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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

On my piece about ARPA-E and government funding for the development of new, speculative technology, Larry Lemmert asks:

Why should the taxpayer be funding speculative projects?  Why should the taxpayer be the first to take a hit when the speculative projects fail?

Why should close advisors to the president and others in Washington be able to pick projects promoted by their friends? There should be at least an arms-length separation from politicians and these projects folks.

The answer to your first question is that most people, me included, believe that the public sector needs to play a role in developing technologies that ultimately benefit large masses of people.  That’s how we wound up with a phone system, an electrical grid, the highway system, a space program, an Internet, etc.  And now, given the national security issues that surround oil, and the damage to our lungs that are associated with coal, most people argue that  partnerships with government that develop energy efficiency and clean energy solutions in the 21st Century is perhaps the biggest no-brainer in the history of civilization.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a good article in The Atlantic on the ARPA-E, the mechanism the federal government uses for dispensing stimulus money for clean (and not-so-clean) energy projects.  It’s based on an interview of veteran Time Magazine writer Michael Grunwald, whose book “The New New Deal” covers this topic in depth. 

I was glad to see a section on Solyndra, the proverbial elephant in the room, which echos what I always tell people:  there really is nothing shocking about a loan guarantee like this going south.  Solyndra failed when the price of competitive solar PV technology fell through the floor; the company had been backed by $1 billion in private capital, and swarms of investigations determined there was no malfeasance here whatsoever. The expectation that all bets on cleantech will be winners is idiotic; if these deals weren’t speculative at some level they wouldn’t have required loan guarantees in the first place.   (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Given the focus of the discussion here, we tend to look at the concept of sustainability through the lens of the ways in which we generate and consume energy.  But occasionally, it’s a good idea to look around us at the other major arenas of human endeavor, understand the issues, and observe the struggles that our peers elsewhere are facing. 

Here’s a short but extremely poignant article that a physician in Minnesota wrote recently, in which he asserts that “we can do better” than our current system of healthcare – and goes on to serve up a case in point that will leave you glad you took the few moments required to read it. 

I’d like to think we are indeed headed in that “better” direction.  After all, 59% of practicing physicians favor single-payer healthcare, according to a report in Annals of Internal Medicine, based on a poll conducted by Indiana University’s Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research.  But does it really matter what doctors think in the healthcare game, any more than what the employees in a steel mill think?  I’m not sure.  Something tells me we’re coming back around to the point at which doctors re-assert themselves. 

I’d be interested in your comments. 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Mitt Romney continues to shock the environmental community with his extremely clear and forceful contempt for the ecological issues facing us all.  His language couldn’t have been any more distinct in his interview on “Meet the Press” yesterday, during which he told NBC’s David Gregory, “I’m not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I’m in this race to help the American people.”

I stand with Daniel Kessler, spokesperson for climate campaign 350.org, who said, “It was ironic that Romney wants to help Americans, but not the planet Americans inhabit.” Exactly right, Daniel.  Though, not to quibble about a word, but I’m not sure “ironic” is perfect there.  How about “self-contradictory?” Americans aren’t helped by clean air?

My real concern is not Romney would say something like this; the pandering of politicians knows no bounds, and in this regard, Romney is the poster-child.  I’m more worried about what this implies:  his advisors have determined that a majority of undecided voters are so uninformed, so credulous, and so completely lacking in the most basic reasoning skills that they’ll be unable to see how nonsensical this is.  That’s not good.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Regular reader and terrific human being retired M.D. Larry Dobson sent me this “TED Talk” on online education, in which the speaker emphasizes how incredibly difficult it is for impoverished people in developing nations to acquire the knowledge and skills required for prosperity.

When I see things like this, I’m reminded of my clients with off-grid and micro-grid wind solutions, whose products can be coupled with high-efficiency lighting and computing, providing the possibility of bringing educational solutions to hundreds of millions of people for the first time.  I’m thinking largely of WindStream in micro-wind and Continental Wind Power in midsized-wind, both really solid solutions.

Thanks, Larry.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A young man from India writes in response to my recent piece in which I talk about two classes of bad ideas in clean energy — those that are theoretically impossible and those that are possible but seem to hold no promise:

I am an Indian physics graduate and have developed an idea on producing electricity by combining atmospheric heat along with other sources of heat including fossil and other kinds of fuels and known alternative heat sources like solar and geothermal heat. This idea is actually a combination of processes all of which are well tested and now in use, therefore, the scientific and technical aspect of the technology cannot be questioned.  Those who are ready to shout “theoretically impossible,” just wait! Another idea, based on the same principles, was chosen by an UK-based entrepreneur and we have jointly applied for a patent there. If necessary, I can produce the receipt from UK patent office and also can produce the link where interested people can see it with their own eyes.

