Carbon is a wondrous thing, especially in the form of graphene

The NY Times has an article today describing recent developments in graphene, which is a carbon based material with amazing properties.  Carbon is of course the basis for life on earth and when emitted into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide it warms the earth (as do other greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide and methane).   Graphene is strong, conductive, flexible, and transparent, which gives it many advantages over conventional materials.

Here are a few key paragraphs from the NY Times article:

While the material was discovered a decade ago, it started to gain attention in 2010 when two physicists at the University of Manchester were awarded the Nobel Prize for their experiments with it. More recently, researchers have zeroed in on how to commercially produce graphene.

The American Chemical Society said in 2012 that graphene was discovered to be 200 times stronger than steel and so thin that a single ounce of it could cover 28 football fields. Chinese scientists have created a graphene aerogel, an ultralight material derived from a gel, that is one-seventh the weight of air. A cubic inch of the material could balance on one blade of grass.

“Graphene is one of the few materials in the world that is transparent, conductive and flexible — all at the same time,” saidDr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, a lecturer at the University of Manchester. “All of these properties together are extremely rare to find in one material.”

We’re still far from widespread commercial appellation of graphene, but I wanted to point readers to the three best scientific articles of which I’m aware that demonstrate the use of graphene for sensors and super capacitors (energy storage).

Bogue, Robert. 2012. “Environmental sensing and recent developments in graphene."  Sensor Review.  vol. 32, no. 1.

Liu, Chenguang, Zhenning Yu, David Neff, Aruna Zhamu, and Bor Z. Jang. 2010. "Graphene-Based Supercapacitor with an Ultrahigh Energy Density."  Nano Letters.  vol. 10, no. 12. 2010/12/08. pp. 4863-4868. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl102661q]

Liu, Chang-Hua, You-Chia Chang, Theodore B. Norris, and Zhaohui Zhong. 2014. "Graphene photodetectors with ultra-broadband and high responsivity at room temperature."  Nat Nano.  vol. advance online publication, 03/16/online. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.31]

One of my colleagues at Stanford was skeptical of using graphene and carbon nanotubes in microprocessors, but he thought the other applications were quite exciting.  This material, when combined with recent developments in energy harvesting, will likely accelerate the advent of "Smart Everything”, as we discussed in our recent article in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources.

Chris Calwell's experience driving from Colorado to California in his Model S electric vehicle

For those interested in a real world account of using Tesla’s supercharging network to drive long distances, check out my friend Chris Calwell’s blog posts here, here, and here. The superchargers worked well, and as they become more common, it will get even easier.  I suspect strongly (though have no inside information about this) that once the network is fully built out Tesla will consider licensing the use of it to other automakers, but this will probably have to wait until Tesla makes its electric car “for the rest of us” in a few years.

The picture above shows Chris Calwell (right) with his Model S at the Tesla  Factory in Fremont, CA, on February 6, 2014.  Dave Houghton and Gregg Hardy are at left and center, respectively.

A wonderful quote from Elon Musk about integrated whole systems design

As I wrote in Cold Cash, Cool Climate, one of the most important ways to achieve breakthrough innovation is through integrated whole systems design.  That means not settling for incremental change, but redesigning devices as whole systems to help them accomplish tasks as well as any human or machine could with current technology.

Amory Lovins, who is the most prominent proponent of this design approach, says wisely that “optimizing parts of a system will pessimize the whole system”.  Rocky Mountain Institute has compiled recommendations about integrated design here and here.

I had the pleasure of doing a tour of the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA on February 6, 2014, and I saw this inspirational quotation from Elon Musk about whole systems design and the Tesla Model S.  I wasn’t allowed to take a picture of the wall on which it was printed, but I remembered it so vividly that I had my friend Chris Calwell (who drove to California from Colorado using the supercharger network) get back in touch with the person at Tesla who set up the tour to get the exact quote.  It’s wonderful!

With the Model S, our goal was to create the first ‘true’ electric car. By this, I mean the first electric vehicle where every element was considered anew in light of the fundamental change in technology and then designed and engineered as an integrated system. The result is a car that is beyond what people believe a car can be.”

Elon Musk – CEO and Co-founder

It is this spirit of redesigning from the bottom up that all entrepreneurs should embrace.  We need innovations that are so much better than what they replace that people will be happy to scrap their old technology to capture those benefits, because that’s the only way we’ll achieve the rate and scope of change we need to truly face the climate challenge.  Whole systems integrated design is the way to do just that.

