Technology monitor | Flying wind farms | Economist.com

This is a great idea. I think that the future of it will be in helium filled devices that either themselves turn or have some kind of external rotors. Kudos to the people working on this.

Electric Cars

Tesla motors recently demonstrated it's new electric sportscar for enthusiasts in Santa Monica. This thing proves that there can be a future for pure electric cars in the future.

I applaud the people of Tesla motors for engaging in business that will drive the next generation of of vastly reduced pollution automobiles.

Electric Cars

I just found this site promoting a new documentary on EV's called Who Killed the Electric Car. The website has a lot of good info on the history of the electic car. I truely believe that electric cars are a crucial element to reducing the US dependence on foreign oil. I can't wait to see this documentary.

The Future of Power

Finally, some good news!
Nanosolar is a company that is using Nano-Technology to create a new kind of solar cell that, if their claims are accurate, could create an entirely new, distributed, energy infrastructure in this country and beyond. Their solar cells are about 10% the cost of traditional solar. Traditional solar costs can't compete with fossil fuel and hydro energy sources but Nanosolar's cells hold the promise of slashing those costs but 90%. I haven't been able to locate any information on the effeciency of these cells but, even at half the efficiency of traditional silicon cells you would be talking about a major decrease in cost/kilowatt.

One day, perhaps, we will all produce solar energy on our rooftops and feed the grid in a distributed fasion. If this were realized then fossil fuel electricity production would be needed only as a supplemental energy source and the sun would be the primary energy producer.

Gas Prices

Who hates high gas prices? Not me. I have hard time not laughing at the pump. I pull in after some hulking SUV, slide my card, pump my gas and I'm gone while he continues to fill his behemoth and drain his wallet. I drive a 1997 Honda Civic and get about 30mpg during my normal driving. Even with today's gas prices my fill-ups rarely go over $30 and I'd be willing to pay much more.

I strongly feel that we should be paying much higher taxes at the pump than we do now. On the order of $2/gallon with half to be spent on renewable energy research and subsidies and the other half to be used for mass transit and highway development. People would finally think twice about buying that 14mpg SUV with the 40 gallon tank if it was going to cost them $200 to fill it up.

Some people would say that a tax like this unfairly weighs on the poor and the middle class but I disagree. I think that this would create an incentive for more people to save money by using an improved mass transit system. I have considered taking the train to work but it would cost me considerably more than it now costs me to drive. If gas were to hit $5/gallon and/or the price of taking the train were to go down I would eagerly take the train. This would reduce traffic, cut pollution, and save the average lower or middle income family money.

Links:
The SUV Info Link
The Detroit Project
Hybrid Technologies (Building Electric Vehicles)
NRDC

Halogen Lamp Upgrade

I was changing light bulbs on my halogen lamps a couple fo times a month and they had a tendency to act like heaters so I converted them to run off of compact flourescent bulbs.
Click to see how I did it