Green Job Opportunities

Since I was a kid, I have always wanted to “make a difference” by making a significant contribution to society. I have a soft spot for families and especially for kids, and I really wanted to contribute toward the quality of life for those groups. A big concern is that quality of life for a large segment of the world’s population, never good to begin with, is poised for further deterioration as fossil fuel supplies deplete.

Quality of life to me starts with the basics: People have enough food and clean water, they have shelter, they live and work in safe conditions, and they have adequate access to affordable energy. At various stages of my life I have had involvement in projects in all of these areas, but most of my career has been focused on the energy portion – both in providing adequate supplies, and in urging conservation efforts to stretch our supplies.

The affordable energy piece is becoming more challenging, and we need more people working on this issue. As I transition into my new “green” job, I intend to step up my efforts on the sustainable energy front. There are a number of ways I can do this. First, my new job directly impacts on this. The technology we are engaged in – described briefly in the final section – promises significant environmental and sustainability benefits. But that isn’t the sole contribution I can make. I can also help bring promising sustainable technologies together with highly-motivated and talented people to enhance the odds of success. Up to this point I have done this by calling attention to technologies that I felt were promising, as well as by providing technical advice for some projects on an ad hoc basis.

With this essay, I am attempting to marry talent/passion with need by publicizing vacancies for some specific “green jobs.” I have had a series of conversations over the past year or so with Choren, a renewable diesel company that is now looking to scale up. Google contacted me last week to inform me of some of their vacancies in their new renewable energy efforts. Vinod Khosla has informed me several times that many of the companies he is involved with are looking for talent. And my new company is recruiting as well. I don’t think these jobs will be competing for exactly the same talent pool, because the job locations are geographically diverse. So, if you are looking for a green future and decent job stability (a recent story from Yahoo identified jobs in the energy and environmental sectors as “recession proof”) – here are some opportunities of which I am currently aware.

Choren

I have had a series of discussions over the past year or so with some of the Choren staff, including the president of Choren USA, Dr. David Henson. During the course of these discussions, I formed the opinion that Choren is ideally positioned for long term success in the renewable energy sphere. I think they are focusing on the right technology (biomass-to-liquids) for sustainable liquid fuel production, and they are on the leading edge of that technology. Dr. Henson will be hosting me at Choren’s new BTL plant in Germany in a month or so, and hope to make a report on the visit.

Their opportunities are described from their website as follows:

For the expansion to “world”-scale 600 MWth “Sigma” production facilities and the exploration of additional applications of CHOREN’s technologies we are now seeking highly motivated engineering specialists in the areas of Mechanical Engineering, Process/Chemical Engineering and Energy Technology, preferably with long or short-term experience in any of the fields of gasification, Fischer Tropsch Fuel Synthesis and/or in the Petrochemical Industry.

Choren is looking to fill the following positions in Houston:

Project Manager CHOREN USA, Job Description

Senior Process Engineer CHOREN USA, Job Description

Process Engineer CHOREN USA, Job Description

You can learn more information about the job opportunities at Choren by visiting their Employment Opportunities USA page.

Google

I have admired Google for a long time. They seem genuinely motivated by a desire to help humanity. You may also be aware that they have topped CNN Money’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For for the second year in a row.

Recently, they announced their intent to help power a clean energy revolution. I was aware of, and supportive of their efforts, and in a different time and place I might jump at the opportunity to work for them. Recently, they contacted me about just that, and I replied that while the timing is not right for me, I would help them publicize their vacancies.

Here is a short description of their vision, and what they are looking for:

Our thinking is that business as usual will not deliver low-cost, clean energy fast enough to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change. We need a clean energy revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than carbon-intensive alternatives such as coal. Google is launching an R&D group to develop electricity from renewable energy sources at a cost less than coal.

We are looking for extraordinarily creative, motivated and talented engineers with significant experience in developing complex engineering designs to join our newly-created renewable energy group. This group is tasked with developing the most cost-effective and scalable forms of renewable energy generation, and these people will play a key role in developing new technologies and systems.

…if you know other outstanding engineers who may be interested, I encourage you to pass along this information as we are hiring for multiple positions. If you prefer that I reach out to them directly, I am more than happy to do so.

