10 years ago, if you were to ask me how many ways are there to go about generating electricity, I would have told you many many ways, maybe 10-15 different methods. But after doing research for solar panels for my house back in 2010, I realized that there are really just 3-ways of generating electricity, Turbine, Fuel Cells, and PhotoVoltaic, (There are other methods that are insignificant and non-relevant on a large scale at this time).

You see, generating electricity can be done in a Non-Sustainable, like coal, hydro, etc. Semi-Sustainable, like wind, geo-thermal, fuel cells and Sustainable, like Solar PhotoVoltaic, methods. Turbine has been used the most and for a long time. Most methods use a turbine but use different ways to turn that turbine. Here are some descriptions:

1- Turbine – Hydro, Wind, Geo-Thermal, Solar-Thermal, Nuclear, Coal etc. are all the same way of generating electricity, just use a different fuel to do so. Basically you turn a turbine, and generate electricity from the resulting work that’s being done. The only difference is the fuel used to do it. Let’s take a look:

• Hydro – Flowing water is used to turn the turbine (Dams, Rivers, Waterfalls etc.) The fuel is water.
• Wind – Wind comes across and turns a turbine which generates the electricity. The fuel is wind.
• Nuclear – Superheat water, generate steam, turn the turbine and generate electricity. Fuel is Uranium.
• Coal – Heat water, generate steam, turn a turbine, generate electricity. Fuel is coal (Dirtiest method to generate electricity)
• Geo-Thermal – Heat of the Earth used again to turn a turbine and generate electricity. Fuel, heat from underground (Earth’s core)
• Solar-Thermal – Mirrors direct the Sun’s rays to a tower, that heats the water, to generate steam and turn a turbine to generate electricity. (Some attempts have been successful like heating salt stored underground and using the residual heat at night to whirl turbines etc.) Fuel, Sun’s rays and water.

2- Fuel Cells – Reactions between different chemicals produce electricity. This is similar to how a battery works, so on a mass scale it is very scarce, but Bloom Energy is generating electricity using this method. They have, what are called “Energy Servers” which generate electricity by using chemical reactions.

3- Solar with PhotoVoltaic – So the other, completely different way of generating electricity, which doesn’t require work (Machine work) and doesn’t require turning a turbine to generate electricity is Solar Energy, specifically PhotoVoltaic method of generating electricity from the Sun.

PhotoVoltaic cells generate electricity by having 2 polymers/chemicals in such a way that when the sun’s rays hit the area and stimulate the electron in one of the chemicals, it jumps from one level to another giving off energy. It’s a simplistic explanation but it’s sufficient to show that this method is completely different than the turbine method.

So now you know too. Almost all methods of generating electricity that we know of, are really split from the same log. They just use a different fuel to do the same thing. PhotoVoltaic is significantly different and still in its infancy. We have to support it, and make sure research continues and gets to a point where the efficiency is more than 50% (Currently 12-18%) to make it indispensable. Current leaders with prototypes:  Semprius (41% efficiency in Lab, 33.9% verified)

Fuel Cell and Photvoltaic are very related, they are similar processed in that there is a chemical reaction and/or electron stripping that is producing the energy.

I love this field!

If you are generating content for your product or service, unless it is for the betterment of knowledge for mankind, you need to be able to convert. If you are not converting the leads you are generating fodder for cars. While fodder might be important for animals, it is useless for cars. Stop wasting your time and resources.

Most marketers tell you you need 3 things for content to be effective, It needs to be Findable, Sharable (Worthy of sharing), and Convertible, and by that I don’t mean the car type convertible, I mean Able to Be Converted.

So start with that feature in mind. There is no “Build it and they’ll come”, Twitter has been battling this for years. We all know how indispensable it is now (It took a long time to be understood), some people still don’t. So te entire world is using it, and that same entire world has changed because of it. But the company still doesn’t know how it is going to monetize this shift in paradigm (Sorry Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Dick Costolo who still toils with the task of finding a way to monetize content).

So when you start with Convertibility in mind, you might find that the idea for the product or service, although great in and of itself, might not be feasible to make. That’s if you want it to convert, and generate revenue or something else that leads to generating revenue, like creating leads etc.

Most of us have watched Shark Tank, where the investors start by hearing about the idea, then move quickly into, “How do you sell it?”, “How many have you already sold?”, Will it make money easily?”, etc. If you keep that in mind, then you will have a better chance of success as 9 out of 10 businesses fail within a year.

So once you have figured out how to monetize, or make money, or generate revenue, etc. etc. Then you move to the next stage which is share-ability. You need to make sure there is a message or WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) so it can grow like a virus, being shared and passed on from user to user. Then your last step is to make it Findable.

At the last stage, You will can craft the message like the website, the brochure, flyer, billboards, complementary blogs, radio commercials etc to make it Findable. This is how you maximize your chances of success (Notice, I’m not saying succeed, because if you don’t innovate, adapt, change, and actually deliver, all this is for nothing). Good luck.