breakthrough

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No Manhattan Project, But Don’t Say No To Breakthrough Innovations

April 10, 2009 in accelerating change, analysis, carbon mitigation, energy efficiency, energy generation, energy storage, opinion, technology by nils | 1 comment

a polar bear and her baby

The polar bears say "keep the innovations coming - it's getting warm out here!" (image by Just Being Myself, CC 2.0 licensed)

While I agree with Joseph Romm on Climate Progress that we can't count on a "Manhattan Project"-style endeavour to engineer our way out of the climate crisis in the short term, nonetheless, I think it's reasonable to have a certain expectation that technology will improve over the right timescale, so we can be ready to take advantage of it.

A few weeks ago Martin Brown had a great post on his Fairsnape blog on Recession Thoughts and Tips. One of his many excellent suggestions was

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DoE Secretary Steven Chu: We Need Nobel-Level Breakthroughs

February 13, 2009 in accelerating change, energy generation, energy storage, growth, policy, solar electricity by nils | Add your comment

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

Yesterday the New York Times published an interview (including some of the original audio) with our new Energy Secretary, Steven Chu. Among other comments, he said that to address the climate emergency, we need "Nobel-level breakthroughs" in several key areas - batteries, biofuels, and solar photovoltaics." As an illustration, he pointed out:

The photovoltaics we have today, ... without subsidy, and without even the additional cost of storage, it's about a factor of five higher than electricity generation by gas or coal. Suppose someone comes along and invents a way of getting ... solar photovoltaics at one fifth the cost, so you don't even think about subsidies anymore. You just slap it everywhere... That, in my opinion, would take something, which I would say, is a bit of a breakthrough."

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Fuel Cell Innovation Update

February 9, 2009 in energy storage, technology by nils | 3 comments

The week I started this blog in August 2008, there were three major fuel-cell related discoveries making the rounds in the science magazines. Since then, there have been new announcements every week of an improved catalyst or membrane or electrolyte. As these discoveries mature into real products and enter the market, the option of using fuel cells for energy storage, both for homes as well as vehicles, will become more and more cost-effective.

Energy storage is potentially a big part of the zero-net energy house picture, and is certainly critical for the hydrogen automobile transition. I thought I'd highlight a few recent discoveries and advances in the world of fuel cells, the "energy storage of the future."

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Why I Am Optimistic

August 25, 2008 in accelerating change, business benefits, opinion by nils | Add your comment

GDP per capita vs. 'Economic Energy Efficiency...Image via Wikipedia

The signs are pointing to a critical convergence that, to be honest, is coming just in time. The world's will is aligning. Climate change, oil prices, pollution, growth, commuting - these and other factors are forming a message in society's mind that says "things are not good and they must be fixed." Businesses and governments, at the same time, are realizing that the changes needed to achieve sustainability are not going to be a drag on the economy but can actually be profitable while being good for society as a whole. Of course, the high and rising price of oil has something to do with this as well.

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Carbon Mitigation Through Carbon Fiber?

August 18, 2008 in carbon mitigation, transportation by nils | Add your comment

A cloth of woven carbon filamentsImage via Wikipedia

Here's an idea - let's just suck the excess CO2 out of the atmosphere and turn it into carbon fiber to build superlight cars! These superlight cars would significantly reduce our demand for gasoline in the short term, and enable a right-sized hydrogen-based transportation fuel economy in the long term! Sounds great, right? But it's a pipe dream right now - today carbon fiber is made from PolyAcryloNitrile (PAN), which is made from petroleum, and it's an expensive and time-consuming process to make the fiber, and to make automobile parts from it.

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More amazing energy storage news

August 6, 2008 in energy storage by nils | 2 comments

I posted yesterday about three new breakthrough discoveries related to energy storage from the last week, but they keep on coming - here's another:

Some researchers at Melbourne's Monash University in Australia have made yet another breakthrough related to making fuel cells more feasible for general purpose use. Their breakthrough is related to a new cathode design, made with a much cheaper material than the typical platinum. The result is an order of magnitude reduction in the materials cost for the fuel cell.

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The energy game is just getting started

August 6, 2008 in energy storage by nils | 1 comment

It's been a great week for energy! In separate announcements, scientists at MIT, a university in Spain, and at an energy startup in Texas made some amazing claims that to me indicate that what we think we know about alternative energy and energy efficiency, we don't know.

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