Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on March 4, 2008 at 10:40:43 PM

What are the prospects for solar being the catch-all solution to our energy problems?

Most environmentalists will say that it cannot, and then go on to list the array of "belt-tightening" solutions that need to be addressed.  They and other naysayers will point to the low efficiency of solar panels, or the manufacturing expense, or what-have-you.  Usually an improvement in technology is not factored in, but that's because they tend to be taking the wise and conservative position of doing what we can with what we have, not hoping for a breakthrough that may never come.

Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist, doesn't quite see it that way, and neither does the panel he sat on at the request of the National Association of Engineers.  With a series of strong predictions under his belt, and a penchant for seeing dramatic changes down the line for humanity, Kurzweil provided a no less bold prediction by suggesting that solar will be supplying all of Earth's energy in 20 years.

One of the reasons they cite is the diversification in the solar market currently underway.  Instead of just the traditional photovoltaic panels, installed in static racks to catch what sun they happen to be pointed at, the latest generation of solar uses sun-following computers, concentrators that use just a fraction of a typical photovoltaic cell to generate power, and innovative ways to use the heat from a solar concentrator to generate electricity.

The other reason seems to be that technological advance simply continues to accelerate.  In a concept that Kurzweil calls the Singularity, technological advance accelerates constantly, and the time it takes for a new technology to reach 80% of the population decreases with every cycle of innovation.  Mobile phones, for instance, have reached a staturation level in less than 20 years what it took Alexander Graham Bell's telephone a century to achieve.

If Kurzweil is right, and there's no reason to think he might not be at this point, the energy situation could rapidly become a question of the past, in the same way that instant, round-the-world communication has become a given.  If solar is competitive with coal in five years, the possibilities indeed become limitless.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on March 2, 2008 at 10:18:38 PM

This is a selection of recent popular blog articles aggregated on Greenedia.com, where you will find the best blogs from the world of green media, as well as video uploads, podcasts, and blog authoring.

EU Releases Environment Scorecard

Treehugger blogged this week on the self-scoring the EU released on their progress toward Kyoto emissions and energy goals.  The outlook was not that great, altogether, though progress has been made in the appropriate direction, unlike the US and Japan, which also received scores, and seem to be heading in the wrong direction.  Unfortunately, according to the scorecard, the EU is still not on track to meet those goals.

They reproduced a chart from the report in the post, giving a clear indication of how the various initiatives are doing, as percentage changes from a baseline calculation.  In fact, the chart shows the only current hope for success in the EU of meeting their goals, in greenhouse gas emission reduction. Other areas, such as electricity from renewables and biodiversity, do not appear to be on track and are a significant concern for the EU.

Record Oil Prices and President Bush's Uninformed State

Over at Clean Energy, Jesse Jenkins points out that oil has recently set a record, beating the inflation-adjusted previous high of 1980.  At $103.05 last week, oil beat the previous record by about fifty cents, and ushered in a new wave of speculation that gas at the pump could top $4 per gallon this spring when reformulated gasoline starts flowing from the refineries.

Of more concern to Jenkins in the post itself, is that US President Bush seems to be unaware that such a dramatic spike in gas prices could be coming so soon, according to industry analysts.  Jenkins advocates, among other things, a re-investment of the subsidies currently going to oil companies in solutions for the growing fossil fuel crisis. 

Ultracapacitors Could Spell The End of Batteries

With everyone looking for better ways to store electricity, EcoGeek points out news that ultracapacitors (or "ultracaps") may have been the subject of a breakthrough that would move them past batteries in preference.  The auto industry has long considered them unsuitable for electric vehicle implementations on account of their relatively low energy density when compared to batteries--just able to store 5% of what a same-sized Lithium-Ion battery could store.

The breakthrough, as EcoGeek goes on to say, comes from an MIT research project into nanoscale ultracapacitors which could store up to half of what a Lithium-Ion battery does.  While the technology is not ready to fly out of the lab into a car just yet, the promise of continued research indicates that just such a development may be just around the corner.

