Out With the Old

Those of you who regularly read my columns know that I enjoy writing about new gadgets, gizmos and tech tools but this week, in honor of the new year, I thought we’d pay homage to a few of the many things we’ve lost during the past decade. So before you read any further, please stop and try to think of at least three “things” or activities that have become obsolete during the past 10 years. A pretty easy assignment and no, you don’t need to write them down.

Okay, if you thought of any of the following you’re on the right track: rotary phones, typewriters, payphones, shorthand, carbon paper, library card catalogs, rabbit ears, UHF channels, “be kind-rewind”, or opening your beer with a church key. Sadly, future generations will never know the joy of smelling a freshly run mimeographed test paper or the satisfaction derived from successfully adjusting the horizontal and vertical hold on a TV set. Time does march on.

Here are 10 items that most of us still regularly use but are quickly headed towards obsolesce. At the turn of the next decade these items will probably be as irrelevant as that box of 5.25” floppy discs that I still stash in my desk.

1. Film Cameras and Film: Point-and-shoots digital cameras and phones capture memories instantly and cheaply. Gone are the days of paying $15 to develop a roll of 24 prints that were all overexposed.

2. Yellow Pages and Encyclopedias – The Internet is easier to navigate, weighs less, and is rapidly replacing these old repositories of data.

3. Fax Machines - Paperless e-faxes sent from your computer eliminate those annoying paper jams.

4. Printed Maps – My 82 year old mother-in-law loves her “Gremlin” (Garmin). She may not be great at remembering proper nouns, but she know how to use this new technology.

5. The Landline – Do you know anyone under the age or 25 that has a landline? With wireless penetration in the U.S. currently at 89%, the lonely Maytag repairman will be joined shortly by the forlorn telephone repairman.

6. Paying for Long Distance Calls – See landline above. Cell phone plans have all but eliminated long distance charges.

7. Newspaper Classifieds - Thanks to a guy name Craig Newman, founder of Craigslist, the Internet has become the place to go to find a job or sell your old truck.

8. Checking Accounts – For a number of very good reasons, debit cards are rapidly replacing the paper check.

9. Dial-up Internet - Yes, it’s still available, but only for folks who like to torment themselves.

10. Incandescent Light Bulb - Already banned in Europe, they’ll be phased out in the U.S. beginning in 2012.

Finally, please visit our new Community Gardens of Havana website http://www.havanacg.org for all the latest news and information regarding the Havana community garden site.

An Ode to the combustion Engine

In the year 1900, there were over 20 million horses in the United States and only 4,000 automobiles. Where gas stations exist today, stables and blacksmith shops stood and the market for hay was thriving. In its early days, the oil industry existed solely to manufacture kerosene as fuel for lamps while gasoline was considered just a by-product that was often discarded. To acquire fuel for those new fangled automobiles, it was necessary for early motorists to fill up a bucket with fuel from a gasoline barrel located at the local general store or pharmacy. This process wasn’t exactly convenient or safe and, combined with small gas tanks and limited fueling stations, made the house a much more attractive option for long distance travel.

By 1905, a mere five years later, over 25,000 cars were being manufactured annually in the United States. By the year 1910, over 500,000 cars were now snaking up and down Main Street looking for gasoline while blocking the movement of pedestrians and frightening the horse-drawn carriages. Around this same time, a man named Sylvanus F. Bowser, working out of his barn in Indiana, designed a pump that would efficiently take gas out of a barrel and transfer it into a car's tank, essentially laying the foundation for what we know today as the drive-in filling station. Thanks to Henry Ford, The Standard Oil Company of America and numerous other early entrepreneurs, the age of the combustion engine was off and running under a full head of….. well fossil fuel.

Today, according to National Transportation Statistics from 2008, there are over 250 million registered vehicles in the United States including 136 million passenger vehicles which burn more than 380 million gallons of oil per day. Just as the horse was replaced as a form of transportation in the early 1900’s by the advent of the combustion engine, rapid advances in electric car technologies are now occurring that will soon lead to the gradual disappearance of these petrol-fueled and diesel-fueled vehicles from our roadways. Fortunately, this time around it is highly unlikely that the infrastructure necessary to support and expedite this changeover will be coming out of a barn located in the Midwest. We are already seeing huge investments and expenditures by a host of multinational corporations, world governmental agencies and universities as the race to get in on the ground floor of the alternative transportation market starts to really heat up. Here is just one small example of the support mechanisms being put in place to support this transformation.

