CLEANTECH AND SMART GRIDS

GOOD MORNING FLINT 1
10/08/09
By Terry Bankert, a Flint Divorce Attorney.

We need a a revolutionary energy invention, now, to be discovered and built in Michigan. But until we find one we must move towards alternative energy with public commitments to allow private energy expansion in Michigan. Our State is on the right path. The new technologies are here and we have committed leadership, though unfortunately term limited.. Cleanthech and smart grids are concepts we should embrace.


HERE IS WHAT YOUR STATE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE DOING

Take steps to reduce electricity use by 2% a year, and natural gas use by 1.5% a year, through a variety of measures to beef up energy efficiency.

Adopt standards requiring that by 2025, 25% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources such as wind turbines, solar power and biomass power plants. The group is recommending that the standard be increased to 30% by 2030.

Adopt new and automatically updating building codes for residential and commercial buildings that would require energy efficiency to be taken into account by architects, developers and builders.

Adopt a low-carbon fuel standard to boost development of locally produced biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and next-generation ethanol.

Restructure how electric utilities are regulated to ensure that energy efficiency is in the interest of, rather than counter to, a utility’s profit motive.[j]

GIVE INNOVATION TIME

　
WE NEED A FLEXCAPACITOR[1]

Our economy sure could use the Next Big Thing. Something on the scale of railroads, automobiles or the Internet -- the kind of breakthrough that emerges every so often and builds industries, generates jobs and mints fortunes.[f] Today I am just reacquainting terminology and concepts that may well move our country back to economic prosperity.

MICHIGAN IS ON THE RIGHT PATH

Midwestern governors ratified agreements designed to move the region to embrace energy efficiency and renewable energy, with the aim of creating and retaining jobs in the Midwest at a time of aggressive investment around the world in the clean-tech sector.

The agreements were released in Detroit during the Jobs + Energy Forum hosted by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.[j] Governor Grandholm and my state representative Lee Gonzales are two driving forces for Michigan to capture the opportunity of emerging new energy technologies.
　
CLEANTECH

Silicon Valley investors are pointing to something called cleantech -- alternative energy, more efficient power distribution and new ways to store electricity, all with minimal impact to the environment -- as a candidate for the next boom.[f] Somebody is working on the real world Flexcapacitor in their garage. What they do not know is that thousands of others are doing the same. Who get technical help, funding and market penetration will pick the next Bill Gates from among them.

ITS TIME FOR PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND PUBLIC INCENTIVES FOR CLEANTECH

Despite last fall's financial meltdown, public and private investments are pouring in, fueling startups and reinvigorating established companies. The political and social climates are favorable. If it takes off, cleantech could seep into every part of the economy and our lives.[a]

A NEW TECHNOLOGY BOOM IS HERE

And while no two booms are exactly alike, some hallmarks are already showing up.[f]
Despite last fall's financial meltdown, public and private investments are pouring in, fueling startups and reinvigorating established companies. The political and social climates are favorable. If it takes off, cleantech could seep into every part of the economy and our lives.[f]

WHAT ARE THESE NEW TECHNOLOGIES

New technologies like electric vehicles, more efficient solar cells, better wind turbines, and smarter batteries are aggressively advancing towards the market.[d]

YOUR CITY AND STATE NEED TO JUMP ON THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY BANDWAGON

The states need to work together on upgrading the region’s infrastructure to facilitate more green power.[j]

That includes improvements to transmission lines to bring renewable energy to population centers from the windiest areas of the Midwest, in Iowa and Minnesota, [j]

“With a greater emphasis on renewable and on energy efficiency we are going to have to have a smart grid, we are going to have to have a transmission grid that moves from points of major renewable power to places where it’s actually needed, and as we move to a system in the coming years of carbon capture (from coal-fired power plants) we’re going to need infrastructure that does that,” [j]

BOOM HAVE BEGUN IN RECESSIONS, AND WE ARE IN ONE

Some of the biggest booms first blossomed during recessions. The telephone and phonograph were developed during the depression of the 1870s. The integrated circuit, a milestone in electronics, was invented in the recessionary year of 1958. Personal computers went mainstream, spawning a huge industry, in the slumping early 1980s.

