John Hagopian, who is leading the effort involving 10 Goddard technologists announced the team of engineers working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., reported their findings recently at the SPIE Optics and Photonics conference, the largest interdisciplinary technical meeting in this discipline. The team has since reconfirmed the material’s absorption capabilities in additional testing.

Hagopian said in the press release, “The reflectance tests showed that our team had extended by 50 times the range of the material’s absorption capabilities. Though other researchers are reporting near-perfect absorption levels mainly in the ultraviolet and visible, our material is darn near perfect across multiple wavelength bands, from the ultraviolet to the far infrared. No one else has achieved this milestone yet.”

For solar thermal this is big news.

The nanotech-based coating is a thin layer of multi-walled carbon nanotubes, tiny hollow tubes made of pure carbon about 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair. They are positioned vertically on various substrate materials much like a shag rug. The team has grown the nanotubes on silicon, silicon nitride, titanium, and stainless steel, materials commonly used in space-based scientific instruments.

Carbon Nanotube Light Absorber Close Up. Click image for more info.

To grow the carbon nanotubes, Goddard technologist Stephanie Getty applies a catalyst layer of iron to an underlayer on silicon, titanium, and other materials. She then heats the material in an oven to about 1,382 degrees Fahrenheit. While heating, the material is bathed in carbon-containing feedstock gas.  Sounds simple and probably isn’t.

The tests indicate that the nanotube material is especially useful for a variety of spaceflight applications where observing in multiple wavelength bands is important to scientific discovery. One such application is stray-light suppression. The tiny gaps between the tubes collect and trap background light to prevent it from reflecting off surfaces and interfering with the light that scientists actually want to measure. Because only a small fraction of light reflects off the coating, the human eye and sensitive detectors see the material as black.

Of particular interest, the team found that the material absorbs 99.5 percent of the light in the ultraviolet and visible, dipping to 98 percent in the longer or far-infrared bands. “The advantage over other materials is that our material is from 10 to 100 times more absorbent, depending on the specific wavelength band,” Hagopian said.

We’re not going to complain about 98% infrared absorption.

Goddard engineer Manuel Quijada, who co-authored the SPIE paper and carried out the reflectance tests said, “We were a little surprised by the results. We knew it was absorbent. We just didn’t think it would be this absorbent from the ultraviolet to the far infrared.”  Let’s take surprised up to thrilled, these are impressive results.

Obviously NASA has its agenda.  If used in detectors and other instrument components, the technology would allow scientists to gather hard-to-obtain measurements of objects so distant in the universe that astronomers no longer can see them in visible light or those in high-contrast areas, including planets in orbit around other stars, Hagopian said. Earth scientists studying the oceans and atmosphere also would benefit. More than 90 percent of the light Earth-monitoring instruments gather comes from the atmosphere, overwhelming the faint signal they are trying to retrieve.

Currently, instrument developers apply black paint to baffles and other components to help prevent stray light from ricocheting off surfaces. However, black paints absorb only 90 percent of the light that strikes it. The effect of multiple bounces on paint makes the nano tube coating’s overall advantage even larger, potentially resulting in hundreds of times less stray light.

Additionally black paints do not remain black when exposed to the cold cryogenic temperatures in space. They take on a shiny, slightly silver quality, said Goddard scientist Ed Wollack, who is evaluating the carbon-nanotube material for use as a calibrator on far-infrared-sensing instruments that must operate in super-cold conditions to gather faint far-infrared signals emanating from objects in the very distant universe. If these instruments are not cold, thermal heat generated by the instrument and observatory, will swamp the faint infrared they are designed to collect.

Another NASA agenda point that’s worth noticing is black materials also serve another important function on spacecraft instruments, particularly infrared-sensing instruments, added Goddard engineer Jim Tuttle. The blacker the material, the more heat it radiates away. In other words, super-black materials, like the carbon nanotube coating, can be used on devices that remove heat from instruments and radiate it away to deep space. This cools the instruments to lower temperatures, where they are more sensitive to faint signals.  We earthlings are thinking about heat exchangers and heat sinks now.

