Helping the Economy... helps renewable energy

With energy prices dropping significantly, the perceived "pressure" to solve our energy problems reduce, too. When we come out of the recession (or worse), Peak Oil (supply) and China/India growth (demand) will make things much much worse - and may cause an even greater energy-price economic crunch than we're seeing today.

Therefore, due to the difficult economy we face, I have decided to do my part - and give away copies of my latest book: "How to Attract Significantly More Customers... in good times and bad."

I believe businesses will pull us out of this deepening recession: With the economy the way it is, I hope to help thousands of business owners make both strategic decisions and strategic changes, to grow their way out of our difficult economic malaise. In doing so, they hill hire more people and reduce joblessness. Thereby creating an environment where - once again - renewable energy solutions will overtake the economy as the #1 issue.

If you know any business owners who could benefit from new insights, please forward the following URL to them: http://www.attractmorecustomers.net/free. Thank you.

Obama's plan enough?

A recent article indicates that Obama's plan is insufficient. Those to the left talk about climate change. Those to the right talk about energy security. Either way, we will need to do more than Obama's plan indicates. (An assessment of Obama's plan vs. what is needed can be found here.)

More importantly, we will need to be innovative about how we spend money. Please - don't just throw money at the current "system" for commercializing energy technologies. It hasn't worked. Innovative, even disruptive business models need to be developed and funded. One such innovative approach is NXergy, Inc.

Can we learn from nature? (To create renewable energy?)

According to a recent report, a University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.

Watch the video. Check out the company.

Oregon's Governor Kulongoski sets "green agenda" for 2009

Yesterday, I met with Governor Kulongoski (as did 200 others) - to hear him lay out his green agenda for Oregon - for the next legislative session. His major points include efficiencies, tax breaks, focus on transportation and several other initiatives. These will help Oregon get "greener". Some are arguable (as to how they will be paid for), but action is truly needed. And his is a bold approach. The Oregonian's front page article goes into detail.

My only concern? No emphasis on new technology development. Deployment of existing technologies, yes. This is not enough. For instance, energy storage (to help make wind & solar more productive), transmission improvements (to stem looses), distributed generation technologies (to decrease "I^2R" losses and increase energy security), "pre-plug" efficiencies (not just EnergyStar / appliance programs), and low-carbon solutions - are all needed to innovate our way through the energy-independence situation. Bringing DOWN energy costs while reducing carbon and other emissions.

Green Technology getting acquired

In yet another sign that greentech is defying current economic woes, GridPoint Inc., a clean tech company specializing in smart grid technologies, announced it acquired V2Green, a Seattle company that provides plug-in electric vehicle grid integration technology.

McCain / Palin: Energy is #1 Issue!

"Delegates at the Republican National Convention this week got a laminated card listing their party's principles. The top item, ahead of the economy, national security and fiscal accountability: `energy independence and lower gas prices'.'' It would seem that they are oh-so-close on this issue. McCain needs to emphasize and implement a renewable energy technology acceleration approach!

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How do Obama's & McCain's Energy Plans compare to The 21st Century Energy Initiative?

See for yourself how Obama's and McCain's plan compare. Right now, Obamas' plan is better than McCain's. All McCain has to do is to show how he is different from both Obama and Bush: and he could win over independents!

How can this happen?

One of the critical success factors in this election is - who will win over independent voters? As usual the issue is: How will the next President affect my pocketbook? The biggest single metric for the economy is the price of gas. It's something voters are reminded of 2 to 5 times a month; every time they fill up their gas tanks. McCain has got to differentiate himself by focusing on renewable energy technology acceleration and commercialization: Applying significantly more resources than he is currently planning.

Obama's plan. McCain's plan.

Automotive X-Prize Launches

From their press release: "The technology-neutral competition, a project of the X PRIZE Foundation, is open to teams from around the world that can design and build production-capable, 100 MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) vehicles that people will want to buy and that meet market needs for price, size, capability, safety and performance. Winners of the $10 million prize purse will need to exceed 100 MPG equivalent fuel economy, fall under strict emissions caps and finish in the fastest time."

Andy Grove: Disruptive Technology Needed

"Transportation uses more than half of the petroleum consumed in this country. If we don't convert a large portion of the transportation sector to electricity, we cannot make real progress toward energy resilience.

"The forces of disruptive technology would eventually bring improvements in battery technology, ultimately allowing the production of an all-electric car with satisfactory driving range. The move to electric miles also has the added advantage of helping to mitigate a major environmental threat. A shift from petroleum-based vehicles to electricity-based ones would move the locus for addressing carbon emissions from millions of individual vehicles to far fewer centralized electricity-generating plants. Controlling emissions thus becomes an industrial task, easier technologically. Estimates indicate a potential reduction of carbon emissions of around 50 percent."

