R.E.preneur

Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit: Brand Awareness

So much of public policy is either right or left.  It's hard to find someone who can make intelligent points that appeal to both sides of the spectrum.  Take a few minutes this weekend and watch this video by Stewart Brand.  Not only is it extremely interesting but it's also likely to change your perspective. 

via www.espressopundit.com

Blogger Greg Patterson points us to a great video via Ted Talks from Stewart Brand. Brand, a pioneer of the environmental movement never stops evaluating the difficult choices our Planet faces going forward.

If you're interested in Arizona politics and assorted other topics, Greg writes a very entertaining blog which is always worth reading.

Why The Downturn In The Economy Will NOT Kill Cars 2.0

If you haven't noticed lately, the blogs have all been clamoring with pessimistic talk about how scared they all are that the slide into recession will kill promising green transportation concepts. 

While this was a legitimate fear a decade ago (thanks C.A.R.B.) when oil was still $10-30 a barrel, the aberration of volatility that was 2008 has shaken the core of the auto industry. 

As the Big 3 fly into D.C. on their G5 and leave with their pockets full they know they must throw a hail-mary pass by going back to their days in the Ivy league MBA classrooms and whip up a promising new business plan for Cars 2.0. 

Detroit has resisted true innovation for... at least 50 years.  The fallout from this is unemployment in the metro area hovering just over 10%.

Thomas Friedman couldn't have said it better when he noted that if the Big 3 fail, the government auto bailout will be viewed as a massive government handout to the typewriter industry at the dawn of the computer. 

Whether the Big 3 succeed or fail, they will kill themselves trying (hopefully figuratively) and they will be well capitalized by the American taxpayer. 

The Detroit corner offices have taken notice of the throngs of start-up auto manufacturers with promising pre-production vehicles that are radically differentiated from the heap of turd, inefficient, stylistically-bland products that the Trifecta has been stamping out for the past two decades.

Project Better Place, Aptera, Tesla, Fisker, Th!nk (someone please give them some money), Smart, Mini E.  Each and every one of these companies has more swagger and a more promising business plan than any of the Detroit Trio. 

GM is the trio's lead singer with the 2010 Chevy Volt, a Plug-in Hybrid with a 40 mile EV range.  But if they don’t successfully mass market it and roll the technology out across all of their affiliates by 2015, they are up a creek without a paddle. 

Unfortunately, they've already blown through $1B+ wasting time on hydrogen fuel cells, a technology so completely over-hyped that we all smelled a rat.  Which is the same reason that corn-based ethanol will fall by the way side in 2009.

Ford has previously been leading with hybrids, but the brand is too closely tied to 15-mpg SUVs and trucks that made great sense when Bush was handing out $50,000 tax write-offs to small business owners to buy them.  Even with the return of $2 gallons of gas, the public perceives driving an urban assault vehicle as wasteful and moronic, not to mention removed from reality. 

The hope for Ford is that, although they are bleeding red ink just like the rest, their CEO had the presence of mind to pad the bank account upon his arrival by mortgaging the majority of their manufacturing facilities.  That bought him 18 months, still not much of a runway.

Chrysler is a distant third with out of touch brands like Dodge and Jeep.  The type of innovation it will take to save this company, without more federal handouts, has not been seen since the creation of the internal combustion engine. 

If the suspender-wearing management at Cerberus had two wits about them they would buy Project Better Place.  Seriously, they should buy PBP.  But they won't, because they can't wrap their head around the subscription service business model for personal transportation. 

I Hope Obama has the guts to rip the massive subsidies out of the corn ethanol farmers hands and then give it right back to them by placing an equally massive investment in green infrastructure.  But he must pick technologies that aren’t filled with fatal flaws, which was Bush’s giant green mistake.  Here’s my list in order of best bang for your buck: energy efficiency, solar, batteries, wind, smart grids, ocean, geothermal, and transmission period.  Make your voice heard Secretary Chu, and make your pocketbook green.

Electricity is the only answer to foreign oil independence.  The only rocket-science is in better batteries, which aren’t even a necessity for the industry to thrive, just an added bonus.  We can already see the light at the end of this tunnel.

When the capital markets return, 2009 will be the year that the massive cleantech investment sector shifts wildly to Cars 2.0 start-ups, each with a different way to change the world all over again.  The technology will leap frog with surprising speed.  Have you seen the crazy ideas the guys at EEStor are cooking up?  No one saw that coming, time will tell if it’s real. 

With 2010 already being evangelized as the year of the commercialized Plug-In Hybrid, 2009 will see green feeding the green beast, which equals a whole lot of green.  If you aren’t already dipping your toes in the automotive revolution, hop on board because this train is leaving the station. 

