September 5th, 2010
Time to Deemphasize the Role of the DOE in Hydrogen Convergence
Ever since Secretary Chu made it his mission to deny working and middle class Americans access to the jobs that hydrogen convergence will produce, we at the ebTDesign Forum and our social media followers have been fixated on the missteps of the Department of Energy (DOE).
However, we would suggest that now is the time that the hydrogen convergence movement broadens its field of vision. With the start of the new Congress in January, there is opportunity to shift our focus to the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells.
As you know this represents a significant change in strategic direction. Up until now, hydrogen advocates have spent the majority of their time trying to curry favor with the confounders at the DOE. Now, we propose using that energy and effort to promote the IWG as the leading governmental body for hydrogen convergence in the United States.
By deemphasizing the DOE and promoting the IWG, you can align the multidiscipline nature of hydrogen convergence with the natural stakeholders in the government. This would also acknowledge the monumental effort that will be required to move from our fossil fuel past to our cleantech future.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: cleantech, DOE, hydrogen, IWGJuly 26th, 2010
Greater Washington DC Area hit with more Climate Instability
One week after the United States Congress decided not to debate climate change legislation. Almost, three-hundred thousand (300,000) families woke up this morning in the dark without electrical power. The DC area like the entire northeast had been living with a record breaking summer heat wave and then the rains came to knock out the power.
The mitigating news is that hydrogen convergence is emerging as a consensus favorite for dealing with both climate change issues and sustainable job growth. While the debate raged over the benefits of cap and trade, Congress quietly increased funding for hydrogen research and development. Once again, breathing new life into the only viable cleantech option.
Every time a weather event causes a massive power outage, we remind our readers and social media followers that hydrogen convergence would provide a means for keeping the lights on. We at the ebTDesign Forum call upon the cleantech community and other social entrepreneurs to spread the word about the benefits of hydrogen convergence. So, we can put an end to all pain and suffering power outages cause to those who are most at risk.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: cleantech, climate instability, hydrogenApril 20th, 2010
Combining Cleantech Management and Hydrogen Convergence
Everyone can readily see the impact of the Internet on business development. However many don’t recognize the importance of computer resource management. We at the ebTDesign Forum would suggest that it was the changes in managing back-office processes that allowed the Internet to generate extraordinary value.
Hydrogen Convergence has the potential of doing the same for the management of “cleantech resources.” Management teams will need to be taught hydrogen convergence best practices. But, they will find that core value propositions aren’t very much different than the ones they have been using for the past decade to justify investment in web-based opportunities.
We would advise community leaders and industry pioneers that the time has come to build a case for hydrogen convergence using standard business rationale. In many cases, they will simply need to change the benefits conversation from avoiding eminent climate disaster to non-environmental opportunities for sustainable job growth. Hydrogen Convergence is the only cleantech option that makes sense with or without global warming.
Further more, we would suggest that the emotional appeal should be based on a desire to save the American Dream for future generations. Without hydrogen convergence, all of the other cleantech opportunities have fatal design flaws that would result in a diminished standard of living for working and middle class Americans. And, confounders at the DOE know this by definition is a non-starter.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: American-Dream, cleantech, confounders, DOE, hydrogenApril 16th, 2010
DOE needs to be Reconfigured for Family-sized Energy Security
The reason that the Department of Energy (DOE) has a rough time understanding the benefits of hydrogen convergence is because it was not built for family-sized energy security. The DOE was established primarily as a means of managing America’s strategic energy concerns. In fact, the DOE has only recently started promoting energy conservation in earnest to the American people.
However, energy conversation is actually a strategic concern not a family-sized or kitchen table issue. The confounders at the DOE know that when working and middle class families have access to well paying jobs they care little about energy conservation. This makes it more difficult for the DOE to manage the strategic energy reserves.
In order to more easily manage these energy reserves, the so-called industry experts at the DOE like to scare American citizens into using less energy and denying them information they deserve about the benefits of hydrogen convergence. They won’t undertake the development of hydrogen infrastructure because it will require some ingenuity and commitment on their part.
The confounders at the DOE are much more willing to reduce the standard of living for working and middle class Americans. Rather than help the United States maintain leadership in hydrogen convergence and foster job growth. They would prefer to see American hydrogen innovation die on the vine. Only a government agency out of control would put its interests above those of the American people that it has sworn to protect.
We at the ebTDesign Forum would advise members of Congress to take a much needed look at the role of the DOE in ensuring family-sized energy security. Post-Globalization, we would encourage lawmakers to reconfigure the DOE so that it can tackle the three tasks associated with implementing real family-size energy policies (i.e., personal transport, cleantech manufacturing, massively distributed power generation or MDPG). They owe it to the American people.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: cleantech, DOE, energy security, hydrogen, MDPGApril 14th, 2010
Why Blog about Hydrogen Convergence?
Readers and social media followers often ask why write about hydrogen convergence everyday. We at the ebTDesign Forum respond to change the conversation. The book “Tribal Leadership” talks about the threat of stage two organizations and their contagious nature.
Stage two organizations are led by the rallying cry “life sucks.” We like many of our readers and social media followers don’t want to see this mindset take hold in the United States. It is concerning when so many Americans believe the rants of transnational media consultants when they say that Americans can’t lead the hydrogen convergence movement.
At the ebTDesign Forum, we subscribe to the notion that if you change the conversation then you change the behavior. So, blog segments are published and colonies are established in order to upgrade the conversation on the part of the major cleantech tribes (i.e., wind, solar, hydro electric). And, the world needs to know that the train is leaving the station.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: cleantech, hydrogenMarch 8th, 2010
Bringing Architecture Discipline to the Cleantech Challenge
As many of you know, the challenge for companies in the cleantech sector is how to describe the benefits of their business case without being sidetracked by climate change confounders. In other words, how to make them sticky without compromising the P2P Economy value? We at the ebTDesign Forum advise readers and social media followers to consider the practice of architecture discipline.
