The idea of us being able to toss our household kitchen compost into an hydrolizer on the hood of our car like in the movie, Back to the Future, might someday be a reality. Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) harness the electrons produced by bacteria as those bacteria feed on stuff like kitchen compost (referred to as “biodegradable material”). According to the MIT Technology Review, “The bacteria sit on an electrode–the anode–as they metabolize organic matter in an oxygen-devoid chamber. Not being able to react with oxygen, the electrons travel from the anode to the counter-electrode–the cathode–where they combine with protons to form hydrogen.” They report that researchers have made major strides in making this an affordable reality. The questions I have are:

A. How much hydrogen is produced per pound of kitchen compost?
B. Are some forms of kitchen compost better than others?
C. What about grass clippings - how does this perform?

I’m not sure if we’ll see flying cars in my lifetime, but this one concept might just get some wings.

When looking at creating your own energy, energy storage is a big issue. With solar power, you’re only creating power when the sun is shining. With windpower, when the wind is blowing. With hydropower, when the water is running. It’s a basic energy source, energy sink issue (a sink is how you use or store the energy).

To date, most people have been using large banks of batteries for energy storage associated with alternative energy. Batteries are the weak link in the whole system (and the most toxic). They have about 1/5th the life of the solar panels for which they store energy.

Larger power companies are developing larger power storage schemes. The question is, can the individual use some of these energy storage schemes as well? In the picture below, the company SolarReserve uses mirrors to focus the sun on a large stack that converts salt to liquid and then uses the hot liquid to run turbines to generate power. The liquid salt holds the heat for much longer than the conventional steam turbine solar thermal designs.

I’ve been dreaming of having my own solar panels provide the electricity to run the electrolysis process to create hydrogen from water to power a fuel cell car. If I can pull this off, I can achieve energy independence in the transportation realm for my around town driving. I could do the same thing with a plan ‘ole electric engine as well. Is this a feasible dream for an individual or is it just in the domain of the big boys? There are folks already doing just that so it is technically feasible. But is it a viable consideration for an individual?

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project. Ford and Daimler-Chrysler — provided the prototype cars — and BP, installed and operate the hydrogen station refueling equipment. The Future Energy Solutions of Air Products and Chemicals performs maintenance on the station.

The solar panels make electricity, which is then used to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is produced by electrolysis - an electric current is used to split water into its components — hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then used to power the fuel cells that run the car. The attached picture shows the Ford Focus Fuel Cell car being used for the demonstration. Right now this is just for SMUD vehicles to test out.

Yesterday, February 12, 2009 was a worldwide Twestival for Clean Drinking Water. This was where people who use Twitter to communicate with each other, got together in over 175 cities worldwide to raise money for clean drinking water initiatives. Cheetah Learning raised $2300 for Clean Drinking Water by donating 5% of revenues made for the day from their Twestival activities to teach people how to do project management for clean drinking water projects.

Obtaining clean drinking water requires power. It requires the power to get the water up from the ground and it requires power to make sure the drinking water is free from disease producing microorganisms. One of the ways to better insure that there is adequate clean drinking water is to adequately process waste water. This takes even more power. Yes you can use some low power methods to adequately process waste water, but modern day methods that insure far better processing for preserving clean water requires tremendous electricity.

The Hill Canyon Waste Water Treatment Facility in Thousand Oaks, CA uses solar power and methane to power it’s waste water treatment facility.

The solar power system cost $1.5 million to install and produces about 15% of the treatment centers power. The solar power system is owned by Renewable Ventures/MMA and sells electricity to Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant for 16.8 cents/kW. The methane system uses methane gas from the facility’s anaerobic digesters to power (2) 250 kW generators. This system cost $.5m (1/3 the cost of the solar system) and provides approximately 45% of the facility’s energy needs. This system is owned and operated by U.S. Energy. The Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant purchases this electricity at a rate of 6.4 cents/kW.

This is very interesting that the methane system cost 1/3 as much as the solar system and produces 3 times the electricity. What I love about this story is that it is the waste they are processing that creates the largest percentage of electricity to process that waste.

The inverse relationship between money spent on the system vs. the energy produced appears to be a universal truth as I have seen it in existence in many other realms. The engineers perpetual question is - how can I spend the least amount of money and get the maximum energy out. The engineers managing the Thousand Oaks facility are doing a fantastic job with answering this question.

There are some fascinating schemes out there to use solar power for your electrical needs with very little upfront investment - some appear more ready to go than others.   I was looking at CitizenRe’s approach over the weekend.    This is where they have set up an army of “ecopreneurs” to sign up home owners to have solar panels installed on their homes for a security deposit of $500 and then they have them pay a rental fee for their solar panels that is the same rate as what they are currently paying for electricity.   They get to lock in their electrical rates for the duration of their contract which can go up to 25 years.  Damn this looks like a very attractive offer.

HOWEVER, I didn’t see in their marketing material where  they have installed one solar system yet.   Now if you’re just getting into this concept,  you might think this is a new idea - but they have been around a LONG TIME - especially in terms of today’s technology time frames.

