul Clanon who described the PUC's strategy for achieving the requirements layed out in 2006 assembly bill 32 by the year 2030. The 2nd keynote speaker was Brad Collins who is the president of the American Solar Energy Society and the Editor of Solar Energy Magazine. Brad presented a survey that the ASES conducted to establish a baseline for today's energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) markets. He measured dollars and jobs in today's EE & RE markets and then forecast dollars and jobs in the future under three possible forcing functions: conservative, moderate, and climate change is a national emergency.

Conference presenter Chris Gadomski pointed out that 40% of all cumulative installed PV is in Germany, which has one quarter the population of the USA. The fast growth of PV in Germany is due to feed-in tariffs started in 2000 that are paid to residents who sell their excess PV-generated electricy to the power company.

San Diego will host a larger solar conference in May, 2008 called Solar 2008

A Cleaner Laboratory

Biomimicry is the idea of studying and emulating natural processes to reduce the load placed on the planet. Biomatrica has developed a number of products that enable bench scientists to safely and efficiently store their laboratory samples at room temperature. This technology will reduce the electricity required to run lab freezers where samples are normally stored, reduce the number of freezers that must be built, and reduce the cost and environmental burden of shipping samples and refrigerators.

One example Biomatrica product is RNAstāble, which is a storage medium that preserves RNA samples at room temperature. It allows for long-term stabilization of RNA samples, with sample recovery by simply adding water. Recovery can be completed in ten minutes or less. Samples can also be concentrated during the recovery process.

Biotech companies are mass consumers of plastic, glass, metal, and paper goods. There are undoubtedly many other cleantech opportunities like this one in the biotech field.

Retail outlet for Electric Scooters

On Friday I visited Enviro-Bike's new storefront location at 374 Encinitas Blvd in North San Diego County. John the proprietor was in LA, but Stephanie showed me around the electric scooter showroom. Enviro-Bike sells three brands of electric scooter, QElectric, ScooterTeq, and Palmer. I didn't get to see the new Palmer, but i did test drive the ScooterTeq Classique 500R around in the parking lot. The bike accelerates quickly and is able to climb hills. Top speed is 25MPH, and range on a single charge is 40 miles.

I didn't ride the Q-Electric, but Stephanie told me that the entry level bike costs only about $900. Manufactured in China and outfitted with pedals the bikes are classified as motorized bicycles and so do not need a license plate and drivers do need need a motorcycle endorsement on their driver's license.

The Palmer line of electric bikes are more expensive, and proportially more powerful. The Palmer can climb a 45 degree hill and go 50 miles without recharging.

Enviro-bike's web site is here.

Renewable Energy Solar Modules

San Diego-based Innergy Power Corporation was just acquired by Scottsdale-based Ecotality. Innergy will operate as a subsidiary of Ecotality.

Founded in 1989, Innergy had recently opened a manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico.

Innergy is a market leader in integrating solar panel chargers with battery packs. One example is the Innergy thin pack which contains a solar module and a thin sealed-lead battery. The result is a self charging battery pack that provides power 24/7 for a wide range of civilian and military applications. Batteries charge during the day, and then power lamps or other electronics at night. This type of installation is especially popular when grid electricity is scarce or non existent. Communications gear for field teams, and rural lighting are examples.

As prices for solar panels decline, off-grid and co-generation will continue to gain popularity. Innergy sells their products direct-to-consumer via the Innergy web site

The Electric Current Car Club

Not a clean technology, but an organization that advocates electric vehicles, the Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego holds monthly meetings, hosts events, shows movies, and recently sponsored a long-distance driving event to raise awareness.

The EVAOSD website offers dozens of links to informative sites, an on-line library, a calendar of events, a photo album, EVs for sale, and a jobs board.

There is also an interesting business opportunity posting from Zenn Cars which is looking for someone to open a dealership in San Diego!

The Honda FCX

I usually try to focus on San Diego cleantech, but I'm straying to Japan-cleantech in this column to discuss the Honda FCX concept car. The FCX is a hydrogen fuel cell car scheduled to be released by Honda in the U.S. market in 2008. Much sooner than anyone expected to see a mass-produced hydrogen-powered electric car. The car's range is 270 miles per tank of highly pressurized hydrogen, and initial reports from test drivers are all positive. But where will FCX-owners fuel-up? The state of california has been working on this problem for awhile and those of us who live in California can now buy hydrogen at a select number of stations. The California initiative is called the Hydrogen Highway.

