(Keahole, HI) - OTEC International LLC (OTI) was selected for lease negotiation to build a one-megawatt onshore demonstration plant by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) to test the full power cycle of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) to produce electricity.

Baltimore-based OTI has built its OTEC design on decades of research and innovation, combining proprietary technology with off-the-shelf components. Privately funded OTI has not relied on any government money to reach its goal and expects to be first-to-market with an offshore commercial plant.

OTI has a term sheet and is negotiating a power purchase agreement with Hawaiian Electric Company for a 100-megawatt (MW) plant off the coast of Oahu, is negotiating a 25 MW plant with the Caribbean Utilities Company, and is in talks with other utilities.

The demonstration plant is slated for the 870-acre Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park administered by NELHA. HOST Park in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island was established for demonstration and commercialization of renewable energy, ocean science and sustainable living technologies. (www.nelha.org)

OTI was selected from four submittals to NELHA in response to its call for proposals. NELHA's staff and Research Advisory Committee each ranked OTI's proposal substantially higher, according to reports to the board. NELHA and OTI will begin negotiating terms and outlining technical specifications right away. NELHA's board and the Hawaii Governor's office must approve the lease.

Continue Reading...

Hawaii's solar companies could be in for a difficult legislative session as state auditors dig into whether state tax credits are being abused — financial incentives that have propped up the state's fast-growing photovoltaic industry.

Recently, the state Department of Taxation said that it would be auditing homeowners who stretched single solar systems into multiple installations, allowing them to claim multiple refunds. Solar companies have been blamed for perpetuating the unscrupulous practice.

Concerns have also been raised...

Continue reading

Elektra One performed a demo flight during the EAA AirVenture 2011 show in Oshkosh on Saturday, July 30. Elektra One was designed by Calin Gologan, PC-Aero, Germany. The 1-seat electric aircraft is able to fly with battery-power for up to 4 hours, for a range of 500 km. At 1,400 propeller RPM at cruising altitudes, Elektra One is nearly silent. The plane weighs 440 pounds, including battery, and can carry a payload of 220 pounds, including pilot. Elektra One flies consuming only 6 kW, with zero CO2-emissions. If small electric aircraft can fly, I think scaling up to large aircraft should be easy, technically and economically.

In combination with a Solar Hangar (SunAirport) - sponsored by SolarWorld, one of the biggest solar panel companies in the world - their goal is to combine energy efficiency, low noise and zero emission with low operating costs. See more at http://www.pc-aero.de/

The Elektra One made its maiden flight in March in Augsburg, Germany, where Gologan's vision of marrying the aircraft with a solar-charging hangar was conceptually demonstrated. PC Aero will begin taking orders for the aircraft in Europe and the U.S. in 2012. Gologan intends for a complete system – solar-equipped airplane combined with a hangar – to be priced around $145,000, or 100,000 euro.

SolarWorld's central business activity is selling quality modules into the installation and distribution trades and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. SolarWorld is the largest U.S. manufacturer of solar panels for more than 35 years. SolarWorld and Germany's PC Aero are working together to pioneer the world's first comparatively affordable electric aircraft system complete with solar-equipped aircraft and solar-charging hangar.

Many of us consider the objective of becoming “individually or organizationally energy independent”, to be a worthy and noble one. We can put enough solar PV panels and even some new wind-turbines on our roofs to meet our household and maybe PHEV or EV needs[1,2]. But what about night-time, or several days of rain and no wind? Can batteries or H2-storage with fuel cells, or emergency generators or a combination of them help solve the electricity storage problem?

This paper compares the economics of above storage options for off-grid operation of home communities and businesses. We conclude that the capital cost of batteries is 2-5x lower than the combination of water electrolyzers + fuel cells + H2-storage tanks (WE-FC-H2T), depending on the design-average of battery depth-of-discharge to achieve equal service life to that of a WE-FC-H2T system , even if we conservatively assume that the maintenance costs of battery and WE-FC-H2T systems are equal. Because input solar and wind energy are free, the comparison then boils down to comparing the capital costs. For a nominal 500-kW(peak) & 200-kW(average), clean, off-grid power supply providing 4000 kWh worth of storage (20 hours at 200-kW), we find capital costs of 1.46 to 2.34 M$ for the battery system and 7.0 to 5.4 M$ for the WE-FC-H2T system. The 5.4 M$ lower cost of the latter assumes that it is practical to use the waste heat of the electrolyzer and fuel cell for water heating.

