Alternative Energy and The World - The Purple Cow and the Sun Salutes You

I never saw a purple cow,

I never hope to see one;

But, I can tell you, anyhow,

I’d rather see than be one.

Gelett Burgess, The Purple Cow

It seems everyone worldwide has begun looking for this purple cow with ever increasing earnest-ness ever since the report by the IEA (International Energy Agency) stating that we will be experiencing Peak Oil by 2015 AD as stated in the article “IEA official warns of shrinking oil supplies: Report”, Sunday August 2nd, 9:04 pm ET, Yahoo! News and backed up by the dire warning in statements attributed to Sir Richard Branson of Virgin as stated in the article “World faces Oil Crunch by 2015”, published Sunday 14 February 2010, AFP, The Jamaica Herald.

Alternatives to Oil seem to be the main focus and the history tells the tale of the tape. Brunei earlier in August of 2009 began building a solar power plant as stated in the article " Oil-Rich Brunei to have solar power plant", published Thursday August 6, 3:33 am ET,Yahoo! News. This should have struck John Public following the Oil Futures Market as being decidedly odd, as with supposedly billions of gallons of oil still untapped, why would they be seeking to conserve, being as they had an abundance of oil supposedly able to last for the next 200 years?

The use of Nuclear Power for Civilian Power by the Arabs, who have been having talks about setting up their own regional Arab Atomic Agency to legitimize nuclear proliferation by Iran ostensibly for Civilian Power is also of interest, as civilian Nuclear Power Plants the size of a small school exist that can safely be housed underground and power an entire country.

The breakthrough by venture capitalist K.R. Sridar, CEO of Bloom Energy in developing what Leslie Stahl on “60 Minutes”, aired Sunday 21^st February 2010, CBS News refers to as “the Holy Grail” of power engineering is a Bloom Power Server. The article “Bloom energy unveils fuel cell of the future”, published Thursday February 25, 9:01 am ET by Glenn Chapman, AFP Yahoo! News explains what it it’s about. My blog article entitled “The Secret of the Bloom Energy Server unraveled – and can be locally Reverse Engineered”.

A fuel cell technology that is based on a semi permeable membrane made from pyrolized sand i.e. sand that has been heated and temperature controlled sintering under anaerobic (oxygen free, vacuum). It holds the greatest promise in my eyes, as it could in principle replace the combustion engine in cars and allow them to go All-Electric while still using LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) or other heavily filtered fossil fuel, a compromise no doubt the Oil Industry likes to hear.

Even Apple, a Silicon Valley Gadget Trendsetter with the fab new Apple iPad and Apple iPhone 4.0, has caught the Solar Renewable bug, expected to be on September 1^st : D-Day for the big Apple (no pun intended!) presentation from CEO Steve Jobs. A focus on refreshes for the Apple iPod and its closely related siblings or offspring in the form of the Apple iPod Touch, Apple iPod Nano and the Apple iPod Shuffle as stated in the article “Apple likely to show off new iPods Sept 1”, published Wednesday August 25, 6:26 pm ET, by Reuters, Yahoo! News.

Apple Engineers have mysteriously been filing patents to develop Solar powered devices, possibly with the processor of these devices such as the Apple iPod, Apple iPod Nano, Apple iPod Shuffle, Apple iMac, Apple Mac Mini, Apple TV, Apple Air, Apple MacBook Pro and their latest toy, the Apple iPad to be all Solar powered.

Using ambient light from radiation from any part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum via the upgraded touch screen display on these devices is a possibility as stated in the article “Apple eyes gadgets with built in Solar panels”, published January 22, 2010 7:46 AM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News.

This is further asserted in the article “Apple patent bid combines Solarwith touch Screen”, published June 7, 2010 6:31 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News thereby in theory eliminating the battery charger from their devices altogether.

This is an impressive leap forward by Apple, and it is hoped that the development of these Solar powered devices will result in a virtual extension of the battery time of these devices, and bring the convenience of self-charging Solar Technologies. This has long being designed for African countries with limited access to electricity.

