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"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

Economic Growth, The Financial Crisis, and Peak Oil For several years, a swelling subculture of commentators (which includes the present author) has been forecasting a financial crash, basing this prognosis on the assessment that global oil production was about to peak. (2) Our reasoning went like this: Continual increases in population and consumption cannot continue forever on a finite planet. This is an axiomatic observation with which everyone familiar with the mathematics of compounded arithmetic growth must agree, even if they hedge their agreement with vague references to "substitutability" and "demographic transitions." (3) This axiomatic limit to growth means that the rapid expansion in both population and per-capita consumption of resources that has occurred over the past century or two must cease at some particular time. But when is this likely to occur? The unfairly maligned Limits to Growth studies, published first in 1972 with periodic updates since, have attempted to answer the question with analysis of resource availability and depletion, and multiple scenarios for future population growth and consumption rates. The most pessimistic scenario in 1972 suggested an end of world economic growth around 2015. (4)

LONDON (Reuters) - The booming mining sector may have peaked in terms of net profit margins after costs surged more than revenues last year for top firms, a report released on Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers said.

I believe this assumption is basically incorrect. The current financial crisis is a direct result of peak oil. There may be oscillations in the economic situation, but generally, we can't expect things to get much better. In fact, there is a very distinct possibility that things may get very much worse in the next few years. In this post, I will put together some of the pieces I see. This post is based on a presentation, so includes more than the usual amount of graphics. The post repeats many things I have said before, but I wanted to bring more of the pieces together into more of an overview article. This is a link to a PDF version of the presentation. This is a link to the Powerpoint version.

GP Autoparts Limited, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-listed industrial group Gold Peak Industries, announced that it will sell its 50% stake in Shanghai Jinting Automobile Harness Limited to Etern Group for RMB320M (US$50.8M). Shanghai Jinting Automobile Harness Limited produces wiring harnesses for both Chinese and international autos companies. In a statement released by Gold Peak Industries, the company cited increasing competition in the wiring harness sector, as well as the pending expiry of key long term contracts as reasons for the divestment.

"The transition to a more decentralised and intelligent energy system will continue in 2017, driven by the continued regulatory support for renewable energy in a number of key markets. The 3 Ds of energy are driving future investment - increased decentralisation, the need to decarbonise electricity generation, and digitisation to boost the sector's operational efficiency and open up new market opportunities. The highest growth rates will be for solar PV, with investment forecast to increase by 11.5% to €141.6 billion in 2017. China continues to be the largest market in terms of revenue investment, but the fastest growth will come from India, which will see double-digit growth in investment to 2020. New business models that incentivise smarter consumption patterns, and the growth of energy storage technologies, will increasingly reduce the need for peak capacity investment in mature energy markets."

LUSAKA, July 18 (Reuters) - Zambian authorities have granted a licence for the new Mkushi copper project where production of copper concentrate is scheduled to start in mid-2010 and peak at 59,000 tonnes

Steel prices are expected to reach £1000 a tonne by the end of the year, according to a survey carried out by the Federation of Environmental Trade Associations among a hundred member companies of the Association of Ductwork Contractors & Allied Services - a rise of 50% in just 12 months. The survey also found that while prices had risen by about 20% since December, they were expected to soar by over 30% in the following six months. There is also no sign of when the upward trend will peak. Paul Roxburgh of ADCAS, says, 'This is a problem that affects the whole industry, and one that requires a collective response. 'We will be working with our colleagues in the contracting sector to make sure that there's a realistic approach to increased costs - particularly in the context of long-term fixed-price contracts.' ADCAS is also to boost its efforts to boost efficiency, such as encouraging the use of only standard sizes for spiral ductwork and components.

There's been chatter here and there about how much recoverable lithium there is in the world, and whether our move toward electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries will create a "peak lithium" scenario.

Furukawa Electric has reported a recent improvement in its magnet wire production, and plans a monthly production in fiscal 2009 (ending March 2010) of 1,500 tonnes of enamelled wire and 85,000 km of triple insulated magnet wire; this is 70-75% (for enamelled wire) and 80-85% (for triple insulated magnet wire) of the peak levels produced in April-September 2008. Enamelled wire production could reach 1,700-1,800 tonnes per month in October 2009-March 2010. Furukawa Electric's domestic magnet wire production is being consolidated into its Mie Works in order to cut costs; production at its Hiratsuka Works will transfer to Mie within 2009.

Data released by the Japan Copper and Brass Association showed that copper semis output rose to 72,328t in May 2011, a 2.4% m-o-m and 0.1% y-o-y increase. Production was supported by strong demand from energy efficient air conditioner makers, who raised production ahead of the peak demand season. This compensated for weak demand from the semiconductor and automotive sectors.

"At the start of the decade, Network Rail was hit by a wave of cable thefts which approached 1,000 cases a year as the price of scrap copper and other industrial metals soared. New data show that thefts in England and Wales fell below 41,000 in the year 2013-14 - down from 60,000 in the previous 12 months. "In recent years, we have witnessed a huge reduction in the number of incidents of cable theft on the railway," said a Network Rail official. "Disruption caused by the crime has fallen tenfold since its peak in 2010-11, when passengers suffered more than 6,000 hours of delay." Raids on church roofs, to strip copper and lead sheeting - another traditional target for thieves seeking to supply unscrupulous metal dealers - have also subsided with the price of scrap. Other areas affected include telecommunications and power networks, road signs, memorials, libraries, schools and children's playgrounds."

An official from SDI La Farga LLC's said on 11th December that the company is producing limited amounts of wirerod at its new US $39M plant in New Haven, Indiana. The new facility, a joint venture between Spain's La Farga Group and Steel Dynamics Inc, produces wirerod from number 2 scrap copper rather than cathode. The company official said "we've produced quality rod and are in the process of getting approval of customers and we have done so with several customers." He added that plant officials are "waiting for more customer orders to start producing more".

Anhui Jincheng, the Shanghai-listed producer of copper PSSF, said on 26th March that it produced 93,872t of copper PSSF in 2012, a 13% y-o-y increase from 2011. Despite the increase in output, the company made a net loss of RMB57M in 2012 from a profit of RMB24M in 2011 (loss of US$9M from a profit of US$3.8M). Remarking on the results the company said that "uncertainties in the global economy, the euro debt crisis, plus the weak Chinese economy, has negatively impacted demand by the downstream processing sector last year."

Talking at the annual CESCO/CRU World Copper Conference, CRU Principal Consultant Vivienne Lloyd said that up to 2Mt of copper demand could be lost over the next five years due to substitution and consolidation amongst Chinese semis producers. Lloyd said that the areas under the greatest threat from substitution are the automotive wiring harness sector and the HVAC sector. However, CRU believes that the aluminium/copper price ratio is likely to have peaked in 2012 at around 4:1, and will fall back gradually to 2017 reaching 3:1, which should relieve some of the substitution pressures.