saves energy New soldier uniforms will harness solar power Finally, a urinal for girls More environmentally-friendly innovations:
What EROI tells us about ROIONE of the key deficiencies of unconventional fuels is their low energy return on investment relative to conventional fuels.
because investment decisions are made on the basis of the financial, not energy, return on investment.
The analogue in energy, the energy return on investment or EROI (also expressed as EROEI,
for energy return on energy invested) is a ratio of the energy produced to the energy invested in its production.
have referred also to EROI as net energy, but that really confuses the terms. For parallelism with the language of finance, net energy should refer to energy produced minus energy invested,
whereas EROI should refer to energy produced divided by energy invested. How EROI begets ROI The relationship between ROI
and EROI is actually very simple and logical. The more energy you have to invest to produce a fuel,
the lower your EROI will be. The energy you invest has a cost. Therefore, the profit on the same barrel of oil will be higher
when it's produced from a high EROI source than when produced from a low EROI source.
and less than 7 percent by energy content. In 2009 the U s. taxpayer subsidized 75 percent of the price of each gallon of gasoline replaced with ethanol.
It has proven to be an expensive way to make a low-quality fuel (ethanol has about two-thirds the energy content of gasoline)
it was just barely a net energy-positive fuel at best. In the pithy observation of veteran energy analyst Robert Hirsch six years ago, making ethanol from corn is a process in
which a certain amount of energy in the forms of natural gas and diesel fuel are used to create an equivalent amount of energy in the form of ethanol,
with the primary output being money from government subsidies (not to mention soil erosion). Such a low EROI would imply a low profit margin,
However, only the ROI, in the form of increased energy independence, was taken into consideration in the politically-motivated push for biofuels.
The decreasing net energy and increasing capital intensity of our energy production have contributed likely to the economic downturn.
This finding meshes nicely with the net energy cliff model proposed by geologist Euan Mearns,
which shows an exponential decline in the energy available to society as EROI falls below 10:
It takes a significant energy surplus to support things like higher education, entertainment, personal vehicles, a middle class with health care, outsized amounts of credit,
The researchers conclude that a smooth transition away from oil is unlikely without a deliberate policy effort to steer us toward alternative energy sources
they cannot see how the low energy return of some (not all of those resources will ultimately force us to leave them in the ground as their cost of production proves intolerable.
but eventually the true cost of producing energy, both in dollar and energetic terms, becomes a limit on production.
To navigate the future of energy, investors should be looking to EROI, not ROI, as a guide.
we need models that include both the economic effects of resource substitution and the geological effects of depletion across the entire energy sector.
because so far, our official energy agencies have failed to build any such models. We are simply drifting ever closer toward the net energy cliff, in blissful ignorance of EROI limits,
with visions of unconventional resources dancing in our heads. Photo: The business model of the underpants gnomes, from the instant-classic South Park episode
Some landfills recover the methane for energy. Some recover it, but just burn it. Some do not recover it.
According to the EPA, about 35 percent of waste is in landfills that use the methane for energy.
but don't recover energy. And about 31 percent is in landfills that just release it to the environment.
Even when we say methane is a good energy source which is true, it's only good
we consider the energy and emissions that are associated with building the landfill, operating the landfill,
If the methane is recovered for energy, then it's actually a net negative because we avoid the production of energy from fossil fuels.
It's a positive benefit to the environment. Â We're thinking about all the different factors that influence the total global warming gases going into the atmosphere from the landfill
For one thing, approximately 31 percent of the total energy consumed by the company is from renewable sources.
and buy to how we use energy. I believe the most critical element is cultivating in people an awareness of how our actions impact those around us.
J. B. Hunt Transport Services, one of the nation s largest transportation companies, recently partnered with Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES),
they ll look at ways to reduce their use of water and energy. Their next question is how do I transport to my customers,
but Chicago is well on its way to become a much more energy-efficient one. How will it get there?
of course--notably those involving enabling energy efficiency, electrical vehicle infrastructure, more cost-effective renewable energy technologies,
which itself leads to energy consumption and byproducts. Å My interest is to show a way of recycling based on reusing,
and illuminated by low energy consuming LED lights at night The trees themselves are transformations of the plastic bottles, giving them a second life.