I was researching what others were saying about Citizenre and found this blog post written two years ago about Citizenre.    They were supposed to have their manufacturing facility up by September 2007.   Two years later, they are now claiming their manufacturing facility will be online by Jan. 2009.  I did not see any mention of it on their website and all their marketing material is still talking about not making any promises to people who you get signed up about an installation date.   So it appears they have missed this deadline as well.

One of the things they do emphasize in their marketing materials is that if people have the ability to put solar panels on their homes and pay the upfront costs, they should by all means do this.   They suggest people visit www.findsolar.com to find a solar installer in their area.

If you really want to do solar but you can’t afford the upfront costs, there are other ways to get into this for low cost - finance it with a home equity loan, or go with a long term lease that some of the larger solar installers offer.  They have it set up where you end up paying the same amount as you are for your electricity as well.   And at the end of the leasing period, you own the panels.  We are summarizing these plans in our March Newsletter.

If you want to go solar, I’d recommend you go with a company that can deliver on that arrangement today rather than waiting for a promise to deliver sometime in the future.  If Citizenre can deliver on what it promises, it will truly be a remarkable company.   I am hoping they succeed.   In the interim, I’m going to continue with the approach on designing and installing my own systems on my properties and figuring out my own creative ways to finance the installations.

For the past six weeks, I’ve been doing feasibility analyses for adopting solar power for properties in Nevada, Connecticut, and Alaska.  Here are some of the barriers I’ve discovered:

1. Reliability of Installers.   I have talked with no fewer than ten installers in two states.   All were very lax in returning my calls (they must be swamped).  For those that did return calls, they had convoluted return phone call systems where I never actually got to talk with a live person when I attempted to call back.  For the five I did actually meet in person to get bids to help me put solar panels on my property, NOT one, and I am not kidding, NOT ONE bothered to follow up with a bid.  Maybe a homeowner considering two systems for two properties - 3kw and 5kw is just not worth bothering with.   Anyone who wants to get involved in this industry who understands the basic of service delivery will clean up as the people I’ve met currently playing in this field are not customer focused.   

2. Availability of Panels.   Several installers told me that it was three to six months out to get the panels and forget about obtaining the high efficiency panels - the supply just can’t keep up with the demand.  I was ready to purchase a 3kw system from one company but when I went to call them back to place the order, their phone had been disconnected.   What is interesting about this, there was a NY Times Article Feb. 3, 2009 that said there was a glut of panels on the market.   Where is this glut?   Maybe with the lower efficiency panels - I can understand that.   I’m going to the North American Renewable Energy Conference in Vegas in March - I will try to find more reliable suppliers there.  If they are really hurting for money, you’d think these folks would be beating down my door.

3. Capability of existing designs.  This is a hot research field and people are discovering much more efficient and creative ways of converting the sun into electricity.   Solar dyes are one hot field where they can tint windows, wall coverings, shades, etc to collect solar energy.   

4. Availability of Grid Tie Systems - In Nevada and Connecticut you can tie into the grid and get credit so it makes it more cost effective to use solar panels.  In Alaska, you can tie into the grid, but you cannot get credits for the electricity you put back into the system.   

After doing my research and learning what is involved, my decision is do one installation on my own to learn more (and possibly see about creating a system for people to learn how to run the business of installing solar systems).  But before I make more investments on a wider scale on more properties, I am waiting until some of these new innovations are available commercially and the industry is more mature. 

According to: The program manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Program for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, John. Lushetsky, 

“To go from the 1 gigawatt of generation capacity that we have now [in the United States] to the 170 to 200 gigawatts called for by 2030 amounts to a 26 percent compounded annual growth rate over the next 20 years.  That’s a higher sustained growth rate than any industry has ever been asked to do before.”  

This was referenced in an article titled “Unprecedented Growth Seen for Solar Energy.”   The article should be titled, “Unprecedented Growth Required for Solar Energy.”

On my last trip to Alaska, on both the way there and back, I sat next to people who worked in natural resources for the State of Alaska. Both were studying ways of using biomass to create biofuels. There is an amazing amount of research going on with biofuels of all types. This is the ultimate cash from trash crop. There is a lot of trash wood (aka biomass) in Alaska. For example, Alder - it is a weed tree and literally grows like a weed. Tremendous effort is spent to keep alder growth controlled. It’s a “biomass” product. Consider seaweed - this is a major nuisance for commercial fisherman who encounter mile long rafts of it. Another fantastic biomass contributor. Algae is not something that you would think would solve the world’s energy crises - but yes, that is also a fantastic biomass source. Algae produces 30 times more fuel than other crops and grows extremely fast (plus the food demand for algae isn’t quite as high as say, corn or soybeans. . And who would’ve thought that someday we’d want to harvest algae in the desert as some researchers at the University of Nevada are developing. Most of the folks I know creating biofuels at home today are doing it with used vegetable oil from local restaurants. Another trash item that even just ten years ago restaurants had to pay to dispose of. Now they can sell it.

This all reminds me of the movie “Back to the Future” where the mad scientist toss’s some garbage in the car’s engine and off they go at warp speed. Why are we paying to move our garbage sometimes thousands of miles away when it can be a fuel source?

