Jesse Parent [INFLUENCE]

A nice overview/introduction to the Water / Energy nexus, via London Environmental Investment Forum…

The water industry is renowned for being risk averse and conservative. It’s understandable. No one wants people to experiment with their water.

But as fresh water becomes more and more precious and the cost of energy to get fresh water keeps on rising, the challenges of the water-energy nexus are getting bigger.  The industry needs innovative solutions but with innovation comes risk. This blog series will put the spotlight on technologies addressing some of the challenges and take a closer look at their markets and growth prospects ahead of our next water conference.

The water industry and the energy industry are fundamental to one another.  The water industry needs large amounts of energy to transport, store and treat water.  The energy industry needs large amounts of water (for boilers and cooling) to generate and distribute power.  Head upstream to the oil and gas industry and the problem is there too - the industry is producing increasing amounts of wastewater, and needing more and more energy to treat it. 

This last area – the treatment of wastewater produced by the oil and gas industry (known as ‘produced water’) – is one we think has particularly strong growth prospects, especially at the high level end of the process.  Using advanced desalination technologies, water can be treated to a standard whereby it’s no longer a waste product to be disposed of, but a resource which can be used again. But treating water to this level is expensive.  It can only work if it’s cheaper than the alternative or if the water can be sold on at the right price.  Technologies that can deliver the quality of water required while driving down energy costs are on the money. 

This market looks set for strong growth for several reasons. Conventional oil and gas extraction – which refers to the resources we have typically produced using onshore and offshore vertical wells – has likely peaked in some regions, North America being one of them.  Large quantities of water are present in oil reservoirs and are brought to the surface along with the oil during the extraction process.  As an oil field matures, there is more water in the reservoir and less oil, which means even more water is brought to the surface as the water to oil ratio increases.

The article seems to focus on Solyndra as overly representative of all “clean tech” or renewable energies (yet maybe it is the easiest and most recognizable name to reference)… but it’s focus on the politics behind US Energy and the ‘economic bubble’ (which I don’t feel is an accurate term here) that was in place has come to pass. I see it more as a ‘window’, I suppose, or an opportunity. And yes, a window that will not be as large as it was in 2011; the new hype and hope and legitimate opportunities in US Fossil Fuels will likely strain opportunities for clean tech — especially if elections result in (so it appears now) anyone other than Obama being president for the next four years.

If anyone has been following this site, there have been a lot of coverage of the multiple pulls and facets of the energy  / US energy industry and also its politicization. 2011 has been a record year for renewable energy investment… and at the same time, the developments of shale gas in the US, and the allure of being able to draw new fuels from old / pre-used wells via more advanced technology and hydro-fracking techniques, it puts many motives and incentives in play for different groups of people.

For sure, the economic struggles of the US that linger, and the  opportunity for the already dominant fossil fuel industry in the US to say “Hey, look, we have lots of new technology and new toys and can get a lot of energy for the next few centuries right here in America!” is a significant force in taking away R&D for new non-fossil fuel based energies. There’s also an element of deceptive easiness - ah, there’s no more urgency because natural gas and offshore drilling will have us covered.

While that’s fair, and while in reality I’d be very surprised if nothing happens with Keystone XL for the US, I think the deeper and more long term battle is going to be America realizing it is going to have to compete globally for advances in energy as well as other technologies - and the only way to do that is by putting emphasis on such. If you look at this article about how the UAE is speaking of an R&D culture, I’d like to see that perspective taken more seriously in the US; I believe that perspective “is” there, but, the money and support is still predominantly in “Big Oil”. Other countries that aren’t so heavily dominated by such an industry seem to be more open to developing new energies, which could be potentially beneficial to them in the longer term.

From WIRED:

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But there is an investor: the taxpayer. Government coffers have been compensating for a number of market challenges solar faces, including the incumbency advantage of the fossil fuel industry and private investors’ distaste for capital-intensive enterprises that will take years to deliver a return. And in 2012, the solar industry may face a sudden reduction in these subsidies, as the post-Solyndra political climate grows less and less receptive to investments in clean energy. Despite the fact that renewable energy received only a quarter of the subsidies that fossil-fuel-based electricity received between 2002 and 2007, it’s wind and solar that are on the chopping block.

