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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Electronics is a great part of the constantly growing number of electronic wastes and contains different materials that can be recycled and returned for a second use by industry. Recycling will stop the pollution of nature and will prevent its contamination with heavy metals and flame retardants.
Many people are absolutely ignorant why and how they are supposed to dispose their households of their old electronic equipment. Some of them do not even know that their electronic equipment has a fatal impact on the environment and just dump these wastes wherever they find it appropriate. Some, on the other hand, do not care. Do not be one of those people! (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

As the scramble for green technologies sweeps through the communities of the planet, everyone is trying to develop the next biggest eco-friendly product. Patenting a product goes beyond simple greed. It is a method that can ensure that someone else doesn’t get credit and reap the rewards from your development. It is a way to give you control of the design in order to prevent those from exploiting consumers. Even if the product doesn’t fully work, patenting the initial designs can help prevent others from profiting through using your ideas to base their own innovations. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A 2GreenEnergy supporter visiting California from Basque Country writes about a trip he and his girl friend took around the state:

During this trip we’ve found several problems moving from one place to another without a car due to the public transport in this country, which is shameful in most places and nonexistent in others. What’s more, although L.A. has a nice metro system, we were surprised how empty it was in comparison with any city we’ve been in. People is overused to take the car for every single thing.  I find this atrocious and believe that enhancing  public transportation and raising people’s awareness about it should be an issue of first priority for government.

I completely agree.  That you can’t take the Metro to Los Angeles International Airport shows that we really don’t care a whit about public transportation in L.A.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

For those of you who may not be aware of it, the city of Boulder, CO is going through a process of attempting to “municipalize” its electrical power, i.e., to arrange for the city to purchase the assets necessary to deliver power to its own citizens.  This is a process that seems bound to play itself out in hundreds of other communities over the coming years.  In particular, Boulder’s citizens have decided to migrate to renewable energy much faster than the local energy provider (Xcel Energy) wants to make happen, and sees municipalization as the only option, but the utility is fighting back tooth and nail to prevent this from happening. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I know the world of transportation visionaries/futurists seems to be in love with the concept of the self-driving car, but I don’t see it.  There is so much wrong with our existing paradigm in personal mobility, it’s hard to know where to start.  Perhaps here:  it’s grossly unaffordable – both economically and environmentally.  We all own a huge piece of steel that sits idle 23 hours a day.  During the hour it’s in use, it has an average of 1.1 occupants.  We fuel it with a substance that’s causing climate change, ocean acidification, lung cancer, war – and it’s putting the U.S. in greater debt at the rate of half a billion dollars a day.   If you want to get rid of something, does it really have to be the driver?

Again, I don’t see it.  Of course, I’m the guy who, when he first heard rap music several decades ago, told a friend, “That garbage will last about two weeks.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Frequent contributor Brian McGowan comments on my post in which I write:

“Lastly, I appeal to patriotism. If you really care about America, and I’m sure the vast majority of the show’s listeners do, here are a few things to consider: Our addiction to oil causes us to borrow half a billion dollars a day and send it to our enemies. Our economic solvency declines at the same time that the strength and power of terrorists increases. If you understand this, and if you care about our national security, I think you’re at a loss to defend an energy policy rooted in oil.” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change, Efficiency, Renewables - Business

Fracking has been in the news a considerable amount lately.  This is the process which uses water, chemicals, and a complex drilling process to extract a form of natural gas, called shale gas, from rocks deep underground.  Fracking is short for “Hydraulic fracturing” or breaking up the rocks with water and additives to release the gas, which is then pumped to the surface.

Tax breaks proposed

Fracking has been quite controversial, with various groups lining up both for and against it.  (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s an article that is illustrative of where our society is with respect to renewable energy. It seems that many home-owners associations (HOAs) prohibit the installation of solar PV – even in places where it’s invisible from the street – and, when these bans are tested in court, judges normally side with the HOA.

At issue, one would suspect, is that solar panels are considered an eyesore.  But I believe that our sensibility on this point is rapidly changing.  More people every day are waking up to the fact that our current energy policy (or lack thereof) is causing rapid and wide-spread devastation, and that solar, insofar as it represents a way to slow this destruction, is coming to be regarded quite positively.  I predict that in a few years, HOAs will encourage, rather than prohibit PV on home-owners’ roofs.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Jiminy Cricket, Tesla Motors is really standing the automotive industry on its ear.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has awarded the Tesla Model S a 5-star safety rating, not just overall, but in every subcategory without exception; it’s the highest safety rating of any car ever tested.  It’s appearing more and more that the people who said that a successful car couldn’t come from Silicon Valley (of whom Bob Lutz — ex co-chairman of GM — was probably the most famous – and vocal) were 100% wrong.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In response to my post: If the Move To Renewables Is Inevitable, Why Not Do It Now?  frequent commenter Larry Lemmert writes:  “The birth of the solar age will not come without a lot of birth pangs. It is too simplistic to think that the economics do not matter and that the jobs created as the new paradigm kicks in will offset the jobs lost in industries impacted negatively by the change.”

Thanks, Larry.  The most credible things I’ve seen suggest a significant  economic boom associated with the development of cleantech — starting with energy efficiency, but expanding into clean energy.  I base this on a large number of interviews, but principally with my talk for my second book with Dr. Robert Pollin.  The link above will take you to a few of his most recent publications.

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