Sustainable Agriculture

March 4, 2010

PhotobucketI was just editing my book’s chapter on media, which features an interview with Sustainable Business’s Rona Fried, which made me think about sustainable agriculture — one of her favorite subjects. No sooner had a saved the file did I note an email from another person I respect greatly, Tom Blakeslee, discussing the same subject.

Tom writes:

I’m flying to Denver Saturday to be with Abe Collins, who is starting a company to sequester carbon by rehabilitating degraded land by grazing cattle on it. Here is the site of a charity spreading the word about the method, called holistic management. It turns out that undoing the damage man has done to the land is by far the cheapest way to sequester carbon quickly. The carbon is in the biotic community that we have poisoned with nitrogen fertilizers and other bad farming methods, particularly since the “green revolution.” They have a 3-D computerized way to guide people through the process created by Alan Savory, whose son is on the staff.

This is quite powerful stuff; I urge everyone to come up to speed on the latest technologies here. Here’s Tom’s latest column on the subject.

By Craig Shields | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Integrating Variable Renewable Resources

February 26, 2010

Guest blogger Garth Barker writes:

… wind developers are finding it harder to finance projects due to curtailment potential of that variable renewable.

I just completed the last interview for my book on renewables with Dr. Peter Lilienthal, CEO of Homer Energy. This whole subject of integrated variable energy sources, like wind and PV, is a very interesting one – and it will obviously grow in importance as these sources begin to occupy a larger percentage of our overall energy supply. Fortunately, there are technological solutions in the form of software, along the lines of that offered by Homer Energy – originally developed at NREL. And as you can imagine, the situation is even more acute for small grids, e.g., some island in the Aleutians, versus a larger grid, e.g., the West Coast of the US.

By Craig Shields | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Renewable Energy from the Great Lakes

February 17, 2010

PhotobucketThe Great Lakes of the United States and Canada, particularly Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan, provide excellent opportunity for adequate and reliable green energy for the population near those lakes, as well, in a more limited form, of energy in the wider region. Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes, and the deepest. And most of the water it receives comes from the North. This makes it a large reservoir of cold water. Thus, Lake Superior, of all the Great Lakes, has the greatest potential for the generation of green electricity. Northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron also have potential, but I will concentrate on Lake Superior in this essay.
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By Jacob Silver | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Big Energy and Big Conspiracy

February 5, 2010

My friend Cameron Atwood and I frequently discuss the underlying causes by which certain technologies are brought to market, where others never see the light of day. Here’s a small piece of a recent chat for anyone interested.

Cameron Atwood: Hey, Craig. Here is a link to YouTube videos featuring “free energy” inventions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu8LaVH-pn0.

Craig Shields: Thanks, but I’m deeply skeptical. It’s funny, I believe in certain conspiracy theories and not others.  Regarding “free energy,” I have lots of Ph.D. level friends in industry who share my rock-solid belief in the conservation of energy.  The world’s brightest minds have been trying to beat this law for centuries. The idea that some guy who also sells a Ginsu Knife or a Pocket Fisherman has made a breakthrough here doesn’t hold water with me.  The concept that this guy is a fraud seems a million times more likely.  

CA: Craig, do you know that there are studies that show hemp oil cures many types of cancer? The AMA isn’t beating a path to the fields to grow and process it — and neither are the pharma companies.

There are dozens of ulcer ‘treatments’ still being pushed on the market, even though bismuth salts (Pepto Bismol) kills the H. Pylori virus that is the main causative factor nearly all ulcers.

Carburation techniques and engine designs have been known for decades that would result in powerful vehicles running on the highways at 80 to 100 MPG, yet they don’t exist in this country because of the influence of Big Oil.

Los Angeles once had the best public transportation system in the world, and it was ripped out by competing interests including GM, Gulf and Firestone.

Cargill and ADM keep the government focused on corn ethanol when switchgrass and algae are proven superior – and as you’ve pointed out, solar-thermal is the very best form of entirely free energy just waiting to be harnessed.

In all these cases, We the People were and are quite effectively prevented, dissuaded, diverted from beating a path to the better choice.

I know there are millions of penny-ante charlatans out there hawking pie-in-the-sky, to-good-to-be-true solutions to all sorts of everyday challenges.

However, I also know that there are plenty of affluent and greedy bastards out there along with them who are constantly doing all they can to continue preventing, dissuading, diverting the public and concealing, bribing and destroying the best solutions to a wide array of life’s most troubling difficulties.

CS: If it doesn’t make them profit, the corporations are apt to suppresses it; I really don’t think there is no question about that.  But the world of venture capital is at least as anxious to make a profit as the execs in the corporate boardrooms. And then you have the world of angel investors, most of whom honestly care about the world around them — of which there are thousands all over the world.  Trust me, there are millions of people who would run 100 MPH towards clean, cheap energy. 

