helping to mainstream alternative energy 2010-03-06T08:32:37+08:00 tallex http://www.alternate-energy.net aen@alternate-energy.net tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog AEN Copyright (c) 2010, Authors of Alt Energy Resource Network Blog 2010-03-06T08:30:00+08:00 2010-03-06T08:30:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.121

By Peter N. Spotts The number of hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms globally is likely to either fall or remain flat over the course of the 21st century. But an increasing proportion of the storms are likely to hit the highest levels of intensity because of the projected effects of global warming, an international team of scientists concludes.

The number of hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms globally is likely to either fall or remain flat over the course of the 21st century. But an increasing proportion of the storms are likely to hit the highest levels of intensity because of the projected effects of global warming, an international team of scientists concludes.However, it's unclear whether past trends in the number and intensity of storms - which some research suggested may be due to global warming - fall outside the range of natural variation. This is particularly true of the Atlantic basin, the team writes.

These results appear Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

The work updates a 2006 review of tropical cyclones and climate change, which many of the scientists on this team provided at the behest of the World Meteorological Organization. It also updates the related portions of a major survey of climate science published in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as a 2008 assessment on severe storms and global warming by the US Climate Change Science Program.

The new review represents "a chance to look back and see where the science has gone since that time," says Thomas Knutson, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J. He is the lead author for the review.

Many conclusions in the latest work are similar to those in past assessments. But some differ in significant ways. This illustrates the changes that scientists typically make to their conclusions as they continually test them.

For instance, the team notes, the IPCC's 2007 Fourth Assessment Report concluded that, "more likely than not," global warming helped fuel a rise in the number of the most intense tropical cyclones. Sunday's review doesn't support that statement, the team writes, citing uncertainties in records for storms globally, as well as the influence of natural variability in the Atlantic.

In that region, records do suggest a recent increase in storm intensity. But it's unclear, the team says, how much of that change is because of natural swings in conditions that take place over many decades, and how much may be due to the effects of global warming.

However, the team also notes, recent research allows for a higher degree of confidence that in the future, the overall number of storms "more likely than not" will decrease globally, while the number of intense storms "more likely than not" will increase substantially - even though some regions may not follow the broader trend.

Using studies with a new class of improved computer models, and assuming a business-as-usual scenario for greenhouse-gas emissions, the team estimates that maximum wind speeds in those storms are likely to increase by 2 to 11 percent over the century. Also, rainfall rates are likely to rise by as much as 20 percent for distances up to 60 miles from a storm's eye.

One important factor for reducing uncertainties in such projections: getting a better hand on El Nino and its mirror opposite, La Nina, in the models, suggests Phil Klotzbach, a researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins who produces seasonal hurricane forecasts for the Atlantic basin. The projections of the team producing the Sunday's report, he says, rely heavily on sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), which he acknowledges are important.

But "if future climate were to shift more towards an El Nino or La Nina-like basic state, it could easily overwhelm any changes in basin-specific SSTs," he writes in an e-mail. ]]> tallex 2010-02-04T09:55:00+08:00 2010-02-04T09:55:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.120

Is Punxsutawney Phil responding to global warming? By Eoin O'Carroll As dawn broke on Monday morning, officials in cities and towns across the United States and Canada, engaged in an annual ritual of attempting to predict the weather by harassing a marmot. According to the website of the Punxsutawney (Pa.) Groundhog Club, the most famous of these marmots, Punxsutawney Phil, emerged from his burrow (or more accurately, was dragged out of a box), surveyed the 13,000-person crowd that had gathered to see him, and uttered something in the obscure language of Groundhogese to Club President Bill Cooper, who then proclaimed that the large rodent had seen his shadow and we would therefore be getting six more weeks of winter.

By Eoin O'Carroll


As dawn broke on Monday morning, officials in cities and towns across the United States and Canada, engaged in an annual ritual of attempting to predict the weather by harassing a marmot.

