Have you heard of jatropha? I admit it: I hadn’t. But I read something recently about how jotropha was the hot new biofuel. So I did a little googling today and discovered I must be living under a rock because jotropha is everywhere.

In case you’re like me and not so current on hip biofuels, jatropha is a tree that produces seeds that are packed with oil and are potentially very efficient sources of diesel fuel. Here are some of the reasons it’s attracting so much interest:

• It grows well in marginal soil
• It can survive for months without water
• It burns quite cleanly and the jatropha trees capture carbon, so it’s comparatively good for the environment
• It can potentially produce a lot more fuel per acre than other biofuels like corn and soy
• It is a perennial tree and therefore doesn’t have to be replanted each year
• The seed pulp left after the oil has been pressed can be used for fertilzer and formed into briquettes for other uses
• Unlike corn, jatropha is not edible and therefore is not diverting the food supply into fuel
• It can grow in places like Africa, India, Mexico, and Central America, creating a possible industry for places that badly need it and allowing diverse fuel suppliers

Sounds fantastic, right? But there are some downsides:

• While it can live in marginal soil and without water, it won’t necessarily produce well in those conditions
• Parts of the plant are highly toxic and there is concern over harvesting and processing it safely
• Currently, harvesting would have to be done by hand, making it a labor-intensive fuel.
• While it doesn’t directly divert a food crop, if it proves profitable, people might replace crops with jatropha (see Burma)

So, nothing is certain, but it appears jatropha is well worth more study, and investors are on board. Especially since Air New Zealand used a blend of jatropha and diesel to fly a Boeing 747 jet last year. In my mind, even if jatropha doesn’t turn out to be the best new fuel source on the planet, the research and experimenting that’s going on is really encouraging. It take us farther along the path of finding fuel sources that are relatively inexpensive, clean, renewable, and accessible for some of the poorest places on Earth. What can be more hopeful than that?

If you’d like to know more, here are some of the places where I learned about jatropha today:

Reuters
Reuters UK
ChemicallyGreen.com
BBC

A few months ago, I read Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. About halfway through the book, he describes what life will be like in the energy-efficient future. He tells about how your house has a Smart Black Box (SBB) that manages all of your home’s energy usage – lighting, temperature, appliances, TV, etc. The SBB can tell you how much energy each of your appliances uses, and each appliance can be programmed to run when you’d like. Many people choose to have them run whenever electricity is the cheapest – usually nights and weekends. This is possible because in the future, utility companies offer different rates and plans that correspond with demand and load. So it’s possible to keep your costs down by using you washing machine when demand for electricity is lower, and shutting them down when it’s higher. You win in cost, the utility companies win by spreading out demand and load, the environment wins because fewer power plants are needed and renewable energy sources can play a bigger role.

Imagine my surprise when I received an offer in the mail last week from my electric company offering me this service! I had no idea the future was so close!

Now, I’ve only summarized a small part of what Friedman describes in his book, and my electric company has offered me only part of my summary. But it was close enough to get my attention! For a small monthly fee, they will install a meter that records our hourly electricity usage. They will also publish online how much electricity costs each hour of the day. And while we can’t program our appliances to run at certain times, we can look at the rates and choose to run the washing machine when electricity is cheaper. If you sign up, you have to stay in the program for a year.

My husband and I looked at each other and said, “Should we do it?” Philosophically, we are both in favor, but I realized as we deliberated that the future is not yet here. There’s just not enough information. Our electric company can’t tell us anything about our various appliances’ current energy usage, so how big a difference will shifting our dishwashing hours make? Are we going to save a couple of cents? Several dollars? Will we save enough to make up for the monthly cost of the new, hourly meter? Will we end up paying more than we do now when, in August, the air conditioner runs pretty constantly and we’re stuck with high-demand rates during the day? Is this actually a stupid financial decision? Even though we favor the concept, we hesitated.

But in the end, we decided to try it. I like Friedman’s vision, and someone has to be an early-adopter on the path to the energy-efficient future. Why not us? If we’re lucky, it will save us money, too. So we mailed in the enrollment form. I’ll keep you posted.

If you’ve been following the media or my posts, you know that on Saturday several parts of the world engaged in Earth Hour. Both commercial buildings and private residences voluntarily turned off their lights for an hour to make a statement about energy consumption and our impact on the environment.

We participated in my house, and I spent my hour reading by candlelight. I have a few observations about the experience.

1. I am completely, unconsciously hooked on electricity. When I enter a darkened room, I reflexively reach for the light switch. It’s hard to stop myself, even when I’m thinking about it. Change lasting more than an hour would clearly take real effort.
2. Nearly all of my standard evening pastimes require energy. When I have free time, I like to read, cook, knit, watch TV, use the computer. Now, while reading and knitting don’t technically require electricity, they certainly are more difficult by candlelight. Which brings me to my next observation…
3. It’s not as much fun to read by candlelight. I like electricity better. Posture is much more important when you have to keep your reading material near the candle, and after a while it’s uncomfortable. But to sit in my overstuffed chair with my legs flung over the arm as I often do, I’d have to put candles in my lap. Since I’m not keen on setting myself on fire, this obviously isn’t an option. So I’m back to improving my posture. I wouldn’t be reading as much at night if all I had were candles.
4. Not having electricity is so rare in my life that it’s an event to be planned for. Unable to fathom the thought of sitting in the dark talking only to each other for an hour, my husband and I invited some people over for Earth Hour. We thought we’d sit around and talk to our friends. But as it turned out, my husband was sick so we had to cancel it. Still, it made me think of all the places in the world where the absence of electricity is common. What a very different life I lead from the one I would have without constant energy.
5. If Americans didn’t have so much electricity, we might get enough sleep.

In the end, perhaps the best thing about Earth Hour isn’t the statement it made or the energy it saved, but rather the experience of really considering how thoroughly energy use is woven into our lives.