creativforce

The Non-Stimulating Stimulus Bill

The trouble with the economy is that the private sector has become grossly top heavy ever since 401k's created a "forced" investment in the stock market. Millions of Americans have no idea where their money is going each month when they drop it into their "retirement" accounts. It's not at all like the good old days when CEOs had to work hard to impress savvy investors. Now a company can hide all of its profits in executive pay and claim that it isn't making any money on its quarterly report. Doesn't matter, the market is so awash with unsophisticated money that their stock price doesn't suffer the blood bath it deserves. Executives have learned that they can share the risk without sharing the wealth. Good for them, bad for everyone else. Executives making 100 million a year are the new welfare mothers who have no incentive to work. 401ks created the new gold rush in the 90s, everyone in America was going to retire rich. However, the players figured out who the suckers were at the table and they have been raping and pillaging ever since. In this stock market crash their wasn't anyone jumping out of their windows on Wall st. because they were getting their paychecks which ever way the market went. But us little guys on Main street sure got burned.

How PHEVs and EVs Will Sabotage America's Drive for Energy Independence

It's all good. John, your all-or-nothing thinking does not contribute much to the discussion (although I do love the research, facts and figures you deliver). The first electric car to hit the market will not be the last model. The 2014 Nissan Leaf may offer three different battery chemistries at three different price points. The Aptera, if successful, may come out with a four door sedan in 2011 on three wheels that doesn't even offer an electric motor. A small diesel would get better than 100 mpg in their highly aero dynamic, lightweight skin.
The Prius is a very good start, but that start was 10 years ago! We've spent 8 years in the wilderness under Bush. Thank the good Lord we are finally seeing some innovation. Can't wait to see what wins the X-prize. Hope I can bolt Poulsen Hybrid wheels on my 98 Corolla next year (that oughta be good for another 200,000 miles).

Auto Batteries: Short Term Revenue Growth Favors Lead-Acid by 6 to 1

Any idea why NILAR NIMH batteries seems to have gone "stealth" since 2008? They found a work around to the Cobasys patents, then made a lot of news in 2007-08, but now seemed to have vanished.

Auto Batteries: Short Term Revenue Growth Favors Lead-Acid by 6 to 1

I wonder where the Lanathanum is coming from? I wonder why Cobasys can't manage to do this?
Fromn Greencar congress:
"Sanyo To Hike NiMH Battery Output 3.5x in FY09 Due to Hybrid Car Demand
29 June 2009
Nikkei. Sanyo Electric Co. will more than triple its production of NiMH batteries for hybrids, citing growing demand for these vehicles.

In fiscal 2008, Sanyo made such batteries for hybrid cars at a rate of 1 million units a month. And when it announced its business results in mid-May, the company said it would boost production by 150% and make 2.5 million units a month in fiscal 2009. But now, Sanyo has decided to boost production by 250% to a monthly rate of 3.5 million batteries in fiscal 2009.

It said it will invest several billion yen to expand production lines at its Sumoto plant, in Hyogo Prefecture, which is the only plant where it makes NiMH batteries for hybrid cars.

Sanyo supplies NiMH batteries to Honda and Ford, and is looking for more customers."

Tata Nano About to Give Detroit a Run for Its Money

Agility is a big part of safety, I have never felt safe in an American lead sled like a crowne Victoria, because I knew stopping on a dime or dodging an obstacle wasn't going to happen. The Yugo is a poor comparison because it was built to communist quality standards. In case no one has noticed, the quality coming out of Asia generally beats ours.

Zenn Motors: Speculative Battery Startup

The biggest danger for EESTOR investors , if it is real, is in the company being engulfed and devoured by an oil company. They don't like threats to their product. The only reason we have hybrid cars today is because Toyota bought a license to produce NIMH batteries before Texaco/Chevron saw what was happening and devoured the Ovonic battery patents.

One reason to remain in stealth mode is to accept a king's ransom from oil companies to NOT introduce the product for a decade or so. Is their oil money behind the Kleiner Perkins investments? Or more likely oil money behind the Lockheed Martin agreement?

Read all about it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Main article: Patent encumbrance of large automotive NiMH batteries

Critics claim that large-format NiMH batteries were commercially viable and ready for mass production, but Chevron and other oil-related interests suppressed the technology to forestall the introduction of plug-in hybrids.[40]

In her book, Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, published in February 2007, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries are commercially viable but that Cobasys refuses to sell or license them to small companies or individuals.Boschert concludes that "it's possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it's possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles." [41]

In an interview with the Economist, Stan Ovshinsky stated, "I think we at ECD we made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business.[42]" In a later interview, however, when asked, "So it’s your opinion that Cobasys is preventing other people from making it for that reason?", he responded "Cobasys is not preventing anybody. Cobasys just needs an infusion of cash.".[43]

In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services, Inc., Innovative Transportation Systems AG and Neville Chamberlain filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan. [44]

A Very Smart Plan for Federal Smart Grid Grants

Can you think of another industry where walking door to door to read an analog meter would be considered a valuable use of an employee's time?