Their specific job opportunities at the moment, mostly at their Mountain View, California site:

Renewable Energy Engineer
Head of Renewable Energy Engineering
Director, Green Business Strategy & Operations
Director of Other
Investments Manager, Renewable Energy

They are also asking for people with the following experience:

If you have relevant expertise in other areas beyond these specific positions, please send an email with your resume to energy@google.com . Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• regulatory issues
• land acquisition and management
• construction
• energy project development
• mechanical and electrical engineering
• thermodynamics and control systems
• physics and chemistry
• materials science

Khosla Ventures

Vinod Khosla has built quite a renewable energy portfolio. See this PowerPoint presentation for his complete (or at least what’s public) renewable portfolio. Opportunities range from corn ethanol (which I don’t recommend) to cellulosic ethanol (some promising opportunities there) to advanced biofuels, electrical power, and even water desalinization. There are far too many companies to give details on all of the job vacancies, so I will just pick out one of the most interesting (to me), LS9. They describe themselves as the Renewable Petroleum Company™, and have this description on their website:

LS9 DesignerBiofuels™ products are customized to closely resemble petroleum fuels, engineered to be clean, renewable, domestically produced, and cost competitive with crude oil.

LS9 is the market leader for hydrocarbon biofuels and is rapidly commercializing and scaling up DesignerBiofuels™ products to meet market demands, including construction of a pilot facility leading to commercial availability. While initially focusing on fuels, LS9 will also develop sustainable industrial chemicals for specialty applications.

They are looking for the following for their South San Francisco location:

Current openings at LS9 are listed below. Please submit your resume stating qualifications and relevant experience to hr@ls9.com and include the job title in the subject line. We look forward to hearing from you.

Bioprocess/Engineering

Director, Bioprocess Development
Scientist, Fermentation
Scientist, Fermentation
Associate Scientist, Fermentation
Research Associate/Senior Research Associate, Fermentation
Downstream Recovery Scientist

Chemistry/Biochemistry

Biochemist / Bio-organic Chemist Scientist
Research Associate/Senior Research Associate, Biochemistry

Instrumentation

Automation Laboratory Specialist

Metabolic Engineering

Scientist, Metabolic Engineering
Associate Scientist, Microbiology
Senior Research Associate, Microbiology

Corporate Development

Corporate Planning Analyst

What LS9 is attempting is Holy Grail stuff, but what they are trying to do should be technically feasible. However, it won’t be easy and it’s going to take some very talented people.

Don’t forget that this is only one of the Khosla Ventures’ companies. There are numerous job opportunities there if you dig a little.

Accsys Technologies

As I have mentioned previously, I left the oil industry on March 1, 2008 to become the Engineering Director for Accsys Technologies. While we are not creating energy as was the case with the previous companies I described, we are saving energy and attacking the problem of rainforest destruction. Here is a brief summary of what appealed to me about the company and my desire to make a difference:

Growing concerns about the destruction of tropical rainforests, a declining world stock of high quality timber and increasingly restrictive government regulations regarding the use of wood treated using toxic chemicals have created an exceptional market opportunity for the Company. Accsys believes that its technology will transform the use of wood in existing applications where durability and dimensional stability are valued, both halting the decline in the use of wood in outdoor applications and substituting plastics and metals.

Wood acetylation is a process which increases the amount of ‘acetyl’ molecules in wood, thereby changing its physical properties. The process protects wood from rot by making it “inedible” to most micro-organisms and insects, without - unlike conventional treatments - making it toxic.

I think you can see why that might appeal to me - this technology enables a sustainable replacement for tropical hardwoods, and can replace plastics and metals in some applications.

We are working on getting our job opportunities posted, but for now I will just mention a few. We are filling a wide variety of positions at our plant in Arnhem, in the Netherlands. If you are a citizen of an EU country, I believe you are eligible to work in the Netherlands. We should soon have a complete listing of jobs at our Titan Wood site (Titan Wood is a subsidiary of Accsys), but some of the current vacancies in Arnhem include Process Control Engineer, Project Manager, Supply Chain Manager, and process and mechanical engineers.

We are also filling jobs in our new Dallas office that are global in nature. For Dallas we are looking for a Global Process Improvement Manager (reports to me), Global Procurement Manager (reports to CEO), and a Panel Products Manager (reports to Panel Products Director). These positions require travel (got to break a few eggs to make a cake) to places like the Netherlands and China (where we are building a large facility in Nanjing). Required qualifications for these jobs include an engineering or chemistry degree, 7-10 years of relevant experience, and a preference for an MBA. Further, I want my Global Process Improvement Manager to share my passion for making the world a better place.

