Analysis and discussion of issues that impact business

Though I'll never be confused with a rabid environmentalist, this article from Florida State University about one of their own, is very interesting. Energy innovations are an exciting field.

The number is staggering: Approximately 2 billion of the world's people—nearly one-third of the human population—have no access to electricity. Consequently, they do without many of the amenities that people in the developed world take for granted—everything from air conditioning and refrigeration to television, indoor lighting, and pumps that supply drinking water. And without electricity to power factory operations or other commercial endeavors, those 2 billion people remain mired in an endless cycle of poverty.

I like a couple of his other ideas.

"The principles really are very simple," said (Anjane'yulu') Krothapalli, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Florida A&M University-FSU College of Engineering since 1983. "At SESEC (the Sustainable Energy Science & Engineering Center (www.sesec.fsu.edu), we are exploring ways to combine existing technologies to convert solar radiation to heat; to use that heat to produce steam to run a low-cost, highly efficient turbine; and then to use the power generated by that turbine to run a small electric generator. Individual homes could be equipped with these technologies. So, rather than being connected to a vast power transmission system, which is prohibitively expensive in much of the world, individual homeowners would be able to generate the energy they need."

Technology and innovation rise to the occasion to meet even the most daunting of global challenges. I wish them well. It should be interesting to watch.

The college bound might want to think about changing their major(s) to mechanical engineering.