Mass. that uses a process called pyrolysis to turn waste into energy. The company hopes the plant will help reduce its carbon footprint and boost its use of renewable energy;
as a side benefit, it's also making the U s. banknote--a k a. Â the greenback--even greener.
How did Crane get involved with renewable energy sources? DC: Crane and Co. is a paper company,
Here in Berkshire County, we're certainly among the top three energy users from the Western  Massachusetts  Electric company.
 Currently, we have the benefit of a trash-to-energy plant established a few decades ago.
if we can come up with a renewable energy solution for our operations, but the caveat is we're not in the energy business,
and we don't want to be. We just want to be able to purchase renewable energy. A number of years ago we started looking pretty seriously at biomass.
We need a lot of energy and we need it on-demand. When we start up a 400-horsepower motor in the middle of the night,
you can't use solar panels for that. I'm keenly interested in renewable energy. We started looking around
and came across a group of folks that we had known from a former energy project.
They had started a company called Reenergy over in Albany N y..That company had gained the rights to the technology where you can take an organic feedstock and turn it into liquid fuel.
We have demand for both thermal energy as well as electricity. This fuel can be used to drive generators, much more efficient than the steam process.
We're taking our energy dollars and instead of purchasing electricity generated outside our state from fossil fuels,
but from a dollar standpoint, the volatility for energy today is a real strain for us.
We're also looking at reviving a smaller hydroelectric plant that will generate more energy.
We're looking for multiple ways to solve the energy question and move toward a sustainable supply.
On top of that, we get a major portion of our thermal energy from a plant nearby, but that same plant takes care of the solid waste from the Berkshire County area.
When someone steps up to the plate against us, they'll need to show their product and their renewable energy.
Now replacing the energy that goes into producing it? Well, geez, it's going to be one of the greenest products at the company.
but it takes more energy to produce--you have to do mining to get the materials.
Often, where the energy resource is is far away from where you want to consume that resource. Â Shipping is done always on a per volume basis. Â Think of this as packaging for the industry.
or energy that we purchased, store it and use it when we need it. Photo:
transportation, energy, green building, foodif Baltimores planning director has his way, the citys east and west sides--known for blocks of abandoned
Whats new in your energy department? We have a partnership with the Coast guard in which we use methane extraction from a city landfill to power a new Coast guard facility.
One of the initiatives of our Office of Sustainability is getting out the energy message to the general public.
With the Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge (BNEC), the city is partnering with the Baltimore Community Foundation and Constellation Energy to do energy audits,
and provide free energy upgrade fixtures. The key thing is that BNEC is seen as a grassroots effort.
Were trying to find ways to raise energy awareness and sustainability awareness among our low-income residents.
Our goal is to reduce energy use by 15 percent by 2015. What other kinds of incentives do you have for city workers and businesses?
Amtrak travel is already more energy efficient than most other forms of intercity transportation. If the test shows this use of a renewable fuel in our locomotive is successful, its a home run for our passengers, for our partners and for the planet.
as long as Americans don't start claiming domestic energy as an excuse to eat (even more) cheeseburgers. Top Image:
that would make the industry less energy and pollution-intensive. Countryman loading a butterfly experiment that flew on STS-129 Tell me about some of the hardware youve developed to put the experiments on a spacecraft.
The endeavor is at the crossroads of energy and science, and the trend is spreading worldwide.
Quoted in the article is Sapphire Energy cofounder Stephen Mayfield and Synthetic Genomics founder J. Craig Venter (the guy behind the first self-replicating synthetic cell),
Green algae used to make plastics that dont contain petroleum The algae bloom of alternative energy Video:
What'synthetic life'could mean for the energy industry The Algaeus algae-fueled Prius hits the road Just look at that diversity!