A year into the Great Recession, innovation isn't slowing. This time, it's better batteries, more efficient solar cells, smarter appliances and electric cars, not to mention all the infrastructure needed to support the new ways energy will be generated and the new ways we'll be using it.[F]

WILL THE CONSUMERS REACT

Yet for all the benefits that might be spawned by cleantech breakthroughs, no one knows how many jobs might be created -- or how many old jobs might be cannibalized. It also remains to be seen whether Americans will clamor for any of its products.]f]

U.S. TO INVEST 150 BILLION

Still, big bets are being placed. The Obama administration is pledging to invest $150 billion over the next decade on energy technology and says that could create 5 million jobs. This recession has wiped out 7.2 million.[[f]

VENTURE CAPITAL GOING TO CLEANTECH

And cleantech is on track to be the dominant force in venture capital investments over the next few years, supplanting biotechnology and software. Venture capitalists have poured $8.7 billion into energy-related startups in the U.S. since 2006.[f]

CLEANTECH LOOK LIKE THE DOT.COM BOOM DID

That pales in comparison with the dot-com boom, when venture cash sometimes topped $10 billion in a single quarter. But the momentum surrounding clean energy is reminiscent of the Internet's early days. Among the similarities: Although big projects are still dominated by large companies, the scale of the challenges requires innovation by smaller firms that hope to be tomorrow's giants.[f]

REAL CHANGE COMES FROM THE LITTLE GUYS/GALS

"Ultimately IBM and AT&T didn't build the Internet. It was built by Silicon Valley startups," says Bob Metcalfe, an Internet pioneer who now invests in energy projects with Polaris Venture Partners. "And energy is going to be solved by entrepreneurial activity."[f]

COAL BEING TURNED INTO NATURAL GAS

The action is happening at companies like GreatPoint Energy in Cambridge, Mass., which has developed a technique for turning coal into natural gas more cheaply and efficiently than previous methods.[f]

GreatPoint plans to break ground next year on a power plant in Houston that will cost $800 million and create thousands of construction jobs, says its CEO, Andrew Perlman. Dow Chemical Co. and energy giants AES Corp., Suncor Energy Inc. and Peabody Energy are all GreatPoint investors.[f]

"The opportunities," Perlman says, "are staggering."[f]

LITHOUM BATTERIES FOR ELECTGRIC CARS

A123 Systems, a Watertown, Mass., maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, had one of the most lucrative public stock offerings this year, raising $437.5 million. Its stock price jumped more than 50 percent on the first day of trading in September, with investors willing to overlook that the company has yet to make money.[f]

U.S. TO FOCUS ON HYBRID CARS

The Obama administration's promises about cleantech funding have galvanized the industry, reassuring entrepreneurs that they will have paying customers. The administration has said it will focus on putting more hybrid cars on the road, boosting the amount of electricity from renewable sources and investing in ways to cut pollution from coal.[f]

SMART GRIDS

One target is "smart grids." As utilities install digital meters in homes and Americans buy appliances that can communicate with the electric system, individual power consumption can be monitored more closely. People could be cued to dial down appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners when electricity is in highest demand. Such fine-tuning in millions of homes can reduce the need for new power plants.[f]

WHAT IS A SMART GRID

BW’s Rachael King explains the details behind a buzzword we hear a lot now, the smart grid. In essence, the smart grid would do for power what the Internet did for information: replace a one-way distribution system with a two-way, interactive network.

Government bodies and utility providers are in the early stages of this multibillion-dollar upgrade to transform the existing grid into a two-way network where power and information flow in both directions between the utility and the customer, not just from the provider to the user. [b]

Some call this the first step to governmental rationing.

