Eric Wesoff 05 01 09, 12:23 AM

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Energy Odds and Ends: Seaweed, Iraq, DOE and More

Yes, But How Will This Impact the Price of My Sushi?

South Korea will invest $275 million over the next decade to grow seaweed forests off its coast and increase the country's ability to produce biomass energy. The biomass would be used to produce a target of 400 million gallons of ethanol per year by 2020 or roughly 10 percent of the country’s petroleum-based fuel usage.

Most of the algae farming and algae investments in the U.S. and Europe are focused on microalgae.  Seaweed, which is already sustainably farmed in Asia and is a multi-billion dollar market, is considered macroalgae.

$418 Per Gallon

According to Biofuels Digest, Professor George Poste of Arizona State University, a member of the Defense Science Board of Department of Defense, and an adviser to Burrill & Company, a VC firm, claimed that the cost of providing fossil fuels to the military in Iraq is $418 per gallon.  He believes that the Department of Defense is ready to invest in biofuels research to control the cost of fuels for troops in “forward areas.”

$777M for Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs)
The White House announced that the U.S. DOE Office of Science will invest $777 million in 46 new Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) over the next five years.

Supported by funds from President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the EFRCs will bring together groups of leading scientists to address fundamental issues in fields ranging from solar energy and electricity storage to materials sciences, biofuels, advanced nuclear systems, and carbon capture and sequestration.

Demand Response Factoid

The cost of generating electricity during peak-demand periods can be up to 10 times more expensive than during other periods, and 100 hours of peak demand (about one percent of the hours in a year) can account for as much as 20 percent of annual electricity expenditures.