Despite Cost Concerns, Women More 'Green' than Men

Despite Cost Concerns, Women More 'Green' than Men

More than one-third (36%) of Americans say that “cost,” is the biggest impediment to being more environmentally friendly, but women are more likely to spend more on and use more “green” products than men, according to results from the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Living Green Consumer Survey.

The survey, which was conducted at home shows in 15 cities across the country to gauge consumer environmental practices, found other factors keeping all survey respondents from being greener included convenience (22%), lack of knowledge about how-to (18%) and lack of time (17%).

However, despite the premium they must often pay for green products, half of respondents say they have paid more for an energy efficient product in the past 12 months and many others report engaging in “eco-friendly” or “green” acts in the past six months, including recycling (73%), replacing incandescent lights with CFLs (69%), conserving water (57%), adjusting the thermostat (51%) and purchasing energy efficient appliances (30%).

Women are significantly more likely to spend more and use more environmentally friendly products, the study found. In the past six months, 72% of female survey respondents changed their light bulbs to CFLs, 59% claim to have used less water for their daily activities (showering, washing dishes etc.) and 75% recycled. Among men, the numbers were lower, at 65%, 53% and 70%, respectively.

On how “green” respondents said they and their family are on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is not at all green and 10 is very green:

Homeowners Will Spend to Increase Resale Value

When it comes to their homes, one in three homeowners (30%) say they would be willing to spend $5,000 or more on green improvements to increase their home’s resale value and appeal to potential buyers.

Women and men are prepared to spend similar amounts, the survey found.  Some 18% of men said that they are prepared to invest $1,000 to $2,500 while 17% of women agreed. More women (17%) say they are prepared to invest $2,500 to $5,000 to increase their chances of resale, compared with only 15% of men. On spending $5,000 or more, 26% of women and 27% of men consider it a good investment if spending that amount on green home improvements helped increase their chances of selling their existing home faster.

Additional survey findings reveal that 82% of respondents think they are informed when it comes to issues pertaining to the environment:

When preparing to buy or sell a home, more than half of those surveyed (51%) believe in the importance of working with a green certified real estate agent. In the cities of Hartford, CT, Greenville, SC, and San Francisco, two out of three respondents indicate that working with a green agent is important. In terms of gender differences, 54% of women said it was very or somewhat important, and 48% of men said the same.

Green US Cities

When respondents were asked to quantify their city as green, where 1 is not at all green and 10 is very green, respondents rate their cities according to the chart below. The mean score for all cities on the tour was 3.73:

“As their environmental awareness grows, American homeowners are beginning to take action on green issues and are willing to spend their money accordingly,” explained Sherry Chris, president and CEO, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. “These survey results confirm homeowners are identifying greater value in green and when the time comes to sell their homes, they will look to convert high consumer awareness levels on the green issue into a market differentiator.”

About the survey: LeadDog Marketing was commissioned to conduct intercept surveys at a series of home shows on behalf of Better Homes and Gardens Living Green Tour. A survey of  16 questions was programmed onto handheld PDA devices. The staff interviewed 2,312 people and each intercept survey took approximately 3 minutes to complete. Data collection was conducted at 15 Living Green Tour stops between Feb. 29, 2008 and Oct. 31, 2008. The Living Green Tour and Exhibit included stops in Hartford, CT; Greenville, SC, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Nashville, TN, Boston, Washington, DC, Jacksonville, FL, Atlanta, and New York.

2009 Cleantech Predictions

December 3, 2008Posted by lsvp 

Lightspeed has invested across several cleantech areas, including solar (Stion), biofuels (LS9, Solazyme), clean coal (Coaltek), LED lighting (Exclara), and energy storage (Mobius Power). Here are some of our cleantech predictions for 2009 (see our prior year predictions here):

1. Cleantech funding will slow significantly, forcing startups to seek alternative growth strategies

The level of cleantech VC investment reached its highest levels ever in recent years. With the market downturn, however, many of the key players in the recent wave – private equity funds, hedge funds, project financiers, and debt providers – have slowed or halted their funding pace, and the IPO window is effectively closed. VC firms will continue to invest, but at a more modest pace.

