Eye Current: New ACE Awards Catagory

Monday, November 3, 2008

New ACE Awards Catagory

Energy cost are taking us all on a wild ride. Oil futures are at less than half of what they were just a few months ago. There are fears that the lower prices will undercut progress and into the alternate fuel and energy saving fields. EETImes sees the issue as thus:

The drilling issue has receded somewhat as gasoline prices decline. Indeed, a spate of recent news stories speculate that steadily declining gas prices will undercut momentum for forging ahead with research and the development of new energy sources. The myopic authors of these articles assume that the internal combustion engine is the main--or only--component of the U.S. energy equation. Little or no mention is made of home heating costs (like the airlines, the suppliers of heating oil are locked into price contracts concluded before the global price of oil declined), electricity generation or the relatively high price of diesel fuel that underpins a large portion of the American transportation and distribution infrastructure.

Furthermore, the current U.S. power grid still requires a major overhaul on the scale of the U.S. interstate highway system in order to handle electricity generated by new energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

We must not delude ourselves. The energy imperative will not disappear just because pump prices drop below $3 a gallon. Energy independence is a paramount national security issue, and clean, renewable energy has become a real market that will generate jobs and profits for those wise enough to invest. Few other industries today can make such a claim.

We believe that many of the answers to our energy dilemma will come from a new generation of engineers who will create innovative ways to make renewable energy sources a viable economic alternative to fossil fuels. As one European expert put it at alternative energy technology conference earlier this year, the Earth's near-term energy future hinges on "fossil-assisted solar power," not the other way around.

We wish to recognize those companies and engineers who are working to develop the renewable energy sources of the future. To that end, we have added five new energy categories to our Annual Creativity in Electronics, or ACE, Awards. We will be recognizing innovative companies, individuals, investors and the technologies they have created over the last year.

Our new ACE Award categories include the most innovative photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies, along with the most promising new renewable energy source. We also will recognize the growing importance of "green engineering" through a "Best Enabler" award.