Dell Computer recently announced the completion of a 130 kW Solar Grove installation at their headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. The Solar Grove is comprised of a number of “solar trees” constructed in the company parking lot, designed to gather the suns energy as a viable energy source while also providing shade for employee parking spaces. The energy collected by these solar trees is stored and then used to light the parking lot at night and to power charging stations that can charge both electric and hybrid vehicles during the time their owners are at work. Imagine how much energy we could save annually if parking lots throughout the United States were equipped with similar technology not to mention the added bonus of having your car charged at work each day for free.

Increased concerns over the environmental impact of burning fossil fuel along with the instability in the supply and price of gasoline has brought about renewed interest in electric vehicles. Promoters of electric car technology are currently facing infrastructure and pricing challenges similar to those experienced by early motorists in the early 1900s but isn’t it exciting to imagine where this technology will be 5 years from now? Your comments and suggestions are always welcome bbruggner@gmail.com

High Speed Rail System Coming to Florida? Again.

Here’s a little Pop Quiz. Jason is to Friday the 13th movies as _____ is to transportation in the state of Florida. If your answer was “The Bullet Train or High Speed Rail System” you are exactly correct…. it’s Back!

You may recall that in November of 2000, Florida voters pass a Constitutional Amendment directing the Florida Legislature to develop and operate a high speed ground transportation system capable of speeds in excess of 120 mph. The Amendment required that construction begin on or before November 1, 2003 and touted inexpensive travel such as a one-way trip from Tallahassee to Jacksonville taking 1 hour and 30 minutes and costing just $16.30. But a funny thing happened before the bullet train express could muster up enough steam to leave the station. In 2004, then-governor Jeb Bush, successfully led an effort to derail the Amendment on the basis that Floridian’s, “really didn't know what they were approving” and that the estimated $6 billion cost would actually soar to $20 billion bankrupting the state. Governor Bush may have been right, but thanks to nearly $13 billion for high-speed rail (HSR) that was tucked into President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package, Florida politicians are now eagerly scurrying to get back onboard the train with Governor Crist leading the way and blowing the whistle.

Florida, which is set to pass New York as the nation's third most inhabited state, has a geographical footprint that makes it frustrating and expensive to traverse. Driving between major cities such as Miami and Tallahassee can be a numbing experience, and please don’t get me started on flying around the state which is problematic at best and financially impractical. Since World War II, the U.S. has poured almost $2 trillion into highway and aviation systems, while passenger rail — like the wheezing federal Amtrak line — has received less than 3% of Washington's transportation dollars. Florida’s record of funding mass transit initiatives has been even less impressive but our state leaders now see these stimulus dollars as an opportunity to jump start an alternative rail system that could provide much needed relief to our over-stressed auto and air infrastructures.

The Florida Department of Transportation recently submitted two stimulus proposals for funding. The first is a $30 million application to conduct a project development and environmental study for an Orlando to Miami high speed rail corridor. The second application requests $2.6 billion to design-build-maintain and operate a high speed rail system within the 100 mile Tampa to Orlando corridor. The Tampa to Orlando proposals calls for the use of the more eco-friendly electric TGV trains popular in Europe and would run along a high speed rail corridor located within the existing median of Interstate 4. Local communities along the proposed I-4 corridor are touting both the economic and environmental benefits of the project but opponents see it as financial quicksand, certain the Orlando-Tampa line will end up costing much more than $2.6 billion.

Will Florida actually move forward with a high speed rail system this time around or, like those Friday the 13^th movies, should we look forward to yet another sequel? You will be hearing a great deal on this issue over the next few months but it appears that the prospect of free money, the promise of a high tech traffic decongestant, and the prospect of creating 20,000 higher-wage jobs during these difficult economic times may just punch the ticket that allows this train to leave the station. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome bbruggner@gmail.com

There’s Something “Happening” in the State of Denmark

Over the next several weeks you’ll probably be hearing a great deal about both types of Copenhagen. The smokeless kind you put between your cheek and gum will be brought to America (this year in high definition) as the Yankees and Phillies battle it out for the championship of Major League Baseball.  In December another battle will begin in Copenhagen, Denmark as representatives from nearly 190 nations gather for a world climate summit in an effort to forge a new international agreement to tackle climate change and combat global warming.  This contest, like our World Series, will feature nations with high power offenses looking to hit a financial home-run while opposing nations are hoping to use their best closers to minimize the damage. This contest will be keenly contested, negotiations will be intense, and the outcome will probably be decided by heroics in the very late innings.

