There are so many ways in which the migration to renewable energy improves people’s lives. I’ve often written about what I consider to be the biggest single bang for the buck in terms of social betterment: bringing rural electrification to people in the developing countries, dramatically improving local folks’ prospects for education. (more…)
I can’t say enough about the people who work in entry-level positions at the iconic ad agency Ogilvy and Mather. They work hard, they’re fabulously bright, and they’re profoundly respectful. One in particular (whom I won’t identify) and I have forged something of a friendship during her tenure at O&M, in her service of their mega-client, Ford Motor Company. She asked me to write something about Ford’s press release the other day, and, with these keystrokes, I’m doing precisely that.
It seems that recently: (more…)
I spoke with the author of this piece on OTEC and carbon sequestration for almost an hour the other night. But, though OTEC does indeed have the potential to aid in sequestering CO2, this is not really straightforward.
The hot layer at the top of a tropical ocean tends to lock the mineral/nutrient-rich water below a thermocline, i.e., a thermal “front” or boundary. (more…)
It’s always nice to hear about breakthroughs that bring us closer to the point at which energy storage solutions are cost-effective and problem-free. Here’s an article on an exciting new technology coming out of Cornell University to address what has been a thorny problem with the lithium ion batteries, i.e., the formation of dendrites.
Pictured here is the battery pack for the new BMW i3.
Because I live in the U.S., and I’m most familiar with the goings on here, most of my posts concern the migration to renewable energy, albeit painfully slow, that’s occurring within my country’s borders. There are a few main reasons why the rest of the world is making this happen far faster than we Americans are: (more…)
I recently came across the work of Dr. Alex Cannara, an extremely senior engineer based in Northern California, while I was writing a few comments onto blog posts published on Renewable Energy World. Dr. Cannara is one of the foremost experts on ocean acidification, one of the scariest types of environmental degradation that is occurring due to humankind’s increasing dependence on fossil fuels.
The average pH of the oceans is 8.1 now, down from an historical average of 8.2 that had been steady for hundreds of millions of years until the dawn of the industrial age. (more…)
In the years I’ve functioned as a member of the Clean Business Investment Summit advisory board, I’ve had some terrific experiences helping cleantech entrepreneurs (not unlike ours here at 2GreenEnergy) prepare themselves to do their best when they make their presentations to a room full of angel investors and VCs. Yesterday’s “mentoring session” came off without a hitch, and was quite stimulating in terms of new ideas and discussions with incredibly bright people. (more…)
I try to keep track of the major ways of extracting energy from ocean waves, one of the front runners of which is the Pelamis, a long, multi-segmented tube that changes shape, creating hydraulic pressure, as the waves pass beneath it. The device takes advantage of both the waves’ up/down and lateral motion, and, at its best, minimizes the amount of mass necessary to have distinct pieces that move separate from one another.
Can this stuff compete on a cost/watt basis as renewable energy matures? Developers are bullish, but I’m not 100% convinced. Success may lie in a hybrid solution that combines different methods of extracting that energy, one of which is listed as one of our renewable energy investment opportunities.
Our over-dependence on oil can’t last forever. Either we as a species will start finding alternatives on our own or the dwindling supply of oil will force us to. Here are a few of the things you can expect if the oil runs out. (more…)
The future of motoring is ever changing. Majority of car manufacturers today have come up with their own brand and version of energy efficient or hybrid vehicles that are becoming more popular among the masses. Now, depending on the manufacturer, energy efficiency can have a number of different connotations. (more…)
