World’s Largest Solar Energy Office Building Opens in China. Inhabitat.com

A vast fan-shaped compound in China has officially taken the title of “largest solar-powered office building in the world“. Located in Dezhou in the Shangdong Province in northwest China, the 75,000 square meter structure is a multi-use building and features exhibition centers, scientific research facilities, meeting and training facilities, and a hotel – all of which run on solar power.

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India approves new policy to promote biofuels. The Economic Times: Indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: In a bid to promote cost-effective clean energy sources, India on Thursday approved a new policy that calls for blending at least 20 percent biofuels in diesel and petrol by 2017, apart from extending incentives to encourage its production in wastelands.

"The policy endeavours to facilitate and bring about optimal development and utilisation of indigenous biomass feedstock for production of biofuels," an official statement said, after a meeting of the cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The Indian approach to biofuels is based solely on non-food feedstock to be raised on degraded or wastelands that are not suited to agriculture, thus avoiding a possible conflict of fuel versus food security," the statement added.

The salient features of the National Policy on Bio-fuels include:
-Setting up of a National Biofuel Coordination Committee under prime minister for broader policy perspective
-Setting up of a Biofuel Steering Committee under the cabinet secretary to oversee implementation of policy
-Bio-diesel production to be encouraged from non-edible oil seeds in waste, degraded, marginal land
-An indicative target of 20 percent blending of bio-fuels in diesel and ethanol by 2017
-Minimum support price to be announced for farmers producing non-edible oil seeds
-Financial incentives for second generation biofuels, including a national biofuel fund

The ministry of new and renewable energy will be the co-ordinating ministry for biofuel development and utilisation, with scientific agencies being assigned specific roles.
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Cyanobacteria: the new biofuels platform? BiofuelsDigest.com

Cyanabacteria — also known as blue-green algae though not hailing from the same biological neighborhood — may well be the hottest bioenergy platform in 2010.

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Science news highlights of 2009. BBC News

It was the year we learned of a spectacular smash-up in space, and scientists working on the world's biggest physics experiment delighted at collisions of an entirely different sort.

There were shockwaves, too, in Copenhagen, as the summit failed to reach a consensus on tackling climate change, instead merely noting a deal struck by major powers including the US and China.

The BBC's science reporter Paul Rincon looks back at the twists and turns of a year in science and the environment.

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Ultra-Lightweight, Bendable Batteries. AlternativeEnergy

December 23rd, 2009
Stanford scientists are doing the unbelievable. Who could have thought of ordinary papers as batteries and super capacitors? But Stanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly create ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and super capacitors utilizing everyday paper. They have prepared ink with of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. Silver nanowires are highly conductive storage device. They are coating the sheet of papers with ink of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires.

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Climate summit: Where's the beef? BBC News

By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

He came. He did a quick deal. He left.

That was how US President Barack Obama intervened in the global warming conference in Copenhagen and whether he saved it from total deadlock or condemned it to issuing a powerless piece of paper depends on your point of view.

The result was a political commitment not a treaty.

And it was worked out by the United States with China and a handful of others. The rest of the conference simply "took note of it", most with resignation, many with anger,

The words sound fine enough. "We emphasise our strong political will to urgently combat climate change."

And: "We shall, recognising the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2C, on the basis of equity and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term co-operative action to combat climate change."

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15 Airlines Take Groundbreaking Step in Alternative Fuel Deployment... AirTransportAssociation (ATA): airlines.org

NEWS RELEASE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2009 – The Air Transport Association of America, Inc. (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, announced today that a core group of airlines has signed groundbreaking memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with two different producers – AltAir Fuels LLC and Rentech, Inc. – for a future supply of alternative aviation fuel.

Twelve airlines from the United States, Canada, Germany and Mexico – Air Canada, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express, JetBlue Airways, Lufthansa German Airlines, Mexicana Airlines, Polar Air Cargo, United Airlines, UPS Airlines and US Airways – have signed MOUs with both producers. In addition, Seattle-based Alaska Airlines and Honolulu-based Hawaiian Airlines signed the MOU with AltAir Fuels, and Orlando-based AirTran Airways signed the MOU with Rentech.
These alternative fuels will be more environmentally friendly, on a life cycle basis, than today’s jet fuels. This domestically produced fuel will create jobs and bolster U.S. energy independence.

“Today’s announcement reinforces the proactive steps that airlines are taking to stimulate competition in the aviation fuel supply chain, contribute to the creation of green jobs, and promote energy security through economically viable alternatives that also demonstrate environmental benefits,” said Glenn Tilton, ATA board chairman and UAL Corporation and United Airlines chairman, president and CEO. Tilton also noted that discussions with a number of additional alternative-fuel producers about other projects are underway, as are discussions with the U.S. military regarding other cooperative opportunities.

“Our intention as an airline industry is to continue to do our part by supporting the use of alternative fuels. We urge the U.S. government and the investment community also to do their part to further support this critical energy opportunity,” said Tilton.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt said, “Today’s announcements reaffirm the airlines’ commitment to a greener, more stable and secure energy future, reinforcing the spirit of innovation and openness that is the essence of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative.”

AltAir Fuels Founder and CEO Tom Todaro said, “The airlines’ pledge to use renewable jet fuel sends a clear and unmistakable message to policymakers, investors and industry leaders that AltAir Fuels has entered a new era of more sustainable aviation.”

D. Hunt Ramsbottom, Rentech president and CEO, said, “This agreement is a significant step forward, establishing a framework for a large group of diverse carriers to negotiate a definitive fuel purchase agreement.”

The AltAir Fuels project contemplates the production of approximately 75 million gallons per year of jet fuel and diesel fuel derived from camelina oils or comparable feedstock, refined at a new AltAir Fuels plant to be located at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash. The Rentech project in Adams County, Miss., contemplates the production of approximately 250 million gallons per year of synthetic jet fuel derived principally from coal or petroleum coke, with the resultant carbon dioxide sequestered and the carbon footprint potentially further reduced by integrating biomass as a feedstock.

ATA airline members and their affiliates transport more than 90 percent of all U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic. For additional industry information, visit www.airlines.org.

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Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel. ScienceDaily.com

ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2009) — Global climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels.

In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

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NREL Breaks Down Walls for Biofuels. RenewableEnergyWorld.com

by Heather Lammers, NREL
Published: December 9, 2009

Colorado, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and ethanol producers are racing to come up with ways to make ethanol from cellulosic biomass that are cheaper and easier to produce than current methods. But they are hitting a wall. Cell walls in plants are making the production of cellulosic ethanol a challenge. So researchers are creating their own computer program to help model and break down the tiny fibers of cellulose — or fibrils — found in plant cells.

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