I wrote about integrated design in my GigaOm essay titled “7 ways to unleash game-changing green tech innovation” back in 2012.  There’s also a book on the topic, titled Whole System Design: An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Engineering, which I’ve browsed, although I haven’t reviewed it carefully.

Here’s a picture of me at the wheel of Calwell’s Model S after the tour, thankfully driving at a reasonable speed according to the speedometer.  It’s a terrific car.  Now that innovation needs to trickle down to cars that ordinary folks can afford!

Clean Tech Open events in the East Bay

I had the honor of speaking at a Clean Tech Open event in San Francisco two days ago, which was a terrific event focused on Climate and Clean Tech.   There were more than 60 eager and interested folks in attendance, and there were lots of great questions from the audience.  It was great to reconnect with that group–I was an advisor to the founders of the Clean Tech open in the very beginning, and served as a judge and a mentor for one year.

My friend Ken Lee is arranging a series of interesting Clean Tech Open events in the East Bay.  See list below:

Entrepreneurship and Energy – Assorted Tales from the Entrepreneurs

CITRIS Foundry, Berkeley, April 8, 2014

Cleantech Open Biofuel Briefing at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Emeryville, April 15, 2014

Clean Manufacturing, Maker Communities, Green Buildings and the Rise of the Smart City

Zero Net Energy Center, City of San Leandro, April 16, 2014

2014: The Year of the Battery – Taking Battery Storage from Bottleneck to Breakthrough

WorkSpace Fremont, April 23, 2014

Solidifying Solar’s Place in Distributed Energy

SfunCube, Oakland, April 24, 2014

Three Mile Island 35th Anniversary Symposium: The Past, Present, and Future of Nuclear Energy

Last Friday March 28th, 2014 saw an event commemorating the 35th Anniversary of Three Mile Island at Dartmouth, sponsored by

The Thayer School of Engineering

The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding

The Steyer‐Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at      Stanford

The video for the entire event is now posted (tip of the hat to Dan Reicher at Stanford, who was one of the co-sponsors).  Apparently the back and forth between Amory Lovins and Armond Cohen was quite spirited. Amory’s keynote lecture is at 6 hours 20 minutes in.

PS.  For those who still think that Three Mile Island was the primary reason for nuclear power’s decline in the US, please email me to get a copy of our Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article addressing this widely believed but incorrect idea.

I'm appearing on a panel Thursday evening April 3rd, 2014 on the Commonwealth Club's Climate One program: "Nuclear power: Meltdown or revival?"

I’m appearing on a panel Thursday evening April 3^rd, 2014 on the Commonwealth Club’s Climate One program: “Nuclear power:  Meltdown or revival?”   It’s open to the public, so please join us.

Here’s the program description, which can be found at the event page at http://www.climate-one.org/upcoming-events/nuclear-power-meltdown-or-revival

Program description:

Three years after Fukushima is nuclear power dead in the water? Or is it poised for revival due to the world’s desperate need for carbon-free energy? Two U.S. nuclear plants are being shut down but dozens of others have received a new lease on life from regulators who approved letting them run another decade or two. Nuclear’s biggest challenge comes from the glut of natural gas which is undercutting both clean and dirty sources of electricity.

Nuclear advocates say new technologies can deliver safe atomic power at competitive prices. Detractors say nuclear is propped up by a liability shield subsidized by taxpayers and that Fukushima proves it has unacceptable health and environmental risks.

Jon Koomey, Research Fellow, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, Stanford University

Dave Lochbaum, Director, Nuclear Safety Project, Union of Concerned Scientists

Per Peterson, Member, Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future; Professor of Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley

Date: Thursday, April 3, 2014

Location: The Commonwealth Club, SF Club Office, 595 Market Street, Second Floor, San Francisco

Time: 6:00 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. networking reception

Cost: $20 non-member, $12 members, $7 students

Also know: The speakers and audience will be videotaped for future broadcast on the Climate One TV show on KRCB TV 22 on Comcast and DirecTV.

Audience members will receive a free copy of my latest book, Cold Cash, Cool Climate:  Science-based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs.

Hope to see you there!

An invitation: I'm headlining at a Clean Tech Open event on Clean Energy and Climate in San Francisco on Wednesday evening, April 2nd, 2014

Here are the details on the April 2nd, 2014 event:

Clean Energy and Climate Change, a Cleantech Open business briefing at Impact Hub in SF

Wednesday, April 2, 2014 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM (PDT)

Location:  Impact Hub San Francisco

925 Mission St

San Francisco, CA 94103

Here’s the short URL to link to the event:

http://tinyurl.com/osdjg6z

There’s also a discount code for my guests, which is “ctokoomey2014”.  Using this code will save you $5 off the $15 admission price.

