Plan to Merge Heating Oil Technology with Solar Power
Plans to merge solar power with traditional forms of power generation such as heating oil could help Europe meet a 2020 target of reducing its energy use by 20 percent. (solarpanels365.com)
A plan to combine heating oil technology with solar power is being promoted as a sustainable way to meet Europe’s increasing energy needs.
The European Heating Oil Association (Eurofuel) has teamed up with the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation to promote hybrid systems that use both renewable energy like solar electricity and more conventional power sources like heating oil.
Eurofuel is an umbrella trade group representing 10,000 companies across Europe. Its “multi-energy hybrid vision” is a response to a 2020 EU deadline to cut European energy use by 20 percent.
The document sets out a vision to incorporate the efficiency and reliability of bulk storage heating oil tank systems with renewable solar energy to warm homes and buildings more sustainably.
Combining various renewable technologies with a reliable heating oil storage tank would offer tomorrow’s customers an ideal mix between increased efficiency, greener energy provision and security of supply at reduced costs.
Solar, wood, electricity and heating oil could all be used on the basis of availability and cost-efficiency, Eurofuel says.
Heating oil is cleaner than some forms of energy such as coal. And it is becoming more environmentally friendly with increasing use of biodiesel and cleaner burning furnaces.
Renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power depend on favorable sunshine and wind conditions, and therefore may not reliably generate energy when it is most needed, Eurofuel says.
One of the great advantages of heating oil is it is stored in large tanks on the user’s property so a “base load” of energy is always on tap. It is also one of the safest and most efficient home heating sources.
Europe has over 20 million home heating oil tanks, “which represents an autonomous contribution to the EU’s security of supply.” This also enables families to incorporate more renewable technologies into their energy mix without worrying about energy shortages due to non-availability of sun or wind.
“The EU’s new Energy Efficiency Plan stressed once again the massive potential for primary energy savings in buildings, specifically through efficient heating systems,” Eurofuel president Dr. Christian Küchen said.
But we must take it one step further and offer consumers cost-effective solutions, such as hybrid systems combining oil appliances with solar thermal energy.
Eurofuel and ESTIF want more recognition of hybrid systems in energy efficiency labeling to help promote their benefits to consumers, Solar Magazine reported. But it is unclear whether the systems are yet on stream or when they would be available in the US.
US President Barack Obama has signaled a desire to make the US less reliant on crude oil imports. Last month he called for a blend of fossil fuel and renewable energy sources to power America’s more efficient, more self-reliant and lower-emission future.
Have you come across the hybrid-energy heating oil system? HeatingOil.com wants to hear what you think.
Biotech Firm Announces Successful Creation of Biodiesel-Producing Organisms
Joule's revolutionary biofuel production technology holds great promise for the heating oil industry. (image: jouleunlimited.com)
Back in 2009, HeatingOil.com reported on Massachusetts firm Joule Biotechnologies’ work toward engineering an organism that consumes carbon dioxide and excretes biofuel. At that point, Joule had publicized its creation of an organism that produces ethanol–a cleaner-burning supplement to and replacement for gasoline.
On Sunday, a year and a half after its initial announcement, Joule (now Joule Unlimited) announced that its efforts have now synthesized an organism that produces biodiesel as well as ethanol. The Associated Press reported that Joule’s proprietary organism can produce either biofuel or ethanol with just water, sunlight, and CO2. The company claims that its organism can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year, at the cost of just $30 a barrel.
Over the least year and a half, Joule has continued developing and testing its biofuel-from-synthetic organism technology, and seems pretty confident in its effectiveness. During that time, it has revealed more about the breakthrough technology, including the nature of the organism, which is, according to a patent filed by Joule, a cyanobacterium.
The big question now is whether or not Joule’s technology can be “scaled up” to produce mass quantities of biofuel.
The latest developments in the tale of Joule’s scientific marvel hold great promise for the heating oil industry: a reliable affordably-produced biodiesel could help bring down heating oil prices, even as prices for crude oil and other fossil fuels continue to climb. As increasing quantities of biodiesel are added to the US supply of heating oil, heating oil will become cleaner and, if Joule’s promise hold’s true, cheaper.
