Energy Secretary Chu visits Googleplex looking for a home run...

I was just curious if when Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu visited the Google campus to talk about how the U.S. can build a prosperous economy powered by clean energy if Google staff shared my plan to make the U.S. energy independent within a decade with Secretary Chu during a fireside chat. Googlers and our CEO Eric Schmidt, Secretary Chu 'talked about' what it will take to create a clean energy revolution.

Secretary Chu, said, the Department of Energy is trying to "hit home runs, not base hits." He noted that there are many proposed solutions to climate change out there, and we need to pursue all of them. "The scale of what we need to do is enormous," said Secretary Chu, and "putting the world on a carbon diet" and dramatically bringing down the cost of clean energy and should be top priorities. If we succeed, it will "drive a new industrial revolution."

Gentlemen, my plan is a home run... the revolution has begun.

I hope Goolge staffers summarized my 'gCommunities' plan for Dr. Chu: In fall of 2008 I submitted a national energy and environmental program to google that was focused on ailing communities, energy losses and the planet without sacrificing our level of quality living or stifle advancements in technology.


Highlights of plan: "The key to controlling the massive energy losses and building sustainable energy in the U.S. is to have community based clean energy distribution that focuses on the resources of that region."

I based my $10 Million google idea 'gcommunities.org' on converting U.S. Sprawl and rural communities into self sufficient off grid communities (sorry about the video - they only gave 30 secs).

I documented existing community models that could not only sustain their own resource and energy needs, but a financial model that would offer EROI of less than 5 years. Then these 'gCommunities' would 'sell off' excess and unused
energy load to dense Urban, manufacturing and non-sustainable communities.

With tax credits centralized around passive homes and manufacturing use of co-generation of waste heat systems (largest consumer of energy and generation of GHG).

I also stated that 100% of the project funding would go directly to the project with the intention that it would return over 150% of the investment over the first 5 years. gCommunities would then reinvest the revenue into building national gCommunities through energy cooperative agreements.

As always the data was inarguable, sustainable, economically and profitable with a bureaucratically favorable plan using existing ideas and resources balanced to remove us from our dependence on finite resources while protecting out greatest resources - 'people and the planet'

Thank you Google Staff and Dr. Steven Chu for considering my plan,

Christopher Haase

Vice President Biden Unveils Report Focused on Expanding Green Jobs and Energy Savings for Middle-Class Families

EERE - Vice President Biden today unveiled Recovery Through Retrofit, a report that builds on the foundation laid in the Recovery Act to expand green job opportunities and boost energy savings by making homes more energy efficient. Joining the Vice President today were Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ); Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy; Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor; Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

At a Middle Class Task Force meeting earlier this year, the Vice President asked the CEQ to develop a proposal for federal action to lay the groundwork for a self-sustaining home energy efficiency retrofit industry. In response, CEQ facilitated a broad interagency process with the Office of the Vice President, 11 departments and agencies, and six White House offices to develop recommendations for how to use existing authority and funding to accomplish this goal. These recommendations are described in detail in the Recovery Through Retrofit Report (PDF 485 KB).

"Recovery Through Retrofit is a blueprint that will create good green jobs—jobs that can't be outsourced, and jobs that will be the cornerstones of a 21st-Century economy," said Biden. "And, thanks to the Recovery Act's unprecedented investments in energy efficiency, we are making it easier for American families to retrofit their homes—helping them save money while reducing carbon emissions and creating a healthier environment for our families."

"This report builds on the foundation laid in the Recovery Act to expand green job and business opportunities for the middle class while ensuring that the energy efficiency market will thrive for years to come," said Sutley. "An aggressive program to retrofit American homes and businesses will create more work, more savings, and better health for middle class Americans."

...."This initiative will not only result in considerable cost savings for homeowners on their energy bills, but also put resources in the hands of green sector small businesses who will in turn create good-paying jobs in communities across the country," said Mills.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who was unable to attend this event due to travel added, "This is the Recovery Act at work. Communities will benefit from good jobs, families will benefit from lower energy bills, and we will all benefit from reduced air pollution and a growing green economy. Our Energy Star program can help families cut up to 30% off their energy bills— saving the average household more than $700 a year through efficiency investments. EPA is proud to be working with all of our partners to help people save money when they need it the most, and build a new foundation for prosperity through a growing green economy."

