Bottom of the Pyramid

This is a pretty interesting talk:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2356#

arguing the merits of addressing what has been viewed as the "bottom" of the market.

The Giant Pool of Money

I had heard The Giant Pool of Money realtime on the radio, but chanced upon the online replay ... worth listening to, sad ... the destruction of so much capital that might have done something useful.

$20 per gallon

NPR hosts an interview with authors with two different views of our energy future.

http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/09/imagining-20-per-gallon

and a much older, related article from Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7203633/the_long_emergency

Energy Prices Plummet

As reported Aug 12 in the WSJ, electricity prices in the largest US market dropped 4.4% in the first half of 09.

Beyond Oil

Finished reading "Beyond Oil, Kenneth S. Deffeyes, 2005, Hill and Wang" . A geologist and Professor at Princeton, he writes with a very clear and amusing style to explain a very serious issue for an energy dependant society ... peak oil production is in our past (around 2005) and peak consumption is still in the future. Several other geologic energy sources are discussed. Well worth reading ... then figuring out what to do.

High Altitude Wind Power Generation

Looking at the article on high altitude wind generation led to some pretty interesting companies. Some useful papers left one with the impression:

• that the kite approach could be deployed at a range of scales
• the components, excluding the control system, were readily understood by "folk" (kites have been around for a while)
• the lifecycle capital cost seemed reasonable
• energy density was nice

A demonstration using a kite more normally dragging a surfer, delivered useful power (40kW).

Another interesting article is here.