I just discovered this clean energy podcast by Tom Raftery of Spain. At about 11 minutes, in Tom makes some comments on my hydrogen article. He mostly supports my debunking of the hydrogen economy, although he does give a good example of how hydrogen creation can be useful in certain situations, such as storing excess power generation from wind production.
Ford Motor Company may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about large corporations that are committed to sustainability. After all, the company is one of the oldest and largest industrial corporations around, and produces many of the large SUVs and trucks that are at the center of the current climate controversy. So it may be surprising for some to learn that the company actually has a very extensive sustainability strategy in the works.
One of the big problems with solar power is bringing the cost down so that it is competitive with fossil fuels. This post fro Gizmodo describes a new technology which would probably make solar technology much cheaper:
“Solar poweriseverywhere at the mo, maybe because it sounds more sci-fi than wind: which is the case with this new technology that turns windows into power sources. Clever bods at MIT have worked out how to use organic dye solar-concentrator coatings to collect light over a whole sheet of glass and “concentrate” it at the edges. This lets you have a much smaller (and hence cheaper) solar-electric cell mounted in the side of a window, more easily achieved than typical mirror-based concentrators. And by tuning the dyes (originally designed for lasers and OLEDs) to different wavelengths, and stacking them up, you get an even bigger power output. Clever stuff. [Physorg]“
The potential market for energy technologies is huge.
New energy technology transitions will take decades to replace existing technologies, not the short adoption timeframes associated with typical Silicon Valley tech companies.
A new report by The Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI) suggests that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced up to 15% over “business-as-usual” by applying Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the power generation and transportation sectors.
This table is a perfect example of how to use examples of nature to make something which is both simple and complex at the same time, and inherently beautiful. While it may seem complex at first, it uses a fractal-based design to implement its complexity. Fractals are basically simple pattern which are repeated on increasingly smaller scales. Most natural and biological structures are based on fractal designs. They are also used to build the landscapes in video games without a lot of overhead.
Although whale is technically a “renewable” resource, Bardi explains that it behaved like a non-renewable resource because it was hunted at a much higher rate than it could be renewed. Even though whale oil and bone was nowhere near as crucial to 19th century life as crude oil is to 21st century life, there is a clear parallel between the pricing behavior of the two.
“Enough about the climate problem. Let’s talk climate solutions.” Thus begins the new blog by Amory Lovins on Yahoo! Green. Prepare to have your assumptions turned on their heads as the co-author of Natural Capitalism and founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute shows us how “protecting the climate is not costly but profitable.”
Mr. Lovins has done pioneering work in the field of radical resource efficiency, which he sees as the first step towards a sustainable world. This YouTube video gives a great overview of the man and his work.
Steve Puma is a sustainability and strategy consultant, technologist and writer. He lives with his wife Cori and pug dog Miles in Northern California. More...
Ford Motor Company may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about large corporations that are committed to sustainability. After all, the company is one of the oldest and largest industrial corporations around, and produces many of the large SUVs and trucks that are at the center of the current climate controversy. So it may be surprising for some to learn that the company actually has a very extensive sustainability strategy in the works.
“Enough about the climate problem. Let’s talk climate solutions.” Thus begins the 
