What differentiates Obama from McCain !!

I have become a Obama Supporter (not that any one cares about it) and I think his energy policy is what differentiates him from McCain. I think if Obama does get elected and if he does manage to make the US self sufficient in energy, it will change the entire planet for the good. Here is his plan:

India is falling behind

Over the past decade India has grown tremendously at a fast and a furious pace. Indians have prided themselves saying that India will soon be a super power and a developed nation. This often leaves me wondering

Is India's growth sustainable?
Are we going to grow at the same rate we did during the last decade?
The outsourcing boom-- is that just luck?
Are we going to catch up with China or are we going to fall behind? The Chinese already have several solar companies that manufacture solar panels.

Here is my opinion. India has already started falling behind. I will tell you why. Whats the next great boom. Energy !!! I think every one agrees !!

- Does India have enough energy to fuel the next generation of growth ? Beep NO !!
- Does India have any companies that are going to be leaders in the next generation of alternative energy? NO !!
- Is India striving to energy self sufficient ? Are Indian leaders even talking about it? None that I know off !!

BOTTOM LINE: THE OUTSOURCING BOOM IS OVER. THE ENERGY BOOM HAS STARTED. WAKE UP INDIA!

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran

I was watching CSPAN and I saw Vijay lecturing to a panel of Governors on how the next generation regulation should be shaped in the United States to take this country forward. I also found this video on YouTube and so I thought I should post it on my blog. I like his ideas. Take a look.

Nanosolar "The Next Google"

1980 IBM
1990s Microsoft
2000s Google
2010s Is it going to be Nanosolar?

Here is why

Sci-fi Writers have suggested a long time ago the concept of "thermal pollution". Every form of energy that we use, whether its running a fan, using a light bulb or driving a car eventually gets converted to heat when it dissipates. This comes from the law of conservation of energy. When a fan rotates, it propels air and air collides against objects to eventually convert the kinetic energy to heat energy.

So If we are combusting something somewhere it will eventually become heat. If not now, later. And will contribute to global warming. So nuclear energy / ethanol from corn/ hydrogen or electricity (produced by burning fuels) are not sustainable in the very long term (like a 1000 years). It does not matter how efficient we are, it will only reduce pollution not eliminate it.

Thats where companies like NanoSolar come in.

I dream of day when every surface of every man made structure is covered by a thin film of solar cells. I am talking about buildings, roads, parking lots, highways and even airport runways. Heck yeah. How is this going to happen. Watch the video

If we can make solar panels cheaper ie so cheap that it eliminates its competition OIL, then this will happen automatically. And then we would be digging every where not for oil but for "silicon" or what ever mineral such a solar cell manufacturing plant would need. Imagine coating everything that we can manufacture with these cells. My watch, my iPod, my iPhone and my freaking car would be covered in it. Some may use less energy than they can make and others not.

Eco Terrosits and Large homes.

We've added a lot of eco-words to our vocabulary in the last few years including Tree-hugger and granola cruncher. The latest in the list of these words that I have heard is Eco-Terrorists. I found this hilarious new bit on CNN.com. You can read it at this link
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/03/seattle.fire/index.html


A group of people calling themselves "The Earth Liberation Front" burn down 2 Million dollar homes. Can you believe this! I guess they thought they have a whole bunch of trees waiting for them in heaven when they martyr their lives for the eco-cause. Even though this is pure insanity, it brings to light some points. I live in Texas. You've probably heard this. "Everything is Big is Texas". Yep it is. I see very few Prius ’s on the streets. Most of ‘em are filled with full sized trucks and SUVs. Other than that, homes are really cheap and big here compared to most other places. What more, with the mortgage crisis homes are getting so cheap that it might get cheaper to pay mortgage then rent. I know a few people, that are single, living alone in 4 bed room 4000 sqft homes, commuting 30 miles everyday on their full size trucks and SUVs. There are many homes here larger than 10 bedrooms, 5 garages and I can bet not more that 5 people live in that home ( I would think that number is more like two). Ofcourse, living in a free country and believing in freedom I think they have every right to do that. But, every one has to pay for what they do.

I think governments of various countries are trying to cut this emissions and carbon footprint. Sooner or later we have to start getting efficient with our energy. Why not now? If you can afford a 2 millions dollar home with 12 bed rooms and 6 garages, few solar panels should be chump change.Why not make it a law that if you live in a home larger than 4 bedrooms you have to get 20% of your energy from renewable resources. The numbers here might be little off. There are several ways to implement this. But some one has to start cleaning up the mess we are creating. We all have to stop behaving like kids. You poop, you clean up. Your dog poops, you clean up. Why cant we all accept that we are pooping on earth on a large scale and we have to clean it up. Start with the rich and get to the poor. Who knows, this might revive the home mortgage market. Instead building new homes at record rates, we can start renovating our homes at record rates.

Mabe its time to do something

I have always been wanting to do something to help, but No, I have not bought my Prius yet nor have I joined the Green Peace. Maybe a blog could help. What actually pushed me to start ? The intense debate in the media about the release of Tata Nano and Sunita Narain’s comments saying that “Ratan Tata would be a hero if he made a bus like Tata Nano”. I don’t know if Sunita actually emphasized these words or if the press just made a big deal of it because it’s a nonsensical statement. It makes me wonder, if Tata really made a big ass bus that would carry 50 people, for let’s say 5 lacs, would people buy it and would the government make use of it and how much money would it make? I don’t know, maybe Tata would do that maybe Tata won’t.

Introducing the Tata Nano Hybrid

Given that, I was thinking, what is the solution here? How are we going to solve this problem? Bajaj is now jumping into the small car segment. May be Mahindra will make a small car too. How much pollution is this going to cause. And how do we mitigate this ?

I don’t know how many people in India really know about Hybird Cars. Toyota Prius is the most popular hybrid car in the US right now driven by several celebrities including CEOs Sergy Brin, Larry Page and Hollywood stars like the Brangelina couple. It works with a combination of IC engine and Electric Motors. I don’t want to really get into the details of how it works, since that is freely available on the internet (http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/demos.html), but here is the point. If I was Bajaj and I was thinking of competing with the Tata’s I would be hard at work building me a really cheap Hybrid Engine. I would put one of those on a small car and one of them on a bike ( Putting it on bike would be little harder I would imagine).

Hybrid cars would just be great for India. Here is why.

If you take a typical city like Bangalore or Chennai how much time do you spend waiting in traffic? How much time do you spend going at less that 40 kmph? The hybrid engine does not run on the Internal Combustion engine until it reaches a cruising speed. It runs on its Electric motor. How much do we slam the breaks on city roads in India? Pretty much all the time! When ever we break, the hybrid engine would convert that back into electrical energy and store it in its batteries.

If I was able to make 1.5 lakh hybrid with a 40 km/l (The Prius gives a 24 km/l in the city which is less than a Tata Nano’s 25 km/l but is larger and built for higher speeds), that would reduce the Fuel consumption of the whole country and will cut the pollution too. Now if I was able to make a bike do the same thing and make it run at fuel consumption of 200 km/l imagine the benefits. To beat that, if this car/bike was made to be pluggable hybrid that would bring down pollution even further down. Not only do these hybrids save gasoline but they all cut emissions in half. They are also silent reducing the crazy noise at all the lights. The benefits are endless. Indian Automobile companies have proved that they can make a uniquely low priced car by completely designing it from scratch, but can they compete in the big leagues with Toyotas and the Hondas ? Can they get to the cutting edge? We might have to wait for that answer. May the government should do something about this!