Greenpeace gave Clorox a pat on the back today for phasing out the use of deadly chlorine gas for making bleach at its seven US plants. Not only is this move to safer chemical processes better for the environment, it lowers the risk of terrorist attacks or accidents that could affect up to 13 million Americans living downwind of the plants. It's safer for railway workers too, as the gas travels long distances in 90-ton rail cars.
Under CEO Don Knauss, Clorox has been racking up green points with its Greenworks line of plant-derived cleaning products. This new decision strengthens their position as a friendlier household chemical company, and bolsters Greenpeace's campaign to get the Department of Homeland Security to regulate the use of chlorine gas and other dangerous chemicals at companies like Dow and Dupont and at the nation's thousands of water treatment plants. A chemical security bill (H.R. 2868) is slated for a vote in the House of Representatives this Wednesday.
An MIT Media Lab robot (not AIDA) via glemak on Flickr
My parents already treat the GPS on their car like it's a person: "Shh! She's talking!" Now researchers at the MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Audi, want to take that relationship one step further with AIDA, the "Affective Intelligent Driving Agent."
"In developing AIDA we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion," says professor Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Lab.
Assaf Biderman, associate director of the
SENSEable City Lab, adds, "Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location. Soon afterward, the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way, AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas," says Biderman. "AIDA can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behavior."
Basically, the researchers have invented the ultimate backseat driver.
This is all troubling. People already put too much trust in their onboard GPS systems, like when Michael from The Officedrove into a lake. Besides, do you want an overgrown smartypants GPS device telling you you're driving too fast? You could always pit it against the Autonomous Audi TT-S for an exhilarating game of robot chicken.
Today President Obama will announce federal investments that will bring smart electric meters to one-quarter to one-third of U.S. homes. The money will be matched with state and utility funds for a total of $8 billion in new investment to modernize and upgrade equipment from substations, to transformers, to displays in your house that will allow you to optimize energy use, and to better integrate renewable energy into the grid. This is the biggest single part of the stimulus package going to green energy.
American homes account for 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Smart meters go right to the source to motivate individuals to better manage their energy use.It's an investment in infrastructure and technology, exactly where federal funds are most needed--not picking winners on the green -energy technology side, but helping all energy generation and transmission work better.
Obama's photo op will occur at Florida Power & Light's brand-new Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, FL, the largest PV installation in the nation, powering 3,000 homes. Of course, Fast Company is especially interested in the power of smart meters and the smart grid to motivate and connect distributed, smaller-scale renewable energy.
Fast Companylovessmart electric meters. They're the first, essential step in the smart electric grid, which promises to fight global warming, improve efficiency, and bring consumer control into our electricity system.
Pacific Gas & Electric loves SmartMeters too. They've installed 3.7 million, with a goal of 10 million by 2012--the largest program in the nation.
Who doesn't love smart meters? Thousands of PG&E customers in Bakersfield, California. They blame the newly installed meters for doubling and tripling their power bills over the summer, compared to the previous year. The SF Chronicle reported that "Angry homeowners repeatedly booed PG&E representatives during a public hearing on the meters earlier this month."
PG&E says it's a case of mistaken identity. The true culprits were July heat waves and recent rate increases. Every meter they've inspected so far has been working properly. (Local bloggers seem to accept this explanation). A little suspicion of new technology is normal. This dustup raises a larger issue, though. Most likely, the Bakersfield residents who are complaining now about higher bills didn't have much awareness of the rate hikes when they were enacted in October 2008 and March 2009. (In an interesting wrinkle, it turned out PG&E overcollected and has to pay back customers $424 million). If utility companies are going to install little meters that enable their customers to check usage and rates hour by hour, they have to be able to deal with the fallout of increased transparency.
Obama is hoping for some big climate handshakes in separate talks with China and India next month--including the announcement of India's first cap-and-trade scheme. While the big talking point will be setting CO2 limits at levels developing countries can swallow, India's raised an interesting side issue. They want a global fund to buy out the patents for green technologies and distribute them for free. This is the same tack India's taken with HIV/AIDS drugs, which has made the country a global leader in low cost accessible treatment for the poor.