Even solar’s biggest allies on Capitol Hill—people like Edward J. Markey, a top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee—fear the industry’s oil and gas foes may have gotten the upper hand now that the clean-tech bubble has burst. “We are not Panglossian about what lies ahead,” Markey says. “The fossil fuel industry and its allies in Congress clearly see the solar and wind industries as a threat and will try to kill these industries as they have for the preceding two generations. They want this to be a five-year aberrational period.”

So cool. Nanoscience + Energy? Working with MIT?

It will be on my wishlist!

Abu Dhabi-UAE: 15 January, 2012- Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced the faculty at its Laboratory for Energy and Nano Sciences (LENS)continues to remain at the forefront of innovation, offering students unique research opportunities in advanced technologies.

Founded by Dr. MatteoChiesa, LENS provides the hands-on experience, creative inspiration and rigorous academic training to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers that are essential for the successful development of science and technology in the fields of energy and nano sciences. The laboratory belongs jointly to the programs of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science at Masdar Institute.  Since its inception barely three years ago the LENS-men have already achieved several important milestones and recognitions.

Most recently, Steven Meyers, who was part of the LENS team under the guidance of Dr. Peter Armstrong, Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering, has been selected in the esteemed Forbes 30 ‘Under 30’ achievers list in the ‘clean energy’ category. Meyers, an alumnus who graduated in June 2011, and Dr. Armstrong conducted research in thermal and optical modeling of the Beam Down Solar Thermal Plant at Masdar City.

Go figure!

The Department of Defense (DoD) could generate 7,000 megawatts (MW) of solar energy—equivalent to the output of seven nuclear power plants—on four military bases located in the California desert, according to a study released today by DoD’s Office of Installations and Environment. The year-long study, conducted by the consultancy ICF International, looked at seven military bases in California and two in Nevada. It finds that, even though 96 percent of the surface area of the nine bases is unsuited for solar development because of military use, endangered species and other factors, the solar-compatible area is nevertheless large enough to generate more than 30 times the electricity consumed by the California bases, or about 25 percent of the renewable energy that the State of California is requiring utilities to use by 2015.

Datong, China: A street lamp is seen in front of the Datong second coal-fired power plant at night. Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters

China tripled its solar energy generating capacity last year and notched up major increases in wind and hydropower, government figures showed this week, but officials are still struggling to cap the growth in coal burning, which is the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the world.

File this under “looking to take a leadership role”.

Where is the USA in this discussion? Apparently, not at the WFES.

“To reduce the problems and inequality brought by the energy and resources issues, countries in the world should take further action and exert more effort,” Wen said in a keynote speech Monday at the opening of the Fifth World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

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“China will work with the nations in the world to step up international cooperation and promote sustainable innovation to build a new world with green development and sustainable growth,” the Chinese premier said.

Wow, excellent, one of the more even handed and level headed analyses I’ve seen.

Q: What are some of the trends you expect to see in 2012?

A: It is always difficult, if not dangerous, to try and predict trends. What we try to do is analyze the recent business activity we experienced in 2011 and extrapolate what has momentum to carry through in 2012. For the gas industry we know the shale reserves will continue to see activity in U.S. gas and oil exploration and production. This will result in the continued need for the support services for this industry such as rigs, equipment and materials and the potential for fracturing to become more widely utilized. In the power sector we see a shift towards natural gas as the fuel of choice> This is creating value in existing gas power plants and a movement towards construction of new facilities. In the renewable power sector the expiration of government subsidies will reduce the ability for deals to be economically feasible unless consumers are willing to pay higher associated energy costs. However, we expect a growth in solar activity as prices for solar panels decrease and penetration of solar as a power source continues. The major variables in energy tends to be geopolitical or environmental events that affect the industry through commodity price fluctuations or legislation. In conclusion, energy consumption is fairly constant and there is a continuing need to meet that demand so notwithstanding a disruptive event, we see a

MIT report hints at the battle between Shale’s short term usefulness vs the long term issues of fueling growing global energy demand.

“People speak of [natural] gas as a bridge to the future, but there had better be something at the other end of the bridge,” Henry Jacoby, co-director emeritus of MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, said earlier this year after co-authoring a report by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) on The Future of Natural Gas.

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An uncertain international gas market, an unpredictable regulatory environment with more stringent emission goals and decreasing natural gas reserves over time all point to the growing need to continue developing renewable technologies.