As a result, we expect many startups to delay their timing for achieving commercial production. Startups will need to rethink their scale-up strategies and sacrifice growth in favor of reaching breakeven earlier. Hardest hit will be the companies that need to make significant capital expenditures to prepare for commercialization, but still have substantial technology and scale-up risk.

As companies find it more difficult to attract funding and drive down costs, expect some to seek more creative solutions. For example, biofuel startups will increasingly leverage underutilized production assets owned by distressed corn ethanol companies for commercial production capability. Meanwhile, expect large, established energy enterprises to play an increasingly vital role in helping to support startups as a development partner, funding source, customer, distribution partner or acquirer.

2. Companies will come under increased pressure to achieve competitive cost economics

With oil and energy prices falling significantly from last summer’s historical peaks, cleantech startups have stiffer requirements for the cost economics needed to compete with traditional energy sources. Companies with technologies that enable disruptive cost economics and can target higher-value market segments will be best positioned to stay competitive. For example, biofuel companies that can produce higher-value specialty chemicals can thrive even with oil at $40 per barrel. In solar, even with polysilicon prices falling due to the impending supply glut, high-efficiency thin-film solar panel providers will have the potential to exploit an intrinsic cost advantage. Conversely, companies that do not provide compelling cost economics will find it tough to contend.

The downturn has also made consumers and enterprises increasingly price sensitive and less willing to choose products at a price premium for the sake of “going green.” As such, sustainability-oriented green building products without an inherent cost advantage will be a tougher sell with more cost-conscious building owners.

3. Investor interest in energy storage, especially for automotive and grid-scale applications, to grow strongly

VCs will continue to invest in areas with large market opportunities, significant headroom for innovation, and more capital-efficient expansion models. We expect energy storage to be one of these areas. In the automotive sector, batteries with improved safety, performance, and cost parameters will be crucial to the broader adoption of electric vehicles (EV’s) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV’s). In the utility sector, the dramatic increase in distributed generation expected in the next decade from wind, solar, geothermal, and other sources will continue to adversely impact grid stability. We believe that economical grid-scale storage will be a critical part of the solution.

4. Government will play larger role in cleantech, as policymakers around the country increase their support

With passage of the solar investment tax credit and the Obama Administration’s stated support for a $100B+ energy plan, we expect the seeds of key U.S. energy policies for the next decade being planted in 2009. Although policy enactment may not happen in the coming year, expect topics like carbon cap-and-trade/taxation, national Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS), biofuel incentives, EV infrastructure, and grid-scale storage to be hotly debated. We expect that the federal government will move to formalize a venture capital-like arm to invest in promising cleantech startups, with particular emphasis on commercialization as opposed to research & development. State governments will continue to drive cleantech policy, with more states establishing or tightening RPS and RFS, reducing permitting requirements involved in consumer renewables adoption, and offering tax breaks for startups.

Importantly, policymakers at all levels will continue to consult the private sector to understand benefits and risks of emerging technologies that could benefit from regulatory support to avoid legislation that could potentially be detrimental to the cause (see Lightspeed’s presentation to California’s Lt. Governor and the Commission for Economic Development).

5. Cleantech comes of age in China

During the middle of last year, China passed the U.S. as the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). 300 million people in the country have no access to potable drinking water; over a million people each year die from air pollution-related disorders, with new coal-fired plants going into operation on a weekly basis.

The Chinese government has put its might behind increased support for cleantech, enabling viable technologies to achieve distribution more rapidly. After the Olympics ended, the national leadership passed the Circular Economy Law to stimulate cleantech spending through energy efficiency, water conservation, and tighter regulation of GHG emissions. Further, the government has committed to a renewable energy budget of ~$300 billion over the next 12 years, a ~15% renewables target by 2020, and a ~$200 billion environmental protection budget through 2010.

