Dear Miami Greentech readers:
This week I took the liberty of compiling all the articles (that I could find) related to Greentech that appeared in the NY Times in the last week (from the 23rd to the 29th). I also included one piece of publicity that I found interesting.
Please browse them and let me know if you can find a pattern in this multidimensional web of information, or at least if you think we are moving forward towards a cleaner environment.
One interesting note about this week's articles is that there was a Special Section on "The Business of Green" on Sept 24th.
So without further ado. Here are the articles:
September 23
Chrysler Enters the Race to Introduce Electric Models
After seeming to fall behind in the race for alternative-fuel vehicles, Chrysler said on Tuesday that it would produce an electric car for sale in 2010 and follow it up with a broad lineup of battery-powered vehicles.
September 24
Amid Boom, Concerns at Small Solar Firms
Solar power is in the midst of a boom in the United States. High energy costs are one reason. But what may be more important are generous state and power company incentives and rebates, as well as tax credits that make solar systems affordable to many more people and businesses.
Solar Panels Are Vanishing, Only to Reappear on the Internet
Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves.
THE four stationary bikes look almost like any others, except that they are fitted with an arm crank and are hooked up to a generator. As riders pedal and turn the lever, the movement creates a current that flows to a battery pack. They generate an average of 200 watts, enough to run the stereo, a 37-inch L.C.D. television and a laptop for an hour at this new gym in Portland, Ore.
Saving the Earth, One Road Race at a Time
Race organizers are working to reduce the amount of waste produced at their races.
While competing in a half Ironman triathlon two years ago, Bruce Raynor had an epiphany: this event, so rooted in strength and good health, was actually polluting the planet. This led Mr. Raynor to create Athletes for a Fit Planet, which helps races become a bit greener by installing recycling bins, ridding themselves of plastic bags and offsetting carbon emissions
A Building That Blooms and Grows, Balancing Nature and Civilization
In the California Academy of Sciences an exhibit of architecture under the motto: “humanity is only one part of an endlessly complex universal system”
SPECIAL SECTION: BUSINESS OF GREEN - Sep 24
On Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, a futuristic experiment posing as an ordinary fuel station may be bringing the world one step closer to the hydrogen age.
What should come first — the fuel-cell car or the hydrogen pump? Automakers and oil companies answer is to introduce both cars and new fuel stations, clustering them in urban centers like Los Angeles, Berlin and Tokyo.
Shell’s Santa Monica Boulevard station is part of this strategy. So is Honda’s decision to lease about 200 of its newly developed FCX Clarity cars over the next three years to selected customers in Southern California.
Coal, the “dark fuel,” may be the most visible villain of global warming, but its use is up and projected to go higher. In fact, the demand for coal is rising faster than the supply. So is the demand for oil.
Cleaner sources of fuel remain more expensive, less available and in shorter supply than an old standby.
Solar Projects Draw New Opposition
WHAT’S not to like about solar power? Sunlight is clean, quiet and abundant. If enough of it were harnessed and turned into electricity, it could be the solution to the energy crisis. But surprisingly, solar power projects are running into mounting opposition — and not from hard-nosed, coal-fired naysayers, but from environmentalists.
The opposition is particularly strong in Southern California. Aside from abundant sunshine and virtually cloudless skies, the California desert has altitude, so there is less atmospheric interference for the sun’s rays, as well as broad swaths of level land for installing equipment, and proximity to large, electricity-hungry cities. But it is also home to the Mojave ground squirrel, the desert tortoise and the burrowing owl, and to human residents who describe themselves as desert survivors
The Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy, an environmental group in Joshua Tree, said: “Our position is that none of this is needed. We support renewable energy, and we support California’s renewable energy targets, but we think it can be done through rooftop solar.”
Reclaiming His Place in the Sun
Arnold J. Goldman, once the world’s undisputed sun king, is back in business with a new company focusing on more efficient solar energy plants.
