Uma revolução no domínio da luz

Novas células solares abrem caminho para a era da energia farta, barata e renovável

Rafael Corrêa

A energia solar é uma das grandes esperanças para livrar o mundo da poluição causada pelas usinas termelétricas ao produzir eletricidade, mas por enquanto ela é uma alternativa cara, usada principalmente em pequenas comunidades com projetos subsidiados por governos. A partir de agora, está mais próximo o dia em que se poderá utilizar a energia do Sol para produzir eletricidade em larga escala. A empresa americana Spectrolab, uma subsidiária da Boeing, anunciou a criação de uma célula fotovoltaica capaz de transformar em eletricidade 40,7% dos raios solares que incidem sobre ela. Nas células convencionais usadas hoje nas usinas, esse aproveitamento é de apenas 22%. Isso significa que a nova célula é duas vezes mais eficiente. A novidade é o primeiro passo de uma revolução no setor energético. Usinas equipadas com a nova célula gerarão eletricidade ao preço de 8 a 10 centavos de dólar por quilowatt/hora, praticamente o mesmo que se paga hoje pela força gerada por termelétricas. "Considerando a evolução da pesquisa em energia solar, a invenção da nova célula é o equivalente a correr 1 milha (1.609 metros) em menos de quatro minutos", disse a VEJA Larry Kazmerski, diretor do Centro Nacional para Fotovoltaicos do Departamento de Energia americano, referindo-se ao recorde esportivo alcançado pelo inglês Roger Bannister em 1954 e que se acreditava inatingível.

As células fotovoltaicas produzem eletricidade absorvendo a energia da luz na forma de fótons e transformando-a em corrente elétrica. As células convencionais são feitas de silício, o mesmo material usado nos chips de computador. O grande achado da nova célula é utilizar diferentes tipos de material, em camadas sobrepostas. Cada camada absorve a energia de uma determinada cor do espectro da luz solar. Dessa maneira, a supercélula aproveita mais de cada raio que incide sobre ela com relação à célula convencional. A tecnologia é semelhante à usada para alimentar as baterias das sondas espaciais Mars Rovers, que há três anos pesquisam o solo marciano.

Se toda a energia que o Sol despeja sobre a Terra fosse aproveitada por células fotovoltaicas, bastaria uma hora de exposição para gerar a eletricidade consumida no mundo em um ano inteiro. Atualmente, apenas 0,01% da eletricidade usada no planeta vem do Sol. A produção de energia solar cresce à razão de 25% ao ano, mas essa expansão é praticamente restrita a três países, Alemanha, Estados Unidos e Japão. A nova célula pode ser o impulso que faltava para disseminar o uso dessa energia. O início de sua produção está previsto para 2008, e os primeiros lotes serão utilizados por companhias envolvidas em projetos de geração de eletricidade em larga escala. Um deles será instalado na província de Victoria, na Austrália, e terá a capacidade de gerar 154 megawatts de eletricidade, o suficiente para abastecer 45.000 casas. Para produzir a mesma quantidade de energia, uma usina termelétrica lança na atmosfera 400.000 toneladas de dióxido de carbono, o equivalente às emissões de 80.000 carros ao longo de um ano. "A célula supereficiente é uma tecnologia inovadora que abre caminho para toda uma nova geração de usinas solares", diz Kazmerski. "Em pouco tempo veremos células ainda mais potentes, capazes de converter 50% da energia solar em eletricidade", completa ele.

Taking the Web 2.0 route to green tech

When Benjamin Brown, the CEO of Web start-up MakeMeSustainable.com, hands you his business card, it's got "green" written all over it.

Rather than bleached white, it's the color of a supermarket bag and has a green fingerprint printed on the back.

MakeMeSustainable.com lets people see their energy usage and savings over time--as well as what their friends are doing.
(Credit: MakeMeSustainable.com)

Brown's not the only Web entrepreneur going with the recycled paper look. A growing number of tech and media entrepreneurs are trying to enter the booming green-tech industry via the Web.

Over the past five years, many IT professionals have made the jump to energy-related companies. Former Microsoftie Martin Tobias, for example, was CEO of biodiesel company Imperium Renewables, while the head of ethanol maker Range Fuels, Mitch Mandich, is a former Apple executive.

These IT veterans made the move either because there are more job opportunities, or because they want to work in an environmentally oriented field. Although they may lack technical know-how in energy, they contribute the speed and entrepreneurial culture of high-tech start-ups, the thinking goes.

