Filed under: bioplastics, carbon credits, fuel efficiency, power grid management, renewable energy
We’re growing again. Our June meeting hit another milestone with over 100 “yes” RSVP’s for our meeting. With the growing attendees, the meeting has been moved to an auditorium on the main floor in the Koelbel Building.
Pre-meeting Activities
There was lots of networking before the meeting started – great food, drinks and conversations. Lots of new faces as well. Kris was approached by the Boulder County Business Report who covered our meeting this month.We’re excited to have them aboard. Green technology is seeing more exposure in the press will hopefully draw the interest of new and current entrepreneurs to the meetup.
Introductions
Kris Wiesenfeld kicked off the meeting with the unveiling of a new logo, designed by Denise Cote. We’re grateful for such an innovate design and happy to promote Denise – she can be contacted via the members list. Also we’re happy to announce the addition of a new sponsor Infield Capital, thanks for the support for green tech meeting! Infield joins our current sponsors Sequel Ventures and Access Ventures.
Presenters
Professor John R. Dorgan, PolyNew Inc
Ecobionanocomposites, A New Class of Green Materials
Professor Dorgan is currently teaching at the Colorado School of Mines. John started his talk with some background on the current plastics market, an amazing 107 Billion dollars. But with plastics relying on petroleum as a major component, the feedstock cost and access is becoming an issue. Enter bio-plastics, now on its third generation(that employs genetically modified crops), that is competitive with its petroleum based counterpart.
Some of previous work in this area are
- Nature Works LLC – that produces green house gas neutral poylmers
- Brasken – Brazilian plastics company with green polyethylene products made from sugar cane
- Metabolix/Telles – using non-food feedstock for plastics, chemicals and energy, ADM licensing technology
One of foundation domains support bioplastics is Industrial Ecology(IE) and is defined as:
an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the sustainable combination of environment, economy and technology.
Within this field the sub-domains can be associated with “Red” is the research and processing of plants for the medical field. “Green” is associated with agriculture and “White” is associated with industrial biotechnology.
So now for a mouthful to describe the current field bio-plastics sits in the cross-roads of
“Ecobionanotechnology”
representing the convergence of Industrial Ecology, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology
So where is one of the great markets and demands for bioplastics? The plastic cup, an industry that would address the need for a bio-friendly solution for plastics cups. The biobased beer cup is a significant market but even larger, coffee cups, cups and lids that could withstand “McDonalds coffee hot” temperatures.
In order to get solve this challenge, nanotechnology is employed, to provide clay like material heat distortion properties. Take a tip from our green chemistry book, we want to avoid materials that mined (acid mine drainage” is a well know mining issues). To achieve these properties, Dr Jordan has engineered a “Nanowisker” to embed in the plastic structure, similar to fiberglass
A natural target market is to company’s producing cups, MeadWestVaco being a prime example. Making ecobionanocomposites cost-effective is key and with current oil prices this threshold has been reached.
PolyNew has secured an NSF Phase II funding and is seeking additional funds. With a potential market of 100 mill/annually PolyNew is well positioned. They are also exploring a number of feedstocks for their product, such as soy-beans and others and working to reducing costs of their product to 95cents/lb and lower.
Quale Hodek, Renewable Choice Energy
Renewable Energy and Carbon Offsets
Renewable Choice Energy, started in 2001, is a Boulder based company that sells renewable energy and carbon offsets. Company rep, Quale Hodek indicated a number of businesses and private individuals are taking advantage of the opportunity to grow renewable energy through credits and offsets. Their customer list is very extensive with company’s such as Whole foods Market, Vail Resorts, Steel Case, John Deere, HSBC, Washington Mutual, Microsoft.
Business services offered go beyond the sale of offsets & credits. They also provide renewable energy education and work with businesses to promote/market their own contributions to green energy. Company and individuals can contribute to many types of energy “purchases” or project developments such as geothermal, wind, pv, biomass and small scale hydro. Some businesses specify that wish to contribute to a specific project or help support a from-scratch project, such as a Wind Energy farm that Steel Case helped develop.