Joule’s chief executive Bill Sims is optimistic that his company’s work is nothing short of revolutionary. He told the AP:
“If we’re half right, this revolutionizes the world’s largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry,” he said. “And if we’re right, there’s no reason why this technology can’t change the world.”
Analysis: Obama’s SOTU Energy Comments Mixed News for Heating Oil Dealers and Consumers
President Obama adressed the nation with the 2011 State of the Union speech on Tuesday. (image: AP via huffingtonpost.com)
President Obama delivered his second State of the Union address (a transcript of the speech is available at the White House website) on Tuesday night, and devoted a notable portion of it to energy issues. For retailers and consumers of heating oil—a fuel that straddles the divide between long-reliable hydrocarbons and promising renewables—the president’s energy messages were a mixed bag.
Obama wove energy innovation into his broader theme of America’s modern “Sputnik moment,” in which the nation, motivated by competition from outside its borders, doubles its efforts at creating new and transformative technologies. He promised to include government funding for research and development in several fields, “especially clean energy technology,” in his next budget proposal to Congress. Obama pledged that if scientists “focus[ed] the hardest problems in clean energy, [the government] will fund the Apollo projects of our time.”
Speaking specifically about oil, Obama proposed reducing existing subsidies to oil companies in order to fund burgeoning clean energy sources and reduce US dependence on oil. He obliquely referred to oil as “yesterday’s energy,” and urged the nation to “focus on tomorrow’s.”
For the oil extraction and refining industries, these were not pleasant words to hear. If Obama succeeds in significantly reducing US subsidies to oil companies, production costs will go up, profits will go down, and it is likely that Big Oil will make up the difference by increasing prices on retailers and consumers of petroleum fuels like heating oil and gasoline.
On the other hand, heating oil’s ever-strengthening bond to biodiesel, a leading renewable fuel source, positions it nicely to weather the storm of rising oil prices, whether they are brought on by reduced subsidies or any other factors. And with a renewed pledge to support green energy development, the prospect of mass-produced biodiesel that cost-competes with petroleum fuel is as bright as ever. Low-cost biodiesel, with the aid of biodiesel blending regulations already on the books in several states, would almost certainly mean more biodiesel in heating oil tanks across the country.
However, Obama’s broad proposal to remove oil subsidies and redirect funding toward green energy will face stiff resistance in its way to become national policy. The oil industry and other business groups will attack each specific proposal as an economically irresponsible “job killer,” while pressing to stop them before they start and like-minded Congresspeople will help in any way they can.
Obama made similar energy proposals in last year’s State of the Union address, and tied them to climate change legislation, but generally did not succeed in turning those ideas into game-changing laws and policies.
Here’s the bottom line: policies outlined by President Obama in the State of the Union address, if successfully made into law, could conceivably drive up heating oil prices for dealers and consumers. However, those same policies could also provide a huge boost to the biodiesel industry, which could in turn smooth out heating oil prices for those using Bioheat or other forms of biodiesel heating oil.
Watch President Obama’s full State of the Union address below. His remarks on energy begin at 13:25.
embedded by Embedded Video
YouTube Direkt
Green Sunday: Philadelphia Eagles’ Stadium to Go Energy Independent
The Philadelphia Eagles' Lincoln Financial Field is planning to go completely off the grid by September of next year. (image: nflstadiumscentral.com)
Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, will be fully energy-self-sufficient within a year, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. The team announced that a combination of wind and solar power and an on-site system powered by natural gas and biodiesel will generate enough electricity to power the entire stadium, and then some.
The plan involves attaching 80 wind turbines to the stadium’s roof and 2,500 solar panels to its exterior. The combination of those two sources is expected to generate 30 percent of the stadium’s power, with the nearby “cogeneration” site supplying the rest. The stadium’s peak energy use is 7 megawatts, and the new system is designed to produce at least 8.6 megawatts, meaning the team can sell excess electricity back to the local grid.
SolarBlue, a renewable energy company based in Orlando, FL, will construct the system. It is expected to be completed by September of next year—just in time for the 2011 football season. By then, the Eagles’ green uniforms will have a whole new meaning.
