Newbies are beginning to shine
As I struggle to understand why we are propping up a clearly flawed model in our automakers, I am very excited by what I see from the newbies. Though still too expensive for me at over $57,000, the new Tesla Model S is still extraordinarily impressive — 300 miles on a 45 minute charge and able to go zero to 60 in 5.5 seconds.
Given what we know now, it boggles the mind that Ford dropped Th!nk from its portfolio because it decided to get out of the electronic car business in 2003. Th!nk has struggled along, mainly in Europe, but has recently secured new financing and plans to push into the U.S. market shortly. Where they seem to excel is from the modularity of their technology. They have basically built the core functionality of a car and allowed the battery source and outer shell to be just about anything. Thus, they are poised for both a B2B and B2C play or both.
It is this kind of ingenuity and innovation, not just in the auto industry, which gets me up in the morning lately. If we continue to bankroll failed models, however, we prevent or at least delay new innovations and new ideas from reaching viability. It is easy to play it safe, hard but possibly more rewarding to be out on the edge…
UPDATE. “Electric car startup Tesla Motors has a new partner: German giant Daimler.“
Sunny side of the street
One of the biggest reasons businesses and home owners have for not installing solar panels are their high cost. This is due in part to two things: (a) the cost of manufacturing anything with silicon, solar panels’ primary component, is high and (b) the overall efficiency of solar panels is relatively low (15-25% max), thus you need a lot of panels to meet your electrical demands. The low efficiency of panels implies the need for a lot of real estate that faces in a specific direction to ensure demand is met. The net-net is that even though solar is a perfect solution as an energy source, we need to significantly improve how we capture and transform it into usable electricity.
Luckily, we’ve finally got some global attention on the matter and innovation is occurring!
- Changes in solar panel manufacturing, increases efficiency 25%
- Improving concentrated photovoltaic technology, increases conversion efficiency to 37.5%
- Major advance in inorganic chemistry that could lead to a cheap way to store sun’s energy
On a related note, if you’re looking for a solar charger for your electronics, check these out.
Collaboration Killer
Gates and those like him simply do not understand that concepts like “ownership,” “property,” “mine vs ours” more often than not kill true collaboration. We may be able to realize some evolutionary change in this kind of Gates-esque environment, but it often takes a lot longer and can be far more costly. Innovation, revolutionary ideas or leaps of genius starve or are forcibly killed in that kind of environment. We have challenges in our world which require that which Gates is effectively killing. How do we change so that we may save ourselves and others fast?
Gates Foundation Vs. Openness In Research – Slashdot
WHO official complains about Gates Foundation’s dominance… – International Herald Tribune
-added a bit later-
Ha! Gates should read this…
