GE Press Release:

First Wind Picks GE Advanced Software to Enhance Output of Two Wind Farms in Maine

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January 8, 2013

• WindCONTROL Technology Maximizes Wind Power While Complying with Grid Regulations
• Part of a Suite of GE Software Offerings to Provide Value, Increased Energy Production, Efficiency and Reliability

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—January 8, 2013—GE (NYSE: GE) will install its WindCONTROL advanced software to help maximize energy output at two First Wind projects in Maine that feature a total of 95 GE wind turbines. The GE technology will regulate curtailment by monitoring and controlling the wind turbines’ ramp rates, effectively easing power spikes and putting less strain on the turbine compared to constant starts and stops. Click here to learn more about WindCONTROL technology.

First Wind is a Boston-based independent wind energy company that owns and operates turbines throughout the United States.

“The effect of curtailment on wind turbines has been an area of concern for us. The application of GE’s WindCONTROL technology to our wind turbines in Maine will help the units maximize energy capture while mitigating the strain on our units as we regulate power production,” said First Wind’s Vice President of Operations EJ Martin.

Using GE’s WindCONTROL, turbine owners can earn back power that may have been lost due to inefficient controls for meeting curtailment. The software automatically controls the output of each wind turbine in the wind farm, versus an approach that depends on starting and stopping units to meet a power demand. The more precise regulation of power not only meets requirements despite wind variation but also allows the wind turbines to run more efficiently and reliably without compromising grid stability. By avoiding the continual stop and start of the turbines for power regulation, GE’s WindCONTROL eases the stresses on the wind turbines and helps to extend the life of turbine components.

The two Maine-based wind farms that will be upgraded with GE’s WindCONTROL technology are located in Rollins and Stetson. The Rollins site has 40 GE 1.5-77 turbines while Stetson contains 55 1.5-77 turbines.

GE previously announced that First Wind selected GE as its service provider for First Wind’s entire fleet of 264 GE wind turbines at eight sites across the United States. The eight-year comprehensive service agreement expanded upon existing contracts with First Wind and was the first contract to cover an entire fleet of wind turbines signed by GE at that time.

“GE’s comprehensive offering of wind service solutions is a testament to our commitment to help our renewable energy customers increase power production and revenues from their installed equipment. We have a long-standing history with First Wind, and the addition of WindCONTROL software to its existing service agreement will further benefit the fleet,” said Andy Holt, general manager of wind services for GE’s renewable energy business.

WindCONTROL is one of many software and controls upgrades provided by GE’s wind services business, and it is part of GE’s broader Industrial Internet solution suite. The Industrial Internet represents an open, global ecosystem of highly intelligent machines that connect, communicate and cooperate with each other and people, leading to breakthrough levels of efficiency and productivity. In addition to WindCONTROL, GE wind services provide value to customers through advanced software products such as WindBoost, Turbine Performance Optimization, Winter Ice Operation Mode and PulsePOINT.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

About GE Power & Water

GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar, biogas and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the world’s most complex challenges related to water availability and quality. Power & Water’s six business units include Distributed Power, Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Services, Renewable Energy, Thermal Products and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE’s largest industrial business.

DECC Press Notice: UK leads EU scheme to drive bioenergy innovation

DECC Press Notice: UK leads EU scheme to drive bioenergy innovation

Engineering alternative fuel with cyanobacteria

Sandia Labs News Releases

January 7, 2013

Engineering alternative fuel with cyanobacteria

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories Truman Fellow Anne Ruffing has engineered two strains of cyanobacteria to produce free fatty acids, a precursor to liquid fuels, but she has also found that the process cuts the bacteria’s production potential. 

Micro-algal fuels might be one way to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign energy. Such fuels would be renewable since they are powered by sunlight. They also could reduce carbon dioxide emissions since they use photosynthesis, and they could create jobs in a new industry. President Barack Obama, speaking in February at the University of Miami, advocated for investments in algae fuel development, saying they could replace up to 17 percent of the oil the United States now imports for transportation.

