Wally Rippel described to me how cold fusion is a concept that began in 1989 with the experiments of Fleischmann and Pons at the University of Utah.
Here is more information on Wally Rippel and his contribution to Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies (by Craig Shields, published by Clean Energy Press, 2010).
![](http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/ww83/craigshields/Deuterium_oxide_Norsk.jpg "Wally Rippel - "Cold Fusion is Legitimate Science"")
Is cold fusion legitimate science, or a hoax? Wally Rippel believes the former. When we electrolyze heavy water, i.e., water made of deuterium and oxygen, in the presence of a palladium electrode, we wind up with more energy that we would expect – certainly more than we could explain with standard chemistry – and we get products that suggest that a nuclear reaction took place.
Here is more information on Wally Rippel and his contribution to Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies (by Craig Shields, published by Clean Energy Press, 2010).
I hope to see a great number of friends and colleagues at this year’s Plug-In Show in San Jose, CA, July 26 – 29. So many things are happening in the development of battery EVs and plug-in hybrids that I look forward to this show every year; for my money, it really is the definitive conference on the subject.
One of the of the aspects that I find most compelling about these shows is the range of technologies featured. In just a few hours of checking out the exhibits, one gets a broad survey of the state-of-the-art in battery chemistry and battery management systems, electric drive controllers and motors, charging systems, and, of course, tons of complete vehicles, from e-bikes and scooters to passenger cars, to heavy duty cargo container movers. In addition, there are all manner of industry VIPs running around and giving talks from the automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, electric utilities, government agencies, the environmental community and academia.
It has all the grand appeal of one of the big auto shows, but, for me, just a bit more relevance than just another model year of shiny, gas burning cars surrounded by hot girls in short skirts. I hope you’ll try to make it.
I friend of mine noticed that the concept of “Tough Realities” (as in the title of my report: Tough Realities for Renewable Energy Businesses) resonates with people. I agree. That’s the reason that I’ve subtitled my book (“Renewable Energy — Facts and Fastasies”) as follows: “The Tough Realities as Revealed in Interviews with 25 Subject Matter Experts.”
For pretty-much everyone associated with this industry — and certainly for me — it’s clear that there are indeed Tough Realities faced by those working to drive the migration to clean energy. Nobody who studies this with any level of depth could possibly see this as a walk in the park, where the key players in energy are saying to one another, “May the best man win.” This is a complex story of big money, back-room politics, secrecy, and betrayal. You don’t find multi-trillion dollar industries unfolding without a heavy dose of the worst of cheesey human misbehavior. Now add in the disruptive element, i.e., the fact that “new energy” is a direct threat to “old energy.” For every kiloWatt-hour of solar, we need one fewer kiloWatt-hour from oil and coal.
Hold on to your hats. Sorry to say it, but we haven’t even begun to see the tough realities hit those battling it out in the energy industry.
![](http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/ww83/craigshields/Secondsmalllot003-1.jpg "Wally E. Rippel: About Wally Rippel, Contributor to "Renewable Energy Facts and Fantasies"")
The chapter of the book Renewable Energy — Facts and Fantasies entitled “Cold Fusion” is a transcript of the interview with Wally Rippel on this subject.
Quote:
“Imagine a liquid fuel which stores ten million times as much energy as gasoline, which is a three billion times more abundant than oil, which costs one thirty thousandth that of gasoline per unit energy, and which one can safely drink. The fuel already exists and can be ordered over the internet at a cost of $250 per liter. It is called deuterium oxide or heavy water. Cold fusion offers the promise of an economic “engine” which can convert the stored nuclear energy of this fuel into electrical energy.”
Bio:
Wally was born and raised in southern California. He received a BS in Physics from Caltech in 1968 and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1970. While a sophomore at Caltech, he became interested in electric vehicles as means for combating air pollution – which in turn led to his converting a 1959 VW bus to electric drive. During his senior year, in an attempt to focus university research on the technical problems of electric propulsion, he challenged MIT to a cross-country electric car race. The MIT students accepted and the result was the “Great Electric Car Race” – which, by the way, Caltech won.