Ed Wollack said, “This is a very promising material, it’s robust, lightweight, and extremely black. It is better than black paint by a long shot.”

While NASA is hot on the outer space applications and should be, this is another technology that has powerful transfer potential to the private industrial sector.  Thermal solar power is already well on its way to being a leading alternative energy source and a new technology of nearly complete solar radiation absorption is strong new building block for even more development.

It will be interesting to re report on this if and when the technology is released to manufacturers and what the gain might be for a thermal collector with the new nanotubes harvesting essentially, the whole of the available energy.  For now its exciting news, no costs are available, nor details of production. But the interest is going to be high if the technology can be used in concentrated collector designs.  If the nanotubes can stand it we might be getting process dry steam from the sun – and that would be something.

Prof. Kribus has developed a new technology that combines the use of conventional fuel with the lower pressures and temperatures of steam produced by solar thermal power, allowing plants to be hybrid, replacing 25 to 50 percent of their fuel use with green energy.

The professor explains most power plants create power by using fuel.  Solar thermal power plants use high temperatures and pressures generated by sunlight to produce turbine movement are currently the industry’s environmentally friendly alternative. But it’s an expensive option, especially when it comes to equipment made from expensive metals and the solar high-accuracy concentrator technology used to harvest solar energy.

In a solar thermal power plant, sunlight is harvested to create hot high-pressure steam, approximately 400 to 500 degrees centigrade. This solar-produced steam is then used to rotate the turbines that generate electricity.

Prof. Kribus cautions that it is somewhat unrealistic economically for the power industry. “It’s complex solar technology,” he explains. The materials alone, which include pipes made from expensive metals designed to handle high pressures and temperatures, as well as fields of large mirrors needed to harvest and concentrate enough light, make the venture too costly to be widely implemented.

A Turbine Inspection

With his graduate student Maya Livshits, Prof. Kribus is developing an alternative technology, called a steam-injection gas turbine.  “We combine a gas turbine, which works on hot air and not steam, and inject the solar-produced steam into the process,” he explains. “We still need to burn fuel to heat the air, but we add steam from low-temperature solar energy, approximately 200 degrees centigrade.” This hybrid cycle is not only highly efficient in terms of energy production, but the lowered pressure and heat requirements allow the solar part of the technology to use more cost-effective materials, such as common metals and low-cost solar collectors.

Kribus and Livshits’ method presents a potentially cost-effective and realistic way to integrate solar technology into today’s power plants is to be published in a future issue of the Solar Energy Journal.

Its not a totally alternative solution, but substituting a quarter to half of the fuel with solar is no small thing. A hybrid plant does offer a more realistic option for the coming decades.

Krivbus points out electricity from solar thermal power plants currently costs about twice as much as electricity from traditional power plants.  If this doesn’t change, solar technology may never be widely adopted.  Kribus and Livshits’ hope that a hybrid plant will have a comparable cost to a fuel-based power plant, making the option of replacing a large fraction of fuel with solar energy more competitive and practical.

The news story offered at the university site doesn’t address the peak load issues, nor the impact on a plant’s productivity after sundown.  But from the point of view in the Middle East where air conditioning is a major part of power use, the harvest of solar during the day’s heating period should make great sense.

Kribus and Livshits are starting a collaboration with a university in India to develop the design in more detail, and are looking for corporate partnerships that are willing to put hybrid technology into trial use.  Kribus knows it’s a stepping-stone that will help introduce solar energy into the industry in an accessible and affordable way.

This is quite an innovative approach.  We’ll be keeping an eye out for how the application of Indian engineering and more minds up close can improve the basic concept.  The first impression on the physics seem good, now if they can just keep the power level up into night . . .

Amazing.  This thermal panel works astonishingly well.  Note – don’t test the thermal conductivity of an aluminum can with a heat source that can burn skin – the cans conduct heat very quickly.

Cansolair RA240. Click image for the largest view.