No Savings in Falling Back and Springing Forward

With the "spring forward" of daylight savings time just around the corner, GristMill unearths a report that suggests that the supposed energy savings ofthe annual springing forward and falling back don't actually amount to much.  The theory goes that with an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, we'll use less electricity in lighting our homes, and thus save some energy.  But recently, with the state of Indiana electing to adopt Daylight Savings statewide, where only a few counties had been on-board with it before, an opportunity was realized to study the theory in the real world.

Delving deeper, GristMill discovers that not only aren't there any savings in the process, but it's actually a waste of money and energy over maintaining standard time year round.  Researchers at University of California-Santa Barbara discovered that spending on energy increased by $8.6 million for the state of Indiana alone while on Daylight Savings--not a savings at all but, as GristMill says, a "wastings."

About Greenedia

Greenedia is your guide to the best Green social media available on the Internet. SoMedia Networks Inc, which also operates Inveslogic.com, Healthedia.com and Blabaloo.com, is building the first network of social media websites dedicated to finding, organizing and presenting content based
on expertise and authority. For more information or to register an account, visit Greenedia.com.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on March 1, 2008 at 05:12:48 PM

Energy efficiency in the IT industry needs a broad-spectrum attack on most every aspect of the information technology experience, but the area most in need of attention is that of servers.  Data centers and server farms tend to be dramatically inefficient, especially as they have a tendency to hold onto old and outdated equipment which runs less efficiently as it ages.  But they're also high concentrations of high powered computers that run hot and need a commensurate amount of cooling hardware to keep them running at their peak.

The US Environmental Protection Agency's EnergyStar division has long been a player in making computers more efficient, but now they're stepping it up in order to make the servers that are the hub of the entire industry more efficient.  Virtually every business, down to some of the smallest, uses servers to store their critical data and guide their operations, and EnergyStar's attempt to create meaningful guidelines should help improve them.  Together with Google and Intel's industry-wide effort to create more efficient desktops, this kind of move should have a quick and positive impact.

A recent study would suggest that, despite the reduction in paper used, reading newspaper hardcopy is actually greener than reading the news online.  The bulk of the reasoning would be that newspapers draw no power while one is reading them, but EcoGeek disputes the validity of the numbers and suggests that the study ignores the potential negative environmental impact of the printing and production process (which only has to occur once for a computer, but many times each day for newspapers).  What could settle the argument, in fact, is a leaner, greener IT infrastructure.

The reality is that periodical news and entertainment reading is increasingly moving on-line.  Traditional newspapers are hemorrhaging money, while Google has demonstrated that on-line advertising is a viable income stream, even though most people do still get their news on paper.  Arguments about which is greener is irrelevant, because the driving factor is which is more flexible, more in tune with the needs of today's consumers.  What needs to happen is that experience--and all the other thousands of things people today get done on-line--needs to be more efficient, and EnergyStar's proposed guidelines are a big step in that direction.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 27, 2008 at 09:46:38 PM

One of the obstacles to what some call the hydrogen economy is the prospect of refuelling infrastructure.  Most naysayers for hydrogen envision that hydrogen will become a one-to-one replacement for gasoline--my car will have a hydrogen tank in place of the gas tank, I'll go to the hydrogen filling station when I need more, and we'll have to find some way to distribute hydrogen from massive refiniries to the filling stations.

But hydrogen isn't oil.  It's a major component of water, for instance, and thus in theory can be made anywhere.  The prospect probably puts a chilling fear into the hearts of oil company executives everywhere, but their goose is likely cooked any way that you slice it.  The future of transportation is not in fossil fuels, or any other sort of resource like it, unless ethanol becomes a lot more viable than it is right now.  And there's possibility there--hydrogen right now is no more or less viable than ethanol--but hydrogen has the advantage of orders of magnitude greater abundance going for it.

QuantumSphere Inc. seems ready to take one of the next steps forward in promoting hydrogen, however, using nanoparticles to increase the efficiency of electrolysis.  Electrolysis is the process by which hydrogen is extracted from water, and requires a great deal more energy put in than is gotten out.  And unfortunately, it's unlikely that more energy will be realized from the process than is put in--thanks to one of the laws of thermodynamics.  But hydrogen, in this case, is essentially about providing the sort of range that gasoline provides a car.  In that case, the trade-off of a slight amount of energy loss is worth it, so long as batteries fail to offer the same kind of range.

