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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I wrote not too long ago about the huge, long-term role that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), as part of the Department of Energy, plays in supporting the development of clean energy technologies.  Their work with solar energy leader Solyndra is a perfect example of a case in which this public support made it possible for a private company to raise critically important addition capital, by preventing their initial private investors from getting scared away.  At a certain point, new (very large) rounds of cash were required to get the company to its next level.   As I recall, NREL supported this effort to the tune of over $700 million — and this robust commitment showed investors that they weren’t alone in their belief that the company was on the right track. 

But not every company that asks for money receives any at all — let alone $700 million.  So exactly how does this process work?  How fair is it? What criteria are most important?  What types of companies are favored over others, and why?  Are more mature renewables technologies, like photovoltaics (in which Solyndra plays), favored over newer ideas?  (Solyndra has a very well proven breakthrough in deployment of CIGS (copper indium gallium (di) selenide), generating a significant leap in PV efficiencies and reduction in costs).

Unfortunately, it’s not clear.  I suppose it’s not supposed to be.  Take solar thermal/CSP (concentrated solar power) as an example of a new technology.  Technologies like PV and wind have a several-decade head-start over CSP.  When I interviewed industry leader Ausra‘s founder Dr. David Mills for my book on renewables, he told me that Ausra had gotten to the second round in one of these mega-contests in which the DoE selects its favorites to back, but that they didn’t make the finals.  When I asked if he resented their decision, he — perhaps simply out of good sportsmanship and professional courtesy — said that he didn’t, and told me that he’ll simply try again another time.

I can’t count all the people who have asked us for our insights at 2GreenEnergy on this matter — and I regret that all I can turn up are anecdotal incidents like these.  I ask readers to share their own experiences with this process so that all my learn.  Thanks.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Reader Kate apparently thinks I’m hypocritical.  She writes:

Living in Santa Ynez must be really tough, getting around and all with those Bently’s and top-shelf jags/mercs and 6-digit priced horses. Pontificate on in the valley of the ultra rich.

How charming, Kate!  🙂  Let me make two quick points:

1) I drive a 16 year old car with 212K miles on it.  (I’ve sworn that my next car will be an EV.)  It’s likely that your refrigerator is worth more than my car. 

2) It’s true that there are some rich people around here.  But I believe the quest for renewables is a good deal for everyone at every socio-economic level.  It nauseates me when I read propaganda that clean energy will put more people out of work in an already-tough financial climate.  While it’s true that we’ll someday have a world without coal-miners, the net benefit in jobs in deploying renewable energy solutions and building clean transportation will be enormous.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketRe: my piece on changing attitudes to electric vehicles, guest blogger Arlene Allen writes:

I’ll roll with you on shifts in attitude. They are, however, notoriously difficult to predict. I don’t particularly give such a shift good odds when it comes to cars….I’m not yet a believer that people will come to embrace the little ducklings of our industry such as the original Insight, the Smart, i MiEV, etc. And even if such an event happens, there will be a general disgust rather than embrace…

You bring up a good point when you mention “disgust.”  I notice that some people sneer at drivers of clean little cars  — as if those of us who care about our world and the well-being of those around us are weak, pathetic, bleeding hearts.  It’s an interesting phenomenon.  And it will be more interesting to see how — or if — this dynamic changes over time. 

But speaking of dynamics, one thing that is evident to anyone who’s every driven an i-MiEV or a Mini E is that they perform like little rocketships.   The Mini E has a 200 HP motor (about the size of a basketball).  With maximum torque at zero RPM, the G-force when you hit the accelerator from a dead stop is absolutely ridiculous.  In my test-drives of both cars, I notice that this creates a kind of fun little dynamic in the minds of both drivers when my little EV blasts past a Corvette or a Porsche.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Photobucket2GreenEnergy associate Bruce Allen supports oil drilling off the coast of California as a means of cleaning up the huge amount of crude and methane that are poured into the ocean every day. But of course, this idea is counter-intuitive, insofar as most environmentalists work against the idea of any and all drilling.

Bruce is one of the world’s leading experts on this matter, as has spent a great deal of time in Washington DC, testifying in front of Congress, and speaking to large groups of interested people. Here’s a clip.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

PhotobucketI was just editing my book’s chapter on media, which features an interview with Sustainable Business’s Rona Fried, which made me think about sustainable agriculture — one of her favorite subjects. No sooner had a saved the file did I note an email from another person I respect greatly, Tom Blakeslee, discussing the same subject.

Tom writes:

I’m flying to Denver Saturday to be with Abe Collins, who is starting a company to sequester carbon by rehabilitating degraded land by grazing cattle on it. Here is the site of a charity spreading the word about the method, called holistic management. It turns out that undoing the damage man has done to the land is by far the cheapest way to sequester carbon quickly. The carbon is in the biotic community that we have poisoned with nitrogen fertilizers and other bad farming methods, particularly since the “green revolution.” They have a 3-D computerized way to guide people through the process created by Alan Savory, whose son is on the staff.

This is quite powerful stuff; I urge everyone to come up to speed on the latest technologies here. Here’s Tom’s latest column on the subject.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

If there is contract enforcement and money to do a Green Energy project in Turkey or Mali, it makes good financial sense to do it. Of course, as an American, it is more than embarrassing to have a government reluctant to act, and a system with disincentives in its corporate tax structure and patent laws. The patent law issue is separate, but it makes a lot of sense to get that law changed to promote innovation without hindrance. And the government should not use corporations to raise revenue. Corporations should simply pay those fees which compensates public action on their behalf, including infrastructure, security (including courts), and whatever environmental cleanup costs there are, if any. But these are political matters, which should not be relevant to immediate business decisions. But the current situation in the USA is that the most rational business decisions will be about projects in Turkey or Mali.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketIn addition to my work at 2GreenEnergy, I’m a partner in two companies related to electric vehicles. One is the largest website on Earth dedicated to EVs — an 11-year-old website with 225,000 unique vistors a month — EVWorld.com. I’ve very proud of the work that Bill Moore, my fine friend, has done through the years in forwarding the cause of clean transportation.

Another partnership of which I’m happy to be a part is its subsidiary, EV World Associates. I’m trying to create a video to tell our story there, the first vesrion of which you can see below. You’ll see at a glance that the images are too low-res and that it needs help in a million different directions. But I think that the basic message is clear: we’re here to serve.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu1QATNg4c0&w=425&h=344]

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

In recent times, there has been a lot of attention being given to usage of green and clean energy. The governments of different nations are bent upon adoption of green and less polluting energy options. The International Energy Agency (IEA), the European Commission (EC) and other national governments back up the economic models of energy policy decisions. In the process, they tend to ignore the risks involved such as fuel price risk, supply risk and political risk.
(more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketYesterday, I wrote a post featuring a video on our driving habits and how they’re likely to change, given our newfound spirit of environmental stewardship. It seems that more and more of us every day are ceasing to define ourselves in terms of the cars we drive, as we’re realizing that our love for the zoom and sex appeal of internal combustion engines is a selfish and shallow thing — and not a part of who we really are.

I compared this phenomenon to wearing fur coats. They feel good, they keep you warm, and they tell the world that you can afford the best. But they come at the expense of incredible cruelty to the animal kingdom. One morning a few decades ago, we woke up, smacked our palms against of collective foreheads, and decided that this was simply not acceptable behavior for civilized people.

I believe the same epiphany is right around the corner in transportation. Here’s the video.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I started to write a blog post on this subject: how our appreciation for clean energy will cause a shift in our relationships with the cars we drive.  Then I decided to make short video out of the concept. I hope it’s of some value.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfS5oSR54r4&w=425&h=344]

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