It’s encouraging to see that McMaster University in Hamilton is going to offer a masters level engineering course focused on energy management in engineering processes. This is apparently a first-of-its-kind course in Ontario, which I found surprising. The press release announcing the program, which is supported by the Ontario Centres of Excellence, states that energy management is a key issue for competitiveness of industry in this province. “The ability to create new efficiencies will not only contribute to a company’s bottom line, but will also reduce pressure on the electricity grid — and that beneits all Ontarians. In many industrial organizations, efficient engineering practices together with effective energy management can generate substantial savings (as much as 40 per cent of current energy costs).”

Rather than consider efficiency in hindsight (when it’s much more costly to pursue), this course will help engineers identify efficiencies early in a design phase. Every university engineering faculty across Canada should offer a course like this, and make it mandatory.

Bob Metcalfe, the man who co-invented Ethernet networking while at Xerox PARC and founded networking giant 3Com Corp., has taken on the position of CEO at algae-to-biofuel startup GreenFuel Technologies. The company has reportedly run into difficulty trying to commercialize its system for growing algae with power plant CO2 emissions and then converting the green stuff into biofuels. Metcalfe, a partner with Polaris Venture Partners (an investor in GreenFuel) and a board member, has joined the company on an interim basis and replaced former CEO Cary Bullock. I interviewed Bullock about 18 months ago for a column and have done a couple of posts on this intriguing company. The idea of growing algae with CO2 emissions and then harvesting it for biofuel is an attractive one because it solves a lot of problems, but I’m not surprised GreenFuel has faced some technical hurdles. That said, Metcalfe brings some solid credibility to the company, and I think it would be foolish to believe a giant algae farm could be designed from scratch without any initial hiccups. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

The skyrocketing prices of metals — nickel, copper, uranium, zinc… you name it — has led to a lot of theft over the past two years. Junkyards are being raided, hydro and cable companies are seeing a rise in the theft of copper cabling, and homeowners with ornamental pieces on their lawns are seeing them disappear. I’ve often wonder when the same is going to happen to solar panels? They fit the criteria, after all. Expensive. Increasingly in demand. And more accessible to steal as more homes and businesses strap them to their rooftops. My prediction is that within a couple of years we’ll be struggling to deal with an emerging grey market in stolen solar panels.

In fact, it’s already started.

Makes me wonder whether there are some spinoff businesses related to primary clean-energy markets. What about solar panels that are wired for security — i.e. if somebody tries to steal one an alarm goes off and a security service is sent to the site. Could be a good extension of existing security businesses. Same goes for window washers who want to expand into the solar-panel cleaning business.