Where's the Electricity?

While there has been a lot of coverage about alternative energy cars, both electric and hybrid, only about one in five consumers are "very familiar" with the technology. That number is growing however.

It doesn't help when the boss of GM calls the Toyota Prius a "Geekmobile." A cheap shot that hurts the industry. My daughter has a Prius, she's had it five years and it runs great and sips gas in the range of 50MPG. We have a Ford Escape Hybrid at our house. It averages 32MPG.

I think one of the reasons, especially in areas of the west, that people aren't engaging this new technology is whether or not it can handle the weather and roads (or lack thereof) in this part of the world.

You have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Our previous car was a Volvo XC-70 AWD and to be blunt, it was awful in snow. The Escape is fabulous in the white stuff. It also negotiates roads like the one over Hermit Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Range. Actually to call that a road is overly charitable.

We're at least a generation if not more from weaning ourselves of gasoline engines. I'm not against them, but having worked in "Oil Patch" states like Wyoming and Texas I also know it's a finite resource. The less we use, the longer it can be available to us.

Being the son of an engineer, I like the hybrid best because of it's technology. Why run your engine when you're at a stoplight? You use the most gas when you first accelerate your car. Having an electric motor do the initial heavy lifting just makes sense.

The one irony with electric cars is, they'll need to be recharged with electricity coming mostly from coal-fired plants. Practical wind power is again, a generation away. So are the Nuke Plants we'll need. So those huge coal trains you see headed south through Denver we'll keep on rolling for years to come.

But hybrids can handle anything you toss at them. Think about one when it's time for your next car.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

Not much Green in "Green." (Yet)

"Green" is being over-hyped. Reality isn't keeping up with expectations.

Examples:

According to a post by Ragan Communications 95% of products have misleading labeling when it comes to being environmentally friendly. Talking and walking are two entirely different things.

Then there's Vestas Wind Systems. Their last earnings report was dismal and the stock took a big drop. Then this week they reported they're laying off 3-thousand workers. The company also predicts weak future demand. Why? No capital available to buy the systems, especially to build the infrastructure to get the power from where the wind is, to where the demand for power is.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that "Solar panels at sports facilities generate more goodwill than power." Progressive Park in Cleveland has a $180,000 solar array that produced 29,000 kilowatt hours over the last three years. The facility itself consumes 17 MILLION kilowatt hours per year which according to BusinessWeek is enough to power 1500 American homes.

Recovering the initial investment on wind and solar is measured in decades. In most stock portfolios, it's the green stocks that are in the red. Green energy just isn't living up to ever increasing expectations spewed mainly by politicians but not the industries that produce them. That said green does and must have a future.

As I've posted here before, we're a very long time from realizing and benefiting from the potential of alternative energy like wind and solar. I hope I live long enough to see it all because it's where we need to be moving in the future.

In the meantime, the same politicos touting all things green need to remember we have existing resources in coal, gas and oil that will be needed to bridge the gap to the promised land.

We can, and need to have it both ways.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"

Wind Power a Lo$er...for now.

Folks owning stock in Vestas Wind Systems* got some bad news yesterday as the Danish builder of wind generators reported lousy earnings, and even worse guidance through the rest of the year. Shares dropped 22% at the news.

Talk about having the wind taken out of your sails! Or turbines in this case.

While there has been much talk about wind power, part of the "green" energy solution, there is little profit because while demand exists, financing doesn't. Especially for infrastructure to get the power from where the wind is, to where the demand is.

So wind power works, it's just not working now. Both the government and the industry itself need to manage expectations, it's a PR thing. We need to continue to develop alternative energy 'cause we're going to run out of oil eventually. But we're a generation away at least from replacing the old with the new.

Sadly, the argument about energy is "Either-Or" but not both. We'll need both fossil fuels and green energy deveopment at the same time. It's up to this generation, to make sure power is available for the next.

As one Gulf oil worker said, "Air Force One runs on jet fuel." There's also a reason 100 plus coal trains leave the Powder River Basin (Let 'er buck) in Wyoming every day. A demand for power being met by tried and true fossil fuel sources. But while the supply is plentiful, it's also finite.

So let's not give up on wind, but let's be real at the same time.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We get the conversation started about you"
* I own Vestas shares