Posts Tagged by Wind Energy
Renewable Energy Is Not a Free Lunch, But That Doesn’t Make It Worthless
| May 17, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Wind Energy |
Ryan Radecki, from The Green Room at Ohio University, writes:
I agree with some of your proposed ideas on the problems with environmentally friendly forms of energy, and I used your comments about having no free lunch for energy in my essay. I also feel that renewable energy forms by themselves are not helping, but the combination of many types of renewable sources is our future. Would you mind reading my blog at http://ryansfuturefuels.blogspot.com I would like to have your perspective.
Ryan:
I agree with the basic idea, i.e., the pros and cons / no free lunch concept. But I think your perspective here is too harsh and a little unfair. Read More
Ending Subsidies for Nuclear Power
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Nuclear |
We speak often about ending the subsidies for Big Oil, in an effort to create a level playing field for renewable energy, and simply to stop transferring wealth from the U.S. tax-payer to the captains of the most profitable industry on Earth. And the discussion is heating up even further, now that America is $15 trillion in debt.
Here’s an article that points out that the federal government has spent more than $95 billion (in 2011 dollars) on nuclear energy research and development (R&D). That is more than four times the amount spent on solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, and hydropower combined.
Its authors note:
Many in Congress talk of getting big government off the back of private industry. Here’s an industry we’d like to get off the backs of the taxpayers. …..One thing we strongly agree on is the need to end wasteful subsidies that prop up the nuclear industry. After 60 years, this industry should not require continued and massive corporate welfare. It is time for the nuclear power industry to stand on its own two feet.
Is Renewable Energy Growing Stronger? It Depends on How You Look At It
| April 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
EVWorld has a wonderfully encouraging article on renewables that begins:
Pop quiz time. The fastest growing energy sector in terms of percentage of growth in the United States between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011 was: A) natural gas, B) nuclear power, C) renewable energy?
The answer is C, renewable energy (RE) by a huge margin. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), RE grew by 27.12%. That includes biofuels, biomass, geothermal, solar, water, and wind. By comparison, natural gas production increased 13.66%, while crude oil grew 14.27%. Nuclear power, in contrast, shrunk 1.99% and coal dropped 7.16%.
All true, but one can find different facts that would support a different conclusion. E.g., under 5% of the U.S. grid mix is renewable energy (if you don’t count hydroelectric dams), so talking about percent growth of this small number may not be the most relevant stat.
Integrating Large Amounts of Wind Power Onto the Grid
| April 7, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Wind Energy |
I wrote a piece a few months ago on nay-sayers to wind, in which I pointed out that the UK’s Duke of Edinburgh just may be the king. In it, I noted:
Here in the U.S., we have climate change deniers, and all manner of other opponents to renewable energy. In essence, they’re the oil and coal companies, the members of Congress they influence, and those who believe the torrents of propaganda they generate on “clean coal,” “safe nuclear,” and the other oxymorons that are creeping into our vocabularies.
In the U.K. however, they come in the form of certain members of the nobility. Read More
Island Nations Are a Good Fit for Renewable Energy
| April 6, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Don Harmon of LiFeBatt, a long-time 2GreenEnergy reader, writes in about my recent video on clean energy:
Good interview. We are currently working on a project in the Caribbean Islands for solar and wind generation. The islands are a very ripe opportunity now for implementing green energy because they are mostly dependent on buying diesel fuel from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the cost is atrocious. So, may we see these islands go green way before the U.S. does? Since there is virtually no infrastructure, we have a blank slate to work with, and of course battery storage backup will be a key ingredient.
Thanks, Don. Yes, I think we’ll absolutely see this, for the reasons you name and more. Read More
The Pros and Cons of Wind Power
| March 5, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Wind Energy |
Here’s a short video I made explaining the basics of wind energy for young people, or newcomers to the subject. I explain why the wind blows, offer a brief history of man’s attempts to harness wind energy, and discuss our current efforts to use wind to generate large amounts of electricity with relatively little environmental impact.
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
Wind Energy — Playing a Role in Distributed Generation
| January 15, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Wind Energy |
When we think of wind energy, we generally think of those multi-megawatt farms in western Texas, the plains states, and California. Conversely, when we think of solar PV, we normally conjure images of “distributed generation” — “DG” for short — rooftop mounts on thousands of geographically dispersed homes and commercial buildings.
Increasingly, however, wind is sporting a DG face, with smaller turbines appropriate for “campus” settings: schools, cities, counties, farms, factories, communities, and other large power users who want to stabilize their energy costs.
My colleague Jim Boyden acts as an advisor to a company called Continental Wind Power, which offers a range of campus wind solutions. Considering that an incremental 8 gigawatts of new capacity will be installed in the U.S. alone this year, this may not be a bad place to be.
Living Small — A Christmas Gift for Planet Earth
| December 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
To wrap our wits around where we truly are as a species and who we need to be to avoid the brunt of the catastrophes heading our way in the 21st Century, let’s observe: How do we actually behave with respect to our consumption of energy?
The answer, generally, is that only a very small minority of people have gotten the message that what they’re doing matters. Almost no one thinks before turning on a light: “I can flip this switch if it’s really too dark to see, and it’s OK to spend that energy if I need to. But if I don’t need to, I shouldn’t, because the world will be a slightly better place if I don’t.” Or: “I could open this (petroleum-derived) plastic container of creamer for my coffee, but isn’t there an open jug of milk within easy reach?” Or: “Walk or ride?” “Bike or car?” — or the dozens of other choices we make on a minute-to-minute basis. Very few people have gotten the message that their personal decisions to use energy actually matter — that they come at a cost to all of us — and worse, that this cost is far higher than we had previously imagined.
Perhaps we can liken this behavioral issue to littering. Read More
Electric Vehicles and CO2 Emission Abatement
| December 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Frequent commenter Glenn Doty writes:
What would really be nice is an infographic comparing the cost of mitigating CO2 with various alternatives… just to put the different alternatives into proper perspective.
For instance, how much more does it cost to abate CO2 emissions by setting up a rooftop solar panel in NJ as compared to installing additional insulation in an office building in Texas or setting up a wind farm in the Dakotas?
This would be extremely instructional to your readers in terms of what policies would make more sense… and it would be fun to look at how you graph the negative CO2 abatement value of EV’s.
I respond:
Ha! I was reading along here, wondering when you were going to make your point about EVs, and lo! (a good word for the season), there it was.
Seriously, please send me a high-level treatment of your reasoning.
At a minimum, there are two things I don’t get. Read More
