Week in Renewables: IPCC Trouble, Tesla IPO, Fuel Breakthroughs
Transparency became a pressing issue for climate change campaigners over the past week, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was hounded by critics of its reports.
It emerged that a claim in the organization's 2007 report that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 was sourced not from a scientific study, but a student dissertation and journalists. The IPCC's director, Rajendra Pachauri, came under fire for calling a study that attempted to debunk the glacier claim "voodoo science".
Following last year's Climategate scandal, one interpretation of events might be that climate science is teetering on a precipice. But there is also much agreement that the science is in many ways sound, and that it is the process that should be changed.
The NYT's Green Inc has a good summary of commentary from scientists on the IPCC, and the New Scientist has entered the fray with a call for the IPCC to open its process and give up heroics in favor of a more inclusive, if bureaucratic, formula.
And life has gone on for international efforts to address climate change, with governments working to submit targets for emission reductions.
As usual, I've broken down the rest of the news by industry. Here it is:
Transportation
This was by far the biggest area over the past week, news-wise. Start off with Tesla Motors, the darling of the electric car industry, finally filing for IPO. It hopes to raise $100 million. But this could be a risky bet; PEHub points out investors could get wiped out by government commitments, while Wired finds that Tesla plans to roll the dice by stopping production its only product, the Roadster, before it builds its Model S.
And in case you missed it, I also wrote this week about President Obama's plan to revive American rail.
Solar, Wind, Geothermal
I wouldn't normally lump together these three industries, the big pillars of renewable electricity, but not much of note took place this week. All the solar industry executives, for example, were off in Washington, D.C. trying to convince Congress to help them create jobs.
In wind power, the United States portion of the industry reported that its total capacity jumped 40 percent last year, to a total of 35,159 megawatts. But, as the Silicon Alley Insider points out, it still lost jobs.
And geothermal energy kept up its own growth, reporting that it had 6,442MW under development. That puts it far behind solar and wind, but the industry is hard at work catching up with its larger cousins.
All the Rest
Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor, joined in on a new venture capital firm called Fontinalis Partners. The firm will focus on cleantech, and has made a first investment in Parkmobile, a company that lets drivers pay for parking through their cellphones.
Researchers at Princeton University made a major improvement to materials that can generate electricity from their own movement. The big application here is clothing; the military likes the idea of soldiers becoming mobile power generators, while ordinary citizens could potentially plug their iPod into their jacket.
And, finally, the Southern California Public Power Authority signed up a startup called Ice Energy to install highly energy-efficient cooling systems on buildings. As the name implies, this is achieved with actual ice -- at night, the units build up a big chunk of ice inside, which provides cool air inside during the heat of the day.