Perpetual Innovation

Category: alternative energy

  • Inside the war on coal

    Inside the war on coal:

    Wow, this is a very thoughtful and well presented article on Coal.

    The real demise of coal is too fold: raising costs of trying to make coal a little cleaner (less dirty); and the increase of cheaper alternatives.

    Number 1 in all of this is the dirty cheap costs of NatGas which is a by-product of much oil production. We in the US flair about half of the NatGas we produce because it gets in the way of the valuable oil production process.

    NatGas is soooo much cleaner to burn and produces only half the CO2 emissions.

    As people and communities realize the real costs of burning (dirty) coal, the political will to back coal simply because it is cheap is seriously waning. As the externality costs start to mount, people are less inclined to have the plants in their back yard.

    But, the Sierra club can not take that much of the credit. Basic economics is ruling. The EPA wants cleaner coal, which makes it more expansive at the same time that NatGas, wind and solar are all getting better and cheaper.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Virtual Event Program | GreenBiz

    Virtual Event Program | GreenBiz:

    BIG VERGE conference starts today.

    Put on by Green Biz.

    Virtual if you want to have a baby footprint on a great meeting. The travel time is a little less than going to San Francisco (although you will miss the foods and sounds and local color).

    This is a really interesting mix… Including some big companies and some disrupters.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • BioLite BaseCamp Stove | Turn Fire into Electricity by BioLite. Saving lives, one stove at a time. Kickstarter Funded project.

    Repost from IPzine…
    BioLite BaseCamp Stove | Turn Fire into Electricity by BioLite — Kickstarter:

    I love it. But only 62 hours to get in on the KickStarter offer. They are at twice goal with $800k+ and 3,000 backers.

    Yes, it was DARK in Miami, when Hurricane Andrew came through South Miami/Homestead on August 24, 1992. Well, afterwards really. It would be weeks before most of us would get power. So bar-b-q grilling was the norm. That was not quite as much fun after a week or two without baths and without air conditioning. Little or no ice and warm drinks. Muggy and humid.

    You did want to cook, obviously, but all the heat from the grill was the last thing we needed.

    But a really cool cooking stove popped up in New York. A tiny stove the burned wood (or charcoal) and produced focused head for cooking. No need to cook the cook too.


    This technology works wonders in countries where there is little or no electricity, and wood is often scarce, and the smoke from open cooking causes some of the world’s worst health issues (probably only exceeded by water/sanitation).

    You gotta see how far the technology has come. This is a BIG stove, relatively, that generates electricity (USB power) and has battery. It has an internal fan, to fan the fire so it can produce some serious heat possibilities — especially given the ability to focus the flame.

    This version comes with an LED light so you can see what’s cooking at night.

    As they say, this is the first version of the BaseCamp that is crowd designed. When you jump in on the crowd funding at KickStarter (BaseCamp) you will get a free carrying case.

    You also get the warm-fuzzy feeling of knowing that this technology will save millions and millions of lives in energy starved countries.

    All very very cool.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • China Pollution Is Blanketing America’s West Coast – Business Insider

    China Pollution Is Blanketing America’s West Coast – Business Insider:

    Oh boy.

    We export raw materials and coal to China so they can make finished goods and export them back to us in the West/USA. They don’t have the safety worries that we do… Some of the externalities affect only China, but many affect us all, especially those countries and environments closer to the mainland of China.

    “Cities like Los Angeles received at least an extra day of smog a year from nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide from China’s export-dependent factories, it said.

    “We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” co-author Steve Davis, a scientist at University of California Irvine, said.”

    Yuk! 🙁

    A good economist would argue that  products (say coal, especially the really dirty, high sulfur stuff) that produce negative externalities should be assessed a tax that roughly matches the costs of the externality. Using this logic, we would tax coal (especially high sulfur coal) that goes to a developing country, and tax them even more if they intend to burn the coal without scrubbers and such. This might not stop them from burning coal, but it would make other options more attractive that are cleaner (less negative externalities).

    Unfortunately, China has a LOT of coal in the country. They now burn more than half the world’s coal each year, so they do have to import it as well.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Study: Natural gas industry can cut fracking emissions

    Study: Natural gas industry can cut fracking emissions:

    This would be great to minimize the methane from the fracking of wells.

    Since NatGas is soooo much cleaner than coal (and gasoline). It is a slam-dunk decision as a way to start moving away from coal.

    Of course, it is not a sustainable solution for the looong term. NatGas could be a bridge fuel to a clean and renewable future.

    ‘via Blog this’