[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2P44QNQJh0&w=445&h=364]
Here’s a clip of Paul Scott of Plug-In America talking with me about auto OEMs on the 2GreenEnergy Report.
Full 30-minute show on electric transportation here.
Last week I warned about the danger of not anticipating the “what ifs” of energy, specifically, what if there is a deepwater drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s a “what if” for electricity that should be keeping everyone up at night. What if there’s even a minor accident at nuclear power plant? In wake of Gulf oil spill, every one of the US’s 100+ commercial reactors would be have to be inspected, which likely would reveal brittle fracture and other problems brought on by age that Washington has been trying to avoid dealing with because the US has no substitute for nuclear power. Perhaps as many as 5 or 10 plants might have to be shut down for safety reasons, some maybe permanently, creating a power crisis.
I am not sure about this smart grid. Yes, it will happen but if the only reason is the Government funding it, I know it will be a failure. Smart investors will jump in early and then leave early before the big crash, sticking small investors badly.
As I keep saying, until the Government sets a National energy policy (which they never will because it will not be conducive for getting re-elected), status quo will remain the low cost alternative and alternative energy will fail. Congress can’t get there with dumb things little higher CAFE or cap and trade.
My company with our product EcoV does not need subsidy. EcoV will save our customers money today. We don’t need tax credits either. But we do need investment capital.
What does Bill Paul think about us? Probably not much, because we are not big enough to worry about. Nobody in the investment community thinks small, solid companies that can be profitable in there niche are worth considering. This is why so many small businesses are going out of business. No interest from the bankers.
Too bad. If this country does not start creating wealth through manufacturing, we will not survive.
Richard Marks
President
When the mainstream financial media start running stories warning about “the end” of BP, it’s the final nail in the coffin. Gonna say it one last time: BP files for court protection against its creditors by Labor Day, leaving US taxpayers to pick up the multi-billion-dollar clean-up and damages tab.
Governments are throwing billions at smart-grid development. Industry giants from IT, transportation, and communications are jockeying to dominate what will be a complete transformation of electric utilities.
The world is in the process of migrating from a one-way communication , i.e., flow of electricity from the utility to the customer, to two-way communication, where the billions of devices that use electrical power communicate back to the utility. And the benefits will be magnificent: saving energy, lowering cost, increasing reliability, and ultimately enabling electric transportation and better penetration of renewable energy.
Normally, when I write about such things, it’s to enable readers to understand the issues surrounding how things will work, as well as when and why it will happen. Here, it’s for a different purpose, to let you know how you can profit from it. My colleague Bill Paul has been successfully prognosticating stock market ups and downs for more than 20 years. As a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal, and as a commentator on CNBC, he’s earned the respect of investors around the globe.
If you’re interested to know how you can pick the right horses in the incredible steeplechase in smart-grid, mark you calendar and join us for a free webinar, Thursday, June 17, at 10:00 AM PDT (1:00 PM EDT), in which Bill will be “grilled” by a few people – including me – and you, if you’d like to participate.
If you’re interested in “Bill Paul on the Smart-Grid,” sign up here. I’ll look forward to having you in the discussion.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw9CPtvysTI&w=445&h=364]
In this segment of the 2GreenEnergy Report, Plug-In America’s Paul Scott speaks with me on one of my favorite subjects: the Electric Vehicle Adoption Curve. Readers may have noticed that I’ve try to get at this subject “eight ways from Sunday,” and I thought Paul added some terrific insight. See if you agree.
Full 30-minute show on electric transportation here.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t note with sadness the passing of John Wooden. Coach Wooden will stand forever as a personification of strength of character and integrity, and his examples will never be forgotten.
When I sat down to write this, I feared that it may be construed as off-topic, but I soon realized that it isn’t at all. The man showed us all a rare courage that helps inspire us in our quest for a just and sustainable world.
I few years ago I wrote a couple of short pieces on another blog regarding my experiences coaching kids’ sports and I mentioned Coach Wooden by name in the process:
I hope you take advantage of the opportunity to coach. Not only is it fun and rewarding for you, but you’re making an enormous contribution to others. I know I’m not John Wooden, but I also know that most of these kids I’ve coached in soccer and basketball will remember this experience for the rest of their lives. I’m profoundly grateful for the chance to have helped.
So long, and thank you, Coach Wooden.
“Fun and frivolity are usually the first casualties of a recession, and so are the vehicles that let the good times roll,” says Lawrence Ulrich of MSN Autos. “Buyers, all buyers, have become much more practical,” said Jeff Schuster, an industry forecaster for JD Powers and Associates. “They look at cars like these and say, ‘I just can’t swing that right now.'” Consequently, the sporty side of the luxury car market is in a sales free fall.
Now does this corroborate my views on the impending paradigm shift in driving? Readers may recall that I boldly (foolishly?) predict that American drivers are soon to lose the identity “I am what I drive” as the realization kicks in that “To some degree, what I drive harms me and everyone around me.”
I can’t predict the exact tipping point, but I’ll be stunned if drivers 20 years are still looking to a big piece of chrome and steel with a chic hood ornament as a way to broadcast their affluence. This, as a sociological phenomenon, is on it way out.
The Magnificent Shieldsini has spoken.
Like hydrogen as a fuel, liquid ammonia is a carrier of energy, as opposed to a source of energy. When we create ammonia out of nitrogen and hydrogen, we add energy to form a compound that can later be broken down, releasing some of that energy for useful purposes at a time and place of our choosing.
In that sense, ammonia is like compressed air or batteries: you can only take out the energy you had put in earlier. As a substance, this is constrated against gasoline and other fossil fuels, the chemical energy in which was created by our sun long ago.
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I figured that my posts on Renewable Energy World on liquid ammonia would eventually get some response. I had been wondered how it could be possible that so few people were working on projects in this area, as it really does seem like an important idea. In particular, as a liquid energy storage medium, it has the potential to solve three tough problems simultaneously. In addition to being clean, safe, reliable, and scaleable, liquid ammonia can help in:
1) Moving large amounts of energy around a large land mass (like the lower 48 states) in a way that would compete with electrical. (Proponents point out that a great deal of this piping infrastructure is already in place.)
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