According to the website of the Punxsutawney (Pa.) Groundhog Club, the most famous of these marmots, Punxsutawney Phil, emerged from his burrow (or more accurately, was dragged out of a box), surveyed the 13,000-person crowd that had gathered to see him, and uttered something in the obscure language of Groundhogese to Club President Bill Cooper, who then proclaimed that the large rodent had seen his shadow and we would therefore be getting six more weeks of winter.This isn't particularly surprising. Since 1886, when the tradition first began in the western Pennsylvania borough, Phil has presaged an early spring only 14 times.

But - as another signal of our warming climate - nine of those times have occurred since 1975.

Phil may be right in the broad outlines - it has been getting warmer lately, particularly since the 70s - but his year-by-year prediction skills could use some improvement. Investigative reporters at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution compared Phil's pronouncements since 1994 to data from the National Weather Service. The verdict: For the past 15 years, Phil has had an accuracy rate of 50 percent, no better than a coin toss.

Of course, Phil isn't the only weather-prognosticating groundhog in North America, and not all of them are in agreement. Atlanta's Gen. Beauregard Lee, whom the Journal-Constitution says has only a 31 percent accuracy rate, predicted an early spring. So did Staten Island Chuck, who took the opportunity this year to bite New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, drawing blood.

Other groundhogs predicting an early spring include New York state's Dunkirk Dave and Malverne Mel.

Joining Phil in predicting a longer winter are Woodstock Willie of Woodstock, Illinois, Jimmy the Groundhog of Sun Prarie, Wisc., and Sir Walter Wally of Raleigh, North Carolina. Similar predictions occurred north of the border, with Manitoba Merv Ontario's Wiarton Willie each seeing their shadow.

Six more weeks of cool temperatures would not be terribly surprising, given that this past year has been cooler than previous years this decade, mostly because of the La Niña that developed in the Pacific Ocean. The meteorology site Weather Underground, notes predictions (by human weather forecasters) that February will see colder than average temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, and near-average temperatures to the Midwest and Northeast.

NASA meanwhile, predicts that the globe will set a new high-temperature record sometime in the next year or two. ]]> tallex 2010-02-04T09:43:00+08:00 2010-02-04T09:43:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.119

Lithium Demand Energizing Exploration By Dave Porter Reno - As demand for lithium grows, thanks to the push by the auto industry to produce lithium batteries, exploration for the rare earth is underway and in Nevada where the only operating US lithium mine exists, Lithium Corporation (OTCBB: LTUM) has been locking up properties it believes show promise. Reno-based Lithium Corp. has managed to acquire claims in several areas considered hotbeds for lithium exploration, three of which are west of Clayton Valley where Silver Peak operates the only US lithium carbonate brine production plant in the US. The Company says samples indicate lithium sediments are double that found at Silver Peak's project with plans calling for further exploration of those properties.

By Dave Porter



Reno - As demand for lithium grows, thanks to the push by the auto industry to produce lithium batteries, exploration for the rare earth is underway and in Nevada where the only operating US lithium mine exists, Lithium Corporation (OTCBB: LTUM) has been locking up properties it believes show promise.

Reno-based Lithium Corp. has managed to acquire claims in several areas considered hotbeds for lithium exploration, three of which are west of Clayton Valley where Silver Peak operates the only US lithium carbonate brine production plant in the US. The Company says samples indicate lithium sediments are double that found at Silver Peak's project with plans calling for further exploration of those properties.Lithium Corp. President Tom Lewis says "Due to all these positive attributes, we look forward to conducting more exploration work."

Worldwide, lithium exploration is developing into a fever pitch which, oddly enough, could benefit Lithium Corp. due to its lithium projects being away from populated areas with a mandate from the Obama administration to see "green energy" projects pushed forward, though for Nevada lithium is second in line to geothermal but is fast playing catch up as regulators gear up for the rare earth exploration permitting process.

In Monday's Ottawa Citizen, reporter Dave Rogers equates lithium exploration to a 21st Century gold rush that has landowners concerned. "The rush to find lithium in West Quebec has some residents concerned that prospectors will cut trees and tunnel or drill on their land to meet the demand for the volatile metal used in rechargeable electric car batteries," wrote Rogers.