Attendees will also get a free copy of my latest book, Cold Cash, Cool Climate:  Science-based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs.

Please spread the word!

My interview today on Bloomberg West about making data centers more efficient

I had a wonderful interview today about data center efficiency on Bloomberg West today, which you can watch here.

The focus was on our case study of eBay’s management practices, which came out last September.  The interviewers were really prepared which is always gratifying.  Let me know what you think!

Here’s one screen grab from the interview.

CO2 Scorecard analyzes coal exports

My friends at CO2 Scorecard just released a short data analysis demonstrating that coal exports from the US have more than offset carbon emissions savings from switching from coal to natural gas in the US electricity sector.  This result is one important piece of evidence that an “all of the above” energy strategy is intellectually incoherent and doomed to fail.  We need to stop coal exports and keep that coal in the ground, and you can’t do that if you continue to promote coal as an energy resource.  In the absence of widespread carbon sequestration and storage, coal cannot be clean.

#coalisnotcheap

Transport constraints and Keystone XL: New Calculations from Max Auffhammer at UC Berkeley

Max Auffhammer at UC Berkeley brings his formidable economic talents to bear on the Keystone XL question, and finds that not approving the Keystone XL Pipeline will keep at least 1 billion barrels of bitumen in the ground.  It is a nice counterpoint to the circular reasoning that still pervades the State Department’s Environmental Impact Statement.  The key insight in Max’s piece is that transport to the tar sands is constrained even if every single one of the currently proposed pipelines are built as scheduled and rail shipments are expanded at a furious pace. This means that not building any one of these projects will keep some bitumen in the ground.  Max calculates this amount as 1 billion barrels, but the amount could be higher if canceling Keystone affects whether others are built.

This is a huge deal: Exxon agrees to evaluate the "stranded asset" risk associated with climate action

The financial markets are starting to realize that the “booked” reserves of the fossil fuel companies are based on a fallacy:  these estimates assume that those fossil fuel resources can be burned and still maintain a stable climate.  As I and others have written for years, we must keep a significant fraction (about three quarters) of known fossil resources in the ground to have any hope of stabilizing global temperatures at or near 2 C above preindustrial times.

Yesterday Exxon Mobil made a major announcement, summarized by the New York Times as follows:

Energy companies have been under increasing pressure from shareholder activists in recent years to warn investors of the risks that stricter limits on carbon emissions would place on their business.

On Thursday, a shareholder group said that it had won its biggest prize yet, when Exxon Mobil became the first oil and gas producer to agree to publish that information by the end of the month.

In return, the shareholders, led by the wealth management firm Arjuna Capital, which focuses on sustainability, and the advocacy group As You Sow, said they had agreed to withdraw a resolution on the issue at Exxon Mobil’s annual meeting.

There has been some excellent coverage in the mainstream media on this development, the key articles of which I list below.

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

Reuters

MarketWatch

The Guardian

The Dallas Business Journal

Ceres.org, which was heavily involved in obtaining Exxon’s agreement for these disclosures, deserves great credit for helping make this happen.

The reason why this development is so important is because once markets realize there’s an arbitrage opportunity, they relentlessly chip away at it until it is eliminated.  And the stranded fossil asset arbitrage opportunity is one that’s worth many trillions of dollars.  So the pressure will continue to build, and soon the disclosures will result in attention paid to this asset risk that simply hasn’t been present before.  That attention will become a flood very rapidly.  It’s the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel economy, but the big players just don’t realize it yet (or if they realize it, they’re not admitting it).

As I wrote in my recent article titled “Moving Beyond Benefit-Cost Analysis of Climate Change” in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters:

Meeting the 2 Celsius warming limit implies that a significant fraction of proved fossil fuel reserves simply can’t be burned [4], or we’ll need to figure out a way to sequester carbon in a safe way (which is not currently feasible on the scales needed, though it has been proved in some applications).  This line of argument has achieved recent prominence through the writings of Bill McKibben [23] and Al Gore [24], but it was first put forth in 1989 in Krause et al. [9], and it’s a direct result of the “working forward toward a warming limit” method.

This conclusion is ominous for those now fighting to build more emissions intensive infrastructure.  There’s a real business risk to them because once the world finally accepts that rapid reductions of emission are required (which must happen soon if we’re to have any chance of stabilizing the climate), those investors will lose their money.  When markets turn, they do so with terrifying speed, and this time will be no exception.

