It is interesting how the Fall has gone so far. It is a study in contrast and persistence.

WI drought conditions

September was the most beautiful month of the year – weatherwise. Nearly every day had high temps in the 70s with partly or mostly sunny skies. It was beautiful but the downside was that it was also the record driest September in Wausau – exacerbating the drought. In October the weather turned cool and wet. Many days were cloudy and did not give usgood light for enjoying the Fall colors. It was one of the coolest and wettest Octobers on record.

Slight Improvement in CA

In Marshfield it WAS the wettest October on record. Then came November. It is hard to say that the weather was beautiful (not like “September beautiful”) but it was pretty darn good for this late in the year. It might end up being the second warmest November on record (I’ll have final November numbers next week Tuesday). Unfortunately it was much drier than normal. That meant no snow for winter enthusiasts and deer hunters. Because of the mild temps, today was the first day of snowmaking activity on Rib Mountain. Now that the overnight low temperatures are colder, Granite Peak expects to have a couple slopes open not this weekend but next weekend. So how is our drought situation? The US Drought Monitor indicates the drought in Wisconsin has improved slightly since last week’s report.

AZ drought worsens

It won’t get much better over the next couple of weeks because no major precipitation is in the works. In other parts of the country, it is nice to see a slight improvement in California as well. The one state that has seen an increase in drought conditions is Arizona. Thankfully, there is a moderate El Nino. This should enhance the chances of above normal rain and snow in Arizona this winter.

Alternative Energy News:

I have been following the development of osmotic power plants for the last year or so and one is fianlly being tested in Norway. This type of powerplant uses osmotic pressure – like that found between salt water and fresh water – to generate electricity. At maximum theoretical development, this type of power plant could deliver 10% of the world’s electricity needs. The drawback – environmental contamination – and not the type you are used to hearing about. The central piece of an osmotic power plant is a membrane through which ions can pass. This membrane is expensive and could be easily clogged by dirt, silt, mud, algae, bacteria, and whatnot. If it needs to be replaced of constantly cleaned, then the profitability of this type of power plant goes down dramatically.

Another industry that shows some promise is cellulosic ethanol, but some people think that start-ups promising to deliver ethanol for less than a dollar a gallon are not dealing in reality. The company producing the most cellulosic ethanol in the largest volumes (POET) has calculated the entire cost of their operation and claims it costs $2.35per gallon. They hope to bring the cost below $2 per gallon soon. It would take some major improvement in efficiency in order bring the cost down to $1 a gallon.

Speaking of price, the average price of installing solar panels in southern California is $8 per watt. Pretty pricey. Now customers in San Diego are banding together to get volume pricing on installations. This has brought the average cost in one community down to about $5.29 per watt – a nice improvement. If this can be duplicated in other parts of the country then maybe more people will adopt solar for the future.

A solar airplane is being tested and prepped for a non-stop flight around the world! That would be a great accomplishment but I doubt there would be many commercial applications. The airplane travels way to slow and can carry only minute amounts of cargo. We will probably have to wait for more dramatic improvement in batteries and solar cells before widespread use of electric airplanes is commonplace.

In wind energy, a new study of vertical wind turbines shows that certain geometrical arrangements can enhance the power production of a group of turbines. It works on the same principle on which schools of fish enhance their group motion. The normal wind turbines we see are horizontal turbines. These are normally more efficient. Vertical turbines arranged close to each other – such as described in the article - could deliver more power per unit area. Considering how expensive land is, this could make some sense in the future.

And how about a little visual treat on this Black Friday. Here is an image of islands disrupting a layer of clouds. If you have ever doubted that the atmosphere moves in fluid motion (like water), this should dispel those doubts.

Have a nice Friday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Drought, Science

An AIR QUALITY ADVISORY is in effect through midday today for Taylor county, Lincoln county, Langlade county, and all areas  to the south. Air quality advisories are issued by the DNR when particulate pollution reaches certain critical levels in the atmosphere where they affect human health. The people most at risk are the elderly and people with breathing problems. These groups should not do strenuous activities outdoors on days with advisories. The primary meteorological reason we have an air quality advisory is that there has not been  much wind over the last couple of days and light winds continue today. Without much wind, there is nothing  to whisk the polluted air from the region and it builds up to unhealthy levels.

