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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I had a wonderful seafood breakfast this morning at Moby Dick’s in Santa Barbara, with two folks whose  start-up is built around an apparent breakthrough in electric motors. I’ve been on the lookout for just an improvement, as, in truth, few serious innovations have taken place since Edison and Tesla “did their thing” in this space about 120 years ago.

But is this the one? I’m always skeptical, as there are so many criteria at stake. Obviously, a breakthrough should mean a dramatic reduction in cost. But it shouldn’t take up more space, use rare materials, weigh more, constitute a safety hazard, or require a ton of exotic electronic controllers. And certainly, more efficiency would be nice; that’s the real kicker. The real cost of the motor lies in running it over the course of its life, rather than in the device itself. Of course, the motors we have in our electric vehicles are already over 90% efficiency, but a great number of those we use in our day-to-day lives, e.g., motors for pool filters, are under 50%; that leaves lots of ground to be made up.

I just checked this out to verify. Here’s the spec sheet for a popular pump motor, the Pentair. Let’s pick the WFE-4 at random, and note that it draws 14.8 amps at 115 V = 1702 Watts, but only puts out 1 HP, (746 Watts) = 44%. Lots of room for improvement, to say the least.

I’ll keep you posted.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an excerpt of frequent contributor John Robbins’ recent comment on my piece about crises and the abandonment of science.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but a huge part of our problem is simple ‘resistance to change’.  The main reason why Palin and Perry may be even more resistant is they represent states with super-abundant fossil fuel resources, is that they do not want change or questions which rock their profit boats. After all, it’s those resource and production profits which allow Texas and Alaska to have no state income tax. Lots of taxes collected on conventional energy, at many levels. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

“The way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas,” two-time Nobel prize laureate Linus Pauling said modestly. That’s something to think about, isn’t it? Don’t stress out about the quality of your ideas – at least initially. Let them come to you.

But I have to chuckle about some of the ideas I come across that are purported to  contribute meaningfully to the supply of renewable energy.  Here’s the content of a call I had with a young man in Florida the other day – and I had actually heard this exact concept a few months earlier from another gentleman – equally as earnest: harness the energy that flows out of the vents in your attic. “It’s a form of solar energy, in which the sun heats that air. My invention uses a generator to turn that energy into electricity.”

At least this isn’t theoretically impossible. In fact, as I explain, “There is no doubt that you will be able to generate electricity. But how much? We’ve all seen attic vents like this one. How much power do you think is being dissipated on the hottest afternoon in the summer? I’m guessing it’s a few watts.

I can tell by the reaction I hear on the other end of the phone that these people write me off as a nay-sayer, blind to a great idea – a fool who wouldn’t know a breakthrough idea if it slapped him across the face.

“Look, do this, before you spend money in patents, marketing, etc.,” I suggest. “Take this idea to your local high school physics teacher and discuss it. If you’re still excited about it after that talk, please call me back.”

The phone isn’t ringing.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Here’s an excellent article that expands on what I wrote in my report on China and renewable energy.  

I agree with a great deal of this, but the figures on the amount of energy and the amount of money are off by several orders of magnitude:  “A KPMG study expects that electricity consumption in China will rise to 6,400 TWh by 2020, up from 3,600 TWh in 2010. To meet that demand, approximately $2.8 billion in additional investment will be needed, says KPMG.” $2.8 billion won’t cover the cost of the cigars for the bureaucrats overseeing this effort.

In any case, there are some excellent observations made here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s another in our ongoing series of reports elucidating the challenges we face in our efforts to migrate from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This one’s based on a survey of 200 respondents, in which we contrast the behavior of the top two economic powers on Earth, noting that, where the U.S. seems mired in lethargy, China is taking far bolder steps in the direction of renewables. But precisely what lies behind this flurry of activity? In other words, Why exactly is China making such a robust investment in clean energy?

I hope you’ll download the report, and provide your feedback. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

As my client John Collings and I contemplate the future of his business, EV Profiler, and the way we need to present it to the market, we turn our attention to the basic message: removing the concept of range anxiety from the equation in the sales process. With the EV Profiler, you have a conversation between an EV prospect and a dealer rep that goes like this:

Customer: You say I’ll get X miles in range. But I drive in hilly terrain, and I’m not exactly a little old lady behind the wheel. I do 75 miles per hour on the freeways – and more, when I think I can get away with it. Somebody told me that, mile per mile, I’ll use twice as much charge per mile at 75 as I will at 40. This whole EV thing sounds like a non-starter to me, since the range I get in the real world may be absolutely terrible.

Salesman: I hear ya – and there’s an easy way to find out. Put this device in the car you’re driving now for a week, and just drive as you normally do. It transmits your exact real-time energy use to a computer. It tracks your speed, acceleration, braking, climbing and descending hills, and so forth – with amazing accuracy. You’ll receive a report every night by email, and at the end of the week, we’ll review a report summary together, and see pretty much exactly how far you could have gone in the — (e.g., Nissan LEAF).

 

Sounds like a solid, slam-dunk sort of sales tool. But what if an OEM, say Nissan, is so confident in its sales projections that they don’t think this is necessary? What if the OEM is hedging its bets on EVs overall? What if  …? There are a half-dozen other scenarios that could make this device unrequired. But I have to think, at the end of the day, that there are a whole bunch of EV prospects who are very interested in the idea of driving by gas stations for the rest of their lives, but are sitting on the fence, each wondering: “Will this work for me?” The EV Profiler brings a rock-solid answer to a very good question.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I got through the first half of Ian McEwan’s masterpiece “Solar” on the plane ride home from the East Coast this afternoon.  For my money, he’s one of the top two or three living authors of fiction – and here, of course, building a story around global climate change and renewable energy, he’s tapped into an interest of mine – and of yours.

But how fictional is this, really? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Wednesday, I was lucky enough to attend a conference presented by the Institute for Integrated Economic Research, a non-profit research organization focused on developing an unbiased view of global economic processes.  I’ll be interviewing one of its key people and a presenter at the conference, Nate Hagens, for my next book, and Nate wanted me to come up to speed on his thinking before we spoke, so that I could ask better questions when the time came. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

I’m on a train headed to New York City this afternoon for a series of meetings, the first of which will be lunch with my friends at Eos Energy Storage.  Their breakthrough in zinc-air energy storage will enable them to sell their product for $160 per kilowatt-hour — about one-third of what we’re paying today for lithium-ion.

My challenge will be to use my connections in the electric vehicle industry — my “friends of friends” — to help Eos nail down a manufacturing partner in this strategic space.  I have a few good ideas, and I’m sure I’ll leave the meeting with a dozen more, as the conversation naturally spawns new and different ways of thinking about the problem.

I really like and respect these people, and that’s half the battle; life’s too short to work with people you don’t “get on” with, as the British say.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I’m back in Washington D.C. today, principally to attend a small conference. Nate Hagens, authority on global resource depletion, has invited me to listen to his presentation on the subject, aimed at NGOs.

Nate has granted me an interview for my next book. Though he won’t be able to fit that in today, he highly recommended that I attend the conference, and take away content for use in the book. He’s one of the world’s great thinkers in this arena; I’m very much looking forward to the talk.

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