After nine years of research shrouded in secrecy, a Silicon Valley tech firm Wednesday took the wraps off a fuel cell that it says can generate energy by combining air and a wide range of fuels without going through the process of combustion. The firm, Bloom Energy, said the solid oxide fuel cell — resembling a Polaroid snapshot both in dimension and thickness — could be a game-changer in the clean technology industry because it can be powered by either fossil fuel or renewable sources in an electro-chemical process that is both cleaner and more reliable than current options. In the company’s plans, thousands of fuel cells would be crammed into a box about the size of a refrigerator called the Bloom Energy Server, each capable of producing 100 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to power 100 average-size homes or a small office building, Bloom said. Unlike solar and wind power, which can be intermittent, the technology can run all day, and customers can earn back the system’s $700,000 to $800,000 cost within a few years through utility bill savings, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Bloom said. Several major companies, including FedEx Corp., Google Inc., Staples Inc. and Wal-Mart […]
Ignoring threats by a company to pack up and leave, a House panel voted late Tuesday to overturn the renewable energy mandate on utilities by the Arizona Corporation Commission. HB2701 strips utility regulators of their authority to impose such requirements. In its place, it puts in a different mandate, this one crafted by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale. But the mandate is full of loopholes that, in essence, would undo the commission order requiring utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their power by 2025 from solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources. Most notably, the legislation would let companies meet that mandate with nuclear or hydro power. That automatically would exempt Arizona Public Service, the largest electric provider, which already gets that much from its share of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. And it would prohibit any utility from being forced to purchase ‘alternative energy - meaning something other than coal, oil or natural gas - if it would interfere with its ability to provide services at ‘just and reasonable costs to ratepayers. The move came over the objection of commission lobbyist Amy Love, who said that, if nothing else, the move might […]
On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill aimed at getting 10 million new solar rooftop systems and 200,000 new solar hot water heating systems installed in the U.S. in the next 10 years. Cleverly titled the ’10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act (PDF), it would provide rebates that cover up to half the cost of new systems, along the lines of incentive programs in California and New Jersey (not coincidentally, Nos. 1 and 2 in installed solar in the U.S.). It also includes measures to insure that those who receive assistance get information on how to make their buildings more energy efficient. Sanders currently has nine co-sponsors: Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). The bill would accelerate what is already a fairly rapid pace of growth for distributed solar power. Distributed energy has a number of advantages over its central-plant competitors (both clean and dirty): it’s faster to build, avoids the need for expensive transmission lines, can […]
A bill passed by the Utah House and Senate this week and waiting for the governor’s signature, will make it a crime for a woman to have a miscarriage, and make induced abortion a crime in some instances. According Lynn M. Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, what makes Utah’s proposed law unique is that it is specifically designed to be punitive toward pregnant women, not those who might assist or cause an illegal abortion or unintended miscarriage. The bill passed by legislators amends Utah’s criminal statute to allow the state to charge a woman with criminal homicide for inducing a miscarriage or obtaining an illegal abortion. The basis for the law was a recent case in which a 17-year-old girl, who was seven months pregnant, paid a man $150 to beat her in an attempt to cause a miscarriage. Although the girl gave birth to a baby later given up for adoption, she was initially charged with attempted murder. However the charges were dropped because, at the time, under Utah state law a woman could not be prosecuted for attempting to arrange an abortion, lawful or unlawful. The bill passed by the Utah […]
The gap between faith and science appears for some people a simple crevice, something that can be stepped across or at least spanned. For others, it seems a continental divide with someone always trying to whip the ocean separating them into a tsunami. For example, biologist Richard Dawkins has called religion ‘an accidental by-product – a misfiring of something useful.’ Dawkins wrote the best-selling ‘The God Delusion’ in 2006. On the other hand, this week Christian ‘creationist’ Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, said American Christians are losing the cultural war because they now believe in the ‘pagan religion’ of evolution. Answers in Genesis operates the $27 million Creation Museum in Kentucky, which counters evolutionary theory and calls the Bible the ‘true history book of the universe.’ Since opening in May 2007, it has had more than 900,000 visitors. A nonprofit in Montgomery, Apologetics Press, holds to strict Bible teaching similar to Answers in Genesis. Apologetics Press publishes books, articles and other materials on creationism and presents conferences. Its leaders believe God made the universe in six 24-hour days and the earth is not billions of years old. ‘If someone does not […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
