Since I’ve been bumming logan and nagu with most of my recent posts, I thought I’d point out one of the trends that is a constant source of positivity for me these days: renewable energy is exploding.

Just today I first heard of Terra Moya Aqua Inc’s brand new vertical-axis wind turbine that produces energy at nearly 40% efficiency, and costs only 2.5 to 3.5 cents per kwH. For reference, fossil fuel power generation costs around 4 cents/kwH in fiat money, which of course does not approach the true cost. No such ‘externalities’ with wind power… hell, this turbine doesn’t even kill birds. They expect deployment of full production units in 5-7 months.

And last week, DARPA granted $53million to a consortium of energy companies who promise to double the efficiency of solar cells in four years. Their target is 54% efficiency in the lab and 50% in production. Right now solar cells top out around 25% efficiency. As we start to approach 50%, the nearly zero marginal cost solar becomes such a no-brainer that we won’t even need tax shelters disguised as environmentalism to foster widespread adoption.

If these technologies deliver as promised, we may soon live in a world where every rooftop has a wind turbine and a solar array feeding back into the grid.

Yes, the future is bright indeed… if we can get that far.

Related Posts:

• WattzOn: Personal Energy Profile (December, 2008)
• eco:Drive (October, 2008)
• Web 2.0 Notes: Tim O’Reilly (April, 2009)
• TED Talks: Humanity’s Violent History, Developing Rwanda, Redefining “Bioenergy” (December, 2007)
• Toyota Kicking Some Major Ass (February, 2006)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2005 at 1:19 pm and is filed under technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.