Harvard and IBM are combining to revolutionize solar energy research. On Harvard’s end, the Clean Energy Project is using distributed computing techniques to research millions of molecules that could be used in polymer solar cells. IBM supplies the network.

Created two years ago, IBM’s World Community Grid is a revolution in Internet volunteerism. Most home computers sit idly while still connected to the Internet and have an incredible amount of unused processing power. IBM is using these idle times, and the owner’s computer, to solve several number crunching projects that on a single computer would take many years to complete, but spread across thousands of computers, that time span is nearly erased.

Some projects already utilizing the WCG involve cancer fighting drugs, the protein structure of rice, and preventing AIDS by analyzing HIV protease, the infectious enzyme that causes the disease. Clean Energy Project’s goal is twofold:

1. Discover new organic PV solar cell materials and
2. Research possible polymers for the membranes in fuel cells.

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East Africa’s Rift Valley spans six countries, from Mozambique to Djibouti. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have just completed testing for geothermal capacity in the region. Those tests have produced results far beyond expectations.

Geothermal wells able to generate up to 8 MW have been discovered. The Africa Rift Valley Geothermal Development Facility (ARGeo) puts the valley’s potential in the range of 2.5 to 6.5 GW at present technological abilities. So far only Kenya has begun tapping this renewable resource, with a goal of 1200 MW by 2015. That, however, is about to change.

ARGeo, backed by UNEP and the World Bank, will facilitate drilling in the six Rift Valley countries starting early next year. With so much energy available and Africa’s populations in dire need, leaders in the UN and Africa are ready to get drilling. (more…)

In the lead up to the New Year and a historic term as President of the United States, President-Elect Barack Obama recently unveiled the leading members of his energy team. These will be the heads that determine and regulate our energy decisions and policy; an issue that, as Obama himself so heartily asserts, is just as much the backbone of our nation’s economic future as it is environmental.

Considering the weight of much of Obama’s campaign rhetoric about progressiveness and change, critics against many of Obama’s nominations have been many. But for the most part, the 44th President’s energy picks have been supported, or at least taken in stride. As is consistent with Obama’s MO so far, there is a lot of political experience floating around the energy team, but there is also a strong focus on science.

Obama’s key energy picks include: (more…)