New Energy

It was speculated in Part 1 that wind power has held a fascination in our minds since ancient times, and still does. One year later here is Part 2, also written in 2009, at which time there were 23,000 turbines installed, capable of generating more than 38 GW of wind energy pushing the total figure to 160 GW. Hold that thought and then consider that globally somewhere around one to two percent of electricity we humans use comes from wind turbines [see David Beattie's 12.22.10 World Energy post].

In spite of the tizzy this week surrounding Bloom Energy’s $700,000 stand alone box of fuels cells which as AP reporter Jordan Robertson explained “will allow homes and businesses to generate their own electricity,” the lure of hydrogen fuel cells had fizzled over the past few years in the U.S.

Not so for a couple dozen Austinites who  jumped on the hydrogen bus this past Wednesday, February 24 at the UT J.J. Pickle Research Campus. This field trip on a bright and brisk morning, found them riding around to the back of the UT Center of Electromechanics building as the bus pulled up alongside a dark gray metal structure.

It’s fair to say that science and fiction have long intertwined. This fertile coupling in our minds has fathered one after another trope, meme, theme, leit motif. As with dragons, aliens, Atlantis and UFOs, it has never been easy to dissuade devotees of their allure. Such is the spin of wind power in high producing states like Texas.

Whether the allure is inspired by economic gain or by the perception of inherent goodness, is hard to tell. What is evident at least compared to Europe and Scandinavia, is that in the U.S. government incentives have not kept pace with foreign momentum nor with Americans’ wishful thinking.

The premise of this blog (or what, had it arrived online less than a decade ago would have been called a web log) is to explore concepts and deepen our understanding of the knowledge that surrounds design of clean technologies, here often called  'cleantech'.

On one level, the metaphor 'picture the worlds' expresses the notion that design thinking can give us a steady hand on the rudder as we navigate through environmental upheaval—softened now to climate control—something we humans haven't seemed to be good at. But we're getting smarter. This is remarkable. This is what Cleantech Map blog talks about: the map we are charting on the way to clean energy.