Jim Meaney of Colliers, Newfoundland, Canada first started experimenting with his solar panel idea back in 1977 more or less as a hobby until 1989. He tried different styles and prototypes until finally developing and testing the current Model RA 240 SOLAR MAX (RA240) with the assistance of Canada’s National Research Council.  In 1992, Jim received an honorable mention from the Innovation Center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

In 1994 Mr. Meaney formed Cansolair Inc. and continued further development of his prototype until receiving the safety and electrical certifications.  In 2003, Jim received one of Canada’s Regional Innovation Awards for his contribution to the advancement to sustainable development.  Cansolair’s solar heating panels have since achieved REDI Compliance (Renewable Energy Deployment Initiative), qualifying them for a 25% Commercial and Institutional rebate for Canadians.

So far as your humble writer can tell, Mr. Meaney was and is barely coming out from true home garage innovation and development.  The design has been around awhile – but this is truly a self-reliant individualist story.  The Cansolair (RA 240) has been on the market since 2001 with sales growing exponentially. Since 2003, Cansolair has continued to develop its network internationally and has sent its solar heating product to over ten countries.

At long last media coverage has increased the public’s awareness of the economic and environmental benefit of using solar energy to help heat homes and businesses.  Cansolair expects to see increased demand for its product as more people decide to become a part of the solar solution and get free heating without pollution.

An RA240 is a forced convection solar heating – which means the air of the home is cycled into the solar panel – no energy lost warming something then warming the air. Another advantage is a dwelling of 1000 square feet would have a complete air change in one and half hours.

A quiet and powerful fan draws the relatively cooler and heavier air through a filter from near the floor at ninety cubic feet per minute.  The filtered air is pumped through first check valve that keeps the air going only one way to the specially modified collector core, and then back into your living space through second check valve near the ceiling.  The check valves stop convection, provide a barrier and allow a thermostat to control the introduction of heat into a living space.

Meaney has built a new product from the intense effort of the aluminum industry to answer the needs of the individual drink serving container business.  Between aluminum, steel, plastic and glass, aluminum is a winner.  It’s because the industry has learned to draw a very small amount of aluminum into a cup and attach a sealing lid a very low cost.  That very thin wall allows near instant heat transfer and high efficiency.

Meany in his turn exploits that very thin aluminum can by making the tube after cutting out the ends and building up a tube with the remaining base of the can promoting turbulence and increasing the efficiency.

Manufacturing is a short list of processes.  The result is a very light and strong thermal collector.  The low costs of the now sophisticated recycled cans into solar to heat transfer allows Meaney to spend big on a long lived cover acting as a sophisticated lens, the manifolds at the ends of the tube array and to provide for air handling.

An RA240 has 15 vertical columns of cylindrical tubes built up from the cans, making the actual surface exposed to the sun in a dimension of a four by seven foot rectangle or 28 square feet, a bit more than 2.6 square meters.  The columns are laid out under the lens cover with a convex shape promoting a longer period of high exposure.  The tubes are coated with the most conductive black paint available for solar collectors.

Meaney is building using a lexan outer cover, which allows sunlight in and is resistant to the elements.  Homeowner’s insurers will be pleased in the wind and hail zones.  The frame is powder coated Galvalume and insulated.  The manifolds or headers are also aluminum.  The air is driven with a capacitor start motor with a backward curved impeller cage fan.

The RA240 has a quick response rate of 8 minutes from the appearance of sun to “cut-in” based on a 100º F output temperature. The Model RA 240 Solar Max uses a lexan outer cover, which allows sunlight in and is resistant to the elements.  Check the website for a complete list of the features.

Solar heating has been considered too expensive and impractical, with too long a pay-back.

Keep in mind Meaney and his company are thinking from a “way up north” perspective.  The Cansolair RA240 is only going to work better as locations more to the south are considered.  A little venting to a heat sink could save some heat for overnight.

Shopping for lowering energy use, saving money, going ‘green’, first adopters – well about anyone looking for a great way to warm up a home or business has to put the Cansolair model on the research and shopping list.

It’s a company bound to take off.  Dealer inquiries are on the site.  Perhaps a manufacturing license can be negotiated.

