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Interesting discussion on the diffusion of solar energy around the world and especially in the US. The main point is: is solar energy a valid energy source, and is just in need to have some economies of scale and learning to kick in? If so, government subsidies may be helpful... but don't they bring the risk of locking us into a wrong technology, or simply the wrong technological generation?

"Green" energy is a trickly field for innovation. Energy is a pure commodity, and the market will never choose green over carbon-based energy unless it is cheaper. But green technology will not get to that point of maturity unless government introduces subsidies and/or carbon taxes. True, this is a cost for today, but also a potential driver of economic growth for the near future and for even greater benefits further on. The problem - of course - is in balancing benefits and cost.

An introductory article on the radical innovation that is entering the field of energy distribution: the smart grid, that will use IT to optimize the balance between distributed production and demand.

A short summary of Jeremy Rifkin's new book. An interesting perspective that we might consider meta-paradigmatic. In other words, the position is that changes we are observing in a number of fields (i.e. distributed energy generation and smart grids, social networking, open source innovation, etc.) are symptoms of a more radical change at societal level, from individualistic self-interest to collective "shared interest",from the pursuit of wealth and property rights to a broader concept of "quality of life". 

The paradigm shift to electric cars and to the "smart grid" in electricity distribution is happening.What is particularly interesting is the complementarity and potential convergence between the two innovations, if V2G (Vehicle to Grid) technology develops as promised. In this case, the batteries in parked cars could become distributed accumulators of surplus energy and feed it back into the grid. 

IT is a peculiar technology, rather similar to electricity. Rather than being a sector on its own, it is becoming an enabling technology stimulating radical innovation for an ever broader range of industries. After telecoms, then media, and many other industries, it is now the turn of energy to be affected by "smart grid" technology. Spotting the next radical and disruptive inovation could be easy: just try finding an industry where IT has not yet created a lot of change.

Look around you. Are you at an electric vehicle charging station? If so, good for you! If not, that's okay, because the things are still mighty rare. California-based Coulomb is helping to change that, expanding its operations with deals that will see its ChargePoint networked charging stations appear in Poland and in Australia. The Warsaw-based station is powered by juice from 365 Energy, while the Sydney one is being run by GoGet, a sort of Aussie Zipcar, if you catch our drift, mate. They join the 600 stations that Coulomb deployed in 2009 and are part of the thousands the company hopes to scatter about in this year. Both forward-reaching press releases are included for your enjoyment after the break, either of which make for great reading while your Tesla hungrily sucks down the electrons.

BP was lauded for renaming itself "beyond petroleum" a few years ago. This paper discusses how it is now backtracking from this radical jump. Path dependency exists after all!