The chairman of Siemens, Peter Löscher, announced in a statement to the weekly Der Spiegel total abandonment of nuclear energy business from its group. “That chapter is closed to us,” said Löscher, whose company has been involved for decades in building nuclear power plants around the world.

The decision, says the head of Siemens, is your company’s response to the clear positioning of the society and politics in Germany in favor of abandoning nuclear energy after the catastrophe of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. Löscher considered key decision before the summer by the Bundestag to approve the nuclear outage in Germany for 2022 and go up then shutting down all nuclear power plants in this country.

The president said his group Siemens will from now on to participate in the complete nuclear power plant construction and only continue to build components for wind turbines that are also used in conventional power plants. It also announces the end of a project joint venture with the Russian nuclear consortium Rosatom , which it hopes that, despite everything, it can work in other fields.

Löscher century project valued as agreed to change the energy in Germany and considered feasible the goal of raising up to 35% of energy production from renewable sources by 2020. It expresses its full support to the policy of the Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to address the crisis in the euro zone.

Siemens aims to Convertible in the third wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas and GE behind and ahead of Enercon, Gamesa and Suzlon, the wind well and Chinese Goldwind Sinovel. Siemens is already the largest provider of offshore wind aerogenedores.

Siemens will be responsible for building solar thermal power plant Arenales, near Seville town of Moron de la Frontera, among many others.

Siemens initiated an innovative pilot project to mobilize a fleet of electric cars in Berlin will be available to their employees during the next 12 months. The new Auto-sharing system (car sharing) is part of the pilot project “Infrastructure and city” Siemens launched in November 2010 in the cities of Erlangen and Munich and also included a fleet of electric vehicles.

The Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will talk to heads of state and international delegates at the WFES, a forum that encourages collaboration, innovation and investment opportunities in renewable energy sources, environment and clean technologies.

The visit of UN Secretary-General highlights the growing role that the UAE and Abu Dhabi to play in driving the worldwide adoption of renewable energy sources and clean technology innovation. Through Masdar, a multi-faceted initiative that promotes the development and deployment of alternative or renewable energy, Abu Dhabi has demonstrated its long-term commitment to discover a viable action plan towards sustainability.

‘The UAE is making great efforts to find solutions to energy challenges facing the world, particularly through the Masdar Initiative and the World Future Energy, a platform for international cooperation in energy sources renewable and sustainable, “said Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General. ‘I am also grateful for the contributions of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of my high-level panel on global sustainability. ”

“Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time,” added the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. “The world needs to find renewable energy and clean technologies that can mitigate its effects and position the world on a path of greater prosperity and sustainable economic growth. The search for these solutions requires the collaboration of governments, academic, business and civil society. The more we delay, more pay … resources, economic competitiveness and lives. ”

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar and Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change in the UAE, said “We are honored to welcome the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to the World Summit on Future Energy. Their presence is a testament to the growing contribution of Abu Dhabi and UAE to the dialogue on climate change and global energy. ”

‘The leadership of the Secretary General to ensure that address climate change within a global context and at the highest level of international cooperation has resulted in significant progress, “added Dr Al Jaber. ‘Their enthusiasm and personal commitment is shared by the leaders of the UAE, who have made significant emphasis on ensuring that the advancement of renewable energy sources and mitigation of climate change are key elements of our economic growth. ”

The fourth Global Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi Future exhibition and conference will be the world’s largest on solutions, innovations, investments, policies and visions of future and renewable energy. The WFES, which was held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) expects more than 25,000 attendees from around the world. The summit will cover a broad range of issues, including policies, financing investment and energy, green buildings, clean transport, energy sources, solar, wind and biofuels.

Wind turbines are rather ancient device as they had been used for water elevating, sawing up logs, grinding flour – that is, in modern terms, to obtain mechanical energy. Owing to wind turbines the civilization received an evolution impulse. Then the decline came on. Windjammers don’t range the seas and oceans and wind turbines hardly can find its place in the energetics. Why did it happen?

There are definitely more powerful and handy energy sources. The demands for the quality of energy have definitely been stepped up as the lack of voltage or even voltage drops irritate consumers.
But material and device technology is not at a stop! Nowadays it should come as no surprise that there are composites and energy converters. Automatic machines and robots are doing hard and dangerous work for humans.

So why modern wind turbines are so expensive? Why an owner of a Jeep that has a few hundreds of HPs under the hood can’t afford having a wind turbine and his grandfather could build a windmill to grind flour for the whole community.  Windmills had been standing at almost every village for tens or even hundreds of years. There are lots of reasons for that but I think the main ones are wrongly interpreted or being hushed up.

The modern energetics inclines to big stuff. The most powerful reactor or the most powerful turbine is a matter of the country’s international image! There is the same approach for wind turbines: the biggest wind turbine or the most powerful wind power generator is the pride and envy. One of the indicators of wealth and success of a country is quantity of energy per capita – the more, the better!

On the other hand centralized networks are just another way to control population or even the whole world. A law abiding citizen consumes energy working to pay the energy bills and keep his head down.  If something goes wrong, the master switch goes down! Nowadays the one who has energy, rules the world.

But it’s not the case with the environmentally safe, alternative, green energetics. On one hand the energy is everywhere – sun, wind, waves are all around us. On the other hand the thickness is not that high and to harvest it energy receivers of large area are needed. Two approaches are possible here. A “sky-high” generator could be constructed which is oversized and very expensive (that’s the common thing with them) or to make hundreds of little ones scattered over a vast territory literally in every backyard.

But only the oversized giant fits into the total control centralized system and the hundreds of little ones could cause losing of the control and in the long run, the loss of the power itself. Sure enough no one is willing to give up on power! This is the reason for the evident and concealed opposition to the “small energetics”.  No one has a stake in research and development of compact moderate-priced devices. Some models are developed and produced by efforts of few enthusiasts. But these models usually are copycats of the commercial giants just on a considerable scale.

There is the following issue behind it – integrity of the design characteristics. Actually design calculations recently become more available and the necessity of experimental verification was pushed to the sideliners.  If you look through any of the online forums focused on engineering, you may notice that a great deal of trained (and not) users lock horns with each other on theoretical topics and no one sets about having a field test made. Those who actually make it to the metal are being watchful of as well as their practical results. The rule of good theory being tested by practice is somehow forgotten. As a result clueless schemes emerge just to discredit smart ideas.