---

Haase: Why then would Vice President Biden not call me or google about our gcommunities.org proposal then that saves billions?

Oh right, Google ignored it.

I doubt anyone who worked on Vice President Biden's Recovery plan would not love and put my plan into proposed action.

Regardless, it be worth it for them to shot me a call or email... don't you think?

Google pushing hard up a hill, against the wind

I thought the point was to build a energy independent future?
Solar is so 70's... and still has massive scale and storage issues, yet is getting a "hard push" still at google.

Apparently, google not only ignored my submitted plan to save our nation, but is also trying to reinvent the wheel.

From TriplePundit - Frustrated with the lack of progress cutting the cost of solar thermal energy, Google, a prominent supporter of the technology, is privately working on ways to lower cost.

Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl says it is working on lowering the production cost of the mirrors that are a primary component of solar thermal power by at least a factor of two, "ideally a factor of three or four," according to Reuters.

Weihl says Google will not be working with any other companies on the technology — an odd decision, given that Google has already invested in two solar thermal companies that use mirrors to produce power.

...Through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, the Internet giant has invested in two solar thermal companies, eSolar, of Pasadena, and BrightSource of Oakland. Google's aggressive and unilateral move into solar thermal power provided a big boost solar thermal, financially but also, perhaps more importantly, from a pr standpoint.

Frustration in Mountain View... Google has not been able to invest as much as it hoped. In an interview, Weihl said a lack of "breakthrough ideas" and funding for ideas in their early stages has led the Internet giant to invest less than it expected — less than $50 million so far. From the Reuters piece:

"I would say it's reasonable to be a little bit discouraged there and from my point of view, it's not right to be seriously discouraged," he said. "There isn't enough investment going into the early stages of investment pipeline before the venture funds come into the play."

For all of Google's renewable energy investments: click here.

Please read from TriplePundit

Haase -
"Innovation is about doing things differently, not reinventing the old, but bringing in the new...
google made it's name by doing things different.
This is not that... come on google show us the good stuff.

No love lost with google... just disenchantment in project 10^100

This week google announced the project 10^100 finalist and left me out on a ledge. I then posted my disappointment while feeling that Google failed to select any tangible or real earth shattering projects from the 10,000's submitted.

Am I being a little hard here? Yes and let me explain why...

I think it was over-hyped and I fell into it, there are so many brilliant people at google and who work on their projects. Given that, I thought this was the culmination of that brilliance into several save the world ideas.

The constant project delays only made the expectations grow to possibly unrealistic.

And the resulting ideas are 'not bad' (yes I will vote for one), but hardly the earth shattering stuff google is known for.

I love the geothermal, solar and energy initiatives they have been working on... but for me this whole thing turned into a 'feel good media campaign' I expect from MSN or a save the world celebratory party... not google.

We are often the hardest judges of the ones we love the most in this world.


I have lost no love for googles awesome web tools, alternative energy programs or open source projects that have helped raise the cumulative intellect and technology advancements of the world, just a little disenchanted by one overly hyped 'prize contest' I got sucked into.

I thought it was the 'something bigger' that google is known for.

(cross posted comment at peakenergy)

Googles FAIL Project 10^100- Ignores all hope and logic

WOW, google 10^100 project is either brilliantly evil or completely clueless... Apparently Google ignored 1000's of scientists, ideas, business plans and financial models for the following shallow, inept, predictable and overdone fluff.

I AM NOT KIDDING, THESE ARE THE FINALISTS PLANS

• Build better banking tools for everyone
• Collect and organize the world's urban data
• Work toward socially conscious tax policies
• Encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists
• Make government more transparent
• Provide quality education to African students
• Help social entrepreneurs drive change
• Create real-time natural crisis tracking system
• Drive innovation in public transport
• Make educational content available online for free
• Build real-time, user-reported news service
• Enhance science and engineering education
• Create real-world issue reporting system
• Promote health monitoring and data analysis
• Create genocide monitoring and alert system

All of these are being done or are not up to 'goolge' to decide... how is 'google' going to make a government more transparent or change taxes?