The nanoparticle-enhanced electrolysis could happen on such a small scale, the company hopes, that the entire process could be contained within the vehicle.  The car would still need to be plugged in at night, say, for the hydrogen to be generated, but there would need to be no new equipment to come along with the car and, indeed, no filling stations.  In the same way some are promoting the idea of home hydrogen fuel cells to make rooftop solar power a more realistic alternative; surplus solar energy during the day would electrolyze hydrogen, then used to power fuel cells at night or during days of extreme cloud cover.

Good for the consumer but bad for the big, powerful energy industry, including oil, would be this libertarian aspect to a hydrogen economy.  In fact, that trillion dollar collection of companies would cease to meaningfully exist, unless they moved into the manufacture and distribution of the necessary hardware.  The ability to generate power, the power to drive, the power to live in comfort, would be entirely in the hands of the people.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 24, 2008 at 06:21:00 PM

This is a selection of recent popular blog artciles aggregated on Greenedia.com, where you will find the best blogs from the world of green media, as well as video uploads, podcasts, and blog authoring.

Germany Gets Creative With Renewables

This past week Treehugger wondered if Germany was on the road to a 100% renewable, sustainable economy.  They point to a potentially groundbreaking experiment in weaning an energy grid off of nuclear and fossil fuel energy sources in a short time frame.  The University of Kassel cooperated with three German energy companies in the experiment.

Treehugger goes into a bit more detail (while also providing an in-line YouTube video), and suggests that the approach used, of building a power plant that combined a number of different sources of energy--from solar, to wind, to biogas--could provide steady and uninterrupted power for the grid around the clock and in any conditions.  Such a distributed means of providing power, in the small scale, was able to replicate the always-on nature of a coal or natural gas plant with the sustainability of renewable sources.

Greenwasher of the Decade

Climate Progress recalls the seedier side of the cleantech movement by highlighting the decade's biggest greenwasher--that is, the company that provided the thinnest veneer of sustainability while continuing in their carbon-emitting, fossil-fuel capitalizing ways.  Their winner was British Petroleum, which seems to be satisfied with their renewable efforts as just a veneer following the purchase of tar sands in an effort to prolong the dominance of oil.

They quote from a Guardian article and use the information to disparage the new CEO of British Petroleum, Tony Hayward and his efforts to stop the company's once promising forward momentum and return them to reliance on petroleum.  Lord John Browne, the former CEO who laid out BP's renewable path, has been quiet since he stepped down and Climate Progress feels that the departure of his vision for the company has been the biggest blow to their green fortunes.

Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles

Over at Energy Blog, they're looking at a report that delves into the "long tail" of emissions from the life cycle of photovoltaic solar panels.  The report breaks down which of the four major types of photovoltaic solar panels consume the least amount of energy in their manufacturing and life cycle, versus their potential energy output over the life of the panel.

In the post, they point to thin-film cadmium-telluride solar cells as the clear winner in terms of minimal energy usage.  Energy Blog goes on to point out that all of them have extremely low energy profiles when compared to fossil fuels, despite the intensive nature of their manufacture, probably due to the 20+ year life cycle of a typical photovoltaic solar panel, which has paid for its own energy usage many, many times over by the time it needs to be replaced.
UK Goverment Seeks Grasp of Biofuels' Indirect Impacts

AutoBlog Green takes notice of the fact that the British government is seeking answers on the deep green and other, non-obvious impacts of the use of biofuels.  Some obvious effects have already been noted--such as the increase in food prices in response to the drive for corn-based ethanol as a fuel soltuion--but the government is also trying to look deeper at ethanol and other biofuels before creating the kind of policy that US President George W. Bush has been pushing.

The Department for Transport has commissioned a report from the UK's Renewable Fuels Agency for delivery by summer, according to the post.  The call comes immediately following reports in Science that biofuels may not be all they're cracked up to be, and with the UK signatory to the Kyoto Protocols, as well as beholden to courses charted by the EU, they are looking for definitive answers to better chart the progress of these policies.
About Greenedia

Greenedia is your guide to the best Green social media available on the Internet. SoMedia Networks Inc, which also operates Inveslogic.com, Healthedia.com and Blabaloo.com, is building the first network of social media websites dedicated to finding, organizing and presenting content based
on expertise and authority. For more information or to register an account, visit Greenedia.com.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 23, 2008 at 03:35:32 PM

Renewable energy remains one of the big issues in terms of converting to a clean economy, and official action on many levels is required to make that happen.  While national governments slowly start to catch up, much of the heavy lifting is still being done on the state, province, and local levels.  In many ways intended to prepare for eventual federal requirements, and also to placate a populace that demands action, a number of states and localities have provided very aggressive measures to attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy consumption.

