Alternative Energy

It's another drizzly, dreary day in eastern Germany -- oddly perfect, it turns out, for demonstrating the potential of solar energy. Despite the rain, hundreds of thousands of photovoltaic panels still gaze skyward here at the country's biggest solar farm, like a field of huge silvery sunflowers planted in neat rows marching toward the horizon. Raindrops splotch their faces, and the steely gray clouds curtain the sun. But the panels remain busy absorbing solar radiation to convert into electricity.

After being pummeled for months by both left and right over the Keystone XL pipeline, the Obama administration is trying to start over -- this time with a new name. In January, the administration turned down an application to build the pipeline from Canada's tar sands region to the Gulf Coast. TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline, more recently announced plans to go ahead with the southern portion of the route, starting from Cushing, Okla., which White House officials maintain is the more urgently needed part.

Harold Hay wants to help the world save itself, but he's running out of time. Forty years ago, Hay invented a simple, inexpensive way to heat and cool a home using the sun's rays, but without the panels and wiring that come with conventional solar energy systems. He's been pushing for its adoption ever since, trying to find footing in each of the solar industry's last three boom-and-bust cycles.

President Obama plans to set off Wednesday on a Western tour passing through one of the reddest states in the union, where he will try to turn the Keystone pipeline story into a positive tale about his overall energy policy. On the way to Oklahoma - the starting point of the southern half of the controversial pipeline - Obama plans to highlight the approval of dozens of oil pipelines during his time in office. Although the full Keystone line from Canada to Texas failed to get a permit earlier this year, the company is moving forward with the southern portion.

It sounds too good to be true: A residential system that allows people to make fuel from old beer, leftover wine and other waste products and use it to run their vehicles. That's what inventors of the E-Fuel MicroFueler claim, and there's support for the idea in government, industry and pop culture. MicroFueler buyers are eligible for a $5,000 tax credit. Former L.A. Laker Shaquille O'Neal is an investor in the system's distributor. The $10,000 E-Fuel MicroFueler consists of a 250-gallon tank for organic feedstock, such as waste wine and beer, and a still that converts it to pure ethanol, or E-Fuel.

Oxnard School District trustees agreed to study whether Thurgood Marshall School, still under construction, could be equipped with an alternative energy system. A committee overseeing the construction asked the board for permission to look into the use of microturbines, which would give the school its own energy source. The committee will make a recommendation to the board in the coming months.

A festival celebrating alternative transportation and the environment will be held Oct. 16 on the Santa Monica College campus. The festival will mark the first leg of the first International Electric Grand Prix, a road rally from Long Beach to San Bernardino featuring 60 vehicles powered by the sun, electricity and other alternative energy sources. The event, which is free, will feature many of the Grand Prix vehicles, some of which will be available for drives and rides by the public.

The article on energy alternatives mentioned that energy from biomass is not yet practical. It was on its way to becoming practical in the 1930s when Henry Ford was growing cannabis plants (hemp; marijuana) and powering his autos with processed methanol from those unique plants. At about the same time, new machinery was making the harvest and breakdown of these prolific biomass creators fast and efficient. The Times article mentioned ethanol production from corn, a plant that produces biomass at a fraction of the amount that hemp can provide per acre, even on marginal land.

Alternative energy producers may get less money for their power, after a state appeals court Wednesday voided the California Public Utilities Commission's method for determining rates for renewable energy purchases. The court acted after Southern California Edison protested that the state was forcing it to spend too much for geothermal, wind and solar power. Edison buys a third of its power from alternative energy producers at a cost of more than $2 billion a year.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power moved ahead Tuesday with plans to tap wind and geothermal power as part of its drive to increase the use of alternative energy sources. The agency's board approved an agreement to take ownership of a $239-million wind farm, which a private contractor is developing for the DWP in Kern County. The Pine Tree project, initially budgeted at $162 million, is erecting 80 wind turbines to provide 120 megawatts of power, enough to power up to 120,000 homes.

