HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – Green Wombat has been at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference the past few days, the highlight of which for me was leading a session on energy with Vint Cerf. Known as the “father of the Internet” for his role in co-creating its underlying technology, Cerf is now a Google (GOOG) vice president and its chief Internet evangelist.
The idea: Brainstorm with 40 high-powered participants – everyone from Idealab’s Bill Gross (chairman of solar power plant company eSolar) to Stan Williams of Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) Quantum Systems Labs to venture capitalist Richard Wong of Accel Partners. The task we set out: Devise solutions to Al Gore’s challenge last week for the United States to obtain 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2018. Piece of cake.
Sorry, Al, we didn’t come up with a 12-step plan to kick America’s addiction to the black stuff – oil and coal. But the wide-ranging discussion underscored the complexity of the challenge and the fact that a solar-power-plant and wind-farm building boom is but one part of the big fix.
First, said one participant, we must create the “energy Internet.” In other words, a smart transmission grid that can get electricity generated from desert solar power stations and High Plains wind farms to other regions of the country as well as manage “distributed energy” from such things as rooftop solar panels. Another technological challenge that must be overcome: energy storage to capture electricity produced by solar and wind power stations for use when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
For many in the room, just as critical is the need to reduce energy demand, increase public awareness and devise the right economic incentives to promote green power and lower electricity consumption. As more than a few participants noted, Americans use more than twice as much electricity per capita as Europeans.
Gross suggests establishing a floor on electricity prices – say 10 cents/kilowatt hour – to allow renewable energy companies to get up and running and achieve economies of scale to compete against coal and natural gas.
Given the techie crowd – Silicon Valley is just over the hill from Half Moon Bay – some of the more interesting ideas were about how to use software and Web 2.0 tools to change consumer behavior and awareness about energy consumption. For the home there needs to be an energy meter that provides constant feedback on the electricity usage – and the charges incurred – of individual appliances and gadgets, like that laptop you left plugged in. Your mobile GPS-enabled phone could monitor your driving habits, suggesting ways to consolidate trips, report your fuel efficiency and ping you about your home energy use. Another idea; Embed carbon footprint data in individual products, so that consumers can scan them with their phones when making purchasing decisions.
(Another provocative idea that Cerf discussed with me before the session: How to re-architect the suburbs when the aging baby boom generation begins to abandon their McMansions in search of housing and a lifestyle less isolated and closer to shops and services.)
Beyond technological innovation, the overriding sentiment was that the president and Congress must show leadership in establishing a national renewable energy policy that commits the resources and sense of urgency of a 21st century Manhattan project.
Coincidentally, the day before the session I moderated a panel at Google on renewable energy sponsored by the California Clean Tech Open, a contest that provides seed capital and services to incubate green startups with promising business plans. This year’s finalists, announced Tuesday, include several companies developing software and services to monitor and cut home and business energy consumption. Judging by the overflow crowd – some 350 people with a line out the door – there’s no shortage of talent in the Valley interested in green tech.
Among those present was Bob Cart, CEO of San Francisco-based Green Volts, which is developing concentrating photovoltaic power plants. Green Volts was a 2006 Clean Tech Open winner and Cart told Green Wombat that less than two years later the company is breaking ground this week on its first power plant, which will generate two megawatts of electricity for utility PG&E (PCG).
Green tech innovation can come from some improbable places. Rock star and home-brew technologist Neil Young closed out Brainstorm Tech on Wednesday by taking the stage for an interview with Time Inc. editor-in-chief John Huey. Young has been working with a far-flung group of technologists and auto enthusiasts to convert a 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV into a 100-mpg, Internet-enabled bio-electric-hybrid. He told Huey the Continental is just one of several green car projects he has under way.
“We have an onboard fuel creation device on an Envoy in Adelaide, Australia,” Young said. That prompted Cerf to ask from the audience, “You mentioned onboard fuel production. This car doesn’t happen to run on piss, does it?” Young laughed, “It could.”
