Posts tagged development
Role of natural gas in municipal power generation to be examined
Oct 10th
Boulder to convene community working group on the future role of natural gas in local energy supply
The City of Boulder announced today that it will create a community working group of industry specialists and local stakeholders to explore concerns and opportunities related to the use of natural gas to generate electricity for the City of Boulder, should it decide to form a local electric utility. Natural gas will likely play a significant role in Boulder’s energy portfolio, whether the community continues to be served by Xcel Energy or by a municipal utility. The focus of the group’s work will be to examine issues and concerns related to fracking and methane releases and to explore current and possible industry best practices.
On Nov. 5, Boulder voters will be asked to weigh in on a ballot measure that would institute a five-year moratorium on fracking in Boulder and on Boulder-owned open space property. However, given the tremendous growth in natural gas production in Colorado, the current and future use of natural gas as an energy source for Boulder customers has raised concerns over fracking — a process that uses a pressurized water mixture to release oil or natural gas from deep underground.
In addition to discussing concerns over fracking, the community group will also discuss the issue of methane leakage. While it is widely accepted that burning natural gas emits significantly less carbon dioxide than burning coal, recent studies have found that using natural gas may actually release more greenhouse gases over its lifecycle. That’s because quantities of raw methane, a major component of natural gas, can escape into the atmosphere during natural gas extraction, production and distribution.
“If Boulder chooses to municipalize, before we commit to a particular energy portfolio, we want to address concerns around the use of natural gas supplied from fracking and how we can minimize the negative impacts through best practices or other means,” said Heather Bailey, executive director of energy strategy and electric utility development. “Natural gas is likely to be a necessary transition energy source as Boulder makes what we hope will be a dramatic shift away from coal and other fossil fuels toward renewable sources. Recognizing this, we have been working on what we can do as a municipal utility to influence the development of responsibly sourced gas that limits or eliminates the harmful impacts of fracking and methane release.”
Executive Director Bailey also commented that the city has a “unique opportunity” to benefit from a discussion with local experts on the feasibility of a future municipal utility to push aggressively towards responsible development of natural gas. Expertise from the University of Colorado, federal labs, as well as the numerous local companies and entrepreneurs developing leading-edge energy technologies could help Boulder in its work to curb climate change and support a robust clean energy market.
The city’s Energy Future team anticipates holding the first meeting of the natural gas community working group shortly after the Nov. 5 election. Members of the community, stakeholders and industry personnel who are interested in participating are encouraged to contact Heather Bailey at 303-441-1923 or baileyh@bouldercolorado.gov.
More information about the Energy Future project and associated municipalization exploration study is available at www.BoulderEnergyFuture.com.
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A county land-use office to help with rebuilding regulations
Oct 10th
Boulder County, Colo. – The Boulder County Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners will be considering interim development regulations for homes and other structures damaged or destroyed by the historic rains, mudslides and flooding of September 2013. Two upcoming Public Hearings have been scheduled:
What: Planning Commission Public Hearing
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 4:30 pm
Where: Commissioners’ Hearing Room, third floor, Boulder County Courthouse, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder
What: Board of County Commissioners Public Hearing
When: Wednesday, October 23, 2013, 4:30 pm
Where: Commissioners’ Hearing Room, third floor, Boulder County Courthouse, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder
Boulder County is planning for the need and desire to rebuild quickly and restore the community while implementing measures to protect public safety and investments through hazard mitigation and avoidance.
“The goal is rebuilding resilient communities which can better withstand extreme events and maintain the community fabric of these impacted areas,” said Land Use Director Dale Case. “Wise, sustainable rebuilding regulations are a vital part of the recovery process.”
In the aftermath of the unprecedented destruction and the magnitude of extreme weather experienced in September, county staff have closely examined existing regulations dating back to the 1990s and determined that they don’t sufficiently meet public safety standards in all circumstances. For example, current regulations allow property owners to replace structures in some cases without a review and in other cases a review which would require a floodplain development permit which may not adequately address currently known flooding behavior.
Given our community’s recent extreme weather experience, county officials believe is counterproductive for individuals, insurance companies and the public to invest the time, money, and energy into rebuilding in a location that is known to be hazardous.
In many cases the regulations will allow rebuilding to occur within existing lot lines, but require that structures be raised up out of the flood hazard areas or relocated out of hazard areas to a safer location on the property. The current regulations also require structures to be rebuilt at the same height as the old structures. The proposed regulations will allow changes in height to accommodate floodproofing, such as raising the height of the structure to avoid future flood damage.
These interim regulations are proposed to be in effect until April 30, 2014. During this time, property owners can rebuild destroyed or substantially damaged structures in safer locations, in a way that meets the floodplain development requirements (if the new structure is proposed to be located in a floodplain) without going through Site Plan Review. Land Use staff will work with property owners and representatives from other county departments to perform a Hazard Mitigation Review. The goal of this review is to help property owners rebuild in a way that is more resilient to future disasters.
