Several kinds of good news on solar....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-27-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Several kinds of good news on solar....
1. For years now, the Germans have done the world’s best job on adding solar capacity. And they are now out to double that to help replace using even less nuclear power.
2. As we posted on last week, China is beginning to add significant solar capacity & the CEO we posted on then of Suntech Solar said that China was on its way to becoming one of the two largest solar markets.
3. He also said that the United States is also on its way to becoming one of the two largest solar markets.
For example, in California, where there is lots of sun, a lot of innovation driven companies, and a lot of voters who value renewable energy, three good things are happening.
Now that no upfront money needed financing is available to add solar, the number of homeowners adding solar to their homes has already about doubled since before that happened.
Solar City and Sungevity are two of the strongest players in that market; but there are many more.
Second and third, California Governor, Jerry Brown just announced a plan to also add about 12% of the state’s future electricity in medium to small sized solar locations near existing transmission lines (and near where people will use the electricity are living.) Nanosolar is a thin film solar company specializing in serving this market at lowest cost and fastest deployment. They have already been installing such systems in Germany.
The other part of his plan is to add large solar farms both photovoltaic and thermal in locations where there is room to put them and lots of sun to add another 10% of the states future electricity. Many of those projects also got federal support and are already being built.
There are three pieces of good news in this.
California is a state that because of its innovations is often copied by other states when the innovations work.
The cash going into solar companies that supply California will cause them to grow and gradually drive prices down so the day is near when solar is one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity per watt.
And, since almost all of Mexico has multiple times the solar potential of the sunniest part of California, Mexico will begin to copy California and initially buy from solar companies in the United States.
4. Many major corporations in the world are also increasing their investment in solar products.
Just this week DuPont bought Innovalight, a Silicon Valley company, that makes specialty inks that can increase the electricity produced in a solar cell or installation in a given area.
I also heard an ad on the radio a few days ago sponsored by Sharp Solar, a Japanese technology company. They were advertising adding their panels with a solar lease program to the people in our area.
Applied Materials in the United States is a large technology company in the Silicon Valley and already has millions of dollars a year in sales from its thin film solar related products.
5. And, this is the tip of the iceberg. The events I’m reporting here may be as little as a ninth or tenth of what is happening in real solar progress that I haven’t yet learned about.
Global warming related costs are already going up and the world wide recession and rising health care costs are still with us.
But in solar, there is increasingly good news!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Positive comments from a world class solar CEO....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-20-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Positive comments from a world class solar CEO....
Suntech Power is one of the largest solar companies in the world. Its CEO and founder, Mr. Zengrong Shi is a world class CEO and entrepreneur.
As his name suggests, he and Suntech are from China. (His quotes appeared yesterday in the San Jose Mercury News.)
They have cut the cost per watt of solar cells from $6 per watt to about $1.60. “This is all manufacturing innovation….along the supply chain.” “…it is not revolutionary. It looks more incremental, but it is very effective.”
He is visiting the Silicon Valley which he does about every month and a half to also check out innovations and new technology or potential joint venture partners here.
He said, “There is a lot of R&D activity going on in the Silicon Valley. Results are encouraging. But we need to see a viable commercial solution because with solar we are talking about scale, costs, and reliability.”
So far, the largest market in the world is in Europe and Germany in particular. But Shi thinks that will change. “In the future, the Chinese and American market will be the major markets.”
He also said that if a company drives the cost down and the solar panels are “cheaper, the market is bigger.”
He also said that “The installation of one megawatt of electricity….creates 35 jobs, most of them locally.”
“From that perspective, protectionism is not a winning policy.”
When the United States was often building the best and most innovative products, we felt the same way.
But he has an added point that local jobs are created no matter who provides the solar panels.
But there are still other reasons for not being protectionist against superior or as good but cheaper products from outside the United States in the areas of renewable energy.
1. The need for more and affordable sources of renewable energy is huge. If we do get a lot more, our economy will expand instead of shrink and there will be more jobs.
It’s hard to understate how important that is. When effective energy use goes up the economy grows. Recently, when the cost of gasoline shot up, it became one of the two triggers of our current recession.
Putting up protectionist barriers in renewable energy fields will reliably remove more jobs than it adds!