Need some inspiration?  Go watch the stirring documentary, “Who Killed The Electric Vehicle”.  It worked for me.

Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions; mine is to start/help a non-profit tasked with evangelizing the electric vehicle to the uneducated mass market.  Thesis statement: Check.  What's yours?  With any luck, we’ll be seeing green in no time at all.

Aquaduct: Transporting + Filtering Water for the BoP

I love people who try to solve the world's challenges instead of just reflecting on how to avoid personally falling into their own problems. 

Check out this short, informational video from the creators of the Aquaduct. 

So what will you do to solve the problems of the world?  What will your legacy be?

BoP Solutions: Light Up With Renewable Energy and LED's

I used to think non-profits were boring.  I think the issue was really that most non-profits do not convey their message well, or are not addressing a compelling issue. 

Light Up The World Foundation isn't like that.  From the website:

Light Up The World Foundation (LUTW) is the first humanitarian organization to utilize renewable energy and solid-state lighting technologies to bring affordable, safe, healthy, efficient, and environmentally responsible illumination to people who do not have access to power for adequate lighting.

So now you are asking, what's solid state lighting (SSL)?  Good question. 

Commonly referred to as LED's, Light-emitting diodes have been used in the US for years as digital power indicators on TV's, computers, radios, etc.  Previously, they were only able to emit low amounts of colored light.  But recent advances in the technology have allowed for bright white light to be produced from an amount of energy an order of magnitude smaller than with traditional incandescent light bulbs.

That means that a few LED's put together into a small lamp can be powered by a very small 5W solar panel and long-lasting battery.  This means that families no longer have to use inefficient, expensive, dangerous, unhealthy kerosene lamps in order to light up there homes at night. 

Check out this short ten question quiz from their website that explains all of the issues that the foundation is solving with these new technologies. 

I would encourage you to watch this short ten minute video chronicling how the company got started and how they are providing affordable lighting solutions to the two billion people in the developing world.  After watching the video, consider making a donation to the Light Up The World Foundation that will help them light up schools, aid stations, and orphanages in places like Papua New Guinea, Tibet, Ecuador, and South Africa. 

Predicting The Future: Environmental Trendwatching

EnviroNerd Alert!!!

Ask me what the current generation needs in order to become active in the debate over global climate change and here's what I say: Start Paying Attention!

Stop watching TV.  Turn off your cable.  You can get all the entertainment you need from the internet.  But you need to start actively educating yourself on the effects and trends of global climate change and how you can participate as part of the solution instead of adding to the problem.  All of this can be done by videos and organizations currently on the internet. 

Read my blog, watch the videos I put up, they just might boggle your mind.  The global effects of climate change are incredible.  Tortilla riots due to rising corn prices affected by biofuels and oil.  Regional droughts increasing dramatically.  Global water resources being vastly depleted.  I could go on and on, but the World Resources Institute does it faster, more intelligently, and add another degree of credibility.

The video below from late December is an hour long, so make some time for it if you care at all about the macro trends that will play out in 2008.  This is important information for all citizens of the Earth to understand so that you can prepare your family, your profession, and your business for the effects global climate change.  That is, look both ways before using up all the world's natural resources. 

This video correlates very closely with an accompanying Download trends-to-watch-2008.ppt , so I would recommend downloading that and following along. 

There are a lot of trends that I am excited about such as the fact that Central (concentrated) Solar Power (CSP) is now considered to be cost-competitive with other forms of conventional power generation.  Additionally, companies in China, the U.S., and Europe are engaging in heated competition and making great strides towards reducing the cost of photovoltaics.

The stories about how rapid weather changes caused by climate change in Australia caused that country to focus on that issue more than any other in their most recent elections.  The newly elected prime minister signed the Kyoto protocol on his first day of office, no small promise considering Australia's per capita energy consumption.

For Americans, the big question is how will climate change affect this country's 2008 presidential elections.  As WRI notes, only Bill Richardson, John Edwards, and Barack Obama consistently speak favorably about the need for proactive legislation from the top down to address the issue (And the last man standing is...).

 

How will the world respond to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (right), boasting some of the poorest air quality standards on Earth.

An hour really is not too much of your time to hear from respected experts about what is happening around the world with climate change. 

I'd love to hear your feedback on the video as well as how you plan to take action in your own life.  Comments always welcome.

Big Week in Renewable Energy Legislation

You know what makes me sad?  Legislation that hurts/fails to help renewable energy.

You know what makes me ecstatic?  Legislation that is pro-renewable energy and cleantech.

