2nd Green Revolution

Whether you love him, hate him, or are indifferent, Steve Jobs has major street cred. His company makes products that are elegant, well-designed, easy to use, and revolutionary. The hype and excitement that accompanies the lead up to and release of a major Apple product is second to none. Not only that, but the products go on to be wildly successful, while turning entire industries upside down. Think the Macintosh in the computer industry, the iPod in the music industry, the iPhone in the mobile device/phone industry, and now perhaps the iPad in the publishing industry. The presence of Apple has done wonders not only for Apple but for the entire electronics sector. People are excited about seeing the next useful technology and how it is integrated into a computer, phone, or GPS system. All this begs the question: Is there someone who can lead a company to develop breakthrough technologies and integrate them in products in the clean energy sector that consumers will get excited about? Is it even possible to have that in regards to green technology? Who would be a candidate for the role? Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday KUNC, National Public Radio’s Northern Colorado affiliate reported that the clean energy economy had created 17,000 green jobs. According to GreenBiz.com

Venture capital is flowing into Colorado for green startups that see promise in the smart grid, energy storage and other clean tech technologies. “In 2008, we had $458 million of venture capital investments in Colorado. It’s just astounding,” Colorado Climate Change Coordinator Alice Madden said, noting that such investments have helped create 1,700 clean tech businesses in Colorado that provide 17,000 jobs.

The Colorado Governor’s Energy Office recently commissioned a green jobs report along with the Green Jobs Working Group (GJWG) and the American Solar Energy Society. The findings calculated that Read the rest of this entry »

This post comes from a 2nd Green Revolution reader who forwarded us the idea. Originally from the Maine Solar Primer booklet 2nd Edition by Richard Komp with drawings by Caleb Crawford, the SunGrabber is a relatively easy way to capture some of the sun’s heat by attaching a home-made solar panel to an existing window. Also known as a “thermal siphon”, the idea in its simplest form works on the principal that hot air rises. The best way to understand the concept is to look at the drawing after the jump or at this URL at Build It Solar. Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is by Alison Hopcroft,a sustainability and carbon management consultant who works for Fluid Market Strategies in Portland, Oregon. Alison is leading a free webinar on carbon management this Tuesday, March 2nd at 12pm EST.

Despite the fact that hope for meaningful climate legislation has all but completely disappeared for this session of Congress, climate regulation will be arriving at some point in the near future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the avenue for this regulation, and although many industry groups and a group of senators are challenging the EPA’s Endangerment Finding released last December advocating for a slower phase-in of regulations with higher reporting thresholds, the EPA’s Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule is still in effect (Read more about these challenges in the New York Times and the Washington Post)

Regulation means that there will be an increased need for professionals who can quantify and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Quantification is the accounting of all of an organization’s emissions, otherwise known as developing a GHG inventory. Verification is essentially an audit (the act of verifying that the quantification was performed accurately) and follows the reporting protocols and meets reporting standards. Read the rest of this entry »

Bloom Energy had the official public unveiling of their solid oxide fuel cell technology today in Silicon Valley. After years of flying under the radar as a stealth start-up, the company made it’s debut on the world stage with a bang. California governor Arnold Swarzenegger was on hand as was former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Google co-founder Larry Page, venture capitalist John Doerr, and executives from eBay, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and FedEx. These companies have been generating energy from Bloom Boxes (units that contain stacks of these fuel cells) on a trial basis. According to TechCrunch, “Five Bloom energy boxes about the size of a parking space each now provide 15 percent of the power at eBay’s campus. Walmart is testing the boxes in two locations where [they are] carrying 60 to 80 percent of the energy load of an entire store.” A video describing the technology can be found here. Below is Bloom Energy’s explanation of how their technology is more flexible and better than “hydrogen” fuel cells. Read the rest of this entry »

Green energy start-ups often promise revolutionary technology in going after the Holy Grail of clean, cheap, efficient, and abundant energy only to disappoint in the end. What makes Bloom Energy and the claims that they make any different? Well, perhaps nothing. But perhaps they will back up their talk when a mysterious countdown on their homepage is explained on Wednesday. Featured recently on 60 Minutes, the company is the product of a foray into business by former NASA engineer KR Sridhar. The origin of the technology goes back to a project to produce oxygen for astronauts on Mars. Once that program was scrapped by NASA, Sridhar reversed his design to make a fuel cell that uses oxygen and fuel to produce electricity. Read the rest of this entry »

The household cleaning product industry has given consumers a way to clean just about every type of stain, spill, mold, dirt, and blemish that there is. Many of them work as advertised, resulting in clean shower doors, mold free tile, spotless ovens and sparkling living spaces. The drawback to all this is that many of the most effective cleaners are either toxic, malodorous, and/or environmentally unfriendly. Ecodiscoveries, co-founded in 2007 by Emory University alumnus David Schurer, is aiming to dispel the stereotype that green cleaning products don’t work as well as more stringent solutions. The company promises that “safe has an effective side”. It currently sells five plant based and three enzyme based cleaners that are made for cleaning glass, kitchens, and baths using “all-natural substances to eliminate dirt and grime without toxic chemicals, fragrances, or dyes.”

In addition, Read the rest of this entry »

For those interested in learning more about the burgeoning field of carbon management, on March 2nd from 9am-10am PST(Noon EST), Fluid Market Strategies is hosting a webinar on the topic. Specifically, the event will “look at future regulations and why organizations must assess the carbon emissions in their operations, products, services and supply chain to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, increase sales and gain a competitive edge.” This could be informative for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and any organization that is interested in reducing costs. Fluid is a “privately held for-profit S-Corporation…founded in 2005 as a marketing and program management firm.” The company focuses on projects with an environmental or social benefit, specializing in energy efficiency and conservation.

We’ve been in contact with the event’s host and will provide more details next week.

- Justin Manger

Late last year Thomas Friedman was interviewed by Anne Strainchamps on Wisconsin Public Radio’s To The Best of Our Knowledge. The focus of the interview was the current green revolution, what we have taken to calling the second green revolution. He argues that everyone must participate if this is to be considered a true revolution.

In the interview, which can be heard here, Friedman claims that today’s measures fail to qualify as a revolution. He cites the general greenwashing of goods and services and argues that the day when every product achieves the highest energy efficiency will mark the next green revolution. What Friedman fails to acknowledge is that a revolution starts with a small force. However, his observation that “people actually have to change” is an important one. Behavioral changes represent the most daunting hurdle. Read the rest of this entry »

The world's largest lithium reserves are under the salt flats in Uyuni, Bolivia.

There’s no shortage of discussion about what the United States should do to wean itself off of oil. Such heavy dependence on one main fuel source to power our transportation systems (and thus keeping our economy humming) means the U.S. is vulnerable to the unpredictable gyrations of oil and gas prices. Aside from those concerns, security risks and political considerations from having to deal with OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)  and many less than democratic countries are often the cause of much strife. Last but not least are the environmental concerns from relying on a petroleum based economy. Electrification of the transportation sector has been hailed as one of the solutions to our current oil dependence. By switching to electric vehicles, it is argued, we can avoid many of the problems mentioned above. The need for a reliable and renewable electricity source other than coal to charge those cars is one major concern. The batteries needed to power our electric vehicles is another. Those batteries need lithium, and lithium is not so equitably dispersed around the world.  Is there a chance that there will one day be protests against “Big Lithium” or some other mineral instead of big oil? Here are a few facts about lithium today, taken from work by the Electrification Coaltion: Read the rest of this entry »