For now, you may send a cover letter and your resume or CV to JOBSUSA “at” accoya “dot” info (edited to slow the spambots) for positions in the U.S., or JOBSEurope “at” accoya “dot” info for positions in Europe. You may want to indicate that you are responding to this essay, and then the resume may be circulated to me.

Conclusion

Rest assured that I am not going to get in the habit of using my writing as a platform for promoting my new company. I do think it is directly topical to what I write about, and I plan to do one post in the future about the technology. However, most of my posts will be as they have been in the past: Covering energy, sustainability, and environmental responsibility. I do plan to shift more in the direction of “problem solving”, and this post was one aspect of that. It is an attempt to bring together talent and passion with a critical need, and it also will hopefully provide needed job stability in a fragile economy.

I am really interested in writing more about promising technologies, especially those that haven’t received much attention, but I first have to figure out a way to manage this. I tend to get about 19 bad or unworkable ideas e-mailed to me for every 1 that shows promise. I can’t afford the time at present to work my way through that sort of volume (and some of the proposals I see are very extensive), so I will continue to focus for now on those that are already on the radar.

Investing in Energy Storage

I attended a presentation last year where a number of alternative energy technologies were discussed, and I was asked whether any major topic had been missed. I responded that I felt like the single most important topic had been missed: The enabling technology of energy storage. An efficient and cost effective energy storage solution is critical for smoothing out the intermittency of solar, wind, and tidal energy. This is the one advantage that biomass does have over these sources: Biomass may be inefficient at gathering solar energy, but it does store nicely.

How important is energy storage? I think it is absolutely crucial, but largely overlooked in alternative energy discussions. It simply isn’t as sexy as solar, but without a good storage solution, solar will never fulfill its potential. And it just hasn’t seemed to me that we are attacking the storage problem with a sense of urgency. So I was really glad to run across this story a couple of days ago:

Energy storage nears its day in the sun

MONACO (Reuters) - Energy storage is an unglamorous pillar of an expected revolution to clean up the world’s energy supply but will soon vie for investors attention with more alluring sources of energy like solar panels, manufacturers say.

The article sums up the problem:

While the supply of the wind and sun far exceeds humanity’s needs it doesn’t necessarily match the time when people need it: the sun may not be shining nor the wind blowing when we need to cook dinner or have a shower.

Soaring production of solar panel and wind turbines is now spurring a race to develop the winning energy storage technologies which will drive the electric cars and appliances of the future.

The race is heating up as manufacturers with entirely different solutions near the moment of commercial production.

Then it discusses a couple of storage solutions that are vying for supremacy, such as:

For example, UK-based ITM Power sees the future of energy storage in the explosive gas hydrogen. The company is developing a piece of kit called an electrolyzer which uses solar or wind power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen is then stored in a pressurized container until it is needed, whether to drive a car, produce electricity or for cooking.

“With batteries you’re taking enormous quantities of basic raw materials,” said Chief Executive Jim Heathcote, referring to cadmium in nickel cadmium varieties. His company won an award for research at the Monaco conference, organized by corporate finance advisers Innovator Capital.

“Two things we’re confident of is the supply of renewable energy and water,” he said.

ITM Power aims to start production later this year of electrolyzers and next year of hydrogen fuel cells which generate electricity.

“The one problem everyone’s had is how to store. The ability to take (surplus) renewable energy and make useful fuel out of it is almost priceless,” Heathcote said.

Investment Opportunities

The remainder of the article describes the investment opportunities in energy storage companies, which look attractive. I think in this next phase of my life, I will be more active at seeking out and acting on opportunities such as this. I have not done this in the past, even when I felt strongly about the direction of commodities or stock sectors. For instance, I just saw this comment from yesterday at The Oil Drum:

About four months ago Robert Rapier suggested that investors looking at energy commodities consider gasoline futures as a likly profit maker. That day I checked the price on www.bloomberg.com at $1.92 per gallon. I suggested to a relative that is heavy in the market to get into gasoline futures then as that commodity looked under priced. The person said it looked riskey and required too much diligents to handle.

Today gasoline closed at $2.55, up 33%. A $5000 investment in futures would have netted over $100,000 in following RR’s advice.

Did I act on my own advice? No. (I can already hear my wife asking “Why didn’t you act?”)

Did I act last spring when I was convinced gasoline prices were headed higher? No.

Did I invest in corn futures when I was predicting that because of the ethanol mandates they were headed much higher from their (then) $2/bu price? No. (Corn futures have more than doubled since then).

Did I short ethanol stocks when I wrote that they were overvalued? No. (I do know some who did just that based upon what I had written, and they made out quite well.)

