HyperSolar Announces Solar Cell Magnification Breakthrough

Joanna Schroeder

HyperSolar, Inc. has announced that their new solar design models have the potential to increase magnification by 300 percent. This would increase the power output of solar cells.

“The higher the light magnification in the HyperSolar layer, the higher the power magnification of the attached solar cell. As part of our development plan, we are exploring various designs and microphotonic elements to increase the magnification by as much as 400 percent in the final product,” said Tim Young, HyperSolar’s CEO. “We are very excited about this breakthrough by our development team.”

Young continued by explaining that considerable work has been done in the solar industry to make solar cells more efficient but his company believes that controling the delivery of sunlight onto solar cells would be a critical advancement. “At HyperSolar, we are developing the world’s first thin and flat light magnification layer for direct application on top of standard solar cells to increase their power output. We are encouraged by our recent results. Our plan is to move to the prototype stage early next year and then to a commercial product,” said Young.

According to a company release, their innovative thin and flat light magnification layer employs thousands of very small light collectors on the surface. These collectors funnel light into a proprietary light routing network in the middle that carries light to a smaller output area on the bottom where a solar cell can be attached. Rather than using three solar cells to cover an area on a solar panel, only one solar cell is needed underneath a 300 percent HyperSolar layer. The result is the need for 66 percent less solar cells per panel and a dramatic cost reduction per watt of the solar panels.

“The higher the light magnification in the HyperSolar layer, the higher the power magnification of the attached solar cell. As part of our development plan, we are exploring various designs and microphotonic elements to increase the magnification by as much as 400 percent in the final product,” concluded Young.

Electricity, Solar

New Senator Expects Ethanol Tax Credit Extension

Cindy Zimmerman

The new Senator-Elect for Kansas believes the ethanol and biodiesel tax credits will be extended by Congress in the lame duck session.

“Both of those will be part of this tax package that I think can and will pass during the lame duck session,” said Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS), who was just elected as senator after 14 years in the House. “Probably the blenders tax credit for ethanol, maybe at its current rate or close to it, for a year and then the battle will continue about what that tax credit should be.”

The Kansas Congressman says the EPA decision on E15 is a step, but it doesn’t solve the demand issue for ethanol. “If it’s going to mean something, it’s got to apply to more vehicles than where the EPA is today,” said Moran.

The newly elected senator spoke to the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting on Friday and did several interview during the stop on his way driving out to the nation’s capitol.

Listen to Jerry Moran’s comments on biofuels issues here: Jerry Moran

Audio, Biodiesel, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government

Time Picks Biodiesel Train as One of 2010’s 50 Best

John Davis

A passenger train that runs on biodiesel has been picked as one of Time magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2010.

Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer offers daily service between Ft. Worth, Texas and Oklahoma City, OK:

Since spring, the Heartland Flyer has been running on 20% biodiesel rather than the carbon-heavy diesel fuel on which Amtrak’s other trains — with the exception of the electric Acela Express — currently operate. The biodiesel reduces air pollution and helps cash-strapped Amtrak save on fuel. And appropriately for a train in cow country, the biodiesel is made from rendered cattle fat.”

The article does worry if this would be scalable outside of the beef belt. To paraphrase a chip company’s motto, “use all you like, the biodiesel industry will make more.”

Biodiesel

Peoria Wraps Biodiesel Bus

John Davis

A city bus in Peoria, Illinois is now proudly proclaiming its use of biodiesel.

This article from the Peoria Journal Star says the bus is wrapped in a scene of white clouds and green fields:

“This bus runs on B20 biodiesel,” says an advertising wrap which promotes cleaner fuels.

According to mass transit officials and their partners in this promotion, that benefits the entire area in several different ways. They held a news conference Friday to detail how cleaner biodiesel, which is partially made of soybean oil, improves air quality and cuts reliance on foreign oil.

“Use of biodiesel is a winner all the way around,” said Bill Wykes, secretary of the Illinois Soybean Association. “It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the economy. It’s good for Illinois soybean producers.”

The city has 46 more new buses on the way.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel Heating Oil Part of NAFB Trade Talk

John Davis

The use of biodiesel in heating oil … better known as bioheat … was part of the talk at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasters’ meeting in Kansas City, MO.