The market for selling credits and offsets is currently 31 million. Renewable energy choice is working hard to penetrate this market with a 27 person sales team. Growth in the renewable energy has seen a significant acceleration with credit/offset company’s facilitating contributions with Wind Energy growth alone growing 40% in 2007.
The carbon credit market is based on the Kyoto protocol and is globally recognized. Quale also emphasized that they “certify” the wholesalers of renewable energy, this is a value add to individual/business to validate their purchase since some field uncertain with some vendor claims. He also described that this support helps developers get their renewable projects online, a difficult task when the energy itself is sold to the end client at an extra premium(typically 2-5% more than fossil fuel based energy).
The typical client base is 90% corporate and 10% residential. Customers could go to Excel directly to specify a renewable energy source but corporate customers prefer access to “call centers” and marketing information provided to them. Also Excel may only sell certain types of renewable energies such as a wind directly but Renewable Energy Choices sells credits for the complete domain of renewables.
With customers in all 50 states and clients like Vail Resorts (which made the 2nd largest purchase of Wind Energy credits – offsetting all their annual electricity use) they see great potential. The opportunity is selling credits/offsets to help assist developing renewable infrastructure growth in 2008 for a 1 Bil. market.
Russell Thomas, Thomas engines
Variable compression engine technology
Russell Thomas has answered a question many have been asking lately, can’t we just get more fuel efficient vehicles with our current gasoline based systems with no power loss? The variable compress engine promises just that, no power loss, change in engine cost or driveability differences from today’s modern combustion engine.
Thomas engines has investment support from large international corporation such as SKF, AVL, Chevron Russia and interest from Sweden, Austria, China, Russia and the US.
You can think of variable compress engine as a comparable to diesel efficiencies without the drawbacks of a diesel. A high compression engine can provide better fuel economy 20-30% better but an engine need to switch between low and high compression to make the engine useful and this where variable compression engines come in. The only production vehicle variable compression engine to date is the Saab SVC.
Russell showed a great graphic of an engine configuration that is a little difficult to describe, but at high level it looked like undulating steel washers rotating around pistons – essentially a new take on the crankshaft to facilitate piston strokes. And with this novel design a lot of work and finite-element analysis has gone into the design to ensure mechanical endurance and minimal wear on the components. The engine is designed to last over 150K miles. Essentially with the design work the Thomas team has made, makes the engine extremely reliable, maintainable and smooth when compared to existing variable compression engines and even to existing gasoline engines.
The price of the engine is similar to normal gasoline engines, and less then half the price of a diesel engine. It is also competitive with existing hybrids since there is no extra battery cost. The engine design intellectual property is covered by extensive issued and pending patents owned by Thomas Engines and with a 60 Mil passenger car market it is well positioned to help mitigate of current global oil crisis.
More details about the engine, it is 2.06L engine with 240hp with “slightly less weight” for same power gasoline engine. Currently it is spark-ignited but will be non-spark ignited in the future. With some more years of development down the road this engine seems to be ahead of its variable compression competitors.
Sunil Cherien, Spirae
Energy Management for Renewable and Distributed Energy
Sunil takes a through the future of energy management in his presentation. How do we management all the alternative energy sources on the grid with the inherently different characteristics? Both areas, demand management and supply management need to be tackled. Smart grids are the answer with an upgrade to our infrastructure that matured in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Sunil’s group is based in Ft. Collins and is part of a “Clean Energy Cluster” along with the Colorado State University supporting green technologies in Colorado. The city of Fort Collins, the city’s utility department, other state agency are helping in some form to Spirae and working to improve the grid to support alternatives.
The next generation involves both demand and supply management of energy resources
For demand management infrastructure there are smart grids, where the consumer is also part of the equation of “smart demand management”. The demand is managed or optimally utilized which helps consumers use power during “low usage” periods or during “peak generation” of alternatives such as higher wind generation. Consumers can make “discretionary usage” such as turning on a washer machines during the most optimal times.
