lunes, marzo 05, 2012

What Would Steve Jobs Do About Energy Innovation?

First update. Comments posted on the original EWPC Blog.

Comments

Under the Technology Review article one person disagreed with my suggestion. To get a better understanding of the approach, next is my response:

Thank you very much for your inquiry. What I am suggesting is that the real cause is bad electricity regulation (the same may apply to gas and water networks) designed to protect the PSQ. Think there are two sequential stages of energy innovation: the first to upgrade the power industry as a whole to the digital revolution and the second to introduce new energy technologies.

Because of the bad electricity regulation enacted in the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the small systemic changes introduced under the name of deregulation produced huge value destruction, instead of the equally huge value creation that was expected, based on MIT's great research led by the giant late professor Fred C. Schweppe, as described in the book Spot Pricing of Electricity. Schweppe's warnings about the deregulation in the making were not considered because of the PSQ.

An example of the value destruction can be found in [the] post that is carried by the tweet:

@YoQPagoTolaLu: FERC's Order 1000 as a Potential Example of Over-Regulated America #EWPC http://bit.ly/GMH055

Similarly, to see an example of value creation look at the post that is carried out by the tweet:

@gmh_upsa: Will Germany be the First Country to Adopt the #EWPC-AF? http://bit.ly/GMH051
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Under the Technology Review article "Why the Next Steve Jobs Will Be in Energy, Not Computers," written by Christopher Mims on 08/30/2011 and which at this momeent has 37 comments, I added the following comment:

Hi everyone,

Christopher Mims is most likely right that the next Steve Jobs will be in energy. Energy is the most pressing issue. In several years water will be added, as they are both tightly interdependent. If the replacement of Steve Jobs comes along, he will most likely make a valuable proposal to end customers that they will not expect but love. So maybe, hobbyist will not be as important as they used to be before Apple changed the rules of the game.

This is my post number 100 under this Technology Review site, commenting about the highest level architecture of the power industry, which means that I have concentrated my effort on design, design, design, since 1992.

Yesterday, I wrote a comment under Kevin Bullis' article "Can ARPA-E Solve Energy Problems?" asking "What Would Steve Jobs Do About Energy Innovation?" Today, I received a comment, whose response I suggest may interest some of you.
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

He would do this :

The primary source of GHG is fossil fuel burning electrical generating facilities. http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/causes/uploads/2012/01/GHG-emitters-2010.jpg
7 Billion humans generate vast quantities of excrement. I believe this excrement is capable of providing all human electrical demands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolysis
Right now hydrogen is perceived as a negative by product, of Nuclear Energy, when it should be the product, as the Pentagon has considered. reference info Request for Information (RFI) on Deployable Reactor Technologies ... DARPA-SN-10-37@darpa.mil
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d0792af88a6a4484b3aa9d0dfeaaf553&...
Large scale conversions sites are intended to replace fossil fuel powered electrical facilities the Primary Source of Carbon Emissions.
http://www.populist.com/99.12.krebs.blob.html
In what officials now say was a mistaken strategy to reduce the waste's volume, organic chemicals were added years ago which were being bombarded by radiation fields, resulting in unwanted hydrogen. The hydrogen was then emitted in huge releases that official studies call burps, causing "waste-bergs," chunks of waste floating on the surface, to roll over.

Dennis Baker
106-998 Creston Avenue
Penticton BC V2A1P9
cell phone 250-462-3796
Phone / Fax 778-476-2633
dennis baker

Hi Dennis,

Is your idea to make a shift from large central stations to tiny end-customers' electricity conversion with hydrogen home production? Is this technology open to compete with other technologies such as end-customers' solar and wind? What's do you expect the government to do to provide a good electricity regulation that attracts the new Steve Jobs participation?
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Next is a tweet of a comment I made in the SmartGrids - Energy & Water group of Linkedin:

@gmh_upsa: http://t.co/MjcoVJYX Jobs was a great (conductor) visionary leader. Gates is a great (repair) reality manager. I think they both deserve...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

This is a tweet from the Smart Grid Network group on Linkedin.

