Renault DeZir: I love it for its practicality, not its beauty...

Well, of course I appreciate the sexy skin, but the real innovation is the "QuickDrop" system for replacing an exhausted battery pack. This is the concept envisioned by Shai Agassi and his Better Place, with its network of battery pack replacement stations where he owns the battery packs and the driver just pays for the service as he or she uses it. While others threw up their hands at the difficulty of the chicken-egg problem of charging stations and compatible cars, he went ahead enlisting partners to make the whole system possible. Renault was the first auto manufacturer partner, and Israel and Denmark the first geography partners. Of course, DeZir is a brand image leader, a la Tesla, and other, more practical Renault electrics are also coming soon. Interesting, too, that the motor in the DeZir is the same as in the Nissan Leaf, but I haven't heard anything about the QuickDrop system for the Leaf. Have you?
The Renault DeZir Unveiled At Paris Motor Show | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Extracting Electricity from Waste Heat

It's a PDF (ancient web technology), so you'll have wait a bit for it to load, but the potential for this tech truly does seem disruptive, as flyer suggests. As we know, power generation is never perfectly efficient. Some energy is always lost, usually converted to heat. And then it's truly lost -- entropy in action. But just about any reaction can run both ways. So take heat and convert it to electricity, and if it's the waste heat, you've just improved the overall efficiency of your original energy conversion. Materials that convert heat to electricity (or pressure, or whatever) have been known for decades, if not centuries. But Kevin Malloy from University of New Mexico and Richard Epstein, from Los Alamos National Lab, figured out how to make a thin film of three layers. One side is a thermal (heat) switch. The middle layer is "electrocaloric" -- electricity to heat or vice versa-- and the third layer is another thermal switch.

So you can cool or harvest power, as the flyer says. You can produce it in continuous manufacturing process from relatively simple or at least familiar materials. The list of markets the scientists and their colleagues at the tech transfer and venture arms of the university and lab have come up with include: blankets and clothing, automotive energy generation and air conditioning (lots of waste heat in cars and trucks!), home or building AC, even industrial scale power-plant cogeneration. I'm sure you'll think of others. Check it out!

The Climate Bill is Officially Dead. Now for Plan B...but which one?

The Climate Bill is Officially Dead. Now for Plan B. | Mother Jones

Quoting a report from the Presidential Action Committee of the Climate Action Project (too many groups!), Mother Jones says let states (continue to) lead; cut oil/gas/coal subsidies within the president's control; focus on ecosystem restoration.

But that's hardly the only plan. Bill McKibben wrote a great piece saying it's time to get angry, then get moving on what we really want: cutting carbon. To do that, we need to fight for a carbon price. Forget compromise -- demand what we want and let others compromise: http://ow.ly/2mUGt

Then Craig Severance says in Energy Economy Online that we should focus on the direct culprits: machines and buildings that depend on carbon fuels. The President has a lot of leeway to set performance standards. http://ow.ly/2mUL2

And finally (perhaps), Al Gore is holding a Virtual Town Hall Tuesday evening to discuss next steps; find the invitation somewhere in http://ow.ly/2mURP

What do you think we should do, at this stage?

Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power | Buy Solar Panels for Your Home – 1BOG Group Solar Power Discounts

Top 10 Countries Using Solar Power -- a few surprises on the rank order, the volume growth in some countries (Italy!), and the reasons why growth is so strong in some countries.

Viking M. Services: Pew Finds Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth

Viking M. Services: Pew Finds Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth (video)

But we knew that, didn't we?

Phrase questions right to see public actually strongly supports action against climate change

Always amazing how powerfully word choices can distort public opinion polls. Here's good news for climate action advocates:

Op-Ed Contributor - The Climate Majority - NYTimes.com

Will detailed info on "Cash Saved in NYC on Green Retrofits" inspire others?

This is a great idea, a case of hard-to-get information, the nitty-gritty details of how you do it, and how much you save, being given away in a good cause.

Report Details Cash Saved in NYC on Green Retrofits | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World