Supply management is on the other side of the equation. The future of supply systems is both a hybrid collection of energy sources and systems to manage them. Outside of traditional energy supplieds (electric, nuclear, coal, etc.) there are new alternative supplies such as wind farms, solar concentrator power farms, PV grids. Additionally consumers can generate energy to the grid through small “dispersed systems” such as small PV systems on roof-tops.
How does a power system operator “balance” the system given the hybrid of alternative, dispersed and traditional generation plants? The operator needs to keep supply power attributes within specification (120V/240V and 60hz). Current system management is done with the SCADA system (You can ask our organizer Kris Wiesenfeld on this topic, I’ve also worked on power transformers as an electrical engineer). We’ve also go issues with scaling systems (such as PV – which have fixed outputs). Also we now have to compensate for multi-directional systems – your house PV can feed into the grid with net metering or you can also draw power (on a rainy day). Remember the grid was designed for uni-directional supply of energy. Another issue with alternative supply management is that output can be variable, so that a wind farm can generate 450MW at is peak but drop significantly based on the wind conditions.
The road to integrate these challenges has been set, and Sunil and his company are on that road. At the governmental level there are standards such as Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and states such as California are already adopting it. Sunil’s company is providing advisement and building infrastructure for the hardware side of this equation. Euclidean systems with intelligent nodes that communicate to each other and work together.
Spirea is an R&D shop of 35 people working with strategic customer around the world. Spirea’s control system help build managed substations that produce consistent electrical supply that can turn off or on or “island” the power station. They can bring on natural “gas beakers” to produce electricity when alternative sources are producing lower outputs and bring on consistent power to the grid. Also modeling and software are inportant part of the infrastructure solutions that have to work in real-time to react to changing conditions and “protect” the grid from large fluctuations.
Sunil had some great stories on work they have done in Denmark which receives 20-30% of their energy from renewable’s today but are planning to increase that to 60% in the next few years. If you’re interested there is a great presentation on Wind Energy done for the DaVinci institute where a NREL researcher explains how Denmark sells excess wind energy to Norway. Also Ft. Collins is a leader in renewables. The city is a Zero Energy District (ZED) with both wind, PV and CFCP engines on the grid. Sunil also mentioned in the area, the selling of power to neighboring geographical areas needs work in the regulatory field. In Europe again there is the potential to sell power from Denmark down to Italy, the regulation and systems need to be in place to do this. Also the cost for renewables usually draw a premium and customers and governments are working to educate on this new business model.
This was a great meeting with innovative topics, thanks to Kris and all our speakers!
Kevin Geminiuc
Filed under: battery systems, cellulosic ethanol, energy efficiency, green data centers, on-demand transportation, renewable energy, transportation
Everyone thanks again for another great green tech meeting! Special thanks to Kris for bringing together a great collection of speakers this month.
We had a near capacity meeting at our CU Demming center room with around 80 people. Thanks to our sponsors (Access Venture Partners and Sequel Venture Partners) for the food and drinks. This time we went green and used “corn starch” plates and cups and afterwards sent this off to composting at Eco-cycle – thanks to our volunteer for that!
Given our RSVP’s, I picked up extra beverages and we accommodated for extra food as well – and we’ve been spot on the mark so far. Networking is also been a fundamental part of the meeting and I think we’re have really struck a nice balance here – so remember to come early. For meetings going forward, we are considering changing the schedule to add more networking time
Introductions
Kris Wiesenfeld, our main host, opens the meeting with a quick run through today’s speaker list and then opens the floor for introductions.
Paule Jerde, executive director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, started off announcements giving a little background on the center and how it contributes to the green tech industry. The center provides support to sustainable ventures with a program called Transforming Energy and Markets (TEAM). Paul also mentioned that the center also collaborated with Vestas, the Danish wind pioneer, that has made a significant investment in Colorado. Demming also plays host to the student competition Cleantech Venture Challenge in which students develop business concepts for the Cleantech area. This competition is held in conjunction with the international Sustainable Summit in Denver. Paul also added, there are plenty of opportunities and free labor available from Deming entrepreneurship/MBA students to help our green tech meetup members with their business plans. Paul can be reached here Paul.Jerde@Colorado.EDU.
