The Chinese expression for "crisis" consists of two characters side by side. The first symbol means danger. The second symbol means opportunity.
I am back from spending some time in Germany, the largest solar thermal market in Europe, and second place only to Japan in the world for photovoltaic power generation.
As oil gets close to $150 a barrel, an enormous opportunity awaits the US (and World) economy.
In Germany, you find plenty of solar powered roofs (businesses and homes), an abundance of Smart Cars, economic incentives to use recycle bins, people using public transportation, buildings with energy saving devices.
The country has already made the changes to adapt to higher energy prices. We have that same opportunity.
In between meals of schnitzel and glasses of Kristall Weizen, I had the chance to read Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder's Profit From The Peak.
The book gives a great summary of all the different renewable energy options. They list the pros and cons of each and give detailed summaries of implementation (and years of duration) .
One of the key points the book explains is how exponential growth will affect all of us in a drastic way. "a declining world production of petroleum AND an increasing world population that aspires to have increasing per capita consumption of petroleum"....
Pick up a copy
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