Of course, I was heart broken when both last year's energy bill and last week's economic stimulus package failed to include significant long-term extensions of ITC & PTC for renewable energy. 

Fortunately, stories abound this week on new renewable energy legislation that will significantly benefit the renewable marketplace for years to come. 

First, the economic stimulus package passed by the House & Senate last week and to be signed by the President this week contained a significant caveat that allows renewable energy projects brought online in 2008 to have the land they are built on be depreciated 50% + advanced depreciation five-year MACRS for the remaining 50% all in the first year.  This is important because it means that the landowners tax burden will be significantly smaller in the first year of operation and going forward, than before this rule was in place.

Full Story Here

    Next up, new legislation has been introduced by House leaders addressing nearly all of the specific needs of the RE industry in terms of long-term extensions of the ITC & PTC for most RE technologies, now including marine renewables too. 

From the article,

    The bill would extend the 30% investment tax credit (ITC) for solar energy property and qualified fuel cell property for eight years (through the end of 2016). It also includes a long-term extension and modification of the production tax credit (PTC), extending for three years (through December 31, 2011) certain qualifying facilities such as wind, closed-loop biomass, open-loop biomass, geothermal, small irrigation hydropower, landfill gas and trash combustion facilities. It also includes a new category of qualifying facilities: marine renewables (e.g., waves and tides). The bill would cap the aggregate amount of tax credits that can be earned at 35% of the facility's cost.

 

A long-term extension and modification of the residential energy-efficient property credit is also included. The credit for residential solar property would be extended for six years (through the end of 2014) and the annual credit cap (currently $2,000) would increase to $4,000. Residential small wind equipment and geothermal heat pumps would also qualify for this credit.

The bill also establishes a $4,000 credit for plug-in hybrid vehicles.

A fabulous piece of legislation that will probably face significant opposition because the incentives are still being paid for (though not as drastically as before) by repealing tax benefits that oil and gas industries currently receive. 

I would encourage all REpreneur readers to visit SolarNation and sign up for their Action Alerts email campaign so that when this bill is reaching critical discussion points in D.C., they can notify you and provide an easy way for you to contact the senators and representatives in your district and urge them to support this bill.  This is your responsibility as the most important position in a democracy, you are a citizen.  What do you want your country to support?

Finally, a brilliant piece of state legislation introduced in California.  From the release on RenewableEnergyAccess.com today:

California State Assemblymember Jared Huffman has introduced legislation that would require utilities to pay individuals for any excess solar power produced at a home, government building or business. Currently, the best consumers can get is a "zero" energy bill.

"This bill will encourage not just more solar power but conservation and efficiency as well as owners see a benefit to generating surplus power."

--Bernadette Del Chiaro, Advocate, Environment California

Assembly Bill 1920, which is sponsored by Environment California, was unveiled at the location of California’s largest solar producer, SPG Solar in Novato. AB 1920 will enable consumers who produce solar power to get paid by their utility company for any excess electricity they produce on an annual basis. The level of compensation would be set by the Public Utilities Commission and would help the utility meet their renewable energy goals mandated by state law.

This is really leapfrog legislation that will truly incentivize consumers and industry to adopt solar power on-site at a more rapid rate. If you live in California, contact your local state politician and ask them to support AB 1920. 

 

 

This Is The 11th Hour: What Will You Do About It?

An amazing thing happened when I embarked (two days ago) upon my quest to produce a documentary entitled "Think Green, Live Green - The University of Arizona edition".  One amazing thing that happened is that I discovered that the entire green community is clamoring for individuals to join the rally cry and do their part to educate and motivate their communities in response to global climate change.  These are what I call An Action Campaign.

I'll be highlighting more Action Campaigns of organizations and productions that have recently sprouted up in response to "The fierce urgency of now" (MLK Jr. & Barack Obama) related to global climate change.  The first of which is this new full length documentary by Leonardo DiCaprio entitled "The 11th Hour". 



Details:

Leonardo DiCaprio's “The 11th Hour” is a feature length documentary
concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their
impact on the planet. "The 11th Hour" documents the cumulative impact of
these actions upon the planet's life systems and calls for restorative action
through a reshaping of human activity. With the help of over fifty of the
world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail
Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari
Maathai, “The 11thHour" documents the grave problems facing the
planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species
extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed, and
their causes rooted in human activity. The combination of these crises call
into question the very future not of the planet, but of humanity.