On one hand, the argument goes: solar panels are lifesaving technologies just like Retrovir, so shouldn't they be spread as widely as possible?
On the other hand, will companies like GE Energy Financial Services, which announced participation yesterday in a $23 million round of US funding in SolarEdge, an Israeli company that boosts solar power system output by 25 percent, still want to invest in technologies that can be easily copied on the cheap? Will entrepreneurs be as eager to work on greentech startup ideas?
What do you think: is intellectual property protection important for the development of new green technology, or is the priority to promote diffusion and adoption of technologies at full speed ahead?
Oil-Coated Ruddy Duck in the San Francisco Bay, by wolfpix, on Flickr
Earlier this month, the world's chief energy economist told the UK Independent that global oil production was likely to peak in 10 years, with a "global energy crunch" starting as soon as next year.
"One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day
we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we
have to prepare ourselves for that day," Dr Birol said. "The
earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system
is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of
money and we should take this issue very seriously."
He doesn't explain why the head of the International Energy Agency, whose remarks were based on their independent assessment of production declines at more than 800 oil fields around the world, would be motivated to sound unduly alarmist on this issue.
Without once mentioning the threat of greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuels, Michael Lynch refers to "harebrained" renewable energy "schemes" and "expensive conservation measures" (I thought the energy you never used was the cheapest kind?) He argues that the oil industry will figure out how to exploit every last drop, like deep-water oil, the Bakken Oil Shale deposits in Montana and North Dakota, and even that perennial favorite, the Alberta tar sands. Not a word about the increased environmental impact of these methods.
Pinpointing the exact moment that world oil production begins to decline is really just a parlor game. No one disputes that oil supplies are finite, which is reason enough to diversify our energy sources. And even if supplies were unlimited, few experts dispute that oil dependence threatens humans and the environment because of its role in climate change. Why is the United States paper of record running a column from someone with a vested interest in saying there's nothing to worry about?
T. Boone Pickens has dropped his much-ballyhooed plan, chronicled in our pages, to build the world's largest wind farm, in favor of a handful of smaller wind farms scattered around the Midwest.
He cites many of the same factors that are leading lots of people to take a closer look at the microgrid, small, local, renewable energy installations, instead of behemoth installations: the difficulty in getting financing and the cost of building transmission lines out to the middle of nowhere (Pickens was hoping the state of Texas would foot the bill, but it turns out they're spending $5 billion to build lines elsewhere). The economics of major renewables projects are harder than ever to rationalize with the volatile price of oil; smaller-scale projects mean lower risk.
Via NPR's Planet Money blog, a savvy reader puts together his own personal stimulus package by becoming part of the microgrid:
Clay from Maryland writes:
I think did everything right. (and I'm pretty lucky) I live
within my means and put 20% down when I bought my home in 1999. I have
a 14-year old truck, a steady job and a 1 mile commute. After this
latest meltdown and the interest rates dropped, I took advantage of the
situation and enacted my very own stimulus program.
Even with the recent drop in home prices, my home is still
worth double what I paid for it. So I got a re-fi (30 yr fixed) and
pulled out some cash. I am now taking advantage of every tax credit and
incentive I can get my hands on -- new Energy Star appliances, new
energy efficient heating and a/c units. And to top it off, I'm even
putting on solar panels.
I've calculated that
the spending I'm doing now will have a pay-off of about 10 years. After
that the utilities savings are free money. And since all my stuff was
about 20 years old it was time to replace anyway.
I feel that the government is finally putting enough
incentives out there that folks like me with money in the (FDIC
insured) bank and a bit of fiscal savvy are going to get the economy
going again.
I'm even thinking about using my 14-year old truck in the
cash-for-clunkers program to get a Hybrid. Taking yet another few
thousand bucks from Uncle Obama.
Bottom line. There are opportunities out there that I don't think will be coming our way again anytime soon.
