Friday, December 11, 2009

Hydrogen Power Workshop

On December 9, 2009, the Stony Brook University Small Business Development Center held the first in a series of workshops on alternative energy as part of it's NYSERDA funded Energy Company Initiative. The workshop focus was on Hydrogen Power. The speakers, Dr. Robert Remick, Director of the Hydrogen Technologies Center at NREL in Colorado, and Mr. Stephan Symanski, Business Development Manager of Proton Energy Systems in Connecticut graciously agreed to allow us to post their power point slides on this blog. Dr. Remick's are here(1) and here(2), and Mr. Symanski's are here.

We also want to thank Bethpage Federal Credit Union for their generous support in sponsoring this and future workshops in this series.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

NYSERDA Awards to Clean Energy Businesses Announced

NY Awards $3M to Clean Energy Businesses:

"Governor David A. Paterson today announced the award of $3 million to a variety of projects throughout New York. The funds will strengthen and support the growth of New York’s clean energy economy by helping 18 Empire State companies commercialize clean energy technologies."

This is an ongoing grant series that has been targeted by the Stony Brook Energy Company Initiative.

Viable Alternatives to Fossil Fuels

Viable Alternatives to Fossil Fuels Still Decades Away

As the Climate Change talks get underway in Copenhagen this week, there is much attention focused on alternative energy sources that produce little or no greenhouse gas pollution. Some of these energy sources - like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal - are also attractive because they are renewable and offset the need for imported oil, gas or coal. But, it will be a long time before any of these energy sources will be a large-scale alternative to fossil fuels.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Great Lakes Wind Project

The Associated Press: NY seeking developer for Great Lakes wind project:


"New York state is looking for developers to build and operate wind turbines in the Great Lakes as part of a plan to use more renewable energy. The New York Power Authority on Tuesday invited potential developers to submit proposals for offshore wind projects in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The authority plans to award one or more projects a year from now. The offshore turbines would be the first for New York and among the first in North America, depending on when they get up and running."

Monday, November 30, 2009

Solar Energy Subsidies

Demand for solar energy subsidies puts stress on New York state program: "That should be good news for the 174 contractors registered with the state to install solar photovoltaic systems. But the demand has put such a strain on subsidies for residential solar that the state has reduced the amount offered, hoping to make a dwindling pot of money last through the end of the year.

A new round of funding for 2010 and beyond has not yet been approved, and that leaves solar power installers hanging. They can’t sign up customers until they know what the subsidy will be. And without customers, an emerging industry employing between 800 and 1,000 people statewide can’t create more “green-collar” jobs."

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Coal Generates Too Much Carbon Dioxide

Bury Our Carbon at Sea
:

"But What if you could put the carbon where nobody lives? There is a perfect place 130 miles off the eastern U.S. seaboard and 2 miles below the ocean surface. It's a porous sandstone formation, trapped under 3,200 feet of hard shale, that stretches from New Jersey to Georgia. The section off the Jersey shore alone is capacious enough to store several hundred billion tons of CO2, enough to take on all the power plants within 155 miles of the coast from Maryland to Massachusetts for the next 100 years."

DOE to accelerate algae-based biofuel development - Biomass Magazine

DOE to accelerate algae-based biofuel development - Biomass Magazine

Valerie Reed of the U.S. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy talked about the direction the DOE is taking to accelerate the development of algae-based biofuels at the Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy held this week in Honolulu, Hawaii. She said the agency intends to develop advanced biofuels—hydrocarbons and other high-density fuels that can be drop in replacements for diesel and gasoline—in a more accelerated fashion than cellulosic ethanol.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Governors commit to offshore wind energy - wtop.com

Governors commit to offshore wind energy - wtop.com:

"ANNAPOLIS - The governors of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware agreed Tuesday to a partnership to encourage the deployment of offshore wind energy in the region, hoping to capitalize on the Mid-Atlantic's enormous offshore wind resources."

Harnessing the Fuel from the Gods (Algae) | GOOD

Harnessing the Fuel from the Gods (Algae) GOOD


Among the fastest growing plant species in the world, certain strains of algae grow so rapidly that they can double in size every day. Similar to how humans might sweat when mustering the courage to ask someone out on a date, certain strains of algae—when stressed (either from a lack of nutrients or sunlight)—produce large amounts of lipids (oils). These oils have chemical compositions similar to petroleum molecules called hydrocarbons. Scientists have figured out how to easily transform these algae oils into “Third Generation” biofuels that mimic gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel.