The road to Copenhagen was paved by the Kyoto Climate Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and is set to expire in 2012. The Kyoto agreement set binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As of October 2009, 184 nations have signed and ratified the protocol with the United States, which accounted for 36.1% of the 1990 emission levels, being the most notable non-signatory.

Opponents view the Copenhagen summit as an attempt by climate zealots to impose economy-crippling emission caps worldwide and require billions in wealth to be transferred from developed nations like the United States to undeveloped nations. They argue that capping emissions is an attempt to restrict their economic growth and competition while imposing what amounts to global warming reparations. Last week China and India, which account for nearly a third of the world’s population, signed a deal saying they won’t go along with any agreement in Copenhagen that would force them to impose greenhouse-gas emission limits.

Proponents argue that the time has passed to “do nothing” and that the physical and economic impact of global warming is already much worse than anyone could have anticipated. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting in higher global temperatures are rapidly changing precipitation patterns, decreasing water availability, reducing air quality, and increasing the frequency of floods, droughts and wildfires while causing widespread famine and disease. In recent weeks, industry leaders such as Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, began coming out in support of climate change legislation which they feel would create millions of new green jobs, unleash huge investments in new, low-carbon markets, and thereby spur economic growth.

Once again the United States will be a key player in determining what happens in Copenhagen. Other nations are watching to see whether the Senate will make progress on a pending climate and energy bill that would spell out the U.S. national emissions-reduction plan. Without a new law on the books requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could end up going empty-handed to Copenhagen leaving them with little room to negotiate. Legislation before the U.S. Senate, like a bill that passed the House of Representatives in June, would cap emissions and provide funding for climate assistance. It would set a limit on emissions that ratchets down each year until it reaches an 83 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2050.

Persuading the public that the long-term effects of climate change could be averted by action taken now will be difficult in these tough economic times. No matter what side of this issue you fall on, the stakes are high as the entire global community continues to face the inter-related challenges of solving a global economic crisis, a climate crisis and an energy security crisis. Your comments, ideas and suggestions are always welcome (bbruggner@gmail.com)

A Smart Grid Prime

A Smart Grid Primer                           by Bob Bruggner

I’ve been struggling all week with my own understanding of what’s being referred to as smart grid technology: that is the modernization and updating of our system for distributing and delivering electricity to consumers throughout the country.  My apologies in advance but the best analogy I could come up with to help make sense of it all was the Interstate Highway System.  So now you know what you’re in for this week if you’re still brave enough to read this entire article. Smart grids, highway systems and for good measure, I’ll start (oh boy) with a little history lesson. 

In the summer of 1919, just months after the end of World War I, a truck convoy of 81 Army vehicles set out from Washington, D.C., on a trans-continental trip to San Francisco. The trip was a preparedness test of our country’s wartime readiness and assumed damage or destruction to railroad facilities, bridges, tunnels, and highways. On the way west, the convoy experienced an endless series of mechanical difficulties, vehicles stuck in mud or sand, trucks and other equipment crashing through wooden bridges, slippery roads and harsh desert heat. Sixty-two days and 3,251 miles later, the convoy pulled into San Francisco where it members, including a young Army officer named Eisenhower, were greeted with medals, a parade, and a series of long-winded speeches. 

Nearly 40 years later, then President Dwight D. Eisenhower would successfully persuade Congress to enact the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 by citing his experiences during that 1919 convoy across America as well as the appreciation he had gained for the enhanced mobility of Allied troops using the German Autobahn system as they fought their way through Germany during World War II.  The Federal-Aid Highway Act was the beginning of a cooperative federal-state undertaking that we now know as 46,876 miles of Interstate Highway System. It’s hard to imagine what life in America today would be like without our Interstate System. Our national roads provide the backbone for the distribution of goods and services, travel to and from work, vacation and business travel and, well you name it.  Nearly one-third of all miles driven in the United States use the Interstate system.

Now let’s get connect to the Smart Grid.  Think of our nation’s current power grid system as a series of independent highways designed to move traffic around local neighborhoods. Made up of over 14,000 separate transmission substations, these power grids were designed in the 60s and 70s to simply receive power, usually from a single generating source, and redistribute that power back out, in one direction, to local customers. There is little doubt that the system has served us well but imagine trying to taking a cross county trip using these local electronic highways that frequently don’t connect to one another, have different speed limits and regulations governing their use, allow travel in one direction only, and have little flexibility in handling an ever increasing amount of traffic.   

