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Chai Reddy

The Future of Nuclear Energy - Andrew Winston - Harvard Business Review - 1 views

blogs.hbr.org/...future-of-nuclear-energy.html

nuclear energy harvard

shared by Chai Reddy on 15 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Chai Reddy on 15 Mar 11
     
    " * The Future of Nuclear Energy 3:13 PM Monday March 14, 2011 | Comments (11) * Email * Tweet This * Post to Facebook * Share on LinkedIn * Print FEATURED PRODUCTS Guide to Persuasive Presentations Guide to Persuasive Presentations by John Clayton, John Daly, Isa Engleberg, et al. $19.95 Buy it now » Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People by Harvard Business Review $22.00 Buy it now » HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials by Clayton Christensen, Thomas Davenport, Peter Drucker, et al. $24.95 Buy it now » It's way too soon to say anything definitive about what's going on in Japan. Who really knows what the outcome might be from the frightening breakdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant (the radioactive releases could go on for months)? But the speculation about what this means for a much-touted nuclear "renaissance" in the U.S. has begun. As the New York Times reported Monday, "U.S. Nuclear Industry Faces New Uncertainty." Some quick background: For years, no new nuclear plants were built in the U.S. But nuclear power is now being taken seriously again. Roughly 30 to 40 applications for new plants or expansions to existing facilities are moving through the process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). One of the main reasons nuclear is "back" is that it satisfies two very distinct interest groups: (1) pro-energy lobbyists and companies that usually sit on the right (although President Obama has adopted the rallying cry of "all-of-the-above" as an energy independence strategy as well), and (2) those who want to aggressively fight climate change, who usually camp out on the left. In the past, being an "environmentalist" of any stripe meant being anti-nuclear. More recently, however, some high-profile environmentally-minded people, such as Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, have been promoting nucle
Casey Agena

'Lot' of power - Hawaii Business - Staradvertiser.com - 0 views

www.staradvertiser.com/...20110413_Lot_of_power.html

hawaii solar

shared by Casey Agena on 13 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Casey Agena on 13 Apr 11
     
    Chevron Corp. has built the state's largest "solar canopy," a 414-kilowatt photovoltaic system positioned over 177 parking spaces at Oceanic Time Warner's headquarters in Mililani.
Chai Reddy

Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Year After Copenhagen, California Shows the Green Revolution I... - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...ter-copenhagen-c_b_785686.html

energy wind california Copenhagen carbon emissions

shared by Chai Reddy on 18 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • ey spent scores of millions trying to convince Californians that a vote for the environment was a vote against jobs, that a clean energy future would just be too costly. Of course, they cared little about jobs and more about fattening their wallets by peddling dirty energy.
  • Californians were aware that green technology is the only area of our economy creating new jobs right now -- 10 times more jobs since 2005 than any other sector.
  • hey know that 19,000 people are dying in California alone because of smog-related illness, costing many millions in health care.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Oslo, Norway, they have reduced energy consumption by 70 percent simply by using an innovative and energy-efficient form of streetlights without an international agreement. The African region of Okavango planted 300,000 acres of trees, which will sequester 30 million tons of carbon dioxide. The state of South Australia is on track to generate 33 percent of its power from renewable sources by the year 2020. Across its various regions, China is investing billions of dollars in electric and hybrid vehicles. South Africa is developing a solar project that, when complete, will provide one-eighth of all of the energy of the entire country. Twenty-nine of New York City's universities and hospitals have accepted Mayor Bloomberg's challenge to reduce their emissions by 30 percent within the next few years.
  • in California
  • orld's largest solar plant and the world's largest wind farm, providing enough energy to power 740,000 homes. We have already approved solar plants that will provide 4,000 megawatts of energy.
  • goal of generating 33 percent of our energy from renewables by the year 2020.
  • California is now 40 percent more energy efficient per capita than the rest of the United States. More than one-third of the world's clean-tech venture capital flows right here out of our state. We lead the nation in clean energy patents and clean energy businesses.
  • Solazyme
Casey Agena