On the federal level, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) called for new renewable energy legislation at the Renewable Energy World Conference & Exhibition North America.  Seeking a national standard of renewable energy, along with incentives for participation and standardization for home renewable energy efforts, Sen. Reid is banking on a growing feeling of urgency for renewable energy standards.  He also seems to be looking with an eye toward the upcoming Presidential election, where all three current front-runners, including Republican Sen. John McCain, have strong renewable energy planks in their platforms, promising stronger potential for action than under the current administration.

The Canadian government meanwhile is backing a project in Eastern Canada by Thermal Energy to help a pulp and paper mill reclaim biowaste as energy to run critical plant functions. Thermal Energy is hoping that the project will serve as a sort of beacon for future renewable energy efforts in Canada.

Three Michigan universities--University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University in downtown Detroit--are teaming up to provide funding to full-time faculty to research sustainable projects as part of their existing University Research Corridor cooperative.  The hope there is to do together what the faculties of the three big universities could not do on their own, and along the way help redevelop Michigan's stagnant economy.
In terms of leadership in renewable energy, Portugal would seem to be leading the pack, aiming for 45% of energy from renewables by 2010--one of the most aggressive goals in the world--with an eye toward 60% not long after.  While Portugal's geography and small size offer a somewhat easier path to a sustainable economy, they are also a showcase of what determination can do when tackling a problem such as this.  Some in the State of Maryland, in fact, could take a page from their book, should the state government enact legislation calling for a 90% reduction in emissions by 2050.  While it is an ambitious goal, 90% by 2050 is by no means out of reach of any developed nation (or portion thereof), and should be approached with enthusiasm and determination, not doomsaying and negativity.

In all, there is a great deal of forward motion, naysayers aside, on the positioning of renewable energy as a viable basis for future economy; days are coming when holdouts are more notable than adopters, and the world may well be on its way to a sustainable future.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 17, 2008 at 11:34:34 PM

This is a selection of recent popular blog artciles aggregated on Greenedia.com, where you will find the best blogs from the world of green media, as well as video uploads, podcasts, and blog authoring.

Coal Prices Open The Door To Biomass

Looking toward the possible rise of biomass as an energy source, BioPact Blog points out that coal prices could conceivably double in the next two years.  A variety of pressures on the supply of coal, including limits on production in Indonesia and Australia, and spiraling demand in China and India, are consiring to drive prices up, perhaps much more rapidly than the market is ready to absorb.  The market already received a shock, in fact, when rumors circulated that an Asian steel company paid well above market value for coal.

BioPact goes on to suggest possible high volume alternatives to coal, such as massive brush overgrowth in northern Namibia that could provide up to 500TWh of energy in lieu of coal.  This concept, as well as BioPact's outline for medium and long-term implementation of a biomass fuel economy provides a continuum of energy provision should the price of coal continue to expand in such a dramatic fashion.

Chrysler Exploring Every Available Green Car Tech

Reporting on a video clip of Carlist's Lou Ann Hammon, AutoBlogGreen says that Chrysler seems to be approaching green car technology on every front, looking for the best possible solutions out of what has become a host of alternatives.  The video clip features Hammond speaking with Chairman and Vice President of Chrysler Jim Press, who discusses the company's plans down for the future.

Focusing on the fate of the dual mode hybrid that had been developed with GM and BMW while Chrysler was actually Daimler-Chrysler, AutoBlogGreen looks at the direction of the Big Three company now that Daimler has departed the partnership again.  Daimler seems to have left the dual mode hybrid to Chrysler which they are seeking to develop aggressively, in addition to all the other options.  Their philosophy is that it's not wise to focus too narrowly in this time of transition.

