In our technologically advanced civilization, energy is not longer just something you need at home or business – it has become a personal asset. You need energy away from home and away from the traditional working place.

Most people carry along some sort of electronic gadget wherever they go – from cell phones, to laptops, from simple calculators to the latest entertainment gadgets, you name it. Naturally, gadgets require energy to run. It is here that solar energy can be a great advantage. Battery technology has seen great improvement in the past years and research continues to make batteries even more reliable and efficient. The time when you won’t need to remember to recharge your gadgets is just around the corner, so to speak.

Waiting for this to become everyday reality, other solutions already exist in the form of portable solar energy systems, which can be used anywhere since they are designed for outdoor use. These portable solar systems range from small to medium sized and can serve a number of important functions. Their greatest advantage is that there is little or no wiring and they are frequently plug and play systems, simple and easy to use – you plug in and have power instantly.

Other advantages of portable solar power systems reside in the fact that they allow you to access power outside the national grid. They are renewable and sustainable. They use small photovoltaic panels housed in a variety of material, depending on the size and intended use.

Many of these systems are encased in what looks like a bulky briefcase. But there are many other models, some more flexible than others, adapted to different uses – camping, hiking, boating, emergency situations, and much more.

Some examples of portable solar energy include: solar powered backpack, solar powered laptop case, solar powered clocks, solar LED lamps, solar lamp posts, garden solar lamps, solar spotlights and floodlights, solar laptop chargers, cell phone chargers, and many, many more. Portable solar power represents a new and expanding field.

Xtreme Xylanase could change the world, or at least the prospect of cellulosic ethanol.

That’s the take from the Idaho National Lab, which supports the U.S. Department of Energy.

“This enzyme is a highly acid and thermostable xylanase enzyme from a microbe originating in Yellowstone National Park,” a research fact sheet on the enzyme says. “It is capable of efficiently converting the hemicellulose and cellulose components of biomass into energy rich sugars. These sugars are building blocks used in place of petroleum to make fuels and high-value chemicals.”

Sounds promising. Such breakthroughs bolster a study by Boulder, Colo.-based Pike Research which reported last month that energy generated from agriculture waste, manure and other wastes and feedstocks should reach a market value of $53 billion by 2020.

The big question is whether Xtreme will reach market. It needs to be embraced and developed successfully by private enterprise.

Pike Research cited “significant investments” in biomass research and the pace of commercializing new technologies. Advances in cellulosic ethanol and algae also were noted.

Earlier this summer, ZeaChem Inc. opened a plant in Boardman, Ore., which initially will produce ethyl acetate, a precursor to cellulosic ethanol. company officials said in a statement. ZeaChem intends to add cellulosic production next year, using a U.S. Department of Energy grant.

Cellulosic is the next step in biofuel movement. The technology extracts and ferments sugars from such sources as trees and grasses to produce the alcohol. Commercial production of the more traditional ethanol — made from corn — has suffered some recent swings in the market.

Idaho National Labs estimates 1.3 billion tons of sustainably available biomass in the United States. This would come from forestry wastes, agricultural residues and more from “energy” crops.

But cellulosic currently faces an economic problem. It costs prevent it from competing with refined gasoline and other petroleum products or corn ethanol. Lab officials say breakthroughs like Xtreme Xylanase could reduce high pretreatment costs through enzyme treatment and fermentation of the feedstock material.

“This allows the potential elimination of the extreme temperatures and expensive materials that make current dilute acid pretreatments so costly,” lab officials said. “As a result of this innovation, biorefineries may be competitive with petroleum much sooner than with current technologies.”

According to the DOE Energy Information Administration, by 2030 U.S. consumption of gasoline will be more than 200 billion gallons annually. Lab officials believe Xtreme Xylanase can help supply more than 60 billion gallons of that by 2030 through cost-effective ethanol production.

Xtreme Xylanase was developed by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls and isolated from the microbe Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius. According to rdmag.com, the microbe was cataloged in 1971. In 2006, the magazine named Xtreme an R&D 100 award winner.

It’s hot in the San Joaquin Valley. Residential power bills are among the highest in the state, but the region is rich with renewable energy resources such as sun and ag waste. It also has chronically high unemployment, which provides a ready labor pool.

It is a perfect place for testing clean-energy technology and energy-efficiency programs. That is why a new alliance of California businesses, labor, community and environmental leaders sounds promising.