If you put the abovementioned in wind energetics terms, you could see that the vast dry land territories are not perspective for setting up wind turbines as the wind intensity is insufficient. I beg you pardon! If this approach had been used by shipping companies, no one would have designed off-roaders as the railway is more advantageous for shipping the goods. But there is an approach for every task. If the wind was not sufficient for flour grinding, our ancestors used to spread sails between the blades and carried on. But modern “connoisseurs” can’t stand a wind sail turbine just because it doesn’t look too much of a propeller and they go on with shooting the bull! The airplane propeller theory is really well developed but why to apply it to an almost static mechanism? For different areas with different wind intensity different designs of wind turbines should be applied! A Formula 1 car cannot do the same thing a heavy-duty dump truck does!

Thus, the task of building a good wind turbine is transformed into a task to build the right kind of a wind turbine for a certain place and a certain consumer. Here it would be useful to do a research of the existing market and to define the goods and the bads of the designs available.

To be continued in “Perfect wind turbine criteria”…

Vadim Belyaev, “Vetronet”,
Design Manager

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The third edition of the classic report [R] evolution for the EU Energy-study commissioned by Greenpeace and the European Renewables Energy Council (EREC) – ensures that “a target of 100% renewable energy and energy efficiency can help the Union (EU) to regain its competitive advantage over China and the United States, without coal or nuclear. ” According to Greenpeace, “even taking into account the cost of investment, the European economy on fossil fuels would save an average of 19 billion euros by 2050, while hundreds of thousands of new jobs also boost European economies.”

The findings, presented last week in Brussels, are, according to Greenpeace and EREC, that “clean energy can help Europe regain a competitive edge in the international technology race, while reducing the rising costs of fuels, create jobs and reduce CO2 emissions. ” The environmental group asked the Spanish government and the Popular Party, which “carefully consider these findings to take them into account in the negotiations on the Pact of State for Energy.” For Greenpeace, the pact should set a goal for Spain to provide a 100% renewable energy.

According to the Head of the Climate Change and Energy Campaign for Greenpeace Spain, Jose Luis Garcia Ortega, “move towards 100% renewable in 2050 is not only necessary to save the climate, it is also the smartest thing for the economy for 40 years, renewable seemed a dream, today is a reality within 40 years should be the norm. ” At the same time, Ortega said that while coal and nuclear are sidings for innovation “, the sources can provide” new technologies, employment and energy security. ”

So, Greenpeace is demanding that the European Commission to study the benefits and feasibility of a future 100% renewable energy within the analysis to be developed on the vision of energy and the economy in 2050. ” According to Greenpeace, “when compared with other energy scenarios that have occurred recently in the European Union by 2050, the [R] evolution Energy is ambitious, but is based on assumptions which can provide flexible energy, closer businesses and local communities. ”

Both Greenpeace and the EREC considered, and that “a balanced mix and secure energy sources for Europe’s energy system makes the [R] evolution Energy program more sustainable and credible for a revolution in the way we produce and use energy. Therefore, and to realize the [R] evolution Energy, “the EU must increase its commitment to combating climate change, stop the massive fossil fuel subsidies and actively support the creation of a strong economy and clean.”

An alternative to this method has been developed by the Austrian company Solar Fuel Technology (Salzburg), in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy (IWES), Centre Research on solar energy and Hydrogen (ZSW) in Stuttgart and University of Linz: to store excess electricity produced by wind energy or photovoltaic as methane, synthetic neutral for the environment, gasometers and gas lines already exist. A demonstration plant is already operating successfully in Stuttgart. The first plant of 10 MW should be built by 2012.

The process involves converting the excess electricity produced in natural gas. The intermediate energy can be stored in chemical form in the natural gas network. The infrastructure for the reverse transformation of intermediate chemical energy is also operational: to burn natural gas and generating electricity in gas turbines or steam. The technology combines two processing methods of chemical energy into electricity, explains Michael Specht, a researcher at ZSW: the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity (electrolysis) and transformation CO2 into methane (biogas) (methane is the main component of natural gas). Anaerobic digestion is itself a multi-step chemical process: CO2 is converted to methane (the final product) via the formic acid, formaldehyde and methanol. The main benefit of this technology lies in the possibility to use the existing natural gas network. Moreover, according to Michael Specht, conversion efficiency of electricity with natural gas exceeds 60%.

Local energy suppliers tanks and large centralized reservoirs are sized so they can cover the methane need for several months. The storage capacity of the natural gas network browsing is important and Germany amounted to 200 TWh – the consumption of several months. The grid has only 0.04 Wh. The integration infrastructure is easy, natural gas can be integrated into the supply system, pipelines and tanks, to fuel vehicles or light natural gas heaters.

Under the guaranteed buyback program for renewable energy, 184 new contracts for major green energy projects of 500 kilowatts or more have been approved. This adds to the earlier announcement of 510 FiT projects. In total, these contracts could generate 2,500 megawatts, enough electricity to power 600,000 homes.

In addition, these projects mean the creation of thousands of jobs in this growing sector and investments representing about 9 billion Canadian dollars (over 6.7 billion euros) in the private sector.

The Prime Minister made the announcement in Cornwall, a town in the eastern Ontario, where 60 green energy projects representing a potential of 900 megawatts have just been approved. This includes three projects of 10 megawatts of solar energy in the region of Cornwall.

The Green Energy Act of Ontario is the government’s plan entitled “Ontario is open to the world.” It assures the power producers the stable prices, so they invest and create up to 50,000 jobs in Ontario.

“Ontario has a vision for green energy. Indeed, we will become a leader in North America. We have a dynamic practice to ensure the production, research and manufacturing of environmentally friendly production tools, which will create jobs in the growing industry, “said Dalton McGuinty,the Prime minister of Ontario.

“The green energy projects have the potential to give a boost to the local economy by generating jobs in construction, operation and maintenance. I am proud that our Government is investing in the future of the region by helping to improve the quality of life for our residents,” said Jim Brownell, MP of Stormont – Dundas – South Glengarry.