“Effective use of renewables, namely wind and solar, are still many years away,” Jacoby says. “How we tap into those resources and effectively work them into our electric grid still needs to be figured out. To get us there we need a robust R&D program so we’ll have renewable energies up and working effectively later in future decades when emissions regulations are stricter, and gas reserves are depleting.”

Shale might provide the flexibility to meet reduction targets at lower costs today, making it a strong “bridge” in the short term to a low-carbon future. But the report concludes that we can’t let “the greater ease of the near term … erode efforts to prepare a landing at the other end of the bridge.”

I personally would be surprised if KXL was not created, in some form or another… but I think this editorial is asking for a more honest and open energy dialogue within the US, which is what I would like to see

The Republicans’ claim that the pipeline will create tens of thousands of new jobs — 20,000 according to House Speaker John Boehner and 100,000 according to Jon Huntsman — are wildly inflated. A more accurate forecast from the federal government, one with which TransCanada, the pipeline company, agrees, says the project would create 6,000 to 6,500 temporary construction jobs at best, for two years.

The country obviously needs more jobs. Mr. Obama needs to lay out the case that industry, with government help, can create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs without incurring environmental risks — by upgrading old power plants to comply with environmental laws, retrofitting commercial and residential buildings that soak up nearly 40 percent of the country’s energy (and produce nearly 40 percent of its carbon emissions) and promoting growth in new industries like wind and solar power and advanced vehicles.

By even the most conservative estimates, the power plant upgrades required by the new rule governing mercury emissions are expected to create about 45,000 temporary construction jobs over the next five years, and as many as 8,000 permanent jobs as utilities install pollution control equipment. And while the projects are new and the numbers tentative, the Energy Department predicts that its loan guarantee programs could create more than 60,000 direct jobs in the solar and wind industries and in companies developing advanced batteries and other components for more fuel-efficient cars….

Awesome. Thanks, Foreign Affairs.
Time to NerdUP…

What follow are selections from our archives that tell the story of the ideological battles of the past century and the emergency of the modern order. To make the package as a whole coherent and accessible, we have included only the most relevant parts of articles directly related to this theme and presented the articles in substantive, rather than strictly chronological, order. The contents of each article have not been rearranged, however, and all elisions have been clearly marked.

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(see original link for excerpts from these works/articles)

Making Modernity Work - Gideon Rose

Lenin and Mussolini - Harold J. Laski
Lenin - Victor Chernov
Stalin’s Power - Paul Scheffer
Making the Collective Man in Soviet Russia - William Henry Chamberlin
The Philosophic Basis of Fascism - Giovanni Gentile
Radical Forces in Germany - Erich Koch-Weser
Hitler: Phenomenon and Portent - Paul Scheffer
Hitler’s Reich: The First Phase - Hamilton Fish Armstrong
Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century - Isaiah Berlin
Of Liberty - Benedetto Croce
The Position and Prospects of Communism - Harold J. Laski
Nationalism and Economic Life - Leon Trotsky
The Reconstruction of Liberalism - C. H. McIlwain
The Economic Tasks of the Postwar World - Alvin H. Hansen and C. P. Kindleberger
Freedom and Control - Geoffrey Crowther
The Split Between Asian and Western Socialism - David J. Saposs
The Myth of Post–Cold War Chaos - G. John Ikenberry
The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers - Azar Gat
How Development Leads to Democracy - Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel
The Post-Washington Consensus - Nancy Birdsall and Francis Fukuyama

The Future of History - Francis Fukuyama
The Democratic Malaise - Charles A. Kupchan
The Strange Triumph of Liberal Democracy - Shlomo Avineri

Bloomberg reports….

London and New York, 12 January 2012 – Global investment in clean energy reached a new record of $260bn in 2011, up 5% on 2010 and almost five times the total of $53.6bn in 2004. Investment in solar far outstripped that in wind, and perhaps of most note, US clean energy investment moved back ahead of China for the first time since 2008, according to the latest authoritative data from analysis company Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Last year also saw the one trillionth dollar invested in clean energy globally since the company started compiling data in 2004.

The record investment figures for 2011 are particularly striking because they were achieved during a turbulent year for the world economy in general and for the clean energy sector in particular. The industry has suffered severe pressure on the profit margins of manufacturers, a sharp fall in share prices, some notable bankruptcies, cuts in European government subsidy support, and a reduction in the availability of bank finance.