In 1989, Arnold J. Goldman was the world’s undisputed sun king. His realm was a desolate patch of the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, where his company, Luz International, created the world’s largest solar energy installation. At the time, Luz’s plants generated roughly 90 percent of the solar energy on the planet.
Two years later, his reign was over, done in by an uninterested public. While the solar field that Luz built for Southern California Edison still runs today, the company went kaput, unable to compete profitably with the lower costs of companies producing electricity from traditional sources.
After 20 years wandering outside the desert, he is back, with a reconstituted company and a contract from Pacific Gas and Electric Company to purchase up to 900 megawatts of power while creating more efficient solar plants at Ivanpah, Calif., on the Nevada border.
A Cautious Approach to Nuclear Power
Nuclear power plants might seem like part of the solution to global warming, but few reactors are likely to be built soon.
With the federal government offering the nuclear industry $18.5 billion in loan guarantees and billions more in production tax credits and insurance against bureaucratic delays, at least a few new reactors seem certain to be built.
But reactors, it turns out, are not at the top of the list for stopping global warming, at least in the United States, at least not any time soon.
Among the issues are the cost of nuclear power, fears about safety and questions about how to dispose of waste.
Electricity From What Cows Leave Behind
For years, the cows at Green Mountain Dairy here produced only milk and manure. But recently they have generated something else: electricity.
The farm is part of a growing alternative energy program that converts the methane gas from cow manure into electricity that is sold to the power utility’s grid.
The Home Energy Audit Gets an Upgrade
Fuel costs and a drop in the price of special cameras that show where heat escapes from buildings have created a new market for energy auditors.
Kept Out of Landfills and Reborn as a Bag
TerraCycle makes tote bags, pencil cases and other products from juice boxes and candy wrappers, then sells them at some of the country’s biggest retailers.
Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is aiming to make billions by collecting used plastic bags, juice pouches, cookie wrappers and other items that cannot be recycled and fusing them into everyday items like tote bags, pencil cases and messenger bags to be sold at some of the country’s biggest retailers.
September 25
General Motors’ New Plant Will Build Smaller, Fuel-Sipping Engines
General Motors said Thursday that it intended to double its production of gas-sipping, four-cylinder engines by 2011.
To do so, G.M. said that it would invest $370 million in a plant to build its most fuel-efficient engines ever. The factory will open in 2010 and make 1.4-liter engines for two compact cars scheduled to go on sale late that year: the Chevrolet Cruze, which is expected to get about 45 miles a gallon in highway driving, and the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in vehicle whose engine will start after the battery is depleted.
Europe Toughens Its Auto Emissions Plan
European Union lawmakers proposed tougher-than-expected emissions goals for car makers, dealing a blow to the German automobile industry.
The bill would be the first legally binding carbon emission standard ever for new cars in Europe.
September 26
Nothing to report
September 27
Nothing to report
September 28
Nothing to report
September 29
Last December, Congress passed a useful energy bill that ratcheted up fuel economy standards for the first time in decades. That seems a long, long time ago. Since then, Congress has gone steadily and sadly backward on energy policy.
Progress on fuel economy standards will remain stalled unless the Senate overcomes its partisan divide over the issue.
PUBLICITY
AFS Trinity Power has developed patent-pending technology that makes it possible for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to achieve 150 MPG, go 40 miles in all-electric mode, and use gasoline for additional unlimited miles in hybrid mode.
To those of you who celebrated the new year this week:
SHANA TOVAH!
Posts
4 comments:
Thanks Sami, this is a great set of articles!
Nick: Glad you enjoyed it!
I received this comment from a reader in my LinkedIn message board and I believe is worth reading:
******* Shayne Peitsch wrote:
Okay, let's go over the stories one by one first:
Chrysler: No way. They're too big, too slow to make a move into electric cars now, unless they've been developing in stealth. The other biggies who have been working on electric have been doing so, and announcing now just seems like catch-up. I say watch for Tesla to merge with one of the big players in the next 2-3 years.