The Quebec Mining Act allows geologists to go onto private property to analyze rocks near the surface with electronic instruments, take soil samples and drill for ore. But in Nevada, mining regulations don't permit such wildcat exploration tactics.

Rob Sabo reported in Northern Nevada Business Weekly in late November that the "permitting process is bogging down activity", which is "taking a backseat to geothermal", according to Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Lithium Corp alongside several other mining companies are bearing down on the BLM in the rush to advance lithium exploration, though Lewis, an experienced project geologist, has decades of Nevada minerals exploration under his belt and knows the permitting process takes time. He noted in a late 2009 release that his Company "will utilize a comprehensive multi-discipline approach for the selection of targets for the drilling program slated for 2010." ]]> tallex 2009-12-12T22:20:00+08:00 2009-12-12T22:20:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.118

By Peter Spotts Copenhagen - Delegates left the Bali climate change talks in December 2007 with high hopes that a grand bargain on reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be secured by now. But today, as the latest round of climate change talks begin with representatives from more than 190 countries gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, expectations are far more modest.

Copenhagen - Delegates left the Bali climate change talks in December 2007 with high hopes that a grand bargain on reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be secured by now.

But today, as the latest round of climate change talks begin with representatives from more than 190 countries gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, expectations are far more modest.The biggest decision - a binding international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions - is likely to be pushed off until next December, when another round of climate talks are scheduled for Mexico City. Nevertheless, two weeks in Copenhagen will yield insights into global efforts to control industrial emissions and the warming of the planet.

Below are some key questions:

What might success in Copenhagen look like?

Low expectations at the start of the conference may not be a bad thing.

"I think there was a sense all along that we were not going to be able to reach an international binding legal agreement in Copenhagen," says Eileen Claussen, who heads the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Va. But only in the last week did leaders acknowledge this. The results may disappoint some, she said, but added that it's a more realistic track.

Three areas will be the keys to "success" in Copenhagen.

Emissions reductions. What target will wealthy countries and major developing countries like China, India and Brazil set for reducing emissions between now and 2050? An interim target for 2020 will also be set.

Immediate action. What actions will countries take immediately after the meeting to reduce emissions, move new green technologies into the marketplace, and help developing countries adopt cleaner power sources?

Money. How much cash will rich country's pony to help poorer ones pay for green technologies they will need to spur economic growth in a climate-friendly way?

If the meeting yields progress on those three objectives "it will be a resounding success," says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Observers say the meeting will have failed if it ends without a clear mandate to wrap up binding legal language on reducing emissions no later than December 2010. Otherwise, the process is likely to unravel into prolonged haggling over a new pact's rules of the road, much as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol did.

Money also looms large. Many in the developing world say their richer counterparts need to pay to help them adjust to a changing climate and to reducing their own emissions. A clear, quick-start financing package for these poorer nations might offset developing country anger over what they view as limited emissions reductions promises by major industrial nations.

Industrial countries want a transparent way to verify that developing countries are following through on promises, but several developing countries say such oversight would be a threat to national sovereignty.

What are countries offering on greenhouse-gas reductions?

On Sunday, South Africa said it would slow the growth of its emissions to 34 percent below the current annual growth rate by 2020 and to 42 percent by 2025, as long as international aid is forthcoming.

India has offered to improve its energy efficiency to 20 or 25 percent better than 2005 levels, provided it gets international money.

China has offered up a 40 to 45 percent efficiency improvement on 2005.

Brazil has put up actual emissions reductions of 36 to 39 percent below 1994 levels by 2020, if it gets financial help.

Mexico has promised actions through 2012 that put it on track to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2050, but anything after 2012 is contingent on international aid.

What is the combined effect of those emissions offers?

Political leaders have agreed to try to hold warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre industrial levels. If that is to be met, scientists say that developed countries will need to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 and by 80-95 percent by 2050. Developed countries must substantially reduce the growth rate in their emissions.

But current promises on emissions reductions fall well short of meeting those targets. Rich-countries have currently offered an 8 to 14 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2020, according to climateactiontracker.org.

Russia's numbers are interesting: Emissions have been so low following the collapse of the old Soviet Union that the country's emissions could rise from now and still meet the country's 2020 target, some analysts say.

