Smart People vs. smart grids, cities, homes, meters, etc.

At last count, there were smart cities, smart homes, smart meters, the smart grid, and probably a new smart thing being coined as we speak. What the world of green technology and energy really needs, however, are smart people. I love writing about the new technology and ideas more than anything I've ever written about in previous work, but the fact remains that smart people adhering to the time-worn tenet of environmentalism to reduce, reuse and recycle could do as much, and probably more, than all the green tech marvels for at least a few decades. Perhaps, after that, the science fiction of green tech in the present will become the science fact of green tech in the future, but until then, walking or bicycling to work will make a bigger dent than all the projected barrels of biofuels promised for the coming years. That's not to pick on biofuels. Conservation by humans, by the smart variety, would do more than all the windmills, solar panels, and geothermal projects can do at present to improve our rate of energy usage.

A recent study from the National Research Council confirms my belief in the value of smart people. According to the report, which received some of its funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, we could cut our energy use by 30% below 2030 projections simply by taking energy efficiency measures -- like caulking your house against drafts. In fact, a post on Green Inc. cites the study's finding that buildings "account for 41% of the energy used in the United States.” The transportation sector accounts for 28%.

Remember when Candidate Obama was ridiculed for pointing out that keeping your tires properly inflated by checking them with a tire gauge would save more oil than offshore (U.S.) drilling would produce. Offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. Sounds like a lot of barrels, except when you consider that we use 20,000,000 bbl. per day now. That's just a 1% increase in production. Properly inflated tires could improve gas mileage by 3%, according to efficiency experts.

But that knee-jerk reaction to Obama's suggestion was just deja vu all over again. President Jimmy Carter was similarly ridiculed in the 1970s for wearing a cardigan in a nationally televised speech and suggesting we lower our thermostats by one degree to conserve energy.

So, all I’m saying is not to lose sight of what we can do with conservation and efficiency alone. Now, not in 2030. But let's not also forget that technology has brought us wonderful advances. A smart person would pursue both avenues of attack. Cut demand now; design for renewable supplies in the future.

Distributed Generation -- roots-rock energy

"I'm doing my part to help America become energy self-reliant."

Distributed generation sometimes seems like the 21st-century version of 1960s recycling and compost heaps, but it is actually a part (albeit small) of the plan for the Smart Grid. Energy is generated at or near the place where it is used, with any excess usually sold to larger power plants in the grid. Often, the modular and scaleable plants at this level use renewable resources in a way reminiscent of early ecology movements, but with new and old technology configured into systems that allow for mobility and diversity of feedstocks. Below are three companies that are part of a movement that seems to be operating under the radar of national media attention.

Organic electricity

Let’s start with two Canadian companies that have teamed up to turn organic trimmings into electricity. Loblaw Companies Ltd. is Canada’s largest food distributor with 47 corporate grocery stores in southwestern Ontario. All of the organic trimmings -- meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and grease traps -- will be shipped to a nearby biogas facility run by StormFisher Biogas. StormFisher estimates that the organic material will produce enough biogas to operate turbines generating electricity to power 225 homes annually. The electricity produced at the facility will be sold to Ontario Power Authority.

The biogas results from a process called anaerobic digestion, much like what goes on in our own stomachs. In short, organic feedstock interacts with various bacteria and methanogens to produce the gas which is approximately 60% methane and 40% CO2. Liquids and solids also are produced during the process and can be sold as organic fertilizer. The plant, to be located in London, Ont., is expected to begin operation in late 2010.

Yes, in my back yard

In my last post, I wrote about W2 Energy and their mobile mass-to-energy trucks. Well, you can’t get much closer to home than their U.S. sales and marketing office in Laurel, Md. Rather than filling up landfills (and paying for the privilege), the mayor and city council agreed to allow W2 Energy to set up one of its mobile prototype units to convert 4 tons per day of municipal solid waste into electricity, ultra low sulfur diesel, and even gasoline and jet fuel.

