Posts Tagged by tough realities
Explaining Clean Energy’s Tough Realities to Entrepreneurs
| February 5, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I spoke at the Mark Taper Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles (pictured here) yesterday, introducing 2GreenEnergy to an audience of entrepreneurs, each of whom came with an idea, looking for investment capital. It’s always exciting to get behind a microphone and belt out the message:
• Figuring out where we’re going vis-à-vis energy is fascinating, but it’s not easy. We face tough realities in terms of the technology, the economics, and the politics.
• I’ll do everything I can to take good ideas forward, presenting solid business plans to an ever-growing set of investors, each hungry for exposure into clean energy and electric transportation.
This went really well; I got a lot of compliments on the talk, and met some terrific people on some fantastically important missions.
Electric Vehicles: Confronting the Tough Realities
| November 30, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Glenn Doty is an extremely senior scientist who studies the macro-world of energy, and doesn’t like what he sees regarding electric transportation. He writes:
While I have tremendous respect for you and the work that you are doing, I have very little respect for the people who compiled that study that you referenced.
The simple truth is that you cannot claim “grid mix” for a new marginal increase in grid demand. If you plug in a new toy (EV), they can’t do a rain dance to get additional energy from the hydropower dam… nor will they amp up the local nuclear reactor to provide more power… The only possible source for the energy going into NEW demand will be what is currently SPARE capacity – that’s natural gas and coal. Read More
Please Help Me Name My New Book on Renewable Energy
| August 14, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I’ve spent the last couple of days editing the transcripts of the interviews I’ve conducted for my next book. Although this is tedious work, it gives me the opportunity to relive some moments I’ve greatly enjoyed, and re-absorb some of the fantastic thoughts that these incredible people have laid at my feet.
This process has also reminded me that I need a title and a theme that fits the content of the new book, not unlike “Facts and Fantasies” and “Tough Realities” fit the last one.
The book is really a deeper exploration of the so-called “Tough Realities.” If this is something our society has to do, why is it taking so long? Why is the US lagging the rest of the world in implementation? Are there large, powerful political and economic forces that conspire against it? What does our future look like, and why?
If you wouldn’t mind helping, please let me know which of the titles below you most favor:
- Renewable Energy — How Do We Get There from Here?
- Renewable Energy – Versus the Powers That Be
- Renewable Energy – Can the Good Guys Win One?
- Renewable Energy and the Big Money We Wish Were Behind It
- Renewable Energy — The Tough Realities of Technology, Economics, and Politics
- Renewable Energy — Why the US Is Walking Away from the Challenge of the Century
Also, if you have any original suggestions on the subject, please add them as well. Thanks very much.
Renewable Energy and the Tough Realities
| March 6, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I may have mentioned that I’m working on another book. One of the problems I face is that, other than that it further investigates the path to renewables, I really don’t know what it’s about yet. I’m gathering information, conducting interviews with super-smart and well-positioned people, and so I have reason to hope that an organizing theme will be coming along any time now — but right now it’s eluding me.
It’s certainly possible that the “tough realities” theme (that I invoked in my last book) has more legs. Each of the major reasons to move off of fossil fuels comes with its own unique challenges. Let’s take the subject of partiotism as an example.
In my mind, the most patriotic thing anyone can do is to get behind solutions that will lessen the US dependence on oil. Unless you favor war, crushing debt burden, increasing ownership of American assets by foreign entities, empowering terrorists, the erosion of the middle class, etc. you really have to think that electric vehicles, mass transit, and other technologies to reduce oil consumption are good news. In fact, I would say they’re as patriotic as the 4th of July.
But here’s a piece of tough reality: you won’t find Fox News and the other right-wing flag-wavers in the US saying anything resembling this. In fact, Fox’s coverage of this subject is essentially non-stop condemnation and ridicule. “What’s the Fisker (high-end plug-in hybrid electric passenger car) product called again?” Bill O’Reilly asks with a mocking sneer. “The Karma? Oooooh, the Karma! Now that’s a product we really need here,” he dismisses smugly. Plus, keep in mind that O’Reilly’s by far the most sophisticated one on the whole team — and the best he can do is a kind of sophomoric name-calling? Isn’t that odd? In any case, it’s part of the large ensemble of tough realities with which we live day to day.
