China Is Winning The Clean Energy Race

You read that title correctly. China is winning, and no, I'm not defining winning the say way as Charlie Sheen.

Charlie Sheen... what a douche.

I won't bore you with the details (which you can find over at FastCompany.com), but here is the important part of the story:

China's national action plan is helping the country use more hydro, wind, and solar power. The country has goals of 150 gigawatts of wind capacity by 2020 (it looks like they're going to meet this goal five years early) and 20 gigawatts of solar by 2020. For comparision, the U.S. currently has .6 gigawatts of solar and 33 gigawatts of wind.

It all comes down to national policy, and right now China has made it clear to investors that they want alternative energy as a large part of their infrastructure's future. America on the other hand is only in 3rd place, but is constantly sending mixed signals on how much investment they really want making it difficult for investors to jump on board.

The good news is that the industry in general is trending upwards, I just wish that America would quit playing games with my heart*.

*Sorry, couldn't resist a Backstreet Boys reference.

Transphorm: Google's Investment Shows The Direction Their Bets Are Aimed

Google is making more strides in the realm of alternative energy and energy efficiency with their most recent investment into Transphorm, a company that deals in cutting edge power-converting modules.

There are plenty of bold mission statements floating around there today, but Transphorm's claim that their technology could be compared to "taking the entire West Coast off the grid" strikes me as one of the strongest claims to date.

Here is the nerdy breakdown of what this technology that I assume only 3% of you will understand/care about:

Currently, conversion modules are based on silicon, which struggles to efficiently convert power at high voltages. An estimated ten percent of energy currently generated in the U.S. is lost as electricity is converted back and forth from alternating to direct current. Mishra claims that gallium nitride can do the same conversion without wasting power.

This reduction in power-loss during transmission means that there will be less burden placed on utilities, meaning that there would be a reduction in GHGs across the board. Coupling this with the continued pursuit of more efficient products being introduced to consumers and the increased development of cleaner energy sources, it becomes easier to see big reductions in emissions in the future.

Either way, Google has been doing a good job steering America towards more sustainable solutions with their investment in the Bloom Box, the Wind Power backbone, and now Transphorm.

You can bet that I'll be paying attention to what they do next.

Gallup Poll: Highest Percentage Of Americans Interested In Alternative Energies

This morning I received an email from a regular reader concerning a recent Gallup Poll covering possible actions that Congress should pursue.

The long and short of it is that 83% of the population sampled was interested in incentivizing alternative forms of energy. This is impressive because it is the highest percentage produced from a poll that included:

• Overhauling the federal tax code (76%)
• Withdrawing from Afghanistan (72%)
• Immigration issues (43% - 55%)
• Oil exploration (non-specific average rating)

I find this interesting for a multitude of reasons, mainly because environmental issues are typically secondary to issues concerning war and tax. While I am excited at the possibility of more interest falling on energy innovation, I am curious to see how the questions were phrased and exactly who was polled (especially when they only surveyed 1,000 individuals over the phone).

Either way, I am going to not be skeptical of this poll and instead let it act as a catalyst for a good mood that I will hold on to throughout the weekend.

Electric Vehicles: The Charging Hurdle

Even though job searching and application submissions have reached a fever pitch for yours truly, I did get around to reading an interesting article on electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure that needs to be developed. The entire article can be found here, but I actually thought the most interesting part of the entire article was the comments section.

For those that read a lot of articles (or watch a lot of YouTube videos), you will know that the comments sections are typically plagued with misinformed ranting and multiple ad hominem attacks. While these are sometimes amusing to read, it is scary to think that there are actually people out there that are subscribing to these shallow points of view.

With this in mind, I was relieved to see a poster that went by the name of Garry G actually presenting interesting points of view. The most enjoyable part of this rather long commentary was when he said the following:

"I am a professional strategist w/ clients in the transportation/utility infrastructure world - and realize this is a multi-decade transition. But building fixed plug in infrastructure is a 20th century strategy to a 21st century problem. Portable fuels must be included in the EV media landscape."

I believe that this is a concept that many people are not ready to truly wrap their heads around. Most people are still trying to make EV's fit into the traditional vehicle model, which may prove to be similar to trying to pound a round peg into a square hole.

While Garry G doesn't present any concrete solutions, his comments provide readers a different way of thinking about how we should approach these issues. Even though I know the majority of people that read the article will probably not even read what he said, it was a breathe of fresh air in an otherwise hostile commentary environment.