The songwriter and political provocateur said he was focusing on land yachts – the Continental stretches to 19.5 feet. “Americans, a lot of them are big, and they like big cars and long highways.”
Green Wombat 
What about working on better distribution system, one that does not “lose” 30% while distributing the power? To have our destiny tied into the “electric grid” causes worry.
Good luck
It is unfortunate that the industry is still thinking in a producer + consumer model.
What is needed is a self sustaining model in which each house, building, office, etc can produce it’s own power and provide excess to the grid when needed.
First obstacle is the Energy industry itself. The regulation governing who can produce energy and who has to buy it needs to be changed. If all electric companies had a requirement to purchase excess energy from anyone producing it at a wholesale rate then the return on the investment for wind, solar, bio-energy would prompt adoption at a much higher rate than today.
By having energy produced as close to the demand point we avoid long, inefficient transmission lines. The store, office, hospital etc down the street would buy the excess power sold by the homeowner. The utility would profit from buying wholesale then selling retail with minimal if any production costs.
The producer and consumer model will keep the grid unstable and prone to the black outs that we are getting used to these days.
Germany is on the right track. Guaranteeing a price for 20 years to generate a whole industry around solar power. Banks are financing huge projects to anyone that can show ability to pay (with the price guarantee that is easy to achieve) with the owners of the systems having a fully funded system generating small profits now. Once all the installations are in place, in 20 years the price guarantee will be lifted and the overall price of electricity will drop considerable. The Solar units would have been paid off generating profits to the operators regardless of the market price.
We need to get off the Producer + Consumer model if we every plan to get off the addiction to foreign energy supplies.
Wind power could follow the same model vs. what T. Boone Pickens is promoting.
If we are to spend our tax dollars on any solution, it need to be with the goal of Self reliance and not to promote corporate profits and the Producer + consumer model.
This is a somewhat pie-in-the-sky idea, but…
A few years ago, I had a conversation with a DARPA researcher about micro fuel cells. The military was eager to develop a fuel cell about the size of a credit card that could power a lap top for 100 hours. Which sounded good to me… Although the golden age of micro fuel cells always seems to be “five years away,” it is perhaps the ultimate in distributed generation. What if (here’s come the pie in the sky) you could buy micro fuel cells in 12-paks at the grocery store to power everything from laptops to lights, cell phones to small appliances? (used mfc’s could be returned for a deposit, like milk bottles.) It would certainly take a load off the grid.
Apparently, the fuel can be anything from hydrogen to methanol (the stuff in windshield wiper fluid), so the next hurdle would be to create fuel from renewable sources.
In 2006, NREL did a cost study about using wind to produce hydrogen for transportation fuel. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/39534.pdf A kg of hydrogen produces roughly the same amount of energy as a gallon of gas so that was metric. They tested a couple of different models. Short terms costs were as high as $5.55 per kg, while long term costs were as low as $2.27 per kg. Against $4+ per gallon gasoline, that looks pretty good.
So…what if a micro fuel cell factory were set up right next to a wind farm. Wind energy harvested in, say, North Dakota could be used anywhere in the world. Wind power would transformed into a commodity that could be packaged, shipped and used whenever and wherever it was needed. And. of course, wind powered hydrogen production for transportation fuel begins to make a whole lot more sense, too. The wind in your sails? ? How about the wind in your tank!
I can take this challenge. 3 months to prove – as manufacturer needs 8 weeks to make it and 4 weeks to assemble and test.
1 year to establish 1000+ manufacturing units. 2 years to wipe out Oil empire.
100K initial investment.
Refundable if it won’t work.
Now tell me what is your commitment?
Asking Quotes:
Every one in the world owns this technology.
there are 6 Billion people in the world.
each one pays me $100/ – head
that is 600 Billion – Tax free.
Done deal. No more Oil.
You know how to trace me. If you are not smart enough to do that, you are not fit to be talking worldly affiars.