Now Developed countries with consumers are willing to pay a premium for technology that basically would cut the tethered electrical cord, still the last relic of an analog era that most devices have yet to free themselves. If Apple does this, tomorrow, September 1^st2010, be it known that God himself, assuming he exists of course, may be in the front row, cutting his ten, listening.

The ultimate aim, globally however, is clear: Wean the US off a dependence of Foreign Oil and produce energy by alternative or otherwise deemed “natural” power sources and create a couple thousand jobs in the process to boot. This news could not come at better time, given the challenges facing the Green Tech field:

1.      Shortage of manpower as stated in the article “People power in short supply for Green Tech”, published March 26, 2010 8:29 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News

2.      Rare Earth minerals needed to produce photovoltaic and Wind Turbines as stated in the article “Rare-earth metal recycling needed to power green tech”, published May 17, 2010 7:31 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News

3.      General lack of standardized certification, which CompTIA  is trying to address with its Green Energy Certification as stated in the article “CompTIA offering Green IT exam”, published March 25, 2010 10:34 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News

Whether the Americans wish to acknowledge these problems or not, one thing is for certain: Silicon Valley in the not-so-sexy Green Energy Race, long the stepchild of Silicon Valley, is very far behind People’s Republic of China in terms of Research and Development.

But it is the opinion of this blog writer, John Public that the whole situation in the Gulf involving the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill on that fateful day on Tuesday April 20^th 2010 and the hoopla that followed was not the real reason for the move towards weaning the American Economy from a dependence on Foreign Oil.

It again may more be a response to an observation of the same international body, the IEA, which has called for the cutting of fuel subsidies to encourage efficiency of design or even alternatives to the Internal Combustion Fuel Engine.

A technology which like the Fokker Tri-plane from WWI, should have long ago been relegated to the museums as slyly alluded in the article “IEA: To promote efficiency, cut fossil fuel subsidies”, published June 8, 2010 7:56 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News. It is a continuing plan that was initiated as far back as the last Oil Crisis at the end of the 1976, which I must admit, was before my time. John Public, like the oil munching bacteria, breaks it down………..

Granted, BP, the poster child for corporate irresponsibility, has created the worst ecological disaster when its Deep Horizon Oil Rig off the Coast of Louisiana exploded on Tuesday April 20^th 2010, killing nearly eleven (11) workers. After expending over US$1 billion (US$1,000,000,000), they are the main talking point of Washington and Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America and Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron.

Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America even imposed a six (6) month moratorium on Offshore Oil Exploration as stated in the article “Obama signals tough stance on Oil Industry”, published Tuesday Jun 8, 11:25 am ET, By Russell Blinch and Rick Cowan, CNET News. This signalled an end to a dependence on Fossil Fuels as stated in the article “Obama: End depedence on fossil fuels”, published Wednesday June 2010, By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo! News.

But the President’s statements relating to the cutting of its dependence on Foreign Based Fossil fuels has no connection whatsoever, no matter how severe or Katrina-like this tragedy was, as it was apparent from the start that he was fully aware that he was working with a Full House in his hand, a winning hand, using Poker parlance, if the Editor, may be so kind, in this International Poker Game.

The President’s statements were a reflection of an overarching plan set in motion by the previous President, Senator George W. Bush, who had created the conditions for the war against Iran in order to acquire their cheap oil for the American Economy, having signaled no more Nuclear Power Plants to be built on American Soil, a decision that John Public hopes, has nothing to do with Nuclear Fusion Reactors or Nuclear Reactors not using weapons grade material.

Now the previous President, Senator George W. Bush, having failed in this bid and out of office, Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, the man currently in the hot seat, is now merely doing clean-up of the Government of the United States of America and the American Economy. The Deep Horizon Incident of the coast of Louisiana, for that is what it is really, on the grand scale of Global Politics, is ironically, already being dealt with by an even greater Government: Nature.