By contrast, people like Brown feel that tapping social networking on the Web is the best way to build a business with an environmental slant.

"There's a lot of noise and a lot of great clean technologies are going to be created," Brown says. "The reason I wanted to go towards the Web is because, in the end, it's the individual consumer who will be driving those concepts and ideas."

MakeMeSustainable.com is sort of like Weight Watchers for carbon-conscious consumers. It allows people to evaluate their individual carbon footprint and track it over time while teaming with others.

The company, which spent two and half years building the software, is in the process of raising a Series A round of venture capital, said Brown, who is 25.
green Web sites

Over the past few years, there's been an explosion in green-themed Web media. Many sites act as hubs for environmentally aware people, providing news links and tips. There are sites to locate suppliers of green products or even to find a date with like-minded greenies.

The green Web reflects growing awareness of environmental issues. With the growth of social-networking sites, getting the word out online is a natural, particularly for younger people for whom socializing online is second nature. MakeMeSustainable released a Facebook application in December.

For people with software skills, green Web businesses are a tech-related career path that dovetails with their personal goals.

"The people who have Web 2.0 in their DNA, let's call it, are very alert and sensitive to this," said Andy Zaleta, a partner at recruiting firm Battalia Winston. "There's a social awareness created by the younger generation online."

There are many sites, which are counting on advertising revenue, that aggregate environmental news and tips. A few are emerging that emphasize social networking. A site called Carbonrally, offers teams of people regular challenges, such as using PC energy-management software. Teams can compete as they track the impact of their changes.

Brown said that eco-oriented consumers are getting to the point where they want hard numbers to back up their good intentions.

"Who the hell knows what is eco or green and people are getting tired of greenwashing," he said. "There's so much information out there, what we're seeking to be is a trusted quantitative source."
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February 6, 2008 10:50 AM PST
Taking the Web 2.0 route to green tech
Posted by Martin LaMonica

Carbon Trading May Reward Indonesians for Saving Rainforest

By Jim Efstathiou Jr.

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Carbon trading markets may be used for the first time to help villages in Indonesia preserve trees, part of the global effort to stop deforestation that is speeding climate change.

Under a plan to be announced today to save the 1.9 million- acre Ulu Masen forest in Indonesia's Aceh province, about $26 million in revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to villages that stop logging. The proposal hinges on the sale of credits to companies and individuals seeking to offset emissions and burnish their environmental reputations. The credits typically cost $4 to $8 per ton of pollution reductions.

There is no international agreement to reward developing countries for halting the burning of forests that accounts for 20 percent of global warming emissions, said John-O Niles, chief science and policy officer for Carbon Conservation, a project sponsor. The Ulu Masen plan to reduce emissions by 100 million tons over 30 years may help convince critics that saving forests can help slow the planet's warming, Niles said.

``There is for the global community and for the atmosphere a lot of value to maintaining the forests,'' Halldor Thorgeirsson, head of emissions trading at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in an interview. ``It's important that value is somehow transferred to the people that make decisions on the ground.''

The preservation plan for Ulu Masen will reduce emissions equivalent to Mexico's annual greenhouse-gas output, Niles said. It is the first project for avoiding deforestation to meet standards set by the Arlington, Virginia-based Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance to assure tradable carbon credits.

Energy Conversion

Trees store carbon dioxide, which is used in the conversion of light energy to chemical energy. Deforestation is the third largest source of carbon emissions after fossil fuel use and industrial operations, according to the UN.

Reducing emissions by saving forests was a priority at climate-change talks in December on the Indonesian island of Bali. The World Bank has launched funds to help developing countries monitor emissions reductions and market them, said Werner Kornexl, a senior technical specialist at the Washington- based bank.

``What we want to do in this partnership is set the stage for bigger market demand,'' Kornexl said in an interview. ``There is broad interest for this.''

Interest in credits from projects like Ulu Masen depends on standards that ``ensure the action is real,'' said Elliot Diringer, director of international strategies at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, based in Arlington, Virginia.

`Stronger Action'

``It's a huge source of emissions and there's a willingness on the part of the tropical forest countries to undertake stronger action,'' Diringer said in an interview.

The Ulu Masen project was certified by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance, which includes non- governmental organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and the Rainforest Alliance and companies such as Intel Corp. and Weyerhaeuser Co. The designation means the project is ``extremely likely'' to produce credits beginning in 2009, Niles said.

