i think that the story in 2004 and the new plants are the same tech.

Golden, Colo. - Two technologies developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory are among this year's most significant innovations, as judged by Research & Development (R&D) Magazine.

The Laboratory's two R&D 100 Awards for 2004 are for an innovative, lower-cost method for transforming plant material into the sugars that can be used to make fuels and chemicals, and a thin-film solar cell that produces electricity directly from sunlight, which has greater efficiency, and is lighter weight and more flexible than previous devices.

This year's announcement brings to 37 the number of R&D 100 Awards garnered by NREL.

"Once again, the technologies developed by our Laboratory's researchers are being acknowledged for their importance to the nation," said Stan Bull, NREL associate director for science and technology. "It's particularly gratifying that the R&D 100 Awards this year include two NREL technologies that can enhance our nation's energy security and reduce our reliance on foreign sources of oil."

The Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Biomass Cellulose to Sugars technology is expected to allow a wide range of biomass resources to be used to produce energy and chemicals. It is an important step toward realizing the potential of bio-refineries-in which plant and waste materials are used to produce an array of fuels and chemicals, analogous to an oil refinery today.

Through this technology, the cost of converting cellulosic biomass into usable sugars can be reduced by more than 20 times per gallon of ethanol produced.

The award is shared by NREL, Genencor International and Novozymes Biotech, Inc. NREL researchers who worked on this project included Michael Himmel, Jim McMillan, Dan Schell, Jody Farmer, Nancy Dowe and Rafael Nieves.

Also recognized for 2004 are light and flexible thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic modules, which can be manufactured in various sizes and have a compact, foldable design that allows for easy deployment, transport and storage.

As a result, the modules have twice the power-to-weight ratio, and three times the power-to-size ratio as competing products. Because of this, they are especially suited for military applications, portable power for consumer and public use, boating and other marine applications and building-related uses, such as for bus shelters and in PV-integrated roofing.

The award is shared by NREL, Global Solar Energy and ITN Energy Systems. NREL researchers who worked on this project included Harin Ullal, Ken Zweibel and Bolko von Roedern.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's premier laboratory for renewable energy research and development and a leading laboratory for energy efficiency R&D. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.

For further information contact NREL Public Affairs at (303) 275-4090.

****

Rock (2006-09-09)

LOS ANGELES (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Official Website/ www.csny.com) - With this summer's acclaimed "Freedom Of Speech '06 Tour" - concluding Sunday, September 10 in Pittsburgh, PA - legendary rock quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) did far more than passionately serve up what the Boston Globe recently called, "What a rarity: a concert that sends you home thinking, feeling, and rocking." The tour's high-profile social consciousness quotient underscores its politically-charged dialogue with an environmental statement that marks a profound paradigm shift for the concert touring and event transportation industry. The band's new transportation model supports CSNY's belief in challenging the cloaked in secrecy energy policies that have cost the United States so much on so many levels - including diversion of taxpayer money from other areas that would benefit most Americans, and wartime casualties in the fight to preserve the petroleum-driven status quo. Finding that unacceptable, they built their own energy plan based on transparency, community involvement, and cooperation, contacting local suppliers of domestically grown renewable fuel nationwide to power "Freedom Of Speech."

Working with San Francisco-based transportation provider Roadshow Services, "Freedom Of Speech" '06's fleet of eight 53' tractor-trailer trucks and ten artist buses is fully powered by B99, a 99%-pure, American-made, soy-derived biodiesel fuel. The largest undertaking of its kind ever to use crop-based, cleaner-burning alternative fuel, CSNY's current tour is also the only one to employ pure agricultural biodiesel rather than the more commonly used 80/20 blend with high levels of petroleum, thus eliminating most harmful particulate matter. It supports local farming, preserves the environment and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

CSNY Production Manager Tim Foster (who's worked with Neil Young for 33 years), says the group's switch to biodiesel first came about for Young's 2004 Greendale concert tour after the artist read Joshua Tickell's seminal green energy primer "From The Frying Pan To The Fuel Tank - The Complete Guide To Using Vegetable Oil As An Alternative Fuel." Foster recalls that Young passed the book along to him with the directive that, going forward, they "walk lighter on the planet" while on tour.

In addition to their famous social and political activism, environmental causes have long been passionately advocated by all four of CSNY's principals. In 1979, Graham Nash co-founded No Nukes/M.U.S.E. - Musicians United For Safe Energy - with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and John Hall (currently running for U.S. Congress in New York), and the all-star concerts organized under the M.U.S.E. banner remain seminal benefit events. David Crosby was one of the first individuals to employ bio-diesel for his personal vehicles, and has been driving a crop-fueled truck for years. A number of Young's cars and trucks are biodiesel driven, and Nash and Stills are converting their vehicles over as well.

One of the most thoroughly tested alternative fuels on the market, biodiesel is completely renewable and self-sustainable, is available nationwide and can be used in existing engines and fuel injection equipment. It has none of the ozone-polluting and carcinogenic chemicals that abound in petroleum based diesel; it's healthier for flora and fauna of every kind, and air quality for drivers, crew and passengers of the fleet is massively improved. "It used to be," says Foster, "that when you walked through the backstage area at one of our shows, say at the Hollywood Bowl, the air would be heavy with petroleum. Now, you don't smell anything, it's clean." Also, of critical importance to CSNY, biodiesel is American-made and is a means - right now - of reducing dependence on foreign oil while boosting the U.S. economy and protecting the environment.

"Freedom Of Speech" is running as clean as possible with 99% soy-based fuel. "Nobody else is doing that now," says Roadshow's VP Sean O'Rourke. "Because B99 is not as readily available, we're coordinating refueling - via tanker trucks - for ourselves, servicing the entire fleet at once." Through working with CSNY, O'Rourke has become a vocal expert on and advocate for biodiesel. "A lot of it has to do," he says, "with the fact that we're a Northern California-based trucking company silly enough to be working in San Francisco, as cost prohibitive a place as any to run an interstate business. But I like to think our business is based on our progressive ideals, and I feel truly patriotic about this endeavor. That's where CSNY approaches it from, understanding that it's good not just environmentally and for the climate, but also for our national interest and the world. As an agent of change in any area, part of that is being an educator. We are compelled to make a difference."

When Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his diesel engine at the 1900 World's Fair, he used peanut oil to operate it. While Diesel designed it to run on a diversity of fuels, including petroleum and coal dust, he saw field crops as the long term future for the engine because of the virtually unlimited supply. Over a century later, his visionary invention is shared by enduring agents of change Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who believe, "We can change the world."

For Official CSNY Tour, Ticket and Fan Club information, visit http://www.csny.com

Final "FREEDOM OF SPEECH" tour date: Sep 10 Pittsburgh, PA Post-Gazette Pavilion

I'm with all of you in spirit and I'll be rocking with you tomorrow night. I know you'll be with me in spirit when I'm in Amsterdam, too. LOL

Have a good visit. Mrs. Green and I will be thrilled to meet all of our CNews family.

I'm so excited for you, FoM.

That's how the seed has to grow, I think. It needs to have sunlight, and we have it here. That's why I can say all the things I do on my blog about what I do and have no concern about being arrested or thrown out of my home. That's why there is Oaksterdam and soon it will be in a lot of other places if it isn't already.