Agriculture, of course, is a big one, alongside healthcare, financial services, energy and defense. The New york times'Randall Stross profiles a few of these companies,
and they can be built into energy-efficient buildings, Eduardo Ferraz of the Polytechnic institute of Tomar told New Scientist.
all designed to help harvest renewable energy and manage waste in more natural ways than currently in use.
That's according to U s. Department of energy secretary Steven Chu, who said this morning that innovation has changed the world in remarkable ways
We need innovation in energy he said. Innovation in energy is going to be a second industrial revolution.
In a 45-minute presentation at the  Stevens Institute of technology, Chu outlined several technological innovations in history that transformed the world
ENERGY Chu said he saw similarities to Ford's assembly line when he visited a Suntech solar plant in China.
Clean energy technologies can positively impact the environment the same way that automobiles did. Not that cars don't produce smog,
That's why the Department of energy asks itself: how can we accelerate the decline to achieve the elusive $1/watt price where clean technologies are price-competitive with fossil fuels?
if it doesn't fight to popularize clean energy technologies, too. Invented in America is not good enough,
The same ought to happen in energy. We can become us again, he said. We did in many other sectors.
We better become us again in the energy sector
Citrus surgery? Doctors refine their craft on clementinesyou know what s a great tool for practicing minimally invasive surgery?
DOE Dept of energy grants can support research and development, a pilot plant, a demonstration facility. Those programs have been out there,
The job the DOE has is sifting through applications. I do think in their first round that they made a few mistakes
Rising energy costs and concerns about food security have led some Canadian entrepreneurs to reconsider and reimagine local farms.
The tricky part is turning a profit by scaling a farm to the right size and carefully managing energy efficiency.
Select supplemental lighting also helps control energy costs. High efficiency natural gas boilers produce nearly net zero carbon dioxide;
The underlying building receives the added benefit of a 20 percent energy cost reduction, Lynn said.
But among the current shortcomings, the energy required to power indoor lights can wipe out those CO2 gains.
Inside a sunless, hangar-like facility in the southern city of Den Bosch, Plantlab has mounted energy-efficient LED lights over racks
nor IS LED the energy efficient lighting. The world awaits the company s ability to sell low.
their energy consumption and management of greenhouse gas emissions. The companies are rivals in environmental leadership, as well as products.
Our first preference is not to use energy in the first place, Parker says. Over the period in question
Dell increased its purchases of renewable energy by 436 percent; the company sources approximately 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources,
which Parker says are chosen according to what is appropriate for the local markets where its facilities are based.
It this means direct sourcing, not just some game that involves buying renewable energy credits.
renewable energy credits are a good thing because they help fund investment, but I find it a bit disingenuous
HP's update about its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions goals sees it setting new goals for its consumption reduction goals,
Those involved reducing energy usage and related greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 2005 levels.
This includes the emissions and energy related to both its own operations AND its products. That is an important distinction,
Contributing to this progress have been technologies including energy management systems, new lighting, and updated heating, air condition and ventilation (HVAC) systems.
Disneyland Resort, for example, has installed a Thermal Energy Storage tank that chills water overnight to help cool the resort's buildings.
Energy: Drones will play a role in oil and gas exploration. Utilities can also use drones to survey power lines.
energy security, rural community growth, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, food constraints, green jobs. Binetti outlined the advantages of cellulosic ethanol:
It has a higher energy density/content than ethanol, at 26 percent. Key to Dupont's gains in cellulosic ethanol:
The advantage of butanol is that its higher energy content means more of it can replace gasoline,
We know that data centers consume their share of energy, but is this offset or compensated by the natural resources not consumed?
If all of the greenhouse reductions noted in this study were converted into energy saved, Fuhr and Pociask forecast that IT applications could save 555 million barrels of oil by year 10,
and water pollution and saving the energy needed for manufacturing, distribution and sales. Newspaper circulation is declining,
What's also needed now is a bigger-picture study on the degree of power consumption that IT is helping us to avoid as well.
and better conserve energy resources. These are all noble goals, and there's no doubt it's in the best interest of companies to save on power costs.
