Light antennas/Nano antennas
Tiny antennas that can capture and emit light, and both passively heat and cool a space. The prospect of mass production is not far off. "The first large array of these nano-antennas was produced this year, and the possibilities for them are endless," Green writes. Personally, I'm in love with the idea of individuals taking control over their own power production/consumption. Individually, we can't really get utilities to change, but we can do a lot in our own backyards, rooftops, windows ... whereever.
President Barack Obama
Promises, promises. Let's see how he's able to balance his promises with the economic and political mayhem that he's inheriting.
EEStor emerges as competition to lithium ion batteries
Power storage company EEstor has patented a technology to store electrical energy in ceramic powder encased in plastic and has a contract with Lockheed Martin to put this to use in military and homeland security appliations. Compared to lithiom ion batteries, this technology would be significantly lighter, hold ten times more power, and be half the cost. As Green writes, "We're still not 100% sure (EEStor) isn't full of crap." Maybe so, but a lot of people thought Edison would never get light from electricity. See the original article here.
Cheap gas
Gas is so cheap we can party like it's 1999. This will surely have a short-term effect on new product innovation, but as Green notes, "Better hybrid systems, more efficient engines, massive investments in biofuels, the re-emergence of diesel in America were all direct implications of skyrocketing gas prices." I don't think anyone expects fuel to remain this cheap for long.
Solar reaches parity with coal-electric grid?
There may be some fuzzy math involved here, but Green wrote Dec. 22 that Nevada solar power producer First Solar, at least according to one analyst's view, is able to produce electricity from solar at a cost of 7.5 cents per kilowatt/hour versus 9 cents for coal. Green notes that this math does not include the cost of developing the plant, just the cost of delivering the electricity. The jury is still out on the costs involved, but the ecological impact of solar compared to coal is not in question.
Project Better Place
Better Place has signed deals with California, Hawaii, Australia and Denmark to put in place electric car networks. Utilizing one type of battery for various automotive platforms, Better Place - based in Israel - is putting in battery swapping stations and customers will pay for the service much as they do for cell phones. Consumers will lease the batteries for their vehicles. Some other company could come along and make this solution obsolete, but no one else is actually putting in place projects this aggressively.
Pickens counterbalances Gore
Green writes, "We've tired of Al Gore. The love affair was great while it lasted, but he's been attacked from too many angles to really latch onto his message anymore. But what about an ultra-conservative, Texas oil man?" Well, with the price of oil in the dumper, T. Boone Pickens' big ideas for alternative energy are now on the impractically expensive side. I'm all for Pickens' plan (see the youtube video), but I don't see this 80-year-old tycoon actually making a go of it. Prove me wrong, Pickens.
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