It’s called California Apollo Program, and the goal is to create a comprehensive strategy for creating clean-energy jobs in a state famous for innovation and technological advancement.

“The Apollo Alliance will work with our diverse coalition of business, labor, community and environmental leaders to ensure our state seizes the opportunity to invest in California businesses and create new jobs producing the clean technologies of the future,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the national Apollo Alliance, a broader group with similar goals.

The formation of the new group comes when California’s landmark climate bill, AB32, is under assault. Proposed legislation, Proposition 23, would suspend AB 32 and goes before the voters in November.

The Apollo Alliance has an ambitious agenda. Here is just a bit of it:

- Generate 33% of California’s power from renewable resources by 2020;

- Retrofit existing buildings and ensure new construction is green;

- Support public/private R&D partnerships;

- Help manufacturers retool factories and retrain employees to produce clean-energy products;

- Promote “Buy California: and “Buy America” policies’

- Recycle and reuse in California.

A partial list of endorsers include SunPower Corporation, Natural Resources Defense Council, State Building & Construction Trades Council of California and California Energy Efficiency Industry Council.

It’s supposed to be 110 degrees today in Fresno, where I sit in an air-conditioned office writing this blog about an even hotter portion of California – a region that could possibly become Solar Central.

Could the desert regions of San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Imperial and Riverside counties become the world’s largest solar resource? If approved, large-scale solar projects proposed for the isolated federal land will cover nearly 20,000 acres and, according to the New York Times, generate enough power for 1.6 million houses.

The projects would triple the amount of solar energy produced in the United States, but issues remain. The nine projects, though being fast tracked, face a time crunch. To qualify for federal stimulus funds, they have to be under construction by year’s end.

There also are environmental concerns with projects this big, including the existence of endangered species. In this case, the solar operators will have to relocate native desert tortoises.

Could this serve as a model for the central San Joaquin Valley? As more farmland goes out of production, solar companies are talking about moving in. The land is laser flat, close to transmission lines and, as this story says, isn’t home to endangered wildlife.

The Westlands Water District already has a proposal in place. An emerging solar industry in the San Joaquin Valley would produce badly needed renewable energy and jobs in a region where power bills are high, incomes are low and the unemployment rate is among the highest in the state.

Here are some wave power facts:

Wave power or wave energy is the process of harnessing the ocean waves’ power. This power basically comes from the winds that cause the waves in the ocean; the wind comes from the different varying heat temperatures all over the world and the earth’s uneven surface. Wave energy is one of the cleanest alternative sources of energy and is renewable and safe to use. It is different from tidal energy which uses the natural ebb and flow of the ocean to get energy. The method of harnessing energy from the waves are different and if you want to know more about that, we have just the right type of information for you. This would save you the headache of figuring things out yourself which is quite an impossible feat, unless you are a genius. So all you have to do right now is read this article and by the moment you finish reading this article, you will have a general view of how wave energy works through these wave power facts.

How do you harness the energy from the ocean waves? Here’s how:

- The waves might look like it moves in one single movement and direction, but it doesn’t move like that but rather, the water molecules moves in an ellipse pattern. This elliptical movement of water is where we get the wave energy.

- Harnessing this energy is done by using devices. One popular device is the Polaris wave energy converter. This is located in Scotland. It is the first device that was successful in producing energy from the waves. This device works through the several metal cylinders that are connected through hinges. When the wave moves, the different cylinders move as well and these hinges are connected to hydraulic rams that pump oil through hydraulic motors. This then drives the electrical generator to produce electricity. This is then sent to the shores through the use of a single cable. The electricity is then collected in a wave energy farm to be then distributed.

There re other methods of harnessing wave energy. There are some methods like using buoys that float on the surface. These buoys convert the wave energy into mechanical and then electrical energy.

There are also several disadvantages when you use wave energy. Because it is generated from the waves, it is also as unpredictable as the ocean waves. This unpredictability is caused by the skimming over of wind on the surface of the ocean. And also energy generators that are fixed to the seafloor could cause disturbances to the natural flow of the marine ecosystem, although the effect to the natural marine habitat is not yet known, one thing that they are sure of is that it would have a negative effect on it.

So now that you know this information, you now have a very clear idea of how energy is gathered from the ocean waves through the help of our wave power facts.