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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I mentioned earlier that I’m on my way to Portland, OR for the day, and I happen to be flying on Alaska Airlines.  I just leafed through the in-flight magazine, expecting to see plenty of ads for arctic cruises and fishing expeditions, photos of bears, and other enticements to come to the destinations the airline serves.  Yes, there was plenty of all that.

But there was also a long and well-written piece on renewable energy of all types. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

I’m on my way to Portland, OR this morning to do a marketing needs assessment for Xzeres, an important player in small wind (anything under 200 kilowatts).  This is a beleaguered industry if there ever were one; there have been numerous abject failures, and a great deal of snake-oil sold over the years.  Having said that, I remain convinced that there is real merit here – particularly for those who can drive the cost down.  The opportunity is offsetting the cost of retail electricity, rather than selling power to the grid at wholesale rates.

I’m looking forward to a rousing discussion, and adding some real value here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Renewable Energy World does a good job at tracking the adoption of clean energy at all levels, including continental.  Here’s an article that explains why Europe is unlikely to achieve its goal of 20% penetration of renewables by 2020.

While we’re making broad, sweeping statements, let me add one more:  It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which clean energy succeeds in making a wholesale replacement of fossil fuels, as long as the latter is made artificially cheap.  If we continue to subsidize the oil companies, fighting wars all over the planet in order to maintain access to the petroleum we need, and refusing to price in the other externalities, e.g., healthcare costs and long-term environmental damage, how can anyone even hope that solar, wind and the rest are going to compete?

We either implement an energy policy that pushes us in the direction of clean energy, or we deal with the consequences of waiting – probably several decades – for the price of fully dispatchable renewable energy to come down to parity.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Here’s a very accessible video on the melting of the arctic ice.  Thanks to my fine friend and 2GreenEnergy associate Terry Ribb for calling it to my attention.

In a related story, here’s a piece on the effect that climate change is having on ducks’ migration paths.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Alternative energy is big. It’s an important field of study and it’s a great way to help us lower our carbon footprint. Why, exactly, is this important? Currently, we are starting to run out of a lot of our natural resources. On top of that, humans are having a harsh impact on the planet. However, with some of the biggest breakthroughs in alternative energy, we may be able to ensure that energy sources in the future are renewable sources of power.

Paintable Solar Cells

Though it is a slightly older breakthrough, it is still extremely significant. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I just had a long and interesting conversation with a woman in Columbia who will be doing a bit of volunteer writing for us here; I’m certainly looking forward to reading her stuff.

We talked about what it takes to get paid to write about clean energy and sustainability more generally.  This isn’t an easy question to answer.  My best guess regarding the most direct path here, as I told her, is offering services to the private sector and their myriad of sustainability initiatives; (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

What was I thinking not buying stock in Tesla when the company turned profitable?  I was telling my daughter earlier this morning that missing this opportunity made me feel like a world-class chump.

What to make of this whole phenomenon?  Obviously, the market sees pent up end-user demand for electric vehicles that has been fantastically under-served by the fits and starts of the auto industry and the many failed start-ups that hoped to become part of it.

Congratulations to the folks up there in Palo Alto for a job well done.  May your success continue – even without me on-board as a shareholder.   Grrrr.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Many potentially profitable renewable energy projects are never developed because of the difficulty in quantifying the project risks. The problem is that the projects are dependent on local wind rates, sunshine or rainfall levels, plus the local geography, as well as the normal considerations for a fossil fuel development, such as property rights and the market rates paid for power. In other words, renewable energy projects are not easily replicable and that adds extra uncertainty to project development.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has published a Project Management Guide for renewable energy developers. It provides step-by-step guidance for anyone considering  a renewable energy development. You can read an article on the NREL guide, or download the NREL report.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Fire is a regular, but often tragic, occurrence. Whether started in a family home, a commercial environment or outside, both accidental and deliberate fires can be potentially devastating. One of the most destructive types of fire, though, is forest fires and these can wipe out entire communities and their homes, habitats, wildlife groups and timber and, as a result, are one of the main causes of deforestation.

Some experts suggest, however, that periodic forest fires can be beneficial, serving as an instrument of renewal and change. So what are the effects on the environment and what are the causes and consequences of forest fires? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

In his response to my post on eating less meat, frequent commenter and really smart guy Glenn Doty writes:

….the average American burns 2 gallons of gasoline (72 kWh) per day in transportation. The production and distribution of is ~88% efficient, so this works out to ~82 kWh worth of energy required to transport us around. We Americans used ~35 kWh/day of electricity between home, work, and leisure.  The average fossil electricity on the grid is ~34% efficient, so this works out to ~103 kWh worth of energy to satisfy our lifestyle. We eat ~3 kWh, we drive ~82 kWh, and we live, work and play in ~103 kWh…  Yes eating meat is more energy intensive than eating salad, and yes animals fart… but in the grand scheme of things this is NOT the bigger issue.

Glenn appears to be comparing the energy intensiveness of our food with that of our transportation.  I don’t see the validity of this comparison, and point to this analysis of the resources (energy, water and land use) required to grow beef vs. vegetables.  In summary, growing a calorie of beef takes 20 – 25 times more fossil energy, 200 times more water, and about 9 times more land than growing a calorie of vegetables.

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