Energy Economy

Even as the newspaper industry struggles with the transition to what some are calling the "viewspaper," meaning viewing the news on the Web, at least one local newspaper delivery person is changing the way newspapers are delivered. In my neighborhood, the guy that delivers the paper has abandoned his Jeep Cherokee for a small electric cart. It is a street legal, oversize golf cart with enough room and power to haul the driver and two hundred or so newspapers.

If you are an economic developer and have not been paying much attention to the "old" utility service we call electricity, you may want to continue reading. A Samsung chip plant had a power outage that lasted only one day, but cost the company $43 million dollars in discarded product and lost revenue.

A new kind of fuel cell has been developed by a New England firm that does not need hydrogen. It will run on propane, natural gas, diesel fuel, and bio-diesel. Using these more common fuels means the fuel cell does produce some CO2, but only about half as much as a more conventional generator. This appears to be more than early marketing of a design concept, as the company (Acumentrics Corporation) says it already has thirty systems working and deployed.

Energy is powering the Knowledge Economy. That may seem like a statement of the obvious, but broadband by itself is not a complete economic development strategy. Increasingly, it is the combination of affordable, high performance broadband AND reliable, resilient electric power that makes a region attractive to business.

The rising cost of energy is going to have strange side effects, like a black market in light bulbs. Australia has just announced that the country will force light bulb users to switch to fluorescent bulbs in a gradual switch over three years. Just as the U.S. requirement to use more efficient toilets led to bootlegging "old" toilets from Canada, Australians may end up resorting to smuggling light bulbs into the country--conjuring up images of rubber rafts coming ashore in the dead of night piled high with no-name three-ways and the always popular GE 'Reveal' 100 watt incandescent.

How about gasoline for seventy-five cents a gallon? Sound far-fetched? Not according to this article on plug in electric cars. The article states that the cost of recharging the battery of an electric vehicle using the electricity coming from the socket in the wall of your garage would be economical--equating to buying gas for seventy-five cents a gallon.

Boxlight has released a new, battery-powered LCD projector that uses LEDs instead of hot, expensive incandescent bulbs. A cluster of 10 bright white LEDs projects an image of 150 lumens, compared to 800-1000 for an entry level old style projector. The unit is not suitable for large groups or rooms, but its quiet operation (no fan needed) and small size (1 lb.) could make it a popular choice as a home or office projector, or impromptu small group business meetings.

This very long article on energy delves into a lot of detail, and among the information provided is yet another analysis that indicates the conversion of corn into ethanol uses almost as much energy as it produces. There is a lot of debate about this issue, and I am not an expert, but I suspect that anything that reduces our dependence on foreign sources of crude oil is probably a good thing.

It is electric power that will be driving the Energy Economy. The President's goal of reducing gasoline use by twenty percent will be achieved by electric cars powered by electricity, rather than by biofuels. Ethanol and other fuel alternatives like fuel cells will contribute, but the first company that delivers a rechargable electric vehicle at a reasonable price (under $15,000) is going to sell a bunch of them. This will have dramatic effects on many other sectors of the economy, and in unpredictable ways.

GM may be poised to pull an electric rabbit out of its hat that could save the company. The car manufacturer has provided a preview of the Chevrolet Volt, an electric hybrid that has a good chance of beating the Japanese electric hybrids at their own game. GM has done something that is blindingly obvious, but for some reason has been avoided entirely by the Japanese carmakers: make an all electric drive train.

USA Today has an article on dairy farms that are becoming energy providers. Cows generate about 100 pounds of manure a day; in the old days, this manure sat and released methane directly into the air for a while, and then was typically spread onto nearby fields, which created a bit of an odor for a few days.

This importance of this article really has little to do with the NSA. It is an excellent reminder, however, that reliable and resilient electric power drives IT--literally. Substitute 'our local IT firm' for 'NSA' and read the article a second time. The NSA is facing expansion difficulties because it cannot get the power it needs to run its IT infrastructure.

A three year old Philadelphia project to turn waste into gas, oil, and minerals has been so successful that the EPA and private investors are putting money behind expansion of the effort. One of the new sites will be in Missouri, near a turkey processing plant. The energy recycling plant will turn 200 tons of turkey guts into 10 tons of gas and 600 barrels of oil. The gas is used to power the plant, which is 85% efficient.

A Virginia Tech chemist (hat tip to the Roanoke Times)has developed a molecule that enables an artificial photosynthesis process that can be used to split water. In doing so, you end up with hydrogen that can be used to power an automobile. Sunlight is used to provide energy for the process. It is still in an experimental stage, but points the way for simply being able to fuel your car from the garden hose.

This fuel cell powered portable power source is pretty neat, and suggests the future of portable and emergency power. The device runs on hydrogen stored in a removable tank, and provides a trifecta of power: 120 volt AC, 12 volt DC (cigarette lighter plug), and a 5 volt USB port. That just about covers every kind of device you would ever need to recharge or power. The USB port is a nice touch, since lots of devices can now be charged via a USB port, including many cellphones.

As I wrote when gas prices first spiked, expect to see lots of new businesses and business opportunities emerge. This new electric car, the Zenn, is likely to catch on as a second or third car in a lot of households. It costs just $10,000, and it is an all electric car with limited range and limited speed. But it will meet the around town and commuting needs of many people. Most of don't need a car with a 400 mile range and a top speed of 90 mph just to drive to the store or to work.

DaimlerChrysler has been late to the hybrid electric car game, but the perennially third place firm may end up winning the game over the long run. DaimlerChrysler recently bought Global Electric Motorcars, which makes the street legal GEM e4.

Segway, the company that makes the two wheel electric scooter, has a new loan program so that you can purchase a Segway just like a car, with a loan. It turns out very few people want to pay $5000 in cash for one.

Jerry Fuhrman, who writes from rural southwest Virginia, has an interesting observation today that I think is applicable to many rural areas of the country.

He notes that one of Virginia's main exports is wood (mostly to China), and one of Virginia's main imports is furniture (mainly from China). Fuhrman's question is how will high energy prices affect the cost of goods, since it takes a lot of energy to haul wood to China, turn it into furniture, and then haul it back to the U.S?

Buy electric power when the cost is low, store it in your home or business, and use it when the price of power is high. Many electric utilities are moving toward differential pricing; during peak use hours (typically daytime and early evening), they charge more for electricity, and charge less in the middle of the night, when they have excess generating capacity.