In 2004, in mid-career, already having grown and sold two companies, and after an extensive investigation into the energy-related applications of nanotechnology, Matt Trevithick joined the Venrock team.  Venrock was started in the 1930’s by Laurance Rockefeller, with their first big hit being an investment in McDonnell Aircraft Company.  Since then, Venrock has scored again and again, making […]

In the March 27th issue of Time Magazine, an in-depth article entitled “The Clean Energy Scam” by Michael Grunwald is indicative of how rapid the descent has been for biofuel in the eyes of environmentalists and mainstream media.  One isn’t sure whether to cheer or be derisive - after several years of relentless molding of public […]

Which of these solutions is more space efficient? 
If you assume 5.0 watts (peak) per square foot for thin film photovoltaic, you end up requiring 4.6 acres per peak megawatt-hour (MWp), about the same as Nevada Solar One’s solar thermal farm (4.7 acres per MWp). Thin film PV panels now have a factory cost of about […]

If you can’t make rooftop photovoltaics pay financially without feed in tariffs, tax credits, accellerated depreciation, rebates, and subsidized loans - and even with all that it’s still barely better financially than just sticking to natural gas or coal fired grid electricity - how on earth can something like this succeed at the utility scale?

Solar fields in […]

Since publishing “Jatropha Reality Check” we’ve received comments, but also direct emails to the Editor.  Many of these were from growers - and one new writer, a grower also located in Madagascar, provided some interesting insights.
“We planted Jatropha in 2003 and have been taking care of the plantation by pruning, irrigating, applying fertilisers and managing […]

Back in 2005 we published the feature “Jatropha in Africa - Fighting the Desert & Creating Wealth.”  About two years later we rewrote the editor’s introduction to this story, stating, among other things “the yields claimed in this story have been challenged by many of our readers, and the author may have been optimistic.”  Today […]

We occasionally get press releases from a group known as Trans-Mediterannean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) or TREC UK, visionary proponants of massive development of solar concentrators combined with large scale new HVDC (high voltage direct current) transmission corridors.

Parabolic solar thermal collectors (2 axis).
(Photo: TREK UK)

According to pro-TREC sources, an area of 254 kilometers x 254 kilometers of hot desert, if covered with […]