Ed Ring

Atlantis Energy Makes Solar Beautiful When we think of home power, we often still think of roofs covered with rectangular black water heating or photovoltaic modules, propped up with struts at awkward angles to the roof in order to face south and gain maximum exposure to the sun. Aesthetically minded folk might worry about windmills erupting off front lawns everywhere, or diesel generators droning unmuffled through the nights. In short, we might think, "ugly!" So what if home power meant nothing more than grey slate roof tiles, and tinted glass on the windows that face south? What if home power was beautiful instead of grotesque? That is the dream that...

If the whole world consumed 500 quadrillion BTU's of energy in 2000, and that's only a bit generous, than a square of photovoltaic cells 200 miles on a side would have produced 100% of the world's energy requirements in that year. That's assuming 8 watts of output per square foot of PVs, 6 hours of sun a day year-round, and 70% efficiency after transmission and conversion. When I visited BP Solar's photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Fairfield, California, I hadn't done the math in time to ask Mac Moore, Director of Building and Utility Markets for North America, how much it would cost to buy a square of PV's 200 miles on a side, capable of producing annually 16,700 gigawatt...

Anuvu's Magic Carpet Would you buy a car that goes 700 miles on a fill-up, and costs only $20 to fill the tank? There are many candidates for next-generation cars: high-tech diesels, hybrids, super-engineered gasoline powered cars, electric cars, and fuel cell cars that use reformers. But the most efficient we've seen yet is a prototype being developed by Anuvu Inc. (www.anuvu.com) in downtown Sacramento, California. In a lab in an old brick building that once housed a brewery, alongside the tracks just north of downtown, there is a car being developed that could have a prototype version running in six months, and be available to consumers in two years. This...

Who will be the first to manufacture truly cost-competitive Photovoltaic cells? In a small lab in sunny Inglewood, California, EcoWorld has discovered Dr. Vijay Kapur, who for 29 years has been at the forefront of research and development of photovoltaics. Formerly Director of Research for Arco Solar, with a PHD in Chemistry, Kapur's current venture is International Solar Electric Technology, Inc. Investors take note, when we caught up with Dr. Kapur, he was in the lab working on systems which he says are ready for deployment and only require an infusion of capital. He believes he his patented "copper indium gallium selenide" technology can yield photovoltaic...

When Jonathan Brewer headed west in 1981 to seek his fortune in the goldfields of California, you would think he came 132 years too late. Not so. There's still a lot of gold in the Sierra and the mining concerns that Brewer worked for in those early years are alive and well. But as fate would have it, the mining industry procedures Brewer learned to extract precious metal from the earth have found him fortune in an ironic twist, by inspiring a unique process he has invented to extract toxic waste from the earth. EarthWorks Environmental (www.EarthWorksUSA.com) is the company founded from this inspiration, and Jonathan Brewer is well on his way to becoming a wealthy man, turning...

Interview of Juliette Beck by Ed "Redwood" Ring The cold war is over. Capitalism has won. The brave new world of free trade and global integration is upon us. What does this mean? Who benefits? Who loses? Technological advances and globalization have given rise to new ethical issues of staggering complexity. How can democracy be extended to international trade? Do multinational corporations currently exercise inordinate and undemocratic influence to manage international trade? Is the World Trade Organization just a puppet of multi-national corporations? At what point do the answers to these questions become obvious, and are they? If so, at what point is the time-honored American...

View Readers Comments about Fuel Cells In the western corner of West Sacramento, in a promontory of light industrial buildings that runs along the south frontage of Interstate 80, is the home of the California Fuel Cell Partnership. They are a depot for most of the hydrogen fuel cell powered cars in North America. In a new building on Industrial Boulevard, are spaces for auto makers and other partners from all over the world. When we visited last week, in front of the building the flags of eight nations snapped in the Pacific breeze, and across the street the vast floodplains of the Sacramento Delta stretched away to the south. Although the facility opened up on November...

View Readers Comments about Fuel Cells There is nothing simple about fuel cells. Oh, the concept is simple. A fuel cell is a battery that you can refuel. Period. End of story. They make electric current. They should have been called Fuel Batteries. Fuel cells are batteries that can be fueled by gasoline, methane, ethanol, or hydrogen, to name some. Charge producing electrons are chemically extracted from the fuel by the elements inside the fuel cell, which from an electro-chemical standpoint are identical to the elements inside the common battery, a continuous electric current, with energy derived from this fuel input. They last anywhere from one to six years before they wear out or need...

To visit ESRI you fly into Ontario International Airport, in the heart of Southern California's great "Inland Empire," that endless stretch of huge cities that follow the Santa Monica Freeway into the desert. Once on the ground, I rented a Geo Metro and navigated East on the 10 Freeway, driving cautiously amidst the SUVs and 18 wheelers that thundered down the road over the great desert turned oasis now called greater Los Angeles. Driving from Ontario, Redlands is the biggest town before the desert really begins to open up. The downtown lies just south of Interstate 10 and is framed by red mountains that have steep rock strewn faces and peaks that rise to startling heights...

Much excitement has been generated by the latest generation of Hybrid cars. The Toyota Prius, for example, is a hybrid four-seater that gets 50 MPG and costs only $20,450. We've been waiting for hybrids for a long time, and the Prius, with that kind of cost-performance, is a car to be taken seriously. The green generation of automobiles has arrived, and within 20 years, if not much sooner, cars that aren't green will be collector's items. Hybrids, which use a combination of combustion and electric power plants, seem to be the most viable green cars available today. They emit almost no pollution, have high mileage, and use proven, already scaled...