Researchers Recycle Used Coffee Grounds into Biodiesel
Coffee: it could keep you and your heating system running. (image: channelbf.com)
Anyone who’s ever heard decaffeinated coffee referred to as “unleaded” knows the intimate relationship between coffee and fuel. Now researchers at the University of Missouri have gone one step further, and are working on a method to convert used coffee grounds into biodiesel, reports The Maneater, the university’s student paper (via the Huffington Post).
Researchers and staff collected the coffee grounds from the faculty cafeteria and a local Starbucks, then extracted oil from the grounds and converted the oil into biodiesel. The research team is testing the fuel on a diesel engine in their laboratory, but any biodiesel that is successfully developed could also be blended with home heating oil.
Used coffee grounds are an attractive alternative to soybeans, a common biodiesel feedstock, because used coffee grounds are not a potential food source. Additionally, like another biodiesel feedstock, waste cooking oil (which is used by Tri-State Biodiesel, for example), coffee grounds would otherwise be thrown away. Converting coffee grounds to biodiesel is a way of recycling.
A team of British scientists have developed a coffee-powered car (the Car-puccino) for a BBC science program, but the car was terribly inefficient, and was built primarily to dramatize the variety of potential alternative fuels rather than present a plausible substitute for fossil fuels.
The University of Missouri researchers, on the other hand, are trying to develop an affordable fuel from coffee grounds, and have found a way to extract the oil from the grounds without drying them. Drying coffee grounds is both time-consuming and energy-intensive. By eliminating drying and by recycling material, the researchers have lowered the costs of producing biodiesel.
Coffee already helps people get through rush hour, morning meetings, and homework assignments—why not let it heat your home, too?
New Ethanol Product Replaces Charcoal in Outdoor Grills
The FlameDisk is billed as the green alternative to charcoal briquettes. (image: domesticfuel.com)
With spring here and the weather turning warmer, many people are doubtless getting the itch to break out the grill for some burgers and hot dogs. DomesticFuel.com reports that outdoor grillers now have a choice in the fuel they use. If you have a charcoal grill, the Wisconsin-based Sologear would like to tempt you away from charcoal briquettes in favor of their FlameDisk—solidified ethanol designed especially for outdoor grilling.
The packaging, as seen above, says the FlameDisk offers the “same flavor as charcoal,” allaying any fears that cooking with corn-based ethanol would give everything the flavor of corn. According to Sologear, the ethanol burns 90 percent cleaner than charcoal, and the casing, which resembles a Jiffy Pop pan, not only is easier to clean than briquettes but is also recyclable.
The FlameDisk is already available for about $5 at Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and True Value. If you try it, let us know how it works!
Stationary Bikes Are Latest Source of Renewable Energy at Danish Hotel, Arizona Jail
An iPhone measures the amount of electricity generated by pedaling. This is on the bikes at the hotel, not the jail. (image: guardian.co.uk)
Guests at the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers have the chance to earn a free meal if they produce 10 watt hours of electricity by pedaling an electricity-generating stationary bike, reported the Guardian on Wednesday. The Copenhagen hotel wasn’t the first to implement such technology, though; CBS News reported that the Tent City Jail in Phoenix, AZ started a program last week that makes female inmates pedal if they want to watch TV.
Pedaling an electricity-generating bike produces only a minor amount of energy. It takes about an hour of cycling at Copenhagen’s Crown Plaza to produce 100 watt hours, the amount of energy necessary to power a 100-watt light bulb for one hour, so the exercise is doing more for the guest’s health and awareness of energy use than it is for the 366-room hotel’s utility bill. Luckily for guests, it only takes about six minutes to earn the free meal. For inmates at Tent City, an hour of pedaling runs a TV for about the same length of time. If they slow down, they generate less electricity and the TV might stop.
So far the experience is only available to environmentally minded world travelers and women incarcerated in Phoenix, but when luxury hotels and prisons find themselves embracing the same technology it could signal the beginning of a trend.
