Ken Fabos’s Recent Comments

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  Squeeze fossil fuels into backup for renewables

  Aren't we seeing some real movement towards lower costs for solar? Nanosolar is well past the proof of concept stage and are able to produce PV quicker and cheaper than ever seen before. Ausra has opened it's first factory, able to produce solar thermal hardware on a big scale, quicker and cheaper than ever before. I have questions about their claimed thermal storage system but it's clear these guys are serious about mass producing solar. Storage, even on the limited scale Ausra proposes (enough to carry output through the night) is significant, even if weather still impacts production. Without a grid wide enough and responsive enough to deal with intermittent renewables, backup is needed. So, are any designer/engineers of coal power stations looking at making plants able to quickly go on and off line or are they sticking to designs that have to run 24/7?
  Not being American, Al Gore isn't a name that resonates with political partisanship with me, but I appreciate that few leaders besides him appear to be facing the enormity of the climate change challenge head on - on the contrary, they appear to be sidestepping, avoiding, changing the subject, anything but face this squarely (still betting the pretend science of Linzden, Michaels, McKitrik and Carter will trumpt all the top scientific institutions of the world?). From the perspective of someone outside the US, seeing real reluctance from the worlds most advanced economy to tackle this issue - to lead on this issue - very worrying.
   On Can the coal industry and an environmental blog find common ground? posted 1 year, 3 months ago 24 Responses

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  Storage, wider grid or both

  I think it's a matter of both better storage and a better grid. One recent development shows that much higher energy densities are possible - see here - although this is more applicable to EV's than home or grid storage that isn't constrained by size or mass but could make the use of plugged in vehicles for storage more attractive - except don't we want that for driving around? Better batteries could also make it possible to ship electricity around the world much as fossil fuels are now, but that's not really a very elegant solution. Personally I see the grid, and somehow making it global as the real solution to intermittency. Under ocean HVDC between continents? Orbital energy transmission systems as proposed for Space Power systems, but with the solar collectors on the ground (more achievable than launching them into orbit)? Whichever way it's a massive project - but then the need is there. On Storage helps the sun keep shining even on cloudy days posted 1 year, 10 months ago 16 Responses

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  Does Patent Law help or hinder?

  I agree that better technology is the way to go, but I often wonder if Patent Law is really up to the challenge of rapid, big scale change. Whilst I don't want the innovators to lose out - they need some certainty they will be reap the rewards - I do have concerns about the exclusivity of Patents. Mostly my concerns are that the innovation we most need could end up the exclusive property of people and companies that fail to adequately resource it's development. It doesn't have to be deliberate holding back of better technology (when what they do now is profitable but a competitor with it would damage business), placing it low on the list of priorities (this year's bottom line mattering more than a decade hence) or just a lack of vision.

  Whilst I doubt Patent Law would be easy or likely to undergo major change, I do think 20 years of exclusive rights could be holding back innovation. Perhaps the originator of a new technology should have that 20years but purchasers of it have only 5 or 10 years (whilst retaining the right to licensing royalties). Or maybe it needs a different kind of intervention - Public money purchasing promising innovation and putting it into the public domain. Or just paying the innovators to give up the exclusivity but not the right to licensing royalties.

  These are just thoughts, perhaps not deeply thought out, but I do know we need to see solutions developed and deployed quickly. It would be more than disappointing to learn that low cost PV or significant improvements to batteries languished because the patent holder failed to resource it's development whilst simultaneously declined to allow anyone else do so.On For reducing the climate crisis posted 2 years, 3 months ago 39 Responses