"We must mobilize all segments of our economy to accelerate the process."
Andy Grove, former chairman and chief executive of Intel Corp. from 1987 to 1998

Energy Storage Technologies

Interesting links, from PostivEnergyOutput - about energy storage technologies.

New technologies: Compressed air cars!

How to solve our energy problems.

Interesting perspective on how a renewable energy technology accelerator could move us more quickly to real solutions to our energy problems: The short version (15 Megs). The comprehensive version (70 Megs).

Oil company gets into batteries!

Exxon Mobile strategically investing "windfall" profits wisely - into battery technology.

More electric car companies

Check out ZENN Motor Company and Dynasty Electric Car.

Never thought I'd say this: Thank you, GM.

GM's efforts on an electric vehicle. GM's efforts on a fuel cell vehicle.

No all we need is to [1] increase wind farm capacity utilization from an average of 15% up to the "stated" 23%, or even more and [2] ensure The Grid can handle it.

Google & "Big Oil" Invest $115 million in Solar.

I will always remember the "Go" in Google!

Electric vehicle a reality: now.

Responding to consumer demand, market trends and to position themselves for the future, General Motors, Ford, Tesla, Renault and dozens of other automobile companies are bringing plug-in hybrid vehicles to market. (Example: Tesla unveils (125 mph equivalent) production electric car!)

According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, if plug-in hybrid cars account for 20% of new-car sales in the U.S. by 2020, up to 160 new power plants will be needed. This makes the current efforts to “turn down your air conditioner” pale in comparison to the impact of the move towards electric vehicles.

Just as shifting to corn-ethanol has produced an unintended consequence of no real carbon reduction and rising food costs, a shift to electric vehicles will dramatically reduce or even negate all current and future climate-change effort – without a corresponding substantive move toward renewable energy production.

Battery Technologies: An update

"Between now and 2015, the worldwide market for hybrid-vehicle batteries will more than triple, to $2.3 billion. Lithium-ion batteries, the first of which should appear in hybrid cars in 2009, could make up as much as half of that." Brief article about the current state of affairs.

Renewable grid energy; Electric cars. Next?

Some not-so-small companies are looking to help us wean ourselves off oil with electric cars. Time to support utilities - and help them meet Renewable Portfolio Standards?

General Motors, Ford Motors, Volvo, Honda, Tesla Motors, AFS Trinity, Smith Electric Vehicles, Global Electric Motorcars, Zap!, HST Automotive, Brammo, Enertia (motorcycles), Green Lite Motors, and of course - Do it Yourself.

Oregon Bioeconomy & Sustainable Technologies Center

Oregon Bioeconomy & Sustainable Technologies Center (BEST) will bring together Oregon's significant R&D strengths in the key emerging areas of clean energy, bio-based products, green building/green development and other related sectors. BEST's primary goal is to accelerate cutting-edge research and to facilitate public/private partnerships to turn that research into on-the-ground business opportunities. Check them out.

An Oregon clean fund?

June 2006 (in this blog): "Time for an Oregon Incubator?" (i.e. fund alternative / clean-energy technology). December 2007: Oregon's pension fund may invest in clean-energy! Read it!

Beaverton Fuel Cell Company makes 1st sale

Hydra Fuel Cells is in the news with its first sale!

Plug-in Hybrids on their way?

There is real potential for the emergence of production model plug-in hybrids within the next five years. Read the Article.

Investments in CleanTech: Report

A very interesting report on venture capital and CleanTech investing (thank you, Pete!)

VC-style investments in solar, through DoE!

"The Department of Energy will fund 10 photovoltaic technology start-ups with up to $27 million through a new milestone-based grant program.

Hedging its bets, the department is backing a broad range of early-stage developers, competitors among them, each aiming to reduce the scourge of solar: high cost per watt.

Two recipient companies, Blue Square Energy Inc. and CaliSolar Inc., use cheaper, lower-grade polysilicon to make equally powerful PV cells. Four recipients, Enfocus Engineering Corp., MicroLink Devices Inc., SolFocus Inc. and Solaria Corp., work on increasing efficiency through solar concentration methods. And four: Ava Solar, Plextronics Inc., PrimeStar Solar Inc. and SoloPower Inc., develop technology for thin-film PV modules that avoid expensive polysilicon altogether. Each project will receive between $2 million and $3 million from the DOE through the Photovoltaic Module Incubator program after presenting the energy department with functioning prototypes of its products. The companies also committed to invest about $44 million combined in addition to the federal contribution, mostly coming from financial backers such as venture capitalists.