@gmh_upsa: http://t.co/Wp2BRZvb Thanks Gerrit! It seems that your proposal is very close to what Steve did to surprise customer with products they...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

The SmartGrids - Energy & Water group on Linkedin has now 10 comments, that can be seen through this tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://t.co/kwhiYfG1 Mark: thank you for your systemic expert belief on the need for good regulation. When 47 non systemic experts (one...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Four more comments has been added to those mentioned just above. There are now 14, as can be seen in the tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://t.co/OICkElww Thanks Mark. According to Jack Casazza and Frank Delea, there are 7 networks systems that are interconnected in the...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

The SmartGrids - Energy & Water group on Linkedin has now 18 comments, that can be seen through this tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://t.co/tzoZVGwJ Thank you Mark for a very productive dialogue. It is obvious that every feeder has one meter, but in the...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Two more comments to get to 20. See next tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://t.co/DCuXWfvb Thank you once again Mark, I will argue for only 8. As you correctly infered, the Enterprise side and the T&D Grid...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

I just realized that I didn't include this:

@gmh_upsa: I just left a comment in "Can ARPA-E Solve Energy Problems?" http://bit.ly/GMH062
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Two more comments have been added in the Smart Grid Network Group of Linkedin as can be seen through the following tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH065 Very good analysis Gerrit, but that is not how I see good regulation emerging. I see in your analysis an...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Three more comments have been added in the Smart Grid Network Group of Linkedin as can be seen through the following tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH068 Edward and Mark: thank you. Please take a look at "The Utilities' Business Marketing Myopia Manifesto (...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Three more comments are now added to the Smart Grid Network Group on Linkedin as can be seen through the following tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH069 Michael and Gerrit: Thank you! I guess you are both expecting a physical solution breakthrough. But as I understand...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Through the following tweet, you can see the first four comment on the IEEE SSIT Group on Linkedin:

@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH072 Thanks again Ross for confirming that you are suggesting incremental innovation. This is how I...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

The SmartGrids - Energy & Water group on Linkedin has now 22 comments, which can be seen through this tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH076 Thanks Alexander. That SJ "would connect the dot's..." is the stepping stone of the post "Why the Current Smart...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Four more comments are now added to the Smart Grid Network Group on Linkedin as can be seen through the following tweet:

@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH078 Gerrit, Mark and Michael: I guess we agree that a shift from bad to good regulation is a must. I see that Gerrit is...
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

Through the following tweet, you can see three more comments on the IEEE SSIT Group on Linkedin:

"@gmh_upsa: http://bit.ly/GMH079 Thanks Jan for the nice support. I try to avoid the job of picking winners. Instead, I insist on good and simple..."
Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio

----------------

Under Kevin Bullis' article Can ARPA-E Solve Energy Problems? in Technology Review, I posted the following comment:


Hi Kevin,

I sort see what would Bill Gates do right now about energy innovation. But, what would Steve Jobs do?

You wrote that “Bill Gates warned that energy innovation moves a lot slower than innovation in software.” I guess there is a big difference between the playing fields between software and energy in terms of regulation: little for software, and a lot for energy. In that case, the existence of a powerful status quo (PSQ) in energy results in a huge barrier to innovations that can be considered as bad regulation .

What if Gates is not concentrating on that key issue, which it's not then that “underfunding is delaying the rate of progress,” but the PSQ? Suppose for a moment that the real problem of short term innovation is the result of having a PSQ. To see what sort of reactions might emerge, I started a poll in blogger ( http://bit.ly/GMH057 ) that says:

Let’s say one country has a good electricity regulation, meaning it doesn’t have a PSQ. A new Steve Jobs makes a proposal to customers that they don’t expect but love. What will the proposal do?

-- spread like crazy without delay.

-- be delayed in countries with PSQ.

-- be blocked in countries with PSQ.

-- none of the above.
Note: the actual poll can be found in the upper left corner of this webpage.