A Conversation with GE
GE partnered with TED to launch TED Conversations. Here, their scientists and leaders engage with the TED community on key global issues.
Tore Land
Director,
Ecomagination Challenge
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A conversation with GE: What are the best ideas for alternative energy management at home?
Last month, GE announced the second phase of our Ecomagination Challenge: a call to businesses, entrepreneurs, inventors and students to share their ideas for capturing, managing and using energy in the home. We see this as a critical global challenge, and together with our partners we've committed $200 million to fund the most innovative alternative energy solutions.
We know the TED community is at the forefront of sustainable energy and design, and we want to enlist your help in identifying the most innovative, investment-worthy breakthroughs. So tell us: What groundbreaking idea for reducing residential energy use looks most promising to you? Who are the up-and-coming "green" designers, eco-architects and innovators we should seek out? Where are the hotbeds of invention? We're looking forward to uncovering a variety of fresh ideas from around the world. We look forward to hearing from you ...
Closing Statement from Tore Land, Director, GE Ecomagination Challenge
We at GE want to give our heartfelt thanks to the TED community for participating in this conversation. Your ideas and insights -- ranging from home automation and discussions about a two-way grid to apps and gaming methods that can drive behavior change -- have been fascinating to read and stimulating to respond to.
On a personal note, as the host of this conversation, I want to thank you for your participation and fresh thinking here. And on behalf of the whole ecomagination Challenge team, we look forward to working with you to help imagine and build technology that can meet these pressing environmental challenges.
GE believes widespread adoption of clean energy technology will start in the home. And we believe the second phase of the ecomagination Challenge will help drive that change. We invite you to continue to follow this project via our website:
http://challenge.ecomagination.com/home
We're currently reviewing the submissions to the challenge and, together with our partners, will evaluate the most innovative. We'll be announcing the winners next month -- stay tuned for the announcement!
Home energy is a critical global challenge, and we want the TED Community to know we are committed to building -- and scaling up -- innovative solutions.
Thank you for letting us pick your brains!
Sincerely,
Tore Land
Director, GE ecomagination Challenge
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clay blasdel
Peter Gooley
Would be great to hear from those who REALLY know. How about you GE?
Below is from Jack Lifton in a Resource Investor magazine in 2009.
1. Reactors using thorium in their fuel can be constructed so that they produce little or no products useful for explosive type (fission- or fusion-based) nuclear weapons.
2. Thorium reactors previously built and currently near operation, or in the design stage, produce far less radioactive waste material than the presently used uranium and/or plutonium based reactors.
3. Thorium is more abundant in the earth’s crust by a factor of between three and four than uranium, and coincidentally is also found in recoverable (as a byproduct) grades and quantities in the United States, Canada, Australia, the Republic of South Africa, and the People’s Republic of China (that is, the mainland). It has not yet been mined as a primary ore (more on this in a moment) but is rather always produced as a byproduct of either uranium or rare-earth metals primary production.