Newly Unveiled Bloom Boxes Show Promise for Clean, Affordable Energy
K.R. Sridnar (r.) opens the Bloom Box to CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl and the world's eyes for the first time. (image: digitaltrends.com)
On Sunday, 60 Minutes premiered a technology so stunning that, if legitimate, will transform the world.
The “Bloom Box,” is a black, refrigerator-sized box purportedly requiring inputs of only air and gas to produce the total energy consumed by a home residence, emitting little pollution and eliminating reliance on the electrical grid. Inventor K.R. Sridhar revealed that the device merely contains a stack of wafers made of compressed sand painted a different color on each side, each separated by a plate of cheap metal alloy. The device appears to rely on an advance in fuel cell science that has yet to be spelled out.
Under secret R&D for nearly 10 years, Bloom Energy’s announcement comes with an air of credibility because high-tech, high profile companies eBay and Google have been testing an industrial version of the Bloom Box for months and have found the results to be more than satisfactory. That, and the $400 million price tag that primary venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins says has been the device’s total investment, is what’s crediting this latest green tech gadget with the more than usual attention.
Obama Touts Green Energy Tech at Nuclear Plant Announcement with Energy Bills Stuck in Congress
President Obama tours the job training center at IBEW headquarters in Lanham, Maryland where he spoke about energy policy and announced new government support for the construction of nuclear power plants. (image: baltimoresun.com)
President Obama once again hammered home his belief that green energy technology development is the most important avenue to economic recovery and a brighter future for America. Speaking at a training center for energy technicians in Maryland yesterday, Obama announced federal loan guarantees that will allow for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the US for the first time in over 30 years (watch a video of the speech below).
Obama fit the announcement into a larger context, once again calling for comprehensive energy legislation that provides incentives for the energy industry to move away from fossil-fuel sources that produce carbon emissions and toward low- and zero-emissions electricity generation. Although nuclear reactors do produce dangerous waste, they do not produce carbon dioxide or any other greenhouse gas emissions, unlike CO2-spewing coal-powered plants, which generate the bulk of US electricity. Obama framed the move as an embrace of bipartisanship, as many Republicans have favored construction of new nuclear power plants to help meet America’s energy needs.
Study: Volatile Oil Prices of ’08 and ’09 Were Result of Fundamental Forces
Craig Pirrong. (image: bauer.uh.edu)
The C.T. Bauer College of Business of the University of Houston reports that Craig Pirrong, Professor of Finance and Energy Markets and Director for the college’s Global Energy Management Institute, has concluded that the extreme volatility in the oil markets in late 2008 and early 2009 was the result of “market fundamentals during a time of extreme stress.”
In a nutshell, Pirrong’s study concludes that futures prices and oil inventory storage levels were logical adjustments by the market to the sudden reduction in oil demand due to the recession. The logic goes like this:
• It is difficult to quickly or efficiently adjust oil production levels.
• The burgeoning recession depressed economic activity, and therefore oil consumption, which is usually equated to demand. (Consumption and demand are not quite the same—you can have demand that exceeds actual use or consumption, as many feel has been happening with China as it stockpiles oil.)
Inside Source: CFTC Will Enact “Generous” Limits On Energy Trading
Highly lax regulation of commodity futures speculation makes market abuse frighteningly feasible. (image: mediainfidel.com)
Question: When is a limit not a limit? Answer: When it’s generous. That’s something every parent knows. Telling your fifteen-year-old to be back by 2 a.m on a school day isn’t exactly laying down the law, and telling your five-year-old she can only have five cookies after dinner isn’t holding the line.
So if every parent gets it, why don’t commodities regulators? Inside sources told the Wall Street Journal that the CFTC will consider “generous” trading limits for energy speculators when it meets January 14th. The CFTC’s concern? That meaningful limits might disrupt how the futures market functions.
Massive Solar Updraft Energy Project Planned For Arizona
Solar tower illustration. (image: blog.yaaqui.com)
“Massive solar updraft…” if you say that with the right Dr. Evil intonation, it sounds like you’re describing a Bond villain’s latest doomsday scheme. However, what it really is a way of capturing solar energy using man-made wind.
