New plans in the works to boost use of solar power.
By Kate AlexanderAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, January 29, 2007
The high price of harnessing the sun's rays means that Austin Energy will not reach an early milestone in its long-term solar power plan.
But the city-owned utility is laying a foundation in the desert of West Texas to expand its supply of solar power. The utility's 2003 strategic plan set a goal of building the capacity for 100 megawatts of solar power by 2020 and reaching a 15-megawatt threshold in 2007.
Right now, a little more than one megawatt of the utility's total capacity of 2,900 megawatts comes from the sun, enough to generate electricity for about 750 homes.
[Click here to view the original article]
Monday, January 29
Does nuclear power now make financial sense?
On Sept. 16, 1954, in a speech to a group of science writers, Adm. Lewis L. Strauss, then head of the agency now known as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made a bold prediction. The potential for peaceful uses of nuclear energy was so great, he said, that electricity produced by nuclear power plants would one day be “too cheap to meter.” Over the coming decades, the economics of nuclear power turned out to be more problematic. [click here for full article]
Sunday, January 28
Your hydrogen car is closer (and better looking) than you think...
Get in Honda’s FCX sedan, go for a ride and as you would expect from any Honda product, there is little drama: Put your foot to the drive-by-wire throttle pedal and off you go. It zips to 100 miles per hour, and it stops just as well. FCX gets a reported 270 miles on a full tank. There is sufficient room in back for two large adults, and its lines are almost avant-garde. [click here for full article]
Thursday, January 25
Fort Bend power plant planned: Hunton Energy would use fuel that produces low emissions
By TOM FOWLERCopyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
TOOLS
A Houston company plans to build a major power plant in Fort Bend County that it says will run on an oil refining byproduct and produce low greenhouse gas emissions.
The $2.4 billion project being developed by Hunton Energy, a unit of heating and air-conditioning contractor Hunton Group, is planned for a 200-acre site near Smithers Lake and the massive W.A. Parish power plant.
The proposed 1,200-megawatt plant, known as Lockwood Road, will be designed to produce electricity for less money per kilowatt-hour than a coal plant, Hunton Energy President Rocky Sembritzky said, thanks to a long-term contract with oil refiner Valero Energy to buy petroleum coke — a relatively inexpensive refining byproduct — to fuel the plant.
[Click here to read original article.]
TOOLS
A Houston company plans to build a major power plant in Fort Bend County that it says will run on an oil refining byproduct and produce low greenhouse gas emissions.
The $2.4 billion project being developed by Hunton Energy, a unit of heating and air-conditioning contractor Hunton Group, is planned for a 200-acre site near Smithers Lake and the massive W.A. Parish power plant.
The proposed 1,200-megawatt plant, known as Lockwood Road, will be designed to produce electricity for less money per kilowatt-hour than a coal plant, Hunton Energy President Rocky Sembritzky said, thanks to a long-term contract with oil refiner Valero Energy to buy petroleum coke — a relatively inexpensive refining byproduct — to fuel the plant.
[Click here to read original article.]
Battery Breakthrough? A Texas company says it can make a new ultracapacitor power system...
Battery Breakthrough?
A Texas company says it can make a new ultracapacitor power system to replace the electrochemical batteries in everything from cars to laptops.
A secretive Texas startup developing what some are calling a "game changing" energy-storage technology broke its silence this week. It announced that it has reached two production milestones and is on track to ship systems this year for use in electric vehicles.
EEStor's ambitious goal, according to patent documents, is to "replace the electrochemical battery" in almost every application, from hybrid-electric and pure-electric vehicles to laptop computers to utility-scale electricity storage.
The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety...
[To read original article click here].
A Texas company says it can make a new ultracapacitor power system to replace the electrochemical batteries in everything from cars to laptops.
A secretive Texas startup developing what some are calling a "game changing" energy-storage technology broke its silence this week. It announced that it has reached two production milestones and is on track to ship systems this year for use in electric vehicles.
EEStor's ambitious goal, according to patent documents, is to "replace the electrochemical battery" in almost every application, from hybrid-electric and pure-electric vehicles to laptop computers to utility-scale electricity storage.
The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety...
[To read original article click here].
Monday, January 22
Shell issues Technology Report
Royal Dutch Shell plc today issues its first Technology Report, an overview of 27 advanced technologies - some delivering benefits today and others that will shape the future of the energy industry.
The Shell Technology Report shows how the company is developing and applying technology to meet the tremendous challenge of securing the world's growing energy needs in an environmentally responsible way.
The Shell Technology Report shows how the company is developing and applying technology to meet the tremendous challenge of securing the world's growing energy needs in an environmentally responsible way.
CEOs call for action against climate change
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chief executives of 10 major corporations and business groups, on the eve of the State of the Union address, urged President Bush on Monday to support mandatory reductions in climate-changing pollution and establish reduction targets. [click here to read entire article]
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