Genome Sequenced For Hydrogen Producing Anaerobe

Green Car Congress points out that a team of German researchers have decoded the genome for a variety of bacteria that produces hydrogen as a waste process.  Growing on sole energy sources ethanol and acetate, the well-studied bacterium provides intriguing options for producing hydrogen from complex sources without slow and expensvie electrolysis.
The post identifies the Max Planck Institute as the source of the research and provides a link to the official publication of the group's findings.

French Insist Hybrids Only For The Short Term

Treehugger takes exception to French research that suggests that hybrids are only a short term solution to looming shortages--and price increases--in oil.  In fact, Treehugger can't seem to believe that research needs to be done into the question of whether or not hybrids are the final solution, since it almost seems to go without saying that they're not.  Hybrids, at best, only extend the mileage of existing internal combustion engines not provide a true alternative.

In the post they suggest a number of measures to thumb one's nose at the findings, including driving a hybrid.  The vehicles may not be a final solution, but they're a better alternative to the lower mileage non-hybrid vehicles, and help to push off the probem a little to give more time for more permanent solutions to be worked out.  They also suggest commenting on the research (and providing appropriate links) and helping support the research into long term solutions.

About Greenedia

Greenedia is your guide to the best Green social media available on the Internet. SoMedia Networks Inc, which also operates Inveslogic.com, Healthedia.com and Blabaloo.com, is building the first network of social media websites dedicated to finding, organizing and presenting content based
on expertise and authority. For more information or to register an account, visit Greenedia.com.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 12, 2008 at 10:21:33 PM

How can we tell when spending on cleantech and other eco-friendly sectors is on the up?

When government gets in on it, especially in an election year.

With Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) taking the lead in delegates tonight for the Democratic Presidential nomination, the question opens up as to how he plans to deal with energy issues in the event of his nomination and potential election to the Presidency.  And so far, it seems like he is pushing the most aggressive line of the three remaining major candidates across both parties.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sen. Obama wants to push for carbon neutrality in the federal government itself by 2025 and 50 percent reductions in emissions nationwide by 2030. [via GreenBang]  Perhaps in spite of, but perhaps because of this very aggressive push for emissions reductions and carbon neutrality, Obama is enjoying broad popular support and vying for a nomination that some saw as Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) to lose.

But support here, at the federal level may be what cleantech and alternative energy and the rest of the green range of options to take off for real.  Strong federal support, for instance, would vastly improve the investment fortunes of emerging cleantech companies as Wall Street would see a guaranteed outlet for the new technology and products as the massive federal bureaucracies lumbered toward carbon neutrality.

In this way, it's far more than just imposing a few strict regulation on how much of what can be emitted or produced or consumed--as it did with information and computer technology, the government would represent a solid basis for business, a way for companies to build the scale they need to bring prices down to average consumer levels and investors to put their money in with a measure of certainty.

State and local governments have already started this process, of course.  Ontario, Canada has earmarked $15 million to promising, transformative projects in the province.  And while that may be a pittance compared to the billions Sen. Obama is hoping to spend, it's a start, a leg-up for many companies that need just that much patronage in order to start rolling their products out the door and making them attractive to the rest of their possible customer base.

The future of cleantech is going to be a mix between free market growth and significant government spending--many revolutionary changes have happened just that way, and this looks to be no different.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 10, 2008 at 04:55:18 PM

This is a selection of recent popular blog artciles aggregated on Greenedia.com, where you will find the best blogs from the world of green media, as well as video uploads, podcasts, and blog authoring.

How Biofuels Increase Carbon Emissions

Science Blog offers interesting criticism of the use of biofuels by way of a report from the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy that says use of biofuels can actually speed up global warming where natural ecosystems are converted to biofuel farmland.  The existing flora, it turns out, is better at processing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than the stock used for ethanol and biodiesel, worsening the climate change balance.

The article cites a classic example in the Amazon rain forest, where farmers are being encouraged to clear cut existing rain forest and plant soybeans, the current system rewarding them for quantity of crop as opposed to carbon balance.  Science Blog does go on to say, however, that there are a number of different locales and environments in which biofuel crops are an improvement or a "push" in terms of carbon emission offset over existing vegetation.

