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1. Algae Fuel Roundup: Planes, Virginia & Algenol's Billion-Gallon Plant
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2. Cadmium: The Dark Side of Thin-Film?
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3. Rhode Island Picks Deepwater Wind to Build Offshore Farm
Algae Fuel Roundup: Planes, Virginia & Algenol's Billion-Gallon...
Craig Rubens - Big Green
The prospect of turning cheap, slimy algae into valuable, high-grade fuels has attracted millions of dollars of investment, including those of Bill Gates. He’s not alone — everyone from airlines to municipalities to foreign federal governments are intrigued by the possibilities. Here’s a roundup of this week’s algae fuel news.
Boeing Hopes Greener Jet Fuel Will Fly: Boeing, along with a consortium of airlines and Honeywell’s energy technology developer UOP, have established the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group to develop better jet fuels. The sustainability of aviation biofuels will be guided by the World Wildlife Fund’s Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and the National Resource Defense Council. The group’s first projects will examine the lifecycle impact of fuels derived from algae and jathropa. Nine airlines from all over the world are part of the initiative and collectively account for 15 percent of all jet fuel burned, the group says. Startups like Solazyme, Aquaflow Binomics, Sapphire Energy and a new company from Arizona State University's Laboratory for Algae Research & Biotechnology are all developing algae biofuels they hope will take wing.
Virgina Opens Experimental Algae Farm: The Old Dominion has opened its first algae farm with the intention of using polluted waste water to make valuable biofuel. Currently, sewage rife with nitrogen, phosphorus and ammonia is being dumped into Chesapeake Bay causing algal blooms to grow and choke out other life. Algal Farms Inc. is working with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and the city of Hopewell, Va. to redirect the fertile waste water to its hungry algae. The plant currently spans just one acre but the plan is to scale it up to 2,000 acres producing some 6 million gallons of fuel a year in the next six years. The public-private venture even reportedly has ecumenical support: “Lord,” Reverend Macon Walton prayed, “bless, keep and protect this farm and this algae.”
Algenol Makes Ethanol Directly from Algae: Most algae-to-fuel startups grow algae so they can process the microplants into fuel. Naples, Fla.-based Algenol has a different method — collect ethanol vapors from the algae, which involves neither killing the plants or nor the use of an expensive refining process. The startup’s founder, Paul Woods, has been working on the science since the 1980s and reportedly has $70 million in backing. The next step is a massive $850 million project with Sonora Fields S.A.P.I. de C.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mexican-owned BioFields. Alegnol says the project will start operations next year in Mexico and will eventually deliver a billion gallons of cheap fuel a year. Olé!
Cadmium: The Dark Side of Thin-Film?
Robert Mullins - Energy
The future of the solar power industry may be bright, but solar also has a dark side — the panels being built today have an estimated lifespan of 30 to 40 years and then are largely discarded. The problem with that is that some thin-film photovoltaic solar cells contain hazardous substances like cadmium that can pose a health risk if the solar panel is simply thrown out after it's done soaking up the sun. The issue is important enough that in late October, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), which lobbies to keep old computer parts from being dumped, plans to release a report raising concerns about cadmium in solar panels and urging manufacturers to reclaim old panels to keep cadmium out of the waste stream.
Only about 1 percent of electrical generation globally comes from solar today, but that is expected to grow to 20 or 40 percent by 2020, according to McKinsey & Co. SVTC cites forecasts such as that to argue that the solar industry should develop best practices now to ensure solar panel makers take responsibility for the product lifecycle.
"The writing is pretty much on the wall that solar panels have materials in them that need to be recovered because some of them are hazardous," said Shelia Davis, executive director of the SVTC. Although relatively few solar panels have reached end of life, she's concerned that when more of them are retired, they could end up with other construction debris in landfills.
Cadmium, a byproduct of copper, lead and zinc mining, can be really bad for humans and the ecosystem. It's a toxic metal that can cause kidney and breathing problems, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The European Union has also banned cadmium from being used in batteries and electronics.