Smart grids are being promoted as a means or tool to help connect all these local roads or transmission substations into one uniform network system, allowing for intelligent communication and efficient collaboration among all components of a national grid system.   The term “smart” is really just another way of saying digital. This transformation will occur primarily through the use of digital technology and communication software which will be designed to efficiently monitor and control the availability and routing of power on a national level.

So imagine a national power grid that could draw energy on demand from not only our existing oil, coal, and nuclear plants but also from an unlimited number of small, clean, renewable energy sources located throughout the country.  This energy could then quickly be routed to any location on the national power grid as needed. Power generated at night by wind farms in Montana could be routed to customers waking up on the East Coast while electricity generated by rooftop  solar collectors in Florida could be used to help Minnesotans stay warm during those long, cold winter months.   Sounds a bit futuristic but numerous public and private initiatives are already well underway.

The cost of implementing a national smart grid system will most assuredly be expensive.  But just as President Eisenhower’s investment in an Interstate Highway System helped fuel a post-war economic boom that we continue to benefit from today, Smart grid technology will serve as a fundamental building block to a post-oil, greener, and more efficient way of meeting our countries energy needs going forward.

 

10/04 - Hogtown’s Back in the National Spotlight

Hogtown’s Back in the National Spotlight       by Bob Bruggner

It must seem like a recurring bad dream for all those other cities in the state of Florida. Once again an innovative, cutting edge initiative is underway in the city of Gainesville and it’s garnering a great deal of national and worldwide attention. No, this time it not about Urboe and the UF football team or Billy Balls’ pursuit of a third national championship or the latest research coming out of the North Florida Regional Medical Center.  No this latest initiative is the result of a partnership between the Gainesville Regional Utilities and the Gainesville City Commission which in February implemented a project making Gainesville the first city in the United States to implement a photovoltaic (PV) feed-in tariff program.  Now I know what you’re thinking;  “there’s no way a feed-in tariff program can generate the same level of excitement (or beer sales) as next weeks’ UF/LSU showdown” but participation in the program was literally sold out just weeks after the program was announced.  As a primmer and potential topic of conversation during halftime, here’s how the program works.

The City of Gainesville was searching for ways to increase the overall percentage of renewable energy they deliver customers to 20% by the year 2020. Granted, a costly and ambitious goal given the fact that electricity generated from renewable recourses such as solar are typically much more expensive than electricity currently being generated from fossil fuels. Add to this the fact that our current renewable energy policy in the U.S. consists of a complex maze of tax incentives, rebates, and state mandates making it economically impractical for states, communities and small generators to play a role in renewable electricity generation.  Note that “Profitability” is our magic word for today.  

The Gainesville Feed-in tariff program is modeled after programs that have been used successfully in Europe for years and will offer Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) electric customers a chance to invest in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and sell all the electricity that they produce back to GRU. The utility will guarantee the purchase of power from participants at the above market rate of $0.32 per kilowatt-hour for a period of 20 years, in essence offering homeowners and businesses a reliable and profitable source of income while providing the incentive to producing green energy for the city.  The cost of this higher priced green energy will be coved by increasing the price of electricity per customer at a rate of $0.75 per month or about $10 a year.  A pretty good value when compared to the cost incurred by customers when utilities build new fossil fuel or nuclear facilities such as the nuclear plant proposed by Tampa Electric and Progress Energy in Levy County. Progress is seeking to raise its base rates 30 percent while adding roughly $3 to the average monthly bill to help pay for its planned nuclear plant.

In a recent NPR Marketplace interview, Gary Rowell, a tire shop owner in Gainesville, discussed his motivation for participating in the feed-in tariff initiative by installing two sets of solar panels, one on his house and one on his tire shop at a personal cost of more than $200,000. “I don't believe in global warming to 100 percent. I think it's mostly bull but I got five grandkids, and I said you know what: I'm gonna do it for them if I do nothing else.”  Mr. Rowell (remember our magic word for today?) also expects to earn $300,000 over the next 20 years and wants that money to be there when those grandkids head off to college.

