For some reason, I have come across a great number of reports recently of people claiming to have solved the riddles of the universe. As I’ve written elsewhere, I try to review all such suggestions with an appropriate mixture of respect and skepticism. I want to be enlightened enough to listen to ideas and appreciate them honestly, but not gullible enough to believe utter gibberish.  I also appreciate that pseudoscientific garbage can be the product either of crackpots (who, by definition, believe in their stories) or charlatans, who, again by definition, do not).

As long as the subject matter isn’t health-related or represents business fraud, claims like these represent no real danger to society beyond wasting people’s time, and thus I believe people have the right to make such statements.  But I also think that society has the right—if not the obligation—to write these people off as nuts.

If you’re interested in pursuing this line of reasoning yourself — or even if you’re just looking for a good example of what I mean — you can go to YouTube and listen to some of the talks of Marko Rodin; he seems to be a text book example. I’m sorry if I’m being too harsh or brief, but he does not make any sense to me whatsoever; this seems like complete tripe, and thus, to me, he’s firmly rooted into the crackpot/charlatan category (though I’m not sure which).

On the other hand, take David Wilcock, who dispassionately and intelligently discusses the 2012 phenomenon (end of the Mayan calendar) , visitation from extra-terrestrials, crop circles, etc.  Personally, I don’t find people like this and their attempts to unravel great mysteries to be crackpots at all.  I think we need some explanation of these gigantic and incredibly complicated phenomena other than a few drunken Englishmen stumbling home through the wheat fields from the pub Saturday night.

At this point, you may be wondering what this could possibly have to do with renewable energy.  Well, it seems possible to me – I might even say probable — that cutting-edge physics – the stuff that defies our intuition and that blasts our existing paradigms of exploration to bits – will someday make revolutionary contributions to energy — and I think we have to be alert to and accepting of them.  Further, I’m prepared for the fact that some of these new principles will strike all of us as quite bizarre.

So let’s talk about some of these aspects of modern physics.  What about zero point energy (which clearly does exist) btw? Regardless of how cold you get a substance, it still has energy, due to the Heisenburg uncertainly principle. If the particle stopped completely, you’d now exactly where it was, and that can’t happen. So there is always some kinetic energy involved with every particle in the universe. But no one has presented a credible explanation of how that energy is in any way available to harvest as useful work. Will it happen some day? I’m not sure, but it most certainly will not be soon.

What about quantum entanglement? Certain pairs of particles – whether they’re separated by an Angstrom or a galaxy – transmit information to and from one another instantly. Does this have ramifications for energy? Some say it’s possible. Most of the people I find most credible simply don’t see it.

What about cold fusion? As I’ve wrote in my Three Brass Tacks reports, I think there is credible evidence both that cold fusion exists, and that it has a reasonable trajectory for actual utility here several decades hence. But it will take a huge investment of resources that I see as unlikely in the realities of today’s world.

Having said all this, from what sources are breakthoughs most likely to issue?  From the Ph.D.s in the great universities, or from people who have no formal training in the subject?  To me, this study of paradigm-shattering is an interesting one.  People working too close to a subject tend to think in narrow and traditional ways, cut off from creative, new ideas.  As I like to say, they tend to “breathe their own exhaust.”  But people who really have no understanding of the subject are hard-pressed to ask themselves meaningful questions and pursue a breakthrough in a way that makes sense.

And the neat thing about scientific exploration is that a lot of it happens by accident, where some genius finds a previously unseen correlation between two subjects that had appeared to be completely unrelated. Thus it’s possible that the secret to an infinite supply of useful energy will come from someone who had set out to mix a better martini.

Personally, my money remains on existing, idiot-simple technology that we’ve known about virtually forever (e.g., solar thermal) and are just now coming across the imperative – as well as breakthroughs in materials science – to make feasible.  In any case, I try to keep an open mind — and I urge you to do the same.

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PhotobucketI was delighted to see Siemens’ recent acquisition of Israel-based Solel Solar Systems for US$418 million.  To me, this again signals mega-corporations’ commitment to the concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) market. René Umlauft, CEO of Siemen’s Renewable Division remarked in an interview, “The market for solar thermal energy is highly promising, and vigorous growth is expected to continue for Solel.”

The German technology behemoth appears to be pursing a strategy of vertical integration, building or buying companies that provide troughs, collectors, and other components required for solar thermal deployment.

As I’ve often pointed out, solar thermal is not right for every geography; if you’re Iceland, you’re going to have to come up with a different plan if you want renewables. But a huge percentage of the Earth’s population lives in areas that would be conveniently served by large, hot, and otherwise unusable land masses, like the deserts of the southwestern US. Likewise, Siemens recognizes that solar thermal power production is most efficient in the sunbelt, and predicts significant development in the Middle East and Chile.

