Just Doin' Some Thinkin'

As usual, I've been doin' a lot of thinkin' and I've been makin' a few observations that I'll share with you...

As most people already know, we are currently in another Renaissance Period. The last century was the "age of oil." The next century will be the "age of renewable energy." Regardless of the global warming debates, renewable energy is here to stay.

So I'm keeping my eyes on related markets because I'm interested in investing on the ground level of something that will bloom. Just imagine if you could've invested in Microsoft or Apple back in the 80's when personal computing was in infancy! You'd be kickin' back in Margaritaville baby!!!

Sorry, took a little commercial break for a second there.

OK, so we're currently dependent on middle eastern foreign oil. As we shift from oil to renewable energy (e.g., electricity from solar, wind, etc.), the electric cars will have to store the electric energy in batteries. As we've experienced over time with cell phones and other electronic devices, batteries will become more efficient, smaller (i.e., lighter), and last longer. So watch the battery market, right? Currently, Lithium-ion batteries are one of the front-runners. Laptop, cameras, cell phones, and other modern electronic devices all use this type of battery.

But here's the kicker... right now 99% of all Lithium-ion batteries are made in China, Japan, and Korea. So we're gonna shift our dependency on the middle-eastern oil to the far-eastern batteries!

"Doh!"

What about the eventual disposal of all those electric car batteries? They will eventually die like all batteries do. And when they do, they're huge, heavy, very costly, and not so "green." It's kinda like the problem with all of the old CRT TVs and computer monitors. Since we're moving toward flat-screens, everybody is tossing out their old bubble screens which contain toxic lead.

"Doh!"

Gotta do some more thinkin'.