How are green energy marketers promoting renewable and sustainable energy sources in today’s marketplace? As the cost of oil increases, it becomes easier for marketers to promote alternative sources of energy as people go through the pain of paying high gas prices at the pump and energy bills for their home or business.

As the cost of traditional sources of energy has fluctuated from all time highs to again 5 year affordable lows, it’s been hard for marketers to come up with a consistent message to get a good foothold on promoting renewable and sustainable energy sources that drive change in society.

Two things will make messaging become more constant and drive industrial change.

1. The technologies of developing alternative energy sources will decrease

As these technologies come down in price, it will allow for the production of alternative energy to be more comparable with traditional energy sources. Once marketers can move away from the cost savings of alternative energy they’ll be able to focus on the environmental and health issues that using alternative fuel sources will solve.

2. As renewable energy prices drop, the prices will remain more stable than traditional energy sources

Most renewable energy sources have a predictable amount of energy that can be produced over time. This does not mean that the amount of energy produced by a renewable energy source will remain constant, but the prediction of how much it will produce will.

Even with these challenges, green energy marketing will improve as the industry becomes more stable and it starts to consolidate to a unified standard. The renewable and sustainable organizations will start to see a better return on their investment as well.

Many of the green products you buy actually produce more waste into the environment than the product saves over a period of 1, 5, or even 10 years. So in actuality, you’re not any more green than before, the only thing that has changed is where the pollution comes from.

The cost to produce some of these “green” products are higher than average because the technologies behind them are more complex.

Until these green products are produced using renewable energy, we will not see a decrease in the overall pollution of a product.

It seems like each week I read, hear, or see a new method and technology to produce my garbage into a form of biofuel that will generate enough energy to run my truck for 100mpg!

Now, this isn’t a bad thing. I love to see all these technologies being developed as a proof of concept, and then if it has enough legs underneath it, get some seed capital to manufacture and create some prototypes. I have seen literally hundreds of different technologies that produce energy from an alternative source and I am always amazed at the human ingenuity.

We are in an exciting part of history. What’s happening in the alternative energy sector today reminds me of what happened to the personal computer industry in the 80′s. At the beginning of the decade, there were hundreds of different computer manufacture’s as the personal computer began to be manufactured and sold to consumers around the world. The dominate companies were able to standardize their personal computers and it forced the smaller players to get out of the market.

The same thing is happening with alternative energy technologies right now. Over the next 3-5 years we will begin to see more of the technologies that will be considered the “standard” for each alternative energy source. Once that happens, prices will become very competitive and begin to drop, thus becoming more economical for everyone to purchase and use.

The exciting part about all of this is watching it happen in front of our eyes. Which alternative energy sources will become the primary player? What technologies will become part of everyday living? How will our world be different once this is all in place?

I have my thoughts about many of these questions and I’ve written about quite a few of them. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to cover more of these questions in more detail and I’ll try to paint more of a picture of the future in your mind.

In the media, Green energy is often used interchangeably with the term Renewable energy. Alternative energy and clean technologies are other terms often used instead of renewable energy. The terms suggest a non-polluting, non-fossil-fuel source. Green power is sometimes used in reference to electricity generated from “green” sources. Brown energy is sometimes used to contrast non-renewable or polluting energy sources with green energy.

Due to the economy and drop in oil prices it’s just not economical to develop wind farms in the Texas panhandle. The wind energy market has lost a lot of it’s luster considering it can be much more expensive than traditional energy sources such as oil and with the price per barrel of oil dropping below $70 there’s just not as much interest putting together a wind energy project.

The economics of alternative energy will be the driving force of innovation and technology. As long as the prices stay low, there won’t be much advancement in the alternative energy sector, but as oil prices increase, you will see many more technologies and innovation coming from alternative energy sources.

Are there any solutions to our ever growing dependence on foreign oil? Couldn’t we just drill more here? Is alternative energy the only solution?