For developing countries, China and India are the heavy hitters. China's target is widely seen as "business as usual," although that interpretation varies. India's numbers also are seen as falling into a business-as-usual category.

In fact, India's number is so "conservative" that India could offer up more-ambitious goals and still fall within business as usual, explains David Pumphrey, an international energy analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

What are the likely sticking points?

As many in the developing world – the countries whose populations are likely to suffer from the effects of climate change the most - see it, rich country targets are not ambitious enough.

And much needs to be done on the financial front for both short-term aid and long term aid. The aid would be used for adaptation efforts, the purchase of green technologies, and efforts to help developing countries build in-house technical expertise. In the short term, countries are talking about $10 billion a year over the next three years. Beyond that, the number rises to $100 billion a year through 2020. But if developed countries are going to put up that much money, they want verification that developing countries are actually reducing the growth of emissions.

How much impact might 'Climategate' have?

This remains to be seen. In the US, Republican members of Congress are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to forestall any effort to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act until a full, transparent investigation has taken place on allegations that fudged data played a role in establishing the link between industrial CO2 emissions and global warming. Internationally, the Saudi Arabian's are using the hacked letters from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit to argue that there's no need for any new climate treaty. The BBC quoted the country's chief negotiator as saying it will have a huge impact on the talks.

The UN negotiating process requires unanimous consent to reach decisions. So the Saudis alone could hold things up. But the Saudis often threaten to block movement as a negotiating position. The oil rich Kingdom's long-time pitch is this: Any new agreement should contain payments to Saudi Arabia to make up for oil revenues it would lose as the world weans itself from oil. ]]> tallex 2009-11-30T01:13:00+08:00 2009-11-30T01:13:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.117

Washington - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was encouraged by the interest being shown by world leaders ahead of the United Nations' climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen next month, saying that a strong framework fora Climate Treaty could be in place by 2010. Ban, who has repeatedly called climate change and its attendant consequences of increased droughts, floods, rising seas and more violent storms "the defining challenge of our era," will urge the leaders of the 53-member Commonwealth to attend the summit, confident that strong momentum is building for a framework that can be molded into a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010.

Ban, who has repeatedly called climate change and its attendant consequences of increased droughts, floods, rising seas and more violent storms "the defining challenge of our era," will urge the leaders of the 53-member Commonwealth to attend the summit, confident that strong momentum is building for a framework that can be molded into a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010.Yesterday he welcomed the announcement that United States' President, Barack Obama, will go to Copenhagen as yet another sign of the gathering momentum.

Over the next two days in Port of Spain, Ban will urge the Commonwealth leaders to stay focused and committed to reach an agreement "that is ambitious, equitable, and satisfies the demands of science," spokesperson Farhan Haq told a news briefing in New York yesterday.

"The world cannot afford to fail in Copenhagen because the costs are simply too great, the Secretary-General will urge the leaders. Failure to seal a deal could result in increased human suffering, higher economic losses, opportunities squandered in terms of productivity, global competitiveness and political stability," Haq added.

For more than a year, Ban has let barely a speech go by without calling on world leaders to face up to the challenge of forging a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set limits on global warming greenhouse gases for industrialized nations and whose first commitment period expires in 2012.

The Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer, told reporters last week that President Obama's presence in the Danish capital "would make a huge difference."

He added today that the US commitment to specific, mid-term emission cut targets and China's commitment to specific action on energy efficiency can "unlock two of the last doors" to a comprehensive agreement.

"Let there be no doubt that we need continued strong ambition and leadership," he stated. "In particular, we still await clarity from industrialised nations on the provision of large-scale finance to developing countries for immediate and long-term climate action."

In addition to commitments on financing, de Boer has cited individualized targets "in black and white" by industrialized States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and a list of actions by developing nations, as the main points that must come out of Copenhagen.

Originally it had been hoped to produce the legally binding treaty in Copenhagen but persistent differences in pre-summit talks on these issues pushed back the time frame and de Boer now hopes a formal treaty will follow within six months.