Our own Cindy Zimmerman caught up with two players in the bioheat business … one from the raw material end and the other on the consumer-distribution end … to get their takes on the emerging bioheat market and what the future holds for the green heating fuel.

Greg Anderson, a past chairman of the United Soybean Board (USB) and a grower from Nebraska, says putting biodiesel in heating oil was a natural extension of the soybean checkoff’s efforts to get more markets for soybeans and its co-products that first started with biodiesel replacing petroleum in vehicle engines. “We got to looking at the concept of, well, heating oil is a petroleum product and how about including biodiesel into heating oil applications?” He says now, bioheat is well-established on the East Coast. He adds that while most of the bioheat used now is a 2 percent blend, he expects that number could climb to 100 percent in the next 50 years. He says that would create a massive potential for biodiesel in just the heating oil market alone. “Right now, we’re looking at 7 billion gallons of heating oil just in the Northeast [U.S.].” And he says that could easily expand to western areas that also use heating oil.

Meanwhile, Don Allen of E.T. Lawson, a heating oil distributor from Virginia, says a few years ago, his 93-year-old company decided to get into the bioheat business. “This is our fourth year, we sell a 2 percent mixture to [more than] 7,000 homes, and couldn’t be happier.” Allen says his new bioheat business has been so successful he came to the Midwest to work with the National Biodiesel Board to get support for a bill in the U.S. Congress that would mandate a 2-5 percent mixture for the East Coast from Virginia to Maine. He adds that while logic would say there shouldn’t be any opposition, you never know with politicians. “I’m not a politician, so I can’t apply the ‘no-brainer’ or ‘brainer’ situation to Washington. There are obstacles to overcome politically, and we hope with the Congressional support we get from the American farmer in addition to the support we’ll engender back east, we’ll get it done.” Allen points out that his heating oil colleagues are under mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and bioheat is a perfect fit.

You can hear more of Cindy’s conversation about bioheat at NAFB Trade Talk here:Bioheat at NAFB Trade Talk

Audio, Biodiesel

Wind Large Part of GE’s $6 Bil in Renewable Energy

John Davis

The vast majority of the $6 billion GE Energy Financial Services has put into its renewable energy efforts has gone into wind energy development.

The Wall Street Journal reports that most of the $6 billion has been invested in the past six years:

For GE, about 80% of the capital went to providing equity and debt for wind projects. As of mid-October, for example, it had an equity stake in about 6,000 megawatts of wind projects. That represented about 16% of the total wind power capacity installed in the U.S. GE also held debt in about 1,300 megawatts of wind projects.

GE is one of the sponsors behind the 845-megawatt Caithness Shepherds Flat wind project proposed in Oregon, one of the world’s largest wind farms.

In many cases, the wind projects that GE Energy Financial Services backs are also buying GE turbines. GE is supplying $1.4 billion of turbines, for example, to the Shepherds Flats project.

The article goes on to say that GE had also invested about $1 billion invested in solar, hydro and biofuels, mostly in the U.S.

Wind

ICM to Retrofit Hereford Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

ICMICM, Inc. has signed a contract with Hereford Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of Murphy Oil USA, to retrofit an ethanol plant located near Hereford, Texas. Hereford Renewable Energy acquired the uncompleted plant from the lenders of its former owner, Hereford Biofuels, which filed for bankruptcy.

“ICM is excited for the opportunity to continue its work with Murphy to help its Hereford ethanol plant overcome the challenges that prevented the prior owner from starting up the plant at completion of initial construction,” said Dave Vander Griend, president and CEO of ICM.

ICM will make modifications to various parts of the facility, including addition of new equipment which will enable the plant to consistently achieve nameplate capacity. Hereford Renewable Energy’s primary goal in retrofitting the plant prior to start-up is to capitalize on the improved operating efficiencies expected from the incorporation of ICM’s industry-leading process technology. ICM’s retrofit of the plant is anticipated to be completed by the end of the first quarter 2011.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Buster Biofuels on Biodiesel Quality

Joanna Schroeder

During a trip to San Diego I met with budding biodiesel company Buster Biofuels. The company is in the last phase of permitting and then will build a 2 million per year multi-feedstock biodiesel facility. According to Kristof Reiter of Reiter Scientific Consulting, who is working with Buster Biofuels, two of the most important elements for the company’s success are implementing state-of-the art multi-feedstock technologies to produce biodiesel, and quality.

