Dan Keldsen's Library tagged alternative_energy →  View Popular, Search in Google

Interesting way to flip many of the problems around alternative energy and sustainability around with a 180 degree approach. Penalizing does seem to make people want to dig in their heels and defend the old way of doing things. Focusing on new approaches that are better, faster and cheaper should make it that much more obvious that the new way is the direction to move in.

"Forcing countries to agree to emissions caps will never work, argue Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. Instead, they say, the focus should be on technology innovations."

change change_management sustainability sustainable_energy alternative_energy ted_nordhaus michael_shellenberger AoS

In partnership with Armstrong Ceiling Systems, Johnson Controls (JCI), and other companies, Savage is demonstrating his vision in 31 locations around the world, including a Ford (F) factory in Detroit. In the pilots, the AC energy coming from the grid is converted to DC by one of Nextek's $1,550 power modules, which resembles a supersized power strip. The partner companies develop the equipment that delivers the DC power to devices throughout the home or business. Savage says he's planning to retrofit several homes in Detroit to run on DC as part of a green energy project run by a local nonprofit. Because DC is safe, some of the demonstration projects feature ceiling tiles with energy constantly coursing through them as if they were wires. They're safe to touch, so lights, ceiling fans, speakers, and other power-hungry items can simply be clipped into place.

Savage estimates that if DC systems take hold, they could cut the amount of energy needed nationally by 8.3 percent. Brian Fortenbery, program manager at the Electric Power Research Institute, considers Savage one of the leaders of the DC movement. "There's a pretty sizable push [for DC] from vendors" who sell power supplies, he adds. American Power Conversion, which makes AC power supplies, counters that improvements in AC technology can raise efficiency without having to invest in new DC equipment.

innovation dc_current ac_current alternative_energy sustainability paul_savage nextek_power_systems AoS

"Google, which has been investing in companies and doing research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy, wants to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun by at least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four." The costs of constructing these fields are often significant, and enough to deter investors."

google alternative_energy solar mirror $GOOG

Interesting, if incomplete, list of various energy production (or loss reduction/transmission) companies.

reinventing energy sustainability alternative_energy green_energy renewables innovation

Welcome to the unwired world - internet connectivity, voice, and now, energy. Never stop questioning what's possible.

"Marin Soljačić couldn't sleep. The problem was his wife's Nokia cell phone. The tyrannical device beeped on the bedside table when it needed to be plugged in. It could not be disabled.

Instead of taking a hammer to the phone, Soljačić marveled at the fact that this device, and billions of others like it, was sitting a few feet away from all the electricity it could ever need. Why couldn't it receive power wirelessly, just as laptops get Wi-Fi? "

witricity MIT marin_soljacic innovation CNN electricity energy alternative_energy TRIZ

Nice collection - but it's gone dormant.

energy alternative_energy sustainability sustainable_energy

energy sustainable_energy alternative_energy energy_storage

green science energy conservation albert_einstein sustainable_energy alternative_energy

Good to see the X Prize Foundation turning it's eyes towards more pressing needs on Earth, not just the space race.

innovation energyefficiency alternative_energy sustainable_energy xprize cleantech green_energy