And probably the best (worst?) example of all, did I short Xethanol when it was at $12 and I knew that a devastating exposé was about to be released by Sharesleuth? No. (XNL is now worth less than $0.50 a share).

I always advise people to invest in what they know. I got burned in 2000 investing in technology stocks that I didn’t properly understand. It is hard to do the proper due diligence if you really don’t grasp the important issues in the sector. In technology, it was hard for me to say which companies were poised, and which ones just thought they were poised (and fooled the analysts). But I do understand the energy sphere. I just have to start acting on my convictions. (I haven’t totally twiddled my thumbs on this issue. I have invested my 401K shares per my conviction on higher oil prices, and that has paid out quite well.)

Disclaimer: If you do act on anything you read here, you are on your own. I may change my mind tomorrow about whether something is still a good investment (with gasoline inventories where they are, gasoline futures are starting to look a lot riskier), and I don’t send out warnings to take profits and run. I am obviously not writing an investment blog, although clearly there are numerous financial implications based on developments in the energy markets.

Running the U.S. on Solar Power

How much land would it take for solar power to satisfy the electricity demands of the U.S.? I made some attempts to calculate this before, but a recent story may enable me to calculate some more reliable numbers:

Solar Power Heats Up: Another Plant Planned for Southwest

Two bits caught my eye:

Abengoa Solar, a subsidiary of a similarly named technology company based in Seville, Spain, and Arizona Public Service on Thursday announced plans to build a 280-megawatt solar thermal power plant about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix.

So we know the planned capacity of the solar thermal plant. In case you are unfamiliar with solar thermal:

Solano will use parabolic mirrors to follow the sun across the sky and concentrate its energy, heating a fluid to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and using the fluid to make steam that will spin turbines to generate electricity. The plant will use an unspecified heat storage technology so the plant can continue generating electricity for six hours after sunset.

So, how much area to produce 280-megawatts?

The project will bring economic benefits, too. During three years of construction, it will employ 1,500 workers at the 1,900-acre site near Gila Bend. After completion, 80 permanent employees will work at Solano.

OK, let me say before running through this calculation that I have no idea how it is going to turn out. And if someone spots an error in math or logic, please bring it to my attention. I am going to scale this up to produce all current U.S. electricity demands.

Peak U.S. demand, according to the EIA, is almost 800,000 megawatts. Actual available capacity is 900,000 megawatts. So let’s make our solar capacity equal to today’s total installed electrical generating capacity.

Assuming the entire 1,900 acres is needed for the plant (maybe not a good assumption, but all I have), then this breaks down to (280 megawatts)/(1,900 acres), or 0.147 megawatts per acre. This of course includes all of the land associated with support functions, and it may include area for future expansions. So the calculation may be conservative.

The second assumption is that the areas in which will put our solar plants will be as productive as this one in Arizona. That is not a conservative assumption, and will somewhat offset the previous conservative calculations.

Then to get 900,000 megawatts is going to take (900,000 megawatts)/(0.147 megawatts per acre), or 6.1 million acres. How large of an area is this? I don’t know. I have to get out my calculator.

My calculator indicates that 6.1 million acres is an area of 9,531 square miles, which is equivalent to a square of just under 100 miles by 100 miles (which would be 10,000 square miles). That’s a large area, to be sure. But the possibility is there. A lot of “land” is available right now of rooftops.

A couple of caveats. First, this calculation does not make a provision for a mass migration to electric transport. That would clearly require (a lot) more power. On the other hand, we already have a lot of installed electrical capacity in the form of hydroelectric (78,000 megawatts), other renewables (24,000 megawatts), and nuclear power (100,000 megawatts). This lessens the power requirement from solar.

How does this compare with my previous calculation? I don’t know. Let me check.

OK, I checked. Not too bad. In A Solar Thought Experiment, I had assumed a slightly lower power requirement and only included the actual area of the solar cells. I came up with an area of about 50 miles by 50 miles. So it was in the ballpark. The 100 by 100 mile number is probably more realistic, given the need for the real estate for supporting infrastructure.

Other conclusions from the previous essay remain the same. There are around 100 million houses in the U.S., so there is quite a bit of surface area readily available, right where the power is needed. Your results will obviously vary depending on whether you live in Maine or Nevada. The cost is still a staggering $6 trillion. However, to put that number in perspective, at $100/bbl, the U.S. would spend $6 trillion on oil in less than 8 years.