The natural chemical processes mastered the solar energy through the process of photosynthesis. The perfect solution would be to get the energy produced by photosynthesis in plants directly. Or we should be able to copy this process that billions of years of evolution have perfected in order to convert solar energy into chemical energy as hydrogen, which is easier to store than electricity.

In the process of photosynthesis, solar energy is used to split water and produce oxygen molecules, protons and electrons. To produce an electric current, the electrons produced by the reaction have to be recovered. This is what a team of Stanford University researchers has succeeded to do by using nano-gold electrodes. A nano-electrode is stuck inside a cell of algae. First of all the task is to create an electrode small enough to be introduced into a cell and, secondly, to puncture the cell and to maintain the electrode in place without causing death of the algae. Once in place, this electrode directly receives the electrons produced in the energy factories of plant cells that have chloroplasts.

However, this took place not only in a single cell and the resulting current is extremely low: a picoamperes. To be effective, it should be possible to improve the recovery of electrons within cells and multiply the number of cells tethered by about a thousand billion. Not to mention the possibility that the “energy theft” is also the cause of the premature death of cells. The authors are nevertheless confident. They believe that this approach would potentially produce more energy from plants through combustion. If these results highlight the possibility of recovering the energy directly from the source, other researchers propose to mimic natural structures in order to reproduce the process of photosynthesis.

The evolution has produced structures that make the process of photosynthesis very effective: why not copy? In a sheet, the different structures are intended to guide the solar energy to the chloroplasts where it will be transformed, providing excellent performance. The development of nanotechnology allows scientists to have a bottom-up construction of these structures, that is to say, playing with Legos and building material, piece by piece, the structure. Imaging methods and characterization can get the plans. The advantage of the researcher is that it can choose the materials he uses, so that biological materials are available in limited variety.

In the first attempt to produce an artificial inorganic leaf Chinese researchers injected the titanium oxide in the leaf of a plant, using the leaf as a mold. They obtained a structure eight times more productive than in hydrogen the same amount of titanium dioxide. By coating the platinum foil, they multiplied the productivity of the structure 10. These results were presented last March at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, held in San Francisco. Copy the entire structure may seem like a good way to copy the process to recover hydrogen to fuel cell fuels. However, it is also considered to reproduce only the chemical process of decomposition of the water molecule.

Copy the chemical mechanisms

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) proposed a new method to realize the dissociation of water molecule using solar energy. They have thus reproduced the reaction taking place during photosynthesis without using the same materials as those used in nature. Although. They are in fact used a virus which is capable of binding catalytic materials (iridium oxide) and organic pigments. This is then included in a matrix of micro-gel creating a tangle to ensure the progress of the reaction. Pigments capture light energy, catalysts ensure the realization of the reaction. The virus is now staging the structural components and also ensures the transfer of energy.

However, this structure allows for the time being to ensure the least interesting part of the reaction: production of oxygen via the oxidation of the water molecule. It remains to change the structure to ensure the recombination of proton and electron products for the hydrogen atoms. Another drawback of the structure is related to the cost of iridium. In considering an industrial application, it will be necessary to find another less expensive catalyst.

A booming area

If this research were somewhat original, yet there are groups working on the subject. Less than a month ago the program Catalytix Sun caused a stir by promising to provide such equivalent electricity consumption of a house (30kw / h) through a water bottle. Since the project is supported by ARPA-E to the tune of $4 million. The technology used is based on a new catalyst discovered in the laboratory at MIT led by Daniel Nocera. His research focuses on the use of abundant elements on Earth to generate hydrogen and oxygen through fresh water or clean sea water. In the words used by the ARPA-E this technology provides a method of versatile, inexpensive, efficient, scalable storage of renewable energy. The system should cost a tenth of the price of conventional systems. The photo-electrochemical cells are also capable of converting sunlight and water into hydrogen for the production of synthetic fuels.

Similarly, the Helios Project is an initiative with a goal to develop solar energy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in collaboration with UC Berkeley. The primary goal of this effort is the storage of energy from the sun. Scientists are focusing on several approaches such as generation of biofuels from biomass or algae and direct conversion of water and CO2 into fuel by the rays of light. The latter is particularly interesting because it contained what the researchers call “artificial photosynthesis”. To achieve this goal, the researchers repeated the process of photosynthesis using advanced materials and new molecules. The light is thus collected by the photovoltaic elements and then used to form chemical reactions to create fuel using only water and carbon dioxide. Researchers expect this process more efficient than that obtained by natural photosynthesis.

The natural structures offer solutions to current problems, particularly in the field of energy. The capacity analysis, comprehension and reproduction of structures and reactions observed at the molecular level have reached sufficient maturity to open new perspectives. The intensity of research in order to master the photosynthesis is an example.

According to the European renewable energy sector experts, the European Union could produce 100% of its energy both electricity and heating from renewable sources by 2050. In the prospective report called RE-thinking 2050, the European Council for Renewable Energy Council (EREC) explains how the energy mix could be based solely on renewable energy within 40 years and the economic, environmental and social benefits that might accompany such a transition.

As for electricity production, placing on the EREC wind up to 1552 TWh in 2050 against 104 TWh in 2007, 448 TWh of hydro (325 in 2007), 1347 TWh for photovoltaics (5.4 in 2007), 496 TWh from biomass (102 in 2007), 601 TWh geothermal (5.8 in 2007), 385 TWh through the solar thermal concentration (0.8 in 2007) and 158 TWh through ocean energy (non-existent in 2007).
To ensure the needs for heat, EREC expects to produce from biomass up to 214.5 million tonnes oil equivalent (Mtoe) against 61.2 Mtoe in 2007. Solar thermal could produce 122 Mtoe (0.88 in 2007) and geothermal 136.1 Mtoe (against 0.9 in 2007). Biofuels could represent 102 Mtoe against 7.88 in 2007.

Mandatory condition: a reduction of energy needs

In all, the renewable generation of electricity would reach about 5,000 TWh which must be added the 473 Mtoe of heat and 102 Mtoe of biofuels which is close to current needs for primary energy: 3.400 TWh of electricity were consumed 554 Mtoe in Europe in 2007 according to Eurostat, and 377 Mtoe of heat transport.
But this is far from being sufficient by 2050 if energy needs continue to grow at their current pace. EREC’s various scenarios based on prices of energy and saving policies implemented by governments. Renewable energy could meet more than 100% of requirements only if the saving policies are very aggressive and if energy consumption is down almost 40% compared to today.
Moreover, the scenario of the European Renewable Energy Council applies only if the investment in production sites increase. By 2050, these investments could reach more than 2,800 billion euros according to the study.