The underwater plume of Oil which Georgia University claim was the missing 80% and yet still below the depths as stated in the article “Ga. scientists: Gulf Oil not gone, 80 pct remains”, published Monday August 16, 6:30 pm ET, Yahoo! News countering Government scientists claims of the Oil having evaporated. In  reality it had been totally consumed by a dormant species of microbe, a feast that they will soon never forget as stated in the article “Microbes ate BP oil deep-water plume: study” published Tuesday August 24, 3:37 pm ET By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent, Yahoo! News.

Best of all, no tax dollars were expended to pay these Naturally occurring microbes, but John Public does take issue with their consuming Oil that could have otherwise have been used to power vehicles, and thus suggests to the President that these critters be put to work to pay back their taxes owed to the Government of the United States of America.

Thus it would be in the interest of the Government of the United States of America to harvest these bacteria, as the fact that they did not significantly deplete the Gulf of Mexico’s Oxygen levels in the process and create a Dead Zone as is the Seasonal occurrence every year when Nitrates and Phosphates from fertilizer laden river runoff enter the Gulf, make them very interesting to the BioFuel Sector that Barack Obama has been pumping American Taxpayer funded Venture Capital money.

Again, happy news for the Oil Industry, as these unpaid Government Workers can be genetically modified and put to work to convert Oil to Diesel, Kerosene and other by-products, thus making Catalytic Cracking of Oil, an energy intensive and inefficient process a thing of the past, not to mention the use of these bacteria to make Bio-Diesel and Anhydrous Ethanol and other types of fuel from almost any Organic material that can be pyrolized to Oil.

Did I forget to mention that the shrimp are back, a definitive indication of a healthy Gulf?  

The shrimp are back, having dined on a nutritious diet of algae, bacteria and phytoplankton about three (3) miles down in the Gulf of Mexico as implied in the article “Shrimpers report clean 1st day catch after spill”, published Wednesday, August 18, 2010, AP, The Jamaica Observer. This making it safe for the President and Sasha to swim, the possibility of a shark attack not withstanding as stated in the article “Obama swims in Gulf, says beaches open for business”, published Sunday August 15, 6:57 am ET by Ross Colvin, Yahoo! News

This long term Foreign Oil Dependence cord-cutting drive by the Government of the United States of America being spearheaded by the President, coupled with the public outcry against the “over-hyped in the media” Deep Water Horizon Incident thus makes it easier for the Government of the United States of America to make its case, and no, this in no Rothschild Conspiracy Theory, but obvious common sense.

These conditions has quietly turned Silicon Valley on its head as the Green Energy start-ups have been a backwater are of research, now spotlighted by a forward thinking 44^thPresident of the United States of America looking to cut the United States of America dependence on Foreign Oil – minus a small war.

Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, has showed his faith, both in photo ops as well as his wallet, the Obama Administration plunking down billions on the Bio-Fuels Sector in a bid:

1.      Finding alternatives to the taxation of corn-based ethanol as stated in the article “'Green' gas and Diesel get boost in Biofuel grants”, published December 4, 2009 12:33 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News

2.      Jumpstarting Large Scale Solar Plant installations and research as stated in the article “Obama commits billions to solar firms”, published July 4, 2010 11:34 AM PDT by Reuters, CNET News

3.      Increasing All-Electric Car or EV research, specifically into battery technology development as stated in the article “Obama: Clean energy's Venture Capitalist-in-Chief”, published August 5, 2010, 5:00PM EST By Mike Dorning, POLITICS & POLICY, BusinessWeek

It seems in terms of Venture Capital money investment, the Obama Administration is following the lead of VC’s and Investors with the Midas touch such as Warren Buffet, who is investing billions in BYD Electric in the People’s Republic of China, a definite sign of the coming importance of All-Electric Vehicles as stated in the “BYD Dreams of Electric Cars”, published June 28, 2010, 3:10PM EST By Inder Sidhu, BusinessWeek.

