Energy Economy

30 megawatts of power on a flat bed trailer

acohill — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:04:37 -0700

New Mexico continues to roar far ahead of the rest of the country with a wide ranging mix of game-changing economic development strategies. The state seems to be successfully attracting the brightest and best entrepreneurs and businesspeople in the country, and economic developers in the state are greasing the skids with investments in space, energy, and entertainment.

The latest news out of New Mexico is a firm called Hyperion Power Generation that has licensed nuclear power technology from Los Alamos National Labs. The company has designed a 30 megawatt nuclear power plant that can be delivered by tractor trailer--one tractor trailer--for the basic reactor component.

The system uses a form of nuclear fuel that self-limits the amount of heat generated, and the basic design is so safe that the technology has been licensed by the Federal government for unattended operation. The firm plans to manufacture 4,000 of the version 1 design, and expects to be able to deliver them in less than twelve months from receipt of an order.

Wave energy may power Google

acohill — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:07:26 -0700

Google's power hungry servers continue to send the company out to look for cheaper sources of electric power. According to this article, the search giant is studying the idea of putting massive banks of servers on giant barges tethered in the ocean, where wave energy would generate the power needed for the servers.

Electric cars in Kentucky

acohill — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:28:15 -0700

Zap electric cars will be built in Kentucky. They have been built in China, but the cost of hauling them from China has become too expensive. So manufacturing is moving closer to customers, and the Energy Economy is going to unfold much like this--getting energy and energy saving devices as close to customers as possible.

Power grid is not ready for wind

acohill — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:05:28 -0700

The New York Times has a story about an emerging problem with wind power: the power grid can't handle it. Putting massive new energy generation sources out in the middle of nowhere won't work if you don't have high capacity power lines that can carry the electricity to where it is needed. So one of the hidden costs of wind power (or solar, or any other new generation source) is getting the power to the right place at the right time.

On a smaller scale, home-based electric generation projects (e.g. Vehicle To Grid (V2G), roof-mounted solar panels, etc.) are already looking at this problem. Design Nine is part of a team led by VPT Energy Systems that will be studying how to develop components and overall system designs for integrated energy systems that include plug-connected vehicles and distributed energy resources (supported by the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories). Part of the solution, both on the small scale of home-based energy sources and on the large scale energy sources like wind farms and solar panel farms, is to have a robust and reliable broadband network that allows dynamic and interactive control of both electric loads and electric generation facilities.

Communities that begin addressing broadband and electric power as two parts of the same basic infrastructure challenge have a powerful economic development advantage, with the side benefit of potentially evolving quickly into a "green" community with renewable energy sources that help keep energy costs lower.

Air travel becoming an expensive luxury

acohill — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:48:57 -0700

This brief report discusses the fact that airlines are dropping nonstop flights even to and from major cities like New York. For business, this is devastating, as the increased cost of tickets can, to some extent, be moderated via other cost-cutting measures. But sending business people on trips that take all day instead of three or four hours is devastating, because you can't recover the lost time spent traveling.

Like it or not, business videoconferencing is going to become much more important more quickly, and bandwidth (or the lack of it) will determine how much it is used in any particular community or business area.

Power and broadband drive economic development

acohill — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:25:19 -0700

In a series of broadband planning meetings earlier this week, I heard about several companies that were seriously considering moving their operations to another city if the local electric power infrastructure was not improved. The firms said they were experiencing multiple outages per month that often lasted an hour or more.

It is not just "old" manufacturing businesses that are vulnerable to electric power interruptions. Any firm that uses IT to manage their business (i.e. almost all businesses) can be affected by power outages, and sudden power outages can not only stop business and manufacturing processes, but can also stop ecommerce as well, if the servers taking orders are offline because of power interruptions.

Economic developers: When was the last time you asked your businesses about the reliability of their electric service? Do you want to lose a relocation prospect because of lack of quality electric power?

Is California the new Detroit?

acohill — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:26:14 -0700

Aptera Motors just raised $24 million in funding. The company plans to build a super-efficient car. That makes Aptera at least the second new car company in California, following in the footsteps of Tesla Motors, which makes the super-fast Tesla electric sports car. The increase in gas prices is going to create tremendous new business and economic development opportunities for communities that are out talking to their businesses and studying how to leverage energy assets and broadband.

Tennessee is ready for electric cars

acohill — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:54:25 -0700

Tennessee legislators have done a very simple and very smart thing. They have passed legislation that allows small electric cars with limited speed (e.g. up to 35 mph) travel on roads where the posted speed limit is 40 mph.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it is, as it opens the possibility for a lot more people to purchase small electric cars (think "golf carts with doors") and use them for around town commuting and errands. These small cars are inexpensive, economical to operate, and don't use a drop of gas. With the right attitude at state and Federal levels, they could contribute to a significant reduction in the use of imported oil over time. Every state should adopt a version of this law--according to the article, only three states (Tennessee, Montana, Washington) allow this use right now. At the Federal level, relaxed licensing and safety standards would also accelerate the use of alternative energy vehicles. A car that can only go 35 mph does not need to meet interstate highway safety standards.

Pure Electric Vehicle is just what we need

acohill — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:28:53 -0700

The Pure Electric Vehicle is just what we need. If this car actually gets built, it has the simplicity, low cost, and small size that could potentially win millions of buyers. The designer is promising to sell it for $9,999, meaning it will only cost the equivalent of four tanks of gas 8^). Kidding aside, for the price, a lot of households could quickly justify the cost of this vehicle as a second or third car.

The car is exactly as it is named, a "pure" electric vehicle, meaning it runs on batteries--no complicated hybrid gear trains, fossil fuel engines, or esoteric batteries. The car uses off the shelf sealed lead acid batteries, meaning they are cheap and easy to make. The car has a top speed of 65 mph, which is fine for around town errands and commuting, and could easily be recharged while sitting in the company parking lot from a cheap solar panel in the back window.

Why VPNs are important to communities

acohill — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:11:55 -0700

VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, are fast becoming a major issue with respect to broadband. A VPN is a way for a remote user (e.g. from home, traveling) to be connected to the corporate or business network as if he or she was in the office. It gives the home-based worker or business traveler complete access to all the documents and services he or she would normally have sitting at their desk.

But here's the rub: VPNs work best over high performance, well-designed broadband networks. I'm on vacation right now, and have to connect through a wireless signal. The VPN barely works. I can connect, but transferring files is painfully slow, and I keep getting time outs.

As more and more people start working from home part time to avoid the high cost of driving, community broadband efforts will begin hearing more and more about VPNs. If we are going to save energy, community broadband networks have to support business class connectivity and bandwidth. Neighborhoods are going to be business districts in the Energy Economy.