To convince EREC highlights the economic, social and environmental factors that result from a fully renewable energy mix. ”The potential benefits of the future based on renewable energy are numerous: climate change mitigation, energy security and job creation” says Arthouros Zervos, President of EREC.
According to the report, by 2050, the EU could reduce its fossil energy demand of about 1,000 Mtoe and could reduce its energy resulted CO2 emissions by more than 90% compared to 1990 resulting in savings of 3.8 million tonnes of coal.
In addition, 100% renewable energy would affect the benefits by participating in job creation, ”the renewables sector will employ a total of over 2.7 million people in 2020 and about 4.4 million in 2030. By 2050, employment in this sector will provide 6.1 million people with job” , said Arthouros Zervos.

Convinced that achieving an economy powered by renewable energy is not a question of availability of technologies but rather political will, EREC intended his study primarily to policy makers. EREC especially advise them to take advantage of the producing capacity of the renewal energy to reorient policies: ”By 2020, Europe needs to replace aging plants while meeting future demand. Approximately 330 GW of the new power capacity must be built by 2020, representing 42% of the EU capacity,” said EREC.

An earlier study by the EWEA covering the year 2002 and for the EU-15, indicated that the wind industry directly employed 48,363 people. Direct employment has increased by 60,237 (125%) since that date. On average, 12,047 new direct jobs were created annually during the period 2002 to 2007.

The report notes however that the direct jobs relating to manufacturers and sub-contractors whose main business is still assembling turbines wind, or the provision of related components. Also included are promoters of wind energy related business services, R & D centers, engineering and specialty wind services.

Austria: 700
Belgium: 2,000
Bulgaria: 100
Czech Republic: 100
Denmark: 17,000
Finland: 800
France: 7,000
Germany: 38,000
Greece 1800
Hungary: 100
Ireland: 1500
Italy: 2,500
Netherlands: 2,000
Poland: 800
Portugal: 800
Spain 20500
Sweden: 2,000
United Kingdom: 4000
Rest of EU: 400
TOTAL 102,100 direct jobs

All companies producing intermediate products, providing services or work sporadically in activities related to the wind are considered to provide indirect employment.

The addition of indirect jobs affects the results significantly. The European Commission, in its assessment on the impact of the renewables on the roadmap in the union, showed that 150,000 jobs are related to wind energy. The report of the European Renewable Energy Council provides a workforce of 184,000 people in 2010, while the installed capacity this year has probably been underestimated. The total direct and indirect employment is estimated at about 180,000.

Both figures : 102,100 direct jobs and 180,000 jobs can be combined compared with results obtained by EWEA in its previous study on wind energy, which dates from 2004, respectively 46,000 and 72,275 jobs. The growth (+213% and 249%) is consistent with the evolution of installed capacity in Europe (276%) during the same period and with the fact that most of the major wind energy companies are European.

An important part of the direct employment of wind power (about 74%) lies in three countries: Denmark, Germany and Spain , whose combined installed capacity amounts to 70% of total EU . Nevertheless, the sector is less concentrated today than it was in 2003 when these three countries accounted for 89% of employment and 84% of installed capacity in the European Union. This change is due to the opening of manufacturing centers, the emergence of new markets and the nature of many activities related to the wind, such as promotion, O & M services, engineering and law.

The France consists of a multitude of small developers, consultants, engineering firms and legal services. All major manufacturers of wind energy developers and some public services have opened an antenna on the French territory. France also has several manufacturers of wind turbines and components.

The share of renewable energy has increased notably in the production of heat (13.5%) and electricity (+5.9%). It now reaches 16.1% of electricity consumption. This figure is remarkable because, first, wind and water facilities failed to use its full potential from the weather and weaker than usual winds. On the other hand, the share of fossil energy sources has declined. The amount of electricity produced using renewable energies is now equivalent to over two-thirds of the electricity of the nuclear origin.

With the support of the German legislation on renewable energies (EEG), the industry is investing heavily. In 2009 the construction of wind turbines (952 new facilities on 21,164 total) accelerated, including the first offshore wind farm in Germany, the test fleet Alpha Ventus commissioned twelve wind turbines in the North Sea, which can provide electricity to 50,000 households. Investments have also doubled in the field of biomass. The biogas, in particular, located on the second-largest source of renewable power, behind the wind. It provides 5.2% of electricity consumption. As for solar photovoltaic energy it continued to rise rapidly and has provided for the first time in 2009 more than 1% of electricity consumed.

The investments pay off, both way for the environment and the economy. The use of renewable energy is actively involved in reducing the German greenhouse gas emissions: it saved the rejection in 2009 of 109 million tonnes of CO2. Germany intends to reduce its emissions by 40% by 2020 compared to 1990.

From the economic perspective, the renewable energy sector generates jobs and profits. It generated a turnover of 33.4 billion euros in 2009, up almost 9% compared to 2008. Above all, it continues to hire massively. The industry employed 300,500 renewable energy in 2009 against 278,000 people in 2008. It created 140000 jobs in five years. More than a third of its employees working in the field of biomass (36%), one in three in the wind (29%) and just over one in four in solar energy (27%). Geothermal and hydropower respectively employ some 3% of the sector.

The battery system which consists of 80 modules of 3.6 tons each were built by the Japanese company NGK-Locke.

The device represents the first Sodium Sulfur battery in Texas and the country’s largest. Residents of Presidio have already dubbed it “BOB”, an abbreviation for “Big Old Battery.”

The government body in charge of electricity transmission network in Texas participated in financing of the proposed battery and cashed out about $25 million, it has also accepted biulding by 2012 of the second line of 100 km with a budget of $44 million.

This battery will also serve as a testbed for utilities seeking to store energy from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar. However, experts believe that we should not generalize this type of system to the detriment of the renovation of the grid which the Americans need.

