Going to try Kottke style…

Simple device increases diesel engine efficiency by 19% for less than $200.

We’re trading carbon credits in NY now. Going for $3.07 per ton….

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.

They believe they are totally above the law. And are completely willing to sacrifice the future of the planet and their own grandchildren for their own short term gain.

Criminal- I hope I see both of them in prison in my lifetime.

“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.