I may be naive here but all these sound like every other 'throw money at it' social cause to save the world dribble we have heard since the 60's.

Evil theory - The questions is did google get 10,000's of brilliant ideas and take mine for free? Plausible...
Clueless theory - I spent days preparing and submitted a plan that would save our country billion$ of resource$, job$ and nearly eliminate dependence on foreign oil and google ignored it? Plausible...

Google - Save our jobs, energy dependence, water, air, toxic chemicals and health... I offered google every opportunity to change and influence these in the U.S. and the entire world and they gave me the boot with a list of predictable, overdone fluff.

PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS ONE READERS !
I think google needs some transparency in the legitimacy of this program

NOTE: If someone from google would like to contact me regarding this I am ALWAYS glad to help and do not mean to criticize, but come guys are you kidding me? I have spent 100's of volunteer hours helping develop google programs over the years I believed to be open and a substantial benefit to the public. For what?

Ouch... read for yourself the futile Project 10^100 idea themes

Saving homes with 'free' energy... netzero

GreenBiz - While there may be no such thing as a free lunch, or free electricity... green buildings, when designed right, can operate without monthly utility bills.
They’re known as zero net energy buildings, and they are generating lots of talk these days.

General Electric says it will deliver zero net energy homes by 2015.

The California Public Utilities Commission has set a goal of having all new homes use zero net energy by 2020.

Are zero-net energy buildings a stretch goal -- a distant dream -- or a present-day reality?

A bit of both, says Scott Shell, an expert in sustainable design at EHDD Architecture of San Francisco, a firm that has designed several zero-net energy buildings in California and has more on the way. “Very few people see it coming,” he says, “but the world is going to change in a profound way in the next few years.”

If he’s right, and I think he is, net-zero energy buildings will open up some big business opportunities in the coming years -- for design and architecture firms, builders, and companies such as GE, Johnson Controls...


As Scott explained to me by phone, the idea behind zero-net energy buildings is fairly simple: You design the building to be super-efficient, using natural light, energy-conserving appliances, insulation and the like so they use as little energy as possible. Then you try to generate the rest from on-site renewables, usually solar PV but potentially wind as well. Any surplus energy gen

To be sure, none of this is simple or achievable overnight. You need the right regulation -- the ability, at minimum, to sell distributed electricity back into the grid, which isn’t available in all states. The business case is stronger if utility rates are high, as they are in California, and if the sun shines a lot. Low-lying single story buildings are easier to build or modify because they have more rooftop space.

“The construction industry is one of the largest in the country, and we have so little actual public performance data,” Scott told me. The stakes are high -- by some estimates, buildings generate 40 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Imagine if we could drive that figure a lot closer to zero.

Please read full at New York Times

---

Haase - It is important to note I am a STRONG supporter that the utilization of net zero buildings and small scale renewable off grid communities are the fastest and most prosperous way for our nation to become energy independent, actually reduce energy use while we grow. It is NOW technology with no excuses, just proven solid energy and resource conservation that insures the safety and prosperity of our future.

This 'higher ground' approach would not only turn all of our nations 'energy and environmental crisis's into abundant opportunities', it would also lead all other nations to model this success. It is to ONLY tangible, real and fiscally feasible option that does not bury us in a risky future of toxic nuclear or fossil wastes costing trillions.

I think it is why I have google, regulators and legislators buzzing about it ;-)

Cited Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/business/energy-environment/30energy.html
http://www.architecture2030.org/news/news_031609.html
http://www.denverpost.com/greenbusiness/ci_12335133
http://www.gcommunities.org
http://www.greenchange.org

Also see more at ENN

Maybe now goolge will pay up...