2. Here in the United States, we also have a second traditional competitive advantage that is still intact. Even if things are not invented here or made here, if they do a good job where there is demand for them, we tend to be the best in the world at selling them. The money from doing so ALSO creates jobs.
So, if protectionism cuts our access to the best products to sell or makes them cost more, that too decreases jobs.
So, I like the way Mr. Shi thinks. He understands exactly what the worldwide market needs from the solar industry. And I sincerely hope his optimistic forecast about China and the United States becoming the biggest solar markets comes to pass.
I think he is a world class CEO. And we would do well to emulate him instead of throwing roadblocks in his path.
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-20-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Positive comments from a world class solar CEO....
Suntech Power is one of the largest solar companies in the world. Its CEO and founder, Mr. Zengrong Shi is a world class CEO and entrepreneur.
As his name suggests, he and Suntech are from China. (His quotes appeared yesterday in the San Jose Mercury News.)
They have cut the cost per watt of solar cells from $6 per watt to about $1.60. “This is all manufacturing innovation….along the supply chain.” “…it is not revolutionary. It looks more incremental, but it is very effective.”
He is visiting the Silicon Valley which he does about every month and a half to also check out innovations and new technology or potential joint venture partners here.
He said, “There is a lot of R&D activity going on in the Silicon Valley. Results are encouraging. But we need to see a viable commercial solution because with solar we are talking about scale, costs, and reliability.”
So far, the largest market in the world is in Europe and Germany in particular. But Shi thinks that will change. “In the future, the Chinese and American market will be the major markets.”
He also said that if a company drives the cost down and the solar panels are “cheaper, the market is bigger.”
He also said that “The installation of one megawatt of electricity….creates 35 jobs, most of them locally.”
“From that perspective, protectionism is not a winning policy.”
When the United States was often building the best and most innovative products, we felt the same way.
But he has an added point that local jobs are created no matter who provides the solar panels.
But there are still other reasons for not being protectionist against superior or as good but cheaper products from outside the United States in the areas of renewable energy.
1. The need for more and affordable sources of renewable energy is huge. If we do get a lot more, our economy will expand instead of shrink and there will be more jobs.
It’s hard to understate how important that is. When effective energy use goes up the economy grows. Recently, when the cost of gasoline shot up, it became one of the two triggers of our current recession.
Putting up protectionist barriers in renewable energy fields will reliably remove more jobs than it adds!
2. Here in the United States, we also have a second traditional competitive advantage that is still intact. Even if things are not invented here or made here, if they do a good job where there is demand for them, we tend to be the best in the world at selling them. The money from doing so ALSO creates jobs.
So, if protectionism cuts our access to the best products to sell or makes them cost more, that too decreases jobs.
So, I like the way Mr. Shi thinks. He understands exactly what the worldwide market needs from the solar industry. And I sincerely hope his optimistic forecast about China and the United States becoming the biggest solar markets comes to pass.
I think he is a world class CEO. And we would do well to emulate him instead of throwing roadblocks in his path.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Lower your summer AC bills with Lowe’s Home Improvement....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-13-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Lower your summer AC bills with Lowe’s Home Improvement....
(See our post: Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways….Wednesday, 6-22-2010 for why to do the things listed and more details.)
The summary:
1. You can dramatically cut the heat going into your house so that you have to pay far less to pump it out.
a) You can add regular insulation &/or buy radiant barrier insulation with styrofoam backing as little as one fourth inch thick at Lowes.
(Doing it both ways to also reflect heat back in the winter can be just a bit over a half inch thick and save on your heating bills too.) This does a good job of preventing the radiant heat from the sun from getting into your house.
b) You can add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling AND add convection powered roof turbines.
That way you stop having the space between your roof and ceiling as a solar heater with air between 160 & over 200 degree still air.
Instead, that air is just a few degrees warmer than the outside air because the extra heat leaves out of the spinning roof turbines. The air between your roof and ceiling can be 100 degrees when it’s 95 and sunny instead of 185! Even better, when the day gets later and when the sun goes down it can be 70 degrees there when it’s 70 outside instead of 170!
c) You can install ceiling fans in the rooms you spend the most time in. And, if mounted in the ceiling instead of hanging down, they don’t wobble all over as the hanging ones do.
