TMCnet GreenTech Week in Review

In green technology news this week, while a drought dragged on in large parts of the United States and punishing storms hit other regions; we bring you “good tidings” from Maine, where an offshore tidal energy project is in final negotiations on 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with local utilities; and from Italy, where an industrial designer is shaking up the five-star hotel world by creating futuristic, pod-like floating units.

Reporters at Green Technology World also have delivered the latest reports in on telecommunications, hydrogen fuel cell storage, clean coal, and a disruptive new method of converting natural gas into liquid fuel.

Before summer is over, Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) will deploy its first commercial, grid-connected tidal energy device into Cobscook Bay, off the coast of Eastport, Maine—the first such project in the United States with long-term contracts to sell electricity. Leveraging a $10 million investment from the U.S. Department of Energy, the project has infused $14 million into the local economy and has supported more than 100 local and supply chain jobs. In April, the Maine Public Utilities Commission approved primary contract terms for 20-year power purchase agreements (PPA) for the project. The commission’s order directs the three Maine investor-owned utilities – Central Maine Power Company, Bangor Hydro Electric and Maine Public Service Company – to negotiate these agreements with ORPC, helping to attract additional private investment as the project matures. For the pilot phase of the project, Portland-based ORPC will deploy cross flow turbine. These devices are designed to generate electricity over a range of water currents, capturing energy on both ebb and flood tides without the need for repositioning. Once complete, this phase of the Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 75 to100 homes in surrounding Maine communities. 

Italian Industrial designer Michele Puzzolante is looking at the Philippines as the site for his latest, $125 million project—a five-star hotel and additional floating housing units that each could accommodate up to six people. The floating units of the resort will use “artificial photosynthesis” for power, by using molecules of chlorophyll to convert light into electrical current. Of the many exciting proposed features, the coolest could be the “observation bulb,” a submarine-like underwater enclosure with enough space for six armchairs, most likely included by Puzzolante to aid the exploration of marine life. Each “pod” would reportedly cost $1.6 million to build, with the hotel aimed to hold 36 bedrooms, 12 junior suites, four suites and two presidential penthouses

Verdantix, an independent analyst firm, recently unveiled its Green Quadrant Sustainable Telecoms (U.S.) 2012 report, and with it came something of an unexpected finding: No less than AT&T took top marks in terms of customer offerings, and the leader in corporate sustainability performance is Sprint (News - Alert). The key to AT&T and Sprint's performance seems to be ability to invest in the field. Smaller operators, as related by Verdantix's Principal Analyst Phil Sayers, just haven't got the wherewithal to do so. Noticeably absent was other major telecom firm, Verizon. While it didn't manage to take a lead slot like Sprint and AT&T, Verizon – along with BT and Orange (News - Alert)– found itself in the "Leaders' Quadrant," in that it had a solid position on sustainability, as represented by what's described as "broad portfolios, active marketing, robust organizational commitments to sustainability, transparent reporting of carbon emissions and ambitions long-term carbon reduction targets," among others.

While Verizon (News - Alert) didn’t make it into the top echelon of the Green Quadrant, the telecom recently announced that the U.S. Green Building Council has certified the company’s green retail store design. The pre-certification is being provided in the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Volume Program, making Verizon only the eighth retailer and first wireless company to achieve the feat.

Meanwhile, VelaTel Global Communications, a wireless broadband telecommunications provider with offices in San Diego and Beijing, announced on July 25 that its subsidiary, VN Technologies, has completed an initial round of trials of its hydrogen fuel cell technology for China’s two leading telephone companies. Tests were conducted at a site in Harbin for China Mobile, and at sites in Guangzhou and Beijing for China Telecom (News - Alert). Both companies deploy thousands of telecommunications base transceivers, as well as other infrastructure that requires back-up power. China Mobile has submitted a comprehensive report about the test trial results to key ministries of China’s Central Government.

Several major corporations—Alstom, Babcock & Wilcox, and Pratt & Whitney—as well as research groups nationwide have received U.S. Energy Department (DOE) funding to conduct projects aimed at developing and deploying high-efficiency, low-cost carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from coal-fired power plants. The Obama Administration says the research and development will advance “transformational oxy-combustion technologies.” In terms of results, the DOE has set the bar high: The eight projects will aim to achieve at least 90 percent carbon dioxide removal while delivering CO2 at a capture cost of less than $25 per ton. The $7 million federal investment will be leveraged with recipient cost-share to support approximately $9.4 million in funding for the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) projects. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate that not only can Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology help industry make fossil energy use cleaner, safer and more sustainable; it also shows promise as a method to extract more, hard-to-access and presently untapped American fossil energy resources (such as oil and natural gas).

Finally, San Francisco-based Siluria Technologies—a four-year-old private firm recently named to Technology Review’s “50 Most Innovative Companies 2012”— has announced the closing of its Series C financing. The company, which has developed technology that converts cheap and abundant natural gas directly into longer-chain, higher-value molecules that can replace the oil used for liquid fuel, raised $30 million in this round. New investors Bright Capital and Vulcan Capital led the round. All of the company's existing investors— ARCH Venture Partners, The Wellcome Trust, Alloy Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Lux Capital, Altitude Life Science Ventures and Presidio Ventures (News - Alert) participated in the round. The Series C financing will help fund the commercialization of the company's technology. To date, Siluria has raised $63.3 million. Rather than break down the complex mixture of hydrocarbons in oil to produce usable fuels and chemicals, Siluria's technology builds these products from methane (CH4), the world's most abundant hydrocarbon and the principal component of natural gas. The catalytic process is fully scalable and uses commercially available equipment.

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