Wow is about all I can say.

Agreed. This was an excellent presentation. Thanks for pointing it out.

Its all good and well, the pessimist in me says he just selling a proprietary thermoformed composite as the solution for and fuel efficiency. (in a very long talk)

Tim, he talks about a lot more than that, and even the particular carbon composite product made by fiberforge is just one of the many ways to make the stuff. Even he says that once some of the current barriers are removed (subsidies, lack of information), it will be up to the market to figure it out. He even says that carbon fibers might not be the next step and that some ultra-light metals could be used.

Thank you so much for posting this. I've heard Dr.Lovins speak on a number of occasions. I'm running out to get some FiberForge stock. You can bank on Amory pointing out what's coming. Provided people listen to rationale, he's creating great arguments for a path to the future that will benefit us all.

Fiberforge is not publicly traded, AFAIK.

Fascinating stuff. Not sure some of the more radical eco types (ie the anti-capitalists) will like it, but then there doesn't seem to be anything they DO like, aside from rioting.

This is one area where I think the green movement misses an opportunity. There's too much doom mongering and self righteousness, and that just doesn't engage Joe Public. We need to engage people, make them think about this stuff creatively rather than just eco-tax them into oblivion, which just causes resentment.

Very very interesting, and entertaining as well. There are some slides in PDF format that you can peruse while watching the video, some of the slides lign up but most don't.

I don't consider people who don't support Amory Lovins,as real environmentalists. How can you not take advantage of practical smart things to do for the environment? I don't the anti-capalists would ignore that, unless they were just outright ignorant, and therefore irrelevant anyways.

I disagree that Hydrogen economy is the answer .. until we can make hydrogen efficieently; its more anergy conservationist to store electricity in the form of batteries. As it is we loose 50% of our energy in electolizing water and another 30% when we convert it back to electricity. compared to 70% efficient (30% loss) batteries this is not a smart way to store energy.

Hydrogen is just a stepping stone away from combustible fuels. The real deal is in energy efficiency. Enough renewable energy sources, and enough energy efficiency...

Tim, it is fine to be initially pessimistic. But instead of focusing on the pitch of composites, step back for a minute and consider that he is trying to pitch whole systems engineering in general. He is pointing out a poignant example of tunneling through the costs of normally diminishing returning investments, that instead yield significant long-term and even capital savings if seen from the perspective of the entire system. For instance, composites are all about saving weight w/o giving up safety. By losing weight, you no longer need as big of systems, and you can remove many systems entirely, reducing capital and maintenance costs. So, even though the composites are expensive, composite cars can be designed with the same capital cost of a steel car, and still have many other benefits in terms of maintenance, safety, mileage, etc.

He gives similar examples in his co-authored book Natural Capitalism. I liked listening to his lectures on advanced energy efficiency at Stanford, as they gave incredible examples from varying disciplines of 10-100x resource efficiency use. Look up "Amory Lovins" on google video and you'll find the set of five lectures. cheers