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From MIT:
Professor Donald Sadoway’s research in energy storage could help speed the development of renewable energy.
By: David L. Chandler

There’s one major drawback to most proposed renewable-energy sources: their variability. The sun doesn’t shine at night, the wind doesn’t always blow, and tides, waves and currents fluctuate. That’s why many researchers have been pursuing ways of storing the power generated by these sources so that it can be used when it’s needed.

So far, those solutions have tended to be too expensive, limited to only certain areas, or difficult to scale up sufficiently to meet the demands. Many researchers are struggling to overcome these limitations, but MIT professor Donald Sadoway has come up with an innovative approach that has garnered significant interest — and some major funding.

The idea is to build an entirely new kind of battery, whose key components would be kept at high temperature so that they would stay entirely in liquid form. The experimental devices currently being tested in Sadoway’s lab work in a way that’s never been attempted in batteries before.

This month, the newly established federal agency ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency, Energy) announced its first 37 energy-research grants out of a pool of 3,600 applications, and Sadoway’s project to develop utility-scale batteries received one of the largest sums — almost $7 million over five years. And within a few days of the ARPA-E announcement, the French oil company Total — the world’s fifth-largest — announced a $4 million, five-year joint venture with MIT to develop a smaller-scale version of the same technology, suitable for use in individual homes or other buildings.

Because the technology is being patented and could lead to very large-scale commercialization, Sadoway will not discuss the details of the materials being used. But both Sadoway and ARPA-E say the battery is based on low-cost, domestically available liquid metals that have the potential to shatter the cost barrier to large-scale energy storage as part of the nation’s energy grid. In announcing its funding of Sadoway’s work, ARPA-E said the battery technology “could revolutionize the way electricity is used and produced on the grid, enabling round-the-clock power from America’s wind and solar power resources, increasing the stability of the grid, and making blackouts a thing of the past.”

The team is now testing a number of different variations of the exact composition of the materials in the three layers, and of the design of the overall device. Sadoway says that thanks to initial funding through the Deshpande Center and the Chesonis Family Foundation, he and his team were able to develop the concept to the point of demonstrating a proof-of-principle at the laboratory scale. That, in turn, made it possible to get the large grants to develop the technology further.

“It’s an example of work that sprang from basic science, was developed to a pilot scale, and now is being scaled up to have a real transformational impact in the world,” says Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative.
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Read more on the full article

Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels. Rob Hopkins is the founder of the Transition movement, a radically hopeful and community-driven approach to creating societies independent of fossil fuel.

June 2006 — A private retreat on long term national energy security and climate change among leaders and experts as divergent as Vice President Al Gore and Fred Smith, President, Competitive Enterprise Institute.

— ‘It would take mother earth 500 years to produce the 30 billion barrels of oil we consume in one year’

DOE makes awards for transformative energy technologies
Question: What do liquid-metal batteries, water-splitting catalysts, wafers from molten silicon, nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitors, and plant cell wall-degrading enzymes have in common?

Answer: These novel clean energy technologies were recently deemed to be potentially “transformative” by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The technologies are the focus of research awards by DOE’s new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). These awards—which support key links in the energy value chain—highlight the critical role MIT plays as an engine of energy innovation.

The selected projects were for one MIT research lab and four startups with strong links to MIT. The successful proposals were submitted by MIT Professor Donald Sadoway, Sun Catalytix, 1366 Technologies, FastCAP Systems, and Agrivida and will receive combined funding of $24.8 million from the new program’s inaugural round of funding. A sixth company, FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp., was an earlier recipient of an MIT prize for energy entrepreneurs.

Professor Sadoway’s “Liquid Metal Grid-Scale Batteries” project was described by DOE as a technology that “could revolutionize the way electricity is used and produced on the grid, enabling round-the-clock power from America’s wind and solar power resources.” Sadoway’s proposal, funded at $6.9 million, would use low cost, domestically available liquid metals to store energy at grid-scale. When he learned of the award, Sadoway said, “This is fantastic news. These new funds will allow us to accelerate the rate of discovery.” He noted that the funds will “enable us to enlarge our team and to expand our collaboration with other researchers on campus. The addition of new and complementary skills to the project will help us move this novel energy storage concept to a reality.”

Another successful project, submitted by a startup that emerged from MIT, Sun Catalytix Corporation, has, according to DOE, the potential to “greatly enhance the efficiency of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.” The company will receive $4 million to continue its groundbreaking work on the development of a catalyst that mimics a plant’s storage system, with the potential to be a key enabler for liquid fuel-based distributed energy storage systems. Sun Catalytix, started by MIT Professor Dan Nocera in 2008, is focused on commercializing catalyst technology originally developed in Nocera’s laboratory at MIT.

1366 Technologies Inc.—a startup initially launched from the lab of MIT Professor Ely Sachs and the only photovoltaics company to receive a stamp of approval from ARPA-E—was selected to receive $4 million from ARPA-E to pursue the development of high efficiency monocrystalline-equivalent silicon wafers directly from molten silicon; these wafers have the “potential to halve the installed cost of solar photovoltaics.” 1366 will team with Professor Tonio Buonassisi’s Laboratory for PV Research to support the project. 1366 Technologies was formed in 2008, and its board of directors consists entirely of MIT alums.

