Michael Fitzsimmons

America Must Rebuild Domestic Battery Manufacturing Infrastructure

your title is dead on. imagine what the $700 billion paulsen and bernanke have thrown at the "financial crisis" could have accomplished had it been thrown at:

1) battery research, development, and manufacturing technology (similar to the Sematech organization in semiconductors)
2) wind and solar electric generation
3) building out the electrical grid infrastructure

i can only hope the obama team "get it" and use their "stimulus package" in a much more useful way (i.e. the above 3 items) than the ridiculous paulsen and bernanke strategy (just more money to the bankers and wall streeters who put us in this deep hole).

Alternative Energy Storage: It's All About Price vs. Performance

sorry, the above comment should have been Carter reduced US foreign oil imports by "5 million barrels per day", not "50%". typing too fast....

Alternative Energy Storage: It's All About Price vs. Performance

1) Carter's policies reduced US oil imports by 50%, made the country aware of energy's ability to cripple our economy (as the Arabs did), and raised fuel economy standards for automobiles (just think where we would be today without that). to detract from Carter's work in this area (the best of any president's), and not to mention the oil-centric disaster that Bush has been wrt energy policy, is simply not objective. i repeat, it was the bush ethanol mandates that brought on food inflation, not the Carter tax subsidies (note the food inflation didn't really hit until recently as Bush's idiotic ethanol mandates kicked in). you cannot blame Carter's actions in the late 1970s for something that happened in 2008.
2) the DOE publishes something like their prediction of vehicle sales in 2030?? come on John...anyone who has the slightest idea of oil supply/demand fundamentals (and the DOE has proven it hasn't the slightest clue), knows that these DOE estimates of vehicles sales is nothing but pure dreaming. the DOE has an oil centric bias, yet doesn't have a clue about oil supply/demand fundamentals. using their data is not only misleading, but dangerous. statistics, sure. prognostications about the future, F-
3) i understand it's an article about investment ideas. but at the same time, listing investment choices in an area as specific as "alternative energy storage" without acknowledging the possible competition to those investment choices seem an omission to me. much of your analysis on batteries is good, and they will certainly be used in electric only and hybrid cars. however, the larger playing field of solar and wind energy array storage, well, i am not so sure batteries are the way to go. are you? do you think batteries, with the cost and capacity needed, will be the way to go to store energy from wind and solar for those times when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shinning? just curious.

Alternative Energy Storage: It's All About Price vs. Performance

John: nice article and you had some important things to say. that said, i'd like to point out a few things:
1) your implication was that the Carter ethanol tax credits were responsible for the recent food inflation. they were not. it was the bush ethanol *mandates* (i.e. mandates forcing the amounts of ethanol blended gasoline) that caused the huge disruptions in the food chain.
2) the DOE has been dead wrong on every major energy policy affecting the US and the department should simply be shut down. presenting DOE data is a good way to be discredited. for instance, the DOE has been wrong on oil price predictions, supply/demand prognositications, and you yourself point out the lack of support for US produced natural gas transportation. DOE policy and predictions make it one of the most dangerous departments of the US government.
3) i am very surprised an article on alternative energy storage didn't go into more detail on molten salt and electrolysis production of hydrogen. in my opinion (and i am still studying the matter) both these system are potentially more cost effective energy storage mediums for large wind and solar arrays than are batteries, as well as being more environmentally friendly.