Battery systems in electric vehicles are expected to outlast the vehicles themselves. Thus at the end of the car’s life, the battery system should still retain 70% of it’s storage capacity. These used battery systems would not be strong enough to power another new vehicle but could they be used for home power systems?
ABB, in partnership with 4R Energy, Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) and Sumitomo Corporation of America is looking into technical and commercial evaluations of battery energy storage units. The following video is an interview with Jochen Kreusel, ABB’s Head of Smart Grids:
Power systems using batteries, controllers and inverters are in use today. With a new source of “cheap” reusable batteries, this should be a no-brainer application. Commercial use would likely center on storage for Wind Turbines, which produce power at off-peak times. Solar systems already produce power at peak intervals, though weekend usage requirements are lower.
As the owner of a hybrid car, I’m looking forward to reusing my EV battery for home use. Add the appropriate controller/inverter to charge the batteries during cheap evening power times, then power my home during the expensive daytime period from my batteries. Once my 20 year contract expires for my roof mounted solar system, I can use that source to charge the batteries on weekends as well. Maybe future electricity rates won’t “drive” me to the poor house after all.
Someone who needs a puppet to push their Tar Sands agenda, that’s who. To quote the Natural Resources Canada website “Joe Oliver was elected to the House of Commons for the first time in May 2011. He was appointed Minister of Natural Resources on May 18, 2011. Prior to his election to Parliament, Mr. Oliver had a career in the investment banking industry. He began his investment banking career at Merrill Lynch, and served in senior positions at other investment dealers and as Executive Director of the Ontario Securities Commission. ”
No wonder Canada has a Minister of Natural Resources that openly attacks environmental groups in support of further Tar Sands development. “They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest.” Wake-up Joe…. who do you think owns the multi-billion dollar oil companies? And what do you think their agenda might be… rape and pillage Canada’s resources leaving behind an environmental disaster that impacts the whole planet!
Joe, you need to concentrate on preserving Canada’s natural resources, not job creation through Tar Sands expansion. Worried about more jobs? Do a much better job of measuring and managing the environmental impacts in Northern Alberta. And how about putting some regulations in place with real penalties. Maybe you won’t shut down the Tar Sands completely, but stop the expansion till those involved have truly cleaned up the mess they have created to date. The cleanup needs to take place now and needs to be paid for, by the companies that make the mess, before they depart and weasel out of their responsibilities again. The funding they have set aside to do the cleanup sometime in the future, is a very sad joke!
The Independent published an article this week from a group of Russian scientists who found:
“Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region. The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.”
“Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of metres in diameter. This is the first time that we’ve found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It’s amazing,” Dr Semiletov said. “I was most impressed by the sheer scale and high density of the plumes. Over a relatively small area we found more than 100, but over a wider area there should be thousands of them.”
Dr Semiletov released his findings for the first time last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
Scientists estimate that there are hundreds of millions of tonnes of methane gas locked away beneath the Arctic permafrost. One of the greatest fears is that with the disappearance of the Arctic sea-ice in summer, and rapidly rising temperatures across the entire region, which are already melting the permafrost, the trapped methane could be suddenly released into the atmosphere leading to rapid and severe climate change.
The UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa, this month, did not provide any hope of preventing a very significant increase in global temperature. No concrete details were agreed to. And the time frames suggested are far to late to be effective. Canada, which had signed onto the original Kyoto Protocol, committing to reduce CO2 production by 6% from their 1997 levels, had actually done worse than nothing… in 2011 they produced 30% MORE CO2 than in 1997. Surprise, surprise, Canada announce last week that they are pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol. The accord requires countries to give a year’s notice to withdraw. Mr Kent said the move saves Canada 14 billion dollars in penalties for not achieving its Kyoto targets. Canadians obviously don’t care about the planet, it’s all about oil and money!
So what do we do now? Is it time to buy a small patch of land in the north and build that shelter?