Yes, I think I’ll explore this theme further. In fact, each of the reasons to migrate to renewables (environmentalism, healthcare, peak oil, national security, job creation, etc.) is chock full of these controversies.
While I’m at work developing this more deeply, I hope you’ll let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Tough Realities – An Apt Description of the Migration to Renewable Energy
| July 7, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I friend of mine noticed that the concept of “Tough Realities” (as in the title of my report: Tough Realities for Renewable Energy Businesses) resonates with people. I agree. That’s the reason that I’ve subtitled my book (“Renewable Energy — Facts and Fastasies”) as follows: “The Tough Realities as Revealed in Interviews with 25 Subject Matter Experts.”
For pretty-much everyone associated with this industry — and certainly for me — it’s clear that there are indeed Tough Realities faced by those working to drive the migration to clean energy. Nobody who studies this with any level of depth could possibly see this as a walk in the park, where the key players in energy are saying to one another, “May the best man win.” This is a complex story of big money, back-room politics, secrecy, and betrayal. You don’t find multi-trillion dollar industries unfolding without a heavy dose of the worst of cheesey human misbehavior. Now add in the disruptive element, i.e., the fact that “new energy” is a direct threat to “old energy.” For every kiloWatt-hour of solar, we need one fewer kiloWatt-hour from oil and coal.
Hold on to your hats. Sorry to say it, but we haven’t even begun to see the tough realities hit those battling it out in the energy industry.
Why Investors and Entrepreneurs are Struggling to Profit in Clean Energy
| July 1, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
This is a much cooler video on my report “Tough Realities for Renewable Energy Businesses,” made by 2GreenEnergy Business Manager George Alger. Great job, George!
This report just hit the streets this morning, and the reaction to it has been quite positive. Ironically, it has prompted at least a dozen or so additional inquiries about clean energy business plans. No rest for the weary.
Please feel free to forward this to friends and colleagues, and, as usual, please post feedback.
Tough Realities of Renewable Energy Businesses
| June 30, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Here’s a video on my new report, - The Tough Realities of Renewable Energy Businesses — Why Investors and Entrepreneurs are Struggling to Profit in Clean Energy.
Politics and Simplicity
| June 22, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Occasionally, we all run into people with a doctrinaire political opinion as to exactly how and why the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, and what specifically should be done about it. Sometimes this comes from a leftist perspective, but often it’s essentially a transcript of a Glenn Beck show.
I don’t disagree with many of the talking points of the right – certainly that the federal government is bloated and that people today look to government for solutions where, in our grandparents’ day, they looked to themselves and took a greater level of individual responsibility.
But I’m always amazed at people’s tendencies to oversimplify and to take things out of context that support their personal belief system. An an example, one notices from the graph here is that neither Democrats or Republicans – despite their rhetoric – have done anything at all to change the trajectory of federal spending. Doesn’t that that makes for a very short discussion about which party – in reality – is the better bet for those wishing to see smaller government?
In turn, this amplifies the notion that all this is not as simple as certain people would have you believe. That people should be held accountable does not imply that capital punishment is a necessary part of a civilized society. That people should not be expected to pay to keep the slobs who live on beer and cigarettes healthy does not imply that private, for-profit health care is a reasonable way to deal with the healthcare needs of a population. That too much government regulation becomes corrupt and abusive to private enterprise does not mean that leaving Wall Street and the Fortune 500 to their own ethical sensibilities is a good idea.
I suppose my conclusion is that people tend to like simplicity. But in my view, we live in a world of tough realities, dealing with things for which there is no precedent. When was the last time we had an oil spill of this magnitude? How many times have the climate patters of the Earth changed? To me, the right answers come more from discussion, humility, and listening than from knee-jerk reactions and force-fitting the world into a black and white frame.