What is the limiting factor? Are there particular components that are critical, but not available in large enough quantities to make this work? Possibly, but I don’t know what those might be. I actually believe that this could be our Manhattan Project, and it could be done. But it doesn’t even have to offset all of our current electrical capacity. We just need to start chipping away, and substituting solar in place of fossil fuels and new capacity that is needed.

Can we afford it? The key question to me is, “Can we afford not to try?”

World’s First Zero-Carbon City?

World’s first zero-carbon city? In Dubai? I must have been asleep when this story started making the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I just saw the story in a local newspaper, but a Google search shows that the story first hit the wires about 2 weeks ago:

UAE starts work on world’s first zero-carbon city

ABU DHABI (AFP) — The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world’s first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said.

“Construction on Masdar City begins today,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015.

Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, exploiting the desert state’s near constant supply of sunshine.

The city, which is named after the Arabic word for “source”, will be built in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Residents will use electric-powered travel pods to move around the city.

The UAE sits on the world’s fifth largest oil reserves and fourth largest gas reserves, most of them in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Proven oil reserves alone are expected to last for another 150 years but, like most oil-producing countries, the UAE wants to diversify to ease its reliance on oil.

The UAE has the world’s largest ecological footprint, consuming more natural resources per capita than any other nation, according to a 2004 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Funny, I thought this sort of thing would be done first in California or Oregon - or in a place that already has a very low carbon footprint. I think the biggest challenge for this project is getting enough solar power to run peak air-conditioning loads. I think that will be the limiting factor in this experiment. Well, that and getting people from an oil-rich nation who are accustomed to using all of the fossil fuel they want, to actually move to this new city. After all, they aren’t exactly accustomed to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

More coverage, including skepticism from environmentalists:

Work starting on world’s first zero-carbon city

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — This Gulf desert nation, one of the world’s most environmentally unfriendly with its ubiquitous air conditioning, swimming pools and SUVs, might be looking to redeem itself. It has begun building what it calls the world’s first zero-carbon city.

“Every little bit helps,” said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored a 2006 World Wildlife Fund report that measured consumption by nations around the world. “It would be best if the UAE reduced energy consumption throughout the country not just in one location.”

Then, reiterating my thoughts above:

Nearly every indoor space — including sprawling malls and giant villas — is air conditioned, seen as a necessity in a country where the winters are hot and the summers blazing. Extravagances like swimming pools with chilled water, an indoor ski slope that produces snow when it’s 120 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside and an all-ice restaurant push up the electricity bill. The unusual mode of transport is SUV or Hummer — there is no public transportation, or even sidewalks in most parts of the city.

Not sure how they are going to address the air conditioning problem. Anyone ever calculated how much roof space you need to run peak air conditioning on solar panels in a hot location?

World’s First Zero-Carbon City?

World’s first zero-carbon city? In Dubai? I must have been asleep when this story started making the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I just saw the story in a local newspaper, but a Google search shows that the story first hit the wires about 2 weeks ago:

UAE starts work on world’s first zero-carbon city

ABU DHABI (AFP) — The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world’s first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said.

“Construction on Masdar City begins today,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015.

Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, exploiting the desert state’s near constant supply of sunshine.

The city, which is named after the Arabic word for “source”, will be built in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Residents will use electric-powered travel pods to move around the city.

The UAE sits on the world’s fifth largest oil reserves and fourth largest gas reserves, most of them in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Proven oil reserves alone are expected to last for another 150 years but, like most oil-producing countries, the UAE wants to diversify to ease its reliance on oil.

The UAE has the world’s largest ecological footprint, consuming more natural resources per capita than any other nation, according to a 2004 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Funny, I thought this sort of thing would be done first in California or Oregon - or in a place that already has a very low carbon footprint. I think the biggest challenge for this project is getting enough solar power to run peak air-conditioning loads. I think that will be the limiting factor in this experiment. Well, that and getting people from an oil-rich nation who are accustomed to using all of the fossil fuel they want, to actually move to this new city. After all, they aren’t exactly accustomed to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

More coverage, including skepticism from environmentalists:

Work starting on world’s first zero-carbon city

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — This Gulf desert nation, one of the world’s most environmentally unfriendly with its ubiquitous air conditioning, swimming pools and SUVs, might be looking to redeem itself. It has begun building what it calls the world’s first zero-carbon city.

“Every little bit helps,” said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored a 2006 World Wildlife Fund report that measured consumption by nations around the world. “It would be best if the UAE reduced energy consumption throughout the country not just in one location.”

