Compressed Air System Could Green the Grid, President's Energy Blueprint, Chevy Volt Uses Renewable Energy to Power

A newly developed  compressed-air system devised by a Danielle Fong and her partners at LightSail Energy could fundamentally alter the way we generate and use energy by creating a clean, economic way to store electricity and return it to the power grid when it is most needed.   This is important if solar and wind power are ever to displace fossil fuels as a primary energy source. Compressed-air storage uses a motor to drive a piston to compress air in a tank. As the air compresses, it warms and converts mechanical energy into heat energy. To release that energy when needed, operators re-expand the air by heating it. The force of the expanding air drives a turbine or pistons to generate electricity.  LightSail will build a pilot project that’s expected to go online at a Texas wind farm next year.

Click here to down load the fact sheet released by the White House that neatly outlines the President's blueprint on energy issues which he addressed in his SOTU Tuesday evening.  President Obama will begin the second day of his post-State of the Union swing with an event at a UPS facility in Las Vegas, focusing on the importance of American workers developing American-made energy for an economy that's built to last. Following this event, the President will travel to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado to deliver remarks on American energy and the steps his Administration is taking to promote energy security.

Cleared by U.S. safety inspectors, GM-owned Chevrolet has a demonstration project that will allow electric vehicle drivers to charge up using renewable power.  Following the closure of a federal inquiry into possible fire hazards in the Volt, General Motors said that it was starting a trial with internet giant Google to test a new system that helps drivers charge when energy is at its 'greenest'.  The solution, powered by telematics system OnStar, uses a feed showing the percentage of renewable energy on the electricity grid, and therefore when the electricity that comes out of the socket is likely to be the least polluting.  Equipped with this information, General Motors says that OnStar can simultaneously manage the charging of many Volt vehicles (enabling a whole fleet, like Google's, to recharge cleanly), or could alert customers to begin charging.