The city currently collects 28 tons a day. W2 Energy calculates that each metric tone of municipal solid waste can produce about 100 gallons of liquid fuel and 200kw of electricity. The agreement with the City of Laurel will permit W2 Energy to install a full-size commercial plant to process all of the city’s municipal waste once the prototype has been proven and tested.

Cows want to help, too

Lastly, there is Green Mountain Power of Vermont and a herd of 1,200 cows, doing one of the things that cows can do so well, at Westminster Farms. Green Mountain Power and the farm, with their own funds and help from federal, state and local agencies, will set up a now, newly popular (it would seem) anaerobic digestor to convert the herd’s manure into electricity. Green Mountain estimates that cows will produce enough manure to generate 225kw of electricity, enough to power 250 homes. In addition, the project produces a revenue stream for the farm, helping to keep it profitable. Farm methane is just one of several renewable energy resources that Green Mountain has added to its portfolio, which includes hydro, wind, landfill methane, and a planned solar plant. Green Mountain provides about 25% of Vermont’s electricity needs.

Investment potential

Chances are that these three projects, or similar one, are occurring across the country and may be an early investment vehicle, before larger companies and projects begin to come on the scene.

Old batteries converted into oil and electricity

W2 Energy's motto: Garbage is a renewable resource

File this joint venture under: We Use Every Part of the Pig but the Squeal. Not literally, of course, but that's close to the results of an arrangement between battery recycler Toxco and W2 Energy, a developer of mass-to-energy technology. I like W2 Energy for its ingenuity and scrappy, start-up enthusiasm.

W2 Energy will process 600 tons of carbon cake and plastic generated at Toxco's British Columbia recycling plant and convert it into electricity and ultra low sulfur diesel... on a 45-foot tractor trailer bed brought to the site... using a plasmatron and even an algae bioreactor. (Composite photo above shows some of these components.) It sounds like an unlikely engineering contraption, but it's an idea designed to make a profit out of waste. And there sure is plenty of raw material around in our society for them to convert into oil, electricity and dollar bills.

Toxco strips the metal out of old batteries and sells it, but, to this point, has sent the shredded battery cases to the landfill. Until W2 Energy came up with its "win/win proposition," according to Kathy Bruce, vice president of Toxco Canada.

In short, W2 Energy's mass-to-energy plant converts the hydrogen, oxygen and carbon in the battery waste into electricity and liquid fuel that can be used by Toxco. Carbon and nitrogen oxides normally generated by combusting the waste will be captured in W2 Energy's Sunfilter bioreactor where algae will grow on the flue gases. The algae is then put through the same process as the battery waste ad turned into more fuel and electricity. For a look at the complete process, go to the flow chart on their web site.

As long as there's garbage, W2 Energy will keep generating energy and fuel. The company claims the following feedstocks can be converted with its technology:

• coal,
• municipal solid waste,
• agricultural waste,
• human and animal waste,
• tires and plastics, and
• medical waste.

The feedstocks are converted into syngas, using patented low temperature, non-thermal, plasma-based reactor technology. That mouthful allows the mass-to-energy plant to run at a low cost and turn a profit, according to company's web site. In addition, the company claims that its technology is modular and scaleable, and that up to 10,000 tons per day of any hydrocarbon feedstock can be processed.

Finance Info

W2 Energy, Inc., (PINKSHEETS: WTWO), is incorporated in Nevada and trades on OTC. It employs 10 people and has an estimated market cap of $1.871 million as of Oct. 21, 2009. On Oct. 22, common stock as trading between $0.0153 and $0.0164. The stock has a 52-week low of $0.0016 and a 52-week high of $0.046. The high came in early August 2009, after W2 Energy announced completion of the second phase of a licensing Agreement with Alpha Renewable Energy of India, and that the company had successfully completed a commercial scale algae bioreactor. In recent months, the stock price has traded in the $0.015 to $0.20 range.