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Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said: “The performance of solar is even more remarkable when you consider that the price of photovoltaic modules fell by close to 50% during 2011, and now stands 75% lower than three years ago, in mid-2008. The cost of PV technology has fallen, but the volume of PV sold has increased by a much greater factor as it approached competitiveness with other sources of power.”

A second highlight was the performance of the US in 2011. In 2008, the US was by far the largest single country worldwide in terms of total investment in clean energy, but it was overtaken by China in 2009. China increased its lead in 2010. However in 2011, the US roared ahead once again, with total investment surging to $55.9bn, up 33%; China saw investment rise just 1% to $47.4bn.

Liebreich commented: “The news that the US jumped back into the lead in clean energy investment last year will reassure those who worried that it was falling behind other countries. However before anyone in Washington celebrates too much, the US figure was achieved thanks in large part to support initiatives such as the federal loan guarantee programme and a Treasury grant programme which have now expired. The country’s principal remaining support measure for renewable energy, the Production Tax Credit, is currently also scheduled to fall away at the end of 2012 unless it is extended. There may be a rush to get projects completed in 2012, followed by a slump in investment in 2013 if it expires.”

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A great perspective from across the world (for US readers) about how other countries are looking to recalibrate energy in the education systems.

 

There is also an imperative need for programmes on non-renewable energy to focus on oil, gas, coal, nuclear energy, future needs, reserves, and conservation measures. I further believe that the curriculum must encompass global energy trends and the Middle East energy resources. Other subjects that are vital include conventional and non-conventional sources, natural gas, coal and oil production, consumption and future trends. Insight into the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), its activities and policies since its establishment in 1960 must also be offered to the students as part of the study programme.

In order to communicate a clear understanding on the various types of energy resources in terms of production, consumption and future trends based on global demand, it is crucial for academic programmes to offer a perspective of the value chain in energy management. This can be achieved through providing an analysis on the efficiency and interaction of energy systems with the environment. Moreover, such programmes need to offer adequate know-how on the setting up of viable business models for energy associated projects to ensure their successful implementation.

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Statistical analysis is also considered as one of the key areas that should be embedded into energy programmes. This is to allow students to collect, analyse data, and forecast energy demand, supply, and availability of energy resources to capably make suggestions on appropriate energy policy. Energy forecasting is additionally regarded a core focus area when it comes to setting up short and long term objectives and, consequently, strategic planning.

 

Looking ahead, embedding energy conservation and management aspects in architectural design and architecture programmes is an important subject that is being considered by many academic institutions in the country. Concepts such as natural lighting, green buildings or even LEED or Estidama certifications have already been introduced in the education sector. Building materials as well as the design of cooling systems and water heating, among other areas, can be explored to promote the concept of reduced energy consumption in buildings.

Some schools have already adopted programmes that correspond to this area such as the British University in Dubai that offers programmes in Energy and Sustainability including a Masters in Science in Sustainable Design of the Built Environment as well as a Masters in Science in Intelligent Buildings Design and Automation.

Dr Ayoub Kazim is the Managing Director of Education Cluster-TECOM Investments, a member of Dubai Holding. He is responsible for strategically steering the education and human resource development clusters, Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Village and further consolidating their status as the region’s leading centres of excellence for learning and human capital. Dr. Kazim, has worked for over 15 years on various renewable and hydrogen energy research projects and has published numerous articles and technical papers on renewable energy, hydrogen energy, fuel cells, environment and water resources, as well as energy policy and economics

Cool endeavor by US Dept. of Energy and EPA!

Advice on how to make the most of using personal transportation - fuel efficiency, car selection, etc. Check it out…

FuelEconomy.gov, a partnership between the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, is a great place to start. The site’s recently updated Find-a-Car tool helps consumers find a fuel-efficient vehicle that meets their specific set of needs. Buyers can browse by model, class, price, or miles per gallon. The entry on each car shows the vehicle’s annual fuel cost, fuel economy, amount of petroleum used, smog score, and safety ratings. Drivers can also compare up to four different cars side-by-side. There’s even a mobile version so that car shoppers compare models as they browse the lot.

Thanks to Andy Revkin via Twitter