VCs have already responded to this building momentum, as local investment in cleantech rose from $550 million last year to an expected $720 million this year, according to Cleantech China Research. Sectors that look poised to attract VC investor attention in 2009 include wind, clean coal, waste-to-fuel technologies, and energy-efficient building materials.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Q3 VC cleantech deals total nearly $1B in N. America
• CleanTech
• Indian Cleantech firms gearing up for bigger opportunities
• Born from Jets: New Wind Turbines Could Cut Energy Costs in Half

USB Stake Helps Brown Thumbs Turn Green, Monitors Soil Conditions

PlantSense EasyBloom

Reviewed by Elizabeth Livengood • November 20, 2008

$60 • hammacher.com

 

Those cacti on your windowsill don't deserve to die. Even if you regularly fail at horticulture, the EasyBloom can help. Just leave it in your proposed planting area for 24 hours, either stuck in the dirt or propped up in its cradle, then plug it into your computer's USB port. The gizmo measures soil conditions, sunlight, temperature, and humidity, comparing the results with an online database to recommend species that will thrive there. And should the weather be wacky that day, the EasyBloom is smart enough to check the National Weather Service for local averages. Your data is stored online for quick reference. If you've already killed everything in the garden, plunk the sensor down in your little Death Valley, set it to Monitor mode, and let it tell you what you're doing wrong. But here's a tip: If you find yourself running the autopsy repeatedly, it could be something basic. You do have to water the crops, you know. The EasyBloom can't do everything for you.

Faster Climate Change Feared By Science Program

New Report Points to Accelerated Melting, Longer Drought

Ice sheets in the Antarctic and Greenland, above, are losing 48 cubic miles per year, pushing up sea level worldwide. (By John Mcconnico -- Associated Press)

By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer 
Thursday, December 25, 2008; Page A02

The United States faces the possibility of much more rapid climate change by the end of the century than previous studies have suggested, according to a new report led by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The survey -- which was commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and issued this month -- expands on the 2007 findings of the United Nations Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change. Looking at factors such as rapid sea ice loss in the Arctic and prolonged drought in the Southwest, the new assessment suggests that earlier projections may have underestimated the climatic shifts that could take place by 2100.

However, the assessment also suggests that some other feared effects of global warming are not likely to occur by the end of the century, such as an abrupt release of methane from the seabed and permafrost or a shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that brings warm water north and colder water south. But the report projects an amount of potential sea level rise during that period that may be greater than what other researchers have anticipated, as well as a shift to a more arid climate pattern in the Southwest by mid-century.

Thirty-two scientists from federal and non-federal institutions contributed to the report, which took nearly two years to complete. The Climate Change Science Program, which was established in 1990, coordinates the climate research of 13 different federal agencies.

Tom Armstrong, senior adviser for global change programs at USGS, said the report "shows how quickly the information is advancing" on potential climate shifts. The prospect of abrupt climate change, he said, "is one of those things that keeps people up at night, because it's a low-probability but high-risk scenario. It's unlikely to happen in our lifetimes, but if it were to occur, it would be life-changing."

In one of the report's most worrisome findings, the agency estimates that in light of recent ice sheet melting, global sea level rise could be as much as four feet by 2100. The IPCC had projected a sea level rise of no more than 1.5 feet by that time, but satellite data over the past two years show the world's major ice sheets are melting much more rapidly than previously thought. The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are now losing an average of 48 cubic miles of ice a year, equivalent to twice the amount of ice that exists in the Alps.

Konrad Steffen, who directs the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was lead author on the report's chapter on ice sheets, said the models the IPCC used did not factor in some of the dynamics that scientists now understand about ice sheet melting. Among other things, Steffen and his collaborators have identified a process of "lubrication," in which warmer ocean water gets in underneath coastal ice sheets and accelerates melting.

