East Bay Business Times - July 19, 2007 http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2007/07/16/daily56.html

Report details status of Bay Area alternative energy research

East Bay Business Times - July 19, 2007

In its latest report, the Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium highlighted the Bay Area's achievements in developing alternative energy but noted that it could take decades to establish the infrastructure that would allow certain alternative-energy technologies to be adopted on a mass scale and significantly impact our consumption of fossil fuel.

"Never has the United States had a greater awareness than it has now of the dangers of continued reliance on fossil-fuel energy," Regis Keely, the organization's chairman, said in a letter introducing the report. "There is nonpartisan support for alternative energy sources that are technologically feasible and cost-effective. It is essential, however, that this support be driven by knowledge, not just experience."

The report focuses on the progress, opportunities and the challenges posed in developing alternative fuel sources.

Biomass, for example, or plant matter from trees, grass, or crops, while widely considered advantageous as it is plentiful and renewable, poses a challenge in that most biomass combustion processes are inefficient, environmentally harmful, and produce pollutants, the report said. BASIC members UC-Davis, UC-Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with other research institutes and corporate partners, are each tackling different pieces of the biomass puzzle.

Hydrogen is another energy source with potential; it is touted for its zero emissions. Among the challenges hydrogen as a major transportation fuel presents are the emissions generated in its production, as well as its storage and distribution. The reports notes that it will be at least 2010 before suppliers and consumers have sufficient experience with the fuel and its nascent infrastructure to be able to adequately judge its full potential and role relative to conventional fuels.

The 92-page report, presented at a conference in San Francisco Thursday, covers research at universities, national labs, utilities and startup companies in eight major alternative energy areas: biomass fuel; electrochemical and magnetic technologies; geothermal energy; hydrogen fuel; solar energy; wind energy; nuclear energy and energy efficiency. The report is available at www.bayeconfor.org/basic/basicpublications.html.

BASIC is a collaboration of regional research universities, national labs, independent research institutions and research and development companies. The nonprofit was created by the Bay Area Economic Forum in 1999.