E2Tech Expo, Portland Maine, 2015 October 2, 2015
Posted by dvgibson in Uncategorized.trackback
I spent the day at USM yesterday at the E2Tech Expo. It was a day cramb-packed with speakers and exhibits to see so I will just give my top takeaways here.
- Maine is not doing all that bad in the renewable energy sector given our remoteness from the rest of the country, the lack of broadband to much of the state and the current political climate. And we have a lot to offer, not the least of which is the talent we have in this state. Those things we are can fix and are working on.
- One of the biggest problems in renewable is lack of capital. Capital goes to proven technologies. There is capital available but lots more could be used.
- Storage is a big issue. Most renewables are intermittent, when the sun shines or the wind blows, so storage will be key. Progress is being made on that.
- Perhaps the biggest return on investment, and perhaps the easier and quicker to implement is efficiency. When resources are limited and harm to the environment is an issue, wasting less gives leveraged returns.
- Verification will be important and is intriguing to me, a guy who like to measure stuff. How do the investors, the regulators and consumers know that the technology being applied really does provide the benefit promised?
The lunch time speaker was John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer for UTC worldwide on “Future of our Food” He has just published book, “Food Foolish” about the huge amount of food we waste every day and then environmental impact of that waste when you look at resources used to overproduce.
One comment he made interested me. He talked about putting refrigeration hubs in women’s shelters in Africa, where they can keep food fresh longer. And also charge their cell phones. I think of Dean Kamen, DEKA and his water purification system that he invented to provide purified drinking water and worked with Coke to create Ekocenters in Africa to provide clean drinking water, WiFi, phone charging and sanitary supplies. Sounds like they would work together.
Deep Ocean to Deep Space 
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