Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Science, Technology, and Society and much more @ MIT OPEN COURSES-Free online

What every serious innovator should know about in our complex information abondant world

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Science, Technology, and Society and much more @ MIT OPEN COURSES-Free online: "Science, Technology, and Society and much more @ MIT OPEN COURSES-Free online"

The truth about the cost of wind according to French Think-Tank. The answer may not be blowing in the wind?

To restore the truth about the cost of wind

By Vincent Le Biez translation . J.A.

Despite the counter arguments advanced by professionals of industrial wind turbines, the Institut Montaigne-in French- persists and signs: Wind turbine energy does not meet a need in France, considering the (current) structure of its power generation installations, composed primarily of nuclear and hydropower, which are recognised as being particularly sober (low) in terms of CO2 emissions. Moreover, the achievement of the Grenelle of the environment, ie 25 GW of wind power installed by 2020, would result in additional costs to society of about 2 to 3 billion euros. The current development of this technology is only due to the purchase price guaranteed to farmers by the state over 15 years, which are particularly attractive rates, funded by electricity consumers and which allow the creation of "green-rents" whose validity is questionable.

PS I more or less needlessly translated the above abstract to the full Pdf-Policy Paper "AEOLIAN POWER: CASTING MONEY TO THE WINDS? – July 2008 by Vincent Le Biez. from french to english. The full paper is still in french unless the abstract(s) stir sufficient interest for readers to request a full translation. Why put an s on abstract? Because I had translated before I spotted the english version giving access to at least to summaries and abstracts. The english abstract is a slightly fuller version and better written to my mind than the original french version.

NB. This work refers to the Energy production side - not to the the Energy Consumption side.

Whatever aspect one choses to look or from whatever angle there appears to be little room for complacency especially in "our developpeded world" cf graphs and physics from Prof. David MacKay, FRS., author of "Without Hot Air." freely available online.

REF. 2nd Abstract . The original english abstract on Institut Montainge's site


Ref. (In French)
1. the Institut Montaigne

2. the Institut Montaigne -Wind turbines with access to full Pdf. document and Video discussions discussions.

en référence à : Eoliennes & développement durable : rétablir la vérité sur le coût de l'éolien [INSTITUT MONTAIGNE] (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)


Related posts on Energy

The teraton challenge. A review of fixation and transformation of carbon dioxide, Danish work brought to us by RCS-The Royal Chemical Soc.,UK.

New comments-Conversations with B.J. Sovacool on Nuclear Power Plant, Coal Fired Power Generation, GHG emissions

CO2 Storage CCS and or CCU CO2 Use, Geological _Applied Earth Science Input,EU-China Geologists Co-operate to Find Onshore CO2 Sinks

What is significant Innovation, What to Innovate, Where to Innovate, How to Innovate_ Back to Basics

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Alternative Energy CO2-GHG reduction_BEAT 2_A Biomass Environmental Assessment Tool free software for UK and UK-based companies

Sandbag

Thanks to Tree Hugger's blog, I have just learned of Sandbag's site and it's interactive tools to help get "the big picture on country based CO2 emissions, trading and setting of emissions targets.

It appeaars to require more time and thought and I will certainly come back to this site, self- babtised "Real action on climate change" and check against that golden oldie Real Climate -Climatologist favourite.

One more tool to Police COP15 and our "collective" elected "management" and as such must be echoed for study, discussion and action by the widest possible well informed, public.

Here is the link I promised to come back on:

Sandbag Climate Game_ set your own emissions targets

en référence à : Sandbag: real action on climate change (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)

4 types of Innovation: Sustainables vs Disruptives

In her post "Innovation Matters: Balancing Sustained Versus Disruptive Innovation" Ann Handley quotes Eric Zeitoun's 4 point definition of two important Innovation Typologies, Continuity intelligently named Sustainable in today's jargon versus Disruptive. This is one of the most concise definitions I have come across.

The four distinct types of Innovations are:

1.Product optimization (which seeks to optimize a product or service’s usage)
2.Brand extension (stretches a brand’s equity into adjacent spaces)
3.Target ownership (to own a greater share of a specific target’s wallet across multiple segments, whether the segment is attitudinal, psycho-graphic or demographic)
4.Category leadership (to sustain or achieve leadership by re-shaping consumer attitudes and behaviors in a given segment or industry).

Innovation types 1. and 2. (referred to as “sustained innovations”) usually tend to build off of an existing frame of reference. Therefore, although safer, they are likely to only generate limited incremental value.