However, most studies ON IT energy consumption don t to take into account the overall savings in electricity and power usage as a result of mass computerization.
and all the energy consumption that goes with that. How many stores and shopping centers have not been built because of the replacement of sales through online channels?
It grows on its own so energy costs are one 10th of the costs to create foam.
so it requires much more energy and creates more waste. We re using waste materials and using the entire organism.
It s a New york state Energy Research and development Authority-funded program. We re also doing building materials as well--replacing foam insulation.
It addresses the energy issue and localization issue. Right now, the oil is being reused for cosmetics
and by addressing this energy question it can be part of the solution for global warming.
Lead from recycled U s. batteries polluting Mexico Clean energy policy is political priority for Americans survey The Morning Briefing:
increase the nation's energy security, and improve our environment. We continue to call on Congress to work through the legislative process,
the rise of a maverick group called the Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy. The coalition is made up of local chambers who are focused on the flip side of addressing climate change--that it could be a catalyst for group.
increase annual household income $1, 100 and boost GDP $111 billion through comprehensive clean energy and climate policies.
Spain was on the forefront of renewable energy but, due to the stumbling economy and the lack of rain, Spain cannot invest much further into this resource.
Finding power in coffee wasteresearchers at the Energy & Environmental Research center at the University of North dakota once worked on technology to convert waste from a space station and future Martian bases into heat and power.
The EERC is working withã Â Vermont-basedã Â Wynntryst to develop a gasification power system to use the waste from the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters processing plant to produce energy.
lots of entrepreneurs and energy, said Abbey Patterson, head of the nonprofit Atlanta Recycles, which advocates businesses and government for better recycling practices.
while input and energy use per unit output has decreased over the last 50 years. Despite these tremendous advances, U s. farmers are facing the daunting challenges of meeting the food, feed,
a means for achieving renewable energy targets, and a way to prevent wildfires. But a new study says that
Et tu Brute, renewable energy? Biofuels fly mainstream: Lufthansa passenger flights taking off Airbus and Europe map jet biofuel goal Will the real biofuel Lindbergh please stand up
That s what the UK-based Energy Saving Trust concludes in its freshly minted report, The Elephant in the Living room:
even if manufacturers are improving the energy efficiency of each gadget. The number of computing and communication devices alone more than doubled between 2004 and 2009 in British homes, from 30 million to 65 million, the report states.
notebooks, tablets, smartphones, e-readers may mean more energy used by chargers. Not all sectors of domestic use are rising.
Energy efficient replacements to the incandescent bulb have helped drive down domestic lighting consumption from 16.6 TWH in 1999 to 15.8 TWH in 2009,
Bottom, Energy Saving Trust More digital global warming: Facebook plans Subarctic data center Iceland cometh
GE Water sustainability chief Jeff Fulgham: We need a price on waterwhy doesn't water get more attention?
quantity, quality and the energy consumption related to it. From a quantity standpoint, we've reached a point globally where the demand for fresh water is exceeding the global supply.
take the energy cost out--about 50 percent of the cost of running a desal plant is energy
People underestimate the amount of energy that it takes to make and pump water. California's the highest--19 percent of their energy bill goes to that.
There are a lot of things you can do to reduce the amount of energy you consume. With this next wave of megacities being built,
there's a great opportunity to rethink how we do things. The smart grid and energy
there's a parallel, probably five to 10 years behind. There's a smart grid out there for water, somewhere.
It's been used for energy for a number of years but now it's been expanded for water.
it uses energy and increases greenhouse gas emissions. If a big company like Conagra were to make the switch,
Turning algae into oil the NASA way Growing the next'green'fuel Algae could be jet fuel of the future The algae bloom of alternative energy The Algaeus algae-fueled Prius hits
Ground zero in the energy-water nexusthe oil and gas producing countries of the Middle east may be sitting pretty in fossil fuels,
That was the focus of the International Water Summit held in conjunction with the World Future Energy Summit in Abu dhabi three weeks ago,
The slogan of the conference was Bringing the water-energy nexus to life, a topic
and energy-intensive process, explained Dr. Sultan al-Jaber, managing director and CEO of Masdar City.