There is nothing theoretically impossible in what you’re describing.  But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, nor does the fact that a patent has been issued on it.  You should expect the world to be dubious that you’re combining existing energy sources in some kind of new, efficient, cost-effective and eco-friendly way. Having said that, if you want to forward a drawing of the idea, I’d be happy to look at it. In fact, let me congratulate you on at least trying!  The fact that you’re exerting yourself to come up with a clean energy solution is “all good,” as they say.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A reader asks if microbial fuel cells fall into the category of “bad ideas” for clean energy that I mentioned in my post yesterday.  He cites: Major Advance Made in Generating Electricity from Waste Water, Teaching A Microbe To Make Fuel, and And Energy Innovation – Snails and Griddies.

Right.  Personally, I see very little reason to be excited about microbial fuel cells for any purpose other than academic interest.  We live in a world that is consuming 15 terawatts, and the fact that microbes emit electrons as a part of their metabolic processes has the potential to make very little difference in the scheme of things.

I ask you to recall the “energy pyramid” that we all learned in grade school science, where our biosphere powers itself with photosynthesizing organisms that capture the energy from the sun.  Obviously, these organisms evolve for the purpose of surviving and reproducing, not for storing lots of extra energy so human beings could come along a few billion years later and run their air conditioners.   Can microbes be tapped for a small amount of electric energy? Yes. Will that ever represent a cost-effective and scalable energy solution? No. Not in another billion years.

Keep in mind Michio Kaku‘s concept of the Class One, Class Two, and Class Three civilizations.  A Class One civilization (to which we aspire) gets its energy from its local star.  In our case, we receive 6000 times more energy from our sun every day that all seven billion of us are using.  We need the lowest cost, most efficient way of pulling that off, which means figuring out the most direct and immediate way of transferring the energy in those photons to create electrical potential.  At this point, that looks mainly like solar and wind.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

2GreenEnergy reader Rebecca asks:

When you’re approached by budding inventors or experienced ones, how do you manage to filter out those who are true and honest from those who are a sham?

Good question.  It’s not something that can be done with absolute certainty, but I like to think I’m reasonably adept at it.

I was a math and science guy back in the day; I majored in physics in college; of course, that was when we still believed the Earth was the center of the universe.  🙂   My first job other than manual labor (mostly caddying, golf course maintenance and painting houses up until that point) was tutoring freshman calculus and physics to undergraduates when I was in graduate school.  I made $6 an hour — more than twice the minimum wage at the time — an utter fortune! (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Like anyone, I’m loath to post unflattering pictures of myself, but I had to laugh when I saw this one, so I thought I’d go ahead.

I spent most of last Thursday in Charlotte, NC with Vision Motor Cars’ CEO Brooks Agnew and COO Ed Kowalski.  After several hours’ conversation on business strategy in Amelie’s, a fabulously hip French bakery that has become my Charlotte office, I test drove the latest version of VMC’s light-duty all-electric pickup truck, the “Everest.”  I look extremely uncomfortable — almost frantic — backing the truck out of a parking space in Amelie’s cramped lot, desperately trying not to hit anything.

In my defense, and as I mentioned earlier, driving the Everest takes some getting used to, in several respects; it has a clutch to “feather” shifting between its five forward speeds.  But there are so many differences between this and my little (45 MPG) six-speed VW Jetta diesel or the six-speed BMWs (an ’85 735i followed by a ’95 540i) I had earlier, it’s hard to know where to start.  First, this isn’t an internal combustion engine with a flywheel that needs to keep spinning; you couldn’t stall it if you wanted to.  And because of the high torque at zero RPMs, you can take off from a stop in 3rd or even 4th gear, and forget about shifting altogether.

It’s reliable, inexpensive, and all-electric, with a range of about 100 miles.  It’s a great little truck for folks who work locally and don’t like the concept of our country’s borrowing a billion dollars a day to support our addiction to oil, and sending that money to our enemies.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I just got off the phone with a friend of a friend, who heads up the electric vehicle strategy at one of the largest utilities in the U.S. Here are some of the ideas we covered:

• Especially in the short-term, the opportunity to sell power for EVs has very little upside, as it is dwarfed by sales to industrial customers.  However, it has plenty of downside, as even a few Nissan Leafs in a neighborhood charging at Level 2 (about 7 kW) can blow a transformer.  Having said that, the company recognizes its obligation to enable its customers to charge their EVs. (more…)

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