THE "GREEN" ENERGY-POTENTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGICAL BREAK-THROUGH

Frenetic pace at which energy scientists are pursuing alternate sources of energy, to meet the the contingency arising out of the eventual drying of fossil fuel wells in not distant a future, seems to have taken them to areas not chartered hitherto. It is likely that modern biotechnological tools may yet convert the unheralded single cell organism Algae into a real hero in the coming years. Algae belonging to different varieties are known to be excellent converters of solar energy into different biological constituents such as proteins, colorants, fat, micro nutrients etc and to day it is better known as a health supplement, attributing to it many virtues including longevity. The latest romance with Algae by the fuel scientists is opening up new opportunities as a fuel source capable of replacing fossil fuels that can be used for meeting the modern transportation needs.

"Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked. Different strains of algae are pitted against one another in survival-of-the-fittest contests in an effort to accelerate the evolution of fast-growing, hardy strains. The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils that can be sent to a refinery and made into diesel or jet fuel. "We've probably engineered over 4,000 strains," said Mike Mendez, a co-founder and vice president for technology at Sapphire Energy, the owner of the laboratory. "My whole goal here at Sapphire is to domesticate algae, to make it a crop." Dozens of companies, as well as many academic laboratories, are pursuing the same goal — to produce algae as a source of, literally, green energy. And many of them are using genetic engineering or other biological techniques, like chemically induced mutations, to improve how algae functions."

It has been known for some time that Algal cells can be manipulated at the gene level to yield hydrocarbons just like the petroleum hydrocarbons but the viability of the bio-conversion route was not established because of low yields. The above studies have been able to show the potential of some Algal variants to be a significant source of hydrocarbons and the findings, though at a laboratory level, are pregnant with far reaching significance to the energy starved humanity. Of course there are many hurdles in realizing the potential and in stead of working in isolation research organizations must pool their resources and experience for evolving a universally acceptable alternate source to fossil fuels and such an achievement will spare precious food resources like grains, sugar beets and sugarcane for meeting the food needs of human beings.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"GREEN" ENERGY-ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE?

It is well known that most forms of green energy cannot compete successfully with that generated using fossil fuels and long term policies to establish alternate energy systems must subsidize entrepreneurs venturing into this field in order to bring down their market price. This obviously does not mean that alternate energy industry must be on a perpetual subsidy "diet" for survival. With fossil fuel sources declining continuously, the cost of drilling and distribution may make them increasingly costlier in the coming years. But how a subsidy regime can go terribly wrong is borne out by the experience of Spain which was in the fore front in 2008 by installing half the global solar energy installations in the world.

"But as low-quality, poorly designed solar plants sprang up on Spain's plateaus, Spanish officials came to realize that they would have to subsidize many of them indefinitely, and that the industry they had created might never produce efficient green energy on its own. For now, electricity generation from the sun's rays needs to be subsidized because it requires the purchase of new equipment and investment in evolving technologies. But costs are rapidly dropping. And regulators are still learning how to structure stimulus payments so that they yield a stable green industry that supports itself, rather than just costly energy and an economic flash in the pan like Spain's".

Probably there are lessons to be learned from Spain's experience by other countries because solar energy is still the most attractive option in any alternate sustainable energy plan or program. Italy, where energy cost is one of the highest in the world, working out to almost 45 cents a unit, is probably the only country where solar energy can compete successfully using modern technology. Increased cost of fossil fuels and depleting global sources may make fossil based energy increasingly costlier while solar power plants may see progressive reduction of cost of generation with continuous improvements in technology.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com