As reported by Inhabit.com on Wednesday, an Australian company hopes to build a pair of 2,400 foot towers, surmounting four square miles of glassed-in greenhouse in the Arizona desert, to pump out 200 megawatts of clean, renewable power. The idea is simple: hot air rises. Heat enough air, and the resulting updraft—basically a vertical wind, familiar to anyone who’s used a fireplace and felt the pull of air being drawn up the chimney—can turn turbines to produce electricity.
Tobacco Could Be the Next Source of Biofuel
Tobacco leaves. Today’s second-hand smoke producers may be tomorrow’s biofuel. (image: tradeindia.com)
One day, burning tobacco could be good for your health. At least that’d be the case if researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia get their way. As reported Tuesday by USA Today, they believe that tobacco could be a good source for biofuel, including biodiesel and biofuel heating oil.
Scientists have discovered how to tweak tobacco’s genes to increase its production of oil by up to 20 times. That would make it an excellent stock for conversion to biofuel. Moreover, as one of the authors of the research study noted, “tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production.” That way, biofuel production doesn’t compete or conflict with growing crops to eat.
HydroFill Uses Water to Charge Electronic Devices
(image: cnet.com)
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held this week in Las Vegas, turning the city into gadget central for the duration. Amidst the games consoles, tech toys, and televisions there were some items designed to save energy rather than just consume it, like Horizon’s HydroFill home hydrogen fuel cell system. The HydroFill is an ingenious piece of technology that uses water and power supplied by solar, wind, or wall outlet to fill fuel cells that can be used in mobile phones, digital cameras, GPS units, and other portable electronics. The rechargeable fuel cells replace batteries containing heavy metals, and the only byproduct of the charging process is the water vapor released when the hydrogen is extracted. The HydroFill is expected to go on-sale later this year. Learn more about other new developments that may help us all to conserve energy in the near future by browsing our green energy technology section.
Offshore Wind Energy Could Grow Rapidly in Next Decade
Sights like this could become far more common in Europe and the US. (image: PEBondestad via flickr.com)
Offshore drilling has yielded huge oil discoveries in recent years (making countries like Brazil and Angola oil powers), and offshore drilling rights were dangled as a carrot to entice senators to support a climate bill. But oil and gas companies aren’t the only ones looking offshore for energy—so are wind companies, reports the New York Times.
Emerging Energy Research, a consulting firm, predicts that in ten years the offshore wind energy market will grow from $10 billion to $30 billion. Though more costly than on-shore projects, offshore wind farms are gaining traction in Europe, which Emerging Energy Research says will be the primary market for offshore wind energy through 2014, when the US and China may enter the field.
Offshore wind projects have already come up in the US, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he will take measures to speed up the approval process for offshore wind projects. The Cape Wind project in Massachusetts has been held back by objections from the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes, but a community-owned wind farm in Maine has recently opened and is New England’s largest offshore wind farm.
New Device Turns Vibrations into Electricity
(image: laist.com)
Just when you thought you’d read it all when it comes to creative ways of generating energy, here comes a new one: vibrations. And anything that vibrates: highways, train stations, or even a disco dance floor, could potentially be used to garner energy.
A team of researchers has developed a micro-scaled device that uses vibrations, or piezoelectric energy, formed by the conversion of mechanical strain into electrical current, reports Clean Technica.
This device could be used to convert energy from vibrations in machines, engines, and other industrial appliances. It can also be used to detect early signs of deterioration in bridges or machines and may potentially play a role in more energy efficient maintenance for technologies such as wind turbines.
Latest Way to Heat Your Home: Battery Power
Panasonic’s home-use battery. (image: physorg.com)
Panasonic is working on a lithium-ion storage cell that could power a home for a week, and it could be available as early as April 2010, reports Tim Hornyak at CNET. The move is made possible by Panasonic’s recent merger with Sanyo, which has developed cutting-edge battery technology.
Sanyo and Panasonic have already manufactured test versions of the battery. The president of Panasonic, Fumio Otsubo, told the Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun that this advance put Panasonic at the head of companies working “to realizing CO2 emission-free daily life.”