President Bush's Energy Budget Doesn't Go Far Enough

Joe Romm at Climate Progress takes President Bush to task for offering stirring and positive energy rhetoric while attempting to slash Department of Energy funding for critical projects.  Focusing on his recent State of the Union Address statements, Romm suggests that the President's calls for action on energy and climate questions was a rhetorical smokescreen, hiding a broad deemphasizing of the question and the defunding of a number of programs.

Providing a breakdown of the budget request in the post, he endeavors to show that Bush is not at all serious about the energy issues facing the United States and is trying to sweep it under the rug in his last year in office.  Programs such as water energy research (that is, hydroelectric, wave, and steam power) appear to face significant cuts, along with completely defunding the Renewable Energy Production Incentive.  Several programs do get boosts, including more research money for carbon sequestration in coal-fired plants and $7.5 million for the Asia-Pacific Partnership.

Paris Looks to Make Sustainability Stylish

Last week EcoGeek took a look at Parisian construction project that aims to blend the kind of art and style that the city is known for with a 21st century energy ethic.  Brainchild of Vincent Callebaut, noted architect and designer, the building would sit astride a disused canal in the city's 19th district.  Actually a pair of buildings, the structures would aim to provide their own energy while simultaneously, actively reducing smog in the city.

According to the post, Callebaut hopes to achieve this with an external mix of photovoltaic solar cells and a structure faced with titanium dioxide that "reacts with organics and reduces airborne pollutants and contaminants when exposed to the UV radiation present in sunlight."  Both structures would also feature copious greenery on their exterior surfaces, and the second of the pair, a helical tower, would have built-in turbines to harness the wind that sweeps down the canal.

Real Goods Seeks Wall Street Splash With IPO

Treehugger points out that solar installer Real Goods has completed paperwork to make an initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ.  The company, now oned by Gaiam, recently acquired two other installation companies as part of a move to market consolidation, and now seeks investment funding to expand further.

Real Goods' revenues, according to Treehugger, were estimated at $32.7 million for 2007, with profits of nearly half a million, with the acquired companies' revenues and profits taken into account.  Going public could vastly improve Real Goods' standing and better position them in what is sure to be a highly competitive solar energy market.

About Greenedia

Greenedia is your guide to the best Green social media available on the Internet. SoMedia Networks Inc, which also operates Inveslogic.com, Healthedia.com and Blabaloo.com, is building the first network of social media websites dedicated to finding, organizing and presenting content based
on expertise and authority. For more information or to register an account, visit Greenedia.com.

Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on February 8, 2008 at 11:12:48 PM

One of the biggest hurdles to pushing an alternative energy technology is that it must compete with entrenched energy tech that has billions--literally, the economies of entire regions--behind it, which means it needs millions and billions in order to gain ground.  Most investors, in fact, even angels and VCs, are going to need to see new technologies and techniques working in scale, beyond the laboratory before they take their calculated risks.

That's where Google aims to become a major player, an enabler of sorts in the greening of America.  Where nascent technologies hope to supplement or replace our current energy technologies, but need a hand over the transom so to speak, Google's philanthropic arm wants to be there to provide the funding to bring scale to these technologies.

The Mountain View, CA-based company has long been passionate about the role of cleantech and alternative energy in the future of human endeavor.  Their corporate headquarters is partially powered by solar tree farms planted in their parking lots, and they're leading a major technology consortium to develop and deploy computing technologies that are dramatically more efficient than what is currently on the market.  So this kind of thing is no surprise, but the scale is certainly ambitious.

Also ambitious, and also needing major funding to make it over the hurdle into full funding and respectability is the prospect of using nuclear fusion to replace coal, fission, and other dirty and uncertain means to produce electricity.  A Canadian company hopes to make that a reality, and may do it in the next decade or so, according to VC Wal van Lierop.

General Fusion hopes to take a novel means of creating fusion in a laboratory setting (though by no means the physicists' dubious Holy Grail of fusion that can take place at room temperature, so-called "cold" fusion) and develop it into a viable technology that can produce more energy than it requires, the gold standard for any sustainable energy technology.  Getting to that gold standard however, will require a lot of the kind of money that Google and van Lierop are offering before it could begin to produce a return on the investment.

But with support like this, it's hard to imagine that these kinds of efforts could not succeed.