Refs cited

4.         Koomey, Jonathan G. 2012. Cold Cash, Cool Climate:  Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs. Burlingame, CA: Analytics Press.

9.         Krause, Florentin, Wilfred Bach, and Jon Koomey. 1989. From Warming Fate to Warming Limit:  Benchmarks to a Global Climate Convention. El Cerrito, CA: International Project for Sustainable Energy Paths.

23.       McKibben, Bill. 2012. “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math.” In Rolling Stone Magazine. July 19.

24.       Gore, Al, and David Blood. 2013. “The Coming Carbon Asset Bubble.” The Wall Street Journal (online).   October 29.

Back in the late 1980s when I first started working on this issue, my colleagues and I knew we would eventually see a turning point in this battle to stabilize the climate, but we’ve all been shocked by how long it’s taken. We’ve known the basic outlines of the problem since then, and the warnings have only gotten more dire.  Let’s hope this is the turning point we need to finally move towards rapid emissions reductions.  There’s simply no more time to waste.

Yale Environment 360 on energy harvesting

Cheryl Katz at Yale Environment 360 wrote a nice article on energy harvesting in which I’m quoted.  Here are the two intro paragraphs:

Computers feasting on their own exhaust heat. Super-efficient solar panels snaring lost thermal energy and recycling it into electricity. Personal electronics powered by stray microwaves or vibration-capturing clothing. Cellphones charged with a user’s footsteps. These and more innovations may be possible with free, green energy that is now going to waste.

Ubiquitous sources like radio waves, vibration and pressure created by moving objects, heat radiating from machines and even our bodies — all have the potential to produce usable electric power. Until recently, ambient energy was largely squandered because of a lack of ways to efficiently exploit it. Now, advances in materials and engineering are providing tools to harvest this abundant resource and transform it into cheap, clean electricity.

Photo credit:  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The Bacteriophage Power Generator is made of biopolymer layers that produce electricity when squeezed.

Energy harvesting is one aspect of the technological revolution that’s driving the creation and adoption of battery powered information technology.  We explore this and other trends in computing efficiency, communications efficiency, low power “sleep states”, and battery technology in our “Smart Everything” article in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources last fall.  To download a free copy of that article, go here.

Koomey, Jonathan G., H. Scott Matthews, and Eric Williams. 2013. “Smart Everything:  Will Intelligent Systems Reduce Resource Use?"  The Annual Review of Environment and Resources.  vol. 38, October. pp. 311-343.

My new blog post on the Corporate Eco Forum site: "Bringing Enterprise Computing into the 21st Century: A Management and Sustainability Challenge"

The Corporate Eco Forum (CEF) just posted a new essay of mine titled "Bringing Enterprise Computing into the 21st Century: A Management and Sustainability Challenge".

Here are two key intro paragraphs:

Most companies view IT as a cost center, but the most effective users of these new technologies understand that IT can be a cost-reducing profit center that also improves environmental performance. Reforming IT is imperative for organizations that want to innovate faster and compete more effectively, a fact that modern enterprises ignore at their peril.

The critical factor is senior management attention to restructuring enterprise IT, since addressing these issues is primarily an organizational challenge that is “above the pay grade” of those responsible for datacenter operations. Companies that tackle this challenge will reap rewards in increased revenues, lower costs, faster innovation, and greater business agility. It’s a win-win-win-win, but most upper managers ignore this potential, treating IT as a cost of doing business that they simply must pay.

I’ll be doing a webinar for CEF members on this topic tomorrow morning at 9am PT.

My talk on energy and the information economy at the Physics of Sustainable Energy conference on March 8th, 2014

I gave a talk on energy and the information economy at the Physics of Sustainable Energy Conference on March 8th, 2014.  The event was sponsored by the American Physical Society, which has been doing this conference for at least three cycles.  It was a great event, and I got to see many friends and colleagues, including Joanna Lewis, Bob Budnitz, Dan Kammen, Art Rosenfeld, Amory Lovins, and many others.  See below for the presentation.

My keynote interview with Joel Makower of GreenBiz from the Fall 2013 VERGE conference in San Francisco

GreenBiz just posted video of my keynote interview with Joel Makower of Green Biz from last fall’s VERGE conference in San Francisco, which took place on October 16, 2013.  The key message:  Information technology is our “ace in the hole” when it comes to facing the climate challenge.

In August 2013, Heather Clancy of GreenBiz did a text interview with me that explored some of these issues in more detail.

Watch it: