Energy Markets .Oil at $110 May Trigger Economic Pain
A recovering economy helped U.S. chief executive officers weather crude’s surge past the $100 mark. At $110 a barrel, the pain would start to kick in. As oil traded at 29-month highs last week on concern that violence in Libya would further crimp Middle Eastern supplies, CEOs said they were waiting to see how much the price rises, and for how long.
Natural Gas - The fuel of the future - NY Times
Natural gas, the first-cousin to crude oil, is a combustible, gaseous fossil fuel often found in underground reservoirs and comprised of methane and other hydrocarbon compounds. It rarely attracts as much interest or headlines as petroleum, but in the last year or so, many have predicted that a new natural gas era may be dawning.
Heating Oil vs Natural Gas - City Power and Gas
Heating oil vs Natural Gas…. Not the most top of mind issue going on these days as the news is more likely to produce a segment on the latest Charlie Sheen Twitter rant (BTW shameless plug, follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/citypowerandgas or find us on Facebook) .
Monday, October 3, 2011
New toll free number
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wholesale prices unchanged in August as drop in energy prices offsets costlier food
The leveling off is good for cash-strapped consumers, Daco said, because it puts less pressure on businesses to raise their prices. That could increase consumers’ purchasing power.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
More technical work needed to define SA’s shale gas framework
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Council boasts 2012 outlook
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
GOP fails to turn off light bulb standards
Friday, July 8, 2011
Renewable energy tops nuclear power in the US
Renewables made up 35 percent of the power capacity added worldwide last year.
Oil will hit $150 in U.S. despite IEA: Guild
North African producer Libya’s oil supply has been disrupted since February because of its continuing civil war.
Abu Dhabi hosts Africa meeting on renewable energy
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Boulder Wind Power, NREL receive Energy Department grants
Boulder Wind Power's project involves the testing of a magnet-based direct-drive generator for large turbines; NREL will test a hybrid design that involves both a single-stage gearbox and a magnet generator, Energy Department officials said.
Other organizations and companies to receive awards include Advanced Magnet Lab, of Palm Bay, Fla., to develop a superconducting direct-drive generator; Clipper Windpower, of Carpinteria, Calif., to develop a drivetrain using a chain drive instead of a gearbox; Dehlsen Associates LLC, of Santa Barbara, Calif., to test concepts of a direct drive concept; and GE Global Research, of Niskayuna, N.Y., to conduct tests for a 10 megawatt direct-drive generator that uses low-temperature supercomputing technology.
The Department of Energy will award as much as $700,000 to the project managers during the first phase, which involves a six-month period to test the cost and readiness of the technology. “Several” of the projects will be selected for Phase II awards to conduct performance tests and could receive awards of up to $2 million for the 18-month testing period, Energy Department officials said.
The individual Phase I awards were not disclosed.
Boulder Wind Power officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Earlier this year,Boulder Wind Power raised $8 million through a preferred stock financing designed to assist the firm in proving its direct drive wind turbine generator technology.
Source
Monday, June 27, 2011
Study: U.S. Cable Boxes/DVR's Fail at Energy Efficiency
These boxes, which guide cable signals and digital recording capacity into televisions, run at a constant rate and can utilize more power than a new refrigerator or air conditioning unit.
According to the study, there are 160 million set-top boxes in the U.S., and this number is increasing. These boxes run 24 hours per day, even when they're not being used. The study found that add-on DVR's use an additional 40 percent more power than the set-top box.
The Natural Resources Defense Council found that these boxes consume $3 billion in electricity per year in the U.S., and 66 percent of this power is drained when no one is even using it. Also, one high definition cable box and one high definition DVR use about 446 kilowatt-hours per year, which is 10 percent more than a 21-cubic-foot refrigerator that is energy efficient.
The study notes that the problem here is that these boxes' hard drives are constantly on, which is a design made by electronics companies and cable/internet providers. There is a way of changing this feature, but these fixes are not being mandated in the U.S., even though these fixes could reduce waiting time and inconvenience associated with these boxes.
"The issue of having more efficient equipment is of interest to us," said Justin Venech, spokesman for Time Warner Cable. "[But] when we purchase the equipment, functionality and cost are the primary considerations."
Some countries in Europe already have boxes that go into standby mode or deep sleep mode when not in use. This reduces energy consumption by 95 percent, and when a cable box is in deep sleep mode, it only takes one or two minutes to reboot.
"I don't want to use the word 'lazy,' but they have had different priorities, and saving energy is not one of them," said Alan Meier, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, of the industry in the U.S.
John Wilson, a former member of the California Energy Commission who is now with the San Francisco-based Energy Foundation, remembers asking box makers why the hard drives ran even when they're not in use, and the typical answer was, "Nobody asked us to use less."
But now, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to strengthen its Energy Star standardsby 2013. Some of today's boxes have obtained the Energy Star seal and do not possess standby or sleep modes. But according to Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the natural resources council, many of these boxes have an on/off button that just dims the clock and doesn't significantly decrease power use. Also, he noted that cable boxes are not designed to be turned on and off entirely, but adjusting the software over a cable could greatly improve energy efficiency.
As of September 1, average electricity consumption of Energy Star qualified products are to drop to 97 kilowatt hours a year from about 138, and by the middle of 2013, they must decrease to 29 kilowatt hours per year. Cisco says it plans to offer new box models this year that will comply with the new regulations by cutting energy consumption by 25 percent. It will do this by adding a standby mode, but not a sleep mode.
SOURCE
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Middle East's Push Toward Renewable Energy Spurred by Rising Oil Prices
Solar plants are cropping up in Jordan and Morocco. Wind farms are being built in Egypt and Tunisia. Eight Arab nations and the Palestinian territories have a renewable energy target, and at least five more are taking serious steps to promote the domestic use of clean energy. Some of the most surprising movement is happening in oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
- A consortium of European and Middle Eastern companies crafted a vision and a funding proposal to erect 100 gigawatts of concentrated solar plants throughout Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria to deliver electricity to Europe via a new grid of high-voltage transmission lines under the Mediterranean Sea. The project has the interest of every North African government in the region.
- Egypt last year completed a 140-megawatt capacity solar thermal power plant, the first in the country. Also in 2010, the Egyptian electrical ministry unveiled plans for a $700 million second plant with a 100 MW capacity, financed in part by the World Bank, and announced 4.5 MW of photovoltaic applications for highway and street lighting. Meanwhile, the transition government, in the months since President Hosni Mubarak was deposed, has been moving ahead with stalled plans to build two new wind farms in the Gulf of Suez.
- Morocco developed a national solar plan that calls for 2 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2020. It recently narrowed down bidders competing to build the country's first 125 MW concentrating solar power plant. Algeria, meanwhile, has begun construction on a 150 MW integrated solar combined cycle power station in the northern town of Hassi R'Mel, even as it is developing its own mini-Masdar. The city of Boughzoul, with funding from the GEF, will be a planned "low carbon city." And Jordan recently adopted a target of 10 percent renewable energy by 2020, including 1,200 MW of wind and 600 MW of solar.
- In the Persian Gulf, Kuwait has announced it will aim for 5 percent renewable capacity by 2020; Qatar this year launched the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, with a priority focus on mitigating climate change; Iran is even doing a bit of solar research; and Saudi Arabia last month announced that the kingdom aims to generate solar energy at an equivalent capacity to its oil export generating capacity. The government is investing heavily in solar technology and will spend more than $100 billion to build at least 16 nuclear power plants across the kingdom.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Oklahoma tribe unveils solar energy project