President Obama coined a new campaign line on Thursday when he said Republican presidential candidates' views on energy policy qualifies them as members of the "Flat Earth Society. " Speaking to a crowd in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Obama charged that the GOP contenders are dismissive of alternative energy and compared them to those who thought Columbus shouldn't set sail. "We've heard these folks in the past," Obama said. "'Television won't last. It's a flash in the pan.' ... 'The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a fad.'" While the president riffed on the idea in a joking tone, his speech at Prince George's Community College revealed a very serious undercurrent running through his White House right now. The president has few tools to check the rising cost of gasoline in the short term, and his advisors are acutely aware of the effect this could have on voters.

Sen. Barbara Boxer on Thursday urged Southern California Edison to expedite interconnection agreements with national parks and forests, where renewable energy projects have been sitting idle for years while federal agencies wrangle with the utility. In a letter to SCE President Ronald L. Litzinger, Boxer chastised the utility for delaying projects that were intended to reduce electric bills at national park and forest facilities. The letter was in response to a Times story this week that detailed a number of renewable projects caught in the impasse.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa drew cheers from environmentalists just over two months ago when he issued a new political promise: eliminating coal from the Department of Water and Power's fuel mix by 2020. Instead of waiting a decade to see if that promise comes true, a Sacramento-based advocacy group decided to stage a publicity campaign thanking the mayor. It bought advertising space on city bus kiosks showing a smiling picture of Villaraigosa and the word "Successful."

Federal environmental officials were planning to detonate at least one canister of highly volatile gas at a Sylmar industrial park early Sunday and were set to shut down a portion of the 210 Freeway as a safety precaution. Authorities say that a canister of gas, a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, is too volatile to move. Instead it will be exploded on site at Rainbow of Hope, an alternative energy company at 12349 Gladstone Avenue. An August explosion at the building ripped a hole in the roof and blew two workers onto the street, officials said.

The scenes were oddly similar. On June 17, 2010, an explosion at a Simi Valley alternative energy company blew off part of the roof and caused parts of the building to collapse. Employee Tyson Larson, 28, was killed and two others injured. On Tuesday, another explosion rocked an alternative energy company in Sylmar, tearing a hole in the roof and shattering windows of neighboring businesses. This time Timothy Larson, a veteran Los Angeles city firefighter who has been on disability leave for several years, was critically injured.

The latest surge in oil prices may help the renewable energy industry reach a turning point after years of boom-and-bust cycles long dictated by the rise and fall in gas prices. Solar, wind and biofuel investors and analysts said the latest run-up in prices caused by unrest in Libya and other oil-producing nations could lead to lasting interest in alternate sources of energy. They point to several factors converging at the same time that give the industry such hope. Public awareness and worries about climate change, pollution and dwindling resources are at an all-time high.

The effort by utilities to find new methods of generating electricity--coupled with the public's increasing environmental awareness--is causing a boom for local alternative energy producers and manufacturers of equipment that use wind, sun or water to produce electricity. Manufacturers such as San Diego-based Kyocera America, which makes solar panels, and SeaWest, a local company that develops wind turbine projects, are counting on a grass-roots energy awareness movement to boost sales.

The scenes were oddly similar. On June 17, 2010, an explosion at a Simi Valley alternative energy company blew off part of the roof and caused parts of the building to collapse. Employee Tyson Larson, 28, was killed and two others injured. On Tuesday, another explosion rocked an alternative energy company in Sylmar, tearing a hole in the roof and shattering windows of neighboring businesses. This time Timothy Larson, a veteran Los Angeles city firefighter who has been on disability leave for several years, was critically injured.

Jobs at clean-tech or alternative-energy companies have flourished in California, with nearly a quarter of them based in Los Angeles, a new study has found. Employers offering jobs in fields such as solar-power generation, electric-vehicle development and environmental consultation added 5,000 jobs in 2008, the latest data available. In all, about 174,000 Californians were working in eco-friendly fields by early 2009, compared with just 111,000 in 1995, said nonprofit research group Next 10. The study, which culled data from government and private reports, was released late Tuesday.

A popular federal incentive program that has helped boost renewable-energy projects has been extended another year. President Obama on Friday signed off on extending the program after it appeared to be in danger of becoming a casualty of partisan bickering in Congress. The 1603 Treasury grant program, which became part of the overall tax package after heavy industry lobbying, cleared the House late Thursday. The program, which covers up to 30% of the cost of alternative-energy projects, would have expired by the end of the year.