The other big news is that FCX owners can generate their own hydrogen at home by connecting their Honda HES III home fueling station to a natural gas source. I suspect that the energy required to create the hydrogen is more than the potential energy of the hydrogen produced, and of course the natural gas used is not a renewable energy source, but I still believe that this is a terrific step toward zero emissions. In a previous column, i discussed NextJoule which claims to have invented a super efficient process for hydrogen generation. Honda + NextJoule!

If you can move me to the top of the Honda-test-drive-volunteer list, i'll buy your first tank of hydrogen.

Solar Trees

Envision Solar designs, develops, and installs Solar Trees™ in parking lots. The advantages are many. One tree generates 17,000 kW hours per year, enough electricity to power three typical homes. The next generation Solar Tree™ will be larger, will use more advanced Kyocera photovoltaic modules, and will generate over 30,000 kW hours annually. The trees are silent, clean, shady, virtually maintenance free, and generate environmental goodwill for the owner.

A Kyocera Solar Grove™ of Solar Trees™, with existing solar incentives, can pay for itself in as little as five years. And Solar Trees™ are easier to install than roof-mounted photovoltaic systems. Solar Trees™ at Google's Mountain View HQ location generate approximately 30% of the power required for the campus.

Solar Trees designed for smaller buildings and homes are in development. A Solar Tree kit might enable a do-it-yourselfer to transform a carport into a small power plant.

Quanlight and YBR Solar

Quanlight is a San Diego company developing new technology for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Existing AlInGaP-based YAR LED performance has plateaued. Quanlight has developed a new material (InGaNP) for manufacturing LEDs with superior performance over AlInGaP.

Appropriate for use in signal, signage, automotive, and theatrical/architectural lighting applications, the Quanlight LED chip is less expensive to manufacture, generates twice the lumens per watt of electricity, and has less color shift as its temperature rises. Quanlight also intends to expand the market for LEDs by enabling applications not previously economically feasible.

The Quanlight technology was originally developed at UCSD by Dr. Charles Tu and Dr.Vladimir Odnoblyudov. Quanlight holds an exclusive license. Tu and Odnoblyudov worked on the technology for three years before perfecting the InGaNP material.

While working on the LEDs, Quanlight found a new approach for developing a power-generating solar cell. In early 2007, Quanlight spun out YBR Solar to further develop the solar cell. There's no information available on YBR, so watch this coloumn for an update in the future.

SmartCover

Employee-owned Hadronex has developed wireless remote sensing for storm drains. This may not sound like much, but illegal dumping of used car oil is rampant, and is a substantial cause of pollution. And sewage spills are a persistent worry for water-quality officials and environmentalists.

Besides detecting dumping and clogged sewers that could cause sewer spills, the Hadronex SmartCover(R) >also detects intrusion, and avoids sewer-related citable infractions.

The SmartCover mounts onto manhole covers and hatches, is powered by a long life battery, and communicates via a 2-way UHF wireless radio. The antennae is traffic-rated and is mounted on top of the manhole or hatch. A continuous record of each SmartCover is available at a private web site, and alarms are delivered via cell phone or pager.

Envirepel

Located in San Diego, north of Rancho Bernardo, is an exciting organic chemical business called Envirepel. The business is focused on generating energy from waste, and on developing non-toxic chemicals for farming.

One of the fastest growing markets in the US today is the non-toxic, non-hazardouse pesticide market. Envirepel has a patent on a garlic-based pesticide and is using the revenue from this product to help finance their green demonstration energy facility and their organic farm.

A bit further north, Envirepel Energy's project Kittyhawk, is a 2 MW biomass facility in the City of Vista. It is expected to be on line for SDG&E before the end of 2007.

Fuel Efficient Tires & Worn Out Tires

In January 2003, the final report Recommendation for a California State Fuel-Efficient Tire Program was submitted to the California State Legislature and Governor. The report discussed simple factors that have a surprisingly large impact on the fuel efficiency of a tire.

Proper tire pressure. Under inflated tires can reduce fuel economy by as much as 3%. Three percent doesn't sound like much, but over the lifetime of the car it adds up to hundreds of gallons of gas.

Fuel efficient tires. The design of a tire, especially the depth of the tread, and the width of the tire, can have a significant impact on fuel efficiency. Up to 5%. Consumers should compare published rolling resistance reports when comparison shopping for fuel-efficient tires. The tires included with the vehicle when it was new are usally narrow fuel-efficient tires and score low rolling resistance. Car manufactuers include this type of tire so that their EPA MPG is higher.