Several signs show that the growth will continue in 2010 with an estimated turnover of 150 billion euros (25%). This information is revealed in the report entitled “Who is winning the race for renewable energy? Growth, Competitiveness and Opportunities in a Global Economy”, drafted by a non-profit association “Pew Charitable Trust” in collaboration with Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The study conducts a thorough analysis of information on different countries. In 2009, Italian investments reached 1.94 billion euros, ahead of countries like Australia, France, Japan and India, but lags behind other European countries a better location: the United States (8 4 billion euros), Spain (7.8 billion) and Germany (3.2 billion). Italy has invested mainly in wind energy (61.6%) and solar energy (20.3%).

China is in turn become the leading country on the wind market in 2009, thanks not only to 13.75 GW of new capacity, but also to its suppliers 3 of which are among the 10 largest manufacturers of turbines.

“The new potential of China that represented over the third of the Total global capacity in wind energy (38 GW) last year, is a record despite the financial crisis,” said the Danish consultancy BTM. “447 GW of the global wind power capacity will nearly triple over the next five years and could reach nearly 1,000 GW within a decade.

U.S. businesses took a share of the $5.3 billion in utility energy efficiency programs, which included $4.4 billion for electric energy efficiency programs, up 38 percent from the previous year, and $930 million for natural gas programs, up by 79 percent. Electric energy-efficiency programs focus on commercial and industrial facilities, while natural gas programs more often target residential customers.

In 2008, CEE member efficiency programs saved about 93,000 GWh of electricity and more than 343 million therms of gas, according to the report. These savings prevented the production of more than 55 million metric tons of CO2, up from 41 million metric tons in 2007 and 36 million metric tons in 2006.

The report, “2009 CEE Annual Report and Efficiency Program Report”,  finds that carbon-dioxide emissions prevented in 2008 are equivalent to the annual emissions from nearly 12 coal-fired power plants, and the electric energy savings are equivalent to the electricity needed to power 7.4 million homes for a year.

Utility energy efficiency programs also expanded geographically with programs now offered in 46 states, compared to only 37 states in 2008.

The CEE report reveals that electric energy-efficiency spending grew the fastest in the Southeast and South Central states, with a 76 percent increase to $800 million in 2009.

These energy-efficiency programs will control U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the next 20 years, but long-term costs have been underestimated, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report finds that once the low hanging fruit have been picked the cost for making further emission cuts will increase, requiring more aggressive policies to drive energy tech improvements and lower long-term abatement costs.

Implementing energy efficiency programs are cheaper for utilities and their customers rather than adding new sources of electricity, according to an ACEEE report released last year. The report found that the average cost per kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy efficiency is about 2.5 cents, compared to 7 to 15 cents per kWh for adding new energy generation.

Still, the Bloomberg report finds that more fundamental changes to power and transport sectors are needed to meet the Obama Administration’s 17 percent cut in GHG emissions by 2020, but could still maintain a cost of less than $1 per day per U.S. household.

Another report from ACEEE last year estimates that the federal energy-efficiency target for reducing electricity and gas usage could result in utility bill savings of $168.6 billion for consumers and businesses.

“Low-tech and low cost are the guiding principles behind the GlidArc reactors,” said Albin Czernichowski, Ph.D., who presented the report. “Almost all the parts could be bought at your local hardware or home supply store. We use common ‘plumber’ piping and connections, for instance, and ordinary home insulation. Instead of sophisticated ceramics, we use the kind of heat-resistant concrete that might go into a home fireplace. You could build one in a few days for about $10,000.”

Czernichowski noted that the reactors, about the size of a refrigerator, are custom designed to clean dirty gases produced by a low-tech gasification of locally available wastes, biomass, or other resources to produce clean mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas to synthesize biofuels. Corn farming regions, for instance, could use corn stover (leaves and stalks left in the field after harvest) as the raw material. In urban areas, waste cooking oil from restaurants could be the raw material. In regions that produce biodiesel fuel, glycerol could be converted into clean fuels. Czernichowski pointed out production of biofuels results in huge amounts of glycerol byproduct — 200 pounds for every 2,000 pounds of biodiesel. The glycerol is expensive to refine to the high purity needed for commercial use. GlidArc reactors could transform glycerol into a clean synthesis gas (the carbon monoxide and hydrogen) for production of fuels, he said.

A professor with the University of Orleans, France, Czernichowski realized in 1986 that a branch of science called non-equilibrium cold plasma could be used to produce new transportation fuels that are less polluting than their conventional counterparts as they lack harmful substances found in traditional transportation fuels.

The technology gets it name from the use of a gliding arc of electricity to that produces a plasma inside the reactor. The plasma allows chemical reactions to occur at dramatically reduced temperatures. Gases from heating (pyrolyse or gasification) biomass or glycerol, for instance, become clean and chemically active, and this allows for the transformation of those materials into clean fuels.

“The main advantage of such biobased fuels that the GlidArc Technology can create is that they constitute “drop-in replacements” for fossil Diesel oil, gasoline or kerosene, and no modifications are needed in engines, vehicles and distribution systems,” Czernichowski said. “The biofuels can also be used as additives to various types of engine fuels to improve certain fuel properties. Another important advantage, of course, is their much lower toxicity for mankind and the environment compared to conventional fuels.”

Chicken feather meal is processed at high temperatures with steam. This feather meal is used as animal feed and also as fertilizer. Chicken feather meal has high percentage of protein and nitrogen. The researchers have paid attention to the 12% fat content of the chicken feather meal. They have arrived at the conclusion that feather meal has potential as an alternative, non-food feedstock for the production of biofuel. They have extracted fat from chicken feather meal using boiling water and processing it into biodiesel. Another advantage of extracting fat from feather meal is it provides both a higher-grade animal feed and a better nitrogen source for fertilizer applications.

Stats tell us that if we take into account the amount of feather meal generated by the poultry industry each year, researchers could produce 153 million gallons of biodiesel annually in the U.S. and 593 million gallons worldwide.

Prof. Misra is the director of the University of Nevada, Reno’s Renewable Energy Centre. He has published 183 technical papers in the areas of materials, nanotechnology and environmental and mineral process engineering until now. He also has 10 patents published and another 12 are pending. He has secured over $25 million dollars in grant funding.