Sequel Ventures representative Ron Bernal also said a a few words. Sequel is a early seed venture fund. Some of the their investments range from internet to biotech. Their portfolio includes cleantech companies such as the solar/PV panel company HelioVolt and air filtration company StrionAir.
Announcements
- Business catapult – providing networking services such as matching entrepreneurs and investors
- Cavity wall – company providing wall casts for green home construction
- Boulder Chamber of Commerce – smart grid presentation, May 15th contact Dan Powers(dan.powers@boulderchamber.com)
Local Green News
Real Goods Solar, which installs solar panels on homeowners’ rooftops, filed paperwork on Thursday to go public with the goal of raising up to $57.5 million.
Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion
Twelve companies and four research centers have joined forces to create the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion, it was announced Monday.
The solar energy research center, or CRSP, is part of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, which was created in February 2007 to develop renewable energy technologies for rapid commercialization. The group in July launched its first major project, to develop new biofuels and biorefining technologies.
Gaiam is expanding and moving into its new headquarters
Gaiam Inc. of Broomfield has closed on the purchase of its new, 150,000-square-foot headquarters building in Louisville for $13.2 million, according to Boulder County real estate records.
Jirka Rysavy, who also founded Corporate Express Inc. of Colorado, launched Gaiam (NASDAQ: GAIA) in 1988 and is its chairman and CEO.
Presenters
Shawn Mills, Green House Data
Green house data provides data center hosting facilities with 100% renewable energy. Their hosting facility is in Cheyenne and has access to some of the best wind energy supply in the country. With demand outstripping supply, data centers are surpassing the airline’s carbon footprint. The green data center has a triple bottom line (environmental, social responsibility, capital). Green house competes in building highly efficient data centers using ground source pumps and outside air to help cool efficiently and reduce air conditioning costs. Also more modular systems and point cooling makes efficient use of cooling resources. A barrier to entry to data centers is capital, and it is a potential 12 BIl. dollar market. There are some competitors in this space such as Smart bunker that uses wind and AISO.Net that uses solar. Green house looks to sign 3-5 yr contracts, spend zero on marketing and has a good pipeline of customers.
J. Thomas McKinnon, RES Colorado Inc.
Tom has developed a new process to produce cellulosic ethanol. This system uses hub and spoke where feedstock is brought into a local “hub” and thus reducing transportation costs. Cellulose can come from wood or solid waste. The benefit of cellulosic based oil is that it produce high-octane, low sulfur fuel. The process to create bio-oil using “fast pyrolysis” and the oil is put through steam reforming process and then liquefication. The resulting price point is $2.11/gal but with a state government tax credits it reduces to $1.34/gal. Cellulosic based fuels has less impact on water resources and uses 1/10 the fertilizer. Wih 80% reduction in green house gases and the process is cheaper and cleaner then competitors such as Range fuels. Tom took some questions on whether the process was carbon neutral. This is a process taking existing material that would emit carbon anyway and compare it to current practice of extracting oil, we can say the carbon underground is sequestered so we are liberating extra carbon in the system versus cellulosic which is closed system.
Dan Sturges, Intrago
Dan shared with us his background in designing cars at GM. He specialized in small cars and showed some fold-able car designs. The main business model for Intrago is on-demand transportation with electric vehicles using a smart key rental and navigation/tracking systems. The estimated potential market is 700/mil cars worldwide with 2 Bil in revenue. The Tata Nano is example of the new era of small vehicle design. MIT is also working with Intrago on unique mini-vehicle electric designs. Some versions of this business model are in place in Paris where there are 20,000 bike rentals per day. There is also a potential for subsidizing rentals with advertising and digital dashboards. The cost of using cars on demand bring down transportation costs to 1/3 of owning your own car. Some of the new models for on-demand transportation can be found on Facebook where rides are arranged between people via “Digital Hitchhiking”.
