An acquaintance of mine, Chaz Teplin of NREL, started a thread on Grist that I found interesting enough to comment on. A price on carbon is coming, and the external costs of polluting that get tacked onto fossil fuel use will determine if we are serious about avoiding global warming and ocean acidification, or not.
A first look at the Obama cap and trade program on Grist
March 3rd, 2009Atlantic Graphics - The World is Spiky
February 23rd, 2009Some very interesting visualizations of population distributions, wealth-generation distributions, and intellectual property development distributions were published by the Atlantic Monthly. As much as I like what Thomas Freidman stand for these days around renewable energy and support for innovative companies, I never could quite relate to the flat world theory. This brief article is more in line with my views.
Plots and Charts of Historical Financial Market Data
February 23rd, 2009Some perspective on where we are today in financial history, with great charts, is here. With the market behavior lately, it’s good to get some perspective.
Concentrating Solar Power Research
February 16th, 2009A new Department of Energy program has awarded 15 new grants for concentrating solar power storage technologies. It is great to see the re-birth of R&D in American renewable energy!
Cool Energy in Boulder County Business Report
February 10th, 2009There was an excellent article on Cool Energy in the Boulder County Business report last Friday, February 6, 2009. Many thanks to the reporter for getting the story accurate and readable!
New Posting Philosophy & Komatsu Thermoelectric Device
February 10th, 2009I’m going to try and post more often about our progress at Cool Energy as well as renewable energy issues in general. In order to do that and still make progress on the important stuff (engine and system performance as well as business development), I am going to be terse in general. An example:
Komatsu announced general availability of a new thermoelectric power generation device. While this looks like an improvement over some of the others on the market, a 1KW system would cost over $14,000 for just the thermoelectric components - still very pricey.
Cool Energy Receives NSF Funding
January 14th, 2009Good news this week on the business front! The press release:
Cool Energy, Inc. Awarded Commercialization Grant by National Science Foundation
$500,000 SBIR grant to
Cool Energy’s experienced team of engineers has produced innovative designs for low-temperature heat engines, and previously completed a prototype that will enable cost-effective distributed power generation. A combination of advanced materials for performance improvement and off-the-shelf components allows the engine to generate electricity more economically than other renewable systems. When employed with the latest generation of distributed solar thermal collectors in the SolarFlow System, the Cool Energy engine delivers solar electricity when excess heat from the collectors is not needed in the host residences or commercial buildings. During the winter months, most of the energy from the collectors is used to heat the building’s living space, while in the summer the engine converts the energy to electricity.
“We are very pleased to work with the NSF to advance our alternative energy technology approach towards commercialization,” said Samuel Weaver, President of Cool Energy. “The NSF application process included a stringent review of our business plans as well as the engineering approach, further validating both our technology and commercial model. That’s important to us, since growing successful businesses to improve access to affordable renewable energy sources is critical for a healthy future for everyone.”
State of
About Cool Energy, Inc.
Cool Energy, Inc. is a solar energy technology development and services company focused on developing systems to harness the sun to provide both heat and electricity for homes and business. Its engineering team has created several patent-pending technology advances for both distributed and central station solar electric power generation. Cool Energy has also been awarded grant funding from the National Science Foundation, and the State of Colorado Governor’s Energy Office Clean Energy Fund NEED program.
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The funding itself is excellent news, but the additional good news is that the NSF funding comes with another nice bonus: an additional $500K in matching funding for any investment that is raised for further commercialization.
We hope to have even more good news to announce within a month or so!
Close Encounters
October 14th, 2008On the morning of the day that Senator Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for the presidency, I was outside of the Denver Athletic Club at about 8:20am. I was finishing up a cell phone call before attending an energy and environment meeting sponsored by E2, the Environmental Entrepreneurs group. As I spoke on the phone, I casually noticed a caravan of about 8 black Suburbans guided by a Denver blue-and-white police car past the club. I glanced over my shoulder as the cars rolled to a stop, and saw a phalanx of photographers pointing their cameras at me. I said, I’m going to get off the phone now, I don’t know what’s happening. As I turned back to the club entrance, a group of men walked past me on the sidewalk, all black-suited and intent except the tall man in the brown track suit and blue ball cap just an arm’s reach away. As I came to the realization of who was near, I called out, Hey, Barack, all right! I stammered out, I’m going to see you tonight! He looked back, and with a brief nod, continued into the club. I followed, and watched him shake hands and greet in the lobby, then board the elevator and head up for his basketball workout.
It was my close encounter with destiny and my brief brush with fame. I watched the Senator deliver his very moving speech at Invesco Field that evening, marred only by the fear of the two passenger jets that flew low over the stadium before he took the stage. His speech was magnificent, the moment transcendent, and the hope of escaping the recent nightmare palpable. I walked a few miles that night to get to the ride back to Boulder, content to see a small slice of history.
I, and we, work for the chance to bring some peace and healing to the world. The ideal will certainly not be reached, but it was a good close encounter, and a magical evening.
