Obama has identified his right hand energy man as Steven Chu, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and also founder of Helious Solar Energy Research Centre. The new Department of Energy head will have the job of delivering a $150 billion investment package for alternative energy technologies.
Chu has plans to expand the development of solar, wind energy and biomass with the ambition of making these renewable technologies competitive with coal and oil. More ambitios plans outlined by the Department of Energy include improving the efficiency of solar panels by developing advanced semiconductor materials and the generation of biofuels by algae.
The appointment is good news for the solar energy industry who must be expecting to see a decent chunk of the investment.
Picture taken from the BBC web-site
Andy
December 15th, 2008
Lets spend 95% on the off the shelf technology we have and 5% on future renewable energy, Why? Because we already have the knowledge and products to build and retrofit residential homes to Net Zero.
We know how to build more efficient cars and if the big 3 want a bail out I say give it to them with the provision that all upper management making over $200,000 (including the board) a year take a DEEP pay cut (say 30-75% with no one allowed to make over $250,000 per year until this mess is fixed) and they start in 6 months increasing the fuel efficiency by 20% a year on all models with 30 MPG and any under 30 MPG are discontinued (period). Ninety % of their personal investments must be in the stock of the company they work for (I bet they will try harder to make a profit). No further investment in ethanol until it is proven practical. Plug-in hybrid
And is they do not attain these goals all their assets will be ceased and they will live in a homeless shelter for 5 years before being allowed to own anything. They will not be allowed to get any severance pay nor allowed to take another position for then next 5 years.
They have screwed the world enough it is time they give back…
I think the idea is clear just the details that need to be worked out. And since it is taxpayers money they should set the conditions.
Phil Bloomstein
December 15th, 2008
We all support renewable energy. But please make sure proper planning occurs and that those that are negatively impacted are compensated.
Vicky Portwain
December 20th, 2008
Andy – I agree that there is mature technology out there now waiting to be used. Governments need to incentivise people to actually start buying and using the products whether it be more efficient cars or ground source heat pumps. Much of the problem is about education or lack of an established market rather than a lack of good technology.