My Interview with Professor Kammen
Professor Kammen, the founding director of the Renewable and
Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, has recently been
interviewed on "60 minutes" as part of its ethanol segment. I sent
Proffesor Kammen with several questions and he was kind to respond.
More about Daniel M. Kammen
The Interview:
Konrad Imielinski: Which technology has the biggest chance to replace oil eventually? Some say, that ethanol is still a short term solution and that hydrogen has the true long term potential, what is your comment on this?
Professor Kammen: No! Corn-Ethanol may be a short-term solution, I.E a transitional mechanism to get us to ethanol, but since corn-based ethanol is not a winner on a greenhouse gas basis (while cellulosic ethanol is), that is where we want to end up. A cellulosic-ethanol industry could, we estimate, make up 1/3 – 1/2 of our total gasoline use over time, and more if plug-in hybrids running on ethanol are part of the mix. We have details on this online at:HTTP://RAEL.BERKELEY.EDU/EBAMM
PK: I’d say in 2-4 years E85 will be 15% of US transport fuels
KI: What is your favorite alt. energy company? What do you make of the current alternative energy bubble?
PK: Not one single company, but the diversity is key, and is needed.Some Winners:Scottish Power (traditional company that does greenhouse gas accounting for their deals),Horizon Wind (was Zilkha, now acquired by Goldman Sachs) See, too, all the companies on the wilder index of green companies.
PK: They should, but so far are not moving very fast. They have the capital, the expertise, and the market!
KI: What do you think about Veridium Technologies?
PK: What is that?
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I will take a look at the two companies that he believes are winners in my next post:
More about Daniel M. Kammen
The Interview:
Konrad Imielinski: Which technology has the biggest chance to replace oil eventually? Some say, that ethanol is still a short term solution and that hydrogen has the true long term potential, what is your comment on this?
Professor Kammen: No! Corn-Ethanol may be a short-term solution, I.E a transitional mechanism to get us to ethanol, but since corn-based ethanol is not a winner on a greenhouse gas basis (while cellulosic ethanol is), that is where we want to end up. A cellulosic-ethanol industry could, we estimate, make up 1/3 – 1/2 of our total gasoline use over time, and more if plug-in hybrids running on ethanol are part of the mix. We have details on this online at:HTTP://RAEL.BERKELEY.EDU/EBAMM
PK: I’d say in 2-4 years E85 will be 15% of US transport fuels
KI: What is your favorite alt. energy company? What do you make of the current alternative energy bubble?
PK: Not one single company, but the diversity is key, and is needed.Some Winners:Scottish Power (traditional company that does greenhouse gas accounting for their deals),Horizon Wind (was Zilkha, now acquired by Goldman Sachs) See, too, all the companies on the wilder index of green companies.
PK: They should, but so far are not moving very fast. They have the capital, the expertise, and the market!
KI: What do you think about Veridium Technologies?
PK: What is that?
--------------------------
I will take a look at the two companies that he believes are winners in my next post:
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