Comments for Cleantech Blog

Comment on Ford Expands Customer Choice – Lowers Manufacturing Cost by John Addison

John Addison — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:40:13 +0000

These vehicles easily accelerate to 80 miles per hour and much faster. The gasoline engine assists the electric motor when the car leaves EV mode at 62 mph or sooner depending on battery charge and driving conditions. That's the beauty of hybrids and plug-in hybrids.

Comment on Ford Expands Customer Choice – Lowers Manufacturing Cost by Jacob Silver

Jacob Silver — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:03:06 +0000

Most people, over 80%, live in cities, and most of the time the use of the car does not equal 50 miles a day, and it never goes above 30mph. Also, here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, there are no interstate highways around here, and in most of the peninsula. The speed on the highway is 55, but, when the weather is good, many people go 60. When the weather is not good, with much snow as now, people go between 35 and 50. Undoubtedly, some people use interstates where they are, and they do travel quickly. But don't confuse those people with the driving practice of the vast majority of people.

Comment on Ford Expands Customer Choice – Lowers Manufacturing Cost by Guest

Guest — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:49:53 +0000

There are so many qualifiers on this car it's not even worth it.
Let's look at the elephant in the room- "all electric provided that the driver does not go faster than 62 mph"
The speed limit for most major highways is 65 mph AND if you do go 65 mph you'll get run off the road (at least in DE, NJ, NY, PA)
You are decreasing the cargo space by 20% for the batteries- you can put the batteries anywhere, why decrease cargo space- do what BMW or Tesla did, make it a plate and put as part of the structure
Also look at the battery manufacture, LG, (AKA Goldstar) LG is NOT a high end electronics manufacturer, the are mediocre, not the best, not the worst. I would trust Panasonic, Samsung, Sony or Energizer alot more.
Lastly, consider that Ford does not have a great track record when it comes to electricity and fires. They had millions of vehicles recalled due to electrical issues with the cruise control in the mid 1990's to early 2000's. A company that had a decade long issue with electrical problems would be the last car company I would trust with high voltage.

Comment on Blue Is The New Green by @dailyenergynews

@dailyenergynews — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:38:19 +0000

I like the idea plus "Green" has another meaning not really connected to environmentalism.

"Green thoughts"

Comment on Blue Is The New Green by Muir Woods

Muir Woods — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:27:36 +0000

It seems appropriate. After 35 years as a cleantech entrepreneur, not only am I feeling Blue, but I'm turning Blue from lack of oxygen. Of course, the Republicans won't like that much, Blue being the team colors of the enemy and all, but they've always figured cleantech for a commie plot.

On the other hand, maybe the new cleantech color should be Red. That will play to their prejudice and their team colors, not to mention the industry's collective P&L.

Personally, I've always liked Orange, the color of democracy and revolution, but it's increasingly clear that our corporate masters aren't going to stand for any of those shenanigans here.

Seriously, does an industry with so much promise and so few profits have any business even considering a rebranding exercise?

I'm just trying to get in the Black, and not Fade to Black.

Comment on Blue Is The New Green by Derek

Derek — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:36:12 +0000

Again, I believe Tom Friedman as well as Shai Agassi started this 'movement' almost two years ago.

Comment on Banking on a Low-Carbon Energy Future by Jaume Morron

Jaume Morron — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:06:43 +0000

I think nuclear contribution is highly overestimated and some data obsolete. See table on Nuclear energy targets and incentives in selected countries in page 26.

Comment on Shale gas is starting to affect markets…. by Muir Woods

Muir Woods — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:04:13 +0000

Mark,

You are absolutely right, the current pricing model for utility electricity benefits rooftop PV in some perverse ways. One might expect a model that looks more like cellphone pricing to emerge, except that brings other challenges to the business. Much like the telecom model, thing current group of monopolies probably have to die off and be replaced by new and different players for this to all sort itself out. It's a crying shame, but creative destruction is not just a theory, it's a fact.

Comment on Shale gas is starting to affect markets…. by Mark Henwood

Mark Henwood — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:04:10 +0000

Muir – thanks for your thoughts. PV serves two markets – (1) grid connected utility scale and (2) inside the meter. The grid connected utility scale projects are competing in a market where gas powered combined cycle projects are a very real option – so natural gas prices count and solar will feel the pressure. Inside the meter projects currently are the darlings of regulation – in most markets a PV project gets to offset average rates and may even get to net meter accross time periods. But remember, average rates include costs for generation, transmission, and distribution. To the extent a PV owner gets this deal their share of the transmission and distribution costs are getting picked up by other customers. This won't go on forever (so consumers need to install while the installing is good) and utilities have a zillion rate/tariff tools to attack this issue. And when they do inside the fence PV will start getting evaluated against generation costs.

Comment on 2011 In The Rear-View Mirror: Objects May Be Closer Than They Appear by Mark Henwood

Mark Henwood — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:43:49 +0000

Nice summary. As a bit of an aside, I'm continually dumbfounded when the discussion about "Energy Independence and Security" includes discussions of lighting efficiency or solar power. Both these technologies reduce the amount of electricity that needs to be generated. Since electricity is generated inorder from (1) coal, (2) natural gas, (3) nuclear, (4) hydro, and (5) a little bit of things like geothermal, wind, solar, and biomass, and we really don't have a security or supply issue with these sources, lighting and solar have nothing to do with "Energy Independence and Security". IMO the only real security issue we have is with crude oil supplies. 72% of oil goes to transportation – our real challenge as a nation and for energy entrepenuers is to develop non-petroleum based transporation solutions – particularly ones that consumers want or that truckers can practically use.