"This has to be put into models," said Steffen, who organized a conference last summer in St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of an effort to develop more sophisticated ice sheet models. "What we predicted is sea level rise will be higher, but I have to be honest, we cannot model it for 2100 yet."

Still, Armstrong said the report "does take a step forward from where the IPCC was," especially in terms of ice sheet melting.

Scientists also looked at the prospect of prolonged drought over the next 100 years. They said it is impossible to determine yet whether human activity is responsible for the drought the Southwestern United States has experienced over the past decade, but every indication suggests the region will become consistently drier in the next several decades. Richard Seager, a senior research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that nearly all of the 24 computer models the group surveyed project the same climatic conditions for the North American Southwest, which includes Mexico.

"If the models are correct, it will transition in the coming years and decades to a more arid climate, and that transition is already underway," Seager said, adding that such conditions would probably include prolonged droughts lasting more than a decade.

The current models cover broad swaths of landscape, and Seager said scientists need to work on developing versions that can make projections on a much smaller scale. "That's what the water managers out there really need," he said. Current models "don't give them the hard numbers they need."

Next

First partially-solar-powered cargo ship launches in Japan

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

We'd heard that Nippon Oil and Nippon Yusen were working on a million-dollar solar upgrade for a car freighter called the Auriga Leader back in August, and it looks like things have gone as planned -- the cargo ship launched today from Kobe, Japan. The $1.68m project involved the installation of 328 solar panels, which produce 40 kilowatts of power -- a measly 0.3 percent of the engine power required to move the 656-foot, 60,000-ton ship when fully loaded with 6,400 cars, but enough for seven percent of the juice required for lighting and other systems. That's a slow start, but we'll take what we can get, we suppose -- now let's bolt on some of those new record-high efficiency panels and see what happens.

Hawaiian Electric in Smart Meter Deal With Sensus

by David Ehrlich

The Aloha State will be getting a smart grid under a new contract announced today between Hawaiian Electric and Sensus Metering Systems. Sensus said that Hawaiian Electric, which provides electricity for 95 percent of Hawaii’s residents, plans to install Sensus FlexNet smart meters for 430,000 residential and commercial electric customers, subject to approval of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Sensus did not disclose the financial terms of the 15-year agreement.

Hawaiian Electric, part of Honolulu’s Hawaiian Electric Industries(s HE), first teamed up with Raleigh, N.C.-based Sensus back in October 2006. After a successful trial involving 500 smart meters on Ohau, Hawaiian Electric upped the ante to 3,000 meters in early 2007.

The technology provides automated meter reading, data collection, voltage monitoring, notification of outages and remote control of customer loads. But that doesn’t mean the utility will be controlling your fridge — these smart meters are for communications between the meter and the utility, not for talking to any smart devices you might have in your home.

The remote control feature usually comes into play with large business customers or electricity-generating plants, allowing the utility to temporarily shut off or lower electric loads to help reduce excessive demand, or to turn on generators to help relieve the demand. It could also be set up to increase or lower electricity use in response to changes in market prices.

Under today’s deal, the new meters are expected to be installed between 2009 and 2015, with 19 tower sites throughout Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island to provide two-way radio network coverage for the system.

Last month, computer giant IBM announced some moves in the smart grid market, making deals with utilities American Electric Power and Consumers Energy to deploy and test smart grid technology. And in October, Landis+Gyr said it would provide a major portion of the 5 million smart meters set to roll out under PG&E’s four-year, $1.7 billion SmartMeter program.

Metcalfe: Easier for Entrepreneurs to Learn Energy Biz Than Vice-versa

from Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher

Bob Metcalfe, the father of Ethernet and Metcalfe’s Law and the founder of 3Com, has been very vocal with his belief that the lessons learned from building the Internet can apply to the next generation of energy infrastructure. That includes issues like constructing networks that are decentralized, distributed and two-way, which he details to Fortune in an article this morning. His ideas are also the reason that he’ll be giving a keynote speech at our Green:Net conference in San Francisco in March, which will be focusing on how the tools developed in the infotech revolution will be used to fight climate change.