Between 1976 and 1990, Wally was a member of the technical staff at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – where he focused on the development of batteries and electric vehicle drives based on induction motors. In 1985, he initiated a joint effort between JPL and AeroVironment for the development of a high-performance electric passenger vehicle – code named Santanna; requested funding from General Motors was not obtained and the effort was shelved. In 1987, Wally consulted for AeroVironment in connection with the development of a solar-powered “race vehicle” for GM – the Sunraycer. This vehicle zoomed to victory in the first Australian cross-country solar race, which in turn, paved the way for AeroVironment to re-propose the Santanna development. This time, GM came through with the funds and the result was the development of the Impact vehicle – which then led to the EV-1. The rest of the story can be seen in the film, “Who Killed The Electric Car”. Wally is now with AC Propulsion, Inc., a San Dimas company he co-founded in 1992, which develops and manufactures high-performance induction motor drives for electric vehicles. He is currently working on the next-generation development of induction motors and inverters for electric vehicles.
Wally now holds twenty four U.S. patents with four more on the way. His number one passion remains environmental protection.
Links
Here is a link for those wishing to learn more about cold fusion — also known as Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) and Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reactions (CANR), and how hundreds of senior scientists are duplicating the initial finding of Fleishmann and Pons: LENR-CANR.org.
And here is a link to AC Propulsion, where I work to develop next-generation electric vehicles.
The role I play as a partner in EVWorld.com enables me to have conversations with people very much at the center of the EV Adoption Curve discussion. I just got off the phone with Joe Delello, currently the man closest to the release of Mitsibishi’s i-MiEV, slated for November 2011 in the US.
I told him what cynics are saying about the sincerity of OEMs in the EV space (as if he needed to hear it from me), i.e., that there is no incentive for the OEMs to move this along as neither they nor their dealers make money. He made some good points, which I’ll share:
Automakers are understandably cautious. They want to see how batteries perform in hot and cold climates, they’re worried about lithium shortages, charging infrastructure – and consumer demand beyond tree-hugger early adopters.
However, he’s honestly optimistic. He points out that Americans have already shown how irritated they are at $4/gallon gasoline, and believes that gas prices are likely to generate demand from people who otherwise would not be interested.
Having said that, there will only be 2000 i-MiEVs sold in the US in the car’s first year –a year in which there will be 20 million cars sold with internal combustion engines. 2000 units? One out of 10,000? I should say that’s cautious – to say the least.
For what it’s worth – and I told Joe this – I absolutely adore the I-MiEV. I was lucky enough to test-drive one at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show – it’s a cute little rocket. And it will be priced significantly under $30,000 – much less than the LEAF. I could sell 2000 of them in Bismarck, North Dakota.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzZzqv1zFyo&w=445&h=364]
Here, I interview FunRide’s Pat Mahan on some of the new ideas that are at the forefront of the concept of car sharing. I offer Pat what I thought was a terrific idea: car sharing on college campuses to reduce drunk driving and other uses of cars that really don’t need to happen — not that I had, in my younger days, any personal experience with that. Ahem….
Pat was polite — but more or less immediately changed the subject — as he had yet a better idea.
I want to call readers’ attention to the discussion on what I think is one of the hottest and most important topics in clean energy: the EV adoption curve and the sincerity of the OEMs in building and selling EVs.
If you Google this topic, you’ll find that most of this conversation concerns the consumer. As my friend Brian Wynne (president of Washington DC advocacy group the Electric Drive Transportation Association) likes to say, “The consumer has a vote in this.”
While Brian’s right on this of course, in the absence of adequate supply, it’s going to be a heck of a long time until that vote means anything. People can want EVs all the want (as people in hell want ice water), but it’s rather moot if those EVs are coming off the assembly line at the rate of a few tens of thousands per year, vs. tens of millions of internal combustion engines per year.
Of course, start-ups will get us there eventually. But, as I wrote to frequent commenter Richard Marks, president of low-speed EV start-up EcoVElectric (great company, btw), I believe the OEMs have the backs against the wall here, and are finally forced to build EVs whether they want to or not. Sure, they’re at liberty to drag their heels in EV product releases and production quantities, but if they do, they’ll quickly wither and die as their competitors leap ahead.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV4PvVhIgGA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]
FunRide‘s Pat Mahan explains that his company represents “car sharing with a twist,” i.e., a fleet of 100% alternative fuel vehicles.
I first came across this company years ago when I first set out to learn something about electric vehicles. I participated in several meetings in which the company’s founder, Mark Shaffer, explained that the thought the presence of AFVs would make a material difference to market demand for the product. Looks like he may be right.
In a blog post offering my “Tough Realities for Renewable Businesses” report to readers at Renewable Energy World, Bill Fitch writes a comment befitting of the 4th of July and the patriotic spirit that normally accompanies it.
I’m reminded of a friend’s T-shirt that defines the word patriotism as “not letting our leaders ruin our country by ignoring the principles on which it was founded.”