China's Push Into Wind Worries U.S. Industry - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...16wind.html

China wind energy

shared by Casey Agena on 16 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Casey Agena on 16 Dec 10
     
    They are also the only three Chinese-made wind turbines operating in the United States. That could soon change, though, as Goldwind and other Chinese-owned companies plan a big push into the American wind power market in coming months.
Casey Agena

Fuel cells popping up in California - 0 views

www.latimes.com/...m-box-20101221,0,6209641.story

energy clean energy fuel cell technology

shared by Casey Agena on 22 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Casey Agena on 22 Dec 10
     
    An office park in Alhambra is about to start drawing a quarter of its electricity from the devices. It joins commercial properties in more than 40 cities statewide.
Casey Agena

HECO pursues palm oil - 0 views

www.staradvertiser.com/...221_HECO_pursues_palm_oil.html

energy clean energy

shared by Casey Agena on 21 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Casey Agena on 21 Feb 11
     
    Hawaiian Electric Co. engineers knew they were venturing into the unknown when company executives tasked them with finding out whether one of the utility's 40-year-old petroleum-fired steam generating units could run on crude palm oil.
Casey Agena

Sopogy thrives by thinking biga - 0 views

www.staradvertiser.com/..._thrives_by_thinking_biga.html

energy clean energy solar hawaii

shared by Casey Agena on 13 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Casey Agena on 13 Mar 11
     
    From its modest headquarters in an industrial area near Honolulu Airport, homegrown high-tech company Sopogy Inc. is taking on some of the world's biggest names in renewable energy. Launched in 2002 by local entrepreneur Darren Kimura, Sopogy has leveraged its expertise in the field of concentrated solar power to win contracts on the mainland and across the globe. Among its competitors are Siemens AG, a German conglomerate with a market capitalization of $116 billion, and Spain's Abengoa SA, another multibillion-dollar firm.
Chai Reddy

With Eye on Climate Change, Chicago Prepares for a Warmer Future - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...23adaptation.html

chicago nytimes.com climate change urban planning

shared by Chai Reddy on 23 May 11 - No Cached
  • Public alleyways are being repaved with materials that are permeable to water. The white oak, the state tree of Illinois, has been banned from city planting lists, and swamp oaks and sweet gum trees from the South have been given new priority. Thermal radar is being used to map the city’s hottest spots, which are then targets for pavement removal and the addition of vegetation to roofs. And air-conditioners are being considered for all 750 public schools, which until now have been heated but rarely cooled.
  • Cities adapt or they go away,” said Aaron N. Durnbaugh, deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment.
  • Insurance companies are applying pressure in high-risk areas, essentially saying adapt or pay higher premiums — especially in urban and commercial areas.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Civic Consulting Alliance, a nonprofit organization that builds pro bono teams of business experts. In this case, the alliance convinced consulting firms to donate $14 million worth of hours to projects like designing an electric car infrastructure and planning how to move the city toward zero waste.
  • The city’s 13,000 concrete alleyways were originally built without drainage and are a nightmare every time it rains. Storm water pours off the hard surfaces and routinely floods basements and renders low-lying roads and underpasses unusable.
  • Chicago spends over $10 million a year planting roughly 2,200 trees. From 1991 to 2008, the city added so many that officials estimate tree cover increased to 17.6 percent from 11 percent. The goal is to exceed 23 percent this decade.
Chai Reddy