For more information on fuel efficient tires, look here

Have you ever wondered what happens to the 300 million tires that are discarded in the U.S every year. There are dozens of uses. Many are listed here and here .

A San Diego startup, Riverside Technologies , has engineered a process that uses high temperatures to decompose worn-out tires and recover the steel, rubber, oils and a valuable carbon-black material. Gases produced during the process fuel the furnaces used to heat the tires,

Green Roof

By landscaping your roof you can insulate your house, purify rainwater, cool the air, generate oxygen, restore habitat for native critters, and double the lifetime of the roof. If a sufficient total acreage of roofs is planted in a city, the urban heat-island effect of a city center can be mitigated.

Intensive green roofs are installed on commercial buildings and have a soil depth of one foot or more. Extensive green roofs for residential buildings landscape soil that is only 1 to 5 inches deep. Another

According to an article in San Diego Magazine , carefully selecting native plants can yield a roof that is lightweight, hardy, drought-tolerant, and shallow. San Diego-based Building Green Futures is featured in the article. Chicago's City Hall has been green since 2001.

More information is available at www.greenroofs.com and www.greenroofs.org.

Cleaner Batteries

Research is underway to investigate the use of high performance capacitors for power storage applications. A capacitor stores energy by a difference in charge between two metal surfaces. Usually capacitors release their charge very quickly. By finding just the right insulating material between the two metal surfaces, the release of the energy can be controlled. Applications for capacitors could include electric cars and anywhere batteries are used.

The insulating material between the two metal surfaces is called a dielectric. The dielectric dictates the amount of energy that a capacitor can store. One dielectric material under investigation is a polymer called PVDF.

North Carolina State University physicists report that their high performance PVDF-based capacitors could enable hybrid and electric cars with much greater acceleration, better and faster steering of rockets and spacecraft, better regeneration of electricity when using brakes in electric cars, and improved lasers.

Social Change

There is a large body of literature on social change, ie, what is required to get people to change their habits. You can think of this as a discontinuity in the business-as-usual curve, when something new become common. Developing new clean technologies is terrific, but adoption by the masses will require social change.

I recently read a good survey paper called, "Toward the social tipping point: creating a climage for change", by Susanne C. Moser (pictured), and Lisa Dilling. One of the topics discussed was the two primary steps required to achieve social change, (1) one-on-one interactive communication of motivators, and (2) overcoming barriers to change, ie, habits of thought.

Following are a number of example approaches for overcoming barriers:

1. Make the change relevant by making it local
   
   
2. User trusted spokespersons, experts, and influencers, to deliver the message
   
   
3. Describe the desired outcome, the positives, and a realistic path to achieve these
   
   
4. Exercise patience, creativity, practical thinking, flexibility, and stern commitment
   
   
5. Measure progress
   
   
6. Expect resistance

History has shown that once the two primary steps required for social change are achieved, people can adapt quickly.

The Natural Step

Karl-Henrik Robert of Sweden published a paper in 1991 called, Educating a Nation: The Natural Step in 1991. It presents four principles of sustainability that are scientifically derived from the laws of thermodynamics. He starts by putting the two laws together and applying them to our planetary system, so that the following facts become apparent:

1. All the matter that will ever exist on earth is here now (First Law).
   


2. Disorder increases in all closed systems and the Earth is a closed system with respect to matter (Second Law). However it is an open system with respect to energy since it receives energy from the sun.
   


3. Sunlight is responsible for almost all increases in net material quality on the planet through photosynthesis and solar heating effects. Chloroplasts in plant cells take energy from sunlight for plant growth. Plants, in turn, provide energy for other forms of life, such as animals. Evaporation of water from the oceans by solar heating produces most of the earth's fresh water. This flow of energy from the sun creates structure and order from the disorder.

To achieve a sustainable civilization, one that can last indefinitely, the four following system conditions must be met,

1. Substances from the earths crust must not systematically increase in the ecosphere.


2. Substances produced by society must not systematically increase in the ecosphere.


3. The productivity and diversity of nature must not be systematically diminished.


4. There must be fair and efficient use of resources to meet human needs.

Civilization is accelerating toward unsustainability at present, so our first step will be to slow and then reverse civilization's misuse of substances.