08/20/2008 06:12 AM

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: August 20, 2008 Page 2

In recent weeks, researchers around the world have unveiled innovative approaches to capturing sunlight. DOE's Idaho National Laboratory (INL), for instance, has developed a method of producing plastic sheets that contain billions of "nanoantennas"- antennas on the scale of a billionth of a meter-to convert the sun's infrared rays into electricity. The nanoantennas consist of tiny gold squares or spirals set in a specially treated layer of polyethylene, a common plastic. While the device is not yet practical, it has the potential to run off either sunlight or waste heat. Engineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have employed similar "nanowires" to boost the efficiency of organic solar cells, which are made of plastic. See the press releases from INL and UCSD.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to convert windows into devices that concentrate sunlight for conversion into electricity. MIT developed a mixture of dyes that can be painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes absorb sunlight and then re-emit it within the glass in a different wavelength of light, which then tends to reflect off the interior surfaces of the glass. As the light reflects within the glass pane, it tends to get channeled along the length of the glass to its edges, where it is emitted. The MIT researchers estimate that sunlight is concentrated by a factor of 40, allowing solar cells that are optimized for such concentrated sunlight to be mounted along the edges of the window. The unique optics of the approach yields a cheap solar concentrator that does not need to be pointed toward the sun, as is needed for lens-based concentrators. MIT estimates that the process will be commercialized by Covalent Solar within the next 3 years. See the MIT press release and fact sheet.

Massachusetts Acts Address Biofuels, Green Jobs, and Greenhouse Gases

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has recently signed into law three energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels, support the growth of the clean energy technology industry, and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state.

The Clean Energy Biofuels Act, signed in late July, exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state's gasoline tax, but only if the ethanol achieves a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline. The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2% "substitute fuel" by July 2010, where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013, after which it holds steady 5%. The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil, and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. See the full text of the biofuels act and the governor's press release.

In early August, Governor Patrick signed two additional bills: the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act. The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state, backed by $68 million in funding over 5 years. The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10%-25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Under the act, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits, including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040. See governor's press release and the full text of the acts for green jobs and greenhouse gas reductions.

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