Craig Shields: Renewable Energy Business Analyst
Hello, and welcome to 2GreenEnergy.com. I’m Craig Shields.
Back in my undergraduate days — a point in time that seems like a hundred years ago — my fellow physics majors and I would sometimes talk about the practicality of what we were learning. In particular, we wanted to understand how breakthroughs in physics would serve to make life easier, longer, happier, and more understandable for everyone. Looking back on those conversations, I think we all implicitly believed that the subjects that would be most likely to transform our lives were the “freaky” things we were studying: quantum mechanics, the warping of space-time, and so forth. I don’t think any of us dreamed that the basics, e.g., mechanics and electricity/magnetism, would form the very crux of bringing mankind through the horrible mess in which he’s found himself.
Although some may object to my oversimplifications, most of the science behind renewable energy is high-school stuff. In fact, most of it is rooted in the fact that the sun radiates enormous quantities of energy on the earth each day — and has been doing so for four billion years. Photo-voltaics, solar thermal, wind, and hydrokinetics all a based on the idea that — even in our energy-hungry 21st century — earth receives more than 6000 times more energy each day from the sun than the 6.8 billion of us consume. Even the energy in fossil fuels comes ultimately from the sun; the chemical energy in coal, petroleum, and natural gas is derived from the formation of complex, energy-rich molecules, all courtesy of the sunshine that took its eight-minute-long journey through space to us millions of years ago. A few other forms of renewable energy, for example, tidal and geothermal, are not directly solar, but nonetheless tap into the vast energy of the solar system, i.e., the kinetic energy endowed to the earth and its moon as we began our orbit around the sun in the early days of the formation of the galaxy.
So if the science at stake here is so easy, why do we appear to be so hard-pressed to make this happen? After all, a solar thermal farm in the shape of a square 92 miles on a side in the southwestern deserts of the US would produce sufficient power for the entire continent of North America. Why don’t we simply make the decision and do it now?
Business. The world is just now — ever so slowly — figuring out how it can profit from the migration to renewables; this is an incredible — and inexorable — change. And the fact that you’re reading this right now shows one thing: you want to be a part of that change.
It is my fondest hope that this website, when it becomes fully developed over the coming months and years, will fulfill its promise to you: Bringing you the information, tools, and interpersonal connections you need to establish and expand your clean energy-based business.
Again, welcome.
Best regards,
Craig Shields
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