I just watched a speech by Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce where he spoke of about the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce, that would make everyone satisfied. The basic conclusion that he revealed is that there is no single sauce that would please everyone, but that you must produce a couple different variants of the same sauce (spicy, chunky, original) to satisfy the majority of the people. This was groundbreaking when the research came out because for decades, the food industry had a single solution that they believed would satisfy the most people and since they were content with their sales, they didn’t bother to test new recipes and didn’t innovate.

I’ve been thinking about this same concept in regards to the energy industry and how it can be applied. The basic thinking in energy is that oil is the way to go. It’s what we’ve been doing for the past 100 years and it’s what will keep us going in the future, so don’t waste any time with alternative energy, we just need to find more oil.

On the flip side, the people that are against traditional energy say that alternative energy is the only way to go, it’s what will get us off our addiction of foreign oil.

Both sides of these arguments are narrow minded. Neither of them look for solutions on the other side, or a way to intertwine them both.

So what’s the solution?

I’m going to dig a little deeper into this topic, but for now I just want to leave you with a thought. If technology was developed for automobiles to get 200 miles per gallon, would we want to spend our money and time in research and development of electric cars?

KAS Consulting is one such funding source that has access to investment banks that have funded over $12 Billion Dollars of energy projects and companies. They have solid management and a team of advisers that will position your company for funding. They have recently set up their green energy blog to discuss issues and ideas that are facing the industry today.

Kimo Storke, the managing partner of KAS consulting, is a personal friend of mine and if your company is looking for a trusted source for financing, I would advise you contact him.

It is essential that these types of projects get funded so we can all live in a cleaner world.

However the new development opens up more vistas for Nualgi – since green algae is a source of biodiesel.

In natural ponds where both Diatoms and Green Algae are present we found that Nualgi causes a bloom of diatoms and not of green algae. But if used in ponds in which only Green Algae are present then even these would bloom.

Nualgi is a sustainable solution because it sets off a series of sustainable cycles:

CO2 – O2 cycle in water – Anthropogenic CO2, Aquatic Animal CO2 to O2 from Diatoms.
Food – Sewage – Nutrients in water – Fish – Food Cycle.
Biodiesel – CO2 – Diatoms – Biodiesel cycle.
Diatoms to Aerobic Bacteria – CO2 and Nutrients to O2 Cycle

Study of Algae – Phycology
Phyco: prefix; from the Greek, phukos meaning seaweed, algae; phycology.

M V Bhaskar writes about Nualgi at Nualgi – Algae for Bio-remediation and Biodiesel

As a car accelerates and decelerates, the air flowing at the surface cannot keep up. Consequently, flow transitions from laminar to turbulent, which ultimately requires more work from your engine. This means that aggressive drivers will likely suffer from lower fuel efficiency simple due to driving behavior. Optimizing, however, the conditions under which laminar flow is maintained could reduce gas consumption. Mechanical engineers at MIT have recently solved this problem through theoretical predictions. Read more about this 100 year old problem at MIT

While many potential sources are possible, research into all the avenues will eventually surface with the most viable option for our use. Presently we are using a number of various resources to create heat, electricity and desalination of seawater. Renewable energy has the sun as it’s primary source which is not deletable. Approximately 30% of our energy resources come from the sun.

Most of our economic resources and time are spend developing our resources in the area’s of wind power, water power, solar energy, biofuel, liquid biofuel, solid biomass and geothermal. Naturally these all have their pro’s and cons. The biggest concern is pollution that comes directly the materials, industrial processes and construction equipment used to create them. The side effects can be pollution and waste that will impact our environment.

We also we need to consider other key issues of environmental impacts, aesthetics and habitat hazards, land usage, proximity to demand, availability, reliability, longevity along with energy input verses output. Other possibilities such as fossil fuels and nuclear power have their own positive and negatives and are not as viable. The resources for our use are many, the challenge is not if we have alternates to use but which ones and in what order.

The U.S. currently relies heavily on coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are nonrenewable, that is, they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally-damaging to retrieve. In contrast, renewable energy resources — such as wind and solar energy — are constantly replenished and will never run out.

Renewable energy is important because of the benefits it provides. It is believed that the major element in the learning and discovery process definitely will be and is solar energy.

What are the effects of solar energy?