Solar boom: Contractors and installers does not create a utility market! It blows my mind that this is how the solar market is growing, especially when the housing market is crashing like the falling glass bull that it is. Solar has the ability to put real, tangible value into homes, but developing an industry of this size that's based off of rebates and tax deductions is too many, too soon. I hope that the size of the industry allows for the small guys to band together to pull their weight and keep their rebates through sheer force, but the industry needs to scale. Big, corporate players have to be introduced, to provide the small guys their niche. The proof? 98% of the installers are in the states that have rebates. This statement sums it up:
“I think the perception is that you have to always throw money at this industry,” he said. “The incentive should be a crutch to help the industry grow until the crutch is no longer needed.”
Panel Theft: Agree with Tom McCalmont, install cameras. You wouldn't leave a $30-50k car unlocked on the street, right? This type of stuff is expected in recessions. Just hope every panel has a serial number. Makes me think, though, about what will happen when energy prices spike after oil has peaked, and we've pushed solar to the point of enough saturation that panels are everywhere? Interesting.
Bike Power: Interesting concept, one which I posed to a physicist a few years back. He said that this wouldn't be feasible, as the energy created is minimal, but this kind of proves him wrong. Interesting business idea, too: someone should combine all the ideas, and either pitch it to a major fitness franchiser, or start out on their own. This can only be effective if it leaves no other choice, otherwise these gyms are just attracting the same people who are living a green lifestyle anyways. It's not the bikers who need to be green, it's the people who drive up to the gym with their water bottles handy. Green lifesytlist news always leaves me weary, as I fail to see the deep, systemic changes that are needed, leaving only a news story about a fad.
(I've now noticed how many articles you've posted, and will thus adjust my response accordingly!)
Road race: Once again, lifestyle environmentalism that reeks of preaching to the converted. But, good effort all around.
Bloom Building; Whoa. I always love the concepts that come out of ultra-green homes like this. My only question is, what's the practical use?
Pumping Hydrogen: Beautiful idea, hope it's successful. Build both together at the same time, in urban areas - a very good idea. Also lends itself to linking urban centers together via rail, kind of like Europe. The era of personal transportation for long distances seems destined to come to an end, and there can be so much innovation and economic development through this plan, that I can do nothing besides support it.
Coal: “Demand for electricity is increasing, and there are really no alternatives.” What a load of crap. Coal is the greatest threat we have, and the billions being poured into it's defense is abominable. "Clean Coal" is even worse, and is the epitome of how we're talking the talk, but riding our gas guzzlers instead of doing the corresponding walk.
Solar Project Opposition: Owning a solar company, I can attest first hand about these environmentalists. They see any business as big business, and find it evil. Therefore, squirrels are endangered, and we must oppose solar. Wind turbines kill birds, thus we must oppose wind. Pick your battles, folks, otherwise we'll lose the forest for the trees.
Arnold J. Goldman: Good to see someone who has learned the harsh lessons from the '90s is back. Hope he brings some wisdom to the table.
Nuclear Power: The article hits it right, the two big questions are cost, and waste. Why focus on nuclear when it has these two major problems, when we could combine our efforts and focus on solar, which has only one (cost) of the two, thus eliminating one problem altogether, while having more resources to tackle the second? Seems elementary to me. Plus, not a big fan of nuclear waste and the potential danger. Some things simply have to be considered too dangerous, and thus off limits in a sane world.
Bovine Electricity: Good idea for farmers. My only question is, can what is left still be used for fertilizer? I grew up on a dairy farm, and we made a lot of money from cow manure being utilized for gardens. One source generating two streams of income would be fantastic.
Home Energy Auditors: I wish this much thought and effort went into design concepts 50 years ago, but alas here we are. Solar windows seems to be a big advantage, and all new home design should be required to incorporate this design. I like how in Canada we're giving rebates for these types of inspections, and I hope more people upgrade their homes, because this could have a significant impact and is sellable, because it pays for itself fast.
