Former Secretary Chu gave the opening keynote speaker at the Energy Summit in Santa Barbara last week. After four years at the head of the Department of Energy, the former Nobel Prize winner decided to go back to academics and research. Often caught in the cross-fire of Washington politics after the Solyndra debacle, he calmly kept acting on his firm belief that technology innovations can tackle humanity's biggest challenges.
This was the underlying theme during the keynote that he gave at the conference. The 4th edition of the Energy Summit hosted by the Institute for Energy Efficiency at UCSB. It was focused on materials for a sustainable future. Dr. Chu described some of the recent scientific breakthoughs in transportation, power electronics, photo-voltaics and energy storage. During the follow-up fire-side chat with Oracle's Chairman Jeff Henley, he called for increasing funding towards research. Yet, he warned that we can not separate innovation in materials from the constraints in manufacturing processes to create jobs in the US. A lot of the past research in materials was started here but ended up overseas for lack of pragmatism.
It seems that Matt Damon is still hunting for good will. In a piece in the Daily Beast today, the famous actor brought attention to the water crisis, and made the case that non-profits should be more disruptive and use innovation to make an impact. Matt Damon co-founded Water.org with Gary White to foster new innovative, community-driven and market-based solutions to ensure all people have access to safe water and sanitation.
On the World Water Day, Matt Damon was featured in a catchy and educational video. "What is the invention that saves the most lives in human history?", he asks. Wait for it… the toilet. Yet, more people have access to cell phones than toilets. It should not be the case. Still today, 10,000 people die every day of water related diseases. Can Matt Damon and his partner Gary White save them?
Last week, the Department of
Energy held its annual ARPA-E Summit near Washington DC. One of the keynote
speakers, the CEO of DuPont Ellen Kullman, stated that “solar will be globally competitive
in 2015”. First Solar is already selling solar power cheaper than coal in sunny areas like New Mexico. This is not a random event after years of improvements in cell efficiency and
intense price competition. Does this mean solar is ready for prime time?
Not so fast. Solar power is causing grid engineers and policy makers to
scratch their head: it is intermittent and has indirect costs to provide useful
energy. Some victims of Storm Sandy realized that first-hand when their
solar roofs shut down when the grid blacked-out. What is the point of deploying solar when you cannot use it when it matters the most? Back-up gas generators are still cheaper than deploying solar panels and batteries. The solar sector is at a crossroad.
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