In particular, Metcalfe thinks it’s easier for entrepreneurs that cut their teeth in the Internet world to move into the energy arena than it is for old-skool energy execs to learn the mindset of entrepreneurialism As he tells Fortune:

“The world should be happy that a bunch of Internet people like me have turned their attention to energy because that’s how we are going to solve it…It is easier to teach energy to people who are steeped in the entrepreneurial culture than it is to teach entrepreneurial culture to people who know energy.”

He also adds that, “People who have worked for BP for 25 years have no entrepreneurial bones.” Part of that assertion is Metcalfe’s defense of his own moves into energy and cleantech — I’ve always gotten the impression when I’ve talked to him that he felt unfairly labeled as a carpetbagger type, moving into the energy field with little prior experience.

Yet it’s an interesting question — where the innovation will come from, newcomers or the incumbents? — and one that is being fiercely debated. Entrenched oil, fossil fuel and utility executives have the connections and know-how to make change, but less of a motivation. On the other hand, former Internet executives have a lot of disruptive ideas but a lot less background and knowledge — and the energy industry is about hard-core science (knowledge can be harder to accrue) and large, capital-intensive projects (mistakes can be expensive). Where do you think the innovation will come from?

Apple's "Green Computing" Is A Cheap PR Stunt -- Dell (DELL, AAPL)

Eric Krangel | December 21, 2008

Apple (AAPL) has been touting its new aluminum Macbooks as the "world's greenest family of notebooks." Dell (DELL) is having none of it.

In a weekend blog post, Dell VP Bob Pearson launched a broadside against Apple, accusing the company of using environmentalism as a PR stunt.  Apple isn't being "open and transparent" in its efforts to protect the environment, Pearson says.

Pearson's points:

• Apple doesn't attend industry meetups or hold press conferences on the environment. 
  
• Employees aren't allowed to blog. (Huh? We're not sure what this has to do with being green.)
• Apple hasn't set any energy-efficiency or mercury-avoidance goals for itself in future production; the company just declared success after the fact.
• Pearson says Dell offers free recycling and went carbon-neutral in August, goals Apple hasn't met.

We doubt Dell's rant will inspire a change in policy in Apple. But it's smart for the company to be touting its green computing efforts -- it's one way to woo environmentally-sensitive consumers away from rivals like HP (HPQ).

See Also:
How Green Is Your PC? And Why Should You Care?
The Hidden Cost Of That Videogame Machine: Electricity

Stanford Study: Renewables Good, Biofuels, CCS, and Nuclear Bad, for the Environment

In a recent study, Stanford professor Mark Jacobson ranks available alternatives for future energy supply. Comparing their energy potentials with overall impacts on climate change, the paper finds that renewables show much greater promise than biofuels, "clean coal" and nuclear efforts.

World Energy Outlook 2008"Review of Solutions to Global Warming, Air Pollution, and Energy Security"

"What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution," Noubo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said at last month's press conference announcing the release of the World Energy Outlook 2008. The report states that the world must scale up investment in low-carbon energy deployment to an annual 1 to 9 trillion (US) to avoid catastrophic temperature increases.

But, accounting for the environment, where is the best place to put the money? Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Z. Jacobson has come up with an answer.

In his new study, "Review of Solutions to Global Warming, Air Pollution and Energy Security," Jacobson ranks the available alternatives for future energy supply, based on a comparison of the energy potentials, climatic impacts, and energy security, among other things. (The paper will be published in the next issue of Energy and Environmental Science, but is available onlinehere).