Then, reiterating my thoughts above:

Nearly every indoor space — including sprawling malls and giant villas — is air conditioned, seen as a necessity in a country where the winters are hot and the summers blazing. Extravagances like swimming pools with chilled water, an indoor ski slope that produces snow when it’s 120 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside and an all-ice restaurant push up the electricity bill. The unusual mode of transport is SUV or Hummer — there is no public transportation, or even sidewalks in most parts of the city.

Not sure how they are going to address the air conditioning problem. Anyone ever calculated how much roof space you need to run peak air conditioning on solar panels in a hot location?

World’s First Zero-Carbon City?

World’s first zero-carbon city? In Dubai? I must have been asleep when this story started making the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I just saw the story in a local newspaper, but a Google search shows that the story first hit the wires about 2 weeks ago:

UAE starts work on world’s first zero-carbon city

ABU DHABI (AFP) — The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world’s first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said.

“Construction on Masdar City begins today,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015.

Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, exploiting the desert state’s near constant supply of sunshine.

The city, which is named after the Arabic word for “source”, will be built in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Residents will use electric-powered travel pods to move around the city.

The UAE sits on the world’s fifth largest oil reserves and fourth largest gas reserves, most of them in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Proven oil reserves alone are expected to last for another 150 years but, like most oil-producing countries, the UAE wants to diversify to ease its reliance on oil.

The UAE has the world’s largest ecological footprint, consuming more natural resources per capita than any other nation, according to a 2004 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Funny, I thought this sort of thing would be done first in California or Oregon - or in a place that already has a very low carbon footprint. I think the biggest challenge for this project is getting enough solar power to run peak air-conditioning loads. I think that will be the limiting factor in this experiment. Well, that and getting people from an oil-rich nation who are accustomed to using all of the fossil fuel they want, to actually move to this new city. After all, they aren’t exactly accustomed to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

More coverage, including skepticism from environmentalists:

Work starting on world’s first zero-carbon city

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — This Gulf desert nation, one of the world’s most environmentally unfriendly with its ubiquitous air conditioning, swimming pools and SUVs, might be looking to redeem itself. It has begun building what it calls the world’s first zero-carbon city.

“Every little bit helps,” said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored a 2006 World Wildlife Fund report that measured consumption by nations around the world. “It would be best if the UAE reduced energy consumption throughout the country not just in one location.”

Then, reiterating my thoughts above:

Nearly every indoor space — including sprawling malls and giant villas — is air conditioned, seen as a necessity in a country where the winters are hot and the summers blazing. Extravagances like swimming pools with chilled water, an indoor ski slope that produces snow when it’s 120 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside and an all-ice restaurant push up the electricity bill. The unusual mode of transport is SUV or Hummer — there is no public transportation, or even sidewalks in most parts of the city.

Not sure how they are going to address the air conditioning problem. Anyone ever calculated how much roof space you need to run peak air conditioning on solar panels in a hot location?

World’s First Zero-Carbon City?

World’s first zero-carbon city? In Dubai? I must have been asleep when this story started making the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I just saw the story in a local newspaper, but a Google search shows that the story first hit the wires about 2 weeks ago:

UAE starts work on world’s first zero-carbon city

ABU DHABI (AFP) — The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world’s first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said.

“Construction on Masdar City begins today,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015.

Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, exploiting the desert state’s near constant supply of sunshine.

The city, which is named after the Arabic word for “source”, will be built in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Residents will use electric-powered travel pods to move around the city.

The UAE sits on the world’s fifth largest oil reserves and fourth largest gas reserves, most of them in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Proven oil reserves alone are expected to last for another 150 years but, like most oil-producing countries, the UAE wants to diversify to ease its reliance on oil.

The UAE has the world’s largest ecological footprint, consuming more natural resources per capita than any other nation, according to a 2004 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Funny, I thought this sort of thing would be done first in California or Oregon - or in a place that already has a very low carbon footprint. I think the biggest challenge for this project is getting enough solar power to run peak air-conditioning loads. I think that will be the limiting factor in this experiment. Well, that and getting people from an oil-rich nation who are accustomed to using all of the fossil fuel they want, to actually move to this new city. After all, they aren’t exactly accustomed to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

More coverage, including skepticism from environmentalists:

Work starting on world’s first zero-carbon city

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — This Gulf desert nation, one of the world’s most environmentally unfriendly with its ubiquitous air conditioning, swimming pools and SUVs, might be looking to redeem itself. It has begun building what it calls the world’s first zero-carbon city.

