When thinking about the future it is not enough to extrapolate how one technology might transform your business. More often than not, it is necessary to consider how a variety of technologies might converge to transform your business. Consider this article which explains how scientists have innovatively employed existing advances in robotics, solar panels and [...]

It has been widely reported that the Internet can reduce greenhouse emissions by 1 billion tons over the next decade as result of companies such as EnerNoc and Verdiem developing better methods to monitor and control residential and business energy usage. This is undoubtedly true, but people to begin thinking even more broadly about the [...]

As I write this post, it is now minus five below in my hometown of Minneapolis; yet the topic of today’s post has absolutely nothing to do with such normal fluctuations in temperature. Let me further add that I do believe global climate change is a real issue and I am of the opinion that [...]

In 2003, I wrote the book, The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. Far from being a wide-eyed look at many of the truly futuristic applications of nanotechnology (of which there, in fact, quite a few), the book took a hard-headed, realistic view of how a [...]

I often speak to businesses and associations in the electrical utility industry and in the past few years I have addressed the National Rural Electric Association’s Emerging Technology Conference, as well as organizations in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. When doing so, I am always sure to update industry member on the latest [...]

In the January edition of Scientific American there is a wonderful article entitled ”A Solar Grand Plan.” I strongly encourage you to read it because the authors do a good job of “jumping the curve” and envisioning a radically different—and much cleaner and more sustainable—energy future for the world. A couple of things from the [...]

This summer I came across an article with the following headline: ”Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years.” It is the type of headline that, as a future-oriented guy, gets my heart pumping. I wasn’t disappointed. In the opening paragraph, an expert explained that synthetic biology, “could change our world in pretty fundamental ways.” [...]

Last week, I discussed why Google’s push into the renewable enery field is no joke. Today, I’d like share with you the possibility that yet another so-called expert might be dismissing a new energy technology simply because he doesn’t understand it. The following article discusses portable nuclear reactors. Essentially, these bathtub-sized devices could power a [...]

On Tuesday, Google announced that it intends to spend hundreds of millions of dollars investigating a variety of alternative energies such as solar, wind power and geothermal. The initiative has been dubbed RE

(Editor’s Note: Earlier today, I came across an article explaining how nanotechnology could ”revolutionize the natural gas industry.” It reminded me that it in 2006 I wrote a lengthy article for Management Quarterly entitled “Nanotechnology: A Cautionary Tale for the Electric Utility Industry.” Since the article isn’t on-line anywhere and because I was never paid [...]