In the paper, Jacobson finds that renewable sources show the greatest potential of delivering the needed energy while mitigating climate change and other environmental hazards. According to Jacobsen, wind is "by far the most promising," as it delivers a "better-than 99 percent reduction" in carbon emissions. Other promising energy alternatives are solar, geothermal, and tidal power (see fact box below)...

Mapping the History of Oil Imports

By TOM ZELLER JR.

The fatter the line, the more oil imported. (Image: RMI)

Google.org, the philanthropic wing of the Internet search giant, and the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental research group, have teamed up to produce an intriguing map that allows users to track oil imports over time.

From Google.org’s blog:

The map highlights five eras of oil consumption, from the oil shocks of the 1970s to the price collapse in the 1980s to recent events including Hurricane Katrina and gas approaching $5 per gallon before retreating rapidly recently. (You can see these selections by clicking on the buttons below the map on the RMI Web site.) One interesting time period is from 1982 to 1985, when low prices caused oil imports from the Middle East to decline to very low levels.

The map also looks at potential oil from offshore drilling and exploration of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The screenshot below illustrates the impact of off-shore drilling. With the map zoomed or ‘drilled’ 3-5 levels down and centered near Alabama (and the map pushpin that represents offshore), check out the very thin line that shows the potential peak production of 220,000 barrels per day.The lines represent estimates of production in 20-30 years, and even with this very long timeline, the amount of oil that could be generated from offshore drilling is miniscule compared to our oil needs today.

As Kate Galbraith noted earlier today, the Rocky Mountain Institute, along with the Brookings Institution, are hosting a meeting of energy and environmental stakeholders in Washington this week, in an attempt to create a unified plan for weaning the country off of oil.

Tom Vilsack = Big Win for Biofuels in Obama Cabinet

from Earth2Tech by Josie Garthwaite

Ethanol will have at least one friend in the next administration. President-elect Barack Obama announced his pick for  Secretary of Agriculture this morning: Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, who built his underdog presidential campaign largely on a platform of energy independence and, during his tenure as governor, approved tax credits and other incentives for biofuels.

Steering ethanol policy will rank near the top of Vilsack’s to-do list in the Cabinet. He laid out his thoughts on biofuels from corn (starting point, not the future), sugar (drop the tariff, please), and cellulosic feedstocks (totally hot) in an interview with Rolling Stone back in 2006, when he was running for President:

[C]orn-based ethanol is not necessarily the wave of the future. Ethanol may be but corn is not. There’s not enough corn. There needs to be focus on switch grass, on municipal waste, on timber, on other ways to produce ethanol that is more efficient and burns more efficiently and uses less energy to produce it. Corn was the entryway to this discussion. It’s by no means the end all be all. This country probably also needs to take a different view on the sugar-cane ethanol produced in Brazil. We put a big tariff on it. We should look to ultimately eliminating that so that we get the supply of ethanol that lets Detroit produce flex-fuel cars and develop that industry.

The President-elect also expressed support for biofuels this morning, saying a new commitment to using U.S. lands responsibly for the benefit of families (an idea about as controversial as puppies) means “ensuring that we are using our farmlands not only to strengthen our agricultural economy, but to grow advanced biofuels that will help make the United States energy independent.” From the text prepared for Obama’s news conference, available on Washington Post:

How we harness our natural resources — from the farmlands of Iowa to the springs of Colorado — will speak not only to our quality of life, but to our economic growth and our energy future.

Obama had this to say about Vilsack (again from Washington Post):

As Governor of one of our most abundant farm states, he led with vision, promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers and fostering an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat, but the energy we use. Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home.

Why Intel Could Rock the Electric Vehicle Battery Market

Like any emerging industry, the cleantech world tends to accuse newcomers of being interlopers, and that’s probably the initial thought many had when news hit that former Intel chairman Andy Grove is advising the company to move into the electric vehicle battery market. Realistically, what could the world’s largest chip maker, which makes the bulk of its revenues on digital communication technology, do to help transform our beleaguered car industry into an electric wunderkind?

