Energy Conference & Energy Future

In This Article:- Conference on Renewable Energies and what legistlators thing about science

Solar Power - we know the sun provides more energy every second than we need to power this planet with electricity if we'd installed solar panels. But even though much solar has and is being installed the wide spread adoption is still somewhat slow. Could added storage help? The idea is simple: peak solar production doe not coincide with peak electricity demand. Thus, when cost of electricity is highest you get the most $ for your solar energy. Thus the solution - store it for some few hours and release it during peak times.

The E2 conference next month in the Netherlands looks into these topics, and I shall contribute with a talk during thisconference. Here's a link to the topics discussed at that meeting.

Does Congress get a passing grade on Science?

 
The question is, how does the US congress views scientific topics like renewable energy and climate change? Scientific American recently asked 32 congressmen and women to respond to 8 selected science questions. The answeres are interesting and encouraging at once. Nine out of the 17 respondance acknowledged climate change which is uplifting. Other science related topics were brought up by the congressmen on the security of the internet, aka cybersecurity. This is a field that need much attention as communication and transaction pathways are virtually to 100% conducted via the web.

Continuing on this notion, and timely to the upcoming US elections, here is the link the respondance of "Top American Science Questions" from President Obama and Sen. Romney. Without going into too much detail the difference are quite obvious. The current administration did a tremendous effort in supporting science and engineering especially in the energy, water, and .... So how about economy? Well, Mitt Romneys biggest critique on the current administration is their apparent failure to grow the economy. The problem of many political leaders is that they sadly have a path for 4 years max, i.e. when elections are due. Obama however did plant seeds for a much bigger and larger project. He indeed presented a vision of a clean and US energy independent future. This forward thinking and long-term planning and preparing of the US polulation for the challenges of the 21st century is what makes true leaders stand out. And to the Mitt's economy point; 

• #1 when the Obama administration tool over the economy was down with 800,000 jobs lost every month from mis-leadership during the Bush years
• #2 the world saw the largest economical crises since the balck friday in 1929
• #3 the economy is already on a good way to recover
• #4 the long-term payoffs from stimmulation packets in Science, Engineering, clean energy, water, education WILL pay off in the mid-to long term - that's economics 101 

 In conclusion, the where we look sustainable energy sources like solar cells as discussed at the OSA E2 conference in Nov 2012, in the US congress, or at the economical growth plan of the Obama administration one thing is clear - the success and competitiveness of a country is and will be dominated by those who bet on scientific leadership.

Why Smart Technologies Aren't Enough

 In This Article:

- How raised awareness and understanding of cause-&-effects can lead to smarter decision making and an improved quality of life. 

Within the last few years, there is a growing talk and real technological innovation about improving the quality of life on this planet via novel technologies. And with no doubt this is a great way forward. For instance consider developments in the zero-net house; here your home and castle does actually not need to bring in energy from a  power plant in order to provide you with cozy warmth and a hot dinner. Or consider the killer-combo: a zero-net house, powered by rooftop heat exchangers and/or solar-cells, which at the same time re-charge your electric vehicle, so that you don't have to burn fossil fuels in order to move yourself around. On top of that, you might even make some $$$ alongside, by feeding excessive electricity from your solar-cell system back into the grid. While some forward thinking individuals do live such net-zero dreams, it is about the rest of us and what we can do towards a creating a smarter planet that I want to talk about in this post. 

     

After all - it's about choice, or is it? 

   

I give the punch line away upfront; in order to make a smarter planet, you and me should make more active usage of our brain power towards 'smart' decision making in every day life. The key word here is 'decision making' and thus choice. We humans choose to do something when we are motivated to do so. However, there exist two different kinds of motivations, namely intrinsic and extrinsic ones. Example: When you pay your taxes, you don't really see the impact of your money, nor do you get an sincerer "thank-you" from the IRA. This is a problem for humans, because even though we know we should give that money to the government such that it can provide for save roads, schools and education for us and our kids etc., we don't feel our contribution. This is an example of extrinsic motivation. Now, consider this scenario: you donate some amount of your wealth to support a good cause. You do this because you simply feel good about doing it, hence you are intrinsically motivated.