There is a simple behavior change that can cut our automobile fuel consumption by half or more immediately, like right now, with no new technology needed. It is carpooling and the existing technology that already helps with this is the communication tools and social networking kind, including instant messaging and maps. How many workers can find some people at their company or neighboring company who live in their neighborhood within a 2 minute drive, 10 minute walk, or on the way? Probably most people. If you have a vanpool with 9 people, all 9 of those people cut their gas consumption for commuting to 1/9th.
If everyone really did participate and cooperate, there would be less traffic and everyone’s commute would actually be shorter.
What a crazy idea! You mean tommorrow, or next week, next month, or next year consumer gas consumption could be cut in half just like that, snap of the fingers? Yes really. It works the same way as how everyone is adding to the problem by driving solo – everyone does it.
Right now you can buy a Hydrogenerator for your car that will increase the gas millage 25 – 50%. There is a company called water4gas that makes you buy a $97.00 book, but sells a Hydrogen generator kit for $299 for a total of about $400. You can make them yourself for about $60-$160(Estimates I’ve seen). There are also stainless steel untits for about $1000. If everyone got one we could reduce the country wide fuel use buy 25% at the least. There is a company at hydrogengarage that offeres to put in the device for $750.00. They also have a 50% better milage guarentee. They will test your car, install the unit and if it doesn’t get 50% better milage the unit is free, but if it does then you pay double for it. If you put a Hydrogen booster on a hybrid it would increase the milage to abouot 55-65 miles per gallon. I also read about someone who removed the gas motor from their hybrid and installed a semi truck alternator so the car only ran on electric. Delco makes a 130 amp 24 Volt generator. At 18 Volts(which is what I think a Prius run on) The amprage would be 195 amps, about 170-180 with some loss, so it should work.
I have to agree, the ” producer & consumer model” is a big part of the problem. We need to take charge of what we need and choose to use. Something larger looms at the root of our energy issues. This is beyond any one company or group, its how we understand the underlying principle of how to efficiently use electrons to do work.
Look to the paper “Rapid and Decisive Solutions of the World Energy Crisis and Global Warming” by T.E. Bearden, Dec 2007.
Ask the experts, why is this not possible?
Americans are watching
Before anyone gets excited about this T.E. Bearden, best to GOOGLE the name, and do a bit of research. Seems that he may be a bit of a wack-job. That said, any realistic measures to move our energy sources toward hydrogen and away from hydrocarbons, should be pursued with vigor.
Why do you need energy storage for wind and/or solar farms? Once you have 20 million electric or hybrid cars you simply charge them up when there is excess power. The utilities could charge less for peak production consumption. We only need to beef up the the powe rgrid to acocmodate this.
how about mandating each company(with certain number of employees) to have thier own vans/buses which operates from a bus station/ rail station of the town? Now people can take public transportation to their working town/city and thier employer will pick them from there to office…
America needs to stay FOCUSED, AWARE and EDUCATED.
History reminds us that every time oil prices peak and the North American market/consumers start to discuss alternative energy sources, the oil exporting countries start to trim down their prices. History also tells us that the oil exporting nations have been very successful in the past and in fact, we have lost our enthusiasm and dropped many of our alternative energy initiatives after oil prices are reduced.
WE need to stay focused this time.
1) Al Gore and his energy initiative is on course.
2) T. Boone Pickens and his wind power initiative is on course.
3) The BG Automotive Group mass production electric vehicle program is on
course along with renewable solar energy charging option.
4) Richard Branson from the UK is on course.
5) The Gas Reduction Act of 2008 might not be the most environmentally sound
solution, but yet it shows that Congress has finally realized that we have an
energy crisis (again), and a real threat to our national security.
The continued dependence on foreign oil is a threat to our long term democratic values. We must become an energy independent nation, and with this, some sacrifices will have to be made by the American consumer.
Be aware!!
We are exporting approximately USD $700 Billion dollars per year of U.S. currency. The majority of this money is being transferred to the Trillion dollar “sovereign wealth funds”. This is USD $700 Billion not being spent on America’s educational system, health care and security.
