Tag Archives: Air pollution

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What Does a Climate Scientist Drive?

Mark Jacobson's all-electric Tesla roadster


If you’re Mark Jacobson, director of Stanford University’s Atmosphere/Energy Program, you drive an all-electric, cherry-red Tesla roadster, with a license plate proclaiming “GHG FREE.” (GHG = Green House Gases)

Solar power, Charge!

“Note that the license plate is a little exaggerated,” Jacobson wrote The Phoenix Sun via email, “but the power does come from rooftop solar.”

If you’re a regular Sun reader, you know we’ve covered Jacobson’s work in the past. But after he co-authored a cover story for Scientific American on how to create a 100% renewable energy society, the editors at Grist felt Jacobson’s “big picture” thinking merited a full interview.

You can read that Q&A with Jacobson, here, on Grist.





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The top 10 energy sources

Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson

Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson

I was disappointed when I discovered that the list of experts at last week’s Clean Energy Summit would not include Stanford University’s Mark Jacobson. Of course, no individual is indispensable at such a summit. But as the day went by I felt his absence more and more keenly.

That’s because Jacobson is one of the few scientists looking at energy’s Big Picture. How big?

In an article published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science earlier this year, Jacobson reported the first quantitative, scientific study evaluating the top energy sources based on:

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New report: Better idea for car ownership will fuel solar industry

The Rogue

The Rogue (Picture courtesy of Better Place®)

A company named Better Place has a better idea about car ownership in a post-oil world.

Here’s the concept:

You pay for the electric vehicle (like the Renault-Nissan Rogue shown above) .

They pay for (and own) the $11,000 battery. And the network of charging stations. And the switching stations where customers can swap their nearly empty battery for a full one on long trips.

Under this scenario, you’ll buy the car in the usual way. But all the costs associated with powering the vehicle will come in the form of a pay-per-mile contract. The concept is familiar to anyone who has a pay-per-minute cell phone contract. The cost to the consumer pencils out at a point well below what gasoline-powered drivers currently pay.

(Last December, Better Place has forged a partnership under Hawaii’s Clean Energy Initiative, to help the state meet its goal of getting 70% of its energy from renewable sources, including solar, by 2030.)

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