Jan

1

Thank You 2012

January 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment

A “You’re Welcome” is due to Jim and NJY for yesterday’s comments, plus an odd sprinkling over the years from others. But factually, the thanks should go to the readers and visitors. This blog is here first to inform and amuse, primarily your humble writer, who gets to peruse the news each day for the [...]

Nov

27

Energy Ideas Need to Go to Houston

November 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Houston is home to SURGE Accelerator, an incubation and mentorship program for startups in the energy software space.  At a year and a half old SURGE can provide the accepted startup company with $30,000 in seed funding, free office space, and access to dozens of mentors in Houston’s vibrant energy sector in exchange for a [...]

Jul

26

Here Come Virtual Power Plants

July 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Researchers from the University of Southampton have devised a novel method for forming “virtual power plants” – from the small and distributed energy resources (DERs), like wind farms, solar panels, small hydro and others that have begun to appear in greater numbers in the electricity supply network or the “Grid”. To make sure energy demand [...]

May

1

Another Horror For Energy Consumers

May 1, 2012 | 1 Comment

Brad Harstad argues that buying and holding extraction rights to fossil fuels is a more effective means of curbing their use than legislating to reduce demand. Harstad, who is associate professor of managerial economics & decision sciences at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said, “Both on the demand-side and the supply-side the result is [...]

Apr

20

Get Yourself an Asteroid Week

April 20, 2012 | 1 Comment

Brian Wang’s NextBigFuture has posted four compelling articles on asteroids this week.  That’s getting hard to ignore and the potential is substantial. The reason why is the resources asteroids contain.  There will be metals of considerable interest, lots of water, and perhaps some methane. Plus a lot of what many will consider junk.  Still, with [...]

Feb

29

Too Many Cars – A Good Starting Answer

February 29, 2012 | 1 Comment

William Clay “Bill” Ford Jr., the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company and great grandson of Henry Ford has an eye on the forthcoming gridlock problem, already an existing problem for some – with the answer cars must talk to each other and to the road. “If we do nothing, we face the prospect of ‘global [...]

Feb

6

How to Charge Your Car While Driving

February 6, 2012 | 2 Comments

Out at Stanford University a research team may have solved the problem of range anxiety with wireless charging technology that one day could create an electric highway. The team follows research work from 2007 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology getting magnetic resonance to light a 60-watt bulb.  That experiment demonstrated that power could be [...]

Dec

28

Where The R&D Money Is At

December 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

Battelle with R&D Magazine has its annual Global R&D Funding Forecast out suggesting global research and development (R&D) spending will grow by about 5.2%, to more than $1.4 trillion in 2012. Battelle/R&DMag has it that R&D funding growth will largely be driven by the Asian economies that will see an increase in spending of nearly [...]

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