Other research is going on regarding chicken feather meal. It contains stronger and more absorbent keratin fiber than wood. Professor Richard P. Wool of the chemical engineering department of the University of Delaware, is trying to carbonized chicken feathers. This type of chicken feather bears a resemblance to highly versatile (and tiny) carbon nanotubes. This chicken feather can be utilized to store hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles. If we visualize carefully we can see that very tiny natural sponges of chicken feathers have a big weight advantage over metal hydride storage.

Wool’s graduate student Erman Senöz in the project explained that they applied the pyrolysis process. During this process a very high heat without combustion in the absence of oxygen is applied. This yields fibers “that are micro-porous, very thin and hollow inside like carbon nanotubes. They start forming at 350 degrees Centigrade, and above 500 C they collapse. We’re trying to find the perfect temperature.”

Another advantage of this process is there won’t be lack of chicken-feed, because the fiber is taken from the central quill part. It leaves the fluffy feathers available to force-feed livestock. Feather fiber is quite cheap, and the “gas tank” equivalent would cost around $200.

The innovative project is the brainchild of Transmission Developers Inc., a company created by former Bay Street investment banker John Douglas.

Since selling his wind power company Ventus Energy Inc. for $140-million in 2007, Mr. Douglas has embarked on startups in the power sector. In 2008 he financed the creation of Riverbank Power Corp. a company that proposes to build several huge, multibillion-dollar underground hydroelectric generating stations in Canada and the United States. Transmission Developers was spun out of Riverbank last year, and its plans are no less ambitious.

TDI’s key project is a $3.8-billion underwater power transmission line that would run 570 kilometres, bringing electricity from Quebec – and possibly Labrador – to New York City. A 100-km spur would run up Long Island Sound to Connecticut.

For most of the route, the cable would be buried along the bottom of Lake Champlain, then down the Hudson River, with small portions buried along railway lines to avoid disturbing PCB-laden underwater sections.

There are many regulatory and financial hurdles still to be dealt with, but the proposal is expected to meet with less resistance than building above ground transmission lines which are far more visible to the public.

TDI also has plans for a 240-km underwater cable carrying renewable power down the Atlantic coast from Maine to Boston.

Mr. Douglas said the idea for the underwater power line technology, which uses high voltage direct current to minimize power loss, was developed by Montreal engineering firm Groupe RSW.

That company came to him with the idea for Riverbank’s technology, which involves water falling down lengthy shafts to generate power underground, and the water being pumped back to the surface at times of the day when electricity prices are low. Essentially, that allows the storage of electric power.

RSW is a small shareholder of Riverbank and TDI, while Mr. Douglas owns the majority of both firms. His key outside backer at both companies was New York investment firm BlackRock Inc., while another deep-pocketed investor, Blackstone Group, now also has a substantial stake in TDI.

Both Riverbank and TDI involve “great Canadian ideas” which require U.S. financial support, Mr. Douglas said.

He is talking to other large investors about further financing of both companies, and they may consider going public to get the big money needed when construction begins. Mr. Douglas hopes some of those funds will come from Canada. “It just seems a shame that these great ideas keep having to go south of the border to get financed.”

Still, Mr. Douglas has a number of Canadians helping him with the venture. The chief executive officer of TDI is electrical engineer Don Jessome, a former manager at Emera Inc., the Halifax-based energy firm.

Former Ontario premier David Peterson is on the board, and he introduced TDI’s executives to former New York governor George Pataki, who helped them stickhandle that state’s bureaucracy.

But there are many hurdles before TDI gets any cable in place, and not just financial ones. Hydro-Québec, for instance, is supporting a new transmission line through the Northeastern United States, and that could compete with TDI’s planned route for Quebec power exports.

Still, with the growing emphasis on renewable energy, there will be a need for both new transmission facilities and power storage, Mr. Douglas said. Both Riverbank and TDI together “will really help North America achieve its renewable energy objectives, which are pretty ambitious.”

Materials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison grew nanocrystals of two common crystals, zinc oxide and barium titanate, and placed them in water. When pulsed with ultrasonic vibrations, the nanofibers flexed and catalyzed a chemical reaction to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

When the fibers bend, asymmetries in their crystal structures generate positive and negative charges and create an electrical potential. This phenomenon, called the piezoelectric effect, has been well known in certain crystals for more than a century and is the driving force behind quartz clocks and other applications.

The researchers applied the same idea to the nanocrystal fibers. “The bulk materials are brittle, but at the nanoscale they are flexible,” says UW-Madison geologist and crystal specialist Huifang Xu. He likened them to the difference between fiberglass and a pane of glass.

Smaller fibers bend more easily than larger crystals and therefore also produce electric charges easily. So far, the researchers have achieved an 18 percent efficiency with the nanocrystals, higher than most experimental energy sources.

In addition, Xu says, “because we can tune the fiber and plate sizes, we can use even small amounts of [mechanical] noise – like a vibration or water flowing – to bend the fibers and plates. With this kind of technology, we can scavenge energy waste and convert it into useful chemical energy.”

Rather than harvest this electrical energy directly, the scientists took a novel approach and used the energy to break the chemical bonds in water and produce oxygen and hydrogen gas.

The chemical energy of hydrogen fuel is more stable than the electric charge, Xu explains. It is relatively easy to store and will not lose potency over time.

With the right technology, Xu envisions this method being useful for generating small amounts of power from a multitude of small sources – for example, walking could charge a cell phone or music player, and breezes could power streetlights.

“We have limited areas to collect large energy differences, like a waterfall or a big dam,” he says. “But we have lots of places with small energies. If we can harvest that energy, it would be tremendous.”

Combustible ice is a frozen form of natural gas that has been found in high altitude frozen plateaus as well as underwater in marine sediments. The frozen hydrates can be lit on fire, however, researchers expect that the hydrate will have to go through a phase change process where it will be melted into methane and water before it can be combusted efficiently.

One cubic meter of combustible ice contains 164 cubic meters of natural gas and is considered to have few impurities, which means that the fuel can be combusted with lower emissions.

Developed by Bourne Energy of Mailbu, California, the Backpack Power Plant can create clean, quiet power from any stream deeper than 4 feet.

The company showed off its more-rugged, militarized version of the Backpack Power Plant at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco last week. Bourne Energy CEO Chris Catlin estimates the system will cost $3,000 after it goes into production.