So, the question is what motivates us humans to do something? Before we go there, let's take a look into what 'motivates' an and animal, say an insect in their life. With its limited brain power the bug basically see's three motivations: sex, food, and doing-all-that-with-the-least-amount-of-energy spend. In order to execute these at times complex tasks its brain is 'pre-wired' or 'pre-programed' to do that, and only that. While being pre-programed is great, since the bug 'knows' the first moment it comes to life, what it should do, being pre-wired is   at the same time a curse, because such pre-wired connections can not be un-wired, nor can new connections be established (or only to a minuscule amount). In this sense humans are entirely different and hence can have different motivations in life, or so it seems. Starting with infants, a human baby is probably the most helpless being on this planet - left alone for just a few days it will certainly die and it will take it more than 365 days to learn how to walk. This is unlike most animals, who can walk and even run the first day they are born. However, such un-pre-wired human has now the opportunity to learn and thus wire our CPU in a unique way, every day again and again.   

Wiring our CPU - the task of life

So how do humans learn and thus wire our processor? It's called cause & effect plus repetition. Example-1: if I step on your toe and it breaks you know what was the cause for it (and you might avoid standing next to me the next time). Example-2: if, however, say your cat or dog (assume mid-sized dog) steps on your food applying about 10 lbs and your toe breaks, you are quite puzzled - unless you had taken into account that your toe actually had osteoporosis. While example-1 highlights a first order effect, example-2 is of second order and hence much more difficult to detect and hence learn from. Here, however lies the crux in human behavior; we often only see (or want to see) first order results that my action could cause and do not consider those of higher orders. Consider this little example. Assume you ride your bike on a narrow road and there is a car behind you. The only thing the car driver has in mind (maybe he is in a rush), is to take over that for him painfully slow bicyclist. Finally the oncoming traffic is cleared and he takes his chance rushing past you only to realize seconds later that in 150 yards the red traffic light is spoiling his eagerness to press on. So, why didn't the driver noticed the already red-shining lights BEFORE rushing forward? Well, he was not being aware of his 2nd-order effect once he had gained his 1st order one overtaking the biker, something we should start doing on an every-day basis.

This example for the rushy car drive overtaking the biker can also be analysed from an energetic/environmental point of view. Rushing past the biker requires the car to be accelerated requiring significant more energy than driving it at a constant speed. Then the fast car had to break for the traffic light and all that kinetic energy is wasted into heating up the break pads. There are two lessons learned here; (a) all that wasted energy could have been saved and (b) that unnecessary acceleration produced extra exhaust fumes inhaled by the biker and others adding to decreasing their health condition, from whose the car driver is unaffected. 

Reducing carbon and externality footprints    

Interestingly, economists created a term for such negative action of producing disadvantages for others and called it "externalities". Let me give you another example to illustrate this: consider two people - Alice living near a power plant and Bob in a desert. Bob is lucky and doesn't have to sweat in his house, because he can turn on his AC. The power required to run his AC comes in form of 'clean' electricity produced by a coal-burning power plant far away where Alice happens to live. Who do you think is more likely to develop cancer, Alice or Bob? Correct, and that's why Alice is experiencing Bob's externality. So, think about where have you created externalities for someone else? Could or can you avoid it next time?

Raising the awareness in our everyday life for our environment and fellow humans by thinking one step further than the immediate first order goal & effect caused by my actions would create a tremendously constructive ecological as well as sociological impact. Such a sociological negative externality (i.e. something positive) could for instance lead to reduced health care costs, non-renewable resources saved etc., all of which are topics of highest priority to U.S.'s policy makers and should be to you and me as well. Furthermore, it could be argued that such improved awareness would have a much greater and immediate impact on us and our environment than the external-motivating emerging smart technologies we are (luckily!) seeing today - hence the title of this post. 

So, what's the first step into that direction? Becoming aware of myself, my actions and my sourroundings. Given that, I can now act and change my behavior (re-wire new connections of my CPU and un-wire 'bad' ones) accordingly such that I minimize my externalities and seed social integrity among humans a better world.