“Even if algae are not the end-term solution, I think they can contribute to getting us there,” Ruffing said. “Regardless of however you look at fossil fuels, they’re eventually going to run out. We have to start looking to the future now and doing research that we’ll need when the time comes.”

She has been studying the direct conversion of carbon dioxide into biofuels by photosynthetic organisms under a three-year Truman Fellowship that ends in January. She presented her project at a poster session in August and published her work on one strain, “Physiological Effects of Free Fatty Acid Production in Genetically Engineered Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942,” as the cover article in the September 2012 issue of Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Ruffing considers her studies as proof-of-concept work that demonstrates engineering cyanobacteria for free fatty acid (FFA) production and excretion. She wants to identify the best hydrocarbon targets for fuel production and the best model strain for genetic engineering, as well as gene targets to improve FFA production.

She is using cyanobacteria — blue-green algae — because they are easier to genetically manipulate than eukaryotic algae, the natural “oil”-producing photosynthetic microorganisms more commonly used for algal biofuels, and because cyanobacteria can be engineered to create a variety of target fuels. Genetically engineered cyanobacteria excrete FFA and allow fuel to be collected without harvesting the cyanobacteria. This lowers the requirement for nitrogen and phosphate and reduces costs.

But current yields from engineered strains are too low for large-scale production.

Truman Fellow Anne Ruffing looks at a flask of cyanobacteria with precipitated fatty acid floating on top. She has engineered two strains of cyanobacteria to produce free fatty acids, a precursor to fuels, as she studies the direct conversion of carbon dioxide into biofuels by photosynthetic organisms. (Photo by Randy Montoya) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image.

Ruffing favors cyanobacteria because fuel from engineered cyanobacteria is excreted outside the cell, in contrast to eukaryotic algae, in which fuel production occurs inside the cell. 

In general, this is how the process works: Eukaryotic algae grow in a pond to the density needed, then producers must get rid of the water, collect the cells and break them open to get the fuel precursor inside. This precursor is isolated and purified, then chemically converted into biodiesel. Cyanobacteria excrete the fuel precursor outside the cell, so a separation process can remove the product without killing the cells. That eliminates the need to grow a new batch of algae each time, saving on nitrogen and phosphate. 

While other research efforts have focused on metabolic engineering strategies to boost production, Ruffing wants to identify what physiological effects limit cell growth and FFA synthesis.

“You can’t really hope to continue to engineer it to produce more of the fatty acids until you address these unforeseen effects,” she said. “As much as you want to do the applied side of things, creating the strain, you can’t get away from the fundamental biology that’s necessary in order to do that.”

Much of our fundamental understanding of photosynthesis comes from cyanobacteria, but it’s only been in the past decade or so, with advances in gene manipulation and recombinant DNA technology, that they’ve been considered for fuel production, Ruffing said.

The strains she engineered for FFA production show reduced photosynthetic yields, degradation of chlorophyll-a and changes in light-harvesting pigments, Ruffing said. She saw some cell death and lower growth rates overall, and suspects the toxicity of unsaturated FFA and changes in membrane composition are responsible.

Now she’s looking at what genes are changing when cyanobacteria produce fatty acids. She’s creating mutants by knocking out certain genes or introducing or overexpressing genes to see how that affects the cell and fatty acid production.

“So I’m engineering the cell, then I’m trying to learn from the cell how to work with the cell to produce the fuel instead of trying to force it to produce something it doesn’t want to produce,” she said.

She’s producing FFA from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 and Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, chosen as so-called model organisms that have been studied for several decades and for which tools exist to manipulate their genes. She also is working with the two strains and a third, Synechocystissp. PCC 6803, for biofuel toxicity screening.

Ruffing hopes to continue working on strain development after the fellowship ends.