Source: UN News Centre ]]> tallex 2009-11-24T16:28:00+08:00 2009-11-24T16:28:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.116

Hacked climate emails: conspiracy or tempest in a teapot? By Pete Spotts, For all its gee-whiz discoveries and its influence on public policy, science can be a messy, sometimes ugly enterprise. When the science is paleontology, astronomy, or geophysics, internal politics, thinly or not-so-thinly veiled personal attacks, and water-cooler discussions among influential scientists about whose research is junk and not worth publishing draw a collective yawn from anyone outside the relatively small circle of researchers involved. When the topic is global warming, however, look out.

By Pete Spotts,


For all its gee-whiz discoveries and its influence on public policy, science can be a messy, sometimes ugly enterprise.

When the science is paleontology, astronomy, or geophysics, internal politics, thinly or not-so-thinly veiled personal attacks, and water-cooler discussions among influential scientists about whose research is junk and not worth publishing draw a collective yawn from anyone outside the relatively small circle of researchers involved.

When the topic is global warming, however, look out.This week, more than 169 megabytes worth of global-warming emails and related files were either hacked and/or leaked from computers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Center in Britain and released to the world via the Internet.

The package includes a number of innocuous discussions among the 1,073 emails that span a period from March 1996 to this month. But others treat with disdain colleagues who don't share the views of the majority or who challenge the way data are analyzed. Some emails give the appearance of fudging data. Others show the authors concerned about the ways their methods or data could be (mis)interpreted by global-warming skeptics.

In yet another email, one researcher influential in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) process vows to keep two sets of results from being included in the group's widely cited reports "somehow - even if if we have to redefine what the peer review literature is."

The appearance of these emails and files comes at a time when the US Senate has punted action on a climate and energy bill into next year, and with a major climate summit coming up next month in Copenhagen. Over the past three months - if not longer - it's become increasingly clear that the meeting will not yield a legally binding climate treaty, as negotiators hoped at a similar meeting in Bali in December 2007.

This confluence of postponements led US Sen. James Inhofe (R) of Oklahoma, a prominent political skeptic of global warming, to announce on the Senate floor last Wednesday: "I proudly declare 2009 as the Year of the Skeptic, the year in which scientists who question the so-called global warming consensus are being heard."

For researchers directly involved in the email exchanges, such emails really present a picture of the lengths scientists go to ensure the high quality of the science. The exchanges are shocking to some of the rest of us only because they open a window on an enterprise alien to most people. The debates are public in the sense that they crop up in scientific journals. But most people don't keep science journals handy as reading material for the commute to and from work.

Over at Realclimate.org, several of whose climate-scientist contributors were involved in the pilfered email-exchanges, the "group" explains the collection this way:

...There is a peek into how scientists actually interact and the conflicts show that the community is a far cry from the monolith that is sometimes imagined. People working constructively to improve joint publications; scientists who are friendly and agree on many of the big picture issues, disagreeing at times about details and engaging in 'robust' discussions; Scientists expressing frustration at the misrepresentation of their work in politicized arenas and complaining when media reports get it wrong; Scientists resenting the time they have to take out of their research to deal with over-hyped nonsense. None of this should be shocking.

Yet some of the targets of the emails' ire understandably see things differently. One target, climate researcher John Christy at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, finds the emails reflect a disturbing level of what he terms "group think." In an email exchange (a polite one), he writes:

These people act in concert to diminish, reject, and otherwise denigrate findings with which they do not agree — and they are able to do so because of their "establishment" positions. This is the preservation of "group think" at its most serious level.... The group represented by the bulk of these emails does indeed have a message to defend. Those of us who see problems with that message are aware of how the data are manufactured and interpreted to support that message - and worse, how these establishment scientists act as gatekeepers for the "consensus" reports to suppress alternative findings.

Another target of email ire, Roger Pielke Sr. at Colorado State University, makes much the same argument.
Neither rejects the notion of a human role in global warming. But they consistently object to the disaster scenarios that permeate the political discussions about global warming. And in Dr. Pielke's case, the human role extends beyond carbon dioxide to include "forcings" such as land-use change or the production of black-carbon soot from biomass burning.

