10% of US Power from Geothermal?

How underground ‘hot rocks’ could power America’s future from the Christian Science Monitor.

Of course this is a bit worrisome...

Dr. Blackwell says.

The potential for EGS is “vast,” he says. “I think that the MIT report is conservative if we really start to develop it.”

The big unknown is going to be cost. “And until we actually have a number of [EGS] systems operating,” he says, “we don’t know what the cost will be.”

Plug In Hybrids

Squeezing More Miles Out of That Hybrid from the WSJ. Toyota's culture for the most part is very risk adverse, so I understand how they are worried about the liability issue for plug in conversions. Be nice if they did not have to worry, but they are smart to do so.

Heat Exchanger for Houses

This NY Times article mentions a key of this house is a Heat Exchanger. I am curious on what is so special about this, since when I google the term Heat Exchanger I come across a lot. The Energy Challenge: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’. This has more details on Passive house - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The key seems to be Heat Recovery Ventilation.

Neat stuff which in time will become more and more common. The use of the modeling software is changing how one designs buildings! As the software becomes more environmentally aware (I would use the word advanced, but I hesitate), this will help reduce energy even more.

Gas Tax - Win, Win, Win

Friedman: Win, Win, Win from the NY TImes.

Good article about why a Gas Tax would help in the long term for making the US energy independent. Short term the price of gas is a nice economic benefit, but the US needs to reduce it's importation of energy which will have benefits of lowering the trade deficit and making the world a better place.

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening.

Lower fuel and home prices stall green building

Lower fuel and home prices stall green building from the Associated Press. I am not surprised. It's also an issue there are no real green standards across that nation yet. My suggestion is the need to put it in the building codes. And with the more being built with energy savings, this will also reduce the cost difference. I am more in favor of energy savings in designs, than if recycled material was used or not.

Solar Meets Polar as Winter Curbs Clean Energy

Solar Meets Polar as Winter Curbs Clean Energy from the NY Times.

As I live in usually pretty Sunny Southern California I did not think about.

I wonder what impact winter has in Germany on Solar.

Philips & LED's

Royal Philips Sheds Old Businesses for New Directions - from the NY Times.

My strategy teacher for my MBA did some work on restructuring Philips 10 years ago in Centurion. Unfortunately Centurion was a good start, but did not go far enough. It's hard to move a super tanker in a new direction. The supertanker has also slimmed down and focused on a few key areas, one of these is LED's which I agree with, has a huge amount of potential.