Even on a moderately low and quiet setting, they cut the perceived temperature by about 5 degrees. You can set your AC for 75 degrees and with the ceiling fans it feels like 70. And if your utility wants you to set your AC to 78 on the hottest days, it will still feel like 73 with ceiling fans.
I just checked. Lowes sells the sheets of styrofoam backed radiant heat barrier insulation and the roof turbines.
But Lowes does NOT arrange installation of the roof turbines that leaves your roof watertight nor do they arrange for a contractor to add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling.
With the interior ceiling fans they provide both the ceiling fans and a local installer. (That local installer is prohibited though by contract from doing other work for you. So the other work has to be from a different contractor or two.)
d) You can also install more regular insulation if you have little or none now. And, you can install all double pane windows if you don’t already have them. Pella, Anderson, and Marvin all make good double pane windows. Marvin I think is the only one that offers wood both inside and out if you prefer that.
Once you have this heat proofing in place, you may well be able to cut 70 to 100 % on your AC bill. And, in most places hot nights after hot days will be a memory!
(We only had gotten to the added entry ports and roof fans plus ceiling fans. We hadn’t gotten yet to the double pane windows and radiant barrier insulation and more regular insulation.
On a day that was 95 degrees outside before, it would be about 85 degrees inside from 3 PM to 3 AM inside.
But after just adding the roof turbine system and the ceiling fans it was 75 degrees inside and felt fine with the ceiling fans. Then at night it dropped to below 70 inside.
If we had had AC, our bill would have dropped to zero since we would never have turned it on.)
In locations that get hotter than 95 and stay above 75 degrees at night, AC would still have been needed. But you begin to get the idea from our experience how much less you’d need to run it and pay the bill for.
2. You can also add solar panels to make extra electricity at your home. If you heat proof first, you may find your summer AC bill drops to zero since the solar panels provide enough for what you use in hot, sunny weather.
It’s not rolled out to all the Lowe’s stores yet. But you can work from your local store once it is to get accurate solar bids from your location and the satellite view of it AND a lease so you don’t need a lot of money upfront to have solar panels added.
In some cases the lease payment will be less than the savings on your AC bill!
Sungevity is the company that is partnering with Lowe’s to provide this.
3. If on days you do need AC, if you lower your inside temperature to 68 degrees in the morning and you have done this heat proofing, you get several benefits.
The outside air at that hour of the morning is coolest. So the AC is most efficient and produces cooler temperatures using less electricity. Even better, the rates at that time of day are lowest due to low demand.
It will stay cool inside your house so it will be comfortable to be in during the day and it will be cool at night so you can sleep in cool temperatures.
If after doing this you then set the AC to 75, it will only go on AT ALL on the very hottest days.
By combining these steps you can drop a several hundred dollar month bill for electricity to run your AC to less than $50 or even zero!
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-13-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Lower your summer AC bills with Lowe’s Home Improvement....
(See our post: Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways….Wednesday, 6-22-2010 for why to do the things listed and more details.)
The summary:
1. You can dramatically cut the heat going into your house so that you have to pay far less to pump it out.
a) You can add regular insulation &/or buy radiant barrier insulation with styrofoam backing as little as one fourth inch thick at Lowes.
(Doing it both ways to also reflect heat back in the winter can be just a bit over a half inch thick and save on your heating bills too.) This does a good job of preventing the radiant heat from the sun from getting into your house.
b) You can add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling AND add convection powered roof turbines.
That way you stop having the space between your roof and ceiling as a solar heater with air between 160 & over 200 degree still air.
Instead, that air is just a few degrees warmer than the outside air because the extra heat leaves out of the spinning roof turbines. The air between your roof and ceiling can be 100 degrees when it’s 95 and sunny instead of 185! Even better, when the day gets later and when the sun goes down it can be 70 degrees there when it’s 70 outside instead of 170!
c) You can install ceiling fans in the rooms you spend the most time in. And, if mounted in the ceiling instead of hanging down, they don’t wobble all over as the hanging ones do.
Even on a moderately low and quiet setting, they cut the perceived temperature by about 5 degrees. You can set your AC for 75 degrees and with the ceiling fans it feels like 70. And if your utility wants you to set your AC to 78 on the hottest days, it will still feel like 73 with ceiling fans.