SELL BACK ENERGY

If the grid is something more like an open network, small producers can sell energy back to utilities. So maybe local farmers have an incentive to generate their own power with solar panels or wind turbines. As King notes, smart meters create opportunities for new technology as well: Software that helps households and businesses reduce their usage at peak times, for example.[b]
　
　
SMART GRID SOFTWARE

At Tendril Networks Inc. of Boulder, Colo., which makes software that links utilities to smart-grid devices in homes, the staff has tripled over the past five months to 90. CEO Adrian Tuck says Tendril could grow even more if some of the $4.5 billion earmarked for smart grids in this year's federal stimulus goes to Tendril's clients.[f]

THE FUTURES BIG CLEANTECH CORPORATIONS ARE TODAY’S STARTUPS

"What we're about to see is every bit as big as the telecom revolution that gave birth to the Internet and cell phones," Tuck says. "It's going to create as many jobs and as much wealth for this country, if they get it right. Big, Google-sized companies are going to be born in this era, and we hope to be one of them."[f]

GOVERNMENT PUSH NEEDED

The government's push for these developments parallels the expansion of railroads in the 19th century, when the government granted blocks of land to companies laying track, says Jack Brown, an associate professor in the University of Virginia's Department of Science, Technology and Society.[F]

WE MUST BE CAREFUL TO NOT PICK WHICH NEW TECHNOLOGY SHOULD DOMINATE,
LET THE PRIVATE SECTOR DO THAT

One difference, Brown points out, is that clean energy is such a vast field that government could make the wrong choice in backing one type of technology over another.[f]

TODAYS BIG CORPORATIONS ARE GETTTING INTO CLEANTECH

It's not just startups getting in the game. General Electric Co. plans to string transmission lines to deliver solar or wind power. Hewlett-Packard Co. is adapting techniques for printer cartridge chips so digital sensors can send data to smart grids.[f]

HOW MUCH WILL THIS HELP OUT ECONOMY

But how much of an economic boost does all this add up to? It's hard to tell -- at least at this stage, without products people actually want to buy.[f]

LASERS WERE HERE BEFORE THE MARKET DECIDED HOW TO MAKE MONEY

The laser, for instance, was a big innovation, but it wasn't clear at first what it could be used for. That's why there wasn't an economic boom in the 1960s from the advent of lasers, even though they ended up driving everything from medical devices to CD players for four decades.[f]

SMART GRIDS WILL HELP TO FIND THE SOLUTION TO CREATING NEW INDUSTRY

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands, believes upgrading electric grids and finding new sources of power will provide steady job growth -- but won't be an economic powder keg.[f]

WILL NEW JOBS BE CREATED

Clean energy projects could simply replace old jobs and functions, like meter-readers. And there's no guarantee new jobs won't shift to countries with cheaper labor.[f]

SOME INNNOVATIONS TAKE A LONG TIME TO CHANGE THE ECONOMY

Some innovations take longer to reveal their economic effects. There are big booms based on specific innovations -- along the lines of railroads, automobiles and the Internet -- and then there are technologies that grow slowly, spawning offshoot industries for entrepreneurs to exploit over decades.[f]

THERE MAY BE SEVERAL STEPS OF INNOVATION NEEDED

For example, the emergence of the integrated circuit led to the development of computer microprocessors, which enabled the PC revolution and in turn the Internet age. [f]

HERE IS WHAT YOUR STATE GOVERNEMTN SHOULD BE DOING

Take steps to reduce electricity use by 2% a year, and natural gas use by 1.5% a year, through a
variety of measures to beef up energy efficiency.

Adopt standards requiring that by 2025, 25% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources such as wind turbines, solar power and biomass power plants. The group is recommending that the standard be increased to 30% by 2030.

Adopt new and automatically updating building codes for residential and commercial buildings that would require energy efficiency to be taken into account by architects, developers and builders.

Adopt a low-carbon fuel standard to boost development of locally produced biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and next-generation ethanol.

Restructure how electric utilities are regulated to ensure that energy efficiency is in the interest of, rather than counter to, a utility’s profit motive.[j]

GIVE INNOVATION TIME

There's every reason to believe energy technology will fall into the same category, Brown says, but he adds: "It depends on how the bets actually play out."


Posted here by
Terry Bankert 10/08/09
http://www.flintfamilylaw.com/
　
[f]
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wheres-the-next-boom-Maybe-in-apf-2624700390.html?x=0
[a]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j53MDIlrHmotdjaXYdajBkk4_RUQD9B5QJOO0
[d]
http://www.dailytech.com/Venture+Capital+150B+Government+Investment+Boost+CleanTech/article16443.htm
[b]
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/running_small_business/archives/2009/10/how_a_smart_gri.html
[j]
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/63689297.html
[1]
A term coined in the movie “ Back to the Future”

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