Research that underpins the proposal of FastCAP Systems—another startup whose genesis was in MIT-generated research—began at the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) in 2003 under the direction of Professor Joel Schindall. These ultracapacitors approach the energy density of conventional batteries but do not similarly degrade. According to Professor Schindall, they have essentially an “indefinite cycle life.” DOE, in its selection of the $5 million project, noted that it could “greatly reduce the cost of hybrid and electric vehicles and of grid-scale storage.” FastCAP was formed in 2009 by MIT alums Riccardo Signorelli and John Cooley. Professor Schindall and the LEES lab will partner on the project. The MIT Energy Initiative supported a seed grant for Professor Schindall’s work on ultracapacitors.

Agrivida—yet another startup with strong ties to MIT—was selected to receive a $4.6 million grant from ARPA-E to develop the ability to grow cell wall-degrading enzymes within plants that are activated after harvest. DOE selected this project because “the technology has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of cellulosic biofuels and chemicals.” Agrivida was formed in 2003 by MIT alums Michael Raab and Jeremy Johnson; at least five other MIT alums are involved in the company, which routinely hires MIT students as summer interns. Agrivida is an agricultural biotechnology company developing energy crops designed to produce chemicals, fuels, and bioproducts from non-food cellulosic biomass.

Finally, FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, received an award of over $8 million to develop an advanced wind turbine, the Mixer Ejector Wind Turbine or MEWT. While not an MIT spinoff, FloDesign received the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize in 2008, supported by N-STAR and DOE.

The five MIT-affiliated awards and FloDesign were selected from a total of 3600 initial concept papers, of which approximately 300 went on to the proposal stage. Ultimately, DOE selected 37 projects for funding from ARPA-E. In a highly competitive field, MIT demonstrated once again that it is the “go to” place for developing energy solutions with an eye toward commercialization and the potential to transform how we produce and consume energy.

MIT President Susan Hockfield noted that “The ARPA-E awards reflect MIT’s track record of inventing inspired solutions to real-world problems, and only reinforce our confidence in the Commonwealth’s growing energy technology innovation cluster.”

MIT Source article

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
DOE Report: Transformational Energy Research Projects Win $151 Million in Funding
In announcing the selections, Secretary Chu said: “After World War II, America was the unrivaled leader in basic and applied sciences. It was this leadership that led to enormous technological advances. ARPA-E is a crucial part of the new effort by the U.S. to spur the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, creating thousands of new jobs and helping cut carbon pollution.”

The keynote speaker, Robert Kennedy Jr. was a refreshing, frank, and passionate presentation. An environmental advocate and defender for many decades, long before going green was a fad, Robert showed a very good analysis of the real cost of coal and oil. I was there for the two hour speech. And I have to say, it was well worth it. I would recommend watching before the video is taken down at: http://www.solarpowerinternational.com/conference/video/

I was able to meet some of my favorite colleagues and friends in the energy industry, explore new products, develop new business relationships and watch some great educational programs.

Over the last few years Rob Styler, President of the Powur of Citizenre has become a trusted friend professional colleague in the Solar Industry. I have been supporting and promoting the solar rental program for Citizenre for quite some time. I have seen Citizenre and it’s staff and sales team go through many forms of positive growth. I am convinced this is one of the most important and industry evolving business plans in the country. The head of the US Energy Department, Dr. Steven Chu, feels the same.

Here is a snap of Rob and I having fun with the sun at the conference.

The sun is surly shinning on the Solar Industry!

This is a work in progress that gives a very good representation of how the solar industry is progressing and the states that are playing major and minor roles moving us toward energy independence with actual installs.

Well done NREL!

Check it out:
http://openpv.nrel.gov/

Current statistics as of 11/1/09:
Total number of PV installations: 57019
Installed Capacity (MW): 578.5 MW
Average cost per watt – 2008 to 2009: $ 8.88
Installed Systems by state:
CA 46764
NJ 3220
MA 1066
CT 824
CO 814
AZ 563
MD 303
NM 265
MN 52
HI 3
MO 1

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Abraham – as translated by Esther Hicks – recently gave the definitive explanation of what they mean when they talk about alignment with Source Energy.

At the end of the workshop, after spending a long segment with a workshop participant who was struggling with circumstances that seemed overwhelming, Abraham gave perhaps the most passionate and amazing rampage they have ever given. The emotional reaction of the workshop attendees confirmed its power as a touchstone for anyone wanting to know when they are in, and when they are out of, their Vortex of Creation – where the only reality that serves us truly exists.

Recorded on June 20, 2009, at an Abraham-Hicks Law of Attraction Workshop in Boston, Massachusetts.

For nearly 25 years Esther & Jerry Hicks have produced books, audio recordings and videos based on the Teachings of Abraham, and their latest book, entitled “The Vortex, is currently on the New York Times bestseller list.

This interesting inverview of Paul Hawken by Wordchanging.com talks directly to how this way of thinking is being utilized in green investing, social justice, environmentalism and sustainability.

Hawken is the author of “Natural Capitalism”

“I’d rather fail at something important than succeed at something trivial. It really is important. There’s some 516 million people with no electricity in places like India. We have a clear goal, we know where we are going with our product. The thing about it is, it can be made in Africa, by Africans, with African materials, for African people. Instead of it being made and shipped in containers from China. So that people can make their own stuff. Made in Haiti for Haitians. It can be made in Nairobi for Kenyans. It can be made in our townships, so people feel like they have something. That’s a green job: non toxic, low input, high skill, their own distribution, their own implementation. I don’t care if they sell for cost, it’s up to that region. They can make it even less expensive if they want. But our goal is to have the cheapest electricity for the poor. We think other people want it too, but it will be the cheapest electricity.”

Full Interview here