Small-scale, local power--the microgrid--is a big part of the path to sustainable energy (for more detail, read Why the Microgrid Could Be the Answer to Our Energy Crisis in the July/August issue). With today's rates and rebates, typical systems pay for themselves in just a few years, and in 43 states you can even sell excess power back to the utility when you're not using it. The only barrier now is figuring out how to plug in your house. Here are the steps you need to take to get in on the microgrid action in your own home.
1) Find the Money
First, find what tax incentives your state, locality, or utility offers for renewables and efficiency at the DSIRE database.
Home Power magazine has comprehensive resources for the do-it-yourselfer; they've been covering the microgrid for over 20 years.
2) Cut Your Use
The microgrid dream house starts with cutting energy use through efficiency and conservation with highly-rated insulation, sealed doors and windows, and better-performing appliances like refrigerators, boilers, and air-conditioners. The federal government's Energy Star Web site provides the information you need to do a home energy audit yourself or find a professional to do one for you. More resources are at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
You might also want to look into a smart meter-like appliance like the Wattson to monitor energy use.
3) Choose Your Fuel
Once you've done what you can to cut energy use, it's time to look into the generation options. Find detailed maps and info on renewable resources in your region at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Solar is still the most common choice for home power. The American Wind Energy Association has a great set of resources on small wind, if a rooftop turbine is your fancy. Southwest Windpower's product is worth checking out as well.
Interested in something a bit more off the beaten path? A geothermal heat pump, which takes advantage of the stable temperature of groundwater, is an option for heating, hot water, and cooling. If you have a stream running on your property, you can try microhydropower. Or what about a biomass heating system, aka a wood burning stove?
4) Find a Partner
There are lots of sites that can help you find an installer and figure out the financing such as Find Solar, GetSolar, and Akeena, located in California, the nation's largest solar power installer.
Sustainable Spaces
in the Bay Area is a newer business model: a comprehensive "home
performance retrofitter" that does it all--renewables, efficiency, and
financing. Similarly, Smith Energy in Massachusetts works mainly with cities and towns, but also landowners, to develop renewable energy resources.
5) Sell Back to the Grid
Net metering--where you sell your excess generated power back to the grid--is legal under certain conditions in over 40 states. Here's a guide to getting started.
Join in a discussion about local power with alternative energy business leaders at Fast Company's Alternative Energy Forum in Seattle on June 24.
A briefing room at the United Nations yesterday morning made a very official setting for an announcement about the international, high-tech, and almost free future of higher education. Shai Reshef, featured in our Most Creative People list, has begun accepting enrollment for his innovative nonprofit online university. "We are opening the gates for students from all over the world, who may not have the means to study elsewhere," he said. "We see ourselves as part of a trend in education of opening information and using what's available."
Indeed, there is a major trend blossoming in the crossover of information technology, the open-source movement, and education. The University of the People will draw on the wealth of free course material that has been made available in recent years under Creative Commons license by the likes of MIT (OpenCourseWare), Rice University (Connexions), and hundreds of other institutions. Students will discuss the material in online forums with other students from all over the world and with volunteer faculty--those who have signed up to teach so far are professors, retirees, graduate students, and professionals in their fields.
Reshef, a small man with a sweet smile whose face turned pink with excitement as he answered questions, has seeded the organization with $1 million of his own money (from his career in for-profit education companies, one of which he sold to the U.S. giant Kaplan) and needs to raise $5 million more. He calculates that the school can become self-sustaining at a scale of 15,000 students, each of whom will pay nominal fees based on whether they hail from rich or poor countries. Currently, the UoP has registered 200 students out of a planned first class of just 300, but they already hail from 52 countries.
The UoP plans to offer accredited bachelor's degrees, starting in
the fields of computer science and business administration, for a price that maxes out at $4000. Can free raw materials be translated into (almost) free education? That's still an open question.
A briefing room at the United Nations yesterday morning made a very official setting for an announcement about the international, high-tech, and almost free future of higher education. Shai Reshef, featured in our 