There is one H2-energy storage application, which may well be economically more attractive than even battery electricity storage: It is for a H2-consuming synfuel process, where H2-consuming equipment for steady 24/7 operation is already in place, and the only added cost is to add electrolyzer throughput, i.e. increase total electrolyzer electrode area and power, and add more H2 storage tanks.

There's this newer tendency going along side our obsession with the top wireless gadgets [1], and it's the best way to keep their electric batteries 100 %. With most of the brand-new pads and tablets, mobile handsets, and laptops the only universal problem is the most favorable approach to have them charged. I began browsing for what I would definitely do with many of these different units and now I ponder what I would do with out them. I additionally worry every night if I have each of them on their own proper cables and wires and recharging up for the day ahead.

Generation of electricity and synthetic fuel from renewable energy

As we forge a long-term energy (electricity and fuel) security and independence strategy, we should not only minimize the use of fossil fuel generators, but add as much clean and renewable electricity generation and synthetic fuel production capacity from wind, geo or solar energy as possible, and make it available preferentially, to:

1. Directly operate electrical equipment during daytime availability of solar PV, geothermal and wind electricity as much as possible, so as to avoid incurring the 80-90% round-trip energy loss for storage in batteries
2. Utilities and rate payers should make use of smart-grid signals (e.g. grid voltage level) to indicate grid-load, so that rate payer equipment can effectively adjust demand and benefit from low-cost, off-peak electricity supply to operate equipment, including PHEV and EV chargers
3. Support the installation and operation of plants to produce synthetic fuels from water, carbon dioxide and electricity, because both ICV vehicle user/owner life cycle and imports costs are likely to be lower than for EVs or FCVs, as illustrated by Table 3.
4. Design the synthetic fuel processing plants so that they can ramp production up and down to follow the availability and use of excess or "reserve" renewable electricity, rather than waste the wind, solar and/or geothermal energy during off-peak periods, as we are doing today

All of the above contribute to reducing fossil energy use and import costs as described in Table 3.

This has implications on how much synthetic fuel to produce. For Hawaii County, two to three 20 MGGE/y (synthetic or bio-) fuel plants should take care of Hawaii County's foreseeable jet fuel needs***. For Hawaii County to replace 50% of today's ~140 MGGE/y of fuel for CVs, the added electricity generator investment would then be equivalent of (50/100)*140/4 = 17.5 MGGE/y, i.e. 1/4th of the fuel needed for CVs due to EVs 4x higher energy efficiency than CVs, or as little as 17.5e6 GGE/y*110000 Btu/GGE *1054 J/Btu/(3.6e6 J/kWh) /(8760 h/y) = 64 MW(average) in the next ~10-15 years. This time fits well with the needed ~8-10-year time to study, get permits, design, install and start-up the 20 MGGE/y plants, after which they would produce for 25-30 years. The produced fuels would be certified for use as aviation fuel, and for gasoline or diesel fuel for road engines.

*** Similarly, 150-200 MGGE/y may about meet the jet fuel needs for the State of Hawaii. On the long run, we assume that we may only have to replace half of the total amount of fossil fuels used today of ~750 MGGE/y because of the adoption of EVs and PHEVs may eleiminate the need for the other half..

Replacing the remaining 70 MGGE/y imported fossil fuel to HawaiiCounty with locally-produced synthetic fuel may require 300-500 MW(average) electrical power for the producer plants, depending on their overall 40-70 % conversion efficiency. Clearly, the capital investment in clean, renewable electricity generation to put EVs on the road is much lower (64 MW) than for ICVs, which additionally may need ~700 M$ to install the 70 MGGE/y synthetic-fuel producer plants. Both of these M$ numbers (and associated amortization and maintenance) strongly determine the exact price of synthetic fuels.

For a fascinating documentary of the development, struggles, costs and implementation of a synthetic gasoline production industry by BASF in Germany between the 1920s – 1940s (also adapted later by Sassol in S.Africa) from coal, which now would be replaced by CO2, H2O and electricity as feedstock, read ref.[6].

This is a potentially direct and effective opportunity to place your suggestions in front of the Obama administration as a means for cost effectively weaning the U.S. off fossil oil (imported or not) towards a sustainable energy future, while reducing the threat of human-caused climate change. Please take a few minutes to answer the two questions at the White House link. This is important, because your voice needs to be heard. Below, I am sharing my responses to the 2 questions: