Unlearning 101

Unlearning the Grid

I'm in Eugene, Oregon today to give the keynote presentation at the conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Eugene Water and Electricity Board. The gist of my message is that as impressive as progress has been in the past century it will pale in comparison to what is coming in the next two decades.

One of the big challenges facing the utility industry is the idea that they will need to unlearn their ideas of what the utility grid of the future looks like as well as the role their customers will play in the creation of energy in the near future.

To this end, take a look at the image above. It is the "microgrid dream house." This vision hasn't yet been achieved but if you study emerging technologies as I do, it is clear solar cells, micro wind turbines, fuel cells, insulation, batteries and smart meters are all going to continue to improve. 

Personally, I believe they are going to continue to improve to the point where many people will opt to disconnect from the grid because they can safely, cheaply and sustainably produce and store their own electricity.

Unlearning the Conventional Wind Turbine

Is it possible that a wind turbine half the size of a conventional wind turbine could generate a comparable amount of electricity? According to this article  the answer is yes.

To better understand how this new turbine can also use less land; operate at higher wind speeds; and reduce transportation costs, I invite you to watch this short five-minute video.

Related articles:

Unlearning May Be Blowing in the Wind

Unlearning Bubbles

The Internet, the real estate market, fuel cell technology, nanotechnology and, now, "clean tech" have all experienced an investing "bubble." In retrospect, it is easy to point to signs that the market was inflating to dangerous levels. It is even easier to suggest that such bubbles are a bad thing -- precisely because so many investors got burned and lost a great a deal of money.

Bob Metcalfe, an early and successful Internet entrepreneur, see bubbles differently. He sees bubbles as a good thing. Here's his quote: "From Internet history, we know that bubbles are normal. Bubbles are an accelerator of technology progress. Bubbles go against the status quo. We should encourage bubbles."

I suspect that such statements are much easier to make when you're already a billionaire; as opposed, say, to someone to just lost a large amount of money in the stock market. Nevertheless, there is a certain logic to his argument and we may want not to dismiss all bubbles as cases of irrational investors getting sucked up by the winds of "irrational exuberance." Instead we want to view them as "technology accelerators." (This might not ease the financial pain of those who lost money in the bubble, but it might at least make them feel a little bit better about themselves.)

Unlearning May Be in Blowing in the Wind

Energy Daily has an insightful article about an intriguing new generation wind turbine developed by BroadStar Wind Systems. The new design, which can be viewed at the right, is unlike most wind turbines. It apparently, however, has some substantial advantages including the fact that it can be manufactured, transported, installed and maintained at a lower cost than conventional wind turbines.

As added benefits, it can reportedly produce power for less than $1/watt and, because it is substantially smaller than conventional turbines, it can "infill" existing wind farms for greater overall power generation. In other words, it makes more productive use of each acre of land.

Now, I'm not an engineer so I don't claim to know with certainty that this turbine doesn't have some drawbacks or limits, but there are other innovative designs for wind turbines as well, and I merely want to suggest that people in the wind power industry be open to the idea that they may need to unlearn what they "think" a wind turbine should look like.