I just checked. Lowes sells the sheets of styrofoam backed radiant heat barrier insulation and the roof turbines.
But Lowes does NOT arrange installation of the roof turbines that leaves your roof watertight nor do they arrange for a contractor to add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling.
With the interior ceiling fans they provide both the ceiling fans and a local installer. (That local installer is prohibited though by contract from doing other work for you. So the other work has to be from a different contractor or two.)
d) You can also install more regular insulation if you have little or none now. And, you can install all double pane windows if you don’t already have them. Pella, Anderson, and Marvin all make good double pane windows. Marvin I think is the only one that offers wood both inside and out if you prefer that.
Once you have this heat proofing in place, you may well be able to cut 70 to 100 % on your AC bill. And, in most places hot nights after hot days will be a memory!
(We only had gotten to the added entry ports and roof fans plus ceiling fans. We hadn’t gotten yet to the double pane windows and radiant barrier insulation and more regular insulation.
On a day that was 95 degrees outside before, it would be about 85 degrees inside from 3 PM to 3 AM inside.
But after just adding the roof turbine system and the ceiling fans it was 75 degrees inside and felt fine with the ceiling fans. Then at night it dropped to below 70 inside.
If we had had AC, our bill would have dropped to zero since we would never have turned it on.)
In locations that get hotter than 95 and stay above 75 degrees at night, AC would still have been needed. But you begin to get the idea from our experience how much less you’d need to run it and pay the bill for.
2. You can also add solar panels to make extra electricity at your home. If you heat proof first, you may find your summer AC bill drops to zero since the solar panels provide enough for what you use in hot, sunny weather.
It’s not rolled out to all the Lowe’s stores yet. But you can work from your local store once it is to get accurate solar bids from your location and the satellite view of it AND a lease so you don’t need a lot of money upfront to have solar panels added.
In some cases the lease payment will be less than the savings on your AC bill!
Sungevity is the company that is partnering with Lowe’s to provide this.
3. If on days you do need AC, if you lower your inside temperature to 68 degrees in the morning and you have done this heat proofing, you get several benefits.
The outside air at that hour of the morning is coolest. So the AC is most efficient and produces cooler temperatures using less electricity. Even better, the rates at that time of day are lowest due to low demand.
It will stay cool inside your house so it will be comfortable to be in during the day and it will be cool at night so you can sleep in cool temperatures.
If after doing this you then set the AC to 75, it will only go on AT ALL on the very hottest days.
By combining these steps you can drop a several hundred dollar month bill for electricity to run your AC to less than $50 or even zero!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Google research report shows clean energy adds jobs and grows the economy....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-6-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Google research report shows clean energy adds jobs and grows the economy....
See the full report at:
http://leadenergy.org/2011/06/google-energy-innovation-offers-transformative-impact/
Here’s the key summary:
“Achieving breakthroughs in energy technology could have a “transformative impact” on United States, offering major benefits for economic growth, job creation, lower energy costs for American families, and reduced oil consumption and carbon emissions. By 2030, the economic analysis finds that key energy innovations alone could provide the following benefits over business-as-usual:
Grow the US economy by over $155 billion in GDP/year
Create over 1.1 million new net jobs
Save US consumers over $942/household/year
Reduce US oil consumption by over 1.1 billion barrels/year
Reduce US total greenhouse gas emissions by 13%.”
Research on such technology is a first priority based on this analysis. So, is using the clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
1. Such research has some support even from conservative groups:
"...there’s one tried and true method for the federal government to drive breakthroughs in technology: major investment in research and development.
That’s why a growing bipartisan group of think tanks and business leaders — including groups like the American Energy Innovation Council, American Enterprise Institute, Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Institution, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Association of American Universities, Third Way, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, New England Clean Energy Council, and many others — have been calling on the federal government to increase its investment in advanced energy research and development from approximately $3 billion to $15 billion per year.
As David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times last fall, “To put it another way, the death of cap and trade doesn’t have to mean the death of climate policy. The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives — most of whom opposed cap and trade.”
One of Google’s key executives invested in a company working on battery technology enabling more electricity to be stored in a given size or weight of batteries.