Philip Lyman, Boundless Corporation
Boundless builds Lithium Ion battery solutions. Their main Intellectual Property (IP) is in power management systems and integrating solutions from existing products. Their solutions have been integrated in everything from electric assist bikes to 750 Kw/hr trucks systems. In some applications, vehicles need to be in no-idle zones and need to switch an electric modes. Some of the competitors are A123 Systems, Valence technologies, Hybrds-plus. There is a large market for this product is large and company would be a good acquisition target for a lead-acid battery company breaking into the Lithium-ion market. A question was raised in the presentation on the availability of Lithium, this resource is available through simple process like using exchange membranes and sea-water.
Kevin Geminiuc
Filed under: algae fuel, alternative energy, bio-fuels, biogas, energy efficiency, natural lighting systems, renewable energy, solar heaters
Thanks everyone for another great Green-Tech meetup!
This month we had 50 people attend and the energy, speakers and food was great. Thanks to our sponsors (Access Venture Partners and Sequel Venture Partners) we were able to provide some nice food and drinks for our networking session.
News
Assorted companies in Greater Denver/Boulder were active again this month. Broomfield-based Range Biofuels landed another 100 Million in investment that will be used to complete a cellulosic ethanol plant. Renewable Energy Systems (RES), a renewable wind company, has relocated from Texas to Broomfield bringing 70 jobs.
The company said it decided to move because metro Denver’s “business and political atmosphere … is supportive of renewable efforts” and the area has “a high standard of living.
Another Boulder based smart-grid/energy management system Tendril has landed another round of funding to the tune of 12 million. Also this month, it seems the California biofuels company “Gevo” has relocated their headquarters to Englewood, Colorado . Gevo gained some notoriety when “ecopreneur” and clean-tech angel, Sir Richard Branson invested in this company and is part of the “Virgin Green Fund”.
Caltech biofuels spinout Gevo is apparently tired of grappling with regulations and how long it takes to build pilot facilities, and thinks it can move faster in Colorado.
CommuniKey
Our first presentation informed attendees on the Communikey “exploring sustainability for creative arts”. This festival has been around since 2004 and attracts artists from all over the world to explore sustainability, carbon footprints, and human powered electronics. Communikey organizers were looking forward to the opportunity of teaching on the use of reclaimed materials. If one is daring enough to give full creative control to Communikey artists, they will take old clothes and demonstrate reuse of a now modernly styled outfit. Many other demonstrations on reclamation of materials will satisfy the most whole-hearted freegan!
Len Bloch – Algae Based Fuels
Len Bloch, a high/middle school teacher and former algae-oil entrepreneur gave a very compelling description on what algae oil is, the process of making it, and what some of the challenges are. Len has written a children’s book on the topic of Alternative Energy. One of the redeeming qualities of algae is that they don’t need fresh water or soil (and won’t divert these resources from food production ). Current Biodiesel needs oil from sources such as soy, conola or palm oil. Algae systems can be created in open systems (such as ponds) but there are a number of challenges controlling this environment. His experience included working with closed systems employing smaller water barrels and plastic coverings. Research is ongoing but it seem Blue-Green Algae produce fuel the fastest, with diatoms producing the highest oil content. Algae based fuels can work in home heating scenarios whereas biodiesel can not.
Len also thought there was opportunity to fund algae-based fuel R&D with another algae-oil based product, health care supplements, which provide vegetarian marine oils. He left us with some last notes that “agriculture” was one of the greatest revolutions, through beer, cheese and other preservation methods our ancestors domesticated microbes, and that biofuels would constitute “completing” this revolution.
Sam Weaver – Cool Energy Inc.
Sam introduced his water-heating/electricity producing hybrid solution to “harvest” the sun. When a rainy-overcast country such as Germany can extract solar energy – the other sun-rich districts in the world can easily do this as well. The sun in some of our states (Colorado being one) are as good as some of the best solar areas such as Australia and the Sahara Desert. From studies across United States, their is a different split between heating/cooling , but overall “heating” is the more dominant energy user.