Indeed, the United States of America has a lot of catching up to do, as despite their high end lifestyle, the Americans are in fact behind the rest of the world.

The US of A is not leading it, the technological progress, education interest in the sciences and innovative thinking of WWII and up to the 60’s lost to the wild obsession with music and the Internet in the 80’s and 90’s. Most production and research has been shipped overseas as stated in the article “The Other U.S. Energy Crisis: Lack of R&D”, published June 17, 2010, 12:01AM EST by Peter Coy, POLITICS & POLICY,BusinessWeek and in the prior article “America's Green innovation Problem”, published May 3, 2010, 4:41PM EST By Rob Atkinson and Devon Swezey, BusinessWeek.

The Obama Administration jumpstarted the recently bailed out Auto Industry, which the Obama Administration can dictate the terms of their recovery via State Tax laws against gas guzzlers as stated in the article “Will 'fun-factor' or mandates drive electric car sales?”, published March 6, 2010 1:56 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News.

Tax breaks for buyers of All-Electric Vehicles will spur their sales, as already the Nissan Leaf will garner a considerable after-rebate price that will certainly encourage All-Electric Vehicle adoption.

All-Electric Vehicle purchases are possibly the best way that taxpayers can send a message to the Oil Companies, that will accelerate the breaking of the linkage between Big Oil and the American Congress and their irresponsible behavior as demonstrated by the BP Oil Disaster as opined in the article “The Electric car might be the perfect Second ride”, published  August 3, 2010, 4:35PM EST By Ed Wallace, WALLACE'S WORLD,BusinessWeek.

Globally, the search for low cost Renewable is increasing and my references are not meant to be exhaustive, merely highlighting the different research initiatives, which have now begun to show a pattern, with a bit of Social Networking humour thrown in for good measure.

Bacteria to make fuel: Food for the NanoMachines

In BioDiesel Research, aside from the recently discovered bacteria, processing algae-eating fish seems to be trending as stated in the article “PetroAlgae signs deal with Indian Oil”, published November 5, 2009 6:55 AM PST by Candace Lombardi, CNET News.

Trending too is the use of Genetically Modified Bacteria to munch on mechanically masticated or pyrolized organic material reduced further to an organic oily mixture to make either Bio-Diesel or Anhydrous ethanol  is the case as stated in “A Forest epidemic turns into energy opportunity”, published April 7, 2010 2:04 PM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News.

There is the much touted research regarding LS9’s Bio-Diesel process detailed in the article  “Gene-altered bugs make Bio-Diesel”, published Wed Jan 27, 1:31 pm ET byYahoo! News and the article “Researchers coax bacteria to make bio-diesel”, publishedJanuary 27, 2010 3:59 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News.

Anhydrous Ethanol from wood chips as a starting stock as stated in:

1.      “Wood-chip ethanol maker opens plant”, published October 15, 2009 7:50 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News

2.      “Microbes to start making ethanol”, chemicals, published November 18, 2009 9:52 AM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News

Biofuel being made from scratch from just Carbon Dioxide and Water using genetically modified bacteria, a direct reverse of combustion as stated in the article “Joule to make diesel at solar fuels plant”, published April 27, 2010 8:07 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica,CNET News is also another interesting take on making Bio-Fuels and is an emerging future technology that may be trending by 2012.

Solar Film Research: Windows to Power from the Sun

The latest trending in solar, however, is towards the use of nanotechnology and easy- to-install spray on solar films, as easy as painting a wall, albeit one must have concerns about toxicity:

“Spray-on films turns glass into solar panels”, published August 19, 2010 1:09 PM PDT by Juniper Foo, CNET News.

This is following in the footsteps of Solexant as stated in the article “Solexant funded to print thin-film Solarcells”, published June 4, 2010 8:50 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica,CNET News and JA Solar as stated in the article “'Silicon Ink' for solar cell glides towards production”, published September 17, 2009 6:10 AM PDT, by Candace Lombardi, CNET News.

