Software will disrupt the Electricity Industry

Another example of how Software based companies are starting to squeeze more value out of traditional industries was highlighted by this Bloomberg article titled "Energy-Saving Software Turns Factories into Power Plants" to me. I have written about how Software is going to be the basis for every industry here and how Iceland can take a lead on this here and my vision for Iceland here. All the engineering principles today will be implemented by Software. No wonder the Mayor of New York City wants to learn to code. If you have not signed up to learn how the software systems work, I highly recommend that you do. There are many startups that make it very easy to learn to code like www.codeacademy.com. 

Coming back to the article the summary of it is "Viridity Energy make software used by dozens of large facilities in the U.S., including commercial buildings and factories, to manage their energy and Viridity is the first in the U.S. that also lets power guzzlers sell their energy back to the grid". There is a company in Iceland called ReMake Electric, which is focused on the same problem and has a hardware component that goes with the software and enable households or commercial buildings to optimize their energy use. I know the founder and have met with the team. I advised them to focus more on the software side rather than the hardware side of the business which they have done. They are starting to make in-roads into big commercial enterprises.

If Iceland wants to be a leader in Renewable Energy it is obviously driven by the abundant geothermal energy that is available here but more importantly renewable energy should be govern by smart software that efficiently supplies, utilizes and reuses the energy that we tap from natural sources. Leadership in energy is not driven by abundance, it is driven by smart and sustainable use of Energy.

Related articles

• Schneider Electric Buys Viridity's DCIM Software (datacenterknowledge.com)
• More Chinese interest in Icelandic tourism sector (icenews.is)
• Five Quick Home Energy Saving Tips (txu.com)
• Putting consumers in control of Europe's smart grid (smartgridwatch.wordpress.com)
• How to Cut Energy Costs (openforum.com)

Project Solaris - How to break the fossil fuel cycle?

Renewable energy investments always take a major blow when the world economies slow down, the reason is fossil fuels are very cheap compared to the renewable sources, when the factor cost of production is to be economical to continue to sustain a business all renewable energy ideas and plans get shelved. This renewable energy on, renewable energy off cycle has stopped progress in really developing a sustainable model of generating power from renewable sources.

I have been working on a project although it is still in a very early stage on breaking from the downward cycle of building sustainable renewable energy sources. Even Mr.Warren Buffet is warming up to the idea of Solar, which was the fools gold until the last decade.


Project Solaris is an initiative to establish a manufacturing company in Iceland for components that are used to generate Solar Power.  Solar power is the conversion of sunlight to electricity. Sunlight can be converted directly into electricity using photovoltaic (PV), or indirectly with concentrating solar power (CSP), which normally focuses the sun's energy to boil water which is then used to provide power.

PVs are arrays of cells containing solar photovoltaic material that converts solar radiation into direct current electricity. Materials presently used for photovoltaics include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, microcrystalline silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium selenide/sulfide.

CSP systems use lenses or mirrors to focus a large area of sunlight onto a small area. Electrical power is produced when the concentrated light is directed onto photovoltaic surfaces or used to heat a transfer fluid for a conventional power plant.

All the above materials used to produce solar power are manufactured using energy. The company established in Iceland will use the renewable energy in Iceland from Geothermal as well as Hydro sources to manufacture the above material to produce more renewable energy. The concept is a renewable energy bootstrap. There is a growing demand for renewable energy in the world; however there are places in the world like the Far East and developing countries where there is no energy or resource to produce these components or the energy used to produce these components is generated from fossil fuel like coal or oil. This cycle prolongs the transition from fossil based energy sources to renewable energy sources and increases the overall cost of renewable energy.

The company established in Iceland will aim to reduce the overall cost of implementing solar power plants through innovation in established technologies and utilizing the vast energy resource in Iceland to produce solar components that would make solar power affordable even in the developing world.

The innovation in the idea is to split the manufacturing process into chunks that are cost effective in the respective region. The energy intensive part of the manufacturing would be done in Iceland and the labor intensive part would be done in India. This would break the challenge of reducing the cost to produce and transport solar components to markets where they are needed the most.

The advent of the financial crisis in Iceland and the inherent excess energy capacity in Iceland has made Iceland the ideal destination for investment and development of a company as described above. The company will focus on being the developer and manufacturer in Iceland, in addition a buyer and electricity generator in India. The value proposition is to be the owner and operator of the entire value chain of the solar power generation process.