Cadmium is used in one of the leading new thin-film PV panel types, but as a compound that manufacturers argue is much safer than cadmium alone. Thin-film solar leader First Solar uses cadmium-telluride to make the semiconductors that are sandwiched between two sheets of glass to convert the sunlight into electricity. So do newer startups like AVA Solar.
Cadmium-telluride (called cad-tel for short) is a more cost-effective way of making thin-film PVs than the older crystalline silicon design. AVA Solar's vice president of marketing, Russell Kanjorski, said cad-tel is a compound that renders the cadmium inert, reducing the risk of contamination versus cadmium alone. Tests by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory showed that cad-tel would have to be heated to 1,041 degrees Celsius before it breaks down. Most roof fires burn at temperatures of 800-900 degrees.
Nonetheless, OSHA labels cad-tel a hazardous material that must be handled with caution in the manufacturing process as if it were cadmium, Kanjorski added. And when it starts shipping its first solar panels, AVA Solar will set aside a certain amount of money from each sale to fund a reclamation program. "You don't want to be a green company but then leave a problem 30 or 40 years from now," he noted. First Solar also offers a reclamation program.
At this point AVA and First Solar seem to be in the minority. Reclamation programs are a low priority for startups focused more on raising capital and building production, pointed out Graham Stevens, associate director of the energy practice at Navigant Consulting. "It's not surprising that on the cadmium telluride side some of the smaller companies that are startups are not as focused on the environmental issues," he said. Stevens anticipates many will eventually develop reclamation programs once their businesses mature.
Cad-tel thin film panels are poised for strong growth as the overall solar industry grows. The thin-film solar panel market grew 126 percent in 2007, over 2006, primarily due to growth of the cad-tel product, according to Navigant research. The two other thin film types are copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), which has one-hundredth the amount of cadmium as cad-tel, and amorphous silicon, which contains no cadmium, said Stevens.
Ultimately, that’s the purpose of the forthcoming SVTC report: to deal with cad-tel now before it gets too big. The SVTC's Davis says she intends for her report to draw attention to the problem and encourage solar panel makers to deal with end-of-life issues for their products now.
Rhode Island Picks Deepwater Wind to Build Offshore Farm
Craig Rubens - Energy
As Republicans in Congress clamor for offshore drilling, Rhode Island’s Republican governor, Don Carcieri, has been looking to tap into offshore wind. The state will reportedly announce today that it’s selected Deepwater Wind for an offshore wind energy project that could cost up to $2 billion. The state hopes the massive project will be able to produce 15 percent of the state’s electricity from 100 turbines located 15-20 miles offshore.
But the project is anything but a sure thing. Deepwater Wind will still have to jump through a number of regulatory hoops, not to mention raise capital and find a power purchaser. The firm was able to beat out competing wind developers by including in their proposal plans for a new manufacturing headquarters in the state, which could employ as many as 800 people. New Jersey-based Deepwater Wind is backed by First Wind, DE Shaw & Co. and Ospraie Management.
A number of offshore wind projects in the northeast are in various stages of development, but no turbines have been put in the water yet. The Minerals Management Service is expected to release a final environmental analysis of the Cape Wind project by the end of the year, which has met heavy resistance. Farther south, the Long Island Power Authority announced this week that it is looking to build a wind farm 10 miles off the coast of Queens in conjunction with local utility Con Edison. Maybe Mayor Bloomberg will get his wind-powered Statue of Liberty after all.
The development process for these projects can easily stretch to a decade. In Delaware, the country’s most advanced offshore wind project is progressing slowly. Bluewater Wind has gotten as far as signing a power purchase agreement for 200 megawatts of offshore wind power with Delaware utility Delmarva Power. The project is scheduled to start delivering power in 2012.
Critics claim offshore wind is currently just too expensive, especially with so many sites on land left to be developed. For while the middle of the country can serve as a great wind energy corridor, the vast majority of the energy-consuming population is crowded along the nation’s coasts, where strong, consistent winds blow out onto the open ocean.
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