Get the collector past the wind and hail insurance barrier and it’ll be a major success!  $2,749C – Do you suppose that includes the install?

Naomi Halas, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the paper’s lead researcher explains,  “We’re merging the optics of nanoscale antennas with the electronics of semiconductors. There’s no practical way to directly detect infrared light with silicon, but we’ve shown that it is possible if you marry the semiconductor to a nanoantenna. We expect this technique will be used in new scientific instruments for infrared-light detection and for higher-efficiency solar cells.”

Infrared Absorbing Antennas Embedded in Silicon.

Keep in mind that more than a third of the solar energy arriving on Earth comes in the spectrum of infrared light.  This energy is what warms the earth, feels good when basking in the sun and is in part re radiated back into space each night.  Is a new take on thermal energy gathering.

Silicon based solar cells convert mostly the visible spectrum of sunlight into electricity in the vast majority of today’s solar panels, but the technology doesn’t capture infrared light energy.

The semiconductor class of materials has spectrum gaps where light below a certain frequency passes directly through the material and is unable to generate an electrical current.  This is from the spectrum at the infrared being longer or simply bigger than semiconductors can react to.  This is where the antennae idea comes in.

The Rice team is showing they can extend the frequency range for electricity generation into the infrared by attaching a metal nanoantenna specially tuned to interact with infrared light to the silicon.

When infrared light passes into the antenna, it creates a “plasmon,” a wave of energy that sloshes through the antenna’s ocean of free electrons where the wave can create a current flow.

The study of plasmons is one of Professor Halas’ specialties, and the new paper resulted from basic research into the physics of plasmons that began in her lab years ago.

It’s been known that plasmons decay and give up their energy in two ways; they either emit a photon of light or they convert the light energy into heat. The heating process begins when the plasmon transfers its energy to a single electron, also known as a ‘hot’ electron.

Rice graduate student Mark Knight who is lead author on the paper, together with Rice theoretical physicist Peter Nordlander, his graduate student Heidar Sobhani, and Halas set out to design an experiment to directly detect the hot electrons resulting from plasmon decay.

By patterning a metallic nanoantenna directly onto a semiconductor to create a “Schottky barrier,” Knight showed that the infrared light striking the antenna would result in a hot electron that could jump the barrier, which creates an electrical current. This works for infrared light at frequencies that would otherwise pass directly through the device.

Here’s the payoff –according to Knight, “The nanoantenna-diodes we created to detect plasmon-generated hot electrons are already pretty good at harvesting infrared light and turning it directly into electricity. We are eager to see whether this expansion of light-harvesting to infrared frequencies will directly result in higher-efficiency solar cells.”

This opens up some big questions.  Foremost is how good is “pretty good”?  An estimated percentage or proportion would be worth knowing.  Next up would be the costs to add the antennas to a silicon photovoltaic cell.  That in turn asks if one even needs sunlight or would ant hot radiating source do?  Would it be efficient to just forego the photovoltaic costs all together?

It’s easy to see this could a lot of different directions.  When more is known, such as the characteristics of the current generated and the efficiency another look will be worthwhile.

One does wonder if there is a chart about the energy density of the points along the spectrum arriving on Earth.  (If you know leave a comment with a a link, please.)  At high efficiency and high density this technology could be very important.

Till now the technology has been impractical for commercial applications, in part because of the high temperatures required the devices need and in part because of production cost competition from the existing technologies. MTPV’s innovation is a method that increases the flow of photons from the heated material of the solar panel to the photovoltaic section by 10 times compared with existing thermal photovoltaic technologies. The company’s innovations should make its systems smaller, less expensive, and practical at lower operating temperatures.

Regular readers and solar cell industry observers are aware that today’s photovoltaic cells only convert certain frequencies (colors of the light) efficiently. The rest of the light is just lost. The maximum efficiency is thought to be 30% with concentration using lenses or mirrors pushing that to perhaps 41%. The process change offered by MTPV concentrates the light onto a material to heat it, then when hot the material emits wavelengths that the devices photovoltaic section is optimized for resulting in a new theoretical maximum efficiency of 85%. Combining engineering steps can have a large payoff.