Related articles

• The Solar Industry's Dead? Not Hardly, US Installations Set New Record (treehugger.com)
• Renewable Energy Adoption and the Increasing Cost of Electricity in the U.S. (renewableenergyworld.com)
• Facebook Unfriends Coal, Partners with Greenpeace for Clean Energy Future (thinkprogress.org)
• Solar Power Becomes Cheaper Than Diesel Generators in India (treehugger.com)
• Prologis, SCE, Kimberly-Clark Announce Installation of a Major Single Rooftop Solar Power System at California Distribution Center (prnewswire.com)

All Images via Wikipedia

New report on Potential for Renewable Energy use in the US

You can read the report online for free, the summary of the findings:

1. Renewable could account for 10% of US energy needs by 2020
2. To increase the usage of renewable energy greater than 10%, significant investment, technological progress, policy changes and incentives need to exist
3. technological developments and consistent policy will need to be coordinated with manufacturing capacity and access to capital in order to accelerate deployment of renewable electricity

Iceland A Better Place...

I have been following the work of Shai Agassi, the former VP of Products at SAP... he is the founder and CEO of Better Place. I have also been reading his blog. I have to say I am impressed, no wonder he was positioned to become the CEO of SAP but he quit that job founded Better Place and is on the way to change the World or at least some of the bad habits we have formed in the last century... Driving Gas Guzzling Cars.  here is a video that describes what is A Better Place

I want to try to get this concept implemented in Iceland, I am not sure how susceptible the Government of Iceland is going to be for new investment given what has happened to Iceland economically... but I think the best way to get out of the current condition in Iceland is to look for bold ways to invest and get out of the financial mess. The world is changing and I believe a better way to change is to lead and define how history will remember you. Was it not Winston Churchill who said "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it!"? 

Here are a couple of bold steps for Iceland:

1. Be the first country to be totally Oil Independent - It is easier to do in Iceland because of the size of the country and given its rich resources in renewable energy and in using it.

2. Be the first country to convert 95% of all its vehicles to Electric power - Again easy to do and makes economic sense as electricity in Iceland is the cheapest in the world.

The above two ideas are achievable in a single term i.e. 4 years, lets think about it... main use of Oil in Iceland is for vehicles, trawlers and some industrial machines. I don't have the facts but I can bet without looking at the numbers that over 60% of oil is used for Vehicles, if Iceland can stop importing 60% of the Oil, the country will have a much higher trade surplus which would help it support its own Currency. There is a huge debate going in Iceland related to joining the European Union, in my view the options are very clear... the only way to keep the Icelandic Krona is to invest in new technology, be hyper productive thereby creating a demand for the goods and services being produced in Iceland. This cannot be achieved without investment and the original argument of going back to the roots of Iceland being a Fishing Nation is not valid in the current context, if the country wants to be just a fish processing country why build so many universities and have such a highly educated work force? I am sure majority of Icelandic population is happy that Fish as a resource has helped Iceland but would rather do something else than process fish.

Branson pledges $3 Billion to fight global warming

Branson pledges to fight global warming - Yahoo! News... Major statement from Richard Branson! All the proceeds from his transportation company will be invested in efforts to find Renewable, Sustainable Energy sources in an effort to wean the world off oil and coal. More and more organizations like Glitnir are trying to participate in the fight to change the course that we are on! It is very refreshing to hear that my banks strategy defined in May, 2005 is totally in line with the Global Agenda!

MIT designs 'invisible,' floating wind turbines | CNET News.com

MIT designs 'invisible,' floating wind turbines CNET News.com, It is an innovative idea and of course some of the Renewable Energy companies need to do the Math to see how business viable this idea is. Here is another story about a handful of start-ups are floating an idea of building small-scale or Micro wind farms that fit on top of buildings. The plan is to generate electricity from wind in urban or suburban settings.

Aerovironment has a working prototype successfully implemented the idea in the Staples building in California.

Glitnir Bank Renewable Energy

Glitnir Bank is a niche focused bank and this is the Renewable Energy focus. Iceland is the most environmental friendly energy producer. This video shows that historical story and how Glitnir is leading the way in the Financial Sector to put the money on environmentably friendly sources of energy... it is Responsible Banking

Responsible Corporate Citizen

Greg's blog got me thinking about how a fundamental change needs to happen to all innovation and business decisions. It is not that impressive if we could fit the entire Google Search Index database into a mobile phone and that phone needs the same amount of power to run a nuclear plant. What is innovation is being responsible and considering all the impacts of the choices one makes. I am making a couple of resolutions
1. I shall not buy a normal light bulb again, I am switching to CFL... read my earlier post for details
2. I am looking into buying a hybrid car... Lexus GS 450h and the RX 400h sounds very interesting
3. I am going to devote more time with my company's(Glitnir) initiative to develop and fund Renewable Energy Sectore

Glitnir has put its money on this, we are one of the shareholders of Enex a energy company from Iceland focused on Renewable Source of Energy