Last fall I submitted a proposal to goolge for a $10 Million (prize) investment opportunity to save the economy and environment (linked here)

Of which 100% of the prize would go towards building economically and environmentally sustainable communities (gcommunities.com)

While google has been too busy to get back to me???

Vice President Biden and dozens of others have not....
Vice President Joe Biden today announced $300 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for state and local governments and transit authorities to expand the nation's fleet of clean, sustainable vehicles and the fueling infrastructure necessary to support them.

"For city and state governments across this country, 'every day is Earth Day'* thanks to the ambitious commitments they are making to green their vehicles and transit systems. Now it's time for Washington to help them deliver on those promises," said Vice President Biden. "From advanced battery cars to hybrid-electric city buses, we're going put Recovery Act dollars to work deploying cleaner, greener vehicles in cities and towns across the nation that will cut costs, reduce pollution and create the jobs that will drive our economic recovery."

Read full at DOE


*Hey 'Vice President Joe Biden quoted me' - Haase

Delayed - 'a Google project that could save the world'.

Google - "It's time for Plan G"

Last year Google made me very excited about being involved in various energy projects that genuinely looked like 'good stuff'.

Realistic, viable and financially feasible plans began sprouting out of Google like their search engine results.

Then they used a genius idea to make their good ideas awesome by adding yours in a global collaboration. Thus began the 10^ 100^ project.

Taking some of the worlds greatest minds and venture capitalists and having them "dry run" the worlds ideas on how to save the planet sounded like 'a dream come true'.

That's where I got on board, after a decade of planning my national energy and environmental programs I know I have one of the only concepts that has the focus on saving people and the planet without sacrificing our level of quality living or stifle advancements in technology.

So Google, where's the feedback?

• My program met every criteria outlined
• I want none of the money personally,
• and it unequivocally solves our foreign oil interests, coal, nuclear, renewable, housing, energy grid, health, air and water problems...

You only gave me a 30 second clip and 1 page of info to 'sell this', as your project would not accept the full 600 page technical document.

Seriously, no one has a better plan, is the 10^ 100^ project real or a tragic hoax. The announcement dates keep moving and there was no confirmation of my submission.

I personally felt this program would be best in the hands of brilliance and not bureaucracy but, our nation desperately needs this now, please respond if you are serious or I will hand over the plan to the new Administration.

Thanks,

 

Christopher Haase

Environmental, Health and Safety Director

 

---

Stay up to date on googles response via:

Official Google Blog: An update from the Project 10^100 team

We have 100's of better ideas than - yucca

WallStreetJournal At a Senate hearing, Mr. McCain complained that the administration's decision would set back the development of nuclear power in the U.S. "What's wrong with Yucca Mountain, Mr. Chu?" Mr. McCain asked at the hearing. "I think we can do a better job," Mr. Chu replied. "We're going to have spent fuel sitting around in pools all over America," Mr. McCain said. "To say after 20 years and $9 billion dollars spent on Yucca Mountain that it's not an option is a remarkable statement . . . It's clear industry isn't interested in the construction of nuclear power plants because we have no place to store" nuclear waste.

 

Haase - Mr. McCain makes a big and valid point that this is a major security and safety risk about 'doing nothing for now'... what is the 'monthly cost' of this project? 100's of Millions? 

 

And I believe Mr. McCain and Mr. Chu could agree in a regulated plan with the utilization by reuse and recycling of the spent fuel that would not only prevent further Billions thrown in a "hole in the mountain" but would generate revenue in the near future.

 

Gentlemen, decades, billions "Let's make a deal".  Spent nuclear fuel should be re-recycled down to nothingness.

