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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

To anyone who tells you that “green” isn’t big business, point them in the direction of Royal Philips Electronics (PHG), which just said that sales of “green” products totaled $9.4 billion, or 31% of total 2009 sales. Philips exceeded analysts’ fourth-quarter expectations and has made what the company described as a “strong start” to 2010.  The company’s CEO expects sales of LED lighting products to continue driving overall green growth over next few years.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketMy much respected friend Wally Rippel asks that I publish something to set the record straight on the early days of electric transportation.  Here goes:

According to the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? “after the success of the Sunraycer, GM contacted AeroVironment and asked them to work on the development of an electric car.”  Well, this is absolutely not true.  What really happened was that AeroVironment submitted an unsolicited proposal to GM in early 1988 which was based on a 1985 proposal generated jointly by AeroVironment and me. This earlier proposal (code named “Electrospirit” was submitted to GM, but was not funded.

At the time, I was part of JPL’s Electric Power section and was working on AC drives and sealed lead acid batteries.  The idea was that JPL and AeroVironment would join forces to develop a high-performance electric vehicle, based on the propulsion work I was carrying out at JPL  —  and on AeroVironment’s strengths in connection with aerodynamics and light-weight structures.  This later proposal (code named Santana) was funded after much arm-twisting and politics — and lead to the development of the EV-1.  The original concepts generated by me at JPL were central to the EV-1 (induction motor, integrated charging, high voltage battery bus, various control techniques, cooling techniques were all elements brought forward from JPL to GM).

This is important history, as it establishes the origin of the modern electric car development.  For me and my family, it is of course important as it provides a fair account of my involvement.  The leadership at AeroVironment is well aware of this error, but has not been willing to come forward – likely because of their connection with GM.  (For many years, Ken Baker, a former GM executive, was one of AeroVironment’s Board of  Directors.)

Without this correction, history reads that GM got the ball rolling with their initiation of the EV-1 project.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Reports that Landis + Gyr may be going public shortly is big news. No offense to Itron — another great company — but I believe Swiss-based Landis + Gyr has the best prospects of any smart meter manufacturer in the world. The number of smart meters worldwide expected to hit 250 million in 2015 vs. under 50 million in 2008.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

PhotobucketThe press office at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced this week that a team of researchers has made a breakthrough on battery technology in the form of lightweight lithium-air batteries could have three times the energy density of current models.

Lithium-ion batteries currently dominate the field of small electronics — and are the prime candidates for electric vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries use a light metal (lithium), and they don’t suffer power loss when they are charged up time and time again. However, for such applications as in an electric vehicle, they are still heavy, and researchers have been working hard to improve energy density – the amount of energy stored by kilogram. Lithium-air batteries use the same general concepts, but replace the heavier compounds found in lithium-ion batteries, which makes them lighter. In fact, the research team says that their breakthrough could lead to batteries with three times the energy density of existing batteries.
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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

PhotobucketMany of us were saddened to hear of the retirement of US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. In no way am I qualified to comment on the breadth of his career and the numerous positions he took on the thousands of cases he heard over 35 years on the bench. I will, however, mention three aspects of his legacy that affect every one of our lives:
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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

PhotobucketI’m delighted to see the flurry of recent activity from a few guest bloggers. I note that Kathy Hershelow writes volumes on Peak Oil. It’s good, well-constructed stuff – but I simply can’t get excited about it. In my discussions on the subject, I just try to make sure I’m hitting the broad side of the barn.

As I note in my blog on Renewable Energy World, I think the issue is moot. Regardless of whether Peak Oil happened a couple of decades ago, or won’t for a couple of decades to come, there are five or six excellent reasons to curtain our use of petroleum. It’s the single most important imperative facing mankind today.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

PhotobucketOxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment recently released a report that indicates the ‘tipping point’ is now here for world oil reserves, and that demand will start to outstrip supply of oil as we head to the middle of the decade. They state that the need to accelerate renewable energy resources is urgent.

It seems the peak oil situation is starting to be noticed and recognized more generally, though alarms have been sounded for decades from some very notable sources. The stress of the situation includes: 
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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

PhotobucketI received an email from renewable energy rock star Bill Paul just now:

 just fyi — following is from tom friedman’s column this morning.

 Obama-ism posits that we are now in a hypercompetitive global economy, where the country that thrives will be the one that brings together the most educated, creative and diverse work force with the best infrastructure — bandwidth, ports, airports, high-speed rail and good governance. And we’re in a world with a warming climate that is growing from 6.8 billion people to 9.2 billion by 2050, so demand for clean energy is going to go through the roof. Therefore, E.T. — energy technology — is going to be the next great global industry.

…to which I respond:

It’s funny, I read the bottom before reading to the top, and I thought, “Gosh that sounds like Tom Friedman.”  As you know, I read his books, I try to catch him on Charlie Rose, and I greatly admire him overall.  But this predictability is what slightly irritates me about him: when you look at exactly what he’s saying, it’s pretty non-controversial.  “We are now in a hypercompetitive global economy, where the country that thrives will be the one that brings together the most educated, creative and diverse work force with the best infrastructure?”  Wow, I don’t know Tom; you’re really going out a limb there, my friend.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

From today’s Tom Friedman column in the New York Times:

Obama-ism posits that we are now in a hypercompetitive global economy, where the country that thrives will be the one that brings together the most educated, creative and diverse work force with the best infrastructure — bandwidth, ports, airports, high-speed rail and good governance. And we’re in a world with a warming climate that is growing from 6.8 billion people to 9.2 billion by 2050, so demand for clean energy is going to go through the roof. Therefore, E.T. — energy technology — is going to be the next great global industry.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb-Bg5DfPzI&w=445&h=364]

Craig Shields predicts a paradigm shift in American consumers’ driving habits, based on increasing sensibilities re: sustainability. Citing the backlash against the fur industry in the 1960s, Craig predicts a larger-than-expected demand for electric vehicles based on his belief that people are re-thinking their identification of themselves with the car they drive.

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