Theory aside, the practical engineering challenges are much harder to achieve. DiMatteo says that the company’s computer models suggest that efficiencies over 50 percent should be possible. That would be a great result.

The company’s prototypes aren’t this efficient: they’re converting about 10 to 15 percent of the heat that they absorb into electricity, which DiMatteo says is enough to make the devices economical. Keep in mind, these are early prototype rigs. Also a comparison with thermoelectric devices could be in order, as the thermal photovoltaics don’t have to source from the visible light spectrum, infra red will do. Early applications may be secondary recovery of heat to electricity.

The innovation is the positioning of solar cell and the heated material. As a student at MIT and later as a researcher at Draper Laboratories, DiMatteo found when putting the heated material extremely close to the solar cell far more photons are absorbed by the solar cell. In older technology most of the photons generated in the heated material are reflected back into the material when they reach its surface, the same phenomenon that traps light in fiber-optic cables. Bringing the solar cell and the heated material closer together, so that the gap between the two is shorter than the wavelength of the light being emitted, the surface no longer reflects light back. The photons travel from one material to the other as if there were no gap between them. The close spacing also allows electrons on one side of the gap to transfer energy to electrons on the other side. Operation in a vacuum between the heated material and the solar cell maintains a temperature difference between the two that’s required to achieve the high efficiencies. Because the heated material emits more photons, the solar cell can generate 10 times as much electricity for a given area.

MTPV Thermal Photovoltaic Cell. Click for more.

These close dimensions make it possible to use one-tenth as much solar-cell material, which cuts costs significantly, while making it possible to generate more power at lower temperatures. Peter Peumans, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University concurs, conventional thermal photovoltaics can require temperatures of 1,500 °C.

MTPV’s first prototypes work well at less than 1,000 °C, and DiMatteo says that, in theory, the technology could economically generate electricity at temperatures as low as 100 °C. Such a large temperature range could make the technology attractive for generating electricity from heat from a variety of sources, including automobile exhaust that would otherwise be wasted.

Peumans says in the other hand the technology has a trade-off: because the heated material and solar cell are placed so close together, it’s not possible to put a filter between them to help tune the wavelengths of light that reach the solar cell. This could limit the ultimate efficiencies that the system can reach.

Di Matteo began work and publishing on the concept in the late 1990s with engineering finally skilled enough for large prototypes to be practical. A primary effort is to create a heating material to photovoltaic gap that’s just one-tenth of a micrometer across and yet can be maintained over the relatively large areas needed for a practical device.

DiMatteo says that the company will improve the performance of the devices by making the gap steadily smaller, which computer models suggest will improve efficiency. With at least 2/3rds and more of the fuel energy lost to the atmosphere now, this company’s efforts seek a valuable reward from an existing resource.

Barely a year into the geothermal business the Raser idea is based on good working technology. They are using an off the shelf award winning heat pump from United Technologies set up to drive a generator instead of a motor driving the compressor as done successfully by Gwen Holdmann up in Alaska. At that time UT was looking for a collaborator to sell more units. Perhaps Raser and UT have a deal. That might be a good thing if Raser can get it all done.

Raser has reported some progress. But the avalanche of press releases that haven’t panned out to the liking of the stock-tracking people isn’t building a lot of confidence.

The science is well enough known, run a warmed source liquid through a heat exchanger to heat a secondary liquid with a very low boiling point. The boiled fluid’s vapor is what pushes the impeller in the heat pump.

Raser's Installed Generators

Raser is saying that they have optimized the generators to run on source temperatures of between 200 to 300 degrees F. This is a range that works for much wider areas of geothermal resources than temperatures needed for full flash steam generation. Gwen Holdmann and UT have shown full function at 165 degrees.

High temperature geothermal has been construction projects over 3 to 5 year periods. Raser will have done their first unit in just five months, if all completes as planned in October.

