December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Environment Year: 2008 Rating: 2
By Joel Greenberg
In the blur of announcements from solar companies, oil company TV commercials, and news pundits, science sometimes get lost in the conversation. But it's science that will bring us to a workable energy future and this year has seen some significant breakthroughs. MIT's Daniel Nocera announced the development of a low cost catalyst that helps in the electrolysis of water into oxygen & hydrogen. The development of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for solid hydrogen storage continued to evolve; Nanotechnology continues to bring promising experimental results across many energy related fields including, catalysts for fuel cells; conversion of waste heat into electricity; a new theory explaining molecular movement in polymers; and more.
Which of these scientific breakthroughs might change the commercial viability of cleaner hydrocarbons, bioenergy, renewables and advanced energy storage systems?
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December 17 2008 / by joelg / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenbeg
"We'll do it ourselves," so say the mayors of cities around the United States as they sign their cities up for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, committing their cities to lower their C02 emissions to pre-1990 levels. "Think global, green local" could be the name of the trend for municipalities taking the initiative on energy, such as:
- The City of Austin announcing the Pecan Street Project which will open up the city owned grid to cleantech entreprenuers using open source software as the model.
- Los Angeles setting a target of 10% of its electricity to come from renewable resources by 2020. Los Angelese has the largest utility.
- The New Jersey Meadowlands Commissions publishing an RFI for building a solar power station on their land.
- The California Air Resources Board approving a plan to lower California CO2 emissions below 1990 levels.
- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announcing a plan to put wind turbines on city owned building and bridges.
Can the Obama administration change the inconvenient truth that alternative energy markets in the US need more than mayors to make them viable at scale?
Photo courtesy of GreenForAll.org.
December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenberg
Geeks look at the Big Grid and it reminds them of the old main frame computer days. They look at the auto industry and and see rust. So, they'll change it themselves. Through their RE<C program, Google is funding renewable energy companies with the goal of generating 1 gigawatt of energy at a price less than coal. Applied Materials has joined Google as high tech leaders that are covering their rooftops and parking garages with solar panels. Former Intel CEO Andy Grove challenges his old company to get into batteries for electric vehicles. Silicon Valley VC legends Vinod Khosla and John Doer fund cleantech companies.
Can these hi-tech leaders find success that scales in a business where there's no Moore's Law?
Photo courtesy Google.
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December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenberg
Putting a face to energy happened in a big way in 2008. From T-Boone Pickens' full court press promoting his Picken's Plan for wind energy and natural gas to Shai Agassi coming of age with his Wired cover story promoting his electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place, energy technology became humanized. And what do you do for an encore once you've cracked the Human Genome? Ask scientist Craig Venter and he'll tell you it's using algae to create bio fuels that replace oil. He's hoping to have something on the market in five years.
Could personality be the thing that takes a vital, but dry industry from infrastructure to top of mind in the eyes of customers?
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December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenberg
The 'Big Grid' is based upon a mass distribution model from the 1930's and technology from even earlier. But industry and the Department of Energy are beginning to develop standards to transform the Big Grid into the Smart Grid so that it can handle renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, distributed energy generation, demand side managment, and information about it all. The sale of electric vehicle charging technology company V2Green to Smart Grid technology company GridPoint marks the beginning of a market where hi-tech geeks meet energy geeks.
Could there be a collision of paradigms between geeks who've grown up under Moore's law and those whose basic technology hasn't changed in 70 years?
Photo courtesy Bradley Woods.
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December 16 2008 / by joelg / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenberg
The term "Clean Coal" entered the US consciousness primarily through the lobbying efforts of the American Coalition of Clean Coal Technology and their presence at both the Republican and Democratic convetions, resulting in both candidates using the term. A coalition of environmental groups lead by Al Gore are fighting back saying there's no such thing as Clean Coal.
Will Clean Coal become the new tobacco and suffer for it down the line?
December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
By Joel Greenbeg
As the debate raged on whether the high price of corn affected the high price of food worldwide, the tide has turned against the Corn Lobby that advocates using a monoculture of corn to fuel our vehicles. The interest in celullosic ethanol rises as corn-based company Verasun fails.
How will the corn lobby fight back as the tide turns away from corn?
Photo courtesy stevelyon
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December 16 2008 / by joelg / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 1
The high price of oil fueled the political debate about energy and made alternatives appear attractive. But as the economy collapsed and with the it the price of oil, it remains to be seen if investment in alternatives will continue at a robust pace.
What will happen to the price of oil when the economy recovers in the US and abroad?
Photo courtesy of geocam20000.
December 16 2008 / by joelg
Category: Technology Year: 2008 Rating: 5 Hot
By Joel Greenberg
Barack Obama's energy platform included goals for renewable energy, higher automoative gas mileage standards, support for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and targets for energy efficiency of homes...and that's just to start. With the recent announcement of Nobel laureate and now former head of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Steven Chu as Energy Secretary, Obama's administration can be the catalyst that makes alternative energy markets viable.
Will the Obama administration be successful in making the energy changes he promised in the election?
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December 15 2008 / by joelg
Category: Energy Year: 2008 Rating: 4 Hot
By the fall of 2008, every major automanufacturer from GM to Nissan to Tata--and a few startups such as Tesla and Aptera--had announced production model plans for all manner of electric vehicles, from all electrc vehicles, to plug-in hybrid electrics, to fuel cell vehicles, with deliveries to consumers starting in 2010. 2008 could well be known as the nail in the coffin for the bulky combustion engine which has plagued the auto industry with its manufacturing and design liabilities, and association with volatile oil markets.
How quickly might the world re-tool the global auto industry to build new vehicle chassis based on electric motors and advanced energy storage systems?
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#2 The Year of Scientific Breakthroughs
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