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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m not an advocate of war as a means of resolving disputes among nations, and I think the world would be a better place had we taken Dwight Eisenhower’s advice and not created the “military industrial complex” that he so specifically warned us against. That’s why I find it ironic that the military is arguably the strongest force in the U.S. pushing in the direction of renewable energy.  This excellent article really nails what’s happening here and why it’s happening in this arena.  Essentially, clean energy, at least as the military perceives it, is not a liberal or conservative issue, but one of saving lives and improving national security. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a terrific set of infographics on energy security, i.e., the concept of preventing impact to our lives due to a disruption of energy. 

Obviously, this needs to be a huge factor in the discussion surrounding renewables.  To the degree that the U.S. develops solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and geothermal energy, it will be immune from potential disruptions.  Strangely, this conversation seems to be taking a back seat here. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an op-ed by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson that makes a number of excellent points about renewable energy and job creation.  Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that; we’re all concerned with jobs and the economy, and Richardson does a good job with this discussion.

But I have to laugh when I see pieces like this that either ignore the environmental issues associated with clean energy and fossil fuels altogether, or mention them very gingerly and obliquely, as is the case here.  It’s a sad commentary on who we are that, if you wish to be taken seriously here in 2012 U.S. politics, you darn well better not care too much about what we’re doing to our planet. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Here’s an email conversation I just had with a friend:

Friend: Per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, sunlight is the most abundant source of potential energy on the planet. If harnessed properly, sunlight could easily exceed current and future electricity demand. According to the Department of Energy, every hour, enough energy from the sun reaches Earth to meet the world’s energy usage for an entire year. 

Craig: Yes.  We get 6000 times more power from the sun than all seven billion of us use.

Friend: It appears that we get even more than that, according to the DOE — 8,760 vs. 6000. What’s the source of your 6,000 figure?

Craig: Gosh, I don’t remember; I’ve been using that number for years.  It’s the enormous total power of the sun times the infinitessimally small fraction that the Earth occupies in the surface area of a sphere 93 million miles in radius. 

In any case, the real point, obviously, is that it’s a ton more than we need; the challenge incumbent on us is to harvest it cost-effectively — and we’re very close.  Btw, that’s what blows my mind about the effectiveness of the PR hatchet-job that the entrenched interests have done to create renewable energy naysayers.  There are tens of millions of Americans who completely scorn the concept of solar and wind, on the basis that they are told it’s outrageously expensive.  It’s not.  We’re very close to grid-parity.  With a little effort, we’ll be there soon.  Even without that effort, we’ll get there eventually. The question is how long the fossil fuels and nuclear people will continue to dominate the landscape, and how much damage we will have done to our home planet in the process.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

One of the most prominent features of environmentalism is the profound political rift it causes.  I’m reminded of this as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which many credit as the launching pad for the modern environmentalist movement. 

But precisely why is the area so divisive?  Wouldn’t one think that a respect for the natural world on the only planet we have would fit with practically any rational philosophic viewpoint?  In a new biography of Carson, William Souder writes: “The hostile reaction to Silent Spring contained the seeds of a partisan divide over environmental matters that has since hardened into a permanent wall of bitterness and mistrust….. (yet) there is no objective reason why environmentalism should be the exclusive province of any one political party or ideology.”

Sure, there is no objective reason, but that sure hasn’t prevented the subject to be divided across party lines, at least in the U.S.   I’ve had conversations with people who tell me that the people who share my viewpoints on environmental regulation are transplants from the pre-1989 USSR, hell-bent on destroying capitalism.  I normally respond:  “Dude, that’s a bit glib.  I was a businessman for 30 years.  I had hundreds of employees and clients all over the world.  I think you’re going to have to look at this a little more deeply if you want to get at the truth.” 

Yet such discourse does little to change anyone’s mind on the subject.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Eric McAfee is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist, founding and funding companies in renewable energy, oil and gas, agriculture, networking devices and enterprise software.  Given that level of success, I tried to absorb every word of his talk at last week’s Renewable Energy Finance Forum.

Among Eric’s key messages was that start-ups need big brothers.  Just as people of my (unimposing) stature are rightfully afraid to walk through bad parts of town, we feel safer when accompanied by a six-foot-nine-inch, 275-pound friend. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

When I added Langton Makoni to my LinkedIn network, he wrote:

Thanks for the add. I have been following 2GreenEnergy for a while now. I must say, the expansive pool of vital information you provide has greatly assisted us in promoting the Renewable Energy Franchise Network Partnership Program (an initiative we developed and have been working on in developing countries in a bid to facilitate the extensive transfer of renewable energy technology).

What you guys are advocating has brought a lot of significance. Keep up the great work!

And thank you for the kind words, Langton.  I’m happy to do what I can.  Ironically, renewable energy may be of more significance to the developing world than anywhere else.  That’s because:

• On a per kilowatt-hour basis, the energy consumed in the developing world is more damaging ecologically than anywhere else on Earth (largely burning wood from forests), and

• The absense of rural electrification means reducing the reach and quality of education.  This is a huge issue that affects population growth, as educated women tend to have smaller, stronger families.

Keep plugging!

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The good news is that the world has begun to use analytics to quantify the damage that is occurring due to climate change.  Here’s a report noted in Bloomberg News that sets the cost at $1.2 trillion annually, or about 1.6% of the world’s GDP.  Further good news, depending on how you look at this, is that the cost of ameliorating this issue, though steep, is confrontable, if we take it on now.

The bad news is that the world is a million miles away from international agreements that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  It’s as if we’re all living in one of those dreams where we can see the train coming, but we can’t get off the tracks. 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

When I tell people that I’ve reviewed over 1100 cleantech business plans/concepts, I can see that some of them are impressed.  They really shouldn’t be.  I spend only a few seconds on most of them.  Here’s one that’s expressed in this YouTube video that I actually watched through to the end (four minutes), not because the idea has merit, but because I was impressed at the totally outrageous claims it made.  The guy wants to raise $100 million to go into production!  Wow.  Outlandish.  Brazen.  High-handed.  A true award-winner in my book.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

The session I just caught here at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum included a good discussion on the elephant in the room, the low cost of natural gas.  It’s low, but wind competes effectively, if the owner of the gas plant is responsible for the fuel supply, i.e., has to take the risk of gas prices over the next 20 years.

The issue is that the utilities only want so much of an intermittent resource, especially one whose peak doesn’t match load.  This, of course, is what opens the door, long-term, for storage: pumped hydro, as well as the prospective challengers: compressed air, molten salt, advanced rail, zinc-air batteries, etc.

 

 

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