“The BPP-2, which operates silently with no heat or exhaust emissions, is 40 percent less visible during operation and can also be bottom mounted to be totally invisible,” the company maintains.

Off-grid solar cells are also quiet, but they don’t make much power relative to the mini-turbine. For example, one commercially available foldable solar panel measures about 12 square feet and produces 62 watts of peak power. You’d need 60 square feet of panels to get the same peak power as the BPP-2, and the panels would only generate electricity while the sun was shining.

To install the civilian BPP, you would dig two trenches on opposite sides of a river and insert a lightweight anchor into each. Then, you’d run a synthetic rope between the anchors and the BPP. Catlin said his company designed the system to work like the high-tension mooring systems that hold up floating oil rigs.

The military version of the BPP has been designed to work with a variety of flow rates. The civilian version was designed to function best in streams moving at 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) per second.

The civilian market for a $3,000 mini hydro system might not be huge in the industrialized world, but Catlin hopes the plant will find willing customers in developing nations and the military.

“This can bring a cheap, highly portable energy technology to remote areas and remote villages,” Catlin told Wired.com.

Bourne is currently looking for $4 million in venture capital to take the BPP from prototype to production.

University of Central Florida professor Henry Daniell developed a technique with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that uses plant-derived enzyme cocktails to break down orange peels and other waste materials into sugar, which is then fermented into ethanol. The breakthrough can also be applied to several non-food products including sugarcane, switchgrass and straw.

Currently cornstarch is fermented and converted into ethanol, but ethanol derived from corn produces more greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline does. Daniell says ethanol created using his approach produces much lower greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline or electricity.

There’s also an abundance of waste products that could be used without reducing the world’s food supply or driving up food prices – a common concern for deriving fuel from biomass. In Florida alone, discarded orange peels could create about 200 million gallons of ethanol each year, Daniell said. According to Daniell no company in the world can produce cellulosic ethanol – ethanol that comes from wood or the non-edible parts of plants.

Depending on the waste product used, a specific combination or “cocktail” of more than 10 enzymes is needed to change the biomass into sugar and eventually ethanol. Orange peels need more of the pectinase enzyme, while wood waste requires more of the xylanase enzyme. All of the enzymes Daniell’s team uses are found in nature, created by a range of microbial species, including bacteria and fungi.

Daniell’s team cloned genes from wood-rotting fungi or bacteria and produced enzymes in tobacco plants. Tobacco was chosen as an ideal system for enzyme production because it is not a food crop and it produces large amounts of energy per acre. Producing these enzymes in tobacco instead of manufacturing synthetic versions could reduce the cost of production by a thousand times, which should significantly reduce the cost of making ethanol, Daniell said.

It has been found that bacteria can communicate on a distance of up to 20,000 times their body size. A research team from the Aarhus University in Denmark is trying to find answers by looking at bacteria that live in marine sediment and use oxygen reactions to process organic material.

In the colonies of these bacteria, only the top sediment layers have access to oxygen, while the ones at the bottom have access to organic material. Somehow, the oxygen consumption and food consumption seems to be linked, so that electrons produces in the bottom layers get transported to the top layers to react with oxygen.

On cutting off the surface oxygen, the researchers found that food processing in the lower layers also fell down. The researchers are suggesting that this provides an indirect evidence of a nanowire network that connects certain bacteria, which might be eventually harvested by humans to power monitoring buoys with a living biogeobattery.

The material that they based their research on is composed of nanoribbons embedded onto silicon rubber sheets, and it generates electricity when flexed. The new flexible piezoelectric material could make up shoes or clothes, charging your music player or whatever else. Also, being embedded in silicon, the material can be implanted in one’s lungs, for example, to harvest the electricity needed by their pacemakers, thus eliminating the need of surgically changeable batteries.

The nanoribbons are made of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), embedded into silicone. Michael McAlpine, a processor of mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton, said: “PZT is 100 times more efficient than quartz, another piezoelectric material.  You don’t generate that much power from walking or breathing, so you want to harness it as efficiently as possible.”

The ribbons are so narrow that 100 of them could be fit side-by-side in the space of a millimeter. “The new electricity-harvesting devices could be implanted in the body to perpetually power medical devices, and the body wouldn’t reject them,” McAlpine said.

Of course, if it works on a small scale, why wouldn’ t it work on a larger one? Yi Qi, a postdoctoral researcher working with McAlpine, said: “The beauty of this is that it’s scalable. As we get better at making these chips, we’ll be able to make larger and larger sheets of them that will harvest more energy.”

So, the Israelian piezoelectric road opened recently could very well be upgraded with these very new flexible piezoelectric ribbons, that could increase their efficiency and lifetime over the existing quartz-based ones.

If utilities were required to produce 20% and 25% of their energy from wind, solar and other renewable sources, between 191,000 and 274,000 jobs would be created, according to the study. The study also found that the U.S. would lose renewable energy jobs in the years ahead if such a renewable-energy standard would not be implemented.

The Navigant Consulting study confirms European success stories that show that governments can play an important role in speeding the transformation of the current economies based on polluting fossil fuels into sustainable renewable energy economies. Take the example of Germany. Germany is today the country with the most installed solar panels, whereas Germany is clearly not the country with the most sunshine. The success of the introduction of solar panels and other renewable energy instruments is a result of the German Renewable Energy Act.

The key point of this act is that all new renewable energies have absolute priority at a guaranteed price in the electric power market. Whatever renewable energy is produced must be taken by the grid and must be taken by the whole electric power service. The conventional energy companies have no possibility to block it.

Interestingly, the Germans did not set a minimum standard – as the Navigant Consulting study – is suggesting. They only dictated that whatever renewable energy would be produced, had to be bought by the utilities at an agreed price. This simple act has created a lot of new investment and jobs and has made Germany a leader in solar energy. The German approach has already inspired similar programs in Egypt, China, India, Brazil, Argentina and France.

The architect of this German success story was Hermann Scheer, member of the German parliament, a former minister in the German government and the president of Eurosolar, the European Association for Renewable Energy.