The root cause of the particulate pollution is something different - it is our fossil fuel economy. Let me tell you a story. When I first started driving to Wausau to work at WSAW in 1995, I was living in Nekoosa (then Wisconsin Rapids a bit later). During my drive to work on the county highways and the freeway (I-39) I might see 2 or 3 vehicles in the early morning hours, 2 to 3 am. I would usually encounter 1 or 2 vehicles on Grand Avenue all the way from Rothschild to downtown. Now I drive (or ride bicycle) only 3 miles through town and it is typical to encounter a dozen or more vehicles. There are more people and there are more cars on the road. The big city smog and pollution is creeping up on us. If we follow the same path of growth that other areas of the country, then we are in for more roads, more sub-divisions, more highway interchanges, more concrete, and of course more pollution. I could go on about this pollution feedback cycle and how hard it is to break out of  it, but I already did back when I penned the concrete life: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Part one is probably the best. Scratch that, I tried to go back and link to the original articles but I think they got nuked when we switched blogging software. That is a shame because they were interesting. I also got a little depressed writing them because it is unlikely that the suburban sprawling polluting culture can be reversed anytime soon. The technological trends that give hope are alternative energy and information technology. The more people that can make a living from home using the internet, the less people that will need to be on the road. The more we can use solar power to drive the economy the less fossil fuel pollution will occur. One trend I am following particularly close is electric vehicle (EV) development. If the U.S. is going to hold on the to suburban concrete/driving culture then EVs are the best near term hope. Yes, I know that the electricity to run electric cars would still be generated mostly from fossil fuels, however, it is much easier to filter and clean-up a few thousand power plants than hundreds of millions of tailpipes. If more people drove electric cars, there would be less particulate pollution in our cities.

At this point in the blog entry I would usually link to a bunch of new positive EV articles. Alas, I don’t have any, but I have accumulated a bunch of various alternative energy news stories. So here ya go:

A proposed superconducting superstation could connectthe three big energy grids in the U.S. to newer renewable energy sources. It is hard to imagine a ring of super conducting wires (that need to be refrigerated – extremely cold) that needs 60 square kilometers of land could ever be economical, but apparently it has been studied, and perhaps some higher temperature superconducting wire (like ambient temperature) will be invented in the near future. I like the idea, but I get a queasy feeling about huge projects like this. They have long time frames to implement and usually have cost overruns. Also, such a large important part of the nation’s energy infrastructure would be a prime target for terrorists and hard to defend.

More people are talking about autonomous cars. I can’t wait for this development. Not only would it reduce pollution but reduce accidents as well. I would feel much safer on the road with a bunch of computer drivers (including my own car) than with human drivers.

Harnessing waste heat could double the battery life for laptops and cell phones. This has been a dream of many engineers for decades and now that we can manipulate the structure of devices at the nanoscale, it is becoming a reality.

Another thin film solar company Solextant claims to have made a breakthrough in solar cell design that could bring thin films above the 10% efficiency mark. This would be a dramatic improvement, not only from the efficiency standpoint but from the cost standpoint. Thin film solar cells can be made more cheaply using roll-to-roll or ink jet printing technology.

Even the ethanol business could get a boost. A company (ZeaChem) claims it can increase the yield of cellulosic ethanol production by 50%. ZeaChem still has a ways to go to prove the advantages of its process but it is good to see some new ideas (something other than the yeast/grain ethanol situation).

And finally a follow-up on the Sandia laboratory effort to create fossil fuel from CO2 using sunlight as an energy source. They have created a demonstration unit.It still has a ways to go to prove market viability, but hooray for Sandia anyway. At least it can be shown that we can make fuel out of CO2. If this process is a smashing success then maybe power plants would not have to sequester CO2 underground.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Pollution