“It is possible that there’s a natural strain out there that could be a better option, so this is still pretty early research,” she said. “There’s a lot of exploration to do.”

For more information, click here.

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

New Path to More Efficient Organic Solar Cells Uncovered at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Press Release:

JANUARY 07, 2013

Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375  lcyarris@lbl.gov

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News Release

Molecular view of polymer/fullerene solar film showing an interface between acceptor and donor domains. Red dots are PC71BM molecules and blue lines represent PTB7 chains. Excitons are shown as yellow dots, purple dots are electrons and green dots represent holes.

Why are efficient and affordable solar cells so highly coveted? Volume. The amount of solar energy lighting up Earth’s land mass every year is nearly 3,000 times the total amount of annual human energy use. But to compete with energy from fossil fuels, photovoltaic devices must convert sunlight to electricity with a certain measure of efficiency. For polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells, which are far less expensive to manufacture than silicon-based solar cells, scientists have long believed that the key to high efficiencies rests in the purity of the polymer/organic cell’s two domains –  acceptor and donor. Now, however, an alternate and possibly easier route forward has been shown.
Working at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams for research, an international team of scientists found that for highly efficient polymer/organic photovoltaic cells, size matters.
“We’ve shown that impure domains if made sufficiently small can also lead to improved performances in polymer-based organic photovoltaic cells,” says Harald Ade, a physicist at North Carolina State University, who led this research. “There seems to be a happy medium, a sweet-spot of sorts, between purity and domain size that should be much easier to achieve than ultra-high purity.”

Harald Ade led a study at the Advanced Light Source that revealed a second pathway to improved performances of polymer/organic solar cells.

Ade, a longtime user of the ALS, is the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in Advanced Energy Materials titled “Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC71 BM Solar Cells.” Co-authors are Brian Collins, Zhe Li, John Tumbleston, Eliot Gann and Christopher McNeill.
Solar cell conversion efficiency in polymer/organic photovoltaic cells hinges on excitons – electron/hole pairs energized by sunlight – getting to the interfaces of the donor and acceptor domains quickly so as to minimize energy lost as heat. Conventional wisdom held that the greater the purity of the domains, the fewer the impedances and the faster the exciton journey.
Ade and his co-authors became the first to simultaneously measure the domain size, composition and crystallinity of an organic solar cell. This feat was made possible by ALS beamlines 11.0.1.2, a Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering (R-SoXS) facility; 7.3.3, a Small- and Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS/) end-station; and 5.3.2, an end-station for Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy (STXM).
Says Collins, the first author on the Advanced Energy Materials paper, “The combination of these three ALS beamlines enabled us to obtain comprehensive pictures of polymer-based organic photovoltaic film morphology from the nano- to the meso-scales. Until now, this information has been unattainable.”
The international team used the trifecta of ALS beams to study the polymer/fullerence blend PTB7:PC₇₁BM in thin films made from chlorobenzene solution with and without the addition (three-percent by volume) of the solvent diiodooctane. The films were composed of droplet-like dispersions in which the dominant acceptor domain size without the additive was about 177 nanometers. The addition of the solvent shrank the acceptor domain size down to about 34 nanometers while preserving the film’s composition and crystallinity. This resulted in an efficiency gain of 42-percent.
“In showing for the first time just how pure and how large the acceptor domains in organic solar devices actually are, as well as what the interface with the donor domain looks like, we’ve demonstrated that the impact of solvents and additives on device performance can be dramatic and can be systematically studied,” Ade says. “In the future, our technique should help advance the rational design of polymer-based organic photovoltaic films.”
This research was primarily supported by the DOE Office of Science, which also supports the ALS.

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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website atscience.energy.gov/.