We are ready to aggressively pursue desalination powered by renewable energy Dr. Sultan al-Jaber said at a press conference.
that most of Qatar's water would be produced with renewable energy in 10 years'time.
Aside from being an enormous waste of an incredibly versatile and energy-dense resource, that's a major sacrifice of income.
International Energy Agency director Maria van der Hoeven echoed that point when I interviewed her at the conference.
Conservation is key With such enormous water demands and energy costs, it's clear that desalination alone--especially
Indeed, energy in general is too cheap in Abu dhabi at about $1. 80 for a gallon of gasoline
Bader Al Lamki, the Director of Clean Energy at Masdar, explained to me how his electricity bill details the amount he is charged
He is a vigorous proponent of the emirate's efforts in conservation and energy transition.
even as blessed as it is with energy resources both renewable and nonrenewable. Because for Abu dhabi, like its neighbors,
it would also be a way to reduce energy use for transporting the fruits long distances from the tropics to cities with cooler climates.
says Tim Fox, IME's head of energy and environment. This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population-as well as those in hunger today.
water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.
As water, land and energy resources come under increasing pressure from competing human demands, engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss
when I heard airline industry expert Michael Boyd explain at an energy conference that every airline in the world is obsolete at $100 a barrel,
which provides an energy-saving irrigation system--still a work in progress â for its vegetables and fish.
Yesterday I caught up by phone with Dave Marshall, a Portland city councilor and chair of the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Committee.
Just last week the city council approved an $11 million investment package to make our 50-some odd municipal buildings energy efficient.
so every five years the energy performance will have to increase by 10 percent. Do you have a bike share program, or bike lanes?
and my goal is to make this house as energy efficient as possible. One of the goals I had was to get the house off heating fuel (it was an old cast iron steam system with an oil burner,
The trees provide $11. 2 million in annual energy savings, have a carbon sequestration value of $386, 000,
It's a think tank developing low-carbon energy technologies. I also did soil science work with the Smithsonian in Panama.
However, the conventional method of producing hydrogen gas relies on energy from fossil fuels to separate the atoms from other molecules like water.
Located at the US Department of energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the world Â's most capable computer has just been enlisted this month to carry out nuclear weapon simulations.
The Sequoia will also be used to advance our understanding in the fields of astronomy, energy, genetics and climate change.
While it Â's natural to assume that the crown jewel of IBM computing systems would be a real energy vampire
it Â's incredibly power-efficient. In fact, the Sequoia consumes 7. 9 megawatts, much less than the K computer which uses 12.6 megawatts.
which to channel her seemingly boundless energy: her first grandchild is due in August, and she's ready to take on her new job title
An increasing number of coal and nuclear power plants as well as dams are being authorized to fuel a growing energy appetite.
Energy is one of the largest expenses in our business. In fact, we shut down operations during the winter months precisely for this reason.
For instance, Cogentrix Energy received a $90. 6 million loan guarantee from the Department of energy just last week for its 30-megawatt concentrated photovoltaic installation.
create windmills, but we ll never solve the problem and we ll never catch up. It s many steps ahead of us now.
N. J.,-have achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status. Kraft has managed a 15 percent reduction in energy use;
Oh, by the way, energy consumption dropped by 52 percent at the same time, proving that energy efficiency and water usage reduction are definitely symbiotic goals.
Kraft Foods Campbell, N y.,plant offsets 30%of its natural gas needs. Kraft has invested heavily in technology at the two of its plants
and meter energy usage. These technologies help the facility use 50 percent less energy for lighting and 60 percent less for ventilation.
Looking forward, the things to really watch will be Kraft's initiatives with respect to sustainable agriculture and eco-packaging.
which measures the post-consumer recycled materials content of its packages as well as the related energy and carbon dioxide emissions.
Its current biofuel roadmap demands that at least 5. 75%of all energy sold on the market of any member country be biofuel
and rapeseed oil--are all the least energy efficient. However, they are also the cheapest to produce, which is why they reign at the moment.
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