CleanTech investing has an entry on a company that has technology to store wind power as compressed air stored in underground tanks. Cutely named General Compression (warning: web site home page auto-starts Flash with audio, a huge web marketing no-no) has their attempt to solve the big battery problem: storing energy from sources that are not consistent like wind.
The big problem with technologies like wind and solar has been developing storage so output is steady during lulls or darkness. Fossil fuels have held their grip because they are very stable storage media for energy. General Compression aims to store wind energy as compressed air underground then use it to turn turbines when needed. The only problem I have with this is: If we’re going to dig big holes, why not tap into geo-thermal, an unlimited and constant source?

I’m going to be doing a little more blogging about business here because climate change, like any change, has created an entirely new set of opportunities for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship is a major interest of mine. While I’m currently employed, there is another start-up in my future (once you’ve gone down that road you almost have to do it again, if for nothing else than to leverage all the experience any start-up creates) and I really look forward to seeing how this generation addresses issues like energy, storage, green housing, etc.
Paul Graham, a successful entrepreneur, started Y-Combinator to offer very early seed money to (mainly) younger entrepreneurs. If you have a business idea this transcript of a recent speech is required reading. And if it the deadline hasn’t already passed, you have until April 2 to apply for some money and support.

Absolutely great stuff- read it.

This is very cool: a car whose engine runs on compressed air with no emissions, high mileage, a top speed of 68 KM and a range of ten hours- suitable for urban driving. The compressed air would need to come from a station meaning infrastructure would need to be built but this infrastructure carries none of the complications you get with gas or hydrogen delivery. I would imagine each station has its own compressor so no global delivery system is required (saving huge amounts of fuel and emissions).
The car is ’smart’ in every way imaginable, runs off a keycard in your pocket and includes cost-free air conditioning because the air exiting the engine is very cold. It is built of new materials technology including a glued frame and fiberglas body.
After seeing the number of very small cars in use in Paris because of extremely limited parking options and high fuel costs, I think this car can make a real go of it. There is already serious interest in India, in part I’m guessing, because the fuel delivery system is simple.
This kind of technology that comes out of left field is one of the most exciting outcomes of rising fuel costs.

I recently added another category for my posts, Green Business. You can see the categories in the ‘cloud’ in the right hand column. These clouds are a new way of displaying information. Each category’s font size grows as more posts on that subject are added. Green Business is in teeny tiny type right now because its a new category and I have not gone back and tagged old posts with it. I suspect that if I did, it would be one of the most prominent in the cloud.
The cloud fascinates me because it shows how interrelated these subjects are- I almost never have one subject assigned to a post. The cloud also embraces some subjects that are not listed. You don’t see Iraq War as a category, nor do you see Bush Cheney, even though I frequently post on these subjects. That’s because I feel that Energy is a unifying issue in these subjects: We fight in Iraq because of a terrible fear in the executive branch that if we don’t get an oil-rich country for ourselves, we’re screwed. The fact that Bush Cheney both come out of the fossil fuel cloud isn’t lost on anyone at this point.

Walter Reed and War Spin
Perhaps the best example of how things have changed politically since the election is the scandal over treatment of wounded soldiers (they’re not veterans until they are discharged from the military). Every time a Democrat votes to defund the war the right sends the message that they are hurting our troops. Yet the reality uncovered in the Walter Reed scandal is that the neo-conservatives don’t give a damn about the troops- all they care about is pursuing their oil wars. They have made a decision that it is worth paying a price in human suffering to get a foothold in oil country.
Is this too cynical and harsh? Read the stories of how impossible it is to live as a wounded soldier. Now look at the wealth accumulated by the Rumsfelds and Cheneys, not to mention the oil executives and Halliburtons of the world. This is all about short term gains.

Why They Block Innovative Energy Technology and Efficiency Standards
This is simple. The wealth the oil policies generate is so great that the beneficiaries are establishing a ruling class of legacy wealth that will outlive any disasters, wars, climate calamities, etc. Bush is already an example of such a royal clan as are Cheney and Rumsfeld. Their descendants will never have to deal with anything but the best.
If we enforce efficiencies and develop clean, cheap alternative energy sources this destruction of the middle class will fail. Cheap energy is a great democratizing force no matter where you live in the world. Blocking cheap energy and raising prices short term through wars is a way of destroying the middle class and building a world aristocracy.

Don’t get the wrong idea- I’m not a socialist, I’m a capitalist who believes in free markets and a global economy. Free markets cannot exist when a small power group are politically manipulating things to benefit their own agenda. The Democrats need to hit them hard on these points- it’s a winning strategy.