Biodiesel quality has been a thorn in the side of the emerging biodiesel industry. Today, there are ASTM standards in place that must be met for a producer to be legally selling biodiesel fuel. However, there is a growing concern among the industry that these standards are not enough to ensure high-quality biodiesel. As a result, many companies are creating their own biodiesel brands that exceed current ASTM standards.

I asked Reiter why there are so many quality problems in the industry. “It’s my opinion that most people don’t understand how feedstock, blend ratio, and temperature affect fuel performance,” said Reiter. “Rather than requiring that fuel buyers learn chemistry, we should translate the chemistry into English.”

Reiter continued, “I believe that the existing ASTM standards are sufficient, and largely in line with international standards. Interpretation of the data associated with these standards often requires a chemistry degree and thus many buyers are forced to ‘hope for the best’ when they purchase fuel. Many of the ‘issues’ associated with biodiesel performance in the past could have been eliminated if this ‘technical data’ was translated into ‘plain English’ for the fuel blenders.”Read More

Biodiesel, feedstocks

Duke Discovers Breakthough Gene for Grasses to Biofuels

Joanna Schroeder

Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) believes that it has altered a gene in perennial grasses to help them develop more robust roots speeding up the timeline for creating biofuels. According to Philip Benfey, the director of the IGSP Center for Systems Biology, says that perennial grasses for biofuels are advantageous because they can be harvested repeatedly. However, before this can happen, the roots need to be established and this can take up to two or three years. Therefore, he and his team began developing a method to improve root growth.

According to a university release, the research team took a directed genomic approach aimed at identifying genes that become active when cells stop dividing and start taking on the characteristics of the mature, adult cell they are to become.

“We systematically looked for those genes that come ‘on’ precisely when cells transition from proliferation to differentiation and then turn ‘off’ again just as quickly,” Benfey said.

The result of the research that focused on the plant Arabidopsis, and subsequent screening of mutant lines, turned up a single gene, which the researchers call UPBEAT1 (UPB1) that ultimately controls how fast the roots develop.

“It’s possible that by manipulating a single gene, you could get a plant with rapid growth,” Benfey said. He also noted that the prospect of enhancing growth by taking away a gene, rather than adding a gene, is appealing and added that their research suggests the plants are not growing at their full potential.

Along with this finding, the research also alluded to new ways they may be able to produce bigger and stronger plants that can sequester more carbon than other plants.

biofuels, Cellulosic, Research

Maryland Offshore Wind Project Gets Boost from Feds

John Davis

A proposed massive wind farm off the coast of Maryland got a big boost this week when the federal government issued both a Request for Interest (RFI) and a map of an offshore wind leasing area in federal waters just off Maryland’s Atlantic coast.

The Dispatch of Ocean City (MD) reports that Maryland is just the second state in the country to get the feds to make these commitments for an offshore wind project:

Essentially, the announcement this week means the federal government will solicit requests for interest from the private sector for leasing the vast area off the coast of Ocean City identified in the map, which was also issued this week. The western edge, or landward most edge, of the RFI area proposed for wind generation is roughly 10 miles from the Ocean City shoreline, while the eastern edge is approximately 27 miles from the coast.

While the RFI could solicit interest from one or more private sector groups hoping to develop a wind farm off Maryland’s coast, one company, NRG Bluewater Wind, based in New Jersey, has already taken the lead on wind energy development in the mid-Atlantic and has a wind farm up and running off the coast of New Jersey. NRG Bluewater Wind has a project planned in Delaware that further along in the planning and approval process than a tentative plan proposed in Maryland. NRG Bluewater Communications Manager David Gaier said yesterday the announcement in Maryland represents a significant step in the process.

“We’re certainly pleased about it,” he said. “We’re pleased the federal government has issued an RFI and we’re going to respond. We think it shows the mid-Atlantic states and the federal government are serious about supporting and moving forward with offshore wind farms off the mid-Atlantic coast. We’re eager to participate.”

Maryland officials want that state to generate 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2022.

Wind