The product is a combined heat/power system that comes from evacuated, water-mineral filled tubes that are heated on the roof (or another platform). With a mineral oil based system to avoid winter freezing, the tubes are sent into the house (e.g. basement) to be converted to heat in the winter, or electricity in the summer (or some combination). This combination is determined by an energy management system to optimize the use of solar energy. This system uses a Sterling Engine to produce electricity from the heated liquid and the heated liquid can be stored also be for a period . The Stirling Engine’s efficiency is less than combustion fuels but it does not get as hot and can be built from cheaper materials. The system does not produce “semiconductor-waste” and can provide twice the return as PV systems.
Peter Novak – Sunflower Daylighting Systems
Perter Novak introduced his product as “Sundelier” – “the chandelier that delivers sun” . This company is a pre-revenue startup. The main product allows for sun to be channeled through a hole/channel into the interior of a building. Additionally this system can be worked as a hybrid solution using traditional lights to provide the desired lighting effect. With the benefit of a small hole profile for the sunlight source, the sunlight is bent to follow the channel into the destination floor/area.
Overall benefits are health and productivity gains in workers from natural sunlight as well as reduced energy consumption. The system can include a sun tracking system to maximize sun input into the lighting system. With LEEDs based building constructions standards, these natural lightning systems are highly desirable and sales growth is very healthy.
George Howard – Heartland Renewable Energy
George got right into the science and value proposition of his “anaerobic digester” system. This company is based on a franchising model to help build plants and do technology transfer of their ‘digester factory” design. The digester uses microbes and needs solids (a biodegradable waste-food) to operate. With animal waste – methane can be produced and used as energy. They can build a plant in 6 months, and using “pools” and up to 200 wells – the plant can process 5 million cubic ft. per day.
The end result produced by this plant is natural pipeline quality methane gas. With Natural Gas increasing in price the energy return on investment is increasing. Along with the sale of the gas, other revenue streams include the sale of carbon credits and sale of the final solid residue as fertilizer. Although there still is CO2 generated in process, this can be mitigated by potentially co-locating a greenhouse operation near the plant.
I would like to thank all our great speakers this month!
Kevin Geminiuc
Filed under: energy efficiency, green electronics, green marketplace, heating & cooling, power grid management, renewable energy
Our inaugural meeting at the CU Leeds Deming Center in Boulder was a pleasant surprise. There was a great turnout with representatives from legal, venture capital, academic, incubators, entrepreneurs, and others interested in green technology. There was great enthusiasm and a clearly educated crowd on the topics presented.
Our meeting started off with organizers Kris Wiesenfeld and Kevin Geminiuc introduced. Kris then started with some quick informal votes on meeting format and then started into a quick powerpoint framing green entrepreneurship and the potential in our current economy. Kris introduced green investment segments that saw funding in 2007 which including the following areas ( Energy Generation, Energy Storage, Transportation, Energy Efficiency, Recycling & Waste) . Green infrastructure investment was a total of 5.18 Billion in Europe and United States in 2007.
Jonah Levine, Smart Grid
jonah.Levine@Colorado.EDU
Our first presenter, Jonah Levine, shared his research on how to work with energy systems, like wind, that can vary in power output. How does an energy utility work with peak demand (above traditional sources)? It may need to bring on-line stored energy such as pumped water or natural gas turbines. Jonah expressed some new ideas of using smart grid technologies to allow excess green (e.g. wind, solar) energy sources to provide to remote areas where they are needed.
Scott Canby, Airius Thermal Equalizers
Next Scott Canby from Airius Thermal Equalizers presented on their turbine-system that allows for both cooling and heating efficiency in buildings. Scott had some great success stories to share on cost saving from HVAC systems reduced usage. Their thermal equalizer uses a turbine to produce laminar flow(smooth) air versus traditional fan (turblent air) and the efficiency gain is significant. Also a natural benefit of a portal system allows placement of their turbines at different heights and sections in a factory or office building.
Michael Izatt, Matt Emm, One Button
Michael Izatt and Matt Emm from One Button gave an enlightening talk on consumer/professional green home entertainment solutions. Their company advises on energy efficient components that also provide similar or superior sound quality. There were some good discussions on “phantom load” and types of solutions to address power hungry theater devices that draw power even went not being used.