How do Fuel Cells Work? Fuel Cells create electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen to make water. Batteries work by chemical combinations as well to create electricity. The difference is a battery has all the chemicals stored inside and eventually lose their charge. With a fuel cell, as long as hydrogen and oxygen are flowing into the cell, electricity is produced. The electricity is produced with the only bi-product of water.

Why the big fuss about fuel cells? Most electricity produced today is done by burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuel supplies are not renewable, and because they will eventually run out, the price of fossil fuels is very unstable which creates power structures that cause adverse political and economic consequences for people who don’t own fossil fuel reserves. Additionally, the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity and power our transportation, is implicated in the majority of global pollution woes and increasing global temperatures. Perpetually created solar and wind power can create most of our needs for electricity, but you need transportable power to run vehicles. Transportation is where fuel cells offer the most promise to solve many political, economic, and global pollution problems caused from over reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels.

The website - www.fuelcellworks.com provides an excellent summary of how fuel cells work.

What can we as individuals do? Electricity generated from solar and wind power can be used to separate hydrogen from water. This hydrogen can be used to power fuel cells in cars. When creating your own power generation systems, if you create a system that produces more electricity than you need to power your home, you can set up a system to create your own hydrogen to power fuel cells. On my property that is on a south facing hill in Northern Nevada, I can create about ten times more electricity than I need between solar and wind power. Stay tuned as I figure out just how to make this a reality.

I like to go after “low hanging” fruit - that is those opportunities that are easy to grab. I’ve been evaluating where is the best location for me to use wind power and here is what I have found so far:

1. You can do “small” (very small”) wind applications in residential developments IF you can make it look like it’s a hobby.  The restrictions are:

• It can’t disturb your neighbors - think barking dog here from a nuisance perspective.
• It can’t exceed 30 feet in height - think TV antenna here.
• You may not be able to tie it into the electrical grid.
• This will limit the amount of electricity you can generate from wind power - most likely less than 1 kw.

2.  On larger lots (over 5 acres) you may be able to put up a residential wind mill,  but you have to:

• Comply with all local zoning laws (this mean getting the proper permits).
• Make sure you site the windmill in a location that gets the most consistent wind.  (I am on my way to a property in Alaska to put up a web-based weather station to evaluate the consistency of the wind speed over several months).
• Evaluate the stability of the ground where you will be mounting the wind mill structure.
• You will likely be able to generate most if not all of your electrical power from a windmill if you have a good consistent wind flow and it may be up to 1/2 the cost of doing a solar array that would put out the same power.

Of the three property locations I manage,  I am considering wind power on two properties that are consistently windy - one in Nevada and one in Alaska.   The property in Connecticut is unsuitable for wind power as is not windy there - it is Connecticut after all - peaceful tranquil, bucolic.

In Nevada, my primary concern is the permitting process as no one in my neighborhood yet has a wind mill and it is a pretty tight home owners association to contend with.

In Alaska, several of my neighbors already have wind mills.   My main concern is large wind gusts.  The lot routinely sees gusts over 50 MPH.   I have to get a fairly robust wind mill to withstand large gusts.   Additionally, the electrical company up there does not do net metering yet.   So I will have to have a battery back up system.

Because of the gusting wind issue, I found the Helix Windspire 5 KW system may work for the property in Alaska.   They offered to do a site assessment for $1500.  From preliminary conversations that did not include putting up the weather station.    Prior to comitting to their “remote” site assessment, I wanted to collect my own wind data with a web-based weather station.

I did find a very good resource for a summary of small residential wind mills - http://www.allsmallwindturbines.com/. Having earned my first engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering, I tend to prefer the more high tech designs. But there are some inexpensive “DIY” designs as well for those that like to tinker - check out www.earth4energy.com if you are interested in a do it yourself application.

That solar awning post stimulated this contribution by photographer Jody Kasch - a solar carport.  This is at the Patagonia Company in Ventura, California.  On Renewable Energy.com, it says the carport uses 360 Sharp Panels each producing 185 watts of power and produces 66.6 kw of power.  However, that did not adjust for panel or inverter efficiency.   Adjusting for panel and inverter efficiencies, this provides about 55 KW of power.   This is enough to power about 55 homes.

What does that mean?   Lets say you turn on a 40 watt light bulb.   This means it takes 40 watts of electricity to make that light bulb light up.   If you had one solar panel on your house that was rated at 185 Watts - you would lose about 30 watts because most solar panels are 88% efficient and most power invertors (so you convert the DC power from the panel to AC power to run your home lights and appliances) are 95% efficient.   This leaves you with 155 watts of power you can use to turn on those light bulbs.  That is three 40 watt bulbs and one 15 watt bulb.

Now you need to be continuously providing those light bulbs with the 155 watts of power to keep them running.   This happens as long as the sun is shining on the solar panels.  When the sun goes down, the solar panels stop producing electricity.

So what is Patagonia doing with their 55KW of power?   How are they storing any excess they create?   What are they doing at night?  These are all things you need to consider when creating your own solar energy electrical system.