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Current Book Outline – Shooting for April Publication

Working Title: “Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies”

 Chapter Concept  Current Status — All Completed — Interviews Conducted with ..
 1. Introduction (written by Craig)
 2. Peak Oil Matt Simmons
 3. Oil and National Security James Woolsey
 4. Global Climate Change Dr. V. Ramanathan
 5. Renewable Energy and the US Federal Government National Renewable Energy Labs’ George Douglas
 6. Preserving the Wilderness Audubon’s Brian Rutledge
 7. The Smart Grid and Vehicle-to-Grid EPRI’s Mark Duvall
 8. Fuel Cells Steve Ellis
 9. Business and Consumer Incentives – The Regulatory Environment Electric Drive Transportation Association’s Brian Wynne
 10. Electric Vehicle Advocacy Plug-In-America’s Jay Friedland
 11. Sociology of Driving Trinity Universty’s Dr. Michael Kearl
 12. Washington Watchdog National Resource Defense Council’s Johanna Wald
 13. Mobilizing the Private Sector Carbon War Room’s Jigar Shah
 14. Solar Thermal Ausra’s David Mills
 15. Wind  Energy Clipper Windpower’s Dr. Amir Mikhail
 16. Geothermal Energy Ormat’s Paul Thomsen
 17. Hydrokinetic Energy Universiry of Washington’s Dr. Brian Polagye
 18. Photovoltaics Bruce Allen
 19. Biofuels Scripps Instutution’s Dr. Greg Mitchell
 20. Renewable Energy Media Renewable Energy World’s Steve Lacey
 21. Renewable Energy Activism Sustainable Business’s Dr. Rona Fried
 22. Renewable Energy Economics 2GreenEnergy’s Bill Paul
 23. Intelligent Energy Management Steve Nguyen
 24. All the Physics Most People Will Ever Need to Know in 10 Pages (written by Craig)
 25. Cutting-Edge Physics – Possible Faces of Renewable Energy in 50 Years Wally Rippel
 26. Renewables in Municipal Government Santa Monica’s Rick Sikes
 27. Conclusion (written by Craig)
Again, thanks for your help!
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PhotobucketAdvocates of electric vehicles understand that there are many interesting variations in potential drivetrains, and that ideally, we would combine ultracapacitors with batteries to deliver stored energy as needed to provide power intelligently, based on the needs of the driver.  Where batteries separate positive and negative charges chemically, capacitors do so physically, much like the static electricity that builds up on the surface of a balloon. And where a battery relies on a chemical reaction to release energy, which is relatively slow, the discharge rate of capacitors is typically much faster, which is handy for creating rapid acceleration.

Though batteries tend to gather more attention in the news, I’m always interested in breakthroughs in either device, as both are important in moving the migration to EVs along.  Augmenting a battery back with ultracapacitors increases the range of an EV by as much as 400% over that which would have been achieved with batteries alone — so this is a very big deal, as one can readily understand.

I spoke just now with Jack Mastbrook, the chief marketing officer of Northern California-based Reticle Carbon, whose technology seems to represent a quantum leap in the appeal of capacitors in EVs.

Briefly, capacitors are typically granulated, porous, highly conductive carbon. The problem that most manufacturers face (e.g., Maxwell and Nesscap) , is that the process of consolidating this material greatly compromises its utility; the glues and resins reduce the carbon’s porosity and conductivity. Reticle’s patented breakthrough is a consolidation technology that does not use these binders, resulting in much higher surface area and conductivity of the carbon, thus a thicker electrode. The result: 10 – 20 times the power density. Jack is understandably both proud and excited. “To augment a 350V lithium-ion battery pack, Maxwell’s capacitive array weighed 150 pounds. Ours would have weighted 20 pounds,” he told me.

The company’s trying to raise investment capital. Given the interest in EVs in today’s market, that doesn’t sound like too difficult a task.

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PhotobucketI just got back from California Polytechnic Institute, or Cal Poly as it’s popularly called — at which I interviewed Dr. Tom Mackin, chairman of the mechanical engineering department for my upcoming book. The focus here, of course, is nurturing innovation in the next generation — and I can tell you, few people are more dedicated to the cause than Tom.

I guess what impressed me most was the idea that every incoming freshman hears moments after stepping on campus: “If you can dream it, you can build it.” Here you have thousands of kids from all over the world, in one of the most intellectually stimulating environments imaginable, coming to grips with the realities of science and technology — and how they apply to overcoming the challenges of the real world. Some are developing human powered vehicles that go 60 MPH; another team is working on a gas-powered mini-car that gets 2200 MPG.

And, outside of safety, there are no rules. Think a different approach to aerodynamics will reduce turbulence? Go for it. Whatever you’re doing, you’re free to build it in the most innovative, most imaginative way possible. Tom told me as I was leaving, “Perhaps the greatest thing about the world today is that we do not stigmatize failure. It didn’t work? No problem. Try again.”