However, the most powerful element of “The 11th Hour” is not a portrait of
a planet in crisis, but the offering of hope and solutions. Scientists and
environmental advocates such as David Orr and Gloria Flora (note: these
names can be interchanged for any of the experts) paint a portrait for a
radically new and exciting future in which humanity seeks not to dominate
the earth's life systems, but to mimic them and coexist. “The 11th Hour"
calls for a future now within our grasp that is both sustainable and
healthier.

The 11th Hour Trailer:

Please take a minute to watch the trailer, I'll be featuring more Action Campaigns such as this in the future.  An Action Campaign is one of the best ways to both educate yourself and curb your environmental footprint, so I encourage you to get involved in one. 

Global Energy Education: What about China?

When it comes to China... There is good news and there is bad news.

Bad News first:
    I attended a roundtable discussion followed by an auditorium speech by Norman Gaut today at The Eller College of Management.  Norman was an environmental entrepreneur before there was even an environmental industry.  He founded ERT in 1968.  The company emphasizes innovation and advanced computer modeling, combined with state-of-the-art monitoring of environmental parameters. The AIRMAP (Air Monitoring, Analysis and Prediction) program eventually covered 1,500 monitoring sites throughout the northeastern United States and included the majority of power generating facilities east of the Mississippi.

Have you heard that horrible piece of data people keep spouting about how China is building one new coal plant EVERY WEEK.

Turns out its worse than we thought.  Norm did the leg work and discovered that in 2006 China was averaging between two and three new 500 MW coal plants coming online each week.  More evidence that the climate change landscape will get uglier before it gets prettier.  Tough news for the optimists out there.

Now the Good News:
On Monday, The WorldWatch Institute released a news story chronicling China State Environmental Protection Administration's (SEPA) signature of an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that is aiming to grind to a halt China's "environmentally destructive bank loans."

Accountability Breeds Results
By adopting internationally recognized "Equator Priniciples" and mandating that banks consider the environmental effects when assigning loans, the Chinese government takes significant, clear action to help force industry into cleaning up their act.  The new rules will bring greater environmental accountability for profiteers and help push China towards adopting more renewable energy. 

As a result of the "green loans" program SEPA initiated in July of 2007, the Banking industry voluntarily responded by "blacklisting" 12 heavy polluters, which means that their loans were recalled, suspended, or rejected. 

To add to the discussion, below is a video on China's "coal fires" which account for roughly 3% of the world's GHG emissions each year.  The video makes one thing clear, its a tougher issue for the local people of China than simply deciding to clean up their act. 

With China's energy demands accelerating, how does the world join with them in continuing to increase quality of life for the Chinese people without the harmful effects of toxic air and water, increased GHG emissions, and land devastation. 

In my opinion, there is no better time to be an REpreneur (Renewable Energy entrePreneur). 

What do you think?

Educate Yourself: EfficienCity

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the wealth of information about renewable energy technologies that you don't understand yet?

GreenPeace has just released a fabulous depiction of what the ideal renewable energy and climate-friendly city should look like. Its called EfficienCity, and there is a ton of info packed into edible bites for the REpreneur novice. I read a lot and this illustration was very informative even for me. Plus, I love the macro-city approach it takes to dreaming about what our future cities will look like.





Notice something about this city? The citizens live in harmony with the renewable energy systems. Today's NIMBY attitudes about renewables need to get kicked to the curb. Wind farms in low density areas. Fields of solar only in unused desert, Off-shore wind and ocean renewables so far away you cannot even see them.

Yes, I know the real estate costs are less in these areas but America needs generation near its consumption point. People should appreciate the beauty and high social and environmental value that renewables offer and integrate them into their lives.

You Gotta Go Check Out EfficienCity!

(Hat tip to EcoGeek Hank Green)

Yucca Mountain: Last Resort? Best Option? Doomed to Disaster?

America has not built a new Nuclear plant in over a decade. But, currently there are 30 applications for new nuclear generating facilities permits (A process which takes 12 years).





Yucca Mountain was billed as the solution to the nuclear storage issue, but after being originally scheduled to open in 1998, the facility's current opening date of 2017 has been put on hold after the federal government slashed the facility's 2008 budget from $494M to $386M. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) led the fight against Yucca Mountain. State and Local Las Vegas authorities have also joined the legal battle against the project.

Should Harry Reid be to blame in the coming years when the federal government has to start paying U.S. utilities between $300-$500 million per year of taxpayer dollars in order to deal with the storage issues that the government themselves has failed to agree on.

What are the REALISTIC, or at least semi-realistic solutions? I only want to hear "shoot it into the sun" if it is feasible, economical, and moral.

To join in on the debate visit my LinkedIn question about the issue. I'll post the best answers here.

Resources:
Recent Las Vegas Review Article

Department of Energy: Office of Nuclear Energy