Posts Tagged by Department of Energy
Don’t Be Misled About Renewable Energy Growth
| February 12, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
A reader waxes enthusiastic, in a kindhearted attempt to provide encouragement for me in my discussions at the Cato Institute next week. In particular, he points to the DoE “Monthly Energy Report,” and notes:
Renewable energy sources have now surpassed nuclear in the U.S. and are closing in on others. The trend is clear- renewables are growing rapidly for all kinds of reasons in your linked article. Jobs in America will grow, too, when the energy sources used are ‘home-grown’. Also, as you probably already know, wind and solar (in some areas) are already at parity with fossil fuels.
There is some encouraging news, but I caution this reader and all others to keep this in perspective. Read More
Infographic: The Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy
| February 5, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Whenever I speak on renewable energy, I’m careful to leave my audience with a sense of the “tough realities.” We all want simple answers to our questions, but in the case of clean energy, none exist.
There are dozens of different flavors of solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and geothermal, each improving in terms of cost and efficiency, but at different rates. There are economic issues, as none of these flavors can compete with the dirtiest form of coal, if we don’t take into account the “externalities” like lung disease and environmental damage. And Lord knows there are political issues, where we have serious candidates for president of the U.S. who, if elected, boldly pledge to dismantle our Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy. If this occurs, it would effectively end the efforts of the largest economy on Earth to migrate away from fossil fuels and nuclear. Read More
Should Government Pick Winners and Losers in Energy Technology?
| October 12, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
For those of you who, like me, watch very little commercial news television, here’s a sample of reporting to consumers on the energy industry. This happens to concern Solyndra – a debacle that’s thrown a cold swimming pool of water on the already floundering US renewable energy industry.
Btw, I’d love to know how this happened in the first place. I talk to people in the private sector all the time who swear they saw this train-wreck coming far in advance. At a meeting I had with Kleiner Perkins managing partner Ray Lane earlier this year, he told me, “We knew that technology wouldn’t scale. We had been telling the DoE that for over a year, but no one would listen.”
So what are we to believe? That the public sector knew this too but made it happen for “political purposes?” Sorry, I think there’s more to the story than that. Yet God help me if I can add more clarity. I feel rather like those trying to figure out the JFK assassination; I know what didn’t happen, but not exactly what did. Read More
[The Vector] The Department of Energy Weighs In
| April 27, 2011 | Posted by Kathy-Heshelow under Renewables - Science |
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a FACT SHEET on March 30th in concert with the President’s speech.
First, the good news (in my opinion.) I tend to agree with the statements of the FACT SHEET in the section entitled “Innovating our way to a Clean Energy Future:”
Creating Markets for Clean Energy. The FACT SHEET concludes that in order to move capital off the sidelines and into the clean energy industry (which creates jobs), we need to give businesses and entrepreneurs certainty and a clear signal. The Clean Energy Standard (CES) aims to achieve 80% of our electricity from clean sources by 2034. Bravo. Recognizing that businesses will not act in uncertainty, and setting a clear goal is commendable.
Cutting Energy Bills through Efficiency. Increasing efficiency is a given – conserve and use wisely what you do have.
Staying on the Cutting Edge through Clean Energy Research & Development. The Department of Energy tells us that Read More
Bizarre Times at the IEEE Energy Show in Boston
| September 27, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
As I mentioned, I’m back in Boston for a couple days, attending the IEEE Energy Innovations show, and meeting a few industry colleagues who happen to be in the this part of the world. In a nutshell, the show itself has less relevance to our world than I hoped it might. The breakout sessions are extremely technical – as I suppose I would have predicted. But the main sessions are also a bit strange. Here’s an example:
Victor Reis, Senior Advisor, Office of the Undersecretary of Energy for Science, spoke for 30 minutes this morning on the future of energy. His principal message (actually his only message) was how appealing small modular nuclear reactors are: how safe, scalable, and relatively inexpensive. He explained at great length how the DoE itself could be the first customer—going into elaborate detail about how they had been the first customer of massively parallel computing many decades ago—leaving the audience scratching its head to ferret out a meaning. When he ended his talk half an hour later, in which he had projected the future of energy in the US out 40 – 45 years, we all realized in collective horror that he had done so without ever mentioning renewable energy once! Not a world about solar, wind, geothermal – nothing. Just a steady drone on SMRs.
After a smattering of polite applause, I asked another presenter how this was possible, and he just smiled, as if to say, “If you can’t figure out that this guy has an ax to grind, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
Bizarre times.
Department of Energy – Funding Renewable Energy
| July 27, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I do not claim to be an expert in the process of petitioning the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy for grant money in renewable energy. However, I very much realize that this is important to a great many readers. For that reason, I will post links to important sites on this subject. This article called “Show Me the Money — And How To Get It” from Renewable Energy World.com is a fabulous piece that I came across this morning.
The article begins, “The U.S. departments of Energy and Treasury announced on July 9 that guidelines would be available for companies wishing to apply for $3 billion in stimulus payments” — a considerable chunk of change.
PS: Here’s an infographic that depicts the history of renewable energy at a glance.