• Reprocessing does not work.
• The $9 billion is just the 'chump change' compared to the "Trillion a Decade" is will cost in storage.... 
• Solving the waste problem unleashes nuclear's potential, and this waste can be recycled a second time. In a hundred years, when the heat producing and most radioactive fission products have decayed.
• Spent nuclear fuel produces enough free, carbon-free energy to produce the annual U.S oil requirements.
  A recently published study by Australian, French, Canadian and U.S. scientists notes the unprecedented capacity of bitumen to sequester radioactive materials from bitumen found beneath shale formations that would further preclude either hydrocarbons or radionuclides from migrating to the surface.  Such a use is technically indistinguishable from geothermal energy, which is widely acknowledged to be an environmentally sound approach to generating energy that  burn pressurized water reactor fuel, the majority, as is.(no reprocessing required).
• Another alternative to Yucca, and to reprocessing, is to burn up the spent fuel to start up a fleet of thorium powered nuclear reactors. These have the advantage of producing < 1% of the long lived waste of today's nuclear reactors. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor uses plentiful thorium, converting it to U-233 that reacts to make power. It only needs fissile material, such as the spent uranium fuel, to start up. An introduction to this is available at
  http://rethinkingnuclearpower.googlepages.com/aimhigh

Read more suggestions for Mr. Chu from comments section

(Just a few, call or email me for dozens more ;-)

 

NUCLEAR WASTE YUCCA FACTS: 

YUCCA- Will be  $96.2 billion (right now) to develop a repository large enough to handle 77,000 metric tons. Here's the problem - more than 56,000 tons are already stored at more than 77 reactor sites across the country. And this number increases by about 2,000 tons each year. So by 2036 (when Yucca would be filled to capacity), we'll be looking at about 110,000 tons - or 33,000 tons above what Yucca can store. Read more from nuclears-nemesis

 

Click here to study this subject a little more on this site

Salvation if we want it... but we all fear change.

Word facts... Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future,

Tell people something they know already and they will thank you for it.
Tell them something new and they will hate you for it

- George Monbiot

 

Energy czars persuade the persuadable to continue a future built by destroying finite resources 

"the greenest energy is that which you needn't ever produce."

 

 

We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed
UN report finds life is getting better for people worldwide – but that governments are failing to grasp the opportunities offered at 'a unique time'.

 

Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.

 

So says a massive new international report, due to be published late this month, and obtained by The Independent on Sunday. Backed by organisations ranging from Unesco to the US army, the World Bank to the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2008 State of the Future report runs to 6,300 pages and draws on contributions from 2,500 experts around the globe.

 

Its warning is all the more stark for eschewing doom and gloom. "The future continues to get better for most of the world," it concludes, "but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects."

 

... "This is a unique time in history.  It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve [them]."

 

What is more, say the authors of the report, produced by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of the United Nations Associations, many important things are already getting better. Life expectancy and literacy rates are increasing worldwide, while infant mortality and the number of armed conflicts have been falling fast. Per capita income has been growing strongly enough to cut poverty by more than half by 2015

 

Even better, it says, "advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today". "collective intelligence for just-in-time knowledge to inform decisions".

 

The report reserves its greatest enthusiasm for the internet, which it says is "already the most powerful force for globalisation, democratisation, economic growth and education in history.

 

Just over one-third of humanity still lives in the 43 countries with authoritarian regimes, but half of these people are in China.

 

On the other hand, the report warns "half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations due to political, environmental and economic conditions" – threaten to undo the improvements of recent years and blight the chance of a better future.

 

Yet nuclear power – the solution increasingly favoured by governments, which are planning to add another 350 reactors to the 438 already operating around the world – will not do the job. "For nuclear energy to eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, about 2,000 nuclear power plants would have to be built, at $5-15bn per plant, over 15 years – and possibly an additional 8,000 plants beyond that to 2050."

 

The report says that there is not enough uranium in the world to fuel all those reactors, that another Chernobyl-type accident could halt the expansion in its tracks, and that the rapid spread of the atom around the world increases the chances of nuclear proliferation and terrorism.

 

There are grounds for hope... But the report's authors say that governments are not up to the job: "Many of the world's decision-making processes are inefficient, slow and ill-informed, especially when given the new demands from increasing complexity [and] globalisation." They call on world leaders to do more long-term planning, and to join in global approaches to the interlocking crises. "There seems to be an interest in creating global strategies, but it needs a little push. There's more within us now to collaborate in the face of shared problems."

 

Read more about a future that is not futile at independent from Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen