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Brown Liquor and Solar I love it

ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2012) — A breakthrough for inexpensive electricity from solar cells, and a massive investment in wind power, will mean a need to store energy in an intelligent way. According to research at Linköping University, published in Science, batteries of biological waste products from pulp mills could provide the solution.

Organic solar cells based on conductive plastic is a low cost alternative that has achieved high enough performance to be upscaled and, in turn, become competitive. However, solar electricity must be able to be stored from day to night, as well as electricity from wind turbines from windy to calm days.
In conventional batteries metal oxides conduct the charge. Materials, such as cobalt, are expensive and a limited resource, therefore, low cost solutions are sought preferably with renewable materials.
"Nature solved the problem long ago," says Olle Inganäs, professor of biomolecular and organic electronics at Linköping University (LiU) and lead author of the article in a recent edition of Science.
He drew inspiration from the process of photosynthesis, where electrons charged by solar energy are transported by quinones; electrochemically active molecules based on benzene rings composed of six carbon atoms. Inganäs chose the raw material brown liquor that is a by-product from the manufacture of paper pulp. The brown liquor is largely composed of lignin, a biological polymer in the plant cell walls.
To utilise the quinones as charge carriers in batteries, Inganäs and his Polish colleague Grzegorz Milczarek devised a thin film from a mixture of pyrrole and lignin derivatives from the brown liquor. The film, 0.5 microns in thickness, is used as a cathode in the battery.
The goal is to offer ways to store renewable electricity where it is produced, without constructing up large grids. In several countries, major wind power investments are planned. Meanwhile, the performance of cheap organic solar cells has now reached a critical level. A research team at the University of California, Los Angeles, has recently reported efficiency of more than 10 percent of the energy of the captured sunlight.
According to Inganäs who for many years conducted research on organic solar cells, the efficiency is sufficient to initiate an industrial scale up of the technology.
"Now we need more research into new energy storage based on cheap and renewable raw materials. Lignin constitutes 20-30 percent of the biomass of a tree, so it's a source that never ends."

Tiny Pacific nations which are most at threat from rising seas have vowed to dump diesel and other dirty expensive fuels blamed for causing global warming and replace them with clean sources.
Using coconut biofuel and solar panels, Tokelau -- which consists of three island dots half way between New Zealand and Hawaii -- plans to become self-sufficient in energy this year.
The leaders of other so-called small island states around the world made commitments at a meeting this week organized by the UN Development Program and the Barbados government.
The Cook Islands and Tuvalu in the Pacific are aiming to get all of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean is aiming for 60 per cent from renewables by 2020.
And East Timor's government vowed that no family in its capital, Dili, would be using firewood for cooking by 2015 and said half the country's electricity would be from renewable sources by the end of the decade.
"I know we set ambitious targets, but it is actually exciting," Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna told AFP.
"We don't see those targets as being difficult. It is very inspiring and that is what is motivating us to get going."
Puna said about 15 per cent of the New Zealand-dependency country's budget is spent on importing diesel oil. He has called it a "crippling dependence".
He wants those tens of millions of dollars spent on health and social services and education for the approximately 20,000 inhabitants of 15 islands spread over 2.2 million square kilometers in the Pacific.
The government plans to start converting to solar panels and wind turbines. Already nearly all houses have solar water heaters.
Work will start on Rakahanga in the northern group of islands next year with help from Japan. New Zealand is to fund the energy revolution in the southern islands.
Puna said the energy change was proposed while campaigning for a 2010 election. "We didn't realize, it but we were tapping into a reservoir of environmental consciousness among our people. The reaction has been fantastic.
"Somewhere in our makeup we are environmentally conscious people, because we have learned to live off the land and off the sea, that is our heritage, that is our tradition and we are just tapping into that again."
In North America and many European countries there has been resistance to wind turbines sprouting up on land and sea.
"There may well be some in the Cook islands," said Puna. "But I think once people realize and see the benefits from these instruments there will not be too many problems."
UN studies show that oil imports account for up to 30 per cent of gross domestic product in some Pacific countries, with prices bolstered by the huge distances it has to be carried.
Ministers at this week's meeting complained in a statement that despite their "significant actions" to help ease global climate change, international action has been "slow and grossly inadequate," given the increasing threat to island nations from rising seas.
Their declaration -- adopted ahead of next month's UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro -- called for the new energy sources to be made "accessible, affordable and adaptable," so all threatened island states can take steps to adapt.

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Coal VS Wind Power Policy

EPA says nuts to coal, while McDonnell embraces the wind
By Norman Leahy | Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 | Economics Policy Virginia
Two very different, but equally troubling, developments on the energy front today…
One is that the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to go ahead with new regulations that “…analysts said would effectively ban new coal-fired stations unless they use carbon-capture technology, which hasn’t yet been proven cost-effective.
So for all those folks living and working in Virginia’s coal country: nuts to you. And to the consumers of electricity generated by coal plants? It’s time to rediscover the joys of candle light.
Another comes from the McDonnell administration, which in a press release touts the “…proposed construction of a 479-foot-tall, five-megawatt wind turbine generator prototype in the lower Chesapeake Bay, three miles off the Eastern Shore town of Cape Charles.”
In the release Gov. McDonnell is quoted as saying:
“This step forward holds tremendous potential for jobs and for economic development here in the future. Virginia’s unique and efficient permitting process adopted for small energy projects like this one was a critical factor in Gamesa’s choice of Virginia as the location for this U.S. wind energy operation, and today we see the fruit of these proactive policies.”
Gamesa, for those wondering, is a Spanish company that has hit a bad patch recently as European governments, owing to their debt problems, have had to stop writing checks to wind energy firms. Then again, our own government seems quite willing for the moment, to keep writing those checks. Or at least big wind is keen on having it do so.
But let’s dig a bit into the Governor’s contention about the “tremendous potential for jobs and economic development.” According to Glenn Schleede, that’s simply not true
“Wind farms” have very high capital costs and relatively low operating costs compared to generating units using traditional energy sources. They also create far fewer jobs, particularly long-term jobs, and far fewer local economic benefits. “Wind farms” are simply a poor choice if the goals are to create jobs, add local economic benefits, or hold down electric bills.
Poor choices seem to be in high favor these days.
But part of this stems from the muddled thinking that goes along with the embrace of an “all of the above” approach to energy. The Obama administration says it’s for “all of the above,” except when it includes coal, nuclear and oil.
Republicans tend to like the concept because it gives them a green energy patina. Nevermind the details, or the costs, we’re for it.
Unless “it” is uranium, in which case Virginia pols of both parties tend to run for cover.
As I noted over a year ago, “all of the above” is little more than rent seeking from the right. It’s a sad bit of sloganeering that includes everything — from oil to algae — for its own sake, regardless of how much the energy costs, how difficult it is to obtain, or whether a market exists for it.