The DOE evaluated 56 applications in this first round of the program that will make grants every nine months and required that chosen projects are at or near pilot-run stage, scalable through an affordable manufacturing process and are based on significant innovation compared with current products on the market.

"The program is structured around tight milestones, focuses on delivering proof of hardware, and moves quickly," said Craig Cornelius, acting program manager for the DOE's Solar Technologies program.

The DOE would evaluate the progress of its portfolio companies at least every nine months when it would also issue grants to new applicants, he said. The advantage of requiring shipment of hardware samples to the DOE, said Cornelius, is that it 'frees companies from government paperwork to focus on what they do best: tech development.'"

Solar/Wind/Wave energy... Electric cars: Next problem to be solved?

Martin Eberhard's got it right! Check out Tesla Motors!

California Clean Energy Fund

California Clean Energy Fund

X-Prize for 100 miles per gallon vehicle!

Santa Monica, Calif. (April 2, 2007) - The X PRIZE Foundation, the organization behind the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE that successfully challenged teams to build private spacecraft to open up the space frontier, is taking a step toward launching an Automotive X PRIZE (AXP) that will inspire super-efficient vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon or its equivalent.
Read full release.

Energy efficiency solutions: Find a need, then fill it!

Pneu-Logic Corporation is a Portland, Oregon-area company that has figured out how to save companies millions of dollars… by saving lots of energy. They are the “real deal” and worth watching (and supporting)!

Check out OregonStartups.com's Energy blog

OregonStartups.com has started an energy blog, relating to Oregon energy issues, events and solutions. Find it here!

X-Prize for Greenhouse (CO2) gases

Richard Branson has taken a bold step: "The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate." Well done! (View details at: http://www.virginearth.com)

This is a great step in trying to deal with the effect (global warming) of our addiction to fossil fuels. Now, if we can have the same type of "H-Prize" - for dealing with the cause: developing renewable energy and energy technologies that enable the U.S. to become a net-exporter of renewable energy - we could make some serious progress for future generations.

GM looking to produce "plug-in" by 2010!

GM is "bridging" their 1990's EV1 (electric car) to their fuel cell-based vehicles (AUTOnomy*) with a plug-in vehicle. Read The Economist to find out more. Just imagine... Using your fuel cell car to charge your home battery at night and power your office during the day. A total DG (distributed generation) solution!

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Pacific Northwest Energy Venture Blog

Ted Bernhard, a corporate and securities attorney at Stoel Rives, LLP has developed a Pacific Northwest Energy Venture Blog. I encourage you to visit it!

A side note: Ted & I sync up when it comes to addressing our energy independence: By enabling the free-market system (through the profit-motive) to solve our problems. This will create higher-paying jobs, with longer-term societal benefits! BTW: Ted is also the founder of Stoel Rives' Energy Venture Group (focused on innovations and finance in the energy marketplace)!

Time for an Energy-technology Incubator in Oregon?

With the Governor’s stated objectives (see entry, below) and no end in sight for demand-induced / turmoil-exacerbated price increases, now would be the time to create an Oregon-based energy-technology incubator! Of course, we need the following:

- policy support (almost)
- market-need (in place)
- technology-innovators (available)
- leaders (available)
- money (not being applied [sufficiently] in Oregon [yet])

Will anyone step up? I believe step one is the money & policy. The others will follow!

Post-scripts
[1] Please read Oregon Business Magazine’s interview with Nancy Floyd.
[2] Check out Pacific Northwest's Energy Venture blog!

Well-known VC wants to set up Clean Energy Fund!

Vinod Khosla, from Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, is supporting an initiative to (effectively) set up an energy independence fund for the state of California. The Economist (magazine) recently ran an article about how he plans on supporting this.

Toyota Car Show Highlights Fuel Efficient Vehicles

Moving towards energy independence!

Visit www.energy2025.com!

For a unique approach to our energy problem, visit www.energy2025.com. There, you will find access to detailed research (into "Hydrogen pricing"), as well as how to create and fund an Energy Independence Fund. You will also find a summary 2-page "opinion letter" and links to Senators and Representatives... to get your voice heard.

New idea: How to solve our energy problems

I recently performed research into what people would spend for an "equivalent gallon" of hydrogen (to travel an equivalent distance in their vehicle). From this research, some profound and unexpected results (ah-ha's) came through.

I am looking for feedback on these... I am interested in how to best move forward - with ideas that will help the U.S. become a "net-exporter" of renewable energy, by the year 2025.

Comments, please!

Consider donating what you can!

This site is funded by readers like you. Please donate whatever you can to keep the truth about energy independence coming to you. Thank you.