A Very Smart Plan for Federal Smart Grid Grants

Ok, if I am the president of a regional power conglomerate like NIPSCO in northern Indiana (I call him Mr. Burns). I have thousands of workers trained to perform repetitive tasks maintaining coal-fired power plants and analog equipment. The more energy my customers use, the more money I make. My customers are billed monthly. I have no competitors. My customers have no choice but to pay me. The only rights my customers have come through consumer protection groups who lobby the state government when they set my profit margins. As the president of this company I can only make more profit by encouraging consumption. I do this by helping to fund more urban sprawl and by discounting my prices to manufacturers (encouraging their wastefulness.)

What possible motive do I have for buying efficient battery storage for reliable, green, renewable, or digital technology?

I see a "build it and they will come" mentality at work here. The US government can give money to great ideas until it hurts. But just because a much better technology exists doesn't mean it will be purchased and used.

I see great inventions begging for a market, not a market begging for great inventions.

The US could spend nothing and force Mr. Burns to meet certain federally mandated standards (like the state government in CA has done). If Burns can't make money the old way, he will find a new way. In CA, PG&E and other local monopolies are scrambling to buy renewable energy because the law says they must.

Carbon trading could also create a big market for batteries and renewables.

The government could also rewrite laws to make distributed generation profitable for home owners and small businesses. That would be the most efficient, smart, safe and reliable way to solve the energy problem. And eventually it would make Mr. Burns obsolete. 100 million energy producers is better than a few hundred (plus it would create a dramatically more dynamic market for these products).

Large scale energy production and transmission is terribly wasteful. Those enormous smoke stacks and cooling towers aren't just "blowing smoke" they are wasting 25% of the energy they produce. Those crackling transmission lines aren't just making noise, they are wasting 30% of the energy that flows through them.

You can water and fertilize a seed all you want, but it won't grow in the winter. The government needs to change the season and the seeds will grow. Energy storage stocks would be the hottest thing since GOOG, if the government would focus their efforts on developing a market rather than on the financial problems within these wonderful small companies.

Hopefully the EPA's recent decision to regulate CO2 will force Mr. Burns to buy these products. Incentive should lead invention, because in the morning when we Americans have a problem we get to work and fix it. The way it is now, Mr. Burns has no problems.

Lead Acid Batteries: How Cheap Beat Cool at Google

Congratulations on the XIDE deal!

Energy Storage: Chrysler - A123 Alliance Likely to Spark Interest in Sector

New Whole Foods Market(R) in Dedham to Generate On-Site Power with Fuel Cell Technology from UTC Power--PR Newswire

$200 Oil Is Coming While We Waste a Perfectly Good Crisis (Part 1)

Higher prices were considered inevitable two years ago, that's why every speculator who could afford to fill a storage tank did so. Every speculator who could buy a tanker filled it too. From what I have read every empty container in the world was filled with stored oil, waiting to sell it back when the prices went higher. The demand for oil to fill empty tanks drove up the price. So more tanks were built. As soon as prices started dropping, speculators couldn't sell their stores for a higher price and so they sat on the market depressing prices. One ananlyst I heard on the radio said it would be at least two years before the world worked its way through the glut. In the mean time, no new supplies are coming on line because the low price doesn't warrant exploration. When the glut is finally used up, prices will suddenly skyrocket and the world will freak out again. Rational government policy during the Bush administration could have prevented speculative hoarding. The only thing Obama can do now to smooth out the next disaster would be to buy as much oil as possible now while its cheap and fill the strategic reserve to capacity. Then release it slowly during the next spike. Oil companies hate having their prices (profits) manipulated like this. The next best thing the Obama administration can do is put as much money as possible into electric cars and altenative energy. Oil companies hate that too.

When you have the largest concentration of wealth in the world--oil money--working against you, how can you win?

Energy Storage: Chrysler - A123 Alliance Likely to Spark Interest in Sector

Here' some more "good" news for the energy storage sector: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20...

Cyberspies have hacked the energy grid!

Just one more reason why upgrading the grid is becoming an emergency, not an option. Of course I strongly disagree that we should help the energy monopolies upgrade so that we all become even more dependant on them. National and individual security would be better served if the grid was more like the web--a convenience that connected micro energy producers and storage rather than a lifeline that can be easily severed.

