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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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Green Building Salon – A Few Conclusions

February 3, 2009 in green building, opinion, policy by nils | 3 comments

|||| striaticon

Perception is reality when it comes to green energy (image by striatic, CC 2.0 license)

I was thinking about what we accomplished/learned at our initial green building/green energy salon a few days ago, and came up with a few top candidates:

  • Liability - this is one of the biggest issues at the front of mind for builders and architects - they have to guarantee their buildings, and that makes them very wary of new technologies. One big challenge for green building will be coming up with ways to break through that barrier (the other alternative, of course, is to wait long enough that the new technologies prove themselves - but even this needs to be optimized). For example, perhaps the government could help take on some of the liability to reduce the risk for architects and builders trying to do the right thing.
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Avoiding The Cliff Ahead

January 29, 2009 in accelerating change, analysis, consumption, economy, energy efficiency, energy generation, energy storage, green building, opinion, policy, profits by nils | 1 comment

Uluwatu Temple, Bali (HDR)

A cliff in Bali (image by seanmcgrath, CC 2.0 licensed)

My green building and blogging colleague Barry Katz just had a post about James Howard Kunstler on his The Future Is Green Blog. Kunstler is one of the "dystopians" featured in a  New Yorker article last week. Kunstler is not sanguine about what the future is going to look like for us and our descendants. He thinks that not only is global warming likely to cause a disaster, but so is the current, or an upcoming, financial meltdown. Barry writes:

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Obama’s Commitment To Green Buildings

January 21, 2009 in green building by nils | Add your comment

baggerloch

A hole in the ground waiting to become a building (image by extranoise, CC 2.0 licensed)

Obama has a lot of plans, as shown on whitehouse.gov, his public website. But one of his points, on the Urban Policy page, is the following:

Use Innovative Measures to Dramatically Improve Efficiency of Buildings: Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions in the United States today and carbon emissions from buildings are expected to grow faster than emissions from other major parts of our economy. It is expected that 15 million new buildings will be constructed between today and 2015. President Obama and Vice President Biden will work with cities so that we make our new and existing buildings more efficient consumers of electricity.

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Want Obama To Take Action On Energy? Vote At Change.Org

January 12, 2009 in economy, policy by nils | Add your comment

Idea

Idea! (photo by brunkfordbraun, CC 2.0 license)

Keeping The Lights On (this blog) just endorsed, and I voted for, an "Idea For Change In America" at change.org, Obama's community website. The idea is "Develop & Implement a National Strategy for Sustainability."

Ideas for Change in America is a nationwide competition to identify the best ideas for change in America. The top 10 ideas will be presented to the Obama administration just before inauguration day and form the basis of a nationwide advocacy campaign to turn each idea into actual policy.

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Zero Net Energy Homes Part 3 – The Federal R&D Agenda

January 9, 2009 in energy efficiency, energy generation, green building, integrative design, policy by nils | 1 comment

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Zero Net Energy Homes
A House

House, ready to become zero net energy (Image by Panoramas, CC 2.0 licensed)

In October 2008, a number of federal government departments and research organizations collaborated to produce the Federal R&D Agenda for Net Zero Energy High Performance Green Buildings (PDF). It's a fascinating document, its origins driven primarily in response to two energy policy laws passed in 2005 and 2007 (during the Bush administration). In particular, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) created an Office of Commercial High Performance Green Buildings and a consortium on a Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative. This consortium produced the R&D agenda.

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Encourage Obama To Name a Secretary Of Food

December 11, 2008 in agriculture, carbon mitigation, economy by nils | Add your comment

Kale

Beatiful kale,not from a factory farm (photo by terren in Virginia, CC 2.0 licensed)

Nicholas Kristof in his NY Times op-ed today urges Obama to appoint a Secretary of Food:

A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.

The interests of big agriculture - the "factory farmers" - are really opposed to the interests of people. The "food" they raise wastes energy, causes huge environment damage, makes us unhealthy, and even leads to antibiotic resistant diseases.

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Deutsche Bank Confirms Green Energy Creates Jobs and Economic Growth

December 2, 2008 in analysis, business benefits, energy efficiency, green building, jobs, policy, transportation by nils | Add your comment

home with free electricity

Available: Home with free electric (photo by Kainet, CC 2.0 Sharealike license)

From MIT's Technology Review comes this column from Kevin Bullis, about a recent report from Deutsche Bank on the economic benefits of investing in new energy projects:

It argues that it's possible to address challenges related to climate change, energy security, and the financial crisis at the same time by investing in four specific areas: energy-efficient buildings, electric power grids, renewable power, and public transportation. The report cites figures that suggest investing in these areas creates more jobs than investing in conventional energy sources because much of the old energy infrastructure is already in place. It says that "a $100 billion investment in energy and efficiency would result in 2 million new jobs, whereas a similar investment in old energy [such as coal or natural gas] would only create around 540,000 jobs."

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Both Sides Essentially Agree in “Economist” Debate – Act Now!

August 28, 2008 in energy generation, growth, policy by nils | Add your comment

A transmission substation decreases the voltag...Image via Wikipedia

The Economist magazine hosted an online debate earlier this week, on the proposition "We can solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations."? Speaking in favor of the proposition was Joseph J. Romm, Senior Fellow at the Centre for American Progress. Speaking against was Peter Meisen, President, Global Energy Network Institute.

In my opinion, although Meisen had some good observations of some non-"business as usual" innovations that are needed, the proposition was well-defended by Romm. He argued that not only do we not have time to wait for new breakthroughs in alternative energy, we have enough technology now - solar thermal, efficiency, wind, etc. - that we can address climate change with our current capabilities. He agrees that innovations will be welcome, but they are not required.

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SD Forum’s Green and Clean Dinner Meeting

August 22, 2008 in business benefits, investing by nils | 1 comment

The Image via Wikipedia

I attended the SDForum Green and Clean Dinner tonight. The topic was "Where's the Money?" Five panelists, representing a VC firm, a bank, an angel funding group, a bridge-financing firm, and an entrepreneur who has raised his money independently, discussed the various sources of funding for clean tech companies. i took extensive notes, and will provide more details later, but for now some of the highlights were:

  • Liquidity may be different for clean tech companies than we got used to for high tech companies during the Internet boom
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