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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Heeding my own advice and “following the money,” I like to check out Venture Beat Green every week or so, to see who’s successfully raising capital for cleantech start-ups.

Here’s a story about SolSource, a company that used crowd-funding (KickStarter), and raised three times its goal, and offers a solar-powered cooking grill.  One thinks of the noxious output of cooking as coming largely from the developing world, where most of the energy for this purpose is derived from slashing and burning the forest.  Yet apparently:

Last Fourth of July, barbecues generated more CO2 in a single day than many African nations produce in a year. One SolSource solar grill can offset the carbon footprint of four  Americans.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Regarding the suggestion for a huge international effort to develop solar energy, Deon Deetlefs writes on the 2GreenEnergy Facebook page:

Always good to see, but when are we going to place more emphasis on the storage of power rather than the harnessing of it? – no sun at night …. it’s a no-brainer & attention is directed at bi-directional inverters which in itself is very good (to share energy on the grid) but until families can become completely self-sufficient – energy-wise everyone will be dependent on the power companies in private capacities.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

According to the Writer’s Almanac, today is the anniversary of the official signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  They write:

“It was introduced as a resolution by Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia on June 7, 1776 — a resolution that said, ‘That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.’”

Obviously, this turned out fairly well – at least until recently.  I think very few Americans – and even fewer folks outside the US – approve of the direction this country is taking in the important matters of our day: environmentalism, human rights, world security, and the development of important new technologies.

Is it too late to turn this back around?  If I thought so, I wouldn’t be spending my time pointing this stuff out.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

While readers may have found our recent discussion of the cost of climate change to be interesting, I hope no one believes that humankind has its wits fully wrapped around this.  Here’s an article that points out a cost item I’ve never seen mentioned elsewhere: violence.

Of course, the author, Tim Radford, from the Climate News Network, is completely correct.  What else could possibly result from scarcer resources and a general diminution of comfort?  Radford uses historic data to make his point, but it seems fairly obvious.

Concepts like the one surfaced here should remind all of us of how little we know about the future, and how scary the prospect of the eco-collapse we’re so cavalierly engineering for ourselves actually is.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Now here’s a guy with the right idea: a concentrated effort, performed on an international scale, to develop solar energy and combat global climate change.  Obviously, this is what I’ve been calling for fairly constantly for years, but this fellow has bigger and better creds than I do (former UK chief scientific adviser), so maybe the world will take note.

Coincidentally, this came out the same day that Deutsche Bank analysts announced that they’re extremely bullish on solar:

“(They) have painted a bullish outlook for the global solar market, noting that solar PV is about to enter a “third growth phase” where it can be deployed without subsidies, and can resist a backlash from utilities.”  

Woot!

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

From the 2GreenEnergy Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/2GreenEnergy, Robin Babicek, one of our 3238 “friends,” commented on yesterday’s post on the BMW i3 (electric vehicle):

1. It’s ugly.
2. Battery range puts it alongside other EVs such as the LEAF. While this is not bad in itself, I’d expect more from BMW, and frankly I detect a lot of resentment all over the tubes about BMW trying to tout it as a Model S rival. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Have you ever wondered how the vegetables at your local grocery store always look picture-perfect, even if the given vegetable is out of season? Well, most commercially grown vegetables are the subject of instance chemical treatment as well as genetic modification to make them grow faster and be more resistant to pest attacks. All this is well and good for the manufacturers and distributors of said vegetables, but the non-organic residues left behind after consumption can pose a great threat to your health and the ramifications of this can be staggering. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I love virtually everything about BMW’s i3 battery-electric vehicle – except that it won’t be available for another year.  I hate to say it, but I’m mildly resentful  of the fanfare that the company is generating, 12 full months in advance of the car itself.

Having said that, BMW knows how to do things right, and I’m 100% confident that the product will succeed.  At the very least, it will appeal to people who wouldn’t be seen in anything other than a BMW – and trust me, there are plenty of them.  I ought to know; I was one myself until I “went green.”  Yes, I had a 540i, and a 735i before that.  Not no more, as they say.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Frequent commenter Tim Kingston came across this microwind concept in Gizmag and sent it to me.  A man of few words, he writes: “FYI.”

Thanks as always, Tim.  Here’s my take:  The wind conditions in 99% of the places this would be deployed are terrible, the “swept area” is small.  I would bet that the electricity one would generate with it would be horrifically expensive.

As far as I can see, the only people who have a legitimate customer value proposition in this space are our friends at WindStream, which is why we present them in our list of renewable energy investment opportunities.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A reader asks:

What’s your take on Hydro Nano Gas? I think this could be a game changer if it really works.

This strikes me as a fraud.  The issue is one of chemistry.  The reaction CH4 + O2 -> CO2 +2(H20) produces CO2 (pictured here) as you can see.  To say that something “neutralizes” this doesn’t make sense.  Now if you add more energy and other material, you can synthesize some other compound; in fact, that’s what our friends at Doty Windfuels do; they’re on our list of clean energy investment opportunities.

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