In a recent interview in Ode Magazine’s special Climate Change issue, Scheer argues that governments should also support the transformation to a clean energy economy through tax policies: “Renewables should be given tax exemptions. That would automatically change the investment decisions of energy producers and the behavior of consumers. It is a fact that conventional energy harms the climate and human health. Therefore it is ridiculous that these ‘poisoned’ energies are cheaper than clean energies. It must be exactly the contrary. Clean energies must be cheaper. And one instrument to accomplish this is to introduce tax exemptions and tax reductions for clean energies and increased taxes for conventional energies. This would provide incentives for producers and consumers to shift to renewable energies.”

The shift to renewable energy requires government intervention. That is not something that comes easily in the U.S. But as the German example shows, it is a healthy way to create jobs and a greener environment without wrongful distortion of the market mechanism. It is the way to go, not only for America but also for the whole world.

Debt financing may return to the 2008 level of about $6 billion in 2010, after falling to $3.2 billion last year, as banks lend more to wind and solar energy projects in the U.S., said Bruno Mejean, a managing director in New York at Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale AG, a state-owned German lender.

“Most banks shut down in the first half of last year,” Mejean told attendees at a renewable energy conference in Washington. “This year they realize that they have to make money after all, so they are opening the spigots and deploying capital primarily to this sexy space.”

President Barack Obama last year offered incentives to help companies finance projects that produce energy from cleaner sources as part of his effort to revitalize the economy. With some of the government aid set to expire at the end of this year, project developers say more taxpayer subsidies are needed to keep pace with investments in Europe and China.

“The market’s better,” Jeff Holzschuh, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s Environmental Committee, said today. “It has thawed somewhat, but it is nowhere near up to the challenge of trying to finance the kind of project expenditures that we’re talking about.”

Government’s Role

Obama last year pushed through a $787 billion economic stimulus package that included about $80 billion for energy programs. Renewable energy incentives include $2.3 billion in tax credits for solar panels and wind turbine manufacturers and a grant program for renewable projects that has so far paid out about $2.3 billion.

“The federal government has a very important and frankly a growing role in making sure that we succeed in the clean energy economy and that we are far more competitive than we are today with China, the EU and other parts of the world,” Dan Reicher, director of energy and climate initiatives for Google Inc., said in an interview. “It starts with simply extending what we’ve already put on the books.”

The subsidies helped FPL Group Inc. and BP Plc lead a record 9,900 megawatts of wind-power installations last year, according to the Washington-based American Wind Energy Association. U.S. developers may double solar panel installations this year to cover 1,000 megawatts of energy from about 500 megawatts in 2009, said Roger Efird, president of Suntech Power Holdings Co.’s U.S. development unit.

Shot in the Arm

“Last year saw the biggest one-time shot in the arm ever for green energy, but the country’s now facing a looming fiscal crisis over deficits,” said Doug Faulkner, president of Chrysalis Energy Partners, a Washington-based energy consultant. “Green programs that we all know and love ultimately are not going to be immune.”

Bank lending rates remain higher than many developers can get with federal loan guarantees, and government support is still needed to make some projects profitable, said Jim Barry of Dublin-based NTR Plc, a developer of concentrated solar power plants.

“We were seeing rates as high as 15 percent or more, but now it’s more like the high single digits,” Barry said at the conference. “We need to finance for longer periods and at lower rates.”

Reliable Investments

European banks are more likely to finance U.S. renewable projects, said Michael Ware, a managing director in Washington of Good Energies, which has invested more than $1.5 billion in renewable energy. U.S. banks remain “cautious” and focused more on technologies that have already been deployed in the U.S., he said.

“We need more equity players in the solar and wind downstream markets,” Ware said. “We’d like to see pension funds, insurance companies, institutional investors realize that renewable energy projects are reliable long-term investments.”

Obama has proposed an additional $5 billion in tax credits for companies that make solar panels and wind turbines in the U.S. An outline of a Senate jobs bill released yesterday didn’t include an extension of the credit, Whitney Stanco, an analyst in Washington for the research firm Concept Capital, said today in a research note.

The administration hasn’t taken a position on whether a tax grant program for renewable projects should be included in the jobs bill, said Sanjay Wagle, renewable energy adviser to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Extending the grant program is one of the industry’s top priorities, Wagle said.

Effect on Jobs

“The purpose of it is jobs in 2010,” Wagle said in an interview yesterday. “So what the industry needs to do is to articulate clearly the impact on jobs in 2010.”

A two-year extension to the renewable energy tax grants was introduced in the House yesterday. Passage may be delayed until the fourth quarter, so that developers seeking to benefit from the incentives hire workers to complete projects this year, said Todd Coles, a partner at Troutman Sanders LLP in Washington.

“If the extension is put in place now, the immediate effect on jobs would be diminished,” Coles said on a panel today. “But at some point you’ll have projects stop moving forward without an extension.”

A new peer-reviewed life cycle profile released by the United Soybean Board (USB) documents multiple energy and environmental benefits of U.S. soybean farming and processing, including biodiesel. This press release has details:

“This profile is the first comprehensive life cycle study covering U.S. soybean production through four major biobased products,” said Wynne, Arkansas soybean farmer John Cooper, a USB Director and Member of the USB Domestic Marketing Committee. “U.S. soy already delivers environmental and energy benefits. It’s exciting to see the trends point to even more in the future.”

The study provides an important resource for companies to update life cycle assessments on their specific products made using U.S. soy.

“The United Soybean Board’s study sheds even more light on why biodiesel is good for the environment,” says National Biodiesel Board Director of Sustainability Don Scott. “Biodiesel production and use recognizes and builds on this progress.”

For example, biodiesel production facilities reduced their energy consumption by 27% compared to the 1998 data. Biodiesel has even more benefits when one calculates the emissions reductions when it is used to fuel a vehicle.

A key objective was to update life cycle inventory (LCI) databases for soybean production and processing as well as conversion into four key soy-derived feedstocks (methyl soyate, soy lube base stock, soy polyol, and soy resin) used in fuel and industrial products. Its cradle-to-gate scope begins with soybean farming (the cradle) and goes through processing of products (the gate).

Another important aspect of this study is that it’s based on U.S. agricultural data for the 2001-2007. The data the Department of Energy’s U.S. Life Cycle Inventory is based on comes from 1998 to 2001. And it contains soybean crushing information not previously available.