creativforce

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.

Smart Grid: Powering Us Out of Recession

We need to do two seemingly contradictory things before the energy situation improves.
1. Nationalize the grid,
2. Micro-localize energy production and storage.
The local monopolies held by power companies are preventing forward progress. We have too many "Mr. Burns and Homer Simpsons" running the power supply ... one blinded by greed, the other satisfied to sit on his ass forever. Look at the lightning speed with which communications changed once Ma Bell was broken up. Look at how quickly the federal government was able to develop the Interstate system.
Central production of energy is wasteful (a large proportion is lost in transmission and friction) and it's strategically dangerous.
We have been lucky so far that the giant blackouts in the North have only happened in the summer. Try one in the middle of a cold winter and thousands of people could die … millions could become refugees. During the Great Depression you could chop up the furniture and stick in the boiler to get heat. Today a modern gas furnace won't even light without grid power. Even the gas is supplied by an electronic valve that stops working without electricity.
If the outage lasted long enough to freeze pipes the damage would be in the Trillions and make 9/11 look like a holiday.
A NG powered fuel cell in every basement that supplies heat and power would be more efficient than grid electricity, greener, and with economies of scale probably no more expensive than what the average home owner pays for a furnace and water heater.
Supplement that with solar and wind where appropriate and everyone would be happier, healthier and safer. PLUG, GE, and United Tech...all have fuel cell products ready to go, but it will take a disaster before anyone unseats Mr. Burns.
Ask yourself, has the power plant in your area done anything new in 30 years? How much more black coal smoke do we need in the atmosphere? Has the electric meter or wires coming to your house changed in the last 50 years? If not, maybe it's time.
In the early 80s we could not have imagined the iPhone. Imagine what a consumer market could do for energy!

Alternative Energy Storage Is an Investment Tsunami

When we average americans have a problem we get up in the morning and fix it. My "quaint" point is that the only thing stopping me and millions of other average americans from junking our engines is the lack of an over the counter battery that provides range, price, and weight that will fit in our Corollas. This isn't extravagent arrogance. Just look at all the backyard rebels at evalbum.com/. This rebellion has gone from one or two "nuts" to thousands in the last year. And I believe it would jump from a few thousand to a few million if we could buy conversion kits with NIMH or Firefly batteries at Pep Boys. Either of these technologies would give us 500 pound battery packs coupled with a 75 pound motor (about the same weight as the engine, gas tank, and exhaust system we would be tossing) delivering highway speeds and a range of about 50 miles. That's all we need to get to work and back. It's not a sexy market like Tesla, but what's the profit on a million 500 lb battery packs?

Alternative Energy Storage Is an Investment Tsunami

As usual, great info John! All we need for a PEV revolution is a lead acid battery that weighs half as much as current technology like the one PWTC owns the patent on and stopped manufacturing why?? NIMH would work if Cobasys was ever serious about marketing it (Chevron needs to wake up or die). Every family today has 2 cars, only one needs to be electric for commuting to make a fundamental difference. My wife and I both own used Corollas for commuting and the minivan stays in the driveway for weekends. I would gladly turn the Corollas into EVs or Poulsen hybrids If I could get a battery.

By the way, has everybody seen this at Greencarcongress?

Michelin to Commercialize Electric Active Wheel Technology

1 December 2008

Michelin’s Active Wheel integrates brake disk, electric motor and suspension motor.

Michelin’s Active Wheel, an in-wheel system comprising a brake, 30 kW (40 hp) electric traction motor and electric suspension motor system, will be used in the Heuliez-produced WILL electric vehicle (battery or fuel cell), due to be available to fleet owners in 2010. The WILL grew out of a concept developed by Heuliez and Michelin and features networked services innovated by Orange.

Seven Companies Profiting From Obama's 'New' New Deal

Money is a symbol for energy.

Everything we build to create, grow, collect or save energy from an infinite resource (the sun, the moon --wind and tides--, the atom) will enrich this nation.

The paradigm of previous centuries, that we can find energy or buy a dollar's worth for less than a dollar is an unsustanable fallacy in a finite system.

Whether or not we have reached "peak oil", "peak coal" or "peak any other finite resource," global warming should be the wake up call to the fact that we are running on our stores, and that is unsustainable.

Isn't all this discussion on energy policy like asking, "How long can a fat man go without eating?" It's a silly question, time isn't the issue ... the issue is he will die.

It's time to do the right thing and feed from the infinite.

I don't know if the end is near, but now that we most definitely know there is and end, why not be conservative and prepare for it?