Wind Power: The Taller the Wind Turbine the Better

Wind power is also showing great promise, especially offshore power, which has long been recommended, which albeit notoriously hard to build and very risky propositions for Venture Capitalists, like terrestrial power stations, can reap great benefit. This if connected together in a massive Power Ring based on research done by the University of Delaware and Stony Brook University as stated in the article “Offshore wind grid is the answer, study says”, published April 7, 2010 9:44 AM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News.

The EU is surging ahead, with large Wind Turbine installations expected to exceed 18.8 Megawatts by 2015 based on estimates by research group Frost and Sullivan, due to the increasing ease of securing Venture Capital money from the Governments of Great Britain and the Government of Germany for such potentially risky projects as stated in the article “Bankers warming up to offshore wind”, published January 21, 2010 9:52 AM PST by Candace Lombardi, CNET News, simply put.

The Americans are not too far behind in this race thought as stated in the article “U.S. wind power growing fast but still lags”, published March 19, 2010 6:28 AM PDT by Reuters, CNET News

LNG: Leftover Gas from the OilFields

LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) is plentiful in terms of domestic supply, which according to Ernest Moniz, Director of the prestigious engineering institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently in Time Magazine, a prestigious USA publication, accounts for 24% of the Electricity Generation within the USA as stated in the article “Fuel of the future?”, published Sunday July 4 2010 by Dwight Bellanfante, Gleaner WriterThe Sunday Gleaner.

Additionally, Middle East and Far East interests, hoping to maintain the USA’s drug addict’s dependence on their supply of Cheap Energy, have begun to sequester the Government of United States of America with their abundant supplies. Middle East and Far East interests LNG is so plentiful and cheap that they’re successfully competing with the People’s Republic of Trinidad and Tobago contractually guaranteed supply of LNG to the USA as stated in the article “Rivalry sends Trinidad in search of New LNG Markets”, published Saturday, July 4, 2009, The Saturday Gleaner, by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Business Writer, The Sunday Gleaner.

Middle East and Far East interests are also challenging the very investment in Wind and Solar Energy with LNG supplies so cheap, that it can compete with the LNG extracted from within the USA on the basis of pricing alone, even with USA extracted LNG having ten-year lows as stated in the article “Solar, Wind feel the heat from low natural-gas prices”, published January 29, 2010 12:43 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News

Locally, the Government of Jamaica is eyeing LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) Gas Turbine Generator upgrades to their Generators with an estimated cost reduction of 20% to 30% in the electricity bills of consumers as stated in the article “Government eyes LNG cure for Energy problems”, published Wednesday June 16 2010 by Laura Redpath, Senior Staff Writer, The Daily Gleaner, as a path to reducing the cost of energy in Jamaica, thus boosting our country’s productivity.

Even exotic sources of fuel, such as Methane Hydrate deposits at five (5) miles below the China Sea are being explored by the People’s Republic of China DSV appropriately named Jaiolong, Mandarin for “Sea Dragon” along with the quest for more Rare Earth Metals as stated in the article “China builds base to tap deep-sea energy: state media”, published Friday August 27, 1:23 am ET, Yahoo! News.

The People’s Republic of China has LNG in abundance and is using to build out its Clean Energy Infrastructure as well as do research to make Wind Turbines and Solar Technology to sell to the world as stated in the article “China clean tech's rare-earth advantage”, published August 12, 2010 5:37 AM PDT by Reuters News Agency, CNET News.

Lightning is being considered as a source of Renewable Energy, a very good source, as a huge amount of energy is stored in the atmosphere, lightning discharges being a sign of this stored energy reserve as stated in the article “Scientists work to harness lightning for electricity”, published August 26, 2010 11:23 AM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News.

Shocking good prospect, no pun intended, as the atmosphere is the ultimate capacitive battery storage for Energy. The Global Race is indeed on, as the year 2015 is only five (5) years away. Ironically, America may not emerge the leader in this Race…………..