Sponsors expect to reduce logging by 85 percent at Ulu Masen, which will generate credits representing 3.3 million tons of carbon a year, Niles said. At a projected price of $5 a ton, credits will generate $16.5 million.

Local villages will receive payments once they demonstrate trees haven't been logged, said Joanna Durbin, director of the alliance. Progress will be monitored on the ground by forest wardens and from the air through satellite images. Payments are projected to reach $26 million over the first five years.

Investor Risk

``The payments are based on results,'' Durbin said in an interview.

Certification to alliance standards also guarantees community and biodiversity benefits, such as maintaining wildlife habitats and clean water supplies, said Duncan Marsh, director of international climate policy at the Arlington-based Nature Conservancy. The forest is home to Sumatran elephants, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers and Sumatran orangutans.

``Community and biodiversity aspects are an important attraction to investors,'' Marsh said.

Investors will also focus on risk, Marsh said. Credits for halting deforestation may not be used by companies to meet pollution targets under the European Union's greenhouse gas program or by countries under the Kyoto Protocol, an international accord to limit global warming gases.

`No Guarantee'

``If investments they make now do become eligible for credits in a future compliance regime, then the credits would be worth a lot more,'' Marsh said. ``There is no guarantee that will happen and those credits may continue to have the value they do on the voluntary market.''

Carbon credits from wind farms and solar power stations eligible in Europe's program and under the Kyoto pact traded at 14.25 euros ($21.09) Feb. 5 on the Nord Pool ASA exchange in Lysaker, Norway. There is little trade in credits from projects such as Ulu Masen, said Jason Patrick, director for greenhouse- gas services for the credit broker, Evolution Markets.

``There's a slow evolution from avoided deforestation as something that never happens to something that could be part of a future compliance system,'' Patrick said. There is ``speculative activity in avoided deforestation projects today with the expectation that there will be some sort of compliance value down the road.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: February 7, 2008 00:17 EST

First rainforest-for-carbon-credits deal becomes a reality

Villagers in Aceh, the Indonesian province that suffered through three decades of civil war and lost some 170,000 people to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, could soon see $26 million in carbon credits for protecting rainforests from logging under a deal announced today between conservationists, carbon traders, and the Aceh government.

The project — backed by the Government of Aceh, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and Carbon Conservation — will protect the 1.9 million-acre Ulu Masen forest, a tract of rainforest home to the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus), the Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulusa), the Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), and the Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii). By preventing logging and conversion of Ulu Masen forest for oil palm plantations, planners expect to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tons over 30 years. The proceeds — in the form of carbon credits — will help fund health and education projects in the local community.

Critically, the project won the approval from the Rainforest Alliance's Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, criteria meant to ensure that land use projects are designed to mitigate climate change and deliver compelling community and biodiversity benefits. The Ulu Masen project is the first project for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD) to be independently-approved as conforming to the CCB Standards.


"The project shows how solid partnerships with local communities are likely to deliver real reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by conserving a globally-significant tract of rainforest," said Dr. Joanna Durbin, Director of the CCBA. "We hope world leaders will adopt a policy framework that supports developing countries, forests, local and indigenous people and biodiversity to benefit from global climate change efforts."

"As Aceh’s Governor, I am very pleased that my office, Fauna and Flora International and Carbon Conservation passed the CCB audit," added Governor Irwandi Yusuf. "Aceh is serious about leading the world into a sustainable future, by implementing an integrated green approach to land and forest management and by curtailing illegal logging. This is only the first step. The hard work will be in financing and implementing our proposed project to help preserve the largest remaining bloc of unprotected Sumatran forests."

"We are ecstatic to be the first REDD project independently validated as meeting high global standards," said Dorjee Sun, CEO of Carbon Conservation. "The fate of tropical forests hinges on the ability of global carbon markets to rapidly mobilize adequate resources to communities with clear, defendable plans for reducing CO2 emissions. This conservation strategy is part of Aceh Green, a bold strategy in Aceh to develop green certified soft commodities, to relieve pressure on forests and provide sustainable livelihoods. We will be working with Merrill Lynch on the credit monetization strategy."

By creating a mechanism for funding rainforest conservation, REDD is seen by many as the best way to slow deforestation in the tropics. Already the World Bank has committed US$165 million to its newly created Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, a scheme that will offer tropical countries carbon offset credits to preserve forests.

February 7, 2008