The project is in Beaver County Utah. On August 12 they took delivery of the first 50 generator units from UT and have announced they are all in place as of September 4^th with the cooling towers and hook up to go. It’s expected that these 50 generators will output 10 megawatts continuous. That will be something, a sure start on growth, as reports have the capital cost approximating wind farm and solar thermal installations but with 24/7/365 output for a very different economic picture. Reports say that Raser has eight projects underway in Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and Nevada.

Raser's Row of Generator Modules

The design is for modular generators, so that one module can be maintained while others continue to operate. Modular building also reduces costs. Raser is estimating investment recovery in 12 to 18 months.

Its also clean, no CO2 and the heat source fluid circulates in a closed loop so no fluid is exposed to the surface environment.

This should be the start of a great array of thermal recovery beyond geothermal. Practically all coal, nuclear, and gas power plants are throwing off huge amounts of heat that could be run through this type of generator. Even solar thermal will have waste heat to use.

One might think the check up is looking good. The now part of Bank of America, Merrill Lynch has committed to financing and with a successful ribbon cutting next month Raser and Untied Technologies Corp. could be the new leaders in alternative energy production. Not a sure thing yet, but few things have gotten this close since wind generation took off.

The hope is now that United Technologies can expand the market getting more sizes and other specifications standardized. Volume production could get to this business fast if others decide to meet Raser in competition.

Good Luck RASER! Congratulations United Technologies!

The Bomag 4413 Asphalt Paver At Work

Worchester Polytechnic Institute as requested by Michael Hulen, president of Novotech Inc. in Acton, Mass, which holds a patent on the concept of using the heat absorbed by pavements, (A patent on a concept?) has conducted a study of asphalt paving as a heat absorber. The idea being to use the existing roads and parking lots as giant thermal solar collectors for electrical power generation and hot water. Tuesday August 19^th 11:00 am saw Bao-Liang Chen a PhD candidate at Worchester present the information learned during the research at the International Society for Asphalt Pavements in Zurich, Switzerland.

The research sought to show the best way to construct roads and parking lots to maximize the heat absorbing qualities. Rajib Mallick an associate professor at Worchester directed the research said, “(Asphalt) stays hot and could continue to generate energy after the sun goes down, unlike traditional solar-electric cells. Extracting heat from asphalt could cool it, reducing the urban ‘heat island’ effect. Finally, unlike roof-top solar arrays, which some find unattractive, the solar collectors in roads and parking lots would be invisible.”

The team studied the energy-generating potential of asphalt using computer models and by conducting small and large-scale tests. The tests were conducted on slabs of asphalt with imbedded thermocouples, to measure heat penetration, and copper pipes, to gauge how well that heat could be transferred to flowing water. Hot water flowing from an asphalt energy system could be used “as is” for heating buildings or in industrial processes, or could be passed through a thermoelectric generator to produce electricity.

Two study paths were followed, one in the laboratory where small slabs were exposed to halogen lamps simulating sunlight. Outdoors larger slabs were set up and exposed to more realistic environmental conditions, including direct sunlight and wind. The tests showed that asphalt absorbs a “considerable amount of heat” and that the highest temperatures are found a few centimeters below the surface. This suggests where a heat exchanger would be located to extract the maximum amount of energy. Experimenting with various asphalt compositions, the team found that the addition of highly conductive aggregates, like quartzite, could significantly increase heat absorption, as can the application of a special paint that reduces reflection.

Professor Mallick noted that the team concluded that the key to making asphalt effective at energy collection will be a specifically designed heat exchanger that soaks up the maximum amount of the heat collected by asphalt. Mallick thinks the team’s preliminary results provide a promising proof of concept for what could be a very important source of renewable energy.

I agree. Professor Mallick, let me introduce you to Steven Novak at the Idaho National Laboratory who has a brilliant infrared energy collector that might be just what you’re looking for.

It’s about the money. Alternatives such as solar thermal have high investment costs, but zero fueling expenses. The comparison between building coal and solar thermal for example eventually closes the rate of return gap when the fuel cost is factored in. And coal prices are going up too, as what was thought to valid projections just last winter is now missed assumptions that shift the payout picture. Added to that is the risks of carbon dioxide schemes that will force more investment that doesn’t earn revenue.