A lot, actually. While the move would be risky, it could have a monumental effect on the slow-moving electric vehicle battery industry, particularly in the United States. Intel has already moved closer to the EV battery market with some recent investments through its venture arm, Intel Capital. The investment group has funded battery, energy storage and alternative energy companies including the solid-state battery startup Cymbet, fuel-cell membrane company PolyFuel and Chinese flow-battery maker Net Power Technology. Intel Capital’s solar investments – likeSpectraWatt, SulfurCell and Trony Solar — are also tied to batteries, as solar production needs to store energy overnight when the sun doesn’t shine.

“We certainly consider battery technology important,” Intel spokeswoman Christine Dotts told us. “Whether we will do anything more in this area we can’t say at this time. However, it should be noted that battery technology developments for computer uses and for automotive applications are not necessarily mutually exclusive.” That means if Intel does put significant efforts into battery development, the company believes it could use those innovations for computing, mobile technology and networks (all industries where Intel already has a significant presence), not just transportation.

Intel certainly has the balance sheet to make large R&D bets. For the fourth quarter, Intel is expecting revenue of $9 billion, and for 2007, Intel generated $38.33 billion in revenue. Last year Intel spent $5.76 billion, or a whopping 15.03 percent of revenues for the year, on R&D.

At the same time, the market itself is crying out for an aggressive, smart company to solve some of electric vehicles’ fundamental issues. The battery is one of the most expensive and technically difficult aspects of EVs, and it’s one of the biggest reasons there are so few electric vehicles on our roads. As Rob Enderle from the research firm Enderle Group says: “Battery technology has significantly lagged,” while other technologies have advanced. Most of the next-generation battery technology from startups like A123 Systems and Altair Nano, or energy storage devices like EEstor’s, are still years away from commercialization.

With the right bets, Intel has the ability to become one of the largest U.S. electric vehicle battery makers. The big companies that are currently moving to dominate the battery industry — like Sanyo, LG Chem and Panasonic — largely come from Asian countries. Electric-car makers like Tesla have complained that the cost of transporting batteries from international producers drives up manufacturing costs, and Tesla said it has actively (and so far unsuccessfully) looked for a U.S. manufacturer. Many of the large U.S. automakers slowly getting into electric vehicles could also be interested in domestically-made batteries. U.S. electric vehicle battery production could also be ripe for U.S. subsidies or benefit fromObama’s green stimulus.

For Intel, moving into electric vehicle batteries could help the company diversify beyond chips for computing, which it has so far largely been unable to do successfully yet. Other chip companies have succeeded in diversifying through green tech businesses: Applied Materials diversifiedits chip equipment business several years ago with a solar gear bet and now is seeing solar as one of its fastest growing areas. Chip maker STMicroelectronics is working with LG Chem on battery packs for hybrid and electric vehicles.

That’s not to say it wouldn’t be a risk for Intel to make a substantial EV battery move. Clearly this isn’t exactly the best time to be making large, capital-intensive bets on new fields. Intel actually lowered its fourth quarter outlook from early expectations of $10.1-10.9 billion, citing in part “significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and all market segments.” Because batteries are a rather specialized field and one that Intel doesn’t know that much about today, moving into the space would likely be a very expensive play.

With vehicles contributing more than a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, electrifying our cars could be crucial to fighting climate change. If the company that revolutionized computing could help put a small dent in global warming by producing a reasonably priced, U.S-made battery, it could potentially kickstart an era of cheaper electric-vehicles for the average consumer and establish a significant place for the U.S. in leading that market.