Architecture discipline requires adhering to at least three design considerations when developing an architecture description or investment thesis. The benefit for those who choose to practice this discipline is that an architecture description is inherently sticky. The three design considerations that we at the ebTDesign Forum most often propose are:
- Is it simple?
- Is it tangible?
- Is it relevant?
Climate Change Confounders are similar to industry tourists. Confounders are industry experts for hire. They miss use science and the scientific process to lesson the threat of CO2 emissions and other man made contributors. Industry tourists are subject matter experts for hire that come baring silver bullets. Both of these so-called gurus are most distinguished by their propensity for being out of town before the crash but after the checks have been cashed.
Institutional investors and other valued stakeholders constantly suffer from information overload and most cannot tell the difference between good-science versus bad-science without help. Confounders use this knowledge like lawyers in an attempt to raise reasonable doubt. Continued adherence to the concept of architecture discipline will neutralize this strategy because the value of good design is intuitively apparent.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: architecture-discipline, cleantech, confounders, hydrogen, touristsMarch 2nd, 2010
Hydrogen Convergence not really an Issue of Chicken or Egg
Many in the cleantech sector like to ask if the adoption of hydrogen convergence represents a chicken or egg scenario. We at the ebTDesign Forum would advise our readers and LinkedIn followers that it is neither. We would suggest that it is more an upsider versus downsider situation.
Upsiders will intuitively recognize the game changing aspects of hydrogen convergence and want to be a part of it. They will see possibilities for future cleantech markets and that will enough. Upsiders will make their decisions based on their perceived value of the available applications.
On the other hand, downsiders won’t want to move until success is assured. They will stress about the lack of hydrogen filling stations and ignore the fact that the United States produces nine million tons of hydrogen a year. They will want to debate the legitimacy of climate change data versus the possibilities of sustainable job growth.
In short, the most important thing about taking an emerging technology mainstream like hydrogen convergence is the availability of applications. Hydrogen Convergence already has a number of them with more being developed everyday. And, application is the only true measure any technology’s success.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: cleantech, hydrogen, success, true measureFebruary 11th, 2010
Hydrogen Convergence as Driven by Institutional Investors
Until now, we at the ebTDesign Forum have talked about hydrogen convergence from a retail context. We have talked about the need to protect consumers from radical changes in energy pricing and sustainable job growth. However, a case could be made that hydrogen convergence may more easily be driven by institutional investors.
Institutional investors are the big dollar portfolio managers that control enormous sums of other people’s money. They make investment decisions for banks, insurance companies, and pension plans. They invest in airports and hold municipal bonds. They are also responsible for mitigating the risk. And, it is their need to reduce the risk associated with climate change that we propose will drive their interest in hydrogen convergence.
It really doesn’t matter whether or not institutional investors personally believe in global climate change. They must mitigate the risk posed by natural disasters. While individuals may make investment decisions based solely on public opinion without consequences, institutional investors must make informed decisions and be able to show how they are protecting other people’s money.
Institutional investors must protect all their investments not just the cleantech ones and the best way to do this is via hydrogen convergence. So, portfolio managers must invest in “alternative path” cleantech strategies because they insure the value of future returns. They have to be concerned about business continuity. Be it snowstorms or hurricanes, business must continue to operate or stakeholders will lose and that is the bottom line.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: alternative path, cleantech, hydrogen, natural disastersFebruary 10th, 2010
Hydrogen Convergence via Four Pillars of Algae Commercialization
The full agenda for the 2nd Algae World Europe has been announced in preparation for the April 22-23rd event in Brussels, Belgium. Participants will be introduced to the four pillars of algae commercialization which include the following:
- System Optimization for Large-scale Algae Production
- Improving Algae Productivity and Processing Efficiency
- Development of High Value Co-Products
- Promise and Reality of Algal Biofuels
As readers and twitter followers know, this event was already very important to the initial stage of hydrogen convergence because of the Algal Carbon Sequestration session. This form carbon sequestration could turn the most common method of hydrogen production into a carbon neutral process. This would provide a place for natural gas and natural gas producers in the cleantech sector.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: algae, carbon sequestration, cleantech, hydrogenJanuary 29th, 2010
Cleaning up reformed hydrogen using Algal Carbon Sequestration
We at the ebTDesign Forum are big proponents of using natural gas infrastructure to jumpstart the hydrogen convergence process. The biggest knock against using natural gas as a feed stock is the production of CO2 as a byproduct. This argument against hydrogen convergence may be mute with the advent of Algal Carbon Sequestration.
Algal Carbon Sequestration is a method of producing algae by channeling smokestack carbon dioxide emissions through pools of algae. This would in theory capture the CO2 emitted during steam methane reforming and turn it into a zero emissions cleantech process. Hopefully, it will also cause natural gas producers to more actively support hydrogen convergence.
At the ebTDesign Forum, we have been following the conference updates for the 2nd Annual Algae World Europe in hopes hearing about sessions that would cover CO2 sequestration. Yesterday just such an announcement occurred. Dr. Ami Ben-Amotz will discuss his experience with Algal Carbon Sequestration when he was at Seambiotic. Dr. Ben-Amotz is a pioneer in turning marine algae into high value products. Readers and twitter followers are encouraged to stay tuned for future updates.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: algae, carbon sequestration, cleantech, hydrogen