Nothing in the package appears to overturn the general idea - arrived at via many lines of evidence - that the CO2 humans have been pumping into the atmosphere is warming the planet, nor does anything bolster the notion some put forward of a hoax on the part of climate scientists.

It remains to be seen how the release of the emails and files plays out beyond the circle of people who follow the issue closely and who hold strong views on either side of the issue. It could turn out to be a tempest in a teapot or a PR gotcha for US climate scientists. At the least, it reinforces the maxim: Don't put into an email information you don't want to see on the front page of someone's newspaper (Oops, old medium) web site.

The irony: Since the international community first took up the climate issue in a serious way in 1992, the focus of attention has been on the atmospheric effects of pumping long-sequestered carbon into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels. But that CO2 also is working its way into the oceans, making them more acidic - something that raises its own set of serious challenges. ]]> tallex 2009-11-04T15:41:00+08:00 2009-11-04T15:41:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.115

California may pull the plug on power-guzzling flat-screen TVs By Michael B. Farrell San Francisco - The state that first championed the ban on energy-hogging refrigerators in the 1970s now has its sights set on power-hungry TVs. The California Energy Commission (CEC) could adopt new efficiency standards for televisions with screens smaller than 58 inches as early as next week. If the commission OKs the requirement at its Nov. 4 meeting, TVs sold in the state will have to be 33 percent more efficient by 2011 and consume 49 percent less energy by 2013.

By Michael B. Farrell


San Francisco - The state that first championed the ban on energy-hogging refrigerators in the 1970s now has its sights set on power-hungry TVs.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) could adopt new efficiency standards for televisions with screens smaller than 58 inches as early as next week. If the commission OKs the requirement at its Nov. 4 meeting, TVs sold in the state will have to be 33 percent more efficient by 2011 and consume 49 percent less energy by 2013.The move is meant to curtail on the amount of electricity used to fuel Californians' TV habit, which has been growing as consumers continue to buy larger and cheaper flat-screen sets that use more power. Televisions and their various accessories - such as DVD players and cable boxes - now account for about 10 percent of an average home's electric bill in California.

"Electricity use by televisions is growing," says Adam Gottlieb, CEC spokesman. "Two percent of the state's energy consumption goes to power televisions."

In the end, says Mr. Gottlieb, compelling manufacturers to sell more energy-efficient TVs will amount to saving consumers and the state a lot of money. He says it will conserve enough electricity to power 864,000 homes annually and add up to $8.1 billion in savings over the next decade.

While environmentalists are applauding the move and some manufacturers have backed the proposed standards, the Consumer Electronics Associations, a trade group, is steadfast in its opposition.

It says the regulations would cost California $50 million in lost tax revenues, due to the drop in TV sales, and result in 4,600 lost jobs.

"The consumer electronics industry is committed to achieving energy efficiency in ways that benefit consumers and inspire innovation. The CEC's proposal to eliminate consumer choice and remove 25 percent of televisions from the market is a job killer and does not benefit consumers," it said in a statement.

The CEC standards will not apply to sets larger than 58 inches partly as a concession to the industry, says Gottlieb. But more than 1,000 models smaller than 58 inches are already on the market that meet the new efficiency guidelines, he adds.

"This is not banning products. The TVs that people will be able to buy will be more energy efficient and save them money," he says.

The Kansas City Star reported recently that the surge in television sales is being fueled by less expensive sets and the recent national switch to digital broadcasting. Market analyst Tamaryn Pratt told the paper, "Here we are in a terrible economic time and the demand for TVs of all kinds has grown incredibly."

In California, consumers buy about 4 million televisions a year.

Back in 2005, the Monitor reported that TV energy was expected to "reach about 70 billion kilowatt-hours per year nationwide" in 2009 - about 50 percent higher than the usage in 2005.

"Bigger screens aren't the only culprits for TV's growing energy draw. The nation's move to high-definition TV, or HDTV, requires sets to deliver more picture clarity, which draws more power," the article explained.