Comment on Think Small – Electric City Cars by EVmaps

EVmaps — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:40:09 +0000

For electric city cars they would need a good recharging infrastructure. Find your charging station http://www.evmaps.info

Comment on Think Small – Electric City Cars by ff0rt

ff0rt — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:04:17 +0000

I think that, in the long run, a good system of public transportation is even more important than an electric car park.

Comment on Think Small – Electric City Cars by Daniel Milstein

Daniel Milstein — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:15:40 +0000

Introducing electricity cars for small car lovers is a great idea and it is so useful in present life with a four wheeler and now a days buyers looking for good value and fuel economy find subcompacts appealing and hatchback versions flexible in handling four passengers and cargo space.

Comment on Project Finance for Renewables by Mark Fraser

Mark Fraser — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:16:19 +0000

The "loss given default" in the combined project loan portfolios of the four banks is around 25%. The majority of the defaulted project finance loans resulted in a restructuring with 100% of loan value retained. Each of the four banks had an individual average recovery rate significantly over 50%.

Comment on 2011 In The Rear-View Mirror: Objects May Be Closer Than They Appear by EVmaps

EVmaps — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:21:45 +0000

It is good that electric vehicles are mentioned in the article. We support the point of view that is focusing on new technologies in transportation area.

Comment on How P2P car sharing could impact Zipcar IPO by rent-n-roll

rent-n-roll — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:13:49 +0000

The idea of p2p carsharing is also becoming more important in Germany. An example of this is the young startup company rent-n-roll, which can be found on http://www.rent-n-roll.de/ . However, I guess that P2P models and Collaborative Consumption in general will need some time to become truly popular over here...

Comment on 2011 In The Rear-View Mirror: Objects May Be Closer Than They Appear by Patricia Porter

Patricia Porter — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:19:53 +0000

U.S. needs an energy policy, not the subsidies that led to flameouts like Solyndra. I see your logic on the Excel pipeline. What's your opinion on the dangers of fracking? Seems nat gas could be a good bridge fuel if Washington made it part of a bigger plan. Hey, at least Congress let the ethanol subsidy die!

Comment on Shale Gas Poses Financial Threat to Clean Tech by Methane

Methane — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:46:58 +0000

What about the incredibly high heat trapping hazards of methane? 72 times greater than CO2. What about December's reports of methane plumes outgassing from the Arctic in alarming volumes? What about methane leaks from natural gas production and melting permafrost accelerating climate disruption? What about litigation from methane leaks contaminating drinking water? What about methane leaks contaminating water in areas of water scarcity? What about the prospects of climate policies triggering stricter regulation of gas production and handcuffing natural gas investors with unexpectedly higher risks? What about this last year's record $52 billion in extreme weather event damages and the high risks and threats posed for drilling operations in hurricane and other extreme weather prone areas? Put those costs in the numerator of your $/Mcf figures. Hitching your kayak to natural gas investments in the face of year-after-year of broken climate records and the rising risks posed by fugitive methane emissions is a high risk wager. Cleantech is the wiser, safer, lower risk choice. Investors would be wise to look downstream and consider which fork takes them through Class VI rapids and which one takes them through calmer waters.

Comment on Shale gas is starting to affect markets…. by Muir Woods

Muir Woods — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:57:31 +0000

Good post, but I think you might be mixing the sheep and the goats a bit. Low natural gas prices have certainly led to construction commitments for chemical, energy and fertilizer plants and I'm surprised we haven't seen a Gas To Liquids refinery announcement, but I expect we will eventually.

But the depressed solar PV stocks are more than a couple of links removed, driven more by an oversupply than the economics of retail electricity.

In fact, at the installation level, the PV module glut is depressing prices and increasing installations in North America. In some areas, tax incentives and subsidies have followed module prices down, but retail electric rates haven't dropped much, if at all. One could even make the case that low natural gas prices are going to have the mid-term effect of raising rates by driving fully depreciated coal plants out of the market, their output to be replaced by natural gas fired plants that still have some capital cost to recover and generate more expensive electricity.

To be sure, when this happens, the utilities will blame it on the "high cost renewables" they've been forced to adopt.

Comment on Shale Gas Poses Financial Threat to Clean Tech by Alex White

Alex White — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:58:40 +0000

I have been following this guy in Austin, TX who has a technology to burn natural gas with oxygen and reduce CO2 emissions by 80%. Coal and existing NG power plants can be retrofitted. His breakthrough is the ability to produce oxygen for a very low cost. He also can supply nitrogen to the same power plants to be used for cooling. They’d no longer need to use our rivers, lakes and streams.

I work in the energy field. With the advent of shale gas prices are more predictable and we are beginning to see 20 year contracts at $4-$6 Mcf. Oxy-fuel combustion is an existing technology. The electricity produced will be LESS than coal-generated electricity.

Solar has a place in our energy mix, but a very small place, perhaps up to 5%. Plus, it’s still very expensive.

I think our resources would be better spent cleaning up our existing power plants than wasting money on solar. If we can reduce CO2 by 80% from the power sector and do it affordably, it’s a clear choice.

You can see more at: http://www.solutioneur.com