Solar power breakthrough funded by Rochester entrepreneur

Author: martin

1 Aug

Scientists at MIT have unveiled what many consider to be the Holy Grail of alternative energy research. They have discovered a simple and inexpensive way to store the energy generated from solar systems. Storage is critical because it solves the night/clouds problem and the battery problem. Their method splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using the electricity generated by the solar source. The hydrogen can be stored and used in fuel cells for virtually any kind of power generation. Until now cracking hydrogen from water has cost more in power than the energy value of the hydrogen. Now, with this system, which the inventors claim is only a few years away from commercial viability, we could have an inexhaustible source of clean energy that can be used anywhere, at any time. It should be noted that the only byproduct of using hydrogen fuel cells is pure water.

While time will tell whether this is the huge breakthrough it appears to be, the reception among informed scientists and engineers is more positive than we usually see when someone makes these kinds of claims.

For me the really interesting local angle of this story is that this research was funded by a ten million dollar donation from a foundation created by Rochester entrepreneur Arunis Chaesonis, founder of Paetec, a very successful telecom based here. Wouldn’t it be great if a breakthrough energy story came out of innovative thinking in Rochester?

One other thing: GM has long had their fuel cell hydrogen car project based in Rochester at a skunkworks operation in Honeoye Falls. The only thing holding back their technology has been a lack of efficient hydrogen production and delivery infrastructure. So this is a double win for Rochester.

Comments Off

Filed under: Green Business, emissions, economics, Rochester NY, Energy Efficiency, Technology, Near Future Speculation, Oil and Energy, Alternative Energy, Local Effects

The real poop on social change

Author: martin

21 May

My friend Franke does it again, riffing on her experience seeing Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Kingwell (don’t know who he is) talking about initiating social change. Her illustrations tell the story much better than I can so I’m just going to add a little of my perspective to her observations.

Franke is Canadian so maybe things are different across the lake but I doubt it. Simply put, Gladwell argues that awareness is not enough to change behavior and Franke notes that sometimes a threat or pain point must be reached.

I’ve been noticing a lot more Euro-versions of cars appearing on the streets in Rochester- little tiny Hondas, Toyotas, Fords, etc. These cars are literally a fraction of the size of the SUVs they are hopefully replacing. So why are they appearing now? Could it be $4.25/gallon gas? Even a wealthy SUV driver might have issues with paying five bucks for gas to run out to the store or a movie…

A point I’ve belabored here is that change and response to climate issues will only be driven by economics. Americans don’t want to believe it will affect us so our politicians won’t act. Awareness and acceptance of the issue is there but there isn’t any urgency- until we get hit in our wallets, painfully.

1 Comment

Filed under: economics, climate change, Cars, Alternative Energy, Personal Action, Near Future Speculation

Got breakthrough energy technology? Win $100 Million.

Author: martin

29 Apr

Business Week reports that the X-Prize people are planning to offer $100mm in prizes to alternative energy inventors and entrepreneurs. If only they would exclude ethanol…

0 Comments

Filed under: biofuels, Energy Efficiency, Alternative Energy, Oil and Energy

Storage: The challenge for sustainable energy

Author: martin

15 Apr

“The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. For example, a coffee thermos and a laptop computer’s battery store about the same amount of energy, said John S. O’Donnell, executive vice president of a company in the solar thermal business, Ausra. The thermos costs about $5 and the laptop battery $150, he said, and “that’s why solar thermal is going to be the dominant form.”

As oil prices skyrocket and technology makes breakthroughs, our ability to generate clean, sustainable energy becomes more and more viable. However the big roadblock to technologies like solar and wind is that they do not run 24/7 like water or nuclear, meaning they are an undependable source unless we can find ways to store the energy during those cloudy, windless days and dark nights. Battery tech has been a major stumbling point because of costs and inefficiency (much of the energy is lost during storage). As the above quote from today’s excellent NYTimes coverage of storage challenges notes, there are entirely new ways to look at storage that, in turn, have made new energy sources viable. One example is the focusing of solar heat by a field of hi-tech mirrors onto a tower full of water and heavy salts. During the day this heat powers steam turbines, during the night the stored heat in the tower keeps those turbines turning.

Read the article- it is easy to be a doomsayer during this rapidly expanding crisis but there are truly great things coming out of this scenario, great in the long term.

0 Comments

Filed under: carbon cost, emissions, sustainability, Green Business, Energy Efficiency, Alternative Energy, Technology, Oil and Energy

Burner Trouble- global warming and climate change from a personal perspective

Archive for the ‘Alternative Energy’ Category

Solar power breakthrough funded by Rochester entrepreneur

The real poop on social change

Got breakthrough energy technology? Win $100 Million.

Storage: The challenge for sustainable energy

AdSense

Blogroll

Burner Trouble- global warming and climate change from a personal perspective

Archive for the ‘Alternative Energy’ Category

Solar power breakthrough funded by Rochester entrepreneur

The real poop on social change

Got breakthrough energy technology? Win $100 Million.

Storage: The challenge for sustainable energy

categories

AdSense

Blogroll