This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com

Obama to Introduce Energy Team - Chu, Jackson, Browner, Sutley

By MICHAEL FALCONE

From the Times blog on politics, The Caucus:

President-elect Barack Obama plans to hold a press conference to formally announce members of his energy and environment team today. The rollout is expected to include Steven Chu, Mr. Obama’s choice for energy secretary,Lisa Jackson as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Carol Browner to lead the policy council on environment, energy, and Nancy Sutley to direct the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The Associated Press reports on the steep challenge Mr. Obama and his team face in tackling global warming, which after a meeting last week with former Vice President Al Gore, he called “a matter of urgency and national security”:

But there are powerful political and economic realities that must be quickly overcome for Obama to succeed. Despite the urgency he expresses, it’s not at all clear that he and Congress will agree on an approach during a worldwide financial crisis in time to meet some of the more crucial deadlines.

Obama is pushing changes in the way Americans use energy, and produce greenhouse gases, as part of what will be a massive economic stimulus. He called it an opportunity ”to re-power America.”

Inflation, Uncertainty Remain High in Latest WSJ/NBC Poll

Americans are still plagued by concerns over the economy and inflation falls surprisingly high on that list of worries.

The latest WSJ/NBC News survey showed that 25% of respondents said savings are the number one concern for their families. But a close second, at 21%, was inflation. (Click here for the full story.)

The survey, conducted Dec. 5-8, comes just a few weeks after the news that October’s seasonally adjusted consumer price index fell 1% from September — its largest dive since the government started using seasonal adjustments in February 1947. And while inflation still exists for now, consumer prices are expected to continue falling.

So why worry? Much of it could simply be the fear of inflation returning at full force while families struggle through the economic downturn. Asked whether they are worried about inflation in the next year, 56% said they were very concerned. Asked the same about deflation, 47% said they were very worried.

The poll, which has a 3.1 percentage point margin of error, showed Americans are pessimistic about the current economy but still optimistic for the future. Over the past 12 months, 90% say the economy has gotten worse. But in the next 12 months 36% expected it to improve, 34% thought it will stay the same and 28% said it would get worse.

The number one issue facing the economy at large is unemployment, 36% said. The federal budget deficit was a not-so-close second at 12%.

Turning to the buffet of bailouts, 46% of people said they approved of the auto bailouts whereas 42% disapproved. While that could be good news for lawmakers who are moving closer to a deal, it should be taken with a hint of caution.

Back in October, 40% approved of a financial bailout now known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program, compared to 38% who disapproved. But in the latest survey just 27% approved of the program compared to 50% who didn’t.

Despite deep anxiety about the recession, respondents said, by 20 percentage points, that they are more concerned that the government will spend too much money trying to boost the economy and as a result will drive up the budget deficit, compared to those who worried the government would spend too little money and prolong the recession. –Sara Murray

Berkeley: Radical Hotbed of Energy Efficiency

Energy Secretary nominee Chu on energy, climate

from Green Tech by Martin LaMonica

President-elect Barack Obama's reported choices for the top energy and environment officials set the stage for a dramatic change in policy on energy and climate change.

Citing Democratic sources, news outlets on Wednesday reported that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu will be named Energy Secretary.

Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven

Berkeley: Radical Hotbed of Energy Efficiency

December 10, 2008 at 11:16 PM

With the appointment of Steve Chu as the Secretary of Energy, it becomes official: Berkeley is the world capital of efficiency.

Chu, the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, has been one of the leading advocates of trying to curb fuel consumption through things like designing buildings better for their environment.

Chu follows in the footsteps of Art Rosenfeld, who taught at the University of California and worked at the lab for decades. A physicist (Enrico Fermi’s last grad student), Rosenfeld convinced the state of California to past stringent energy efficiency laws and appliance standards in the 1970s. Since then, electricity consumption in California has stayed roughly flat in per capita terms: It has doubled elsewhere in the country.

From 1974 to 1994, Rosenfeld directed the Center for Building Science. He is now with the California Energy Commission.

Other notable scientists working on energy efficiency in Berkeley include Arun Majumdar, the Almy and Agnes Maynard professor of mechanical engineering, and Steve Selkowitz, who now runs the Center for Building Science...