During this interim period staff is committed to reaching out to the communities to understand the needs and issues of residents who are facing complex issues to restore their homes, property and lives. As part of the effort to assist property owners and residents impacted by the flood the county has set up a Flood Recovery Center at the county’s Land Use Department staffed by functional experts in onsite wastewater (septic) systems, floodplain regulations, planning and building code. The center and the county will also pursue other restoration resources and hazard mitigation programs to assist those impacted.
The staff recommendation and proposed regulations have been posted to the Land Use Department’s website(www.bouldercounty.org/property/build/pages/lucodeupdatedc130003.aspx) for public review and comment. Residents are encouraged to read the draft, call us at 720-564-2623 if you have questions, email your comments to planner@bouldercounty.org, attend the upcoming public hearings, and make your opinion known.
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CU scientists: New battery extends range and safety of electric-powered vehicles
Sep 22nd
A cutting-edge battery technology developed at the University of Colorado Boulder that could allow tomorrow’s electric vehicles to travel twice as far on a charge is now closer to becoming a commercial reality.
CU’s Technology Transfer Office has completed an agreement with Solid Power LLC—a CU-Boulder spinoff company founded by Se-Hee Lee and Conrad Stoldt, both associate professors of mechanical engineering—for the development and commercialization of an innovative solid-state rechargeable battery. Solid Power also was recently awarded a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy for the purpose of creating a battery that can improve electric vehicle driving range.
The rechargeable batteries that are standard in today’s electric vehicles—as well as in a host of consumer electronics, such as mobile phones and laptops—are lithium-ion batteries, which generate electricity when lithium ions move back and forth between electrodes in a liquid electrolyte solution.
Engineers and chemists have long known that using lithium metal as the anode in a rechargeable battery—as opposed to the conventional carbon materials that are used as the anode in conventional lithium-ion batteries—can dramatically increase its energy density. But using lithium metal, a highly reactive solid, in conjunction with a liquid electrolyte is extremely hazardous because it increases the chance of a thermal runaway reaction that can result in a fire or an explosion.
Today’s lithium-ion batteries require a bulky amount of devices to protect and cool the batteries. A fire onboard a Boeing Dreamliner in January that temporarily grounded the new class of plane was linked to its onboard lithium-ion battery.
Lee and Stoldt solved the safety concerns around using lithium metal by eliminating the liquid electrolyte. Instead, the pair built an entirely solid-state battery that uses a ceramic electrolyte to separate the lithium metal anode from the cathode. Because the solid-state battery is far safer, it requires less protective packaging, which in turn could reduce the weight of the battery system in electric vehicles and help extend their range.
Research into the development of solid-state batteries has gone on for a couple of decades, but it has been difficult to create a solid electrolyte that allowed the ions to pass through it as easily as a liquid electrolyte.
“The problem has always been that solid electrolytes had very poor performance making their use in rechargeable batteries impractical,” Stoldt said. “However, the last decade has seen a resurgence in the development of new solid electrolytes with ionic conductivities that rival their liquid counterparts.”
The critical innovation added by Lee and Stoldt that allows their solid-state lithium battery to out-perform standard lithium-ion batteries is the construction of the cathode, the part of the battery that attracts the positively charged lithium ions once they’re discharged from the lithium metal. Instead of using a solid mass of material, Lee and Stoldt created a “composite cathode,” essentially small particles of cathode material held together with solid electrolyte and infused with an additive that increases its electrical conductivity. This configuration allows ions and electrons to move more easily within the cathode.
“The real innovation is an all-solid composite cathode that is based upon an iron-sulfur chemistry that we developed at CU,” Stoldt said. “This new, low-cost chemistry has a capacity that’s nearly 10 times greater than state-of-the-art cathodes.”
Last year, Lee and Stoldt partnered with Douglas Campbell, a small-business and early-stage product development veteran, to spin out Solid Power.
“We’re very excited about the opportunity to achieve commercial success for the all solid-state rechargeable battery,” said Campbell, Solid Power’s president. “We’re actively engaging industrial commercial partners to assist in commercialization and expect to have prototype products ready for in-field testing within 18 to 24 months.” Important to the early success of the company has been its incubation within CU-Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science’s applied energy storage research center, a part of the college’s energy systems and environmental sustainability initiative.
Solid Power is a member of Rocky Mountain Innosphere, a nonprofit technology incubator headquartered in Fort Collins, Colo., with a mission to accelerate the development and success of high-impact scientific and technology startup companies.
“We’re very excited to be working with Solid Power’s team to get them to the next level,” said Mike Freeman, Innosphere’s CEO. “This is a big deal to Colorado’s clean-tech space. Solid Power’s batteries will have a huge impact in the EV market, and they have a potential $20 billion market for their technology.”
Learn more about Solid Power at http://www.solidpowerbattery.com.
-CU-