International Energy Agency warns that dangerous climate change will be essentially irreversible within five years. Drastic changes to energy and industrial practices are needed, the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook.
Such a shift looks unlikely given the current economic environment. Emerging economies continue to focus on cheap coal for electrical production as they attempt to increase their standard of living. Still, their production of CO2 per person, is no where close to the CO2 production per person, of the western world.
Even if all countries followed through on their existing promises to reduce CO2 emissions and invest in clean energy, temperatures would rise to a disastrous level. The severe consequences include a rising sea level of as much as 6 feet, drought, floods, heat waves, reduced food production and increased disease and mortality rates.
In related news, the EPA’s new air-pollution standards, to be introduced in December, face stiff opposition from US power companies with aging coal plants. The new rules would require old coal plants that produce large quantities of mercury and other pollutants, to be taken off-line within three years. Some companies, such as Southern Co. and American Electric Power Co., claim they can not meet the deadlines. They have suggested a time frame of at least six years – one year past the IEA’s POINT OF NO RETURN date.
Starting in July 2012, Australia will introduce a Carbon Tax of $23 per tonne for the countries 500 largest companies. The price will float, based on market pricing, starting in 2015.
Money generated by the Carbon Tax, will go towards increased pensions and household payments, to offset costs increases to the average citizen (electricity for example). Australia has one of the world’s highest per capita rates of carbon emissions, due in part to its reliance on coal for generating energy.
The European Union runs the worlds largest Carbon Tax system today. New Zealand also has a carbon tax, though Australia will be one of the largest single nations, now supporting carbon taxes.
TD Canada Trust is retrofitting a branch office in London Ontario to achieve Zero Impact from an electrical perspective. The bank already has a Zero Impact branch in Florida, but that branch was designed and built to spec. This will be their first Retrofit down to a net-zero level. Retrofits include new LED lighting, high efficiency heating and cooling, parking structure with solar panels and three solar tracking arrays.
Also included are two charging stations for electric vehicles, a solar amphitheater with Wi-Fi to be used by the neighboring public school and a real-time power monitor in the school, and drought tolerant grass, trees and shrubs.
The bank plans to install solar panels on 10 additional branches in Ontario (Ontario has a Feed-in Tariff) and already has solar panels on another office in London.
The world’s population is expected to hit 7 Billion this week, on Oct 31, 2011. That’s 1 Billion more people in the last 12 years (1999), 2 Billion over 24 years (1987). The earth had only 3 Billion people in 1960. Obviously the world can not support such runaway human populations. The 10 countries with the largest populations (4,054,510,000 total) include:
China – 1,336,718,000
India – 1,189,173,000
USA – 313,232,000
Indonesia – 245,613,000
Brazil – 203,430,000
Pakistan – 187,343,000
Bangladesh – 158,570,000
Nigeria – 155,215,000
Russia – 138,740,000
Japan – 126,476,000
Population grow rates are expected to slow slightly. But even at these slower rates, the world population is expected to reach 9 Billion by 2043. How will the world support so many hungry mouths?
If we assume that all people on this plant are created equal and therefore all people have the right to the same standard of living, then it’s obvious that the Western World must reduce their impact on our planet. The world will never support 7 Billion people, each with a home, clean running water, sewage, electricity, heat and cooling, ample transportation, grocery stores packed with food grown thousands of miles away…
This is not a problem we can leave to our kids to resolve!
According to a new report release October 17, 2011 by The Solar Foundation, as of August 2011 the USA has 100,237 people employed in solar jobs. This represents a 6.8% growth year-over-year, whereas the overall job growth for the country was a slim 0.7%. Highlights of the report include:
- 100,237 jobs as of August 2011
- 6.8% growth from August 2010 to August 2011 – growing nearly ten times faster than the overall economy
- 6,735 new solar jobs created between August 2010 and August 2011
- Employers expect to increase their workforce by 24% next year, creating 24,000 net new solar jobs
