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Energy Intelligence Columns
The Magic of Energy Engineering
July 15, 2010
Engineers love to do the seemingly impossible. Plus they sure can build and do incredible things - from monster machines like the Deepwater Horizon (which 99.9% of the time worked amazingly fine) or a Boeing 777 to exquisite machines like the Mars Rover or the iPad.
Smart Grid Revolution Starts with Big-Electron Storage
May 14, 2010
Think of storing and moving electrons the same way we already do the electronic pulses of data across the Internet. This is big.
Spills and Meltdown: What Drillers Need to Learn from Nukes
May 3, 2010
A billion-dollar energy facility destroyed. The "fail safe" safety technology fails. Billions in clean-up costs. Finger-pointing. Confusion. Tantrum-like calls to shut 'em all down. A rethinking of federal oversight. A president weighs in, and next up a high-level presidential commission.
Early Warning Funding Plays Second Fiddle to Climate Change
April 20, 2010
The late comedian George Carlin would surely have had some fun with both the name, and the fallout, from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano.
Oil Reality Check: It's Going Higher
April 5, 2010
Absent a nuclear war, pandemic or another Great Recession, oil demand is going back up faster than supply.
Space: The Only Frontier
February 16, 2010
President Obama is making a mistake by shelving manned space exploration. We need a space program that inspires and elevates the spirit.
Smart Security Right Under the (Dog's) Nose
January 14, 2010
Specially trained K-9 troops are a great asset in sniffing out trouble, but silicon solutions are more scalable.
Copenhagen's Future Schlock
December 18, 2009
It is sheer hubris for humans, even the supposedly smart ones, to believe they can predict the future with any accuracy.
C.P. Snow Was Wrong
November 6, 2009
Forget the clash between humanities and science. The only cultures that really count are information, creation and organization.
Wealth Creation is No Crime
October 21, 2009
It's fashionable to take swipes at the greedy and ignorant boobs who run American business, but don't spread the blame universally.
Work and Energy
September 9, 2009
Unemployment has hit worrisome levels while the energy economy gears up for a renewable future. Here's our chance to take care of both.
Battery IPO Could Recharge New Issue Market
August 31, 2009
A123 is set to issue shares to the public in what has become a rare event in capital markets. A warm reception may suggest a thaw is under way.
Don't Bet On $800-A-Barrel Oil
July 24, 2009
A tsunami of fuel innovation will be unleashed well before gasoline costs $20 a gallon.
We Need More Renaissance Scientists
June 3, 2009 (with Julio Ottino)
President Obama wants to spend money to mint more scientists, but he'd better be careful that he's helping build whole-brain thinkers.
Optimism Despite the March of the Economists
May 4, 2009
There seems to be a sense again that all that's to be invented has been invented. That's lunacy. Not in recent memory have economists been so popular, nor were more in the steady march of dispensing wisdom nightly on TV, in columns, installed as federal potentates, czars of financial recovery and as pundits, prognosticators and purveyors of wisdom – everywhere.
The Efficacy of Presidential Energy Policy
April 7, 2009
From FDR to Barack Obama, occupants of the White House have at least attempted to control how we use energy sources.
Optimism and the Physics of (Energy) Policy
November 25, 2008
President's need not be modern equivalents of Fermi or Oppenheimer to use physics to advance human achievement.
Smart Machines Save Energy
October 30, 2008
The only consolation in this financial meltdown has been the collapse in oil prices. But that's bad news for fans of alternative energy and, at first blush, appears bad for energy efficiency policies, too.
Giant Leaps and Small Steps for Energy Technology
October 9, 2008
President Kennedy's 1961 speech launched the Apollo Program. Imagine if he had invoked the spirit of the Roaring '20s and the technology of the first radio broadcasts. That's the time span that separates today from the Apollo and, even longer, from the Manhattan projects that were embraced as archetypes for 21st century energy policy. While historically impressive, those programs fail as models to meet our energy needs.