Manufacturers resisted, too, when California placed tighter restrictions on refrigerators in 1978, Gottlieb said. But today, he says, the typical fridge is larger than its avocado-colored ancestor and uses 75 percent less energy. ]]> tallex 2009-10-23T12:21:00+08:00 2009-10-23T12:21:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.114

By Emily Mullin Washington - Leading energy-efficiency advocates and appliance manufacturers signed an agreement Tuesday to create new regional efficiency standards for air conditioners, furnaces and heat pumps. "Energy-efficiency standards may not be sexy, but they are incredibly effective," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said at a press conference. If the Department of Energy adopts the standards, households could save about $100 a year.

Washington - Leading energy-efficiency advocates and appliance manufacturers signed an agreement Tuesday to create new regional efficiency standards for air conditioners, furnaces and heat pumps.

"Energy-efficiency standards may not be sexy, but they are incredibly effective," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said at a press conference.

If the Department of Energy adopts the standards, households could save about $100 a year."Put together, this agreement has the potential to save customers over $10 billion on their electricity bills over the next 25 years and reduce energy demands enough to forego the construction of dozens of power plants," Menendez said.

Although new energy-efficient appliances for homes would initially cost consumers a few hundred dollars, industry leaders estimate that the proposed standards will save U.S. consumers about $13 billion between 2013, when the agreement would take effect, and 2030.

The agreement would set different standard levels for heating and cooling appliances in three climate regions - the north, south and southwest.

"In this way, the agreement both lays the groundwork for significant energy saving and helps make heating and cooling homes more cost-effective regardless of the climate," Keith Coursin, chairman of the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, said.

Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, agreed that regional standards make sense.

"In the north, it's the heating savings that really drive things," Nadel said. "In the south, it's the cooling savings."

The council is a nonprofit organization that advocates energy efficiency as a way to promote economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection.

Another provision in the agreement would encourage state building codes to include stricter efficiency levels for heating and cooling systems in new homes.

From 2013 to 2030, industry leaders estimate the new regulations would save about the same amount of energy consumed by 18 million households in one year

The savings would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about the same amount of emissions produced by four million cars every year.

"The higher standards that we've agreed on with industry will deliver what we call the usual 'triple crown' of energy efficiency benefits," said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a coalition of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders.

Those benefits include monetary savings for customers, energy savings for the United States and a reduction of emissions for the planet.

Callahan said that U.S. households contribute about 4 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the world, which is about equal to the annual emissions of Japan or India's economy.

"So anything we can do to make and deliver efficiency into our residential sector is going to have an enormous impact and an enormous contribution to lowering greenhouse gas emissions," Callahan said.

Bob Simon, staff director for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said the Department of Energy could adopt the proposed standards on a consensus basis while waiting for Congress to pass a comprehensive energy and climate change bill. ]]> tallex 2009-10-14T07:32:00+08:00 2009-10-14T07:32:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.113

AEN News Gainesville, FL - University of Florida chemists have pioneered a method to tease out promising molecular structures for capturing energy, a step that could speed the development of more efficient, cheaper solar cells. "This gives us a new way of studying light-matter interactions," said Valeria Kleiman, a UF associate professor of chemistry. "It enables us to study not just how the molecule reacts, but actually to change how it reacts, so we can test different energy transfer pathways and find the most efficient one."

Gainesville, FL - University of Florida chemists have pioneered a method to tease out promising molecular structures for capturing energy, a step that could speed the development of more efficient, cheaper solar cells.

"This gives us a new way of studying light-matter interactions," said Valeria Kleiman, a UF associate professor of chemistry. "It enables us to study not just how the molecule reacts, but actually to change how it reacts, so we can test different energy transfer pathways and find the most efficient one."Kleiman is the principal investigator in the research featured in the journal Science on Friday.

Her work focuses on molecules known as dendrimers whose many branching units make them good energy absorbers. The amount of energy the synthetic molecules can amass and transfer depends on which path the energy takes as it moves through the molecule. Kleiman and three co-authors are the first to gain control of this process in real time. The team demonstrated that it could use phased tailored laser pulses -- light whose constituent colors travel at different speeds -- to prompt the energy to travel down different paths.

