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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’m always interested in what the folks in electric vehicle auto design come up with.  Common wisdom dictates an approach in which an EV driver makes a bold and clear statement of his choice — and his environmental consciousness — to the world around him. And, from a design perspective, this isn’t at all hard to accomplish (but of course, that’s easy for me to say).  Simply building something a bit smaller and more aerodynamic than our standard coupes and sedans of the early 21st Century gets the job done nicely, while extending range and thus improving driver convenience.  The recently unveiled four-passenger electric car (pictured here) designed by a team of entrepreneurs based near Paris, called NEOMA, is a terrific example — though some might find it a bit extreme. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Courtesy Albert Molon

The Seoul Metropolitan Government reports that it plans to install more than 100 EV chargers by the end of 2010. The government recognizes that lack of EV charging facilities slows down promotion of green vehicles, and so took the step of signing agreements on May 28th with three Seoul-based retailers to install the needed chargers. The agreement would allow visitors to these retailers to charge their vehicles free until the end of this year – and it may be extended.  A number (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Each year, we come across a new set of discussions on the subject of Moore’s Law — the idea that the potency of technology doubles every two years. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors that could be put onto an integrated circuit doubled with that regularity — and that this exponential growth persisted for an astonishingly long period of time.

Of course, we look upon this “law” figuratively. There is no secret force that makes it apply to every technology – or that requires the period of time in question to be exactly two years. But we’ve all seen adequate proof of the “spirit of the law,” i.e., that many technologies do, in fact, experience some sort of geometric expansion.

As we should have expected, it was only a matter of time until pundits began to debate the relation of Moore’s law to the energy industry.  Recently we’ve seen numerous conversations regarding its application to the development of renewable energy technologies.

However, many people say that it simply doesn’t apply in this case, as such projected growth ignores the basic realities of energy: the long-term maturation of technologies, and the hard limits in efficiency that are put on us by more senior laws – namely those of physics itself. But here are a few points to consider: (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I don’t know how many readers check out Stephen Lacey’s podcasts on Renewable Energy World, but they’re absolutely terrific. Here’s a post I just wrote on this week’s episode, covering the gap between the interests of venture capitalists and those institutional investors and banks.  I also mention the role of government in the migration to renewables, and what the gentleman pictured here would have told us to do.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

A reader points out that in talking about utility scale solar, only mature technologies are used — usually 20 to 30 years mature or more. He observes how long it’s taken PV to be seriously considered for plants over 10mW.  But he goes on to talk about the Stirling Dish System, noticing that the system holds the efficiency world record for sun to grid electricity at 31.5%, and has minimal water use and half the land area and prep requirements of PV.

The only caveat I would offer about CSP and Stirling is energy storage. Once heat energy is converted to electricity, it has to be used, since storing electrical energy is expensive, and converting it back into some other form of energy is inefficient. The beauty of CSP is that storing heat energy (e.g., in molten salt) is much easier and less expensive than storing electricity.

I try to pay attention to the activity of the big boys, figuring that multi-billion dollar companies are extremely unlikely to bet on the wrong horse. Note, in particular, that earlier this year, French energy giant Areva bought Ausra, a venture-capitalized CSP innovator interest in molten salt technology is quite obvious.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’m trying to develop solid ideas for a path to pursue this upcoming book on Renewable Energy Job Creation. I woke up this morning with what I think is a good one: Why not head back to alma mater Georgetown with a plea from an alumnus?  Please let me interview a few economics professors. The idea makes sense, but it makes me wish I’d been more generous in my donations.

When I’m in Washington DC, of course, I can knock out talks with folks at the Brookings Institute and a few other organizations. Voila! Instant book!

Of course, this content can have additional purposes. I’m thinking webinars, blogposts, and lectures. And here’s another idea: consulting to politicos. My friend Bruce Allen spends a great deal of time working with US senators and representatives, helping them define their stance on off-shore oil drilling. Couldn’t I do the same on renewable energy vis-a-vis jobs?

My wife points out that this direction is so much narrower than the one I took in Renewable Energy Facts and Fantasies. True, but I think that’s a good thing. Now, I think it’s time for a few deeper dives.

　

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

The world’s oceans are a new frontier in the renewable energy world. Ocean energy is emerging and will be ‘make or break’ in the next five years, says the firm Pike Research that focuses on research and analysis of renewable energies. “The ocean energy business is right on the cusp,” says Pike’s managing director Clint Wheelock. He says more than 300 projects and tests are in the works around the world. (Press release, Pike Research. “Ocean Energy Could Reach up to 200 Gigawatts of Power Generation by 2025.” January 19, 2010.)

A researcher at Frost and Sullivan, another market research firm, agrees. “It is projected that commercialization of wave and tidal energy will take place in the next 5-10 years as the technology evolves and production costs decline,” notes Frost’s Technical Research Associate Chin Wai Loon. “Wave and tidal energy are expected to be deployed on a commercial (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Life is full of coincidences.  On the way back from dropping my daughter off at school this morning, I heard a piece on NPR on Black Swan technology (see press release linked) which is based on a unique “optical rectification” process that uses a very simple, cost-effective, single element system that extracts energy from the solar spectrum from the infrared through the visible, and has recorded efficiencies of as much as 50%.

A few hours later, I got a call from a gentleman who had seen that I had registered for the Utility Scale Solar show, and wanted my opinion on it.

Immediately, I placed a called to one of my most senior associates in solar technolgies, consulting physicist Bruce Allen, who spends a great deal of life studying stuff like this.  He says that this idea, still obviously in the R&D stage, has potential, but that it’s at least a decade from commerical application.

Of course, that’s only one man’s opinion.  I’m wondering if anyone else would like to share a viewpoint on this fascinating and important topic.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Gosh, it irks me to have our leaders take advantage on our ignorance – but I guess that what they do for a living.

Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the EPA, said recently that the agency will “issue guidance soon that states and polluters may use to implement the agency’s new greenhouse-gas regulations,” and that complying with the rules “is practical and is manageable.” Of course, it’s not at all clear what that means in terms of pragmatic consequences. But that didn’t deter our elected leaders from seizing opportunity to grandstand on either side of the aisle. Knowing that most people have no clue of the basic economics of new energy, and simply love a partisan fight, they were on camera more or less instantly.

Lawmakers led by Senator Jay Rockefeller want to postpone EPA action, saying the rules will hurt businesses and consumers grappling with a sluggish economy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to schedule a vote on Rockefeller’s bill “before we leave here.” Rockefeller is “aggressively pursuing” a two-year delay of the greenhouse-gas regulations for industrial sources such as power plants because “the unelected EPA” shouldn’t get ahead of Congress.

Is anyone asking about creating a level playing field for clean energy? About the real effect in job creation?  Maybe, but they’re incredibly hard to find.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

My colleague Steve Estes writes about the EPA’s recent announcement:

This is why the market is starting to get active again…. The EPA will proceed regardless, hopefully causing all of the folks against this to accept the alternative (which is better) of the politicians being allowed to pass some comprehensive legislation… (more…)

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