On a not-so-related note, saying ad hominem made me think of a great Surviving The World that was just posted and I have linked to below. Enjoy!

Things That Should Be Solar Powered: Billboards

Alright, the holiday is over and it is time for me to get back at it. By "back at it" I mean "give you opinions you may not have asked for," but you are here reading what I write, so there you go.

Driving around any major city you will be inundated with ads from billboards along the major roadways.  Most of these draw electricity at some level.  At the low end you have billboards that have lights to illuminate the ads at night, and at the high end you have electronic billboards which flash animations at you in an attempt to make you crash into the read-end of that Mack Truck in front of you.

Regardless of the level of energy that these billboards require, I do believe that the owners of these billboard stands could make a profit by installing their own power sources in the form of solar panels which they could use to reduce their carbon footprint as well as the amount of money they spend on electricity.

In many cases, these billboard stand owners could actually make money by selling the energy that they aren't using back into the grid. I know that selling the electricity back into the grid is something that I have said time and time again, but it really is a great opportunity for business owners to earn money in an area they haven't enjoyed income from before.

So there you have it. Install some solar panels and thank me later, advertising industry.

Also, for all of those that emailed me yesterday complaining about the lack of a Sunday Comic:

1. How did you get my email address?
2. Here you go:

Solar Sticks Its Energy "Where The Sun Don't Shine"

One of the big complaints about solar energy is that no matter how efficient the technology becomes, there still will not be any energy being produced at night or on a particularly cloudy day.

This concern has caused a lot of research to take place on the energy storage front, and today a big step has been taken towards storing solar energy to help combat against cloudy days and the night.  The US Federal Government has signed off on another large solar power plant which will make use of liquified salt to store energy:

A 100-foot receiver filled with liquid salt will be attached to the top of the tower. The heliostats will focus the sun on the receiver, heating the salt to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. The liquefied salt flows through a steam-generating system to drive the turbine and is returned to the receiver to be heated again.

This liquified salt holds its heat for a long period of time making it a good candidate for moving the turbines during cloudy moments and during the night.

It is a good first step towards addressing the non-consistent nature of alternative energy, however, the salt solution does little to help store energy that is generated from wind energy, so I think the big goal is to find a storage solution that can be applied to to both wind and solar.

Energy Prices Predicted To Remain Relatively Stable

I'd like to wrap the week of with an article The New York Times published about the Department of Energy's new report on the future of energy prices up until 2035:

The information released on Thursday was based on what the government calls a reference case, or estimate; its report in March will also include a low case and a high case. Among the major changes from last year, it projected that the price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity in 2035 will be 9.2 cents; last year it estimated that would be 10.3 cents. The price in 2009 was 9.8 cents.

Lower electricity prices are important because as they decline, the economic argument for building nuclear reactors, wind machines or solar cells gets weaker, as does the economic argument for more energy-efficient appliances.

I do suggest that you go over an read the entire article, because there is a lot of good information outside of this small section I stole.  While my first reaction to this article was to throw up on my keyboard, there are a lot of things that this article does not address.

Though the NY Times is not-so-subtly hinting that alternative energy companies are screwed, this simply is not the case.  While future prices of energy don't look that threatening, this doesn't mean that there won't be a market for alternative energy and energy efficiency.

Many other countries outside of the United States (yes, the US is still in fact part of the rest of world) are still pursuing alternative energy at an aggressive rate.  China is a great example of this as they have become the #1 target for alternative energy investment.  Call me crazy, but I believe America would do well to try and compete within the international marketplace.

Also, lets face it, these predictions don't mean crap.  Yes they are formulated by highly educated people who would probably beat me at Scrabble, but that doesn't mean that they have a crystal ball that they can see the future in.

Mustaches! I see mustaches in my crystal ball!

Here is are two facts that are undeniable:

1. Natural resources such as oil, coal, and natural gas are finite
2. Even in more efficient manners, burning these resources produce large amounts of carbon emissions

I know that economic forces pretty much dictate anything and everything that occurs, but it does seem relatively backwards that we are still investing as much money and time into these industries that are clearly going to fail at some point.  Yes, it is near impossible to estimate the exact amount of these resources left, but this should scare the shit out of investors, not place them at ease.

Ultimately, I hope that America still provides friendly economic policies for these emerging alternative energy and energy efficiency companies, because in the long run they will be what keeps the US competitive in the world marketplace.