“Every little bit helps,” said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored a 2006 World Wildlife Fund report that measured consumption by nations around the world. “It would be best if the UAE reduced energy consumption throughout the country not just in one location.”

Then, reiterating my thoughts above:

Nearly every indoor space — including sprawling malls and giant villas — is air conditioned, seen as a necessity in a country where the winters are hot and the summers blazing. Extravagances like swimming pools with chilled water, an indoor ski slope that produces snow when it’s 120 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside and an all-ice restaurant push up the electricity bill. The unusual mode of transport is SUV or Hummer — there is no public transportation, or even sidewalks in most parts of the city.

Not sure how they are going to address the air conditioning problem. Anyone ever calculated how much roof space you need to run peak air conditioning on solar panels in a hot location?

World’s First Zero-Carbon City?

World’s first zero-carbon city? In Dubai? I must have been asleep when this story started making the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I just saw the story in a local newspaper, but a Google search shows that the story first hit the wires about 2 weeks ago:

UAE starts work on world’s first zero-carbon city

ABU DHABI (AFP) — The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world’s first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said.

“Construction on Masdar City begins today,” the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015.

Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, exploiting the desert state’s near constant supply of sunshine.

The city, which is named after the Arabic word for “source”, will be built in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. Residents will use electric-powered travel pods to move around the city.

The UAE sits on the world’s fifth largest oil reserves and fourth largest gas reserves, most of them in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Proven oil reserves alone are expected to last for another 150 years but, like most oil-producing countries, the UAE wants to diversify to ease its reliance on oil.

The UAE has the world’s largest ecological footprint, consuming more natural resources per capita than any other nation, according to a 2004 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Funny, I thought this sort of thing would be done first in California or Oregon - or in a place that already has a very low carbon footprint. I think the biggest challenge for this project is getting enough solar power to run peak air-conditioning loads. I think that will be the limiting factor in this experiment. Well, that and getting people from an oil-rich nation who are accustomed to using all of the fossil fuel they want, to actually move to this new city. After all, they aren’t exactly accustomed to living an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

More coverage, including skepticism from environmentalists:

Work starting on world’s first zero-carbon city

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — This Gulf desert nation, one of the world’s most environmentally unfriendly with its ubiquitous air conditioning, swimming pools and SUVs, might be looking to redeem itself. It has begun building what it calls the world’s first zero-carbon city.

“Every little bit helps,” said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored a 2006 World Wildlife Fund report that measured consumption by nations around the world. “It would be best if the UAE reduced energy consumption throughout the country not just in one location.”

Then, reiterating my thoughts above:

Nearly every indoor space — including sprawling malls and giant villas — is air conditioned, seen as a necessity in a country where the winters are hot and the summers blazing. Extravagances like swimming pools with chilled water, an indoor ski slope that produces snow when it’s 120 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside and an all-ice restaurant push up the electricity bill. The unusual mode of transport is SUV or Hummer — there is no public transportation, or even sidewalks in most parts of the city.

Not sure how they are going to address the air conditioning problem. Anyone ever calculated how much roof space you need to run peak air conditioning on solar panels in a hot location?

There Will Be Blood

Update: My wife informed me this morning that lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar last night for best actor for his performance in this movie. While I don’t know who he was up against, he certainly did an outstanding acting job in this movie.

This being my last weekend here in Scotland, I decided to take a break from working 7 days a week and go see There Will Be Blood, the “oil movie” I have heard so much about. Yes, I know this movie has been out for a while. But it just came to Aberdeen.

Spoiler Alert

Don’t read this section if you haven’t seen the movie. Just go see it.

First off, I have been misled about this movie. I had heard it was the story of an oil man and his rise from poverty to wealth and power. I saw it differently. I saw it as the story of a cruel psycopath, who happened to be an oil man. I can tell you that some oil men are actually not psychopaths. I can just see some who watched this movie and could picture this playing out in various parts of the globe: The ruthless oil man moves in and runs roughshod over everyone. Now, I know that those kinds of things have happened, but this is not normal. And it certainly isn’t normal in this day and age (although exceptions can always be found). Your typical oil man also doesn’t shoot people in the head, nor do they bludgeon people to death with bowling pins, as did the main character Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis (who did some very fine acting). His character was described in a recent news story as “a raging, conniving, acquisitive petroleum pioneer caught up in California’s oil boom of the early 20th century.” Plainview’s psychotic behavior had me tense during the entire movie. You never knew when he was going to go off on someone unpredictably, and he held grudges for a long, long time.

