Japanese home and business owners with solar power installations sold 2,150 GWh of electricity back to their power utilities last year, a huge 50 percent increase over the amount sold back to the grid in 2010.  The sellers collectively made a nice $1.2 billion off their surplus electricity.

The Japanese government has a feed-in-tariff scheme that requires the utilities to purchase the extra power which was small beans compared to the average 884,000 GWh of electricity that those utilities sell to customers per year.

The government is set to introduce even more subsidies for domestic renewable energy power developers. The new scheme will include electricity from solar, wind, small hydroelectric, biomass and geothermal plants, but only solar panel owners with systems of 10 kW or less will still be able to sell their excess power.

via Reuters

A new study done by the University of Reading and the Met Office looked at the likely changes in solar activity over the next 90 years and whether a decrease would offset global warming by any significant measure.  The answer:  no.

The study found that the sun's output is likely to decrease until 2100, but that decrease will only lead to a global temperature reduction of 0.08 °C.  Compared to the forecasted warming of at least 2.5 °C over the same period from greenhouse gases, a solar activity decline doesn't get us very far.

The study found that even if the sun's output fell to it's lowest known levels that occurred between 1645 and 1715, global temperatures would still only be reduced by 0.13 °C.

While the study's authors concede that their model doesn't fully capture all of the uncertainties in the climate system and solar output, the results do certainly let us know that a decline in solar activity is no match for greenhouse gas emissions.

via Physorg

As part of GE's Ecomagination initiative and in time for this summer's Olympic games, London's Tower Bridge will be given a green lighting makeover, switching out the street and artistic lighting for more efficient LEDs.

GE is teaming up with London's City Hall, City of London Corporation and EDF to complete the new installations. GE is replacing the existing street lighting with LEDs and more efficient floodlights, which will result in a 45 percent decrease in energy use.  For the artistic lighting on the upper level of the bridge, GE is replacing the current neon lighting with its more energy efficient Tetra Contour Cable to light up the towers in multiple colors for the games. LED projector lights will also be installed.

The new artistic lighting system willl use 40 percent less energy than the previous lighting system.

Landfills are a necessary component of contemporary life. According to the US EPA, the average person in the U.S. produces nearly 1,130 pounds (513 kilograms) of waste per year, and the vast majority of that ends up in landfills. Much of that trash decomposes, and releases methane and CO2, both of which are greenhouse gasses. However, methane is also a gas which can be used as a fuel, and increasingly, landfills are beginning to realize this is an energy resource and are making use of it.

At present, landfill gas is the source of power for more than a million homes and of heat for over three-quarters of a million homes in the US. In addition, it is also provides fuel for natural gas-powered vehicles as well as power and heat for industrial process uses. Nearly 600 sites throughout the country are using the mathane from landfills to produce electricity, heat, proces energy, and even pipeline-quality natural gas and compressed and liquified natural gas for vehicle fuel.

Methane is 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas for trapping heat, and landfills are a major source of methane emissions. However, according to the EPA, 60 to 90 percent of the methane produced by a landfill is captured by a typical landfill gas energy project.

Capturing and using the methane from landfills serves the dual purpose of keeping these greenhouse gasses from directly entering the atmosphere and providing an alternative to fossil fuels. These programs have been encouraged through tax credits and grants as well as by the renewable energy portfolio standards many states are adopting for their public utilities.

Even if the volume of waste per capita could be cut significantly, landfills and trash are still going to be present. As with other materials recycling programs, it only makes sense to tighten the loops and take better advantage of the available resources in ways like this.

image: US EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program

via: Smart Energy Portal

Although the overall tone of this year's North American International Auto Show had a far lower emphasis on "green vehicles" than we've seen in recent years, we were nonetheless surprised to see three different niche companies with electric vehicles present on the main floor. Two of these compaines, Tesla and Coda, had all-battery EVs; the third, VIA Motors, has pickups and vans with electric drive and onboard generator for extended range driving, much like the Chevy Volt.

In fact, former GM Vice-chairman Bob Lutz is on the board of VIA. Lutz was the champion for the Chevrolet Volt during his tenure at GM and is largely credited for getting the Volt into production. Since the company is using GM vehicles as the platform for their conversions, having a solid connection to GM is vital.

Like the Volt, VIA is a Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E- REV; or alternately, REEV: Range-Extended Electric Vehicle), the same principle behind the Volt.