Algae are so prolific at producing oil (7,500 gallons of fuel per acre per year) that you could displace 100 percent of the petroleum that the United States consumes for transportation in a given year on a little more than 1 percent of our total landmass. Soybeans, the main source of biodiesel in the United States, produce only 50 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year—roughly 150 times less than algae

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Slides from the October 14th Open House

Here are the slides that Gloria Glowacki and Jeff Saelens used in their presentations at the Renewable and Clean Energy Open House on October 14th in the Stony Brook Small Business Development Center Conference room.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

2nd Follower test

This is just a test.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Big Oil Bets on Algae

'Green goo' biofuel gets a boost - CNN.com

Three years ago many would have dismissed the notion that a significant supply of the world's automotive fuel could come from algae. But today the idea, while still an adventurous one, is getting much harder to ignore.

Making green from green: Biofuel from algae has been given a boost in investment in recent years. Back then there were only a handful of companies seriously focused on producing algae fuel. Now there are well over 50, according to Samhitha Udupa, a research associate with Lux Research.

The number should double within the next year or two, she adds, and private investment in algae fuel ventures has at least doubled every year since 2006, a trend likely to continue.

Last month ExxonMobil-- which has been publicly skeptical of other biofuels in the past -- invested up to $600 million into a collaborative R&D program with Synthetic Genomics, a startup founded by J. Craig Venter.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Nuclear Fusion: The ultimate source of clean and renewable energy

Toward limitless energy: National Ignition Facility focus of symposium, Aug. 19-20

Chemists are preparing to play an important but often unheralded role in determining the success of one of the largest and most important scientific experiments in history — next year's initial attempts at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to produce the world's first controlled nuclear fusion reaction. If successful in taming the energy source of the sun, stars, and of the hydrogen bomb, scientists could develop a limitless new source of producing electricity for homes, factories, and businesses.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Economic Climate Opens Door for Small Wind Energy Projects - Renewable Energy World

Economic Climate Opens Door for Small Wind Energy Projects - Renewable Energy World

Very few large-scale wind projects are able to obtain financing under the current economic climate. But falling turbine, steel and labor prices have created the perfect environment for mid-scale wind energy projects to thrive. Although total new installed capacity in 2009 may not rival the impressive 8,900 MW installed in North America in 2008, a golden opportunity exists for smaller wind development.

Small wind projects range in size from 100 kW to 30 MW and typically serve schools, farms, rural villages, businesses and municipal utility companies. Because these type of installations can access funding from various sources, they are less vulnerable to the credit crisis than their large-scale wind farm counterparts

Monday, August 17, 2009

A New Test for Business and Biofuel - NYTimes.com

A New Test for Business and Biofuel - NYTimes.com

With the twin goals of making fuel from algae and reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases, a start-up company co-founded by a Colorado State University professor recently introduced a strain of algae that loves carbon dioxide into a water tank next to a natural gas processing plant. The water is already green-tinged with life

Friday, July 31, 2009

LIPA Gets Behind Commercial Solar

Long Island Business News » Small commercial projects get a lift from LIPA

Although it’s too early to tell whether commercial solar will take off, after years when photovoltaic panels primarily graced residential rooftops, the hottest topic in solar power is commercial projects from businesses to schools and government buildings.

“In part, commercial hasn’t caught on because the technology wasn’t there,” said Michael Deering, LIPA’s vice president for environmental affairs. “And there weren’t rebate programs or tax benefits.” Deering said LIPA’s incentives - $3.50 per watt for the first 10 kilowatts and less for bigger projects - are prompting inquiries as word gets out companies can cash in."

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

BP Solar to Build Power Plant at BNL

Long Island Business News » Long Island’s green work force grows:

"When the Long Island Power Authority in March chose BP Solar to provide 37 megawatts of photovoltaic power at Brookhaven National Laboratory, it was good news for solar advocates. BP has since said it expects the project, big enough to power 4,700 homes, to provide a boost for local solar workers, generating more than 200 jobs for construction, engineering and electrical work.

A Fuel-Producing Wonder Organism

Green Tech Co. Says It Has a Secret: A Fuel-Producing Wonder Organism 80beats Discover Magazine:

Using a process that Joule Biotechnologies of Cambridge, MA dubs “helioculture,” sunlight and carbon dioxide interact with the photosynthetic organisms (to produce and secrete a biofuel). As an added bonus, the carbon dioxide used could be the emissions from a factory or power plant.

The president of Joule Biotechnologies says the organisms secrete the chemical equivalent of ethanol. “A large project would look much like a solar array,” he explained. "Instead of converting the sun’s heat energy into electrons, we’re using it to create liquid fuels” . The company claims it can generate 20,000 gallons of fuel per year from every acre of “solar converter” panels, which is far more than other companies expect to produce. Exxon’s algae project, for example, aims to generate about 2,000 gallons per acre.