What I did like about the movie is that it gave a good historical perspective on the early years of the oil industry. This is an inherently dangerous industry, and you saw that in the movie. You have guys out there trying to provide a living for their family - and bringing something to the market that the world depends upon - and dying in the process. And despite the fact that we have come a long, long way since then, people still die each year in this industry. This is a major reason that we have safety beaten into our heads constantly. (It can be quite a shock to go into another industry and contrast the safety precautions with those in the oil industry. In the oil industry, for instance, besides the “big stuff”, we have things drilled into us like how many people die falling out of chairs or falling down stairs each year - therefore don’t lean back in your chair and always hold the hand rail. I get several safety alerts like that every week).

Back to the movie (for a second), I constantly felt like something bad was going to happen to Plainview’s young son. I try to avoid movies where kids get hurt or killed, because I have a hard time shaking those things off. And of course something bad did happen to him, and I spent the rest of the movie thinking about tragedies involving children. I am still trying to shake off last week’s Minnesota school bus crash in which 4 kids died.

Not to get completely off topic, but is anyone else here wired like that? I noticed that once I had kids, I really had to be careful watching the news, as I found myself again and again strongly empathizing with victims and their families. It’s especially bad when I am separated from my family as I am now. The first time I really noticed this was when my daughter (first born) was only about a year old, and the Oklahoma City bombing occurred. I kept imagining the heartache everyone was going through (made worse because I am from Oklahoma and had a daughter almost exactly the same age as Baylee Almon, killed in the bombing), and it affected my sleep for a long time. After that I was always really affected by bad news involving kids - and I can rattle off one story after another. (And the reason for this digression, is these are the places my mind went after the scene in which Plainview’s son was hurt).

Conclusion

Anyway, after that depressing digression, I recommend the movie. See how this industry started. It is disturbing, and the psycopath angle aside, is probably an accurate reflection of the selfish and monopolistic behavior of the time (some of which carries on to the present). Of course I don’t even know if the movie is still playing widely in the U.S. It can be a while before movies from the U.S. spread around the globe. Next up, I am hoping to see Citizen Kane, followed by Gone With the Wind. Heard they are also pretty good, and looking forward to them making their way across the pond.

Drowning in Gasoline

It sort of crept up on me, but last night as I reviewed This Week in Petroleum, I was struck by just how fast the U.S. has built gasoline inventories. Currently at 230 million barrels, I could not recall ever seeing gasoline inventories that high. So, I went back and looked, and the last time gasoline inventories stood at this level was in 1994. While crude, distillate, and propane inventory levels are typical for this time of year, the gasoline situation bears investigating.

Inventories from a year ago were fairly high at 222 million barrels, but then in mid-February we started a steep slide (accompanied by a steep increase in gasoline prices) to record low territory. We bottomed out in May - just before summer driving season - at 193 million barrels. We then struggled to build inventories back, and spent from May until December hovering along near the bottom of range for gasoline inventories.

But starting in December, we had a very steep build that has now put us well above normal. Why, and what is the significance?

I think the “why” is two-fold. First, gasoline prices this winter were much higher than they were a year ago. There were conflicting reports about whether gasoline demand had fallen, and by how much, but EIA data do suggest that demand during late 2007 fell marginally year over year. It is encouraging to me that (some) people are willing to change (some) behaviors as prices soar.

Of more significance, though, is the difference in imports from a year ago. In late 2006, gasoline prices really crashed, and this had an impact on imports; they fell from previous year levels. In late 2007, gasoline prices were about $0.80/gallon higher than the prior year levels, and this attracted more imports. The sharpest contrast can be seen by comparing December 2006 to December 2007. In 2006, imports were never above 1 million bpd, and in 2 of 4 weeks they were below 900,000 bpd. In 2007, imports were only just shy of 1 million bpd once (0.985 million bpd) and then in 2 weeks out of 4 they were above 1.1 million bpd. That is the primary reason inventories bounced back so sharply starting in December of 2007.

We could still potentially see $4 gasoline by summer, but it is looking increasingly less likely that inventories will drive the price as they did last year. Inventories should start to come down as turnaround season gets into full gear, but we are starting this year in a more comfortable place than last year. To hit $4 by summer, oil prices will need to continue the current run - maybe to the $120/bbl range - and/or gasoline inventories need to start coming down quickly. If oil holds at around $100, we are going to have to see a pretty steep draw to get to $4 before summer.