VIA obtains full-size pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs and does the conversion to turn those vehicles into electric vehicles. In terms of warranty, crash testing, and most other factors, these are still GM vehicles. Only the transmission has been removed (even the gas engine remains to run the generator), and a small electric motor roughly 11 inches (28 cm) in diameter by 11 inches long. The converted vehicle can be charged like other hybrids and EVs, and has an electric drive range of up to 40 miles. Then, when the generator takes over, it can continue for up to 300 miles in "range extender" mode. This gives the vehicles an MPGe rating of about 100 MPG, which is a huge leap from the 10 to 15 MPG average many of these large vehicles get as conventional vehicles.

The initial focus for VIA is on corporate fleets with a need for work trucks. An optional inverter allows the vehicle to be used as a mobile generator to provide electricity for remote and off-grid work sites. VIA is in limited distribution this year, but is expecting to begin selling to consumers in 2013. The company is taking reservations for the 2013 VTRUX pickup, which will have an anticipated sales price of $80,000. Like other hybrids, that's a big up front premium to pay. But for high mileage users, the fuel cost savings and lower maintenance requirements will make this a viable alternative.

Last week, Apple officially unveiled its iBooks 2 textbook platform where iPad users can download electronic versions of textbooks that are not only interactive, but cheaper too. Apparently, it was just what educators and students were waiting for because early reports are saying that in just its first three days the iBooks store saw 350,000 downloads of e-textbooks.

Apple has partnered with the three textbook publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who together represent 90 percent of the textbook market. The e-textbooks come equipped with features like 3D animated models, random pop-up quizzes and the ability to create sticky notes on pages and then have them assembled into digital 3 x 5 notecards for use as study aids.

The digital textbooks also come with the advantage of being updated whenever new information comes along, keeping owners from having to purchase subsequent editions. Even with these added elements, high school e-textbooks cost $14.99 or less.

Studies have shown that once a certain threshold of e-books are downloaded, replacing the purchase of hard copy books, the carbon footprint of the e-reader or tablet itself is canceled out and from that point forward users are making a positive environmental impact.

With the size and weight of textbooks, that threshold could be even lower than with a typical book.  Between the Amazon's Kindle textbook store and the new Apple textbook store, students now can save their backs, their wallets and help the environment:  win-win-win.

via Engadget

Kodak may be in the middle of some financial trouble -- it just filed for bankruptcy yesterday and has shut down almost all of its camera film production -- but they're looking at solar energy as a way to a fresh start.  The camera and film maker is hoping to use its already existing manufacturing processes to produce thin-film solar cells.

Kodak is working with Natcore Technology to develop and produce flexible, thin-film solar cells made of nanotubes that could match the efficiency of conventional silicon cells. Thin-film cells haven't made as much of a splash in the market yet mainly because of the efficiency lag between them and silicon cells, but thin-film is catching up.

If Kodak can make a major improvement in efficiency, they have two major advantages compared to other manufacturers:  cost and experience.  Kodak could use its existing and proven film production equipment to produce the solar cells, potentially cutting costs in half.

It will likely be tricky transition for the company, but we'll be interested to see if Kodak can make this work and improve on the thin-film technology available today.

via MIT Tech Review

A study conducted by Columbia University Ph.D. students found that 93 percent of daily car travel done in America is within the battery range of electric vehicles.

The students analyzed data from the National Household Travel Survey where people reported the miles driven on individual trips and over the course of an entire day.  The study found that 95 percent of one-way trips were 30 miles or less, far below the battery range of the EVs on the market today.  Further, 93 percent of cars traveled less that 100 miles in a full day.

The 100-mile range mark is the standard goal for most automakers right now.  Not every automaker has hit that mark exactly, but most are coming close.  For instance, Nissan claims a 100-mile range for the LEAF, which applies to ideal driving conditions, while the EPA gave it a 73-mile range rating based on real-world driving.  The Honda Fit EV, coming out this year, will have a range between 76 and 123 miles depending on driving conditions.

Battery range will continue to improve as technology moves forward and automakers get better at manufacturing EVs and as that happens, less and less people will be able to have "range anxiety."

via Grist

Offshore wind farm projects have finally been receiving approval in the U.S., but none have started construction yet.  A 25-MW project planned for off the coast of Atlantic City could step up and break ground first if approval comes in March.

The developers of the project, Fisherman's Energy of Cape May, have announced that they're ready to start construction in the fall if approval is given from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.  The five-turbine wind farm will be capable of powering 10,000 homes and could be finished and feeding electricity to the grid by Labor Day 2013.

The Atlantic City project could be the first constructed of a series of wind farms planned as part of the East Coast wind corridor, stretching from Virginia to New York City and with major financial backers like Google and grants from the federal government.

via NJ.com