Development of alternative energy sources shows promise as projects start to move from laboratory to “out-in-the-world” trials, researchers at a conference said Wednesday.

Speakers at the Alternative Energy 2009 conference Wednesday at LSU outlined a number of emerging technologies with promise.

For most alternative energy sources, however, widespread commercial application of the technology isn’t going to happen tomorrow.

Development of alternative energy is being helped in part by states that require renewable energy to be a portion of the energy produced in the state, speakers said.

Those requirements, along with the possibility of federally mandated regulations on emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, is motivating the power company Southern Company to research alternatives, said Jeremiah Haswell, research engineer with the company.

Currently, 28 states have a Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires a portion of the energy to come from a renewable resource such as wind, solar or biofuels, he said.

If a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard is adopted, he said, it could mean the company would need to come up with 4,000 to 4,500 megawatts of energy from renewable energy sources.

In the Southeast U.S., biofuels — like trees or other vegetation — are the most abundant fuel source, he said.

So the company has not only been researching how to put more biofuels into their power generation, but also is in the process of trying to retrofit a coal-fired plant into running on wood waste and other materials like corn cobs, he said.

The company is going through the permit process now and expects to begin the retrofit in 2011, with a start of operations in the summer of 2012, he said.

Paul Thomsen, director for policy and business development with Ormat Technologies Inc., explained that geothermal energy can be drilled for or can be recovered from current operations.

In standalone geothermal operations, the company looks for pockets of heat that can be brought to the surface, run through a closed system of pipes that extract the heat for energy production, then re-injected into the ground to be reheated.  In the recovered energy system, hot air from an industrial source is used to do the same process to produce additional energy without generating additional air emissions — some of which are considered greenhouse gases.

Other research is focused on capturing energy from the sun through the growth of algae — like the project at Colorado State University.

“Sunlight, carbon dioxide and water are our three main ingredients,” said Morgan DeFoort, director of the engines and energy conversion laboratory at the university.

The laboratory, and the spin-off company Solix, is working on the most cost-effective ways to grow oil-producing algae and process it into biofuels.

Acre for acre, algae farming is attractive because of the high yield per acre, he said.

One of the challenges has been to find ways to get large-scale production cheap enough to make the process financially viable, he said.

“At the end of the day this is technically possible, but is it economically feasible?” he asked. The answer to that is yes, he said.  Right now, the laboratory is producing oil that costs about $30 a gallon, he said. With current technology and a larger operation, that price is expected to be lowered to $3.32 per gallon, he said.

With improved technology, he said, that cost ultimately could be lowered to $1.60 a gallon — not including taxes or transportation costs.

Source: 2theadvocate.com