Scaling up

Solyndra might be making the headlines (on page A10 by now) but the overlooked larger story: the solar industry is booming.

There are a few emerging conversations:

1. Should the government be subsidizing the industry?

2. Can US solar manufacturers compete with Chinese ones?

3. Can the US link production and consumption of solar technology, or will we import cheaper Chinese panels for construction of mega solar facilities for domestic consumption?

4. Should we focus on large-scale solar "plants" or should we take Germany's lead (and Jeremy Rifkin's) and push for lateral power, small scale deployment on homes, neighborhoods, and businesses and scale that way?

These centralized, large-scale projects tend to favor the big established corporations, which has the potential to undermine any sort of democratization of energy production, and replicate the energy hierarchies we've known for centuries. The billions in subsidies will go to the big guys, same as with coal and oil.

Lateral deployment seems the way to go.

Nest, the intelligent thermostat

The news of the day in the technology world was the introduction of Nest, The Learning Thermostat by Tony Fadell, one of the creators of the iPod and his team at Nest Labs. It is the first major consumer tech gadget meets energy efficient home hardware. Can the iPhone of thermastats actually deliver on its claims? Can it spark consumer interest? Only research and use will tell. This does seem however to be the future of home appliances and a new turn in the consumerification of everyday, taken for granted energy appliances.

"What did you get for Christmas?"

"A thermostat."

"Huh?"