THE BLUE REVOLUTION IS COMING

The Blue Revolution is beginning to happen. Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth and a series of articles I posted in the Huffington Post (scroll down to the bottom right, and pick out what you might want to read) provide background information. If you're too lazy to do that, just click on the Blue Revolution for the latest article.

One of the long-term, but particularly promising pathways, has to do with growing microalgae for a range of potential products. A quarter century ago I hosted three invitational workshops, each with ten to twenty world specialists, seeking solutions to the following: given the Sun, our ocean and marine microbes, how best can we produce clean fuels? Three proceedings are available, as published by the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. Since then the genome table has been created offering genetic engineering opportunities. What is currently lacking is the ocean engineering to carry out this task, and this could take half a century.

The best biofuels from algae article I have ever read can be found in the RenewableEnergy.com issue today written by Chris Tachibana entitled "Algae Biofuels: From Pond Scum to Jet Fuel." Exxon Mobil has teamed with J. Craig Venter on a $600 million venture.

Why? Well, microalgae can produce 100 times more oil than any terrestrial biodiesel crop. This marine microbio farm in the open ocean will not need irrigation, shows prospects for sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and will not need fossil-fuel based fertilization, for the solution will be to utilize the upwelled fluids from the process of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC).

Doug Carlson has an OTEC blog providing the current developments, and he reports on a statement from Ted Johnson, who heads the Lockheed Martin (LM) team, of a 100 MW plantship operating off Kahe Point by 2015, providing electricity that should be commercially competitive. That latter bit is my add on considering that electricity on Oahu currently costs 19 cents/kWh (but it was 32 cents/kWh last year when oil prices were high), and LM should be able to produce in the low 20 cent/kWh range, when the price of crude in six years should be back above $100/barrel, if not much higher. We are the only state stuck with powerplants that primarily use oil.

While there has been remarkable progress along all renewable energy fronts, the fact of the matter is that these clean options (minus hydroelectricity) only provide about one percent of the power produced, and coal remains the fastest growing resource for electricity production. The dual threat of Peak Oil and Global Warming is poised to hammer us, and all we can do is debate a pathetic Cap and Trade initiative in Congress and, in Hawaii, argue about furloughs or layoffs, when what is required is for all parties (government, unions, industry and the people) to immediately agree on a common effort to minimize the coming depression, surely to come when oil rises to $150/barrel and stays there.

-

The Dow Jones Industrials jumped 108 to 9792. Both crude oil and gold surged, petroleum now above $72/barrel and gold up $9/toz to $1018, an all-time high (but don't get too excited, for in 2009 dollars, gold in 1980 had a current value of $2660--go the Calculate the Current Value of Money section on the right).

-

Tropical Storm Marty and that other disturbance south of Baha should not head for Hawaii, but Super Typhoon Choi-wan is now at 160 MPH and churning for Japan. Models, though, show that there will be a right turn and movement away from Japan. Yet, when you look at the below from Weather Underground, one can't help but panic a bit.