Cash for Trash
September 27th, 2008Well, heck. It’s awful hard to keep up with all the goings-on in this fast-paced world of ours, eh? For me, it starts from a base of the ongoing activity at Cool Energy and working with the excellent team there on the renewable technology that we are bringing forward. Add the work with Cool Solar and ramping up our solar installation business. Layer on the Democratic Convention last month and all of the great energy and environmental events there, including a close personal brush with Senator O, and it’s enough to make my little old head spin. Election coming, hurricanes lashing, last push before the holiday season, and I don’t even have kids to add to the load. And right now, that’s all just baseline. Who has time for anything else?
Well, I think we all are going to have to make time. It’s pretty serious out there, and getting more so by the moment.
I won’t belabor the economy, a very serious subject in itself – this is a climate post. But it is critical to keep our economy sound for two reasons related to the climate crisis:
1) A sound economy allows resources to be available to address our serious impending environmental issues.
2) When the economy turns down and mouths go hungry, the environment is out the window as a priority for most folks.
There are competing views of how the economy relates to the environment. Here are two:
1) A compounding-interest-based economy which requires growth to survive will always eventually trash the place, due to excessive population.
2) A wealthy and advanced technological society can support a large and healthy populace, robust economy, and vibrant environment.
Each hypothesis has elements of truth, but balance must be found between the views. All, repeat ALL, go-go reproduction festivals result in collapse due to resource shortfalls. Algae blooms, deer herd explosions, weeds. It’s the same story over and over, so we have to seek balance, and limited growth in our environmental ecosystem. It is further true that when living beings are not desperate for their next meal, they plan more effectively. Well-fed and educated women have less children later in life, and provide them with a solid foundation, reducing population stress. And so on.
There are many parallels between the environment and the economy, and it is clear that both are under stress, and much of that stress comes from the following product: S= N x R. The stress on the life-support system we depend on is the product of the number of people times the rate that we use resources. Many techno-utopians believe that the resource base is infinite, thus we can increase the number of people to arbitrary lengths. Were we able to harness the sun, wind, and perhaps nuclear at arbitrary rates, that approximation would be true for primary energy. But would it be true for food, air, space and fresh water? Very unlikely. So we need to calculate our limits, and plan for them. See what I mean about the economy being similar to the environment? It’s like planning a household budget – simple. Many before me have attempted this exercise, some in earnest, some to justify their ideology. The ones I believe come to sustainable planetary carrying capacities of 2 billion humans, plus or minus you and me.
A couple of very bad climate trends have emerged over the past couple of days, obscured by the financial crisis, fascination with Ms. Palin’s ramblings, and the presidential debates. Rather than summarizing them, I leave the links below as the punchlines. As with our foolish behavior vis a vis not regulating and directing human short-sightedness and greed on Wall Street, we are avoiding the same tough regulatory task with our atmosphere and environment. This oversight is currently resulting in death and destruction (Gustav, Ike, and a couple of polar bears), and has very high-leverage potential. Kind of like sub-prime mortgages, but now it’s not just your house on the line. It’s your grandchild’s future.
CO2 Output Higher Than Max Scenarios
All the best to you and yours.
Energy Paralysis
August 2nd, 2008Folks,
Sorry it’s been so long since I wrote - I know you’ve missed the weather updates. Flooding, record high temps, and drought. And oil prices? Even higher than I thought they’d go after I last posted. For the record, I think the price volatility predicted by peak oil theory will set in for a little bit now, but $145 a barrel is crazy, and won’t hold. ’til next year. They call me Little Mr. Sunshine.
Reasons I’ve been AWOL include buying a new house, selling a house, moving, getting the Stirling engine running better and better, and chasing funding and financing. Lots of work, but also extremely interesting, and keeping my hand in the policy side of the business as well on the Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority, and running a statewide carbon emissions fee initiative (now on hold). Installation bookings for Cool Solar are up too, and just being at all the green events is a lot of time. And the Democratic convention is coming to town! Lots of doings goin’ on!
But for the good news, the US Senate has refused to extend the renewable energy tax credits 7 times since the last time I posted. There are lots of bad reasons for that, and my very own Allard is one of the very bad guys, but the details are boring, quotidian, and very dirty. Not to mention a product of denial and ignorance, a winning combination. And of course it involves oil and gas industry opposition.
I did get to see Jay Inslee talk in June, and ask him a question about carbon tax vs cap-and-trade. That is one smart representative (D-WA) and the best-informed politician I’ve ever heard speak about energy and climate! He apparently has a book out, Apollo’s Fire, about renewables policy. It’s on my list. My favorite line of his speech was (paraphrased): ‘We need to stop looking under our feet for our energy, and look above our necks. Using the ingenuity of our brains to harness the wind and sun and other rewewables is the future of energy.’
I’m going to keep this one short, but I’ll be back soon with more info. There are two New York Times editorials in the few days that inform each other well about the energy/climate nexus, and the ability of any world organizations to effectively take meaningful coordinated action. Read these editorials in the context of the fact that China is expected to construct 800 new 1 GW coal plants in the next 8 years, and will be the biggest user of energy on earth at the end of that process.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01krugman.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01brooks.html
Stay tuned for more on Cool Energy and the climate/energy future!
Cheers,
Sam