Casey Verbeck, GenGreen
Casey Verbeck from GenGreen was the last presenter. His presentation really impressed the crowd with his passion to build a product portal to support green products. There is a good market for both home-spun and commercial products and with a true “green certification” (displays like a FDA food label). The green certification displays a product’s carbon footprint allowing the purchaser to make informed decisions. Casey came from the music promotion industry and is using a wealth of environmentally-conscience performers to help support his site. GenGreen has grown past its first round of funding and is experiencing terrific growth – it sounded like a great opportunity.
Thanks to everyone for making this a great event. Hope to see you at our next meeting!
Kevin Geminiuc
Filed under: Uncategorized
Fellow Ecopreneurs, Kevin Geminiuc and I attended the Clean Energy Action (CEA) meeting on Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration yesterday evening. For those of you not familiar with CEA, let me say this is a very effective action group. They (in coalition with other groups) have been instrumental in convincing Xcel to agree to shut down (pending PUC review) 2 coal fired power plants and replace their generating capacity with a large solar concentrating plant in the San Luis Valley.
Leslie Glustrom provided introductory information which included:
1. Snippets of the Colorado Renewable Energy Task Force Report supporting the proposition that CO has wind farm locations that could supply 96GW and solar farm locations that could supply 26GW of electricity. Colorado peak usage is about 12GW. Clearly Colorado has renewable clean generation capacity to supply the state’s needs many times over.
2. That there are several ongoing law suits brought by Clean Energy Action or or individual members against the building of the huge new coal fired plant near Pueblo, CO. I wonder why, with so much potential for alternative energy generation here in CO, we (you, me, and every one else who writes a check to Xcel) spend 1.3 billion on a new coal plant?
More information is available at their site: www.cleanenergyaction.org
*Alison Burchell: Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration*
This is not your father’s Carbon Sequestration!
When I’ve heard of Carbon Sequestration I’ve always thought it was only capturing CO2 emissions and pumping them into the ground or into the oceans. Not so, says Alison, there is another form. The earth itself (terrestrial) consumes carbon out of the atmosphere as it forms carbon crystals in soils and rock formations. Some research suggests that up to a quarter of all carbon going into the atmosphere may be consumed this way. Her research is focused on understanding this phenomena and seeking ways to accelerate it. I wonder, as we get our emissions under control, could we actually reduce atmospheric carbon?
As a counter point, Alison provided extensive information (reports, photos, etc.) on the perils of the ‘old school’ carbon sequestration:
- no geological formation is without leaks;
- trial locations thought to be ultimately stable have failed;
- other proposed sites are dangerously close to tectonic faults, and
- land-over locations, which have been pumped full of liquid CO2, are upwelling to form large ponds of very toxic water, killing wildlife and domestic animals alike.
It makes one rethink the phrase, “clean coal through sequestration”.
Kris Wiesenfeld
Filed under: general
Welcome to the Colorado Green Tech Blog!
This blog will support our Meetup Group and will focus on Sustainable Solutions and Ecoproneurship. You can find more information about group in our mission or at our Colorado Sustainable Energy Meetup Home. Our group is open to all and is free to join. We’re encouraging participation at multiple levels (organizational, presenter, green-invester , concerned citizens!). We’ll meet monthly in Boulder.
Welcome and hope to see you soon.
Information on our current meeting location at the CU business center:
Here are directions to the CU Main Campus in Boulder and here is a campus map and highlighted parking map to help you locate the Koelbel building and plan parking. Go north on Bradway from Baseline, turn right on Regents (your first right), as Regents curves North, the Koelbel Building in on the left.
Lot 308 (bounded by Broadway, Regents, and Kittredge Loop) is free after 5PM. You would walk Northeast from this lot to the Koelbel building and enter the South entrance.
You may also park for free in the parking garage (Lot 456, Police Parking Center) to the east. You would walk West and enter the Koelbel building through the North entrance.
There is also paid parking along Regents and other lots in the area.