Thanks for making a difference in thousands of young lives, my friend.

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Yesterday’s interview with my friend Wally Rippel that I conducted for the book I’m preparing on renewable energy is a moment in time I’ll never forget. I know I’ve commented on Wally numerous times here, and so I’ll try not to burden readers with too much repetition on the wonderful grasp he has on both physics and philosophy, blending what we must do with why we must do it.

Perhaps my favorite few minutes of our dialog over lunch concerned the “Drake’s equation” – the famous attempt to quantify the probability of extraterrestrial life. Drake famously identified and multiplied together the many factors that come together to affect this number: the total number of stars in the universe, the percentage of those with planets, the percentage of those planets with carbon, water, etc.

Wally pointed out the most important factor in all of this may be the brief period of time between which life initiates on a planet until that life is extinguished. Until the advent of nuclear weapons less than a century ago, few people considered the possibility that life on this planet could come to an end in the absence of an extremely unlikely, naturally occurring event, e.g., a collision with a huge asteroid or the sun’s burning out. But now we have the interesting possibility that extraterrestrial life might be hard to find because there is a very brief window between the point that a civilization develops radio technology (enabling us to find them) and the time at which they develop nuclear weapons (enabling them to destroy themselves). The question then becomes, of course: Are we teetering on the edge ourselves?

This subject came up when I had exhausted by list of questions about from quantum physics and its applications to real-world technology. From there, we moved to a discussion of the politics that makes certain technologies far more likely to be deployed than others. Not to oversimplifiy, but the question is really one of good and evil. I hesitate to make such broad generalities, but I really see people who actively inhibit the rapid migration to renewable energy in a world desperately trying to stem global warming as evil. I wouldn’t know what else to call someone who considers his personal profit more important than the health and safety of the other 6.8 billion people on the planet.

In any case, I have to say that the process of conducting these interviews is among the most stimulating thing I’ve ever done in my 54 years traipsing around this planet. As I told my wife when I got home last night, if a fraction of the leaders of this world were as enlightened as Wally, this would be a terrific world in which to live.

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PhotobucketAs I have often written, cleaning up government is integral to success in the migration to renewables.  Big Energy routinely spends millions of dollars influencing legislation that will protect itself from the incursion of new technologies that will disrupt their profit stream. And in an effort to comprehend the enormity of the task in front of all us in government reform, I ask you to watch a video: a session of the House Government Reform Committee.

At first clance, this may appear a bit off topic. Why concern ourselves with the corruption from Big Pharma? Well, to me, it’s just another way of coming face to face with corporatocracy and the corruption it brings: how powerful and evil it is, and ultimately, how difficult it will be to eradicate.

Here we have the pharmaceutical industry paying off one or more representatives to insert favorable, protective language in a bill that has nothing to do with pharmaceuticals at all and — best of all — must be passed on an emergency basis and therefore cannot be reread in its final form before the vote that will pass it into law. Here is all the protection Big Pharma will need from their malfeasance in profiting from faulty, dangerous vaccinations, inserted at the last minute, in the middle of the night, immediately before congress approves the Homeland Security Act. Now millions of families with brain damaged kids will be denied the recourse to which they would have been entitled, because of the brazen criminality of the pharmaceutical industry.

I think the most common reaction to the video is anger. But when you’ve calmed down, ask yourself: what’s the magnitude of the task in front of us in cleaning this up? What will it take to rid ourselves of a system that has become so rotten, so brutally indifferent to the rules of fair play and decency, so cold in the face of the human suffering it leaves in its wake?  Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

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PhotobucketInterest in the hydrokinetically-powered electric generator (HyPEG) is really heating up. I had numerous calls with potential investors late last week that show real promise.

Also, for the book on renewables that I hope to have published in January, I’ll be interviewing Dr. Brian L. Polagye, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. A colleague referred to him as “the nation’s leading researcher on hydrokinetic energy.” As I wrote back, I’m truly honored to have the good fortune for a conversation with a man of that stature; what a learning opportunity this will be.

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PhotobucketThere are so many exciting things happening here at 2GreenEnergy that it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve been asked to attend the Business of Plugging In conference in Detroit October 19 – 21. And although I loved the AltCarExpo in Santa Monica last week, I have to say that this one coming up is probably more strategic to our cause, given its business-to-business focus.

Though I won’t be speaking at the conference, I’ll be there with my characteristic notepad and business cards — connecting to as many people, and learning about as may new technologies and business models as possible. If anyone wants to get me a heads up on someone or something that I should be particularly alert to, I hope you’ll let me know.

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In this post (the blog’s 100th, btw) I offer a video that I put together on the politics of renewables.  I hope you enjoy it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V9vAu4oqI0&w=425&h=344]

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