Google, Tres Amigas Aim To Fix America's Electrical Grid With Novel Technologies - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...-electrical-grid_n_868090.html

green energy wind google grid

shared by Chai Reddy on 30 May 11 - No Cached
  • Google and other investors plan to build a 350-mile long undersea cable off the Atlantic coast, while Tres Amigas wants to create a 22-square mile superconductor “Superstation” to synchronize the nation's three major electrical grids.
  • Google’s backbone could open up hundreds of miles of ocean territory for offshore wind farms, and the Tres Amigas project would open up wind and solar projects in remote parts of New Mexico and Texas.
  • So far Google has invested a total of $400 million in clean energy projects. Google says it is pursuing the projects both because they make good business sense and because they make the company more environmentally responsible.
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  • The Atlantic Wind Connection project is still at an early stage, and no one knows if Google and its co-investors can pull it off
  • While grid difficulties are not unique to renewable energy, the sector has the most to gain from improvements because wind and solar depend on the weather and thus need to be able to send their extra energy across large distances as flexibly as possible to balance out supply fluctuations, experts say.
  • Tres Amigas is trying to connect the western, eastern and Texas power grids -- an idea the federal government proposed but failed to execute in the 1950s -- with a $1 billion plus project that could ultimately send 30 gigawatts zooming across the country. Because the three grids don't quite operate on the same frequency, Tres Amigas would use novel technology to synchronize the electricity: superconducting high-voltage direct current cables and new computer programs. Power would first need to be converted from AC to DC, then whipped around the superstation on the superconducting cables and finally be converted back to AC to be shipped off to another grid
Chai Reddy

In Reversal, Germany to Close Nuclear Plants by 2022 - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...31germany.html

germany nuclear nytimes.com energy

shared by Chai Reddy on 30 May 11 - No Cached
  • The German government agreed on Monday to phase out all nuclear power by 2022, a sharp reversal by Chancellor Angela Merkel aimed at appeasing the country’s intensified antinuclear movement.
  • We want the electricity of the future to be safe, but also to remain reliable and affordable,” Mrs. Merkel said in a statement on the government Web site announcing the change.
  • The 48-page energy security report submitted Monday took an opposing view, saying the commission was “firmly convinced that an exit from nuclear energy can be achieved within a decade.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • It identified wind, solar and water as alternatives, as well as geothermal energy and so-called biomass energy from waste, as alternative power sources.
Chai Reddy

U.S. Said to Be Falling Behind in 'Green' Technologies - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...09subsidies.html

NYTimes.com u s green china japan korea

shared by Chai Reddy on 09 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • “The United States was a nearly untouched market with 120 million homes, most of them very energy-inefficient — it was a massive opportunity
  • Many European countries — along with China, Japan and South Korea — have pushed commercial development of carbon-reducing technologies with a robust policy mix of direct government investment, tax breaks, loans, regulation and laws that cap or tax emissions. Incentives have fostered rapid entrepreneurial growth in new industries like solar and wind power, as well as in traditional fields like home building and food processing, with a focus on energy efficiency.
  • A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that while the clean technology sector was booming in Europe, Asia and Latin America, its competitive position was “at risk” in the United States because of “uncertainties surrounding key policies and incentives.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The aggressive entry of Britain into the field over the last few years shows the power of government inducements to redesign a nation’s energy economy away from traditional fuel. The country’s Green Deal, as it is called, is currently being spearheaded by the Conservative-led coalition government. In Britain, reducing carbon dioxide emissions was one of the few policies supported by political parties of both the right and left, which both accepted that climate change was a serious problem and saw clean technology investment as a growth opportunity rather than an onerous obligation.
  • Dr. Arun Majumdar, senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said that the department’s $5 billion budget for research should be tripled as it currently financed less than 5 percent of proposed projects. He said the country needed better low-cost financing methods to bring companies into the market, as well as stricter energy-efficiency standards to stimulate customer demand.
Chai Reddy

Solar Panels Take to the Water - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...20float.html

solar water nytimes.com

shared by Chai Reddy on 20 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • several start-up companies see potential for solar panels that float on water
  • ompanies trying to develop a market for solar panels on agricultural and mining ponds, hydroelectric reservoirs and canals
  • Sunengy, for example, is courting markets in developing countries that are plagued by electricity shortages but have abundant water resources and intense sunshine
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