December 2008

Pinched between a rock and a hard place, the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) unanimously decided to install highly innovative water turbines, for a monitored period of time, at the risk of disturbing the ecosystems of the deep.

The project, which has already begun, will be tested in the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minnesota, where the legwork for licensing agreements has already been completed.

The hydrokinetic turbines will coincide with Hastings existing electrical infrastructure and it hopes to supplement the energy that is supplied by the already existing dam in Hastings by creating an energy density much stronger than that of wind. According to the FERC Press Release, the hydrokinetic project would generate as much as 364 megawatt-hours.

What grows around us everywhere, draws power from a virtually limitless energy source and is green by nature? Trees. Voltree, a new startup based in the U.S., noticed that too and is doing something about it in a potentially big way. Right now the company is working to create a mesh network of wireless sensors that detect forest fires and draw power from a host tree. That makes power from clean coal seem awfully dirty.

Though Voltree is starting with its sensor array, drawing power from trees opens up a whole new approach to power generation applying some green principles. The company’s Early Wildfire Alert Network (EWAN) would track humidity and temperature in remote forested locations, according to Voltree.

GM has a checkered past when it comes to creating products and running a business with sustainability in mind. But with the balloon of gas prices in recent history, demand for fuel efficient vehicles has jumped upward and GM is racing to produce the Chevy Volt by 2010. The problem? GM’s dwindling supply of cash means plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Flint, MI stopping short.

Building the new plant would cost GM $370 million, and with the financial market in its current cash hoarding phase, the company is not able to acquire additional investments through traditional channels. Automaker pleas to Congress were recently shot down amid arguments with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union on allowing wage cuts that would bring compensation in line with Japanese automakers. The Whitehouse has indicated its willing to help, but no official decision is out yet.

Coal companies obviously have a rock solid source of income, and it’s fueled by steady demand from a worldwide energy-consuming population. With resources like that it might make sense for them to invest in methods to reduce their negative impact on the environment, but instead they’ve decided to pump millions of dollars into an abject marketing campaign. Realizing the potential for bad publicity, the coal industry has formed the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) to do its dirty work.

Of course, that’s not to say that eventually we could see some sort of successful clean coal technology, probably not until 2030. The fundamental problem here is a focus by the coal industry on preserving its existing business practices instead of developing new, more renewable methods of generating electricity.