President Clinton on What the American Public Needs to Know about Renewable Energy

As reviewed in a Renewable Energy World article, former President Bill Clinton made some very interesting points at Solar Power International 2012. Clinton was the keynote speaker for the September event where he addressed what the American public needs to know about renewable energy. His speech focused on the topics of government investment, the environment, economics, jobs, Solyndra, subsidies and the future of energy in America.

 Clinton emphasized the importance of private-public cooperation in the development of America's renewable energy potential. He mentioned the dire need for the solar industry to set the record straight regarding the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy.

Clinton also said that most Americans do not know that Germany has gained 300,000 jobs from solar energy. He added his view on the much misunderstood Solyndra debacle, explaining that it was simply a failed start-up that couldn’t get to scale before it ran out of money.

One of the most interesting things that Clinton had to say concerned the amount of money given to non-renewable sources of energy. "Most Americans don’t know that $22 are given in subsidies for fossil and nuclear energy for every one dollar given to renewables," he said. "These are things people need to know.”

Clean energy is not just a race between China and US, Clinton said, but rather it’s about people who are thinking about the future. The solar industry is in the "future business" according to the former president.“You represent the future,” Clinton told the audience, “you are going to win this battle, the question is when and where and how.”

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Bill McKibben on The Fight of Our Time (Video)

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, global thinker and leader, and author of several books; including The End of Nature, and Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, shares this call to action for what could not only be the biggest fight of our time, but of all time. The fossil fuel industry is quickly destroying the planet, and making the fight to protect our future increasingly challenging as industry lobbying, and unabated growth continues. We all need to come together and rally behind leaders like Bill McKibben, 350.org, and countless others, to save this planet. How? With passion, spirit, and creativity, and as Bill says, sometimes putting our bodies on the line. Will you join the fight?


For more info, go to 350.org.

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Revolutionary Liquid Energy Storage Technology

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new inexpensive battery technology that could revolutionize energy storage. This new battery technology could prove to be the holy grail of renewable energy storage, particularly at night when there is no light to power solar cells or when there is no wind to turn turbines. The new storage technology could overcome the obstacle of intermittent supply which is the greatest obstacle facing the widespread adoption of clean energy.

This technology could also significantly reduce the size of electric car battery systems and potentially double the range of electric vehicles.

Initial tests have used batteries the size of a shot glass, a hockey puck, and most recently a six-inch-wide version, with 200 times the power-storage capacity of the initial version.

The new approach to batteries was created by Donald Sadoway, the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry at MIT and the senior author of a paper along with MIT Materials Processing Center Research Affiliate David Bradwell MEng and their team. They published their research in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2012.

In this revolutionary technology there are two types of this semi-solid liquids one is positively charged, the other is negatively charged. These two liquids are pumped through the system which causes the exchange of lithium ions across a permeable membrane that triggers an external current. All three layers are composed of materials that are abundant and inexpensive (magnesium, magnesium chloride, and antimony) . The battery system operates at a temperature of 700 degrees Celsius, or 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit.

As reported in a Yale Environment article, lead researcher Yet-Ming Chiang says the power-per-unit potential will be 10 times greater than conventional designs.

This affordable storage capacity has greater longevity and lower cost than existing methods of energy storage and could make all the difference in the drive towards clean energy.

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Renewable Energy Storage by Donald Sadoway (Video)

In the recent TED2012 talk Dr Donald Sadoway spoke about "The Missing Link to Renewable Energy", describing the future of large-scale batteries that store renewable energy. Energy storage is the key to harnessing renewables like solar and wind. The ability to be able to store and use power at night or when the wind is not blowing is the holy grail of renewable energy. Sadoway's battery miracle is an inexpensive, incredibly efficient, three-layered battery using "liquid metal." In this video Sadoway outlines the future of large-scale batteries that store renewable energy.

The innovative approach envisioned by Dr Sadoway will help renewable energy to bury fossil fuels. As he says: "We need to think about the problem differently. We need to think big. We need to think cheap."

Sadoway was born on March 7, 1950. Sadoway is of Ukrainian heritage and was raised in Oshawa, Ontario, he receiving his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1977. Dr. Sadoway's main area of study is on chemical metallurgy. Sadoway received a NATO postdoctoral fellowship from the ational Research Council of Canada and went to MIT to conduct postdoctoral research under Julian Szekely.

In 1978, Dr. Sadoway joined the MIT faculty. He is best known for his expertise on batteries and has done a vast amount of research on how to improve the performance and longevity of portable power sources.  Dr. Sadoway is one of the world's leading researchers in the area of materials engineering for energy-storage technologies.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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