By Craig Shields | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Divergent Ideas at 2GreenEnergy

January 27, 2010

PhotobucketReaders may have noticed the pro-nuclear comments of Frank Eggers. Responding to my request for guest bloggers, Frank wrote:

I’m not sure that there’d be much point in my blogging on this site.

The only information this site about nuclear energy is very obsolete.  The olde objections to nuclear power no longer apply.  There are solutions to the problems which were formerly a valid concern.  For example, there are reactor designs that do not require enriched uranium; natural uranium and thorium can be used as fuels.  Also, there reactor designs that produce very little waste because they use the fuel more than 100 times as efficiently than the pressurized water thermal reactors which, unfortunately, are too common.   Moreover, the waste they do produce decays much more quickly and needs to be sequestered for only about 500 years rather than tens of thousands of years.

It seems that up to date and correct information on nuclear power is censored from this site.  Also, any information that questions the practicality of wind and solar energy is also censored.  That is very unfortunate because unless nuclear energy becomes a major part of our energy mix, we will become even more dependent on coal and the serious problems that coal creates.

Considering the above, there would be little point in my writing blogs for this site.

My original response was:

I understand.  Thanks for writing back.

But I woke up this morning with a different take, as follows:

Frank:  You know, been I’ve thinking about this further, as, in truth, we don’t censor pro-nuclear or any other ideas.  If you want to write a blog on this subject, expressing a divergent but legitimate viewpoint, I would actually encourage that.  It can be passionate (I can see you have plenty to offer in that department) as long as it’s respectful.  I’m more than open to your ideas. 

We’ll see what happens.

By Craig Shields | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Renewables and Electric Transportation on Bermuda

January 15, 2010

PhotobucketI just got off the plane from Bermuda, and thought I’d write a quick post before bed.  What a reminder this trip was of the reason I got into this subject in the first place: the fascinating confluence of science, business, and politics. 

Unfortunatley, renewable energy is something that won’t happen easily on Bermuda — for a combination of each of these three reasons.   Their power source, diesel, is quite dirty — and no one likes it; the smell of the fumes and the residue of the particulate matter sully what would otherwise be an immaculate setting.  But the 90 mW diesel plant does have the merit of ramping up and down nicely according to hour-to-hour demand. And we’re talking about 22 square miles of land — every acre of it quite valuable — so I can’t recommend huge solar farms. 

They need offshore wind, but it will be expensive to implement, and politically, it will fly in the teeth of the power company’s monolopy, which is extremely well protected politically. 

So the issues militating a switch to clean energy aren’t as straightforward as they may be in a different geography and cultural climate.  But even with all this, electric transportation is a slam dunk.  Even with the world’s dirtiest method power generation method, EVs will represent a significant net improvement in the pollution that befouls their air and contributes to the overall increase in global greenhouse gases. 

But again, complicating matters are the business and cultural aspects of the problem.  As we have in the US, there are entrenched corporate interests desperately holding onto the status quo in terms of transportation and energy.  As I obseverved first-hand from my two days of meetings, they won’t be easy to dislodge.

By Craig Shields | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged | Comments (0)

Ammonia as Fuel

January 9, 2010

PhotobucketDuring my interview with Matt Simmons on “peak oil” for my book on renewables, I asked about suggestions for averting the imminent disaster he sees associated with maintain the status quo in energy generation and consumption. The response:

Large wind turbines will soon be built at the University of Maine and tested off the Maine coast, made from advanced composites with breakthrough characteristics in strength, weight, and cost. Once put into production, they can be used to produce large quantities of ammonia.

Matt pointed out that anhydrous ammonia (NH3), also known as “the other hydrogen,” is ultra-clean and energy-dense — the closest thing to a perfect transportation fuel.

He laid out a significant list of benefits:

  • Liquid at ambient temperatures and moderate pressures (~125 psi)
  • Has 52% of the energy density of gasoline, more than 50% more energy dense than liquid hydrogen
  • Can be used directly in internal combustion engines, using relatively straightforward conversions of gasoline and diesel ICEs
  • Easy to store and deliver in large quantities
  • Current worldwide annual production of ammonia is ~130 million tons
  • A storage and delivery infrastructure of pipelines, barges, rail and truck already exists for ammonia, with 3000 miles of pipeline in the US heartland; retail ammonia outlets exist in almost every state
  • Can be produced cleanly from coal and natural gas with carbon sequestration, and also from biomass, renewable energy sources and nuclear power, using nitrogen from the air
  • Contains no carbon, so releases no GHGs on combustion; also any NOx is easily neutralized

    • I propose to conduct a bit more research on this subject, and post my findings when they are available. In the meanwhile, please feel free to comment.

    By Craig Shields | Posted in Renewables - Science | Tagged , , , , | Comments (5)