(The report describes the importance of such technology well: “Breakthroughs in electric vehicle (EV) batteries could be transformative: cheaper and denser battery technology could enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and unlock much of the potential economic benefits. The report notes, “This leads to EVs, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PHEV) achieving 90% market share for light duty vehicle sales, reducing oil consumption by 1.1 billion barrels per year by 2030 -- or more than Canada’s entire 2009 oil production.”
2. Google also has invested in expanding the use of clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
They have helped back solar thermal and solar photovoltaic large scale “farms” to produce clean electricity on a large scale.
They have supported a program to allow homeowners to install solar photovoltaic panels at no money down. (In some cases the savings on the energy bills of homeowners will start out being less than the payment for their solar system in the first year!)
And, Google has supported a major project to build more wind generated electricity.
Here’s my comment on this report:
“Very, very well done.
I most liked this part: "The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives most of whom opposed cap and trade."
That potentially makes it politically doable.
I also like that the analysis says this policy will add jobs, add GDP, and save people money. Most people support those things. That too makes it doable politically.
That’s in addition to the reduction of our extremely dangerous dependence on the fossil fuels we are using up faster and faster.
And it’s in addition to halting excess CO2 release. That’s less salable now; but it is just as true and important.
Thanks much to Google and its key people for helping make this happen in so many ways.”
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-6-2010
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. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
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.
Today’s post:
Google research report shows clean energy adds jobs and grows the economy....
See the full report at:
http://leadenergy.org/2011/06/google-energy-innovation-offers-transformative-impact/
Here’s the key summary:
“Achieving breakthroughs in energy technology could have a “transformative impact” on United States, offering major benefits for economic growth, job creation, lower energy costs for American families, and reduced oil consumption and carbon emissions. By 2030, the economic analysis finds that key energy innovations alone could provide the following benefits over business-as-usual:
Grow the US economy by over $155 billion in GDP/year
Create over 1.1 million new net jobs
Save US consumers over $942/household/year
Reduce US oil consumption by over 1.1 billion barrels/year
Reduce US total greenhouse gas emissions by 13%.”
Research on such technology is a first priority based on this analysis. So, is using the clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
1. Such research has some support even from conservative groups:
"...there’s one tried and true method for the federal government to drive breakthroughs in technology: major investment in research and development.
That’s why a growing bipartisan group of think tanks and business leaders — including groups like the American Energy Innovation Council, American Enterprise Institute, Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Institution, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Association of American Universities, Third Way, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, New England Clean Energy Council, and many others — have been calling on the federal government to increase its investment in advanced energy research and development from approximately $3 billion to $15 billion per year.
As David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times last fall, “To put it another way, the death of cap and trade doesn’t have to mean the death of climate policy. The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives — most of whom opposed cap and trade.”
One of Google’s key executives invested in a company working on battery technology enabling more electricity to be stored in a given size or weight of batteries.
(The report describes the importance of such technology well: “Breakthroughs in electric vehicle (EV) batteries could be transformative: cheaper and denser battery technology could enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and unlock much of the potential economic benefits. The report notes, “This leads to EVs, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PHEV) achieving 90% market share for light duty vehicle sales, reducing oil consumption by 1.1 billion barrels per year by 2030 -- or more than Canada’s entire 2009 oil production.”
2. Google also has invested in expanding the use of clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
They have helped back solar thermal and solar photovoltaic large scale “farms” to produce clean electricity on a large scale.
They have supported a program to allow homeowners to install solar photovoltaic panels at no money down. (In some cases the savings on the energy bills of homeowners will start out being less than the payment for their solar system in the first year!)
And, Google has supported a major project to build more wind generated electricity.
Here’s my comment on this report:
“Very, very well done.
I most liked this part: "The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives most of whom opposed cap and trade."
That potentially makes it politically doable.
I also like that the analysis says this policy will add jobs, add GDP, and save people money. Most people support those things. That too makes it doable politically.
That’s in addition to the reduction of our extremely dangerous dependence on the fossil fuels we are using up faster and faster.
And it’s in addition to halting excess CO2 release. That’s less salable now; but it is just as true and important.
Thanks much to Google and its key people for helping make this happen in so many ways.”
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