The “sovereign wealth funds” are directly buying major interests (large blocks of stock) in U.S. companies, including most of the major banks. Also, billions of dollars of “sovereign wealth fund” money is being invested in our hedge funds, private equity firms, and the investment banking industry. A few of these firms are directly and indirectly investing large sums of money into our “gas combustion” automobile industry. Do we want our auto industry in the direct or indirect control of the firms that are supplying us oil? This is an interesting topic for an investigative reporter.
There are automotive consulting companies in Michigan (heart of our auto industry), lobbying States and our Federal Government, NOT to subsidize the Electric Vehicle industry. The latter seems to be contradictory to what the American public would like to see from our automobile industry. After the billions (excess of $20 billion) the automotive companies have lost in the past 6 months producing gas combustion vehicles, you would think they too would change course. Changing course is not adding 2-4 miles per gallon w/Hybrids. Drastic measures in our auto industry must take place and NOW!
Do not let the temporary reduction in oil prices push us off course….AGAIN.
Read, Read, Read- Stay on top of the issues. Let’s not be fooled again.
STAY FOCUSED, AWARE and EDUCATED!
Let every one take positive action in an integrated fashion.reduce consumption.share transport & increase public road&rail transport on new routes.Develop alternative sources of energy-solar,wind,hydro,nuclear & continue R&D for finding ways for reducing hydrocarbon use by innovative technology.Be positive to join hands for global good!
Thorium based nuclear reactor have to be the future of our nation’s, and this world’s, energy supply. It is a clean, safe, and abundant energy supply. Check it out at energyfromthorium.com and thoriumenergy.blogspot.com
Finally we are “becoming” an “energy conscious” country! This is the time when we as Americans can show the world how to live more within our means and develop technologies that are both “state of the art” and good for the environment!
Now why would I want to take energy advice from the world’s largest individual polluter, Al Gore? Al, you would further advance your cause if you didn’t have such a large Carbon footprint. Try the “Do as I do concept not the do as I say concept” and you might just have a better response!!!
Studies have shown that having an indoor visible household meter that show energy consumption reduces the consumption simply by raising awareness of how much use is occuring. Where do I get one?
Giving public assets as blackmail to big oil companies to get lower gas prices has never worked. Yet, republicans continue to insist that we should contine to give more public assets to big oil companies and wait for them to lower gas prices…eventually. How long do republicans want voters to continue playing “blackmail fool and high gas price victim” to big oil companies?
My pie in the sky idea about using renewable energy sources to create fuel for fuel cells seems to be coming true (see comment from July 23). Check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/6qtxn6
My Brainstorm: demand Congress fund individual household conversion to Solar to the tune of trillions just as they funded the Iraqi war they claim to oppose.
Al Gore’s ideal is possible only one way:
1) Solar energy collection panels on individual houses, not in greedy corporate collectives.
2) Local energy storage in individual homes, not in greedy corporate collectives.
We can do this NOW, with technology as it exists today. However, with Marshall Plan type investing in the mass production of more efficient existing technology we can do even better.
I keep hearing, ‘power to the people’ from all you liberals and conservative.
Well here’s your chance: nothing you do in your entire lives will go so far to free so many people from the shackles of big business and big government as enabling energy independence on an individual basis. Demand it now.
I’m wondering, has anybody done the math? It will take 26,000,000 wind turbines to be put into operation to have 20% of our electricity from this resource. How long will it take to erect that many wind turbines? Surely more than 10 years. And countless miles of transmission lines will have to be built so that this electricity can be transmitted to where people live. All at the cost of billions and billions of dollars. Also there are locations where wind power is just not feasable. Now the auto industry is going ahead and producing electric cars which will only be powered from electricity powered from fossil fuels. Harry Reed and Nancy Pelosi are terrorists!!! 71% of US citizens are in favor of increasing drilling for offshore oil, yet they refuse to lift the ban. How is this repersenting the American people? America, we need a sound energy plan. I recommend that you email your Congressional and Senatorial members on this issue.
Interesting aside about re-architecting the suburbs when boomers start abandoning McMansions. Would love to see something more on that.