"What we see is that we control where the energy goes by encoding different information in the excitation pulses," Kleiman said.

Researchers who now test every new molecular structure for its energy storage and transfer efficiency may be able to use what Kleiman called a new spectroscopic tool to quickly identify the most promising structures for photovoltaic devices.

"Imagine you want to go from here to Miami, and the road is blocked somewhere," she said. "With this process, we're able to say, 'Don't take that road, follow another one instead.'"

Source: University of Florida ]]> tallex 2009-10-03T01:30:00+08:00 2009-10-03T01:30:00+08:00 tag:altenergyresourcenetworkblog,2010:AltEnergyResourceNetworkBlog.112

Schwarzenegger leads governors' summit on global warming By Daniel B. Wood Los Angeles - Some 1,200 representatives from more than 70 states, provinces, and countries are meeting here this week for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Global Climate Summit 2. Three years after Governor Schwarzenegger won global attention for signing legislation committing the world's eighth largest economy to reduce its greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020, the gathering is trying to pave the way for a United Nations conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December to establish new, worldwide emissions targets.

By Daniel B. Wood


Los Angeles - Some 1,200 representatives from more than 70 states, provinces, and countries are meeting here this week for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Global Climate Summit 2.
Three years after Governor Schwarzenegger won global attention for signing legislation committing the world's eighth largest economy to reduce its greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020, the gathering is trying to pave the way for a United Nations conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December to establish new, worldwide emissions targets.The goal is to provide leaders below the national level the opportunity to influence the position of their national governments in advance of the Copenhagen summit.

Experts estimate that 50 to 80 percent of actions needed to reach the UN climate goals will be implemented at the state and local levels.

Participants are engaging in 21 panels featuring discussions on energy efficiency, low-carbon fuels, green buildings, clean technology, job creation, water management, deforestation, sustainable development, training opportunities, and adaptation strategies.

Interviews with key attendees show that California's example continues to pave the way. As one of the world's largest economies, California has key economic and environmental interest in the progress and design of any international agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

More than 30 US states have followed the California example with climate action plans, and "even more are copying it," said Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and now senior fellow for climate policy at the New America Foundation. Those include provinces in Canada, states in Mexico, and regions in places like Brazil and Indonesia.

Schwarzenegger's California summit is another way for others to see what to do and follow suit, says Mr. Tamminen, "because if all these nations get to Copenhagen with the feeling that they are starting over, we will fail."

"We realize that national governments are a little slow in getting to work on this problem," he said.

Many cities are trying to reduce the amount of driving - probably the biggest growth area for emissions - says Mary Nichols, chairman of California's Air Resources Board (CARB), in an interview. One is a plan adopted by Mexico City to commit to 5 percent of its traffic being bicycles.

"This is one of the most congested cities in the world, and they are actually doing it," Ms. Nichols says.

"California is an example of what can be done," said John Wiebe, president and CEO of the Globe Foundation in Vancouver, British Columbia, a company which works with private companies to turn environmental problems into business opportunities. "Even if we can't do as much as we want in recessionary times, it's important to keep talking like this, because it moves the ball forward."

Geert Criles, consulate general of Belgium, says Schwarzenegger's example is helping to spotlight the fact that work on climate change doesn't only happen from the national government down. "Several regions and provinces are seeing here how they can contribute from the bottom up," says Mr. Criles.

Schwarzenegger and California's climate initiatives get credit for keeping the pressure on the federal government to act.

Before he took office after the election, then President-elect Obama said, "When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House."

The US governors who are co-hosting and attending the summit here are Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, David Paterson of New York, Ted Kulongoski of Oregon, Chris Gregoire of Washington, and Jim Doyle of Wisconsin.

Today, Schwarzenegger issued the following statement after Sens. Barbara Boxer (D) of California and John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts introduced federal climate change legislation:

"I applaud Senators Boxer and Kerry for introducing climate change legislation that builds on many of California's first-in-the-nation policies, including our aggressive cap on global warming pollution, complementary emissions standards, and our innovative plan to reduce emissions by curbing sprawl." ]]> tallex