Terracycle: Sounds like a smart company. I know everyone complains about the true environmental effects of the energy consumption of the recycling process, but I like the idea. I used to work for a company that recycled tires into construction products, and the impact was significant.
General Motors: Once again, a biggie who is trying to get into the act and might be a little too late. Reducing gas consumption simple aggravates the problem and draws it out. Not a real solution for the public, but keeps them in the running a little while longer.
European emission standards: Good luck fighting the German auto industry.
One More Chance: "One reason is the bitter partisan divide, especially in the Senate." Read: the Republicans are being very stupid about this. It's in no one's interests, including the car companies, to keep the U.S. in the 19th century regarding emissions standards. I don't care about your ideological stance, but being a world leader is important and the U.S and Canada are not living up to this. We're going to look very, very stupid when India and China get in on the act, which they will, due to European back room pressure.
If there's a single thread that unites these stories, it's that people in general understand that we need a greener world, and that public policy is not matching up to this desire. I also see huge opportunities for green business, a green economy and green jobs. A green explosion could happen, just needs leaders who understand traditional economic and business theory to step up. Government surely is not!
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Another comment from LinkedIn:
On 10/2/08 9:53 AM, Jeff M. Grebe P.E. wrote:
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As an energy professional for 30 years and a survivor of the first solar boom during the 70's, I found the article about "trouble for the small solar firms" the most insightful. Hope you don't mind a few thoughts.
First, I HAVE seen more interest and concern about energy issues, environmental issues and renewable energy than at any time in my career. Unfortunately, as usual, we are making the same mistakes. - which your articles clearly point out. As Americans, it seems we are always looking for a supply side solution, as opposed to a demand side solution. We ignore conservation and the fact that our current lifestyle is wasteful and unsustainable, but try to promote un-economical supply side solutions (ethanol, currrent technology solar PV, etc) to meet the demand, when the best solution is to reduce the demand.
I install solar, and believe in the technology, but creating an artificial boom with massive subsidies, and installing solar on the typical energy "pigs" that we are building, is the best way to kill the industry AGAIN.
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Comment to Mr. Grebe:
I couldn't agree with you more about reducing our energy dependence as being the single best option for reducing our energy use and cutting our combined carbon emissions.
Solar power economics demand less energy use. Installing panels on "pigs," as you call it, is not a feasible industry with sustainable growth. There is simply no connection with reality, just a convenient subsidy that will aggravate the problems the pig owners are facing with the housing crisis.
There is an industry for combining solar installations with the new construction industry. Solar power provides real, tangible value creation to a new home. If you're buying your first home and it's energy efficient, uses sustainable materials and it produces its own energy (or a vast majority of it), having that one less bill pays for the solar installation, and you have a home that will not drop in value the ways the giant, uninspired quick-builds have. If I owned a solar installation company, I would partner with a new build residential construction company and a green design firm, and combine our areas of expertise to build homes that have value. That is an answer to the housing crisis more poignant, more sustainable than what we're seeing with the bailout.
I have been in the solar world for a few years now (minutes to your years, by comparison), and despite my lesser experience I have seen that the subsidy issue with solar attracts the wrong people to the industry. Companies that move from market to market, following the subsidies are not laying down the foundations for a sustainable industry, and while this is tragic, I don't see exactly the same parallels with the market back in the 70s-90s. The difference is the growing energy crisis.
Once again, if I owned a solar installation company I wouldn't follow the subsidies, I would follow progressive social and economic policy. Go where the economy is stronger, and people have money to buy houses (though in these times one doesn't come to mind in the U.S.), and support solar for the economic, environmental and practical purposes, and set up shop. I wouldn't even think about the subsidies, because solar can work - in residential and commercial energy efficient new builds.
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