Additional Information
For more about the Advanced Light Source go here
For more about the research of Harald Ade go here
A copy of the paper describing this research is available here

TAGS: Advanced Light Source, energy, solar energy

Congress Votes to Reinstate Biodiesel Tax Incentive - Biodiesel.org

Congress Votes to Reinstate Biodiesel Tax Incentive - Biodiesel.org

NREL News Release:

NREL to Help Convert Methane to Liquid Diesel

Advanced research project could lead to lower greenhouse emissions, new life for spent gas and oil wells

Thursday, January 03, 2013

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will help develop microbes that convert methane found in natural gas into liquid diesel fuel, a novel approach that if successful could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower dependence on foreign oil. 

The amount of natural gas simply flared or vented from oil wells globally is enormous – equal to one-third of the amount of petroleum used in the United States each year. And every molecule of methane vented to the atmosphere in that process has the global-warming capacity of 12 molecules of carbon dioxide.

 

A consortium of scientists says that if the wasted gas can be turned into a liquid, then it can be piped along with the petroleum to refineries where it can be turned into diesel suitable for trucks and cars, or even jet fuel for use in planes.

 

Their proposal – to develop a microbe that eats the methane in the gas – won a $4.8 million Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) award from DOE.  NREL's award was announced as one of 66 OPEN 2012 projects, which focus on a wide array of technologies, including advanced fuels, advanced vehicle design and materials, building efficiency, carbon capture, grid modernization, renewable power, and energy storage.

 

First established in 2007, ARPA-E's mission is to advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E's awardees are unique because they are developing entirely new ways to generate, store, and use energy. These projects have the potential to radically improve U.S. economic prosperity, national security, and environmental well being. ARPA-E focuses on transformational energy projects that can be meaningfully advanced with a small investment over a defined period of time to quickly catalyze cutting-edge energy research. Since 2009, ARPA-E has funded about 285 projects for a total of approximately $770 million in awards.

 

The University of Washington is taking the lead and focusing on genetically modifying the microbes. NREL will be in charge of fermentation to demonstrate the productivity of the microbes, both the natural organism and the genetically-altered varieties. NREL will also extract the lipids from the organisms and analyze the economic potential of the plan.

 

A third partner, Johnson-Matthey of the United Kingdom, will produce the catalysts that turn the lipids in the methane into fuel. And Illinois-based Lanza Tech, a pioneer in waste-to-fuels technology, has signed on to take the bench-scale plan to the commercial level, if it is successful.

 

"We'll be leveraging our decades of experience in producing biofuels and lipids, which in the past we've typically done via algae," said Phil Pienkos, NREL's principle investigator on the liquid to diesel project. "Here, we'll be applying it to a brand new feedstock, natural gas, which is recognized as being critically important to the United States."

 

The team will start with microorganisms that grow naturally on methane, a component of natural gas, and which have a natural ability to make lipids from the methane. Unfortunately, the enzymes can't naturally produce enough lipids to make a project economically feasible. So they need some help from genetics.   A goal of this project is to genetically engineer that microorganism to both increase the amount of membrane lipids and to get the microorganism to produce non-phosphorous-based lipids that are more readily converted to fuels.

 

The end product would be a fuel intermediate that then could be piped to a refinery for final processing into diesel or jet fuel. "It would be a good feedstock for a refinery," Pienkos said.

 

ARPA-E's goal is to see the research projects turned into commercial successes, said Rich Bolin, Senior Project Leader for the Partnership Development Group at NREL's National Bioenergy Center.  

 

"If things go well, at the end of the project the economics and the technology would be there to scale it up to commercialization," Pienkos said.

 

The intermediate fuels produced could also be used on site at oil and gas wells to power equipment or keep the sleeping quarters warm – demonstrating a way that remote locations can become energy independent.

 

"The direct conversion of methane to diesel has the potential to dramatically increase energy supply while mitigating greenhouse gas impact," said Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO at LanzaTech. "We are excited to partner with such a strong team and to have the opportunity to leverage our commercial gas fermentation expertise in this new sector."

