Posts Tagged by wind power
Renewable Energy: Vision or Mirage
| December 12, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Wind Energy |
Think we advocates of renewables in the U.S. have trouble? Our friends in the U.K. are running into a buzzsaw of misinformation, like the report “Renewable Energy: Vision or Mirage”, published today by the Adam Smith Institute and Scientific Alliance. The report includes:
“Wind does little to reduce carbon emissions.”
and
“Nuclear and gas are the most viable energy sources for the near future.”
What a remarkable thing to say, when the U.K. has already installed enough wind turbines to provide clean electricity to more than 3.2 million homes, according to RenewableUK, the trade association representing the wind, wave, and tidal energy industries. RenewableUK also makes the point that I always do about nuclear: even if you consider it safe, it takes a minimum of eight years to permit and build a reactor, and the cost overruns are legendary. Referring to it as “viable” seems ridiculous.
How Many Electric Vehicles Can Off-Peak Power Charge?
| December 11, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Does anyone know how many kilowatt-hours we in the U.S. dump back to ground each night? If so, please comment, and add a link to the source. Cycling coal plants shortens their lives and adds to the cost of maintenance, and is therefore unappealing. But I’m having the devil’s own time coming up with this datum.
The use of off-peak power is directly relevant to the case for EVs. Read More
Onshore Wind at Grid Parity by 2016
| December 6, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Uncategorized, Wind Energy |
According to Bloomberg, New Energy Finance, improved efficiencies and declining costs will make the average wind farm cost-competitive with coal, gas, and nuclear by 2016 (the best ones already are there). According to Justin Wu, the firm’s lead wind analyst:
The press is reacting to the recent price drops in solar equipment as though they are the result of temporary oversupply or of a trade war. This masks what is really going on: a long-term, consistent drop in clean energy technology costs, resulting from decades of hard work by tens of thousands of researchers, engineers, technicians and people in operations and procurement. And it is not going to stop: In the next few years the mainstream world is going to wake up to wind cheaper than gas, and rooftop solar power cheaper than daytime electricity. Add in the same sort of deep long-term price drops for power storage, demand management, LED lighting and so on – and we are clearly talking about a whole new game.
Professionalism and Courtesy — Good Things To Keep Handy
| December 4, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
One of the big challenges in doing business in the 21st Century is that so many people seem to have forgotten the adage, of Asian origin I suppose, that “what goes around comes around.” Where the standards of professionalism 20 years ago required people to return phone calls and follow through on their commitments, that model has clearly gone out the window. We see examples constantly, where people behave so incredibly poorly — even where doing the right thing would have been completely painless and clearly to their own benefit.
But exactly why has this changed? Has there suddenly come an upside in being regarded as a flake or a liar? Sorry, I’m lost here.
As I told a friend in New York the other day, in description of a mutual acquaintance who has simply disappeared, falling completely out of touch, when all either of us represented to him was the possibility of raising investment capital for his company, “He appears to have been born with an appalling lack of both basic manners and common sense.” Again, I don’t see the upside to anyone in having people saying things like that.
In contrast, I like the approach of my fine friend Ward Rafferty, financial consultant with Wells Fargo Advisors in Santa Barbara. In his email signature is the phrase:
“There is one very powerful business rule. It is concentrated in the word courtesy.” – Henry Wells, 1864
From Guest Blogger Joshua Okomo: Top Challenges to Develop Green Energy in Africa
| December 1, 2011 | Posted by okomo under Renewables - Politics |
Africa faces the greater challenge of energy access, energy availability and energy affordability than all the rest of the world. Assessment undertaken in 2008, Africa was the lowest per capita energy consumer averaging 0.66 tons of oil equivalents (TOE) compared to the global average of 1.8 TOE. The greater challenge to energy development especially renewable energy is weak or lack of policy and effective renewable energy development institutions, low technology acquisition, low investment and inadequate financing. Government policy and unfavorable political good will rank higher as factors.
Successful development of renewable energy requires strong political will, government regulatory and fiscal muscle, incentives for private sector, innovative financing, considering the opportunity in clean development mechanism and technical capacity building. Policy makers in African governments have not given adequate attention to the potential of meeting renewable energy challenges of Africa. The continent is endowed with vast renewable energy resources, the continent has 1,750 TWh potential for hydropower and 14,000 MW potential geothermal, and potential for solar throughout the year. Wind power potential is also abundant.
The Validity of Electric Transportation
| December 1, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I’d like to call readers’ attention to this discussion of the validity of electric transportation. In fact, the discussion began earlier in this piece on bashing electric vehicles. There are a lot of interesting ideas here that challenge the way the EV community generally sees the issue.
I would like to add one more variable into the equation: distributed generation. I bring this up partially because I know people who spec’d the solar arrays they put on their roofs specifically to charge their EVs, and partially because distributed solar (not to mention distributed wind/geo/hydro), has a real shot to change the energy paradigm in the not-too-distant future. Read More
From Guest Blogger Jim Stack: Hawaii — Land of Oil or Renewables
| December 1, 2011 | Posted by jstack6 under Renewables - Science |
Hawaii has been known as a land of paradise. They have a great climate and can grow anything anyplace. But did you know Hawaii runs most of paradise on oil-generated electricity? Of course, all of the oil is imported too.
Recently becuase of fast growing prices they started looking at renewable energy in Hawaii. They found they have great solar, wind, hydro wave and currents and even geothermal energy. They are now just starting to develop these great renewable energy sources.
In Hawaii they have have many small islands and micro grids that are not connected. This makes it difficult to combine all the great renewable energy sources they have into an efficient grid. Read More
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
The Externalities of Oil Include War
| November 29, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
We’ve all seen comparisons of the virtues of electric vehicles to their internal combustion counterparts, and noticed that they seem to exclude the many different externalities of oil: lung disease, environmental damage, national security, etc. Most people believe that we fight wars over access to oil, and I happen to be one of them. What value do you think that I, as the father of the boy pictured here, now 18, who could wind up killed or maimed, would place on that externality? Let’s just call it “significant.”
November’s Webinar: Top Business Plans
| November 28, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
In the webinar, I chose a smattering of these plans and presented them to a live audience. Many of those listening wrote in questions, which I fielded as they came across.
Represented here are investment opportunities in electric transportation, wind, biomass, solar thermal, synthetic fuels, hydrokinetics, and concepts in energy storage, both batteries and compressed air.
I hope you enjoy.