Lately, there has been a great deal of discussion in Tallahassee about the qualities and characteristics of great leaders and their ability to influence a group of individuals to come together to make something extraordinary happen. Clearly, a lot of extraordinary programs continue to surface in Gainesville and dag gumit, we might all learn a little something by studying what’s going on in Hogtown.  Enjoy the game and know that your comments, ideas and suggestions are always welcome. (bbruggner@gmail.com)

 

 

 

 

09/21/09 - What's Next

What’s Next?       By Bob Bruggner

Call it what you wish; The Information Age, Computer Age, Digital Revolution, That Stuff Young People Do, Whatever.  The facts are that our current economy did a rapid shift during the 1900s from one comprised mainly of traditional industry to an economy based on the manipulation and transfer of information. The explosion of information and technology necessary to drive this transition didn’t just suddenly happen overnight; rather it evolved steadily over the past 100 years.

The age of electronic technology was first jump-started in the early 1900s with the introduction of the Vacuum Tub. For the first time scientist and engineers could amplify, switch, and modify electrical signals, controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space. This new device ultimately provided the mechanism that lead to the expansion and commercialization of radio broadcasting, television, radar, large telephone networks, and industrial process controls.   During the early 40s when engineers tried to build complex circuits using the vacuum tube, they quickly became aware of its limitations. In fact, the first digital computer ENIAC, weighed over thirty tons, consumed 200 kilowatts of electrical power, and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes that were constantly burning out making processing a bit of an adventure.

The next giant leap forward occurred around mid-century at the AT&T Bell Laboratories with the development of the first transistor. These new devices were soon being combined and connected to resistors, capacitors and diodes to build advanced electrical circuitry that we now call integrated circuit. Integrated circuits, such as the microprocessor that is checking my spelling as I write this article, are now found in almost all electronic equipment and have revolutionized the world of electronics as they continuing to become smaller, faster, and more affordable.

If the 20^th century was characterized as the Age of Information, then the 21^st century may well be remembered as the Era of Greening.  Today, many leading economist point to green technology as the next major growth sector emerging in our economy with the development of renewable energy sources leading the way.

Currently, eighty-five percent of all energy produced in the United States today comes from oil, coal, and natural gas, which we collectively classify as fossil fuels. The reason fossil fuels are relied on so heavily is due to simple economics - supply and demand. Coal is currently an abundant resource, and the US government has worked to keep a steady supply of oil flowing to the United States, which has kept costs down for consumers. But it is becoming increasing clear to governments and businesses that the problems associated with fossil fuels, most of which stem from the by-products created when they are burned to create energy, cannot be sustained in an expanding world economy. The amount of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide in the air today are thirty-five percent and eighteen percent higher, respectively, than they were before the industrial revolution.

The world’s insatiable appetite for abundant, clean energy is now making some of those futuristic alternative energy ideas seem a little more plausible if not necessary.  Here are six new innovative energy technologies that may serve to help wean us off our reliance on fossil fuels during the coming years.

1.    Enhanced Geothermal Systems are being designed to inject cool water two miles or deeper under the earth surface returning as geothermal power or steam that could be used to generate electricity.  This system could be set up almost anywhere and could become a major sustainable and reliable source of power.

2.   High Level Wind Turbines – Terrestrial wind turbines stop when the wind dies and are very regional in nature.  Turbine-bearing balloons or rotors could be floated 1,000 to 15,000 feet above the earth’s surface intercepting powerful, reliable winds that could potentially generate enough energy to power the planet many times over.

3.   Algae fuel – Biofuels made from plant matter require multi-steps for harvesting and processing.  Experimentation with genetically engineered algae that continuously secret oil suitable for refining into transportation fuel is now underway. Although not yet economically viable, this process holds great promise and scores of companies are currently investing heavily in this area.

 

4.   Wave Energy – The world’s first commercial wave farm was introduced off the cost of Portugal in 2008.  Each of the individual 13-foot-diameter wave machines that comprise the farm is capable of capture enough energy to generate the electricity necessary to power 500 homes.

5.    Nuclear Fusion  - for more that 50 years scientist have been working on generating fusion power … that is igniting a fusion reaction that will yield more energy than the energy required to create the reaction.  Next year scientist at the U.S. National Ignition Facility will focus 192 lasers on a tiny hydrogen-filled capsule in an attempt to generate fusion power for the first time.  This source of power may be many years down the road but offers many intriguing possibilities.

6.   Solar Satellites – clouds, dust, and the hours of daily sunshine they receive limit land-based solar collectors.   Orbiting solar collectors could generate power and beam it back to earth 24 hours a day.  Not surprisingly, NASA and The Department of Energy are actively exploring these concepts while California’s Pacific Gas and Electric has contracted to receive its first electricity from space starting in year 2016.

Your comments, ideas and suggestions are always welcome. (bbruggner@gmail.com)