 

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

 

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GE Press Release:

International Consortium, Including GE’s Energy Investing Unit, Acquires 32 Wind Farms in France

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January 2, 2013

LONDON – January 2, 2013 - A consortium comprising GE Energy Financial Services, MEAG -- the asset management arm of Munich Re and ERGO -- and EDF Energies Nouvelles is buying 32 operating wind farms in France from Iberdrola.

The portfolio of onshore wind farms, which are spread throughout France and were commissioned in 2006-2012, have a combined capacity of 321.4 megawatts using turbines from a variety of manufacturers. Electricity generated is sold according to long-term contracts under France's feed-in tariff. The transaction is valued at €350 million, plus an earn-out of up to €50 million, depending on production over the next five years.

Upon completion of the transaction, subject to regulatory approval, the wind portfolio’s ownership will be: GE Energy Financial Services and MEAG at 40 percent apiece, and EDF Energies Nouvelles at 20 percent. EDF Energies Nouvelles will provide asset management and operation & maintenance services for the wind farms. The consortium envisions re-powering some of the wind farms, which feature 160 turbines, to improve their efficiency and reliability using GE technology.

Each member of the consortium stated that the transaction is consistent with its renewable energy investment strategy.

“This transaction is a great opportunity for EDF Energies Nouvelles to expand its wind assets portfolio in France and scale up its O&M business. GE’s and MEAG’s diligence and knowledge of this industry allowed us to sign this acquisition in the targeted timeframe,” said Emmanuel Jaclot, executive vice president of EDF Energies Nouvelles.

"With this investment we are adding more sustainable investments with calculable risk and attractive returns to our portfolio, leveraging the know-how of the entire Group," said MEAG Managing Director Holger Kerzel.

"We are pleased to partner with EDF Energies Nouvelles and MEAG in acquiring a substantial portfolio of operating wind projects in France, and intend to seek additional opportunities to expand our renewable energy assets in Europe," said Andrew Marsden, a London-based managing director and European leader at GE Energy Financial Services.

Additional details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Citi acted as exclusive financial advisor to the consortium.

About EDF Energies Nouvelles
Operating in Europe and North America, EDF Energies Nouvelles is a market leader in green electricity production, with a portfolio of 4,200 MW of gross installed capacity. With a development focused on wind and solar photovoltaic energy, the Company recently entered new promising markets: Israel, Morocco, South Africa and Poland, and is expanding its business in offshore wind energy. The Company is also present in other segments of the renewable energy market: marine energy, biogas, biomass and small hydro as well as in distributed energies. EDF EN manages renewable energy projects’ development, financing, construction as well as operation and maintenance for its own accord and for third parties. EDF Energies Nouvelles is a subsidiary of the EDF Group and its renewable energy arm.

About GE Energy Financial Services 
GE Energy Financial Services—GE’s energy investing business—works as a builder, not just a banker, to help meet the world’s power and fuel needs. We offer more than money—expertise—for essential, long-lived and capital-intensive power, oil and gas infrastructure—GE’s core business. Drawing on GE’s energy technical know-how, financial strength and risk management, we see value where others don’t and take on our customers’ toughest challenges with flexible equity and debt transaction structures. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, GE Energy Financial Services holds an approximately $20 billion global energy portfolio. More information: www.geenergyfinancialservices.com Follow GE Energy Financial Services on Twitter: @GEEnergyFinServ

About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

About MEAG and RENT
MEAG stands for best practice asset management for Munich Re and ERGO. MEAG is present in Europe, Asia and North America and also offers its extensive know-how to institutional investors and private clients from outside the Group. MEAG currently manages assets to the value of around € 234 billion (as of 30 September 2012).
Munich Re launched the RENT (Renewable Energy and New Technologies) investment programme in early 2010, which aims to invests € 2.5 bn all told. RENT investment volume currently lies in the upper-three-figure euro millions and includes photovoltaic facilities and onshore wind power plants in Germany and Europe.