What started all of this was some and then many states mandated that percentages of power be generated by renewable or other terms that mean the usual fuel source is displaced. As wind turbines and solar facilities get ordered they have or will experience rising prices too, so driving up the cost of installations. The rush of money to electrical generation is quite interesting – not only is demand pushing oil prices and coal prices but now it pushes component prices for wind turbines and soon thermal solar parts too. In some states, California as an early example where 20% of electrical power is due to come from renewables by 2010 or only 16 months out which becomes only 28 months stretched to the end of 2010. What is striking is that California is a very big economy by itself that imports a large portion of its generated power.

It looks like the California utilities will get to 20% sometime in 2011.

Renewable power generation has offered itself as a way to power a modern economy and it looks to be a carrot taken and swallowed with a whip for the competition in return. The truth from the facts is that companies aren’t going to stop claiming that market based solutions will change the power mix. But the history building now makes clear that something as simple as mandate from a state sized government spread over many such states can make major difference. It is working, expensive for now, but working.

That will change the political dynamic. Recalcitrant politicians who won’t vote for renewable incentives may believe they are doing some special interest a favor, but the power formula is changing. And the environmental crowd knows it. As a small piece in Discover Magazine put it, “Coercion is green.”

The table of energy and fuel policy will have to make more room and a bigger place for renewables to share in the political debate. Renewable electrical power generation is closing in on a share equal to nuclear fission, 40% of coal, and deserves a chair. The points they can offer, no fuel cost, no CO2 emissions are strong positions to pull political compromise their way.

Many say that government is in the thrall of big oil. Maybe that is a small truth, oil was, is and will be important. But by no means is alone anymore. Nuclear had an opportunity and science has given them incredible opportunities to come. A renaissance is under way and uranium can get awful close to being a “renewable” with the latest technology and thorium is in the background offering some solutions to uranium’s native problems.

We’re witnessing a power shift of historical note and huge economic consequences right now.

What is happening to electrical power generation needs close observation and citizen participation. Do not make the mistake of thinking that occupants of the chairs at the table are looking out for citizens, voters and consumers. Little is said about driving down costs, reducing regulations, increasing management, oversight, public safety and consumer impacts.

The good news is that renewables can participate and will do more over time. The bad news is we are not freed from having to think about it. The fight is on in earnest, even if the press isn’t looking. It will affect your life. It’s also just about as interesting of an economic story as we’ve seen since kerosene pushed whale oil off the market.

Three questions come to mind:

1. Can coal stay in the game, for how long if at all, if the carbon capture issue becomes mandatory. Will the pricing of coal against the income from electricity and any value from captured CO2 even be competitive?
2. Will the nuclear business find the technology and skills to build confidence such that they can go further into the technology and gain market share? The big issue is the up front costs, and political matters, public safety and other investment costs that drive a high electric rate cost. Will they make the case that their industry has a place at the table that deserves public support?
3. Can the renewables industry get to a situation where they are driving down consumer prices, have solutions that make the intermittent or overnight powering down problems a non issue and come up with answers for grid connection and long distance transmission?

I suspect all three have positive answers, but who is first with the cheapest is what will make or break individual industries. As a matter for today everyone is looking for more money and political favors. This can’t last, but the favors won, and the effort to reduce consumer prices will in the end make a winner.

The carrot stage is over – the whips will come out and slash in every direction. It will be interesting indeed.

Ausra plans on raising more money, something near to $50 million to finish the round of financing as stated by Earth2Tech. CNET said a few months back that Aura intends to go public, perhaps as soon as 2010 when two more project financings due next year are completed.

The Las Vegas factory is expected to produce installable equipment to make 700 megawatts of electrical generation each year when at full capacity. The San Jose Business Journal says Ausra plans on 6 or 7 more factories as it scales up. That would get this one company’s equipment production to nearly 5000 megawatts annually.

