Richard Branson today announced a $25M prize for the first viable means of “scrubbing the atmosphere of billions of tons of carbon gases from the atmosphere.”

It’s a big challenge, sort of the same spirit of the Ansari X Prize that gave $10M to the first non-government organization to reach space with manned flights twice within two weeks.


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Ormat Technologies (ORA) was granted an 11,000 acre geothermal lease off the coast of Texas. This is significant in it represents the first such lease in Texas, home of petroleum.

One has to wonder about the feasibility of tapping into such a resource in that area. By all indications it is a DEEP resource we’re talking about that will be technically difficult to tap – think ocean drilling rig expensive. We’ll watch development of this resource with interest. Thanks to Jim for passing this along yesterday.


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Yesterday, I had the chance to meet with an experienced Silicon Valley investor (who’s name will remain confidential.) We had a chat about an opportunity in the green energy space that was very productive. But the part of the conversation that really struck me and stuck with me, was the investor’s personal story of survival with cancer.

Not long ago, the investor was diagnosed with a particularly lethal type of cancer and medical professionals advised the investor to prepare personal effects, the investor would be dead in the not distant future. The investor initially bought into the diagnosis even while conferring with other medical professionals. However, the investor realized at some point that the medical profession were like “buggy whip manufacturers in 1905.” These folks would lovingly hand craft you the finest buggy whip ever made, but were ignoring the automobile revolution entirely.

This investor had made a $2M investment that didn’t pan out in a company sometime prior to all of this and in the process made some contacts with a physician that was working on new treatments for this disease with some success. The investor used the contacts and chose to undertake the new treatment which has resulted in a positive outcome. The combination of contacts and attitude made the difference between life and death for this person. It was an incredible story that I was grateful to be able to hear.

While losing $2M would be devestating to an overwhelming number of people, it’s well worth the price if your life is held in the balance. There is somehow a pleasing symmetry to this story about risk, reward, personal networks, and attitude. While raising funds for ventures can be a very stressful activity, it also has great ancilliary benefits in terms of contacts made and stories shared, like this one.


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In what has become one of the latest examples of the Bush Administration’s difficulty with matching their actions to their words, the geothermal program at the Department of Energy will receive funding this fiscal year of $0 if the budget passes as is. This is a national tragedy in the making as we are unable (or unwilling) to make use of all the assets we have to drive toward energy independence.

Why is geothermal important? I’m glad you asked. Geothermal power is the only renewable capable of baseload generation – meaning, it’ll be there when you flip your TV on (you do expect it to come on, right?) Solar, wind, biomass, and hydro are all less than baseload as they are affected by external factors (sunlight, wind, and drought.) Geothermal power generation in a closed system is zero emission. In an open system, it’s still far less than 1% as polluting as coal generation. The recent MIT study demonstrated there is more than enough heat stored in the Earth’s crust for us to harvest to power the nation (and indeed, the world.) You would think that a power source with these attributes would be at or near the top of any energy policy’s priorities.

When one considers the size of the Department of Energy’s proposed budget, the ridiculousness of this action becomes clear: The total budget is $24,300,000,000 or $24.3 BILLION. The size of the geothermal program? $0.0022B or $22 MILLION. The amount budgeted for maintaining our nuclear capability? $9.4 billion. The amount set aside to clean up the environmental messes we’ve already made? $9.4 billion. The amount budgeted for basic science? $4.4 billion (this is a good thing, but geothermal must be part of the research program.) $3.1 billion is budgeted for energy efficiency and supply programs. Fundamentally, I have nothing against other renewable programs being funded (an aside, solar funding is flat, wind has been cut 10%, hydro and geothermal have been cut altogether; hydrogen, biomass, and “clean coal” have all seen big increases in funding.) But I do have heartburn with failing to fund the one renewable electricity generation source that stands a chance of displacing aging, dirty coal plants.

The geothermal program is a rounding error in a budget of this size. The program deserves to be funded an order of magnitude more per year in order to realize the potential of the geothermal resources inside our border, not eliminated. The solution to this budget mess is clear, cut “clean coal” research by $250 million and use it to fund geothermal at the right level. After all, if coal pollution is cut by anything less than 99%, it’s still more polluting than the dirtiest geothermal resource. This is a matter of priorities and, as usual, the Bush Administration is confused in what is in the national interest by why is in the interest of their big money donors (see TXU and the $11 BILLION dollar coal construction binge in Texas.) Politics clearly play a role in this as well as Harry Reid (D,) US Senator from Nevada (home to huge amounts of geothermal potential) is the Senate Majority Leader, the Administration is aiming to hurt him at home and/or use that as a lever to get something else in the future if they cave on the geothermal research request.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter why this is happening. The action signals the end of US government support for geothermal as a renewable energy source. A resource that could over the course of 50 years displace the entire coal electricity generation infrastructure in the United States with the attendant environmental benefits. And that’s the point, isn’t it? Geothermal is being sacrificed on the altar of “clean coal” – if ever there was an oxymoron, it is “clean coal.”

We’ll watch closely to see what changes happen in the proposed budget, but we’re not hopeful. If you would like make yourself heard on the subject, write your local Congressial representative and your Senators.


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Technorati Tags: DoE | FY07 Budget | Geothermal Slashed | Mike Harding Blog

As a result, this will be a short entry; I need to complete a business plan revision today.

So, on to the Superbowl. I predicted a Bears win in a sloppy game. Well, we got the sloppy game. Did the opening kickoff return remind anyone else of the Debacle in the Desert? Sure did for me…I knew the Bears were doomed then. I turned off the TV and watched the rest of the game later while muted and in fast forward. This is the best way to watch bad games, it cuts the time commitment down to about 40 minutes.



$85,000 per second for advertising was wasted apparently. A study performed on the physiological impacts of the Superbowl ads showed they weren’t effective by and large. Except at activating the amygdala, the “fight or flight” center of the brain. My favorite result was from Honda, it had less impact than showing a blank screen!

Rhetorical question: If you’re going to pony up $2.5M for a 30 second ad, wouldn’t you spend a few thousand dollars to test that it would be effective before airing it to a billion people to discover it makes them want to leave the room or throw a beer bottle through the TV? Nah, that would make too much sense.

Martin Hardee makes an interesting set of observations in his latest entry on the Dorito’s ad (one of the few to test positive by the way…) Makes you realize just how badly Viacom fumbled the ball with the YouTube situation.



Watch all the Superbowl advertisements here.


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