The end of the year is fast approaching, so predictions for 2010 are starting to get the rounds. On Nov. 4, it was consultancy Deloitte's turn to pull out its crystal ball. In a report entitled 'Energy Predictions 2010', Deloitte laid out trends it expects to take hold next year. Here's a crib sheet for green business:
1) Smart grids/meters will take the world by storm. Annual global spending on the technology will jump to $33 billion by 2014 vs. $12 billion in 2008. That could increase electricity grids' efficiency two-fold and reduce consumers' energy consumption by 30%.
2) Oil-producing countries (particularly in the Middle East and North Africa) will become hotbeds for renewable energy. Close proximity to European markets, abundant cash to invest from oil revenues, and ideal weather conditions, especially for solar power, could pay off in a big way.
3) Sector-specific carbon cap-and-trade systems, say for the shipping or aviation industries, may take precedent over unwieldy national, regional, or global plans. Under the schemes, companies, wherever they're based, would agree to binding targets, then trade carbon credits between themselves.
That sounds all well and good, but I'm not sure I agree with all the predictions.
1/ This week a universal cell phone charger was adapted by the International Telecommunication Union, the industry's standards setting body. Sounds boring? Well imagine how many chargers the world would save if spares could be carried over from an old phone to a new one. GSMA reckons that every year, 51,000 tons of this sort of redundant chargers are made every year. The new standard also promises to cut standby power draw by 50%...
As part of the 2009 Global Green Challenge, a driving duo has set a new distance record by going 311 miles on a single charge in a Tesla battery-powered car. That’s nearly 30% farther than the vehicle’s official specs.
Drivers Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas aren’t your everyday drivers. They set the record in Australia as part of the Eco Challenge, an 1,860-mile green car contest that includes vehicles powered by a variety of green fuels, from commercial diesel and hybrid cars to exotic solar-powered buggies built specifically for the race. Hackett and Prelgauskas told PC Authority that they kept the car at a constant, fairly low speed, averaging around 34 mph, to squeeze the most distance from the car’s 6,800 lithium battery cells.
Last week, I caught up with Martin Eberhard, co-founder and former CEO of Tesla Motors. At a manufacturing conference sponsored by Siemens in Minneapolis, Minn., Eberhard talked about the challenges of bringing Tesla from concept to showroom. Check out our chat below:
It might have seemed that $4 gas finally broke US consumers of their SUV habit. But the Great Recession is proving that the shift has lasted through this period of lower gas prices. There are signs that a permanent shift is underway in the way US drivers related to the cost and value of transportation. Consider car sharing. When I checked in with Zipcar in summer 2008, growth at the leading national car share service was being fueled by high-cost gas. Since then, though, Ken Belson in the NY Times reports that even with lower gas prices Zipcar has continued to expand membership steadily, as have national rivals such as Enterprise and Connect by Hertz, as well as smaller regional chains such as WeCar. In the past year, membership at Zipcar has surged by 30%, with revenue up by 25%, Belson reports. Nationwide, the car share market is expected to grow to 2 million drivers by 2013.
According to the annual Arctic Report Card, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, scientists are seeing "drastic changes" in northern most areas of the globe compared to just five years ago. “The Arctic we see today is very different from the Arctic we saw even five years ago,” said Jackie Richter-Menge of the USACE Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H. in a written release. "It’s a warmer place with less thick and more mobile sea ice, warmer and fresher ocean water, and increased stress on caribou, reindeer, polar bears and walrus in some regions,” added Richter-Menge, who is also the report’s chief technical editor and contributing author.
"The Arctic is a special and fragile place on this planet,” said Jane Lubchenco in the release. She is under secretary for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “Climate change is happening faster in the Arctic than any other place on Earth — and with wide-ranging consequences. When I visited the northern corners of Alaska’s Arctic region earlier this year, I saw an area abundant with natural resources, diverse wildlife, proud local and native peoples — and a most uncertain future. This year’s Arctic Report Card underscores the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas pollution and adapting to climate changes already under way,” she added.
The 2009 report card highlights a number of changes:
· A change in large scale wind patterns affected by the loss of summer sea ice,
· The replacement of sustained multi-year sea ice by first-year sea ice than melts and reappears yearly,
· Warmer and fresher water in the upper ocean linked to new ice-free areas,
· A continued loss of the Greenland ice sheet,
· Less snow in North America and increased runoff in Siberia, and
· The effect of the loss of sea ice on Arctic plant, animal, and fish species.
Though they may have once been considered an oxymoron, green business school programs are multiplying fast at top b-schools. This week, Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a project run by the Aspen...
The press conference at the National Press Club, ostensibly called by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was seemingly packed with reporters—and the message was stunning. Purporting to speak for Chamber...
From the first flight at Kitty Hawk, it took about 50 years to engineer the switch from spinning propellers to more efficient jet engines. Now wind technology could be...
The upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen are less than two months away, and everyone is looking to throw in his/her two cents. On Oct. 10, it was billionaire George Soros'...
After all, companies routinely come and go from professional bodies with little notice. And with some 3 million business members, the Chamber is the world’s largest commercial federation. So what...
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but new figures show the economy's much-heralded recovery -- and its impact on clean energy projects -- is still a little ways...
In Green Business, BusinessWeek Energy & Environment Editor Adam Aston and Associate Editor Heather Green cover the green scene from New York, with Senior Correspondent John Carey in Washington D.C. and correspondent Mark Scott filing from London. Keeping on top of the business aspects of energy, the environment and climate change, their focus is the technologies, policies, markets and people that are shaping how the earth's resources will be used in the century ahead.