Innovation types 3. and 4. (referred to as “disruptive innovations”) on the other hand can yield much larger growth, but they are also more capital intensive and more unpredictable. Indeed because they have the power to shift the paradigm, they can set new standards and change consumer behaviors, but they require significant time and dollar investments.

Tips to "weather" current recession and pit falls management must try to avoid are outlined in an equally concise manner.

The easy conclusion could be to argue that in a period of recession, marketers should focus on “sustained innovation” because senior management is more likely to sign off on an inexpensive innovation initiative, which can repay for itself in the short term. Unfortunately, what could sound like a really good idea may turn out to be a really dangerous one.

"Recessions usually act in a two-step process as filters or regulators that purge weaker players from the marketplace. The structurally weak players are typically the first to go. These are the companies whose business model is fundamentally flawed or those whose cost structure cannot suffer tighter margins."

Then follows the players whose relevance keeps eroding over time. These players tend to suffer more towards the end of a recession cycle, and generally get hit when they think they have reached the end of the tunnel.

Why do these companies lose relevance? They do so because of their inability to shape, grasp or influence societal shifts, and a lack of vision or willingness to take risks. Organizations that are not willing to constantly invest in ‘disruptive innovation’ quickly become irrelevant and vulnerable in a recession. So what does this mean in terms of innovation? It means that marketers need to find smarter ways to invest in ‘disruptive innovation,’ rather than simply pull the plug. Recessions should be viewed as an opportunity to re-assess the effectiveness of innovation processes. To do this, you must:

•Have a clear strategic goal for your innovation. Make sure it fits into your marketing strategy and your business strategy.
•Create a focused ideation process that accelerates the pace of the consumer’s validation of ideas and prototypes ideas at a lower cost.

Read the full article...
- Innovation Matters: Balancing Sustained Versus Disruptive Innovation Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog (view on Google Sidewiki)

PS. These concepts take an ominous connotation when brought into the environmental, climate change realms whereby the use of "sustainability" tends to lead one's thouhgts. Then that's "Marketeering" for you.

Acknowledgement.
Ann Handley, MarketingProfs Daily Fix
Let me thank Dee Gardner dgmsouth who brought my attention to this article via Twitter.

The teraton challenge. A review of fixation and transformation of carbon dioxide, Danish work brought to us by RCS-The Royal Chemical Soc.,UK.

A few months ago a Prof. of Chemistry friend at a major Univ in France expressed scepticism concerning the CCS - carbon capture and sequestration, the geological and geoengineering response to increases in CO2 a well documented GWG-global warming gas. (Increases roughly since James Watts invention of the steam engine. (cf. "David JC MacKay's book "without hot air" free online) My chemist friend's objection concerned dangers of stored carbon escape since CO2 is not in a chemically combined and imprisoned form. Of course the physicists, and geological engineers consider that suitably stable, deep sites may be found whereby high pressures in deep wells is sufficient to maintain the CO2 in the liquid, or pseudo liquid (super-saturated) state to remain simple. More audacious consider that by avoiding sequestration in valleys especially inhabited valley even if there is gas escape there will be no serious consequences.

Whatever, I am extremely pleased to find this Danish work via my blog listed RSS feed whereby CO2 mitigation is suggested by physical-chemistry methods which should come closer to meeting the approval of my chemistry friend and perhaps suggest themes of research to improve the overall mastering of our incredible capacity to generate CO2 in energy production,industry and transportation.

PS. I shall run a spell check via my blog post of this Google Sidewiki.

en référence à : Energy & Environmental Science Articles (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)

Link_ Metaklett-steel grips, Biomimicry and Shape Memory Alloy meanders

Metaklett-steel grips, Biomimicry and Shape Memory Alloy meanders

One rarely gets a chance, when talking of innovations in the very mature steel industry, to slip in such recent fields such as:

A. Biomimicry, ‘Learning from Nature’, whereby scientific and engineering innovations are inspired by performances and functionalities observed in Nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements— and emulates them to solve human problems and meet human requirements.

B. Shape Memory Alloys the metallurgists contribution to the overall field of so called ‘intelligent or smart materials’ and


This opportunity, rife with menace, arose and matured following the public announcement on 3-Sep-2009 by the Technical University of Munich, (TUM.) of their new clip and close, pull and open, hook and loop fastener steel strips. The news was rapidly up-taken by several of the main science magazines More cf. link above.

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Comment just submitted to the Economist Article: HOT AIR

Materials Science and Engineering Defined: Comment just submitted to the Economist Article: HOT AIR