The problem, yes there is a problem, is the impasse in Congress over the federal tax credits for renewable power generation. Ausra’s CEO Robert E. Fishman says that may throw wrench in the buyer’s plans. Meanwhile he says Ausra is looking overseas and is talking with the Australian government about supplying power over a period of 10 years. There are few details about this, but Ausra got its start in Australia (Founder Dr. David Mills, University of Sydney) so going back is no surprise after U.S. venture capital got the development going.

At this moment Ausra is building a 177-megawatt plant on a square mile of private land in San Luis Obispo County, California. Pacific Gas & Electric has committed to purchase electricity form the plant.

Meanwhile BrightSource Energy across San Francisco Bay is ahead with a recently announced $115 million financing round from investors such as Google.org. BrightSource has contracted 900 megawatts to PG&E. Construction begins next year.

Fishman at Ausra is not distressed; he expects to be online with power before BrightSource. With more history and $73.3 million raised so far Ausra can get it done.

That’s a bunch of money, nearly $190 million, and a serious amount of generation capacity at 1.9 gigs of power between them. Its safe to say that the thermal solar guys are doing just fine.

And it’s quite satisfying to be saying that. While thermal solar isn’t in need of technological breakthroughs and research into scaling up and other early development work, it bodes well for almost everything else.

It does again cast a long dark shadow on the Congress who by falling for incentives and keeping a complex tax code in the first place needs to get responsible and provide the long term tax and financial law that keeps such large sums of capital flowing so that the buyers of such equipment and the consumers of the energy can keep the costs in line and the planning for the future in some kind of stable structure.

It isn’t capital’s fault, utilities or even consumers – it’s the dopes that run a morass of taxation and need to offer incentives to compensate, that are off work – Oh, that’s a summer recess or some excuse for not working.

Libelle suggests that raising the elevation of water might be more effective. From here on Libelle examines the mathematics in measuring out the process of compressing the air and releasing it again in the losses of the energy inputs. While not a total loss, compressing air for later release is better than a gasoline motor but not by far. The facts behind the numbers and the calculations make the case that compressing air in a simple form isn’t particularly useful form of storage.

The basic run through offers the lessons that make up the second part of the piece. Here Libelle looks into the effects that staging the compression process might have. The advantage in doing the energy input in steps or stages of partial increases with smaller heat gains each has a considerable positive impact on the efficiency. The heat loss during compression and the heat needed to maintain volume to support pressure in releases are then the prime problems. For this article Libelle only looks to the solution of adding back fuels like natural gas to burn and expand the volume, which makes for a gas turbine drive solution.

Thanks for the math and a nice explanation of the problems. But –

Science is well on its way to using heat sources for direct to electrical generation. The nano antennae and thermoelectric researchers both have ways producible and in development that can harvest a part of the heat energy lost in compression. The thermal solar research is showing worthwhile paths to using heat sinks for storing energy for later use that could be charged in compression and discharged in depressurization. Many locations could use the cooling during depressurization as a form of energy, too. To call the whole thing off isn’t looking into technology and cross applications in any depth.

Then there is the cross to geothermal. Rather than be concerned with the heat loss, just store the compressed air with its heat in a geothermal location and add the geothermal heat, too. A look at the map of the geothermal potential across the U.S. shows a huge energy supply. Using air instead of water might prove to be a boon to many locations where water, depth, mineralization, the available latent heat and other properties would preclude a water heating solution. Moreover a hot air chamber would go far to leveling the production of wind turbine output. What added energy from geothermal heat could achieve is a study begging for research. It may also be engineered to be a closed loop system, thus becoming a nearly environmentally neutral solution.

I for one am not at all discouraged, rather I see a great potential. Viability in compressed air is only limited by the imagination and engineering prowess that is applied. It may prove to be the thing that offers a bigger output from wind than anyone had previously thought. Horizontal deep well drilling is getting better by the day. What 35,000 feet of bore looping through hot dry rock could offer a compressed air stream might surprise, very pleasantly, in the resulting energy output. With some thought others will come up with more ways to use air in harvesting heat energy for work. Just imagine, a wind turbine compresses, geothermal heats further, the flow goes through a solar array and then you have a very very hot supply. There is a lot of opportunity in compressed air geothermal energy production.