The Automobile Shifts Gears
September 16, 2008
The future of the automobile is being fought on the two stages of politics and raw capitalism. No surprise, given that cars are at the epicenter of not only oil demand and manufacturing might, but also technology deployment. Both presidential aspirants (cars seem to bring out the inner dweeb in the candidates) have tech-centric future-car plans. Not coincidentally, the world's two largest automakers have started a Kabuki dance over who will lead the next secular shift in automotive technology from whence 21st century market dominance will emerge. Regardless of who wins either battle, the transformation of the car, over time, alters energy markets in far-reaching ways.
Brownout
June 30, 2008
What happens when you don't build more power plants? Get ready for spiking electricity rates, brownouts and even blackouts as demand soars. If you think runaway oil prices are upsetting, just wait for what's in store for electricity. Similar forces are in play. Demand is rising fast; supply is not. Go Long on Lithium
May 5, 2008
Everyone wants his laptop, or smart phone, to run a week between recharges. Of course while playing a hi-def movie or surfing the Net, respectively. Verizon Communications would like its cell towers to run at least a day, instead of minutes, during power outages. The military would like its slick but power-hungry communications and surveillance systems to run all night, whether on dismounted soldiers or stealthy armored vehicles. Welcome to the electric-centric, digitally accelerated world of rechargeable batteries, from Segways and wheelchairs to data centers and cable networks, portable medical equipment and power tools.
The LED Illumination Revolution
February 27, 2008
Apparently, it's time to ban Edison's venerable, now vilified, light bulb. European leaders, green pundits and the widely reported light bulb provisions of the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 all urgently push the abandonment of incandescent bulbs. The plan appears to be to convince everyone to switch to compact fluorescent lights (CFL), a technology that was introduced in the 1930s and perfected when rock was young and computers used vacuum tubes. What irony. The Sport Utility Building Tax
November 7, 2007
Live in an average-sized house? Took a vacation at a typical resort? Attending college in one of the newer dorms? Got lucky and bought a vacation home? In energy terms, some people would have just one word for any of the above: Oink. Energy Numerology: 80, 150, and 14,000
October 10, 2007 From the Fed to the top business periodicals, analysts are trying to unravel the underlying explanation for an economy pushing past a Dow 14,000 with oil in the $80 per barrel range. Conventional energy- economic wisdom had it that the latter would kill the former.
Bubble Energy
September 11, 2007
Talk of an alternative energy "bubble" started percolating in the trade and cyber-press over the past several months. The fact is, the staid Dow Jones industrial average has done as well or better than most alternative energy indexes. So, hot, or not? Since global energy demand is rising unabated, the core question is, how big a piece can alternatives capture?
Demand-Side Economics
August 17, 2007
It seems inevitable when Congress returns that there will be new energy legislation. Understandable. Civilizations cannot survive much less thrive without abundant, reliable energy supplies. The bellwether energy commodity, oil, is at prices at or near record levels, and turmoil continues in the Middle East, from which the world gets over one-third of its petroleum.
Amber Waves of Green
July 26, 2007
Once upon a time, a century ago, Americans competed with their transportation for food. Back then, almost 30% of the nation's verdant farm land was used to grow food for fuel--feeding horses, of course, our bio-chemical transportation infrastructure, instead of today's thermo-mechanical horsepower. Those days are gone.
Yellowcake Fever
June 28, 2007
Most investors have no idea that there is currently a mad speculative scramble going on in the commodities markets over the future price of uranium. Yellowcake, the raw unrefined uranium oxide from mines, has jumped from $10 per pound five years ago to $138 per pound recently. A year ago, yellowcake was selling for $45 per pound.
Google & Intel: Saving the Climate and Margins
June 15, 2007
A half-dozen years ago, an Internet eternity, the green punditocracy actually saw the World Wide Web as a tool that was virtually energy-free. Some even said the Web would just piggyback on the "existing telecom" infrastructure, surf along existing wires, sipping electrons.
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