Poll: More Americans say they prioritize alternative energy to fossil fuels - FuelFix (blog)

(Photo: Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News)

HOUSTON â€" A new survey shows vastly more Americans think the country should prioritize developing alternative energy sources over expanding fossil fuel production.

Survey respondents favored developing alternative energy sources like wind, solar and hydrogen over coal, oil and natural gas by a 60 percent to 30 percent margin.

The Pew Research Center conducted the survey of 1,507 adults earlier this month.

The survey broke out the results by gender, race, age, education level, income, and political affiliation.

Republicans were the only demographic group that had more members who preferred expanding fossil fuels.

Adults younger than 30 most heavily favored alternative fuels, with 74 percent of them picking that option over fossil fuels.

Still, when asked about specific policies, respondents favored several pro-oil policies. The majority of Americans favor expanded offshore drilling in U.S. waters as well as increased drilling on federally-owned lands.

A previous survey in November, however, showed that Americans oppose the increased use of hydraulic fracturing by a 47 percent-41 percent margin.

Read More

Myths vs. facts on renewable energy - The Detroit News

DetroitNews 12:02 a.m. EST December 29, 2014

Scripps: Alternative forms of energy are Michigan’s future.(Photo: Dale G. Young / The Detroit News)

In its December 16 editorial, "Don't shield windmills," The Detroit News regurgitates several myths and misunderstandings about renewable energy. Gov. Rick Snyder has said that updating Michigan's energy policy will be a top priority in early 2015 and it's important to clear the air ahead of what is sure to be a robust debate.

Renewable energy is affordable.

Michigan's clean energy policy has been highly successful. Since its implementation in 2008, the costs of renewable energy generation have been cut in half. Driven by advances in technology, private-sector competition and economies of scale, wind and solar are today far cheaper than coal and in some cases less expensive than natural gas. Much like the price of flat screen TVs and computers have come down over the years, the cost of renewable energy is likely to continue to decline.

Recent Michigan wind contracts are coming in at $45-$50 per megawatt hour. And the Lansing Board and Water and Light recently received bids to purchase solar power as low as $65 per megawatt hour. This compares to Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) estimates of coal at $133 per megawatt hour and $70 per megawatt hour for natural gas.

It is important to clear up another point: Michigan does not subsidize renewable energy. Clean energy, including wind and solar, receives no subsidies from the state of Michigan.

Wind and other renewable energy sources can be integrated into Michigan's energy mix in a way that reduces costs while maintaining reliability. Twenty nine other states get substantially more of their energy from renewable sources than Michigan, all without any decrease in reliability. This includes our Midwest neighbor Iowa, which gets more than 25 percent of its energy from wind.

In 2013, Gov. Snyder's administration concluded that Michigan could cost-effectively obtain 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035 without impacting reliability.

Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that wind energy can actually improve overall grid reliability.

Michigan's renewable energy unlocked more than $2.2 billion in renewable energy investment from 2009-2013, according to the MPSC. This growth in advanced energy has spurred new market opportunities for Michigan manufacturers, with manufacturing connected to advanced energy contributing $7.2 billion annually to the Michigan economy. Increasing our use of renewable energy could add an additional $6.7 billion to the state's economy over the next 10 years, according to a study commissioned by the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum.

Michigan is a top five state nationally each of the past two quarters for job creation related to advanced energy.

A Michigan advanced energy employment survey found that Michigan advanced energy firms remain optimistic, with 72 percent of companies expecting to hire more workers in 2015.

The Snyder administration has done extensive work to review Michigan's energy policy. Snyder named passing a new energy policy one of his top priorities for early 2015. With several 50-year old coal plants slated for closure over the next few years, the time is ripe for Michigan to transition to energy that is more efficient, affordable, reliable and clean.

Dan Scripps, president,

Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council

Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1BjuJst

Read More

The Renewable Energy Alternative for ASEAN - EconomyWatch.com

Is it Time for Renewable Energy for ASEAN?

Despite the 2011 Fukushima disaster, nuclear remains a viable alternative energy source due to its mature technology and its capacity to produce a stable power supply. By contrast, perfecting renewable energy technologies and their intermittent power-generating characteristics make them appear less reliable.

However, the nuclear option has been considered but not implemented for decades, and meanwhile more recent renewable energy sources have already made inroads in the region. In 2011, renewable energy power sources, particularly hydropower and geothermal plants, made up about 15 per cent of total power generated in the ASEAN region. This was the third-largest amount after gas-fired and coal-powered power plants. Nuclear power projects to enter the region’s energy mix only after 2023, assuming that Vietnam successfully commissions nuclear plants.

Although countries in the region have set higher targets for renewables’ share in their national energy mix, overall the use of renewables in the region is still limited relative to their potential. In Southeast Asia, wind and tidal energy are largely untapped, with the huge solar potential in the region remaining underdeveloped.