Energy storage is one of the obstacles to wide-scale use of renewable energy sources. In the right area wind and solar power can produce a great deal of energy, but when the sun sets, or the wind stops, that energy is gone. Batteries provide one form of energy storage, and a battery capable of storing enough energy for one week of home use would not just take advantage of a turn to renewable energy sources, it would promote the use of renewable energy.
Saudi Aramco CEO: Renewable Energy and Petroleum Have Bright Future
Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Aramco CEO, sees room for alternative energy and the Saudi national oil company. (image: geobahrain.org)
For a man at the top of the global oil industry, the president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, Khalid Al-Falih is accepting of the rise of renewable energy, reports Aramco ExPats. “Ultimately,” he said in a speech in Korea, alternative sources of energy “will displace petroleum.” He’s not too worried, though, because “there will be attractive uses for our hydrocarbons other than burning.”
Wait, isn’t he supposed to say that renewable energy can’t replace oil? Well, Al-Falih thinks Aramco can have it both ways. Renewable energy will “ultimately” take oil’s place—“over time.” But for now, petroleum is still king, and “an essential commodity to virtually every aspect of modern life.” He’s previously conceded that believers in peak oil have a case, but that oil will last longer than they think.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: List of Year-End Lists
(image: damonclifford.com)
As the year closes, everyone is taking a look back, so this week’s roundup gives you the best of the “best of” stories.
At MIT Technology Review, Kevin Bullis offers up the top energy stories of the year. Some of the choices were expected—the rush for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, carbon capture, and biofuel—but hamsters? Follow the links for a video demonstrating hamster power.
Energy analyst Robert Rapier compiled his top-ten list of energy stories this year, which you can find at The Oil Drum or his R-Squared Energy Blog. His choice for top story seems hard to argue with: volatility in the oil markets.
BusinessGreen.com’s James Murray crunched some numbers and found the most popular stories on the site from the past year. You’ll find green investment, solar panels, and lots about hybrid cars.
The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t stop at stories of the year—they take a look at the top science stories of the whole decade. The genome, stem cells, and pandemic flu all make the cut, as does one story with more relevance to this site: alternative energy. From peak oil to a post-petroleum world, from natural gas to electric cars, Sandy Bauer covers the highlights.
Ben Jervey at GOOD looks beyond 2009 as well to cover the top environmental news of the last ten years. Follow him as he goes in chronological order, when green became the new black, Al Gore became inconvenient, and Copenhagen was kind of a flop.
Does The Simpsons Shape Public Opinion on Nuclear Power?
(image: blogs.citypages.com)
Dr. Bill Irwin, a philosophy professor at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and editor of The Simpsons and Philosophy thinks so. The Canadian Press reported on Monday that Irwin suggests the show may have had strong influence on social perception of the nuclear industry. Perhaps trying to drum up some controversy and boost book sales (or earn himself a cut of some lobbying funds?) Irwin says that the show’s trifecta of characters – careless plant employee Homer, miserly Mr. Burns, and environmentalist Lisa – has made powerful and repeated arguments against the safety of nuclear power.
It’s true there hasn’t been a new power plant built in the US or Canada in over 30 years, and for 20 of those The Simpsons has been on the air, creating indelible images of nuclear havoc–Homer dropping a fuel rod in the title sequence, falling asleep at the control panel and then pushing random buttons in a panic, and of course of Blinky the three-eyed fish—a mutant product of the power plant’s unchecked radiation.
Blinky the fish. (image: blogs.sfweekly.com)
Irwin undoes his own argument, though, by raising the specters of some other things that have happened in the past 30 years that also may not have been great for nuclear reactor sales: the meltdowns at Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl.
The report coincides with the rejection of a proposal for a new Saskatchewan plant by Ontario-based Bruce Power; the plan was scrapped after public polling determined that area residents were opposed to it. The Wall Street Journal weighs in, saying that economics are a far larger argument against building any new plants, given the investment required to build and maintain them, and the years of labor necessary before they can start supplying power.
Laying the blame for the shortcomings of nuclear power at the feet of a bumbling cartoon family. Sounds like a plot worthy of a certain American TV show…