Electric transmission allows 30% + waste. Economies of scale don't apply when distribution is so expensive. Better in every way to generate and store energy locally. Also a consumer market would be much better for the storage industry.

Lithium-ion Batteries: 9 Years of Price Stagnation

It is not surprising to anyone to see no progress in lithium battery technology during the last 8 years of battery antagonistic, pro-oil corrupt Texas leadership. That doesn't mean the next 4 (8?) years won't be better for these batteries.

A better question is why there hasn't been more progress in NIMH battery technology. Ever since Chevron sat its big bottom down on ECD (Cobasys) there has been zero progress out of Detroit.

However, Toyota, the only company that owned a NIMH manufacturing license before Chevron arrived at ECD has done amazing things with it. The new Prius at better than 50 mpg is a great example.

But Ford is encountering shortages from Sanyo and every battery coming from Cobasys is apparently flawed...Mercedes has sued them and GM received an order that had mysterious leaks according to industry news reports: "General Motors is also unable to take advantage of the hot hybrid market. GM recently said that its domestic supplier, Michigan-based Cobasys, shipped as many as 9,000 hybrid battery packs that leaked and had to be replaced. Anderman said that the Cobasys problem “did not surprise him." In an interview with HybridCars.com, a Cobasys executive claimed that media reports about its battery problems were "not entirely true."

Producing nickel-metal hybrid batteries to last the lifetime of the vehicle—as much as 150,000 miles—is “not a trivial task,” said Anderman. The next generation of hybrid batteries, using lithium ion, are expected to be even more challenging from a technical and planning perspective."

Can somebody tell me why an oil company is in charge of battery manufacturing and can't the government investigate these guys?

A decade ago, Cobasys made great batteries for the EV1, but they forgot how to do it? While Toyota hasn't reported a single problem with their Prius battery. In fact many Taxi companies that have been running Prius cars report better than 300,000 miles on the batteries with no problems.

Is CHP or AXPW working on a hybrid prototype to undercut the $25,000 + price of the Prius, Insight, and Fusion? If so, I'll be happy to invest. Where's the product? And where's the market?

Stick with Gold and the Oil Stocks

Energy is the most crucial part of the infrastructure that has been ignored.

Here's a scenario that keeps running through my mind. Imagine the great Northeast Blackout of 2003 happening in January when the temperature is hovering below zero. Imagine it lasts two days instead of one. How many of the 55 million people affected have backup generators or adequate fireplaces? How much violence would result in major cities as backup generators "change hands"? What would the cost be for frozen plumbing? When frozen plumbing thaws it can literally destroy a house ... how many homes would be lost? How many accidental fires would start as people try to stay warm? What about the riots as refugees overwhelm warm-up centers? How many people would die of carbon monoxide poisoning? How many people would freeze to death?

It's a pretty easy scenario to imagine, since a catastrophic blackout has already happened in the summer. Our antiquated, inefficient power grid is run by local monopolies that have absolutely no financial incentive to change. Smart grid initiatives are a joke when our tax dollars are going to dumb monopolies.

The solution to this danger is simple and it solves a lot of problems at once--reduces dependence on foreign oil, reduces green house gas emissions, reduces air pollution, reduces overall energy consumption by 30 to 40 percent, creates a dynamic new green business.

Home fuel cells running on natural gas with battery backup systems.

Deregulate the monopolies. Use incentives to create a consumer market for power generation. In a consumer market, gas powered fuel cells that provide heat and electricity would be no more expensive than a furnace and water heater is today. Over a 20 year period most homes need to replace these appliances anyway. Fuel cells like to run at a constant speed, so battery systems would handle peak loads, excess could be sold back to a nationalized grid. Home energy production is 30 to 40 percent more efficient than our current system so even though it would run on NG the CO2 would be greatly diminished. A battery system with enough capacity to handle summer air conditioning would get a home through a day or two running the furnace blower if the NG pipeline is disrupted. Cheap back up tanks of LP could substitute.

The technology is here now. These systems are already on the market in Japan. It won't happen unless we can develop the political willpower to reorganize the local power companies. With deregulation there would be a free for all of capitalism developing lots of better ideas.

We would all be richer, safer, and healthier for it.

Cleantech, Optimism Squared and the Battery Industry

Thanks for the tip John: wired.com/science/... Everyone should read this article! It sounds like the biggest utilities, Duke, Xcel and the rest see the smart grid as a way to consolidate power. That scares me even more than the miserable place we're in now. Imagine how badly the Internet would suck if it were owned by Microsoft and everyone had to pay to use it. That's where we are headed if the Feds don't mandate a public grid with open standards.