As mechanisms of power generation from renewables are different from those of conventional energy sources, adopting renewable energy into existing national energy systems is indeed a challenging undertaking. Renewable energy developments are capital intensive and are far less economically competitive than the dominant fossil fuel-based energy sources.

In addition, renewable energy sources are often located in remote areas, rendering their connection to main power grids a significant technical hurdle. Cumbersome administrative processes arising from overlapping and uncoordinated regulations between relevant authorities further hinder renewable energy penetration. Limited access to financing and insufficient financial incentives dissuades investors from participating in renewable energy development in the region.

Apart from technical and financial barriers, renewables also have a completely different set of environmental and socioeconomic costs. Although hydropower has fuelled the power trade in the Greater Mekong Subregion and helped Thailand and Vietnam meet their rapidly growing demand for energy, hydropower dams have displaced communities, undermined the quality and quantity of the water supply, and continue to disrupt the livelihood of people living in the Mekong River Basin. In the Philippines and Indonesia, land acquisitions for geothermal developments meet strong opposition from local populations.

Realising the multiple challenges facing its member states in getting renewable energy on board, ASEAN has come up with a number of supporting initiatives. The ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2010â€"15 envisions a collective target for renewable energy of 15 per cent of total power capacity by 2015. To this end, ASEAN has spelled out action plans directed towards enhancing awareness of renewable energy, and preparing the region as a renewable energy hub.

The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) in cooperation with German Development Cooperation (GIZ) conducted a study to investigate the opportunities and challenges of renewable energy development in Southeast Asia. The resulting report noted that ASEAN member states currently stand at different stages of renewable energy market development with different sets of challenges. Thailand is the most advanced, followed by Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

ASEAN cooperation with GIZ has also resulted in an online platform that facilitates the sharing of information, best practice, and progress updates among ASEAN member states. Such a platform is very useful to monitor renewable energy development in each country, although countries in the region need to become more proactive in supplying relevant information to the system.

Commendable initiatives taken by ASEAN need support from strong commitments by member states. As renewable energy is a relatively new form of energy source, governments need to establish investors’ trust in its profitability and people’s trust in its utility and reliability. Efforts to create a conducive environment for the renewable energy market are only a part of the equation, as public buy-in is equally important for supporting governments’ substantial spending on renewable energy and the ensuing infrastructure changes that come with it.

Creating an enabling environment for renewable energy investments by implementing policies, enacting reliable regulations, and simplifying administrative processes needs to take place at a national level.

When it comes to cooperation, governments need to identify priorities. The regional level has various recommendations.  There are three collaborative initiatives that countries should undertake to help accelerate renewable energy development.

Read More

Texas Instruments builds an alternative energy for the Internet of Things - Computerworld

The Internet of Things is nothing without batteries and plugs. But it's possible to build a sensor network that uses harvested energy that comes from changes in temperature, vibrations, wind and light, as Texas Instruments (TI) will demonstrate at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The idea of harvesting power has a long history and there are many applications of it today. However, big solar panels or large sensors that can capture energy from vibrations, heat and light are impractical in many Internet of Things sensor applications, which are tiny in size.

Texas Instruments

The diagram shows how Texas Instrument's wireless sensor network would work.

TI said it has developed electronics capable of taking small amounts of power generated by harvested sources and turning them into a useful power source. This means that the sensors used to collect the energy can be small as well.
All these ambient energy sources, such as the difference in temperature in a pipe carrying hot water and the outside air, can generate 300 to 400 millivolts, which isn't enough to power anything. TI has built an "ultra-low powered" DC-to-DC switching converter that can boost this power to 3 to 5 volts, which is sufficient to charge a battery, according to Niranjan Pathare, senior marketing development manager at TI.
To power wearables, the company has demonstrated drawing energy from the human body by using harvesters the size of wristwatch straps, Pathare said. It has worked with vibration collectors, for instance, about the same size as a key.
It's possible that a smartwatch could use two harvested power sources, light and heat, from the body. These sources may not gather enough power to keep a smartwatch continuously operating without action by the user to charge it, but it may give the user's device a lot more battery life.
"Obviously, the longer you can make that [battery] last the happier the consumer is going to be with its performance," said William Cooper, a TI product marketing engineer.
The technology has many applications in industrial and home environments. If a device or sensor isn't connected to a power network, it will need a battery. Vendors will say that these batteries have the potential of lasting for years since they are only transmitting small amounts of data. But, still, who wants to worry about a battery?
Of the work done by Texas Instruments, Steve Ohr, an analyst at Gartner, said, "they have the parts that will take this micro-power input and actually make some useful voltage and current that could power something."
Ohr said there's a lot of work that needs to be done before this technology finds its way to the market in uses such as powering a smartwatch, specifically in improving the sensors that collect energy.
"You really need a big surface area to generate a very small amount of electricity," Ohr said, and it will take more work on the materials used to make the sensors before they are ready for the wearable market, in particular.

Read More