Energy entrepreneurs doing better than politicians....

Today's post: Wednesday, 11-11-2009

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.

And, of those the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.

While there ARE some pieces of good news in posts I did two, three, & four weeks ago that show that some political leaders are beginning to take some decent first steps towards building the energy policy we ideally should have had 40 years ago, it’s mostly too little too late.

However, given the tiny bit of help from those political leaders, there are multiple examples of energy entrepreneurs who have already begun to create our new energy economy.

Those efforts are beginning to look more and more promising.

For example, since electricity can be generated by virtually all the renewable energy sources and by nuclear reactors and by burning the more clean burning than coal natural gas, NONE of which use petroleum, it clearly would help to run our transport systems more and more on electricity rather than by burning petroleum products such as diesel fuel and gasoline.

Not only that, even if you generate electricity by burning natural gas or coal, apparently electric vehicles, that incorporate regenerative electricity generation instead of using brakes to slow down and are more efficient in other ways, actually cause less CO2 to be released than comparable vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel fuel for the same mileage driven.

So while the politicians both in the United States are mostly playing roadblock instead of making workable compromises that move in the right direction and saying we’ll only do the harder stuff if everyone else does it first and few do very much, the progress towards well done all electric cars is breathtaking and the progress on plug in hybrids that use far less petroleum is getting there.

For example, as of today, you can go to: http://www.teslamotors.com/blogs.php & see the story of a man who bought one of the Tesla Motors Roadsters.

Of course, they are priced for multi-millionaires & for the people almost that fortunate market now, a bit over $100,000.

But Tesla Motors will soon sell their model S sedan that will sell for about half that, comparable to what other more affordable and existing high end cars sell for.

And, the comments by Eric Brechner who tells about his experience with the Tesla Roadster he bought while he and his wife waited to get their model S are very promising.

In software, even from well thought of major companies, it’s not uncommon for the first version of a new release to need multiple fixes before it really becomes a decent product.

So, since the Tesla Roadster was Tesla Motors initial product, he had expected comparable glitches. Instead he found it more user-friendly and reliable and easy to maintain than the best gasoline powered car he could have found to buy.

Further, due to the simplicity of the design, that advantage in maintenance will last the life of the car when compared to the complexity of a gasoline powered car.

(He also notes that their Roadster is so much fun to drive, when the model S is available, his wife will get one and they’ll use it when they need the added passenger seats as a family car; but he will keep the Roadster to keep driving himself instead of his original plan to sell it to buy himself a second model S.)

As more and more communities have electricity provided by solar and wind and geothermal and nuclear sources and more and more people drive all electric cars and trucks and mostly electric plug-in hybrids, we will begin to use far less petroleum even without the policies to revoke the multiple incentives the oil companies now have or the added taxes and regulations on CO2 release that the politicians may not be able to pass.

So, while the progress on energy by the politicians is still too little too late, the energy entrepreneurs are beginning to solve the problem.

So, although I still hope to influence the politicians to do the right things, as in my post last week, I’m placing my hopes and expectations for success mostly with the energy entrepreneurs.